§34. "Death and Liffe". I. “Piers the Plowman” and its Sequence. Vol. 2. The End of the Middle Ages. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume II. The End of the Middle Ages.

I. “Piers the Plowman” and its Sequence.

§ 34. Death and Liffe.

Of entirely uncertain date is an interesting allegorical poem called Death and Liffe, preserved in the Percy Folio MS. Its relation to Piers the Plowman is obvious and unmistakable. In a vision, closely modelled on the vision of the prologue, the poet witnesses a strife between the lovely lady Dame Life and the foul freke Dame Death, which was clearly suggested by the “Vita de Do-best” of Piers the Plowman. In spite of its large indebtedness to the earlier poem, it is a work of no little originality and power.