14th and 15th centuries
(Unless otherwise noted, dates given here refer to the year when the work was first ''written''.) Along with the writings of John Ball, the earliest contributions to the Piers Plowman tradition are extensively associated with the16th and 17th centuries
:(''Note'': Unless otherwise noted, dates given here refer to the year when the work was first ''printed''.) Many of the previously mentioned plowman texts, which first circulated in manuscript, reappeared later in print, often with some degree of intentional alteration and editorializing that aimed at construing them asThence she thee brought into this faerie Lond, And in an heaped furrow did thee hyde, Where thee a Ploughman all unweeting fond, As he his toylsome teme that way did guyde, And brought thee up in ploughmans state to byde, Whereof Georgos he thee gave to name; Till prickt with courage, and thy forces pryde, To Faery court thou cam'st to seeke for fame, And prove thy puissant armes, as seemes thee best became.* Robert Greene, ''A Quip for an Upstart Courtier'' (1592), the basis for a lost play performed by The Chamberlain's Men, ''Clothbreeches and Velvethose'' (1600). *
Trends and influences
The early modern dissemination and reception of ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' ("William's Vision of Piers Plowman") from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century reveals a great deal about changes in English society and politics. Clearly orthodoxSources
*Aston, Margaret, ''Lollards and Reformers: Images and Literacy in Late Medieval Religion''. London: Hambledon Press, 2003. *Barr, Helen., ed. ''The Piers Plowman Tradition''. London: Everyman's Library, 1993. *Dean, James M.