He offered, whatever her sins might be, to absolve her for a load of wheat, to hold by her himself and put down Conscience, if she liked, among kings, knights, and clergy. Then Meed knelt to be shriven by him, told him a shameless tale, and gave him a noble that he might be her bedesman, and might do her bidding among knights and clerks to thwart Conscience. absolved her at once and said, "We have a window in hand that will stand us in a good sum: if you will glaze the gable and set your name in it, we shall sing for Meed solemnly at mass and at matins as for a sister of our order." Meed laughed and said, "Friar, I shall be your friend, and never fail you as long as you aid lords and ladies in their worldly delights and do not rebuke them. Do that, and I will roof your church and build your cloister, and both windows and walls I will so mend and glaze and paint and portray, that every man may see I am a sister of order." your But, says the poet here in his own person— "Ac1 God to all good folk such graving defendeth,2 Lest pride be painted there, and pomp of the world. Meed then pleaded with mayors, sheriffs, and serjeants against the putting in the pillory of bakers, brewers, butchers, cooks and others, who build themselves high houses upon gains made by dishonesty in selling by retail. Against such wrongers of the people the poet, in his own person, speaks earnestly, but Meed advises the mayor to take bribes from them and let them cheat. To this the poet adds his reminder of Solomon's threat against those who receive such gifts. Fire shall devour their dwellings.5 Then the King called Meed before him, gently reproved her for following Guile and desiring to be wedded without his consent, but forgave her on condition of amendment. She must not again vex him and Truth, lest she be imprisoned in Corfe Castle or in a worse place. If he be "I have a knight," said the King, "named Conscience, lately come from beyond the seas. willing to wed you, will you have him?" "Yea, lord," said the Lady; "Heaven forbid that I should not be wholly at your command." Then Conscience was summoned to appear before the King and his Council. He knelt and bowed before the King, to know his will and what he was to do. "Wilt thou wed this maid, if I assent, for she is fain of thy fellowship, and to be thy mate?" Quoth Conscience to the King, "Christ forbid! Woe betide me ere I wed such a wife. She is frail of her faith and fickle of her speech, and maketh men misdo many score times. She misleads wives and widows. She and Falseness caused your father's fall. She has poisoned Popes, she hurteth Holy-Church," and very many more of the great evils of the world were charged, in his reply to the King, by Conscience against Meed. "Nay, lord," quoth that Lady, "the wrong lies with him. Where mischief is greatest, Meed can help. Thou, Conscience, well knowest that thou hast hung on my neck eleven times for gold to give as thee liked. Even now I might make thee more of a man than thou knowest. Thou hast defamed me foully here before the King. I never killed a king or counselled a king's death, but saved myself and sixty thousand lives here and in many lands. But thou hast slackened many a man's will to burn and destroy and beat down strength. Thou, Conscience, gavest wretched counsel to the King to leave his heritage of France in the enemy's hand. A conquered kingdom or duchy is not to be parted with, when so many who fought to win it, and followed the king's will, ask their shares. The least lad in the king's service, when the land is won, looks after Lordship or other large meed, whereby he may live as a man for everThat is the nature of a king who overcomes his enemies; thus to help all his host, or else to grant all that his men may win, for them to do their best with. Therefore I advise no king to admit Conscience to his counsels, if he wish to be a conqueror. Were I a crowned king, Conscience should never be my constable or marshal of my men when I must fight. Had I, Meed, been his marshal in France, I dare lay my life he would have been lord of the land in length and breadth, and the least brat of his blood a baron's peer. more. "Unkindly thou, Conscience, counselled'st him thence To let so his Lordship for a little money. It becometh for a king that shall keep a realm Edward II.'s. 7 By the Treaty of Bretigny, May 8th, 1360, Edward III -who, in the withdrawal or retreat of his famine-striken army from Paris, bad been stirred in his conscience by a great thunderstorm, and vowel a peace-renounced his claim to the French throne, restored all b conquests except Calais aud Guisnes (reserving Poitou, Guienne, and Ponthieu), and set free the captive King of France for a ransom of three million crowns. 