The Lombe and His Meyny Schene: Signs of God in Pearl and the Apocalypse

IN THE Pearl poet's works the actual images of God Himself are rare—like the Bible, the poems of Cotton Nero A.x. avoid direct theophany, although Pearl and Cleanness offer images of the experience of theophany (not theophany itself) and promise the beatific vision as a reward awaiting us in the world beyond. On the other hand, images of God's kingdom, his cort or the Lombe's meyny, to use two of the Pearl poet's terms, are central to the poems Pearl and Cleanness and stand behind the assumptions in the other two, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Less frequent, but scarcely less important are the contraré, that is, the images of judgment, punishment, and cosmic catastrophe : flood, fire, dungeon, and axe, which historically are to precede the final establishment of the kingdom and our full enjoyment of it.

These visions and images of God and his Kingdom, of the End, of punishment and reward, of separation or reunion with God in His cort, as well as the human understanding and experience of those visions, are best understood in light of medieval apocalyptic tradition. There have been a number of varying (and often conflicting) definitions of "apocalyptic" by scholars, but for our purposes John's text and the iconography and commentary it inspired serve as the best models. Technically, "apocalypse" is but another term, one of Greek derivation (apokalypsis), for "revelation," but it was also used in the narrower sense, as Klaus Koch puts it, for "the title of literary compositions that resemble the Book of Revelation, i.e. secret divine disclosures about the end of the world and the heavenly state" (16). Koch further provides a list of the most common distinguishing features of apocalypses: "great discourse cycles" that include a "long dialogue between the apocalyptic seer and his heavenly counterpart" (21), as well as visions filled with "mythical images rich in symbolism" (23), and a mood of "spiritual turmoil" as a "result of the unexpected experience of vision and audition" (22). In addition, Koch points to pseudonymity as a common feature of many apocalypses (23), while other scholars remark on the tendency of apocalyptic texts to focus on the scribal mode of transmission. Behind all the specific features of the apocalyptic mode and of apocalypses usually stands an eschatological perspective, a perspective minimized or denied by a few scholars, but otherwise considered central to the revelation of divine secrets that, one way or another, constitutes apocalypse.

For many today and certainly for the Middle Ages, John's Apocalypse is the archetypal apocalyptic text, the one that defines and sets the model for all others. While it is not pseudonymous since the author identifies himself as John, John's text contains all of the remaining features we associate with apocalyptic writing: it refers repeatedly to the seer's "spiritual turmoil" ; it takes the form of a "great discourse cycle," a series of visions punctuated by dialogue with the interpreting angel; the visions are imbued with highly popular and influential "mythical images," many of them derived from Old Testatment apocalyptic visions, especially Ezekiel's; the events and images and vision are all concerned with the Last Days and the world beyond ; and finally, John's Apocalypse emphasizes the scribal mode of transmission - repeatedly the angel directs John to write down his visions, and books and written characters play important roles in the visions themselves.

For most of us, and for the Middle Ages, the "mythical images," generally eschatological and always "rich in symbolism," are probably the characteristics that first come to mind when we think of apocalypticism. Because of this, because I believe apocalyptic signs so important in all the poems of Cotton Nero A.x., and because the Pearl poet is such a visual poet, I shall begin this study of his poetics and his fayre formez with his apocalyptic imagery, with first of all the images in Pearl and their biblical and iconographic background. For it is Pearl that provides the reader with the visual and visionary introduction to the other three poems, in much the same way that an apocalyptic vision of God Enthroned stands over the west doorway of so many late medieval churches. [Figure 1]

The dream in Pearl gives a glimpse of the future kingdom, which is visualized as the New Jerusalem, the new world where the saved celebrate their joyous love of God with the canticum novum, a celebration symbolized by the Wedding of the Lamb to his "meyny schene" (1145), his "homly hyne" (1211). God himself is symbolized by the Lamb, and his power by the Throne and by the light of the Lamb. Because all of these signs of God and his kingdom are drawn from John's Apocalypse—either directly, as word-for-word translations of the Vulgate text, or indirectly, through the traditions that developed in exegesis and iconography, close examination of each of these important signs in Pearl, along with their textual and iconographic sources, will help us understand their function in Pearl and their impact on the other poems.

Signs of God: The Throne and the Lamb

The sign that evokes God in Pearl is the Lamb. Before we can understand the force of this symbol in the Pearl poet's writing, we need first to examine its context in the Apocalypse and in the art based on John's text. First of all, the Lamb is not the preeminent symbol either in John's text or even in much of the artistic tradition. In the Apocalypse the dominant sign of God is the Throne, on which the Lamb, is sometimes, but not always, seated. The vision of God Enthroned occurs several times in John's text and was the most reproduced of his visions in the late Middle Ages. There is, however, an important difference between the biblical text and the later representations in art. Whereas the art of the high Middle Ages revels in glorious representations of God Enthroned, John's text seems to avoid actual visualization of this scene, an avoidance also prevalent in early Christian art. Because I think this difference, between the early reluctance toward full theophany and the later tendency to visualize God on his throne is important to the Pearl poet, I want to look more closely at the actual words of John's major visions and then compare the text to a few of the representations of the Throne in art.

The first of the several visions of the Throne occurs directly after John writes the letters to the seven churches. With his scribal and apostolic tasks accomplished, John then returns to the visionary mode, with which his text begins:

Statim fui in spiritu,
et ecce sedis posita erat in caelo,
et supra sedem sedens.
Et qui sedebat similis erat aspectui
lapidis iaspidis et...