FOOTNOTES:

Be stylle, beshers, I commawnd you,That no man speke a word here nowBot I my self alon.And if ye do, I make a vow,Thys brand abowte youre nekys shalle bow,For-thy by stylle as ston.[802]

Silence! cries Tiberius. Silence! cries Herod:

Styr not bot ye have lefe,For if ye do I clefeYou smalle as flesh to pott.[803]

Tiberius knows Latin, and does not conceal it from the audience:

Stynt, I say, gyf men place, quia sum dominus dominorum,He that agans me says rapietur lux oculorum.[804]

And each of them hereupon moves about his scaffold, and gives the best idea he can of the magnitude of his power:

Above all kynges under the cloudys crystall,Royally I reigne in welthe without woo ...I am Kyng Herowdes.[805]

Be it known, says another:

That of heven and hell chyff rewlar am I,To wos magnyfycens non stondyt egall,For I am soveren of al soverens.[806]

Make room, says a third:

A-wantt, a-want the, on-worthy wrecchesse!Why lowtt ye nat low to my lawdabyll presens?...I am a sofereyn semely, that ye se butt seyld;Non swyche onder sonne, the sothe for to say ...I am kyng of Marcylle![807]

Such princes fear nothing, and are never abashed; they are on familiar terms with the audience, and interpellate the bystanders, which was a sure cause of merriment, but not of good order. Octavian, being well pleased with the services of one of his men, tells him:

Boye, their be ladyes many a one,Amonge them all chouse thee one,Take the faierest, or elles non,And freely I geve her thee.[808]

Every lord bows to my law, observes Tiberius:

Is it nat so? Sey yow all with on showte.

and a note in the manuscript has: "Here answerryt all the pepul at ons,'Ya, my lord, ya.'"[809]All this was performed with appropriate gesture, that is, as wild as the words they went with, a tradition that long survived. Shakespeare complained, as we know, of the delivery of those actors who "out-heroded Herod."

The authors of English Mysteries had no great experience of Courts; they drew their caricatures somewhat haphazard. They were neither very learned nor very careful;anachronisms and mistakes swarm under their pen. While Herod sacrifices to Mahomet, Noah invokes the Blessed Virgin, and the Christmas shepherds swear by "the death of Christ," whose birth is announced to them at the end of the play.

The psychology of these dramas is not very deep, especially when the question is of personages of rank, and of feelings of a refined sort. The authors of Mysteries speak then at random and describe by hearsay; they have seen their models only from afar, and are not familiar with them. When they have to show how it is that young Mary Magdalen, as virtuous as she was beautiful, consents to sin for the first time, they do it in the plainest fashion. A "galaunt" meets her and tells her that he finds her very pretty, and loves her. "Why, sir," the young lady replies, "wene you that I were a kelle (prostitute)?" Not at all, says the other, but you are so pretty! Shall we not dance together? Shall we drink something?

Soppes in wyne, how love ye?

Mary does not resist those proofs of true love, and answers:

As ye dou, so doth me;I am ryth glad that met be we;My love in yow gynnyt to close.

Then, "derlyng dere," let us go, says the "galaunt."

Mary.Ewyn at your wyl, my dere derlyng!Thow ye wyl go to the woldes eynd,I wol never from yow wynd (turn).[810]

Clarissa Harlowe will require more forms and more time; here twenty-five verses have been enough. A century and a half divides "Mary Magdalene" from the dramatised story of the "Weeping Bitch"; the interpretation of the movements of the feminine heart has not greatly improved, and we are very far as yet from Richardson and Shakespeare.

But truth was more closely observed when the authors spoke of what they knew by personal experience, and described men of the poorer sort with whom they were familiar. In this lies the main literary merit of the Mysteries; there may be found the earliest scenes of real comedy in the history of the English stage.

This comedy of course is very near farce: in everything people then went to extremes. Certain merry scenes were as famous as the rant of Herod, and they have for centuries amused the England of former days. The strife between husband and wife, Noah and his wife, Pilate and his wife, Joseph and Mary, this last a very shocking one, were among the most popular.

In all the collections of English Mysteries Noah's wife is an untamed shrew, who refuses to enter the ark. In the York collection, Noah being ordered by "Deus" to build his boat, wonders somewhat at first:

A! worthy lorde, wolde thou take heede,I am full olde and oute of qwarte.

He sets to work, however; rain begins; the time for sailing has arrived: Noah calls his wife; she does not come. Get into the ark and "leve the harde lande?"This she will not do. She meant to go this very day to town, and she will:

Doo barnes, goo we and trusse to towne.

She does not fear the flood; Noah remarks that the rain has been terrific of late, and has lasted many days, and that her idea of going just then to town is not very wise. The lady is not a whit pacified; why have made a secret of all this to her? Why had he not consulted her? It turns out that her husband had been working at the ark for a hundred years, and she did not know of it! Life in a boat is not at all pleasant; anyhow she will want time to pack; also she must take her gossips with her, to have some one to talk to during the voyage. Noah, who in building his boat has given some proof of his patience, does not lose courage; he receives a box on the ear; he is content with saying:

I pray the, dame, be stille.

The wife at length gets in, and, as we may believe, stormy days in more senses than one are in store for the patriarch.[811]

St. Joseph is a poor craftsman, described from nature, using the language of craftsmen, having their manners, their ignorances, their aspirations. Few works in the wholerange of mediæval literature contain better descriptions of the workman of that time than the Mysteries in which St. Joseph figures; some of his speeches ought to have a place in the collections of Political Songs. The Emperor Augustus has availed himself of the occasion afforded by the census to establish a new tax: "A! lorde," says the poor Joseph,

what doth this man nowe heare!Poore mens weale is ever in were (doubt),I wotte by this bolsters beareThat tribute I muste paye;And for greate age and no powerI wan no good this seven yeaire;Nowe comes the kinges messingere,To gette all that he maye.With this axe that I beare,This perscer and this nagere,A hamer all in feare,I have wonnen my meate.Castill, tower ne manereHad I never in my power;But as a simple carpentereWith these what I mighte gette.Yf I have store nowe anye thing,That I must paye unto the kinge.[812]

Only an ox is left him; he will go and sell it. It is easy to fancy that, in the century which saw the Statutes of Labourers and the rising of the peasants, such words found a ready echo in the audience.

As soon as men of the people appear on the scene, nearly always the dialogue becomes lively; real men and women stand and talk before us. Beside the workmen represented by St. Joseph, peasants appear, represented by the shepherds of Christmas night. They are true English shepherds; if they swear, somewhat before due time, by Christ, all surprise disappears when we hear them name the places where they live: Lancashire, the Clyde valley,Boughton near Chester, Norbury near Wakefield. Of all possible ales, Ely's is the one they prefer. They talk together of the weather, the time of the day, the mean salaries they get, the stray sheep they have been seeking; they eat their meals under the hedge, sing merry songs, exchange a few blows, in fact behave as true shepherds of real life. Quite at the end only, when the "Gloria" is heard, they will assume the sober attitude befitting Christmas Day.

In the Mysteries performed at Woodkirk, the visit to the new-born Child was preceded by a comedy worthy to be compared with the famous farce of "Pathelin," and which has nothing to do with Christmas.[813]It is night; the shepherds talk; the time for sleeping comes. One among them, Mak, has a bad repute, and is suspected of being a thief; they ask him to sleep in the midst of the others: "Com heder, betwene shalle thou lyg downe." But Mak rises during the night without being observed. How hard they sleep! he says, and he carries away a "fatt shepe," and takes it to his wife.

Wife.It were a fowlle blotte to be hanged for the case.Mak.I have skapyd, Gelott, oft as hard as glase.Wife.Bot so long goys the pott to the water, men says,At lastComys it home broken.

I remember it well, says Mak, but it is not a time for proverbs and talk; let us do for the best. The shepherds know Mak too well not to come straight to his house; and so they do. Moans are heard; the cause being, they learn, that Mak's wife has just given birth to a child. As the shepherds walk in, Mak meets them with a cheerful countenance, and welcomes them heartily:

Bot ar ye in this towne to-day?Now how fare ye?Ye have ryn in the myre, and ar weytt yit;I shalle make you a fyre, if ye wille syt.

His offers are coldly received, and the visitors explain what has happened.

Nowe if you have suspowse, to Gille or to me,Com and rype oure howse!

The woman moans more pitifully than ever:

Wife.Outt, thefys, fro my barne! negh hym not thore.Mak.Wyst ye how she had farne, youre hartys wold be sore.Ye do wrang, I you warne, that thus commys beforeTo a woman that has farne, bot I say no more.Wife.A my medylle!I pray God so mylde,If ever I you begyld,That I ete this chyldeThat lyges in this credylle.

The shepherds, deafened by the noise, look none the less about the house, but find nothing. Their host is not yet, however, at the end of his trouble.

Tertius Pastor.Mak, with youre lefe, let me gyf youre barneBot six pence.Mak.Nay, do way, he slepys.Pastor.Me thynk he pepys.Mak.When he wakyns he wepys;I pray you go hence.Pastor.Gyf me lefe hym to kys, and lyft up the clowth.What the deville is this? he has a long snowte!

And the fraud is discovered; it was the sheep. From oaths they were coming to blows, when on a sudden, amid the stars, angels are seen, and their song is heard in the night: Glory to God, peace to earth! the world isrejuvenated.... Anger disappears, hatreds are effaced, and the rough shepherds of England take, with penitent heart, the road to Bethlehem.

IV.

