A Dream of John Ball; and, A King's Lesson

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XII

  ILL WOULD CHANGE BE AT WHILES WERE IT NOT FOR THE CHANGE BEYOND THE CHANGE

  He said: "Many strange things hast thou told me that I could notunderstand; yea, some my wit so failed to compass, that I cannot somuch as ask thee questions concerning them; but of some matters would Iask thee, and I must hasten, for in very sooth the night is worn oldand grey. Whereas thou sayest that in the days to come, when thereshall be no labouring men who are not thralls after their new fashion,that their lords shall be many and very many, it seemeth to me thatthese same lords, if they be many, shall hardly be rich, or but veryfew of them, since they must verily feed and clothe and house theirthralls, so that that which they take from them, since it will have tobe dealt out amongst many, will not be enough to make many rich; sinceout of one man ye may get but one man's work; and pinch him never sosorely, still as aforesaid ye may not pinch him so sorely as not tofeed him. Therefore, though the eyes of my mind may see a few lordsand many slaves, yet can they not see many lords as well as manyslaves; and if the slaves be many and the lords few, then some dayshall the slaves make an end of that mastery by the force of theirbodies. How then shall thy mastership of the latter days endure?"

  "John Ball," said I, "mastership hath many shifts whereby it strivethto keep itself alive in the world. And now hear a marvel: whereas thousayest these two times that out of one man ye may get but one man'swork, in days to come one man shall do the work of a hundred men--yea,of a thousand or more: and this is the shift of mastership that shallmake many masters and many rich men."

  John Ball laughed. "Great is my harvest of riddles to-night," said he;"for even if a man sleep not, and eat and drink while he is a-working,ye shall but make two men, or three at the most, out of him."

  Said I: "Sawest thou ever a weaver at his loom?"

  "Yea," said he, "many a time."

  He was silent a little, and then said: "Yet I marvelled not at it; butnow I marvel, because I know what thou wouldst say. Time was when theshuttle was thrust in and out of all the thousand threads of the warp,and it was long to do; but now the spring-staves go up and down as theman's feet move, and this and that leaf of the warp cometh forward andthe shuttle goeth in one shot through all the thousand warps. Yea, soit is that this multiplieth a man many times. But look you, he is somultiplied already; and so hath he been, meseemeth, for many hundredyears."

  "Yea," said I, "but what hitherto needed the masters to multiply himmore? For many hundred years the workman was a thrall bought and soldat the cross; and for other hundreds of years he hath been a villein--that is, a working-beast and a part of the stock of the manor on whichhe liveth; but then thou and the like of thee shall free him, and thenis mastership put to its shifts; for what should avail the masterythen, when the master no longer owneth the man by law as his chattel,nor any longer by law owneth him as stock of his land, if the masterhath not that which he on whom he liveth may not lack and live withal,and cannot have without selling himself?"

  He said nothing, but I saw his brow knitted and his lips pressedtogether as though in anger; and again I said:

  "Thou hast seen the weaver at his loom: think how it should be if hesit no longer before the web and cast the shuttle and draw home thesley, but if the shed open of itself and the shuttle of itself speedthrough it as swift as the eye can follow, and the sley come home ofitself; and the weaver standing by and whistling The Hunt's Up! thewhile, or looking to half-a-dozen looms and bidding them what to do.And as with the weaver so with the potter, and the smith, and everyworker in metals, and all other crafts, that it shall be for themlooking on and tending, as with the man that sitteth in the cart whilethe horse draws. Yea, at last so shall it be even with those who aremere husbandmen; and no longer shall the reaper fare afield in themorning with his hook over his shoulder, and smite and bind and smiteagain till the sun is down and the moon is up; but he shall draw athing made by men into the field with one or two horses, and shall saythe word and the horses shall go up and down, and the thing shall reapand gather and bind, and do the work of many men. Imagine all this inthy mind if thou canst, at least as ye may imagine a tale ofenchantment told by a minstrel, and then tell me what shouldst thoudeem that the life of men would be amidst all this, men such as thesemen of the township here, or the men of the Canterbury gilds."

  "Yea," said he; "but before I tell thee my thoughts of thy tale ofwonder, I would ask thee this: In those days when men work so easily,surely they shall make more wares than they can use in one countryside,or one good town, whereas in another, where things have not gone aswell, they shall have less than they need; and even so it is with usnow, and thereof cometh scarcity and famine; and if people may not comeat each other's goods, it availeth the whole land little that onecountry-side hath more than enough while another hath less; for thegoods shall abide there in the storehouses of the rich place till theyperish. So if that be so in the days of wonder ye tell of (and I seenot how it can be otherwise), then shall men be but little holpen bymaking all their wares so easily and with so little labour."

