1. WP.19: In the right margin running into the dark stain on the right-hand edge, a later fifteenth-century scribe has written names which are partly legible. They appear to read Ry 2. WP.20-27: Staining and rubbing on the left edge make the first half-dozen letters very faint, but the readings are secure. 3. WP.24: The scribe has supplied in a darker ink pride in the space under comen. 4. WP.38: W alone reads wol; FGH have wyll, and the remaining B witnesses have nel or nyl. 5. WP.39: W alone has But. All other B manuscripts omit it. 6. WP.53: Words at the foot of the page in a different hand appear to read And heppyd stanys, prompted by the last words on the page and perhaps misreading staues as stanes. 7. WP.62: The last two letters are covered by a stain, but they are legible. 8. WP.62: W alone reads now. GYC2CLM read mowe. 9. WP.72: W alone reads it. Other beta witnesses have hym. 10. WP.77: The reading could as well be leueþ. 11. WP.97: A smudge, possibly a punctus, appears at the end of the line. 12. WP.105: W alone reads is crist. Other beta witnesses have crist is. 13. WP.138: The reading is obviously Si, but a crease in the manuscript makes the <i> illegible. 14. WP.140: The apparent punctus at the end of the line is probably the final stroke of <r>. 15. WP.147: W alone reads myd. Other B witnesses have with. 16. WP.167: The scribe wrote his usual form of <þ> but put a dot above it as though it were a <y>. 17. WP.169: Following this line all B manuscripts except WHmCr1G read: And hangen it vp on þe cattes hals · thanne here we mowen (as in L). 18. WP.179: W alone reads Alle. Other B manuscripts have And. 19. WP.187: W alone reads bolde. Other beta witnesses have so bolde. 20. WP.193: W alone reads youre. Other B manuscripts have oure. 21. WP.195: The phrase a feyrse, perhaps meaning "a verse, proverb," is written in the right margin in a later hand as again at W1.38 and W1.86. It presumably draws attention to the proverbial nature of the line. 22. WP.197: A crease runs down the center of the leaf, obscuring some characters in the facsimile which are legible in the manuscript. 23. WP.203: W alone reads Thoruȝ. Other B manuscripts have Ne. 24. WP.227: W alone reads trewely. Other B manuscripts omit it. 25. WP.229: Following this line all B manuscripts except WYF read: Al þis seiȝ I slepyng · and seuene sythes more (as in L). 26. W1.23: W alone omits is after oon. 27. W1.23: Most other B witnesses read chele. 28. W1.27: There is an erasure after Lot. 29. W1.38: A later hand has inserted a feyrse in the right margin. Cf. WP.195 and W1.86. 30. W1.39: After likame WHmCL omit the b-verse and following a-verse: . . . þat lief is to þe soule / Leue not þi likam . . . (in the spelling of M). 31. W1.50: W alone reads singular hym. Other B witnesses have hem. 32. W1.55: W alone reads riȝtfully. Other B witnesses have riȝtfull. 33. W1.86: The words a feyrse are written in the right margin in a more cursive hand. Cf. WP.195 and W1.38. 37. W1.99: WG agree in reading is. Most other B witnesses have is þe. 38. W1.116: W alone reads myd; all other B witnesses have wyth. 39. W1.122: W is alone in reading stablisse. Most other B witnesses have stable. 41. W1.138: The mark over line-initial <Y> resembling a nota abbreviation is to distinguish the letter from capital <Þ>. 46. W1.170: W alone reads bisouȝte. Other B witnesses have he bisouȝte. 51. W1.206: A curl rather like the "nota" abbreviation appears over the <f> of lif. 52. W1.206: Three minims with a bar through them, probably written by the original scribe, appear above next. 54. W2.9: The paragraph sign was probably entered in error, since it is not motivated by the syntax, and there is not the usual space separating paragraphs. 62. W2.107: W alone reads dayes tyme. All other B manuscripts have yeres ende. 63. W2.118: W alone reads vn-to. All other B manuscripts have to. 66. W2.188: Following this line, all B manuscripts except WCr1GHm have the line: Of many maner man · þat on þis molde libbeth (in the spelling of L). 68. W2.224: W alone reads yeuen, while all other B manuscripts have gaf or ȝaf. 69. W3.57: W alone reads sclaundre. All other B manuscripts read þe/that sclaundre. 70. W3.76: W alone reads by. All other B manuscripts read byddeþ or bit. 71. W3.83: W alone reads enpoisone. All other B manuscripts read poisone, except OC2 which have punyschen. 72. W3.104: W alone reads And. All other B manuscripts read That. 73. W3.106: W alone reads he meneþ. OCrYC2CBLMR read melleþ, while other B manuscripts read he meled F, he menyd H, and meneth Hm, and mouthed G. 74. W3.118: W alone reads wolde. All other B manuscripts read sholde. 76. W3.129: W alone reads enpoisoned. All other B manuscripts read (a)poisoned or (y)poysoned. 88. W3.243: There is an elaborate version of top-line decoration on <A>. 94. W3.341: The scribe has begun by writing an <e> and changed it to a <y>. All other spellings are with ȝyu-. 96. W4.4: W alone reads er for euere. Other B manuscripts have for euere or raþer. 100. W4.67: A mark of punctuation looking like the top part of a punctus elevatus appears here. 104. W4.107: The nota appears to the left of the line. 106. W4.128-129: The bottom part of the leaf is discolored and there is some bleedthrough, especially over these last two lines. 107. W4.145: The nota appears to the left of the line. 108. W4.146: The nota appears to the left of the line. 109. W4.148: A scribe has drawn a pointing hand in the right margin. 