The fourteenth century saw the religious drama at its height in England; the fifteenth saw its decay; the sixteenth its death. The form under which it was best liked was the form of Mysteries, based upon the Bible. The dramatising of the lives of saints and miracles of the Virgin was much less popular in England than in France. In the latter country enormous collections of such plays have been preserved[814]; in the other the examples of this kind are very few; the Bible was the main source from which the English dramatists drew their inspiration. As we have seen, however, they did not forbear from adding scenes and characters with nothing evangelical in them; these scenes contributed, with the interludes and the facetious dialogues of the jongleurs, to the formation of comedy. Little by little, comedy took shape, and it will be found existing as a separate branch of dramatic art at the time of the Renaissance.

In the same period another sort of drama was to flourish, the origin of which was as old as the fourteenth century, namely,Moralities. These plays consisted in pious treatises and ethical books turned into dramas, as Mysteries offered a dramatisation of Scriptures. Psychology was there carried to the extreme, a peculiar sort of psychology, elementary and excessive at the same time, and very different from the delicate art in favour to-day. Individuals disappeared; they were replaced by abstractions, and theseabstractions represented only a single quality or defect. Sins and virtues fought together and tried to draw mankind to them, which stood doubtful, as Hercules "at the starting point of a double road;" in this way, again, was manifested the fondness felt in the Middle Ages for allegories and symbols. The "Roman de la Rose" in France, "Piers Plowman" in England, the immense popularity in all Europe of the Consolation of Boethius, had already been manifestations of those same tendencies. In these works, already, dialogue was abundant, in the "Roman de la Rose" especially, where an immense space is occupied by conversations between the Lover and Fals-Semblant.[815]The names of the speakers are inscribed in the margin, as if it were a real play. When he admitted into his collection of tales the dialogued story of Melibeus and Prudence, Chaucer came very near to Moralities, for the work he produced was neither a treatise nor a tale, nor a drama, but had something of the three; a few changes would have been enough to make of it a Morality, which might have been called the Debate of Wisdom and Mankind.

Abstractions had been allowed a place in the Mysteries so far back as the fourteenth century; death figures in the Woodkirk collection; in "Mary Magdalene" (fifteenth century) many abstract personages are mixed with the others: the Seven Deadly Sins, Mundus, the King of the Flesh, Sensuality, &c.; the same thing happens in the so-called Coventry collection.

This sort of drama, for us unendurable, gradually separated from Mysteries; it reached its greatest development under the early Tudors. The authors of Moralities strove to write plays not merely amusing, as farces, then also in great favour, but plays with a useful and practical aim. By means of now unreadable dramas, virtues, religion, morals, sciences were taught: the Catholic faith was derided byProtestants, and the Reformation by Catholics.[816]The discovery, then quite new, of America was discoursed about, and great regret was expressed at its being not due to an Englishman:

O what a thynge had be than,If they that be EnglyshemenMyght have ben furst of allThat there shuld have take possessyon![817]

Death, as might be expected, is placed upon the stage with a particular zeal and care, and meditations are dedicated to the dark future of man, and to the gnawing worm of the charnel house.[818]

Fearing the audience might go to sleep, or perhaps go away, the science and the austere philosophy taught in these plays were enlivened by tavern scenes, and by the gambols of a clown, fool, or buffoon, called Vice, armed, as Harlequin, with a wooden dagger. And often, such is human frailty, the beholders went, remembering nothing but the mad pranks of Vice. It was in their eyes the most important character in the play, and the part was accordinglyentrusted to the best actor. Shakespeare had seen Vice still alive, and he commemorated his deeds in a song:

I am gone, sir,And anon, sir,I'll be with you again,In a trice,Like to the old Vice,Your need to sustain,Who, with dagger of lath,In his rage and his wrath,Cries, ah ha! to the devil.[819]

This character also found place on the French stage, where it was called the "Badin." Rabelais had the "Badin" in great esteem: "In this manner we see, among the jongleurs, when they arrange between them the cast of a play, the part of the Sot, or Badin, to be attributed to the cleverest and most experienced in their company."[820]

In the meanwhile, common ancestors of the various dramatic tribes, source and origin of many sorts of plays, the Mysteries, which had contributed to the formation of the tragical, romantic, allegorical, pastoral, and comic drama, were still in existence. Reformation had come, the people had adopted the new belief, but they could not give up the Mysteries. They continued to like Herod, Noah and his wife, and the tumultuous troup of devils, great and small, inhabiting hell-mouth. Prologues had been written in which excuses were offered on account of the traces of superstition to be detected in the plays, but conscience being thus set at rest, the plays were performed as before. The Protestant bishop of Chester prohibited the representation in 1572, but it took place all the same. The archbishop of York renewed the prohibition in 1575, but the Mysteries were performed again for four days;and some representations of them took place even later.[821]At York the inhabitants had no less reluctance about giving up their old drama; they were sorry to think that religious differences now existed between the town and its beloved tragedies. Converted to the new faith, the citizens would have liked to convert the plays too, and the margins of the manuscript bear witness to their efforts. But the task was a difficult one; they were at their wits' end, and appealed to men more learned than they. They decided that "the booke shalbe carried to my Lord Archebisshop and Mr. Deane to correcte, if that my Lord Archebisshop do well like theron," 1579.[822]My Lord Archbishop, wise and prudent, settled the question according to administrative precedent; he stored the book away somewhere, and the inhabitants were simply informed that the prohibition was maintained. The York plays thus died.

In France the Mysteries survived quite as late; but, on account of the radical effects of the Renaissance there, they had not the same influence on the future development of the drama. They continued to be represented in the sixteenth century, and the Parliament of Paris complained in 1542 of their too great popularity: parish priests, and even the chanters of the Holy Chapel, sang vespers at noon, a most unbecoming hour, and sang them "post haste," to see the sight. Six years later the performance of Mysteries was forbidden at Paris; but the cross and ladder, emblems of the "Confrères de la Passion," continued to be seen above the gates of the "Hôtel de Bourgogne," and the privilege of the Confrères, which dated three centuries back, was definitely abolished in the reign of Louis XIV., in December, 1676.[823]Molière had then been dead for three years.

In England, at the date when my Lord Archbishop stopped the representation at York,[824]the old religious dramas had produced all their fruit: they had kept alive the taste for stage plays, they left behind them authors, a public, and companies of players. Then was growing in years, in a little town by the side of the river Avon, the child who was to reach the highest summits of art. He followed on week-days the teaching of the grammar school; he saw on Sundays, painted on the wall of the Holy Cross Chapel, a paradise and hell similar to those in the Mysteries, angels of gold and black devils, and that immense mouth where the damned are parboiled, "où damnés sont boulus," as the poor old mother of Villon says in a ballad of her son's.[825]

At the date of the York prohibition, William Shakespeare was fifteen.

