CHAPTER XV.

“How Skelton came home late to Oxford from Abington.“Skelton was an Englysheman borne as Skogyn was, and hee was educated and broughte up in Oxfoorde, and there was he made a poete lauriat. And on a tyme he had ben at Abbington to make mery, wher that he had eate salte meates, and hee did com late home to Oxforde, and he did lye in an ine named the Tabere, whyche is now the Angell, and hee dyd drynke, and went to bed. About midnight he was so thyrstie or drye that he was constrained to call to the tapster for drynke, and the tapster harde him not. Then hee cryed to hys oste and hys ostes, and to the ostler, for drinke, and no man would here hym. Alacke, sayd Skelton, I shall peryshe for lacke of drynke! What reamedye? At the last he dyd crie out and sayd, Fyer, fyer, fyer! When Skelton hard every man bustle hymselfe upward, and some of them were naked, and some were halfe asleepe and amased, and Skelton dyd crye, Fier, fier! styll, that everye man knewe not whether to resorte. Skelton did go to bed, and the oste and ostis, and the tapster, with the ostler, dyd runne to Skeltons chamber with candles lyghted in theyr handes, saying, Where, where, where is the fyer? Here, here, here, said Skelton, and poynted hys fynger to hys mouth, saying, Fetch me some drynke to quenche the fyer and the heate and the drinesse in my mouthe. And so they dyd.”

“How Skelton came home late to Oxford from Abington.

“Skelton was an Englysheman borne as Skogyn was, and hee was educated and broughte up in Oxfoorde, and there was he made a poete lauriat. And on a tyme he had ben at Abbington to make mery, wher that he had eate salte meates, and hee did com late home to Oxforde, and he did lye in an ine named the Tabere, whyche is now the Angell, and hee dyd drynke, and went to bed. About midnight he was so thyrstie or drye that he was constrained to call to the tapster for drynke, and the tapster harde him not. Then hee cryed to hys oste and hys ostes, and to the ostler, for drinke, and no man would here hym. Alacke, sayd Skelton, I shall peryshe for lacke of drynke! What reamedye? At the last he dyd crie out and sayd, Fyer, fyer, fyer! When Skelton hard every man bustle hymselfe upward, and some of them were naked, and some were halfe asleepe and amased, and Skelton dyd crye, Fier, fier! styll, that everye man knewe not whether to resorte. Skelton did go to bed, and the oste and ostis, and the tapster, with the ostler, dyd runne to Skeltons chamber with candles lyghted in theyr handes, saying, Where, where, where is the fyer? Here, here, here, said Skelton, and poynted hys fynger to hys mouth, saying, Fetch me some drynke to quenche the fyer and the heate and the drinesse in my mouthe. And so they dyd.”

Another of these “Merye Tales” of Skelton contains a satire upon the practice which prevailed in the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries of obtaining letters-patent of monopoly from the crown, and also on the bibulous propensities of Welshmen—

“How the Welshman dyd desyre Skelton to ayde hym in hys sute to the kynge for a patent to sell drynke.“Skelton, when he was in London, went to the kynges courte, where there did come to hym a Welshman, saying, Syr, it is so, that manye dooth come upp of my country to the kynges court, and some doth get of the kyng by patent a castell, and some a parke, and some a forest, and some one fee and some another, and they dooe lyve lyke honest men; and I shoulde lyve as honestly as the best, if I myght have a patyne for good dryncke, wherefore I dooe praye yow to write a fewe woords for mee in a lytle byll to geve the same to the kynges handes, and I wil geve you wellfor your laboure. I am contented, sayde Skelton. Syt downe then, sayde the Welshman, and write. What shall I wryte? sayde Skelton. The Welshman sayde wrytedryncke. Nowe, sayde the Welshman, writemore dryncke. What now? sayde Skelton. Wryte nowe,a great deale of dryncke. Nowe, sayd the Welshman, putte to all thys drynckea littell crome of breade, anda great deale of drynketo it, and reade once agayne. Skelton dyd reade,Dryncke, more dryncke, and a great deale of dryncke, and a lytle crome of breade, and a great deale of dryncke to it. Than the Welshman sayde, Put outethe litle crome of breade, and sette in,all dryncke and no breade. And if I myght have thys sygned of the kynge, sayde the Welshman, I care for no more, as longe as I dooe lyve. Well then, sayde Skelton, when you have thys signed of the kyng, then wyll I labour for a patent to have bread, that you wyth your drynke and I with the bread may fare well, and seeke our livinge with bagge and staffe.”

“How the Welshman dyd desyre Skelton to ayde hym in hys sute to the kynge for a patent to sell drynke.

“Skelton, when he was in London, went to the kynges courte, where there did come to hym a Welshman, saying, Syr, it is so, that manye dooth come upp of my country to the kynges court, and some doth get of the kyng by patent a castell, and some a parke, and some a forest, and some one fee and some another, and they dooe lyve lyke honest men; and I shoulde lyve as honestly as the best, if I myght have a patyne for good dryncke, wherefore I dooe praye yow to write a fewe woords for mee in a lytle byll to geve the same to the kynges handes, and I wil geve you wellfor your laboure. I am contented, sayde Skelton. Syt downe then, sayde the Welshman, and write. What shall I wryte? sayde Skelton. The Welshman sayde wrytedryncke. Nowe, sayde the Welshman, writemore dryncke. What now? sayde Skelton. Wryte nowe,a great deale of dryncke. Nowe, sayd the Welshman, putte to all thys drynckea littell crome of breade, anda great deale of drynketo it, and reade once agayne. Skelton dyd reade,Dryncke, more dryncke, and a great deale of dryncke, and a lytle crome of breade, and a great deale of dryncke to it. Than the Welshman sayde, Put outethe litle crome of breade, and sette in,all dryncke and no breade. And if I myght have thys sygned of the kynge, sayde the Welshman, I care for no more, as longe as I dooe lyve. Well then, sayde Skelton, when you have thys signed of the kyng, then wyll I labour for a patent to have bread, that you wyth your drynke and I with the bread may fare well, and seeke our livinge with bagge and staffe.”

