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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13211 ***
+
+THE PEARL
+
+
+A MIDDLE ENGLISH POEM
+
+
+A MODERN VERSION IN THE METRE OF THE ORIGINAL
+
+BY
+
+SOPHIE JEWETT
+
+ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN WELLESLEY COLLEGE
+
+
+
+1908
+
+
+
+To KATHARINE LEE BATES
+
+THE TRANSLATOR TO THE AUTHOR
+
+     Poet of beauty, pardon me
+     If touch of mine have tarnishèd
+     Thy Pearl's pure luster, loved by thee;
+     Or dimmed thy vision of the dead
+     Alive in light and gaiety.
+     Thy life is like a shadow fled;
+     Thy place we know not nor degree,
+     The stock that bore thee, school that bred;
+     Yet shall thy fame be sung and said.
+     Poet of wonder, pain, and peace,
+     Hold high thy nameless, laurelled head
+     Where Dante dwells with Beatrice.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+Among the treasures of the British Museum is a manuscript which
+contains four anonymous poems, apparently of common authorship: "The
+Pearl," "Cleanness," "Patience," "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight."
+From the language of the writer, it seems clear that he was a native
+of some Northwestern district of England, and that he lived in the
+second half of the Fourteenth Century. He is quite unknown, save as
+his work reveals him, a man of aristocratic breeding, of religious and
+secular education, of a deeply emotional and spiritual nature, gifted
+with imagination and perception of beauty. He shows a liking for
+technique that leads him to adopt elaborate devices of rhyme, while
+retaining the alliteration characteristic of Northern Middle English
+verse. He wrote as was the fashion of his time, allegory, homily,
+lament, chivalric romance, but the distinction of his poetry is that
+of a finely accentuated individuality.
+
+The poems called "Cleanness" and "Patience," retell incidents of
+biblical history for a definitely didactic purpose, but even these are
+frequently lifted into the region of imaginative literature by the
+author's power of graphic description. "Sir Gawayne and the Green
+Knight" is a priceless contribution to Arthurian story. "The Pearl,"
+though it takes the form of symbolic narrative, is essentially lyric
+and elegiac, the lament, it would seem, of a father for a little,
+long-lost daughter.
+
+The present translation of "The Pearl" was begun with no larger design
+than that of turning a few passages into modern English, by way of
+illustrating to a group of students engaged in reading the original,
+the possibility of preserving intricate stanzaic form, and something
+of alliteration, without an entire sacrifice of poetic beauty. The
+experiment was persisted in because its problems are such as baffle
+and fascinate a translator, and the finished version is offered not
+merely to students of Middle English but to college classes in the
+history of English literature, and to non-academic readers.
+
+If "The Pearl" presented no greater obstacle to a modern reader than
+is offered by Chaucer's English, a translation might be a gratuitous
+task, but the Northwest-Midland dialect of the poem is, in fact,
+incomparably more difficult than the diction of Chaucer, more
+difficult even than that of Langland. The meaning of many passages
+remains obscure, and a translator is often forced to choose what seems
+the least dubious among doubtful readings.
+
+The poem in the original passes frequently from imaginative beauty to
+conversational commonplace, from deep feeling to didactic aphorism or
+theological dogma, and it has been my endeavor faithfully to interpret
+these variations of matter and of style, sometimes substituting modern
+colloquialisms for such as are obsolete, or in other ways paraphrasing
+a stubborn passage, but striving never to polish the dullest lines nor
+to strengthen the weakest.
+
+A reader who will observe the difficult rhyming scheme, a scheme that
+calls for six words of one rhyme and four of another, will understand
+the presence of forced lines, an intrusion that one must needs suffer
+in even "The Faerie Queene." These padded lines are a serious blemish
+to the poem, but the introduction of naïve and familiar expressions is
+one of its charms, as when the Pearl, protesting like Piccarda in
+Paradise[1] that among beatified spirits there can be no rivalry,
+exclaims: "The more the merrier."[2]
+
+The translation may, at many points, need apology, but the original
+needs only explanation. Readers familiar with mediæval poetry expect
+to encounter moral platitudes and theological subtlety. Dogma takes
+large and vital place in the sublimest cantos of Dante's "Paradise,"
+and the English poet is consciously following his noblest master when
+he puts a sermon into the lips of his "little queen." To modern ears
+such exposition is at harsh discord with the simple human grief and
+longing of the poet, but to the mediaevalist symbolic theology was a
+passion. Precisely in the moment when she begins a discourse
+concerning the doctrine of redemption, Beatrice turns upon Dante "eyes
+that might make a man happy in the fire," and at its close he looks
+upon her and beholds her "grow more beautiful."[3] If even Beatrice
+has been considered mere personification, it is natural that the Pearl
+should be so regarded, but the plain reader finds in the symbolic
+maiden of the English poem, as in the transfigured lady of the
+Italian, some record of a human being whose loss was anguish, and
+whose presence rapture, to a poet long ago.
+
+The lover of things mediæval will find in this little book not only
+the familiar garden of Guillaume de Lorris, of Boccaccio and of
+Chaucer, but an unexpected and enchanting vision of great forest and
+rushing water, of hillside and plain, of crystal cliffs and
+flame-winged birds; of the Pearl among her white peers; of the
+Apocalyptic Jerusalem, discovered to the poet, it may be, as a goodly
+Gothic city, though its walls are built of precious stone, and its
+towers rise from neither church nor minster.
+
+If even a few readers turn from the modern to the original version,
+the translation will have had fair fortune, for the author of "The
+Pearl" is, though unknown and unnamed, a poet second only to Chaucer
+in Chaucer's generation.
+
+It is a pleasure to record my many debts of gratitude: to Professor
+Frank H. Chase of Beloit, Professor John L. Lowes of Swarthmore, and
+Dr. Charles G. Osgood of Princeton, for their careful reading of the
+translation in manuscript, with invaluable assistance and suggestion;
+to Professor Martha Hale Shackford, and Miss Laura A. Hibbard, for
+constant aid while the work was in making, and, above all, to
+Professor Katharine Lee Bates for a critical, line by line, comparison
+of this version with the original.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: Par. III.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Pearl, stanza 71.]
+
+[Footnote 3:  Par. VII, II. 17-18; Par. VIII, I. 15.]
+
+
+S.J.
+WELLESLEY COLLEGE,
+June, 1908.
+
+
+EDITIONS: R. Morris, Early English text Sc. 1864; I. Gollancz, London,
+1891; C.G. Osgood, Boston, 1906 (with admirable introduction, etc.).
+TRANSLATIONS: Gollancz (above); S. Weir Mitchell, New York, 1906
+(poetic, but incomplete); G.G. Coulton, London, 1906 (metre of the
+original); C.G. Osgood, Princeton, 1907 (prose).
+
+
+
+
+THE PEARL
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Pearl that the Prince full well might prize,
+So surely set in shining gold!
+No pearl of Orient with her vies;
+To prove her peerless I make bold:
+So round, so radiant to mine eyes,
+smooth she seemed, so small to hold,
+Among all jewels judges wise
+Would count her best an hundred fold.
+Alas! I lost my pearl of old!
+I pine with heart-pain unforgot;
+Down through my arbour grass it rolled,
+My own pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Since in that spot it slipped from me
+I wait, and wish, and oft complain;
+Once it would bid my sorrow flee,
+And my fair fortune turn again;
+It wounds my heart now ceaselessly,
+And burns my breast with bitter pain.
+Yet never so sweet a song may be
+As, this still hour, steals through my brain,
+While verity I muse in vain
+How clay should her bright beauty clot;
+O Earth! a brave gem thou dost stain,
+My own pearl, precious, without spot!
+
+
+Needs must that spot with spices spread,
+Where such wealth falleth to decay;
+Fair flowers, golden and blue and red,
+Shine in the sunlight day by day;
+Nor flower nor fruit have witherèd
+On turf wherein such treasure lay;
+The blade grows where the grain lies dead,
+Else were no ripe wheat stored away;
+Of good come good things, so we say,
+Then surely such seed faileth not,
+But spices spring in sweet array
+From my pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Once, to that spot of which I rhyme,
+I entered, in the arbour green,
+In August, the high summer-time
+When corn is cut with sickles keen;
+Upon the mound where my pearl fell,
+Tall, shadowing herbs grew bright and sheen,
+Gilliflower, ginger and gromwell,
+With peonies powdered all between.
+As it was lovely to be seen,
+So sweet the fragrance there, I wot,
+Worthy her dwelling who hath been
+My own pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Upon that spot my hands I crossed
+In prayer, for cold at my heart caught,
+And sudden sorrow surged and tossed,
+Though reason reconcilement sought.
+I mourned my pearl, dear beyond cost,
+And strange fears with my fancy fought;
+My will in wretchedness was lost,
+And yet Christ comforted my thought.
+Such odours to my sense were brought,
+I fell upon that flowery plot,
+Sleeping,--a sleep with dreams inwrought
+Of my pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+From the spot my spirit springs into space,
+The while my body sleeping lies;
+My ghost is gone in God's good grace,
+Adventuring mid mysteries;
+I know not what might be the place,
+But I looked where tall cliffs cleave the skies,
+Toward a forest I turned my face,
+Where ranks of radiant rocks arise.
+A man might scarce believe his eyes,
+Such gleaming glory was from them sent;
+No woven web may men devise
+Of half such wondrous beauties blent.
+
+
+In beauty shone each fair hillside
+With crystal cliffs in shining row,
+While bright woods everywhere abide,
+Their boles as blue as indigo;
+Like silver clear the leaves spread wide,
+That on each spray thick-quivering grow;
+If a flash of light across them glide
+With shimmering sheen they gleam and glow;
+The gravel on the ground below
+Seemed precious pearls of Orient;
+The sunbeams did but darkling show
+So gloriously those beauties blent.
+
+
+The beauty of the hills so fair
+Made me forget my sufferings;
+I breathed fruit fragrance fine and rare,
+As if I fed on unseen things;
+Brave birds fly through the woodland there,
+Of flaming hues, and each one sings;
+With their mad mirth may not compare
+Cithern nor gayest citole-strings;
+For when those bright birds beat their wings,
+They sing together, all content;
+Keen joy to any man it brings
+To hear and see such beauties blent.
+
+
+So beautiful was all the wood
+Where, guided forth by Chance, I strayed,
+There is no tongue that fully could
+Describe it, though all men essayed.
+Onward I walked in merriest mood
+Nor any highest hill delayed
+My feet. Far through the forest stood
+The plain with fairest trees arrayed,
+Hedges and slopes and rivers wide,
+Like gold thread their banks' garnishment;
+And when I won the waterside,
+Dear Lord! what wondrous beauties blent!
+
+
+The beauties of that stream were steep,
+All-radiant banks of beryl bright;
+Sweet-sighing did the water sweep,
+With murmuring music running light;
+Within its bed fair stones lay deep;
+As if through glass they glowed, as white
+As streaming stars when tired men sleep
+Shine in the sky on a winter night.
+Pure emerald even the pebbles seemed,
+Sapphire, or other gems that lent
+Luster, till all the water gleamed
+With the glory of such beauties blent.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+For the beauteousness of downs and dales,
+Of wood and water and proud plains,
+My joy springs up and my grief quails,
+My anguish ends, and all my pains.
+A swift stream down the valley hales
+My feet along. Bliss brims my brains;
+The farther I follow those watery vales,
+The stronger joy my heart constrains.
+While Fortune fares as her proud will deigns,
+Sending solace or sending sore,
+When a man her fickle favour gains,
+He looketh to have aye more and more.
+
+
+There was more of marvel and of grace
+Than I could tell, howe'er I tried;
+The human heart that could embrace
+A tenth part were well satisfied;
+For Paradise, the very place,
+Must be upon that farther side;
+The water by a narrow space
+Pleasance from pleasance did divide.
+Beyond, on some slope undescried
+The City stood, I thought, wherefore
+I strove to cross the river's tide,
+And ever I longed, yet more and more.
+
+
+More, and still more wistfully,
+The banks beyond the brook I scanned;
+If, where I stood, 't was fair to see,
+Still lovelier lay that farther land.
+I sought if any ford might be
+Found, up or down, by rock or sand;
+But perils plainer appeared to me,
+The farther I strode along the strand;
+I thought I ought not thus to stand
+Timid, with such bright bliss before;
+Then a new matter came to hand
+That moved my heart yet more and more.
+
+
+Marvels more and more amaze
+My mind beyond that water fair:
+From a cliff of crystal, splendid rays,
+Reflected, quiver in the air.
+At the cliff's foot a vision stays
+My glance, a maiden debonaire,
+All glimmering white before my gaze;
+And I know her,--have seen her otherwhere.
+Like fine gold leaf one cuts with care,
+Shone the maiden on the farther shore.
+Long time I looked upon her there,
+And ever I knew her more and more.
+
+
+As more and more I scanned her face
+And form, when I had found her so,
+A glory of gladness filled the place
+Beyond all it was wont to show.
+My joy would call her and give chase,
+But wonder struck my courage low;
+I saw her in so strange a place,
+The shock turned my heart dull and slow.
+But now she lifts that brow aglow,
+Like ivory smooth, even as of yore,
+It made my senses straying go,
+It stung my heart aye more and more.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+More than I liked did my fear rise.
+Stock still I stood and dared not call;
+With lips close shut and watchful eyes,
+I stood as quiet as hawk in hall.
+I thought her a spirit from the skies;
+I doubted what thing might befall;
+If to escape me now she tries,
+How shall my voice her flight forestall?
+Then graciously and gay withal,
+In royal robes, so sweet, so slight,
+She rose, so modest and so small,
+That precious one in pearls bedight.
+
+
+Pearl bedight full royally,
+Adown the bank with merry mien,
+Came the maiden, fresh as fleur-de-lys.
+Her surcoat linen must have been
+Shining in whitest purity,
+Slashed at the sides and caught between
+With the fairest pearls, it seemed to me,
+That ever yet mine eyes had seen;
+With large folds falling loose, I ween,
+Arrayed with double pearls, her white
+Kirtle, of the same linen sheen,
+With precious pearls all round was dight.
+
+
+A crown with pearls bedight, the girl
+Was wearing, and no other stone;
+High pinnacled of clear white pearl,
+Wrought as if pearls to flowers were grown.
+No band nor fillet else did furl
+The long locks all about her thrown.
+Her air demure as duke or earl,
+Her hue more white than walrus-bone;
+Like sheer gold thread the bright hair strown
+Loose on her shoulders, lying light.
+Her colour took a deeper tone
+With bordering pearls so fair bedight.
+
+
+Bedight was every hem, and bound,
+At wrists, sides, and each aperture,
+With pearls the whitest ever found,--
+White all her brave investiture;
+But a wondrous pearl, a flawless round,
+Upon her breast was set full sure;
+A man's mind it might well astound,
+And all his wits to madness lure.
+I thought that no tongue might endure
+Fully to tell of that sweet sight,
+So was it perfect, clear and pure,
+That precious pearl with pearls bedight.
+
+
+Bedight in pearls, lest my joy cease,
+That lovely one came down the shore;
+The gladdest man from here to Greece,
+The eagerest, was I, therefore;
+She was nearer kin than aunt or niece,
+And thus my joy was much the more.
+She spoke to me for my soul's peace,
+Courtesied with her quaint woman's lore,
+Caught off the shining crown she wore,
+And greeted me with glance alight.
+I blessed my birth; my bliss brimmed o'er
+To answer her in pearls bedight.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+"O Pearl," I said, "in pearls bedight,
+Art thou my pearl for which I mourn,
+Lamenting all alone at night?
+With hidden grief my heart is worn.
+Since thou through grass didst slip from sight,
+Pensive and pained, I pass forlorn,
+And thou livest in a life of light,
+A world where enters sin nor scorn.
+What fate has hither my jewel borne,
+And left me in earth's strife and stir?
+Oh, sweet, since we in twain were torn,
+I have been a joyless jeweler."
+
+
+That Jewel then with gems besprent
+Glanced up at me with eyes of grey,
+Put on her pearl crown orient,
+And soberly began to say:
+"You tell your tale with wrong intent,
+Thinking your pearl gone quite away.
+Like a jewel within a coffer pent,
+In this gracious garden bright and gay,
+Your pearl may ever dwell at play,
+Where sin nor mourning come to her;
+It were a joy to thee alway
+Wert thou a gentle jeweler.
+
+
+"But, Jeweler, if thou dost lose
+Thy joy for a gem once dear to thee,
+Methinks thou dost thy mind abuse,
+Bewildered by a fantasy;
+Thou hast lost nothing save a rose
+That flowered and failed by life's decree:
+Because the coffer did round it close,
+A precious pearl it came to be.
+A thief thou hast dubbed thy destiny
+That something for nothing gives thee, sir;
+Thou blamest thy sorrow's remedy,
+Thou art no grateful jeweler."
+
+
+Like jewels did her story fall,
+A jewel, every gentle clause;
+"Truly," I said, "thou best of all!
+My great distress thy voice withdraws.
+I thought my pearl lost past recall,
+My jewel shut within earth's jaws;
+But now I shall keep festival,
+And dwell with it in bright wood-shaws;
+And love my Lord and all His laws,
+Who hath brought this bliss. Ah! if I were
+Beyond these waves, I should have cause
+To be a joyful jeweler."
+
+
+"Jeweler," said that Gem so dear,
+"Why jest ye men, so mad ye be?
+Three sayings thou hast spoken clear,
+And unconsidered were all three;
+Their meaning thou canst not come near,
+Thy word before thy thought doth flee.
+First, thou believest me truly here,
+Because with eyes thou mayst me see;
+Second, with me in this country
+Thou wilt dwell, whatever may deter;
+Third, that to cross here thou art free:
+That may no joyful jeweler."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The jeweler merits little praise,
+Who loves but what he sees with eye,
+And it were a discourteous phrase
+To say our Lord would make a lie,
+Who surely pledged thy soul to raise,
+Though fate should cause thy flesh to die.
+Thou dost twist His words in crooked ways
+Believing only what is nigh;
+This is but pride and bigotry,
+That a good man may ill assume,
+To hold no matter trustworthy
+Till like a judge he hear and doom.
+
+
+"Whate'er thy doom, dost thou complain
+As man should speak to God most high?
+Thou wouldst gladly dwell in this domain;
+'T were best, methinks, for leave to apply.
+Even so, perchance, thou pleadest in vain.
+Across this water thou wouldst fly,--
+To other end thou must attain.
+Thy corpse to clay comes verily,--
+In Paradise 't was ruined by
+Our forefather. Now in the womb
+Of dreary death each man must lie,
+Ere God on this bank gives his doom."
+
+
+"Doom me not, sweet, to my old fears
+And pain again wherein I pine.
+My pearl that, long, long lost, appears,
+Shall I again forego, in fine?
+Meet it, and miss it through more years?
+Thou hast hurt me with that threat of thine.
+For what serves treasure but for tears,
+One must so soon his bliss resign?
+I reck not how my days decline,
+Though far from earth my soul seek room,
+Parted from that dear pearl of mine.
+Save endless dole what is man's doom?"
+
+
+"No doom save pain and soul's distress?"
