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There are two pseudo-Chaucerian texts called ''The Plowman's Tale (aka Brent's Story)''. In the mid-15th century a rhyme royal ''Plowman's Tale'' was added to the text of ''The Canterbury Tales'' in the Christ Church MS. This tale is actually an orthodox Roman Catholic, possibly anti-Lollard version of a Marian miracle story written by Thomas Hoccleve called ''Item de Beata Virgine''. Someone composed and added a prologue to fit Hoccleve's poem into Chaucer's narrative frame. This bogus tale did not survive into the printed editions of Chaucer's ''Works''. The better-known ''Plowman's Tale'' was included in printed editions of Chaucer's ''Works''. It is a decidedly Wycliffite anti-fraternal tale that was written ''ca.'' 1400 and circulated among the Lollards. Sometimes titled ''The Complaynte of the Plowman'', it is 1380 lines long, composed of eight-line stanzas (ababbcbc with some variations suggesting interpolation) like Chaucer's ''Monk's Tale''. There is no clear internal/design connection in the ''The Plowman's Tale'' with Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales'' or ''Piers Plowman''. Anthony Wotton, who was probably the editor of the 1606 edition of ''The Plowman's Tale'', suggested that ''The Plowman's Tale'' makes a reference to ''Jack Upland'' or, more likely, ''Pierce the Ploughman's Crede'', since main character in ''The Plowman's Tale'' says, "Of Freres I haue told before / In a making of a Crede..." (1065–66). ''The Plowman's Tale'' also borrows heavily from the ''Crede''. Some sections of ''The Plowman's Tale'', such as the prologue, were added in the 16th century to make it fit better as one of Chaucer's tales. The prologue announces that a sermon is to follow in the tale. Instead, a traveller with none of the characteristics of Chaucer's plowman (or any literary plowman of the era) overhears a Pelican and a Griffin debating about the clergy. Most of the lines are the Pelican's, who attacks the typical offences in an evangelical manner, discusses Antichrist, and appeals to the secular government to humble the church. The Pelican is driven off by force but is then vindicated by a Phoenix. The tale ends with a disclaimer wherein the author distinguishes his own views from those of the Pelican, stating that he will accept what the church requires. The association of this and other texts with Chaucer was possible because Chaucer's ''General Prologue'' to ''The Canterbury Tales'' introduces a Plowman who never receives a tale. This omission seems to have sparked the creativity of others from an early date. In the ''General Prologue'', the Host jokes about the Plowman's brother, who is the Parson. In (some surviving manuscripts ) the Host suggests that the Parson is a "Lollere." As early as 1400, Chaucer's courtly audience grew to include members of the rising literate, middle-/merchant class, which included many Lollard sympathizers who would have been inclined to believe in a Lollard Chaucer. ==Printed Editions and their interpretation== The sole surviving manuscript of ''The Plowman's Tale'' (written in a sixteenth-century hand) was inserted at the end of ''The Canterbury Tales'' in a copy of Thomas Godfrey/Godfray's 1532 printed edition of Chaucer's ''Works'' (STC 5068), edited by William Thynne. (This is in PR 1850 1532 cop. 1 at the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center.) According to Thomas Speght, John Stow had a manuscript copy that is now lost. William Thynne's son, Francis Thynne, wrote in his ''Animadversions'' that ''The Plowman's Tale'' was not printed along with the other tales in 1532 because of suppression started by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (ca. 1475-1529/30). However, Francis Thynne's views are often discounted, largely because he was only an infant when his father was working on his Chaucer editions. Some scholars have argued that ''The Plowman's Tale'' was part of a Henrician propaganda effort. Godfrey was probably working with the King's Printer, Thomas Berthelet, and he was protected by Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485–1540), earl of Essex, who was responsible for the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–39). But ''The Plowman's Tale'' could also be used as criticism against the king, since the Pelican marvels at the ignorance of parliament and of the lords and the king concerning the plight of the commons. In the mildest interpretation, ''The Plowman's Tale'' makes a bid for the necessity and appropriateness of heeding the concerns of the commons. ''The Plowman's Tale'' was successfully printed on its own in an octavo edition by Godfray ca. 1533–36 (STC 5099.5). In 1542, Tyndale's New Testament and other vernacular books were banned – essentially everything printed in English before 1540 – with the exception of "Canterburye tales, Chaucers bokes, Gowers bokes and stories of mennes lieves" according to a royal statute, the ''Act for the Advancement of True Religion''. ''The Plowman's Tale'' was printed again as a duodecimo volume in London by William Hyll ca. 1548 (STC 5100) as "The Plouumans tale compylled by syr Geffray Chaucher knyght." In the year of the ban it was printed in Thynne's second (1542) edition of Chaucer's ''Works'', under the imprints of William Bonham (STC 5069) and John Reynes (STC 5070). After 1542, ''The Plowman's Tale'' appeared in new and reprinted editions of Chaucer's ''Works'' based on Thynne's text for some two centuries, during which the Chaucer canon and order of the ''Canterbury Tales'' was quite fluid. Thomas Tyrwhitt finally excluded ''The Plowman's Tale'' from his 1775 edition of the poet's work. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Plowman's Tale」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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