Chapter XXV: Humanism and Mediaevalism (12)

[194] At Arles it was the sixth _lectio_ at Matins on Christmas day (Sepet, xxviii. 2); at Rome the fourth lesson at Matins on Christmas eve (Martene, iii. 31); at Rouen it was read at Matins two days earlier (Martene, iii. 34); in the _Sarum Breviary_, i. cxxxv, it makes the fourth, fifth, and sixth _lectiones_ at Matins on the fourth Sunday in Advent.

[195] _Bucol._ iv. 7.

[196] Eusebius, _Orat. Const. Magn. ad Sanctorum Coetum_, c. 18 (_P.G._ xx. 1288). On the _Iudicii Signum_ and the _Dit des quinze Signes_ (Text in Grass, _Adamsspiel_, 57) derived from it, cf. Sepet, xxviii. 8; Du Méril, 185. According to Martene, iii. 34, the _Versus Sibyllae_ were often sung at Matins on Christmas day, apparently apart from the _sermo_. Thus at Limoges they were sung after the sixth _responsorium_.

[197] Sepet, xxviii. 13; cf. p. 5.

[198] Text in Du Méril, 179; Coussemaker, 11; Wright, 60; from _Bibl. Nat. Lat._ 1139 (eleventh or twelfth century). Weber, 51, gives an interesting account of the _Prophetae_ in art, and points out that the play seems to have influenced such representations in Italy early in the eleventh century.

[199] Text in U. Chevalier, _Ordinaires de l’Église de Laon_, xxxvi, 385, from _Laon MS._ 263 (thirteenth century _Trophonarium_). It is headed ‘Ordo Prophetarum.’

[200] Text in Gasté, 4, from _Rouen MS._ Y. 110 (fourteenth-century _Ordinarium_). The opening is ‘Nota, Cantor; si _Festum Asinorum_ fiat, processio ordinetur post Terciam. Si non fiat Festum, tunc fiat processio, ut nunc praenotatur. Ordo _Processionis Asinorum_ secundum Rothomagensem usum. Tercia cantata, paratis Prophetis iuxta suum ordinem, fornace in medio navis ecclesiae lintheo et stuppis constituta, processio moveat de claustro, et duo clerici de secunda sede, in cappis, processionem regant, hos versus canentes: _Gloriosi et famosi_.... Tunc processio in medio ecclesiae stet.’ At the end the ‘Prophetae et ministri’ rule the choir. Unfortunately the MS., like other _Ordinaria_, only gives the first words of many of the chants.

[201] The _Gloriosi et famosi_ hymn occurs in a twelfth-century Einsiedeln MS. (Milchsack, 36) as an overture to the _Quem quaeritis_. It is arranged for ‘chorus’ and ‘Prophetae,’ and was therefore borrowed from Christmas. It is followed by another hymn, more strictly Paschal, the _Hortum praedestinatio_, and this, which is also used with the Sens _Quem quaeritis_ (Milchsack, 58), is sung at the end of the Rouen _Prophetae_ by ‘omnes prophetae et ministri [? = vocatores] in pulpito’—a curious double borrowing between the two feasts. Meyer, 51, argues that the Einsiedeln MS., which is in a fragmentary state, contained a _Prophetae_, to which, and not to the _Quem quaeritis_, the _Gloriosi et famosi_ belonged.

[202] Sepet, xxviii. 25.

[203] So says Gasté, 4. But I think he must be wrong, for the _Introit_ with which the text concludes is _Puer natus est_, which belongs to the _Magna missa_ of the feast-day, and not to the eve.

[204] Martene, iii. 41, from a fourteenth-century _Rituale_: ‘dicto versiculo tertii nocturni, accenditur totum luminare, et veniunt Prophetae in capitulo revestiti, et post cantant insimul _Lumen Patris_, et clericus solus dicit _In gaudio_, et post legitur septima lectio. Post nonam lectionem ducunt prophetas de capitulo ad portam Thesaurarii cantilenas cantando, et post in chorum, ubi dicunt cantori prophetias, et duo clericuli in pulpito cantando eos appellant. Post dicitur nonum [responsorium?] in pulpito.... Post [primam] recitatur miraculum [Martene conjectures _martyrologium_] in claustro ... [Ad vesperas] dictis psalmis et antiphonis, ducunt ad portam Thesaurarii prophetas, sicut ad matutinum et reducunt in chorum similiter, et habent clerici virgas plenas candelis ardentibus, vocant eos clerici duo sicut ad vesperas [? matutinum].’ Presently follows the _Deposuit_: cf. vol. i. p. 309.

[205] Cf. vol. i. p. 313.

[206] Gasté, 20.

[207] Sepet, xxviii. 219, suggests that Balaam, when first introduced into the _Prophetae_, merely prophesied, as he does in the _Adam_ (Grass, 46). Possibly, yet his introduction at the end of the Laon play (unknown to Sepet) looks as if he were an appendix for the sake of his ass.

[208] Champollion-Figeac, _Hilarii Versus et Ludi_ (1838), from _B. N. Lat. MS._ 11,331. The plays are also printed by Du Méril, _Or. Lat._ On the life cf. _Hist. Litt. de la France_, xx. 627; _D.N.B._ s.v. Hilary; Morley, _English Writers_, iii. 107.

[209] Du Méril, 272 ‘Ludus super iconia Sancti Nicolai.’ There is a ‘persona iconie.’ A _Barbarus_ speaks partly in French.

[210] Du Méril, 225 ‘Suscitatio Lazari: ad quam istae personae sunt necessariae: Persona Lazari, duarum Sororum, quatuor Iudaeorum, Iesu Christi, duodecim Apostolorum, vel sex ad minus ... (ends). Quo finito, si factum fuerit ad Matutinas, Lazarus in piat: _Te Deum laudamus_: si vero ad Vesperas: _Magnificat anima mea Dominum_.’

[211] Du Méril, 241 ‘Historia de Daniel repraesentanda,’ with a list of the ‘personae necessariae’ and a final rubric as in the ‘Suscitatio Lazari’: cf. Sepet, xxviii. 232, on this and similar plays and their relation to the _Prophetae_. From the names ‘Hilarius,’ ‘Iordanus,’ ‘Simon,’ attached to parts of the _Daniel_ in the MS., it would seem that Hilarius had collaborators for this play (Sepet, xxviii. 248).

[212] E. Dümmler, in _Z. f. d. Alterthum_, xxxv. 401; xxxvi. 238, from _B. M. Addl. MS._ 22,414 (‘Liber Sancti Godehardi in Hild[esheim]’). On the group of Nicholas plays cf. Creizenach, i. 105.

[213] G. Morel, in _Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit_, vi. (1859), 207, from _Einsiedeln MS._ 34.

[214] _Golden Legend_, ii. 109; Wace, _Vie de Saint-Nicolas_ (ed. Delius, 1850).

[215] Du Méril, 262; Coussemaker, 100. The play ends with the _Te Deum_. The same subject is treated in the Einsiedeln play, and one of those from Hildesheim.

[216] Du Méril, 254; Coussemaker, 83. The play ends with the anthem ‘O Christi pietas,’ used at second Vespers on St. Nicholas’ day (_Sarum Breviary_, iii. 38). The same subject is treated in the other Hildesheim play.

[217] Du Méril, 276; Coussemaker, 123; begins ‘Ad repraesentandum quomodo Sanctus Nicolaus, &c. ...’: ends with anthem ‘Copiosae caritatis’ used at Lauds on St. Nicholas’ day (_Sarum Breviary_, iii. 37).

[218] Du Méril, 266; Coussemaker, 109; begins ‘Aliud miraculum de Sancto Nicolao, &c. ...’: ends with anthem ‘Statuit ei Dominus,’ not in _Sarum Breviary_, but used at Rome as _Introit_ on feasts of Pontiffs. This is the subject of Hilarius’ play.

