Author: William Langland

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-21

Total Pages: 618

ISBN-13: 9781331938415

Excerpt from The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman: In Three Parallel Texts, Together With Richard the Redeless I shewed how to distinguish MSS. of one text from those of the others, and printed the same passage from twenty-nine different MSS., in the hope of obtaining further information. Since then, fresh MSS. have been found from time to time, and we now know of forty-five copies', mostly of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A list of these is given further on. 2. Description of the A-text. The Vernon MS. (V.) is taken as the basis of the text, as far as 1. 180 of Passus xi., where it unfortunately comes to an end, owing to a leaf having been cut out of the MS. The text of the rest of Passus xi., viz. II. 181-303, is supplied from the Trinity MS. R. 3. 14 (T.). Pass. xii. (pp. 326-330) is supplied from MS. Rawlinson, Poet, 137, which is the only MS. containing the whole of this Passus. I give the various readings from the MS. in University College, Oxford (U.), which contains only the first 19 lines, and from the Ingilby MS. (Ing.), which contains lines 1-88, and actually supplies 5 new lines, viz. lines 65, 74-76, and 78. All three copies are inaccurate and unsatisfactory. In editing the A-text, as printed from the Vernon MS. (throughout the Prologue. and Pass. i. 1 to xi. 180), the Trinity MS. (Pass. xi. 181-303). and the Rawlinson MS. (Pass, xii.), I have mended the text in a few places by help of the various readings obtained from a collation of other MSS.; see p. 1. Notice of all such alterations is given in the footnotes at the bottom of the page. Thus, in A. prol. 14 (p. 3) the word trizely is from MS. T.; MS. V. has wonderliche, against the alliteration. The line A. prol. 34 (p. 5) is supplied from MS. T., being omitted in MS. V. altogether. All such alterations are fully described, and can be readily understood. As the chief object of the present Parallel Edition of the three texts is to exhibit the corresponding passages of each at a glance, the A-text is, for convenience, printed on the upper half of every page, whilst the B-text occupies the lower part of the page on the left hand, and the C-text the lower part of the page on the right. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."