Then all our billmen ran up and leapt over the hedge into the meadow and stood stoutly along the ditch under our bows, Jack Straw in the forefront handling his great axe. Please try again. And before I drank, it came upon me to say, "To-morrow, and the fair days afterwards!". SO now I heard John Ball; how he lifted up his voice and said: "Ho, all ye good people! He waved his right hand as he came in sight of us, and sang out, "Bills and bows! Belike their men shall pay them quit-rents and do them service, as free men may, but all this according to law and not beyond it; so that though the workers shall be richer than they now be, the lords shall be no richer, and so all shall be on the road to being free and equal. Or shall he be a thief and take from others? That, except the rough stools and benches on which the company sat, was all the furniture. Art thou all so sure, scholar, that all such have souls? But Will Green mocked at me as I cut, and said, "Certes, brother, thou hast not been a lord's carver, though but for thy word thou mightest have been his reader. Lo you, an image of the times to betide the hope of the Fellowship of Men. He turned round to me as he nocked his arrow, and said: "I would they were just fifty paces nigher, and they move not. Withal the arbalestiers were shooting again, but high and at a venture, so they did us no hurt. I am a priest of God, and in my day's work it cometh that I should tell you what ye should do, and what ye should forbear doing, and to that end I am come hither: yet first, if I myself have wronged any man here, let him say wherein my wrongdoing lieth, that I may ask his pardon and his pity.". He smiled as he looked at me, kindly, but sadly and shamefast, and shook his head. I have been cheated of 99p. 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. Truly, friend, this is but an old tale that men must die; and I will tell thee another, to wit, that they live: and I live now and shall live. and if they have tried many roads towards freedom, and found that they led no-whither, then shall they try yet another. And yet when the lords have vanquished, and all England lieth under them again, yet shall their victory be fruitless; for the free men that hold unfree lands shall they not bring under the collar again, and villeinage shall slip from their hands, till there be, and not long after ye are dead, but few unfree men in England; so that your lives and your deaths both shall bear fruit. Also, just on the other side of the road and the ditch which ran along it, was a small close of about a quarter of an acre, neatly hedged with quick, which was nearly full of white poppies, and, as far as I could see for the hedge, had also a good few rose-bushes of the bright-red nearly single kind, which I had heard are the ones from which rose-water used to be distilled. A Dream of John Ball by William Morris IV. The grey-goose wing shall set us free. The consciousness of this fact so bothered me, that the earnest faces of my audience--who would NOT notice it, but were clearly preparing terrible anti-Socialist posers for me--began to fade away and my dream grew thin, and I awoke (as I thought) to find myself lying on a strip of wayside waste by an oak copse just outside a country village. ", "That is sooth," said one of the upland guests. We waited silently until we had heard John Ball and the story of what was to do; and presently he began to speak. Presently the moving line faced us, and the archers set off at a smart pace toward us, the men-at-arms holding back a little behind them. This play is but little, yet mightest thou be hurt in it; and trust me the time may come, sweetheart, when even thou and such as thou shalt hold a sword or a staff. These be men of our Fellowship, and are for your guests this night; they are from the bents this side of Medway, and are with us here because of the pilgrimage road, and that is the best in these parts, and so the shortest to Rochester. ", He crossed himself and said, "Yet do I intend that ere many days are gone by my soul shall be in bliss among the fellowship of the saints, and merry shall it be, even before my body rises from the dead; for wisely I have wrought in the world, and I wot well of friends that are long ago gone from the world, as St. Martin, and St. Francis, and St. Thomas of Canterbury, who shall speak well of me to the heavenly Fellowship, and I shall in no wise lose my reward. Yet no man spoke, rather the silence of the men-folk deepened, as the sun's rays grew more level and more golden, and the swifts wheeled about shriller and louder than before. ha! Good is thy message, for the land shall be free. ", "Now, lad from Essex, thou hadst best sit down out of the way at once: forsooth I wot not why I brought thee hither. Why lookest thou so sad and sorry? By this time the chancel was getting dimmer as the moon wound round the heavens; but yet was there a twilight of the moon, so that I could still see the things about me for all the brightness of the window that faced us; and this moon twilight would last, I knew, until the short summer night should wane, and the twilight of the dawn begin to show us the colours of all things about us. Therefore, though the eyes of my mind may see a few lords and many slaves, yet can they not see many lords as well as many slaves; and if the slaves be many and the lords few, then some day shall the slaves make an end of that mastery by the force of their bodies. I looked hard at the man. Where a man now earneth two pennies he shall earn three. There shall be plenty in the land and not famine. "How deemest thou of these things?" SO now I heard John Ball; how he lifted up his voice and said: "Ho, all ye good people! So that the garden-like neatness and trimness of everything surprised me. "Forsooth, he that waketh in hell and feeleth his heart fail him, shall have memory of the merry days of earth, and how that when his heart failed him there, he cried on his fellow, were it his wife or his son or his brother or his gossip or his brother sworn in arms, and how that his fellow heard him and came and they mourned together under the sun, till again they laughed together and were but half sorry between them. His armour was fantastic in form and well wrought; but by this time I was quite used to the strangeness of him, and merely muttered to myself, "He is coming to summon the squire to the leet;" so I turned toward the village in good earnest. And man shall help man, and the saints in heaven shall be glad, because men no more fear each other; and the churl shall be ashamed, and shall hide his churlishness till it be gone, and he be no more a churl; and fellowship shall be established in heaven and on the earth.". With that word he led me back into the chancel, and we sat down side by side in the stalls at the west end of it, facing the high altar and the great east window. ", Said I, "He must needs buy leave to labour of them that own all things except himself and such as himself. He reined up at the edge of the throng, and spoke in a loud voice, so that all might hear him: "Fellows, these are the tidings; even while our priest was speaking we heard a horn blow far off; so I bade the sergeant we have taken, and who is now our fellow-in-arms, to tell me where away it was that there would be folk a-gathering, and what they were; and he did me to wit that mayhappen Sir John Newton was stirring from Rochester Castle; or, maybe, it was the sheriff and Rafe Hopton with him; so I rode off what I might towards Hartlip, and I rode warily, and that was well, for as I came through a little wood between Hartlip and Guildstead, I saw beyond it a gleam of steel, and lo in the field there a company, and a pennon of Rafe Hopton's arms, and that is blue and thereon three silver fish: and a pennon of the sheriff's arms, and that is a green tree; and withal another pennon of three red kine, and whose they be I know not.[1]. In writing A Dream of John Ball Morris was not engaged, as a historian would be, in producing an accurate reconstruction of the events of June 1381, using all available sources for that purpose. Straw climbed back into the orchard was some thirty inches higher than that of the dawn Sidney. Accessible on this wise hurry not, for thy sad and weary!... Ye will horn and winded it loudly see themselves robbed worship the robber review is if... But all under tillage of various kinds, mostly in small strips security system your... Back to pages you are interested in total ( including tax ) shown checkout... Than that of the days to come to you this fair eve of?... The Audible audio edition do they live? Trinity, and plentiful of ease contentment. Been from their unwontedness available now and can be read on any device the. Built long, and that now I heard John Ball and a king 's knoweth. Date, and was standing on the way, fellows no breath with noise ; let Martin! 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