Ryan Fitzgerald

Progress and Journeys in Pearl and Dante’s Commedia

3,000 words

The journey is a common element of Middle English genres such as romance and

dream visions. It could be undertaken for various reasons, the demands of chivalry or the

desire for spiritual progression being two examples1. Dante’s Commedia presents one of

these latter journeys which successfully culminates in the pilgrim connecting with God

and ‘the love which moves the sun and the other stars’2 (Paradiso XXXIII, l.145); in

contrast, Pearl contains a dream-vision in which the Dreamer is returned to his home

before such a connection can be made; ‘Out of my drem me brayde’3 (l.1170). Despite

this, many critics have argued that the Dreamer progresses in his understanding of the

spiritual realm, implying that he learns the lessons of the Pearl-maiden; Lawrence

Clopper states that ‘the Dreamer awakens enlightened to some degree’4, and A. C.

Spearing writes that ‘despite its incompleteness, the Dreamer's visionary experience has a

significant effect on his life in the waking world’5. The important words here are

‘awakens’ and ‘waking world’; I believe that a comparison of the two texts reveals that

whilst the Commedia portrays its pilgrim’s progression, in Pearl, the progression and

understanding does not come from the Dreamer, but the narrator, who is a distinctly

different character6.

That Dante’s Commedia deals with a journey or pilgrimage is widely recognised.

John Freccero writes of ‘that longer journey, the circuitous route through hell and

purgatory’7, and Kathryn L. Lynch describes the Commedia’s central character as a

‘mental traveller’, linking Purgatorio in particular with the dream vision genre and its

connotations of journeying8. John G. Demaray states that Dante is said to have completed

a pilgrimage to Jerusalem himself, and that he ‘could have been expected to know a great

deal about the Exodus pilgrimage tradition’, proposing these earthly pilgrimages as the

basis for the Pilgrim’s spiritual journey9.

There is, however, some debate over the appropriateness of referring to the

Paradiso in particular as a journey; Lynch comments that here, ‘the focus is not on

struggle, growth, and ascent, but on the more static and lyrical descent of God’10, and

1 Nick Havely, ‘‘Significaciouns’ or ‘Ordure’? Dreams and Learning in the Middle Ages’, University of

York, 25th February 2009

2 Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. C. H. Sisson, (Oxford, 1993), p.499. All further references are to this

edition 3 ‘Pearl’, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience, J.J. Anderson (ed.)

(London, 1995), p.45. All further references are to this edition. 4 Lawrence M. Clopper, ‘Pearl and the Consolation of Scripture’, in Viator 23 (1991), p.234

5 A. C. Spearing, ‘Symbolic and Dramatic Development in Pearl’, in Modern Philology 60 (1962), p.12

6 Claude Luttrell, ‘The Introduction to the Dream in Pearl’ in Medium Aevum 47 (1978), p.275

7 John Freccero, ‘Dante’s Firm Foot and the Journey Without a Guide’ in The Harvard Theological Review

52 (1959), p.245 8 Kathryn L. Lynch, ‘The Purgatorio: Dante’s Book of Dreams’ in The High Medieval Dream Vision,

Stanford (1988), p.147 9 John. G Demaray, ‘Patterns of Earthly Pilgrimage in Dante’s Commedia: Palmers, Romers and the Great

Circle Journey in Romance Philology 24 (1970) p.241 10 Lynch, ‘Dante’s Book of Dreams’, p.152

Ryan Fitzgerald

Demaray notes the claim that ‘in the timeless, immutable Paradiso, souls remain

relatively motionless within an eternal hierarchy and thus cannot figure the forward

progression of pilgrims’11. He goes on to state, however, that whist this is a strong

argument,

It ignores the obvious fact that Dante moves through Paradiso […] The poet’s

goal in the Paradiso is not the conversion of the soul to God, but the union,

through mystic vision, of an already converted soul with the Creator. Christian

tradition held it to be the common lot of man on earth to sin and to repent, but it

was thought to have been the lot of very few individuals – a Moses, a St. Paul, or

a St. Bernard – to have mystical visions of God.

