as, buyeth Homage Dialogue like this gives us the best idea we can attain of such a play of the Resurrection according to the Handlyng Synne (supra, page 41), might lawfully be acted by a priest in church to teach the unlearned. But in the same passage Mannyng mentions, though only to reprobate, the acting of plays 'in weyes or grenes,' and this removal from the church and its precincts speedily altered their character. In every important English town at this period there were guilds of the different trades or crafts, with objects partly religious, partly secular, and these guilds during the fourteenth century took the acting of the miracle-plays very largely into their own hands. In 1311 the Council of Vienne enjoined the strict observance of the festival of Corpus Christi, and in many towns this day, or in some instances its eve, was selected by the guilds for the annual performances of their plays, though in other towns these were given This ilkė boke is translate people The One of the most interesting sections of the Cursor Mundi, and the one which hitherto has defied all attempts to trace it to its source, is the mythical history of the Cross on which Christ died. quotation which must serve as our chief specimen of the poem relates to its finding ('invention') by the Empress Helena, and joins on in a curious way to Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice-the Jew who guides the Empress to the place where the three crosses are found being the prototype of Shylock, and giving up his secret to save himself from the punishment pronounced on him for having sought to enforce his bond for a pound of flesh from a Christian : Son quen thai had thair praier maked, Soon when 'Christ! thou es sauver of all this werld!' Of he kest al to his serk To mak him nemel til his werk. Sithen he nam a spad in hand, Off he cast-shirt nimble to Then-took digged Lang he delf, bot noght he fand; I hope tuenti fote or mare, I reckon 20 feet or more Bot yeit ne wist thai quilk was quilk, A ded man bodi forth thai bar; Sant Eline mad hir praier thar, I which Lord's With much town-those Our or more there miration, and its popularity, as has already been noted, was very great. Partly no doubt through its influence the cyclical miracle-plays came rapidly into favour during the fourteenth century, more especially in the north of England, where the Cursor was best known. The York cycle as we now have it is made up of no fewer than fortyeight different plays, of which one to six deal with the Creation and Fall; seven to eleven with the Murder of Abel, the Flood, the Sacrifice of Isaac, and the Exodus; twelve to nineteen with the Prophecies of Christ's Advent and the incidents of the Nativity; twenty to twenty-four with some of the chief events of His ministry; twenty-five to thirty-six with the Passion; thirty-seven to fortyfour with the Harrowing of Hell, Resurrection, the appearance of Christ to His disciples, the Ascension and Gift of the Holy Spirit; forty-five to forty-seven with the death of the Blessed Virgin, her appearance to St Thomas, Assumption, and Coronation; and the forty-eighth with the Day of Judgment. In other cycles some incidents were added and others omitted, but the general sequence of the plays was much the same, and there can be no doubt that at the outset their intention was wholly didactic and religious, and that they must have contributed not a little to the instruction of the ignorant. Their final development in the fifteenth century will be touched on again; but it is clear from Chaucer's allusions that long before his day the dramatists had sought to relieve the strain on the spectators by the introduction of humorous incidents, the quarrel of Noah and his wife when the time came to go into the ark being already a stock scene, while the ranting of Pilate and Herod was also a well-established convention. We know, moreover, that at York before 1378 the management of the different plays was already divided out between the different crafts, and it is probable that the allusions to the method of representation which have been gleaned from later records apply equally well to these fourteenthcentury performances. As early as Lent, we are told, the 'moste connyng discrete and able players' the city could furnish were selected, ‘all other insufficiant personnes, either in connyng, voice or personne,' being sternly 'discharged, ammoved and avoided.' A first rehearsal would be held in Easter week, a second in Whitsun week, and at both these the players would be refreshed with bread and ale-this and other expenses being defrayed by a levy, varying from a penny to fourpence, on every member of the guild. No player was allowed to take more than two parts, and he would receive for his services, according to his ability and the parts he played, sums varying from