These two tales are rather favourable specimens of the collection published under the name of Skelton, which, as far as we know, was first printed about the middle of the sixteenth century. The collection of the jests of Scogan, or, as he was popularly called, Scogin, which is said to have been compiled by Andrew Borde, was probably given to the world a few years before, but no copies of the earlier editions are now known to exist. Scogan, the hero of these jests, is described as occupying at the court of Henry VII. a position not much different from that of an ordinary court-fool. Good old Holinshed the chronicler says of him, perhaps a little too gently, that he was “a learned gentleman and student for a time in Oxford, of a pleasant wit, and bent to merrie devices, in respect whereof he was called into the court, where, giving himselfe to his naturall inclination of mirth and pleasant pastime, he plaied manie sporting parts, although not in such uncivil manner as hath beene of him reported.” This allusion refers most probably to the jests, which represent him as leading a life of low and coarse buffoonery, in the course of which he displayed a considerable share of the dishonest and mischievous qualities of the less real Eulenspiegel. He is even represented as personally insulting the king and queen, and as being consequently banished over the Channel, to show no more respect to the majesty of the king of France. Scogin’s jests, like Skelton’s, consist in a great measure of those practical jokes which appear in all former ages to have been the delight of the Teutonic race. Many of them are directed against the ignorance and worldliness of the clergy. Scogin is described as being at one time himself a teacher in the university,and on one occasion, we are told, a husbandman sent his son to school to him that he might be made a priest. The whole story, which runs through several chapters, is an excellent caricature on the way in which men vulgarly ignorant were intruded into the priesthood before the Reformation. At length, after much blundering, the scholar came to be ordained, and his examination is reported as follows:—

“How the scholler said Tom Miller of Oseney was Jacob’s father.“After this, the said scholler did come to the next orders, and brought a present to the ordinary from Scogin, but the scholler’s father paid for all. Then said the ordinary to the scholler, I must needes oppose you, and for master Scogin’s sake, I will oppose you in a light matter. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Who was Jacob’s father? The scholler stood still, and could not tell. Well, said the ordinary, I cannot admit you to be priest untill the next orders, and then bring me an answer. The scholler went home with a heavy heart, bearing a letter to master Scogin, how his scholler could not answer to this question: Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob; who was Jacob’s father? Scogin said to his scholler, Thou foole and asse-head! Dost thou not know Tom Miller of Oseney? Yes, said the scholler! Then, said Scogin, thou knowest he had two sonnes, Tom and Jacke; who is Jacke’s father? The scholler said, Tom Miller. Why, said Scogin, thou mightest have said that Isaac was Jacob’s father. Then said Scogin, Thou shalt arise betime in the morning, and carry a letter to the ordinary, and I trust he will admit thee before the orders shall be given. The scholler rose up betime in the morning, and carried the letter to the ordinary. The ordinary said, For Master Scogin’s sake I will oppose you no farther than I did yesterday. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob; who was Jacob’s father? Marry, said the scholler, I can tell you now that was Tom Miller of Oseney. Goe, foole, goe, said the ordinary, and let thy master send thee no more to me for orders, for it is impossible to make a foole a wise man.”

“How the scholler said Tom Miller of Oseney was Jacob’s father.

“After this, the said scholler did come to the next orders, and brought a present to the ordinary from Scogin, but the scholler’s father paid for all. Then said the ordinary to the scholler, I must needes oppose you, and for master Scogin’s sake, I will oppose you in a light matter. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Who was Jacob’s father? The scholler stood still, and could not tell. Well, said the ordinary, I cannot admit you to be priest untill the next orders, and then bring me an answer. The scholler went home with a heavy heart, bearing a letter to master Scogin, how his scholler could not answer to this question: Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob; who was Jacob’s father? Scogin said to his scholler, Thou foole and asse-head! Dost thou not know Tom Miller of Oseney? Yes, said the scholler! Then, said Scogin, thou knowest he had two sonnes, Tom and Jacke; who is Jacke’s father? The scholler said, Tom Miller. Why, said Scogin, thou mightest have said that Isaac was Jacob’s father. Then said Scogin, Thou shalt arise betime in the morning, and carry a letter to the ordinary, and I trust he will admit thee before the orders shall be given. The scholler rose up betime in the morning, and carried the letter to the ordinary. The ordinary said, For Master Scogin’s sake I will oppose you no farther than I did yesterday. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob; who was Jacob’s father? Marry, said the scholler, I can tell you now that was Tom Miller of Oseney. Goe, foole, goe, said the ordinary, and let thy master send thee no more to me for orders, for it is impossible to make a foole a wise man.”

