and in the Whitfun-plays at Chefter, where it is called the HARROWING OF HELL. The reprefentation is, Chrift entering hell triumphantly, deliver And plays in old English metre; h. e. Dramata facra, in quibus exhibentur biftoria Veteris N. Teftamenti, introductis 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. poffibly this may be the fame play which Stow tells us was played in the reign of 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 gefticulations, (which were as fo many feveral acts or fcenes,) reprefenting all the hiftories of both teftaments, from the creation to the chufing of St. Mathias to be an apostle. The stories of the New Teftament are more largely expreffed, viz. The Annunciation, Nativity, Vifitation; but more efpecially all matters relating to the Paffion very particularly, the Refurrection, Afcenfion, the choice of St. Mathias: after which is also represented the Affumption, and laft Judgement. All these things were treated of in a very homely ftyle, as we now think, infinitely below the dignity of the fubject: But it seems the guft of that age was not nice and delicate in these matters; the plain and incurious judgement of our ancestors, being prepared with favour, and taking every thing by the right and easiest handle: For example, in the fcene relating to the Vifitation: 6 • Maria. But husband of on thyng pray you moft mekeley, If ought we myth comfort her, it wer to me blys. Than will her husband Zachary be mery. • In Montana they dwelle, fer hence, fo mory the, It is hence, I trowe, myles two a fifty; A little before the refurrection. Nunc dormient milites, & veniet anima Chrifti de inferno, cum Adam & Eva, Abraham, John Baptist, et aliis. ing our first parents, and the moft facred characters of the old and new teftaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into paradife. The compofers of the Myfteries 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 fubject of the Mysteries juft mentioned was borrowed from the Pfeudo-Evangelium, or the fabulous Gospel, afcribed 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 Anima Chrifti. Come forth, Adam, and Eve with the, In paradys come forth with me In blyffe for to dwelle. The fende of hell that is yowr foo, He fhall 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 trefpace, Now fhall we dwellyn in blyfsful place,' &c. "The last scene or pageant, which reprefents the day of Judge ment, begins thus: • Michael. Surgite, All men aryfe, • Venite ad Judicium; For now is fet the High Juftice, And hath affignyd the day of dome; Kepe you redyly to this grett affyfe, • Both gret and finall, all and fum, And of your anfwer you now advife, What you shall fay when that yow com," &c. Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 8vo, 1699, pp. 15, 17, 18, 19. than the genuine gofpel, on account of its improbabilities and abfurdities." "But whatsoever was the fource of these exhibitions, they were thought to contribute fo much to the information 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 judgement; 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 interrupt the due celebration of these pious fports." It is certain that they had their use, 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 amusement. Rude and even ridiculous as they were, they softened 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 supreme pontiff, Pope Pius the Second, about the year 1416, compofed and caufed to be acted before him on Corpus Chrifti day, a Mystery, in which was reprefented the court of the king of heaven. 6 MSS. Harl. 2124, 2013. 7 Hiftriomaflix, 4to. 1633, p. 112. These religious dramas were ufually reprefented on holy festivals in or near churches. "In feveral of our old fcriptural plays," fays Mr. Warton, "we fee 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 transcribe. 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 purposes, and the more lyvely heareby to exhibite to the eye the hole action of the refurrection, the priestes garnished out certain fmall puppettes, reprefenting the perfons of Christ, the Watchman, Marie, and others; amongeft the which, one bore the parte of a waking watchman, who efpiinge Chrifte to arrife, made a continuall 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 faw 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 mydft of the roofe of the great ile, and by a longe cenfer' which defcendinge out of the fame place P. 459, edit.,1730, 4to. 9 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 downe, and cenfed him." almost to the verie grounde, was fwinged up and downe at such a lengthe, that it reached with thone fwepe, almoft 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 pleasant 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 fpectacles of the nativitie, paffion, and afcenfion," &c. In a preceding paffage Mr. Warton has men- ' tioned that the finging boys of Hide 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 Mysteries; but it appears from the accompts of various monafteries that this was a very ancient practice, probably coeval 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 Second, praying his Majefty 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 prefentation of that play at the enfuing Christmas. About twelve years afterwards, the Parish Clerks of London, as Stowe informs 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 2 Warton's Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 240. |