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Piers the Ploughman

by William Langland, J. F. Goodridge (Introduction)

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · rating details · 1,029 ratings · 51 reviews

Piers the Ploughman, a blending of prophecy and satirical comedy, is the great representative English poem of the late Middle Ages. The work of an obscure fourteenth-century cleric, Piers the Ploughman is concerned with the largest of all poetic themes, the meaning of man's life in relation to his ultimate destiny. This spiritual allegory is set against a colorful backgrou...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published June 30th 1959 by Penguin Classics (first published 1360)

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Mar 10, 2012 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on my blog here in July 1998.

Although I was able to read Geoffrey Chaucer in the original Middle English with only the help of a (fairly comprehensive) glossary, I'm glad I got hold of Piers Plowman in modern English. Judging by the excerpts given in this book, it is considerably more difficult to read, mainly because it is written in a Midlands dialect which didn't provide the basis for later literary English as Chaucer's language did.

The text of Piers Plowman is considerab...more

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Jul 22, 2011 David Sarkies rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian

My first impression of this book was that it reminded me a lot of Pilgrims' Progress, however it is nowhere near as simple or as straight forward as Bunyan's text. In fact, having been written three hundred years earlier, not only does the text need to be translated from the original text, the period in which it was written is vastly different. Where Pilgrim's Progress is about a man's Christian journey, Piers the Ploughman is about a man who goes on an allegorical travel through the dream worl...more My first impression of this book was that it reminded me a lot of Pilgrims' Progress, however it is nowhere near as simple or as straight forward as Bunyan's text. In fact, having been written three hundred years earlier, not only does the text need to be translated from the original text, the period in which it was written is vastly different. Where Pilgrim's Progress is about a man's Christian journey, Piers the Ploughman is about a man who goes on an allegorical travel through the dream world to learn the truth of Christianity.
The world during Langland's time was a vastly different place. While Southern Europe was enjoying the fruits of the Renaissance, England was still a backward medieval realm at war with France. Corruption was rife and the gap between rich and poor was immense. Literacy was low and the black death had begin to ravage the land. Much of this can be picked up from Piers as the world that he describes is not a nice place, however it needs to be considered that due to the low literacy levels, the only people at the time who could have read Piers the Ploughman were the very people that Langland was attacking.
One of the very noticable things about this story is that the author simply hates wealth. In fact one of his points seems to be that wealth gets in the way of one truly coming to know God. Obviously the reformation was still two hundred years away, so there is still a lot of Catholic doctrine permeating the book, but it is also very noticable that one of the institutions that is attacked is the church. In fact this story seems to be laying the groundwork for the reformation that was to come.
This book can be very difficult to follow as the allegory is quite thick and it does not move in a singular direction as does Pilgrim's Progress. The central theme is 'how is a man saved' and one of the answers is to turn away from wealth. However we must remember the proverb where the writer asks God not to make him too poor least he be forced to steal and thus dishonour God's name. Piers the Ploughman does not seem to consider that aspect and see poverty as a way to salvation. Wealth brings with it countless temptations, and thus the only way to flee those temptations is to flee wealth. Without wealth then these temptations are meaningless. Obviously there is always the sin of covetousness, however in those days when one was poor there was no way to escape that poverty.
On the other hand to us living in our wealthy society it is a very uncomfortable book to read. In fact there are many here who dread being without a car, or a television, or even electricity, yet still a majority of the world (even within Australia) must do without these luxuries. There was, or still is, a scheme to get a computer into the hands of some of the poorest people in the world, but I think that that is rediculous. These people want to feed themselves (and he throw away crate loads of food on a daily basis) and we want to give them a computer. There was a time that I believed that owning a computer would solve a lot of my problems (and maybe, if I have got my hands on a computer back then things may have been different), however as it turns out computers may be useful, but they cannot put seed in the ground, make the seed grow, and thus provide a food supply. They say give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Once again, true in principle, but when some of the most powerful people in the world seek to profit from the poverty of others, and the fact that our oceans are being overfished, then it is not necessarily as simple as that.(less)

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Nov 29, 2008 Stephanie Ricker rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: class-medieval-lit, classics, religion-and-philosophy

Aaaagh, dream visions! I hate them so. I know this is a very important piece of Middle English literature. I still hate it. I can't help it. I don't care about Piers and his half acre of land, and I really dislike allegory most of the time (I'm with you, Tolkien), I don't dig your theology, and this thing is so incoherent and scattered anyway.

