 However, as Richard II of England and John of Gaunt both had substantial support and connections in the north-west, it is equally possible to argue that the alliterative poets of this period could easily have had courtly connections.In comparison to some of the authors of syllabic rhymed verse during this period, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and John Lydgate, almost nothing is known about the authors of alliterative poetry.The greatest of them, the Gawain Poet, author of "Pearl" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", and that of "Alliterative Morte Arthure" are both completely anonymous, though the former has been tentatively identified as a John Massey, member of a Cheshire landowning family.