Yellow Rose. _Rosa lutea._
Dedicated to _St. Justin._
~June 2.~
_Sts. Pothinus_, Bp. _Sanctus_, _Attalus_, _Blandina_, &c., of Lyons,
A. D. 177. _Sts. Marcellinus_ and _Peter_, A. D. 304. _St. Erasmus_,
or _Ermo_, or _Elmo_, A. D. 303.
~Corpus Christi Day~,
_and the performance of_
Mysteries.
This grand festival of the Romish church is held on the Thursday next
after Trinity Sunday, in which order it also stands in the church of
England calendar, and in the English almanacs. It celebrates the
doctrine of transubstantiation. In all Roman catholic countries it is
observed with music, lights, flowers strewed in the street, rich
tapestries hung upon the walls, and with other demonstrations of
rejoicing:[161] this is the usage still. Anciently in this country, as
well as abroad, it was the custom to perform plays on this day,
representing scripture subjects. From an author before cited, the
following verses relating to these manners are extracted:--
“Then doth ensue the solemne feast of Corpus Christi Day,
Who then can shewe their wicked use, and fond and foolish play?
The hallowed bread, with worship great, in silver pix they beare
About the church, or in the citie passing here and theare.
His armes that beares the same two of the welthiest men do holde,
And over him a canopey of silke and cloth of golde.
Christe’s passion here derided is, _with sundrie maskes and playes_,
Faire Ursley, with hir maydens all, doth passe amid the wayes:
And, valiant George, with speare thou killest the dreadfull dragon
here,
_The Devil’s house is drawne about, wherein there doth appere_
A wondrous sort of damned sprites, with foule and fearefull looke,
Great Christopher doth wade and passe with Christ amid the brooke:
Sebastian full of feathred shaftes, the dint of dart doth feele,
There walketh Kathren, with hir sworde in hand, and cruel wheele:
The Challis and the singing Cake with Barbara is led,
_And sundrie other pageants playde_, in worship of this bred.
* * * * *
* * * * *
The common ways with bowes are strawde, and every streete beside,
And to the walles and windowes all are boughes and braunches tide.
The monkes in every place do roame, the nonnes abrode are sent,
The priestes and schoolmen lowd do rore, some use the instrument.
The straunger passing through the streete, upon his knees doe fall:
And earnestly upon this bread, as on his God, doth call.
For why, they counte it for their Lorde, and that he doth not take
The form of flesh, but nature now of breade that we do bake.
A number great of armed men here all this while do stande,
To looke that no disorder be, nor any filching hande:
For all the church-goodes out are brought, which certainly would bee
A bootie good, if every man might have his libertie.”[162]
* * * * *
The _Religious Plays_ performed on Corpus Christi Day, in the times of
superstition, were such as were represented at other periods, though
with less ceremony. From a volume on the subject, by the editor of the
_Every-Day-book_, he relates so much as may set forth their origin and
the nature of the performances.
_Origin of Religious Plays._
A Jewish play, of which fragments are still preserved in Greek iambics,
is the first drama known to have been written on a scripture subject. It
is taken from Exodus: a performer, in the character of Moses, delivers
the prologue in a speech of sixty lines, and his rod is turned into a
serpent on the stage. The play is supposed to have been written at the
close of the second century, by one Ezekiel, a Jew, as a political
spectacle to animate his dispersed brethren with the hopes of a future
deliverance from their captivity.
The emperor Julian made a law that no Christian should be taught in the
heathen schools, or make use of that learning; but there were two men
living at that time, who exerted their talents to supply the deficiency
of instruction and entertainment that the Christians experienced from
Julian’s edict: these were Apollinarius, bishop of Laodicea, and his
father, a priest of the same city; they were both scholars, well skilled
in oratory and the rules of composition, and of high literary renown.
Apollinarius, the elder, a profound philologer, translated the five
books of Moses into heroic verse, and in the same manner composed the
history of the Israelites to the time of Saul, into a poem of
twenty-four books, in imitation of Homer. He also wrote religious odes,
and turned particular histories and portions of the Old and New
Testament into comedies and tragedies, after the manner of Menander,
Euripides, and Pindar. His son the bishop, an eloquent rhetorician, and
already an antagonist of Julian’s, anxious that the Christians might not
be ignorant of any species of Greek composition, formed the writings of
the evangelists, and the works of the apostles, into dialogues, in the
manner of Plato.
