God Spede the Plough (original: God spede ƿe plouȝ: & sende us kǫꝛne Inolk) is the name of an early 16th-century manuscript poem which borrows twelve stanzas from Geoffrey Chaucer's Monk's Tale.
It is a short, satirical complaint, listing the various indolent members of the clergy who will demand a share of the ploughman's harvest, rendering his work futile.
The work contains a possible allusion to 1 Corinthians 9:10: "...when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing the harvest." This verse is used by St Paul in an argument that the Apostles' food and other basic needs should be supplied by the laity of the early Christian church. The poem also deprecates taxation and issues the same sort of complaint as that found in the Second Shepherds' Play.
Famous quotes containing the words god and/or plough:
“We are commanded to love God with all our minds, as well as with all our hearts, and we commit a great sin if we forbid or prevent that cultivation of the mind in others which would enable them to perform this duty.”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)
“We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall;—
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)