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to the best accounts compofed his very curious work in 1174, about four years after the murder of his patron Archbishop Becket, and in the twenty-first year of the reign of King Henry the fecond, mentions, that " London, for its theatrical exhibitions, has religious plays, either the representations of miracles wrought by holy confeffors, or the fufferings of martyrs 4."

Mr. Warton has remarked, that "in the time of Chaucer Plays of Miracles appear to have been the common refort of idle goffips in Lent:"

4" Lundonia pro fpectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis fcenicis, ludos habit fanctiores, repræfentationes miraculorum quæ fancti confeffores operati funt, feu repræfentationes paffionum, quibus claruit conftantia martyrum." Defcriptio nobiliffimæ civitatis Lundoniæ. Fitz-Stephen's very curious defcription of London is a portion of a larger work, entitled Vita fani Thoma, Archiepifcopi et Martyris, i. e. Thomas a Becket. It is afcertained to have been written after the murder of Becket in the year 1170, of which Fitz-Stephen was an ocular witnefs, and while King Henry II. was yet living. A modern writer with great probability supposes it to have been compofed in 1174, the author in one paffage mentioning that the church of Saint Paul's was formerly metropolitical, and that it was thought it would become fo again, "fhould the citizens return into the island." In 1174 King Henry II. and his fons had carried over with them a confiderable number of citizens to France, and many English had in that year alfo gone to Ireland. See Differtation prefixed to FitzStephen's Description of London, newly tranflated, &c. 4to. 1772, p. 16.-Near the end of his Defcription is a paffage which ascertains it to have been written before the year 1182: "Lundonia et modernis temporibus reges illuftros magnificofque peperit; imperatricem Matildam, Henricum regem tertium, et beatum Thomam" [Thomas Becket]. Some have supposed that instead of tertium we ought to read fecundum, but the text is undoubtedly right; and by tertium, FitzStephen must have meant Henry, the fecond fon of Henry the Second, who was born in London in 1156-7, and being heir apparent, after the death of his elder brother William, was crowned king of England in his father's life-time, on the 15th of July, 1170. He was frequently ftyled rex filius, rex juvenis, and fometimes he and his father were denominated Reges Anglia. The young king, who occafionally exercifed all the rights and prerogatives of royalty, died in 1182. Had he not been living when Fitz-Stephen wrote, he would probably have added nuper defunum. Neither Henry II. nor Henry III. were born in London. See the Differtation above.cited, p. 12.

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"Therfore made I my visitations
"To vigilies and to proceffions;

"To prechings eke, and to thife pilgrimages,
"To playes of miracles, and mariages, &c.

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"And in Pierce Plowman's Creed, a piece perhaps prior to Chaucer, a friar Minorite mentions thefe Miracles as not lefs frequented than market-towns and fairs:

"We haunten no taverns, ne hobelen about,

"At markets and Miracles we meddle us never."

The elegant writer, whofe words I have juft quoted, has given the following ingenious account of the origin of this rude fpecies of dramatick entertainment:

"About the eighth century trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, which lafted feveral days. Charlemagne eftablished many great marts of this fort in France, as did William the Conqueror, and his Norman fucceffors, in England. The merchants who frequented thefe fairs in numerous caravans or companies, employed every art to draw the people together. They were therefore accompanied by jugglers, minftrels, and buffoons; who were no lefs interested in giving their attendance, and exerting all their fkill on thefe occafions. As now but few large towns existed, no publick spectacles or popular amufements were eftablished; and as the fedentary pleafures of domeftick life and private fociety were yet unknown, the fair-time was the feafon for diverfion. In proportion as these fhews were attended and encouraged, they began to be fet off with new decorations and improvements: and the arts of buffoonery being rendered ftill more attractive, by extending their circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people. By degrees the clergy obferving that the entertainments of dancing, mufick, and mimickry, exhibited at these protracted annual celebrities, made the people lefs religious, by promoting idlenefs and a love of feftivity, profcribed

5 The Wif of Bathes Prologue, v. 6137. Tyrwhitt's edit.

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these sports, and excommunicated the performers. But finding that no regard was paid to their cenfures, they changed their plan, and determined to take these recreations into their own hands. They turned actors; and inftead of profane mummeries, prefented ftories taken from legends or the bible. This was the origin of facred comedy. The death of Saint Catharine, acted by the monks of faint Dennis, rivalled the popularity of the profeffed players. Mufick was admitted into the churches, which ferved as theatres for the reprefentation of holy farces. The festivals among the French, called La fete de Foux, d l'Ane, and des Innocens, at length became greater favourites, as they certainly were more capricious and abfurd, than the interludes of the buffoons at the fairs. These are the ideas of a judicious French writer now living, who has investigated the history of human manners with great comprehenfion and fagacity."

