hand, warns all husbands to chastise their wives before they become too headstrong. The matter is accorded by the intervention of the sons, and ultimately they all go on board the ark three hundred and fifty days are said to pass while Noah and his family are conversing in the rain. A raven, and then a dove, are sent out, and the play ends with the debarkation of all the passengers, human and bestial.

In the Chester pageant on the same subject, the building of the Ark occupies 'one hundred winters and twenty', Chester and the following direction shows that some art was Plays. employed in the getting up of the representation :-Then Noy shall goe into the Arke with all his famylye, his wife excepte: the Arke must be borded rounde about, and on the bordes all the beastes and fowles here after rehearsed must be painted, that there wordes may agree with the pictures.'

Noah's wife has all along declared that she will not make one of the party, and when at last Noah warns her, that if she does not come she will be drowned, she replies that she will not go on board without her female friends :—

'But I have my gossippes every eichone,1

One foote further I will not gone.
The[y] shall not drowne, by saint John,
And I maye save there life.

The[y] loven me full well, by Christe !

But thou lett them into thy cheiste;
Elles rowe nowe wher'thy leiste,

And gette the a newe wiffe.'

Shem intercedes with his mother in vain, for she tells him,

'Sem, goe againe to him; I say,

I will not come therein to day.

Noe.—Come in, wife, in twenty devills way,
Or else stande there all day.'

1 Every cichone is everich one, or every one.

The ladies all refuse, and sing what is called The good Gossippes Song, which is not given, but the speech of one of them ends thus:

'Here is a potill full of Malmsee full strong,

It will reioyce both harte and tonge:
Though Noe thinke us never so longe,

Here will we drinke alike.'

Japhet and Shem at last force her into the Ark. Noah, willing to be reconciled, welcomes her; but she strikes him, exclaiming, 'Have thou that for thy note.' The conclusion

of the pageant is the covenant of the rainbow, and the Deity takes leave of Noah with 'now farewell, my darling deare.' The Coventry play on the same subject is without the inCoventry cident of the quarrel between Noah and his wife: on Plays. the contrary, she is very glad to escape, and says:'Alas, for gret ruthe of this gret vengeaunce, Gret doyl1 it is to se this watyr so wyde, But yit thankyd be god of this ordenaunce, That we be now savyd on lyve to abyde.”2

1 Sorrow, or dole.

2 In the pageant preserved in the appendix to Brand's History of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a dispute between Noah and his wife is also introduced, but with more art and circumstance. When the Patriarch has built the Ark, the Devil tries to prevail upon Noah's wife not to enter it, observing,

'I swear thee, by my crooked snout,

All that thy husband goes about

Is little for thy profit:'

and then he gives her a poisonous draught for her husband, which he himself tastes, but spits out. She tells her husband:

By my faith, I no reck

Whether thou be friend or foe :
The Devil of hell thee speed,

To ship when thou shalt go.'

Noah is so provoked, that he belabours her lustily, while she does not

The death of Cain, by 'a broad arrow', shot by blind Lamech, who mistook Cain for a wild beast, forms an incident in the fourth Coventry pageant.

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.

The fourth Widkirk pageant relates entirely to the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. The father and son, perhaps Widkirk in order to give business to the scene, are accompanied Plays. on their way 'forth of towne', by two boys and a jackass, whom, before the sacrifice, they leave behind. When Abraham is about to slay his son, Isaac exclaims :

'The shynyng of your bright blade,

It gars me quake for ferde to dee.

Abraham.-Therfor groflyng1 thou shalt be layde ;

Then when I stryke thou shal not se.'

In order to delay the fatal stroke, Abraham pretends that he has lost something, and turning away, says very tenderly: 'What water shotes in both myn eeyn !

I were lever than all warldly wyn,
That I had fon hym onys unkynde;

But no defawt I found hym in.
I wold be dede for hym or pynde ;

To slo hym thus I thynk grete syn :'

or in other words, 'What water shoots into both mine eyes? I should have been more glad than of all worldly gain, if I had found him once unkind; but I never found him in fault. seem able to afford much resistance. At the conclusion, an Angel appears and congratulates Noah on his victory. When they are all on board, the Devil pronounces a curse upon the spectators, which ends the per

formance.

1 Grovelling, on his stomach. The meaning of the preceding line is, 'It makes me quake for fear to die'.

I would willingly die or endure suffering for him: to slay him thus I think a great sin.'

The angel prevents the blow; but Abraham will not talk, even with the heavenly messenger, till he has released and kissed his son.

The Chester play treats this story even more pathetically; Chester but, as a contrast, it is opened with a comic prologue by Plays. a person who names himself 'Gobbet on the Green', but who is called Preco at the head of the scene. It runs thus:

'All lordinges that be here presente,
And harken me with good entente
Howe Noye awaie from us wente,
And all his companye ;

And Abraham, through Godes grace,
He is comen into this place,

And ye will geve us rombe and space

To tell you of storye.

This playe, for south, begyne shall be

In worshippe of the Trinitie,

That you maye all heare and see
That shalbe done to daie.

My name is Gobbet on the greene;
With you I may no longer bene.

Farewell, my lordinges, by dene,
For letting of your playe."

The following is part of the dialogue between Abraham and terrified Isaac :

'Isaacke.—Yf I have tresspassed in any degree,

With a yarde you may beate me.

1 The stage-direction, which immediately succeeds, shows that this speech was intended as a prologue, ' Here Abraham, haveinge restored his brother Loth into his owne place, doth first begyne the playe, sayinge,' etc.

Put up your sworde, yf your wilbe,
For I ame but a chylde.

Abraham.-Oh, my dear sonne! I ame sorye

To doe to thee this greate anoye.

God's commaundement doe must I :
His workes are aye full mylde.

Isaacke.—Woulde God, my mother were here with me!
She woulde kneele downe upon her knee,

Prayinge you, father, yf yt might be,
For to save my life.'

Isaac nevertheless expresses his readiness to submit, and reminds Abraham that he has other sons at home whom he may love. Abraham 'wrings his hands', and declares himself almost out of his senses for grief. Isaac on his knees asks his father's blessing, and requests him to hide his eyes that he may not see the sword when it is raised to strike him, while Abraham entreats him not to add to his agony, and calls upon Christ to have pity upon him. The stage direction at the close is Here let Abraham make a signe, as though he would slaye and cut off his head with his sworde; then let the Angell come and take the sworde by the ende, and staye it.'

In the course of this piece we meet with the first mention of the Expositor (sometimes also called the Doctor), who makes several explanatory addresses to the audience; and a messenger delivers an epilogue, in which he announces the subject of the next play.

The Coventry Pageant, which relates, like those of Widkirk and Chester, solely to the sacrifice of Isaac, is Coventry much inferior. There is one natural touch in it, how- Plays. ever, which deserves notice: during the whole way Abraham is dumb with grief at the contemplation of the sacrifice he is compelled to make; and Isaac remarks unconsciously and innocently-