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The Sad Vices

This chapter and the next propose that analogies can be drawn between Piers Plowman and the French grail texts, the Queste del Saint Graal and the Perlesvaus, though the chivalric materials are also radically transformed in Piers Plowman. The connection is cemented by a further set of connections to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus and its narrative of the harrowing of hell and Joseph of Arimathea. In the romances and Piers Plowman a theological version of chivalric aventure foregrounds the mysterious and grace-dependent aspects of the spiritual life; the romances also contain enigmatic figures of seemingly involuntary guilt. However, these emphases stand in marked tension with other aspects of these texts, such as their more clear-cut allegorical glosses and their many practical ethical instructions. This is a tension that is particularly marked in Piers Plowman, where Langland repeatedly insists on the obligation to do penance and actively pursue dowel. The first part of this chapter introduces the Queste del Saint Graal, the Perlesvaus and the Gospel; it also provides evidence that Langland could have known both grail romances. The body of the chapter explores the rich texture of romance and grail romance allusions in the later parts of Piers Plowman (B.16–20), but also comments on the work that a series of grail romance structures do in the poem more generally.