1 Perle. The pearl is the text’s central object and symbol. Pearls were luxury items, widely used to decorate expensive clothing and precious objects: the Breviaire de Belleville that Richard II received in 1396 as a gift from Philip the Bold had a cover studded with pearls, as described by Jeanne Krochalis, “The Books and Reading of Henry V and His Circle,” Chaucer Review 23 (1988), 59–60. The immense popularity of pearls as decorative items in the fourteenth century is attested by the inventory of Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward III, when her goods were seized in 1379, listing 21,800 pearls and 30 ounces of seed pearls (Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer; Being a Collection of Payments Made out of His Majesty’s Revenue, from King Henry III to King Henry VI Inclusive. With an Appendix. Extracted and Translated from the Original Rolls of the Ancient Pell Office, Now Remaining in the Custody of the Right Honourable Sir John Newport, Bart. Comptroller-General of His Majesty’s Exchequer. Vol. 2 [London: J. Murray, 1837], pp. 209–10; cited in Donkin, p. 268). The most valuable pearls were imported from the far east (“Oute of Oryent,” line 3) via the Mediterranean. The analogy between the pearl of price and the kingdom of heaven, explicated in lines 732–35, derives from the parable in Matthew 13:45–46, and was a popular allegorical theme for medieval theologians. Pearls were also conventionally equated with the pure soul and virginity, as described in the etymology opening the legend of St. Margaret in the immensely popular Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, and with the Virgin Mary, the star of the sea (stella maris). For gems in late fourteenth-century court culture, see Riddy, in Brewer and Gibson; Barr; and Bowers, “Pearl in Its Royal Setting”; and for pearls, see Donkin, “Pearls in the Medieval World,” pp. 250–75; Lightbown, pp. 30–31; and R. Allen Shoaf’s edition of Usk’s The Testament of Love (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1998), pp. 8–10, with frontispiece reproductions of the Virgin Mary and babe, the pearl as both star of the sea, and a pearl oyster in the sea, from MS Bodley 602, fol. 34. In The Apocryphal New Testament, ed. M. R. James (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), pp. 209–16, Mary at the moment of her Assumption is compared to a pearl: “Then the Saviour spoke [to Mary], saying: ‘Come, thou most precious pearl, enter into the treasury (receptacle) of eternal life.’”↩back to note source

paye. Used as a verb paye means both “to please” and “to pay.” Paye, with its suggestions of both worldly commerce and also spiritual rewards, is the link-word of the final stanza group and the last word of the poem.↩back to note source

2 To clanly clos. Unpunctuated, as is the whole manuscript, this line has been variously interpreted: “too chastely set in gold” (G), “for a splendid setting” (V), or “to set radiantly in gold so clear,” as other editors, myself included, have read the line. Clanly is also used in Middle English in the sense of “cleanly,” “chastely.”↩back to note source

3 Oute of Oryent. I.e., where the best pearls come from. See note to line 1.↩back to note source

4 Ne . . . never. Double negatives are equivalent to single negatives. “I never found her precious peer (equal in value).”↩back to note source

5 reken. As an attribute of person, reken can mean “capable” or “righteous.”↩back to note source

araye. Pertains to forms of display or ordering and can range in meaning from the concrete to the abstract.↩back to note source

6 sydes. The term appears elsewhere in the poem to denote a feature of landscape, as in hill side (line 73) or the side of a river (line 975), but in Middle English syde is often anatomical and a standard of courtly rhetoric for denoting a woman’s figure or clothing; see sydes as features of the Pearl-maiden’s garment, lines 198 and 218. The use of the term in the opening stanza foreshadows the metonomy that will link pearl with maiden. For discussions of gender and embodiment in Pearl, see Bullon-Fernandez; Cox; and Stanbury, “Feminist Masterplots” and “The Body and the City.”↩back to note source

9 erbere. The MED gives as its first definition for herber a “pleasure garden,” which is borne out here by the description of spice plants and flowers. See Luttrell.↩back to note source

10 hit. Gor explains that conventions in Middle English for indicating gender were, to an extent, case-dependent. Whereas “poetic license” might allow interchange between masculine and feminine pronouns when a word is used as a direct object or object of a preposition, in subject position a pronoun signals a clear mark of gender C or its absence. Hence the uses of the feminine “hyr” as direct agent in lines 4, 6, 8, and 9, but the neuter hit as subject of the verb in line 10. As both Gor and AW note, the uses of “hyr” hint at the pearl’s feminine apotheosis, even as the neuter hit returns us to the gemstone.↩back to note source

yot. I follow H and AW in reading yot as derived from yette, “to pour, tumble”; see OED yet. Other editors have read the unusual yot as a variant spelling of yode, past tense of the verb gon, “to go.” “Tumble,” coupled with the subsequent “sprange” in line 13, suggests the pearl’s vivacity and even agency.↩back to note source

11 luf-daungere. Apparently a unique compound in Middle English, luf-daungere is a term from courtly love and evokes desire for the unattainable as well as feudal service to the lady, from OF daungere, “feudal power,” as AW note. Compare Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, where Alisoun says her fifth husband “was of his love daungerous to me” (CT III[D]514). In Le Roman de la Rose Dangiers signifies the lady’s refusal; see lines 2831–32.↩back to note source

12 pryvy. From OF privé, it has the sense of personal, intimate, or one’s own.↩back to note source

spot. The link-word of the first stanza group, spot conveys the double senses of blemish and place that remain in contemporary usage. For link-words see Macrae-Gibson and Tomasch.↩back to note source

17 That. I.e., pondering and wishing, which only cause pain.↩back to note source

19 swete a sange. The orchestration of sound into song is a central component of the narrator’s vision of the landscape and of the New Jerusalem, as in lines 91–94, 877–88, and 1123–28. As Gor notes, the song is also the lyric and text of Pearl itself.↩back to note source

23 juele. G emends to mele, i.e., a “merry theme,” yoking song and pearl. Subsequent editors have not followed suit. Riddy, in Brewer and Gibson, p. 147, notes that Middle English juele means not only a gemstone but also a precious art object. See also Barr.↩back to note source