+She answered: "Wherefore thinkst thou so?
+For pain of parting with the less,
+Man often lets the greater go.
+'T were better thou thy fate shouldst bless,
+And love thy God, through weal and woe;
+For anger wins not happiness;
+Who must, shall bear; bend thy pride low;
+For though thou mayst dance to and fro,
+Struggle and shriek, and fret and fume,
+When thou canst stir not, swift nor slow,
+At last, thou must endure His doom."
+
+
+"Let God doom as He doth ordain;
+He will not turn one foot aside;
+Thy good deeds mount up but in vain,
+Thou must in sorrow ever bide;
+Stint of thy strife, cease to complain,
+Seek His compassion safe and wide,
+Thy prayer His pity may obtain,
+Till Mercy all her might have tried.
+Thy anguish He will heal and hide,
+And lightly lift away thy gloom;
+For, be thou sore or satisfied,
+All is for Him to deal and doom."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Doom me not, dearest damosel;
+It is not for wrath nor bitterness,
+If rash and raving thoughts I tell.
+For sin my heart seethed in distress,
+Like bubbling water in a well.
+I cry God mercy, and confess.
+Rebuke me not with words so fell;
+I have lost all that my life did bless;
+Comfort my sorrow and redress,
+Piteously thinking upon this:
+Grief and my soul thou hast made express
+One music,--thou who wert my bliss.
+
+
+"My bliss and bale, thou hast been both,
+But joy by great grief was undone;
+When thou didst vanish, by my troth,
+I knew not where my Pearl was gone.
+To lose thee now I were most loth.
+Dear, when we parted we were one;
+Now God forbid that we be wroth,
+We meet beneath the moon or sun
+So seldom. Gently thy words run,
+But I am dust, my deeds amiss;
+The mercy of Christ and Mary and John
+Is root and ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+"A blissful life I see thee lead,
+The while that I am sorrow's mate;
+Haply thou givest little heed
+What might my burning hurt abate.
+Since I may in thy presence plead,
+I do beseech thee thou narrate,
+Soberly, surely, word and deed,
+What life is thine, early and late?
+I am fain of thy most fair estate;
+The high road of my joy is this,
+That thou hast happiness so great;
+It is the ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+She said, "May bliss to thee betide,"
+Her face with beauty beaming clear,
+"Welcome thou art here to abide,
+For now thy speech is to me dear.
+Masterful mood and haughty pride,
+I warn thee win but hatred here;
+For my Lord loveth not to chide
+And meek are all that to Him come near.
+When in His place thou shalt appear,
+To kneel devout be not remiss,
+My Lord the Lamb loveth such cheer,
+Who is the ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+"Thou sayest a blissful life I know,
+And thou wouldst learn of its degree.
+Thou rememberest when thy pearl fell low
+In earth, I was but young to see;
+But my Lord the Lamb, as if to show
+His grace, took me His bride to be,
+Crowned me a queen in bliss to go
+Through length of days eternally;
+And dowered with all His wealth is she
+Who is His love, and I am His;
+His worthiness and royalty
+Are root and ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+"My blissful one, may this be true.
+Pardon if I speak ill," I prayed:
+"Art thou the queen o' the heaven's blue,
+To whom earth's honour shall be paid?
+We believe in Mary, of grace who grew,
+A mother, yet a blameless maid;
+To wear her crown were only due
+To one who purer worth displayed.
+For perfectness by none gainsaid,
+We call her the Phoenix of Araby,
+That flies in faultless charm arrayed,
+Like to the Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"Courteous Queen," that bright one said,
+And, kneeling, lifted up her face:
+"Matchless Mother and merriest Maid,
+Blessèd Beginner of every grace."
+Then she arose, and softly stayed,
+And spoke to me across that space:
+"Sir, many seek gain here, and are paid,
+But defrauders are none within this place;
+That Empress may all heaven embrace,
+And earth and hell in her empery;
+Her from her heritage none will chase,
+For she is Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"The court of the kingdom of God doth thrive
+Only because of this wondrous thing:
+Each one who therein may arrive,
+Of the realm is either queen or king;
+And no one the other doth deprive,
+But is fain of his fellow's guerdoning,
+And would wish each crown might be worth five,
+If possible were their bettering.
+But my Lady, from whom our Lord did spring,
+Rules over all our company,
+And for that we all rejoice and sing,
+Since she is Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"Of courtesy, as says St. Paul,
+Members of Christ we may be seen.
+As head and arm and leg, and all,
+Bound to the body close have been,
+Each Christian soul himself may call
+A living limb of his Lord, I ween.
+And see how neither hate nor gall
+'Twixt limb and limb may intervene;
+The head shows neither spite nor spleen,
+Though arm and finger jewelled be,
+So fare we all in love serene,
+As kings and queens by courtesy."
+
+
+"Courtesy flowers thy folk among,
+And charity, I well believe.
+If foolish words flow from my tongue,
+Let not my speech thy spirit grieve.
+A queen in heaven while yet so young,
+Too high thou dost thyself upheave.
+Then what reward from strife were wrung?
+What worship more might he achieve
+Who lived in penance morn and eve,
+Through bodily pain in bliss to be?
+Honour more high might he receive,
+Than be crowned king by courtesy?"
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+"That courtesy rewards no deed
+If all be true that thou dost say;
+Our life not two years didst thou lead
+Nor learned to please God, nor to pray,
+No Paternoster knew nor creed,
+And made a queen on the first day!
+I may not think, so God me speed!
+That God from right would swerve away;
+As a countess, damsel, by my fay!
+To live in heaven were a fair boon,
+Or like a lady of less array,
+But a queen! Ah, no! it is too soon."
+
+
+"With Him there is no soon nor late,"
+Replied to me that worthy wight;
+"True always is His high mandate;
+He doth no evil, day nor night.
+Hear Matthew in the mass narrate,
+In the Gospel of the God of might,
+His parable portrays the state
+Of the Kingdom of Heaven, clear as light:
+'My servants,' saith He, 'I requite
+As a lord who will his vineyard prune;
+The season of the year is right,
+And labourers must be hired soon.'"
+
+
+"Right soon the hirelings all may see
+How the master with the dawn arose;
+To hire his labourers forth went he,
+And workmen stout and strong he chose.
+For a penny a day they all agree,
+Even as the master doth propose,
+They toil and travail lustily,
+Prune, bind, and with a ditch enclose.
+Then to the market-place he goes,
+And finds men idle at high noon:
+'How can a man stand here who knows
+The vineyards should be tilled so soon?'"
+
+
+"'Soon as day dawned we hither won,
+And no man hath our labour sought;
+We have been standing since rose the sun
+And no one bids us to do aught.'
+'Enter my vineyard every one,'
+The master answered quick as thought:
+'The work that each by night has done
+I will truly pay, withholding naught.'
+Among the vines they went and wrought,
+While morning, noon and afternoon,
+More labourers the master brought,
+Until the night must gather soon."
+
+
+"Soon fell the time of evensong.
+An hour before the sun was set,
+He saw more idlers, young and strong;
+His voice was sober with regret:
+'Why stand ye idle all day long?'
+'No man,' they said, 'hath hired us yet.'
+'Go to my vineyard, fear no wrong;
+Each man an honest wage shall get.'
+The day grew dark and darker yet,
+"Before the rising of the moon;
+The master who would pay his debt,
+Bade summon all the hirelings soon."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+"The lord soon called his steward: 'Go
+Bring in the men quick as ye may;
+Give them the wages that I owe,
+And, lest they aught against me say,
+Range them along here in a row,
+To each alike his penny pay;
+Start with the last who standeth low,
+And to the first proceed straightway,'
+And then the first began to pray,
+Complaining they had travailed sore:
+'These wrought but one hour of the day,
+We think we should receive the more.'"
+
+
+"'More have we served,' they muttered low,
+'Who have endured the long day's heat,
+Than these who not two hours toiled so;
+Why should their claim with ours compete?'
+Said the master: 'I pay all I owe;
+Friend, no injustice shalt thou meet;
+Take that which is thine own and go.
+For a penny we settled in the street;
+Why dost thou now for more entreat?
+Thou wast well satisfied before.
+Once made, a bargain is complete;
+Why shouldst thou, threatening, ask for more?"
+
+
+"'What can be more within my gift
+Than what I will with mine to do?
+Let not thine eyes to evil shift,
+Because I trusty am, and true.'
+'Thus I,' said Christ, 'all men shall sift.
+The last shall be the first of you;
+And the first last, however swift,
+For many are called, but chosen, few.'
+And thus poor men may have their due,
+That late and little burden bore;
+Their work may vanish like the dew,
+The mercy of God is much the more."
+
+
+"More gladness have I, herewithin,
+Of flower of life, and noble name,
+Than all men in the world might win,
+Who thought their righteous deeds to name.
+Nathless even now did I begin;
+To the vineyard as night fell I came,
+But my Lord would not account it sin;
+He paid my wages without blame.
+Yet others did not fare the same,
+Who toiled and travailed there before,
+And of their hire might nothing claim,
+Perchance shall not for a year more."
+
+
+Then more, and openly, I spake:
+"From thy tale no reason can I wring;
+God's righteousness doth ever wake,
+Else Holy Writ is a fabled thing.
+From the Psalter one verse let us take,
+That may to a point this teaching bring:
+'Thou requitest each for his deed's sake,
+Thou high and all-foreknowing King.'
+If one man to his work did cling
+All day, and thou wert paid before,
+Most wage falls to least labouring,
+And ever the less receives the more."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+"Of more or less where God doth reign,
+There is no chance," she gently said,
+"For, whether large or small his gain,
+Here every man alike is paid.
+No niggard churl our High Chieftain,
+But lavishly His gifts are made,
+Like streams from a moat that flow amain,
+Or rushing waves that rise unstayed.
+Free were his pardon whoever prayed
+Him who to save man's soul did vow,
+Unstinted his bliss, and undelayed,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"But now thou wouldst my wit checkmate,
+Making my wage as wrong appear;
+Thou say'st that I am come too late,
+Of so large hire to be worthy here;
+Yet sawest thou ever small or great,
+Living in prayer and holy fear,
+Who did not forfeit at some date
+The meed of heaven to merit clear?
+Nay much the rather, year by year,
+All bend from right and to evil bow;
+Mercy and grace their way must steer,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"But enow of grace have the innocent
+New-born, before the sacred shrine,
+They are sealed with water in sacrament,
+And thus are brought into the vine.
+Anon the day with darkness blent,
+Death by its might makes to decline;
+Who wrought no wrong ere hence they went,
+The gentle Lord receives, in fine;
+They obeyed His will, they bore His sign,
+Why should He not their claim allow?
+Yea, and reward them, I opine,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"'T is known enow that all mankind
+At first were formed for perfect bliss;
+Our forefather that boon resigned,
+All for an apple's sake, I wis;
+We fell condemned, for folly blind,
+To suffer sore in hell's abyss;
+But One a remedy did find
+Lest we our hope of heaven should miss.
+He suffered on the cross for this,
+Red blood ran from His crownèd brow;
+He saved us by that pain of His,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"Enow there flowed from out that well,
+Blood and water from His broad wound:
+The blood bought us from bale of hell,
+And from second death deliverance found.
+The water is baptism, truth to tell,
+That followed-the spear so sharply ground,
+And washes away the guilt most fell
+Of those that Adam in death had drowned.
+Now is there nothing in earth's great round,
+To bar from the bliss wherewith God did endow
+Mankind,--restored to us safe and sound,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+"Grace enow a man may get
+By penitence, though he sin again;
+But with long sorrow and regret,
+He must bear punishment and pain;
+But righteous reason will not let
+The innocent be hurt in vain;
+God never gave His judgment yet,
+That they should suffer who show no stain.
+The sinful soul of mercy fain
+Finds pardon if he will repent,
+But he who sinless doth remain
+Is surely saved, being innocent."
+
+
+"Two men are saved of God's good grace,
+Who severally have done His will:
+The righteous man shall see His face,
+The innocent dwells with Him still.
+In the Psalter thou may'st find a case:
+'Lord, who shall climb to Thy high hill,
+Or rest within Thy Holy Place?'
+The psalmist doth the sense fulfill:
+'Who with his hands did never ill,
+His heart to evil never lent,
+There to ascend he shall have skill;'
+So surely saved is the innocent."
+
+
+"That the righteous is saved I hold certain;
+Before God's palace he shall stand
+Who never took man's life in vain,
+Who never to flatter his fellow planned.
+Of the righteous, the Wise Man writeth plain
+How kindly our King doth him command;
+In ways full strait he doth restrain,
+Yet shows him the kingdom great and grand,
+As who saith: 'Behold! yon lovely land!
+Thou may'st win it, if so thy will be bent.'
+But with never peril on either hand,
+Surely saved is the innocent."
+
+
+"Of the righteous saved, hear one man say--
+David, who in the Psalter cried:
+'O Lord, call never Thy servant to pay,
+For no man living is justified.'
+So thou, if thou shalt come one day
+To the court that each cause must decide,
+For mercy with justice thou may'st pray
+Through this same text that I espied.
+But may He on the bloody cross that died,
+His holy hands with hard nails rent,
+Give thee to pass when thou art tried,
+Saved, not as righteous, but innocent."
+
+
+"Of the sinless saved the tale is told,--
+Read in the Book where it is said:
+When Jesus walked, among men of old,
+The people a passage to Him made;
+Bringing their bairns for Him to hold,
+For the blessing of His hand they prayed.
+The twelve reproved them: 'Overbold
+To seek the Master;' and sternly stayed.
+But Jesus said: 'Be ye not afraid;
+Suffer the children, nor prevent;
+God's kingdom is for such arrayed.'
+Surely saved are the innocent."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+"Christ called to Him the innocents mild,
+And said His kingdom no man might win,
+Unless he came thither as a child,--Not
+otherwise might he enter in,
+Harmless, faithful, undefiled,
+With never a spot of soiling sin,--For
+these whom the world has not beguiled
+Gladly shall one the gate unpin.
+There shall that endless bliss begin,
+The merchant sought, and straight was led
+To barter all stuffs men weave and spin,
+To buy him a pearl unblemished."
+
+
+"'This pearl unblemished, bought so dear,
+For which the merchant his riches gave,
+Is like the kingdom of heaven clear;'
+So said the Father of world and wave.
+It is a flawless, perfect sphere,
+Polished and pure, and bright and brave;
+As on my heart it doth appear,
+It is common to all who to virtue clave.
+My Lord, the Lamb Who died to save,
+Here set it in token of His blood shed
+For peace. Then let the wild world rave,
+But buy thee this pearl unblemishèd."
+
+
+"O Pearl unblemished, in pure pearls dressed,
+That beareth," said I, "the pearl of price,
+Who formed thy figure-and thy vest?
+Truly he wrought with cunning nice;
+For thy beauty, above nature's best,
+Passeth Pygmalion's artifice;
+Nor Aristotle the lore possessed
+To depict in words so fair device.
+Than fleur-de-lys thou art fairer thrice,
+Angel-mannered and courtly bred,--
+Tell to me truly: in Paradise
+What meaneth the pearl unblemished?"
+
+
+"My spotless Lamb, who all doth heal,"
+She answered, "my dear Destiny,
+Chose me in marriage bond to seal;
+Unfit, He graced me regally,
+From your world's woe come into weal.
+He called me of His courtesy:
+'Come hither to me, my lover leal,
+For mote nor spot is none in thee.'
+He gave me my might and great beauty;
+He washed my weeds in His blood so red,
+And crowned me, forever clean to be,
+And clothed me in pearls unblemishèd."
+
+
+"Unblemished bride, bright to behold,
+That royalty hath so rich and rare,
+What is this Lamb, that thou hast told
+How for wedded wife He called thee there?
+Above all others dost thou make bold,
+As His chosen lady His life to share?
+So many, comely in combs of gold,
+For Christ have lived in strife and care,
+Must these to a lower place repair,
+That never any with Him may wed,
+Save only thyself, so proud and fair,
+Peerless Queen, and unblemished?"
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+"Unblemished," answered she again,
+"Without a spot of black or gray,
+With honour may I this maintain;
+But 'peerless Queen' I did not say.
+Brides of the Lamb in bliss we reign,
+An hundred and forty thousand gay,
+As in the Apocalypse is made plain,
+Saint John beheld them on a day;
+On the hill of Zion he saw them stay,
+In vision his spirit looked on them,
+For the wedding clad in bright-array,
+At the city of New Jerusalem."
+
+
+"Of Jerusalem in speech I tell;
+And what He is if thou wouldst see--
+My Lamb, my Lord, my dear Jewel,
+My Joy, my Love, my Bliss so free,--
+The prophet Isaiah writeth well
+Of His most mild humility:
+'Guiltless, when men upon Him fell
+For never a fault nor felony,
+As a sheep to the slaughter led was He;
+Quiet, the while the crowd contemn,
+As a lamb in the shearer's hands might be,
+He was judged by Jews in Jerusalem.'"
+
+
+"In Jerusalem was my Lover slain,
+Rent on the rood by ruffians bold;
+To bear our ills He was full fain,
+To suffer our sorrows manifold;
+Buffeted until blood did stain
+That face so lovely to behold;
+He took upon Him all sin and pain,
+Even He of Whom not one sin is told;
+On the rude cross stretched faint and cold,
+He let men deride him and condemn;
+Meek as a lamb, betrayed and sold,
+He died for us in Jerusalem."
+
+
+"At Jerusalem, Jordan and Galilee,
+Wherever Saint John came to baptize,
+His words with Isaiah's words agree.
+On Jesus he lifted up his eyes,
+Speaking of Him this prophecy:
+'Behold the Lamb of God!' he cries:
+'Who bears the world's sins, this is He!
+The guilt of all upon Him lies,
+Though He wrought evil in no wise.
+The branches springing from that stem
+Who can recount? 'T is He who dies
+For our sake in Jerusalem.'"
+
+
+"In Jerusalem my Lover sweet
+Twice as a lamb did thus appear,
+Even as the prophets both repeat,
+So meek the mien that He did wear;
+The third time also, as is meet,
+In the Revelation is written clear.
+Reading a book on His high seat
+Midmost the throne that saints ensphere,
+The Apostle John beheld Him near;
+That book seven sacred seals begem;
+And at that sight all folk felt fear
+In hell, in earth and Jerusalem."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+This Jerusalem Lamb had never stain
+Of other hue than perfect white,
+That showeth neither streak nor strain
+Of soil, but is like wool to sight;
+And souls that free of sin remain
+The Lamb receiveth with delight;
+And, though each day a group we gain,
+There comes no strife for room nor right,
+Nor rivalry our bliss to blight.
+The more the merrier, I profess.
+In company our love grows bright,
+In honour more and never less.
+
+
+"Lessening of bliss no comer brings
+To us who bear this pearl at breast;
+Nor show they flaws nor tarnishings
+Who wear such pure pearls like a crest.
+Though round our corpses the clay clings,
+And though ye mourn us without rest,
+Knowledge have we of goodly things.
+Through the first death our hope we test;
+Grief goes; at each mass we are blest
+By the Lamb Who gives us happiness;
+The bliss of each is bright and best,
+And no one's honour is the less."
