THE VISION OF PIEKS PLOWMAN. 
177 
It is the first great original poem in the English language, and 
shows its author to have been a man not only of good sense and 
independent thought, but of undoubted poetic genius. It exhibits 
to us the state of our language in the reigns of Edward III. and 
Richard II., and affords us also a more minute view of the social 
and material condition of the people at that period than any 
poetical work in English literature. Himself the precursor of 
Wycliffe, as Wycliffe was of Chaucer, the study of his work is the 
best preparation for the study of theirs. Each of the three is 
representative and supplementary to the others. "In Chaucer is 
heard a voice from the court, from the castle, from the city, from 
universal England. ... In Wycliife is heard a voice from the 
university." The author of the "Visions of Piers Ploughman," 
who exhibits "the passions and feelings of rural and provincial 
England, commences and, with Chaucer and Wycliffe, completes 
the revelation of this transition period, the reign of Edward III."*' 
The Vision soon acquired extensive popularity, and originated 
what may be termed a Plowman Literature, which prevailed till 
the reign of Elizabeth. In 1381 — only four years after Langland 
had issued his poem in its second and enlarged form — Wat Tyler's 
insurrection occurred;"! and John Balle, he who commenced his 
address at Blackheath to 200,000 men with the words — 
"Whan Adam dalf and Eve span, 
Wo was thanne a gentilman ? " 
sent to the Commons the following anonymous letter : 
"I, Johon Schep, som tyme Seynte Marie prest of York, and 
now of Colchestre, greteth wel Johan Nameles, . . . and biddeth 
Feres Plougman go to his werk, . . . and taketh with you Johan 
Trewman and alle hiis felawes .... 
Johan the MuUere hathe y grounde smal, smal, smal ; 
The kynges sons of hevene schal paye for all. 
*♦**«* 
And do wel and bettre, and jfleth synne, 
And seketh pees and hold you thereinne, 
And so biddeth Johan Trewman and all his felawes. :|: 
In this communication, which Walsingham calls " quamdam 
litteram senigmatibus plenam," we have not only Piers Plowman, 
* Milman, uhi supra. 
t This rising, however, is no more to be attributed to Langland than to 
Wycliffe. See Vaughan's life of Wycliffe, ii. Note A. 
X Thomas Walsingam, ed. Riley, ii. 34. Note. 
