And I waked therwith / witlesse nerehande

And as A freke that fre were / furth gan I walke

In manere of A begger / many a yere after

And of this dreame many tyme / much thought I hadd

Fyrst how fortune me failed / at my most nede

And howe þat Age threatened me / if euer we mett

And howe that Friers folowed / folke þat were riche

And those that were pouer / at Litill price they sett

And no Corps in their Kyrkyerd / nor in their kirk was buried

Onlesse he bequethed ought / or shulde helpe pay their dettes

And howe that Couetise ouercame / Clerkes and preistes

And howe that lewde men be led / but our Lorde them helpe

Through vnconnyng creatures / to incurable peynes

And howe that ymaginatyf / in dreames me told

Of Kynde & {of} of his connyng / & howe curteis he is to beastes

And howe Loving he is to beastes / bothe on lond & water

He leneth no Lyfe / Lesse nor more

The creatures that crepe / of Kynde they be engendred

And then howe ymaginatyf seyd // Vix saluabitur iustus

And when he had said so / how sodenly he passed

I Laye doune long in this thought / And at the Last I slept

And as Christ wold there cam conscience / to confort me þat tyme

And bad me come to his courte / with clergie shulde I dyne

And for Conscience of Clergy spake / I came somuche / so muche the rather

And there I se a maister / what man he was I wist not

That Lowe he lowted / and louely to scripture

Conscience knewe hym well / And welcommed him fair

They wasshed And wyped / And went to their dynner

But pacience in the palais stood / in pilgrymes clothes

And asked mete for charitie / for A pouer heremyte

Conscience called him in / And curteislie said

Welcome , go and washe / thou shalt sytt sone /

This maister was made sytte / As for the most worthie

And then Clergie and Conscience / & pacience cam After

Pacience And I were / put to be maches

And sett by our-self / at the syde boorde

Conscience called after meate / And than cam Scripture

And serued them thus sone / of sundrie meates manye

Of Augustine of Ambrose / And of the foure Evangelistes

Edentes et bibentes que apud eos sunt /

But this maister nor his man / no manere fleshe ete

But they ete meate of more cost / Mortreux and potages

Of that men ofte want / they made them well at ease

But their sauce was very soure / & vnsavourly grounde

Ina / In a morter Post mortem / of many a bitter peyne

But if they sing for tho soules / And wepe salt teares

Conscience full curteisly then / commanded Scripture

Before Pacience bread to bring / and me þat was his mache

He sett a sour lofe before vs / and said Agite penitenciam

And then he brought vs drynke / Diaperseuerans

As long quod I as I Lyue / And this body may endure

Here is proper seruice quod pacience / there fareth no prynce better

And then he brought furth A mese of other meat / of Miserere mei deus

And he brought vs of beati quorum of Beatus virres making

Et quorum tecta sunt peccata / in a dishe

Of derne Christe / Dixi / and Confitebor tibi /

Bryng Pacience a pitaunce / priuyly quod Conscience

And than had Pacience / A pitaunce by and by

And Conscience conforted vs / & told vs mery tales

Pacience was proude / of that proper seruice

And made him mery with his meate / but I mourned euer

For the Doctour At the high dease / Drank wyne so faste /

He ete many sundrie meates / Mortruex & puddynges

Wombe cloutes and wyld brawne / & egges fryed with grece

Then said I to my-self so / pacience it herde

It is not foure Daies þat this freke / before the dean of paules

Preached of penaunce / that paule th'apostle suffred

In fame et frigore / and flappes of skourges

But one worde they ouerhippe / at eche tyme that they preache

That Paule in his Epistle / to all the people tolde

Holy writ bid men beware / I wilnot / will not write it here

In englishe lest it shulde be reherced to ofte

And greue therwith good men / But gramariens shall rede

But I wist neuer fryer yet / before men in englishe

Take it for his teme / and telle it without glosyng

They preache that penaunce is / profitable to the soule

And what mischef and misease / Christ for man suffred

But this goddes glutton quod I / with his great chekes

hath no pitie on vs pouer / he performeth euell

That he prechethe he proue not / to pacience I told

And wished ernestly / with will full egre

That disshes and doblers / before the same doctour

Were molten in his mawe / And Mahounne amyddes