Scogin’s scholar was, however, made a priest, and some of the stories which follow describe the ludicrous manner in which he exercised the priesthood. Two other stories illustrate Scogin’s supposed position at court:—

“How Scogin told those that mocked him that he had a wall-eye.“Scogin went up and down in the king’s hall, and his hosen hung downe, and his coat stood awry, and his hat stood a boonjour, so every man did mocke Scogin. Some said he was a proper man, and did wear his rayment cleanly; some said the foole could not put on his owne rayment; some said one thing, and some said another. At last Scogin said, Masters, you have praised me wel, but you did notespy one thing in me. What is that, Tom? said the men. Marry, said Scogin, I have a wall-eye. What meanest thou by that? said the men. Marry, said Scogin, I have spyed a sort of knaves that doe mocke me, and are worse fooles themselves.”“How Scogin drew his sonne up and downe the court.“After this Scogin went from the court, and put off his foole’s garments, and came to the court like an honest man, and brought his son to the court with him, and within the court he drew his sonne up and downe by the heeles. The boy cried out, and Scogin drew the boy in every corner. At last every body had pity on the boy, and said, Sir, what doe you meane, to draw the boy about the court? Masters, said Scogin, he is my sonne, and I doe it for this cause. Every man doth say, that man or child which is drawne up in the court shall be the better as long as hee lives; and therefore I will every day once draw him up and downe the court, after that hee may come to preferment in the end.”

“How Scogin told those that mocked him that he had a wall-eye.

“Scogin went up and down in the king’s hall, and his hosen hung downe, and his coat stood awry, and his hat stood a boonjour, so every man did mocke Scogin. Some said he was a proper man, and did wear his rayment cleanly; some said the foole could not put on his owne rayment; some said one thing, and some said another. At last Scogin said, Masters, you have praised me wel, but you did notespy one thing in me. What is that, Tom? said the men. Marry, said Scogin, I have a wall-eye. What meanest thou by that? said the men. Marry, said Scogin, I have spyed a sort of knaves that doe mocke me, and are worse fooles themselves.”

“How Scogin drew his sonne up and downe the court.

“After this Scogin went from the court, and put off his foole’s garments, and came to the court like an honest man, and brought his son to the court with him, and within the court he drew his sonne up and downe by the heeles. The boy cried out, and Scogin drew the boy in every corner. At last every body had pity on the boy, and said, Sir, what doe you meane, to draw the boy about the court? Masters, said Scogin, he is my sonne, and I doe it for this cause. Every man doth say, that man or child which is drawne up in the court shall be the better as long as hee lives; and therefore I will every day once draw him up and downe the court, after that hee may come to preferment in the end.”

The appreciation of a good joke cannot at this time have been very great or very general, for Scogin’s jests were wonderfully popular during at least a century, from the first half of the sixteenth century. They passed through many editions, and are frequently alluded to by the writers of the Elizabethan age. The next individual whose name appears at the head of a collection of his jests, was the well-known wit, Richard Tarlton, who may be fairly considered as court fool to Queen Elizabeth. His jests belong to the same class as those of Skelton and Scogin, and if possible, they present a still greater amount of dulness. Tarlton’s jests were soon followed by the “merrie conceited jests” of George Peele, the dramatist, who is described in the title as “gentleman, sometimes student in Oxford;” and it is added that in these jests “is shewed the course of his life, how he lived; a man very well knowne in the city of London and elsewhere.” In fact, Peele’s jests are chiefly curious for the striking picture they give us of the wilder shades of town life under the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.

During the period which witnessed the publication in England of these books, many other jest-books appeared, for they had already become an important class of English popular literature. Most of them were published anonymously, and indeed they are mere compilations from the older collections in Latin and French. All that was at all good, even in the jests of Skelton, Scogin, Tarlton, and Peele, had been repeated over and over again by the story-tellers andjesters of former ages. Two of the earlier English collections have gained a greater celebrity than the rest, chiefly through adventitious circumstances. One of these, entitled “A Hundred Merry Tales,” has gained distinction among Shakespearian critics as the one especially alluded to by the great poet in “Much Ado about Nothing,” (Act ii., Sc. 1), where Beatrice complains that somebody had said “that I had my good wit out of the Hundred Merry Tales.” The other collection alluded to was entitled “Mery Tales, Wittie Questions, and Quicke Answeres, very pleasant to be readde,” and was printed in 1567. Its modern fame appears to have arisen chiefly from the circumstance that, until the accidental discovery of the unique and imperfect copy of the “Hundred Merry Tales,” it was supposed to be the book alluded to by Shakespeare. Both these collections are mere compilations from the“Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles,”“Poggio,”“Straparola,”and other foreign works.[77]The words put into the mouth of Beatrice are correctly descriptive of the use made of these jest-books. It had become fashionable to learn out of them jests and stories, in order to introduce them into polite conversation, and especially at table; and this practice continued to prevail until a very recent period. The number of such jest-books published during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, was quite extraordinary. Many of these were given anonymously; but many also were put forth under names which possessed temporary celebrity, such as Hobson the carrier, Killigrew the jester, the friend of Charles II., Ben Jonson, Garrick, and a multitude of others. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to remind the reader that the great modern representative of this class of literature is the illustrious Joe Miller.

THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION.—THOMAS MURNER; HIS GENERAL SATIRES.—FRUITFULNESS OF FOLLY.—HANS SACHS.—THE TRAP FOR FOOLS.—ATTACKS ON LUTHER.—THE POPE AS ANTICHRIST.—THE POPE-ASS AND THE MONK-CALF.—OTHER CARICATURES AGAINST THE POPE.—THE GOOD AND BAD SHEPHERDS.