[219] Text in Du Méril, 213; Coussemaker, 220. The play contains a Paschal sequence and ends with a _Te Deum_. Part of the action is in a _platea_; Simon has a _domus_, which afterwards ‘efficiatur quasi Bethania.’ Other ‘loci’ represent ‘Ierusalem’ and ‘Galilaea’ (cf. p. 50), and the ‘Suscitatio’ takes place at a ‘monumentum’ (probably the Easter sepulchre).

[220] Text in Coussemaker, 49, and Danjou, _Revue de la Musique religieuse_, iv. (1848), 65. Cf. Sepet, xxviii. 232, and on the MS., vol. i. p. 284. As in the Beauvais _Officium Circumcisionis_, there are many processional chants or _conductus_, in one of which are the terms ‘celebremus Natalis solempnia’ and ‘in hoc Natalitio’ which attach the play to Christmas, or at least the Christmas season. The text begins ‘Incipit Danielis ludus,’ and ends with the _Te Deum_. The following quatrain serves as prologue:

‘Ad honorem tui, Christe,
Danielis ludus iste
in Belvaco est inventus
et invenit hunc iuventus.’

Meyer, 56, finds relations between the Beauvais _Daniel_ and that of _Hilarius_.

[221] Text in _Anzeiger für Kunde d. deutschen Vorzeit_ (1877), 169, from late twelfth-century MS.; cf. Creizenach, i. 74.

[222] Cf. p. 99.

[223] Creizenach, i. 6, 71. The unauthentic _Annales_ of Corvei mention also a play on _Joseph_ under the year 1264 (Creizenach, i. 75).

[224] Text in Du Méril, 237; Coussemaker, 210; begins ‘Ad repraesentandam conversionem beati Pauli apostoli, &c. ...’: ends with _Te Deum_. Four ‘sedes’ are required, and a ‘lectus’ for Ananias.

[225] Latest text, with long introduction, mainly philological, by W. Cloetta, in _Romania_, xxii. (1893), 177; others by Du Méril, 233; Coussemaker, 1; E. Boehmer, in _Romanische Studien_, iv. 99; K. Bartsch, _Lang. et Litt. françaises_, 13; cf. also Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 27; E. Stengel, _Z. f. rom. Phil._ iii. 233; E. Schwan, _Z. f. rom. Phil._ xi. 469; H. Morf, _Z. f. rom. Phil._ xx. 385. The manuscript is _Bibl. Nat. Lat._ 1139. MM. Cloetta (p. 221) and G. Paris (_Litt. fr. au moyen âge²_, 237, 246) assign the _Sponsus_ to the earlier half or second third of the twelfth century, and the former, with the delightful diffidence of a philologist, thinks, on linguistic grounds, that it was written at Saint Amant de Boixe (sixteen _kilomètres_ north of Angoulême). It only remains for some archivist to find a clerk of St. Martial of Limoges whose native place was this very village.

[226] Cf. p. 33.

[227] H. Morf, _loc. cit._, considers the _Sponsus_ an Easter play.

[228] Creizenach, i. 77. An Italian dramatic _Lauda_ on the same subject is headed ‘In Dominica de Adventu’ (D’Ancona, i. 141).

[229] Text in Froning, 206, from edition of Zezschwitz, _Vom römischen Kaisertum deutscher Nation_ (1877). The earliest edition is by Pez, _Thesaurus Anecd. Noviss._ (1721-9), ii. 3, 187. This writer introduced confusion by giving the play the title _Ludus paschalis de adventu et interitu Antichristi_. It has nothing to do with Easter. The latest and best edition is that by W. Meyer, in _Sitzungsberichte d. hist.-phil. Classe d. königl. bayr. Akad. d. Wiss._ (Munich), 1882, 1. The unique MS. is _Munich MS._ 19,411 (twelfth-thirteenth century), formerly in Kloster Tegernsee. Both Zezschwitz and Meyer have long and valuable introductions; cf. also Froning, 199; Creizenach, i. 78. T. Wright prints the play from Pez, in _Chester Plays_, ii. 227.

[230] 2 _Thessalonians_, ii. 3-12. According to _York Missal_, i. 10, part of this passage is read at Mass on Saturday in the _Quatuor Tempora_ of Advent.

[231] ‘Templum domini et vii sedes regales primum collocentur in hunc modum:

Ad orientem templum domini; huic collocantur sedes regis
Hierosolimorum et sedes Sinagogae.

Ad occidentem sedes imperatoris Romani; huic collocantur sedes
regis Theotonicorum et sedes regis Francorum.

Ad austrum sedes regis Graecorum.

Ad meridiem sedes regis Babiloniae et Gentilitatis.’

Other than this direction the play has no heading, but in later stage-directions it is incidentally called a ‘ludus.’

[232] Printed in _P. L._ ci. 1291.

[233] Pseudo-Augustine, _De altercatione Ecclesiae et Synagogae dialogus_ in _P. L._ xlii. 1131. On this theme and the _débats_ based thereon cf. _Hist. Litt._ xxiii. 216; G. Paris, § 155; Pearson, ii. 376. P. Weber, _Geistliches Schauspiel und kirchliche Kunst_ (1894), is mainly occupied with this motive and its place in the religious drama and religious art. It is a most valuable study, but I find no ground for the conjecture (Weber, 31, 36) that the _Altercatio_, like the _Prophetae_, had already, before the _Antichrist_, been semi-dramatically rendered in the liturgy.

[234] Cf. p. 98.

[235] _Representations_, s.v. Dunstable.

[236] At Rouen, e.g., a confraternity played a _misterium_ on the feast of the Assumption in a waxen ‘hortus’ set up in their chapel; and this between 1446 and 1521 required reformation from various ‘derisiones,’ especially a ‘ludus de marmousetis’ (Gasté, 76). But I know of no evidence for a Latin Assumption play, although such may quite well have existed. The Lincoln Assumption play was given in the cathedral, as a wind-up to a cycle (_Representations_, s.v. Lincoln).

[237] Cf. p. 11.

[238] Ducange, s.v. _Festum Ascensionis_, ‘qui ... officio hac die praeerat, cum modicum panis et vini degustasset, cantato responsorio _Non vos relinquam_, ambonem ascendebat, ubi ex monte efficto coelum petere videbatur; tunc pueri symphoniaci veste angelica induti decantabant _Viri Galilaei_, etc.’

[239] Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 9; _Annales archéologiques_, xviii. 173 ‘pro pingendo cicatrices in manibus D. Iohannis Rosnel, facientis mysterium in die Ascensionis’ (1416), ‘pro potandum cum discipulis,’ ‘vicariis representantibus Crucifixum cum suis discipulis et ibidem simul manducantibus et bibentibus vinum,’ ‘pro pingendo vulnera,’ ‘pro faciendo novas nubes,’ ‘pro pictura dictarum nubium,’ ‘pro cantando non vos.’ In Germany (Naogeorgos in Stubbes, i. 337) the crucifix was drawn up by cords and an image of Satan thrown down. For England, see the end of Lambarde’s account, below.

[240] Grenier, 388 (Amiens, 1291, and elsewhere in Picardy); Hautcœur, _Documents liturgiques de Lille_, 65 (thirteenth century), and _Histoire de l’Église de Lille_, i. 427; Gasté, 75 (Bayeux, thirteenth century, Caen, Coutances); D’Ancona, i. 31 (Parma), i. 88 (Vicenza, 1379, a more elaborate out-of-door performance); Naogeorgos in Stubbes, i. 337 (Germany); Ducange, s.v. _nebulae_. I have three English examples: Hone, _E. D. Book_, i. 685 (_Computus_ of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, for 1509), ‘we have ivˢ viiᵈ paid to those playing with the great and little angel and the dragon; iiiˢ paid for little cords employed about the Holy Ghost; ivˢ viᵈ for making the angel censing (_thurificantis_), and iiˢ iiᵈ for cords of it—all on the feast of Pentecost’; _Lincoln Statutes_, i. 335; ii. cxviii. 165 (1330) ‘in distributione autem Pentecostali percipiet ... clericus ducens columbam vj denarios’; W. Lambarde, _Alphabetical Description of the Chief Places in England and Wales_ (1730, written in sixteenth century), 459, s.v. Wytney, ‘The like Toye I myselfe (beinge then a Chyld) once saw in _Poules_ Church at _London_, at a Feast of _Whitsontyde_, wheare the comynge downe of the _Holy Gost_ was set forthe by a white Pigion, that was let to fly out of a Hole, that yet is to be sene in the mydst of the Roofe of the great Ile, and by a longe Censer, which descendinge out of the same Place almost to the verie Grounde, was swinged up and downe at suche a Lengthe, that it reached with thone Swepe almost to the West Gate of the Churche, and with the other to the Quyre Staires of the same, breathynge out over the whole Churche and Companie a most pleasant Perfume of suche swete Thinges as burned thearin; with the like doome Shewes also, they used every whear to furnishe sondrye Partes of their Churche Service, as by their Spectacles of the Nativitie, Passion, and Ascension of _Christe_.’ From further notices in W. S. Simpson, _St. Paul’s and Old City Life_, 62, 83, it appears that the censing was on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Whit-week, that the Lord Mayor attended, and that the ceremony was replaced by sermons in 1548.

