William Langland's "Piers Plowman"
William Langland's "Piers Plowman": The C Version
A verse translation by George Economou
Series: The Middle Ages Series
Copyright Date: 1996
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Pages: 296
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x1p16
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Book Info
William Langland's "Piers Plowman"
Book Description:

William Langland'sPiers Plowmanis one of the major poetic monuments of medieval England and of world literature. Probably composed between 1372 and 1389, the poem survives in three distinct versions. It is known to modern readers largely through the middle of the three, the so-called B-text. Now, George Economou's verse translation of the poet's third version makes available for the first time in modern English the final revision of a work that many have regarded as the greatest Christian poem in our language.

Langland's remarkable powers of invention and his passionate involvement with the spiritual, social, and political crises of his time lay claim to our attention, and demand serious comparison with Dante's Divine Comedy. Economou's translation preserves the intensity of the poet's verse and the narrative energy of his alliterative long line, the immediacy of the original's story of the quest for salvation, and the individuality of its language and wordplay.

eISBN: 978-0-8122-9237-4
Subjects: Language & Literature
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Table of Contents
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vi)
  3. Preface
    Preface (pp. vii-xii)
  4. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. xiii-xxx)

    The identification of William Langland as the author ofPiers Plowman, the fourteenth-century alliterative poem that survives in three successive versions, rests securely upon external as well as internal evidence and is no longer a matter of scholarly controversy.¹ The most compelling piece of external evidence is a note appended to the last leaf of a manuscript (Trinity College Dublin MS 212, c. 1400) of the third version, traditionally referred to as the C text or version, the last revised version of Langland’s lifetime poem and original of this translation. Beginning with the memorandum that one Stacy de Rokayle, who...

  5. Selected Bibliography
    Selected Bibliography (pp. xxxi-2)
  6. Prologue
    Prologue (pp. 3-9)
  7. Passus I
    Passus I (pp. 10-15)
  8. Passus II
    Passus II (pp. 16-22)
  9. Passus III
    Passus III (pp. 23-36)
  10. Passus IV
    Passus IV (pp. 37-42)
  11. Passus V
    Passus V (pp. 43-48)
  12. Passus VI
    Passus VI (pp. 49-60)
  13. Passus VII
    Passus VII (pp. 61-69)
  14. Passus VIII
    Passus VIII (pp. 70-79)
  15. Passus IX
    Passus IX (pp. 80-89)
  16. Passus X
    Passus X (pp. 90-98)
  17. Passus XI
    Passus XI (pp. 99-108)
  18. Passus XII
    Passus XII (pp. 109-116)
  19. Passus XIII
    Passus XIII (pp. 117-123)
  20. Passus XIV
    Passus XIV (pp. 124-130)
  21. Passus XV
    Passus XV (pp. 131-140)
  22. Passus XVI
    Passus XVI (pp. 141-152)
  23. Passus XVII
    Passus XVII (pp. 153-162)
  24. Passus XVIII
    Passus XVIII (pp. 163-171)
  25. Passus XIX
    Passus XIX (pp. 172-181)
  26. Passus XX
    Passus XX (pp. 182-195)
  27. Passus XXI
    Passus XXI (pp. 196-208)
  28. Passus XXII
    Passus XXII (pp. 209-220)
  29. Explanatory Notes
    Explanatory Notes (pp. 221-260)
  30. Appendix: Table of Major Additions, Omissions, and Transpositions of Material in the C Version
    Appendix: Table of Major Additions, Omissions, and Transpositions of Material in the C Version (pp. 261-262)
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