holde for old, l. 327; hauter for altar, l. 728. The number of curious words in the poem is not considerable, not the least remarkable being the word done in l. 999, on which see the note. We also see that to punch is short for punish. It hence appears that the dialect is much the same as that of William of Palerne, the chief difference being that there are no present participles in -aude as well as in -inge; but there are not many examples to judge from. I think the dialect is plainly West Midland, but not so far north as Lancashire; rather in the direction of Shropshire or Gloucestershire, as in William of Palerne.
On the alliteration of the poem
§ 24. I note here a few peculiarities of alliteration.[1] Perhaps the most remarkable is the run upon vowels, which is also a marked feature of the Alexander A-fragment; see'll.22, 27, 230, 240, 268, 290, 415, 461, 498, 500, &c. of that text. So here, we find an alliteration of different vowels in'll. 3, 15, 24, 157, 251, 338, 343, 345, 440, 442, 468, 506, 526, 568, 718, 720, 754, 812, 851, 936, 975, &c. We also find alliteration of the same vowel in many instances. Ex: a, a, a; 55, 63, 170, 198, 244, 377, 701, 822, 1007; e, e, e; 86, 201, 262, 360, 539, 744, 757, 862, 981, 1008; o, o, o; 327, 533, 711, 743. To these add l. 588, in which there are but two vowels, both e; also 153, in which we have o, e (in eight = viij.), a; also 518, in which a rimes with the diphthongs au and eu. The most remarkable instance is in'll. 1007, 1008, in which two consecutive lines have the vowel-rime. The letter h is also sometimes associated with vowels, as in these instances; 155, 219 (where haþel is for aþel), 277 (where haþel is again for aþel), 320 (haþelene for aþelene), 348 (haþel for aþel), 669, 728, 799, 842, 856 (haþel for aþel), 1137. This is the more remarkable, because h is also found as an alliterative letter, as in l. 16, 51, &c.
- ↑ I may further refer the reader to a careful dissertation entitled Die Alliteriende Englische Langzeile im xiv. Jahrundert, by F. Rosenthal; Halle, 1877. This contains an analysis of the alliterations in the three texts of Piers Plowman, a work of great labour. Most of the remarks here made were written before I received a copy of this dissertation, which was kindly forwareded to me by the author.
