The Myth Of Piers Plowman

A revisionary account of the powerful myths that grew up around the production and reception of the great medieval poem. Also available as Open Access.

A revisionary account of the powerful myths that grew up around the production and reception of the great medieval poem.

Presented in this volume are the Clark Lectures which Dr. Tillyard gave in Cambridge in 1959-1960, as delivered. The lectures range over a wide field, from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century, and are given unity in their concern with various myths and the literary embodiment of these myths in different periods of English literature.

"A gifted poet has given us an astute, adroit, vigorous, inviting, eminently readable translation. . . . The challenging gamut of Langland's language . . . has here been rendered with blessed energy and precision. Economou has indeed Done-Best."—Allen Mandelbaum

"Public Piers Plowman is divided into two parts. The first is an extended essay on what Benson calls the "Langland myth." He traces the evolution of Piers scholarship and demonstrates the limitations of treating Piers as a direct expression of the poet's experience and intellectual views." "In the second part Benson offers an alternative history for the poem. Benson approaches it from a broader public context, using representative examples from vernacular writing, parish art, and civic practices. He argues that Piers reached a wide contemporary audience because, far from being an account only of the author's own life and opinions, it was securely rooted in the common culture of its time and place."--Jacket.

This collection of newly written essays provides a fresh examination of some of the issues central to the study of this poem, including an exploration of its relevance to contemporary literary theory and to 14th century culture and ideology.

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