this opportunity of remarking, that a MORALITY-MAKER was a professed occupation at Paris. Pierre Gringoire is called, according to the style of his age, Compositeur, Historien et Facteur de Mysteres, ou Comedies, in which he was also a performer. His principal piece, written at the command of Louis XII., in consequence of a quarrel with the pope and the states of Venice, is entitled, Le JEU du Prince de Sots et Mere Sotte, joue aux Halles de Paris. It was printed at Paris in 1511. See Mons. l'Abbe Goujet, BIBL. FRANC. tom. xi. p. 212. MORALITIES seem to have arrived at their heighth about the close of Henry VII's reign. This sort of spectacle was now so fashionable, that John Rastall, a learned typographer, brother in law to sir Thomas More, extended its province, which had hitherto been confined, either to moral allegory, or to religion blended with buffoonery, and conceived a design of making it the vehicle of science and philosophy. With this view he published, A new INTERLUDE and a mery, of the nature of the iiii Elements, declaringe many proper points of philosophy naturall and dyvers straunge landys, &c. In the cosmographical part of the play, in which the poet professes to treat of dyvers straunge regyons, and of the new founde landys, the tracts of America recently discovered, and the manners of the natives, are described. The characters are, a Messenger who speaks the prologue, Nature, Humanity, Studious Desire, Sensual Appetite, a Taverner, Experience, and Ignorance2.

1 Among Mr. Garrick's OLD PLAYS. [Imperf.] i. vol. 3. It was written about 1510, or rather later. One of the characters is NATURE naturate: under which title Bale inaccurately mentions this piece. viii. 75. Percy, Ess. ENG. STAGE, p. 8. edit. 1767. Who supposes this play to have been written about 1510, from the following lines,

Within this xx yere

Westwarde be founde new landes,
That we never harde tell of before this.

The West-Indies were discovered by Columbus in 1492.
2 For the sake of connection I will here mention some more of Rastall's pieces. He was a
great writer of INTERLUDES. He has written, 'Of GENTYLNESS AND NOBYLYTE. A dyaloge
between the marchaunt, the knyght, and the plowman, disputynge who is a veray gentyl-
'man, and how men shuld come to auctoryte, compiled in maner of an INTERLUDE.
With
'dyvers TOYES and GESTIS addyd therto, to make mery pastyme and disport. T. Rastall me
'fieri fecit. Printed by himself in qto. without date. PR. 'O what a gret welth and.' Also,
A new Commodyte in Englysh in maner of an ENTERLUDE ryght elygant and full of craft of
rhetoryck wherein is shewed and descrybyd, as well the beute of good propertes of
women as theyr vyces and evyll condicions, with a morall conclusion and exhortation to ver-
tew.' T. Rastall me imprimi fecit. In folio, without date. This is in English verse, and
contains twelve leaves. PR.
Melebea, &c.' He reduced a dialogue of Lucian into English
verse, much after the manner of an interlude, viz. NECROMANTIA. A Dialogue of Lucyan
'for his fantasy fayned for a mery pastyme, &c.-T. Rastall me fieri fecit.' It is translated
from the Latin, and has Latin notes in the margin. It may be doubted, whether Rastall was
not the printer only of these pieces. If the printer only, they might come from the festive
genius of his brother sir Thomas More. But Rastall appears to have been a scholar. He was
educated at Oxford; and took up the employment of printing as a profession at that time es-
teemed liberal, and not unsuitable to the character of a learned and ingenious man. An Eng-
lish translation of Terence, called TERENS in ENGLISH, with a prologue in stanzas, beginning
'The famous renown through the worlde is spronge,' is believed, at least from similarity of
type, to be by Rastall. In qto., without date, He published, in 1525, The MERY GESTYS of
of one callyd EDYTH the lyeng wydow. This is a description, in English rhymes, of the frauds
practised by a female sharper in the neighbourhood of London: the scene of one of her im-
postures is laid in sir Thomas More's house at Chelsea. The author, one of her dupes, is
Walter Smyth. Emprynted at London at the svene of the Meremayde at Pollis gate next to

