Product Description: William Langland's 14th-century poem Piers Plowman, a disturbing and often humorous commentary on corruption and greed, remains meaningful today. The allegorical work revolves around the narrator's quest to live a good life, and takes the form of a series of dreams in which Piers, the honest plowman, appears in various guises...read more

Product Description: The fourteenth-century Piers Plowman is one of the most influential poems from the Age of Chaucer. Following the character Will on his quest for the true Christian life, the three dream narratives that make up this work address a number of pressing political, social, moral, and educational issues of the late Middle Ages...read more

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 edition. Excerpt: ...knowe. And upon this condition They sain, what gold under the town Of Rome is hid, they woll it finde, There shulde nought be left behinde, Be so that he the halve dele Hem graunt and he assenteth wele. And thus cam sleighte for to dwelle With covetise as I the telle. This emperour bad redely, That they be logged faste by, Where he his owne body lay. And whan it was at morwe day, That one of hem saith, that he mette, Where he a gold hord shulde fette, Wherof this emperour was glad. And therupon anone he bad His minours for to go and mine, And he him self of that covine Goth forth withall and at his honde The tresor redy there he fonde, Where as they said it shulde be. And who was thanne glad but he? Upon that other day secounde They have an other gold hord founde, Which the seconde maister toke Upon his sweven and undertoke. And thus the soth experience To themperour yaf such credence, That all his trust and all his feith So sikerliche on hem he laith, Of that he found him so releved, That they ben parfitly beleved, As though they were goddes thre. Now herken the subtilite The thridde maister shulde mete, Whiche as they saiden was unmete Above hem all, and couthe most, And he withoute noise or bost All privelich, so as he wolde, Upon the morwe his swevenes tolde To themperour right in his ere And said him, that he wiste where A tresor was so plenteous Of golde and eke so precious Of jeuelles and of rich stones, That unto all his hors at ones It were a charge suffisaunt. This lord upon this covenaunt Was glad and axeth where it was. The maister said, under the glas, He tolde him eke as for the mine He wolde ordeigne such engine, That they the werk shulde undersette With timber, and withoute lette Men may the tresor saufly delve, So that the...

Product Description: This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)