FURTHER READING
Gascoigne, George. The Complete Works of George Gascoigne.
2 vols. Edited by J. W. Cunliffe. 1907. Reprint, New
York: Greenwood Press, 1969.
Johnson, Ronald. George Gascoigne. New York: Twayne,
1972.
Robert E. Kibler
GAWAIN-POET (PEARL-POET) (fl. ca. 1390)
Scholars assign the name “the Gawain-poet” (sometimes
“the Pearl-poet”) to the anonymous author of four poems
in the MANUSCRIPT Cotton Nero A.x now housed at the
British Library: PEARL, CLEANNESS, Patience, and SIR
GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT. Earlier scholars attrib-
uted the poem ST. ERKENWALD, found in a different man-
uscript, to this author, but that remains disputed.
Since the Cotton Nero poems give no fi rm indica-
tion of their author’s identity, scholars have explored
the poet’s background through careful attention to the
poems and the manuscript. Based on the date of the
manuscript and on references within the poems, it
appears that the Gawain-poet was writing around the
last decade of the 14th century. Additionally, linguists
have identifi ed the dialect of the poems as English
Northwest Midlands, around Cheshire. Highly learned
references indicate a thorough grounding in biblical
studies and familiarity with Latin literature, suggesting
the poet may have been a clerk (member of a minor
order). A focus on genteel manners and a familiarity
with aristocratic traditions and values in the poems
suggest that the poet may have been a retainer in a
noble household. These characteristics and the self-
presentation of the poems’ speakers evince a male
author, but there is no proof of this.
The intertwining of Christian themes with CHIVALRY
and courtly values is a key characteristic of the Gawain-
poet’s work. The poems imagine God as the ideal form
of a king or aristocratic lord, and Gawain’s protagonist
struggles with the frailty of the fl esh as well as his
knightly quest. The poems explore the contrast
between the perfection demanded by chivalric-Chris-
tian virtue and the limits of human frailty—sympathet-
ically, through the befuddled speaker of Pearl or the
reluctant Jonah in Patience, or damningly, through the
negative examples in Cleanness. Symbols of perfection
and purity recur throughout the poems, two key exam-
ples being the immaculate pearl and the pentangle
symbolizing virtue on Gawain’s shield. Critics have
also noted the poems’ interest in exploring sexual
mores—for example, the nuanced treatment of dan-
gerous fl irtation and potentially erotic male bonding in
Gawain. Cleanness includes both exuberant praise of
heterosexual relationships and condemnation of male-
male homosexual intercourse.
Three of the poems are written in alliterative verse
(and Pearl, though not in alliterative verse, shows
strong alliterative elements). The combination of the
poet’s Northwest Midlands dialect and use of ALLITERA-
TION might seem to suggest a provincial, old-fashioned
writer; however, it is only the subsequent triumph of
London English and of stressed-syllable rhyming verse
that gives us this impression of the Gawain-poet’s isola-
tion, as the mid- to late 14th century saw an outburst
of verse sometimes referred to as the ALLITERATIVE
REVIVAL, and such verse was popular in gentry house-
holds. Moreover, close connections existed between
the metropolitan centers of London and Westminster
and the poet’s likely homeland of Cheshire during this
period, primarily because King Richard II had close
connections there.
FURTHER READING
Brewer, Derek, and Jonathan Gibson, eds. A Companion to
the Gawain-Poet. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1997.
Finch, Casey, trans. The Complete Works of the Pearl Poet.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Putter, Ad. An Introduction to the Gawain-Poet. London:
Longman, 1996.
Brantley L. BryantGENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CAN-
TERBURY TALES GEOFFREY CHAUCER (ca.
1390) The opening 18 lines of the General Prologue
to the CANTERBURY TALES comprise the most famous
sentence in medieval literature. Aside from setting
forth one of the main themes of the entire collection—
secular versus sacred love—these lines also provide
temporal and geographic context for the tales to come:
In spring, a group of pilgrims are on their way to Can-GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES 203