Introduction

In the first vision (B.Prol.–4), the poet explores a series of questions about political society, such as how can a diverse society be imagined? What are the origins and limits to governance, and what is the common denominator of political rule? How might a reform-minded English poetry represent society’s underlying values and expose its greatest faults? Lastly, in which contexts can a satire of contemporary life constitute a moral philosophy and political counsel worthy of a king?

Entering the second vision (B.5–7), the poem’s emphasis shifts from society to community, or from the structures to the ethics of association. In these passūs, the poem reveals the fair field of folk to be neighbors, whose collective well-being haunts the dreamer. In Piers Plowman, as in medieval literature generally, society is inseparable from morality: a person’s station and occupation determine his ability to be righteous, and the sum of labors performed impacts everyone’s spiritual future. The Prologue, indebted to estates satire, argues that corrupt and lazy people compromise the integrity of the system, triggering famine and plague, and hastening the apocalypse. Waxing prophetic, the poet warns that “The mooste meschief on molde is mountynge up faste!” [The greatest calamity on earth is building momentum!] (Prol.67). In the second vision, the poet continues to be concerned with the make-up and breakup of society, but he is newly interested in ethical bonds, such as empathy, reciprocity, and mastery. Whereas in passus 1 the dreamer asks Holy Church to “tel me this ilke – / How I may save my soule” [tell me this thing in particular: how I may save my soul] (1.83–84), in passūs 5–7, community is at the very heart of this desire to be saved, and the ethics of association articulates the link between being saved and doing well.