"Voltaire's theory on this fubject is also very ingenious, and quite new. Religious plays, he fuppofes, came originally from Conftantinople; where the old Grecian ftage continued to flourish in fome degree, and the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were represented, till the fourth century. About that period, Gregory Nazianzen, an archbishop, a poet, and one of the fathers of the church, banished pagan plays from the ftage at Conftantinople, and introduced ftories from the old and new Teftament. As the ancient Greek tragedy was a religious fpectacle, a tranfition was made on the fame plan; and the choruffes were turned into Christian hymns. Gregory wrote many facred dramas

6" At Conftantinople" (as Mr. Warton has elsewhere observed,) "it feems that the ftage flourished much, under Juftinian and Theodora, about the year 540: for in the Bafilical codes we have the oath of an altrefs, μη αναχωρείν της πορνείας. Tom. VII. p. 682. edit. Fabrot. Græco-Lat. The ancient Greek fathers, particularly faint Chryfoftom, are full of declamation against the drama; and complain, that the people heard a comedian with much more pleasure than a preacher of the gofpel." Warton's Hift of E. P. I. 244. n.

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for this purpose, which have not furvived those inimitable compofitions over which they triumphed for a time: one, however, his tragedy called Xplos arxw", or Chrift's Paffion, is ftill extant. In the prologue it is faid to be an imitation of Euripides, and that this is the first time the Virgin Mary had been introduced on the ftage. The fashion of acting spiritual dramas, in which at first a due degree of method and decorum was preferved, was at length adopted from Conftantinople by the Italians; who framed, in the depth of the dark ages, on this foundation, that barbarous fpecies of theatrical representation called MYSTERIES, or facred comedies, and which were foon after received in France. This opinion will acquire probability, if we confider the early commercial intercourfe between Italy and Conftantinople and although the Italians, at the time when they may be fuppofed to have imported plays of this nature, did not understand the Greek language, yet they could understand, and confequently could imitate, what they faw."

"In defence of Voltaire's hypothefis, it may be further obferved, that The feaft of fools and of the Afs, with other religious farces of that fort, fo common in Europe, originated at Conftantinople. They were inftituted, although perhaps under other names, in the Greek Church, about the year 990, by Theophylact, patriarch of Conftantinople, probably with a better defign than is imagined by the ecclefiaftical annalists; that of weaning the minds of the people from the pagan ceremonies, by the fubftitution of chriftian spectacles partaking of the fame fpirit of licentioufnefs.-To thofe who are accustomed to contemplate the great picture of human follies which the unpolished ages of Europe hold up to our view, it will not appear furprising, that the people who were forbidden to read the events of the facred hiftory in the bible, in which they were faithfully and beautifully related, fhould at the fame time be permitted to fee them reprefented on the ftage, difgraced with the groffeft improprieties, corrupted with inventions and additions of the most ridiculous kind, fullied with impurities,

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impurities, and expreffed in the language of the lowest farce."

"On the whole, the Mysteries appear to have originated among the ecclefiafticks; and were moft probably first acted with any degree of form by the monks. This was certainly the cafe in the English Monasteries7. I have already mentioned the play of Saint Catharine performed at Dunftable Abbey by the novices in the eleventh century, under the fuperintendance of Geoffrey a Parifian ecclefiaftick: and the exhibition of the Paffion by the mendicant friers of Coventry and other places. Inftances have been given of the like practice among the French. The only perfons who could now read, were in the religious focieties; and various circumftances, peculiarly arifing from their fituation, profeffion, and inftitution, enabled the Monks to be the fole performers of these reprefentations."

"As learning encreased, and was more widely diffeminated, from the monafteries, by a natural and easy tranfition, the practice migrated to schools and univerfities, which were formed on the monaftick plan, and in many refpects resembled the ecclefiaftical bodies "."

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Candlemas Day, or The Slaughter of the Innocents, written by Ihan Parfre in 1512, Mary Magdalene, produced in the fame year, and The Promifes of God, written by John Bale, and printed in 1538, are curious fpecimens of this early fpecies of drama. But the most ancient as well as most complete collection of this kind is, The Chefter Myfteries, which were written by Ralph Higden, a Monk of the Abbey of Chefter, about the year 1328', of which a particular account will be found below.

7❝In fome regulations given by Cardinal Wolfey to the monafteries of the Canons regular of Saint Auftin, in the year 1519, the brothers are forbidden to be lufores aut mimici, players or mimicks. But the prohibition means that the monks fhould not go abroad to exercise these arts in a fecular and mercenary capacity. See Annal. Burtonenfes, p.437." In 1589, however, an injunction made in the MEXICAN COUNCIL was ratified at Rome, to prohibit all clerks from playing in the Mysteries even on Corpus Chrifti day. See HIST. OF E. P. II. 201.

8 Warton's HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY, 11. pp. 366, et seq. 9 Mfs. Digby, 133. Bibl. Bodl.

Mis. Harl. 2013, &c. "Exhibited at Chefter in the year 1327,

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