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Updated: June 27, 2025
In the curious figure of the Tournament, we have a characteristic play of mediaeval fancy. As Langland puts it, a little differently: "Then was Faith in a fenestre, and cryed: Ah! Fili David! As doth an heraude of armes when adventrous cometh to jousts. Olde Jewes of Jerusalem for joy they sungen, Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Langland in the 14th century mentions "rimes of Robin Hood," and efforts have been made to identify him with some actual personage, as with one of the dispossessed barons who had been adherents of Simon de Montfort in his war against Henry III. But there seems to be nothing historical about Robin Hood. He was a creation of the popular fancy.
It tells us much of what the people thought and of how they lived in those days. It shows us the first mutterings of the storm that was to rend the world. This was the storm of the Reformation which was to divide the world into Protestant and Catholic. But Langland himself was not a Protestant.
Langland hated them. Chaucer held them up to scorn. Wickliffe denounced them with a righteous wrath. Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, carried on open war against them. All these leaders of the chosen bands that fight the battles of God had arrived at man's estate when the Black Death came, and all survived it.
Poetry; Langland, Gower, Chaucer. 5. Literature in the Fifteenth Century. Ballads. 6. Poets of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries in Scotland. Wyntoun, Barbour, and others. Poetry: Skelton, Surrey, and Sackville; the Drama. 2. Scholastic and Ecclesiastical Literature. Translations of the Bible: Hooker, Andrews, Donne, Hall, Taylor, Baxter: other Prose Writers: Fuller, Cudworth, Bacon, Hobbes.
A mower was not to be had for less than a shilling a day with his food, and a chaplain, formerly glad to receive two marks and his board, demanded ten pounds, or ten marks at the least. Non-residence, neglect of cures, and other evils followed. As Langland wrote:
CHARLES. "Jutland, including Holstein, is about 280 miles long and 80 miles broad; the islands, of various dimensions, are Zealand, Funen, Langland, Laland, Falster, Mona, Femeren, Alsen, &c. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is a large, rich, and well-fortified town, situated on the island of Zealand; the population about 100,000."
Yet this contrast may be pressed too far. Though Langland had a keen eye to those miseries of the poor which are always with us, the impression of the time gathered from his writings is not so much one of material suffering, as of social unrest and discontent.
The King acknowledged that Reason was right, and begged him to stay with him always and help him to rule. "I am ready," quoth Reason, "to rest with thee ever so that Conscience be our counsellor." To that the King agreed, and he and his courtiers all went to church. Here suddenly the dream ends. Langland cries: "Then waked I of my sleep.
It was an age of comparative social contentment, in strong contrast with the days of Langland. The rapid increase of manufacturing towns gave employment to thousands who had before been idle and discontented. Increasing trade brought enormous wealth to England, and this wealth was shared to this extent, at least, that for the first time some systematic care for the needy was attempted.
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