The frailness of mankind,
How oft he falleth in folly
Through temptation of the fiend:
For when the fiend and the flesh be at one assent,
Then Conscience clear is clean outcast.
Men think not on the great judgment,
That the seely soul shall have at the last,
But would God all men would have in mind
Of the great day of doom,
How he shall give a great reckoning
Of evil deeds that he hath done:
But [it is] needless, sith it is so,
That Manhood is forth with Folly wende,
To seech[262] Perseverance now will I go,
With the grace of God omnipotent.
His counsels been in fere:
Perseverance' counsel is most dear,
Next to him is Conscience, clear
From sinning.
Now into this presence to Christ, I pray,
To speed me well in my journey:
Farewell, lordings, and have good day:
To seek Perseverance will I wend.
PERSEVERANCE. Now, Christ, our comely creator,[263] clearer than crystal
clean,
That craftly made every creature by good recreation,
Save all this company that is gathered here bi-dene,[264]
And set all your souls into good salvation.
Now, good God, that is most wisest and welde of wits,
This company counsel, and comfort, and glad,
And save all this simplitude that seemly here sits.
Now, good God, for his mercy, that all men made:
Now, Mary mother, meekest that I mean,
Shield all this company from evil inversation,
And save you from our enemy, as she is bright and clean,
And at the last day of doom deliver you from everlasting damnation,
Sirs, Perseverance is my name,
Conscience born brother [that] is,
He sent me hither mankind to indoctrine,
That they should to no vices incline:
For oft mankind is governed amiss,
And through Folly mankind is set in shame,
Therefore in this presence to Christ I pray,
Ere that I hence wend away,
Some good word that I may say
To borrow[265] man's soul from blame.
AGE. Alas! alas! that me is woe!
My life, my liking, I have forlorn
My rents, my riches, it is all y-go:
Alas the day that I was born!
For I was born Manhood most of might,
Stiff, strong, both stalwart and stout,
The world full worthily hath made me a knight:
All bowed to my bidding bonerly about:
Then Conscience, clear, comely and kind,
Meekly he met me in seat, there I sat,
He learned me a lesson of his teaching,
And the seven deadly sins full loathly he did hate:
Pride, wrath, and envy, and covetise in kind,
The world all these sins delivered me until,[266]
Sloth, covetise, and leechery, that is full of false flattering,
All these Conscience reproved both loud and still.
To-Conscience I held up my hand,[267]
To keep Christ's commandments.
He warned me of Folly, that traitor, and bad me beware,
And thus he went his way:
But I have falsely me forsworn,
Alas the day that I was born!
For body and soul I have forlorn.
I clang, as a clod in clay,
In London many a day;
At the passage I would play,
I thought to borrow and never pay.
Then was I sought and set in stocks,
In Newgate I lay under locks,
If I said aught, I caught many knocks.
Alas where was Manhood tho?
Alas, my lewdness hath me lost.
Where is my body so proud and prest?
I cough and rought,[268] my body will burst,
Age doth follow me so.
I stare and stacker[269] as I stand,
I groan glisly upon the ground.
Alas, death, why lettest thou me live so long?
I wander as a wight in woe and care;
For I have done ill.
Now wend I will
My self to spill,
I care not whither nor where.
PERSEVERANCE. Well y-met, sir, well y-met; and whither away?
AGE. Why, good sir, whereby do ye say?
PERSEVERANCE. Tell me, sir, I you pray,
And I with you will wend.
AGE. Why, good sir, what is your name?
PERSEVERANCE. Forsooth, sir, Perseverance, the same.
AGE. Sir, ye are Conscience' brother, that me did blame,
I may not with you linger.
PERSEVERANCE. Yes, yes, Manhood, my friend in fere.
AGE. Nay, sir, my name is in another manner.
For Folly his own self was here,
And hath cleped me Shame.
PERSEVERANCE. Shame?
Nay, Manhood, let him go:
Folly and his fellows also,
For they would thee bring into care and woe,
And all that will follow his game.
AGE. Yea, game who so game:
Folly hath given me a name,
So, wherever I go,
He cleped me Shame.
Now Manhood is gone,
Folly hath followed me so.
When I first from my mother came,
The world made me a man,
And fast in riches I ran,
Till I was dubbed a knight;
And then I met with Conscience clear,
And he me set in such manner,
Me thought his teaching was full dear,
Both by day and night.
And then Folly met me,
And sharply he beset me,
And from Conscience he fet[270] me:
He would not fro me go,
Many a day he kept me,
And to all folks he cleped me
Shame:[271]
And unto all sins he set me,
Alas, that me is woe!
