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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2021
The modern reader of The Pearl, like the poet himself, would fain call the little maid of the vision by her own name, for this, he feels, wouId supply the key to the whole poem. The manifold allegory of The Pearl is designed, after all, to enhance its central figure, as are the multiple colors against which her little person is thrown into relief. We propose in this article, not only to call the maiden by her name, but also to suggest a name for the author of this masterly elegy and of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
1 These terms are taken from Emile Male's L'Art Religieux en Froonce (XIII4 Siécle).
2 Cf. for instance a carved altar in the Metropolitan Museum of Art which uses Abraham and Isaac, as well as other scenes in the Old Testament, to foreshadow the Crucifixion.
3 E.g., Israel Gollancz, ed. of the poem, 1891.
4 “The Author of The Pearl considered in the Light of his Theological Opinions,” PMLA, XIX (1904), 115-153. Professor Brown, by setting the limits of the poet's faith, was really helping to define him historically.
5 “The Nature and Fabric of The Pearl,” PMLA, XIX, 154-215.
6 Ibid, 204, n.
7 Oskar Hecker, Boccaccio-Funde, Braunschweig, 1902, p. 79 ff.
8 Modern Language Review, II (1906), 39-42.
9 Ed. of The Pearl, Boston, 1906, Introd., p. xxxiii.
10 PMLA, XXV (1909), 585-675.
11 “The Allegory of The Pearl,” JEGP, XX, 1-22.
12 B. Alberti Magni Opera Omnia, Parisiia MDCCCXCVIII, vol 36.
13 Fletcher, in drawing parallels between the Virgin and Pearl, stresses the fact that both were called singularis. In so far as this epithet is concerned, we believe it just as likely to have been applied to Pearl from the lapidaries. These treatises stress the uniqueness of pearls: Unis a num per ce k'est sule. (E.g., see Studer and Evans, Anglo-Norman Lapidaries, Paris, 1924, Margarita.) The poet's interest in stones is unusual. Cf. Stanza x.
14 “The Pearl, A New Interpretation,” PMLA, XL (1925), 814-27.
15 Pearl, A Study in Spiritual Dryness, New York, 1925.
16 Sir Frederick Madden attributed Gawain and the Green Knight, and by implication, therefore. The Pearl, to “Huchown,” because of a passage in Wyntoun's Chronicle. See Huchown of the Awle Ryale by George Neilaon, Glasgow, 1902.
17 Israel Gollancz, Introduction, 1892.
18 Œuvres de Froissart, ed. Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, Brussells, 1875, XX, 50; Robert of Avesbury, Historia it Mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi III, Oxford, 1920, p. 23.
19 Issue Rolls of Thomas it Brantingham, Bishop of Exeter, ed. F. Devon, London, 1835: 10 Dec. 33 Ed. III: To Simon Bochel, in money paid to him in discharge of £216 135 s. 4 d. which the Lord King commanded to be paid him for the marriage of Margaret, the King's daughter.
20 Dict. of Nat. Biog., “Edward III.”
21 Schoneld, PMLA, XXIV, 588.
22 (Œuvres de Froissart, XX, 53 (a command of the King for “unam coronam de rubro velvet operandam cum grossis perils, unam tunicam armorum—” quoted by the editor from the royal accounts for 1338-39).
23 Issue Rolls, 41 Ed. III. Most modern authorities state either that Margaret died before her marriage (e.g., James P. Phillips, History of Pembrokeshire, London, 1909, p. 362) or that she left no issue when, after being married in 1359, she died in 1367 (eg., George F. Beltz, Memorials of the Garter, London, 1841, p. 175). Judging from the epithet “our son” applied by the King to Pembroke in 1366 (Pat. Rolls. 40 Ed. III) as in contrast to “our kinsman” of the early rolls, Pembroke's marriage, though arranged for in 1359, was not consummated until 1366-67.
24 John of Gaunt's Register Entry 182. “Ad ecclesiam de Thurleston vestre Diecesis vacantem et ad nostram presentacionem spectantem radone minoris etatis Margarete filie et heredis Margarete Hastynges defuncte, que nobis tenuit per servicium militare, dilectum clericum nostrum Robertum Erethede vobis presentamus intuitu caritatis, rogantes quatenus ipsum Robertum ad ecclesiam predictum admittere et eum in eadem instituere velitis, ceteraque peragere que vestro in hac parte incumbunt officio pastorali. In cujus rei testimentium presentibus literis sigillum nostrum duximus apponendum. Data in manerio nostre de Savoyes tercio Decembris anno millesimo cccm0 septuagesimo primo.” This entry is duplicated in number 192, the only change being the correction of Robert Erethede to Robert de Staunton.
