The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1

Name: The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1
Author: Langland, William

Langland, William

Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- Poetry

"Ac kynde love shal come yit,
  And conscience togideres,
  And make of lawe a laborer;
  Swich love shal arise,
  And swich a pees among the peple,
  And a perfit truthe,                                    1970
  That Jewes shul wene in hire wit,
  And wexen wonder glade,
  That Moyses or Messie
  Be come into this erthe,
  And have wonder in hire hertes
  That men beth so trewe.

    "Alle that beren baselarde,
  Brood swerd or launce,
  Ax outher hachet,
  Or any wepene ellis,                                    1980
  Shal be demed to the deeth,
  But if he do it smythye
  Into sikel or to sithe,
  To shaar or to kultour;
  _Conflabunt gladios suos in vomeres, etc._                 =

    "Ech man to pleye with a plow,
  Pykoise or spade,
  Spynne or sprede donge,
  Or spille hymself with sleuthe.                         1990

    "Preestes and persons
  With _Placebo_ to hunte,
  {62}
  And dyngen upon David
  Eche day til eve.
  Huntynge or haukynge
  If any of hem use,
  His boost of his benefice
  Worth by-nomen hym after.
  Shal neither kyng ne knyght,
  Constable ne meire,                                     2000
  Overlede the commune,
  Ne to the court sompne,
  Ne putte hem in panel
  To doon hem plighte hir truthe;
  But after the dede that is doon
  Oon doom shal rewarde,
  Mercy or no mercy,
  As truthe wole acorde.

    "Kynges court and commune court,
  Consistorie and chapitle,                               2010
  Al shal be but oon court,
  And oon baron be justice.
  Thanne worth Trewe-tonge a tidy man
  That tened me nevere;
  Batailles shul none be,
  Ne no man bere wepene;
  And what smyth that any smytheth,
  Be smyte therwith to dethe.
  _Non levabit gens contra gentem
      gladium, etc._                                      2020

    "And er this fortune falle,
  Fynde men shul the worste,
  By sixe sonnes and a shipe,
  And half a shef of arwes,
  And the myddel of a moone,
  Shal make the Jewes to torne,
  {63}
  And Sarzynes for that sighte
  Shul synge _Gloria in excelsis, etc._
  For Makometh and Mede
  Mys-happe shul that tyme,                               2030
  For _melius est bonum nomen quam divitiæ multæ._"          =

    Al so wroth as the wynd
  Weex Mede in a while,
  "I kan no Latyn," quod she,
  "Clerkes wite the sothe;
  Se what Salomon seith
  In Sapience bokes,
  That thei that gyven giftes
  The victorie wynneth,                                   2040
  And moost worshipe hadde therwith
  As holy writ telleth:
  _Honorem adquiret qui dat munera, etc._                    =

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1Langland, William

General

The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1

Langland, William

Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- Poetry

"Ac kynde love shal come yit,
  And conscience togideres,
  And make of lawe a laborer;
  Swich love shal arise,
  And swich a pees among the peple,
  And a perfit truthe,                                    1970
  That Jewes shul wene in hire wit,
  And wexen wonder glade,
  That Moyses or Messie
  Be come into this erthe,
  And have wonder in hire hertes
  That men beth so trewe.

    "Alle that beren baselarde,
  Brood swerd or launce,
  Ax outher hachet,
  Or any wepene ellis,                                    1980
  Shal be demed to the deeth,
  But if he do it smythye
  Into sikel or to sithe,
  To shaar or to kultour;
  _Conflabunt gladios suos in vomeres, etc._                 =

    "Ech man to pleye with a plow,
  Pykoise or spade,
  Spynne or sprede donge,
  Or spille hymself with sleuthe.                         1990

    "Preestes and persons
  With _Placebo_ to hunte,
  {62}
  And dyngen upon David
  Eche day til eve.
  Huntynge or haukynge
  If any of hem use,
  His boost of his benefice
  Worth by-nomen hym after.
  Shal neither kyng ne knyght,
  Constable ne meire,                                     2000
  Overlede the commune,
  Ne to the court sompne,
  Ne putte hem in panel
  To doon hem plighte hir truthe;
  But after the dede that is doon
  Oon doom shal rewarde,
  Mercy or no mercy,
  As truthe wole acorde.

    "Kynges court and commune court,
  Consistorie and chapitle,                               2010
  Al shal be but oon court,
  And oon baron be justice.
  Thanne worth Trewe-tonge a tidy man
  That tened me nevere;
  Batailles shul none be,
  Ne no man bere wepene;
  And what smyth that any smytheth,
  Be smyte therwith to dethe.
  _Non levabit gens contra gentem
      gladium, etc._                                      2020

    "And er this fortune falle,
  Fynde men shul the worste,
  By sixe sonnes and a shipe,
  And half a shef of arwes,
  And the myddel of a moone,
  Shal make the Jewes to torne,
  {63}
  And Sarzynes for that sighte
  Shul synge _Gloria in excelsis, etc._
  For Makometh and Mede
  Mys-happe shul that tyme,                               2030
  For _melius est bonum nomen quam divitiæ multæ._"          =

    Al so wroth as the wynd
  Weex Mede in a while,
  "I kan no Latyn," quod she,
  "Clerkes wite the sothe;
  Se what Salomon seith
  In Sapience bokes,
  That thei that gyven giftes
  The victorie wynneth,                                   2040
  And moost worshipe hadde therwith
  As holy writ telleth:
  _Honorem adquiret qui dat munera, etc._                    =

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1

The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1

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