FOOTNOTES:

And for that fewe men enditeIn oure Englishe, I thenke make,A boke for Englondes sake.[623]

He has no idea to what extent this apology, so common a hundred years before, is now out of place after the "Troilus" of Chaucer. His English book is a lengthy compilation, written at the request of the young King Richard,[624]wherein Gower seeks both to amuse and to instruct, giving as he does,

Somwhat of lust, somwhat of lore.

In his turn, and after Boccaccio, he invents a plot that will allow him to insert a whole series of tales and stories into one single work; compositions of this sort being the fashion. Gower's collection contains a hundred and twelve short stories, two or three of which are very well told; one, the adventure of Florent, being, perhaps, related even better than in Chaucer.[625]The rest resembles the Gower of the "Vox Clamantis."

What will be the subject of this philosopher's talk? He will tell us of a thing:

... wherupon the world mote stonde,And hath done sithen it began,And shall while there is any man,And that is love.[626]

In order to treat of this subject, and of many others, Boccaccio had conceived the idea of his gathering in the villa near Florence, and Chaucer that of his pilgrimage. Moral Gower remains true to his character, and imagines a confession. The lover seeks a priest of Venus, a worthy and very learned old man, called Genius, who had already figured as confessor in the "Roman de la Rose"[627]: "Benedicite," says the priest; "Dominus," answers the lover; and a miniature shows the lover in a pink gown, kneeling in a meadow at the feet of Genius, a tonsured monk in frock and cowl.[628]

We find ourselves again among vices and virtues, classifications, divisions, and subdivisions. Genius condemns the vices (those of his goddess included, for he is a free speaking priest). He hates, above all things, Lollardry, "this new tapinage," and he commends the virtues; the stories come in by way of example: mind what your eyes do, witness Actæon; and your ears, witness the Sirens. He passes on to the seven deadly sins which were apparently studied inthe seminary where this priest of Venus learnt theology. After the deadly sins the mists and marvels of the "Secretum Secretorum" fill the scene. At last the lover begs for mercy; he writes Venus a letter: "with the teres of min eye in stede of inke." Venus, who is a goddess, deciphers it, hastens to the spot, and scornfully laughs at this shivering lover, whom age and wrinkles have left a lover. Gower then decides to withdraw, and make, as he says, "beau retraite." In a last vision, the poor "olde grisel" gazes upon the series of famous loving couples, who give themselves up to the delight of dancing, in a paradise, where one could scarcely have expected to find them together: Tristan and Iseult, Paris and Helen, Troilus and Cressida, Samson and Dalila, David and Bathsheba, and Solomon the wise who has for himself alone a hundred or so of "Jewes eke and Sarazines."

In spite of the immense difference in their merit, the names of Chaucer and Gower were constantly coupled; James of Scotland, Skelton, Dunbar, always mention them together; the "Confessio" was printed by Caxton; under Elizabeth we find Gower on the stage; he figures in "Pericles," and recites the prologue of this play, the plot of which is borrowed from his poem.

