Langland and the Rokele family : the gentry background to Piers Plowman / Robert Adams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adams, Robert, 1946-

Series:

Dublin studies in medieval and renaissance literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Langland, William.

Langland, William, 1330?-1400?--Family.

Langland, William, 1330?-1400?.

English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.

English literature.

Families.

Local Subjects:

Langland, William, 1330?-1400?.

Physical Description:

147 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Dublin, Ireland : Four Courts Press, 2013.

Summary:

The social and political opinions of the author of Piers Plowman derive from, and reflect, a personal background significantly different from that of Chaucer, Gower or the Pearl-poet. Langland and the Pearl-poet resemble each other in seeming, at first glance, more politically and aesthetically old-fashioned than their two great London contemporaries. And yet, no one has ever addressed the massive evidence of a profound social distance that would have separated 'William de la Rokele,' at least in his own mind, from the pious author of Patience no less than from the City poets. Much of the evidence for this social chasm is extrinsic to Piers Plowman, but some of it is internal. This book illuminates that evidence, mainly by supplying some hitherto neglected facts about Langland's extended family, the Rokeles, and their prominent public role in his own time as well as in the generations that preceded his birth. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Some preliminary details 19

2 The Rokeles 29

3 Prominent Rokeles of the fourteenth century 67

4 Problems with the 'Langland' biography 77

5 Conclusion 124.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1846823811

9781846823817

OCLC:

825756130