The tower is God, the dungeon is the dwelling of
the Evil One.
Then, as Langland looked on all this, he saw
"A lady lovely in face, in linnen i-clothed,
Come adown from the cliff and spake me fair,
And said, 'Son, sleepest thou? Seest thou this people
All how busy they be about the maze?'"
Langland was "afeard of her face though she was fair." But the
lovely lady, who is Holy Church, speaks gently to the dreamer.
She tells him that the tower is the dwelling of Truth, who is the
lord of all and who gives to each as he hath need. The dungeon
is the castle of Care.
"Therein liveth a wight that Wrong is called,
The Father of Falseness."
Love alone, said the lady, leads to Heaven,
"Therefore I warn ye, the rich, have ruth on the poor.
Though ye be mighty in councils, be meek in your works,
For the same measure ye meet, amiss or otherwise,
Ye shall be weighed therewith when ye wend hence."
"Truth is best in all things," she said at length. "I have told
thee now what Truth is, and may no longer linger.
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