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diff --git a/old/65860-0.txt b/old/65860-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index fbbd688..0000000 --- a/old/65860-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3951 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Old Miracle Plays of England, by -Netta Syrett - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Old Miracle Plays of England - -Author: Netta Syrett - -Illustrator: Helen Thorp - -Release Date: July 17, 2021 [eBook #65860] - -Language: English - -Produced by: MWS, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD MIRACLE PLAYS OF -ENGLAND *** - - - - - - _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ - - THE STORY OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA - - With twelve illustrations in half-tone, and frontispiece in colours. - - 2/6 net. - -Miss Syrett writes with a remarkable freshness and deftness of touch -which will appeal to readers of all ages, but especially to the young -reader. For the story as she tells it has the colour and joy of a fairy -tale—and yet is true; and the delicate reserve shown in dealing with the -religious side of the narrative adds to its impressiveness. - - A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd. - London and Oxford - - [Illustration: Entrance of the Magi. [Page 83].] - - - - - THE - OLD MIRACLE PLAYS - OF ENGLAND - - - By NETTA SYRETT - _AUTHOR OF - “THE STORY OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA”_ - - WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS FROM WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS BY - HELEN THORP - - - A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd. - London: 28 Margaret Street, Oxford Circus, W. - Oxford: 9 High Street - The Young Churchman Co., Milwaukee - - - First impression, 1911 - - - - - PREFACE - - -In the hope of bringing the actual presentment of Mediaeval Miracle -Plays more vividly before the minds of children, I have cast information -concerning them into the form of a story. But, while this method of -dealing with the plays may prove to the childish reader more interesting -and palatable than a mere summary of what is known concerning them, it -leads to certain liberties difficult to avoid in fiction. - -It seemed, to take an example, in some ways more convenient to lay the -scene of the little story in York. Yet many of the Wakefield and -Coventry plays lend themselves to description better than those of the -York series. However, when in the course of the tale I have made use of -an alien play, I have taken care to mention the fact, and to invent a -reason (plausible enough, I trust, in a story) for its performance at -York. - -Again, the stage directions for some of these old plays are so vague -that the precise manner of their presentment must be left to individual -imagination and common sense. In a story there is no room for tentative -speculations, nor for suggested alternative treatments; and this being -the case, I trust I may be forgiven if occasionally I handle my material -over-confidently. This explanation is offered to older students, to -whom, simple as it is, my little summary, compiled from the recognized -authorities on the subject of miracle plays, may yet be of some value. -In writing it I found most helpful and delightful Mr. Sidney W. Clarke’s -book, _The Miracle Play in England_, and, written by Mr. Ernest Rhys, -the preface to _Everyman_, in Everyman’s Library. To both these -gentlemen my thanks are specially due. - - N. S. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAP. PAGE - I. Introduction 1 - II. How Colin and Margery kept the Feast of Corpus Christi 17 - III. The Creation of the Angels, and the Fall of Lucifer 23 - IV. The Making of Sun, Moon and Stars: of Birds, Beasts, and - Fishes: of Man and Woman. The Garden of Eden 35 - V. Noah’s Ark 44 - VI. The Story of Abraham and of Isaac 56 - VII. The Shepherds’ Play 67 - VIII. King Herod, the Wise Men, and the Massacre of the Innocents 77 - IX. At the End of the Day 91 - X. Everyman 99 - - - - - THE OLD MIRACLE PLAYS OF ENGLAND - - - - - I - INTRODUCTION - - -Of all the delightful games which children play in the nursery or in the -schoolroom, perhaps the favourite one is dressing-up, and acting. And of -all the Christmas treats, perhaps the best is going to the -theatre—either to the pantomime or to one of the fairy plays which -fortunate children can now enjoy. - -There are grown-up people too who never get tired of dressing-up and -acting, nor of going to the theatre to see other people act. It is a -taste which is shared by children and grown-up people alike. And it has -always been so. Long, long ago, when all the people in the world were -savage, there is no doubt that little naked children picked up their -fathers’ spears, and bows and arrows (or made smaller ones in imitation -of them), and “acted” the hunting of animals or the killing of enemies, -while their parents looked on, pleased and interested by the -performance. - -Thousands of years have passed since the first “acting” took place on -some lonely beach, perhaps, or in a clearing of the forest where savage -children played; and now in all our big towns we have big houses -specially built for acting, and there are many men and women who spend -most of their time either in writing plays or in learning and acting -them. - -Every evening in London hundreds of cabs and motor-cars stop before some -brilliantly lighted theatre to set down people who have come to see one -of the many plays performed night after night in this great city. And -seven hundred years ago people also crowded to see plays in London, -though it was a very different London then, and a very different -building at which they arrived. - -Instead of ladies in evening gowns, and gentlemen all dressed alike in -black coats, stepping out of cabs and motor-cars to walk across a -pavement to the theatre door, you would have seen, on certain days long -ago, a curiously dressed crowd of men, women, and children, some on -horseback, some on foot, all pressing in one direction. There would be -barefooted monks, soldiers with breastplates and helmets of steel, nuns -with white caps and veils, little boys with long stockings, one red, one -green perhaps, and short tunics belted at the waist; ladies with full -flowing robes and strange head-dresses, some pointed like a sugar-loaf, -some with veils arranged over a frame in the shape of two horns. And all -these people in their quaint and varying costumes would be threading -their way through narrow, dirty streets, like lanes, between overhanging -houses, till they stopped—not before a big lighted house with playbills -outside, and a marble hall and gilded ceiling with doors leading to the -theatre within—but in front of the great gates of a church, and that -church might have been Westminster Abbey. For there the play they had -come to see was to be performed! - -Strange as it may seem to us now, the first theatres in England were the -churches, and, as you may guess, the first plays to be acted were -religious plays. - -Let us try to understand the reason for this. You remember that William -I conquered England in 1066—eight hundred years ago. Well, from the time -that he and his followers came to this country the English race has been -gradually growing into the nation to which we belong and into the sort -of people we see round us every day. Even the very poorest English -children nowadays go to school and can read and write. Children whose -parents are not so poor learn much besides reading and writing, and -thousands of the sons and daughters of rich or fairly well-to-do people -go to college, and spend years of their life in study. So that now, in -the twentieth century, English people are on the whole _educated_. But -it has taken a very long time to arrive at such a state of things as -this, and for hundreds of years after the Conquest, not only the poor, -but even the richer and quite rich people were ignorant. Very few men -except those who belonged to the Church studied at all. Thousands of the -rest could neither read nor write. - -Now very naturally the Church considered that _religion_ at least must -in some way be taught and explained to these masses of ignorant folk. -Whatever else they knew, or did not know, it was necessary that they -should understand the faith they professed. They called themselves -Christians, yet how were people who could not read, to learn even the -Bible stories, or anything at all about the teaching of Christ? - -“They might go to the churches,” you will say, perhaps, “where the Bible -would be read to them by the priests.” But _that_ would not do. For -remember that for hundreds of years after the Conquest the service was -always read in Latin, a language which very few people except lawyers, -priests, and scholars understood. No doubt, so far as they could, the -clergy privately explained the teaching of the Church to as many people -as they could reach. But thousands and thousands of them were never -reached privately at all. They just came to church on Sundays and on -Saints’ days, and went away without any real knowledge of what the -services meant. - -It was a difficult problem, yet the monks and clergy conquered it. They -thought of a way of teaching for which no books were necessary. A way -moreover, by which hundreds of people could learn at the same time, -merely by using their eyes and their ears. The life of Christ, the lives -of the Saints, the whole Bible history, they discovered, could be -_shown_ to the people in the form of plays or acted stories. The clergy -should write the plays, they agreed, and the clergy themselves should -act them! - -It was a clever idea, cleverly carried out. In various monasteries monks -began to write and to arrange such plays, to be acted in the churches on -special days, at special pauses in the service. - -At first the religious scenes they prepared were very simple, and -performed chiefly in dumb show. - -We know, for instance, of one little play that was acted about eight -hundred years ago in a church dedicated to S. Nicholas. - -Now the priests of that church were naturally anxious for the people in -their charge to know as much as possible about the saint—their own -special saint, whose name they mentioned every time they spoke of the -church. - -On the feast day of S. Nicholas therefore, before the service began, -they removed from its niche the stone image of the saint, and in its -place a priest stood, dressed as much like the statue as possible. - -That was the beginning of the story. The rest had to be explained by -acting. Not only was S. Nicholas the special saint of children, he was -also the protector of travellers, and the play was meant to show how -powerful he was in this respect, and what miracles he could work for -those who put their trust in him. - -The usual service was begun, and then, at a stated time, a pause was -made. The church doors were thrown open, and a priest dressed as a -traveller from a distant land, came in and bowed before the shrine of S. -Nicholas. The priest represented a heathen who had heard of the saint’s -power, and wanted to discover whether all he had been told was true. His -flowing robes and his jewelled turban showed the audience that he came -from a foreign land, and was not a Christian. Presently, from the folds -of his robe, this man took a rich treasure, and placing it at the feet -of the saint, told him that he was going on a journey, and prayed him to -guard the wealth he left in his keeping. Then he went his way out of the -church. - -But no sooner had he departed, than other priests dressed as robbers, -crept in, and stealing up to the shrine, took the treasure and hurried -away with their booty. Meanwhile, the heathen, who felt uneasy about -leaving his wealth in the saint’s care, returned to make quite sure of -its safety and finding the treasure gone, began to storm and rave. He -was proceeding to beat and insult the image, when to his amazement it -moved! Stepping down from the niche, it went out to seek the robbers who -were hidden just outside the church. So terrified were they at the -approach of a living saint when as they thought, only a statue had -watched their theft, that they immediately restored the treasure, and -tremblingly followed S. Nicholas into the church. The heathen, overjoyed -and full of awe and wonder, fell at the saint’s feet. Then S. Nicholas -bade him become a Christian, and worship the true God. - -So the play ended, and the interrupted service went on. - -Simple as it was, the little scene no doubt persuaded the congregation -that S. Nicholas was a great and powerful personage, and the impression -it made upon them was one they were not likely to forget, because of the -strange and interesting manner in which the lesson was taught. - -This is the first play we know anything about, but we may guess that -others more or less like it, began to be very popular, for we find from -old books—books written hundreds of years ago, that twice a year at -least, at Christmas and at Easter, the people were taught by means of -acting, two of the greatest events in the life of Christ. - -Let us try to imagine a Christmas Eve in Westminster Abbey, long ago, -when Henry III was king. The Abbey was not nearly so large then as it is -to-day, for much of it has been built since. Yet the central part was -finished, and six hundred years ago people looked up at some of the same -soaring arches, and leant against some of the same pillars as those we -now see in the beautiful church. - -The Abbey bells had been ringing for a long time, calling the Londoners -from their homes, and from the crooked narrow lanes of the city, through -the gates in the walls which then surrounded Westminster, there had come -flocking to the church a great crowd of gentle and simple folk. There -were merchants and shopkeepers, wearing hoods like jelly-bags with their -long points dangling at the back; ladies with strange fantastic -head-dresses; poor women and children muffled in cloaks; soldiers, -nobles, and monks of various orders. Some of them stood thronging the -aisles, others knelt on stools, or beside wooden benches. - -The church was dark and mysterious. Only on the altars, candles blazed -like golden stars, and above them the arches rose stretching up into the -gloom overhead. The air was full of a sweet heavy scent—the scent of -incense. - -Near the altar, surrounded by gleaming lights, the people could see a -rough cradle shaped like a manger, and beside it, dressed in long robes, -an image of the Virgin Mary. - -Then from the side-doors leading to the space about the altar, there -entered, in twos and threes, men dressed as shepherds, holding crooks, -and driving before them real sheep. They were followed by dogs, who kept -the flock together, running round them, and ordering them in the -wonderful way of sheep-dogs. Some of the shepherds lay down as though to -sleep. Others watched their flock, wide awake and talking amongst -themselves. - -Suddenly, while interested and curious the congregation looked on, a -blast of trumpets rang out, and before the startling sound had died -away, echoing through the aisles and the arches, an angel in a robe of -rose colour, with big white wings, appeared in the pulpit. Very sweet -and clear his voice sounded as he announced tidings of great joy. -_Christ was born in Bethlehem._ - -Then, somewhere from the darkness above, there followed, in a burst of -song, the voices of the angels. - -“Glory to God in the highest,” they sang, “and on earth, peace, good -will toward men.” - -Can you not imagine how the children gazed up through the gloom, -expecting to see the white-winged angels hovering down towards them? And -though the grown-up people knew that the music came from the singing -boys placed in a gallery high up over the windows, they too must have -felt that the message was a heavenly one, and many of them were filled -with awe. And now, when the beautiful voices were silent, the shepherds -began to crowd towards the altar. There, kneeling before the manger, -they adored the Baby and His Mother, and afterwards, walking in -procession through the church, past the watching crowd, they sang a hymn -of praise. - -This was the scene which in numberless churches all over England took -place six hundred years ago on Christmas Eve, and even now a memory of -it dwells at Christmas-time in many churches. - -Nearly every church in Roman Catholic countries gives up one of its -little chapels to a representation of the stable at Bethlehem. The -actors are no longer real, but figures of Joseph and Mary and the -shepherds take their place. - -In Italy, the Christmas “manger scene” in the churches is often very -elaborate. I remember one in a church just outside Florence, before -which there was always a crowd of little children staring in delight. -The whole of a tiny chapel was turned into a sort of cave or grotto, -with winding paths from the heights, down which came figures to -represent the Wise Men from the East, with toy camels and leopards -following them. In the midst of the grotto there was a straw-filled -manger, and in it lay the Baby Jesus. The Virgin Mary with clasped hands -knelt beside it, and Joseph, leaning on his staff, looked over her -shoulder at the Child. A group of shepherds with crooks knelt near the -Holy Family, while their woolly toy flocks were huddled round them. - -At Easter-time also, six hundred years ago, the people in England were -taught by means of acting that _Easter_ means the Resurrection of Christ -from the dead. - -Before the altar, a grave was prepared, and at a certain part of the -service, choristers, representing the women who went to the