Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Langland's poem, written around 1370, about a man called Will who fell asleep on the Malvern Hills and dreamed of Piers the Plowman. This was a time between the Black Death and The Peasants’ Revolt, when Christians wanted to save their souls but doubted how best to do it - and had to live with that uncertainty. Some call this the greatest medieval poem in English, one offering questions not answers, and it can be as unsettling now as it was then.
With
Laura Ashe Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, University of Oxford
Lawrence Warner Professor of Medieval English at King’s College London
And
Alastair Bennett Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson