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The Vision of Piers the Plowman

Elizabeth Robertson

0/5 ( ratings)

One of the greatest medieval allegories. Includes a wonderful facing-page translation which sets the poem's original beauty alongside an elegant modern reading edition.

A young man falls asleep and dreams of a tower on a hill and opposite it a dark fortress in a deep valley. Between this heaven and hell are fields filled with people - for the poorest beggar to the proudest cardinal. Angels and allegorical figures representing vices and virtues appear, but the dreamer's truest guide is the honest Piers Plowman, unlearned, simple and faithful, and the antithesis of the usual hero of courtly romance or poetic allegory.

The Vision of Piers the Plowman is at once a bitter satire on a corrupt church, an uncaring nobility and a sinful humanity, and a passionate search for truth, beauty and redemption. Written in the 14th century, this poem offers us the whole medieval world - its people and its preoccupations - and presents them in full and glorious colour, realised in fresh language that is sometimes earthy, sometimes lyrical.

We meet a magnificent range of characters - 'hermits' wandering to town with their mistresses following behind, friars wearing costly gowns and a man who, instead of going to church, gets so drunk that he 'pissed four pints in a Paternoster's length'. Searching for repentance and redemption, the dreamer is led to a vision of sublime beauty - first Christ's death and then a final battle between the newly Christ-like Piers and the Devil.

Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Pages: 512

Format: Leather Bound

Release: January 01, 1360

The Vision of Piers the Plowman

Elizabeth Robertson

0/5 ( ratings)

One of the greatest medieval allegories. Includes a wonderful facing-page translation which sets the poem's original beauty alongside an elegant modern reading edition.

A young man falls asleep and dreams of a tower on a hill and opposite it a dark fortress in a deep valley. Between this heaven and hell are fields filled with people - for the poorest beggar to the proudest cardinal. Angels and allegorical figures representing vices and virtues appear, but the dreamer's truest guide is the honest Piers Plowman, unlearned, simple and faithful, and the antithesis of the usual hero of courtly romance or poetic allegory.

The Vision of Piers the Plowman is at once a bitter satire on a corrupt church, an uncaring nobility and a sinful humanity, and a passionate search for truth, beauty and redemption. Written in the 14th century, this poem offers us the whole medieval world - its people and its preoccupations - and presents them in full and glorious colour, realised in fresh language that is sometimes earthy, sometimes lyrical.

We meet a magnificent range of characters - 'hermits' wandering to town with their mistresses following behind, friars wearing costly gowns and a man who, instead of going to church, gets so drunk that he 'pissed four pints in a Paternoster's length'. Searching for repentance and redemption, the dreamer is led to a vision of sublime beauty - first Christ's death and then a final battle between the newly Christ-like Piers and the Devil.

Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Pages: 512

Format: Leather Bound

Release: January 01, 1360

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