  I smiled again and said: "Yea, but it shall not be so; not only shallmen be multiplied a hundred and a thousand fold, but the distance ofone place from another shall be as nothing; so that the wares which lieready for market in Durham in the evening may be in London on themorrow morning; and the men of Wales may eat corn of Essex and the menof Essex wear wool of Wales; so that, so far as the flitting of goodsto market goes, all the land shall be as one parish. Nay, what say I?Not as to this land only shall it be so, but even the Indies, and farcountries of which thou knowest not, shall be, so to say, at everyman's door, and wares which now ye account precious and dear-bought,shall then be common things bought and sold for little price at everyhuckster's stall. Say then, John, shall not those days be merry, andplentiful of ease and contentment for all men?"

  "Brother," said he, "meseemeth some doleful mockery lieth under thesejoyful tidings of thine; since thou hast already partly told me to mysad bewilderment what the life of man shall be in those days. Yet willI now for a little set all that aside to consider thy strange tale asof a minstrel from over sea, even as thou biddest me. Therefore I say,that if men still abide men as I have known them, and unless these folkof England change as, the land changeth--and forsooth of the men, forgood and for evil, I can think no other than I think now, or beholdthem other than I have known them and loved them--I say if the men bestill men, what will happen except that there should be all plenty inthe land, and not one poor man therein, unless of his own free will hechoose to lack and be poor, as a man in religion or such like; forthere would then be such abundance of all good things, that, as greedyas the lords might be, there would be enough to satisfy their greed andyet leave good living for all who laboured with their hands; so thatthese should labour far less than now, and they would have time tolearn knowledge, so that there should be no learned or unlearned, forall should be learned; and they would have time also to learn how toorder the matters of the parish and the hundred, and of the parliamentof the realm, so that the king should take no more than his own; and toorder the rule of the realm, so that all men, rich and unrich, shouldhave part therein; and so by undoing of evil laws and making of goodones, that fashion would come to an end whereof thou speakest, thatrich men make laws for their own behoof; for they should no longer beable to do thus when all had part in making the laws; whereby it wouldsoon come about that there would be no men rich and tyrannous, but allshould have enough and to spare of the increase of the earth and thework of their own hands. Yea surely, brother, if ever it cometh aboutthat men shall be able to make things, and not men, work for theirsuperfluities, and that the length of travel from one place to anotherbe made of no account, and all the world be a market for all the world,then all shall live in health and wealth; and envy and grudging shallperish. For then shall we have conquered the earth and it shall beenough; and then shall the kingdom of heaven be come down to the earthin very deed. Why lookest thou so sad and
sorry? what sayest thou?"

  I said: "Hast thou forgotten already what I told thee, that in thoselatter days a man who hath nought save his own body (and such men shallbe far the most of men) must needs pawn his labour for leave to labour?Can such a man be wealthy? Hast thou not called him a thrall?"

  "Yea," he said; "but how could I deem that such things could be whenthose days should be come wherein men could make things work for them?"

  "Poor man!" said I. "Learn that in those very days, when it shall bewith the making of things as with the carter in the cart, that there hesitteth and shaketh the reins and the horse draweth and the cart goeth;in those days, I tell thee, many men shall be as poor and wretchedalways, year by year, as they are with thee when there is famine in theland; nor shall any have plenty and surety of livelihood save thosethat shall sit by and look on while others labour; and these, I tellthee, shall be a many, so that they shall see to the making of alllaws, and in their hands shall be all power, and the labourers shallthink that they cannot do without these men that live by robbing them,and shall praise them and wellnigh pray to them as ye pray to thesaints, and the best worshipped man in the land shall be he who byforestalling and regrating hath gotten to him the most money."

  "Yea," said he, "and shall they who see themselves robbed worship therobber? Then indeed shall men be changed from what they are now, andthey shall be sluggards, dolts, and cowards beyond all the earth hathyet borne. Such are not the men I have known in my life-days, and thatnow I love in my death."

  "Nay," I said, "but the robbery shall they not see; for have I not toldthee that they shall hold themselves to be free men? And for why? Iwill tell thee: but first tell me how it fares with men now; may thelabouring man become a lord?"

