Warner, Lawrence. Wellesley, Mary. Accessed 23 June Barons and burgesses and bondmen also I saw in this assemblage, as you shall hear later; Bakers and brewers and butchers aplenty, Weavers of wool and weavers of linen, Tailors, tinkers, tax-collectors in markets, Masons, miners, many other craftsmen. Good geese and pork! Might I do as thou sayest and be sinless? For I wrote rhymes of those men as Reason taught me. For as I came by Conscience I met with Reason, In a hot harvest time when I had my health, And limbs to labor with, and loved good living, And to do no deed but to drink and sleep.
Or have a horn and be a hedge-guard and lie outdoors at night, And keep my corn in my field from cattle and thieves? Or cut cloth or shoe-leather, or keep sheep and cattle, Mend hedges, or harrow, or herd pigs or geese, Or any other kind of craft that the commons needs, So that you might be of benefit to your bread-providers?
For you seem an idle man, A spendthrift who thrives on spending, and throws time away. Or else you get what food men give you going door to door, Or beg like a fraud on Fridays! He shall reward every man according to his works. Or are you perhaps lame in your legs or other limbs of your body, Or maimed through some misadventure, so that you might be excused? With Do-well, the representative of those who live according to truth in honest wedlock, are contrasted the people who live in lust and wickedness, the descendants of the murderer Cain, who was begotten by Adam in an evil hour.
Passus X. Wit has a wife named lady Study, who is angry that her spouse should lay open his high truths to those who are uninitiated—it is no better than "throwing pearls to swine, which would rather have hawes. This he does with so much meekness and humility, that the wrath of dame Study is appeased, and she sends him to Clergy, with a token of recommendation from herself.
Clergy receives the pilgrim, and entertains him with a long declamation on the character of Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best, and on the corruptions of the church and the monkish orders, in the course of which is uttered the remarkable prophecy of the king who was to "confess and beat" the monks, and give them an "incurable knock," which was after less than two centuries so exactly fulfilled in the dissolution of the monasteries.
The wanderer confesses himself "little the wiser" for Clergy's lecture, and by his pertness of reply merits a reproof from Scripture. Passus XI. In another vision the dreamer is exposed to the seductions of Fortune, whose two fair damsels, Concupiscentia-carnis and Covetousness-of-the-Eyes, persuade him to enjoy the present moment, and lead him entirely from his previous pursuit.
Then Kynde, or Nature, came and carried him to a mountain, which represented the world, and there showed him how all other animals but man followed Reason; and Imaginative came after, and told him that all his present doubt and anxiety had been brought upon him for contending with Reason and suffering himself to be led astray by Fortune.
Passus XII. The whole of the next section of the poem is occupied with a long exhortation by Imaginative, concerning God's chastisements, the merits of Charity and Mercy, the greater responsibility before God of those who are learned and cannot sin ignorantly, the difficulty for the rich man to enter heaven. Passus XIII. In another vision, Conscience meets with the dreamer, and takes him to dine with Clergy. Patience comes to the feast in beggar's weeds, but is seated in the most honourable place at the table.
A doctor of the church is of the party, and distinguishes himself by his gluttony; and by discussing theological questions after dinner. At length Conscience and Patience go on a pilgrimage. In their way they meet with a minstrel, named Activa Vita, or Haukyn the Active-man, with a coat covered with spots of dirt, whom they question on his mode of life.
Passus XIV. Haukyn the Active-man, the representative of that class of people who neglect their souls for their worldly affairs, excuses the dirtiness of his apparel on the ground that he has none to change, and that he has too many occupations to allow him time to have it cleaned.
Conscience and Patience teach him a method to clean his coat, inform him where charity is to be found, and recommend patient poverty to him, showing him the advantage of poverty over riches. Haukyn's repentance and lamentation for the neglect of his duties awake the dreamer. Passus XV. Amid his anxiety to know something more certain of Do-well, the dreamer has another vision, in which Soul appears to him, and enters into a long relation of the corruptions and negligence of the clergy.
Passus XVI. Soul finally sends him to Piers the Ploughman, who possesses the garden in which the tree of Charity grows, and which is rented under him by Free-will. Piers explains to him the nature of the tree, and of the props which support it; and shakes down some of the fruit for him.
The allegory then changes, and we are introduced to the birth and passion of the Saviour, as arising out of the fruit of Charity. At this moment the dreamer awakes, and therewith loses sight of Piers the Ploughman; in his anxiety to find Piers, he meets with Faith, in the garb of Abraham, who was in search of God, now incarnate, and who waited for his passion in order to be delivered from hell.
Passus XVII. Then comes Spes, or Hope, who also was in search of the knight that was to vanquish the evil one. As they go along the way towards Jerusalem to the "justes," discoursing on the obligations of the old and new law and the abrogation of the former, they meet with a man who had been left helpless by thieves, wounded and naked: Faith and Hope passed by without helping him, but the Samaritan, who was also riding to the "justes," descended from his horse, bound his wounds, and deposited him in an inn at the grange named Lex Christi.
The Samaritan gives the dreamer a singular explanation of the mysteries of the Trinity; and, after having represented to him the heinousness of sins against the different persons, and the necessity of making reparation, he pursues his way to Jerusalem.
The vision which forms the eighteenth section or passus , and in which the character of Piers the Ploughman is identified with that of the Saviour, is entirely occupied with an allegorical description of Christ's Passion, and his descent into Hell. Passus XIX. In the next section the history of Christ's passion and victory, and his figurative representative Piers the Ploughman, is continued. Grace, through Piers the Ploughman, descends upon the people, and lays the foundation of the Church, which is cultivated by Piers with his four oxen the four Evangelists.
Piers is attacked by Pride, who gathers a great host to assail the Church. Conscience advises the people who follow Piers the Church , to take shelter in the stronghold of Unity, and make preparations for their defence. By the counsel of Kind-wit and Conscience they dig a great ditch around Unity. The measures of Surety are embarrassed by the unreasonable opposition of some members or parts of the community, who oppose Pier's doctrine of restitution—the brewer will not repent of the tricks which he puts on his customers, the vicar adheres to his simony, the lord will continue to oppress his tenants, and the king will not be restrained by his laws.
Passus XX. In the last section of the poem, the dreamer, after having been accosted by Need, who preaches on the virtues of temperance, has a vision of Antichrist, who comes to attack the Castle of Unity.
It must be remembered that at this period many people supposed that Antichrist was already on the earth, and that he was the cause of all the evils with which mankind was then visited, so that this last notion brought the allegory home to people's feelings. The standard-bearer of Antichrist was Pride. Conscience called Kynde, or Nature, to his aid, who brought an army of diseases and pestilences. Death, one of his chief soldiers, made terrible havoc. At length Kynde ceased his ravages; and a horde of enemies immediately arose against Conscience, such as Fortune, Lechery, Covetousness, Simony.
Life, with his mistress Fortune, indulged in all kinds of excess, until he was visited by Age and Despair, who treated him very roughly. The dreamer, forsaken by Fortune, and participating in the misfortunes of Life, by the advice of Kynde takes shelter with Conscience in the castle of Unity, which is threatened by an army of priests and monks.
At length this stronghold is endangered by the entrance of Flattery, who is admitted in the disguise of a Physician. Conscience, unable to retain possession, embarks upon another pilgrimage in search of Piers the Ploughman, and the dreamer awakes.
This is the conclusion of the poem. Whitaker thought that it should have had a more consoling end; but it must be remembered that the writer of Piers Ploughman designed to paint the world as it was, and to describe the numerous obstacles which lay in the way of the improvement and amelioration of mankind when he wrote. While one member of the monastic order was thus contributing by his satirical pen towards producing a reform among his countrymen, another monk was beginning to preach in a still bolder manner against the popish system.
This was John Wycliffe, under whom the despised lollards became an important sect. This attempt at religious reformation only formed part of the great movement of the fourteenth century, which soon afterwards broke out in the popular commotions of the reign of Richard II. The writer of Piers Ploughman was neither a sower of sedition, nor one who would be characterised by his contemporaries as a heretic.
The doctrines inculcated throughout the book are so far from democratic, that he constantly preaches the Christian doctrine of obedience to rulers. Yet its tendency to debase the great, and to raise the commons in public consideration, must have rendered it popular among the latter: and, although no single important doctrine of the popish religion is attacked, yet the unsparing manner in which the vices and corruptions of the church are laid open, must have helped in no small degree the cause of the Reformation.
Of the ancient popularity of Piers Ploughman we have a proof in the great number of copies which still exist, most of them written in the latter part of the fourteenth century; and the circumstance that the manuscripts are seldom executed in a superior style of writing, and scarcely ever ornamented with painted initial letters, may perhaps be taken as a proof that they were not written for the higher classes of society.
From the time when it was published, the name of Piers Ploughman became a favourite among the popular reformers. In this latter poem, which was undoubtedly written by a Wycliffite, Piers Ploughman is no longer an allegorical personage—he is the simple representative of the peasant rising up to judge and act for himself—the English sans-culotte of the fourteenth century, if we may be allowed the comparison.
When it was written, a period of great excitement had passed since the age of Langlande, the reputed author of the Vision—a period characterised by the turbulence of the peasantry—which had witnessed in France the fearful insurrection of the Jacquerie , and in England the rebellion of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw.
In Piers Ploughman's Creed it is the church simply, and not the state, which is the object of attack. The clergy—and more particularly the monks—are accused of having falsified religion, and of being actuated solely by worldly passions—pride, covetousness, self-love. The writer, placing himself in the position of one who has just learnt the first grounds of religious knowledge, is anxious to find a person capable of instructing him in his creed, and with this object he addresses himself to the different orders of friars.
He applies first to the Minorites, who abuse the Carmelites, and pride themselves in their own holiness. Disgusted with their jealousies and self-sufficiency, the inquirer seeks the Preachers, or Dominicans; amid their stately buildings, and under their sleek and well filled skins, he finds the same want of Christian charity: their pride drives him to the order of St. The Austin Friars, as well as the Carmelites, will only instruct him for money, and, shocked at their covetousness, he continues his wanderings, until at last he meets with a poor Ploughman, in whom he finds the charity and knowledge after which he has been seeking.
The Ploughman enters into a bitter attack on the vices of all the four orders of friars: he describes their spirit of persecution, exemplified in the case of Wycliffe and others, and their simony; speaks of Wycliffe and Walter Brute as preachers of the truth; and finishes by teaching the inquirer his simple creed.
The Creed of Piers Ploughman was written by one who approved the opinions of Wycliffe, and it seems to have been carefully proscribed. There does not appear to exist any manuscript older than the first printed edition. The great popularity of the Vision of Piers Ploughman in the fourteenth century, and its political influence, are proved by another close imitation, which was composed immediately after the capture, and previous to the deposition, of king Richard II.
This poem also appears to have been proscribed, and we have only a fragment left, which was printed from an unique manuscript for the Camden Society. It also is composed in alliterative verse, and its meaning is rendered obscure by a confused allegorical style.
It was evidently written towards the Welsh Border, perhaps at Bristol, which is mentioned in the opening lines; and it appears to have been intended as a continuation of, or as a sequel to, Piers Ploughman, which it immediately follows in the only manuscript in which it is preserved.
Another early poem, of which the Ploughman is the hero, was inserted in the works of Chaucer under the title of the Ploughman's Tale.
This, like the Creed, is free from allegory; and it differs from the others also in being written in rhyme, and not in alliterative verse.
The Ploughman's Tale was probably written in the earlier half of the fifteenth century. Its versification has little merit; and there appears to be no good reason for inserting it among the Canterbury Tales. The vision of Piers Ploughman appears to have continued to enjoy a wide popularity down to the middle of the fifteenth century. We hear nothing of it from that period to the middle of the sixteenth, when it was printed by the reformers, and received with so much favour, that no less than three editions, or rather three impressions, are said to have been sold in the course of one year.
Another edition was printed at the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and it appears to have been much read in the latter part of the sixteenth century, and even at the beginning of the seventeenth. The name of Piers Ploughman is not uncommon in the political tracts of that period. The Poem of Piers Ploughman is peculiarly a national work. It is the most remarkable monument of the public spirit of our forefathers in the middle, or, as they are often termed, dark ages.
It is a pure specimen of the English language at a period when it had sustained few of the corruptions which have disfigured it since we have had writers of "Grammars;" and in it we may study with advantage many of the difficulties of the language which these writers have misunderstood.
It is, moreover, the finest example left of the kind of versification which was purely English, inasmuch as it had been the only one in use among our Anglo-Saxon progenitors, in common with the other people of the North. To many readers it will be perhaps necessary to explain that rhyming verse was not in use among the Anglo-Saxons.
In place of rhyme, they had a system of verse of which the characteristic was a very regular alliteration , so arranged that, in every couplet, there should be two principal words in the first line beginning with the same letter, which letter must also be the initial of the first word on which the stress of the voice falls in the second line. There has, as yet, been discovered no system of foot-measure in Anglo-Saxon verse, but the common metre consists apparently in having two rises and two falls of the voice in each line.
These characteristics are accurately preserved in the verse of Piers Ploughman; and the measure appears to be the same, if we make allowance for the change of the slow and impressive pronunciation of the Anglo-Saxon for the quicker pronunciation of Middle English, which therefore required a greater number of syllables to fill up the same space of time.
We can trace the history of alliterative verse in England with tolerable certainty. The Anglo-Normans first brought in rhymes, which they employed in their own poetry.
The adoption of this new system into the English language was gradual, but it appears to have commenced in the first half of the twelfth century. It was, at first, mixed with alliterative couplets: that is, in the same poem were used sometimes rhyming couplets, which were suddenly changed for alliterative couplets, and then, after awhile, rhyme was again brought in, and so on. Of this kind of poetry we have four very remarkable examples, the Proverbs of King Alfred , a poem which was certainly in existence in the first half of the twelfth century; [12] the Early English Bestiary ; [13] the Poem on the Debate between the Body and the Soul ; [14] and the grand work of Layamon.
This kind of poetry appears to have been common until the middle of the thirteenth century; after which period we only find alliteration in songs, not used in simple alliterative couplets, but mixed up in the same lines with rhyme in an irregular and playful manner.
In this point of view, the poem of Piers Ploughman becomes still more worthy of attention as a document of contemporary literary history. The old alliterative verse came so much into fashion at this period that it was adopted for the composition of long romances, of which several still remain.
The Anglo-Saxons, who used this kind of verse only, wrote their poetry invariably as prose. But the scribe was in the habit of indicating the division of the lines by a dot. Among modern scholars a question has arisen as to the propriety of printing the alliterative couplet in two short lines, or in one long one.
It appears to me that the mode in which the dot is used in the manuscripts decides the question in favour of the short lines. The manner in which the alliterative couplet is intermixed with the rhyming couplet in the poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which also are written in the manuscripts in the same form as prose , seems to me a strong confirmation of this opinion; at least in these last-mentioned cases, the verse must have been considered as written in short lines.
As the scribes quitted the custom of writing poetry in their manuscripts as prose, with the divisions of lines indicated by dots, to adopt that of arranging them in lines as we do at present, these short lines were found very inconvenient because they were obliged either to waste a great deal of parchment, or to write in several narrow columns. To remedy this, they fell perhaps gradually into the custom of writing the two parts of the alliterative couplet in one line, always, however, marking the division by a dot.
They followed the same method with the shorter rhyming lines, as is the case with the old English Metrical Romance of Horn in a manuscript in the Harleian Collection. In the fifteenth century the meaning of this dot appears to have been forgotten, and the system of alliteration so far misunderstood, that the writers thought it only necessary to have at least three alliterative words in a long line, without any consideration of their position in the line.
I say at least , because they not unfrequently inserted four or five alliterative words in the same line, which would certainly have been considered a defect in the earlier writers. It is my opinion, that a modern editor is wrong in printing the verses of Piers Ploughman in long lines, as they stand in the manuscripts, unless he profess to give them as a fac-simile of the manuscripts themselves, or he plead the same excuse of convenience from the shape of his book.
In either case, he must carefully preserve the dots of separation in the middle of the lines, which are more inconvenient than the length of the lines, because they interfere with the punctuation of the modern editor.
If, as appears to be the case, these dots are merely marks to indicate the division of the couplet, their purpose is much better served by printing the lines in couplets. The construction of the earlier Anglo-Saxon verse, the analogy of the mixed rhyming and alliterative verses of the semi-Saxon poems, and the use of these dots in the middle of the lines in the manuscripts of Piers Ploughman, appear to me convincing proofs that it ought to be printed so.
I think moreover that the alliterative verse reads much more harmoniously in the short couplets than in the long lines. The manuscripts of the Vision of Piers Ploughman are extremely numerous both in public and in private collections. There are at least eight in the British Museum: there are ten or twelve in the Cambridge Libraries; and they are not less numerous at Oxford.
As might be expected in a popular work like this, the manuscripts are in general full of variations; but there are two classes of manuscripts which give two texts that are widely different from each other, those variations commencing even with the first lines of the poem. One of these texts, which was adopted in the early printed editions, is given in the present volumes; the other text was selected for publication by Dr.
The following extract, comprising the first lines of the poem, [19] will show how each text begins, and will enable those who possess manuscripts of Piers Ploughman to ascertain at once to which text they belong :—. Besides such variations as appear in the foregoing specimen, there are in the second text many considerable additions, omissions, and transpositions. It would not be easy to account for the existence of two texts differing so much; but it is my impression that the first was the one published by the author, and that the variations were made by some other person, who was perhaps induced by his own political sentiments to modify passages, and was gradually led on to publish a revision of the whole.
It is certain that in some parts of Text II. We may give as an example of this, the statement of the popular opinion of the origin and purpose of kingly government :—. Nobody, I think, can deny that in this instance the doctrine is stated far more distinctly and far more boldly in the first text than in the second. In general the first text is the best, whether we look at the mode in which the sentiments are stated, or at the poetry and language. As far as I have been able to examine the remaining manuscripts of Piers Ploughman, at London and in the Universities, I think that nearly two-thirds of those which remain are of the fourteenth century; and the greater number, particularly of those written in the fourteenth century, present what I have distinguished as the first text, that given in the present volumes.
I am by no means inclined to coincide in the reasons which led Dr. Whitaker to prefer the second text; if I were disposed to admit, as barely possible the supposition is quite a gratuitous one , "that the first edition of this work appeared when its author was a young man, and that he lived and continued in the habit of transcribing to extreme old age" Pref. The first printed edition of the Vision was that of Robert Crowley, in ; and it was so favourably received, that there is reason for believing that no less than three editions or rather three impressions [20] were sold in the course of the year.
It is clear that Crowley had obtained an excellent manuscript; the printer has changed the orthography at will, and has evidently altered a word at times, but on the whole this printed text differs very little from the one we now publish. Three years after the appearance of the Vision, another printer, Reynold Wolfe, published the first edition of the Creed, in the same form as Crowley's edition of the Vision.
After the stormy reign of Mary was past, in the beginning of that of Elizabeth, the call for a new edition, and perhaps the destruction of many copies of the old one, led the well-known printer Owen Rogers to reprint the Vision and the Creed together.
It was evidently much read during the reign of Elizabeth, and is not unfrequently alluded to by the writers of that age. No other edition of this popular poem appeared, until it was published by Dr. Whitaker, in , [23] from a manuscript then in the possession of Mr. Heber, [24] which contained the second text, written in a rather broad provincial dialect.
This edition was printed in black-letter, in a very large and expensive form. In , a reprint of the old edition of the Creed was published in the same form, as a companion to the Vision. It is not generally known that Dr. Whitaker projected an edition of the same text and paraphrase which are given in his 4to edition, in 8vo, with Roman type instead of black-letter.
After a few sheets had been composed, the design was abandoned, as it is said, in favour of the larger form. A copy of the proof sheets, formerly belonging to Mr. Haslewood, is now in the possession of Sir Frederick Madden. I am told that a rival edition was also begun, but not persevered in.
An attempt at a modernization, or rather a translation, of Piers Ploughman, was made in the earlier years of the present century, but only a few specimens appear to have been executed.
The following lines, which possess some merit though not very literal or correct , are the modern version the author proposed to give of ll.
They were communicated to me by Sir Henry Ellis. It will be necessary, in conclusion, to say a few words on the edition now offered to the public. Without taking into consideration the inaccuracies and imperfections of Whitaker's edition, its inconvenient size and high price made it altogether inaccessible to the general reader; and there appeared to be a wish for one in a more convenient and less expensive form. At the same time it was desired that a good text of a work so important for the history of our language and literature should be selected.
Whitaker was not well qualified for this undertaking; he also laboured under many disadvantages; he had access to only three manuscripts, and those not very good ones; and he has not chosen the best text even of those. Unless he had some reason to believe that the book was originally written in a particular dialect, he ought to have given a preference to that among the oldest manuscripts which presents the purest language; but we cannot allow that manuscript to be chosen on a ground so capricious as "that the orthography and dialect in which it is written approach very near to that semi-Saxon jargon in the midst of which the editor was brought up, and which he continues to hear daily spoken on the confines of Lancashire, and the West Riding of the county of York.
This could not have been the language employed by a monk of Malvern. The present editor has endeavoured, in the leisure moments which he has been able to snatch from other employments, to supply the deficiency as well, and in as unassuming manner, as he could.
He has chosen for his text a manuscript belonging to the valuable library of Trinity College, Cambridge where its shelf-mark is B. It is a fine folio manuscript, on vellum, written in a large hand, undoubtedly contemporary with the author of the poem, and in remarkably pure English, with ornamented initial letters.
His object has been to give the poem as popular a form as is consistent with philological correctness. He has added a few notes which occurred to him in the course of editing the text, and which he hopes may render the meaning and allusions sometimes clearer to the general reader, for whom more especially they are intended.
They might have been enlarged and rendered more complete, if he had been master of sufficient leisure to enable him to undertake extensive researches. But there are allusions, as well as words, in both poems to which it would be difficult at present to give any certain explanation.
It has been thought advisable to give in the notes the important variations of the second text, from Dr. Whitaker's edition; and a few readings are added from a second manuscript in Trinity College Library R. The editor has hoped to add to the utility of the book by a copious glossary. He has been unwillingly obliged to leave a few words without explanation; all our early alliterative poetry abounds in difficult words. In this point he has to acknowledge the kind assistance of Sir Frederick Madden, whom no person equals in profound knowledge of English glossography, and than whom no one is more generous to advise and assist those who are in need of his aid.
To Sir Henry Ellis, who kindly lent him his own manuscript notes on Piers Ploughman, the editor also owes his grateful acknowledgments; and he regrets that at the time he received them the notes were already so far printed as to hinder him from making as much use of them as he could have wished. As I a sheep weere,. In habite as an heremite. Trieliche y-maked,. And wonnen that wastours. With glotonye destruyeth. Giltles , I leeve. Tho Roberdes knaves;.
For to seken seint Jame,. Wenten to Walsyngham,. Alle the foure ordres,. But holy chirche and hii. Of falshede, of fastynge,. He bouched hem with his brevet,. Sith the pestilence tyme,. Sitten and demen;. Might of the communes. With that ran ther a route. And poundes the lawe;. Til moneie be shewed. Taillours and tynkers,. Trewely tolden the same,. Of the Ryn and of the Rochel,. And seve sithes more.
And yaf yow fyve wittes,. Inebriamus eum vino, dormiamusque. And sithen on an eller. Lerned it in hevene;. Ponam pedem in aquilone, et similis ero altissimo. Somme in the eyr , somme in erthe,. Eadem mensura qua mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis.
Fides sine operibus mortua est, etc. Date, et dabitur vobis ,. Were fretted with gold wyr,. Qualis pater talis filius. Bonus arbor bonum fructum facit.
Domine, quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo, etc. Unto a mansed sherewe,. On bothe two sides,. Of Bokyngham shire,. For Dignus est operarius. With floryns ynowe,. To wenden with hem to Westmynstre. A moton of golde. Nesciat sinistra quid faciat dextra. And rentes hem biggen,. Be ye ful certeyne. Ignis devorabit tabernacula eorum. Youre fader she felled. Provisours it knoweth;. And love-daies maketh,. To Caleis to selle,. Domine, quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo? Qui ingreditur sine macula et operatur justitiam.
Qui pecuniam suam non dedit ad. In quorum manibus iniquitates. Amen, Amen, recipiebant mercede suam. Conflabunt gladios suos in vomeres, etc.
Non levabit gens contra gentem. Honorem adquiret qui dat munera, etc. How thow lernest the peple,. Contritio et infelicitas in viis eorum,. And bitwene hymself and his sone. And thanne com Pees into parlement,. How Wrong ayeins his wille. He shal reste in my stokkes;. As seynt Beneyt hem bad,.
That no man go to Galis. He preved that thise pestilences. On Saterday at even. And fecche Felice hom. This allegorical work is made up of an intricate series of enmeshed dream visions. The poem circulated in three main versions, called the A, B, and C Texts. Version A is the earliest and substantially shorter than the other two, whereas B presents the text in its socially most radical form. Having seen what his poem had helped to unleash in , Langland tempered its radicalism in the C Text, which, as Steven Justice has demonstrated , shows signs of self-censorship.
Existing evidence suggests that the rebels knew only the A Text. Letters allegedly found on the bodies of some Kentish insurgents included paraphrases from this early version of Piers Plowman. In part, because the protagonist of the poem, the dreamer, comes to be called 'Will', and readers easily take him as a stand-in for the poet. But there is other evidence, too: one 'Stacy de Rokayle' was described as 'pater willielmi de Langlond' father of William Langland according to a note inscribed at the end of a manuscript copied in 'willielmus fecit librum qui vocatur Perys ploughman', it continues William made the book called Piers Plowman.
And a single line in one of the versions reads nicely as a reverse acrostic: ''I have lyved in londe', quod I, 'my name is long wille'' which, backwards, reads 'wille long londe'. Later readers often glossed this line Nomen auctoris. William Langland it is, then, for most modern readers, if only because they need something other than 'the Piers Plowman -poet' as its author.
A biography has built up upon this personage, based on the waking episodes of the poem a cleric in minor orders, had a wife and child, moved from Malvern to London and on the circumstances of the poem's production it is written in a South-West Midlands dialect, the poet knew French, etc.
And yet, is this 'Will' an accurate representation of the author? Considering the convention whereby authors of this period inscribed versions of themselves into their poems Chaucer being the most well-known instance , is it not possible that the poet was trying it on, as it were?
So argues one recent critic who pushes the logic of that inscription regarding William Langland as son of Stacy de Rokayle to its limit. In , one 'William de la Rokele, parson of Esthorp' yielded to his kinsman John his claim to over acres of land, including some seven houses.
How far from the world conjured by the poem are readers willing to place that world's poet?
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