562 PAGEANTS AND MORALITIES, ALLEGORICAL POETRY OF THE AGE.

I have before observed, that the frequent and public exhibition of personifications in the PAGEAUNTS, which anciently accompanied ever: high festivity, greatly contributed to cherish the spirit of allegorical poetry, and even to enrich the imagination of Spenser1. The MoRALITIES, which now began to acquire new celebrity, and in which the same groupes of the impersonated vices and virtues appeared, must have concurred in producing this effect. And hence, at the same time, we are led to account for the national relish for allegorical poetry, which so long prevailed among our ancestors. By means of these spectacles, ideal beings became common and popular objects: and emblematic imagery, which at present is only contemplated by a few retired readers in the obsolete pages of our elder poets, grew familiar to the general eye.

SECTION XXXIV.

IN a work of this general and comprehensive nature, in which the fluctuations of genius are surveyed, and the dawnings or declensions of taste must alike be noticed, it is impossible that every part of the subject can prove equally splendid and interesting. We have, I fear, been toiling for some time through materials, not perhaps of the most agreeable and edifying nature. But as the mention of that very rude species of our drama, called the MORALITY, has incidentally diverted our attention to the early state of the English stage, I cannot omit so fortunate and scasonable on opportunity of endeavouring to relieve the weariness of my reader, by introducing an obvious digression on the probable causes of the rise of the MYSTERIES, which, as I have before remarked, preceded, and at length produced, these allegorical fables. In this respect I shall imitate those map-makers mentioned by Swift, who

O'er inhospitable downs,

Place elephants for want of towns. Nor shall I perhaps fail of being pardoned by my reader, if, on the Chepesyde by T. Rastall. fol. It will be sufficient to have given this short incidental notice of a piece which hardly deserves to be named. Rastall wrote and printed many other pieces, which I do not mention, as unconnected with the history of our poetry. I shail only observe further, in general, that he was eminently skilled in mathematics, cosmography, history, our municipal law, and theology. He died 1526.

1 And of Shakespeare. There is a passage in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, where the metaphor is exceedingly beautiful; but where the beauty both of the expression and the allusion is lost, unless we recollect the frequency and the nature of these shows in Shakespeare's age. Acr iv. Sc. xi. I must cite the whole of the context, for the sake of the last hemistich.

Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish,
A towred citadel, a pendant rock,

A vapour sometime, like a bear or lion;
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon't, that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air. Thou'st seen these signs,
They are BLACK VESPER'S PAGEANTS.—

same principle, I should attempt to throw new light on the history of our theatre, by pursuing this enquiry through those deductions which it will naturally and more immediately suggest.

About the eighth century, trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, which lasted several days. Charlemagne established many great marts of this sort in France; as did William the conqueror, and his Norman successors, in England. The merchants who frequented these fairs in numerous caravans or companies, employed every art to draw the people together. They were therefore accompanied by juglers, minstrels, and buffoons; who were no less interested in giving their attendance, and exerting all their skill, on these occasions. As now but few large towns existed, no public spectacles or popular amusements were established; and as the sedentary pleasures of domestic life and private society were yet unknown, the fair-time was the season for diversion. In proportion as these shews were attended and encouraged, they began to be set off with new decorations and improvements: and the arts of buffoonery being rendered still more attractive by extending their circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people. By degrees the clergy, observing that the entertainments of dancing, music, and mimicry, exhibited at these protracted annual celebrities, made the people less religious, by promoting idleness and a love of festivity, proscribed these sports, and excommunicated the performers. But finding that no regard was paid to their censures, they changed their plan, and determined to take these recreations into their own hands. They turned actors; and instead of profane mummeries, presented stories taken from legends or the Bible. This was the origin of sacred comedy. The death of St. Catharine, acted by the monks of St. Dennis, rivalled the popularity of the professed players. Music was admitted into the churches, which served as theatres for the representation of holy farces. The festivals among the French, called LA FETE DE Foux, de L'Ane,' and DES INNOCENS, at length became greater favorites, as they certainly were more capricious and absurd, than the interludes of the buffoons at the fairs. These are the ideas of a judicious French writer, now living, who has

