HARD IT IS FOR THE OLD WORLD TO SEE THE NEW
He held his peace awhile, and then he said: "But no man selleth
himself and his children into thraldom uncompelled; nor is any fool so
great a fool as willingly to take the name of freeman and the life of a
thrall as payment for the very life of a freeman. Now would I ask thee
somewhat else; and I am the readier to do so since I perceive that thou
art a wondrous seer; for surely no man could of his own wit have
imagined a tale of such follies as thou hast told me. Now well I wot
that men having once shaken themselves clear of the burden of
villeinage, as thou sayest we shall do (and I bless thee for the word),
shall never bow down to this worser tyranny without sore strife in the
world; and surely so sore shall it be, before our valiant sons give
way, that maids and little lads shall take the sword and the spear, and
in many a field men's blood and not water shall turn the gristmills of
England. But when all this is over, and the tyranny is established,
because there are but few men in the land after the great war, how
shall it be with you then? Will there not be many soldiers and
sergeants and few workers? Surely in every parish ye shall have the
constables to see that the men work; and they shall be saying every
day, 'Such an one, hast thou yet sold thyself for this day or this week
or this year? Go to now, and get thy bargain done, or it shall be the
worse for thee.' And wheresoever work is going on there shall be
constables again, and those that labour shall labour under the whip
like the Hebrews in the land of Egypt. And every man that may, will
steal as a dog snatches at a bone; and there again shall ye need more
soldiers and more constables till the land is eaten up by them; nor
shall the lords and the masters even be able to bear the burden of it;
nor will their gains be so great, since that which each man may do in a
day is not right great when all is said."
"Friend," said I, "from thine own valiancy and high heart thou
speakest, when thou sayest that they who fall under this tyranny shall
fight to the death against it. Wars indeed there shall be in the
world, great and grievous, and yet few on this score; rather shall men
fight as they have been fighting in France at the bidding of some lord
of the manor, or some king, or at last at the bidding of some usurer
and forestaller of the market. Valiant men, forsooth, shall arise in
the beginning of these evil times, but though they shall die as ye
shall, yet shall not their deaths be fruitful as yours shall be;
because ye, forsooth, are fighting against villeinage which is waning,
but they shall fight against usury which is waxing. And, moreover, I
have been telling thee how it shall be when the measure of the time is
full; and we, looking at these things from afar, can see them as they
are indeed; but they who live at the beginning of those times and
amidst them, shall not know what is doing around them; they shall
indeed feel the plague and yet not know the remedy; by little and by
little they shall fall from their better livelihood, and weak and
helpless shall they grow, and have no might to withstand the evil of
this tyranny; and then again when the times mend somewhat and they have
but a little more ease, then shall it be to them like the kingdom of
heaven, and they shall have no will to withstand any tyranny, but shall
think themselves happy that they be pinched somewhat less. Also
whereas thou sayest that there shall be for ever constables and
sergeants going to and fro to drive men to work, and that they will not
work save under the lash, thou art wrong and it shall not be so; for
there shall ever be more workers than the masters may set to work, so
that men shall strive eagerly for leave to work; and when one says, I
will sell my hours at such and such a price, then another will say, and
I for so much less; so that never shall the lords lack slaves willing
to work, but often the slaves shall lack lords to buy them."
"Thou tellest marvels indeed," said he; "but how then? if all the
churls work not, shall there not be famine and lack of wares?"
"Famine enough," said I, "yet not from lack of wares; it shall be clean
contrary. What wilt thou say when I tell thee that in the latter days
there shall be such traffic and such speedy travel across the seas that
most wares shall be good cheap, and bread of all things the cheapest?"
Quoth he: "I should say that then there would be better livelihood for
men, for in times of plenty it is well; for then men eat that which
their own hands have harvested, and need not to spend of their
substance in buying of others. Truly, it is well for honest men, but
not so well for forestallers and regraters;[2] but who heeds what
befalls such foul swine, who filch the money from people's purses, and
do not one hair's turn of work to help them?"
"Yea, friend," I said, "but in those latter days all power shall be in
the hands of these foul swine, and they shall be the rulers of all;
therefore, hearken, for I tell thee that times of plenty shall in those
days be the times of famine, and all shall pray for the prices of wares
to rise, so that the forestallers and regraters may thrive, and that
some of their well-doing may overflow on to those on whom they live."
