Wynnere and Wastoure - Theme

Theme

The poem begins with a brief reference to the legend, derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, of the founding of Britain by Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas. The poet then goes on to speak of the marvels and disorder currently seen in the land, commenting that Doomsday must surely be approaching (4-16).

Wandering by himself, the poet lies down by a hawthorn tree and has a dream vision, a "sweven" (46), in which he sees two opposing armies, and a gold and red pavilion raised on top of a hill (rather in the manner of a tournament). Inside the pavilion is a richly-dressed, brown-bearded king, who has been firmly identified as Edward III of England. One army is led by Wynnere, a figure representing monetary gain and financial prudence; the other by Wastoure, a figure representing prodigality and excess. The king, after sending his herald to intervene between the two armies (105), agrees to listen to Wynnere and Wastoure's complaints against each other and to give his judgement on them.

There follows a lengthy debate between Wynnere and Wastoure, each giving complex arguments against the other and about the effects on society of the principles they represent. At the end, the King gives his judgement, though the poem breaks off, at line 503, before this has been completed. He appears to endorse elements of both Wynnere's sparing and Wastoure's spending, though ultimately the poem seems to condemn both viewpoints as unbalanced, selfish, and leading to inequality and social abuses. It seems likely that the poem forms a sophisticated comment on the pressures facing the king and on the principles of good governance, with additional satire directed against the rising merchant class in the person of Wynnere. Though his subject is the feudal economy, the poet's themes are essentially moralistic.

The poem is clearly within both the strong mediaeval tradition of the poetic debate, in which two opposing positions are argued, and within the tradition of the "dream vision", in which the narrator falls asleep and witnesses an event often with an allegorical character (such as in several of Geoffrey Chaucer's poems, or in Piers Plowman). It also has something in common with the genre of the chanson d'aventure, in which the solitary, wandering poet overhears a complaint or debate. Wynnere and Wastoure also has some form of relationship to the Piers Plowman tradition. Some critics, such as John Burrow, have argued that Langland was probably influenced by Wynnere and Wastoure, but that he perhaps deliberately diluted its style to make it more accessible to southern readers.