Piers Plowman
PASSUS V
THE king and his knights to the church went
To hear matins of the day and the mass after.
Then waked I of my winking and was woeful withal
That I had not slept sounder and so seen more.
But ere I fared a furlong faintness me seized,
I might not go further a foot for want of my sleep;
And sat softly adown and said my Creed
And as I babbled on my beads they brought me asleep.
And then saw I much more than I before told:
For I saw the field full of folk that I before spoke of,
And how Reason got ready to preach to the realm,
And with a cross before the king began thus to teach.
He proved that these pestilences were purely for sin,
And the south-west wind on Saturday at even
Was plainly for pure pride and for no point else.
Pear-trees and plum-trees were puffed to the earth
For example, ye men that ye should do better.
Beeches and broad oaks were blown to the ground,
Turned upwards their tails in token of dread
That deadly sin at doomsday shall undo them all.
Of this matter I might mumble full long,
But I will say as I saw so God me help!
How plainly before the people Reason began to preach.
He bade Waster go work at what he best could
And win back his wasting with some manner of craft.
And prayed Pernel put off her costly array
And keep it in her box for money at her need.
Tow Stowe he taught to take two staves
And from women's punishment bring Phyllis home.
He warned Wat his wife was to blame,
That her hat was worth half a mark his hood cost not a groat.
And bade Batt cut down a bough or even two
And beat Betty therewith unless she should work.
And then he charged chapmen to chasten their children:
`Let no wish for wealth spoil them while they be young,
Nor for power of the pestilence please them out of reason.
My sire said so to me and so did my dame,
That the more loved the child the more teaching it needs,
And Solomon said the same that Wisdom made,
Qui parcit virgae, odit filium.
The English of this Latin is whoso will it know,
Whoso spareth the sprig spoileth the children.'
And then he prayed prelates and priests together,
`What ye preach to the people prove it on yourselves
And do it in deeds it shall draw you to good;
If ye live as ye teach us we'll believe you the better.'
And then he counselled religious their rule to uphold,
'Lest the king and his council your commons curtail
And be stewards of your steads till ye be better ruled
Then he counselled the king the commons to love,
`They're thy treasure in treason and help at thy need.'
And then be prayed the pope to pity Holy Church,
And ere he give any grace to govern first himself.
`And ye that have laws to guard let truth be your desire
More than gold or other gifts if ye will God please;
For whoso contrarieth truth he telleth in the gospel,
That God knoweth him not nor doth no saint in Heaven:
Amen dico vobis, nescio vos.
'And ye that seek Saint James and the Saints of Rome,
Seek ye Saint Truth for he may save you all,
Qui cum Patre & Filio may fair them befall
That list to my sermon' And thus said Reason.
Then ran Repentance and rehearsed his theme
And made Will to weep water with his eyes.
PRIDE
Pernel Proud-heart leaned her to the earth
And lay long ere she looked and 'Lord, mercy!' cried,
And vowed to him that us all made
She should unsew her shift and wear a hairshirt
To enfeeble her flesh that fierce was to sin.
'Shall never high heart have me but hold myself lowly
And suffer myself slighted and so did I never.
But now will I be meek and mercy beseech,
For all this I have hated in mine heart.'
LUST
Then Lecher said: 'Alas!' and on our Lady he cried,
To make mercy for his misdeeds between God and his soul,
If he should every Saturday for seven year thereafter
Drink but with the duck and dine only once.
ENVY
Envy with heavy heart asked them for shrift,
And sadly mea culpa began to repeat.
He was pale as a stone in a palsy he seemed,
And clothed in coarse cloth which I could not describe;
In a kilt and a coat and a knife by his side;
Of a friar's frock were the fore-sleeves.
Like a leek that had lain too long in the sun,
So looked he with lean cheeks lowering foully.
His body bursting with wrath so that he bit his lips,
And went wringing with his fists to wreak himself he thought
With works or with words when he saw his time.