110. W4.158-159: The bottom two lines are affected by bleedthrough. 111. W4.165: The nota appears to the left of the line. 112. W4.166: The nota appears to the left of the line. 114. W4.196: W alone reads ellis. Other B witnesses read it faile. 115. W5.31: worþ a grote is in a darker ink though in the scribal hand, and perhaps written later. 116. W5.43: W alone reads prechede. Other B manuscripts have prayed. 117. W5.48: A nota to the right of this line appears to be in the text ink. 118. W5.51: W alone reads trewe tresor. Other B manuscripts have tresore if treson ne were. 121. W5.65: The scribe has written superbia in the left margin inside a red box. 122. W5.70: W alone reads I wole, which is omitted by other B manuscripts. 123. W5.72: W alone reads I wole. Other B manuscripts have woll y. 124. W5.74: The scribe wrote [Lux]uria inside a red box in the left margin. The page is cropped, so the first letters are lost. 125. W5.78: The scribe wrote [Inu]idia inside a red box in the left margin. The page is cropped, so the first letters are lost.
126. W5.91: W alone omits the following line which appears in all the other B witnesses except F (which has an entirely different line): 128. W5.109: W alone reads beren. Other B manuscripts have bar. 129. W5.111: W alone reads biholde. Other B manuscripts have biholde how. 130. W5.113: The scribe wrote per dicere above the line. 132. W5.135: The scribe wrote [Ir]a inside a red box in the left margin. The page is cropped, so the first two letters are lost. 134. W5.165: W alone reads hite; most other B manuscripts have hitte. 135. W5.169: The right margin is cropped after <co> plus one minim, losing the rest of the word. Other B witnesses read conseil. 136. W5.170: W alone reads it, which is omitted by other B witnesses. 137. W5.179: W alone reads þanne. LGMR have whan. Other B manuscripts have and. 138. W5.180: W alone reads And. Other B manuscripts have I. 141. W5.189: The scribe wrote [Aua]ricia inside a red box in the left margin. The page is cropped, so the first letters are lost. 146. W5.213: W alone reads playte (infin.), while HmCr2 have plyte which is perhaps merely a spelling variant. However, the majority of B manuscripts unambiguously have the past tense playted or plytid. 147. W5.214: W reads pyne, while Cr23 have pynnen. Other B manuscripts have the past tense pynned. 148. W5.237: W alone reads þe, which is omitted by other B witnesses. 149. W5.255: W alone reads to, which is omitted by the other B manuscripts. 154. W5.271: W alone reads so god my soule saue. GHmCr have helpe for saue. Other B manuscripts have of þyne bi my soule hele. 155. W5.274: W alone reads dum; all other B manuscripts have cum. 157. W5.288: The manuscript is cropped after hym. Other B manuscripts have hym-self. 160. W5.294: The right margin is cropped with the lobes of the <a> just visible after an <m>. Other B manuscripts have maris. 161. W5.294: The first two words of W5.290, haue mercy, are repeated at the foot of the page in another hand. 163. W5.307: The scribe has written Gula in a red box in the left margin. Its graphies are ornamented with touches of red ink. 164. W5.310: W alone reads at. Other B manuscripts have of. 165. W5.335: W alone reads That, omitted by other B manuscripts. 167. W5.366: The red ink partially obscuring wenche is transferred from Accidia on the opposite page. 168. W5.378: W alone reads me god helpe. Most other B witnesses have god me helpe & (þe) holidome with minor variation. 169. W5.385: W alone reads and for. Other B manuscripts have to. 170. W5.394: The scribe wrote Accidia inside a red box in the left margin. 171. W5.397: The spacing is ambiguous, and this could be read as two words. Cf. W8.82 (fol. 46r) where the word is clearly written as one word, in the sense "tallying" but with a pun on tail-ende. 173. W5.412: W alone reads at. Other B manuscripts have yn. 174. W5.416: W alone has singular lesynge. Other B manuscripts have lesynges. 175. W5.439: W alone omits his before curteisie. 177. W5.490: W alone reads bigonne. Other B manuscripts read gonne. 178. W5.494: A second hand has inserted just below the original Latin line the following: o felex Culpa o necessarium peccatum ade &c 179. W5.498: W alone omits et similitudinem after ymaginem. 180. W5.500: W alone reads secte. Other B witnesses read sute. 181. W5.505: W alone reads of. Other B manuscripts have for. 182. W5.516: W alone reads was. Other B witnesses have were. 183. W5.535: W alone reads wiþwynde. HmGLRM read wythewyndes. YOC2C have swithe wyndes. 184. W5.578: WCr1 alone read yow, where other B witnesses have ȝe. There are no examples in W of nominative yow, so perhaps wilneþ is here uniquely treated as an impersonal verb. Cf. 5.571 above. 187. W5.603: W alone reads good. Other B witnesses have no. 188. W6.32: W alone reads so. Other B manuscripts have go. 189. W6.44: W alone reads tyme. Other B manuscripts have ende. 194. W6.72: W alone reads Iagge. Other B manuscripts have Iakke. 195. W6.74: W alone reads hire. Other B manuscripts have his. 196. W6.96: W alone reads it ful. M has him ful, and most other B manuscripts have it hym. 197. W6.119: W alone reads þis. Other B manuscripts have his. 198. W6.154: A much later hand has written nota in the left margin. 199. W6.177: W alone reads wombe. Other B manuscripts have mawe. 200. W6.185: W alone reads or. Other B manuscripts have and. 201. W6.234: W alone reads vos. Other B manuscripts have vobis. 