At last Truth heard of Piers and of all the good that he was
doing among the pilgrims, and sent him a pardon for all his sins.
In those days people who had done wrong used to pay money to a
priest and think that they were forgiven by God. Against that
belief Langland preaches, and his pardon is something different.
It is only

"Do well and have well, and God shall have thy soul.
And do evil and have evil, hope none other
That after thy death day thou shalt turn to the Evil One."

And over this pardon a priest and Piers began so loudly to
dispute that the dreamer awoke,

"And saw the sun that time towards the south,
And I meatless and moneyless upon the Malvern Hills."

That is a little of the story of the first part of Piers
Ploughman. It is an allegory, and in writing it Langland wished
to hold up to scorn all the wickedness that he saw around him,
and sharply to point out many causes of misery. There is
laughter in his poem, but it is the terrible and harsh laughter
of contempt. His most bitter words, perhaps, are for the idle
rich, but the idle poor do not escape. Those who beg without
shame, who cheat and steal, who are greedy and drunken have a
share of his wrath. Yet Langland is not all harshness. His
great word is Duty, but he speaks of Love too. "Learn to love,
quoth King, and leave off all other." The poem is rambling and
disconnected. Characters come on the scene and vanish again
without cause. Stories begin and do not end. It is all wild and