Each sentence he said was of an adder's tongue,
Chiding and challenge was his chief livelihood
With backbiting and blackguarding and bearing false witness
This was all his courtesy wherever he showed him.
`I'd be shriven,' quoth this wretch `and I for shame dare not;
I'd be gladder, by God that Gib had mischance
Than if I'd this week won weight of Essex cheese.
I've a neighbour nigh me whom I've armoyed oft,
And lied on him to lords to make him lose his silver,
And made his friends be his foes through my false tongue;
His grace and his good haps grieve me full sore.
Between family and family I make debate oft,
That both life and Iiinb is lost through my speech.
And when I meet him in market that I most hate,
I hail him heartily as I his friend were;
For he is braver than I and I dare do no other;
But had I mastery and might God wot my will!
'And when I come to the church and should kneel to the rood
And pray for the people as the priest teacheth,
For pilgrims and palmers and for all people after,
Then I cry on my knees that Christ give them sorrow
Who bare away my bowl and my ragged sheet.
Away from the altar then turn I mine eyes,
And behold how Helen hath a new coat:
I wish then it were mine and all the webb as well.
At men's losses I laugh that liketh mine heart.
For their winnings I weep and wail all the time;
Deem that they do ill where I do far worse;
Whoso chides me therefore I hate him deadly after.
I would that each wight were mine own knave,
For whoso hath more than I angereth me sore.
And thus I live loveless like a lousy dog,
So that my body bursts for bitterness of my gall.
I might not eat many years as a man ought,
For envy and ill will is bad to digest.
Can no sugar nor sweet thing assuage my swelling,
Nor no diapenidion drive it from mine heart,
Nor neither shrift nor sham if my maw be not scraped?'
`Yes, readily,' quoth Repentance and ruled him from the best.
`Sorrow for sins is salvation of souls.'
`I am sorry,' quoth the man `I am but seldom other,
And that maketh me thus meagre for I cannot revenge.
Among burgesses have I been dwelling at London,
And got Backbiting by a broker to blame men's wares.
When one sold and I not then was I ready
To lie and lower on my neighbour and slander his goods.
I will amend this if I may by the Almighty's might.'
WRATH
Now awaketh Wrath with two white eyes
And snivelling at the nose and his neck hanging.
'I am Wrath,' quoth he `I was some time a friar
And the convent's gardener for to graft shoots.
On limiters and lectors lyings I grafted,
Till they bare leaves of lowly speech the lords to please;
And then they blossomed abroad in bowers to hear shrifts.
And now is fallen a fruit that folk much prefer
To show their sins to them than be shriven by their parsons.
`And now parsons have perceived that they must share with friars,
The beneficed ones preach and the friars defame;
The friars find them at fault as folk bear witness,
That when they preach to the people in my place about
I, Wrath, walk with them and guide them from my looks.
Thus they speak of the spirit but either despiseth other
Till they be both beggars and by my ministering live,
Or else all are rich and ride horses about.
I, Wrath, rest never but that I must follow
This wicked folk for such is my grace.
`I have an aunt a nun and an abbess as well;
Her were liefer swoon or die than suffer pain.
`I've been cook in her kitchen in the convent served
Many months with them and with monks as well.
I was prioresses' Pottager and for other poor ladies,
And made them pottage of prattling that Dame Joan was a bastard;
Dame Clarice a knight's daughter and a cuckold her sire;
And Dame Pernel a priest's wench prioress to be never,
For she childed in cherry-time as the whole chapter knew.
`Of wicked words, I, Wrath their salads made,
Till "Thou liest!" and "Thou liest!" leaped out at once
And either hit other under the cheek;
Had they had knives, by Christ each had killed other.
`Saint Gregory was a good pope and had good forewit,
That no prioress should be priest so he ordained.
They had else incurred infamy the very first day
That they took up their office they're so ill to keep counsel.
'Among monks I might be but oft times I shun them,
For there be many strict ones mine affairs to espy,
Both prior and subprior and our pater abbas.