FOOTNOTES:[568]See above, p. 162.[569]Against those practices Langland strongly protests in his "Visions," text C. x. 133; xvi. 200. See following Chapter.[570]Rymer, "Fœdera," April 24, 1469. The classic instrument of the minstrel was the vielle or viol, a sort of violin, which only true artists knew how to use well (one is reproduced in "English Wayfaring Life," p. 202). Therefore many minstrels early replaced this difficult instrument by the common tabor, which sufficed to mark the cadence of their chants. Many other musical instruments were known in the Middle Ages; a list of them has been drawn up by H. Lavoix: "La Musique au temps de St. Louis," in G. Raynaud's "Recueil des motets français des XII^e et XIII^e Siècles," vol. ii. p. 321.[571]"Anatomy of Abuses," ed. Furnivall, London, 1877-79, 8vo, pp. 171, 172.[572]Chaucer himself expected his poem to be said orsung; he says to his book:And red wher-so thou be, or elles songe;That thou be understonde, I God beseche!(Book v. st. 257.)[573]I wille yow telle of a knyghteThat bothe was stalworthe and wyghte.(Isumbras.)Y schalle telle yow of a knyghtThat was bothe hardy and wyght.(Eglamour.)And y schalle karppe off a knyghtThat was both hardy and wyght.(Degrevant.)"The Thornton Romances," ed. Halliwell (Camden Society, 1844, pp. 88, 121, 177), from a MS. preserved in the cathedral of Lincoln, that contains romances, recipes, prayers, &c., copied in the first half of the fifteenth century, on more ancient texts. See notes on many similar romances in Ward's "Catalogue of MS. Romances," 1883, vol. i. pp. 760 ff.[574]See in "English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare," pp. 57 and 65, facsimiles of woodcuts which served about 1510 and 1560 to represent, the first, Romulus, Robert the Devil, &c., the second, Guy of Warwick, Graund Amoure, and the "Squyr of Lowe Degre."[575]Both published by the Early English Text Society: "Morte Arthure," ed. Brock, 1871; "William of Palerne," ed. Skeat, 1867. Both are in alliterative verse; the first composed about the end, and the second about the middle, of the fourteenth century.[576]The unique MS. of this poem is in the British Museum: Cotton, Nero A 10. It is of small size, and in a good handwriting of the fourteenth century, but the ink is faded. It contains some curious, though not fine, miniatures, representing the Green Knight leaving the Court, his head in his hand; Gawayne and his hostess; the scene at the Green Chapel; the return to King Arthur. The text has been published,e.g., by R. Morris: "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, an alliterative romance poem," London, Early English Text Society, 1864, 8vo. The date assigned to the poem by Morris (1320-30) seems to be too early; the work belongs more probably to the second half of the century. The immediate original of the tale is not known; it was, however, certainly a French poem. See on this subject Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," 1883, p. 387, and G. Paris, "Histoire Littéraire de la France," vol. xxx.[577]Much glam and gle glent up ther-inne,Aboute the fyre upon flat (floor) and on fele (many) wyse,At the soper and after, mony athel songez,As coundutes of Kryst-masse and caroles newe....[578]With merthe and mynstralsye, wyth metez at hor wylle,Thay maden as mery as any men moghtenWith laghyng of ladies, with lotes of bordes (play upon words).(l. 1952.)[579]l. 1746.[580]"Pearl, an English Poem of the Fourteenth Century, edited with modern rendering by Israel Gollancz," London, 1891, 8vo. The poem is written in stanzas (a b a b a b a b b c b c); the author employs both rhyme and alliteration. "Pearl" belongs apparently, like "Sir Gawayne," and some other poems on religious subjects, contained in the same MS., to the second half of the fourteenth century; there are, however, doubts and discussions concerning the date. Some coarsely-painted miniatures, by no means corresponding to the gracefulness of the poem, represent the chief incidents of "Pearl;" they are by the same hand as those of "Sir Gawayne." See the reproduction of one of them in "Piers Plowman, a contribution to the History of English Mysticism," London, 1894, 8vo, p. 12.[581]I entred in that erber grene,In Augoste in a hygh seysoun,Quen corne is corven with crokez kene;On huyle ther perle it trendeled doun;Schadowed this wortes (plants) full schyre and schene,Gilofre, gyngure and gromylyoun,And pyonys powdered ay betwene.Yif hit wacz semly on to sene,A fayrie tiayr yet fro hit flot. (St. 4.)[582]As stremande sternes quen strothe men slepe,Staren in welkyn in wynter nyght. (St. 10.)[583]For that thou lestes wacs bot a rose,That flowred and fayled as kynde hit gefe. (St. 23.)[584]The principal collections containing lyrical works and popular ballads of that period are: "Ancient Songs and Ballads from the reign of Henry II. to the Revolution," collected by John Ritson, revised by W. C. Hazlitt, London, 1877, 12mo; "Specimens of Lyric Poetry, composed in England in the reign of Edward I.," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1842, 8vo; "Reliquiæ Antiquæ, scraps from ancient MSS. illustrating chiefly Early English Literature," ed. T. Wright and J. O. Halliwell, London, 1841-43, 2 vols. 8vo; "Political Songs of England, from the reign of John to that of Edward II.," ed. Th. Wright, Camden Society, 1839, 4to; "Songs and Carols now first printed from a MS. of the XVth Century," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1847, 8vo; "Political Poems and Songs, from Edward III. to Richard III.," ed. Th. Wright, Rolls, 1859-61, 2 vols. 8vo; "Political, Religious and Love Poems," ed. Furnivall, London, Early English Text Society, 1866, 8vo; "Bishop Percy's Folio MS." ed. J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall, Ballad Society, 1867, 8vo; "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads," ed. F. J. Child, Boston, 1882 ff. Useful indications will be found in H. L. D. Ward's "Catalogue of MS. Romances in the British Museum," vol. i., 1883.[585]Tiel come tu es je autie fu,Tu seras til come je su.De la mort ne peusay-je mieTant come j'avoy la vie.En terre avoy grand richesseDont je y fis grand noblesse,Terre, mesons et grand tresor,Draps, chivalx, argent et or,Mes ore su-je povres et cheitifs,Perfond en la terre gys,Ma grand beauté est tout alée ...Et si ore me veissez,Je ne quide pas qe vous deeisezQe j'eusse onqes hom esté.(Stanley, "Historical Memorials of Canterbury.")[586]Compiled in France in 1395. Lecoy de la Marche, "la Chaire française au moyen âge," 2nd ed., Paris, 1886, 8vo, p. 334.[587]MS. R. iii. 20, in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, fol. 33. In the same MS.: "A roundell made ... by my lorde therlle of Suffolk":Quel desplaysier, quel courous quel destresse,Quel griefs, quelx mauls viennent souvent d'amours, &c. (fol. 36).The author is the famous Earl, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who was beaten by Joan of Arc, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, and was beheaded in 1450. For ballads of the same kind, by Gower, see below, p. 367. The same taste reigned in France; without mentioning Charles d'Orléans, Pierre de Beauveau writes: "Le joyeulx temps passé souloit estre occasion que je faisoie de plaisant diz et gracieuses chançonnetes et balades." "Nouvelles Françoises du XIV^e Siècle," ed. Moland and d'Héricault, 1858, p. 303.[588]"Visions concerning Piers Plowman," A. Prol. l. 103, written about 1362-3. See following Chapter.[589]"Parson's Tale."—"Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 581.[590]"Munimenta Gildhallæ Londiniensis."—"Liber albus, Liber custumarum; Liber Horn," Rolls, 1859, ed. Riley. The regulations (in French) relating to the Pui are drawn from the "Liber Custumarum," compiled in 1320 (14 Ed. II.), pp. 216 ff. "The poetical competitions calledpuis," established in the north of France, "seem to have given rise to German and Dutch imitations, such as theMaster Singersand theChambers of Rhetoric." G. Paris, "Littérature française au moyen âge," paragraph 127. To these we can add the English imitation which now occupies us.[591]"Songs and Carols now first printed," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1847, 8vo, p. 4.[592]For hortyng of here hosynNon inclinare laborant.In the same piece, large collars, wide sleeves, big spurs are satirised. Th. Wright, "Political Poems and Songs from Ed. III. to Ric. III.," Rolls, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 275.