Some putten hem to the plow, themselves
pleyed ful selde .... very seldomOne such worker is Piers (Peter) the Plowman, after whom the poem is called.
Langland follows this Prologue with a series of Passus (Lat. ‘steps’) in a pilgrimage.
The dreamer is a learner: we share his experiences, learning from his visions and
encounters with Reason, Anima, Holy Church and Lady Meed. The didactic allegory
is complex, and its progress is less predictable than in its continental predecessors.
Each dream is a fresh start on old problems: collective neglect of God and neigh-
bour; how to live well and find personal pardon and salvation in Christ’s redemp-
tion of mankind.
The poem is colloquial, its verse rough and its architecture Gothic, abruptly chang-
ing from direct social satire to symbolic allegories of salvation. Langland does not want
to reform the structures or ideals of Church and society, but our hearts and behaviour.
This was the hope of many who took part in the Peasants’ Revolt. A letter from one of
the revolt’s leaders, John Ball, makes several allusions to Piers Plowman. What is new
in his work is its Gothic existentialism, its dizzying structure, and its deep engagement.
In atmosphere, though not setting and convention, it parallels Dostoievsky’s Brothers
Karamazov (1880).Its scheme is like that of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1684),but less
straightforward; its sweep like that of Ezra Pound’s Cantos (1917–59), but theological.
This very English and very human poem, more of its time than Chaucer’s, is often hard
work, but it seizes its audience. Evangelical and prophetic, it breathes in theology and
breathes out the Latin of the Vulgate and the liturgy.
The climax is the account of the Redemption, in Passus 18. On Palm Sunday
Christ entered Jerusalem as a knight clad in ‘our’ arms (humana natura),‘somdel
[somewhat] like to Piers Plowman’. But one of the soldiers at the Crucifixion called
out ‘Hail, master’ and struck him with reeds:
‘Ave, rabby,’ quod that ribaude, and threw redes at hym, scoffer reeds
Nailled hym witth thre nailles naked on the rode, cross
And poysoun on a pole thei put up to his lippes,
And bede hym drynke his deth-yvel; death-drink
his dayes were ydone.
‘And yif that thow sotil be, help now thi-selven. if clever
If thow be Cryst and kynges sone, come downe of the rode;off
Thanne shul we leve that Lyf the loveth believe Life loves thee
and wil nought lete the dye.’
‘Consummatum est,’ quod Cryst It is finished
and comsed for to swowe; began to swoon
Pitousliche and pale, as a prisoun that deyeth; prisoner
The lord of lyf and of light
tho leyed his eyen togideres. closed his eyes
The daye for drede withdrowe and derke bicam the sonne.
The wal wagged and clef shook split
and al the worlde quaved. trembled
The dreamer sees Christ harrowing hell to free mankind. The four Daughters of
God (Mercy, Truth, Righteousness and Peace) dispute the justice of the Redemption,
but at last are reconciled: ‘Tyl the daye dawed this demaiseles daunced / That men
rongen to the resurexion ...’ (‘These maidens danced until day dawned and men
rang out Easter’). The bells awake the dreamer. Piers, his wife Kit and his daughter
Kalote kiss the cross and put the fiend to flight.
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 53