Mr. Warton has remarked, that " in the time of Chaucer, Plays of Miracles appear to have been the common refort of idle goffips in Lent: Therefore made I my visitations To prechings eke, and to thise pilgrimages, ludos habet fan&tiores, repræfentationes miraculorum quæ fanéti confeffores operati funt, feu reprefentationes paffionum, quibus claruit conftantia martyrum." Defcriptio nobiliffimæ civitatis Lundoniæ. Fitz-Stephen's very curious defcription of London is a portion of a larger work, entitled Vita fancti Thomæ, Archiepifcopi et Martyris, i. e. Thomas a Becket. It is afcertained to have been written after the murder of Becket in the year 1170, of which Fitz-Stephen was an ocular witness, and while King Henry II. was yet living. A modern writer with great probability fuppofes it to have been compofed in 1174, the author in one paffage mentioning that the church of St. Paul's was formerly metropolitical, and that it was thought it would become fo again, "fhould the citizens return into the island." In 1174 King Henry II. and his fons had carried over with them a confiderable number of citizens to France, and many English had in that year alfo gone to Ireland. See Differtation prefixed to Fitz-Stephen's Defcription of London, newly tranflated, &c. 4to. 1772, p. 16.-Near the end of his Description is a paffage which afcertains it to have been written before the year 1182: "Lundonia et modernis temporibus reges illuftres magnificofque peperit; imperatricem Matildam, Henricum regem tertium, et beatum Thomam" [Thomas Becket]. Some have fupposed, that instead of tertium we ought to read fecundum, but the text is undoubtedly right; and by tertium, Fitz-Stephen must have meant Henry, the second son of Henry the Second, who was born in London in 1156-7, and being heir-apparent, after the death of his elder brother William, was crowned king of England in his father's life-time, on the 15th of July, 1170. He was frequently styled rex filius, rex juvenis, and fometimes he and his father were denominated Reges Angliæ. The young king, who occafionally exercifed all the rights and prerogatives of royalty, died in 1182. Had he not been living when Fitz-Stephen wrote, he would probably have added nuper defunctum. Neither Henry II. nor Henry III. were born in London. See the Differtation above-cited, p. 12. 5 The Wif of Bathes Prologue, v. 6137. Tyrwhitt's edit. "And in Pierce Plowman's Creed, a piece perhaps prior to Chaucer, a friar Minorite mentions thefe Miracles as not lefs frequented than markettowns and fairs: We haunten no taverns, ne hobelen about, At markets and Miracles we meddle us never." The elegant writer, whofe words I have juft quoted, has given the following ingenious account of the origin of this rude fpecies of dramatick entertainment : "About the eighth century trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, which lafted feveral days. Charlemagne established many great marts of this fort in France, as did William the Conqueror, and his Norman fucceffors in England. The merchants who frequented thefe fairs in numerous caravans or companies, employed every art to draw the people together. They were therefore accompanied by jugglers, minftrels, and buffoons; who were no lefs interefied in giving their attendance, and exerting all their skill on thefe occafions. As now but few large towns exifted, no publick fpectacles or popular amufements were established; and as the fedentary pleasures of domeftick life and private fociety were yet unknown, the fair-time was the feafon for diverfion. In proportion as thefe fhews were attended and encouraged, they began to be fet off with new decorations and improvements: and the arts of buffoonery being rendered ftill more attractive, by extending their circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people. By degrees the clergy obferving that the entertainments of dancing, mufick, and mimickry, exhibited at thefe protracted annual celebrities, made the people lefs religious, by pro moting idleness and a love of feftivity, profcribed thefe fports, and excommunicated the performers. But finding that no regard was paid to their cenfures, they changed their plan, and determined to take thefe recreations into their own hands. They turned actors; and inftead of profane mummeries, prefented ftories taken from legends or the Bible. This was the origin of facred comedy. The death of Saint Catharine, acted by the monks of Saint Dennis, rivalled the popularity of the profeffed players. Mufick was admitted into the churches, which ferved as theatres for the reprefentation of holy farces. The festivals among the French, called La fete de Foux, de l'Ane, and des Innocens, at length became greater favourites, as they certainly were more capricious and abfurd, than the interludes of the buffoons at the fairs. These are the ideas of a judicious French writer now living, who has inveftigated the hiftory of human manners with great comprehenfion and fagacity." 