Pearl: Part 13

Book: www.lulu.com/shop/giles-watson/pearl/paperback/product-20...

 

Reading: www.youtube.com/watch?v=012W9MjMwpM

 

The story so far: The Dreamer loses his Pearl in a grassy mound - evidently her grave. He swoons with grief, and awakens in an earthly paradise, through which there runs a beautiful stream. The land on the opposite bank seems even more beautiful. He wanders further down the stream, hoping to find a bridge or a ford. Just when he starts to become afraid of the dangers that may be in store for him, he sees a young woman sitting at the foot of a crystal cliff on the opposite bank, and instantly recognises her as his lost Pearl. He hails his Pearl and expresses his relief that she still exists, but she begins to reprove him for his lack of faith. She criticises him for only believing that her soul is immortal now that he can see her, and is shocked by his suggestion that he - a mortal man - has a hope of joining her in Paradise without first experiencing death. He tells her that for him to walk away from her now that he has found her again would be to suffer a fresh bereavement. She replies that it is divinely decreed that he cannot cross over to her. The Dreamer pleads with his Pearl to accept that his rash questions were borne out of his great grief, and asks her to describe her life in Paradise. She relents, and tells him that she is crowned Queen of Heaven, and is married to the Lamb. The Dreamer is shocked by this assertion. He says that he thought only the Virgin Mary was Queen of Heaven. Pearl replies with a description of a-semi egalitarian heaven in which all inhabitants are kings and queens, and asserts that although Mary has pre-eminence, none of those in heaven would ever question it, because she is so “courteous”. She cites the Pauline notion that the church is the body of Christ in support of her claim. The Dreamer is even less convinced than before. He wonders how she can have been instantly crowned a Queen of Heaven when she was on the earth for less than two years. She replies at length, citing the parable of the labourers in the vineyard as justification for her rapid advancement in the kingdom of Heaven. She continues to retell the parable, and concludes by insisting that like the workers who worked less than two hours in the vineyard, she was first in line for God’s reward when she reached Heaven. The Dreamer cannot understand. Surely, he argues, those who have endured a lifetime’s pain and temptation must have precedence. She responds that those who die as children die innocent, whereas those who have lived longer are more likely to be tainted by the world, and argues that the Dreamer is underestimating the grace of God. She continues by expounding a series of Biblical texts on the theme of righteousness and justification, culminating with the scene from the gospels in which Christ welcomes the children, and reproves his disciples for attempting to repel them. She further expounds on this theme:

 

“Righteous Christ told his disciples:

‘There is a Kingdom you’ll never win

Unless you come as a little child.

The grown are barred – they’ll not get in.

The harmless, helpless, undefiled,

Unspotted by some smearing sin:

They stand and knock, shy and mild,

And on its hinge, the door swings

Wide open. Bliss beckons them within:

That bliss for which the jeweller searched

And sold his goods, both wool and linen,

To buy a pearl so unbesmirched.

 

That pearl is unbesmirched, so dear

The jeweller sold off all his goods:

It’s like a globe of heaven, clear

As Yahweh’s firmament and flood,

For it is flawless – crystal clear –

Round and endless, like the world,

The jewel of all whose holy fear

Was cleansing.’ At my breast it glowed –

My Lord, the Lamb, who spouted blood,

He set it there, pledged peace, and reached

Into my heart. Forsake this raging, wild

World. Buy this Pearl. It’s unbesmirched.”

 

“You, Pearl, unbesmirched and pure,

Who wears, I swear, the Pearl of Price,

What maker formed your fair figure?

Who made your clothes? – For he was wise.

Your beauty bedazzles mere nature –

Pygmalion failed to paint your face

And Aristotle couldn’t conjure

Out of words your virtues, grace

And properties. You shame the fleur-de-lys.

Your radiant face is angel-touched.

What oyster opened to unleash

A Pearl so pale and unbesmirched?”

 

“My unbesmirched Lamb amended all,”

She says, “Bade me be his bride –

And I, unworthy of his call

By worldly rules, could not deny

Him. I left your dank world – the Fall

Mouldered it. He blessed me, high

As Heaven: ‘Come here!’ I couldn’t forestall.

‘No spot or stain is to be scried

In your white skin.’ He gave beauty, swilled

My clothes in blood amidst his church,

And crowned, cleansed, acquitted, plied

Me with pearls – all unbesmirched.”

 

“Unbesmirched bride who burns like flame,

Consort to Christ, rich and alive,

What kind of creature is this Lamb

Who woos with you and makes you wife –

And with such competition? How’d you climb

To lead with him a Lady’s life?

So many women must come, comb

Their hair, flutter eyelashes, give strife

To Christ! D’you have the skill to drive

Them all away? Don’t they screech

At you? Are you so powerful and alive –

A matchless maiden, and unbesmirched?”

 

 

 

Late fourteenth century poem, written in a north-west midland dialect of Middle English, paraphrased by Giles Watson. The concatenation centres on the word “maskelles”, which means “spotless”, but which is easily – and once deliberately – confused with “makeless”, or “matchless”. Pearl’s argument makes reference to the parable of the Pearl of Price (Matthew 13: 45-6), and she also refers to the Song of Solomon (4: 7-8) in her metaphor of the mystical marriage to Christ. The assertion that the Pearl is “round and endless” (“endelez rounde”) is an image of perfection which underpins the structure of the whole poem: the complex interrelationships set up by the concatenation in different sections, combined with the circular pattern of the whole, which begins and ends with the same imagery and lexis, are an attempt on the part of the poet to mirror in words the spherical perfection of the pearl. It has been argued that the references to Pygmalion and Aristotle are derived from the Romance of the Rose, but it is more likely that these were simply traditional comparisons. The passage about the oyster is controversial. In the only surviving manuscript, the word looks like “offys” (“office”), and modern translations usually conform to this: “Tell me, fair maid, what kind of office/ Bears the pearl so matchless.” However, one scholar has suggested that a small pen-stroke could have made all the difference, and the word becomes “ostriys” (“oysters”). This suggestion is so attractive, and so consistent with the poem’s central image, that I have followed it. (See ref. to Bradley, unpublished, in Malcolm Andrew and Ronald Waldron, The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Exeter, 2002, p. 89n.) It is unusual for the Gawain poet to rhyme twice on the same word. I have preserved his repetition of "clear" in this section, because it is clearly deliberate, and for emphasis.

 

Done