Cr1.17.8KD.17.8 Than Lucifers Lordeshyp , shall last no lenger
C.17.8KD.17.8 That luciferes lordship · last shal no langer
R.17.7KD.17.7-8 And whan it is aseled so sathanas power schal last no lenger . Here alpha must have merged two lines from Bx into one. However, as the lines survive in the extant copies, they differ
considerably not only between alpha and beta witnesses but between R and F as well. Beta
manuscripts read:
And whan it is asseled so I wote wel þe sothe
Þat Lucyferes lordeship
laste shal no lenger.
RF and beta essentially agree on the initial a-verse of this
pair, but then R supplies a unique b-verse followed by a hypometrical line: And
þus my lettre meneth. By contrast, F reads these two lines as follows:
& whan it ys / a-selyd soo / sathenas haþ lost his power
& þus myn
lettre meneþ / men mowe knowe yt.
W. W. Skeat, The Vision of
William concerning Piers the Plowman, EETS, OS 38 (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1869): 416, proposed that RF's exemplar must have read:
And when it is aseled so Sathanas power
Schal last no lenger and þus my
lettre meneth.
R.17.8KD.17.9 And þus my lettre meneth R.17.8: Beta omits this line, and R has truncated it. Cf. F, whose b-verse reads men mowe knowe yt alle.R.17.8: Although the line following this one is marked
in the margin with cc as a separate paragraph, the scribe does not follow
his usual practice of skipping a line between strophes. It is impossible to know why he
departed from his custom here, but he may have been troubled by his exemplar's wasteful
attitude toward parchment in this part of the poem, where strophes tend to be very short,
indicating only a change of speakers in a rapidly shifting dialogue.
F.13.114KD.17.7-8& whan it ys / a-selyd soo / sathenas haþ lost his power. These lines differ greatly between alpha and beta witnesses as well as within alpha. Beta manuscripts read:
And whan it is enseled so I woot wel þe soþe
That Luciferis lordshipe laste shal no lenger.
R supplies the b-verse "sathanas power schal last no lenger" for the first line, but has a hypometrical following line: "And
þus my lettre meneth." W. W. Skeat, The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, in Three Parallel Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1886): 2.416, proposed that FR's exemplar must have read:
And when it is aseled so Sathanas power
Schal last no lenger and þus my letter meneth.
F.13.115KD.17.9& þus myn lettre meneþ / men mowe knowe ytF.13.115: The scribe wrote an otiose mark above the <y>. alle.