Part 10

Hyt fell thus, by fortune, þe fairest of þe yere Was past to the point of the pale wintur. 100 Heruest, with the heite and the high sun, Was comyn into colde, with a course low. Trees, thurgh tempestes, tynde hade þere leues, And briddes abatid of hor brem songe; The wynde of the west wackenet aboue, 105 Blowyng full bremly o the brode ythes; The clere aire ouercast with cloudys full thicke, With mystes full merke mynget with showres. Flodes were felle thurgh fallyng of rayne, And wintur vp wacknet with his wete aire. 110 The gret nauy of the Grekes and the gay kynges Were put in a purpos to pas fro the toune. Sore longit þo lordis hor londys to se, And dissiret full depely, doutyng no wedur. Þai counted no course of the cold stormys, 115 Ne the perellis to passe of the pale windes. Hit happit hom full hard in a hondqwile, And mony of þo mighty to misse of hor purpos. Thus tho lordes in hor longyng laghton þe watur, Shotton into ship mong shene knightes, 120 With the tresowre of þe toune þai token before, Relikes full rife, and miche ranke godes. Clere was the course of the cold flodis, And the firmament faire, as fell for the wintur. Thai past on the pale se, puld vp hor sailes, 125 Hadyn bir at þere backe, and the bonke leuyt. Foure dayes bydene, and hor du nyghtis, Ful soundly þai sailed with seasonable windes. The fyft day fuersly fell at the none, Sodonly the softe winde vnsoberly blew; 130 A myste and a merkenes myngit togedur; A thoner and a thicke rayne þrublet in the skewes, With an ugsom noise, noy for to here; All flasshet in a fire the firmament ouer; Was no light but a laite þat launchit aboue: 135 Hit skirmyt in the skewes with a skyre low, Thurgh the claterand clowdes clos to the heuyn, As the welkyn shuld walt for wodenes of hete; With blastes full bigge of the breme wyndes, Walt vp the waghes vpon wan hilles. 140 Stith was the storme, stird all the shippes, Hoppit on hegh with heste of the flodes. The sea was unsober, sondrit the nauy, Walt ouer waghes, and no way held, Depertid the pepull, pyne to behold, 145 In costes vnkowthe; cut down þere sailes, Ropis al torochit, rent vp the hacches, Topcastell ouerturnyt, takelles were lost. The night come onone, noye was the more! All the company cleane of the kyng Telamon, 150 With þere shippes full shene, and þe shire godis, Were brent in the bre with the breme lowe Of the leymonde laite þat launchit fro heuyn, And euyn drownet in the depe, dukes and other! Oelius Aiax, as aunter befelle, 155 Was stad in the storme with the stith windes, With his shippes full shene and the shire godes. Thrifty and þriuaund, thretty and two There were brent on the buerne with the breme low, And all the freikes in the flode floterand aboue. 160 Hymseluyn in the sea sonkyn belyue, Swalprit and swam with swyngyng of armys. Ȝet he launchet to londe, and his lyf hade, Bare of his body, bretfull of water, In the slober and the sluche slongyn to londe; 165 There he lay, if hym list, the long night ouer, Till the derke was done, and the day sprang; Þare sum of his sort, þat soght were to lond And than wonen of waghes, with wo as þai might, Laited þere lord on the laund-syde, 170 If hit fell h_y_m by fortune the flodes to passe. Þan found þai the freike in the fome lye, And comford hym kyndly, as þere kyd lord; With worchip and wordes wan hym to fote. Bothe failet hym the fode and the fyne clothes. 175 Thus þere goddes with gremy with þe Grekes fore, Mighty Myner a, of malis full grete, For Telamon, in tene, tid for to pull Cassandra the clene out of hir cloise temple. Thus hit fell hom by fortune of a foule ende, 180 For greuyng þere goddes in hor gret yre. Oftsythes men sayn, and sene is of olde, Þat all a company is cumbrit for a cursed shrewe.