+
+
+"That thou my tale the less may doubt,
+In the Revelation 'tis told, and more:
+'I saw,' says John, 'a goodly rout
+The hill of Zion covering o'er,
+The Lamb, with maidens round about,
+An hundred thousand and forty and four,
+And each brow, fairly written out,
+The Lamb's name and His Father's bore.
+Then a sound from heaven I heard outpour,
+As streams, full laden, foam and press,
+Or as thunders among dark crags roar,
+The tumult was, and nothing less."
+
+
+"'Nathless, though high that shout might ring,
+And loud the voices sounding near,
+A strain full new I heard them sing,
+And sweet and strange it was to hear.
+Like harper's hands upon the string
+Was that new song they sang so clear;
+The noble notes went vibrating,
+And gentle words came to my ear.
+Close by God's throne, without one fear,
+Where the four beasts His power confess,
+And the elders stand so grave of cheer,
+They sang their new song, none the less."
+
+
+"'Nathless is none with skill so fine,
+For all the crafts that ever he knew,
+That of that song might sing a line;
+Save these that hold the Lamb in view;
+From earth brought to that land divine,
+As first fruits that to God are due,
+They serve the Lamb and bear His sign,
+As like Himself in face and hue;
+For never lying nor tale untrue
+Defiled their lips in life's distress;'
+Whatever might move them, they but drew
+Nearer the Master, none the less."
+
+
+"Nevertheless, speak out I must,
+My Pearl, though queries rude I pose.
+To try thy fair wit were unjust
+Whom Christ to His own chamber chose.
+Behold, I am but dung and dust,
+And thou a rare and radiant rose,
+Abiding here in life, and lust
+Of loveliness that ever grows.
+A hind that no least cunning knows,
+I needs must my one doubt express;
+Though boisterous as the wind that blows,
+Let my prayer move thee none the less."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+Yet, none the less, on thee I call,
+If thou wilt listen verily,
+As thou art glorious over all,
+Hearken the while I question thee.
+Within some splendid castle wall,
+Have ye not dwellings fair to see?
+Of David's city, rich, royal,
+Jerusalem, thou tellest me.
+In Palestine its place must be;
+In wildwood such none ever saw.
+Since spotless is your purity,
+Your dwellings should be free from flaw.
+
+
+"Now this most fair and flawless rout,
+Thronging thousands, as thou dost tell,
+They must possess, beyond a doubt,
+A sightly city wherein to dwell.
+'T were strange that they should live without;
+For so bright a band it were not well;
+Yet I see no building hereabout.
+Dost thou linger as in a woodland cell,
+Alone and hidden, for the spell
+Of rushing stream and shining shaw?
+If thou hast a dwelling beyond this dell,
+Now show me that city free from flaw."
+
+
+"Not flawless the city in Juda's land,"
+That gentle one gently to me spake,
+"But the Lamb did bless it when He planned
+To suffer there sorely for man's sake.
+That is the old city we understand,
+And there the bonds of old guilt did break;
+But the new, alighted from God's hand,
+The Apostle John for his theme did take.
+The Lamb Who is white with never a flake
+Of black, did thither His fair folk draw;
+For His flock no fenced fold need He make,
+Nor moat for His city free from flaw."
+
+
+"To figure flawlessly what may mean
+Jerusalems twain: the first of those
+Was 'the Sight of Peace' as it is seen
+In the word of God, for the gospel shows
+How there our peace made sure hath been,
+Since to suffer therein the Saviour chose;
+In the other is always peace to glean,
+Peace that never an ending knows.
+To that city bright the spirit goes
+When the flesh hath fallen beneath death's law;
+There glorious gladness forever grows
+For His fair folk that are free from flaw."
+
+
+"Flawless maid so mild and meek,"
+Then said I to that lovely flower:
+"Let me that stately city seek,
+And let me see thy blissful bower."
+That bright one said, "Thou art too weak,
+Thou may'st not enter to its tower;
+Yet of the Lamb I did bespeak
+This goodly gift, that He would dower
+Thine eyes with the sight for one short hour,--
+From without,--within none ever saw;
+To step in that street thou hast no power,
+Unless thy soul were free from flaw."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+"This flawless sight I will not hide;
+Up toward the brook's head thou must go,
+While I will follow on this side,
+Till yonder hill the city show."
+And then I would no longer bide,
+But stole through branches, bending low,
+Till from the summit I espied,
+Through green boughs swaying to and fro,
+Afar, the city, all aglow,
+That brighter than bright sunbeams shone.
+In writing it is pictured so,
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+As John the Apostle saw the sight,
+I saw that city, standing near
+Jerusalem, so royal dight,
+As if from Heaven alighted here.
+The city all of gold burned bright,
+Like gleaming glass that glistens clear.
+With precious stones beneath set right:
+Foundations twelve of gems most dear,
+Wrought wondrous richly, tier on tier.
+Each base was of a separate stone
+As, perfectly, it doth appear
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+John named the stones that he had seen,
+I knew the order that he made;
+The first a jasper must have been,
+That on the lowest base was laid,
+Beneath the rest it glinted green;
+A sapphire in the second grade;
+Chalcedony, from blemish clean,
+In the third course was fair arrayed;
+Fourth, emerald, of greenest shade,
+Fifth, sardonyx, was raised thereon;
+The sixth a ruby, as is said
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+John joined to these the chrysolite,
+The seventh gem in that basement;
+The eighth, a beryl, clear and white;
+The topaz, ninth, its luster lent;
+Tenth, chrysophrase, both soft and bright;
+Eleventh, the jacinth, translucent;
+And twelfth, and noblest to recite,
+Amethyst, blue with purple blent.
+The wall above those basements went
+Jasper, like glass that glistening shone;
+I saw, as the story doth present,--
+The Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+I saw, as John doth clear devise:
+The great stones rose like a broad stair;
+Above, the city, to my eyes,
+In height, length, breadth appeared four-square;
+The jasper wall shone amber-wise,
+The golden streets as glass gleamed fair;
+The dwellings glowed in glorious guise
+With every stone most rich and rare.
+Each length of bright wall builded there
+For full twelve furlongs' space stretched on,
+And height, length, breadth all equal were:
+"I saw one mete it," writeth John.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+As John doth write more met mine eye:
+Within each wall were set three gates;
+Twelve in succession I could spy,
+Portals adorned with bright gold plates;
+Each gate a single pearl saw I,
+A perfect pearl, as John relates.
+On each a name was written high
+Of Israel's sons after their dates,
+The oldest first, as the story states.
+Within those streets by night or noon,
+Light beams that not one hour abates;
+They needed neither sun nor moon.
+
+
+Of sun or moon they had no need;
+For God Himself was their lamp light,
+The Lamb their lantern was indeed;
+From Him the city shone all bright.
+Through wall and dwelling my looks might speed,
+Such clearness could not hinder sight.
+Of the high throne ye might take heed,
+With draperies of radiant white,
+As John the Apostle doth endite;
+High God Himself did sit thereon.
+From the throne a river welled outright
+Was brighter than both sun and moon.
+
+
+Sun nor moon shone never so sweet
+As the full flood of that bright stream;
+Swiftly it swept through every street,
+Untainted did the water gleam.
+Chapel nor church mine eyes did meet;
+Therein is no temple as I deem;
+The Almighty is their minster meet,
+The Lamb their sacrifice supreme.
+The gates with neither bolt nor beam,
+Wide open stand at night and noon;
+To enter there let no man dream
+Whom sin hath stained beneath the moon.
+
+
+The moon may there win no least might,
+She is too spotty, grey and grim;
+Therein, moreover, is never night,
+Why should the moon fill full her rim
+To rival the all-glorious light
+That beams upon the river's brim?
+The planets are in poorest plight;
+The sun itself is far too dim.
+Beside the stream trees tall and trim
+Bear living fruits that none doth prune;
+Twelve times a year bends low each limb,
+Renewed with fruitage every moon.
+
+
+Beneath the moon full well might fail
+The heart of mortal to endure
+The marvel that did mine eyes assail,
+Fashioned the fancy to allure.
+I stood as still as a startled quail,
+For wonder of its fair figure,
+I felt no rest and no travail,
+Ravished before such radiance pure.
+I say, and with conviction sure,
+Had the eyes of man received that boon,
+Though wisest clerks sought for his cure,
+His life were lost beneath the moon.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+Now, even as the full moon might rise
+Ere daylight doth to darkness fall,
+Sudden I saw with still surprise
+Within that shining city-wall,
+The streets full-thronged in wondrous wise,
+Silent, with never a herald's call,
+With virgins in the selfsame guise
+As my beloved, sweet and small.
+Each head was crowned with coronal,
+Pearl-wrought, and every robe was white;
+On each breast bound, imperial,
+The Pearl of Price with great delight.
+
+
+With great delight together going
+On glassy golden streets they tread;
+To a hundred thousand swiftly growing,
+And all alike were they garmented:
+The gladdest face who could be knowing?
+The Lamb did proudly pass ahead,
+His seven horns of clear red gold glowing,
+His robes like pearls high valuèd.
+On toward the throne their way they thread,
+None crowded in that band so bright,
+But mild as maidens when mass is said,
+So fared they forth with great delight.
+
+
+The great delight His coming gave,
+It were too much for me to tell.
+When He approached the Elders grave,
+Prone there before His feet they fell;
+Legions of summoned angels brave
+Swayed censers of the sweetest smell;
+With music like a mighty wave,
+All sang in praise of that gay Jewel.
+The hymn might strike through earth to hell
+That with joy those hosts of heaven recite;
+To praise the Lamb I liked full well,
+Amid the group in great delight.
+
+
+Delighted, I would fain devise
+His loveliness, with mind intent:
+First was He, blithest, best to prize,
+Of all on whom man's speech is spent;
+So nobly white His draperies,
+Such grace His simple glances lent;
+But a wide, wet wound my gaze descries
+Beneath His heart, through His skin rent;
+Down His white side the blood was sent.
+Alas! I thought, what scorn or spite
+Could any human heart have bent
+In such a deed to take delight?
+
+
+The Lamb's delight might no man doubt,
+Though that wide wound His hurt displayed,
+From His fair face looked lovely out
+Glad glances, glorious, unafraid,
+I looked upon His shining rout,
+With fullest life so bright arrayed,
+My little queen there moved about,
+I had thought beside me in the glade.
+Ah Lord! how much of mirth she made!
+Among her peers she was so white!
+The stream I surely needs must wade,
+For longing love, in great delight.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+Delight that flooded eye and ear
+My mortal mind beatified;
+When I saw her, I must reach my dear,
+Though she beyond the brook abide.
+Nothing, I thought, could keep me here,
+No crippling blow hold my strength tied;
+I would plunge, whatever interfere,
+And swim the stream, though there I died.
+But ere the water I had tried,
+Even as I would my vow fulfill,
+From my purpose I was turned aside;
+It was not to my Prince's will.
+
+
+My wilful purpose pleased not Him,
+That I with headlong zeal essayed;
+Though I was rash of thought and limb,
+Yet suddenly my deed was stayed.
+As I sprang forward to the brim,
+The action in my dreaming made
+Me waken in my arbour trim.
+My head upon the mound was laid
+Where my pearl to the grass once strayed.
+I stretched my body, frightened, chill,
+And, sighing, to myself I said:
+"Now all be to the Prince's will."
+
+
+Against my will was I exiled
+From that bright region, fair and fain,
+From that life, glad and undefiled,
+And longing dulled my sense again;
+I swooned in sorrow for the child,
+Needs must my heart cry and complain:
+"O Pearl, dear was thy counsel mild,
+In this true vision of my brain!
+If very truth divide us twain;
+If thou goest crowned, secure from ill,
+Well for me in my prison-pain
+That thou art to the Prince's will."
+
+
+To the Prince's will had my heart bent,
+And sought but what to me was given,
+Held fast to that, with true intent,
+As my Pearl prayed me out of heaven;
+Did I to God my thoughts present,
+More in His mysteries had I thriven.
+But a man will seek more than is sent,
+Till from his hand his hope be riven.
+Thus from my joy was I forth driven,
+From the life upon that holy hill.
+Oh, fools, that with the Lord have striven,
+Or proffered gifts against his will!
+
+
+The Prince's will to serve aright
+The Christian may full well divine;
+For I have found Him, day and night,
+A God, a Lord, a Friend in fine.
+Upon this mound my soul hath sight,
+Where I for piteous sorrow pine;
+My Pearl to God I pledge and plight,
+With Christ's dear blessing and with mine,--
+His, who, in form of bread and wine,
+The priest doth daily show us still.
+His servants may we be, or shine,
+Pure pearls, according to his will.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pearl, by Sophie Jewett
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13211 ***
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+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13211 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13211)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pearl, by Sophie Jewett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pearl
+
+Author: Sophie Jewett
+
+Release Date: August 18, 2004 [EBook #13211]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PEARL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreaders Team
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PEARL
+
+
+A MIDDLE ENGLISH POEM
+
+
+A MODERN VERSION IN THE METRE OF THE ORIGINAL
+
+BY
+
+SOPHIE JEWETT
+
+ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN WELLESLEY COLLEGE
+
+
+
+1908
+
+
+
+To KATHARINE LEE BATES
+
+THE TRANSLATOR TO THE AUTHOR
+
+     Poet of beauty, pardon me
+     If touch of mine have tarnishèd
+     Thy Pearl's pure luster, loved by thee;
+     Or dimmed thy vision of the dead
+     Alive in light and gaiety.
+     Thy life is like a shadow fled;
+     Thy place we know not nor degree,
+     The stock that bore thee, school that bred;
+     Yet shall thy fame be sung and said.
+     Poet of wonder, pain, and peace,
+     Hold high thy nameless, laurelled head
+     Where Dante dwells with Beatrice.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+Among the treasures of the British Museum is a manuscript which
+contains four anonymous poems, apparently of common authorship: "The
+Pearl," "Cleanness," "Patience," "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight."
+From the language of the writer, it seems clear that he was a native
+of some Northwestern district of England, and that he lived in the
+second half of the Fourteenth Century. He is quite unknown, save as
+his work reveals him, a man of aristocratic breeding, of religious and
+secular education, of a deeply emotional and spiritual nature, gifted
+with imagination and perception of beauty. He shows a liking for
+technique that leads him to adopt elaborate devices of rhyme, while
+retaining the alliteration characteristic of Northern Middle English
+verse. He wrote as was the fashion of his time, allegory, homily,
+lament, chivalric romance, but the distinction of his poetry is that
+of a finely accentuated individuality.
+
+The poems called "Cleanness" and "Patience," retell incidents of
+biblical history for a definitely didactic purpose, but even these are
+frequently lifted into the region of imaginative literature by the
+author's power of graphic description. "Sir Gawayne and the Green
+Knight" is a priceless contribution to Arthurian story. "The Pearl,"
+though it takes the form of symbolic narrative, is essentially lyric
+and elegiac, the lament, it would seem, of a father for a little,
+long-lost daughter.
+
+The present translation of "The Pearl" was begun with no larger design
+than that of turning a few passages into modern English, by way of
+illustrating to a group of students engaged in reading the original,
+the possibility of preserving intricate stanzaic form, and something
+of alliteration, without an entire sacrifice of poetic beauty. The
+experiment was persisted in because its problems are such as baffle
+and fascinate a translator, and the finished version is offered not
+merely to students of Middle English but to college classes in the
+history of English literature, and to non-academic readers.
+
+If "The Pearl" presented no greater obstacle to a modern reader than
+is offered by Chaucer's English, a translation might be a gratuitous
+task, but the Northwest-Midland dialect of the poem is, in fact,
+incomparably more difficult than the diction of Chaucer, more
+difficult even than that of Langland. The meaning of many passages
+remains obscure, and a translator is often forced to choose what seems
+the least dubious among doubtful readings.
+
+The poem in the original passes frequently from imaginative beauty to
+conversational commonplace, from deep feeling to didactic aphorism or
+theological dogma, and it has been my endeavor faithfully to interpret
+these variations of matter and of style, sometimes substituting modern
+colloquialisms for such as are obsolete, or in other ways paraphrasing
+a stubborn passage, but striving never to polish the dullest lines nor
+to strengthen the weakest.
+
+A reader who will observe the difficult rhyming scheme, a scheme that
+calls for six words of one rhyme and four of another, will understand
+the presence of forced lines, an intrusion that one must needs suffer
+in even "The Faerie Queene." These padded lines are a serious blemish
+to the poem, but the introduction of naïve and familiar expressions is
+one of its charms, as when the Pearl, protesting like Piccarda in
+Paradise[1] that among beatified spirits there can be no rivalry,
+exclaims: "The more the merrier."[2]
+
+The translation may, at many points, need apology, but the original
+needs only explanation. Readers familiar with mediæval poetry expect
+to encounter moral platitudes and theological subtlety. Dogma takes
+large and vital place in the sublimest cantos of Dante's "Paradise,"
+and the English poet is consciously following his noblest master when
+he puts a sermon into the lips of his "little queen." To modern ears
+such exposition is at harsh discord with the simple human grief and
+longing of the poet, but to the mediaevalist symbolic theology was a
+passion. Precisely in the moment when she begins a discourse
+concerning the doctrine of redemption, Beatrice turns upon Dante "eyes
+that might make a man happy in the fire," and at its close he looks
+upon her and beholds her "grow more beautiful."[3] If even Beatrice
+has been considered mere personification, it is natural that the Pearl
+should be so regarded, but the plain reader finds in the symbolic
+maiden of the English poem, as in the transfigured lady of the
+Italian, some record of a human being whose loss was anguish, and
+whose presence rapture, to a poet long ago.
+
+The lover of things mediæval will find in this little book not only
+the familiar garden of Guillaume de Lorris, of Boccaccio and of
+Chaucer, but an unexpected and enchanting vision of great forest and
+rushing water, of hillside and plain, of crystal cliffs and
+flame-winged birds; of the Pearl among her white peers; of the
+Apocalyptic Jerusalem, discovered to the poet, it may be, as a goodly
+Gothic city, though its walls are built of precious stone, and its
+towers rise from neither church nor minster.
+
+If even a few readers turn from the modern to the original version,
+the translation will have had fair fortune, for the author of "The
+Pearl" is, though unknown and unnamed, a poet second only to Chaucer
+in Chaucer's generation.
+
+It is a pleasure to record my many debts of gratitude: to Professor
+Frank H. Chase of Beloit, Professor John L. Lowes of Swarthmore, and
+Dr. Charles G. Osgood of Princeton, for their careful reading of the
+translation in manuscript, with invaluable assistance and suggestion;
+to Professor Martha Hale Shackford, and Miss Laura A. Hibbard, for
+constant aid while the work was in making, and, above all, to
+Professor Katharine Lee Bates for a critical, line by line, comparison
+of this version with the original.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: Par. III.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Pearl, stanza 71.]
+
+[Footnote 3:  Par. VII, II. 17-18; Par. VIII, I. 15.]
+
+
+S.J.
+WELLESLEY COLLEGE,
+June, 1908.
+
+
+EDITIONS: R. Morris, Early English text Sc. 1864; I. Gollancz, London,
+1891; C.G. Osgood, Boston, 1906 (with admirable introduction, etc.).