[593]"Political Poems,"ibid., vol. i. p. 263.[594]The greater part of those that have come down to us are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; but Robin was very popular, and his praises were sung as early as the fourteenth century. The lazy parson in Langland's Visions confesses that he is incapable of chanting the services:But I can rymes of Robin Hood · and Randolf erle of Chestre.Ed. Skeat, text B. v. 402. See above, p. 224.[595]Walsingham, "Historia Anglicana," Rolls, vol. ii. p. 32. See an English miniature representing Adam and Eve, so occupied, reproduced in "English Wayfaring Life," p. 283.[596]Nede they fre be most,Vel nollent pacificari, &c."Political Poems," vol. i. p. 225. Satire of the heretical Lollards: "Lollardi sunt zizania," &c.Ibid., p. 232; of friars become peddlers, p. 264.[597]"Political Poems."ibid., vol. i. pp. 26 ff.[598]Ballad by Eustache des Champs, "Œuvres Complètes," ii. p. 34.[599]"The Poems of Laurence Minot," ed. J. Hall, Oxford, 1887, 8vo, eleven short poems on the battles of Edward III. Adam Davy may also be classed among the patriotic poets: "Davy's five dreams about Edward II.," ed. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1878, 8vo. They are dreams interspersed with prophecies; the style is poor and aims at being apocalyptic. Edward II. shall be emperor of Christendom, &c. Various pious works, a life of St. Alexius, a poem on the signs betokening Doomsday, &c., have been attributed to Davy without sufficient reason. See on this subject, Furnivall,ibid., who gives the text of these poems.[600]Ibid., p. 21.[601]Vices and faults of Edward: "Political Poems," vol. i. p. 159, 172, &c.[602]"Political Poems," vol. i. p. 172.[603]"The Bruce, or the book of the most excellent and noble Prince Robert de Broyss, King of Scots,"a.d.1375, ed. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1879-89. Barbour, having received safe conducts from Edward III., went to Oxford, and studied there in 1357 and in 1364, and went also to France, 1365, 1368. Besides his "Bruce" he wrote a "Brut," and a genealogy of the Stuarts, "The Stewartis Oryginale," beginning with Ninus founder of Nineveh; these two last poems are lost. Barbour was archdeacon of Aberdeen; he died in 1395 in Scotland, where a royal pension had been bestowed upon him.[604]"The incidents on which the ensuing novel mainly turns are derived from the ancient metrical chronicle of the Bruce by Archdeacon Barbour, and from," &c. "Castle Dangerous," Introduction.—"The authorities used are chiefly those ... of Archdeacon Barbour...." "Lord of the Isles," Advertisement to the first edition.[605]Book vii. line 483.[606]Book xvi. line 270.[607]Book i. line 235.[608]Et si jeo n'ai de François la faconde,Pardonetz moi qe jeo de ce forsvoie;Jeo suis Englois."Balades and other Poems by John Gower," London, Roxburghe Club, 1818 4to,in fine.[609]Book v. st. 266.[610]"Confessio Amantis," ed. Pauli, London, 1857, 3 vols, 8vo. vol. iii. p. 374.[611]Henry, then earl of Derby, had given him a collar in 1393; the swan was the emblem of Thomas, duke of Gloucester, Henry's uncle, assassinated in 1397; Henry adopted it from that date. A view of Gower's tomb is in my "Piers Plowman," 1894, p. 46.[612]"Primus liber, gallico sermone editus in decem dividitur partes et tractans de viciis et virtutibus necnon de variis hujus seculi gradibus viam, qua peccator transgressus, ad sui Creatoris agnicionem redire debet, recto tramite docere conatur. Titulusque libelli istius Speculum Meditantis nuncupatus est." This analysis is to be found in several MSS.; also in the edition of the "Confessio," printed by Caxton; Pauli gives it too: "Confessio," i. p. xxiii. The "Speculum Meditantis" was sure to resemble much those works of moralisation (hence Chaucer's "moral Gower"), numerous in French mediæval literature, which were called "bibles." See for example "La Bible Guiot de Provins":Dou siècle puant et orribleM'estuet commencier une bible."On this stinking and horrid world, I want to begin a bible;" and Guiot reviews all classes of society, all trades and professions, and blames everything and everybody; Gower did the same; everything for them is "puant." Rome is not spared: "Rome nos suce et nos englot," says Guiot. See text of Guiot's "Bible" in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," 1808, vol. ii. p. 307.[613]"Balades and other Poems," Roxburghe Club, 1818, 4to.[614]Jeo ris en plour et en santé languis,Ars en gelée et en chalour frémis.Ballad ix. No passage in Petrarch has been oftener imitated. Villon wrote:Je meurs de soif auprès de la fontaine ...Je ris en pleurs et attens sans espoir, &c.[615]"Les balades d'amour jesqes enci sont fait especialement pour ceaux q'attendont lours amours par droite mariage. Les balades d'ici jesqes au fin du livere sont universeles à tout le monde selonc les propertés et les condicions des amants qui sont diversement travailez en la fortune d'amour."[616]Camélion c'est une beste fièreQui vit tansoulement de l'air sanz plus;Ensi pour dire en mesme la manière,De soule espoir qe j'ai d'amour conçuzSont mes pensers en vie sustenuz.Ballad xvi; what a chameleon is, was thus explained in a Vocabulary of the fifteenth century: "Hic gamelion, animal varii coloris et sola aere vivit—a buttyrfle" (Th. Wright, "Vocabularies," 1857, 4to, p, 220).[617]"Poema quod dicitur Vox Clamantis," ed. Coxe, Roxburghe Club, 1850, 4to. He also wrote in Latin verse "Chronica Tripartita" (wherein he relates, and judges with great severity, the reign of Richard II., from 1387 to the accession of Henry IV.), and several other poems on the vices of the time, the whole printed by Th. Wright, in his "Political Poems," vol. i. Rolls. The "Chronica" are also printed with the "Vox Clamantis."[618]P. 31. He jeers at the vulgarity of their names:Hudde ferit, quos Judde terit, dum Cobbe minatur ...Hogge suam pompam vibrat, dum se putat omniMajorem Rege nobilitate fore.Balle propheta docet, quem spiritus ante malignusEdocuit ...(p. 50.)The famous John Ball is here referred to, the apostle of the revolt, who died quartered. See below, p. 413.[619]Est sibi crassus equus, restatque scientia macra ...Ad latus et cornu sufflans gerit, unde redundantMons, nemus, unde lepus visa pericla fugit....Clamor in ore canum, dum vociferantur in unum,Est sibi campana psallitur unde Deo.Stat sibi missa brevis devotio longaque campis,Quo sibi cantores deputat esse canes.(p. 176.)[620]Conficit ex vitris gemma oculo pretiosas.(p. 275.)[621]Rex es, regina satis est, tibi sufficit una.(p. 316.)[622]"Confessio Amantis." There exists of it no satisfactory edition, and it is to be hoped the Early English Text Society, that has already rendered so many services, will soon render this greatly needed one, Pauli's edition, London, 1857, 3 vols. 8vo, is very faulty; H. Morley's edition (Carisbrooke Library, London, 1889, 8vo) is expurgated. Gower wrote in English some minor poems, in especial "The Praise of Peace" (in the "Political Poems," of Wright, Rolls). The "Confessio" is written in octo-syllabic couplets, with four accents. This poem should be compared with French compilations of the same sort, and especially with the "Castoiement d'un père à son fils," thirteenth century, a series of tales in verse, told by the father to castigate and edify the son, text in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," Paris, 1808, 4 vols. 8vo, vol. ii.[623]"Confessio," Pauli's ed., p. 2.[624]Gower wrote two successive versions of his poem: the first about 1384, the second about 1393. In this last one, having openly taken the side of the future Henry IV. (which was very bold of him), he suppressed all allusions to Richard. In the first version, instead of,A boke for Englondes sake,he had written:A boke for King Richardes sake.[625]Vol. i. pp. 89 ff. In Chaucer, the story is told by the Wife of Bath.[626]Beginning of Book i.[627]Already had been seen in the "Roman":Comment Nature la déesseA son prêtre se confesse ..."Génius, dit-elle, beau prêtre,D'une folie que j'ai faite,A vous m'en vuel faire confesse;"and under pretence of confessing herself, she explains the various systems of the universe at great length.[628]In Mrs. Egerton, 1991, fol. 7, in the British Museum, reproduced in my "Piers Plowman," p. 11.

