Piers Plowman

by Sutton, Peter, Langland, William

           We’ll discover and cover every chink and crack

           So that light cannot enter at louvers or loop-holes.

           And Astaroth, summon and send out our servants,

           Colting and his crew, to recover what’s ours.

           Boil up brimstone and pour it burning

           On the heads of any who head for the walls.

           Bring up the biggest cross-bows and cannon20

           And fire off sufficient to blind his forces.

           Set Mahon at the mangonel to rain down mill-stones,

           And with hooks and with caltrops we’ll halt the whole host.”21

  270  “Listen, said Lucifer, “a long time ago

       I knew this lord and his lustrous light.

       He can’t be undone by devilry or death,

       He goes where he will, but I warn him to beware:

       If he robs me of my rights, he must rob me by force

  275  Since by right and by reason the ranks that are here,

       Well-meaning and mean, are body and soul mine.

       For he, King of heaven, he it was said

       That if Adam ate the apple, all should then die

       And dwell with us devils; so he ordained,

  280  For that sentence was spoken by Truth himself.

       I have sat here as sovereign for seven thousand years

       And the law won’t allow him to lightly unseat me.”

       “That is so,” Satan said, “but I’m strangely afraid,

       For you got them by guile, breaking into his garden.

  285  You sat in the apple tree, shaped like a serpent

       To egg Eve on and entice her to eat.

       You told a tall tale, a treacherous lie:

       That’s how you herded so many in here,

       And what’s gained by guile is not fairly got.”

  290  And Goblin agreed. “God won’t be beguiled;

       They were damned by treachery and our title’s not true.”

       “I fear,” said Satan, “that he’s certain to free them,

       For he’s paced about preaching to people for years.

       I’ve assailed him with sin and once even said,

  295  ‘Are you God or God’s son?’ but he gave me short shrift.

       Thirty-two, he was, when I went and warned

       The wife of Pilate what person he was

       In a dream that I sent when I saw her asleep.

       The Jews, who hated him, asked that he hang,

  300  While I only longed to lengthen his life.

       When his body had bones he was bothersome and strove

       To save the sinful if sinners were willing,

       But his soul, once dead, would stop them from sinning.

       And see, here’s a soul sailing toward us” said Satan.

  305  “I suspect that it’s God, and he’s glowing in glory.

       My advice is to flee as fast as we may;

       We’d be better not born than bide till he sees us.

       Your lying, Lucifer, has lost us our prey:

       When we followed you first, we fell from heaven,

  310  Believing your lies, all leaping together,

       And your latest lie has lost us Adam

       And our lordship, I believe, over land and water:

           Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”22

       The light said again to Lucifer, “Unlock.”

       “What lord says unlock?” called Lucifer. “Who are you?”

  315  “The King of Glory,” came back the cry,

       “The Master of Might and all manner of Virtues,

       So dukes of this dungeon undo these gates,

       And hail the Christ, son of heaven’s King!”

       With that hell broke, and Belial’s bars.

  320  The gates grinned wide, overwhelming the warders,.

       And the patriarchs and prophets and the people in darkness

       Sang out Saint John’s anthem, “Behold the lamb of God.”23

       Lucifer was beaten and blinded by the brightness,

       While those who loved the Lord were led into the light.

  325  And the Lord said to Satan, “See, here’s my soul

       In exchange for the sinners who deserve to be saved.

       They are mine and from me, and my claim has merit,

       For while reason and right and justice ruled

       That they all should die if they ate the apple,

  330  I did not condemn them to hell for ever.

       Your deceit induced them to do as they did,

       And you gained them by guile, against all reason.

       In my palace of Paradise, in the person of an adder,

       You treacherously took the thing that I loved.

  335  Just like a lizard with the face of a lady

       You robbed me wrongly, and the Old Law is right

       That deceivers themselves deserve to be deceived:

           An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.24

       “So a soul for a soul, and sin go to sin,

       And I will amend man’s mischief as a man.

  340  A limb for a limb, a life for a life,

       The Old Law prescribed; by that statute I seize

       Adam and all his descendants hereafter.

       And my death shall undo what Death had brought them,

       Quickening and quitting what was quenched by sin,

  345  Destroying deceit through unswerving grace.

       In releasing them, Lucifer, I break no law

       But ransom my subjects by reason and right:

           I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.25

       “You robbed from my realm against all reason,

       Through falsehood and felony, but I’ve learnt from good faith

  350  To get back my goods by ransom, not guile:

       What you gained by guile is recovered by grace.

