near Chester, was the place of execution, and by the 'high horse' there, Augustus, probably, means the gallows.1 The boy must nevertheless have been really mounted at the time, for he replies satirically :—

'Graunt mercy, lord, pardy,

This hackney will well serve me ;

For a great lord of your degree
Should ryde in such araye.'

The birth of the Saviour in this pageant is supposed to take place on the stage: Joseph brings in the midwives, and Mary observes :

1 This passage, and the reply, are found only in Harl. MS. 2124. Ulpian Fulwell, in his Like will to Like, 1568, calls the gallows a 'two legged mare'.

'This peece of land, whereto you inheritours are,

Is called the land of the two legged mare:

In this peece of ground there is a mare in deed,

Which is the quickest mare in England for speede.'

The anonymous author of a poem, written in the reign of Queen Mary, called Pore Help, has the same allusion :

'And are you now so bragg?

You may come to tagg,

Your hap may be to wagg

Upon a wooden nagg;

Or els a fair fyre

May happ to be your hyre.'

The whole is reprinted by Strype, Eccl. Mem., ii, Rep. of Orig., 34. There was, however, a different sort of punishment at that date, called riding the wooden horse, or riding the staag.

2 Dispute.

3 Dear companion.

1

A, Josephe, tydinges a righte!

I have a sonne, a sweete wight.-
Lord! thanked be thou, moch of might,]
For proved is thy postee.'1

Joseph is thoroughly satisfied, and the pageant ends. The Coventry plays, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, all Coventry relating to matters connected with the birth of the Plays. Saviour, much of which is not contained in any other series, deserve very particular notice. In the first of these a personage, called Contemplation, is brought forward, who subsequently acts as Prologue-speaker, and explains and moralizes on the events, but is in no way concerned in the action. This is an allegorical impersonation, and there can be no doubt that it was introduced into these performances considerably after their first production, whether they were in French or English.

The following is part of his first speeech, justifying the ordination of Priests, Bishops, and a Pope :

'Sovereynes, undyrstandyth, that Kynge David here

Ordeyned foure and twenty prestys of gret devocion,
In the temple of God; after here let apere,

Thei weryn clepyd summi sacerdotes for mynistracion;
And one was prynce of prestys, havynge domynation:
Amonge whiche was an old prest clepyd Zakarye;
And he had an olde woman to his wyff, of holy conversation,
Which hyth Elizabeth, that never had childe verilye.'

The eighth play refers chiefly to the barrenness of Anna, and the promised birth of the Virgin. The following is part of the address of Contemplation in opening the ninth play.

'Sovereynes, ye hav sen shewyd yow before,

Of Joachym and Anna here both there holy metynge :
How our lady was conseyvid, and how she was bore.

1 Power.

We passe ovyr that, breffnes of tyme consynderynge,
And how our lady, in her tendyr age and ying,

Into the temple was offryd,' etc.

The presentation then takes place in dumb show, Contemplation commenting upon what passes. The Virgin is represented as a child of three years old in the ninth play, and we are informed by Contemplation that fourteen years are supposed to elapse between that and the tenth play-so little were the unities attended to even in the very earliest of our theatrical performances. Contemplation's epilogue ends in

these lines:

'Hath pacyens with us, we besech yow here,
And in short spas

The parlement of hefne1 sone shal ye se,

And how goddys sone come man shal he,

And how the salutation after shal be

Be goddys holy gras.'

The Parliament of Heaven is not opened in the next play (the tenth), which is founded upon that part of the apocryphal gospel called 'Mary'. The Bishop summons the males of the kindred of David to appear in the temple, each bearing a peeled white rod, it being declared from heaven, that he whose rod should 'bloom and bear', should be the husband of the Virgin. Joseph is pointed out by the miracle, and he is most reluctantly married, declaring,

'An olde man may nevyr thryff

With a yonge wyff, so god me save...

If I her chyde she wolde clowte my cote,
Blere myne ey, and pyke out a mote;

And thus oftyn tymes it is sene.'

The Bishop, however, is positive as regards the marriage, and at last Joseph gives way :—

1 Heaven.

Nevertheless, the marriage is solemnized, and hic cantent Benedicta sit beata Trinitas.

When, during the marriage ceremony, Joseph is asked, 'whether he will have this maiden', he replies with great simplicity,

'Nay, sere, so mote I thryff,

I have right no nede therto;'

but they are united notwithstanding. Joseph resolves that
he will not live with Mary, and she makes a vow of chastity.
During the piece, he goes out and hires 'a lytyl praty hous'
for her residence. The progress of the incidents is interrupted
by the Parliament of Heaven, in the eleventh pageant, in
which the Father, Son, Veritas, Justitia, Misericordia, Pax
and Spiritus Sanctus are the speakers. Gabriel then descends,
and salutes Mary with an anagrammatic pun :

'Heyl ful of grace, god is with the!
Amonge all women blyssyd art thu ;
Here this name Eva is turnyd Ave,

That is to say, with owte sorwe1 Av ye now.' .

The following singular stage direction just subsequently occurs—' Here the holygost disecendit, with 3 bennys2 to our lady: the sone of the godhed next, with 3 bennys to the holygost: the fadyr godly, with 3 bennys to the sone: and

1 Sorrow.

2 Benedicites.

so entre all thre to here bosom'. The twelfth play opens very
dramatically, with the return of Joseph to his 'pretty little
house', after a supposed absence of some months.

'Foseph.-How, dame, how! undo youre dore undo.
Are ye at home? Why speke ye notht?

Susanna.—Who is ther? Why cry ye so?

Tell us youre herand. Wyl ye ought?

Foseph.-Undo your dore, I sey yow to,
For to com in is all my thought.

Maria. It is my spowse that spekyth us to.

Ondo the dore, his wyl were wrought.—
Well come hom, myn husbond dere,
How have ye ferd in fer countre?

Foseph. To gete oure levynge, withowtyn were,
I have sore laboryd for the[e] and me.'

Afterwards he suddenly discovers the pregnancy of the
Virgin, and exclaims in great grief:-

'Alas, alas ! my name is shent !

All men may me now dyspyse,

And seyn, Olde cokwold, thi bowe is bent
Newly now, after the Frensche gyse ;'

a remarkable expression that seems to have been proverbial.
The descent of an angel explains the whole matter, greatly
to Joseph's satisfaction; and, as in the Widkirk play, he makes
suitable amends. The thirteenth play consists of the visit of
Joseph and Mary to Elizabeth, with some interlocutions by
Contemplation: the conclusion of it only is curious, as an
officer of the Bishop's court summons a great number of
persons to appear before his Lordship, at the trial of Joseph
and Mary-all of them with English names, obviously inserted
for the sake of producing merriment among the spectators.