Contents -- Abbreviations -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part I. The Political Context -- 1. The Court of Richard II and the Promotion of Literature -- 2. Saving the Appearances: Chaucer's Purse and the Fabrication of the Lancastrian Claim -- 3. Chaucer and Gentility -- Part II. London as a Literary Setting -- 4. Chaucer and the Absent City -- 5. William Langland: A London Poet -- 6. Need Men and Women Labor? Langland's Wanderer and the Labor Ordinances -- Part III. Literature of the Countryside -- 7. Medieval Hunting: Fact and Fancy -- 8. Ballads and Bandits: Fourteenth-Century Outlaws and the Robin Hood Poems -- 9. John Ball's Letters: Literary History and Historical Literature -- 10. The Writing Lesson of 1381 -- Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.