Suche Werkis to Werche: Essays on Piers Plowman in Honor of David C. Fowler ed. by Míċeál F. Vaughan

Abstract

REVIEWS combination of expertise and enquiry which runs through these three es­ says as throughout the volume is one of the best forms of tribute to John Leyerle's teaching and inspiration. JULIA BOFFEY Queen Mary and Westfield College, London Mfc':EAL F. VAUGHAN, ed. Suche Werkis to Werche: Essays on Piers Plowman in Honor ofDavid C. Fowler. Medieval Texts and Studies, vol. 15. East Lansing, Mich.: Colleagues Press, 1993. Pp. vi, 292. $36.00. The ten essays in this tributary volume attest to the richness and vitality of Piers Plowman studies. Presented alphabetically by author and united by their common interest in the subject of Piers Plowman, the essays include studies of alliterative meter, manuscript illustration, and textual scholar­ ship, as well as several interpretive "readings" ofthe poem. In addition, the festschrift provides a short academic biography by Caroline Fowler Aaron and a chapter-length "Chronology of the Scholarship of David C. Fowler"--especially useful articles given the range and volume ofFowler's work over the years. The essays in this collection share, in the spirit of Fowler, a heightened sense of the importance of continual reconsideration of the issues and de­ bates which surround the text we call Piers Plowman. In the first essay, "The Figure of Repentance in Piers Plowman," John A. Alford discusses the "doctrinal implications" of Repentance's expanded presence in the B ver­ sion. Through a convincing and detailed discussion of penitential theory, Alford argues that the revised scene presents a "unified conception" of the sacrament of penance. Thus, "Repentance expands to contain both the confessions of the sins and the specific works of satisfaction they vow to undertake" (p. 11). Next Alford discusses the emphasis ofthe revised scene on the intimate connection between contrition and restitution through a close reading of Robert the Robber, a figure who "succinctly captures the theoretical basis of restitution" (p. 19). Robert's prayer, an example of im­ perfect repentance, stands in exemplary relation to Repentance's contrite supplication. The revised scene emphasizes not external works of satisfac271 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER tion but the internal workings of the contrite heart. For Alford, the "growth of Repentance... signals the emergence of that contrast, in a variety of forms, as a fundamental theme of the poem" (p. 27). The next essay, LindaJ. Clifton's "Struggling with Will: Jangling, Sloth, and Thinking in Piers Plowman B," focuses on the meaning of the term "jangling" in fourteenth-century English manuals for contemplative prac­ tice and its relevance to the themes of Piers. Eric Dahl's "Diuerse Copies Haue it Diuerselye: An Unorthodox Survey of Piers Plowman Textual Scholarship from Crowley to Skeat'' argues convin­ cingly that uncertainties concerning the poem's text and authorship have not been resolved and suggests that these issues have been "brushed aside" by new critical approaches or forgotten in the eager "doxologizing" of "definitive edition[s]" (p. 53). In "Shame on Meed," the second essay dealing with the sacrament of penance, T. P. Dolan observes that lady Mede makes an imperfect confes­ sion because she feels no shame when she is shriven. After noting that one of the most pointed criticisms of the friars concerned the absence of the element of shame in their administration of this sacrament, Dolan makes the rather broad claim that Langland's use of the term "shamelees" reveals the poet's intimate understanding of antimendicant debates. Richard K. Emmerson's impressive essay, "'Coveitise to Konne,' 'Goddes Pryvetee,' and Will's Ambiguous Dream Experience in Piers Plowman," argues that Piers Plowman "not only undercuts the prophetic status of the Dreamer and the privileging of his visionary experience, but also calls into question the very notion ofthe dream vision as revelatory mode and under­ mines the poem's authority and even its legitimacy" (p. 120). In a detailed discussion of Anima's rebuke of the dreamer, Emmerson suggests that Will's desire to attain knowledge for its own sake is a form of curiositas which undermines both the origin for and significance of the dreamer's vision, as well as the authority traditionally associated with visionary expe­ rience. Emmerson argues further, through a study of biblical and other models of visionary...