[568]See above, p. 162.

[569]Against those practices Langland strongly protests in his "Visions," text C. x. 133; xvi. 200. See following Chapter.

[570]Rymer, "Fœdera," April 24, 1469. The classic instrument of the minstrel was the vielle or viol, a sort of violin, which only true artists knew how to use well (one is reproduced in "English Wayfaring Life," p. 202). Therefore many minstrels early replaced this difficult instrument by the common tabor, which sufficed to mark the cadence of their chants. Many other musical instruments were known in the Middle Ages; a list of them has been drawn up by H. Lavoix: "La Musique au temps de St. Louis," in G. Raynaud's "Recueil des motets français des XII^e et XIII^e Siècles," vol. ii. p. 321.

[571]"Anatomy of Abuses," ed. Furnivall, London, 1877-79, 8vo, pp. 171, 172.

[572]Chaucer himself expected his poem to be said orsung; he says to his book:And red wher-so thou be, or elles songe;That thou be understonde, I God beseche!(Book v. st. 257.)

[572]Chaucer himself expected his poem to be said orsung; he says to his book:

And red wher-so thou be, or elles songe;That thou be understonde, I God beseche!(Book v. st. 257.)

And red wher-so thou be, or elles songe;That thou be understonde, I God beseche!

(Book v. st. 257.)

[573]I wille yow telle of a knyghteThat bothe was stalworthe and wyghte.(Isumbras.)Y schalle telle yow of a knyghtThat was bothe hardy and wyght.(Eglamour.)And y schalle karppe off a knyghtThat was both hardy and wyght.(Degrevant.)"The Thornton Romances," ed. Halliwell (Camden Society, 1844, pp. 88, 121, 177), from a MS. preserved in the cathedral of Lincoln, that contains romances, recipes, prayers, &c., copied in the first half of the fifteenth century, on more ancient texts. See notes on many similar romances in Ward's "Catalogue of MS. Romances," 1883, vol. i. pp. 760 ff.

[573]

I wille yow telle of a knyghteThat bothe was stalworthe and wyghte.(Isumbras.)

I wille yow telle of a knyghteThat bothe was stalworthe and wyghte.

(Isumbras.)

Y schalle telle yow of a knyghtThat was bothe hardy and wyght.(Eglamour.)

Y schalle telle yow of a knyghtThat was bothe hardy and wyght.

(Eglamour.)

And y schalle karppe off a knyghtThat was both hardy and wyght.(Degrevant.)

And y schalle karppe off a knyghtThat was both hardy and wyght.

(Degrevant.)

"The Thornton Romances," ed. Halliwell (Camden Society, 1844, pp. 88, 121, 177), from a MS. preserved in the cathedral of Lincoln, that contains romances, recipes, prayers, &c., copied in the first half of the fifteenth century, on more ancient texts. See notes on many similar romances in Ward's "Catalogue of MS. Romances," 1883, vol. i. pp. 760 ff.

[574]See in "English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare," pp. 57 and 65, facsimiles of woodcuts which served about 1510 and 1560 to represent, the first, Romulus, Robert the Devil, &c., the second, Guy of Warwick, Graund Amoure, and the "Squyr of Lowe Degre."

[575]Both published by the Early English Text Society: "Morte Arthure," ed. Brock, 1871; "William of Palerne," ed. Skeat, 1867. Both are in alliterative verse; the first composed about the end, and the second about the middle, of the fourteenth century.

[576]The unique MS. of this poem is in the British Museum: Cotton, Nero A 10. It is of small size, and in a good handwriting of the fourteenth century, but the ink is faded. It contains some curious, though not fine, miniatures, representing the Green Knight leaving the Court, his head in his hand; Gawayne and his hostess; the scene at the Green Chapel; the return to King Arthur. The text has been published,e.g., by R. Morris: "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, an alliterative romance poem," London, Early English Text Society, 1864, 8vo. The date assigned to the poem by Morris (1320-30) seems to be too early; the work belongs more probably to the second half of the century. The immediate original of the tale is not known; it was, however, certainly a French poem. See on this subject Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," 1883, p. 387, and G. Paris, "Histoire Littéraire de la France," vol. xxx.

[577]Much glam and gle glent up ther-inne,Aboute the fyre upon flat (floor) and on fele (many) wyse,At the soper and after, mony athel songez,As coundutes of Kryst-masse and caroles newe....

[577]

Much glam and gle glent up ther-inne,Aboute the fyre upon flat (floor) and on fele (many) wyse,At the soper and after, mony athel songez,As coundutes of Kryst-masse and caroles newe....

[578]With merthe and mynstralsye, wyth metez at hor wylle,Thay maden as mery as any men moghtenWith laghyng of ladies, with lotes of bordes (play upon words).(l. 1952.)

[578]

With merthe and mynstralsye, wyth metez at hor wylle,Thay maden as mery as any men moghtenWith laghyng of ladies, with lotes of bordes (play upon words).(l. 1952.)

With merthe and mynstralsye, wyth metez at hor wylle,Thay maden as mery as any men moghtenWith laghyng of ladies, with lotes of bordes (play upon words).

(l. 1952.)

[579]l. 1746.

[580]"Pearl, an English Poem of the Fourteenth Century, edited with modern rendering by Israel Gollancz," London, 1891, 8vo. The poem is written in stanzas (a b a b a b a b b c b c); the author employs both rhyme and alliteration. "Pearl" belongs apparently, like "Sir Gawayne," and some other poems on religious subjects, contained in the same MS., to the second half of the fourteenth century; there are, however, doubts and discussions concerning the date. Some coarsely-painted miniatures, by no means corresponding to the gracefulness of the poem, represent the chief incidents of "Pearl;" they are by the same hand as those of "Sir Gawayne." See the reproduction of one of them in "Piers Plowman, a contribution to the History of English Mysticism," London, 1894, 8vo, p. 12.

[581]I entred in that erber grene,In Augoste in a hygh seysoun,Quen corne is corven with crokez kene;On huyle ther perle it trendeled doun;Schadowed this wortes (plants) full schyre and schene,Gilofre, gyngure and gromylyoun,And pyonys powdered ay betwene.Yif hit wacz semly on to sene,A fayrie tiayr yet fro hit flot. (St. 4.)

[581]

I entred in that erber grene,In Augoste in a hygh seysoun,Quen corne is corven with crokez kene;On huyle ther perle it trendeled doun;Schadowed this wortes (plants) full schyre and schene,Gilofre, gyngure and gromylyoun,And pyonys powdered ay betwene.Yif hit wacz semly on to sene,A fayrie tiayr yet fro hit flot. (St. 4.)

