The piece terminates with a sermon against the deadly sins, addressed by St. John to the audience. This brings us, in the Widkirk series, at once to the Conspiratio Christi, the proposal on the part of Judas to betray his master.

Neither the Chester, nor the Coventry plays arrive at this Chester event by any means so speedily. In the first we Plays. have (No. 12.) Tentatio Salvatoris,1 including the incident of the woman taken in adultery, and (No. 13) De

Whoso it resaves in syn or stryfe

Bese dede forever;

And whoso it takes in rightwys lyfe
Dy shall he never.'

In the moral of Every-man, Five-wits, eulogising the priesthood, says,
'God hath to them more power gyven

Than to any angel that is in heven.
With five words he may consecrate

God's body in fleshe and blood to make,

And handeleth his maker between his handes.'

Taken by itself, this looks like irony, and as if it had been written in the same spirit of reformation as the following lines, from a poem by John Mardeley, addressed to Q. Elizabeth immediately after she came to the throne. It is in the Royal MSS., 17, B, xxxvij.

'Why worship you then a God so feable,

In whome is neither lyfe nor yet feallinge?
He is of no power to do good, nor yet evile,
For he fealleth no payne when he is bakynge,
Neither anye thynge in the priests breakynge,
Because no spirite of lyfe in hym is inspired;

For whan he is raysed he appereth not standing.'

1 There is here a remarkable variance between the two copies of these pieces in the British Museum. In the Harl. MS. No. 2124, Satan, foiled in his attempts upon the Saviour, retires, having made what he calls his Testament', and leaving a very substantial, but far from odoriferous legacy among the spectators. This, it will be seen, corresponds nearly with the Coventry pageant on the same subject.

1

Resurrectione Lazari. quiring particular notice.

They, however, present nothing re

After the baptism of Christ, which fills the whole of the twenty-second play of the Coventry series, a council Coventry is held in hell in the twenty-third play, which is opened Plays. by 'Sir Sathanas', who addresses 'the dere wurthy devels of hell'; and it is determined that he shall be employed to tempt the Saviour: when he has taken Christ to the top of the high mountain he thus mentions some of the kingdoms of the world, spread beneath them :—

'Turne thee now on this side, and se here Lumbardye;

Of spycery there growyth many an C balys:
Archas and Aragon and grett Almonye;
Parys and Portyngale, and the towne of Galys:
Powntoys and Paperynge, and also Picardye,
Erlonde, Scottlonde and the londe of Walys."1

It will be observed that England is not mentioned, though Ireland, Scotland and Wales are in the enumeration. Satan is greatly mortified at his defeat, and signifies to the audience the state of his mind in a sonorous, but most indecorous manner. In the 24th pageant, of the woman taken in adultery, the young man is thus described making his escape, Hic juvenis quidam extra currit, indeploydo,2 caligis non ligatis, et braccas in manu tenens. The Scribes are prodigal of the 1 In the French Mistère de la Passion the view is much more enlarged, but there France is not included:

'Tous royaulmes de noble arroy

Desquels je suis seigneur et roy :
Rome tiens, Grece à moy s'applique,
Arabe, Tharse, Asye, Afrique,
Egipte, Calde, Babilonne,

Tout est à moy, et tout te donne.'

2 The word indeploydo we cannot explain: it may mean undressed.

coarsest terms of abuse against the woman. Lazarus dies on the stage in the 25th pageant, and four days elapse after his burial before he is raised by Jesus. The 26th Coventry pageant presents some singular interpolations and additions, which afford internal evidence that they were made about the reign of Henry VI or Edward IV. Satan opens it by declaring himself

'I am your lord Lucifer, that out of helle cam,
Prince of this world, and gret duke of helle.'

This information is necessary, because he is disguised as a gallant; and he gives a long and minute description of his dress and manners, belonging to the period to which we have alluded. The following is the most curious portion of it.

'By holde the dyvercyte of my dysgysed varyauns....