202. W6.245: The gloss .id est. A besaunt is written above Mnam in a smaller script but by the main hand. The red box around Mnam was drawn subsequently and left incomplete at the top. A similar gloss appears in HmLM. C. David Benson and Lynne S. Blanchfield, The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman: the B-version (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997), 162, mistakenly offer to correct Kane-Donaldson's Mnam to amam. 205. W6.267-275: These nine lines are marked in the right margin by marks where notae usually appear, but these marks do not even suggest an <n>. 214. W6.275: A scribe has drawn a rough pointing hand in the left margin. 218. W6.314-321: All the lines in this line-group are marked in the right margin with nota in a darker ink of the same attenuated form that appears above in ll. 267-75. 227. W6.334: A scribe has drawn a rough pointing hand in the left margin. 235. W7.66-69: A vertical pen mark appears at the end of this line and the three following lines, which we take to represent nota. 243. W7.80: The nota appears inside the box to the right of the line. 246. W7.83: The end of the box is cropped in the right margin, though no text appears to have been lost. 251. W7.98: W alone reads ne. Other B manuscripts have nec. 257. W7.123: To the right of this line is a smudged scribble. 282. W8.47: W alone reads men; other B manuscripts have man. 284. W8.49: W alone reads þow wole þi-selue; most other B manuscripts read thiself woll, although CrS have thou wylt thyselfe and M has þou þiseluen wole. 303. W9.15: The curved tick over the <i> of bit resembles an <o>. 304. W9.23: W alone reads kepe; other B manuscripts have saue. 309. W9.47: W alone reads þoruȝ; other B manuscripts have of. 326. W9.108: W alone reads spicerie, "spice"; Hm reads spicere, "spice-dealer," while most other B manuscripts have spire, "shoot." 331. W9.133: W alone reads And; other B manuscripts have For. 337. W9.163: The required reading is vuas, "grapes." The error is owed to the hyparchetypal text of WHmCr and is shared by the corrector of M. 339. W9.171: W alone reads Ther-fore; other B manuscripts have For. 341. W9.172: W alone reads yow, which is omitted by other B manuscripts. 347. W9.178: W alone reads þat; other B manuscripts have þat þey. 349. W9.180: clappyng, "loud talk." The reading is shared with Cr. 359. W9.195: The nota appears inside the box to the right of the line. 368. W10.4: W alone reads loked; other B manuscripts have seide. 385. W10.37: The first letters of wikkedly appear to be written over an erasure. W alone reads wikkedly; Cr reads falsely; other B manuscripts omit. 408. W10.63: W alone reads anoy; other B manuscripts have noy. 418. W10.72: There is evidence of a letter cropped at the end, perhaps &c as in Hm. 444. W10.122: The reading could as well be mene. 445. W10.124: W alone reads hir; other B manuscripts have youre. 446. W10.137: W alone reads þe; other B manuscripts have þow. 447. W10.140: W alone reads þat; other B manuscripts have now. 448. W10.160: W alone reads to; other B manuscripts have to þe. 449. W10.182: W alone reads alle; other B manuscripts have alle þe. 450. W10.183: W alone reads putte; other B manuscripts have putte hym. 453. W10.195: W alone reads leteþ; most other B manuscripts have let. 468. W10.247: W alone reads and; other B manuscripts have and þe. 469. W10.257: After this line WHmCr omit the line Ego in patre & pater in me est & qui videt me · videt et patrem meum (as in L). 475. W10.274: A fifteenth-century hand has added nota. 477. W10.280: As at line 10.274, a fifteenth-century hand has added nota and has drawn a line linking 10.279 and 10.280. 480. W10.287: W alone reads ywar; other B manuscripts have war. 481. W10.288: W alone reads seye; most other B manuscripts have seyde. 483. W10.306: W alone reads ne; F reads to; other B manuscripts have and. 486. W10.313: W alone reads aboute; other B manuscripts have by stretes. 494. W10.321: W alone reads ben persons; other B manuscripts have persouns ben. 498. W10.324: This is the line which Skeat called "this famous prediction, so curiously fulfilled in the time of Henry the Eighth" (Rev. Walter W. Skeat, ed., The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, in Three Parallel Texts (London: Oxford University Press, 1886), p. 69. The second nota may be in the hand of a sixteenth-century reader excited by the accuracy of Langland's "prediction." 502. W10.327: W alone reads to; other B manuscripts have hem to. 509. W10.334: There is a scribble (possibly a <d>) to the right of this line. 514. W10.370: W alone reads be; other B manuscripts have to be. 515. W10.371: W alone reads at; other B manuscripts have er, ar, or. 517. W10.379: The scribe has written the more obvious necaberis and then altered this to mecaberis by adding a minim in the red ink used for the box. Other B manuscripts reading necaberis or necabis are CrYLOC2 and G (altered). See John Alford's discussion of the textual variations in Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations (Binghamton: MRTS, 1992): 68-69. 521. W10.417: The reading could as well be leue. 522. W10.418: We have not offered an interpretation of the mark at the end of this line. It could represent a flourish, the top of a punctus elevatus, or a move toward writing the "nota" abbreviation. 