According to Bulæus, this play of St. Katherine was not then by any means a novelty-non novo quidem instituto, sed de consuetudine magistrorum et scholarum, and from a passage in the Annales Burtonenses. we may conclude, that in the time of Matthew Paris, or very shortly afterwards, itinerant actors were well known. Among the regulations, under date A. D. of A. D. 1258, we meet with the following re- 1258. markable expressions: Histrionibus potest dari cibus, quia pauperes sunt, non quia histriones; et eorum ludi non videantur, vel audiantur, vel permittantur. fieri coram Abbate vel monachis*. Here the words. histriones and ludi would seem distinctly to point out the nature of the performances t. One objection to these ludi might possibly be, that the histriones gave them in the popular language of the country; and it will be seen hereafter, that there is some ground for supposing that the Miracle-play of St. Katherine, and other dramatic representations, founded upon the lives of saints, and upon the events of the Old and New Testaments, at the date now referred to, were in French.

The clergy do not seem to have been unanimous as to the propriety and policy of public dramatic per

* Gale, Rerum Anglicarum Scriptor. Vet. i., 437.

† Warton (H. E. P., iii. 41, edit. 8vo.) is of opinion, that the word histrio had a very wide application in the barbarous ages, including mimics, juglers, dancers, tumblers, musicians, and minstrels; but in a note to the preceding page, he refers to this very passage from the Annales Burtonenses, in order to shew, that in this instance it excluded minstrels, harpers, and juglers, and that it meant players.

formances; and we find a violent attack upon them in the Manuel de Peché, an Anglo-French poem, written about the middle of the thirteenth century*. Robert de Brunne's English version of it bears date A. D. in 1303, and both that and his original (but 1303. especially the latter) give a minute and distinct account of the authors of Miracle-plays, their subjects, and the circumstances under which they were usually performed. The following extract is from that division of the poem which relates to the fourthe dedly synne,' where the author is speaking of a clerk of order,' and of the amusements into which he may, or may not be allowed to enter.

Hyt ys forbodet hym yn the decre
Myracles for to make or se;
For myracles, zyf ‡ you bygynne,

Hyt ys a gaderynt, a syght of synne §.

He may yn the cherche, thurgh thys resun,

Pley the resurreccyun ;

* It is not at all clear to whom the authorship of the Manuel de Peché is to be assigned. At the commencement of the translation it is given to Robert Grossetete, who became Bishop of Lincoln in 1235; but at the end of several of the French MSS. it is claimed by William de Windinton, or Wadigton; and the body of the poem contains a story about Grossetete himself, which he would hardly have inserted had he been the writer. It is possible, that the Bishop produced the work under an assumed name. The Editor of Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet., edit. 8vo., is inclined to doubt the pretensions of Grossetete.-See vol. i. P. 62. n. s. + Forbidden.

* If.

§ Robert de Brunne often abridges and paraphrases his original, and these four lines are an instance in point. The French copy charges

+

That ys to seye, how god rose,
God and man yn myght and los *,
To make men be yn beleve gode,
That he ros with flesshe and blode;
And he may pleye wythoutyn plyght †
Howe god was bore yn thole nyght,
To make men to beleve stedfastly
That he lyght yn the vyrgyne Mary.
Zyf thou do hyt in weyys or grenys ‡
A syght of synne truly hyt semys. §

the clergy with being the contrivers or inventors of Miracle-plays, and mentions how they disguised and painted their faces in them :—

'Un autre folie molt apert
'Unt les fous clers contrové,
'Ky sunt miracles apelé.
'Lur faces unt tut deguisez,
"Par viseres li farcenez,

'Ky est defendu en decré;

'Tant est greignur le peché.'

I quote from the Royal MS. 20, B. xiv., which is more full and correct any of the four copies among the Harleian MSS.

than
* Strength and weakness.

Forsan, Condition.

In the introductory matter to The Castle of Perseverance, a MS. Moral in the collection of Hudson Gurney, Esq., M. P., of which more will be said hereafter, the audience is expressly told that the performance will take place on the green.'

'These percell in propyrtes we 'spose us to playe,

'This day sevenenyt be fore you in syth,

Here N is put for the Nomen of the place, which was to be inserted by the person proclaiming the performances.

In 1511, the miracle-play of St. George was acted in a croft, or field at Basingborne, and one shilling was paid for the hire of it on the occasion. See Warton, H. E. P., iv. 152, edit. 8vo.

The argument seems to be, that it is a sight of sin to witness the

He then quotes Seynt Ysodre,' to shew, that those who indulge themselves in these exhibitions forsake

'God and here crystendam

That make swyche † pleyys to any man, 'As myracles:

performance of Miracle-plays of the resurrection or birth of Christ,

on highways or greens,' but that they may be permitted in churches devoted to the service of God. Robert de Brunne here slurs over one of the points of his original, which runs thus:

Cum Jhu Crist, le fiz dé,

Esteit en sepulcre posé,
Et la resurrycciun

Pur plus aver devociun ;

Mes fere foles assemblez

En le rues de citez,

Ou en cemiters apres manger,

Quant venunt les fous plus voluntier.

Tuz dient ky le funt pur ben,

Mes crere ne les plus pur ren.

With reference to the performances in cemeteries, here reprobated, the following is from Warton (H. E. P., ii. 73). ́ As to the religious 'dramas, it was customary to perform this species of play on holy 'festivals in or about churches. In the register of William of Wyke'ham, Bishop of Winchester, under the year 1384, an episcopal in" junction is recited against the exhibition of spectacula in the cemetery ' of his cathedral.' In a note, he cites several other instances of the same kind at other places; but he expresses a doubt as to the nature of these spectacula: had he seen the passage in the Manuel de Peché, where Miracles are expressly called spectacles, his doubt would have been removed. The author of the French original is very particular in stating to what performances he refers:

Álle tho that delyte to se swyche thyng,

'Or hors, or harneys lenyth * partyl,

Yyt have they gylt of here peryl.

'Zyf prest or clerk lene † vestment,

That halwed ys thurgh sacrament,
'More than outher they are to blame;

Of sacrylege they have the fame.'

This proves the practice which prevailed of lending horses, harness, and hallowed vestments from the monasteries, in order to get up Miracle-plays; which, it has been seen, was precisely the case with the performance under the care of Geoffrey at Dunstaple. The author proceeds to attack daunces, karols, somour games,' and concludes this part of the subject with some abuse of minstrels, that yn swyche thyngs delyte hem alle,' love nother god ne goddys hous,' and get their cloth, drink and meat,' by folly ‡.

* Lendeth.

6

6

† Lend.

In an allegorical poem, written early in the fourteenth century, representing life as a pilgrimage, and man as a pilgrim, the hero, in the course of his journey, encounters Satan, and the deadly sins. 'Gladnesse of the world' is represented as a minstrel, who invites the pilgrim to partake his pleasures:

The hero is cast into a sea of trouble in consequence of listening too patiently to the harper, but is rescued by a character called 'God's