University of Exeter Press
Piers Plowman
A New Annotated Edition of the A-text
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- 224 Pages
The earliest version of William Langland’s Piers Plowman shows this elusive and centrally important fourteenth-century poet inventing the forms that his life’s work will take. Piers Plowman is a sinuous cycle of dream visions in alliterative verse comprehending many aspects of medieval English culture from tavern life, plague, homelessness, and labour politics to religious devotion and theological controversy. At once socially capacious and spiritually electrifying, Langland’s poem was an instant bestseller in its own time and has provoked strong reactions from the fourteenth century to the present.
At under 2,500 lines, the A-text is significantly more compact than the later B- and C-texts, yet it contains much of the poetic thinking that Langland would elaborate in the longer versions. The poem proceeds as a spiritual quest, undertaken by the dreamer Will, to discover how to save his soul, reform church and society, and attain an ethical mode of life in this world. The action oscillates between the cultivated fields of England’s West Midlands and the commotion of London and Westminster.
Piers Plowman poses both textual and interpretative difficulties. This is the first critically considered edition of the A-text supported by an introduction, side glosses, and on-page explanatory notes with undergraduate, postgraduate, and scholarly readers in mind.
Although presented with undue modesty as an edition for his students, all Langlandians should welcome Weiskott's Annotated A-Text. Along with a text that carefully assesses the late George Kane's landmark presentation, its annotation, from introductory general statements to the handling of individual lines, is streaked with lodes of ore.
Ralph Hanna, Professor Emeritus of Paleography at Keble College, Oxford
This is a remarkable edition from which both students and scholars will benefit. Weiskott offers a new critical text with introduction and commentary that will stimulate fresh study of Langland’s work. This is a significant event in Piers Plowman studies.
A. S. G. Edwards, Honorary Professor of Medieval Manuscripts, University of Kent
Professor Weiskott's A-Text edition is excellent in every way, and should supplant all former texts. The detailed introduction is a masterpiece of informed good sense, of benefit to newcomers and seasoned scholars. The text of the poem, handsomely presented, is accurate and everywhere helpfully annotated.
Stephen A. Barney, Emeritus Professor of English, University of California, Irvine
- 224 Pages
