a sheep instead of Isaac. • The conclusion' shews that the piece was publicly acted :

The lively faith set foorth before our eye

• In Abraham, that holy personage,

'Whose dooings have bin playd upon this stage; 'Lo, maisters, heere the happie recompence

'Which God doth give you for your gentle silence.'

Thus we see that this tragedy' is of the simplest possible construction, and it was probably only one of a series by Beza, although Golding translated no others, either upon the events of the Old or of the New Testament.

The new interlude' of Godly Queene Hester*,' 1561, deserves remark, because the person who may be said to represent the Vice in it is neither more nor less

The only copy ever seen of this very singular performance is in the library of the Duke of Devonshire: the full title runs as follows: -'A new enterlude, drawen oute of the holy scripture of godly queene 'Hester, verye necessary, newly made and imprinted, this present ' yere MDLXI.

'Com nere vertuous matrons and women kind,

6 Here may ye learne of Hesters duty;

In all comlines of vertue you shal finde

'How to behave your selves in humilitie.

'The names of the players,

The colophon is this:—' Imprynted at London by Wyllyam Picker'ynge and Thomas Hacket, and are to be solde at theyre shoppes.'

than a jester called Hardy-dardy, who assumes weakness of intellect for the sake of giving the greater effect to what he utters; he appears also to have been dressed in a fool's coat. This circumstance is of itself important. He offers himself as a servant to Haman (or Aman, as he is called), who says,

'Me seames ye are not fytte.

'Hardy-dardy. Ye wene I lacke wytte, it may well be so; Ye, a fole, when it doth happe, may somtyme chaunce to stoppe a gappe.

'Aman.

'When wyse men wyll not mell*.

Fooles largely will bourde, and tell al theyr thought.

Hardy-dardy. And wyse men will not speke one worde till all become to nought.

'Aman.

· Hardy-dardy.

'Aman.

Hardy-dardy.

Fooles will tell all, and that trobleth sore.
And wyse men will say nought at al, till

al be gone and more.

Fooles to idlenes all wayes be preste †.

And wyse men use such busines, it were better they were at rest.'

Just afterwards Hardy-dardy observes,

'Some wise man must be fayn sumtime to take the paine

To do on a foole's cote;'

referring to his own apparel: yet he is learned enough to quote Ovid and Valerius Maximus in one of his answers to king Ahasuerus.

'Have ye not rede of Naso Ovide,

That eloquent Poet;

'Nor Valery, which telles merely
'The proper feates,

*When wise men will not meddle.'

+ Ready.

'How the Smith Perillus, like a tuta vilus *,

'Made a bull of bras.

'He had thought, iwis, to have pleased king Phalaris, 'But yet he did much wurse t.'

The story is treated scripturally, (as the title-page professes that it is drawen oute of the holy scripture,') as far as relates to Hester, Mordecai, Ahasuerus, and Haman; but various other characters, some of them allegorical, as Pride, Adulation, and Ambition, are introduced: these three make their testament,' bequeathing all their evil qualities to Haman, and they ultimately occasion his destruction. The play has a prologue of two seven-line stanzas, after which King Ahasuerus is discovered sitting in a chaire, speaking to his counsell;' and after three courtiers have discussed, at some length, the comparative merits of riches, power, wisdom, virtue, and noble blood, the King sends out a pursuivant to bring before him all the fair maidens of his kingdom, in order that he may marry. He selects Hester, and she makes several long speeches, to prove her wisdom and fitness for the exalted rank she is destined to fill. The following is one of them, when Ahasuerus requires her to shew how a kingdom is to be governed with truth, justice, aw, and equity.'

6

* See note to the twenty-eighth Widkirk Miracle-play, Judicium, The passage above strongly confirms the etymology there given of Tutivilus, the name of a demon.

A Jew is made to refer to Virgil:

'The Mantuans thought it a great punishment
'To be proscribed from theyre goodes and lande,
'As reciteth Virgill, that poet eloquente:

'Much more is our payne, ye may understande,' &c.

6

'Then I wyl be playne, for veritie hath no pere,
'And for a pryncipall of thys my tale,

'And eke his subjectes, both great and smale,
In honour and wealth: yea all the province,
'So riche and so stronge, that they maye convince
'All their enemyes where so ever they dwell,
'That woulde invade, resiste, or rebell.

' And where goddes servyce and hospitalitie
'Doeth decaye, and almes to the poore all,
'There may be wealth in places two or three,
'But I assure you, the most part in generall

"Neither have meate nor money, nor strength substan

cial,

Fytte to do you service when ye have nede; 'Whiche is no good order, me thynkes in very

'Let God alwaye, therfore, have hys parte, And the poore fedde by hospitalitie,

dede.

'Eche man his measure, be it pynte or quarte, 'And no man to muche, for that is great jeoberdie*, 'A meane to lose all, as I doe feare me;

For when all is gathered together on a heape, 'It may sone be conveyed, cariage is good cheape. 'Thys I speake with trew hearte and mynde,

Beseching your grace to take it in good kynde.'

After her elevation to the throne, Hester has a chapel royal' to delight her with music, and the members of it are called in and sing to her, as was not unusual with Queen Elizabeth; and although the scene is laid in Assyria, the personal, local, and temporary allusions are numerous. Ambition, in one place, speaks of the danger of a war with Scotland or France, and Hardy-dardy mentions that he gets his wine from the latter. The place of execution, *Jeopardy, or danger.

at St. Thomas à Watrings, in London, is more than once introduced. The King writes an epistle to his vicegerents in distant parts of his kingdom, and he dates it the 4th December, the iii yeare of our raine,' the piece having been printed in the third year of the reign of Elizabeth. The dialogue, when Haman is sent out to be hanged, contains an allusion to the performance of Pageants or Miracle-plays at that date. Ahasuerus is talking with Hardy-dardy, after Haman has been led to execution.

'Assewerus.

What meane you by this?

'Hardy-dardy. I wyll tell you, by gis, my hole intencion. 'I meane my master is the first taster

'Of his owne invencion.

The gallhouse he made both hye and brode,

'For Mardocheus he them mente,

'And now he is faine him selfe for certaine

To play the fyrst pagente.'

At the close the King addresses himself to the

auditory :

6

My Lordes, by this fygure ye may well se, The multitude hurte by the heades necligence, 'If to his pleasure so geven is he,

That he will no paine take, nor dilligence:

'Who careth not for his cure ofte loseth credence,

'A proverbe of olde sume time in usage:

Few men that serve but for theyr owne advauntage.'

Hester makes a short speech of a similar kind, and

the characters end the piece by a prayer for the 'company' present at the performance.

VOL. II.

S