INTRODUCTION.

§ 1. THE THREE FORMS OF THE POEM.

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 Three-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 three, and not two only, as stated by Mr. T. Wright and others2. This truth had been suspected long ago by Mr. Price, who (in a note inserted in Warton'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 Crowley's versions, it may be said to agree with neither, but to alternate between the ancient and modern printed copies. 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; or otherwise, the "Vernon" text,

1 This tract was reprinted, in an improved form, in 1886.

" Pref. to Wright's edition, 1856, p. xxxiii; pref. to Whitaker's edition, 1813, Pp. xix, xxxi.

By the ancient' copy is meant Crowley's, and by the 'modern,' Whitaker's edition.

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* Specimens of Early English, Oxford, 1867; pp. 249–290.

the Crowley" text, and the "Whitaker" text respectively. 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. these is given further on.

A list of

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. ll. 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. I 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. Some

1 Even now, it would not surprise me if more copies should be found, though I hardly know where to look for them. There was once a forty-sixth copy, printed by Crowley in 1550, but now lost. Indeed, Crowley mentions a forty-seventh, marked with the date 1509. See p. 1xxiii, note 3.

times, as at pp. 10, 11, the parallel passage is lacking in the A-text, in which case the words 'Not in A-text' are printed in place of it. Moreover, as the A-text is much shorter than either of the others, it disappears after p. 331. The 12th Passus of the A-text is unique, and occupies pages 326-329 to the exclusion of the other texts, with six concluding lines on pp. 330, 331.

It is impossible to enumerate here the numberless variations between the three texts; though several of these are noticed further on. It may suffice to say here that the A-text, as being the earliest draught, is usually much briefer than the others, which were expanded from it. Yet there are passages where it is absolutely fuller than the others, especially in the course of A. Pass. x. Thus, at pp. 274, 275, where the B-text has 15 lines, and the C-text but 10, the corresponding passage in the A-text contains as many as 42 lines; of which at least lines 119-121 are prettily expressed, and might very well have been retained. The line A. x. 101 is another fine line that could ill be spared, though it was omitted by the author in revision. It is difficult to tell whether lines 99-105, at the end of A. Pass. xii., are genuine or not. If they are, then it is clear that the author merely wrote them by way of a temporary finish, and speaks of his death by anticipation; this is not unlikely. Otherwise, it is probable that he left this Passus incomplete, stopping at line 98, and that these lines were added by another hand, viz. by that of a certain John But, who in any case added twelve more worthless lines after line 105; see footnote to p. 330. Whichever of these suppositions be the true one, the.author ultimately rejected the whole of A. Pass. xii., and began to rewrite the poem afresh, suppressing some of his old work, but adding much more that was See further below, in the account of the B-text.

new.

§3. DATE OF THE A-TEXT (1362–3).

As to the date of the A-text, we are indebted to Tyrwhitt for having pointed out that the 'Southwestern wind on a Saturday at even,' mentioned near the beginning of Passus v., refers to the storm of wind which occurred on Jan. 15, 1362, which day was a Saturday'. There may have been more than one Saturday marked 'A. D. M.CCC.LXII.-XV die Januarii, cira horam vesperarum, ventus vehemens notus Australis Africus tantâ rabie erupt,' &c.; quoted by Tyrwhitt (in a note to the Advertisement of his Glossary to Chaucer), from the Continuator of Adam Murimuth, p. 115; cf. P. Pl., A. v. 14.