If I tell any tales they counsel together
And make me fast Fridays on bread and water;
I'm charged in the chapter-house as if I a child were
And beaten on my backside no breeches between,
So have I no liking with those men to dwell.
I eat there stale stockfish and feeble ale drink.
At other time, when wine cometh when I drink wine at eve
I have a flux of a foul mouth a good five days after.
All the wickedness I know of by any of our brethren,
I tell it in the cloister till the whole convent knows.,
'Now repent ye,' quoth Repentence and rehearse thou never
Counsel that thou knowest by favour or by right.
And drink not over delicately nor too deep neither,
Lest thy will because thereof to wrath might be turned.
Esto sobrius,' he said and absolved me after
And bade me wish to weep my wickedness to amend.
GREED
And then came Covetousness I can him not describe,
So hungry and hollow Sir Harvey him looked.
He was beetle-browed and blubber-lipped too,
With two bleared eyes as a blind hog;
And as a leather purse lolled his cheeks
Yet lower than his chin trembling with age;
And as a bondman's with bacon his beard was bedraggled.
With an hood on his head a lousy hat above,
And in a tawny tabard of twelve winters' age,
All tattered and dirty and full of lice creeping --
But if a louse could not have leaped with the best
She could not have walked there so threadbare the stuff.
`I have been covetous,' quoth this caitiff `I acknowledge it here.
For some time I served Sim-at-the-stile
And was his prentice pledged his profit to serve.
First I learned to lie for a leaf or two;
Wickedly to weigh was my first lesson.
To Weyhill and Winchester I went to the fair,
With many manner of merchandise as my master me bade,
And had not grace of Guile gone in with my wares
They had been unsold this seven years so help me God!
`Then tarried I amongst drapers my grammar to learn;
To draw the selvedge along the longer it seemed;
Among the rich ranged cloths rendered a lesson,
To pierce them with a pack-needle and plait them together,
Put them in a press and pin them therein
Till ten yards or twelve had tolled out to thirteen.
`My wife was a weaver and woollen cloth made.
She spoke to the spinsters to spin it all out,
But the pound that she paid by poised a quartern more
Than did mine own balance whoso weighed true.
`I bought her barley malt she brewed it to sell.
Penny-ale and pudding-ale she poured together
For tabourers and for low folk that was kept by itself.
`The best ale lay in my bower or in my bedchamber,
And whoso tasted thereof bought it thereafter
A gallon for a groat no less, God knows:
And 'twas measure in cupfuls this craft my wife used.
Rose the Retailer was her right name;
She hath holden huckstering all through her lifetime.
`But I swear now, may I thrive! that sin will I stop,
And never wickedly weigh nor wicked chaffer use.
But wend to Walsingham and my wife also
And pray the Rood of Bromholm bring me out of debt.'
`Repentedest thou ever,' quoth Repentance or restitution madest?'
`Yes, once I was barboured with an heap of chapmen;
I rose when they were at rest and rifled their bags.'
`That was no restitution but a robber's theft.
Thou haddest be better worthy to be hanged there for
Than for all that that thou hast here showed.'
`I weened rifling were restitution for I've not learned in books
And I know no French, i'faith but of furthest end of Norfolk.'
`Usedest thou every usury in all thy life-time?'
`Nay, soothly,' he said `save in my youth.
I learned a lesson among Jews and Lombards,
To weigh pence with a weight and pare down the heaviest;
And lend it for love of the Cross for a pledge, to be lost;
Such deeds I did write lest he due day miss.
I have more money through arrears than through miseretur et commodat.
I have lent lords and ladies my goods,
And been their broker after and bought it myself.
Exchanges and contracts with much chaffer I deal;
Lend to folk that will lose of every noble a part.
And with Lombard's letters I lend gold to Rome,
Here took it by tally and told it there less.'
`Lentest ever to lords for love of protection?'
`Yea, I have lent to lords who loved me never after,
And have made many a knight both mercer and draper
That paid for his prenticehood not a pair of gloves even.'
