The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1 — John Shaqi
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
(_Passus VIII._) All his inquiries after Do-well are fruitless: even the
friars, to whom he addresses himself, give but a confused account; and,
weary with wandering about, the dreamer is again overtaken by slumber.
Thought now appears to him, and recommends him to Wit, who describes to him
the residence of Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best, and enumerates their
companions and attendants. (_Passus IX._) The Castle of Do-well is an
allegorical representation of man (the individual), in which lady Anima
(the soul) is placed for safety, and guarded by a keeper named Kynde
(nature). With Do-well, the representative of those who live according to
truth in honest wedlock, are contrasted the people who live in lust and
wickedness, the descendants of the murderer Cain, who was begotten by Adam
in an evil hour. (_Passus X._) Wit has a wife named lady Study, who is
angry that her spouse should lay open his high truths to those who are
uninitiated--it is no better than "throwing pearls to swine, which would
rather have hawes." Wit is daunted by his wife's long lecture, and leaves
the dreamer to pursue his own suit. This he does with so much meekness and
humility, that the wrath of dame Study is appeased, and she sends him to
Clergy, with a token of recommendation from herself. Clergy receives the
pilgrim, and entertains him with a long declamation on the character of
Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best, and on the corruptions of the church and
the monkish orders, in the course of which is uttered the remarkable
prophecy of the king who was to "confess and beat" the monks, and give them
an "incurable knock," which was after less than two centuries so exactly
fulfilled in the dissolution of the monasteries. The wanderer confesses
himself "little the wiser" for Clergy's lecture, and by his pertness of
reply merits a reproof from Scripture. (_Passus XI._) In another vision the
dreamer is exposed to the seductions of Fortune, whose two fair damsels,
Concupiscentia-carnis and Covetousness-of-the-Eyes, persuade him to enjoy
the present moment, and lead him entirely from his previous pursuit. He is
only recalled from his error by the approach of Old Age, and then he falls
into the contemplation of a series of subjects, the covetousness of the
friars who gave absolution from motives of personal interest,
predestination, &c. Then Kynde, or Nature, came and carried him to a
mountain, which represented the world, and there showed him how all other
animals but man followed Reason; and Imaginative came after, and told him
that all his present doubt and anxiety had been brought upon him for
contending with Reason and suffering himself to be led astray by Fortune.
(_Passus XII._) The whole of the next section of the poem is occupied with
a long exhortation by Imaginative, concerning God's chastisements, the
merits of Charity and Mercy, the greater responsibility before God of those
who are learned and cannot sin ignorantly, the difficulty for the rich man
to enter heaven.
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