[582]As stremande sternes quen strothe men slepe,Staren in welkyn in wynter nyght. (St. 10.)

[582]

As stremande sternes quen strothe men slepe,Staren in welkyn in wynter nyght. (St. 10.)

[583]For that thou lestes wacs bot a rose,That flowred and fayled as kynde hit gefe. (St. 23.)

[583]

For that thou lestes wacs bot a rose,That flowred and fayled as kynde hit gefe. (St. 23.)

[584]The principal collections containing lyrical works and popular ballads of that period are: "Ancient Songs and Ballads from the reign of Henry II. to the Revolution," collected by John Ritson, revised by W. C. Hazlitt, London, 1877, 12mo; "Specimens of Lyric Poetry, composed in England in the reign of Edward I.," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1842, 8vo; "Reliquiæ Antiquæ, scraps from ancient MSS. illustrating chiefly Early English Literature," ed. T. Wright and J. O. Halliwell, London, 1841-43, 2 vols. 8vo; "Political Songs of England, from the reign of John to that of Edward II.," ed. Th. Wright, Camden Society, 1839, 4to; "Songs and Carols now first printed from a MS. of the XVth Century," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1847, 8vo; "Political Poems and Songs, from Edward III. to Richard III.," ed. Th. Wright, Rolls, 1859-61, 2 vols. 8vo; "Political, Religious and Love Poems," ed. Furnivall, London, Early English Text Society, 1866, 8vo; "Bishop Percy's Folio MS." ed. J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall, Ballad Society, 1867, 8vo; "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads," ed. F. J. Child, Boston, 1882 ff. Useful indications will be found in H. L. D. Ward's "Catalogue of MS. Romances in the British Museum," vol. i., 1883.

[585]Tiel come tu es je autie fu,Tu seras til come je su.De la mort ne peusay-je mieTant come j'avoy la vie.En terre avoy grand richesseDont je y fis grand noblesse,Terre, mesons et grand tresor,Draps, chivalx, argent et or,Mes ore su-je povres et cheitifs,Perfond en la terre gys,Ma grand beauté est tout alée ...Et si ore me veissez,Je ne quide pas qe vous deeisezQe j'eusse onqes hom esté.(Stanley, "Historical Memorials of Canterbury.")

[585]

Tiel come tu es je autie fu,Tu seras til come je su.De la mort ne peusay-je mieTant come j'avoy la vie.En terre avoy grand richesseDont je y fis grand noblesse,Terre, mesons et grand tresor,Draps, chivalx, argent et or,Mes ore su-je povres et cheitifs,Perfond en la terre gys,Ma grand beauté est tout alée ...Et si ore me veissez,Je ne quide pas qe vous deeisezQe j'eusse onqes hom esté.(Stanley, "Historical Memorials of Canterbury.")

(Stanley, "Historical Memorials of Canterbury.")

[586]Compiled in France in 1395. Lecoy de la Marche, "la Chaire française au moyen âge," 2nd ed., Paris, 1886, 8vo, p. 334.

[587]MS. R. iii. 20, in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, fol. 33. In the same MS.: "A roundell made ... by my lorde therlle of Suffolk":Quel desplaysier, quel courous quel destresse,Quel griefs, quelx mauls viennent souvent d'amours, &c. (fol. 36).The author is the famous Earl, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who was beaten by Joan of Arc, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, and was beheaded in 1450. For ballads of the same kind, by Gower, see below, p. 367. The same taste reigned in France; without mentioning Charles d'Orléans, Pierre de Beauveau writes: "Le joyeulx temps passé souloit estre occasion que je faisoie de plaisant diz et gracieuses chançonnetes et balades." "Nouvelles Françoises du XIV^e Siècle," ed. Moland and d'Héricault, 1858, p. 303.

[587]MS. R. iii. 20, in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, fol. 33. In the same MS.: "A roundell made ... by my lorde therlle of Suffolk":

Quel desplaysier, quel courous quel destresse,Quel griefs, quelx mauls viennent souvent d'amours, &c. (fol. 36).

The author is the famous Earl, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who was beaten by Joan of Arc, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, and was beheaded in 1450. For ballads of the same kind, by Gower, see below, p. 367. The same taste reigned in France; without mentioning Charles d'Orléans, Pierre de Beauveau writes: "Le joyeulx temps passé souloit estre occasion que je faisoie de plaisant diz et gracieuses chançonnetes et balades." "Nouvelles Françoises du XIV^e Siècle," ed. Moland and d'Héricault, 1858, p. 303.

[588]"Visions concerning Piers Plowman," A. Prol. l. 103, written about 1362-3. See following Chapter.

[589]"Parson's Tale."—"Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 581.

[590]"Munimenta Gildhallæ Londiniensis."—"Liber albus, Liber custumarum; Liber Horn," Rolls, 1859, ed. Riley. The regulations (in French) relating to the Pui are drawn from the "Liber Custumarum," compiled in 1320 (14 Ed. II.), pp. 216 ff. "The poetical competitions calledpuis," established in the north of France, "seem to have given rise to German and Dutch imitations, such as theMaster Singersand theChambers of Rhetoric." G. Paris, "Littérature française au moyen âge," paragraph 127. To these we can add the English imitation which now occupies us.

[591]"Songs and Carols now first printed," ed. Th. Wright, Percy Society, 1847, 8vo, p. 4.

[592]For hortyng of here hosynNon inclinare laborant.In the same piece, large collars, wide sleeves, big spurs are satirised. Th. Wright, "Political Poems and Songs from Ed. III. to Ric. III.," Rolls, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 275.

[592]

For hortyng of here hosynNon inclinare laborant.

In the same piece, large collars, wide sleeves, big spurs are satirised. Th. Wright, "Political Poems and Songs from Ed. III. to Ric. III.," Rolls, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 275.

[593]"Political Poems,"ibid., vol. i. p. 263.

[594]The greater part of those that have come down to us are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; but Robin was very popular, and his praises were sung as early as the fourteenth century. The lazy parson in Langland's Visions confesses that he is incapable of chanting the services:But I can rymes of Robin Hood · and Randolf erle of Chestre.Ed. Skeat, text B. v. 402. See above, p. 224.

But I can rymes of Robin Hood · and Randolf erle of Chestre.

Ed. Skeat, text B. v. 402. See above, p. 224.

