: first instance indebted to France for Miracle-plays, or that they were written in this country in the French language. The preceding remarks apply to the performances at Chester, as we have not been able to trace the same resemblances in other similar collections; and in the Chester plays they are only found in those which relate to the history of the Old Testament. The authors of these sacred dramas, having the advantage of a story already constructed, had only to clothe the incidents in dialogue, while the ordinary objection of want of probability could never be urged against them, even in those portions which were derived from the apocryphal gospels. The term 'Miracle' implies the divine agency, and a conviction among the auditors of the power of that agency was all that was necessary. The words of the author of Piers Ploughman's Vision, referring to the season of the year when representations of this kind ordinarily took place, may very fitly be applied to them : 'Our bileve sufficeth, As clarkes in Corpus Christi singen and reden, In judging of the form, incidents, and language of these productions, we must of course carry our minds back to the period when they were written or represented: we shall then find, that much that now seems absurd, ludicrous, or even profane, was then pious, awful, aud impressive. The most ancient extant specimen of a Miracle-play in English is to be found in the Harleian MSS. in the British. Museum.1 It formed no doubt one of a series, but the rest 'No. 2253. But very possibly The Skryvener's Play, on the incredulity of St. Thomas, may be quite as ancient, if not older. It is the property of Dr. Sykes, of Doncaster, and was discovered many years ago in the archives of the Guildhall, York. We apprehend that it may be have not been handed down to us, and it is certainly as old as the earlier part of the reign of Edward III. It is founded upon the sixteeenth chapter of the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus, and relates to the descent of Christ to hell, to liberate from thence Adam, Eve, John the Baptist, and the Prophets. It differs from other pieces of the same kind, and upon the same subject, in having an introduction and conclusion, in the way of prologue and epilogue; but in other respects it is conducted much after the usual manner, as will be hereafter more particularly explained. Besides this, and a few other single pieces, there exist in this country three sets of Miracles or Miracle-plays, which go through the principal incidents of the Old and New Testaments.1 1. The Towneley Collection, supposed to have belonged to Widkirk Abbey, before the suppression of the monasteries, the MS. of which appears to have been written about the reign of Henry VI.2 2 anterior to the earliest performance of the kind yet produced: it is of the very simplest construction, and the characters are only five, while the language is at least as old as the reign of Edward II or III. It was composed for performance by the Scriveners, and the MS. bears witness to its antiquity: it was clearly one of a series relating to the events of the New Testament, but all the others, supposed to have been fifty-seven, have been lost. We have elsewhere examined it in more detail, and to lingual antiquaries it is certainly of great value. 'Among the Digby MSS. (No. 133) in the Bodleian, is a set of three Miracle-plays, never yet noticed, founded on that part of the Acts of the Apostles which relates to the conversion of St. Paul. In the same volume is bound up a long religious play, from which Warton (H. E. P., iii, 187) quoted only a stage direction: it is called Oreginale de Sca Maria Magdalena. A very curious copy of an early Moral is in the same collection, and we have mentioned it under the proper head. An account of, and quotations from the Miracle-plays of the conversion of St. Paul, and of the Life of Mary Magdalen, are subjoined to our review of the Miracle-plays of Widkirk, Chester, and Coventry. 2 The following are the subjects of the plays in this collection, being VOL. II. F 2. A volume called the Ludus Coventriæ, consisting of Miracle-plays said to have been represented at Coventry on the feast of Corpus Christi, the MS. of which was written at least as early as the reign of Henry VII.1 3. The Chester Whitsun plays, of which two MSS. are in the British Museum, the earliest dated in the year 1600, and the other in 1607.2 thirty in number. I. The Creation, and the Rebellion of Lucifer. 2. Mactatio Abel. 3. Processus Noæ cum filiis. 4. Abraham. 5. Jacob and Esau. 6. Processus Prophetarum. 7. Pharao. 8. Cæsar Augustus. 9. Annunciatio. 10. Salutatio Elizabethæ. II. Pastorum. 12. Alter eorundem. 13. Oblatio Magorum. 14. Fugatio Josephi et Mariæ in Egiptum. 15. Magnus Herodes. 16. Purificatio Mariæ. 17. Johannes Baptista. 18. Conspiratio Christi. 19. Colaphizatio. 20. Flagellatio. 21. Processus Crucis. 22. Processus Talentorum. 23. Extractio Animarum. 24. Resurrectio Domini. 25. Peregrini. 26. Thomas India. 27. Ascensio Domini, etc. 28. Judicium. 29. Lazarus. 30. Suspensio Judia. It consists of forty-two Plays, including one which now seems wanting in the collection: their subjects are these. 1. The Creation. 2. The Fall of Man. 3. The Death of Abel. 4. Noah's Flood. 5. Abraham's Sacrifice. 6. Moses and the Ten Tables. 