id stringlengths 16 16 | text stringlengths 151 2.3k | word_count int64 30 60 | source stringclasses 1 value |
|---|---|---|---|
twg_000012922400 | still, "beshers," cries Augustus; "beshers" means "beaux sires" in the kingly French of the Mysteries: Be stylle, beshers, I commawnd you, That no man speke a word here now Bot I my self alon. And if ye do, I make a vow, Thys brand abowte youre nekys shalle bow, For-thy by stylle as ston.[] Silence! cries Tiberius. Silence! cries Herod: | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922401 | Styr not bot ye have lefe, For if ye do I clefe You smalle as flesh to pott.[] Tiberius knows Latin, and does not conceal it from the audience: Stynt, I say, gyf men place, quia sum dominus dominorum, He that agans me says rapietur lux oculorum.[] And each of them hereupon moves about his scaffold, and gives the best | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922402 | idea he can of the magnitude of his power: Above all kynges under the cloudys crystall, Royally I reigne in welthe without woo ... I am Kyng Herowdes.[] Be it known, says another: That of heven and hell chyff rewlar am I, To wos magnyfycens non stondyt egall, For I am soveren of al soverens.[] Make room, says a third: | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922403 | A-wantt, a-want the, on-worthy wrecchesse! Why lowtt ye nat low to my lawdabyll presens?... I am a sofereyn semely, that ye se butt seyld; Non swyche onder sonne, the sothe for to say ... I am kyng of Marcylle![] Such princes fear nothing, and are never abashed; they are on familiar terms with the audience, and interpellate the bystanders, which | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922404 | was a sure cause of merriment, but not of good order. Octavian, being well pleased with the services of one of his men, tells him: Boye, their be ladyes many a one, Amonge them all chouse thee one, Take the faierest, or elles non, And freely I geve her thee.[] Every lord bows to my law, observes Tiberius: Is it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922405 | nat so? Sey yow all with on showte. and a note in the manuscript has: "Here answerryt all the pepul at ons,'Ya, my lord, ya.'"[] All this was performed with appropriate gesture, that is, as wild as the words they went with, a tradition that long survived. Shakespeare complained, as we know, of the delivery of those actors who "out-heroded | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922406 | Herod." The authors of English Mysteries had no great experience of Courts; they drew their caricatures somewhat haphazard. They were neither very learned nor very careful; anachronisms and mistakes swarm under their pen. While Herod sacrifices to Mahomet, Noah invokes the Blessed Virgin, and the Christmas shepherds swear by "the death of Christ," whose birth is announced to them at | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922407 | the end of the play. The psychology of these dramas is not very deep, especially when the question is of personages of rank, and of feelings of a refined sort. The authors of Mysteries speak then at random and describe by hearsay; they have seen their models only from afar, and are not familiar with them. When they have to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922408 | show how it is that young Mary Magdalen, as virtuous as she was beautiful, consents to sin for the first time, they do it in the plainest fashion. A "galaunt" meets her and tells her that he finds her very pretty, and loves her. "Why, sir," the young lady replies, "wene you that I were a kelle (prostitute)?" Not at | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922409 | all, says the other, but you are so pretty! Shall we not dance together? Shall we drink something? Soppes in wyne, how love ye? Mary does not resist those proofs of true love, and answers: As ye dou, so doth me; I am ryth glad that met be we; My love in yow gynnyt to close. Then, "derlyng dere," let | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922410 | us go, says the "galaunt." _Mary._ Ewyn at your wyl, my dere derlyng! Thow ye wyl go to the woldes eynd, I wol never from yow wynd (turn).[] Clarissa Harlowe will require more forms and more time; here twenty-five verses have been enough. A century and a half divides "Mary Magdalene" from the dramatised story of the "Weeping Bitch"; the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922411 | interpretation of the movements of the feminine heart has not greatly improved, and we are very far as yet from Richardson and Shakespeare. But truth was more closely observed when the authors spoke of what they knew by personal experience, and described men of the poorer sort with whom they were familiar. In this lies the main literary merit of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922412 | the Mysteries; there may be found the earliest scenes of real comedy in the history of the English stage. This comedy of course is very near farce: in everything people then went to extremes. Certain merry scenes were as famous as the rant of Herod, and they have for centuries amused the England of former days. The strife between husband | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922413 | and wife, Noah and his wife, Pilate and his wife, Joseph and Mary, this last a very shocking one, were among the most popular. In all the collections of English Mysteries Noah's wife is an untamed shrew, who refuses to enter the ark. In the York collection, Noah being ordered by "Deus" to build his boat, wonders somewhat at first: | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922414 | A! worthy lorde, wolde thou take heede, I am full olde and oute of qwarte. He sets to work, however; rain begins; the time for sailing has arrived: Noah calls his wife; she does not come. Get into the ark and "leve the harde lande?" This she will not do. She meant to go this very day to town, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922415 | she will: Doo barnes, goo we and trusse to towne. She does not fear the flood; Noah remarks that the rain has been terrific of late, and has lasted many days, and that her idea of going just then to town is not very wise. The lady is not a whit pacified; why have made a secret of all this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922416 | to her? Why had he not consulted her? It turns out that her husband had been working at the ark for a hundred years, and she did not know of it! Life in a boat is not at all pleasant; anyhow she will want time to pack; also she must take her gossips with her, to have some one to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922417 | talk to during the voyage. Noah, who in building his boat has given some proof of his patience, does not lose courage; he receives a box on the ear; he is content with saying: I pray the, dame, be stille. The wife at length gets in, and, as we may believe, stormy days in more senses than one are in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922418 | store for the patriarch.[] St. Joseph is a poor craftsman, described from nature, using the language of craftsmen, having their manners, their ignorances, their aspirations. Few works in the whole range of medival literature contain better descriptions of the workman of that time than the Mysteries in which St. Joseph figures; some of his speeches ought to have a place | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922419 | in the collections of Political Songs. The Emperor Augustus has availed himself of the occasion afforded by the census to establish a new tax: "A! lorde," says the poor Joseph, what doth this man nowe heare! Poore mens weale is ever in were (doubt), I wotte by this bolsters beare That tribute I muste paye; And for greate age and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922420 | no power I wan no good this seven yeaire; Nowe comes the kinges messingere, To gette all that he maye. With this axe that I beare, This perscer and this nagere, A hamer all in feare, I have wonnen my meate. Castill, tower ne manere Had I never in my power; But as a simple carpentere With these what I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922421 | mighte gette. Yf I have store nowe anye thing, That I must paye unto the kinge.[] Only an ox is left him; he will go and sell it. It is easy to fancy that, in the century which saw the Statutes of Labourers and the rising of the peasants, such words found a ready echo in the audience. As soon | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922422 | as men of the people appear on the scene, nearly always the dialogue becomes lively; real men and women stand and talk before us. Beside the workmen represented by St. Joseph, peasants appear, represented by the shepherds of Christmas night. They are true English shepherds; if they swear, somewhat before due time, by Christ, all surprise disappears when we hear | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922423 | them name the places where they live: Lancashire, the Clyde valley, Boughton near Chester, Norbury near Wakefield. Of all possible ales, Ely's is the one they prefer. They talk together of the weather, the time of the day, the mean salaries they get, the stray sheep they have been seeking; they eat their meals under the hedge, sing merry songs, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922424 | exchange a few blows, in fact behave as true shepherds of real life. Quite at the end only, when the "Gloria" is heard, they will assume the sober attitude befitting Christmas Day. In the Mysteries performed at Woodkirk, the visit to the new-born Child was preceded by a comedy worthy to be compared with the famous farce of "Pathelin," and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922425 | which has nothing to do with Christmas.[] It is night; the shepherds talk; the time for sleeping comes. One among them, Mak, has a bad repute, and is suspected of being a thief; they ask him to sleep in the midst of the others: "Com heder, betwene shalle thou lyg downe." But Mak rises during the night without being observed. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922426 | How hard they sleep! he says, and he carries away a "fatt shepe," and takes it to his wife. _Wife._ It were a fowlle blotte to be hanged for the case. _Mak._ I have skapyd, Gelott, oft as hard as glase. _Wife._ Bot so long goys the pott to the water, men says, At last Comys it home broken. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922427 | remember it well, says Mak, but it is not a time for proverbs and talk; let us do for the best. The shepherds know Mak too well not to come straight to his house; and so they do. Moans are heard; the cause being, they learn, that Mak's wife has just given birth to a child. As the shepherds walk | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922428 | in, Mak meets them with a cheerful countenance, and welcomes them heartily: Bot ar ye in this towne to-day? Now how fare ye? Ye have ryn in the myre, and ar weytt yit; I shalle make you a fyre, if ye wille syt. His offers are coldly received, and the visitors explain what has happened. Nowe if you have suspowse, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922429 | to Gille or to me, Com and rype oure howse! The woman moans more pitifully than ever: _Wife._ Outt, thefys, fro my barne! negh hym not thore. _Mak._ Wyst ye how she had farne, youre hartys wold be sore. Ye do wrang, I you warne, that thus commys before To a woman that has farne, bot I say no more. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922430 | _Wife._ A my medylle! I pray God so mylde, If ever I you begyld, That I ete this chylde That lyges in this credylle. The shepherds, deafened by the noise, look none the less about the house, but find nothing. Their host is not yet, however, at the end of his trouble. _Tertius Pastor._ Mak, with youre lefe, let me | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922431 | gyf youre barne Bot six pence. _Mak._ Nay, do way, he slepys. _Pastor._ Me thynk he pepys. _Mak._ When he wakyns he wepys; I pray you go hence. _Pastor._ Gyf me lefe hym to kys, and lyft up the clowth. What the deville is this? he has a long snowte! And the fraud is discovered; it was the sheep. From | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922432 | oaths they were coming to blows, when on a sudden, amid the stars, angels are seen, and their song is heard in the night: Glory to God, peace to earth! the world is rejuvenated.... Anger disappears, hatreds are effaced, and the rough shepherds of England take, with penitent heart, the road to Bethlehem. IV. The fourteenth century saw the religious | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922433 | drama at its height in England; the fifteenth saw its decay; the sixteenth its death. The form under which it was best liked was the form of Mysteries, based upon the Bible. The dramatising of the lives of saints and miracles of the Virgin was much less popular in England than in France. In the latter country enormous collections of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922434 | such plays have been preserved[]; in the other the examples of this kind are very few; the Bible was the main source from which the English dramatists drew their inspiration. As we have seen, however, they did not forbear from adding scenes and characters with nothing evangelical in them; these scenes contributed, with the interludes and the facetious dialogues of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922435 | the jongleurs, to the formation of comedy. Little by little, comedy took shape, and it will be found existing as a separate branch of dramatic art at the time of the Renaissance. In the same period another sort of drama was to flourish, the origin of which was as old as the fourteenth century, namely, _Moralities_. These plays consisted in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922436 | pious treatises and ethical books turned into dramas, as Mysteries offered a dramatisation of Scriptures. Psychology was there carried to the extreme, a peculiar sort of psychology, elementary and excessive at the same time, and very different from the delicate art in favour to-day. Individuals disappeared; they were replaced by abstractions, and these abstractions represented only a single quality or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922437 | defect. Sins and virtues fought together and tried to draw mankind to them, which stood doubtful, as Hercules "at the starting point of a double road;" in this way, again, was manifested the fondness felt in the Middle Ages for allegories and symbols. The "Roman de la Rose" in France, "Piers Plowman" in England, the immense popularity in all Europe | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922438 | of the Consolation of Boethius, had already been manifestations of those same tendencies. In these works, already, dialogue was abundant, in the "Roman de la Rose" especially, where an immense space is occupied by conversations between the Lover and Fals-Semblant.