Piers Plowman

by Sutton, Peter, Langland, William

  275  “Ah no,” said Hunger, “I’m not going now,

       Not till I’ve dined and drunk a fair drop.”

       “But I haven’t a penny,” said Piers, “to buy pullets

       Or a pig, goose or chicken, just a pair of fresh cheeses,

       A few curds and cream and some oaten cakes,

  280  And bean-and-bran bread that was baked for my children.

       I swear by my soul there’s no salted bacon,

       Nor eggs, by Christ, to offer you either.

       I have plenty of plants such as parsley and leeks,

       And a cow and a calf, and cabbage, and a cart-horse

  285  To draw the dung-cart during the drought,

       But must struggle on so till summer and Lammas,12

       By when I hope to have harvest home,

       And then I can do you a prodigious dinner.”

       The poor people came to help Piers with peascods,

  290  Baked apples and beans which they brought in their aprons,

       Spring onions and chervils and champion cherries

       That they offered to Piers to entertain Hunger.

       But Hunger ate everything and asked for yet more.

       Out of fear folk fed him their very last food,

  295  Praying he’d be poisoned by their green leeks and peas.

       But then harvest-time came and they carried home corn

       From market and were merry and made Hunger huge meals

       With stoups of good ale that sent him to sleep.

       But Wastrel still wandered and would not work,

  300  And beggars declined to eat bread made from beans

       And wanted wheat flour that was fine and white,

       And they jibbed at humble halfpenny ale,

       Demanding the best and brownest of brews,

       While laborers who had no land to live on

  305  Wouldn’t deign to dine on the day before’s greens,

       Nor did penny ale please them as payment, nor bacon,

       But they fancied fresh meat, or fried or baked fish

       That was chaud or plus chaud lest their stomachs be chilled.

       Workmen complained and wanted more wages,

  310  Bewailing their way of life and their work,

       And refusing Cato’s well-founded advice:

       Bear the burden of poverty bravely.13

       They were grieved with God and grouched against Reason,

       And cursed the King and his council besides

  315  For allowing the oppression of laborers in law,

       But when Hunger was master, not a man of them moaned

       Or resisted his statutes, so stern was his look.

       So I warn you, workmen, draw wages while you may

       For here comes Hunger, hurrying fast,

  320  To overwhelm all wastrels with water.

       Before five years are up, such famine shall be faced

       Through floods and foul weather that fruit shall fail.

       So says Saturn, which is sent you as a warning:

       When the sun looks strange and you see two monks’ heads,

  325  And a maid has mastery, with a multiple of eight,

       Then Death shall withdraw and Dearth shall be judge.

       And Davy the Ditcher shall die of hunger,

       Unless God in his goodness grants us a truce.14

  1Sendal probably means linen here, although it can also be a thin silk.

  2Luke xiv 10.

  3Psalm lxviii 29 (KJV Psalm lxix 28).

  4This cross in Lucca, Italy, which depicts the face of Christ, was said to have been sculpted by Nicodemus with the help of an angel.

  5Galatians vi 2.

  6Hebrews x 30, cf. Romans xii 19.

  7Luke xvi 9.

  8Genesis iii 19.

  9Not Wisdom but Proverbs xx 4.

  10Matthew xxv 14–30.

  11Psalm cxxvii 2 (KJV Psalm cxxviii 2).

  12Lammas (or loaf-mass) is August 1, when first-fruits were traditionally offered.

  13Dionysius Cato, Distich i 21.

  14Although his warning of famine is serious, Langland may be parodying the fashion for prophecies.

  Step VII

  In which Truth gives Piers a pardon for their sins for all who live honestly—which rules out beggars and lawyers. All the pardon says is that those who do good go to heaven, and those who do ill go to hell. A priest complains that this is too simplistic, and Piers tears it apart in anger. As the two of them argue I awake and conclude that salvation lies in doing well and begging God’s mercy, rather than in relying on the saying of Masses for our souls.

