Yet the whole poem is named from him, because he is the most remarkable figure in the group of allegorical personages who pass successively before the dreamer's sleeping sight. He is of more importance than either Lady Holy-church, Lady Meed, Falsehood, Conscience, Reason, Hunger, or the impersonations of the Seven Deadly Sins; for he is the type of a truly honest man. But we may dismiss the consideration of his character for the present.

The true name of the dreamer, the poet, is not certainly known. The poem has been ascribed to one Langland, whose Christian name has been variously given as William, Robert, and John. Yet of the author's Christian name we are sure; for in nearly all the numerous MSS. it is invariably given as William, not to mention that the author frequently calls himself Wille in various passages. The true surname is more doubtful, but we may. assume it to have been Langland, for the present at least, to save ambiguity. We have then advanced clearly as far as this, viz. that one William Langland, during the latter part of the fourteenth century, wrote an alliterative poem describing a series of dreams, in some of which he beheld the person whom he calls Piers the Plowman, after whom the poem (or part of the poem, at least) was named.

Strictly speaking, only a part of the poem was at first named after Piers. The true title of the latter portion was originally Visio ejusdem de Do-avel, Do-bet, et Do-best, or the Vision of the same [William] concerning Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best; but the two portions were subsequently treated as constituting one long poem, and the name Liber de Petro Plowman was conferred upon the whole.

We must next consider the forms in which the poem exists. There are not less than forty-three MSS. of it still extant, (nearly all of which I have carefully examined at various times,) and from a comparison of these it is evident that it takes five or six distinct shapes, of which some are due merely to confusion, or to the carelessness of the scribes; still, after all allowances for such causes of variation have been made, it is clear that three of the shapes are due to the author himself. It is certain that he

altered, added to, and re-wrote the whole poem, not once only, but twice. It was the great work of his life, and may have occupied him, though not continuously, during nearly thirty years. Let us call the three forms of the poem, as at different times composed, the A-text, B-text, and C-text. They differ widely, and are marked by various peculiarities, and different dates may be with some accuracy assigned to them. Let us consider them separately.

The A-text, which is distinguished by peculiar freshness and vigour, and a rather greater amount of vehemence and rapidity than either of the others, was certainly composed first, about A.D. 1362. As compared with the others, it is but a first rough sketch, and extends to not more than 2567 lines. In it, the Vision of Piers the Plowman, and the Vision of Do-wel, Do-bet, and Do-best are kept quite distinct, the former consisting of a Prologue and 8 Passus (1833 lines), and the latter of a Prologue and 3 Passus (734 lines). In the Prologue (which contains but 109 lines) the curious fable of the rats conspiring to bell the cat is entirely omitted; and in the description of the Seven Deadly Sins, the character of Wrath was, by a curious oversight, forgotten. The best MSS. of it are the Vernon MS. at Oxford, MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 14, Harl. 875, Univ. Coll. (Oxford) 45, and MS. Rawl. Poet. 137 in the Bodleian Library. Long extracts from the Vernon MS. are given in Mr. Morris's 'Specimens of Early English,' printed so that each long line is counted as two. A comparison of these with the corresponding passages of the present volume will shew more clearly than any detailed explanation what the A-text is like.

The B-text. The curious ending of the A-text shews clearly that the author's original intention was to wind up his poem and have done with it. Not foreseeing the extraordinary popularity which his poem was destined to enjoy, he had recourse to the not uncommon device of killing himself off, in words which may be thus modernized—

And when this work was wrought, ere Will might spy,
Death dealt him a dint, and drove him to the earth,

And he is enclosed under clay; now Christ have his soul!'
b MS. Rawl. Poet. 137. Fol. 31.

And so the matter rested for nearly fifteen years. But the grief of the whole nation at the death of the Black Prince, the disquieting political events of 1377, the last year of Edward III, the dissatisfaction of the commons with the conduct of the duke of Lancaster, roused our poet as it roused other men. Then it was that, taking his text from Ecclesiasticus x. 16, Væ terræ ubi rex puer est, he composed his famous version of the well-known fable of the rats wishing to bell the cat, a fable which has never elsewhere been told so well or so effectively. Then it was that, taking advantage of his now more extensive acquaintance with Scripture, and his familiarity with the daily scenes of London life, he re-wrote and added to his poem till he had trebled the extent of it, and multiplied the number of his Latin quotations by seven.. The additions are, most of them, exceedingly good, and distinguished by great freedom and originality of thought; indeed, we may say that, upon the whole, the B-text is the best of the three, and the best suited for giving us a fair idea of the author's peculiar powers. It is with the B-text that the present volume is especially concerned, and a portion of which is here printed. The complete text comprises the two Visions, viz. of Piers Plowman, and of Do-wel, Do-bet, and Do-best; the former consisting of a Prologue and 7 Passus (as here printed), and the latter of three Prologues and 10 Passus, viz. a Prologue and 6 Passus of Do-wel, a Prologue and 3 Passus of Do-bet, and a Prologue and 1 Passus of Do-best. But in many (perhaps all) of the MSS. the distinctions between the component parts are not much regarded, and in some there is no mention of Do-wel, Do-bet, and Do-best whatever, but the whole is called Liber de petro plowman, and made to consist of a Prologue and twenty Passus. Not to go into further details, it is necessary to add that there are two perfect MSS. of it which are of special excellence, and which do not greatly vary from each other; from one of these, MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. B. 15. 17, Mr. Wright printed his well-known and convenient edition of the whole poem, and upon the other, MS. Laud 581, our text is based. The reader will now readily perceive that this volume contains the whole of the B-text of the Vision of

Piers the Plowman, properly so called, but does not contain the Vision of Do-wel, Do-bet, and Do-best, which is commonly appended to it and considered one with it. If then, in the notes, I quote from Passus eleven, for instance, I quote from a Passus which is strictly the third of Do-wel, but which is commonly called Passus II of Piers the Plowman as being a more convenient notation.

Concerning the C-text, I need not say much here. It was probably not composed till 1380 or even later, or, still more probably, it contains additions and revisions made at various periods later than 1378. Throughout these the working of the same mind is clearly discernible, but there is a tendency to diffuseness and to a love for theological subtleties. It is of still greater length, containing a Prologue and 9 Passus of Piers the Plowman, a Prologue and 6 Passus of Do-wel, a Prologue and 3 Passus of Do-bet, and a Prologue and I Passus of Do-best; or, according to the shorter notation, a Prologue and 22 Passus. It may be remarked that the short poem of Do-best stands almost exactly the same in both the B and C versions.

Besides this extraordinary work, with its three varying editions, I hold that we are indebted to the same author for a remarkable poem on the Deposition of Richard II, of course written in 1399, and which has been twice printed by Mr. Wright, the more convenient edition being that published for the Camden Society in 1838. This is not the place to discuss a question of some difficulty, and concerning which a careful reader may form an opinion for himself, and can come, I think, to no other conclusion. It is true that Mr. Wright has expressed a different opinion, but he was misled by a marginal note in his MS. to which he attached some importance c.

The printed editions. The Vision concerning Piers the Plowman has been several times printed. Robert Crowley printed at least two, and probably three impressions of it in one year, A.D. 1550; from a copy of one of which Owen Rogers produced his edition

See his Edition (Cand Soc.) p. vi., where liber hic' should have been printed liber homo,' an error which vitiates the whole argument.