Readings for line KD.7.143α

L.7.152KD.7.143α
Ecce derisores et iurgia cum eis ne crescant &c
M.7.152KD.7.143α
EcceM.7.152: Kane and Donaldson record this word as Eice. derisores et iurgia . cum eis ne crescant & cetera
Cr1.7.152KD.7.143α
Ecce derisores et iurgia cum eis ne crescant .
W.7.152KD.7.143α
Ecce derisores & iurgia cum eis ne crescant &c
Hm.7.154KD.7.143α
Ecce dirisores & iurgia cum eis non crescant & cetera ·
C.7.153KD.7.143α
Ecce derisores & Iurgia cum eis ne crescant &cetera.
G.8.153KD.7.143α
ecce derisores et iurgia cum eis ne crescant .//
O.7.151KD.7.143α
Eice derisores & iurgia cum eis ne crescant & cetera
R.7.154KD.7.143α
EcceR.7.154: Many B manuscripts read Eice, including F and numerous beta copies; however, the most authoritative beta copies (including LMCrW) all agree with R on Ecce. The latter variant is clearly erroneous with regard to the original Vulgate text, but it probably already existed as a Vulgate variant long before Langland's day since the same paleographic factors that would have induced multiple independent errors in both directions among Piers Plowman scribes already were in place. Even Kane-Donaldson fall into this pit, mistranscribing R's Ecce as Eice because it is barely possible to construe (generously) the <cc> as <ic> joined at the top by a ligature—until one notices, in the preceding tag at R7.142, that the R scribe does not avail himself of a ligature when writing the <ic> of solliciti. There is no way to know which word Langland himself wrote, but since all A manuscripts attest Ecce, the odds are, as Rigg and Brewer theorize in Piers Plowman: The Z Version (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1983): 111, that various B scribes attempted to do for Langland what Kane-Donaldson unconsciously do for R: repair the damage quietly. See John A. Alford, Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations (Binghamton: MRTS, 1992), p. 57, for discussion of this tag. derisores &cetera .R.7.154: R omits the end of this citation, which in beta reads: iurgia cum eis ne crescant &c. F's version of the rest of the citation is, typically, unique: & exibit cum eo iurgium cessabitque cause & contumelie.
F.5.1136KD.7.143α
Eice derisorem & exibit cum eo iurgium / cessabitque cause & contumelie.F.5.1136: F differs significantly from Bx which reads "E[j]ice derisores & iurgia cum eis ne crescant &c." The added phrases are drawn from Proverbs 22:10. See John A. Alford, Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations (Binghamton: MRTS, 1992), p. 57, for discussion.