[Foot-note: 168-9 _transposed in MS._]

[Foot-note: 171 hym] hom _MS._]

VIII

PIERS PLOWMAN

(1362-1400)

BY WILLIAM LANGLAND

Recent criticism of _Piers Plowman_ has done more to weaken the hold of opinions once generally accepted than to replace them by others better founded. It is still most probable that 'Long Will', who is more than once mentioned in the text as the poet, was William Langland. The earliest external evidence of his home and parentage is given in a fifteenth-century note in MS. Dublin D 4. 1, of which both the matter and the vile Latinity bear the stamp of genuineness: 'Memorandum quod Stacy de Rokayle, pater Willielmi de Langlond, qui Stacius fuit generosus, et morabatur in Schiptone under Whicwode, tenens domini le Spenser in comitatu Oxon., qui praedictus Willielmus fecit librum qui vocatur Perys Ploughman.' Shipton-under-Wychwood is near Burford in Oxfordshire. The poem shows familiarity with the Malvern Hills and the streets of London; but it is hard to say how much is fact and how much is fiction in the references to Long Will in the text itself, more especially the description of his London life added as the Sixth Passus in Version C, and reproduced here as the second extract.

Since Skeat's edition for the Early English Text Society, the many manuscripts have been grouped into three main types. The shortest, or A-text, appears from internal evidence to have been written about 1362. The B-text (about 1377) has the most compact manuscript tradition. It is distinguished by considerable additions throughout, and by the reconstruction and expansion of the visions of Dowel, Dobet, Dobest, which make up the second half of the poem. The C-text, the latest and fullest form, appears to have been completed in the last decade of the fourteenth century.

Until recently it has been assumed that these three versions represent progressive revisions by the author. But Professor Manly has found considerable support for his view that more than one writer—perhaps as many as five—had a share in the work. For the present, judgement on this question, and on the intricate problem of the relations of the different versions, is suspended until the results of a complete re-examination of all the MSS. are available. It would not be surprising to find that even when this necessary work is done differences of opinion on the larger questions remain as acute as ever.

It is impossible in short space to give an outline of the whole work, which describes no less than eleven visions. The structure is loose, and allegory is developed or dropped with disconcerting abruptness, for the writer does not curb his vigorous imagination in the interests of formal correctness.

The first part is the best known. On a May morning the poet falls asleep on the Malvern Hills and sees a 'Field full of Folk', where all classes of men are busy about their occupations, more particularly the nefarious occupations that engage the attention of the moralist. Holy Church explains that a high tower in the Field is the home of Truth; and that a 'deep dale' is the Castle of Care, where Wrong dwells with the wicked. She points out Falseness, who is about to marry Lady Meed (i.e. Reward, whether deserved reward or bribe). Lady Meed and her company are haled before the King, who, with Reason and Conscience as his guides, decides her case, and upholds the plea of Peace against Wrong.

The second vision is prefaced (in the C-text only) by the passage printed as the second selection. The poet falls asleep again, and sees Conscience preaching to the people in the Field. Representatives of the Seven Deadly Sins are vividly described. They are brought to penitence, and all set out in search of Truth. But no one knows the way. A palmer who wears the trophies of many pilgrimages to distant saints is puzzled by their inquiries, for he has never heard of pilgrims seeking Truth. Then Peter the Plowman comes forward and explains the way in allegorical terms. Here the first extract begins. The second vision closes with a general pardon given by Truth to Piers Plowman in this simple form:

Do wel, and haue wel, and God shal haue þi sowle; And do yuel, and haue yuel, hope þow non other But after þi ded-day þe Deuel shal haue þi sowle.

The several visions of the second part make up the lives of Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest. Piers Plowman is there identified with Christ, and the poem ends with Conscience, almost overcome by sin, setting out resolutely in search of Piers.

First impressions of mediaeval life are usually coloured by the courtly romances of Malory and his later refiners. Chaucer brings us down to reality, but his people belong to a prosperous middle-class world, on holiday and in holiday mood. _Piers Plowman_ stands alone as a revelation of the ignorance and misery of the lower classes, whose multiplied grievances came to a head in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. It must not be supposed that Langland idealized the labourers. Their indolence and improvidence are exposed as unsparingly as the vices of the rich; and Piers himself is not so much a representative of the English workman in the fourteenth century as a character drawn straight from the Gospels. Still, such an eager plea for humbleness, simplicity, and honest labour, could not fail to encourage the political hopes of the poor, and we see in John Ball's letter (p. 160) that 'Piers Plowman' had become a catchword among them. The poet himself rather deprecates political action. His satire is directed against the general slackening of the bonds of duty that marked the last years of an outworn system of society. For the remedy of abuses he appeals not to one class but to all: king, nobles, clergy, and workers must model their lives on the pattern of the Gospels.

A. FROM THE B-TEXT, PASSUS VI.

Bodleian MS. Laud 581 (about 1400).