The reign of Folly did not pass away with the fifteenth century—on the whole the sixteenth century can hardly be said to have been more sane than its predecessor, but it was agitated by a long and fierce struggle to disengage European society from the trammels of the middle ages. We have entered upon what is technically termed therenaissance, and are approaching the great religious reformation. The period during which the art of printing began first to spread generally over Western Europe, was peculiarly favourable to the production of satirical books and pamphlets, and a considerable number of clever and spirited satirists and comic writers appeared towards the end of the fifteenth century, especially in Germany, where circumstances of a political character had at an early period given to the intellectual agitation a more permanent strength than it could easily or quickly gain in the great monarchies. Among the more remarkable of these satirists was Thomas Murner, who was born at Strasburg, in 1475. The circumstances even of his childhood are singular, for he was born a cripple, or became one in his earliest infancy, though he was subsequently healed, and it was so universally believed that this malady was the effect of witchcraft, that he himself wrote afterwards a treatise upon this subject under the title of“De Phitonico Contractu.”The school in which he was taught may at least have encouraged his satirical spirit, for his master was Jacob Locher, the same who translated into Latin verse the “Ship of Fools” of Sebastian Brandt.At the end of the century Murner had become a master of arts in the University of Paris, and had entered the Franciscan order. His reputation as a German popular poet was so great, that the emperor Maximilian[ ]I., who died in 1519, conferred upon him the crown of poetry, or, in other words, made him poet-laureat. He took the degree of doctor in theology in 1509. Still Murner was known best as the popular writer, and he published several satirical poems, which were remarkable for the bold woodcuts that illustrated them, for engraving on wood flourished at this period. He exposed the corruptions of all classes of society, and, before the Reformation broke out, he did not even spare the corruptions of the ecclesiastical state, but soon declared himself a fierce opponent of the Reformers. When the Lutheran revolt against the Papacy became strong, our king, Henry VIII., who took a decided part against Luther, invited Murner to England, and on his return to his own country, the satiric Franciscan became more bitter against the Reformation than ever. He advocated the cause of the English monarch in a pamphlet, now very rare, in which he discussed the question whether Henry VIII. or Luther was the liar—“Antwort dem Murner uff seine frag, ob der künig von Engllant ein Lügner sey oder Martinus Luther.”Murner appears to have divided the people of his age into rogues and fools, or perhaps he considered the two titles as identical. His“Narrenbeschwerung,”or Conspiracy of Fools, in which Brandt’s idea was followed up, is supposed to have been published as early as 1506, but the first printed edition with a date, appeared in 1512. It became so popular, that it went through several editions during subsequent years; and that which I have before me was printed at Strasburg in 1518. It is, like Brandt’s “Ship of Fools,” a general satire against society, in which the clergy are not spared, for the writer had not yet come in face of Luther’s Reformation. The cuts are superior to those of Brandt’s book, and some of them are remarkable for their design and execution. In one of the earliest of them, copied in the cut No. 139, Folly is introduced in the garb of a husbandman, scattering his feed over the earth, the result of which is a very quick and flourishing crop, the fool’s heads rising above ground, almost instantaneously, like so many turnips. In a subsequent engraving, represented in our cut No. 140, Folly holds out, as an object of emulation, the fool’s cap, and people of all classes, the pope himself, and the emperor, and all the great dignitaries of this world, press forward eagerly to seize upon it.

No. 139. Sowing a Fruitful Crop.

The same year (1512) witnessed the appearance of another poetical, or at least metrical, satire by Murner, entitled“Schelmenzunft,”or the Confraternity of Rogues, similarly illustrated with very spirited engravings on wood. It is another demonstration of the prevailing dominion of folly under its worst forms, and the satire is equally general with the preceding. Murner’s satire appears to have been felt not only generally, but personally; and we are told that he was often threatened with assassination, and he raised up a number of literary opponents, who treated him with no little rudeness; in fact, he had got on the wrong side of politics, or at all events on the unpopular side, and men who had more talents and greater weight appeared as his opponents—men like Ulrich von Utten, and Luther himself.

No. 140. An Acceptable Offering.

Among the satirists who espoused the cause to which Murner was opposed, we must not overlook a man who represented in its strongestfeatures, though in a rather debased form, the old spontaneous poetry of the middle ages. His name was Hans Sachs, at least that was the name under which he was known, for his real name is said to have been Loutrdorffer. His spirit was entirely that of the old wandering minstrel, and it was so powerful in him, that, having been apprenticed to the craft of a weaver, he was no sooner freed from his indentures, than he took to a vagabond life, and wandered from town to town, gaining his living by singing the verses he composed upon every occasion which presented itself. In 1519, he married and settled in Nüremberg, and his compositions were then given to the public through the press. The number of these was quite extraordinary—songs, ballads, satires, and dramatic pieces, rude in style, in accordance with the taste of the time, but full of cleverness. Many of them were printed on broadsides, and illustrated with large engravings on wood. Hans Sachs joined in the crusade against the empire of Folly, and one of his broadsides is illustrated with a graceful design, the greater part of which is copied in our cut No. 141. A party of ladies have set a bird-trap to catch the fools of the age, who arewaiting to be caught. One fool is taken in the trap, while another is already secured and pinioned, and others are rushing into the snare. A number of people of the world, high in their dignities and stations, are looking on at this remarkable scene.

No. 141. Bird-Traps.

