the remaining laborers in the initial years following the
catastrophic event (the Statutes of Laborers of 1351).
The events in this PASSUS display one of the central con-
fl icts at the heart of the poem: the individual versus
society. In the poem, Langland asks the essential ques-
tion about the nature of reform: Can one reform soci-
ety itself, or can one reform the individual as a key to
larger social and spiritual change? As several scholars
have noted, Langland appears to endorse the view that
social reform can only follow ecclesiastical change.
Passus 6 opens with the pilgrims who are seeking St.
Truth in a quandary about Piers’s allegorical directions
using the Ten Commandments as a road map for travel,
as featured in Passus 5. Piers offers to lead them after
the planting of his half-acre and the harvest. A faithful
member of the feudal order of the manor, Piers must
fulfi ll his obligations, and he engages others in the rees-
tablishment of “truth,” which serves as a symbolic
image of the feudal order. “Truth,” identifi ed with God
in Passus 1, is here imaged in the threefold order of
society (those who fi ght, pray, and work). The “noble
experiment” of the half-acre continues with Piers put-
ting all people to work, according to their abilities and
class pursuits. Noble women sew vestments for clergy;
middle-class married women and widows weave cloth.
A knight who volunteers to learn aspects of plowing is
instructed to “kepe Holy Kirke and myselve (Piers) /
Fro wastours and fro wikked men that this world des-
tuyeth” (l. 27–28) instead. The knight becomes, for
Piers, the representation of order in its most clearly
manifested form. In the midst of this activity, Piers
adopts “pilgrimages wise” (l. 57)—that is, actual cloth-
ing that he wears for planting. Piers next writes his will,
a practice common before going on a pilgrimage, in
which he leaves his soul to God, his body to the church
for burial, and his goods to his wife and children. As he
begins his plowing of the half-acre, all seems to be going
well, until he stops to survey the work.
At “heigh prime” (l. 112), or 9:00 A.M., Piers stops to
survey his half-acre and notices that some have already
stopped working and are singing idle songs (“How
trolly lolly,” l. 116). Their decadent songs and idleness
reinforce the images of destruction apparent in society
at large. Piers angrily rebukes them and says he will
not support anyone who is physically able to work to
earn sustenance. Surveying those who pretend to have
various disabilities, Piers rebukes their fraudulence.
The workers remain indignant toward Piers, especially
the Breton Bragger, who tells Piers to “go pissen with
his plowgh” (l. 155). Not even the knight, who speaks
in mild and ineffectual tones, can get the peasants back
to work on the half-acre that Piers holds in trust from
Truth. Piers then summons Hunger, who is quite suc-
cessful in getting the peasant workers to reengage their
labor, both out of want and fear. Hunger reduces many
to the state of starvation and malnutrition—common
images throughout England after the Black Death. Yet
summoning Hunger brings its own set of problems.
Langland the poet, through Piers, asks Hunger about
how to keep people working. Fundamentally, Lang-
land is asking one of the challenging questions about
the use of force to maintain social control: What is the
appropriate level of force to be applied to make society
work?
Hunger suggests to Piers that it is important to dis-
tinguish those who are in need from whose who should
be punished for their falseness. The truly poor deserve
charity, while those who shirk their duties, according
to Hunger, may be hit hard with adversity. Hunger’s
method, however, results in people only working to
avoid starvation. In fact, Piers and others must offer a
gluttonous amount of food to send Hunger away, only
to discover that when Hunger/hunger is satisfi ed, the
people have again become lazy. The passus ends with a
warning that in fi ve years, hunger, famine, and fl ood
will return to judge the people.
Readers of this passus will notice a confusing sense
of failure and success. Piers has been able to get a new
understanding of the social order reestablished, the
feudal model. Truth in the form of productive activity
reigns for a moment, but it is maintained not by mutual
consent, but by force. Scholars continue to debate this
ending. Some see Piers as a failed leader, while others
view the scene as a whole as a commentary on why
corporate failure occurs. Still others see elements of a
confl ict between Piers as a representation of Old Testa-
ment law and New Testament grace. Work alone can-
not save, nor can obedience to the Law. If society
cannot be reformed from the top down, as noted in
earlier passus of the poem, can it be reformed from the326 PIERS PLOWMAN: PASSUS 6