       Now Truth heard tell of Piers and told him

       To take his team and till the earth,

       And granted him a pardon from punishment and guilt,

       For him and his successors for ever after,

    5  Desiring him to stay and see to his land.

       He promised a pardon as well to people

       Who assisted Piers to plow it and plant it,

       Or offered him help in other professions.

       Knights and kings who cared for and nourished

   10  The Church and ruled their realms correctly

       Were pardoned the pain of Purgatory too,

       And in Paradise would join the patriarchs and prophets.

       And consecrated bishops who kept to their calling,

       Were learned in lay and in holy law,

   15  And taught and attempted to transform sinners,

       Would be peers of the apostles, the pardon showed,

       And at Doomsday would have the highest honor.

       Truth also mentioned remission for merchants,

       Though not a complete free papal pardon

   20  Since they seldom observe prescribed holy days

       And they swear by “my soul” and “as God may save me”

       When selling their stock, which is scarcely honest.

       But the pardon had a secretly sealed concession

       Allowing them leave to purchase what they liked

   25  And to make their money reselling in the market,

       Provided they aided homes for the infirm,

       Properly repaired the roads that were poor,

       Rebuilt any bridges that were broken down,

       Helped maidens to marry or made them nuns,

   30  Provided for prisoners and fed the poor,

       Subsidized schoolboys or sent them to a trade,

       And allotted religious allowances and endowments.

       “Behave as I ask and the Archangel Michael

       Shall be sent to save you from despair at your death

   35  And to see that your souls join my saints in joy,

       And no devil will dare to do you harm.”

       Then merchants made merry, and many of them wept

       As they praised Piers the Plowman for procuring the pardon.

       But lawyers received the least relief,

   40  For the Psalter says that those paid
to plead

       Who take gifts from the guiltless forgo salvation:

           Nor taken bribes against the innocent.1

       Advocates should aid the innocent for nothing,

       And princes and prelates should pay for such help:

           By kings and princes they shall be paid.2

       But it’s generally agreed that judges and jurors

   45  Work harder for miscreants than heavenly mercy.

       Those who practice, however, without pay and appear

       For the poor that are honest and harmless and humble,

       Who lend such folk help for the love of our Lord

       And work without wanting a rich reward

   50  Shall be in no danger from the devil when they die.

       Their souls shall be saved, as the psalmist confirms:

           Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle?3

       For the Father of heaven freely provides

       His treasures of Truth for folk who are true—

       Both water and wind, wisdom and fire—

   55  And they wax and they wane by the will of God,

       While those who take fees from folk for advice

       Shall plead in vain for pardon at their parting

       When they draw near to death and ask for indulgence.

       Lawyers may look at Saint Matthew for more:

           Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them.4

   60  Laborers who live from the labor of their hands,

       Who honestly earn their wages and wealth,

       And humbly live by love and the law,

       Shall have the same pardon apportioned to Piers,

       But beggars and tramps are debarred from such blessing

   65  Unless obliged by debility to beg.

       For to beg and to cadge without conscionable cause

       Is a devilish practice that deprives the poor

       And beguiles the giver against his will,

       Who would help out others in greater hardship

   70  If he knew the beggar were not in need.

       Both Cato and Comestor caution discretion,

       For Cato says to “Take care who receives,”5

       And Comestor’s stories say the same:

       See who will receive before handing out alms.6

   75  Yet the good Saint Gregory says we should give

       To all who ask since God gives his all:

       Do not pick whom to pity lest you pass by a person

       Who merits your pity and pleases God more.7

           The most needy are our neighbors if we care to notice,8

           Prisoners in pits and poor folk in hovels

           With children to their charge and landlords-in-chief.

           What they save from spinning they spend on rent

           And on milk and meal to make oat porridge

           To feed their offspring who are howling for food.

