constantly felt. He cannot reconcile the contradiction between the
real and the ideal. In attacking selfishness, hypocrisy, and
corruption; in preaching the value of a life of good deeds; in showing
how men ought to progress toward higher ideals; in teaching that "Love
is the physician of life and nearest our Lord himself,--" _Piers
Plowman_ proved itself a regenerating spiritual force, a
stepping-stone toward the later Reformation.

The author of this poem was also a fourteenth-century social reformer,
protesting against the oppression of the poor, insisting on mutual
service and "the good and loving life." In order to have a
well-rounded conception of the life of the fourteenth century, we must
read _Piers Plowman_. Chaucer was a poet for the upper classes. _Piers
Plowman_ gives valuable pictures of the life of the common people and
shows them working--

"To kepe kyne In þe field, þe corne fro þe bestes,
Diken[27] or deluen[28] or dyngen[29] vppon sheues,[30]
Or helpe make mortar or here mukke a-felde."

We find in the popular poetry of _Piers Plowman_ almost as many words
of French derivation as in the work of the more aristocratic Chaucer.
This fact shows how thoroughly the French element had become
incorporated in the speech of all classes. The style of the author of
_Piers Plowman_ is, however, remarkable for the old Saxon sincerity
and for the realistic directness of the bearer of a worthy message.

John Gower.--Gower, a very learned poet, was born about 1325 and
died in 1408. As he was not sure that English would become the
language of his cultivated countrymen, he tried each of the three