Outlaws and Highwaymen

Quotation from Langland’s Piers Plowman
Source
William Langland, Piers Plowman, B text, ed. W. W. Skeat, (London, Early English Text Society, 1869), Passus xix, ll. 239–41

Date
c. 1377


This is how the Folville brothers were remembered, a generation after their deaths:

And some to ryde and to recovere that unrightfully was wonne;
He wissed hem wynne it ageyne thorw wightnesse of handes,
And fecchen it fro fals men with folvyles lawes.

Translation: And some to ride and to recover what was wrongfully acquired; [the grace of God] taught them to win it again through the strength of their hands, and retrieve it from wicked men with Folvilles’ laws.

William Langland



Context

For more about the Folville brothers, see the passages from Henry of Knighton’s Leicester Chronicle.



Translation, notes and page design © Gillian Spraggs 2001, 2007
www.outlawsandhighwaymen.com
Text added to site on 14 October 2001 | Page last modified on 28 August 2007

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