Manuscript Cotton Nero A.x takes its designation from the unique
cataloging system of seventeenth-century British antiquarian Sir
Robert Cotton's library: busts of historical figures atop shelves
provided the organizing principle, such that one found this
particular codex under the bust of Roman Emperor Nero, on the top
shelf, ten volumes over. (Another famous manuscript, containing
Beowulf, is called Cotton Vitellius A.xv.) Cotton Nero A.x contains
the only versions of the poems we now know as Pearl, Cleanness,
Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, generally agreed to
have been composed sometime in the latter half of the fourteenth
century-the time of Piers Plowman and Geoffrey Chaucer, though
radically different from either. No one knows who the poet was. No
one knows if more than one poet wrote some or all of the poems.
Together, they present a stunning array of themes, allegories, and
images that critics continue to puzzle over: Patience offers a
psychologically complex rendering of the Old Testament story of
Jonah and the whale; Cleanness explores its homiletic theme in
carnal and spiritual terms with complexity, irony, and even humor;
Pearl provides a dream allegory that pushes at the distinction
between its earthly and heavenly meanings, challenging the very
notion of metaphysical transcendence its form seems to point
towards. Finally, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the most secular
of the poems, is a sophisticated take on Arthurian legend that
unfolds like a psychosexual mystery novel, with no easy solution in
sight. All the poems are rendered in a difficult Middle English
dialect and intricate alliterative form, which sometimes involves a
complex rhyme scheme as well. As poet-medievalists, we bow before
the poetic achievement of the works in Cotton Nero A.x in all their
multi-faceted richness. This is not a translation, nor an
interpretation. It is what might be called a trace. A response. A
homework assignment from beyond the grave, for four students who
should have known better. A dream we hope to dream.
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