25 See also Patent Rolls, 43 Ed. III, mem. 26, given at Westminster, Feb. 20, 1369.
26 Issue Rolls, 41 Edw. III. See Cal. Pat. Rolls, Feb. 15, 1367: grant to Walter Tyrell.
27 43 Edw. III, mem. 26.
28 A papal dispensation was necessary for this marriage, since Anne was related on'her mother's side to John Hasting's first wife. Both ladies were of the royal family. See Cal. of Papal Registers, 1368. Kal. July, Montefiascone, f. 50.
29 Oeuvres de Froissart XXII, 341.
30 Schofield pointed out the similarity between Pearl and the Lady Philosophy of Boethius. PMLA, XIX, 175.
31 Poesies de Froissart, ed. J. A. Buchon, Paris, 1829, pp. 334-335. A dedication at the head of vol. 4 of the Chronicles in several Mss, refers to Froisart's service of Philippe: “et pour 1' amour du service de la noble et vaillant dame a qui j'estoie, tout autres grands seigneurs, dues, comtes, barons et chevaliers, de quelconques nations qu'ils fussent, m'amoient et me veoient volentiers. ...” (Ibid, 13).
32 That the Pearl poet may have been Influenced by the Marguerite poets was first suggested to us by Professor W. W. Lawrence. For this valuable suggestion and for reading our MS we are deeply indebted to him.
33 Osgood p. xxi
34 That is, if the poet is to be taken literally.
35 Calendar of Papal Registers, 1368, Kal. July, Montefiascone, f. 50.
36 Whether Margaret Hastings would legally be a “lady of leas array” is a question for the lawyers to settle. Our point is that the poet himself is not clear as to what to call her, and cautiously adds this phrase to her title of countess. Perhaps he was not forgetful, either, that “Dame Mary de St. Pol, Countess of Pembroke,” her grandmother, wife of Aymer de Valence, was still alive. It should be remembered that his dilemma is the result of trying to give the utmost satisfaction to both the living and the dead, and to use terms that do double duty for spiritual and temporal values. For Mary de St. Pol see Calendar of Letter Books (London) H. p. 348.
37 The fleur-de-lys appears in profusion upon the seal of John de Hastings. He is the only Pembroke to use it. Cf. Archæolotia, XXI, 205.
38 Cf. Chaucer's Knight's Tale, 2127; William of Palerne, 228; and especially The Destruction of Troy, 3789, suggested by Osgood.
39 Cal. Papal Reg., 1368, Kal. July, Montefiascone, f. 50.
40 For parallels with Chaucer, see Osgood, xxi. See our statement above for comparison of The Pearl with Froissart. Note the Pearl-poet's use of “mariorys” for either the stone or the flower, lines 206-8.
41 This was no secret thirty years after the composition of the poem. Observe that in the crude drawings in the MS (f. 38) a large daisy is drawn at the feet of the maiden and another at the feet of her interlocutor.
42 Pearl, Introduction p. liii.
43 E.g., in The Brut of Engelonde, EETS
44 Close Roll 49 Edw. III, mem. 23.
45 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 42 Edw. III, mem. 23.
46 Op. cit., Entries 496, 497.
47 D.N.B., “John Donne.”
48 John Manly, Some New Light on Chaucer, p. 69; I. Jackson in Anglia, XXXVII, 395.
49 John Hastings had been admitted to the Order of the Garter in December, 1369. A poet of his household could hardly have been interested before then. In 1370 Hastings, Mauny, and Gaunt were all listed for robes. (Cf. G. F. Beltz, Memorials of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, xiii and 8.)
50 Beltz, p. xiii.
51 Belts, pp. 3-9; Manly, 60. Note the actual vestments—cloak, hoad, surcoat, and garter. The color of these garments changed yearly, though blue predominated. It was the order of the Blue Garter (Froissart C. 213).
52 Beltz, p. lii.
53 Chapter 213.
54 S. Baring Gould, The Lives of the Saints, IV, 305. See also AÆlfric's Lives of the Saints, EETS.
55 G. L. Kittredge, Cawain and the Green Knight, Cambridge, 1916.
56 Roger S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, New York, 1927.
57 Though not a necessary step, this would explain many of the differences in the Kittredge and Loomis theories.
58 Dict. Nat. Biog. Articles: Lionel, Duke of Clarence Gerald Fitzgerald, Sir William de Windsor.
59 Col. Pat. Rolls, 43 Ed. III, Mar. 8, 1369; also Col. Papal Rolls, Mar. 13, 1371.
60 Dict. Nat. Biog., “Gerald Fitzgerald.”
61 See also entries of October 12 and Nov. 8 Issue Rolls 44 Ed. III.
