Other Versions of the Wat Tyler Legend


Other Versions of the Wat Tyler Legend

Important Source Collections

Dobson, R. B. The Peasants Revolt of 1381. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1970.

Robbins, Russell Hope, ed. Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Centuries. New York: Columbia UP, 1959.

Wright, Thomas, ed. Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History, Composed during the Period from the Accession of Edward III to that of Richard III. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1859. Rpt. Krans Reprint Ltd., 1965.


Contents By Period and Title

Pre-Seventeenth-century Tellings
  Anon. "Against the Lollards."
  Anon. "The Course of Revolt."
  Anon. "The Insurrection and Earthquake."
  Anon. "On the Evil State of England"
  Anon. "On the Minorite Friars."
  Anon. "On the Rebellion of Jack Straw."
  Anon. "On the Slaughter of Archbishop Sudbury. Versus de tempore Johannis Straw."
  Anon. "Song Against the Friars."
  Anon. "The Song of the 'Yorkshire Partisans'."
  Anon. "Song of the Kentish Rebels."
  Anon. "A 'Warnyng to Be Ware'."
  Chaucer, Geoffrey.  "The Nun's Priest's Tale"
  Gower, John . Vox Clamantis, Book I.

 

Seventeenth-century Tellings
  Anon. The History of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw.
  Anon. The Life and Death of Iake Straw, a notable .  .  .
  Anon. "The Idol of the Clownes or Insurrection of Wat the Tyler."
  Cleveland, John. The Rustick Rampant  .  .  .

 

Eighteenth-century Tellings
  Anon. Wat Tyler and Jack Straw or, The Mob Reformers .  .  .
  Anon. Wat Tyler and Jacke Straw,  .  .  .
  Burke, Edmund. Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs. 
  Paine, Thomas. Rights of Man: Part Two.

 

Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Tellings
  Bird, Brian. Rebel Before His Time: The Story of John Ball and the Peasants' Revolt.
  Engels, Friedrich. The Peasant War in Germany.
  Morris, William. "Dream of John Ball."
  Sala, George Augustus. Wat Tyler, An Operatic Extravaganza.


Anon. "Against the Lollards." 1381. Wright 231-49.

Anon. "The Course of Revolt." Robbins 55-57.

Anon. "The Insurrection and Earthquake."  1382. Robbins 57-60.

Anon. "On the Minorite Friars." Wright 268-270.

Anon. "On the Evil State of England" 1381. Robbins 54.

Anon. "On the Rebellion of Jack Straw." 1381. Wright 224-226.

Anon. "On the Slaughter of Archbishop Sudbury. Versus de tempore Johannis Straw." Wright 227-30.

Anon. "Song Against the Friars." Wright 263-268.

Anon. "The Song of the 'Yorkshire Partisans'" 1392. In A Book of London English 1384-1425. Ed. R. W. Chambers and Marjorie Daunt. Oxford: Clarendon, 1931. 276. See also Dobson 383-384, Robbins 60-61.

Anon. "Song of the Kentish Rebels." 1450. In Kingsford, C.L. English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century. Oxford: B. Franklin, 1913. 359. See also Dobson 385.

Anon. "A 'Warnyng to Be Ware'." Robbins 57-60.

Chaucer, Geoffrey.  The Nun's Priest's Tale.   Lines 4564-4587. The Canterbury Tales. Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. London: A.W. Pollard, 1898. See Dobson 386-387.

Gower, John. "Vox Clamantis."   Trans. E.W. Stockton. The Major Latin Works of John Gower. Seattle, 1962. 69-70. See Dobson 387-389.


17th Century

Anon. The History of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw. Printed and Sold in Aldermary Church Yard.

Anon. The Life and Death of Iake Straw, a notable Rebell in England; who was kild in Smithfield by the Lord Maior of LondonPrinted at Lond. by Iohn Danter and are to be sold by William Barley 1593.


Anon. "The Idol of the Clownes or Insurrection of Wat the Tyler." 1654.

Cleveland, John. The Rustick Rampant, or rurall anarchy affronting monarch; in the insurrection of Wat Tyler: an edition of The Idol of the Clownes. London, 1658.


18th Century

Anon.  Wat Tyler and Jack Straw or, The Mob Reformers, A Dramatick Entertainment As it is Perform'd at Pinkethman's and Giffard's Great Theatrical Booth in Bartholomew Fair. London: J.W., 1730.

Anon. Wat Tyler and Jacke Straw, The History of: a Chap-Book. London, 1750.

Burke, Edmund. Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs. London: J. Dodsley, 1791.

Paine, Thomas. Rights of Man: Part Two. 1792.

 

19th and 20th Centuries

Bird, Brian. Rebel Before His Time: The Story of John Ball and the Peasants' Revolt. Worthing, Great Britain: Churchman Publishing Ltd., 1987.

Engels, Friedrich.  The Peasant War in Germany. Moscow, 1956. 55-60. See Dobson 399-402.

Morris, William. "Dream of John Ball." Selected Works. Ed. G.D.H. Cole. Nonesuch Press, 1948. 264-5. See Dobson 403-404.

Sala, George Augustus. Wat Tyler, An Operatic Extravaganza. Dir. John Hollingshead. Gaiety Theater Strand, 20th December, 1869.