Blowing the pris in the Middle English Debate between the Body and the Soul

• David Scott-Macnab

The Middle English Debate between the Body and the Soul concludes with the memorable image of the Soul being tortured and then driven into Hell by a troop of devils and their hell-hounds as if it were a fox being chased by hunters. This article argues that the hunting language and the violent imagery of this event have not received the scholarly attention they deserve, and that closer scrutiny of the different recensions of the poem reveals a textual crux concerning the blowing of the final horn-call – the pris – that can add a new dimension to critical appreciation of the depiction of this event.