Langland: The Vision of Piers the Plowman

William Langland. Very little is certainly known concerning the author of " The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman." If we may accept as real the various notes which the autlior has left us concerning himself, and such other traditions as seem to be more or less acceptable, we may well suppose that his name was William Langland, and that he was born about 1332 at Cleobury Mortimer, in Shropshire. His father may have been a farmer who at one time held land at Shipton-under- Wychwood, in Oxfordshire. He was probably educated at Malvern, and at any rate was familiar with the Malvern Hills. Later in life, he came to London, and lived for many years (if we may trust his own account) in Cornhill, where he resided with his wife Kitte and his daughter Calote. His allusions to London life are numerous. He seems to have been in minor orders, and to have earned a

precarious living by singing ' the placebo, dirige, and seven psalms ' for the good of men's souls. If (as he says) he was married, this circumstance may explain why he never rose in the Church. It is almost certain, from a close comparison of the two works, that, besides the "Vision," he wrote a poem with reference to the expected deposition of Richard II. in 1399, at which date he was in Bristol. This poem, which has been named " Richard the Redeless," i.e. devoid of counsel, is incomplete, and we hear no more of its author afterwards. It is probable that he died about the year 1400, which is also the date of the death of Chaucer. He tells us that he was tall of stature, whence he gained the epithet of " Long Will." >

The Vision concerning- Piers the Plowman,

&c. This is often spoken of by the title of " The Vision of Piers the Plowman," or " of Piers Plowman," where, strictly speaking, the word of is used in the sense of " concerning." The title, in Latin, is " Visio Willelmi de Petro (le) Plowman." But the mistake of taking of in the sense of " written by " is so common and usual, that most writers (even good critics) have imagined "Piers Plowman " to be the name of the author rather than of the subject; much as if we should speak of " Sir Thopas " as having written the famous " Rime " which goes by his name, or should attribute the Pilgrim's Progress to

Christian the pilgrim. The reader will avoid this error if he understands that "Piers the Plowman" is only one of the rather numerous subjects…