FOOTNOTES:[742]"Nostra ætas prolapsa ad fabulas et quævis inania, non modo sures et cor prostituit vanitati, sed oculorum et aurium voluptate suam mulcet desidiam.... Nonne piger desidiam instruit et somnos provocat instrumentorum suavitate, aut vocum modulis, hilaritate canentium aut fabulantium gratia, sive quod turpius est ebrietate vel crapula?... Admissa sunt ergo spectacula et infinita tyrocinia vanitatis, quibus qui omnino otiari non possunt perniciosius occupentur. Satius enim fuerat otiari quam turpiter occupari. Hinc mimi, salii vel saliares, balatrones æmiliani, gladiatores, palæstritæ, gignadii, præstigiatores, malefici quoque multi et tota joculatorum scena procedit. Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a præclaris domibus non arceantur, etiam illi qui obscenis partibus corporis oculis omnium eam ingerunt turpitudinem, quam erubescat videre vel cynicus. Quodque magis mirere, nec tunc ejiciuntur, quando tumultuantes inferius crebro sonitu aerem fœdant, et turpiter inclusum turpius produnt.... Jucundum quidem est et ab honeste non recedit virum probum quandoque modesta hilaritate mulcere." "Policraticus," Book i. chap. viii., in "Opera Omnia," ed. Giles, Oxford, 1848, vol. iii. p. 42.[743]C., xvi. 205.[744]"De Mimo et Rege Francorum," in Wright, "Latin Stories," 1842, No. cxxxvii.[745]Le roi demaund par amour:Ou qy estes vus, sire Joglour?E il respount sauntz pour:Sire, je su ou mon seignour.Quy est toun seignour? fet le Roy.Le baroun ma dame, par ma foy....Quei est le eve apelé, par amours?L'em ne l'apele pas, eynz vint tous jours.Concerning the horse:Mange il bien, ce savez dire.Oïl certes, bel douz sire;Yl mangereit plus un jour d'aveyneQue vus ne frez pas tote la semeyne.Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," vol. ii. p. 243.[746]"Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus," in prose, ed. Kemble, Ælfric Society, 1848, 8vo. See also the "estrif" between Joseph and Mary in "Cynewulf's Christ," ed. Gollancz, 1892, p. 17; above, p. 75.[747]"The Owl and the Nightingale," ed. J. Stevenson, Roxburghe Club, 1838, 4to. "The Thrush and the Nightingale"; "Of the Vox and the Wolf" (see above, p.228); "The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools," in Hazlitt, "Remains of the early Popular Poetry of England," 1864, 4 vols. 8vo, vol. i. pp. 50, 58, 79.[748]"Anonymi Petroburgensis Descriptio Norfolcensicum" (end of the twelfth century); "Norfolchiæ Descriptionis Impugnatio," in Latin verse, with some phrases in English, in Th. Wright, "Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems of the XIIth and XIIIth centuries," London, 1838, 8vo.[749]"Harrowing of Hell." This work consists in a dramatic dialogue or scene, but it was not meant to be represented. Time of Henry III.; text in Pollard, "English Miracle Plays," Oxford, 1890, p. 166.[750]This game is described in the (very coarse) fabliau of the "Sentier batu" by Jean de Condé, fourteenth century:De plusieurs deduis s'entremistrentEt tant c'une royne fistrentPour jouer au Roy qui ne ment.Ele s'en savoit finementEntremettre de commanderEt de demandes demander.Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," vol. iii. p. 248.[751]"Prohibemus etiam clericis ne intersint ludis inhonestis, vel choreis, vel ludant ad aleas, vel taxillos; nec sustineant ludos fieri de Rege et Regina," &c. "Constitutiones Walteri de Cantilupo, Wigorniensis episcopi ... promulgatæ ...a.d.1240," art. xxxviii., in Labbe, "Sacrorum conciliorum ... Collectio," l. xxiii. col. 538.[752]The two sorts are well described by Baudouin de Condé in his "Contes des Hiraus," thirteenth century. The author meets a servant and asks him questions about his master.Dis-moi, par l'âme de ton père,Voit-il volentiers menestreus?—Oïl voir, biau frère, et estre eusEn son hostel à giant solas....... Et quant avientC'aucuns grans menestreus là vient,Maistres en sa menestrandie,Que bien viele ou ki bien dieDe bouce, mesires l'ascouteVolenticis....Mais peu souvent i vient de teusMais des félons et des honteus,who speak but nonsense and know nothing, and who, however, receive bread, meat, and wine,... l'un por faire l'ivre,L'autre le cat, le tiers le sot;Li quars, ki onques rien ne sotD'armes s'en parole et raconteDe ce preu due, de ce preu conte."Dits et Contes de Baudouin de Condé," ed. Scheler, Brussels, 1866, 3 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p 154.[753]"Ad quid illa vocis contractio et infractio? Hic succinit, ille discinit.... Aliquando, quod pudet dicere, in equinos hinnitus cogitur; aliquando virili vigore deposito in femineæ vocis gracilitates acuitur.... Videas aliquando hominem aperto ore quasi intercluso habitu expirare, non cantare, ac ridiculosa quadam vocis interceptione quasi minitari silentium; nunc agones morientium, vel extasim patientium imitari. Interim histrionicis quibusdam gestibus totum corpus agitatur, torquentur labia, rotant, ludunt humeri; et ad singulas quasque notas digitorum flexus respondet. Et hæc ridiculosa dissolutio vocatur religio!.... Vulgus ... miratur ... sed lascivas cantantium gesticulationes, meretricias vocum alternationes et infractiones, non sine cachinno risuque intuetur, ut eos non ad oratorium sed ad theatrum, nec ad orandum sed ad spectandum æstimes convenisse." "Speculum Chantatis," Book ii. chap. 23, in Migne's "Patrologia," vol. cxcv. col. 571.[754]Latin text in "The Exempla ... of Jacques de Vitry," thirteenth century, ed. T. F. Crane, London, 1890, 8vo, p. 105 (No. ccl.), and in Th. Wright, "A Selection of Latin Stories," 1842, Percy Society, p. 16: "De Dolo et Arte Vetularum." French text in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," vol. ii., included into the "Castoiement d'un père à son fils," thirteenth century. English text in Th. Wright, "Anecdota Literaria," London, 1844, 8vo, p. 1; the title is in French: "Ci commence le fables et le cointise de dame Siriz."[755]Text in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," London, 1841, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 145. "Hic incipit interludiam de Clerico and Puella."[756]"Here bigynnis a tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge," end of fourteenth century, in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," vol. ii. p. 46. Elsewhere in the same treatise, "to pley in rebaudye" is opposed to "pley in myriclis," p. 49.[757]"Ludi theatrales, etiam prætextu consuetudinis in ecclesiis vel per clericos fieri non debent." Decretal of Innocent III., year 1207, included by Gregory IX. in his "Compilatio." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," Leipzig, 1879, vol. ii. p. 453.[758]"Constitutiones Walteri de Cantilupo,a.d.1240," in Labbe's "Sacrorum Conciliorum ... Collectio," vol. xxiii. col. 526.[759]Wilkins, "Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ," London, 1737, 4 vols. fol., vol. i. p. 617, Nos. lxxiv., lxxv. The same prohibition is made by Walter de Chanteloup,ut supra, art. lv. The custom was a very old one, and existed already in Anglo-Saxon times; see "Ælfric's Lives of Saints," 1881, E.E.T.S., p. 461.[760]"... Ne quis choreas cum larvis seu strepitu aliquo in ecclesiis vel plateis ducat, vel sertatus, vel coronatus corona ex folus arborum, vel florum vel aliunde composita, alicubi incedat ... prohibemus," thirteenth century, "Munimenta Academica," ed. Anstey, Rolls, 1868, p. 18.[761]Decretal of Innocent III., reissued by Gregory IX. "In aliquibus anni festivitalibus, quæ continue natalem Christi sequuntur, diaconi, presbyteri ac subdiaconi vicissim insaniæ suæ ludibria exercere præsumunt, per gesticulationum suarum debacchationes obscœnas in conspectu populi decus faciunt clericale vilescere, quem potius illo tempore verbi Dei deberent prædicatione mulcere." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," vol. ii. p. 453.[762]Thirteenth century. See Gaston Paris, "Romania," vol. xxi. p. 262. Songs of a much worse character were also sung at Christmas. To deter his readers from listening to any such Gascoigne writes (first half of the fifteenth century): "Cavete et fugite in hoc sacro festo viciosa et turpia, et præcipue cantus inhonestos et turpes qui libidinem excitant et provocant ... et ymagines imprimunt in mente quas expellere difficillimum est. Novi ego, scilicet Gascoigne, doctor sacræ paginæ qui hæc scripsi, unum magnum et notabilem virum talem cantum turpem in festo Natalis audivisse." He could never forget the shameful things he had heard, and fell on that account into melancholy, by which he was driven to death. "Loci e libro veritatum ... passages selected from Gascoigne's Theological Dictionary," ed. Thorold Rogers, Oxford, 1881, 4to. On the Christmas festivities at the University and on the "Rex Natalicius" (sixteenth century and before), see C. R. L. Fletcher, "Collectanea," Oxford, 1885, 8vo, p. 39.[763]"Cum domus Dei, testaute propheta Filioque Dei, domus sit orationis, nefandum est eam in domum jocationis, scurrilitatis et nugacilatis convertere, locumque Deo dicatum diabolicis adinventionibus execrare; cumque circumcisio Domini nostri Jesu Christi prima fuerit nec modicum acerba ejusdem passio, signum quoque sit circumcisionis spiritualis qua cordium præputia tolluntur ... execrabile est circumcisionis Domini venerandam solemnitatem libidinosarum voluptatum sordibus prophanare: quapropter vobis mandamus in virtute obedientiæ firmiter injungentes, quatenus Festum Stultorum cum sit vanitate plenum et voluptatibus spurcum, Deo odibile et dæmonibus amabile, ne de cætero in ecclesia Lincolniensi, die venciandæ solemnitatis circumcisionis Domini permittatis fieri." "Epistolæ," ed. Luard, Rolls, 1861, p. 118, year 1236(?). Same defence for the whole diocese, p. 161.[764]"Wardrobe Accounts," in "Archæologia," vol. xxvi. p. 342; "Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham," ed. Devon, 1835, p. xlvi; "Issues of the Exchequer," ed. Devon, p. 222, 6 Rich. II.[765]"Inhibemus ne de cetero in festis Innocentium et Beate Marie Magdalene ludibria exerceatis consueta, induendo vos scilicet vestis secularium aut inter vos, sed cum secularibus, choreas ducendo, nec extra refectorium comedatis," &c. Eudes Rigaud, archbishop of Rouen, to the nuns of Villarciaux, thirteenth century. "Registrum Visitationum" ed. Bonnin, 1842, 4to, p. 44.[766]"Historia Major," Rolls, vol. iii. p. 336.[767]Matthew Paris,ibid.[768]Described by Richard of Maidstone (d. 1396) in a Latin poem: "Richardi Maydiston de Concordia inter Regem Ricardum II. et civitatem London," in the "Political Poems and Songs" of Wright, Rolls, vol. i. p. 282.[769]Entry of Isabeau of Bavaria into Paris, in 1384.[770]On the popularity of Robin Hood in the fourteenth century, see above, p.224. In the fifteenth century he was the hero of plays performed during the May festivities: "Rece^d for the gathering of the May-play called Robin Hood, on the fair day, 19s." Accounts of the church of St. Lawrence at Reading, year 1499, in theAcademy, October 6, 1883, p. 231.[771]"Quem quæritis in præsepe, pastores? Respondent: Salvatorem Christum Dominum." Petit de Julleville, "Histoire du Théâtre en France.—Les Mystères," 1880, vol. i. p. 25.[772]Petit de Julleville,ibid., vol. i. p. 26.[773]Same beginning and same gradual development: "Quem queritis in sepulchro o Christicole?—Jesum Nazarenum crucifixum o celicole.—Non est hic, surrexit sicut predixerat; ite nunciate quia surrexit. Alleluia." In use at Limoges, eleventh century. "Die lateinischen Osterfeiern, untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der liturgisch-dramatischen Auferstehungsfeier," by Carl Lange, Munich, 1887, 8vo, p. 22.[774]"Ci comence l'estoire de Griselidis;" MS. fi. 2203, in the National Library, Paris, dated 1395, outline drawings (privately printed, Paris, 1832, 4to).—"Le Mistère du siège d'Orléans," ed. Guessard and Certain, Paris, 1862, 4to (Documents inédits).[775]This story was very popular during the Middle Ages, in France and in England. It was,e.g., the subject of a poem in English verse, thirteenth century: "The Life of St. Katherine," ed. Einenkel, Early English Text Society, 1884, 8vo.[776]"Vitæ ... viginti trium abbatum Sancti Albani," in "Matthæi Paris monachi Albanensis [Opera]," London, 1639-40, 2 vols. fol., vol. ii. p. 56 "Gaufridus decimus sextus [abbas]."[777]Ibid., p. 64.[778]He writes, twelfth century: "Londonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis, ludos habet sanctiores, representationes miraculorum...." "Descriptio nobilissimæ civitatis Londoniæ," printed with Stow's "Survey of London," 1599, 4to[779]This can be inferred from the existence of that "estrif" the "Harrowing of Hell," written in the style of mysteries, which has come down to us, and belongs to that period. See above, p. 443. Religious dramas were written in Latin by subjects of the kings of England, and, among others, by Hilary, a disciple of Abélard, twelfth century, who seems to have been an Anglo-Norman; "Hilarii versus et Ludi," ed. Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1838. A few lines in French are mixed with his Latin.[780]"Here bigynnis a tretise of miraclis pleyinge," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," London, 1842, vol. ii. p. 42; end of fourteenth century.[781]"Item quod tabernas, spectacula aut alia loca inhonesta, seu ludos noxios at illicitos non frequentent, sed more sacerdotali se habeant et in gestu, ne ipsorum ministerium, quod absit, vituperio, scandalo vel despectui habeatur." Labbe, vol. xxvi. col. 767. The inhibition is meant for priests of all sorts: "presbyteri stipendarii aut alii sacerdotes, propriis sumptibus seu alias sustentati." Innocent III. and Gregory IX. had vainly denounced the same abuses, and tried to stop them: "Clerici officia vel commercia sæcularia non exerceant, maxime inhonesta. Mimis, joculatoribus et histrionibus non intendant. Et tabernas prorsus evitent, nisi forte causa necessitatis in itinere constituti." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," ii. p. 454.[782]"Roberd of Brunne's Handlyng Synne (writtena.d.1303), with the French treatise on which it is founded, 'Le Manuel des Pechiez,' by William de Wadington," ed. Furnivall, Roxburghe Club, 1862, 4to, pp. 146 ff.[783]Un autre folie apertUnt les fols clercs contrové,Qe "miracles" sunt apelé;Lur faces unt la déguiséPar visers, li forsené.[784]Fere poent representement,Mes qe ceo seit chastementEn office de seint égliseQuant hom fet la Deu servise,Cum Jesu Crist le fiz DeeEn sepulcre esteit posé,Et la resurrectiunPur plus aver devociun.[785]Ki en lur jus se délitera,Chivals on harneis les aprestera.Vesture ou autre ournement,Sachez il fet folement.Si vestemens seient dediez,Plus grant d'assez est le pechez;Si prestre ou clerc les ust prestéBien dust estre chaustié.[786]Toulmin Smith, "English Gilds," London, 1870, E.E.T.S., p. 139.[787]The principal monuments of the English religious stage are the following: "Chester Plays," ed. Th. Wright, Shakespeare Society, 1843-7, 2 vols., 8vo (seem to have been adapted from the French, perhaps from an Anglo-Norman original, not recovered yet)."The Pageant of the Company of Sheremen and Taylors in Coventry ... together with other Pageants," ed. Th. Sharp, Coventry, 1817, 4to. By the same: "A Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries anciently performed at Coventry ... to which are added the Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors Company," Coventry, 1825, 4to (illustrated)."Ludus Coventriæ," ed. Halliwell, Shakespeare Society, 1841, 8vo (the referring of this collection to the town of Coventry is probably wrong)."Towneley Mysteries" (a collection of plays performed at Woodkirk, formerly Widkirk, near Wakefield; see Skeat's note inAthenæum, Dec. 3; 1893) ed. Raine, Surtees Society, Newcastle, 1836, 8vo."York Plays, the plays performed by the crafts or mysteries of York on the day of Corpus Christi, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith, Oxford, 1885, 8vo."The Digby Mysteries," ed. Furnivall, New Shakspere Society, 1882, 8vo."Play of Abraham and Isaac" (fourteenth century), in the "Boke of Brome, a commonplace book of the xvth century," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith. 1886, 8vo.—"Play of the Sacrament" (story of a miracle, a play of a type scarce in England), ed. Whitley Stokes, Philological Society Transactions, Berlin, 1860-61, 8vo, p. 101.—"A Mystery of the Burial of Christ"; "A Mystery of the Resurrection": "This is a play to be played on part on gudfriday afternone, and the other part opon Esterday afternone," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," 1841-3, vol. ii. pp. 124 ff., from a MS. of the beginning of the sixteenth century.—See also "The ancient Cornish Drama," three mysteries in Cornish, fifteenth century, ed. Norris, Oxford, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo (with a translation).—For extracts, see A. W. Pollard, "English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes," Oxford, 1890, 8vo.On the question of the formation of the various cycles of English mysteries and the way in which they are connected, see A. Hohlfield, "Die altenglischen kollektivmisterien," in "Anglia," xi. p. 219, and Ch. Davidson, "Studies in the English Mystery Plays, a thesis," Yale University, 1892, 8vo.[788]"York Plays," pp. xxxiv, xxxvii.[789]This preliminary note is in Latin: "Sit ipse Adam bene instructus quando respondere debeat, ne ad respondendum nimis sit velox aut nimis tardus, nec solum ipse, sed omnes persone sint. Instruantur ut composite loquentur; et gestum faciant convenientem rei de qua loquuntur, et, in rithmis nec sillabam addant nec demant, sed omnes firmiter pronuncient." "Adam, Mystère du XII^e. Siècle," ed. Palustre, Paris, 1877, 8vo.[790]"Digby Mysteries," p. xix.[791]"The Pageants ... of Coventry," ed. Sharp.[792][So called] "Coventry Mysteries," Trial of Christ.[793]The French drama written on this subject is lost (it is, however, mentioned in the catalogue of a bookseller of the fifteenth century; see "Les Mystères," by Petit de Julleville, vol. ii. chap, xxiii., "Mystères perdus"); but the precision of details in the miniature is such that I had no difficulty in identifying the particular version of the story followed by the dramatist. It is an apocryphal life of Apollinia, in which is explained how she is the saint to be applied to when suffering toothache. This episode is the one Fouquet has represented. Asked to renounce Christ, she answers: "'Quamdiu vivero in hac fragili vita, lingua mea et os meum non cessabunt pronuntiare laudem et honorem omnipotentis Dei.' Quo audito jussit [imperator] durissimos stipites parari et in igne duros fieri et præacutos ut sic dentes ejus et per tales stipites læderent, radices dentium cum forcipe everentur radicitus. In illa hora oravit S. Apollinia dicens: 'Domine Jesu Christe, precor te ut quicumque diem passionis meæ devote peregerint ... dolorem dentium aut capitis nunquam sentiant passiones.'" The angels thereupon (seated on wooden stairs, in Fouquet's miniature) come down and tell her that her prayer has been granted. "Acta ut videntur apocrypha S. Apolloniæ," in Bollandus, "Acta Sanctorum," Antwerp, vol. ii. p. 280, under the 9th February.See also the miniatures of a later date (sixteenth century) in the MS. of the Valenciennes Passion, MS. fi. 15,236 in the National Library, and the model made after one of them, exhibited in the Opéra Museum, Paris.[794]What the place is—... Vous le povez congnoistrePar l'escritel que dessus voyez estre.Prologue of a play of the Nativity, performed at Rouen, 1474; Petit de Julleville, "Les Mystères," vol. i. p. 397.[795]"Digby Mysteries," ed. Furnivall, p. 127.[796]"Mystère du vieil Testament," Paris, 1542, with curious cuts, "pour plus facile intelligence." Many other editions; one modern one by Baron J. de Rothschild, Société des Anciens Textes Français, 1878 ff.[797]"Chester Plays," ii.[798]"Adoncques doit Adam couvrir son humanité, faignant avoir honte. Icy se doit semblablement vergongner la femme et se musser de sa main." "Mystère du vieil Testament."[799]Reproduced by Mr. R. T. Blomfield, in thePortfolio, May, June, July, 1889.[800]Diabolus.Jo vis Adam, mais trop est fols.Eva.Un poi est durs.Diabolus.Il serra mols;Il est plus durs que n'est un fers ...Tu es fieblette et tendre chose,Et es plus fresche que n'est rose;Tu es plus blanche que cristal,Que nief qui chiet sor glace en val.Mal cuple en fist le criatur;Tu es trop tendre et il trop dur ...Por ço fait bon se treire à tei;Parler te voil.[801]All my smale instrumentes is putt in my pakke.("Digby Mysteries," p. 11.)[802]"Towneley Mysteries."[803]Ibid.—Magnus Herodes.[804]"Towneley Mysteries."—Processus Talentorum.[805]"Digby Mysteries."—Candlemas Day, p. 3.[806]"Digby Mysteries."—Mary Magdalen, p. 55.[807]Ibid., p. 90.[808]"Chester Plays."—Salutation and Nativity.[809]"Digby Mysteries," p. 56.[810]"Digby Mysteries," pp. 74, 75. After living wickedly Mary Magdalen repents, comes to Marseilles, converts the local king and performs miracles. This legend was extremely popular; it was told several times in French verse during the thirteenth century; see A. Schmidt, "Guillaume, le Clerc de Normandie, insbesondere seine Magdalenenlegende," in "Romanische Studien" vol. iv. p. 493; Doncieux, "Fragment d'un Miracle de Sainte Madeleine, texte restitué," in "Romania," 1893, p. 265. There was also a drama in French based on the same story: "La Vie de Marie Magdaleine ... Est à xxii. personages," Lyon, 1605, 12mo (belongs to the fifteenth century).[811]"York Plays," viii., ix. See also,e.g., as specimens of comical scenes, the discussions between the quack and his man in the "Play of the Sacrament": "Y^e play of y^e conversyon of ser Jonathas y^e Jewe by myracle of y^e blyssed sacrament." Master Brundyche addresses the audience as if he were in front of his booth at a fair. He will cure the diseases of all present. Be sure of that, his man Colle observes,What dysease or syknesse y^t ever ye have,He wyll never leve yow tylle ye be in your grave.Ed. Whitley Stokes, Philological Society, Berlin, 1860-61, p. 127 (fifteenth century).[812]"Chester Plays."—Salutation and Nativity.[813]"Towneley Mysteries."—Secunda Pastorum.[814]See, for instance, "Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages," ed. G. Paris and U. Robert, Société des Anciens Textes, 1876-91, 6 vols. 8vo.[815]In Méon's edition, Paris, 1813, vol. ii. pp. 326 ff.[816]Plays of this kind were written (without speaking of many anonyms) by Medwall: "A goodly Enterlude of Nature," 1538, fol.; by Skelton, "Magnyfycence," 1531, fol.; by Ingelend, "A pretie Enterlude called the Disobedient Child," printed about 1550: by John Bale, "A comedye concernynge thie Lawes," London, 1538, 8vo (against the Catholics); all of them lived under Henry VIII., &c. The two earliest English moralities extant are "The Pride of Life" (in the "Account Roll of the priory of the Holy Trinity," Dublin, ed. J. Mills, Dublin, 1891, 8vo), and the "Castle of Perseverance" (an edition is being prepared, 1894, by Mr. Pollard for the Early English Text Society), both of the fifteenth century; a rough sketch showing the arrangement of the representation of the "Castle" has been published by Sharp, "A Dissertation on the Pageants at Coventry," plate 2.[817]"Interlude of the four Elements," London, 1510(?), 8vo.[818]See, for example, the mournful passages in the "Disobedient Child," the "Triall of Treasure," London, 1567, 4to, and especially in "Everyman," ed. Goedeke, Hanover, 1865, 8vo, written at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII.[819]Song of the Clown in "Twelfth Night," iv. 3.[820]"Pantagruel," iii. 37.[821]Furnivall, "Digby Mysteries," p. xxvii.[822]"York Plays," p. xvi.[823]Petit de Julleville, "Les Mystères," 1880, vol. i. pp. 423 ff.[824]They continued later in some towns, at Newcastle, for example, where they survived till 1598. At this date "Romeo" and the "Merchant of Venice" had already appeared. There were even some performances at the beginning of the seventeenth century.[825]A drawing of this fresco, now destroyed, has been published by Sharp: "Hell-mouth and interior, from the chapel at Stratford-upon-Avon"; "A Dissertation on the pageants ... at Coventry," 1825, plate 6.

