234 KANSAS UNIVKRSnV QUARTERLY. 



herein arrived at may be supposed to index in some sort the mental 

 life of English people of the lower ranks. • 



The references to texts A, B, and C, respectively, are in every 

 case to the parallel edition of the three texts as published by the 

 Clarendon Press, i8S6, in the first of the two volumes of that edition. 

 Volume II. of the same edition is referred to as the "Notes." R 

 refers to the poem "Richard the Redeless " as included in ^'olume I. 

 of the same edition. The other references are given in full, or are 

 self explanatory. 



The Scene of the Poem. 



Relation to p.efore taking up the central subject of investiga- 



t h o <■ «' II 1 1- a I 

 Nubjec-t of ill- tion, I Wish to consider the scene of the poem 



«i"'»'.v- and its relation to Langland's life; because, in this 



case, such an investigation promises to throw some liglit upon the 



unsettled question as to whether Langland ever received a university 



training, and thus partly to account for the nature of his thinking and 



teaching. 



So far as the known facts of his life are concerned, they may be 

 summarized in a few wortls. These facts are that Langland was born 

 of respectable parentage at C.'leobury Mortimer in Shropshire at about 

 1332; that his father, Stacy de Rokayle, afterward removed to the 

 parish of Shipton-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire; that the child 

 was baptized in infancy, sent early to school, and loved it so that he 

 determined to be a student all his life, and a scholar according to his 

 opportunities. Here rises the (pieslion suggested, as to the nature of 

 those opportunities, and whether access to one of the universities was 

 among them. Professor Ten Brink believes it "most ])robable" that 

 Langland received a university training, perhaps at Oxford,* If this 

 were true, the poem should exhibit, in addition to a technical know- 

 ledge of certain subjects, a reflection of university life in allusions and 

 scenes described. 



But whatever may be the conclusion, after our investigation is com- 

 pleted, as to the nature and extent of Langland's training, it is certain 

 that he became a student, and eventually a humble member of the 

 secular clergy; that he married, and spent his life in performing the 

 duties of his profession, studying the Vulgate and the world about 

 him, drawing conclusions from the one, and applying them to the 

 other. 



This seems a simple enough matter, but Langland's conclusions and 

 his manner of enforcing them were not as those of other men. The 



•Ten Brink. Early Eug. Lit., p. 3.V2. 



