while police, armed, were stationed in and as brothers of the same flesh and blood, around the church. The people, indignant | join hands, that our poor downtrodden at the sight, rose in tumult, whereupon fatherland be not assuredly delivered the burgomaster at once sent to Leiden up to tyranny, nor will you, venerable for a detachment of troops to restore or- and gracious lords, recover old rights der, while the pastor of the dragooned and privileges under obedience to the people was cited before a court of justice king, and by striving to maintain your at the Hague on the charge of causing accustomed tranquillity, or bring back the disturbance.* to a State, worn out by prostitution, the bloom of its early prosperity. Let us not be in doubt; God Almighty shall lead both you and us, divinely helping us in our right to the increase of His kingdom in glory." * In the great struggle for independence in the Netherlands, nothing perhaps did more to arouse and sustain the courage of the people than the earnest letters which William of Orange addressed to them from time to time. "Resist, combine " such was the burden of his appeals. "Tis only by the Netherlands that the Netherlands are crushed. Whence has the Duke of Alva the power he boasts ? Whence his ships, supplies, money, weapons, soldiers? From the Netherland people. Why has poor Netherland thus become degenerate and bastard?"† Because its people and its cities had each sought their own interests. Disunited they were all of a different opinion. "L'un veut s'accommoder; l'autre n'en veut faire rien." The result would be as in the fable of the old man and his sons. They would lose all, and wish too late they had remained bound together in unity as the bundle of darts. This is the lesson for the masses in Holland to-day, this is the lesson for the peoples of every country. Let them combine among themselves, and let each united people federate with those in other lands. Resist, combine, and God will give the victory. Such was the faith by which Holland's civil and political rights were won, and such is the lesson of this short study of Rotterdam and the Dutch workers. RICHARD HEATH. From Longman's Magazine. MIRACLE PLAYS. IN the year 1633 the peasants of Oberammergau, a village in Bavaria, being stricken with a pestilence, or, according to another account, threatened with loss of livelihood through a disease of the flax which stopped all the spindles, vowed to God to publicly perform the "Passion of the Saviour" every ten years if their calamities were removed. Thereupon the plague was stayed, and, in fulfilment of the vow, the play was performed until the If," said William, "the little province of Holland can thus hold at bay the power of Spain, what could not all the Nether-end of the last century, when it was prolands-Brabant, Flanders, Friesland, and the rest united?" If the Rotterdam dockers could, when united, conquer by so short a resistance, what could not all the workers in Holland effect by combination? And if those of all Europe were united the whole position of affairs would rapidly tend to a permanent settlement on a just and equitable basis. Toute puissance est faible, à moins que d'être unie. "Therefore, good lords," concluded this • Evangelical Christendom, 1887, pp. 113, 114. hibited by Montgelas, a reforming statesman, who told the peasants that hearing sermons on the Passion was better than parading the Saviour on a stage. But the simple folk secured an audience of the king and pleaded their broken vow, so that the minister's prohibition was repealed on condition that the play was recast to suit modern ideas. In 1811 it was once more performed in the churchyard, and in following decades in the village meadow till 1850, when a permanent theatre was erected. The per formances in 1870 were interrupted by summons of certain of the players Joseph Mair, who took the part of Christ, Franco-German war broke out; but hap to the ranks when the amongst them pily they were all spared to resume their parts in 1871. The performances take place this year at intervals from Whitsuntide to the end of September, and the fact of the Miracle Play, as an acted drama, is to be found in the liturgy of the mass, the symbolic processes in which exhibit a dramatic progression. In the pantomimical element in the gestures of the priest, the epical in the lessons read, the lyrical in the antiphonal singing, and subsequently in the addition of tableaux vivants living pictures of scenes from New Testament history as early as the fifth cen that the play is the lineal, and well-nigh | the mournful cry of the Miserere to the the sole worthy, descendant—for the jubilee of the Gloria in Excelsis. And puppet-shows, the Christmas mummings, both Klein and Ward agree that the germ and other doggerel survivals, are of kindred ancestry-of the curious group of Miracle Plays, Mysteries, and Moralities, which preceded the secular drama in our own and other countries, may give special interest to a brief account of the originals, The materials from which our knowledge of English Miracle Plays, including under this common term plays founded on incidents in the lives of saints and plays founded on Scripture narratives, is de-tury, the way was prepared for the public rived, are fragmentary and scanty com- performance of sacred plays, of which the pared with those extant on the Continent. clergy were the actors and the church was But they are copious