I shall Iangle to this Iourdan / with his iust wombe

To telle me what penaunce is / of which he preached Late

Pacience perceyued what I ment / & winked on me to be stille

And said thou shalt se sone / whan he may nomore / no more

He shall haue a penaunce in his paunche / & puf & / [at] euery worde

And then shall his guttes gulle / & he shall galpe After

for now hath he dronken so depe / he will devyne sone

And proue it by their Pocalyps / And passion of S . Avarice

That neither Bacon nor Brawne / Blank manger nor mortreux

Is neither fishe nor fleshe / But food for A penitent

Then shall he testifie of þe Trinytie / & take his felawe to witnesse

What he founde in A fray{A} / After a friers Lyuyng

And but he first lyue by leasinges / beleue me neuer after /

And than is tyme to take / And oppose this doctour

And dowell and dobet / And if dobest be any penaunce

And I sate still as pacience bad / And then sone this doctour

As rody as A rose / rubbed his chekes

Coughed and carped / and Conscience him herde

And told him of A Trinite / & towarde vs he Lokid

What is dowell syr doctour quod I / is dowell any penaunce

Dowell quod this doctour / And toke the cuppe and drancke

Ys do non euill to thine even cristen / not by thy poure

By this daye syr doctor quod I / than be ye not in dowell

For you haue harmed vs ij / two / in that ye ete the puddyng

Mortruex and other meate / & we no morsell hadd

And if ye fare so in your fermerye / ferly me thinketh

But ChastiteLX be there Charitie shuld be / & yong childerne durst complayne

I wold permute my penaunce with your / for I am in poynt to dowell

Then Conscience curteislie / a countynaunce he made

And winked vpon Pacience / to pray me to be stille

And said himself syr doctour / And it be your wille

What is dowell and dobett / ye devynours knowe

Dowell quod this doctour / do as clerkes teache

And dobet is he that teacheth / & travaileth to teache other

And dobest dothe him-self so / as he saieth & preachethe

Now you Clergie quod Conscience / carpe what is dowell

I haue vij / seuen sonnes he said / seruauntes in a Castell

There the lorde of Lyfe dwellethe / to lerne what is dowell

Till I se tho seaven / And my-self Accorde

I am vnhardy quod he / to any man to proue it

For won Piers the plowman / hath inpugned vs all

And set all sciences {at}T Light / saue loue wonly

And no text he taketh / to maynteyne his cause

But Dilige deum and Domine quis habitabit /

And saith that dowell and dobet / Are two infynites

Which infinites with a feithe / Fynde out Dobest

Which shall saue mannes soule / thus saith piers plowman

I knowe not this quod Conscience / But I knowe well Piers

he willnot / will not against holy writ speake / I dare well vndertake

Then passe we ouer till piers come / & proue this indede

Pacience hathe bene in many a place / & paraduenture mouthed

That no clerk can / as Christ beareth witnesse

But your prayer quod pacience then / so noman / no man displease him

Disce quod he Doce / and Dilige inimicos

Disce and dowell Doce and Dobet Dilige and Dobest / thus taught me onesC

A Lemman that I loued / Loue was hir name

With wordes and with workes quod she / and will of thine harte

Thoue loue truly thy soule / all thy Lyfe tyme /

And so thou lerne the to loue / for the lordes loue of heauen

Thyne Enemy in Any wise / euen as thy-self

Cast coles on his head / of all kynde speche

Bothe with wordes and workes / entende his loue to wynne

And ley on him thus with loue / till he Lawghe on the

And onlesse {b}he bowe with this beating blynde mut he be

But for to fare thus with thy freind / folie it were

For he that loueth the trulie / Litill of thyne covetethe

Kynde loue coueteth not / catell but speche

With Half a Lampe in Latine / Ex vi transicionis

I beare therin aboute / Fast bounde Dowell

In A signe of the Saterdaie / that set first the Kalender

And all the witt on the wednesday / of þe next wike after

The middell of the mone / as the night of bothe

And therwith am I welcome / there I haue it with me

Vndo it Lat this doctour deme / if dowell be therin

For by him that me made / might neuer pouerte

Misease or mischef / nor man with his tong

Colde nor care / nor company of theues

Nor neither hete nor haile / nor non helle powke

Nor neither fier nor flood / nor feare of thine enemye

TeneLX the Any time / And thou take it with the