+TRANSLATIONS: Gollancz (above); S. Weir Mitchell, New York, 1906
+(poetic, but incomplete); G.G. Coulton, London, 1906 (metre of the
+original); C.G. Osgood, Princeton, 1907 (prose).
+
+
+
+
+THE PEARL
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Pearl that the Prince full well might prize,
+So surely set in shining gold!
+No pearl of Orient with her vies;
+To prove her peerless I make bold:
+So round, so radiant to mine eyes,
+smooth she seemed, so small to hold,
+Among all jewels judges wise
+Would count her best an hundred fold.
+Alas! I lost my pearl of old!
+I pine with heart-pain unforgot;
+Down through my arbour grass it rolled,
+My own pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Since in that spot it slipped from me
+I wait, and wish, and oft complain;
+Once it would bid my sorrow flee,
+And my fair fortune turn again;
+It wounds my heart now ceaselessly,
+And burns my breast with bitter pain.
+Yet never so sweet a song may be
+As, this still hour, steals through my brain,
+While verity I muse in vain
+How clay should her bright beauty clot;
+O Earth! a brave gem thou dost stain,
+My own pearl, precious, without spot!
+
+
+Needs must that spot with spices spread,
+Where such wealth falleth to decay;
+Fair flowers, golden and blue and red,
+Shine in the sunlight day by day;
+Nor flower nor fruit have witherèd
+On turf wherein such treasure lay;
+The blade grows where the grain lies dead,
+Else were no ripe wheat stored away;
+Of good come good things, so we say,
+Then surely such seed faileth not,
+But spices spring in sweet array
+From my pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Once, to that spot of which I rhyme,
+I entered, in the arbour green,
+In August, the high summer-time
+When corn is cut with sickles keen;
+Upon the mound where my pearl fell,
+Tall, shadowing herbs grew bright and sheen,
+Gilliflower, ginger and gromwell,
+With peonies powdered all between.
+As it was lovely to be seen,
+So sweet the fragrance there, I wot,
+Worthy her dwelling who hath been
+My own pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Upon that spot my hands I crossed
+In prayer, for cold at my heart caught,
+And sudden sorrow surged and tossed,
+Though reason reconcilement sought.
+I mourned my pearl, dear beyond cost,
+And strange fears with my fancy fought;
+My will in wretchedness was lost,
+And yet Christ comforted my thought.
+Such odours to my sense were brought,
+I fell upon that flowery plot,
+Sleeping,--a sleep with dreams inwrought
+Of my pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+From the spot my spirit springs into space,
+The while my body sleeping lies;
+My ghost is gone in God's good grace,
+Adventuring mid mysteries;
+I know not what might be the place,
+But I looked where tall cliffs cleave the skies,
+Toward a forest I turned my face,
+Where ranks of radiant rocks arise.
+A man might scarce believe his eyes,
+Such gleaming glory was from them sent;
+No woven web may men devise
+Of half such wondrous beauties blent.
+
+
+In beauty shone each fair hillside
+With crystal cliffs in shining row,
+While bright woods everywhere abide,
+Their boles as blue as indigo;
+Like silver clear the leaves spread wide,
+That on each spray thick-quivering grow;
+If a flash of light across them glide
+With shimmering sheen they gleam and glow;
+The gravel on the ground below
+Seemed precious pearls of Orient;
+The sunbeams did but darkling show
+So gloriously those beauties blent.
+
+
+The beauty of the hills so fair
+Made me forget my sufferings;
+I breathed fruit fragrance fine and rare,
+As if I fed on unseen things;
+Brave birds fly through the woodland there,
+Of flaming hues, and each one sings;
+With their mad mirth may not compare
+Cithern nor gayest citole-strings;
+For when those bright birds beat their wings,
+They sing together, all content;
+Keen joy to any man it brings
+To hear and see such beauties blent.
+
+
+So beautiful was all the wood
+Where, guided forth by Chance, I strayed,
+There is no tongue that fully could
+Describe it, though all men essayed.
+Onward I walked in merriest mood
+Nor any highest hill delayed
+My feet. Far through the forest stood
+The plain with fairest trees arrayed,
+Hedges and slopes and rivers wide,
+Like gold thread their banks' garnishment;
+And when I won the waterside,
+Dear Lord! what wondrous beauties blent!
+
+
+The beauties of that stream were steep,
+All-radiant banks of beryl bright;
+Sweet-sighing did the water sweep,
+With murmuring music running light;
+Within its bed fair stones lay deep;
+As if through glass they glowed, as white
+As streaming stars when tired men sleep
+Shine in the sky on a winter night.
+Pure emerald even the pebbles seemed,
+Sapphire, or other gems that lent
+Luster, till all the water gleamed
+With the glory of such beauties blent.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+For the beauteousness of downs and dales,
+Of wood and water and proud plains,
+My joy springs up and my grief quails,
+My anguish ends, and all my pains.
+A swift stream down the valley hales
+My feet along. Bliss brims my brains;
+The farther I follow those watery vales,
+The stronger joy my heart constrains.
+While Fortune fares as her proud will deigns,
+Sending solace or sending sore,
+When a man her fickle favour gains,
+He looketh to have aye more and more.
+
+
+There was more of marvel and of grace
+Than I could tell, howe'er I tried;
+The human heart that could embrace
+A tenth part were well satisfied;
+For Paradise, the very place,
+Must be upon that farther side;
+The water by a narrow space
+Pleasance from pleasance did divide.
+Beyond, on some slope undescried
+The City stood, I thought, wherefore
+I strove to cross the river's tide,
+And ever I longed, yet more and more.
+
+
+More, and still more wistfully,
+The banks beyond the brook I scanned;
+If, where I stood, 't was fair to see,
+Still lovelier lay that farther land.
+I sought if any ford might be
+Found, up or down, by rock or sand;
+But perils plainer appeared to me,
+The farther I strode along the strand;
+I thought I ought not thus to stand
+Timid, with such bright bliss before;
+Then a new matter came to hand
+That moved my heart yet more and more.
+
+
+Marvels more and more amaze
+My mind beyond that water fair:
+From a cliff of crystal, splendid rays,
+Reflected, quiver in the air.
+At the cliff's foot a vision stays
+My glance, a maiden debonaire,
+All glimmering white before my gaze;
+And I know her,--have seen her otherwhere.
+Like fine gold leaf one cuts with care,
+Shone the maiden on the farther shore.
+Long time I looked upon her there,
+And ever I knew her more and more.
+
+
+As more and more I scanned her face
+And form, when I had found her so,
+A glory of gladness filled the place
+Beyond all it was wont to show.
+My joy would call her and give chase,
+But wonder struck my courage low;
+I saw her in so strange a place,
+The shock turned my heart dull and slow.
+But now she lifts that brow aglow,
+Like ivory smooth, even as of yore,
+It made my senses straying go,
+It stung my heart aye more and more.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+More than I liked did my fear rise.
+Stock still I stood and dared not call;
+With lips close shut and watchful eyes,
+I stood as quiet as hawk in hall.
+I thought her a spirit from the skies;
+I doubted what thing might befall;
+If to escape me now she tries,
+How shall my voice her flight forestall?
+Then graciously and gay withal,
+In royal robes, so sweet, so slight,
+She rose, so modest and so small,
+That precious one in pearls bedight.
+
+
+Pearl bedight full royally,
+Adown the bank with merry mien,
+Came the maiden, fresh as fleur-de-lys.
+Her surcoat linen must have been
+Shining in whitest purity,
+Slashed at the sides and caught between
+With the fairest pearls, it seemed to me,
+That ever yet mine eyes had seen;
+With large folds falling loose, I ween,
+Arrayed with double pearls, her white
+Kirtle, of the same linen sheen,
+With precious pearls all round was dight.
+
+
+A crown with pearls bedight, the girl
+Was wearing, and no other stone;
+High pinnacled of clear white pearl,
+Wrought as if pearls to flowers were grown.
+No band nor fillet else did furl
+The long locks all about her thrown.
+Her air demure as duke or earl,
+Her hue more white than walrus-bone;
+Like sheer gold thread the bright hair strown
+Loose on her shoulders, lying light.
+Her colour took a deeper tone
+With bordering pearls so fair bedight.
+
+
+Bedight was every hem, and bound,
+At wrists, sides, and each aperture,
+With pearls the whitest ever found,--
+White all her brave investiture;
+But a wondrous pearl, a flawless round,
+Upon her breast was set full sure;
+A man's mind it might well astound,
+And all his wits to madness lure.
+I thought that no tongue might endure
+Fully to tell of that sweet sight,
+So was it perfect, clear and pure,
+That precious pearl with pearls bedight.
+
+
+Bedight in pearls, lest my joy cease,
+That lovely one came down the shore;
+The gladdest man from here to Greece,
+The eagerest, was I, therefore;
+She was nearer kin than aunt or niece,
+And thus my joy was much the more.
+She spoke to me for my soul's peace,
+Courtesied with her quaint woman's lore,
+Caught off the shining crown she wore,
+And greeted me with glance alight.
+I blessed my birth; my bliss brimmed o'er
+To answer her in pearls bedight.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+"O Pearl," I said, "in pearls bedight,
+Art thou my pearl for which I mourn,
+Lamenting all alone at night?
+With hidden grief my heart is worn.
+Since thou through grass didst slip from sight,
+Pensive and pained, I pass forlorn,
+And thou livest in a life of light,
+A world where enters sin nor scorn.
+What fate has hither my jewel borne,
+And left me in earth's strife and stir?
+Oh, sweet, since we in twain were torn,
+I have been a joyless jeweler."
+
+
+That Jewel then with gems besprent
+Glanced up at me with eyes of grey,
+Put on her pearl crown orient,
+And soberly began to say:
+"You tell your tale with wrong intent,
+Thinking your pearl gone quite away.
+Like a jewel within a coffer pent,
+In this gracious garden bright and gay,
+Your pearl may ever dwell at play,
+Where sin nor mourning come to her;
+It were a joy to thee alway
+Wert thou a gentle jeweler.
+
+
+"But, Jeweler, if thou dost lose
+Thy joy for a gem once dear to thee,
+Methinks thou dost thy mind abuse,
+Bewildered by a fantasy;
+Thou hast lost nothing save a rose
+That flowered and failed by life's decree:
+Because the coffer did round it close,
+A precious pearl it came to be.
+A thief thou hast dubbed thy destiny
+That something for nothing gives thee, sir;
+Thou blamest thy sorrow's remedy,
+Thou art no grateful jeweler."
+
+
+Like jewels did her story fall,
+A jewel, every gentle clause;
+"Truly," I said, "thou best of all!
+My great distress thy voice withdraws.
+I thought my pearl lost past recall,
+My jewel shut within earth's jaws;
+But now I shall keep festival,
+And dwell with it in bright wood-shaws;
+And love my Lord and all His laws,
+Who hath brought this bliss. Ah! if I were
+Beyond these waves, I should have cause
+To be a joyful jeweler."
+
+
+"Jeweler," said that Gem so dear,
+"Why jest ye men, so mad ye be?
+Three sayings thou hast spoken clear,
+And unconsidered were all three;
+Their meaning thou canst not come near,
+Thy word before thy thought doth flee.
+First, thou believest me truly here,
+Because with eyes thou mayst me see;
+Second, with me in this country
+Thou wilt dwell, whatever may deter;
+Third, that to cross here thou art free:
+That may no joyful jeweler."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The jeweler merits little praise,
+Who loves but what he sees with eye,
+And it were a discourteous phrase
+To say our Lord would make a lie,
+Who surely pledged thy soul to raise,
+Though fate should cause thy flesh to die.
+Thou dost twist His words in crooked ways
+Believing only what is nigh;
+This is but pride and bigotry,
+That a good man may ill assume,
+To hold no matter trustworthy
+Till like a judge he hear and doom.
+
+
+"Whate'er thy doom, dost thou complain
+As man should speak to God most high?
+Thou wouldst gladly dwell in this domain;
+'T were best, methinks, for leave to apply.
+Even so, perchance, thou pleadest in vain.
+Across this water thou wouldst fly,--
+To other end thou must attain.
+Thy corpse to clay comes verily,--
+In Paradise 't was ruined by
+Our forefather. Now in the womb
+Of dreary death each man must lie,
+Ere God on this bank gives his doom."
+
+
+"Doom me not, sweet, to my old fears
+And pain again wherein I pine.
+My pearl that, long, long lost, appears,
+Shall I again forego, in fine?
+Meet it, and miss it through more years?
+Thou hast hurt me with that threat of thine.
+For what serves treasure but for tears,
+One must so soon his bliss resign?
+I reck not how my days decline,
+Though far from earth my soul seek room,
+Parted from that dear pearl of mine.
+Save endless dole what is man's doom?"
+
+
+"No doom save pain and soul's distress?"
+She answered: "Wherefore thinkst thou so?
+For pain of parting with the less,
+Man often lets the greater go.
+'T were better thou thy fate shouldst bless,
+And love thy God, through weal and woe;
+For anger wins not happiness;
+Who must, shall bear; bend thy pride low;
+For though thou mayst dance to and fro,
+Struggle and shriek, and fret and fume,
+When thou canst stir not, swift nor slow,
+At last, thou must endure His doom."
+
+
+"Let God doom as He doth ordain;
+He will not turn one foot aside;
+Thy good deeds mount up but in vain,
+Thou must in sorrow ever bide;
+Stint of thy strife, cease to complain,
+Seek His compassion safe and wide,
+Thy prayer His pity may obtain,
+Till Mercy all her might have tried.
+Thy anguish He will heal and hide,
+And lightly lift away thy gloom;
+For, be thou sore or satisfied,
+All is for Him to deal and doom."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Doom me not, dearest damosel;
+It is not for wrath nor bitterness,
+If rash and raving thoughts I tell.
+For sin my heart seethed in distress,
+Like bubbling water in a well.
+I cry God mercy, and confess.
+Rebuke me not with words so fell;
+I have lost all that my life did bless;
+Comfort my sorrow and redress,
+Piteously thinking upon this:
+Grief and my soul thou hast made express
+One music,--thou who wert my bliss.
+
+
+"My bliss and bale, thou hast been both,
+But joy by great grief was undone;
+When thou didst vanish, by my troth,
+I knew not where my Pearl was gone.
+To lose thee now I were most loth.
+Dear, when we parted we were one;
+Now God forbid that we be wroth,
+We meet beneath the moon or sun
+So seldom. Gently thy words run,
+But I am dust, my deeds amiss;
+The mercy of Christ and Mary and John
+Is root and ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+"A blissful life I see thee lead,
+The while that I am sorrow's mate;
+Haply thou givest little heed
+What might my burning hurt abate.
+Since I may in thy presence plead,
+I do beseech thee thou narrate,
+Soberly, surely, word and deed,
+What life is thine, early and late?
+I am fain of thy most fair estate;
+The high road of my joy is this,
+That thou hast happiness so great;
+It is the ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+She said, "May bliss to thee betide,"
+Her face with beauty beaming clear,
+"Welcome thou art here to abide,
+For now thy speech is to me dear.
+Masterful mood and haughty pride,
+I warn thee win but hatred here;
+For my Lord loveth not to chide
+And meek are all that to Him come near.
+When in His place thou shalt appear,
+To kneel devout be not remiss,
+My Lord the Lamb loveth such cheer,
+Who is the ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+"Thou sayest a blissful life I know,
+And thou wouldst learn of its degree.
+Thou rememberest when thy pearl fell low
+In earth, I was but young to see;
+But my Lord the Lamb, as if to show
+His grace, took me His bride to be,
+Crowned me a queen in bliss to go
+Through length of days eternally;
+And dowered with all His wealth is she
+Who is His love, and I am His;
+His worthiness and royalty
+Are root and ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+"My blissful one, may this be true.
+Pardon if I speak ill," I prayed:
+"Art thou the queen o' the heaven's blue,
+To whom earth's honour shall be paid?
+We believe in Mary, of grace who grew,
+A mother, yet a blameless maid;
+To wear her crown were only due
+To one who purer worth displayed.
+For perfectness by none gainsaid,
+We call her the Phoenix of Araby,
+That flies in faultless charm arrayed,
+Like to the Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"Courteous Queen," that bright one said,
+And, kneeling, lifted up her face:
+"Matchless Mother and merriest Maid,
+Blessèd Beginner of every grace."
+Then she arose, and softly stayed,
+And spoke to me across that space:
+"Sir, many seek gain here, and are paid,
+But defrauders are none within this place;
+That Empress may all heaven embrace,
+And earth and hell in her empery;
+Her from her heritage none will chase,
+For she is Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"The court of the kingdom of God doth thrive
+Only because of this wondrous thing:
+Each one who therein may arrive,
+Of the realm is either queen or king;
+And no one the other doth deprive,
+But is fain of his fellow's guerdoning,
+And would wish each crown might be worth five,
+If possible were their bettering.
+But my Lady, from whom our Lord did spring,
+Rules over all our company,
+And for that we all rejoice and sing,
+Since she is Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"Of courtesy, as says St. Paul,
+Members of Christ we may be seen.
+As head and arm and leg, and all,
+Bound to the body close have been,
+Each Christian soul himself may call
+A living limb of his Lord, I ween.
+And see how neither hate nor gall
+'Twixt limb and limb may intervene;
+The head shows neither spite nor spleen,
+Though arm and finger jewelled be,
+So fare we all in love serene,
+As kings and queens by courtesy."
+
+
+"Courtesy flowers thy folk among,
+And charity, I well believe.
+If foolish words flow from my tongue,
+Let not my speech thy spirit grieve.
+A queen in heaven while yet so young,
+Too high thou dost thyself upheave.
+Then what reward from strife were wrung?
+What worship more might he achieve
+Who lived in penance morn and eve,
+Through bodily pain in bliss to be?
+Honour more high might he receive,
+Than be crowned king by courtesy?"
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+"That courtesy rewards no deed
+If all be true that thou dost say;
+Our life not two years didst thou lead
+Nor learned to please God, nor to pray,
+No Paternoster knew nor creed,
+And made a queen on the first day!
+I may not think, so God me speed!
+That God from right would swerve away;
+As a countess, damsel, by my fay!
+To live in heaven were a fair boon,
+Or like a lady of less array,
+But a queen! Ah, no! it is too soon."
+
+
+"With Him there is no soon nor late,"
+Replied to me that worthy wight;
+"True always is His high mandate;
+He doth no evil, day nor night.
+Hear Matthew in the mass narrate,
+In the Gospel of the God of might,
+His parable portrays the state
+Of the Kingdom of Heaven, clear as light:
+'My servants,' saith He, 'I requite
+As a lord who will his vineyard prune;
+The season of the year is right,
+And labourers must be hired soon.'"
+
+
+"Right soon the hirelings all may see
+How the master with the dawn arose;
+To hire his labourers forth went he,
+And workmen stout and strong he chose.
+For a penny a day they all agree,
+Even as the master doth propose,
+They toil and travail lustily,
+Prune, bind, and with a ditch enclose.
+Then to the market-place he goes,
+And finds men idle at high noon:
+'How can a man stand here who knows
+The vineyards should be tilled so soon?'"
