His poem, following the convention of dreams and allegories, is the record of dreams into which he fell, first on the Malvern hills; later, wherever he chanced to be. The poem exists in three forms (A, B, C), and, from the allusions6 to contemporary events (such as the peace of Bretigny, with France (1360), and a great tempest of January, 1362), the A version may have been composed in 1362. The B version, much altered and enlarged, is dated, from its allusions to events, in 1377; and the C version, also enlarged, from its references to the unpopularity of Richard II, must be later than 1392.
If the poet drew his dreamer and narrator from study of his own character, he must have been, in some ways, not unlike Mr. Thomas Carlyle. Though he had a noble appreciation7 of the dignity and duty of manual labour,—the honest and pious8 ploughman was his favourite character,—he never did toil9 with his hands. In reply to the remonstrances10 of Reason, he says:—
I am too weak to work with sickle11 or with scythe12.
[Pg 100]
Over-education in youth has sapped his manhood: and, since his friends who paid for his schooling13 died, he has never joyed. He praised the country, but, as Dr. Johnson said, "hung loose upon the town," a man of a modern type.
"Ich live in Londone, and on Londone both," he writes. The instruments of his craft are not sickle and scythe, but the paternoster, the psalter, "and my seven psalms," that "I sing for men's souls". In return for such services he picks up a bare livelihood15. Clerks like himself should "come of franklins and freemen," not of bondmen. The sons of serfs, he thinks, should do manual labour, and should not be admitted to Holy Orders. This was the view of the English House of Commons, under Richard II, and it may be that the poet is rather satirizing16 their exclusiveness, and the hand-to-mouth lazy life of poor clerks, than describing himself. The narrator, after the sermon preached at him by Reason, goes to Church in a penitent17 mood, and beats his breast, but does not change his course of life.
The poem (or, as some think, the series of poems by various hands) represents in the most vivid way, the unrest, discontent, and doubt which came over Western Europe towards the end of the fourteenth century. The cruel and endless wars, the brigands18, the ravages19 of the Black Death (which caused demand for higher wages because so few were left to work) drove the poor into revolts like that of Wat Tyler. There were frightful20 cruelties and terrible reprisals21. The wealth and licentiousness22 of the regular Orders of clergy23 caused them to be hated and despised. The people called Lollards advocated a kind of evangelical Protestantism, and something very like modern Socialism. All these things Chaucer passed by or treated lightly, but whoever wrote "Piers Plowman" threw into his picture of the age his vivid and fiery25 but lurid26 and confused genius. He paints himself as poor, discontented, powerless, and always angry.
The dreamer states that he went about London,—a tall lonely discontented man,—"loath to reverence27 lords and ladies," and never saluting28 the great, and the well clad, nor doing any courtesy, so that "folk deemed me a fool". He describes taverns29 full of bad company, as if he were familiar with them. He states the[Pg 101] doubts that arise in clerkly minds. Why should the penitent thief have been allowed to go straight to Paradise? "Who was worse than David, or the Apostle Paul," when he breathed out threatenings against the earliest Christians31? Beset33 by such questionings, and by the scepticism which haunted the Ages of Faith, clerks may curse the hour when they learned more than their creed34.
The narrator seems to know a good deal about law, and despises men who draw up charters ill, and in bad Latin; he speaks as if he may have eked35 out his livelihood as a scrivener. He says that he dresses like a "Loller" (however they may have dressed), but he is not a Loller, which may mean either an idle loiterer or a heretical Lollard, who was apt to be a kind of evangelical socialist36, entertaining advanced ideas about property.
The poet himself, in the spirit of the contemporary House of Commons, denounces the foreigners who obtain benefices in England, and the Englishmen who buy them from Rome. He would not throw off all allegiance to the Pope, but the Pope ought to follow the example, not of St. Peter, a very human character, but of the divine Master of St. Peter. He hates the Friars as much as John Knox did, who called them "fiends, not freres". He denounces the lawless rapacity37 of "maintained," the liveried followers38 of great lords; in fact his poem is often an alliterative rendering39 of the complaints of the House of Commons preserved in the Rolls of Parliament: For Parliamentary institutions he has the highest respect and admiration40, he is the warm advocate of peace with France, and opposes the idea of settling the Eastern Question by a Crusade. If he is the author of "Richard the Redeless," he gave good advice, in a severe tone, and too late, to Richard II, when that Prince set himself, like Charles II and James II, to govern England without a Parliament, and was near his fall. The dreamer, or the poet, was no friend of Revolution, but his works were quoted by John Ball, priest and agitator41, who was hanged some time after Wat Tyler was done to death.
