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The Implications of being "Pounded"

The Multiple Implications of Being “Pounded”

The footnote of the word “impounded” in the Norton Anthology from William Langland’s “Piers Plowman” gives a definition of “Detained in legal custody” but the original Middle English form of the word “pounded” suggests that other forms and translations of the root word “pound” would offer more intriguing and satirical implications than the “legal” translation provided. One definition of the word “pound” from the Middle English Dictionary is “An enclosure in which distrained or stray livestock are kept.” Langland lists many laborers in this passage. The way the laborers are described invokes a sense of livestock enclosed in a pen. “Bakers and brewers and butchers aplenty,” (line 219) It is easy to imagine Langland talking about pigs or horses instead of bakers, brewers, and butchers. Just as people used to pay for the release of impounded livestock, the impounded people in Langland...

Posted by: Carlos Hernandez

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