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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. "

"And in Pierce Plowman's Creed, a piece perhaps prior to Chaucer, a friar Minorite mentions these 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 lasted several 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 skill on thefe occafions. As now but few large towns existed, no publick spectacles or popular amusements were eftablifhed; 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 thefe 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 attrac tive, 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 idleness 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 feftivals 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 hiftory of human manners with great comprehenfion and fagacity."

"Voltaire's theory on this fubject is alfo 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 reprefented, 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

"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 altreis, 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 gospel." Warton's Hift of E. P. I.

for

for this purpose, which have not furvived those inimitable compofitions over which they triumphed for a time: one, however, his tragedy called Xplos at XW?, 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 fpiritual 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 reprefentation 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 supposed 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 Ass, 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 fpectacles partaking of the fame spirit of licentioufnefs.-To thofe who are accuftomed to contemplate the great picture of human follies which the unpolished ages of Europe hold up to our view, it will not appear furprifing, 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 moft ridiculous kind, fullied with impurities,

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impurities, and expressed in the language of the loweft farce."

"On the whole, the Mysteries appear to have originated among the ecclefiafticks; and were most probably first acted with any degree of form by the monks. This was certainly the cafe in the English Monasteries". 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 thefe 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 respects resembled the ecclefiaftical bodies "."

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 moft 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 monasteries 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, II. pp. 366, et seq. 9 Mfs. Digby, 133. Bibl. Bodl. "Exhibited at Chefter in the year 1327,

Mís. Harl. 2013, &c.

at

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 flocks 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 Blacksmiths. The Temptation, by the Butchers. The last Supper, by the Bakers. The bind Men and Lazarus, by the Glovers. Jefus and the Lepers, by the Corvefarys. 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 these combinations. This is the fubstance 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 themselves Jubligacula a foliis quibus tegamus pudenda. Cover their nakedness with leaves, and converfe with God, God's curfe. The ferpent exit hiffing. They are driven from Para. dife 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 dirhculty in obtaining the Pope's permiflion that they might be prefented 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

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