Read Online The Columbia History of British Poetry by Carl Woodring, James Shapiro - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Carl Woodring, James Shapiro
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and dreams within dreams, populated by personifications of mental faculties and figures from history and Scripture. The text leads into a maze of knotty questions: Can man save his soul by intellect or learning? Can the institutions of the Church teach man how to love? After much incidental satire on contemporary affairs the dreamer is at last given another glimpse of Piers Plowman, who is now in some mysterious way identified with Christ. The problem is answered not in words, but in a vision of Christ's Crucifixion and the Harrowing of Hell. The dreamer wakens satisfied and goes to church to perform his Easter service; there he unexpectedly falls asleep again and witnesses the degeneration of religion from Christ's day to his own; the last vision is of the fortified barn Unity, besieged by all the forces of Hell and betrayed; the solitary figure of Conscience sets out, all over again, to find Piers Plowman.
The oddest thing about Piers Plowman is perhaps the stance of the narrator. His introduction of himself in the opening lines is full of ambiguities:
In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,
In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes,
Went wide in this world wondres to here.
(B.Prol.14)
Scholars disagree on whether the narrator is dressed like a sheep or a shepherda crucial distinction when imparting Christian doctrine. Hermits in the rest of the poem are presented as frauds; "unholy of werkes" sounds dubious, and wandering to hear wonders frivolous. An anxiety about the dreamer's role and a desperate urgency to find truth gradually take over the poem. The narrator in his waking moments grows ever more distrait: he is "witles nerehand" and "a fool" in between dreams; while asleep he at first merely observes, then
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becomes a stupid interlocutor of the dream authority, Holy Church, then when he finally joins the actionfirst tiptoeing up behind Piers Plowman and the Priest to find out what they are arguing abouthe is by turns captious, cocky, obstinate, and bad-tempered. He is throughout very nervous about the role of poet as entertainerminstrels are dubious characters in the poemand about writing of sacred things. The minstrels in the Prologue who "geten gold with hire gleegiltless, I leeve" are at first carefully distinguished from a lower kind of entertainer, "japeres and jangeleres, Judas children" who "feynen hem fantasies" (B.Prol.3436); in the later version they are all lumped together as those who ''fyndeth out foule fantasyes and foles hem maketh / and hath wytt at wille to worche yf thei wolde" (C.Prol.3537).
Langland's character Ymaginatif is definitely not a villain, and the human faculty of speech is described as "God's gleman, and a game of heven" (B.ix.102); but Ymaginatif rebukes the dreamer for writing poetry, "thow medlest thee with makyngesand myghtest go seye thi Sauter . . . for ther are bokes ynowe / To telle men what Dowel is" (B.xii.1618), and professional storytellers who embark on religious themes "gnawen God with the gorge whanne hir guttes fillen" (B.x.57). Lords are exhorted to maintain at their tables the deserving poor instead of minstrels. Langland seems to reserve the word "poetes" for wise scholars who interpret the significance of the natural world; they, as magi, were honored at the nativity of Christ, "to pastours and to poetes appered the aungel" (B.xii.149), and they explain the moral symbolism of birds and beasts.
The narrator in Piers Plowman is learned, but not quite a priest; an entertainer, but not quite a minstrel. His quest is that of every Christianthe need to save his soulbut his religious learning and his poetic skills impose a complex social responsibility upon him. His reading of religious texts frequently causes him to clash with the official guardians of the texts, the clergy, and often
The oddest thing about Piers Plowman is perhaps the stance of the narrator. His introduction of himself in the opening lines is full of ambiguities:
In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,
In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes,
Went wide in this world wondres to here.
(B.Prol.14)
Scholars disagree on whether the narrator is dressed like a sheep or a shepherda crucial distinction when imparting Christian doctrine. Hermits in the rest of the poem are presented as frauds; "unholy of werkes" sounds dubious, and wandering to hear wonders frivolous. An anxiety about the dreamer's role and a desperate urgency to find truth gradually take over the poem. The narrator in his waking moments grows ever more distrait: he is "witles nerehand" and "a fool" in between dreams; while asleep he at first merely observes, then
Page 38
becomes a stupid interlocutor of the dream authority, Holy Church, then when he finally joins the actionfirst tiptoeing up behind Piers Plowman and the Priest to find out what they are arguing abouthe is by turns captious, cocky, obstinate, and bad-tempered. He is throughout very nervous about the role of poet as entertainerminstrels are dubious characters in the poemand about writing of sacred things. The minstrels in the Prologue who "geten gold with hire gleegiltless, I leeve" are at first carefully distinguished from a lower kind of entertainer, "japeres and jangeleres, Judas children" who "feynen hem fantasies" (B.Prol.3436); in the later version they are all lumped together as those who ''fyndeth out foule fantasyes and foles hem maketh / and hath wytt at wille to worche yf thei wolde" (C.Prol.3537).
Langland's character Ymaginatif is definitely not a villain, and the human faculty of speech is described as "God's gleman, and a game of heven" (B.ix.102); but Ymaginatif rebukes the dreamer for writing poetry, "thow medlest thee with makyngesand myghtest go seye thi Sauter . . . for ther are bokes ynowe / To telle men what Dowel is" (B.xii.1618), and professional storytellers who embark on religious themes "gnawen God with the gorge whanne hir guttes fillen" (B.x.57). Lords are exhorted to maintain at their tables the deserving poor instead of minstrels. Langland seems to reserve the word "poetes" for wise scholars who interpret the significance of the natural world; they, as magi, were honored at the nativity of Christ, "to pastours and to poetes appered the aungel" (B.xii.149), and they explain the moral symbolism of birds and beasts.
The narrator in Piers Plowman is learned, but not quite a priest; an entertainer, but not quite a minstrel. His quest is that of every Christianthe need to save his soulbut his religious learning and his poetic skills impose a complex social responsibility upon him. His reading of religious texts frequently causes him to clash with the official guardians of the texts, the clergy, and often
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