This must have happened to such an extent with PiersPlowman that scholars have quite a challenge in trying to figure out which version is the more original.
The very first reference to that legendary activist Robin Hood appears in 1362 in a work credited to William Langland and known as The vision of William concerning PiersPlowman.
ENGLISH working men had been heard from before. PiersPlowman, chancing one summer day upon a field of folk; John Clare's shepherd, observing cabbage fields and nesting birds; d.h..