28 schyne. MS: schyneȝ. I follow AW who emend to schyne to correct for grammatical agreement. Schyne and “sprede” (line 25) both depend on “mot nedes” (line 25) a reading consistent with the stanza’s picture of natural conditionality: that spot must be overgrown with spice plants; flowers must shine. This stanza imagines the cycle of decay and regeneration in the “erber”; the fourth stanza will then move to direct experience when the narrator recounts his entrance into the garden. Note the uses of the conditional and the convoluted negatives that mark this stanza’s exposition of regeneration.↩back to note source

29 fede. Most editors read as “faded” from OF fade, with the vowel a modified to e by poet or scribe for rhyme. My reading accords with G, who translates as “rotted” or “decayed” from the ON feyja, a reading supported by the MED as well as the stanza’s display of rot and regeneration as a causal cycle.↩back to note source

31–32 This proverbial phrase is based on I Corinthians 15:34–38 and John 12:24, as Gor notes.↩back to note source

39 hygh seysoun. In medieval texts dates are customarily identified by the event celebrated in the religious calendar, rather than by the lunar calendar as in modern practice. Here the high season may refer to the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin on August 15; the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ on August 8; or Lammastide, on August 1, a harvest festival in which bread made from the first harvested grain was offered in the churches; see Christina Hole, English Traditional Customs (London: Batsford, 1975), p. 89. The following line defining hygh seysoun through the actions of the harvest supports Lammastide, as G first argued.↩back to note source

44 powdered. To powder or to scatter also suggests decorative illustration, often in heraldry as in OED powder, v.1, sense 4, “to ornament with spots or small devices scattered over the surface,” as V notes. Terms describing the landscape in the language of manuscript illumination also appear in lines 77–78, 106.↩back to note source

43–44 All the flowers named are highly aromatic and had uses as spices in the Middle Ages, adding to the picture of the “erber” as a pleasure garden. See Stern; as G first noted, the list of plants is reminiscent of the spice garden in Le Roman de la Rose; compare Chaucer’s translation, lines 1367–72. In the Romaunt, the spices are after-dinner condiments: “And many a spice delitable / To eten whan men rise fro table” (lines 1371–72).↩back to note source

45 hit. I.e., the “spot” (line 37), “erber” (line 38), and “huyle” (line 41) where the pearl was lost.↩back to note source

47 wot and wene. A verse tag and alliterative formula.↩back to note source

59 slepyng-slaghte. Slaghte is derived from OE slæht, meaning slaughter or a violent stroke, and normally means a sudden blow in Middle English; see AW and Gor.↩back to note source

61 in space. AW, Gor, and H read in space as “in a space of time.” I accord with other editors in favoring reading space as location, though both meanings may well apply.↩back to note source

62 sweven. Dreams are conventional points of departure for many philosophical or political verse narratives (dream visions) in the Middle Ages. Although truth of dreams was much debated, majority opinion appears to have taken seriously their prophetic and revelatory potential. See Lynch, pp. 1–46, but also pp. 163, 193; and Nolan, pp. 156–204. Chaucer gives a vivid replay of the debate in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.↩back to note source

71 webbes. Throughout the text the poet frequently makes analogies between natural forms and works of art or craft (here textiles); see for instance lines 76, 77, 114, and note to line 44.↩back to note source

91 sytole-stryng. The citole was a plucked instrument similar to the lute, and a precursor to the cittern.↩back to note source

gyternere. A gittern was a guitar-like instrument, usually with four strings.↩back to note source

95 gle. Also means “mirth,” “entertainment.”↩back to note source

105 reveres. Although reveres usually means “rivers” in alliterative poetry, the word can also mean “meadows along a streambank,” a sense more in keeping with the logic of the dreamer’s movement toward a body of water, as Gor notes. H and V gloss as “rivers.”↩back to note source

113 stepe. As Gor notes, stepe is often used in Middle English to refer to eyes “staring” or “glaring,” though it is also used to convey the sense of “brilliant.” “Staring” evokes the action of visual rays that is also suggested in “stremande” (line 115) and “[s]taren” (line 116). The passage as a whole animates place with extromissive powers of vision, even as the people sleep. For vision in medieval aesthetics, see Michael Camille, Gothic Art: Visions and Revelations in the Medieval World (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996), pp.16–25; Norman Klassen, Chaucer on Love, Knowledge and Sight (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995), pp. 53–74; and Stanbury, Seeing the Gawain-Poet, pp. 12–41.↩back to note source

115 strothe-men. The term is uncertain. Gor argues that stroth had the meaning of “marshy land (overgrown with brushwood),” and strothe-men likely means “men of this world.” Ralph W. V. Elliott, “Some Northern Landscape Features in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” in Iceland and the Mediaeval World: Studies in Honour of Ian Maxwell, ed. Gabriel Turville-Petre and John S. Martin (Melbourne: Organising Committee, 1974), pp. 132–43, notes that in Old Icelandic storth carries the sense of a young wood or plantation and hence proposes “country folk, woodlanders.” Evidently the poet is juxtaposing extremes from the stars on high to swamp dwellers at the bottom through which distance the wondrous light streams.↩back to note source

117 pyght. Pyght is frequently used in the poem to describe adornment with pearls or gems; see lines 192, 205, 217, 229, 240, and 241.↩back to note source

129 fraynes. A, Gor, and H translate fraynes as “makes trial” or “puts (men) to the test.” I accord with G and V in translating as “wishes,” a gloss the MED supports.↩back to note source

131 her wylle. AW emend to his, believing her to be a scribal error for his, and read the lines, “the man to whom she sends his desire seeks to have more and more (of it).” As I read the lines, her wylle conveys the sense of fortune as the catalyst of the will, which in turn incites desire, “ay more and more” (line 132).↩back to note source

132 Hyttes. AW gloss as “seek, wish”; A, G, and Gor gloss as “comes, chances, attains as a result”; H reads as “is likely.” “Casts” in the sense of “thrusts,” might also be implied. The more that fortune sends is further specified in the next stanza.↩back to note source

139–40 Most editors generally accord with Gor: “I thought the stream was a division made by pools, separating the delights” — i.e., the delights on both sides of the water. G emends line 140 to Bytwene meres by Myrthe made. D. C. Fowler, “On the Meaning of Pearl, 139–40,” MLQ 21 (1960), 27–29, offers the suggestion, “I thought that the water was a deception / Made by meres among the delights.”↩back to note source

