ABSTRACT
The most famous of the fourteenth-century English mystics was the hermit Richard Rolle (d. 1349), of Hampole in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He wrote The Form of Living for the anchoress Margaret Kirkby, of Anderby in the North Riding, near whom he had earlier resided. In this work Rolle achieved a clear and orderly if austere prose style, but the intimate and personal nuances of The Anchoresses’ Rule (p. 106, above) were beyond or beneath him. Though The Form of Living is couched in the form of a letter to an individual anchoress, the brief set of general instructions it provides is suitable for anyone interested in pursuing a mystical experience. Nowhere does Rolle give the sort of personal allusion or specific advice that the unknown author of the earlier work gave his three spiritually minded young ladies. Characteristic of Rolle, however, is his incessant emphasis on the sweetness and joy of the mystical life and on the importance of the calor (‘warmth’), canor (‘splendor,’ literally, ‘song’), and dulcor (‘sweetness’) of divine love.
