Wat Tyler
John Gower commented on Wat Tyler in his 14th-century poem "Vox Clamantis": "The jay's voice is wild and he has only learnt the art of speaking from the classes with whom the Latin poet is identified." A number of works in the post-medieval period have featured Wat Tyler as protagonist. Tyler was the protagonist of the play "Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, or, The Mob Reformers" (1730) first performed at Bartholomew Fair in 1730. Wat Tyler is represented in Robert Southey's "Wat Tyler, A Dramatic Poem", which was written in 1794 but not published until 1813. The first novel to feature Wat Tyler is Mrs O'Neill's "The Bondman: A Story of the Days of Wat Tyler" (1833). He is the protagonist in Pierce Egan the Younger's novel "Wat Tyler, or the Rebellion of 1381" (1841), a highly radical text published at the height of the second phase of the Chartist movement that argued for republican government in England. Egan's novel was subsequently abridged and plagiarised and published as "The Life and Adventures of Wat Tyler: The Good and the Brave" (1851). Wat Tyler is the protagonist of the penny dreadful serial novel "Wat Tyler; or, The King and the Apprentice" which appeared in weekly parts in "The Young Englishman's Journal" in 1867, and appears as a main character in William Harrison Ainsworth's "Merry England; or, Nobles and Serfs" (1874). In Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" (1853), his name is invoked by Sir Leicester Dedlock as an example of what would happen if any concessions were made to "some person in the lower classes". Tyler features as a sympathetic hero in the novel "A Dream of John Ball" (1888) by William Morris. Wat Tyler is also mentioned in "Redburn" by Herman Melville and in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain. Tyler features briefly in the historical fiction "The Mediation of Ralph Hardelot" (1888) by William Minto. The juvenile novel "A March on London" (1897) by G. A. Henty, depicts Tyler briefly as a "sullen and resentful" demagogue. Henty's book was illustrated by W.H. Margetson. "Long Will" (1903), a novel by Florence Converse, depicts a meritorious Wat Tyler. The 1921 play "Wat Tyler" by Halcott Glover interprets Tyler as a sympathetic protester against feudal tyranny, who is driven into violence by John Ball's preaching. "Riot at Gravesend" (1952), a novel by William Howard Woods, focus on the combats between the rebels and the authorities. "Who Then Was The Gentleman?" (1963) is a novel by Charles E. Israel, that renders a courageous and charismatic Wat Tyler. "A Summer Storm" (1976), a novel by Jane Lane, depicts Tyler as a villain. The novel "The Confession of Jack Straw" (1991) by Simone Zelitch features Tyler as a central character. The children's novel "Fire, Bed, and Bone" (1997) by Henrietta Branford has Wat Tyler as one of its characters. Wat Tyler is the principal character in the historical novel, "Now is the Time" (2015) by Melvyn Bragg.