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The Date of the A-Text of Piers Plowman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

J. A. W. Bennett
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Type
Comment and Criticism
Information
PMLA , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , June 1943 , pp. 566 - 572
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1943

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References

1 C. L. Kingsford, in his article on Alice Perrers in D.N.B., showed that there was some reason for believing that the liaison had begun by 1366. Her connection with the court may date back two years earlier than this: on 9 Dec, 1364, several citizens of London (including “John Chaucier”) mainprised Richard Lyons “to keep the peace with Alice de Perrers and not to interfere with her going where she wished on the King's business and on her own”—Calendar of Pleas and Memoranda Rolls, 1364–81, ed. A. H. Thomas (Cambridge University Press, 1929), 11; cf. also 34, 232.

2 Dr. Huppé's interpretation of Meed's earlier remark:

For cuide I neuere no kyng ne counseilede therafter (iii, 180)—

is more doubtful. Clearly the reference here and at 1. 122 is to the murder of Edward II. But this was due to Isabella and Mortimer rather than to Gaveston, who died fourteen years before Edward. It is unnecessary, therefore, to assume that the poet had Gaveston in mind.

The suggestion that the (undoubtedly corrupt) line

And Meede is a Iuweler a mayden ful gent (ii, 101)

introduces a play on “perre” (jewel), Perrers, must also be rejected. Both B and C read a form of moylere (=mulieratus) here, as in i, 87, where, though Iuweler occurs in the printed text, all the evidence of the manuscripts points to:

For Mede is a [moilere] of Amendes engendred.

Context and alliteration require a similar emendation in i, 101.

2a Passus iv, 109–116. Skeat's translation of “for robbeours” as “for the sake of enriching robbers” is forced. The phrase need mean no more than “because of robbers.” In contemporary statutes there are frequent references to “robbers beyond the sea”; they were one of the perils all travelers were likely to meet. In the sixties robber bands were abroad in Italy, and “armed companies like bandits” overran France; cf. Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. W. H. Bliss, etc. (London, 1894–), iv, 103.

3 Chronicon Johannis de Reading et Anonymi Cantuariensis, ed. James Tait (Manchester, University Press, 1914), 164.

4 A Wyclifite tract uses the word in a similar meaning and context about ten years later—when the pope was once more in Rome: “Obere prestís rennen out of oure lond ouer grete sees þoruз londes of enemyes in peril of here lif, in gret cold, hungur, þrist, stormes and tempestis … and зit, þat is werse, þei beren gold out of Englond, and sumtyme it comiþ to oure enemys and þerbi þei ben strengyd aзenst us … and sumtyme our enemys killen many of our lond þorouз siche traueile for benefices to gret reprof of oure rewme. And зif the gold come to rome, þerbi ben benefices of þe churches bouзt and sold…. And þus þes rome renneris beren þe kyngis gold out of oure lond and bryngen aзen deed leed and heresie and symonie and goddis curse”—English Works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted, ed. F. D. Matthew (EETS no. 74, London, 1880), 22; cf. 245, etc. This seems to rule out Skeat's rendering of Rome-renners as “procurators”: these, or rather their assistants, are referred to later (B. v. 251–252).

Of course, Rome remained a place of pilgrimage during the Babylonish captivity. But neither Langland nor the Wyclifite writer is speaking of pilgrims only.

5 It is worth noting that the earliest new dateable reference in the B-text is to Chichester's mayoralty in 1370 (vide B. xiii. 271 and Skeat's note).

6 Les Chroniques de Sire Jean Froissart, ed. J. A. C. Buchón (Paris, 1867), i, ii, c. cxxvi (432); quoted by Jusserand, Piers Plowman (London, 1894), 37. Cf. the accounts in The Anonimalle Chronicle, ed. V. H. Galbraith (Manchester University Press, 1927), s.a. 1360 (46), and in the anonymous Chronicle of London (1189–1483) for the same year (“ … a foul derk day of mist and of hayl, and so bitter cold that manye men deyde for cold”).

7 Chroniques, i. ii, cc. cvii–cxxvi.

8 Cf. Dorothy M. Broome, “The Ransome of John ii, King of France, 1360–70” (Camden Miscellany xiv, 1926), p. xxiv. Dr. Huppé's statement that after John's death in 1364 Charles, his successor “abandoned any thought of the payments” is incorrect (v. op. cit., p. x f.)

9 L. 204. The extant A MSS read wykes; but this is unintelligible, and B and C, which frequently preserve superior readings, agree on dayes. I am indebted to Professor P. S. Ardern for suggesting the topical reference hidden in this line.

10 When Conscience is first introduced (iii, 105) he is described as a “kniht … com late from bзonde”—presumably from the French wars.

A reference to John of Gaunt's elder brother, the Black Prince, has been found in iv, 32, where the king seats Reason “bitwene himself and his sone.” Since the Black Prince was absent from England between 1363 and 1370, the interpretation of the phrase is of some importance. Yet Langland perhaps intends to suggest nothing more than that Reason is given an honorable place; the phrase is retained in B and C.

11 Dr. Huppé understands “bras” in these lines to mean “money.” It is doubtful if the word bore this meaning in the fourteenth century (v. N.E.D., s.v. brass).

The staple was set up by an ordinance of March, 1363, for general merchandise. At the same time an exchange of money, gold and silver plate and broken silver was established there, and for a time all such business was transferred thither from England. The town had its own Master of the Mint. It was illegal for its coinage to be exchanged with that of England; in 1364 Edward in complained that, although he had set up the mint at Calais for the advantage of merchants, they sold their goods there “by way of loans, without paying anything of gold or silver,” and so destroyed the value of the coinage. With the resumption of the French wars the staple was recalled by statute; v. Finance and Trade under Edward III, ed. G. Unwin (Manchester University Press, 1918), pp. 336 ff.

12 “The Date of the A-Text of Piers Plowman,” PMLA, xlvii (1932), 354–362.

13 Cf. Entries in the Papal Registers, iv, 96, cited by S. Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt (Westminster, 1904), p. 124.

14 Though to say that only the author of the Eulogium Historiarum and John of Bridlington make synchronous entries is to dismiss the chroniclers too quickly. John of Reading, who devotes some space to the storm (“ventus zephyrus sive auster, affricus, pessimus”), was almost certainly writing by 1366; and the nameless compiler of the Canterbury Chronicle was a contemporary of Langland's, and probably set down events as they occurred. His account corresponds closely with that in Piers Plowman:“ … circa horam vesperarum dicti diei, inceperunt tempestates horribiles, nusquam alias visae vel auditae, et ventorum turbines in Anglia, adeo quod domus et aedificia pro magna parte corruerunt ad terram, et quaedam alia discooperta deformiter per flatum ventorum hujusmodi remanserunt, arboresque fructiferae in gardinis et in locis aliis et arbores aliae in nemoribus et alibi existentes cum magno sonitu a terra radicitus evulsae fuerunt, ac si [dies] judicii adveniret. Et inhabitantes terram Angliae timor et tremor sic exterruit quod nullus scivit ubi secure potuit latitare … ”—Chronicon Johannis de Reading et Anonymi Cantuariensis, 213. For still another account see The Anoniamelle Chronicle, s.a. 1361 (50).