The lady and the letter: Two ecclesiastical analogies in the Old English Soliloquies

Abstract

This article analyses two ecclesiastical analogies in the Old English Soliloquies: the analogy of the lady and the analogy of the letter. It argues for a more nuanced and practical interpretation of Alfred’s analogies in the Old English Soliloquies than has previously been put forward. The analogies original to Alfred as well as those derived from Augustine’s Soliloquia, which he manipulates and omits, are designed to be useful, with practical implications for Anglo-Saxon society. Since his prose preface to Pastoral Care suggests that the demise of the Angelcynn is contingent on the demise of the English Church, Alfred’s analogies in Soliloquies prompt the reintegration of these two infrastructures, Church and state, to reconsolidate the Angelcynn and recover its sacred and secular ar (‘favour with God’ and ‘cultural capital’). By encouraging responses in the individual reader —recourse to the sacramental Church and renewed commitment to reading and prayer— Alfred’s analogies, particularly of the lady and the letter, seek to cultivate the Gregorian “mixed life”. Alfred thus aims to revive the terrestrial and celestial favour of the Angelcynn by fusing the concerns of Ecclesia and state, heaven and earth, contemplative, and active.