161 faunt. The MED gives “young child” and “infant” for faunt (from OF enfaunt), though H translates as “youthful being.”↩back to note source

165 The comparison is to sheets of gold leaf, consistent with a pattern of analogy between the sights of the dreamer’s vision and manuscript illumination.↩back to note source

172 AW read: “as had been but little wont to do so before,” as do A and G. I accord with V and H in reading lyttel as a duration of time: “as a short while ago was wont thereto” (H). Gor notes both readings are possible.↩back to note source

184 hawk in halle. A courtly hunting image, consistent with his fears of her escape (“eschaped”) in line 187.↩back to note source

197 beau biys. MS shows five minims, or vertical strokes, between a and y. A, AW, and Gor read as beau biys, “beautiful white linen garment,” after Revelation 19:8, where the bride of the lamb is arrayed in splendid “byssinum.” As Riddy, in Brewer and Gibson, p. 144, notes, citations in the MED make it clear that biys is a luxury cloth. G, H, and V read as beaumys, with be as “around” and mys derived from Latin amice, “cape” or “surcoat”: hence “mantle or surcoat.”↩back to note source

199 at my devyse. Editors have read at my devyse as “in my opinion,” a common expression in Middle English. It is possible the phrase may also refer to a heraldic emblem or coat of arms, i.e., “after my device,” and hence the daughter’s dress as a heraldic gown. OED “device,” sense 9, gives “an emblematic figure or design . . . heraldic bearing.” In line 856 the Pearl-maiden speaks of her pearls as a heraldic crest. Froissart mentions the dresses of ladies attending the jousts in Smithfield as decorated with the livery of Richard II. In Confessio Amantis, Gower describes a group of ladies dressed after the new fashion introduced by Anne of Bohemia, “the new guise of Beme,” as dressed in clothing embroidered with fanciful devices; see Camden’s Remains, p. 197, cited in J. R. Planché, History of British Costume, from the Earliest Period to the Close of the Eighteenth Century (London: George Bell and Sons, 1874), pp. 178, 179–80. An unmarried daughter could be represented as bearing the paternal arms. In a miniature in the Luttrell Psalter, fol. 202v (c. 1325–35), Agnes Sutton and Beatrice Scrope are both represented in heraldic gowns showing the signs of their husband and father, respectively; see Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England, 1200–1400, ed. Jonathan Alexander and Paul Binski (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987), p. 58. See also the fifteenth-century stained-glass portraits in Long Melford Church, where the dresses of the Clopton women are decorated with both the paternal and marital coats of arms (Mapping Margery Kempe, http://www.holycross.edu/kempe(Opens in a new tab or window), s.v., Parish and Cathedral). On heraldic badges, see Lightbown, pp. 196–201.↩back to note source

201 wot and wene. Verse tag. See line 47.↩back to note source

210 here-leke. MS: lere leke. I agree with Gor, who reads as here leke, “her hair enclosed her.” H reads lere leke as “face-radiance, radiance of countenance”; G reads here heke; A, AW, and V read lere-leke as “wimple,” lit. “face-linen.” Since the stanza emphasizes her unbound hair and lovely complexion, she would have been unlikely to be wearing a wimple. The description is evocative of late medieval depictions of the virgin martyrs, who rarely wear face linen and most often have unbound hair. For images, see Karen Winstead, Virgin Martyrs: Legends of Sainthood in Late Medieval England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).↩back to note source

215 depe colour. A, AW, and Gor translate as “glowing whiteness” (G as “glowing beauty”), whereas H and V follow A. S. Cook, “Pearl, 212ff,” Modern Philology 6 (1908), 197, who argues that depe colour stands for “wide collar.” “Collar” follows the logic of the top-to-toe description and makes sense of “porfyl,” “embroidered border,” in line 216.↩back to note source

233 nerre then aunte or nece. Nerre can imply either location or relationship, as in contemporary usage, though the sense here is clearly filiative.↩back to note source

235 spyce. G, Gor, and H emend to spece, “person.” As V notes, emendation is unnecessary, since e is a normal variant with i (y). Spyce also means “spice plant,” certainly within the metaphoric register of the poem, especially since in stanzas 2 and 3 the poet describes how the spice plants of the “erber” are fertilized by the decay of the girl’s body.↩back to note source

236 wommon lore. Editors have translated wommon lore as “woman’s way” or “in womanly fashion.” By far the commonest uses of lore in Middle English concern teaching, instruction, or doctrine. MED, sense 2a, offers examples of the possessive; e.g., Chaucer’s “Christes lore” (The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, line 527). Lore as “counsel” follows logically from her speaking in the preceding line.↩back to note source

245 aglyghte. A, AW, Gor, and V translate as “slipped away,” G as “glided,” but I prefer H’s more literal “glittered away,” in keeping with the kinetic and lapidary imaging of loss throughout the poem.↩back to note source

250 daunger. See line 11, and note on luf-daungere.↩back to note source

254 graye. The eyes of beautiful women are conventionally described as gray in English courtly love poetry.↩back to note source

259 cofer. Usually a “strong box for storage of valuables,” but also with secondary meaning of “coffin.”↩back to note source

260 gracios gaye. AW read gracios gay as an adjective modifying garden: “charmingly fair garden.” Gracios gaye may also mean “gracious fair one,” as in line 189. The grammatical construction is ambiguous.↩back to note source

271 kynde of the kyste. The maiden speaks enigmatically of roses, chests, and pearls to introduce ideas of death and transfiguration. Kyste can also suggest a reliquary.↩back to note source

274 oght of noght. I.e., has made a pearl out of an ephemeral rose.↩back to note source

277 geste. The MED cites this line for geste as “one newly arrived in a place.” The meaning of gesta, “story, tale,” which alliterates with juel, may also pertain.↩back to note source

283 ma feste. “Make a festival,” i.e., “make merry.”↩back to note source

307 westernays. For a summary of the debate on this term, see V. Westernays does not appear elsewhere in Middle English, and may be the poet’s neologism from OF bestorner, e.g., “wrongly turned,” as when a church faces west rather than east.↩back to note source