About the same time, Gregory Nazianzen, patriarch and archbishop of
Constantinople, one of the fathers of the church, and master to the
celebrated Jerome, composed plays from the Old and New Testament, which
he substituted for the plays of Sophocles and Euripides at
Constantinople, where the old Greek stage had flourished until that
time. The ancient Greek tragedy was a religious spectacle; and the
sacred dramas of Gregory Nazianzen were formed on the same model; he
transformed the choruses into Christian hymns. One only of the
archbishop’s plays is extant: it is a tragedy called “Christ’s Passion;”
the prologue calls it an imitation of Euripides; the play is preserved
in Gregory Nazianzen’s works. The remainder of his dramas have not
survived those inimitable compositions over which they triumphed for a
time.
It is not known whether the religious dramas of the Apollinarii perished
so early as some of their other writings, that were ordered to be
destroyed for, a crime common in all ages, heresy; but this is certain,
that the learning they endeavoured to supply gradually disappeared
before the progress of Constantine’s establishment. Suddenly acquiring
power, and finally assuming infallibility, observing pagan feasts as
religious festivals, consecrating heathen rites into christian
solemnities, and transforming the non-observances of primitive
simplicity into precedents for gorgeous ceremony, the church blazed with
a scorching splendour that withered up the heart of man. Every accession
to the dominion of its ecclesiastics over his property and intellect
induced self-relaxation and sloth; to the boldness that seized a
liberal supply for spiritual support, succeeded the craft that extended
it to a boundless revenue for effeminate indulgence. The miraculous
powers of the church wonderfully multiplied; but implicit belief in
miracles was equivocal, unless the act of faith was accompanied by
liberal contributions at the altar. The purchase of pardons for sin, and
the worship of the relics exhibited in sumptuous shrines, were effectual
ways of warring with the powers of darkness, and the coffers overflowed
with contributions. These active hostilities against Satan occasioned
him to ascend upon earth, and, to terrify the devout, he often appeared
to them in the natural ugliness of his own proper person. When put to
flight, by masses and holy water, he took lodgings _incog._ in the
bodies of careless people, nor would he leave a tenement he occupied,
till he was forcibly turned out of possession by a priest acquainted
with the forms of ejectment. Dislike to clean linen was a peculiar mark
of piety, and dirty hermits emitted the odour of sanctity. Though their
holinesses were so violently hated by the devil, that he took the
trouble to assault and tempt them in the holes of the earth and trunks
of old trees where they inhabited, yet it was rewarded with visits to
their chosen abodes from all the orders of heaven; and by long
familiarity with the powers of the other world, these “tender-nosed
saints could detect the presence of invisible angels.” They who turn
their backs upon the concerns of life were especial favourites above. A
nun reported that Christ opened her side with his corporal hands, took
out her heart, and then carefully placing his own in the chasm, left it
there and closed the wound, at the same time doing her the honour to
wear her shift. Nor did the faithful, who believed the former relation,
doubt for an instant that the Virgin descended from heaven to visit the
cells of monasteries, and milk her breasts into the mouths of monks.
Doubts were effectually removed by burning doubters. All who were
privileged to shave the top of the head in a circle, as a token of
emancipation from worldly superfluities, were partners in the profitable
trade of granting licenses for unmolested existence at the price of
unconditional admission. Ecclesiastical policy accomplished its purpose:
the human mind was in a delirium; the hierarchy at the summit of its
ascendancy.
From the complete establishment of the church until within a short time
before the reformation, darkness overspread the world, and the great
mass of the clergy themselves were in a state of deplorable ignorance.
During this period, in order to wean the people from the ancient
spectacles, particularly the Bacchanalian and calendary solemnities,
religious shows were instituted partaking of the same spirit of
licentiousness.
