William Langland's "Piers Plowman": The C Version 9780812292374

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Selected Bibliography
PIERS PLOWMAN
Prologue
Passus I
Passus II
Passus III
Passus IV
Passus V
Passus VI
Passus VII
Passus VIII
Passus IX
Passus X
Passus XI
Passus XII
Passus XIII
Passus XIV
Passus XV
Passus XVI
Passus XVII
Passus XVIII
Passus XIX
Passus XX
Passus XXI
Passus XXII
Explanatory Notes
Appendix: Table of Major Additions, Omissions, and Transpositions of Material in the C Version

Citation preview

WILLIAM LANGLAND'S

Piers Plowman

University of Pennsylvania Press MIDDLE AGES SERIES General Editor RUTH MAZO KARRAS, Temple University Founding Editor EDWARD PETERS, University of Pennsylvania A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.

WILLIAM L A N G L A N D ' S

Piers Plowman THE C V E R S I O N

A verse translation by George Economou

PENN University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia

Copyright © 1996 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6097 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Langland, William, I330?-i4oo? [Piers the Plowman] William Langland's Piers Plowman : the C version : a verse translation / by George Economou. p. cm. — (Middle Ages series) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8122-3323-9 (cloth : alk. paper). — ISBN 0-8122-1561-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) i. English poetry—Middle English, 1100-1500—Modernized versions. 2. Theology—History—Middle Ages, 600-1500—Poetry. 3. Christian poetry, English (Middle). I. Economou, George. II. Title. III. Series. PR20I3.E38 1996 821'.i—dc20 96-31987 CIP

Contents

Preface

vii

Introduction

xiii

Selected Bibliography

PIERS PLOWMANi Prologue Passus I Passus II Passus III Passus IV Passus V Passus VI Passus VII Passus VIII Passus IX Passus X Passus XI Passus XII Passus XIII Passus XIV Passus XV Passus XVI Passus XVII Passus XVIII Passus XIX Passus XX

xxxi

1 3 10 16 23 37 43 49 61 70 80 90 99 109 117 124 131 141 153 163 172 182

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Contents

Passus XXI Passus XXII

196 209

Explanatory Notes

221

Appendix: Table of Major Additions, Omissions, and Transpositions of Material in the C Version

261

Preface

Though the day has finally, and happily, passed in which the prospect of reading any of the three versions of William Langland's Piers Plowman was characterized as daunting, if not downright onerous, approaches to the work, especially those of first-time readers, still demand support. One of the first gestures of such support has come in the form of translations into Modern English prose and verse, primarily of the poet's second version, known as the B-text or version, referred to throughout this work as B. Joining the company of these renditions is this poetic translation of C, the third and last (running 7,338 lines) version of Langland's great poem. A reading of this verse rendering, the first and only complete translation of C into Modern English, requires, in turn, a measure of support that assists and guides, without overwhelming, the attempt to experience Piers Plowman as a poem from the late fourteenth century that is still worth engagement in the late twentieth. Would not Langland take satisfaction in knowing that his poem about his own difficult and trying time, full of enigmatic, troubling signs of change and doom, speaks now to more readers than ever before in our own apocalyptically winding down brave disaster of a century? Though the case for a translation of C should need no special pleading, the general promulgation and sometime unexamined acceptance of the notion that B is the superior work of art of the two does call for a few words of consideration. Because much of what divides the partisans of B from those of C consists of preferences for specific passages, episodes, and even characters that appear exclusively in one or the other version, it is unlikely that either side will ever completely win over the other. Yet it is possible that B has enjoyed its privileged status during the modern era of Piers Plowman studies in part because that version has been more frequently edited, translated, and taught. I would suggest that this high rate of circulation of B has been, in turn, at least a partial result of so many of our leading specialists in the poem favoring it over C precisely because they have had a definitvely edited, fully annotated, and carefully inter-

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preted (many times over) version of the work to which to devote their attentions. But this situation of B over C, whatever the degree to which it has been caused by a self-sustaining mutuality like the one just described, has begun to change. With the appearance in 1978 of the splendid teaching text of C prepared by Derek Pearsall, the edition of the poem from which this translation was made, more and more of what is written about the poem takes C into serious account even as some critics assert that they prefer to concentrate their reading on this third and final version because it offers the fullest expression of Langland's intellectual and spiritual development. The long-awaited Kane and Russell edition of C, soon to be co-published by the Athlone and University of California Presses, can only raise the version's standing in the field of Piers Plowman studies, though it is as likely for such a textually definitive edition to sharpen the debate over the question of the preeminence of B or C as it is to resolve it. Certainly, one thing that the Pearsall edition has done has been to allow for a fairer basis upon which to choose which version of the poem to study and teach. If this translation contributes an additional measure of fairness and balance to the making of that choice, it will have fulfilled one of its fundamental goals; if it helps to elevate its subject to a level equal to, if not necessarily above, that of B, then it will have fulfilled its highest purpose. This translation of C is attended by a set of supportive materials consisting of an introduction, selected bibliography, explanatory notes, and an appendix. They have been deliberately prepared as complements to the text of the translation and to each other. The notes aim to provide information that is essential to a basic appreciation and understanding of numerous aspects of the poem and, in some instances, in the way it has been translated. The introduction seeks to provide some necessary background concerning the poet and his poem, but a number of the subjects discussed in it are treated closely in the notes as well. For example, introductory comments on the differences among the three versions of the poem (A, B, and C) are addressed often and in considerable detail in the notes; these notes, in turn, are supplemented by the table in the appendix that delineates the major differences between B and C in the form of additions, omissions, and transpositions in the consideration of the revision process that the poem underwent during its last redaction. Of course, to account for all these differences here would be very difficult and has not been attempted, though enough information has been provided to form a basic notion of what happened to C in the course of its being revised and recopied. Similarly, the selected bibliography represents only a small fraction

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ix

of the remarkable body of scholarly and critical writing concerning Langland's work that has been produced in the last three or four decades. Studies cited in the notes to the introduction as well as those that provided special information for the explanatory notes have been combined with other secondary works deemed particularly helpful for new readers of Piers Plowman^ with special attention to examinations of C, though works recognized for their effectiveness as initiations to the poem in its B version have also been included. My debt is equally great to all the scholars and critics whose works could not be listed in the bibliography, for my reading of them surely enriched and influenced how I translated the poem. The many students with whom I have studied Piers Plowman have also just as surely enriched and influenced how I have translated the poem, and my expressions of gratitude must begin with them. I must also acknowledge several other forms of indebtedness to a number of individuals whose assistance and encouragement eased my labors and improved their final product. Since its beginning in the summer of 1986, the work of this translation has had the unconditional support of my wife and fellow poet and translator, Rochelle Owens. Several of my good colleagues in the department of English and the Variorum Chaucer at the University of Oklahoma, Paul Ruggiers, Daniel Ransom, Rudolph Bambas, Roy Pearcy, and Nicholas Howe (now of the Ohio State University), provided me with astutely constructive readings of my versions of the prologue and first four passus when I was neediest in finding my way into the poem. I am also grateful to Eve Tavor Bannet, my department chair, for her strong support of my applications for internal grants; to Keith Busby, my colleague in the department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, for his moral support and timely advice; and to Daniel Cottom, my new colleague and third floor neighbor, for his helpful readings of parts of the introduction. The manuscript illumination in the jacket design was suggested by my colleague in art history, Debra Hassig, to whom I am grateful for showing me the remarkable staying power of the plowman figure in the Middle Ages. At different stages of this project, I have benefited in countless ways from the help of three graduate research assistants, Thuy Nguyen, Susan M. Halloran, and Nick Perkins, who also prepared the basic plan for the appendix. I thank my two good friends and fellow medievalists, Robert W. Manning of Columbia University and Stavros Deligiorgis of the University of Iowa, for their generous gifts of time and great learning over what must have seemed to be an endless stream of questions about interpretation and

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translation. Allen Mandelbaum's approval and support came at a crucial a point in the progress of this work, and Joseph Wittig of the University of North Carolina has been a frequent source of deep understanding of the poem and uncommnonly good common sense about dealing with problems of translation and annotation. I am also most grateful for the messages of encouragement that came in many different forms from Esther and Vincent Quinn, Ruth Ames, Frederick Goldin, Saul Brody, and my sister, Georgia Economou. From abroad, George Kane was most kind and prompt in sharing several readings with me from the soon-to-be-published edition of C that he has prepared with George Russell for the Athlone and University of California Presses; his thoughtful responses to my queries contributed to improvements in the rendering of several lines in this translation. I will always appreciate and remember with fondness the invitation tendered by Douglas Gray to read from my translation to a sympathetic audience of Oxford University English faculty and graduate students in the spring of 1988. Parts of this translation have been published in two scholarly journals: "The Prologue" first appeared in Envoi: A Review Journal of Medieval Literature^ vol. i, no. 2 (1989): 276-83, and is reprinted by courtesy of AMS Press, Inc. "Passus Four" appeared in The Tearbook of Langland Studies^ vol. 3 (1989): 15-21.1 thank John Alford, editor and publisher of TLS, for his permission to reprint it here; I also offer special thanks to his co-editor, M. Teresa Tavormina, whose rigorous reading of the translation yielded improvements in my text. I would also like to thank Sulfur magazine for its permission to reprint "Glutton's Confession" (Passus, VI, 350-441), from its special "Into the Past" issue, no. 33 (Fall 1993): 115-17, guest-edited by Eliot Weinberger. Thanks and acknowledgment are also due Burt Kimmelman for publishing the opening section of Passus V under the title "The Author's Apologia" in Poetry New York 3 (1990): 44-46. From the time I first sent a copy of the translation to Edward Peters, the Founding Editor of the Middle Ages Series, to this moment, I have been treated to nothing short of the highest quality of relations an author can hope to experience with a publisher. My editor, Jerome Singerman, has been consistently helpful, giving me the benefit of his judgment and expertise on countless matters with candor and tact. As readers for the press, Vincent DiMarco and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton have done both me and the press a great service through their thoughtful readings of the translation. Their correctives to its deficiencies and their suggestions for the supporting apparatus were all the more effective for the sympathetic spirit in which

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they were made. I thank them for helping to make this a better book than it could ever have been if I had been left completely to my own devices. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Susan Houck and her staff at the University of Oklahoma's Information Processing Center, where this translation underwent a metamorphosis from handwritten notebooks to electronic disk. Supervising the work throughout its early stages, Susan personally attended to its final preparation with extraordinary competence and good cheer. I wish to thank the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Research Administration at the University of Oklahoma for their grant support during the last two years of this project. And finally, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the Rockefeller Foundation for granting me a fellowship in May of 1993 to the Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy where I finished the translation under what were almost storybook circumstances, writing the last line on the last page of the seventh notebook at the desk in La Veduta, my study overlooking the Villa, at noon on May 20, as the bells of San Giacomo in the town below pealed to Langland's words, "And then he cried out loud for Grace until I began to awake.5'

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Introduction

William Langland and His Poem The identification of William Langland as the author of Piers Plowman, the fourteenth-century alliterative poem that survives in three successive versions, rests securely upon external as well as internal evidence and is no longer a matter of scholarly controversy.1 The most compelling piece of external evidence is a note appended to the last leaf of a manuscript (Trinity College Dublin MS 212, c. 1400) of the third version, traditionally referred to as the C text or version, the last revised version of Langland's lifetime poem and original of this translation. Beginning with the memorandum that one Stacy de Rokayle, who held land under the Despensers in Oxfordshire, was the father of "willielmi de Langlond," the note ends with the ascription of authorship of Piers Plowman to the aforesaid William: "qui predictus willielmus fecit librum qui vocatur Perys ploughman."2 Because of its dating as very early fifteenth century, the composition of this note falls within the living memory of the poet and his work, a fact which, along with the confirmation in historical records of the relationship between Eustace (Stacy) Rokayle and the Despenser family,3 supports its accuracy. This Dublin ascription, unmatched in importance by any of the other items of external evidence, combines with the internal evidence in the form of numerous and various kinds of signatures of authorship within all three versions of the poem to affirm the name of its maker.4 These signatures, which are scattered throughout the poem for the reader to encounter, also offer a representation of the poet's life. One of the most important of these, the famous "Autobiographical Passage" that opens C's fifth passus, tells us much about the poet's style of life and his aspirations as well as providing a dramatic transition between the first and second dreams, dreams constituting the major narrative units of the work.5 In fact, almost everything we know—or think we know—about William Langland actually derives from his poem itself and its manuscripts. Even the dates of his birth and death, reasonable approximations at best, must be inferred from what his narrator, Will, says about himself or about his world

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in the three versions of the poem. This internal evidence suggests he was born between 1325 and 1335 in the area of the Malvern Hills on the border of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, this location being supported as well by some sixteenth-century ascriptions and, more important, by the determination of the poem's original dialect as that of the southwestern part of Worcestershire, including Malvern.6 The rather explicit references to the 1388 Statute of Labourers in the narrator's admission of his aversion to physical labor in the same autobiographical passage just mentioned above have helped set that year as the terminus post quern for Langland's death.7 What happened between these dates has been the subject of considerable speculation, but the internal evidence and our knowledge of fourteenthcentury English society suggest that Langland may have been raised and received his early education in or nearby the Malvern area, where the Despenser family also held properties. The question of his being illegitimate, surmised by some from the wording of the Dublin ascription, has not been satisfactorily settled one way or the other and probably never will be without new evidential documentation. It is clear that he possessed considerable learning—perhaps more than he is generally given credit for— and received some education beyond grammar school, perhaps at Oxford, but the extent of his education is unknown. The poem's Will has lived in the country—the setting in which he dreams the first vision is the Malvern Hills—and in the city—the place where he awakens from the first vision is London's Cornhill. But it is his statements in the opening scene of the fifth passus—that he is married and that he says prayers for those who support him—on which the second most important biographical feature of William Langland is based. If, as it is quite reasonable to assume from his statements concerning his having received the first tonsure and that he wore clerical clothing, Langland had clerical status, that status was in good part defined and limited by his marital status. He could not hold a regular appointment and could not say mass. He was, in E. Talbot Donaldson's words, cca married clerk, of an order certainly no higher than acolyte, who made his living in an irregular fashion by saying prayers for the dead or for the living who supported him."8 The most important feature of Langland's biography is, of course, that he devoted most of his adult life to writing Piers Plowman. * * * As a result of the momentous textual work devoted to Piers Plowman, beginning in the late nineteenth century with that of Walter William

Introduction

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Skeat, in more than one sense the founder of modern Langland studies, we are able to view with greater intelligibility than any previous generation the character and relationship of its three versions, referred to as the A, B, and C texts or versions.9 What Skeat demonstrated in his monumental three-text edition in 1886 has been confirmed and refined by the work of Donaldson, George Kane, and others. Analysis of the surviving fiftytwo (excluding fragments) manuscripts and a black-letter edition of 1550 reveals the existence and order of composition of the poem in three distinct versions. A, the earliest and shortest version, was written in the 13608; B, a much longer revision and augmentation of A, came in the 13708; and in the 13808, Langland rewrote B, making a number of significant additions, deletions, and shifts, and thus left to posterity the form of his poem known today as the C version. Still, it is important to note that our perception of the poem in its three versions is severely qualified by the facts that these versions cannot be examined or traced through genuinely authoritative drafts, as can be done with most later works of literature, and that the poet, as Kane and Donaldson have shown, had to use a manuscript of B that had already been corrupted by scribal tradition (though not as corrupt as the B archetype from which all of our surviving B manuscripts derive) in making his C revision.10 Having to compose his final version without the benefit of his own copy is a situation that Langland might not have found quite as horrifying as we might imagine, given the profound differences between our book cultures. Though C contains scribal problems and evidence of incomplete revision in places, it stands as Langland's final revision of his poem, a rethinking and re-making of what it had formerly been. At times the revision appears to be mostly a matter of rewriting lines and shifting episodes or speeches, but the total effect of these changes indicates that it was also an effort at a kind of combined preservation and aggiornctmento^ an updating of the work in terms of his life and experience, and of newly acquired learning. Among the most striking examples of this process, besides the important autobiographical passage, are the addition of the long grammatical metaphor passage in the Lady Meed episode in the fourth passus and the omission of the tearing of Truth's pardon by Piers in the ninth. The C revisions also reflect changes in Langland's views on certain issues, such as the elimination of the distinction between good and bad minstrels made in the AB prologues in favor of a single bad class of minstrels in the C prologue, a judgment that is amended in the eighth passus by the introduction of a special class of "godes mynstrales," based upon the phrase ioculatores Dei in Franciscan tradition.11 The altering of details in B concerning the

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authority of the church and the heightening of the condemnation of vagrants and recalcitrant workers from B to C suggest a desire to disassociate the poem from the views of the Lollards and from the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, in whose call to action the name of Piers Plowman had been invoked and the phrase "do welle and bettre" had been used.12 These early appropriations of Piers Plowman to the rhetoric of radical reform and rebellion, unwelcome as they appear to have been to Langland, mark the beginning of the long first chapter in the history of the poem's reception. Well into the nineteenth century, Langland's poem was regarded generally as a major document in England's social history, a record of complaint and satire against the abuses of church and state, a proleptic symbol of the triumph of democracy and the common Christian man. The classification of the manuscripts into three distinct versions inaugurated the modern era of Piers Plowman studies, eventually by providing a new, sounder foundation for literary interpretation, but first by provoking a controversy over the work's authorship, in which as many as five separate authors were proposed as a way of accounting for the differences among the three texts.13 No longer a serious issue, the question lingered in one form or another until the 19505, giving way to the new, urgent concerns that have laid the foundations of Langland studies. Broadly speaking, the Piers Plowman critical enterprise since the middle of this century has focused, one way or another, upon questions pertaining to the style, structure, unity, and coherence of the poem. The variety and abundance of the approaches taken to these questions is reflected in the large and still growing bibliography of Langland studies, a strongly competitive second only to that of Chaucer in the discipline of medieval English literature. Scholars have examined the poem in terms of the traditions of biblical exegesis, some of them, at times it seems, concentrating more upon its many quotations from scripture than upon its own narrative discourse. Others have investigated its generic and modal dimensions, examining its relationships to other medieval dream visions and allegorical narratives. Much valuable work has been devoted to sorting out the poem's meaning and its unique ways of conveying meaning. Intellectual, political, and social history have begun to play a new and more significant role than ever before in the effort to understand the poem in terms of its complex late fourteenth-century context. And the challenges of the work's language and versification, its singular wordplay and notable use of allusions and references to major cultural themes, such as apocalypse and prophecy, continue to be met with energy and learned ingenuity. A number of reference works and an annual journal devoted to

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it exclusively, along with new text editions and translations, have become standard items in the poem's study during the last few years. *

-K-

*

The Selected Bibliography in this volume will give the first-time reader of Piers Plowman a representative guide for further reading, but an introductory description of the poem's evolution may provide a necessary starting point for such a first reading. The poem's major quest theme, developed in all three versions in response to their shared central question, "How may I save my soul?," remains one of the constants throughout the poem's career and its maker's life. This long-range view of the work establishes one of its most important themes: that two of the surest aids to salvation, the proper employment of intellectual and material gifts, become in a fallen world the main impediments to its attainment. Langland's appreciation of this ironic situation, in which the wealth and learning that should help the human race prosper in this world and save it in the next so often help instead to destroy the bonds that unite human beings to each other and their God, increases and intensifies from his earliest treatment of it in A to the closing sections of B and C. The intention of this thematic focus is not to reduce the poem's meaning to the level of a simple prose statement but to provide a saving thread to follow through the dream world and labyrinthlike structure that conveys Langland's unique poetic accomplishment. Consideration of this accomplishment from a practical, descriptive standpoint yields a series of pictures in which we see in A a young, searching poet with a remarkably firm grasp of native literary tradition compose a dream vision whose first half explores the nature of the world of society and whose second half turns inward to examine the life of the individual human being. Though he definitely draws the poem to a close, Langland seems to many of his students to end A rather abruptly and inconclusively, a judgment supported to a considerable extent by the hindsight gained from their having read B and C. Laboring under such a comparative reading, some scholars have been teased into speculating about spiritual crises and artistic blockages as explanations for the disappointing way A ends. That this first attempt did not in fact satisfy Langland himself finds its strongest support in his subsequent composition of B, a radical revision and expansion of A. Retaining the allegorical mode of a series of dream visions which move from the external, physical world to the inner, spiritual one that ultimately contains them both, the poet made some impor-

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tant changes in the first section of the poem; he then continued the inward journey out of the ending of A and greatly extended it through the addition of numerous new episodes and characters; and he finally provided the entire action of the poem with a higher degree of particularity and universality than hitherto achieved by setting it in the framework of providential, or, as it is often called, salvation history. As well as containing many passages of supreme poetic inspiration, this part of the work also shows that Langland had reached the levels of intellectual maturity, artistic daring, and awareness of literary and cultural currents that enabled him to complete successfully the action that had been initiated and had faltered in the work's first stage. Though there are intermittent signs of a struggle, B finally stands as a brilliantly realized representation of the world according to Langland up to that point in his life. Though not as radical a revision of B as B was of A, C shows the poet was still intensely involved with being a maker. It is customary to assume he worked under distinctly disadvantageous circumstances while writing C, but the lack of a good copy of B may have actually contributed positively to the whole process by frequently putting him in a position in which he had to review and remake what he had made twice before; in other words, circumstances contributed to his probably already strong inclination to compose anew rather than to copy over with minor revisions. Contrary to its popular reputation for fussiness, C may be viewed as the product of an older, wiser poet who knows how to cut, sometimes with alarming but purposeful relentlessness. He shifts scenes and speeches for greater clarity and effect and introduces fresh material that lends a new unity to his lifetime work.

Summary of the Poem's Action As the following summary of the poem's action indicates, reading Piers Plowman need not be as difficult a task as it is often made out to be. It is time that its previous reputation as illogical and unstable, enigmatic and unfinished, be replaced by one, informed by the wealth of critical and scholarly attention recently devoted to it, that recognizes its artistic power and achievement at the same time as it acknowledges the demands its textual history and narrative texture impose upon us. The most responsible approach is an open-minded one that follows rather than resists by excessive questioning what happens in the poem, that assumes Langland has control over the complex rhythm of his narrator's quest rather than the other way

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around. If the poem's action has been pegged as a commission of the fallacy of imitative form, its setting or allegorical space has been described as "surrealistic," in a comparison that does justice neither to Piers Plowman nor to one of the major artistic and literary forces of this century.14 A more helpful comparison—since we cannot avoid reading the past through the lenses of our present—may be found in the form of "magic realism," a movement largely founded by Latin American writers in which narrative fictions depend upon a mixture of fantasy and realism for their major effects. If we can follow the merging of dreamlike and everyday reality in the novels and stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with admiration and pleasure, we have been prepared to do the same with Langland's allegorical poem. The magical aspect of fictional creation, by virtue of one of its most popular rhetorical devices during the Middle Ages, personification, gives us the remarkably earthy and local characterizations of the seven deadly sins making their confessions. Abstractions, folklore, and religious doctrine and myth come alive through the magical realism of Langland's sequence of dream visions, in which the dreamer-narrator shares with his audience directly and immediately his experience as an individual fourteenth-century Englishman whose external and interior lives cannot be fully apprehended unless viewed under the aspect of providential history, in which all time lines run as one. Though this summary follows the sequence of dreams rather than any of the other ways the poem is organized, these various formal aspects of the work require some attention. Piers Plowman is divided into passus, the Latin word for "step" and "steps" (in this edition the word will be used in both its singular and plural senses without the addition of long u in the plural as required by nouns in the fourth declension), but the number of passus in the three versions differs: A has a prologue and eleven passus, B a prologue and twenty passus, and C a prologue and twenty-two passus. Not only is there a discrepancy in the correspondence of passus in the three versions, there is also a lack of correspondence in the order of their narratives. This is especially important between B and C, and the table that closes this volume indicates the major differences between them. While reference to passus and line is indispensable, the old division of the poem into two major parts, Visio and Vita (in C, Prologue through Passus IX and Passus X through XXII, respectively), has been abandoned. Inaccurate and emphasizing discontinuity where there is none, these titles were probably "scribal afterthoughts," just as the further division of the Vita, into the three lives of Do-well, Do-Better, and Do-best surely were.15 Because the

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manuscripts show a serious lack of agreement in the deployment of these subdivisions in the narrative, it makes sense to regard (and ignore) them as editorial rather than authorial and to trust in the eight-dream internal structure Langland gives his poem. -X-

*

-K-

The first dream (Prologue-Passus IV), set in the Malvern Hills and introduced by a brief traditional springtime opening commonly associated with medieval dream-vision poetry, begins with a description of "a fair field full of folk" set between the tower of Truth to the East and the deep dale of Death to the West. The Dreamer is treated to a panoramic view of his world in which people of all estates and classes move about pursuing their interests. The setting then shifts to the royal court, and the narrative modulates to a short fable in which mice and rats consider and then abandon a plan to bell the cat that vexes them. The scene of the field returns, and in Passus I the lady Holy Church addresses the Dreamer by his name, Will, and responds to his question "How may I save my soul?" by teaching him about the proper use of the things of this world and the fundamentals of Truth's doctrine of charity. Because the Dreamer wants to know more, specifically "how to recognize Falsehood" at the beginning of Passus II, Holy Church shows him her enemy, Lady Meed, who arrives with the bridal party for her marriage to False Faithless. The rest of the dream involves an exploration of how the uses of money and reward corrupt society, its actions centering on the proposal of the king that Meed marry Conscience, who, with the help of Reason, successfully avoids the match by out-debating Meed and exposing her for what she is. At the beginning of Passus V, in what is the first of three major waking episodes in the poem, Will awakes in Cornhill, a London neighborhood of poor repute, and defends his calling as a cleric and poet against the charges of Reason; he then goes to church, where he falls asleep and dreams again of the field full of folk. The second dream, which continues from this point in Passus V through Passus IX, then proceeds with a sermon preached by Reason to the whole realm, admonishing the folk to repent and to seek Saint Truth. In Passus VI and first half of VII, the seven deadly sins make confession, and Repentance offers a prayer for forgiveness. The folk eagerly set out to make their pilgrimage to Truth, but nobody knows the way—except a plowman named Piers, who suddenly appears and describes Truth's place, offering to lead them there after they have helped him plow his half-

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acre. His effort to effectively mobilize all of the estates for this work basically fails, even after Piers calls on Hunger to intercede, and Passus VIII ends with things somewhat in disarray. As Passus IX begins, Piers receives a briefly worded pardon from Truth which offers salvation to all who do well and damnation to those who do evil—but it does not explain what doing well is. Piers and a priest argue about the pardon, and the Dreamer awakens and muses on his dream and the nature of dreams in general. Passus X opens with the poem's second waking episode, in which Will encounters two friars with whom he has what is for him an inconclusive discussion of Do-well, whose dwelling place he has resolved to find. With the direction of the search for an answer to Will's question now turned inward, the third dream, which incloses the only completely framed inner dream in C, begins after a brief reprise of the natural springtime opening and extends to the end of Passus XIV. As Passus X continues, Will dreams of successive encounters with two of his own intellectual faculties, Thought and Wit, with whose help he expands his knowledge of Do-well but does not arrive at a completely satisfactory definition. In the first part of Passus XI, the Dreamer moves on to dialogues with three personifications related to intellectual pursuits, Dame Study (Wit's wife), Clergy (her cousin), and Scripture (Clergy's wife). They each offer him lessons on Do-better and Do-best, which have now been introduced into the discussion, as well as on Do-well, but Will is neither up to nor ready to take all of this in and drops off to sleep, only to have another dream within his larger dream. In this inner dream, which does not end until Passus XIII is almost over, Will is swept away by Fortune and delivered to the "land of longing and love," where he lives a life of pleasure. The direction of his life, if not his identity itself, is temporarily taken over by Recklessness, the poem's most compulsive talker, who argues with Clergy and Scripture, has brief meetings with the Emperor Trajan and Loyalty, and relentlessly attacks learning. Before the inner dream ends, Recklessness, who, despite his vehement loquacity, shows a trace of understanding and capacity for faith, fades away, and the Dreamer returns as Kind grants him a vision of Middle Earth, about which he argues arrogantly with Reason, who reprimands him sharply. Embarrassed, Will awakens from the dream-withinthe-dream and meets the last in the series of personifications from medieval faculty psychology, Imaginative, who, from this moment in Passus XIII through XIV, occupies him with vital lessons on the value of learning and the meaning of salvation, providing him with the orientation necessary for the next stage of his quest.

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Passus XV opens with a minor waking episode, in which the Dreamer admits that the previous dream, especially the teaching of Imaginative, has given him a great deal to think about. Mulling this over, he falls asleep, and the fourth dream begins with Conscience and Clergy inviting him to dine with Reason. Among the guests are a learned but gluttonous and hypocritical friar, who fails to make a positive or productive impression upon the company, and Patience, who—after a short but sudden and mysterious appearance of Piers the plowman—guides Will and Conscience in the search for perfection. They meet Active, another character strongly identified with the Dreamer, and Patience teaches them the virtues of patient poverty and submission to the will of God until a point almost halfway through Passus XVI at which a new guide, Free Will, takes over the educational process. Through Passus XVII and much of XVIII, Free Will explains the nature and meaning of true charity, describes how clergy and the church serve it, and presents the Dreamer with a vision of the Tree of Charity. He shows how the devil tries to subvert its growth and steal its bounty, and how it is defended, ending with a brief narrative of Christ's life up to the point of his arrest in the garden—at which the Dreamer awakens in a frantic state. Though there is no indication of another dream commencing in the text of C (in B Passus XVI the vision of the Tree of Charity is another inner dream), scholarly tradition sets the beginning of C's fifth dream at line 182 of Passus XVIII, where on Mid-lent Sunday the Dreamer meets a man who turns out to be Abraham. This dream, which continues to the end of Passus XIX, consists of a representation of the fulfillment of the Old Law in the New Law in the form of Will's encounters with Abraham (Faith), Moses (Hope), and the Good Samaritan (Charity). In the sixth dream, which takes up all but the first few lines of Passus XX, there appears one who resembled the Samaritan and Piers, announced by Faith as the son of David come to joust in Jerusalem in Pier's armor. Thus begins the climactic antepenultimate vision of the poem in which Will, his perspective now raised to the level of providential history, witnesses Christ's Passion and Crucifixion and his triumphant Harrowing of Hell, the beginning of Love's victory over evil. In Passus XXI, Will attends Easter services and falls asleep, dreaming immediately of how Christ came into the world to establish his church. Much of this seventh dream involves the foundation of the church, which is described as the great barn Unity, "Holy Church in English," with Piers cultivating its lands and filling it with his harvest. But Pride and his fol-

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lowers promptly launch an attack upon Unity and its community, and the dream ends with Conscience gathering the group into the barn for its own protection. The third major waking episode, in which Need gives Will a lesson in how to live on the margin, introduces the eighth and final dream as Passus XXII begins. The Dreamer witnesses the advent of the Antichrist, as Unity is put under full siege by his forces, the seven deadly sins. With this glimpse of the apocalyptic future, the history of Christianity moves swiftly into the present as the friars join Antichrist's army and easily infiltrate Unity. Conscience's appeal to Nature for help only reveals just how weakened by disease and Old Age his followers are. Fragile of soul as well, they are an easy mark for Friar Flatterer, a.k.a. Sir Penetmns domos^ whose ministrations leave them spiritually drowned or put to sleep with no fear of sin. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, Conscience resolves to become a pilgrim in search of Piers the plowman and cries out for Grace, awakening the Dreamer. #

#

*

The Translation The twentieth-century philosopher of language Ludwig Wittgenstein described a problem of "understanding" in terms which may also be taken as a definition of the predicament that enthralls the translator of poetry: We speak of understanding a sentence in the sense in which it can be replaced by another which says the same; but also in the sense in which it cannot be replaced by another. (Any more than one musical phrase can be replaced by another.) In the one case the thought in the sentence is something common to different sentences; in the other, something that is expressed only by these words in these positions. (Understanding a poem.)16

The translator of a poem is held both spellbound and in servitude, in a word, captivated by the challenge to convey meaning in a manner that not only binds receptor to source language in terms of sense but also in terms of attempts to address the problem of the "unreplaceable." In the case of a translation of Piers Plowman^ one of the most conspicuous aspects of this problem is that of the alliterative long line in which

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Langland composed his poem. The majority of lines in the poem follow the pattern of aa/ax: two stressed alliterating syllables in the first half-line followed, after the caesura, in the second half-line by two stressed syllables of which only the first keeps the alliteration.17 Yet Langland uses several variations of alliterative pattern with great skill, always honoring (except in a number of defectively copied lines) the crucial requirement that the first stressed syllable in the second half of the line be linked by alliteration to the first half of the line. Some translators of Piers Plowman, as well as of other fourteenth-century alliterative poems, have conceded the issue and cast their versions into prose while others, including one of Piers Plowman B, have composed translations into Modern English according to the conventions of medieval English alliterative verse. The attempt "to replace" the verse form of a Middle English alliterative poem in a Modern English translation, however appealing as an idea, imposes syntactical and linguistic patterns that often work against such a rendition's successful achievement of a sound that rings true to contemporary ears. The novelty of such a match made between an antiquated form and the English of this day also runs the risk of diminishing or even trivializing the passion in Langland's poetry. Thus, I have chosen not to emulate the conventions of alliterative verse but rather to concentrate on the long line, its measure and relation to the lines that immediately precede and follow, settling instead for the generous amount of alliteration that flows from the older to the newer English in the course of translation. Exemplifying the flickering demands of sound and sense that reflect the nature of the translator's dilemma, some lines, in fact, have been allowed to pass into my version without alliteration altogether when matters of clarity, idiom, and cadence took precedence. There are points within the zone of the translator's deepest involvement with his task at which he feels compelled to respond to the need to represent the beliefs and convictions of an individual and his world with, above all else, accuracy—replacing, in Wittgenstein's terms, the sense in one sentence, that is, lines of verse in Middle English, with another, that is, lines of verse in Modern English, which say the same. Yet the worldview of the poet's time and his personal interaction with it depend for their unique expression upon the poet's use of words and technique. Thus, the greatest challenge to the Langland translator, especially to one who is committed to making a poetic version of the work for contemporary readers, consists of striking a balance that accommodates both of these aspects of the poem: the effort to convey the work's signifieds should be whenever and wherever possible mediated by an attempt to replace by approximation the play of its signifiers.18

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A thirteen-line passage extracted from one of Repentance's admonitory speeches to Covetousness, the hungry and hollow Sir Harvey, in the well-known confession of the seven deadly sins episode represents a typical example of this challenge.

Thow art an vnkynde creature; y can the nat assoile Til thow haue ymad by thy myhte to alle men restitucioun; For alle that hauen of thy good, haue god my treuthe, Ys haldyng at the heye dome to help the restitue. 3e, ]?e prest ]sat thy tythe toek, trow y non other, Shal parte with the in purgatorye and helpe paye thy dette Yf he wiste thow were such when he resseyued thy offrynge. And what lede leueth J^at y lye, look in Ipc sauter glosed, on Ecce enim veritcttem dilexisti, And there shal he wite witterly what vsure is to mene, And what penaunce the prest shal haue ]^at proud is of his tithes. For an hore of here ers-wynnynge may hardiloker tythe Then an errant vsurer, haue god my treuthe, And arste shal come to heuene, by Cryst that me made.19 You're an unnatural creature; I can't absolve you Till you've made to the best of your ability restitution to all men; For all that have of your goods, so help me God, Are beholden at Judgment Day to help you restore. Yes, the priest that took your tithe, I don't mean another, Will share with you in purgatory and help you pay your debt If he knew what you were when he received your offering. And any man that believes I lie, look in the Psalter gloss on For behold, you loved truth, [Ps.so: 8] And there he shall surely learn what usury means And what penance the priest will have who's proud of his tithes. For a whore can tithe better from what her ass earns her Than can an errant usurer, so help me God, And will ascend to heaven sooner, by Christ that made me.

In this speech, all of which except for the first two lines is unique to C, Langland draws upon the penitential doctrine he has had Repentance articulate a few lines earlier at VI. 25ya, "Numquam dimittitur peccatum,

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nisi restituatur ablatum [A sin is never remitted unless the thing taken is given back]." But this condition for the pardon of a sinner who gives what he owes, reddit quod debit, has been complicated in Repentance's warning to Covetousness by the additional consideration of the sinful sharing of his winnings with others, particularly his tithes to the church. As Repentance assures Sir Harvey of the veracity of his claim, he alludes to the wellknown gloss on his quotation from the fiftieth Psalm, whose importance, as explained by Pearsall in his note to 3O3a, "is that sin, though to be forgiven, cannot go unpunished, and the inward truth that God desires must seek out and make restitution for every dubious act, including the receipt of tithes properly paid but ill-gotten."20 But the full force of Repentance's lesson comes with the striking comparison between the salvational prospects of the errant usurer and the whore. In the seventeenth chapter of the Lollard version in English of Wyclif's De officio pastomli, clerics are urged to avoid dealing with disputes over tithes from certain sources and to concentrate their efforts on serving God and his church. & JDer ben ojsere difficultees heere, what J>ing men shulden tijse, as erbis or ojser fruyt; wher laboreris shulden tij>e J^er hire; & hooris or vsureris tijse J?er wynnyng; wijs many siche doutis in lawe; Ipc whiche dyuynes shulden leeue vntretid, & lyue in pouert & serue Ipc chirche. for cristis prestis shulden haue no custom to ocupie hem wilp siche stryues, but gedere al jser bisynesse to serue god & his chirche.21 While the Wycliffite position in the debate on tithes raises these objections to such determinations, the lesson taught by Langland's Repentance appears to find them acceptable. Repentance's distinction between the whore and the usurer, in fact, determines that the whore's more confident tithing (in the interest of the translation's idiom, I have rendered hardiloker as "better") is certain to be favored over that of the errant usurer in the court of heaven. Thus, the play on ers.-wynnynge and arste mil come to heuene in lines 306 and 308, which conforms to the pattern of punning and wordplay that Mary Clemente Davlin has shown in her recent study, A Game of 'Heuene, pervades the entire poem conveys much of its central meaning, and contributes to the assertion of a truth that signifies one of the chief mysteries of Christianity.22

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As anyone who has read Piers Plowman or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales knows, fourteenth-century English poets and their audiences found what we deem "earthy language" perfectly acceptable, especially when it extended the possibilities of meaning through some humorous punning. Chaucer's puns and wordplay on queynte in the Troilus (V. 543) and the Knight's Tale (I. 2333-37) are well-known (though hotly denied by some Chaucerians), as is the pun on ars-metrik in the scholastic analysis of the parting of a fart in the Summoner's Tale (III. 2222).23 Langland's play on the tithing of the whore's ers-wynnynge in this life helping her win a place in paradise in the next life sooner (arste) than can the tithing of the errant usurer occurs only in C and lends to the passage a singular sense of surprised discovery of an essential lesson. Can one smile at this recognition of the lesson's beatific aspect without smiling as well at the earthy wordplay that conveys it> This is, I firmly believe, the climactic moment of the passage, the unique play of the signifier that especially distinguishes it as a moment in a fourteenth-century English poem. A translation strategy for these lines that aims for transparency of meaning, "For a whore may more confidently tithe from her ass-winning than can an errant usurer and come to heaven sooner," domesticates them to an ordinary level of contemporary comprehension but does no justice to the poetic genius and cultural differences embodied in them. As I have mentioned above, the need for mediation of the translator's effort to give us a poem's sense by an attempt to approximate this kind of poetic play actually and, ironically, calls for a more truly literal approach to the work of translation than that which the accustomed transparency approach affords. The elimination of poetic individuality and linguistic and cultural difference in the name of an illusion of semantic equivalence really ignores rather than attends to the letter of the poem, paradoxically reversing a revered axiom, as Chaucer himself may have done at the end of the Nun's Priest's Tale, of a traditional way of reading. In the activity of the translation of poetry, going for the spirit killeth just as easily and as often as it saveth. Thus, in my attempt to translate this passage I have tried to preserve the modality of wordplay, though I could not duplicate the wordplay itself. Finding a comparable or parallel form of pun (I have long given up on thinking of translation in terms of "equivalents") represented the most fundamental gesture of fidelity to this moment in the poem I could make. Made modern, then, the whore's tithing from what her ass earns her enables her to ascend sooner than the errant usurer—she will end up, as it were, in heaven first.

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The problems that test the translator of Piers Plowman are many and varied and cannot be investigated fully here. I have tried to indicate what have been for me some of the crucial instances of this translation in the notes. In this respect, I have paid particular attention in the notes to the ways in which I have translated key names and terms. But if there is a single thing I hope to have achieved in this work, it is readabilty. Notes 1. See George Kane, Piers Plowman: The Evidence for Authorship (London: The Athlone Press, 1965); Anne Middleton, "Piers Plowman" in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English: 1050-1500, ed. Albert E. Hartung, vol. 7 (New Haven: The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1986), 2224-27; and Ralph Hanna III, William Langland, Authors of the Middle Ages, vol. 3 (Aldershot, Hants and Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1993). 2. Kane, Evidence, p. 26; Hanna, p. 2. 3. Hanna, p. 26. 4. Anne Middleton, "William Langland's cKynde Name': Authorial Signature and Social Identity in Late Fourteenth-Century England," in Literary Practice and Social Change in Britain, 1380-1530, ed. Lee Patterson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 15-82. 5. Passus is the word used to head the divisions of the poem. On the significance of the "Autobiographical Passage," see the discussions of George Kane, The Autobiographical Fallacy in Chaucer and Langland Studies, The Chambers Memorial Lecture (London: University College, 1965), pp. 1-17; George D. Economou, "Self-Consciousness of Poetic Activity in Dante and Langland," in Vernacular Poetics in the Middle Ages, ed. Lois Ebin (Kalamazoo: The Medieval Institute, 1984), pp. 187-98; J. A. Burrow, Langland's Fictions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp101-6; and Steven Justice, Writing and Rebellion: England in 1381 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1944), pp. 231-32, 245-50. 6. M. L. Samuels, "Langland's Dialect," Medium Aevum, vol. 54 (1985): 232-47, and "Dialect and Grammar," in A Companion to Piers Plowman, ed. John A. Alford (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), pp. 201-21, especially pp. 207-8, where Samuels points out that C manuscripts are concentrated around the Malvern area. Also see Hanna, pp, 6 and 26-27. 7. Hanna, pp. 10 and 31-32. 8. E. Talbot Donaldson: Piers Plowman: The C-Text and Its Poet (1949; reprint ed. London: Frank Cass &: Co., 1966), p. 219. Also see Hanna, pp. 22-23. 9. For the major editions of the three main versions of the poem as well as one known as the Z version, proposed by its editors as a copy of an authorial version written before A was composed, see the Selected Bibliography. For a discussion of the textual survival of the poem, see George Kane, "The Text," in A Companion to Piers Plowman, pp. 175-200.

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10. Sec Piers Plowman: TheB Version, ed. George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson (1975; rev. ed. London: The Athlone Press; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), pp. 123-24. 11. Donaldson, C-Text and Its Poet, p. 136; Economou, p. 189. 12. See Anne Hudson, "The Legacy of Piers Plowman? in A Companion to Piers Plowman, pp. 251-56. Also see Justice, pp. 102-39, for a discussion of how the rebels appropriated the B version; and pp. 231-51, for how Langland revised C in response to these appropriations. 13. For succinct accounts of the controversy, see Middleton, "The Critical Heritage," in A Companion to Piers Plowman, pp. 6-8, and A Manual, pp. 2224-27 and 2430-31 for bibliography. 14. See Charles Muscatine, "Locus of Action in Medieval Narrative," Romance Philology, 17 (1963): 115-22, and Poetry and Crisis in the Age of Chaucer (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1972), pp. 88 and 105. 15. See John Alford, "The Design of the Poem," in A Companion to Piers Plowman, p. 30. 16. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe (New York: Macmillan, 1953), i. 531, pp. 143-44. 17. See David A. Lawton, "Alliterative Style," in A Companion to Piers Plowman, pp. 223-49, esp. 245-46. 18. For a recent and valuable reassessment of the work of translation, see Rethinking Translation, Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology, ed. Lawrence Venuti (London: Routledge, 1992), and Lawrence Venuti, The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation (London: Routledge, 1995). 19. Piers Plowman by William Langland: An Edition of the C-Text, ed. Derek Pearsall (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), VI 296-308, pp. 122-23. 20. Ibid., p. 122. 21. The English Works of Wyclif, hitherto unprinted, ed. F. D. Matthew, Early English Text Society 74 (1880), 433. On the vernacular derivatives of Wyclif's Latin works, see Anne Hudson, Lollards and Their Books (London: The Hambledon Press, 1985), pp. 70-7122. Mary Clemente Davlin, OP, A Game ofHeuene: Word Play and the Meaning of Piers Plowman B (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1989). Though there are several other moments in the translation in which the reader may recognize similar puns and wordplay, there is one that requires special mention. As Burrow has shown, Langland extends his wordplay to his Latin quotation of Matthew 4:4 in the "Autobiographical Passage" of the fifth passus, where he revises the text "in such a way that the word solo, instead of its Vulgate use as an adjective agreeing with pane ('bread alone') stands apart as a noun—the nounsolum, meaning 'soil'. So the quotation now glances back, with a kind of exultant irony, at Reason's earlier talk of fieldwork: 'Not from the soil does man live, nor by bread and by food'" (Fictions, p. 104). See below, V 86-88n. 23. All references to Chaucer in this work are to The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edition, ed. Larry D. Benson et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987).

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Selected Bibliography

EDITIONS Langland, William. Piers Plowman: The A Version—Will's Visions of Piers Plowman and Do-Well. Ed. George Kane. London: Athlone Press, 1960. Rev. ed. by Kane. London: Athlone Press; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. ———. Piers Plowman: The B Version—Willis Visions of Piers Plowman, Do-Well, DoBetter., and Do-Best. Eds. George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson. London: Athlone Press, 1975. Rev. ed. by Kane and Donaldson. London: Athlone Press; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. ———. Piers Plowman by William Langland: An Edition of the C-Text. Ed. Derek Pearsall. York Medieval Texts, 2nd ser. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978. Rptd. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1994. ———. Piers Plowman: A Facsimile of Bodleian Library^ Oxford, MS Douce 104. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1992. ———. The Vision of Piers Plowman: A Complete Edition of the B-Text. Ed. A. V. C. Schmidt. London: Dent; New York: Dutton, 1978. ———. The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman in Three Parallel Texts ^ together with Richard the Redeless. Ed. W. W. Skeat. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1886. Rptd. 1924. ———. Piers Plowman: The Z Version. Eds. A. G. Rigg and Charlotte Brewer. Studies and Texts, vol. 59. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1983.

TRANSLATIONS Langland, William. Piers the Ploughman. Trans. J. F. Goodridge. Baltimore: Penguin, 1966. ———. Piers Plowman: An Alliterative Translation. Trans. E. Talbot Donaldson. Eds. Elizabeth D. Kirk and Judith H. Anderson. New York: Norton, 1990. ———. Piers Plowman: A New Translation of the B-Text. Trans. A. V. C. Schmidt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. ———. Piers Plowman: The A-Text—An Alliterative Verse Translation. Trans. Francis Dolores Covella, S.C. Introduction and Notes by David C. Fowler. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1992.

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The Yearbook of Langland Studies. Eds. John A. Alford and M. Teresa Tavormina. 1987-1993; John A. Alford and James Simpson, 1994-. East Lansing: Colleagues Press. REFERENCE WORKS Alford, John A., ed. A Companion to Piers Plowman. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988. ———. Piers Plowman: A Glossary of Legal Diction. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1988. ———. Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1992. Colaianne, A. J., comp. Piers Plowman: An Annotated Bibliography of Editions and Criticism, 1550-1977. New York: Garland Publishing, 1978. DiMarco, Vincent. Piers Plowman: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982. Hartung, Albert E., ed. A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500. Vol. 7. New Haven, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press, 1986. Krochalis, Jeanne, and Edward Peters, eds. The World of Piers Plowman. Trans. Krochalis and Peters. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975. Pearsall, Derek, comp. An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Langland. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990.