sepulchre, -walked up the aisle, bearing the spices and the ointments. When they -arrived at the grave, they found seated beside it an angel, who said, -“Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.” - -Then the story as it is told in the Bible went on, acted by the clergy, -till one of them, representing Christ Himself, appeared to the rest, -announcing that He had risen from the grave. At this point the whole -choir burst into songs of “Alleluia,” and the play ended. - -Like the “manger scene,” a memory of this old play persists in some -religious customs which still linger. In Italy, if you go to any of the -churches just before Easter, you will see in front of one of the altars -something that looks like a little garden of flowers. There are tubs of -blossoming shrubs; masses of tulips and daffodils and anemones, some in -pots, some in jars of water, and amongst the flowers you will find, cut -in wood perhaps, and painted to look as real as possible, the spear, the -nails, the cross—all the terrible things that were used at the -Crucifixion. And this little “arranged” plot of colour and scent is -called _The Sepulchre_. The Easter play is acted no more, but it is a -beautiful thought to make a _garden_ in memory of it, to show that death -is conquered. For the “sepulchre” holds not death, but life—the lovely -life of flowers. - -This, you see, is another way of teaching people the meaning of the -Resurrection. - - -The first plays, then, were religious plays, and they were acted in -churches. But soon they grew so popular, and so many people crowded to -see them, that the churches were not large enough to contain the throng, -and by degrees the custom grew up of acting them _outside_ the church, -so that they might be seen by a much larger audience than the building -itself could hold. - -From a very old play in which stage directions are given, we are able to -understand how the performance was arranged. The story of this play is -The Disobedience of Eve, and the loss of Paradise through her sin. - -Just below one of the windows of the church, supported by scaffolding, a -platform was put up. From this platform, steps led to a lower stage, and -there was a space between this under platform and the ground. - -Thus the church itself stood for Heaven. The first platform was -Paradise, the second Earth, and the space beneath it, Hell. So that when -God the Father descended from Heaven to walk in the garden of Paradise -“in the cool of the day,” the priest who represented Him, came from the -church window to the “Paradise” platform. And when Adam and Eve, having -tasted of the fruit, were driven out of the garden, they descended the -steps to the “Earth” stage, and at last to the space below which meant -Hell, where in the midst of clouds of smoke, and with great rattling of -chains, boys dressed as demons lay in wait for them. - -A play such as this must have been a quaint and curious sight, and to us -who live so many years after the people who gazed at it from some -churchyard long ago, it seems childish and even occasionally horrible. -But we are in many ways unlike those homely folk who used to stand -open-mouthed in amazement before such a scene. We have read many books, -and our ideas about religion have changed so much that it is difficult -to imagine how greatly acting, even of this sort, must have impressed -the simple minds of men and women who had read nothing, and were often -full of fears and superstitions. They were like little children who have -to be taught in a way that will fix and hold their attention. Just as a -tiny boy or girl is taught its letters with bright and highly coloured -picture-blocks. - -So far we have seen how these religious plays were at first acted in -churches, then came to be performed outside them. Now we shall discover -that a further change was presently to be made. As the years passed, -people began to expect more and more in the way of acting. They wanted -richer dresses for the players, more scenery, and bigger spaces for the -performances. Far from getting tired of these theatrical performances, -the taste for them grew, and greater and still greater throngs pressed -towards the churchyards every time a play was announced. You will -understand how disorder arose, and spread. Rough crowds spoilt the grass -in the churchyards, and trampled upon the graves, for the plays began to -be looked upon as amusements for a holiday, rather than as religious -ceremonies to be watched quietly and with reverence. So in time it was -felt that a churchyard was not a fit place for a boisterous throng. It -was too near the sacred building, which the people profaned with their -noise. - -Yet if the plays were removed from the surroundings of the church, it no -longer seemed fitting that priests should take part in them. Thus it -happened that by the end of the thirteenth century, about the time when -Edward I was king, the clergy had left off acting, except at -Christmas-time and at Easter, when, as usual, the Nativity scene, and -the scene of the Resurrection were performed in the churches. Every -other sort of religious play was henceforward acted by the _laity_ (that -is, by people who, whatever they may be by trade or profession, are not -clergy). So a class of men grew up who were paid for acting, and often -gained their living in this way alone; and though the plays they acted -were still religious plays, the cost of them was borne by rich people, -and they were by degrees made into grand performances, as we shall see. - -All through those years which are known as the Middle Ages it was the -custom for men who belonged to the same trade to form themselves into a -society, or _guild_ as it was called, to protect and help one another in -their own particular work. Each trade had its own guild, and its own -special saint as guardian. There was the Tanners’ Guild, the -Fishmongers’, the Carpenters’, the Armourers’, the Bakers’, and so -forth—too many of them to mention. Now many of these guilds in the -course of time had become very rich societies, and could afford to spend -a great deal of money upon anything that interested them. Plays -interested all the townsfolk immensely, and so even before the clergy -had quite left off acting in them, the guilds began to take the -management of these plays into their charge, paying the actors, -providing rich and costly dresses, such scenery as could in those days -be made, and everything in fact that is known as “stage property.” - -The priests still _wrote_ the stories, but the acting and the whole -management of them passed into the care of the rich guilds. - -_Miracle plays_ was the name given to these religious “acted stories,” -and very fortunately, four sets of Miracle plays have been found and -preserved, so that we can read the very words spoken by actors long ago -to audiences of eager and interested people. - -These four sets are the York, Wakefield, Chester, and Coventry plays. -Each “set” includes a great many plays—in the York collection, for -instance, there are forty-eight—and year after year from the reign of -Edward III to the time of Henry VII they were acted at the four towns -mentioned. Not in these towns alone either, but all over England; for if -a city had no plays of its own it borrowed one of the York, Chester, -Wakefield, or Coventry set. - -If we look at the York collection of Miracle plays, it will do as an -example of the rest. We find that it begins with the _Story of the -Creation of the World_, and all the chief stories of the Old and New -Testament follow in proper order. So that, even if he could not read, -any one who saw the whole series one after the other, would have a very -good idea of all the teaching of the Bible. - -Now let us in thought go back to the Middle Ages, and try to picture the -scene in some old market-place, soon after Whitsuntide, the time when -Miracle plays were generally acted. To help us to do this, let us -imagine how the sight of them impressed two out of the thousands of -children who with their parents went to see these plays. - - - - - II - How Colin and Margery kept the Feast of Corpus Christi - - -Colin and Margery were two children who, five hundred years ago, lived -in the country, not far from York. Their father, who had a little farm, -held his land from the great lord whose castle with its battlements and -turrets stood up proudly on a neighbouring hill, and sometimes the -children had seen him when, with a great company of followers, he went -hawking, and rode past their cottage. - -Now, except for the Lady Alicia, her young children, and a few -retainers, the castle stood empty. Its lord, with all his men-at-arms, -had gone to fight in the wars with France, for Henry V was king, and, -not content with ruling England, he wanted to be King of France as well. - -The children’s father, Farmer Short, was not rich, but neither was he -very poor. The cottage in which he lived with his wife and his little -son and daughter was in those days considered comfortable. - -It was built of stone, had low walls and a thatched roof, and the -kitchen, in which Colin and Margery slept, was paved with stone, and had -a wooden ceiling, which Farmer Short could easily touch with his hand. - -Neither Colin nor Margery went to school. There was no school nearer -than York, some miles distant; and though Margery was nine and Colin -ten, they did not even know their letters, and all their lives they -never learnt to read. But without going to school there was plenty to do -all day long. Colin had to look after the cows and to help his father in -the fields; and every morning, besides learning to help her mother in -the house, Margery was sent out on to the common to watch the geese, and -to drive them back if they strayed too far. - -One June evening both the children went to bed in a state of great -excitement. The next day was the Feast of Corpus Christi—a festival in -honour of the Lord’s Supper—and with their father and mother they were -to ride into York to see the Miracle plays. The last time they were in -church they had smiled at one another when they found it was Trinity -Sunday, because they knew that Corpus Christi would come on the -following Thursday, four days later. Now the great day was close at -hand, and, though they lay down on the little sacks of straw which -served them for beds, it was a long time before either of them slept. -Colin had once seen the plays, and his sister kept asking him questions -about them. What were they like? What did the people do? What did they -say? But Colin’s explanations did not satisfy her. He remembered a big -man dressed in bright clothes, who stamped and made a great noise, and -had a sword. He told her about angels with great white wings, and -something also about people with black faces and feathers and claws. But -Margery was very little the wiser; and presently, when she found her -brother’s voice growing drowsier and drowsier, she too curled round on -her straw bed and went to sleep. - -It was light when she awoke, though the sun had not yet risen; and, -jumping up, she shook Colin, who directly he could be made to understand -that the day had come, also leaped from his bed and began to struggle -with the great bars of the kitchen-door. Just as he managed to undo them -and to throw open the door to make quite certain that the morning was -fine, his mother, Mistress Short, came clattering down the steps that -led from the upper room right into the kitchen. - -She wore all her best things. A gown of grey material was looped high -over a girdle to show her red stockings and her buckled shoes. On her -head there was a white cap, indented over the forehead, and rising into -two wings on either side, while folds of linen were brought round her -neck under her chin. Over her arm she carried the children’s holiday -clothes, for this was a great occasion. The whole family was to spend -the day at the house of her husband’s sister, Mistress Harpham, a rich -glover’s wife in York, and Mistress Short was determined to make a good -appearance. - -Colin and Margery were soon dressed, and if no idea of much washing -occurred to them, you must remember that they lived hundreds of years -ago, when soap and water were not considered so necessary as they are -now. They dipped their heads indeed, into a trough of water in the -farmyard just outside, and rubbing their faces with a cloth, were ready -to have the finishing-touches put to their clothes. In his long -stockings and little brown tunic, Colin looked quite charming, and -Margery was very proud of her green frock looped up over a girdle like -her mother’s. Both children wore little capes of linen, to which a hood -was attached, to be buttoned under the chin or left hanging, according -to the state of the weather. - -Their mother had prepared a meal of cakes and ale, but they were almost -too excited to eat and drink, and it was not till their father, who had -gone to fetch the horses, appeared, riding on Dobbin and leading Jock, -that they could believe they were really going to start. - -Margery was soon seated in front of her father on Dobbin’s broad saddle, -and Colin rode with his mother on Jock, the other farm-horse; and so, -long before the sun rose, they ambled out of the yard into a lane which -led to the high road to York. - -The sky was clear, the larks were singing, and the wild roses in the -hedges were all wet with dew, as they rode under the arching trees. -Soon, however, they turned into the long white road, where already -groups of people, some on foot, some on horseback, others in wooden -carts, were wending their way to the city, whose walls and gates could -be seen in the distance. - -Before long they were joined by several friends, and a company of ten or -twelve jogged along together, discussing the probable events of the day. - -You might find it difficult to understand their conversation if you -could hear it now, for though these country people of course spoke -English, it was not the English of to-day. Though many of the words were -those we know well, there were others which have since fallen out of -use, or are pronounced differently; so if I put their talk into the -language to which we are accustomed, you must remember that though the -sense of it is the same, it was not spoken in just this way. - -“Whereabouts does the first play begin?” asked Farmer Short, who had not -been to the city for a whole year. - -“At the gates of the priory in Mikelgate,” said the man who rode next to -him. - -Master Brigg was a townsman on a visit to his country relations, with -whom he was journeying. - -“Next, at the door of Robert Harpham,” he went on. “Then at Skeldergate -End. After that, I don’t know. I’ve forgotten.” - -Colin pricked up his ears. - -“We shan’t have to wait long,” he whispered, leaning across to Margery. -“Aunt Harpham lives close to Mikelgate.” - -“And who plays the _Creation_ this year?” his father was asking. - -“The Plasterers,” replied Master Brigg. - -“And _Adam and Eve_?” - -“That I forget. But the Glovers have charge of _Cain and Abel_, and the -Shipwrights this year are giving _The Building of the Ark_.” - -“A good thought! ’Tis the best play for shipwrights!” declared the -farmer, laughing. “I’ll be bound they’ll see it built well and truly. -What of _The Shepherds’ Play_?” - -“The Chandlers have the care of that, and the Goldsmiths of _The Coming -of the Three Kings to Herod_.” - -“That’s the man I told you about,” cried Colin. “The man that stamped, -and talked loud, and had a sword.” - -“Oh, look!” interrupted Margery, excitedly. “We are coming quite close! -We shall soon be there!” And indeed, while they talked, the little -company had drawn near to the city, whose walls and frowning gates rose -up before them. In a very few minutes they had clattered under the -archway of Petergate, and the children found themselves in the city. - - - - - III - The Creation of the Angels, and the Fall of Lucifer - - -Margery, who had never been to any big town before, looked about her -with delight and amazement as they rode towards the inn where Dobbin and -Jock were to be left in the stables till the evening. The narrow streets -were paved with cobble-stones, and lined with houses which compared with -the little cottage at home, seemed to her marvellously grand and -imposing. They were built of plaster and timber, with gables curiously -carved, and as in many of them each story projected beyond the lower -one, the top windows on either side of the streets were close together, -so that opposite neighbours were near enough to shake hands. There was -such a crowd that the horses had to walk very slowly, pushing their way -amongst the people. Early as it still was, the whole city seemed to be -awake and astir, and the noise was deafening. Carts clattered over the -rough stones, their drivers shouting to the throng to make way. Boys -whistled and screamed, whips cracked; mothers called to their children -to keep close, and the whole crowd seemed to be moving in one direction. - -“They are going to Mikelgate; that’s where the first play begins,” -called Colin, looking back over his shoulder. “Oh, father, make haste! -We shall be late.” - -“Plenty o’ time! plenty o’ time!” declared Farmer Short. “Here we turn -in, at the sign of the ‘Dragon.’ Pull Jock’s head round, mother!” - -They had now reached an archway, and following a procession of other -horses and carts, they soon found themselves in the big courtyard of the -inn, which had a wooden gallery upon which the living-rooms of the first -floor opened, running along three sides of it. Above the gallery there -was another story, surmounted by gabled roofs, with carvings upon them -of curious birds and beasts and hobgoblins. The blue sky formed the -ceiling over the courtyard. - -A stableman ran to lift Margery from Dobbin’s back, and then to help -Mistress Short to dismount. Colin had slipped from the saddle by -himself, and his father following him, went to see that the horses were -as comfortably lodged as possible, for there were so many others that -there was scarcely room for them all in the stables. - -The children waited impatiently till he reappeared, for they were to go -on foot to the house of Mistress Harpham, near Mikelgate. - -“We shall be late! I know we shall be late!” Margery kept repeating till -her mother bade her be quiet. - -“It will take at least an hour for the first play to reach the house of -your Aunt Harpham,” she assured her. “It has but just begun at -Mikelgate.” - -But Margery was not happy till, having pushed their way out of the -throng in the courtyard, they found themselves on the way to their -kinswoman’s dwelling. - -Master Harpham’s house appeared very grand to the children. It had a big -carved doorway leading to the shop, and the rooms above seemed to them -magnificently furnished, with their big oak chests, and their -high-backed chairs with leather seats, and the ornamented beams across -the ceiling. Mistress Harpham, a stout, rosy-faced dame, greeted them -very kindly, and called to her son to come and be introduced to his -little cousins. - -“Giles is going to act!” she told them proudly. “But not yet. His turn -comes later. He is to be Isaac in the play of _Abraham’s Sacrifice_.” - -Colin and Margery looked with awe and amazement upon their cousin. He -was a pretty boy of twelve, with fair hair hanging to his shoulders, and -a pale, delicate little face. - -“Won’t you be frightened?” whispered Margery, gazing at him with -breathless interest. - -“No; not very,” he said, laughing. “I have been in the plays before. -Last year I was an angel.” - -“Take them to the window, Giles!” called his mother. “It’s time we were -in our seats. Little ones in the front; grown-ups at the back!” - -The room was by this time full of townsfolk, invited by the glover and -his wife, and the first-floor windows, as well as the upper ones, were -crowded with people in holiday dresses; the women in snowy wimples, and -gowns of many colours; the men in tunics of russet brown or dull green. - -Colin, Margery, and Giles sat on stools close to the window, and the -country children looked with interest at the scene before them. The -glover’s house was at the corner of the market-place, and the windows of -all the houses surrounding it were hung with gay cloths, and packed from -basement to roof with people. - -Below, in the cobble-paved square, with a babel of noise and confusion, -the poorer folk crowded. - -“There won’t be any room when the play _does_ come!” exclaimed Colin. - -“The heralds will clear the way,” said Giles. “Last night it was such -fun to watch them! They rode through all the town reading the -proclamation. That’s a warning, you know, for every one to behave -properly to-day.” - -“Oh, what did they say?” asked Margery, with interest. - -“Well, they came to the market-place here, on horseback, with trumpets, -and one man shouted at the top of his voice. Let me see. What did he -say? I believe I can remember some of it. It was like this.... _Oyez. -We command, on the King’s behalf, and the Mayor and the Sheriffs of this -city, that no man go armed in this city with swords nor Carlisle axes, -nor none other defences in disturbance of the King’s peace and the play, -or hindering of the procession of Corpus Christi, and that they leave -their harness in their inns...._ I forget the words that came next, but -they meant that each guild was to act its play in proper order. And that -all manner of craftsmen who were responsible for a play should employ -‘good players well-arranged and openly speaking’ upon pain of a fine. -And all that sort of thing, you know.” - -“I can’t think how you can remember it!” said Margery. - -“Oh, when you act, you have a great deal to learn by heart, so you -_must_ have a good memory,” returned Giles, airily. - -“Oh, look! look!” interrupted Colin. “Here they come! These are the -heralds, aren’t they?” - -There was a stir and a swaying in the crowd, and all the people at the -windows began to crane their necks to see three or four horsemen, who -came riding down a narrow side-alley into the market-place, scattering -the throng, which pressed back before them. Then a silence fell. - -“Oh, how beautiful they look!” Margery whispered. And indeed in their -tunics of blue and crimson, embroidered with gold, their horses also -decked in gay velvet trappings, the heralds, with their silver trumpets, -were quite magnificent. - -One of them, after a long blast on his trumpet, had by this time begun -to announce the plays. - - “Reverend lords and ladies all, - That at this time here assembled be,” - -he chanted, and then went on to mention the subject of each play, and -the special guild by which it was to be acted. - -The children exchanged delighted glances when the Parchment-makers’ and -Bookbinders’ Guild came in its place on the list, for in that play, -“Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac on an altar,” they were, of course, -specially interested. - -At last, with another blast from the trumpets, the heralds clattered -away. - -“The first pageant will be here in a minute,” said Giles. “It must be -nearly over at Mikelgate by this time. The heralds were late.” - -“What are all those flags for?” asked Colin. He was looking down into -the market-place, where a great square was marked out by gay banners -stuck at intervals into the ground between the cobble-stones. Each -banner had the arms of the city painted upon it, and all the flags -fluttered bravely in the wind. - -“They’re to mark the place where the pageant is to stand,” said Giles. -“It’s arranged like that all over the town. Wherever a platform is to be -placed, the banners are put to show the exact position.” - -“Is Giles telling you all about it?” asked Master Harpham, leaning over -the shoulders of his friends at the window to pat Margery’s head. “Aye! -aye! You ask him anything you want to know, and I’ll warrant he’ll have -an answer ready. A fine fellow at the pageants is Giles! The Town -Council chose him out of a score of others to play Isaac. Aye, that they -did!” he added proudly, turning to the women who crowded behind the -children. - -Margery looked up shyly at the big man, whom they had not seen before. -He had just come up from his shop in the basement to bring the news that -the first platform, or _pageant_, as every one called it, was on its -way; and now he was passing from group to group at the windows, greeting -his acquaintances in a loud, hearty voice, and inquiring whether every -one could see. - -“Did you have to practise a long time for Isaac?” asked Margery, who -could not get over her awe at the knowledge that Giles was one of the -players. - -“Oh, not so very long. We had about six rehearsals at the Town Hall. But -some of the people _were_ such a long time learning their parts!” said -Giles, sighing. - -“It’s coming! it’s coming!” cried Colin; and every one turned eagerly to -the window. - -Down below in the square there was a swaying amongst the crowd, and a -great murmur of expectation as at the corner of the market-place, a huge -object came into view, towering high above the heads of the people. It -was preceded by a body of young men, who pressed back the crowd with -clubs or with the flat sides of their swords, so as to clear the space -marked out by the banners. - -“Who are all these people with clubs and swords?” inquired Colin -excitedly, while Margery’s eyes were fixed on the swaying blue canvas -that was approaching. - -“They are the apprentices of the guild—the Tanners’ Guild, you -know”—Giles explained. “The apprentices of each guild have to keep the -crowd in order, and some of them have to drag the pageant along. Here -they come! That’s Master Smith pulling in front. We know him well. And -there’s Robin Coke next to him!” - -The throng in the market-place was now well enough ordered for the -pageant to be clearly visible, and the children saw a big wooden stage -of two platforms, one above the other. - -It ran upon huge wheels, and in front there were ropes, which were -passed round the waists of eight or ten men, who were pulling with all -their might. - -On it came, jolting over the cobble-stones of the market-square till the -men ceased to pull, and the double platform stopped just in front of the -window at which the children sat. - -The upper stage was just on a level with their eyes, and Margery clasped -her hands in delight. - -“We’ve got the best place of all!” she whispered to her brother. - -As yet the curtains of the upper platform were close drawn, and she had -time to look at the whole car before the play actually began. - -The lower half, she noticed, was all covered in by brightly-coloured -painted cloths, so that nothing of the interior could be seen. - -“That’s where the players dress,” Giles told her. “And there are -trap-doors and steps leading from it to the upper part, which is the -stage, you know. And——.” - -But the curtains were now pulled aside, disclosing what seemed to the -children a grand and beautiful scene. A canopy, painted deep blue to -represent the sky, stretched above the head of an imposing figure seated -upon a gilt throne. - -Those of you who have seen pictures of popes, can imagine the dress of -the player who represented Almighty God. He wore a mitre upon his head, -over hair that was made stiff with gold. His beard was also of stiff -gold, and his robes were magnificently embroidered and clasped with -jewels. In his hand he held a jewelled sceptre. The floor at his feet -was strewn with rushes, and at first there was nothing on the stage but -this stately figure, over-arched by the blue sky. - -Then he spoke, chanting in a grave full voice, so that the sound of it -reached over the market-place; and these were his words, put into the -kind of English we speak to-day. Below on this page you will find them -as they were then written. - - “I am gracious and great, God without beginning; - I am maker unmade, all might is in me; - I am life and way unto salvation winning; - I am foremost and first; as I bid shall it be. - My blessing of face shall be blinding, - And descending from harm to be hiding, - My body in bliss ever abiding, - Unending without any ending.” - - “I am gracyus and grete, God without you begynning; - I am maker unmade, all mighte es in me; - I am lyfe and way unto welth wynnyng; - I am foremaste and fyrste, als I bid sall it be. - My blyssing of ble sall be blending, - And held and fro harme to be hydande, - My body in blys ay abydande, - Une dande withouten any endyng.” - -Then, with other grave words, the Lord began the work of Creation. First -He brought into existence the angels, summoning them in nine orders of -rank and power, each order greater and more powerful than the last. One -after another they appeared from a platform at the back of the stage, -wearing coats of gilded skin, over which long robes hung to their feet. -Golden wings were fastened to their shoulders, and on their foreheads -diadems sparkled. - -Then, greatest of all, and more beautiful and resplendent than the rest, -came Lucifer. - -On him the Almighty conferred dignity and honour above all the other -spirits He had created. He was the Star of the Morning, the great and -splendid archangel. - -But Lucifer, filled with pride, soon began to contend before God. He -claimed still higher powers than those which had been granted him, -trying to make himself the equal of the Almighty. - -Then at last God spoke his sentence of banishment, and he and the angels -who worshipped him, were cast down from heaven. - -“_O Lucifer, Star of the Morning, how art thou fallen!_” is a beautiful -line in the Bible, which alludes to the disgrace and banishment which -the audience now saw acted before their eyes. - -Shortly after the fall of Lucifer, the curtains of the pageant closed -upon the scene of God enthroned, surrounded by the good angels singing -their praises to the one and only deity. - -Margery, who had looked and listened in amazed delight, drew a long -breath when this first play was over. Colin, no less excited, began at -once to talk and to ask questions. - -“Look! they are dragging the stage away!” he exclaimed, “There’s the man -you called Robin Coke, and there’s Master Smith, pulling with all his -might. Where are they going to take it now?” - -“In front of John Gyseburn’s door; that’s where it’s played next,” said -Giles. “That’s his son, Matthew Gyseburn, the lawyer,” he added, -pointing out a man who stood at the other window. - -“See!” called Margery. “Here comes another pageant. What is this, -Giles?” - -“Still the _Creation_. The earth is made now, and the birds and fishes -and all the animals. This is the Plasterers’ pageant. Yesterday John -Wiseman showed me all the pigeons he had got for it.” - -“Pigeons?” echoed Colin. - -“You’ll see,” said Giles, nodding. “I wonder whether I ought to go?” he -added, looking back anxiously at his mother. “They’ll be doing the third -play now at Mikelgate, as the second one has just reached us.” - -“Plenty of time,” declared Mistress Harpham, reassuringly. “You needn’t -go for another hour yet, my boy.” - -Meanwhile Colin and Margery were already absorbed in the second pageant, -which, drawn as before by men (this time by the Plasterers’ -apprentices), had stopped in the same place just beneath the window. - - - - - IV - The Making of Sun, Moon, and Stars: of Birds, Beasts, and Fishes: of - Man and Woman. The Garden of Eden - - -When the curtains were drawn aside, another figure, representing God -Almighty, was seen seated on a golden throne. When He spoke, it was to -bid the earth take shape; and as He uttered commands, various painted -cloths were unrolled, falling one over the other to form a background to -His throne. - -First, He commanded the light to be divided from the darkness. - -At the word, a curtain, half of which was black, the other half white, -fell from the canopy overhead down to the rush-strewn floor. - -When He bade two great lights appear, “the greater light to rule the day -and the lesser light to rule the night,” when “He made the stars also,” -a painted sky was unrolled with the sun, the moon, and the stars upon -it, and a picture of the sea, with fish swimming in it, followed the -words, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that -hath life.” - -“Now the birds are coming!” whispered Giles, just before the command -that fowl should “fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” - -Almost as he spoke, a flight of pigeons rose into the air, first -fluttering a moment above the pageant, then wheeling off in many -directions, while the crowd watched them open-mouthed. - -“John Wiseman had them ready in a basket!” Giles eagerly explained. “He -is standing on the platform at the back of the stage, behind the sky, -you know; and he let them out just at the right moment, didn’t he? There -ought to have been a lot of other birds, but they are difficult to get. -You see what the direction says?”