To these shows the clergy added the acting of _mysteries_, or
representing the miraculous acts of saints circumstances from apocryphal
story, and subjects from the Old and New Testament. There are different
opinions as to the religious class by whom they were introduced into
Europe, though it seems reasonable to suppose that they were adopted by
the Italians in the depth of the dark ages from the spiritual dramas of
the Apollinarii, father and son, and Gregory Nazianzen; but, however
that may be, there is no room for surprise that all writers concur in
attributing the performance of _mysteries_, or religious plays, to the
clergy of the catholic church.
As mysteries arose with Gregory Nazianzen, it is not likely that his
example as a father of the church should be lost sight of as soon as he
had succeeded in destroying the performance of the ancient Greek plays;
yet English writers do not appear to have traced sacred representations
in a dramatic form until many centuries after Gregory Nazianzen’s death.
The first dramatic representation in Italy was a spiritual comedy,
performed at Padua in 1243; and there was a _company_ instituted at Rome
in 1264, whose chief employment was to represent the sufferings of
Christ in Passion week. The rev. Mr. Croft, and the hon. Topham
Beauclerc, collected a great number of these Italian plays or mysteries;
and at the sale of their libraries, Dr. Burney purchased many of the
most ancient, which he speaks of as being evidently much earlier than
the discovery of printing, from the gross manner in which the subjects
are treated, the coarseness of the dialogue, and the ridiculous
situation into which most sacred persons and things are thrown.
In 1313, Philip the Fair gave the most sumptuous entertainment at Paris
ever remembered in that city. Edward II. and his queen Isabella, crossed
over from England with a large retinue of nobility, and partook of the
magnificent festivities. The pomp and profusion of the banquettings,
the variety of the amusements, and the splendour of the costume were
unsurpassed. On each of the eight days the princes and nobles changed
their dresses three times; while the people were sometimes entertained
with representations of the _Glory of the blessed_, at other times with
the _Torments of the damned_, and various other spectacles. In 1402, by
an edict of Charles VI. dated Dec. 4, the mystery of the conception,
passion, and resurrection of Christ, was performed at St. Maur, about
five miles from Paris. At the council at Constance, in the year 1417,
the English fathers played the mystery of the massacre of the Holy
Innocents. The mystery of the passion was performed on the entrance of
the kings of France and England at Paris, on December 1. 1420, in the
street _Kalende_, before the palace, upon a raised scaffolding of one
hundred paces in length.
In the Royal Library of Paris, No. 4350, is _Le Mystere de la passion
Jesus Christ_; Paris, printed by Antoine Verard, 1490, folio. This is a
fine copy on vellum with every page richly illuminated, and containing a
MS. note in French, purporting to be an extract from an old chronicle,
entitled, “Histoire de Metz veritable,” whence it appears that its
performance was attended by many foreign lords and ladies whose names
are specified, and that there were lanthorns placed in the windows
during the whole time of the plays: but the most curious part of the MS.
note is, that, “in the year 1437, on the 3rd of July was represented the
game or play, _de la Passion_, _N. S._ in the plain of Vexmiel, when the
park was arranged in a very noble manner, for there were nine ranges of
seats in height rising by degrees; all around and behind were great and
long seats for the lords and ladies. On the stage was represented the
mouth of hell, it is described as having been very well done, for that
it opened and shut when the devils required to enter and come out, and
had two large eyes of steel.”
On the 27th of May, 1509, was performed at Romans, in Dauphiny, before
the Cordelier’s church, the _Mystery of the Three Dons_. In this
religious play, which lasted three days, there are emissaries who
undertake very long journeys, and must come back before the play can be
ended. The scene, besmeared with the blood of the three martyrs, the
Dons, is sometimes at Rome, sometimes at Vienna, soon after at Lyons,
and at other times in the Alps. The stage constantly represents hell
and paradise; and Europe, Asia, and Africa, are cantoned in three
towers. Some metaphysical beings are most curiously personified. Dame
Silence, for instance, speaks the prologue; Human Succour, Divine Grace,
and Divine Comfort, are the supporters of the heroes and heroines of the
piece, while hell exhibits monsters and devils, to frighten the
audience. They are constantly abusing Proserpine, who is introduced with
all the trappings of Tartarean pomp into this performance, where there
are no less than ninety-two dramatis personæ, among whom are the Virgin
and God the Father.
The story of _Le Mystere du Chevalier qui donne sa Femme au Diable_,
played by ten persons in 1505, is of a dissipated knight reduced by his
profligacy to distress and wickedness. In his misfortunes the devil
appears, and proposes to make him richer than ever, if he will assign
his wife, that the devil may have her in seven years. After some
discussion the knight consents, his promise is written out, and he signs
it with his blood. The seducer then stipulates that his victim shall
deny his God; the knight stoutly resists for a time, but in the end the
devil gains his point, and emboldened by success ventures to propose
that the knight shall deny the Virgin Mary. This, however, being a still
greater sin, he refuses to commit it with the utmost indignity and
vehemence, and the devil walks off baffled. At the end of seven years,
the promise being due, the devil presents it to the knight, who,
considering it a debt of honour, prepares to discharge it immediately.
He orders his wife to follow him to a certain spot, but on their way she
perceives a church, which after obtaining her husband’s permission she
enters, for the purpose of offering her devotion; while thus engaged,
the Virgin Mary recollecting the knight’s unsullied allegiance to her,
assumes the semblance of his wife, and in that character joins him. The
moment that they both appear before the devil, he perceives who he has
to deal with, and upbraids the unconscious knight for attempting to
deceive him. The knight protests his ignorance and astonishment, which
the Virgin corroborates, by telling the devil that it was her own plan,
for the rescue of two souls from his power, and she orders him to give
up the knight’s promise. He of course obeys so high an authority, and
runs off in great terror. The Virgin exhorts the knight to better
conduct in future, restores his wife to him, and the piece concludes.
In the reign of Francis I., 1541, the performance of a grand mystery of
the _Acts of the Apostles_, was proclaimed with great solemnity, and
acted at Paris for many successive days, before the nobility, clergy,
and a large assemblage in the Hotel de Flandres. These plays written in
French rhyme, by the brothers Greban, were printed in 2 vols, folio,
black letter, under letters patent of the king to William Alabat, a
merchant of Bourges. The dramatis personæ, were a multitude of
celestial, terrestial, and infernal personages, amounting altogether to
four hundred and eighty-five characters. Though the scenes of these
plays were chiefly scriptural, yet many were from apocryphal story, and
the whole exhibition was a strange mixture of sacred and profane
history.
Bayle calls the work entitled the _Mystere des Actes Apostres_, “a very
rare and uncommon work.” He obtained the loan of a copy from sir Hans
Sloane in England, and largely describes the volume. It is, however,
more curious than rare. From the public instruments prefixed to the
work, and the circumstances related by Bayle, it is evident that there
was much importance attached to these plays; but it cannot so well be
conceived from perusing them, as from the remarkable ceremonial of the
public proclamation for their performance, concerning which he says
nothing, probably from the extreme rarity of the tract, he had not seen
it. It ordained, that the proclamation of this play should be made by
sound of trumpets, with the city officers and serjeants attending, and
directed that the performance should take place “in the hall of the
Passion, the accustomed place for rehearsals and repetitions of the
Mysteries played in the said city of Paris; which place, being well hung
with rich tapestry chairs and forms, is for the reception of all persons
of honest and virtuous report, and of all qualities therein assisting,
as well as a great number of citizens and merchants, and other persons,
as well as clergy and laity, in the presence of the commissaries and
officers of justice appointed and deputed to hear the speeches of each
personage; and these are to make report, according to the merit of their
well doing, as in such case required, concerning which have a gracious
reception; and from day to day, every day, so to continue to do, until
the perfection of the said Mystery.” It is not necessary to trace these
plays abroad; they continue to be represented there to the present hour.