       In the likeness, Lucifer, of a loathsome adder,

       You gained by guile what was loved by God,

       While I, Lord of heaven, in the likeness of a human,

  355  Have graciously acquitted your guile with guile!

       And as Adam and others were undone and died

       Through a tree, a tree shall return them to life,

       And deceit is deceived by its own deceit:

           He is fallen into the hole he made.26

       For your guile has begun to turn against you,

  360  While my grace grows, mightier and greater.

       “You must broach the brew that you made so bitter

       And drink your own draught, you doctor of Death!

       For love is the drink of the Lord of Life,

       And I died on earth today fo
r that drink.

  365  I have struggled so sorely for the soul of man

       That my thirst is so strong no substance can slake it

       Till the grapes are gathered in Jehoshaphat’s grove

       And I relish the drink of resurrection of the dead.27

       Then I’ll come as a king crowned with angels

  370  And have all the souls brought out from hell.

       “Devils and demons shall be drawn up before me

       And shall do as I bid and blindly obey,

       Though my nature shall remind me to be merciful to man,

       For we’re brothers in blood, though not all in baptism,

  375  But the brothers in blood who are baptized too

       Shall never be condemned to indefinite death:

           To thee only have I sinned.28

       On earth a felon may be hanged once only,

       Even a traitor who was tried for treason.

       If the king of the country should happen to come

  380  And should see a subject who suffers that sentence,

       The law requires that the king grant his life.

       I, King of Kings, shall come without question

       When the wicked are damned and condemned to death;

       If the law allows me to look on them, it lies

  385  In my grace to let such delinquents live.

       Though their sins may be perilous, if they’ve paid the price,

       I may show mercy while remaining just.

       “Though Scripture says sinners should all have to suffer—

       The man of innocence will meet with no mischief

  390  And the man of guilt will meet what he merits—29

       They’ll be cleansed if required of their several sins

       In my prison of Purgatory till ‘Enough!’ is pronounced.

       Then I’ll manifest my mercy to many of my brothers,

       For blood may see blood be famished and frozen,

  395  But a brother feels the hurt if his blood brother bleeds:

           I heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter.30

       My justice and judgments shall adjudicate hell,

       And my mercy shall be handed to man in heaven

       For it would be unkind if a king did not care

       For his kin at a time of trial and trouble:

           Enter not into judgment with thy servant.31

  400  Thus by law,” said our Lord, “I will lead from hell

       The people I love who believed I would appear,

       While Lucifer, by lying you led on Eve

       And shall bear the burden”—and he bound him in chains.

       Astaroth and others hid themselves away,

  405  Not the lowliest daring to look on the Lord,

       And they let him release whomever he liked,

       While hundreds of angels plucked harps and sang,

       Flesh may sin but flesh will save,

       For God in flesh as God sets free.32

  410  Then Peace began playing a song on her pipe:

       Following cloud the sun shines clearer;

       Following conflict love is dearer.33

       “After showers, the sun shines stronger,

       No weather is warmer than when it has rained,

  415  And no friends are dearer than following a fight,

       When Love and Peace both prove supreme.

       For no wickedness or war in this world is so bad

       That Love cannot turn it to laughter if it likes,

       Or Peace supplant its perils through patience.”

  420  “You tell us the truth,” exclaimed Truth, “by God!

       Let’s conclude a covenant, and kiss one another!”

       “And let no one see that we squabbled,” Peace said,

       “For the Almighty has the might to do all.”

       “I consent,” Justice said, and solemnly kissed her,

  425  And Peace kissed her, for ever and ever.

           Mercy and Truth have met each other; Justice and Peace have kissed.34

       Truth on her trumpet blew the Te deum,35

       And Love played loudly upon the lute,

           Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!36

       Then those damsels danced till the dawn arrived,

       When everyone ran to the resurrection,

  430  And I woke and wakened my wife and daughter,

       Kit and Colette, saying “Kiss the cross.

       Kneel to do reverence to the resurrection,

       To the jewel that bore God’s blessed body

       And scares away Satan through the power of its shadow,

  435  Driving every devil and demon to flight.”

  1The Benedictus of the Mass, from Matthew xxi 9.

  2Osee (KJV Hosea) xiii 14.