[742]"Nostra ætas prolapsa ad fabulas et quævis inania, non modo sures et cor prostituit vanitati, sed oculorum et aurium voluptate suam mulcet desidiam.... Nonne piger desidiam instruit et somnos provocat instrumentorum suavitate, aut vocum modulis, hilaritate canentium aut fabulantium gratia, sive quod turpius est ebrietate vel crapula?... Admissa sunt ergo spectacula et infinita tyrocinia vanitatis, quibus qui omnino otiari non possunt perniciosius occupentur. Satius enim fuerat otiari quam turpiter occupari. Hinc mimi, salii vel saliares, balatrones æmiliani, gladiatores, palæstritæ, gignadii, præstigiatores, malefici quoque multi et tota joculatorum scena procedit. Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a præclaris domibus non arceantur, etiam illi qui obscenis partibus corporis oculis omnium eam ingerunt turpitudinem, quam erubescat videre vel cynicus. Quodque magis mirere, nec tunc ejiciuntur, quando tumultuantes inferius crebro sonitu aerem fœdant, et turpiter inclusum turpius produnt.... Jucundum quidem est et ab honeste non recedit virum probum quandoque modesta hilaritate mulcere." "Policraticus," Book i. chap. viii., in "Opera Omnia," ed. Giles, Oxford, 1848, vol. iii. p. 42.

