Where thou shalt heal thee of thy smart,
Then go thou with thy reckoning and thy good deeds together.
For to make thee joyful at the heart
Before the blessed Trinity.
EVERYMAN.
My Good Deeds, I thank thee heartfully:
I am well content certainly
With your words sweet.
KNOWLEDGE.
Now go we together lovingly
To Confession, that cleansing river.
EVERYMAN.
For joy I weep: I would we there were;
But I pray you to instruct me by intellection,[91]
Where dwelleth that holy virtue Confession?
KNOWLEDGE.
In the house of salvation;
We shall find him in that place,
That shall us comfort by God's grace.
Lo, this is Confession: kneel down, and ask mercy;
For he is in good conceit with God Almighty.
EVERYMAN.
O glorious fountain that all uncleanness doth clarify,
Wash from me the spots of vices unclean,
That on me no sin may be seen;
I come with Knowledge for my redemption,
Redempt with heart and full contrition,
For I am commanded a pilgrimage to take,
And great accounts before God to make.
Now I pray you, Shrift, mother of salvation,
Help hither my good deeds for my piteous exclamation.
CONFESSION.
I know your sorrow well, Everyman:
Because with Knowledge ye come to me,
I will you comfort as well as I can;
And a precious jewel I will give thee,
Called penance, voider[92] of adversity:
Therewith shall your body chastised be
With abstinence and perseverance in God's service;
Here shall you receive that scourge of me,
Which is penance strong that ye must endure,
Remember thy Saviour was scourged for thee
With sharp scourges, and suffered it patiently:
So must thou, ere thou pass thy pilgrimage.
Knowledge, keep him in this voyage,
And by that time Good Deeds will be with thee;
But in anywise be sure of mercy,
For your time draweth fast; and ye will saved be,
Ask God mercy, and he will grant truly:
When with the scourge of penance man doth him bind,
The oil of forgiveness then shall he find.
EVERYMAN.
Thanked be God for his gracious work;
For now I will my penance begin:
This hath rejoiced and lighted my heart,
Though the knots be painful and hard within.
KNOWLEDGE.
Everyman, look your penance that ye fulfil,
What pain that ever it to you be;
And I shall give you counsel at will,
How your account ye shall make clearly.
EVERYMAN.
O eternal God, O heavenly figure,
O way of rightwiseness, O goodly vision,
Which descended down in a virgin pure,
Because he would Everyman redeem,
Which Adam forfeited by his disobedience,
O blessed Godhead, elect and high Divine,
Forgive me my grievous offence;
Here I cry thee mercy in this presence:
O ghostly treasure, O ransomer and redeemer!
Of all the world hope and conduyter,
Mirror of joy, foundation of mercy,
Which enlumineth heaven and earth thereby,
Hear my clamorous complaint, though it late be,
Receive my prayers of thy benignity,
Though I be a sinner most abominable,
Yet let my name be written in Moses' table.
O Mary, pray to the Maker of all thing
Me for to help at my ending,
And save me from the power of my enemy;
For Death assaileth me strongly:
And, Lady, that I may by mean of thy prayer
Of your son's glory to be partiner.
By the mean of his passion I it crave;
I beseek you help me my soul to save.
Knowledge, give me the scourge of penance,
My flesh therewith shall give acquittance;
I will now begin, if God give me grace.
KNOWLEDGE.
Everyman, God give you time and space!
Thus I bequeath you in the hands of our Saviour;
Now may you make your reckoning sure.
EVERYMAN.
In the name of all the Holy Trinity,
My body punished sore shall be,
Take this body for the sin of the flesh;
Also thou delightest to go gay and fresh;
And in the way of damnation thou did me bring,
Therefore suffer now strokes and punishing:
Now of penance I will wade the water clear,
To save me from purgatory, that sharp fire.[93]
GOOD DEEDS.
I thank God, now I can walk and go,
And am delivered of my sickness and woe;
Therefore with Everyman I will go, and not spare,
His good works I will help him to declare.
KNOWLEDGE.