312 dem. G emends to deme. The link word of this stanza group, dem covers a broad range of actions under the general rubric “judge,” from God’s judgment to human acts of evaluation, consideration, and critique.↩back to note source

345 daunce as any do. The image is a hunting metaphor and describes the agonal moment.↩back to note source

351 mendes. H translates as “opinions,” taking mendes as a variant for mynde: “Your opinions mount to not a mite.” V translates after OED mend, sb., sense 2, “remedy.”↩back to note source

359 mythe. As V notes, most editors have read mythe as “conceal.” Mythe from Middle English mouthen, “to say, speak, pronounce,” and hence “mutter” or even “mouth off,” is more consistent with the thought of the stanza.↩back to note source

365 Early editors joined lines 365 and 366, “as water gushing from a stream / I put myself at his mercy,” but following the suggestion by Gor I have joined lines 364–65: “my heart was afflicted with loss / As water welling from a spring.” Although water flowing from a spring would be expected to be redemptive (baptismal waters), the irruptive emotions in this stanza are all on the side of grief. Hence the image of spring-water is ironically placed — on the side of grief but belonging properly to consolation.↩back to note source

368 forloyne. A hunting term to describe when dogs race ahead too fast and lose the pack; see Ad Putter, “The Ways and Words of the Hunt: Notes on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Master of Game, Sir Tristrem, Pearl, and Saint Erkenwald,” Chaucer Review 40 (2006), 354–85, at 373.↩back to note source

endorde. G reads “adored one,” but as AW note, Gert Rønberg, “A Note on ‘Endorde’ in Pearl (368),” English Studies 57 (1976), 198, argues that it is from OF endorer, “to invest with gold or a gold-like quality.”↩back to note source

375 wothe. G reads “path,” H reads “search,” and other editors “dangers.” My reading follows G’s “path” from OE wath, “hunting ground, hence generically, place.”↩back to note source

380 by stok other ston. As H notes, this common phrase in alliterative poetry can also be a mild oath.↩back to note source

385 blent. I.e., “blended in bliss,” “set in joy.”↩back to note source

395 hyghe gate. Most editors have read as “highway,” after OED gate, sense 1b, which gives the line as an example of the meaning of gate as road: “the highway of all my joy.” The more common meaning of gate in Middle English is the modern sense; that meaning may pertain as well — e.g., the main gate, a reading that evokes the gates of the New Jerusalem in lines 1034 ff.↩back to note source

407 My Lorde the Lamb. This is the first of many references to Christ as the Lamb of God.↩back to note source

410 stage. G glosses as “degree of advancement,” after OED stage sb., sense 3. The attention to hierarchical ordering anticipates the dreamer’s intellectual and emotional crisis concerning the Pearl’s place in the hierarchy of heaven, as V notes.↩back to note source

416 wage. G argues that wage must come from French “wager,” and here must be used in the sense of “to be assured.” Gor emphasizes the mercantile in “continue securely” or “bring reward,” anticipating the material rhetoric of line 417 and later of the vineyard parable.↩back to note source

419 pyese. I accord with V who argues that what editors have read as prese, “value,” is in fact pyese, “maiden,” rendering lines 417–19: “And endowed with all His heritage / Is His beloved. I am entirely His, / His maiden, His honored one; and His lineage . . .” Pyece for maiden appears in lines 192 and 229. The maiden’s description of her marriage echoes the mystical marriage of St. Katherine in the many late medieval versions of the legend. When pressed to marry, Katherine finally agrees, but sets the condition that her bridegroom must be the richest, the most beautiful, and the most noble (compare parage, also in line 419) man in the world — adding, in some versions, that he also has to be born of a virgin. See for example, St. Katherine of Alexandria: The Late Middle English Prose Legend in Southwell Minster MS 7, ed. Saara Nevanlinna and Irma Taavitsainen (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993), p. 73, and Katherine J. Lewis, The Cult of St. Katherine in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2000).↩back to note source

430 Fenyx of Arraby. Christ is often compared to the phoenix, a symbol of rebirth; in this case the phoenix represents Mary’s immaculate conception. As G notes, Blanch is compared to the Fenix of Arabye in Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess (lines 980–81).↩back to note source

431 freles. AW follow H and emend to fereles, “without equal,” in keeping with the emphasis in the stanza on the Virgin’s uniqueness. “Flawless,” however, is consistent with the metaphor of the phoenix as a sign of the immaculate conception.↩back to note source

432 quen of cortaysye. I.e., the Virgin Mary.↩back to note source

434 folde. I.e., folds her face in her hands or, as G (also H) suggests, her garment. A, AW, and Gor translate as “upturned.”↩back to note source

441 emperise. I.e., Mary the “quen of cortaysye” (line 432).↩back to note source

450 fayn of otheres hafyng. The maiden describes heaven as egalitarian and without envy, with each queen or king (i.e., saved soul) rejoicing in the hafyng or possessions of the others.↩back to note source

445–52 Compare The London Lapidary of King Philip: “nyne ordres of angeles that lyven in that joye that noon hath envye of othre, that is the life corouned, in the which shal noon entre but he be kyng corouned or quene, for all be corouned be name” (English Medieval Lapidaries, ed. Joan Evans and Mary S. Sargeantson, EETS o.s. 190 [London: Oxford University Press, 1933], pp. 19–20, as noted by Robert J. Blanch, “Color Symbolism and Mystical Contemplation in Pearl,” Nottingham Medieval Studies 17 [1973], 74). See also V.↩back to note source

457 Saynt Poule. The definition of courtesy that follows is an exposition of St. Paul’s analogy in I Corinthians 12:12–31. The image of the corporate body describes the ordering of heaven and of the soul as an idealized courtly society, an organism of egalitarian hierarchy.↩back to note source

464 I.e., exists between your limbs.↩back to note source

473 over hygh. The dreamer objects to the beatitude of one so young, noting that the same reward is given to one who suffers “in penaunce” all his life (line 477).↩back to note source