fourpence to four shillings, the latter amount being worth about £2, 10s. of modern money. The dresses in which these players were attired were more magnificent than appropriate. We hear of Herod wearing a blue satin gown with a helmet gilded and silvered, of Pilate in a green robe, of At Judas in yellow; while the player who took the part of Christ wore a coat of white sheepskin and red sandals. The stages or 'pageants' on which the performances took place are described as high 'scaffolds, with two rooms, a higher and a lower, upon four wheels.' In the lower the players apparelled themselves; in the higher, which was open at the top, they played. On the morning of the performance each pageant would be rolled out of its shed and dragged in its turn to the first of the 'stations' at which the plays were acted. The first performance over, the pageant would be dragged through the streets to the second station, and then the play repeated. York each play was performed twelve times, and occasionally oftener, the choice of the stoppingplaces or stations being determined by the liberality of the owners of the adjacent houses. These contributions were much needed, for the cost of the plays fell heavily on the guilds; five or six of them had sometimes to club together to produce a single pageant, while the sharing of the expenses led to frequent disputes. In a few cases the reason for the assignment of a play to a particular guild is obvious; thus the Shipwrights or Fishmongers commonly interested themselves in Noah and the Flood, while the Goldsmiths and Goldbeaters played the Magi. But as a rule the wealth of the guild and the cost of the necessary dresses and stage properties were the chief considerations. Four cycles of miracle-plays have come down to us, three connected respectively with York, Wakefield, and Chester, and a fourth, probably written in the East-Midlands, but, by a tradition with very little claim to respect, passing under the name of Coventry. The York, Wakefield, and Chester cycles were probably all in existence by the middle of the fourteenth century, though not in the form in which we have them. Partly to suit the convenience of the crafts, partly to please the changing .taste of audiences, plays were from time to time added or taken away, or recast in a new form, while the scribes of our manuscripts seem frequently to have depended on imperfect oral tradition. It is possible, however, sometimes to pick out the older work from its surroundings, and we may take the scene between Isaac and his sons (for the sake of comparison with the quotation already given on page 40 from the Genesis) as an example of the Wakefield plays in their earliest form: Isaac. Com nere, son, and kys me, That I may feyle the smell of the. Isaac. Thou art begyled thrugh Iacob, That is thyne awne german brother. thine own full brother Esau. Have ye kepyd me none other Blyssyng then ye set hym one? Isaac. Sich another have I none; Esau. Now, alas, and walo-way! May I hym mete I shall hym slo. covenanted portion weeping slay (The Towneley Plays; re-edited by George England, E.E.T.S., 1897. Play v. ll. 1–40.) The great themes of the miracle-plays, especially Christ's Passion, which is always treated in vivid detail, are handled with medieval familiarity, yet not without feeling. But there are no passages in which the unknown authors rise sufficiently to the dignity of their subject to make detached quotations helpful. Even the play on the sacrifice of Isaac, which more than one of the playwrights invests with real pathos, is a little spoilt by repetition and prolixity. The lighter side of the miracle-plays is more easily illustrated by the stock scene of 'the sorrow of Noah and his fellowship,' as Chaucer calls it, when Noah's wife refused to come into the ark. It is best given in the Chester cycle, from which, therefore, we here quote, though the text, as we have it, represents a version probably somewhat later than our period, and itself belongs to the end of the sixteenth century. As here printed it has been purged of some of the corruptions of the Elizabethan scribe: Noah. Wif, com in: why standes thou there? Thou art ever forward, I dar well swere; Com in, on Goddes halfe! time it were, for God's sake For fere lest that we drowne. Noah's Wife. Yea, sir, sette up your saile, And rowe forth with evil haile, For withouten any faile I will not out of this towne. They shall not drowne, by Sante John! And I may save ther life. with ill-luck They loven me full well, by Christe ! And gette thee a new wife. Noah. Shem, sonne, lo! thy mother is wrawe. Withouten any faile. Mother, my father after thee sende, And biddes thee into yonder ship wende, Loke up and see the winde, For we bene ready to saile. Noah's Wife. Shem, go again to him, I saye, I will not come therin to daye. Noah. Com