A Literary History of the English People Part 55

[780] "Here bigynnis a tretise of miraclis pleyinge," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliquiae Antiquae," 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 saecularia non exerceant, maxime inhonesta. Mimis, joculatoribus et histrionibus non intendant. Et tabernas prorsus evitent, nisi forte causa necessitatis in itinere const.i.tuti." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," ii. p. 454.

[782] "Roberd of Brunne's Handlyng Synne (written A.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 apert Unt les fols clercs controve, Qe "miracles" sunt apele; Lur faces unt la deguise Par visers, li forsene.

[784]

Fere poent representement, Mes qe ceo seit chastement En office de seint eglise Quant hom fet la Deu servise, c.u.m Jesu Crist le fiz Dee En sepulcre esteit pose, Et la resurrectiun Pur plus aver devociun.

[785]

Ki en lur jus se delitera, Chivals on harneis les aprestera.

Vesture ou autre ournement, Sachez il fet folement.

Si vestemens seient dediez, Plus grant d'a.s.sez est le pechez; Si prestre ou clerc les ust preste Bien dust estre chaustie.

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

[787] The princ.i.p.al 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 (ill.u.s.trated).

"Ludus Coventriae," 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 in _Athenaeum_, 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, "Reliquiae Antiquae," 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. x.x.xiv, x.x.xvii.

[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 p.r.o.nuncient."

"Adam, Mystere du XIIe. Siecle," ed. Pal.u.s.tre, 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 Mysteres," by Pet.i.t de Julleville, vol. ii. chap, xxiii., "Mysteres 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 p.r.o.nuntiare laudem et honorem omnipotentis Dei.' Quo audito jussit [imperator] durissimos stipites parari et in igne duros fieri et praeacutos ut sic dentes ejus et per tales stipites laederent, radices dentium c.u.m forcipe everentur radicitus. In illa hora oravit S. Apollinia dicens: 'Domine Jesu Christe, precor te ut quic.u.mque diem pa.s.sionis meae devote peregerint ...

dolorem dentium aut capitis nunquam sentiant pa.s.siones.'" 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. Apolloniae," 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 Pa.s.sion, MS. fi. 15,236 in the National Library, and the model made after one of them, exhibited in the Opera Museum, Paris.

[794] What the place is--

... Vous le povez congnoistre Par l'escritel que dessus voyez estre.

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

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

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

[797] "Chester Plays," ii.

[798] "Adoncques doit Adam couvrir son humanite, faignant avoir honte.

Icy se doit semblablement vergongner la femme et se musser de sa main."

"Mystere du vieil Testament."

[799] Reproduced by Mr. R. T. Blomfield, in the _Portfolio_, 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 co fait bon se treire a 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.