[] The names of the speakers are inscribed in the margin, as if it were a real play. When he admitted | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922439 | into his collection of tales the dialogued story of Melibeus and Prudence, Chaucer came very near to Moralities, for the work he produced was neither a treatise nor a tale, nor a drama, but had something of the three; a few changes would have been enough to make of it a Morality, which might have been called the Debate of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922440 | Wisdom and Mankind. Abstractions had been allowed a place in the Mysteries so far back as the fourteenth century; death figures in the Woodkirk collection; in "Mary Magdalene" (fifteenth century) many abstract personages are mixed with the others: the Seven Deadly Sins, Mundus, the King of the Flesh, Sensuality, &c.; the same thing happens in the so-called Coventry collection. This | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922441 | sort of drama, for us unendurable, gradually separated from Mysteries; it reached its greatest development under the early Tudors. The authors of Moralities strove to write plays not merely amusing, as farces, then also in great favour, but plays with a useful and practical aim. By means of now unreadable dramas, virtues, religion, morals, sciences were taught: the Catholic faith | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922442 | was derided by Protestants, and the Reformation by Catholics.[] The discovery, then quite new, of America was discoursed about, and great regret was expressed at its being not due to an Englishman: O what a thynge had be than, If they that be Englyshemen Myght have ben furst of all That there shuld have take possessyon![] Death, as might be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922443 | expected, is placed upon the stage with a particular zeal and care, and meditations are dedicated to the dark future of man, and to the gnawing worm of the charnel house.[] Fearing the audience might go to sleep, or perhaps go away, the science and the austere philosophy taught in these plays were enlivened by tavern scenes, and by the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922444 | gambols of a clown, fool, or buffoon, called Vice, armed, as Harlequin, with a wooden dagger. And often, such is human frailty, the beholders went, remembering nothing but the mad pranks of Vice. It was in their eyes the most important character in the play, and the part was accordingly entrusted to the best actor. Shakespeare had seen Vice still | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922445 | alive, and he commemorated his deeds in a song: I am gone, sir, And anon, sir, I'll be with you again, In a trice, Like to the old Vice, Your need to sustain, Who, with dagger of lath, In his rage and his wrath, Cries, ah ha! to the devil.[] This character also found place on the French stage, where | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922446 | it was called the "Badin." Rabelais had the "Badin" in great esteem: "In this manner we see, among the jongleurs, when they arrange between them the cast of a play, the part of the Sot, or Badin, to be attributed to the cleverest and most experienced in their company."[] In the meanwhile, common ancestors of the various dramatic tribes, source | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922447 | and origin of many sorts of plays, the Mysteries, which had contributed to the formation of the tragical, romantic, allegorical, pastoral, and comic drama, were still in existence. Reformation had come, the people had adopted the new belief, but they could not give up the Mysteries. They continued to like Herod, Noah and his wife, and the tumultuous troup of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922448 | devils, great and small, inhabiting hell-mouth. Prologues had been written in which excuses were offered on account of the traces of superstition to be detected in the plays, but conscience being thus set at rest, the plays were performed as before. The Protestant bishop of Chester prohibited the representation in , but it took place all the same. The archbishop | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922449 | of York renewed the prohibition in , but the Mysteries were performed again for four days; and some representations of them took place even later.[] At York the inhabitants had no less reluctance about giving up their old drama; they were sorry to think that religious differences now existed between the town and its beloved tragedies. Converted to the new | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922450 | faith, the citizens would have liked to convert the plays too, and the margins of the manuscript bear witness to their efforts. But the task was a difficult one; they were at their wits' end, and appealed to men more learned than they. They decided that "the booke shalbe carried to my Lord Archebisshop and Mr. Deane to correcte, if | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922451 | that my Lord Archebisshop do well like theron," .[] My Lord Archbishop, wise and prudent, settled the question according to administrative precedent; he stored the book away somewhere, and the inhabitants were simply informed that the prohibition was maintained. The York plays thus died. In France the Mysteries survived quite as late; but, on account of the radical effects of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922452 | the Renaissance there, they had not the same influence on the future development of the drama. They continued to be represented in the sixteenth century, and the Parliament of Paris complained in of their too great popularity: parish priests, and even the chanters of the Holy Chapel, sang vespers at noon, a most unbecoming hour, and sang them "post haste," | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922453 | to see the sight. Six years later the performance of Mysteries was forbidden at Paris; but the cross and ladder, emblems of the "Confrres de la Passion," continued to be seen above the gates of the "Htel de Bourgogne," and the privilege of the Confrres, which dated three centuries back, was definitely abolished in the reign of Louis XIV., in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922454 | December, .