[595]Walsingham, "Historia Anglicana," Rolls, vol. ii. p. 32. See an English miniature representing Adam and Eve, so occupied, reproduced in "English Wayfaring Life," p. 283.

[596]Nede they fre be most,Vel nollent pacificari, &c."Political Poems," vol. i. p. 225. Satire of the heretical Lollards: "Lollardi sunt zizania," &c.Ibid., p. 232; of friars become peddlers, p. 264.

[596]

Nede they fre be most,Vel nollent pacificari, &c.

"Political Poems," vol. i. p. 225. Satire of the heretical Lollards: "Lollardi sunt zizania," &c.Ibid., p. 232; of friars become peddlers, p. 264.

[597]"Political Poems."ibid., vol. i. pp. 26 ff.

[598]Ballad by Eustache des Champs, "Œuvres Complètes," ii. p. 34.

[599]"The Poems of Laurence Minot," ed. J. Hall, Oxford, 1887, 8vo, eleven short poems on the battles of Edward III. Adam Davy may also be classed among the patriotic poets: "Davy's five dreams about Edward II.," ed. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1878, 8vo. They are dreams interspersed with prophecies; the style is poor and aims at being apocalyptic. Edward II. shall be emperor of Christendom, &c. Various pious works, a life of St. Alexius, a poem on the signs betokening Doomsday, &c., have been attributed to Davy without sufficient reason. See on this subject, Furnivall,ibid., who gives the text of these poems.

[600]Ibid., p. 21.

[601]Vices and faults of Edward: "Political Poems," vol. i. p. 159, 172, &c.

[602]"Political Poems," vol. i. p. 172.

[603]"The Bruce, or the book of the most excellent and noble Prince Robert de Broyss, King of Scots,"a.d.1375, ed. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1879-89. Barbour, having received safe conducts from Edward III., went to Oxford, and studied there in 1357 and in 1364, and went also to France, 1365, 1368. Besides his "Bruce" he wrote a "Brut," and a genealogy of the Stuarts, "The Stewartis Oryginale," beginning with Ninus founder of Nineveh; these two last poems are lost. Barbour was archdeacon of Aberdeen; he died in 1395 in Scotland, where a royal pension had been bestowed upon him.

[604]"The incidents on which the ensuing novel mainly turns are derived from the ancient metrical chronicle of the Bruce by Archdeacon Barbour, and from," &c. "Castle Dangerous," Introduction.—"The authorities used are chiefly those ... of Archdeacon Barbour...." "Lord of the Isles," Advertisement to the first edition.

[605]Book vii. line 483.

[606]Book xvi. line 270.

[607]Book i. line 235.

[608]Et si jeo n'ai de François la faconde,Pardonetz moi qe jeo de ce forsvoie;Jeo suis Englois."Balades and other Poems by John Gower," London, Roxburghe Club, 1818 4to,in fine.

[608]

Et si jeo n'ai de François la faconde,Pardonetz moi qe jeo de ce forsvoie;Jeo suis Englois.

"Balades and other Poems by John Gower," London, Roxburghe Club, 1818 4to,in fine.

[609]Book v. st. 266.

[610]"Confessio Amantis," ed. Pauli, London, 1857, 3 vols, 8vo. vol. iii. p. 374.

[611]Henry, then earl of Derby, had given him a collar in 1393; the swan was the emblem of Thomas, duke of Gloucester, Henry's uncle, assassinated in 1397; Henry adopted it from that date. A view of Gower's tomb is in my "Piers Plowman," 1894, p. 46.

[612]"Primus liber, gallico sermone editus in decem dividitur partes et tractans de viciis et virtutibus necnon de variis hujus seculi gradibus viam, qua peccator transgressus, ad sui Creatoris agnicionem redire debet, recto tramite docere conatur. Titulusque libelli istius Speculum Meditantis nuncupatus est." This analysis is to be found in several MSS.; also in the edition of the "Confessio," printed by Caxton; Pauli gives it too: "Confessio," i. p. xxiii. The "Speculum Meditantis" was sure to resemble much those works of moralisation (hence Chaucer's "moral Gower"), numerous in French mediæval literature, which were called "bibles." See for example "La Bible Guiot de Provins":Dou siècle puant et orribleM'estuet commencier une bible."On this stinking and horrid world, I want to begin a bible;" and Guiot reviews all classes of society, all trades and professions, and blames everything and everybody; Gower did the same; everything for them is "puant." Rome is not spared: "Rome nos suce et nos englot," says Guiot. See text of Guiot's "Bible" in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," 1808, vol. ii. p. 307.

Dou siècle puant et orribleM'estuet commencier une bible.

"On this stinking and horrid world, I want to begin a bible;" and Guiot reviews all classes of society, all trades and professions, and blames everything and everybody; Gower did the same; everything for them is "puant." Rome is not spared: "Rome nos suce et nos englot," says Guiot. See text of Guiot's "Bible" in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," 1808, vol. ii. p. 307.

[613]"Balades and other Poems," Roxburghe Club, 1818, 4to.

[614]Jeo ris en plour et en santé languis,Ars en gelée et en chalour frémis.Ballad ix. No passage in Petrarch has been oftener imitated. Villon wrote:Je meurs de soif auprès de la fontaine ...Je ris en pleurs et attens sans espoir, &c.

[614]

Jeo ris en plour et en santé languis,Ars en gelée et en chalour frémis.

Ballad ix. No passage in Petrarch has been oftener imitated. Villon wrote:

Je meurs de soif auprès de la fontaine ...Je ris en pleurs et attens sans espoir, &c.

[615]"Les balades d'amour jesqes enci sont fait especialement pour ceaux q'attendont lours amours par droite mariage. Les balades d'ici jesqes au fin du livere sont universeles à tout le monde selonc les propertés et les condicions des amants qui sont diversement travailez en la fortune d'amour."

[616]Camélion c'est une beste fièreQui vit tansoulement de l'air sanz plus;Ensi pour dire en mesme la manière,De soule espoir qe j'ai d'amour conçuzSont mes pensers en vie sustenuz.Ballad xvi; what a chameleon is, was thus explained in a Vocabulary of the fifteenth century: "Hic gamelion, animal varii coloris et sola aere vivit—a buttyrfle" (Th. Wright, "Vocabularies," 1857, 4to, p, 220).

[616]

Camélion c'est une beste fièreQui vit tansoulement de l'air sanz plus;Ensi pour dire en mesme la manière,De soule espoir qe j'ai d'amour conçuzSont mes pensers en vie sustenuz.

