"When Adam delved and Eve span
Who then was a gentleman?"
So sing the revolutionary peasants of Kent and of Essex as they march on London in the England of 1381. Their songs, their slogans, their watchwords have grown out of the teachings of their leader, the poor priest John Ball. Thrice imprisoned, thrice rescued by the peasants he inspires, knowing that the next time caught he will be hung, drawn, quartered and beheaded, John Ball continues to preach:
'...the matters goeth not well to pass in England, nor shall not do till everything be common, and that there wil be no villeins nor gentlemen, but that we may be all united (equal) and that the lords be no greater masters than we be. What have we deserved or why should we be kept thusin serfage? We all come from one father and one mother, Adam and Eve; whereby can they say or shaw that they be greater lords than we be, saving by that they cause us to win and labour for what they dispend?'
A DREAM OF JOHN BALL depicts one day in the life of the priest and his peasants in this early time of England's history. Yet it is not an historical essay. Neither is it a novel, polemic nor biography. It is a fantasy. Its dream quality is the stuff of which poetry is woven. Its theme remains sharply real.
A KING'S LESSON, included in this volume, is an allegory, wrotten with the gentle humour that is the particular gift of William Morris.
- Autor: William Morris
- Kategoria: fantastyka, fantasy, science fiction
- Język: angielski
- ISBN: 000-00-0000-00-0
- Data wydania: 1955-01-01
- Liczba stron: 110
- Ocena: 0,0
- Wydawnictwo: Paul List Verlag
