Langland, Piers Plowman (C-text)

thinking about version of the Church that emerges from Piers Plowman in secondary literature, Wycliffism has status -- stand-in for modern liberalism; brings modern scholars closer to what they wished medieval people believed

observing dis/continuities with Langland's own theology

interested in listening to versions of Wycliff that get spread outside of Oxford

some critics think about Langland as uneducated, as a "clever grammar school boy" -- but he engages with 14th century theology very seriously

question of the Reformation -- how does Langland fit into Eamon's version of the Middle Ages? what does this say about Duffy's construction of the late medieval Church?

restless poem; seems opaque, but great deal of dialectical control

Prologue

"I've become a problem to myself" -- famous lines from the Confessions

models of the Middle Ages as static and hierarchical; this prologue doesn't know them

"Conscience in the Middle Ages" -- is Piers Plowman's "Conscience" Thomistic?

Andrew Galloway, commentary on Piers Plowman

allegorical figures -- high stylistic of Kynde Wit clashes with final lines, full of ordinary life

"fragmentation of the forms of inquiry"; Will is given maps for finding his way -- give the possibility of a unified inquiry; how do we go on if the ground we're put on doesn't match the maps we're given?

when reason can't control us, we have anarchy; we *need* the cat -- all the forces of reform swallowed up in image of human beings who have become mice and rats

put him to pride -- put him to the plow -- concretized images

friars: mobile figures; answerable to papacy, not bishops

Structure

PROLOGUE

Will, dressed as a sheep -- falls asleep

DREAM

sees tower of Truth to the east, valley of Death to the West, field full of folk between

Conscience comes to accuse them (Pr.95)

Kynde Wit speaks to the king and commons (Pr.147)

Conscience speaks to the clergy and king (Pr.151)

Conscience and king go to court

crowd of rats come to hold council about cat (Pr.165)

rat of renown suggests putting a bell around the cat's neck (Pr.176)

crowd of rats applaud his plan (Pr.190)

mouse steps forward, suggests one cat or another will always bother them; better to suffer in silence; rats could never rule themselves (Pr.196)

dreamer doesn't know how to interpret this vision; goes on to see diverse people