junction being effected very unskilfully; whilst three combine a portion of the C-text with a portion of the B-text, and are so closely related that two of them are duplicates, and the third a later copy of them. But even this is not all. There are other MSS. which actually show the poem in intermediate stages. Thus MS. Harl. 3954 exhibits an amplified A-text, which at the beginning follows Type B, but towards the end approaches Type A. Unfortunately, this is a very poor and corrupt MS., but it suggests that the revision of the A-text may not have been accomplished all at once. I should say that the author commenced his first revision in the end of 1376 or the beginning of 1377, at which time he introduced the fable of the cat and rattons,' but did not finish it till the end of 1377 or later. The gradual growth of the C-text, or later revision, is still more clearly marked, and rests on better authority. The B-text was first amplified by the addition of numerous extra lines, as preserved in the remarkable MS. R. (Rawl. Poet. 38), which I should describe as being a copy of the B-text with later improvements and afterthoughts. These additional lines are all duly inserted in my edition of the B-text, but are absent from the edition by Mr. Wright. Strictly speaking, they should have been relegated to the foot-notes; but the advantage of having them in the text was too great to be lost, as they have sufficient authority, and are, to a great extent, preserved in the C-text as it finally appeared. There was even a second intermediate stage between the B- and C-texts. This is exhibited by the valuable and curious MS. I. (Ilchester MS.), which I should describe as being an earlier draught of the C-text. Nor are the various forms of the poem even thus exhausted, owing to the individual peculiarities of contents or arrangement of the various MSS. By selecting certain copies, we can detect the ten varieties of form which are enumerated below. A. a. It is probable that the poem, in its earliest form of the A-text, terminated with Passus viii., since the Passus which I have, for convenience, called Pass. ix. really begins a new poem, viz. Vita de Dowel; see p. 252. Accordingly, two MSS., both imperfect, cease just before the end of Pass. viii. is reached. These are MS. H. (Harley 875) and the MS. in Lincoln's Inn. A. b. Some MSS. comprise both the Visio de Petro Plowman (properly so called), and the Vita de Dowel; but omit the last Passus of Dowel, which I have called Pass. xii. Two of these appear to be complete at the end, viz. MS. D. (Douce 323) and MS. A. (Ashmole 1468); but others are incomplete, viz. MS. V. (Vernon), which has lost a leaf, and the four MSS.1 which exhibit a Mixed Text (A and C), and in which a portion of the C-text is tacked on to the end of A, Pass. xi. A. c. Other MSS. contain Pass. xii., either wholly or in part. These are MS. Rawl. Poet. 137 (which is complete), the Ingilby MS., and MS. U. (University College)". A. d. One MS. (Harl. 3954) exhibits an amplified A-text. Unfortunately, this MS. is almost certainly corrupt in many passages, so that its evidence is not of much value. The most remarkable point about it is its omission of Pass. xii. B. a. We may here place the B-text in its commonest form, as it occurs in MS. L. (Laud Misc. 581), and as it was printed by Crowley and Wright. B. b. The amplified B-text in MS. R. (Rawl. Poet. 38); see above, p. xxii. C. a. Earliest draught of the C-text, in MS. I. (Ilchester MS.); see above, p. xxii. C. b. The C-text in its usual form. A. b. and C. b. the description of A. C. b. and B. a. Mixture of two texts in the same MS.; see b. above. Mixture of two texts in the same MS.; as in MS. Additional 10574, and MS. Cotton, Calig. A. xi.; both in the British Museum. Here are no less than ten forms of the poem; yet besides these, we have at least two copies which do not exactly resemble any of the rest. These are the partially corrupt copy in MS. XXVI. (Corp. Christi Coll. Oxon), and the ridiculously corrupted rubbish which appears in the earlier part of MS. Z. (Bodley 851), the very copy which contains a remarkably correct version of the latter part of the C-text. When all this is considered, it will be seen that it is quite impossible to tell the exact value of a MS. of Piers Plowman without at least a general examination of the whole of its contents. Lastly, the above classification of the MSS. (according to the form of the poem exhibited in them) does not wholly agree with the 1 These are: MS. T. (Trinity College, Cambridge, R. 3. 14); Harl. 6041; Digby 145; and the Duke of Westminster's MS. * MS. Dublin, D. 4. 12, is remarkably connected with this set, by the extraordinary way in which the subject-matter is transposed. But it ends at A. vii. 45, the rest being lost. classification given further on, where they are arranged according to the peculiarities of the various readings which they severally adopt. 