Description
Book SynopsisThis book provides an accessible, concise and intellectually stimulating introduction and guide to one of the richest, most challenging poems of pre-Reformation English. New to the internationally-renowned "Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies" series, James Simpson's indispensable guide to Piers Plowman has been fully revised for this reissue.
Table of Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- Approaching Piers Plowman
- The poem and its author
- Langland’s immediate poetic context
- ‘Discourse’
- Schematic structure of the poem
- 1. The First Vision: Prologue and Passus I
- Introduction
- Literary ‘truthe’
- Theological ‘truthe’
- Social ‘truthe’
- Conclusion
- 2. The First Vision: Passus II–IV
- Introduction
- Personification allegory
- Mede and social ‘truthe’
- Mede and legal ‘truthe’
- Conclusion
- 3. The Second Vision: Passus V–VII
- Introduction
- Ecclesiastical satire
- Theological themes: the reward of works—a wage or a gift?
- Conclusion—the crisis of justice
- 4. The Third Vision: Passus VIII–XII
- Introduction
- Structure as determined by psychology
- Style
- Theme
- The inner-dream (XI. 5—402): Fortune, Lewtee, Imaginatif
- Conclusion
- 5. The Fourth Vision: Passus XIII–XIV
- Introduction
- Educational transitions
- Poetic transitions
- Social transitions
- Conclusion
- 6. The Vision: Passus XV–XVII
- Introduction
- Anima—the whole soul
- Anima and the Church
- Anima and charity
- Conclusion
- 7. Visions Six, Seven and Eight: Passus XVIII–XX
- Introduction
- The sixth vision: Passus XVIII
- The seventh vision: Passus XIX
- The eighth vision: Passus XX
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