[743]C., xvi. 205.

[744]"De Mimo et Rege Francorum," in Wright, "Latin Stories," 1842, No. cxxxvii.

[745]Le roi demaund par amour:Ou qy estes vus, sire Joglour?E il respount sauntz pour:Sire, je su ou mon seignour.Quy est toun seignour? fet le Roy.Le baroun ma dame, par ma foy....Quei est le eve apelé, par amours?L'em ne l'apele pas, eynz vint tous jours.Concerning the horse:Mange il bien, ce savez dire.Oïl certes, bel douz sire;Yl mangereit plus un jour d'aveyneQue vus ne frez pas tote la semeyne.Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," vol. ii. p. 243.

[745]

Le roi demaund par amour:Ou qy estes vus, sire Joglour?E il respount sauntz pour:Sire, je su ou mon seignour.Quy est toun seignour? fet le Roy.Le baroun ma dame, par ma foy....Quei est le eve apelé, par amours?L'em ne l'apele pas, eynz vint tous jours.

Concerning the horse:

Mange il bien, ce savez dire.Oïl certes, bel douz sire;Yl mangereit plus un jour d'aveyneQue vus ne frez pas tote la semeyne.

Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," vol. ii. p. 243.

[746]"Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus," in prose, ed. Kemble, Ælfric Society, 1848, 8vo. See also the "estrif" between Joseph and Mary in "Cynewulf's Christ," ed. Gollancz, 1892, p. 17; above, p. 75.

[747]"The Owl and the Nightingale," ed. J. Stevenson, Roxburghe Club, 1838, 4to. "The Thrush and the Nightingale"; "Of the Vox and the Wolf" (see above, p.228); "The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools," in Hazlitt, "Remains of the early Popular Poetry of England," 1864, 4 vols. 8vo, vol. i. pp. 50, 58, 79.

[748]"Anonymi Petroburgensis Descriptio Norfolcensicum" (end of the twelfth century); "Norfolchiæ Descriptionis Impugnatio," in Latin verse, with some phrases in English, in Th. Wright, "Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems of the XIIth and XIIIth centuries," London, 1838, 8vo.

[749]"Harrowing of Hell." This work consists in a dramatic dialogue or scene, but it was not meant to be represented. Time of Henry III.; text in Pollard, "English Miracle Plays," Oxford, 1890, p. 166.

[750]This game is described in the (very coarse) fabliau of the "Sentier batu" by Jean de Condé, fourteenth century:De plusieurs deduis s'entremistrentEt tant c'une royne fistrentPour jouer au Roy qui ne ment.Ele s'en savoit finementEntremettre de commanderEt de demandes demander.Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," vol. iii. p. 248.

[750]This game is described in the (very coarse) fabliau of the "Sentier batu" by Jean de Condé, fourteenth century:

De plusieurs deduis s'entremistrentEt tant c'une royne fistrentPour jouer au Roy qui ne ment.Ele s'en savoit finementEntremettre de commanderEt de demandes demander.

Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," vol. iii. p. 248.

[751]"Prohibemus etiam clericis ne intersint ludis inhonestis, vel choreis, vel ludant ad aleas, vel taxillos; nec sustineant ludos fieri de Rege et Regina," &c. "Constitutiones Walteri de Cantilupo, Wigorniensis episcopi ... promulgatæ ...a.d.1240," art. xxxviii., in Labbe, "Sacrorum conciliorum ... Collectio," l. xxiii. col. 538.

[752]The two sorts are well described by Baudouin de Condé in his "Contes des Hiraus," thirteenth century. The author meets a servant and asks him questions about his master.Dis-moi, par l'âme de ton père,Voit-il volentiers menestreus?—Oïl voir, biau frère, et estre eusEn son hostel à giant solas....... Et quant avientC'aucuns grans menestreus là vient,Maistres en sa menestrandie,Que bien viele ou ki bien dieDe bouce, mesires l'ascouteVolenticis....Mais peu souvent i vient de teusMais des félons et des honteus,who speak but nonsense and know nothing, and who, however, receive bread, meat, and wine,... l'un por faire l'ivre,L'autre le cat, le tiers le sot;Li quars, ki onques rien ne sotD'armes s'en parole et raconteDe ce preu due, de ce preu conte."Dits et Contes de Baudouin de Condé," ed. Scheler, Brussels, 1866, 3 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p 154.

[752]The two sorts are well described by Baudouin de Condé in his "Contes des Hiraus," thirteenth century. The author meets a servant and asks him questions about his master.

Dis-moi, par l'âme de ton père,Voit-il volentiers menestreus?—Oïl voir, biau frère, et estre eusEn son hostel à giant solas....... Et quant avientC'aucuns grans menestreus là vient,Maistres en sa menestrandie,Que bien viele ou ki bien dieDe bouce, mesires l'ascouteVolenticis....Mais peu souvent i vient de teusMais des félons et des honteus,

who speak but nonsense and know nothing, and who, however, receive bread, meat, and wine,

... l'un por faire l'ivre,L'autre le cat, le tiers le sot;Li quars, ki onques rien ne sotD'armes s'en parole et raconteDe ce preu due, de ce preu conte.