COLLECTIONS OF CRITICISM Blanch, Robert J., ed. Style and Symbolism in Piers Plowman. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1969. Hussey, S. S., ed. Piers Plowman: Critical Approaches. London: Metheun, 1969. Vasta, Edward, ed. Interpretations of Piers Plowman. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968. Vaughan, Miceal E, ed. Suche Werkis to Werche: Essays on Piers Plowman in Honor of David C. Fowler. East Lansing, Mich.: Colleagues Press, 1993. GENERAL AND SPECIAL STUDIES Aers, David. Piers Plowman and Christian Allegory. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975Ames, Ruth M. The Fulfilment of the Scriptures: Abraham, Moses, and Piers. Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press, 1970. Bloomfield, Morton W. Piers Plowman as a Fourteenth-Century Apocalypse. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, [1961]. Burrow, J. A. Langland^s Fictions. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

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Carruthers, Mary. The Search for St. Truth: A Study of Meaning in Piers Plowman. Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press, 1973. Coleman, Janet. Piers Plowman and theModerni. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1981. ———. Medieval Readers and Writers, 1350-1400. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. Davlin, Mary Clement. A Game of Heuene: Word Play and the Meaning of Piers Plowman E. Piers Plowman Studies, vol. 7. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1989. Donaldson, E. Talbot. Piers Plowman: The C-Text and Its Poet. Rev, ed. Yale Studies in English, vol. 113. London: Frank Cass and Company, 1966. Duggan, Hoyt N. "Langland's Dialect and Final -e? Studies in the Age of Chaucer^ 12(1990): 157-91. Economou, George D. "Self-Consciousness of Poetic Activity in Dante and Langland." In Vernacular Poetics in the Middle Ages, ed. Lois Ebin, 187-98. Kalamazoo, Mich.: The Medieval Institute, 1984. ———. "The Vision's Aftermath in Piers Plowman: The Poetics of the Middle English Dream-Vision." Genre 18 (1985): 313-21. Edminson, Vera L. Ancient Misericords in the Priory Church of St. Mary and St. Michael, GreatMalvern. St. Albans, England: Campfield Press, n.d. Fowler, Elizabeth. "Civil Death and the Maiden: Agency and the Conditions of Contract in Piers Plowman." Speculum 70 (1995): 760-92. Galloway, Andrew. "The Rhetoric of Riddling in Late-Medieval England: The 'Oxford' Riddles, the Secretum phiksophorum^ and the Riddles in Piers Pkwman? Speculum 70 (1995): 68-105. Hanna, Ralph, III. William Langland. Authors of the Middle Ages, vol. 3. Aldershot, Hants, andBrookfield,Vt.: Variorum, 1993. Justice, Steven. Writing and Rebellion: England in 1381. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Kane, George. The Autobiographical Fallacy in Chaucer and Langland Studies. The Chambers Memorial Lecture. London: University College, 1965. ———. Piers Plowman: The Evidence for Authorship. London: University of London, Athlone Press, 1965. Kaske, Robert E. "Patristic Exegesis in the Criticism of Medieval Literature: The Defense." In Critical Approaches to Medieval Literature^ ed. Dorothy Bethurum, 27-60. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960. ———. "Piers Plowman and Local Iconography." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 31 (1968): 159-69. ———. "Holy Church's Speech and the Structure of Piers Plowman." In Chaucer and Middle English Studies in Honour ofRossell Hope Robbins^ ed. Beryl Rowland, 320-27. London: Allen & Unwin, 1974. Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn. Reformist Apocalypticism and Piers Plowman. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, vol. 7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Kirk, Elizabeth D. The Dream of Thought of Piers Plowman. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972. Middleton, Anne. "William Langland's 'Kynde Name': Authorial Signature and

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Selected Bibliography

Social Identity in Late Fourteenth-Century England." In Literary Practice and Social Change in Britain., 1380-1530, ed. Lee Patterson, 15-82. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990. Muscatine, Charles. "Locus of Action in Medieval Narrative." Romance Philology 17 (1963): 115-22. ———. Poetry and Crisis in the Age of Chaucer. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1972. Mustanoja, Tauno F. "The Suggestive Use of Christian Names in Middle English Poetry." In Medieval Literature and Folklore Studies: Essays in Honor of Francis Lee Utley, eds. Jerome Mandel and Bruce A. Rosenberg, 51-76. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1970. Samuels, M. L. "Langland's Dialect." Medium Aevum 54, no. 2 (1985): 232-47. Simpson, James. Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B-Text, London and New York: Longman, 1990. Steinberg, Theodore L. Piers Plowman and Prophecy: An Approach to the C-Text. Garland Studies in Medieval Literature, vol. 5. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1991. Tavormina, M. Teresa. Kindly Similitude: Marriage and Family in Piers Plowman. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995. White, Hugh. Nature and Salvation in Piers Plowman. Piers Plowman Studies, vol. 6. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1988. Wittig, Joseph S. "Piers Plowman B IX-XII: Elements in the Design of the Inward Journey." Traditio 28 (1972): 211-80. ———. "The Dramatic and Rhetorical Development of Long Will's Pilgrimage." Neuphilokgische Mitteilungen 76 (1975): 52-76. Yunck, John A. The Lineage of Lady Meed: The Development of Medieval Venality Satire. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1963.

PIERS PLOWMAN THE C VERSION

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Prologue

In a summer season when the sun shone softly I wrapped myself in woolens as if I were a sheep;0 In a hermit's habit, unholy in his works, I went out into the world to hear wonders And to see many strange and seldom-known things. But on a May morning in the Malvern Hills0 I happened to fall asleep, worn out from walking; And in a meadow as I lay sleeping, I dreamed most marvelously, as I recall. All the world's wealth and all of its woe, Dozing though I was, I certainly saw; Truth and treachery, treason and guile, Sleeping I saw them all, as I shall record. I looked to the East toward the rising sun And saw a tower—I took it Truth was inside. To the West then I looked after a while And saw a deep dale—Death, as I believe, Dwelled in that place, along with wicked spirits. Between them I found a fair field full of folk Of all manner men, the common and the poor, Working and wandering as this world asks us. Some put themselves to the plow, and seldom played, To work hard as they can at planting and sowing And won what these wasters through gluttony destroy. And some put themselves in pride's ways and apparel Themselves accordingly in clothes of all kinds. Many put themselves to prayers and penances, All for love of our lord they live so severely In hope of good ending and heaven-kingdom's bliss; As anchorites and hermits that keep to their cells,

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Piers Plowman With no great desire to cruise the countryside Seeking carnal pleasures and luxurious lives. And some turned to trade—they made out better, As it always seems to us that such men thrive; And some know as minstrels how to make mirth, Will neither work nor sweat, but swear out loud, Invent sleazy stories and make fools of themselves Though it's in their power to work if they want. What Paul preached about them I surely can prove; Qui turpiloquium kquitur is Lucifer's man.0 Beggars and moochers moved about quickly Till their bags and their bellies were crammed to the top, Faking it for food and fighting over ale. In gluttony those freeloaders go off to bed And rise to rob and run off at the mouth. Sleep and sloth are their steady companions. Pilgrims and palmers pledged to travel together To seek Saint James and the saints of Rome,0 Went on their way with many wise tales And took leave to lie about it for a lifetime. A heap of hermits with their hooked staves Went to Our Lady of Walsingham, with wenches in tow;0 Great deadbeats that hated a good day's work Clothed themselves in hooded cloaks to stand apart And proclaimed themselves hermits, for the easy life. I found there friars from all four orders,0 Preaching to people to profit their gut, And glossing the gospel to their own good liking; Coveting fine copes, some of these doctors contradicted authorities. Many of these masterful mendicant friars0 Bind their love of money to their proper business. And since charity's become a broker and chief agent for lords' confessions Many strange things have happened these last years; Unless Holy Church and charity clear away such confessors The world's worst misfortune mounts up fast. A pardoner preached there as if he were a priest0 And brought forth a bull with the bishops' seals,

Prologue Said that he himself could absolve them all Of phony fasts and of broken vows. Illiterates believed him and liked what they heard And came up and kneeled to kiss his pardons; He bonked them with his bulls and bleared their eyes And with this rigmarole raked in their brooches and rings. Thus you give your gold to help out gluttons And lose it for good to full-time lechers. If the bishop were true and kept his ear to the ground He'd not consign his seal to deceit of the people. But it's not through the bishop that this guy preaches, For the parish priest and pardoner split the silver That, if not for them, the parishoners would have. Parsons and priests complained to the bishop Of parishes dirt poor since the Black Death,0 Petitioned permission to go live in London And sing there for simony, for silver's so sweet.0 Bishops and bachelors, both masters and doctors, Who hold cures under Christ and are crowned with the tonsure And charged by Holy Church to cultivate charity, Namely live and love truly among learned and lay, Reside instead in London through Lent and beyond. Some serve the king by counting his silver, In exchequer and chancery collecting his debts From wards and ward meetings, for waifs and strays; And some assist lords as seneschals And serve as stewards and sit and judge. Conscience came and accused them—the commons heard it— 0 "In sundry places you allow idolatry And set forth iron-bound alms boxes To take the tolls of untrue sacrifice. Signifying miracles, much wax drips there:0 Though the world knows well they're just not true, But because it profits your purses you prelates allow Unlearned men to live and die in misbelief. Good lord! because you love to be covetous I believe the world grows worse, as holy writ tells What strife and misfortune through two false priests0

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Befell Israel's children that once were free. Because of the sin of Ophni and his brother Phinees, They were routed in battle and lost Archa domini.0 And because their father saw them sin and said nothing, And failed to chastize them and would not rebuke them, As soon as he learned that Israel's children Had been defeated and deprived of Archa domini And his sons slain there, for sorrow he fell Out of his chair and broke his neck in two; And all because he failed to beat his children. And because they were priests and men of Holy Church God was all the more wrathful and took rapid vengeance. Therefore I say to you priests and men of the church That tolerate idolatrous payment and prayers, Unless you become better fathers and teachers, God shall get even with all such priests And be harder on such cursed fathers Than he ever was on Ophni's and Phinees3, For your wicked indulgence and your own sins. Your masses, your matins, and many of your hours You do undevoutly; in the end will come dread For fear Christ in his consistory will curse many.0 Some of the power given Peter I perceived, To bind and unbind, as the book tells us,0 How he left it with love as our lord wished Among four virtues, most virtuous of virtues, That are called cardinal and on which the gate hinges0 By which Christ in his kingdom closes off heaven. But the cardinals at court that the name also claim0 And its power presume in their choosing a pope, That power from Peter I would never impugn, For in love and learning lies the great election; Don't contradict it for Holy Church's sake," said Conscience. Then a king came there, led by the knighthood, Whose might it was that allowed him to rule. Then came Common Sense and the clerics he made,0 And Conscience and Common Sense together with knighthood Devised that the commons supply all provisions.0 Common Sense and the commons contrived all the crafts

Prologue And to most profit a plow they then made, To live by true labor while life on land lasts. Then Common Sense spoke to the king and the commons, "Christ keep you and your kingdom, king, And grant you so lead your land that Loyalty love you0 And for your righteous rule be rewarded in heaven." Conscience to the clergy and the king said, "1 am king, Pm a prince/you say, but neither perhaps one day. Oh, you who rule by the special laws of Christ the Ruler, To do it better, be as loving as you're just to the letter. Tou should dress naked justice in tenderness. So may you reap just as you've sown. If you seed kve, may kve be what you reap."0 Conscience and the king went into court Where a hundred hovered in silken hoods, Lawyers they seemed that serve at the bar, Pleading the law for pennies or pounds And not opening their lips once for love of our lord. You've a better chance of measuring mist on Malvern Hills Than getting them to mumble without putting up cash. Then in there ran a crowd of rats0 And over a thousand small mice with them, Come to hold a council for their common profit. For a cat from some court came when he liked And sprang on them quickly and seized them at will, Played with some perilously and pushed them around. "If we grumble about this game he'll grieve us sure, Give us such clawing and keep us in his clutches That we'll loathe our own lives till he leaves off. If we could figure a way to withstand his will We'd be lords on high and live as we please." Said a rat of renown, most reasonable of tongue, "I have seen great lords in cities and towns Wearing bright gold chains round their necks And well-crafted collars, both knights and squires. If bells were clasped to their chains, by Jesus, One might know where they went and keep out of their way. Just so," said this rat, "my own reason says We buy a brass bell or one of bright silver,

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Piers Plowman Connect it to a collar for common profit And hang it over the cat's head; then we could hear If he's restless or resting or roams out to play; And if he seems sportive, we could see it, Appear in his presence as long as he's playful And beware if he's angry and stay out of his way." The whole crowd of rats applauded this plan, But when the bell was bought and bound to the chain, Not one of their rout for the realm of France Dared bind that bell about the cat's neck Nor hang it over his head, not for all England; They reckoned their labor and all their planning lost. A mouse that seemed to know his stuff Stepped up boldly and stood before them all And made this speech to the assembled rats: "Even if we killed the cat another would come To scratch us all up though we crept under benches. So I counsel for common profit, leave the cat alone, And never be so bold as to show him the bell. For as I heard my dad say, seven years ago, When the cat is a kitten the court's in sad shape. Witness in holy writ, whoever can read it: Ve terre vbi puer est Rex. ° For myself," the mouse said, "I see so much coming, Neither cat nor kitten will be grieved by my counsel Nor will I comment on collars that cost me nothing. And if I did contribute, I'd never admit it But suffer in silence all for the best Till misfortune, that chastens many, amend them. For many men's malt we mice would destroy And many men's rest you rats would disturb If the cat and kitten were not at court; For had you rats your own way you couldn't rule yourselves." What this dream means you good people divine For I dare not, by dear God almighty. Still I kept dreaming about poor and rich, Like barons and burgesses and village bondmen, All I saw sleeping as you shall hear next: Bakers and brewers, butchers and others,

Prologue Weavers and websters, men that work with their hands, Like tailors and tanners and tillers of earth, Like dike and ditch diggers that do their work badly And drive out their days with "Dew vous saue, dame Ernme."0 Cooks and their helpers cried, "Get your hot pies! Good geese and pig meat! Come on up and eat!'5 And taverners touted in much the same way: "White wine of Alsace and wine from Gascony, Wash down your roast with La Reole and La Rochelle!" All this, and seven times more, I saw in my sleep.

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What the mountain and dark dale mean And the field full of folk I shall show you clearly. A lovely faced lady clothed in linen0 Came down from the castle and called me by name And said, "Are you asleep, Will? See these people,0 How busily they move about the maze? Most of the people that pass through this earth Are satisfied with success in this world; The only heaven they think of is here." I was afraid of her face, though she was lovely, And said, "Mercy, my lady, but what does this mean?" "In the tower on the hill," she said, "lives Truth, And he would that you worked according to his word. For he is father of faith, creator of all, To serve him truly he gave you five senses, With which to worship him all the while you live here. So he ordered the elements to help you at all times And bring forth your food, and linen and wool. And though there is plenty, moderately to ease you; And courteously commanded three things in common; None needful but these three, and now I name them And list them in order—you repeat after me. The first is food, followed by clothes,0 And drink that does you good—but don't overdo it. Through his liking of drink, Lot in his life Worked wickedly and angered almighty God. In his drunkenness one day he topped his daughters And lay with them both, as the book tells us, In his gluttony begat base offspring, And put full blame on the wine for his evil.

Passus I Come., let us make him drunk with wine, and Ut us lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father, Genesis.0 Through wine and women Lot was overcome; Therefore dread delicious drink day and night. Measure's your medicine, though you yearn much, All that your gut wants is not good for your soul, Nor food for your flesh what your spirit finds dear. Don't believe your body, for a liar's its teacher, Which is the wretched world that wants to beguile you0 For the fiend and your flesh follow together, And the soul sees that and speaks to the heart And warns you to be wary of what would deceive you." "I thank you, Madam, your words do please me. But this world's money, that men hold so fast, To whom does that treasure belong?" "Go to the gospel, and see what God said When the people posed the question of a penny in the temple And God asked them whose was the coin. 'Caesar's,' they said, cwe certainly know.' 'Reddite Cesari!' God said, cwhat belongs to Caesar0 Et que sunt dei deo^ or you do evil.' For rightful reason should rule all of you And Common Sense be warden of your wealth, And treasure's guardian, giving you as you need it; For husbandry and he hold to each other." Then I asked her, for the sake of Him that made her, "The deep dale and the darkness, unseemly to sight, I beseech you, madam, what does it mean?" "That is the Castle of Care—whoever goes in there May curse the day he was born in body and soul. Wrong is the name of the creature that lives there,0 Father of falsehood, he was its first founder. He egged on Adam and Eve to evil And counseled Cain to kill his brother. He tricked Judas with Jewish silver And then strung him up high on an elder.0 He is love's hindrance and lies at all times; Who trusts in earthly treasure he soonest betrays;

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Piers Plowman To trap men with their own grasping is what he's about.55 Then I wondered what woman she could be Who cited such wisdom from scripture, And implored her in the high name before she moved on To tell me who she was that had taught me so well. "I am Holy Church,55 she said, "you ought to know me; I received you at first and made you free. Godparents pledged you to fulfill my bidding, To believe in me and love me all of your life.'5 Then I fell to my knees and cried to her for grace And begged her to take pity and pray I improve And teach me plainly to believe in Christ: "Teach me no more of treasure, but tell me this, Sainted lady, how may I save my soul.55 "When all treasures have been tested, Truth is the best— I adduce Deus caritas^ to deliver this fact.0 It is as precious a prize as dear God himself. For he who is true in his tongue and his two hands And works that way, wishing no man evil, Is a god, says the gospel, and grants health And resembles our Lord, in Saint Luke5s words.0 Clerks who know this should spread it around, For both Christian and non-Christian claim it alike. Kings and knights should keep this in mind, Ride out to war and track down throughout the realm And take tmnsgressores and tie them up fast0 Till Truth has determined their trespass completely, And hold with all those who act out of truth And not for any lords5 love leave truth's party. Honestly fighting and honestly rewarded Is the call and pure order that pertains to knights, And he who fails this in one point fails it in all, an apostate of knighthood; For they should neither fast nor go shirtless but fight in truth's defense And never leave for love in hope to latch onto silver. In his days King David dubbed knights, Making them swear on their swords to serve truth ever. And God, when he began heaven in that great bliss,

Passus I Knighted ten orders of angels in his court, Cherubim, Seraphim, seven such, and one more— 0 Lucifer's was loveliest then, but briefly it lasted. Heaven's Archangel and one of God's knights, He and others with him kept not their truth, Plunged into loathsomeness because of his false will To be like his Lord that was almighty. I shall set my foot in the north^ and, I shall be like the most high™ "Lord, then why would that wicked Lucifer Rather leap aloft to the north side Than sit on the sun's where the daylight breaks?" "Were it not for northern men, I'd soon tell you— But I will find fault with no one," that Lady said. "The south is more carefree where the sun reigns Than is the north every way, all men know; For as the fiend flew to set his foot there, He failed and fell and all his friends with him, And where he is is hell, and there he lies fast. Directly opposite Christ sits, all wise men know. The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand. ° But on this subject I've no more to say; Laborers look for warm weather on holidays, But don't care if it's cold on the days they work. Scripture tells in a wondrous way how they fell, Some to earth, some into the air, some into deep hell. But Lucifer lies lowest of them all; For the pride that spurred him his pain has no end. And all that do evil have to go there After their dying day and dwell there with Wrong, And all that have done well, they will go Eastward to heaven, to stay forever With Truth, in the tower the Trinity sits in. Let the unlettered learn this, for the learned know, There is no better treasure than truth and true love." "I've no natural knowledge," I said, "you can teach me0 How it grows and if it's part of my mind." "You're a dummy," she said, "a real dullard. You didn't learn enough Latin when you were young. Heu michi, quod sterikm duxi vitam iuuenilem \ °

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Piers Plowman It's natural knowledge that teaches you in your heart To love your lord above all others, To die rather than do deadly sin. It is better to die than to live in sin.0 I know this is true: whoever knows better Let him teach you so you might learn. For Truth counts love sin's best antivenin And the sovereign of salves for the body and soul. Love is the plant of peace, most precious its powers, Heaven could not hold it, so heavy it first seemed, Till it begat itself of earth. Never was leaf upon linden lighter thereafter, As when it had taken flesh and blood form. Then it was light and piercing as the point of a needle; There's no armor or high wall can block it. So Love is the leader of our Lord's folk in heaven, A mean, as the mayor is, between king and commons; Just so does Love lead and direct the law; He sets the fine on man for his misdeeds. And so know it naturally, it rises from a might, Whose fountainhead's the heart and high wellspring. For the heart's natural knowledge begins in a strength That comes from the Father that formed us all, Looked on us with love and let his Son die Meekly for our misdoing to amend us all, Wishing no evil to those that caused his suffering But meekly from his mouth beseeching mercy For the people that had pained him to death. See here the example he himself sets That he was meek though full of might, and gave mercy To those that hanged him high and pierced his heart. Therefore I warn you rich people, pity the poor; Though you have the courts with you, be meek in your works, For by the same measure you give, for good or ill, You will be measured yourself when your time comes. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal., it shall be measured to you again.0 For though you be true of tongue and of transaction And innocent as a baby that neither fusses nor fights,

Passus I If you don't love truly and give the poor A good part of the goods given you by God, You earn no more merit in masses or hours Than Malkin for her maidenhead that no man wants.0 For gentle James judges in his book That faith without works is a feeble thing, Dead as a doornail unless deeds follow: Faith without works is dead.0 Chastity less charity will be chained in hell; It is as useless as a lamp that bears no light. Many chaplains are chaste but lack all charity; None harder nor hungrier than Holy Church's men, Greedy and evil-willed when they've been advanced, Unkind to their kin and to all Christendom, They chew up their gifts and cry out for more, Hampered by avarice—can't creep out, So tight has it shut its heavy lid on them. That's no truth of the Trinity, but treachery, And a bad example for the lay people. For these are words written in the gospel: 'Date et dabitur vobis-~for I deal you all things.'0 This is the love-key that unlocks grace That comforts the careworn weighed down by sin. So Love is life's healer and relief for all pain, The shoot grace grows from and surest way to heaven. Therefore I say, as I said before, these texts to witness, 'When all treasures are tried, Truth is the best!' Love it," she said, "I may stay no longer To teach you about Love"—and she started to leave.

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And then I kneeled before her and cried to her for grace, "Mercy, madame, for the love of Mary in heaven That bore the blessed child that bought us on the cross, Teach me the way to recognize Falsehood." "Look to your left and see where he stands. Falsehood and Favel and fickle-tongued Liar0 And many more men and women like them." I looked to my left as the lady said And saw a woman wonderfully clothed. She was trimmed all in fur, the world's finest, And crowned with a coronet as good as the king's; On all five fingers were the richest rings Set with red rubies and other precious gems. Her robes were richer than I can describe, To talk of her attire I don't have time; Her raiment and riches ravished my heart. Whose wife she was and her name I wanted to know, "Dear lady," I then asked, "conceal nothing from me." "That is the maid Meed, who has hurt me many times0 And lied against my beloved who is called Loyalty And slanders him to the lords that keep all our laws, In the king's court and the commons' she contradicts my teaching, In the pope's palace is privy as I, But Truth would she weren't for she's a bastard. Favel was her father who has a fickle tongue And seldom speaks truth unless it's a trick, And Meed takes after him, as men remark on kin: Like father, like daughter.0 For never shall a briar put forth berries Nor on a rough, crooked thorn a real fig grow: A good tree bringeth forth good fruit\°

Passus II I should be higher, for I come from better stock; He that fathered mefilius del is named,0 Who never lied or laughed in his entire life, And I am his dear daughter, duchess of heaven, The man that loves me and follows my will Shall have grace a-plenty and a good end, And the man that loves Meed, I'll bet my life, Will lose for her love a morsel of charity. What is man's most help to heaven Meed will most hinder— I base this on King David, whose book does not lie: Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernack.0 And David himself explains, as his mute book shows: And not taken bribes against the innocent.0 Tomorrow Meed marries a miserable wretch, One False Faithless of the Fiend's lineage. With flattery Favel's fouly enchanted Meed And Liar's made all the arrangements for the match. Be patient and you will see those that are pleased By Meed's marriage, tomorrow you'll view it. Get to know them if you can and avoid all those Who love her lordship, both the high and the low. Don't fault them but let them be till Loyalty's judge And has power to punish them, then do your pleading. Now I commend you to Christ and his pure mother, And never load your conscience with coveting meed." Thus the lady left me lying asleep And still dreaming I saw Meed's marriage. All the rich retinue rooted in false living Were bid to the bridal from the entire country, All kinds of men that were Meed's kin, Knights, clerics, and other common people, Like jurors, summoners, sheriffs and their clerks, Beadles, bailiffs, businessmen, and agents, Purveyors, victualers, advocates of the Arches,0 I can't keep count of the crowd that ran with Meed. But Simony and Civil and his jurymen0 Were tightest with Meed it seemed of all men. But Favel was first to fetch her out of chamber And like a broker brought her to be joined with False.

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Piers Plowman When Simony and Civil saw what both wanted They assented for silver to say it was so. Then Liar leapt forth saying, "Look! here's a charter That Guile has given to both False and Meed," And asked Civil to look it over and Simony to read it. Then Simony and Civil both came forth And unfolded the endowment that Favel had made.0 Then Simony said so that Civil could hear it: "All that love and believe in pleasing Meed, Had better believe this will be their last fee Who follow False, Favel, and Liar, Meed and such men that wait for rewards. Scmntpresentes etfuturi, etc.0 Be it known and witnessed by all that live on earth That Meed is married more for her riches Than for holiness or beauty or for high birth. False is gladdened for he knows she is rich And Favel false-speech enfeoffs them by this charter To be princes in their pride and poverty despise, To backbite and to boast and bear false witness, To scorn and to scold and slander others, Inobedient and bold to break the Ten Commandments. The earldom of Envy and Wrath he grants them With the castle of Strife and Meaningless Chatter. The county Covetous he concedes to them both, With usury, avarice, and other deceits In bargains and brokerage with the borough Theft, Lordship over lechery the long and the short, As in acts and in words and ogling eyes, Wish fulfillments, fantasies with idle thoughts Where there's will to do but workmanship fails. He gives them Gluttony along with great oaths, To drink all day in diverse taverns Quarrelling, joking, judging their fellow Christians And to break fast days before noon and drink Spiced wine, to speak to no end, and squander, To keep such fellowship till they fall in with Sloth And awake in despair with no desire to change Believing they are lost when they let go of life.

Passus II The folk that believe in False and follow him, Will dwell forever after they have died In Lucifer's lordship, as this document shows, With all appurtenances of purgatory and pain of hell." To witness this Wrong was the first, Then Piers the pardoner of the Pauline quest,0 Butt, the beadle of Bannebury, Reynold the reeve, many master craftsmen, Mund the miller and many many more. "In the year of the devil this deed is sealed, In Sir Simony's presence and with Civil's leave." When he heard these things, Theology was angered And said to Simony, "Now sorrow to you, To work on such a wedding that would earn Truth's wrath; May your counsel come to woe before this match is made! Meed is legitimate, the daughter of Amends.0 Though Pavel's her father and Fickle-tongue's his, Amends was her mother, in true men's view, And without her mother, Meed can't be married. For Truth promised her he'd marry one of her daughters And God grant it were so, so there'd be no cunning. And you've given her as Guile taught, may God grieve you! For Civil and yourself seldom fulfill Without some deceit what God would have done. I, Theology, know the text, if there be true judgment, That Lawrence the Levite that lay on the grid,0 Looked up to our Lord and said aloud: c God of your grace open heaven's gates For I, a man, deserve the meed of your mercy.' And since man may merit God's meed on high So it seems especially right on earth That Meed may be wed to no man but Truth; And you've endowed her with False, shame on your law! For by lies you freely take your rewards. What you and the lawyers get brings nothing To Holy Church, and you just chew up charity. You'll pay for it dearly if you don't reform soon. For you cheaters know, as scripture tells us, That False is faithless, the fiend's his father,

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Piers Plowman Born a bastard he was never truly begot. And Meed's legitimate, a maid of good family, She could kiss the king as his true cousin. Therefore work wisely and be smart And take her to London where the law may declare If Meed and False can be married. And if judges unite them through jurors' oaths Yet beware that wedding for Truth's quite sharp And Conscience is in his council and knows you all; And if he finds fault with you for supporting False, It will oppress your souls sorely on Judgment Day." To this Civil agreed, but Simony wouldn't Till he had silver for the notaries' signatures and seal. Then Favel came up with a supply of florins And ordered Guile to give gold all around, "Especially to the notaries that they not fail us. And secure False Witness with plenty of florins For he knows how to charm and master Meed." When this gold was given thanksgiving was great To Favel and False for their fine gifts, And they all came courteously to comfort False And softly to say, "We shall never give up, Nor stint of our help till Meed be your wife, For we have mastered Meed and charmed her so She gladly consents to go to London To hear what the law will say about this; Meed has agreed to marry for money." Then Favel and False were very happy And False had his men from everywhere called And bade them be ready, beggars and all, To go to Westminster to honor his wedding. But all their hackneys were hackneys for hire; So Guile borrowed horses from many great masters And arranged for Meed to ride on a sheriff Softly in a saddle from assize to assize, And False and Favel fetched themselves jurors And rode on them and on reeves right beside Meed. Simony and Civil swore together That priests and provisors should serve prelates,0

Passus II "And I, Civil, with my colleague Simony Will ride rectores and adulterous rich men,0 And lawyers will ride benefice changers And poor provisors and appealers in the Arches. Summoners and sub-deans that sell supersedes,° Leap up and ride on those that love lechery, On executors and men that come on softly. Let's couple the commissary to draw our cart0 And fetch us our food fromfornicatores.0 Make a long cart of Liar to carry the rest, Like the phonies and fakers that run on foot.55 Then False and Favel rode forth together With Meed in the middle and all these men after. I haven5t the time to tell of those that followed, The mass of men on the lookout for Meed, But Guile was leader and guide of these people To show them the way to latch on to Meed. Truthful saw them all and saying nothing0 Spurred forward on patience and passed them all And came to the King's court to tell Conscience And Conscience in turn told the King. "Now by Christ,55 said the King, "if I could catch False or Favel or their fellow Liar, I5d get my revenge on those wretches and their works And hang them by the neck with all their supporters. No man on earth will bail out the least of them, But let them feel the full force of the law.55 Then he commanded a constable, "Go arrest these tyrants despite their bribes. Put False in fetters defying his gifts And take off Guile's head, let him go no farther, And bring Meed to me, despite them all, And if you catch Liar let him not escape Till you've put him in the pillory against his pleas" Dread stood at the door and heard all the din, What the King5s will was, and then went quickly To tell False and his fellows they had better flee. Then False in his fright fled to the friars And Guile took off in terror of his life.

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Piers Plowman But merchants met him and took him home And shut him in their shops as their salesman, Appareled as an apprentice to serve their clients. Then Liar nimbly leapt away, Lurking through lanes, lugged around by many. He was welcome nowhere despite his tales, Everywhere hooted at and sent on his way, Until the pardoners felt pity and took him in. They washed him, wiped him, and wound him in rags And sent him Sundays with seals to church To give pardon for pennies by the pound's worth. Then physicians frowned and sent Liar letters Asking him to join them to analyze urine. Spicers spoke to him about checking out their wares, For he knew their market and merchandise. But minstrels and messengers met him one day And kept him with them for over six months.0 But fair-speaking friars coaxed him to come And cloaked him as a brother to keep him disguised. Yet he has leave to leap out as he likes And is always welcome home at his frequent returns. Simony and Civil both sent to Rome Appealing to the pope to take them in favor. But Conscience accused them both to the King And said, "Sir, by Christ, if clerics don't amend, Their covetous deeds will distort your kingdom And damage Holy Church beyond repair." All fled for fear and went into hiding; Except for maid Meed none dared to remain. But to be truthful, she trembled with fear And wept and wrung her hands when she was arrested.

Passus III

Now Meed the maid came and none of the rest Was brought before the King by beadles and bailiffs. The King called a clerk—whose name I won't give— To take maid Meed and look after her needs. "I myself shall examine her and ascertain Which man in the world she'd most like to have, And if she proceed well and with wise men's counsel I'll forgive all her sins, so help me God." Then, as the King had asked, the clerk courteously Took Meed by the waist and graciously brought her Into her chamber and sat beside her. And to amuse Meed there was mirth and minstrelsy; All that go to Westminster showed her great honor. Some of the judges, joyously gallant, Rushed into this lady's chamber And, with the clerk's leave, tried to comfort her, Saying, "Do not mourn, Meed, or be sorry, For we'll advise the King and set you up To marry whomever you please, Count on it, despite Conscience's tricks and trade." Then Meed graciously proffered them her thanks For their great kindnesses, giving them Bowls of pure gold and silver cups, Rings set with rubies and other rich gifts, The least of her new retainers got a gold coin. When they had taken leave of Lady Meed, The clerics came to comfort her the same And bade her be blithe, "For we belong to you To do what you will as long as you live." And Meed with courtesy returned the compliment To love them truly and to make them lords,

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Piers Plowman "And purchase you prebends as long as you can pay, Buy your benefices, as many as you want, And see that you're seated in consistory court. Ignorance shall be no hindrance to the clerk I love In early advancement, for I am welcomed In places where subtle clerks get nowhere." Then came a confessor cloaked as a friar, Speaking in mildest tones to Meed the maid: "Though laymen and the learned have both lain with you, And Falsehood's supported you these forty winters, Fll absolve you myself for a horse-load of wheat And even be your beadsman and work against Conscience Among the likes of kings, knights and clerics." Then Meed for her misdeeds kneeled before this man, Made confession of her sins shamelessly, I believe, Told him her tale and gave him a gold coin To be her beadsman and look after her affairs, Ever subverting the work of Conscience among knights and clerks. And he straightaway absolved her and said: "We've a window in progress costing us plenty; If you'd have this gable glazed and your name engraved on it We'll sing for our Meed in masses and matins Solemnly and softly as for a sister of our order." Pleasantly laughing the lady replied: "I'll be your friend, my friar, and never fail you As long as you love those lords that like lechery And fault not their ladies that love the same. It's only the flesh's frailty, as your books say, Nature's way of bringing us forth. If one avoids slander, its harm can be undone; It's the easiest forgiven of the seven sins. Be merciful to the men that persist in it And I'll have your church roofed and build you a cloister, Have your walls washed and your windows glazed And pay those that paint and make pictures for you So that all men will say I'm one of your order." But God forbids all good people such engravings, To write on windows about their good deeds, Lest pride and worldly pomp be painted there;

Passus III For God knows both your conscience and inclinations, The friars' greed for your expense that ought to go to the poor. Therefore, dear lords, desist from such writings; For in the gospel God disallows it, Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth.0 Let not your left hand, our Lord teaches, Know what your right hand is doing. Yet Meed graciously besought the mayor, Both the sheriffs and sergeants and all law enforcers To punish on pillories and pining-stools,0 Bakers, brewers, bartenders, and cooks; For these men harm most the common and poor, Grow rich on cornered markets and invest The profits that should have fed the needy. If they dealt honestly they couldn't build so high, Nor buy themselves tenements, to be sure. They take no pity on the small buyer, Though they make unfair sales they don't think it wrong; And though they don't give full measures as set by law, They still charge as if they gave men their money's worth. Many and sundry sorrows befall cities, Both by fire and flood, all because of false people That swindle good men and grieve them wrongly, Who cry on their knees that Christ avenge them Here and now on earth or later in hell On those that cheat them, so that God in turn sends those Fevers, foul evils, or fire on their houses, Plague or other misfortunes; and many times it happens The saints in heaven, hearing the innocent, Intercede for them to both our Lord and Lady, To grant crooks the grace to amend on earth And do their whole penance here without pain of hell. Then fire falls on false men's houses And for their guilt good men's homes go up in flames, too. And we've all seen sometime through some brewer Many tenements burnt down with bodies inside, And how a candle guttered in an evil place Falls down and totally torches a block. Therefore mayors that make freemen, you ought

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Piers Plowman To enquire and examine, despite silver's eloquence, What manner trade and merchandise a man uses Before he's accepted and enrolled as a freeman. It surely looks bad in city or borough If usurers or grafters, for any price Be enfranchised as free and given fake names. But Meed the maid has begged the mayor To take silver from all such traders Or if not money, gifts under the table. "Take pity on these dealers that have deep pockets— In whose hands are iniquities— ° Love them for love of me," Lady Meed said, "And every now and then let them break the law." Solomon the wise once made a sermon For the improvement of mayors and stewards Citing this as the reward of those that twist meed; Fire shall devour their tabernacles., who love to take bribes. ° Learned men know that this text means That fire shall fall and reduce to blue ashes The houses and homes of those that take bribes. The King came out of his Council and called for Meed And she came before him—I can't say who brought her. Courteously the King, as his nature called for, Faulted her a bit because she loved deceit And wanted to be wed without his leave And Truth had before spoken for her himself; The King said, "Woman, often you've acted unwisely And I've forgiven many sins and granted grace To you and yours in hope that you would change, And the longer I let you go the more your truthfulness lessens, For you've never done worse than when you accepted False. Still I forgive you this guilt, and God forbid You vex me and Truth again; when you're taken, I'll have you locked in Corfe Castle as an anchoress0 Or in a worse place, by my Saint Mary, Where all wanton women will be aware of you only And bitterly curse you and all that bear your name And teach you to love truth and take reason's counsel. I have a knight named Conscience, just come from abroad;

Passus III If he'll take you as wife, will you have him?5' "Yes, my lord," she said, "may the good Lord forbid I be anything but yours to command, or hang me!" Then Conscience was called to come appear Before the King and his council of clerks and others. Kneeling, Conscience bowed to the King's wishes, Ready to hear his will and do as he should. "Would you marry this Meed if I agreed? She'd be glad to be your companion and your mate." Conscience said to the king, "God forbid! Woe to me if I should wed such a wife! For her faith's frail and her speech is fickle And she makes men act amiss over and over. She's troubled many that trusted in her treasure; She teaches wives and widows to be wanton And draws to lechery those that love her gifts. She ruined your father, she and False together;0 She's poisoned popes and impaired Holy Church.0 By him that made me, there's no better bawd Though men search through heaven, hell, and earth. For she wiggles her tail and wags her tongue, As common as the cartway to every bum, To monks et al., even lepers in the hedges; Learned and rude, they lie with her as they please. Such men as jurors and summoners praise her; County sheriffs would be lost without her, For she parts men from their land and their lives. She gets prisoners out, paying the price, And gives jailers gold and silver coins To spring criminals to flee where they like; And takes the true man by the hair, ties him, And hatefully hangs him when he's done no harm. To be cursed in the consistory she counts for nothing; Since she keeps the bishop's people in clothes She can be absolved whenever she wants She can do as much in a single month As your secret seal can achieve in four. She is privy with the pope and provisors know it, For Simony and she herself seal their bulls.

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She blesses bishops that can barely read; She provides prebends for parsons and upholds priests Who keep lovers and mistresses all their lives, And produce children forbidden by law. Sunt infdices, qum metres sunt meretrices.0 Sad is the country whose king smiles on her, For she favors the false, who defile the truth. By Jesus! she corrupts the judges with her jewels; She perjures herself and puts obstacles Before faith's coming forth, so thickly her florins fly; She bends the law and sets lovedays at will.0 On her loveday one loses what Loyalty might win— Confusion for the common man though he plead his case forever! Law is so haughty and hates to conclude; Without money or presents he pleases so few. She often brings down true burgesses and bondsmen And the commons into care and covetousness. She deprives religion and gives it disorder. There's no city under the sun nor realm so rich Where she's praised and permitted that can last at all Without wars or disaster or wicked laws And covetous customs that destroy the commons. She and her sister, Unfit Forbearance, Unless Mary help you, have almost caused That no land love you, least of all your own. For Meed has so knit up clerks with covetousness That all the world's wisdom is turned into guile. Thus this lady teaches your land, may God grieve her! For poor men dare not bring any complaint, Such mastery has Meed over men with money." Then Meed was aggrieved and asked the King For a chance to speak in her own defense. The King granted her request with good will: "Excuse yourself if you can, I can say no more, The accusations of Conscience condemn you for good." "No way, my lord," she said, "you'll believe him the less When you get the full picture of where the blame lies. When times become tough Meed can be helpful. And Conscience, you know I didn't come to argue Or to put you down with a proud heart.

Passus III You know, man, unless you want to lie about it, How often you've come to cling to my side And to grab my gold and give it around. Why you're mad with me now is beyond me, Still I could, and would, honor you with gifts And maintain your manhood more than you imagine. But you've foully defamed me to the King, For I never killed nor plotted to kill a king, But I've personally saved sixty-thousand lives0 Both here and elsewhere in all kinds of lands. But the truth is, whoever daresay it, You've frightened many brave men who wanted to fight, To burn, to batter, and break down strongholds. Conscience hindered the king in various countries0 From finishing his foes though fortune was for it And as his fates had ordained at the Lord's will. With wretched cowardice, Conscience, you counseled the king To leave his heritage of France in his enemies' hands. It was stupid of Conscience to sell a kingdom, For it was conquered through common cause; a kingdom Or duchy can't be sold, for many folk were asked To fight for it and followed the king's will. The least lad attached to him, after the land's won, Expects a lordship or a large reward On which he can live like a freeman forever. It's natural when a king conquers his enemies To help his host at a high rate or to allow His men to do their best and keep all they get. Therefore, I counsel no king to take any counsel From Conscience if he wants to conquer a country. If I were king, Conscience would never be my constable Or marshal my men in battle," said Meed. "But had I, Meed, been marshal over his men in France, I'd have laid my life on the line—no less a pledge-— That he'd be lord of that land end to end And king of those people to his own kin's profit, The least brat of his blood a baron's peer. You gave him unwise counsel then, Conscience, To let go his lordship for a small price. It becomes a king that shall rule a realm

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Piers Plowman To give meed to the men that humbly serve him, To honor with gifts all men, his own and foreign; Meed makes him beloved and taken for a real man. Emperors, earls, and all kinds of lords Pay servants to run and ride their errands. The pope and all prelates accept presents And give meed to men to maintain their laws. Servants expect meed for their services And their masters reward them as agreed. Both beggars and bondsmen want meed for their prayers; Minstrels ask for it for their minstrelsy; Masters tutor scholars and expect meed; Priests that preach to the people and teach them Ask for meed, mass pennies, and their meals, too. Craftsmen crave it from their apprentices; Merchandise and meed must go together. There's no living man that doesn't love meed And glad to grasp it, great lord or poor man.35 The King said to Conscience, "By Christ, it seems to me Meed's made her point well and has indeed prevailed." "No," said Conscience to the King, "clerks know the truth That Meed constantly abets deceit, As the psalter says about meed-givers:0 Those that live unlawfully have large hands For dispensing meed to men more or less. But there's meed and there's merit, and men deem them both0 Desert for something done, in secret or open. Many times Meed pays men before they've worked And that is not reasonable nor right nor lawful That a man accept meed unless he deserve it, And he should be ready to work for another Without knowing for sure if that man will survive To pay out to him his proper reward. I hold him overconfident or else not true That is paidpre mmibus^ asks for an advance.0 Harlots and whores and also quack doctors Ask for their fee before they have earned it; Cheaters pay before and good men after The work has been done and the day ended;

Passus III What I mean is not meed but merit, due reward, And if it's not promptly paid the payer's to blame, As bid by the book that no one withold His worker's wages overnight until morning: The wages of him that hath been hired by thee shall not abide with thee° And it's reasonable as a reeve's true rewarding So that lord and laborer both are fairly served. The meed that many priests take for masses they sing, Amen^ Amen^ says Matthew, mercedem suam recipiunt.0 There's no meed in merchandise, I assure you, It's mere exchange, one pennyworth for another. And though king, emperor or pope out of courtesy Give land or lordship or other large gifts To the loyal and to liegemen, love is the cause, And if the loyal and liegemen turn bad later Both king and emperor and the crowned pope May disallow what they've done and endow another, Retracting it from them, and nevermore after Neither they nor their heirs be so bold to claim That emperor or king gave them income or grants. For God gave Solomon grace on this earth, Wisdom and riches as long as he lived rightly, And as soon as God saw he did not his will He deprived him of his riches and his right mind And let him live in misbelief—I think he's in hell. So God gives nothing without si in the margin0 And just so for sure may both king and pope Give and grant wherever their grace pleases And after take it back from those that do evil. Thus are meed and merit as two kinds of relations,0 Direct and indirect, both of them running In a sure and steadfast likeness to themselves. But adjective and substantive ask for unity According to kind, to case, and to number, And each helps the other; from them come retribution, The gift that God gives to all that live loyally, The grace of a good end and great joy thereafter. Deign to reward., Lord God?Q

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Piers Plowman Then the King said to Conscience, "I would know What direct relation is and indirect next, Then adjective and substantive, for this is not English.39 "Direct relation," Conscience said, "is a record of truth, Because it is a record of that which has gone before° Following and finding the foundation of strength, And to stand forth stoutly on the foundation's strength In the pattern of kind, case, and number. As a loyal laborer believes his master To his own pleasure and in pity and pure truth Will pay for performance and pity a failure And bestow on him for his work all that the truth would; So hope comes from a holy heart, and hardy relation Seeks and pursues its substantive salvation, Which is God, ground of all, gracious antecedent. And man's in direct relation if he's right true: He agrees with Christ in kind, Verbum carofactum est'° In case, Credere in ecclesia^ to believe in Holy Church;0 In number, to rot, arise and have remission, To be absolved and cleansed of our sad sins And live as the creed teaches in Christ without end. This is direct relation, right as adjective and substantive Agree in all kinds with their antecedents. The indirect thing is as whoever coveted To know and follow all the kinds of gender And without cause to depend and agree with both numbers; In which it's good and not good to grant the will of either. It is not reasonable or right to refuse my sire's name, Since as his son and servant I sue for his rights. For whoever would have my worldly daughter to wive Him I'd endow with all her fair and foul tallies. So indirect relation's to covet inwardly Concord in all genders and in all kinds of numbers; Without cost and care and all kinds of work. But direct relation is a rightful custom, As a king's claim on the commons' service To follow and provide for him and find him counsel That love for his law accord throughout the land. So the commons claim of a king three things,

Passus III Law, love, loyalty, and him as lord antecedent, Both their head and their king, holding with no party But standing as a stake stuck in a boundary As a true mark between two lords. But people now for the most part seem purely indirect, For they wish and will the best for themselves Though the king and the commons foot the bill. Reason reproves such imperfect people And holds them unsteadfast for their case is faulty. As indirect relations they never show care For the process of case if they get some silver. If the money's paid, though the parties fight, He that can get some meed makes little fuss. Let him take a number of nobles or shillings, How his clients accord counts little for meed. But adjective and substantive is as I told, Unity agreeing in case, gender, and number, And to mean in our mouth no more or less But that all manner men, women, and children Should conform to one kind to believe in Holy Church And to covet the case when they could understand. To sigh for their sins and suffer hard penance For that Lord's love who for our love died And coveted our nature and to be called by our name, Dens homo,0 And receive him into our number now and forever. He that Mdeth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him.0 Thus is he man, and mankind in manner of a substantive As hie et hec homo asking an adjective0 Of three true terminations, trinitas unus deus-° NominatiuOy pater etfilim et spiritus sanctus0 But he who's read Re0um can tell one about Meed0 And how she brought Absolon to hanging; And then, because Saul saved a king for meed Against God's commandment, God took such a vengeance That Saul and his son both died for that sin, And gave his kingdom to his servant that kept sheep; As one read of kings in Regum^ after Ruth's book,0 That God commanded Saul through Samuel the prophet

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Piers Plowman That Agag of Amalek and all his people Should die dreadfully for the deeds of their fathers. c Saul,' said Samuel, cGod himself commands you To obey my bidding and to fulfill his wish. Hurry with all your host to Amalek's land And, as our Lord wills, kill all that live there, Man, woman, child, wife, widow, and beast; All properties, people, and their belongings, Burn, and bear nothing away no matter how rich For any meed of money; all that you might, Destroy it, don't spare it, the better for you.' Because he coveted the spoils and spared the king, Let him and his best livestock go, the Bible says, Against God's will and his prophet's warning, God said to Samuel that Saul should die And all his seed for that sin come to shameful end. Thus was King Saul undone by his desire for Meed So that God hated him and his heirs forever. The culorum of this case I don't care to show,0 On the chance it could cause me harm I'll make no end. For as the way of the world goes for those in power He that is most truthful is soonest blamed. I, Conscience, know this, for Common Sense taught me That reason shall reign and govern all realms And what Agag got shall happen to some others; Samuel shall slay him and Saul be condemned And David be diademed and daunt all our foes And one Christian king look after us all. Meed shall nevermore be the master, But Love, Meekness, and Loyalty together Shall be masters of this world, to help all true men. And he who offends truth or opposes reason by taking money Shall be judged by Loyalty and by no one else. Nor shall his lawyer wear a silk hood Or fur in his robes for pleading at the bar. Many times Meed allows much evil And hinders the law through her large gifts. But Natural Love and Conscience shall come together And make Law a laborer, such love shall arise

Passus III And such peace and perfect truth among the people, That Jews shall be overjoyed and believe Their king has come from the court of heaven, Moses or the Messiah, since men are so true. For any that bear baselard, sword, or lance,0 Ax, hatchet, or any kind of weapon, Shall be condemned to death unless he smithy it Into sickle or scythe, plowshare or coulter.

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And they shall turn their swords into ploughshares and their spears

into sickles.0 Everyman will play with a plow, pickaxe, or spade, Spin or speak of God and squander no time. Priests and parsons will singplacebo and dirige0 And pray for sinners with the seven psalms,0 If any of them practice hunting or hawking He shall lose his livelihood and maybe his life. Neither shall king nor knight, constable nor mayor Exploit the commons nor summon to court Or impose men and pledge them to a verdict, According to the deed shall justice be done And mercy or no mercy accord with the truth. The king's court, the common court, consistory and chapter Shall all be but one court and one man its justice, An honest man, True-tongue, that never troubled me. There shall be no more battles, nor men bear blades, And the smith that forges one struck to death with it.

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Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war.0 But before this fortune befall them men shall find the worst. By six suns, a ship, and half a sheaf of arrows;0 And at the full moon the Jews shall convert And at that sight Saracens sing Credo in spiritum sanctum0 For Mahomet and Meed shall then meet with disaster,

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For a good name is better than great riches?0

Then Meed was angry as the wind at that: "Have a look,53 she said, "at King Solomon's wisdom: 'Take heed, he that gives gifts wins the victory And great honor therewith,' as scripture tells:

He that maketh presents shall purchase victory and honor?0

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I grant you, lady" Conscience said, "that quotation's right. You're like the lady reading her lesson That came to omnia, probate, which pleased her heart;0 That was the line's end at the leaf's bottom. But had she turned the page and looked at the verso, She would have found the following firm words, Quod bonum est tenete, a text of Truth's making. For whoever searches in Proverbs shall find there follows A troublesome text to those who take meed, Which calls out, as I or anyone else can read, But he carrieth wway the souls of the receivers.0 He wins honor that will give meed, But he that receives it has been betrayed."

