Content: introduction

Piers Plowman has been fortunate in its editors and interpreters. The basic edition of all three texts is that of Skeat, but this is gradually being replaced by the new London edition, of which Kane's A text has already appeared. This edition, which was begun as a result of the famous authorship dispute between J. M. Manly, who argued that the composition of the three versions was the work of five men, and J. J. Jusserand and others, who argued for a single author, will probably not fully resolve the dispute for all, but Kane's book (1965) clearly indicates that the evidence points toward unity of authorship. Despite the speculations of A. Bright, little more is known about the author; the chief source for his biography is internal evidence, and most critics today agree that the events in the poem do not mirror his life in such close detail as has previously been argued. Chambers, Coghill, and Wells were among the poem's first great interpreters. Owst and Spearing have shown how much the poem has in common with the medieval sermon. Dunning's early study of the A text has left subsequent writers on all three versions in his debt, as has Donaldson's pioneering work on the C text. In more recent years, critical studies have focused on the B text and its Biblical, theological, devotional, and apocalyptic backgrounds; the best are those of Robertson and Huppé, Frank, Fowler, and Bloomfield. Interest in this important work is still very strong and further scholarship appears every year.
Late 14th-cent. poem by William Langland. Over 50 manuscripts survive, representing progressive revisions known as the ‘Z’, ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ texts, of which ‘B’, comprising a prologue and twenty passus, is the most frequently read.
Cast in the familiar medieval form of a quest, the poem uses a series of dream-visions to trace the tortuous progress of ‘Will’ from intellectual wrangling to spiritual understanding as he searches for Truth and then for Do-Wel, Do-Bet, and Do-Best. The climax presents Christ's mortal ‘joust’ and triumph over hell with extraordinary power; yet the close brings another departure, as Conscience, frustrated by corruption within Christendom, sets out to walk the world in search of Piers Plowman. Piers, who has appeared as type of the virtuous poor, ideal Christian, and almost Christ himself, has by now fused into St Peter as archetypal pope. Throughout the poem, personified abstractions such as the comically depraved Seven Deadly Sins interact, and overlap, with contemporary caricatures including the self-indulgent Master of Divinity and the besmirched pilgrim Haukyn the Active Man. Langland's passionate commitment to spiritual and social reform finds expression in his restless and emphatic alliterative lines, and in a complex battery of literary devices including allegory, recurrent metaphors, word-play, and Latin quotation.
Piers is a plowman. He has a wife named Work-while-you-may, a daughter named Do-right-or-do-get-a-beating, and a son named Suffer-your-seniors-to-be-right-without-grumbling-or-groaning-or-you-may-regret-it-Let-God-have-his-way-as-his-word-says-as-well.
Piers first appears in Step V of the poem. When the folk are lost on their quest for Truth (God), Piers gives them directions. As an allegorical character, Piers Plowman represents a model of Christian behavior, especially the importance of performing good works. When he offers to guide the folk, after they help him plow his field, he substitutes agricultural labor for the pilgrimage. Piers becomes an ideal ruler, dividing up labor between the estates, social classes, and sexes equitably in a perfect feudal system. After some idlers refuse to work, Piers calls Hunger to help motivate them, which is effective.
As a reward for his success, Truth sends Piers an absolute pardon, offering absolution from both punishment in purgatory and guilt from sin. A priest then examines the document and denies that it’s a pardon at all. Piers rips up the paper in anger and renounces his past life. The scene marks a turning point in the poem, away from the social, as Piers rejects the Active Life in favor of the Contemplative Life.
In Will’s fifth dream, Soul says that Charity can only be attained with the help of Piers the Plowman. Soul describes Charity as a tree grown for Piers. At the sound of Piers’ name, Will experiences another dream within a dream, in which Piers explains the meaning of the tree, an allegory for Christendom. When the devil steals the fruit from his tree, Piers steals it back, and then leaves it to Jesus to decide who it rightfully belongs to.
Soul names Piers Plowman explicitly as Christ, calling him “Piers the Plowman, Peter, that is, Christ.” According to Peter Sutton’s footnote, “Piers is a diminutive of Peter, Peter is the Rock, and the Rock is Christ: see Matthew xvi 18 and 1 Corinthians x 4.”
Will describes Christ as “a man like the Samaritan, reminding me of Piers.” Jesus has come to fight the devil in a jousting competition for the fruit of the tree of Piers Plowman, stolen in Step XV. It turns out that Jesus Christ is jousting as Piers Plowman: “This gentleman Jesus will joust in Piers’ arms, In his helmet and armor called human shape. He’ll appear in the coat of Piers the Plowman Lest the consummate deity of Christ be discovered.”
