Chapter 12

WILLIAM LANGLAND AND HIS VISIONS.

Langland first poet of the period after Chaucer 373

I. Life and Works.--A general view--Birth, education, natural disposition--Life at Malvern--His unsettled state of mind--Curiosities and failures--Life in London--Chantries--Disease of the will--Religious doubts--The faith of the simple--His book a place of refuge for him 374

II. Analysis of the Visions.--The pilgrims of Langland and the pilgrims of Chaucer--The road to Canterbury and the way to Truth--Lady Meed; her betrothal, her trial--Speech of Reason--The hero of the work, Piers the Plowman--A declaration of duties--Sermons--The siege of hell--The end of life 382

III. Political Society and Religious Society.--Comparison with Chaucer--Langland's crowds--Langland an insular and a parliamentarian--The "Visions" and the "Rolls of Parliament" agree on nearly all points--Langland at one with the Commons--Organisation of the State--Reforms--Relations with France, with the Pope--Religious buyers and sellers--The ideal of Langland 388

IV. Art and Aim.--Duplication of his personality--"Nuit de Decembre"--Sincerity--Incoherences--Scene-shifting--Joys forbidden and allowed--A motto for Langland--His language, vocabulary, dialect, versification--Popularity of the work--Fourteenth and fifteenth centuries--Time of the Reformation 394