1

Of fyne cordewan a goodly peyre of long pekyd schon,1
Hosyn enclosyd of the most costyous cloth of crenseyn,2
Thus a bey3 to a jentylman to make comparycon :

With two doseyn poyntys of cheverelle, the aglotts1 of sylver feyn.

A shert of feyn Holond, but care not for the payment.

5

A stomachere of clere Reynes, the best may be bowthR.............

Cadace-wolle, or flokkys, where it may be sowth

To stuff withal thi dobbelet and make the of proporcyon.

Two smale legges and a gret body, thow it ryme nowth,9

Yet loke that you desyre to an1o the newe faccon ;

A gowne of thre yerdys, loke you make compason

Unto all degrees dayly that pass thi estat.

A purse with outyn mony, a daggere for devoscyon.............

With syde lokkys, 11 I schrewe, thi here to thi colere hanging downe,

9 The meaning seems to be 'though it accord not';

with small legs.

i. e., the great body

10 Han or have.

11 Side-locks of hair. Side-locks continued in fashion during the reign

To herborwe qweke bestys, 1 that tekele men onyth ;2
And hey smal bonet, for curyng of the crowne', etc.

This is one of the most curious pictures of a gallant of that day to be found in any writer: as to his manners, any person who wishes to sustain such a character, is advised to deal in 'gret othys and lycherye', 'bribery', and to pretend 'he will fight'. He is farther to set the civil and canon law alike at defiance, and to obey neither 'precept nor commandment'. The Devil also takes the opportunity of drawing a companionportrait of a lady, who if 'money lakke', is to procure it by here privy plesawns.'

'Here colere splayed and furryd with ermyn, calabere3 or satan, A seyn1 to selle lechory to hem that wyll bey;5

And thei that wyll not by it, yet inow shal thei han,

And telle hem it is for love, she may it not deney', etc.

The whole is, perhaps, the earliest specimen of dramatic satire in our language; and so afraid was the writer that some 'politic pick-lock of the scene' would give it personal application, that he makes Satan add:

'I have browth yow newe namys, and wyll ye se why?

For synne is so plesaunt to eche mannys intent;

Ye shal kalle pride oneste and naterall kende lechory,

of Henry VII, as appears from the following passage in H. Medwall's Interlude of Nature, written before 1490, and printed after Henry VIII ascended the throne. Pride says,

And covetyse wysdam, there tresure is present,

Wreth manhod, and envye callyd chastement.'

That is to say: I have brought you new names and for this reason—that sin is so pleasant to every man, that he calls lechery honesty and natural kindness, covetousness wisdom, wrath courage', etc. The rest of this play relates chiefly to a council of the Jews, called to consider the best course for stopping the increase of the followers of Christ: the subsequent stage direction will evince that some attention was paid to propriety, as far as relates to the dresses of the characters.

'Here shal Annas shewyn hym self in his stage, be seyn after a Busshopp [Bishop] of the hoold [old] law, in a skarlet gowne, and over that a blew tabbard, furryd with whyte, and a mytere on his hede after the hoold lawe: ij Doctorys stondyng by hym in furryd hodys [hoods], and on [one] beforn hem with his staff of astat [state], and eche of hem on here hedys a furryd cappe, with a gret knop in the crowne, and on [one] stondyng be forn as a Sarasyn, the wich shal be his massangere.’

This Sarasyn Messenger is sent to and fro between Annas and Caiphas, who have separate stages or scaffolds: they afterwards descend into 'the mid place' between the scaffolds, and there we are told 'shal be a lytyl oratory with stolys [stools] and cusshonys clenly be seyn, lych [like] as it were a cownsel hous.' Among those who assist at the council, are two persons named Rewfyn and Lyon, who seem to represent the whole body of Jews, inimical to the Saviour. The council is followed by the entry of Christ into Jerusalem, four citizens and some children spreading garments and flowers before him. It is evident, that in the mean while 'the Council-house' was closed by some contrivance, for after Christ has entered (in the next pageant, No. 27) the dwelling of Simeon the waterbearer, it 'sodeynly uncloses, schowing the bushopps, prestys