At Berlin, 1804 and 5, the grand sacred comedy of “David,” in five acts,
with battles and choruses, was performed by the comedians in the
National Theatre. Throughout March, April, and May, 1810, the same play
was represented at Vienna; and while the Congress was held there in
1815, it was again performed with the utmost possible splendour. The
back of the stage, extending into the open air, gradually ascended to a
distance sufficient to admit carriages and horses, and to allow the
evolutions of at least five hundred Austrian soldiers, infantry and
cavalry, who, habited in the characters of Jews and Philistines, carried
muskets and carbines, defiled and deployed, charged with the bayonet,
let off their fire-arms, and played artillery, to represent the battles
described in the Book of Kings. The emperor Alexander of Russia, the
king of Prussia, and other monarchs, with their ministers, and the
representatives of different courts, at the Congress, attended these
plays, which were exhibited at the great theatre (An der Wien) to
crowded audiences, at the usual prices of admission.
The first trace of theatrical representation in this country is recorded
by Matthew Paris, who wrote about 1240, and relates, that Geoffrey, a
learned Norman, master of the school of the abbey of Dunstable, composed
the play of _St. Catharine_, which was acted by his scholars. Geoffrey’s
performance took place in the year 1110, and he borrowed copes from the
sacrist of the neighbouring abbey of St. Albans, to dress his
characters. Fitzstephen writing in 1174, says that, “London, for its
theatrical exhibitions, has _religious plays_, either the
representations of miracles wrought by holy confessors, or the
sufferings of martyrs.” Besides those of Coventry, there are MSS. of the
Chester mysteries, ascribed to Ranulph Higden, compiler of the
Polychronicon, and a Benedictine monk of that city, where they were
performed at the expense of the incorporated trades, with a thousand
days of pardon from the pope, and forty days of pardon from the bishop
of Chester to all who attended the representation, which is supposed to
have been first had in the year 1328.
It is related in the Museum MS., of these Chester plays, that the
author, “was _thrice at Rome_ before he could obtain leave of the pope
to have them in the _English_ tongue.” The _subjects_ of these plays
being “from the Old and New Testament,” seem to supply the reasons for
the difficulty in obtaining the pope’s consent. Scripture in English had
been scrupulously withheld from the people, and the pope probably
anticipated, that if they were made acquainted with a portion of it, the
remainder would be demanded; while the author of the plays, better
acquainted than the pope with the more immediate difficulty of
altogether repressing the curiosity that had been excited towards it,
conceived, perhaps, that the growing desire might be delayed, by
distorted and confusing representations of certain portions. Perhaps
such corruptions and absurdities, as are in these plays, seconded by the
eloquence of their author, abated the papal fears concerning the
appearance of these _scriptural_ interludes in _English_, and finally
obtained the sanction for their performance.
It may be supposed, that the Chester plays, written in an early and dark
age, would contain a great mass of apocryphal interpolation, and that
the Coventry plays, written much later, would contain less; yet the
contrary is the fact. Among the Chester mysteries, the “Descent into
Hell” is the only one not founded on scripture, and _that_ even has a
colourable authority by implication; while among the Coventry mysteries,
which were produced ninety years afterwards, there are, besides the
“Descent,” no less than eight founded on apocryphal Testament story.
This remarkable difference of feature, may probably be accounted for.