`Hast thou pity on poor men that must needs borrow?'
`I have as much pity of poor men as hath pedlar of cats
He would kill if he could for the sake of their skins.'
`Art thou generous to thy neighbours with thy meat and drink?'
`I am holden as kind as a hound in the kitchen;
Among my neighbours especially I have such a name.'
`Now God never grant thee but thou soon repent,
His grace on this ground thy goods well to bestow,
Nor thine heirs after thee to have joy of thy winnings,
Nor executors spend well the silver thou leavest;
That which by wrong was won by wicked men to be spent.
For were I friar of that house where is good faith and charity,
I'd not clothe us with thy cash nor our church amend,
Nor have for our pittance penn'orth of thine
For the best book in our house though bright gold were leaves,
If I knew indeed thou wert such as thou tellest,
Or if I could know it in any sure way.
Servus es alterius cum fercula pinguia quaeris,
Pane tuo potius vescere, liber eris.
'Thou art an unkindly creature I cannot absolve thee
Till thou make restitution reckon up with them all;
And till Reason enrol in the register of Heaven
That thou hast made each man good I may not absolve thee --
Non dimittitur peccatum, donec restituatur oblatum, etc.
`For all that have aught of thy goods so God have my truth!
Will be held at the high Day of Doom to help thee to restore.
And whoso believeth not this let him look in the Psalter,
In Miserere mei Deus whether I speak truth;
Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti, etc.
`Shall never workman in this world thrive with what thou winnest;
Cum sancto Sanctus eris construe me that in English.'
Then drooped the scamp in despair and would have himself hanged,
Had not Repentance the rather recomforted him in this manner,
`Have mercy in thy mind and with thy mouth ask it,
For God his mercy is more than all his other works;
Misericordia ejus super omnia opera ejus, etc.
`And all the wickedness in this world that man might work or think
Is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal in the sea;
Omnis iniquitas quantum ad misericordiam Dei, est quasi scintilla in
media maris.
'Therefore have mercy in mind and in merchandise, trust it:
For thou hast no good ground to get thee a cake with,
Unless it were with thy tongue or else with thy two hands.
For the goods thou hast gotten began all with falsehood,
And whilst thou livest therewith thou payest not, but borrowest.
And if thou know never to which nor to whom to restore,
Bear it to the bishop and bid him of his grace
Bestow it himself as is best for thy soul.
For for thee shall be answer at the high Day of Doom;
For thee and many more shall that man give a reckoning.
What he taught you in Lent believe thou none other,
What he gave of our Lord's goods to lead you from sin.'
GLUTTONY
Now beginneth Glutton for to go to shrift
And carries him to kirk-ward his fault there to show.
But Betty the brewster bade him good-morrow
And asked of him with that whitherward he would.
`To holy church,' quoth he `for to hear mass,
And after will be shriven and then sin no more.'
`Gossip, I've good ale,' quoth she 'Glutton, wilt thou try it?'
`Hast thou aught in thy bag? Any hot spices?'
`I have pepper and peony and a pound too of garlic,
And a farthing's worth of fennel-seed for fasting days.'
Then goeth Glutton in and great oaths come after.
Cis the shoe-seller sat on the bench,
Wat the game-keeper and his wife too,
Tim the tinker and two of his prentices,
Hick the horsedealer and Hugh the needle-seller,
Clarice of Cock lane and the clerk of the church,
Davy the ditcher and a dozen other;
Sir Piers the priest and Pernel of Flanders,
A fiddler, a rat-catcher the street sweeper of Chepe,
A roper, a riding-man and Rose the dish-seller,
Godfrey of Garlickithe and Griffith the Welshman,
And old-clothesmen a heap early in the morning
Give Glutton with glad cheer good ale for himself.
Clement the cobbler cast off his cloak
And named it for sale at the `new fair' game.
Hick the horse dealer heaved his hood after
And bade Bart the butcher be on his side.
