SOURCE: Mander, M. N. K. “Grammatical Analogy in Langland and Alan of Lille.” In Notes and Queries 26, no. 6 (December 1979): 501-04.

In the following essay, Mander argues that Langland's use of grammar as a metaphorical representation of divine order in Piers Plowman finds precedent in Alan's representation of grammar in The Complaint of Nature.

In his article on the grammatical metaphor for mede and mercede in Piers Plowman (C text Passus IV, 335-409), A. V. C. Schmidt¹ shows its general resemblance to a passage in an early work of John Wycliffe. Having described this resemblance, he concludes “the differences also need to be stressed. Wycliffe is referring to modes of logical prediction (univocal, equivocal, etc.), Langland to grammatical relations as an image of natural moral and metaphysical relationships.” This seems to me an important difference. Surely it would be more fruitful to compare the passage with one in which...