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The Date of The A-Text of Piers Ploughman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Oscar Cargill
Oscar Cargill*
Affiliation:
New York University
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Extract

Tyrwhitt's dating of the A-text of Piers Ploughman in the year 1362 from the allusions in the Second Vision (Passus v, 10–20) to the “pestilences” and “this south-Westerne wynt on a Saterday at even,” which seem to refer to the plague of 1361 and to the terrific gale which swept southern England on January 15, 1362, has long gone unchallenged. Skeat accepted it without question when he edited the poem for the Early English Text Society in 1877. Tyrwhitt found records of the storm in the chronicles of Thorn, Walsingham, and Murimuth; Skeat added Fabyan, Hardyng, John of Bridlington, the Eulogium Historiarum, and others to the list. That these two scholars have established the reference in the early lines of Passus v is clear enough, but it does not follow from this that the poem was written in 1362. It must have been written some time after 1362. I shall endeavor to show in this paper that the Prologue and First Vision (Passus i-iv) were written as late as May, 1376.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , June 1932 , pp. 354 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932

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References

1 But with equal force he might have contended for the date 1369, seven years after the storm of 1362. Note that in A. V. 54 ff. there appears to be some basis for this later dating:

“… Lechour seide alas
Withat he shulde the Seterday. seven yer after
Drinken bote with the doke. and dynen but ones.“

This, however, may be a forward reference.

2 Op. cit. Notes: “117 (b. 5. 14; a. 5. 14) Southwest wynd. Tyrwhitt first pointed out that this is an allusion to the violent tempest of wind on Jan. 15, 1362, which was a Saturday. He refers to mention of it by Thorn, Decern Script. col. 2122; by Walsingham (see Riley's edition, vol. i, p. 296); and by the Continuator of Adam Murimuth, p. 115. The last notice is the most exact. ‘A.D. m. ccc. lxii, xv die Januarii, circa horam vesperarum, ventus vehemens notus Australis Africus tanta rabie erupit, etc.’ Walsingham calls it nothus Auster Africus. It is alluded to by many other chroniclers also. Fabyan says, p. 475 ‘… In this xxxvii yere, upon the daye of seynt Mauryce, or the xv day of Januarii, blewe so excedynge a wynde that the lyke therof was nat seen many years passed. This began about evynsong tyme in the South etc.’ He says it lasted for five days. We find the same notice again in A Chronicle of London, p. 65, where it is said to have taken place, in the year 1361, on 'seynt Maurys day.’ This means the same year (viz. 1361–62), which was called 1361 during the months of January and February, and 1362 afterwards, according to the old reckoning. Fabyan wrongly calls it the day of St. Maurice; the fifteenth of January is the day of St. Maur, a disciple of St. Benet. It is noticed again in Hardyng's Chronicles, ed. Ellis, 1812, p. 330; in Riley's Memorials of London, p. 308; and in the Eulogium Historiarum, ed. Haydon, iii. 229. Blomeflield tells us that it blew down the spire of Norwich Cathedral. It will be observed that the second great pestilence was prevailing at the time. In the prophecies of John of Bridlington, printed in Wright's Political Poems, there is a similar mention of the first two pestilences and of the tempest. The first pestilence is spoken of in lib. iii. cap. 10; the second, in lib. iii, cap. 11. And, in the latter passage we find the line

‘Est Notus infestus Saturni cum ruet aestus‘

with the commentary: ‘tunc erit Notus infestus, i ventus inter Austrum et Orientem qui Notus dicitur; erit contrarius et destructivus ex infectione constellacionis Saturni.‘“

3 Cf. Charles Gross, The Sources and Literature of English History (London, Longmans 1915). Items 1845, 1861, 1771, 1787, 1770, 1026a, 2756; also p. 328.

4 Ibid., items 1861 and 1845.

5 Brought to my notice by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous.

6 H. C. Coxe, Catalogue of MSS. in the Colleges and Halls of Oxford, Pt. i, pp. 46, 47; Cf. sub Item i: “Sermo 17 est Outredi monachi Dunelmensis, S.T.P. in Universitat. Oxon. contra Fratres Minores. fol. 65. Habentur etiam quaedam rejectanea, partim meretrice, de vii peccatis mortalibus, etc. et ad fol. 65: Memorandum quod in die sabbati infesto sancti mauri abbatis mensi Janurii anno domini Millesimo ccc. molxi o fuit ventus validus per totam orbem. ante quem ventum validum die sancti Marci proximo precedenti fui ego. Io. R. natus, M. ter. C Lux lxxix Simon Can. decapitatur, mors communis in M.C. ter fuit L. minus uno. Dominus Jo. Richesdale rector et parochus de Rodemanton.”

7 Edward III had shown no partiality for Alice prior to 1368, the year before Philippa's death. Cf. B. C. Hardy, Philippa of Hainault, p. 305.

8 If Conscience is to be identified as the Black Prince, the poet must have completed the First Vision before the Prince began to sink in June, 1376. He died at Westminster on July 8, 1376. Cf. D.N.B.