From the fourth century, when Gregory Nazianzen, and the Apollonarii,
turned portions of the bible into tragedies and comedies, the clergy of
the continent must have done much in the same way, and with much of
apocryphal engraftment; and though “religious plays” prevailed in
England, yet _scriptural_ subjects were new to the people, and the
_Chester_ mystery-maker of 1328, found these so numerous, as to render
recourse to the New Testament _Apocrypha_ unnecessary. But the
_Coventry_ mastery-maker of 1416, was under circumstances that would
suggest powerful motives to the cunning of a monkish mind for apocryphal
adoption. He was likely to conceive that a false glare might obscure
the dawnings of the human mind. The rising day of the Reformation had
been foretold by the appearance of its “morning star,” in the person of
the intrepid Wycliffe, who exercised the right of private judgment in
England, a century and a half before Luther taught it as a principle in
Germany. It was a period of fearful foreboding to the church. In 1404,
Henry IV. held a parliament at Coventry, which, from its desire to
compel the clergy to contribute largely to the exigencies of the state,
was called the Laymen’s Parliament. The country was in imminent danger;
an abundant supply of money was immediately necessary; the church
property and income were enormous; the parliament knew that this
profusion of ecclesiastical wealth could only have been acquired from
the industry of the laity; and they represented that the clergy had been
of little service to the king, while the laity had served in his wars
with their persons, and by contributions for the same purpose had
impoverished their estates. The archbishop of Canterbury said, that if
the clergy did not fight in person their tenants fought for them, that
their contributions had been in proportion to their property, and that
the church had offered prayers and masses day and night for God’s
blessing on the king and the army. The speaker, sir John Cheyne,
answered, that the prayers of the church were a very slender supply. To
this the archbishop replied, that it might easily be seen what would
become of the kingdom when such devout addresses were so slighted. The
persistence of the archbishop saved the church at that time from the
impending storm; but the priests saw that their exactions and their
worship were only tolerated. Wycliffe had then been dead about twenty
years. After a life wonderfully preserved from the unsparing cruelty of
ecclesiastical power, by the protection of Edward III., his memory was
affectionately revered, and, as printing had not been discovered, his
writings were scarce, and earnestly sought. The good seed of dissent had
germinated, and the appearance of dissenters at intervals, was a
specimen of the harvest that had not yet come. Nothing more fearfully
alarmed the establishment than Wycliffe’s translation of the New
Testament into English. All arts were used to suppress it, and to
enliven the slumbering attachment of the people to the “good old
customs” of the church. There is abundant evidence of studious
endeavours to both these ends in the Coventry mysteries. The priests
industriously reported, that Wycliffe’s Testament was a false one; that
he had distorted the language, and concealed facts. There was no
printing press to multiply copies of his book; biblical criticism was
scarcely known but by being denounced; the ecclesiastics anathematized
scriptural inquiry as damnable heresy from their confessionals and
pulpits; and as “the churches served as theatres for holy farces,” the
Franciscan friars of Coventry, shortly after the meeting of the Laymen’s
Parliament in that city, craftily engrafting stories from the
pseudo-gospels upon narratives in the New Testament, composed and
performed the plays called the Coventry mysteries. These fraudful
productions were calculated to postpone the period of illumination, and
to stigmatize, by implication, the labours of Wycliffe. Yet, if the
simulation succeeded for a while with the vulgar, it reinvigorated the
honest and the persevering; and as the sun breaks forth after a season
of cold and darkness, so truth, finally emerging from the gulph of the
papal hierarchy, animated the torpid intellect, and cheered the “long
abused sight.”
But to return. In 1538, Ralph Radcliffe, a scholar and a lover of
graceful erudition, wrote plays in Latin and English, which were
exhibited by his pupils. Among his comedies, were “Dives and Lazarus,”
the “Delivering of Susannah,” “Job’s sufferings,” the “Burning of John
Huss,” &c. The scholars of St. Paul’s school in London, were, till a
comparatively late period, in great celebrity for their theatrical
talent, which it appears was in full exercise upon the mysteries so
early as the reign of Richard II.; for in that year, 1378, they
presented a petition to his majesty, praying him “to prohibit some
unexpert people from presenting the history of the Old and New
Testament, to the great prejudice of the said clergy, who have been at
great expense in order to represent it publicly at Christmas.”
But the more eminent performers of mysteries in London, were the society
of parish clerks. On the 18th, 19th, and 20th of July, 1390, they played
interludes at the Skinner’s-well, as the usual place of their
performance, before king Richard II., his queen, and their court; and at
the same place, in 1490, they played the “Creation of the World,” and
subjects of the like kind, for eight successive days, to splendid
audiences of the nobility and gentry from all parts of England. The
parish-clerks’ ancient performances are memorialized in raised letters
of iron, upon a pump on the east side of Rag-street, now called
Ray-street, beyond the Sessions-house, Clerkenwell.