Passus IV

"Stop this,33 said the King, "I won't take it longer; You two shall make true peace and serve me together. Kiss her, Conscience, I command you,35 the King said. "Christ, no,33 answered Conscience, "fire me first! Unless Reason tells me to Fd rather die.33 Then the King told Conscience, "I command you Ride fast and fetch Reason. Command him to come to hear my counsel, For he shall rule my realm and be my best advisor Concerning Meed and others, too, and who will wed her And reckon with you, Conscience, so Christ help me, How you lead my people, learned and lay.33 "Fm surely glad of that agreement,33 Conscience said, And rode straight to Reason and whispered in his ear The things the King had said and then took his leave. "Fll get ready to ride,33 Reason said, "you rest a bit.33 And called his lad Cato of courteous speech0 And Tom True-tongue-tell-me-no-talesNor-lies-to-laugh-at-for-I-never-loved-them; "And saddle up Suffer-till-my-time-come And girth him well with Think-first, For it3s will's way to wince and kick; Therefore protect him with a breastplate and pull him with painted withies.33 Then Conscience spurred his horse And Reason rode along, conferring in confidence On what a master Meed was among men rich and poor. One Warren Wiseman and Wily-fellow his friend Were glad to follow and rode fast after them, To get advice from Reason who intended to record Before King and Conscience if the commons complained

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Piers Plowman About Wily-fellow, Clever-man, and Warren Wring-law. But Conscience knew them well and told Reason: "Here come covetousness' servants. Ride on, father Reason, and pay them no mind For in wrath and wrangling is where they live, But where there's love and loyalty hurts their hearts. Destruction and misery in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.0 They've no respect for good faith, God knows, For they'd do more for a dinner or a dozen capons Than for our Lord's love or for our Lady's, God's mother." Then Reason rode on and took no rewards But did just as Conscience taught him till he met the King. Then the King came courteously to greet Reason And had him seated between himself and his son And they spoke seriously together for a long time. Then into parliament came Peace with a petition About how Wrong had made out with his wife And assaulted Rose the rich widow by night And took Margaret's maidenhead as soon as he met her. "He takes my geese, pigs, and pastures as well. Because of his 'fellowship,' said Peace, I don't dare Try to bear silver safely to Saint Giles on the Down;0 And he watches for me when I carry money, Quickly he perceives what path I take To rob me or rifle me if I ride slowly. Yet he borrows boldly and pays back badly For he borrowed my bay and never brought him back Nor paid me a thing though I filed complaints. He backs up his men to murder my servants And forestalls my fairs and fights in my markets And breaks down my barn doors and rips off my grain And gives me just a tally stick for ten quarter oats,0 And farther, he threatens me and sleeps with my girl. Because of him I've barely the nerve to show my face." The King knew this was true, for Conscience had told him How bad Wrong was and how much trouble he caused. Then Wrong was afraid and looked for Wisdom; He turned to lawyers with liberal offers

Passus IV And for their help paid under the table.0 "If I had my lord the king's love, I wouldn't care About Peace's case though he complained forever!'5 Through Wrong's work there, Meed came to notice, For Wisdom and Wit went together then0 And took Meed along to help them win mercy. Yet Peace leaned in to show his bloody skull: "God knows, I did nothing to deserve this shot; Conscience and the commons know that for sure." But Wisdom, now wily, and Wit worked quickly To overcome the King with money if they could. The King swore by Christ and his crown What Wrong should suffer for his crimes, And commanded a constable to put Wrong in irons Where he wouldn't see his hands or feet for seven years at least. "God knows," said a wise one, "that's not for the best; If he makes amends, let him out on bail Which can be pledged for his offense and buy him relief And amend what's been misdone and so much the better." Wit agreed and seconded the motion: "Better that remedy bring down evil Than evil be punished and remedy no one." Then Meed began meekly to beg mercy And gave Peace a present of pure gold. "Have this of me, man," she said, "to amend your harm, For I vouch for Wrong he'll never do it again." Full of pity, Peace then prayed the King Have mercy on the man that often had hurt him: "For he's paid me well as Wisdom directed And Meed's made amends, what more could I ask, So with the King's assent, all my claims are quit." "No, by Christ," the King said, "for Conscience's sake Wrong won't walk until I've learned more. If he gets off so lightly, he'll have a good laugh And be all the bolder to beat up my servants. Unless Reason pity him he'll stay put in my stocks As long as I live for his dirty work." Some men advised Reason to pity that villain And looked to Conscience to counsel the King;

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Piers Plowman That Meed be surety they sought from Reason. "Ask me not," said Reason, "to take pity0 Till lords and ladies love truth fully And hate dirty stories, to listen or tell, Until Purnel puts away all her furs in the closet0 And no rod is spared in spoiling children And rogues' reformation is a high holiday; Till clerks covet to clothe the poor And to sustain poor men with their furs and palfreys And religious outriders are completely recloistered And behave as Benedict bade, Dominic and Francis;0 Until learned men teach by example And till the king's counsel is all for common profit And till bishops become bakers, brewers, and tailors, For all kinds of men that one finds needful; And till Saint James is sought where the poor sick lie,0 In prisons and poor hovels on pilgrimage to Rome So that no one goes to Galicia unless he go forever; And all Rome-runners for robbers in France0 Bear overseas no money with the king's image Neither stamped nor unstamped, gold or silver, Upon forfeiture of that money, if found at the Channel, Except for merchants, their men, or messengers with letters, Provisors, priests, or penitent sinners. And by the cross," Reason said, "I'll show no pity As long as Meed has pull during court pleadings. But I could give examples from what I've seen, I'll speak for myself," Reason went on, "if it were so That I were king and crowned to keep my realm, No wrong in this world that I might witness Would go unpunished within my power on peril of my soul Nor win my grace through a gift or smooth talk Nor through Meed have mercy, by Mary in heaven. For the man nullum malum met with inpunitum0 And bade nullum bonum be irremunemtum. Let your confessor, sire, construe this in English And if you put it into effect I'll wager my hands That Law will be a laborer and dung the fields

Passus IV And Love lead your land just as you've wanted." Clerks that were confessors put their heads together To translate what this clause means into plain English. Then in the council chamber Meed winked at the lawyers Signaling them to come up with subtle speeches To recite there right away and put a stop to Reason. But all the just men declared for Reason's truth And courteously thanked Conscience and Common Sense; Rich and poor loved Reason for his righteous speech And said to him, "We can see through your words That meekness finally does overcome Meed." Love then thought little of Meed and Loyalty thought less of her And cried out to Conscience so the king could hear it: "Whoever marries her for her money, If he's not a certain cuckold, you can cut off my nose." Then Meed mourned and just looked miserable Because all the people called her a cunning, common whore. Then a juryman and a summoner quietly came forward Taking Meed the maid out of the council chamber. A sheriff's clerk cried, "A! capias Meed Et saluo custodies set non cum carcemtis?™ The King then called Conscience and Reason into council And kept looking angrily over at Meed And scowled at the lawyers and spoke to them directly; "Through your law, I believe, I've lost much revenue; Meed and men of your skill have often blocked the truth. But Reason will reckon with you as long as I reign And judge you, by this day, as you have deserved. Meed will not bail you out, by Mary in heaven! I will have loyalty in my law and no more haggling And my law will be delivered by true and upright men." Conscience spoke to the King, "Without the commons' help, It's going to be hard, by my head, to bring this about And lead your liege lords fairly and squarely." "By him that was stretched on the cross," said Reason, "Put my eyes out, unless I so rule the whole realm, And make all men submit without doing them harm, Without fines or manslaughter make all the realm right."

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Piers Plowman "I would like," the King said, "for all this to come about. Therefore, Reason, you won't ride forth readily. But be my chief chancellor in exchequer and parliament And Conscience be a king's justice in all of my courts." "I agree," said Reason, "provided you yourself have heard, Audiatis altera-mpcwtem among aldermen and councilmen,0 And Unfit Forbearance not seal secret letters Nor give supersedes without my assent. ° And I'll bet my life that Love will give you silver To pay your people and accomplish what you want More than all your merchants or your mitered bishops Or Lombards of Lucca that live like Jews off loans." Then the King ordered Conscience to fire all his officers And hire those that loved Reason, and at that I awoke.

Passus V

Thus I awoke, God knows, when I lived in Cornhill,0 With Kit in a cottage, clothed like a loller,0 And not very well liked, believe me, Among London's lollers and unlettered hermits, Because I wrote about those men as Reason taught me. For as I came upon Conscience I met Reason In a hot harvest when I was in good health And had strong arms to work with but loved the good life And to do nothing but to drink and sleep. Then someone questioned me, sound in body and sane of mind; Reason rebuked me, as I roamed about my memories. "Can you serve," he said, "or sing in a church, Or pile hay into stacks or pitch it into carts, Mow or rake or bend it into sheaves, Reap or be a head-reaper and rise up early, Or take a horn and be a hayward and sleep out all night And guard my grain in the field against pilferers and thieves? Or make shoes or cloth, or herd sheep and cattle, Hedge or harrow, or drive hogs and geese, Or use any skill that serves the community, So you better thereby those who sustain you?" "For sure," I said, "so help me God, I'm too weak to work with sickle or scythe And too tall, believe me, to bend down low, To work like a laborer for any length of time." "Then you have land to live off," asked Reason, "or a trust fund That keeps you in food? For you seem an idler, A compulsive big-spender or waster of time, Or do you beg for a living at men's doorways Or freeload on Fridays and feast days in churches, Which is a loller's life that wins little praise

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Piers Plowman Where righteousness rewards men just as they deserve. And then mil he render to every man according to his works.0 Or perhaps you're physically handicapped Or got maimed in some mishap, whereby you're excused?" "When I was young, many years ago, My father and family supported my schooling, Till I truly knew what holy writ means And what's best for the body, according to the book, And surest for the soul, provided I persevere. And, in faith, since my friends died I never found A life that I liked except in these long robes. And if I should work for a living and have means of support, That work that I learned best is what I should live by. Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was catted.Q And so I live in London and in the country, too; The tools of my trade and means of support Arc pater noster and my primer, placebo and dirige° And sometimes my psalter and my seven psalms. So I sing for the souls of such that help me, And those that feed me I believe will bestow me A welcome when I come every month or so, Now with him, now with her; this is how I beg Without bag or bottle but only with my stomach. And moreover it seems to me, Sir Reason, One should not constrain a clerk to do common labor, For by the law of Leviticus that our Lord ordained, Clerks with tonsured crowns, it is naturally understood, Should neither toil and sweat nor swear in court Nor fight at the front or grieve a foe. Do not render evil for evil. For all that have been crowned are heaven's heirs And are Christ's ministers in church and choir. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. And elsewhere: Mercy is not constrained.0 It becomes clerks to serve Christ And uncrowned peasants to cart and work. For no clerk should be crowned who doesn't come From franklins and free men and married folks. Serfs and bastards and beggars' children,

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They should do the work, and the children of lords Serve God and good men, as it suits their station, Some to sing mass, others to sit and write, To plan and keep track of reasonable spending. But since serfs' kids have been made bishops And bastards' boys into archdeacons And Shoemaker & Son pay silver for knighthood And lords' sons work for them and mortgage their land To ride against the enemy in defense of the realm In behalf of the commons and the king's honor, And monks and nuns, who should minister to the poor, Have made their kin knights and bought up knights' lands, Popes and patrons refused the poor nobility And picked Simony's sons to keep the sanctuary, Holy living and love have been long gone, And will be, till this is worn out or otherwise changed. Therefore, Reason, please don't rebuke me, For I know in my conscience what Christ would have me do. Prayers of a perfect man and discreetly done penance Are the dearest labor that pleases our Lord. For surely Non de solo? I said, "viuit homo, Nee in pane et inpabulo^ thzpater-noster witnesses; Fiat voluntas dei—that furnishes us all things."0 "By Christ," said Conscience, "I don't see how this applies;0 City begging doesn't seem to me to be steadfast perfection Unless under appointment by priory or minster." "That's the truth," I said, "and I must admit That I have wasted time and time misspent; But still, I hope, as he that has dealt often And lost and lost, and at last happened To buy such a bargain he was set up forever, And counted his previous losses as not worth a leaf, Such a winning came his way through words of grace. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in afield. The woman that found a silver coin, etc.0 So I hope to have from him that is almighty A mouthful of his grace, and begin a time That all times of my time shall turn to profit." "I advise you," then said Reason, "to get started

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Piers Plowman On the life that is commendable and true to your soul"— "Yeah, and keep it up," said Conscience; and I went to church. And so to church I went to honor God, Kneeling before the cross I beat my breast, Sighing for my sins, saying my pater noster^ Weeping and wailing till I fell asleep. And then I dreamed much more than I just told0 Of the matter that I dreamt first on the Malvern Hills. I saw the field full of folk from one end to the other And Reason dressed just like a pope And Conscience his crossbearer standing before the king. Reason preached reverently before the whole realm, And proved that the plague was for sin purely And the wind from the southwest on a Saturday evening0 Was clearly for pride and no other cause. Pear trees and plum trees were puffed to the ground As example, people, that we have to do better. Beeches and broad oaks were blown to the ground And turned roots-upward as a terrible reminder That before Doomsday deadly sin will undo them all.0 On this matter I could ramble on and on, But Pll say what I saw, sleeping as it were, How Reason pointed the whole realm toward heaven. He ordered wasters to work and earn their way Through some honest labor and not to squander time. He begged Purnel to put off her fancy furs And save them in her chest against a rainy day. He taught Tommy Stow to take two cudgels And fetch home Felice from the pining stool.0 He warned Walt that his wife was much to blame For her hood cost half a mark and his less than a groat. He told Butt to cut off a birch rod or two And beat his daughter Betty until she would work. He charged merchants to chastize their children: "Let no amount of money pamper them when young, For he who spares the rod spoils his children. And thus wrote the wise one to guide us all: Quiparcit virge oditfilium?0 And then he asked prelates and priests alike:

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"What you preach to the people practice yourselves; Live according to what you teach us—we'll love you better." Then he directed religious orders to keep to their rule, "Lest the king and his council reduce your provisions And manage your estates until you're better governed. Gregory the great scholar caused to be written in books0 The rule for all religious orders, righteous and obedient: c just as fish in the flood when the water fails them Die because of drought when they lie on dry ground, So do members of religious orders perish and rot That covet the life out of convent and cloister.' For if there is heaven on earth or ease for the soul It is in cloister or school, I think for a lot of reasons. For no man comes into cloister to chide or fight; In school there is love, humility, and pleasure in learning. But many days, men tell, both monks and canons Ride out in civies, their rule badly kept, Leaders at lovedays, and buy up land0 And one might ride a palfrey from estate to manor, A pack of hounds at his behind as if he were a lord, And unless his serving-boy that brings his cup kneel He scowls and lours and calls him a bum. Lords should have better things to do than give their heirs' lands To religious men who don't care if it rains on their altars. In many places there are parsons, living the easy life, That don't pity the poor and think it's their privilege. But you consider yourselves lords, your lands are so large. But there shall come a king to confess you all And beat you, as the Bible tells, for breaking your rule And amend you monks, nuns and canons, too, And put you to your penance, Adpristinum statum ire.,0 And barons and their sons blame and upbraid you. Some trust in chariots and some in horses; they are bound and have

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Friars at that time shall find in their refectory Bread without begging to live by ever after And Constantine shall cook for them and roof their churches,0 For the abbot of England and his niece the abbess Will take such a knock on the crown nothing will cure it.

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Piers Plowman The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, with an incurable wound.0 But before that king comes, as the chronicles told me, Clerks and holy church shall be clothed anew." And then he counseled the king to love his people: "For the commons is the king's treasure, Conscience knows well. And also," said Reason, "I recommend you rich And commoners accord in all kinds of truth. Let no sort of counsel or covetousness part you, So that with one mind and will you hold to your trusts. You know, in heaven on high was a holy community Till Lucifer the liar believed he himself Was smarter and more worthy than he who was his master. So stick together, and he who does otherwise Causes all the troubles that confound a realm." And then he prayed the pope have pity on Holy Church And grant no grace till there be good love Among any and all kings over Christian people. "Command all confessors who absolve any king Prescribe peace as their penance and perpetual forgiveness Of all manner deeds, and all men love each other. And you that seek Saint James and all the saints of Rome, Seek instead Saint Truth for salvation of your souls; Qui cumpatre etfilio^ may fair fortune befall0 Those that follow my sermon." Thus Reason ended.

Passus VI

Right away Repentance ran in and repeated his theme And made Will weep water from his eyes. Purnel proud-heart threw herself flat on the ground0 And it was long before she looked up and "Lord, mercy" cried And promised him who made us all She'd unstitch her shift and line it with hair To outfight her flesh that was fierce to sin. "Never shall high heart take me, but I'll hold myself low And suffer to be slandered, as I never did before. But now I'll be meek and beg mercy Of all whom I've hated in my heart." "Repent," said Repentance, "as Reason taught you And shrive yourself sharply and shake off all pride." "I, Pride, patiently ask penance; Because first and foremost to my father and mother I've been disobedient, I beg God's mercy, And been unyielding, unashamed of sinning against God and good men, so great was my heart; Inobedient to Holy Church and to those that serve there; Some I judged for their many vices and others egged on Through my words and wit to reveal their evil works, And scorned them and others if I could find excuse, Laughing aloud so that unlettered men Would think me witty and wiser than others; Derisive and unreasonable to those that showed distinction, Wanting my name known in all manner of manners; Seeming a sovereign one whatever befell me To tell any story, I thought myself wiser To speak and advise than any clerk or layman; In my bearing among people proud of my apparel That was way beyond my means inside and out,

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Piers Plowman Desirous that men believe me propertied, Rich and reasonable and righteous of lifestyle; Boasting and bragging with many bold oaths, Advancing my vainglory despite any reproof And still so singular according to myself, in people's eyes There was no one like me nor none so pope-holy; Some time in one set, some time in another; In all sorts of religious houses I schemed how I might Be taken as holy and honored for that reason; Wishing that men thought my works were the best, And I the most clever at my craft, clerical and otherwise, And strongest on horseback and stiffest waist down And handsomest to look at and the best in bed, And liking such a life that no law appraises, Proud of my fair features and my resounding song. And what I gave for God's love I told to my gossips, So they'd think me real holy and full of compassion, And no bolder a beggar to ask and to crave, To tell tales in taverns and in the streets, A thing not even thought and I swore I saw it And lied on my body and on my life, too; To deeds well done I got witnesses And said to anyone sitting beside me, 'Look, if you don't believe me or think I lie, Ask him or her and they'll tell you What I suffered and saw and sometimes had And what I figured and knew and the kin I came from.'" Most he wanted men to know whatever leads to pride, So he'd be praised among the people though he seemed poor. If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. No man can serve two masters.0 "Now God of his goodness give you grace to amend," Repentance said right at that, and then Envy arose. With heavy heart Envy asked for shrift And cried "mea culpa" cursing all his enemies.0 His clothes were made of harsh words and of men he had cursed. He clenched his fist upon Wrath; if he had his every wish No man should live who trespassed his land. Contending and accusing, that's what he chiefly lived on, And to blame men behind their backs and wish them bad luck.

Passus VI And whatever he learned about Will he told it to Wat And everything he learned about Wat he told Will after And made foes of friends through fickle and false tongue; "Either through might of mouth or sleight of hand I avenged myself often or ate my heart out Like the shearing of a seamstress, and cursed my fellow Christian Against Christ's advice, as clerks find in books: His mouth is full of cursing, and of bitterness, and of deceit: under his tongue are labor and sorrow. The sons of men, whose teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.0 And when I'm not in control I get so depressed That I get a cramp or pain in the heart Or an ague in anger and sometime a fever That hangs on for a year, until I despise The lord's art of healing and believe in a witch And say no clerk can help me, nor Christ, as I live, Like the shoemaker of Southwark, such is his gift, For neither God nor his word nor his grace ever helped me But through a charm I lucked out and got back my health. Many years I cannot eat as a man ought to Because envy and ill will are hard to digest. May neither sugar nor sweet thing allay my swelling Nor costly drink drive it from my heart Nor shame nor shrift, unless my stomach be scraped?" "Yes, for sure," Repentance said, "if you be right sorry For your sins above all and by God's mercy." "I'm always sorry," said Envy, "seldom otherwise, And that wastes me so because I can't get even. Still I'm broker of backbiting and blaming men's wares Among merchants all the time and especially in London. When another, not I, made a sale, then I was ready To lie and to lour and knock my neighbors, Their works and their words, wherever I might be. Now I deeply regret that I ever did so. Lord, before I let go this life, for love of thyself, Grant me, good Lord, grace of amendment." Then Wrath awoke, showing the whites of his eyes And a running nose, biting his lips. "I am Wrath," the man said, "I'll gladly strike

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Piers Plowman Both with stone and staff, and sneak up on my enemy; I craftily think how to kill him with cunning. Though I sat and talked seven years I couldn't begin to tell The harm I've done with hand and with tongue; Impatient with all penance, I complained, as it were, Against God, when anything grieved me, and grouched about his gift, As sometime in the summer and also in harvest, Unless I had the weather I wanted, I charged God as the cause Of all manner of troubles I had or saw. Among all manner of men I live sometime, With illiterates and literates who just love to hear Harmful news about men, behind their backs or to their faces. Friars follow my lead time and again And prove Holy Church's prelates to be imperfect; And the prelates complain because they shrive their parishioners0 Without license and leave, the stuff wrath lives on. Thus they speak and dispute who despise each other. Thus beggars and barons are often at debate Until I, Wrath, grow tall and walk with them both. Either till they both become beggars and live by the spirit Or all become rich and ride about, I'll not rest, Wrath, From following these people—Pve no other fortune. I've an aunt who's a nun, an abbess no less; She'd rather faint or drop dead than suffer any pain. I've been the cook in her kitchen and the convent served For many months—the nuns and monks, too. I was soup chef to the prioress and other poor ladies, And made them squabbling-stew: cDame Joan was a bastard, And Dame Clarice a knight's daughter, but her dad was a cuckold, And Dame Purnel a priest's piece—she'll never make prioress; Because she had a baby in the henhouse she'll be challenged at election.' Thus they sit, those sisters, for some time, and dispute Till 'you lie' and cyou lie' becomes lady over them all; And then I, Wrath, awaken and look for revenge. And then I scream and scratch with my sharp nails, Bite and beat and bring out such manners That all ladies who love honor loathe me. Among wives and widows I'm used to sitting

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Parked in the pews; the parson knows How little I love Letty of the stiles; Because she received holy bread before me, I had a change of heart.0 Afterwards after dinner the two women quarrelled And I, Wrath, was ready, and filled both with anger, Until they called each other cwhore' and laid on with claws Till both their heads were bare and their cheeks bloodied. I might live among monks, but I often avoid it, For there are many fierce fellows to spy on my affairs, That is, prior and sub-prior and our pater abbas.0 And if I tell any tales they put their heads together And make me fast Fridays on bread and water. Further I'm charged in the chapter-house as if I were a child And my bare ass whipped and no breach to help.0 I've no pleasure, believe me, dwelling with monks, For I eat more fish than meat there and drink watered-down ale. And once in a while when wine comes and I drink in the late evening I have a foul-mouthed run-off for five days after, And everything evil I know about anyone in our convent I cough up in our cloister so the whole convent knows it." "Repent now," said Repentance, "and never repeat Counsels that you know, neither by look nor speech. And drink not over-delicately nor too deeply either, Lest your will and your wit turn into wrath. Esto sobrius? he said, and absolved him after,0 And bade him pray to God for his help to amend. Then Lechery said "Alas!35 and cried to our Lady, "Lady, to your beloved son kneel down for me now, That he pity me, whoremaster that I am, with his pure mercy, With understanding that I shall, Saturdays, for your mother love0 Drink only with the duck and dine but once. I, soul-guilty, confess me to God Of lecherous pleasure in my bodily sins, In word and in outfit, in ogling eyes. For each maid I met I gave her a signal Hinting toward sin, and some I tasted Around the mouth and beneath began to grope Till we were of one mind and went right to work, As well on fast days as Fridays and high festival evenings, As willing in Lent as out of Lent, any old time—

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"Piers Plowman Such work for us was never out of season— Until we couldn't any more; then on to funny stories About whoring and lovemaking, and tried through talk And handling and hugging and also through kissing, Excited each other to do the old sin; Sent out cunning songs and old go-betweens To win over women to my way with tricks, Sometimes by magic and sometimes by power. I lay by the loveliest and loved her and left her. When I was old and grey and had lost the ability, I loved to listen to dirty stories. Now Lord, for your loyalty, have mercy on lechers!" Then came Covetousness—I can't describe him, So hungry and hollow Sir ^Harvey looked. He was beetle-browed and blubber-lipped, with two bleary eyes, And his cheeks hung on his face like a leather purse, Quivering with age well below his chin; Like a bondsman's bristly bacon his beard was shaved, With both hood and hat atop his head, In a torn, twelve winter old tabard— Unless a louse could leap, I'm sure as can be, He wouldn't roam on that Welsh flannel, it was so threadbare. "I've been covetous," said the wretch, "I admit it here. For some time I served Sim at the Stile And was his pledged apprentice to look after his profits. First I learned to lie leaf by leaf; Wicked weighing was lesson number one. To Wye and to Winchester I went to the fair With all kinds of merchandise, as my master ordered; If the grace of guile hadn't been among my goods, They'd have been unsold these seven years, so help me God! Then I joined up with cloth-makers, to take the first course, To draw out the cloth's edge to make it seem longer. Among expensive striped cloths I completed a lesson, To stitch them with a pack needle and fasten them together, Put them in presses and pin them therein, Till ten or twelve yards totaled out as thirteen. My wife was a weaver and made woolen cloth; She spoke to the spinners about spinning it out thin.

Passus VI The pound she paid them by overweighed by a quarter My own set of scales when I balanced it justly. I bought her barley, she brewed it to sell; Penny-ale and pudding ale she poured together, For laborers and poor people—that lay apart. But the best ale lay in my den or in my bedroom And whoever drank of that bought it thereafter, A gallon for a groat—and still in no fair measure When it came by the cup; such craftiness my wife used. Rose the Retailer was her right name; She'd held to huckstering for eleven years." "And you never repented?" asked Repentance, "or made restitution?5' "Yes, once I was put up in an inn with a bunch of tradesmen, I rose and rifled their bags when they were at rest."0 "That was lousy restitution," said Repentance, "for sure, And you'll be hanged high for it, here or in hell! During your lifetime did you ever practice usury?" "No, truthfully," he said, "except in my youth When I learned a lesson from the Lombards and Jews To weigh pennies on a scale and clip the heaviest And made loans for love of the security, which I allowed Would be worth more than the money that I lent those men. I lend to people who'll lose a lip off each noble And with Lombards' letters lend gold to Rome, So what man borrowed from me he paid for the time."0 "Did you ever lend to a lord for love of his protection?" "I made loans to lords and ladies who loved me never after And have made many a knight into cloth-maker and merchant, Who paid never for his apprenticeship even a pair of gloves;0 Who entered in my lending contracts seldom prospered again." "Now readily," said Repentance, "and by the cross, I believe, Never shall your executors well bestow the silver you leave them Nor your heirs, as I hope, enjoy your winnings, For the pope with all his confessors fails to have power To absolve you of this sin sine restitucione.0 A sin is never remitted unless the theft is restored?0 "With false words and weights I've won my goods And with guile and smooth talk gathered what I have;

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Piers Plowman Mixed up my merchandise and made a good display, The worst lay in the middle, a good trick I thought. And if my neighbor had a servant or any kind of beast More profitable than mine, I made many twists and turns, I set my mind entirely to how I might have it, And if no other way, I stole it as a last resort Or secretly shook out his purse and picked his locks. And if I went to the plow I pinched at his half-acre, That a foot of land or a furrow Pd rip off From my nearest neighbor, encroach on his earth; And if I reaped, I overreached, or ordered my reapers To seize for me with their sickles what I never sowed. On holidays in Holy Church when I heard mass I was never inclined to seek out sincerely Mercy for my misdeeds; I mourned more often For lost goods, believe me, than for bodily guilts, Though Fd done deadly sin, I dreaded it not as sorely As when I'd made a bad loan or awaited an overdue payment. And if I sent my servants overseas to Bruges Or to Prussia my apprentice to attend to my profits, To buy merchandise with my money and make exchanges here, Nothing might comfort me in the meantime, Neither matins nor mass nor any other sight; Nor performed penance ever or said pater noster That my mind was not more on my goods in my anxiety Than on the grace of God and his great might. For where thy treasure is> there is thy heart?0 "Now certainly, said Repentance, CCI feel sorry for your living. If I were a friar, in good faith, for all the gold in the world I wouldn't take your cash to cope me or repair our church Nor accept a meal from you if my heart knew it. If you're what you say you are, I'd rather die of hunger. It is better to die than to live in sin.0 I advise no faithful friar to sit at your party. I'd even prefer, by our Lord, to live on watercress Than take sustenance and support from false men's winnings. Seek rich dishes and another man's slave you'll be; Dine instead on your own bread and you'll remain free. ° You're an unnatural creature; I can't absolve you

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Till you've made to the best of your ability restitution to all men; For all that have of your goods, so help me God, Are beholden at Judgment Day to help you restore. Yes, the priest that took your tithe, I don't mean another, Will share with you in purgatory and help you pay your debt If he knew what you were when he received your offering. And any man that believes I lie, look in the Psalter gloss on For behold thou hast loved truth ° And there he shall surely learn what usury means And what penance the priest will have who's proud of his tithes. For a whore can tithe better from what her ass earns her Than can an errant usurer, so help me God, And will ascend to heaven sooner, by Christ that made me.35 Then came a Welshman, wonderfully sorry, Named Evan Give-back-if-I-so-much-as-have-itAll-that-IVe-wickedly-won-since-I-had-knowledge: "And though I lack livelihood I'll not let up So that each man shall have his due before I depart, For I'd rather beg like a bum in this life Than live in comfort and lose life and soul." Robert the Rifler looked upon reddite° And because he had nothing to return he wept very sorely. But still that sinful wretch said to heaven: "Christ, who died on the cross on Calvary When my brother Dismas begged you for grace And you had mercy on that man for memento's sake,0 So have pity on Robert who has no reddere* Nor expects to earn enough by any skill I know. Because of your great mercy I beseech mitigation; Don't damn me at Doomsday because I did so much evil." What happened to this felon I can't show plainly; I know well how he wept water out of his eyes And acknowledged to Christ his culpability again, That he'd polish anew Repentance's pikestaff, For he had lain with Latro^ Lucifer's aunt.0 "By the cross," said Repentance, "you're heading toward heaven If it's so in your heart as I hear from your tongue. Trust in his great mercy and you still might be saved. For all the misery in this world and its wicked deeds

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Piers Plowman Fare as a spark of fire that fell into the Thames And died with a drop of water; so do all sins Of all manner men that confess in good faith And for mercy cry, they shall never enter hell. All iniquity in relation to God's mercy is like a spark in the middle of the sea.0 Repent right away,53 said Repentance straight to the usurer, "Keep his mercy in mind and as for merchandise, drop it, For you haven't enough honestly earned money to buy a cake. For what wealth you have all began with falsehood And as long as you live on it you go deeper in the red in God's book. And if you don't know where or to whom to begin restitution, Take it to the bishop and beg him of his grace To bestow it himself in your soul's best interest; For he shall answer for you at the High Judgment, For you and for many more that man shall give reckoning Of what he taught you to live on and to stop your thieving." Now Glutton heads for confession And moves towards the Church, his mea culpa to say. Fasting on a Friday he made forth his way By the house of Betty Brewer, who bid him good morning And where was he going that brew-wife asked. "To Holy Church," he said, "to hear mass, And then sit and be shriven and sin no more." "I have good ale, Glutton, old buddy, want to give it a try?" "Do you have," he asked, "any hot spices?" "I have pepper, peony, and a pound of garlic, A farthing-worth of fennel seed, for fasting days I bought it." Then in goes Glutton and great oaths after. Cissy the shoemaker sat on the bench, Wat the game warden and his drunken wife, Tim the tinker and two of his workmen, Hick the hackney-man and Hugh the needier, Clarice of Cock's Lane and the clerk of the church, Sir Piers of Pridie and Purnel of Flanders, A hayward, a hermit, the hangman of Tyburn, Daw the ditchdigger and a dozen rascals In the form of porters and pickpockets and bald tooth-pullers, A fiddler, a rat-catcher, a street-sweeper and his helper,

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A rope-maker, a road-runner, and Rose the dish-seller, Godfrey the garlic-man and Griffith the Welshman, And a heap of secondhand salesmen, early in the morning Stood Glutton with glad cheers to his first round of ale. Clement the cobbler took off his cloak And put it up for a game of New Fair.0 Hick the hackney-man saw with his hood And asked Bart the butcher to be on his side. Tradesmen were chosen to appraise this bargain, That whoso had the hood should not have the cloak, And that the better thing, according to the arbiters, compensate the worse. They got up quickly and whispered together And appraised these items apart in private, And there was a load of swearing, for one had to get the worse. They could not in conscience truthfully accord Till Robin the rope-maker they asked to arise And named him umpire so that all arguing would stop. Hick the hostler got the cloak On condition that Clement should fill the cup And have Hick the hostler's hood and rest content; And whoever took it back first had to get right up And greet Sir Glutton with a gallon of ale. There was laughing and louring and "please pass the cup!35 Bargaining and drinking they kept starting up And sat so till evensong, and sang from time to time, Until Glutton had gobbled down a gallon and a gill. His guts began to rumble like two greedy sows;0 He pissed half a gallon in the time of a pater noster, He blew his round bugle at his backbone's bottom, So that all who heard that horn had to hold their noses And wished it had been well plugged with a wisp of briars. He could neither step nor stand unless he held a staff, And then he moved like a minstrel's performing dog, Sometimes sideways and sometimes backwards, Like some one laying lines in order to trap birds. And when he reached the door, then his eyes dimmed, And he stumbled on the threshold and fell to the ground, And Clement the cobbler grabbed him by the waist

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Piers Plowman And in order to lift him up set him on his knees. But Glutton was a huge boor and troubled in the lifting And barfed up a mess into Clement's lap;, There is no hound so hungry in Hertfordshire That he'd dare lap up that leaving, so unlovely it smacked. With all the woe in this world his wife and his daughter Bore him to his bed and put him in it, And after all this excess he had a bout of sloth; He slept through Saturday and Sunday till sundown. Then he awoke pale and wan and wanted a drink; The first thing he said was "Who's got the bowl?" His wife and his conscience reproached him for his sin; He became ashamed, that scoundrel, and made quick confession To Repentance like this: "Have pity on me," he said, "Lord who are aloft and shape all that lives! To you God, I, Glutton, acknowledge my guilt Of how I've trespassed with tongue, how often I can't tell, Sworn cGod's soul and his sides!' and cSo help me God, Almighty!' There was no need for it so many times falsely; And overate at supper and sometime at noon More than my system could naturally handle, And like a dog that eats grass I began to throw up And wasted what I might have saved—I can't speak for my shame Of the depravity of my foul mouth and maw— And on fasting days before noon I fed myself ale Beyond all reason, among dirty jokesters, their dirty jokes to hear. For this, good God, grant me forgiveness For my worthless living during my entire lifetime. For I swear by the true God, despite any hunger or thirst, Never shall on Friday a piece offish digest in my stomach Till my aunt Abstinence has given me leave— And yet I've hated her all my lifetime."

Passus VII

Then Sloth came all beslobbered with two slimy eyes. "I must sit to be shriven or else shall nap; I cannot stand well or stop or kneel without a stool. Once I'm in my bed, unless my bottom demands it, No ringing shall make me rise until Pm ready to dine." He began benedicite with a burp and knocked his breast,0 Stretched and roared and finally snored. "What! Awake, man!5' said Repentance, "and rush to your confession!" "If I should die today I'd dread it terribly; I don't know my pater noster perfectly as the priest says it. I do know rhymes about Robin Hood and Randolph Earl of Chester,0 But not of our Lord nor of our Lady the least that was ever made. I have vowed forty vows and forgotten them by morning, I never performed penances that the priest ordered Nor was really sorry for my sins, I never took the time. And if I pray any prayers, unless it be in anger, What I tell with my tongue is ten miles from my heart. I'm occupied every day, holidays and otherwise, With idle tales at the ale-house and other times in churches. God's pain and passion is very seldom in my mind. I never visited a feeble man or one fettered in prison. I'd rather hear a dirty joke or a lie to laugh at Or to slander men or compare them unfairly Than all that Mark ever wrote, Matthew, John, or Luke. Vigils and fasting days I can forget them all And lie abed in Lent with my lover in my arms Till matins and mass are done, then I'm mentioned by the friars. I'm not shriven sometime, unless frightened by illness, Twice in ten years and then I don't tell the half of it. I've been priest and parson passing thirty winters

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Piers Plowman Yet I can neither chant notes nor sing nor read a saint's life. But I can spot a hare in a field or furlong And hold court for knights and account with the reeve. But I cannot construe Cato or read like a scholar.0 And if I beg or borrow anything, unless it's recorded, I forget it immediately, if any man asks for it Six times or seven I forswear it with oaths, And thus have I vexed true men ten hundred times. And sometimes my servants' salaries fall behind: It's pitiful to hear the reckoning when we read the accounts, So with wicked will I pay my workmen. If any man does me a good deed or helps me at need I return unkindness for courtesy, I can't understand it, For I have and have had something like a hawk's manners, I'm not lured with love unless there's a morsel under thumb. The kindness my fellow Christians showed me formerly, Sixty times I, Sloth, have since forgotten it In speech and in sparing speech; many times I've spoiled Both flesh and fish, and kept provisions so long Till everybody hated to look upon or smell it; Both bread and ale, butter, milk, and cheese Were wasted under my care, and the house set on fire, And went about in my youth without any industry, And ever since I've been a beggar because of foul sloth.

Hen michi quod sterilem duxi vitam iuuenilem"0

"And you don't repent?" asked Repentance, and right at that he fainted, Till Vigilate the watchful drew water from his eyes0 And sprinkled it on his face and cried fast to him And said, "Beware of Wanhope who wants to betray you!0 I'm sorry for my sins,' say to yourself And beat yourself on the breast and beg of God grace, For there is no guilt so great that his goodness is not greater." Then Sloth sat up and crossed himself often And made a vow before God for his foul sloth: "On no Sunday for the next seven years, unless sickness prevent me, Shall I fail to go before daybreak to the dear church And hear matins and mass as if I were a monk. No ale after eating shall hold me back

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Till I have heard evensong, I swear on the cross." But what are the branches that bring men to sloth?0 It's when a man does not mourn for his misdeeds, Badly performs the penances the priest has imposed, Does no almsdeeds, dreads not sin, Lives against the faith and keeps no law And has no desire to learn about or hear of our Lord But does to hear of rogues, whores, and somebody's profits. When men speak of Christ or cleanness of soul He becomes angry and will hear only words of mirth. Penance and poor men and the passion of saints He hates to hear about and all who speak of them. These are the branches, beware, that bring a man to wanhope. You lords and ladies and legates of Holy Church Who feed wise-fools, flatterers and liars, And like to listen to them to get your laughs— Woe to you that now Icmgh—° And give such as them food and favors and refuse poor men, In the hour of your death I'm very much afraid Lest that manner of men bring you into great sorrow. Both those who consent to a deed and those who do it will be punished equally.0 Patriarchs and prophets, preachers of God's words, Save through their sermons man's soul from hell; Just as flatterers and fools procure for thed 90 To entice men through their tales to sin and scurrility. Clerks who know this should inform lords Of what David says about such men, as the Psalter tells: He that worketh pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house.0 No scoundrel should have audience in hall or in chamber Where wise men gather, God's words witness, Nor any petty, arrogant man allowed among lords. Clerks and knights welcome king's minstrels And for love of their lord listen to them at feasts; Much more, it seems to me, rich men should Have beggars before them, for such men are God's minstrels, As he says himself, Saint John bears witness: He that despisethyou, despiseth me.0 Therefore I counsel you rich men, when you make revels,

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Piers Plowman For the solace of your souls have such minstrels: The poor for a wise-fool sitting at your table, With a learned man to teach you what our Lord suffered To save your soul from Satan your enemy And to fiddle for you without flattery the tale of Good Friday, And a blind man for a jester or a bedridden woman To cry for largess before our Lord, to show your good praise, These three manners of minstrel make a man laugh And do him great comfort in his death-dying Who during his lifetime gave to them and loved to hear them. Thesa solace his soul till he himself has fallen In a wellhope, for he so worked, among worthy saints, Whereas flatterers and fools with their foul words Lead those who listened to them to Lucifer's feast With turpiloquio, a lay of sorrow and Lucifer's fiddle,0 Into perpetual pain or purgatory as bad, For they loved and listened to what God's law despises. To give to actors? Then Repentance was ready and advised them all to kneel: "I shall beseech in behalf of all sinners our Savior's grace, To amend us of our misdeeds, to grant mercy to us all. God, who out of your goodness did create the world And made everything out of nothing and man like yourself, And then suffered him to sin, a sickness to us all— And for our best, as I believe, whatever the Book says: Oh happyfault, and necessary sin of Adam!0 For through that sin your son was sent to earth And became man of a maid, mankind to amend— And made yourself, with your son, like us in body and soul. I am in the Father, and the father in me; and he that seeth me seeth the Father also? And then suited up in our flesh, died, so it seemed, On a Friday, in man's form, felt our sorrow. He led captivity captive? The sun for sorrow of this lost light for a time, About midday when it's most light and mealtime of saints; Then fed with your flesh and blood our forefathers in hell. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light? The light that leapt out of you blinded Lucifer

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And brought your blessed out of there into the bliss of heaven. The third day thereafter you walked in our suit of flesh; A sinful Mary saw you before Saint Mary your mother. And all so to solace sinners you suffered it to be so. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners.0 And all that Mark has composed, Matthew, John, and Luke, Of your mightiest deeds, was done in our fleshly suit. The word was made flesh.0 And with so much it seems the more confidently we may Beg and beseech you, if it be your will, Who are first our father and of flesh our brother, And since then our savior, and said with your tongue That anytime we sinful men be sorry For ill-done deeds, we'd never be damned, If we acknowledged and cried to Christ mercy for them. Whenever a sinner mil repent., I mil remember their sins no more0 And because of your great mercy and the love of Mary your mother, Have pity on these lowlifes who repent so sorely That they ever offended you, God, in spirit or in deed." Then Hope took up a horn ofDeus, tu conuersus viuificabis nos, And blew it with Eeati quorum remisse sunt iniquitates et quorum tecta suntpeccata0 That all saints sang with David for sinners: Men and beasts thou wilt preserve, O Lord; O how hast thou multiplied thy mercy, O God!0 A thousand men then thronged together, Cried upward to Christ and to his clean mother To have grace to go to Truth—God grant that they might! But there was no one so wise that he knew the way there, But blundered forth like beasts over valleys and hills, Till it was late and long when they met a man0 Dressed like a Saracen in the style of pilgrims. He carried a staff bound with a broad strip of cloth Twisted all around in the way of woodbine. A bowl and a bag he bore at his side; A hundred phials full of holy water and oil hung on his hat, Souvenirs of Assisi and scallop shells from Galicia, And many a cross sewn on his cloth, keys of Rome, And the vernicle in front, so that people would know

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Piers Plowman And see by these signs whom he had sought. First, these folk asked him from where he'd come. "From Sinai," he said, "and from our Lord's sepulchre. I've been in both Bethlehem and Babylon, In Armenia and Alexandria and in Damascus. You can see by the signs attached to my cap I have sought good saints for my soul's health And walked full wide in wet and dry." "Do you know anything of a holy saint," they asked, "that men call Truth? Can you show us the way to where Truth lives?" "No, so help me God," said the fellow then, "I never saw a palmer with pikestaff or satchel Ask about him except now in this place." "Peter" said a plowman, and put forth his head,0 "I know him as closely as a clerk does his books. Conscience and Common Sense gave me directions to his place. And made me promise afterwards to serve him forever. Both to sow and to set as long as I can work, And to sow his seed, to tend to his beasts, Indoors and outdoors to look after his gains, I've been his follower all these forty winters And served Truth faithfully, somewhat to his pleasure. In all kinds of crafts that he could devise Profitable for the plow, he put me to learn, And though I say so myself, I serve him to his satisfaction. I'm well paid by him and from time to time more. He is the promptest paymaster any poor man knows; He withholds from no worker his wages beyond evening. He is as lowly as a lamb and loyal of tongue, And whoever wants to learn where Truth lives, I will show you right to his place." "Yes, Piers, love," said these pilgrims, and proffered Piers pay.0 "No, by the peril to my soul!" Piers swore, "I will not take a farthing, for Saint Thomas' shrine! Were Truth told that I took pay He would love me the less a long time after. But whoever wants to go where Truth is, this is the way there. You must go through Meekness, all men and women,

Passus VII Till you come into Conscience, known of God himself, That you love him as your Lord loyally above all; That is to say truly, you'd rather die Than do any deadly sin, despite fear or provocation. And then next in no way harm your neighbors Otherwise than you'd have them always treat you. And so go forth by the brook, a bridge as it were, Until you find a ford, Honor-your-father; Wade into that water and wash yourselves well there And you shall leap the lighter all your lifetime. Honor thy father and thy mother.0 And then you will see Swear-not-unless-it be-necessaryAnd-namely-in-vain-in-the-name-of-God-almighty. Then you'll come to a croft, but do not enter it; The croft is called Covet-not-men's-cattle-nor-their-wivesNor-any-of-their-servants-so-that-they-might-be-harmed; See you bear nothing away from there unless it be your own. Two stocks stand there, but don't you stop; They're called Steal-not and Kill-not—strike out past both And leave them on your left hand and don't look back, And hold well your holiday till high evening. Then you shall turn aside at a hill, Bear-no-false-witness, That is hedged round with florins and lots of other fees; See that you pluck no plant there for peril of your soul. Then you shall see Tell-the-truth-as-it-isIn-no-other-manner-not-for-any-man's-asking. And so you shall come to a court as clear as the sun.0 The moat is made of Mercy, the manor in its midst, And the walling is of Wit, so that Will should not take it. The crenelations are of Christendom, to save all creatures, Buttressed with Believe-so-or-you-won't-be-saved; And all the houses roofed, halls and chambers, Not with lead but with love and with loyal speech. The bars are of obedience, as brothers of one womb. The bridge is called Pray-well-the-better-you-may-speed; Each pillar is of penances and prayers to saints; Almsdeeds are the hooks that the gates hang on. Grace is the name of the gatekeeper, a good man truly; His man is called Amend-you, many men know him.

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Piers Plowman Tell him this very token: 'Truth knows the story, I'm sorry for my sins and so shall I be ever, And performed the penance the priest gave me.' Pray Amend-you humble himself to his master Grace, To undo and open the high gate of heaven That Adam and Eve shut against us all.

Through Eve it was closed to all, and through the Virgin Mary it -was opened again.°

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A fully faithful lady unlocked it out of grace, And she has the key and latchkey, though the king sleep, And may lead in those she loves just as she likes. And if Grace grants you to go in in this way You shall see Truth sitting in your own heart, And solace your soul and save you from pain, And charge Charity to build a church In your whole heart, to harbor all that are true And provide all manner folk food for their souls, If love and loyalty and our law be true:

Whatever you shall ask in my name, shall be given to you.0 But beware then of Wrath, that wicked man,

For he's hostile to him that sits in your heart And prods forth pride to praise yourself. Overconfidence in your good deeds blinds you then; So it comes that you'll be driven out like dew and the door closed,0 Locked and latched to keep you outside, Maybe a hundred winters before you come back in. Thus might you lose his love, by too much self-esteem, And get it back through grace, but through no other gift. But there are seven sisters that always serve Truth And are porters at the side doors that belong to that place. One is called Abstinence and another Humility, Charity and Chastity are his chief maidens, Patience and Peace help many people, Largesse the lady that lets in many— None of them can help you any better, For she ransoms prisoners in pits and in pains. And whoever's family to these seven, so help me God, Is wonderfully welcome and fairly received. Whoever's not related, to tell the truth,

Passus VII Any and all will have a very hard time, I guarantee, To get entry at any gate, unless grace be greater." "By Christ," said a cut-purse, "I've no kin there." "Nor I," said a monkey-keeper, "for all that I know!" "May God know," a cake-seller said, "if I knew this for sure, I wouldn't go one foot farther for no friar's preaching!" "Yes," said Piers the plowman, and prodded them all to the good, "Mercy is a maiden there with power over them all,0 And she is family to all sinners, she and her son both. And through the help of these two, there's no other hope for you, You might get grace there, if you go early!" "Yeah, well, villam emi? said one, "and now I must go there0 To see how I like it," and took his leave of Piers. Another immediately said he had a commitment To plow with five yoke of oxen, "Therefore I need To go with good will and drive them directly. So I ask you, Piers, should you meet up with Truth, tell him this so I'll be excused." Then there was one named Active, he looked like a husband: "I've wedded a wife, full of wild habits; Were I out of her sight seven nights, she would sin And frown and lightly chide me and say I loved another. Therefore, Piers the Plowman, I ask you tell Truth I may not come, for a Kit so cleaves to me. I have married a -wife and therefore I cannot come™ Contemplation said, "By Christ, though I suffer care, Famine and deprivation, I will follow Piers. But the way is very bad, unless one had a guide To follow in every footstep for fear of straying."