Chaucer was a poet who did not write on political, social, and ecclesiastical reform. Langley or Langland, wrote about little else: he is for reforming a world full of inequality and injustice42. In his time the Revolution stirred in its sleep, as it were, like the[Pg 102] great subterranean43 reptile44 of Australian mythology45, and caused the crust of society to tremble, and the spires46 of the Church to rock. He professed47 that a reforming King is to come
And thanne shal the Abbot of Abyndoun
And all his issue for evere
Have a knokke of a Kynge, and
Incurable48 the wounde.
The prediction was fulfilled by Henry VIII, but the poor, in whose interests Langland wrote, were none the better but much the worse for "The Great Pillage49" of the Tudor King.
We cannot, let it be repeated, feel certain that the dreamer's description of himself, as a moody50, idle, discontented clerk, spoiled for work by much study, and unable to find a market for his science; striding angrily and enviously51 through the London streets where he has not a friend, is the poet's description of himself, a satire52 on himself; or whether it is a dramatic study of an imaginary character. We cannot be certain that he has lived much at or near Malvern; where the hills, overlooking the vast plain, form the natural scene for his Vision of the "sad pageant53 of men's miseries"; of poverty and toil, of wealth and injustice and oppression. Of the poet we really learn nothing, even his name,—whether Langley or Langland, or neither,—is matter of conjecture. We only know that his heart burned within him at the many evils which he was impotent to cure, and that he had a kind of apocalyptic54 faculty55 for visions of good and evil. As readers usually take the narrator and preacher in the poem to be a portrait of the poet himself, he appears as a character neither happy nor the cause of happiness in others. He is not so much a poet as a prophet in the Hebrew sense of the word; the world owes to him no such gratitude56 and love as it owes and pays to the kind, happy Geoffrey Chaucer.
The Visions of Langland are visionary; now the dream is luminous57 and distinct; now it merges58, as dreams do, into shadowy shapes of things half-realized. In sleep the poet first sees a vast plain; on the eastern side is a tower, westward59 is the den3 of Death. In a field full of folk some laboured; others, gaily60 clad, took their ease; some were hermits61 in cells, others were merchants, and[Pg 103] there were minstrels who hate work, "swink not, nor sweat," but make mirth. The poet, like the author of the "Cursor Mundi," detests62 minstrels. There were sham63 hermits with their women; pilgrims with leave to lie, from Rome; pardoners who took money from men for remission of their sins; parish priests who seek gold in London as the Black Death has impoverished64 their people. To them all Conscience preaches at great length, denouncing idolatrous priests in the manner of John Knox. Then follows a version of the fable65 of "belling the cat," told with some vigour66 and political point.
Holy Church now appears as a stately lady, explaining that Truth dwells in the tower to the east; and she preaches at much length on the functions of Kings (which were not fulfilled in any godly sense by the aged67 Edward III), and on the nature of Conscience, and the duty of "having ruth on the poor". Now appears a magnificent lady, "Meed," that is Recompense. In the poet's opinion, some people get far more than their due recompense; others do not get half enough, like the poor labourers; and Meed, or Reward, on the whole, is won by bribery68 and corruption70. Meed is to be married to Falsehood: Simony, Liar30, Civil Law, and so forth71, are of the wedding party, with the Count of Covetousness72, the Earl of Envy, the Lord of Lechery73, and the rest of them.
All this, we must remember, was written by the poet for his own age, which was insatiably fond of allegory devoid74 of the human merits of Bunyan's immortal75 dream.
How Theology forbids the banns between Falsehood and Meed; how Meed goes to town, and wins all hearts; how she is taken to Court, and offered as a bribe69 to Conscience, who refuses her hand; all this the poet narrates76. He is very firm on the iniquity77 of writing the names of the donors78 on windows in churches: now the historian would be glad to know who the donors were.
The King, who has Meed's marriage to arrange, listens to Reason, and so ends the first Vision. How Reason, later, admonishes79 the narrator for this way of life, has already been described. The Deadly Sins make their confessions80, and Repentance82 gives them good advice: as does Piers the Plowman, who describes[Pg 104] to these rude pilgrims the nature of the road which they must tread; here there is a considerable resemblance to the "Pilgrim's Progress". Piers directs the industry of the pilgrims, aided by the Knight83; and always and every day Piers preaches without stint84. A realistic picture of the life of poor laborious85 women in cottages is drawn86 (C. Passus X. 1. 77):—
Al-so hem-selve suffren muche hunger,
And we in winter-tyme, with wakynge a nyghtes
To ryse to the ruel, to rocke the cradel,
Bothe to karde and to kembe, to clouten and to washe,
To rubbe and to rely, russhes to pilie,
That reuthe is to rede, othere in ryme shewe
The we of these women that woneth in cotes.