Now, Everyman, be merry and glad;
Your Good Deeds cometh now, ye may not be sad:
Now is your Good Deeds whole and sound,
Going upright upon the ground.
EVERYMAN.
My heart is light, and shall be evermore;
Now will I smite faster than I did before.
GOOD DEEDS.
Everyman pilgrim, my special friend,
Blessed be thou without end;
For thee is prepared the eternal glory:
Ye have me made whole and sound,
Therefore I will bide by thee in every stound.
EVERYMAN.
Welcome, my Good Deeds, now I hear thy voice,
I weep for very sweetness of love.
KNOWLEDGE.
Be no more sad, but evermore rejoice,
God seeth thy living in His throne above;
Put on this garment to thy behove,
Which with your tears is now all wet,
Lest before God it be unsweet,
When ye to your journey's end come shall.
EVERYMAN.
Gentle Knowledge, what do ye it call?
KNOWLEDGE.
It is the garment of sorrow,
From pain it will you borrow;
Contrition it is,
That getteth forgiveness,
It pleaseth God passing-well.
GOOD DEEDS.
Everyman, will you wear it for your hele?[94]
EVERYMAN.
Now blessed be Jesu, Mary's son;
For now have I on true contrition:
And let us go now without tarrying.
Good Deeds, have we clear our reckoning?
GOOD DEEDS.
Yea, indeed, I have here.
EVERYMAN.
Then I trust we need not to fear;
Now, friends, let us not depart in twain.
KINDRED.
Nay, Everyman, that will we not certain.
GOOD DEEDS.
Yet must thou lead with thee
Three persons of great might.
EVERYMAN.
Who should they be?
GOOD DEEDS.
Discretion and Strength they hyght,[95]
And thy Beauty may not abide behind.
KNOWLEDGE.
Also ye must call to mind
Your Five Wits[96] as for your councillors.
GOOD DEEDS.
You must have them ready at all hours.
EVERYMAN.
How shall I get them hither?
KINDRED.
You must call them all together,
And they will hear you incontinent.
EVERYMAN.
My friends, come hither, and be present,
Discretion, Strength, my Five Wits and Beauty.
BEAUTY.
Here at your will we be all ready;
What will ye that we should do?
GOOD DEEDS.
That ye would with Everyman go,
And help him in his pilgrimage:
Advise you, will ye go with him or not in that voyage?
STRENGTH.
We will bring him all thither
To help and comfort him, ye may believe me.
DISCRETION.
So will we go with him altogether.
EVERYMAN.
Almighty God, loved may Thou be;
I give Thee laud[97] that I have hither brought
Strength, Discretion, Beauty, Five Wits: lack I nought:
And my Good Deeds, with Knowledge clear,
All be in my company at my will here;
I desire no more to my business.[98]
STRENGTH.
And I Strength will by you stand in distress,
Though thou wouldest in battle fight on the ground.
FIVE WITS.
And though it were thorow the world round,
We will not depart for sweet ne for sour.
BEAUTY.
No more will I unto death's hour,
Whatsoever thereof befall.
DISCRETION.
Everyman, advise you first of all,
Go with a good advisement and deliberation;
We all give you virtuous monition
That all shall be well.
EVERYMAN.
My friends, hark what I will you tell;
I pray God reward you in His heavenly sphere:
Now hearken all that be here;
For I will make my testament
Here before you all present:
In alms half my good I will give with my hands twain
In the way of charity with good intent,
And the other half still shall remain:
I it bequeath to be returned there it ought to be.
This I do in despite of the fiend of hell,
To go quit[99] out of his peril[100]
Ever after this day.
KNOWLEDGE.
Everyman, hearken what I will say;
Go to priesthood, I you advise,
And receive of him in any wise
The holy sacrament and ointment[101] together,
Then shortly see ye turn again hither,
We will all abide you here.
FIVE WITS.
