and in the Whitsun-plays at Chester, where it is called the HARROWING OF HELL. The representa plays or interludes were not only played at Coventry, but in other towns and places upon occasion. And possibly this may be the same play which Stow tells us was played in the reign of Henry IV. which lasted for eight days. The book seems by the character and language to be at least 300 years old. It begins with a general prologue, giving the arguments of forty pageants or gesticulations, (which were as so many several acts or scenes,) representing all the histories of both testaments, from the creation to the choosing of St. Mathias to be an apostle. The stories of the New Testament are more largely expressed, viz. The Annunciation, Nativity, Visitation; but more especially all matters relating to the Passion very particularly, the Resurrection, Ascension, the choice of St. Mathias: after which is also represented the Assumption, and last Judgment. All these things were treated of in a very homely style, as we now think, infinitely below the dignity of the subject: But it seems the gust of that age was not nice and delicate in these matters; the plain and incurious judgment of our ancestors, being prepared with favour, and taking every thing by the right and easiest handle: For example, in the scene relating to the Visitation: 'Maria. But husband of on thyng pray you most mekeley, I have knowing that our cosyn Elizabeth with childe is, If ought we myth comfort her, it wer to me blys. 'Joseph. A Gods sake, is she with child, sche? Than will her husband Zachary be mery. In Montana they dwelle, fer hence, so mory the, It is hence, I trowe, myles two a fifty; 'We are like to be wery or we come at the same. A little before the resurrection. • Nunc dormient milites, & veniet anima Christi de inferno, cum Adam & Eva, Abraham, John Baptist, et aliis. 'Anima Christi. Come forth, Adam, and Eve with the, And all my fryndes that herein be, In paradys come forth with me In blysse for to dwelle. tion is, Christ entering hell triumphantly, delivering our first parents, and the most sacred characters of the old and new testaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into paradise. The composers of the Mysteries did not think the plain and probable events of the new testament sufficiently marvellous for an audience who wanted only to be surprised. They frequently selected their materials from books which had more of the air of romance. The subject of the Mysteries just mentioned was borrowed from the Pseudo-Evangelium, or the fabulous Gospel, ascribed to Nicodemus: a book, which together with the numerous apocryphal narratives, containing infinite innovations of the evangelical history, and forged at Constantinople by the early writers of the Greek church, gave birth to an endless variety of legends concerning the life of Christ and his apostles; and which, in the barbarous ages, was better esteemed than the genuine gospel, on account of its improbabilities and absurdities." The fende of hell that is yowr foo, He shall be wrappyd and woundyn in woo: With myrth ever mor to melle. • Adam. I thank, the, Lord, of thy grete grace, That now is forgiven my gret trespace, 'Now shall we dwellyn in blyssful place,' &c. "The last scene or pageant, which represents the day of Judgement, begins thus: Michael. Surgite, All men aryse, Venite ad Judicium; For now is set the High Justice, And of your answer you now advise, • What you shall say when that yow com," &c. Historia Histrionica, 8vo. 1699, pp. 15, 17, 18, 19. "But whatsoever was the source of these exhibitions, they were thought to contribute so much to the information and instruction of the people on the most important subjects of religion, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who resorted peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitsun week at Chester, beginning with the creation, and ending with the general judgement; and this indulgence was seconded by the bishop of the diocese, who granted forty days of pardon: the pope at the same time denouncing the sentence of damnation on all those incorrigible sinners who presumed to interrupt the due celebration of these pious sports. It is certain that they had their use, not only in teaching the great truths of scripture to men who could not read the Bible, but in abolishing the barbarous attachment to military games, and the bloody contentions of the fornament, which had so long prevailed as the sole species of popular amusement. Rude and even ridiculous as they were, they softened the manners of the people, by diverting the public attention to spectacles in which the mind was concerned, and by creating a regard for other arts than those of bodily strength and savage valour." I may add, that these representations were so far from being considered as indecent or profane, that even a supreme pontiff, Pope Pius the Second, about the year 1416, composed and caused to be acted before him on Corpus Christi day, a Mystery, in which was represented the court of the king of heaven.1 9 MSS. Harl. 2124, 2013. 1 Histriomastix, 4to. 1633, p. 112. These religious dramas were usually represented on holy festivals in or near churches. "In several of our old scriptural plays," says Mr. Warton, 66 we see some of the scenes directed to be represented cum cantu et organis, a common rubrick in a missal. That is, because they were performed in a church where the choir assisted. There is a curious passage in Lambarde's Topographical Dictionary, written about the year 1570, much to our purpose, which I am therefore tempted to transcribe. In the dayes of ceremonial religion, they used at Wytney (in Oxfordshire) to set fourthe yearly in maner of a shew or interlude, the resurrection of our Lord, &c. For the which purposes, and the more lyvely heareby to exhibite to the eye the hole action of the resurrection, the priestes garnished out certain small puppettes, representing the persons of Christ, the Watchman, Marie, and others; amongest the which, one bore the parte of a waking watchman, who espiinge Christe to arrise, made a continuall noyce, like to the sound that is caused by the metynge of two stickes, and was therefore commonly called Jack Snacker of Wytney. The like toye I myself, beinge then a childe, once saw in Powles Church, at London, at a feast of Whitsuntyde; wheare the comynge downe of the Holy Ghost was set forthe by a white pigeon, that was let to fly out of a hole that yet is to be sene in the mydst of the roofe of the great ile, and by a longe censer3 which descendinge out of the same place P. 459, edit. 1730, 4to. This may serve to explain a very extraordinary passage in Stowe's Annales, p. 690, edit. 1605: "And on the morrowe hee [King Edward the Fourth] went crowned in Paul's church in London, in the honor of God and S. Paule, and there an Angell came downe, and censed him." almost to the verie grounde, was swinged up and downe at such a lengthe, that it reached with thone sweepe, almost to the west-gate of the churche, and with the other to the quyre staires of the same; breathinge out over the whole churche and companie a most pleasant perfume of such swete thinges as burned therein. With the like doome-shews they used everie where to furnish sondrye parts of theire church service, as by their spectacles of the nativitie, passion, and ascension, &c. 994 In a preceding passage Mr. Warton has mentioned that the singing boys of Hyde Abbey and St. Swithin's Priory at Winchester, performed a Mystery before King Henry the Seventh in 1487; adding, that this is the only instance he has met with of choir-boys performing in Mysteries; but it appears from the accompts of various monasteries that this was a very ancient practice, probably coeval with the earliest attempts at dramatick representations. In the year 1378, the scholars, or choristers of Saint Paul's cathedral, presented a petition to King Richard the Second, praying his Majesty to prohibit some ignorant and unexperienced persons from acting the HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, to the great prejudice of the clergy of the church, who had expended considerable sums for a publick presentation of that play at the ensuing Christmas. About twelve About twelve years afterwards, the Parish Clerks of London, as Stowe informs us, performed spiritual plays at Skinner's Well for three days successively, in the presence of the King, Queen, and nobles of the realm. And in 1409, the tenth year of King Henry IV. they acted • Warton's History of English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 240. |