  He said: "The thing hath been seen that churls have risen from thedortoir of the monastery to the abbot's chair and the bishop's throne;yet not often; and whiles hath a bold sergeant become a wise captain,and they have made him squire and knight; and yet but very seldom. Andnow I suppose thou wilt tell me that the Church will open her armswider to this poor people, and that many through her shall rise intolordship. But what availeth that? Nought were it to me if the Abbotof St. Alban's with his golden mitre sitting guarded by his knights andsergeants, or the Prior of Merton with his hawks and his hounds, hadonce been poor men, if they were now tyrants of poor men; nor would itbetter the matter if there were ten times as many Houses of Religion inthe land as now are, and each with a churl's son for abbot or priorover it."

  I smiled and said: "Comfort thyself; for in those days shall there beneither abbey nor priory in the land, nor monks nor friars, nor anyreligious." (He started as I spoke.) "But thou hast told me thathardly in these days may a poor man rise to be a lord: now I tell theethat in the days to come poor men shall be able to become lords andmasters and do-nothings; and oft will it be seen that they shall do so;and it shall be even for that cause that their eyes shall be blinded tothe robbing of themselves by others, because they shall hope in theirsouls that they may each live to rob others: and this shall be the verysafeguard of all rule and law in those days."

  "Now am I sorrier than thou hast yet made me," said he; "for when oncethis is established, how then can it be changed? Strong shall be thetyranny of the latter days. And now meseems, if thou sayest sooth,this time of the conquest of the earth shall not bring heaven down tothe earth, as erst I deemed it would, but rather that it shall bringhell up on to the earth. Woe's me, brother, for thy sad and wearyforetelling! And yet saidst thou that the men of those days would seeka remedy. Canst thou yet tell me, brother, what that remedy shall be,lest the sun rise upon me made hopeless by thy tale of what is to be?And, lo you, soon shall she rise upon the earth."

  In truth the dawn was widening now, and the colours coming into thepictures on wall and in window; and as well as I could see through thevaried glazing of these last (and one window before me had as yetnothing but white glass in it), the ruddy glow, which had but so littlea while quite died out in the west, was now beginning to gather in theeast--the new day was beginning. I looked at the poppy that I stillcarried in my hand, and it seemed to me to have withered and dwindled.I felt anxious to speak to my companion and tell him much, and withal Ifelt that I must hasten, or for some reason or other I should be toolate; so I spoke at last loud and hurriedly:

  "John Ball, be of good cheer; for once more thou knowest, as I know,that the Fellowship of Men shall endure, however many tribulations itmay have to wear through. Look you, a while ago was the light brightabout us; but it was because of the moon, and the night was deepnotwithstanding, and when the moonlight waned and died, and there wasbut a little glimmer in place of the bright light, yet was the worldglad because all things knew that the glimmer was of day and not ofnight. Lo you, an image of the times to betide the hope of theFellowship of Men. Yet forsooth, it may well be that this bright day ofsummer which is now dawning upon us is no image of the beginning of theday that shall be; but rather shall that day-dawn be cold and grey andsurly; and yet by its light shall men see things as they verily are,and no longer enchanted by the gleam of the moon and the glamour of thedream-tide. By such grey light shall wise men and valiant souls seethe remedy, and deal with it, a real thing that may be touched andhandled, and no glory of the heavens to be worshipped from afar off.And what shall it be, as I told thee before, save that men shall bedetermined to be free; yea, free as thou wouldst have them, when thinehope rises the highest, and thou art thinking not of the king's uncles,and poll-groat bailiffs, and the villeinage of Essex, but of the end ofall, when men shall have the fruits of the earth and the fruits oftheir toil thereon, without money and without price. The time shallcome, John Ball, when that dream of thine that this shall one day be,shall be a thing that men shall talk of soberly, and as a thing soon tocome about, as even with thee they talk of the villeins becomingtenants paying their lord quit-rent; therefore, hast thou done well tohope it; and, if thou heedest this also, as I suppose thou heedest itlittle, thy name shall abide by thy hope in those days to come, andthou shalt not be forgotten."

  I heard his voice come out of the twilight, scarcely seeing him, thoughnow the light was growing fast, as he said:

  "Brother, thou givest me heart again; yet since now I wot well thatthou art a sending from far-off times and far-off things: tell thou, ifthou mayest, to a man who is going to his death how this shall comeabout."