Yea, Everyman, hie you that ye ready were:
There is no emperor, king, duke, ne baron,
That of God hath commission,
As hath the least priest in the world being;
For of the blessed sacraments pure and benign
He beareth the keys, and thereof hath cure
For man's redemption, it is ever sure,
Which God for our soul's medicine
Gave us out of his heart with great pain,
Here in this transitory life for thee and me:
The blessed sacraments seven there be,
Baptism, confirmation, with priesthood good,
And the sacrament of God's precious flesh and blood,
Marriage, the holy extreme unction, and penance;
These seven be good to have in remembrance,
Gracious sacraments of high divinity.
EVERYMAN.
Fain would I receive that holy body,
And meekly to my ghostly father I will go.
FIVE WITS.
Everyman, that is the best that ye can do;
God will you to salvation bring,
For good priesthood exceedeth all other thing;
To us holy scripture they do teach,
And converteth man fro sin heaven to reach;
God hath to them more power given
Than to any angel that is in heaven:
With five words he may consecrate
God's body in flesh and blood to take,
And handleth his Maker between his hands,[102]
The priest bindeth and unbindeth all bands
Both in earth and in heaven;
He[103] ministers all the sacraments seven:
Though we kiss thy feet, thou wert worthy:
Thou art the surgeon that cureth sin deadly,
No remedy may we find under God,
But all only priesthood.
Everyman, God gave priest[s] that dignity,
And setteth them in His stead among us to be;
Thus be they above angels in degree.
KNOWLEDGE.
If priests be good, it is so surely,
But when Jesu heng on the cross with great smart,
There he gave us out of his blessed heart
The same sacrament in great torment.
He sold them not to us, that Lord omnipotent;
Therefore Saint Peter the Apostle doth say,
That Jesus' curse hath all they,
Which God their Saviour do buy or sell,
Or they for any money do take or tell,
Sinful priests giveth the sinners example bad,
Their children sitteth by other men's fires, I have heard,
And some haunteth women's company,
With unclean life, as lusts of lechery;
These be with sin made blind.
FIVE WITS.
I trust to God, no such may we find:
Therefore let us priesthood honour,
And follow their doctrine for our soul's succour;
We be their sheep, and they [our] shepherds be,
By whom we all be kept in surety.
Peace! for yonder I see Everyman come,
Which hath made true satisfaction.
GOOD DEEDS.
Methink it is he indeed.
EVERYMAN.
Now Jesu Christ be your alder[104] speed!
I have received the sacrament for my redemption,
And then mine extreme unction;
Blessed be all they that counselled me to take it:
And now, friends, let us go without longer respite;
I thank God that ye have tarried so long.
Now set each of you on this rod your hand,
And shortly follow me;
I go before, there I would be:
God be our guide.
STRENGTH.
Everyman, we will not fro you go,
Till ye have gone this voyage long.
DISCRETION.
I Discretion will bide by you also.
KNOWLEDGE.
And though this pilgrimage be never so strong,
I will never part you fro:
Everyman, I will be as sure by thee,
As ever I was by Judas Maccabee.
EVERYMAN.
Alas! I am so faint I may not stand,
My limbs under me do fold:
Friends, let us not turn again to this land,
Not for all the world's gold;
For into this cave must I creep,
BEAUTY.
And turn to the earth, and there to sleep.
EVERYMAN.
What, into this grave? Alas!
BEAUTY.
Yea, there shall ye consume more and less.
EVERYMAN.
And what, should I smother here?
Yea, by my faith, and never more appear;
In this world live no more we shall,
But in heaven before the highest Lord of all.
BEAUTY.
I cross out all this: adieu, by Saint John;
I take my cap in my lap, and am gone.
EVERYMAN.
What, Beauty? whither will ye?
BEAUTY.
Peace! I am deaf, I look not behind me,
Not, and thou wouldst give me--all the gold in thy chest.
EVERYMAN.
Alas! whereto may I now trust?
Beauty doth fast away hie:
She promised with me to live and die.
STRENGTH.
Everyman, I will thee also forsake and deny,
The game liketh me not at all.
EVERYMAN.
Why then ye will forsake me all:
Strength, tarry, I pray you, a little space.
STRENGTH.
