In the 12th century, a new form of English now known as Middle English evolved. This is the earliest form of English literature which is comprehensible to modern readers and listeners, albeit not easily. Middle English lasts up until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, became widespread and the printing press regularized the language.
Middle English Bible translations, notably Wyclif's Bible, helped to establish English as a literary language. There are three main categories of Middle English Literature: Religious, Courtly love, and Arthurian. William Langland's Piers Plowman is considered by many critics to be one of the early great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (most likely by the Pearl Poet) during the Middle Ages. It is also the first allusion to a literary tradition of the legendary English archer, swordsman, and outlaw Robin Hood.From 1066 onwards, the language is known to scholars as Middle English.
Ideas and themes from French and Celtic literature appear in English writing at about this time, but the first great name in English literature is that of Geoffrey Chaucer (?1343-1400). Chaucer introduces the iambic pentameter line, the rhyming couplet and other rhymes used in Italian poetry (a language in which rhyming is arguably much easier than in English, thanks to the frequency of terminal vowels). Some of Chaucer's work is prose and some is lyric poetry, but his greatest work is mostly narrative poetry, which we find in Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales. Other notable mediaeval works are the anonymous Pearl and Gawain and the Green Knight (probably by the same author) and William Langland’s Piers Plowman.
Synopsis
The poem division theological allegory, part social satire concerns the narrator's intense quest for the true Christian life, from the viewpoint of mediæval Catholicism. This quest entails a series of dream-visions and an examination into the lives of three allegorical characters, Dowel ("Do-Well"), Dobet ("Do-Better"), and Dobest ("Do-Best").
The poem begins in the Malvern Hills in Malvern, Worcestershire. A man named Will falls asleep and has a vision of a tower set upon a hill and a fortress (donjon) in a deep valley; between these symbols of heaven and hell is a "fair field full of folk", representing the world of mankind. In the early part of the poem Piers, the humble plowman of the title, appears and offers himself as the narrator's guide to Truth. The latter part of the work, however, is concerned with the narrator's search for Dowel, Dobet and Dobest.
William Langland (ca. 1330-ca. 1386)
Piers Plowman: The Prologue
1In a somer sesun, whon softe was the sonne,
2I schop me into a shroud, as I a scheep were;
3In habite as an hermite unholy of werkes
4Wente I wyde in this world wondres to here;
5Bote in a Mayes morwnynge on Malverne hulles
6Me bifel a ferly, of fairie, me-thoughte.
7I was wery, forwandred, and wente me to reste
8Undur a brod banke bi a bourne side;
9And as I lay and leonede and lokede on the watres,
10I slumbrede in a slepynge, hit swyed so murie.
11Thenne gon I meeten a mervelous sweven,
12That I was in a wildernesse, wuste I never where;
13And as I beheold into the est an heigh to the sonne,
14I sauh a tour on a toft, tryelyche i-maket;
15A deop dale bineothe, a dungun ther-inne,
16With deop dich and derk and dredful of sighte.
17A feir feld full of folk fond I ther bitwene,
18Of alle maner of men, the mene and the riche,
19Worchinge and wandringe as the world asketh.
20Summe putten hem to the plough, pleiden ful seldene,
21In settynge and in sowynge swonken ful harde,
22And wonnen that theos wasturs with glotonye distruen.
23And summe putten hem to pruide, apparaylden hem ther-after,
24In cuntenaunce of clothinge comen disgisid.
25To preyeres and to penaunce putten hem monye,
26For love of ur Lord liveden ful streite,
27In hope for to have hevene-riche blisse;
28As ancres and hermytes that holdeth hem in heore celles,
29Coveyte not in cuntré to cairen aboute,
30For non likerous lyflode heore licam to plese.
31And summe chosen chaffare to cheeven the bettre,
32As hit semeth to ure sighte that suche men thryveth;
33And summe, murthhes to maken as munstrals cunne,
34And gete gold with here gle, giltles, I trowe.