*takes a deep breath* *lets it out*

But. There were certain lines that were nice, mainly for their alliteration:
“Of the flowers of the field and their fair...more

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Sep 20, 2008 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

I read this as part of a high school English assignment...I completely dreaded it from the moment I was given the assignment, and dragged my feet- but when I actually started reading, I completely fell in love.

If you can force yourself to get past (or rather, appreciate) the style of writing, it's an incredibly worth-while read!

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Jul 04, 2012 Karlyn is currently reading it · review of another edition

I'm actually reading an older translation by Henry Wells, which is probably much less accurate than the Norton edition but is fantastically bizarre and wonderful in its own right. Someone had a good old time making it.
A randomly chosen example:

"I bought her barley malt, and she brewed it for the traffic;
Penny ale and pudding ale were poured together
For labourers and poor folk;--she laid that aside.
The best was in the ben or in my bed-chamber;
Whoever took the bung from that, bought it thereafte...more

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Dec 01, 2011 J. Alfred rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Written by a guy we know nothing about in the fourteenth century, this is a wildly confusing text which is also very interesting (if one is at all interested in the devotional or theological life of England in the fourteenth century). Theology seems to have been akin to poetry for this time period: there were few definates, and everything was held in balance by forces which weren't quite in concert with one another. That is, scripture (including Apocraphal scripture) is more or less behind all t...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Matthew74 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a very difficult book! The work is composed of a series of allegorical dream visions and visions within visions. On the first reading it is hard to identify any clear structure, but the lack of clarity is in part a literary device meant to present the reader with the same confusion as the dreamer/narrator, or Piers Plowman experiences. It is not always clear whether what the characters say is to be believed, although some are more trustworthy than others. Each vision and conversation is...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Annie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my first real taste of medieval literature, and I enjoyed it! Mainly I liked this book's alliterative poetic style, and its unique look at the doctrines of the Christian church in the form of allegorical characters. I read the Donaldson alliterative verse translation, with edits and notes by Kirk and Anderson, so the language and spelling was modern, though not unnecessarily so. The notes were tasteful and helpful-- they boosted my understanding of what was happening, and introduced me...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Cliff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Piers Plowman was written around the same time as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (around 1375), and both were widely read at the time they were written, but otherwise they differ in virtually every respect. Piers Plowman is in a dialect of English further removed from modern English than Chaucer's, it is in alliterative verse rather than rhyming couplets, it is a religious, not a secular, poem. Chaucer was a courtier and diplomat, so a good deal is known about him. Nothing is known about the author...more Piers Plowman was written around the same time as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (around 1375), and both were widely read at the time they were written, but otherwise they differ in virtually every respect. Piers Plowman is in a dialect of English further removed from modern English than Chaucer's, it is in alliterative verse rather than rhyming couplets, it is a religious, not a secular, poem. Chaucer was a courtier and diplomat, so a good deal is known about him. Nothing is known about the author of Piers Plowman - even his name is uncertain.

The poet is concerned with what constitutes good Christian conduct in one's personal life and in society, and reflects on these matters in a series of dreams or visions. The poem is in 20 Chapters, called Passus, in the 'B' version, which is the version most commonly published today.

Although it is often said to be equal to the best of Chaucer, the poem's structure is confused and the poet's intention frequently obscure. This renders it, in my view, largely unreadable. In his excellent introduction the editor of this edition, A.V.C. Schmidt, says 'Some of the best criticism of recent years ... has brought out the poem's structural coherence, both as a whole and at the level of the individual visions' but his own outline of the structure does not give an impression of coherence, and in any case, if the reader needs to turn to a criticism to find out what a poem means, the poet can hardly be said to have been successful.

The one Passus that I find readable, and I try to read it every Easter, is XVIII, an account of Christ's death and resurrection. The poet draws on the apocryphal gospels and mystery plays as well as the four 'official' gospels for the story, but the fact that the story is largely circumscribed seems to enable him to concentrate his imaginative powers on the creation of sublime verse. In spite of being a convinced atheist for the last 40 years, I find this Passus profoundly moving:

' ..... and right with that I wakede
And called Kitte my wyf and Calote my doghter
"Ariseth and reverenceth Goddes resurexion
And crepeth to the cros on knees, and kisseth it for a jewel
For Goddes blissede body it bar for oure boote
And it afereth the fend - for such is the myghte
May no grisly goost glide there it shadweth!" '

This edition carries unobtrusive marginal notes that enable the verse to be easily read, as well as a great deal of scholarly commentary in the introduction and end-notes. Some notes on pronunciation and scansion would have been useful, but are probably considered too elementary for this edition, and in any case can be easily found elsewhere.

