Ayenbite of Inwytt

A friend of mine recently sent me an email which recorded the phrase "Ayenbite of Inwyt". This is apparently an English expression, but it is not easy to track down even in Google.

I gather that Wyclif said "fyve inwytts: wyl, resoun, mynd, ymaginacioun, and thogt" in about 1380. Don't bother looking at the spelling, which is about right for Middle English. And even today it's easy to see what most of the words mean, except for inwyt(t). However, the Ayenbite bit has me worried.

Advise me please! I look forward to a flood of responses. By the way today's author of the email is a 92 year old former professor of chemistry! It appears that maybe 70 years ago scientists were given a broad education.

As a postscript, I should add that I forgot to do a Google search and merely looked the phrase up on an on-line dictionary. Having just done the search, I can now report the following from Wikipedia:

"The Ayenbite of Inwyt (also Aȝenbite of Inwit, literally Prick (or Remorse) of Conscience) is a confessional prose work written in a Kentish dialect of Middle English. As a literal rendition of a French original by a "very incompetent translator" (Thomson 1908), it is generally considered more valuable as a record of Kentish pronunciation in the mid-14th century than as a work of literature."

"The Ayenbite is a translation of the French Somme le Roi (also known as the Book of Vices and Virtues), a late 13th century treatise on Christian morality."

"The surviving copy of the work was completed on 27 October 1340, by a Benedictine monk, Michael of Northgate: þis boc is dan Michelis of Northgate / ywrite an englis of his oȝene hand. þet hatte: Ayenbyte of inwyt. (This book, called Remorse of Conscience, is the work of don Michael of Northgate, written in English in his own hand."

"In the 20th century, the work gained some recognition when its title was adopted by James Joyce, who used it numerous times in his novel, Ulysses. In Joyce's spelling, agenbite of inwit, the title has gained a limited foothold in the English language."

It seems, then, that my chemistry professor is merely a fan of James Joyce and / or Ulysses. That is something of a disappointment.

AS