For I have falsely me forsworn.
Alas, that I was born!
Body and soul, I am but lorn,
Me liketh neither glee nor game.
PERSEVERANCE. Nay, nay, Manhood, say not so.
Beware of Manhood, for he is a foe.
A new name I shall give you too:
I clepe you Repentance,
For, and you here repent your sin,
Ye are possible heaven to win:
But with great contrition ye must begin,
And take you to abstinence:
For though a man had do alone
The deadly sins everychone,
And he with contrition make his moan
To Christ our heaven king,
God is all so glad of him,
As of the creature that never did sin.
AGE. Now, good sir, how should I contrition begin?
PERSEVERANCE. Sir, in shrift of mouth without varying;
And another ensample I shall show you too.
Think on Peter and Paul, and other mo:
Thomas, James, and John also,
And also Mary Magdalene.
For Paul did Christ's people great villainy,
And Peter at the passion forsook Christ thrice,
And Magdalene lived long in lechery,
And St Thomas believed not in the resurrection:
And yet these to Christ are darlings dear,
And now be saints in heaven clear.
And therefore, though ye have trespassed here,
I hope ye be sorry for your sin.
AGE. Yea, Perseverance, I you plight,
I am sorry for my sin both day and night.
I would fain learn with all my might,
How I should heaven win.
PERSEVERANCE. Sir,[272] to win heaven five necessary things there been,
That must be knowen to all mankind.
The five wits doth begin,
Sir, bodily and spiritually.
AGE. Of the five wits I would have knowing.
PERSEVERANCE. Forsooth, sir, hearing, seeing, and smelling,
The remanant tasting and feeling:
These being the five wits bodily,
And, sir, other five wits there been.
AGE. Sir Perseverance, I know not them.
PERSEVERANCE. Now, Repentance, I shall you ken.
They are the power of the soul:
Clear in mind, there is one,
Imagination and all reason,
Understanding and compassion:
These belong unto Perseverance.
AGE. Gramercy, Perseverance, for your true teaching.
But, good sir, is there any more behind
That is necessary to all mankind,
Freely for to know?
PERSEVERANCE. Yea, Repentance, more there be,
That every man must on believe:
The twelve articles of the faith,
That mankind must on trow.
The first, that God is in one substance,
And also that God is in three persons,
Beginning and ending without variance,
And all this world made of nought.
The second, that the Son of God sickerly
Took flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary,
Without touching of man's flesh-company:
This must be in every man's thought.
The third, that the same God-Son,
Born of that holy virgin,
And she after his birth maiden as she was beforne,
And clearer in all kind.
Also the fourth, that same Christ, God and man,
He suffered pain and passion,
Because of man's soul redemption,
And on a cross did hing.
The fifth article I shall you tell:
Then the spirit of Godhead went to hell,
And bought out the souls that there did dwell
By the power of His own might.
The sixth article I shall you say:
Christ rose upon the third day,
Very God and man without nay:
That all shall deem and dight,
He sent man's soul into heaven
Aloft all the angels everychone,
There is the Father, the Son, and the soothfast Holy Ghost.
The eighth article we must believe on,
That same God shall come down,
And deem man's soul at the day of doom,
And on mercy then must we trust.
The ninth article without strife,
Every man, maiden and wife,
And all the bodies that ever bare life,
And at the day of doom body and soul shall 'ppear.
Truly the tenth article is,
All they that hath kept God's service
They shall be crowned in heaven bliss,
And Christ's servants to Him full dear.
The eleventh article, the sooth to sayne,
All that hath falsely to God guided them
They shall be put into hell pain,
There shall be no sin-covering.
Sir, after the twelfth we must worch,
And believe in all the sacraments of holy church,
That they been necessary, both last and first,
To all manner of mankind.
Sir, ye must also hear and know tho commandments ten.
Lo, sir, this is your belief;[273] and all men
Do after it, and ye shall heaven win
Without doubt, I know.
AGE. Gramercy, Perseverance, for your true teaching
For in the spirit of my soul will I find,
That it is necessary to all mankind
Truly for to know.
Now, sirs, take all ensample by mo,
How I was born in simple degree,
The world royal received me,
And dubbed me a knight,
Then Conscience met me,
So after him came Folly:
Folly falsely deceived me,
Then Shame my name hyght.[274]
PERSEVERANCE. Yea, and now is your name Repentance,
Through the grace of God almight.
And therefore without any distance
I take my leave of king and knight,
And I pray to Jesu, which has made us all,
Cover you with his mantle perpetual. Amen.[275]
GOD'S PROMISES.
_EDITION_.
