William Langland is the author of what is arguably the greatest religious poem in English, Piers Plowman. The ascription of Langland's name to Piers Plowman appears in only one source, an unfinished copy of the poem now known as Trinity College Dublin Manuscript D.4.1 (or 212). A Latin memorandum added to the final leaf of the manuscript provides the only contemporary “evidence” of Langland's authorship of Piers Plowman:
that Stacy de Rokayle was William de Longland's father; the which said Stacy was of gentle birth and lived in Shipton-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire, holding land from Lord le Spenser in Oxfordshire; the aforesaid William made the book that is called Piers Plowman.<…
Please log in to
consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing
institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on
campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we
offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If
you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal
subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
2035 words
Citation: Kelly, Stephen. "William Langland". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2617, accessed 26 November 2024.]