9. THE MEANING OF 'PIERS THE PLOWMAN.' In the excellent MS. Laud Misc. 581, from which the B-text of the poem is mainly printed, we find a title (now nearly illegible) expressed in the words 'Incipit Liber de Petro Plowman.' This title is applicable to the whole poem; and the same remark applies to the title in MS. Rawl. Poet. 137, which runs thus-'Hic incipit liber qui uocatur pers plowman: Prologus.' Sometimes, instead of 'Liber,' we find the term 'dialogus' or 'tractatus'; the former occurs in vol. i. p. 600, and the latter at the end of the MS. belonging to the Duke of Westminster. A closer examination shews that this 'Liber' is subdivided into two main parts. The title of the former is 'Visio Willelmi de Petro le Plowman'; while the title of the latter was, originally, 'Vita de Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest, secundum Wit et Resoun'. The former of these includes C. Pass. i.-x. (B. prol. and Pass. i.—vii. ; A. prol. and Pass. i.—viii.). The latter part at first (ie. in the A-text) included the remainder; but at a later period this remainder was split up into three distinct portions, called respectively 'Visio de Dowel,' 'Visio de Dobet,' and 'Visio de Dobest'; see vol. i. pp. 252, 253, 436, 453, 550, 551. We hence learn that 'Piers Plowman' is the subject of the book, the author's name being William. Unfortunately, when Crowley put out his edition in 1550, he translated the Latin de by 'of,' instead of 'concerning,' and gave the book the ambiguous title of 'The Vision of Pierce Plowman.' Hence careless readers at once jumped to the conclusion that Piers Plowman was the name of the author, not of the subject; and this mistake was even made by men of eminence, including Ridley, Churchyarde, Spenser, W. Webbe, F. Meres, Drayton, Hickes, and Byron. There seems to be quite an attraction in this curious error; for it is still constantly made even by those who must to some extent have read the book; thus Mr. Bardsley, in 1 See vol. i. p. 251. 2 See Ridley, Works (Parker Society), p. 490; lines by Churchyarde in Skelton's Poems, ed. Dyce, vol. i. p. lxxviii; Spenser, Epilogue to the Shepheards Calender; Webbe, Discourse of English Poetrie, in Hazlewood's Ancient Critical Essays, ii. 33; F. Meres, in the same, ii. 149, 154; Drayton, Legend of Thomas Cromwell; Hickes, Thesaurus, i. 196; Moore, Life of Byron, under the date 1807. his book on English Surnames, ed. 1873, p. 406, actually has the words 'Piers, in his Vision, says,' &c. We can say that such or such an expression occurs in the Faerie Queene or in Piers Plowman; but we ought not to talk of the Faerie Queene or of Piers Plowman as if they were English authors; nor is anything gained by so doing. Even when this error is corrected, there still remains a slight ambiguity about the term, an ambiguity which is due to the author himself, and to the fragmentary character of his work. If we examine the earliest text of the poem, here called the A-text, we shall see at once that the author at first wrote three distinct Visions, viz. (1) the Vision of the Field full of Folk, of Holy Church, and of the Lady Meed; (2) the Vision of the Deadly Sins and of Piers Plowman; and (3) Vita de Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest. He afterwards called the whole work, in its earliest form, after his favourite character in it, conferring upon it the name of 'Liber de Petro Plowman.' In this earliest draught of the poem, his Plowman, commonly called Piers, is no more than the type of the ideal honest man, whom he represents as superintending farm-labourers in order to see that their work is done heartily and thoroughly, whilst at the same time he is so dear to God the Father on account of his unswerving integrity and faithfulness that he is actually qualified to guide the pilgrims who, with consciences fully quickened, have set off on a search for Truth, but can find no one else who knows the way to that unknown shrine. If we next examine the second text, here called the B-text, we shall find that the two first Visions are the same as before; but the former, Vita de Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest has dwindled down to a mere portion of a Vita de Dowel, and may now be called the Vision of Wit, Study, Clergy, and Scripture, though this is a change rather in the name than in the subject-matter'. But the work is now extended so as to include new visions; these are (4) the Vision of Fortune, Nature, and Reason; (5) the Vision of Imaginative; (6) the Vision of Conscience, Patience, and Haukyn the Active-Man. Also, the Vita de Dobet, including (7) the Vision of the Soul and of the Tree of Charity; (8) the Vision of Faith, Hope, and Charity; (9) the Vision of the Triumph of Piers the Plowman. Also, the Vita de Dobest, including (10) the Vision of Grace; and (11) the Vision of Antichrist. In thus expanding his poem, William (naturally enough) Beginning on p. 436. 1 See vol. i. pp. 252-324. * Beginning on p. 550. 2 came to perceive more clearly that the true guide to God the Father, |