"_A Tragedy or Interlude manifesting the chief promises of God unto man
by all ages in the old law, from the fall of Adam to the incarnation of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Compiled by John Bale, Anno Domini_ MDXXXVIII. _In
the word (which is now called the eternal son of God) was life from the
beginning, and that life was the light of men. This light yet shineth in
the darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not_."--JOAN I.[276] ...
4°, black letter.
PREFACE.
John Bale, author of the morality of "God's Promises," is more known as
an historian and controversialist than as a dramatic writer. He was [the
son of Henry and Margaret Bale, and was] born on the 21st of November
1495, at Cove, a small village near Dunwich, in Suffolk. His parents,
having many other children, and not being in very affluent circumstances,
sent him, at the age of twelve years, to the monastery of Carmelites at
Norwich,[277] where he received part of his education, and whence he
removed to [Jesus] College,[278] Cambridge.[279] While he continued at
the University, being as he says seriously stirred up by the illustrious
the Lord Wentworth, he renounced the tenets of the Church of Rome; and,
that he might never more serve so execrable a beast, I took, says he, to
wife the faithful Dorothy, in obedience to that divine command, "Let him
that cannot contain, marry," Bishop Nicolson insinuates that his dislike
to a state of celibacy was the means of his conversion, more than any
doubts which he entertained about the truth of his faith. The change of
his religion exposed him to the persecution of the Romish clergy,
particularly of Lee, Archbishop of York, and Stokesley, Bishop of London;
but he found an able and powerful protector in the person of Lord
Cromwell, the favourite of Henry the Eighth. On the death of this
nobleman, he withdrew into the Low Countries, and resided there eight
years; in which time he wrote several pieces in the English language. On
the accession of King Edward the Sixth, he was recalled into England, and
obtained the living of Bishopstoke, in the county of Southampton. During
his residence at his living, he was almost brought to the point of death
by an ague; when hearing that the king was come in progress to
Southampton, five miles only from where he dwelt, he went to pay his
respects to him. "I toke my horse," says he, "about 10 of the clocke, for
very weaknesse scant able to sytt him, and so came thydre. Betwixt two
and three of the clocke, the same day, I drew towardes the place where as
his majestie was, and stode in the open strete ryght against the
gallerye. Anon, my frinde Johan Fylpot, a gentylman, and one of hys
previe chambre, called unto him two more of hys companyons, which in
moving their heades towardes me, shewed me most frendely countenaunces.
By one of these three the kynge havynge informacion that I was there in
the strete, he marveled thereof, for so much as it had bene tolde hym a
lytle afore that I was bothe dead and buried. With that hys grace came to
the wyndowe, and earnestly behelde me a poore weake creature, as though
he had upon me so symple a subject an earnest regard, or rather a very
fatherly care." This visit to the king occasioned his immediate
appointment to the bishopric of Ossory, which was settled the next day,
as he declared[280] afterwards, _against his will, of the king's own mere
motion only, without suit of friends, meed, labour, expenses, or any
other sinister means else_. On the [2d February] 1553,[281] he was
consecrated at Dublin by the archbishop of that see, and underwent a
variety of persecutions from the Popish party in Ireland, which at length
compelled him to leave his diocese, and conceal himself in Dublin.
Endeavouring to escape thence in a small trading vessel, he was taken
prisoner by the captain of a Dutch man-of-war, who rifled him of all his
money, apparel, and effects. The ship was then driven by stress of
weather into St Ives in Cornwall, where he was taken up on suspicion of
high treason, but soon discharged. From thence, after a cruise of several
days, the ship arrived in Dover Road, and he was again put in danger by a
false accusation. On his arrival in Holland, he was kept prisoner three
weeks, and then obtained his liberty on payment of a sum of money. From
Holland he retired to Basil in Switzerland, and continued abroad during
the remainder of Queen Mary's reign. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth,
he returned to England; but being disgusted with the treatment he met
with in Ireland, he went thither no more. He was promoted on the 15th of
January 1560, to a prebend in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, and
died in that city in [or before] November 1563, in the sixty-eighth year
of his age. According to the manners of the times in which he wrote, he
appears to have taken very indecent liberties with all his antagonists in
his religious controversies, and to have considered himself as not bound
by any rules of decorum in replying to those from whom he differed in
matters, wherein the interests of religion were concerned. The acrimony
of his style on these occasions acquired him the appellation of "Bilious
Bale," and it was applied to him with singular propriety. His principal
work is esteemed the "_Scriptorum illustrium majoris Brytaniae quam nunc
Angliam et Scotiam vocant Catalogus;" a Japheto per 3618 annos usque ad
annum hunc domini_ 1557, &c., first printed imperfectly at Wesel in 1549,
and afterwards more completely in 1557 and 1559.[282] He was the author
of a great number of dramatic pieces, [four[283]] of which only appear to
have been published.