7. The Genealogy of Christ. 8. Anna's Pregnancy. 9. Mary in the Temple. 10. Mary's betrothment. 11. The Salutation and Conception. 12. Joseph's return. 13. The Visit to Elizabeth. 14. The Trial of Joseph and Mary. 15. The Birth of Christ. 16. The Shepherd's Offering. 17. Caret in MS. 18. Adoration of the Magi. 19. The Purification. 20. Slaughter of the Innocents. 21. Christ disputing in the Temple. 22. The Baptism of Christ. 23. The Temptation. 24. The Woman taken in Adultery. 25. Lazarus. 26. Council of the Jews. 27. Mary Magdalen. 28. Christ betrayed. 29. Herod. 30. The Trial of Christ. 31. Pilate's Wife's dream. 32. The Crucifixion. 33. Christ's Descent into Hell. 34. Sealing of the Tomb. 35. The Resurrection. 36. The Three Maries. 37. Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen. 38. The Pilgrim of Emaus. 39. The Ascension. 40. Descent of the Holy Ghost. 41. The Assumption of the Virgin. 42. Doomsday. 2 A MS. of them, dated 1604, is also in the Bodleian Library. The 1 Performances of the same description (as has been stated in the Annals of the Stage, vol. i, p. 19) took place in many parts of the kingdom. Holinshed, speaking of the third year of the reign of Edward VI,1 mentions the plays ' accustomed yearly to be kept' at Wymondham, near Norwich; and specimens of the pieces exhibited at York and Newcastle are extant in Drake's and Brand's Histories of those places.2 At Manningtree, with the advance of the drama, Morals (the precise nature of which will be hereafter detailed) seem to have been substituted for Miracle-plays; but at Tewkesbury, the most ancient species of theatrical representation appears to have been preserved until the year 1585. We find in one authority, applicable to Bristol (Cott. MS. Jul. B xii) that a Miracle-play was sometimes acted merely in dumb show; for when Henry number of the plays is four-and-twenty, viz.-1. The Fall of Lucifer. 2. De creatione Mundi. 3. De Diluvio Noæ. 4. De Abrahamo, Melchisedech et Loth. 5. De Mose et Rege Balaak, et Balaam Propheta. 6. De Salutatione et Nativitate Salvatoris. 7. De Pastoribus greges pascentibus. 8. De tribus Regibus Orientalibus. 9. De oblatione tertium Regum. 10. De occisione Innocentum. II. De purificatione Virginis. 12. De Tentatione Salvatoris. 13. De Chelidomo et de Resurrectione Lazari. 14. De Jesu intrante domum Simeonis leprosi. 15. De Cœna Domini. 16. De Passione Christi. 17. De Descensu Christi ad Inferos. 18. De Resurrectione Jesu Christi. 19. De Christo ad Castellam Emaus. 20. De Ascensione Domini. 21. De Electione Maihiæ, etc. 22. Ezekiel. 23. De Adventu Antichristi. 24. De Judicio extremo. 1 Chron. fol. 1028, edit. 1587. 2 See also Croft's Excerpta Antiqua, York, 1797, p. 105. * Dekker, in his Seven Deadly Sins of London, 1606, mentions 'the old Morals of Manningtree.' See also note to Henry IV, part i, act ii, scene 4. * In the accounts of the Churchwardens of Tewkesbury, under date of 1578, we read as follows:-'Payd for the players geers, six sheep-skins for Christ's garments:' and in an inventory contained in the same book occur these words, with the date of 1585.—'Eight heads of hair for the Apostles, and ten beards, and a face or vizier for the Devil.' VII visited that city, in his progress after his coronation, The Shipwright's Play, relating probably to Noah's Flood, was performed before him 'without speech'. The Cornish Guary Miracle, mentioned with some particularity by Carew in his Survey of Cornwall, 1602, was a dramatic performance of precisely the same character as the English Miracle-play, the chief, if not the only difference being, that the former was in the ancient language of that part of the kingdom, a mixture of Celtic and Saxon. There is every probability, that the Guary Miracle was merely a translation. Several specimens of these productions are extant; and one of them, said to have been originally written by a person of the name of Jordan, and subsequently rendered from the Cornish into English, is in the British Museum.1 Miracle-plays were written, and even to a comparatively late period acted, by ecclesiastics. Robert Grossetete, Bishop of Lincoln (whose authority for a different purpose is cited in the Annals of the Stage, vol. i, p. 15), in his Manuel de Peché, under the head De Miracles, states that they were cuntrové by les fols clercs; that the clergy performed in them in disguises; and that the representations sometimes took place in churches and cemeteries, as well as in the public streets. It is recorded 1 Harl. MS. 1867. A late president of the Royal Society, D. Gilbert, Esq., M.P., rendered this piece very accessible by an extremely accurate impression of it. It is made from a different MS. to that in the Museum, but there is no substantial variation. Mr. D. Gilbert also published from a MS. an ancient poem in the Cornish language, called 'Mount Calvary, which, he states, in the preface to the Guary Miracle, is of a more ancient idiom than the drama. The translation of both into English was by a person of the name of John Keigwin, who died in 1710. Of Jordan, the editor says [Preface vii] he could discover nothing, beyond the fact that he lived at Helston. It is to be observed, that several passages of the Cornish play are still preserved in English, as if Jordan had left them untranslated. |