485 Pater ne Crede. The dreamer’s point that the Pearl-maiden’s two-year sojourn in “oure thede” (line 483) was too short to learn the Paternoster (Lord’s Prayer) or Creed suggests that she was a child, as most readers have assumed. H suggests that she was a novitiate, as does Staley, “Pearl and the Contingencies of Love and Piety.” Mother Angela Carson, O.S.U., “Aspects of Elegy in the Middle English Pearl,” Studies in Philology 62 (1965), 17, argues that the lines indicate she was a foreigner.↩back to note source

497 As Mathew meles. The parable of the vineyard, lines 497–500, is from Matthew 20:1–16. The poet’s changes to the biblical source give the parable application to fourteenth-century social conditions, and perhaps even specifically to the Statute of Laborers of 1388, according to Bowers, “The Politics of Pearl”; and Watkins.↩back to note source

504 dere the date. The time of year is March and the activity is the pruning of vines, as in the March entry in the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry. Date as link-word juxtaposes church time and merchant time; see Barr, pp. 71–72.↩back to note source

505 hyne. A, AW, and Gor translate as “laborers.” I translate as “households” because the uses of hyne in the poem (lines 632, 1211) refer broadly to members of a household or even God’s household, rather than to laborers, as G notes.↩back to note source

512 man hit clos. I.e., tie up the pruned vines.↩back to note source

555 Matthew 20:12 reads: Hi novissimi una hora fecerunt (“These last have worked but one hour”). This verse is paraphrased in line 551, but here houres two effectively recalls that the maiden “lyfed not two yer in oure thede” (line 483), as noted in V.↩back to note source

565–68 As G notes, these lines paraphrase the Vulgate and seem to echo uncannily the Wycliffite Bible, Matthew 20:15: “‘Whether it is not leueful to me to do that that Y wole? Whether thin iye is wicked, for Y am good?’”↩back to note source

570–72 These lines paraphrase Matthew 20:16.↩back to note source

588 to-yere. Most editors have translated “this year,” but as G notes, to-yere carries the colloquial sense of “for a long time.”↩back to note source

581–88 I.e., though she died early, she was received fully into heaven.↩back to note source

603 inlyche. Editors, except H and V, have translated as “alike, the same.” As V comments, in note to line 546, “fully” “suits the interpretation of the parable of the vineyard more exactly, since each soul receives ‘fully’ the reward of salvation, even though there are ranks in the hierarchical system of heaven.”↩back to note source

609–10 dard. The word may derive from OE darian, “lurk in dread,” or from OE durran, “dare,” as Gor notes in a comment on the difficulty of these lines. Most editors have followed G in rendering “His privilege is great who always stood in awe / Of Him who brings salvation from sin.” My reading accords with AW, “His (God’s) generosity is great (or abundant): those who at any time in their lives submitted to Him who rescues sinners — from them no bliss will be withheld.”↩back to note source

617 bourne abate. The sense of the maiden’s argument here is that everybody sins and forfeits heaven, but God’s grace can save them.↩back to note source

635 fyne. Most readers have read as adverb, “at the first in full.” I accord with the suggestion by Carter Revard, “A Note on ‘at the fyrst fyne’ (Pearl 635),” English Language Notes 1 (1964), 164–66, who interprets fyne as a noun according to MED senses 6–11 (legal terms related to contracts) and translates “as according to the original contract.”↩back to note source

652 deth secounde. The first redemption over death, determined by Adam’s fall, is baptism; the second is in Christ’s resurrection.↩back to note source

674 God. A, G, and Gor interpret this as “good,” but, following suggestion by H, other editors, myself as well, have read as God.↩back to note source

677 Sauter. A Psalter, or collection of the psalms. Collections of the psalms were among the few prayer books normally owned by the laity; the term “psalter” could also mean a book of hours or a type of compilation prayer book commonly owned by non-clerical or lay people, often exquisitely illuminated. Many were owned by women. The passage paraphrases Psalm 14:1–3 or Psalm 23:3, 4. For the history and use of books of hours, see John Harthan, Books of Hours and Their Owners (London: Thames and Hudson, 1982).↩back to note source

689 sas. G, Gor, H, and V translate word as “sees,” but “says” makes far more sense with the biblical source. AW emend to sayz, a change that, as V shows, is not necessary.↩back to note source

691 he. Gor and H emend to ho, i.e., “wisdom,” a female personification. As G notes, Wisdom would have suggested Christ to a medieval reader; hence the pronoun he to indicate Wisdom as Christ.↩back to note source

697–700 See Psalm 142:2.↩back to note source

703 Allege. Early editors read allege as an imperative, “renounce your claim.” Following Gor, editors have read allege as conditional subjunctive, “if you plead,” i.e., “if you try to plead your case before God, you might get trapped by the same kind of talk,” entrapment, that is, in legalisms. For use of legal terms, see Silar.↩back to note source

721 Jesu. This line is the only place in the poem where the concatenation fails. AW substitute ryght for Jesu, “justice,” as a personification of Jesus.↩back to note source

711–24 Passage is based on Luke 18:15–17, Matthew 19:13–15, and Mark 10:13–16.↩back to note source

733 makelles. G emends to maskeles, and also in line 757, to preserve the continuity of the link words. But by alternating makeles with maskeles the poet plays on the equivalence of spotlessness and peerlessness.↩back to note source

735 hevenesse clere. G emends to hevenes spere, “heaven’s sphere,” to avoid repeating clere as rhyming word twice in one stanza. H and V translate as “heaven’s brightness,” whereas other editors, and myself, translate clere as an adjective modifying the noun hevenesse, “heaven.”↩back to note source

730–35 The story of the pearl of price comes from Matthew 13:45–46.↩back to note source

740 stode. V accords with G in reading stode as a noun meaning “place”: hit stode, “its place.” Other editors, myself included, understand stode as a verb meaning either “stood” or “shone.” Stode, which appears frequently in the MS, almost always is in the form of the verb. One possible meaning of the term as noun, however, is MED sense 4, s.v., stod, “an ornamental boss on a garment.”↩back to note source

