SOURCE: Talbot, C. H. “Some Notes on the Dating of the Ancrene Riwle.” Neophilologus 40 (1956): 38-50.

In the following essay, Talbot disputes Hope Emily Allen's claim for an early twelfth century dating of Ancrene Wisse and offers evidence that it was written in the thirteenth century.

Thirty years ago R. W. Chambers¹, reviewing the previous work done on the Ancrene Riwle, brought forward some sound arguments for the dating of the treatise, which Miss Hope Emily Allen was inclined to place in the early part of the twelfth century. He based his remarks on the quotations taken from the Declamationes of Geoffrey of Auxerre and showed that such passages, mentioned by the Riwle as being “almest Seint Beornards Sentence”², could not have been extant before 1153. Without going further into this particular question, it may be remarked that for the purpose of throwing doubt on the validity of Miss Allen's...