(Demray, pp.245-6)

This is the sort of journey that demands preparation then, and so the Paradiso can be

viewed as an assessment of the Pilgrim’s spiritual progress in the previous canticles.

Indeed, the closing canto of Paradiso makes it clear that the pilgrim has completed a

‘successful journey’12, since in the presence of God, ‘Bernard indicated I might look up, /

And smiled at me’ (Paradiso XXXIII, ll.49-50). The Pilgrim later cries out

O abundant grace, trusting whom I presumed

To fix my gaze through the eternal light

Until I had seen all that I could see!

(Paradiso XXXIII, ll.82-4)

The terms ‘abundant’, ‘eternal’ and ‘all that I could see’ each reflect the Pilgrim’s

spiritual fulfilment. He is capable of seeing nothing more, and so at this point the narrator

begins to recall what he can of the vision of God. By contrasting the perfection of his

vision, made explicit by the lines ‘outside it / There is some defect in what there is

perfect’ (Paradiso XXXIII, ll.104-5), with the narrator’s ‘inadequate’ (Paradiso XXXIII,

l.106) language, the Pilgrim’s achievement is starkly emphasised; the perfection he

reached can never again be attained in the human world.

Instead of being accepted into Heaven like the Pilgrim, the Dreamer is expelled

from his vision, and I believe that this highlights the Dreamer’s failure to incorporate the

lessons of the Pearl-maiden into his moral and spiritual perspective. Eleanor Cook notes

that the movement into Eden ‘demands a shift from ordinary human life to perfected

life’13, and it is primarily in this respect that the Dreamer seems to fail.

The opening stanza of Pearl closes with a short line that notes the lost pearl’s

perfection; ‘that pryvy perle withouten spot’ (l.12). But much of the description leading

up to this concluding line seems to imply that the ‘perfection […] is seen to be

physical’14. ‘Golde’ (l.2) and ‘gemmes’ (l.7) suggest economic value and worth, and ‘So

rounde, so reken, / So smal, so smothe’ (ll.5-6) points to a bodily beauty. An important

word in understanding the Dreamer’s failings is ‘pryvy’, which initially implies a sense

of private ownership over the lost pearl, immediately highlighting the ‘mundane

economic values’ that Clopper describes as hindrances to the Dreamer’s spiritual

11 Demaray, ‘Patterns of Earthly Pilgrimage’, p.245

12 Freccero, ‘Dante’s Firm Foot’, p.246

13 Eleanor Cook, ‘Enigma in Dante’s Eden’ in Enigmas and Riddles in Literature, (Cambridge, 2006), p.93

14 Luttrell, ‘Introduction to the Dream’, p.278

Ryan Fitzgerald

understanding15. The Dreamer therefore displays a resistance to the ‘shift’ towards the

‘perfected life’ necessary to experience Eden.

Moreover, the Dreamer at no time shows that he has progressed from this starting

level. Spearing notes that ‘the pearl-Maiden herself provide exegesis wherever exegesis is

necessary’16. Indeed, the Dreamer is content to remain a passive listener, rather than

actively learning, something that is made explicit by his repeated mistakes in judging

Heaven by the realities of earth. Macrae-Gibson calls this the Dreamer’s ‘same error’,

noting its appearance first when he learns that the Maiden has been given queenship in

heaven, and later when she reveals that she is a bride of Christ17. In the first instance, he

asks ‘quo moght remwe’ (l.427) Mary’s crown, to which the Maiden replies ‘Sir, fele

here porchases and fonges pray, / Bot supplantores none wythinne thys place’ (ll.439-40).

The contrast between the Dreamer’s expectations and the Maiden’s answer establishes

their different levels of understandings, creating the dynamic of teacher and student. Yet

he makes the ‘same error’ a second time, claiming that in becoming the bride of Christ,

the Maiden ‘con alle tho dere out dryf / And fro that maryag al other depres’ (lll.777-8).

He may have listened to the words of the Maiden, but ‘he never really understood’

them18.

