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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The end of the fourteenth century, when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote, was one of the periods of great accomplishment in English literature. Chaucer did not stand alone. Wiclif's prose, the admirable poetry that Gower composed in three languages, and the powerful satiric verse of Piers Plowman give ample evidence of this. Among the poets of the time no one except Chaucer was greater than the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Pearl, whose name and personality are still unknown. Though a learned man of the world like Chaucer, he wrote in the dialect of northwestern England rather than of London, which must have seemed difficult to most readers even in his own time. Why he chose such an obscure dialect has never been understood. The writer of this paper calls attention to the eloquent defence of his native speech that Dante made in his Convivio, and suggests that the Gawain poet may have been inspired by it to do for his own dialect what the great Italian had done for Tuscan.
1 His light-hearted treatment of the legendary history of Britain in the opening stanzas of Sir Gawain suggests a critical spirit not too common in his day. The levity of the passage, which is quite in keeping with the tone of what immediately follows, has not, I fear, been recognized by most modern scholars.
2 This is not to deny the reality of a continuing tradition of alliterative verse especially associated with the West, but only to point out that towards the end of the fourteenth century it became a literary tradition rather than a popular one. Though his handling of linguistic evidence was not in all respects satisfactory, Professor Hulbert's attack in 1921 on the treatment of alliterative poems up to that time should not be forgotten. Not only did it provoke a more careful examination of dialect, but it contains two or three wise observations that have not yet been sufficiently heeded. See J. R. Hulbert, MP, xix, 12.
3 See the admirable statement of R. J. Menner, Purity (1920), pp. xxi–xxvii.
4 See R. J. Menner, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the West Midland,” PMLA, xxxvii (1922), 503–526; H. L. Savage, St. Erkenwald (1926), pp. xxxi–xliii; and J. P. Oakden, Alliterative Poetry in Middle English (1930), p. 86.
5 Ed. V. Piccoli (1927), pp. 27–34; Busnelli and Vandelli (1934), pp. 67–87.
6 “A perpetuale infamia e depressione de li malvagi uomini d'Italia, che commendano lo volgare altrui e lo loro proprio dispregiano, dico che la loro mossa viene da cinque abominevoli cagioni.”
7 “La seconda setta contra nostro volgare si fa per una maliziata scusa. Molti sono che amano più d'essere tenuti maestri che d'essere, e per fuggir lo contrario, cioè di non esser tenuti, sempre danno colpa a la materia de l'arte apparecchiata, o vero a lo strumento; sì come lo mal fabbro biasima lo ferro appresentato a lui, e lo malo citarista biasima la cetera. … Contra questi cotali grida Tullio nel principio d'un suo libro, che si chiama Libro di Fine de' Beni, però che al suo tempo biasimavano lo latino romano e commendavano la gramatica greca, per simiglianti cagioni che questi fanno vile lo parlare italico e prezioso quello di Provenza.”
8 “Onde molti per questa viltade dispregiano lo proprio volgare, e l'altrui pregiano. E tutti questi cotali sono li abominevoli cattivi d'Italia che hanno a vile questo prezioso volgare, lo quale, s'è vile in alcuna cosa, non è se non in quanto elli suona ne la bocca meretrice di questi adulteri.”
9 Di tutta la terra è più prossima quella dove l'uomo tiene se medesimo, però che è ad esso più unita. E così lo volgare è più prossimo quanto è più unito, che uno e sole è prima ne la mente che alcuno altro, e che non solamente per sè è unito, ma per accidente, in quanto è congiunto con le più prossime persone, sì come con li parenti e con li propri cittadini e con la propria gente. E questo è lo volgare proprio; lo quale è non prossimo ma massimamente prossimo a ciascuno.“
10 “Bene manifestare del concetto.”
11 “Anche c'è stata la benivolenza de la consuetudine, chè dal principio de la mia vita ho avuta con esso benivolenza e conversazione, e usato quello diliberando, interpretando e questionando.”
12 “Non solamente amore, ma perfettissimo amore sia quello ch'io a lui debbo avere e ho.”
13 The assumption of J. P. Oakden, op. cit., p. 89, that because the poem has no trace of any influence of the London dialect, “the poet was writing in his native dialect for the local people” seems to me quite baseless.
14 The poet scarcely can have been acquainted with Dante's only slightly later treatment of the vernacular in De vulgari eloquentia. In that work, it will be remembered, the poet argues for the use of an Italian which he calls “illustre, cardinale, aulicum, et curiale” (De vulg. eloq., i, 16, et seq.). After reviewing all the dialects of Italy and discovering faults in each, even in his native Tuscan, he thus decides that a standard form, including the virtues of all and avoiding their weak points, should be adopted for the nobler kinds of poetry and by the nobler poets. Such doctrine never could have led an ambitious author to choose for a medium the language of The Pearl and Sir Gawain, which, though it may not follow strictly the speech of any one county, is undeniably a regional form of English.