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Langland’s Easter.

Langland’s Easter.

WL, drawing heavily on the liturgy, is unusual in his representation of the Passion as having more of the early medieval spirit of triumph (ultimately the spirit of its representation in John’s Gospel) than that of pathos (as derived from the synoptic Gospels). Notable in WL’s depiction are his echoes of Venantius’s Pange lingua that stress the fulfillment of divine purpose in the Passion and omit the pathetic elements, the absence of allusion to the Improperia of the Good Friday liturgy, the recasting of Christ’s thirst as a manifestation of his power, and the veneration of the Cross – not a crucifix – as something precious and powerful.