'I warne you here all a bowte, At the court to pere: Both John Jurdon and Geffrey Gyle, The most remarkable part of the address, however, is the information, near the close, that money was collected for the performances :- 'And loke ye rynge wele in your purs, For ellys your cawse may spede the wurs, In the fourteenth Pageant of the Ludus Coventriæ Mary is brought to trial before Ahizachar, the Bishop, for infidelity, and Joseph for tamely submitting to it. Their accusers are two more allegorical impersonations, whose qualities are indicated by being called Primus et Secundus Detractor. The foundation of this piece is in the Pseudo-evangelium. The purity of Joseph is established by his drinking, without any ill effect, a liquid which, were he guilty, would produce 'some maculation plain on his face': Mary offers to go through the same purgation, declaring 'I trespacyd nevyr with erthly wyght'; on which Primus Detractor observes :- 'In feyth, I suppose, that this woman slepte And therof the chylde in hyre wombe doth growe.' Secundus Detractor, following up the joke, warns Mary to take care, when the snow-child is born, not to let the sun melt it. The Virgin, like Joseph, drinks without any change in her appearance; and Primus Detractor, asserting that Ahizachar had purposely changed the draught, is compelled by the Bishop to swallow what is left; and he is thus suddenly and fatally converted from his unbelief. An incident in the fifteenth Coventry play is the same as is found in the Christmas Carol, yet often sung. Mary, seeing a cherry-tree, longs for some of the fruit; and Joseph tells her, that he who is the father of her child may procure it for her the tree instantly bows down to her hand. The rest of the piece is filled with the birth of the Saviour on the stage, nearly as in the Chester series. ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. In the Widkirk manuscript are found two separate plays on the adoration of the Shepherds. After a soli- Widkirk loquy by Primus Pastor, likening the uncertainty of Plays. life to the variableness of the weather, Secundus Pastor (named John Horne) enters and quarrels with him: Tertius Pastor (called Jak, 'a garçon') who arrives on horseback, parts them, and tells them that they are This allusion is very remarkable, since it shows how very ancient were the tales relating to the Men of Gotham, long before the time of Dr. Andrew Borde, who collected them. The Shepherds are reconciled and sit down to supper, refreshing themselves with 'ale of Hely' (q. Ely): they afterwards sing; and while they are lying asleep the angel an1 Altogether. 2 Saw. nounces to them the birth of Christ, and waking they behold the star. After referring to Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc., Tertius Pastor quotes Virgil (Ecl. iv, 6), though not very correctly, and transposing the lines: Fam nova progenies cœlo de mittitur alta Fam rediet virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. Secundus Pastor protests against this display of learning: 'Tell us no clerge : I hold you of the freres.1 It semys by your Laton, Ye have lerd2 your Caton.' They proceed without delay to Bethlehem, and make their offerings to the 'little tyn mop', one giving it 'a spruse cofer', another a ball', and the third 'a botell'. The second Pageant, regarding the shepherds, is the most singular piece in the whole collection: it is not a religious play, but literally a farce, by no means destitute of humour, intended to diversify the performances. The three shepherds, after conversing on their shrewish wives and other familiar topics, are about to sing (the first agreeing to take 'the tenory', the second 'the tryble so hye', and the third 'the meyne'), when they are interrupted by the arrival of an acquaintance, named Mak, who, it seems, does not bear the best reputation for honesty. After supper, they all lie down to sleep, but the shepherds take care that Mak shall lie between them, that he may not get up unobserved, and steal their sheep. While they are snoring he, nevertheless, contrives to escape, and makes off with a fat wether, which he carries. home to his wife, as he had done many before. She is afraid of his being at last detected and hanged, for } Mak is himself in considerable alarm lest the shepherds should wake, and finding both him and the sheep missing, conclude that he had stolen it, and pay him a visit. The wife proposes this scheme :-that if the shepherds came, Mak should pretend that she had just been brought to bed, and that the sheep, which was to be covered up in the cradle, was the child she had produced. Mak agrees to the plan, but to avoid suspicion returns, and lies down again with the shepherds without his absence having been noticed. When the shepherds wake, they are so refreshed, that one of them says, 'As lyght I me feyll, as leyfe on a tre'; but Mak pretends that he has laid awkwardly and in one position so long, that it has given him a crick in his neck. The shepherds walk to the fold, and Mak hastens home; where he takes care that his wife and the dead sheep are put to bed and cradled in due form. The shepherds soon miss their wether, and swear by St. Thomas of Kent, that they suspect Mak: they go to his cottage; and making a noise to be admitted, Mak entreats them not to disturb his poor wife, telling them that she has a baby. She, too, joins in the entreaty, as the least sound goes through her head; and the shepherds are for a time imposed upon. They are on the point of departing, but return and ask to see the child, and one of them offers to give it sixpence: Mak replies that it is sleeping, and that it cries sadly when it is waked; but he cannot keep them from lifting up the coverlet of the cradle. There they see their sheep, and recognise it by the ear-mark, although the wife would fain persuade them that it is her child, which had been transformed by an evil spirit. This part of the representation is 1 'In the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, iii, 479, is a balladised Eskdale tradition (by the Rev. John Marriott), of Archie Armstrong having stolen a sheep and placed it in a cradle, and by pretending that it was a child, deceiving those who came in pursuit of him and it. It is so singular, novel, and humorous, that we should not be excused if we did not give a much longer specimen of it than usual, beginning with the arrival of the three shepherds at the door of Mak's cottage, after they have discovered the loss of their fat wether. Ter. Past. As it were noyne ?2—On loft, Goode felowse, were it day. Mak.-As far as ye may, good, speke soft That is at mayll easse.3 I had lever be dede, Or she had any diseasse. Uxor. To an othere stede.4 I may not well qweasse. 5-So! hee! Goys thorow my nese. Prim. Past.— Tell us, Mak, if ye may, clear from this Miracle-play, that the story is much older than the time of Charles the First's banished jester. It, however, tends to confirm, in some slight degree, the northern origin of the Widkirk-plays. 1 Soon. • Place. 2 Noon. 3 Mal-aise. • Nose. |