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life. It has been shewn, that abstract impersonations by degrees found their way into Miracle-plays, although in their origin they only dramatised certain scriptural events by the characters historically concerned. The change was designed to give these pieces a degree of attractiveness they would not have possessed, if year after year they had been repeated to the same audiences precisely in the same form. Among the first innovations of this sort were the representatives of Veritas, Justitia, Pax, and Misericordia in 'the Parliament of Heaven', which constitutes part of the eleventh play or pageant of the Ludus Coventria. Death, in the same series, was a subsequent improvement, and the Mother of Death, a still later addition; until at length such characters as Reufin and Lyon were employed, partaking of greater individuality, though still personifying the feelings and passions which are supposed to have actuated the Jews.

As such characters became more numerous, they interfered, to a certain degree, with the action and progress of the plot : scriptural characters in some pieces fell into the background, and sank into comparative insignificance; and thus in process of time what was originally intended to be a poetical embellishment to a sacred drama, became a new species of theatrical exhibition, unconnected with bible-history. This was called a Moral, or Moral-play; and while it consisted of mere allegory and abstraction, unenlivened by mental or personal idiosyncrasy, by varied incident, and by temporary allusion, it must have been a very wearisome, and often unintelligible exhibition, ill calculated for a popular assembly.

If, therefore, this kind of drama were to exist at all, it could not exist long supported only by mere abstractions: accordingly, in the very earliest specimens that have reached the present day, we find efforts made, with more or less success, to render them amusing as well as instructive, by conveying

the ethical lesson of the piece in a varied and inviting form: it was only, in fact, by abandoning the original plan, that this object could be accomplished. Thus deviations from the first design of Miracle-plays, by the employment of allegory, led to the performance of Moral-plays; and deviations from Moral-plays, by the relinquishment of abstraction for individual character, paved the way, by a natural and easy gradation, for tragedy and comedy, the representations of real life and manners.

Supposing this view of the subject well founded, it is unnecessary to resort to the hypothesis of Warton, that 'Moralities' (as he and some others term them) owed their origin to the speaking characters which, in the reign of Henry VI, and subsequently, addressed monarchs from temporary scaffolds on their entrance into large towns and cities. Those characters were historical as well as allegorical, and yet it is not pretended, that historical personages, unconnected with the events of Scripture, figured upon our stage until more than a century after allegorical abstractions were first employed.

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Malone was inclined to think' that our first 'Morality' was not older than the time of Edward IV ;3 but some manuscript productions of this class have recently been discovered, which show that early in the reign of Henry VI, Morals were in a state of considerable advancement. The opinion of Warton, 1 Hist. Engl. Poet., iii, 37, edit. 8vo.

2 When Henry VII on one occasion entered Coventry, he was addressed not only by Righteousness, Temperance, Strength, Prudence, etc., but by Hector, Alexander the Great, Arthur, Charlemaine, St. Edward, Julius Cæsar, and Godfrey of Bollogne. See the pageants at Coventry appended to the Tailor's and Sheermen's Plays, as printed by Sharp in 1817.—Cotton. MS. Julius B, xii, shews, that when Henry VII entered Bristol, during one of his progresses, he was addressed from a scaffold by a performer who represented King Henry VI.

3 Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, iii, 30.

that they reached the highest perfection of which they are capable while Henry VII was on the throne, is probably not to be disputed, though they subsequently acquired a greater degree of complication by the addition of characters, and exhibited more labour and ingenuity in their construction. A company of actors in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII in general only consisted of four or five persons, and by doubling or trebling some of the parts, they were capable of performing the dramatic entertainments then in fashion.1 The greater complication of Morals will be illustrated hereafter in the course of an examination of the structure of some of the pieces exhibited.

Independent of allegorical personages, there were two prominent characters in Moral-plays, regarding which it is necessary to speak, as some misunderstanding has existed respecting them. We allude to the Devil and the Vice.

The Devil was no doubt imported into Moral-plays from the old Miracle-plays, where he figured so amusingly, that when a new species of theatrical diversion had been introduced, he could not be dispensed with: accordingly, we find him the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins, in one of the most ancient Moral-plays that have been preserved, He was rendered as hideous as possible by the mask and dress he wore ;

1 This was, however, by no means invariably the case, and some of our most ancient Morals would require many actors for their representation: perhaps, in these instances, the common players obtained extraneous assistance, such as was given at Thetford in the reign of Henry VIII, by the members of the Priory. The custom of composing pieces so that one actor might undertake two, or even three, characters, continued until late in the reign of Elizabeth. In the MS. historical play of Sir Thomas More, which was probably written about 1590, the actors of Cardinal Wolsey are spoken of as only 'four and a boy'. Henry VIII was the first of our monarchs who entertained eight performers, but they formed two separate companies, the new and the old players, and we do not know that they ever acted in conjunction.