  "Only this may I tell thee" said I; "to thee, when thou didst try toconceive of them, the ways of the days to come seemed follies scarce tobe thought of; yet shall they come to be familiar things, and an orderby which every man liveth, ill as he liveth, so that men shall deem ofthem, that thus it hath been since the beginning of the world, and thatthus it shall be while the world endureth; and in this wise so shallthey be thought of a long while; and the complaint of the poor the richman shall heed, even as much and no more as he who lieth in pleasureunder the lime-trees in the summer heedeth the murmur of his toilingbees. Yet in time shall this also grow old, and doubt shall creep in,because men shall scarce be able to live by that order, and thecomplaint of the poor shall be hearkened, no longer as a tale notutterly grievous, but as a threat of ruin, and a fear. Then shall thesethings, which to thee seem follies, and to the men between thee and memere wisdom and the bond of stability, seem follies once again; yet,whereas men have so long lived by them, they shall cling to them yetfrom blindness and from fear; and those that see, and that have thusmuch conquered fear that they are furthering the real time that comethand not the dream that faileth, these men shall the blind and thefearful mock and missay, and torment and murder: and great and grievousshall be the strife in those days, and many the failures of the wise,and too oft sore shall be the despair of the valiant; and back-sliding,and doubt, and contest between friends and fellows lacking time in thehubbub to understand each other, shall grieve many hearts and hinderthe Host of the Fellowship: yet shall all bring about the end, till thydeeming of folly and ours shall be one, and thy hope and our
hope; andthen--the Day will have come."

  Once more I heard the voice of John Ball: "Now, brother, I sayfarewell; for now verily hath the Day of the Earth come, and thou and Iare lonely of each other again; thou hast been a dream to me as I tothee, and sorry and glad have we made each other, as tales of old timeand the longing of times to come shall ever make men to be. I go tolife and to death, and leave thee; and scarce do I know whether to wishthee some dream of the days beyond thine to tell what shall be, as thouhast told me, for I know not if that shall help or hinder thee; butsince we have been kind and very friends, I will not leave thee withouta wish of good-will, so at least I wish thee what thou thyself wishestfor thyself, and that is hopeful strife and blameless peace, which isto say in one word, life. Farewell, friend."

  For some little time, although I had known that the daylight wasgrowing and what was around me, I had scarce seen the things I hadbefore noted so keenly; but now in a flash I saw all--the east crimsonwith sunrise through the white window on my right hand; therichly-carved stalls and gilded screen work, the pictures on the walls,the loveliness of the faultless colour of the mosaic window lights, thealtar and the red light over it looking strange in the daylight, andthe biers with the hidden dead men upon them that lay before the highaltar. A great pain filled my heart at the sight of all that beauty,and withal I heard quick steps coming up the paved church-path to theporch, and the loud whistle of a sweet old tune therewith; then thefootsteps stopped at the door; I heard the latch rattle, and knew thatWill Green's hand was on the ring of it.

  Then I strove to rise up, but fell back again; a white light, empty ofall sights, broke upon me for a moment, and lo I behold, I was lying inmy familiar bed, the south-westerly gale rattling the Venetian blindsand making their hold-fasts squeak.

  I got up presently, and going to the window looked out on the wintermorning; the river was before me broad between outer bank and bank, butit was nearly dead ebb, and there was a wide space of mud on each sideof the hurrying stream, driven on the faster as it seemed by the pushof the south-west wind. On the other side of the water the fewwillow-trees left us by the Thames Conservancy looked doubtfully aliveagainst the bleak sky and the row of wretched-looking blue-slatedhouses, although, by the way, the latter were the backs of a sort ofstreet of "villas" and not a slum; the road in front of the house wassooty and muddy at once, and in the air was that sense of dirtydiscomfort which one is never quit of in London. The morning washarsh, too, and though the wind was from the south-west it was as coldas a north wind; and yet amidst it all, I thought of the corner of thenext bight of the river which I could not quite see from where I was,but over which one can see clear of houses and into Richmond Park,looking like the open country; and dirty as the river was, and harsh aswas the January wind, they seemed to woo me toward the country-side,where away from the miseries of the "Great Wen" I might of my own willcarry on a daydream of the friends I had made in the dream of the nightand against my will.

  But as I turned away shivering and downhearted, on a sudden came thefrightful noise of the "hooters," one after the other, that call theworkmen to the factories, this one the after-breakfast one, more bytoken. So I grinned surlily, and dressed and got ready for my day's"work" as I call it, but which many a man besides John Ruskin (thoughnot many in his position) would call "play."