below. I am tempted to tranfcribe a few lines from the third of these pageants, The Deluge, as a fpecimen of of the ancient Mysteries. at the expence of the different trading companies of that city. The Fall of Lucifer, by the Tanners. The Creation, by the Drapers. The Deluge, by the Dyers. Abraham, Melchifedech, and Lot, by the Barbers. Mofes, Balak, and Balaam, by the Cappers. The Salutation and Nativity, by the Wrightes. The Shepherds feeding their focks by night, by the Painters and Glaziers. The three Kings, by the Vintners. The Oblation of the three Kings, by the Mercers. The killing of the Innocents, by the Goldfmiths. The Purification, by the Blackfmiths, The Temptation, by the Butchers. The laft Supper, by the Bakers. The bind Men and Lazarus, by the Glovers. Jefus and the Lepers, by the Corvesarys. Chrift's Paffion, by the Bowyers, Fletchers, and Ironmongers. Defcent into Hell, by the Cooks and Innkeepers. The Refurrection, by the Skinners. The Afcenfion, by the Taylors. The Election of S. Mathias, fending of the Holy Ghoft, &c. by the Fishmongers. Antichrift, by the Clothiers. Day of Judgement, by the Websters. The reader will perhaps fmile at fome of thefe combinations. This is the fubftance and order of the former part of the play. God enters creating the world; he breathes life into Adam, leads him into Paradife, and opens his fide while fleeping. Adam and Eve appear naked, and not ashamed, and the old ferpent enters lamenting his fall. He converfes with Eve. She eats of the forbidden fruit, and gives part to Adam. They propofe, according to the stagedirection, to make themfelves fubligacula a foliis quibus tegamus pudenda. Cover their nakednefs with leaves, and converfe with God. God's curfe. The ferpent exit hiffing. They are driven from Paradife by four angels and the cherubim with a flaming fword. Adam appears digging the ground, and Eve fpinning. Their children Cain and Abel enter: the former kills his brother. Adam's lamentation. Cain is banished," &c. Warton's HIST. OF E. P. I. 243. Mr. Warton obferves in a note in his first volume, p. 180, that " if it be true that thefe Myfteries were compofed in the year 1328, and there was fo much difficulty in obtaining the Pope's permiffion that they might be presented in English, a prefumptive proof arifes, that all our Myfteries before that period were in Latin. Thefe plays will therefore have the merit of being the first English interludes." Polydore Virgil mentions in his book de Rerum Inventoribus, Lib. v. c. 2, that the Mysteries were in his time in English. "Solemus vel more prifcorum fpectacula edere populo, ut ludos, venationes, -recitare comædias, item in templis vitas divorum ac martyria repræfentare, in quibus, ut cunctis par fit voluptas, qui recitant, vernaculam linguam tantum ufurpant." The first three books of Polydore's work were published in 1499; in 1517, at which time he was in England, he added five more. The The firft fcenical direction is,-" Et primo in alique fupremo loco, five in nubibus, fi fieri poterat, loquatur DEUS ad Noe, extra archam exiftente cum tota familia fua." Then the ALMIGHTY, after expatiating on the fins of mankind, is made to say: Man that I made I will deftroye, Therefore, Noe, my servant free, Litill chambers therein thou make, To anoynte yt through all thy mighte, &c. After fome dialogue between Noah, Sem, Ham, Japhet, and their wives, we find the following ftagedirection: Then Noe with all his family fhall make a figne as though the wrought uppon the fhippe with divers inftruments, and after that God fhall speake to Noe: Noe, take thou thy meanye, And in the fhipp hie that ye be, By live in that thou bring, &c. "Then Noe fhall goe into the arke with all his familye, his wife excepte. The arke must be boarded round round aboute, and uppon the bordes all the beaftes and fowles hereafter rehearsed must be painted, that there wordes maye agree with the pictures." SEM. Sier, here are lions, libardes, in, After all the beafts and fowls have been described, Noah thus addresses his wife: NOE. Wife, come in, why ftandes thou there? For fear left that wee drowne. WIFE. Yea, fir, fet up your faile, I wil not oute of this toune; They loved me full well by Chrift: And get thee a newe wife. At length Sem and his brethren put her on board by force, and on Noah's welcoming her, "Welcome, wife, into this boate," he gives him a box on the ear: adding, "Take thou that for thy note." Many licentious pleasantries, as Mr. Warton has obferved, were fometimes introduced in thefe religious representations. "This might imperceptibly lead the way to fubjects entirely profane, and to comedy; and perhaps earlier than is imagined. In a Mystery of 2 It is obvious that the transcriber of these ancient