+
+
+"'Soon as day dawned we hither won,
+And no man hath our labour sought;
+We have been standing since rose the sun
+And no one bids us to do aught.'
+'Enter my vineyard every one,'
+The master answered quick as thought:
+'The work that each by night has done
+I will truly pay, withholding naught.'
+Among the vines they went and wrought,
+While morning, noon and afternoon,
+More labourers the master brought,
+Until the night must gather soon."
+
+
+"Soon fell the time of evensong.
+An hour before the sun was set,
+He saw more idlers, young and strong;
+His voice was sober with regret:
+'Why stand ye idle all day long?'
+'No man,' they said, 'hath hired us yet.'
+'Go to my vineyard, fear no wrong;
+Each man an honest wage shall get.'
+The day grew dark and darker yet,
+"Before the rising of the moon;
+The master who would pay his debt,
+Bade summon all the hirelings soon."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+"The lord soon called his steward: 'Go
+Bring in the men quick as ye may;
+Give them the wages that I owe,
+And, lest they aught against me say,
+Range them along here in a row,
+To each alike his penny pay;
+Start with the last who standeth low,
+And to the first proceed straightway,'
+And then the first began to pray,
+Complaining they had travailed sore:
+'These wrought but one hour of the day,
+We think we should receive the more.'"
+
+
+"'More have we served,' they muttered low,
+'Who have endured the long day's heat,
+Than these who not two hours toiled so;
+Why should their claim with ours compete?'
+Said the master: 'I pay all I owe;
+Friend, no injustice shalt thou meet;
+Take that which is thine own and go.
+For a penny we settled in the street;
+Why dost thou now for more entreat?
+Thou wast well satisfied before.
+Once made, a bargain is complete;
+Why shouldst thou, threatening, ask for more?"
+
+
+"'What can be more within my gift
+Than what I will with mine to do?
+Let not thine eyes to evil shift,
+Because I trusty am, and true.'
+'Thus I,' said Christ, 'all men shall sift.
+The last shall be the first of you;
+And the first last, however swift,
+For many are called, but chosen, few.'
+And thus poor men may have their due,
+That late and little burden bore;
+Their work may vanish like the dew,
+The mercy of God is much the more."
+
+
+"More gladness have I, herewithin,
+Of flower of life, and noble name,
+Than all men in the world might win,
+Who thought their righteous deeds to name.
+Nathless even now did I begin;
+To the vineyard as night fell I came,
+But my Lord would not account it sin;
+He paid my wages without blame.
+Yet others did not fare the same,
+Who toiled and travailed there before,
+And of their hire might nothing claim,
+Perchance shall not for a year more."
+
+
+Then more, and openly, I spake:
+"From thy tale no reason can I wring;
+God's righteousness doth ever wake,
+Else Holy Writ is a fabled thing.
+From the Psalter one verse let us take,
+That may to a point this teaching bring:
+'Thou requitest each for his deed's sake,
+Thou high and all-foreknowing King.'
+If one man to his work did cling
+All day, and thou wert paid before,
+Most wage falls to least labouring,
+And ever the less receives the more."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+"Of more or less where God doth reign,
+There is no chance," she gently said,
+"For, whether large or small his gain,
+Here every man alike is paid.
+No niggard churl our High Chieftain,
+But lavishly His gifts are made,
+Like streams from a moat that flow amain,
+Or rushing waves that rise unstayed.
+Free were his pardon whoever prayed
+Him who to save man's soul did vow,
+Unstinted his bliss, and undelayed,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"But now thou wouldst my wit checkmate,
+Making my wage as wrong appear;
+Thou say'st that I am come too late,
+Of so large hire to be worthy here;
+Yet sawest thou ever small or great,
+Living in prayer and holy fear,
+Who did not forfeit at some date
+The meed of heaven to merit clear?
+Nay much the rather, year by year,
+All bend from right and to evil bow;
+Mercy and grace their way must steer,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"But enow of grace have the innocent
+New-born, before the sacred shrine,
+They are sealed with water in sacrament,
+And thus are brought into the vine.
+Anon the day with darkness blent,
+Death by its might makes to decline;
+Who wrought no wrong ere hence they went,
+The gentle Lord receives, in fine;
+They obeyed His will, they bore His sign,
+Why should He not their claim allow?
+Yea, and reward them, I opine,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"'T is known enow that all mankind
+At first were formed for perfect bliss;
+Our forefather that boon resigned,
+All for an apple's sake, I wis;
+We fell condemned, for folly blind,
+To suffer sore in hell's abyss;
+But One a remedy did find
+Lest we our hope of heaven should miss.
+He suffered on the cross for this,
+Red blood ran from His crownèd brow;
+He saved us by that pain of His,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"Enow there flowed from out that well,
+Blood and water from His broad wound:
+The blood bought us from bale of hell,
+And from second death deliverance found.
+The water is baptism, truth to tell,
+That followed-the spear so sharply ground,
+And washes away the guilt most fell
+Of those that Adam in death had drowned.
+Now is there nothing in earth's great round,
+To bar from the bliss wherewith God did endow
+Mankind,--restored to us safe and sound,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+"Grace enow a man may get
+By penitence, though he sin again;
+But with long sorrow and regret,
+He must bear punishment and pain;
+But righteous reason will not let
+The innocent be hurt in vain;
+God never gave His judgment yet,
+That they should suffer who show no stain.
+The sinful soul of mercy fain
+Finds pardon if he will repent,
+But he who sinless doth remain
+Is surely saved, being innocent."
+
+
+"Two men are saved of God's good grace,
+Who severally have done His will:
+The righteous man shall see His face,
+The innocent dwells with Him still.
+In the Psalter thou may'st find a case:
+'Lord, who shall climb to Thy high hill,
+Or rest within Thy Holy Place?'
+The psalmist doth the sense fulfill:
+'Who with his hands did never ill,
+His heart to evil never lent,
+There to ascend he shall have skill;'
+So surely saved is the innocent."
+
+
+"That the righteous is saved I hold certain;
+Before God's palace he shall stand
+Who never took man's life in vain,
+Who never to flatter his fellow planned.
+Of the righteous, the Wise Man writeth plain
+How kindly our King doth him command;
+In ways full strait he doth restrain,
+Yet shows him the kingdom great and grand,
+As who saith: 'Behold! yon lovely land!
+Thou may'st win it, if so thy will be bent.'
+But with never peril on either hand,
+Surely saved is the innocent."
+
+
+"Of the righteous saved, hear one man say--
+David, who in the Psalter cried:
+'O Lord, call never Thy servant to pay,
+For no man living is justified.'
+So thou, if thou shalt come one day
+To the court that each cause must decide,
+For mercy with justice thou may'st pray
+Through this same text that I espied.
+But may He on the bloody cross that died,
+His holy hands with hard nails rent,
+Give thee to pass when thou art tried,
+Saved, not as righteous, but innocent."
+
+
+"Of the sinless saved the tale is told,--
+Read in the Book where it is said:
+When Jesus walked, among men of old,
+The people a passage to Him made;
+Bringing their bairns for Him to hold,
+For the blessing of His hand they prayed.
+The twelve reproved them: 'Overbold
+To seek the Master;' and sternly stayed.
+But Jesus said: 'Be ye not afraid;
+Suffer the children, nor prevent;
+God's kingdom is for such arrayed.'
+Surely saved are the innocent."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+"Christ called to Him the innocents mild,
+And said His kingdom no man might win,
+Unless he came thither as a child,--Not
+otherwise might he enter in,
+Harmless, faithful, undefiled,
+With never a spot of soiling sin,--For
+these whom the world has not beguiled
+Gladly shall one the gate unpin.
+There shall that endless bliss begin,
+The merchant sought, and straight was led
+To barter all stuffs men weave and spin,
+To buy him a pearl unblemished."
+
+
+"'This pearl unblemished, bought so dear,
+For which the merchant his riches gave,
+Is like the kingdom of heaven clear;'
+So said the Father of world and wave.
+It is a flawless, perfect sphere,
+Polished and pure, and bright and brave;
+As on my heart it doth appear,
+It is common to all who to virtue clave.
+My Lord, the Lamb Who died to save,
+Here set it in token of His blood shed
+For peace. Then let the wild world rave,
+But buy thee this pearl unblemishèd."
+
+
+"O Pearl unblemished, in pure pearls dressed,
+That beareth," said I, "the pearl of price,
+Who formed thy figure-and thy vest?
+Truly he wrought with cunning nice;
+For thy beauty, above nature's best,
+Passeth Pygmalion's artifice;
+Nor Aristotle the lore possessed
+To depict in words so fair device.
+Than fleur-de-lys thou art fairer thrice,
+Angel-mannered and courtly bred,--
+Tell to me truly: in Paradise
+What meaneth the pearl unblemished?"
+
+
+"My spotless Lamb, who all doth heal,"
+She answered, "my dear Destiny,
+Chose me in marriage bond to seal;
+Unfit, He graced me regally,
+From your world's woe come into weal.
+He called me of His courtesy:
+'Come hither to me, my lover leal,
+For mote nor spot is none in thee.'
+He gave me my might and great beauty;
+He washed my weeds in His blood so red,
+And crowned me, forever clean to be,
+And clothed me in pearls unblemishèd."
+
+
+"Unblemished bride, bright to behold,
+That royalty hath so rich and rare,
+What is this Lamb, that thou hast told
+How for wedded wife He called thee there?
+Above all others dost thou make bold,
+As His chosen lady His life to share?
+So many, comely in combs of gold,
+For Christ have lived in strife and care,
+Must these to a lower place repair,
+That never any with Him may wed,
+Save only thyself, so proud and fair,
+Peerless Queen, and unblemished?"
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+"Unblemished," answered she again,
+"Without a spot of black or gray,
+With honour may I this maintain;
+But 'peerless Queen' I did not say.
+Brides of the Lamb in bliss we reign,
+An hundred and forty thousand gay,
+As in the Apocalypse is made plain,
+Saint John beheld them on a day;
+On the hill of Zion he saw them stay,
+In vision his spirit looked on them,
+For the wedding clad in bright-array,
+At the city of New Jerusalem."
+
+
+"Of Jerusalem in speech I tell;
+And what He is if thou wouldst see--
+My Lamb, my Lord, my dear Jewel,
+My Joy, my Love, my Bliss so free,--
+The prophet Isaiah writeth well
+Of His most mild humility:
+'Guiltless, when men upon Him fell
+For never a fault nor felony,
+As a sheep to the slaughter led was He;
+Quiet, the while the crowd contemn,
+As a lamb in the shearer's hands might be,
+He was judged by Jews in Jerusalem.'"
+
+
+"In Jerusalem was my Lover slain,
+Rent on the rood by ruffians bold;
+To bear our ills He was full fain,
+To suffer our sorrows manifold;
+Buffeted until blood did stain
+That face so lovely to behold;
+He took upon Him all sin and pain,
+Even He of Whom not one sin is told;
+On the rude cross stretched faint and cold,
+He let men deride him and condemn;
+Meek as a lamb, betrayed and sold,
+He died for us in Jerusalem."
+
+
+"At Jerusalem, Jordan and Galilee,
+Wherever Saint John came to baptize,
+His words with Isaiah's words agree.
+On Jesus he lifted up his eyes,
+Speaking of Him this prophecy:
+'Behold the Lamb of God!' he cries:
+'Who bears the world's sins, this is He!
+The guilt of all upon Him lies,
+Though He wrought evil in no wise.
+The branches springing from that stem
+Who can recount? 'T is He who dies
+For our sake in Jerusalem.'"
+
+
+"In Jerusalem my Lover sweet
+Twice as a lamb did thus appear,
+Even as the prophets both repeat,
+So meek the mien that He did wear;
+The third time also, as is meet,
+In the Revelation is written clear.
+Reading a book on His high seat
+Midmost the throne that saints ensphere,
+The Apostle John beheld Him near;
+That book seven sacred seals begem;
+And at that sight all folk felt fear
+In hell, in earth and Jerusalem."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+This Jerusalem Lamb had never stain
+Of other hue than perfect white,
+That showeth neither streak nor strain
+Of soil, but is like wool to sight;
+And souls that free of sin remain
+The Lamb receiveth with delight;
+And, though each day a group we gain,
+There comes no strife for room nor right,
+Nor rivalry our bliss to blight.
+The more the merrier, I profess.
+In company our love grows bright,
+In honour more and never less.
+
+
+"Lessening of bliss no comer brings
+To us who bear this pearl at breast;
+Nor show they flaws nor tarnishings
+Who wear such pure pearls like a crest.
+Though round our corpses the clay clings,
+And though ye mourn us without rest,
+Knowledge have we of goodly things.
+Through the first death our hope we test;
+Grief goes; at each mass we are blest
+By the Lamb Who gives us happiness;
+The bliss of each is bright and best,
+And no one's honour is the less."
+
+
+"That thou my tale the less may doubt,
+In the Revelation 'tis told, and more:
+'I saw,' says John, 'a goodly rout
+The hill of Zion covering o'er,
+The Lamb, with maidens round about,
+An hundred thousand and forty and four,
+And each brow, fairly written out,
+The Lamb's name and His Father's bore.
+Then a sound from heaven I heard outpour,
+As streams, full laden, foam and press,
+Or as thunders among dark crags roar,
+The tumult was, and nothing less."
+
+
+"'Nathless, though high that shout might ring,
+And loud the voices sounding near,
+A strain full new I heard them sing,
+And sweet and strange it was to hear.
+Like harper's hands upon the string
+Was that new song they sang so clear;
+The noble notes went vibrating,
+And gentle words came to my ear.
+Close by God's throne, without one fear,
+Where the four beasts His power confess,
+And the elders stand so grave of cheer,
+They sang their new song, none the less."
+
+
+"'Nathless is none with skill so fine,
+For all the crafts that ever he knew,
+That of that song might sing a line;
+Save these that hold the Lamb in view;
+From earth brought to that land divine,
+As first fruits that to God are due,
+They serve the Lamb and bear His sign,
+As like Himself in face and hue;
+For never lying nor tale untrue
+Defiled their lips in life's distress;'
+Whatever might move them, they but drew
+Nearer the Master, none the less."
+
+
+"Nevertheless, speak out I must,
+My Pearl, though queries rude I pose.
+To try thy fair wit were unjust
+Whom Christ to His own chamber chose.
+Behold, I am but dung and dust,
+And thou a rare and radiant rose,
+Abiding here in life, and lust
+Of loveliness that ever grows.
+A hind that no least cunning knows,
+I needs must my one doubt express;
+Though boisterous as the wind that blows,
+Let my prayer move thee none the less."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+Yet, none the less, on thee I call,
+If thou wilt listen verily,
+As thou art glorious over all,
+Hearken the while I question thee.
+Within some splendid castle wall,
+Have ye not dwellings fair to see?
+Of David's city, rich, royal,
+Jerusalem, thou tellest me.
+In Palestine its place must be;
+In wildwood such none ever saw.
+Since spotless is your purity,
+Your dwellings should be free from flaw.
+
+
+"Now this most fair and flawless rout,
+Thronging thousands, as thou dost tell,
+They must possess, beyond a doubt,
+A sightly city wherein to dwell.
+'T were strange that they should live without;
+For so bright a band it were not well;
+Yet I see no building hereabout.
+Dost thou linger as in a woodland cell,
+Alone and hidden, for the spell
+Of rushing stream and shining shaw?
+If thou hast a dwelling beyond this dell,
+Now show me that city free from flaw."
+
+
+"Not flawless the city in Juda's land,"
+That gentle one gently to me spake,
+"But the Lamb did bless it when He planned
+To suffer there sorely for man's sake.
+That is the old city we understand,
+And there the bonds of old guilt did break;
+But the new, alighted from God's hand,
+The Apostle John for his theme did take.
+The Lamb Who is white with never a flake
+Of black, did thither His fair folk draw;
+For His flock no fenced fold need He make,
+Nor moat for His city free from flaw."
+
+
+"To figure flawlessly what may mean
+Jerusalems twain: the first of those
+Was 'the Sight of Peace' as it is seen
+In the word of God, for the gospel shows
+How there our peace made sure hath been,
+Since to suffer therein the Saviour chose;
+In the other is always peace to glean,
+Peace that never an ending knows.
+To that city bright the spirit goes
+When the flesh hath fallen beneath death's law;
+There glorious gladness forever grows
+For His fair folk that are free from flaw."
+
+
+"Flawless maid so mild and meek,"
+Then said I to that lovely flower:
+"Let me that stately city seek,
+And let me see thy blissful bower."
+That bright one said, "Thou art too weak,
+Thou may'st not enter to its tower;
+Yet of the Lamb I did bespeak
+This goodly gift, that He would dower
+Thine eyes with the sight for one short hour,--
+From without,--within none ever saw;
+To step in that street thou hast no power,
+Unless thy soul were free from flaw."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+"This flawless sight I will not hide;
+Up toward the brook's head thou must go,
+While I will follow on this side,
+Till yonder hill the city show."
+And then I would no longer bide,
+But stole through branches, bending low,
+Till from the summit I espied,
+Through green boughs swaying to and fro,
+Afar, the city, all aglow,
+That brighter than bright sunbeams shone.
+In writing it is pictured so,
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+As John the Apostle saw the sight,
+I saw that city, standing near
+Jerusalem, so royal dight,
+As if from Heaven alighted here.
+The city all of gold burned bright,
+Like gleaming glass that glistens clear.
+With precious stones beneath set right:
+Foundations twelve of gems most dear,
+Wrought wondrous richly, tier on tier.
+Each base was of a separate stone
+As, perfectly, it doth appear
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+John named the stones that he had seen,
+I knew the order that he made;
+The first a jasper must have been,
+That on the lowest base was laid,
+Beneath the rest it glinted green;
+A sapphire in the second grade;
+Chalcedony, from blemish clean,
+In the third course was fair arrayed;
+Fourth, emerald, of greenest shade,
+Fifth, sardonyx, was raised thereon;
+The sixth a ruby, as is said
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+John joined to these the chrysolite,
+The seventh gem in that basement;
+The eighth, a beryl, clear and white;
+The topaz, ninth, its luster lent;
+Tenth, chrysophrase, both soft and bright;
+Eleventh, the jacinth, translucent;
+And twelfth, and noblest to recite,
+Amethyst, blue with purple blent.
+The wall above those basements went
+Jasper, like glass that glistening shone;
+I saw, as the story doth present,--
+The Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+I saw, as John doth clear devise:
+The great stones rose like a broad stair;
+Above, the city, to my eyes,
+In height, length, breadth appeared four-square;
+The jasper wall shone amber-wise,
+The golden streets as glass gleamed fair;
+The dwellings glowed in glorious guise
+With every stone most rich and rare.
+Each length of bright wall builded there
+For full twelve furlongs' space stretched on,
+And height, length, breadth all equal were:
+"I saw one mete it," writeth John.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+As John doth write more met mine eye:
+Within each wall were set three gates;
+Twelve in succession I could spy,
+Portals adorned with bright gold plates;
+Each gate a single pearl saw I,
+A perfect pearl, as John relates.