Proof that the lessons remain unlearnt can be found in a comparison of the river

crossing scene that is shared between Pearl and the Commedia. Marie Boroff comments

that the river Lethe ‘is not “real”; it is a spatial symbol of the division between morality

and immorality. In order to “cross” it, we must change not our position in space but our

mode of existence, through the death of the body’19. Indeed, Beatrice says

God’s high dispensation would be thwarted

If Lethe were passed, and such a feat

Tasted without any payment exacted

In the way of penitence where tears are shed.

(Purgatorio XXX, ll.142-5)

This makes it explicit that a living soul crossing is considered a ‘high dispensation’. In

Pearl, the maiden denies the Dreamer the crossing outright, claiming ‘Thurgh drwry deth

bos uch man dreve, / Er over thys dam hym Dryghtyn deme’ (ll.323-4). Beatrice’s desire

for a ‘payment exacted’ through ‘penitence’ and the maiden’s line ‘And yet of graunt

thou myghtes fayle’ (l.317) makes it clear that only the moral and worthy may cross.

The main difference between the two crossings is that the Dante-pilgrim is

‘dragged […] into the river’ (Purgatorio XXXI, l.94) whereas the Dreamer makes the

movement himself. As a prelude to these actions, the narrator of the Commedia makes the

struggle within the pilgrim clear;

‘A great oak is uprooted more easily,

Whether by a home wind or by a wind that blows

15 Clopper, (p.234)

16 Spearing, ‘Symbolic and Dramatic Development’, p.1

17 O. D., Macrae-Gibson, ‘Pearl: The Link-Words and Thematic Structure’ in Neophilologus 52 (1968),

p.60 18 Ibid.

19 Marie Boroff, ‘Pearl’s “Maynful Mone”: Crux, Simile, and Structure’ in Acts of Interpretation, M.

Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk (eds), (Oklahoma, 1982) p.167

Ryan Fitzgerald

Across the sea from the land of Iarbas,

Than I raised my chin at her command’

(Purgatorio XXXI, ll.70-3)

The sense of the ‘great oak’, its weight and solidness, emphasises the difficulty with

which the pilgrim faces Beatrice; conversely, the Dreamer’s ‘mynde to madding malte’

(l.1154). The molten nature of the Dreamer’s mind implies the fluidity of the decision,

the ease with which it is made. In contrast to the Commedia, there is no struggle, no

difficulty, and no rational thought. But this is not simply a moment of madness; the

‘shift’ necessary to explore Eden requires the Dreamer ‘to see earth from the perspective

of heaven, not vice versa’20, and as Boroff states, ‘as soon as the dreamer takes the

apparent dimensions of the dream scene literally and rushes down the bank towards the

river, his dream dissolves’21. This is the ‘same error’ that the Dreamer has now repeated

for the third and final time.

Many critics concede that the Dreamer does not display his progress during the

dream, instead claiming that it is once the vision has ended that the Dreamer realises his

mistakes and finally absorbs what the maiden has been saying; Johnson, for example,

writes that although the Dreamer ‘awakens, still without regaining his lost pearl’, the fact

‘that he has gained something of greater value […] is borne out by the closing stanzas of

the poem in which he testifies to a renewed love for Christ’22. However, the last tagged

speech from him comes in line 1188, in which he accepts that if his pearl

So stykes in garlande gay,

So wel is me in thys doel-Dungeon

That thou art to that Prynces paye

(ll.1186-8)

This is what Macrae-Gibson calls ‘the lesser attainment, acceptance of the fact that a man

must submit to God’s ways even if he does not understand them’23; it does not prove his

‘renewed love for Christ’, simply that the Dreamer will no longer mourn his loss. The

remainder of the poem is solely the domain of the narrator. With the lines ‘To that

Prynces paye hade I ay bente, / […] To mo of his mysterys I hade ben dryven’ (l.1189,

1194), the establishment of a progression is made, but it is the narrator who is

knowledgeable, and not the character of the dreamer.