Nay, sir, by the rood of grace,
I will hie me from thee fast,
Though thou weep till thy heart brast.
EVERYMAN.
Ye would ever bide by me, ye said.
STRENGTH.
Yea, I have you far enough conveyed:
Ye be old enough, I understand,
Your pilgrimage to take on hand;
I repent me, that I hither came.
EVERYMAN.
Strength, you to displease I am to blame;
Yet promise is debt;[105] this ye well wot.
STRENGTH.
In faith, as for that I care not:
Thou art but a fool to complain;
Thou spendest thy speech and wasteth thy brain:
Go, thrist[106] thee into the ground.
EVERYMAN.
I had ween'd surer I should you have found:
But I see well, he that trusteth in his Strength,
Is greatly deceived at the length;
Both Strength and Beauty hath forsaken me,
Yet they promised me steadfast to be.
DISCRETION.
Everyman, I will after Strength be gone;
As for me, I will leave you alone.
EVERYMAN.
Why, Discretion, will ye forsake me?
DISCRETION.
Yea, in faith, I will go fro thee;
For when Strength is gone before,
Then I follow after evermore.
EVERYMAN.
Yet, I pray thee, for love of the Trinity,
Look in my grave once piteously.
DISCRETION.
Nay, so nigh will I not come.
Now farewell, fellows everichone.[107]
EVERYMAN.
Oh, all thing faileth, save God alone,
Beauty, Strength, and Discretion;
For, when Death bloweth his blast,
They all run fro me full fast.
FIVE WITS.
Everyman, of thee now my leave I take;
I will follow the other, for here I thee forsake.
EVERYMAN.
Alas! then may I both wail and weep;
For I took you for my best friend.
FIVE WITS.
I will no lenger thee keep:
Now farewell, and here an end.
EVERYMAN.
Now, Jesu, help! all hath forsaken me.
GOOD DEEDS.
Nay, Everyman, I will abide with thee,
I will not forsake thee indeed;
Thou shalt find me a good friend at need.
EVERYMAN.
Gramercy, Good Deeds, now may I true friends see
They have forsaken me everychone;
I loved them better than my good deeds alone:
Knowledge, will ye forsake me also?
KNOWLEDGE.
Yea, Everyman, when ye to death shall go;
But not yet for no manner of danger.
EVERYMAN.
Gramercy, Knowledge, with all my heart.
KNOWLEDGE.
Nay, yet I will not from hence depart,
Till I see where ye shall be come.
EVERYMAN.
Methinketh, alas! that I must be gone
To make my reckoning, and my debts pay;
For I see my time is nigh spent away.
Take ensample, all ye that this do hear or see,
How they that I loved best now forsake me;
Except my Good Deeds, that bideth truly.
GOOD DEEDS.
All earthly things is but vanity,
Beauty, Strength, and Discretion do man forsake,
Foolish friends and kinsmen, that fair spake;
All fleeth save Good Deeds, and that am I.
EVERYMAN.
Have mercy on me, God most mighty,
And stand by me, thou mother and maid Mary.
GOOD DEEDS.
Fear not, I will speak for thee.
EVERYMAN.
Here I cry, God mercy!
GOOD DEEDS.
Short our end and minish our pain:
Let us go, and never come again.
EVERYMAN.
Into thy hands, Lord, my soul I commend,
Receive it, Lord, that it be not lost;
As thou me boughtest, so me defend,
And save me fro the fiend's boast,
That I may appear with that blessed host
That shall be saved at the day of doom:
_In manus tuas_, of might most,
For ever _commendo spiritum meum_.
[_Everyman dies_.
KNOWLEDGE.
Now hath he suffered that we all shall endure:
The Good Deeds shall make all sure;
Now hath he made ending,
Methinketh that I hear angels sing,
And make great joy and melody,
Where Everyman's soul shall received be.
THE ANGEL.
Come, excellent elect spouse to Jesu,
Here above thou shalt go.
Because of thy singular virtue:
Now thy soul is taken thy body fro,
Thy reckoning is crystal clear;
Now shalt thou into the heavenly sphere,
Unto the which all ye shall come
That liveth well, after the day of doom.
