Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations.

The Latin and French quotations of PPl are presented in three indices: I. in text order (keyed to the B text, cross-listed with Z, A, and C), with sources and analogues (including textual and bibliographical commentary); II. in biblical order, for those quotations that can be traced directly or indirectly to the Vulgate; III. in alphabetical order. The Guide is based on the Athlone editions of A, B, and C (in press) as well as the Rigg-Brewer edition of MS. Bodley 851 (the “T’ text). However, the Athlone editors’ practice of not including many of the quotations in the line numbering is shown to be problematic. Their use of italics for French and Latin words in the poem largely mirrors scribal practices (such as rubricating, boxing, underlining). Emending the quotations on the basis of external evidence is an untrustworthy methodology. WL might have misquoted or deliberately modified his borrowings. Moreover, the persistence of Old Latin Bible forms (e.g., in commentaries), as well as post-Vulgate translations, the liturgy, and narratives based on the Bible -all of which show their influence on the poem -argue against “correcting” those quotations at variance with the Vulgate.

Rev. Robert Adams, Speculum 68 (1993): 1053; J. W. Bracken, Choice 29 (1992): 1651; M. C. Davlin, O.P., Chaucer Yearbook 1 (1992): 213-17; George D. Economou, SAC 15 (1993): 153-55; Fritz Kemmler, Anglia 112 (1994): 289; Helen Barr, N&Q 240 (1995): 80-82; Thorlac Turville-Petre, RES ns 46 (1995): 64-65.