and the most facred characters of the old and new teftaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into paradife. The composers 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 history, 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 gospel, 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;
We ar like to be wery or we come at the fame.
I wole with a good will, bleffyd wyff Mary;
Now go we forth then in Goddys name, &c.

A little before the refurrection.

Nune dormient milites, & veniet anima Chrifti de inferno, cum Adam & Eva, Abraham, John Baptist, et aliis.

Anima Cbrifti. 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

Fro wo to welth now fhall ye go,

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 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 these 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 Atrength and favage valour."

I may add, that these representations 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 Mystery, in which was represented the court of the king of heaven.

Thefe religious dramas were ufually reprefented on holy feftivals 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,

And hath affignyd the day of dome;
Kepe you redyly to this grett aflyse,

Both gret and small, all and fum,

And of your anfwer you now advise,

What you fhall fay when that yow com," &c.

Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 8vo. 1699, pp. 15, 17, 18, 19.

* Mff. Harl. 2124. 2013.

9 Hiftriomaftix, 4to. 1633, P. 112.

fome

fome of the scenes 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, representing 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 mydft of the roofe of the great ile, and by a longe cenfer2 which defcendinge out of the fame place almoft to the verie grounde, was fwinged up and downe at fuch 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 pleafant perfume of fuch fwete thinges as burned therein. With the like doome-fhews they ufed everie where to furnish fondrye parts of theire church fervice, as by their spectacles of the nativitie, paffion, and afcenfion 3," &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 downe, and senfed bim."

3 Warton's HIST. OF E. P. Vol. I. p. 240. VOL. I. PART II.

с

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 Myftery 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 earliest 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 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 matter from the creation of the world," and probably concluded with the day of judgment, in the prefence of moft of the nobility and gentry of England.

We are indebted to Mr. Warton for some curious circumftances relative to thefe Miracle-plays, which " арpear 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, efpecially thofe of the fcriptural kind: and their conftant practice in fhews, proceffions, and vocal musick, 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,

Cambridgeshire, which is an accompt of the expences and receptions for acting the play of SAINT GEORGE at Baffingborne, on the feaft of faint Margaret, in the year 1511. They collected upwards of four pounds in twenty-feven neighbouring parishes for furnishing the play. They difburfed about two pounds in the reprefentation. Thefe disbursements are to four minstrels, or waits, of Cambridge, for three days, vs. vjd. To the players, in bread and ale, iijs. ijd. To the garnement-man for garnements and propyrts, that is, for dreffes, decorations, and implements, and for play-books, xxs. To John Hobard, brotherhoode preefte, that is, a priest of the guild in the church, for the play-book, ijs. viiid. For the crofte, or field in which the play was exhibited, js. For propyrte-making, or furniture, js. ivd. For fish and bread, and to fetting up the ftages, ivd. For painting three fanchoms and four tormentors, words which I do not understand, but perhaps fantoms and devils. The reft was expended for a feast on the occafion, in which are recited Four chicken for the gentilmen, ivd.' It appears by the manufcript of the Coventry plays, that a temporary scaffold only was erected for these performances."

"The property-room," as Mr. Warton has obferved, «is yet known at our theatres."

The following lift of the properties used in a Mystery formed on the ftory of Tobit in the Old Testament, which was exhibited in the Broadgate, Lincoln, in July 1563, (6 Eliz.) appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1787:

"Lying at Mr. Norton's boufe in tenure of William Smart. "First Hell-mouth, with a nether chap. Item, A prifon, with a Sovering. It. Sarah's chamber."

"Remaining in St. Swithin's church.

"It. A great Idol. It. A tomb with a covering. It. The cyty of Jerufalem with towers and pinacles. It. The cyty of Rages, with towers and pinacles. It. The city of Nineveh. It. The kings palace of Nineveh. It. Old Tobyes houfe. It. The kyngs palace at Laches. It. A firmament with a firey cloud, and a double cloud, in the cuftody of Thomas Fulbeck, Alderman."

6 HIST. OF E. P. Vol. III. p. 326. "Strype, under the year 1559, fays, that after a grand feast at Guildhall," the fame day was a fcaffold fet up in the hall for a play." Ann. Ref. I. 197. edit. 1725.