This present copy is taken from an old black letter edition in 4to, in
the valuable collection of David Garrick, Esq.[284] The title-page being
damaged, I am unable to give the date of it.
What is remarkable in this drama is that it is divided into seven
acts,[285] and at the end of each act has a kind of chorus, which was
performed with voices and instruments.
INTERLOCUTORES.
PATER COELESTIS. ADAM _primus homo_.
_Justus_ NOAH. ABRAHAM _fidelis_.
MOSES _sanctus_. DAVID _rex pius_.
ESAIAS _propheta_. JOANNES _baptista_.
BALEUS _prolocutor_.[286]
GOD'S PROMISES.
BALEUS _prolocutor_.
If profit may grow, most Christian audience,
By knowledge of things which are not transitory
And here for a time, of much more congruence
Advantage might spring by the search of causes heavenly,
As those matters are that the gospel specify.
Without whose knowledge no man to the truth can fall,[287]
Nor ever attain to the life perpetual.
For he that knoweth not the living God eternal,
The Father, the Son, and also the Holy Ghost,
And what Christ suffered for redemption of us all,
What he commanded, and taught in every coast,
And what he forbode, that man must needs be lost,
And clean secluded from the faithful chosen sort,
In the heavens above, to his most high discomfort.
You therefore, good friends, I lovingly exhort
To weigh such matters, as will be uttered here,
Of whom ye may look to have no trifling sport
In fantasies feigned, nor such-like gawdish gear,
But the things that shall your inward stomach cheer,
To rejoice in God for your justification,
And alone in Christ to hope for your salvation.
Yea, first ye shall have the eternal generation
Of Christ, like as John in his first chapter writes,
And consequently of man the first creation,
The abuse and fall, through his first oversight,
And the rise-again through God's high grace and might:
By promises first which shall be declared all:
Then by his own Son, the worker principal.
After that Adam bewaileth here his fall,
God will show mercy to every generation,
And to his kingdom of his great goodness call
His elected spouse or faithful congregation,
As here shall appear by open protestation,
Which from Christ's birth shall to his death conclude:
They come, that thereof will show the certitude.
ACTUS PRIMUS.[288]
PATER COELESTIS. In the beginning, before the heavens were create,
In me and of me was my Son sempiternal,
With the Holy Ghost, in one degree or estate
Of the high Godhead, to me the father coequal,
And this my Son was with me one God essential,
Without separation at any time from me.
True God he is, of equal dignity.
Since the beginning my Son hath ever be,
Joined with his Father in one essential being.
All things were create by him in each degree,
In heaven and earth, and have their diverse working:
Without his power was never made anything,
That was wrought; but through his ordinance
Each have his strength and whole countenance.
In him is the life and the just recoverance
For Adam and his, which nought but death deserved.
And this life to men is an high perseverance
Or a light of faith, whereby they shall be saved.
And this light shall shine among the people darkened
With unfaithfulness. Yet shall they not with him take,
But of wilful heart his liberal grace forsake.
Which will compel me against man for to make
In my displeasure, and send plagues of correction,
Most grievous and sharp, his wanton lusts to slake
By water and fire, by sickness and infection,
Of pestilent sores molesting his complexion,
By troublous war, by dearth and painful scarceness,
And after this life by an extreme heaviness.
I will first begin with Adam for his lewdness,
Which for an apple neglected my commandment.
He shall continue in labour for his rashness,
His only sweat shall provide his food and raiment.
Yea, yet must he have a greater punishment,
Most terrible death shall bring him to his end,
To teach him how he his Lord God shall offend.
_Hic praeceps in terram cadit_ ADAMUS, _ac post quartum versum denuo
resurgit_.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Merciful father, thy pitiful grace extend
To me careful wretch, which have me sore abused,
Thy precept breaking. O Lord, I mind to amend,
If thy great goodness would now have me excused;
Most heavenly Maker, let me not be refused,
Nor cast from thy sight for one poor sinful crime;
Alas! I am frail, my whole kind is but slim.
PATER COELESTIS. I wot it is so, yet art thou no less faulty,
Then thou hadst been made of matter much more worthy.
I gave thee reason and wit to understand
The good from the evil, and not to take on hand,
Of a brainless mind, the thing which I forbade thee.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Such heavy fortune hath chiefly chanced me,
For that I was left to mine own liberty.