DOCTOR.
This memory all men may have in mind;
Ye hearers, take it of worth, old and young,
And forsake pride, for he deceiveth you in the end,
And remember Beauty, Five Wits, Strength, and Discretion,
They all at last do Everyman forsake,
Save his Good Deeds; [them he] there doth take:
But beware, for, and they be small,
Before God he hath no help at all;
None excuse may be there for Everyman:
Alas, how shall he do then?
For after death amends may no man make,
For then mercy and pity doth him forsake;
If his reckoning be not clear, when he doth come,
God will say, _Ite, maledicti, in ignem aeternum_;
And he that hath his account whole and sound,
High in heaven he shall be crowned;
Unto which place God bring us all thither,
That we may live body and soul together;
Thereto help the Trinity:
Amen, say ye, for Saint Charity.[108]
FINIS.
HICKSCORNER.
_EDITIONS_.
_Hyckescorner. [At the end:] Enprynted by me Wynkyn de Worde. 4°, Black
letter.
Hycke scorner. [At the end:] Thus endeth the enterlude of Hycke scorner.
Imprinted at London in foster laene by John Waley. 4°, Black letter_.
HICKSCORNER.
This piece is printed from a black letter copy in Mr Garrick's
collection,[109] of which the following is a very accurate analysis,
extracted from Dr Percy's "Relics of Ancient English Poetry," vol. i. p.
130:--
"Hickscorner bears no distant resemblance to comedy: its chief aim seems
to be to exhibit characters and manners, its plot being much less regular
than the foregoing. The prologue is spoken by Pity, represented under the
character of an aged pilgrim; he is joined by Contemplation and
Perseverance, two holy men who, after lamenting the degeneracy of the
age, declare their resolution of stemming the torrent. Pity then is left
upon the stage, and presently found by Freewill, representing a lewd
debauchee who, with his dissolute companion, Imagination, relate their
manner of life, and not without humour describe the stews and other
places of base resort. They are presently joined by Hickscorner, who is
drawn as a libertine returned from travel, and agreeably to his name
scoffs at religion. These three are described as extremely vicious, who
glory in every act of wickedness. At length two of them quarrel, and Pity
endeavours to part the fray; on this they fall upon him, and put him into
the stocks, and then leave him. Pity then descants in a kind of lyric
measure on the profligacy of the age, and in this situation is found by
Perseverance and Contemplation, who set him at liberty, and advise him to
go in search of the delinquents. As soon as he is gone, Freewill appears
again, and after relating in a very comic manner some of his rogueries
and escapes from justice, is rebuked by the two holy men who, after a
long altercation, at length convert him and his libertine companion,
Imagination, from their vicious course of life, and then the play ends
with a few verses from Perseverance, by way of epilogue.
"It would be needless to point out the absurdities in the plan and
conduct of the foregoing play: they are evidently great. It is sufficient
to observe that, bating the moral and religious reflections of Pity, &c.,
the piece is of a comic caste, and contains a humorous display of some of
the vices of the age. Indeed, the author has generally been so little
attentive to the allegory, that we need only substitute other names to
his personages, and we have real characters and living manners."
The woodcuts prefixed to this and the foregoing play were very minutely
traced and executed by a masterly hand; and there being something
singular in giving the portraits of the _dramatis personae_, it is
presumed the following will be particularly pleasing to the reader.[110]
[It appears to have been from this drama or interlude, that the saying
arose of "Hickscorner's jests." (See Mr J.P. Collier's Diary, part iii.
p. 13.)]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
HICKSCORNER.
PITY.
Now Jesu the gentle, that brought Adam fro hell,
Save you all, sovereigns, and solace you send:
And, of this matter that I begin to tell,
I pray you of audience, till I have made an end;
For I say to you, my name is Pity,
That ever yet hath been man's friend.