8 Underfongen, receive. All kyne crafty men crave meed for their apprentices, 66 Then quoth the King to Conscience, "Meed deserves mastery." But, Nay," quoth Conscience to the King, clerks know the truth, that Meed is evermore a maintainer of Guile, as the Psalter sheweth. There is besides Meed, Mercede, which is the just hire for work done, but men give meed many a time where there is nothing earned. Payment for work done is mercede, not meed. There is no meed in merchandise, that is but exchange of a penny for a pennyworth; and if the King give lordship to his liegeman, he does that for love, and may revoke the gift." Conscience discussed more fully the difference between Mercede and Meed who brought Absalom to hanging, and who caused Saul's kingdom to pass from him. "The speaker of truth," said Conscience, "is now blamed; but I, Conscience, know this, that Reason shall reign and Agag shall suffer. Saul shall be blamed and David diademed; and each of us shall be in the keeping of a Christian king. "Shall no Meed be master never more after, But love and lowness and loyalty together Shall be masters on mold, true men to help." Meed hinders the law by her large gifts, "But Kind Love shall come yet and Conscience together, For all that beareth baselards,3 bright sword, or lance, Shall be doomed to the death but if he do it smithie1 Conflabunt gladios suos in vomeres, et lanceas Each man to play with a plough, a pickaxe, or a spade, To more prophesy from Isaiah of the day when war shall cease on earth and God be truly known, Meed replied with half a text from the Proverbs of Solomon, and was confuted by the other half, with a comment that she was like the woman who justified doing as she pleased with the text, "Prove all things" at the bottom of a leaf, and omitted to turn over the page and read "Hold fast that which is good." After all this argument the King bade Conscience kiss Meed. Conscience replied that he would rather die than do so, unless Reason counselled him. "Then," 1 Is no lede, there is no man. First-English "leod." 2 On mold, on earth. 3 Baselards were long daggers worn in the girdle. It was with a baselard that Sir William Walworth stabbed Wat Tyler. The weapon was worn by civilians in Richard II.'s time. But if he do it smithie, unless he cause it to be forged. 5 "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks." (Isaiah ii. 4.) said the King, "ride away quickly, and fetch Reason. He shall rule my realm, and advise me concerning Meed and other things, tell me to whom she is to be wedded, and take account with you, Conscience, as to your dealings with my people, learned and unlearned." Conscience then rode off gladly to Reason and gave the King's message. "I shall array me to ride,' quoth Reason, 'rest thou awhile': And called Cato his knave, courteous of speech, Ne-leasings-to-laugh-of-for-I-loved-it-never, Then Conscience and Reason rode together, talking of the mastery of Meed at court. Waryn Wiseman and his fellow Wilyman were fain to follow that they might take counsel of Reason for record before the King and Conscience in case they had a plaint against Wilyman and Wittiman and Waryn Wringlaw. But Conscience knew them well, and said to Reason, "Hither come servants of Covetise. Ride forth, Sir Reason, and reck not of their tales; for they will abide where wrath and wrangling is, but love and loyalty are not after their hearts. They will do more for a dinner or a dozen capons than for our Lord's love. Then Reason rode forth, and did not look back till he met the King. Then came the King, says the poet, and greeted Sir Reason courteously, and set him between himself and his son. When the poem was begun, in 1362 or 1363, Edward III.'s son and heir, the Black Prince, still lived, and the image of the sovereign enthroning Reason between himself and his heir was, of course, not altered when change, caused by the death of the King's son, led to the covert reference to tyranny of John of Gaunt and danger from Richard's youth, in the inserted fable about belling the cat. To have then written in this part of the poem grandson for son would have implied a direct identifying of the King in the allegory with the King of England, which would have been equally bad in art and policy. The King, then, set Sir Reason between himself and his son, and for a long while they spoke wise words together. Then came Peace into parliament, and put up a bill showing all the violent misdeeds of Wrong. "No women are safe from him, he takes my geese, my pigs, my grass. Because of his fellowship," said Peace, "I dare not carry silver to the fair upon St. Giles's down. He is bold to borrow, bad to pay. He borrowed my horse Bayard, which never was returned or paid for. He maintains men to murder my servants, breaks my barn-doors, and carries off my wheat. Because of him, I scarcely venture to look up." The King knew this to be true, for Conscience told him that Wrong was a wicked man who worked much Then Wrong besought help of Wisdom, looked woe. Warroke, girth. First-English "wear" and "wearh," a knot. 7 Wone, custom. to Men of Law, and offered them large pay for their help. "With your help," he said, "I should care little for Peace, though he complained for ever." Then Wisdom and Wit went together, and took Meed with them to win mercy. "Yet Peace put forth his head, and his pan1 bloody; 'Without guilt, God wot, got I this scathe; Conscience knoweth it well and all the true commons." " BREAKING THE HEAD OF PEACE. From the Capital to a Cluster of Columns in Wells Cathedral. Wiles and Wit went about to bribe the King, if they could; but the King swore that Wrong should suffer, and commanded a constable to cast him in irons where he should not for seven years see feet or hands. A wise one said, "That is not best. Let him have bail if he can make amends." Wit seconded this. Meed meekly sought mercy, "And proffered Peace a present all of pure gold; 'Have this, man, of me,' quoth she, 'to amend thy scathe; For I will wage2 for Wrong he will do so no more.' To have mercy on that man that many times grieved him- The King answered that if Wrong escaped so lightly, he would laugh and be bolder. "He shall lie in the stocks so long as I live, unless Reason have ruth of him." Then some besought Reason to take pity on Wrong, provided Meed were bail for him. Reason bade them not counsel