Traugott Lawler is Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University.

""[A] volume that has earned a place on every Langland scholar's shelves, and will make an important contribution to future work on Piers Plowman."" (Speculum) "Of all the poems of the English Middle Ages, Piers Plowman is the one that most deserves and needs annotation of the fullest and best possible kind, both because it is a text of unrivaled literary quality and interest, and because it is characteristically knotty and deploys a language of unusual richness, density, and allusiveness. Much of this allusiveness is to areas of learning that are not at every modern reader's fingertips. A particular difficulty is the existence of the poem in three authorial versions of almost desperate complexity. It will be an immense triumph to have a commentary which elucidates their relationships as a matter of policy and not simply as the result of conflating annotation on the different versions." (Derek Pearsall) "The Penn Commentary series is not for first-time readers or undergraduates to purchase or to read directly, but it will serve as a reference work for teachers prepping class at any level and for advanced scholars pursuing new work on the poem. Lawler's 500-page volume, like the three already published, is a font of knowledge, critical, historical, literary, theological, and bibliographical." (The Medieval Review)

• Note to the ReaderPrefaceC Passus 15; B Passūs 13-14C Passus 16; B Passūs 14-15C Passus 17; B Passus 15C Passus 18; B Passus 16C Passus 19; B Passus 17Works CitedIndexPassages Cited

Traugott Lawler is Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University.

""[A] volume that has earned a place on every Langland scholar's shelves, and will make an important contribution to future work on Piers Plowman."" (Speculum) "Of all the poems of the English Middle Ages, Piers Plowman is the one that most deserves and needs annotation of the fullest and best possible kind, both because it is a text of unrivaled literary quality and interest, and because it is characteristically knotty and deploys a language of unusual richness, density, and allusiveness. Much of this allusiveness is to areas of learning that are not at every modern reader's fingertips. A particular difficulty is the existence of the poem in three authorial versions of almost desperate complexity. It will be an immense triumph to have a commentary which elucidates their relationships as a matter of policy and not simply as the result of conflating annotation on the different versions." (Derek Pearsall) "The Penn Commentary series is not for first-time readers or undergraduates to purchase or to read directly, but it will serve as a reference work for teachers prepping class at any level and for advanced scholars pursuing new work on the poem. Lawler's 500-page volume, like the three already published, is a font of knowledge, critical, historical, literary, theological, and bibliographical." (The Medieval Review)

• Note to the ReaderPrefaceC Passus 15; B Passūs 13-14C Passus 16; B Passūs 14-15C Passus 17; B Passus 15C Passus 18; B Passus 16C Passus 19; B Passus 17Works CitedIndexPassages Cited

Traugott Lawler is Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University.

""[A] volume that has earned a place on every Langland scholar's shelves, and will make an important contribution to future work on Piers Plowman."" (Speculum) "Of all the poems of the English Middle Ages, Piers Plowman is the one that most deserves and needs annotation of the fullest and best possible kind, both because it is a text of unrivaled literary quality and interest, and because it is characteristically knotty and deploys a language of unusual richness, density, and allusiveness. Much of this allusiveness is to areas of learning that are not at every modern reader's fingertips. A particular difficulty is the existence of the poem in three authorial versions of almost desperate complexity. It will be an immense triumph to have a commentary which elucidates their relationships as a matter of policy and not simply as the result of conflating annotation on the different versions." (Derek Pearsall) "The Penn Commentary series is not for first-time readers or undergraduates to purchase or to read directly, but it will serve as a reference work for teachers prepping class at any level and for advanced scholars pursuing new work on the poem. Lawler's 500-page volume, like the three already published, is a font of knowledge, critical, historical, literary, theological, and bibliographical." (The Medieval Review)

• Note to the ReaderPrefaceC Passus 15; B Passūs 13-14C Passus 16; B Passūs 14-15C Passus 17; B Passus 15C Passus 18; B Passus 16C Passus 19; B Passus 17Works CitedIndexPassages Cited