Seeing Red:

Modern editions of medieval texts, with their cleanness and clarity, offer ease in reading yet often eliminate the interpretive signposts that would have guided the medieval reader: capitals, parafs, large rubrics, and smaller secondary rubrication. Because traditional editions do not (and, practically speaking, cannot) reproduce such features, these visual reading cues tend to remain invisible to us even when we are given the opportunity to see the page in its entirety. Rubrication is one of these visual cues. Most manuscripts that contain rubrication include two types: large red lettering used for Latin and textual divisions, and smaller red-ink touches on the regular ink. In this article I use “rubric” for the former and “rubrication” or “secondary rubrication” for the latter. Secondary rubrication includes dots, dashes, and underlining, all of which could be done quickly and without much pre-planning or expertise. Rubrication is one of the ways in which scribes structured the page; it may seem minor, but it can tell us a great deal about the scribe's own interpretive framework. In addition to rubrication's aesthetic pleasure—the visual alleviation it provides on a page of close-set script—it also offers pleasure of a different sort, since it helps a reader negotiate the manuscript and therefore enhances the reading experience as a whole. Even the absence of rubrication can affect the reader's interpretation of a text. In a manuscript relying heavily upon rubrication, the words that the scribe chooses not to emphasize can be just as revealing as those he does.One of the key Piers Plowman manuscripts in the B-text tradition—Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS 201 (F), an early fifteenth-century text—is striking in its rather energetic use of rubrication. Its scribe was clearly aware of the physical presentation of the poem and its effect on the reading experience.1 I argue here that the scribe's rubrication brings one of Langland's central questions to the fore—how exactly should we learn and live the moral life? The scribe does so by accenting (among other features) the voices in the text: public voices, unstable and shifting voices, the corrupt voices of flatterers, the importance of mutual dialogue. C. David Benson argues that Piers “constructs public discourses and spaces that permit a variety of competing voices rather than a single authorial voice speaking on behalf of others.”2 David Coley emphasizes the interplay between poetic representations of speech and key cultural and political issues in the Ricardian and Lancastrian reigns.3 It is therefore unsurprising that this scribe would focus on speech as he rubricated, parafed, and emended his manuscript; the many voices of Piers and the ideas about speech that subtended the text in its historical setting invite additional voices, including those of the scribe, rubricator, or illustrator, to participate in the poem.I will suggest, further, that the F manuscript's emphasis on speech encourages the reader's active participation in the reading experience. David Morgan argues that the rubrication of Christ's words in modern Bibles invites an increased intimacy between reader and text, and between the written and spoken word. The visual signal of rubrication, he says, “urges devout readers to hear the sound of their voice reading Christ's words as the sound of his voice … the graphic signifier promotes the iconicity of the written word qua spoken word.”4 This kind of marking invites the reader to identify the written with the spoken. It is fitting that the F scribe's primary tool of ordinatio—rubrication—should emphasize his interest in the voices of Piers and how they guide the reader's interpretive journey.F was formerly “scorned” by scholars including W. W. Skeat, R. W. Chambers, and Elsie Blackman,5 but was later drawn into the critical spotlight by George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson's landmark Athlone edition of the Piers B-text, which identifies F and R (Oxford, Bodleian Library Rawlinson Poetry MS 38) as the RF recension, one of the two main recensions of the B tradition descending from the B archetype (Bx).6 The relationship of F to the B archetype and to R is complex,7 but they clearly “present a thoroughly independent textual tradition”8 distinct from the remainder of B manuscripts. Some critics ascribe even more importance to RF; Lawrence Warner, for example, argues that they preserve an early (pre-Bx) integration of a later version of the C text,9 and Ralph Hanna posits that RF is evidence of an authorial intermediary version between B and C.10 All textual critics of the poem recognize the significance of RF in Piers Plowman's transmission history. It is clear from F's various layers of revision that both the immediate scribe and the redactor responsible for F's exemplar (if they are indeed two people—an issue I take up below) were capable and intelligent copyists. The large structural changes in F as well as the minor variants and choices in decoration and ordinatio indicate that both the redactor and the immediate scribe were not mindlessly copying the poem. Kane-Donaldson argue that F's non-authorial variants—more than a thousand—demonstrate the activity of an intelligent and critical scribe who paid close attention to meaning and poetic form.11I should note, finally, that in spite of his close engagement with the text, the F scribe can be inconsistent in his rubrication and emendations. Uncertainty or an impending deadline could be behind this inconsistency; while the scribe attempted to plan and execute his particular reading of the poem, he