The pump of the Skinner’s-well is let into a low dead wall. On its north
side is an earthenware shop; and on the south a humble tenement occupied
by a bird-seller, whose cages with their chirping tenants, hang over and
around the inscription. The passing admirer of linnets and redpoles, now
and then stops awhile to listen to the melody, and refresh his eye with
a few green clover turfs, that stand on a low table for sale by the side
of the door; while the monument, denoting the histrionic fame of the
place, and alluding to the miraculous powers of the water for healing
incurable diseases, which formerly attracted multitudes to the spot,
remains unobserved beneath its living attractions. The present
simplicity of the scene powerfully contrasts with the recollection of
its former splendour. The choral chant of the Benedictine nuns
accompanying the peal of the deep-toned organ through their cloisters,
and the frankincense curling its perfume from priestly censers at the
altar, are succeeded by the stunning sounds of numerous quickly-plied
hammers, and the smith’s bellows flashing the fires of Mr. Bond’s
iron-foundry, erected upon the unrecognised site of the convent. This
religious house stood about half-way down the declivity of the hill,
which commencing near the church on Clerkenwell-green, terminates at the
river Fleet. The prospect then, was uninterrupted by houses, and the
people upon the rising grounds could have had an uninterrupted view of
the performances at the well. About pistol-shot from thence, on the N.
N. E. part of the hill, there was a Bear garden; and scarcely so far
from the well, at the bottom of the hill westward, and a little to the
north, in the hollow of Air-street, lies Hockley-in the-Hole, where
different rude sports, which probably arose with the discontinuance of
the parish clerks’ acting, were carried on, within the recollection of
persons still living, to the great annoyance of this suburb.
The religious guild, or fraternity of _Corpus Christi_ at York, was
obliged annually to perform a _Corpus Christi play_. Drake says, that
this ceremony must have been in its time one of the most extraordinary
entertainments the city could exhibit. It was acted in that city till
the twenty-sixth year of queen Elizabeth, 1584.
Corpus Christi day, at _Newcastle-upon-Tyne_, was celebrated with
similar exhibitions by the incorporated trades. The earliest mention of
the performance of mysteries there, is in the ordinary of the coopers
for 1426. In 1437, the barbers played the “Baptizing of Christ.” In
1568, the “Offering of Abraham and Isaac” was exhibited by the slaters.
About 1578, the Corpus Christi plays were on the decline, and never
acted but by a special command of the magistrates of Newcastle. They are
spoken of as the general plays of the town of Newcastle, and when
thought necessary by the mayor to be set forth and played, the millers
were to perform the “Deliverance of Israel;” the house-carpenters, the
“Burial of Christ;” the masons, the “Burial of our lady Saint Mary the
Virgin.” Between the first and last mentioned periods, there are many
minutes in the trades’ books of the acting in different years.
In the reign of Henry VII., 1487, that king, in his castle of
Winchester, was entertained on a Sunday, while at dinner, with the
performance of Christ’s “Descent into Hell,” by the choir boys of Hyde
abbey and St. Swithin’s priory, two large monasteries there; and in the
same reign, 1489, there were shows and ceremonies, and (religious)
plays, exhibited in the palace at Westminster.
On the feast of St. Margaret, in 1511, the miracle play of the “Holy
Martyr St. George,” was acted on a stage in an open field at
Bassingborne, in Cambridgeshire, at which were a minstrel and three
waits hired from Cambridge, with a property-man and a painter.
It appears from the _Earl of Northumberland’s Household-book_, (1512,)
that the children of his chapel performed mysteries during the twelve
days of Christmas, and at Easter, under the direction of his master of
the revels. Bishop Percy cites several particulars of the regulated sums
payable to “parsones” and others for these performances. The exhibiting
scripture dramas on the great festivals entered into the regular
establishment, and formed part of the domestic regulations of our
ancient nobility; and what is more remarkable, it was as much the
business of the chaplain in those days to compose plays for the family,
as it is now for him to make sermons.
At London, in the year 1556, the “Passion of Christ” was performed at
the Grey Friars, before the lord mayor, the privy-council, and many
great estates of the realm. In 1577, the same play was performed at the
same place, on the day that war was proclaimed in London against France;
and in that year, the holiday of St. Olave, the patron of the church in
Silver-street, dedicated to that saint, being celebrated with great
solemnity, at eight o’clock at night, a play of the “miraculous Life of
St. Olave,” was performed for four hours, and concluded with many
religious plays. The acting of religious plays experienced interruption
during the reign of Elizabeth, and occasionally at other periods. Malone
thinks that the last mystery represented in England, was that of
“Christ’s Passion,” in the reign of king James I. Prynne relates that it
was performed at Ely-house, in Holborn, when Gondomar, the Spanish
ambassador, lay there, on Good Friday, at night, and that thousands were
present.