In the bosom of the second person in Trinity
I sprang as a plant, man's miss to amend;
You for to help I put to my hand:
Record I take of Mary that wept tears of blood;
I Pity within her heart did stand;
When she saw her son on the rood,
The sword of sorrow gave that lady wound;
When a spear clave her son's heart asunder,
She cried out, and fell to the ground;
Though she was woe, it was little wonder,
This delicate colour [had] that goodly lady,
Full pale and wan, she saw her son all dead,
Splayed on a cross with the five wells of pity,
Of purple velvet powdered with roses red.
Lo, I Pity thus made your errand to be sped,
Or else man for ever should have been forlore.
A maiden so laid his life to wed,
Crowned as a king the thorns pricked him sore.
Charity and I of true love leads the double rein;
Whoso me loveth damned never shall be.
Of some virtuous company I would be fain;
For all that will to heaven needs must come by me,
Chief porter I am in that heavenly city,
And now here will I rest me a little space,
Till it please Jesu of his grace
Some virtuous fellowship for to send.
CONTEMPLATION.
Christ that was christened, crucified, and crowned,
In his bosom true love was gaged with a spear,
His veins brast and bruised, and to a pillar bound,
With scourges he was lashed, the knots the skin tare,
On his neck to Calvary the great cross he bare,
His blood ran to the ground, as Scripture doth tell:
His burden was so heavy, that down under it he fell,
Lo, I am kin to the Lord, which is God's son;
My name is written foremost in the book of life,
For I am perfect Contemplation,
And brother to holy church that is our Lord's wife.
John Baptist, Anthony, and Jerome, with many mo,
Followed me here in holt,[111] heath, and in wilderness;
I ever with them went where they did go,
Night and day toward the way of rightwiseness:
I am the chief lantern of all holiness,
Of prelates and priests I am their patron;
No armour so strong in no distress,
Habergeon, helm, ne yet no Jeltron,
To fight with Satan am I the champion,
That dare abide, and manfully stand:
Fiends flee away, where they see me come;
But I will show you why I came to this land
For to preach and teach of God's sooth saws,
Ayenst vice that doth rebel ayenst him and his laws.
PITY.
God speed, good brother; fro whence came you now?
CONTEMPLATION.
Sir, I came from Perseverance to seek you.
PITY.
Why, sir, know you me?
CONTEMPLATION.
Yea, sir, and have done long; your name is Pity.
PITY.
Your name fain would I know.
CONTEMPLATION.
Indeed I am called Contemplation,
That useth to live solitarily;
In woods and in wildness[112] I walk alone,
Because I would say my prayers devoutly;
I love not with me to have much company:
But Perseverance oft with me doth meet,
When I think on thoughts that is full heavenly;
Thus he and I together full sweetly doth sleep.
PITY.
I thank God that we be met together.
CONTEMPLATION.
Sir, I trust that Perseverance shortly will come hither.
PITY.
Then I think to hear some good tiding.
CONTEMPLATION.
I warrant you, brother, that he is coming.
PERSEVERANCE.
The eternal God, that named was Messias,
He give you grace to come to his glory,
Wherever is joy in the celestial place,
When you of Satan winneth the victory,
Everyman ought to be glad to have in company,
For I am named good Perseverance,
That ever is guided by virtuous governance;
I am never variable, but doth continue,
Still going upward the ladder of grace,
And lode in me planted is so true,
And from the poor man I will never turn my face:
When I go by myself oft I do remember
The great kindness that God showed unto man,
For to be born in the month of December,
When the day waxeth short, and the night long,
Of his goodness that champion strong
Descended down fro the Father of rightwiseness,
And rested in Mary the flower of meekness.
Now to this place hither come I am
To seek Contemplation my kinsman.
CONTEMPLATION.
What, brother Perseverance? ye be welcome.
PERSEVERANCE.
And so be you also, Contemplation.
CONTEMPLATION.
Lo, here is our master Pity.
PERSEVERANCE.
Now truly ye be welcome into this country.
PITY.
I thank ye heartily, sir Perseverance.
PERSEVERANCE.
Master Pity, one thing is come to my remembrance;
What tithings hear you now?
PITY.