In the ancient religious plays the Devil was very frequently introduced. He was usually reprefented with horns, a very wide mouth, (by means of a mask) flaring eyes, a large nofe, a red beard, cloven feet, and a tail. His conftant attendant was the Vice, (the buffoon of the piece,) whofe principal employment was to belabour the Devil with his wooden dagger, and to make him roar for the entertainment of the populace.'

As the Mysteries or Miracle-plays frequently required the introduction of allegorical characters, fuch as Charity, Sin, Death, Hope, Faith, or the like, and as the common poetry of the times, especially among the French, began to deal much in allegory, at length plays were formed entirely confifting of fuch perfonifications. These were called MORALITIES. The Miracle-plays or MysTERIES were totally deftitute of invention and plan: they tamely reprefented ftories, according to the letter of the fcripture, or the refpective legend. But the MORALITIES indicate dawnings of the dramatick art: they contain fome rudiments of a plot, and even attempt to delineate characters, and to paint manners. From hence the gradual tranfition to real historical perfonages was natural and obvious.'

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"It was a pretty part in the old church-playes," fays. Bishop Harfenet, "when the nimble Vice would fkip up nimbly like a Jack-an-apes into the Devil's necke, and ride the Devil a course, and belabour him with his wooden dagger, till he made him roar, whereat the people would laugh to fee the Devil fo Vicehaunted. Harfenet's Declaration of Popish Impoftures, &c. 4to. 1603.

8 Warton's Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 242. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 128.

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Dr. Percy in his account of the English Stage has given an Analyfis of two ancient Moralities, entitled Every Man, and Lufty Juventus, from which a perfect notion of this kind of drama may be obtained. Every Man was written in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, and Lufty Juventus in that of King Edward the Sixth. As Dr. Percy's curious and valuable collection of ancient English Poetry is in the hands of every scholar, I fhall content myself with merely referring to it. Many other Moralities are yet extant, of fome of which I fhall give the titles below. Of one, which is not now extant, we have a curious account in a book entitled, Mount Tabor, or Private Exercifes of a Penitent Sinner, by R. W. [R. Willis] Efqr. published in the year of his age 75. Anno Domini, 1639. an extract from which will give the reader a more accurate notion of the old Moralities than a long differtation on the fubject.

66 UPON A STAGE-PLAY WHICH I SAW WHEN

I WAS A CHILD.

"In the city of Gloucester the manner is, (as I think it is in other like corporations,) that when players of enterludes come to towne, they first

9 Magnificence, written by John Skelton; Impatient Poverty, 1560. The Life and Repentance of Marie Magdalene, 1567. The Trial of Treafure. 1567. The Nice Wanton, 1568. The Difobedient Child, no date; The Marriage of Wit and Science, 1570. The Interlude of Youth, no date; The longer thou liveft, the more Fool thou art, no date; The Interlude of Wealth and Health, no date; All for Money, 1578. The Conflict of ConJcience, 1581. The three Ladies of London, 1584. The three Lords of London, 1590. Tom Tyler and his Wife, &c.

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attend the Mayor, to enforme him what noblemans fervants they are, and fo to get licence for their publike playing; and if the Mayor like the actors, or would fhew refpect to their lord and mafter, he appoints them to play their first play before himself, and the Aldermen and CommonCounsell of the city; and that is called the Mayor's play: where every one that will, comes in without money, the Mayor giving the players a reward as hee thinks fit to fhew refpect unto them. At fuch a play, my father tooke me with him, and made me ftand between his leggs, as he fate upon one of the benches, where we faw and heard very well. The play was called The Cradle of Security, wherein was perfonated a king or fome great prince with his courtiers of feveral kinds, among which three ladies were in fpecial grace with him; and they keeping him in delights and pleasures, drew him from his graver counsellors, hearing of fermons, and listening to good councell and admonitions, that in the end they got him to lye down in a cradle upon the ftage, where thefe three ladies joyning in a sweet fong, rocked him alleepe, that he fnorted againe; and in the mean time closely conveyed under the cloaths wherewithall he was covered, a vizard, like a fwines fnout, upon his face, with three wire chains faftened thereunto, the other end whereof being holden feverally by thofe three ladies; who fall to finging againe, and then difcovered his face, that the fpectators might fee how they had transformed him, going

The Cradle of Securitie is mentioned with feveral other Moralities, in a play which has not been printed, entitled Sir Thomas More. MSS. Harl. 3768.

on with their finging. Whilft all this was acting, there came forth of another doore at the fartheft end of the stage, two old men; the one in blew, with a ferjeant at armes his mace on his shoulder; the other in red, with a drawn fword in his hand, and leaning with the other hand upon the others fhoulder; and fo they went along with a foft pace round about by the skirt of the ftage, till at last they came to the cradle, when all the court was in the greatest jollity; and then the foremoft old man with his mace firoke a fearfull blow upon the cradle; wherewith all the courtiers, with the three ladies, and the vizard, all vanifhed; and the defolate prince ftarting up bare-faced, and finding himself thus fent for to judgement, made a lamentable complaint of his miferable cafe, and fo was carried away by wicked fpirits. This prince did perfonate in the Morall, the wicked of the world; the three ladies, Pride, Covetoufnefs, and Luxury; the two old men, the end of the world, and the laft judgement. This fight took fuch impreffion in me, that when I came towards manş eftate, it was as fresh in my memory, as if I had feen it newly acted."

The writer of this book appears to have been born in the fame year 'with our great poet (1564). Suppofing him to have been seven or eight years old when he saw this interlude, the exhibition must have been in 1571 or 1572.

I am unable to afcertain when the firft Morality appeared, but incline to think not fooner than the

2 Mount Tabor, &c. 8vo. 1639. pp. 110. & feq. With this curious extract I was favoured, feveral years ago, by the Rev. Mr. Bowle of Idmifton near Salisbury.

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reign of King Edward the Fourth (1460). The publick pageants of the reign of King Henry the Sixth were uncommonly spendid; and being then first enlivened by the introduction of speaking allegorical perfonages properly and characteristically habited, they naturally led the way to those perfonifications by which Moralities were dislinguifhed from the fimpler religious dramas called Myfteries. We must not however fuppofe, that, after Moralities were introduced, Myfteries ceafed to be exhibited. We have already feen that a Mystery was represented before King Henry the Seventh at Winchester in 1487. Sixteen years afterwards, on the first Sunday after the inarriage of his daughter with King James of Scotland, a Morality was performed. In the early part of the

3 See Warton's Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. II. p. 199. 4 Sir James Ware in his Annales, folio, 1664. after having given an account of the Statute, 33 Henry VIII. c. i. by which Henry was declared king of Ireland, and Ireland made a kingdom, informs us, that the new law was proclaimed in St. Patrick's church, in the prefence of the Lord Deputy St. Leger, and a great number of peers, who attended in their parliament robes. "It is needlefs," he adds, "to mention the feafts, comedies, and fports which followed." "Epulas, comedias, & certamina ludicra, quæ fequebantur, quid attinet dicere?" The mention of comedies might lead us to fuppofe that our fifter kingdom had gone before us in the cultivation of the drama; but I find from a MS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, that what are here called comedies, were nothing more than pageants. In the par

liament of 1541." fays the author of the memoir, "wherein Henry VIII. was declared king of Ireland, there were prefent the earls of Ormond and Defmond, the lord Barry, M'Gilla Phædrig, chieftaine of Offory, the fon of O'Bryan, McCarthy More, with many Irifh lords; and on Corpus Chrifti day they rode about the fireets in their parliament-robes, and the