Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn,and Steven Justice.
New Medieval Literatures 01 (1997): 59-83.
Argues that William Langland's readership may have been more like Chaucer's (and John Gower's) than has been assumed in the past, presenting evidence that readers of these authors included scribes and bureaucratic clerks such as Thomas Usk, Thomas…
Flannery, Mary C.
Yearbook of Langland Studies 33 (2019): 231-38.
Argues that "emphasis on sound and voice" rather than visual detail characterizes "Langlandian" personifications, opening with commentary on these qualities as they are found in verse interpolations in the "unique version" of CkT "preserved in…
Kirk, Elizabeth D.
Yearbook of Langland Studies 2 (1988): 1-21.
Against the sociopolitical background of the fourteenth century, Kirk examines the Plowman as worker and religious symbol in "Piers Plowman" and Chaucer's GP.
Holsinger, Bruce W.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 21: 99-141, 1999.
Argues that the alliterative "Choristers' Lament" is "a sophisticated but hitherto unrecognized response" to Langland's Piers Plowman. Details of the sketch of the Sergeant at Law in GP and the use of "rote" in PrT may indicate that Chaucer conceived…
Barney, Stephen A.
Kathleen M. Hewett-Smith, ed. William Langland's Piers Plowman: A Book of Essays (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 103-17.
Compares paired samples of Langland's and Chaucer's verse to argue that Langland's are superior in both sound and sense.
Kelen, Sarah A.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Kelen studies the reception of William Langland and "Piers Plowman" from the early modern period to the early twentieth century. She focuses on editions of the work and the works it inspired, efforts to identify Langland and construct his biography,…
Biggar, Raymond George.
Dissertation Abstracts International 22.06 (1961): 1992.
Compares and contrasts Chaucer's and Langland's views of the "lower clergy" (monks, friars, and parish priests) in light of the "religious backgrounds" of their age, arguing that despite their stylistic differences their views are very similar in…
Cooper, Helen.
Yearbook of Langland Studies 1 (1987): 71-81.
GP was inspired by the A text of Piers Plowman, echoing its concern with estates satire, its concern with social and moral cohesion, and many of its details.
Phillips, Helen, ed.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990.
Includes nineteen essays, an intoduction, a list of Hussey's publications, and a tabula gratulatoria. Topics of the essays include Langland, various mystics, religious lyrics, religious drama, and handbooks of religious instruction.
For two essays…
Landman, James Henry.
Dissertation Abstracts International 57 (1996): 2492A.
The complicated matrix of late-medieval law, with its efforts to seek truth (even by torture), sheds light on the historical dynamics of various works.
Erzgräber, Willi.
Erzgräber, Willi, and others. Europäisches Spätmittelalter (Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1978), pp. 221-74.
Characterizes "Ricardian Literature" and discusses the major works of William Langland, John Gower, and Chaucer (pp. 246-69), focusing on social criticism and genre.
Kane, George.
Donald M. Rose, ed. New Perspectives in Chaucer Criticism (Norman Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1981), pp. 5-19.
Comparisons of Chaucer and Langland may rescue CT from the Bradleian fallacy (i.e., treatment of Chaucer's literary characters as historically actual).
Watson, Nicholas.
Andrew Hass, David Jasper, and Elisabeth Jay, eds. The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 363-81.
Watson summarizes the theocentrism of the late Middle Ages, examines Langland's critique of formal theology in "Piers Plowman," and discusses how CT disclaims theological authority in exploring truth and moral utility. Argues that Mel may be the…
Argues that Chaucer was famous in the 15th and 16th centuries not as a love poet but as a visionary poet, a dreamer of dream allegories, and as such influenced Lydgate ("Temple of Glas"), Skelton ("Garland of Laurel"), Cowley ("Dream of Elysium"),…
Richmond, Andrew M.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Studies "ways in which medieval British romances conceived of ecological contexts" and identifies a "range of economic, religious, and social values attached to landscape"--hills and mines; seashores and beaches; and foreign, domestic, and fantastic…
Piehler, Paul Herman Tynegate.
Dissertation Abstracts International 26.03 (1965): 1634-45A.
Investigates the uses and functions of allegory, dialogue, and symbolism in Boethius's "Consolation," Alan of Lille's "De Planctu Naturae," landscapes in twelfth-century literature, and PF, arguing that the latter is a "triumph of allegorical…
Gaskell, Philip.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
Includes the GP description of the Prioress in Middle English and in Nevill Coghill’s translation; also comments on issues of readability, subtlety, and meter.
Presents an understanding of the rules of law, chivalry, and inheritance in "The Tale of Gamelyn." Demonstrates how these rules account for its apparent narrative (and, by extension, aesthetic) inconsistencies by showing how a knowledge of…
Intertextual relationships among MerT, SqT, and FranT indicate differing attitudes toward perception, loyalty, and treason, particularly focused in the depictions of squires. Chaucer's Squire condescends to the lower classes and their ignorance of…
Tolmie, Jane, and M. J. Toswell, eds.
Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010.
Fourteen essays by various authors, on topics ranging from the Psalms to "Beowulf" to Christine de Pizan, with recurrent attention to mothers and children and Marian lamentation. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Laments for the…