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Jan 26, 2010 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, religion

After approximately a year of wading through Middle-English alliterative verse at an average rate of approximately one page per day, I have finally come to the end of The Vision of Piers Plowman. So was it worth it?

Yes! It is by some stretch my most ambitious undertaking in regard to reading Middle-English; I have not read two of the Canterbury Tales together and have only read about half of it (by number of lines - many fewer than half the Tales) and that's the limit of my Chaucer. I've never...more After approximately a year of wading through Middle-English alliterative verse at an average rate of approximately one page per day, I have finally come to the end of The Vision of Piers Plowman. So was it worth it?

Yes! It is by some stretch my most ambitious undertaking in regard to reading Middle-English; I have not read two of the Canterbury Tales together and have only read about half of it (by number of lines - many fewer than half the Tales) and that's the limit of my Chaucer. I've never tackled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the original and although I have read most of Malory, it is prose and more recent and again, not read as one big lump. Piers Plowman is not merely longer, though - it is, despite Langland being contemporary with Chaucer, fundamentally more difficult because the dialect is not Chaucer's. The London dialect went on to become the dominant one in the development from Middle to Modern English and is therefore somewhat easier for the modern reader. The concentration required and necessary time spent reading glosses and notes was rewarded, however. (It is slow going when one can only tackle it before going to sleep - hence one year to do it justice.)

The Vision of Piers Plowman is a Christian allegory and a deeply serious, heart-felt as well as intellectual one. Langland uses the older Alliterative verse style rather than adopting the new-fangled rhyming, iambic schemes as Chaucer did. I am a fan of this approach to narrative verse as it adds colour and interest (makes the story poetic!) without the risk of the unvaried rhythm of iambic metre sending one to snooze-land prematurely. Alliterative verse forms have strict rules, just as iambic metres do and it takes considerable skill to compose in them.

The seriousness and evident profound feeling behind the poem stands in stark contrast to the Canterbury Tales (insofar as I've read them) even though there are some themes in common. No matter where one stands regarding the debate about whether Chaucer's "very parfit gentle knyght" is being satirised or not, it is clear that the Tales in general are full of satire and humour and the various types of clergy are presented as a corrupt, greedy, hypocritical lot. Chaucer seems not to have much anger behind his satire, though - the Tales seem something of a frivolous entertainment. When Langland tackles such folk as friers and pardoners they come in for a metaphorical roasting and it is plain that he expects most of them to experience a literal one after Judgement Day. The only other Middle English poem I've read (in Tolkien's translation) that competes for expressing deep feeling on the part of its author is Pearl - another dream-vision, about the author's grief at the loss of a young daughter. Piers Plowman is on an altogether bigger scale, though. In a series of dreams (and dreams within dreams, which can get tricky to keep track of at one page a day) not only is a Utopian society envisaged, but every major question of Christian theology is addressed as the spiritual progress of both Piers and the dreamer are chronicled right up to the final battle between good and evil forces within humanity...

The prologue starts things of with an exciting little story where rats, mice and a cat take the place of nobles, commoners and the King. Matters continue apace and rather wittily with the Marriage of Mede, which gets tangled up in legal battles and corrupt practice. Later Piers sets up his farm and barn, eventually to be the scene of the dramatic finale. Most of this is lively and the narrative helps drag one through the worst difficulties of the language. (One learns as one progresses - once you know that "ac" means "but" it isn't a problem at future encounters, for example.)

Piers wanders off on a pilgrimage at about the half-way point as he believes he needs to understand the Biblical message better. The proceeding third or so of the poem is easily the most dull and dry as it descends into a series of theological discussions usually expounded by various characters quoting liberal quantities of Latin at each other. These matters were evidently important to Langland (and to many intellectual Christians, I suspect) but the excitement of the initial quarter of the poem becomes a distant memory. Things pick up again with the appearance of the Actyf Man (I love that name) and steadily accelerate to an Apocalyptic conclusion worthy of a poem of such scale and ambition.

We are lucky to have as much Middle English literature as we do and this work is a fine example of it: read it if you are a Christian, or if your interest in poetry will withstand 362 pages requiring total focus.(less)

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Jan 17, 2011 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautifully written, thought-provoking medieval allegory about the role of Christ's Church on earth. Somewhat difficult to understand, but very rewarding. In the tradition of Dante's "Divine Comedy" or Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." The author provides a scathing indictment of the problems of the contemporary Church, while calling upon its leaders for repentance.

