Small Consolation? Goscelin of St. Bertin's Liber confortatorius and the Middle English Pearl

Abstract

This article explores the evocative parallels between Goscelin of St. Bertin's Liber confortatorius and the Middle English Pearl, focusing in particular on the allusive female fgures at the heart of each text. In examining the similarities, it pays close attention to the representation of death and the afterlife. Both Goscelin's Liber and Pearl are consolatory poems, although the Liber is ofen read primarily as an early guide for a woman recluse. This article argues that placing Pearl within the same anchoritic tradition, a tradition strongly embedded within medieval women's literary culture, throws new light on the poem.