The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.
XV. Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawayne.
§ 5. The Question of Authorship.
| No direct statement has come down to us as to the authorship of these poems, and, in spite of various ably contested theories, it is not possible to assign the poems to any known poet. The nameless poet of Pearl and Gawayne has, however, left the impress of his personality on his work; and so vividly is this personality revealed in the poems that it is possible, with some degree of confidence, to evolve something approximating to an account of the author, by piecing together the references and other evidence to be found in his work. The following hypothetical biography is taken, with slight modification, from a study published elsewhere. 5 |
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