—he pointed to a page in a -parchment-covered book which he held, but Colin and Margery shook their -heads and looked with respect at their cousin, who could actually read! -They remembered that Giles was said to be a great scholar, and was -probably going to be a priest when he grew up. That, of course, -accounted for his learning. - -“I’ll read it to you,” said the boy, remembering that his cousins knew -nothing of books. “The words of the pageant are here, and all the stage -directions, just as Robert Crowe, who wrote out the play for the -Plasterers, has copied them. This is what it says about the birds—_Then -one ought in secret to put little birds flying in the air and alighting -upon the_ _earth with the most foreign birds that one is able to -procure._” - -“That’s all very well,” remarked Giles, closing the book; “but it’s -difficult. So they had to make pigeons do.” - -“But they were so pretty!” Margery said. She did not mind talking for a -little while now, for there were no more painted scenes to look at, and -she scarcely understood the speech which followed the command for -“cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth” to come into -existence. - -In a moment however, her attention was again arrested, for the curtains -were drawn, the pageant was pulled away, and, before it had disappeared, -a new one, the third, had come into sight. - -“This is the _Cardmakers’_ play,” said Giles, consulting his pageant -book. “It is about God the Father creating Adam and Eve.” - -“Cardmakers?” Margery asked, rather puzzled at the name. As a country -child she did not know all the trades of the town guilds. - -“They are the people who make the cards for the wool to be combed on, -before it is made up into stuffs, you know,” Giles told her. - -“Then comes the _Fullers’_ play,” he went on, reading from the book, -“God forbidding Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Life. Afterwards the -_Coopers_ do Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; and the serpent -deceiving them with apples; and God speaking to them and cursing the -serpent, and with a sword driving them out of Paradise.” - -“Come, children! you must be hungry!” called Mistress Harpham at this -moment. “Come and have something to eat.” - -Margery turned reluctantly from the window, where, on the scaffolding, -the third play was just beginning; and her aunt laughed. - -“Bless the child! You can’t sit looking at the pageants all day without -food!” she exclaimed. “There are plenty more of ’em in all conscience. -Come along now. Giles will have to go when he’s eaten something. He must -soon be starting for his play.” - -By this time all of the guests were seated at trestle-tables, which had -been placed at the back of the room and spread with all sorts of food. -There were huge joints, and fat capons, and plenty of ale, to which the -guests did ample justice. - -Colin and Margery, with Giles between them, were squeezed in at one of -the tables, and soon discovered that they were very hungry. There was a -great clattering of plates and knives, and a babel of conversation. The -pageants already seen, were criticized, praised, or condemned, and -compared with those of the preceding year; and all the guests politely -declared how they were looking forward to the play of the -Parchment-makers and Bookbinders, the guild to which their host -belonged. - -“How is it that Giles is allowed to be here, and not with his company?” -inquired the grave but kind-looking man whom Giles had pointed out as -Matthew Gyseburn, the lawyer. - -“The council gave him special permission to stay at home till the fifth -pageant was on its way,” explained his mother. “My husband is an -important man on the Town Council, as you know,” she added proudly. “And -you see, Giles isn’t a _paid_ player! He acts for the love of it—bless -him. And he’s none too strong,” she added, lowering her voice. “Those -hours of waiting would make him ill. But as soon as ever this Coopers’ -pageant moves off, his father will take him to join his company and help -him to dress.” - -“Are you going?” asked Margery sadly, as Giles got up from the table. -“I’m so sorry. There won’t be any one to tell us all about it now, and I -shan’t understand!” - -“You shall sit by me, little mistress and master,” said the good-natured -lawyer, smiling. “I’ll do my best to make up for Giles. Here, boy! leave -me the ‘pageant-book,’ in case I’m asked more questions than I know how -to answer.” - -Giles gave him the book, and, then anxiously pulling his father by the -arm, forced him to get up. - -“So afraid he’ll be late!” cried Master Harpham, laughing. “There’s -heaps of time; but perhaps we’d better be starting.” - -“Will you ever get through the crowd?” asked a woman anxiously. - -“Oh, we know all the backways; don’t we, Giles? We shall slip along the -side-alleys in no time, up to where his pageant is waiting. See you -again, neighbours!” He nodded to the company, and, pushing Giles before -him, went out. - -“May we go to the window now?” begged Margery, who could hear the -players talking, and was longing not to miss too many of the plays. - -“To be sure, my dears, if you have had enough to eat,” said Mistress -Harpham. - -The children ran to their places, and found the Coopers’ play going on. - -This pageant, they noticed, had _three_ rooms or stages one beneath the -other. On the highest, or Heaven stage, sat God Almighty; beneath it, in -the Garden of Eden, were Adam and Eve; and the third, still lower stage, -represented Earth. - -But the children’s attention was riveted on the second stage, round -which branches of trees and flowers were placed to represent a garden. -In the midst was the Tree of Life, with golden fruit upon it, and in the -shadow of the tree there was a strange group. Adam and Eve, both of whom -were played by tall boys dressed in close-fitting skins dyed -flesh-colour, were talking to a huge serpent who, coiled round the trunk -of the tree, was tempting them. - -“There must be some one speaking inside him,” exclaimed Margery. “He’s -big enough to hide a boy at least—isn’t he?” - -“Hush!” said Colin; “listen to what he’s saying.” - -The serpent’s great head was turned towards Eve, and his voice was full -of persuasion. “Ye shall not surely die!” he told her; “for God doth -know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and -ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” - -Then Eve looked longingly at the golden fruit, and hesitated. - -“She’s going to pick it!” whispered Margery. - -“Yes! look! She has broken off a branch, and she’s giving the fruit to -Adam. Now she’s talking to him.” - -“And now they’re eating the apples!” cried Colin; “and God will be -angry! They know He will be angry. See, they’re hiding themselves. They -can hear His voice!” - -And presently, while they watched, God Almighty came down the steps -which led from Heaven to Paradise, and entered the garden. Here he -questioned Adam and Eve, and afterwards turned to the serpent and cursed -him. Then, holding a flashing sword above the heads of the guilty man -and woman, He told them of their punishment; and finally drove them -weeping from the garden, down to the earth, upon which they were -henceforth to live. - -The Armourers’ pageant was by this time waiting its turn at the corner -of the market-place, and when the Coopers’ scaffold was dragged away it -speedily took its place. - -“Now we shall see Adam and Eve’s life on the earth,” said the lawyer, -who had come to the window, and was standing just behind the children. - -The curtains before the stage were drawn back, and Adam and Eve, no -longer happy and light-hearted, were seen on the earth, where henceforth -they had to work in sorrow and suffering. As they sadly talked together, -an angel with golden wings appeared to them. To Adam he gave a spade, -bidding him till the ground, and to Eve a distaff, commanding her to -work for her household. - -The Glovers’ play came next. The characters in it were Cain and Abel, -and the story told of the murder of Abel by Cain, and of Cain’s -punishment. - -It was all very interesting to the children, but they were looking -forward so eagerly to the following pageant that they could not refrain -from glancing every now and again towards the corner of the market-place -at which it would appear. - -Noah’s ark was the subject, and the lawyer, Master Gyseburn, had told -them it would be an amusing play. - -It did not seem strange to any of the people assembled that a few of the -plays should be written on purpose to make the audience laugh. It had -long been the custom to make into comic scenes one or two of the Bible -stories in which no sacred characters appeared. The monks who wrote the -plays remembered how long and how patiently the crowd had to stand, and -they thought that if the people sometimes laughed, their attention would -be kept fresh for the more serious part of the Bible teaching. - -So Colin and Margery heard without surprise and with joyful anticipation -that Noah’s wife would be very funny. They were exceedingly anxious also -to see the ark, which Master Gyseburn described as a wonderful piece of -work. - -There was altogether a good deal of excitement about the two following -plays, and much conversation concerning them went on amongst the guests -assembled at Master Harpham’s. - -“They are not our plays—the York plays—at all, are they?” asked a pretty -young girl who sat near Margery. - -“No,” returned a neighbour; “I hear they are both borrowed from Chester, -because they are better than our own pageants.” - -“’Tis very fitting that Noah’s ark should be performed by the -Shipwrights and Mariners!” said Master Gyseburn. “If they don’t -understand seafaring business, who should?” - -“Here it comes!” shouted Colin, and every one gazed eagerly at the -approaching pageant, which was drawn by the Shipwrights’ apprentices. - - - - - V - Noah’s Ark - - -It paused, as usual, just beneath Master Harpham’s window. - -“Why, there’s no ark!” exclaimed Margery, in a disappointed tone. - -“Wait a bit!” Colin warned her. “It’s behind those curtains at the back, -I expect. Noah has first to be told to build it, you see.” - -Colin was right, for the play began with God’s announcement to Noah that -the Deluge was approaching, and His command that a ship should be built. - -Then Noah, a venerable old man with a long white beard, praised God for -the warning, and spoke as follows: - - “O Lorde, I thank Thee lowde and still, - That to me arte in suche will, - And spares me and my howse to spill, - As I now southly [truly] fynde. - Thy byddinge, Lorde, I shall fulfill, - And never more Thee greve nor grill [provoke] - That such grace hath sent me till, - Amongst all mankinde.” - -Noah’s sons and their wives now entered, and the old man turned to them -and told them of the flood that was coming: - - “Have done, you men and women all, - Hye you, lest this watter fall - To worche [work] this shippe chamber and hall - As God hath bidden us doe,” - -he said. - -For the first time now, Noah’s wife came in, and her appearance was -greeted by a roar of laughter from the crowd in the market-place and at -the windows. The people understood that she was meant to be a very -bad-tempered lady, and both her dress and her face were meant to make -them laugh. The part was of course acted by a man (no woman ever acted -in those days), and the player was a good actor whom every one knew. - -At first the wife did not speak, though all the time her behaviour was -amusing. Meanwhile the sons declared themselves ready to help with the -ark. - - “Father” (said Shem), “I am already bowne [prepared], - An axe I have, by my croune! - As sharp as any in all this toun - For to go thereto.” - -Then Ham spoke: - - “I have a hatchet, wonder keen - To bite well, as may be seen, - A better ground one, as I ween, - Is not in all this toun.” - -Japhet also intended to do his best: - - “And I can well make a pin, - And with this hammer knock it in, - Go and work without more din, - And I am ready bowne [prepared].” - -But Noah’s wife at once showed by her grumbling speech that she was -obstinate, and did not intend to do much work: - - “And we shall bring timber too, - For women nothing else to do; - Women be weak to undergo - Any great travail,” - -she declared. - -At last, to the children’s delight, the curtains at the back of the -stage parted, and they saw the ark. It was already very substantially -built, for of course in the few minutes at the actors’ disposal they -could do no more than _pretend_ to hammer and plane and saw. Indeed all -the time that it was not in use, this ark hung in one of the churches in -York, slung to the beams across the nave, from which place of safety it -was every year taken down to do duty in the pageant. - -Margery and Colin gazed with admiration upon the big ship, which was -very much like the Noah’s arks we see nowadays in the toy-shops, only of -course enormously larger. It was roofed in at the top, and gaily -painted. There were little windows along the sides that opened and -showed glimpses of rooms within. A mast with sails and rigging appeared -above the roof, and altogether a more satisfactory and interesting ark -can scarcely be imagined. - -Noah and his sons began at once to work very busily, as though they were -really building, Noah in these words explaining all there was to do: - - “Now in the Name of God I will begin - To make the ship that we shall in, - That we be ready for to swim - At the coming of the flood. - These boards I join together, - To keep us safe from the weather, - That we may roam both hither and thither, - And safe be from this flood. - Of this tree will I have the mast, - Tied with cables that will last. - With a sail-yard for each blast, - And each thing in its kind. - With topmast high and bowsprit, - With cords and ropes I hold all fit - To sail forth at the next weete [tide] - This ship is at an end.” - -The ark, now finished by the pretended labours of the men, Noah turned -to his wife and family. - - “Wife” (he said), “in this castle we shall be kept; - My children and thou I would in leaped.” - -But Noah’s wife immediately began to show her temper. She had been -looking all the time with scorn upon the building of the ship, and -laughing with her neighbours, or “gossips,” as she called them, to see -her husband and her sons working, as she considered, so foolishly; and -when Noah begged her to come into safety, this was her contemptuous -answer: - - “In faith, Noe, I had as lief thou had slept, - For all thy frankishfare [nonsense], - For I will not do after thy rede [advice].” - - “Good wife, do as I thee bid,” - -said Noah, coaxingly. - - “By Christ not, or I see more need, - Though thou stand all the day and rave,” - -she replied, while the crowd broke into roars of laughter to see the -husband and wife quarrelling. - - “Lord, that women be crabbed ay!” - -exclaimed Noah, amid fresh laughter, - - “And never are meek, that I dare say. - This is well seen of me to-day, - In witness of you each one. - Good wife, let all this beere [noise] - That thou makest in this place here; - For they all ween thou art master, - And so thou art, by St. John!” - -But here, in order to attend to the various animals which had to be -taken into the ark, Noah was obliged to cease arguing for a time; and -the way in which this difficult business of the animals was represented, -greatly amused and interested the children. - -Each of Noah’s sons and daughters-in-law mentioned the names of many -birds and beasts, and as they named them, they held up great figures -painted on parchment, and cut out to represent the various creatures of -which they spoke. - -_Shem_ began the list: - - “Sir, here are lions, leopards in, - Horses, mares, oxen, and swine, - Goats, calves, sheep, and kine - Here sitten [settled] may you see.” - -“Oh, look at the lion!” exclaimed Margery. “Isn’t he beautiful? And the -pig, Colin! Did you ever see such a fat pig in your life?” - -_Ham_ had now begun to show the animals in his charge: - - “Camels, asses, men may find; - Buck, doe, hart, and hind,” - -he chanted, holding up the figure of each beast before putting it in the -ark. - - “Take here cats and dogs too (said _Japhet_), - Otter, fox, fulmart also; - Hares hopping gaily, can ye - Have kail here for to eat.” - -Presently also Noah’s wife, very scornfully laughing, showed _her_ -animals: - - “And here are bears, wolves set, - Apes, owls, marmoset; - Weasels, squirrels, and ferret, - Here they eat their meat,” - -she said. - -Shem’s wife then went on with the list of creatures, first exclaiming at -their number: - - “Yet more beasts are in this house! - Here cats come in full crowse [comfort], - Here a rat and here a mouse, - They stand nigh together.” - -Margery wondered how the cats would get on with the rats and mice, but -Shem’s wife offered no explanation, and immediately after her followed -the wife of Ham: - - “And here are fowls, less and more (she declared), - Herons, cranes, and bittern; - Swans, peacocks, have them before! [in front] - Meat for this weather.” - - “Here are cocks, kites, crows (said Japhet’s wife), - Rooks, ravens, many rows; - Cuckoos, curlews, whoso knows, - Each one in his kind. - And here are doves, ducks, drakes, - Redshanks, running through the lakes— - And each fowl that language makes - In this ship men may find.” - -At length, after the animals had all gone safely into the ark, Noah, to -the huge delight of the crowd, turned again to his wife, and once more -began to urge her to enter. - - “Wife, come in, why standest thou there? (he entreated). - Thou art ever forward, that I dare swear; - Come on God’s half [behalf], time it were, - For fear lest that we drown.” - -But the foolish woman could not be persuaded. Nothing would induce her -to enter the ark, she declared, unless her “gossips” were allowed to -come too; and that, as we know from the story of the Flood, was -forbidden, since only Noah and his family were allowed to embark. - - “Yes, sir; set up your sail (said she), - And row forth with evil heale, - For without any fail - I will not out of this town; - But I have my gossips every one, - One foot further I will not go. - They shall not drown, by S. John! - If I may save their life. - They loved me full well, by Christ! - But thou wilt let them in thy chest, - Else row forth, Noah, whither thou list, - And get thee a new wife.” - -“It’s rather nice of her to want to save her friends, though—isn’t it?” -exclaimed Margery, who was breathlessly interested. - -“I don’t believe she cares a bit about them, really,” said Colin. “She -only wants to be obstinate, and to make a fuss.” - -“Now what are they doing? Will she be left behind?” asked Margery, -anxiously. - -“No,” said Master Gyseburn. “You see, Noah is sending his sons to make -her go in. Listen to what Japhet says. He is just going to speak to -her.” - - “Mother (begged Japhet), we pray you altogether, - For we are here, your children; - Come into the ship for fear of the weather.” - -“She won’t go! she won’t go!” cried Margery. - -“Noah’s sending Shem to her again! There! he’s lifted her right in!” -Colin exclaimed. “Oh, isn’t she angry!” - -The people all round were laughing so much by this time, that the -children could only just hear Shem’s words as he carried his mother up -the plank into the ark: - - “In faith, mother, yet you shall, - Whether you will or not!” - - “Welcome, wife, into this boat!” (cried Noah.) - - “And have, then, that for thy note!” [trouble] - -she returned, boxing her husband’s ears. - -At this outbreak the crowd again shouted with laughter, and went on -laughing still more when Noah put his hands to his ears, moaning and -complaining. By degrees, however, as the flood was supposed to rise -higher and higher, he and his wife were quieted. - - “Over the land the water spreads! (Noah explained.) - Now all this world is in a flood, - As I see well in sight, - This window will I close anon, - And into my chamber will I gone.” - -The children eagerly watched him as, one after one, he closed the -windows of the ark, shutting in all the little company of people and all -the beasts and birds that were to be saved. - -“Now you must imagine that the ark is floating on the water!” said -Master Gyseburn, smiling at Colin and Margery, who found no difficulty -at all in doing so. “The windows will be shut for a little while, and we -have to pretend that forty days have passed before Noah opens them -again. Soon we shall hear him singing, and then we shall see him once -more.” - -In a few moments, indeed, voices were heard within the ark, upraised in -a psalm of praise; and when it was ended the windows were slowly slipped -back, and at one of them stood Noah, a leaden weight fastened to a long -cord in his hand. - -“What’s that for?” asked Colin. “What is he going to do?” - -“Ah! he’s going to ‘cast the lead’ in proper fashion, just as sailors do -when they want to find out how deep the sea is,” explained Master -Gyseburn. “Don’t forget that this is the Shipwrights’ pageant, and they -are learned in all seafaring business, as you may imagine.” - -“Yes! he’s unwinding the line!” cried Colin; “and I suppose he finds -that the water has gone down? He can see the tops of the mountains -now—can’t he?” - -“The _whole_ of the mountains, I should think!” returned Master -Gyseburn, laughing. “Listen! he’s going to speak.” - - “Now forty days are fully gone (Noah began), - Send a raven I will anon; - If aught were earth, tree, or stone, - Be dry in any place. - And, if this fowl come not again, - It is a sign, sooth to say, - That dry it is, on hill and plain, - And God hath done some grace.” - -“Oh! he’s going to let out a _real_ raven!” said Margery joyfully. “What -a big black thing! Look, how he’s clapping his wings!” - -“There!