In which, in a dream within a dream, Fortune indulges my fleshly desires for many years, but she and the friars desert me in old age. Fidelity urges me to expose falsehood, and Scripture lectures me on the difficulty of achieving salvation. The heathen Emperor Trajan comforts me, saying he has been saved by good deeds, but Scripture continues her harangue, until Nature suggests I look at the Reason in natural wonders. My inner dream ends, and another voice warns me against wanting to know too much.
Then Scripture started another long speech,
Scolding me sharply and saying in Latin,
“Many know much but don’t master themselves.”
I was so upset at the sound of her voice
5 That I soon shut my eyes and so fell asleep.
And musing I met with a marvelous dream:
I was wafted by Fortune from where I was
To the Land of Longing and found myself looking1
In a magic mirror called Middle Earth.
10 Dame Fortune said, “You’ll see astonishing sights.
You’ll delight in and learn of your life-long desires.”
Two fair young women followed after Fortune:
Fleshly-fancy, who was fuller in years,
And Lovely-to-look-at, who was younger and lissom.
15 Pride-in-perfection followed the pair,
Saying looks would bring me more laughter than learning.
Then Fleshly-fancy fondled me and said,
“You are young as yet and have years enough
To live and to love many ladies still,
20 And the mirror will show you many amusements,
Pastimes that promise the sweetest pleasure.”
The second said the same: “I shall serve your desires,
And if Fortune favors you I’ll be your fellow
Until you’re a lord with a title and land.”
25 “He shall find me his friend,” Dame Fortune replied.
“If you follow your fortune, your luck can’t fail.”
But a humorless fellow, Old Age, chipped in.
“When you meet me,” he muttered, “by Mary in heaven,
You’ll find that Fortune will fail when you need her,
30 And Fleshly-fancy will vanish away.
You’ll groan with grief and regret and will curse
The moment you looked on Lovely-to-look-at,
And Pride-in-perfection’s perilous ploys.”
Raggedy Recklessness raised his voice.
35 “Fiddlesticks!” he said. “You follow your fortune,
You’ve a while to bide till you’re bald and bent.”
“Man proposes,” said a poet called Plato,
“And God disposes, so God can dispose.
If Truth says it’s fine to follow your fortune,
40 Fleshly-fancy and Lovely-to-look-at
Won’t cheat or chasten you unless it’s your choice.”
And Childishness chuckled, “Come on then, chuck,”
And filled my days full of Fleshly-fancy.
Old Age and Holiness answered, “Alas
45 That Will should lose his wits to lust!”2
But Lovely-to-look-at lent me comfort
And followed me faithfully for forty-five years.
I did not dwell on Do-better or Do-well,
Not troubling to pay them token attention.
50 For Lovely-to-look-at was more in my mind
In my daily round than doing good deeds.
She constantly kept reassuring me, saying,
“Don’t worry your head about how you get wealthy.
Confess to some friar your faults and your sins,
55 For friars will love you while Fortune’s your friend.
They’ll invite you to be their brother and will beg
A pardon for you from the prior of the province.
If you’ve money, each mendicant will mention you in prayer.”
I was easily wooed by the warmness of her words,
60 Though penance can’t be purchased for spiritual sins,3
Till I left youth behind and entered old age,
When Fortune forsook me despite what she’d said,
And poverty plagued me and pulled me right down,
And friars took offense and refused to see me
65 Because for the burial of my corpse I declared
I preferred my family church to the friary.
For once I had heard Conscience point out
That a body should be buried where that body was christened.
When the friars were informed, they called me a fool
70 And their friendship cooled on account of my candor.
“Friar, by my faith,” I snapped at my confessor,
Who said he was a scholar, “you behave like scoundrels
Who marry widows to gain mastery of money;
You were never bothered where my body might be buried
75 As long as you could count on acquiring my cash,
And I am astonished, like scores of others,
That you far prefer to confess and to bury
Than to christen and catechize Christian children.
Baptism and burial, both are needed,
80 But baptism must bring much more merit,
For a man who is christened, you clergy claim,
Can enter heaven if honestly contrite—
Only contrition blots out sin—4
While a bairn without baptism finds his way barred:
Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.5
You scholars, search, and see if I lie.”
85 Fidelity regarded me, and I gave him a glower.
“Why frown?” he asked, fixing me fiercely.
“Because I’d be keen to recount this dream!”
“Saints Peter and Paul would approve,” he said:
“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; Them that sin reprove before all.6
“But clerics will respond,” I said, “with the saying
Judge not, that you may not be judged.”7
90 “Our religion means little,” said Fidelity, “unless
It exposes wrongs, as the apostle pleaded:
Thou shalt not hate thy brother.8
And David himself says in the psalms:
Thou thoughtest unjustly that I should be like to thee: but I will reprove thee.9
Less learned men too may tell the truth
If they like, for the law gives that liberty to all
95 Except parsons and priests and prelates of the Church,
Who may not tell tales of what’s told to them
Though the tale be true a
nd concern some sin.
When aware of some thing unwarranted or wicked,
Discuss it of course, thereby combating sin,
100 But never be first to refer to a fault:
Be sorry you see it but say no more
And never make public problems that are private:
Be sparing in praise and sparser in censure.”10
“Just so,” said Scripture, jumping up with a sermon,
105 But the more of it they’d mastered, the less, I believe,
The unlearned would have liked the faith of our Lord
Professed by scholars and stated by Scripture.
I took good note of her theme, which was this:
“Many folk were invited to a generous feast.
110 When the people appeared, the porter at the gate
Admitted a few but dismissed many more!”
