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The "Gawain Poet" (), or less commonly the "Pearl Poet",Andrew, M. "Theories of Authorship" (1997) in Brewer (ed). ''A Companion to the Gawain-poet'', Boydell & Brewer, p.23 (''fl.'' late 14th century) is the name given to the author of '' Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', an
alliterative poem In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of a ...
written in 14th-century
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...
. Its author appears also to have written the poems ''
Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
'', ''
Patience (or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when face ...
'', and '' Cleanness''; some scholars suggest the author may also have composed '' Saint Erkenwald''. Save for the last (found in BL-MS ''Harley 2250''), all these works are known from a single surviving manuscript, the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
holding ''
Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
Nero A.x''. This body of work includes some of the most highly-regarded poetry written in Middle English. The Gawain Poet is unidentified. Various scholars have suggested that the poem is attributable to a member of the landed Massey family of
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...
, and in particular John Massey of
Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
. This is not widely accepted, however, and the labels "Pearl Poet" or "Gawain Poet" are still preferred.


Conjectured biography

The language of the poems shows that the poet was a contemporary of
Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
,
John Gower John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the '' Mirour de l'Omme'', '' Vo ...
, and
William Langland William Langland (; la, Willielmus de Langland; 1332 – c. 1386) is the presumed author of a work of Middle English alliterative verse generally known as ''Piers Plowman'', an allegory with a complex variety of religious themes. The poem tr ...
, who are sometimes (following the suggestion of academic John Burrow) collectively called the Ricardian Poets in reference to the reign of
Richard II of England Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father ...
.Burrow, J. ''Ricardian Poetry: Chaucer, Gower, Langland and the "Gawain" Poet'', Penguin, 1992 All four poems of the Cotton Nero A.x manuscript are in the same Middle English dialect, localised to the area of north-western
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...
and south-eastern
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...
, in the
English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the ...
. This may merely indicate the dialect of the scribe responsible for copying the poems, but there is good evidence that the dialect of poet and scribe were very similar.Duggan, H. 'Meter, Stanza, Vocabulary, Dialect', in Brewer and Gibson (eds), ''A Companion to the Gawain-Poet'', Cambridge, 2007, pp.240–242 It is, therefore, thought most likely that the poet was a native of east Cheshire or west Staffordshire and was writing in the latter part of the 14th century: based particularly on the narrative voice of ''Pearl'', the poet is thought to have been male. Internal evidence indicates that all four works were probably written by the same author, though their similar dialect and presence in the same manuscript have usually been taken as the strongest evidence of common authorship. Any other information must be deduced from the poems' themes, as there is neither a definite authorial attribution within them nor any 'tradition' as to the author's identity (as with Langland and ''
Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un- rhymed, alliterati ...
''). The poet seems to have been well-educated; shows a deep knowledge of the technical vocabulary of hunting, as in the description of the horn signals in ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''; also shows some knowledge of royal courts; vividly describes the landscape of the region; and has an interest in poverty as a Christian virtue. However, the writer of the Cotton Nero A.x poems never refers to contemporary scholarship, as, for example, Chaucer does. The poems show a tendency to refer to materials from the past (the Arthurian legends, stories from the Bible) rather than any new learning, so it is perhaps less possible to associate the poet with universities, monasteries or the court in London. Even so, the Gawain Poet must have been educated and was probably of a certain social standing, perhaps a member of a family of landed gentry. J. R. R. Tolkien and
E. V. Gordon Eric Valentine Gordon (14 February 1896 – 29 July 1938) was a Canadian philologist, known as an editor of medieval Germanic texts and a teacher of medieval Germanic languages at the University of Leeds and the University of Manchester. Early ...
, after reviewing the allusions, style, and themes of ''Gawain and the Green Knight'', concluded in 1925: The poet began writing during a time of rapid change and development in English literature. His language was arguably also influenced by 14th-century social developments, particularly the movement toward a more anglicised ruling class and political identity, and by changes in the English language, primarily driven by exposure to dialects of French. The sophistication of the poet's literary style, and his references to pursuits such as heraldry and hunting, suggest a writer aiming at a cultured audience. In their use of Latin, ''Purity'', ''Patience'', and ''Pearl'' show the poet's knowledge of the Vulgate Bible. In ''Pearl'' the poet shows knowledge not only of the
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...
, but also of many other parts of the Bible. It is possible that the poet consulted Latin commentaries on Revelation and
Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
. The work makes use of well-established Christian interpretations of elements in the
Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
, such as treating
Jonah Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' Ben (Hebrew), son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria ...
's descent into the whale as a form of Christ's descent into Hell, or using Abraham's three angels as a type of the Trinity. What most interested the poet, however, seems to have been the literal sense of Biblical sources as opposed to their typological or allegorical significance. ''Pearl'' also shows the poet's understanding of mystical theology. It is pointed out that the Dreamer's definition of his vision as a 'gostly drem' (Line 790) indicates the poet's familiarity with the classification of visions used by mystical theologians and the mystics themselves. There is no need to suggest any extraordinary learning on the poet's part; most of the devotional writings were widely and easily understood. It is difficult to find evidence that the poet shared knowledge of classical poets, such as
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
and
Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...
, with the likes of Chaucer. However, there have been claims that certain small debts can be detected in ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' to Virgil and to
Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born ...
, and it is highly likely that the poet was familiar with a wide range of Latin literature that was current among the educated class in the Middle Ages. The chronology of the "
Alliterative Revival The Alliterative Revival is a term adopted by literary historians to refer to the resurgence of poetry using the alliterative verse form in Middle English between c. 1350 and 1500. Alliterative verse was the traditional verse form of Old English po ...
" of which these works are a significant part, cannot be established with any precision. It is assumed that the revival began in the south-west midlands and fully flowered in the late fourteenth century. While Cheshire monasteries were not as well endowed as those in the south-west midlands, they would have included the main Latin works used as sources by the alliterative poets. Dating the works written by the Gawain-poet is most problematic because the works could have been written as early as the 1360s or as late as the manuscript itself, which dates around 1400. It is assumed that the poet was alive during the mid-1370s to mid-1380s. The British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x. is the only surviving Middle English manuscript collection consisting solely of alliterative poems. There is firm consensus that the dialect of the scribe and the author localises the poem to the north-west Midlands, centring Cheshire. To present the historical background of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and associated poems is ultimately a quest to find the anonymous poet. The notion that the Gawain-poet was attached to a provincial noble household, perhaps like that of Sir Bertilak, remains attractive to a number of critics. The quest for the Green Chapel brings Sir Gawain into Cheshire from Wales.
Sir Robert Grosvenor ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
, Sheriff of Chester was born circa 1342 at Hulme, Cheshire, England and is an appropriate reference-point in the investigation for the world of the poet. Grosvenor's manor house at Hulme is only a few miles north of the area pin-pointed by dialectologists, on the uplands associated with the Green Chapel mentioned in the poem.