—now he’s flown!” exclaimed Colin. “He’s gone right over the -roofs of those houses opposite. See how the people are staring after -him. _He’ll_ never come back again!” - -“But the dove will!” declared Margery excitedly. “Noah’s going to let a -dove fly now. He’s talking to him—see!” - - “Thou wilt turn again to me, - For of all fowls that may fly - Thou art most meek and hend [kind],” - -said Noah, as he threw the bird up into the air. - -“It won’t be the _same_ bird that comes back—will it?” asked Colin, -looking up at Master Gyseburn, who smiled again. - -“No—there’s another dove already fastened with a cord from the top of -the stage. We shall see it in a minute!” And, sure enough, while he was -speaking, the bird came fluttering down, almost into Noah’s hands. - -“Oh! it’s got the olive-branch in its beak!” exclaimed Margery. “That -shows that the trees are out of the water—doesn’t it?” - -“Yes; listen—then you will hear Noah saying that the flood has gone -down.” - - “By this sight I well may say, - This flood begins to cease (Noah was declaring). - My sweet dove to me brought has - A branch of olive from some place; - This betokeneth God has done us some grace, - And is a sign of peace.” - -By this time all the windows in the ark were open, disclosing the whole -family, including Noah’s wife, who looked much subdued. - -“She’s glad she’s saved now!” Margery remarked. “Look!—they’re all -coming out, and God is talking to them.” - -“He is promising that the rainbow shall be a sign from heaven that the -earth shall never more be drowned,” said Master Gyseburn. “It’s all over -now. Look!—the men are dragging the pageant away to the next -halting-place.” - -“And _now_ it’s Abraham and Isaac!” said Margery joyfully. - - - - - VI - The Story of Abraham and of Isaac - - -Both the children looked anxiously in the direction from which all the -pageants coming from the gates of the Priory, approached the -market-place. - -“It isn’t in sight yet!” said Colin in surprise, for hitherto one -pageant had followed swiftly upon another. - -“Oh! but here’s a man on horseback, dressed _splendidly_!” Margery -cried. “What is he going to do?” - -“He’s part of the play,” Master Gyseburn explained. “He is a messenger -who is going to tell us what it’s all about.” - -By this time the rider, who came from a side-street, was clattering over -the stones of the market-place. Just beneath the window he drew up his -horse, and, raising his plumed cap, began in these words to address the -multitude: - - “All peace, Lordings, that be present, - And hearken now with good intent - How Noah away from us he went - With all his company; - And Abraham, through God’s grace - He is come forth into this place, - And you will give him room and space - To tell you his storye. - This play, forsooth, begin shall he, - In worship of the Trinity, - That you may all hear and see - What shall be done to-day. - My name is Gobbet-on-the-Green, - No longer here I may be seen; - Farewell, my Lordings, all by dene [in haste] - For letting [hindering] of your play.” - -Setting spurs to his horse, the messenger, a brilliant figure in a -doublet of sapphire blue laced with gold, and long crimson hose, rode -away, disappearing at the opposite corner of the market-place from that -at which he had entered. - -And now another figure came into view, also riding. - -This was a stately man in long robes, wearing a curious turban of linen. - -“Is that Abraham?” asked Colin. “But where is Isaac?” - -“He doesn’t come yet,” answered Master Gyseburn. “The story, you see, -begins long before Isaac is born. Abraham has just returned from his -victory over the four kings. Listen! He is explaining how the kings took -his nephew Lot prisoner, and how he released him, and conquered the -kings.” - -“Now there’s another man coming on horseback!” said Margery. “Oh! look -how beautifully he is dressed, with rubies on his gown, and on the thing -that comes over his forehead. Who is he?” - -“That’s Melchizedek, King of Salem, and priest of the Most High God. He -is coming to bless Abraham for conquering the kings, and to give him -bread and wine.” - -“Yes! A servant is holding up a golden cup to him and a golden plate!” -said Colin. “And now he’s going to give the bread and wine to Abraham, I -suppose.” - -This duly happened as Colin had guessed, for Melchizedek, reining up his -horse close to Abraham, began to speak, offering him presently the -golden cup and platter: - - “Abraham, welcome must thou be, - God’s grace is fully in thee; - Blessed ever must thou be - That enemies so can make. - I have brought, as thou may’st see, - Bread and wine for thy degree; - Receive this present now from me, - And that I thee beseke [beseech].” - -Then Abraham, taking the bread and wine, answered in this fashion: - - “Sir King, welcome in good say, - Thy present is welcome to my pay. - God has helped me to-day, - Unworthy though I were. - He shall have part of my prey - That I won since I went away. - Therefore to thee thou take it may, - The tenth I offer thee.” - -At this moment a horse richly laden with all sorts of precious gifts of -gold and silver and jewels was led forward by a page. The beautiful -animal had splendid harness and trappings upon him, and he walked -proudly as though conscious of the royal presents he brought. - -Melchizedek accepted the gift and, after further talk with Abraham, rode -away, followed by his servants, who led the laden steed. - -Abraham now wheeled his horse aside to make room for the messenger, who -rode into the cleared space, and once more addressed the audience. In a -long speech he explained to the people that the scene they had just -witnessed was a sort of parable, and meant the Holy Communion, the Bread -and Wine commemorating Christ’s sacrifice for the world. - -So far the pageant or wooden stage had not been used at all. All the -characters had come riding in to act their parts. But now the platform -which stood waiting in the background, was drawn into the midst of the -open space, and the rest of the play took place as usual, upon it. - -First God the Father appeared, and Abraham entreated Him to send him a -child to be his heir. The Almighty promised to grant his request, laid -various commands upon him, and told him that his descendants should be -as the stars of heaven for number; and the scene ended with Abraham -kneeling to bless and thank the Lord for His mercy. - -The curtains were now drawn, and before they were once more unclosed, -the messenger again rode up, and explained to the people how some of the -commands which God had just given to Abraham pointed to and foreshadowed -the Sacrament of Baptism, which followed the birth of Christ. - -When he had ridden away, and the curtains of the pageant again swung -back, the children grew very excited, for almost the first words of the -scene told them that Isaac might soon be expected to appear. - -“You see,” said Master Gyseburn, “that some years are supposed to have -passed between the last scene and this. God’s promise has been -fulfilled, and Abraham now has a son. Listen!” - -Abraham was alone on the stage, but just as Master Gyseburn finished -speaking, God’s voice was heard: - - “Abraham, My servant Abraham!” - - “Lo, Lord, already here I am,” - -replied Abraham. - - “Take Isaac thy son by name,” - -the voice continued, - - “And in sacrifice offer him to Me - Upon that hill, beside thee. - Abraham, I will that it so be - For aught that may befall.” - -Though almost stunned with grief at the command, Abraham at once -declared himself ready to obey the Lord. He said that all his household -should remain at home except Isaac, with whom he would go to the -appointed hill. - -By this time Mistress Harpham was leaning anxiously over the children’s -shoulders, for she knew that Giles in the character of Isaac was waiting -to come on to the stage. All the guests were also very excited and full -of expectation. - -“It’s well that the boy acts with so good a man as Master Eliott!” -exclaimed a woman who stood close to her hostess. - -“Aye! John Eliott is a rare good player!” answered Mistress Harpham -nervously. “We’ve never had a better ‘Abraham’ than he makes, and he’s -taken such pains with Giles too, teaching him and training him for the -part.” - -“There he is! There he is!” cried Margery, as a pretty, delicate little -figure in a linen tunic entered. “Oh! _doesn’t_ he look nice!” - -And indeed, with his fair curly hair and sweet face, Giles made quite a -touching little Isaac. - -“Hush! Hush! Abraham is speaking,” Master Gyseburn reminded her. - -“Make thee ready, my darling,” he was saying in a voice which made -Margery feel as though she wanted to cry: - - “Make thee ready, my darling, - For we must do a little thing; - This wood upon thy back you bring, - We must not long abide. - A sword and fire I will take, - For sacrifice I must make; - God’s bidding will I not forsake, - But ay obedient be.” - -There was a deep silence in the crowd, as speaking in a very clear, -gentle voice, Isaac made reply: - - “Father, I am all ready - To do your bidding meekly; - To bear this wood full bound am I - As you command me.” - -Abraham then in trembling tone gave a blessing to his son, whose look of -bewilderment and growing fear brought tears to the eyes of some of the -women at the window. - -Then, after the old man had bound the wood on the boy’s back, he was -suddenly overcome with misery. - - “Oh! my heart will break in three, - To hear thy words I have pity,” - -he exclaimed. But the cry of despair was immediately followed by - - “As thou wilt, Lord, so must it be.” - -Still wondering and afraid, Isaac spoke: - - “Are you anything adread? (he asked) - Father, if it be your will, - Where is the beast that we shall kill?” - -And when Abraham told him that he saw no animal at all, the boy went on -in a shaking voice: - - “Father, I am full sore afraid - To see you bare this naked sword. - I hope for all middle-yard [instead of any creature from the - farmyard], - You will not slay your child?” - -Then the father, who could not bear to detect the fear in his boy’s -voice, tried to comfort him by saying that the Lord would surely provide -some beast that might be slain for the sacrifice. But Isaac was not -satisfied. He begged the old man to tell him whether any evil would -happen to him, and at the entreaty Abraham could no longer hide his -terrible grief, but broke into wild words. - - “Ah, dear God, that me is woe! - Thou bursts my heart in sunder,” - -he exclaimed, wringing his hands; and finally, when Isaac again implored -him to hide nothing from him, he told the dreadful truth. - - “O Isaac, Isaac, I must thee kill!” - -he cried. - -Then poor little Isaac went down on his knees and entreated his father -to spare him: - - “Alas! father,” he sobbed, “is that your will, - Your own child here for to spill - Upon this hill’s brink? - If I have trespassed in any degree - With a rod you may beat me; - Put up your sword, if your will be, - For I am but a child.... - Would God my mother were here with me! - She would kneel upon her knee, - Praying you, father, if it might be, - For to save my life.” - -By this time Mistress Harpham was crying, and so were many other mothers -in the crowd, while they listened to the boy’s voice, and the words of -Abraham as he explained to his son that this terrible thing must come to -pass because it was God’s command. - -Isaac listened, and, forgetting himself, tried very sweetly to comfort -his poor father, begging him not to linger, but to do the deed quickly. - -“Father, tell my mother of nothing,” he implored, anxious to spare her -the knowledge of his fate; and then he asked that a handkerchief might -be tied over his eyes to prevent him from seeing the flash of the sword. - -Most of the women hid their own eyes while poor little Isaac was bound -and laid upon the altar; when the boy spoke again, for the last time, -they sobbed aloud. - - “Now, father, I see that I shall die! - Almighty God in Majesty, - My soul I offer unto Thee; - Lord, to it be kind.” - -Margery could not look when Abraham, snatching up the sword, held it -high over the child’s head, and it was only when she heard a gentle -voice that she dared to take her hands from her eyes. - - “Abraham, My servant dear!” - -“Look up! He’s not going to be hurt,” whispered Colin. “The angel has -come. _Two_ angels!” - -With great relief Margery gazed at them. They were beautiful, she -thought, with their long golden wings, and their white gowns; and she -loved them for coming to save poor little Isaac. - -She saw that Abraham had dropped his sword, and she heard his trembling -voice saying, - - “_Lo, Lord! I am already here._” - - “Lay not thy sword in any manner - On Isaac, thy dear darling!” - -replied one of the gracious angels, while the other pointed to a ram -which was struggling in a thicket of bushes close by, and bade Abraham -sacrifice the animal instead of his only son. - -Then Abraham rejoiced, and offered praise to God: - - “Ah, Lord of heaven, and King of bliss! - Thy bidding I shall do, I wis; - Sacrifice here to me sent is, - And all, Lord, through Thy grace. - A hornèd wether here I see, - Among the briars tied is he. - To Thee offered it shall be - Anon, right in this place.” - -Margery drew a long breath when, just before the curtains were closed, -she saw Abraham unbinding and embracing his poor little son. But even -then the play was not quite over, for again the messenger rode forward, -and, placing himself in front of the pageant, explained to the audience -that Isaac was a type of Christ, and that the sacrifice was meant to -foreshadow His death upon the Cross. These were the words of his -message: - - “Lordings, the signification - Of this deed of devotion, - An you will, it is shown, - May turn you to much good. - This deed you see done in this place, - In example of Jesus done it was, - That for to win mankind grace - Was sacrificed on the rood. - By Abraham you may understand - The Father of heaven that can fand [find means] - With His Son’s blood to break that band - The devil had brought us to. - By Isaac understand I may - Jesus Who was obedient ay, - His Father’s will to work alway, - His death to undergo.” - - - - - VII - The Shepherds’ Play - - -Many were the exclamations of wonder and delight at the performance, and -many the congratulations to the parents of the little actor, when _The -Sacrifice of Isaac_ passed on its way to the next halting-place. Indeed -so excited and talkative were the guests at the house of Master Harpham, -that the four following pageants received little attention from them. - -“The poor child will be worn out before evening comes!” declared the -women again and again, and Giles’ mother agreed. “Though he so loves -playing,” she said, “that I don’t think he feels the fatigue as much as -one might imagine. I know who _will_ be worn out, though!” she -exclaimed, turning to Mistress Short. “Your little ones ought to go and -rest awhile. It’s altogether too long a day for them.” - -Colin and Margery protested, but their mother was firm, and they were -obliged to follow her to Mistress Harpham’s guest-room, the grandest -they had ever seen, where Margery was placed on the big four-posted bed -of oak, and Colin, grumbling a great deal, was forced to lie down on a -little truckle-bed at its foot. - -“You’ll be all the fresher, and enjoy the plays all the better for a bit -of a sleep,” Mistress Harpham assured them. “And you shall be called in -time for the Shepherds’ play—that I promise you.” - -Margery brightened at this, for she had heard that the Shepherds’ play -was the most popular of all the pageants, and she had been afraid of -missing it. Though she and Colin had laughed at the idea of “a bit of a -sleep,” each found a strange feeling of drowsiness creeping nearer, and -considering that they had been up since daybreak, and it was now past -noon, this was not so surprising as they considered it. At any rate, -when their mother softly entered the room an hour later, she roused both -children from sleep. - -The Shepherds’ play, she told them, was expected in a few minutes; and -they ran eagerly into the front room to take their old places at the -window. - -“Do tell us what they’ve been acting!” begged