35Bote japers and jangelers, Judas children,
36Founden hem fantasyes and fooles hem maaden,
37And habbeth wit at heore wille to worchen yif hem luste.
38That Poul precheth of hem, I dar not preoven heere;
40Bidders and beggers faste aboute eoden,
41Til heor bagges and heore balies weren bretful i-crommet;
42Feyneden hem for heore foode, foughten atte ale;
43In glotonye, God wot, gon heo to bedde,
44And ryseth up with ribaudye this roberdes knaves;
45Sleep and sleughthe suweth hem evere.
46Pilgrimes and palmers plihten hem togederes
47For to seche Seint Jame and seintes at Roome;
48Wenten forth in heore wey with mony wyse tales,
49And hedden leve to lyen al heore lyf aftir.
50Ermytes on an hep with hokide staves,
51Wenten to Walsyngham and here wenchis after;
52Grete lobres and longe that loth weore to swynke
53Clotheden hem in copes to beo knowen for bretheren;
54And summe schopen hem to hermytes heore ese to have.
55I fond there freres, all the foure ordres,
56Prechinge the peple for profyt of heore wombes,
57Glosynge the Gospel as hem good liketh,
58For covetyse of copes construeth hit ille;
59For monye of this maistres mowen clothen hem at lyking,
60For moneye and heore marchaundie meeten togedere;
61Seththe Charité hath be chapmon, and cheef to schriven lordes,
62Mony ferlyes han bifalle in a fewe yeres.
63But Holychirche and heo holde bet togedere,
64The moste mischeef on molde is mountyng up faste.
65Ther prechede a pardoner, as he a prest were,
66And brought forth a bulle with bisschopes seles,
67And seide that himself mighte asoylen hem alle
68Of falsnesse and fastinge and of vouwes i-broken.
69The lewede men levide him wel and likede his speche,
70And comen up knelynge to kissen his bulle;
71He bonchede hem with his brevet and blered heore eiyen,
72And raughte with his ragemon ringes and broches.
73Thus ye yiveth oure gold glotonis to helpen!
74And leveth hit to losels that lecherie haunten.
75Weore the bisschop i-blesset and worth bothe his eres,
76His sel shulde not be sent to deceyve the peple.
77It is not al bi the bisschop that the boye precheth,
78Bote the parisch prest and the pardoner parte the selver
79That the pore peple of the parisch schulde have yif that heo ne weore,
80Persones and parisch prestes playneth to heore bisschops,
81That heore parisch hath ben pore seththe the pestilence tyme,
82To have a lycence and leve at Londun to dwelle,
83To singe ther for simonye, for selver is swete.
84Ther hovide an hundret in houves of selke,
85Serjauns hit semide to serven atte barre;
86Pleden for pens and poundes the lawe,
87Not for love of ur Lord unloseth heore lippes ones,
88Thou mightest beter meten the myst on Malverne hulles
89Then geten a mom of heore mouth til moneye weore schewed!
90I saugh ther bisschops bolde and bachilers of divyne
91Bicoome clerkes of acounte the king for to serven.
92Erchedekenes and denis, that dignité haven
93To preche the peple and pore men to feede,
94Beon lopen to Londun, bi leve of heore bisschopes,
95To ben clerkes of the Kynges Benche the cuntré to schende
96Barouns and burgeis and bonde-men also
97I saugh in that semblé, as ye schul heren aftur,
98Bakers, bochers, and breusters monye,
99Wollene-websteris, and weveris of lynen,
100Taillours, tanneris, and tokkeris bothe,
101Masons, minours, and mony other craftes,
102Dykers, and delvers, that don heore dedes ille,
103And driveth forth the longe day with "Deu vous save, Dam Emme!"
104Cookes and heore knaves cryen "Hote pies, hote!
105"Goode gees and grys! Go we dyne, go we!"
106Taverners to hem tolde the same tale,
107With wyn of Oseye and win of Gaskoyne,
108Of the Ryn and of the Rochel, the rost to defye,
109Al this I saugh slepynge and seve sithes more.
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