FELLOWSHIP, KINDRED, GOODS, or Riches, but they successively renounce and forsake him. In this disconsolate state he betakes himself to GooD-DEDES, who, after upbraiding him with his long neglect of her*, introduces him to her sister KNOWLEDGE, and she leads him to the "holy man CONFESSION,” who appoints him penance: this he inflicts upon himself on the stage, and then withdraws to receive the sacraments of the priest. On his return he begins to wax faint, and after STRENGTH, BEAUTY, DISCRETION, and FIVE WITS † have all taken their final leave of him, gradually expires on the stage; Good-Dedes still accompanying him to the last. Then an AUNGEL descends to sing his requiem : and the epilogue is spoken by a person, called DocTOUR, who recapitulates the whole, and delivers the moral,

"This memoriall men may have in mynde, "Ye herers, take it of worth old and yonge, "And forsake pryde, for he disceyveth you in thende "And remembre Beautè, Five Witts, Strength and Discrecion,

"They all at last do Every-Man forsake;
"Save his Good Dedes there dothe he take:

*Those above-mentioned are male characters.

+ i. e. The Five Senses. These are frequently exhibited as five distinct personages upon the Spanish stage (see Riccoboni, p. 98.); but our moralist has represented them all by one character.

"But

But beware, for and they be small,

.“ Before God he hath no helpe at all.” &c.

From this short analysis it may be observed, that Every-Man is a grave solemn piece, not without some rude attempts to excite terror and pity, and therefore may not improperly be referred to the class of tragedy. It is remarkable that in this old simple drama, the fable is conducted upon the strictest model of the Greek tra→ gedy. The action is simply one, the time of action is that of the performance, the scene is never changed, nor the stage ever empty. EVERY-MAN, the hero of the piece, after his first appearance never withdraws, except when he goes out to receive the sacraments, which could not be well exhibited in publick; and during his absence KNOWLEDGE descants on the excellence and power of the priesthood, somewhat after the manner of the Greek chorus. And indeed, except in the circumstance of Every-Man's expiring on the stage, the Sampson Agonistes of Milton is hardly formed on a severer plan *.

The other play is entitled Hick-Scorner †, and bears no distant resemblance to comedy; its chief aim seems

* See more of EVERY-MAN, in vol. ii. Pref, to B. II Of the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Note,

+ Emprynted by me Wynkyn de Worde, no date; in 4to. black letter. This Play has also been reprinted by Mr. HAWKINS in his " Origin of the English Drama.” Vol, i, p. 69.

to be to exhibit characters and manners, its plot being much less regular than the foregoing. The prologue is spoken by PITY represented under the character of an aged pilgrim, he is joined by CONTEMPLACYON and PERSEVERANCE, two holy men, who after lamenting the degeneracy of the age, declare their resolution of stemming the torrent. Pity then is left upon the stage, and presently found by FREWYLL, representing a lewd debauchee, who, with his dissolute companion IMAGINACION, relate their manner of life, and not without humour describe the stews and other places of base resort. They are presently joined by HICK-SCORNER, who is drawn as a libertine returned from travel, and agreeably to his name scoffs at religion. These three are described as extremely vicious, who glory in every act of wickedness: at length two of them quarrel, and PITY endeavours to part the fray; on this they fall upon him, put him in the stocks, and there leave him. Pity then descants in a kind of lyric measure on the profligacy of the age, and in this situation is found by Perseverance and Contemplacion, who set him at liberty, and advise him to go in search of the delinquents. As soon as he is gone, Frewill appears again; and, after relating in a very comic manner some of his rogueries and escapes from justice, is rebuked by the two holy men, who, after a long altercation, at length convert him and his libertine companion Imaginacion from their vicious course of life and then the play ends with a few verses from Perseverance by way of epilogue. This and every Morality

Morality I have seen, conclude with a solemn prayer. They are all of them in rhyme; in a kind of loose stanza, intermixed with distichs.

It would be needless to point out the absurdities in the plan and conduct of the foregoing play: they are evidently great. It is sufficient to observe, that,

bating the moral and religious reflection of PITY, &c. the piece is of a comic cast, and contains a humorous display of some of the vices of the age. Indeed, the author has generally been so little attentive to the allegory, that we need only substitute other names to his personages, and we have real characters and living

manners.

We see, then, that the writers of these Moralities were upon the very threshold of real Tragedy and Comedy; and, therefore, we are not to wonder that Tragedies and Comedies, in form, soon after took place, especially as the revival of learning about this time, brought them acquainted with the Roman and Grecian models.

II. At what period of time the Mysteries and Moralites had their rise, it is difficult to discover. Holy'plays, representing the miracles and sufferings of the saints, appear to have been no novelty in the reign of Henry II. and a lighter sort of interludes were not then unknown*. In Chaucer's time "Plays

of

*See Fitz-Stephens's description of London, preserved by Stow. Londonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis, ludos habet sandtiores, representationes miraculorum,

of Miracles" in Lent, were the common resort of idle gossips *. Towards the latter end of Henry the VIIth's reign, Moralities were so common, that John Rastel, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, conceived a design of making them the vehicle of science and natural philosophy. With this view he published “ A new interlude and a mery of the nature of the iiij elements, declarynge many proper points of phylosophy naturall, and of dyvers straunge landyst, &c.

It

&c. He is thought to have written in the reign of Henry II. and to have died in that of Richard I. It is true, at the end of his book we find mentioned Henricum regem tertium; but this is, doubtless, Henry the Second's son, who was crowned during the life of his father, in 1170, and is generally distinguished as Rex juvenis, Rex filius, and sometimes they were jointly named Reges Angliæ. From a passage in his Chapter De Religione, it should seem that the body of St. Thomas Becket was just then a new acqui sition to the church of Canterbury.

* See Prologue to Wife of Bath's Tale, v. 338. Urry's edition.

+ Mr. Garrick has an imperfect copy (Old Plays, i, vol. 3.), The Dramatis Personæ are, "The Messengere [or Prologue] Nature naturate. Humanytè. Studyous Desire, "Sensuall Appetyte. The Taverner. Experyence. Yg

86

noraunce. - (Also, yf ye lyste, ye may brynge in a dys"gysynge.)" Afterwards follows a table of the matters handled in the interlude. Among which are "Of certeyn "conclusions prouvynge the yert he must nedes be rounde, "and that it hengyth in the myddes of the fyrmament,

"and