was not always successful in following through. The manuscript's larger patterns of rubrication and emendation, however, remain striking in spite of the inconsistencies. Many of the scribe's (or the redactor's) interventions are minute yet attentive. Some are aesthetic (improving alliteration, for example) or corrective (attempting to restore sense to a defective line). Other changes indicate the scribe's particular sense of social and moral propriety. For example, at 4.43, the scribe/redactor changes the majority reading of “knyʒtes and clerkes” to “Clerkys and knyʒtes,” adding rubrication to “Clerkys” to emphasize its priority. This emphasis continues throughout the manuscript's rubrication patterns, with Clerk (and Clergy) rubricated frequently and Knight only twice in total; the discrepancy is particularly noticeable in the many lines that pair knights and clerks together. One may imagine the scribe aligning himself with Langland's inverse social hierarchies, in which Piers Plowman (who is also a clerk of sorts) instructs a knight. On the other hand, there are also several unique omissions of poverty material, perhaps out of concern that an overemphasis on poverty might be too reformist in tone.12 The manuscript seems to find a cautious balance somewhere between reform and the status quo. Orthodoxy is still a matter of concern for the scribe, as is evident in several other emendations: at 15.395, for example, he refers to the receipt of communion at an austere rate of once of year, as opposed to once a month in Bx. At 14.391, he polarizes mercy and righteousness in an attempt to separate himself from any association with Pelagianism.13 These interventions gradually reshape the poem's priorities, in much the that himself his into his own of the manuscript's unique attention to the questions of and interpretation at the of the poem. for example, the between and lines unique to of so on for to take as on on These lines of the and the in which he and the of by these lines in in a I of between the two is and In F to the on the of his and his his interpretation of The of his of the to these are also the his of speaking, and all have with the by with this scribe or questions be or at in to the in the remainder of this was the scribe the was the scribe the both questions are we can The to the is It that the scribe out the main text in the regular and with red to in the capitals, the Latin and the parafs, and to the secondary rubrication, of which red the The of the Piers Plowman edition that the with the scribe's regular while B-text without that the main scribe was responsible for the Latin as well about the secondary C. David Benson and indicate that the scribe was also the It would sense that the secondary rubrication, which would have quickly and was by the the main who in the For these I throughout this article that the scribe was also the One of be to ascribe too much to the choices since we about the we do however, is that the in this manuscript does not with the in the R in the unique tradition of the B It therefore seems that these two manuscripts a from a it is that the scribe was also the rubricator, it is that the scribe was the The that text be from that of the immediate scribe with to that critical text is In other both were and it is that the redactor who the changes to the poem's and perhaps many of its unique and was not the immediate The immediate scribe however, his own and it is therefore that he was also responsible for of the minor such as alliteration, or word or The that the rubrication enhances the visual of the page and the pleasure of reading the that the scribe, while he was not the was with and in a sense the poem for his The rubrication attention and ideas and it visual of the it also the reading experience as a whole. The the scribe's and Langland's of the reader rather than out to for his interest in his version of the poem as both and F manuscript textual or the scribe upon rubrication and to and the poem. and have how F's large the and Benson and the secondary rubrication, large rubrics, and in all B-text including In this the do not identify any particular to there of the of secondary rubrication in the edition of I and all of the rubrication, the to of rubrication and and the words presentation of this is in the to this and its and do not include the rubrication of and in the or The scribe so to include would not evidence for his interpretive use of I rubrication and red into one the scribe frequently the two or One is the scribe's of the words and from to between rubrication and (and various of the two at For the of ease and I words in the to modern and to the medieval with the that all medieval are in the of all words in the are in the of issue of since any reader of this manuscript will that often with rubrication. it is that many of the rubricated words in the manuscript are also as one would is by The scribe often and to Even he was in only capitals, his of to (and therefore to is the word for is more frequently than or the scribe that he is not in the The following lines from just one page how it is to about the scribe's in this a Clerk in his a as or or or and are often cues for the scribe to more attention rubrication, this and many that these not his I the F manuscript's of secondary rubrication rather than its large and Latin than large the poem and the Latin These are of to only they are of the scribe's of The scribe's of Latin is and all Latin words are written in red with a more The scribe's to be on the in rather than on the of the words which is different from his of the secondary F does not seem to visual In its