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Passus VIII

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Perkin the plowman said, "By Saint Peter of Rome! I have a half-acre to plow by the highway; Had I plowed this half-acre and afterwards sown it I'd go along with you and teach you the way." "That would be a long delay,'5 said a lady in a veil, "What should we women work on meanwhile?35 "I appeal to you for your profit,55 said Piers to the ladies, "That some sew the sack to keep the wheat from spilling, And you worthy women with your long fingers That you have silk and sandal to sew when youVe time Chasubles for chaplins to the church's honor. Wives and widows spin wool and flax; Conscience counsels you to make cloth To benefit the poor and for your own pleasure. For I shall see to their sustenance, unless the land fail, As long as I live, for love of the Lord of heaven. And all manner of men who live off the land Help him work well who obtains your food.55 "By Christ,55 said a knight then, "he teaches us the best; But truly on the plow theme I was never taught. I wish I knew how,55 said the knight, "by Christ and his mother; Fd try it sometime for fun as it were.55 Certainly, sir knight,55 said Piers then, "I shall toil and sweat and sow for us both And labor for those you love all my lifetime, On condition you protect Holy Church and me From wasters and wicked men who spoil the world, And go hunt hardily for hares and foxes, Boars and bucks that break down my hedges, And train your falcons to kill the wild birds

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Because they come to my croft and defile my corn."0 Courteously the knight then commenced with these words: "By my power, Piers, I pledge you my truth To defend you faithfully, though I should fight." "And still one point," said Piers, "I ask of you further: Try not to trouble any tenant unless Truth agrees And when you fine any man let Mercy be assessor And Meekness your master, despite Meed's moves. And though poor men offer you presents and gifts Don't take them on the chance you're not deserving, For it may be you'll have to return them or pay for them dearly. Don't hurt your bondman, you'll be better off; Though he's your underling here, it may happen in heaven He'll be sooner received and more honorably seated. Friend,go up higher.0 At church in the charnel it's hard to discern churls Or between knight and knave or a queen on a corner and one on the throne.0 It becomes you, knight, to be courteous and gracious, True of tongue and loth to hear tales Unless they're about goodness, battles, or good faith. Don't keep company with crude-mouths or listen to their stories, And especially at your meals avoid such men For they are the Devil's entertainers and draw men to sin. And do not oppose Conscience or the rights of Holy Church." "I assent, by Saint Giles," said the knight then, "To work by your wisdom and my wife, too." "And I shall dress myself," said Perkin, "in pilgrims' fashion And go with all those who wish to live in Truth." And he put on his clothes of all kinds of crafts, His leggings and mittens, as Common Sense taught him, And hung his seed bag on his neck instead of a satchel; A bushel of bread grain was brought inside it. "For I will sow it myself and then start out On pilgrimage, as palmers do, to win pardon. My plow-stick shall be my pikestaff and pick apart the roots And help my coulter to cut and clean the furrows. And all that help me plow or weed

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Piers Plowman Shall have leave by our Lord to go and glean after me And make themselves merry with, no matter who grumbles. And all kinds of craftsmen who know how to live in truth I shall provide them with food who faithfully live, Except for Jack the juggler and Janet from the whorehouse And Daniel the dice-player and Denot the pimp And friar faker and folk of that order, That loyal men consider lollers and losers, And Robin the foul mouth for his filthy words. Truth once told me and ordered me to spread it further: Deleantur de libro viuencium, I should not deal with them,0 For Holy Church is obliged to ask no tithes of them, Because with the just they may not be written? They've escaped by good luck, now God amend them!" Dame Work-when-it's-time is Pier's wife's name; His daughter's called Do-just-so-or-your-mother-will-beat-you; His son's name is SufTer-your-masters-to-have-their-willJudge-them-not-for-if-you-do-you'11-pay-for-it-dearly. "I bid you counsel the commons not to displease the king, And those who have laws to see they not fail them. Leave it all to God, as holy scripture teaches: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses.0 Masters, as mayors be, and great men, senators, Whatever they command, just as by the king, never oppose it; All that they call for, I call on you to endure earnestly And conduct yourself according to their warnings and wordings. All things whatsoever they say, observe and do.0 But do not follow their practices, my dear son," said Piers. "For now that I'm old and gray and have a little something, To penance and pilgrimage I'll pass with these others. I will therefore, before leaving, dictate my will. In dei nomine amen: I make it myself. ° He shall have my soul who made all souls And defend it from the Fiend, and so is my belief, Till I come to his account as my creed tells To have remission and release on the rent I still owe. The church shall have my body and keep my bones For of my corn and cattle the parson required my tithe. I paid it promptly for peril of my soul;

Passus VIII He's beholden, I hope, to have me in his mass And keep me in commemoration among all Christians. My wife shall have what I won with truth and no more And divide it among my daughters and dear children. For though I die today I have no debt; I returned what I borrowed before I went to bed. And with what's left over, by the cross in Lucca!0 I will worship Truth with that all my life And be a pilgrim at the plow to benefit rich and poor." Now Perkin and these pilgrims go to their plowing; Many helped him to turn over the half-acre. Ditchers and diggers dug up the strip-ridges; All this pleased Perkin and he paid them good wages. Other workmen were there who worked very hard, Each man in his way made himself useful And some to please Perkin picked weeds in the field. At high prime, about nine, Piers let the plow stand And oversaw them himself; whoever worked best Would later be hired when harvest time comes. And then, some sat down and sang at ale And helped plow this half-acre with a "hey trolliloly!" Said Piers the plowman in a pure anger: "If you don't get up quickly and rush back to work No grain that grows here will cheer you in need, And though you die of grief, the devil take him who cares." Then the phonies were frightened and pretended to be blind And twisted their legs backwards as such losers know how And moaned to Piers about how they couldn't work: "And we pray for you Piers and for your plow, too, That God for his grace multiply your grain And reward you for the alms you give us here. We may neither sweat nor strain, such sickness ails us, Nor have we limbs to labor with, the Lord God we thank." "Your prayers," said Piers, "if you were upright, Might help, as I hope, but high Truth would That no fakery were found in people that go begging. You're wasters, I know well, and waste and devour What true land-tilling men loyally work for. But Truth shall teach you to drive his team

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Piers Plowman Or you'll eat barley bread and drink from the brook, Unless he's blind or broken-legged or braced with iron— Such poor," said Piers, "shall share in my goods, Both of my corn and my cloth to keep them from want. But anchorites and hermits who eat only at noon And friars who don't flatter and poor sick people, Hey! I and mine will provide for their needs." Then Waster got angry and wanted to fight And pressed Piers the plowman to "put 'em up!" And told him to go piss with his plow, pigheaded creep! A Breton came bragging and threatened Piers also: "Whether you like it or not," he said, "we'll have our way, And take your flour and meat whenever we like And make merry with it, despite any grumbling." Piers the plowman then complained to the knight To keep him and his property as they had agreed: "Avenge me on these wasters who bring harm to the world; Excommunication they take no account of nor fear Holy Church. There will be no plenty," said Piers, "if the plow stands still." Then the knight, as was his nature, courteously Warned Waster and advised him to improve: "Or I'll beat you according to the law and put you in the stocks." "I'm not used to working," said Waster, "and I won't start now!" And made light of the law and less of the knight And sized up Piers as a pea to complain wherever he would. "Now by Christ," said Piers the plowman, "I'll punish you all," And whooped after Hunger who heard right away. "I pray you," Piers said then, "Sir Hunger, pour charite0 Avenge me on these wasters, for the knight will not." Hunger in haste then grabbed Waster around the belly And hugged him so tight that his eyes watered. He battered the Breton about the cheeks So that he looked like a lantern the rest of his life, And he so beat both of them up he nearly busted their guts Had not Piers with a peas-loaf called him off.0 "Have mercy on them, Hunger," said Piers, "and let me give them beans,

Passus VIII And what was baked for Bayard may come to their relief.350 Then the fakers were frightened and flew into Piers3 barns. And flapped with flails from morning till evening, So that Hunger was less intent on looking upon them. For a potful of pottage that Piers3 wife had made A heap of hermits took up spades, Dug and spread dung to despite Hunger. They cut up their capes and made them short coats And went as workmen to weeding and mowing All for fear of death, so hard did Hunger hit. The blind and broken-legged he bettered by the thousand And lame men he healed with animal entrails. Priests and other people drew towards Piers And friars from all five orders, all for fear of Hunger.0 For what was baked for Bayard relieved many hungry, Dross and dregs were drink for many beggars. There was no lad living that wouldn't bow to Piers To be his faithful servant though he had no more Than food for his labor and his gift at noon. Then Piers was proud and put them all to work At daubing and digging, at dung bearing afield, At threshing, at thatching, at whittling pins, At every kind of true craft that man can devise. There was no beggar so bold, unless he were blind, Dared oppose what Piers said for fear of Sir Hunger. And Piers was proud of that and put them all to work And gave them food and money according to their deserts. Then Piers had pity for all poor people And bade Hunger hurry up out of the country Back home to his own yard and stay there forever. c Tm well avenged on wasters thanks to your might. But I pray you,33 Piers said, "Hunger, before you go, What3s best to do about beggars and bidders?0 For I know well, if Hunger went, they3d work very badly. Misfortune makes them so meek now And for want only these guys follow my orders. It3s not for love, believe it, they labor this hard But for fear of famine, in faith," said Piers.

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Piers Plowman "There is no filial love in these people, for all their fair speech; And they're my blood brothers, for God bought us all. Truth taught me once to love each one of them And to help them in all things always as needed. Now I'd like to know before you go what's best, How can I govern them to love and to labor For their livelihood, teach me now, Sir Hunger." "Listen now," said Hunger, "and hold it for wisdom. Big bold beggars that can work for their bread, Heal their hunger with hound's bread and horse's bread And hold them off with beans to keep their stomachs from swelling; And if the men grumble tell them to get to work And he shall sup the sweeter when he's deserved it. But if you find people who've been impaired by false men Comfort them with your goods for so Truth commands; Love them and give to them, as the law of nature asks: Bear ye one another's burdens.0 And all manner of men that you might see In misfortune or disease, and you can help them, Look to it on your life that you not let them perish. If you've gained anything wickedly, make use of it wisely, Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity?0 "I would not grieve God," said Piers, "for all the goods on earth! Might I sinless do as you say?" asked Piers the plowman. "Yes, I guarantee it," said Hunger, "or else the Bible lies. Go to our beginning when God made the world, As wise men have written and as Genesis testifies, That says with toil and sweat and sweating face You'll till and travail truly for your living: In labor and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread0 And Solomon the sage agrees with this: The sluggard that grows no corn because of the cold In the summer for his sloth shall suffer want And go a-begging and begging and no man abates his hunger. Because of the cold the sluggard would not plough; he shall beg therefore in the winter, and it shall not be given him0 Matthew mentions a man that lent0 His silver to three kinds of men intending they should

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Trade and achieve with it through hot and cold, And those that worked best were praised best And put in charge for their efforts over all the lord's goods. But he that was despicable and didn't work hard The lord for his idleness and his bad sloth Took away from him all he had and gave it to his fellow Who had labored loyally, and then the lord said: c He who has shall have and be helped where he pleases And he who has not shall not have and further no man help him And whatever he thinks well to have I will take it away.3 And look, what the psalter says to manual laborers: 'Blessed be all those who work for their faith Through any loyal labor as through limbs and hands.5 Thou shah eat the labors of thy hands.0 This is evidence," said Hunger, "for those who won't work That their means of life will be lean and worth as little as their clothes." "By Christ," said Piers the plowman then, "I'll show this proverb To beggars and old boys that have an aversion for work. But still I pray you," said Piers, "pour charite^ Sir Hunger, If you can treat or know of any kind of medicine, For some of my servants and myself, too, Don't work a whole week, our stomachs hurt so." "I know well," said Hunger, "what sickness ails you. You've overeaten—-and that makes you sick. But don't eat, I tell you, before hunger grabs you And sends you some of his sauce to savor with your lips. And keep some till suppertime and don't sit too long At noon or any other time, and especially at your supper Don't let Sir Surfeit sit at your table, And see that you don't drink any day before you've eaten somewhat. And consider that Dives for his delicate life went to the devil0 And Lazarus the lean beggar who longed after crumbs— And yet he had none, for I, Hunger, killed him, And afterwards I saw him sit as if he were an elder In all manner ease and in Abraham's lap. And if you have the power, Piers, I advise you, All who cry out in your direction for food for God's love,

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Piers Plowman Share with them some of your bread, soup, or spread, Give them some of your loaf though there's less for you to chew. And if liars and latch-pickers and lollers knock, Let them wait till the table's taken but give them no crumbs Till all your needy neighbors have had their noon meal. And if you follow this diet I'll bet my ears That the Doctor man shall sell his fur hoods for his food And pledge his Calabrian cloak for his provisions0 And be glad, by my faith, to abandon his practice And learn to work on the land lest livelihood fail him. There are many bad doctors but few true physicians; They prescribe men's deaths before destiny knocks." "By Saint Paul," said Piers, "you point near the truth And speak faithfully, I believe, the Lord reward you for it! Go now whenever you like and good luck to you always. For you've avenged me well and also taught me." "I promise you," said Hunger, "I won't go away Before I have this day both dined and drunk." "I've no penny," said Piers, "with which to buy pullets, Nor goose or pork but two green cheeses And a few curds and cream and an oat cake And bean and pea bread for my kids. And still I say, by my soul, I've no salt bacon Nor any egg, by Christ, to fry up together. But I have leeks, parsley and scallions, Chives and chervil and half-ripe cherries, And a cow with a calf and a cart-mare To draw my dung afield during dry spells. And we must live by this means of life till Lammas time0 And by then I hope to have harvest in my fields; Then may I make dinner just as I like." All the poor people then fetched peascods; Beans and baked apples they brought by the lapful, And offered Piers this present with which to please Hunger. Hunger ate it all in haste and asked for more. For fear then poor folk fed Hunger quickly With cream and curds, with cress and other herbs. By then harvest drew near and new corn came to market And people were happy and fed Hunger deliciously,

Passus VIII And then Glutton with good ale put Hunger to sleep. And then Waster refused to work and wandered around, Nor'd any beggar eat bread in which there were beans, But the finest white breads and of pure wheat, Nor no way would they drink half-penny ale But the best and brownest that brewsters sell. Laborers with no land to live on but their own hands Wouldn't deign to dine today on last night's veggies; No penny-ale or piece of bacon pleased them But it had to be fresh meat or fish, fried or baked, And that ckaud or plus chaud against a chilled stomach.0 And unless he's hired for high pay he'll otherwise argue And curse the time he was made a workman. He begins to grumble against Cato's counsel: Paupertatis onus pacienterferre memento.0 And then he curses the king and all his justices For teaching such laws that grieve workingmen. But as long as Hunger was master none of them would bitch, Nor strive against his statute, he looked so stern. I warn you workmen, get ahead while you can,0 For Hunger's hurrying this way fast as he can. He shall awake through water, wasters to punish, And before a few years finish famine shall arise, And so says Saturn and sends us warning. Through floods and foul weather fruits shall fail; Pride and pestilence shall take out many people. Three ships and a sheaf with an 8 following Shall bring bane and battle under both halves of the moon. And then death shall withdraw and dearth be the judge And Dave the ditcher die of hunger Unless God of his goodness grant us a truce.

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Truth heard tell of this and told Piers To take his team and till the earth, And obtained for him a pardon apena et a, culpa° For him and his heirs to be absolved forever, And bade him stay home and plow his fields And all who helped him plow, set, or sow Or do any manner of job that might aid Piers, He granted pardon perpetually with Piers the plowman. Kings and knights who defend Holy Church And rightfully in realms rule the commons Have pardon to pass through purgatory quickly, To sit in paradise with patriarchs and prophets. Those blessed as bishops, if they befit their calling, Loyal and full of love and afraid of no lord, Merciful to the meek and mild to the good And biting to bad men unless they'll reform, Fear not despite death to destroy within their power Lechery among lords and their evil customs, And live themselves what they teach men, our Lord Truth grants them To be peers to the apostles, to rule all people And judge with them at Doomsday both the quick and the dead. Merchants in the margin had many years' remission0 But nopena et aculpa would Truth grant them For they don't hold their holidays as Holy Church commands, And they swear by their souls and say may God help them Against clear conscience for coveting gains. But under his secret seal Truth sent them a letter0 That bade them buy boldly what they liked best And after to sell it again and save the profits

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To repair hospitals and to provide for troubled men And improve bad roads with their goods And broken bridges on the highways Repair in some way and to help maidens, Poor bedridden people and prisoners in stocks To support them for God's love, and send children to school, Relieve religious orders and endow them better: "And I shall send you myself my angel Saint Michael So that dying no devil shall hurt you or bring you to despair And after to send your souls where I myself dwell And abide there in my bliss, body and soul forever.5' Then the merchants were merry; many wept for joy And prayed for Piers the plowman who obtained them this bull. All the people who lived perfectly had pardon enough. Men of law had the least who were reluctant to plead Unless they were paid^ minibus for pleading at the bar.0 But he who spends his speech and speaks for the poor man Who is innocent and needy and would harm no one, He who comforts such in any case and covets not their gifts And for the love of our Lord declares the law for them Shall have grace of a good end and great joy after. Beware, you wise and clever men of the law, For when you draw towards death and would indulgences have His pardon is quite tiny at his parting hence Who takes fees for his practice from men of little means For it is simony to sell what is sent by grace, And that is wit, water, wind, and fire the fourth. These four should be free to all folk who need them.0 All living laborers who live by their hands Loyally and lawfully, our Lord Truth grants them Perpetual pardon, just as to Piers the plowman. Beggars and bidders are not in that bull Unless there's good reason that causes them to beg. For he that begs or bids, unless he has need, Is false and phony and defrauds the needy And also beguiles the giver and takes against his will. For he who gives for God's love would not give of his own free will Except where he knows great need exists

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Piers Plowman And the men to whom he gives are most meritorious. Cato agrees with this: Cui des^ videto.0 No man knows, as I think, who is deserving;0 But the most needy are our neighbors, if we take good heed, Such as prisoners in pits and poor folk in hovels, Burdened with children and landlords' rent; What they can put aside from what they make spinning they spend on housing, Also on milk and meal to make porridge with To sate their children who cry out for food. And they themselves also suffer much hunger, And woe in wintertime, and waking up nights To rise on the bedside to rock the cradle, Also to card and comb wool, to patch and to wash, To rub flax and reel yarn and to peel rushes, That it is pity to describe or show in rhyme The woe of these women who live in huts; And of many other men who suffer much woe, From hunger and from thirst, who to keep up appearances Are ashamed to beg and unwilling to make known What they need of their neighbors at noon and at eve. This I know for sure, as the world teaches, What the fate is of him who has many children And has no cash but his craft to feed and clothe them, And many to grasp for the few pence he earns. There bread and penny-ale is taken for a special treat, And cold meat and fish as good as roast venison. Fridays and fast days a farthing's worth of mussels Or as many cockles would be a feast for such folks. These are alms to help those who have such burdens And to comfort such cottagers and deformed and blind men. But beggars with bags, whose church is the brew-house, Unless they're blind or crippled or otherwise sick, Though he drop from hunger who falsely begs his living, Pay no attention, you rich men, though such toilers starve. For all that have their health and their eyesight And limbs to labor with, and follow the bum's life Live against God's law and the teaching of Holy Church. And yet there are other beggars, in good health it seems,

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But they're feeble-minded, men and women both, Who are lunatic lollers and wandering tramps, And grow more or less mad in phase with the moon. They don't care about cold nor take account of heat And are moving after the moon; moneyless they walk, With good will, but witless, through many wide countries, Just as Peter and Paul did, except they don't preach Nor make any miracles but many times they happen To prophesy about the people, playing, as it were. And in our view, as it seems, since God has the might To give each being intelligence, wealth, and health And suffers such to go this way, it seems, in my judgment They're like his apostles, such people, or his secret disciples For he sent them forth silverless in a summer garment Without bag and bread, as the book tells: When I sent you without bread and bag.0 Barefoot and breadless, they beg from no man. And though they meet the mayor in the middle of the street, They don't revere him at all, no sooner than another. Salute no mm by the way.0 Such manner of men, Matthew teaches us, We should bring home and help when they come. And bring the needy and the harborkss into thy house0 For they are merry-mouthed men, minstrels of heaven, And God's boys and jesters, as the book tells. If any man among you seem to be wisey let him become a fool that he may be wise0 And all manner of minstrels, as one well knows is true, It is proper for the rich to receive them kindly, For the love of lords or ladies to whom they're attached. One tolerates all that such say and take it for amusement, And yet one does more for such men before they pass through; And gives them gifts and gold for great lords' sake. Just so, you rich people should rather Welcome and honor and help with your goods God's minstrels and messengers and his merry jesters, Who are lunatic losers and wandering tramps, For their sins are covered by God's secret seal. For they carry no bags or bottles under their clothes,

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Piers Plowman Which is the lifestyle of lollers and ignorant hermits, Who put on a humble look to get men's alms, In hope to sit in the evening by the hot coals, To stretch out his legs or lie at his ease, To rest and toast himself and turn his back, To drink deep and drain the pot and then draw himself to bed, And have leave to arise whenever he pleases, And when he's up, roam around on the lookout For where he may soonest have a meal or a rasher of bacon, Silver or boiled meat and sometimes both, A loaf or half a loaf or a chunk of cheese; And carry it home to his hovel and plan on living In idleness and ease and by the labors of others. And whatever fellow skitters about this world With a bag on his back in the manner of a beggar, And knows any trade he would use in a pinch, Through which skill he could come to bread and ale And moreover to a garment to cover his bones with, And lives like a loller, God's law condemns him. "Therefore lollers and overland ramblers who live in sloth Are not in this bull,'3 said Piers, "till they're amended, Nor any beggar who begs unless out of need." The book bans begging and blames it this way: I have been young, and now am old. And elsewhere: My strength is weakened through poverty ° There's no need now to preach right away And teach these ignorant men what this Latin means, For it blames all begging, you can be sure. For they live in no love, and observe no law, Nor wed the women with whom they bed down; They bring forth bastards, born beggars, Or they break the back or some bone of their children And go phony begging with their babies ever after. There are more misshapen among such beggars Than of many other men who walk on this earth. And those that live their life thus, believe nothing else, They have no part of pardon, or of prayers, or of penances. But the old and gray, who are helpless and needy, And pregnant women who can't possibly work,

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The blind and bedridden and broken limbed, And all poor patient people, content with God's gift, As lepers and mendicants, men fallen into misfortune, As prisoners and pilgrims and men robbed by chance Or slandered by bad men and then lost their holdings, Or through fire or flood fallen into poverty, Those that take these misfortunes meekly and mildly at heart, For love of their humble hearts our Lord has granted them This penance and purgatory upon this very earth And pardon with the plowman apena et a culpa. And all holy hermits shall have the same.0 But hermits who inhabit the high ways And in boroughs among brew mistresses, and beg in churches— All that holy hermits hated and despised, Such as riches and reverences and rich men's alms, These lollers, latch-pickers, illiterate hermits On the contrary covet, for as cottagers they live. For they're but old boys, ale-bowl drunks, Neither by lineage nor by learning, nor holy of life like hermits Who once lived in the woods with lions and bears. Some of these had family support and from no one else And some lived by their learning and labor of their hands And some had strangers for friends who sent them food And to some birds brought bread that they lived on. Although holy hermits were of high birth, They forsook land and lordship and all creature comforts. But these hermits who set up thus by the high way Formerly were workmen, weavers, and tailors And carters' helpers and clerks without grace, Kept very hungry houses and had great want, Long labor and little winning, and at last they saw That those who fakely begged in friars' clothes had fat cheeks. Therefore they left their labors, these ignorant lowlifes, And dressed themselves in copes, as if they were clerks, Or a member of some order or else a prophet, Against the law of Levi, if this line be true: It is not lawful to wake the law conform to your will; but rather your will to the law ° Naturally, by Christ, such are called "lollers,"

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Piers Plowman As in the English of our elders, from old mens' teaching. He who lolls is lame or his leg is out of joint Or he's maimed in some member, a hint of an accident. Just so indeed such manner of hermits Loll against the faith and the law of Holy Church. For Holy Church commands all manner of people To be obedient and obliging to the law; First, those in religious bodies to hold to the rule of their order And to maintain obedience night and day; Unlettered men to labor, lords to hunt In woods and forests for fox and other beasts That are in the wilderness as in waste places, Such as wolves that worry men, women, and children; And on Sundays to cease, to hear God's service, Both matins and mass, and after mealtime in church To hear evensong every man should be. Thus it's befitting for lords, learned and unlearned, Each holiday to hear the service wholly, Furthermore, to know vigils and fasting days And to fulfil those fasts, unless illness prevented it, Poverty or other penances such as pilgrimages and penalties. We are everyone of us under this obedience And whoever breaks this, beware well, unless he repent, Amend himself and ask for mercy and meekly confess, I'm afraid, if he die, it will be as a deadly sin Accounted before Christ, unless Conscience excuse him. Look now whether these lollers and unlettered hermits Who are so far from church break this obedience. Whether we see them on Sundays to hear the service, As for instance matins in the morning? Till mass begins, Or Sundays at evensong, we see very few, Or at work for their livelihood as the law would have. But about midday at mealtime I meet them often, Come in his cope as if he were a clerk; A bachelor or a betm-pere suited him best,0 And because of the cloth that covers him he's called a friar, He washes and dries and sits down with the first. While he who worked in the world and earned his food truly Sat at the side bench and at the second table.

Passus IX No wine came to his stomach all week long Nor any blanket on his bed or white bread before him. The cause of all this villainy comes from many bishops Who allow such sots and other sinners to prevail. For sure, whoever dare say it, Simon quasi dormit^ Vigilare were better, for you have a great charge.0 For many watchful wolves have broken into your folds; Your guard dogs, good as blind, that bring forth your lambs, Dispergentur ones, the dog dares not bark.0 The tar meant for the sheep is out of season; Their salve is of supersedes in summoners' boxes.0 Your sheep are nearly all scabby, the wolf befouls the wool. Sub mollipastore lupus Umam cacat^ etgrex In-custoditus dilacemtur eo.° Hey, herder! Where's your hound and your hardy heart For harassing the wolf that fouls the wool? I believe through your laxness you lose many wethers And many a fair fleece is falsely washed. When your lord looks to have profit from his livestock And from what he paid you to look after his business And the wool shall be weighed, woe to you then! Redde mcionem villicacionis or fall into arrears.0 Your hire, shepherd, as I expect, will not suffice to pay your debt Whereas reward or mercy may not help a mite, But "have this in return for that when you gave Mercy for money and broke my law." Look now what the law will give you for your negligence. Purgatory for your pay or perpetual Hell, For there no pardon shall pray for you nor any princes' letters. "Piers," said a priest then, "I must read your pardon, For I can translate each word and put it for you in English." And Piers at his request unfolds the pardon And I behind them both beheld the entire bull In two lines as it lay and not a letter more, And was written exactly thus in witness of Truth: Qui bona egerunt ibunt in vitam eternam\ Qui vero m&l& in ignem eternum° "Peter," said the priest then, "I can find no pardon, But only T)o well and have well and God shall have your soul

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Piers Plowman And do evil and have evil and expect nothing other But he that lives evilly shall have an evil end.'" Thus the priest and Perkin argued about the pardon And through their words I awoke and looked all around And saw the sun sit in the south at that time. Meatless and moneyless in the Malvern Hills Musing on this dream I walked a mile's way. Many times this dream has made me study What I saw sleeping, if it could be so, And of Piers the plowman full pensive in heart And what sort of pardon Piers had to gladden the people And how the priest impugned it with two of its own words. But men set no store by interpreting dreams for they see it fail often; Cato counts it as nothing and canonists as less.0 But because a Bible book bears witness0 How Daniel divined and explained the dreams of kings, Of Nebuchadnezzar who had no peer, And after that his son's, and told them what they meant. And Joseph dreamed marvelously how the moon and sun0 And the eleven stars all saluted him, And then Jacob judged Joseph's dream: "Beaufits" said the father, "for lack we shall,0 I myself and my sons, seek you out of need." It happened as his father said in Pharaoh's time That Joseph was justice, Egypt to save; His eleven brothers sought him out of need And his father Israel and also his mother. All this makes me study on dreams And how the priest proved no pardon to Do-well And concluded that Do-well surpasses indulgences Biennials and triennials and bishops' letters.0 For whoever does well here on the Day of Doom Will be fairly received before God at that time. So Do-well passes over pardon and pilgrimage to Rome. Yet the pope has power to grant pardon To people to pass without penance into joy, As teach us, learned men and the law of Holy Church. Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven.o

Passus IX And so I believe loyally. Lord forbid otherwise, That pardon and penance and prayer do save Souls that have sinned seven times deadly. But to trust in these triennials, truly I think, Is not as safe for the soul, for sure, as is Do-well. Therefore I advise you men who are rich on this earth, In trust of your treasure to have triennials, Be you never the bolder to break the Ten Commandments; And especially you masters, mayors, and judges, Who have the wealth of this world and are as wise men regarded To buy yourselves pardon and the pope's bulls. At the dreadful doom when the dead shall arise And all come before Christ to give their accounts, How we led our lives here and kept his laws And how you acted day by day the doom will recount. A sackful of pardon there, nor provincials3 letters,0 Though we be found in the fraternity of all five orders And have doublefold indulgences, unless Do-well help us I don't count pardon worth a peascod or piecrust! Therefore I counsel all Christians to cry God mercy, And Mary his mother to be our mean to him That God give us grace before we go hence Such works to work as long as we're here That after our death-day Do-well will declare At the Day of Doom we did as he taught.

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Passus X

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Thus robed in russet I roamed about0 All of a summer season in search of Do-well, And often asked the people I met If any one of them knew where Do-well roomed, And what kind of man he might be I asked many men. There was no one in this world who could tell me Where this man lived, neither low-born nor great, Till it happened on a Friday I met up with two friars, Masters of the Minorites, men of great intelligence.0 I greeted them graciously, as I had been taught, And prayed them, pour chtwite^ before they passed further0 If they knew any county or regions around Where Do-well dwells, "Dear friends, tell me, For of men of this world youVe walked most widely And know countries and courts and many kinds of manors, Both princes5 palaces and poor men's hovels, And Do-well and Do-evil, where they both dwell." "Truly" said the friar, "he resides with us friars And always has, as I hope, and will forever hereafter." "Contm? said I just like a clerk, and commenced to dispute,0 And said surely, "Septies in die cadit iustus* Falling from joy, Jesus knows the truth! c Seven times,5 says the Book, csins day by day The most righteous man that reigns on earth.5 And whoever sins,551 said, "certainly does not well; For whoever sins, assuredly does evil. And Do-well and Do-evil may not dwell together. Ergo, he is not always at home among you friars;0 He is sometimes elsewhere teaching the people.55

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"How the steadfast man sins seven times a day.

Passus X By a parable," said the friar, "HI show you clearly. Let's put a man in a boat in a large body of water; The wind and the water and the wavering of the boat Many a time will make the man stumble, if he stands up. For stand he never so stiffly, through the boat's shifting He bends and bows, the body's so unstable, And yet he is safe and sound; so fares the righteous. Though he fall, he falls only as one who fell in a boat Who is always safe and sound, who sits between the boards. So it goes," said the friar, "with the righteous man's falling; Though he fall through temptations, he falls not out of charity, Provided he does no deadly sin, for Do-well helps him. The water is like the world, that wanes and waxes; The goods of earth's ground are like the great waves, That roll about as winds and storms do; The boat is likened to our body, that is brittle by nature, That through the fiend, the flesh, and this frail world Seven times sins the most steadfast man on earth And the most holy-living man under the sun. But free will and free wit urge man ever0 To repent and to arise and row out of sin To contrition, to confession, till he come to his end. For we'd sooner have no rest till we restore Our lives to our Lord God for our bodies' sins." "I've no natural knowledge to understand all this speech, But if I live and keep looking I'll learn better." "I commend you to Christ," he said, "who died on the cross." And I said, "The same save you from misfortune, And give me grace on this ground to make a good end." I went forth far and wide, walking alone, Beside a savage wilderness and a woodland. The birds' bliss made me abide, And under a linden in a clearing I rested awhile To listen to their lays and their lovely notes. Mirth of their mouths made me fall asleep there, And marvelously I dreamed amidst all that bliss.0 A tall man, it seemed to me a lot like myself, Came and called me by my right name. "Who are you," I said, "that knows my name?"

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Piers Plowman "One that knows you, Will," he said, "and no man better." "Do I know," said I, "who you are?" "Thought," he then said; "I pursued you these seven years; you've not seen me before:1" "Are you Thought?" I then said, "you could inform me Where Do-well dwells, and cause me to know him." "Do-well and Do-better," he said, "and Do-best the third Are three fair virtues and are not far to find. Who is true of tongue and of his two hands And lives through loyal labor and loves his fellow Christian And is thereto true in his tally and takes only what's his And is neither drunken nor disdainful, Do-well attends him. Do-better does all this, but he does still more; He's lowly as a lamb and lovely of speech, And helps all men with what he can spare. He has torn apart all the bags and purses That the earl Avarice held, and his heirs, And out of Mammon's money made himself many friends,0 And has run to religion's call and has rendered the Bible And preaches to the people Saint Paul's words: For you gladly suffer the foolish.0 Tou worldly wise, the unwise that you suffer, Give to them and love them,' this scripture means. Do-best should bear the bishop's crozier And drag with the hooked end all men to good, And with the pike end push downpremricatores legis0 Lords who live as they please and esteem no law, For their money and their movables such men think There should be no bishop to oppose their commands. But Do-best should not fear them, but do as God asks. And fear ye not them that kill the body.0 Thus Do-well and Do-better deem as does Do-best And crown one to be king, to kill without sin Those who will not do as Do-best explained and taught. So Do-well and Do-better and Do-best the third Crowned one to be king to keep us all, And to rule all realms according to their three wisdoms, But in no other way except as they three assented." I thanked Thought then, that he taught me so:

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"But still I can't savor your sayings, so Christ speed me; A more natural knowing I long to hear Of Do-well and Do-better and who does best of all." "Unless Wit will teach you," said Thought, "where those three dwell, I know of no other that can in any kingdom." Thought and I thus walked on three days, Debating about Do-well day after day, And before we knew it, we met up with Wit.0 He was long and lean, like no other; There was no pride in his dress, or poverty either; His countenance serious, and his speech soft. I dared raise no matter to make him argue, Except as I bade Thought then to be the mean between us And put forth some proposition to try his wits, How did Do-well differ from Do-better and Do-best from both. Then Thought at that time said these words: "Where in our land are Do-well and Do-better and Do-best, Here's one who would know, if Wit could teach it; And what lives they live and what law they follow, And what they dread and distrust, dear sir, do tell." "Sir Do-well dwells," said Wit, "not a day from here In a castle that Kind made out of four kinds of things.0 Of earth and fire it's made, mixed together, With wind and water cleverly combined. Kind has inclosed therein, and skillfully so, A dearest one whom he loves as much as himself. Anima she's called; there's out to possess her0 A proud rider of France, princeps huius mundi° And would win her away with his wiles if he could. And Kind knows this well and keeps her the better And has placed her with Sir Do-well, duke of his borders. Do-better is her damsel, Sir Do-well's daughter, To serve that lady loyally both late and early. Do-best is above both, a bishop's peer, And by his teaching is led that same lady Anima. But the constable of that castle who keeps them all Is a wise knight as well, Sir Inwit he's called,0

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Piers Plowman And has five fair sons by his first wife: Sir See-well and Say-well, Sir Hear-well the courteous, Sir Work-well-with-your-hands, a man of great strength, And Sir Good-faith Go-well, great lords all. These six have been stationed to save Anima Till Kind come or send for her and keep her himself" "What kind of thing is Kind?" I asked, "can you tell me?" "Kind is creator," said Wit, "of all kinds of things," Father and former of all that grows forth, Who is greatest God, who never had beginning, Lord of life and of light, of bliss and of pain. Angels and all things serve at his pleasure. Man is most like him in limbs and in face And similar to God in soul unless sin stop it. And just as you see the sun sometimes because of clouds May not shine or show through woods or earth, So do lechery and other wicked sins obstruct So that God does not look upon such sinful men and allows them to miscarry, And some hang themselves and at other times drown. God will not know of them but leave them alone, As the psalter says about sinful rogues:

And so I let them go according to their desires. ° Such evil-living men are often rich In gold and in other goods, but lack God's grace, For they love and believe all their lives More in cash than in Kind, who caused all things, Who is love and life that lasts without end. Inwit and all wits are inclosed in that castle;0 According to love and to loyalty, thereby lives Anima, And a person lives according to inwit and the teaching of Kind; Inwit is in the head and Anima in the heart. And much woe be to him who misspends inwit, For that is God's own good, his grace and his treasure, Which many a man loses through liquorish drink, As did Lot and Noah; and Herod the jerk Gave his daughter for a dance the head in a dish Of that blessed Baptist before all his guests.0 Every man who has inwit and his health too

Passus X Has treasure enough from Truth to provide for himself. But babies and fools who lack inwit, Friends shall provide for and keep them from folly And Holy Church help, too, so no man should beg Or waste words or time, or misspend either Possessions or property, food or drink. And then we'd all do well, and even better still to love Our enemies entirely and help them in need. And yet it would be best to be up and about and bring it together That all lands love each other and believe in one law. Bishops should be in on this and bring it about, Though they might lose as a result their land and their living. Three bits of cloth was all that Christ had; Of which he was robbed before he died on the cross And then he lost his life so that law would turn to love. Prelates and priests and princes of Holy Church Should fear neither death nor years of dearth To go as widely as the world reaches To till the earth with their tongues and teach men to love; For whoever loves, believe it well, God will not let him die In misfortune for lack of food or enough clothes. But they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good. ° Whoever lives within the law and with love does well, As do these married men who sustain this world, For from their kind come both confessors and martyrs, Prophets and patriarchs, popes and virgins. For God himself says, 'Never shall a good apple Through any subtle science grow on a sour stock';0 And this means no more than men begotten Out of wedlock, not of a lawful wife, may not have the grace That loyal legitimates may claim by law. And that what I say is truth the psalter bears witness: He has conceived in sorrow and brought forth iniquity.0 The cursed creature Cain was conceived in sin After Adam and Eve had first sinned; Without repentance for their recklessness they engendered a renegade.0 Like a servant who hasn't plowed ventures to sow On fallow land against his lord's will,

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Piers Plowman So was Cain conceived and so are cursed wretches Who were embodied against the law our lord ordained. All who came out of Cain were always villains And because of the sin of Cain's seed God said to Noah, It repenteth me that I have made mm? And bade him go build a ship out of planks and boards. 'Yourself and your three sons and then your wives, Move fast to that boat and stay there in it Till forty days be finished and the flood has washed Clean away the cursed blood that sprang from Cain. Beasts that now live will curse the day That ever that cursed Cain came to this earth; They'll all die for his deeds by hill and dale And the birds that fly along with the other beasts, With the sole exception of a pair of each kind That shall be saved with you on your shingled ship.3 Here the son paid for the ancestor's sins And all because of their forefathers fared the worse. The gospel goes against this, as men can read: The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father ? Holy scripture witnesses that for no wicked deed That the father does himself should the son be the worse. But Westminster law, I know well, works the opposite way For though the father be a franklin and hanged as a felon The heritage the heir shall have is at the king's will. But the gospel is a gloss there and hides the exact truth, For God gave example of such manner issue, That kind follows kind and never the contrary. Do men evergathergrapes of thorns. And elsewhere: A good tree bringeth forth good fruit? But why the world was drowned holy writ tells Was because of the marriages men made at that time. After that accursed Cain had killed Abel, Seth, Adam's son, was then engendered And God sent word to Seth as soon he was of age That for no kind of money and no kind of promise Should he let his seed get with seed of his brother Cain.0 And then because he let it happen God said, Tm sorry I made man or allowed matrimony,

Passus X For the good should wed the good though they have no goods, For I zm via et veritas and all may advance.'0 But now few folks follow this, for they give their children Out of coveting cash and the cunning of merchants. Of kin and kindred men count very little And though she be lovely to look at and lovesome in bed, A virgin well-mannered and of good men descended, Unless she have other goods no rich man will have her. But let her be ugly and bad in bed, A bastard, a bondwoman, a beggar's daughter, Who knows nothing of courtesy, but let her be known As rich or well-heeled, though she be wrinkled with age There is neither squire nor knight in the country about Who wouldn't bow down to that bondwoman to offer to be husband And wed her for her wealth and wish in the morning That his wife was wax or a wallet full of money.0 In jealousy, joyless, and jangling in bed, Many a couple since the plague have plighted troth to love, But they certainly lied, neither likes the other. The fruit they bring forth are many foul words; They have no children but strife and striking blows. Though they go off to Dunmow, unless the Devil help them, To try for the flitch, they'll never fetch it off; Unless they both commit perjury, they'll lose that bacon.0 Therefore I counsel all Christians to covet no wedding Because of a craving for cash in no kind of way; But virgins should marry virgins And widows and widowers wed each other, And look that the cause be love more than land or money. And every manner of secular man who cannot keep continent Wisely go marry and keep yourself from the sin That lechery is, a thing of pleasure, a lime twig of hell. And while you're young with the yen and your weapon's keen Take it out then in wiving, for as God's work I hold it. While you've strength in store, waste it not with a whore; O'er hergate is this score, in here is death's door.0 And you that have wives, beware and don't work at wrong times,

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Piers Plowman As Adam and Eve did, as I just told you. For there should be no bed play, unless both are Clean living and in love of soul and in true wedlock. For no one should do that secret deed Except wives and wedded men, as the scriptures teach: For fear of fornication,, it is good that every man have his own wife.c Those begot otherwise are taken for worthless And false folk and foundlings, fakers and liars, Unlikely to be graced with getting goods or people's love, Snatch and waste all that they can catch; They do evil against Do-well and serve the devil And shall dwell in hell after their death day Unless God give them grace to amend their going there. And thus is Do-well, my friend, to do as the law teaches, To love and be humble and to harm no life. But to love and lend a hand, believe me, is Do-better. But to give and care for both young and old, To heal and to help, is Do-best of all. For the more a man can do, provided that he do it, The more he is worth and worthy, and praised by wise and good men."

Passus XI

Then Wit had a wife who was named Dame Study, Who looked very lean and seemed holy-living. She was wonderfully angry that Wit taught me so. Staring hard Dame Study sternly said: "Well, aren't you a wise one," she said to Wit, "to show such wisdom To any fool or flatterer or to silly people!" And said: "Nolite mittere^ you men, margery pearls Among hogs that have husks to their fill;0 They only slobber on them—they'd rather have slops Than all the precious jewelry that a prince wields. I say it of such," she said "that show by their deeds They love land and lordship and physical pleasure More than holiness or courtesy or all that saints teach. Wisdom and wit now are not worth a cress Unless carded with covetousness, as clothiers comb wool. Whoever can calculate and continue to deceive the rightful And with a loveday hinder truth and beguile it,0 He that can covet and calculate thus is called into the counsel. The law calls those wise in trifles and slanders; The rightly wise, the law orders away.0 He's revered and robed who can rob the people Through tricks and false inquests and through fickle speech. Job the gentle confirms in his story What shall become of such men when they let go of life: They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.0 The psalter says the same of all such rich men: They shall go in to the generations of his fathers, and they shall never see light. And elsewhere: Behold these are sinners\° 'Look!' says holy learning, 'What lords these villains make!' Those to whom God gives most goods, most grieve right and truth, They have destroyed what thou hast made*

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Piers Plowman Rogues are helped for their roguery before the needy poor; And that is neither right nor reasonable, for I should rather Help him who has nothing than those who have no need. But he who has holy writ in his mouth always And can tell of Truth and of the twelve apostles Or of the passion of Christ or of purgatory's pains, He is little loved or regarded for this among lords at feasts. Now is the custom at meals, when the minstrels are silent, The ignorant take on the learned to debate holy doctrine, And talk about the Trinity how two killed the third And bring forth flimsy arguments, take Bernard to witness,0 And put forth a presumption to prove the truth. Thus they drivel on the dais, the deity to know, And chomp on God in their throats when their guts fill up. But the careworn may cry and shiver at the gate, Hungry and thirsty to the nth degree, and dying for lack; There's no one so gracious as to have them in, but orders them to go where God is! Then from my point of view, as for such who so bid, God's not in that home, nor his help either. Little does he love the Lord who lent him all that bliss That so shares a parcel with the poor in their need. If there weren't more mercy in the common man than in the very rich, Many times mendicants might go very hungry; And so says the psalter, I saw it in Memento:0

BeholA, we have heard of it (i.e.,, charity) in Ephrata.0

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Clerks and knights chatter often about God And have him much in their mouths, but common men in their hearts. Friars and fakers have fashioned such questions To please proud men with since the plagues, And are preaching at Saint Paul's out of pure envy of clerics,0 So that the people are not firm in their faith nor free with their goods Nor sorry for their sins; pride is so enhanced In religious orders and in all the realm among rich and poor That prayers have no power to hinder these plagues. For God is deaf nowadays and deigns not to hear us

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And for our guilt grinds good men all up to death. And yet the wretches of this world are not warned by each other, Nor out of dread of death withdraw from their pride Nor share with the poor, as pure charity requires, But in gaiety and in gluttony swallow their goods And break not their bread with the poor, as the Book commands: Deal thy bread to the hungry.0 But the more he wins and has the world at his will And properties controls, the less good he doles. Tobit does not teach so; take heed, you rich men, How he spoke at one time and taught his son about giving: Ifthou have much, give abundantly; ifthou have little,, take care even so to bestow willingly a little.0 And this means no more than 'Whoever owns much Should be generous with it while it lasts to men who are needy; And if you have little, dear son, look that by your living, You get love thereby, though you fare the worse.' But now no lord or lettered man desires to hear about such teachings, Except to listen how they might learn to spend the least wealth. And that's what lords love now and consider it an act of Do-well, For there's no wit worth anything now unless it contributes to winning, And is capped with learning in order to plot wrongdoing.0 Therefore Wit," she said, "be wary of showing holy writ Among those that have husks to their fill, Which is a delighting and desiring and love of this world." And when Wit was aware of what Study meant, I couldn't get a single grain of Wit's great wits, But all laughing he bowed and looked toward Study, Suggesting that I should beg for her grace. And when I was aware of his wish, I bowed to that woman, And said, "Mercy, madam, your man I shall be As long as I live, both late and early, And to work your will while my life lasts, If you will teach me to understand naturally what Do-well is." "For your meekness, man," she said, "and for your mild speech I shall refer you to my cousin Clergy who knows0 All kinds of sciences and the sources of Do-well,

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Piers Plowman Of Do-better, of Do-best, for as a doctor he's known, And to be above Scripture, the groundwork, if scribes work truly.0 For she is kin of the seven arts and also my sister And Clergy's wedded wife, as wise as he About doctrine and learning, about law and reason. So with what Clergy knows and Scripture's advice You'll perceive and understand Do-well quite naturally." Then I was happy as a bird on a beautiful morning, Gladder than a minstrel who just got a gift of gold, And asked her the highway to where Clergy dwelled: "And tell me some token," I said, "for it's time I went." "Ask for the highway hence to Suffer— Both-weal-and-woe-if-you-would-learn, And ride on by Riches, don't rest there, For if you desire to be rich you'll never come to Clergy. Both wine and women, wrath, anger, and sloth, If you use or indulge in these, God have my truth, You'll never get to Clergy or know what Do-well is. But if you happen," she said, "to come across Clergy And have understanding of what he signifies, Tell him you yourself have looked over my books And say best greetings to his wife, for I wrote her a Bible And put her on to Sapience and to the psalter gloss.0 I taught her logic and afterward all the law And all the measures in music I introduced to her. Plato the poet I first turned on to books And Aristotle and others I taught how to argue. Grammar for kids I first had written And beat them with a rod if they wouldn't learn. For all kinds of crafts I contrived the tools, For carpenter and carvers, and invented the compass, And figured measure by the square, both line and level. Thus through my learning men have been taught though my own sight's a bit dim. But Theology has troubled me ten score times; The more I meditate on it the mistier it seems And the deeper I divine the darker I find it. Surely it is not a science but a steadfast belief, But because it teaches men to love I believe in it the more,

Passus XI For love is a pleasing thing and difficult to oppress. Learn how to love if you'd like to please Do-well, For of Do-better and Do-best their doctor's dear love." Then I went on my way without further delay And I came to Clergy as clerks had shown me. I greeted him kindly and told him quickly How Wit and his wife directed me his way To be taught and to understand Do-well naturally. "By Christ," said Clergy, "if it's Do-well you desire Keep the ten commandments and keep away from sin And believe loyally how God's son alighted In the maiden Mary for mankind's sake And became a man of that maid without man's nature. And all that Holy Church can teach you of this Believe it loyally and look that you do it thereafter. Augustine the old wrote books about this:0 Who was his authority and taught him about God? Patriarchs and prophets, apostles and angels— And the true Trinity appeared to Augustine And he informed us as he saw, and so I believe, That he saw the Father and the Son with the Holy Ghost together And all three but one God, and he wrote books about it, Indeed, busily wrote books! Who are his witnesses? / am in the father, cmA thefatherin me; and he that seeth me, seeth my father who is in heaven.0 All the clerks under Christ couldn't solve this, But thus must believe all who are drawn to Do-well. For no fellow ever had fine enough wit to dispute the faith, Nor man might have merit of it, if it could be proved: faith has no merit where human reason supplies proof ° Thus belief and loyalty and love is the third That make men to Do-well and Do-better and Do-best." Then Scripture scorned me and made many arguments And flashed a look to Clergy to get rid of me, it seemed, And put me down in Latin and took me for a lightweight And said, "Multi multa sciunt etseipsos nesciunt™ Then I wept for woe and anger at her words And I dropped off to sleep and dreamed wonderfully,0 For I was swept away right there, Fortune fetched me0

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Piers Plowman And brought me into the land of longing and love And made me look into a mirror named Middle Earth And then she said to me, "Here you might see wonders And discover your desire and maybe even reach it.53 Then Fortune had two fair young women following her: Concupiscencia carnis men called the elder maid0 And Covetousness-of-eyes the other was called. And Pride-of-perfect living pursued me closely And bade me count for little the teaching of clerks on self-control. Concupiscence carnis comforted me in this way And said, "You're young and have the yen and years enough To live a long life and make love to ladies, And in this mirror you might see much fun That will lead you right to a lifetime of pleasure." And the second said the same: "I shall attend your will; Till you're a lord and have land I'll stick by your side And will follow in your fellowship if Fortune allows." "He shall find me his friend," said Fortune then; "The man whom I like will never suffer mishaps." Then there was one called Old Age, who looked very unhappy. "Man," said Old Age, "if I meet up with you, by Mary of heaven, You'll find Fortune fail you when you most need her And Concupiscence carnis forsake you clean; Bitterly you'll curse then both day and night Covetousness-of-eyes that you ever knew her; And Pride-of-perfect living put you in great danger." "Yeah? Never you mind," said Recklessness, who stood forth in ragged clothes;0 "Follow wherever Fortune wants, you've a long way to old age; Time enough for a man to stoop when he goes bald!" Sir Wanhope was his kin according to some men,0 For Recklessness in his scurrility said exactly this: "Whether I go to hell or heaven I'll not go on my own! Were everything you say true, you Scripture and you Clergy, I believe that never lord or lady that lives here on earth Will sit in God's sight or see God in his bliss. It is as possible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel, etc.0 For Clergy says he saw in the holy gospel That I was made man and my name entered

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In the book of life long before I was. They preach men are predestinate, preachers who declare this, Or beforehand known to be imperfect, thrust out of grace, Not written down because of some wickedness, as holy writ shows. No man hath ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven.0 And I believe it well, by our Lord, and on no better doctrine. For Solomon the wise that Sapience wrote, God gave him grace of wit and then of wealth, Never so much to a man that one can tell of, To rule all realms and to enrich his people, And to judge well and wisely, as women bear witness: Neither mine nor thine,, but divide it.0 Aristotle and he, who taught men better? Masters who teach men and preach about God's mercy Bear witness that of both their words and works Were wondrous good and wisest of their times, And Holy Church, as I hear, holds both in hell! And if we should work to win us heaven after their example Who for their works and wit abide now in pain Then I Ve acted unwisely despite all your wise teaching. But I don't contradict you, Clergy, nor your knowledge, Scripture, That whoever acts according to your doctrine does well, I believe. But I'd prefer, by our lord, a morsel of God's grace Than all the natural wit that you both possess and the knowledge of your books. For of many wise men, truly, I have little wonder That they're spiritually powerless to please God. For many men of this world set their hearts more On goods than on God; therefore grace fails them. In their greatest misfortune mercy would be best And mercy out of mercy must arise, As holy scripture shows, God's word in the gospel: With the same measure, etc0 Very intelligent men and very learned clerks, Seldom are they seen to practice as they preach. Witness God's word which is never untrue: On the chair of Moses, etc0 But I think it's happened to many as it did in Noah's time

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Piers Plowman When he built the ship out of boards and planks; No carpenter on that job or any workman was ever saved Except the birds and beasts and blessed Noah And his wife with his sons and the sons' wives; Of the workers that built it not one was saved. God forbid that it turn out so for those who teach the faith Of Holy Church, that should keep all Christian souls. For Archa Noe, take heed, means no more than0 Holy Church, safe harbor to all who've been blessed. The conclusion of this clause refers to priests, Who are carpenters under Christ, to build Holy Church For illiterate folks, God's fools and his bountiful beasts. Men and beasts thou wilt preserve.0 At Doomsday will come a deluge of death and fire together; Get to work, you carpenters of Holy Church, as the scriptures teach, Lest you be lost as the laborers who worked under Noah. On Good Friday, I find, a felon was saved0 Who had lived his whole lifetime as an outlaw, And because he confessed faith on the cross and made confession to Christ He was saved sooner than Saint John the Baptist And before Adam or Isaiah or any of the prophets Who had lain with Lucifer many long years. A robber was ransomed sooner than them all; Without penance or suffering or any other pain He passed forth patiently into perpetual bliss. Than Mary Magdalene who could do worse0 In fondness for lechery, who turned no man down? Or the valiant David who devised how Uriah Might be most slyly killed and sent him off to war, In good faith, to all appearances, but with a letter full of guile? Paul the apostle, who without pity Sent Christian people to their deaths? Now they're saints, according to what men say, and sovereigns in heaven, Those who did the worst things while they were here. According to what Solomon says it seems no person Knows who is worthy of doing well or doing wickedly, Whether he's worthy of well-being or wicked pain.

