EXGLISH LITERATURE. 



140 



on tin- aide of wrong. At last Uoaoon makes her voioe beard 

 .ught to confess their nin$ each 

 omen to oonfobsion ; and a grunt multi- 

 tude set out upon tho quest of Truth. But who ahull show tin- 

 way P Friara and pilgrim* know it not. Peter, a ploughman, 

 presents himself aa tho guide to Truth. But we very noon see 

 that under tho guise of the ploughman the poet presents to us 

 none other than tho Divine Redeemer of tho world. Then wo 

 1 i<l Tutor, the ploughman, employing his followers in labour 

 iio Held which ho tills (tho world). We see him ploughing 

 tho soil and sowing tho seed of Divine grace. While side by 

 side with this we have another allegory of " Do Well, Do Bet, 

 and Do Best," throe degrees of moral excellence, and the guides 

 and instructors of tho soul. Tho poem ends somewhat abruptly 

 so much HO that some have thought it unfinished with the 

 * of Antichrist in tho kingdom of Peter tho Ploughman. 



We h:ivc s:iiil enough to enable tho student to appreciate the 

 general character of tho religious lessons which the writer seeks 

 to convey, and of the allegorical form in which he clothes 

 them. But tho poem is no less a satire than a religious allegory. 

 The vices of all classes of men are painted with much vigour ; but 

 above all, tho corruptions of tho clergy and tho monastic orders, 

 their idleness and neglect of their flocks, their covetousncss and 

 simony, their self-indulgence, their deceptions to extract money 

 from the people. The world as it was and tho world as it might 

 have been, the Church as it was and tho Church as it ought to 

 be, are put before us in constant contrast. 



Tho language of Langland is decidedly more antique in cast 

 than that of his contemporary Chaucer ; though, according to Mr. 

 Marsh ("Lectures on tho English Language," p. 92), the actual 

 number of words derived from foreign sources is at least as largo 

 in his English as in Chaucer's. But what more than anything 

 else connects this poem with tho past, rather than with the future, 

 i* its metre. It bears every mark of having been written 

 distinctly for the people, rather than fcr tho cultivated classes. 

 And, perhaps, for this reason the author chose for it the old 

 Saxon alliterative metre, which seems to have been then still 

 habitually used, and even long afterwards sometimes occurs, in 

 the songs of the people. Tho chief peculiarity of that metre is 

 that in each couplet, or pair of verses, two or more accented 

 that is, emphatic syllables in the first line, and one in the second, 

 begin with the same letter. Tho character of the metro will be 

 learned more easily from tho specimen which we shall give 

 than from any amount of description. It will be observed that it 

 differs from our modern metres in having alliteration that is to 

 eay, identity of initial letter in syllables instead of rhyme ; and 

 in attending not to the number of syllables in a line, but rather 

 to the number of accents. But it must be observed that tho 

 alliterative principle is not unfrequently departed from in 

 individual lines. After the dreamer has described his leaving 

 his home and falling asleep, he begins to tell his dream as 

 follows. We merely alter the spelling in some cases where it 

 differs from our present spelling : 



"Then gnu I meeten 



A marvelous sweven,* 



That I was in a wilderness, 



Wist I never where, 



And as I beheld into the eastf 



On high to the sun 



I saw a tower oa a toft, J 



Wonderly iiunked, 



A deep dulo beneath, 



A dungeon therein 



With deep ditch and dark 



And dreadful of sight. 



A fair field full of folk 



Fotind I there between 



Of all manner of men, 



The mean and the rich 



Working and wandering 



As the world osketh, || 



Someputten1[ them to tho plough, 



Playeden them** full seldom, 



In earingtt and in sowing 



S winking full hard." 



Tho great popularity which this poem attained is attested, not 

 only by direct evidence, but by tho number of imitations to 

 which it led, the most notable of which was " The Creed of 

 Piers Ploughman." 



While, however, Langland, in his remote country home, was 

 satirising the corruptions in practice which ho saw in the 

 Church around him, in a very different sphere had arisen one 

 whose attack was of a far bolder kind ; for it was directed, not 

 only against the prevailing habits of life, but against tho re- 

 ceived system of doctrine as well. 



Dream. Wonderfully made. ** Amused themselves, 



t Looked to the east. || As the world requires, tt Ploughing, 

 t Field. f Apply themselves. 11 Laboured. 