enough to make their the scene. digest into a few pages difficult, and there. The plays were originally written in fore any reference to the sacred plays of Latin, then afterwards rendered into Norother countries, notably of France, their man-French to adapt them for exhibition special birthplace and home, whence they before the court, and finally into the vulgar were imported amongst us, probably by tongue for the amusement and instruction French ecclesiastics, must be omitted. of the people, although concerning this There is, however, no essential difference there had been hesitation, for in the British between our English plays and their for- Museum MS. of the Chester Plays it is eign variants. Neither can more than said that the author "was thrice at Rome bare allusion be made to the Moralities, before he could obtain leave of the pope which were of allegorical type, abstract to have them in the English tongue." But qualities being personified, as, e.g., when the happy result of their translation into a play setting forth the goodness of the the vernacular is that they are rich storeLord's Prayer was played in the city of houses of local dialects and customs of the York, in which play all manner of vices time. They are, alike in form and spirit, and sins were held up to scorn, and the for the most part in keeping with the digvirtues were held up to praise.' Some-nity and seriousness of their subjects. times the two species of plays were blended, as when Justice, Mercy, Peace, and Death appear on the stage with his torical characters. Although the early Church extinguished the drama, its new birth was connected with the offices of religion. The origin of the plays, as literary works, is probably to be found in the metrical paraphrases of Scripture, with which quaint and absurd legends were fused, and by which a knowledge of the events recorded in, and of the doctrines deduced from, the Bible was spread among the people. The dramatic element in these metrical versions, of which Cadmon's (temp. vii. cent.) is the oldest, naturally led to their recital with some degree of action, and to their passage into more dramatic form, until the Sacred Play became a recognized agent of popular instruction, and a refreshing diversion to the monastic and conventual life. Hase remarks that from the time of Gregory the Great the mass itself became an almost dramatic celebration of the world-tragedy of Golgotha. It embraced the whole scale of religious emotion, from There is no lack of reverence; the char- That these remained the sole actors for a considerable period is shown by the retention of the stage directions in Latin; but the control of the plays gradually passed into lay hands as their performance was transferred from the churches to the public thoroughfares, when we find the trading guilds, which were also religious fraternities, taking the lead. Each craft undertook the expenses of production of one of the plays of each series, employing lay pens to alter and adapt as occasion demanded, and entrusting both plays and properties, choice of "moste connyng, discrete and able" actors, as well as the rehearsals, to an official. Each guild had fifteenth century. It comprises thirty-two plays, five of which are almost literal cop. ies of corresponding plays in the York manuscript. its patron saint, whose festival day became the occasion for pageants in which a miracle play connected with events in his life was performed, first in the guild-hall and then in the streets. Although there was The feature common to the four series in Catholic England no lack of festivals, is their grouping of the leading events the institution of the feast of Corpus narrated in the Bible into a consecutive Christi by Pope Urban IV. in 1264 gave whole, but with manifold differences, both an impetus to the performance of the in the less important parts and in the proplays. The importance into which that portion of plays based on legends outside festival grew led the guilds to observe it the canonical books. For example, the as a .common feast-day, and to make the popular medieval legend of the "Fall of procession of the symbols of the Mystery Lucifer," which has great prominence of the Incarnation, although independent given to it in the "Cursor Mundi," a of them, the occasion of performing a Northumbrian poem written early in the series of plays, beginning with the "Crea- fourteenth century, and of which Milton tion" and ending with 'Doomsday." makes effective use in "Paradise Lost," Some of the plays, as, e.g., those dealing is the subject of a play in the York and with the Nativity, were performed at their Chester series, but is absent from the appropriate seasons. Actors and audi- Coventry and Towneley. The Coventry ence were astir early, since the entire se- series has no plays founded on the apocries was presented between sunrise and ryphal books of the Old Testament, but sunset; "Euery player," says the mayor has several founded on those of the New of York in his proclamation, "shall be redy Testament; whilst in the Chester series, in his pagiaunt at convenyant tyme, that only one play, based on the legend of is to say, at the mydhowre betwix iiijth and Christ's Descent into Hell, has its source vth of the cloke in the mornynge, and then in the apocryphal writings. all over pageantz fast following ilk one after oyer as yer course is without tarieng." The records of the plays, of which performances