Signes and Sothe: Language in the Piers Plowman Tradition

Signes and Sothe examines the literary and historical tradition of poetry inspired by Piers Plowman. It explores the relationships of Richard the Redeless, The Crowned King, Pierce the Ploughman's Crede and Mum and the Sothsegger to each other, and to Piers. The book is based on the premise that language is a social phenomenon, drawing on a number of critical approaches from modern linguistics, theories of discourse, manuscript annotation and medieval conceptions of authorship and intention. It considers concepts of literary style and poetic diction in relation to the offical discourses of Church and State, and analyses the linguistic positions of the poems, revealing their historical and political significance. The social implications of compositional method are also examined in chapters on the use of wordplay and the employment of distinctive diction, legal and Wycliffite. As in Piers Plowman, the use and function of language is an important concern in these poems, and this study demonstrates how it is expressly related to their mission to criticize excesses and corruption in society.
HELEN BARR is a Fellow and Tutor in English and Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.