“For hevene myghte nat holden it, so was it hevy of hymself,
Til it hadde of the erthe eten his fille.
And whan it hadde of this fold flessh and blood taken,
Was nevere leef upon lynde lighter therafter,
And portatif and persaunt as the point of a nedle,
That myghte noon armure it lette ne none heighe walles.
Forthi is love ledere of the Lordes folk of hevene,
And a meene, as the mair is, [inmiddes] the kyng and the commune.”

B-text, Passus 1, 153.
Piers Plowman

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William Langland7

English writer 1332–1386

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Source: La Male Regle (c. 1405), Line 217; vol. 1, p. 32; translation p. 60.