52 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



ties, for he was three times imprisoned by the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury for his indiscreet utterances, and 

 at least once excommunicated ; after the failure of the 

 Peasant Revolt he was hanged, drawn and quartered. 



In this time, when few could read, ideas were largely 

 spread by the repetition of ballads, rhymes and pithy 

 sayings. It was this custom that gave influence to 

 William Langland, whose poetic writings show wide 

 sympathies and great imaginative power and under- 

 standing of human life as he saw it. Langland, who 

 seems to have been a Shropshire man, held a subsidiary 

 position in the Church, making his living, apparently, 

 by singing psalms for the souls of men. His best 

 known work, describing a vision relating to Piers the 

 Plowman, written about 1362, includes many wonderful 

 pictures of the life of his time. Incidentally, Langland 

 proffers much advice to members of the various classes 

 of society with whom the poem deals. Addressing 

 " labourers landless, that live by their hands," the men 

 who " must highly be hired, or else he will chide," he 

 advises them to make the most of their present advan- 

 tage, which he realized would not be permanent : 



" I warn you, ye workmen, to win while ye imy ; 

 For Hunger now hither ward hastens full fast." 



To the manorial lord or knight he asks for justice for 

 his tenant : 



" O'ertax thou no tenant, save Truth will assent ! 

 And though thou amerce them let mercy be taxer ! " 



And later, in the same strain, he writes : 



" Beguile not thy bondman, the better thou'lt speed ; 

 Though under thee here, it may happen in heaven 

 His seat may be higher, in saintlier bliss." 



Langland's political economy differed from that of John 