Margery, as their friend -Master Gyseburn welcomed them with a smile. - -“Well! we’ve had _Moses lifting up the Serpent in the Wilderness_. That -was the Hosiers’ pageant. Then came the Grocers with the _Salutation of -Mary to Elisabeth_. Next came _Mary and Joseph with an angel commanding -them to go to Bethlehem_, acted by the Pewterers; and the last one was -the Tylers’ (Thatchers’) pageant of the _Stable at Bethlehem, with the -Child Jesus in the Manger_.” - -“Oh! we wanted to see that!” exclaimed both the children, very -disappointed. - -“You will,” Master Gyseburn assured them. “After this pageant, the -Shepherds go to the stable to worship the Child, so the manger scene -appears again; in fact it appears several times.” - -By the stir and noise in the crowd below, it was evident that the -Shepherds’ play was awaited with great eagerness. There was a pushing -and scrambling in the throng, which had greatly increased in numbers. -Many people who had strolled away to get something to eat and drink had -returned, and were trying to recover their lost places. - -“Is this a funny play?” asked Colin. - -“Yes,” said Master Gyseburn. “The Shepherds’ play, or at any rate the -first part of it, is always expected to be amusing. It is an old custom, -and the people would be very disappointed, and perhaps angry, if it were -changed. This particular play is one that is always acted at Wakefield, -but our Chandlers have borrowed it this year, because it is such a good -one.” - -“Oh! this is the Chandlers’ pageant, then?” asked Margery. - -Master Gyseburn nodded. “Here it comes,” said he. “You will find that it -has very little to do with the Bible story about the Shepherds.” - -“Just a made-up play, I suppose?” said Colin. - -“That’s it. Just a funny story to make people laugh.” - -By this time the pageant stood in its place before the Harphams’ window, -and the children noticed that the big stage was divided into two parts. -One part represented a field, in which three shepherds were seated with -their sheep huddled round them; and next to this scene, on a line with -it, there was a sort of separate compartment, at present covered by -curtains. - -The shepherds began at once to grumble about the weather. They -complained of the cold, which one of them said made his legs cramped, -and his hands all chapped. - -Neither Margery nor Colin, nor indeed any of the simple people who -watched the play, found anything strange in this. Indeed very few of -them realized that all the events they were watching, took place in an -Eastern country, whose scenery and climate were very different from -anything that was represented by the pageant. They imagined all the -scenes as happening in a country very like England—if not in England -itself! So the shepherds talked about the “moors,” which, as you know, -spread through Yorkshire, and of “bannocks,” which are special cakes -made in the North of England, and of “ale,” the usual English drink; and -no one criticized nor found fault, because scarcely anybody knew, or -remembered, if they knew, that Christ’s life was spent in a warm -far-away Eastern land, whose manners, customs, and language were as -different as possible from those of England. - -The shepherds talked about many things familiar in the every-day life of -most of the people in the crowd. They grumbled about the taxes they had -to pay, and they gossiped about their wives, who they said were always -scolding and nagging; and they complained bitterly about their hard -work, and their low wages. And the listening people laughed and were -delighted, because all they heard came home to them and was thoroughly -well understood. - -Presently another shepherd entered, dressed like the rest in a linen -smock, though over it he had thrown a heavy cloak. His appearance was -hailed by a shout of delight from the audience, for he was a favourite -actor, and the part he was going to play was well known. - -His name was Mac, and with the shepherds he evidently had the reputation -of a thief, for directly he arrived one of them warned the others. - -“Is he come?” he asked. “Then each one take heed to his things!” And to -make sure of him when they thought of going to sleep, the men forced him -to lie down in the midst of them, so that if he stirred they would be -warned. - -But no sooner did his companions begin to snore than Mac got up, and -walking round the men, he worked a spell upon them to make them sleep -heavily, chanting these words: - - “Be about you a circle as round as the moon - Till I have done that I will, till that it be noon, - That ye lie stone-still till that I have done. - Over your heads my hand I lift, ... - Out go your eyes, fore to do your sight....” - -Then seeing that they were all motionless, he crept to the flock, and -taking a fat sheep, put it under his cloak. - -At this moment the curtains in front of the other division of the stage -were pulled aside, showing a poor cottage room, in which sat Mac’s wife -spinning. A little wicket-gate in front of the cottage was locked, and -Mac (who was supposed to have walked some distance to his home) began to -knock upon it, and to beg his wife to let him in. At first she was angry -with him, saying that one day he would be hanged for sheep-stealing. But -the first question after all was to decide how they were to hide the -sheep during the search which was sure to be made by its owners. And -here Mac’s wife showed her quick wits, for she suggested a splendid way -out of the difficulty. This was to dress the creature up as a baby, and -put it in the cradle! - -Mac agreed, and there were roars of laughter as the poor struggling -sheep was wrapped in flannels and robes, and at last tucked so securely -in the cradle that it could not move. - -When this was at last accomplished, Mac went back to the field, and -lying down quietly in his old place, pretended to be fast asleep. Then -one by one the shepherds awoke, and began to tell their dreams. All of -them except Mac had dreamt that a sheep had been carried off; and _Mac_, -so he said, had dreamt that his wife was very ill. He pretended to be -much concerned and, telling the men he must go and see whether anything -had happened to her, he got up and once more went home. Meanwhile the -shepherds began to count their flock, and presently found that a sheep -was missing. It was Mac, of course!—who else could have stolen it?—and -at once in a body they rushed to his house, and insisted upon searching -it. - -No sheep could they find, and Mac and his wife pretended to be so angry -at being disturbed, that at last the shepherds were leaving the cottage -in despair, when an idea occurred to one of them. - -He suddenly exclaimed that he would like to give something to the little -baby. - -“_Mac, by your leave, let me give your bairn but sixpence_,” he said. - -“_Nay, go ’way, he sleeps_,” returned Mac. “_When he wakens he weeps_,” -he added. “_I pray you go hence._” - -“_Give me leave him to kiss, and lift up the clout_,” begged one of the -other men. And before Mac’s wife could prevent him he had pulled down -the blanket. - -“_He has a long snout!_” exclaimed the shepherd, who had only caught one -glimpse of the strange “baby” in the cradle. - -But Mac’s wife was most indignant, and at once declared that it was a -beautiful baby: - - “A pretty child is he - As sits upon a woman’s knee; - A dylly-downe, perdie, - To make a man laugh!” - -But all she could say was useless, for by this time of course the -shepherds were very suspicious, and the sheep was pulled out from the -cradle, while the market-place rang with laughter. The angry shepherds, -seizing a blanket, now forced Mac into it, and to the huge delight of -the crowd, before returning to their field they tossed him violently, as -a punishment for his evil-doing. - -The laughter caused by this farce had scarcely died away when the -serious part of the performance began. A second stage had been drawn -meanwhile to the market-place, and was stationed at a little distance -from the first one, where to the shepherds, once more quietly guarding -their flock, there suddenly appeared an angel. The simple countrymen -gazed in awe, while in a sweet voice he sang _Gloria in Excelsis_, and -then, as he came closer, they sank on their knees, while he addressed -them: - - “Rise, gracious hired-men, for now is He born - That shall take from the fiend that Adam had lorn [lost] ... - God is made your friend: now at this morn - He behests [commands] - To Bedlem go see - There lies that free [Divine One] - In a crib full poorly, - Betwixt two beasts.” - -In amaze the shepherds listened, and in amaze they talked together when -the shining angel had gone. - -Pointing to a brilliant star, one of them declared it was a token to -guide them “where the young Child lay.” - - “Hie we thither quickly; - If we be wet and weary, - To that Child and that Lady,” - -another urged. And so descending from the stage-field, they began their -journey to Bethlehem, a journey represented by the space between the two -pageants. - -On the other platform meanwhile a charming scene was disclosed. There -was the stable at Bethlehem, with its broken roof, and within the stable -Mary in a long blue robe knelt beside the manger, at which, with their -kind, patient eyes, an ox and an ass were also gazing. - -Now the shepherds had arrived, and finding themselves in the presence of -“that Child and that Lady,” they bent low their knees, and began to talk -to the Baby Jesus as though they loved Him, and as though He were a -child of their own to whom they had brought tiny presents. - - “Hail, comely and clean; hail, young child!” - -said the first shepherd. - - “Lo, He merry is; - Lo, He laughs, my sweeting, - A welcome meeting! - I have given my greeting, - Have a bob of cherries?” - -Then in the same homely, delightful way, the second shepherd greeted the -Baby: - - “Hail, Sovereign Saviour, for Thou hast us sought! - Hail! I kneel and I cower.... A bird have I brought - To my bairn. - Hail, little tiny mop [little tiny pate] ... - Little day-starn [star].” - -And the third shepherd said: - - “Hail, darling dear, full of Godheed! - I pray Thee be near when that I have need.... - Hail, put forth Thy dall [hand], - I bring Thee but a ball: - Have and play Thee with all, - And go to the tennis.” - -Mary, bending down to the shepherds, then spoke to them gently, telling -them that she would pray her Son to keep them from woe, and bidding them -spread the glad tidings of His birth. After a while the shepherds left -her presence, singing glad songs in honour of the new-born King. - -“I like that best of all, except Abraham and Isaac!” Margery exclaimed, -as the pageants were drawn away. “And _now_ we shall see the wicked King -Herod, shan’t we?” - - - - - VIII - King Herod, the Wise Men, and the Massacre of the Innocents - - -That the children should long to see the pageant in which Herod appeared -was no wonder, for he was a very well-known character in the miracle -plays. Just as in some fairy tales the wicked giant is well known, and -is always expected to be as wicked as possible, so in these plays Herod -was always represented as a furious tyrant and a great boaster, who -raged and stormed and used such exaggerated language that he seemed more -like a madman than a sane human being. Though in the time of Queen -Elizabeth miracle plays were growing rare, it is just possible that -Shakespeare as a boy may have seen some of them, and when he makes -Hamlet say that one of the actors in the play-scene “out-herods Herod,” -he may have been thinking of the particular stamping and shouting Herod -whom he himself had watched. But in any case, during the lifetime of -Shakespeare the memory of the furious king must have lingered in the -minds of old people at Stratford-on-Avon, many of whom as children must -often have seen him blustering and screaming and ordering people to be -killed. - -At the windows of Master Robert Harpham’s house at any rate, on this -June day when Henry V was king, there was much talk about the coming -“Herod,” who was said to be an excellent player and to rage more -furiously than any of the actors who had taken part in previous years. -Excitement therefore ran high, when the Goldsmiths’ pageant drew up, for -in their play—_The Three Kings coming from the East_—Herod was for the -first time to appear. - -The stage represented Herod’s palace. It was a very small palace, and it -looked something like an enlarged sentry-box, brightly painted and -ornamented at the top with a dome and various pinnacles. From its -doorway, on to the space in front of it, there presently stepped a -herald, who in these pompous words announced the coming of the King: - - “Peace, Lord Barons of great renown! - Peace, Sir Knights of noble presence! - Peace, gentleman companions of noble order! - I command that all of you keep silence. - Peace, while your noble king is in presence! - Let no person stint to pay him deference; - Be not bold to strike, but keep your hearts in patience, - And to your lord keep heart of reverence, - For he, your king, has all _puissance_! - In the name of the law, I command you peace! - And King Herod—‘_la grandeaboly vos umport._’” - -The last words, spoken by the herald in a low voice and with a knowing -smile, were greeted with a roar of delight, for Herod was to some extent -a comic character, at whom every one might laugh and “_la grandeaboly -vos umport_” is bad French for “_the devil run away with you_!” - -And now Herod himself majestically strode forth, and again laughter, -half derisive, half admiring, rang out, for in spite of all the boasting -and stamping which every one knew was coming, he made a magnificent -figure. - -Dressed as a Saracen, he wore wonderful Eastern robes, and a jewelled -turban. His black hair was dishevelled, his face red and angry, and with -his flashing eyes, and huge flashing sword, he looked formidable enough. - -“_Qui status in Jude ex Rex Israel_,” he began in a loud commanding -tone. - -“That means—‘He that reigns King in Judea and Israel,’” explained Master -Gyseburn to the children. “Now listen to his boasting.” - - “Qui status in Jude et Rex Israel, - And the mightiest conquerer that ever - Walked on ground” (Herod went on), - “For I am even he that made both heaven and hell, - And of my mighty power holdeth up this world round. - I am the cause of this great light and thunder. - It is through my fury that they such noise do make. - My fearful countenance the clouds doth so encumber, - That often for dread thereof the very earth doth shake.” - -This was only part of the foolish king’s boasting, for he went on to -declare that with one word he could destroy the whole world from the -north unto the south; that he was prince of purgatory and chief captain -of hell. No tongue, he declared, could tell of his possessions, his -wealth, and his power. At last, turning to his servant the herald, he -warned him to allow no strangers to pass through the realm without -paying tribute to him, and bade him be gone hastily, - - “For they that will the contrary, - Upon a gallows hanged shall be.” - -Then ordering “trumpets, viols, and other harmony” to announce his -presence to all the world, Herod re-entered the palace, and the herald -departed to do his bidding. - -Now appeared riding through the market-place in great state, two of the -three kings from the East. They were mounted on white horses with -beautiful trappings, and each horse had a long cloth of velvet over his -back. The kings were Gaspar (or Jaspar) and Balthazar. The first was an -old man with a long white beard, the second a man in the prime of life. -They both wore crowns of gold upon which the sunshine sparkled, and -their dresses of wonderful colours were embroidered with jewels. Both of -them had seen the Star in the East, and from a far country had followed -it into Herod’s kingdom. As they rode, they talked together, reminding -one another that the prophets had foretold the birth of a wonderful -Child. - -Presently, riding from another direction, came the third king, Melchior, -a handsome youth also crowned and richly clothed. He was looking about -him as he came, evidently seeking some guide, and his words showed that -he too had seen the Star in the East. - - “I ride wandering in ways wide, - Over mountains and dales, I wot not where I am. - Now King of all kings send me such guide, - That I may have knowledge of this country’s name.... - Two kings yonder, I see, and to them will I ride, - For to have their company I trust they will me abide [await].” - -Spurring his horse, he rode up to the two monarchs and addressed them: - - “Hail, comely kings augent [gentle], - Good sirs, I pray you, whither are ye meant?” - - “To seek a Child is our intent, - Which betokens yonder star as ye may see,” - -said the old king, Gaspar. - - “To whom I purpose this present,” - -added Balthazar, showing him a golden vase full of frankincense. - -Then the third king, Melchior, replied, - - “Sirs, I pray you, and that right humbly, - With you that I may ride in company; - To Almighty God now pray we - That His precious person we may see.” - -Thus having greeted one another, the kings rode aside, while on the -pageant, Herod came out of his palace to meet the herald, who, on seeing -him, exclaimed: - - “Hail, Lord, most of might! - Thy commandment is right. - Into thy land is come this night - Three kings, and with them a great company.” - - “What make those kings in this country?” - -returned Herod. - - “To seek a King and a Child, they say,” - -answered the herald. - - “Of what age should He be?” - -Herod inquired angrily. - - “Scant twelve days old fully,” - -said the herald. - -Whereupon Herod, restraining his wrath, commanded the herald on pain of -death to