VI.—The Speculum Vitae: Addendum

Abstract

The present paper is intended to form a postscript to the last section of my study of the authorship of the Prick of Conscience, published in 1910. In the earlier article the traditional attribution of the poem to Richard Rolle, the hermit of Hampole, was attacked, and in conclusion a clue was followed which seemed to lead towards the Speculum Vitae, a similar Middle-English poem still unedited. A connection between the two poems had apparently been built up by J. Ullmann, in an elaborate analysis of similar stylistic peculiarities found in both, and he had used the evidence, thus apparently deduced, to urge the ascription (found in one copy of the Speculum) to Rolle, then always credited with the authorship of the Prick of Conscience. Ullmann's conclusion as to the common authorship of the two poems was used in the discussion as to the authorship of the latter by turning them about: since two other copies of the Speculum gave the work to William of Nassington, it was suggested, when Rolle's authorship of the Prick of Conscience seemed impossible, that the true author might be found in Nassington, who was possibly the author of the very similar Speculum. However, since the latter work was not in print, and had not at the time of writing been accessible to me in manuscript, the discussion as to the connection between the two works could only be incomplete and tentative.