The following citations are intended to illustrate the application of my hypothesis that John
Trevisa (c. 1342-1402) wrote the B and C versions of Piers the Plowman. Catchwords are
used to suggest the period or aspect of his life reflected in the passage. Passus and line numbers
are from W. W. Skeat's parallel text edition in 2 Volumes (Oxford 1886), B text unless otherwise
indicated. Further references are given in a note at the end.
| travel | V 251-2: Lombardes lettres. See Review 2.247 (note to C
VI 246). Trevisa traveled abroad more than once, and made use of Lombards letters in doing so
(CCR 1392-96, p. 524). |
| London | X 78-9 (from Schmidt's B text; not in Skeat): (Review
2.219) "For God is deef nowadayes and deyneth noght his eres to opene, That girles for hire giltes
he forgrynt hem alle." These lines are in B MSS RF only and appear to be added at a later date
(though Kane-Donaldson and Schmidt think not. See the continuation of Higden's
Polychronicon by the Monk of Westminster (R.S. ix 14) July 1382: "Eodem tempore fuit
epidemia Londoniae sed maxime puellarum et puellorum." In the C text (when this epidemic was
presumably no longer in the headlines) "girles" is replaced by "good men" (C XII 62).
|
| Oxford | X 256-90 Critique of bishops (dobest), directed especially against
Thomas Brinton for lending his prestige to the Black Friars Council (summer of 1382) and
perhaps especially for his prominent role as an inquisitor at Oxford in preparation for Archbishop
Courtenay's Convocation there on 13 Nov 1382. See Review 2.230-1,248-9. |
| Berkeley | X 312-3: "Litel had lordes to done to 3yue londe fram her
heires To religious that haue no reuthe though it reyne on here auteres" This concern for how
lords dispose of their lands befits a man who was chaplain to Thomas IV Lord Berkeley. See
Traditio 18.314n99; Review 2.245-6. And see esp. XV 310-36. |
| Oxford | XI 49-102 A primary purpose of the B-continuation (XI-XX) is
to expose the self-serving practices of the friars. Trevisa translated FitzRalph's Defensio
Curatorum, and makes his view of the friars quite clear in notes to his translation of the
Polychronicon. |
| Berkeley | XI 191-209 The poor and uneducated do not have a monopoly
on virtue. Having a wealthy patron tends to inhibit hasty generalizations about wealth and poverty
(cp. A-text). |
| priest | XI 274-308 Critique of the priesthood. One might say that the
criticism of the friars (XI 49-102) is here balanced with a rebuke to secular priests. But one only
has to read the two passages to see that the friars are denounced, whereas priests are subjected to
in-house criticism. The author clearly writes as an experienced and concerned parish priest.
|
| Cornwall | XI 332-353 God's Creation (animals and birds): from the
Cornish Ordinalia, Origo Mundi, 123-34. Medieval Studies 23.91-125;
Speculum 44.309; Review 2.233-4. John Trevisa was a Cornishman. Several
words in BC have as yet no satisfactory etymologies: see e.g. "goky" (XI 299-300) and note
MED. personal XII 20-5. The value of recreation. See Kane in New Perspectives in
Chaucer Criticism (1981), 11ff; Trevisa's translation of "Anglia plena jods, gens libera digna
jocari" Poly. R.S. ii 19, and comment thereon by R. H. Hodgkin, Six Centuries of an
Oxford College (1949), 38 contrasting Wyclif's and Trevisa's views; and Glending Olson,
Literature and Recreation in the Later Middle Ages (1982), 94n6. |
| Priest | XII 175-85 Introspective passage on how a priest meets his own
spiritual needs in comparison with the layman who is dependent on the expertise of his confessor.
|
| personal | XII 257-9, XV 132-41, XX 287-91 False executors. For
Trevisa's performance as an executor, see Traditio, 18.305-6. |
| Oxford | XIII 21-214 Satirical portrait of the Dominican William Jordan
(Oxford convent c.1350-68). See M. E. Marcett, Uhtred de Boldon, Friar William Jordan and
Piers Plowman (1938); Review 2.235-6; Poly i 77. On the possible influence of
Uthred (Jordan's opponent) on C XVIII 123-4, see G. H. Russell, JWCI 29.101-16. Russell
wonders why this allusion to the clear vision would appear in C and not B, when the discussion
took place in 1366; it is worth pointing out in this connection that Uthred returned to Oxford in
1383 (A. B. Eraden, BRUO i 212) at which time Trevisa also was there. |
| Oxford | XIII 108-9 Criticism of the recruiting practices of the friars,
criticised by FitzRalph in Defensio Curatorum translated by Trevisa EETS OS 167, p. 56.
Review 2.236. |
| Travel | XIII 384-99 Worldly merchant plans his overseas transactions
while attending mass, sending his servants to Bruges or to Prussia "to marchaunden with monoye
and maken her eschaunges" (XIII 394). For Trevisa's experience with the exchange rate at
Breisach see Poly vi 259. |
| Berkeley | XIII 410-57 Branches of Sloth. Instead of minstrels, lords
should include at their feasts the poor, the learned, and the ill or afflicted. |
| Cornwall | XIV 224-8, 238-43 The efforts of Wrath and Covetousness to
overcome the poor are envisioned as a wrestling match. The neck hold (238-9) is the opening
position: see B. H. Kendall, The Art of Cornish Wrestling, p. 3. See YES 7.36.
|
| XV 68-144 | Balanced criticism (cf. X1274-309 above) of friars (68-86)
and priests (87-144), the latter clearly in-house and presented with a strong consciousness of
potentially hostile colleagues (in this connection see also XV 381,412, and 487). |
| Oxford | XV 115 Quotation of Pseudo-Chrysostom on Matthew, from
memory. See Skeat, ii 217f; MP 58.94 item 7 and n. 68; Review 2.258.
|
| Oxford | XV 365-82 Decay of education undermines the priesthood.
