The Glass No. 11, Winter 1998

THE GLASS THE GLASS NUMBER 11 WINTER 1998 Editorial 2 ‘Mercie, mercie to crye and crye again’: repentance and resolution in Anne Lock’s Meditation of a Penitent Sinner Jill Seal 3 Escape to Wallaby Wood: C S Lewis’s Depictions of Conversion Michael Ward 16 Old Western Man for Our Times: C S Lewis’s Literary Criticism Stephen Logan 33 From Pillar to Post: A Response to David Tomlinson’s The Post- Evangelical Kevin Mills 50 Reviews 58 Notes on Contributors 62 News and Notes 63 Published by the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) for the Literary Studies Group. UCCF 38 De Montfort Street Leicester LE1 7GP Tel 0116 255 1700 www.uccf.org.uk [email protected] © The contributors 1998 ISSN 0269-770X All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any1 form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. The views of the contributors do not necessarily reflect editorial stance. UCCF holds personal details on computer for the purpose of mailing in accordance with terms registered under the Data Protection Act 1984 – details available on request. THE GLASS Editorial Even those who have done courses in 16th century English literature may not be familiar with the name of Anne Lock, yet she is the poetic creator of a remarkable sonnet cycle based on Psalm 51, the psalm of Davidic repentance. Anne Lock was in fact a pioneer of the sonnet form, and her opus, presented in this issue by Jill Seal − whose research may also be fairly described as pioneering − is the earliest known sonnet sequence in English. In a year of remembering C S Lewis (born 29 November 1898, died 22 November 1963, the day that John Kennedy was killed), Michael Ward has circumspectly considered how far Lewis can be regarded as an evangelist. Stephen Logan’s Romantic re-discovery of Lewis takes him on his own terms as a spokesman of a classic, Christian tradition, at odds with the strategies and postures that characterise contemporary academic debate. Contributions to The Glass do not necessarily reflect an a priori position, and may sometimes go over into zones adjacent to those of the Biblical and literary canons. At a meeting of the LSG in 1997 Kevin Mills, operating from non-evangelical territory, subjected David Tomlinson’s The Post-Evangelical to a rigorous, indeed damaging, critique, using all the latest tools. David Tomlinson, it should be said, was present, and there was a certain amount of discussion, not all of it conclusive. Debate however, is a major part of what the LSG is about. The Glass needs readers who are also contributors of the occasional paper or article. Essays can appear in The Glass before or after their publication elsewhere, so for example you might submit a piece that you afterwards develop at greater length; or just in order to fly a kite. Reviews are a versatile form, useful for sharing information and opinion. We can try, but not guarantee, to obtain review copies of newly published books for the reviewer, and the length of reviews is flexible. Please write or email suggestions, requests or, best of all, offers. Roger Kojecký 2 THE GLASS ‘Mercie, mercie to crye and crye again’: repentance and resolution in Anne Lock’s Meditation of a Penitent Sinner.1 Jill Seal Anne Lock was the daughter of Stephen Vaughan, a Merchant Adventurer based in London and Antwerp who worked on behalf of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. She was married three times; to Henry Lock, a London merchant, then on his death to Edward Dering, a prominent and outspoken young preacher who died of tuberculosis, and finally to Richard Prowse, an Exeter draper, M.P. and mayor. She was a close friend of John Knox and on his prompting travelled to Calvin’s city-state of Geneva during the reign of Mary, staying there until Elizabeth’s accession. She published two works of translation. The first, published in 1560, is entitled Sermons, upon the songe that Ezechias made, after he had bene sicke, and afflicted by the hand of God. This was four sermons by John Calvin. Following these is the sonnet sequence A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner, written in manner of a paraphrase upon the 51. Psalme of David.2 The other translation, published 30 years later, was Of the markes of the children of God, and of their comforts in afflictions; it is a translation of a treatise by Jean Taffin, pastor of a French-speaking congregation in Antwerp. There is also a poem at the back of this volume, The necessity and benefit of affliction. Lock also wrote a four-line Latin epigram as part of a manuscript dedicated to the Earl of Leicester in 1573. It is the Meditation of a Penitent Sinner which I am discussing here. A disclaimer