The word pearl seems to have come into general use in the English language about the fourteenth century. In Wyclif’s translation of the Scriptures (about 1360), he commonly used the word _margarite_ or _margaritis_, whereas Tyndale’s translation (1526) in similar places used the word _perle_. Tyndale translated Matt. xiii. 46: “When he had founde one precious pearle”; Wyclif used “oo preciouse margarite.” Also in Matt. vii. 6, Tyndale wrote, “Nether caste ye youre pearles before swyne”; yet Wyclif used “margaritis,” although twenty years later he expressed it “putten precious perlis to hoggis.” Langland’s Piers Plowman (1362), XI, 9, wrote this: “_Noli mittere_ Margeri perles Among hogges.” The oldest English version of Mandeville’s Travels, written about 1400, contained the expression: “The fyn Perl congeles and wexes gret of the dew of hevene”; but in 1447, Bokenham’s “Seyntys” stated: “A margerye perle aftyr the phylosophyr Growyth on a shelle of lytyl pryhs”; and Knight de la Tour (about 1450) stated: “The sowle is the precious marguarite unto God.” The word is given “perle” in the earliest manuscripts of those old epic poems of the fourteenth century, “Pearl” and “Cleanness,” which have caused so much learned theological discussion and which testify to the great love and esteem in which the gem was held. The first stanza of “Pearl” we quote from Gollancz’s rendition: Pearl! fair enow for princes’ pleasance, so deftly set in gold so pure,— from orient lands I durst avouch, ne’er saw I a gem its peer,— so round, so comely-shaped withal, so small, with sides so smooth,— where’er I judged of radiant gems, I placed my pearl supreme.[27] The fourteenth-century manuscript in the British Museum gives this as follows: Perle plesaunte to prynces paye, To clanly clos in gold so clere, Oute of oryent I hardyly saye, Ne proved I never her precios pere,— So rounde, so reken in uche a raye, So smal, so smothe her sydez were,— Queresoever I jugged gemmez gaye, I sette hyr sengeley in synglere. And from a modern rendering of “Cleanness” we quote: The pearl is praised wherever gems are seen, though it be not the dearest by way of merchandise. Why is the pearl so prized, save for its purity, that wins praise for it above all white stones? It shineth so bright; it is so round of shape; without fault or stain; if it be truly a pearl.