hief
Is evermore in danger,
And, as law him liketh,
To live or to die.
And for to serven a saint
And such a thief together,
It were neither reason nor right
To reward them both alike."

"Piers Plowman" is supposed to have been written in 1362. It became
instantly popular, and manuscript copies were rapidly distributed over
England. Imitations preserving the peculiar form, and aiming at the same
objects as the "Vision," though without the genius exhibited in that
work, appeared in quick succession. The hatred of the oppressed people
for their oppressors was intensified by the inflammatory harangues of
John Ball, the deposed priest. The preaching of Wycliffe probed still
deeper the festering corruption of the dominant Church. At last, in
1381, a popular rising, under Wat Tyler, attempted to right the wrongs
of generations at the sword's point. The result of that attempt is well
known,--its temporary success, sudden overthrow, and the terrible
revenge taken by the ruling power in the enactment of laws that made the
burden of the people still more intolerable.

But the seed of political and religious freedom had been sown. It had
been watered with the blood of martyrs; and, although the tender shoots
had been trodden down with an iron heel as soon as they appeared, they
gathered additional strength and vigor from the repression, and soon
sprang up with a vitality that defied all efforts to crush them.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Garment.

[2] Vagabond.

[3] Clothes.

[4] Shepherd.

[5] Vision.

[6] Brook.

[7] Pigs.

[8] A kind of very coarse cloth.

[9] Buttoned.

[10] Pushed.

[11] Mud.

[12] Worn out.

[13] Oxen.

[14] Meagre.

[15] Kneading-trough.

[16] Oat cake.

[17] Children.

[18] A lean hen.

[19] Parley and leeks.

[20] Cabbages.

[21] Vagabonds.

[22] Workingmen.

[23] Market.

[24] Piecemeal.

[25] Belly.

[26] Built.

[27] Lands or tenements in towns.

[28] Commanded.

[29] Remain.

[30] Unlearned.

[31] Dressing.

[32] Went.

[33] Rob him.

[34] Teach.

[35] Take.

[36] Afterwards.

[37] Pedlers.

[38] Boxes.

[39] Thought.

[40] Complaining.

[41] Goods.

[42] Earth.

[43] Teachers.

[44] One left alone.

KATHARINE MORNE.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

One day, near the middle of a June about twenty years ago, my landlady
met me at the door of my boarding-house, and began with me the following
dialogue.