My heart started trembling at the tale she told;
It filled with doubt and I fretted with fear
As to whether I were chosen: had the Church in fact cheated
115 When it welcomed me with water as one of the baptized?
Surely Christ called us all if we cared to come,
Heathens and heretics, and even the Jews:
All you that thirst, come to the waters.11
Sinners, he said, should suck at his breast,
And anyone who did so would have his pain eased.
120 “So all Christians,” I exclaimed, “may claim admission
For he bought us with his blood if we’ve been baptized:
He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved.12
And a Christian who craves to cast off his faith
Cannot legally decline it or lawfully discard it,
For unless his lord says so, no servant may sell
125 Or give away his goods or sign an agreement.
If he runs up a debt he may roam the roads
Like a feckless felon far from home,
But Reason at length will reckon with the wretch,
And Conscience will catch him and settle accounts
130 And imprison him in Purgatory to burn in payment
For the debt he owes till the Day of Doom
Unless he talks with truth of contrition
Or it enters his heart and he aches for mercy.”
“That is so,” said Scripture. “No sin is so gross
135 That humility and mercy may not amend it,
For the books say that both abound in God’s works:
His tender mercies are over all his works.”13
“Blow your books!” cried a body called Trajan,
Who had been an emperor and had broken out of hell.
“As a pope will endorse, I was dead and condemned
140 To terror and torment for not being baptized,
And all the clerics under Christ could not help.
But Saint Gregory consented to save my soul
And freed me for my fairness, charity and good faith,
Simply for the decency of the deeds that I did.
145 And when he had wept for me, wishing me grace,
It was granted and given without groveling or prayer.
I was saved, as you see, without singing of Masses;
It was love and his learning of my honest living,
Not prayer, that released me from punishing pain.”
150 “As you hear,” said Scripture, “an unbaptized emperor
Of Rome was freed, as writers confirm
And Saint Gregory agrees, by good faith and fairness,
By purity and not by the prayers of a pope,
And justices should look to and learn from this lesson
155 And imitate his honesty and be upright with people.
This may seem a mystery, but men of the Church
Can study and see from the Lives of the Saints14
How fidelity in life and love released
From the pains of Purgatory a pagan of Rome.
160 Blessed be Truth that broke hell’s bars
And saved the heathen from Satan’s sway,
Which learning could not, nor knowing the law.
You should look to fidelity and rely on love,
For they bring to the Bible both bliss and joy,
165 The book that God’s finger fashioned and formed
And commended to all through Moses on the mount.”
“Law without love,” Trajan said, “is time lost.
So are scholarly science and the seven learned arts,
Unless they are learnt for the love of our Lord.
170 Their proper employment is for God and the people,
Rather than riches or rank or prestige.”
“Saint John is just in his judgment,” said Scripture15:
“He that loveth not, abideth in death.16
For he asked that we all, both enemies and friends,
Should aid and love one another as ourselves
175 Since to love is to give, as our Lord relates,
Requiring each creature to love and to care
For poor folk first, followed by their foes.
If we love those who hate us our harvest is honor;
If we aid the poor, their prayers will support us.
180 Our joy and our jewel, gentle Jesus in heaven
Appears to us always in poor man’s apparel,
Looking on us lovingly and seeking to learn
From the cast of our eyes and our kindness of heart
If we love earthly lords, or our Lord in heaven.
185 In the Gospel he exhorts us in opening our homes—
When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy neighbors who are rich—17
To call the careworn, the crooked and poor,
‘For your friends will feed you and find occasions
To invite you in return for your feast and benefactions,
But I shall requite the kindness of folk
190 Who affectionately feed and give funds to the poor.’
“But virtue is found among folk of all sorts,
And because all are creatures of Christ all are rich,
Being brothers in his blood, both beggars and earls,
For on Calvary Christendom cascaded from his blood.
195 We became blood brothers, bought by one body,
All newborn babes who are noble knights,18
Not paupers except as the sequel to sin:
Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.19
In the old dispensation,” Scripture persisted,
“We were styled the sons of men as descendants
&n
bsp; 200 Of Adam and Eve, but the resurrection
Of the man–God Redeemer who died has made us
His brothers who are bought by his blessed blood.
Therefore lordly or lowly, let us laugh and love
And help one another for we all are mortal:
Bear ye one another’s burdens.20
205 So do not be selfish with skills and possessions
For no one knows how near he is to death.
And do not belittle those learned in Latin,
Or vilify the faulty for none is faultless,
For whatever the creed of the Christian clergy,
210 Christ said to a prostitute at a public repast
That her faith would save her and absolve her of sin.
“We are helped much less by philosophy than belief,
And the Lives of the Saints think little of law
Or logic unless belief lends support.
215 For the arguments it offers are airy and long,
And law is loath to show love save for money.
So I counsel all Christians to cling to neither
Philosophy nor law if they hope to shun lies.
As Saint John bears witness in words of wisdom
220 And faith that have saved many sinners for sure:
For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.21
Therefore learn the law that is love, as our Lord
And Saint Gregory prescribed for the sake of your souls:
Study your sins sooner than science.22
“It is chiefly for the poor that I point to this passage,
225 For frequently our Lord was looked on in their likeness:
For instance his advent in Emmaus at Easter,
When Cleophas had no inkling he was Christ
In his poor apparel and his pilgrim’s garb
Till he blessed and broke the bread that they ate:
230 They judged he was Jesus from his gestures and actions,
But not from his attire or the topics he talked of.
And this was an example to show us sinners
That our manners and speech should be moderate and modest,
And our apparel not proud for we all are pilgrims.
Piers Plowman Page 18