Caritas nichil timet /

It is but a dido quod this Doctour / A disoures tale

All the wit of this worlde / and wight mennes strengthe

Cannot conforme a peace . betwene the pope and his enemyes

Nor betwene ij / two Cristene kynges / can no man peace make

Profitable to either people / and put the table from him

And toke Clergie and Conscience / to counseile as it were

That pacience thou maist passe / for pilgrymes can well Lye

But Conscience carped lowde / & curteislie saide

Frendes fare ye well / And fair spake to Clergie

For I will go with this man / if god will giue me grace

And be pilgryme with Pacience / till I haue proued more

What quod Clergie to Conscience / Are ye couetouse nowe

After rewardes and giftes / or redy to rede redels

I shall bring you A byble / A booke of the olde Lawe

And lerne you yf you Like / the Least poynt to knowe

That Pacience the pilgryme / perfitely knewe neuer

Nay quod Conscience to Clergie / god that forbidd

For all that Pacience me profereth / prowde am I litill

But the will of the man / And the will of the folke here

Hath moved my mood / to mourne for my synnes

The good will of A wight / was neuer bought to the full

For there is no tresure / to A true will

Had not Maudelyn more for A box of salue

Then Zacheus for all he said / Dimidium bonorum meorum do pauperibus

And the pouer widewe / for A peyr of mytes

Than all they that offred / in-to Gazophilacium

Thus curteisly conscience / congeied first the frier

And then softlie he said / in Clergies eare

Me were Lefer by the Lorde / and I Lyue shuld

haue Pacience perfitely / then half thy pack of bookes

Clergie of Conscience / no congie wold take

But said full soberlie / thou shalt se the tyme

Whan thou Art wery of walkyng / will me to counsaile

That is sothe said Conscience / so me god helpe

Yf Pacience be our partingfelawe / & privie with vs bothe

There is no wo in this world / that we shulde not amende

And conforme kynges to peace / & all manere Londes

Sa{z}razensP And Surreans / and so forthe all the Iewes

Turne into the true feythe / and into one beleue

That is true quod Clergie / I se what þou menest

I shall dwelle as I do / my devoire to shewe

And conferme Fauntekyns / And other folke Lerned

Till pacience haue proued the / & perfite the made

Conscience then with pacience passed / pilgrymes as they were

Tha{t}n had pacience as pilgrymes haue / in his poke vitalles

Sobrietie and Symple speche / and stedfast {bebyu} beleue

To confort him and conscience / if they came in place

There vnkyndnes and Couetise is / hungry countreis bothe

And as they went by the way / of dowell they carped

They met with A mynstrall / as me then thought

Pacience opposed him fyrst / & preyd him to tell

To Conscience what crafte he coulde / & whether he wolde

I am A mynstrall quod that man / my name is Actiua vita

All ydell I hate / for of Actif is my name

A wafrer will ye wete / And serue many Lordes

And fewe clothes I gett / cotes or furred gownes

Could I Lye to do men laf / then gett I shulde

Outher mantell or money / Among Lordes or Mynstras

But for I can neither tabour nor trompe / nor telle no gestes

Fart nor fithell / at feastes nor harpe

Iape nor Iogle / nor gentillie pype

Nor neither saile nor saute / nor sing with the giterne

I haue no good giftes / of thise great lordes

for no bread that I bring forthe / saue A benyson on the sondaie

Whan the preist preyeth the people thi{s}r pater noster to bydd

For Piers the plowman / & they that him loue

And that am I Actyf / that ydilnesse hate

For all true travailours / and tyllers of the erthe

Fro Mighelmas to Mighellmasse / I Fynde them with my wafres

Beggers and bidders / of my bread craue

Faiters and friers / and folke with brode crownes

I Fynde bread for the pope / and prouender for his palfrey

And I had neuer of him / haue god my truthe

Neither provendre nor parsonage / Ȝet of the Popes gyfte

Saue A pardon with a piece of lead / & ij / two polles Amyddes

Had I a clerke that coulde wright / I wolde cast him a byble

That he sent me vnder his seale / A salue for the pestilence

And that his blissing and his bulles / boches myght distroye

And then wolde I be presst to the people / past for to make

Bothe buxome and busye / About bread and drinke

For him and for all his / found I that his pardon

Might leche A man / as I beleue it shulde

For sithe he hathe the pouer / that peter himself had