Theories as to possible identity


John Prat, John Donne

A number of scholars have proposed that ''Pearl'' was written to commemorate the daughter of John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, and two of his clerks, John Prat and John Donne, have been advanced as possible candidates for authorship.Stanbury, S.
Pearl: Introduction
', Medieval Institute Publications, 2001


"Huchoun"

A theory current in the early part of the 20th century held that a man called
Huchoun Huchoun ("little Hugh") or Huchown "of the Awle Ryale" (''fl.'' 14th century) is a poet conjectured to have been writing sometime in the 14th century. Some academics, following the Scottish antiquarian George Neilson (1858–1923), have identifie ...
("little Hugh") may have authored the poems, having been credited with several works, including at least one known to be in the alliterative form, in the Chronicle of
Andrew of Wyntoun Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun (), was a Scottish poet, a canon and prior of Loch Leven on St Serf's Inch and, later, a canon of St. Andrews. Andrew Wyntoun is most famous for his completion of an eight-syllabled metre entitled, ...
. As Cotton Nero A.x contains the words "Hugo de" added in a later hand, its contents were identified with some of the works mentioned by Wyntoun. This argument, made in greatest detail by a Scottish antiquarian, George Neilson (who claimed that Hugh was a Scottish knight, Hugh of Eglington) is nowadays disregarded, mainly because the poems attributed to Hugh seem to have been composed in widely varying dialects.


John (or Hugh) Massey

The surname of Massey, that of a prominent Cheshire family, is associated with ''St Erkenwald'', a poem occasionally claimed to be another of the Pearl poet's works; the names of Thomas Massey and Elizabeth Booth (a member of the Booth family of Dunham Massey) are written in ''St Erkenwalds manuscript. In 1956 Ormerod Greenwood, working on a translation of ''Gawain'', made the suggestion that the author of ''Pearl'' and ''Gawain'' was one of the Masseys of Sale. He suggested Hugh Massey, based on a number of puns he found incorporated in ''Pearl'' (in addition to the "Hugo de" inscription in Cotton Nero A.x)Greenwood, O. ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Fourteenth-Century Alliterative Poem Now Attributed to Hugh Mascy'', London, 1956 Given the obvious link through the name "Hugh", Hugh Massey has been conflated with Huchoun by some academics. A later suggestion is John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire; this was first put forward by Nolan and Farley-Hills in 1971.Nolan, B. and Farley-Hills, D. 'The Authorship of Pearl: Two Notes,' ''Review of English Studies'' n.s. 22 (1971), 295–302 John Massey's authorship is further supported, according to Nolan, by one of Thomas Hoccleve's poems, in which Hoccleve mentions "my maister Massy", indicating him to be a fearsome critic of poetic metre. The attribution to John Massey is not, however, widely supported by modern critics of the poem.Turville-Petre, T. and Wilson, E. 'Hoccleve, "Maistir Massy" and the Pearl Poet: Two Notes', ''Review of English Studies'', 1975, XXVI:129–143


John Stanley

Sir John Stanley (c. 1350–1414) has been suggested as a possible identity for the poet. He was a
Knight of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...
, and the presence of the Garter motto, ''
Honi soit qui mal y pense (, , ) is a maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning "shamed be whoever thinks ill of it", usually translated as "shame on anyone who thinks evil of it" It ...
'' is put forward in support. He was also familiar with hunting and armoury, as described in ''Gawain'', and came from the appropriate part of England.


Richard Newton

Bennett (1979) suggested that ''Sir Gawain'' was written by an ancestor of the north-western landowner Humphrey Newton, who appears to have been familiar with the poem in the 16th century.Andrew, (1997) p.31 Richard Newton, who wrote some surviving occasional verse in the late fourteenth century, was suggested as a candidate based on perceived stylistic similarities of his work to parts of ''Sir Gawain''. The theory was not widely accepted.


References


Further reading

* Bowers, John M. 2012. ''An Introduction to the Gawain Poet.'' University Press of Florida, Gainesville.


External links


Pearl text & modern translation online
William Graham Stanton – contains original text, literal translation, and poetic translation.
Scholarly Introduction to Pearl, Sarah Stanbury
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gawain Poet 14th-century English poets Middle English poets People from Staffordshire People from the Borough of Cheshire East Unidentified people Writers of Arthurian literature