235 And the feeblest in flight of all that fly:
The peacock and peahen, with their riches and pride,
Which are soon pursued, overtaken and seized
Since their trailing tails frustrate their flight.
But their flesh is foul, and their feet are too,
240 And their cry is crude and coarse on the ear.
“The rich are the same if they store up silver
And die without ever handing out alms.
Like the peacock’s feathers that prevent his flying,
Sovereigns and shillings bring sorrow behind them
245 To people with plenty till their tails are plucked.
They may then repent and mourn and bemoan
That they gathered so much and gave so meanly.
They can cry to Christ with the keenest of wills,
But their song will sound to our Lord like a screech.
250 When their bodies are brought to be buried in the tomb,
I think the whole cemetery will thoroughly stink
And their venom will infect every corpse in the vault.
“The peacock’s feet that we find in the fable
Are the false executors who fail to fulfill
255 Or observe as was wished the will that they witnessed,
And the peacock depicted by the poet is praised
For his feathers as the rich are revered for their fortune.
But the lark, which is smaller and sings more sweetly,
Can fly much further and faster than a peacock,
260 And is fatter and fleshier and far more delicious,
Resembling the simple with their straightforward lives.
The teacher Aristotle tells such tales,
Likening the lowly to the lark in his Logic.
But no scripture or learning can say for certain
265 Whether he and Socrates and Solomon are saved,
Though since God is good and gave them the sense
To instruct in their books those who seek to be saved,
We beg that God in his grace will grant them
Rest for their souls, especially as scholars
270 Would be lost unless they had learnt from their books.”
“But Christian clerics claim in their sermons
That salvation requires every creature to be christened,
Both us,” I rejoined, “and heathens and Jews.”
Imagination was not of my mind.
275 “‘If the just man shall scarcely be saved,’” he said,30
“As Scripture asserts, then he is in fact saved.
Trajan was true though unbaptized;
Hence the books say he’s saved, and his soul is in bliss,
For baptism can be by water or blood,
280 Or baptism by fire, which confirms our faith:
The divine fire comes not to burn but bring light.31
A true man who never trespassed or betrayed
But lived by God’s law and believed none better,
Though willing if there were such to change his ways,
Must be favored for his faith by a faithful God.
285 The faithful most fervently hope that in fairness
Fidelity will find God’s favor after death,
For GOD means Grants the Obedient Deliverance32:
Yea, though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils.33
These words surely warrant that truth will be rewarded,
While wisdom and intelligence were once the wealth
290 Considered essential for rulers and the source
Of human happiness.” And instantly, he vanished.
1Luke xii 38.
2Apocalypse (KJV Revelation) iii 19.
3Psalm xxii 4 (KJV Psalm xxiii 4).
4Dionysius Cato, Distich iii 7.
51 Corinthians xiii 13. Two lines are then omitted to avoid repetition.
6Rocamadour, in France, has a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin, surrounded by 17 rock-hewn chapels.
7Felicia (Felice) and Rosamund were characters in popular stories.
8An epigram from the twelfth-century Godfrey of Winchester (Schmidt p. 191).
9Luke vi 38.
10Luke xii 47. A line is then omitted to avoid repetition.
111 Corinthians viii 1.
12John iii 8.
13John iii 11. Two lines are then omitted to avoid repetition.
14John iii 8.
15Matthew vii 1.
16The Old Law refers to the law of Moses, to be superseded by the New Law of Christ.
171 Paralipomenon xvi 22 and Psalm civ 15 (KJV 1 Chronicles xvi 22 and Psalm cv 15).
181 Corinthians iii 19.
19Luke ii 15.
20Matthew ii 1.
21Luke ii 7. The source of “A pauper has no inn” is unknown.
22Psalm xxxi 1 (KJV Psalm xxxii 1).
23Sins should be confessed at least once a year, and Lent is the traditional time for this.
24Not Luke but Matthew xv 14.
25Psalm xv 5 (KJV Psalm xvi 5).
26The ability to read Latin showed that the accused should have been tried by an ecclesiastical court and must therefore be released. The London gallows were at Tyburn.