           They suffer themselves from serious hunger,

           And in winter they worry when awake at night

           As they rock the cradle in its cramped little corner

           And card and comb and patch their clothes

           And wash and work at winding the yarn

           And at making rushlights; I really can’t write

           Of the sorrows suffered by women in shacks.

           Their men-folk truly have their troubles too,

           Outwardly happy but hungry and thirsty,

           Too abashed to beg or unburden themselves

           To neighbors of their needs both at noon and at night.

           I have seen for myself from studying this world

           The privations that are faced by folk with many children

           And nothing but their craft to clothe and keep them,

           Who make little money to fill their many mouths.

           Bread and penny ale are a blissful banquet,

           Cold meat is venison and fish is fine fare,

           And on Fridays and fast-days a farthing-worth of mussels

           Or of cockles is a feast to such famished folk.

           It’s a good deed to help them and offer them alms,

           To relieve those who live thus, the lame and the blind.

       For only God knows who is in need

   80  And deceit, if any, resides in the receiver,

       Since the giver, having paid, can prepare to meet God9

       While the beggar or borrower is bound by a debt

       Which he’ll owe to God with the interest added

       And must duly redeem in full when he dies:

           Why then didst thou not give my money into the bank, that at my coming, I might have exacted it with usury?10

   85  So you beggars, don’t beg without burdensome need

       For if you can buy your bread, says the book,

       You have money enough and can meet your needs.11

       Seek solace in consulting the lives of the saints

       And the Bible, which bans the practice of begging:

           I have been young, and now am old; and have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread.12

   90  For beggars show no love nor live by the law,

       And many won’t marry the women they mate with,

       Behaving like animals, shouting “Wahay!”

       And bringing forth bairns whom folk call bastards,

       Whose bones or backs they break while they’re small,

   95  And moan then for money for the children they’ve maimed.

       There are many more bodies that are mangled and bent

       Among you beggars than the mass of men,

       And those who perform such feats shall revile

       The hour they were born when they have to go hence.

  100  But old men whose sometime strength is spent,

       And women with child who are wise not to work,

       The bed-ridden, blind, and the broken-limbed

       Who patiently put up with pain, such as lepers

       Have as plenary a pardon as the Plowman himself.

  105  For love of their humility our Lord allows them

       To pass through their penance and Purgatory on earth.

       “Piers,” said a priest, “let me read your pardon

       To spell out the sense of each sentence for you.”

       So Piers unfolded the pardon for the priest,

  110  And standing behind them I saw what it said.

       It was merely two lines, not a morsel more,

       That testified in ter
ms to the following truth:

           And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.13

       “Piers” cried the priest, “I can find no pardon.

       It simply says that your soul goes to God

  115  If you do well and work well, but do wicked works

       And your soul will be seized by the devil when you die!”

       Then Piers in a passion tore the pardon in two:

           Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me.14

       “I shall cease my sowing and stop working hard

       And studying,” Piers said, “how to stuff my belly!

  120  From now on I’ll plow only prayers and penance

       And weep when I should sleep, though the wheat is unsown.

       For the prophet ate his bread in penitence and pain,

       And others did the same, as the psalmist says,

       Because your living is secure if you love the Lord:

           My tears have been my bread day and night.15

  125  Unless Luke is a lie, we should learn to be fools

       And not to bother about the world’s bliss:

           What shall we eat: or what shall we drink?16

       We have the example of how to behave:

       Who finds winter food for birds in the fields?

       They store no grain but are given it by God.”

  130  “Well,” said the priest to Piers, “it appears

       You have learnt to read your letters a little!”

       “The Abbess Abstinence taught abc

       Before Conscience came,” said Piers, “and coached me.”

       “If you were a priest you could preach then, Piers,

  135  On subjects such as ‘The fool hath said.’”17

       “You stuck-up so-and-so,” Piers answered. “It’s seldom

       You’ve studied the Bible or the sayings of Solomon:

           Cast out the scoffer, and contention shall go out.”18

       The priest and Piers started angrily disputing,