Overview:
Unquestionably one of the finest literary works of the Middle Ages, Piers Plowman has a legitimate claim to be regarded as the pre-eminent religious poem in English. The only known work of poet William Langland [1330(?)–1388(?)], Piers Plowman is extant in three, potentially four, distinct versions: conventionally designated as the A, B, C, and Z – texts; and witnessed in over fifty-five manuscripts. Whilst it can be described in the broadest terms as an allegorical dream-vision written in alliterative verse, the poem incessantly challenges the boundaries of generic conventions, and its idiosyncrasies do not readily lend themselves to pat literary classification. The poem's narrative …
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are not a subscriber, please click here to read about membership. All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors.