CHAP. 3] PIERS PLOWMAN come to have doubts as to the use of writing and learning. Solomon, the example of the wise and just ruler; Aristotle, greatest of scholars who wrought better? And yet "All Holy Church holds them to be in Hell." It is better, so he has come to think, to be one of the ignorant who " pierce with a Paternoster the palace of Heaven." With these words the earlier version breaks off. The poet has found no solution of his quest. He is faced with the same problem which so long held Dante hungering, and for which Dante found on earth no solution.' Where is the justice which condemns a man even though he have led a life blameless in act and word? It was because he was overwhelmed with the difficulties of his task that William left it unfinished, and was tempted by "lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes," and that "pride of life" which makes a man think lightly of learning. But many years later, in old age and poverty, he returned to his earlier interests. And, his spiritual difficulties at last solved, he completed the great poem which he had planned long before. Such at any rate is the account which the poet himself gives of how and why he had so long delayed the completion of his task; and though it may be disputed how far the poet's confessions are to be interpreted as strictly autobiographical, we have numerous manuscripts extant to testify that some time after 1362 the work was abandoned unfinished, and some sixteen manuscripts to show that it was taken up again about 1377. B-Version.-The B-Version consists of 21 sections. In this revised version the plan of Part I. is untouched. There are a fair number of additions, taken from the poet's larger experience of men and manners and further illustrative of his theme. Best known among these additions is of course the celebrated political fable of the rats and mice and the cat. The theme of Part I. is the world of realities, imperfect humanity which has its "worship in this world." In this part the dreamer rests and sees the real life pass before him. Outline of the Poem: The B-Recension of A.-Part I. " The Field of Folk." Prologue. The poet, after wandering wide, rests on Malvern Hills and In the eastern sky is a wondrous sleeps. And in his dream he is in a wilderness. tower, and beneath it a deep dale with a dreadful dungeon; while between is a "fair field of folk," of all manner of men going about their daily work. In crisp phrase the poet draws a vivid picture of 14th-century life, good and bad. He shows us the ploughman and the merchant, the lawyer and the cook, and many other crafts. He shows us the king's position in the state: "Then came there a king. Knighthood him led. Might of the people made him to reign." But his most vigorous work is his portrait of professional men of religion, slack and dishonest, forsakers of Charity (Love) for profit. 1 Paradiso, xix. 25, etc.; cf. Purgatorio, iii. 43. Passus I. A "lovely lady," Holy Church, appears and expounds the meaning of the vision, and its lesson. The tower is the abode of Truth, or God the Father; and God is Love. The dungeon is the abode of Wrong, or the Devil, the adversary of Truth and Love. And the lesson of Holy Church is that " When all treasures are tried, Truth is the best," and that "Love is the leech (physician) of life, and next Our Lord self, And also the graith gate (straight path) that goeth into Heaven." Passus II, III, and IV. Holy Church shows him the vision of "Meede." 'Meede," the maiden, is by the scheming of Flattery, Liar, Guile, and their company, to be given in marriage to Falsehood. Flattery leads forth the bride, the contract is witnessed, and "In the date of the Devil this deed is assealed, By sight of Sir Simony and Civil's leave." But Theology protests that Meede is of good family and should be wedded to Truth himself, and not to a bastard of Beelzebub. Let her be taken to London for the law to decide the case. Meede is willing, and Falsehood and his supporters also consent, confident of their skill in bribery and subornation. Accordingly the party sets out for Westminster. Meantime Conscience is informed of the scheme and reports to the king, who orders the arrest of Falsehood and Flattery and the punishment of their supporters. The culprits are warned and make their escape. Guile finds refuge among tradesmen. Liar finds no ready welcome, "Till pardoners had pity and pulled him into house. They washed him and wiped him, and wound him in clouts, And sent him with seals on Sundays to churches, And he gave pardon for pence, poundmeal about." Then leeches, spicers, and minstrels in turn urge their hospitality upon him, and finally the friars make him free of their community. Meede alone does not attempt to escape, and is duly arrested, but afforded comfortable quarters by the king's command. Here she is visited by justices and by" clerks" who promise to work her will. The former she rewards with gold and rich gifts, the latter with assurance of her interest at Court. Then comes a confessor, "coped as a friar." He makes no difficulty about shriving the lady, and then urges her to make quite certain of her salvation by paying for a stained-glass window. At this point the poet has some reflections to make which are not out of date now, some 546 years later: on ostentatious almsgiving, and on mayors and other persons of position who for Meede's love neglect to punish tradesmen who grow rich and buy rents at the expense of the poor. Meede is brought before the king, who offers to forgive her guilt if she will wed his knight Conscience, who has just returned from service abroad. The lady is willing, but Conscience indignantly refuses, charging her with the murder of King Edward II. and with other crimes. She makes a most witty and able defence, putting forward an equally lengthy list of her virtues, and referring to the help