Songes of Rechelesnesse : Langland and the Franciscans / Lawrence M. Clopper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clopper, Lawrence M., 1941-2014.

Series:

Studies in medieval and early modern civilization

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Langland, William, 1330?-1400? Piers Plowman.

Langland, William.

Franciscans--In literature.

Franciscans.

Poverty--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Poverty.

Monasticism and religious orders--England--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Monasticism and religious orders.

History.

Poverty--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines.

England.

Christian poetry, English (Middle)--History and criticism.

Christian poetry, English (Middle).

Learning and scholarship--History--Medieval, 500-1500.

Learning and scholarship.

Franciscans--England--History.

Friars in literature.

Physical Description:

xviii, 368 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Summary:

William Langland's Piers Plowman provides a highly charged picture of England near the end of the fourteenth century, a time of political, religious, and moral crises. The period in which Langland wrote was volatile and full of colorful and contentious people: Edward III, Richard II, Chaucer, Wyclif -- and Langland. In" Songes of Rechelesnesse", Lawrence M. Clopper presents the voice of this powerful disputant who lived in a period marked by dissent and discontent.

Clopper maintains that the poem articulates a reformist agenda, presenting the internal Franciscan debate, in a bid to return the order to its initial foundation. Clopper believes that Langland's work is deeply imbued with a Franciscan mentality that reaches deep into the structure of the poem. It manifests itself at the level of the alliterative long line in his exemplarist poetics and is the source of his imagery and politics. In short, Clopper identifies Franciscanism as holding the poem together.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-356) and index.

ISBN:

0472107445

OCLC:

37043974