Richard Morris's Prick of Conscience - A Corrected and Amplified Reading Text

This mid fourteenth-century poem was one of the most popular Middle English texts in its time. This edition makes it accessible to modern scholars with full annotation, a comprehensive introduction, and detailed commentary.

List of contents

• Introduction


• i: The poem and Morris's edition


• ii: The manuscripts used here


• iii: Authorship and the poet's dialect


• iv: The poet's verse


• v: The aims and presentation of this edition


• vi: Bibliography


• Richard Morris's Prick of Conscience


• Commentary


• Appendix 1. Unsupported variants of W, lines 501-1873


• Appendix 2: The general tradition, a full substantive collation of lines 1-5000 in the b tradition


• Appendix 3: A revised list of manuscripts of The Prick of Conscience.

About the author

Professor Ralph Hanna is Emeritus Fellow of Keble College, Oxford.

Dr Sarah Wood is affiliated with the Middle English Bibliography Group, The Oxford English Dictionary

Summary

This mid fourteenth-century poem, a discussion of the 'contempt of the world' and the 'Four Last Things', was one of the most popular Middle English texts in its time, as indicated by the large number of extant copies, and illustrations of it in the windows of All Saints, North Street, in York. It was a widely influential compendium of religious instruction, originating in Yorkshire, but more widely disseminated, and thus representing this important regional culture, as well as its absorption into a nationwide religious culture. The only edition, by Richard Morris (1863), is now generally unavailable outside research libraries. The present edition revises Morris's text extensively and offers full modern annotation, including extensive discussion of the poem's sources. Morris's text, although based on an exceptionally good manuscript copy, has been fully collated with the principal early manuscripts; this information is presented in a separate textual commentary. There is an introduction presenting the poem in its context and a Glossary.

Product details

• Authors: Ralph Hanna, Ralph/ Wood Hanna, Hanna Ralph, Sarah Wood, Sarah (University of Oxford) Wood
• Assisted by: Ralph Hanna (Editor), Sarah Wood (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.07.2013
• EAN: 9780199680993
• ISBN: 978-0-19-968099-3
• Series: Early English Text Society Original Series; Early English Text Society Original Series; Early English Text Society (Ha
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Literary studies: poetry and poets, Middle English