ftory of this interlude, in which the chief characters were Chrift, Adam, Eve, Abraham, and John the Baptift, was not uncommon in the ancient religious drama, and I believe made a part of what is called the LUDUS PASCHALIS, or Eafler Play. It occurs in the Coventry Plays acted on Corpus Chrifti day,'

in the presence of the kyng and qweene.' On one of the preceding days, after foupper the kynge and qweene beynge togader in hyr grett chamber, John inglyfh and hys companions playd. This was in the year 1503. Apud Leland, Col. iii. p. 300. Append. edit. 1770.'

See an account of the-Coventry Plays in Stevens's Monafticon, Vol. I. p. 238. "Sir W. Dugdale, fpeaking of the Gray-friars or Francifcans at Coventry, fays, before the fuppreffion of monafteries this city was very famous for the pageants that were played therein upon Corpus-Chrifti day; which pageants being acted with mighty ftate and reverence by the friers of this houfe, had theatres for the feveral fcenes, very large and high, placed upon wheeles, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of the fpectators. An ancient manufcript of the fame is now to be feen in the Cottonian Library, fub. effig. Vefp. D. S. Sir William cites this manufcript by the title of Ludus Coventrie; but in the printed catalogue of that library, p. 113. it is named thus: A collection of plays in old English metre; h. e. Dramata facra, in quibus exhibentur hiftorie 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 fra-. tribus mendicantibus repræfentata. It appears by the latter end of the prologue, that thefe plays or interludes were not only played at Coventry, but in other towns and places upon occafion. And 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 leaft 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 scenes,) reprefenting all the hiftories of both teftaments, from the creation to the chufing of St. Mathias to be an apoftle. The VOL. III.

and in the Whitfun-plays at Chefter, where it is called the HARROWING OF HELL. The reprefenta

ftories 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 alfo reprefented the Affumption, and laft Judgement. All thefe 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 anceftors, being prepared with favour, and taking every thing by the right and eafieft handle: For example, in the fcene relating to the Vifitation:

Maria. But husband of on thyng pray you moft mekeley,
I have knowing that our cofyn Elizabeth with childe is,
That it please yow to go to her haftyly,

If ought we myth comfort her, it wer to me blys.
• Jofeph. A Gods fake, is fhe with child, fche ?
Than will her husband Zachary be mery.

• In Montana they dwelle, fer hence, fo mory the,
In the city of Juda, I know it verily ;

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.

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

• Anima Chrifti. 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 fhall 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 fhail we dwellyn in blyfsfull place,' &c.

tion is, Chrift entering hell triumphantly, delivering our first parents, and the most facred characters of the old and new teflaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into paradise. 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 furprifed. They frequently felected their materials from books which had more of the air of romance. The fubject of the Myfteries just 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 than the genuine gofpel, on account of its improbabilities and abfurdities.'

"But whatsoever was the fource of thefe exhibitions, they were thought to contribute fo much to the information and inftruction of the people on

66

• The laft fcene or pageant, which reprefents the day of Judgement, begins thus:

Michael. Surgite, All men aryfe,

Venite ad Judicium;

For now is fet the High Justice,

And hath affignyd the day of dome;

Kepe you redyly to this grett affyfe,

Both gret and fmall, 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,

the most important fubjects of religion, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thoufand days to every perfon who reforted peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitfun week at Chefler, beginning with the creation, and ending with the general judgement; and this indulgence was feconded by the bifhop 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 thefe 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 ftrength and favage valour."

I may add, that these representations were so far from being confidered as indecent or profane, that even a supreme pontiff, Pope Pius the Second, about the year 1416. compofed and caused to be acted before him on Corpus Chrifti day, a Myslery, in which was reprefented the court of the king of

heaven."

Thefe religious dramas were ufually reprefented on holy feftivals in or near churches. "In feveral

S MSS. Harl. 2124. 2013.

9 Hiftriomaflix, 4to. 1633. p. 112.

· In

of our old fcriptural plays," fays Mr. Warton, "we fee fome of the fcenes directed to be reprefented cum cantu & 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. 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 prieftes garnished out certain fmall puppettes, reprefenting the perfons of Chrift, 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 caused 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.

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.”