him to pity-until lords and ladies all loved truth, Pernel locked up her finery, spoilt 1 Pan, crown. Sweedish "panna," the skull, head. 2 Wage, engage, be surety. children were chastised, the poor were clothed out of the luxury of the clergy, monks and friars kept to their strict rule, and learned men lived as they taught; till the King's counsel is all for the profit of the Commons; till bishops become bakers, brewers, tailors for all manner of men as they find need, and Saint James is sought not in pilgrimages to Gallicia, but where the sick poor lie in their prisons and their wretched homes; till the Rome-runners carry no more of the King's silver over sea, coined or uncoined and yet, he said, I will have no ruth upon Wrong, while Meed masters the pleadings. "Were I," said Reason, "a crowned king, never wrong that I knew of should go unpunished if within my power, upon peril of my soul; nor should it get my grace by any gift or glosing speech. By Mary of Heaven, I would do no mercy for Meed. For nullum malum should be impunitum, and nullum bonum irremune ratum. Let your confessor, Sir King, construe this into English, and if you work it out into deeds, Law may turn labourer and cast dung to the field, while Love shall lead thy land as thee lief liketh." Confessors coupled themselves together to translate this Latin. Meed winked at the lawyers that by subtle speech they might put down Reason, of whom all just men said that he spoke truth, while Conscience and Kind-Wit courteously thanked him. Love made light of Meed and Loyalty less. Whoever wedded her, they said, would be betrayed. Meed mourned when she was scorned, and a sisour and a summoner led her away softly from the judgment-hall. A sheriff's clerk proclaimed that she was to be taken into safe custody, but not imprisoned. The King then took counsel with Conscience and Reason, looked with anger on Meed, frowned on the Men of Law as hinderers of truth, and declared that, if he reigned any while, Reason should reckon with them, and judge them as they deserved. He would have loyalty for his law, and an end of jangling. His law should be administered by leal men, who were holy of their lives. Conscience said it would be hard to bring matters to that without help of the Commons. Reason declared that all realms could be brought under his rule. "I would it were well about," said the King, "and, therefore, Reason, you shall not ride hence. I make thee my chief Chancellor in the Exchequer and the Parliament, and Conscience shall be as the King's Judge in all the courts." "I assent," said Reason, "if thou thyself hear both sides between Lords and Commons, and send no supersedeas, or seal no private letters with unfitting sufferance; I assent, and I dare lay my life that Love will furnish you with more silver than all the Lombards." The King was commanding Conscience to discharge all his officers, and appoint those whom Reason loved, when William awoke from the first dream of his Vision. In the first form of the earlier part of the Vision the poet grieved when awake that he had not slept better and seen more, walked a furlong on over the Malvern Hills, sat down, babbled on his beads, and 3 No evil should go unpunished, and no good unrewarded. slept again. That when he began the poem he was at home on Malvern Hills may be inferred from his change in the manner of prefacing the second dream when in after years he recast his work. He went to sleep on Malvern Hills, and awoke, he then said, to find himself living on Cornhill, Kit and he in a cot. He was clothed as an idler, and yet not much of an idler, for he wrote about such men as Reason taught him. For as he came by Conscience he met Reason, in a hot harvest time when he had health and limbs for labour but loved to fare well and do nothing but drink and sleep. Then he represents Reason asking him what work he did in the world; and the lesson of Duty which allows no true man to be " a loller" is associated with those answers from Will, already referred to, which indicate what was his work in London. Reason then bade him begin at once a life that should be loyal to the soul. "Yea, and continue," quoth Conscience. And to the kirk, Will says, he went to honour God, weeping and wailing for his sins, until he slept. These new incidents served as a natural introduc tion to the second dream. In this there was again seen the field full of folk from end to end, and Reason and Conscience, by whom he himself had just been counselled, were there among the stir of Reason clothed as a Pope, with Conscience for cross-bearer, stood before the King, and before all the realm men. "Preached and proved that these pestilences The south-west wind here spoken of blew, in pestilence time, on Saturday, the 15th of January, 1362 (new style), and among other things that it blew down was the spire of Norwich Cathedral. The gale must have been fresh in the minds of the people when it was joined with the pestilence in Reason's warning to the people to flee from the wrath of God, and the allusion to it helps to determine the time when Langland began his poem. Reason, thus preaching, bade Wasters go work for their food and lose no time, prayed Pernel (Petronilla) to lock up her embroidery, taught Thomas Stow to fetch his wife out of disgrace, and warned Wat that his wife was to blame, for her head-gear was worth half a mark and his hood not a groat. He charged Bet to cut a bough or two and beat Betty her maid if she would not work, and merchants as they became rich not to withhold from their children due correction; for the wise man wrote "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Then he prayed prelates and priests to prove in themselves their preaching to the people: 1 Pertelich, apertly, openly, manifestly. Latin "apertus," open. 2 Piries, pear-trees. Latin "pyrus." 