The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman: In Three Parallel Texts, Together with Richard the Redeless (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman: In Three Parallel Texts, Together With Richard the Redeless

IN 1866, now twenty years ago, I printed a short tract (no. 17 of the Original Series of the Early English Text Society) entitled 'parallel Extracts from 29 mss. Of Piers Plowman, with comments, and a proposal for the Society's T hree-text edition of the poem I believe I was the first to shew clearly, in this tract, that the number of distinct versions of the poem is really 272766, and not two only, as stated by Mr. T. Wright and Others? This truth had been suspected long ago by Mr. Price, who (in a note inserted in W arton's History of English Poetry, ed. 1840, ii. 63) expressly says - 'from this manuscript [ms Harl. 6041] it is evident that another and third version was once in circulation; and, if the first draught of the poem be still in existence, it is here perhaps that we may look for it. For in this, the narrative is considerably Shortened; many passages of a decidedly episodic cast - such as the tale of the cat and the ratons, and the character of Wrath - are wholly omitted others, which in the later versions are given with considerable detail of circumstance, are here but slightly sketched and though evidently the text-book Of Dr. Whitaker's and Crowleys versions, it may be said to agree with neither, but to alternate between the ancient and modern printed copiess.' However, Mr. Wright took no notice of this remark, and even Dr. Morris, who in 1867 actually printed a considerable portion of the earliest version [a-text] for the first time, made no remark as to the peculiar contents of the ms. Which he happened to follow. Hence my first care was to point Out that there are really three distinct texts and in order to save trouble in reference, I called the earliest of these the A - text, the second the B-text, and the latest the C - text 5 or otherwise, the Vernon text.

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