HOPKINS: CHARACTER AND OPINIONS OK WILLIAM LANGLAND. 251 



The Prophe- ^^s to his insight into the future a question may 



cies. fairly be raised. He believed it impossible to forecast, 



and yet has sometimes used the style of prophecy, though whether, in 

 earnest or in satire it is not always easy to say. One such passage 

 (C, IV., 440-485) is rather a picture of what Langland hopes for than 

 a prediction that it will take place. The picture bears a general re- 

 semblance to the millennium, and to show that it is distant he says 

 that all Jews and Saracens shall first be converted. Another passage 

 of similar character describes the time when Wrong may be pardoned 

 (C, v., 108). Another (C, IX., 348-355) Professor Skeat believes 

 to be merely a satire upon mysterious forms of prophecy then in 

 vogue; it refers to a time of famine and pestilence when Death shall 

 withdraw and Dearth be justice and Dawe the ditcher shall die for 

 default (of food) unless God of His goodness grant us a truce. It 

 contains an inexplicable riddle and a reference to the malign aspect of 

 Saturn, and is almost too astrological to be seriously spoken. 



But there is no doubt as to the seriousness of a passage which con- 

 tains no riddles nor astrology (C, VI., 169): — 



And yet shall come a king aad coufess j'ou all 

 Aud beat you as the Bible telleth for breaking of your rule, 

 And amend you, monks, nuns, and canons, 

 And put j'ou to your penance, to return to your former state,* 

 And barons and their children blame you and reprove, 

 Some trust in chariots and some in horses. . . . They are brought down and 



fallen. 

 Friars iii their refectory shall find at that time 

 Bread without begging to live by ever after. 

 And Coastanline shall be their cook and coverer of their church; 

 For the Abbot of England, and the abbess his niece 

 Shall have a knock on their crowns, and incurable the wound; 

 The Lord, hath broken the staff' of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers .... icith 



a continual stroke. 

 But before that king shall come as chronicles tell. 

 Clerks and holy church shall be clothed new. 



Here, though Langland may show no prophetic insight, simply 

 enunciating, as Professor Skeat says, an opinion generally current 

 with reference to the power of the king, the expression must remain 

 noteworthy, both for its power and dignity and for the manner in 

 which it was fulfilled in the time of Henry VIII. 



Independence Langland's independence of opinion and judgment 

 and Courage. ig attested in every line of his work. As to the pro- 

 claiming of his convictions, which must often have had to do with 

 individuals as well as doctrines, his practice varies. Sometimes he 

 hesitates to push his teaching to its logical conclusion, exclaiming that 



• Italicised passages are in Latin in original. 