Concerning the Coventry mysteries, Dugdale relates, in his “History of
Warwickshire,” published in 1656, that, “Before the suppression of the
monasteries, this city was very famous for the pageants that were played
therein, upon Corpus Christi day (one of their ancient faires,) which
occasioning very great confluence of people thither from far and near,
was of no small benefit thereto: which pageants being acted with mighty
state and reverence by the Grey Friars, had theatres for the several
scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the
eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of spectators, and
contained the story of the Old and New Testament, composed in the Old
Englishe rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS. (in Bibl. Cotton. Vesp.
D. VIII.) intituled, _Ludus Corporis Christi_, or _Ludus Coventriæ_. ‘I
have been told,’ says Dugdale, ‘by some old people, who in their younger
years were eye-witnesses of these pageants so acted, that the yearly
confluence of people to see that shew was extraordinary great, and
yielded no small advantage to this city.’ The celebrity of the
performances may be inferred from the rank of the audiences; for, at the
festival of Corpus Christi, in 1483, Richard III. visited Coventry to
see the plays, and at the same season in 1492, they were attended by
Henry VII. and his queen, by whom they were highly commended.”
The mysteries were acted at Chester, by the trading companies of the
city. “Every company had his pagiante, or parte, which pagiantes were a
highe scafolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower upon four wheeles.
In the lower they apparelled themselves, in the higher rowme they
played, being all open on the tope, that all behoulders might hear and
see them. The places where they played them was in every streete. They
begane first at the Abay gates, and when the pagiante was played, it was
wheeled to the High-cross before the mayor, and so to every streete; and
so every streete had a pagiante playing before them, till all the
pagiantes for the daye appointed were played, and when one pagiante was
neer ended, worde was broughte from streete to streete, that soe the
mighte come in place thereof, excedinge orderlye, and all the streetes
had their pagiante afore them, all at one time, playing together, to se
which playes was great resorte, and also scafoldes, and stages made in
the streetes, in those places where they determined to playe their
pagiantes.”
In Cornwall they had interludes in the Cornish language from scripture
history. These were called the _Gnary Miracle plays_, and were sometimes
performed in the open fields, at the bottom of earthen amphitheatres,
the people standing around on the inclined plane, which was usually
forty or fifty feet diameter. Two MSS. in the Bodleian Library contains
the Cornish plays of the “Deluge,” the “Passion,” and the
“Resurrection.”
According to Strutt, when mysteries were the only plays, the stage
consisted of three platforms, one above another. On the uppermost sat
God the Father, surrounded by his angels; on the second, the glorified
saints, and on the last and lowest, men who had not yet passed from this
life. On one side of the lowest platform was the resemblance of a dark
pitchy cavern, from whence issued the appearance of fire and flames; and
when it was necessary, the audience was treated with hideous yellings
and noises in imitation of the howlings and cries of wretched souls
tormented by relentless demons. From this yawning cave the devils
themselves constantly ascended to delight, and to instruct the
spectators.[163]
_Cat Worship on Corpus Christi Day._
In the middle ages, animals formed as prominent a part in the worship of
the time as they had done in the old religion of Egypt. The cat was a
very important personage in religious festivals. At Aix, in Provence, on
the festival of _Corpus Christi_, the finest Tom cat of the country,
wrapt in swaddling clothes like a child, was exhibited in a magnificent
shrine to public admiration. Every knee was bent, every hand strewed
flowers or poured incense, and Grimalkin was treated in all respects as
the god of the day. But on the festival of _St. John_, poor Tom’s fate
was reversed. A number of the tabby tribe were put into a wicker basket
and thrown alive into the midst of an immense fire, kindled in the
public square by the bishop and his clergy. Hymns and anthems were sung,
and processions were made by the priests and people in honour of the
sacrifice.[164]
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