Counting Sheep in the C Text of Piers Plowman

Rosemary O’Neill

20 citations0/0 files storedThe Yearbook of Langland Studies

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Medieval Literature and History Libraries, Manuscripts, and Books Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies

Abstract

This essay connects a puzzling description of ‘falsely washed sheep’ in Piers Plowman C.9.270 to contemporary practices of sheep husbandry, then tracks Langland’s larger engagement in the C text of the poem with the ideal of stewardship promulgated by contemporary estates management literature and Thomas Wimbledon’s ‘Redde Rationem’ sermon. Manorial accounting and auditing practices provide an irresistible model for salvation for Langland; yet manorial stewardship also presents many opportunities for deception and theft. The poet negotiates this tension through sharpened engagement with the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-9) in the C text.

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2019Becoming One Flesh, Inhabiting Two Genders: Ugly Feelings and Blocked Emotion in theWife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale 2016Reddere and Refrain: A Meditation on Poetic Procedure in Piers Plowman 2019Weeping Like a Beaten Child: Figurative Language and the Emotions in Chaucer and Malory

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