took place in all parts of England, show that they were assigned as nearly as possible in harmony with the business of the crafts. Thus we find that the Shipwrights played the "Building of the Ark;" the "Fysshers and Marynars (at Chester, the water-carriers), "the Flood; " the Goldsmiths, the "Adoration of the Magi; " the Vintners, the "Miracle of Cana; "the Bakers, the "Last Sup per; and the Pinners and Painters, the "Crucifixion." As hinted already, when the plays were rendered into the vulgar tongue, a good many extraneous elements were introduced according to the skill and humor of the transcribing adapter, and according to the audience whose appetite had to be whetted. Thus the Chester "Banes" (a word retained in our marriage bans or banns) tell how Done Rondall, "monke of the Abay,”. In pagentes set fourth apparently to all eyne, The Olde and Neue Testament with livelye comforth, Interminglinge therewith, oncly to make sporte, Some thinges not warranted by any writt, Which to gladd the hearers he woulde men to take yt. With the exception of a few isolated specimens, most of which have been printed, the English Miracle Plays are comprised in four series, known respectively In the Miracle Play of "St. Nicholas," as the York, the Chester, the Coventry, written by Hilarius, an English monk of and the Towneley. The York series con- the twelfth century, the conversation of sists of forty-eight plays, written in north-pot-house gamblers is the mirth-provoking ern English dialect, and the manuscript, which is doubtless a copy of a much older original, is assigned to the middle of the fourteenth century. The Chester series, which contains twenty-five plays, has been assigned to the middle of the thirteenth century, but experts now place it at the 'end of the fourteenth century. The age of the Coventry series, comprising fortytwo plays, is fixed by the date 1468 on the manuscript; and the Towneley series, which has much in common with the York collection, is referred to the close of the VOL. LXX. 3616 LIVING AGE. incident. In a yet earlier play, by the nun Hrosvitha, the persecutor of three virgin martyrs is represented as stricken with madness, and as embracing dripping-pans and all kinds of cooking utensils, till his own soldiers, taking him for a devil, maltreat him. In the Towneley series, Cain brawls and bullies his hind like a coarse Yorkshire farmer; Noah's wife (as also in the York and Chester series) is a termagant, and the quarrels between the couple are full of comic dialogue. In the play of the "Angels and the Shepherds," where 4d. Pilate has as much as 4s., his wife (Dame Procula) 2s., the Devil and Judas is. 6d. each. Peter was paid Is. 4d., the two damsels 12d., while Fauston, the hangman of Judas, receives 5d., and for cockcrowing, 4d. As in the case of the earliest recorded performance of a Miracle Play, "Ludus de St. Katharina," at Dunstable, about 1110, when the players borrowed their dresses from the sacristan of St. Albans, ecclesiastical vestments were obtained from the abbeys and churches for the use of the actors of sacerdotal characters. Ultimately the clergy refused to lend their vestments to the guilds, who were obliged to provide the costumes and "properties," the poorer fraternities hiring the pageants of the wealthier or receiving help from them. Sharp says that "in 1548 the Cappers received 3s. 4d. from the Whittawer's Company for the hyer of our pageand,'" years the Card-makers and Sadlers contributed 13s. 4d. annually to the Cappers towards their pageant " (Coventry Mys. teries, pp. 45, 48). From the same authority we cull the following extracts from the guild registers of expenditure: the materials are slender, advantage is seized on to introduce abundance of rustic realism. In the York series Judas is ridiculed by a porter; Pilate outwits a squire, who sells a plot of land for thirty pieces of silver paid to the traitor, and who gives up the deeds without securing the money. In many of the plays in which the devil is a character he appears only to be laughed at. The anachronisms and classical allusions are amusing, as when Noah's wife swears by Christ, by the Virgin Mary, and by St. John; Pharaoh and Cæsar Augustus by "Mahoune," and Balak by Mars; when Herod asks his council what they find "in Vyrgyll, in Homere," concerning the birth of Christ, and promises to make one of his councillors pope; and when the Sibyl prophesies before Octavius of Jesus and the Judgment. Touches of current life and usage here and there stand out amid the ancient story; the carpenter's tools and measurements and "in 1574 and for some subsequent used by Noah, as well as those employed at the Crucifixion; the bitter-cold weather at the Nativity, telling of a truly northern Christmas; the quaint offerings of the shepherds when they repair to " Bedleme" to give the divine babe a "lytylle spruse cofer," a ball, and a bottle; the ruin of the poor by murrain; the drinking between Pilate and his wife; the excellent representation of a heavy manual job by a set of rough workmen in the Crucifixion. Illustrative, too, of English customs and forms of justice are the borrowing of the town beast; Judas offering himself as bondman in his remorse; the mortgage of a property, raising money by "weddesette or pledge; and the trial scene in certain plays, in which Pilate "in Parlament playne" vindicates the course of law in a way that would commend itself to the learned author