PEASANT REVOLTS 133 



and their hangers-on. Ever quarrelling and fighting 

 among themselves they were united only on one point, 

 namely, oppression of the cultivating classes. The 

 cost of the pageantry and splendour described, of the 

 castles and mansions raised (as of many a stately 

 dwelling since) was all wrung out of the thew and 

 sinew, the hard labour of the yeoman and the peasant, 

 bond and free. Vivid accounts have been given of 

 the exploits of the peasantry in other countries. 

 Splendid dramas and poems have been written, in 

 another country, on the deeds of Tell; but the field 

 is still open, and the materials abundant, for some 

 able writer by prose, verse, or drama, to bring home 

 to the people of this country the feats of the peasant 

 leaders throughout the centuries — • those obscure 

 heroes to whom the liberties of Englishmen are so 

 largely due. 



William Morris has done something in this direc- 

 tion — enough to show with what attractive interest 

 a brilliant and sympathetic writer who looks below the 

 surface can invest the subject. 



In his charming idyll ^ he speaks of the " Fellow- 

 ship," the freemasonry, which existed among the 

 peasantry ; the caution they exercised in those 

 dangerous times ; of the nay-words they employed 

 when as strangers they met at the cross roads. These 

 nay-words were not "mum" and "budget," but were 

 equally well understood. A peasant with the terrible 

 longbow in his hand would whisper to a stranger, 

 "John the Miller that ground small, small, small," and 

 the reply would come from the lips of the stranger, 

 "The King's son of heaven shall pay for all." 

 Straightway the bow fell on the shoulder, hands were 



* "A Dream of John Ball," by William Morris. 



