Page "Piers Plowman" Paragraph 30

Aside from Raphael Holinshed who merely quotes John Bale, the only sixteenth-century references to " Robert Langland " as the author of Piers Plowman come from Bale and Crowley in his preface to the various impressions.

In 1580 John Stow attributed Piers Plowman to " John Malvern ," a name that surfaces again with John Pitts in 1619 and Anthony à Wood in 1674.

Wood also supplied " Robertus de Langland " as a possible alternative, and Henry Peacham attributed the poem to John Lydgate in 1622.

Except for Crowley and Francis Meres ( who simply cribs Webbe ) William Webbe is the only person to comment on the alliterative Piers Plowman favorably, since he disliked verse with " the curiosity of Ryme.

" However, Webbe still disparaged the poem's harsh and obscure language.

Several other writers regard the poem's matter approvingly, seeing it as anti-Catholic satire and polemic.