HOPKINS: CHARACTER AND OPINIONS OF WILLIAM LANGLAND. 2S3 



says of Study and of his own wife he gives rise to the suspicion that 

 in their presence he was humble as well as respectful. His feminine 

 characters are no more puppets than are his masculine ones; he 

 endows them with characteristics equally positive, we may say equally 

 masculine; and from the lack of femininity we might infer either that 

 Langland knew little of women, or that those he knew best were of an 

 exceedingly positive type. In the familiar yet respectful leavetaking 

 between Will and Scripture (A, XII., 38-48) we doubtless have the 

 custom of the time. 



Wit Satire ^^^ satire in Langland's work constitutes one of 



Humor. its strongest and most entertaining characteristics, 



naturally most often manifested in the attacks upon wrong, but in all 

 its intensity never anything but kindly and wholesome. Usually the 

 subject is treated in a manner too incisive to be called humorous^ 

 though always witty if we make the formal distinction (See Hunt, 

 Eth. Teachings in O. E. Lit., p. 248); but the sense of humor is often 

 present and sometimes becomes so prominent that the reader must 

 smile, though he ipay never suspect the author of smiling. Of such 

 a character is Meed's half-text (C, IV., 489) to which Conscience 

 supplies the important remainder giving the true meaning; Avarice's 

 interpretation of restitution to mean robbery (C, VIII., 234-238); 

 the friar's ready claim that Dowel dwells with " ous freres " (C, XL, 

 t8), and the knight's assistance of Piers against Wastour, which was 

 so exceedingly "courteous as his kind would" as to be entirely 

 ineffectual. Many descriptive passages are characterized by a sus- 

 tained humor throughout, as the description of Sloth and Glutton, 

 and the account of the doctor at dinner (C, XVI). 



nesoriptive ^^^ portion of the poem which is most often 



Power. referred to, the description of the field full of folk, is 



not so good from an artistic standpoint as many others; it is more 

 interesting as illustrating the character of Langland's imagination 

 and giving a hint at what the completed poem is to be. It is a cata- 

 logue rather than a picture; yet the field and the tower and the deep 

 dale are so clearly defined that our imagination completes what 

 Langland left unfinished; and the highest art could do no more. 

 The proposed marriage and the trial of Lady Meed which follow are 

 again less remarkable for accuracy than for force; the force due to 

 earnestness of intention, and what may be termed massiveness of 

 presentation, and the effect heightened by the striking transition from 

 country to city. 



But when we reach the confessions of the seven deadly sins, Lang' 

 land's work cannot be surpassed for wit and for close accuracy of 

 portraiture, The scenes already mentioned may have been founded 