He hathe the pott with the salue / truly as me thinkes

But if might of myracle him faile / it is for that men be not worthy

To haue the grace of god / and no faute in the Pope

For no blissing may do us good / But if we will Amend

Nor mannes masse make peace / Among xpcristian people

Till pride be purely fordone / And þat throughe defaute of bread

For ere I haue bread of meale / ofte must I sweate

And ere the commons haue corne ynough / many a cold nornyng

So ere my wafers be wrought / much woe I suffre

All london I beleue / Like well my wafres

And loure when they Lacke them / it is not long yet paste

There was A carefull commons / when no cart came to toune

With bread from Stratforde / then beggars began to wepe

And workemen were agast / this wilbe / will be thought on long

In date of our drowt / in A drie Apryll

A thousand and thre hunderd / twies twentie and tean

My wafres then there were geason / when Chichester was Mayr

I toke good kepe by Christ / And Conscience bothe

Of Haukyn the Actyue man / and howe he was clothed

He had A Cote of xpcristendome / as holie chirche beleuethe

But it was moulded in many places / with many sondrie spottes

Of pride here a plot and there a plott / of vnbuxome speche

Of skornyng & scoffyng / and of vnskilfull beryng

As in Apparaile and port / proude Among the people

Otherwise then he hathe / with hart or sight shewing

Hym willing that all men wende / he were that he is not

For why he bosteth and braggethe / with many bolde othes

And is vnobedient to be interteyned / of any man Lyuyng

And non so syngler by himself / nor so pompe holie

habited as an heremyte / an order by himself

Religion sauns rule / & reosonable / resonable obedience

Dyspreysing lerned men / and lewde men bothe

In Lyknyng of true Lyfe / and a Lyar in soule

With inwit and outwytt / ymagine & studie

As best for his body be / to haue a badd name

And meddell with all thinges / there he hathe not to do

Willing that men wende / his wytt were best

And if he gif out to pouer men / telle what he delethe

Pouer {i}of possession in purs / and in cofre bothe

And as A leon to Loke on / And lordly of speche

Boldest of beggars / A bostour that nought hathe

In toune and in tauernes / tales for to telle

And say thing that he neuer se / And for truthe swere it

Of dedes that he neuer did / deme and boste

And of thinges that he well did / witnesse and saye

Lo if ye beleue me not / or wene that I Lye

Aske at him or at him / and he can you telle

What I suffred and se / And sumtymes had

And what I coulde and knewe / & what {I} kyn I come of

All he wold that men wist / of workes and wordes

Which might please the people / And preyse themself

Et alibi / nemo potest duobus dominis seruire /

By Christ quod Conscience then / thy best cote Haukyn

Hath many moles and spottes / it must nedes be wasshed

Yea who-so toke Hede quod Haukyn / behynde and before

On back and body half / and on bothe sydes

Men shulde fynde many frounces / & many foule plottes

And he turned him quickly / and then toke I hede

It was fouler by many folde / then it first semed

It was be-dropped with wrath / and wicked will

With envie and euilspeche / euil speche / entysing to fight

Lying and Laughing / and lef tong to chide

All euill that he wist / by Any man tell it

And blame men behynde their backes / and wishe them mischaunce

And that he wiste by wille / tell it watt

And that wat wist / will wist it After

And made of frendes foes / through A false tong

Or with might of mouthe / or through mannes stren{t}gthe

Avenge me many tymes / or frette my-self

Within As A shepesteres shere / I shrewed men & cursed

There is noman / no man that me louethe / Lasting any while

For tales that I telle / noman / no man trust to me

And when I maynot / may not haue the maistrie / such malancoly I take

That I cach the crompe / the cardiacle sumtyme

Or an Ague in such an angre / & sometyme A feuer

That holdethe me all a twelue moneth / till þat I dispise

Lechecrafte of the lorde / and trust to A wiche

And saie that no clerk can / nor Christe as I beleue

To the Sowter of Sothwerke / or of Shordich dame Emme

And say that goddes worde / gaf me neuer bote

But through A charme had I chaunce / & my chief helth

I waited wisloker / and then was it soyled

With Licking and Lechery / as by loking of the eye

For eche maide that he met / he made hir a sygne