[] Molire had then been dead for three years. In England, at the date when my Lord Archbishop stopped the representation at York,[] the old religious dramas had produced all their fruit: they had kept alive the taste for stage plays, they left behind them authors, a public, and companies of players. Then was growing in years, in a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922455 | little town by the side of the river Avon, the child who was to reach the highest summits of art. He followed on week-days the teaching of the grammar school; he saw on Sundays, painted on the wall of the Holy Cross Chapel, a paradise and hell similar to those in the Mysteries, angels of gold and black devils, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922456 | that immense mouth where the damned are parboiled, "o damns sont boulus," as the poor old mother of Villon says in a ballad of her son's.[] At the date of the York prohibition, William Shakespeare was fifteen. FOOTNOTES: [] "Nostra tas prolapsa ad fabulas et quvis inania, non modo sures et cor prostituit vanitati, sed oculorum et aurium voluptate suam | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922457 | mulcet desidiam.... Nonne piger desidiam instruit et somnos provocat instrumentorum suavitate, aut vocum modulis, hilaritate canentium aut fabulantium gratia, sive quod turpius est ebrietate vel crapula?... Admissa sunt ergo spectacula et infinita tyrocinia vanitatis, quibus qui omnino otiari non possunt perniciosius occupentur. Satius enim fuerat otiari quam turpiter occupari. Hinc mimi, salii vel saliares, balatrones miliani, gladiatores, palstrit, gignadii, prstigiatores, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922458 | malefici quoque multi et tota joculatorum scena procedit. Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a prclaris domibus non arceantur, etiam illi qui obscenis partibus corporis oculis omnium eam ingerunt turpitudinem, quam erubescat videre vel cynicus. Quodque magis mirere, nec tunc ejiciuntur, quando tumultuantes inferius crebro sonitu aerem foedant, et turpiter inclusum turpius produnt.... Jucundum quidem est et ab honeste non recedit | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922459 | virum probum quandoque modesta hilaritate mulcere." "Policraticus," . chap. viii., in "Opera Omnia," ed. Giles, Oxford, , vol. iii. p. . [] C., xvi. . [] "De Mimo et Rege Francorum," in Wright, "Latin Stories," , No. cxxxvii. [] Le roi demaund par amour: Ou qy estes vus, sire Joglour? E il respount sauntz pour: Sire, je su ou mon | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922460 | seignour. Quy est toun seignour? fet le Roy. Le baroun ma dame, par ma foy.... Quei est le eve apel, par amours? L'em ne l'apele pas, eynz vint tous jours. Concerning the horse: Mange il bien, ce savez dire. Ol certes, bel douz sire; Yl mangereit plus un jour d'aveyne Que vus ne frez pas tote la semeyne. Montaiglon and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922461 | Raynaud, "Recueil gnral des Fabliaux," vol. ii. p. . [] "Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus," in prose, ed. Kemble, lfric Society, , 8vo. See also the "estrif" between Joseph and Mary in "Cynewulf's Christ," ed. Gollancz, , p. ; above, p. . [] "The Owl and the Nightingale," ed. J. Stevenson, Roxburghe Club, , 4to. "The Thrush and the Nightingale"; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922462 | "Of the Vox and the Wolf" (see above, p. ); "The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools," in Hazlitt, "Remains of the early Popular Poetry of England," , vols. 8vo, vol. i. pp. , , . [] "Anonymi Petroburgensis Descriptio Norfolcensicum" (end of the twelfth century); "Norfolchi Descriptionis Impugnatio," in Latin verse, with some phrases in English, in Th. Wright, "Early | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922463 | Mysteries and other Latin Poems of the XIIth and XIIIth centuries," London, , 8vo. [] "Harrowing of Hell." This work consists in a dramatic dialogue or scene, but it was not meant to be represented. Time of Henry III.; text in Pollard, "English Miracle Plays," Oxford, , p. . [] This game is described in the (very coarse) fabliau of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922464 | the "Sentier batu" by Jean de Cond, fourteenth century: De plusieurs deduis s'entremistrent Et tant c'une royne fistrent Pour jouer au Roy qui ne ment. Ele s'en savoit finement Entremettre de commander Et de demandes demander. Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil gnral des Fabliaux," vol. iii. p. . [] "Prohibemus etiam clericis ne intersint ludis inhonestis, vel choreis, vel ludant ad | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922465 | aleas, vel taxillos; nec sustineant ludos fieri de Rege et Regina," &c. "Constitutiones Walteri de Cantilupo, Wigorniensis episcopi ... promulgat ... A.D. ," art. xxxviii., in Labbe, "Sacrorum conciliorum ... Collectio," l. xxiii. col. . [] The two sorts are well described by Baudouin de Cond in his "Contes des Hiraus," thirteenth century. The author meets a servant and asks | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922466 | him questions about his master. Dis-moi, par l'me de ton pre, Voit-il volentiers menestreus? --Ol voir, biau frre, et estre eus En son hostel giant solas.... ... Et quant avient C'aucuns grans menestreus l vient, Maistres en sa menestrandie, Que bien viele ou ki bien die De bouce, mesires l'ascoute Volenticis.... Mais peu souvent i vient de teus Mais des | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922467 | flons et des honteus, who speak but nonsense and know nothing, and who, however, receive bread, meat, and wine, ... l'un por faire l'ivre, L'autre le cat, le tiers le sot; Li quars, ki onques rien ne sot D'armes s'en parole et raconte De ce preu due, de ce preu conte. "Dits et Contes de Baudouin de Cond," ed. Scheler, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922468 | Brussels, , vols. 8vo, vol. i. p . [] "Ad quid illa vocis contractio et infractio? Hic succinit, ille discinit.... Aliquando, quod pudet dicere, in equinos hinnitus cogitur; aliquando virili vigore deposito in femine vocis gracilitates acuitur.... Videas aliquando hominem aperto ore quasi intercluso habitu expirare, non cantare, ac ridiculosa quadam vocis interceptione quasi minitari silentium; nunc agones morientium, vel | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922469 | extasim patientium imitari. Interim histrionicis quibusdam gestibus totum corpus agitatur, torquentur labia, rotant, ludunt humeri; et ad singulas quasque notas digitorum flexus respondet. Et hc ridiculosa dissolutio vocatur religio!.... Vulgus ... miratur ... sed lascivas cantantium gesticulationes, meretricias vocum alternationes et infractiones, non sine cachinno risuque intuetur, ut eos non ad oratorium sed ad theatrum, nec ad orandum sed ad | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922470 | spectandum stimes convenisse." "Speculum Chantatis," . chap. , in Migne's "Patrologia," vol. cxcv. col. . [] Latin text in "The Exempla ... of Jacques de Vitry," thirteenth century, ed. T. F. Crane, London, , 8vo, p. (No. ccl.), and in Th. Wright, "A Selection of Latin Stories," , Percy Society, p. : "De Dolo et Arte Vetularum." French text in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922471 | Barbazan and Mon, "Fabliaux," vol. ii., included into the "Castoiement d'un pre son fils," thirteenth century. English text in Th. Wright, "Anecdota Literaria," London, , 8vo, p. ; the title is in French: "Ci commence le fables et le cointise de dame Siriz." [] Text in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliqui Antiqu," London, , vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. . "Hic | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922472 | incipit interludiam de Clerico and Puella." [] "Here bigynnis a tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge," end of fourteenth century, in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliqui Antiqu," vol. ii. p. . Elsewhere in the same treatise, "to pley in rebaudye" is opposed to "pley in myriclis," p. . [] "Ludi theatrales, etiam prtextu consuetudinis in ecclesiis vel per clericos fieri non debent." Decretal | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922473 | of Innocent III., year , included by Gregory IX. in his "Compilatio." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," Leipzig, , vol. ii. p. . [] "Constitutiones Walteri de Cantilupo, A.D. ," in Labbe's "Sacrorum Conciliorum ... Collectio," vol. xxiii. col. . [] Wilkins, "Concilia Magn Britanni," London, , vols. fol., vol. i. p. , Nos. lxxiv., lxxv. The same prohibition | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922474 | is made by Walter de Chanteloup, _ut supra_, art. lv. The custom was a very old one, and existed already in Anglo-Saxon times; see "lfric's Lives of Saints," , E.E.T.S., p. . [] "... Ne quis choreas cum larvis seu strepitu aliquo in ecclesiis vel plateis ducat, vel sertatus, vel coronatus corona ex folus arborum, vel florum vel aliunde composita, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922475 | alicubi incedat ... prohibemus," thirteenth century, "Munimenta Academica," ed. Anstey, Rolls, , p. . [] Decretal of Innocent III., reissued by Gregory IX. "In aliquibus anni festivitalibus, qu continue natalem Christi sequuntur, diaconi, presbyteri ac subdiaconi vicissim insani su ludibria exercere prsumunt, per gesticulationum suarum debacchationes obscoenas in conspectu populi decus faciunt clericale vilescere, quem potius illo tempore verbi Dei | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922476 | deberent prdicatione mulcere." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," vol. ii. p. . [] Thirteenth century. See Gaston Paris, "Romania," vol. xxi. p. . Songs of a much worse character were also sung at Christmas. To deter his readers from listening to any such Gascoigne writes (first half of the fifteenth century): "Cavete et fugite in hoc sacro festo viciosa | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922477 | et turpia, et prcipue cantus inhonestos et turpes qui libidinem excitant et provocant ... et ymagines imprimunt in mente quas expellere difficillimum est. Novi ego, scilicet Gascoigne, doctor sacr pagin qui hc scripsi, unum magnum et notabilem virum talem cantum turpem in festo Natalis audivisse." He could never forget the shameful things he had heard, and fell on that account | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922478 | into melancholy, by which he was driven to death. "Loci e libro veritatum ... passages selected from Gascoigne's Theological Dictionary," ed. Thorold Rogers, Oxford, , 4to. On the Christmas festivities at the University and on the "Rex Natalicius" (sixteenth century and before), see C. R. L. Fletcher, "Collectanea," Oxford, , 8vo, p. . [] "Cum domus Dei, testaute propheta Filioque | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922479 | Dei, domus sit orationis, nefandum est eam in domum jocationis, scurrilitatis et nugacilatis convertere, locumque Deo dicatum diabolicis adinventionibus execrare; cumque circumcisio Domini nostri Jesu Christi prima fuerit nec modicum acerba ejusdem passio, signum quoque sit circumcisionis spiritualis qua cordium prputia tolluntur ... execrabile est circumcisionis Domini venerandam solemnitatem libidinosarum voluptatum sordibus prophanare: quapropter vobis mandamus in virtute obedienti firmiter | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922480 | injungentes, quatenus Festum Stultorum cum sit vanitate plenum et voluptatibus spurcum, Deo odibile et dmonibus amabile, ne de ctero in ecclesia Lincolniensi, die venciand solemnitatis circumcisionis Domini permittatis fieri." "Epistol," ed. Luard, Rolls, , p. , year (?). Same defence for the whole diocese, p. . [] "Wardrobe Accounts," in "Archologia," vol. xxvi. p. ; "Issue Roll of Thomas de | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922481 | Brantingham," ed. Devon, , p. xlvi; "Issues of the Exchequer," ed. Devon, p. , Rich. II. [] "Inhibemus ne de cetero in festis Innocentium et Beate Marie Magdalene ludibria exerceatis consueta, induendo vos scilicet vestis secularium aut inter vos, sed cum secularibus, choreas ducendo, nec extra refectorium comedatis," &c. Eudes Rigaud, archbishop of Rouen, to the nuns of Villarciaux, thirteenth | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922482 | century. "Registrum Visitationum" ed. Bonnin, , 4to, p. . [] "Historia Major," Rolls, vol. iii. p. . [] Matthew Paris, _ibid._ [] Described by Richard of Maidstone (d. ) in a Latin poem: "Richardi Maydiston de Concordia inter Regem Ricardum II. et civitatem London," in the "Political Poems and Songs" of Wright, Rolls, vol. i. p. . [] Entry of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922483 | Isabeau of Bavaria into Paris, in . [] On the popularity of Robin Hood in the fourteenth century, see above, p. . In the fifteenth century he was the hero of plays performed during the May festivities: "Reced for the gathering of the May-play called Robin Hood, on the fair day, 19s." Accounts of the church of St. Lawrence at | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922484 | Reading, year , in the _Academy_, October , , p. . [] "Quem quritis in prsepe, pastores? Respondent: Salvatorem Christum Dominum." Petit de Julleville, "Histoire du Thtre en France.--Les Mystres," , vol. i. p. . [] Petit de Julleville, _ibid._, vol. i. p. . [] Same beginning and same gradual development: "Quem queritis in sepulchro o Christicole?--Jesum Nazarenum crucifixum o | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922485 | celicole.--Non est hic, surrexit sicut predixerat; ite nunciate quia surrexit. Alleluia." In use at Limoges, eleventh century. "Die lateinischen Osterfeiern, untersuchungen ber den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der liturgisch-dramatischen Auferstehungsfeier," by Carl Lange, Munich, , 8vo, p. . [] "Ci comence l'estoire de Griselidis;" MS. fi. , in the National Library, Paris, dated , outline drawings (privately printed, Paris, , | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922486 | 4to).--"Le Mistre du sige d'Orlans," ed. Guessard and Certain, Paris, , 4to (Documents indits). [] This story was very popular during the Middle Ages, in France and in England. It was, _e.g._, the subject of a poem in English verse, thirteenth century: "The Life of St. Katherine," ed. Einenkel, Early English Text Society, , 8vo. [] "Vit ... viginti trium | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922487 | abbatum Sancti Albani," in "Matthi Paris monachi Albanensis [Opera]," London, -, vols. fol., vol. ii. p. "Gaufridus decimus sextus [abbas]." [] _Ibid._, p. . [] He writes, twelfth century: "Londonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis, ludos habet sanctiores, representationes miraculorum...." "Descriptio nobilissim civitatis Londoni," printed with Stow's "Survey of London," , 4to [] This can be inferred from the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922488 | existence of that "estrif" the "Harrowing