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Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide, In thy most need to go by thy side.
This is No. 328 of Everyman's Library. A list of authors and theirworks in this series will be found at the end of this volume. Thepublishers will be pleased to send freely to all applicants aseparate, annotated list of the Library.
J. M. DENT & SONS LIMITED 10-13 BEDFORD STREET LONDON W.C.2
E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC. 286-302 FOURTH AVENUE NEW YORK
EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS
FICTION
LONG WILL
BY FLORENCE CONVERSE
_All rights reserved_
_Made in Great Britain at The Temple Press Letchworth and decorated by Eric Ravilious for J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. Aldine House Bedford St. London_
_First Published in this Edition 1908_
_Reprinted 1911, 1917, 1919, 1923, 1926 1929, 1933_
EDITOR'S NOTE
This story forms a very tempting by-way into the old English life andthe contemporary literature which gave us Chaucer's _CanterburyTales_ and Langland's _Vision of Piers Plowman_. It deals withthose poets and with many figures of the fourteenth century whosenames still ring like proverbs in the twentieth--Wat Tyler and JackStraw, John Wycliff, John of Gaunt, and Richard II.--and it summonsthem to real life in that antique looking-glass of history which isromance. It begins in its prologue very near the evil day of the BlackDeath, when the fourteenth century had about half run its course; andin its epilogue it brings us to the year when the two poets died,barely surviving the century they had expressed in its gaiety and itsgreat trouble, as no other century has ever been interpreted. To readthe story without wishing to read Chaucer and _Piers Plowman_ isimpossible, and if a book may be judged by its art in provoking a newinterest in other and older books, then this is one of an uncommonquality. First published in 1903, it has already won a criticalaudience, and it goes out now in a second edition to appeal to a stillwider public here and in America.
_April 1908._
To ..........
_Lo, here is felawschipe: One fayth to holde, One truth to speake, One wrong to wreke, One loving-cuppe to syppe, And to dippe In one disshe faithfullich, As lamkins of one folde. Either for other to suffre alle thing. One songe to sing In swete accord and maken melodye. Right-so thou and I good-fellowes be: Now God us thee!_
"Why I move this matere is moste for the pore, For in her lyknesse owre lord ofte hath ben y-knowe."
_The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman._ B. PASSUS XI.
Contents
PROLOGUE PAGE
I. _The Lark and the Cuckoo_ 3
II. _The Hills_ 11
III. _Kingdoms Not of This World_ 17
PART I. The Malcontents
I. _The Miracle_ 27
II. _The Rose of Love_ 31
III. _They That Mourn_ 39
IV. _A Vow_ 46
V. _A Disciple_ 48
VI. _Food for Thought_ 61
VII. _A Progress to Westminster_ 65
VIII. _An Embassage_ 75
IX. _The King's Secret_ 80
X. _Plot and Counterplot_ 94
XI. _Midsummer Eve_ 107
XII. _Sanctuary_ 114
XIII. _The Man o' Words_ 121
PART II. The Pilgrimage
I. _In the Cloisters_ 131
II. _In Malvern Chase_ 137
III. _By a Burn's Side_ 147
IV. _A Boon_ 156
V. _The Adventure in Devon_ 164
VI. _The Adventure in Cheshire_ 180
VII. _The Adventure in Yorkshire_ 196
VIII. _The Believers_ 217
IX. _The Adventure in Kent_ 228
X. _The Poets Sing to Richard_ 242
PART III. The Rising
I. _The Beginning_ 265
II. _Blackheath_ 271
III. _In the City_ 280
IV. _In the Tower_ 286
V. _Mile End_ 296
VI. _Free Men_ 307
VII. _Reaction_ 315
VIII. _The Friday Night_ 319
IX. _Smithfield_ 324
X. _The Old Fetters_ 338
XI. _The Prisoner_ 349
XII. _Y-Robed in Russet_ 358
EPILOGUE 369
PROLOGUE
"'I am Ymagynatyf,' quod he, 'idel was I nevere.'"
_The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman._ B. PASSUS XII.