Book excerpt: "Public Piers Plowman is divided into two parts. The first is an extended essay on what Benson calls the "Langland myth." He traces the evolution of Piers scholarship and demonstrates the limitations of treating Piers as a direct expression of the poet's experience and intellectual views." "In the second part Benson offers an alternative history for the poem. Benson approaches it from a broader public context, using representative examples from vernacular writing, parish art, and civic practices. He argues that Piers reached a wide contemporary audience because, far from being an account only of the author's own life and opinions, it was securely rooted in the common culture of its time and place."--Jacket.