"Dits et Contes de Baudouin de Condé," ed. Scheler, Brussels, 1866, 3 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p 154.

[753]"Ad quid illa vocis contractio et infractio? Hic succinit, ille discinit.... Aliquando, quod pudet dicere, in equinos hinnitus cogitur; aliquando virili vigore deposito in femineæ vocis gracilitates acuitur.... Videas aliquando hominem aperto ore quasi intercluso habitu expirare, non cantare, ac ridiculosa quadam vocis interceptione quasi minitari silentium; nunc agones morientium, vel extasim patientium imitari. Interim histrionicis quibusdam gestibus totum corpus agitatur, torquentur labia, rotant, ludunt humeri; et ad singulas quasque notas digitorum flexus respondet. Et hæc ridiculosa dissolutio vocatur religio!.... Vulgus ... miratur ... sed lascivas cantantium gesticulationes, meretricias vocum alternationes et infractiones, non sine cachinno risuque intuetur, ut eos non ad oratorium sed ad theatrum, nec ad orandum sed ad spectandum æstimes convenisse." "Speculum Chantatis," Book ii. chap. 23, in Migne's "Patrologia," vol. cxcv. col. 571.

[754]Latin text in "The Exempla ... of Jacques de Vitry," thirteenth century, ed. T. F. Crane, London, 1890, 8vo, p. 105 (No. ccl.), and in Th. Wright, "A Selection of Latin Stories," 1842, Percy Society, p. 16: "De Dolo et Arte Vetularum." French text in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," vol. ii., included into the "Castoiement d'un père à son fils," thirteenth century. English text in Th. Wright, "Anecdota Literaria," London, 1844, 8vo, p. 1; the title is in French: "Ci commence le fables et le cointise de dame Siriz."

[755]Text in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," London, 1841, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 145. "Hic incipit interludiam de Clerico and Puella."

[756]"Here bigynnis a tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge," end of fourteenth century, in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," vol. ii. p. 46. Elsewhere in the same treatise, "to pley in rebaudye" is opposed to "pley in myriclis," p. 49.

[757]"Ludi theatrales, etiam prætextu consuetudinis in ecclesiis vel per clericos fieri non debent." Decretal of Innocent III., year 1207, included by Gregory IX. in his "Compilatio." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," Leipzig, 1879, vol. ii. p. 453.

[758]"Constitutiones Walteri de Cantilupo,a.d.1240," in Labbe's "Sacrorum Conciliorum ... Collectio," vol. xxiii. col. 526.

[759]Wilkins, "Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ," London, 1737, 4 vols. fol., vol. i. p. 617, Nos. lxxiv., lxxv. The same prohibition is made by Walter de Chanteloup,ut supra, art. lv. The custom was a very old one, and existed already in Anglo-Saxon times; see "Ælfric's Lives of Saints," 1881, E.E.T.S., p. 461.

[760]"... Ne quis choreas cum larvis seu strepitu aliquo in ecclesiis vel plateis ducat, vel sertatus, vel coronatus corona ex folus arborum, vel florum vel aliunde composita, alicubi incedat ... prohibemus," thirteenth century, "Munimenta Academica," ed. Anstey, Rolls, 1868, p. 18.

[761]Decretal of Innocent III., reissued by Gregory IX. "In aliquibus anni festivitalibus, quæ continue natalem Christi sequuntur, diaconi, presbyteri ac subdiaconi vicissim insaniæ suæ ludibria exercere præsumunt, per gesticulationum suarum debacchationes obscœnas in conspectu populi decus faciunt clericale vilescere, quem potius illo tempore verbi Dei deberent prædicatione mulcere." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," vol. ii. p. 453.

[762]Thirteenth century. See Gaston Paris, "Romania," vol. xxi. p. 262. Songs of a much worse character were also sung at Christmas. To deter his readers from listening to any such Gascoigne writes (first half of the fifteenth century): "Cavete et fugite in hoc sacro festo viciosa et turpia, et præcipue cantus inhonestos et turpes qui libidinem excitant et provocant ... et ymagines imprimunt in mente quas expellere difficillimum est. Novi ego, scilicet Gascoigne, doctor sacræ paginæ qui hæc scripsi, unum magnum et notabilem virum talem cantum turpem in festo Natalis audivisse." He could never forget the shameful things he had heard, and fell on that account into melancholy, by which he was driven to death. "Loci e libro veritatum ... passages selected from Gascoigne's Theological Dictionary," ed. Thorold Rogers, Oxford, 1881, 4to. On the Christmas festivities at the University and on the "Rex Natalicius" (sixteenth century and before), see C. R. L. Fletcher, "Collectanea," Oxford, 1885, 8vo, p. 39.

[763]"Cum domus Dei, testaute propheta Filioque Dei, domus sit orationis, nefandum est eam in domum jocationis, scurrilitatis et nugacilatis convertere, locumque Deo dicatum diabolicis adinventionibus execrare; cumque circumcisio Domini nostri Jesu Christi prima fuerit nec modicum acerba ejusdem passio, signum quoque sit circumcisionis spiritualis qua cordium præputia tolluntur ... execrabile est circumcisionis Domini venerandam solemnitatem libidinosarum voluptatum sordibus prophanare: quapropter vobis mandamus in virtute obedientiæ firmiter injungentes, quatenus Festum Stultorum cum sit vanitate plenum et voluptatibus spurcum, Deo odibile et dæmonibus amabile, ne de cætero in ecclesia Lincolniensi, die venciandæ solemnitatis circumcisionis Domini permittatis fieri." "Epistolæ," ed. Luard, Rolls, 1861, p. 118, year 1236(?). Same defence for the whole diocese, p. 161.

[764]"Wardrobe Accounts," in "Archæologia," vol. xxvi. p. 342; "Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham," ed. Devon, 1835, p. xlvi; "Issues of the Exchequer," ed. Devon, p. 222, 6 Rich. II.

[765]"Inhibemus ne de cetero in festis Innocentium et Beate Marie Magdalene ludibria exerceatis consueta, induendo vos scilicet vestis secularium aut inter vos, sed cum secularibus, choreas ducendo, nec extra refectorium comedatis," &c. Eudes Rigaud, archbishop of Rouen, to the nuns of Villarciaux, thirteenth century. "Registrum Visitationum" ed. Bonnin, 1842, 4to, p. 44.

[766]"Historia Major," Rolls, vol. iii. p. 336.

[767]Matthew Paris,ibid.

[768]Described by Richard of Maidstone (d. 1396) in a Latin poem: "Richardi Maydiston de Concordia inter Regem Ricardum II. et civitatem London," in the "Political Poems and Songs" of Wright, Rolls, vol. i. p. 282.

[769]Entry of Isabeau of Bavaria into Paris, in 1384.

[770]On the popularity of Robin Hood in the fourteenth century, see above, p.224. In the fifteenth century he was the hero of plays performed during the May festivities: "Rece^d for the gathering of the May-play called Robin Hood, on the fair day, 19s." Accounts of the church of St. Lawrence at Reading, year 1499, in theAcademy, October 6, 1883, p. 231.

[771]"Quem quæritis in præsepe, pastores? Respondent: Salvatorem Christum Dominum." Petit de Julleville, "Histoire du Théâtre en France.—Les Mystères," 1880, vol. i. p. 25.

[772]Petit de Julleville,ibid., vol. i. p. 26.

[773]Same beginning and same gradual development: "Quem queritis in sepulchro o Christicole?—Jesum Nazarenum crucifixum o celicole.—Non est hic, surrexit sicut predixerat; ite nunciate quia surrexit. Alleluia." In use at Limoges, eleventh century. "Die lateinischen Osterfeiern, untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der liturgisch-dramatischen Auferstehungsfeier," by Carl Lange, Munich, 1887, 8vo, p. 22.

[774]"Ci comence l'estoire de Griselidis;" MS. fi. 2203, in the National Library, Paris, dated 1395, outline drawings (privately printed, Paris, 1832, 4to).—"Le Mistère du siège d'Orléans," ed. Guessard and Certain, Paris, 1862, 4to (Documents inédits).

[775]This story was very popular during the Middle Ages, in France and in England. It was,e.g., the subject of a poem in English verse, thirteenth century: "The Life of St. Katherine," ed. Einenkel, Early English Text Society, 1884, 8vo.

[776]"Vitæ ... viginti trium abbatum Sancti Albani," in "Matthæi Paris monachi Albanensis [Opera]," London, 1639-40, 2 vols. fol., vol. ii. p. 56 "Gaufridus decimus sextus [abbas]."

[777]Ibid., p. 64.

[778]He writes, twelfth century: "Londonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis, ludos habet sanctiores, representationes miraculorum...." "Descriptio nobilissimæ civitatis Londoniæ," printed with Stow's "Survey of London," 1599, 4to

[779]This can be inferred from the existence of that "estrif" the "Harrowing of Hell," written in the style of mysteries, which has come down to us, and belongs to that period. See above, p. 443. Religious dramas were written in Latin by subjects of the kings of England, and, among others, by Hilary, a disciple of Abélard, twelfth century, who seems to have been an Anglo-Norman; "Hilarii versus et Ludi," ed. Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1838. A few lines in French are mixed with his Latin.

[780]"Here bigynnis a tretise of miraclis pleyinge," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," London, 1842, vol. ii. p. 42; end of fourteenth century.

