| In a summer season, when I south went, | |
| I shaped me a shroud, as I a sheep were. | |
| In habit as an hermit unholy of works, | |
| I went wide in this world, wonders to hear. | |
| 5 | But upon a May morning on Malvern hills |
| Me befell a ferly, of fairy me thought. | |
| I was weary forwandered; I went me to rest | |
| Under a broad bank by a burn's side. | |
| But as I lay and leaned and looked on the waters, | |
| 10 | I slumbered in a sleeping. I swevenede so merry. |
| There began I to mete a marvelous sweven: | |
| That I was in a wilderness, I wist never where; | |
| But as I beheld into the east, up to the sun, | |
| I saw a tower in a coste, truly attired; | |
| 15 | A deep dale beneath, a dungeon therein, |
| With deep dikes and dark, dreadful of sight. | |
| A fair field full of folk found I between, | |
| Of all manner of men, the mean and the rich, | |
| Working and wandering as this world asks: | |
| 20 | Some put them to the plow, and played full seldom, |
| In seed time of sowing swonkyn full hard | |
| That these wasters now with gluttony destroy. | |
| Some put them to pride, and apparelled them thereafter: | |
| In countenance of clothing they come disguised. | |
| 25 | To prayer and to penance put them many, |
| For the love of our Lord lived full strait, | |
| In hope for to have heavenreich bliss, | |
| As anchorites and hermits that live in their cells, | |
| And covet nought in the country to carry about, | |
| 30 | For none lecherous livelihood their lykamys to please. |
| And some chose them to chaffaretrue false they achieved the better, | |
| As it is seen to our sight that such men thrive. | |
| And some men mirths to make, as minstrels can, | |
| Get gold with their glee, sinless, I trowe. | |
| 35 | Ac japers and janglers, Judas's children, |
| Began find many fantasies and fools them make, | |
| And have wit at their will to work what them likes. | |
| That that Paul preaches of them I dare not prove here: | |
| Qui loquitur turpiloquium ys Lucifer's hyne. | |
| 40 | Beggeres and bidders fast about yede, |
| Till their bellies and their bags were bredful crammed ; | |
| They flyteth for their food, and fight at the ale; | |
| In gluttony, God wot, go they to bed, | |
| And rise up with ribaldry, as Robert's knaves; | |
| 45 | Sleep and sloth sues them ever. |
| pilgrims and palmers plight them together | |
| For to seek Saint James and saints in Rome; | |
| And went forth in their way with many wise talys, | |
| And had leave to lie all their lyf after. | |
| 50 | Hermits on an heap with hooked staves |
| Went to Walsingham, and their wenches after. | |
| Great lubbers and long, loath for to swink, | |
| Clothed them in copes to be known from others; | |
| Shaped them hermits, their ease to have. | |
| 55 | Vicars on fele halves find them to do: |
| leaders they be of lovedays, and with the law meddle. | |
| I found there the friars, all the four orders, | |
| Preaching the people for profit of their wombs, | |
| Glossed the gospel as them good liked, | |
| 60 | For coveting of copes construed it as they would. |
| Many of those masters may clothe them at liking, | |
| For their money and their merchandise metyn together. | |
| Since charity has been chapman, and chief to shrive lords, | |
| Fele ferlis have falle in a feweyears; | |
| 65 | But holy church and they hold together, |
| The most mischief of this mould mounts up fast. | |
| There preached a pardoner, a priest as though he were, | |
| Brought forth bulls with bishop's seals, | |
| And said himself might absolve them all | |
| 70 | Of falseness, of fasting, of vows broken. |
| The lewd men believed him well, and liked his speech, | |
| Came kneeling up to kiss his bullys; | |
| He blessed them with his brevet, and bleared their eyes, | |
| reached them with his rageman brooches and rings. | |
| 75 | Thus ye give your gold gluttons to help, |
| And lend it losels that lechery haunt! | |
| But were the bishop blessed and worth both his ears, | |
| His seals should not be sent to deceive the people. | |
| I trowe it be not for the bishop that the boy preaches; | |
| 80 | But for the pardoner and the parish priest depart the silver |
| That the poor should depart that they not were. | |
| Parsons and parish priests complain to their bishop, | |
| That their parishioners be poor since the pestilence time, | |
| To have a licence and a leave at London to dwell, | |
| 85 | To sing for simony, for silver is sweet. |
| There hovyd an hundred in howys of silk, | |
| sergeantsthose seemed, pleaded at the bar; | |
| They pleaded for pennies and pounded the law, | |
| Ac none for the love of our Lord opened their lips . | |
| 90 | You might better mete the mist on Malvern hills |
| Than get a mum of their mouth till money be showed . | |
| I saw there bishops bolde and bachelors of divine | |
| Become clerks of account, the king for to serve; | |
| I saw there archdeacons and deans, that dignity have | |
| 95 | To preach the people and poor men to feed, |
| They be loped to London, through leave of their bishop, | |
| And be clerks of the king's bench, the country to shynde. | |
| Barons and burgeysys, and bondsmen also, | |
| I saw in that assembly, as you shall hear hereafter. | |
| 100 | I saw there bakers and brewers, butchers and cooks, |
| Woolen websters, and weavers of linen, | |
| Tailors, taverners, and tinkers both, | |
| Masons, miners, and many other crafts, | |
| As dikers and delvers, that do their work ill, | |
| 105 | To drive forth the long day with "douceDame Emme." |
| Cokys and their knaves cried, "Hot pies, hot! | |
| Good geese and grys! Go we dine, go we!" | |
| Taverners tolled them and told them the same, | |
| With "white wine of Alsace, and of Gascony, | |
| 110 | Of the Rhine and the La Rochelle, that roast to defy." |
| This I saw myself, and seven sythes more. |