[241] Creizenach, i. 76; D’Ancona, i. 90, 92, 114 (Padua, Venice, Trevigi), and i. 29 (Parma _Ordinarium_ of fifteenth century) ‘ad inducendum populum ad contritionem, ... ad confirmandum ipsum in devotione Virginis Mariae ... fit reverenter et decenter Repraesentatio Virginis Mariae ... cum prophetis et aliis solemnitatibus opportunis’; Coussemaker, 280 (Cividale _Processionalia_ of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries). In the fourteenth century there was a procession to the market-place, where ‘diaconus legat evangelium in tono, et fit repraesentatio Angeli ad Mariam.’ In the fifteenth century ‘In Annuntiatione B. M. Virginis Repraesentatio’ was a similar procession and ‘cantatur evangelium cum ludo, quo finito, revertendo ad ecclesiam, cantatur Te Deum.’ The text goes slightly beyond the words of the Gospel (Luke i. 26-38) having a part for ‘Helisabeth.’ Gasté, 79, describes the foundation of a _mystère_ of the Annunciation during vespers on the eve of the feast at Saint-Lo, in 1521.

[242] I gather this from the _consuetudo_ of giving gloves to Mary, the Angel, and the Prophets at Christmas (_Representations_, s.v. Lincoln). Here, as at Parma, the _Prophetae_ appear in connexion with the Annunciation ceremony.

[243] See the curious and detailed document in Appendix S as to the Tournai ceremony founded by Peter Cotrel in the sixteenth century. A precisely similar foundation was that of Robert Fabri at Saint Omer in 1543 (_Bull. arch. du Comité des travaux historiques_ (1886), 80; _Mém. de la Soc. des Antiquaires de la Morinie_, xx. 207). The inventory of the ‘ornementz et parementz’ in a ‘coffre de cuir boully’ includes ‘ung colomb de bois revestu de damas blancq.’ Alike at Tournai, St. Omer, and Besançon (Martene, iii. 30) the ceremony was on the Wednesday in the _Quatuor Tempora_ of Advent. For the ‘golden Mass’ of this day the Gospel is the same as that of the Annunciation; cf. _York Missal_, i. 6; Pfannenschmidt, 438.

[244] Creizenach, i. 154, 317, 346. A slight addition to the _Stella_ is made by two Provençal plays of †1300 (ed. P. Meyer in _Romania_, xiv. 496) and 1333 (_dramatis personae_ only in _Revue des Sociétés savantes_, viii. 259) which introduce episodes from the life of the Virgin previous to the Nativity.

[245] Creizenach, i. 70, quoting _Gesta Alberti Livoniensis episcopi_ (†1226) in Gruber, _Origines Livoniae_ (1740), 34 ‘Eadem hyeme factus est ludus prophetarum ordinatissimus, quam Latini Comoediam vocant, in media Riga, ut fidei Christianae rudimenta gentilitas fide etiam disceret oculata. Cuius ludi et comoediae materia tam neophytis, quam paganis, qui aderant, per interpretem diligentissime exponebatur. Ubi autem armati Gedeonis cum Philistaeis pugnabant; pagani, timentes occidi, fugere coeperunt, sed caute sunt revocati.... In eodem ludo erant bella, vtpote Dauid, Gedeonis, Herodis. Erat et doctrina Veteris et Novi Testamenti.’

[246] Text edited by V. Luzarche (Tours, 1854); L. Palustre (Paris, 1877); K. Bartsch, _Chrestomathie_, (ed. 1880, 91); K. Grass (Halle, 1891); cf. the elaborate study by Sepet, xxix, 105, 261, and Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 81; ii. 217; Creizenach, i. 130; Clédat, 15. The manuscript is _Tours MS._ 927, formerly belonging to the Benedictines of Marmoutier. Grass, vi, summarizes the opinions as to its date. In any case the text is probably of the twelfth century, and Grass, 171, after an elaborate grammatical investigation, confirms the opinion of Luzarche, doubted by Littré and others, that it is of Anglo-Norman rather than Norman origin. But, even if the writer was an Anglo-Norman clerk, the play must have been written for performance in France. I doubt if it was ever actually played or finished. It is followed in the MS. by a Norman (not Anglo-Norman) poem on the Fifteen Signs of Judgement (text in Grass, 57), which looks like material collected for an unwritten Sibyl prophecy. The remaining contents of the first part of the MS., which may be of the twelfth century, are some hymns and the Latin Tours _Quem quaeritis_ (p. 38).

[247] Sepet, xxix, 112, 128, points out that certain _lectiones_ and _responsoria_ which accompany the _Adam_ and _Cain and Abel_ are taken from the office for Septuagesima. Possibly an independent liturgical drama of the Fall arose at Septuagesima and was absorbed by the _Prophetae_. But mention of the ‘primus Adam’ is not uncommon in the Nativity liturgy; cf. Sepet, xxix, 107, and the _Sponsus_ (p. 61).

[248] _Annales Ratisponenses_ (_M. G. H. Scriptores_, xvii. 590) ‘Anno Domini 1194. Celebratus est in Ratispona ordo creacionis angelorum et ruina[e] Luciferi et suorum, et creacionis hominis et casus et prophetarum ... septima Idus Februarii.’

[249] Köppen, 35, discusses the textual relation between the St. Gall and Benedictbeuern plays and their common source, the Freising _Stella_.

[250] Text in Mone, _Schauspiele des Mittelalters_, i. 143; cf. Creizenach, i. 123.

[251] Text in Schmeller, _Carmina Burana_, 80; Du Méril, 187; Froning, 877, from a Munich MS. of thirteenth to fourteenth century formerly in the abbey of Benedictbeuern in Bavaria; cf. Creizenach, i. 96; Sepet, xxxviii, 398. The title ‘Ludus scenicus de nativitate Domini’ given by Schmeller is not in the MS.

[252] Cf. p. 56. The Balaam in _Adam_ is ‘sedens super asinam,’ but no further notice is taken of the animal.

[253] Text ed. Le Verdier (_Soc. des Bibliophiles normands_); cf. Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 36, 430.

[254] Cf. p. 38.

[255] Tischendorf, _Evangelia Apocrypha_ (1876), 389.

[256] Cf. pp. 4, 5, 20. One of the anthems for Easter Saturday in the _Sarum Breviary_ is _Elevamini, portae_.

[257] Text in Pollard, 166; K. Böddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl._ 2253 (1878), 264; E. Mall, _The Harrowing of Hell_ (1871); cf. Ten Brink, ii. 242; Ward, i. 90; Creizenach, i. 158. There are three MSS.: (_a_) _Bodl. Digby MS._ 86 (late thirteenth century); (_b_) _Harl. MS._ 2253 (†1310); (_c_) _Edin. Advoc. Libr._ (_Auchinleck_) _MS._ W. 41 (early fourteenth century). The Digby version has a prologue beginning:

‘Hou ihesu crist herewede helle
Of hardegates ich wille telle.’