There were chapmen chosen the goods to appraise;
Whoso hath the hood should have amends for the cloak.
Two rose up quickly and whispered together
And priced these pennyworths apart by themselves.
They could not in their conscience agree on a value,
Till Robin the roper arose for the truth
And named himself umpire to avoid a debate
And to settle this business betwixt them three.
Hickey the hostler he had the cloak,
In covenant that Clement should the cup fill
And have Hick hostler's hood and hold himself served;
And whoso sooner repented should arise after
And give to Sir Glutton a gallon of ale.
There was laughing and lowering and `Let go the cup!'
They sat so till evensong singing now and then,
Till Glutton had gulped down a gallon and a gill.
His guts 'gan to grumble like two greedy sows;
He pissed a pot-full in a paternoster-while;
And blew with the bugle at his backbone's end,
That all hearing that horn held their nose after
And wished it were stopped up with a wisp of furze.
He could neither step nor stand before he had his staff;
Then began he to go like a gleeman's bitch,
Sometimes aside sometimes astern
As whoso layeth lines for to snare fowl.
And when he drew to the door then dimmed his eyes;
He stumbled on threshold and fell to the earth.
Clement the cobbler caught him by the middle
For to lift him aloft and laid him on his knees;
Glutton was a great lout and lumpish to lift
And coughed up a caudle in Clement's lap:
No hound is so hungry in Hertfordshire
Dare lap up those leavings so unlovely they smelt.
With all the woe of this world his wife and his wench
Bare him home to his bed and brought him therein.
And after all his excess he had such a head
He slept Saturday and Sunday till the sun went to rest.
Then waked he of his winking and wiped his eyes;
The first word that he said was: `Where is the bowl?'
His wife began to reproach him for how wickedly he lived,
And Repentance right so rebuked him that time:
`As thou with words and works hast wrought evil in thy life,
Shrive thee and be shamed therefore and show it with thy mouth.'
`I, Glutton,' quoth the wretch 'confess me guilty,
That I have trespassed with my tongue I can not tell how oft:
Sworn "by God's soul and "so help me, God and his saints,"
Where there was no need over nine hundred times.
And surfeited me at supper and sometimes at noon,
That I, Glutton, threw it up ere I'd gone a mile
And spilt what might be spared and spent on some hungry one.
Over-delicately on fasting-days drunken and eaten,
And sometimes sat so long I slept and ate together.
For love of tales dined I in taverns to drink more,
And hurried to meat ere noon when fasting-days were.'
`This shewing of shrift,' quoth Repentance 'shall merit to thee.'
Began Glutton to cry and great dole to make
For his evil life that he had so lived;
And vowed to fast `for hunger as for thirst
Shall never fish on Friday digest in my womb,
Till Abstinence mine aunt hath given me leave;
And yet have I hated her all my life long.'
SLOTH
Then came Sloth all beslobbered with two slimey eyes.
`I must sit,' said the fellow I or else should I nap.
I cannot stand nor stoop nor without a stool kneel.
But were I put to bed unless my tail made me,
Should no ringing make me rise ere I were ripe to dine.'
He began Bentedicite with a belch and knocked on his breast
And stretched and snored and slumbered at last.
`Awake, wretch!' quoth Repentance `and run thee to shrift.'
`Should I die on this day I'd not trouble to look.
I know not Paternoster as the priest it singeth,
But I know rhymes of Robin Hood and Earl Randolph of Chester,
But of our Lord or our Lady not the least ever made.
I have made forty vows and forgot them at morning;
I performed never penance as the priest me bade,
Nor right sorry for my sins yet was I never.
If I pray any prayers except it be in wrath,
What I tell with my tongue is two miles from mine heart.
I am occupied each day holidays and other,
With idle tales in the alehouse and sometimes in churches.
God's pain and his passion seldom think I thereon.
I visited never feeble men nor fettered folk in jail;
I had liefer hear an harlotry or cobbler's summer games,
Or lyings to laugh at and belying my neighbour,
Than all that ever Mark made Matthew, John and Luke.
