The Middle English "Mirror": an Edition Based on Bodleian Library, MS Holkham misc. 40 (review)

Scholars of Middle English, medieval theology, sermons and exegesis will be pleased to welcome this new and complete edition of the Mirror. Although some sermons have been previously printed, only now have all 60 been reproduced in one volume. The edition will surely foster new scholarship on both the French and Middle English texts of the Mirror, which have received little attention in comparison to Mirk's Festial or the Northern Homily Cycle. Robert de Grentham composed the Anglo-Norman verse Miroir, probably c.1250-60, for Aline, 'a woman of high status who apparently had an unhealthy appetite for secular literature' (p. xiii). To counter this appetite, the sermons explicate the Gospel with vividly created tales of saints and sinners.

MS Holkham misc. 40 was translated in the later fourteenth or early fifteenth century. The translation is so faithful to the original, Blumreich suggests, that Grentham, whose first language was 'almost certainly' English, may have translated them himself, choosing the vernacular and prose 'to better meet the exigencies of oral delivery from the pulpit' (p. xv). That Grentham had originally intended the sermons to reach a larger audience than Aline herself is indicated by his calling his readers 'barons' or 'seigneurs' ('lordlinges' in the Middle English).

There are six extant manuscripts of the Middle English Mirror, but Blumreich has drawn primarily on MS Holkham misc. 40 (B) and Pepys 2498 (P). B, although not perfect, was selected as the primary text because it is 'the more reliable MS where sense is concerned' (p. xxxv). Variant readings from the other four manuscripts and the Anglo-Norman have not been made. The 'aim was to provide readers with a philologically sound version of the Middle English Mirror, rather than a full collation of all extant manuscripts' (p. xxxv). The decision has produced a readable edition which provides fascinating source-material for study of the period.

Grentham's prologue explains his title: the mirror is a looking glass for the soul to reveal the faults to the thoughts and the understanding. He appears to believe that, once sin has been observed, it must be dealt with. Grentham, fortunately, favoured the plain style of sermon, eschewing rhetorical flourishes and keeping his syntax clear. The sermons conform to the ancient threefold format. They open with the Gospel (translated), followed by the exposition of the Gospel, or the deeper meaning, and finally close with the lesson or moral for the individual. The last line is invariably a benediction and an exhortation to follow the moral.

As Blumreich points out, 'important hallmarks of the Mirror sermons are their lack of pretension and forthright tone' (p. xvii), and one has more respect for the artistic ease with which Grentham has interwoven various biblical commentaries and traditions. They are simply written, but by no means doctrinally simple. As with Aelfric's sermons, although eschatological matters frame the whole, the emphasis is on the individual now, and how she lives in this life. Although written for a woman of status and reinforcing notions of social order and obedience, the sermons also insist on the duties of the powerful to those under them.

Seventeen of the sermons have a tale or exemplum, summarised in the introduction, and these tales reveal not only Grentham's eye for a good story, but also his wide reading: Bede, Gregory, the Historia Monachorum and particularly the Vitae Patrum. The exegetical style is consistent with the medieval tradition of extended analysis of one word to interweave the Bible, doctrine and salvific history. For instance, Sermon 5, on the nativity, explores the redemption as both physical and spiritual food: 'In Bedlam wolde Iesus be born for to feden al gode soules, for Bedlam is as muche to say as hous of brede' (p. 48). The paragraph continues to say that he who feeds all, formed all; this bread...