My new edition of Piers Plowman A is published by the University of Exeter Press. I have tried to produce the edition I have wanted to use in my own classroom. My model was Derek Pearsall’s Exeter edition of the C-text. My edition has a substantial introduction; side-glosses for all hard words; on-page explanatory notes; and an appendix containing two important additions to the poem made by Langland during the B revision, so that this edition can best substitute for a reading of the B-text visio (Prologue to A.8/B.7).

William Langland, Piers Plowman: A New Annotated Edition of the A-text, ed. Eric Weiskott

from the rear cover:

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.

contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction

  • Why the A-text?
  • Title
  • Author
  • Dialect
  • Metre
  • Genre and macrostructure
  • Sources
  • Manuscript circulation and reception
  • Unresolved questions in contemporary study of Piers Plowman
  • The present edition
  • Thematic notes

Note on spelling
Note on pronunciation
Note on the subjunctive mood
Note on the notes
Glossary of common words and affixes

William Langland, Piers Plowman (A-text)

  • Prologue: The fair field full of folk
  • Passus 1: Holy Church
  • Passus 2: The marriage plans of Meed the maid
  • Passus 3: Meed the maid at Westminster
  • Passus 4: Meed the maid on trial
  • Passus 5: The confession of the Sins
  • Passus 6: Piers the plowman’s guide to Truth
  • Passus 7: The ploughing of the half-acre
  • Passus 8: The pardon sent from Truth
  • Passus 9: The search for Dowel: The discourse of the friars and Thought
  • Passus 10: The search for Dowel: The discourse of Wit
  • Passus 11: Learning and salvation: The discourse of Study, Clergy, Scripture, and the dreamer

Appendix A. Passus 12: The discourse of Clergy and Scripture continued; Fever, Hunger, and Death; John  But’s eulogy
Appendix B. Two passages new in the B revision [B.Prol.87-210, B.5.135-87]
Appendix C. Substantial differences from Kane’s text

Bibliography
Index

endorsements

“The A-text of Piers Plowman has long suffered from neglect by comparison with the B- and C-texts, not least because of the high quality of the most widely used editions of those. Eric Weiskott’s annotated edition of A at last brings it into line for both accessibility and information, with the added bonus of building on their work and on the whole body of Langland scholarship. Both the brevity of the A-text and the detail of the commentary make it a strong contender for classroom use as well as a fine resource for more extended study.” —Helen Cooper, author of The English Romance in Time: Transforming Motifs from Geoffrey of Monmouth to the Death of Shakespeare

“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, author of The Penn Commentary on “Piers Plowman”: Volume 2

“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, co-editor of The New Index of Middle English Verse

“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, author of The Penn Commentary on “Piers Plowman”: Volume 1