3 Syggen, say to. First-English "secgan," to say. "For if heaven be on this earth or any ease for soul, In places where these persons be by themselves at ease It When Reason had done preaching, Repentance went among the throng, and made Will weep and Pernel Proudheart stretch herself flat on the earth. was long ere she looked up and cried upon the Lord for mercy. Pernel personifying Pride, with her began the repentant confessions of the Seven Deadly Sins, which classify homely suggestions of the evil that is in the world. After Pride came Envy to confession, after Envy Wrath, dweller with men who delight in harming one another. Prelates and friars are at war, and so Wrath keeps them in dispute. One of Wrath's aunts is a nun, another an abbess; he has been cook in their kitchen and made their pottage of jangles. The sisters sit and dispute until "Thou liest!" and "Thou liest!" be lady over them all. Wrath sits in the wives' pews. "The parson knows how little I love Lettice at the Stile, my heart was changed towards her from the time when she was before me at sacrament to take the holy bread. I don't care to live among monks, for they eat more fish than flesh, and drink weak ale; but otherwhile when wine cometh and when I drink late I have a flux of a foul mouth well five days after." "Now repent thee!" quoth Repentance, "and be sober;" and absolved him, and bade him pray to God by His help to amend. Luxury next came to confession and repentance; then Avarice in a torn tabard of twelve years old, who was once apprentice to Sim at the Stile," where he learned to lie and to use false weights. He went with his master's goods to the fair at Winchester or Weyhill, and his wares would have gone unsold for seven years had Guile not helped him. Avarice told of tricks of trade learnt from the drapers; how his wife, Rose the Regrater, wove, and paid the spinsters by false weight for their work upon the wool; how 1 An hy, on high. Leyued, believed. 3 Siththen, after that. That suweth, that follow, or act according to. French "suivre." 5 Sim at the Stile. In another version he is "Sim atte noke," equivalent to "atten oke," at the oak: here use happens to be made of the answering phrase for a hypothetical dwelling-place "at the stile," Both forms remain in the phrase "Jack Nokes and Tom Stiles." See, just before," Lettice at the Stile." she was brewster too, and played tricks with her ales. "Didst thou never make restitution?" quoth Repentance. "Yes," said Avarice; "I was lodged once with a company of chapmen, and when they were asleep, I got up and rifled their bags." "That was a rueful restitution," quoth Repentance, "forsooth. Thou wilt hang high for it, here or in hell. Usedst thou ever usury in all thy lifetime?" "Nay, only in my youth, when I learned among the Lombards to clip coin, and took pledges of more worth than the money lent. I lent to those who would lose their money; they bought time. I have lent to lords and ladies that loved me never after. I have made a knight of many a mercer. "By the rood," said Repentance, "thine heirs shall have no joy in the silver thou leavest. The Pope and all his pardoners cannot absolve thee of thy sins unless thou make restitution." "I won my goods," Avarice went on, "by false words and false devices. I am rich through Guile and Glosing. If my neighbour had anything more profitable than mine, I used all my wit to find how I might have it. And if it could be had no other way, at last I stole it, or shook his purse privily, unpicked his locks. And if I went to the plough, I pinched on his half acre, so that I got a foot of land or a furrow of my neighbour's earth; and if I reaped, I bade my reapers put their sickle into that I never sowed. On holy days when I went to church, I mourned not for my sins, but for any worldly good that I had lost. Though I did deadly sin, it less troubled me than money lent and lost, or long in being paid. And if a servant was at Bruges to await my profit and trade with my money, neither matins nor mass, nor penance performed, nor paternoster said, could comfort the mind that was more in my goods than in God's grace and His great might." "Now," quoth Repentance, "truly I have ruth of your way of living. Were I a friar, in good faith, for all the gold on earth, I would not clothe me or take a meal's meat of thy goods, if my heart knew thee to be as thou sayest. I would rather live on water-cresses than be fed and kept on false men's winnings. Thou art an unnatural creature. I cannot absolve thee until thou have made, according to thy might, to all men restitution. All that have of thy goods are bound at the high day of doom to help thee to restore. The priest that takes thy tithe shall take his part with thee in purgatory and help pay thy debt, if he knew thee to be a thief when he received thine offering." Then there was a Welshman named Evan Yieldagain, who said in great sorrow that though he were left without livelihood, he would restore to every one, before he went thence, all that he had won from him wickedly. Robert the Rifler looked on Reddite and wept sorely, because he had not wherewith to make restitution; and he prayed with tears to Christ, who pitied Dismas his brother, Reddite, Restore! Reddere, to restore. |