Truth in the East, and she tells him her name is Holy Church. He asks her what all this means, and she begins to tell him how all these people whom he sees on the plain before him are seeking only the things of this world; and she bids him teach them "Than Truth and True Love is no treasure better." When he asks what Truth and True Love are, she replies, "To love the Lord best of all, and to die rather than do any deadly sin, this is Truth, and if any can teach thee better, let him do it. Love is the most sovereign salve for soul and body; love is the plant of peace and most precious of virtues. God the Father loved us, and His love came down from heaven in the person of Christ His Son, to suffer and die for our misdeeds and to amend us all. So also ought love to be the rule of our lives, and not self-interest."

Then the dreamer asks the lady how he may know Truth from Falsehood. She bids him look on his left hand, and there he will see "Falseness and Flattery and fickle-tongued Liar." He looks, and with them he sees a woman richly clothed and crowned, and with rings on every one of her fingers. The lady tells him that her name is Meed. She represents in the poem earthly gain or reward, which those who live for self-interest seek as the chief good. She is to be married the next day to Falsehood, and thus the pair, Falsehood and Meed, stand as contrasts to Truth and True Love. But the next day Theology, or religious teaching, forbade that Falsehood should have Meed, and appeal was made to the King in London to settle it. Much disputing went on at Court with regard to Meed; but the King took counsel with Conscience and Reason; and Falsehood, warned by Dread that the case was going against him, fled to the Friars. The first dream of Langland closes at Court, and describes the evils and wrong-doing of the world of his day.

The second dream begins the work of reforming these

evils. Langland sees again the same "fair field full of folk;" Reason and Conscience have stood forth, and are preaching loudly to the people; as they speak the people begin to stop in their eager seeking for earthly things and to listen to them. Then comes Repentance, and goes among them from one to another, till there is a general confession of sin, and thus the first step to reformation is gained. Pride first, and then Envy, Wrath, Avarice, Gluttony, and Sloth, each acknowledge to the common every-day forms of these sins, such as the people were really guilty of in their actual lives, and which had caused much of the miseries of the times. Then Repentance prays for them, and Hope blows on a horn, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven;" while the saints in heaven join the sinners on earth in singing, "How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O Lord." A thousand men now cry together to Christ, that he would make known to them the way to Truth; for none of them knew the way. A Palmer, who had been to nearly every shrine in every country of Christendom, is asked if he does not know the way; but he says he never heard of such a saint.

Just then a Ploughman says suddenly that he knows Truth as naturally as learned men know their books. He has pledged himself to serve Truth for ever, and has been his follower these forty years. He works for Truth, and he says he is the best master that any poor man knoweth. Whoever wishes to know where Truth dwelleth, he will tell him. The Ploughman thus appears as the simple outward form in which God's Truth is made known to men. Another step is here gained towards reformation when the people (who had been roused by the voice of Reason and Conscience, and who had wept with Repentance) ask Piers the Plowman to show them the way to Truth. But now comes the point at which many stop short; for Piers Plowman begins to explain that they must all go through Meekness till they come to

Conscience, whom they must love as their lord, and rather die than disobey him. They must then follow the brook till they come to the ford Honour your Fathers," and, passing on, would reach "Swear not at all," and the field "Covet not." Near by they would see two stocks, “Steal not" and "Slay not; but they must leave these and begin to mount the hill "Bear no false witness," pressing on through a forest of florins, not one of which must they touch; then they would reach the Castle of Truth. The moat around it is Mercy, the battlements are of Christendom. It has a roof, not of lead, but of love and loyalty, and a bridge across the moat called "Pray-well-and-thebetter-speed." The gate is kept by the porter Grace and his man Amend-all.

When the people hear that the road to Truth is by the way of God's commands, they are not so anxious to seek it, but begin, like the men in the parable, to make excuses, and one goes away to see how he likes a piece of ground he has bought, another to drive his new yoke of oxen, a third has a wife who would not like to part with him for a while. Then Piers the Plowman tries if any will work faithfully at a half-acre he has to plough and sow by the wayside. There are some who will not even do their daily work well for God's sake, they are wasters and idlers who take their ease, but say they will pray for Piers and his ploughing, that God of His grace will multiply the grain and reward his toil. "Your prayers would help, I hope, if ye were true," said Piers. Many, however, helped Piers at his ploughing, and the knight said, "that though he could not plough he would fight for Piers and the faithful workers and defend them." Then Hunger came and punished the idlers and the wasters, and the poet shows how these sins had helped to bring about the terrible misery of that time. But for the faithful toilers at the work God has given them to do, there comes a pardon from

Truth. This is quite unlike the pardons sold from the Pope, which gave permission to sin again and again; indeed, a friar, who hears it read, says it is no pardon at all, for it only promises eternal life to those that do well.

The next part of the poem describes the search for Dowel, Dobet, Dobest. By Dowel is meant the just and faithful fulfilment of our duty to God and to man. Dobet is all this and more: it represents the overflowing of love into generous, self-forgetful service. Dobest includes the other two, and rises into the teacher and light of men. In the search for these three they are found united in Piers Plowman, who stands for the highest revelation of God in Jesus Christ. In the early life of Christ when He obeyed His parents and worked as a carpenter, He was Dowel. In His latter years on earth, when He went about doing good, loving and caring for the sinful and the suffering, He was Dobet; and when He died for man and gave light and life to the world by the Holy Spirit, He was Dobest.

The search for Dowel, Dobet, Dobest, thus becomes the search for Christ, as the best hope for the world, suffering under the evils and miseries of ignorance and sin; and thus we find the three thoughtful men, Gower, Wyclif, and Langland, reach in different ways the same point in their search for the best help for the evils of the time.

CHAPTER V.

LITERATURE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

WITH the fourteenth century, Chaucer, Wyclif, Gower, and Langland pass away from their work in this world; and we now enter on a period which, at first sight, seems almost a gap in the story of our English Literature; for during the whole of the fifteenth century, no great English writer, like these four, rises to wake the people to a new "love of Truth and Right," or to show them "nobler modes of life." But we must not imagine, however, because our English literature does not burst into any great and splendid blossom, that the life of thought and feeling was dead among the English people. The four great writers of the fourteenth century rested from their labours, but their work went on, and while the kings and nobles were busy fighting the wars of the Roses, the wise, good, and beautiful words of Chaucer, Wyclif, Gower, and Langland were taking root and springing up in many honest hearts.

We find proof of this in the growing concern of the people to find out for themselves the Truth, as God had revealed it; and tracts and poems were written following in the line of Wyclif and Langland, attacking the errors and evils in the Church. The followers of Wyclif formed a body of men called Lollards; and early in the reign of Henry IV. the Statute of Heretics was passed, which condemned to death by burning all writers or teachers who should teach anything different from the creed of the Romish Church. The Lollard persecution, and