27Ecclesiasticus v 5. (Ecclesiasticus is regarded as Apocryphal in KJV.)
28Matthew xvi 27.
29Not a biblical quotation, but cf. Psalm cxxxiv 6: “Whatsoever the Lord pleased he hath done.”
301 Peter iv 18.
31From a Pentecost antiphon (Schmidt 203), cf. Matthew iii 11.
32“GOD” is the translation of the Latin used by Langland, “DEUS.” Schmidt (p. 390) credits Professor J.A. Burrow with revealing that this stands for Dans Eternam Uitam Suis (Giving Eternal Life to His Own).
33Psalm xxii 4 (KJV Psalm xxiii 4).
Step XIII
In which I wake and wander in uncertainty for years before my fourth dream, of a dinner where Patience and I eat humbly while a learned Doctor gorges himself. I ask him and Learning to explain Do-well, Do-better and Do-best. They both attempt answers, but Patience shows simply that they mean the love of Christ. The Doctor ridicules him, but Conscience sets off with Patience and me to seek proof. We meet Haukin, a merchant who thinks he does well, but whose coat is spotted with sin.
Therewith I awoke with my mind in a whirl,
And year upon year I wandered the world,
Ill-fortuned and fated to beg for food
And frequently reflecting on the folk I had seen:
5 How Fortune failed me when I needed her and vanished;
How Old Age menaced remorse when I met him;
How friars court favor with folk who are rich
And set little score by people who are poor,
And bar the burial in their churchyard or church
10 Of people unless a legacy is left;
How priests are as guilty of gluttony and greed;
How the humble are led, unless our Lord helps,
To everlasting agony by ignorant clergy;
How Imagination made me marvel in my mind
15 At Nature and his knowledge and benevolence to beasts,
Loving none less and loving none more,
But loving all living on land and sea,
Even creatures that creep being Nature’s kin;
How Imagination said the man was still saved,
20 And suddenly vanished as soon as he said it.
I lay for a long time thinking but at last
I slept and Christ sent Conscience with comfort.
The latter requested that I come to his court
To dine with Learning, which I did with delight.
25 I saw there a Doctor, a scholarly stranger
Who bowed to Scripture with seemly assurance.
Conscience was acquainted and welcomed him kindly,
And they washed and dried and went in to dinner.
But Patience stood back, appareled like a pilgrim
30 Appealing for alms as a penniless hermit.
Conscience called him and courteously said,
“Welcome, please wash, there’s no need to wait.”
The Doctor was put with the important people,
With Conscience and Learning a little below them,
35 But Patience and I were placed as a pair
At a table on the side, sitting by ourselves.
Then Conscience called, and Scripture came
And offered us helpings of Augustine and Ambrose
And the four Evangelists in flavorsome slices:
Eating and drinking such things as they have.1
40 But the Doctor and his servant would not sup on such stuff
And consumed other soups and stews that were rich,
Gorging on dishes that were gained by guile.
But their sauce would be sour and unsavory in taste
When pounded in a post-mortem mortar of pain
45 Unless they repented and prayed for pardon:
Ye who feast on the sins of men, unless ye shed tears and prayers for them, shall vomit up in torment that which ye ate with delight.2
Then Conscience kindly requested Scripture
To bring me and Patience a piece of bread.
She placed a sour portion before us. “Do Penance3
And drink Perseverance,” she devoutly avowed,
50 “As long as your life and body shall last!”
“No prince is served better,” said Patience. “This is priceless.”
Then more food came: Have-mercy-on-me,4
And Blessed-is-the-man and Blessed-are-they-
Whose-sins-are-covered in a salver that was called
55 I-will-confess-against-myself-my-injustice-to-the-Lord!5
“Another course for Patience,” said Conscience quietly,
And Patience was brought a second portion of bread:
For this shall every one that is holy pray to thee.6
Then Conscience encouraged us with comforting words:
A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.7
Patience was proud that he was plied with good food
60 And was totally content, but I was disturbed
That the Doctor on the dais was drinking too much:
Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine.8
He was shoveling down steak and stews and tripe,
Fried eggs and pork brawn and plenty of puddings.
