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My 2011 book The Lost History of Piers Plowman revealed a case of manuscript affiliations between the C portion of National Library of Wales 733B and the beta group of B that, I argued, meant that the B archetype of Piers was heavily contaminated by an early draft of C. The other seemingly obvious explanation, beta of B > NLW 733B contamination, is impossible because it would not explain how the contamination occurred so overwhelmingly where the other manuscript tradition of B, alpha, was lacking, spurious, or agreed with C. Robert Adams and Thorlac Turville-Petre have recently argued in this journal that what I deemed impossible is in fact 'the most straightforward' explanation of NLW 733B's text, though they address none of the difficulties I raised and critique not my arguments but those of straw men. They also take opposing sides of issues, as suits whatever local claim they make: on the one hand the NLW 733B scribe desired a 'complete' Piers Plowman, but on the other he merely replaced a few lines; he used beta throughout his copying, but used it only in his C Text; it was the scribe of his exemplar who was a denizen of the London book-trade, but it was he himself. Most difficult is that their narrative of the supposed beta of B > NLW 733B contamination relies on the belief that two separate scribes in turn consulted separate manuscripts solely for indications of what to omit from, rather than add to, their own copies. What Adams and Turville-Petre advocate is an impossible Piers. [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.

The article reports on three unidentified jottings on the final leaf of a manuscript of the poem "Piers Plowman," by William Langland. The author argues that they are the signature of a previous owner, and two brief Latin texts. One of the texts is attributed to the "Prophecy of John of Bridlington" and the other to "Cronica Tripertita" by John Gower.

An essay is presented on passus XIX and XX of the B-text of the Middle English poem "Piers Plowman," by William Langland. It provides textual criticism suggesting that the passus in question were derived from passus in the C-text of the poem. It also discusses late medieval writing processes and the role of scribes in creating literature through the copies they created.