Believing the Dreamer and the narrator to be the same character has caused critics

to see the narrator’s display of progression as proof of the Dreamer’s successes24; again,

Johnson writes of ‘a narrator’ who ‘falls asleep in the same garden in which he lost his

pearl and experiences a vision’. The word ‘falls’, or more specifically, the use of the

present tense, betrays the mistake. Luttrell is one of few critics to note that ‘to the

narrator, as the poem opens, the dream is not about to come. It had been dreamed in the

past, by the man that he once was. He is as fully aware of the truth at the beginning of the

poem as he is at the end’25. It is, after all, the narrator who calls the Dreamer’s attempt at

20 Lynn Staley Johnson, ‘Pearl’ in The Voice of the Gawain Poet, (Wisconsin, 1984), p.169

21 Boroff, ‘Pearl’s “Maynful mone”’, p.167

22 Johnson, ‘Pearl’, p.144

23 Macrae-Gibson, ‘Link Words and Thematic Structure’, p.63

24 Luttrell, ‘Introduction to the Dream’, p.275

25 Ibid.

Ryan Fitzgerald

crossing the river ‘rasch and ronk’ (l.1167), and claims he was ‘so mad arayde’ (l.1166).

Any progress that is made is only displayed by such contrasts between what the Dreamer

knows and what the narrator knows.

Conversely, within the Commedia, the lessons find their proof in the actions of

the pilgrim himself; his successful move into paradise with Beatrice makes it clear that

any knowledge has not been attained retrospectively. Indeed, the narrator emphasises the

pilgrim’s progress, harmonising the poem’s structure with its content, the narration of the

actions with the actions themselves. Inferno is useful as an example of this synchronicity,

though it continues throughout the Commedia. Demaray notes that ‘only after the poet

has been intellectually enlightened in hell will he be able to start again on a reflected

Exodus journey at the foot of Mt. Purgatory’26; the linear progression of the pilgrim

through the numerically ordered levels of Hell is simultaneous with his increasing

enlightenment, and even if he is physically descending, the pilgrim is constantly

ascending spiritually. Moreover, the numbering of each new canto echoes the numbering

of the circles of Hell, but whereas the poem moves progressively through the cantos, the

damned are forced to remain static in their circle. The differing number of lines that make

up each canto also points towards more fluidity, and a contrast is thus constructed by the

narrator between the freedom of the pilgrim to progress through the circles, and their

inhabitants’ immovability.

The structure of Pearl, on the other hand, displays an acute understanding of the

problems that the Dreamer experiences, and embodies the progression that he lacked.

Whereas the Commedia uses lines and linear symbols, the narrator of Pearl implements a

structure of cycles and circles; the main symbol, after all, is the unblemished pearl, ‘So

rounde […] So smothe’ (ll.5-6). Whilst this implies a sense of perfection it also suggests

an unbroken circle, something that finds expression in Pearl’s link-words and poetic

design27. The structure itself is a comment on the content, where each new stanza points

backwards to its predecessor, the final stanza completing the cycle. Rather than learning

new lessons, the Dreamer seems to be living in the past, relying on the earthly values that

he knew before his vision began. The narrator, retelling a dream that has already

occurred, with his narration in the past tense, also risks a similar criticism; but his is a

circle less complete. The contrast between the plural, non-capitalised ‘prynces’ (l.1) of

the first stanza and the singular, capitalised ‘Prince’ (l.1201) of the last shows that whilst

the structure points to the Dreamer’s limitations, an awareness of these limitations has

given the narrator the capacity for spiritual progression and change.

Indeed, returning to the opening of Pearl, ‘that pryvy perle wythouten spot’ (l.12)

takes on a new meaning, one that is only recognised over the course of reading the poem.

‘Wythouten spot’, first taken to imply the spotless or perfect nature of the pearl, has a

second meaning implied by its contrast to the following line, ‘in that spote’ (l.13); the

word now suggests space, location, and a physical place which the deceased maiden no

longer has. The narrator brings it to the reader’s attention through the link-words, but this

does not suggest any superior knowledge to the Dreamer, who could well be aware of the

potential for word-play since he knows both the perfection of the maiden and her death.

