was very contrary to her temperament; and concerning her indefatigable
patience in bearing with him, and even with the beatings which he gave
her”;[368]--where the end marked off by me is no doubt the Observant’s
own addition,--possibly, as we shall see, on the authority of Argentina
del Sale.--Or these additions are introduced to minimize or ward off
scandal. So when, after expanding the parallel between the conversions
of St. Paul and Catherine, he adds: ‘“For He spoke, and they were
(re-)made’ (Ps. xxxii, 9). But we must not curiously seek for the
reason of this action”; and then proves his point by three further
Biblical texts. So too when, after giving an abbreviated account of
the contrast between Thommasina’s and Catherine’s rate of spiritual
advancement, he again adds some Bible text and some moralizing of
his own. And so again where, after reproducing the passage as to her
being linked to God with a thread of gold, he expatiates, once more
in Scriptural words, on the presence of filial fear and the absence
of all servile fear within her. And so where, after following his
Prototype (as still preserved in the Printed _Life_), and declaring
his belief that it is reasonable and licit to believe her soul to have
entered Heaven immediately after death, he continues: “Hence he who
does believe this, does not lose in merit” (_non demerita_; an obvious
litotes for “merits”), “and he who believes it not, does not offend.”
In all these cases the Biblical texts appear in the Vulgate Latin.[369]
There can be no doubt that it is this slight recasting of the language,
and this insertion of trite and timid moralizing of his own, which,
together with the careful engrossing of his copy throughout, and its
occasional pretty decoration and illumination, permitted the Observant
to talk (although, even thus, in a manner most misleading for our
present habits of language) of having “written this Book.”
(iii) _Two genuine dates and accounts._
Yet, even amongst the passages which appear in his MS. as additional
to the later texts, are two evidently genuine and suggestive dates and
accounts. There is a description of Catherine’s great attack of “fire
at her heart,” more full and primitive, and more definitely dated than
any one of its many variants and echoes to be found in the Printed
_Life_: the slip in the date (he writes November 11, 1506, when his
own age-indications, and the position of the anecdote, clearly require
1509) will have had something to do with the strangely uncertain
position of this episode in the Printed _Life_.[370]--And further
back, in opening out the beautiful story of Marco and Argentina, he
writes: “There being in the quarter of the Quay (_contrada del Molo_)
one Marco del Sale, suffering from a cancer in the nose, who, fourteen
months before his infirmity, had taken to wife a virtuous young woman
named Argentina, spiritual daughter of Madonna Catherinetta, as is said
above.”[371] This very precise distance of time, between that humble
wedding and the poor navvy’s illness, will have been derived by the
Observant from Argentina herself, probably still living at the time of
his writing, even now hardly sixty years old.--Hence his long-winded
addition, as to the mediation of the “spiritual daughter” (certainly
Argentina), in the matter of our knowledge of Catherine’s prayer for
the dying Giuliano,[372] may also have been derived from that gossipy
little woman.
(iv) _Divisions and transpositions._
As to the divisions and transpositions, the chief of these consist in
the first six chapters of the Printed _Vita_ appearing here broken up
into (the first) ten chapters; in the MS. Chapters XI to XVI being
gradually caught up by the Printed series,--indeed the MS. Chapter XVI
corresponds to Chapters XVI to XVIII of the published book; in the
Chapters XVII to XIX of the MS. corresponding to Chapters XX and XXI
of the Print; and Chapters XX, XXI, and XXII of the MS., corresponding
respectively to Chapters XXIV, XXV, and XXVII of the Print. Then for
three Chapters follows considerable variation: the MS. Chapters XXIII,
XXIV, and XXV hold the positions respectively of the Printed Chapters
XXXVII, XLV and XLVI there. And then again there is likeness for three
Chapters--MS. Chapters XXVI to XXVIII corresponding to Printed Chapters
XXVIII and XXIX there. And once more three MS. Chapters (XXIX to
XXXI), quite different in sequence to anything there, are followed by
two Chapters (XXXII and XXXIII) corresponding to the Printed Chapters
XXIX and XXX. Four more MS. Chapters (XXXIV to XXXVII), without any
match, as to order, in the Printed book, are followed by two Chapters
(XXXVIII and XXXIX), corresponding, respectively, to the beginning
and end of Chapter XXXI there; and by Chapter XL, identical with the
opening of Chapter XL and with Chapter XLI there. And, above all,