Notes

Chapter I., p. 49, Note (i). — " fair Lord Jesus." The words so translated are " Her Jhesuse den finen." " Her " is an old title of honour, similar to the modern " Herr," or old English " Messire." " Finen " or " fijnen " means literally " exquisite," " delicate," " refined," or " beautiful."

Chapter I., p. 49, Note (2). — I give the original Flemish of this stanza : —

' Jhesus minne wil ic draghen, ' Des en willic niemen vraghen : ' God gheve my die crachte. 4 Met rechte selen wine minnen, ' Dien wi soe edele kinnen, ' Ende soe hoghe van gheslachte."

An exactly literal rendering would be as follows : —

' Jesus' Love will I bear,

1 Therein will I no man's aid :

' God giveth me my strength.

1 Rightly must (or " shall ") we love

' Him whom we so noble know,

' And so high of lineage."

M. Chamonal, however, represents the First Beguine as saying : —

' Mon cceur est tout de flamme

' Pour le nom adore de Jesus, mon Sauveur ;

' Et comme sa vertue reconforte mon ame,

1 Jamais amour humain ne sera mon vainqueur !

' Jesus seul est parfait ! Jesus seul est aimable !

' Et sa divinite nous le rend adorable ! "

and it may be that he had some other manuscript before him of which I do not know. Surius, however, does not himself do more than paraphrase the passage : and, for M. Chamonal, the attempt to render it in verse must have added to the difficulty.

Chapter I., p. 50, Note (3). — Literally : —

" My heart is many-folded :

" I confess often, I hold (" give ") myself to blame."

Chapter I., p. 50, Note (4). — " fickle lover." The word is " truwant."

The Abbe Cuylits translates " vilain," but has a note to the effect that only the exigencies of rhyme have prevented him from using the word " truand."

The rendering of Surius, " instar hospitis instabilis aufugit," is faulty, as the Editors of the Flemish text have pointed out. The true Latin equivalent for " truwant " is " vagabundus " or " deceptor."

Chapter I., p. 50, Note (5). — " making me no fair return." Literally " This is unfair (or " unequal ") commerce."

Chapter I., p. 52, Note (6). — The original is, " Ic pleghe sijns soe gherne." The word " pleghen " means " to follow," " to cultivate." It is allied to our English word " cult."

Chapter II., p. 56, Note (7). — A more exact rendering would be " stumbling-blocks " ; the literal meaning is " unspeeding," used in an active sense. Surius has translated, " Quod est infelix hominum genus," and I have followed his intention.

Chapter III., p. 59, Note (8).— Literally " Thy highness."

Chapter IV., p. 60, Note (9).— Literally, (I will be) " thy cook and thy host."

Chapter IV., p. 60, Note (10). — The exactly literal translation, viz., " My Flesh is well roasted," etc., adds little or no force to the idea : and as it may, otherwise, be objectionable to modern ears, I have used a paraphrase.

Chapter V., p. 63, Note ( 1 1 ).— Literally " digest."

Chapter V., p. 64, Note (12). — The editors of the Flemish text continue the quotation-marks to the end of the Chapter. It is impossible, however, that the last twelve lines or so can be addressed by the soul to God, and I have made the necessary break at the most probable place.

Chapter V., p. 64, Note (13).—" With Mode," " Modeless." These words are the literal translation of the two words " Wise," " onwise " : which are continually used by Ruysbroeck. It is impossible to explain all that they convey ; but the student of mystical theology will have no difficulty in placing them among their appropriate correspondences.

Chapter VI., p. 65, Note (14). — Literally. " These men have every hindrance."

Chapter VI., p. 66, Note (15). — " in sinen gronden " : — " onto his own base " or " ground."

Chapter VII., p. 67, Note (16). — In this Chapter the rhythm of the original becomes irregular, as if, as I have said already, the enthusiasm of the writer could no longer be restrained within the limits of metre and rhyme.

Chapter VIII., p. 69, Note (17). — It may be of interest to note that there are at least two English translations of this Chapter. One is Miss Stoddart's rendering of the extract given in Maeterlinck's Introduction to the Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, and the other is in the recently published Flowers of a Mystic Garden, a series of extracts from Hello, translated by " C.E.S." in 1912. Hello has here kept much more closely than usual to his original.

Chapter VIII., p. 69, Note (i 8).— Literally " unbuilt-round," " un walled."

Chapter IX., p. 71, Note (19). — " ghemerc." Surius, " perspicua consideratio."

Chapter IX., p. 75, Note (20). — " Ic hebbe u gheleeft." So Surius and Chamonal. Cuylits translates " Je t'ai vivifiee."

Chapter X., p. 79, Note (21). — " gherinens." Literally " touching," " moving." The meaning is that the " Light " and the sudden " Call " of God within the heart come together ; as, long ago, upon the Damascus road, they came to Saul of Tarsus.

Chapter X., p. 80, Note (22). — Or " how long he may continue " (i.e. to live). Cf. Cuylits.

Chapter X., p. 80, Note (23). — So Surius, substituting " Jubilum " for " Jubilus," which does not exist in Latin.

Chapter X., p. 80, Note (24). — " holheit," i.e. " curvature." The Codices F and G have a variant reading

" volheit," i.e. "fulness," and seem to mean that the mirror would be so full of heat absorbed from the sun, and retained within it, that it would itself become an active agent in the burning-up of the " inflammable matter." It is, however, quite possible to read this parable into the text as here translated, and Ruysbroeck himself is more likely to have written " holheit."