It is an old over-true tale, a tale not told by Chaucer. Pity for the poor, earnest, clear-sighted, not to be controlled, is the most admirable point in the nature of Langland. He returns to his complaint that men give gifts and gold to minstrels, while the poor suffer cold and hunger, and "lollers" (idle "loafers"), gain money in the abused name of Charity. Yet the poet is not so revolutionary as to attack the Game Laws! In irony87 or in earnest, he bids Lords to hunt every day in the week but Sunday, to hunt foxes, wolves, and other beasts. That is what Lords are fit for; it amuses them, and is of service to the farmer. Bishops88 are the cause of most of the mischief89: "their dogs," the priests, "dare not bark". With Knox, two centuries later, the bishops themselves are the "dumb dogs".
The dream ends, another begins about Do-well, Do-better, Do-best. Do-well (good conduct) is better than Indulgences, as Luther preached later. The poet sets off on the quest of Do-well, who has a castle somewhere. The poet rather leans to heresy90 when he introduces the Emperor Trajan, boasting that, though a heathen, he was saved "without singing of Mass To Trajan he keeps returning. "Reason rules all beasts, but not men, and why not?" Reason declines to answer.
Finally, after giving a summary of Christian32 morals, the Plowman vanishes away: he returns later, but, whoever comes or goes, the sermons and the satire go on for ever with the same illustrations.[Pg 105] The friars are drubbed from end to end, and when at length the narrator awakes, he finds things just as they were, while Conscience goes off to seek Piers Plowman.
Probably the most famous and singular part of the poem is the reappearance of Piers Plowman, or of One like him, riding on an ass24, barefoot, without spurs or spear, but looking like a knight. Faith peers forth from a window, and cries, "Ah, son of David!" as heralds91 do when knights92 ride to tournaments. Jesus is to joust93 with Satan: then the crucifixion is described, and the terror of Satan, who calls his forces out, places his bronze guns, and orders calthrops to be thrown on the ground under the walls of his castle.[1] The idea of the guns was used by Milton, in a lapse94 of his genius, in "Paradise Lost".
The conclusion is that Righteousness and Peace kiss each other; the dreamer awakes, for the last time, and with Kytte his wife, and Kalote his daughter, creeps to the Cross, and gives thanks for the Resurrection.
It may be remarked that the style of "Piers Plowman" could be easily imitated; any man who chose could prolong a poem so lacking in organization and plan. Consequently, in compliance95 with the habit of contradicting all tradition and denying to authors the books with which they have from the first been credited, efforts are made to prove that much of "Piers Plowman" is the work of other hands; not of the author of the shortest and earliest version A. In this case critics discover "differences in diction, in metre... in power of visualizing96 objects and scenes presented, in topics of interest to the author and in views on social, theological, and various miscellaneous questions".[2]
The other, the usual theory, is that the author kept adding to and altering his poem through some thirty years. In that time new topics would interest him; his views on all questions would change with his moods; his alterations97, meant for the better, might turn out for the worst (as in the case of Wordsworth and other poets); and his powers, of course, would not always be at the same level.
It is true that the first eight passus, or cantos, or books of version A are more distinct, better organized, more consecutive98, more brilliant than the rest of the book; while passus IX-XII, are perhaps more allegorical and less orderly; more vague, more controversial, and one John But is said "to[Pg 106] have made this end, because he meddles99 with verse-making". The author of B is supposed to be a new hand, working over and altering the A version of his predecessor100, and often misunderstanding him, while C misunderstands B. It is quite certain that in some MSS. of the fifteenth century the whole poem is attributed to William Langland (or Langley?), and also that the whole poem at its longest, was composed between 1362 and 1392 and was very popular because it turned over and over, in every light, all the political, social, and theological problems that vexed101 the minds of men. Whether it is all by one hand or not' is a question of very little importance. Many men could have written various parts of it.
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.
The poem retains an historical value which would not be diminished if much of it were cut out. In style it led nowhere; the rather careless versification, the ancient unrhymed alliterative rhythm were doomed102 to disappear. The moral advice was wasted on Lancastrian England, which rushed into the madness of the fifteenth century; the burning of Lollards; the attempt to conquer France—as vain as unjust,—the burning of Joan of Arc; the twenty years of defeat and disgrace which followed and avenged103 that crime; the fury of the Wars of the Roses, the butcheries, the murders, and, accompanying all this, the dull prolix104 stuff that did duty for poetry and literature.
Gower.
