Editors: George W. Tuma, Professor Emeritus of English, and Dinah Hazell, Independent Scholar
Hosted by the English Department, San Francisco State University

THE WICKED AGE
MIDDLE ENGLISH COMPLAINT LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

Literary Chronology

Dating the literature is often difficult, and many of the dates below are scholars’ approximations.  Works in the collection for which no dates are available have not been included in this list.

c. 1300            Song of the Husbandman

c. 1320            Birth of John Wyclif (d. 1384)

c. 1330            Birth of John Gower (d. 1408)
                        Auchinleck Manuscript

1330?              Birth of William Langland (d. 1386?)

c. 1343            Birth of Chaucer (d.1400)

1357                Defensio Curatorum, Richard FitzRalph

c. 1367-70       Piers Plowman A-text, William Langland

c. 1369            Birth of Thomas Hoccleve (d. 1426)

1377                The Death of Edward III

1377-79           Piers Plowman B-text

1379                Wycliffite Bible translation

c. 1379-81       Vox Clamantis, John Gower

1381                 On the Evil State of England
                        John Ball’s Letters

1382                Insurrection and the Earthquake

c. 1385-86       Piers Plowman C-text

c. 1387            Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
                        (Tales written earlier and later)

1392                The Yorkshire Partisans

c. 1395            Pierce the Plowman’s Creed

c. 1400            On the King’s Ministers
                        The Plowman’s Tale

1401                Truth, Rest and Peace

1405                London Lickpenny

1411-12           Regiment of Princes, Thomas Hoccleve

1413                God Save the King and Keep the Crown!

1415                Address to Sir John Oldcastle, Thomas Hoccleve
                        The Crowned King