523. W10.441: The reading could as well be Siue. 524. W10.446: W alone reads þe luþere; other B manuscripts omit þe. 525. W10.447: W alone reads were; other B manuscripts have is. 526. W10.450: The virgules that separate oportet and pati from the rest of the line show that the scribe recognised these two words as Latin. Skeat comments on the mixture of Latin and French, and modernises as "quand oportet vient en place, il n'y a que pati" (Rev. Walter W. Skeat, ed., The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, in Three Parallel Texts (London: Oxford University Press, 1886), 2.162-3). For further parallels see John A. Alford, Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations (Binghamton, 1992), pp. 69-70. In a private communication, Professor Robert Cook writes: "A case could be made for the entire thing being Anglo-Norman except oportet. That might even make sense, in that the one Latin word designates an outside force. The weakening of final /r/ in the infinitive patir is Eastern in origin (M. K. Pope, From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman: Phonology and Morphology (Manchester University Press, 1934), § 401, note **) but spread pretty widely (she finds it in Paris in the 13th c but I have noticed it in Picard texts of the 14th also). Pope ascribes this weakening to Anglo-Norman in § 1193 but does not discuss it or give examples of -ir class infinitives or other cases where the /r/ is absolute final. The retention of final unsupported /t, θ, d, Ð/ in AN forms of avoir is probably best presented in her § 1210, where she discusses ad specifically." 527. W10.468: A later hand (probably different from that beside 10.274 and 10.280) has written nota in the left margin. 528. W10.468: W alone reads men; most other B manuscripts have Englissh men. 533. W10.473: W alone reads oþere; other B manuscripts have suche. 542. W10.488: The line is written as two lines in the right margin and boxed in red. 543. W11.10: W alone reads Sone; most other B manuscripts have Siþen. 548. W11.41: W alone omits þee after bigile. 549. W11.41: W alone reads þi-selue; other B manuscripts omit it. 558. W11.62: W alone reads speche; other B manuscripts have biheste. 566. W11.84: This boxed line appears as an insertion placed immediately to the right of the previous line with two red diagonal pen strokes to indicate its proper place in the sequence. The hand of the text is that of the original scribe. 572. W11.105: W alone omits þe before defaute. 574. W11.108: W alone reads preise; most other B manuscripts have laude. 582. W11.174: W alone reads Crist; F reads he; other B manuscripts have And. 601. W11.200: W alone reads callen; most other B manuscripts have called, though B has calliþ. 616. W11.254: The past tense Preiseden is shared with M; other B manuscripts have Preisen. 617. W11.254: W alone reads folwed; most other B manuscripts have folwe. 618. W11.256: W alone reads For; other B manuscripts have And or Al. 631. W11.273: W alone omits &c after vende. 637. W11.292: W and R read ye; other B manuscripts have þey, which is the reading in W's catchwords at the foot of fol. 64v. 646. W11.305: W alone reads for; most other manuscripts have and. 653. W11.315: The page is cropped after sapien; other B manuscripts have sapienter. 659. W11.321: The <t> of ydiot has a large downward loop. This might be taken as an inflexion, though in this mixture of Latin and English, it is uncertain whether the word should be regarded as Latin, English, or indeed French. The word occurs as ydioti in the Latin line W10.467, and without the loop as ydiot in W16.178. The loop on <t> is usually without function, even within Latin contexts (e. g. uiuit W11.398). Despite their usual practice, but presumably on the basis of the reading of other B manuscripts, Kane and Donaldson expanded to ydiotes, which Skeat interprets as "an adjective with the French plural ending" (Rev. Walter W. Skeat, ed., The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, in Three Parallel Texts (London: Oxford University Press, 1886), 2.176). Mustanoja notes in his discussion of the feature that the inflected adjective is usually placed after the noun (A Middle English Syntax. Part I: Parts of Speech Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki, 23 (Helsinki: Société Néophilologique, 1960), p. 277). See Introduction. 660. W11.355: W alone reads Ac. Most other B manuscripts have And. 661. W11.364: W alone reads hem made; all other B manuscripts have þei hadde(n). 668. W11.386: W alone reads it; all other B manuscripts omit it. 670. W11.408: The leaf is cropped after Res. Other B manuscripts have Resoun. 677. W11.423: W alone reads aryse; Cr has to aryse, and most other B manuscripts have to ryse. 683. W12.0: The top of the leaf has been cropped with the loss of the tops of letters in this heading. 684. W12.2: W alone reads nor; LMR read ne; F has or; other B manuscripts have and. 688. W12.20: W alone reads yknowe, "known"; most other B manuscripts have ynowe, "enough." 689. W12.47: W alone reads ful deere; other B manuscripts omit ful and follow dere with it, he, or both. 692. W12.65: W alone reads hiȝte; other B manuscripts have is. 693. W12.76: To the right of the box, the scribe has written a decorative nota abbreviation followed by &c. Manuscripts CrCBRF lack &c. 694. W12.81: WF read where she; HmLM read were sche (were he in R); other B manuscripts omit. W's where is either a unique spelling of were or the contracted form of whether: "whether she (were)." 695. W12.83: W alone reads I fynde; other B manuscripts have we fynden. 