+On each a name was written high
+Of Israel's sons after their dates,
+The oldest first, as the story states.
+Within those streets by night or noon,
+Light beams that not one hour abates;
+They needed neither sun nor moon.
+
+
+Of sun or moon they had no need;
+For God Himself was their lamp light,
+The Lamb their lantern was indeed;
+From Him the city shone all bright.
+Through wall and dwelling my looks might speed,
+Such clearness could not hinder sight.
+Of the high throne ye might take heed,
+With draperies of radiant white,
+As John the Apostle doth endite;
+High God Himself did sit thereon.
+From the throne a river welled outright
+Was brighter than both sun and moon.
+
+
+Sun nor moon shone never so sweet
+As the full flood of that bright stream;
+Swiftly it swept through every street,
+Untainted did the water gleam.
+Chapel nor church mine eyes did meet;
+Therein is no temple as I deem;
+The Almighty is their minster meet,
+The Lamb their sacrifice supreme.
+The gates with neither bolt nor beam,
+Wide open stand at night and noon;
+To enter there let no man dream
+Whom sin hath stained beneath the moon.
+
+
+The moon may there win no least might,
+She is too spotty, grey and grim;
+Therein, moreover, is never night,
+Why should the moon fill full her rim
+To rival the all-glorious light
+That beams upon the river's brim?
+The planets are in poorest plight;
+The sun itself is far too dim.
+Beside the stream trees tall and trim
+Bear living fruits that none doth prune;
+Twelve times a year bends low each limb,
+Renewed with fruitage every moon.
+
+
+Beneath the moon full well might fail
+The heart of mortal to endure
+The marvel that did mine eyes assail,
+Fashioned the fancy to allure.
+I stood as still as a startled quail,
+For wonder of its fair figure,
+I felt no rest and no travail,
+Ravished before such radiance pure.
+I say, and with conviction sure,
+Had the eyes of man received that boon,
+Though wisest clerks sought for his cure,
+His life were lost beneath the moon.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+Now, even as the full moon might rise
+Ere daylight doth to darkness fall,
+Sudden I saw with still surprise
+Within that shining city-wall,
+The streets full-thronged in wondrous wise,
+Silent, with never a herald's call,
+With virgins in the selfsame guise
+As my beloved, sweet and small.
+Each head was crowned with coronal,
+Pearl-wrought, and every robe was white;
+On each breast bound, imperial,
+The Pearl of Price with great delight.
+
+
+With great delight together going
+On glassy golden streets they tread;
+To a hundred thousand swiftly growing,
+And all alike were they garmented:
+The gladdest face who could be knowing?
+The Lamb did proudly pass ahead,
+His seven horns of clear red gold glowing,
+His robes like pearls high valuèd.
+On toward the throne their way they thread,
+None crowded in that band so bright,
+But mild as maidens when mass is said,
+So fared they forth with great delight.
+
+
+The great delight His coming gave,
+It were too much for me to tell.
+When He approached the Elders grave,
+Prone there before His feet they fell;
+Legions of summoned angels brave
+Swayed censers of the sweetest smell;
+With music like a mighty wave,
+All sang in praise of that gay Jewel.
+The hymn might strike through earth to hell
+That with joy those hosts of heaven recite;
+To praise the Lamb I liked full well,
+Amid the group in great delight.
+
+
+Delighted, I would fain devise
+His loveliness, with mind intent:
+First was He, blithest, best to prize,
+Of all on whom man's speech is spent;
+So nobly white His draperies,
+Such grace His simple glances lent;
+But a wide, wet wound my gaze descries
+Beneath His heart, through His skin rent;
+Down His white side the blood was sent.
+Alas! I thought, what scorn or spite
+Could any human heart have bent
+In such a deed to take delight?
+
+
+The Lamb's delight might no man doubt,
+Though that wide wound His hurt displayed,
+From His fair face looked lovely out
+Glad glances, glorious, unafraid,
+I looked upon His shining rout,
+With fullest life so bright arrayed,
+My little queen there moved about,
+I had thought beside me in the glade.
+Ah Lord! how much of mirth she made!
+Among her peers she was so white!
+The stream I surely needs must wade,
+For longing love, in great delight.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+Delight that flooded eye and ear
+My mortal mind beatified;
+When I saw her, I must reach my dear,
+Though she beyond the brook abide.
+Nothing, I thought, could keep me here,
+No crippling blow hold my strength tied;
+I would plunge, whatever interfere,
+And swim the stream, though there I died.
+But ere the water I had tried,
+Even as I would my vow fulfill,
+From my purpose I was turned aside;
+It was not to my Prince's will.
+
+
+My wilful purpose pleased not Him,
+That I with headlong zeal essayed;
+Though I was rash of thought and limb,
+Yet suddenly my deed was stayed.
+As I sprang forward to the brim,
+The action in my dreaming made
+Me waken in my arbour trim.
+My head upon the mound was laid
+Where my pearl to the grass once strayed.
+I stretched my body, frightened, chill,
+And, sighing, to myself I said:
+"Now all be to the Prince's will."
+
+
+Against my will was I exiled
+From that bright region, fair and fain,
+From that life, glad and undefiled,
+And longing dulled my sense again;
+I swooned in sorrow for the child,
+Needs must my heart cry and complain:
+"O Pearl, dear was thy counsel mild,
+In this true vision of my brain!
+If very truth divide us twain;
+If thou goest crowned, secure from ill,
+Well for me in my prison-pain
+That thou art to the Prince's will."
+
+
+To the Prince's will had my heart bent,
+And sought but what to me was given,
+Held fast to that, with true intent,
+As my Pearl prayed me out of heaven;
+Did I to God my thoughts present,
+More in His mysteries had I thriven.
+But a man will seek more than is sent,
+Till from his hand his hope be riven.
+Thus from my joy was I forth driven,
+From the life upon that holy hill.
+Oh, fools, that with the Lord have striven,
+Or proffered gifts against his will!
+
+
+The Prince's will to serve aright
+The Christian may full well divine;
+For I have found Him, day and night,
+A God, a Lord, a Friend in fine.
+Upon this mound my soul hath sight,
+Where I for piteous sorrow pine;
+My Pearl to God I pledge and plight,
+With Christ's dear blessing and with mine,--
+His, who, in form of bread and wine,
+The priest doth daily show us still.
+His servants may we be, or shine,
+Pure pearls, according to his will.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pearl, by Sophie Jewett
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pearl, by Sophie Jewett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pearl
+
+Author: Sophie Jewett
+
+Release Date: August 18, 2004 [EBook #13211]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PEARL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreaders Team
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PEARL
+
+
+A MIDDLE ENGLISH POEM
+
+
+A MODERN VERSION IN THE METRE OF THE ORIGINAL
+
+BY
+
+SOPHIE JEWETT
+
+ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN WELLESLEY COLLEGE
+
+
+
+1908
+
+
+
+To KATHARINE LEE BATES
+
+THE TRANSLATOR TO THE AUTHOR
+
+     Poet of beauty, pardon me
+     If touch of mine have tarnished
+     Thy Pearl's pure luster, loved by thee;
+     Or dimmed thy vision of the dead
+     Alive in light and gaiety.
+     Thy life is like a shadow fled;
+     Thy place we know not nor degree,
+     The stock that bore thee, school that bred;
+     Yet shall thy fame be sung and said.
+     Poet of wonder, pain, and peace,
+     Hold high thy nameless, laurelled head
+     Where Dante dwells with Beatrice.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+Among the treasures of the British Museum is a manuscript which
+contains four anonymous poems, apparently of common authorship: "The
+Pearl," "Cleanness," "Patience," "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight."
+From the language of the writer, it seems clear that he was a native
+of some Northwestern district of England, and that he lived in the
+second half of the Fourteenth Century. He is quite unknown, save as
+his work reveals him, a man of aristocratic breeding, of religious and
+secular education, of a deeply emotional and spiritual nature, gifted
+with imagination and perception of beauty. He shows a liking for
+technique that leads him to adopt elaborate devices of rhyme, while
+retaining the alliteration characteristic of Northern Middle English
+verse. He wrote as was the fashion of his time, allegory, homily,
+lament, chivalric romance, but the distinction of his poetry is that
+of a finely accentuated individuality.
+
+The poems called "Cleanness" and "Patience," retell incidents of
+biblical history for a definitely didactic purpose, but even these are
+frequently lifted into the region of imaginative literature by the
+author's power of graphic description. "Sir Gawayne and the Green
+Knight" is a priceless contribution to Arthurian story. "The Pearl,"
+though it takes the form of symbolic narrative, is essentially lyric
+and elegiac, the lament, it would seem, of a father for a little,
+long-lost daughter.
+
+The present translation of "The Pearl" was begun with no larger design
+than that of turning a few passages into modern English, by way of
+illustrating to a group of students engaged in reading the original,
+the possibility of preserving intricate stanzaic form, and something
+of alliteration, without an entire sacrifice of poetic beauty. The
+experiment was persisted in because its problems are such as baffle
+and fascinate a translator, and the finished version is offered not
+merely to students of Middle English but to college classes in the
+history of English literature, and to non-academic readers.
+
+If "The Pearl" presented no greater obstacle to a modern reader than
+is offered by Chaucer's English, a translation might be a gratuitous
+task, but the Northwest-Midland dialect of the poem is, in fact,
+incomparably more difficult than the diction of Chaucer, more
+difficult even than that of Langland. The meaning of many passages
+remains obscure, and a translator is often forced to choose what seems
+the least dubious among doubtful readings.
+
+The poem in the original passes frequently from imaginative beauty to
+conversational commonplace, from deep feeling to didactic aphorism or
+theological dogma, and it has been my endeavor faithfully to interpret
+these variations of matter and of style, sometimes substituting modern
+colloquialisms for such as are obsolete, or in other ways paraphrasing
+a stubborn passage, but striving never to polish the dullest lines nor
+to strengthen the weakest.
+
+A reader who will observe the difficult rhyming scheme, a scheme that
+calls for six words of one rhyme and four of another, will understand
+the presence of forced lines, an intrusion that one must needs suffer
+in even "The Faerie Queene." These padded lines are a serious blemish
+to the poem, but the introduction of naive and familiar expressions is
+one of its charms, as when the Pearl, protesting like Piccarda in
+Paradise[1] that among beatified spirits there can be no rivalry,
+exclaims: "The more the merrier."[2]
+
+The translation may, at many points, need apology, but the original
+needs only explanation. Readers familiar with mediaeval poetry expect
+to encounter moral platitudes and theological subtlety. Dogma takes
+large and vital place in the sublimest cantos of Dante's "Paradise,"
+and the English poet is consciously following his noblest master when
+he puts a sermon into the lips of his "little queen." To modern ears
+such exposition is at harsh discord with the simple human grief and
+longing of the poet, but to the mediaevalist symbolic theology was a
+passion. Precisely in the moment when she begins a discourse
+concerning the doctrine of redemption, Beatrice turns upon Dante "eyes
+that might make a man happy in the fire," and at its close he looks
+upon her and beholds her "grow more beautiful."[3] If even Beatrice
+has been considered mere personification, it is natural that the Pearl
+should be so regarded, but the plain reader finds in the symbolic
+maiden of the English poem, as in the transfigured lady of the
+Italian, some record of a human being whose loss was anguish, and
+whose presence rapture, to a poet long ago.
+
+The lover of things mediaeval will find in this little book not only
+the familiar garden of Guillaume de Lorris, of Boccaccio and of
+Chaucer, but an unexpected and enchanting vision of great forest and
+rushing water, of hillside and plain, of crystal cliffs and
+flame-winged birds; of the Pearl among her white peers; of the
+Apocalyptic Jerusalem, discovered to the poet, it may be, as a goodly
+Gothic city, though its walls are built of precious stone, and its
+towers rise from neither church nor minster.
+
+If even a few readers turn from the modern to the original version,
+the translation will have had fair fortune, for the author of "The
+Pearl" is, though unknown and unnamed, a poet second only to Chaucer
+in Chaucer's generation.
+
+It is a pleasure to record my many debts of gratitude: to Professor
+Frank H. Chase of Beloit, Professor John L. Lowes of Swarthmore, and
+Dr. Charles G. Osgood of Princeton, for their careful reading of the
+translation in manuscript, with invaluable assistance and suggestion;
+to Professor Martha Hale Shackford, and Miss Laura A. Hibbard, for
+constant aid while the work was in making, and, above all, to
+Professor Katharine Lee Bates for a critical, line by line, comparison
+of this version with the original.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: Par. III.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Pearl, stanza 71.]
+
+[Footnote 3:  Par. VII, II. 17-18; Par. VIII, I. 15.]
+
+
+S.J.
+WELLESLEY COLLEGE,
+June, 1908.
+
+
+EDITIONS: R. Morris, Early English text Sc. 1864; I. Gollancz, London,
+1891; C.G. Osgood, Boston, 1906 (with admirable introduction, etc.).
+TRANSLATIONS: Gollancz (above); S. Weir Mitchell, New York, 1906
+(poetic, but incomplete); G.G. Coulton, London, 1906 (metre of the
+original); C.G. Osgood, Princeton, 1907 (prose).
+
+
+
+
+THE PEARL
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Pearl that the Prince full well might prize,
+So surely set in shining gold!
+No pearl of Orient with her vies;
+To prove her peerless I make bold:
+So round, so radiant to mine eyes,
+smooth she seemed, so small to hold,
+Among all jewels judges wise
+Would count her best an hundred fold.
+Alas! I lost my pearl of old!
+I pine with heart-pain unforgot;
+Down through my arbour grass it rolled,
+My own pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Since in that spot it slipped from me
+I wait, and wish, and oft complain;
+Once it would bid my sorrow flee,
+And my fair fortune turn again;
+It wounds my heart now ceaselessly,
+And burns my breast with bitter pain.
+Yet never so sweet a song may be
+As, this still hour, steals through my brain,
+While verity I muse in vain
+How clay should her bright beauty clot;
+O Earth! a brave gem thou dost stain,
+My own pearl, precious, without spot!
+
+
+Needs must that spot with spices spread,
+Where such wealth falleth to decay;
+Fair flowers, golden and blue and red,
+Shine in the sunlight day by day;
+Nor flower nor fruit have withered
+On turf wherein such treasure lay;
+The blade grows where the grain lies dead,
+Else were no ripe wheat stored away;
+Of good come good things, so we say,
+Then surely such seed faileth not,
+But spices spring in sweet array
+From my pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Once, to that spot of which I rhyme,
+I entered, in the arbour green,
+In August, the high summer-time
+When corn is cut with sickles keen;
+Upon the mound where my pearl fell,
+Tall, shadowing herbs grew bright and sheen,
+Gilliflower, ginger and gromwell,
+With peonies powdered all between.
+As it was lovely to be seen,
+So sweet the fragrance there, I wot,
+Worthy her dwelling who hath been
+My own pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+Upon that spot my hands I crossed
+In prayer, for cold at my heart caught,
+And sudden sorrow surged and tossed,
+Though reason reconcilement sought.
+I mourned my pearl, dear beyond cost,
+And strange fears with my fancy fought;
+My will in wretchedness was lost,
+And yet Christ comforted my thought.
+Such odours to my sense were brought,
+I fell upon that flowery plot,
+Sleeping,--a sleep with dreams inwrought
+Of my pearl, precious, without spot.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+From the spot my spirit springs into space,
+The while my body sleeping lies;
+My ghost is gone in God's good grace,
+Adventuring mid mysteries;
+I know not what might be the place,
+But I looked where tall cliffs cleave the skies,
+Toward a forest I turned my face,
+Where ranks of radiant rocks arise.
+A man might scarce believe his eyes,
+Such gleaming glory was from them sent;
+No woven web may men devise
+Of half such wondrous beauties blent.
+
+
+In beauty shone each fair hillside
+With crystal cliffs in shining row,
+While bright woods everywhere abide,
+Their boles as blue as indigo;
+Like silver clear the leaves spread wide,
+That on each spray thick-quivering grow;
+If a flash of light across them glide
+With shimmering sheen they gleam and glow;
+The gravel on the ground below
+Seemed precious pearls of Orient;
+The sunbeams did but darkling show
+So gloriously those beauties blent.
+
+
+The beauty of the hills so fair
+Made me forget my sufferings;
+I breathed fruit fragrance fine and rare,
+As if I fed on unseen things;
+Brave birds fly through the woodland there,
+Of flaming hues, and each one sings;
+With their mad mirth may not compare
+Cithern nor gayest citole-strings;
+For when those bright birds beat their wings,
+They sing together, all content;
+Keen joy to any man it brings
+To hear and see such beauties blent.
+
+
+So beautiful was all the wood
+Where, guided forth by Chance, I strayed,
+There is no tongue that fully could
+Describe it, though all men essayed.
+Onward I walked in merriest mood
+Nor any highest hill delayed
+My feet. Far through the forest stood
+The plain with fairest trees arrayed,
+Hedges and slopes and rivers wide,
+Like gold thread their banks' garnishment;
+And when I won the waterside,
+Dear Lord! what wondrous beauties blent!
+
+
+The beauties of that stream were steep,
+All-radiant banks of beryl bright;
+Sweet-sighing did the water sweep,
+With murmuring music running light;
+Within its bed fair stones lay deep;
+As if through glass they glowed, as white
+As streaming stars when tired men sleep
+Shine in the sky on a winter night.
+Pure emerald even the pebbles seemed,
+Sapphire, or other gems that lent
+Luster, till all the water gleamed
+With the glory of such beauties blent.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+For the beauteousness of downs and dales,
+Of wood and water and proud plains,
+My joy springs up and my grief quails,
+My anguish ends, and all my pains.
+A swift stream down the valley hales
+My feet along. Bliss brims my brains;
+The farther I follow those watery vales,
+The stronger joy my heart constrains.
+While Fortune fares as her proud will deigns,
+Sending solace or sending sore,
+When a man her fickle favour gains,
+He looketh to have aye more and more.
+
+
+There was more of marvel and of grace
+Than I could tell, howe'er I tried;
+The human heart that could embrace
+A tenth part were well satisfied;
+For Paradise, the very place,
+Must be upon that farther side;
+The water by a narrow space
+Pleasance from pleasance did divide.
+Beyond, on some slope undescried
+The City stood, I thought, wherefore
+I strove to cross the river's tide,
+And ever I longed, yet more and more.
+
+
+More, and still more wistfully,
+The banks beyond the brook I scanned;
+If, where I stood, 't was fair to see,
+Still lovelier lay that farther land.
+I sought if any ford might be
+Found, up or down, by rock or sand;
+But perils plainer appeared to me,
+The farther I strode along the strand;
+I thought I ought not thus to stand
+Timid, with such bright bliss before;
+Then a new matter came to hand
+That moved my heart yet more and more.
+
+
+Marvels more and more amaze
+My mind beyond that water fair:
+From a cliff of crystal, splendid rays,
+Reflected, quiver in the air.
+At the cliff's foot a vision stays
+My glance, a maiden debonaire,
+All glimmering white before my gaze;
+And I know her,--have seen her otherwhere.
+Like fine gold leaf one cuts with care,
+Shone the maiden on the farther shore.
+Long time I looked upon her there,
+And ever I knew her more and more.
