Piers Plowman
Page 24
130 Alas! That riches should wreck folk and rob
Their souls of the love of our Lord at the last!
For servants who receive their salary in advance
Are permanently penniless, and people who dine
Before doing their duty seldom die out of debt.
135 People can tell when a task is well tackled
And worth the wages of the workman who’s done it,
Who is not paid first for fear he will fail.
So I warn the wealthy to be well aware
That they cannot be happy both on earth and in heaven.
140 Like the servant whose salary is settled in advance,
They’ll receive what they deserve if they seek to claim twice.
From the message in Matthew, that must be the case:
It is difficult to dance from delight to delight.17
“Yet the rich who repent and support the poor,
And live by the law and are loyal to all,
145 Will be offered comfort by Christ in his kindness
And be paid twice the price if their hearts show pity,
In the same way a servant receives a reward
Besides his salary if the work is done well.
That could be a coat, but Christ will give heaven
150 To the rich and the poor who show pity and repent,
And double the wages if they do their duty,
And a pardon for their sins and Paradise at passing.
“But it’s seldom seen, as the saints have written,
That God twice rewards or welcomes the wealthy,
155 For the rich can frolic in furs with good food
Like beasts that are merry in the month of May
And stay in high spirits till the summer is past,
While from mid-summer beggars lack bread with their broth,
And winter is worse for their feet are wet
160 And they’re hungry and thirsty, hatefully treated
And shamefully berated by the ruthless rich.
Lord, send them summer and some sort of luck,
Some heaven after death, for who helped them here?
“You could have created all creatures as equals,
165 All witty and wise if that was your wish.
So pity the rich without pity for the poor,
Who are often ungrateful for the goods that you give,
For no dearth or drought or flood can undo them,
No hail or heat if they have their health,
170 And they want for nothing they require or wish:
In your goodness grant them the grace to repent.
And comfort your creatures who cruelly suffer
From dearth and drought all the days of their lives,
The poor, your prisoners in the pit of distress.
175 In winter they want for warming clothes,
And in summer they seldom sup till they’re full.
Comfort the careworn, Christ in your riches,
For Scripture recounts your kindness and care:
Be converted to me, and you shall be saved.18
“Being gentle in nature, Jesus, you enjoined
180 Both robbers and renegades, rich and poor,
Whores and harlots, and all mankind,19
To be christened in the Trinity, baptized in the Truth,
And cleansed of all kinds of copious faults,
And should we through folly slide into sin,
185 To confess and avow and fall on your mercy,
Which permits us amendment as often as it must.
And if Satan seeks to appeal to our senses,
You will swiftly set your reprieve in his sight
And drive out the devil and show we are saved
190 ‘By the power of these presents through the Passion of our Lord.’
“Poverty has pride of place in the reprieve,
With purity of patience and perfect belief.
There is no approval of pomp or pride
But chiefly of people who are poor in heart.
195 All other exemptions are empty as air,
Such as prayer and penance and pilgrimage to Rome,
And our labor is lost unless our spending
Springs from good faith. Just see how men set
Their names in glory on donations of glass
200 For friary windows; wealth should be wielded
In common by Christians, coveting nothing.
“There are seven sins that always assail us.
The devil pursues them and seeks to assist them,
And reaps his richest reward through wealth,
205 For where riches reign, reverence follows,
Causing Pride to prosper in both rich and poor.
While the rich are revered by reason of their riches,
The poor are dismissed though they may have more
Intelligence and wisdom, which are way more welcome
210 And honored in heaven than rank or riches.
For the rich are encumbered and must climb with caution
The highway to heaven that is hindered by wealth—
A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven—20
While the poor press ahead with their paltry packs—
Their works follow them—21
And boldly and busily cry like beggars
215 For perpetual bliss for their poverty and patience:
Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.22
“Pride reigns in the rich rather than the poor,
Though it may be found in both master and man,
But it’s powerless where poverty is combined with patience,
And so are the others of the Seven Deadly Sins,
220 Which linger not long and go limping away.
The poor can’t be proud when imploring the rich
And obeying their bidding for their few bits of bread,
And obedience and arrogance are always at odds,
Each hating the other in every way.
225 “If a poor man and Anger are at issue and argue,
The latter will lose if they go to law,
For a poor man sees it is senseless to be strident:
He has to be humble in behavior and speech
If he’s always asking for food and alms.
230 “And Gluttony will gain not a grain from a pauper,
Whose funds won’t stretch to fancy food,
And however much he may hanker for ale,
His bed is still cold and his crown is still bare
And he’s curled up on straw instead of on sheets.
235 So Gluttony and Sloth brin
g grief, not gain,
When he wakes and weeps for cold and woe—
Or sometimes his sins—and his merrier moments
Will be mixed with misery and melancholy too.
“If Covetousness catches the poor in a clinch,
240 Then neither can pin his opponent by the neck.
Covetousness is keen and may crave a fight,
And his hands and arms are as long as you like,
But Poverty is puny, scarce passing his navel,
And a poorly matched pair are not pretty to watch.
245 “And if Avarice goes angling for the poor, what’s the point?23
For Poverty puts his belongings in his pockets
While Avarice has cupboards and iron-bound coffers.
And which attracts more attention from thieves:
A beggar’s bag or a brim-full chest?
250 “Lust dislikes him for he’s little to spend,
And nor does he drink or dine on dainties.
And brothels would be abandoned and roofless
If the poor were the only paying patrons!
