Israel Gollancz’s Wynnere and Wastoure’: Political Satire or Editorial Politics?

Criticizes the theoretical and methodological presuppositions of Gollancz’s dating of WW as the early 1350s. Gollancz’s reliance on the supposedly topical nature of the satire is seen as a function of his own royalist loyalties and nationalism in post-World War I England. Argues against literal reading of economic and social reference as criticism of Edward III’s policies, in favor of consideration of such tensions in primarily moral terms, with the poet suggesting generosity as a legitimate mean between the extreme vices of avarice and prodigality. The poem was probably written between 1352 and 1370, and thus may not be an immediate precursor of PPl.