The evil influence of the female sex was at this time proverbial, and, in fact, it was an age of extreme licentiousness. Another poet-laureat of the time, Henricus Bebelius, born in the latter half of the fifteenth century, and rather well known in the literature of his time, published, in 1515, a satirical poem in Latin, under the title of“Triumphus Veneris,”which was a sort of exposition of the generally licentious character of the age in which he lived. It is distributed into six books, in the third of which the poet attacks the whole ecclesiastical state, not sparing the pope himself, and we are thereby perfectly well initiated into the weaknesses of the clergy. Bebelius had been preceded by another writer on this part of the subject, and we might say by many, for the incontinence of monksand nuns, and indeed of all the clergy, had long been a subject of satire. But the writer to whom I especially allude was named Paulus Olearius, his name in German being Oelschlägel. He published, about the year 1500, a satirical tract, under the title of“De Fide Concubinarum in Sacerdotes.”It was a bitter attack on the licentiousness of the clergy, and was rendered more effective by the engravings which accompanied it. We give one of these as a curious picture of contemporary manners; the individual who comes within the range of the lady’s attractions, though he may be a scholar, has none of the characteristics of a priest. She presents a nosegay, which we may suppose to represent the influence of perfume upon the senses; but the love of the ladies for pet animals is especially typified in the monkey, attached by a chain. A donkey appears to show by his heels his contempt for the lover.

No. 142. Courtship.

From an early period, the Roman church had been accustomed to treat contemptuously, as well as cruelly, all who dissented from its doctrines, or objected to its government, and this feeling was continued down to the age of the Reformation, in spite of the tone of liberalism which was beginningto shine forth in the writings of some of its greatest ornaments. Some research among the dusty, because little used, records of national archives and libraries would no doubt bring to light more than one singular caricature upon the “heretics” of the middle ages, and my attention has been called to one which is possessed of peculiar interest. There is, among the imperial archives of France, in Paris, among records relating to the country of the Albigeois in the thirteenth century, a copy of the bull of pope Innocent IV. giving directions for the proceedings against dissenters from Romanism, on the back of which the scribe, as a mark of his contempt for these arch-heretics of the south, has drawn a caricature of a woman bound to a stake over the fire which is to burn her as an open opponent of the church of Rome. The choice of a woman for the victim was perhaps intended to show that the proselytism of heresy was especially successful among the weaker sex, or that it was considered as having some relation to witchcraft. It is, by a long period, the earliest known pictorial representation of the punishment of burning inflicted on a heretic.

No. 143. Burning a Heretic.

The shafts of satire were early employed against Luther and his new principles, and men like Murner, already mentioned, Emser, Cochlæus, and others, signalised themselves by their zeal in the papal cause. As already stated, Murner distinguished himself as the literary ally of our king Henry VIII. The taste for satirical writings had then become so general, that Murner complains in one of his satires that the printers would print nothing but abusive or satirical works, and neglected his more serious writings.

Da sindt die trucker schuld daran,Die trucken als die Gauchereien,Und lassen mein ernstliche bücher leihen.

Da sindt die trucker schuld daran,

Die trucken als die Gauchereien,

Und lassen mein ernstliche bücher leihen.

No. 144. Folly in Monastic Habit.

Some of Murner’s writings against Luther, most of which are now very rare, are extremely violent, and they are generally illustrated with satirical woodcuts. One of these books, printed without name of place or date, is entitled, “Of the great Lutheran Fool, how Doctor Murner has exorcised him” (Von dem grossen Lutherisschen Narren, wie in Doctor Murner beschworen hat). In the woodcuts to this book Murner himself is introduced, as is usually the case in these satirical engravings, under the character of a Franciscan friar, with the head of a cat, while Luther appears as a fat and jolly monk, wearing a fool’s cap, and figuring in various ridiculous circumstances. In one of the first woodcuts, the cat Franciscan is drawing a rope so tight round the great Lutheran fool’s neck, that he compels him to disgorge a multitude of smaller fools. In another the great Lutheran fool has his purse, or pouch, full of little fools suspended at his girdle. This latter figure is copied in the cut No. 144, as an example of the form under which the great reformer appears in these satirical representations.

In a few other caricatures of this period which have been preserved, the apostle of the Reformation is attacked still more savagely. The one here given (Fig. 145), taken from a contemporary engraving on wood, presents a rather fantastic figure of the demon playing on the bagpipes. The instrument is formed of Luther’s head, the pipe through which the devil blows entering his ear, and that through which the music is produced forming an elongation of the reformer’s nose. It was a broad intimation that Luther was a mere tool of the evil one, created for the purpose of bringing mischief into the world.

No. 145. The Music of the Demon.

The reformers, however, were more than a match for their opponents in this sort of warfare. Luther himself was full of comic and satirichumour, and a mass of the talent of that age was ranged on his side, both literary and artistic. After the reformer’s marriage, the papal party quoted the old legend, that Antichrist was to be born of the union of a monk and a nun, and it was intimated that if Luther himself could not be directly identified with Antichrist, he had, at least, a fair chance of becoming his parent. But the reformers had resolved, on what appeared to be much more conclusive evidence, that Antichrist was only emblematical of the papacy, that under this form he had been long dominant on earth, and that the end of his reign was then approaching. A remarkable pamphlet, designed to place this idea pictorially before the public, was produced from the pencil of Luther’s friend, the celebrated painter, Lucas Cranach, and appeared in the year 1521 under the title of “The Passionale of Christ and Antichrist” (Passional Christi und Antichristi). It is a small quarto, each page of which is nearly filled by a woodcut, having a few lines of explanation in German below. The cutto the left represents some incident in the life of Christ, while that facing it to the right gives a contrasting fact in the history of papal tyranny. Thus the first cut on the left represents Jesus in His humility, refusing earthly dignities and power, while on the adjoining page we see the pope, with his cardinals and bishops, supported by his hosts of warriors, his cannon, and his fortifications, in his temporal dominion over secular princes. When we open again we see on one side Christ crowned with thorns by the insulting soldiery, and on the other the pope, enthroned in all his worldly glory, exacting the worship of his courtiers. On another we have Christ washing the feet of His disciples, and in contrast the pope compelling the emperor to kiss his toe. And so on, through a number of curious illustrations, until at last we come to Christ’s ascension into heaven,in contrast with which a troop of demons, of the most varied and singular forms, have seized upon the papal Antichrist, and are casting him down into the flames of hell, where some of his own monks wait to receive him. This last picture is drawn with so much spirit, that I have copied it in the cut No. 146.

