Travelers to truth in Piers Plowman1)

Abstract

Piers Plowman, a vast and complex poem in three different texts (the B. version, considered here, is c. 1377), is in many ways the ideal complement to Chaucer’s work, just as Langland, its author, is apart from Chaucer the greatest Middle English poet whom we know by name. Chaucer the greatest Middle English poet whom we know by name. Chaucer is urbane, witty, civilized, sophisticated; Langland is earnest, dedicated, hard-hitting. Where the former is largely (but not entirely) concerned with man’s earthly life, Piers Plowman sees man’s existence as a pilgrimage, a preparation for the life hereafter.