The Harleian has:

‘Alle herkneth to me nou,
A strif will I tellen ou.’

The Auchinleck prologue lacks the beginning, but the end agrees with the Harleian. Böddeker, who accepts the dramatic character of the piece, thinks that the prologues were prefixed later for recitation. In any case this poem became a source for a play in the _Ludus Coventriae_ cycle (Pollard, xxxviii).

[258] Text of Muri fragments in Froning, 228; cf. Creizenach, i. 114; Wirth, 133, 281. A French fragment (†1300-50) also introducing this theme is printed by J. Bédier, in _Romania_, xxiv. (1895), 86. Pez, _Script. rerum austriacarum_, ii. 268, describes a vision of the thirteenth-century recluse Wilbirgis: ‘Item quadam nocte Dominicae Resurrectionis, cum in Monasterio ludus Paschalis tam a Clero quam a populo ageretur, quia eidem non potuit corporaliter interesse, coepit desiderare, ut ei Dominus aliquam specialis consolationis gratiam per Resurrectionis suae gaudia largiretur. Et vidit quasi Dominum ad Inferos descendentem et inde animas eruentem, quae quasi columbae candidissimae circumvolantes ipsum comitabantur, et sequebantur ab inferis redeuntem.’ Meyer, 61, 98, deals fully with the development of the Resurrection and Harrowing of Hell themes in the early vernacular plays.

[259] Text in Monmerqué et Michel, _Théâtre fr. au moyen âge_, 10, from _Bibl. Nat. fr._ 902; cf. Creizenach, i. 135; Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 91; ii. 220; Clédat, 59. The MS. is of the fourteenth century, but the Norman-French, which some writers, as with the _Adam_, think Anglo-Norman, is assigned to the end of the twelfth century.

[260] D’Ancona, i. 90. The original authority for the statement, taken from a MS. treatise on the _Commedia italiana_ by Uberto Benvoglienti, is not given.

[261] D’Ancona, i. 87, quoting several chronicles: ‘hoc anno in festo Pascae facta fuit Reppraesentatio Passionis et Resurrectionis Christi solemniter et ordinate in Prato Vallis.’

[262] Text in Schmeller, _Carmina Burana_, 95; Du Méril, 126; Froning, 284; cf. Creizenach, i. 92; Wirth, 131, 278. The only heading to the play in the MS. is ‘Sancta Maria assit nostro principio! amen.’

[263] Scenes between the _Mercator_, his wife, and their lad Rubin play a large part in the later German Passion plays; cf. Wirth, 168.

[264] Creizenach, i. 155. Two fourteenth-century texts exist, one in Provençal, one in Catalan.

[265] Text in Mone, _Schauspiele des Mittelalters_, i. 72; cf. Creizenach, i. 121; Wirth, 135, 282.

[266] Text in Froning, 340 (begins ‘Incipit ordo sive registrum de passione domini’); cf. Creizenach, i. 219; Wirth, 137, 295.

[267] Text in Froning, 305 (begins ‘Ad materiae reductionem de passione domini. Incipit ludus pascalis’); cf. Creizenach, i. 92, 120; Wirth, 134, 293.

[268] Giuliano da Cividale, _Cronaca Friulana_ (D’Ancona, i. 91; Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Script._ xxiv. 1205, 1209): ‘Anno domini MCCLXXXXVIII die vii exeunte Maio, videlicet in die Pentecostes et in aliis duobus sequentibus diebus, facta fuit Repraesentatio Ludi Christi, videlicet Passionis, Resurrectionis, Ascensionis, Adventus Spiritus Sancti, Adventus Christi ad iudicium, in curia Domini Patriarchae Austriae civitatis, honorifice et laudabiliter, per Clerum civitatensem .... Anno MCCCIII facta fuit per Clerum, sive per Capitulum civitatense, Repraesentatio: sive factae fuerunt Repraesentationes infra scriptae: In primis, de Creatione primorum parentum; deinde de Annunciatione Beatae Virginis, de Partu et aliis multis, et de Passione et Resurrectione, Ascensione et Adventu Spiritus Sancti, et de Antichristo et aliis, et demum de Adventu Christi ad iudicium. Et predicta facta fuerunt solemniter in curia domini Patriarchae in festo Pentecostes cum aliis duobus diebus sequentibus, praesente r. d. Ottobono patriarcha aquileiensi, d. Iacobo q. d. Ottonelli de Civitate episcopo concordiensi, et aliis multis nobilibus de civitatibus et castris Foro-iulii, die XV exeunte Maio.’ Still earlier, some dramatic fragments not later than the mid-thirteenth century from Kloster Himmelgarten near Nordhausen, include scenes from both the early and late life of Christ (Text, ed. Sievers, in _Zeitsch. f. d. Phil._ xxi. 393; cf. Creizenach, i. 124); but these might conceivably belong to a set of plays for different dates, such as those of the Sainte Geneviève MS. (Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 379). Besides the English cosmic cycles, there are several fifteenth-century French ones described by Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 394 sqq.: in Germany plays of this scope are rare.

[269] Pearson, ii. 312; Köppen, 49; Ten Brink, i. 287.

[270] Cf. Sepet, xxxviii. 415; Creizenach, i. 260; G. Smith, 253; Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 352. _Le Mistère du viel testament_, printed †1510 (ed. Rothschild, 1878-91, for _Soc. des anciens textes français_), is a fifteenth-century compilation of O. T. plays from various sources.

[271] French versions of the _Vengeance de Notre Seigneur_, of which the chief episode is the Siege of Jerusalem, appear in the fifteenth century (Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 12, 415, 451). A late Coventry play on the same theme is unfortunately lost.

[272] Cf. p. 99.

[273] Cf. p. 79.

[274] Pearson, ii. 315; and cf. the angels aloft in the Rouen _Pastores_ (p. 41).

[275] Cf. p. 50.

[276] Plan in Mone, ii. 156; Froning, 277; Davidson, 199; Pearson, ii. 320; Könnecke, _Bilderatlas_, 55: on the play, cf. Creizenach, i. 224; Wirth, 139, 327. Another sixteenth-century plan from Lucerne is given by Leibing, _Die Inscenierung des 2-tägigen Osterspiels_, 1869; cf. Creizenach, i. 168.

[277] See the mention of ‘en mi la place’ in the prologue; but ‘place’ might be only the French equivalent of ‘platea’ as used in the Fleury _Suscitatio Lazari_.

[278] Pearson, ii. 322.

[279] Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 37.

[280] Reproduced in Clédat, 4; Bapst, 33, from _Horae_ of †1460; cf. Jusserand, _Lit. Hist._ i. 470.

[281] D’Ancona, i. 191, however, describes the Italian _devozioni_ as taking place on _talami_ or platforms in the naves of churches. In France, minor religious plays at least took place on scaffolds, built up sometimes against the wall of a church (Bapst, 23, 29). A raised stage, with _sedes_ along the back of it, is shown by the miniatures in the MS. of the Valenciennes _Passion_ (reproduced in Jusserand, _Shakespeare in France_, 63; cf. Julleville, _Les Mystères_, ii. 153); but this is as late as 1547.

[282] Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 386; Bapst, 28.

[283] Cf. p. 137. Amongst the ‘establies’ required for the Rouen play of 1474 was ‘Enfer faict en maniere d’une grande gueulle se cloant et ouvrant quant besoing en est’ (Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 37). Just such an ‘enfer’ is represented in the Fouquet and Valenciennes miniatures.

[284] Cf. p. 98.

[285] Cf. p. 77.

[286] Froning, 363 ‘Et notandum, quod optime congruit, ne populus nimiam moram faciendo gravetur, et ut resurrectio domini gloriosius celebretur, ut ulterior ordo ludi in diem alterum conservetur; quod si apud rectores deliberatum fuerit, Augustinus coram populo proclamet dicens sine rigmo, ut in die crastino revertatur.’

[287] Creizenach, i. 340.

[288] Cf. p. 130.

