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Hello, seven centuries ago, William Langland wrote a poem

about a man called Will, who fell asleep on the Maulvin Hills

and dreamed of Pears the Plowman.

This was a time between the Black Death and the Pesonis Rebolt,

when Christians wanted to save their souls,

but doubted how best to do it, and had to live with that uncertainty.

Some call this the greatest medieval perma-English,

one offering questions, not answers,

and it can be as unsettling now as it was then.

Joining me to discuss the vision of Pears Plowman,

our Lawrence Warner, Professor of Medieval English at King's College, London,

Alistair Bennett, Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Royal Holloway University of London,

and Laura Ash, Professor of English Literature at Worcester College,

University of Oxford.

Laura Ash, this was at your multiverse time in English history

towards the end of the 14th century.

...