ordinatio may particularly to the modern of the B-text F and the scribe does the of and the Latin he frequently the and lines for regular for large and at when he to the of often in or text. It is unsurprising given these the lines page from to These seem at to indicate a of the and of lines and the of any the text the may have to the manuscript's it is that the scribe was also with The of the text into the of and the scribe's use of to be a also a scribe or perhaps of are and as well as of the the words to The F scribe was not a but his as the of the indicate that he when he was given the of the manuscript was a even it was a one rubrication in of the of the that the scribe was or as well as the of the the of F's the spaces for and Latin the of parafs, the of rubrication and evidence for a in The scribe when he alliteration, Latin and the sense of the but he also includes that offer visual interest as well as the of on the These include the and he in and the rubricated also frequently the of many of which he This of rubrication for the words that have rubricated only once or twice throughout the F manuscript's use of rubrication as ordinatio was both an and a into F's large and the rubricated there are of rubrication, and of words rubricated the the words that are frequently rubricated in F or and by and The of rubrication for of these words the scribe's the that to and and of central importance and we may see that is a emphasis upon in a social to with in a emphasis that I will rubricated words that as frequently as the a they include and the of or such as and word of interest in however, is with and is the rubricated word in the is rubricated more than the other two but the rate of its rubrication the of that the scribe paid attention to all is rubricated at a rate of out of at out of and Piers at out of scribe's emphasis on is clear and in many of these are unique The is F's unique emphasis on the of the a rubrication rate of may not seem particularly at the of the scribe's particular interest in of of the word are also with a the rubricated and are there are only out not by The scribe therefore of in that Piers is not only a but a of scribe's of his in the of It is an in other for example, an at the scribe without out the This is not there is a between these but of the scribe's concern about one or the It is that he to other speaking or but here he both in the perhaps a about the to voice at this in the scribe's of is also he the word in a more is that used for the as it with the red secondary rubrication. emphasis on an word is in the This is not only as a in this but as a of It on to to we may words about the of rubrication to an experience of for the F's emphasis on the speaking both rubrication and the a to the who is to identify the speaking in the text with the in his or which also seems to scribe is not just in speech and he also I just a of the many the marking and a a of of with the and rubrication at of and who are of and is from in which the lines speech are by and to to here with with is the focus of this particular and the scribe his on the of the textual unique to F a interest in it is to these should be to the F scribe or to the of the indicate an interest in speech that the F scribe I will several At the of two unique lines are to to as to with At F changes corrupt to to his to the of and in These attention to as both a primary and secondary it is a but it is also and a physical of At the F scribe the about does not to and it into in his also the Latin at to and at at his word and and to is to his word he an that emphasizes much more clearly the of spoken it is not his and This is to F from reading in to the of speech rather than the of Plowman was the of many were and on the spoken rubrication and the reader of Piers in the F manuscript was to see the poem as a kind of of and The scribe his presentation of the manuscript page as a page of voices by adding (or a large at in the text a particular voice or was of F's focus on as a of a in which in of rather than the poem's speaking lines between and written were not always clear in medieval F's ordinatio as the of the use of a that the reader in the rather than on or and The scribe's emphasis on speech the poem's as an by social text. a however, also be (and, in as there was for a of as the use of written the and Piers Plowman's emphasis upon speech does more than and for a of It is also of the focus on how to live a moral to The F scribe paid close attention to the of and in in of both and the importance of and by in the and red as the Latin to other words in by the in the regular with regular rubrication on of In all the are of their larger different and they are even in the large that as The F manuscript's of Latin text and with and it in The that the F scribe out his to for of these words often a of his or the of his in their even or than and rubrication, but and have to the status of Latin in a manuscript that is not in its use of and would to the for this in with the scribe's of and his is by large rubrics, an and and The of the manuscript that we should attention when the scribe or with The scribe's attention to throughout and his a concern with the and of Piers by its as an that both and the manuscript's and its changes in as a of the poem's by the in a I the to the scribe's marking out of speech and the of The of and the to are central structural of a poem that to balance the and its The and the are to the poem, while the voices of the tend to the poem in on and many the These two structural are in with one and the rubrication both the and the to this is to much of its F to on the medieval of