750 Pymalyon paynted. The contrast between the work of nature and of art is conventional; see Le Roman de la Rose, 16013 ff. As Ovid tells the story, Pygmalion carved an image of a beautiful woman and then fell in love with it. The story was often used in the Middle Ages to signify the seductions of art and idolatry. For discussion and illustrations, see Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 316–38; and D. W. Robertson, Jr., A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 99–103, 157–58. Chaucer uses the trope as a debate between art and nature in The Physician’s Tale, lines 8–38.↩back to note source

755 ostriys. The reading of this word has been the subject of a long debate. G emends to of triys, “of peace, truce.” Gor reads the word as offys, “office,” a reading that has been followed by subsequent editors; so too AW, A, and C. The issues over interpretation are based on the central letters of the word: are they ff or st followed by a scribal abbreviation for ri? My vote for “oyster” has been swayed by the argument of E. T. Donaldson that ostriys is acceptable on orthographic, syntactic, and textual/symbolic grounds; “Oysters, Forsooth: Two Readings in Pearl,” in Studies Presented to Tauno F. Mustanoja on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 73 (1972), 75–82. While the abbreviation mark indicating ri could possibly be read as the top of an f that missed its connection with the stroke, as Davis argues in his defense of a reading of the term as offys (Norman Davis, review of Gordon’s edition of Pearl, Medium Aevum 23 [1954], 98–99), the word presents in the MS very clearly, and the letter in question is unlike f as written elsewhere in the MS. V says that “the tops of f’s are not always securely joined in the MS” — but the example he gives, of in line 752, is not convincing, for in that example the top is much closer to the stroke.

“Oyster,” which can be derived without emendation, can also be defended on textual grounds. As Donaldson argues, introducing an oyster at this point in the poem would be entirely what one might expect of both poet and dreamer. This stanza in particular is remarkable for its density of metaphor, full of supposition and grounded in localizing particulars as the dreamer asks the pearl who formed her and what bears her. In medieval natural history, pearls were believed to be produced from dew drops swallowed by the oyster, a belief that contributed to the rich symbolism of pearls. See Donkin, pp. 1–22.

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761 wete. I accord with A, AW, G, and Gor who translate as “wet,” e.g., “dismal” — a characterization of the world that also perhaps answers, tongue-in-cheek, the narrator’s question about her origin as oyster. Other editors have proposed very different translations: H reads as noun, “woe,” and V the very plausible adjective “mad,” derived from wede, “to go insane.”↩back to note source

763 The language is from the Song of Songs 4:7–8: Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te. Veni de Libano, sponsa mea . . . (“You are fair, my love, there is no flaw in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride . . . ”). The verse was widely used in medieval literature, and in both sacred and fully profane contexts.↩back to note source

769 bryd. Both meanings of “bride” and “bird” are implied. The use of bryd, “bird,” for a girl is conventional in Middle English love poetry.↩back to note source

776 I.e., have lived in much strife as virgin martyrs, as suggested by Morton Bloomfield, “Some Notes on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 374, 546, 752, 1236) and Pearl (lines 1–12, 61, 775–776, 968),” in Studies in Language, Literature, and Culture of the Middle Ages and Later: Studies in Honor of Rudolph Willard, ed. E. Bagby Atwood and Archibald A. Hill (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969), p. 302; or as “career virgins,” as argued by Watson, in Brewer and Gibson, p. 302. For virgin martyrs, see Karen A. Winstead, Virgin Martyrs: Legends of Sainthood in Late Medieval England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).↩back to note source

792 The nwe cyté o Jerusalem. This is the first of many references to the New Jerusalem, references that increase in intensity up to the climactic or chthonic moment when the dreamer sees the Lamb in the middle of the city. Representations of the New Jerusalem, the mystical and heavenly city as distinct from the material city of “Jerusalem, Jordan, and Galalye” (line 817) that the maiden describes in the next stanzas (lines 793–840) appear in illustrations of the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse). Illuminated manuscripts of the Apocalypse were popular items among wealthy patrons in the high and late Middle Ages. See Introduction, pp. 15–17; on political appropriations of Apocalypse imagery in late medieval England, see Bowers, “Pearl in Its Royal Setting.”↩back to note source

805–06 Jesus’ scourging and carrying of the Cross to Calvary were popular subjects, illustrated widely in English panel painting and alabasters and described in countless ways in lyrics, in devotional literature, and in the medieval drama. A powerful dramatization of the nailing of Christ to the Cross appears in the York Crucifixion.↩back to note source

811 I.e., “for the sake of sin He set His own life as totally unimportant.”↩back to note source

818 According to the Gospels John baptized in Jordan, not in Jerusalem and Galilee.↩back to note source

819 Ysaye. See Isaiah 53:7, where Christ’s silence before his accusers is prophesied.↩back to note source

824 upon. V reads as adverb, “openly,” but most editors follow G, who has made a more convincing case for upon as a “preposition placed after the pronoun it governs,” “upon that,” i.e., “at which all this world has worked,” or colloquially, “that all this world has committed.”↩back to note source

829 From this point until the last stanza group much of the imagery and language is taken from the Book of Revelation.↩back to note source

829–30 I.e., was perceived as a lamb by “ayther prophete” (line 831), both John the Baptist and Isaiah, as named in lines 819–20.↩back to note source

833 The thryde tyme. I.e., first by Isaiah (53:7), then by John the Baptist, then (the third time) by St. John the Evangelist (Revelation 5:6).↩back to note source

837 leves sware. In Revelation John reads a scroll. Leves sware suggest he reads a book, as Gor notes.↩back to note source

841 This stanza group contains six stanzas, unlike the five stanzas in each of the other nineteen stanza-groups. The additional stanza, which brings the total lines of the poem to 1212, furthers the play on the number twelve throughout the text: twelve lines per stanza, twelve gem-like foundation layers of the New Jerusalem (lines 993–1021); twelve degrees of the New Jerusalem (lines 1021–32); twelve gates of the New Jerusalem (line 1035). See Introduction, p. 5, and Peck, pp. 15–64. Peck, pp. 44–51, considers structural and symbolic uses of 12 in Pearl.↩back to note source

pechche. Most editors translate as “stain.” My reading as “patch” accords with G, H, and V.↩back to note source

