The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume II. The End of the Middle Ages.
§ 31. The Ploughman’s Tale
With the Crede is often associated the long poem known as The Ploughman’s Tale. This was first printed, in 1532 or 1535, in Chaucer’s works and assigned to the Ploughman. That it was not written by Chaucer has long been known, but, until recently, it has been supposed to be by the author of the Crede. The poem, though containing much alliteration, is not in alliterative verse, but in rimed stanzas, and is entirely different in style from the Crede. The differences are such as indicate that it could not have been written by the author of that poem. It has recently been proved by Henry Bradley, that very considerable parts of the poem, including practically all the limitations of the Crede, were written in the sixteenth century. These passages were also independently recognised as interpolations by York Powell and this was communicated privately to Skeat, who now accepts Bradley’s conclusions. Bradley thinks that the poem may contain some genuine stanzas of a Lollard poem of the fourteenth century, but that it underwent two successive expansions in the sixteenth century, both with the object of adapting it to contemporary controversy. The relation of even the fourteenth century portion to Piers the Plowman is very remote.