Children no longer learn French in grammar school (365-9). See Skeat, ii 227; Poly ii 161;
Review 2.245. Students no longer know how to respond to a quodlibet; the author "dare
not say it for shame" (376) because this is his world. How far did Trevisa progress with his
education? Emden lists only the M.A.; John Shirley (c. 1422) says "maystre lohan Trevysa
Doctour in theologye" (BL Addit 16165 fol. 94r). |
| Oxford | XV 383-88, 483-94, 532-38, 572-601 Conversion of Saracens
and Jews. The poet's expanded horizon here may come from FitzRalph, Summa in
Quaestionibus Armenorum, esp. books xviii, xix. See K. Walsh, Fitzralph (1981), 174.
|
| Oxford | XV 389-408 Mohammed and the dove. See Poly. vi 19-21. |
| Oxford | XV501-31 Donation of Constantine. See Poly v. 131 and
Review 2.259. |
| London | XV 555-6 A prelate who followed the example of St. Thomas
Becket: Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by a mob during the Peasants'
Revolt in June 1381. See MP 77.158-9; Review 2.221-2, 259. |
| London | XVI1203-350 Spiritual status of participants in the Peasants'
Revolt. See Review 2. 262-3. |
| Cornwall | XVII131 "likth" (& XI 1145 "hexte"). A southwesternism.
See ReviewL 2.223. |
| Bible | For Trevisa as Translator of the Bible see MP 58.81-98. The
following passages relate to this issue: |
| " | C XI197 "And of Scripture the skylful and scryuaynes were trewe" See
Review 2. 253. |
| " | XII 147-8 "Ne in none beggares cote was that barne borne / But in a
burgeys place of Bethlem the best." See WB EV Luke 2:7; Review 2.235, 257. I believe
Trevisa's association with the Wyclif Bible project to be with EV only. |
| " | XVII153 (C XX153) A crux in the passion narrative (Mt. 27:34, Mark
15:23, Luke 23:36, John 19:28-30). See YES 7.38, Review 2.263. |
| " | XVIII 109 (CXXI 114) A crux in the interpretation of Dan. 9:24. See
YES 7.38, Review 2.237-8, 263. |
| Cornwall | XVII1324-401 The guiler beguiled: for a comparison of this
theme in Piers and in the Cornish Ordinalia, see Robert Longsworth The
Cornish Ordinalia (1967), chapter 4. |
| Oxford | XVII1377-85 The extent of Christ's mercy: Trevisa's note on the
two hells in Poly vi 461. See Review 2.263.4. |
| Cornwall | XIX 4-14 The Ascension. See Review 2.265, and the
depiction of the Ascension at the end of the Cornish Resurrexio. |
| personal | XIX 314-25 The building of Piers' barn. See accounts of Exeter
College Oxford for L.V. 1363: Item per compot, de xii d solut, pro conductione duorum equorum
quando Rector et Johannes Trewyse fuerunt apud West Wyttenham ad componendum cum
firmariis pro horreo faciendo. |
| Oxford | XX Siege of the barn of Unity by Antichrist: the emotional source
of this dramatic ending of the poem may be found in the poet's reaction to the crisis of Oxford
University in 1382, when those agents of Antichrist (the friars) won a great victory over the
secular faculty by means of the Black Friars Council and the subsequent visitation by Archibishop
Courtenay in Nov 1382. See "Poetry and the Liberal Arts: The Oxford Background of Piers
the Plowman," Arts Libéraux et Philosophie au Moyen Age, Montreal and
Paris, 1969, 715-19. For the specific critique of the friars FitzRalph's Defensio Curatorum
should again be consulted. And notice the references to the "wise teachers" of Holy Church who
are the embattled seculars (esp. 299-301). |
| Bible | XX 1-50 The character Need has very complex biblical roots. See
Robert Adams in Traditio 34.273-301, especially on the importance of Job 41:13b as
interpreted by Gregory in his Morals: "need (egestas) goeth before his face" (AV 41:22b
has a different reading). This same verse is discussed by Trevelles in a determination on the
infallibility of biblical prophecies concerning Antichrist and the Judgment, and the same
commentary by Gregory is invoked to interpret it. William Trevelles was Trevisa s colleague at
Queens College, but considerably senior to him, having incepted as doctor of theology by 1368. It
is quite possible that Trevisa attended lectures by Trevelles while the latter was a regent master,
perhaps in 1369-70. Later the Queen's College long rolls record the expenditure of xx d "pro
Trevisa & Trevelles" (1385-86). The substance of Trevelles' determination was noted down,
probably by John Malverne a Benedictine, in Worcs. Cath. MS F.65 fol. 5. |
The above examples should be understood in light of my general approach set forth in
Piers the Plowman: Literary Relations of the A and B Texts (University of Washington
Press, 1961). Other relevant articles and reviews are in Modern Philology 50.5-22; 58.81-98; 212-14; 71.393-404; 77.158-9; Modern Language Quarterly 20.285-7; 24.410-13;
32.243-54; Mediaeval Studies 23.91-125; Traditio 18.289-317; English
Language Notes 3.295-300; Speculum 44.308-10; Yearbook of English
Studies 7.23-42; 11.224-6; Review 2.211-69. YES 7.23-42 (cited a few times
above) reviews the Kane-Donaldson edition of the B text (1975); Review 2.211-69 (cited
frequently above) treats the B and C texts edited independently by Schmidt and Pearsall, both
published in 1978.