+
+
+As more and more I scanned her face
+And form, when I had found her so,
+A glory of gladness filled the place
+Beyond all it was wont to show.
+My joy would call her and give chase,
+But wonder struck my courage low;
+I saw her in so strange a place,
+The shock turned my heart dull and slow.
+But now she lifts that brow aglow,
+Like ivory smooth, even as of yore,
+It made my senses straying go,
+It stung my heart aye more and more.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+More than I liked did my fear rise.
+Stock still I stood and dared not call;
+With lips close shut and watchful eyes,
+I stood as quiet as hawk in hall.
+I thought her a spirit from the skies;
+I doubted what thing might befall;
+If to escape me now she tries,
+How shall my voice her flight forestall?
+Then graciously and gay withal,
+In royal robes, so sweet, so slight,
+She rose, so modest and so small,
+That precious one in pearls bedight.
+
+
+Pearl bedight full royally,
+Adown the bank with merry mien,
+Came the maiden, fresh as fleur-de-lys.
+Her surcoat linen must have been
+Shining in whitest purity,
+Slashed at the sides and caught between
+With the fairest pearls, it seemed to me,
+That ever yet mine eyes had seen;
+With large folds falling loose, I ween,
+Arrayed with double pearls, her white
+Kirtle, of the same linen sheen,
+With precious pearls all round was dight.
+
+
+A crown with pearls bedight, the girl
+Was wearing, and no other stone;
+High pinnacled of clear white pearl,
+Wrought as if pearls to flowers were grown.
+No band nor fillet else did furl
+The long locks all about her thrown.
+Her air demure as duke or earl,
+Her hue more white than walrus-bone;
+Like sheer gold thread the bright hair strown
+Loose on her shoulders, lying light.
+Her colour took a deeper tone
+With bordering pearls so fair bedight.
+
+
+Bedight was every hem, and bound,
+At wrists, sides, and each aperture,
+With pearls the whitest ever found,--
+White all her brave investiture;
+But a wondrous pearl, a flawless round,
+Upon her breast was set full sure;
+A man's mind it might well astound,
+And all his wits to madness lure.
+I thought that no tongue might endure
+Fully to tell of that sweet sight,
+So was it perfect, clear and pure,
+That precious pearl with pearls bedight.
+
+
+Bedight in pearls, lest my joy cease,
+That lovely one came down the shore;
+The gladdest man from here to Greece,
+The eagerest, was I, therefore;
+She was nearer kin than aunt or niece,
+And thus my joy was much the more.
+She spoke to me for my soul's peace,
+Courtesied with her quaint woman's lore,
+Caught off the shining crown she wore,
+And greeted me with glance alight.
+I blessed my birth; my bliss brimmed o'er
+To answer her in pearls bedight.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+"O Pearl," I said, "in pearls bedight,
+Art thou my pearl for which I mourn,
+Lamenting all alone at night?
+With hidden grief my heart is worn.
+Since thou through grass didst slip from sight,
+Pensive and pained, I pass forlorn,
+And thou livest in a life of light,
+A world where enters sin nor scorn.
+What fate has hither my jewel borne,
+And left me in earth's strife and stir?
+Oh, sweet, since we in twain were torn,
+I have been a joyless jeweler."
+
+
+That Jewel then with gems besprent
+Glanced up at me with eyes of grey,
+Put on her pearl crown orient,
+And soberly began to say:
+"You tell your tale with wrong intent,
+Thinking your pearl gone quite away.
+Like a jewel within a coffer pent,
+In this gracious garden bright and gay,
+Your pearl may ever dwell at play,
+Where sin nor mourning come to her;
+It were a joy to thee alway
+Wert thou a gentle jeweler.
+
+
+"But, Jeweler, if thou dost lose
+Thy joy for a gem once dear to thee,
+Methinks thou dost thy mind abuse,
+Bewildered by a fantasy;
+Thou hast lost nothing save a rose
+That flowered and failed by life's decree:
+Because the coffer did round it close,
+A precious pearl it came to be.
+A thief thou hast dubbed thy destiny
+That something for nothing gives thee, sir;
+Thou blamest thy sorrow's remedy,
+Thou art no grateful jeweler."
+
+
+Like jewels did her story fall,
+A jewel, every gentle clause;
+"Truly," I said, "thou best of all!
+My great distress thy voice withdraws.
+I thought my pearl lost past recall,
+My jewel shut within earth's jaws;
+But now I shall keep festival,
+And dwell with it in bright wood-shaws;
+And love my Lord and all His laws,
+Who hath brought this bliss. Ah! if I were
+Beyond these waves, I should have cause
+To be a joyful jeweler."
+
+
+"Jeweler," said that Gem so dear,
+"Why jest ye men, so mad ye be?
+Three sayings thou hast spoken clear,
+And unconsidered were all three;
+Their meaning thou canst not come near,
+Thy word before thy thought doth flee.
+First, thou believest me truly here,
+Because with eyes thou mayst me see;
+Second, with me in this country
+Thou wilt dwell, whatever may deter;
+Third, that to cross here thou art free:
+That may no joyful jeweler."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The jeweler merits little praise,
+Who loves but what he sees with eye,
+And it were a discourteous phrase
+To say our Lord would make a lie,
+Who surely pledged thy soul to raise,
+Though fate should cause thy flesh to die.
+Thou dost twist His words in crooked ways
+Believing only what is nigh;
+This is but pride and bigotry,
+That a good man may ill assume,
+To hold no matter trustworthy
+Till like a judge he hear and doom.
+
+
+"Whate'er thy doom, dost thou complain
+As man should speak to God most high?
+Thou wouldst gladly dwell in this domain;
+'T were best, methinks, for leave to apply.
+Even so, perchance, thou pleadest in vain.
+Across this water thou wouldst fly,--
+To other end thou must attain.
+Thy corpse to clay comes verily,--
+In Paradise 't was ruined by
+Our forefather. Now in the womb
+Of dreary death each man must lie,
+Ere God on this bank gives his doom."
+
+
+"Doom me not, sweet, to my old fears
+And pain again wherein I pine.
+My pearl that, long, long lost, appears,
+Shall I again forego, in fine?
+Meet it, and miss it through more years?
+Thou hast hurt me with that threat of thine.
+For what serves treasure but for tears,
+One must so soon his bliss resign?
+I reck not how my days decline,
+Though far from earth my soul seek room,
+Parted from that dear pearl of mine.
+Save endless dole what is man's doom?"
+
+
+"No doom save pain and soul's distress?"
+She answered: "Wherefore thinkst thou so?
+For pain of parting with the less,
+Man often lets the greater go.
+'T were better thou thy fate shouldst bless,
+And love thy God, through weal and woe;
+For anger wins not happiness;
+Who must, shall bear; bend thy pride low;
+For though thou mayst dance to and fro,
+Struggle and shriek, and fret and fume,
+When thou canst stir not, swift nor slow,
+At last, thou must endure His doom."
+
+
+"Let God doom as He doth ordain;
+He will not turn one foot aside;
+Thy good deeds mount up but in vain,
+Thou must in sorrow ever bide;
+Stint of thy strife, cease to complain,
+Seek His compassion safe and wide,
+Thy prayer His pity may obtain,
+Till Mercy all her might have tried.
+Thy anguish He will heal and hide,
+And lightly lift away thy gloom;
+For, be thou sore or satisfied,
+All is for Him to deal and doom."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Doom me not, dearest damosel;
+It is not for wrath nor bitterness,
+If rash and raving thoughts I tell.
+For sin my heart seethed in distress,
+Like bubbling water in a well.
+I cry God mercy, and confess.
+Rebuke me not with words so fell;
+I have lost all that my life did bless;
+Comfort my sorrow and redress,
+Piteously thinking upon this:
+Grief and my soul thou hast made express
+One music,--thou who wert my bliss.
+
+
+"My bliss and bale, thou hast been both,
+But joy by great grief was undone;
+When thou didst vanish, by my troth,
+I knew not where my Pearl was gone.
+To lose thee now I were most loth.
+Dear, when we parted we were one;
+Now God forbid that we be wroth,
+We meet beneath the moon or sun
+So seldom. Gently thy words run,
+But I am dust, my deeds amiss;
+The mercy of Christ and Mary and John
+Is root and ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+"A blissful life I see thee lead,
+The while that I am sorrow's mate;
+Haply thou givest little heed
+What might my burning hurt abate.
+Since I may in thy presence plead,
+I do beseech thee thou narrate,
+Soberly, surely, word and deed,
+What life is thine, early and late?
+I am fain of thy most fair estate;
+The high road of my joy is this,
+That thou hast happiness so great;
+It is the ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+She said, "May bliss to thee betide,"
+Her face with beauty beaming clear,
+"Welcome thou art here to abide,
+For now thy speech is to me dear.
+Masterful mood and haughty pride,
+I warn thee win but hatred here;
+For my Lord loveth not to chide
+And meek are all that to Him come near.
+When in His place thou shalt appear,
+To kneel devout be not remiss,
+My Lord the Lamb loveth such cheer,
+Who is the ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+"Thou sayest a blissful life I know,
+And thou wouldst learn of its degree.
+Thou rememberest when thy pearl fell low
+In earth, I was but young to see;
+But my Lord the Lamb, as if to show
+His grace, took me His bride to be,
+Crowned me a queen in bliss to go
+Through length of days eternally;
+And dowered with all His wealth is she
+Who is His love, and I am His;
+His worthiness and royalty
+Are root and ground of all my bliss."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+"My blissful one, may this be true.
+Pardon if I speak ill," I prayed:
+"Art thou the queen o' the heaven's blue,
+To whom earth's honour shall be paid?
+We believe in Mary, of grace who grew,
+A mother, yet a blameless maid;
+To wear her crown were only due
+To one who purer worth displayed.
+For perfectness by none gainsaid,
+We call her the Phoenix of Araby,
+That flies in faultless charm arrayed,
+Like to the Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"Courteous Queen," that bright one said,
+And, kneeling, lifted up her face:
+"Matchless Mother and merriest Maid,
+Blessed Beginner of every grace."
+Then she arose, and softly stayed,
+And spoke to me across that space:
+"Sir, many seek gain here, and are paid,
+But defrauders are none within this place;
+That Empress may all heaven embrace,
+And earth and hell in her empery;
+Her from her heritage none will chase,
+For she is Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"The court of the kingdom of God doth thrive
+Only because of this wondrous thing:
+Each one who therein may arrive,
+Of the realm is either queen or king;
+And no one the other doth deprive,
+But is fain of his fellow's guerdoning,
+And would wish each crown might be worth five,
+If possible were their bettering.
+But my Lady, from whom our Lord did spring,
+Rules over all our company,
+And for that we all rejoice and sing,
+Since she is Queen of courtesy."
+
+
+"Of courtesy, as says St. Paul,
+Members of Christ we may be seen.
+As head and arm and leg, and all,
+Bound to the body close have been,
+Each Christian soul himself may call
+A living limb of his Lord, I ween.
+And see how neither hate nor gall
+'Twixt limb and limb may intervene;
+The head shows neither spite nor spleen,
+Though arm and finger jewelled be,
+So fare we all in love serene,
+As kings and queens by courtesy."
+
+
+"Courtesy flowers thy folk among,
+And charity, I well believe.
+If foolish words flow from my tongue,
+Let not my speech thy spirit grieve.
+A queen in heaven while yet so young,
+Too high thou dost thyself upheave.
+Then what reward from strife were wrung?
+What worship more might he achieve
+Who lived in penance morn and eve,
+Through bodily pain in bliss to be?
+Honour more high might he receive,
+Than be crowned king by courtesy?"
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+"That courtesy rewards no deed
+If all be true that thou dost say;
+Our life not two years didst thou lead
+Nor learned to please God, nor to pray,
+No Paternoster knew nor creed,
+And made a queen on the first day!
+I may not think, so God me speed!
+That God from right would swerve away;
+As a countess, damsel, by my fay!
+To live in heaven were a fair boon,
+Or like a lady of less array,
+But a queen! Ah, no! it is too soon."
+
+
+"With Him there is no soon nor late,"
+Replied to me that worthy wight;
+"True always is His high mandate;
+He doth no evil, day nor night.
+Hear Matthew in the mass narrate,
+In the Gospel of the God of might,
+His parable portrays the state
+Of the Kingdom of Heaven, clear as light:
+'My servants,' saith He, 'I requite
+As a lord who will his vineyard prune;
+The season of the year is right,
+And labourers must be hired soon.'"
+
+
+"Right soon the hirelings all may see
+How the master with the dawn arose;
+To hire his labourers forth went he,
+And workmen stout and strong he chose.
+For a penny a day they all agree,
+Even as the master doth propose,
+They toil and travail lustily,
+Prune, bind, and with a ditch enclose.
+Then to the market-place he goes,
+And finds men idle at high noon:
+'How can a man stand here who knows
+The vineyards should be tilled so soon?'"
+
+
+"'Soon as day dawned we hither won,
+And no man hath our labour sought;
+We have been standing since rose the sun
+And no one bids us to do aught.'
+'Enter my vineyard every one,'
+The master answered quick as thought:
+'The work that each by night has done
+I will truly pay, withholding naught.'
+Among the vines they went and wrought,
+While morning, noon and afternoon,
+More labourers the master brought,
+Until the night must gather soon."
+
+
+"Soon fell the time of evensong.
+An hour before the sun was set,
+He saw more idlers, young and strong;
+His voice was sober with regret:
+'Why stand ye idle all day long?'
+'No man,' they said, 'hath hired us yet.'
+'Go to my vineyard, fear no wrong;
+Each man an honest wage shall get.'
+The day grew dark and darker yet,
+"Before the rising of the moon;
+The master who would pay his debt,
+Bade summon all the hirelings soon."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+"The lord soon called his steward: 'Go
+Bring in the men quick as ye may;
+Give them the wages that I owe,
+And, lest they aught against me say,
+Range them along here in a row,
+To each alike his penny pay;
+Start with the last who standeth low,
+And to the first proceed straightway,'
+And then the first began to pray,
+Complaining they had travailed sore:
+'These wrought but one hour of the day,
+We think we should receive the more.'"
+
+
+"'More have we served,' they muttered low,
+'Who have endured the long day's heat,
+Than these who not two hours toiled so;
+Why should their claim with ours compete?'
+Said the master: 'I pay all I owe;
+Friend, no injustice shalt thou meet;
+Take that which is thine own and go.
+For a penny we settled in the street;
+Why dost thou now for more entreat?
+Thou wast well satisfied before.
+Once made, a bargain is complete;
+Why shouldst thou, threatening, ask for more?"
+
+
+"'What can be more within my gift
+Than what I will with mine to do?
+Let not thine eyes to evil shift,
+Because I trusty am, and true.'
+'Thus I,' said Christ, 'all men shall sift.
+The last shall be the first of you;
+And the first last, however swift,
+For many are called, but chosen, few.'
+And thus poor men may have their due,
+That late and little burden bore;
+Their work may vanish like the dew,
+The mercy of God is much the more."
+
+
+"More gladness have I, herewithin,
+Of flower of life, and noble name,
+Than all men in the world might win,
+Who thought their righteous deeds to name.
+Nathless even now did I begin;
+To the vineyard as night fell I came,
+But my Lord would not account it sin;
+He paid my wages without blame.
+Yet others did not fare the same,
+Who toiled and travailed there before,
+And of their hire might nothing claim,
+Perchance shall not for a year more."
+
+
+Then more, and openly, I spake:
+"From thy tale no reason can I wring;
+God's righteousness doth ever wake,
+Else Holy Writ is a fabled thing.
+From the Psalter one verse let us take,
+That may to a point this teaching bring:
+'Thou requitest each for his deed's sake,
+Thou high and all-foreknowing King.'
+If one man to his work did cling
+All day, and thou wert paid before,
+Most wage falls to least labouring,
+And ever the less receives the more."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+"Of more or less where God doth reign,
+There is no chance," she gently said,
+"For, whether large or small his gain,
+Here every man alike is paid.
+No niggard churl our High Chieftain,
+But lavishly His gifts are made,
+Like streams from a moat that flow amain,
+Or rushing waves that rise unstayed.
+Free were his pardon whoever prayed
+Him who to save man's soul did vow,
+Unstinted his bliss, and undelayed,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"But now thou wouldst my wit checkmate,
+Making my wage as wrong appear;
+Thou say'st that I am come too late,
+Of so large hire to be worthy here;
+Yet sawest thou ever small or great,
+Living in prayer and holy fear,
+Who did not forfeit at some date
+The meed of heaven to merit clear?
+Nay much the rather, year by year,
+All bend from right and to evil bow;
+Mercy and grace their way must steer,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"But enow of grace have the innocent
+New-born, before the sacred shrine,
+They are sealed with water in sacrament,
+And thus are brought into the vine.
+Anon the day with darkness blent,
+Death by its might makes to decline;
+Who wrought no wrong ere hence they went,
+The gentle Lord receives, in fine;
+They obeyed His will, they bore His sign,
+Why should He not their claim allow?
+Yea, and reward them, I opine,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"'T is known enow that all mankind
+At first were formed for perfect bliss;
+Our forefather that boon resigned,
+All for an apple's sake, I wis;
+We fell condemned, for folly blind,
+To suffer sore in hell's abyss;
+But One a remedy did find
+Lest we our hope of heaven should miss.
+He suffered on the cross for this,
+Red blood ran from His crowned brow;
+He saved us by that pain of His,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+"Enow there flowed from out that well,
+Blood and water from His broad wound:
+The blood bought us from bale of hell,
+And from second death deliverance found.
+The water is baptism, truth to tell,
+That followed-the spear so sharply ground,
+And washes away the guilt most fell
+Of those that Adam in death had drowned.
+Now is there nothing in earth's great round,
+To bar from the bliss wherewith God did endow
+Mankind,--restored to us safe and sound,
+For the grace of God is great enow."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+"Grace enow a man may get
+By penitence, though he sin again;
+But with long sorrow and regret,
+He must bear punishment and pain;
+But righteous reason will not let
+The innocent be hurt in vain;
+God never gave His judgment yet,
+That they should suffer who show no stain.
+The sinful soul of mercy fain
+Finds pardon if he will repent,
+But he who sinless doth remain
+Is surely saved, being innocent."
+
+
+"Two men are saved of God's good grace,
+Who severally have done His will:
+The righteous man shall see His face,
+The innocent dwells with Him still.
+In the Psalter thou may'st find a case:
+'Lord, who shall climb to Thy high hill,
+Or rest within Thy Holy Place?'
+The psalmist doth the sense fulfill:
+'Who with his hands did never ill,
+His heart to evil never lent,
+There to ascend he shall have skill;'
+So surely saved is the innocent."
+
+
+"That the righteous is saved I hold certain;
+Before God's palace he shall stand
+Who never took man's life in vain,
+Who never to flatter his fellow planned.
+Of the righteous, the Wise Man writeth plain
+How kindly our King doth him command;
+In ways full strait he doth restrain,
+Yet shows him the kingdom great and grand,
+As who saith: 'Behold! yon lovely land!
+Thou may'st win it, if so thy will be bent.'