Chaucer's other prominent contemporary "the moral Gower," in Chaucer's own phrase, was a far more commonplace character than Langland. John Gower was entitled to write himself Esquire, and owned lands in Norfolk and Suffolk; he died in 1408, and his tomb, with his three great books under his head, exists in St. Saviour's church, in Southwark. Chaucer was a friend of Gower and, during one of his missions abroad, left Gower in charge of his affairs. At the close of "Troilus and Criseyde" he writes:—
O moral Gower, this book I directe
To thee, and to the philosophical105 Strode,
To vouchen-sauf, ther nede is, to correcte.
Strode is unknown, and we need not examine conjectures106 about him. Gower was not ungrateful for Chaucer's compliment, and in the[Pg 107] earlier version of his "Lover's Confession81" ("Confessio Amantis") he repaid it, very prettily107. Venus bids Gower's poems greet Chaucer well "as my disciple108 and my poet, who, in his youth filled the land with ditties and glad songs which he made for my sake". This passage was later omitted by Gower: who, it has been suggested, was annoyed by some words in the Prologue109 to the Man of Law's Tale (in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"). At the same time, Gower may have removed the compliment to Chaucer merely to make room for more matter. If not, literary people have quarrelled bitterly over smaller things than the criticism by the Man of Law.
With Gower's French and Latin poems we have little to do. His Fifty Ballades, in French, to his lady, are very pleasing examples of that old formal verse, with its difficult rhymes; and but for the grammatical liberties which the Anglo-French writer took, would secure for Gower a high place among the French versifiers of his age.
In French he wrote "Le Mirour de l'Omme," "Man's Mirror," which has a curious history.[3]
The "Mirour," in French, and the "Speculum" in Latin, deal allegorically with virtues110, vices14, and the way of salvation112; they contain many stories from all quarters, which are retold by Gower in English, in his immense "Lover's Confession".
In his Latin "Vox Clamantis" (1381) ("The Voice of one crying") and in his "Mirour de l'Omme," but especially in the former, Gower had given his testimony113 against the sins of the age, and had impartially114 rebuked115 all sorts and conditions of men. He[Pg 108] described the peasant rising, under Wat Tyler and others, of 1381, exculpating116 King Richard, who was only a brave boy. But, as time went on, and dissatisfaction increased, Gower turned from Richard, and, very early, to the son of John of Gaunt, later Henry IV. Gower transferred his affections so early to Henry, that it would be unfair to call him a venal117 turncoat: he saw no hope for English liberty except in the Lancastrian cause.
Probably about 1390, and at the suggestion of Richard II himself, Gower abandoned unmitigated sermonizing in verse: renounced118 the ambition to reform the world by rhyme, and mingled119, as he says, pleasure with morality in the endless "Lover's Confession," the work on which his reputation as an English poet rests. He professes120 his desire to make a work for England's sake, and, in early versions, declares that Richard II called him into his barge121 on the Thames, and set him to the task. It was to be "some new thing" readable by his Majesty122. After a moral prologue Gower tells how he met Venus, in May of course, and how she gave him her chaplain, Genius, as a confessor. To Genius Gower makes his confessions as a lover, and Genius preaches to him, illustrating123 every homily with a tale. It is by the tales, and by some pretty passages descriptive of true love, that the poem survives. Most of the stories are borrowed from Roman literature. The Greek reader is surprised to find that the Sirens had fishes' tails, a fact unknown to Homer, or to Greek art; which usually represented them as birds with the heads of women. The Trojan horse is of bronze, whereas it was notoriously of wood. The tale of Alboin and Rosamund, and the cup made of her father's skull124, is told pleasantly, but the truly tragic125 situation is slurred126 over and lost; and the tale of Hercules and Deianira, and the fatal garment of Nessus the Centaur127, is also far from worthy128 of the tragic Greet theme; of the pity and terror of the legend.
Perhaps Shakespeare admired Gower's "Pyramus and Thisbe," which the Athenian craftsmen129 dramatize in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The "Jason and Medea" is one of the best tales; but Gower did not know the Greek version by Apollonius Rhodius, or the "Medea" of Euripides; and his own genius rises to no such picture of a maiden's love as Apollonius draws, to no[Pg 109] such tragic passion as Euripides conceives, while he has little or none of the humour of Chaucer.
None the less here was a book of many thousand lines, full of the material of old romance, mediaeval or classical: here the verse ran easily, copiously130, and sweetly, for Gower was a master of the rhymed octosyllabic couplets, through his knowledge of and practice in versification both French and English. Indeed his style, soon to be lost by English versifiers, is his main virtue111.
