.

"Nature allots to each his proper course,
In hunger I could never use my ink,
The smallest boy then equals me in force,
I hate as death the want of food and drink."

In one of these poems, Golias calls down every kind of misery, spiritual
and temporal, upon the man who has stolen his purse. He hopes he may die
of fever and madness, and be joined to Judas in hell. One of the most
amusing pieces is a consultation held among the priests, on account of
the Pope having ordered them to dismiss their women-servants. They
finally come to the conclusion that parish priests should be allowed two
wives, monks and canons three, and deans and bishops four or five. We
are not surprised to hear that such effusions as these called down the
displeasure of the heads of the Church, and in 1289, a statute was
published that no clerks should be "joculatores, goliardi seu bufones."

About the middle of the fourteenth century, a French monk, Robert
Langlande, wrote the "Vision of Piers Plowman," an account of a dream he
is supposed to have had when among the Malvern Hills. It is possible
that the sight of the grand old abbey may have suggested his theme, for
he inveighs not only against the laity, but especially against the
ecclesiastics for their neglect of the poor. The poem is remarkable for
being without rhythm, but alliterative, such as was common in the
neighbouring district of Wales. It somewhat resembles one of the old
"Mysteries," introducing a variety of allegorical characters. Some of
the personifications are very strange. He says that,

"Dowel and Dobet and Dobest the thirde coth he
Arn thre fair vertues and ben not fer to fynde."

"Dobest is above bothe, and berith a bieschopis crois
And is hokid on that on ende to halie men fro helle
And a pike is in the poynt to putte adon the wyked."

In another place, the effects of starvation are described "both the
man's eiyen wattred," and "he loked like a lanterne."

In another work by the same hand, "Piers, the Ploughman's crede," the
author--a simple man--wishes to know how he is to follow Christ, and
betakes himself to the friars for information. But he finds that each
order thinks of little beyond railing against some other. The friars
preachers are thus described,

"Than turned I ayen whan I hadde al ytoted
And fond in a freitoure a frere on a benche
A greet chorl and a grym, growen as a tonne,
With a face so fat, as a ful bleddere