Customer Reviews

Vision of Piers Plowman (Everyman's Library)

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Personally I don't see the point of translating English into English, so if you want to read The Vision of Piers Plowman as it was written (well, one version anyway!), this is the edition to get. However, I do concede that our language has changed to the extent that reading such a text is difficult without aids - of which this book is chock full. You have (a) footnotes and translations of the Latin quotes (b) notes on lexical elements of the text (c) notes notes on the meaning of the text. (a) is presented alongside the text whilst (b) and (c) are at the back, which does mean flicking to and fro as you read, but the rewards are worth it! This is the standard to which all modern print editions of medieval manuscripts should aspire. Outstanding work.

I remember having to recite the prologue of the Canturbury Tales in Middle English in high school but this is a couple hundred pages. I have read some 'Middle English' books where it wasn't difficult to understand at all, only the spelling was slightly off. THIS IS NOT THE CASE HERE!

For example:

But of coket or clermatyn or ellis of clene whete

That sentence is translated as follows:
But only loaves made of fine wheat flour, or at least only out of wheat unmixed.

There is a lot of latin thrown in as well, so if you are a curious reader who has no background in germanistics or medieval literature, this might not be the book for you. You will probably understand 60-70 percent of what is going on, but a modern English translation might be better.

The story itself is awesome and far superior to Pilgrim's Progress. Like that story, the narrator has a vision and encounters various aspects of human nature in his quest for salvation. The characters are more complex than in Pilgrim's Progress and you have a beautiful tale of a man trying to adhere to his Christian faith amidst clerical and secular corruption.
Highly recommended.

That is, compared to, say, Skeat's multi-volume monstrosity. PP is a great text, but, as an earlier unfortunate reviewer noted, this is not an edition (or really a text, whether it's translated or not) to tackle without at least an introductory class on Middle English literature. If you haven't had any experience with MidE, don't beat yourself up if you can't deal with Schmidt's edition. If you have a little MidE and you want a decent basic text, this is the most affordable and accessible way to go. Just take notes in pencil-- the paper's not of the best quality.

The poem of 'Piers the Ploughman' is often considered to be anonymously composed, as the name William Langland was less an authorial designation as it was an inscription on the back of a manuscript - it would be as if I would be assigned the authorship of the O.E.D. because, in some future time, the only remaining copy was missing the title pages, but still had the hard-cover with my 'ex libris' impression on it. Be that as it may, Langland is considered at least as likely an author as any other, and becomes a sort of stand-in, an 'everyman' for his time period. A few details of this Langland are known - he was a wanderer, a constant reviser (the poem goes through several revisions that scholars have designated as texts A, B, and C (and some argue for Z). This is not a spiritual autobiography, as J.F. Goodridge states in an essay about Langland in another edition, but there are no doubt autobiographical elements in the text. That the lead character is named 'Will' helps in this identification.

This poem stands alongside Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' as one of the great products of Middle English; this also has the character of being a different sort of Middle English than Chaucer's more courtly, continental influenced variety. Thus, it gives breadth to the history of the English language. Langland is often ranked as a great English poet on a par with Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Yeats, as representative of his age both in topics as well as language facility.

This epic poem deals with themes familiar for the time - like Dante and Milton, Langland deals with the grand ideas of the meaning of life and the destiny of humankind. However, unlike Dante and Milton, Will and Piers the Ploughman do not go through a mystical, otherworldly adventure or journey, but rather stays rooted to the earth. These are dream sequences, but these too need not be otherworldly - they are things that can happen to every person. The ideas of the seven deadly sins, the virtues, the church, and the images of heaven and hell are very much rooted to regular society images of the same. The discussion of the allegorical characters, aptly named Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best, does much for the moral teaching of this poem, which would have been of primary concern to the author.

Langland's text is often more Old English than Chaucerian in ways. It is far more alliterative, a strong component taken from Old English. Also, it is less metrical in rhythm than Chaucer - there is a pause in each line akin to older English poetry, but the metre is less secure.

This is a translation of the B-text, a text that is a revision of Langland's own (most likely). Translator and editor A.V.C. Schmidt provides an introduction and chronology, with lots of detail about the manuscript variations and textual issues. Schmidt gives examples of the original language for the student to compare the modern translation with a snapshot of the original.

This is one of the classics of English literature, perhaps the least known among them.

Piers Plowman comes down to us in three main versions: the A, B, and C texts. This edition is based on the B-text, which is widely considered to be both more radical in its association with the Lollard heresy, and more aesthetically pleasing when compared with the later C-text. This edition provides a textual apparatus, footnote translations as the editor deemed necessary, and explanatory endnotes.

At the level of "scholarly seriousness," this edition lies somewhere between the heavy-duty Donaldson B-text (Piers Plowman: The B Version - Will's Visions of Piers Plowman, Do-Well, Do-Better and Do-Best: An Edition in the Form of Trinity College Cambridge MS B.15.17, Corrected and Restored from the Known Evidence, with Variant Readings (Revised Edition)) and the several translations that are floating around on Amazon. For the serious student, this edition simply cannot be beat in terms of price. For the casual reader, one of the translations might be preferable; while Langland's Middle English is more fun to read, his dialect will seem a bit alien to most eyes. Furthermore, I question whether or not it is really necessary for a non-scholar to read an original language edition. To my mind, the poetic language of Piers Plowman is not on par with that of Chaucer, Gower, or the Pearl Poet, and I think that Langland sometimes does not understand the dynamics of alliterative verse. While it may not be at the level of "rum, ram, ruf, by lettre," I don't think the casual reader need upbraid herself for not plodding through the Middle English. However, it's all a matter of determining what one wants from the text.

As for further reading, for those who would like a good prose translation, A.V.C. Schmidt's edition does the trick (Piers Plowman: A New Translation of the B-text (Oxford World's Classics)). It's especially helpful for quick review of overall poem structure. I unfortunately cannot recommend a verse-translation, as I have not read any of them, but as I said before, I can only imagine a modern-day translation might be welcome to the modern reader. For the beginning student, one might also check out Simpson's introduction to the B-text, which provides not only historical and philosophical background, but also a comprehensive interpretation (Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B-Text (Longman Medieval and Renaissance Library)).