At last he confesses to Venus that he knows not the true nature of Love. She gives him a black rosary of beads—like that which Chaucer holds in his portrait,—with the motto in gold, por reposer, "Take thy rest". He is to write of Love no more, no more to come to Venus's Court, so, in 1398, the foolish veteran did make love, and married Agnes Groundolf! He survived this unseasonable wooing for ten years, when Agnes came into his property.
The reputation of Gower, for long, was very high; people spoke131 of Chaucer and Gower as we speak of Browning and Tennyson, or of Shelley and Keats. But no longer with Chaucer is Gower "equalled in renown," and his most enduring monument is Shakespeare's introduction of him in "Pericles, Prince of Tyre".
[1] Calthrops, used at Bannockburn, were iron sets of spikes132; Joan of Arc was wounded by a calthrop at the siege of Orleans.
[2] Professor Manley of Chicago, in "Cambridge History of English Literature".
[3] It was lost, but, in 1895, when Mr. G. C. Macaulay was editing Gower's enormous English poem, "Confessio Amantis" ("The Lover's Confession") he remarked to Mr. Jenkinson, Librarian of the Cambridge University Library, that if ever Gower's French "Speculum Meditantis" ("The Contemplative Man's Mirror") were found, it would probably be under the Latin name, "Speculum Hominis" ("Man's Mirror"). Now Mr. Jenkinson had just bought and presented to the Library, a French manuscript, "Mirour de l'Omme," "Man's Mirror". This was proved to be Gower's lost French poem. It had lain in some farm-house, in 1745, and had been scribbled133 on by a rustic134 hand, while a manuscript of the Ballades had been given, in 1656, by a very old man, Charles Gedde, of St. Andrews, to Lord Fairfax; at the time of the English conquest of Scotland by Cromwell.
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ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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sickle
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scythe
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| n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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satirizing
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| v.讽刺，讥讽( satirize的现在分词 ) | |
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penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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frightful
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reprisals
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licentiousness
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clergy
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ass
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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saluting
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taverns
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liar
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Christians
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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beset
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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socialist
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rapacity
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| n.贪婪，贪心，劫掠的欲望 | |
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38
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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39
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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40
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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41
agitator
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| n.鼓动者；搅拌器 | |
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42
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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43
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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44
reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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45
mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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46
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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47
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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48
incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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49
pillage
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| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
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50
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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51
enviously
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| adv.满怀嫉妒地 | |
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52
satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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53
pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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54
apocalyptic
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| adj.预示灾祸的，启示的 | |
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55
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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56
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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57
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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58
merges
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| （使）混合( merge的第三人称单数 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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59
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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60
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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61
hermits
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| （尤指早期基督教的）隐居修道士，隐士，遁世者( hermit的名词复数 ) | |
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62
detests
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的第三人称单数 ) | |
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63
sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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64
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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65
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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66
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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67
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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68
bribery
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| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
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69
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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70
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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71
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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72
covetousness
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73
lechery
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| n.好色；淫荡 | |
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74
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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75
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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76
narrates
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| v.故事( narrate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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77
iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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78
donors
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| n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者 | |
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79
admonishes
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| n.劝告( admonish的名词复数 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责v.劝告( admonish的第三人称单数 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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80
confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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81
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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82
repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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83
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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84
stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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85
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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86
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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87
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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88
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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89
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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90
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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91
heralds
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| n.使者( herald的名词复数 )；预报者；预兆；传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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92
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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93
joust
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| v.马上长枪比武，竞争 | |
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94
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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95
compliance
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| n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从 | |
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96
visualizing
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| 肉眼观察 | |
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97
alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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98
consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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99
meddles
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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100
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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101
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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102
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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103
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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104
prolix
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| adj.罗嗦的；冗长的 | |
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105
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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106
conjectures
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| 推测，猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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107
prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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108
disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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109
prologue
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| n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕 | |
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110
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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111
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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112
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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113
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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114
impartially
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| adv.公平地，无私地 | |
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115
rebuked
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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116
exculpating
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| v.开脱，使无罪( exculpate的现在分词 ) | |
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117
venal
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| adj.唯利是图的，贪脏枉法的 | |
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118
renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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119
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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120
professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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121
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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122
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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123
illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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124
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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125
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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126
slurred
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| 含糊地说出( slur的过去式和过去分词 )； 含糊地发…的声； 侮辱； 连唱 | |
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127
centaur
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| n.人首马身的怪物 | |
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128
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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129
craftsmen
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| n. 技工 | |
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130
copiously
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| adv.丰富地，充裕地 | |
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131
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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132
spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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133
scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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134
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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