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 yede2 forth like a lorel3· all my life-time,

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,

Barefoot on an ass-back · bootless came pricking,

Without spurs or spear · and sprackly” he looked,
As is the kind of a knight that cometh to be dubbed,
To get his gold spurs and galoches 10 y-couped 1.

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

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when auntres come to jousts.

Then I frayned1 at Faith what all that fare meant,

18.

'Jesus,' he said,

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

And who should joust in Jerusalem 'And fetch that 15 the fiend claimeth 'Is Piers in this place?' quoth I ‘Liberum Dei arbitrium,' quoth he・ 'for love hath undertaken That this Jesus, of his gentrise shall joust in Piers' arms, In his helm and in his habergeon That Christ be not known for In Piers' plates the Plowman 19 For no dint 21 shall him dere

humanâ naturâ. consummatus Deus,

this pricker 20 shall ride; 22. as in Deitate patris.'

caitiff.

⚫ like.

12 window.

13 adventurers.

16 the fruit [souls of men] belonging to Piers

plate-armour of Piers Plowman.

18 condescension.

10 shoes. 14 asked.

Plowman

19 in the 22 harm.

'Who shall joust with Jesus?' quoth I 'Jews, or the scribes?' 'Nay,' quoth Faith, 'but the fiend

Death saith he will for-do1

All that liveth or looketh

and false-doom-to-die.

and adown bring

on land and in water.

Life saith that he lieth
That, for all that Death can do within three days,

and hath laid his life to wed',

To walk, and fetch from the fiend • Piers fruit the Plowman, And lay it where him liketh and Lucifer bind,

3

And for-beat and bring adown

O mors, ero mors tua!

Then came Pilate with much people

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To see how doughtily Death should do and deem their beyer

right".

The Jews and the justices against Jesus they were,
And all the court cried · crucifige! loud.

6.

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,

aloft and aground,

this we witness all!'

And yet make it as much in all manner [of] points
Both as long and as large
And as wide as it ever was
'Crucifige!' quoth a catch-poll
'Tolle! tolle!' quoth another
And began of a green thorn
And set it sore on His head

he can of witchcraft. and took of keen thorns, a garland to make,

and sith 10 said in envy,

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

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

11 •

And bade Him drink, His death to let 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

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

and dark became the sun,

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

2.

even in two pieces ;

The hard rock all to-rove and right dark night it seemed.

The earth quook and quashed

as [if] it quick were, And dead men for that din came out of deep graves, And told why that tempest so long time dured;

'For a bitter battle' · the dead body said;

'Life and Death in this darkness

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the one for-doth the other,

But shall no wight wit witterly · who shall have the mastery Ere Sunday, about sun-rising' and sank with that to earth.

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When she saw Him suffer death who sun and sea made!
Lo! the earth, for heaviness that He would death suffer,
Quaked as [a] quick thing · and al to-quashed the rocks!
Lo! hell might not hold but opened, when God tholed,
And let out Simon's 10

Now shall Lucifer 'lieve it though him loath think;

of them that Him liketh.

'I hear and see both
and bids unspar the gates;
Attollite portas, principes, vestras; &c.'

A voice loud in that light to Lucifer cried,
'Princes of this palace prest 12 undo the gates,
For here cometh with crown

'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.

If this king come in mankind will he fetch,

And lead it where Lazar is and lightly me bind.
Patriarchs and prophets have parled1 hereof long,

That such a lord and a light shall lead them all hence.

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

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Brimstone boiling burning out-cast it

All hot on their heads that enter nigh the walls.

Set bows of brake
And shoot out shot enough

His sheltrums 1o to blend 11.

Set Mahound at the mangonel 12
With crooks and with calthrops

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

15;

but warn Him of the perils. He robbeth me by mastery 16 the renks 17 that be here

both good and ill.

Both this lord and this light is long ago I knew him.
May no death this Lord dere 1· nor devil's queintise 15
And, where He will, is His way
If He reave me of my right.
For, by right and by reason
Body and soul be mine
For He Himself it said
That Adam and Eve
Should die with dool 18
If that they touched a
Thus this lord of light

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 and now will begin,

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

'That is sooth,' said Satan'but I me sore doubt,

For thou got them with guile and His garden broke,
Against His love and His leave on His land yedest3,

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

As two gods, with God both good and ill;

Thus with treason and with treachery thou troiledest them

Thus haddest thou them out • and hither at the last.

It is not graithly gotten 9

where guile is at the root.

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

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'What lord art Thou?' quoth Lucifer a voice aloud said, 'The lord of might and of main that made all things.

Duke of this dim place

That Christ may come in

And with that breath hell brake · with all Belial's bars;

Lucifer might not look so light him ablent 13 ;

And those that our Lord loved

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Ashtoreth and all others hid them in hernes ",

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