Where the narrator does display his privileged position of hindsight is in the adjective

used to describe the pearl, ‘pryvy’. Anderson footnotes this as an implication of

26 Demaray, ‘Patterns of Earthly Pilgrimages’, p.247

27 Boroff, ‘Pearl’s “Maynful Mone”’, p.166

Ryan Fitzgerald

possession, ‘that pearl of mine’, but the Middle English Dictionary offers a range of other

potential meanings for the word, some of which seem applicable to the maiden’s role of

teacher. It could be taken to mean ‘aware, knowing, informed’28, and as the poem

portrays, the maiden is indeed informed in matters of Heaven. As a noun, the word could

mean ‘an advisor, a counsellor’29, which similarly reflects the maiden’s status. There is a

further meaning that requires a little more imagination, which is ‘having citizenship in a

town’30; citizenship in a town without location potentially points to the maiden’s

residence in Heaven, which contrasts to the Dreamer’s inability to cross the bank and

gain such citizenship, the knowledge of which can not, at the start of the poem, be the

Dreamer’s.

Pearl, unlike Dante’s Commedia, thus distinguishes between the spiritual

understanding of the narrator and its traveller. Whilst the pilgrim’s progression

throughout the Commedia is backed up by the narrator’s retelling of the journey, in Pearl

the progression is borne out of the narration itself. This should not be surprising;

Carruthers notes that ‘Ancient and medieval people reserved their awe for memory. […]

They regard it as a mark of superior moral character as well as intellect’31. It is in

remembering and retelling his dream that the narrator conveys progression, and proves

that he is morally worthy to understand God’s spiritual lessons at last.

28 Middle English Dictionary, ‘prive’, adj. (1), 2(e), <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-

idx?type=id&id=MED34713>, 20/04/09 29 Middle English Dictionary, ‘prive’, n., 3(a), <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-

idx?type=id&id=MED34712>, 20/04/09 30 Middle English Dictionary, ‘prive’, adj. (1), 2(g), <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-

idx?type=id&id=MED34713>, 20/04/09 31 Mary Carruthers, ‘Introduction’ in The Book of Memory, (Cambridge, 1990), p.1

Ryan Fitzgerald

Bibliography

Primary Texts

‘Pearl’, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience, J.J.

Anderson (ed.) (London, 1995)

Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. C. H. Sisson, (Oxford, 1993)

Secondary Texts

Boroff, Marie, ‘Pearl’s “Maynful Mone”: Crux, Simile, and Structure’ in Acts of

Interpretation, M. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk (eds), (Oklahoma, 1982), pp.159-72

Mary Carruthers, ‘Introduction’ in The Book of Memory, (Cambridge, 1990) pp.1-15

Clopper, Lawrence M., ‘Pearl and the Consolation of Scripture’, in Viator 23 (1991),

pp.231-245

Cook, Eleanor, ‘Enigma in Dante’s Eden’ in Enigmas and Riddles in Literature,

(Cambridge, 2006), pp.92-109

Demaray, John. G, ‘Patterns of Earthly Pilgrimage in Dante’s Commedia: Palmers,

Romers and the Great Circle Journey in Romance Philology 24 (1970), pp.239-58

Freccero, John, ‘Dante’s Firm Foot and the Journey Without a Guide’ in The Harvard

Theological Review 52 (1959), pp.245-81

Havely, Nick, ‘“Significaciouns” or “Ordure”? Dreams and Learning in the Middle

Ages’, University of York, 25th February 2009

Luttrell, Claude, ‘The Introduction to the Dream in Pearl’ in Medium Aevum 47 (1978),

pp.274-91

Lynch, Kathryn L., ‘The Purgatorio: Dante’s Book of Dreams’ in The High Medieval

Dream Vision, Stanford (1988), pp.146-162

Johnson, Lynn Staley, ‘Pearl’ in The Voice of the Gawain Poet, (Wisconsin, 1984),

pp.144-210

Macrae-Gibson, O. D., ‘Pearl: The Link-Words and Thematic Structure’ in

Neophilologus 52 (1968), pp.54-64

Middle English Dictionary, 20/04/09, <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/>

Spearing, A. C., ‘Symbolic and Dramatic Development in Pearl’, in Modern Philology

60 (1962), pp.1-12