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Feb 05, 2012 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Historically significant, this text well depicts the day to day struggles of a common man with no voice and no power. I found the text slightly tedious due to the religious/spiritual context and the allegory that i could not completely relate to. An important work nonetheless and one that I am glad to have plowed through.

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Feb 25, 2012 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

This is some dense reading, but the translation helped for sure. The format of the poem makes it hard to believe it is from the Middle Ages instead of a Modernist work. Of course, the themes are straight out of every Medieval text written! Fun to read and a work that will need to be revisited several times.

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Apr 02, 2013 Maha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Piers Plowman is a special kind of torture I've got to endure to say I've dotted my I's and crossed my T's. I've had many professors rave about this text. Isn't there an entire journal dedicated to it? I just can't get excited about it though. Makes me sad. Hopefully you guys have better luck.

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Jun 06, 2010 Michael La Ronn rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Awful. Just awful. If you want medieval Middle English fun, read Chaucer. Compared to The Canterbury Tales, this is REAL Middle English and it is almost unreadable. I am a fairly accomplished and tolerable reader, but this was just too much. After you try to read this, Chaucer will seem like Dr. Seuss...

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May 03, 2010 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: partially-read

I thought Piers was really quite clever. I only read a few of the passus, but I enjoyed the glimpse into 14th century religious thought and criticism. One day, when I'm not cramming for a silly exam, I'd like to sit down with the whole thing.

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Apr 30, 2012 Cherylann rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medieval-literature

Though I can appreciate the brilliance of Langland's poem, I did not especially enjoy it. Langland's extensive use of allegory, though intentional, became so confusing and muddled that the poem's meaning was difficult to decipher. Though his writing of dreams is fantastically accurate, it does not necessarily the way one would like to experience a book. Random characters appearing out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly is what we experience in dreams. It is more difficult to decipher me...more

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Jan 28, 2009 Michael rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Did not enjoy this work, but I found one of the main components of it really interesting: what are considered economic issues in present-day capitalism ("late capitalism") were moral issues in Medieval times. For instance, Piers asks questions about the morality of charging a poor person the same price the wealthy man pays.

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Sep 27, 2011 Katyakoshka rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, medieval, british-literature

This dual-language edition, while not an authoritative version of the text, still provides readers with a well-glossed translation parallel to the original Middle English verse.

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Mar 15, 2013 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Re-read Goodridge's modern English translation (Penguin), assigned in Dr Ellis's medieval lit class ca. 1988.

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Nov 14, 2011 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, classics

I simply couldn't read this book with understanding. I do fine reading the middle english on a line by line basis, but stringing them together without having another element to follow is difficult. The book has no real characters,, plot, or action to follow, so all I really got out of it was "This is a Christian text" It's not nearly as easy to follow as Gawain and the Green Knight or The Canterbury Tales. If you do attempt, or succeed, to read the text. I advise skipping the introduction, unles...more

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Oct 11, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not sure which edition I read, as it was a photocopied handout ina Middle English course.

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Dec 14, 2009 Elaine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: unfinished, college-curriculum, classics

Painful. I'm not much for medieval literature generally, but ouch.

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Dec 08, 2009 Erika rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic

one of Douglas's favorites that dad rad and liked in 2009

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Sep 17, 2009 Abe Goolsby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-literature

A quite interesting and visionary medieval work.

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Sep 05, 2010 Linda Jacobs rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Strive for "do best."

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Jul 28, 2011 Dani rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Painful.

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Jul 28, 2012 Charles Pearce rated it 1 of 5 stars

Mainly for scholars. Much more tedious than Pilgrim's Progress.

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Apr 07, 2013 Nick Benson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Though it's also an allegory about the way of salvation it's much more political than Pilgrim's Progress, perhaps because the theology was relatively settled and was much more about the performance of the Christian life (and so the hindrance the church often was).

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Apr 25, 2009 Kristen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gawain and the Green Knight- I read this with my story w/ my book club. Interesting, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it. It's a story that other stories allude to, so that was satisfying to have checked off the list. Hope it might deepen my understanding of other books.

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About William Langland

William Langland, (born c. 1330—died c. 1400), presumed author of one of the greatest examples of Middle English alliterative poetry, generally known as Piers Plowman, an allegorical work with a complex variety of religious themes.

One of the major achievements of Piers Plowman is that it translates the language and conceptions of the cloister into symbols and images that could be understood by th...more

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