  3See Matthew xxvii 29–30 and Mark xv 19.

  4See Matthew xxvii 34: “wine mingled with gall.”

  5Matthew xxvii 54.

  6Longinus is the name given in the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus to the Roman soldier referred to in John xix 34.

  7Not a quotation, but referring to Daniel ix 24.

  8The trees are the cross of Christ’s crucifixion and the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

  9Job vii 9.

  10From the sixth-century hymn Pange, lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis (Sing out, my tongue, the battle in the glorious fight) by Venantius Fortunatus, sung on Good Friday.

  11Psalm xxix 6 (KJV Psalm xxx 5).

  12Psalm iv 9 (KJV Psalm iv 8).

  13Lines 216–219 were originally placed earlier, after line 209.

  14The conventional elements are, as here, air, water, fire and earth.

  15Matthew xiv 28.

  16Simeon is referred to in Luke ii 25. According to the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Simeon’s sons were released even as Christ hung dying on the cross.

  17This probably refers to the giant Samson carrying off the gates of Gaza in Judges xvi 3, foreshadowing the power of Christ.

  18Psalm xxiii 7 and 9 (KJV Psalm xxiv 7 and 9: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates.”)

  19This block of 14 un-numbered lines is taken from the C version of the poem (Skeat XXI 283–296, Schmidt XX 281–294). Satan and Lucifer are different characters, the former being the Prince of Death, and the latter the Prince of Hell. Belial is a Hebrew name for the devil, Astaroth (or Astarte, Ishtar) was the Queen of Heaven worshipped by the Phoenicians, Babylonians and others, and Mahon or Mahound is a variant of Mahomet. Ragamuffin seems to be a name coined in the miracle plays, and Goblin (line 290) is an Anglo-Saxon familiar spirit. Colting is not found elsewhere.

  20This is one of the earliest references to cannon as a weapon.

  21Caltrops are iron snares with four prongs, one of which always points upwards when they are placed on the ground. A mangonel is a heavy catapult.

  22John xii 31.

  23John i 29.

  24Matthew v 38.

  25Matthew v 17.

  26Psalm vii 16 (KJV Psalm vii 15).

  27The valley of Jehoshaphat was expected to be the location of the Last Judgment: see Joel iii 12.

&n
bsp; 28Psalm l (=50) 6 (KJV li 4).

  29See Step IV Note 6.

  302 Corinthians xii 4.

  31Psalm cxlii 2 (KJV Psalm cxliii 2).

  32From the Latin hymn sung on Ascension Day.

  33A common proverb echoing Tobias (KJV Tobit) iii 22 and taken from the Liber Parabolarum or Book of Parables of Alan of Lille (Schmidt Earthly Honest Things, 66).

  34Psalm lxxxiv 11 (KJV Psalm lxxxv 10).

  35The song of praise composed in the fourth century by Ambrose of Milan, one of the “four doctors.”

  36Psalm cxxxii 1 (KJV Psalm cxxxiii 1).

  Step XIX

  In which I see, in my seventh dream, Christ dressed as Piers the Plowman enter carrying his cross. Conscience tells me that Jesus is called Christ because he comes as a conqueror, as Do-best, and he has given to Piers the power to absolve the sins of those who pay their debts. I kneel and see the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, descend. Grace shares out his gifts of human skills and of the doctrine of the Church. While sowing the Cardinal Virtues, Piers is beset by the army of Pride. Conscience calls on Christians to hold together, but some will not.

       While awake I recorded what I had witnessed.

       Then, decorously dressed, I went down to the church

       To hear the Mass and take Holy Communion.

       In the midst of the Mass, while the offerings were made,

    5  I slept once more and suddenly saw

       That Piers the Plowman was painted all bloody.

       He came before the people carrying a cross

       Yet looked in every limb like Jesus our Lord.

       I called to Conscience to tell me clearly,

   10  “Is this Jesus the Jouster whom the Jews put to death

       Or Piers the Plowman? And who painted him so red?”

       On his knees Conscience answered. “Aren’t those Piers’ arms,

       His coat and his colors? Though he who comes

       Is Christ with his cross, the victor for Christians.”

   15  “Why call him Christ when the Jews call him Jesus?

       Patriarchs and prophets prophesied before

       That every being should bow down and bend

       The knee when the name of Jesus was pronounced.

       No name therefore has the force of his name,