Virtue and the 'endless figure' in the works of the Pearl-poet. The Pearl-poets works reveal a preoccupation with the fate of the individual: Jonah in Patience, the Dreamer in Pearl and Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and their moral conditio

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 Clare Hennessey        

Discuss the idea of virtue and the ‘endless figure’ in the works of the Pearl-poet.

Thomas Aquinas defines virtue as ‘a certain fullness of ability, measured by a perfect fitness to act.’ This notion of a perfect ability is one of the primary concerns of the Pearl-poet, particularly in a moral sense. The idea of a moral completeness is central to all four texts: Pearl, Patience, Cleanness and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Moral virtues require further definition:         

Moral virtue is primarily a disposition to choose well, which involves intending a goal (the role of the moral virtue) and picking out the means (the role of prudence…Moral virtue then is a disposition to choose a balanced course of action such as a prudent man’s reason would decide is right.

Aquinas distinguished between virtues which are innate and God-given, and those which require man’s will in order to be achieved. The words ‘choose well’ indicate the freedom man has to decide the course of action he will take. The Pearl-poet’s works reveal a preoccupation with the fate of the individual: Jonah in Patience, the Dreamer in Pearl and Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and their moral condition. In each case there is a progression in terms of the character’s own moral awareness from the beginning of the tale to the end, although this progression is accompanied by a curious sense of circular movement, a return to the beginning.

This circular or endless movement is embodied in the poet’s two most important symbols: the pentangle ‘the endeles knot’ (Gawain, 630) and the pearl ‘the endelez rounde’ (Pearl, 738). Both of these represent completeness, perfection and virtue, and are bound up in the wider symbolic functions of the works as a whole. The pentangle, for instance, is the most obvious example of the poet’s numerical fascination, and especially his focus on the number five. The fivefold virtues of the pentangle (and Gawain’s embodiment of them) are enumerated thus:

        Fyrst he watz funden faulez in his fyue wyttez

        And efte fayled neuer the freke in his fyue fyngres

        And alle his afyaunce vpon folde watz in the fyue woundez

        That Cryst kagt on the croys, as the Crede Tellez

        And queresoeuer thys mon in melly watz stad,

        His thro thoght watz in that, thurgh alle other thyngez

        That the hende Heuen Quene had of hir Chylde….

        The fyft fyue that I finde that frek vsed

        Watz fraunchyse and felaghschyp forbe al thing

        His clannes and his cortayse croked were neuer,

        And pite, that passez alle poyntez- thyse pure fyue.

(Gawain 640-54)

The five senses and the five fingers are ‘fives-within-fives’, adding to the sense of endlessness or repetition within the symbol. The emphasis is meant to be on the equality of the virtues within the pentangle: how the adherence to each one is bound up in its relation to the others, the implication being that falling down on one virtue may result in the unravelling of the pentangle altogether. It is interesting however that the last line quoted ‘And pite, that passez alle poyntez’ is somewhat ambiguous. ‘Poyntez’ can mean ‘virtue, quality’ as well as ‘point’, perhaps implying that ‘cortayse’ is the most important or significant of the five, a premise which would destroy the entire symbol.

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This proves to be meaningful in terms of the adventure of Gawain in that his strict adherence to ‘cortayse’ brings him very close to endangering the other virtues of the pentangle at various times in the tale. The first mention of his renowned courtesy is at the beginning, when he will not rise from the table to come to Arthur’s aid in accepting the Green Knight’s challenge for fear of being discourteous to Guinevere: ‘Wolde ye, worthilych lorde’, quoth Gawain to the kyng/ Bid me boche fro this benche and stoned by yow there…And that my legge lady lyke ...

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