The Plowman's Tale facts for kids

The Plowman's Tale refers to two different old texts that were sometimes thought to be written by the famous English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. These tales were linked to Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales because his collection of stories introduces a character called the Plowman, but he never actually tells a tale in Chaucer's original work. This missing story inspired other writers to create their own "Plowman's Tale."

One version of "The Plowman's Tale" appeared in the mid-1400s. It was a poem about a miracle involving Mary, the mother of Jesus. This poem was actually written by Thomas Hoccleve. Someone later added an introduction to it to make it seem like it fit into Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. However, this version wasn't included in later printed collections of Chaucer's works.

The more famous "Plowman's Tale" was included in printed versions of Chaucer's Works. This tale was written around 1400 and was popular among a group called the Lollards. The Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe, who believed the church needed big changes. This "Plowman's Tale" strongly criticized the church and its leaders. It's a long poem, about 1380 lines, and is sometimes called The Complaynte of the Plowman (The Complaint of the Plowman).

This well-known "Plowman's Tale" doesn't seem to have a clear connection to Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales or another famous poem called Piers Plowman. However, some people thought it was connected. For example, the main character in "The Plowman's Tale" mentions having talked about friars (religious brothers) in a "Crede" (a type of religious belief statement). This might be a hint to another poem called Pierce the Ploughman's Crede.

Some parts of "The Plowman's Tale," like its introduction, were added in the 1500s to make it seem more like one of Chaucer's stories. This introduction says a sermon (a religious speech) will follow. But instead, a traveler hears a Pelican and a Griffin arguing about church leaders. The Pelican does most of the talking, criticizing the church's problems and saying that the government should make the church more humble. The Pelican is chased away but is then proven right by a Phoenix. The tale ends with the author saying his own views might be different from the Pelican's.

The reason these tales were linked to Chaucer is that his "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales introduces a Plowman character who never gets to tell his story. This gap made people want to fill it. Also, some old copies of Chaucer's work suggest that the Plowman's brother, the Parson, was a "Lollere" (a Lollard). By 1400, Chaucer's readers included many people who supported the Lollards. They might have wanted to believe that Chaucer himself was a Lollard supporter.

The Plowman's Tale: Linked to Chaucer and Piers Plowman (1500-1700)

Many important people from the 1500s and 1600s thought "The Plowman's Tale" was written by Chaucer.

Early Beliefs and Confusion

John Leland, a historian who worked for King Henry VIII, seemed to mix up Piers Plowman and "The Plowman's Tale." He called it Petri Aratoris Fabula (Peter/Piers Plowman's Tale) and thought it was a Canterbury tale. John Bale, another writer, also listed "Plowman's Tale" as one of the Canterbury Tales. Leland said that "The Plowman's Tale" was left out of printed books because it strongly criticized priests. Both Bale and Leland saw Chaucer as a reformer who followed Wycliffe's ideas.

Praise from John Foxe

John Foxe greatly admired "The Plowman's Tale." He wrote about it in his famous book Acts and Monuments (first published in 1563). Foxe suggested that Chaucer was a "proto-Protestant" Lollard and believed he wrote "The Plowman's Tale." This tale was even printed by itself again in 1606 by Anthony Wotton. Wotton's full title for the book said it showed "that the pope is AntiChrist and they his Ministers," and that it was "Written by Sir Geffrey Chaucer."

Literary Connections and Debates

Edmund Spenser's poem The Shepheardes Calender (1579) refers to and borrows from "The Plowman's Tale," giving credit to Chaucer. It might also use ideas from Pierce the Plowman's Crede.

Sir William Vaughan's book Golden Fleece (1626) presented Chaucer as a teacher of Wycliffe and the author of "The Plowman's Tale." In this book, Chaucer and another scholar, Duns Scotus, debate whether the Pope is the Antichrist, just like in the 1606 edition of the tale. This book promoted a colony in Newfoundland as a solution to problems in England.

Other writers in the 1600s also mentioned "The Plowman's Tale." These included Anthony Wotton, Simon Birkbeck, John Favour, and even John Milton, a very famous poet.

Later Views

John Dryden, a well-known poet from the 1700s, said that Chaucer had "some little Byas toward the Opinions of Wycliff." Dryden believed that Chaucer's strong criticism of the church leaders' pride and greed in "The Plowman's Tale" was well-deserved. Another writer, John Dart, disagreed that Chaucer wrote the tale. However, he still agreed that Chaucer "bitterly inveighs against the Priests and Fryars" in his other works.

See also

• Piers Plowman Tradition

Sources

• Bradley, Henry. "The Plowman's Tale." The Athenaeum 3898.12 July 1902: 62.
• Clark, David Paul. "Reaping what was sown: Spenser, Chaucer, and The Plowman's Tale." MA thesis. Iowa State University, 1995.
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• Patterson, Paul J. "Reforming Chaucer: Margins and Religion in an Apocryphal Canterbury Tale." Book History 8 (2005): 11–36.
• Thorne, J. B. "Piers or Will: Confusion of Identity in the Early Reception of Piers Plowman." Medieum Ævum 60 (1991): 273–84.
• The Plowman's Tale Ed. James Dean. Introduction and Annotated Text. Originally Published in Six Ecclesiastical Satires Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991.
• The Plowman's Tale: The c. 1532 and 1606 Editions of a Spurious Canterbury Tale. Ed. Mary Rhinelander McCarl. New York: Garland Press, 1997.
• The Ploughman's Tale. Ed. Andrew Wawn. PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1969.
• Thynne, Francis. Animadversions uppon the Annotaciouns and Corrections of some Imperfections of Impressions of Chaucers Workes (sett downe before tyme, and nowe) reprinted in the yere of oure lorde 1598. Ed. G. H. Kingsley (1865) EETS OS 9. Rev. edn F. J. Furnivall, 1875. EETS SS 13. Rpt. 1891, 1928 and 1965. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Wawn, Andrew N. "The Plowman's Tale and Reformation Propaganda: The Testimonies of Thomas Godfray and I Playne Piers." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 56 (1973): 174–192.
• ---. "The Genesis of The Plowman's Tale." Yearbook of English Studies. 2 (1972): 21–40.
• ---. "The Plowman's Tale." The Spenser Encyclopedia. Gen ed. A. C. Hamilton. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990: 548–49.
• ---. "Chaucer, Wyclif, and the Court of Apollo." English Language Notes 10 (1972–73): 15–20.