Semyng to synnwarde / and sumtyme he wolde taste

Aboute the mouthe or benethe begynne to grope

Till eythers will waxethe kene / and to the worke yede

As well on fasting daies as Frydaies / & forbodon nyghtes

And as well in Lent as out of it / all tymes alike

Suche workes with them / were neuer out of season

Till they might nomore / no more / And then mery tales

And howe that Lecherous loue / Laugh and iape

And of their {harl} harlotrie {/}&T horedome / in their age tell

Than pacience perceyued / of poyntes of this cote

Was comely through Couetise / and vnkynde desyre

More to good then to god / the man his loue cast

And ymagined howe / he might it haue

With false mesure and met / & with false weight

He Lent for loue of the gage / and lothe to do truthe

And awaite by what waieT / he might begyle

And menged his marchaundise / to make a good mustre

The worst was within / A great witt I hold it

And if my neighbour / had any kynde of beast

More profitable then myne / many sleightes I founde

howe I might haue it / all my wytt I cast

And onlesse I might get it otherwise / at Last I stale it

Or priuylie his purse shoke / and picked his Lockes

By night or by day / about it was I euer

Through gyle to gather / the good that I had

Yf I went to the plough / I pynched so narowe

That a fote londe or a furowe / feche I wolde

Of my next neighbour / take of his grounde

And if I repe ouerreche / or gaf them counsaile that reaped

And sese to me with their sikell / that I sewe neuer

And who-so borowed of me / abought the tyme

With presentz privilie / or paid sum certeyne

So wolde he or not / wynne I wolde /

And bothe to kythe and kyn / vnkynde of þat I had

And who-so cheped my wares / chide I wolde

But if he profred to paye / A penny or tweyne

More then it was worthe / And yet wold I swere /

That yt cost me muche more / swore many othes

On holidaies at churche / when I herde messe

had I neuer will god wot / ernestlie to beseche

Mercie for my misdedes / but I euer mourned more

For losse of worldly goodes / then for my bodies fautes

As if I had done deadly synne / I dred not that so sore

As when I lent and thought it lost / or long ere it were paide

So if I knew any kyndenes / myn even cristen to helpe

Vpon A cruell Couetise / myn hart did hang

And if I sent ouer sea / my seruauntes to Brudges

Or into prucelonde my prentys / my profite to seke

To marchande with money / & make there exchaunge

Might neuer me confort / in the meane while

Neither Matyns nor Masse / nor no manner sightes

Nor neuer penaunce perfourmed / nor Pater noster said

That my mynde was not more / on my good in doubte

Then in the grace of god / and his great helpe

Which be the braunches / that bring a man to sleuthe

He that mournethe not for his misdedes / nor make no sorowe

TAnd dothe non Almusdede / drede him of no synne

Lyuethe Against the beleue / And no Lawe holdethe

Eche daye is halidaie with him or An highe ferie

And if he ought will here / it is an harlottes tong

When men speke of Christ / or of clennesse of soules

He wexeth angry and willnot / will not here / but wordes of myrthe

Penaunce and pouer men / and the passion of Saintes

He hateth to here therof / and all that telle it

Thise be the braunches beware / þat bring a man to dispeyr

Ye lordes and Ladies / and Legates of holy churche

That fede fooles sages / Flatereris & Lyers

And hathe pleasure to here them / to do you to Laughe

And giue them meat & mede / and pouermen / pouer men refuse

In your deathe dying / I drede me full sore

Lest then thre manere of men / to much sorowe you bring

Patriarches and profetes / and preachours of goddes worde

Saue through their sermons / mannes soule frome helle

Euen so flaterers and fooles / are the Fyndes disciples

To entyce men through their tales / to synne and to harlotry

But clerkes that knowe holy writ / shuld teache lordes

What dauid saithe of such men / as the psalter tellethe

Shold non harlot haue Audience / in halle nor in chambre

There wise men were / witnesse goddes worde

Nor no mysproude man / Among lordes be allowed

But flaterers and fooles / through their foule wordes

Lede them that loue them / to Lucifers feaste

With Turpiloquio A lay of sorowe / & lucifers fiddill

Thus haukyn the Actiue man / had soiled his cote

Till Conscience rebuked him / in a curteis manere

Why he hadnot / had not washed it / or wyped it with a brusshe