CHAPTER II. 1. Ancient Plays.—II. Miracle Plays, Dramas from Scripture, &c., continued several days. III. The Coventry Play.-IV. Mysteries described.-V. How enlivened.-VI. Moralities described.--The Fool in Plays, whence derived.-VII. Secular Plays.-VIII Interludes.-IX. Chaucer's Definition of the Tragedies of his Time.-X. Plays performed in Churches. XI. Cornish Miracle Plays. XII. Itinerant Players, their evil Characters.-XIII. Court Plays.-XIV. Play in honour of the Princess Mary's Marriage.-XV. The Play of Hock-Tuesday.-XVI. Decline of Secular Plays.-XVII. Origin of Puppet Plays.-XVIII. Nature of the Performances.-XIX. Giants and other Puppet Characters.-XX. Puppet Plays superseded by Pantomimes.-XXI. The modern Puppetshow Man.-XXII. Moving Pictures described. I. ANCIENT PLAYS. Ir is not my design to enter deeply upon the origin and progress of scenic exhibitions in England: this subject has already been so ably discussed, that very little new matter can be found to excite the public attention: I shall, therefore, be as brief as possible, and confine myself chiefly to the lower species of comic pastimes, many of which may justly claim the sanction of high antiquity. II.-MIRACLE PLAYS, DRAMAS FROM SCRIPTURE, &c., CONTINUED SEVERAL DAYS. The theatrical exhibitions in London, in the twelfth century, were called Miracles, because they consisted of sacred plays, or representations of the miracles wrought by the holy confessors, and the sufferings by which the perseverance of the martyrs was manifested.1 Such subjects were certainly very properly chosen, because the church was usually the theatre wherein these pious dramas were performed, and the actors were the ecclesiastics or their scholars. The first play of this kind specified by name, I believe, is called St Catherine, and according to Matthew 1 Fitzstephen's Description of London. Paris,1 was written by Geofrey, a Norman, afterwards abbot of Saint Albans: he was sent over into England by abbot Richard, to take upon him the direction of the school belonging to that monastery, but coming too late, he went to Dunstable and taught there, where he caused his play to be performed about the year 1110, and borrowed from the sacrist of Saint Albans capæ chorales, some of the ecclesiastical vestments of the abbey, to adorn the actors. In latter times, these dramatical pieces acquired the appellation of mysteries; because, as the learned editor of the 'Reliques of Ancient Poetry' supposes, the most mysterious subjects of the Scripture were frequently chosen for their composition.2 3 According to the Wife of Bath's prologue in the Canterbury Tales, the miracle plays in Chaucer's days were exhibited during the season of Lent, and sometimes a sequel of Scripture histories was carried on for several days. In the reign of Richard II., A.D. 1391, the parish clerks of London put forth a play at Skinners Wells, near Smithfield, which continued three days; the king, queen, and many of the nobility, being present at the performance. In the succeeding reign, 10 Henry IV., A.D. 1409, another play was acted at the same place, and lasted eight days; this drama began with the creation of the world, and contained the greater part of the history of the Old and New Testament. It does not appear to have been honoured with the royal presence, but was well attended by most of the nobility and gentry of the realm. III. THE COVENTRY PLAY. The last of these performances, no doubt, bore a close analogy to the well-known mystery entitled Corpus Christi, or Ludus Coventriæ, the Coventry Play; transcripts of this play, nearly if not altogether coeval with the time of its representation, are yet in existence; one in particular is 1 Quendam ludum de sancta Katerina (quam miracula vulgariter appellamus) fecit. Vitæ Abbat., p. 35. 2 Essay on the Origin of the English Stage, vol. i. 3 Stow's Survey of London, p. 76. preserved in the Cotton Library. The prologue to this curious drama is delivered by three persons, who speak alternately, and are called vexillators; it contains the argument of the several pageants, or acts, that constitute the piece, and they amount to no less than forty; and every one of these acts consists of a detached subject from the holy writ, beginning with the creation of the universe and concluding with the last judgment. In the first pageant, or act, the Deity is represented seated on his throne by himself, delivering a speech of forty lines beginning thus: 'Ego sum de Alpha et Omega, principium et finis.' 