(Chapters 26 and 27)

The Prickynge is a free English translation, with both abridgement and expansion, of Stimulus Amoris (itself an expanded, rearranged form of a work of that name by the thirteenth-century Franciscan James of Milan, but long attributed to St Bonaventure). The influence of the Stimulus has been traced in The Scale of Perfection, but attribution of The Prickynge to Hilton – made by four manuscripts and some modern scholars – remains disputed. Chapters 26 and 27 deal with experience of rapture or ecstasy.

(26) Hou a soule somtyme is maad drunken thorou contemplacioun of Crist.

Who mai stie up to the hil of God, or who mai stonde in his hooli stide? Noon but a soule loved of Crist. A! thou soule, Cristis leef, be glad and fayn for to fulfille al that mai helpe thee for to neigh to Crist. For wel were it with thee if thou myghtist neighe him so neer, and so depeli be pryntid in him, that thou myghtist not thenke bot him. And that othere thingis than he were bitter to thee withouten him. And that thou haddist levere thi soule were departed fro thi bodi thanne thi thought were twynned fro the mynde of God and fro the biholding of him and, as thou thenkist, thou lovest not thisilf but if thou love oonli him.