in, wife, in twenty devills way! Or elles stand ther withoute. Ham. Shall we all fett her in? angry fetch Noah. Yea, sonnes, in Christs blessing and mine! I wolde you hied you betime, For of this flood I doubte. Japhet. Mother, we praye you all togeder, For we are here your owne childer, Com into the ship for fere of the wedder, For his love that you boughte. Noah's Wife. That will not I, for all your call, But I have my gossippes all. Shem. In faith, mother, yet you shall, Whether thou wilt or not. Unless [They force her in. Noah. Welcom, wife, into this bote. Noah. A ha! Mary, this is hote, It is good to be still. by Frère Lorens in 1279, and wrote or adapted 1 some sermons, which have also come down to us. More important than these Kentish treatises are the very curious and interesting metrical homilies in the Northumbrian dialect, written about 1330, in octosyllabic couplets, and as full of stories as the Handlyng Synne of Robert of Brunne; also the numerous works in English and Latin, in prose and verse, of Richard Rolle. This remarkable man was born at Thornton, in Yorkshire, in or about 1290; and after being educated at Oxford at the expense of a patron, resolved when eighteen or nineteen to become a hermit. Borrowing two kirtles, a white and a gray, from his sister, he made himself a temporary habit, and began a solitary life. Though half-suspected of insanity, he was allowed to preach in a church, and his sermon deeply moved his hearers. One of them provided him with a hermit's cell and dress and the means of support, and henceforth his life was passed between the raptures of contemplation and devotional writing. For some time before his death, in 1349, he lived at Hampole, near Doncaster, and it is as Richard of Hampole that he is best known. Besides two prose versions, with commentaries, of the Psalms, differing considerably from each other, which have been attributed to him, Hampole wrote a metrical translation of the Psalter and of parts of Job; also the Pricke of Conscience, a rather lifeless poem, in short couplets, dealing with the transitoriness of human things, with death and judgment, heaven and hell. His devotional writings in prose contain passages of real fervour and beauty; and though an unquestioning believer in the Church as he found it, he shows that power of piercing through the form to the spirit which brings devout mystics of every religion so close to each other. The following legend of Divine forgiveness transcending all human forms is the complement to its predecessor, in which, though all forms had been punctiliously observed, forgiveness was withheld for lack of 'verray contricioun :' 2 [Strikes him. moves 1 Chest, a disrespectful allusion to the ark. 2 For thy head-that is, a blow. Other Religious Literature. Richard Rolle of Hampole. We shall allude again to the later developments of the miracle-plays in the fifteenth century; but even these two short quotations will have helped to explain the secret of their rapid popularity, illustrating at once the fidelity with which the dramatists followed the Bible narrative, and the freedom with which at times, when it seemed permissible, they supplied details of a kind to give relief to the strained attention of the spectators. Of religious literature of a more definite kind there was no lack in the first half of the fourteenth century. We must notice some religious poems and a translation of the Psalms and Canticles in prose by William of Shoreham (near Sevenoaks), who in 1320 was appointed vicar of Chart Sutton, near Leeds (Kent), where he had been a monk; also the Ayenbyte of Inwyt (Remorse of Conscience') of Dan (Dominus the Reverend) Michel of Northgate, a monk of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, who in 1340 translated, under this title, a French treatise (Le Somme des Vices et des Vertus) written A scolere at Pares had done many full synnys, the whylke he hade schame to schryfe hym of. At the last gret sorowe of herte overcome his schame, and, whene he was redy to schryfe hym till the priore of the Abbay of Saynte Victor, swa mekill contricione was in his herte, syghynge in his breste, sobbinge in his throtte, that he moghte noghte brynge a worde furthe. Thane the prioure said till hym: Gaa and wrytte thy synnes.' He did swa and come agayne to the pryoure and gafe hym that he hadde wretyn, for yitt he myghte noghte schryfe hym with mouthe. The prioure saghe the synnys swa grette, that thurghe leve of the scolere he schewede theyme to the abbotte, to hafe conceyle. The abbotte tuke that byll that thay ware wrettyn in, and lukede thareone. He fande na thynge wretyn and said to the priour: What may here be redde, thare noghte es wretyne?' That saghe the pryour and wondyrde gretly and saide: 'Wyet ye, that his synns here warre wretyn and I redde thaym, bot now I