schal I axe?' And she seide, The heed of John Baptist.' And whanne she hadde entrid anon with haste to the kyng she axide seyinge, I wole that anoon thou syve to me in a dische the heed of John Baptist. And the kyng was sory for the ooth, and for men sittinge togidere at mete he wolde not hir be maad sory; but, a manquellere' sent, he comaundide the heed of John Baptist for to be brought. And he bihedide him in the prison, and brouzte his heed in a dische, and 3af it to the wenche, and the wenche 3af it to hir modir.'

John of Trevisa.-Ranulf Higden, a monk of St. Werburgh's monastery in Chester, wrote a Latin Chron. icle of the world's history which became immensely popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. More than a hundred manuscripts of the Latin still exist, and the work was quickly translated into English, and it was one of the earliest books to be issued from our printing presses. The author divided his work into seven books, parting, as he said, the great river of universal history into seven streams, so that readers might go over dry shod.

The first book is a geographical sketch of the world, and of its sixty chapters twenty-two are devoted to England, and seven others to Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Great use is made of the works of Bede, Giraldus Cambrensis and William of Malmesbury, but the author added much interesting information from his own stores, and he brought the narrative down nearly to his own. day. He lived to a very great age, and died in 1363.

In 1387 an English translation was issued by John of Trevisa. The translator was a Cornishman, was vicar of Berkeley, and he spoke and wrote the west country dialect, which had been used by Robert of Gloucester. He executed the translation for his patron,

1 executioner.

Thomas Lord Berkeley, who, in the introduction, is represented as urging him to the work and saying:-

Though I can speke, rede, and understande Latyn, there is moche Latyn in these bookes of Cronykes that I can not understande, neither thou without studyeng, avisement,' and lokyng of other bookes.

The author takes pleasure in describing the wonders of Britain.

He says:-

3

Yn be contray aboute Wynchestre ys a den; out of bat den alwey bloweb a strong wynd, so pat no man may endure for to stonde to-for bat den. par is also a pond þat turneb tre into yre, and hyt be þer-ynne al a zer; and so tren bubyschape into whetstones. Also þer ys yn þe cop of an hul a buryel; everych man þat comeb and metep' þat buriel, a schal fynde hyt evene ry3t of his oune meete; and zef a pylgrym oper eny wery man kneoleb per-to, anon a schal be al fresch, and of werynes schal he feele non nuy.

He regards it as a mark of God's signal favour that the bodies of saints remained uncorrupted in English soil.

9

Tak heede hou; gret lyzt and bry;tnes of God hys myldenes hab byschyne Englysche men; so hat of no men bub yfounde so meny hole bodies of men after here deep yn lyknes of everlasting lif þat schal be after he day of doom; as hyt wel semep in his holy seintes, Etheldred, Edmund be kyng, Elphege, and Cuthbert.

The various dialects spoken in England engaged the writer's attention, and he thus speaks of the three great dialects of Northern, Southern and Central England.

Men of he est wib men of be west, as hyt were undur þe same party of hevene, acordeb more in sounyng of speche þan men of þe norb wiþ men of be soup; ber-fore hyt ys bat Mercii, bat bub men of myddel Engelond as hyt were parteners of be endes, undurstondeb betre be syde

longages, Norberon and Souberon, þan Norferon and Souperon understondeb eyber ober.

Al þe longage of þe Norþumbres, and specialych at 3ork, is so scharp, and unschape,' bat we Souberon men may þat longage unne} e' undurstonde. Y trowe þat þat ys bycause þat a bub ny; to strange men and aliens þat spekeb strangelych, and also bycause þat þe kynges of Engelond wone alwey fer fram þat contray; for a bub more yturnd to be soup contray; and ef a go to be norb contray, a gob wib gret help and strengthe. pe cause why a bub more in be soup contray ban in be norb may be, betre cornlond, more people, more noble cytes, and more profytable havenes.

'PIERS PLOWMAN.'

William Langland. The long reign of Edward III. was one of mingled glory and shame. Great battles were won, captive kings were brought home to London, magnificent tournaments were held, and Edward and his son were justly regarded as two of the most renowned knights in Europe. But the struggle between France and England was barren and exhausting. The nobles and clergy lived in luxury, but the miserable peasantry were oppressed with innumerable exactions until at last they rose in revolt in both countries. Terrible pestilences, too, swept over the land, carrying off a half of the people, and earnest men could not but regard these as scourges from the hand of God.

Among these earnest men was the writer of the 'Vision of Piers the Plowman.' Little is known of him -not even his name with certainty. Sometimes he is called Robert and sometimes William Langland, and there are grounds for thinking the latter name should 'rough. - scarcely.

rather be Langley. He was born about 1332, and, it is thought, at Cleobury Mortimer, in Shropshire, though Shipton-under-Wychwood, in Oxfordshire, is also mentioned as his birthplace. In his poem the Malvern Hills are mentioned several times, and it is thought probable that he received his education in the monastery of Great Malvern. From other scattered allusions in his poem, it is thought he took minor orders in the Church and remained always miserably poor.

He was married, and probably at about the age of thirty he came to London and lived on Cornhill with his wife Kitte and his daughter Calote. He was tall and gaunt; men called him Long Will,' and for many years he gazed with a stern sad face on the riot and wretchedness, the grandeur and misery of London; and he died at about the close of the century.

Of his great poem there are very many manuscripts existing, and there appear to have been three separate editions. The earliest and shortest was probably finished about 1362; then about 1377 the poet greatly expanded the work, and about 1390 he again still further extended it.

The work consists of a series of visions. The poet falls asleep and has wonderful dreams; the Vices and Virtues, Conscience, Reason, Holy Church, and a host of other allegorical personages appear and act and speak, and in this respect we may call Langland an earlier Bunyan.

In the language of the poem we find nearly as many Norman-French words as in Chaucer, and this proves that French had entered very largely into the everyday

speech of England; but the poet discarded the popular French fashion of rhyme, and fell back on the Old English plan of alliteration.

The opening lines show the alliteration very distinctly, but it is steadily maintained through the thousands of lines of the poem.

And as I lay and lened and loked in be wateres

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I slombred in a slepyng it sweyved so merye.

The poet in his dream saw a tower, the abode of Truth, on a lofty hill, and opposite, in a deep valley, a dark dungeon, the abode of Error, and between these two he saw a whole world of busy mortals. Among them were the peasants whom Langland had loved and pitied. Some putten hem to be plow pleyed ful selde

In settyng and in sowyng swonken ful harde

And wonnen that wastours with glotonye destruyeth.

There were also the lazy dissolute friars, whom he detested.

Heremites on an heep with hoked staves

Wenten to Walsyngham

8

and here & wenches after;

that loth were to swynke,

Clotheden hem in copis to ben knowen fram othere;

And shopen hem heremites here ese to have.

The shameless seller of indulgences was also there.