[53] Ibid., p. xxii.
[54] Vernon Text (A), ed. Skeat, pp. vi., 60.
[55] Piers Plowman (Text C), ed. Skeat, pass. xvii. II. 286-296.
[56] There was another Cock Lane near Shoreditch (now Boundary Street), which may be the one connected with Langland.
[57] Piers Plowman, part iv. sect. ii. p. xliii.
[58] It is scarcely possible to keep within bounds one’s enthusiasm for the magnificent edition of Piers Plowman, which Professor Skeat has placed in our hands. I feel, having watched the work from its inception in 1866, when ‘Parallel Extracts from 29 Manuscripts’ was published, that if the Early English Text Society had published nothing else it would have worthily justified its existence. The labour bestowed on the work by its editor is immense, and the result is that we have for the first time a perfect text of one of the most influential works in English literature, with all the illustrative notes necessary to exhibit its vast effect upon English history.
[59] Hoccleve’s Works, vol. i. Minor Poems, ed. by F. J. Furnivall (Early English Text Society, Extra Series), p. 61, 1891. The editor has gathered much fresh material for the biography of Hoccleve.
[60] Gower’s Complete Works, ed. G. C. Macaulay, Oxford, 1899, vol. i.
[61] Of these especial honour is due to Dr. Furnivall, who has for years sought ceaselessly and with the greatest success for documentary evidence of the facts of Chaucer’s life.
[62] Chaucer at Aldgate, Home Counties Magazine, Oct. 1900, p. 259.