Dating from the early 14th century, this dramatic Middle English sermon rehearses God's humanity's wretchedness and the world's instability, before contemplating the journey from death to the anguish of purgatory and hell, or ultimately to the joys of heaven. Its 7,316 lines of rhyming couplets present sensational descriptions intended to shock the audience into religious zeal, alongside a biblical exegesis reinforcing the message of salvation and cautioning against its impediments. Although the Main version of the Pricke of Conscience has twice been edited from two manuscripts, no...