Ballad xvi; what a chameleon is, was thus explained in a Vocabulary of the fifteenth century: "Hic gamelion, animal varii coloris et sola aere vivit—a buttyrfle" (Th. Wright, "Vocabularies," 1857, 4to, p, 220).

[617]"Poema quod dicitur Vox Clamantis," ed. Coxe, Roxburghe Club, 1850, 4to. He also wrote in Latin verse "Chronica Tripartita" (wherein he relates, and judges with great severity, the reign of Richard II., from 1387 to the accession of Henry IV.), and several other poems on the vices of the time, the whole printed by Th. Wright, in his "Political Poems," vol. i. Rolls. The "Chronica" are also printed with the "Vox Clamantis."

[618]P. 31. He jeers at the vulgarity of their names:Hudde ferit, quos Judde terit, dum Cobbe minatur ...Hogge suam pompam vibrat, dum se putat omniMajorem Rege nobilitate fore.Balle propheta docet, quem spiritus ante malignusEdocuit ...(p. 50.)The famous John Ball is here referred to, the apostle of the revolt, who died quartered. See below, p. 413.

[618]P. 31. He jeers at the vulgarity of their names:

Hudde ferit, quos Judde terit, dum Cobbe minatur ...Hogge suam pompam vibrat, dum se putat omniMajorem Rege nobilitate fore.Balle propheta docet, quem spiritus ante malignusEdocuit ...(p. 50.)

Hudde ferit, quos Judde terit, dum Cobbe minatur ...Hogge suam pompam vibrat, dum se putat omniMajorem Rege nobilitate fore.Balle propheta docet, quem spiritus ante malignusEdocuit ...

(p. 50.)

The famous John Ball is here referred to, the apostle of the revolt, who died quartered. See below, p. 413.

[619]Est sibi crassus equus, restatque scientia macra ...Ad latus et cornu sufflans gerit, unde redundantMons, nemus, unde lepus visa pericla fugit....Clamor in ore canum, dum vociferantur in unum,Est sibi campana psallitur unde Deo.Stat sibi missa brevis devotio longaque campis,Quo sibi cantores deputat esse canes.(p. 176.)

[619]

Est sibi crassus equus, restatque scientia macra ...Ad latus et cornu sufflans gerit, unde redundantMons, nemus, unde lepus visa pericla fugit....Clamor in ore canum, dum vociferantur in unum,Est sibi campana psallitur unde Deo.Stat sibi missa brevis devotio longaque campis,Quo sibi cantores deputat esse canes.(p. 176.)

Est sibi crassus equus, restatque scientia macra ...Ad latus et cornu sufflans gerit, unde redundantMons, nemus, unde lepus visa pericla fugit....

Clamor in ore canum, dum vociferantur in unum,Est sibi campana psallitur unde Deo.Stat sibi missa brevis devotio longaque campis,Quo sibi cantores deputat esse canes.

(p. 176.)

[620]Conficit ex vitris gemma oculo pretiosas.(p. 275.)

[620]

Conficit ex vitris gemma oculo pretiosas.(p. 275.)

Conficit ex vitris gemma oculo pretiosas.

(p. 275.)

[621]Rex es, regina satis est, tibi sufficit una.(p. 316.)

[621]

Rex es, regina satis est, tibi sufficit una.(p. 316.)

Rex es, regina satis est, tibi sufficit una.

(p. 316.)

[622]"Confessio Amantis." There exists of it no satisfactory edition, and it is to be hoped the Early English Text Society, that has already rendered so many services, will soon render this greatly needed one, Pauli's edition, London, 1857, 3 vols. 8vo, is very faulty; H. Morley's edition (Carisbrooke Library, London, 1889, 8vo) is expurgated. Gower wrote in English some minor poems, in especial "The Praise of Peace" (in the "Political Poems," of Wright, Rolls). The "Confessio" is written in octo-syllabic couplets, with four accents. This poem should be compared with French compilations of the same sort, and especially with the "Castoiement d'un père à son fils," thirteenth century, a series of tales in verse, told by the father to castigate and edify the son, text in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," Paris, 1808, 4 vols. 8vo, vol. ii.

[623]"Confessio," Pauli's ed., p. 2.

[624]Gower wrote two successive versions of his poem: the first about 1384, the second about 1393. In this last one, having openly taken the side of the future Henry IV. (which was very bold of him), he suppressed all allusions to Richard. In the first version, instead of,A boke for Englondes sake,he had written:A boke for King Richardes sake.

A boke for Englondes sake,

he had written:

A boke for King Richardes sake.

[625]Vol. i. pp. 89 ff. In Chaucer, the story is told by the Wife of Bath.

[626]Beginning of Book i.

[627]Already had been seen in the "Roman":Comment Nature la déesseA son prêtre se confesse ..."Génius, dit-elle, beau prêtre,D'une folie que j'ai faite,A vous m'en vuel faire confesse;"and under pretence of confessing herself, she explains the various systems of the universe at great length.

[627]Already had been seen in the "Roman":

Comment Nature la déesseA son prêtre se confesse ..."Génius, dit-elle, beau prêtre,D'une folie que j'ai faite,A vous m'en vuel faire confesse;"

and under pretence of confessing herself, she explains the various systems of the universe at great length.

[628]In Mrs. Egerton, 1991, fol. 7, in the British Museum, reproduced in my "Piers Plowman," p. 11.

CHAPTER IV.

WILLIAM LANGLAND AND HIS VISIONS.

Gower's books were made out of books. Chaucer's friend carries us in imagination to the paradise of Eros, or to a Patmos of his own invention, from whence he foretells the end of the world; but whatever he does or says we are always perfectly aware of where we are: we are in his library.

It is quite different with another poet of this period, a mysterious and intangible personage, whose very name is doubtful, whose writings had great influence, and that no one appears to have seen, concerning whom we possess no contemporaneous information. Like Gower, strong ties bind him to the past; but Gower is linked to Angevin England, and William Langland, if such be really his name, to the remote England of the Saxons and Scandinavians. His books are not made out of books; they are made of real life, of things seen, of dreams dreamt, of feelings actually experienced. He is the exact opposite of Gower, he completes Chaucer himself. When the "Canterbury Tales" are read, it seems as though all England were described in them; when the Visions of Langland are opened, it is seen that Chaucer had not said everything.Langland is without comparison the greatest poet after Chaucer in the mediæval literature of England.[629]

His Visions have been preserved for us in a considerable number of manuscripts. They differ greatly among each other; Langland appears to have absorbed himself in his work, continually remodelling and adding to it. No poem has been more truly lived than this one; it was the author's shelter, his real house, his real church; he always came back there to pray, to tell his sorrows—to live in it. Hence strange incoherencies, and at the same time many unexpected lights. The spirit by which Langland is animated is the spirit of the Middle Ages, powerful, desultory, limitless. A classic author makes a plan, establishes noble proportions, conceives a definite work, and completes it; the poet of the Middle Ages, if he makes a plan, rarely keeps to it; he alters it as he goes along, adding a porch, a wing, a chapel to his edifice: a cathedral in mediæval times was never finished. Some authors, it is true, were already touched by classic influence, and had an idea of measure; such was the case with Chaucer, but not with Langland; anything and everything finds place in his work. By collecting the more characteristic notes scattered in his poem, sketch-books full of striking examples might be formed, illustrative of English life in the fourteenth century, to compare with Chaucer's, of the political and religious history of the nation, and also of the biography of the author.