PATER COELESTIS. Then thou art blameless, and the fault thou layest to
me?
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Nay, all I ascribe to my own imbecility.
No fault in thee, Lord, but in my infirmity,
And want of respect in such gifts as thou gavest me.
PATER COELESTIS. For that I put thee at thine own liberty,
Thou oughtest my goodness to have in more regard.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Avoid it I cannot: thou layest it to me so hard.
Lord, now I perceive what power is in man,
And strength of himself, when thy sweet grace is absent.
He must needs but fall, do he the best he can,
And danger himself, as appeareth evident;
For I sinned not too long as thou wert present;
But when thou wert gone, I fell to sin by and by,
And thee displeased. Good Lord, I axe thee mercy.
PATER COELESTIS. Thou shalt die for it, with all thy posterity.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. For one fault, good Lord, avenge not thyself on me,
Who am but a worm or a fleshly vanity.
PATER COELESTIS. I say thou shalt die, with thy whole posterity.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Yet mercy, sweet Lord, if any mercy may be.
PATER COELESTIS. I am immutable, I may change no decree;
Thou shalt die, I say, without any remedy.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Yet, gracious Father, extend to me thy mercy,
And throw not away the work which thou hast create
To thine own image, but avert from me thy hate.
PATER COELESTIS. But art thou sorry from bottom of thy heart?
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Thy displeasure is to me most heavy smart.
PATER COELESTIS. Then will I tell thee what thou shalt stick unto:
Life to recover, and my good favour also.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Tell it me, sweet Lord, that I may thereafter go.
PATER COELESTIS. This is my covenant to thee and all thy offspring.
For that thou hast been deceived by the serpent,
I will put hatred betwixt him for his doing
And the woman kind. They shall hereafter dissent;
His seed with her seed shall never have agreement;
Her seed shall press down his head unto the ground,
Slay his suggestions, and his whole power confound.
Cleave to this promise with all thy inward power,
Firmly inclose it in thy remembrance fast;
Fold it in thy faith with full hope day and hour,
And thy salvation it will be at the last.
That seed shall clear thee of all thy wickedness past,
And procure thy peace with most high grace in my sight.
See thou trust to it, and hold not the matter light.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Sweet Lord, the promise that thyself here hath made me
Of thy mere goodness, and not of my deserving,
In my faith I trust shall so established be
By help of thy grace, that it shall be remaining,
So long as I shall have here continuing,
And show it I will to my posterity,
That they in like case have thereby felicity.
PATER COELESTIS. For a closing up, take yet one sentence with thee.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. At thy pleasure, Lord, all things might ever be.
PATER COELESTIS. For that my promise may have the deeper effect
In the faith of thee and all thy generation,
Take this sign with it as a seal thereto connect.
Creep shall the serpent for his abhomination;
The woman shall sorrow in painful propagation.
Like as thou shalt find this true in outward working.
So think the other, though it be an hidden thing.
ADAM PRIMUS HOMO. Incessant praising to thee, most heavenly Lord,
For this thy succour and undeserved kindness:
Thou bindest me in heart thy gracious gifts to record,
And to bear in mind now, after my heaviness,
The bruit of thy name with inward joy and gladness.
Thou disdainest not, as well appeareth this day,
To fetch to thy fold thy first sheep going astray.
Most Mighty Maker, thou castest not yet away
Thy sinful servant, which hath done most offence.
It is not thy mind for ever I should decay,
But thou reservest me of thy benevolence,
And hast provided for me a recompense
By thy appointment, like as I have received
In thy strong promise, here openly pronounced.
This goodness, dear Lord, of me is undeserved,
I so declining from thy first instruction
At so light motions. To one that thus hath swerved,
What a Lord art thou to give such retribution!
I, damnable wretch, deserved execution
Of terrible death without all remedy,
And to be put out of all good memory.
I am enforced to rejoice here inwardly,
An imp though I be of hell, death, and damnation,
Through my own working: for I consider thy mercy
And pitiful mind for my whole generation.
It is thou, sweet Lord, that workest my salvation
And my recover. Therefore of a congruence
From hence thou must have my heart and obedience.
Though I be mortal by reason of my offence,
And shall die the death,[289] like as God hath appointed:
Of this am I sure, through his high influence,
At a certain day again to be revived.
From ground of my heart this shall not be removed.
I have it in faith, and therefore I will sing
This anthem to him that my salvation shall bring.
_Tunc sonora voce, provolutis genibus, Antiphonam incipit_, O sapientia,
_quam prosequetur chorus cum organis, eo interim exeunte_.
_Vel sub eodem tono poterit sic Anglicè cantare_.