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Regarding the assumption that, since "there is only one manuscript, after all" of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, all the textual issues are sorted: no. This article proposes new readings of, or contributes to debates concerning: the placement of the bobs; "Felix Brutus" (line 13); "to lay / Lede lif " (lines 97-98); "yow" (line 341, a recovered MS reading); "in tent" (line 624); "britried" (line 680, a recovered MS reading); "ver" (line 866); "Ful hendely" (line 895); "wayued" (line 1032); "þankked" (line 1866, a recovered MS reading); "I ?ef yow me . . ." (line 1964); the guide's oath (line 2122); "til" (line 2132, a recovered MS reading); and "of þe poynt of myn egge" (line 2392). Supposed "conservative" approaches to such items are in fact "radical" in that they effect major alterations to large bodies of knowledge rather than to the text of this single manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented about a hypothetical argument in favor of attributing the poem "Piers Plowman" to Medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer instead of poet William Langland, based on 16th century literary critic John Leland's book "De uiris illustribus." The apocryphal Chaucer story "The Plowman's Tale" is mentioned, as well as 18th century critic Humfrey Wanley, Medieval English manuscripts, and 18th century atheist Joseph Ritson.

Describes the poem `Nun's Priest's Tale,' by poet Geoffrey Chaucer, with emphasis on the poem's presentation and enactment of tyrannical enclosure. Reference to Chaucer's mention of the biblical episode of Nimrod and Bable in the poem `The Former Age; Views on the closing words of the `Nun's Priest's Tale.'