'My name is knowyn God and Kynge, My worke for to make now wyl I wende, In myself restyth my reyneynge, It hath no gynnyg ne non ende.' The angels then enter, singing from the church service, 'To Thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein; To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts.' Lucifer next makes his appearance, and desires to know if the hymn they sang was in honour of God or in honour of him? The good angels readily reply, in honour of God; the evil angels incline to worship Lucifer, and he presumes to seat himself in the throne of the Deity; who commands him to depart from heaven to hell, which dreadful sentence he is compelled to obey, and with his wicked associates descends to the lower regions. I have given a much fuller account of this curious mystery in the third volume of the 'Manners and Customs of the English People,' with long extracts, and from several others nearly equal in antiquity, to which the reader is referred. This play was acted by the Friars Minors, or Mendicant Friars, of Coventry; and commenced on Corpus Christi day, whence it received its title. Dugdale says, for the performance of these plays they 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 the spectators. 1 Vespasian, D. viii. 2 Warwickshire, p. 116. IV.-MYSTERIES DESCRIBED. The mysteries often consisted of single subjects, and made but one performance. In the Bodleian Library at Oxford I met with two mysteries that to the best of my knowledge have not been mentioned: the subject of one is the conversion of St Paul, and of the other the casting out of the devils from Mary Magdalene; they are both very old and imperfect, especially the latter, which seems to want several leaves. The first is entitled Saulus; and after a short prologue the stage direction follows, 'Here outeyth Saul, goodly besene in the best wyse lyke an adventrous knyth, thus sayynge, Most dowtyd man, I am lyvynge upon the grounde, Thorow the world, fro the oryent to the occydent.' The interlocutors, besides the poet who speaks the prologue, and Saul, are Caiaphas, Ananias, first and second soldiers, the 'Stabularyus,' or hostler, the servant, and Belial. V.-MYSTERIES, HOW ENLIVENED. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the subjects that constituted these mysteries, it seems clear that they were not exhibited without a portion of pantomimical fun to make them palatable to the vulgar taste; and indeed the length and the dulness of the speeches required some such assistance to enliven them, and keep the spectators in good humour; and this may be the reason why the mysteries are in general much shorter than the modern plays. Beelzebub seems to have been the principal comic actor, assisted by his merry troop of under-devils, who, with variety of noises, strange gestures, and contortions of the body, excited the laughter of the populace.2 1 Digby, 113 * See the Manners and Customs of the English, where this subject is treated upon more largely. VI. THE FOOL IN PLAYS, WHENCE DERIVED- When the mysteries ceased to be played, the subjects for the drama were not taken from historical facts, but consisted of moral reasonings in praise of virtue and condemnation of vice, on which account they were called Moralities; and these performances requiring some degree of invention, laid the foundation for our modern comedies and tragedies. The dialogues were carried on by allegorical characters, such as Good Doctrine, Charity, Faith, Prudence, Discretion, Death, and the like, and their discourses were of a serious cast; but the province of making the spectators merry, descended from the Devil in the mystery, to Vice or Iniquity of the morality, who usually personified some bad quality incident to human nature, as Pride, or Lust, or any other evil propensity. Alluding to the mimicry of this motley character, Jonson, in Epig. 159, has these lines: In the 'Staple of Newes,' acted A.D. 1625, it is said, 'Iniquity came in like Hokos-pokos in a jugler's jerkin, with false skirts like the knave of clubs;' and afterward, ‘Here is never a fiend to carry him, the Vice, away; besides, he has never a wooden dagger: I'd not give a rush for a Vice that has not a wooden dagger to snap at every one he meetes :' in another part, the Vice is described, 'in his long coat, shaking his wooden dagger.' Hence it appears this character had a dress peculiar to himself. Philip Stubs, in his 'Anatomie of Abuses,' printed A.D. 1595, says, 'You must go to the playhouse if you will learne to play the Vice, to sweare, teare, and blaspheme both heaven and hell' and again, 'Who can call him a wise man, who playeth the part of a Foole or a Vice?' I remember to have seen a stage direction for the Vice, to lay about him lustily with a great pole, and tumble the characters one over the other with great noise and riot, 'for dysport sake.' Even when regular |