Langland’s Ymaginatif Kynde and the Benjamin Major., Kynde and the Benjamin Major.

The Benjamin Major (1.6) of Richard of St. Victor offers a description of the function of imaginatio that parallels B.13.14-20 (Schmidt) in stressing the mind’s running over the multitude of sensible things, the sense of wonder this elicits, and a consideration of God’s activity as Creator of the material world. But whereas for Richard imaginative contemplation of divine potentia, sapientia, and munificentia should lead to love of God, Will is shown to be unable to connect what he sees to Kynde and to come to love Kynde. For Richard, the contemplative process passes from imagination through reason to the intellect; for Langland, imagination without patience yields an intellectual pursuit of God that is problematic.