follow the kings, to speak gently to them, in order to deceive -them into imagining that they would be well treated, and then to speed -in hot haste to Jerusalem to make inquiries about the Child they sought. - -So the herald, descending from the stage, followed Gaspar, Balthazar, -and Melchior, and very courteously told them that Herod, “king of these -countries wide,” desired to speak with them. The travellers, immediately -agreeing to his wish, were brought before the palace. There Herod -received them courteously, wished them a safe journey, and begged them -to return the same way. - - “And with great concord banquet with me, - And that Child myself then will I see - And honour Him also,” - -he added, allowing his guests to depart with many compliments on either -side. - -But no sooner had they mounted their horses and ridden away than Herod’s -rage blazed forth. - - “When they come again, they shall die that same day, - And thus these vile wretches to death shall be brought!” - -he exclaimed, stalking into his palace, while the kings rode a little -distance to another pageant where again the stable at Bethlehem was -represented, with Mary watching by the manger. - -Here, just as the shepherds had done, but in much more stately language, -they offered their costly gifts to the Child. - -Gaspar gave a cup of gold. “_In tokening Thou art without peer_,” he -said, as he laid his offering at the foot of the manger. - -A cup full of frankincense was Balthazar’s gift, “_In tokening of -priesthood and dignity of office_;” while the young king Melchior had -brought a precious goblet, with “_myrrh for mortality, in tokening Thou -shalt mankind restore to life by Thy death upon a tree_.” - -Then Mary spoke to the kings as sweetly as she had addressed the -shepherds, and presently they withdrew a little from her presence and -began to discuss their homeward journey. Gaspar declared that according -to their promise they must return through Herod’s land; and though the -others agreed, they were all so fatigued that they decided to lie down -and rest awhile. Accordingly, at a distance from the manger, they threw -themselves on the ground. Before long they slept, and while they slept, -a beautiful vision appeared to them. - -An angel, who seemed to be hovering in the air, descended from the -darkness of the stable-roof, and bent still hovering above them. - -“Is he _really_ flying?” exclaimed Margery, in an awed voice; and Master -Gyseburn smiled. - -“It looks as though he were, certainly,” he agreed; “but there’s a -clever contrivance arranged by the carpenters and fastened to the roof -up there, by which the angel is let down and made to look as though he -were fluttering in the air.” - -“He is _lovely_!” declared Margery, sighing with pleasure. “Look at his -golden curls and his long wings! What is he going to say to the kings?” - -“Listen!” Colin advised her. - - “King of Tarsus, Sir Gaspar!” (exclaimed the angel) - “King of Araby, Sir Balthazar! - Melchior, King of Aginara! - To you now I am sent. - For dread of Herod, go you west home ... - The Holy Ghost this knowledge hath sent.” - -Then, bending a moment longer over the still sleeping kings, he flew -upwards and was lost to sight. - -When the kings awoke, it was to discover that each one of them had heard -the angel’s warning; so taking a last leave of the Babe and His Mother, -they set out on their journey, carefully arranging not to pass through -the dominions of the wicked and treacherous Herod. - -Meanwhile, the herald, in fear and trembling, once more ascended the -steps leading to the palace-portal, and broke the news to his master: - - “These three kings that forth were sent, - And should have come again before thee here present, - Another way, Lord, home they went, - Contrary to thine honour.” - -Then indeed the audience had an opportunity of watching Herod’s rage: - - “Another way!” (he exclaimed, trembling with fury) - “Out! Out! Out! - Hath those foul traitors done me this deed? - I stamp, I stare, I look all about; - Might them I take I should them burn at a glede [fire]. - I rend, I roar, and now run I wood [mad] ... - They shall be hanged if I come them to.” - -Roaring and stamping and raving, as he said of himself, the king rushed -down the pageant steps and “raged” in the market-place amongst the -people, to the delight of the grown-up folk and the terror of the -children in the crowd. And all the while he was running to-and-fro, -screaming with fury, he was giving orders that “all young children” -should be slain. - -But even the rough soldiers who had come from the palace to follow their -master, and had at last succeeded in getting him to return to the stage, -were horrified at this cruel command, and one of them spoke indignantly: - - “My Lord, King Herod by name, - Thy words against my will shall be. - To see so many young children die is shame, - Therefore counsel thereto gettest thou none of me.” - -Another one agreed with his companion, and warned Herod that to murder -little children in such wholesale fashion would be sufficient -provocation for a general rising among his subjects. - - “A rising! Out! Out! Out!” - -shouted the mad tyrant; and, raging and stamping once more, he commanded -both soldiers to be hanged on the gallows unless they immediately -carried out his orders. - -So for very fear the soldiers were obliged to obey, and Herod drove them -forth to do the cruel deed, telling them to bring all the little dead -children “before his sight,” so that he might be sure his orders had -been carried out. - -But now the attention of the audience was directed towards the other -pageant representing the Stable at Bethlehem. Here the beautiful angel -who had already appeared to the three kings was seen fluttering down -towards the Mother of Jesus and her husband Joseph, and soon his voice -was heard: - - “Mary and Joseph, to you I say, - Sweet word from the Father I bring you full right; - Out of Bethlehem into Egypt forth go ye the way, - And with you take the King, full of might, - For dread of Herod’s red [order].” - -In reply, Joseph turned to Mary: - - “Arise up, Mary, hastily and soon! - Our Lord’s will needs must be done, - Like as the angel bade.” - -And Mary answered: - - “Meekly, Joseph, mine own spouse, - Toward that country let us repair; - In Egypt—some tokens of house— - God grant us grace safe to come there!” - -While she spoke, she was tenderly lifting the Baby from His cradle, and -the curtains closed upon the Holy Family making preparations for their -journey. - -The play now went on in the street, for presently, threading their way -through the crowd, a company of women entered, each bearing in her arms -her little baby. And as the mothers walked to-and-fro and rocked their -children, they sang this pretty song: - - “Lulla, lulla, thou little tiny child; - By, by, lullay, lullay, thou little tiny child. - By, by, lully, lullay. - - O sisters too! how may we do, - For to preserve this day - This poor youngling for whom we do sing, - By, by, lully, lullay. - - Herod the king, in his raging, - Charged he hath this day - His men of might, in his own sight, - All young children to slay. - - That woe is me, poor child, for thee! - And ever, morn and day, - For thy parting neither say nor sing, - By, by, lully, lullay.” - -The poor distracted mothers, with their faces full of grief, won the -pity of the crowd, and many women exclaimed aloud, half believing that -the babies were really going to be snatched from them and killed! - -Then one of the women, in a voice shaken with fear, sang alone: - - “I lull my child wondrously sweet, - And in my arms I do it keep, - Because that it should not cry.” - -And another replied, calling on the new-born King: - - “That Babe that is born in Bethlehem so meek, - He save my child and me from villainy.” - -Yet another said: - - “Be still! be still! my little child! - That Lord of lords save both thee and me; - For Herod hath sworn with words wild - That all young children slain they shall be.” - -Now the soldiers come rushing forward with drawn swords, and though -Colin assured her that it was only pretence, Margery could not look -while they grasped the screaming women by the arms or by the hair and -snatched their little baby-boys away from them. - -In vain the poor mothers struggled and implored. Their children were all -killed, and presently the soldiers went away to fetch “wains and wagons” -on which to heap the little bodies. - -“I suppose they are only dolls?” Margery asked anxiously; but though -Master Gyseburn reassured her, she could not bear the sound of the -screams and the shouting. - -It was a relief when all the women went sobbing away, and the herald -stood once more before King Herod, and addressed him: - - “Herod, king! I shall thee tell, - All thy deeds is come to naught. - This Child is gone into Egypt to dwell, - Lo, sir, in thine own land what wonders byn [have been] wrought.” - -Margery sympathized deeply with the herald’s indignant tone. - -“He’s killed all the babies, and it was no good after all!” she -exclaimed. “He’s the wickedest and the most horrid man I ever saw! Look -at him ‘raging’ again! What is he going to do now? See! the servants are -getting his horse ready.” - -“He’s going to ride into Egypt to see if he can find the three kings, to -put them to death,” said Master Gyseburn. - -“But he won’t!” observed Colin with much satisfaction. “There he goes -riding through the crowd, still storming. Now he’s out of sight—and a -good thing too.” - -The last they saw of Herod was his huge sword brandished aloft; and the -last sound they heard was his foolish voice raised in anger. - - - - - IX - At the End of the Day - - -The children had been so absorbed and interested in the last play, which -was a long one, that when the pageant was wheeled away, they were -surprised to find the market-place all glowing in the light of sunset. -Little pink clouds like feathers were floating in the sky, across which -flights of birds were winging their way to nests in the trees round the -city. - -“Giles will soon be home!” said Mistress Harpham. “If there’s time for -one more play this evening I shall be mistaken. It will soon be dark.” - -“Do they stop when it gets dark?” asked Margery. - -“But there are lots more to come!” objected Colin, looking at the -“pageant book” which Master Gyseburn held open on his knee. Though he -could not read, he saw by the long list which followed the _Massacre of -the Innocents_ that scarcely half of the plays had as yet been -performed. - -Mistress Harpham had turned away to superintend arrangements for the -supper she was about to offer her guests, but Master Gyseburn answered -the children’s questions. - -“The plays will go on all day to-morrow, and the next day too, I -expect,” he told them. “It very seldom happens that any town gets -through all its pageants on one day. Certainly not here in York, where -we generally act forty of them.” - -“But suppose it gets dark in the middle of a play?” asked Margery. “What -happens then?” - -“Then the torch-bearers are called out,” said Master Gyseburn. “I expect -they’ll be needed before the next one is over,” he added. “The daylight -will scarcely last.” - -“And they’ll go on to-morrow, and we shan’t be here!” sighed Margery, so -dolefully that Master Gyseburn laughed. - -“You’re not tired of them? And yet you’ve had a long day of it!” - -“Tired? Oh! I should love to see every one of them!” Margery declared. - -“And so should I,” echoed her brother. - -“A great many sad and dreadful scenes will come to-morrow,” said Master -Gyseburn. “I really think you’ve seen all that would please you. The -others are for grown-up people. And some are too horrible for _them_,” -he added. “At least I think so.” - -“Now children, come to supper!” called Mistress Harpham, who was busy -lighting candles on the table, for the room with its dark oak-panelling, -and heavy beams overhead, was growing very gloomy. - -“We shall have to think about saying good-bye directly!” declared Farmer -Short as he took his seat. “’Tis a long ride home, and we have to get -the horses out of the stable.” - -“Plenty of time for a meal!” said Mistress Harpham, bustling about and -filling the children’s plates with good things. - -“Will Giles come before we have to go?” asked Margery. “I do hope he -will!” - -Almost as she spoke, the door opened, and Giles came in. - -He was welcomed rapturously by all the guests, and though the poor boy -looked very tired, he was made to answer a hundred questions about the -success of the Parchment-makers’ pageant in other parts of the town. - -It had been well received everywhere apparently; and though Giles was -very modest, his mother learnt with pride that her son’s acting had been -praised almost as much as she desired. - -“We missed you so much after you went,” whispered Margery to her cousin, -a little shyly, for she was still very much impressed at the thought of -his talents. - -“But Master Gyseburn explained everything to us,” put in Colin. “And all -the plays were _splendid_!” - -Before long there was a general bustle and movement round the table. -Many of the guests, like the children, had a long way to go to reach -their homes, and they were anxious to set out before the day’s pageants -were quite over. - -“There’ll be a fine crowd in the streets by the time they’re all done,” -said Master Harpham. “But if you go now, while some of the folk are -still looking at the plays, you’ll reach the inn without much trouble.” - -“Aye, and Robert will go with you and show you the quickest by-ways to -reach it; won’t you, Robert?” suggested his wife, as she prepared to -follow Mistress Short and the children to the best bedroom, where they -had left their cloaks. - -Colin and Margery were soon ready, and with their little hoods tied -round their necks they returned to the parlour, and ran eagerly to the -window, anxious up to the last moment to see all that was going on. - -They found Giles kneeling on one of the wide window-seats, looking out -into the street, and Margery climbed up beside him. She had taken a -great fancy to her clever, interesting cousin, and she thought how -pretty he looked with his fair head resting against the woodwork of the -window. - -“What are they doing now?” she asked before her own curly head appeared -above the level of the window-sill. - -“_The Child Jesus in the Temple_,” said Giles. “It’s the Spur-makers’ -and Bit-makers’ pageant, and Andrew Martin is the Child Jesus. He’s a -friend of mine,” he added. - -“Oh! the torch-bearers are there!” exclaimed Colin. “It _has_ got dark -quickly!” - -“Doesn’t it look nice in this light?” said Margery; and Giles nodded, -too intent upon the play to reply. - -At the foot of the pageant, all holding flaming torches aloft, four boys -were stationed, and the ruddy glow flickered over a beautiful group on -the stage. The learned doctors in their long robes leant upon one -another’s shoulders or whispered together, their eyes fixed upon a -youthful figure in their midst, Who in a grave yet charming voice was -reading something from a roll of parchment. - -“It’s Jesus when He was a Boy, isn’t it?” whispered Margery; and again -Giles nodded. - -The boy wore a long sheepskin coat, and his fair hair was made brighter -by gilding. His legs were bare, and on his feet were sandals. - -“Andrew is wonderful!” said Giles gravely, “all his gestures are good -and dignified. And so is his voice. This was the part they wanted me to -play, but I would not attempt it. I knew Andrew would do it better.” - -Margery glanced at her cousin admiringly. In her little mind she felt -sure that Giles too was wonderful, and that all she had heard about the -great things he was to do in the future had not been exaggerated. Some -day, she was certain, Giles would be a famous man. Her thoughts were put -to flight, however, by the entrance of her mother and a large company of -other guests all ready for departure; so leave-takings were very -hurried. - -But she found time to hug Giles, who in spite of the laughter which went -round, allowed himself to be kissed with very good grace. - -“We will go out by the back way,” called Master Harpham, and the -children soon found themselves in a quiet street, where the noise from -the market-place sounded only as a faint murmur. - -By winding lanes and passages Master Harpham led his guests towards the -“Dragon” inn where they had left their horses and their wagons. Every -now and then however, when they turned a corner, Margery and Colin -caught a glimpse of a crowd, of flaming torches, and of the top of one -of the pageants stationed sometimes half-way up a street, sometimes in a -little open space, sometimes beneath a city gate. - -“They are still going on!” Colin exclaimed. - -“Yes; but only till the pageant of the _Doctors in the Temple_ has been -played at the last halting-place,” said Master Harpham, looking back -over his shoulder at the little boy. “It’s all over for to-night in our -market-place, for instance; but the Doctors’ play won’t reach -Girdlegate, the last place, for another half-hour, perhaps.... Now, -here’s the inn! Hurry, all of you, and you will get out your horses -before there’s too much of a crush.” - -Dobbin and Jock, looking quite fresh after their long day’s rest, were -soon led out from their corner of the stables, and in a moment Margery -was perched on Dobbin’s back, in front of her father. - -“Good-nights” were called, and, in company with various other -travellers, the children rode along the cobble-paved streets towards -Mikelgate, from which the pageants had long ago departed, leaving the -road to the gate clear. - -“’Tis luck to have moonlight!” exclaimed Farmer Short, as they emerged -upon the country-road. - -Margery looked back