The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman vol. 2: C Passūs 5–9; B Passūs 5–7; A Passūs 5-8 , vol. 2: C Passūs 5–9; B Passūs 5–7; A Passūs 5-8
This new volume of the Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman treats the poem’s second vision. In his annotations, Hanna deliberately addresses the question of the poem’s perceived ‘difficulty,’ by indicating the legitimate areas of unresolved dilemmas, while offering often original explanations of a variety of textual loci. Perhaps more important, his commentary indicates what has not always appeared clear in past approaches – that the poem only ‘means’ in its totality and within some critical framework, and that its annotation needs always to be guided by a sense of L’s developing arguments.