And vigils and fasting days all these I let pass,
And lie abed in Lent my wench in my arms,
Till matins and mass be done then I go to the friars;
Come I to Ite, missa est I hold myself served.
I'm not shriven for a long time unless sickness make me,
Not twice in two years and then confession is a guess.
`I have been priest and a parson passing thirty winters,
Yet can I not sing sol-fa nor read the saints' lives;
But I can find in a field or a furrow an hare,
Better than in Beatus vir or Beati omnes
Construe one clause well and teach my parishioners.
I can hold love-days and hear a reeve's reckoning,
But in the canon or decretals I can not read a line.
If I buy on tick unless it be tallied
I forget it as soon and if men me it ask,
Six times or seven I deny it with oaths,
And thus trouble I true men ten hundred times.
`And my servants' salary a long time is behind;
Rueful is the reckoning when we render account.
So with wicked will and wrath my workmen I pay.
`If man doth me a benefit or helpeth me at need,
I am unkind to his courtesy and can not understand it;
For I have, and have had something of a hawk's manner:
I am not lured with love unless there lie aught under the thumb.
'Kindness my fellow Christians accorded me formerly,
Sixty times I, Sloth have forgot it since.
In speech, and in sparing speech I waste many a time
Both flesh and fish and much other victual;
Both bread and ale butter, milk and cheese,
I spoiled in my service so it might serve no man.
`I ran about in my youth and set myself not to learn,
And ever since have been beggared for my foul sloth:
Heu mihi, quod sterilem vitam duxi juvenilem.'
'Repentest thou not?' quoth Repentance and right with that he swooned,
Till
Vigilate the vigilant fetched water from his eyes
And flooded his face and fast on him cried
And said, `Beware of Despair who would thee betray.
"I am sorry for my sins," say so to thyself,
Beat thyself on the breast and beseech of him grace:
For is no guilt there so great that his goodness is not more.'
Then sat Sloth up and crossed himself
And made a vow to God 'gainst his foul sloth:
'Shall no Sunday be for seven year unless sickness me stop,
That I go not before dawn to the dear church
And matins hear and mass as though I were a monk.
No ale after meat shall hold me thence
Till evensong I've heard I vow it to the rood.
Moreover will I pay back if I it have,
All I've wickedly won since I had wit.
`Though I lack livelihood stop will I not
Till each man shall have his ere that I go hence;
And with the residue and remnant by the Rood of Chester!
I shall seek Truth first before I see Rome.'
Robert the Robber on Reddite looked;
He'd naught to pay with and wept full sore.
But yet the sinful wretch said to himself,
`Christ, that on Calvary upon the cross died,
When Dismas my brother besought you of grace,
Then haddest mercy on that man for memento's sake
Have pity on this robber that cannot repay
And may never hope to win with work what I owe.
But for thy much mercy mitigation I beseech;
Damn me not at doomsday for that I did ill.'
What fell to this felon I can not fairly show;
Well I wot he wept water fast with both eyes,
And acknowledged his guilt right soon after to Christ,
That his pike of penitence he should polish anew
And use it on pilgrimage all his life-time,
For he had lain with Latro Lucifer's aunt.
Then had Reventance ruth and bade them all kneel:
`For I shall beseech for all sinners our Saviour of grace
To amend us of misdeeds and do mercy to all.
'Now God,' quoth he, 'that of thy goodness didst the world make
And of naught madest aught and man most like to thyself,
And since suffered him to sin a sickness to us all,
Yet for the best -- as I hold whatever the Book telleth,
O felix culpa! O necessarium peccatum Adae I etc.
`For through that sin thy son sent was to this earth,
And became man of a maid mankind to save,
And thyself with thy son was made like to us sinners:
Faciamus hominen ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram;
Et alibi:
Qui manet in caritate, in Dea manet, & Deus in eo.