869 maydennes. In his biblical commentary, widely read in the fourteenth century, Augustine glosses “maidens” to mean virgins generically — i.e., either female or male, as AW note. In the Latin Vulgate Bible, however, “virgins” are explicitly male — i.e., “they who were not polluted by women.” For virginity in the Middle Ages see Barbara Newman, From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), pp. 28–35. Although mayden may designate a male who has abstained from sex, it is a common term in Middle English love poetry, and the person named as such is almost invariably female. For the virginity tradition and Pearl, see Watson, in Brewer and Gibson, p. 301.↩back to note source

873–75 The destructive scenes of the Book of Revelation are not evoked in Pearl. These lines alone convey something of the sense of destruction, or at least natural forces at work, so common in many medieval visual renderings of the Book of Revelation, from illuminated apocalypse manuscripts to tympani, carved scenes over doorways, on medieval parishes and cathedrals. See Introduction, pp. 15–17. For a richly illustrated introduction to the topic, see Jonathan Alexander, with Michael Michael and Martin Kauffmann, “The Last Things: Representing the Unrepresentable,” in The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come, ed. Frances Carey (London: British Museum Press, 1999), pp. 43–98.↩back to note source

886–87 fowre bestes . . . aldermen. The four beasts are the Evangelists, represented in medieval iconography as lion (Mark), ox (Luke), eagle (John), and man (Matthew). Aldermen doubtless signifies the twenty-four elders. Scenes representing God enthroned and surrounded by the four evangelists and by elders with musical instruments appear frequently in illuminated Apocalypse manuscripts. For the biblical sources for the imaging of beasts, elders, and enthroned God, see Revelation 4:4, 7, and Ezekiel 1. The term aldermen may give this description a particularly familiar and urban cast. A chronicle entry for 1392 recounts that the Mayor of London was summoned with “24 aldermannis” (among others) to a council with the king; Knighton’s Chronicle 1337–1396, ed. and trans. G. H. Martin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 544.↩back to note source

892 meyny. Used here as in lines 899 and 960, meyny describes a lord’s retinue in terms consistent with late fourteenth-century aristocratic practice.↩back to note source

swe. Probably from sue, “follow,” but perhaps from sough and meaning “the swell of praise,” in keeping with the emphasis on music and sound.↩back to note source

894 newe fryt. Compare the fruits in the transformed garden at the beginning of the poem, lines 87 and 104.↩back to note source

895 hit. I.e., the “meyny” or “retinue” of virgins singing in praise of and in likeness to the Lamb.↩back to note source

896 lote. The word may signify either voice or appearance, as may hwe; compare line 873, where “hue” refers to the cry sounded in heaven. The evocation of sound is consistent with the emphasis on voice and melody in these stanzas. Editors translate hwe as “hue” (color); I prefer “sound” in keeping with references to song earlier in the stanza.↩back to note source

865–900 See Revelation 14:1–5 for biblical source.↩back to note source

905 mokke and mul. Mul, “dust” or “mud,” recalls “moul” of line 23, and here specifically suggests the difference in social class between the pearl and himself. As Barr notes, mud is often used in medieval texts to designate peasants (pp. 60, 74n17).↩back to note source

920 David. David was the conqueror of Jerusalem and second king of Israel, 1000–962 BCE.↩back to note source

922 note. A term that suggests both a dazzling undertaking as well as musical sound. As Osgood points out, in St. Erkenwald the new building of St. Paul’s is also “a noble note.”↩back to note source

923 under mone. I.e., on earth. The phrase also implies a contrast between the maiden’s spotlessness and the changeable nature of the moon — its spottiness: see line 1070.↩back to note source

925 moteles meyny. A pun on “homeless” and “spotless,” evoking the similarly uneasy pun developed in the uses of “spot” in the first stanza group.↩back to note source

943 nwe. Nwe may refer to the new law (Christianity) or to the new Jerusalem. The maiden explains that the literal Jerusalem is the city of the old law, remade figuratively as the new or heavenly Jerusalem through the crucifixion, the event enacting the new law — i.e., that humans can win eternal life.↩back to note source

sonde. Sonde may alternatively be read as a noun, as in AW and V who translate sonde as “embassy” and “dispensation”: “but the new, that descended by God’s embassy.”↩back to note source

952 Ceté of God. Used in the Old Testament and in biblical exegesis to denote both old and new Jerusalems.↩back to note source

Syght of Pes. Also visio pacis; denotes more directly the new or heavenly city.↩back to note source

953 at ene. Editors translate variously: G and H as “formerly”; A, AW and Gor as “was made secure”; V as “immediately.”↩back to note source

967 aquylde. Editors translate variously: AW as “obtained permission” and V as “prevailed upon.” S.v., aquylde MED gives “obtain” as well as “flush, track, pursue,” meanings that continue a pattern of hunting references that appears throughout the poem, e.g., lines 184 and 345.↩back to note source

969 cloystor. “Cloister,” “enclosure,” as metonym for “city,” but with sense of enclosure, emphasizing the idea that heaven is an ideal cloister.↩back to note source

970 fote. Editors have differed on whether we are to take fote as a measure of distance or as the body part. Its placement as final word in the line leaves both possibilities in play.↩back to note source

979–81 In Revelation 21:10. John is taken by the angel to a mountain, where he sees the city descending from heaven.↩back to note source

999 Jasper. As AW and Gor note, not the modern jasper, but a brightly colored and especially green chalcedony.↩back to note source

1003 calsydoyne. Probably a kind of white quartz. See note in Gor.↩back to note source

1012 twynne-hew. MS: twyn̄e how (twynne how). A, AW, and Gor emend to twynne-hew. As notes in G and Gor explain, the twin-hue of the topaz may derive from the lapidaries or from a commentary on the Apocalypse, such as Bede (Migne, PL 93.200): topasius . . . duos habere fertur colores; unum auri purissimi, et alterum aetherea claritate relucentem [topaz . . . is said to have two colors; one of the purest gold, and the other reflecting ethereal clarity].↩back to note source

994–1020 The natural and mystical properties of each of these stones are detailed in medieval lapidaries; see Robert J. Blanch, “Precious Metal and Gem Symbolism in Pearl,” in Sir Gawain and Pearl: Critical Essays, ed. Robert J. Blanch, pp. 86–97; and Riddy, in Brewer and Gibson, pp. 143–55. Except for the ruby of line 1007, the catalogue follows closely the account in Revelation 21.↩back to note source

