Editing Cleanness (section)

{{about|the 14th century poem|the Garth Greenwell novel|Cleanness (novel)}}
{{distinguish|Cleanliness}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox medieval text
<!----------Name---------->
| name                  = ''Cleanness''
| alternative title(s)  = Purity
<!----------Image---------->
| image                 = 
| width                 = 
| caption               = 
<!----------Information---------->
| author(s)             = The [[Gawain Poet]] ([[Anonymous work|anonymous]])
| language              = [[Middle English]], [[English Midlands|North West Midlands]] dialect
| date                  = late 14th century
| provenance            = [[Henry Savile (Bible translator)|Henry Savile]], [[Yorkshire]]
| series                = together with ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'', ''[[Pearl (poem)|Pearl]]'' and ''[[Patience (poem)|Patience]]''
| manuscript(s)         = [[Pearl Manuscript|Cotton Nero A.x.]]
| first printed edition = 1864 [[Richard Morris (philologist)|Richard Morris]]
<!----------Form and content---------->
| verse form            = [[Alliterative Revival]]
| length                = 1812 lines
| genre                 = [[Poem]], [[didactic]], [[homiletic]] and [[alliterative verse]]
| subject               = Virtues of cleanliness and delights of married love
}}{{Short description|1400s Middle English alliterative poem}}
'''''Cleanness''''' ([[Middle English]]: ''Clannesse'') is a [[Middle English]] [[alliteration|alliterative]] [[poem]] written in the late 14th century. Its unknown author, designated the Pearl Poet or [[Gawain Poet]], also appears, on the basis of dialect and stylistic evidence, to be the author of ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'', ''[[Pearl (poem)|Pearl]]'', and ''[[Patience (poem)|Patience]]'', and may have also composed ''[[St. Erkenwald (poem)|St. Erkenwald]]''.

The poem is found solely in the Pearl manuscript, ''[[Pearl Manuscript|Cotton Nero A x]]''.  That manuscript also contains ''Pearl'', ''Patience'', and ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''. None of the poems has a title or divisions of chapters, but the breaks are marked by large initial letters of blue, and there are twelve illustrations (or illuminations) contained within the manuscript, depicting scenes from the four poems.  Each of these poems is entirely unique to this one manuscript. ''Cleanness'' (which is an editorial title) is also known by the editorial title ''Purity''.

The manuscript, [[Robert Bruce Cotton|Cotton Nero A.x]] is in the [[British Library]]. The first complete publication of ''Cleanness'' was in ''Early English Alliterative Poems in the West Midland Dialect of the fourteenth century'', printed by the [[Early English Text Society]] in 1864.

''Cleanness'' is a description of the virtues of cleanliness of body and the delights of married love.  It takes three subjects from the [[Bible]] as its illustrations: the [[Flood]], the destruction of [[Sodom and Gomorrah]], and the fall of [[Belshazzar]].  Each of these is described powerfully, and the poetry is among the finest in Middle English.  In each case, the poet warns his readers about the dangers of defilement and the joys of purity.