25:
782:
468:
801:
348:. This makes it difficult to align Langland with any specific order. He is probably best regarded, John Bowers writes, as a member of "that sizable group of unbeneficed clerks who formed the radical fringe of contemporary society ... the poorly shod Will is portrayed 'y-robed in russet' traveling about the countryside, a crazed dissident showing no respect to his superiors".
269:("once this work was made, before Will was aware/ Death struck him a blow and knocked him to the ground/ And now he is buried under the soil"). According to Edith Rickert, John But himself seems to have died in 1387, indicating that Langland died shortly before this date. Nonetheless some scholars believe Langland was the author of a 1399 work,
394:
in preaching, attacked clerical corruption, and even advocated disendowment. However, these topics were widely discussed throughout the late 14th century and were not specifically associated with
Wycliffe until after the presumed time of Langland's death. Also, as Pamela Gradon observes, at no point
430:
The poem itself also seems to point to
Langland's authorship. At one point, the narrator remarks: "I have lived in londe my name is longe wille" (B XV.152). This can be taken as a coded reference to the poet's name, in the style of much late-medieval literature (see, for instance,
264:
There are strong indications that
Langland died in 1385 or 1386. A note written by "Iohan but" (John But) in a fourteenth-century manuscript of the poem (Rawlinson 137) makes direct reference to the death of its author:
329:, and impotence. This may indicate that the poet had reached middle age by the 1370s, but the accuracy of the passage is called into question by the conventional nature of the description (see, for instance,
288:, and refers to his wife and child, who are respectively named Katherine and Nicolette. It also suggests that he was well above average height and made a living reciting prayers for the dead in
448:
Although there is little other evidence, Langland's authorship has been widely accepted since the 1920s. It is not, however, entirely beyond dispute, as 21st. century work by
84:
325:
A similar passage in the final Passus of the B and C texts provides further ambiguous details on the poet's wife and his torments by Elde (Old Age), including baldness,
770:
A multi-level, hypertextually linked electronic archive of the textual tradition of all three versions of the fourteenth-century allegorical dream vision Piers
Plowman.
441:). However, it has also been suggested that medieval scribes and readers may have understood this line as referring to a "William Longwille", the pseudonym used by a
344:, but the nature of this relationship is uncertain. The poem shows no obvious bias towards any particular group or order of churchmen, but is even-handed in its
227:
453:
582:
449:
861:
427:". Other manuscripts name the author as Robert or William Langland, or Wilhelms W. (most likely shorthand for William of Wychwood).
340:
The detailed and highly sophisticated religious knowledge displayed in the poem indicates that
Langland had some connection to the
831:
250:
841:
337:) and the fact that it occurs near the end of the poem, when Will's personal development is reaching its logical conclusion.
280:. The C text of the poem contains a passage in which the narrator describes himself as a "loller" or "idler" living in the
267:
whan this werke was wrouyt, ere Wille myte aspie/ Deth delt him a dent and drof him to the erthe/ And is closed vnder clom"
211:), which suggests some connection to the area. The dialect of the poem is also consistent with this part of the country.
836:
856:
740:
716:
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552:
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46:
249:, Worcestershire also have strong claims to being his birthplace. There is a plaque to that effect in the porch of
39:
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866:
376:
764:
and other alliterative poems; includes a searchable database of all scholarship on these poems since 1986.
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846:
592:
293:
700:
John M. Bowers, "Piers
Plowman and the Police: notes towards a history of the Wycliffite Langland,"
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33:
356:, attaching himself to a patron temporarily and exchanging writing services for shelter and food.
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with a complex variety of religious themes. The poem translated the language and concepts of the
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184:
50:
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330:
386:). It is true that Langland and Wycliffe shared many concerns: Both questioned the value of
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1377, as the character's imagination says he has followed him for "five and forty winters."
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Little is known of
Langland himself. It seems that he was born in the
411:
to
Langland rests principally on the evidence of a manuscript held at
680:
ed. Kathleen M. Hewett-Smith (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 83–99.