702. W12.110: After this WHmCr omit the line And riȝt as syȝte serueth a man · to se þe heighe strete (as in L). 708. W12.130: The scribe has written science in a darker ink, perhaps over an erasure. 709. W12.135: W alone reads And; other manuscripts have As. 711. W12.138: W alone reads þe; most other manuscripts have þis. 712. W12.145: W alone reads burgeises; other B manuscripts have beggers. 713. W12.147: The word-terminal suspension ordinarily represents <e>. We have expanded to supply the required sense and to match the readings of other manuscripts. 717. W12.161: W alone reads þat, omitted by other manuscripts. 719. W12.162: W alone reads þat; other witnesses have in Themese. 732. W12.182: W alone reads þe whiche ben, omitted by F; other manuscripts have and. 733. W12.186: W alone reads þat man; omitted in other manuscripts. 736. W12.193: W alone reads þat to graunten it is redy; other B manuscripts have and he is euere redy. 737. W12.194: W alone reads To hem þat; most other B manuscripts have That. 738. W12.197: W alone reads amydde þe floor sette me; most other B manuscripts have sette me amydde þe flore. 740. W12.198: W alone reads And; other B manuscripts have I. 750. W12.230: W alone reads There; other manuscripts have That þere. 751. W12.232: The punctus is small and obviously misplaced. 767. W12.277: W alone reads in; other B manuscripts have on. 768. W12.292: W alone reads wheiþer; other B witnesses have wher or were. 769. W13.10: W alone reads to; CrF read or; G reads or helpe; other manuscripts have or sholde helpe. 770. W13.10: W alone reads wiþ, omitted by other manuscripts. 771. W13.16: W alone reads briddes; other manuscripts have bestes. 772. W13.41: W alone reads nor; most other manuscripts have ne. 773. W13.78: W alone reads redde; other manuscripts have rede. 774. W13.104: W alone reads dowel; other manuscripts have dobest. 775. W13.109: W alone reads it; RF read dobest; other manuscripts have dowel. 776. W13.151: W alone reads oure; other manuscripts have þe. 777. W13.164: The reading nyght is shared with BCHm. Other manuscripts have myght. 778. W13.168: W alone reads no, which is omitted by other manuscripts. 779. W13.171: W alone reads Ne; other manuscripts have Ne neiþer. 780. W13.176: W alone omits þe pope after bitwene. 781. W13.195: W alone reads for-soþe, which is apparently written over an erasure; other manuscripts have þerto. 782. W13.206: W alone reads of-walked; most other manuscripts have forwalked. 783. W13.222: W alone reads þe; other manuscripts have þei. 784. W13.259: The page is cropped after <amb>. Other manuscripts have ambula or ambula &c. 785. W13.261: W alone reads of; other manuscripts have of þe. 786. W13.271: In the right margin a sixteenth century hand adds Stratford. 787. W13.272: W alone reads alite; other manuscripts have a litel. 788. W13.274: A later hand has written 1350 in the left margin. 789. W13.283: W alone reads hym, which is omitted by other manuscripts. 790. W13.287: WHmL read pomp; other manuscripts have pope or poppe. 791. W13.289: W alone reads or; other manuscripts have and. 792. W13.294: An otiose curl appears over the <r>. 793. W13.327: W alone reads or with; G reads or; other manuscripts have of. 794. W13.329: W alone reads man; other manuscripts have men. 795. W13.330: A word beginning dol is cropped in W; half the manuscripts have dolor, the others end the quotation with sub lingua eius &c. 796. W13.331: A word beginning with <a> is cropped in W; most other manuscripts have acutus, but others abbreviate the quotation. 797. W13.349: W alone reads as; other manuscripts have &. 798. W13.356: W alone reads That were; other manuscripts have Was. 799. W13.368: W alone reads and; other manuscripts omit it. 800. W13.373: W alone reads and; other manuscripts omit it. 801. W13.378: W alone reads he wolde; F has wheyþer he wolde; most other manuscripts have wolde he. 802. W13.383: W alone reads and so; OC2B read &; other manuscripts replace with I or omit. 803. W13.404: W alone reads almesse; other manuscripts have almesdede. 804. W13.427: The final letter of iniqua is partially cropped in W. HmY read iniqua &c. 805. W13.428: W alone reads nor; other manuscripts have ne. 806. W13.433: W alone reads lady; other manuscripts have lay. 807. W13.436: WG read whasshen; most other manuscripts have wasshen. 808. W14.35: W alone reads To; other manuscripts omit it. 809. W14.68: The W scribe has miswritten Ergo, the reading supported by all other manuscripts. 810. W14.82: W alone omits so before muche. 811. W14.110: The word has been cropped after <d>. Most B manuscripts read driȝte or driȝten, but CB have sight, C2 has saueoure, and GR have lorde. 812. W14.134: W alone omits a before wonder. 813. W14.135: W alone reads mede; most other manuscripts have mercy monye. 814. W14.151: W alone reads dwellyng; other manuscripts have beryng or beyng. 815. W14.151: W alone reads also; other manuscripts omit it. 816. W14.152: W alone reads so; other manuscripts omit it. 817. W14.171: W alone reads slepe; other manuscripts have soupe. 818. W14.179: W alone reads But lord; other manuscripts have And. 819. W14.198: W alone reads in; all other manuscripts have and. 820. W14.208: W alone reads writen; other manuscripts have we wryten. 821. W14.223: W alone reads many tyme hym þat though Cr reads right ofte him þat and S ofte him that. Other manuscripts have riȝt softe. 822. W14.235: W alone omits it after pacience. 823. W14.237: W alone reads hise biddynges; all other manuscripts have the singular. 824. W14.246: W alone reads ful greet; most other manuscripts have a long. 825. W14.256: W alone reads þei; all other manuscripts have it. 826. W14.264: W alone reads euery; all other manuscripts have al. 827. W14.272: W alone reads is þat maiden; other manuscripts have a maiden is. 828. W14.339: W alone reads he euere; other manuscripts have euere he. 829. W14.341: W alone reads ouþer; other manuscripts have or. 830. W15.22: A smudged What are ye cald is written in a later hand in the space between this line and the next. 831. W15.25: W alone reads kan knowe; other manuscripts have can and knowe. 832. W15.38: W alone has and before now. 833. W15.39: W alone has for, which is omitted by other manuscripts.