1027 wones wythinne. As G notes, Revelation 21 says nothing of dwellings within the city.↩back to note source

1030 Twelve forlonge. Revelation 21:16 has 12,000 furlongs. G omits space and adds thousande. He is probably correct that 12 represents a scribal error and that the line was somehow initially rendered to convey 12,000, in keeping with the biblical source. Charles Moorman, however, argues that 12 furlongs accords with the dimensions of a medieval manor, “manayre” (line 1029). See “Some Notes on Patience and Pearl,” Southern Quarterly 4 (1965), 72–73. Revelation 21 also makes no mention of “wones wythinne” (line 1027), a detail added to both familiarize and domesticate the New Jerusalem.↩back to note source

1032 I.e., measured by the angel with the measuring rod of Ezekiel 40–44.↩back to note source

1041 byrth-whates. G emends to byrthe-whates. The idea that the names of the children of Israel are written on the gates of the city derives from Revelation 21:12; that they appear according to the order of their birth, from Exodus 28.↩back to note source

1052 apparaylmente. The term likely refers to the elders and evangelists, as H argues, as the maiden has described in lines 885–87.↩back to note source

1058 flet. Editors have translated variously as “tidal estuary” (V) and as the verb “flowed” (H). Flet, from “floor, ground” accords most closely with the sense of the source in Revelation: “flowing from the throne of God,” a scene depicted in some illuminated manuscripts, i.e., the Trinity College Apocalypse, which shows the river flowing out of the room in which God is enthroned. See the illustration in Jonathan Alexander, “The Last Things: Representing the Unrepresentable,” in The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come, ed. Frances Carey, p. 77.↩back to note source

1069 ff. The stanza describes the miraculous, God-generated light of the New Jerusalem, a brilliance that eclipses other celestial bodies, i.e., moon and sun.↩back to note source

1077–80 See Revelation 22:2.↩back to note source

1093 maynful. Compare the expression “might and main,” in Middle English a conventional formula, “myghty and maynful.”↩back to note source

1099 vergynes. See note to line 869.↩back to note source

1098–1100 See Revelation 14:4.↩back to note source

1106 See Revelation 21:21.↩back to note source

1107 See Revelation 5:11.↩back to note source

1108 livrés. G emends to livre. Most editors translate as “dress.” Livrés also means the official garb of a group or guild, which would seem to be the sense intended here. For a discussion of livery badges in the court of Richard II and in the Wilton Diptych, see Riddy, in Brewer and Gibson, p. 153n; Bowers, “Pearl in Its Royal Setting,” pp. 136–39; and Barr, pp. 67–68. See also note to line 199.↩back to note source

1110 See Revelation 14:1–4.↩back to note source

1111 golde. MS: glode. Editors emend. See Revelation 5:6.↩back to note source

1126 Vertues. One of the nine orders of angels.↩back to note source

1135 wounde ful wyde. The image is of the sacrificial Lamb, Christ crucified. Field and Whitaker discuss the medieval pictorial traditions for the image; for a psychoanalytic reading of the wound, see Stanbury, “Feminist Masterplots.”↩back to note source

1156–59 These lines present many possibilities for interpretation. In line 1156, walte has been read as “held, set,” from Middle English wale or welde, by A, AW, G, and Gor; as “kept” by C; and as “vexed” by H and V. The MED suggests “chosen,” p. ppl. of walen, a reading with which I concur: i.e., although she has already been claimed or chosen by the Lamb, the dreamer still wants to hurl himself into the stream.↩back to note source

1157–59 G connects fech me bur (line 1158) with the dialect phrase “to take one’s birr,” i.e., to gather momentum for a leap, and translates: “Nothing, methought, might hinder me / From fetching birr and taking off; / And noght should keep me from the start.” A reads: “I thought that nothing might hinder me from gathering my strength and taking possession (of the Maiden) for myself.” My reading of the lines approximates that of AW: “I thought that nothing could harm me by dealing me a blow and offering obstruction to me.” Bur appears frequently in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the sense of a martial “blow.” This stanza and the following are rich in abrupt monosyllabic words conveying suddenness and violence.↩back to note source

1174 raxled. I.e., in the sense of awakening from a swoon.↩back to note source

1205 lote. Lote, Middle English lot, which some editors translate as “experience,” carries connotations of chance or luck. AW note that lote can also mean “speech” or “word”: “I received this word.”↩back to note source

1206 enclyin. Editors translate “lying prostrate” — i.e., the dreamer. I accord with V in following MED suggestion that term is an adjective, enclin, modifying the pearl, “bowed down, humble, submissive.”↩back to note source

1208 In Krystes dere blessyng and myn. This phrase appears frequently in addresses from parent to child in the late Middle Ages, as observed by Norman Davis, “A Note on Pearl,” in Conley, ed., pp. 325–34.↩back to note source

1209 forme of bred and wyn. I.e., the visual display of the host during the Mass. The phrase, part of the prayer at communion, was, as Margaret Aston says, “the laconic lay equivalent for transubstantiation in all its complexities.” See Faith and Fire: Popular and Unpopular Religion, 1350–1600 (Rio Grande, Ohio: Hambledon Press, 1993), pp. 46–47. For uses of the formula, see also John Mirk’s Instructions for Parish Priests, ed. Edward Peacock, EETS o.s. 31 (London: Trübner & Co., 1868; Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 1996), p. 8, line 246, and p. 291. The formula also appears frequently in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century debates about the Eucharistic rite: see for example the “Testimony of William Thorpe” in Two Wycliffite Texts: The Sermon of William Taylor 1406: The Testimony of William Thorpe 1407, ed. Anne Hudson, EETS o.s. 301 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 31.

Most editors understand That as a reference to Christ. Phillips, p. 479, argues that That refers to the pearl (“hit” of line 1207) and both refer to the Eucharistic wafer.

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1211 homly hyne. The term homly defies precise translation in modern English. It refers literally to the “homely,” to things of the household and private life, with the implication that homly hyne are trustworthy and trusting household servants, allied with the lord or head of household in a harmonious hierarchical relationship.↩back to note source