`And then with thy Son's self in our suit died
On Good Friday for man's sake at full time of day,
Where thyself nor thy Son no sorrow felt in death,
But in ourselves was the sorrow and thy Son it led
Captivam duxit captivitatem.
`The sun thereof for sorrow lost sight for a time
About midday, when most light is the meal time of saints,
When thou didst feed with thy fresh blood our forefathers in darkness:
Populus qui ambulabat in tenebris, vidit Iticem magnam;
`Through the light that leaped from thee Lucifer was blinded,
And all thy Blessed blown into Paradise bliss.
The third day after thou goest in our guise;
A sinful Mary saw thee before Saint Mary thy mother,
And all to solace the sinful thou sufferedest it so:
Non veni vocare justos, sed peccatores ad poenitentiam.
`And all that Mark hath written Matthew, John and Luke,
Of thy doughtiest deeds were done beneath our arms:
Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis.
`And by so much, meseemeth the more surely we may
Pray and beseech if it be thy will,
That art our father and brother to be merciful to us;
And to have pity on those ribalds that repent them here sore
That they wrathed thee in this world in word, thought or deeds.'
Then grasped Hope an horn of Deus, tu conversus vivificabis nos,
And blew it with Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitate
So that all saints in Heaven sang loudly together:
Homines & jumenta salvabis, queniadmodum misericordiam tuam, Deus, etc. 71
A thousand men then came thronging together,
Who cried upward to Christ and to his clean Mother
To have grace to go with them Truth for to seek.
But there was no wight so wise that he knew the way thither
But blundered like beasts over banks and on hills
A long time, till 'twas late that they a man met
Apparelled as a Paynim in a pilgrim's wise.
He bare a staff bound with a broad strip
In bindweed wise wound about.
A bowl and a bag he bare by his side;
An hundred ampullas on his hat set,
Signs of Sinai and shells of Galicia,
Many a cross on his cloak keys also of Rome
And the vernicle in front so that men should know
And see by his signs what shrines he had sought.
This folk asked him first from whence he did come.
`From Sinai,' he said `and from our Lord's sepulchre;
Bethlehem and Babylon I have been in both;
In Armenia, in Ajexandria and many other places.
Ye may see by my signs that sit on my hat
That I've walked full wide in wet and in dry,
And have sought good saints for my soul's health.'
`Knowest thou aught of a saint that men call Truth?
Could'st thou show us the way where that wight dwelleth?'
`Nay, so help me God!' said the man then,
`I saw never palmer with pike nor with scrip
Ask after him, till now in this place.'
`Peter!" quoth a plowman and put forth his head,
`I know him as well as a clerk doth his books.
Conscience and Mother-Wit made known his place
And made me swear surely to serve him for ever
Both in sowing and setting so long as I work.
I have been his follower all these ffty winters,
Both sown his seed and driven his beasts,
And watched over his profit within and without.
I dike and I delve and do what Truth biddeth:
Sometimes I sow and sometimes I thresh;
In tailor's and tinker's craft what Truth can devise;
I weave and I wind and do what Truth biddeth.
For though I say it myself I serve him to his pleasure;
I have good hire of him and oftentimes more.
He is the readiest payer that a poor man knoweth;
He withholds not his hire from his servants at even.
He is lowly as a lamb and lovely of speech,
And if ye are wishful to know where that he dwelleth,
I shall show you surely the way to his place.'
`Yea, dear Piers,' quoth these pilgrims and proffered him hire
For to wend with them to Truth's dwelling-place.
`Nay, by my soul's health!' quoth Piers and began for to swear,
`! woould not take a farthing for Saint Tbomas's shrine!
Truth Would love me the less a long time thereafter!
`But if ye will to wend well this is the way thither,
That I shall say to you and set you in the path.
Ye must go through Meekness both men and their wives,
Till ye come into Conscience let Christ know the truth
That ye love our lord God the best of all things;
And then your neighbours next in no wise use
Otherwise than thou wouldest be wrought to thyself.
