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II. William Langland
1. Life
William Langland (or
Langley), born in 1332 in Shropshire, the western midland of the country,
was educated in a monastery school at Great Malvern priory. His father was
probably a farmer. After school, he went to London and lived at Cornhill for
many years. Although he took minor orders, he never was promoted to be a
priest in the church. Then he began to make a living by singing masses,
writing legal documents and doing other odd jobs. He was in extreme poverty.
He was married. In 1362, he began his great work, Piers the Plowman,
or, more precisely, The vision William concerning Piers the Plowman.
That is an allegorical poem—the greatest Middle English poem prior to
Chaucer. He died in about 1400.
2. Piers the Plowman
Piers the Plowman is an allegorical poem in unrhymed alliterative verse
and is seen as one of the greatest and the most personal poem of the Middle
English Age. The poem is composed of a series of dreams, sometimes, even
dreams within dreams, which present a realistic picture of the 14th century
in England to express the poet’s quest for the meaning of the Truth and
spread mortal teaching. It is a satire verse as well as the vision of the
simple Christian life. The poem shows Langland’s sympathy for the poor
peasants for their suffering life and the poet’s criticism of the prevalent
corruption and bribery in the English society. Most of the characters in
this poem described during his wake-up moment are allegorical
personifications of abstract conceptions.
The poem exists in three versions known as the A, B, and
C,(respectively in 1362, 1377 and 1397) of very different length from 2500
to 7300 lines. The B version is preferred by scholars and is divided into a
Prologue and twenty sections or Passus (steps), because it expresses so
dramatically many of the reformers’ main theme: the tension between the
Gospel and fallen human nature and longing for better Christian lives in a
rotten world. However, the C version represents the poet’s final intention.
The poet called himself William in the dream who seeks the truth and
encounters the Piers. The figure of Piers the Plowman only appears a
few times, at vital moments in the quest. There are long passages with vivid
evocations of daily life and attitudes and some complex descriptions of
Christ’s suffering in the language of poetry. In general the words and flow
of the verse are very close to ordinary speech than that found in
alliterative poems. Now, there were 50 manuscripts and this proves its
popularity among readers and scholars in different historical periods.
The poem sets forth a series of dreams vision interrupted
with occasional wake-ups that have been divided into two parts: 1.the vision
of Piers the Plowman; 2. the vision of Do-wel, Do-bet and
Do-best. In the first dream vision, the poet wanders in the Malvern Hill one
day and falls asleep. In a dream, he sees a tower where truth lives and a
dark dungeon (Hell) of evil spirits. Between the two is “a fair filed full
of folk” (the human world)—people from various walks of life including
craftsman, bakers, brewers, butchers, tailors, tinkers, cookers and beggars,
clergyman, the wandering friars, pilgrims, pardoners and corrupt priests.
The characters in this poem are most personifications of abstract
conceptions such as Truth, False hood, Flattery, conscience and Reason. The
first dream vision began with the poet’s encounter with a lovely lady Holy
Church and Lady Meed (meaning bribery). The lady Holy Church explains to him
the principles of Christianity to save his souls. Then the dreamer sees the
Lady Meed, beautifully dressed, who is to marry Falsehood. The marriage is
supported by Flattery, Simony and Civil-law. But, theology protests. Then
Flattery bribes lawyers before they went to court at Westminster. Falsehood
is warned and others escape. Lady Meed bribes clerks Statutes of Labors and
even advises mayors and judges to take bribes. So all the judges and clerks
come to help her. The King proposes to marry Meed to Conscience, one of his
knights, but Conscience refuses for he thinks about Meed’s faults and evil
deeds. Reason advises the King to take justice act in the case of Lady Meed.
Meed is accused and Conscience and Reason become King’s counselors. In the
second dream, Conscience and Reason preach to the “field of folk” and
Repentance touches the hearts of the people, many of whom, are affected by
his sermons, and begin make confessions, including the Seven Deadly Sins
(pride, Luxury, Envy, Wrath, Avarice, Gluttony and Sloth). They confess
their sins one after another. After the confessions, “a thousand men”,
moved, are going to seek for Truth, but no one knows the way. Then Piers
the Plowman shows and would like to be their guide on condition that
they should help him to plough his land of half acre. Some of the pilgrims
come to help Piers, but some try to escape from the work. The Hunger comes
to punish the idlers and wasters. The beggars and laborers demand food and
complain about wages and the King for the Labor Law (referring to the
Statutes of Labors). There arouses a hot discussion of the labor problem.
The poet here confuses the labors’ demand for more wages and their
unwillingness to work. And thus wrongly presents the righteous struggles
against the Statutes of labors. The poet affirmed labor and disapprove of
idleness. Then Truth sends a message to Piers to continue his work and a
pardon for him and his hires. This pardon is granted to the people, some of
whom accepted, and some denied. Then a dispute rises among them. Piers tears
up the pardon and declares he will not work for the worldly bliss and will
engage in prayers. In the last part of the poem, “Do-well”, “Do-better” and
“Do-best” cannot be found among the church. With the help of the Thought,
Wit and Study, the problem of seeking for truth is solved in Scripture.
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