Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. | | | Farmer and Lawyer Again
(From “The Vision of Piers Plowman”) |
By William Langland |
(One of the earliest of English social protests, a picture of the misery of the workers of the fourteenth century) |
| | | SOME were for ploughing, and played full seldom, | |
| Set their seed and sowed their seed and sweated hard, | |
| To win what wastrels with gluttony destroy.… | |
| There wandered a hundred in hoods of silk, | |
| Serjeants they seemed, and served at the Bar, | 5 |
| Pleading the Law for pennies and for pounds, | |
| Unlocking their lips never for love of our Lord. | |
| Thou mightest better mete the mist on Malvern hills | |
| Than get a mutter from their mouths—save thou show thy money! | | | | |
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