of "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," and puts down the malice of the accuser, Caiaphas, and the pursuer, Annas (cf. York Mystery Plays, Introd. by Miss Toulmin Smith, lvii.). The account-books of the several guilds show that the actors were paid according to the length of their parts and "business," not according to their dignity. Thus, in a play setting forth the Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus, the impersonators of Herod and Caiaphas received 3s. 4d. each, of Annas 25, 2d., and of Jesus 2s.; which was also the sum paid to each actor in the parts of his executioners. The tariff varies for acting the character of God; sometimes it is 2s., at other times, as in the Drapers' Pageant of "Doomsday " at Coventry, "hym that playeth Goddes parte ” had 3s. | Itm for mendyng of dame P'cula's garments. Grimesby) for lendyng off her geir ffor Py7d. To reward to Maisturres Grymesby (Mrs. latt's wyfe, 12d. Pd. for V schepskens for god's coot, and for makyng, 3s. Pd. for a gyrdyll for god, 3d. Pd. for payntyng and gyldyng god's cote... Itm for a quarte of wyne for heyrynge of P'cula is goune, 2d. Itm For makyng spret of god's cote and 2% yards of bokeram, 2s. Id. Christ was represented as wearing a gilt peruke or beard, a painted sheepskin coat, a girdle, and red sandals. His tormentors wore black buckrám jackets with nails and dice on them. The Virgin Mary wore a crown; the angels had white surplices and wings; the "savyd sowles " wore white coats; and the "dampnyd sowles had their faces blackened and wore black coats, sometimes with red and yellow stripes on them to represent flames. In accordance with the popular belief, the color of Judas's hair and beard was red, as also was the beard of the devil. He was furnished with wings, sprouting from a black buckram or leathern dress trimmed with feathers and hair, and with claws for the hands and feet. Items of outlay, as of 8d. to "Wattis for dressyng of the devell's hede," show that some pains were bestowed on the head-gear. But the heaviest expense was incurred over the dress and appointments of Herod, who | given to the dialogue, as when Isaac, see wore a gilt and silvered helmet, and was ing his father dumb with grief, says: — attired like a Saracen, his face being cov ered by a mask, as shown by the item, payd to a peynter for peyntyng and mendyng of herodes heed, 4d." 66 The Cornish plays were performed within stone circles, but elsewhere the stage was erected on fixed scaffolding, or more often, as the term pageant indicates -a term which became applied to the plays themselves it was borne upon a vehicle, and thus conveyed to the different parts of the town. It had an upper and a lower division, the lower being the dressing-room and sometimes used to represent the nether world, while the upper division was the main stage, "beinge all open on the tope that all behoulders might heare and see. The scenery was painted or modelled, the names of places being af fixed at the back of the stage. The actors appeared on the "boards " together, and Fayre fadyr, ye go ryght stelle, I pray you, fadyr, speke unto me. In the "Processus Noe cum Filiis " (the Hast thou not herd, quod Nicholas also, The sorwe of Noe with his felawship, Or that he mighte get his wife to ship? were treated as invisible until their turn to speak came. The plays, where neces- But the drollest incident in all the series sary, as in that of the "Adoration of is that in the second Towneley play of the the Shepherds," had musical accompani- Shepherds (Secunda Pastorum), when the ments; one "Jhon " was paid "4d. to watchers of their flocks are joined by one synge the basse,” and we find an item of Mak, whom they suspect as a sheep7d. for mendynge the trumpets." Lights stealer. To keep guard on him, they were also used for the Star of Bethlehem make him lie between them, but he conand for the night scene of the Betrayal. trives, while they are sleeping, to slink off Pots and kettles were banged when the with a sheep on his back. When he devil carried off souls to hell; thunder reaches home his wife suggests that they volleyed during the play of the "Trans-pop the sheep in a cradle, she feigning figuration;" and among the larger items is 3s. 4d. for a baryll for the yerthequake." But "Hellmouthe was costlier than the barrel, and must have been the "sensation" of the pageants. As contemporary pictures show, it was a fiery-eyed, dragonshaped head, with jaws opening and shutting by means of a windlass, and leading to a murky cavern, either with real fire within or with imitation flames, and filled with a yelling horde of demons tormenting the shrieking damned. 66 Among the items of outlay thereon are: payd for payntyng and makyng newe of hell-hede, 14d.; for kepyng of fyer at hellmothe, 4d.; for setting the world of fyre, 5d.; for kepyng the wynd (windlass) 6d.; paid to ij wormes of conscience, 16d." lying-in. Mak returns to the shepherds Gyf me lefe hym to kys and lyft up the clowtt. Secundus Pastor. The plays themselves, in their alternations of pathos and humor, often broadening into farce, are, on the whole, far from tedious, and, as far as their archaisms He is lyke to oure shepe. are concerned, not difficult to read. Abraham's Sacrifice" the dramatist presents with skill the struggle between fatherly love and submission to the Divine command; touches of tenderness are 66 In Tertius Pastor. Wylle ye se how thay swedylle |