834. W15.40: Another hand has inserted in black ink in the left margin inside a box the following note: nota · quod anima 835. W15.44: Between this line and the next a fifteenth-century hand (the same as on folios 1r and 147v) has written Jon Ryc. 836. W15.47: W alone has me; other manuscripts have myne. 837. W15.77: The variants are complex, and W's version of the line is unique. M is closest with Bettre were many doctours . bileue suche techinge. Most other manuscripts have bettre to leyve were many doctovrs seyche teychyng (in the spelling of G). 838. W15.100: W alone has spryngeþ; all other manuscripts have spredeth. 839. W15.105: All other manuscripts omit bi, added above the line in W. 840. W15.117: W alone has The which; all other manuscripts have For ypocrisie. 841. W15.124: A later fifteenth-century hand has written nota in the right margin, as on fol. 56r. 842. W15.138: W alone has despended. Most other manuscripts have spended. 843. W15.147: W alone has held he; most other manuscripts have he held. 844. W15.148: W alone has dispende. Other manuscripts have spende or spene. 845. W15.149: W alone reads despende; most other manuscripts have spende.
846. W15.155-156: The scribe has added in the left margin boxed in red the words quid est 847. W15.158: WHmCr1 have he; all other manuscripts read I. 849. W15.177: The word could, of course, be leueþ, the reading chosen by Skeat. Modern editors have chosen leneþ. 850. W15.184: W alone has nor; other manuscripts have ne. 851. W15.214: W alone has ful; all other witnesses have lif. 852. W15.241: W alone reads founde; all other manuscripts have knowe(n). 853. W15.256: W alone has myd; other manuscripts have wiþ. 854. W15.323-329: A rough decorative line runs down the left margin from 15.323-329. 855. W15.325: W alone has rente; all other manuscripts have plural rentes. 856. W15.348: A later hand has written nota in the right margin. 857. W15.374: W alone has selde; other manuscripts have selle. 858. W15.382: WHmCr omit the following line attested by other witnesses: Þat can versifye faire · ne formalich enditen (in the spelling of L). 859. W15.418: Letters have been erased between leeue and on, with <n> added to leeue and followed by a dash, probably in the scribal hand. 860. W15.432: W alone has fare, though Hm has faren with the last four letters written over an erasure in a different ink. Other manuscripts have fynde. 861. W15.444: W alone has plural ensamples. Other manuscripts have the singular. 862. W15.466: W alone reads Right. All other manuscripts have And. 863. W15.471: W alone has the spelling cropiers, "cruppers, straps" (French cropiere). R alone has the probably correct keperes, while other manuscripts have variations on creperes (GC2LYO) and cropers (HmCrCBM). 864. W15.481: W alone reads melk swete. Other manuscripts have swete mylke (in the spelling of L). 865. W15.495: W alone has to which is omitted by the other witnesses. 866. W15.512: W alone omits þe before worþier. 867. W15.526: W alone reads þe, which is omitted in other manuscripts. In many manuscripts the b-verse reads and comune conscience (in the spelling of L). 868. W15.528: W alone has youre; other manuscripts omit it. 869. W15.529: W alone omits yow after lord. 870. W15.562: W alone omits decimas after omnes. 871. W16.16: W alone reads þe; all other B manuscripts have to. 872. W16.26: The page is cropped after ma; other B manuscripts have manum suam. 873. W16.31: The page is cropped after de; other B manuscripts have dei patris. 874. W16.76: W alone reads þo; all other B manuscripts omit it. 875. W16.89: W alone reads rauȝte; other B manuscripts have lauȝte except Cr which has caught. 876. W16.110:surgenrie: MEDsurgeonri n. The etymon is OF cirurgiennerie. All other B manuscripts read surgery (MEDcirurgie n.). 877. W16.117: W alone omits he after Ofte. 878. W16.126: W alone reads habet; all other B manuscripts have habes. 879. W16.128: W alone among B witnesses has ye-self. Other B witnesses read yow-self or youre-selfe. 880. W16.137: W alone reads þrowe it; other B manuscripts have þrowe, while F has it þrowe. 881. W16.174: W alone reads deed; all other B manuscripts have deeþ. 882. W16.183: W alone reads souȝte; all other B manuscripts have þouȝte. 883. W16.186: W alone reads And; all other B manuscripts have I. 884. W16.194: W alone reads þa; all other B manuscripts have þat. 885. W16.252: W alone omits me before grauntede. 886. W16.258: Though <n> and <u> are not always clearly distinguishable, the reading appears to be leueden, and not leneden as reported by KD. The Crowley prints unambiguously read leueden and leued; F has beleveþ. 887. W17.5: W alone omits I before seke. 888. W17.20: W alone reads þousand; all other B manuscripts have thowsandys. 