Labor Link 4

William Langland

Who was Langland? He was Chaucer's exact contemporary. However, Langland wrote in a dialect from the northern part of England (actually called "Midlands") that stands much further from Modern English than does Chaucer's dialect, which was spoken in London. Later in the semester we'll be reading parts of Langland's poem, Piers the Ploughman, and you should take a look at them to develop some new ideas about both Langland and Chaucer.

Here are some questions (you will find answers to most of them in Trapp).

• What is the similarity between the verse form of Piers and Old English verse?
• What language does the Trapp use for excerpts from Chaucer's poetry? What language is used for Langland's?
• What literary device do both Langland and Chaucer use at the start of their major works?
• Is there a relation between Langland's standing as an outsider, overshadowed by his famous contemporary, and the place of social criticism in Langland's work?
• Who does Trapp portray as the more serious author? Who is the more successful? What do these comparisions--comparisons involving language as well as the social use of literature--tell us about the place of anthologies like Trapp in reflecting and shaping student opinion?

1/98