“And though Sloth may persuade the poor man to slacken,
255 He is mired in misery, which makes him reflect
That God is his only and greatest help
And he serves, as he says, as the servant of God.
However he behaves, his appearance is humble,
In which semblance our Savior saved mankind.
260 Thus the patient poor have the patent to claim
Heavenly bliss at their unhappy end.
“Yet a man who leaves his life of leisure,
His lands and lordship for love of the Lord
And abides as a beggar has a claim that is better,
265 Much like a maid who forsakes her mother,
Her father and friends to follow her lover.
That lover will love such a lass much more
Than a girl who is gained through negotiation,
Through the parties’ approval and the passing of money,
270 Through fondness for goods, not feelings of affection.
It’s the same with people who forsake possessions
And put on patience and poverty as well,
The sibling of God himself and his saints.”
“Good God,” Haukin groaned, “if poverty is so great,
275 Will you please explain what such poverty implies?”
“Poverty,” said Patience, “is a painful property,
The casting off of cares, possession sans question,
The donum Dei and mater sanitatis;
The safe way sans dolor, the dompter of sapience,
280 Negotium mercatorium but sine damnatione,
And in fortune sans certitude, felicitas sans sorrow.”24
“Put it,” said Haukin, “in plain English, please.”
“In English,” said Patience, “it’s hard to explain,
But I’ll simplify it somehow if you’ll try to understand.
285 First, Poverty is the property that Pride hates the most,
And all that opposes Pride should be praised.
Just as Conscience is conscious that contrition brings comfort
And sorrow in itself and solace to the soul,
So Poverty is properly both physical penance
290 And a soothing source of spiritual health:
Hence, Poverty can be a painful property.
“Second, gentlemen only are judged fit as judges
And poor men seldom sit as assessors
Or mayors or ministers under the monarch
And they rarely impose a punishment on people.
295 Hence they’re spared the cares of the court and of council,
And Poverty and poor men apply the commandment
Judge not, that you may not be judged.25
“Third, they rightfully inherit any riches as a rule,
Don’t fleece folk by fiddling with false weights and measures
Or borrow from neighbors with no paying back:
Hence, Possession without question.
300 “Fourth, Poverty is a fate that frees the soul to flourish
Safe from all sin, and does more besides.
It restrains the flesh from a full range of follies
And accords the comfort of Christ himself:
Hence, Donum Dei, the gift of God.
“Fifth, the source of health and a wholesome sweetheart,
305 A physician and a friend who defies tempting folly:
Hence, Mater sanitatis, the mother of health.
“Sixth, Poverty is a path that promises peace,
Even passing though Alton with pockets unpicked,26
For where Poverty passes, peace goes with it,
And the less one carries, the less the disquiet:
Hence, Poverty can walk on his way without worry,
310 And can sing, says Seneca, when strolling with a thief.27
“Seventh, Poverty is the well of well-chosen wisdom,
For lords scarcely listen and let him say little.
He covets no treasure and his tongue tells the truth:
Hence, The dompter or tamer of sapient wisdom.
“Eighth, Poverty labors most loyally and is loath
315 To take more than he merits, and in mercantile matters
Wins charity by not over-charging or cheating:
Hence, Doing deals without daring damnation.
“Ninth, Poverty is sweeter than sugar to the soul,
For the bread of Poverty is perfect patience
And abstention his drink and succor in sickness.
320 For love of our Lord I learnt from Augustine
That a simple life blesses both body and soul:
Hence, Felicity without sorrow in uncertain fortune.
Now God, the giver of good things, grant rest
To the saint who described friend Poverty so!”
“I wish,” Haukin wailed, “that when I was christened
325 I’d died on the spot for Do-well’s sake.
Oh, how I do hate to sin and do harm.
But sin pursues us,” he said, and grew sorry.
He wept and wept and bewailed the times
When his actions injured or angered the Lord.
330 He swooned and sighed and lamented with a sob
That ever he’d owned a half inch of land
Or been master of men besides himself:
“I was not worthy to wear more clothes
Than a single shirt and shoes out of shame
335 To cover my carcass,” he said, and cried
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�� For mercy and wept, and therewith I awoke.
I landed in London, where I lived in a hovel28
In Cornhill with Kit, clothed like a tramp,
Though disliked, believe me, by ignorant “hermits”
And beggars for the rhymes that I wrote with good reason.
One hot day of harvest when I had my health
And limbs fit for labor but lazed instead,
Doing nothing but drink and dream and doze
And traipse about thinking, Reason grew testy:
“Can’t you serve or sing in a service at church,
Or heap up hay and heave it on to carts,
Or mow it and move it and make it into sheaves?
Or rise up early and direct the reaping,
Or be out in the open at night with a horn
To watch my cattle; can’t you keep the corn
In my croft from thieves, or make clothes or cobble,
Or hedge and harrow, keep sheep or herd
My pigs and geese—be employed to some purpose
To help out folk who are old and infirm?”
“God help me,” I said, “I’m sorry to say
I’m too weak to work with a sickle or scythe,
And I’m truly too tall to stoop and toil
For hours on end by hand at some task.”
“Then you’ve land to live off, or family funds,”
Reason responded, “for you seem a spendthrift
Who wastefully whiles his time away?
Or perhaps you hang around butteries begging
Or fetch up at churches on Fridays and feast-days,
Living by lying, which little will help
When justice awards men their just reward:
Thou wilt render to every man according to his works.29
Or are you injured or lame in one limb,