"I am weary of thy riddles," he said. "Yet at least I hope that there
may be fewer and fewer folk in the land; as may well be, if life is
then so foul and wretched."
"Alas, poor man!" I said; "nor mayst thou imagine how foul and wretched
it may be for many of the folk; and yet I tell thee that men shall
increase and multiply, till where there is one man in the land now,
there shall be twenty in those days--yea, in some places ten times
twenty."
"I have but little heart to ask thee more questions," said he; "and
when thou answerest, thy words are plain, but the things they tell of I
may scarce understand. But tell me this: in those days will men deem
that so it must be for ever, as great men even now tell us of our ills,
or will they think of some remedy?"
I looked about me. There was but a glimmer of light in the church now,
but what there was, was no longer the strange light of the moon, but
the first coming of the kindly day.
"Yea," said John Ball, "'tis the twilight of the dawn. God and St.
Christopher send us a good day!"
"John Ball," said I, "I have told thee that thy death will bring about
that which thy life has striven for: thinkest thou that the thing which
thou strivest for is worth the labour? or dost thou believe in the tale
I have told thee of the days to come?"
He said: "I tell thee once again that I trust thee for a seer; because
no man could make up such a tale as thou; the things which thou tellest
are too wonderful for a minstrel, the tale too grievous. And whereas
thou askest as to whether I count my labour lost, I say nay; if so be
that in those latter times (and worser than ours they will be) men
shall yet seek a remedy: therefore again I ask thee, is it so that they
shall?"
"Yea," said I, "and their remedy shall be the same as thine, although
the days be different: for if the folk be enthralled, what remedy save
that they be set free? and if they have tried many roads towards
freedom, and found that they led no-whither, then shall they try yet
another. Yet in the days to come they shall be slothful to try it,
because their masters shall be so much mightier than thine, that they
shall not need to show the high hand, and until the days get to their
evilest, men shall be cozened into thinking that it is of their own
free will that they must needs buy leave to labour by pawning their
labour that is to be. Moreover, your lords and masters seem very
mighty to you, each one of them, and so they are, but they are few; and
the masters of the days to come shall not each one of them seem very
mighty to the men of those days, but they shall be very many, and they
shall be of one intent in these matters without knowing it; like as one
sees the oars of a galley when the rowers are hidden, that rise and
fall as it were with one will."
"And yet," he said, "shall it not be the same with those that these men
devour? shall not they also have one will?"
"Friend," I said, "they shall have the will to live, as the wretchedest
thing living has: therefore shall they sell themselves that they may
live, as I told thee; and their hard need shall be their lord's easy
livelihood, and because of it he shall sleep without fear, since their
need compelleth them not to loiter by the way to lament with friend or
brother that they are pinched in their servitude, or to devise means
for ending it. And yet indeed thou sayest it: they also shall have one
will if they but knew it: but for a long while they shall have but a
glimmer of knowledge of it: yet doubt it not that in the end they shall
come to know it clearly, and then shall they bring about the remedy;
and in those days shall it be seen that thou hast not wrought for
nothing, because thou hast seen beforehand what the remedy should be,
even as those of later days have seen it."
We both sat silent a little while. The twilight was gaining on the
night, though slowly. I looked at the poppy which I still held in my
hand, and bethought me of Will Green, and said:
"Lo, how the light is spreading: now must I get me back to Will Green's
house as I promised."
"Go, then," said he, "if thou wilt. Yet meseems before long he shall
come to us; and then mayst thou sleep among the trees on the green
grass till the sun is high, for the host shall not be on foot very
early; and sweet it is to sleep in shadow by the sun in the full
morning when one has been awake and troubled through the night-tide."
"Yet I will go now," said I; "I bid thee good-night, or rather
good-morrow."
Therewith I half rose up; but as I did so the will to depart left me as
though I had never had it, and I sat down again, and heard the voice of
John Ball, at first as one speaking from far away, but little by little
growing nearer and more familiar to me, and as if once more it were
coming from the man himself whom I had got to know.
[2] Forestaller, one who buys up goods when they are cheap, and so
raises the price for his own benefit; forestalls the due and real
demand. Regrater, one who both buys and sells in the same market, or
within five miles thereof; buys, say a ton of cheese at 10 A.M. and
sells it at 5 P.M. a penny a pound dearer without moving from his
chair. The word "monopolist" will cover both species of thief.