[289] Cf. p. 74. By the fifteenth century lay performers appear even in the ritual _Quem quaeritis_. An Augsburg version of 1487 (Milchsack, 129) concludes ‘Permittitur tamen aliis, qui forsan huiusmodi personas [i.e. ‘sacerdotes’ et ‘cantores’] non habent, ut cum aliis personis et etiam moribus honestis tamen et discretis, huiusmodi visitationem sepulchri exequantur.’ See also the jest of Tyll Ulenspiegel with the parson’s concubine who played the angel, quoted by Pearson, ii. 308.

[290] Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 2. For plays by German guilds cf. Pearson, ii. 364.

[291] Creizenach, i. 137; Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 115; _Les Com._ 43. Probably the ‘Jeu de Nicholas’ of Jean Bodel, and the fourteenth-century ‘Miracles de Notre Dame,’ belong to the _répertoires_ of _puys_.

[292] Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 412; _Les Com._ 55.

[293] Du Méril, 410, 414, prints examples of such _épîtres farcies_ for the feasts of St. Stephen and St. Thomas of Canterbury: cf. the numerous references in D’Ancona, i. 66, and vol. i. p. 277.

[294] Text in Coussemaker, 256, from _Bibl. St. Quentin MS._ 75 (fourteenth century); cf. Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 64. The _Quem quaeritis_ includes the _Hortulanus_ scene and has, like the Prague versions, the _Mercator_. It was probably written later than 1286, as the _Ordinarius_ of that year (Coussemaker, 337) directs a shorter version in Latin.

[295] Text in Froning, 49, from _Trier MS._ 75 (begins ‘incipit ludus de nocte paschae, de tribus Mariis et Maria Magdalena’ ... ends ‘explicit ludus’); cf. Creizenach, i. 112; Davidson, 149; Wirth, 120, 235.

[296] Cf. _Academy_ for Jan. 4 and 11, 1890, where Prof. Skeat prints the text from _Shrewsbury MS. Mus._ iii. 42 f. 48 (a book of anthems). Manly, i. xxviii, also gives it with some valuable notes of his own.

[297] Creizenach, i. 109.

[298] Ibid. i. 99, 202; Pearson, ii. 271, 302, 394; Wirth, 168, 201, 215; D’Ancona, i. 62.

[299] Cf. vol. i. p. 83.

[300] Cf. vol. i. pp. 185, 207, 213.

[301] Cf. p. 56.

[302] Cf. p. 4.

[303] Cf. vol. i. pp. 258, 268, 327.

[304] Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 412; _Les Com._ 149, 237 (Chaumont), 239 (Chauny).

[305] Creizenach, i. 356; cf. p. 146.

[306] D’Ancona, i. 87 sqq.; F. Torraca, _Discussioni e ricerche_ (1888), 92; Creizenach, i. 299 sqq.; J. A. Symonds, _Renaissance in Italy_, iv. 242 sqq.; G. Smith, 297; Wechssler, 30; Gaspary, i. 138, 357; I. S. A. Herford, _The Confraternities of Penance, their Dramas and their Lamentations_ in _E. H. Review_, vi. (1891), 646. A first instalment of dramatic Lauds was published by Monaci, _Appunti per la storia del teatro italiano in Rivista di Filologia Romana_, i. 235, ii. 29. For other collections cf. D’Ancona, i. 153; Gaspary, i. 361. D’Ancona has published _Sacre Rappresentazioni_ (1872). A selection of Lauds, Devozioni, and Rappresentazioni is in F. Torraca, _Il teatro italiano dei Secoli xiii, xiv, e xv_ (1885).

[307] D’Ancona, i. 94.

[308] Galvano Fiamma, _de rebus gestis a Vicecomitibus_ (D’Ancona, i. 97; Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Script._ xii. 1017). The ceremony was ‘in die Epifanie in conventu fratrum Praedicatorum.... Fuerunt coronati tres Reges in equis magnis, vallati domicellis, vestiti variis, cum somariis multis et familia magna nimis. Et fuit stella aurea discurrens per aera, quae praecedebat istos tres Reges, et pervenerunt ad columnas Sancti Laurentii, ubi erat rex Herodes effigiatus, cum scribis et sapientibus. Et visi sunt interrogare regem Herodem, ubi Christus nasceretur, et revolutis multis libris responderunt, quod deberet nasci in civitate Bethleem in distantia quinque milliariorum a Hierusalem. Quo audito, isti tres Reges coronati aureis coronis, tenentes in manibus scyphos aureos cum auro, thure et myrrha, praecedente stella per aera, cum somariis et mirabili famulatu, clangentibus tubis, et bucinis praecedentibus, simiis, babuynis, et diversis generibus animalium, cum mirabili populorum tumultu, pervenerunt ad ecclesiam Sancti Eustorgii. Ubi in latere altaris maioris erat praesepium cum bove et asino, et in praesepio erat Christus parvulus in brachiis Virginis matris. Et isti Reges obtulerunt Christo munera; deinde visi sunt dormire, et Angelus alatus ei dixit quod non redirent per contratam Sancti Laurentii, sed per portam Romanam: quod et factum fuit. Et fuit tantus concursus populi et militum et dominarum et clericorum, quod nunquam similis fere visus fuit. Et fuit ordinatum, quod omni anno istud festum fieret.’ This is precisely the liturgic _Stella_ translated into an out-of-door _spectacle_, which in its turn becomes the model for many a Quattrocento painting; cf., e.g., Botticelli’s _Magi_ in the Uffizi, or Gentile da Fabriano’s, with the baboons done to the life, in the Accademia.

[309] D’Ancona, i. 94, 301, considers, however, that the late fifteenth-century _Passio_ of Revello was not a native growth, but modelled on contemporary cyclic plays from France.

[310] The Rouen play of 1474 (Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 36) was one, and cf. pp. 119, 122.

[311] Creizenach, i. 242; cf. the lists in Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 183.

[312] Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 9 sqq.

[313] D’Ancona, i. 218; Guasti, _Le feste di San Giovanni Baptista in Firenze_ (1884). _Rappresentazioni_ on St. John’s day were known to the late fourteenth-century Florentine historian Goro di Stagio Dati. An account of the feast in 1407 makes no mention of them, but they appear in that of 1439, and are elaborately described in the _Storia_ of Matteo di Marco Palmieri about 1454 (D’Ancona, i. 228). Early in the morning of June 22 started a procession of clergy, _compagnie_, _edifizii_, and _cavalleria_. These stopped in the Piazza della Signoria, and _rappresentazioni_, forming a complete cycle from the Fall of Lucifer to the Last Judgement, and lasting sixteen hours, were given upon the _edifizii_. D’Ancona suggests that the dumb show type of _rappresentazioni_ preceded the dialogued one, ‘come più semplice.’ But this seems equally inconsistent with his view that the _rappresentazioni_ grew out of _devozioni_, and mine that they were an adaptation of earlier cyclical plays to the conditions of the Florentine feast.

[314] Cf. ch. xxi.

[315] D’Ancona, i. 243; Schack, ii. 103; Ticknor, _Hist. of Spanish Lit._ ii. 249. The _Autos Sacramentales_ are so named from their connexion with this day.

[316] Creizenach, i. 170, 227. The earliest German mention is at the council of Prague in 1366 (Höfler, _Concilia Pragensia_, 13, in _Abhandl. d. königl. böhmischen Gesellsch. der Wiss._ series v. vol. 12) ‘omnibus ... clericis et laicis ... mandatur ut ludos theatrales vel etiam fistulatores vel ioculatores in festo corporis Christi in processionibus ire quovis modo permittant et admittant.’ Extant _Frohnleichnamsspiele_ are those of Innsbruck, †1391 (Text in Mone, _Altteutsche Schauspiele_, 145), and of Künzelsau, †1479 (ed. H. Werner, in _Germania_, iv. 338). Cf. the description (†1553) of Naogeorgos (transl. Googe) in Stubbes, i. 337.

[317] Julleville, ii. 208.

[318] Ward, i. 44; Davidson, 215; Malleson-Tuker, ii. 227.