Chapter XI., p. 82, Note (25). — M. Maeterlinck gives this chapter, as exemplifying the Book of the Twelve Beguines, in his Introduction to the Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, and it has been translated by Miss Stoddart in Ruysbroeck and the Mystics, to which I have already referred.

Chapter XL, p. 83, Note (26).—" eenvoudighe." Of. St Matthew vi. 22.

Chapter XL, p. 83, Note (27). — Literally " from all colours, from all considerations, and all distinctions."

Chapter XII., p. 88, Note (28).—" miltheit." There is considerable doubt as to the exact meaning of this word as Ruysbroeck uses it. The Abbe Cuylits translates " mansuetude," and M. Chamonal " amour." I have preferred to follow Surius, who renders it by " pietas " ; but have adopted what I may perhaps call the " ecclesiastical meaning " of that word, in the sense in which the root is used in the expression " Pia Mater."

Chapter XII., p. 90, Note (29). — Surius, as the Editors of the Flemish text have already pointed out, must have had some other original before him, since his translation cannot be reconciled with their collation, unless, indeed, he is merely paraphrasing.

Chapter XII., p. 90, Note (30).— This Chapter, which is at first sight so bewildering, will well repay a careful study and analysis.

The key to its meaning, as has been pointed out in the " Summary," seems to consist of the distinction between (i) Contemplation in intellectual images, and (2) the next stage of Contemplation, in which the Understanding cannot realise that which it sees, nor ever come thereat.

These two states are contrasted throughout the Chapter, one after the other ; and examination is sometimes necessary before the reader can appreciate which is being referred to at any given point in the text.

Chapter XIII., p. 94, Note (31). — Cuylits has a note to this chapter, in which he says : " En resume, la theorie du " mystique flamand peut se mettre sous ces quatre tetes " de chapitre : — (a) Premiers appels ; (b) Dieu vu dans les " creatures ; (c) les creatures pergues en Dieu ; (d) 1'union " divine."

Chapter XIV., p. 98, Note (32). — It is interesting to compare with the text a passage taken from Boehme's Threefold Life of Man, ch. vi. 88 : — " I give you an earthly " similitude of this. Behold a bright flaming piece of " iron, which of itself is dark and black, and the fire ' so penetrateth and shineth through the iron, that it 1 giveth light. Now, the iron doth not cease to be ; it is 1 iron still ; and the source (or property) of the fire re- ' taineth its own propriety ; it doth not take the iron ' into it, but it penetrateth (and shineth) through the ' iron ; and it is iron then as well as before, free in itself ; ' and so also is the source of property of the fire. In ' such a manner is the soul set in the Deity." Cf. also St Bernard, " De diligendo Deo," cap. 10. Chapter XIV., p. 100, Note (33). — By his turn of phrase, Ruysbroeck here shows how that which is the Being of God, is our Super-being ; just as in the next sentence it is said that that which is natural to God, to us is supernatural. This distinction should be borne in mind, as it is continually assumed in chap. xvi.

Chapter XIV., p. 100, Note (34). — Literally " But, where

" we know not, There are we One idle Bliss with God

" above our created essence ; there are we all un-spirit,

" without spirit, and outside our spirit in our super-

" natural bliss with God above our created essence, in one

" fathomless abyss which is the Nature of God, that shall

" never more be disturbed by God or any creature."

Chapter XIV., p. 102, Note (35). — " alsoe seint ons

Jhesus Christus sijn Sone, en gheeft ons sinen Gheest," etc.

Surius, whom Chamonal follows, translates : . . . " ita etiam nobis mittit Filium suum Christum Jesum, et dat nobis Spiritum "... etc.

Cuylits, however, striving to give due value to the nominative used by Ruysbroeck, says : " de meme Jesus- Christ nous envoie son Fils, et nous donne son Esprit."

As will be seen, I have differed from all these renderings, although I have still some doubt as to whether that of Cuylits is not the correct one.

Chapter XIV., p. 103, Note (36).—" Ce Chapitre XIV. est simplement vertigineux," says Cuylits in the note of appreciation which he has appended to it. It is, however, none the less most explicit and detailed in the differentiations of the Four Modes of Loving given therein, and will bear close comparison with other well-known diagrams of the Mystic Life.

Chapter XV., p. 106, Note (37). — " hoechste kennisse." The French translators render " kennisse " by " con-naissance." Surius translates " cognitio."

I feel that the literal English rendering, " highest acquaintance," does not convey the intimacy, the familiarity, and, indeed, the idea of understanding-Oneness that underlie the Flemish ; and the English word " communion," in its use as a synonym of " communing," seems to express most clearly the intended meaning.

Chapter XVI., p. 108, Note (38).—" einde." Surius does not like the expression " ending " as applied to " Eternal Life," and translates by " fons," i.e. " source " ; in which he is followed by both the French versions. The phrase, as I have rendered it, seems to me quite understandable, and I do not feel justified in departing from my usual equivalent.

" Einde," however, means either end of a thing, and it follows that both translations are permissible.

Chapter XVI., p. no, Note (39). — Literally " greedy."

Chapter XVI., p. in, Note (40). — Cuylits cites Suso (Liure de la Diuine Sagesse, Chapitre XXXII., trad. Cartier) " parce qu'on le comprend d'une maniere incomprehensible " ; and a comparison with the Mystic Theology of Dionysius will occur to many.

Chapter XVI., p. 113, Note (41). — "and make Him wholly ours." Literally " and swallow and digest Him."

Chapter XVI., p. 113, Note (42). — Literally "and so must we strive in un-abidingness, and "... etc.

Chapter XVI., p. 116, Note (43). — " onsen overwesen." These words do not occur in Codex F, and in Codex G they have been interpolated by another hand.

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