Acknowledgments

In September 2001, out for a pleasant stroll with George Russell along the banks of Canberra’s Lake Burley-Griffin, I wondered what on earth I could ask this great scholar that would not reveal too much of my ignorance about his edition. My own background was far removed from his, but I was fresh from a draft of an essay on the Becket lines of B 15/C 17, and so had a back-up plan. I asked him why, at C 17.279, a single C manuscript (N²) agreed with the rejected W~M reading of B. The reply surprised me: “Really? These things have a tendency to be much bigger than they at first appear. I’ll have to think about that.” My gratitude for George’s support and advice during my initiation into the world of Piers Plowman textual studies is deep and lasting; I only wish he had lived to see the fruits of that first conversation. On a separate note, I would also like to acknowledge the debt that this book owes to all editors of the poem, especially George Russell and his colleagues, George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson.

The initial ideas upon which this book elaborates were first published in the 2002 volume of The Yearbook of Langland Studies, a journal that from 2004 I have co-edited with Andrew Cole and Fiona Somerset. It has been a pleasure to work with Patricia Hollahan and the staff of Medieval Institute Publications, and now with Simon Forde and the staff of Brepols. My fortune in having Andrew and Fiona as daily e-mail correspondents knows no limits; thanks especially to Andrew for his feedback on a number of concrete matters in this book. Andrew Galloway, initially in his capacity as previous editor of YLS, has been a generous mentor. At the 2007 Philadelphia Piers Plowman conference I polled the audience on their favorite: Buddy, Elvis, or Andy? Andy won easily. He had probably advised all of them as much as he did me on much of the material in this book.

I am grateful to my colleagues from my time at Penn in the 1990s, who, across the world though I now am, have remained friends: David Lorenzo Boyd, Kevin Brownlee, Rita Copeland, Ann Matter, Jim O’Donnell, Emily Steiner, Siegfried Wenzel, and especially David Wallace. The three readers for Penn Press, of whom Stephen Barney and Derek Pearsall identified themselves, provided trenchant and detailed recommendations for revision, which have helped me to improve this book immeasurably. I presented the findings of Chapter 4 on a panel on the occasion of the publication of Derek’s revised C edition at the Medieval Academy of America meeting in Vancouver, 2008; thanks to Kathryn Kerby-Fulton for the invitation and lively discussion.

Since 2004 Carl Schmidt and I have engaged in an enjoyable conversation, full of spirited disagreement (and even occasional agreement) about textual matters, on email and in person where possible. I am especially grateful for his valuable guidance on an earlier stage of Chapter 4. In the medievalist community Simon Horobin, Linne Mooney, and Wendy Scase have been especially generous with their time and expertise. I presented much of this material at workshops held by the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive in Charlottesville, 2004 and 2005, sponsored by the British Academy and the University of Virginia, and am grateful especially to its guiding spirit Dug Duggan, as well as to Robert Adams, Patricia Bart, Carter Hailey, Stephen Shepherd, Thorlac Turville-Petre, and Michael Calabrese. My colleagues in Australia have provided a rich, vibrant, and, yes, fun intellectual community. Thanks in particular to Dan Anlezark, Geraldine Barnes, Tom Burton, Margaret Clunies Ross, Louise D’Arcens, Paul Eggert, Janet Hadley Williams, Heather Kerr, Andrew Lynch, Jenna Mead, Roger Osborne, Nicola Parsons, Lucy Potter, Margaret Rogerson, Anne Scott, Stephanie Trigg, and Andrea Williams.

The Australian Academy of the Humanities supported my visit to the National Library of Wales in 2003, where Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan shared her vast knowledge of MS 733B and facilitated my work with, and the subsequent digitization of, that manuscript. The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Adelaide contributed to the costs of that digitization and supported my participation in the PPEA workshops. The Faculty of Arts of the University of Sydney enabled me to engage the services of Stephanie Downes as proof-reader and indexer. And Jerry Singerman of Penn Press has responded with alacrity, not to mention fairness and refreshing wit, to my inquiries and missives, from initial proposal to delivery of the final manuscript. If medieval studies is in great shape—and I certainly think it is—it is in no small part thanks to Jerry’s efforts. Thanks too to Caroline Winschel and especially Alison Anderson at Penn Press for producing this handsome book.

Chapter 4 is a revision of “The Ending, and End, of Piers Plowman B: The C-Version Origins of the Final Two Passus,” Medium Ævum 76 (2007): 225–50, © 2007 Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature. One paragraph of the Conclusion appeared in “Piers Plowman B XV 417–28a: An Intrusion from Langland’s C Papers?” Notes & Queries 51, 2 (2004): 119–22, published by Oxford University Press.

Finally, and most happily, let me express my love for my family, especially my parents, Seth and Emily Warner, and my parents-in-law, Kevin and Jan Marjoribanks. Emily and Kevin would have liked nothing more than to see this book in print: and I have no doubt they would have its best readers. My son Sebastian has been an utter delight, so much so that the day he asked “is that Middle English?” followed immediately by “do you want to be Darth Vader?” when I was reading the sports pages over breakfast wasn’t even the highlight of his fifth year. Most of all, I thank my wife, Genevieve Marjoribanks, for her love, support, sense of style, and joie de vivre, whether the playground is London, Philadelphia, Canberra, Adelaide, or Sydney. Or beyond. This book is for Genevieve with all my love.