In Step XIX, Will falls asleep during Easter Mass and dreams of the Crucifixion. In his dream-vision, Jesus Christ, carrying his cross, and Piers the Plowman are one.
As Do-Best, Christ grants Piers Plowman the power of pardon to those who pay their debts (which harkens back to the scene in Step VII). The line “Piers then had power/To bind and unbind on earth and in heaven” alludes to the passage in the Bible, at Matthew 16:19, when Jesus tells Peter, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven.” At this moment, Piers the Plowman becomes Peter, whom Christ designated to found the Church.
The Holy Spirit, also called Grace, gives Piers Plowman gifts related to an analogy of the Church as a farm. The oxen represent the gospels and the horses represent the Fathers of the Western Church. The seeds Piers must plow symbolize the Cardinal Virtues: prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. The harrows represent the Old and New Testaments that will help cultivate these seeds. When Piers asks Grace for timber to build the Barn of Unity, she gives him Christ’s cross and Mercy, Passion, and Holy Writ as building materials.
In the end, after the Antichrist successfully attacks the Church, Conscience sets off on a quest to find Piers Plowman, implying that he can help establish a true Christian church, free from corruption.
The folk who Will sees in the field in his first vision represent the whole of medieval society. The poem overall names over two hundred characters from all social classes. It describes the folk as either working hard and performing their social roles properly for the good of the whole Christian community, or choosing worldliness instead, by selfishly accumulating wealth. When Reason and Repentance preach to the folk they repent and embark on their own quest for Truth. But they get lost immediately and require Piers to guide them. They agree to work, to help Piers plow his field, but then become uselessly idle until Hunger threatens them. Later Conscience calls on the folk to “gather together in Unity for good,” to resist Pride, to fortify the Church, and to pay their debts before receiving communion. A series of characters then refuse to listen to Conscience, from every feudal estate. The poem is equally scathing to all classes, as they ignore their consciences and abandon the true work of Christianity for their own sinful self-interest. Even after they suffer disease and death in punishment for their sins, they appeal to the Antichrist for help. When offered salvation by a true doctor they reject his medicine of penance and debt payment, asking instead for a false friar who sells them easy absolution.
The Holy Church, personified as a lady, descends to the field from the castle on the hill, which represents Heaven. This means that the Church’s function is to act as God’s emissary to help guide people on earth. She represents the eternal, divine Church in its purest form, unpolluted by human corruption. She would have been a familiar character to medieval readers. Holy Church explains to Will that Truth, who is God, lives in the tower and that the devil, a wicked angel who fled from heaven, lives in the dungeon opposite. He asks her how to acquire Truth, and she replies through love. Will is metaphorically reborn in this part of the poem, behaving as if he were a naive child who has to learn everything anew. Holy Church instructs him in the fundamentals of Christian faith and behavior, illustrating with biblical stories the importance of moderation, wariness of bodily desires, and selflessness. She also emphasizes a cornerstone of the medieval Church: doing good works.
Step II explores Falseness through the allegorical character Miss Money. She is complex, representing both bribery and just reward. Her dual nature is represented by her parents: Her father is False and her mother is Amends. Some scholars read the speech given by Theology as asserting that Miss Money was intended to marry Truth. This would mean that God intends money to be used for holy purposes. Miss Money’s choice to marry False Fickle-Tongue instead suggests that earthly rewards tend toward corruption. Indeed, Miss Money quickly corrupts lawyers, courtiers, tradesmen, and friars. When Miss Money is brought to the King, he won’t consent to her marriage with False Fickle-Tongue. Nor does he force her to marry Truth. Instead, he gives her the option to marry his knight Conscience. In this, he is well-intentioned, wanting to reward only those who deserve it. But Conscience refuses, pointing out that the King won’t be able to control Miss Money. By blurring the distinction between right and wrong, Miss Money always has the ability to corrupt. In her debate with Conscience, Miss Money loses, as it is revealed that the benefits she brings come at the high price of the soul’s freedom. This implies that the complex nature of money can’t be fully reconciled with conscience. In the case of Peace vs. Wrong, the lawyers of Wrong, Wisdom and Wit try to persuade the King to let him buy his way out of serious crimes. This scheme is supported by Miss Money. Reason argues against it. The scene is an allegory for the medieval Church’s practice of distributing indulgences (absolution from sin in exchange for donations), a practice that was easy to corrupt, as the clergy saw them as a quick way to make a buck, and the wealthy as an easy out from punishment. The King points out the spiritual crisis this causes when he warns that if Wrong gets away with this, he won’t be remorseful for his sins.
