"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Explain how this quote from Charles Dickens might well apply to the conditions of life in Europe from ca. 1300 - ca. 1500, specifically to those people whose lives were directly tied to the land, the peasantry. This essay topic does not involve the nobility nor movements that had little impact at the time on the peasantry such as the Italian Renaissance.