see, that God has sene hys contrycyone and forgyfes hym all his synnes.' This the abbot and the prioure tolde the scolere, and he with gret joye thanked God. (English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle de Hampole; ed. G. G. Perry, E.E.T.S., 1866, p. 7.) Pares, Paris; full, foul; schryfe, confess; till, to; swa mekill, so much; Gaa, go; saghe, saw; conceyle, counsel; tuke that byll, took the paper; fande, found; wyet, know. We should not fail to notice in this extract the simple and straightforward, but by no means colourless, prose in which it is written. It has all the merits which we can look for in plain narrative, and it would not be easy to find anything at once so rapid and so full of unaffected dignity till we come to Tyndale's version of the Gospels. A second quotation on 'How God comes to His lovers and how He sometimes from them parts' shows that Hampole could rise quite naturally to real beauty of style: How god comes to his lofars and how he some-tyme fra thaim partis. God, when he comes to his lufars, he gifs thaim to taste how swete he is: & are thai mai fulli fele he fra thaim wendis, & als an egle he spredis his wengis & above thaim risis, als if he said: 'Som dele mai ye fele how swete I am; bot if ye wil fele this swetenes to the full, flies up after me, & lift youre hertis up to me, thar I am sittand on mi fader right hand, & thare sal ye be fulfillid in joie of me. God comes till his lufars til comforte thaim; he partis fra thaim for thai suld the mare meke thaim, & that thai suld noght overmikil pride thaim of the gladdyng that thai haf of his come. For if thi spouse ware ai with the, thou wold late over-wele of the selfe & despice other; & if he ware ai with the, thou wold rete it to kynde, & noght to grace. For-thi thorugh his grace he comes when he wil, & to whaim he wil, and departis when he wil; so that his lang duellyng make him noght mare unworthi, bot after his departynge [he] be the mare yernid & soght with geluse luf & sighinges & teres. (Yorkshire Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole; ed. C. Horstmann, vol. i., 1895, p. 147.) Fra, from; are, ere, before; som dele, some part; sittand, sitting; till, to; meke thaim, humble themselves; come, coming; ai, aye, ever; late, think; rete it to kynde, attribute it to nature; For-thi, therefore; yernid, yearned after; geluse, jealous. Later Romances. In secular literature the chief feature of the first half of the fourteenth century, as of the closing years of the thirteenth, is the great vogue of the metrical romance. We have already spoken of Sir Tristrem, Havelok, and Horn as written before 1300; and there are several others which may have been in existence as early as this, though the manuscripts in which they have come down to us are much later. Of those which appear to be earliest the majority are written in couplets; but various forms of twelveline stanzas soon became popular, and the stanza of six lines was also used, both forms of stanzas appearing (as in the miracle-plays) in combination with couplets. The alliterative romances will be treated by themselves. Of those in rhyme written during the fourteenth century we possess more than a score, varying in length from a few hundred to upwards of ten thousand lines apiece. It is impossible to discuss them all at length; they defy epitome and are not easily represented by extracts, nor is a general criticism likely to be very profitable. It is perhaps unfair to say of them that they are the 'sensational novels' of the fourteenth century, but in their use of stock incidents, their lack of characterisation, and their low standard of style, on their weaker side they do not deserve to rank much higher. The great majority must have been translated from the French, though in many cases the originals are lost or have not been printed; and as the romance in France had long ere this lost its early freshness, these imitations share the weakness of their models. Three of these romances have English heroes, and might be expected, therefore, to be racier than the rest. This is certainly true of that which celebrates the exploits of Richard Cœur de Lion. Richard is depicted as a truculent person, who orders the slaying of sixty thousand Saracens in cold blood, and bursts into a great laugh when he finds that his cook, unable to comply with his demand for pork, has served him with pickled Saracen instead! But the story is told with life and vigour, and the fighting-witness this account of the assault on Jaffa-is very good: 'Az armes !' he cryede, 'make you yare!' Alther-fyrst on land he leep; 1, 2 only one life cloth 3 dozen vagabond Unwifely, Roughly each slew-on my faith confused Of a doseyn he made an heep. ye schal afterward here: 'Malcan staran naw arbru Lor fermoir toir me moru.' nimble gates neck each one |