‘Fair Field Part I: Will’s Vision’ https://vimeo.com/album/5067067

Select one of the following topics and submit 500 words of concise, elegant prose
after you have read the Departmental Style Guide carefully, especially the section
about ‘letting it cook’. Do not submit your first or second draft; submit something you
have gone over many times, which does you proud and which you would want to
read yourself if you had not written it.
There is no need to consult secondary criticism for this assessment. You must,
however, provide bibliographical information for any works you cite (e.g., Pearsall’s
ed. of Piers Plowman; Mann’s of The Canterbury Tales). Cite Piers by section and
line number, e.g., ‘Prol.34-36’; ‘2.99-104’; cite the General Prologue or the
Pardoner’s Tale etc. by line number.

1. Compare the translation of Rykener’s interrogation in the Boyd-Karras essay
   with that provided at
   https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1395rykener.asp : what differences
   do you find, and what do you make of them? Do they have an effect on our
   understanding of the text?
2. Provide a careful translation of any fourteen consecutive lines of Bevis of
   Hampton, using the Middle English Dictionary to make sure you get things
   right: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary. That
   will count for 250 of your 500 words (no matter how many it actually is); with
   the other 250 write a few sentences about what you found most interesting
   about the selection you chose, whether vocabulary, geography, or anything
   else.
3. Compare your text of General Prologue lines 1-18 with the text of those lines
   as found in Caxton’s first edition of the Canterbury Tales :
   https://www.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/search.asp. What sorts of things do you
   notice in the Caxton? Tell us about them.
4. Carefully compare Piers Plowman Prologue 83-91 and the text called ‘F1.77-
   85’ at [http://piers.iath.virginia.edu/exist/piers/docs/B/F/1/scribal/]. What is the
   biggest difference (or two) between the two versions, and what difference
   does it make to our understanding of the passage? Among the many things
   you will find if you play around with this: clicking on the ‘I’ where folio numbers
   are given makes an image of the original manuscript page pop up.
5. Watch ‘Fair Field Part I: Will’s Vision’ https://vimeo.com/album/5067067 (you
   can learn more about what this is at http://thisfairfield.com) and write an
   intelligent review, as if for The Times or The Guardian, with an intended
   audience of readers who know Piers Plowman.
6. Find one peer-reviewed critical essay on The Man of Law’s Tale published
   since 2000, provide a brief summary of its main argument, and say what you
   found strongest and weakest about the essay. Helpful bibliographies include
   http://chaucer.lib.utsa.edu/items/search and the MLA Online Bibliography
   (Senate House Library membership needed; once you have that you can
   access via either that library or KCL’s).

Sample Solution