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There are just men and wise men and their works are in the hands of God.0 Thus I, Recklessness, have read registers and books And I never ever found, to tell you the truth, That learning was ever commended by Christ's mouth. For Christ said to saints and to such as he loved: When you stand before kings or governors., etc.0 'Though you come before kings and clerks of the law Do not be afraid of these people for I shall give you tongue And cunning and learning to refute all such.' David makes mention he spoke among kings0 And no king could overcome him in cunning of speech. Truly,'5 said Recklessness, "you see by many kinds of evidence That neither wit nor quickness ever won the victory Without God's gift, which is grace of fortune. For he who saw and said most about the true Trinity That men ever knew was Augustine the old, Who said this in his sermon as an example of great clerks: Behold, the ignorant themselves seize heaven while we wise men are plunged into hell.0 And means no more than this to men who can't read, 'None are more readily ravished from the right belief Generally than clerks most steeped in knowledge, Nor any sooner saved or more steadfast in belief Than plowmen and pastors and poor common people.' Illiterate truehearted laborers and land-tilling people Pierce paradise or heaven with zpater noster And pass through purgatory without penance for their perfect faith.0 A short prayer penetrates heaven.0 Seldom falls the servant as deep in arrears As do the reeve and controller who must reckon and account0 For all that they have had from their master. So illiterate laborers of little understanding Seldom fall as foully and deeply into sin As do clerks of Holy Church who should keep and save Ignorant men in good belief and give them in their need." "Homo proponit" said a poet then, and Plato was his name, K Et deus disponit? he said, "let God do his will.0 All those that Truth attaches and testifies are good,

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Piers Plowman Though they follow what Fortune wants, I don't hold it foolish. Neither Concupiscence carnis nor Covetousness-of-eyes Will greatly grieve you or beguile you, unless you want it." "Yeah, bye-bye, oP Buddy!" said Childishness, and began to pull me forth Until Concupiscenia carnis agreed to all my works. Do-well and Do-better seemed to me worthless, And to Clergy and his counsel—I gave next to no credit!

Passus XII

"Aw, too bad!" said Old Age and Holiness together, "That wit will turn to wretchedness because Will has it all his way!" Covetousness-of-eyes then comforted me0 And said, "Recklessness, never you mind as long as you're rich, Have no conscience about how you came into wealth—confess yourself to some friar; He will absolve you as soon no matter how you won it. For as long as Fortune's your friend friars will love you And join you to their fraternity and intercede in your behalf To their prior provincial for his pardon for you And pray for you, by the head, if you're peccuniosus?0 A monetary penalty does not suffice.0 I did just as this wench advised me, so sweet were her words, Till I passed right through youth and ran into old age. And then Fortune was my foe despite her fair promises And poverty pursued me and put me down low. And I found the friar who confessed me backing off And saying he couldn't absolve me unless I had silver To make reasonable restitution for all my unrightful profits. "Wow!" said I then to him and wagged my head, "By my faith, friar," I said, "you act like the wooer Who wants the widow only to get control of her wealth. Just so, by the cross," I said, "you couldn't care less Where my body's buried as long as you get my assets." And then Loyalty laughed because I scowled at the friar:0 "Why do you scowl?" asked Loyalty. "Dear Sir," I said, "Because this friar flattered me as long as he thought me rich And now that I'm poor and penniless he's lowered the price of my worth. I wouldn't think it a sin," I said, "to speak the truth: The psalter says it's no sin for such men who are true

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Piers Plowman To speak as they see with the exception of priests:0 Thou thoughtest unjustly that I should be like to thee; but I will reprove thee and set before thy face.0 They will also allege and prove it by the gospel, Do not judge anyone?0 "What good's the law," said Loyalty, "if nobody reproved Falseness and deceit? For some good reason the apostle said: Thou shalt not hate thy brother secretly in thy heart. ° Something the whole world knows, why should you hold off From retelling it in writing to reproach deadly sin? But never be the first to blame a fault; Though you see something that's true, say nothing sometimes. Never make public a thing that should be private, Neither for love blab something out nor for envy find fault. Praise little, blame less?0 "He speaks truth," said Scripture then, and skipped up into a pulpit and preached. But the matter that she raised, if laymen knew it, The less, I believe, would they love The belief of our Lord that lettered men teach. Of her theme and narratives I took good note; She said in her sermon rare, strange words: "Multi to a marriage feast were summoned to table0 And when the people were all together the porter opened the gate And let inpauci privily and let the rest go roam." All vexed by her text my heart trembled And into a state of perplexity I grew and debated myself Whether I was chosen or not chosen; I thought of Holy Church Who received me at the font as one of God's chosen. For Christ called us all, come if we would, Saracens and schismatics and the Jews as well, And bade them suck for their sins salvation at his breast And drink health for harm, enjoy it who may: O all you that thirst., come to the waters0 "Then may all Christians come and claim entry there By that blood he bought us with and baptism as he taught: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. ° For though a Christian man desire to renege his Christianity No reason would have it a rightful reneging.

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For no churl may make a charter or sell his chattel 60 Without leave of his lord; no law will grant it. But he may run in arrears and roam away from home Like a reckless renegade outcast, as it seems; But Reason will reckon with him and rebuke him at last And Conscience account with him and cast him in debt 65 And then put him in prison, in purgatory to burn And for his recklessness reward him there right to the Day of Doom, Unless Contrition and Confession cry during his life Mercy for his misdeeds with mouth and with heart." "That's true," said Scripture, "no sin may hinder 70 Mercy from amending everything, provided Meekness follow her. They both, as books tell us, are above God's works. His mercies are over all his works?0 "Yeah? Bah to books!" said one who'd broken out of hell. "I, Trajan, a true knight, I take witness of a pope0 How I was dead and damned to dwell in hell 75 As an unchristian creature, Saint Gregory knows the truth, That all of Christendom under Christ could not snatch me out of there But only love and loyalty in my laws3 exercise of justice. Gregory knew this well and willed to my soul Salvation for the steady truth he saw in my works. 80 And because he willed it weeping that I were saved God in his goodness saw his great desire And without more bead-praying his boon was granted And I was saved, as you can see, without singing of more masses. Love without true faith as my rightful law 85 Saved me, a Saracen, both body and soul."0 "Have a look, lords, at what loyalty did and true justice practiced!0 Well ought you lords who keep the laws have this lesson in mind And think on Trajan's truth for your lifetime And love for the love of our Lord and act loyally forever. 90 On law without loyalty, I wouldn't bet a bean! Or any science under the sun, the seven arts and all,0 Unless love and loyalty lead them, all the time is lost By him who toils on them unless truth is his living. So love and loyalty are our Lord's books 95

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And Christ's own learning, he came from heaven to teach it. And Saint John said it of his teaching: He that loveth not, abideth in death.0 And especially poor people, their prayers may help us. For God, as the gospel says, always goes in a poor man's apparel,0 And as the evangelist attests, when we hold feasts We should not invite knights or any kind of rich people: When thou makest a dinner, call not thy friends.0 c But call those full of care, the crippled and the poor. For friends feed each other, and try how best to repay Meals and compliments, every rich man the other; But because the poor cannot pay I will pay myself; Those who love and give to them generously I shall requite.' On Calvary of Christ's blood Christendom sprang And we became blood brothers there won by one body, As quasi modogeniti free gentlemen all,0 Not a beggar or wiseguy among us unless sin make it so. Whoever commiteth sin, is the servant of sin0 In the Old Law, according to the letter, sons of men called us Adam's and Eve's issue always until the God-man died, And after his resurrection redemptor was his name0 And we his blood brothers, beggars as well as lords. Therefore let us love as dear children, give to the needy And every man help the other for we'll all go hence To get what we deserve as Holy Church attests: They that have done good, shall go, etc0 Therefore let us learn the law of love as our Lord taught And not fail poor people down to our last penny, For in their likeness our Lord often appeared. Witness in Easter week when he went to Emmaus:0 Cleophas did not know that it was Christ Because of his poor apparel and pilgrim's clothes Until he blessed and broke their bread for them. So they knew he was Jesus by his works But not by his clothing, so wretchedly he went. And all this was an example, surely, to us sinners here That we should be humble and loving and loyal to each other, And patient as pilgrims, for pilgrims are we all.

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In pilgrim's apparel and in a poor man's likeness Holy Saints have seen him, but never in a rich man's suit. And Saint Mary, his mother, as Matthew bears witness,0 Was a poor maid purely and to a poor man married. Martha complained greatly about Mary Magdalene And to the Savior himself said these words: Lordy hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve.0 And quickly God resolved the desire of each of them And allowed the works and desire of each completely, But God put poverty first and declared it the better: Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.0 And all the wise men that ever were, as far as I can see, Praise poverty as the best, if patience follow it, And both better and more blessed than riches many times over, Although it's sour to suffer, sweetness comes after. Just as on a walnut there is a bitter bark outside And under that bitter bark, after it's shelled away, Is a kernel of comfort, that restores healthy nature; Just so, penance and poverty, patiently endured, Make man put his mind on God and to crave his mercy, Which is the kernel of comfort for all Christian souls. And he sleeps more soundly, the man who's poor, And fears less by day or dark to be robbed, Than he that's quite rich, as reason bears witness: Pauper ego ludo, dum tu dines meditaris.0 Holy Church attests:cWhoever leaves behind His father or friends, related or not, Or any worldly wealth, his wife, or his children, And for love of our Lord humbles himself to the poor, He shall have a hundredfold of heaven-rich bliss And life everlasting before our Lord in heaven.' Everyone that hath left father and mother, etc0 Christ agrees with this again; clerks know the truth, What God himself said to a man he loved, e lf you want to live,' said God, 'the life that is perfect, All that you have here, go hastily and sell it; Give the money to poor people, put none of it in your purse,

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Piers Plowman But give it to poor folks who for my love ask for it; Forsake everything and follow me and that's best for you.' Ifthou wilt be perfect, go and sell, etc.0 Further Christ counsels us all in common: 'Whoever desires to come into my kingdom Must let go of himself, his sister, and brother And all that the world wants, and follow my will.' Unless you renounce all that you possess, etc.0 I could cite more proverbs of many holy saints To testify for the truth of the tale I tell, And poets to prove it, Porphyry and Plato;0 Aristotle, Ennodius, and eleven hundred more, Tullius, Ptolemy, I can't give all their names, Prove patient poverty's the prince of all virtues. And by the grain that grows God teaches us all To suffer misfortune meekly on this earth: Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, etc0 Unless the seed that is sown in the soil die, Never shall blade spring up, nor ear of corn upon stalk. Wheat will never grow unless wheat die first, And other seeds also in this same way, That have been laid in low earth, lost as it were, And through the grace of God grain dead in earth At last leaps up whereby we all live. But seeds that have been sown and can live through winter Are more timely and tougher for man's use Than seeds sown that cannot survive frosts, Or wind or bad weather as in wintertime; As flaxseed, leek seed, and all lent seeds Are not as worthy as wheat, and cannot hold out as well Against frost in the field during a long freeze. Just so, surely, those that can stand penances Will be approved by our Lord at their last end And praised for their patience as being a perfect martyr, Or equated with a confessor who couldn't care less About fear or famine or false men's tongues. But as a farmer after a hard winter hopes,0 If God grant him life, to have a good harvest, As demonstrate prophets who suffer with patience,

Passus XII Misfortunes, mishaps, and many tribulations Truly betoken in the time coming after Mirth for his morning and that much plenty. For Christ said those saints who for his sake suffered Poverty, penance, and bodily persecution Shall be paid with great honor and held more worthy Than angels in their own grade, in this way he greets them: Tour sorrow shall be turned into joy.0 'Your sorrow at the last will turn into solace And out of woe into well-being your destinies change.' But whoever reads about the rich man, may find the reverse, How God, as the gospel tells, gives him the name of fool, And how his spirit will leave and his wealth remain, And asks him heartily, cWho shall have it, The property he keeps so in coffers and barns, And is so reluctant to leave what one must relinquish? Ofool, this night do they require thy soul ofthee. Man storeth up, and he knoweth not, etc° An improvident reeve will spend your surplus, That many a moth was master in, in a microsecond;0 Secondhand dealers on Cornhill will have it to sell.3 Look out, lords and ladies! Take heed, What's juicy sweet doesn't last long, Like pea pods, early pears, plums, and cherries. What springs up quickly briefly endures, Soon ripe, soon rotten, as the saying goes.0 In fat soil full of dung the foulest weeds grow: ° Just so, for sure, are such that are bishops, Earls and archdeacons and other rich clerks, Who deal like businessmen and bitch if they don't gain And are so in charge they could choose to live otherwise. Just as weeds grow in slime and dung, So out of riches piled on riches arise all vices. You see, soil overlaid with marl and manure, Wheat that grows there falls flat unripened under its own weight; Just so, for certain, to tell the truth, Superfluity feeds pride whereas poverty destroys it. For however won, unless it be well-distributed, Worldly prosperity is a wicked thing to those who hang on to it.

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Piers Plowman For if he be far from it, he's so often afraid That false people will feloniously fetch away his goods; And furthermore it makes men over and over To sin, and to come up with subtle schemes, Out of coveting some cash to kill him that keeps it. And so many a man's murdered for his money and goods And those that did the deed damned for it after, And he for being tightfisted in hell, perhaps. So coveting wealth was an encumbrance to them all. See, how money buys fair and great manors, In which the riches within is the root of robbery.

Passus XIII

So it goes well for Poverty! for he may walk unrobbed0 Among thieves in peace, if patience follow him. Our prince Jesus chose poverty, and all his apostles And always the longer they lived the less goods they had. As having nothing.0 Yet men read that Abraham and Job were wondrous rich, 5 And countless were the possessions these men had. Abraham for his holdings had a lot of trouble, For he was put into great poverty; a prince, as it were,0 Took away his housewife and Abraham not bold enough to stop him once Nor to acknowledge her as his wife because of her bright beauty. 10 And because he suffered in silence, our Lord sent a sign, So that the kind, comely king cried to him for mercy And delivered the man's wife, with much wealth after. Gentle Job, what joy he had on earth! And how bitterly he paid for it, as the Book tells. 15 And because he sang in his sorrow, 'Si bona accepimm a domino0 Dear and precious God! do we so mala* All his sorrow turned to solace through that song, And Job became a joyful man, and all his joy new. See how patience revived these patriarchs in their poverty 20 And brought them back up, who were rotting away in misery. As a seed that lies in the ground and through grace at last Springs up and spreads out, so prospered father Abraham And the gentle Job; their joys have no end. But don't believe, unlearned men, that I find fault with riches 25 Though I praise poverty and prove it by examples The worthier according to scripture and wise philosophers. They're both good, you can be certain, And lifestyles our Lord loves and broad ways to heaven.

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Piers Plowman But the patient poor pass through purgatory Sooner than the rich do though they run together. For if a merchant and messenger met each other And were going the same way where both had to stay And reckon before reason a reasonable account What one has, what the other has, and what they both had, The merchant would be delayed longer than the messenger, For his parcel of papers and other private debts Will delay him, as I believe, the length of a mile, Whereas the messenger does no more than state his errand And show his letter and is immediately dismissed. And though they go on their way these two together, Though the messenger makes his way amidst the fair wheat No wise man will be angry or take security—

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But if the merchant makes his way over men's corn And the hayward happens to meet with him, Either his hat or his hood or else his gloves The merchant must fork over or money out of his purse, And still be delayed, as I believe, for the law demands Merchants pay toll on their merchandise in many places. And still though they wend one way as to the Winchester fair0 The merchant with his merchandise cannot go as swiftly As the messenger can nor with as much ease. For that one bears only a box with a letter therein, While the merchant lugs a bag with all kinds of things And is scared to death he'll die for it should he meet in the dark With robbers and crooks who plunder rich men, While the messenger is ever merry and his mouth full of songs And believes for his letters no man will do him harm. But still the merchant might through his money and other gifts Have horses and brave men—though he met thieves None would attack him had he such a following And as safely and soon as the messenger come to his inn. You wise men know what this is supposed to mean: The merchant signifies no more than that rich men Are all accountable to Christ and to the King of Heaven, That they must hold the high way, the Ten Commandments consistently,

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Both to love and to give to the true and untrue And to take pity and relieve with his riches as fully as is in his power All manner of men who Ve fallen into misfortune; Provide beggars with bread, clothes for their backs, To tithe their goods truthfully, a toll as it seems, That our Lord expects from every living being who gains Without wiles or wrongdoing or running a whorehouse; And more still, to make peace and pay off men's debts, And spare and save to spend on the needful As Christ himself commands all Christians; Bear ye one another's burdens.0 The messengers are his poor beggars who live on men's alms, They're not bound as you rich men are to bow to the law, To give, to teach, to fast during Lent And other special penances that the priest knows well The law allows such low folk to be excused from, Such as tithing tithes or clothing the naked Or serving on inquests or being held disobedient for working Holidays or holy eves to earn his food. For if he loves and believes as the law teaches—He that believeth and is baptized, etc.—0 Tells the Lord a tale as a true messenger And shows by seal and then by letter with what lord he dwells And confesses himself a Christian and of Holy Church's belief, There is no law, as I believe, that will keep him from the gate Where God himself is the gateward and knows every man. So the poor out of pure compassion may perform the law Insofar as he would, if he could, do unto each man as to himself. For the desire of a wretched beggar is worth as much As all that a rich man acquires and righteously gives away, And as much meed for a mite that he offers As the rich man for all his money and more as in the gospel: Amen I say to you., this poor widow, etc.0 So the poor and patient life is the most perfect of all; Each perfect priest should incline to poverty. For spera in deo speaks of priests who have no spending silver0 That if they labor truly and trust in God almighty They'll never lack livelihood neither linen nor woolen. The title you take your order by announces youVe been advanced And need not take silver for the masses you sing.

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Piers Plowman For he that gave you the title should give you wages Or the bishop who blessed you and annointed your fingers. For a king never dubbed a knight unless he had money to spend As befits a knight, or provided for himself by his own strength; For he's a knight full of care of a miserable king's making Who has neither land nor rich lineage nor good praise for his hands. The same I say for sure concerning such that are priests Who have neither learning nor family ties, but only their tonsure And a title, a tale full of nothing, for a livelihood as it were. Wrongly are they suffered who defile the mass Through their evil living and defective understanding. A charter is challengeable before a chief justice; If false Latin is in the writing the law impugns it, Or inscribed between the lines, parts omitted. The man who explains charters so is taken for a jerk. So he is a jerk, by God! who fails in gospel-reading

Or makes any mistake in mass or in matins. He who offends in one point is guilty of all.0 As for over-skippers, David also says in the psalter, Sing praises to our God., sing ye; for God is king of all earth, sing ye wisely.0

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The bishop shall be blamed before God, as I see it, Who crowns as God's knights those who can sapienter0 Neither sing nor read nor say a mass of the day. But neither is ever blameless, the bishop or the chaplain, For ignorancia non excusat^ as I have heard in books.'30 Thus Recklessness in angry folly argued with Clergy And scorned Scripture who showed many sound points, Until Kind came to help out Clergy0 And in the mirror of Middle Earth made him look again, To learn through each creature how to love Kind. And I bowed my body, beheld all about, And saw the sun and the sea and then the sand, And where birds and beasts went side by side with their mates, Wild snakes in the woods and wonderful fowl With flecked feathers and manifold colors. I could see both man and his mate, Poverty and plenty, both peace and war, Both misery and bliss I saw at once.

Passus XIII And men took meed and refused mercy. I saw Reason surely attend all beasts In eating and drinking and reproducing their kind. After conception's course they went their separate ways, As when after they had rutted they rested right away; Males drew to males by themselves in the morning, And females to females flocked and drew. No cow or cow-kind that had already conceived0 Would low after bull, nor boar after sow. There was no kind of creature that had conceived That didn't lose the liking for the lust of the flesh, Except for man and his mate; and that made me wonder, For past reason they ride and recklessly turn on, As in secret doing, both with drinking and other ways. I saw birds building nests in the bushes; Never had a man the wit to work out the least they do. I wondered from whom and where the magpie Learned to stack sticks in her nest where she lays; There's no carpenter, to my knowledge, could make her nest with success. If any mason cast a mold of it, so it would be quite wonderful. And yet I marveled more how many of the birds Secretly hid and concealed their eggs So that no fowl should find them but itself and its mate. And some trod, I noticed, and bred in trees, And brought forth their baby birds all above ground. In marshes and moors, in swamps and waters, Dabchicks dived; "Dear God,351 said, "Where did this wildlife get such wit and at what school?" And how the peacock trod, I took note of that, How uncourteously that cock strained to procreate his kind, And marveled at his beauty and his silly sound. And then I looked upon the sea and up at the stars; I saw many seldom seen things, but won't speak of them now, Nor of what flowers were in fields, and of their fair colors, And how so many hues grow out of the ground and grass, And some were sour and some sweet, it struck me as wonderful. It would take me too long to tell their kinds and colors. But what most moved me and changed my mood

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Piers Plowman Was that I saw Reason attend all beasts Except man and mankind; many times it seemed Reason did not rule them, neither rich nor poor. Then I tried to reason with Reason and said right to him: "It's a wonder to my wit, inasmuch as you're held to be so wise, Why it should be, as widely as you reign, That you wouldn't rather rule men than other beasts? I see none as often surfeited, for sure, as mankind; In food beyond measure and many times over in drink, In women, in clothes, and in words, too, They overdo it day and night as other beasts do not; They rule themselves by reason, but very few men do. And therefore I'm amazed, as man is most like you in wit and works, Why doesn't he love your learning and live as you teach?" And Reason reasoned with me and said, "Never you mind What I allow or don't allow—for sure," he said, "Every man for himself, Solomon teaches us: Strive not in a matter which doth not concern thee° Who suffers more than God?" he said, "no man, as I believe! He could amend all that's amiss in a microsecond, But he suffers as an example that we should suffer all. There is no virtue as fair or of the value or profit As is forbearance above all others, as long as it's for love of God. And so the wise attest and the French know: Bele venue est suffmnce^ mat dire estpetit vengwnce? Ben dire e ben suffrerfait lui suffrable a bien venir. Therefore," said Reason, "I recommend you always rule your tongue, And before you blame any life, look for who's praiseworthy. For there's no creature under Christ that can make himself, And if creatures could make themselves Christians Everybody would be blameless, believe nothing else! Man was made of such matter that he cannot easily escape From following his nature as it sometimes befalls him; Cato agrees with this— Nemo sine crimine viuitT0 Then I quickly blushed and began to be ashamed, And awakened with that; woe was me then0 That I hadn't dreamed more, so pleasantly as I slept, And immediately said to myself, "Sleeping I had grace

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To know what Do-well is, but waking never!" And then someone appeared, someone I didn't know. "What is Do-well?" that person said. "Indeed sir" said I, "To see much and suffer all, certainly, is Do-well." "If you'd suffered," he said, "when you were sleeping now, You would have learned what Clergy knows, and conceived more through Reason; For Reason would have taken you back over exactly as Clergy said. But for your interference you're forsaken here;

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Tou would have been a philosopher if you had kept quiet. And elsewhere: I have at times regretted having spoken, but never having kept quiet? Adam, as long as^he didn't speak, had Paradise at his fingertips, But when he babbled about food and fancied knowing The wisdom and wit of God, he was put out of bliss. Reason dealt with you so rightly for your rude speech, And because you wanted to know the why's of Reason's secrets. For your pride and presumption in your 'perfect life,' Reason refused you and wouldn't remain with you, Nor Clergy care about showing you his insight. For until shame comes, no rogue will ever be chastised enough. For if a drunken daffy fall in a ditch, Let him lie, but don't look at him till he wants to get up; For though Reason rebuked him then, he'd never care, Nor of Clergy or Common Sense count for anything; To blame him or beat him then I consider a sin. But when Need gets him up, he's ashamed right away, And then he knows wherefore and why he is to blame." "You speak the truth, by my soul," I said, "I've seen it often: Nothing smites as smartly, nor smells as foul As Shame; wherever he shows up, every man shuns his company. Why you talk to me thus was because I argued with Reason." "Yeah, for sure," he said, "that's the truth," and got ready to walk, And I rose right up at that and showed him great respect, And if it were his will, would he tell me his name?

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Passus XIV

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"I am Imaginative" he said, "I was never idle0 Though I stay by myself, such is my grace. I have faithfully followed you more than forty winters And instructed you often on what Do-well means0 And counseled you for Christ's sake not to deceive any creature, Neither to lie nor to slander nor to teach what's forbidden Nor to spill speech, as in idle speaking, Nor to waste time nor trouble a true thing, To humble yourself and to live henceforth in the law of Holy Church, And then you do well, without a doubt, it doesn't matter who can do better! Clerks who know everything, I hope they can do better, But Do-well and to be such as I taught suffice for salvation. But to love and to give and live well and believe Is called Caritas, Natural Love in English, And that is Do-better, if any such be, a blessed man that helps Keep the peace and patience and the poor from want. It is & more blessed thing to give rather than to ask° But wealth and common sense encumber many: Woe to him who wields them unless he spends them well! Those who know and do not do their Lord's will, shall be beaten with many stripes.0 But knowledge and riches cheaply and unnaturally gained— As when bums become lords and illiterate men teachers And Holy Church a helper to whores, avaricious and covetous— Dry up Do-well and destroy Do-best. But grace is a grassy herb that makes them grow again; But grace won't grow until goodwill gives rain And through good works moistens wicked hearts. But before such desire grew God himself went to work

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And sent forth the Holy Spirit to make love spring up: The spirit breatheth where he will. ° So grace without God's grace and good works as well Cannot be, you can be sure, though we pray forever. But learning comes only from what weVe seen and common sense from the stars, As in being begotten or born under a specific constellation. So that intelligence and other traits, too, grow from it. The appearances of this world are subject to the expressions of the heavens.0 So grace is a gift of God and common sense good luck And learning an understanding of common sense's teaching. And yet learning is to be commended for Christ's love more Than any understanding of common sense unless learning rule it. For Moses witnessed what God wrote and Christ with his finger;0 Our Lord wrote the law of love long before Christ was, And Christ came and confirmed and made Holy Church And wrote a sign in the sand and said to the Jews: c He who sees himself sinless, do not hesitate, I say, To strike with stone or with staff this strumpet to death.' He that is without sin. ° Therefore I counsel every creature to honor learning. For as a man who's missing his eyes cannot see No more can a clerk know unless it comes from books. Although men made books God was their master And the Holy Spirit the exemplar and said what men should write. And just as sight serves a man to see the high street, Just so do letters teach illiterate men to reason. And as a blind man carries a weapon to fight with in battle And has no chance of hitting his enemy with his axe, No more can a man of common sense, unless clerks teach him, Gome for all his common sense to be saved through Christendom, Which is the coffer of Christ's treasure, and clerks keep the keys To unlock it as they like, to help the ignorant and learned, To give mercy for misdeeds if men ask for it Obediently and mildly and pray for it of grace. In the Old Law Levites kept Area Deif Never did an unlettered man have leave to lay a hand on that chest But had to be a priest or priest's son, patriarch or prophet.

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Piers Plowman Because Saul sacrificed on it sorrow befell him0 And sorrow befell his sons for his sins And all unlearned men that laid a hand on it lost their lives after. Therefore I counsel all creatures not to despise clerks Nor give short schrift to their science, no matter what they themselves do. Let's take their words for what they're worth, for their witnessings are true, And let's not meddle much with them to move any to wrath Lest strife heat us all up to chide and chop at each other. And let's do as David teaches for fear of God's vengeance: Touch ye not my annointed. ° For learning is Christ's vicar to comfort and to cure; Both the unlettered and learned would be lost if it weren't for learning. Men of common sense have a learning by themselves; Concerning clouds and customs they found out many things And made notes in their manner and pondered them to understand. And of the strange things they saw they taught their sons about them For they hold it a high science their subtleties to know. But surely through their science a soul was never saved Nor brought by their books to bliss or to joy. For all their natural knowing came only from diverse sightings Of birds and beasts, of bliss and sorrow. Patriarchs and prophets reproved their science And said their words and wisdoms were mere folly; Compared to Christ's learning they counted it a trifle. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.0 For the high Holy Ghost shall split open heaven And love shall leap out after into this low earth And cleanness shall catch it and clerks shall find it: The shepherds said one to another. ° It makes no mention there at all of rich men, or of rich lords, But only of the cleanness of clerks and keepers of beasts. There came wise men from the east. ° If any friar was found there I'll give you five shillings! Nor was Christ born in any hovel or wretch's house0 But in a burgess' house, the best in town. The angel appeared to shepherds and to poets0

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And bade them go to Bethlehem to honor God's birth And sang a song of solace, Gloria in excelsis deo° Rich men were snoring then and fully at rest When it shone to the shepherds, a shower of bliss. Clerks recognized the comet and came with their presents And paid homage honorably to him who was almighty. Why I've told you all this, I took very good notice0 How you contradicted Clergy with cantankerous words, That is, how unlearned and bad men were more readily saved Than clever clerks of natural understanding. And you said the truth about some, but see in what manner. Take two strong men and throw them in the Thames0 And both naked as a needle, neither heavier than the other; The one's skilled and can swim and dive, The other is ignorant about that work and never learned to swim; Which of those two in the Thames do you think has the most to fear?" "The one that can't swim," I said, "it seems quite obvious." "Just so," that man said, "it appears reasonable That he who's got a clerk's learning can sooner arise Out of sin and be safe though he sin often, If he really wants to, than any illiterate for sure. For if the clerk is clever he knows what sin is And how contrition without confession comforts the soul, As we see in the Psalter in a couple of psalms, How contrition is commended because it snatches away sin: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven* And that comforts every clerk and protects against despair, The flood in which the fiend tests a man hardest, Whereas the unlettered man lies still and waits for Lent And has no contrition before he comes to confession, and then can tell little, Believes and trusts only as his teacher directs him, And that's according to his parson or parish priest, and maybe both lack the learning To teach unlearned men, as Luke testifies: If the blind lead the blind., etc. ° A lot of woe was marked out for him that must wade with the ignorant! Well may the youngster bless him that set him to books,

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Piers Plowman So that living according to his learning saved him body and soul! Dominuspars hereditatis is a merry bit of verse;0 It's taken twenty tough thieves from Tyburn; While illiterate thieves are strung up, look how these are saved! The thief had grace of God on Good Friday, as you said, Because he surrendered his belief up to Christ and asked for his grace. And God is always gracious to all who cry out to him And will let no wicked man be lost, unless he wants it himself. I desire not the death of the wicked.0 But though the thief had heaven he hadn't high bliss Like that of Saint John and other saints who had deserved better. Just as some man feeds me and sets me in the middle of the floor, I have more than enough food but not with as much honor As those who sit at the side table or with the masters of the hall, But as a beggar, not at the board but by myself on the ground. So it went for the felon that was saved on Good Friday, He sits neither with Saint John nor with Simon nor Jude Nor with maidens nor with martyrs nor with mild widows, But as a solitary by himself served upon the ground. For he that was once a thief is forever in danger, And as the law likes, to live or to die. Be not without fear about sin forgiven. ° And to serve a saint and such a thief together, It wouldn't be reasonable or right to reward them both alike. And just as the true knight Trajan pitched his tent not so deep in hell0 That our Lord couldn't have him easily out, so lives that thief in heaven. For he's in the lowest part of heaven, if our belief be true, And hangs on there very uneasily by Holy Church's law. And he will render to every man according to his works. ° But why that one thief on the cross surrendered up his belief Rather than the other, though you would like an answer, All the clerks under Christ couldn't explain it. Why did it please him? Because he willed it. ° And so I say in respect to your seeking out the why's Of how creatures have common sense and how clerks come to books And how the flowers in the forest come to fair hues;

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Never was there creature under Christ that knew the beginning well Except Kind who first devised it out of his courteous will. He taught the turtledove to tread, the peacock to copulate, And Adam and Eve and all the other beasts A portion of natural intelligence to save their own kind. Of good and of evil Kind was the first, Saw it and suffered it and said it should be. He commanded cmA they were created. ° But why he would that evil were, I think and believe There never was a man on this earth who could discern it. But long-living men likened men's lives To birds and beasts, as their books tell That the fairest fowl breeds in the foulest way And is the feeblest bird of flight of those that fly or swim; That is, the peacock and the parrot with their proud feathers Exactly represent rich men who reign here on earth. For chase a peacock or peahen to catch it And have them quickly whenever you want, For they can neither fly far nor very high, Because their pretty feathers prevent them from flying far. His voice is unlovely and his meat loathsome, But for his painted plumes the peacock is honored More than for his fair flesh or for his merry note. Just so do men respect the rich man more for his possessions Than for any kin he comes from or for his common sense. Thus the poet praises the peacock for his feathers And the rich man for his income or for his rich stock in his shops. The lark that is a lesser bird is lovelier of voice And sweeter to taste and swifter of wing. The lark is compared to men of humble life And to loyal and life-holy men who love all truth. Thus Porphyry and Plato and many poets Draw likeness in their logic to the least bird alive. And whether they are saved or not saved no clergy knows for sure, Or about Socrates or Solomon no scripture can tell Whether they're in hell or in heaven, or Aristotle the wise. But God is so good, I hope that since he gave them wits With which to guide us men who want to be saved,

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Piers Plowman And the better for their books, we are bound to pray That God for his grace give their souls rest, For lettered men would still be unlearned if it weren't for the teaching of those clerks." "All these clerks," I then said, "who believe in Christ Say in their sermons that neither Saracens nor Jews Can be saved, according to their books, without baptism." "Contra" said Imaginative then, and started to scowl,0 And said, "Vix saluabitur iustus in die iudicii* Ergo saluabitur? he quoted and spoke no more Latin. "Trajan was a true knight and never took Christendom And he is saved, says the Book, and his soul in heaven. But there is baptism by font and baptism by bloodshedding0 And there is baptism by fire, and all is firm belief. There came a divine fire, not burning but illuminating. ° But a true man who never trespassed or transgressed against his law0 But lived as his law taught and believed there to be no better, And if there were, would believe in it, and in such a desire dies— Never would the true God want but that true truth were commended, And whether it will be or will not be, the belief of that true man is great And hope ever hangs on to it to have what his truth deserves. Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things. ° And that is love and generous pay, if the Lord be true, And a kindness beyond what was agreed to, no matter what clerks say, For all shall be as God wills," and with that he vanished.

Passus XV

And with that I awoke, practically out of my wits, And like one doomed to die I began to walk In the manner of a beggar many years after. And I thought a lot about this dream many times: First, how Fortune failed me in my greatest need And how Old Age menaced me—if I should Live so long—leave me behind And make me lose all my powers and my good looks. And how friars followed after rich people And set little store by people who are poor, Nor lay to rest in their churchyard any corpse of a poor commoner Unless while alive he left them something or helped them cover their debts. And how this covetousness overcame all sorts of classes, Learned as well as illiterate, lords as well as bondsmen. And how unlettered men were led, unless our Lord helped them, Into incurable pains by unqualified curates. And how Imaginative told me in my dream About Kind and his knowledge, and what knowledge he gave beasts, And how loving he is to all living things, on land and on water, For he guides and gives intelligence to all that walk or creep. And I marveled in my heart how Imaginative said That iusPus before Jesus in die iudicii0 Non saluabitur unless vix help; And when he had said this, how suddenly he vanished And I mused so on this matter that I fell asleep. And then Conscience came and Clergy after0 And ordered me up and out and to dine with Reason. And I arose and set out and we met with Reason. We paid our respects to Reason and went forth quietly And met with a master, a man like a friar.0

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Piers Plowman Conscience knew him and welcomed him warmly; They washed and wiped and went to the dinner. And Patience came there as a poor thing and prayed for food pour charite0 Like Piers the plowman, as if he were a palmer, Craved and cried for, for Christ's love of heaven, A square meal for a poor man, or money, if they had some. Conscience knew him well and welcomed them all, To wash and to wipe and to take their seats. The master was seated first, as the most honorable; Reason stood and presided as steward of the hall. Patience and I were quickly put together, And sat by ourselves at a side table. Clergy called for food and then Scripture came And served them thus soon with many and sundry dishes, Of Augustine, of Ambrose, of all four Evangelists,0 Eating and drinking such things as they have.0 But the master was unable to chew this food well; Therefore he ate a more expensive menu, meaty stews and thick soups.0 Out of what men miswon they made themselves most comfortable; But their sauce was over-sour and unsavorly ground In a mortar, post mortem^ of many bitter pains0 Unless they sing for those souls and weep salt tears. Tou who feast upon men's sins, unless you pour out tears and prayers for them, you shall throw up in torment what you feast upon with pleasure.0 Then Reason proposed, immediately after that, That Conscience command Scripture to come And bring bread for Patience, eating apart, And other food also, and to me who was his companion then. He set down a sour loaf and said, "Agitepenitenciam?0 And drew us a drink, diu per severans:0 "As long," he toasted, "as life and body last." "This is a seemly service!" said Patience. Then Contrition came, who had cooked for them all, And brought a serving of Pro hac or obit omnis sanctus in tempore oportuno0 Then Conscience comforted us, Clergy and Scripture also,

Passus XV And said, "Cor contritum et humiliatum^ deus^ non despicies?0 Patience was well pleased with this proper service And enjoyed this food; but I mourned without end Because a doctor at the high dais drank wine fast— Woe to you that ewe mighty to drink wine!0 And ate many sundry dishes, stews and puddings, Boar and geese's blood, bacon and fried eggs. Then I said to myself, but made sure Patience heard it: "It's not three days ago that this doctor preached At Paul's before the people what penance they must suffer,0 All who wish to come to any kind of joy; And how Paul the Apostle, what penance he endured For our Lord's love, as holy writing tells: In hunger and in cold, etc. ° But I wonder in my wits why they don't preach As Paul the Apostle often preached to the people: There a>re perils from false brethren!0 Holy scripture bids men beware and protect themselves wisely That no false friar deceive them with flattery; But I'm reluctant, though I know Latin, to blame any group, For we're all brothers, though we're diversely clothed. But I never knew a fellow called friar of the five mendicant orders That took this for his theme and talked about it without glossing. They preach that penance is profitable to the soul, And what misfortune and misery Christ suffered for man, But this doctor," I said, "and specialist in divinity and canon law decrees (And also a stingy glutton with two great cheeks) Has no pity on us poor; he practices badly What he preaches and does not prove compassionate," I said, And wished dearly with a fully eager will That all that food were in that master's stomach, Including the plates and platters with all delicacies after! "I'll rap with this potbellied piss-pot And ask him what penance is and purgatory on earth, And why he doesn't practice what he preaches!" "Leave it alone," said Patience, And continued, "You'll soon see, when he can eat no more,

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Piers Plowman He'll have a penance in his foul paunch and puff with every word, And then his guts will grumble and he'll start to yawn. Now he has drunk so deeply he'll begin to divine soon And prove by their Apocalypse and the passion of Saint Avoya0 That bacon and boar, blankmanger and fancy stews Are neither fish nor flesh, but food for penitents; And swear by the Trinity and take his fellow to witness What he found between book covers about a friar's lifestyle, And unless the first page is lies, never believe me again! And then's the time to make your move and ask this doctor About Do-well and Do-better and if Do-best does penance." I sat still, as Patience wanted, and soon this doctor, As ruddy as a rose reddened his cheeks, Hemmed and hawed, and Conscience heard him And told him about this trinity and looked toward me. "What is Do-well, sir doctor?" I said. Is Do-best any penance?" "Do-well?" said his doctor, and then took a drink, "Do no harm to your neighbor or to yourself either, And then you do well and wisely, I guarantee it." "Certainly, sir," I said then, "it doesn't seem so here, In that you don't share with us poor, that you pass over Do-well, Don't practice what you preach, as our Lord wishes. He hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people.0 And you fare thus with your sighing friars, marvelously it seems to me But Do-well will indict you in die iudiciir0 Then Conscience most courteously made a meaningful look And winked at Patience to prevail on me to keep quiet, And said himself, "Sir doctor, if you'd be willing, What is Do-well and Do-better? You divines know." "I have said," that man said, "I can say no better, But do as doctors teach I regard as Do-well; He who wants to teach others I consider Do-better; And he that does as he teaches, I hold as the best. He that shall do and teach, he shall be called great"0 "Now your turn, Clergy," said Conscience, "tell what's Do-well." "I ask to be excused," said Clergy, "by Christ, unless it's in school

Passus XV No such subject will be raised for me, only there, For love of Piers the noble palmer, who once impugned All kinds of knowledge and all kinds of crafts, Except love and loyalty and humility of heart, And took no text to prove this for true But dilige deum etproximum^ and domine^ quis habitabit* And with pure reason proves all things imperfect, None is good* But loyal love and truth, which is hard to find." Piers the plowman said, "Pacientes vincunt.0 Before everlasting peace I shall prove what I said, And swear before God and never forsake it, That disce^ doce^ dilige deum0 And help your enemy with all of your might. Cast on his head hot coals of all sorts of speech, Try through wit and word to win his love, Give to him again and again, ever to his need, Comfort him with your wealth and your kind speech, And lay on him thus with love till he laugh for you; And if he not bow down for this beating, may he go blind!" And when he had spoken thus, no man knew after Where Piers the plowman was gone, he left so quietly. And Reason ran after and went right with him;0 Except for Conscience and Clergy I could see no others. And Patience spoke up properly when Piers had thus passed through; "He who loves loyally," he said, "covets next to nothing. I could, if I wanted, conquer all France Without destruction of human life or any bloodshed; I take witness," he said, "of a passage of holy writ: The patient conquer. ° For, by him that made me, never may poverty, Trouble, or misfortune, or man's tongue Vex you any time if you take patience And bear it around in your bosom where you go In the corner of a cartwheel with a crow's crown.0 No man shall ever be ashamed who has this bound to him, Nor ever heat, hail, or hell-puck grieve him,

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Piers Plowman Neither fire nor flood, nor fear of enemy.

Charity casteth out fear.0

There is no being in this world that would stop you From having any land you like, and the inhabitants making you their lord And master of all their possessions and their money, too, The king and all the commons and clergy from bowing to you As their lord and leader, and living as you teach.53 "This is an old routine," said this doctor, "an entertainer's line!0 All the world's wisdom and strong men's force Cannot bring about a peace between the pope and his enemies0 Profitable to both parties"—and pushed the table away And took Clergy and Conscience into counsel, as it were. But Conscience, I noticed, soon got rid of this doctor And then said to Clergy so that I heard it, "By Christ," said Conscience, "Clergy, I won't lie, I'd prefer, by our Lord, if I should live so long, To have patience perfectly than half your pack of books! Letters and long study obstruct many So that they don't recognize," said Conscience, "what natural Patience is. Therefore," Conscience said, "I commend you to Christ, I'll go off with Patience to find perfection."0 And they went forth their way, I followed with great will. Then Patience had, as pilgrims have food in their bags, Sobriety and simple speech and steadfast belief To cheer himself and Conscience if they came to places, Where unkindness and covetousness are, hungry countries both. And as they went on their way—talking about Do-well— They met with a minstrel, as it seemed to me then. Patience questioned him and prayed he tell What craft he possessed, and he courteously responded: "I'm a minstrel," this man said, "my name's Activa Vita,0 Apprentice to Piers the plowman, to provide for all people." "What manner minstrelsy, dear friend," said Conscience, "Have you used or practiced all your lifetime?" "I'm not much of a minstrel, but I can make men merry; As a waferer with wafers I ever welcome God's guests.

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They laugh at my labors, the big and the small. I please the poor and the rich and earn my bread And pick up a few robes or furred gowns. If I would lie and make men laugh, then I'd latch on to Either a mantle or money among lords5 minstrels. I can't play the tabor or the trumpet or tell fair stories, Fart or fiddle at feasts or harp, Joke, or juggle or gently pipe, Neither do I dance nor play the psaltery nor sing to the guitar. I have no good gifts from these great lords For any bread I work hard for to bring first before lords, Were it not that the parish prays for me on Sundays. I'm sorry I sow and plant only for myself, But the priest and other people pray for Piers the plowman And for me, Active, his man, who hates idleness; For lords and lazybones, the bad and the good, From Michaelmas to Michaelmas I provide food and drink.0 I provide bread for the pope and pray to him my wish That plagues turn into peace and perfect love. For if I found that his blessing and his bull might Prevent this evil air and heal the sick— As the Book bears witness that he carried the might In his mouth to give mercy and to amend us all, They shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover— ° Then I would be busy and obliging to help Every kind of creature that believes in Christ. For since he has the power Peter had he has the pot with the salve. Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give thee. ° But if might of miracle fail him it's because men are unworthy To have God's grace and no fault of the pope. For no blessing can do us good unless we will reform, Nor man's prayer make peace among Christian people Until pride is completely undone and that through lack of bread. From abundance of bread and wine come the foulest of sins. ° Plenty of bread and leisure and rich food Made the people of Sodom into worthless sinners." "Peace!" said Patience, "I ask you, Sir Active!0 For though there were no bread or plow or soup,

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Piers Plowman Pride would put himself forth though no plow turned earth. It's I who provide for all folks and save them from hunger Through the help of him who sent me here.5' And continued, "Look, here's livelihood enough if our belief is true. For never was life lent here unless livelihood was planned Whereof or wherefore and wherewith to live: The worm that lives inside the earth and fish in water, The cricket by nature of fire and the curlew on the wind, Beasts on grass and grain and on green roots, Meaning that all men might similarly Live through loyal belief as our Lord witnesses. Whatsoever you ask in my name shall be given to you. And elsewhere: Not in bread alone doth man live"0 "Do you have," asked Active, "any such food with you?" "Sure," said Patience, and out of his bag pulled A piece of the pater noster and offered it to us all. And I listened and looked for what livelihood it was And then it w&sjwt voluntas tua that should maintain us all.0 "Have some, Active," said Patience, "and eat this when you're hungry Or when you're numb with cold or dried up because of drought, And shackles will never grieve you or the wrath of great lords, Prison or any other pain, forpacientes vincunt.0 As long as you temper your sight and tongue, Smelling and handling, all your five senses, You need not care about corn or clothes or drink, Nor dread death or devil, die as God likes Whether through hunger or heat, at his will it be; For if you live as he teaches the shorter life the better. Tour love,, if Christ has it, the world hasn't. ° Through his breath beasts matured and walked abroad; He commanded and they were created. ° Ergo^ through his breath beasts live, men and fish also, As Scripture witnesses when we say grace: Thou openest thy hand, and fittest with blessing every living creature.0 It is found that forty winters folk lived without tilling the earth0 And out of the flint sprang the flood which people and beasts drank. And in Elijah's time heaven was closed

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So that it rained down no rain; thus read men in books, That many winters men lived without cultivating food. Seven slept, as the Book says, more than sixty winters, Lived without livelihood and finally awoke. And if men lived as measure wishes there'll never be want Among Christian creatures, if Christ's words be true.

