# Jack Upland

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14th century polemical

***Jack Upland*** or ***Jack up Lande*** (c. 1389–96?) is a polemical, probably [Lollard](/source/Lollard), literary work which can be seen as a "sequel" to *[Piers Plowman](/source/Piers_Plowman)*, with [Antichrist](/source/Antichrist) attacking Christians through corrupt confession. Jack asks a "flattering friar" (*cf.* *Piers Plowman*'s "Friar Flatterer") nearly seventy questions attacking the [mendicant orders](/source/Mendicant_order) and exposing their distance from scriptural truth.

Two extant works respond to Jack's questions: *Responsiones ad Questiones LXV* (before 1396) and *Friar Daw's Reply* (Digby 41, c. 1420). The latter text blasts [John Wycliffe](/source/John_Wycliffe) as one of history's major [heretics](/source/Heresy). Responding to Friar Daw, an unknown author wrote *Upland's Rejoinder*, which survives in Digby 41, in the margins surrounding *Friar Daw's Reply*. *Upland's Rejoinder* intensifies the level of invective: Daw is said to recruit the young sons of true-living plowmen to become (paradoxically) "worldly beggars," [apostates](/source/Apostacy) against true rule, and [sodomites](/source/Sodomy). *Jack Upland* was printed by itself in an [octavo](/source/Octavo) edition c. 1536–40 by [John Gough](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Gough_(printer)&action=edit&redlink=1) (STC 5098). [John Foxe](/source/John_Foxe)'s *[Acts and Monuments](/source/Foxe's_Book_of_Martyrs)* (1563, 1570) reprinted *Jack Upland* and attributed it to [Geoffrey Chaucer](/source/Geoffrey_Chaucer). [Thomas Speght](/source/Thomas_Speght)'s 1602 edition of Chaucer's *Works* (STC 5080) included *Jack Upland*.[1] In 1968 P.L. Heyworth published all three works, *Jack Upland, Friar Daw's Reply, and Upland's Rejoinder* in an [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press) edition.[2].The three works also appear in the 1972 unpublished doctoral dissertation "The Origins of Subversive Literature in English," by John Roger Holdstock, for the University of California, Davis. [3]

## See also

- [Piers Plowman tradition](/source/Piers_Plowman_tradition)

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Matthews, David. "Speght, Thomas". *[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography)* (online ed.). Oxford University Press. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1093/ref:odnb/26098](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F26098). (Subscription, [Wikipedia Library](https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/partners/88/) access or [UK public library membership](https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public) required.)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Heyworth, Peter (1968). *Jack Upland, Friar Daw's Reply, and Upland's Rejoinder*. Oxford University Press.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Holdstock, John (1972). ["The Origins of Subversive Literature in English"](https://search.library.ucdavis.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01UCD_ALMA21202171640003126&context=L&vid=01UCD_V1&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything_scope&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Origins%20of%20Subversive%20Literature%20in%20English&offset=0). *U.C. Davis Library*. Retrieved 10 March 2020.

Authority control databases International VIAF GND National United States

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