READING PIERS PLOWMAN

Transcription

1 READING PIERS PLOWMAN Reading Piers Plowman is an indispensable scholarly guide to a magnificent and notoriously difficult medieval poem. With Piers Plowman, the fourteenth-century poet William Langland proved that English verse could be at once spiritually electrifying and intellectually rigorous, capable of imagining society in its totality while at the same time exploring heady ideas about language, theology, and culture. In her study of Piers Plowman, explores how Langland s ambitious poetics emerged in dialogue with contemporary ideas; for example, about political counsel and gender, the ethics of poverty, Christian and pagan learning, lordship and servitude, and the long history of Christianity. Lucid and comprehensive, Steiner s study teaches us to stay alert to the poem s stunning effects while still making sense of its literary and historical contexts. emily steiner is Associate Professor of English Literature and an award-winning teacher at the University of Pennsylvania. She is presently co-editor of the Yearbook of Langland Studies. She is the author of Documentary Culture and the Making of Medieval English Literature (Cambridge, 2003), and co-editor with Candace Barrington of The Letter of the Law: Legal Practice and Literary Production in Medieval England (2002). in this web service

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3 READING PIERS PLOWMAN EMILY STEINER University of Pennsylvania in this web service

4 cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by, New York Information on this title: / This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of. First published 2013 Printed and bound byicpiigroupi(uk)iltd,icroydonicr0 YY 4 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Steiner, Emily. Reading Piers Plowman /. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn (hardback) isbn (paperback) 1. Langland, William, 1330? 1400? Piers Plowman. I. Title. pr2015.s dc isbn Hardback isbn Paperback has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. in this web service

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7 Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements page ix x 1 Introduction (Prologue) 1 2 Value (B.1 4) 21 Introduction 21 Boethian gender 22 True worth 27 Embodiment 30 The gender of money 38 Valuable advice 47 3 Community (B.5 7) 60 Introduction 60 Personal bonds 62 Do penance! 68 Blood brothers 78 Hungry for love 83 Getting a new suit 92 4 Learning (B.8 12) 96 Introduction 96 The learning life 99 Continuing education 103 In the mouths of lords 113 Extreme learning Practice (B.13 15) 140 Introduction 140 Poor beasts 143 Poor comparisons 152 The example of the past 156 vii in this web service

8 viii Contents 6 Belief (B.16 18) 172 Introduction The long history of belief Affecting theology Beautiful reasons Institutions (B.19 20) 211 Introduction 211 Institutional poetics 214 Apocalypse now 219 Body-building 225 Notes 229 Bibliography 244 Index 262 in this web service

9 Illustrations Figure 1. Lady Meed riding a sheriff. William Langland, Piers Plowman (C-Text). Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 104. f.10r. (Anglo-Irish, 1427). Photograph courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries Imaging Services Office. page 39 Figure 2. Woman with a cradle. Jacques de Longuyon, Les voeux du paon. Pierpont Morgan Library, MS G.24, f.10r. (Flemish, ). Photograph courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library Photoservices. 92 Figure 3. Aristotle with his disciples. Les diz moraulx des philosophes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Typ 0207, f.15. (Paris, ). Photograph courtesy of the Printing and Graphics Art Department, Houghton Library. 136 Figure 4. Mohammed preaching. Giovanni Boccaccio, De casibus virorum illustrium, trans. Laurent de Premierfait. Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 226,f.243. (Paris, before 1450). Photograph courtesy of the BnF Département de la reproduction. 166 Figure 5. Trinitarian shield. William Peraldus, Summa vitiis. British Library, Harley MS 3244, f.28r. (England, ). Photograph courtesy of British Library Imaging Services. 190 Figure 6. Doubting Thomas. Gough Psalter. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Gough.liturg.8, f.50v. (England, ). Photograph courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries Imaging Services Office. 228 ix in this web service

10 Acknowledgements This book is a labor of love for my students past and present who committed themselves to reading Piers Plowman. To dedicate oneself to this magnificent poem is not only to face some major interpretative challenges, but also to risk losing oneself in a text that offers no easy way out. Stirring and confounding by turns, Piers Plowman asks its readers to forgo the safety of narrative and trust in a poetic process that is all-consuming and frequently unmanageable. Piers Plowman promises that salvation lies in community, a promise on which I depend. I thank Candace Barrington, Maura Nolan, and Rosemary O Neill, who read chapters in draft, and Lawrence Warner, expert in all things Langlandian, who generously commented on the entire book. Kara Gaston, Jennifer Jahner, and Sarah Arkebauer helped with various stages of research, Sierra Lomuto assisted valuably with the index, and Marie Turner edited the manuscript with her characteristic intelligence. Penn undergraduates Katie Thackray and Shoshana Akabas helped compile the bibliography. My dear colleagues Rita Copeland and David Wallace weathered this project for my own good, and it is much better for their friendship. Piers Plowman has taught me some patience with my own shortcomings and with other people s needs. Its striking beauty comes from its ability to address the demands of a clamorous world, while holding out for a time in which people will live simply on love. My family wagered that I could be a good scholar and a good mother at the same time. I am grateful to them for taking that bet. emily steiner University of Pennsylvania x in this web service