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Close analysis of the poem reveals extensive allusion to contemporary social, religious and political events.
This is an entirely new and original reading of Pearl, placing the anonymous masterpiece in the context of the Cheshire coterie that flourished at the court of Richard II during the 1390s. The brilliance of its poetic construction has long been acknowledged, but here Pearl is also shown to engage with the social, religious and political events of the late fourteenth century. The poem's defense of infant baptism is seen as countering Lollardcriticism of the sacraments, its retelling of the Parable of the Vineyard as offering scriptural support to the aims of the Statute of Labourers. The poem's dazzling representation of aristocratic magnificence - jewelled crowns, gem-embroidered gowns, livery badges, civic processions, and monumental architecture - studied in this context, relates to the spectacular royal culture of one of England's most ambitious monarchs. The courtly elegy offered consolation after the death of Anne of Bohemia, while its vision of a royal child-bride figured in the intense national debate over the king's prospective marriage to the six-year-old Isabelle of France. Richard II's fall from power brought to an end not simply Cheshire privilege, but also a poetic tradition that produced some of the finest works of English literature, most notably Pearl and Gawain and the Green Knight.
Professor JOHN BOWERS teaches at the Department of English at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
This is an entirely new and original reading of Pearl, placing the anonymous masterpiece in the context of the Cheshire coterie that flourished at the court of Richard II during the 1390s. The brilliance of its poetic construction has long been acknowledged, but here Pearl is also shown to engage with the social, religious and political events of the late fourteenth century. The poem's defense of infant baptism is seen as countering Lollardcriticism of the sacraments, its retelling of the Parable of the Vineyard as offering scriptural support to the aims of the Statute of Labourers. The poem's dazzling representation of aristocratic magnificence - jewelled crowns, gem-embroidered gowns, livery badges, civic processions, and monumental architecture - studied in this context, relates to the spectacular royal culture of one of England's most ambitious monarchs. The courtly elegy offered consolation after the death of Anne of Bohemia, while its vision of a royal child-bride figured in the intense national debate over the king's prospective marriage to the six-year-old Isabelle of France. Richard II's fall from power brought to an end not simply Cheshire privilege, but also a poetic tradition that produced some of the finest works of English literature, most notably Pearl and Gawain and the Green Knight.
Professor JOHN BOWERS teaches at the Department of English at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Price: $130.00
Pages: 264
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Publication Date:
02 November 2000
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9780859915991
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literature: history and criticism, POETRY / Ancient & Classical, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, Classic and pre-20th century poetry, Ancient, classical and medieval texts
Restores this literary gem to its contemporary historical setting, successfully locating it in and among the religious and cultural debates of the Ricardian court in the mid-1390s...has done the poet and his readers a considerable service in at last affording Pearl the kind of detailed and sustained historicist scrutiny that has previously been afforded only to its more overtly worldly companion-pieces.