That all my body bolneth g
For bitter of my gall.

I might nought eat many years
As a man ought,
For envy and evil will
Is evil h to defy.

May no sugar nor sweet thing
Assuage my swelling?
Ne no diapenidioni

Drive it fro mine heart?
Ne neither shrift ne shame,

But whoso shrapej my maw?"
"Yes, readily," quod Repentance,
And rad him to the best; k
"Sorrow of sins

Is salvation of souls."

"I am sorry," quod that segge; 1
I am but seld other; m
And that maketh me thus meagre
For" I ne may me venge.
Amonges burgesses have I be
Dwelling at London,

And gart backbiting be a broker

To blame men's ware:
When he sold and I nought,

Then was I ready

To lie and to lower on my neighbour,

And to lack his chaffer.p

I woll amend this if I may,

Thorough might of God Almighty."

The cases of Wrath, Covetousness, Gluttony, and Sloth, follow at equal or greater length; and then comes the passage in which Piers Ploughman is first mentioned. The people having been persuaded by the exhortations of Repentance and Hope to set out in quest of Truth,

A thousand of men tho a
Thrungen togeders,
Cried upward to Christ,

And to his clean moder,

To have grace to go with them
Truthe to seek.

Acb there was wight none so wise
The way thider couth,c
But blustreden d forth as beasts
Over bankes and hills;
Till late was and long
That they a leede met,
Apparelled as a paynim
In pilgrimes' wise.
He bar a burden y-bound
With a broad list,
In a with-wind wise f
Y-wounden about;

A bowl and a bag

He bar by his side,

And hundred of ampuls 5

On his hat setten,

Signs of Sinai,

And shells of Galice,

h

And many a crouch on his cloak,

And keyes of Rome,

And the Vernicle i before,

For men shold know

And see by his signs

Whom he sought had.
The folk frayned him first
Fro whennes he come.

66 From Sinai," he said,

"And from our Lord's sepulchre :

In Bethlem and in Babiloyn,

I have been in both;

a Then.

d Wandered along aimlessly.

b But.

c Knew.

e Person.

h Cross.

f Withy-wand-wise.

Ampullæ, small vessels of holy water or oil?

iThe Veronica, or miraculous picture of Christ. k Questioned.

j In order that.

Then the narrative goes on, as printed and pointed by

Mr. Wright, who has no note upon the

"Peter," quod a ploughman,
And put forth his head,
"I know him as kindly

passage

As clerk doth his bookes:
Conscience and kind 9 wit
Kenned me to his place,
And diden me suren him sickerly s
To serven him for ever,
Both to sow and to set

The while I swink might.

I have been his follower

1 Armenia.

。 Man.

All this fifty winter,

m Knowest thou of any relic.

n Couldest thou tell us aught of the way.

P Man.

q Natural.

r Showed.

s The expression seems confused, and is perhaps corrupt: the meaning is obviously, "And did determine or fix me securely." The him seems superfluous.

t Labour.

It is difficult to understand what meaning we are to give to the word “ 'Peter," understood as part of the Ploughman's speech. Whitaker's interpretation is " one Peter, a ploughman, now put forth his head ;" and in a note upon the passage, which in his edition occurs in the eighth passus, and stands "Peter quoth a Ploughman," he says, "As Piers Ploughman, who now first appears, is evidently the speaker, we must, notwithstanding the arrangement of the words, understand them to mean, 'Quoth Peter a ploughman.' But it is evident that this sense cannot be got out of the words as they stand.*

u Sowed.

V Tended.

w Ordereth.

* From its position the word Peter would almost seem to be nothing more than an exclamation. It does not appear to have been noticed that we have the same form of expression in two passages of Chaucer's 'House of Fame;' in Book II. 1. 526, where, to the question of the eagle,

"And what sown is it like? quod he,"

the author answers,

"Peter! like the beating of the sea,
Quod I, against the roches halow:"-

and again in Book III., 1. 910, where it is used by the eagle

The line is possibly corrupt; and indeed the whole passage, though one on which so much of the structure of the poem hinges, exhibits other traces of having suffered from the carelessness or ignorance of the transcribers. It differs widely throughout in the two editions. But everything relating to the personage from whom the work takes its name seems to be designedly involved in confusion and obscurity. The Ploughman ends his speech, of which we have quoted the commencement, by telling his auditors that, if they wish to know where Truth dwells, he is ready to show them the way to his residence; upon which, proceeds the story,

а

"Yea, leve a Piers," quod these pilgrims,

And proffered him hire,

For to wend with hem

To Truth's dwelling-place.

"Nay, by my soul's help," b quod Piers,

And gan for to swear,

I nold fang a ferthing,

For Saint Thomas' shrine; c

с

in addressing the author (elsewhere called Geffrey, see II. 221)

"Peter! that is now mine intent,
Quod he to me."

Perhaps "Peter! quod a Ploughman" means no more than what we find a few pages after :

66

Quod Perkin the Ploughman,

By Saint Peter of Rome!"-1. 3799.

Besides, the Ploughman, we believe, is never afterwards called Peter; but always either Piers or Perkin.

a Dear.

b Should not this be helth, or health? The Saxon character for th is very apt to be mistaken for a p.

• I would not take a farthing, if you were to offer me all the wealth of St. Thomas's shrine.