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The Melody of Love: Ten Ways In

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Richard Rolle's Melody of Love
This chapter is in the book Richard Rolle's Melody of Love
The Melody of Love: Ten Ways InNear the end of the House of Fame, a poem deeply interested in the sounds oflanguage, Geffrey the dreamer comes to a curious structure: a massive lattice ofwicker-work whirling about its axis, a plait of spindly twigs fitted to a frameworkof cochlear twists and turns, “An hous, that Domus Dedaly / That Laboryntuscleped ys” (1920–21).1The dreamer soon notices that this spinning, creakingenclosure, a shadowy double of the somewhat more substantial House of Fame,is full of apertures offering numberless ways in, “entrees / As fele as of leves benin trees / In somer, whan they grene been” (1945–47).Richard Rolle’s Melos amorisis much like the House of Rumor: Daedalian inits cunning, labyrinthine in its plan, a thick weave of textual strands, a locusthrough which good and ill fama circulate, a point of “kyndely enclynyng” (734)toward which the voices of author, critics, enemies, angels, and the divine gravi-tate, meet, and mingle. Also like the House of Rumor, the Melos amoris is daunt-ingly difficult to enter. Geffrey needs the help of an outsized, know-it-all eagle tofind his way in. No such aquiline guide is forthcoming for the Melos. Still, stand-ing at its doorstep, in earshot of its phonic swirls, we may yet sight a few ways in.1 Melos amorisTheMelos amoris is a work about which certain hard facts are cautiously know-able. The text is the undeniable product of the pen of Richard Rolle of Hampole,among the most original and influential authors of medieval England’s mysticaland devotional literature. It is demonstrably so for having been written in themost extreme form of Rolle’s uniquely alliterative Anglo-Latin prose [2.2]. Rolleauthored the Melos sometime during the second quarter of the fourteenth cen-tury. Although evaluators initially regarded it an early work, it is now accepted asPreface| 11All quotations of Chaucer are taken from The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry Benson, 3rded. (Boston, 1987). Quotations from the House of Fame here and below appear on 357and 370–1.Albin-020-ten-ways 06/03/2018 4:54 PM Page 1
© 2018 Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

The Melody of Love: Ten Ways InNear the end of the House of Fame, a poem deeply interested in the sounds oflanguage, Geffrey the dreamer comes to a curious structure: a massive lattice ofwicker-work whirling about its axis, a plait of spindly twigs fitted to a frameworkof cochlear twists and turns, “An hous, that Domus Dedaly / That Laboryntuscleped ys” (1920–21).1The dreamer soon notices that this spinning, creakingenclosure, a shadowy double of the somewhat more substantial House of Fame,is full of apertures offering numberless ways in, “entrees / As fele as of leves benin trees / In somer, whan they grene been” (1945–47).Richard Rolle’s Melos amorisis much like the House of Rumor: Daedalian inits cunning, labyrinthine in its plan, a thick weave of textual strands, a locusthrough which good and ill fama circulate, a point of “kyndely enclynyng” (734)toward which the voices of author, critics, enemies, angels, and the divine gravi-tate, meet, and mingle. Also like the House of Rumor, the Melos amoris is daunt-ingly difficult to enter. Geffrey needs the help of an outsized, know-it-all eagle tofind his way in. No such aquiline guide is forthcoming for the Melos. Still, stand-ing at its doorstep, in earshot of its phonic swirls, we may yet sight a few ways in.1 Melos amorisTheMelos amoris is a work about which certain hard facts are cautiously know-able. The text is the undeniable product of the pen of Richard Rolle of Hampole,among the most original and influential authors of medieval England’s mysticaland devotional literature. It is demonstrably so for having been written in themost extreme form of Rolle’s uniquely alliterative Anglo-Latin prose [2.2]. Rolleauthored the Melos sometime during the second quarter of the fourteenth cen-tury. Although evaluators initially regarded it an early work, it is now accepted asPreface| 11All quotations of Chaucer are taken from The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry Benson, 3rded. (Boston, 1987). Quotations from the House of Fame here and below appear on 357and 370–1.Albin-020-ten-ways 06/03/2018 4:54 PM Page 1
© 2018 Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Richard Rolle’s Melody of Love ii
  3. Contents vii
  4. Acknowledgments ix
  5. Abbreviations and Conventions xiii
  6. Preface: How to Read The Melody of Love xv
  7. The Melody of Love: Ten Ways In 1
  8. The Melody of Love: A Translation 135
  9. 1 Melos amoris, Chapter 59 (Spurious) 337
  10. 2 The Narrative Glosses in Lincoln College MS Latin 89 346
  11. 3 The Music Gathering in Lincoln College MS Latin 89 374
  12. 4 Songs and Recitations 407
  13. 5 The Latin Vocabulary of the Melos amoris 416
  14. Bibliography 423
  15. 1 Index of Themes and Figures 439
  16. 2 General Index 460
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781771103930-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Richard Rolle’s Melody of Love ii
  3. Contents vii
  4. Acknowledgments ix
  5. Abbreviations and Conventions xiii
  6. Preface: How to Read The Melody of Love xv
  7. The Melody of Love: Ten Ways In 1
  8. The Melody of Love: A Translation 135
  9. 1 Melos amoris, Chapter 59 (Spurious) 337
  10. 2 The Narrative Glosses in Lincoln College MS Latin 89 346
  11. 3 The Music Gathering in Lincoln College MS Latin 89 374
  12. 4 Songs and Recitations 407
  13. 5 The Latin Vocabulary of the Melos amoris 416
  14. Bibliography 423
  15. 1 Index of Themes and Figures 439
  16. 2 General Index 460
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