The turrets bright of heaven, great and small, I liken unto towers of clear crystál; But ne'er did crystal in this world below Shine with such clearness, with such splendour glow ; 1 In 1340, about the about the time when Richard Rolle wrote the work just referred to, another book with very much the same title was published by Dan Michel of Northgate, in the Kentish form of the language. It was called The Ayenbite of Inwyt, that is to say, 'The Again-biting of the Inner-wit,' or 'The Remorse of Conscience,' and was the translation of the French La Somme des Vices et des Vertues, written in 1279 for Philip II. The translation is written in prose, and is only mentioned here because of its preface and envoi which Dan Michel wrote in rhyme of the homeliest sort. The former begins: Lord Jesús, Almighty King, That mad'st and keepest every thing, To Thy bliss do Thou me bring.2 And the latter thus concludes: To him who made this book God give the bread Amen.3 William Langland's Vision concerning Piers Plowman, A.D. 1362, is in many respects a very interesting one. But I have not here to speak of it in its historical, social, and ecclesiastical aspects, but simply as a religious poem. This it thoroughly is. It is a vision 'of the origin, progress, and perfection of the Christian life,' and in many places may remind the reader of nothing 1 Religious Poems of William de Shoreham, 9072-88: 'And swa bryght gold, ne swa clene.' 2 The Ayenbite of Inwyt (Morris), E.E.T.S. 23 : ‘Lhord Jhesu, almigty kyng.' 3 Id.: That this boc made God him yeve that bread so much as of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The times were thoroughly out of joint when he wrote. There was much suffering, discontent and trouble, great and crying corruption in the Church, and throughout the commonwealth vices and abuses which greatly vexed the soul of a man of austere uprightness, whose sympathies were strong and deep, who loved from his heart truth and freedom, and who kept his eyes steadily fixed on the Gospel model of life. He was keenly alive not only to the flagrant offences which he saw committed around him against Christian morality, but also to the departures in the prevalent Church system from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel. He was no follower of Wycliffe; but he constantly turned his eyes from the Church around him to contemplate what the Universal Church of Christ should be. And thus, often with fervour of imagination, sometimes with real sublimity, always with vehement earnestness, not unfrequently with biting humour, he vented his indignation against wrong, both among high and low, and pointed up to a higher ideal, and to the pure 'Mansion of Truth.' He is sorely cumbered by the trammels of a tedious and perplexed allegory. It should be remembered, however, as one of its modern editors truly observes, that 'the necessity of avoiding anything of a personal nature obliged the satirist to shelter himself in allegory and generalities.' The following is from a description of the home where Truth dwells : So com'st thou to a court clear as the sun; 2 The kernels [battlements] be of Christendom, mankind to save, 1 T. A. Whitaker, in his Preface to the fourth edition. 2 Langland's metre lends itself to blank verse with very slight altering; but in itself it is the old English alliterative verse, the full line having four accents, and its first half two alliterations, the latter one : So shalt thou come to a coúrt: as cleár as the sun. The moát is of mércy: in the midst the manor. The houses are all heled [covered] both halles and chambers, Ride to 'Amend you;' meekly pray his Master And if Grace grant thee in this wise to go, In thy whole heart, all truth therein to harbour. There seven sisters be that serve Truth ever, And 'Charity,' and ‘Chastity,' are maidens chief; Hard is it, by my head, for any of all To get in-coming unless Grace abound.1 Then Piers Plowman goes on to bid even the reprobates not to despair of grace :— 6 'By Christ,' a cutpurse quoth, 'I've no kin there!' 'Nor I,' an ape-ward 2 saith, 'for ought I know!' God wot,' a waferer 3 quoth, 'wist I this truth, I would no further afoot, for no friar's preaching!' 1 Visio W. de Piers Plouhman, passus viii. 232 : So shalt thow come to a court as cleer as the soune; 2 A wandering minstrel, who carried a monkey with him. 3 A seller of thin cakes. 4 Passus viii. 283: 'By Cryst, quath a kitte-pors, ich haue no kyn there.' I will quote a few lines only of what is said of Charity : Childlike is Charity, as saith holy Church, Glad with the glad, as gurles [young people] when all are blithe, And sorry with the sorry; e'en so children Laugh where men laugh, and lower where men lower. He thinks the best of men; he believes in truth, and in doing to others as he would be done by. There is no pride in him. He takes sorrow and sickness as ministrations from heaven. He is kind and helpful, free from anxieties, trusting in providence, full of good deeds, earnest in repentance: Of death and eke of dearth dread was he never; By clothing nor by carping knowst thou him, In company companionable, as Christ was. And I myself have seen him, sometimes in russet To kings' courts comes he, if counsel be true ; Of Truth: Truth is the throne where sits the Trinity. Visio W. de Dowel, pass. xviii. 310: 'Of deth ne of derthe drad was he neuere.' Of Love: Love is most sovereign salve for soul and body, It is the lock of love that unlooseth grace, That comforteth all creatures cumbered with sin; Sometimes he makes Piers Plowman a sort of personification of the poor on earth, to whom Christ brought a special message of peace. For instance, he tells how he dreamt of the hosannas of the children, and how then in his vision he saw one riding on an ass, like unto the Samaritan, and somewhat to Piers Plowman :— For Love hath undertaken That Jesus, being gentle, joust in Piers' arms, His helm and his habergeon. And he shall joust with the fiend and with the doom of death, and Lucifer shall fall. He will Forbite [charge] him down and bring death bale for ever, 'O mors, tua ero mors.' The following is from an account of our Lord's descent into hell : ‘What lord art thou?' quoth Lucifer. A voice aloud The poems of Lawrence Minot were written, as appears by internal evidence, in 1352. They are patriotic verses written to celebrate the conquests of Edward III. 1 Visio W. de Piers Plouhman, pass. ii. : Loue is the plonte of pees, and most preciouse of vertues. 2 Id. pass. xxi. 362: 'What lord art thu?' quath Lucifer; a voys aloud seyde. |