appears on the page previous to the sonnets in the book, after Lock’s translation of the sermons. I have added this meditation folowyng unto the end of this boke, not as parcell of maister Calvines worke, but for that it well agreeth with the same argument, and was delivered me by my frend with whom I knew I might be so bolde to use & publishe it as pleased me.3 3 THE GLASS It is not a proven fact that Lock did write these sonnets. What she says here (if we assume that she is speaking and not the publisher) is that her friend wrote them – and some scholars have suggested Knox, who sent her some prose works of his.4 However, I have found no other poetry that Knox wrote, and this sequence is not an amateur attempt. The rhyme and rhythms are never forced, and although the vocabulary is fairly simple (or ‘plain’) and uses simple poetical devices such as repetition, it is rhetorically effective. This same regularity of rhythm and plain diction is found in Lock’s 1590 poem ‘The necessity and benefit of affliction’, which is not a great poem by any means but for purposes of comparison proves my point. I would say that either the publisher, John Day, added the paragraph, or Lock wished to conceal her authorship of the poem – not an uncommon practice. The poem A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner comprises twenty- six sonnets in sequence. The first five form the preface and the following twenty-one each expand on one verse of Psalm 51 (except for verses one and four which both combine two Hebrew couplets; Lock actually uses each couplet as the starting point for a sonnet5). As far as I know this is the earliest extant sonnet sequence in English. It is exciting because it is so different from what is usually seen as the primary and mainstream use of the sonnet, poetry based on Petrarch and his neoplatonic imitators. Even in France, where Marot, the father of the French sonnet, was writing metrical psalms for court and congregation, and Du Bellay was using the sonnet sequence for more reflective, moral, and religious purposes, there is not this direct combination of sonnet with psalm. And Psalm 51 is the central psalm in the penitential group, the psalm of David’s repentance after his adultery with Bathsheba. For a late medieval and Renaissance audience, this psalm could sum up or signify the whole book. A woodcut portraying David and Bathsheba could just as well appear in a Bible as one of David on his knees in prayer.6 Numerologically, and thematically, Psalm 51 was (and still is) a central psalm in the psalter. The psalms were described by Athanasius as the epitome of the Bible, and also as a mirror of humanity, moving us to reform and supplying the model for that reform. They have a quality of ‘universal intimacy’, making them ideal patterns for public, liturgical as well as private, devotional prayer and praise. The penitential psalms are particularly suited to this use in the context 4 THE GLASS of conversion or re-commitment. The Latin word ‘convertere’ means to turn, to return, or to change. In this it is linked to the word ‘repent’ which has a similar meaning of a reversal of direction, or transformation. In a religious context, conversion is usually seen as a single experience marking the beginning of a spiritual journey. Repentance can also be seen in this way: ‘Repent and be baptised’ is Peter’s reply to the plea ‘what must we do to be saved?’7. Thus, like baptism, the initial turning from the old life to the new is an unrepeatable action. However, ‘conversio’, the Latin noun, signifies a revolution or cycle. The conversion process must continue throughout life. There is a cycle of repentance and forgiveness which is also a means of growth and progress. Cassiodorus, the sixth-century monk who initially extracted the penitential psalms from the psalter, stated that they were for use by penitents, although Psalm 51 is the most straightforward in seeking pardon for sins. These seven psalms proved very popular and became an obvious focus for translation and meditation. Within the monastic daily office, they found a place with the litany after prime. This practice was introduced to the secular clergy during the twelfth century. Sometimes they were given for recitation as penance by priests in confession. They were an essential part of the Books of Hours increasingly used as aids to personal devotion in the fifteenth century. Meditation on the penitential psalms, then, was an acceptable method of spiritual progress and a suitable literary subject.8 Roland Greene’s Post-Petrarchism9 distinguishes two modes of utterance in the main tradition of the Western lyric sequence: ‘fictive’ and ‘ritual’.

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