CHAPTER X
TWO TALK OF THE DAYS TO COME
"Brother," said John Ball, "how deemest thou of our adventure? I donot ask thee if thou thinkest we are right to play the play like men,but whether playing like men we shall fail like men."
"Why dost thou ask me?" said I; "how much further than beyond thischurch can I see?" "Far further," quoth he, "for I wot that thou art ascholar and hast read books; and withal, in some way that I cannotname, thou knowest more than we; as though with thee the world hadlived longer than with us. Hide not, therefore, what thou hast inthine heart, for I think after this night I shall see thee no more,until we meet in the heavenly Fellowship."
"Friend," I said, "ask me what thou wilt; or rather ask thou the yearsto come to tell thee some little of their tale; and yet methinks thouthyself mayest have some deeming thereof."
He raised himself on the elbow of the stall and looked me full in theface, and said to me: "Is it so after all that thou art no man in theflesh, but art sent to me by the Master of the Fellowship, and theKing's Son of Heaven, to tell me what shall be? If that be so tell mestraight out, since I had some deeming hereof before; whereas thyspeech is like ours and yet unlike, and thy face hath something in itwhich is not after the fashion of our day. And yet take heed, if thouart such an one, I fear thee not, nay, nor him that sent thee; nor forthy bidding, nor for his, will I turn back from London Bridge but willpress on, for I do what is meet and right."
"Nay," said I, "did I not tell thee e'en now that I knew life but notdeath? I am not dead; and as to who hath sent me, I say not that I amcome by my own will; for I know not; yet also I know not the will thathath sent me hither. And this I say to thee, moreover, that if I knowmore than thou, I do far less; therefore thou art my captain and I thyminstrel."
He sighed as one from whom a weight had been lifted, and said: "Well,then, since thou art alive on the earth and a man like myself, tell mehow deemest thou of our adventure: shall we come to London, and howshall we fare there?"
Said I, "What shall hinder you to come to London, and to fare there asye will? For be sure that the Fellowship in Essex shall not fail you;nor shall the Londoners who hate the king's uncles withstand you; norhath the Court any great force to meet you in the field; ye shall castfear and trembling into their hearts."
"Even so, I thought," said he; "but afterwards what shall betide?"
Said I, "It grieves my heart to say that which I think. Yet hearken;many a man's son shall die who is now alive and happy, and if thesoldiers be slain, and of them most not on the field, but by thelawyers, how shall the captains escape? Surely thou goest to thydeath."
He smiled very sweetly, yet proudly, as he said: "Yea, the road islong, but the end cometh at last. Friend, many a day have I beendying; for my sister, with whom I have played and been merry in theautumn tide about the edges of the stubble-fields; and we gathered thenuts and bramble-berries there, and started thence the missel-thrush,and wondered at his voice and thought him big; and the sparrow-hawkwheeled and turned over the hedges and the weasel ran across the path,and the sound of the sheep-bells came to us from the downs as we sathappy on the grass; and she is dead and gone from the earth, for shepined from famine after the years of the great sickness; and my brotherwas slain in the French wars, and none thanked him for dying save hethat stripped him of his gear; and my unwedded wife with whom I dweltin love after I had taken the tonsure, and all men said she was goodand fair, and true she was and lovely; she also is dead and gone fromthe earth; and why should I abide save for the deeds of the flesh whichmust be done? Truly, friend, this is but an old tale that men mustdie; and I will tell thee another, to wit, that they live: and I livenow and shall live. Tell me then what shall befall."
Somehow I could not heed him as a living man as much as I had done, andthe voice that came from me seemed less of me as I answered:
"These men are strong and valiant as any that have been or shall be,and good fellows also and kindly; but they are simple, and see no greatway before their own noses. The victory shall they have and shall notknow what to do with it; they shall fight and overcome, because oftheir lack of knowledge, and because of their lack of knowledge shallthey be cozened and betrayed when their captains are slain, and allshall come to nought by seeming; and the king's uncles shall prevail,that both they and the king may come to the shame that is appointed forthem. And yet when the lords have vanquished, and all England liethunder them again, yet shall their victory be fruitless; for the freemen that hold unfree lands shall they not bring under the collar again,and villeinage shall slip from their hands, till there be, and not longafter ye are dead, but few unfree men in England; so that your livesand your deaths both shall bear fruit."
"Said I not," quoth John Ball, "that thou wert a sending from othertimes? Good is thy message, for the land shall be free. Tell on now."
He spoke eagerly, and I went on somewhat sadly: "The times shallbetter, though the king and lords shall worsen, the Gilds of Craftshall wax and become mightier; more recourse shall there be of foreignmerchants. There shall be plenty in the land and not famine. Where aman now earneth two pennies he shall earn three."
