Whitfun-plays at Chester, where it is called the HAR ROWING OF HELL. The representation is, Chrift entering hell triumphantly, delivering our first parents, and Francifcans at Coventry, fays, before the fuppreffion of monafteries this city was very famous for the pageants that were played therein upon Corpus-Chrifti day; which pageants being acted with mighty ftate and reverence by the friers of this houfe, had theatres for the feveral scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheeles, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of the fpectators. An ancient manufcript of the fame is now to be feen in the Cottonian Library, fub. effig. Vefp. D. 8. Sir William cites this manufcript by the title of Ludus Coventria; but in the printed catalogue of that library, p. 113, it is named thus: A collection of plays in old English metre; h. e. Dramata facra, in quibus exbibentur biftoriæ Veteris & N. Teftamenti, introdu&is quafi in fcenam perfonis illic memoratis, quas fecum invicem colloquentes pro ingenio fingit poeta. Videntur olim coram populo, five ad inftruendum, five ad placendum, a fratribus mendicantibus repræfentata. It appears by the latter end of the prologue, that these plays or interludes were not only played at Coventry, but in other towns and places upon occafion. And poffibly this may be the fame play which Stow tells us was played in the reign of King Henry IV. which lafted for eight days. The book feems 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 fo many feveral acts or scenes,) representing all the hiftories of both teftaments, from the creation to the chufing of St. Mathias to be an apoftle. The ftories of the New Teftament are more largely expreffed, viz. The Annunciation, Nativity, Vifitation; but more especially all matters relating to the Paffion very particularly, the Refurrection, Afcenfion, the choice of St. Mathias: after which is alfo reprefented the Assumption, and last Judgment. All these things were treated of in a very homely ftile, as we now think, infinitely below the dignity of the fubject: But it feems the guft 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 eafieft handle: For example, in the fcene relating to the Vifitation: Maria. But husband of on thyng pray you moft mekeley, I have knowing that our cofyn Elizabeth with childe is, If ought we myth comfort her, it wer to me blys. Jofeph. A Gods fake, is the with child, fche? Than will her husband Zachary be mery. In Montana they dwelle, fer hence, fo mory the, and the most facred characters of the old and new teftaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into paradife.-The compofers of the Mysteries did not think the plain and probable events of the new teftament fufficiently marvellous for an audience who wanted only to be furprised. They frequently felected their materials from books which had more of the air of romance. The subject of the Mysteries just mentioned was borrowed from the Pfeudo-Evangelium, or the fabulous Gospel, ascribed to Nicodemus: a book, which together with the numerous apocryphal narratives, containing infinite innovations of the evangelical hiftory, and forged at Conftantinople by the early writers of the Greek church, gave birth to an endless variety of legends concerning the life of Chrift and his apoftles; and which, in the barbarous ages, was better efteemed than the genuine gofpel, on account of its improbabilities and abfurdities.' "But whatsoever was the fource of these exhibitions, they were thought to contribute so much to the information It is hence, I trowe, myles two a fifty; Nunc dormient milites, & veniet anima Chrifti de inferno, cum Adam & Eva, Abraham, John Baptist, et aliis. Anima Chrifti. Come forth, Adam, and Eve with the, And all my fryndes that herein be, In paradys come forth with me In blyffe for to dwelle. 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, Now shall we dwellyn in blyfsful place, &c. The laft fcene or pageant, which reprefents the day of Judgment, begins thus: Michael, tion and inftruction of the people on the most important fubjects of religion, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who reforted peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitfun week at Chefter, beginning with the creation, and ending with the general judgment; and this indulgence was feconded by the bishop of the diocefe, who granted forty days of pardon the pope at the fame time denouncing the fentence of damnation on all thofe incorrigible finners who prefumed to disturb or interrupt the due celebration of thefe pious fports*. It is certain that they had their ufe, not only in teaching the great truths of fcripture to men who could not read the bible, but in abolishing the barbarous attachment to military games, and the bloody contentions of the tornament, which had fo long prevailed as the fole fpecies of popular amufement. Rude and even ridiculous as they were, they foftened the manners of the people, by diverting the public attention to fpectacles in which the mind was concerned, and by creating a regard for other arts than thofe of bodily ftrength and favage valour." I may add, that thefe reprefentations were fo far from being confidered as indecent or profane, that even a fupreme pontiff, Pope Pius the Second, about the year 1416, compofed and caufed to be acted before him on Corpus Chrifti day, a Myftery, in which was reprefented the court of the king of heaven. Thefe religious dramas were ufually reprefented on holy festivals in or near churches. "In feveral of our old fcriptural plays," fays Mr. Warton, "we see Michael. Surgite, All men aryfe, Venite ad Judicium; For now is fet the High Juftice, Both gret and small, all and fum, And of your anfwer you now advise, What you shall fay when that yow com," &c. Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 8vo. 1699, pp. 15, 17, 18, 19. • M. Harl. 2124. 2013. 9 Hiftriomafix, 4to. 1633, p. 112. fome fome of the fcenes directed to be reprefented cum cantu et organis, a common rubrick in a miffal. That is, because they were performed in a church where the choir affifted. There is a curious paffage in Lambarde's Topographical Dictionary', written about the year 1570, much to our purpose, which I am therefore tempted to tranfcribe. "In the dayes of ceremonial religion, they used at Wytney (in Oxfordshire) to fet fourthe yearly in maner of a fhew or interlude, the refurrection of our Lord, &c. For the which purpofes, and the more lyvely heareby to exhibite to the eye the hole action of the refurrection, the prieftes garnished out certain fmall puppettes, reprefenting the perfons of Chrift, the Watchman, Marie, and others; amongeft the which, one bore the parte of a wakinge watchman, who efpiinge Chrifte to arrife, made a continual noyce like to the found that is caufed by the metynge of two ftickes, and was therefore commonly called Jack Snacker of Wytney. The like toye I myself, beinge then a childe, once fawe in Powles church, at London, at a feaft of Whitfuntyde; wheare the comynge downe of the Holy Ghoft was fet forthe by a white pigeon, that was let to fly out of a hole that yet is to be fene in the mydf of the roofe of the great ile, and by a longe cenfer which defcendinge out of the fame place almost to the verie grounde, was fwinged up and downe at fuch a lengthe, that it reached with thone fwepe almost to the weft-gate of the churche, and with the other to the quyre ftaires of the fame; breathinge out over the whole churche and companie a moft pleafant perfume of fuch fwete thinges as burned therein. With the like doome-fhews they used everie where to furnish fondrye parts of theire church fervice, as by their spectacles of the nativitie, paffion, and afcenfion," &c. 1 P. 459, edit. 1730. 4to. 2 This may ferve to explain a very extraordinary paffage 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 dorone, and cenfed bim." 3 Warton's HIST. OF E. P. Vol. I. p. 240. VOL. I. PART II. C In In a preceding paffage Mr. Warton has mentioned that the finging boys of Hyde Abbey and St. Swithin's Priory at Winchefter performed a Mystery before king Henry the Seventh in 1487; adding, that this is the only inftance he has met with of choir-boys performing in Myfteries; but it appears from the accompts of various monafteries that this was a very ancient practice, probably co-eval with the earlieft attempts at dramatick reprefentations. In the year 1378, the fcholars, or chorifters of Saint Paul's cathedral, prefented a petition. to king Richard the fecond, praying his Majesty to prohibit fome ignorant and unexperienced perfons from acting the HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, to the great prejudice of the clergy of the church, who had expended confiderable fums for a publick prefent ation of that play at the enfuing Christmas. About twelve years afterwards, the Parish Clerks of London, as Stowe in. forms us, performed fpiritual plays at Skinner's Well for three days fucceffively, in the prefence of the king, queen, and nobles of the realm. And in 1409, the tenth year of king Henry IV. they acted at Clerkenwell for eight days fucceffively a play, which was matter from the creation of the world," and probably concluded with the day of judgment, in the prefence of most of the nobility and gentry of England*. We are indebted to Mr. Warton for some curious circumftances relative to thefe Miracle-plays, which " appear in a roll of the Churchwardens of Baffingborne in 4 Probably either the Chefter or Coventry Myfteries." In the ignorant ages the Parish-clerks of London might justly be confidered as a literary fociety. It was an effential part of their profeffion not only to fing, but to read; an accomplishment almost wholly confined to the clergy; and, on the whole, they seem to come under the charac ter of a religious fraternity. They were incorporated into a guild or fellowship by king Henry the third about the year 1240, under the patronage of faint Nicholas.- -Their profeffion, employment, and character, naturally dictated to this fpiritual brotherhood the reprefentation of plays, especially thofe of the fcriptural kind: and their conftant practice in thews, proceffions, and vocal mufick, eafily accounts for their addrefs in detaining the best company which England afforded in the fourteenth century, at a religious farce, for more than one week." Warton's HIST, or E. P. Vol. II. p. 396. Cambridgeshire, |