889. W17.25: The leaf is cropped after trewest, and an <e> may have been lost. 890. W17.41: W alone reads That; all other B manuscripts omit it. 891. W17.46: The reading could as well be leue, as in Cr. 892. W17.54: The scribe has written immediately above he the abbreviation for .id est. Christus. 893. W17.69: W alone reads rapelier, comparative of rapely, "the sooner, the more quickly"; all other B manuscripts have raþer. 894. W17.106: W alone omits on before foote. 895. W17.122: W alone reads and coueiteþ it or crieþ; all other B manuscripts reverse the order of and ... or. 896. W17.151: W alone reads pawme; most other B manuscripts have þanne, omitted by F. 897. W17.162: The word-order of the line varies in the B manuscripts, but most have Halt al þe wyde worlde · with-in hem thre (as in L). 898. W17.169: All B manuscripts with the exception of W and Hm have a form of folden. 899. W17.210: The following line, omitted in WHm, appears in all other B witnesses: Fostren forth amonges folke · loue & bileue (as in L). 900. W17.215: W alone omits þe before holy. 901. W17.224: W alone reads glade; all other B manuscripts have glede. 902. W17.248: W shares the reading is with C and Bo, where other manuscripts have his. W's reading may be a spelling variant or an error. 903. W17.258: W alone reads fo; all other manuscripts except Y read for. 904. W17.320: W alone omits hous after owene. 905. W17.350: The reading could as well be leue, as in Cr. 906. W17.351: W alone reads and; all other B manuscripts have boþe. 907. W18.10: The first lobe of <w> is visible; the rest of the word has been cropped. 908. W18.31: W alone reads and; F has eyþer, and all other manuscripts have or. 909. W18.43: W alone reads haþ; all other manuscripts omit it. 910. W18.82: The leaf has been cropped and <e> may have been lost on sight. Elsewhere the word is twenty-six times spelt sighte or siȝte, and once siȝt. 911. W18.107: W alone omits ye after shulle. 912. W18.145: W alone reads adown. All other manuscripts have doun. 913. W18.186: The leaf is cropped immediately after the final character, but no text appears to have been lost. 914. W18.193:Rightwisnesse is written over an erasure. 915. W18.196: W alone reads For god; most other manuscripts have At. 916. W18.196: W alone reads bigynnere; other manuscripts have bigynnyng god. 917. W18.226: W alone reads and; most other manuscripts have to. 918. W18.227: Kane-Donaldson speculate that the final <e> of kynde is cropped. This is, however, a verso, and the <e> is visible in the gutter (though not in the image). 919. W18.245: W alone reads it; other manuscripts have hire. 920. W18.258: W alone reads haþ; other manuscripts omit it. 921. W18.264: WCr1S read reuersen; all other manuscripts have reuerensen. 922. W18.295:selue is written over an erasure. 923. W18.338: WHm alone read he; all other manuscripts have þei. 924. W18.345: W alone reads and; other manuscripts omit it. 925. W18.372: W alone omits the next line, which reads in beta (in the spelling of L): Þe bitternesse þat þow hast browe · brouke it þi-seluen. 926. W18.392: W alone omits þe after There. 927. W18.419: W alone reads whom; most other manuscripts have what, though C has who. 928. W18.419: W's whom is shared with S; all other manuscripts have what. 929. W18.423: The manuscript is cropped after &. The reading &c is supported by HmLM. 930. W18.427: In the right margin, partly trimmed, is a rough drawing of a true-love plant inside a heart. C. David Benson and Lynne S. Blanchfield, The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman: the B-version (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997), p. 59 n. 67, suggest a possible connection with the Quatrefoil of Love though there is no evidence to support this. 931. W18.432: W alone reads clippe; other manuscripts have kisse. 932. W18.437: One minim is visible after su, and the remainder is cropped. HmGYOC2C read sunt &c. 933. W18.439: WHm alone omit loue after lutede. 934. W18.444: W alone reads And bad hem rise; all other manuscripts have an imperative form of Arise. 935. W18.448: W alone reads walkeþ; most other manuscripts have shadweth, while Hm has schawyþ. 936. W19.8: W alone reads þynges; all other manuscripts have lymes. 937. W19.15: W alone omits ye after calle. 938. W19.36: W alone reads noon of hem þer wonyeþ. Most other manuscripts have wonyeþ þer noon. 939. W19.60: A mark (probably for nota) to the right of this line appears to be in the text ink. 940. W19.61: W alone reads defenden; other manuscripts have fende(n). 941. W19.61: W alone reads to. All other manuscripts have into. Kane-Donaldson's emendation should have read [in]to instead of in[to]. 942. W19.64: W alone reads to; all other manuscripts omit it. 943. W19.69: W alone reads richesses; all other manuscripts have the singular form. 944. W19.71: The dot that follows the text is probably not intentional. 945. W19.72: W alone reads þat; all other manuscripts omit it. 946. W19.87: W alone reads For; all other manuscripts omit it. 947. W19.87: After this line W omits And resoun to riche golde · to riȝte & to treuthe (in the spelling of L) attested by all other beta witnesses. 948. W19.93: W alone reads kyng; all other manuscripts have prynce. 949. W19.108: W alone reads lifholynesse; all other manuscripts have lyf of holynesse. 