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791:
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Most of what is believed about
Langland has been reconstructed from
795:
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Website of international scholarly organization for the study of
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242:
188:
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to
Willielmi de Langland, son of Stacy de Rokayle, "who died in
83:
631:
Gradon, Pamela (1980). "Langland and the Ideology of Dissent".
353:
341:
285:
753:
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does Langland echo Wycliffe's characteristic teachings on the
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observes, is reminiscent of the false confession tradition in
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into symbols and images that could be understood by a layman.
296:. However, the distinction between allegory and reality in
326:
121:
115:
722:
112:
374:
appropriation of the Plowman figure (see, for instance,
87:"Langland's Dreamer": from an illuminated initial in a
646:
Sobecki, Sebastian (2018). "Hares, Rabbits, Pheasants:
222:
A fifteenth-century note in the Dublin manuscript of
124:
463:
127:
118:
109:
678:
William Langland's Piers Plowman: A Book of Essays,
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650:and William Longewille, a Norfolk Rebel in 1381".
370:. However, this conclusion is challenged by early
366:promoted the idea that Langland was a follower of
93:manuscript held at Corpus Christi College, Oxford
808:
721:Edith Rickert, "John But, Messenger and Maker,"
423:, a tenant of the Lord Spenser in the county of
199:receives his first vision while sleeping in the
735:(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
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191:around 1330, according to internal evidence in
618:50 Shropshire Celebrities, Past and Present
611:
609:
569:An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire
545:An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire
352:has proposed that he lived as an itinerant
257:vision. Langland is thought to have been a
233:Langland is believed to have been born in
733:Piers Plowman and the New Anticlericalism
676:C. David Benson, "The Langland Myth," in
615:
514:"Life of William Langland (c.1330-1387?)"
390:and pilgrimages, promoted the use of the
69:Learn how and when to remove this message
606:
82:
32:This article includes a list of general
645:
542:
300:is blurred, and the entire passage, as
809:
630:
620:. IMPRINT, Newtown, Wales. p. 46.
154:) is the presumed author of a work of
547:. Shropshire Libraries. p. 46.
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261:of Woodhouse Friary located nearby.
18:
862:People from Malvern, Worcestershire
415:(MS 212). This manuscript ascribes
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783:Works by or about William Langland
633:Proceedings of the British Academy
226:says that Langland was the son of
38:it lacks sufficient corresponding
14:
878:
747:
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251:Cleobury Mortimer's parish church
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768:Piers Plowman Electronic Archive
512:Anniina Jokinen (8 March 2010).
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335:The Parliament of the Three Ages
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16:Fourteenth century English poet
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842:14th-century English writers
702:Yearbook of Langland Studies
532:Illustris Majoris Britanniae
377:Pierce the Ploughman's Crede
7:
798:(public domain audiobooks)
709:The Making of Piers Plowman
530:"Mortymers Clibury", Bale,
459:
333:'s "In Praise of Aige" and
10:
883:
837:14th-century English poets
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857:English Christian mystics
792:Works by William Langland
774:Works by William Langland
711:(London: Longman, 1990).
652:Review of English Studies
616:Elderwick, David (1989).
161:verse generally known as
728:(1903), pp. 107–17.
704:6 (1992), pp. 1–50.
543:Dickens, Gordon (1987).
827:English Roman Catholics
413:Trinity College, Dublin
178:
53:more precise citations.
867:Roman Catholic mystics
421:Shipton-under-Wychwood
141:Willielmus de Langland
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245:, Herefordshire, and
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271:Richard the Redeless
407:The attribution of
362:'s 1550 edition of
306:medieval literature
294:St Paul's Cathedral
195:. The narrator in
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847:English Christians
664:10.1093/res/hgx130
518:www.luminarium.org
456:has demonstrated.
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308:(also seen in the
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778:Project Gutenberg
235:Cleobury Mortimer
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