Allusions to events of the day which abound in thepoem enable us to date it. Three principal versions exist,[630]without counting several intermediate remodellings; the first contains twelve cantos orpassus, the second twenty, the third twenty-three; their probable dates are 1362-3, 1376-7, and 1398-9.[631]

The numerous allusions to himself made by the author, principally in the last text of his poem, when, according to the wont of old men, he chose to tell the tale of his past life, allow us to form an idea of what his material as well as moral biography must have been. He was probably born in 1331 or 1332, at Cleobury Mortimer, as it seems, in the county of Shrewsbury, not far from the border of Wales. He was (I think) of low extraction, and appears to have escaped bondage owing to the help of patrons who were pleased by his ready intelligence. From childhood he was used to peasants and poor folk; he describes their habits as one familiarised with them, and their cottages as one who knows them well. His life oscillated chiefly between two localities, Malvern and London. Even when he resides in the latter place, his thoughts turn to Malvern, to its hills and verdure; he imagines himself there; for tender ties, those ties that bind men to mother earth, and which are only formed in childhood, endear the place to him. A convent and a school formerlyexisted at Malvern, and there in all likelihood Langland first studied.

The church where he came to pray still exists, built of red sandstone, a structure of different epochs, where the Norman style and perpendicular Gothic unite. Behind the village rise steep hills, covered with gorse, ferns, heather, and moss. Their highest point quite at the end of the chain, towards Wales, is crowned by Roman earthworks. From thence can be descried the vast plain where flows the Severn, crossed by streams bordered by rows of trees taking blue tints in the distance, spotted with lights and shadows, as the clouds pass in the ever-varying sky. Meadows alternate with fields of waving grain; the square tower of Worcester rises to the left, and away to the east those mountains are seen that witnessed the feats of Arthur. This wide expanse was later to give the poet his idea of the world's plain, "a fair feld ful of folke," where he will assemble all humanity, as in a Valley of Jehoshaphat. He enjoys wandering in this "wilde wildernesse," attracted by "the layes the levely foules made."

From childhood imagination predominates in him; his intellectual curiosity and facility are very great. He is a vagabond by nature, both mentally and physically; he roams over the domains of science as he did over his beloved hills, at random, plunging into theology, logic, law, astronomy, "an harde thynge"; or losing himself in reveries, reading romances of chivalry, following Ymagynatyf, who never rests: "Idel was I nevere." He studies the properties of animals, stones, and plants, a little from nature and a little from books; now he talks as Euphues will do later, and his natural mythology will cause a smile; and now he speaks as one country-bred, who has seen with his own eyes, like Burns, a bird build her nest, and has patiently watched her do it. Sometimes the animal is a living one, that leaps from bough to bough in the sunlight;at others, it is a strange beast, fit only to dwell among the stone foliage of a cathedral cornice.

He knows French and Latin; he has some tincture of the classics; he would like to know everything:

Alle the sciences under sonne · and alle the sotyle craftes,I wolde I knewe and couth · kyndely in myne herte![632]

But, in that as in other things, his will is not on a par with his aspirations: this inadequacy was the cause of numberless disappointments. Thou art, Clergye says most appropriately, one of those who want to know but hate to study:

The wer lef to lerne · but loth for to stodie.[633]

Even in early youth his mind seems to lack balance; being as yet a boy, he is already a soul in trouble.

His dreams at this time were not all dark ones; radiant apparitions came to him. Thou art young and lusty, said one, and hast years many before thee to live and to love; look in this mirror, and see the wonders and joys of love. I shall follow thee, said another, till thou becomest a lord, and hast domains.[634]But one by one the lights faded around him; his patrons died, and this was the end of his ambitions; for he was not one of those men able by sheer strength of will to make up for outside help when that fails them. His will was diseased; an endless grief began for him. Being dependent on his "Clergye" for a livelihood,he went to London, and tried to earn his daily bread by means of it, of "that labour" which he had "lerned best."[635]

Religious life in the Middle Ages had not those well-defined and visible landmarks to which we are accustomed. Nowadays one either is or is not of the Church; formerly, no such obvious divisions existed. Religious life spread through society, like an immense river without dykes, swollen by innumerable affluents, whose subterranean penetrations impregnated even the soil through which they did not actually flow. From this arose numerous situations difficult to define, bordering at once on the world and on the Church, a state of things with which there is no analogy now, except in Rome itself, where the religious life of the Middle Ages still partly continues.

Numerous semi-religious and slightly remunerative functions were accessible to clerks, who were not, however, obliged to renounce the world on that account. The great thing in the hour of death being to ensure the salvation of the soul, men of fortune continued, and sometimes began, their good works at that hour. They endeavoured to win Paradise by proxy; they left directions in their will that, by means of lawful hire, soldiers should be sent to battle with the infidel; and they also founded what were called "chantries." A sum of money was left by them in order that masses, or the service for the dead, or both, should be chanted for the repose of their souls.

The number of these chantries was countless; every arch in the aisles of the cathedrals contained some, where the service for the dead was sung; sometimes separate edifices were built with this view. A priest celebrated masses when the founder had asked for them; and clerks performed the office of choristers, having, for the most part, simply received the tonsure, and not beingnecessarily in holy orders. It was, for them all, a career, almost a trade; giving rise to discussions concerning salaries, and even to actual strikes. These services derived the name under which they commonly went from one of the words of the liturgy sung; they were calledPlacebosandDiriges. The word "dirge" has passed into the English language, and is derived from the latter.

To psalmody for money, to chant the same words from day to day and from year to year, transforming into a mere mechanical toil the divine gift and duty of prayer, could not answer the ideal of life conceived by a proud and generous soul filled with vast thoughts. Langland, however, was obliged to curb his mind to this work;PlaceboandDirigebecame histools:

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