The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 2Langland, William
General
The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 2
Langland, William
Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- Poetry
I can fynde no man now that wille enquere
The parfyte wais unto Dunmow;
For they repent hem within a yere,
And many within a weke, and sonner, men trow;
That cawsith the weis to be rowgh and over-grow,
That no man may fynd path or gap,
The world is turnyd to another shap.
Befe and moton wylle serve wele enow;
And for to seche so ferre a lytill bakon flyk,
Which hath long hanggid resty and tow
And the wey, I telle you, is comborous and thyk,
And thou might stomble, and take the cryk;
Therfor bide at home, what so ever hap
Tylle the world be turnyd into another shap.
One or two other allusions to this custom have been found in manuscripts of
the fifteenth century, and in the sixteenth century these allusions become
more numerous.
5563. 1 Corinth. vii, 1.
5613. _Margery perles._ A margarite pearl, _perle marguerite_. The Latin
name for a pearl (_margarita_) seems to be the origin of this expression.
5634. _a love day | to lette with truthe._ Love days (_Dies amoris_) were
days fixed for settling differences by umpire, without having recourse to
law or to violence. The ecclesiastics seem generally to have had the
principal share in the management of these transactions, which throughout
the Visions of Piers Ploughman appear to be censured as the means of
hindering justice and of enriching the clergy. A little further on,
Religion is blamed for being "a ledere of love-dayes." (l. 6219.) In
Chaucer, it is said of the friar:--
And over'al, ther eny profyt schulde arise,
Curteys he was, and lowe of servyse.
. . . . . .
And rage he couthe and pleye as a whelpe,
In love-dayes, ther couthe he mochil helpe.
For ther was he not like a cloysterer
With a thredbare cope, as a pore scoler,
But he was like a maister or a pope.--_Cant. T._ 249, 259.
5646. The quotation is made up from Job xxi, 7; and Jerem. xii, 2.
5651. Psal. lxxii, 12.
5659. Psal. x, 4. Quoniam quæ perfecisti, destruxerunt: justus autem quid
fecit?
5739. Psal. cxxxi, 6.
5769. Isai. lviii, 7.
5778. Tob. iv, 9. Si multum tibi fuerit, abundanter tribue; si exiguum tibi
fuerit, etiam exiguum libenter impertiri stude.
In what follows, Whitaker's text is in parts much more brief than the one
now printed; there are also many transpositions, and other variations,
which are not of sufficient importance to be pointed out more particularly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account