950. W19.149: W alone reads men; all other manuscripts have man. 951. W19.150: W alone reads be; all other manuscripts omit it. 952. W19.156: The scribe has neatly lined through a wrongly placed punctus after compaignie. 953. W19.171: W alone reads my god lord. Most B manuscripts omit my; B reads my lord god. 954. W19.204: W alone reads lightnesse; all other manuscripts have liknesse. 955. W19.244: W alone reads wrongfully; Hm has riȝtfully while all other manuscripts have vnriȝtfully. 956. W19.254: W alone reads no man; most other manuscripts have noon. 957. W19.262: W alone reads of; all other manuscripts omit it. 958. W19.279: W alone reads deide any deeþ; all other manuscripts have dide any dede. 959. W19.282: Immediately following the box is a nota symbol shaped like a punctus elevatus without its point. It appears to be in the text ink. 960. W19.291: W alone reads ete; all other manuscripts have so ete of. 961. W19.318: The right margin is cropped. Other manuscripts here read doctours. 962. W19.329: W alone reads peyne; all other manuscripts have peynes. 963. W19.338: W alone reads for to; Hm has for, B has hym to, while other beta manuscripts have to. 964. W19.356: W alone reads in; HmCrYCBLM have on, and GC2F omit it. 965. W19.356: W alone reads lyuynge; all other beta manuscripts have kepyng. 966. W19.379: W alone reads pilgrymages; all other manuscripts have pilgrymage. 967. W19.380: W alone reads penaunces; most other manuscripts have penaunce. 968. W19.430: W alone reads past tense graddest; all other manuscripts have present gredest. Cf. W2.75 greden with W16.81 gradde. 969. W19.434: W alone reads swiche þat sleeþ hem þat; all other manuscripts have hem þat sleeþ swiche as. 970. W19.445: The entire b-verse has been erased. Other manuscripts read til some tyme þat þei repente (in the spelling of L). 971. W19.469: W alone reads after; other witnesses omit it. 972. W19.472: W alone reads fende; Hm reads fonde, and all other manuscripts have defende. 973. W19.475: W alone reads And ye; most other manuscripts have For ye. 974. W20.24: W alone reads Ne; all other manuscripts have Neiþer. 975. W20.50: W alone reads haþ; all other manuscripts have hadde. 976. W20.63: W alone reads as; all other manuscripts omit it. 977. W20.64: W alone reads Saue; all other manuscripts have And. 978. W20.82: W alone reads scabbes; all other manuscripts have scalles. 979. W20.94: W alone reads þat; all other manuscripts have he. 980. W20.104: W alone reads hise; most other manuscripts have deþes. 981. W20.133: W alone reads Iogged to, a nonce usage which apparently means "spurred his horse towards" (MEDjaggen v. 2(b)). Most other scribes wrote Iug(g)ed til, presumably understanding the phrase to mean "condemned" (MEDjugen, v. 2(b)). 982. W20.135: W alone reads An; all other manuscripts have And. The W scribe nowhere else uses this form for And. 983. W20.137: W alone reads and; all other manuscripts have he. 984. W20.143: W alone reads anhaste wiþ; all other manuscripts have in haste in. 985. W20.146: W alone reads his, which is inserted above the line; all other manuscripts omit it. 986. W20.146: W alone reads at a flye; all other manuscripts have it (or it a/it but/at) folye. 987. W20.148: W alone reads prikeþ; all other manuscripts have priked. 988. W20.161: W alone reads enqueste; all other manuscripts save F have a queste. 989. W20.170: W alone reads He; all other manuscripts have And. 990. W20.173: W alone reads drogges, "drugs"; most other manuscripts have dragges, "sweet medicines." Scribes are apt to confuse the two words (e.g. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales Prologue 426). 991. W20.178: W alone reads mede, "bribe, reward"; other manuscripts have medle, "take action." 992. W20.180: W alone reads forþ to a; all other manuscripts have so to. 993. W20.186: The scribe has begun by writing an <h> and changed it to an <a>. 994. W20.189: W alone reads myȝte; all other manuscripts have may. 995. W20.190: W alone reads so; all other manuscripts omit it. 996. W20.190: W alone reads þat out my teeþ he bette; most manuscripts have either and bet out my teth or & bett me on þe teth. 997. W20.220: W alone reads walys; all other manuscripts have Irlonde. An Irish manuscript of the C-Text, Douce 104, fol. 109v, also has the reading Wales. See the comment by Derek Pearsall in Piers Plowman: A Facsimile of Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Douce 104 (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992), p. xiv. 998. W20.234: W alone reads and fare wel wiþ. Hm has and fare wel; most other manuscripts have to fare wel. 999. W20.238: The reading could as well be leueþ. 1000. W20.262: W alone reads no man tresore; most other manuscripts have no tresorer. 1001. W20.262: Apart from WHmB, the other scribes copied this line after W20.259. 1002. W20.283: W alone reads ashamed; most other manuscripts read be ashamed. 1003. W20.295: W alone reads þanne; most other manuscripts read hem. 1004. W20.300: Following this line, all other manuscripts have Ypocrysie atte ȝate · hard gan fiȝte (in the spelling of L). 1005. W20.304: W alone reads To go; HmCrGYOLMR omit To. C2CBF omit go. 1006. W20.341: W alone reads ooþer; other manuscripts omit it. 1007. W20.385: A final, formal nota abbreviation ends the text. We have ordinarily taken this form to represent a flourish. The explicit is written in ornamented letters touched in red and about twice normal size. [Preface | Introduction | Instructions | Abbreviations]
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