`And so bend round by a brook Be-humble-of-speech,
Till ye find a ford called Honour-your-fathers:
Honora patrem et matrem, etc.
Wade in that water and wash you well there,
And you shall leap the lighter all your lifetime.
And so shalt thou see Swear-not- but-it-be-for-need-
Especially-not-idly- by-God-Almighty's-name.
`Then shalt thou come by a croft but come not therein;
That croft is called Covet-not- men's-cattle-nor-their-wives-
Nor-none-of-their-servants- that-might-them-annoy.
Look ye break no boughs there unless it be your own.
`Two stocks there standeth but stay ye not there;
They're called Steal-not and Slay-not strike forth by both
And leave them on thy left hand and look not thereafter
But hold well thine holiday holy till even.
`Then shalt thou turn at a tump Bear-no-false-witness
He is fenced with florins and other fees many;
Look that thou pluck no plant there for peril of thy soul;
`Then shall ye see Say-sooth- as-it-is-to-be-done-
And-in-no-manner-else- for-any-man's-bidding.
`Then shalt thou come to a court as clear as the sun;
The moat is of Mercy the manor about,
And its walls are of Wit to hold the Will out,
Crenellated with Christendom mankind to save,
Buttressed with Believe-so- or-thou-beest-not-saved.
And all the houses are covered the halls and the chambers,
With no lead but with Love and Low-speech-of-brethren.
The bridge is of Pray-well- the-better-mayest-thou-speed;
Each pillar is of Penance and of Prayers to saints;
Of alms-deeds are the hooks whereon the gates hang.
`Grace is the gateward a good man forsooth;
His man is Amend-you many men him know:
Tell him this token that Truth may know sooth:
"I performed the penance the priest me enjoined,
And full sorry for my sins and so shall be ever
When I think thereon though I were a pope."
`Bid Amend-you full meekly his master to ask
To draw up the wicket that the woman shut
When Adam and Eve ate apples unroasted:
Per Evam cunctis clausa est, & per Mariam virginem iterem patefacia est.
For he hath key and catch though the king sleep.
`And if Grace grant thee to go in this wise,
Thou shalt see in thyself Truth sit in thine heart
In a chain of charity as thou a child were
To suffer him and say naught against thy Sire's will.
`But beware then of Wrath-thee that is a wicked wretch;
He hath envy for him that in thine heart sitteth,
And putteth forth Pride for praise of thyself.
Boldness of thy benefactions then maketh thee blind
And thou'lt be driven out as dew and the door closed,
Keyed and clamped up to keep thee without;
And hundred winters haply ere ever thou enter.
So thus might thou lose his love by uplifting thyself,
And never enter haply again unless thou have grace.
`But there are seven sisters that ever serve Truth
And are porters of the posterns that belong to the place;
One is called Abstinence and Humility another;
Charity and Chastity be his chief maidens;
Patience and Peace much people they help;
The lady Largesse hath let in full many:
She hath helped thousands out from the Devil's pinfold.
He who is kin to this seven so help me God!
He is wondrously welcome and fairly received;
And unless ye be kin to some of these seven,
'Tis full hard, by my head! for any of you all
To get in at any gate unless grace be given.'
`Now, by Christ!' quoth a cutpurse 'I have no kin here!'
`Nor I,' quoth an apeward `for aught that I know!'
`God knows,' quoth a waferer `knew I this for sooth
I'd go no foot further for any friar's preaching.'
`Yes,' quoth Piers the Plowman and pushed them towards good,
`Mercy is a maiden there hath might over all;
She is cousin to all sinners and her Son also;
Through help of them two (hope not in none other)
Thou might get grace there if thou go betimes.'
`By Saint Paul,' quoth a pardoner `perchance I'm not known there.
I'll fetch my box with my briefs bishop's letters and a bull!'
'By Christ!' quoth a common woman `thy company I'll follow,
Thou shalt say I'm thy sister I know not where they've gone!'
Speech