and from Ulpian Fulwell's Like will to Like, 1568 (and from other sources of the same kind which need not be particularised) we learn that his exterior was shaggy and hairy, one of the characters there mistaking him for 'a dancing bear'. His 'bottle-nose' and 'evil face' are mentioned both in that piece and in T. Lupton's All for Money, 1578; and that he had a tail, if it required proof, is evident from the circumstance that the Vice asks him for a piece of it to make a flyflap. His ordinary exclamation on entering was, 'Ho, ho, ho!' and on all occasions he was prone to roaring and crying out, especially when, for the amusement of the spectators, he was provoked to it by castigation at the hands of the Vice. Malone states that 'his constant attendant was the Vice', as if the Devil never appeared without him, but in The Disobedient Child (n. d. but printed about 1560), and in one or two other Morals, he exhibited alone.1

1 The following amusing story, founded upon the dress and appearance of the Devil in ancient theatrical performances, is from A C mery Talys, n. d. but printed by John Rastell prior to 1533: the hero had played the Devil in some drama of that period.

'Of John Adroyns in the dyvyľ's apparell. iij.

It fortunyd that in a market towne in the counte of Suffolke there was a stage-play, in the which play one callyd John adroyns, which dwellyd in a nother vyllage ij myle from thens, playde the dyvyl. And when the play was done thys John adroyns in the evynyng departed fro the sayde market towne to go home to hys owne house: because he had there no change of clothyng he went forth in hys dyvyll's apparell, whych in the way comyng homeward cam thorow a waren of conys, belongyng to a gentylman of the vyllage wher he him self dwelt. At whych tyme it fortunyd a preste, a vycar of a church therby, with ij or iij other unthryfty felows, had brought with them a hors, a hey and a feret, to thentent there to get conys, and when the feret was in the yerth, and the hey set over the path way where thys John adroyns shuld come, thys prest and hys felows saw hym come in the devyl's rayment: consideryng that they were in the dyvyl's servyce, and stelyng of conys, and sup

Regarding the Vice, the late Mr. Douce was of opinion (with that sagacity and knowledge which distinguished him, and posyng it had ben the devyll in dede for fere they ran away. Thys John adroyns in the dyvyl's rayment, and because it was somewhat dark, saw not the hay, but went forth in hast and stomblid thereat, and fell doun, that with the fal he had almost broken his nek. But whan he was a lytyll revyvyd, he lokyd up and spyed it was a hay to catch conys, and lokyd further and saw that they ran away for fere of him, and saw a horse tyed to a bush laden with conys whych they had taken, and he toke the horse and the haye and lept upon the horse and rode to the gentylmanny's place that was lorde of the waren, to the entente to have thank for takynge suche a pray. And whan he came knokyd at the gatys. To whome anone one of the gentylmanny's servaunts askyd who was there, and sodeinly openyd the gate, and as sone as he perceyvyd hym in the devyl's rayment, was sodenly abashyd, and sparryd the dore agayn, and went in to hys mayster and sayd and sware to hys mayster that the dyvell was at the gate and wolde come in. The gentylman heryng hym say so callyd another of his servauntys, and bad hym go to the gate to knowe who was there. Thys seconde servaunt came to the gate, durst not open it, but askyd wyth lowd voyce who was there? thys John Adroyns in the dyvyls aparell answeryd with a hye voyce and sayd, Tell thy mayster I must nedys speke with hym or I go. Thys second servaunt heryng.

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[Eight lines of the original are here wanting in the only known copy.] the devyll in dede that is at the gate syttinge upon an horse laden with soules, and be lykelyhode he is come for your soule, purpos ye to let him have your soule, and if he had your soule I wene he shulde be gon: the gentylman than mervaylously abasshed called his chaplayne and sayd let a candell be light and gette holy water, and wente to the gate with as manye servantes as durste go with him, where the chaplayne with muche conjuration sayd, In the name of the father, sonne, and holy ghost I commande, and charge the in the holy name of God to tell me wherefore thou comeste hyther? This John Adroynes in the devill's apparell seying them be gynne to conjure after such maner sayd: Nay feare not me for I am a good devyll, I am John Adroynes your neighboure in this towne, and he that playde the devyll to day in the playe. I bryng my mayster a dosen or two of his owne conyes that were stolen in dede and theyr horse and theyr haye, and made them for feare to ronne awaye : whanne

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