I spoke to myself but the sound reached Patience:
65 “Not four days since this fellow held forth
On Pauline penance before the Dean of Saint Paul’s:
Five times did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods; in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness.9
But such sermons always seem not to see a word
That was put in his Epistle expressly by Paul,
That fratres who are false are founts of danger.10
70 This ‘fratres’ refers of course to friars,
Though I will not whisper the warning too loud
Lest people repeat it and slander the pure.11
But I never met a friar who referred to this phrase
In straightforward English when reciting a sermon,
75 Though they preach of the penance which profits the soul
And the misery and martyrdom Christ suffered for man.
Now this God-chopping glutton with his great fat cheeks
Has no pity for the poor and is perpetrating evil.
He should practice what he preaches,” I observed to Patience,
80 And I wished with a will that the devil were waiting
In the dishes and dainties before the Doctor
To turn them to molten metal in his mouth.
“I shall ask this guzzler with his great huge guts
To explain the penance he was preaching about.”
85 But Patience saw my purpose and signed me to be still.
“Wait and see,” he said, “what happens when he’s sated.
His paunch will punish him and he’ll puff at every word.
He’ll yawn and his guts will grumble and groan,
And he’s drunk so deeply that he’ll try to contend
90 That bacon and brawn, chicken puddings and pies
Are not flesh or fish but a penitent’s food,
And to prove it he’ll parrot the Apocalypse of Gluttons,
And the story of Saint Avery succored with sweetmeats.12
Then he’ll talk about threes and tell his neighbor
95 Of a book about friars that he found in a box,
Though never believe me unless it’s all nonsense.
That will be the time to take him to task
About Do-well, Do-better, Do-best and penance.”
I stayed still as he said, and soon the Doctor
100 Rubbed his cheeks that were as ruddy as a rose,
Coughed and cast us a glance while Conscience
Was taking the three-cornered Trinity as his text.
I addressed him: “Doctor, what is Do-well? Is it penance?”
“Do-well?” said the Doctor, and took the cup and drank.
105 “Not hurting fellow Christians if you can help it.”
“Then Doctor,” I said, “you are certainly not Do-well
For you’ve hurt both of us by eating the chicken
And steak and stews while we haven’t supped.
If the food in your infirmary is as filling as that
110 There’ll be battles, not charity, and the boys there will brawl.
Since I’m desperate to do well, why don’t we swap places?”
Conscience pulled a face and kindly requested
/> Patience to persuade me to sit in silence,
But said himself, “Do please describe
115 What are Do-well and Do-better. Doctors must know.”
“Do-well,” said the Doctor, “is to do what clerics say,
Do-better is teaching, at least trying to teach,
And Do-best does what he says folk should do:
He that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”13
Then Conscience requested Learning to comment.
120 “My seven sons serve,” Learning said, “in a castle,
Where they learn about Do-well from the Lord of Life,
But defining what is Do-well would be foolish before
I have seen my sons and resolved it with them.
For Piers the Plowman has impugned us all
125 And unseated all sciences save only love,
And the sole texts he cites to strengthen his case
Are Love thy God and Lord, who shall dwell?14
He deems that Do-well and Do-better aren’t finite,
But converge and foster Do-best through faith,
130 Which saves the soul, Piers the Plowman says.”
“I cannot express an opinion,” said Conscience,
“But Piers wouldn’t speak against Scripture, I’m sure.
Let’s see how he shows we should act when he’s here,
Though the much-traveled Patience may know more,
135 For as Christ declared: The patient shall conquer.”15
“I’ll reply,” said Patience, “if it won’t displease you.
First Learn, Teach later, then Love your foes.
Do-well learns, Do-better gives lessons
And Do-best loves, I was led to believe
140 By a lady I loved whose name was Love.
‘You should love your soul,’ she said, ‘all your life,
In words and works with a willing heart,
And should learn to love, for the sake of our Lord,
Your enemy sincerely the same as yourself.
145 Overwhelm him with words of affection and warmth,
Claim his devotion with kindness and care,
Piers Plowman Page 21