she gave the king in his French wars, and to the further help which she would have given, had not Conscience intervened. There may no wight, as I ween," she concludes, "without Meede live." The king inclines to her point of view. But Conscience demonstrates that there are two kinds of “Meede." The one, good, is God's reward of good works; the other, evil, "maintains misdoers" and calls forth God's vengeance. The reign of this evil "Meede " shall give place to that of Love and Humility and Loyalty. The king gets impatient, and orders Conscience to stop talking and to kiss the lady. He refuses downright, unless Reason advises it. So he is sent to fetch Reason, whom the king receives courteously and gives a seat on the Bench between himself and his son. Together they deal with an action brought by Peace against Wrong (in a passage which might justly be called the epic counterpart of the Trial of Mr. Pickwick); and then Reason decides against Meede, and the king assents to his judgment and resolves that Reason and Conscience shall be his counsellors. Passus V and VI. The dreamer awakes and goes on his journey, but after a few steps falls faint and sleeps again. And again he sees the Field of Folk, to whom now Reason, “ with a cross before the king," preaches honest work and duty and love of one's neighbour and search after God. Then follows the confession of the Seven Deadly Sins. A few short quotations are given below (somewhat modernized): the finest passages are too long to be quoted. Avarice. nor restitution made?" "Hast thou ne'er repented," quoth Repentance, I rose when they were a-rest, and rifled their males."1 "but a robber's theft ; Thou hadst been better worthy be hanged therefore "I weened rifling were restitution," quoth he, "for I learned ne'er read on book, Gluttony. Glutton on his way to church is waylaid by Betty the barmaid and enticed into an alehouse. There he spends a happy day with Cissy the shoemaker's wife, Tim the tinker and two of his prentices, the Clerk of the Church, a rat-catcher, a Cheapside scavenger, Hicke the hackneyman, and other choice company. He drinks with them until He might neither step nor stand ere he his staff had. And then gan he go 3 like a gleeman's bitch Sometime a-side As whoso layeth lines and sometime a-rear, for to latch 4 fowls. The tavern scene is an exceedingly fine thing, though the meat be strong to the delicate modern palate. Sloth. 1 I can I have been priest and parson as the priest it singeth; nor Saints' Lives read; Repentance prays for all these sinners, and No one knows the way, nor can a wide-travelled palmer help them And now at last Piers Plowman comes upon the scene and offers to direct the wanderers, who ask him to go with them as their guide. He performs this office in effect by setting them all to work. He has some trouble with slackers, who will listen neither to him nor to the knight who has agreed to help him maintain order. Hunger for a time deals more effectively with the "wastours" but after he is well fed and has dropped off to sleep, they refuse to work, and all the people demand luxurious food and higher wages. Passus VII. Truth hears of what Piers is doing, and sends him a Pardon for himself and his heirs and for all who work honestly, whether labourers, clerics, knights, or kings, or even lawyers. A priest asks to see this Pardon, offering to interpret it into English. He finds the document to be an injunction to do well; and this he declares is no Pardon at all. The meaning of this difficult passage is now clear. Piers has suddenly realized that Do-well, the life of honest labour, which has hitherto been his earnest aim, is not enough. Implicit in the passage is the higher ideal which the poet was to depict later under the name of Do-bet. The priest, naturally enough, regards Piers' action with some supercilious surprise, and the ensuing strife of words wakens the dreamer, Meatless and moneyless on Malvern Hills. Then come the concluding lines of Part I. In these the poet, while not denying the power of the Pope to grant pardon, emphasizes the importance of Do-well. Accordingly Part II. ("Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best") begins by telling how the poet roamed about all the summer season in search of Dowel. He meets two friars, and they tell him that Dowel dwells among them: but this statement leaves the searcher incredulous. He walks on, by a wood-side A tall man like himself, calls him by name. The man is " Thought"—his own thought. Thought defines Dowel as the truthful life of an honest, godfearing man. Dobet, he says, is Charity (not merely the charity which distributes wealth, but the charity which enters a religious order and preaches the duty of longsuffering toleration). Dobest is the righteous rub of God's Church: so Dobest bears a bishop's crozier, with power to push adown the wicked. William wants to know more, so Thought introduces him by name to Wit. In due course the poet is sent on to Clergy (Learning) and Scripture (Writing). But he is in no mood to accept their teaching. As we have seen, he had come to doubt the value of learning. And so in the first, or A-Version, the search for Dowel broke off with those hasty words in which the poet expressed doubts to which he can find no answer, and to which" Clergy" does not attempt to reply. The B-Continuation. The second, or B-Version, continues the story, first explaining how the search for Dowel had been dropped. For two passus, however, the search seems yet to stand still, whilst the spiritual difficulties with which the AText had suddenly ended are discussed. At last the dreamer, having expressed his shame and having had all his difficulties satisfactorily explained, is invited by Conscience to meet "Clergy once more, at a dinner where the other guests are 1 Toil. * Henceforth. Dobest had been so defined in A. xi, 195. |