The poem which has led me to make these remarks is in many respects noteworthy.  It is very different in style and language from any I have yet given.  There was little communication to blend the different modes of speech prevailing in different parts of the country.  It belongs,[24] according to students of English, to the Midland dialect of the fourteenth century.  The author is beyond conjecture.

It is not merely the antiquity of the language that causes its difficulty, but the accumulated weight of artistically fantastic and puzzling requirements which the writer had laid upon himself in its composition.  The nature of these I shall be enabled to show by printing the first twelve lines almost as they stand in the manuscript.

  Perle plesaunte to prynces paye,
  To clanly clos in golde so clere! 
  Oute of oryent I hardyly saye,
  Ne proued I neuer her precios pere;
  So rounde, so reken in vche araye,
  So smal, so smothe her sydes were! 
  Quere-so-euer I iugged gemmes gaye,
  I sette hyr sengeley in synglure: 
  Allas!  I leste hyr in on erbere,
  Thurh gresse to grounde hit fro me yot;
  I dewyne for-dolked of luf daungere,
  Of that pryuy perle with-outen spot.

Here it will be observed that the Norman mode—­that of rhymes—­is employed, and that there is a far more careful measure in the line that is found in the poem last quoted.  But the rhyming is carried to such an excess as to involve the necessity of constant invention of phrase to meet its requirements—­a fertile source of obscurity.  The most difficult form of stanza in respect of rhyme now in use is the Spenserian, in which, consisting of nine lines, four words rhyme together, three words, and two words.  But the stanza in the poem before us consists of twelve lines, six of which, two of which, four of which, rhyme together.  This we should count hard enough; but it does not nearly exhaust the tyranny of the problem the author has undertaken.  I have already said that one of the essentials of the poetic form in Anglo-Saxon was the commencement of three or more words in the line with the same sound:  this peculiarity he has exaggerated:  every line has as many words as possible commencing with the same sound.  In the first line, for instance,—­and it must be remembered that the author’s line is much shorter than the Anglo-Saxon line,—­there are four words beginning with p; in the second, three beginning with cl, and so on.  This, of course, necessitates much not merely of circumlocution, but of contrivance, involving endless obscurity.

He has gone on to exaggerate the peculiarities of Norman verse as well; but I think it better not to run the risk of wearying my reader by pointing out more of his oddities.  I will now betake myself to what is far more interesting as well as valuable.

The poem sets forth the grief and consolation of a father who has lost his daughter.  It is called The Pearl.  Here is a literal rendering, line for line, into modern English words, not modern English speech, of the stanza which I have already given in its original form: