In the third mirror the language of prophecy once again comes to the fore.
The mirror contains“an ymage of the holy goost withflaumbes ardaunt[ly]”
( 453 ), with a“meruaylous scripture”( 455 ) describing the three manifesta-
tions of the Holy Spirit in visible form – at Christ’s baptism, his
Transfiguration, and in the tongues offire at Pentecost. In a profane ecstasy
of hyperbole, the Pentecostal diffusion of the divine Word into many
languages through the gift of tongues contracts in this mirror-writing into
the lover’s elaborations of self:
where I lyst by power dyuyne
I do enspyre oft causynge grete prophecy,
Whiche is mysconstrued whan some do enclyne
Thynkynge by theyr wytte to perceyue it lyghtly,
Or elles calke with deuylles the trouthe to sertyfy,
Whiche contrary be to all true saynge,
For deuylles be subtyll and alwaye lyenge. ( 484 – 90 )A little later, the lover sees in the mirror a star with two beams, one of which
goes straight to the sun while the other doubles back on its source. The lover
meditates, then supplies a gloss:
This sterre it sygnyfyeth the resynge of a knyght;
The bowynge beame agayne so tournynge
Betokened rattones of them which by myght
wolde hym resyst by theyr wronge resystynge.
The beame towarde Phebus clerely shynynge
Betokened many meruaylous fyres grete
On them to lyght that wolde his purpose lete.
In the fyre clerest of euery element,
God hath appered vnto many a one,
Inspyrynge them with grete wytte refulgent
(who lyst to rede) many dayes agone.
Many one wryteth trouthe, yet conforte hath he none.
Wherfore I fere me, lyke a swarme of bees
wylde fyre wyll lyght amonge a thousande pees. ( 547 – 60 )The language here echoes that of prophecy of a more literal kind:
Wanne the hilles smoken,
Thanne Babilon schal haue an ende;
But whan they brenne as the fyyr,
Thanne erthe schal henus wende...^81
The sone shall shyn The ster that stydly stode
That called isfixe Shall mevabull be annonneMémoires d’outre-tombe 137