Conscience, an allegorical character, is a knight. In Step II the King asks Conscience to marry Miss Money. In this, the King is well-intentioned, wanting to only reward those who deserve it. But Conscience refuses, pointing out that the King won’t be able to control Miss Money. The King and Conscience argue, citing biblical quotations. Conscience concedes that money has two sides, but foretells a time when she will not rule. The King then asks Conscience and Reason to be his permanent counselors. Conscience next appears in Will’s dream in Step XIII at the dinner party of Patience, where he helps Will search for proof that Do-well, Do-better and Do-best mean the love of Christ. They meet the merchant Haukin, who is soiled with sin. Conscience instructs Haukin how to keep clean: through belief and penance. Conscience tells Will that Jesus is a conqueror, and Do-best, and has given Piers the power to pardon Christians who pay their debts. Conscience witnesses the creation of the Church and the Pentecost along with Will, Piers, and the folk at the end of Step XIX. When Pride attacks Piers’ field Conscience calls upon Christians to band together as a community, but many refuse. Conscience organizes the defense of the Church of Unity when it is attacked by the Antichrist. He pleads with Nature for help to bring the folk back to the Church. When friars try to come to the rescue Conscience doesn’t entirely trust them. He has some sympathy for the friars, promising them a place in the Church if they live by moderation and their Rule. When Hypocrisy injures hundreds in the battle, Conscience calls a doctor who prescribes penance and repayment to Piers of their debts. When the folk choose Friar Flatterer instead, a false friar who offers easy absolution in exchange for money, Conscience leaves the Church. In a line that brings the poem full circle, Conscience decides “I’ll become a pilgrim/And walk the whole width of this wide, wide world/To seek Piers the Plowman, who will put down Pride.” Other than seeking Piers, the second aim of Conscience’s quest is to “find work for friars who flatter out of need/And no longer know me.” Thus Conscience seeks a new Christianity, based on humble agrarian values and an uncorrupted clergy.
Need, personified as an allegorical character, meets Will in his waking life at the beginning of Step XX. Need insults Will, calling him a clod, and then scolds him for not taking advantage of situations to take care of his basic needs for food, clothing, and water. Need defends himself, and argues that he may ignore Conscience and the Cardinal Virtues, as long as he is temperate. He makes the case that bodily need is humbling, Christ-like, and brings people closer to God. Later in Step XX, during Will’s dream, Need reappears to defend friars, reminding Conscience that they are poor and need patrons. Need thus represents a certain realism in the poem, which argues with a purely spiritual judgement. The poem resolves this tension when Will expresses his anxiety about having enough food, clothing, and shelter to Nature, Nature assures Will: ““If you love sincerely, you won’t lack/For belongings or food as long as you live.”

Conclusion

The speaker of the poem, Will, experiences a series of dream-visions on his quest to learn how to live a good Christian life. In his dreams, he meets allegorical characters who represent both his external and internal world: the fundamental teachings and protagonists and antagonists of Christian cosmology; the social classes and economic relationships of medieval England; and his own faculties and physical needs. These allegorical characters fight with each other about God, the Church, money, and how to live. One of the allegorical characters, Piers, a humble plowman, at times becomes both Jesus Christ and Peter, the apostle who founded the Church.
The Prologue and first seven "passus," or steps, make up the Viso, or Vision, portion of the poem, where Will seeks Truth. He dreams of the “fair field of folk” (a geographic allegory for medieval Christendom); the Parliament of Rats fable; the trial of Miss Money; and the confession of the Seven Deadly Sins. In the remainder of the poem, Will seeks Do-well, Do-better, and Do-best. He dreams, among other episodes, of Piers Plowman leading the folk to Truth through plowing a field; Patience’s dinner party with a false friar; the Tree of Charity; Christ’s Harrowing of Hell; and the Antichrist’s destruction of the Church of Unity. In the end, Will has progressed to become an active Christian, while the Church has been compromised by corruption. But it concludes on a hopeful note, as Conscience embarks on a quest to once again find Piers Plowman, who represents uncorrupted Christian values, and good work for the friars.

GLOSSARY