No. 146. The Descent of the Pope.

No. 147. The Pope-ass.

The monstrous figures of animals which had amused the sculptors and miniaturists of an earlier period came in time to be looked upon as realities, and were not only regarded with wonder as physical deformities, but were objects of superstition, for they were believed to be sent into the world as warnings of great revolutions and calamities. During the age preceding the Reformation, the reports of the births or discoveries of such monsters were very common, and engravings of them were no doubt profitable articles of merchandise among the early book-hawkers. Two of these were very celebrated in the time of the Reformation, the Pope-ass and the Monk-calf, and were published and republished with an explanation under the names of Luther and Melancthon, which made them emblematical of the Papacy and of the abuses of the Romish church, and, of course, prognostications of their approaching exposure and fall. It was pretended that the Pope-ass was found dead in the river Tiber, at Rome, in the year 1496. It is represented in our cut No. 147, taken from an engraving preserved in a very curious volume of broadside Lutheran caricatures, in the library of the British Museum, all belonging to the year 1545, though this design had been published many years before. The head of an ass, we are told, represented the pope himself, with his false and carnal doctrines. The right hand resembled the foot of an elephant, signifying the spiritual power of the pope, which was heavy, and stamped down and crushedpeople’s consciences. The left hand was that of a man, signifying the worldly power of the pope, which grasped at universal empire over kings and princes. The right foot was that of an ox, signifying the spiritual ministers of the papacy, the doctors of the church, the preachers, confessors, and scholastic theologians, and especially the monks and nuns, those who aided and supported the pope in oppressing people’s bodies and souls. The left foot was that of a griffin, an animal which, when it once seizes its prey, never lets it escape, and signified the canonists, the monsters of the pope’s temporal power, who grasped people’s temporal goods, and never returned them. The breast and belly of this monster were those of a woman, and signified the papal body, the cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, &c, who spent their lives in eating, drinking, and incontinence; and this part of the body was naked, because the popish clergy were not ashamed to expose their vices to the public. The legs, arms, and neck, on the contrary, were clothed with fishes’ scales; these signified the temporal princes and lords, who were mostly in alliance with the papacy. The old man’s head behind the monster, meant that the papacy had become old, and was approaching its end; and the head of a dragon, vomiting flames, which served for a tail, was significative of the great threats, the venomous horrible bulls and blasphemous writings, which the pontiff and his ministers, enraged at seeing their end approach, were launching into the world against all who opposed them. These explanations were supported by apt quotations from the Scriptures, and were so effective, and became so popular, that the picture was published in various shapes, and was seen adorning the walls of the humblest cottages. I believe it is still to be met with in a similar position in some parts of Germany. It was considered at the time to be a masterly piece of satire. The picture of the Monk-calf, which is represented in our cut No. 148,was published at the same time, and usually accompanies it. This monster is said to have been born at Freyburg, in Misnia, and is simply a rather coarse emblem of the monachal character.

No. 148. The Monk-Calf.

The volume of caricatures just mentioned contains several satires on the pope, which are all very severe, and many of them clever. One has a movable leaf, which covers the upper part of the picture; when it is down, we have a representation of the pope in his ceremonial robes, and over it the inscription ALEX · VI · PONT · MAX. Pope Alexander VI. was the infamous Roderic Borgia, a man stained with all the crimes and vices which strike most horror into men’s minds. When the leaf is raised, another figure joins itself with the lower part of the former, and represents a papal demon, crowned, the cross being transformed into an instrument of infernal punishment. This figure is represented in our cut No. 149.Above it are inscribed the words EGO · SVM · PAPA, “I am the Pope.” Attached to it is a page of explanation in German, in which the legend of that pope’s death is given, a legend that his wicked life appeared sufficient to sanction. It was said that, distrusting the success of his intrigues to secure the papacy for himself, he applied himself to the study of the black art, and sold himself to the Evil One. He then asked the tempter if it were his destiny to be pope, and received an answer in the affirmative. He next inquired how long he should hold the papacy, but Satan returned an equivocal and deceptive answer, for Borgia understood that he was to be pope fifteen years, whereas he died at the end of eleven. It is well known that Pope Alexander VI. died suddenly and unexpectedly through accidentally drinking the poisoned wine he had prepared with his own hand for the murder of another man.

No. 149. The Head of the Papacy.

An Italian theatine wrote a poem against the Reformation, in which he made Luther the offspring of Megæra, one of the furies, who is represented as having been sent from hell into Germany to be delivered of him. This sarcasm was thrown back upon the pope with much greater effect by the Lutheran caricaturists. One of the plates in the above-mentioned volume represents the “birth and origin of the pope” (ortus et origo papæ), making the pope identical with Antichrist. In different groups, in this rather elaborate design, the child is represented as attended by the three furies, Megæra acting as his wet-nurse, Alecto as nursery-maid, and Tisiphone in another capacity, &c The name of Martin Luther is added to this caricature also.

Hie wird geborn der Widerchrist.Megera sein Seugamme ist;Alecto sein Keindermeidlin,Tisiphone die gengelt in.—M. Luth., D. 1545.