1 For a most full and comprehensive account of these feasts. See 'Memoires pour servir 'a l'histoire de la FETE DE Foux, qui se faisoit autrefois dans plusieurs eglises. Par M. du TILLIOT, gentilhomme ordinaire de son Altesse royale Monseigneur le duc de BERRY. A LAUSANNE et a GENEVE, 1741, 4to. Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln in the eleventh century, erders his dean and chapter to abolish the FESTUM ASINORUM, cum sit vanitate plenum, et voluptatibus spurcum, which used to be anually celebrated in Lincoln cathedral on the feast of the Circumcision. Grossetesti EPISTOL. Xxxii, apud Browne's FASCICUL. p. 331. edit. Lond. 1690. tom. ii. Append. And p. 412. Also he forbids the archdeacons of his diocese to permit SCOT-ALES in their chapters and synods (Spelm. Gl. p. 506.) and other LUDI on holidays. Ibid. Epistol. xxii. p. 314. See in the MERCURE FRANCOIS for Sept., 1742, an account of a mummery celebrated in the city of Besancon in France, by the canons of the cathedral, consisting of dancing, singing, eating and drinking, in the cloisters and church, on Easter-day, called BERGERETTA, or the SONG OF THE SHEPHERDS; which remained unabolished till the year 1738. From the RITUAL of the church, p. 1930, ad ann. 1582. Carpentier, SUPPL. Du Cang. LAT. GLOSS. tom. i. p. 523. in V. And ibid. V. BOCLARE, p. 570.

564 THEORY OF VOLTAIRE ON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS PLAYS.

investigated the history of human manners with great comprehension and sagacity.

Voltaire's theory on this subject is also very ingenious, and quite new. Religious plays, he supposes, came originally from Constantinople; where the old Grecian stage continued to flourish in some degree, and the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were represented, till the fourth century. About that period, Gregory Nazianzen, an archbishop, a poet, and one of the fathers of the church, banished pagan plays from the stage at Constantinople, and introduced select stories from the old and new Testament. As the ancient Greek tragedy was a religious spectacle, a transition was made on the same plan; and the chorusses were turned into Christian hymns. Gregory wrote many sacred dramas for this purpose, which have not survived those inimitable compositions over which they triumphed for a time: one, however, his tragedy called Xpiσtos naσɣwy, or CHRIST'S PASSION, is still extant1. In the prologue it is said to be an imitation of Euripides, and that this is the first time the Virgin Mary has been produced on the stage. The fashion of acting spiritual dramas, in which at first a due degree of method and decorum was preserved, was at length adopted from Constantinople by the Italians; who framed, in the depth of the dark ages, on this foundation, that barbarous species of theatrical representation called MYSTERIES, or sacred comedies, and which were soon afterwards received in France. This opinion will acquire probability, if we consider the early commercial intercourse between Italy and Constantinople: and although the Italians, at the time when they may be supposed to have imported plays of this nature, did not understand the Greek language, yet they could understand, and consequently could imitate, what they saw.

In defence of Voltaire's hypothesis it may be further observed, that the FEAST OF FOOLS and of the Ass, with other religious farces of that sort, so common in Europe, originated at Constantinople. They were instituted, although perhaps under other names, in the Greek church, about the year 990, by Theophylact, patriarch of Constantinople, probably with a better design than is imagined by the ecclesiastical annalists; that of weaning the minds of the people from the pagan ceremonies, particularly the Bacchanalian and calendary solemnities, by the substitution of christian spectacles, partaking of the same spirit of licentiousness. The fact is, however, recorded by Cedrenus, one of the Byzantine historians, who flourished about the year 1o5o, in the following words. Εργον εκεινου, και το νυν κρατουν εθος, εν ταις λαμπραις και δημοτελεσιν εορταις ὑβριζεσθαι τον θεον, και τας 'Or. Greg. Nazianz. tom. ii. p. 253. In a MSS. cited by Lambeccius, it is called Δράμα κατ' Ευριπίδην. ν. 22. It seems to have been falsely attributed to Apollinaris, an Alexandrian, bishop of Laodicea. It is, however, written with less elegance and judgment than most of Gregory's poetical pieces. Apollinaris lived about the year 370. 2 Hist. Gen. Addit. p. 138.

