LANGLAND, WILLIAM (c. 1332–c. 1400), the supposed English poet, generally regarded as the single author of the 14th century poem Piers the Plowman. Its full title is—The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, together with Vita de Dowel, Do-bet, et Do-best, secundurn Wit et Resoun; usually given in Latin as Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman, etc.; the whole work being sometimes briefly described as Liber de Petro Plowman. We know nothing of William Langland except from the supposed evidence of the mss. of the poem and the text itself.
The A-text dating from about 1362 contains a prologue and 22 passus or cantos (i.–iv., the vision of the Lady Meed; v.–viii., the vision of Piers the Plowman; ix.–xii., the vision of Dowel, Do-bet and Do-best), with 2,567 lines. The B-text (c. 1377) is much longer, containing 7,242 lines, with additional passus following after xi. of A, the earlier passus being altered in various respects. The C-text (c. 1395-98) with 7,357 lines, is a revision of B.
The general contents of the poem may be gathered from a brief description of the C-text. This is divided into twenty-three passus, nominally comprising four parts, called respectively Visio de Petro Plowman, Visio de Dowel, Visio de Do-bet and Visio de Do-best. Here signifies "do better" in modern English; the explanation of the names being that he who does a kind action does well, he who teaches others to act kindly does better, whilst he who combines both practice and theory, both doing good him self and teaching others to do the same, does best. But the visions by no means closely correspond to these descriptions; and Skeat divides the whole into a set of eleven visions, which may be thus enumerated : (I) Vision of the Field Full of Folk, of Holy Church, and of the Lady Meed (passus i.–v.); (2) Vision of the Seven Deadly Sins, and of Piers the Plowman (pass. vi.–x.) ; (3) Wit, Study, Clergy and Scripture (pass. xi., xii.) ; (4) Fortune, Nature, Recklessness and Reason (pass. xiii., xiv.) ; (5) Vision of Imag inative (pass. xv.) ; (6) Conscience, Patience and Activa-Vita (pass. xvi., xvii.) ; (7) Free-will and the Tree of Charity (pass. xviii., xix.) ; (8) Faith, Hope and Charity (pass. xx.) ; (9) The Triumph of Piers the Plowman, i.e., the Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (pass. xxi.); (io) The Vision of Grace (pass. xxii.) ; (II) The Vision of Antichrist (pass. xxiii.).
The vision is formless and full of digressions. It shows no French influence in its verse which is based on alliterative stresses and is unrhymed, on the other hand the use of allegory as a vehicle of satire reminds one of the Roman de la Rose. The book is a document of primary importance for the social history of the time. The author describes the hard condition of the poor, in veighs against clerical abuses and the rapacity of the friars; tells of the miseries caused by the great pestilences then prevalent and by the hasty and ill-advised marriages consequent thereupon; and denounces lazy workmen and sham beggars, the corruption and bribery in the law courts, and the numerous forms of falsehood which are at all times the fit subjects for satire and indignant exposure. In describing the seven deadly sins, Glutton and Sloth are portraits rather than abstractions and great power of descrip tions is shown throughout the work. The numerous allegorical personages introduced, such as Scripture, Clergy, Conscience, Patience and the like, are generally mouthpieces of the author himself though they sometimes speak purely "in character." Skeat's View of traditional view, accepted by Skeat and Jusserand, that a single author—and that author Langland—was responsible for the whole poem, in all its versions, has been disputed. Skeat's statement may be summarized as fol lows. The author's name was William (and probably Langland), and he was born about 1332, perhaps at Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. His father, who was doubtless a franklin or farmer, and his other friends put him to school, made a "clerk" or scholar of him, and taught him what Holy Writ meant. In 1362, at the age of about thirty, he found himself wandering upon the Mal vern hills, and fell asleep beside a stream, and saw in a vision a field full of folk, i.e., this present world, and many other remark able sights which he duly records. From this supposed circum stance he named his poem The Vision of William, though it is really a succession of visions, since he mentions several occasions on which he awoke, and afterwards again fell asleep; and he even tells us of some adventures which befell him in his waking moments. In some of these visions there is no mention of Piers the Plowman, but in others he describes him as being the coming reformer who was to remedy all abuses, and restore the world to a right condition. His conception of this reformer changes from time to time, and becomes more exalted as the poem advances. At first he is a ploughman, one of the true and honest labourers who are the salt of the earth; but at last he is identified with the great reformer who has come already, the regenerator of the world in the person of Jesus Christ ; in the author's own phrase "Petrus est Christus." If this be borne in mind, it will not be possible to make the mistake into which so many have fallen, of speaking of Piers the Plowman as being the author, not the sub ject, of the poem.