FROM THE VISION OF PIERS THE PLOWMAN.'

PASSUS XXI. (Latest Version.)

Wo-weary and wetshod went I forth after,

As a reckless renk1· that recketh not of sorrow,
And yede forth like a lorel3· all my life-time,

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Till I wex weary of this world and wilned 5 eft to sleep, And leaned me till Lent and long time I slept.

Of girls' and of gloria laus · greatly I dreamed,

One, was semblable to the Samaritan and some-deal to Piers

Plowman,

Barefoot on an ass-back bootless came pricking,

that cometh to be dubbed,

To get his gold spurs and galoches 10 y-couped ".

Then was Faith in a fenestre 12 and cried, 'Ah! fili David!' As doth an herald of arms

when auntres 13

Old Jews of Jerusalem for joy they sung,

come to jousts.

Piers fruit the Plowman 16' and he preynte1 upon me,

Benedictus qui venit in nomine domini.
Then I frayned 14 at Faith what all that fare meant,
And who should joust in Jerusalem 'Jesus,' he said,
And fetch that 15 the fiend claimeth
'Is Piers in this place?' quoth I
'Liberum Dei arbitrium,' quoth he
That this Jesus, of his gentrise 18
In his helm and in his habergeon · humanâ naturâ.
That Christ be not known for consummatus Deus,
In Piers' plates the Plowman 19
For no dint 21 shall him dere 22

'for love hath undertaken shall joust in Piers' arms,

this pricker 20 shall ride;
as in Deitate patris.'

16 the fruit [souls of men] belonging to Piers Plowman

17 glanced, looked.

plate-armour of Piers Plowman.

'Who shall joust with Jesus?' quoth I 'Jews, or the scribes?' 'Nay,' quoth Faith, "but the fiend and false-doom-to-die. Death saith he will for-do1 and adown bring

All that liveth or looketh

on land and in water.

Life saith that he lieth and hath laid his life to wed?,
That, for all that Death can do within three days,

To walk, and fetch from the fiend

.

And lay it where him liketh and Lucifer bind,

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And for-beat and bring adown bale and death for ever!
O mors, ero mors tua!

Then came Pilate with much people · sedens pro tribunali,

To see how doughtily Death should do · and deem their beyer

right 5.

The Jews and the justices against Jesus they were,

And all the court cried crucifige! loud.

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Then put him forth a pilour before Pilate, and said, 'This Jesus of our Jews' temple japed' and despised, To for-do it on a day and in three days after

Edify it eft new here He stands that said it,

8 ·

And yet make it as much
Both as long and as large ·
And as wide as it ever was

in all manner [of] points aloft and aground,

this we witness all!'

Crucifige!' quoth a catch-poll he can of witchcraft.

'Tolle! tolle!' quoth another

And began of a green thorn
And set it sore on His head

'Ave! Rabbi!' quoth that ribald and reeds shot at His eyes: And nailed Him with three nails naked on the rood,

'And, with a pole, poison · [they] put to his lips,

And bade Him drink, His death to let 11 and His days lengthen ; And said, 'if He soothfast be He will Himself help;

And now, if Thou be Christ

God's son of heaven,

Come adown off this rood and then will we 'lieve
That life Thee loveth and will not let Thee die.'

Consummatum est!' quoth Christ and comsed1 for to swoon Piteously and pale as prisoner that dieth.

The Lord of life and of light then laid His eyes together,

The day for dread thereof withdrew
The wall of the temple to-clave 2

and dark became the sun,

even in two pieces;

The hard rock all to-rove and right dark night it seemed.
The earth quook and quashed
And dead men for that din

as [if] it quick* were, came out of deep graves,

And told why that tempest so long time dured; 'For a bitter battle' the dead body said;

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the one for-doth5 the other,

・ who shall have the mastery and sank with that to earth.

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Lo! how the sun gan lock her light in her-self,
When she saw Him suffer death
Lo! the earth, for heaviness
Quaked as [a] quick thing
Lo! hell might not hold
And let out Simon's 10

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sons

who sun and sea made! that He would death suffer, and al to-quashed the rocks! but opened, when God tholed, to see Him hang on rood.

Now shall Lucifer 'lieve it though him loath think;

'Suffer we,' said Truth 'I hear and see both

A Spirit speak to hell and bids unspar the gates;

Attollite portas, principes, vestras; &c.'

A voice loud in that light to Lucifer cried,

12 undo the gates,

'Princes of this palace prest
For here cometh with crown the king of all glory.'
Then sighed Satan and said to hell,

'Such a light, against our leave · Lazarus it fetched;

10 In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, two sons of Simeon rise from

the dead, and reveal what they have witnessed in hell during Christ's descent into it.

And thou, Ashtaroth, hoot out and have out our knaves,
Colting, and all his kin our cattle to save.

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All hot on their heads that enter nigh the walls.

9.

Set bows of brake and brazen guns,

And shoot out shot enough His sheltrums 10 to blend 11.
Set Mahound at the mangonel 12

With crooks and with calthrops

and mill-stones throw,

a-cloy 13

we them each one!'

'Listen!' quoth Lucifer 'for I this lord know,

nor devil's queintise 15;

Both this lord and this light is long ago I knew him,
May no death this Lord dere 14
And, where He will, is His way
If He reave me of my right. He

but warn Him of the perils. robbeth me by mastery 16.

For, by right and by reason • the renks 17 that be here

and here dwell ever,

tree or took thereof an apple.

Thus this lord of light such a law made;

And, since He is so leal a Lord I 'lieve that He will not
Reave us of our right since reason them damnèd.

And, since we have been seised 19 seven thousand winters,
And [He] never was there-against

He were unwrast of1 His word that witness is of truth!'

Not in form of a fiend but in form of an adder;

And enticedest Eve to eat by herself,

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And behightest her and him after to know,

As two gods, with God both good and ill;

Thus haddest thou them out and hither at the last.

It is not graithly9 gotten

Forthy 10 I dread me,' quoth the devil'lest Truth will them

fetch;

And, as thou beguiledest God's image in going of an adder, So hath God beguiled us all in going of a wy11

'What lord art Thou?' quoth Lucifer

'The lord of might and of main that made all things.

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with all Belial's bars;

For any wy or ward wide opened the gates.
Patriarchs and prophets · populus in tenebris

Lucifer might not look

And those that our Lord loved with that light forth flew.

Ashtoreth and all others hid them in hernes 1, "

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They durst not look on our Lord the least of them all,
But let Him lead forth which Him list