The End of the Line for Recent Claims Regarding Lost Prose Copies of Piers Plowman.

The article discusses Eric Weiskott's theory that lost prose copies of Langland's poem Piers Plowman existed based on mislineation in manuscripts. Weiskott's argument is tentative and relies on the belief that scribes worked with prose exemplars, but the evidence is inconclusive. The article critiques Weiskott's claims by examining specific instances of mislineation in manuscripts and argues that the evidence does not support the existence of lost prose copies. The article concludes that the traditional approach taken by editors is more supported by the evidence presented in the manuscripts. [Extracted from the article]