of Hell," written in the style of mysteries, which has come down to us, and belongs to that period. See above, p. . Religious dramas were written in Latin by subjects of the kings of England, and, among others, by Hilary, a disciple of Ablard, twelfth century, who seems to have been an Anglo-Norman; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922489 | "Hilarii versus et Ludi," ed. Champollion-Figeac, Paris, . A few lines in French are mixed with his Latin. [] "Here bigynnis a tretise of miraclis pleyinge," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliqui Antiqu," London, , vol. ii. p. ; end of fourteenth century. [] "Item quod tabernas, spectacula aut alia loca inhonesta, seu ludos noxios at illicitos non frequentent, sed more | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922490 | sacerdotali se habeant et in gestu, ne ipsorum ministerium, quod absit, vituperio, scandalo vel despectui habeatur." Labbe, vol. xxvi. col. . The inhibition is meant for priests of all sorts: "presbyteri stipendarii aut alii sacerdotes, propriis sumptibus seu alias sustentati." Innocent III. and Gregory IX. had vainly denounced the same abuses, and tried to stop them: "Clerici officia vel commercia | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922491 | scularia non exerceant, maxime inhonesta. Mimis, joculatoribus et histrionibus non intendant. Et tabernas prorsus evitent, nisi forte causa necessitatis in itinere constituti." Richter and Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici," ii. p. . [] "Roberd of Brunne's Handlyng Synne (written A.D. ), with the French treatise on which it is founded, 'Le Manuel des Pechiez,' by William de Wadington," ed. Furnivall, Roxburghe | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922492 | Club, , 4to, pp. ff. [] Un autre folie apert Unt les fols clercs controv, Qe "miracles" sunt apel; Lur faces unt la dguis Par visers, li forsen. [] Fere poent representement, Mes qe ceo seit chastement En office de seint glise Quant hom fet la Deu servise, Cum Jesu Crist le fiz Dee En sepulcre esteit pos, Et la | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922493 | resurrectiun Pur plus aver devociun. [] Ki en lur jus se dlitera, Chivals on harneis les aprestera. Vesture ou autre ournement, Sachez il fet folement. Si vestemens seient dediez, Plus grant d'assez est le pechez; Si prestre ou clerc les ust prest Bien dust estre chausti. [] Toulmin Smith, "English Gilds," London, , E.E.T.S., p. . [] The principal monuments | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922494 | of the English religious stage are the following: "Chester Plays," ed. Th. Wright, Shakespeare Society, -, vols., 8vo (seem to have been adapted from the French, perhaps from an Anglo-Norman original, not recovered yet). "The Pageant of the Company of Sheremen and Taylors in Coventry ... together with other Pageants," ed. Th. Sharp, Coventry, , 4to. By the same: "A | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922495 | Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries anciently performed at Coventry ... to which are added the Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors Company," Coventry, , 4to (illustrated). "Ludus Coventri," ed. Halliwell, Shakespeare Society, , 8vo (the referring of this collection to the town of Coventry is probably wrong). "Towneley Mysteries" (a collection of plays performed at Woodkirk, formerly Widkirk, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922496 | near Wakefield; see Skeat's note in _Athenum_, Dec. ; ) ed. Raine, Surtees Society, Newcastle, , 8vo. "York Plays, the plays performed by the crafts or mysteries of York on the day of Corpus Christi, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith, Oxford, , 8vo. "The Digby Mysteries," ed. Furnivall, New Shakspere Society, , 8vo. "Play | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922497 | of Abraham and Isaac" (fourteenth century), in the "Boke of Brome, a commonplace book of the xvth century," ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith. , 8vo.--"Play of the Sacrament" (story of a miracle, a play of a type scarce in England), ed. Whitley Stokes, Philological Society Transactions, Berlin, -, 8vo, p. .--"A Mystery of the Burial of Christ"; "A Mystery of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922498 | Resurrection": "This is a play to be played on part on gudfriday afternone, and the other part opon Esterday afternone," in Wright and Halliwell, "Reliqui Antiqu," -, vol. ii. pp. ff., from a MS. of the beginning of the sixteenth century.--See also "The ancient Cornish Drama," three mysteries in Cornish, fifteenth century, ed. Norris, Oxford, , vols. 8vo (with a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922499 | translation).--For extracts, see A. W. Pollard, "English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes," Oxford, , 8vo. On the question of the formation of the various cycles of English mysteries and the way in which they are connected, see A. Hohlfield, "Die altenglischen kollektivmisterien," in "Anglia," xi. p. , and Ch. Davidson, "Studies in the English Mystery Plays, a thesis," Yale University, | 60 | gutenberg |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.