"Yea," said he, "then shall those that labour become strong andstronger, and so soon shall it come about that all men shall work andnone make to work, and so shall none be robbed, and at last shall allmen labour and live and be happy, and have the goods of the earthwithout money and without price."
"Yea," said I, "that shall indeed come to pass, but not yet for awhile, and belike a long while."
And I sat for long without speaking, and the church grew darker as themoon waned yet more.
Then I said: "Bethink thee that these men shall yet have masters overthem, who have at hand many a law and custom for the behoof of masters,and being masters can make yet more laws in the same behoof; and theyshall suffer poor people to thrive just so long as their thriving shallprofit the mastership and no longer; and so shall it be in those days Itell of; for there shall be king and lords and knights and squiresstill, with servants to do their bidding, and make honest men afraid;and all these will make nothing and eat much as aforetime, and the morethat is made in the land the more shall they crave."
"Yea," said he, "that wot I well, that these are of the kin of thedaughters of the horse-leech; but how shall they slake their greed,seeing that as thou sayest villeinage shall be gone? Belike their menshall pay them quit-rents and do them service, as free men may, but allthis according to law and not beyond it; so that though the workersshall be richer than they now be, the lords shall be no richer, and soall shall be on the road to being free and equal."
Said I, "Look you, friend; aforetime the lords, for the most part, heldthe land and all that was on it, and the men that were on it worked forthem as their horses worked, and after they were fed and housed all wasthe lords'; but in the time to come the lords shall see their menthriving on the land and shall say once more, 'These men have more thanthey need, why have we not the surplus since we are their lords?'Moreover, in those days shall betide much chaffering for wares betweenman and man, and country and country; and the lords shall note that ifthere were less corn and less men on their lands there would be moresheep, that is to say more wool for chaffer, and that thereof theyshould have abundantly more than aforetime; since all the land theyown, and it pays them quit-rent or service, save here and there a croftor a close of a yeoman; and all this might grow wool for them to sellto the Easterlings. Then shall England see a new thing, for whereashitherto men have lived on the land and by it, the land shall no longerneed them, but many sheep and a few shepherds shall make wool grow tobe sold for money to the Easterlings, and that money shall the lordspouch: for, look you, they shall set the lawyers a-work and the stronghand moreover, and the land they shall take to themselves and theirsheep; and except for these lords of land few shall be the free menthat shall hold a rood of land whom the word of their lord may not turnadrift straightway."
"How mean you?" said John
Ball: "shall all men be villeins again?"
"Nay," said I, "there shall be no villeins in England."
"Surely then," said he, "it shall be worse, and all men save a fewshall be thralls to be bought and sold at the cross."
"Good friend," said I, "it shall not be so; all men shall be free evenas ye would have it; yet, as I say, few indeed shall have so much landas they can stand upon save by buying such a grace of their masters."
"And now," said he, "I wot not what thou sayest. I know a thrall, andhe is his master's every hour, and never his own; and a villein I know,and whiles he is his own and whiles his lord's; and I know a free man,and he is his own always; but how shall he be his own if he have noughtwhereby to make his livelihood? Or shall he be a thief and take fromothers? Then is he an outlaw. Wonderful is this thou tellest of a freeman with nought whereby to live!"
"Yet so it shall be," said I, "and by such free men shall all wares bemade."
"Nay, that cannot be; thou art talking riddles," said he; "for howshall a woodwright make a chest without the wood and the tools?"
Said I, "He must needs buy leave to labour of them that own all thingsexcept himself and such as himself."
"Yea, but wherewith shall he buy it?" said John Ball. "What hath heexcept himself?"
"With himself then shall he buy it," quoth I, "with his body and thepower of labour that lieth therein; with the price of his labour shallhe buy leave to labour."
"Riddles again!" said he; "how can he sell his labour for aught elsebut his daily bread? He must win by his labour meat and drink andclothing and housing! Can he sell his labour twice over?"
"Not so," said I, "but this shall he do belike; he shall sell himself,that is the labour that is in him, to the master that suffers him towork, and that master shall give to him from out of the wares he makethenough to keep him alive, and to beget children and nourish them tillthey be old enough to be sold like himself, and the residue shall therich man keep to himself."
John Ball laughed aloud, and said: "Well, I perceive we are not yetout of the land of riddles. The man may well do what thou sayest andlive, but he may not do it and live a free man."
"Thou sayest sooth," said I.
A Dream of John Ball; and, A King's Lesson Page 10