Transcriber's note: A few obvious typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text. In this edition line numbers are displayed on every tenth line--in the printed work they were synchronised to the pagination, with sometimes only one number per page. Lines marked = were printed AND COUNTED as two lines. Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). A carat character is used to denote superscription. A single character, or group enclosed enclosed in curly brackets, following the carat is superscripted (example: .xxx.^{ti}). In the main texts of The Vision and The Creed, the numbers of the original pages are enclosed in curly brackets to facilitate the use of the glossary. Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work. Volume I: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43660 * * * * * Library of Old Authors. THE VISION AND CREED OF PIERS PLOUGHMAN. EDITED, FROM A CONTEMPORARY MANUSCRIPT, WITH A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND A GLOSSARY, BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A. F.S.A. &c. Corresponding Member of the Imperial Institute of France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. _SECOND AND REVISED EDITION._ LONDON: REEVES AND TURNER, 196 STRAND. 1887. * * * * * {273} _Passus Decimus Quartus, etc._ "Ihave but oon hool hater," quod Haukyn; 8900 "I am the lasse to blame, Though it be soiled and selde clene: I slepe therinne o nyghtes. And also I have an houswif, Hewen and children,-- _Uxorem duxi, et ideo non possum venire._-- That wollen by-molen it many tyme, Maugree my chekes. It hath be laved in Lente And out of Lente bothe, 8910 With the sope of siknesse, That seketh wonder depe, And with the losse of catel, Looth for to a-gulte God of any good man, By aught that I wiste; And was shryven of the preest That gaf me for my synnes To penaunce pacience And povere men to fede, 8920 Al for coveitise of my cristendom In clennesse to kepen it. {274} And kouthe I nevere, by Crist! Kepen it clene an houre, That I ne soiled it with sighte Or som ydel speche, Or thorugh werk, or thorugh word, Or wille of myn herte, That I ne flobre it foule Fro morwe til even." 8930 "And I shal kenne thee," quod Conscience, "Of contricion to make That shal clawe thi cote Of alle kynnes filthe. _Cordis contritio, etc._ Do-wel shal wasshen and wryngen it Thorugh a wis confessour. _Oris confessio, etc._ Do-bet shal beten it and bouken it As bright as any scarlet, 8940 And engreyven it with good wille And Goddes grace to amende the, And sithen sende thee to satisfaccion For to sowen it after. _Satisfactio Do-best._