John Wickliffo was born about the year 1324, in a mall 

 village near I ire. Ho roc-wived hi* educa- 



tion at ' L in. iiibr first of Queen's Collage, 



and aftarwards of Morton College. At Oxford he rery soon 

 made a name for himself as a man of profound learning, extreme 

 acuteness of intellect, and fearless courage. Ho first acquired 

 popularity and fame by leading the opposition to the Mendicant 

 Friars, who at Oxford, aa elsewhere, wore seeking to draw all 

 v,.-iitli and influence into their own control. His lectures on 

 divinity were frequented by multitudes of students. Nor was 

 his fame limited to Oxford. He was consulted by Edward III. 

 upon the great question then pending between England and 

 the Pope, as to the payment of tribute churned by the Papal 

 Court, by virtue of the cession of the kingdom in the time of 

 King John. And ho was one of those sent by the king to meet 

 the Papal legate at Bruges, and negotiate with him upon 

 this subject. His chief supporter at court was John of 

 Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. After his return from his foreign 

 mission, he was appointed to the rectory cf Lutterworth, in 

 Leicestershire. As time went on, and his knowledge and obser- 

 vation were enlarged, his opposition to tho existing order of 

 things both strengthened and widened. From an opponent 

 of practical abuses, he had gradually become an opponent of 

 some of tho most cherished doctrines of the Church that as to 

 transubstantiation, for example. He had drawn to himself, too, 

 a multitude of followers, and organised a body of preachers, 

 who spread his opinions through tho whole country. He had 

 become the head of a groat movement. It was hardly to be 

 expected that such an adversary should be left unmolested by 

 the heads of tho Church. Just before tho death of Edward HI., 

 he was summoned before the Archbishop of Canterbury at St. 

 Paul's. But tho proceedings came to nothing ; Wickliffe was 

 rescued from danger by John of Gaunt. With the accession of 

 Richard II. the power of John of Gaunt declined. Then 

 followed the rising of tho commons under Wat Tyler, in 1381, 

 which was ascribed by his enemies to the revolutionary influence 

 of Wickliffe's teaching. His bitterest enemy, Conrtenay, had 

 become Archbishop of Canterbury. Wickliffo was again sum- 

 moned before a synod, which met at the Greyfriars, in London. 

 Ho did not appear, but his doctrines wero condemned as dan- 

 gerous and heretical. By the Convocation at Oxford he was 

 again condemned. No actual step was taken, however, against 

 him, and he continued to preach and teach in his parish of 

 Lutterworth as boldly a-3 before ; until, in the year 1384, two 

 years after his condemnation, ho died of paralysis. 



Wickliffe wrote much in Latin, addressed to the learned ; and 

 much in English addressed to the people. His shorter English 

 works consist of tracts upon subjects of temporary interest. Hii 

 one great work was tho translation of tho Bible into English. 

 This vast undertaking was probably not accomplished by 

 Wickliffe unaided. No doubt a great part of it was executed 

 by his followers and disciples under his supervision ; but the 

 design is unquestionably Wickliffe's ; and there is no doubt that 

 it was carried out in part by himself, and entirely under his 

 direction and guidance. The first edition appears to have been 

 completed three or four years before Wickliffo's death. A second 

 was finished by Purvey a few years after the death of his master. 

 This is the first really groat work in English prose ; and when 

 we consider the thirst for religions knowledge at the time it 

 was produced, and the number of its author's followers both 

 then and afterwards, wo can scarcely doubt that, quite apart 

 from his influence in other respects, Wickliffo must have done 

 more than almost any other man has ever done to fix the 

 standard of the English language, and form the stylo of English 

 writers. 



John Gower seems to have been born before Chaucer, though be 

 survived him by eight years ; and probably some of his works, 

 though not his groat English poem, wero earlier than Chaucer 's 

 most important works. Gowcr was sprung of a family of 

 knightly rank in the county of Kent. He was a man of pro- 

 perty, and is said to have been educated at Morton College, 

 Oxford, and afterwards to have adopted the profession of the law. 

 However this may be, it is pretty clear that he lived within the 

 circle of the society of the court. Many short poems of his 

 have been recovered and published in various collections, some of 

 them in French and some in Latin. But his larger works were 

 three in number ; and of these one was written in French, on 

 in Latin, and one in English. The " Speculum Mcditantis," 



