The Myth of <I>Piers Plowman</I>: Constructing a Medieval Literary Archive

Lawrence Warner

doi:10.1017/CBO9781107338821

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The Myth of Piers Plowman

The Myth of Piers Plowman

The Myth of Piers Plowman

Constructing a Medieval Literary Archive

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This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

Warner, Lawrence 2017. The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain. p. 1.

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Weiskott, Eric 2017. More PropheticPiers Plowman. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, Vol. 30, Issue. 3, p. 133.

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Smith, Jeremy J. 2020. Transforming Early English.

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Kelly, Henry Ansgar 2023. The Chaucer Encyclopedia. p. 1033.

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Weiskott, Eric 2024. Joseph Ritson and the Versions of Piers Plowman , Again . ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, p. 1.

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Lawrence Warner, King's College London

Publisher:: Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:: March 2014
Print publication year:: 2014
Online ISBN:: 9781107338821
DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107338821
Creative Commons:: This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-ND 1.0 https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Subjects:: Literature, Printing and Publishing History, Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature
Series:: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature (89)

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Addressing the history of the production and reception of the great medieval poem, Piers Plowman, Lawrence Warner reveals the many ways in which scholars, editors and critics over the centuries created their own speculative narratives about the poem, which gradually came to be regarded as factually true. Warner begins by considering the possibility that Langland wrote a romance about a werewolf and bear-suited lovers, and he goes on to explore the methods of the poem's localization, and medieval readers' particular interest in its Latinity. Warner shows that the 'Protestant Piers' was a reaction against the poem's oral mode of transmission, reveals the extensive eighteenth-century textual scholarship on the poem and contextualizes its first modernization. This lively account of Piers Plowman challenges the way the poem has traditionally been read and understood. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Books Online and via Knowledge Unlatched.

Winner, 2016 Beatrice White Prize, English Association

'A rollicking tale of how an entire field of study came to be created, or rather, fabricated … Warner's book is full of page-turning discoveries.'

Source: The Times Literary Supplement

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The Myth of Piers Plowman

Constructing a Medieval Literary Archive

This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

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Contents

The Myth of Piers Plowman - Half title page
pp i-i

Series page
pp ii-ii

The Myth of Piers Plowman - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Dedication
pp v-vi

Contents
pp vii-vii

Figures
pp viii-ix

Acknowledgments
pp x-xii

Abbreviations
pp xiii-xiii

A note on citations
pp xiv-xiv

Introduction: archive fever and the madness of Joseph Ritson
pp 1-21

Chapter 1 - William and the werewolf: the problem of William of Palerne
pp 22-36

Chapter 2 - Localizing Piers Plowman C: Meed, Corfe castle, and the London Riot of 1384
pp 37-52

Chapter 3 - Latinitas et communitas Visionis Willielmi de Langlond
pp 53-71

Chapter 4 - “Quod piers plowman”: non-reformist prophecy, c.1520–1555
pp 72-86

Chapter 5 - Urry, Burrell, and the pains of John Taylor: the Spelman MS, 1709–1766
pp 87-105

Chapter 6 - William Dupré, fabricateur: Piers Plowman in the age of forgery, c.1794–1802
pp 106-128

Conclusion: Leland's madness and the tale of Piers Plowman
pp 129-140

Notes
pp 141-186

Bibliography
pp 187-208

Index of manuscripts, early printed books, annotated books, and portraits
pp 209-212

General index
pp 213-220

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The Myth of Piers Plowman

Constructing a Medieval Literary Archive

Book description

Awards

Reviews

Refine List

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Contents

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