BOOK SUGGESTION: The Vision of Piers Plowman by William Langland, rendered into Modern English by He
I'm surprised nobody has asked for Piers Plowman in Logos yet. So I've just requested it (on SuggestBooks on UserVoice):
Piers Plowman is "one of the greatest examples of Middle English alliterative poetry, ... an allegorical work with a complex variety of religious themes. One of the major achievements of Piers Plowman is that it translates the language and conceptions of the cloister into symbols and images that could be understood by the layman." (Encyclopedia Britannica)
I would prefer the edition rendered into Modern English by Henry W. Wells
Sheed and Ward, 1935
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VNPVLO
Digitized on Hathitrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015065728019
The great thing about this translation is that it keeps the poetic rhythm and alliteration of the original while making it readable to modern readers.
Here's an example from the opening lines.
The original in Middle English:
In a someres seyson when soft was the sonne
I shoope me In srowdes as I a shepe were
In habyte as a heremyte vnholy off werkes
went wyde yn thys world wonders to here
& on a may mornyng on malverne hylles
me befell a ferly off fayry In thoght
I was wery for-wandred & went me to rest
vndre a brood bank by a borne syde
and as I lay & leyned & loked vpon the waters
I slomered In-to a slepyng yt sweyd so merye
Wells's translation:
In a summer season when the sun was softest,
Shrouded in a smock, in shepherd's clothing,
In the habit of a hermit of unholy living
I went through this world to witness wonders.
On a May morning on a Malvern hillside
I saw strange sights like scenes of Faerie.
I was weary of wandering and went to rest
By the bank of a brook in a broad meadow.
As I lay and leaned and looked on the water
I slumbered and slept, so sweetly it murmured.
What got me wanting this was hearing Malcolm Guite read from it in tonight's Laing Lecture at Regent College, "Christ and the Moral Imagination". Here's the excerpt he read, which is part of a dream-allegory based on the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
I was surprised to find that Piers Plowman isn't available on Noet either, though the Works of Prudentius, which is, mentions it: "Prudentius’ most significant literary contribution, however, is Psychomachia, which is considered the first major work of pure Christian allegory. The tale of virtue versus vice paved the way for works of medieval allegorical literature like The Divine Comedy, Piers Plowman, Everyman, and even Pilgrim’s Progress."
We have Prudentius's works, and The Divine Comedy, and Pilgrim's Progress. So it's time to get Piers Plowman. (And Everyman too, but that's for a separate post.)