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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2023
One scribal form of Piers Plowman A brings together two female characters who never share a scene in any authorial version or edition. On fol. 6r of the late fifteenth century manuscript E, Holy Church speaks over Will’s head to warn covetous clerics that chastity without charity will be chained in hell:
For curatoris at kepys you clene of your bodes
Ye er combyrd with couatyse ȝe can not owt crepe
Swa harde hase auarice happyd you togedyr
Ye trow noght in þe trinite bott of trechory of helle
And ȝe lere lewyd men þe lattere to lere
For þees er þe wordes writtyn in þe euangely
Date et Dabitur vobis for I may dele you alle
(Piers Plowman A.1.169–75, E fol. 6r).Then, bizarrely, in this manuscript another character takes the stage: Piers Plowman’s wife ‘Dame wyrke qwen tyme is’. The dramatic intrusion of this unexpected arrival results from textual disruption: like two other A-text manuscripts, Passus 1 of E contains a sequence of lines displaced from Passus 7 (A.7.70–213a appears after A.1.182). As a result of this displacement, Holy Church’s mantra about the treasure of truth introduces not the episode of Meed in Passus 2, but part of the ploughing scene from Passus 7. The dislocated lines introduce Piers’s family and his testament and conclude with Hunger’s advice about how to deal with those who will not work:
Forþi I say as I sayd ar be þe text
When al tresours er tried trouth is þe beste
Now haue I tald qwat trouth is no tresour bettre
Dame wyrke qwen tyme is peirse wyff hette
[A.7.71–195 follow]Now wald I wote if yow wist qwat wer þe best
And how I myght amaistre þaim & make þaim to wirke
Here now quod hunger & hald it for wisdom
Hold beggerys & bydderys þat may noght swete ne swynke
With honde brede & horse brede holde vp þair hertes
And baue þaim with benes for swellynge of þair wombe
And if þe gromys grochen byd þaim go swynke
And shal sope þe better qwen he hase it deserued
And if you fynde ony freke þat fortune hase aparyd
With fyre or with fals men founde sike to knaw
Loue þaim & lenne þaim for so þe law of kynde
And if þou may aspye þat nedy be or nakyd
And noght haue to spende in mete ne in mony
Bot make þi frend þermede & so mathew byddes
Facite vobis amicos wold noght greve god
Forþi I say as I sayd ar be sight of þis text
When al tresours er tried treuth is þe best
(A.1.181–2, A.7.70, 196–205, 207–10, 212–13a, 1.180–1, E fol. 6r, 8r–v).To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
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