The selections A and B are from the poems of Laurence Minot, of which the best edition is the third by J. Hall, Oxford 1914. Minot was a better patriot than a poet, and his boisterous contempt for the Scots and French reflects the spirit of England in the early days of Edward III's greatness. The empty phrases in which the anonymous piece C abounds do not disguise a note of despair. The long war with France was becoming more and more hopeless. The plague that added to its miseries had carried off Henry, first Duke of Lancaster, in 1361. The Black Prince, to whom the nation looked for guidance, had died in 1376. The inglorious old age of Edward III ended in the following year. But there remained the hope, soon to be falsified, that the boy king Richard II would steer the ship of state to safety. D is the earliest text of the letter which John Ball addressed to the Essex members of the Great Society of Peasants on the eve of the revolt of 1381. It shows how deep an impression the characters and allegorical form of _Piers Plowman_ had made on the oppressed serfs and labourers, and it gives some idea of the vague and incoherent thinking that brought ruin on their enterprise. Ball, who had defied established authority all his life, was freed from prison by the rebels, became a ringleader, and preached to their assembly on Blackheath a famous sermon with the text: When Adam dalf, and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? A few weeks later he was executed by sentence of Lord Chief Justice Tressilian, who had been charged by the King to take vengeance on the rebels. The distich E sums up briefly the history of a year which turned moderate men against Richard II. A fuller contemporary picture of the events that led to his deposition is found in the alliterative poem _Richard the Redeles_, attributed by Skeat to the author of _Piers Plowman_. A. ON THE SCOTS (ABOUT 1333). BY LAURENCE MINOT. MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (about 1425), f. 52 a. _Now for to tell ȝou will I turn Of batayl of Banocburn_ Skottes out of Berwik and of Abirdene At þe Bannokburn war ȝe to kene; Þare slogh ȝe many sakles, als it was sene, And now has King Edward wroken it, I wene. It es wrokin, I wene, wele wurth þe while! 5 War ȝit with þe Skottes for þai er ful of gile! Whare er ȝe Skottes of Saint Iohnes toune? Þe boste of ȝowre baner es betin all doune. When ȝe bosting will bede, Sir Edward es boune For to kindel ȝow care, and crak ȝowre crowne. 10 He has crakked ȝowre croune, wele worth þe while Schame bityde þe Skottes, for þai er full of gile!