Old Testament Citations in Pearl

The debate between the Pearl Maiden and the Dreamer is structured around a series of Biblical citations and exempla, and culminates in a retelling of John’s glorious vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem at the end of Pearl. The companion poems, Cleanness and Patience, are adaptations of Old Testament narratives, whereas Pearl draws its most extensive expositions of Biblical episodes from the New Testament: the reworking in sections IX and X of the Parable of the Vineyard from Matthew 20:1–16; the detailed vision of the New Jerusalem in sections XV–XIX based on Revelation, especially Chapters 14 and 21–22; and a number of briefer citations and allusions, such as the central image of the pearl of great price from Matthew 13:45–46 in section XIII.¹ The Maiden makes less use of the Old Testament to buttress her arguments, but it is for her an important witness nevertheless. Here I shall examine her use of verses from the Book of Wisdom, the Psalms, and Isaiah in two sections of the poem in which she attempts to bring her father to a deeper understanding of the nature of God’s intervention in the world. I am interested in why the poet chose these particular passages, what interpretative sources he brought to bear upon them, and how they contribute to the developing argument of the poem. The quotations from Wisdom and Isaiah have both been insufficiently interpreted: the first involves a corrupt line that has, in my view, been unconvincingly emended, the second a line that has previously been misunderstood. I shall try to show how these citations are woven seamlessly into the Maiden’s exposition.

WISDOM AND THE PSALMS IN SECTION XII

Stung by her father’s presumptuous misappropriation of a verse from the psalter, “tu reddes unicuique juxta opera sua” (Ps. 61:13), which he renders as “þou quytez vchon as hys desserte” (l. 595), the Maiden sets out to hoist him on his own petard by citing other Biblical texts to prove him wrong.² He has argued that her interpretation of the parable of the workers in the vineyard implies that the less you work the more you get. She replies indignantly:

Now þou motez, me for to mate,Þat I my peny haf wrang tan here.Þou sayz þat I þat com to lateAm not worþy so gret fere.

(ll. 613–16)

This leads her into an explanation of how baptized innocents are redeemed through Christ’s blood that washes away the stain of Adam’s sin, but those who have committed sin will need to repent with sorrow and pain in order to be saved, and thus “þe gyltyf may contryssyoun hente” (l. 669). She cites the case of a just man:

The ryƷtwys man also sertaynAproche he schal þat proper pyle,Þat takez not her lyf in vayne,Ne glauerez her nieƷbor wyth no gyle.Of þys ryƷtwys satz Salamon playnHow kyntly oure con aquyle;By wayez ful streƷt he con hym strayn,And scheued hym þe rengne of God awhyle,As quo says, “Lo, Ʒon louely yle!Þou may hit wynne if þou be wyƷte.”Bot, hardyly, wythoute peryle,Þe innosent is ay saue by ryƷte.

(ll. 685–96)

The reference in lines 689–94 is to Wisdom, Chapter 10, in which Solomon, the traditional author of the Wisdom books, runs through the part played by Wisdom in salvation history from Adam to Moses, preserving and directing the just man (iustum). Wisdom gave the father of the world (Adam) rule over all things, she healed the earth after the Flood brought on by the sin of the unjust fratricide (Cain) and preserved the just man (Noah), she recognized the just man (Abraham) and fortified him when tempted by pity for his son, and she preserved the just man (Lot) at the destruction of the cities. Next:

Haec profugum irae fratris iustum deduxit per vias rectas, et ostendit illi regnum Dei, et dedit illi scientiam sanctorum; honestavit illum in laboribus, et conplevit labores illius.

(Wis. 10:10) [End Page 391...