William Langland - ‘Piers Plowman'

 WILLIAM LANGLAND

c.1330 - 1400

Lepidus Magnus, CC BY-SA 4.0

‘Piers Plowman’

this poem came up in University Challenge last night (I know that’s how we roll now!) and it caused me to want to check it out

In a somer seson, whan softe was þe sonne,

I shoop me into [a] shrou[d] as I a sheep weere,

In habite as an heremite, vnholy of werkes,

Wente wide in þis world wondres to here.

Ac on a May morwenynge on Maluerne hilles 

Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me þoȝte.

I was wery forwandred and wente me to reste

Under a brood bank by a bourn[e] syde

from the prologue  

The Poetry Foundation - William Langland

Of alle kynne lybbynge laborers lopen forþ somme

As dykeres and delueres þat doon hire ded[e] ille

And dryveþ forþ þe longe day with ‘Dieu save dame Emme’.

Cokes and hire knaues cryden, ‘hote pies, hote!

Goode gees and grys! go we dyne, go we!’ |

Tauerners [t]il hem tolden þe same:

‘Whit wyn of Oseye and wyn of Gascoigne, 

Of þe Ryn and of þe Rochel, þe roost to defie!’ 

[Al þis I seiȝ slepyng, and sevene syþes more].

end of the prologue 

READ ON HERE . . . . . 

Piers Plowman - Passus 6

Piers Plowman - Passus 18