Hie wird geborn der Widerchrist.

Megera sein Seugamme ist;

Alecto sein Keindermeidlin,

Tisiphone die gengelt in.—M. Luth., D. 1545.

No. 150. The Pope’s Nurse.

One of the groups in this plate, representing the fury Megæra, abecoming foster-mother, suckling the pope-infant, is given in our cut, No. 150.

In another of these caricatures the pope is represented trampling on the emperor, to show the manner in which he usurped and tyrannised over the temporal power. Another illustrates “the kingdom of Satan and the Pope” (regnum Satanæ et Papæ), and the latter is represented as presiding over hell-mouth in all his state. One, given in our cut No. 151, represents the pope under the form of an ass playing on the bagpipes, and is entitledPapa doctor theologiæ et magister fidei. Four lines of German verse beneath the engraving state how “the pope can alone expound Scripture and purge error, just as the ass alone can pipe and touch the notes correctly.”

No. 151. The Pope giving the Tune.

Der Bapst kan allein auslegenDie Schrifft, und irthum ausfegen;Wie der esel allein pfeiffenKan, und die noten recht greiffen.—1545.

Der Bapst kan allein auslegen

Die Schrifft, und irthum ausfegen;

Wie der esel allein pfeiffen

Kan, und die noten recht greiffen.—1545.

This was the last year of Luther’s active labours. At the commencement of the year following he died at Eissleben, whither he had gone to attend the council of princes. These caricatures may perhaps be considered as so many proclamations of satisfaction and exultation in the final triumph of the great reformer.

Books, pamphlets, and prints of this kind were multiplied to an extraordinary degree during the age of the Reformation, but the majority of them were in the interest of the new movement. Luther’s opponent, Eckius, complained of the infinite number of people who gained theirliving by wandering over all parts of Germany, and selling Lutheran books.[78]Among those who administered largely to this circulation of polemic books was the poet of farces, comedies, and ballads, Hans Sachs, already mentioned. Hans Sachs had in one poem, published in 1535, celebrated Luther under the title of “the Wittemberg Nightingale:”—

Die Wittembergisch’ Nachtigall,Die man jetzt höret überall;

Die Wittembergisch’ Nachtigall,

Die man jetzt höret überall;

and described the effects of his song over all the other animals; and he published, also in verse, what he called a Monument, or Lament, on his death (“Ein Denkmal oder Klagred’ ob der Leiche Doktors Martin Luther”). Among the numerous broadsides published by Hans Sachs, one contains the very clever caricature of which we give a copy in our cut No. 152. It is entitled“Der gut Hirt und böss Hirt,”the good shepherd and bad shepherd, and has for its text the opening verses of the tenth chapter of the gospel of St. John. The good and bad shepherds are, as may be supposed, Christ and the pope. The church is here pictured as a not very stately building; the entrance, especially, is a plain structure of timber. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the flock.” In the engraving, the pope, as the hireling shepherd, sits on the roof of the stateliest part of the building, pointing out to the Christian flock the wrong way, and blessing the climbers. Under him two men of worldly distinction are making their way into the church through a window; and on a roof below a friar is pointing to the people the way up. At another window a monk holds out his arms to invite people up; and one in spectacles, no doubt emblematical of the doctors of the church, is looking out from an opening over the entrance door to watch the proceedings of the Good Shepherd. To theright, on the papal side of the church, the lords and great men are bringing the people under their influence, till they are stopped by the cardinals and bishops, who prevent them from going forward to the door and point out very energetically the way up the roof. At the door stands,the Saviour, as the good shepherd, who has knocked, and the porter has opened it with his key. Christ’s true teachers, the evangelists, show the way to the solitary man of worth who comes by this road, and who listens with calm attention to the gospel teachers, while he opens his purse to bestow his charity on the poor man by the road side. In the original engraving, in the distance on the left, the Good Shepherd is seen followed by his flock, who are obedient to his voice; on the right, the bad shepherd, who has ostentatiously drawn up his sheep round the image of the cross, is abandoning them, and taking to flight on the approach of the wolf. “He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.... But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth; and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.” (John x. 2–4, 12.)

No. 152. The Two Shepherds.

No. 153. Murner and Luther’s Daughter.

The triumph of Luther is the subject of a rather large and elaborate caricature, which is an engraving of great rarity, but a copy of it is given in Jaime’s“Musée de Caricature.”Leo X. is represented seated on his throne upon the edge of the abyss, into which his cardinals are trying to prevent his falling; but their efforts are rendered vain by the appearance of Luther on the other side supported by his principal adherents, and wielding the Bible as his weapon, and the pope is overthrown, in spite of the support he receives from a vast host of popish clergy, doctors, &c.

The popish writers against Luther charged him with vices for which there was probably no foundation, and invented the most scandalous stories against him. They accused him, among other things, of drunkenness andlicentiousness. and there may, perhaps, be some allusion to the latter charge in our cut No. 153, which is taken from one of the comic illustrations to Murner’s book,“Von dem grossen Lutherischen Narren,”which was published in 1522; but, at all events, it will serve as a specimen of these illustrations, and of Murner’s fancy of representing himself with the head of a cat. In 1525, Luther married a nun who had turned Protestant and quitted her convent, named Catherine de Bora, and this became the signal to his opponents for indulging in abusive songs, and satires, and caricatures, most of them too coarse and indelicate to be described in these pages. In many of the caricatures made on this occasion, which are usually woodcut illustrations to books written against the reformer, Luther is represented dancing with Catherine de Bora, or sitting at table with a glass in his hand. An engraving of this kind, which forms one of the illustrations to a work by Dr. Konrad Wimpina, one of the reformer’s violent opponents, represents Luther’s marriage. It is divided into three compartments; to the left, Luther, whom the Catholics always represented in the character of a monk, gives the marriage ring to Catherine de Bora, and above them, in a sort of aureole, is inscribed the wordVovete; on the right appears the nuptial bed, with the curtains drawn, and the inscriptionReddite; and in the middle the monk and nun are dancing joyously together, and over their heads we read the words—

Discedat ab arisCui tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus.

