Showing results by author "William Langland" in All Categories

Piers Plowman, William Langland's visionary medieval work about one man's quest for the true Christian life, is an allegorical journey through dream visions and visions within dreams. During the course of his journey, the narrator (William Langland) meets Piers Plowman, who gradually reveals himself to be the son of God. Through Piers, William learns of the virtues in poverty, the temptations of wealth, and of the perfect society that is to come under the rule of Piers Plowman.

Probably written in the latter half of the 14th century in the South-West-Midlands dialect, Piers Plowman is a remarkable example of allegorical, alliterative verse that conveyed, for the first time ever, the authentic voice, spirit and character of the ordinary people of England. Very little is known about William Langland, the presumed author, but it is very much a product of the medieval mind combining Christian belief with dramatic poetry in a drama of identity.

Butchers, bakers, brewers, businessmen, farmers, fabric workers, entertainers, comedians, gluttons, lechers, spongers and swindlers, prostitutes and parasites, the pope and his priests, the king and his courtiers, compete for attention in this lively and subversive vision of corruption in fourteenth-century England.

William Langland’s Vision of Piers the Plowman is one of the Early English poems that may well appeal to many other readers than the professed student of literature. It will ever be attractive to those who care for a vivid account of certain phases of life in England at one of the important periods of her social history ; but, beyond this, Langland's work touches some of the keenest interests of our own day. In its picture of the life of the labourer, and its protest against the oppression of the poor by the rich and powerful, it connects itself with that impelling desire for social reform ...