6 "Voltaire's theory on this fubject is alfo very ingenious, and quite new. Religious plays, he fuppofes, came originally from Conftantinople; where the old Grecian ftage continued to flourish in fome degree, and the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were reprefented, till the fourth century. About that period, Gregory Nazianzen, an Arch "At Conftantinople" as Mr. Warton has elsewhere observed, "it seems that the flage flourished much, under Juftinian and Theodora, about the year 540: for in the Bafilical codes we have the oath of an altreis, μη αναχωρειν της πορνείας. Tom. VII. p. 682. edit. Fabrot, Græco-Lat. The ancient Greek fathers, particularly Saint Chryfoftom, are full of declamation against the drama; and complain, that the people heard a comedian with much more pleasure than a preacher of the gofpel." Warton's Hiftory of English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 244, n. bishop, a poet, and one of the fathers of the church, banifhed Pagan plays from the ftage at Conftantinople, and introduced ftories from the Old and New Teftament. As the ancient Greek tragedy was a religious fpectacle, a tranfition was made on the fame plan; and the choruffes were turned into Chriftian hymns. Gregory wrote many facred dramas for this purpofe, which have not furvived those inimitable compofitions over which they triumphed for a time: one, however, his tragedy called Xpiolos гxwv, or Chrifi's Passion, is ftill extant. In the prologue it is faid to be an imitation of Euripides, and that this is the firft time the Virgin Mary had been introduced on the ftage. The fashion of acting spiritual dramas, in which at first a due degree of method and decorum was preferved, was at length adopted from Conftantinople by the Italians; who framed, in the depth of the dark ages, on this foundation, that barbarous fpecies of theatrical representation called MYSTERIES, or facred comedies, and which were foon after received in France. This opinion wil acquire probability, if we confider the early commercial intercourfe between Italy and Conftantinople and although the Italians, at the time when they may be fuppofed to have imported plays of this nature, did not understand the Greek language, yet they could understand, and confequently could imitate, what they faw." "In defence of Voltaire's hypothefis, it may be further obferved, that The feast of Fools, and of the Afs, with other religious farces of that fort, fo common in Europe, originated at Conftantinople. They were inftituted, although perhaps under other names, in the Greek Church, about the year 990, by Theophylact, patriarch of Conftantinople, pro bably with a better design than is imagined by the ecclefiaftical annalifts; that of weaning the minds of the people from the pagan ceremonies, by the fubftitution of chriftian fpectacles partaking of the fame fpirit of licentioufnefs.-To thofe who are accustomed to contemplate the great picture of human follies, which the unpolished ages of Europe hold up to our view, it will not appear furprifing, that the people who were forbidden to read the events of the facred history in the Bible, in which they were faithfully and beautifully related, fhould at the fame time be permitted to fee them reprefented on the ftage, difgraced with the groffeft improprieties, corrupted with inventions and additions of the most ridiculous kind, fullied with impurities, and expreffed in the language of the loweft farce." "On the whole, the Myfteries appear to have originated among the ecclefiafticks; and were most probably firft acted with any degree of form by the monks. This was certainly the cafe in the English monafteries." I have already mentioned the play of Saint Catharine, performed at Dunstable Abbey, by the novices in the eleventh century, under the fuperintendance of Geoffrey a Parifian ecclefiaftick: and the exhibition of the Passion by the mendicant friers of Coventry and other places. Inftances have 7" In fome regulations given by Cardinal Wolfey to the monafteries of the Canons regular of St. Austin, in the year 1519, the brothers are forbidden to be lufores aut mimici, players or mimicks. But the prohibition means that the monks should not go abroad to exercise these arts in a fecular and mercenary capacity. See Annal. Burtonenfes, p. 437." In 1589, however, an injunction made in the MEXICAN COUNCIL was ratified at Rome, to prohibit all clerks from playing in the Myfteries, even on Corpus Chrifti day. See Hiflory of English Poetry, Vol. II. p. 201. |