Mysteries, which appear to have been written in 1328, reprefents them as they were exhibited at Chefter in 1600, and that he has not adhered to the original orthography. the The Maffacre of the Holy Innocents 3, part of the subject of a facred drama given by the English fathers at the famous Council of Conftance, in the year 1417, a low buffoon of Herod's court is introduced, defiring of his lord to be dubbed a knight, that he might be properly qualified to go on the adventure of killing the mothers of the children of Bethlehem. This tragical bufinefs is treated with the most ridiculous levity. The good women of Bethlehem attack our knight-errant with their fpinning-wheels, break his head with their diftaffs, abufe him as a coward and a difgrace to chivalry, and fend him to Herod as a recreant champion with much ignominy. It is certain that our ancestors intended no fort of impiety by these monftrous and unnatural mixtures. Neither the writers nor the fpectators faw the impropriety, nor paid a separate attention to the comick and the ferious part of these motley fcenes; at least they were perfuaded that the folemnity of the fubject covered or excufed all incongruities. They had no juft idea of decorum, confequently but little fenfe of the ridiculous: what appears to us to be the highest burlesque, on them would have made no fort of impreffion. We must not wonder at this, in an age when courage, devotion, and ignorance, compofed the character of European manners; when the knight going to a tornament, firft invoked his God, then his mistress, and afterwards proceeded with a fafe confcience and great refolution to engage his antagonist. In these Mysteries I have fometimes feen grofs and open obfcenities. In a play of The Old and New Teftament Adam and Eve are both exhibited on the stage naked 4, and converfing about their nakedness; this very pertinently introduces the next scene; in which they have coverings of fig-leaves. This extraordinary fpectacle was beheld by a numerous affembly of both fexes with great compofure: they had the authority of fcripture for fuch a 3 Mfs. Digby 134. Bibl. Bodl. 4 This kind of primitive exhibition was revived in the time of King James the First, feveral perfons appearing almost entirely naked in one of the Masks, which was reprefented before him, his queen, and a large affembly of the ladies of the court. It is, if I reccollect right, defcribed by Winwood. representation reprefentation, and they gave matters juft as they found them in the third chapter of Genefis. It would have been abfolute herefy to have departed from the facred text in perfonating the primitive appearance of our first parents, whom the fpectators fo nearly refembled in fimplicity; and if this had not been the cafe, the dramatifts were ignorant what to reject and what to retains." "I must not omit," adds Mr. Warton", "an anecdote entirely new, with regard to the mode of playing the Myfteries at this period, [the latter part of the fifteenth century,] which yet is perhaps of much higher antiquity. In the year 1487, while Henry the feventh kept his refidence at the caftle of Winchester, on occafion of the birth of prince Arthur, on a Sunday,during the time of dinner, he was entertained with a religious drama called Chrifti Defcenfus ad inferos, or Chrift's defcent into Hell. It was reprefented by the Pueri Eleemofynarii, or choir-boys, of Hyde Abbey, and Saint Swithin's priory, two large monafteries at Winchester. This is the only proof I have ever seen of choir- boys acting in the old Myfteries: nor do I recollect any other inftance of a royal dinner, even on a feftival, accompanied with this fpecies of diverfion'. The story of this interlude, in which the chief characters were Chrift, Adam, Eve, Abraham, and John the Baptift, was not uncommon in the ancient religious drama, and I believe made a part of what is called the LUDUS PASCHALIS, or Eafter Play. It occurs in the Coventry Plays acted on Corpus Chrifti day, and in the Whitfun 5 Warton's HIST. OF ENGLISH POETRY. I. pp. 242, et seq. 6 HIST. OF E. P. II. p. 206. 7 "Except, that on the first funday of the magnificent marriage of king James of Scotland with the princess Margaret of England, daughter of Henry the feventh, celebrated at Edinburgh with high fplendour, "after dynnar a MORALITE was played by the faid Master Inglyfhe and hys companions in the presence of the kyng and qweene." On one of the preceding days, "after foupper the kynge and qweene beynge togader in hyr grett chamber, John Inglyth and hys companions plaid." This was in the year 1503. Apud Leland, coll. iii. p. 300. Append. edit. 1770." See an account of the Coventry Plays in Stevens's Monafticon, Tol, 1. p. 238. "Sir W. Dugdale, fpeaking of the Gray-friars or Francifcans |