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"What is perfect patience?" asked Active Vita. "Meekness and mild speech and men of one will, Which same will love leads to our Lord's place, And that is charity, champion, chief of all virtues; And that is the patient poor, suffering all perils." "Do poverty and patience please God almighty more Than righteous riches and reasonable spending?" "Yes, quis est ille>" said Patience, "quick laudamus eum\° Though men read about riches right to the world's end I never knew a rich man, who when he had to make reckoning When he drew close to death, who wasn't more fearful Than any poor patient man, and I prove that with reason. There are but few folks among these rich men who don't fall into arrears, Whereas the poor man dares plead and prove by pure reason He deserves allowance from his lord; by pure law he claims Joy who never had joy; of a righteous judge he asks And says, cLook! birds and beasts that know no bliss And wild worms in the woods, through winter you grieve them And make them well-nigh meek and mild for hunger. Afterwards you send them summer, their sovereign joy And bliss to all that live, both wild and tame!' Then, like beasts, may beggars ask for some bliss Who have lived all their lives in illness and deprivation. Unless God sends them sometime some manner of joy Either here or elsewhere, it would be a pity. For he was created to an evil state for whom joy was never shaped. Angels now in hell once had joy, And Dives lived in luxury and in douce vie0 And now he pays for it bitterly, a beggar in hell. Many a man has his joy here despite all his good deeds And lords and ladies are called for possessions they have

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Piers Plowman And sleep as if it seemed summer followed them always. But when death awakens them from their happiness who were so rich Then they're very poor things in purgatory or hell. In the Psalter David reminds us of such And says, They have slept and have found nothing. And elsewhere: As the dream of them that awake, etc.0

Passus XVI

Alas! That riches shall remove and rob man's soul From the love of our Lord at his last end. Workers who are paid in advance are evermore poor And seldom does he die out of debt who dines before he deserves it. When his duty's done and his day's work Then men can settle what he's worth and what he deserves, But not to take pay before for fear of disapproval. So I say regarding you rich, it isn't fitting that you should Have two heavens for your being here. There's much mirth in May among wild beasts And so long as summer lasts their solace endures, And much mirth is among rich men who have enough wealth and health. But beggars around mid-summer sup without bread, And yet winter's worse for them, for they walk wet-shoe'd, Overcome by thirst and hunger and foully rebuked By these worldly-rich men, it's pitiful to hear. Now Lord, send them summer sometime to console and to enjoy Who lead all their lives in humility and poverty! For you might have made us all men of great wealth And equally smart and wise and to live without need— But it's all for the best, as I hope, some are poor and some rich. Exactly so have pity on all your people And repair us for your mercy and make us all meek, Humble, and loyal, and loving, and poor of heart. And send us contrition to cleanse our souls with And confession to kill all kinds of sins And satisfaction which fulfills the will of the Father in heaven. And these are Do-well and Do-better and Do-best of all. Cordis contricio comes out of sorrow of heart, And oris confessio^ which comes out of shrift of mouth,

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Piers Plowman And satisfaction, which pays for souls and discharges all sins. Cordis contricio^ Oris confessio^ Operis satisfaction Without doubt poverty bears all three of these And teaches the ignorant and learned, the high and low to know Who does well or better or best above all; And of this Holy Church and charity have made a charter. And unless these three I speak of stand up for us at Doomsday Our living here is entirely in vain, Our prayers and our penances and pilgrimages to Rome. Unless our expenses and spending spring from a true well All our labor is lost—look at how men write0 On windows in the friars' chapels if the foundation is false! Therefore Christians should be rich in common, none covetous for himself, For there are seven sins that assail us non-stop;0 The fiend follows them all and tries to help them, But with riches those low-down rebels most readily beguile men. For where riches reign reverences follow, And that's pleasant to pride, in poor and in rich. But the rich man's revered because of his riches Where the poor man's put behind and by chance knows more About wit and wisdom, which is better by far Than riches or royalty, and is sooner heard in heaven. For the rich man has much to reckon with and walks right softly; The highway heavenward he considers not very smooth going, Where the poor man presses ahead with his backpack— Their works follow them—0 Boisterously, as beggars do, and boldly he craves Perpetual joy for his poverty and patience. And pride sooner rules in riches than in poverty; Either in the master or in his man he has some residence. But pride has no might in poverty where patience is Nor may any of the seven sins sit there long Or have power in poverty if patience follows. For the poor man's always pressed to please the rich And obeys his bidding for his bread and drink, And obedience and boasting are forever at war And hate each other and can't live together. If Wrath wrestles with the poor man he gets the worst of it,

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For if they both file complaints the poor man's but feeble And if he chides or chatters he achieves the less. For he looks lowly and speaks low Who must beg his food and money from strangers. And if Gluttony grieves Poverty he gathers in little For his income won't afford buying rich foods. And though his gluttony be for good ale, he goes to a cold bed And his head uncovered, uncomfortably twisted up For when he extends into a stretch the straw is his sheets. So for his gluttony and his great sin he has a grievous penance, Which is a miserable state when he wakes and weeps for cold; So he's never merry, as misfortune tails him. And though Covetousness wants to wrestle the poor man, they can't come together And put a neck-hold especially on each other; For men know well that Covetousness has a keen will And a very long reach of hands and arms And Poverty's just a tiny thing, doesn't even reach his navel, And a good bout was never between tall and short. And though Avarice would injure Poverty, he has but little power For Poverty has only bags to put his goods in Where Avarice has layer chests and ironbound coffers. And which of the two's better to break into? It causes less clamor To break open a beggar's bag than an ironbound coffer. And Lechery loves not a poor man for he has very little dough And doesn't dine delectably or drink wine often. Not a red cent for your whorehouse! It wouldn't stand if it depended on poor men's patronage! And though Sloth pursues Poverty, and serves not to please God, Misfortune is always a mediator and makes him think That God is his greatest help and no one else, And he's his servant always, he says, and of his party. And whether he is or isn't, he bears the sign of poverty And in that suit of clothes our Savior saved all mankind. Therefore all the poor who are patient may claim by pure right After their ending here heaven-kingdom's bliss. Much more confidently may he ask who might have had his desire here

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Piers Plowman In land and in lordship, in physical pleasure, And for God's love leaves it all and lives like a beggar. As a maid forsakes her mother for a man's love, Her father and all her friends and goes forth with her lover: Much is such a maid to be loved by the man who takes her, More than the maid who is married through a broker, As by assent of sundry persons and silver to boot, More for coveting cash than the natural love of marriage. So it goes for every person who forsakes possessions And applies himself to be patient and weds Poverty Which is kin to Christ himself and like him as well." Then Active angrily and arguing, as it were, asked: "What is Poverty, Patience?" he said, "I pray you tell it." "Paupertas" said Patience, "est odible bonum, remocio curarum^possessio sine calumpnia^ donum dei sanitatis mater ^ absque solicitudine semittt^ sapiencie temperatrix^ negocium sine dampno^ incerta fortun^ absque solicitudine felicitous?0 "I can't figure all this out," said Active Vita. "Indeed," said Patience, "to tell it properly, All this in English, is very difficult, but I'll tell you something. Poverty is the first point that Pride hates most; Then Poverty is good, for good reason, though it grieves a little, It can wholly put off Pride in any place where he reigns. Remocio curarum0 Seldom does Poverty sit to declare the truth, Or to be a justice to judge men, no poor man is enjoined, Nor to be mayor over men or minister under kings. Seldom is any poor man positioned to punish people, Ergo Poverty and poor men perform the commandment Do not judge anyone.0 Possessio sine calumpnia. Seldom is the poor man very rich except by rightful inheritance; He wins nothing with false weights or illegal measures Nor does he borrow from his neighbor more than he can easily repay, And men lend to few men readily when they know they're poor. The fourth is a fortune by which the soul flourishes With sobriety from all sins and still more: It protects the flesh from many a folly,

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A collateral comfort, Christ's own present: Donumdei° Next it's mother of might and of man's health And friend in all temptations and physician for foul evils: Smitatis muter. ° The sixth is a peaceful path, yeah! through the Alton pass0 Poverty can pass without peril from robbers. For wherever Poverty passes peace generally follows And ever the less one carries the lighter his heart, As he who never knows with whom he meets at night. Seneca: Paupertas est absque solicitudine semita° The seventh is a well of wisdom and shows few words For lords allow him little or ever listen to his reason; He tempers his tongue truth-wards who covets no treasures. The eighth is a faithful laborer and loath to take more Than he may truly deserve in summer or in winter, And though he trades, he takes no loss hard, if he can win charity:

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The ninth is sweet to the soul, no sugar sweeter, For Patience keeps his pantry and provides Poverty with bread And sobriety gives her sweet drink and solaces her against all injuries. Thus taught me a learned man for our Lord's love, Saint Augustine, That pure poverty and patience was a humble living on earth, A life blessed without business but only for the soul:

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Now God who gives all grant his soul rest Who wrote thus to inform men what Poverty meant!" Then Active had a leader named Free Will,0 He knew both Conscience and Clergy very well. "He who has land and lordship," he said, "at the last end Will be poorest in power at his parting hence." Then I wondered what he was, that Free Will, And asked Patience if I might question him. And he gave me permission and said, "Ask his other name." "Dear Free Will," I said, "From what country are you? And if you be Christ's creature, for Christ's love tell me." "I am Christ's creature," he said, "and a member of his family, And well known in Christ's court and to Christians in many a place.

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Piers Plowman Neither Peter the porter nor Paul with his falchion0 Denies me heaven's door, knock I never so late. At midnight, at midday, my voice is so well known That every creature that loves Christ gives me fair welcome." "What's your service?" I asked, "Sir Free Will?" "Some times to fight," he said, "to destroy falseness, And some time to suffer trouble and sorrow, To play or not to, to choose at my pleasure To do good or evil, a will with a reason, And cannot be without a body to bear me where he likes." "Then is that body better than you?" I said. "No," he said, no better, But as a piece of wood or fire then they work together And either is the other's heat and are also of one will; And so is the man who has his mind with Free Will. And while I quicken the body I'm called Anima° And when I wish and will Animus is my name, And because of my ability to know I'm called Mens, And when I make moan to God Memorial my name, And when I make judgements and do as Truth teaches Then Ratio is my right name, Reason in English. And when I feel what people say, my first name is Sensus And that is wit and wisdom, the well of all skills. And when I lay a claim or don't, buy or refuse, Then I'm called Conscience, God's clerk and notary. And when I will to do or not to do good deeds or bad Then I am Free Will, as learned men tell. And when I love our Lord loyally and all others Then Loyal Love's my name, and in Latin Amor. And when I flee from the body and leave the doomed corpse Then I am spirit speechless and Spiritus I'm then called. Augustine and Isidore, each of them Thus gave me my names; now you might choose By which name to call me, now that you know them all. The soul has different names according to its different functions: when it vivifies the body, it is Anima; when it wills it is Animus; when it knows., it is Mens; when it recollects., it is Memoria; when it judges, it is Racio; when it feels, it is Sensus; when it loves, it is Amor; when it turns away from evil to good, it is

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Liberum Arbitrium; when it refuses or consents*, it is Consciencia; when it breathes, it is Spiritus."0 "You're just like a bishop!" I said, joking around, "For those blessed as bishops bear many names, Presul andpontifex and metropolitan^ And a heap of other names, episcopus and pastor? "That's true," he said. "Now I get your gist: You would like to get to the bottom of the cause of all their names. And of mine if you could, it seems from your words." "Yessir!" I said, "as long as no man's aggrieved, All the sciences under the sun and all the subtle crafts I would like to master and know naturally in my heart." "Then you're imperfect," he said, "and one of Pride's knights; For such a desire and longing Lucifer fell from heaven. I shall set my foot in the north."° "It's against nature," he said, "and all kinds of reason That any creature, except for Christ, should know everything. Solomon speaks against all such and despises their wits And says: As it is notgood for a man to eat much honey, So he that is a searcher of majesty, shall be overwhelmed by glory. ° This means to English men, who may speak and hear, The maw is cloyed of the man who eats much honey; The smarter any man is, unless he behave accordingly, The more bitterly he'll pay for it, unless he behaves well.' 'Beatus* says Saint Bernard, 'qui scripturas legit° et verba vertit in opera to the full extent of his power.' Coveting knowledge and understanding the sciences Put Adam and Eve out of Paradise. The desire for knowledge has deprived man of the glory of immortality.0 And just as honey is difficult to digest, Just so do the sciences surely swell a man's soul And cause him to be disdainful and to judge the unlearned. *Nonplus saperel said the wise man,0 'Quam oportet sapere, became the last sin of pride.' Many times friars when they preach to the people Frequently raise fallacious and insoluble questions That put both the learned and ignorant in doubt of their belief. To teach the Ten Commandments would be ten times better,

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And how folks foolishly abuse their five senses, As well friars as others foolishly spend On housing, on roofing, on displays of lofty learning More for pomp and pride, as the people know well. That I tell no lie, look! for you please lords And give reverence to the rich more readily for their money Against the advice of Christ as holy learning witnesses: Do not be respecters of persons.0 Look at what holy writ testifies about wicked teachers: As holiness and honesty out of Holy Church Spring and spread and inspire the people Through perfect priesthood and prelates of Holy Church, Just so out of Holy Church all evil spreads Where imperfect priesthood is, preachers and teachers. And see it for example how in summertime on trees Some boughs bear leaves and some bear none; Those boughs that don't bear and have no green leaves, There is disease in the root of that kind of trunk. Just so parsons and priests and preachers of Holy Church Are the root of right faith to rule the people; But where the root is rotten, reason knows the truth, Never shall flower or fruit grow or fair leaf be green. For if you lettered men would leave your lechery for clothing And be courteous and kind with Holy Church's goods, Share with the poor and part with your pride And be thereto true of your tongue and your tail, too, And hate dirty stories and the accepting of tithes Of usurers, of whores, and all evil profiting, The unlearned would not be reluctant to follow your teaching And make amends for their misdeeds more for your examples Than for preaching and not doing—that seems hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a branch of pride, especially among clerks, And is compared in Latin to a disgusting dung heap0 That's completely covered with snow and has snakes inside; Or to a whitewashed wall that's black beneath; Just so many priests, preachers, and prelates, Are whitened with beleparoles and with bele clothes0 And look like lambs but live as wolves. John Chrysostom says this about clerks:

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As from the tempk all good, proceeds, so from the temple all evil proceeds. If the priesthood is whole, the entire church flourishes; if, however, it is corrupt, the faith of all is withered. If the priesthood is sinful, all the people are turned to sin. As when you see a tree pale and withered, you know it has a disease in its root, so when you see apeopk undisciplined and irreligious, without a doubt their priesthood is not sound. ° Alas! unlettered men, you lose much who provide for Ignorant curates to be the keepers of your souls. But that which is wickedly won and with false tricks God would never have it otherwise but that wicked men had it, Such as imperfect priests and preachers after money, Executors and subdeans, summoners and their mistresses, And that which was gotten with guile be ungraciously expended. Curates and clerks of Holy Church who are avaricious, What they leave behind the lowlife readily devour. You better believe it, lords, learned and unlearned, That so go their goods at the last end Who live against holy doctrine and the love of charity." "Charity," said I then, "that is a thing indeed That masters praise much; where can it be found? I've lived in London many long years And truly I never found, as friars preach about it, Charity, who neither worries nor chides, though men grieve him, As Paul in his epistle bears witness of him: Zr not puffed up, is not ambitious. ° I never knew, by Christ, clerk or illiterate Who didn't expect to get his and at other times coveted What he didn't need and would snatch it if he could! For if men were to seek out all the sects of sisters and brothers, And find him, but figuratively, seems a wonder to me; Now in a dark manner, then face to face* And I sincerely believe so, judging by what men say about Charity." "Charity is a childish thing, as Holy Church witnesses, Unless you become as little children, etc.0 As proud of a penny as of a pound of gold, And as glad for a gown of gray russet As for a coat of rich silk or of pure scarlet. He's glad with all the glad, as kids who laugh at everything,

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Piers Plowman And sorry when he sees men sorrow—as you see children Laugh where men laugh and scowl where others scowl. And when a man swears something's true, for the truth he takes it; He can't conceive that anybody would lie under oath, Or that any man would gyp or grieve another, For fear of God who is so good and teaches us this way: Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them.0 He doesn't enjoy ridiculing or comparing men to scorn. All sicknesses and sorrows he takes for consolations, And all manner of misfortunes as minstrelsy of heaven. He was never afraid of death or famine, Nor displeased though he took losses, or loaned to such Who never paid back a penny to the places where he borrowed." "Who gives him his food?" I asked, "or what friends does he have, Income or riches to take care of his needs?" "Of income or other riches he hasn't a care. He has a friend who provides for him who never failed him: One Aperis~tu-manum provides him all things,0 fiat-voluntas-tua treats him every day.0 And he's also acquired learning, credo-in-deum-patrem0 And well portrays the pater noster and paints it with avees. ° And other times his habit's to go on pilgrimage Where poor men and prisoners are and pay for their food, Clothe them and comfort them and preach to them about Christ, What sorrow he suffered as an example to us all That poverty and penance, patiently taken, Become much merit to that man who can endure them. And when he's thus visited the imprisoned and other poor folks, Then he rushes into youth's world and vigorously seeks Pride with all its appurtenances and packs them together And washes them in the laundry, laboraui-in-gemitu-meo0 Bleaches them at his breast and beats it often, And with warm water from his eyes rinses it to white. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. ° And then he sings when he does so, and sometimes weeping: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."0

Passus XVI "Were I with him, by Christ," I said, "I'd never leave his side, Though I should beg for my living at men's hatches. Don't clerks know him," I asked, "who keep Holy Church?" "Piers the plowman," he said, "knows him most perfectly. And God saw their thoughts. ° You'll never know him by clothing or speech, But through works you might learn where he walks. Believe the works. ° He's the merriest of mouth at meals where he sits, And companionable in company, as Christ himself teaches: Be not as the hypocrites., sad. ° I have myself seen him sometimes in russet,0 Both in gray and fine fur and in gilt armor, Which he just as gladly gave to men who needed it. Edmund and Edward were both saints,0 And charity thrived with them, and were chaste all their lives. I have also seen Charity sing and read, Ride and run in ragged clothes; But I never beheld him acting like a beggar. In rich robes he most readily walks, Capped and anointed and his crown shaven. And in a friar's frock he was found once, But that's another country and years ago, in Francis' time;0 In that sect since too seldom he's been found. He recommends rich men and receives robes from them, From those who live loyally and love and believe. Blessed is the rich man without blemish.0 Into the king's court he comes, if his council is true, But if Covetousness be in the council he won't come in. Among the commons in court he hardly ever comes Because of brawling and back-biting and bearing false witness. In the consistory before the commissary he rarely comes, For their practice of law's over-long unless they get money. With bishops he'll be, for beggars' sake, But avarice sometimes keeps him outside the gate. Kings and cardinals knew him some time, But through Covetousness and his counsel he's often dismissed. And whoever wishes to know him, such a kind follows him

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Piers Plowman As I told you with tongue a little while ago; For he neither begs, asks, nor borrows to repay. He holds it as a vice and a foul shame To beg or to borrow except from God alone. Give us our daily bread, etc"0

Passus XVII

"There is no such person," I said, "who sometimes didn't borrow0 Or beg and ask for something, be he rich or poor. And still from time to time was angry without any sin.'5 "He who's angry and wants revenge, holy writ proves," he said, "He transgresses against chief charity, if Holy Church is correct. Love beareth all things.0 Holy writ testifies there were such hermits, Solitaries, living by themselves in their cells Without borrowing or begging but from God only, Except that to Giles' cell from time to time a doe0 Came, though not often, and let herself be milked. Otherwise birds fed them in the woods where they lived, Both Anthony and Arsenius and many others.0 PmL primus heremita had made himself into a park0 So that no man might see him for the moss and leaves; Birds fed him, if the Austin friars speak truly,0 For he ordained their order or else they lie. After his preaching Paul made baskets0 And won with his hands whatever he needed. Peter and his brother Andrew fished for their food;0 Some they cooked and some they sold and thus they both lived. Mary Magdalene lived on roots and dews;0 Love and loyal belief held body and soul together. Mary of Egypt ate in thirty winters0 But three little loaves and love was her relish. I cannot count them right now or rehearse their names Who lived thus many long years for our Lord's love Without borrowing or begging, or the book lies, And dwelled in the wilderness among wild beasts. But no beast dared bite them day or night But meekly when they met made a humble face

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Piers Plowman And fairly before those men fawned with their tails. But only the birds, and not the beasts, brought them food Betokening that a true man will at all times Provide for honest men and holy men and other righteous people. For faithful God never wished that friars and monks Should take sustenance from evil winnings in their whole lifetimes. As witnesses holy writ what Tobit said to his wife, When he was blind, he heard a lamb bleat: Wife, beware!5 he said, Svhat do we have in here? God forbid,' said that man, cany stolen thing be here!5 Take heed, lest it be stolen. And elsewhere: It is better to die than to live in sin. ° This is to mean no more than that men of Holy Church Should receive exactly nothing except what was rightly intended And refuse offerings and respects from robbers. Then lords and ladies would be reluctant to offend And to take from their tenants more than Truth would want, And merchants would be merciful and men of law, too, Religious would refuse robbers' alms. And then grace would grow more and become green-leaved And charity that is chilled now should warm up of itself And comfort all Christians, would Holy Church wish to amend. Job, the perfect patriarch, wrote and taught this proverb To make men who are monks and friars love measure: 'Nunquam/ dicit lob., 'rugiet onager cum habuerit herbam, aut mugiet bos cum ante pknum presepe steterit?'Brutorum animalium natura te condempnat, quia cum pabulum comune sujjwiat, ex adipeprodiit iniquitas tua.° If unlearned men knew this Latin they'd give a little more consideration Before they made over any more property to monks and canons. Alas! lords and ladies, you've been worthlessly advised To endow and feed such as are fully funded With what your children and kin may by good law claim! For God bade his blessed, as the Book teaches— Honor thy father and thy mother—° To help your father foremost before friars or monks Or before priests or pardoners or any other people. Help your kin, Christ bids, for charity begins at home,

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And afterwards look and see who has most need And help these if you're able, and that I maintain is charity. Look at Lawrence! Because of his liberality, as holy learning tells,0 His reward and his manhood will last for evermore: His justice continueth forever ° He gave God's goods to God's men and not to great lords And fed those who were very hungry and lived in want. I dare not speak of clerks that now keep Christ's treasure That poor people by pure right might ask for their share of. Of that which Holy Church claims according to the Old Law Priests now spend on apparel and on Purnel.0 Men may now compare literate men to a Luxembourg slug or worse0 And to a bad penny with a good stamp: Of much money that's made the metal is worthless And still the print is purely true and perfectly engraved. And so it goes with false Christians: their baptism is true, Holy Church's christening, the king of heaven's mark, But the metal, that is man's soul, of many of these teachers Is alloyed with lechery and other sins of pleasure, So that God wants not the coin that Christ himself printed And because of the soul's sin forsakes his own coin. Thus are you bad men likened to Luxemburg sterling Who preach and teach fairly before the people And do not as you've found it written and as you've taught the folk. For what is done through war and wreckage and wicked leaders, No prayer can make into peace in any place, it seems. Ignorant men lack faith and literate men err; Neither sea nor earth nor the seed yield As they used to—in whom is the fault? Not in God, that he is not good, and the ground as well; And the sea and the seed, the sun and the moon Do their duty day and night—did we so also There would be plenty and perpetual peace. Now weather-wise shipmen and other smart people Have no confidence in the sky or in the lodestar. Astronomers continually fail in their art That once warned men before of what should happen later.

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Piers Plowman By the seven stars shipmen and shepherds0 Knew well and told when it should rain. Tillers of the earth told their masters By the seed that they sowed what they could sell And what live on and give, the land was so true. Now fails this folk, both farmhands and sailors, They neither understand nor know one course from another. Astronomers are also at their wits' end; What they've calculated about the latitude comes out the contrary. Grammar, the ground of all, now perplexes children, For none of these new clerks, whoso takes note, Can versify fairly or formally compose Or interpret in plain English what poets made. Let's go now to any degree, and if Guile not be held a master And Flatterer as his assistant, I'd be surprised. Doctors of decretals and masters of divinity, Who should know the seven arts and solve a quodlibet° Unless they fail in philosophy—if philosophers exist Who could examine them well—I'd be very surprised! Lord let these priests say their mass honestly So that they won't skip over parts out of hastiness, as I hope they do not— Though it suffices for our salvation to believe steadfastly, As clerks on the feast of Corpus Christi sing and read0 That sola fides sufficit to save unlettered people with. But if priests do their duty well, we shall do the better, For so may Saracens be saved if they so believed At the letting-go of their lives to believe in Holy Church." "What is Holy Church, dear friend?" I asked. "Charity," he said; "Life and love and loyalty in one faith and law, A love knot of loyalty and of true belief, All kinds of Christians clinging to one will, Without deceit and lying to give and sell and lend. Love's law without loyalty was never commendable; God teaches no person to love without true cause. Jews and noble Saracens judge themselves That they believe truly, and yet their law varies, And they honor with good heart one God who began all things And love each other and believe in one God almighty.

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But our Lord praises no love unless law be the cause: For lechers love against the law and in the end are damned. And thieves love and hate loyalty and in the end are hanged. And true men live as the law teaches and love arises from that, Which is the head of charity and salvation of man's soul. Love God for the sake of God, that is, for the sake of truth; your enemy for the sake of the commandment, that is, for the sake of law; your friend for the sake of love, that is, for the sake of charity. ° Love God because he is good and ground of all truth; Love your enemy entirely, God's commandment to fulfil; Love your friend that follows your will, who is your fair soul. For when all friends fail and fly away in dying Then the soul follows to sorrow or to joy And ever hopes to be again with the body at the end In mirth or in mourning and never again to part. And that is charity, dear child, to be anxious concerning your soul; Do not contradict her, as in conscience, if you would come to heaven." "And Saracens," I asked, "See not what charity is?" "It may be so that Saracens have such manner of charity, To love our Lord God almighty according to law of nature. It is a natural thing for a creature to honor his Creator, For there is no man in his right mind who does not humble himself and pray To that Lord who gave him life, sent him sustenance. But there are many sorts of men, such as Saracens and Jews, Who do not love that Lord aright according to the Legend of the Saints0 And live outside of the true faith because they believe in a false mediator. A man named Mohammed they hold as the Messiah And they live after his teaching and according to the law of nature, And when nature runs its course and finds no restraint Then love is left behind and loyalty unknown. Beaute sanz bounte was never blessed0 Or nature sanz cortesie praised in any country. One finds well that Mohammed was a baptized man0 And a cardinal of court, a great clerk moreover,

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Piers Plowman And tried to become pope, the prince of Holy Church. But because he was like a false coin from Luxembourg I believe our Lord stopped him. Therefore he set off for Syria and plotted how he might Become master over all those men and in this manner went to work. He tamed a dove and day and night fed her: In each of his ears he secretly put Corn that the dove ate when he came to places. And in whatever place he preached and taught the people, Then the dove would come to the clerk's ear, Intending to eat, thus had Mohammad charmed her. And when the dove came thus, then the people kneeled, For Mohammed swore to men it was heaven's messenger And truly that God himself in such a dove's likeness Spoke to him and taught him how to teach the people. Thus Mohammed brought man and woman into misbelief And in his lore they still live, both learned and unlettered. And since our Savior suffered such a false Christian To so deceive the Saracens, certainly it seems Holy men, as I hope, through the Holy Ghost's help Should convert them to Christ and to take Christendom. Alas! that men believed in Mohammed so long, When the pope makes so many prelates, Of Nazareth, of Nineveh, of Nephthali, of Damascus,0 That they go not into the world as Scripture bids: Ite in universum mundum, since you want the name0 Of prelate, and preach the passion of Jesus, And so to live and die as he himself said. The good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep. ° It's pitiful to read how very holy men lived, How they trampled their flesh, forsook their own wishes, Went evilly clothed far from kith and kin, Badly bedded, no book but their conscience Nor any riches but the rood to rejoice in. God forbid we should glory save in the cross of our Lord. ° And then there was peace and plenty among rich and poor; And now it's a pity to read how the bright gold noble0 Is revered before the rood and received as more valuable To amend and to treat, as with men of Holy Church,

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Than Christ's cross that overcame death and deadly sin. And now there's war and woe, and whoever asks why— Because of covetousness for a cross; the crown stands in gold.0 Both rich men and religious honor that rood That is engraved on groats and gold nobles. For coveting of that cross clerks of Holy Church Shall be overturned as the Templars were, the time approaches fast.0 Don't you remember, learned men, how those men honored Treasure more than Truth? I don't dare tell the truth About how those accursed Christians worshipped property and riches; Reason and rightful judgement damned those religious. Just so, you clerks, your covetousness, it won't be long, They'll damn dos ecclesie and depose you for your pride.0 He has put down the mighty from their seat. ° If knighthood and common sense and the commons and Conscience Love together truly, you better believe it, bishops, You shall lose the lordship of lands forever And live as Levitici did as our Lord teaches you:0 Through the tithes and first fruits of your hands. ° When Constantine out of his courtesy endowed Holy Church With lands and peoples, lordships and incomes, Men heard on high an angel cry at Rome: 'Dos ecclesie has this day drunk venom And poisoned are all who have Peter's power.' A medicine must be used for this that might amend those prelates Who should pray for peace and their possessions prevent them. Take their lands, you lords, and let them live by tithes If the kings desire to live in Christ's peace. For if possession is poison and makes them imperfect, The heads and their subordinates of Holy Church, It would be charity to relieve them for Holy Church's sake And purge them of the old poison before the peril grows. For were the priesthood more perfect, that is, first of all the pope Who maintains men with money to war upon Christians Against our Lord's teaching as Saint Luke testifies;

Vengeance belongeth to me,Q

His prayers with his patience should bring to peace All lands into love and that in little time;

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Piers Plowman The pope should make^^c vobis with all priests.0 And take note how Mohammed through a mild dove Had all Syria as he himself wished and Saracens in voluntary subjection. Mohammed had the mastery not through manslaughter and man power But was prince over them all through patience and secret guile. In such manner it seems to me the pope must be, Prelates and priests pray and intercede for Devoutly day and night and withdraw them from sin And cry to Christ that he would send his dove, Which is the high Holy Ghost that descended from heaven To make perpetual peace between the prince of heaven And all manner of men who live on this earth. If priesthood were perfect and prayed thus, the people would reform Who now oppose Christ's laws and despise Christianity. For since these Saracens, scribes and these Jews Have a piece of our belief, the more easily it seems to me They should convert, if someone would take on the work of teaching them about the Trinity. For all pagans pray and perfectly believe In the great God of heaven and ask for his grace And make their moan to Mohammad to show him their message. Thus those folks believe in a faith and in a false mediator, And that's a pity for those righteous men who live in that realm And a peril for the prelates that the pope makes Who bear the names of Nephthali, Nineveh, and Damascus.0 For when the high king of heaven sent his son to earth He made many miracles, in order to convert men, In example that men should see by unshakable reason That men might not be saved but through mercy and grace And through penance and passion and perfect belief; And became man of a maid and metropolitanus0 And baptized and bedazzled with his heart's blood All who wished and would believe it in their souls.0 Many saints since suffered death also, To fortify the faith died far and wide, In India, in Alexandria, in Armenia, and Spain, And turned many men away from misbelief.

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In salvation of man's soul Saint Thomas of Canterbury0 Was slain in Holy Church among unkind Christians And through that dying honored all of Holy Church. He is a model and a bright mirror to all bishops And especially to such who bear the name of Syria, That they not hop around in England and consecrate men's altars And creep in among curates and unlawfully hear confession, Do not put & sickle to your neighbor's corn.0 Many a man was martyred for Christ's love among the Romans Before Christendom was known there or any cross honored. By the law every bishop should walk obediently And patiently through his province and show himself to his people, Feed them and baptize them and frighten them from sin— Bishop, take your crossier's form for your norm: Drive, lead, goad the flock, keeping the law out of hock—° And charm them to charity to believe in Holy Church. For as it is the nature of a knight or for a king to be taken And among their enemies in mortal battles To be killed and overcome for the defense of the commons, So is it the nature of a curate to preach love for Christ And die for his dear children to destroy deadly sin, The good shepherd, ° And especially where the ignorant live and know no law. But we Christians understand the law and have in our tongue Bishops and books to teach the faith. Jews live in the law that our Lord taught Moses to be master of till Messiah comes, And in that law they believe and consider it the best. And yet they knew Christ who taught Christendom And for a perfect prophet who saved many people And of strange diseases cured men often. He seemed the Messiah by the miracles he made When he raised Lazarus who was laid in the grave Qwdriduanus cold, made him walk alive.0 Jews who saw it said he worked with sorcery And studied how to destroy him and destroyed themselves And through his patience their power was brought to pure nothing. And still they say surely and so do the Saracens That Jesus was just a juggler, a trickster among the commons,

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Piers Plowman And a professor of sorcery and a pseudo-prophet^0 And that his teaching was lies and knocked it all And expect that he is to come who will restore them; Moses or Mohammed their masters explain, And have an expectation they will be saved, both Saracens and Jews, Through Moses and Mohammed and the might of the God who made all. And since these Saracens and also the Jews Know the first clause of our faith, Credo in deum patrem.,0 Prelates and priests should try if they might To teach them little by little et in lesum Christum filium, Till they can speak and spell et in Spiritum sanctum, Record it and repeat it from memory with remissionem peccatorum,

Carnis resurrectionem et vitam eternam. Amen?

Passus XVIII

"Dear Free Will," I asked, "I trust, as I hope, You could tell me and direct me to Charity, as I live?55 Then Free Will laughed and led me forth with tales Until we came into a country called Cor-hominis* Garden of all mysteries and holiness. Squarely in the middle a graft, as it were, That5s named Tma$o-dei graciously grew.0 Then I began to ask what it was called, and he told me soon. "The tree5s called True-love,55 he said, "the Trinity set it; It lives through humble looking and shoots forth blossoms, Which blossoms men call Benign-speech. And of it a good fruit comes, which men call works Of holiness, of courtesy, of help-him-who-needs, Which is called Caritas^ Christ's own food,0 And consoles all sorrowful souls in purgatory.55 "Now, surely,551 said, and sighed for joy,0 "I thank you a thousand times for guiding me here, And after that you granted to tell me what it5s called.55 And he thanked me then. But then I noticed It had three props to shore it up, three stakes of one length And one sort of color and kind, as it seemed to me, All three of equal height and equal width. I wondered much about what root they grew in, And again asked him of what wood they were? "These three props,55 he said, "that bear up this plant, Truly signify the Trinity of heaven, Three persons indivisible, who were ever perpetual. Of one will, of one intelligence; and with them I keep The fruit of this fair tree from three wicked winds, And the stock from falling, so its strength not fail it. The World is a wicked wind to them who want truth;

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Piers Plowman Covetousness comes from that wind, and it bites Caritas And eats away that fruit because of many fair appearances; And with the first plank, Potencia-dei-patris, I knock him down.0 Then the Flesh is a fierce wind, and in flowering time Because of lechery and desires he begins to blow so hard That it nourishes foolish shows and sometime words And many wicked works, worms of sin, And all chew Caritas right down to the bare stalk; Then I carry the second plank, Sapiencia-dei-patris,,0 Which is the passion and the penance and the perfectness of Jesus, And with that I guard it at intervals till it grows ripe. And then the Fiend tries to destroy my fruit, And lays a ladder to it, lies are the rungs, And with all the wiles he knows rocks the root Through backbiters and brawlers and bold complainers, And shakes it; were it not propped up, it should not stand. So these good-for-nothings fling stones at it so that all the leaves fall, And fetch away the fruit sometime before both my eyes. Then I beat down the Devil with the third prop, Which is Spiritus Sanctus and steadfast belief,0 And that is grace of the Holy Ghost; and thus I gain the victory." I gazed upon that tree then, and took note Whether the fruit were fair or foul to look on. And the fruit was fair, it couldn't be fairer; But it grew in three degrees, a great wonder it seemed to me, And again I then asked, whether it was all one kind? "Yes, certainly," he said, "believe it for sure, It is all of one kind, and that I shall prove, But some are sweeter than others and will rot sooner. One can see in an apple tree, many times and often, The apples are of one kind and not of equal size, Nor in regular gradation, or sweet of one sweetness. Those that sit on the sunny side are sooner ripe, Sweeter and more savory and also larger Than those that seldom have the sun and sit on the north side; And so indeed it goes, son, concerning our kind. Adam was as a tree, and we are his apples. Some of us steadfast and some changeable, Some little, some large, like apples of one kind.

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As wedded men and widows and right worthy virgins, Who follow the Holy Spirit, the sun of all heaven, And take comfort in their continence who live in contemplation, As monks and nuns, men of Holy Church; These have the heat of the Holy Ghost as the top of the tree has the sun. Widows and widowers, who forsake their own desire And chastely lead their lives, that is the life of contemplation, More pleasing to our Lord than to live as nature requires And to follow what the flesh wants and to bring forth fruit, Which lettered men in their language call Actiua life.350 "Yes, sir," I said, "and since there are but two lives That our Lord approves, as learned men teach us, Actiua Vita and Contemplating Vita,0 Why does this fruit grow in three degrees?" "For a good reason," he said, "Here beneath I may pick, if I had the need, Matrimony, a moist fruit, that multiplies the people. And then above is better fruit (but both are good), Widowhood, more worthy than wedlock, as in heaven. Then is virginity, more virtuous and fairest, as in heaven, For that is even with angels and angels' peer. It was the first fruit that the Father of heaven blessed, And bade it be, out of a lump of earth, a man and a maid, Betokening that the fairest thing should honor the first thing, And the cleanest creature know the first Creator. In a king's court and in a knight's, the cleanest and fairest men Shall serve the lord himself, and so fares God almighty. Virgins and martyrs ministered to him here on earth And in high heaven are closest and next to him by reason, And taken for the fairest fruit before him, as of earth, And sweet without swelling, it never goes sour." "This is a proper plant," I said, "and it flowers mysteriously, And brings forth fruit, folk of all nations, Both perfect and imperfect; it would be pure gladness To taste of its savor," and said at that time, "Dear Free Will, let somebody shake it." And immediately he called Old Age to climb up high, And shake it sharply so the ripe fruit should fall.

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Piers Plowman And Old Age climbed to the top part, then it began to cry. He shook Widowhood, and it wept after; He moved Matrimony, it made a miserable noise; For ever as soon as Old Age had any down, the Devil was quite ready And gathered them all together, both great and small, Adam and Abraham and Isaiah the prophet, Samson and Samuel and Saint John the Baptist, And bore them forth boldly, nobody stopped him, And made in limbo inferni his hoard of holy men,0 Where there is darkness and dread, and the Devil is master. Then anger bestirred itself in magestate dei° So that Libera-Voluntas-Dei seized the middle prop0 And took a swing at the Fiend, land where it might. Filius, by the Father's will, flew with Spiritus Sanctus0 To go ransack that coward and relieve him of his apples, That through false promise and fruit deceived first man. And then in Gabriel's mouth Spiritus Sanctus spoke To a maid named Mary, a meek thing withal, That one Jesus, a justice's son, must perch in her chamber, Till the time plentitudo temporis were come0 So that the fruit Old Age felled again, or befell to be ripe, That Jesus should joust for it, and by judgement of arms, Who should fetch this fruit, the Fiend or Jesus himself. The maid mildly to the messenger acceded And said courteously to him, "Behold me, his handmaiden To work his will without any sin.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord, etc."0

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And he was forty weeks in the womb of that young woman And became man of that maid, to save mankind, Big and enduring, and bold in his boyhood To have fought with the Fiend before the time had fully come. But Free Will taught him the physician's skill Until the high timt plentitudo temporis approached, So that such a surgeon since has never been seen Nor physician as faithful, for all who sought him out He cured them of their illness, both lepers and the blind, The lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,0 And converted common women and cleansed them of sin

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And raised up Lazarus who lay in his tomb Quadriduanus cold, made him roam alive.0 145 But before he made that miracle mestus cepit esse° And wept water with his eyes, just why few know. But those that saw that marvel said at that time That he was God or God's son because of that great wonder, And some Jews said he worked with sorcery And through Mahound's might and through misbelief.0 Thou hast a devil. ° "Then Satan is your savior," said Jesus, "and has saved you often, As I have saved you sundry times and also fed you With five fish and loaves, five thousand at once,0 And left baskets full of broken food for whoever wanted to bear it away. Unkind and unknowing!" Christ said, and hit them with a rope0 And overturned their tables and stalls in the temple And drove out all of them who bought and sold there, And said, "This is a house of prayer and of holiness And when it is my will I shall overthrow it0 And before three days after build it anew." The Jews told the justice what Jesus had said, But the temple's overturning betokened his resurrection. Envy and evil will ran in the Jews, And they pursued him secretly and bought him for pennies Lest there should be ft tumult among the people—° From Judas the Jew, Jesus' own disciple. This happened on a Friday, a little before Passover, That Judas and the Jews met Jesus: "Aue^ raby? said that rebel and went right up to him0 And kissed Jesus so that he might be recognized and caught by the Jews. Then Jesus said to Judas and to the Jews, CC I find falseness in your fair speech And bitter care in your kissing and misfortune to yourself. You shall be a mirror to many for the deception of men; Woe to those who use your wiles to the world's end! Woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. ° Since I am taken by treason and into your will, Jews, Suffer my apostles without trouble and to go in peace."0

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Piers Plowman These Jews led Jesus to the justices. With much noise that night I awoke almost fnntic;0 In my soul and all my senses after Free Will I truly waited, but didn't know where he went. And then on Mid-lent Sunday I met with a man, As hoar as a hawthorn and Abraham he was called.0 "Where are you from:13' I said, and greeted him graciously. "I'm with faith," that man said, "I couldn't tell a lie, A herald of arms before there was any law." "What is his cognizance on his coat of arms?" I asked. "Three persons in one pennon," he said, "separable from each other; One speech and spirit springs out of all, Of one intelligence and one will, they were never apart, And sundry to look upon, solus dens he's called."0 "Since they're separate," I asked, "have they different names?" "That's right," he then said, "the Father is named pater^ And the second is the Father's Son,filius, The third is who holds all things by himself, Holy Ghost is his name and he is in all." "This is a dark thing for me and for many another, How one Lord might live in three, I don't believe it," I said. "Don't muse too much on it," said Faith, "until you know more, But believe it loyally all of your lifetime. Three belongs to a Lord who claims allegiance: Might and a mediator to see his own might, Of himself and his servant, and what both of them bear. God, who never had beginning but when he thought it good, Sent forth his Son as servant that time To occupy himself here till issue had sprung, Who are Charity's children and Holy Church the mother. Patriarchs and prophets and apostles were the children, And Christ, Christendom and all Christians, Holy Church— That betokens the Trinity and true belief. One God almighty who made and fashioned men Similar to himself before there was sin, In three he is where he is and of this bear witness Both this world and the works that he himself wrought. The heavens shew forth the glory of God. ° That he is three separable persons I prove by mankind,

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And one God almighty, if all men are of Adam. Eve was of Adam and drawn out of him And Abel of them both and all three one nature; And these three I speak of, Adam and Eve And Abel their issue, are but one in humanity. Matrimony without offspring is not much to praise, As the Bible bears witness, a book of the Old Law, That cursed all couples that brought forth no child: Cursed be the man who does not leave behind his seed in Israel. ° And man without a mate might not naturally Multiply or moreover love without a mate Or be a sower of such seed, all this we see. Now let's go to Godhead: in God, Father of heaven, Was the Son in himself in a simile as Eve0 Was, when God wished to draw her out of the man. And as Abel from Adam and his wife Eve Sprang forth and spoke, a shoot from the two of them, So out of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit of them both Is and ever was and will be without end. And as three manifest persons is completely but one mankind, Which is man and his mate and their offspring, So is God God's Son, in three persons the Trinity. In matrimony are three and from one man came all three And into Godhead goes three, and one God is all three. Look, trey-ace meets trey-ace," said he, "in Godhead and in humanity."0 "Have you seen this?" I said, "all three and one God?" "I saw him one summer," he said, "as I sat on my porch,0 Where God came going in three right by my gate. He saw three and bowed down in worship to one. ° I rose up and reverenced God and greeted him quite fairly, Washed their feet and wiped them and afterwards they ate, And what my wife and I thought he told us well. He promised us issue and heir in our old age; There are tokens of full trust between us when the time comes that I meet him, How he tested me first—my fair son Isaac He ordered me to make of him sacrifice in his honor.0 I opposed not his order; I hope and believe Wherever I walk in this world he'll credit me for it.

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Piers Plowman I also circumcised my son for his sake,0 Myself and my household; and all that were male Bled blood for that Lord's love, I hope to bless the day. My trust and my faith are firm in his belief, For he himself said I should have, I and my descendants,0 Land and lordship enough and life without end. And he promised me more for myself and my children, Mercy for our misdeeds as many times As we wished and were willing to ask with mouth and heart. And then he sent me to see and said I should Worship him with both wine and bread0 At once on an altar in worship of the Trinity, And make sacrifice so—it stands for something; I believe that same Lord intends to make a new law. There shall be onefold and one shepherd. ° Thus I have been his herald here and in hell And comforted many a careworn there who looks for his coming. Therefore I seek him," he said, "for Saint John the Baptist Said that he saw one here that should save us all: Behold the Lamb of God."0 Then I wondered at his words and the width of his clothes, For in his bosom he bore a thing that he blessed often. And I looked in his lap, a leper lay there,0 Playing together with patriarchs and prophets. "What are you looking for?" said Faith, "and what do you want?" "I'd like to know," I said then, "what's in your lap?" "Look!" he said, and let me see. "Lord, mercy!" I said, "This is a present of great price, what prince shall have it?" "It is a precious present," he said, "but the Devil's attacked it, And me with it," said the man, "no pledge may pay for us And no man put up bail or bring us out of that danger; From the Devil's pound no bailsman may bring us home, Till he comes of whom I speak, Christ is his name, Who shall deliver us some day out of the Devil's power And lay down a better pledge for us than we are all worth, And that is life for life; or lie thus forever, Lolling in my lap thus till such a Lord fetch us." "Alas!" I said, "that sin shall hinder so long The might of God's mercy that might amend us all!"

Passus XVIII And wept for his words. With that I saw another Rapidly run in the direction we went. And I asked him first where he came from, What his name was and where he was headed, and he promptly told us.

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Passus XIX

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"I am Spes, a spy," he said, "and scout after a knight0 Who gave me a commandment on Mount Sinai To rule all realms with righteousness and reason. Look, obey the letter," he said, "in Latin and Hebrew; That what I say is truth let whoever it pleases see." "Is it sealed?" I said; "may one see your letters?" "No, it's not," he said, "I seek him who keeps the seal, Which is Christ and Christendom and cross hanged upon it. Were it sealed with that I know the truth well That Lucifer's lordship should lie low."0 "Let's see your letters," I said, "we could know the law." He plucked forth a letter patent, a piece of hard rock On which two words were written and glossed in this way: Love God and thy neighbor.0 This was the text truly, I took a very good look. The gloss was written gloriously with a gilt pen: On these two commandments dependeth the whole law. ° "Are all your lord's letters here?" I said, "Yes, believe me," he said, "And whoever works according to this writ, I'll guarantee, Never shall devil harm him or death grieve him in soul. For though I say it myself, I've saved with this charm Many score thousands of men and women." "He's telling the truth," said Faith, "I've found it checks out. Look! Here in my lap," said Faith, "some that believed in that letter, Both Joshua and Judith and Judas Maccabeus0 And six thousand more," Faith said, "I can't give their names." "Your words are incredible," I said then. "Can it be either of you is true And loyal to believe in for body or soul? Abraham says he saw the Trinity wholly, Three separate persons, distinct from each other,

Passus XIX And all three but one God; thus Abraham bears witness, And has saved those who believed so and were sorry for their sins, He can't supply an exact number and some are in his lap. What need then to bring a new law Since it sufficed to believe the first and be saved? And now along comes this Spes who has spied on the law, Who makes no mention of Trinity and gives no more persons To Godhead but one God and one God almighty Whom all men are beholden to honor above all things; And then for that Lord's sake to give and love All manner of men as much as ourselves. And to love and believe in one Lord almighty Is as easy for the ignorant as it is for the learned. But to believe in one Lord who lives in three persons And teaches that we should love liars as well as true men— Get out of here," I said to Spes^ ccso help me God, Those who learn your law won't use it long!" And as we went on our way thus discussing this matter, We then saw a Samaritan come sitting on a mule,0 Riding very fast in the direction we were going, Coming from a country that men called Jericho; He jounced along fast as he could to a joust in Jerusalem. Both Abraham and Spes and he met together In a wild wilderness where thieves had bound A man and given him a very bad time, it seemed to me then; For he could neither step nor stand nor stir a foot or hands Nor help himself in any way, for he seemed semyuief, ° And as naked as a needle and no help about. Faith had first sight of him, but he flew away And wouldn't come nearer him than the length of nine fields. Hope came hopping after, he who had bragged about How with Moses' commandment he had helped many men; But when this sick man came into sight, he drew himself aside And with dread then backed away from him and dared not go nearer. But as soon as the Samaritan caught sight of this poor man, He dismounted immediately and held on to the reins And went to this man to look at his wounds, 65 And perceived by his pulse he was in danger of dying

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Piers Plowman And unless he made quick recovery he'd never get up, And unbuckled his bottles and opened both up; Knowing how to soothe his wounds with wine and with oil, Anointed him and bandaged his head and set him on his mount And led him forth to lavacrum-lex-dei^ a grange,0 That is six or seven miles away from the new market, And left him there for healing, to live if he might; And gave money to the innkeeper to take care of him, "And whatever more goes for medicine I'll make good on return, For I can't stay," said that man, and bestrode his mount, And hurried to ride the way right to Jerusalem. Both Faith and his fellow Spes followed after fast, But I pursued the Samaritan and said how they both Were afraid and fled from the wounded man. "You'll have to excuse them," said the Samaritan, "they're not much help, Nor can any medicine under the moon restore the man to health, Neither Faith nor fine Hope, his wounds are so festered. He'll not be saved without the blood of a child, A child that must be born of a maid, And with the blood of that child anointed and baptized. And though he stand up and take a step, he'll never get strong Till he has eaten all that child and drunk his blood, And moreover be poulticed with patience when temptations excite him, (For no man ever came this way that wasn't robbed, Except myself truly and those I love), And further unless they believe loyally in that little child, That his body will heal us all in the end." "Ah, sir," I said, "shall we not believe As Faith and his fellow Spes both informed me, In three separate persons distinct from each other And all three but one God? Thus Abraham taught me. And later Hope told me more about one God And taught me for love of him to love all mankind And him above all and them as myself; Neither blame nor praise, nor believe there was Anyone more wicked in the world than I myself, Most imperfect of persons, and patiently to allow for

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All manner of men, and though I might take vengeance I should suffer and thank them who would do me evil." "He told the truth," said the Samaritan, "and I advise you so, too. And as old Abraham taught you about one God, See you love and believe that all your life. And if Common Sense or any kind of thoughts speak to the contrary Or heretics with arguments, you just show them your hand. For God who began all in the world's beginning Acted first as a fist, and still is, as I believe, Holding the world in his hand* Like a fist with a finger folded together, Till it pleased him to open that finger And put it forth as with the palm to whatever place it should go. The palm is the pith of the hand and puts forth the fingers To execute and to make what the Lord's might conceives, And truly betokens, tell it however you like, The Holy Ghost of heaven: he is like the palm. The fingers that are free to fold and to clutch Betoken surely the Son who was sent to earth, Touched and tasted, at the palm's teaching, Saint Mary, a maid, and assumed human nature. He was born of the Virgin Mary. ° The Father then is like the fist, with finger and with palm To hide and to hold as scripture says: I will draw all things to myself. ° And whatever the finger touches he seizes unless it grieves the palm. Thus are they all but one just like a hand, A fist with a finger and a full palm. And as the fist is a full hand folded together, So is the Father a full God, the first of them all; And as my fist is first before I show my fingers,, So is he Father and former, the first of all things, Thou maker of all things. ° And all the power is, was, and will ever be his. The fingers are a full hand, for if they lacked their thumb, To portray or paint perfectly, I believe, No workman could work if it were away. Just so if he lacked the Son, the Sire had no power

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Piers Plowman Nor could hold or help or take up what he loved. Thou finger of God's right hand. ° The palm is the hand wholly and has power by itself Different from the clenched fist or the ringers' workmanship. For the palm has power to push out the joints And to unfold the fist, for that befits him, And to receive what the fingers reach and refuse if he pleases; All that the fingers and the fist feel and touch, If their grip grieved him, the Holy Ghost lets fall. And thus is the Holy Ghost God, neither greater nor lesser Than is Sire or Son and of equal power, And all three are but one God, like my hand and my fingers, Unfolded or folded, in a fist or not, All of it is but one hand, however I turn it. But whoever is hurt in the hand right in the middle He may receive nothing at all, it stands to reason; For the fingers that should fold and make a fist For pain in the palm lose their power To clutch or claw, to clasp or hold. If the middle of my hand were free of discomfort In all kinds of ways I could help myself, Both move and improve, though all my fingers ached. By this simile" he said, CCI see a proof That whoever sins against the Holy Spirit will never be absolved. Neither here nor elsewhere, as I heard tell: He that shall sin against the Holy Spirit, etc. ° For he pricks God as in his palm whopeccat in spiritum sanctum.0 For God the Father is like the fist, the Son is like the finger, The Holy Ghost of heaven, he is like the palm. So whoever sins against the Holy Spirit seems to grieve God in his very grip and would quench his grace. For the Trinity is likened to a torch or a taper As if wax and a wick were twined together And then fire flaming forth from both. And as wax and wick and warm fire together Foster forth a flame and fair glow That serves these laborers to see by at night, So do the Sire and the Son and the Holy Spirit together Foster forth among the folk fine love and belief

Passus XIX That cleanses of sin all kinds of Christians. And as you sometimes see suddenly a torch With its blaze blown out, still the wick burns— Without flame and light the fire lies in wick— So is the Holy Ghost God and grace without mercy To all unnatural creatures who long to destroy Loyal body and life that our Lord shaped. And as glowing coals do not gladden these workmen Who work and wake on winter nights As does a rushlight or a candle that's caught fire and blazes, No more do the Sire or the Son or Holy Spirit together Grant any grace or forgiveness of sins Until the Holy Ghost begins to glow and blaze. So that the Holy Ghost glows only like a coal Until love and belief truly blow into him, And then he flames as fire on Father and on Filius And melts might into mercy, as we may see in winter Icicles in the eaves through heat of the sun Melt in a minute to mist and water. So grace of the Holy Ghost the Trinity's great might Melts all to mercy for the merciful and for no others. And as wax and nothing more upon a warm coal Will burn and blaze, if they're together, And console those who, sitting in darkness cannot see, So will the Father forgive folk of mild heart Who ruefully repent and make restitution, Inasmuch as they can amend and repay; And if those who die in such a will have insufficient assets Mercy for their meekness will make good the rest. And as the wick and warm fire will make a fair flame To cheer men who sit in the dark, So will Christ of his courtesy, if men cry for mercy, Both forgive and forget, and even pray for us To the Father of heaven to have forgiveness. But strike fire at a flint four hundred winters, Unless you have kindling to start it with, tinder and matches, All your labor's lost and all your long effort; For no fire may make flame without its natural element. So is the Holy Ghost God and grace without mercy

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Piers Plowman To all unkind creatures, as Christ himself witnesses: Amen I say to you, I know you not.0 Be unkind to your fellow Christians and all that you can pray for, Deal alms and do penance day and night forever And buy all the pardon out of Pamplona and Rome0 And indulgences enough, and be ingratis to your kind,0 The Holy Ghost won't hear you or help you, you can be sure. For unkindness quenches him so that he can't shine Or burn or blaze clear because of unkindness' blowing. Paul the Apostle proves if I lie: If I speak with the tongues of men, etc.0 Therefore beware, you wise men who deal with the world, Who are rich and know how to reason—rule your souls well. Be not unkind, I counsel you, to your fellow Christians. For many of you rich men, I lie not by my soul, You burn but don't blaze and that's a blind beacon.

Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.0

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Don't you remember, rich men, in what misfortune Dives died, and was damned for his unkindness0 Of withholding his food and money from men that needed it? Yet he won without wrong or cunning tricks, But righteously, as one reads, came into his riches, And on himself, as the Book says, schemed how he might Live most lordly and further wear on his body Clothes of most cost, as clerks bear witness: He feasted sumptuously and was clothed in linen0 And because he was a niggard and nothing-giver to the needful poor, He's reckoned God's traitor despite his honest wealth And is damned to dwell with the Devil in hell. And since he who won without wiles and easily attained A lordly life style and the most attractive clothes, And for all that is in hell, how will the rich now Excuse themselves who've been unkind and further won their wealth With wiles and wicked tricks, and yet will not attain To come and go becomingly since scripture teaches To waste what has been wickedly won and to make friends?

Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity.0 I advise every rich man to take note of this

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And give your goods to that God from whom grace arises. For those who are ungracious to his, you can hope for nothing other But that they dwell where Dives is days without end. Thus unkindness is the contrary that quenches, as it were, The grace of the Holy Ghost, God's own kindness; For what kindness does, unkindness undoes, like those cursed thieves, Unkind Christian men, for covetousness and envy Kill a man for his property by mouth or with hands. For what the Holy Ghost has in keep these evil men destroy, Which is life and love, the flame of man's body. For every manner of good man may be compared to a torch Or else to a taper with which to revere the Trinity. And whoever murders a good man, it seems to me in my conscience,0 He puts out the light that our Lord looks to have worship of. And in still more ways men offend the Holy Ghost; But this is the worst way that any man might Sin against the Holy Spirit—assent to destroy, Out of covetousness for any kind of thing, what Christ dearly bought. How might he ask mercy or any mercy defend him Who wickedly and willfully would annihilate mercy? Innocence is next to God and night and day cries c Vengeance! Vengeance! let it never be forgiven Of those who defiled us and shed our blood, as it seemed unraveled us:

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Avenge the blood of the just!*3

Thus Vengeance! vengeance!' true charity asks: And since Charity, who is Holy Church, commands this so strongly, I'll never believe that our Lord at the last end Will love that life that destroys love and charity." "Suppose I had sinned so," I said, "and had to die now, And I'm now sorry I so offended the Holy Spirit, Confess myself and cry for his grace, God who made all, And mildly ask his mercy, might I not be saved?" "Yes," said the Samaritan, "provided you repent so That through repentance righteousness might turn to pity. But it is very seldom seen, where truth bears witness,

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Piers Plowman That any creature culpable before a king's justice, Is ransomed for his repentance where all reason damns him. Where the injured party sues the charge is so huge That no king may grant mercy till both men accord, So that each party has equity, as holy writ witnesses: A sin is never remitted* So it goes for such people who follow their own will, Who live to do evil and don't let up till life forsakes them; The dread that comes out of despair then drives grace away So that mercy may not then fall into their minds. For good hope, that should help then, turns there into utter despair, And not that God hasn't the power or that he's not full of might To amend all that's amiss, and his mercy greater Than all our wicked works, as holy writ tells: His mercies are over all his works. ° But before his righteousness turns to pity, restoration has to be made, As sorrow of heart is satisfaction for such who can't pay. But there are three things that make a man run Out of his own house, as holy writ shows:0 That is a wicked wife who will not be chastened— Her mate flees from her for fear of her tongue; And if his house is poorly roofed and it rains on his bed He seeks and seeks till he sleeps dry; But when smoldering smokes strikes in his eyes It's worse for him than his wife or wet sleep, For through smoldering smoke his sight smarts Till he's blear-eyed or blind and has a burr in his throat, He coughs and curses that Christ give him sorrow Who should have brought in better wood or blown it till it blazed. These three that I tell of are to be understood thus: The wife is our wicked flesh that will not be chastened For nature cleaves to it ever to oppose the soul, And though it falls it rationalizes that frailty did it, And that that is readily forgiven and forgotten also To a man who asks mercy and intends to amend. The rain that rains down where we would rest Is sickness and other sorrows that we should suffer, As Paul the Apostle teaches in his epistles: Power is made perfect in infirmity.0

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And though men lament a lot in their anger And be impatient in their penances, pure reason acknowledges That they have cause to act contrary on account of their sicknesses, And at their lives3 end our Lord easily Has mercy on such men who may suffer evil. But the smoldering smoke that strikes in our eyes, That is covetousness and unkindness which quenches God's mercy; For unkindness is the contrary to all kinds of reason. For there is none so sick or sorry or so wretched That he may not love, if he likes, and give from his heart Good will, a good word as well, to wish and will All manner of men mercy and forgiveness, And love them like himself, that he may not amend his life. I may stay no longer," he said, and spurred his mount And went away like the wind, and with that I awoke.

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Wool-shirted and wet-shoed I went forth after0 Like a careless man who takes no care of sorrow, And tramped forth like a vagrant all my lifetime Till I grew weary of the world and wanted to sleep again And lay down till Lent and slept a long time. I dreamed a great deal of children and of gloria tons0 And how to instruments elder folks sang osanna. One who resembled the Samaritan and Piers the plowman somewhat Barefoot came riding bootless on an ass's back Without spurs or spear—sprightly he looked, As is natural for a knight who came to be dubbed, To get his gilt spurs and cut-away shoes. And then Faith was in a window and cried, "A,^fe Dauid!" As a herald of arms does when adventurous knights come to jousts. Old Jews of Jerusalem sang for joy, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.0 Then I asked Faith what all this activity meant, And who should joust in Jerusalem:* "Jesus," he said, "And fetch what the Fiend claims, the fruit of Piers the plowman." "Is Piers in this place?" I said, and he looked at me knowingly: "Liberum-dei-arbitrium has for love undertaken0 That this Jesus for his gentility will joust in Piers' armor, In his helmet and in his mail, humcma natumf So that Christ not be known as consummatus deus° In the plate-armor of Piers the plowman this cavalier will ride, For no dent will damage him as in deitatepatris?0 "Who will joust with Jesus," I said, "Jews or scribes?" "No," Faith said, "but the Fiend and False-doom-to-die. Death says he will undo and bring down All that live or look on land or in water. Life says he lies and lays his life as pledge,

Passus XX That for all Death can do, within three days, he'll walk And fetch from the Fiend the fruit of Piers the plowman, And lay it wherever he likes and Lucifer bind And beat down death and bring death to death forever. O death, I will be thy death, thy bite!"° Then came Pilate with many people, sedenspro tribunal^0 To see how doughtily Death would do and to judge both their rights. The Jews and the justices were against Jesus, And all the court cried "Crucifyfel" loud.0 Then a prosecutor appeared before Pilate and said: "This Jesus made jokes and despised our Jewish Temple, To demolish it in one day, and in three days after Rebuild it anew—here he stands who said it— And still make it as sizable in all ways, Both as long and as large, aloft and on ground, And as broad as it was ever; this we all heard." "Crucijige" said a court officer, "he practices witchcraft.550 "Tolle, Tollel" said another, and took sharp thorns And began to make of green thorns a garland And set it roughly on his head, and then hatefully said, "Aue, mby? that scoundrel said, and poked reeds at his eyes;0 And they nailed him with three nails naked upon a cross And with a pole put poison up to his lips And bade him drink, to delay his death and lengthen his days, And said, "If he's subtle, he'll help himself now;55 And "If you're Christ—and Christ, God's Son— Come down from this cross and then we'll believe! That Life loves you and won't let you die." "Consummation est? said Christ and started to swoon.0 Piteously and pale, like a dying prisoner, The Lord of Life and Light then laid his eyes together. For dread the day withdrew and dark became the sun; The wall of the Temple split apart all to pieces, The hard rock completely riven, and darkest night it seemed. The earth shivered and shook as if it were alive And dead men for that din came out of deep graves And told why the storm had lasted so long: "For a bitter battle," the dead body said;

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Piers Plowman "Life and Death in this darkness destroy one another, And no man will know for sure who shall have the mastery Before Sunday, around sunrise," and sank with that to earth. Some said he was God's Son who died so fairly, Indeed this was the Son of God.,0 And some said, "He's a sorcerer; good that we test Whether he's dead or not dead before he's taken down." At that time two thieves suffered death Upon crosses beside Christ, such was the common law. A court officer came and cracked their legs in two And the arms after of each of those thieves. But there was no punk so bold as to touch God's body; Because he was a knight and a king's son, Kind fully granted that time0 That no punk had nerve enough to touch him in dying. But a blind knight with a sharply honed spear came forth, Named Longinus, as the record shows, and he had long lost his sight;0 Before Pilate and the other people in the place he waited in readiness. Over his protests he was forced at that time To joust with Jesus, this blind Jew Longinus; For they were all gutless who hovered or stood there To touch him or contact him or take him down and bury him, Except this blind bachelor, who pierced him through the heart. The blood sprang down the spear and spread open the knight's eyes. Then the knight fell straight on his knees and cried Jesus mercy— "It was against my will," he said, "that I was made to wound you." And sighed and said, "Sorely I repent it, For the deed that I've done I put myself in your grace. Both my land and my body take at your pleasure, And have mercy on me, rightful Jesus!" and right with that he wept. Then Faith began fiercely to upbraid the false Jews, Called them low-down no-goods, accursed forever: "For this was a vile villainy; may vengeance befall you Who made the blind beat the dead—this was a punk's doing! Cursed low-downs! It was never knighthood To beat a bound body with any bright weapon. Yet he's taken the prize for all his great wounds, For your champion rider, chief knight of you all,

Passus XX Surrendered crying out defeat, right at the will of Jesus. When this darkness passes, Death shall be vanquished, And you clowns have lost, for Life shall have mastery, And your unstinted freedom fall into servitude, And all your children, churls, will never achieve prosperity, Nor have lordship over land or any land to till, And as barren be, and live by usury, Which is a life that our Lord forbids in all laws. Now your good times are over, as Daniel told you, When Christ through the cross overcame, your kingdom will fall apart. When the holy of holies comes, it ceases, etc."0 What for fear of wonder and of the false Jews I withdrew in that darkness to descendit ad inferno,,° 115 And there I surely saw, secundum scriptums° Out of the west, as it were, a young woman, as I thought, Came walking on the way, hellward she looked. Mercy that maid was named, a mild thing as well And a very good-willed maiden and modest of speech. Her sister, as it seemed, came walking softly Squarely out of the east, and westward she was headed, A comely and pure creature, Truth was her name. Because of the virtue that followed her, she was never afraid. When these maidens met, Mercy and Truth, They asked each other about this great wonder, About the din and the darkness and how the day dawned, And what a light and a shining lay before hell. "Pm astonished by this business, in faith," said Truth, "And I'm coming to discover what this wonder means." "Don't marvel at it," said Mercy, "joy is its meaning. A maid called Mary, and mother without contact With any kind of creature, conceived through speech And grace of the Holy Ghost, grew great with child, Without womanly spot brought him into this world; And that my tale is true I take God to witness. Since this baby was born thirty winters have passed, Died and suffered death this day about midday; And that is the cause of this eclipse that now shuts out the sun, In meaning that man shall be drawn out of murkiness

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Piers Plowman While this light and this beam will blind Lucifer. For patriarchs and prophets have preached of this often, That what was lost through a tree, a tree shall win back,0 And what death brought down, death shall raise up." "What you're saying," said Truth, "Is nothing but hot air! For Adam and Eve and Abraham with other Patriarchs and prophets who lie in pain, Never believe that yonder light will lift them up Or have them out of hell—hold your tongue, Mercy! What you're saying is just a trifle; I, Truth, know the truth, That a thing that's once in hell never comes out. Job the perfect patriarch discredits your sayings: Because there is no redemption in hell."0 Then Mercy most mildly mouthed these words: "From experience," she said, "I hope they'll be saved; For venom undoes venom, from which I fetch proof That Adam and Eve shall have remedy. Of all devouring venoms the vilest is the scorpion's; No medicine may amend the place where it stings Until it's dead and applied thereto, and then it destroys The first poisoning through its own virtue. And so this death shall undo, I'll bet my life, All that Death and the Devil first did to Eve. And just as the deceiver through deceit deceived men first, So shall grace, which began all, make a good end And deceive the deceiver, and that's a good deception: It takes a trick to undo a trick."0 "Now let's just hold it," said Truth; "it seems to me I see Out of the nip of the north, not very far from here, Righteousness come running. Let's take it easy, For she knows more than we—she was before we both were." "That's true," said Mercy, "and I see here to the south Where Peace, clothed in patience, comes ready to play; Love has desired her long—I believe none other But Love has sent her some letter about what this light means That hovers over hell thus; she'll tell us." When Peace, clothed in patience, approached them both, Righteousness reverenced Peace in her rich clothing And prayed Peace tell her to what place she was going

Passus XX And whom she meant to gladden in her gay garments. "My wish is to go," said Peace, "and welcome them all Who for many a day I could not see for murkiness of sin, Adam and Eve and many others in hell. Moses and many more will sing merrily And I'll dance to their tune—do the same, sister! For Jesus jousted well, joy begins to dawn. In the evening weeping shall have place, and in the morning gladness.0 Love, who is my lover, sent me such letters That my sister Mercy and I shall save mankind, And that God has forgiven and granted to all mankind Mercy, my sister, and me to bail them all out; And that Christ has converted the nature of righteousness Into peace and pity out of his pure grace. Look, here's the letter patent!" said Peace, "inpace in idipsum—0 And that this deed shall endure—dormiam et requiescam? "Do you rave?" said Righteousness, "or are you just drunk! Do you believe that yonder light might unlock hell And save man's soul? Sister, never believe it! At the world's beginning, God gave the judgment himself That Adam and Eve and all their issue Should downright die and dwell in pain forever If they touched that tree and ate of its fruit. Afterwards Adam against his prohibition Ate of the fruit and forsook, as it were, The love of our Lord and his teachings, too, And followed what the Fiend taught and his flesh's will, Against reason; I, Righteousness, record this with Truth That their pain is perpetual—no prayer can help them. Therefore let them chew as they chose and let's not fight about it, sisters, For it is care past cure, the bite that they ate." "And I shall prove," said Peace, "their pain must end, And finally their woe must turn into well-being. For had they known no woe, they'd not know well-being; For no one knows well-being who never suffered woe, Nor what hot hunger is who never was famished. Who could naturally describe with color

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Piers Plowman If all the world were white or all things swan-white? If there were no night, I believe no man Should really know what day means; Or had God suffered at the hands of some one other than himself, He'd never have known for sure whether death is sour or sweet. For never would a very rich man, who lives in rest and health, Know what woe is if there were no natural death. So God, who began all, of his good will Became man of a maiden, to save mankind, And suffered to be sold to see the sorrow of dying, Which unknits all care and is the beginning of rest. For until plague meets with us, I give you assurance, Nobody knows, as I see it, the meaning of enough. Therefore, God of his goodness the first man Adam Set up in first solace and in sovereign joy; And then suffered him to sin, in order to feel sorrow, To know thereby what well-being was, to understand it naturally. And afterward, God ventured himself and took Adam's nature To know what he had suffered in three different places, Both in heaven and on earth—and now to hell he heads, To know what all woe is, he who knew all joy. But prove all things; holdfast that which is good.0 So it shall go for these folk: their folly and their sin Shall teach them what love is and bliss without end. For nobody knows what war is where peace rules Nor what is real well-being till he's taught by woe-is-me." Then there was a person with two broad eyes;0 Book that good father was named, a bold man of speech. "By God's body," said this Book, "I will bear witness, That when this baby was born a star blazed So that all the wise men in the world fully agreed That such a baby was born in Bethlehem city Who should save man's soul and destroy sin. And all the elements," said the Book, "bear witness of this. That he was God that made everything the sky showed first: Those in heaven took Stella comata0 And tended it like a torch to reverence his birth; The light followed the Lord into the low earth. The water witnessed that he was God, for he walked on it dry:

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Peter the Apostle perceived his passage And as he went on the water knew him well, and said,

'Lord, bid me come to thee.™ And oh, how the sun locked up her light in herself0 When she saw him suffer, who made the sun and sea! Oh, how the earth for heaviness that he would suffer Quaked as if alive and the rocks cracked also! Oh no, hell might not hold, but opened when God suffered And let out Simeon's sons to see him hang on cross.0

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He should not see death. ° And now shall Lucifer believe it, loath though he be; For Jesus comes yonder as a giant with an engine0 To break and beat down all that oppose him And to have out of hell all those he pleases. And yet I, Book, will be burnt if he not arise to life And comfort all his kin and bring them out of care And all joy of the Jews dissolve and despise, And unless they revere this resurrection and honor the cross And believe in a new law, be lost body and soul." "Quiet," said Truth: "I both hear and see A spirit speaks to hell and bids the gates be opened.'5 Lift up your gates. ° A loud voice within that light said to Lucifer: "Princepes of this place, quickly undo these gates,0 For he comes here with crown, the king of all glory!" Then Satan sighed and said to Hell,0 "Such a light against our leave fetched away Lazarus;0 Care and encumbrance is come to us all. If this king comes in, he'll fetch mankind And lead it where Lazarus is and bind me easily. Patriarchs and prophets have long talked of this That such a lord and light shall lead them all hence. But rise up, Ragamuffin, and hand over all the bars That Belial your grandfather beat with your mother, And I shall block this lord and stop his light. Before we're blinded by this brightness, let's go bar the gates. Let's check and chain and stop every chink So that no light leaps in through louver or loophole. Ashtaroth, call out, and have out our boys,

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Piers Plowman Coking and his kin to save the castle. Boiling brimstone pour it out burning All hot on their heads who come near the walls. Set high tension cross bows and brazen guns And shoot out enough shot to blind his squadron. Set Mahmet at the siege-engine and throw out millstones And with hooks and caltrops let's block them all!"0 "Listen," said Lucifer, "for I know this lord; Both this lord and this light, I knew him long ago. No death may hurt this lord, nor devil's cunning, And where he wills is his way—but let him beware the dangers: If he deprives me of my rights, he robs me by a power play. For by right and reason the crowd that is here Belongs to me body and soul, both good and evil. For he himself said it, who is Sire of heaven, That Adam and Eve and all their issue Should grievously die and dwell here forever If they touched a tree or took an apple from it. Thus this lord of light made such a law, And since he is a loyal lord I can't believe He'll deprive us of our rights, since reason damned them. And since we've possessed them seven thousand winters Without any objections, and if now he begins, Then his word is deceitful, who is truth's witness." "That's true," said Satan, "but I sorely fear, For you got them with guile and broke into his garden; Against his love and his leave went into his land, Not in a fiend's form but in form of an adder And enticed Eve to eat on her own— Woe to him that is alone!—° And promised her and him then to know As two gods, with God, both good and evil. Thus with treason and treachery you bewitched them both And made them break their obedience through false promises, And so you had them out and in here at the end." "It's not duly got where guile is the root, And God will not be duped," said Goblin, "or taken in.0 We have no true title to them, for your treason caused it. I'm afraid, therefore," the Devil said, "lest Truth fetch them out.

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For as you beguiled God's image by going as an adder, So has God beguiled us all by going as a man. For God has gone," said Goblin, "in man's likeness These thirty winters, I believe, and went around preaching. I've assailed him with sin, and sometimes asked Whether he was God or God's son? His answer was short. Thus he's rolled on like a proper man these thirty-two winters; And when I saw it was so, I contrived how I might Slow down those who loved him not, lest they martyr him. I would have lengthened his life, for I believed, if he died,0 That if his soul came here it would destroy us all. For the body, while its bones walked, was ever about To teach men to be loyal and to love one another; Which life and law, should it be long in use, It will undo us devils and bring us all down." "And now I see where his soul comes sailing this way With glory and great light—it's God, I know it. I advise we flee," said the Fiend, "straightaway from here, For it were better not to be than to abide in his sight. Because of your lies, Lucifer, we first lost our joy, And your pride made us fall here out of heaven; Because we believed in your lies, we had to lose our bliss. And now, for a later lie you told Eve, We've lost our lordship on land and in hell. Now shall the prince of this world, etc."° After Satan so rudely berated Lucifer for his lying, I believe none other But our Lord in the end rebuked liars here And blamed on them all the misery that is made here on earth. Take note, you wise clerks and you smart lawyers, That you not mislead unlettered men, for David in the end Witnesses in his writing what is the reward of liars: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity: thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie.0 (I've digressed a bit for the sake of lies, To call them as I saw them, pursuing my theme!) For again that light commanded them unlock, and Lucifer answered. "What lord are you?" asked Lucifer. A voice said aloud:

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Piers Plowman "The lord of might and main, that made all things. Dukes of this dim place, undo these gates now That Christ may come in, the son of heaven's king." And with that breath hell with all of Belial's bars broke; Despite all prevention, the gates were wide open. Patriarchs and prophets, populus in tenebris° Sang with Saint John, "Ecce agnus dei!"° Lucifer could not look, so blinded him had the light, And those whom our Lord loved with that light flowed forth. "Now hear this," said our Lord, "both body and soul, To live up to both our rights to all sinful souls. Mine they were and of me; I may the better claim them. Though reason recorded, and right of myself, That if they ate the apple all should die, I consigned them not here to hell forever. For the deadly sin they did was caused by your deceit; You got them with guile against all reason. For in my palace, paradise, in an adder's person You falsely fetched there those I happened to watch over, Sweet-talked and deceived them and broke into my garden Against my love and my leave. The Old Law teaches That deceivers be deceived and fall in their guile, And whoever knocks out a man's eye or else his front teeth Or any manner member maims or hurts, The same injury he'll have who strikes another so. Tooth for tooth and eye for eye. ° So a life shall lose life where a life has life destroyed, So that life pays for life—the Old Law demands it; Er0o^ soul shall pay for soul and sin counter sin, And all that men did wrong, I became man to amend; And that death my death destroys to relieve And both revive and requite what was quenched through sin, And guile be beguiled through grace in the end. It takes a trick to undo a trick.0 So do not believe it, Lucifer, that against the law I fetch From here any sinful soul by a pure power play, But through right and reason ransom here my servants. I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. ° So what was gotten with guile, is now through grace won back.

Passus XX And as Adam and all through a tree died Adam and all through a tree shall return to life. And now your guile begins to turn back on you And my grace to grow wider and wider. The bitterness you've brewed, enjoy it now yourself; You who are doctor of death, drink what you've mixed! For I who am Lord of life, love is my drink, And for that drink I died today, as it seemed. But I will drink from no deep dish of learning But from the common cups of all Christian souls; But your drink becomes death and deep hell your bowl. I fought so, I thirst even more for the sake of man's soul. I thirst* May no sweet wine or cider or precious drink Fully wet my whistle or my thirst slake Till grape harvest time fall in the vale of Jehosaphat,0 And I drink fully ripe new wine, resureccio mortuorum° And then I shall come as king, with crown and with angels, And have out of hell all men's souls. Fiends and fiendkins shall stand before me And be at my bidding, of bliss or of pain. But to be merciful to man then my nature demands, For we are brothers of one blood, but not all in baptism. But all that are my full brothers in blood and in baptism Shall never come to hell again, once they are out. To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee. ° It's not the practice on earth to hang any felons0 More often than once, though they were traitors. And if the king of the kingdom come in the time When a thief should suffer death or other sentence, The law requires he grant him a reprieve if he sees him. And I who am King of Kings shall come at such time When doom damns to death all the wicked, And if law wills I look on them it lies within my grace Whether they die or die not, did they never so ill. Be it to any extent paid for, the boldness of their sin, I may do mercy out of my righteousness and all my true words. For holy writ wills that I take satisfaction from those who did ill,

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Piers Plowman As nullum malum impunitum^ et nullum bonum irremuneratum.0 And so on all the wicked I will take vengeance here. And yet my kind nature in my keen anger shall constrain my will— Rebuke me not,, O Lord, in thy indignation—0 To be merciful to many of my half-brothers. For blood may see blood both thirsty and cold But blood may not see blood bleed without taking pity. I heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter. ° But my righteousness and right shall reign in hell, And mercy over all mankind before me in heaven. For Pd be an unkind king unless I help my kin, And namely in such need that needs to ask for help. Enter not into judgment with thy servant. ° Thus by law," said our Lord, "I will lead out of here The people I love and who believe in my coming. But for the lies that you lied, Lucifer, to Eve You shall bitterly abide," God said, and bound him with chains. Ashtoreth and company hid in nooks and crannies, They dared not look on our Lord, the least of them all, But let him lead forth those he liked and leave behind whomever he pleased. Many hundreds of angels then harped and sang, Flesh sins, flesh clears, flesh of God reigns as God. ° Then Peace piped a note of poetry: After darkest clouds, the sun will shine bright; ° And love shine brighter after every fight. "After sharpest showers," said Peace, "brightest is the sun; There is no warmer weather than after watery clouds, Nor any love dearer, nor dearer friends, Than after war and wreckage when love and peace are masters. There was never a war in this world nor wickeder envy That Love, if he wanted to, could turn it to laughter, And Peace through patience stop all perils." "Truce," said Truth, "You tell us the truth, by Jesus! Let us kiss each other and clutch in covenant!" "And let no people," said Peace, "perceive that we squabbled, For nothing's impossible to him who is almighty." "That's the truth," said Righteousness and kissed Peace reverently,

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And Peace helper secula seculorum° Mercy and truth have met each other; justice and peace have kissed.0 Truth trumpeted then and sang Te deum laudamus° And then Love strummed a loud note on the lute, Behold how good and how pleasant it is, etc. ° Till dawn the next day these damoiselles caroled On which men rang bells for the resurrection, and right with that I awoke And called Kit my wife and my daughter Calote:0 "Arise, and go reverence God's resurrection, And creep on your knees to the cross and kiss it as a jewel And most rightfully as a relic, none richer on earth. For it bore God's blessed body for our good, And it terrified the Fiend, for such is its might No grisly ghost may glide in its shadow!"

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Thus I awoke and wrote what I had dreamed And dressed myself in my best and took me to church To hear wholly the mass and after take communion. In the middle of mass, when men went to offering, I soon again fell asleep and suddenly dreamed0 That Piers the plowman was painted all bloody And came in with a cross before the common people And very much in all his limbs like our Lord Jesus. And then I called to Conscience to teach me the truth: "Is this Jesus the jouster," I said, "that Jews put to death? Or is it Piers the plowman? Who painted him so red?" Then Conscience kneeled and said: "These are Piers5 arms, His colors and coat armor, but he who comes so bloody Is Christ with his cross, conqueror of Christians." "Why do you call him Christ, since Jews called him Jesus? Patriarchs and prophets prophesied before That all kinds of creatures should kneel and bow down As soon as one called the name of God Jesus. Ergo there's no name like the name of Jesus Nor any so needful to call by night or day, For all dark devils dread to hear it And the sinful are consoled and saved by that name. And you call him Christ—for what reason, tell me? Is Christ mightier or a more worthy name Than Jesu or Jesus, from whom all our joy comes?" "You know well," said Conscience, "if you're in your right mind, That knight, king, conqueror may be one person. To be called a knight is fair, for men will kneel to him; To be called a king is fairer, for he may make knights; But to be called conqueror, that comes of special grace, And from hardiness of heart and kind courtesy,

Passus XXI To make lads lords of land that he wins And free men foul slaves who follow not his laws. The Jews, who were noble, they despised Jesus, Both his teachings and his law—now they're lowlife; As wide as this world is not a one lives But under tribute and taxation like churls and curs. And those who become Christians by the Baptist's counsel Are franklins and free men through the baptism they took0 And noblemen with Jesus, for Jesus was baptised And upon Calvary on cross crowned King of Jews. It becomes a king to keep and defend The dominion of his conquest with his laws and liberality. And so did Jesus with the Jews: he approved and taught them The law of life that shall last forever, And defended them from foul evils, fevers, and fluxes, And from fiends that possessed them and false belief. Then he was called Jesus of the Jews, noble prophet, And king of their kingdom and bore the crown of thorns. And then he conquered on the cross as a noble conqueror; No death could undo him or bring him down So that he didn't arise and reign and ravish hell. And then he was called conqueror of the living and the dead, For he gave Adam and Eve bliss and to many more Who had long lain before as Lucifer's serfs And took the loathsome Lucifer who was hell's lord And bound him as he is bound with iron bonds. Who was hardier than hc> His heart's blood he shed To make all people free who follow his law. And since he gives liberally to all his loyal followers Places in paradise at their parting hence He may well be called conqueror, and that's what Christ means.0 But the reason he comes thus, with his cross and his passion, Is to give us a model that when we are tempted To fight with it and defend ourselves from falling into sin, And to see by his sorrow that whoever loves joy Must apply himself to penance and poverty And be willing to suffer much woe in this world. But to talk more of Christ, and how he came to that name, To speak truly, his first name was Jesus.

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Piers Plowman When he was born in Bethlehem, as the Book tells, And came to take mankind, kings and angels Revered him right fairly with riches of this earth. Angels came out of heaven, kneeled and sang, Glory to God in the highest.,° Kings came after, kneeled and offered incense, Myrrh and much gold, without expecting thanks Or any repayment, but acknowledged him sovereign Both of sand, sun, and sea, and afterwards went Back into their kingdoms, by counsel of angels. And there was fulfilled that word of which you spoke: All things in heaven, on earth, bow down in the name of Jesus.0 For all heaven's angels kneeled at his birth And all the world's wisdom was in those three kings. Reason and righteousness and pity they offered; Which is why wise men in that time, Masters and men of letters, called them Magi.0 That first king came with reason, enveloped in incense. The second king then truly offered Righteousness, reason's fellow, wrapped in red gold; Gold is likened to loyalty that shall last forever And reason to incense, to right and to truth.0 The third king came and kneeled to Jesus And presented him with pity, appearing in myrrh, For myrrh means mercy and mild speech of tongue. Earthly honest things were thus offered at once Through three different kings kneeling to Jesus. But for all these precious presents our Lord Prince Jesus Was neither king nor conqueror till he began to grow In the manner of a man, and then with much cunning, As it becomes a conqueror to know many tricks And many wiles and strategies, one who would be a leader. And so did Jesus in his days, whoever dares tell it. Sometimes he suffered and sometimes he hid out And sometimes he fought hard and other times retreated And sometimes he gave goods and granted health both; Life and limb, as he pleased, he made whole. As is natural for a conqueror so proceeded Jesus

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Till he had all of them for whom he bled. In his youth, this Jesus at a Jewish feast Turned water into wine, as holy writings tell;0 And there began God of his grace to Do-well. For wine is likened to law and holy-living, And the law was lacking then, for men loved not their enemies, And Christ counsels us and commands as well, Both to learned and unlettered, to love our enemies. So at that first feast, as I just said, God began of his grace and goodness to Do-well. And then he was named and called not only Christ but Jesus, A tiny baby full of wisdom, films Marie.0 For he performed that miracle before his mother Mary That she first and foremost should believe firmly 120 That he was begotten through grace and of no other man. He did it without any sight but through speech alone, According to the line from which he came. There he began Do-well. And when he'd grown more, in his mother's absence He made the lame leap and gave light to the blind0 And fed with two fish and with five loaves Some very hungry people, more than five thousand. Thus he comforted the careworn and caught a greater name, Namely Do-better, wherever he went. For through his doing the deaf heard and the dumb spoke And he healed and helped all who asked him for grace. And then he was called in the country by the common people, For the deeds that he did,y£// Dauid^ Iesus° For David was the bravest of deeds in his time; Then maidens sang Saul interfecit mille^ et Dimid decem milrn.0 Therefore the country Jesus came to called himfili Dauid And named him of Nazareth, and no man as worthy To be kaiser or king of the kingdom of Judah Or judge of the Jews as Jesus was, so it seemed. Of this Caiaphas and other Jews were envious0 And plotted day and night to do him to death And killed him on crosswise at Calvary on a Friday And after buried his body and bade men Guard it from night-comers with well-armed knights

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Piers Plowman So no friend should fetch it; for prophets had told them That that blessed body would rise from the tomb And go into Galilee and gladden his apostles And his mother Mary—thus men predicted before. The knights on guard admitted themselves That angels and archangels, before day sprung, Came kneeling to that corpse and sang Christus resurgens^ and it arose after,0 A true man before them all, and went forth with them. The Jews begged the knights to keep it quiet And tell the common people a company of his apostles came there And bewitched them as they awoke and stole it away. But Mary Magdalene met him on the road, Going toward Galilee in Godhood and manhood, And alive and looking, and cried aloud 160 To every company she encountered, Christus resurgensl Thus it came out that Christ overcame, recovered and lived— Thus ought not Christ have suffered and entered For whatever a woman knows she cannot keep it secret! Peter perceived all this and pursued after, Both James and John, to seek Jesus, Thaddeus and ten more, with Thomas of India.0 And all these wise men were together Shut up in a house with barred doors, Christ came in—the doors and gates all closed— And said to Peter and to his apostles Pax vobis? And took Thomas by the hand and taught him to search And feel with his fingers his fleshly heart. Thomas touched it and said with his tongue: 'My Lord and my God. ° You are my Lord, I believe, God, Lord Jesus, Who died and suffered death and shall judge us all And now are living and looking and shall last forever?' Christ spoke then and courteously said: 'Thomas, because you trust this and truly believe it Blessed may you be and shall be forever. And blessed may they be in body and in soul Who shall never see sight of me as you see now And loyally believe all this—I love them and bless them.

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Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed.'° And when this deed was done, he thought about Do-best And gave Piers the power and pardon he granted0 To all manner of men, mercy and forgiveness; Gave him might to absolve men of all manner of sins Provided they come and acknowledge they must pay To Piers the plowman's pardon Redde quod debes.0 Thus Piers has the power, if his pardon is paid for, To bind and unbind both here and elsewhere And absolve men of all sins, except for their debts. Soon after on high up into heaven He went, and dwells there, and will come at the end And reward him right well who reddet quod debet, Pays perfectly as pure truth wishes. And he means to punish people who don't pay up And judge them at Doomsday, both living and dead, The good to Godhead and to great joy And the wicked to dwell in woe without end." Thus Conscience spoke of Christ and the cross And counseled me to kneel there; and then came, it seemed to me, One Spiritusp&raditus to Piers and his followers.0 In likeness of lightning it alighted on them all And made them understand and know all kinds of languages. I wondered what that was and tugged Conscience And was afraid of the light, for in fire's likeness Spirituspamditus overspread them all. Conscience kneeled and said: "This is Christ's messenger And comes from the great God, Grace is his name. Kneel now," said Conscience, "and if you can sing Welcome him and worship him with Veni creator Spiritus''0 And I sang that song and so did many hundreds And cried with Conscience, "Help us, God of Grace!" And then Grace began to go with Piers the plowman And counseled him and Conscience to summon the commons: "For today I will deal and divide grace To all kinds of creatures who control their five senses, Treasure to live by to their lives' end And weapons to fight with that will never fail. For Antichrist and his forces will grieve the whole world0

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Piers Plowman And hassle you, Conscience, unless Christ helps you out. And many false prophets, flatterers, and con men, Shall come and over the souls of kings and earls have the cure. And then pride will be pope and prince of Holy Church, Covetousness and Unkindness cardinals to lead him. Therefore," said Grace, "before I go I will give you treasure And weapons to fight with when Antichrist assails you." And gave each man a grace to guide himself by So that idleness, or envy or pride not harass them. There are diversities of graces.0 Some men he gave intelligence as a way with words, To earn with truth what the world asks us, And preachers and priests and apprentices at law: They to live loyally by labor of tongue And by intelligence to train others as Grace would teach them. And some he informed with skill and keen sight, With buying and selling to earn their livelihoods. And some he showed how to labor on land and on water And live by that labor a loyal and true life. And some he taught to till, to thatch, and to stack hay, To provide for themselves as he taught them. And some to divine and divide numbers, To carve and to measure and to make colors. And some to see and say what will happen Both good and bad and give advanced warning, As astronomers through astronomy and wise philosophers. And some to ride and recover what was unrightfully gained; He showed men strong-armed ways to win it back And take it from false men with vigilante law.0 And some he taught to live in longing to be hence, In poverty and patience to pray for all Christians. And he taught all to be loyal and each craft love the other, Nor any boast or debate be among them all. "Though some are cleaner than others," said Grace, "You see well That all crafts and skills come of my gift. Look that none knock the other but love each other as brothers And he that has mastered the most be mildest of bearing. And crown Conscience king and make Craft your steward

Passus XXI And according to Craft's counsel feed and clothe yourselves. For I make Piers the plowman my proctor and my reeve,0 And registrar to receive Redde quod debes° Piers shall be my provider and plowman on earth And in order to cultivate truth he shall have a team." Grace gave Piers a team, four great oxen:0 The first was Luke, a large humble-looking beast, And Mark, and Matthew the third, both mighty animals, And yoked them with one John, most noble of all, The blue-ribbon ox of Piers' plow, surpassing all others. And then Grace of his goodness gave Piers four horses,0 To harrow afterward all that his oxen plowed. One was called Augustine and Ambrose another, Gregory the great clerk and Jerome the good. These four followed Piers' team to teach the faith And in no time harrowed all Holy Scripture With two spiked harrows they had, an old and a new, That is, the old testament and the new. ° And Grace gave Piers seeds, the cardinal virtues,0 And he sowed them in man's soul, and then told their names. Spiritusprudencie the first seed was called,0 Which whoever ate, he would have foresight, Before he did any deed devise the end well; And it taught men to buy a long-handled ladle Who mean to stir a crock and save the fat on top. The second seed was called Spiritus tempemncief He that ate of that seed had such a nature, Never would food or misfortune make him swell up, Nor should any heckler make him lose his balance; Nor ever winning wealth of worldly riches, Waste words of idleness or wicked speech move. No finely fitted clothes fell on his back Nor into his mouth dinner dished up by a master chef. The third seed that Piers sowed was Spiritus fortitudinis0 And whoever ate of that seed was hardy forever To suffer all that God sent, sickness, and troubles. There may no liar's lying or loss of property Make him, for any mourning, lose his cheerful outlook And his bold and abiding ability to endure slanders;

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Piers Plowman And he pleaded all with patience and Parce michi, Aomine° And took cover under counsel of Cato the wise: Be strong of spirit when condemned unjustly.0 The fourth seed that Piers sowed was Spiritus iusticie0 And he that ate of that seed should be squarely true With God, and afraid of nothing but of guile only (For guile goes so secretly that sometimes good faith Cannot be detected through Spiritus iusticie). Spiritus iusticie spares no punishment for the guilty And to correct the king, if the king's a guilty party. For he takes account of no king's wrath when he sits in court, To make judgments like a judge; he was never afraid Neither of duke nor of death that he wouldn't distribute justice, Despite presents or prayers or any prince's letters; He did equity to all to the best of his ability. These four seeds Piers sowed and afterwards harrowed them With Old Law and New Law so that love might grow Among these four virtues and destroy vices. "For commonly in the country crabgrass and weeds Foul up the fruit in the field where they grow together, And so do vices virtues; therefore," said Piers, "Harrow all that natural intelligence knows with counsel of these doctors And cultivate the cardinal virtues according to their teaching." "When it's time your grains," said Grace, "begin to ripen, Ordain yourself a house, Piers, to store your harvest in." "By God! Grace," said Piers, "you must give timber And ordain that house before you go away." And Grace gave him the cross with the crown of thorns That Christ suffered on for mankind on Calvary; And of his baptism and blood that he bled on cross He made a kind of mortar, and called it mercy. And with that Grace began to lay a good foundation And wattled it and walled it with his pain and his passion And of all Holy Writ he made a roof after And called that house Unity, Holy Church in English. And when this deed was done Grace assembled A cart named Christendom to carry home Piers' sheaves, And gave him two workhorses for his cart, Contrition, and Confession,

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And made priesthood hayward while he himself went As wide as the world is with Piers to till truth And the land of belief, the law of Holy Church. Now is Piers to the plow—Pride caught sight of it And gathered round himself a great host; he means to injure Conscience and all Christians and the cardinal virtues, Blow them down and break them and bite in two their roots; And sent forth Sir Ego-trip, his sergeant at arms, And his spy Kill-love, also known as Backbiter. These two came to Conscience and Christian people And gave them some news, that they'd have to part with The seeds that Sir Piers sowed, the cardinal virtues: "And Piers' barn will be broken into, and those inside Unity Will come out, and Conscience and your two horses Confession and Contrition, and your cart the Faith Will be colored so cunningly and covered with our sophistry That Conscience will not know (by contrition or confession) who's Christian or heathen, Nor any manner of merchant who deals with money Whether he earns rightly, wrongly, or with usury." With such colors and schemes Pride comes armed, With the lord that lives for his body's pleasure, "To dissipate in fine-living and evil lifestyle All the world in a while through our wit," said Pride. Then Conscience to all Christians said, "My counsel is that we go Quickly to Unity and hold ourselves there. Pray we find peace in Piers the plowman's barn, For I know for sure we're not strong enough To go up against Pride unless Grace is with us." And then Common Sense came to teach Conscience And cried and commanded all Christian people To dig a deep ditch around Unity So that Holy Church stood in holiness as if it were a fort. Then Conscience commanded all Christians to dig And make a great moat that might be protection To help Holy Church and them who defend it. Then all kinds of Christians, except for the streetwalkers Repented and refused sin, except for them— And a juror and summoner who always lied under oath;

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Piers Plowman Knowingly and willfully they held with the false And perjured themselves for silver, though they knew the truth— There was no Christian creature who had common sense That didn't help holiness grow to some degree, Some through praying and pilgrimages Or others by private penances and some through alms-giving. And then water welled up for wicked deeds, Stinging as it's running out of men's eyes. Purity of the common people and clerics' clean living Made Unity, Holy Church, stand in holiness. "I sure don't care," said Conscience, ccif Pride comes now; The Lord of Pleasure will be blocked all this Lent, I hope. Come," Conscience said, "you Christians, and eat, Who have labored loyally all this Lenten time. Here is a blessed bread and God's body there-under. Through God's word Grace gave Piers plowman power, Might to make it and men to partake of it In help of their health once a month Or as often as needed, those who had paid 390 To Piers the plowman's pardonRedde quod debes"0 "Come again?" said the common people, "you counsel us to give back All that we owe anybody before going to communion?" "That's my advice," said Conscience, and the cardinal virtues'; Or each man forgive the other, as the pater noster asks, And forgive us our debts. ° And so to be absolved and afterwards take communion." "Oh, yeah?" said a brewer, "I won't be ruled, By Jesus! despite all your fast-talk, according to Spiritus iusticie Nor according to Conscience, by Christ, as long as I can sell Both dregs and swill and draw at one hole Thick ale or thin ale; that's the kind of guy I am And not to poke around for holiness—so just shut up, Conscience! Your Spiritus iusticie speech is a lot of hot air!" "Lowlife!" said Conscience, "Cursed and worthless bum! You're unblessed, brewer, unless God help you. Unless you live by the teachings of Spiritus iusticie, The chief seed that Piers planted, you'll never be saved. Unless Conscience and the cardinal virtues supply your provisions,

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You better believe, you've lost both body and soul." "Then many a man's lost," said an uneducated vicar. "I'm a parson of Holy Church and never in my time came Any man to me who could tell me about cardinal virtues Or who counted Conscience worth chicken feathers. I never knew a cardinal who didn't come from the pope And when they come we clerics pick up the tab for their stay, For their furs and feed for their palfreys and plundering followers. The common people clamat cotidie to each other:0 The country is the more cursed that cardinals come into And where they hang out lechery reigns longest.' Therefore," said the vicar, "by the true God I wish That no cardinal come among the common people, But keep to themselves in all their holiness At Avignon among Jews (cum stmcto sanctus eris^ etc.)0 Or in Rome, as their rule requires, to keep watch over relics; And you, Conscience, to the king's court and never come out, And Grace, that you clamor about so, be guide of all clerks, And Piers with his new plow and his old as well Emperor of all the world so that all men would be Christians. That pope is imperfect who should help all people And pays them who kill such as he should save. But well may it go for Piers the plowman who in his deeds follows God, Quipluitsuper iustos et iniustos at once,0 And sends the sun to save a cursed man's crops As brightly as to the best of men or women. Just so Piers the plowman takes pains to raise crops Just as much for a waster or a woman of the streets As for himself and his servants, except he is served first. So blessed be Piers the plowman who takes pain to plow And toil and till just as hard for a traitor As for a true honest man alike at all times. And worshiped be he who created all, both good and wicked, And puts up with the sinful till they're ready to repent. And God amend the pope who plunders Holy Church And claims purity over the king as keeper of Christians And takes no account though Christians are killed and robbed And pays people to fight and spill Christian blood,

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Piers Plowman Against the Old Law and the New Law, as Luke bears witness: Thou shalt not kill. Vengeance belongeth to me.0 It seems, as long as he has his way, He doesn't care about the rest. And Christ of his courtesy save the cardinals And turn their wit to wisdom and soundness of soul. For the commons," said the parson, "count very little The counsel of Conscience or the cardinal virtures Unless they've some form of profit to show for it. Of deceits and double-crossings they never take account For Spiritus prudencie among the people is deceit0 And all these fair virtues appear to them as vices. For each man comes up with a sleight, to hide sin in, And presents it as know-how and an honest living." Then a lord laughed there and "By these lights!" said, "I hold it as right and reasonable to take from my reeve0 All that my auditor or else my steward Advise me by their accounts and my clerk's records. With Spiritus intellectus they took the reeve's books0 And with Spiritus fortitudinis I'll fetch it, whether he likes it or not."0 And then there came a king and by right of his crown said: "I am crowned king to rule the commonwealth And to defend Holy Church and clergy from cursed men. And if my living has any lack, the law allows me to take it Where I may most readily get it, for I'm the law's head And you're only its limbs and I above all. And since I am head of you all I am health of you all And chief help of Holy church and chieftain of the commons And whatever I take from you two I take it at the teaching Of Spiritus iusticie^ for I judge you all. So I may take communion boldly for I never borrow Or crave from my commons except as my nature requires." "On condition," said Conscience, "that you protect the commonwealth And rule your realm well with reason and truth, Then have you all your asking just as your law asks. For defense., whatever you please; otherwise, no license to seize."0 The vicar had far to go home and fairly took leave, And with that I awoke and wrote down my dream.

