Laudator Temporis Acti

William Langland, Piers Plowman, Passus 15, lines 370-381 (tr. J.F. Goodridge):

What is more, even Grammar, the basis of all education, baffles the brains of the younger generation today. For if you take note, there is not a single modern schoolboy who can compose verses or write a decent letter. I doubt too whether one in a hundred can read a Latin author, or decipher a word of any foreign language. — And no wonder, for at every level of our educational system you'll find Humbug in charge, and his colleague Flattery tagging along behind him. And as for dons and Divinity lecturers — the men who are supposed to master all branches of learning, and be ready to debate every question and answer every argument — I am ashamed to say that if you were to examine them tomorrow in the Arts and Sciences, they would all be ploughed!

Grammer, the ground of al, bigileth now children:        370
For is noon of thise newe clerkes—whoso nymeth hede—
That kan versifye faire ne formaliche enditen,
Ne naught oon among an hundred that an auctour kan construwe,
Ne rede a lettre in any langage but in Latyn or in Englissh.
Go now to any degree, and but if gile be maister,        375
And flaterere his felawe [to fourmen under hym],
Muche wonder me thynketh amonges us alle!
Doctours of decrees and of divinite maistres,
That sholde konne and knowe alle kynnes clergie,
And answere to arguments and a1so to a quodlibet—        380
I dar noght siggen it for shame—if swiche were apposed,
Thei sholde faillen of hir Philosophie, and in Phisik bothe.