Hanna's chapter fits in with the overall intent of his book, namely to discuss the specificity of fourteenth century literature to London. Overall, Hanna's book points out the uniqueness of this development despite the seeming lack of London features to develop a literary culture, such as a major university as that in Paris. In this chapter, Hanna's lengthy and in-depth discussion of Piers Plowman seeks to both localize this text to London and situate it as a distinctly Edwardian text. Hanna first takes on the manuscript evidence for Piers Plowman as a London text, extensively discussing the scribal evidence and provenance of known manuscripts. Hanna then moves on to discuss the Lady Mede section, both using the alliterative structure to place the text less in common with the Alliterative Revival and more with Wynnere and Wastoure and arguing that the specific arguments between Mede and Conscience mirror the specific political matters of Edward III's reign. Hanna closes the chapter with a discussion of how the latter sections of Piers Plowman aligns with the London Apocalpyse tradition, reading Piers' role specifically in this context.
As a whole, Hanna's chapter is an interesting perspective on Piers Plowman that is deceptive in what it brings to the table. On the surface, the arguments that PP is a London text or the Lady Mede section mirrors the issues of Edward III's court may seem as already accepted readings, but Hanna provides close analysis of the evidence at hand to turn sharper perspectives on assumed readings. If I had any critique on this chapter, it would be the expansive material it covers in its 50+ pages which could have been broken into several smaller chapters. The construction of this chapter makes absolute sense in the context of this book, and is all related to the chapter's predominant purpose, but a certain point the copia of material can be nearly overwhelming.
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