Passus XXII

And as I went on my way after I awoke,0 Sad-faced I walked and aching at heart, For I didn't know where or at what place I could eat. And as noon-time neared, I met up with Need Who accosted me offensively and called me a phony: "Couldn't you excuse yourself, as the king and others did, That what you took to live on, for your food and clothing, Was by teaching and telling of Spiritus tempemncie^ And you took no more than need taught you to! And Need has no law nor ever goes into debt For the three things he takes to save his life: That is food, when men turn him down because he has no money, Or a friend to back him up or to pledge security; And if he in that case snatch or con something to eat He surely doesn't sin who wins his food so. And if he get clothing so and can make no better bargain, Need will immediately stand for his surety. And if he craves a sip the law of nature says That he can drink at every ditch before he dies of thirst. So Need in great need can fend for himself Without counsel of Conscience or cardinal virtues, As long as he pursues and preserves Spiritus tempemncie. For no other virtue comes close to Spiritus tempemncie, Neither Spiritus iusticie nor Spiritus fortitudinis. For Spiritus fortitudinis often offends; 25 Many times he's persistently immoderate And too vehemently beats one man and another too little And grieves men more greatly than good faith wishes. And Spiritus iusticie will pass judgement, willy-nilly, According to the king's counsel and the commons' as well. And Spiritus prudencie will fail on many points

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Piers Plowman Concerning what he thinks would happen if it weren't for his wit. Speculation is not wisdom or wise foresight: Man proposes, God disposes;0 God governs all good virtues. And Need is next him, for he soon makes men meek And lowly as a lamb for lack of what they need, For Need necessarily makes the needy feel humble. Philosophers forsook wealth in order to be needy And lived quite miserably and wouldn't be rich. And God gave up all his great spiritual joy And came and took human nature and became needy. He was so needy, as the Book says in so many places, That he said in his sorrow on the cross itself: c Bird may fly and fox creep in a hole0 And the fish has a fin to swim with to rest, While need has put such a hold on me I need to stay And suffer sour sorrows that will turn to joy.3 Therefore don't be ashamed to stay and be needy Since he who made the whole world was willfully needy, Nor was there ever any so needy or died a poorer man." When Need had reproached me thus, I fell asleep at once0 And dreamed quite marvelously that in man's form Antichrist then came, and all the top branches of Truth0 Quickly turned upside-down, and overturned the roots, And made falsehood spring and spread and supply men's needs; And in every country he came to, he cut away Truth And made deceit grow there as if he were a god. Friars followed that fiend, for he gave them cloaks, And religious orders reverenced him and rang their bells And all the convent came to welcome a tyrant And all his followers with him, with the sole exception of fools; Which fools would more gladly die Than live longer, since loyalty was so turned back And a false fiend Antichrist reigned over all people. And those were mild and holy men who feared no injury, Defied all falseness and people who used it, And whatever king gave them comfort, aware of their deceit, They cursed, and his council, were it cleric or lay. Antichrist thus had hundreds soon at his banner

Passus XXII And Pride bore it boldly about With a lord that lived for the pleasure of his body. Who came against Conscience, who was keeper and guide Of all kindred Christians and cardinal virtues. "I advise," said Conscience then, "you fools come with me Into Unity, Holy Church, and hold our line there. And let's cry to Nature to come and defend us0 Fools from this fiend's limbs, for the love of Piers the plowman, And let's cry out to all the commons that they come to Unity And abide there and battle against Belial's children."0 Nature then heard Conscience and came out of the planets And sent forth his foragers, fevers, and fluxes, Coughs and heart trouble, cramps and toothaches, Colds, running sores, and filthy scabs, Boils and tumors and burning agues; Frenzies and foul disorders, foragers of Nature, Had pricked and preyed upon people's skulls; An ample legion lost their lives soon. There were outcries of "Help! here comes Nature With Death the dreadful to undo us all." The lord who lived for pleasure then cried aloud For Comfort, a knight, to come and bear his banner. "To arms! To arms! Every man for himself!" Then these men met—before minstrels could pipe Or heralds of arms give the lineup of lords— Hoary Old Age; he was in the vanguard And bore the banner before Death—he claimed it his right. Nature came after him with many sharp sores, Such as poxes and plagues, and wasted many people; So Nature killed off many with these corruptions. Death came driving after and ground all to dust Kings and knights, emperors and popes. He left no man standing, learned or unlettered, Whomever he hit squarely never moved again. Many a lovely lady and their knight-lovers Swooned and sank under the sorrow of death's strokes. Then Conscience of his courtesy begged Nature To cease and lay off, and see whether they would Leave pride quietly and be perfect Christians.

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Piers Plowman And Nature let up then, to see the people amend. Fortune then began to flatter the few who were still alive And promised them long life, and he sent Lechery Among all manner of men, married and single, And mobilized a great host all against Conscience. This Lechery laid on with a laughing face And with suggestive speech and painted words, And armed himself in idleness and in haughty mien. He bore a bow in his hand, and many broad arrows, Which were feathered with fair promise and many a broken pledge, And with off-color stories he often vexed Conscience and his company, the teachers of Holy Church. Then Covetousness came and contrived how he might help Overcome Conscience and the cardinal virtues; And armed himself with avarice and a hungry lifestyle. His weapon was every trick in the book to win and to hide; With fast-talk and gobbledegook he deceived the people. Simony pushed him to assail Conscience And pressed on the pope that they make prelates Teamed up with Antichrist, to save their temporalities; And came to the king's council as a sharp baron And knocked Conscience in court before them all, And caused Good Faith to flee and False to stay And boldly bore down with many bright coins Much of the wit and wisdom in Westminster Hall.0 And jogged towards a justice and jousted in his ear And tilted over his integrity with "Take this to make things right"; And into the Arches he soon after rushed0 And simonized civil law and then bribed the officer And for a fur-lined mantle he made true matrimony Before death to depart, and fixed up divorces. "Gee!53 said Conscience then, and cried, "Would Christ of his grace That Covetousness were Christian, he's such a good fighter, And bold and immovable as long as his bag lasts." And then Life just laughed and had his clothes stylishly slit,0 And armed himself quickly with dirty words, And maintained Holiness was a joke and Honesty a waste of time,

Passus XXII And considered Loyalty a serf and Liar a freeman; Conscience and counsel he thought were a folly. Thus Life revived with a little bit of luck And pushed ahead with Pride—he praises no virtue Nor cares how Nature slays and shall come as Kind in the end0 And kill all earthly creatures, all except Conscience. Life stepped aside and got himself a girlfriend: "Health and I," he said, "and a high heart Will cause you not to fear Death or Old Age, And so forget about sorrow and pay no attention to sin." Life and his mistress Fortune liked all this And in their glory finally begat a fellow-traveler, One who caused a lot of trouble, Sloth was his name. Sloth grew up amazingly fast and soon was of age And married one Despair, a broad from the brothel;0 Her father was a juror who never swore truly, One Tom Forked-tongue, convicted at every inquest. This Sloth was sly at warfare and made himself a sling, And flung fear of despair for a dozen miles around. For care then Conscience cried out to Old Age And told him to try to fight and frighten away Despair. And Age took good hope and quickly made confession And waved off Despair, and he fights with Life. And Life fled out of fear to Physic for help And asked him for relief, and had some of his remedy And gave him a good deal of gold, which gladdened his heart, And was given in return a cure made of first class quackery.0 Life believed medicine would delay Old Age And drive away Death with prescriptions and drugs. And Old Age made a run against Life, and finally hit A physician in a fur-lined hood so that he fell in a palsy, And there that doctor died within three days. "Now I see," said Life, "that neither surgery nor medicine Can usefully interfere with Old Age." And in hope of his health he took good heart And rode off to Revel, a rich, fun place, (The Good Times Company, men once called it), And Old Age was right behind him, and ran over my head

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T?iers Plowman And erased my hair line and put a shine on my crown; So roughly he rode over my head it will always show. "Sir No-nice-guy Old Age," I said, "phooey on you! Since when were highways constructed on men's heads? If you had any manners," I said, "You would have asked first." "Yeah, asked first? you bum!" he said, and laid some age on me, And hit me under the ear—I can hardly hear. And boxed me around the mouth and knocked out my molars, And shackled me with gout-—I can't move about freely. And my wife took pity on the fix I was in And sincerely wished that I was in heaven. For the limb she loved me for and enjoyed feeling up (Especially at night when we were both naked), I could in no way make it do her pleasure, So had she and Old Age beaten it down. And as I sat in this sorrow, I saw Nature pass by And Death draw near me; for fear I began to quake And cried to Kind to bring me out of care: "Look, how hoary Old Age has treated me; Avenge me, if you will, I want out of here." "If you want revenge, make your way into Unity And keep yourself there till I send for you, And make sure you learn some craft before you come from there." "Counsel me, Kind," I said, "what craft's best to learn?"0 "Learn to love," said Kind, "and forget all the rest." "How shall I earn a living, to clothe and feed myself?" "If you love loyally, you'll never lack Clothes or earthly food as long as you live." And According to Kind's advice I began to roam Through Contrition and Confession till I came to Unity. And there Conscience was constable, to save Christians, And was resolutely besieged by seven great giants0 Who held hard with Antichrist against Conscience. Sloth with his sling launched a tough attack. Proud priests came with him—more than a hundred In cloaks and peaked shoes and packing long knives like common men Come against Conscience, they were on Covetousness' team. "By the Mary," said an excommunicate priest from the Irish frontier,

Passus XXII "I credit Conscience no more, as long as I make money, Than I do to drink a draft of good ale!" And so said sixty from the same country, And started taking shots at him, many a sheaf of oaths And broad-hooked arrows—God's heart, and his nails— And almost took Unity and Holiness down. Conscience cried out, "Help, Clergy, before I fall Through imperfect priests and prelates of Holy Church!" Friars heard him cry and came to help him, But because they didn't know their craft well Conscience gave up on them. Need then drew near and informed Conscience That they came out of greed to claim the cure of souls: "And because they're poor, perhaps, because they have no endowment, They'll flatter rich folks in order to get by. And since they chose a life of cold and misery Let them chew as they chose and charge them with no parish! For he lies more often who must beg for a living Than he who works for a living and shares it with beggars. And since friars renounced earthly happiness Let them be like beggars or live on angels' food!"0 Then Conscience had a good laugh at this advice, And courteously comforted and called in all the friars, And said, "Sirs, you're all truly welcome To Unity and Holy Church, but one thing I ask you— Hold yourselves in Unity and have no envy For cleric or layman, but live according to your rule. I give my guarantee; you'll have bread and clothes And all other necessities; you'll miss nothing Provided you give up logic and learn how to love. For love they left their lordship, both on land and in school, Friars Francis and Dominic, out of love to be holy.0 And if you covet a parish, Nature will tell you0 That God made all manner of things in moderation And set them in a certain and definite number And gave them names and numbered the stars. Who telletk the number of the stars.0 Kings and knights, who guard and defend,

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Piers Plowman Have officers under them and each of them a certain number. And if they pay men wages for warfare they list them on a roster; No paymaster will compensate them, no matter how hard they've worked, Unless they're named in the number kept on the payroll. All others in battle are considered robbers, Pillagers and armor-pickers, accursed in every parish. Monks and nuns and all members of religious orders, The rule of their order requires have a fixed number. Of learned and unlearned the law requires and sets A certain number for a certain job—with the sole exception of friars! Therefore," said Conscience, "by Christ, common sense tells me It's wicked to pay you wages, you grow out of control. Heaven's number is even and hell is numberless;0 Therefore, I sincerely wish you were all registered And your exact number, neither more nor less, under a notary's seal!" Envy heard this, and ordered the friars to go to school And learn logic and law and contemplation also, And preach to men from Plato and back it up with Seneca0 That all things under heaven should be owned in common. It's my belief that he lies who preaches this to the unlettered, For God made a law for men and Moses taught it: Thou shalt covet anything that is thy neighbor's. ° But this is poorly done in the parishes of England, For parsons and parish priests, who should hear the people's confession, And are called curates because they know and cure them, Impose penances on all their parishioners And to be ashamed in their confession; but shame makes them take off And flee to the friars, as false people go to Westminster, On borrowing money and take it there and then ask their friends Urgently to forgive the debt or extend its term for a year. But while he's in Westminster he'll be a big spender And have himself a ball with other men's bread. And so it goes with many of those who confess to friars, Like jurors and executors; they'll give the friars A piece of the action to pray for them, and have a good time

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With the rest that's been earned by the sweat of other men's brows, And keep the dead man in debt till Doomsday. Envy hated Conscience for this, And gave university fellowships to friars in philosophy, All the while Covetousness and Unkindness assaulted Conscience. In Unity, Holy Church, Conscience took his stand And made Peace porter to bolt the gates Against all tall-tale tellers and idle gossips. Hypocrisy and they launched a hard assault. Hypocrisy began to fight hard at the gate And inflicted major wounds on many a wise teacher Who'd been in accord with Conscience and the cardinal virtues. Conscience called a doctor who could give good shrift To salve those who were sick and wounded by sin. Confession mixed a sharp salve and made men do penances For the misdeeds they had done, And made sure Piers' pardon was paid, reMe quod debe$.Q Some didn't like this doctor and sent letters To see if any surgeon were in the siege who applied softer plasters. Sir Love-to-live-in-lechery lay there and groaned; He was afraid he might die from a Friday of fasting. "There is a surgeon in the siege who has a soft touch, And knows more medicine and gives gentler treatments; One Friar Flatterer is physician and surgeon." Contrition said to Conscience, "Have him come to Unity, For there's many a man here hurt by Hypocrisy." "We've no need," said Conscience, "I know no better doctor Than parson or parish priest, confessor or bishop, Except for Piers the plowman, who has power over all And may give indulgence unless debt prevents it. I may as well agree," said Conscience, "since you desire it, That Friar Flatterer he fetched and treat you sick." The Friar heard about this and moved fast To a lord for a letter giving him leave to have a parish As if he were a parson, and came with his letter Boldly to the bishop and had his brief To hear confessions in the countries he came into; And came where Conscience was and knocked on the gate. Peace, Unity's porter, started to unlock it

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Piers Plowman And quickly asked what he wanted. "In faith,53 said this friar, "for profit and for health I would speak with Contrition and therefore I came here." "He's sick," said Peace, "and so are many others; Hypocrisy has hurt them—their recovery's in doubt." "I'm a surgeon," said the friar, "and can prepare salves; Conscience both knows me well and what I can do." "I ask you," then Peace said, "before you take another step, What's your name? I ask you, don't conceal it." "Sure," said this fellow, "Sir Penetrans demos?0 "Yeah? On your way!" said Peace, "by God, for all your medicine, Unless you know some craft you won't come in here! I knew someone like you once, not eight years ago, Came cloaked thus into a court where I lived, And was doctor to both my lord and lady. And in the end, this friar, when my lord was away, Gave such salve to our women that makes them have babies!" Courteous-speech then told Peace to open the gates: "Let in the friar and his friend and welcome them warmly. He may see and hear something here, it may just happen, That Life through his teaching will abandon covetousness And be afraid of Death and back away from Pride And be in accord with Conscience so they'll kiss each other." Thus through Courteous-speech the friar got in And came up to Conscience and greeted him courteously. "Welcome," said Conscience, "can you heal the sick? Here's Contrition," said Conscience, "my cousin, wounded; Comfort him," said Conscience, "and take care of his affliction. The parson's plasters and powders are too painful, And he leaves them on too long and is reluctant to change them; From Lent to Lent he lets his plasters sting." "Oh, I believe that's too long," said this friar, "I'll have to correct it," And goes and gropes Contrition's condition and gives him a plaster Made of a private payment and "I shall pray for you And for those you're obliged to, all my lifetime, And make of you as if you're my Lady in the masses and matins Of friars in our fraternity for a little silver."

Passus XXII Thus he goes and gathers and smooth-talks his shriving Until Contrition had clean forgotten to cry and to weep And to stay awake for his wicked deeds, as he once did. For comfort of his confessor, Contrition gave up on himself Who is the sovereign salve for all kinds of sins. Sloth saw that, and so did Pride, And they came to attack Conscience with sharp intent. Conscience cried out again to Clergy to come help him, And asked Contrition to come help hold the gate. "He lies drowned,'3 said Peace, "and so do many others; The Friar's enchanted these people with his treatments And gives them sleeping potions so they fear no sin." "By Christ," said Conscience then, "I'll become a pilgrim, And walk as wide as the world reaches To seek Piers the plowman, who might destroy Pride, And ensure that friars find a living, who flatter out of need And contradict me, Conscience. Now Kind avenge me, And send me good favor and health till I have Piers plowman." And then he cried out loud for Grace until I began to awake.

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Explanatory Notes

Biblical references are to the Douay translation of the Vulgate. Many of these notes are indebted to those of previous translators of B as well as to Skeat's three-text edition and PearsalPs edition of C. As the text edition from which this translation was made, the latter's thorough annotations provided an especially useful guide and model for these notes. E. Talbot Donaldson's Piers Plowman: The C-Text and Its Poet and John Alford's two important reference works on the poem, Piers Plowman: A Glossary of Legal Diction and Piers Plowman: A Guide to the Quotations, were indispensable. All of these works, along with those cited in the Introduction that pertain to the poem directly, appear in the Selected Bibliography. Prologue 2. as if I were a sheep: The possibility of translating the Middle English word "shep" as "sheep" or "shepherd," and the argument among editors as to which was intended, aptly illustrates one of the basic problems of translation. Whereas the word in the original may very well have suggested both senses, the translation must commit to one or the other. This appropriately reveals that in some aspects translating out of Langland's dialect is no different than translating out of a foreign language. In choosing "sheep," I join those who wish to emphasize the sense of a metaphorical disguise, with possible reference to Matthew 7:15. 6-9. the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire are thought to be the area in which Langland grew up and was educated. While they provide the setting for his falling asleep, his dream reflects the life of London at the time. These lines and those that immediately follow conform to the conventions of the medieval dream vision. 40. The Latin phrase means "he who speaks slander (or filth)" and most likely echoes the "filthiness/turpitutto" "foolish talkmg/stultiloquium? and "jesting/#wrilitas? of Ephesians 5:4. 48. Saint James refers to the famous shrine of Santiago at Compostella in Galicia, Spain. 52. Our Lady of Walsingham^ a well-known shrine in Norfolk, rivaled that of Saint Thomas at Canterbury. 56. friars from all four orders: The fraternal orders were frequently the target

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of bitter complaint and sharp satire by medieval writers. The four orders are the Augustines (or Austin friars), the Carmelites, the Dominicans, and the Franciscans. 60. mendicant friars are members of a fraternal order who beg for their living. 66. A pardoner was empowered by the pope to grant temporal indulgence, the remission of punishment for sin, and by bishops to preach (but not as a priest) in their dioceses; however, many pardoners often preached without such permission and pretended to have the power of absolution. Cf. the portrait of the Pardoner in the General Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (I. 669-714). 82. the Black Death refers to the devastating epidemics of the plague in 134849,1361-62,1369, and 1375-76. 84. simony refers to traffic in sacred things, such as the sale of spiritual goods and the fraudulent acquisition of ecclesiastical offices. The word derives from the name of Simon Magus, who wanted to buy the power of conferring the Holy Ghost and was rebuked by the apostle Peter for thinking that the gift of God could be purchased. See Acts 8:9-24. 95. Conscience is the first of a number of personifications who play major roles in the poem's action. See below, I4in and i49n. 99. In this striking image of candles dripping with wax, Langland objectifies the response of the (duped) devout who made offerings and lit candles to false images and relics. 105-17. See i Kings: 1-4. 108. Archa domini refers here, and in 112 as well, to the ark of the covenant. I have used the word routed to translate the original's verb "discomfited," which derives from the Old French word deconfiture, a technical term in medieval battles and tournaments for "flight in chaos." 127. The word consistory denotes an ecclesiastical court, and in this context of Christ's consistory points to the Last Judgment. 129. See Matthew 16:19. 132. The four virtues That are called cardinal, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice, are distinguished from the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Since the word "cardinal" derives from the Latin cardo ("hinge"), Langland plays on the meaning of these four virtues as the hinges upon which the gates of heaven open and close by calling them "closyng 3ates" in 131, the sense of which I have rendered analytically rather than literally. For a fuller account of these virtues and their powers, see Passus XXI274-317. 134-38. Langland's further play on the Latin derivation of "cardinal" signals a comparison between the spiritual and earthly hinges upon which the fate of Christendom depends. The passage contains an indirect reference to the election in 1378 of an anti-pope by the French cardinals, which brought about the Great Schism (1378-1418). After a period of almost seventy years (1309-1377) during which Avignon had been the seat of the papacy, it returned to Rome in 1377, but the French cardinals elected their own pope, challenging the election of Urban VI, "the true pope." These lines seem to express something less than complete confidence in the cardinals, a sense I have tried to represent idiomatically by translating the original's "caught" with the word claim. For further, less ambiguous remarks about the

Notes to Passus I

223

cardinals, see Passus XXI409-27. In any case, the comparison helps make the transition to the politically focused closing episode of the Prologue. 141. Common Sense is my translation of "Kynde Wytt," a common phrase in the poem that denotes natural human knowledge unenlightened by divine revelation. 143. commons refers to the common people here, not to the House of Commons in Parliament. 149. Loyalty may fairly stand for the original's "Lewte" as long as it is taken primarily in a legal and political context. As such, it conveys a sense of loyalty to truth, justice, and the principles of reciprocity upon which society depends. This important personification recurs in the poem (see Passus II, III, IV, and IX) and may, in my view, be understood in this passage as representing not only the abstract sense of the word but also the people who abide by it. 152-57. In the original, this passage is given in Latin in leonine verse with medial rhyme, which is reflected loosely in the translation through internal rhymes and repetition. Once considered Langland's original composition, these verses and some minor variants have been found in other medieval texts. Throughout this translation, I have allowed the majority of the foreign language words and phrases that are part of the text of Langland's poem, and thus included in the line count, to stand, as in 40 above and 206 below. I have treated this passage, as well as a few others, as exceptions, however, because of their special character and length. 165-216. In his version of the popular belling the cat fable, which occurs in B but not in A, Langland explores the difficulties in attempting to check royal authority. There is general agreement that the cat stands for John of Gaunt, the rats and mice for the members of the two houses of parliament, and kitten (215) for Richard II. It is interesting to note that among the misericord carvings in the Priory Church, Great Malvern, where Langland grew up, there is one, dating roughly from the mid-fourteenth century, that depicts three rats or mice successfully hanging a cat. 206. "Woe to the land where a child is king." Based on Ecclesiastes 10:16. 226. "God save you, dame Emma," is a refrain from a popular song. Passus I 3. The lovely faced lady is, as she identifies herself later (72), Holy Church. In the tradition of personified female authorities such as lady Philosophy in The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius, the goddess Natura in Alan of Lille's Complaint of Nature^ and lady Reason in The Romance of the Rose, the figure of Holy Church is also based on scriptural tradition, especially that of the bride in the Canticle of Canticles and the Bride of the Lamb in the Apocalypse. The maiden in Pearl^ a poem roughly contemporary with Langland's, belongs to this group as well. 5. Will is used here in C instead of the word "son" in A and B. In addition to being a name well-suited to the narrator of a poem by William Langland, "Will" also denotes an important faculty of the human soul.

224

Notes to Passus II

23. See i Timothy 6:8. 3oa. Genesis 19:32. 37-38. The world, the flesh, and the devil were the soul's main enemies in medieval religious tradition. 48-49. "Render to Caesar . . . and to God, the things that are God's." Matthew 22:21. 59. This description of Wrong, i.e., the devil, is based on John 8 -.44. 64. on cm elder is a common addition to the account of Judas's suicide in Matthew 27:5. See Shakespeare*s Love's Labor's Lost^ 5.2.610. 82. "God [is] love." See i John 4:8. 87. Though Luke 6:40 makes sense here, perhaps i John 4:16 makes better sense. See also John 17:20-23. 92. "transgressors." See James 2:9. 104-5. The ten °r' The nature of brute animals condemns you, since common food suffices for them, while your wickedness comes from fat." Job 6:5 followed by a quotation from a commentary on it. Since the passage is referred to in 53 as being in Latin, I have allowed it to stand as such in the text. 58a. See above, VII 2i6an. 64. On Lawrence, see above, II130-33^ 6sa. Psalms 110:3 and 111:3, substituting "forever" (eternum) for "unto all ages of ages" (in saeculum saeculi). 71. On Purnel, see above, IV inn. 72. Luxembourg slug refers to a counterfeit coin illegally imported from Luxembourg. Also see below, 82 and 168. In contrast with its metaphorical use here in a spiritual context is Harry Bailly's use of it in a sexual one in his teasing words to the Monk in the Canterbury Tales, VII. 1962. 98. the seven stars here refers to the seven planets, not the Pleiades. 114. On the seven arts, see above, XI 9yn; a quodlibet, a term used in university debates and scholarly exercises to introduce a question (literally, "Suppose . .."). 120-21. The, feast of Corpus Christi, instituted c. 1264 and confirmed in 1311, was held in honor of the Host on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday; it was also the day on which the mystery cycles were performed, sola fides sufficit: "faith alone is sufficient," is from a hymn sung on Corpus Christi. i4oa. The Latin source of this passage, which is paraphrased in the next three lines, has not been identified. 157; The Golden Legend (LegendaAura], to which Langland refers so often. 163-64. "Beauty without goodness" and the rest of 163 is from a well-known proverb, but the source of 164 has not been found, sanz cortesie: "without courtesy." 165. The story about Mohammed that follows was a popular legend. 189. These are the names of dioceses, in partibus infidelium ("in pagan territories") i.e., in biblical lands held by the Arabs, to which the pope appointed titular bishops, who, though they did not actually reside in their sees, held them in sinecure. 191. "Go into the whole world." Mark 16:15 (with "ye" omitted), which continues, "and preach the gospel to every creature." i93a. From John 10: n, substituting "layeth down" for "giveth." i98a. From Galatians 6:14. 200. The noble was a coin with a cross on one side. 205. There may well be a pun on crown here, referring to both the royal crown and the clerical tonsure. 209. The order of Knights Templars, founded in 1118 to defend Christian sites in the Holy Land, were accused of corruption of all kinds and suppressed in 1312, their great wealth confiscated. 215. dos ecclesie: the endowment of the church, as explained in 220-24 below. See above, III i63n.

Notes to Passus XVIII

251

2isa. Luke i: 52. 219. Levitici: see above, II130-3311 and IX 2i2-2i2an. 2i9a. Numbers 18:20-24. Deuteronomy 12:6 is also cited as a source. 235a. From Romans 12:19 or Hebrews 10:30, quoting Deuteronomy 32:35. 238. pax vobis: "peace be to you," spoken by Christ after the resurrection to the disciples: John 20: 19, 21, 26. 261. See above, 189 and n. 267. See above, XVI 203-4 and n. This reference is to Christ as metropolitanus^ head of all bishops of the church. 269.1 have translated the original's "with inwit bileue hit" as believe it in their souls. Also see below, XVIII180. 274. St. Thomas a Becket, martyred in 1170 in Canterbury Cathedral, was canonized in 1221. 28oa. Based on Deuteronomy 23:25. 286-87. Two lines of leonine Latin verse expressing a commonplace sentiment. 293a. See above, i93a. 305. "Four days dead." John n: 39. 311. "a false prophet." See Matthew 24:11. 318-23. All phrases from the Apostle's Creed, beginning with the first and ending with the last: "I believe in God, the father"; "and in Jesus Christ his son"; "and in the Holy Spirit"; "the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen."

PassusXVTII 4. "The heart of man." 7. "The image of God." 14. "Charity." Also in 32 and 39 below. 16. At approximately this point in the action, two features of B are missing from C. First, the second inner dream of the poem begins here at B XVI 20 and ends at 167; in C, this dream within a dream has no beginning marker, but the Narrator does awaken from it at 179, below. Second, Piers the plowman appears as expositor of the Tree of Charity in B, while Free Will continues in that role in C. 34. "The power of God the Father." 40. "The wisdom of God the Father." 51. "The Holy Spirit." 80. "the Active life." 83. "The Active Life and the Contemplative Life." 116. in limbo inferni^ "the border or edge of hell," is the place in which the souls of the Old Testament patriarchs, matriarchs, and prophets were held until Christ came to release them according to the account in the Harrowing of Hell legend. See below, XX 27oaff. 118. "in the majesty of God." 119. "The Free Will of God." 121. Filius: "the Son." Spiritus StmcPus: "the Holy Spirit." Also below at 124.

252

Notes to Passus XVIII

127. "the fullness of time." Also below at 139. See Galatians 4:4. i33a. From Luke 1:38. i42a. From Matthew n: 15 and Luke 7:22. 145. See above, XVII 3osn. 146. "he began to grow sorrowful." See Matthew 26:37. Langland has transferred Christ's words from the agony in the garden to this scene about the raising of Lazarus. 151. Despite its derivation from Mahomet (Mohammed), Makound is the name of a demon here. See below, XX 293. i5ia. From John 7:20; 8:48, 52. 154-55. See Matthew 14:16-20. 156-59. See Matthew 21:12. 160-61. See John 2:19. i6sa. From Matthew 26:5. 169. "Hail, Rabbi" (i.e., "Master"). Matthew 26:49. i75a. From Matthew 18:7. This quotation is not from the taking of Jesus in the garden; nor does the immediately preceding speech of Jesus have any source in scripture. 177. See John 18:8. 179. Since this inner dream had no beginning, there are two consecutive awakenings in C, this one and at XIX 331, below. Traditionally, the fifth dream of C is viewed as beginning immediately after this at 182. With the exception of this dream and the fourth dream, the eight dreams of the poem correspond quite closely in B and C. 183. Abraham as a model of Faith is common in the Pauline epistles. See Romans 4, especially vss. 3,16, and 20; Galatians 3 and Hebrews n: 8-19. 191. See Psalms 85:10: "thou art God alone." 2i4a. Psalms 18:2. 223a. The quotation is from the Apocryphal Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, 2 (hence the reference to a book of the Old Law in 222), though the Hereford Breviary has also been suggested as the immediate source. The idea may be based on Genesis 30:23 and Luke i: 25. 228. In addition to anouncing the figure of speech in this passage, the word simile also echoes Genesis 2:18: "let us make him a help like unto himself" (fa-ciamus ei adiutorium simile sibi). 239. trey-ace: "treys" in the original. Both words are Anglo-Norman dicing terms in the game of hazard. Cf. the Canterbury Tales, II. 124 and VI. 653. 241-42. See Genesis 18:1-16. Cf. the Pearl-Poet's Cleanness, 601-70. 242a. From an Antiphon sung on Quinquagesima Sunday during Lent, inspired by Genesis 18:2. 249. See Genesis 22:1-19. 252. See Genesis 17:23. 256-57. See Genesis 17:1-8. 262. See Genesis 14:18-19. 26sa. From John 10:16. 269a. From John i: 29.

Notes to Passus XIX

253

272. a leper lay there-. Lazarus, whom the rich man Dives from his torments saw in the bosom of Abraham. Luke 16:23. The Middle English word for kper was "lazar "

Passus XIX 1-2. Spes: Hope, i.e., Moses. See Exodus 19-20. 10. The letter awaits the seal of Christ to make it official that he has come to confirm and fulfill the law. See Matthew 5:17. i3a. See above, XV i35n. i5a. Matthew 22:40. 23. Old Testament heroes and heroine. See Josue and the apocryphal books of Judith and Maccabees. 47. For the parable of the good Samaritan^ see Luke 10:30-36. 55-56. semiyuief: half-alive (Latin: semivivus^ echoing Luke 10:30). The phrase naked as a- needle was also used above in XIV 105. 71. lavacrum-lex-dei: "the bath of the law of God," i.e., baptism. See Titus 3:5. ii2a. From a hymn sung at matins in the service of the Virgin Mary and in the office of the Annuciation. The source of the image may be from Isaiah 40:12. i23a. From the Apostles' Creed. i25a. From John 12:32. i32a. From a hymn to Jesus as savior of the world. i38a. From the hymn Veni creator spiritus^ mentioned below in XXI210. i6ia. Mark 3:29, substituting "sin" for "blaspheme." The verse continues, "shall never have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting sin." 162. The repetition in this line of "sins against the Holy Spirit" from the preceding quotation emphasizes the gravity of this sin. 2i4a. From Matthew 25:12. 2*\j. pardon out of Pamplona-, the bishop of Pamplona in Spain issued indulgences to the nearby abbey of Roncesvalles, which then used them to raise money through its daughter-house in London, St. Mary's Rounceval at Charing Cross, home-base of Chaucer's Pardoner (I. 670). 218. "ungrateful." 222a. i Corinthians 13:1, which continues, "and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 227a. Matthew 7:21. 229. On Dives) see Luke 16:19-31 and above, VIII278 and XV 301. 235a. Based on Luke 16:19. 245a. See above, VIII 235an. 259. I have translated the original's "inwit" here as in my conscience, since a moral judgment is involved. 269a. Based on Apocalypse 6:10. 285a. See above, VI 257a and n. 293a. See above, XII 72a and n. 297. The sources in holy writ are Proverbs 27:15; 10:26; and 19:13. Cf. the

254

Notes to Passus XX

Wife of Bath's Prologue (III. 278-80) and the Tale of Melibee (VII. 1086) in the Canterbury Tales. 3i6a. From 2 Corinrthians 12:9.

Passus XX i. Wool-shirted^ i.e., wearing a shirt of rough wool against the skin as an act of penance. The sixth dream begins here and ends at the close of this passus. 6-j. gloria laus: "glory, praise." From the Palm Sunday Processional Hymn. osanna: "Hosanna" ("save, we pray" in Hebrew), from Matthew 21:9, was sung in the antiphons preceding the Palm Sunday processional, and continues, "to the son of David" (Hosannafilio David], anticipating Faith's cry of recognition in 13, below. i5a. Continuing Matthew 21:9. 20. "The Free Will of God." See above, XVIII119. 22. "human nature." 23. "the perfect God." 25. "in the godhead of the Father." 34a. Based on Osee 13:14, echoed in i Corinthians 15:55. 35. "sitting in the place of judgment." From Matthew 27:19. 38. "Crucify him!" From John 19:6. 46-47. "Crucify him!" Tolk, Tolle!: "Away with him, away with him." From John 19:15. 50. AueRaby: see above, XVIII169. Actually, these are the words of Judas in the betrayal in the garden, poked reeds at his eyes', see Matthew 27:29-30. 58. "It is consummated." John 19:30. 7ia. From Matthew 27:54. 79. Kind, i.e., God. 82. Longinus ("Longius" in the original): the name given in the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus to the Roman soldier who pierces Christ's side in John 19:34. The name probably derives from the Greek word for "lance," \6yyri. The story is also told in The Golden Legend. Langland's innovation in making Longinus a Jewish knight contributes to the representation of the chivalric defeat of the Jews by Jesus as knight and provides a stark contrast by way of the restoration of Longinus' sight and his conversion to this global moment of Jewish blindness to the truth, depicted in medieval iconography by the blindfolded female figure of Synagoga. ii3a. From a pseudo-Augustinian sermon against the Jews (Contra Judeos)^ but ultimately based on Daniel 9:24-27. 115. "he descended into hell." From the Apostles' Creed. 116. "according to the scriptures." From the Nicene Creed. The specific piece of scripture referred to here is Psalms 84:11, which is quoted near the end of this passus at 467a. The allegorical elaboration of this verse developed into a wellknown representation of the reconciliation of the old and new dispensations called the debate of the Four Daughters of God. In Langland's literary precedents, the debate takes place in heaven after the Fall; thus, the shifts of setting to hell and of time in salvation history to just before the Harrowing of Hell constitute a signifi-

Notes to Passus XX

255

cant innovation, along with the poet's domestication of a cosmic issue in the form of a squabble among four headstrong sisters. 143. The two tree(s) are the Tree of Knowledge and the Cross. i52a. From the Office of the Dead, based on Job 7:9. 16sa. From a hymn sung on Passion Sunday. i84a. From Psalms 29:6. 191-92. Authorization of the letter is from Psalms 4:9: "In peace in the selfsame" / "I will sleep, and I will rest," which was sung with the same division into versicle and response on Holy Saturday. 234a. See above, III 488 and n, 492 and n. The earlier appearance of this passage from i Thessalonians 5:21 also occurs at the conclusion of a debate, that between Conscience and Meed. 239. The two broad eyes of Book (240) suggest the Old and the New Testaments. 248. Literally Stella comata means "long-haired star," i.e., a comet, and was commonly associated with the star in Matthew 2. 253a. From Matthew 14:28. 254-57. See Luke 23145 and Matthew 27:45 and 51. 259. Simeon, the "just and devout" man in attendance at the presentation of Jesus at the temple (Luke 2:25), had two sons who, according to the gospel of Nicodemus, were raised from death and hell by Christ and provided an eyewitness account of the Harrowing of Hell. 259a. Luke 2:26, which continues, "before he had seen the Christ of the Lord," fulfilling the promise made him by the Holy Ghost. 261. The comparison of Jesus to a,giant is an allusion to Psalms 18:6; his engine of destruction probably refers to his divine and human nature (perhaps also part of the complex allusive background of "that two-handed engine at the door" in Milton's Lycidas [130]). 27oa. From Nicodemus 18, quoting Psalms 23:7, which was sung on Holy Saturday. 272. Princepes (Langland's spelling of Principes): "Princes," continuing from Psalms 23:7. 274. Hell: in the gospel of Nicodemus, Hell (inferus) is personified. If Langland is following its example, then it may make sense to identify Hell with Lucifer; if he is not using Nicodemus as his model, then the line makes equally good sense as a general address by Satan to his domain and its denizens. Langland recognizes the traditional distinction between Lucifer, the rebellious, fallen angel, and tempter in the garden of Eden, and Satan, the manifestation of totally corrupt evil, the devil, and lord of hell. Langland's hell, like Milton's in Paradise Lost^ is inhabited by numerous demons and devils. He names them both according to tradition, e.g., Belial (282) and Ashtaroth (287), and according to his own fancy, like the devil unique to C who is named Ragamuffin (281). 275. See John n for the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. 294. caltrops: iron balls with spikes meant to impede the progress of enemy cavalry. 3i6a. From Ecclesiastes 4:10. 323. Goblin: another name for Satan, also referred to as the Devil (325), since

256

Notes to Passus XXI

he takes credit in the next few lines for the temptation of Christ described in Matthew 4:1-11. 335-36. A reference to Matthew 27:19, in which Pilate's wife warns her husband not to condemn Christ because of a troubling dream she has had. Legend had it that Satan inspired her dream to keep Christ alive and away from hell. 349a. From John 12:31, which continues, "be cast out." 356a. Psalms 5:7. 366. "people in darkness." See Matthew 4:16, quoting Isaiah 9:2; also cited in Nicodemus. 367. "Behold the Lamb of God." John i: 29 and 36, quoted in Nicodemus. 38sa. Exodus 21:24, sequence transposed. 392a. See above, i6san. 395a. From Matthew 5:17. 4o8a. From John 19:28. 411. According to the prophecy in Joel 3:2, the vale ofjehosaphat was to be the site of the Last Judgment. 412. "the resurrection of the dead." The Nicene Creed. 42oa. Psalms 50:6. 421-25. These lines refer to the pardoning of felons as a result of an unsuccessful hanging, some of which are on record, or the king's coming upon the scene of an execution. 433. "no evil unpunished and no good unrewarded." See above, IV i4o-4in. 435a. Psalms 37:2. 438a. 2 Corinthians 12:4, substituting "I" for "he." 442a. Psalms 142:2 451. From a hymn sung on the vigil of Ascension day. 453-54. Proverbial, though the Latin wording in the poem fairly closely follows that of a poem by Alan of Lille. 467. "for ever and ever." Formula for ending a prayer. 467a. Psalms 84:11. 468. "We praise thee God." A famous hymn sung at matins every Sunday. 46pa. Psalms 132:1, which continues, "for brethren to dwell together in unity." 472. Kit my wife: see above, V 2n. my daughter Calote: the combination of Kit and Calote, in addition to alliterating, was proverbial. It is possible that either the daughter or her name, Calote, is fictitious, though like Kit, Calote is also a known name.

Passus XXI 5. The seventh dream begins here and continues to the end of this passus. 39. franklins were free men and landholders, though not of noble birth. See the portrait of the Franklin in Chaucer's General Prologue (I. 331-60).

Notes to Passus XXI

257

62. Though the preceding account demonstrates the aptness of calling Christ conqueror^ it appears that Langland believed the name actually meant that instead of "the anointed one" in Greek, a language with which the poet was not familiar. 74a. Luke 2:14. 8oa. Philippians 2:10, substituting "all things" for "every knee." 85. See Matthew 2:1. The allegorical interpretation of the gifts of the Magi, mentioned in Matthew 2: n, of which the next few lines are an example, was quite common. 90. The first half of this line is problematic in both B and C; this translation retains the symbolic relationship of reason to incense established in 86, above. 109. The first miracle at the wedding at Cana. See John 2: i-n. The following lines develop a final, perhaps ultimate, exposition of the Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best triad, this time in terms of the life of Christ. 118. "the son of Mary." See Mark 6:3. 125-30. For accounts of the miracles, see Matthew 14:17; Mark 8:22-26; Luke 9:10-17. 133. "Jesus, son of David." Matthew 9:27. Also below at 136. 1 35' "Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands." i Kings 18:7. 140. Caiapkas was the high priest who condemned Christ. See Matthew 27:3, 57-68. The account of events after the crucifixion is based on Matthew 27:62-66 and 28:1-8; John 20:11-18. 152. "Christ rising." See Romans 6:9, which continues, "again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him." Also below at 160. i6ia. Combined from Luke 24:46 and 26, which continues, "into his glory." 165. On the apostles, see Matthew 10:2-4. Thomas of India,', according to legend, St. Thomas became the apostle to India. For the confession of his faith, referred to below (1706°.), see John 20:26-29. 169. "Peace be to you." See John 20:19, 21, and 26. iy2a. From John 20:28. i8ia. From John 20:29. 183. Piers: refers first to St. Peter (see Matthew 16:18) but now to Piers the plowman as well. 187. "Render what you owe." See above, VI 3i6n. The power given by Christ to St. Peter and the church to grant absolution (see Matthew 16:19) depends upon the prerequisite need for restitution, not only in the sense of paying things back but also in the sense of rendering the debt of charity. The variation below, "who renders what he owes" (193), refers to the individual Christian who is assured his reward for meeting this demand. 201. Spiritm p&mditus^ here and below in 206, literally means "the Spirit advocate" and stands for the Holy Spirit. The descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire upon the apostles at Pentecost is described in Acts 2:1-4 and prophesied in John 14:16, 26, and 15:26. 210. "Come, creator spirit." The opening of a hymn sung at Pentecost. 219. Antichrist: in general, a name for those who deny the divinity of Christ

258

Notes to Passus XXI

or especially evil individuals, but specifically here the name for a false Christ, often associated with Satan, who will oppose Christ at the end of time. The Antichrist's coming precedes the Second Coming of Christ and thus plays a major role in medieval prophecy and apocalyptic literature. The scriptural source is i John 2:18, 22 and 2 John i: 7. Also see below, 226. 228a. From i Corinthians 12:4. 247, vigilante law: my translation for the original's "Folville's laws," a proverbial expression for extra-legal justice, deriving from the name and fame of a notorious gang of brothers in Lincolnshire during the 13305. 258. See above, XI soon. 259. See above, i8yn. 262. four great oxen: the identification of the four evangelists as a team of draft animals was quite common, possibly influenced by the traditional depiction of Luke as an ox in the symbolic representation of the evangelists based on Ezechiel 1:10 and Apocalypse 4:7, in which Matthew is a man, Mark a lion, and John an eagle. 267. The four horses^ Augustine (354-430), Ambrose (€.340-397), Gregory (pope from 590-604), and Jerome (c. 340-420), the four greatest fathers of the western church, are represented here primarily in terms of their work as interpreters of the scriptures. 27ga. There is no specific source for this quotation, the language of which suggests that of traditional biblical exegesis. 274. On the cardinal virtues, see above, Prologue i32n. 276. "The spirit of prudence." 281. "The spirit of temperance." 289. "The spirit of fortitude." 295. "Spare me, lord." From the Office of the Dead, echoing Job 7:17. 297. From Cato's Distichs. 298. "The spirit of justice." Also at 302 and 303 and subsequent lines of this passus. 390. See above, i87n. 394a. Matthew 6:12. 416. "cries out daily." A legal formula for initiating criminal proceedings against a public enemy. 421. This is another reference to the Great Schism of 1378, for which see above, Prologue i34~38n. The anti-pope at Avignon at this time enjoyed the financial support of certain moneylending Jews. The Latin quotation says, "with the Holy, thou wilt be holy." Psalms 17:26. 431. "Who raineth upon the just and the unjust." From Matthew 5:45. 4462. For the commandment, see Exodus 20:13, quoted in Luke 18:20; for the second part of the quotation, see above, XVII235, in which it is also attributed to Luke, and 235an. 455. "The spirit of prudence." 460. reeve: see above, XI 30on. 463. "The spirit of the intellect." Possibly an aspect of "the spirit of prudence." 464. "The spirit of fortitude."

Notes to Passus XXII

259

479a. Probably a proverbial expression of a legal tenet. The Latin in the original contains an internal rhyme that resembles one in a similar sentence in the treatise on the seven deadly sins that may have been a partial source of Chaucer's Parson's Tale.

Passus XXII i. This passus, like V and X, begins with a waking episode. 33a. Proverbial, based on Proverbs 16:9. See above, XI 306-07 and n. 44-47. These lines paraphrase Matthew 8:20, but they were spoken after the Sermon on the Mount, not upon the cross. 51-52. The eighth, and last, dream begins here. 53. On Antichrist, see above, XXI 2i9n. 76. Nature: "Kynde" in the original. At this point and throughout this passus, the distinction between "Kynde" as creator or creating nature, i.e., God, and "Kynde" as created nature, i.e., the world of nature (including human nature), becomes crucial. See above, X 128, XIII 130. I have tried to preserve this medieval concept of the distinction and unity between the creator and his creation in this translation by retaining the less familiar, to us, word Kind for the idea of God as nature, and introducing our usual word, Nature^ for the idea of a world of phenomena and the laws to which they are subject. The latter not only mirrors the mind of the former but acts as its agent as well in a manner that may have been influenced by the twelfth-century Chartrian concept of Natum, vicaria Dei^ especially as represented in the work of Alan of Lille. 79. Belial is one of the major devils. See above, XX 282. 133. The law courts were located in Westminster Hall. 136. On the Arches^ see above, II 6m. 143. Life may be a direct personification here of the figure represented above (71, 90) as a lord that lived for the pleasure of his body (with minor variations). For the first appearance of this locution, see above, XXI 353. clothes stylishly slit refers to the fashion in vogue of "dagging," i.e., cutting clothes with slits or serrating them at the hem. Chaucer's Parson attacks this (X. 418, 421), and Margery Kempe observes that the bishop's men wore clothes fashionably slashed and cut into points (The Book of Margery Kempe, I. 45 and II. 2). 150. This line, in which a single use of "Kynde" in the original represents both of its main senses, aptly illustrates the complex and unique relationship between Nature and Kind. Indeed, Kind here appears to exceed its usual meaning as creator to suggest God the Son at the end of time and Last Judgment. 160. Despair: "Wanhope" in the original, echoes the earlier appearance of Sir Wanhope in XI199, where he, like she, is also a consequence of following Fortune. 172. The phony "cure" is expressed in the original by the proverbial metaphor "a glass hood." 207-11. Kind as creator here is thus the same as the Truth whose message Holy Church taught in Passus I.

26o

Notes to Passus XXII

215. The seven greatgiants are the seven deadly sins. 241. on angels'food conveys pretty much the same idea whether taken as God alone or as nothing substantial. 252. Francis and Dominic founded the two major fraternal orders. 253-54. An excellent example of how Nature mirrors the mind of God. 256a. Psalms 146:4. 270. Traditionally, evil was associated with indefinite number (see Job 10:22 and Apocalypse 20:8) and good with definite, precise numbering (see Matthew 10:30 and Apocalypse 7:4-8). On the apparently limitless number of friars at this time, see the opening lines of the Wife of Bath's Tale (III. 866-68). 275. The names of Plato and Seneca are invoked rhetorically here as authorities in general. 278a. Based on Exodus 20:17. 308. "render what you owe." See above, XXI i87n and VI 3i6n. 340. See 2 Timothy 3:6, a key text in antifraternalism: "For of these sort are they who creep into houses (qui penetrant domos)^ and lead captive silly women laden with sins, who are led away with divers desires."

Appendix: Table of Major Additions, Omissions, and Transpositions of Material in the C Version

ADDITIONS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

C: Prologue 95-124 Conscience's critique of "false priests." C: III 77-H4 On the malpractices of the urban professions: traders, retailers, and lenders. In C, Langland extends the related B passage from 10 to 40 lines. C: III290-40$ A complex, important passage describing the relationship between Meed and Merit through an extended, grammatical metaphor. C: Vi-io8 The "autobiographical passage." C: VII187-282 Langland paraphrases Luke 14: 16-24, especially the responses (to Christ) of those who decline his invitation to the feast. C: IX187-281 A long addition that reflects Langland's preoccupation with hermits. C:X 254-69 A condemnation of the practice of marrying for money on the basis that it damages proper hierarchical roles in society. C: XI196-98,306-11 Lines added to the greatly expanded role of Recklessness. C: XIII53-XIII100 A long addition in the C-version, largely in praise of poverty. C: XV138-48 A brief but very important addition in which Piers Plowman appears as Christ. C: XVII125-49 Character of Free Will introduced. C: XVIII58-W3 Free Will compares the merits of the active and the contemplative lives.

262

Appendix

13. C: XX 350-58 Digression on the harm of lying, especially in the rhetoric used by contemporary preachers.

OMISSIONS B Lines omitted from C

Lines at which C resumes

C:IX2941. 1.B:VII119-43C:IX294The argument between the Priest and Piers, in which Piers tears the pardon offered to him. 2. B: X194-221 C: XI137Study gives various examples of the inferiority of science to theology. 3. B: X 257-376 C: XI163Clergy's discourse on "false clerics." C:XIV16 4. 4. B: XII16-54 C:XWi6Imaginative attacks Will's poetry writing; and Will tries to defend his "meddling with making." 5. B: XV194C: XVI157B emphasizes the repentence of Haukyn. In C, Free Will replaces the figure of Haukyn. 6. B: XV 417-91 C: XVII187Passage on the proselytizing function of the church.

TRANSPOSITIONS FROM B TO C CV 146-79 1.BX298-332>CV146-79 Transfer of Clergy's complaint against religious abuse to the C context of Reason's sermon. 2. B XIII273-456 >CVIsCVI3The confession of the sins in C are greatly expanded with material transposed from B with numerous changes and revisions, the most prominent of which are: Envy B XIII 324-41 > C VI 63 Lechery B XIII 343-51 > C VI170 Avarice B XIII 361-98 > C VI196 3. B V 461-76 > C VI309-30 Introduction of Evan. Lines spoken by Robert the Robber in B are shifted in this passage. 4. B XI1-35 > C XI163-94 Langland shifts the "dream of the land of longing" from its place in B to emphasize the drama in C of the crisis of the intellect.