[781]"Item quod tabernas, spectacula aut alia loca inhonesta, seu ludos noxios at illicitos non frequentent, sed more sacerdotali se habeant et in gestu, ne ipsorum ministerium, quod absit, vituperio, scandalo vel despectui habeatur." Labbe, vol. xxvi. col. 767. The inhibition is meant for priests of all sorts: "presbyteri stipendarii aut alii sacerdotes, propriis sumptibus seu alias sustentati." Innocent III. and Gregory IX. had vainly denounced the same abuses, and tried to stop them: "Clerici officia vel commercia sæcularia non exerceant, maxime inhonesta. Mimis, joculatoribus et histrionibus non intendant. Et tabernas prorsus evitent, nisi forte causa necessitatis in itinere constituti." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," ii. p. 454.

[782]"Roberd of Brunne's Handlyng Synne (writtena.d.1303), with the French treatise on which it is founded, 'Le Manuel des Pechiez,' by William de Wadington," ed. Furnivall, Roxburghe Club, 1862, 4to, pp. 146 ff.

[783]Un autre folie apertUnt les fols clercs contrové,Qe "miracles" sunt apelé;Lur faces unt la déguiséPar visers, li forsené.

[783]

Un autre folie apertUnt les fols clercs contrové,Qe "miracles" sunt apelé;Lur faces unt la déguiséPar visers, li forsené.

[784]Fere poent representement,Mes qe ceo seit chastementEn office de seint égliseQuant hom fet la Deu servise,Cum Jesu Crist le fiz DeeEn sepulcre esteit posé,Et la resurrectiunPur plus aver devociun.

[784]

Fere poent representement,Mes qe ceo seit chastementEn office de seint égliseQuant hom fet la Deu servise,Cum Jesu Crist le fiz DeeEn sepulcre esteit posé,Et la resurrectiunPur plus aver devociun.

[785]Ki en lur jus se délitera,Chivals on harneis les aprestera.Vesture ou autre ournement,Sachez il fet folement.Si vestemens seient dediez,Plus grant d'assez est le pechez;Si prestre ou clerc les ust prestéBien dust estre chaustié.

[785]

Ki en lur jus se délitera,Chivals on harneis les aprestera.Vesture ou autre ournement,Sachez il fet folement.Si vestemens seient dediez,Plus grant d'assez est le pechez;Si prestre ou clerc les ust prestéBien dust estre chaustié.

[786]Toulmin Smith, "English Gilds," London, 1870, E.E.T.S., p. 139.

[787]The principal monuments of the English religious stage are the following: "Chester Plays," ed. Th. Wright, Shakespeare Society, 1843-7, 2 vols., 8vo (seem to have been adapted from the French, perhaps from an Anglo-Norman original, not recovered yet)."The Pageant of the Company of Sheremen and Taylors in Coventry ... together with other Pageants," ed. Th. Sharp, Coventry, 1817, 4to. By the same: "A Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries anciently performed at Coventry ... to which are added the Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors Company," Coventry, 1825, 4to (illustrated)."Ludus Coventriæ," ed. Halliwell, Shakespeare Society, 1841, 8vo (the referring of this collection to the town of Coventry is probably wrong)."Towneley Mysteries" (a collection of plays performed at Woodkirk, formerly Widkirk, near Wakefield; see Skeat's note inAthenæum, Dec. 3; 1893) ed. Raine, Surtees Society, Newcastle, 1836, 8vo."York Plays, the plays performed by the crafts or mysteries of York on the day of Corpus Christi, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith, Oxford, 1885, 8vo."The Digby Mysteries," ed. Furnivall, New Shakspere Society, 1882, 8vo."Play of Abraham and Isaac" (fourteenth century), in the "Boke of Brome, a commonplace book of the xvth century," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith. 1886, 8vo.—"Play of the Sacrament" (story of a miracle, a play of a type scarce in England), ed. Whitley Stokes, Philological Society Transactions, Berlin, 1860-61, 8vo, p. 101.—"A Mystery of the Burial of Christ"; "A Mystery of the Resurrection": "This is a play to be played on part on gudfriday afternone, and the other part opon Esterday afternone," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," 1841-3, vol. ii. pp. 124 ff., from a MS. of the beginning of the sixteenth century.—See also "The ancient Cornish Drama," three mysteries in Cornish, fifteenth century, ed. Norris, Oxford, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo (with a translation).—For extracts, see A. W. Pollard, "English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes," Oxford, 1890, 8vo.On the question of the formation of the various cycles of English mysteries and the way in which they are connected, see A. Hohlfield, "Die altenglischen kollektivmisterien," in "Anglia," xi. p. 219, and Ch. Davidson, "Studies in the English Mystery Plays, a thesis," Yale University, 1892, 8vo.

"The Pageant of the Company of Sheremen and Taylors in Coventry ... together with other Pageants," ed. Th. Sharp, Coventry, 1817, 4to. By the same: "A Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries anciently performed at Coventry ... to which are added the Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors Company," Coventry, 1825, 4to (illustrated).

"Ludus Coventriæ," ed. Halliwell, Shakespeare Society, 1841, 8vo (the referring of this collection to the town of Coventry is probably wrong).

"Towneley Mysteries" (a collection of plays performed at Woodkirk, formerly Widkirk, near Wakefield; see Skeat's note inAthenæum, Dec. 3; 1893) ed. Raine, Surtees Society, Newcastle, 1836, 8vo.

"York Plays, the plays performed by the crafts or mysteries of York on the day of Corpus Christi, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith, Oxford, 1885, 8vo.

"The Digby Mysteries," ed. Furnivall, New Shakspere Society, 1882, 8vo.

"Play of Abraham and Isaac" (fourteenth century), in the "Boke of Brome, a commonplace book of the xvth century," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith. 1886, 8vo.—"Play of the Sacrament" (story of a miracle, a play of a type scarce in England), ed. Whitley Stokes, Philological Society Transactions, Berlin, 1860-61, 8vo, p. 101.—"A Mystery of the Burial of Christ"; "A Mystery of the Resurrection": "This is a play to be played on part on gudfriday afternone, and the other part opon Esterday afternone," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," 1841-3, vol. ii. pp. 124 ff., from a MS. of the beginning of the sixteenth century.—See also "The ancient Cornish Drama," three mysteries in Cornish, fifteenth century, ed. Norris, Oxford, 1859, 2 vols. 8vo (with a translation).—For extracts, see A. W. Pollard, "English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes," Oxford, 1890, 8vo.

On the question of the formation of the various cycles of English mysteries and the way in which they are connected, see A. Hohlfield, "Die altenglischen kollektivmisterien," in "Anglia," xi. p. 219, and Ch. Davidson, "Studies in the English Mystery Plays, a thesis," Yale University, 1892, 8vo.

[788]"York Plays," pp. xxxiv, xxxvii.

[789]This preliminary note is in Latin: "Sit ipse Adam bene instructus quando respondere debeat, ne ad respondendum nimis sit velox aut nimis tardus, nec solum ipse, sed omnes persone sint. Instruantur ut composite loquentur; et gestum faciant convenientem rei de qua loquuntur, et, in rithmis nec sillabam addant nec demant, sed omnes firmiter pronuncient." "Adam, Mystère du XII^e. Siècle," ed. Palustre, Paris, 1877, 8vo.

[790]"Digby Mysteries," p. xix.

[791]"The Pageants ... of Coventry," ed. Sharp.

[792][So called] "Coventry Mysteries," Trial of Christ.

[793]The French drama written on this subject is lost (it is, however, mentioned in the catalogue of a bookseller of the fifteenth century; see "Les Mystères," by Petit de Julleville, vol. ii. chap, xxiii., "Mystères perdus"); but the precision of details in the miniature is such that I had no difficulty in identifying the particular version of the story followed by the dramatist. It is an apocryphal life of Apollinia, in which is explained how she is the saint to be applied to when suffering toothache. This episode is the one Fouquet has represented. Asked to renounce Christ, she answers: "'Quamdiu vivero in hac fragili vita, lingua mea et os meum non cessabunt pronuntiare laudem et honorem omnipotentis Dei.' Quo audito jussit [imperator] durissimos stipites parari et in igne duros fieri et præacutos ut sic dentes ejus et per tales stipites læderent, radices dentium cum forcipe everentur radicitus. In illa hora oravit S. Apollinia dicens: 'Domine Jesu Christe, precor te ut quicumque diem passionis meæ devote peregerint ... dolorem dentium aut capitis nunquam sentiant passiones.'" The angels thereupon (seated on wooden stairs, in Fouquet's miniature) come down and tell her that her prayer has been granted. "Acta ut videntur apocrypha S. Apolloniæ," in Bollandus, "Acta Sanctorum," Antwerp, vol. ii. p. 280, under the 9th February.See also the miniatures of a later date (sixteenth century) in the MS. of the Valenciennes Passion, MS. fi. 15,236 in the National Library, and the model made after one of them, exhibited in the Opéra Museum, Paris.

See also the miniatures of a later date (sixteenth century) in the MS. of the Valenciennes Passion, MS. fi. 15,236 in the National Library, and the model made after one of them, exhibited in the Opéra Museum, Paris.

[794]What the place is—... Vous le povez congnoistrePar l'escritel que dessus voyez estre.Prologue of a play of the Nativity, performed at Rouen, 1474; Petit de Julleville, "Les Mystères," vol. i. p. 397.

[794]What the place is—

... Vous le povez congnoistrePar l'escritel que dessus voyez estre.

