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which his master, Chaucer, had before him made more successful use. The second piece, which represents the close of the May festival, is so characteristic of the school of poetry and of the time, that it will bear quoting, in spite of its conventionality.

And Prevye Thought, rejoycing of hym-self,
Stode not fer thens in abite mervelous;
'Yon is,' thought I, 'som sprite or som elf,
His sotill image is so curious :

How is,' quod I, 'that he is shaded thus
With yonder cloth, I note1 of what coloure?'
And nere I went and gan to lere and pore,

And framed him a question full hard.
'What is,' quod I, 'the thyng thou lovest best?
Or what is bote 2 unto thy paynës hard?
Me think thou livest here in grete unrest,
Thow wandrest ay from south to est and west,
And est to north; as fer as I can see,
There is no place in courte may holden the.

'Whom folowest thow? where is thy harte iset?
But my demaunde asoile I thee require.'
'Me thoughte,' quod he, 'no creature may lette
Me to ben here and where as I desire :
For where as absence hath don out the fire,
My mery thought it kyndelith yet agayn,
That bodily me thinke with my souverayne

'I stand and speke, and laugh, and kisse, and halse1,
So that my thought comforteth me ful ofte:

I think, God wot, though all the world be false,

I wil be trewe; I think also how softe

My lady is in speche, and this on-lofte

Bryngeth myn harte in joye and grete gladnesse ;
This prevey thought alayeth myne hevynesse.

'And what I thinke or where to be, no man
In all this erth can tell, iwis, but I:

And eke there nys no swalowe swifte, ne swan

1 know not.

2 remedy.

3

absolve, solve.

* embrace.

1

So wight of wyng, ne half so yerne 2 can flye;
For I can ben, and that right sodenly,

In Heven, in Helle, in Paradise, and here,
And with my lady, whan I wil desire.

'I am of councell ferre and wide, I wot,
With lord and lady, and here privité

I wot it all; and be it cold or hoot,

Thay shalle not speke withoute licence of me.

3

I mynde, in suche as sesonable bee,

Tho first the thing is thought withyn the harte,
Er any worde out from the mouth astarte.'

*

*

*

*

*

And furth the cokkowe gan procede anon,
With 'Benedictus' thankyng God in haste,
That in this May wold visite hem echon,
And gladden hem all while the feste shall laste:
And therewithal a loughter out he braste,
'I thanke it God that I shuld ende the song,
And all the service which hath ben so long.'

Thus sange thay all the service of the feste,
And that was done right erly, to my dome3;
And furth goth all the courte, bothe moste and leste,
To feche the flourës fressh, and braunche and blome;
And namly hawthorn brought both page and grome,
With fressh garlantis, partie blewe and white,
And hem rejoysen in her grete delite.

Eke eche at other threw the flourës brighte,

The prymerose, the violet, and the golde;
So than, as I beheld the riall sighte,

My lady gan me sodenly beholde,

And with a trewe love, plited many-folde,

She smote me thrugh the very harte as blive",

And Venus yet I thanke I am alive.

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WILLIAM LANGLEY,

OR

LANGLAND.

CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with Chaucer there lived and worked one of the most remarkable of our poets, of whom we know little or nothing except from his works. And even these have been so little studied by the generality of readers, that the singular mistake has arisen of confusing the name of the work with the name of the author. It is common to see references made to 'Piers Plowman' as if he were a writer living in the fourteenth century, which is no less confusing than if we should speak of Hamlet as flourishing in the reign of Elizabeth.

Our author's name is not certainly known. That his Christian name was William there can be no doubt, though by some mistake he has sometimes been called Robert. In a note written on the fly-leaf of one of the Dublin MSS., in a hand of the fifteenth century, we are told that a certain Stacy de Rokayle, living at Shipton-under-Wychwood (about four miles from Burford in Oxfordshire), and holding land of Lord le Spenser, was the father of William de Langlond who wrote the book called Piers Plowman. The only difficulty about this testimony is the name Langland, which should rather, perhaps, be read as Langley; since the Langland family was at that date connected with Somersetshire, whilst there is actually a hamlet named Langley at no great distance from Shipton.

