Les Échos Bibliques dans Piers the Plowman (Texte C)

This study explores the spiritual content of biblical ‘echoes’ in PPl with the goal of determining their function, a task for which the Bible serves as the principle interpretive instrument. Maillet sets these echoes within their biblical contexts to elucidate their broader resonances and then classifies them according to their shared features and points of intersection with the major themes of the poem. She argues that these echoes fall into six antagonistic thematic categories: Truth and Falsehood, Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Earthly Goods and Celestial Goods, Earthly and Celestial Joys and Sadness, Flesh and Spirit. This dualism, complex rather than simple, gives unity and coherence to the poem, so that even its smallest details find their response or contrary idea. Once the symmetrical structure of the poem is understood, Maillet argues, order appears below its apparent chaos. (HM, English translation by Ricardo Matthews)