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The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman Volume 4
The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman
VOLUME 4
C Passūs 15–19; B Passūs 13–17
Traugott Lawler
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 2018 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published byUniversity of Pennsylvania PressPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112www.upenn.edu/pennpress
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A Cataloging-in-Publication record is available from the Library of CongressISBN 978-0-8122-5026-8
In memory of my Langland teachers,Rev. Thomas J. Grace, S. J., andMorton W. Bloomfield
Contents
Note to the Reader
The text of Piers quoted here is that of the Athlone edition, under the general editorship of George Kane. The commentary is keyed first of all to the C Version of the poem, then to the B. Latin quotations in the poem are cited by adding the letter “a” to the end of the line number. Pearsall’s revised edition matches the lineation of Athlone exactly. Schmidt’s lineation differs a little, but the quotation of the beginning and ending words of each passage commented upon will make reference to it easy. Skeat’s line numbering differs somewhat more; in the C version, add one to the Athlone passus number to arrive at Skeat’s passus number. References to lines of the A and B versions are specifically labeled with the letters A and B; references to C lines are generally not labeled. When reference is made to lines that fall in parallel passages of the versions, the references to parallel passages are enclosed within parentheses. Hence the notation “see 11.116–33 (B.10.176–221, A.11.128–64)” refers to passages that are closely parallel in the three versions; a notation such as “see 1.146–58 (B.1.148–62; cf. A.1.135–38)” indicates a substantive difference in the version preceded by “cf.”
Each passus of the poem in this installment, as in the others, is supplied with an introductory “Headnote” that summarizes the main features of the passus and treats matters relevant to the passus (or group of passūs) as a whole. I have been careful to provide divisions of the text as I understand the movement of the poem. These are usually preceded by a general, summary note; then follow notes on particular lines and passages. The discussion repeatedly encompasses larger units first, then moves to smaller ones, in a nested structure.
Translations from the Vulgate Bible are taken from the Douay-Rheims text (Challoner revision, itself slightly revised in 1899) in modernized spelling and punctuation (The Vulgate Bible, Douay-Rheims Translation, ed. Swift Edgar and Angela M. Kinney, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 6 vols., 2010–13), with slight adjustments when necessary. Douay references to I and II Kings correspond to I and II Samuel in the Authorized Version, III and IV Kings to AV’s I and II Kings, and Psalms 10–145 correspond to AV’s Psalms 11–146. Quotations from the Latin Vulgate generally follow the Sixto-Clementine text, as represented in the Dumbarton Oaks edition just cited. When biblical passages are parallel in the synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—I cite a single Gospel’s chapter and verse and add the notation “et synop.”
Except where otherwise noted, translations are mine.
The following special abbreviations are used:
Alford, Gloss.: John Alford, Piers Plowman: A Glossary of Legal Diction, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1988.
Alford, Quot.: John Alford, Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1992.
Anchor: The Anchor Bible. Doubleday, 1956–2006; Yale University Press, 2007—. Individual volumes are cited by the editor’s name, and listed under that name in Works Cited.
Brepols LLT-A: Brepols Publishers, Library of Latin Texts, Series A. Online at clt.brepolis.net.
CANTUS: CANTUS, a Database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant. Online at cantusdatabase.org.
CCCM: Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis.
CCSL: Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina.
Concordance: Joseph S. Wittig, Piers Plowman: Concordance. London: Athlone, 2001.
CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (cited by Group letter and line number). Chaucer’s poems are cited from The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Abbreviated titles follow the list on p. 779 of that edition.
DML: Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. Prepared by R. E. Latham under the direction of a committee appointed by the British Academy. London: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1975–2013. Online at clt.brepolis.net.
DPR: De proprietatibus rerum. See Bartholomaeus in Works Cited.
Kane, Glossary: George Kane. Piers Plowman Glossary. London: Continuum, 2005.
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