Dante Alighieri Has Influenced Countless Authors Since the Initial Distribution of His Commedia Over 700 Years Ago
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Dante Alighieri has influenced countless authors since the initial distribution of his Commedia over 700 years ago. Shadows of his works can be seen in authors from Chaucer to Salman Rushdie. Perhaps the most striking, yet unproven, influence can be seen in the medieval poem Pearl. Pearl and Purgatorio Cantos 28-32 are nearly identical in every way: form, function, plot, and characters. All of these parallels present together signal that a sheer coincidence is unlikely. In addition, Pearl mimics the Empyrean section of Paradiso in a few significant ways. The problem, though, is there is no concrete evidence that the Pearl Poet had access to Dante’s works. The Pearl Poet wrote Pearl in the late 1300’s, so direct borrowing from Dante’s Commedia is temporally possible. That’s all that one can be absolutely sure of. While there is no definitive answer, I believe the textual evidence speaks for itself. Dante is a figure so prolific that he needs no introduction. Pearl, and the author behind it, are another story and are relatively unknown. Hence, I will begin with some contextual information about this fairly obscure 14th century piece. The Pearl Poet is the attributed author to four different poems: Cleanness, Patience, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. Some scholars suggest that he also wrote St. Erkenwald, but that is heavily disputed. Nothing is known about the author, not even a name. Partly, this is due to the fact that his works were “lost” until the 1800’s. To this day, they only exist in a single manuscript, the Cotton MS Nero A.x., which was in a private collection for a couple hundred years. When it resurfaced in the late 1800’s, this manuscript was noted for its poetic prowess and entered academic circulation. The man behind this, though, is entirely unknown – there isn’t even a widely accepted speculation. Hence, this is the reason for the denotation of this author as the Pearl Poet, who is also known as the Gawain Poet. For the sake of simplicity, the Pearl Poet will be referred to using the 1 masculine pronoun. There is a minute possibility that the author was a woman, but it is highly unlikely. Women were largely considered to have no need to read and write, and hence not many of them could. There were a small number of noted female medieval writers, but they were by- and-large not professional writers. Most notably, women would write down their stories of religious visions and lives, as with Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. They wrote to share their stories and lessons, not as a celebration of the art of writing. Accordingly, their works are standard and while interesting, nothing is extraordinary about their writing (besides the fact that they were women writing.) Given the extreme talent of the Pearl Poet, it would be fair to say that he was the closest thing to a professional writer that existed at that time. He likely had another job, but the love and energy that goes into his poetry is evident. While his works are largely didactic, his craft keeps these poems from shifting into mediocrity. Pearl transcends the boundaries of categorization, as it is not only an elegy or an allegory, but also a creation of love for the English language in a time when this was rare. In addition to excelling in his art, the Pearl Poet is also thoroughly literate in Christian theology. An intimate acquaintance with ecclesiastical literature weaves its way through Pearl. While Pearl, to some extent, relies on rote Bible verses, it is also accompanied by a thorough layman’s explanation. In this context, the Pearl Poet is acting the part of a religious leader. Pearl can serve as an incredibly well developed sermon – any Christian can see the congruencies. The priest reads a few Bible verses, and then explains to his audience – not just the basic meaning of the verse, but also how to incorporate that into daily life. To today’s audience, Pearl would be an incredibly long sermon, but it was par for the course in the late 1300’s. After all, people were expected 2 to spend the majority of their Sabbath in church. This poem is also well suited to being read aloud, with the strong alliteration and circular patterning of an artful reasoning. The lines simply roll off the tongue, while the meter and rhythm entice listeners into a lull. This is something that the Commedia cannot boast of. For all its beauty and splendor, the Commedia is meant for introspection. While it is exquisite spoken aloud, it can only be taken in at intervals due to its immense length. Even then, Dante requires a thorough re-reading and reflection period for the reader to uncover all of the hidden meanings. It’s simply not possible to hear it once and know the intentions behind every single word. To this end, I would argue that the Pearl Poet was a member of the clergy. Even if Pearl was not meant for use as a sermon, there are simply too many religious markings to ignore. There was a monastery not too far from where the manuscript originated, which leads to the possibility that the author was a monk there. Besides, the majority of literate people during that time were associated with the church, whether directly or indirectly. Put in the context of the other three poems found in the MS Cotton Nero A.x., they form a series of sermons. The one particular outlier is Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, which still imparts a message of morality, but lacks the religious air of the other three. It still, though, is of a complementary stylistic nature to the other poems in the manuscript. Patience and Cleanness/Purity are just as rigorous as Pearl in imparting specific religious messages. Patience uses a biblical tale of Jonah to underscore its titular virtue. Cleanness/Purity, emphasizes the importance of being pure – in some respects, it can be seen as a denouncement of homosexuality (Steinberg 150). The first three form a trio of lectures that each imparts a specific virtue on the audience. If these 3 poems weren’t used as a series of sermons, they definitely could have. Anyone who has ever been to a Roman Catholic mass can appreciate how sermons are broken down into specific messages, with a different one being expounded each day. The problem in comparing these two poets is that we know way too much about Dante, and way too little about the Pearl Poet. Dante’s ego abounds in all of his works, and it is impossible to separate Dante the person from Dante the author. The Commedia is, in particular, “a work of supreme egotism” (Steinburg 126). It is impossible to read without thorough notes that explain certain political intrigues and events. To understand the Commedia, one must first understand Dante and his world. The Pearl Poet is an unknown that doesn’t force his presence on his audience. Similarly, he didn’t feel the need to put his name, or really any name at all, on these poems. The names we associate with these poems – Pearl, Patience, and Cleanness – have been imposed on them anachronistically. Clearly, the poet did not intend for his works to have the same reach as Dante’s or Chaucer’s. Given that it they only exist in one manuscript, it’s highly likely that it was never largely circulated. This is more congruent with his contemporaries – very few poets announced their prowess as Dante did. Dante, while deeply religious, uses the Commedia as a theological thought-experiment, not as a how-to guide to salvation. It is deeply personalized, being a story of how one particular person – Dante himself– was able to reconcile his life with his religion. This narrator is obviously meant to represent Dante, and details pointing to his identity are numerous. The Pearl narrator is exactly the opposite – he could be anyone. There are no clues to his occupation, social status, or regional affiliation. He is an everyman, a trope that resounds in medieval literature. One 4 needs only to look to the horde of medieval dramas that had a protagonist named “everyman” – didacticism didn’t get much more creative than that. A mark of an excellent artist is being able to take a standard piece of his craft and turn it into something completely different. Pearl is a dream vision in a time period flooded with them – it seems almost every narrator had a severe case of narcolepsy. To a reader of the medieval era, it might seem like Pearl was just another vision; yet, it is so much more than that. Dante also took poetry to an entirely new level with his Commedia. Pearl is a creative endeavor with an always-present theological background. Gerould posits that not only was the Pearl Poet familiar with Dante’s Commedia, but also with his Convivio (17). Authorial intent is the driving force behind these two poems. For Dante, he wished to glorify Beatrice the way no woman had ever been glorified. The focus is on the relationship between her and Dante. Pearl is meant for general consumption and utilization, as the focus isn’t on the narrator or Pearl, but on the message that the story imparts. The reasoning behind writing these poems may be different, but the end results are the same: divine reasoning for a loss that is almost too great for words. Pearl and the Commedia are based on different levels of theological knowledge.