William Langland's "Piers Plowman": The C Version

William Langland, George Economou

University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996 - Poetry - 262 pages

William Langland's Piers Plowman is one of the major poetic monuments of medieval England and of world literature. Probably composed between 1372 and 1389, the poem survives in three distinct versions. It is known to modern readers largely through the middle of the three, the so-called B-text. Now, George Economou's verse translation of the poet's third version makes available for the first time in modern English the final revision of a work that many have regarded as the greatest Christian poem in our language.

Langland's remarkable powers of invention and his passionate involvement with the spiritual, social, and political crises of his time lay claim to our attention, and demand serious comparison with Dante's Divine Comedy. Economou's translation preserves the intensity of the poet's verse and the narrative energy of his alliterative long line, the immediacy of the original's story of the quest for salvation, and the individuality of its language and wordplay.

Contents

• Prologue: 3
• Passus II: 10
• Passus VII: 61
• Passus VIII: 70
• Passus IX: 80
• Passus X: 90
• Passus XI: 99
• Passus XII: 109
• Passus XIII: 117
• Passus XIV: 124
• Passus XV: 131
• Passus XVI: 141
• Passus XVII: 153
• Passus XVIII: 163
• Passus XIX: 172
• Passus XX: 182
• Passus XXI: 196
• Passus XXII: 209
• Table of Major Additions Omissions: 261

About the author

George Economou is Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He is the author of The Goddess Natura in Medieval Literature. Among his books of poetry are Landed Natures; Ameriki: Book One and Selected Earlier Poems; and harmonies and fits.

Bibliographic information

• Title: William Langland's "Piers Plowman": The C Version; Middle Ages: University of Pennsylvania Press; The Middle Ages Series
• Authors: William Langland, George Economou
• Editor: George Economou
• Translated by: George Economou
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996
• ISBN: 0812215613, 9780812215618
• Length: 262 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / Ancient & Classical; Poetry / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Poetry / Medieval; Poetry / Subjects & Themes / Inspirational & Religious