τον άγιων μνημας, δια λογισμάτων απρεπων και γελωτων, και παραφορων κραυγών, τελουμένων των θείων ὑμνων· οὓς εδει, μετα καταλυξεως και συντριμμου καρδιας, ύπερ της ήμων σωτηρίας, προσφερειν τῷ θεῷ. Πληθος γαρ συστησαμενος επιῤῥητων ανδρων, και εξαρχον αυτοις επιστησας Ευθύμιον τινα Κασνην λεγουμενον, όν αυτός Δομέστικον της εκκλησίας προυβαλλετο. " και τας σατανικας ορχήσεις, και τας ασήμους κραυγας, και τα εκ τριόδων και χαμαιτυπείων ηρανισμένα άσματα τελείσθαι εδιδαξεν. That is, ‘Theo'phylact introduced the practice, which prevails even to this day, of 'scandalising god and the memory of his saints, on the most splendid ' and popular festivals, by indecent and ridiculous songs, and enormous 'shoutings, even in the midst of those sacred hymns, which we ought 'to offer to the divine grace with compunction of heart, for the salva❝tion of our souls. But he, having collected a company of base fellows, ' and placing over them one Euthymius, surnamed Casnes, whom he 'also appointed the superintendant of his church, admitted into the 'sacred service, diabolical dances, exclamations of ribaldry, and ballads 'borrowed from the streets and brothels1.' This practice was subsisting in the Greek church 200 years afterwards: for Balsamon, patriarch of Antioch, complains of the gross abominations committed by the priests at Christmas and other festivals, even in the great church at Constantinople; and that the clergy, on certain holidays, personated a variety of feigned characters, and even entered the choir in a military habit, and other enormous disguises.

I must however observe here, what perhaps did not immediately occur to our lively philosopher on this occasion, that in the fourth century it was customary to make christian parodies and imitations in Greek, of the best Greek classics, for the use of the christian schools. This practice prevailed much under the emperor Julian, who forbade the pagan poets, orators, and philosophers, to be taught in the christian seminaries. Apollinaris bishop of Laodicea, abovementioned, wrote Greek tragedies, adapted to the stage, on most of the grand events recorded in the old Testament, after the manner of Euripides. On some of the familiar and domestic stories of scripture, he composed comedies in imitation of Menander. He wrote christian odes on the plan of Pindar. In imitation of Homer, he wrote an heroic poem on the history of the Bible, as far as the reign of Saul, in twenty-four

'Cedren. COMPEND. HIST. p. 639. B. edit. Paris. 1647. Compare Baron. ANNAL, sub ann. 956. tom. x. p. 752. C. edit. Plantin. Antw. 1603, fol. 2 COMMENT. ad CANON. lxii. SYNOD. vi. in Trullo. Apud Beverigii SYNODIC. tom. i. Oxon. fol. 1672. p. 230. 231. In return, he forbids the professed players to appear on the stage in the habit of monks. St. Austin, who lived in the sixth century, reproves the paganising christians of his age, for their indecent sports on holidays; but it does not appear, that these sports were celebrated within the churches. In sanctis festivitatibus choros ducendo, cantica luxuriosa et turpia, &c. Isti enim infelices ac miseri homines, qui balationes ac 'saltationes ANTE IPSAS BASILICAS sanctorum exercere nec metuunt nec erubescunt.' SERm. ccxv. tom. x. opp. S. Augustin. edit. Froben. 1529. fol. 763. B. See also SERM. cxcvii. cxcviii. opp. edit. Benedictin. tom. v. Paris. 1683. p. 904. et seq.