The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Exeter Medieval English Texts and Studies)

Rating:
Summary: My favourite edition
Review: The Pearl manuscript contains four poems (Pearl, Patience, Cleanliness, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), all generally assumed to be by the same author and all touching on the same themes - specifically, the beliefs of 'orthodox medieval Christianity and... chivalric social morality' as the (excellent) introduction puts it.

Probably written by a Northern contemporary of Chaucer, the Pearl manuscript's poems are nevertheless worlds apart from his work: they combine Old English alliterative verse with the kind of rhyming structures that were in fashion on the Continent and down south to create something unique and beautiful.

This edition is a very well-presented one, with a comprehensive introduction to the poems, a glossary at the back containing just about all the words in the poems (with line references), and other glosses intelligently placed at the foot of each page of text for the more obscure phrases. It's a system which gives maximum readability and minimum flicking back and forth to check the meaning of words and phrases - ideal for the student.