Discedat ab aris

Cui tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus.

While Luther was heroically fighting the great fight of reform in Germany, the foundation of religious reform was laid in France by John Calvin, a man equally sincere and zealous in the cause, but of a totally different temper, and he espoused doctrines and forms of church government which a Lutheran would not admit. Literary satire was used with great effect by the French Calvinists against their popish opponents, but they have left us few caricatures or burlesque engravings of any kind; at least, very few belonging to the earlier period of their history. Jaime, in his“Musée de Caricature,”has given a copy of a very rare plate, representing the pope struggling with Luther and Calvin, as his two assailants.Both are tearing the pope’s hair, but it is Calvin who is here armed with the Bible, with which he is striking at Luther, who is pulling him by the beard. The pope has his hands upon their heads. This scene takes place in the choir of a church, but I give here (cut No. 154) only the group of the three combatants, intended to represent how the two great opponents to papal corruptions were hostile at the same time to each other.

No. 154. Luther and Calvin.

ORIGIN OF MEDIÆVAL FARCE AND MODERN COMEDY.—HROTSVITHA.—MEDIÆVAL NOTIONS OF TERENCE.—THE EARLY RELIGIOUS PLAYS.—MYSTERIES AND MIRACLE PLAYS.—THE FARCES.—THE DRAMA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

There is still another branch of literature which, however it may have been modified, has descended to us from the middle ages. It has been remarked more than once in the course of this book, that the theatre of the Romans perished in the transition from the empire to the middle ages; but something in the shape of theatrical performances appears to be inseparable from society even in its most barbarous state, and we soon trace among the peoples who had settled upon the ruins of the empire of Rome an approach towards a drama. It is worthy of remark, too, that the mediæval drama originated exactly in the same way as that of ancient Greece, that is, from religious ceremonies.

Such was the ignorance of the ancient stage in the middle ages, that the meaning of the wordcomœdiawas not understood. The Anglo-Saxon glossaries interpret the word byracu, a narrative, especially an epic recital, and this was the sense in which it was generally taken until late in the fourteenth or the fifteenth century. It is the sense in which it is used in the title of Dante’s great poem, the“Divina Commedia.”When the mediæval scholars became acquainted in manuscripts with the comedies of Terence, they considered them only as fine examples of a particular sort of literary composition, as metrical narratives in dialogue, and in this feeling they began to imitate them. One of the first of thesemediæval imitators was a lady. There lived in the tenth century a maiden of Saxony, named Hrotsvitha—a rather unfortunate name for one of her sex, for it means simply “a loud noise of voices,” or, as she explains it herself, in her Latin,clamor validus. Hrotsvitha, as was common enough among the ladies of those days, had received a very learned education, and her Latin is very respectable. About the middle of the tenth century, she became a nun in the very aristocratic Benedictine abbey of Gandesheim, in Saxony, the abbesses of which were all princesses, and which had been founded only a century before. She wrote in Latin verse a short history of that religious house, but she is best known by seven pieces, which are called comedies (comœdiæ), and which consist simply of legends of saints, told dialogue-wise, some in verse and some in prose. As may be supposed, there is not much of real comedy in these compositions, although one of them, the Dulcitius, is treated in a style which approaches that of farce. It is the story of the martyrdom of the three virgin saints—Agape, Chione, and Irene—who excite the lust of the persecutor Dulcitius; and it may be remarked, that in this “comedy,” and in that of Callimachus and one or two of the others, the lady Hrotsvitha displays a knowledge of love-making and of the language of love, which was hardly to be expected from a holy nun.[79]

Hrotsvitha, in her preface, complains that, in spite of the general love for the reading of the Scriptures, and contempt for everything derived from ancient paganism, people still too often read the “fictions” of Terence, and thus, seduced by the beauties of his style, soiled their minds with the knowledge of the criminal acts which are described in his writings. A rather early manuscript has preserved a very curious fragment illustrativeof the manner in which the comedies of the Romans were regarded by one class of people in the middle ages, and it has also a further meaning. Its form is that of a dialogue in Latin verse between Terence and a personage called in the originaldelusor, which was no doubt intended to express a performer of some kind, and may be probably considered as synonymous withjougleur. It is a contention between the new jouglerie of the middle ages and the old jouglerie of the schools, somewhat in the same style as the fabliau of“Les deux Troveors Ribauz,”described in a former chapter.[80]We are to suppose that the name of Terence has been in some way or other brought forward in laudatory terms, upon which the jougleur steps forward from among the spectators and expresses himself towards the Roman writer very contemptuously. Terence then makes his appearance to speak in his own defence, and the two go on abusing one another in no very measured language. Terence asks his assailant who he is? to which the other replies, “If you ask who I am, I reply, I am better than thee. Thou art old and broken with years; I am a tyro, full of vigour, and in the force of youth. You are but a barren trunk, while I am a good and fertile tree. If you hold your tongue, old fellow, it will be much better for you.”

Back to Index Next