+But with never peril on either hand,
+Surely saved is the innocent."
+
+
+"Of the righteous saved, hear one man say--
+David, who in the Psalter cried:
+'O Lord, call never Thy servant to pay,
+For no man living is justified.'
+So thou, if thou shalt come one day
+To the court that each cause must decide,
+For mercy with justice thou may'st pray
+Through this same text that I espied.
+But may He on the bloody cross that died,
+His holy hands with hard nails rent,
+Give thee to pass when thou art tried,
+Saved, not as righteous, but innocent."
+
+
+"Of the sinless saved the tale is told,--
+Read in the Book where it is said:
+When Jesus walked, among men of old,
+The people a passage to Him made;
+Bringing their bairns for Him to hold,
+For the blessing of His hand they prayed.
+The twelve reproved them: 'Overbold
+To seek the Master;' and sternly stayed.
+But Jesus said: 'Be ye not afraid;
+Suffer the children, nor prevent;
+God's kingdom is for such arrayed.'
+Surely saved are the innocent."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+"Christ called to Him the innocents mild,
+And said His kingdom no man might win,
+Unless he came thither as a child,--Not
+otherwise might he enter in,
+Harmless, faithful, undefiled,
+With never a spot of soiling sin,--For
+these whom the world has not beguiled
+Gladly shall one the gate unpin.
+There shall that endless bliss begin,
+The merchant sought, and straight was led
+To barter all stuffs men weave and spin,
+To buy him a pearl unblemished."
+
+
+"'This pearl unblemished, bought so dear,
+For which the merchant his riches gave,
+Is like the kingdom of heaven clear;'
+So said the Father of world and wave.
+It is a flawless, perfect sphere,
+Polished and pure, and bright and brave;
+As on my heart it doth appear,
+It is common to all who to virtue clave.
+My Lord, the Lamb Who died to save,
+Here set it in token of His blood shed
+For peace. Then let the wild world rave,
+But buy thee this pearl unblemished."
+
+
+"O Pearl unblemished, in pure pearls dressed,
+That beareth," said I, "the pearl of price,
+Who formed thy figure-and thy vest?
+Truly he wrought with cunning nice;
+For thy beauty, above nature's best,
+Passeth Pygmalion's artifice;
+Nor Aristotle the lore possessed
+To depict in words so fair device.
+Than fleur-de-lys thou art fairer thrice,
+Angel-mannered and courtly bred,--
+Tell to me truly: in Paradise
+What meaneth the pearl unblemished?"
+
+
+"My spotless Lamb, who all doth heal,"
+She answered, "my dear Destiny,
+Chose me in marriage bond to seal;
+Unfit, He graced me regally,
+From your world's woe come into weal.
+He called me of His courtesy:
+'Come hither to me, my lover leal,
+For mote nor spot is none in thee.'
+He gave me my might and great beauty;
+He washed my weeds in His blood so red,
+And crowned me, forever clean to be,
+And clothed me in pearls unblemished."
+
+
+"Unblemished bride, bright to behold,
+That royalty hath so rich and rare,
+What is this Lamb, that thou hast told
+How for wedded wife He called thee there?
+Above all others dost thou make bold,
+As His chosen lady His life to share?
+So many, comely in combs of gold,
+For Christ have lived in strife and care,
+Must these to a lower place repair,
+That never any with Him may wed,
+Save only thyself, so proud and fair,
+Peerless Queen, and unblemished?"
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+"Unblemished," answered she again,
+"Without a spot of black or gray,
+With honour may I this maintain;
+But 'peerless Queen' I did not say.
+Brides of the Lamb in bliss we reign,
+An hundred and forty thousand gay,
+As in the Apocalypse is made plain,
+Saint John beheld them on a day;
+On the hill of Zion he saw them stay,
+In vision his spirit looked on them,
+For the wedding clad in bright-array,
+At the city of New Jerusalem."
+
+
+"Of Jerusalem in speech I tell;
+And what He is if thou wouldst see--
+My Lamb, my Lord, my dear Jewel,
+My Joy, my Love, my Bliss so free,--
+The prophet Isaiah writeth well
+Of His most mild humility:
+'Guiltless, when men upon Him fell
+For never a fault nor felony,
+As a sheep to the slaughter led was He;
+Quiet, the while the crowd contemn,
+As a lamb in the shearer's hands might be,
+He was judged by Jews in Jerusalem.'"
+
+
+"In Jerusalem was my Lover slain,
+Rent on the rood by ruffians bold;
+To bear our ills He was full fain,
+To suffer our sorrows manifold;
+Buffeted until blood did stain
+That face so lovely to behold;
+He took upon Him all sin and pain,
+Even He of Whom not one sin is told;
+On the rude cross stretched faint and cold,
+He let men deride him and condemn;
+Meek as a lamb, betrayed and sold,
+He died for us in Jerusalem."
+
+
+"At Jerusalem, Jordan and Galilee,
+Wherever Saint John came to baptize,
+His words with Isaiah's words agree.
+On Jesus he lifted up his eyes,
+Speaking of Him this prophecy:
+'Behold the Lamb of God!' he cries:
+'Who bears the world's sins, this is He!
+The guilt of all upon Him lies,
+Though He wrought evil in no wise.
+The branches springing from that stem
+Who can recount? 'T is He who dies
+For our sake in Jerusalem.'"
+
+
+"In Jerusalem my Lover sweet
+Twice as a lamb did thus appear,
+Even as the prophets both repeat,
+So meek the mien that He did wear;
+The third time also, as is meet,
+In the Revelation is written clear.
+Reading a book on His high seat
+Midmost the throne that saints ensphere,
+The Apostle John beheld Him near;
+That book seven sacred seals begem;
+And at that sight all folk felt fear
+In hell, in earth and Jerusalem."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+This Jerusalem Lamb had never stain
+Of other hue than perfect white,
+That showeth neither streak nor strain
+Of soil, but is like wool to sight;
+And souls that free of sin remain
+The Lamb receiveth with delight;
+And, though each day a group we gain,
+There comes no strife for room nor right,
+Nor rivalry our bliss to blight.
+The more the merrier, I profess.
+In company our love grows bright,
+In honour more and never less.
+
+
+"Lessening of bliss no comer brings
+To us who bear this pearl at breast;
+Nor show they flaws nor tarnishings
+Who wear such pure pearls like a crest.
+Though round our corpses the clay clings,
+And though ye mourn us without rest,
+Knowledge have we of goodly things.
+Through the first death our hope we test;
+Grief goes; at each mass we are blest
+By the Lamb Who gives us happiness;
+The bliss of each is bright and best,
+And no one's honour is the less."
+
+
+"That thou my tale the less may doubt,
+In the Revelation 'tis told, and more:
+'I saw,' says John, 'a goodly rout
+The hill of Zion covering o'er,
+The Lamb, with maidens round about,
+An hundred thousand and forty and four,
+And each brow, fairly written out,
+The Lamb's name and His Father's bore.
+Then a sound from heaven I heard outpour,
+As streams, full laden, foam and press,
+Or as thunders among dark crags roar,
+The tumult was, and nothing less."
+
+
+"'Nathless, though high that shout might ring,
+And loud the voices sounding near,
+A strain full new I heard them sing,
+And sweet and strange it was to hear.
+Like harper's hands upon the string
+Was that new song they sang so clear;
+The noble notes went vibrating,
+And gentle words came to my ear.
+Close by God's throne, without one fear,
+Where the four beasts His power confess,
+And the elders stand so grave of cheer,
+They sang their new song, none the less."
+
+
+"'Nathless is none with skill so fine,
+For all the crafts that ever he knew,
+That of that song might sing a line;
+Save these that hold the Lamb in view;
+From earth brought to that land divine,
+As first fruits that to God are due,
+They serve the Lamb and bear His sign,
+As like Himself in face and hue;
+For never lying nor tale untrue
+Defiled their lips in life's distress;'
+Whatever might move them, they but drew
+Nearer the Master, none the less."
+
+
+"Nevertheless, speak out I must,
+My Pearl, though queries rude I pose.
+To try thy fair wit were unjust
+Whom Christ to His own chamber chose.
+Behold, I am but dung and dust,
+And thou a rare and radiant rose,
+Abiding here in life, and lust
+Of loveliness that ever grows.
+A hind that no least cunning knows,
+I needs must my one doubt express;
+Though boisterous as the wind that blows,
+Let my prayer move thee none the less."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+Yet, none the less, on thee I call,
+If thou wilt listen verily,
+As thou art glorious over all,
+Hearken the while I question thee.
+Within some splendid castle wall,
+Have ye not dwellings fair to see?
+Of David's city, rich, royal,
+Jerusalem, thou tellest me.
+In Palestine its place must be;
+In wildwood such none ever saw.
+Since spotless is your purity,
+Your dwellings should be free from flaw.
+
+
+"Now this most fair and flawless rout,
+Thronging thousands, as thou dost tell,
+They must possess, beyond a doubt,
+A sightly city wherein to dwell.
+'T were strange that they should live without;
+For so bright a band it were not well;
+Yet I see no building hereabout.
+Dost thou linger as in a woodland cell,
+Alone and hidden, for the spell
+Of rushing stream and shining shaw?
+If thou hast a dwelling beyond this dell,
+Now show me that city free from flaw."
+
+
+"Not flawless the city in Juda's land,"
+That gentle one gently to me spake,
+"But the Lamb did bless it when He planned
+To suffer there sorely for man's sake.
+That is the old city we understand,
+And there the bonds of old guilt did break;
+But the new, alighted from God's hand,
+The Apostle John for his theme did take.
+The Lamb Who is white with never a flake
+Of black, did thither His fair folk draw;
+For His flock no fenced fold need He make,
+Nor moat for His city free from flaw."
+
+
+"To figure flawlessly what may mean
+Jerusalems twain: the first of those
+Was 'the Sight of Peace' as it is seen
+In the word of God, for the gospel shows
+How there our peace made sure hath been,
+Since to suffer therein the Saviour chose;
+In the other is always peace to glean,
+Peace that never an ending knows.
+To that city bright the spirit goes
+When the flesh hath fallen beneath death's law;
+There glorious gladness forever grows
+For His fair folk that are free from flaw."
+
+
+"Flawless maid so mild and meek,"
+Then said I to that lovely flower:
+"Let me that stately city seek,
+And let me see thy blissful bower."
+That bright one said, "Thou art too weak,
+Thou may'st not enter to its tower;
+Yet of the Lamb I did bespeak
+This goodly gift, that He would dower
+Thine eyes with the sight for one short hour,--
+From without,--within none ever saw;
+To step in that street thou hast no power,
+Unless thy soul were free from flaw."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+"This flawless sight I will not hide;
+Up toward the brook's head thou must go,
+While I will follow on this side,
+Till yonder hill the city show."
+And then I would no longer bide,
+But stole through branches, bending low,
+Till from the summit I espied,
+Through green boughs swaying to and fro,
+Afar, the city, all aglow,
+That brighter than bright sunbeams shone.
+In writing it is pictured so,
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+As John the Apostle saw the sight,
+I saw that city, standing near
+Jerusalem, so royal dight,
+As if from Heaven alighted here.
+The city all of gold burned bright,
+Like gleaming glass that glistens clear.
+With precious stones beneath set right:
+Foundations twelve of gems most dear,
+Wrought wondrous richly, tier on tier.
+Each base was of a separate stone
+As, perfectly, it doth appear
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+John named the stones that he had seen,
+I knew the order that he made;
+The first a jasper must have been,
+That on the lowest base was laid,
+Beneath the rest it glinted green;
+A sapphire in the second grade;
+Chalcedony, from blemish clean,
+In the third course was fair arrayed;
+Fourth, emerald, of greenest shade,
+Fifth, sardonyx, was raised thereon;
+The sixth a ruby, as is said
+In the Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+John joined to these the chrysolite,
+The seventh gem in that basement;
+The eighth, a beryl, clear and white;
+The topaz, ninth, its luster lent;
+Tenth, chrysophrase, both soft and bright;
+Eleventh, the jacinth, translucent;
+And twelfth, and noblest to recite,
+Amethyst, blue with purple blent.
+The wall above those basements went
+Jasper, like glass that glistening shone;
+I saw, as the story doth present,--
+The Revelation of St. John.
+
+
+I saw, as John doth clear devise:
+The great stones rose like a broad stair;
+Above, the city, to my eyes,
+In height, length, breadth appeared four-square;
+The jasper wall shone amber-wise,
+The golden streets as glass gleamed fair;
+The dwellings glowed in glorious guise
+With every stone most rich and rare.
+Each length of bright wall builded there
+For full twelve furlongs' space stretched on,
+And height, length, breadth all equal were:
+"I saw one mete it," writeth John.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+As John doth write more met mine eye:
+Within each wall were set three gates;
+Twelve in succession I could spy,
+Portals adorned with bright gold plates;
+Each gate a single pearl saw I,
+A perfect pearl, as John relates.
+On each a name was written high
+Of Israel's sons after their dates,
+The oldest first, as the story states.
+Within those streets by night or noon,
+Light beams that not one hour abates;
+They needed neither sun nor moon.
+
+
+Of sun or moon they had no need;
+For God Himself was their lamp light,
+The Lamb their lantern was indeed;
+From Him the city shone all bright.
+Through wall and dwelling my looks might speed,
+Such clearness could not hinder sight.
+Of the high throne ye might take heed,
+With draperies of radiant white,
+As John the Apostle doth endite;
+High God Himself did sit thereon.
+From the throne a river welled outright
+Was brighter than both sun and moon.
+
+
+Sun nor moon shone never so sweet
+As the full flood of that bright stream;
+Swiftly it swept through every street,
+Untainted did the water gleam.
+Chapel nor church mine eyes did meet;
+Therein is no temple as I deem;
+The Almighty is their minster meet,
+The Lamb their sacrifice supreme.
+The gates with neither bolt nor beam,
+Wide open stand at night and noon;
+To enter there let no man dream
+Whom sin hath stained beneath the moon.
+
+
+The moon may there win no least might,
+She is too spotty, grey and grim;
+Therein, moreover, is never night,
+Why should the moon fill full her rim
+To rival the all-glorious light
+That beams upon the river's brim?
+The planets are in poorest plight;
+The sun itself is far too dim.
+Beside the stream trees tall and trim
+Bear living fruits that none doth prune;
+Twelve times a year bends low each limb,
+Renewed with fruitage every moon.
+
+
+Beneath the moon full well might fail
+The heart of mortal to endure
+The marvel that did mine eyes assail,
+Fashioned the fancy to allure.
+I stood as still as a startled quail,
+For wonder of its fair figure,
+I felt no rest and no travail,
+Ravished before such radiance pure.
+I say, and with conviction sure,
+Had the eyes of man received that boon,
+Though wisest clerks sought for his cure,
+His life were lost beneath the moon.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+Now, even as the full moon might rise
+Ere daylight doth to darkness fall,
+Sudden I saw with still surprise
+Within that shining city-wall,
+The streets full-thronged in wondrous wise,
+Silent, with never a herald's call,
+With virgins in the selfsame guise
+As my beloved, sweet and small.
+Each head was crowned with coronal,
+Pearl-wrought, and every robe was white;
+On each breast bound, imperial,
+The Pearl of Price with great delight.
+
+
+With great delight together going
+On glassy golden streets they tread;
+To a hundred thousand swiftly growing,
+And all alike were they garmented:
+The gladdest face who could be knowing?
+The Lamb did proudly pass ahead,
+His seven horns of clear red gold glowing,
+His robes like pearls high valued.
+On toward the throne their way they thread,
+None crowded in that band so bright,
+But mild as maidens when mass is said,
+So fared they forth with great delight.
+
+
+The great delight His coming gave,
+It were too much for me to tell.
+When He approached the Elders grave,
+Prone there before His feet they fell;
+Legions of summoned angels brave
+Swayed censers of the sweetest smell;
+With music like a mighty wave,
+All sang in praise of that gay Jewel.
+The hymn might strike through earth to hell
+That with joy those hosts of heaven recite;
+To praise the Lamb I liked full well,
+Amid the group in great delight.
+
+
+Delighted, I would fain devise
+His loveliness, with mind intent:
+First was He, blithest, best to prize,
+Of all on whom man's speech is spent;
+So nobly white His draperies,
+Such grace His simple glances lent;
+But a wide, wet wound my gaze descries
+Beneath His heart, through His skin rent;
+Down His white side the blood was sent.
+Alas! I thought, what scorn or spite
+Could any human heart have bent
+In such a deed to take delight?
+
+
+The Lamb's delight might no man doubt,
+Though that wide wound His hurt displayed,
+From His fair face looked lovely out
+Glad glances, glorious, unafraid,
+I looked upon His shining rout,
+With fullest life so bright arrayed,
+My little queen there moved about,
+I had thought beside me in the glade.
+Ah Lord! how much of mirth she made!
+Among her peers she was so white!
+The stream I surely needs must wade,
+For longing love, in great delight.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+Delight that flooded eye and ear
+My mortal mind beatified;
+When I saw her, I must reach my dear,
+Though she beyond the brook abide.
+Nothing, I thought, could keep me here,
+No crippling blow hold my strength tied;
+I would plunge, whatever interfere,
+And swim the stream, though there I died.
+But ere the water I had tried,
+Even as I would my vow fulfill,
+From my purpose I was turned aside;
+It was not to my Prince's will.
+
+
+My wilful purpose pleased not Him,
+That I with headlong zeal essayed;
+Though I was rash of thought and limb,
+Yet suddenly my deed was stayed.
+As I sprang forward to the brim,
+The action in my dreaming made
+Me waken in my arbour trim.
+My head upon the mound was laid
+Where my pearl to the grass once strayed.
+I stretched my body, frightened, chill,
+And, sighing, to myself I said:
+"Now all be to the Prince's will."
+
+
+Against my will was I exiled
+From that bright region, fair and fain,
+From that life, glad and undefiled,
+And longing dulled my sense again;
+I swooned in sorrow for the child,
+Needs must my heart cry and complain:
+"O Pearl, dear was thy counsel mild,
+In this true vision of my brain!
+If very truth divide us twain;
+If thou goest crowned, secure from ill,
+Well for me in my prison-pain
+That thou art to the Prince's will."
+
+
+To the Prince's will had my heart bent,
+And sought but what to me was given,
+Held fast to that, with true intent,
+As my Pearl prayed me out of heaven;
+Did I to God my thoughts present,
+More in His mysteries had I thriven.
+But a man will seek more than is sent,
+Till from his hand his hope be riven.
+Thus from my joy was I forth driven,
+From the life upon that holy hill.
+Oh, fools, that with the Lord have striven,
+Or proffered gifts against his will!
+
+
+The Prince's will to serve aright
+The Christian may full well divine;
+For I have found Him, day and night,
+A God, a Lord, a Friend in fine.
+Upon this mound my soul hath sight,
+Where I for piteous sorrow pine;
+My Pearl to God I pledge and plight,
+With Christ's dear blessing and with mine,--
+His, who, in form of bread and wine,
+The priest doth daily show us still.
+His servants may we be, or shine,
+Pure pearls, according to his will.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pearl, by Sophie Jewett
+
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