威廉·蘭格倫（William Langland，1332?-1400?年），中世紀英格蘭詩人。傳說他是英語詩歌《農夫皮爾斯》（Piers Plowman）的作者，一部14世紀晚期的頭韻體長詩。然而有些評論家認為這部作品是另一位詩人，或者另外5名詩人的著作。現代學者一般同意蘭格倫至少寫了這首長詩的一部分。
基本介紹
- 本名：威廉·蘭格倫
- 所處時代：歐洲中世紀中期
- 民族族群：英格蘭人
- 出生地：英格蘭中部地區
- 出生時間：1332
- 去世時間：1386
- 主要作品：《農夫皮爾斯》
- 主要成就：推動早期英語詩歌發展
- 英文名稱：William Langland
- 作品評價：歐洲中世紀文學的一部典範。
- 職業：文書抄寫員、詩人
人物生平,主要作品,
人物生平
關於蘭格倫的生平沒有可靠信息。據說他在馬爾文的一所修道院受教育，生活在倫敦期間完成了他大部分作品。
威廉·蘭格倫是與喬叟同時代的主要詩人之一，他們的創作共同推動了14世紀英國民族文學的發展和英國民族通用語言的形成。
威廉·蘭格倫的生平主要是根據他的作品來推測的。他可能出生於窮苦自由民家庭，年輕時當過牧羊人，後來來到倫敦靠唱彌撒音樂、抄寫法律檔案或其他臨時工來維持生計，他也可能是個窮牧師。
主要作品
《農夫皮爾斯》（The Vision of Piers Plowman）是用中世紀夢幻故事的形式寫成的教誨詩，通過描繪夢中的景象來展現中世紀英國社會各方面的生活圖景，採用寓言故事來懲惡揚善。長詩分為兩部分，第一部分是皮爾斯的夢境，第二部分是稱為“尋求好、更好、最好”的一連串幻想。全詩由有重讀音和押頭韻的詩行寫成。
《農夫皮爾斯》宣揚公正誠實，號召每個人——無論是國王、牧師、貴族、農夫——忠於宗教，履行宗教職責。它抨擊奢侈揮霍和墮落腐化。它提倡上帝面前人人平等和誠實的勞動最為高貴，這兩條原則曾鼓動了全國上下的自由民。詩篇的第一個夢境是“人頭濟濟的田野”。五月清晨詩人臥于山野，夢見田野之中人頭攢動，各種階層和職業的人物應有盡有。農夫在辛勤勞動，而別人卻坐享其成。田野的一頭是灰暗的監獄塔樓，裡面住著虛假和罪惡；另一頭是真理城堡，裡面住著上帝。人們徘徊其間，有的正探求走向真理的途徑。人群中一個突出的人物是賄賂夫人，代表當時社會的腐敗。下一個夢境探討7種罪孽，象徵各種惡行的寓言人物一個個栩栩如生。
長詩《農夫皮爾斯》以其宏大的篇幅，廣闊的社會背景、強烈的藝術力量和它所體現的民主思想而堪稱是歐洲中世紀文學的一部典範。
《農夫皮爾斯》原文賞析：
Poet. Little can be gleaned as to his personal history, and of that little part is contradictory. In a note of the 15th century written on one MS. he is said to have been b. in Oxfordshire, the s. of a freeman named Stacy de Rokayle, while Bale, writing in the 16th century, makes his name Robert (certainly an error), and says he was b. at Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. From his great poem, Piers the Plowman, it is to be gathered that he was bred to the Church, and was at one time an inmate of the monastery at Great Malvern. He m., however, and had a dau., which, of course, precluded him from going on to the priesthood. It has further been inferred from his poem that his f., with the help of friends, sent him to school, but that on the death of these friends the process of education came to an end, and he went to London, living in a little house in Cornhill and, as he says, not only in but on London, supporting himself by singing requiems for the dead. "The tools I labour with ... [are] Paternoster, and my primer Placebo, and Dirige, and my Psalter, and my seven Psalms." References to legal terms suggest that he may have copied for lawyers. In later life he appears to have lived in Cornwall with his wife and dau. Poor himself, he was ever a sympathiser with the poor and oppressed. His poem appears to have been the great interest of his life, and almost to the end he was altering and adding to, without, however, improving it. The full title of the poem is The Vision of Piers Plowman. Three distinct versions of it exist, the first c. 1362, the second c. 1377, and the third 1393 or 1398. It has been described as "a vision of Christ seen through the clouds of humanity." It is divided into nine dreams, and is in the unrhymed, alliterative, first English manner. In the allegory appear such personifications as Meed (worldly success), Falsehood, Repentance, Hope, etc. Piers Plowman, first introduced as the type of the poor and simple, becomes gradually transformed into the Christ. Further on appear Do-well, Do-bet, Do-best. In this poem, and its additions, L. was able to express all that he had to say of the abuses of the time, and their remedy. He himself stands out as a sad, earnest, and clear-sighted onlooker in a time of oppression and unrest. It is thought that he may have been the author of a poem, Richard the Redeless: if so he was, at the time of writing, living in Bristol, and making a last remonstrance to the misguided King, news of whose death may have reached him while at the work, as it stops in the middle of a paragraph. He is not much of an artist, being intent rather on delivering his message than that it should be in a perfect dress. Prof. Manley, in the Cambridge History of English Literature, advances the theory that The Vision is not the work of one, but of several writers, W.L. being therefore a dramatic, not a personal name. It is supported on such grounds as differences in metre, diction, sentence structure, and the diversity of view on social and ecclesiastic matters expressed in different parts of the poem.
