sible, even with the example of Medwall just before us, that it should have been written by an ecclesiastic*.

The Moral of Hick Scorner, also came from the press of Wynkyn de Worde f: it is without date, but it was, perhaps, published a few years later than The World and the Child: how long it continued a favourite with the people, may be judged from the fact, that in a tract called Martin's Month's Mind, printed in 1589, and attributed to T. Nash, the phrase Hick Scorners jests' is used proverbially, to signify the blasphemous scurrility with which the Scriptures. had been attacked by the Puritans about the middle

* Manhood asks Folly to tell his adventures.

Folye.

In feythe syr over London brydge I ran,

And the streyght waye to the stewes I came, 'And toke lodgynge for a nyght;

'And there I found my brother lechery.

There men and women dyde folye,

'And every man made of me as worthy,

'As thoughe I hadde ben a knyght.

'Manhode. I praye the, yet tell me mo of thyne adventures.
• Folye.
In feythe even streyght to all the freres,

And with them I dwelled many yeres,

And they crowned folye a kynge.

'Manhode. I praye the, felowe, whyder wendest thou tho? Syr all Englande to and fro :

• Folye.

'In to abbeys, and in to nonneryes also,

'And alway folye dothe felowes fynde.'

† Dr. Dibdin (Typ. Ant. ii., p. ix.) says, incautiously, that 'in the 'drama there is no single work yet found which bears the name of 'Wynkyn de Worde as the printer of it.' Hick Scorner is the second drama we have noticed from his press, besides the now lost 'Nigra mansir,' which Warton saw with the name of Wynkyn de Worde attached to it, and the date of 1504,

of the reign of Elizabeth*. In fact the hero, to use Bishop Percy's words, 'agreeably to his name, scoff's at religion,' but nevertheless he only figures in a single

scene.

Pity, Contemplation, and Perseverance, lament the vices of mankind, and then give place to Freewill and Imagination, two libertines. Hick Scorner enters, and gives an account of his travels, mentioning the Regent,' which shows that the Moral was written in the reign of Henry VII., as, in the accounts of expenses of that reign, are several entries for fitting out that ship of war. Imagination and Freewill quarrel : Pity interposes, but they, assisted by Hick Scorner, set Pity in the stocks, where he has time to inveigh against the profligacy of the age. Contemplation and Perseverance restore him to liberty, and he goes out in search of those who had thus insulted him. Meanwhile Freewill returns, and after rather a long conference is converted from his wicked courses by Contemplation and Perseverance. Imagination makes a short resistance, and follows his example, but Pity does not again appear, and we are left to infer, that Hick Scorner is incorrigible and irreclaim

*The name became proverbial before the close of Henry VIII. In a note in his translation of 'The Apothegmes' of Erasmus, printed by Richard Grafton, in 1542, Nicholas Udall makes use of it thus:'Which publique offices, who so is a suitor to have, it behoveth the same not to plaie Hicke Skorner with insolubles, and with the idle knackes of sophistications,' &c.

6

† Reliques, i. 136. edit. 1812. The whole piece is reprinted in Hawkins's Origin of the English Drama, i. 77,

able. Although in this piece the persons are allegorical, they have individual peculiarities; and in it we find one of the earliest attempts at distinctive character, and comic dialogue.

The Morall-playe' of Every-man (as it is called on the title-page) is one of the most perfect allegories ever formed *. Some points of its construction show that it was written at a very early period, perhaps in the reign of Edward IV.: it was printed once by Pynson, and twice by John Skot, in no instance with the year appended; but Pynson did not print any work with a date after 1531, nor Skot after 1537 †.

The following is its title: 'Here begynneth a Treatise how the 'hye Fader of Heven sendeth Dethe to somon every creature to come 'and gyve a counte of theyr lyves in this worlde, and is in maner of a 'moralle playe:' the printer's colophon is this: Thus endeth this 'morall playe of Every-man. Imprynted at London, in Poules chyrche ' yarde, by me John Skot.' It is in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral, and is reprinted in vol. i. of Hawkins's Orig. Engl. Drama.

+ Mr. Douce is in possession of a curious fragment of Pynson's edition, consisting of considerable portions of the last eight pages, and beginning with Sig. E i. Dr. Dibdin (Typ. Ant. ii. 565) doubts whether it ever came from the press of Pynson; but Mr. Douce's fragment has fortunately the following colophon. 'Imprynted at London, in Fletestrete, at the Sygne of the George, by Richarde Pynson, 'prynter unto the Kynges noble grace.' It sometimes varies materially from the edition by Skot, in Lincoln cathedral; and I subjoin the speech by the Doctoure,' (who winds up the performance) with the words in italic that in any respect vary from the hitherto

known copy.

'This memory all men maye have in mynde,

'Ye herers take it a worthe, olde and yonge,

And forsake pryde, for he deceyves you in the ende

'And remébre beaute, v wyttes, strength and discrecion :

'They

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The character called Every-man is the representative of the whole human race, and after a short prologue by a Messenger,' the Deity delivers a soliloquy, in which he laments that the people forsake him, and ' use the seven deadly synnes damnable.' He summons Death (who it will be recollected is personified in the plays called Ludus Coventric), and sends him for Every-man. Death meets with the hero, delivers his message, and tells him to bring with him his book of counte. Every-man is allowed to

prove his friends,' and the first he accosts is Fellowship, who refuses to accompany him on his longe journey,' though ready to murder anybody to do his friend service. Every-man next applies to Kindred:

They all at last do every man forsake
'Save his good dedes there do he take.
'But beware, for and they be small,
'Before god he hathe no helpe at all:
'None excuse may be there for every man.
" Alas, howe shall he do than?

For after deth amendes may no man make
For than mercy and pyte dothe hym forsake.
'If his reckenynge be not clere whan he do come,
'God wyll say, ite malediciti in ignem eternum.
'And he that hath his accounte hole and sounde
'Hye in heven he shall be crounde.

'Unto whiche, please god, brynge us all thether,
'That we may lyve body and soule togyder.
"Therto helpe the trinyte:

'Amen, saye ye for saynt charyte.

'FINIS.'

From a MS. note by Mr. Douce upon his fragment, I learn that Every-man was twice printed by Skot, one copy being with, and the other without a colophon. I have not met with the last.

My cosyn, wyll you not with me go? 'Kindred. No, by our Lady: I have the crampe in my

toe:'

which is the only stroke of humour in the whole performance. Goods also refuses; and applying, in the last resort, to Good-deeds, Every-man finds her so weak that she lies on the ground, but points out to him the woful blank in his books of works and deeds.' She introduces him to Knowledge, and Knowledge carries him to Confession, where he also calls to his aid Strength, Discretion, Beauty, and Five Wits, who promise to accompany him before God. Every-man soon begins to grow weak he says

'Alas! I am so faynt I may not stand:

My limbs under me doth folde ;'

and arriving at the brink of the grave, he calls upon his friends to enter it with him. Beauty first refuses, and her example is followed by Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits. Good-deeds only consents to accompany him, for even Knowledge remains behind. The moral is excellent, and it is admirably illustrated, and finally enforced in a sort of epilogue delivered by the Doctor.' In the employment of this personage, it will be remarked that this production resembles many of the Miracle-plays. In the performance Everyman must have wanted much of the character and variety, which are found in some other contemporary productions.

Of The Interlude of Youth, I shall speak somewhat more at large, as it is only known in the two old