SOURCE: Colledge, Edmund, J. C. Marler, and Judith Grant. “Introductory Interpretive Essay.” In The Mirror of Simple Souls, by Margaret Porete, translated by Edmund Colledge, J. C. Marler, and Judith Grant, pp. xxxv-lxxxvii. South Bend, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999.

In the following excerpt, Colledge, Marler, and Grant discuss Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls within its historical, literary, and critical contexts, also addressing the interpretive questions it raises, its theological arguments, and its influence.

[The Mirror of Simple Souls's] structure is that of a Boethian dialogue. The principal interlocutor is the Soul, or, sometimes, Love, who speaks for the Soul; and they engage in expounding their doctrine of the supremacy of Love to a variety of personages, among whom Reason appears most often.

At times Love is given her true name, by which the courtly poets call her, “Perfect Love,” Fine amor; and we have...