or offer a text of to the poem but not to or the majority of B-text Some Piers such as Bodleian Library MS College MS and Library and and Latin and of many of such as the and the the scribe is more in his rubrication of such as and he the of rubrication for these as he does for and the I will that such as and rubrication as interpretive for the rather than independent a of the reader from the in to focus more upon the at The F's scribe's to use rubrication and to the of of the reader to the of the poem to its many rather than absence of rubrication may also the scribe's the words not rubricated is a more than and those that the to an In to this more for I have on those words that a reader would to see rubricated, given the scribe's patterns, and yet have a rate of rubrication Because of the scribe's it is to his for a word one and not particularly the rubrication rate somewhere between and The word is an It is rubricated of the out of and in those I could to the scribe's of when to words that are rubricated however, do not into this the scribe's concern with and social I words that these an and its words and are rubricated only of the out of This is in of the scribe's concern with and the importance of the and the moral Some of these omissions are striking in the of the example, as a I have in and are rubricated, while is One could argue that this in this is used as an but there are in the text is used and is still by the is an it of to and are rubricated, while is to on its to for this I have of a rubricated only to that the rubrication of this word to be more than the of rubrication. For example, at the to he on with the of when a at his the scribe to In this particular example, in other of the poem, the scribe to be out the for rubrication, but as I is a but not for rubrication. even we were to upon as the for the of rubrication for it would still not the scribe not the word in the particularly since he other words scribe's of and is to his of and In the of have of these but The word is not is The of these words therefore to be as the scribe is not particularly in is the rubrication of these words that is and not the absence of rubrication. In a manuscript ordinatio is of including other of such as the and the the of is is that the scribe is a for the not In F's the and the of are the attention and with red-ink and in the with rubrication such as and are with and are throughout by of and the rubrication of and are all of these the Latin therefore to with one of these would the status at the of the we the scribe's how to these he seems to be and about the between and and how speech should be other of that the F scribe not to emphasize includes and These words are rubricated at a rate of once out of single was the was a In a the of rubrication from this to about the of and for we could that and are these are The F scribe was about how they should or could into his particular and moral were both a on and the of Christ's of a could be the and of Christ's or the and of a is both and the the and the at have all rubricated, so clearly the scribe not himself to the in the poem. does he the the and the since himself to have to in the two The F scribe may have Langland's as too reformist or too to The and are that the and are not as or as for the of the of of these an of the paid the other and the from the of that the much of the that was to these and and even in B we can see that issue with Some of F's own unique a of For example, F and version of with with and changes it to with with are more and the are In F changes F of and on The of as a is much more in F's rather than of and and corrupt is by the on at the F scribe's use of rubrication out Piers Plowman's structural that the poem's and the social that its moral therefore offers an interpretive to readers as they to the poem. are not to into the different voices and different in the physical of the text The F scribe's particular of Piers therefore it as a poem of and one that attention and rather than a poem that or upon the of The scribe's use of rubrication to emphasize is in rather than to additional that or perhaps the text, the poem as and of the reader's F scribe Piers not only as an poem, but as one that in and of In his graphic of the poem's the scribe also an increased sense of social intimacy the poem by the of the The importance of speaking, of and of all find in the scribe's of the poem on we are to see speech in the poem as as well as and we are to as in to between social and the importance of speaking, and to such I would suggest, the main ideas the scribe The of the and of of the this The scribe to how we can in regular and does not a in the poem in the that or the in The of and are and and and knights are and The scribe seems much more in the and This would also the scribe's not to include of and Latin text in his the in the scribe's rubrication of the larger patterns of rubrication throughout the manuscript of his more and only was the scribe of F and in his text, but he his readers to be as to in and presentation of Piers in a of different not only the reader the poem's but emphasizes the reader's to and to the The of F as an B-text its physical but I that this will to its as an aesthetic the sense of an physical was to as it pleasure to its on the rubrication in Corpus Christi College MS 201 that seems the words rubricated by more than and words that are rubricated or in or since the scribe is much more about this kind of rubrication. For these I have the of or and the rate of rubrication. rubricated by one or two or to are in separate the main

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.