Sandra Pierson Prior

Sandra Pierson Prior is a senior scholar at Columbia University, where she recently retired as associate professor of English and comparative literature and director of the composition program.

Fayre Formez of the Pearl Poet, The

Sandra Pierson Prior

This book differs from most previous studies of the Pearl poet by treating all of his works as a whole. Prior’s purpose is to identify the underlying poetics of this major body of English poetry. Drawing on both the visual imagery of medieval art (the study includes 18 full-page illustrations) and the verbal imagery of the Bible and other literary sources, Prior shows how the poet’s "fayre formez" are the result of a coherent and self-conscious view of the artist’s craft.

CONTENTS
Illustrations ix
Abbreviations x
Preface xi
INTRODUCTION Fayre Formez in a Medieval Christian Poet 1
CHAPTER ONE The Lombe and His Meyny Schene: Signs of God in Pearl and the Apocalypse 21
CHAPTER TWO Signs of the Divine in Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 67
CHAPTER THREE Formez of Sacred History in Cleanness and Patience 119
CHAPTER FOUR The Fayre Formez of Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 159
Works Cited 205
Index 219