Prologue of a play of the Nativity, performed at Rouen, 1474; Petit de Julleville, "Les Mystères," vol. i. p. 397.

[795]"Digby Mysteries," ed. Furnivall, p. 127.

[796]"Mystère du vieil Testament," Paris, 1542, with curious cuts, "pour plus facile intelligence." Many other editions; one modern one by Baron J. de Rothschild, Société des Anciens Textes Français, 1878 ff.

[797]"Chester Plays," ii.

[798]"Adoncques doit Adam couvrir son humanité, faignant avoir honte. Icy se doit semblablement vergongner la femme et se musser de sa main." "Mystère du vieil Testament."

[799]Reproduced by Mr. R. T. Blomfield, in thePortfolio, May, June, July, 1889.

[800]Diabolus.Jo vis Adam, mais trop est fols.Eva.Un poi est durs.Diabolus.Il serra mols;Il est plus durs que n'est un fers ...Tu es fieblette et tendre chose,Et es plus fresche que n'est rose;Tu es plus blanche que cristal,Que nief qui chiet sor glace en val.Mal cuple en fist le criatur;Tu es trop tendre et il trop dur ...Por ço fait bon se treire à tei;Parler te voil.

[800]

Diabolus.Jo vis Adam, mais trop est fols.Eva.Un poi est durs.Diabolus.Il serra mols;Il est plus durs que n'est un fers ...Tu es fieblette et tendre chose,Et es plus fresche que n'est rose;Tu es plus blanche que cristal,Que nief qui chiet sor glace en val.Mal cuple en fist le criatur;Tu es trop tendre et il trop dur ...Por ço fait bon se treire à tei;Parler te voil.

[801]All my smale instrumentes is putt in my pakke.("Digby Mysteries," p. 11.)

[801]

All my smale instrumentes is putt in my pakke.("Digby Mysteries," p. 11.)

All my smale instrumentes is putt in my pakke.

("Digby Mysteries," p. 11.)

[802]"Towneley Mysteries."

[803]Ibid.—Magnus Herodes.

[804]"Towneley Mysteries."—Processus Talentorum.

[805]"Digby Mysteries."—Candlemas Day, p. 3.

[806]"Digby Mysteries."—Mary Magdalen, p. 55.

[807]Ibid., p. 90.

[808]"Chester Plays."—Salutation and Nativity.

[809]"Digby Mysteries," p. 56.

[810]"Digby Mysteries," pp. 74, 75. After living wickedly Mary Magdalen repents, comes to Marseilles, converts the local king and performs miracles. This legend was extremely popular; it was told several times in French verse during the thirteenth century; see A. Schmidt, "Guillaume, le Clerc de Normandie, insbesondere seine Magdalenenlegende," in "Romanische Studien" vol. iv. p. 493; Doncieux, "Fragment d'un Miracle de Sainte Madeleine, texte restitué," in "Romania," 1893, p. 265. There was also a drama in French based on the same story: "La Vie de Marie Magdaleine ... Est à xxii. personages," Lyon, 1605, 12mo (belongs to the fifteenth century).

[811]"York Plays," viii., ix. See also,e.g., as specimens of comical scenes, the discussions between the quack and his man in the "Play of the Sacrament": "Y^e play of y^e conversyon of ser Jonathas y^e Jewe by myracle of y^e blyssed sacrament." Master Brundyche addresses the audience as if he were in front of his booth at a fair. He will cure the diseases of all present. Be sure of that, his man Colle observes,What dysease or syknesse y^t ever ye have,He wyll never leve yow tylle ye be in your grave.Ed. Whitley Stokes, Philological Society, Berlin, 1860-61, p. 127 (fifteenth century).

What dysease or syknesse y^t ever ye have,He wyll never leve yow tylle ye be in your grave.

Ed. Whitley Stokes, Philological Society, Berlin, 1860-61, p. 127 (fifteenth century).

[812]"Chester Plays."—Salutation and Nativity.

[813]"Towneley Mysteries."—Secunda Pastorum.

[814]See, for instance, "Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages," ed. G. Paris and U. Robert, Société des Anciens Textes, 1876-91, 6 vols. 8vo.

[815]In Méon's edition, Paris, 1813, vol. ii. pp. 326 ff.

[816]Plays of this kind were written (without speaking of many anonyms) by Medwall: "A goodly Enterlude of Nature," 1538, fol.; by Skelton, "Magnyfycence," 1531, fol.; by Ingelend, "A pretie Enterlude called the Disobedient Child," printed about 1550: by John Bale, "A comedye concernynge thie Lawes," London, 1538, 8vo (against the Catholics); all of them lived under Henry VIII., &c. The two earliest English moralities extant are "The Pride of Life" (in the "Account Roll of the priory of the Holy Trinity," Dublin, ed. J. Mills, Dublin, 1891, 8vo), and the "Castle of Perseverance" (an edition is being prepared, 1894, by Mr. Pollard for the Early English Text Society), both of the fifteenth century; a rough sketch showing the arrangement of the representation of the "Castle" has been published by Sharp, "A Dissertation on the Pageants at Coventry," plate 2.

[817]"Interlude of the four Elements," London, 1510(?), 8vo.

[818]See, for example, the mournful passages in the "Disobedient Child," the "Triall of Treasure," London, 1567, 4to, and especially in "Everyman," ed. Goedeke, Hanover, 1865, 8vo, written at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII.

[819]Song of the Clown in "Twelfth Night," iv. 3.

[820]"Pantagruel," iii. 37.

[821]Furnivall, "Digby Mysteries," p. xxvii.

[822]"York Plays," p. xvi.

[823]Petit de Julleville, "Les Mystères," 1880, vol. i. pp. 423 ff.

[824]They continued later in some towns, at Newcastle, for example, where they survived till 1598. At this date "Romeo" and the "Merchant of Venice" had already appeared. There were even some performances at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

[825]A drawing of this fresco, now destroyed, has been published by Sharp: "Hell-mouth and interior, from the chapel at Stratford-upon-Avon"; "A Dissertation on the pageants ... at Coventry," 1825, plate 6.

CHAPTER VII.

THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

In the autumn of the year 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, the son of the Thames Street vintner, universally acknowledged the greatest poet of England, had been borne to his tomb in the transept of Westminster Abbey. Not far from him sleep the Plantagenet kings, his patrons, Edward III. and Richard II. wrapped in their golden robes. With them an epoch has drawn to its close; a new century begins, and this century is, for English thought, a century of decline, of repose, and of preparation.

So evident is the decline that even contemporaries perceive it; for a hundred years poets unceasingly mourn the death of Chaucer. They are no longer able to discover new ways; instead of looking forward as their master did, they turn, and stand with eyes fixed on him, and hands outstretched towards his tomb. An age seeking its ideal in the epoch that has just preceded it is an age of decline; so had been in past times the age of Statius, who had professed such a deep veneration for Virgil.

For a century thus the poets of England remain with their gaze fastened on the image of the singer they last heard, and at each generation their voice becomes weaker,like an echo that repeats another echo. Lydgate imitates Chaucer, and Stephen Hawes imitates Lydgate.[826]

Around and below them countless rhymers persist in following the old paths, not knowing that these paths have ceased to lead anywhere, and that the time has come to search for new ones. The most skilful add to the series of English fabliaux, borrowed from France; others put into rhyme, disfiguring them as they go along, romances of chivalry, lives of the saints, or chronicles of England and Scotland. Very numerous, nearly all devoid of talent, these patient, indefatigable word-joiners write in reality, they too, as M. Jourdain, "de la prose sans le savoir."[827]

These poets of the decline write for a society itself on the decline, and all move along, lulled by the same melody to a common death, out of which will come a new life that they can never know. The old feudal and clerical aristocracy changes, disappears, and decays; many of the great houses become extinct in the wars with France, or in the fierce battles of the Two Roses; the people gain by what the aristocracy lose. The clergy who keep aloof from military conflicts are also torn by internecine quarrels; they live in luxury; abuses publicly pointed out are not reformed; they are an object of envy to the prince and of scorn to the lower classes; they find themselves in the most dangerous situation, and do nothing to escape from it. Of warnings they have no lack; they receive no new endowments; they slumber; at the close of the century nothing will remain to them but an immense and frail dwelling, built on the sand, that a storm can blow over.

How innovate when versifying for a society about to end? Chaucer's successors do not innovate; they fasten their work to his works, and patch them together; they build in the shadow of his palace. They dream the same dreams on a May morning; they erect new Houses of Fame; they add a story to the "Canterbury Tales."[828]

A gift bestowed on them by a spiteful fairy makes the matter worse: they are incredibly prolific. All they write is poor, and the spiteful fairy, spiteful to us, has granted them the faculty to write thus, without any trouble, for ever. Up to this day Lydgate's works have baffled the attempts of the most enterprising literary societies; the Early English Text Society has some time ago begun to publish them; if it carries out the undertaking, it will be a proof of unparalleled endurance.

Lydgate and Hoccleve are the two principal successors of Chaucer. Lydgate, a monk of the monastery of Bury St. Edmund's,[829]a worthy man, it seems, if ever there was one, and industrious, and prolific, above all prolific, writes according to established standards, tales, lays,[830]fabliaux satires,[831]romances of chivalry, poetical debates, ballads of former times,[832]allegories, lives of the saints, love poems, fables[833]; five thousand verses a year on an average, and being precocious as well as prolific, leaves behind him at his death a hundred and thirty thousand verses, merelycounting his longer works. Virgil had only written fourteen thousand.

Back to Index Next