I begin by acknowledging three scholars I have met or corresponded with only in passing, but who in effect created the field to which this book contributes, and who, if I might wear my hat as Director of the International Piers Plowman Society for a moment, deserve the deepest gratitude of the Langland community: John Alford, Vincent DiMarco, and Charlotte Brewer. The smallest of their contributions to this book were Professor Alford’s invitation for me to be respondent to the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive panel at the 1999 Asheville Langland conference, which changed my life; Professor DiMarco’s characteristically cheerful help regarding a small bibliographical problem; and Dr. Brewer’s generous responses to queries about, and provision of copies of, the editorial work on the poem in London in the 1920s.

Among those who responded to portions of this book in draft form, I am especially grateful to Emily Steiner, who read all of it just as she was completing Reading Piers Plowman. That is true dedication, and her deep knowledge of the poem, and ear for tone the equal of Brian Wilson’s, helped me improve it greatly. Others who provided generous feedback on portions of this book are A. S. G. Edwards, David Matthews, R. Carter Hailey (scholar and gentleman, who in many ways inspired me to undertake the second half of this book), and Simon Horobin, who also provided hospitality at Magdalen College and the University of Oxford, and urged me to continue looking into the identity of “Mr. Dupré” even after he had independently made his own initial inquiries. Over the years I have presented much of this material at conferences and seminars, and would like to acknowledge in particular, for their rigorous feedback and conversation, the audiences of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive Seminar, Los Angeles, 2009; the London Old and Middle English Research Seminar, March 2011 (thanks to Ruth Kennedy and Cath Nall); and the Fifth International Piers Plowman Society conference, Oxford, April 2011.

For helping me figure out who all the people who populate this book were, and what they were writing, annotating, printing, and doing, thanks to a pleasingly diverse body of scholars: Michael J. Bennett, Tekla Bude, Megan Cook, Rebecca Davis, John H. Farrant, Alexandra Gillespie, Michael Johnston, Eileen Joy, Sarah Kelen, Paul Patterson, Tom Prendergast, Macklin Smith, and Neil Vickers. Let me single out Ian Cornelius, who consulted all the Crowley and Rogers copies at Harvard and Yale on my behalf, and alerted me to Latin interests of one owner. And, again, Andrew Cole and Fiona Somerset have been the truest and best of Langland friends, both as co-editors of YLS and as wicked smart advisors and founts of learning.

I am happy to record my thanks to the archivists and librarians who provided access to, images of, and advice about the many manuscripts and early printed books that feature here, in particular the staffs of: Balliol College Library, Oxford, especially Jeremy Hinchliff and Seamus Perry; the Beinecke Library of Yale University; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British Library, especially Bevan Blanchard and Giles Mandelbrote; the Huntington Library, San Marino, especially Mary Robertson; Lehigh University Library, Pennsylvania, especially Lois Black and Ilhan Citak; and the National Portrait Gallery, London, especially Matthew Bailey; all of whom kindly granted permission to reproduce materials from their collections. I also quote from or refer to materials from other libraries: thanks to Magill Library, Haverford College, Pennsylvania, especially Ann Upton; the University of Michigan Library, especially Peggy Daub and Sarah Rentz; and the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, especially Jan McDonald. Two owners of Crowley editions, Professor Toshi Takamiya and the collector who now owns the copy inscribed by Alexander Pope and Thomas Warton, were generous in sharing information.

The University of Sydney Faculty of Arts and Department of English provided research support and study leave in 2011, during which much of this book came together. I am especially grateful to Will Christie and Paul Giles, and, for advice and friendship, to all my colleagues there and across Australia, especially Dan Anlezark, Geraldine Barnes, Mark Byron, Margaret Clunies Ross, Louise D’Arcens, Stephanie Downes, Huw Griffiths, Nick Riemer, the force of life called Stephanie Trigg, and Andrea Williams. I acknowledge the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies for awarding me an Australian Bicentennial Fellowship, which I spent at the English Department at King’s College London, spring 2011. Clare Lees, not for the first time, was a wonderfully supportive mentor at King’s; she joined Chair of Department Jo McDonagh, Sarah Salih, and Beatrice Wilford in making me feel most welcome – so welcome that I returned permanently in 2013. I acknowledge the Department of English and the School of Arts and Humanities of King’s for providing support of the production costs of this book. Among my new London colleagues I would like to thank Isabel Davis and Alfred Hiatt in particular for their friendship.

Linda Bree, Anna Bond, Fiona Sewell, and Vania Cunha have been exemplary editors at Cambridge University Press, where, happily, my distant cousin and close friend Lynn Hieatt worked so long and well. I am also grateful to series general editor Alistair Minnis and to the two anonymous readers whose trenchant feedback was very helpful.

A portion of the Introduction originally appeared in The La Trobe Journal, published by the State Library of Victoria Foundation; I am grateful to its editor John Arnold. Chapters 1 and 4 are heavily revised versions of essays originally published in Viator and The Yearbook of Langland Studies. Thanks to Simon Forde and Guy Carney of Brepols; Andy Kelly and Blair Sullivan of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies; and the anonymous readers of those earlier chapters (two of whom, John M. Bowers on Langland and William of Palerne and R. Carter Hailey on the sixteenth-century Piers Plowman, identified themselves). Much of the Conclusion was published in The Chaucer Review 48.1 (2013): 113–28; I am grateful to the Pennsylvania State University Press for permission to reproduce it here.

Janice Marjoribanks and the late Kevin Marjoribanks have been unstintingly supportive. I am in awe of Jan’s willingness to go along for the ride. My beautiful wife Genevieve and delightful children Sebastian and Eloise: I will always think of this as our London book, which we all lived together, and laughed about, from our Islington headquarters, waiting for a taxi to take us to the London Eye and to the rest of the world. (Sebastian, there are plenty of candidates in here for you to dress up as next Book Day. I’d go with the werewolf.) I love you forever. Finally, my deepest thanks go to my parents, Seth L Warner and the late Emily Rose Warner, for the enduring example, love, and support they have always provided. One of my cherished possessions is the copy of the hardback Riverside Chaucer they gave me to commemorate Kalamazoo, 1990: an early sign that they would not mind seeing where this obsession with Middle English might take me. This book, which I dedicate to them, is a small way to repay them for everything.