[319] See e.g. the ‘Processio huius ludi’ at the end of the text of the Alsfeld Passion of 1501 (Froning, 858); cf. Pearson, ii. 365. As to the general relations of processions and plays, cf. p. 160.

[320] Cf. p. 136.

[321] The closest merging of play and procession is suggested by an order at Draguignan in 1558 (Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 209), where it was ordered ‘Le dit jeu jora avec la procession comme auparadvant et le plus d’istoeres et plus brieves que puront estre seront et se dira tout en cheminant sans ce que personne du jeu s’areste pour eviter prolixité et confusion tant de ladite, prosession que jeu, et que les estrangiers le voient aisement.’ Perhaps the short speeches of the Innsbruck play were similarly delivered while the procession was moving. The nearest continental approach to the English type is the Künzelsau play, which was divided into three parts and played at three different stations (Creizenach, i. 227).

[322] Creizenach, i. 218.

[323] Creizenach, i. 128, 137 sqq., 156; Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 95, 107, 115, 185; ii. 2, 4, 5, 221, 226, 345; _Les Com._ 49; Sepet, 202, 242; Clédat, 63, 73, 105.

[324] Creizenach, i. 130, 165, 176; Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 347; _Les Com._ 291; D’Ancona, i. 57; Pearson, ii. 303; Wirth, 144. A play could be given outside the church without wholly losing its connexion with the liturgy. It became a sort of procession: cf. pp. 32, 67. D’Ancona, i. 59, quotes from _Bibl. de l’École des Chartes_, iii. 450, a licence given by the Bishop of Langres in 1408 ‘Ut in quadem platea vel plateis congruis et honestis, infra vel extra villam, prope et supra rippariam loci, coram clero et populo, alta et intelligibili voce, lingua latina et materna, cum magna reverentia et honore ac diversis personacium et habituum generibus ad hoc congruis et necessariis, solemniter et publice vitam et miracula egregii confessoris et pontificis Machuti, recitare et exponere, missamque solemnem in pontificalibus, in platea seu plateis supradictis super altare portatili consecrato per alterum vestrum canonicorum vel alium ydoneum sacerdotem celebrare ... licentiam et auctoritatem impertimus per praesentes.’ Cf. the examples of plays at the Feasts of Fools and of the Boy Bishop (vol. i. pp. 295, 296, 299, 304, 306, 309, 313, 342, 348, 349, 380).

[325] Cf. p. 16.

[326] Cf. vol. i. p. 318. Pearson, ii. 285, translates: ‘The old Fathers of the Church, in order to strengthen the belief of the faithful and to attract the unbeliever by this manner of religious service, rightly instituted at the Feast of Epiphany or the Octave religious performances of such a kind as the star guiding the Magi to the new-born Christ, the cruelty of Herod, the dispatch of the soldiers, the lying-in of the Blessed Virgin, the angel warning the Magi not to return to Herod, and other events of the birth of Christ. But what nowadays happens in many churches? Not a customary ritual, not an act of reverence, but one of irreligion and extravagance conducted with all the license of youth. The priests having changed their clothes go forth as a troop of warriors; there is no distinction between priest and warrior to be marked. At an unfitting gathering of priests and laymen the church is desecrated by feasting and drinking, buffoonery, unbecoming jokes, play, the clang of weapons, the presence of shameless wenches, the vanities of the world, and all sorts of disorder. Rarely does such a gathering break up without quarrelling.’

[327] On Gerhoh (1093-1169) see the article in the 2nd ed. of Wetzer and Welte’s _Kirchenlexicon_. He took a strong reforming and anti-imperial line in the controversies of his day.

[328] Gerhohus, _Comm. in Ps. cxxxii_ (_P. L._ cxciv. 890) ‘Cohaerebat ipsi Ecclesiae claustrum satis honestum, sed a claustrali religione omnino vacuum, cum neque in dormitorio fratres dormirent, neque in refectorio comederent, exceptis rarissimis festis, maxime in quibus Herodem repraesentarent Christi persecutorem, parvulorum interfectorem, seu ludis aliis aut spectaculis quasi theatralibus exhibendis comportaretur symbolum ad faciendum convivium in refectorio aliis pene omnibus temporibus vacuo.’

[329] Gerhohus, _de Inv. Ant._ lib. i. c. 5, _de spectaculis theatricis in ecclesia Dei exhibitis_ (_Gerhohi Opera Inedita_, ed. Scheibelberger, i. 25) ‘Et sacerdotes, qui dicuntur, iam non ecclesiae vel altaris ministerio dediti sunt, sed exercitiis avaritiae, vanitatum et spectaculorum, adeo ut ecclesias ipsas, videlicet orationum domus, in theatra commutent ac mimicis ludorum spectaculis impleant. Inter quae nimirum spectacula adstantibus ac spectantibus ipsorum feminis interdum et antichristi, de quo nobis sermo est, non ut ipsi aestimant imaginariam similitudinem exhibent sed in veritate, ut credi potest iniquitatis ipsius mysterium pro parte sua implent. Quidni enim diabolus abutatur in serium rebus sibi exhibitis in vanitatis ludicrum, sicut Dominus quoque Iesus convertens in seria ludibria, quibus apud Iudaeos vel Pilatum in passione sua affectus est?... Quid ergo mirum si et isti nunc antichristum vel Herodem in suis ludis simulantes eosdem non, ut eis intentioni est, ludicro mentiuntur sed in veritate exhibent, utpote quorum vita ab antichristi laxa conversatione non longe abest?... Contigit, ut comperimus, aliquando apud tales, ut eum quem inter ludicra sua quasi mortuum ab Elisaeo propheta suscitantem exhiberent peracta simulatione mortuum invenirent. Alius item antichristo suo quasi suscitandus oblatus intra septem dies vere mortuus, ut comperimus, et sepultus est. Et quis scire potest an et cetera simulata antichristi scilicet effigiem, daemonum larvas, herodianam insaniem in veritate non exhibeant?... Exhibent praeterea imaginaliter et salvatoris infantiae cunabula, parvuli vagitum, puerperae virginis matronalem habitum, stellae quasi sidus flammigerum, infantum necem, maternum Rachelis ploratum. Sed divinitas insuper et matura facies ecclesiae abhorret spectacula theatralia, non respicit in vanitates et insanias falsas, immo non falsas sed iam veras insanias, in quibus viri totos se frangunt in feminas quasi pudeat eos, quod viri sunt, clerici in milites, homines se in daemonum larvas transfigurant....’

[330] Prynne, _Histriomastix_, 556, refers to ‘the visible apparition of the Devill on the Stage at the Belsavage Play-house, in Queene Elizabeth’s dayes (to the great amazement both of the Actors and Spectators) whiles they were there prophanely playing the History of Faustus (the truth of which I have heard from many now alive, who well remember it), there being some distracted with that fearefull sight.’

[331] Pollard, xxiv. I do not know how Ward, i. 43, gets at the very different theory that in 1210 (_sic_ for 1207) Innocent III ordered plays ‘to be represented outside the church as well as inside.’ Mr. Pollard, by the way, assigns the prohibition to ‘Pope Gregory,’ a further mistake, due, I suppose, to the fact that it was subsequently included in the Gregorian _Decretals_.

[332] Cf. vol. i. p. 279.

[333] Quoted by Creizenach, i. 101, ‘Non tamen hic prohibetur repraesentare praesepe Domini, Herodem, magos et qualiter Rachel ploravit filios suos, etc., quae tangunt festivitates illas, de quibus hic fit mentio, cum talia ad devotionem potius inducant homines quam ad lasciviam vel voluptatem, sicut in pascha sepulcrum Domini et alia repraesentantur ad devotionem excitandam’: cf. vol i. p. 342. J. Aquila, _Opusculum Enchiridion appellatum ferme de omni ludorum genere_, f. 14 (Oppenheim, 1516), after referring to the canon, says, ‘Demonstrationes quae fiunt ad honorem dei puta passionis Christi aut vitae alicuius sancti non prohibentur in sacris locis ac temporibus fieri.’ Both canon and gloss are cited in _Dives and Pauper_, a book of fifteenth-century English morality (F. A. Gasquet, _Eve of Reformation_, 317): cf. also D’Ancona, i. 54.

