The author, William Langland, called 'Long Will,' probably from his tallness, was an inhabitant of London, but he has little to say in its favour. He wrote: 'I have lived long in London, but have never found charity; all whom I have seen are covetous.'[55] Prof. Skeat says: 'One great merit of the poem is, that it chiefly exhibits London life and London opinions, which are surely of more interest to us than those of Worcestershire. He does but mention Malvern three times, and those three passages may be found within the compass of the first eight passus of Text A. But how numerous are his allusions to London! He not only speaks of it several times, but he frequently mentions the Law Courts of Westminster; he was familiar with Cornhill, East Cheap, Cock Lane in Smithfield,[56] Shoreditch, Garlickhithe, Stratford, Tyburn and Southwark, all of which he mentions in an offhand manner. He mentions no river but the Thames, which is with him simply synonymous with river; for in one passage he speaks of two men thrown into the Thames, and in another he says that rich men are wont to give presents to the rich, which is as superfluous as if one should fill a tun with water from a fresh river and then pour it into the Thames to render it wetter. To remember the London origin of a large portion of the poem is the true key to the right understanding of it.'[57] M. Jusserand, in his interesting study of _Piers Plowman_, says of Langland: 'He tells us what he has seen and nothing else; his sole guide is the light that shines over the town where Truth is imprisoned.' He continues: 'It clears the darkness of the London lanes, where, under the pent-roof of their shops, the merchants make Gyle, disguised as an apprentice, sell their adulterated wares; it brightens the hovel in Cornhill where the poet lodges his emaciated body; it throws its rays on the scared faces of sinners for whom the hour of punishment has rung. We have here a whole gallery of portraits which stand out in an extraordinary manner.' M. Jusserand takes a somewhat unfavourable view of Langland's character. He says that the poet 'blames those who go to London and sing for souls, yet he confesses that he does the same. He blames people of a wandering habit, yet he is a wanderer; he heaps scorn on the men who seek for invitations at the houses of the great, yet he does so; he condemns "tho that feynen here folis" (Bk. x. 38), and he assumes the appearance of a "fole"; he hates lazy people, "lorels," "lolleres," yet he lives himself as a lorel, a loller, a "spille-tyme"; '"and lovede wel fare, And no dede to do bote drynke and to slepe."' (C. vi. 8). The satirist and the censor cannot always be consistent, and without deciding upon the character of Langland, gratitude to him causes us to forgive his inconsistencies, and makes us more inclined to agree with the high estimate of Professor Skeat, rather than with the condemnation of Mons. Jusserand.[58]