By a careful study of the internal evidence afforded us by the poet's works, we can make out quite sufficient to give us a clear idea of the man. We gather, chiefly from his own words, that he was born about A.D. 1332, probably at Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. His father and his friends put him to school (possibly in the monastery at Great Malvern), made a clerk or scholar of him, and taught him what holy writ meant. In 1362, at the age of about thirty, he first began work upon the poem, which was to occupy him during a great part of his after life. The real subject of the poem is the religious and social condition of the poorer

classes of England during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. His testimony is invested with a peculiar interest by the fact that he clearly knew what he was talking about. His own experience, and his own keen powers of observation provided him with an abundant supply of material. He saw the necessity of some reform, and endeavoured to realise in his own mind the person of the coming reformer. To this ideal person he gave the name of Piers the Plowman, to signify that great results can often be achieved by comparatively humble means; and perhaps as hinting, at the same time, that if the labouring classes were to expect any great improvement to take place in their condition, they had best consider what they could do to help themselves. As years wore on, William's supposed reformer seems to have become less actual to him, and assumed, as it were, a more spiritual form to his mind. At last he fully grasps the idea that it is better to turn from any expectation of a reformer to come to the contemplation of the Saviour who has come already. At this point, his mind seizes a bolder conception; he no longer describes Piers Plowman as he had done at first, as if he were no more than what was formerly called a head harvestman, giving directions to the reapers and sowing the corn himself that he might be sure it was sown properly; but he identifies him rather with the Good Samaritan, or personified Love, who is to be of more help to mankind than Faith as typified by Abraham, or than Hope as typified by Moses. The true Good Samaritan is He who told the parable of Himself; the Reformer is no other than Christ. When Christ became incarnate, He was like a warrior doing battle in another's cause, and wearing his arms and cognisance. He put on the armour of Piers the Plowman when He took upon Himself human nature; and His victory over death was the earnest of the deliverance of mankind from all miseries, and the beginning of the improvement of the condition of the lower orders. Such ideas as these form, in fact, a part of the author's own life; they are essentially an important chapter in his autobiography.

In the first instance, he began his poem under the form of a Vision, which took at last the name of the Vision of Piers the Plowman; though it is rather a succession of visions, in some of which Piers is never seen at all. The poet describes himself as wandering on the Malvern Hills, where he falls asleep beside a murmuring brook, and dreams of a Field full of Folk, i.e. the world, of the Lady Holychurch who acts as his instructress, of the Lady Meed who corrupts justice and is ready to bribe even the

king himself, of the Seven Deadly Sins, and of Piers the Plowman. Such was the first draught of his poem, to which a sort of appendix was shortly added, with the title of Do-Well, Do-bet [i.e. Dobetter], and Do-best.

It would appear that he had already some acquaintance with London life; and, soon after the writing of the first draught of the poem, he seems to have resided there permanently, taking up his abode in Cornhill, where he lived with his wife Kitte and his daughter Calote, for many long years. About A.D. 1377 he undertook the task of revising his poem; it ended in his completely rewriting it, at the same time expanding it to so great an extent that it grew to three times its former length. Incidentally, he describes himself as a tall man, going by the nickname of Long Will; one loath to reverence lords or ladies, or persons dressed in fur and wearing silver ornaments, and not deigning to say 'God save you' to the serjeants whom he met. It requires no great stretch of the imagination to picture to ourselves the tall gaunt figure of Long Will, in long robes and with shaven crown, striding along Cornhill, saluting no man by the way, and minutely observant of the gay dresses to which he paid no outward reverence. It further appears that he was thoroughly versed in legal forms, and conversant with the writing out of legal documents; such knowledge enabled him to earn small sums as a notary, and he was frequent in his attendance at Westminster Hall.

Towards the year 1393, or even a little earlier, we find him again becoming dissatisfied with the wording of his poem. Again he resolved to revise it thoroughly, but this time he is more careful about the form than the matter. Minute corrections and alterations were made in almost every line; a few passages were curtailed, and others somewhat lengthened. Perceiving that one long passage of his poem as it stood in the second draught was, as to its general contents, a repetition of a former passage, he so transposed his material as to bring the two passages together, interweaving them with such ingenuity that the numerous insertions seem to fall into their places naturally enough. The resulting third draught of the poem is not much longer than the second. In some points he made improvements, but the general effect of the whole is less striking and original; this being the inevitable result of his obvious desire to tone down some of the more outspoken passages, and to express a certain leaning towards conservatism such as frequently comes with advancing years. We are

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