[334] Cf. vol. i. p. 91. An anchoress of Tarrant Keynston (_Ancren Riwle_, †1150, C. S. 318) was bound to confess if she ‘eode oðe pleouwe ine chircheie: biheold hit ⁊ oðe wrastlinge ⁊ oðer fol gomenes’: but ‘pleouwe,’ like _ludus_ (vol. i. p. 393), may have a very general meaning.

[335] Manning, 146:—

Un autre folie apert
Vnt les fols clercs cuntroue,
Qe ‘miracles’ sunt apele;
Lur faces vnt la deguise
Par visers, li forsene,—
Qe est defendu en decree;
Tant est plus grand lur peche.
Fere poent representement,—
Mes que ceo seit chastement
En office de seint eglise
Quant hom fet la deu servise,—
Cum iesu crist le fiz dee
En sepulcre esteit pose,
Et la resurrectiun,
Pur plus auer deuociun.
Mes, fere foles assemblez
En les rues des citez,
Ou en cymiters apres mangers,
Quant venent les fols volunters,—
Tut dient qe il le funt pur bien,—
Crere ne les deuez pur rien
Qe fet seit pur le honur de dee,
Einz del deable, pur verite,
Seint ysidre me ad testimone
Qe fut si bon clerc lettre;
Il dist qe cil qe funt sepectacles
Cume lem fet en miracles,
Or ius qe nus nomames einz—
Burdiz ou turneinens,—
Lur baptesme vnt refusez,
E deu de ciel reneiez,’ &c.

Robert Mannyng of Brunne (1303) translates:—

‘Hyt ys forbode hym, yn the decre,
Myracles for to make or se;
For myracles, ȝyf þou begynne,
Hyt ys a gaderyng, a syghte of synne,
He may yn þe cherche þurghe þys resun
Pley þe resurrecyun,
Þat ys to seye, how Gode ros,
God and man yn myȝt and los,
To make men be yn beleue gode
That he has ros wyþ flesshe and blode:
And he may pleye wyþoutyn plyghte
Howe god was bore yn ȝole nyght,
To make men to beleue stedfastly
Þat he lyghte yn þe vyrgyne Mary.
Ȝuf þou do hyt in weyys or greuys,
A syghte of synne truly hyt semys.
Seynt Ysodre, y take to wytnes,
For he hyt seyþ þat soþ hyt es;
Þus hyt seyþ yn hys boke,
Þey foresake þat þey toke—
God and here crystendom—
Þat make swyche pleyys to any man
As myracles and bourdys,
Or toumamentys of grete prys,’ &c.

The reference to ‘Seynt Ysodre’ is to Isidore of Seville, _Etymologiarum_ xviii. 59, _de horum [ludorum] exsecratione_ (_P. L._ lxxxii. 660). The saint is speaking of course of the Roman _spectacula_.

[336] On the ‘pardon’ or ‘Ablass’ given to actors at Oberammergau, and the meaning, or want of meaning, to be attached to it, see an amusing controversy in the _Nineteenth Century_ for January and February, 1901.

[337] L’Enfant, _Hist. du Concile de Constance_ (1727), ii. 404; Hardt, _Magnum Oecumenicum Constantiense Concilium_ (1700), iv. 1089; K. Schmidt, _Die Digby-Spiele_, 12. The performance, which was possibly a dumb show, took place at a banquet on Jan. 24, 1417/8, and was repeated on the following Sunday before the emperor, who had arrived in the interval. Hardt quotes the German of one Dacher, an eye-witness: ‘Am 24ᵗᵉⁿ tag des Monats Januarii, das war auff Timotheus tag, da luden die Bischöff aus Engeland, der Bischoff Salisburgensis, der Bischoff von Londen, und demnach funff Bischoff von Engeland, alle Räht zu Costniz und sonst viel ehrbar Bürger daselbst, in Burchart Walters Haus, das man vorzeiten nennt zu dem Burgthor, itzt zu dem gulden Schvvert, allernächst bey S. Laurenz. Und gab ihnen fast ein köstlich mahl, ie 2. Gericht nach einander, jedes Gericht besonder mit 8 Essen: Die trug man allvveg eins mahl dar, deren allvveg waren 4 verguld oder versilbert. In dem mahl, zvvischen dem Essen, so machten sie solch bild und geberd, als unser Frau ihr Kind unsern Herrn und auch Gott gebahr, mit fast köstlichen Tüchern und Gevvand. Und Joseph stellten sie zu ihr. Und die heiligen 3 Könige, als die unser Frauen die Opffer brachten. Und hatten gemacht einen lauteren guldnen Stern, der ging vor ihnen, an einem kleinen eisern Drat. Und machten König Herodem, vvie er den drey Königen nachsandt, und vvie er die Kindlein ertodtet. Das machten sie alles mit gar köstlichem Gevvand, und mit grossen guldenen und silbernen Gürteln, und machten das mit grosser Gezierd, und mit grosser Demuht.’

[338] The provincial _C. of Sens_ (1460), c. 3 (Labbé, xiii. 1728), while confirming the Basle decree, allowed ‘aliquid iuxta consuetudines ecclesiae, in Nativitate Domini, vel Resurrectione ... fiat cum honestate et pace, absque prolongatione, impedimento, vel diminutione servitii, larvatione et sordidatione faciei’; cf. the Toledo decree of 1473 quoted vol. i. p. 342. The _C. of Compostella_ (1565), c.c. 9-11 (Aguirra _Conc. Hispan._ v. 450, 460), forbade ‘actus sive repraesentationes’ during service in church; they might take place with leave of the bishop, or in his absence the chapter, before or after service. Devotional ‘actus’ were allowed in Passion week on similar conditions. The Corpus Christi procession ‘semel tantum subsistat, causa horum actuum vel representationum in eo loco extra ecclesiam quem Praelatus aut [capitulum] idoneum iudicabit.’ On the other hand the _C. of Seville_ (1512), c. 21 (Aguirra, v. 370), had forbidden priests or monks to perform or give a ‘locus’ for such ‘actus’: ‘Sumus informati, quod in quibusdam Ecclesiis nostri Archiepiscopatus et Provinciae permittitur fieri nonnullas repraesentationes Passionis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et alios actus, et memoriam Resurrectionis, Nativitatis Salvatoris nostri, vel alias repraesentationes. Et quia ex talibus actibus orta sunt, et oriuntur plura absurda, et saepe saepius scandala in cordibus illorum qui non sunt bene confirmati in nostra sancta fide Catholica, videntes confusiones, et excessus, qui in hoc committuntur....’ Cf. also the Langres licence of 1408 (p. 97).

[339] Text in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, ii. 42; Hazlitt, 73; from late fourteenth-century volume of homilies formerly in library of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. There is also in _Rel. Ant._ i. 322 a satirical English poem from _Cott. MS. Cleop._ B. ii (fifteenth century), against the miracle plays of the ‘frer mynours,’ apparently at Rome. But the Minorite in _Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede_ (†1394, ed. Skeat), 107, says of his order, ‘At marketts & myracles we medleþ vs nevere.’

[340] Creizenach, i. 157, 162: Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 107, 187; G. Smith, 251; Pollard, xix; Ward, i. 41.

[341] Cf. ch. xxv.

[342] Cf. p. 54 (Rouen, _Prophetae_, fourteenth century).

[343] Cf. pp. 37, 41, 45; Lange, 130, 155; ‘officium sepulchri,’ ‘officium peregrinorum,’ ‘officium pastorum,’ ‘officium regum trium,’ ‘stellae officium’ (Rouen, eleventh century-fifteenth century); ‘resurrectionis domini aguntur officia’ (Prague, fourteenth century). At Melk in 1517, ‘acturus officium angeli’ (Lange, 110), ‘officium’ has rather the sense of ‘part.’

