What is known of Robert Mannyng of Brunne is derived from his own works.
In the Prologue to _Handlyng Synne_ he writes:
To alle Crystyn men vndir sunne,
And to gode men of Brunne,
And speciali, alle be name,
Þe felaushepe of Symprynghame,
Roberd of Brunne greteþ ȝow
In al godenesse þat may to prow;
Of Brunne wake yn Kesteuene,
Syxe myle besyde Sympryngham euene,
Y dwelled yn þe pryorye
Fyftene ȝere yn cumpanye....
And in the Introduction to his _Chronicle_:
Of Brunne I am; if any me blame,
Robert Mannyng is my name;
Blissed be he of God of heuene
Þat me Robert with gude wille neuene!
In þe third Edwardes tyme was I,
When I wrote alle þis story,
In þe hous of Sixille I was a throwe;
Danȝ Robert of Malton, þat ȝe know,
Did it wryte for felawes sake
When þai wild solace make.
From these passages it appears that he was born in Brunne, the modern
Bourn, in Lincolnshire; and that he belonged to the Gilbertine Order.
Sempringham was the head-quarters of the Order, and the dependent priory
of Sixhill was near by. It has been suggested, without much evidence,
that he was a lay brother, and not a full canon.
His _Chronicle of England_ was completed in 1338. It falls into two
parts, distinguished by a change of metre and source. The first, edited
by Furnivall in the Rolls Series (2 vols. 1887), extends from the Flood
to A.D. 689, and is based on Wace's _Brut_, the French source of
Layamon's _Brut_. The second part, edited by Hearne, 2 vols., Oxford
1725, extends from A.D. 689 to the death of Edward I, and is based on
the French _Chronicle_ of a contemporary, who is sometimes called Pierre
de Langtoft, sometimes Piers of Bridlington, because he was a native of
Langtoft in Yorkshire, and a canon of the Austin priory at Bridlington
in the same county. Mannyng's _Chronicle_ has no great historical value,
and its chief literary interest lies in the references to current
traditions and popular stories.
_Handlyng Synne_ is a much more valuable work. It was begun in 1303:
Dane Felyp was mayster þat tyme
Þat y began þys Englyssh ryme;
Þe ȝeres of grace fyl þan to be
A þousynd and þre hundred and þre.
In þat tyme turnede y þys
On Englyssh tunge out of Frankys
Of a boke as y fonde ynne,
Men clepyn þe boke 'Handlyng Synne'.
The source was again a French work written by a contemporary
Northerner—William of Wadington's _Manuel de Pechiez_. The popularity
of such treatises on the Sins may be judged from the number of works
modelled upon them: e.g. the _Ayenbyte of Inwyt_, Gower's _Confessio
Amantis_, and Chaucer's _Parson's Tale_. Their purpose was, as Robert
explains, to enable a reader to examine his conscience systematically
and constantly, and so to guard himself against vice.
Two complete MSS. of _Handlyng Synne_ are known: British Museum MS.
Harley 1701 (about 1350-75), and MS. Bodley 415, of a slightly later
date. An important fragment is in the library of Dulwich College. The
whole text, with the French source, has been edited by Furnivall for the
Roxburghe Club, and later for the Early English Text Society. It treats,
with the usual wealth of classification, of the Commandments, the Sins,
the Sacraments, the Requisites and Graces of Shrift. But such a bald
summary gives no idea of the richness and variety of its content. For
Mannyng, anticipating Gower, saw the opportunities that the illustrative
stories offered to his special gifts, and spared no pains in their
telling. A few examples are added from his own knowledge. More often he
expands Wadington's outlines, as in the tale of the Dancers of Colbek.
Here the French source is brief and colourless. But the English
translator had found a fuller Latin version—clearly the same as that
printed from Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C 938 in the preface to Furnivall's
Roxburghe Club edition—and from it he produced the well-rounded and
lively rendering given below.
Robert knew that a work designed to turn 'lewde men' from the ale-house
to the contemplation of their sins must grip their attention; and in the
art of linking good teaching with entertainment he is a master. He has
the gift of conveying to his audience his own enjoyment of a good story.
His loose-knit conversational style would stand the test of reading
aloud to simple folk, and he allows no literary affectations, no forced
metres or verbiage, to darken his meaning:
Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd
In symple speche as I couthe,
Þat is lightest in mannes mouthe.
I mad noght for no disours,
Ne for no seggers, no harpours,
But for þe luf of symple men
Þat strange Inglis can not ken;
For many it ere þat strange Inglis
In ryme wate neuer what it is,
And bot þai wist what it mente,
Ellis me thoght it were alle schente.
(_Chronicle_, ll. 72 ff.)
The simple form reflects the writer's frankness and directness. He
points a moral fearlessly, but without harshness or self-righteousness.
And the range of his sympathies and interests makes _Handlyng Synne_ the
best picture of English life before Langland and Chaucer.