IN WILLIAM LANGLAND'S fourteenth-century tale of Piers the Ploughman, the description of the marriage of Lady Fee, a personification of corruption, includes the following list of guests: "men of every status, high and low: knights and clerics, jurors and summoners, sheriffs with their clerks, beadles and bailiffs, business brokers and purveyors, victuallers and advocates."J Langland punctuates this lengthy list by adding that he could not "number the throng that ran at Fee's heels."2 The list, of course, is not meant simply to supply a good descriptive narrative. The enumeration is a sarcastic commentary on the comprehensive corruption of the bureaucracy of medieval England. The list also illustrates that, in the hands of a superb literary craftsman such as Langland, a lengthy enumeration could serve as a most effective comedic device. 3