[344] Cf. pp. 37, 48, 49, 53, 71, 77; Lange, 48, 93, 95, 146; ‘Ordo visitationis sepulchri’ (Strassburg, 1513), ‘Ordo visitandi sepulchrum’ (Bamberg, 1597), ‘Ordo ad visitandum sepulchrum’ (Prague, twelfth century, Haarlem, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo sepulchri’ (Würzburg, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo ad suscipiendum peregrinum’ (Beauvais), ‘Ordo stellae’ (Laon, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo [stellae]’ (Bilsen, eleventh century), ‘Ordo Rachaelis’ (Freising, eleventh century), ‘Ordo Prophetarum’ (Laon, thirteenth century), ‘Ordo creacionis, etc.’ (Regensburg, 1194), ‘Ordo, sive registrum de Passione domini’ (Frankfort, fourteenth century).

[345] See last note.

[346] Cf. p. 58.

[347] Cf. pp. 36, 37, 47; Lange, 160 ‘ad faciendam similitudinem domini sepulchri,’ ‘ad faciendam similitudinem domini apparitionis’ (Fleury, thirteenth century), ‘versus ad stellam faciendam’ (Nevers, †1060), ‘fiunt peregrini’ (Saintes, thirteenth century).

[348] Cf. p. 103, n. 5 above.

[349] Cf. pp. 58, 60; Lange, 157; ‘ad repraesentandum quomodo sanctus Nicolaus’ (Fleury, thirteenth century), ‘historia de Daniel repraesentanda’ (Hilarius, twelfth century), ‘si Mariae debeant repraesentari’ (Coutances, fifteenth century).

[350] Cf. pp. 37, 39.

[351] Cf. pp. 45, 107; Lange, 136; ‘in resurrectione domini repraesentatio’ (Cividale, fourteenth century), ‘repraesentatio trium Regum’ (Rouen, 1507, 1521), ‘repraesentacio pastorum ... resurreccionis ... peregrinorum’ (Lichfield, †1190).

[352] Cf. vol. i. p. 393.

[353] Cf. pp. 63, 73, ‘ludus super iconia Sancti Nicolai’ (Hilarius, twelfth century); cf. the Antichrist and Benedictbeuern Nativity, and note 11 below.

[354] Cf. pp. 140, 202.

[355] Cf. vol. i. p. 91; vol. ii. pp. 60, 380; ‘miraculum de Sancto Nicolao’ (Fleury, thirteenth century), repraesentationes miraculorum’ (Fitz-Stephen, †1180), ‘miraculum in nocte Paschae’ (Lichfield, †1190; cf. note 7 above), ‘ludum ... quem Miracula vulgariter appellamus’ (Matthew Paris, thirteenth century), ‘ludos quos vocant miracula’ (Grosseteste, 1244). The vernacular ‘miracles,’ ‘myraclis,’ is found in the _Handlyng Synne_, and the _Tretise of miraclis pleyinge_.

[356] Pollard, xix; Ward, i. 41. The first English use of the term ‘mystery’ is in the preface to Dodsley’s _Select Collection of Old Plays_ (1744). The distinction between ‘mysteries’ which ‘deal with Gospel events only’ and ‘miracles,’ which ‘are more especially concerned with incidents derived from the legends of the Saints of the Church’ is a not very happy invention of the literary historians.

[357] Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 417 ‘Licence de faire et jouer quelque Misterre que ce soit, soit de la dicte Passion, et Résurreccion, ou autre quelconque tant de saincts comme des sainctes.’

[358] Julleville, _Les Myst._ i. 189.

[359] Except after its dramatic sense was already well established; cf. pp. 42, 65, ‘mysterium in die Ascensionis’ (Lille, 1416), ‘misterium Pastorum’ (Rouen, 1457).

[360] Cf. Appendix B.

[361] Walafridus Strabo, _de rebus eccles._, c. 22, in the ninth century, gives the name ‘actio’ to the ‘canon’ or unchangeable portion of the Mass (Maskell, _Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England_, 112).

[362] Cf. _Representations_, s.v. Shipton.

[363] Cf. supra, p. 102, note 1.

[364] Cf. p. 146.

[365] _Trans. of Shropshire Antiq. Soc._ viii. 273.

[366] _Analytical Index to Remembrancia of City of London_, 330 sqq.; 350 sqq.

[367] Cf. ch. xxv.

[368] For the general Puritan attitude to the stage, see S. Gosson, _Schoole of Abuse_, 1579 (ed. Arber); W. Prynne, _Histriomastix_ (1633), with the authorities there quoted; and the tracts in W. C. Hazlitt, _The English Drama and Stage_.

[369] On such guilds cf. Cutts, _Parish Priests_, 476; Rock, ii. 395; F. A. Gasquet, _The Eve of the Reformation_, 351.

[370] _C. Tales_, 3383 (_Miller’s Tale_).

[371] Cf. vol. i. p. 121.

[372] On the economics of a mediaeval parish and the functions of the churchwardens cf. Hobhouse, _Churchwardens’ Accounts_, xi (Somerset Record Soc.).

[373] Cf. Appendix T.

[374] Cf. pp. 58, 60.

[375] Cf. p. 73.

[376] Cf. p. 41.

[377] Cf. p. 75.

[378] I can only give the most general account of the legendary content of the plays. For full treatment of this in relation to its sources cf. the authorities quoted in the bibliographical note to chapter xxi, and especially L. T. Smith, _York Plays_, xlvii; P. Kamann, in _Anglia_, x. 189; A. Hohlfeld, in _Anglia_, xi. 285. Much still remains to be done, especially for the Chester plays and the _Ludus Coventriae_. The chief earlier sources are probably the _Evangelium Pseudo-Matthaei_ and the _Evangelium Nicodemi_ (including the _Gesta Pilati_ and the _Descensus Christi ad Inferos_), both in Tischendorf, _Evangelia Apocrypha_, and the _Transitus Mariae_ in Tischendorf, _Apocalypses Apocryphae_. The later sources include the _Legenda Aurea_ of Jacobus de Voragine (†1275) and the _Cursor Mundi_ (ed. R. Morris for E. E. T. S.), a Northumbrian poem of the early fourteenth century.

[379] Cf. p. 63.

[380] Cf. the _Mors Pilati_ in Tischendorf, _Evang. Apocr._ 456.

[381] The ‘Holy Rood’ episodes are those numbered 6, 13, 14, 16-20, 61 in the table. The fullest accounts of the legend in its varied literary forms are given by W. Meyer, _Die Geschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christus_ (_Abhandlungen der k. bayer. Akad. der Wiss._ I. Cl. xvi. 2. 103, Munich, 1881), and A. S. Napier, _History of the Holy Rood-tree_ (E. E. T. S. 1894). Roughly, the story is as follows: Seth went to Paradise to fetch the oil of mercy. An angel gave him three pips from the tree of knowledge. These were laid beneath the tongue of Adam at his burial, and three rods, signifying the Trinity, sprang up. Moses cut the rods, and did miracles with them. At his death they were planted in Mount Tabor. An angel in a dream sent David to fetch them. They grew into one tree, in the shade of which David repented of his sin with Bathsheba. When the Temple was building, a beam was fashioned from the tree, but it would not fit and was placed in the Temple for veneration. The woman Maximilla incautiously sat upon it and her clothes caught fire. She prophesied of Christ, and the Jews made her the first martyr. The beam was cast into the pool of Siloam, to which it gave miraculous properties, and was finally made into a bridge. At the Passion, a portion of it was taken for the Rood.

[382] The Norwich play of the Fall is extant in two sixteenth-century versions.

[383] The Newcastle play of the Building of the Ark is extant.

[384] Two Coventry plays are extant, the Shearmen and Taylors’ play, extending from the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Weavers’ play of the Purification and Christ in the Temple.

[385] Probably these smaller plays, chiefly Paschal, were in English. The Nativity and Resurrection plays in Lord Northumberland’s chapel and the Resurrection play in Magdalen College chapel may have been in Latin (cf. p. 107).

[386] ‘Thobie’ is included in the French collection of mysteries known as the _Viel Testament_ (Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 354, 370).