towards the city they had left, over which hung a -dull red glow from the torchlights which still streamed and flickered -there; and as she looked she drew a long sigh. - -“She’s tired!” said her mother; but Margery indignantly denied the fact. - -“I was thinking what a lovely day it’s been,” she declared; “and about -all the plays they will be acting to-morrow and the next day. But Master -Gyseburn says they will be sad plays. So perhaps I shouldn’t like to see -them after all. I didn’t like it when the babies were killed!” - -“Yes,” said a neighbour; “there are about twenty still to come. They’ll -need two days more at least. The saddest plays will come last, when the -Tapestry-weavers act the _Trial of Christ_; and the Tile-makers and -Painters _The Crucifixion_.” - -“’Twas a mercy it was fine,” exclaimed Mistress Short. “And likely to be -fine to-morrow,” she added, with a glance at the clear sky, in which a -full moon sailed. - -Both the children grew silent as they jogged towards home along the -white road, upon which fell their shadows and the shadows of the horses -and of overhanging trees. It was very quiet and peaceful in the country, -and they were both sleepy. All the curious and novel things they had -seen during the day began to appear like a dream, in which the three -kings passed and re-passed; and Herod, with his flashing sword, stamped -and raved; and beautiful angels, with golden wings, hovered above a -stable in Bethlehem; and the serpent talked to Adam and Eve. But more -frequently than any of the other figures in the plays Margery saw the -little white-robed Isaac begging for his life; and, when the cottage was -reached at last, and she was in bed and really asleep, it was of him she -dreamt. - - - - - X - Everyman - - -As some of you may have noticed, the miracle plays to which long ago -Colin and Margery listened were for the most part badly written, in such -rough, uncouth verse, that a great deal of each play may be described as -mere doggerel. Very few of them have any claim to be called -_literature_. They are just rhyming stories, often very badly rhymed, to -be acted before uncritical people, thousands of whom were poor and -simple folk who, if the stories were sufficiently exciting and the -actors well enough dressed, neither knew nor cared that the words were -poor. Every now and then, indeed, in these old plays a fragment of verse -is charming. For instance, in the Nativity scene, which used to be acted -at Coventry, there are some delightful words. Here are a few lines from -the prophets’ speeches about the new-born King. - -Second prophet: - - “Yet do I marvel - In what pile or castle - These herdsmen did Him see” - -And the first prophet replies: - - “Neither in halls not yet in bowers, - Born would He not be, - Neither in castles nor in towers - That seemly were to see; - But at His Father’s will, - The prophecy to fulfil, - Betwixt an ox and an ass - Jesu this King born He was.” - -The lullaby to the babies in the same play is pretty too, and so is the -shepherds’ song when the angels have announced to them the birth of -Christ. Here are the words: - - “As I out rode this enderes’ night, - Of three jolly shepherds I saw a sight, - And all about their fold a star shone bright; - They sang, Terli, ter low; - So merrily the shepherds their pipes can blow.” - -But the best of all the plays is one that does not appear in either of -the four sets known as the York, the Coventry, the Chester, and the -Wakefield series. It was probably first written in Dutch, and afterwards -translated into English. For we must remember that not only in England -were these miracle plays acted; they were just as popular in France, in -Germany, and in Holland, as in our own country. This particular play is -called _Everyman_, and it is in many ways different from any of the -pageants we have so far talked about. - -In the first place, instead of being a Bible story, it is an allegory, -something like the allegory of the _Pilgrim’s Progress_. Just as -Christian, the “Pilgrim,” stands for any human being born into this -world and passing through it on his way to another life, so Everyman -means just what the word says. Every man or woman of us. _Everyone_, in -fact; since every one of us is born into this world and, after -journeying through life, has to pass out of it at the gate of death. - -Though the play is so old (it was first written and acted, perhaps, in -the reign of Henry V), it remains true for people who live nowadays, and -for the people who will live after us. Not only because it is true, but -also because it is so dignified and touching, certain people who lately -read it, thought that it might very well be acted again, and presented -as nearly as possible in the same way as it was played by actors in -bygone days—five hundred years ago. - -So men and women were found to study it, to learn the parts, and to copy -old dresses for the characters, and the first revival performance of -_Everyman_ was given in London some years ago, in the open air, at -Charterhouse, the old city school for boys. Since then it has been acted -in many theatres, but perhaps that first performance was the best of -all, because the play, like all other miracle plays, was meant to be -acted out of doors, and Charterhouse, with its old courtyard and its old -grey walls, was the best frame that could possibly have been devised for -an old play. - -In the courtyard of Charterhouse, then, a big wooden platform or -scaffolding was set up, close against the wall of the school chapel. -Steps at either end of the platform led down to the cobble-paved yard, -and on the wooden stage itself, there were one or two little recesses, -like shrines, hidden by curtains. There was no other scenery. - -Some of the spectators sat on benches in front of the platform, and all -the windows looking into the courtyard were filled with people, just as -the windows overlooking that market-place in York were crowded, when -miracle plays were acted long ago. And just as some of those plays began -with the coming of a herald to explain what was going to take place, so -this play of _Everyman_ began with the appearance of a messenger or -_doctor_. He was dressed in a long black gown, something like those -still worn by the dons and students at Oxford or Cambridge. Round his -neck was a white ruff, and on his head a flat cap of velvet. Coming from -one of the doorways which opened into the courtyard, he walked towards -the platform, ascended its steps, and addressed the audience, beginning -with these words. - -Messenger: - - “I pray you all give your audience, - And hear this matter with reverence, - By figure a moral play— - The _Summoning of Everyman_ called it is, - That to our lives and ending shows - How transitory we be all day. - This matter is wondrous precious, - But the intent of it is more gracious - And sweet to bear away.” - -Continuing, he reminded his listeners that _Everyman_ would be required -to give an account of his life before “the Heaven King,” and he called -upon them to listen to the voice of the Almighty Himself. - -His speech ended, he left the platform, and in a moment, a stately -figure representing God the Father appeared at the chapel window which -overhung the stage, in much the same way as five hundred years ago God -Almighty used to come from a window above the church porch. - -A balcony with a stone balustrade projected from the window, and leaning -upon it the Figure, dressed as in olden days, like a pope, in costly -robe and mitre, addressed the audience. - - “I perceive here in My Majesty - How all creatures are to Me unkind”— - -He began in solemn tones— - - “Living without dread in worldly prosperity; - Of ghostly sight the people be so blind, - Drowned in sin they know Me not for their God.” - -He reminded them of the great Sacrifice which seemed to have passed from -their thoughts. - - “My law that I showed, when I for them died, - They forget clean, and shedding of My blood red; - I hanged between two, it cannot be denied; - To get them life, I suffered to be dead; - I healed their feet, with thorns hurt was My head; - I could do no more than I did truly, - And now I see the people do clean forsake Me.” - -“And now,” went on the Almighty, “I must bring Everyman to a reckoning, -for he is so cumbered with worldly riches that he forgets how all riches -and pleasures are only lent to him for a time, and are to be used for My -glory. I will send Death to him.” - - “Where art thou, _Death_, thou mighty messenger?” - -He called in grave accents. Then from a door beneath the stage there -came a curious and grotesque creature. - -He was like a skeleton; or rather the bones of a skeleton were painted -on his close-fitting dress of black leather. The mask of a skull was -over his face; his head was crowned with fading roses, and he carried a -drum, upon which he beat with warning blows. - - “Almighty God, I am here at your will, - Your commandment to fulfil” (said Death). - - “Go thou to _Everyman_, - And show him in My Name - A pilgrimage he must on him take, - Which he in no wise may escape” (commanded God the Father). - -To whom Death replied that he would run the world over and search for -all who lived “out of God’s laws.” - - “Lo, yonder I see _Everyman_ walking! (he exclaimed suddenly)— - Full little he thinketh on my coming.” - -And indeed it seemed as though the slim and handsome youth who at that -moment came from one of the houses in the courtyard had never thought -seriously of anything. Careless and light-hearted, beautifully dressed, -and playing on a lute as he walked, he was thinking only of amusement -and gaiety, when, as he reached the platform, he was suddenly confronted -with Death. - - “_Everyman_, stand still! (commanded the mighty messenger). - Whither art thou going - Thus gaily? Hast thou thy Master forgot?” - -At these words poor Everyman trembled and hesitated, and Death went on -to say that he had been sent to him in great haste “from God out of His -Majesty” to tell him he was bidden to take a long journey and to bring -with him his book of reckoning, to answer before God for all his deeds -in this, his present life. In vain Everyman begged for a delay. - - “O _Death_” (he cried), “thou comest when I had thee least in mind! - In thy power it lieth me to save, - Yet of my good will I give thee, if ye will be kind— - Yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have, - And defer this matter till another day.” - -But Death replied that “to cry, weep, and pray” was of no avail, since -he took neither gold, silver, nor riches from pope, emperor, king, duke, -nor princes. He must instantly set forth on the journey from which there -was no returning. - -Then, in his great trouble, Everyman called upon God: - - “O gracious God, in the high seat celestial, - Have mercy on me in this most need!... - Shall I have no company from this vale terrestrial?” - -he asked of Death. For he dreaded to take the long journey alone. - - “Yea, if any be so hardy - That would go with thee and bear thee company,” - -Death replied. - -Then Everyman began to think of his friends, and to wonder which of them -loved him well enough to go with him into the Valley of the Shadow of -Death. And presently he saw _Good Fellowship_ approaching. Now in this -story “Good Fellowship” means all the companions with whom Everyman had -spent gay and delightful hours—men with whom he had laughed and jested; -men who had professed the greatest affection for him. So when he saw the -smiling face of Fellowship, he was full of hope, and he went eagerly to -meet him. - - “_Everyman_, good-morrow by this day (said _Fellowship_); - Sir, why lookest thou so piteously? - If anything be amiss, I pray thee, me say, - That I may help to remedy.” - -Everyman admitted that he was in great trouble, and nothing could have -been kinder than Fellowship’s voice, as he declared himself ready to do -anything for his friend. If any one had wronged him, he was ready to -kill the offender. That he would never forsake his dear companion -Everyman might rest assured. - -So, greatly consoled, Everyman told him that he must take a long -journey, and he begged that Fellowship would be his travelling -companion. Then, for the first time, the gay and cheerful fellow began -to look serious. “I promised not to forsake you,” he said; “but we must -discuss the matter at greater length. If we took such a journey, when -should we come again?” - -“Nay, never again till the day of doom,” answered Everyman sadly. - -At these words Fellowship started back in fear. - -“Who hath you these tidings brought?” he asked in a strange voice. - -“Indeed, Death was with me here,” Everyman replied. - -Then Fellowship, more than ever afraid, absolutely refused to go on a -journey commanded by Death. If Everyman had wanted him to eat and drink -with him, or to help him in any of his pleasures, he would never have -forsaken him, he declared. Even if he had wanted him to commit murder he -would have been ready to serve him. But this request was an impossible -one, so impossible that he would not even accompany him as far as the -town gates. - -So, very mournfully, Everyman wished him farewell, gazing after him as -he hurried away, a brilliant figure in his scarlet doublet and hose, -with his sword clanking at his side. - -Good Fellowship had failed him; “but surely,” thought Everyman, “my own -relations will be faithful to me in my sorrow?” And when he saw them -strolling across the courtyard, hope once more revived in his heart. - -Of the little company of young men who now came on to the platform, one -was Everyman’s cousin, of whom he was very fond; and this cousin, seeing -that something was wrong, begged for an explanation, which, in these -words, Everyman gave: - - “Gramercy, my friends and kinsmen kind, - Now shall I show you the grief of my mind: - I was commanded by a messenger, - That is an high King’s chief officer; - He bade me go a pilgrimage, to my pain, - And I know well I shall never come again; - Also I must give a reckoning straight, - For I have a great enemy that lieth me in wait, - Which intendeth me for to hinder.” - -Now, as he spoke, the faces of the young men grew very grave and -anxious. - - “What account is that which ye must render? - That would I know,” - -demanded one of them. - -And Everyman replied: - - “Of all my works I must show - How I have lived and my days spent; - Also of ill deeds that I have used - In my time, sith life was me lent; - And of all virtues that I have refused. - Therefore I pray you go thither with me - To help to make mine account, for Saint Charity.” - -But the kinsmen started back in horror. - - “Nay, Everyman, I had liefer fast bread and water - All this five year and more!” - -exclaimed one of them. - -And the cousin said: - - “I have the cramp in my toe. Trust not to me.” - -One by one they hastened away, and poor Everyman was left lamenting, -till suddenly a thought struck him: - - “All my life I have loved riches” (he reflected); - “If that my Good [wealth] now help me might, - He would make my heart full light. - I will speak to him in this distress. - Where art thou, my _Goods_ and riches?” - -No sooner had he called, than the curtains before one of the recesses on -the stage slid back, and disclosed a man richly dressed, seated within. -Before him money-bags were piled, and huge chests containing gold and -precious stones. - - “Who calleth me?” (said _Goods_). “Everyman? What haste thou hast!... - What would ye have, lightly me say.” - -So Everyman began to relate his trouble, while _Goods_ gazed at him with -his cold inhuman eyes. - - “Therefore, I pray thee, go with me,” - -concluded Everyman, falteringly; - - “For, peradventure, thou may’st before God Almighty - My reckoning help to clean and purify; - For it is said ever among - That money maketh all right that is wrong.” - - “Nay, Everyman, I sing another song; - I follow no man in such voyages,” - -declared _Goods_; and, when Everyman spoke to him indignantly, - - “What, weenest [imaginest] thou that I am thine?” - -he exclaimed. - - “I had wend [imagined] so,” - -stammered Everyman. - - “Nay, Everyman; I say no!” - -returned Goods; and went on to assure him that _Goods_ were only lent, -and that they generally killed a man’s soul. Then, in his great despair, -Everyman cursed the cruel spirit, who only laughed mockingly, refused to -follow him out of this world, and before Everyman could speak again drew -close the curtains of his shrine. - -Once more he strove to think of some help, and, at last, he recalled -_Good Deeds_, only to remember that she was so weak that she could -“neither go nor speak.” - -“Yet will I venture on her now,” he told himself. - - “My _Good Deeds_, where be you?” - -Again, at the other end of the stage, a recess opened, and there, lying -on the ground, so feeble and starved that she could scarcely move, was a -beautiful woman dressed in a long white robe embroidered with stars. - - “Here I lie cold in the ground (she said faintly). - Thy sins hath me sore bound, - That I cannot stir.” - -Very humbly Everyman approached her, for he knew that it was through his -fault that she was so weak and ill. He had neglected and scorned her, -but now she seemed his only hope, and so he implored her to take the -journey with him. - -“I would full fain, but I cannot stand verily,” she declared. And then -she showed him how his “book of accounts,” in which his good deeds -should have been numbered, was almost empty, and the pages were so -blurred and the letters so confused that Everyman could not decipher -them. He was almost beside himself with grief and fear, when Good Deeds -advised him to seek counsel of her sister, who was called _Knowledge_, -for she possibly might help him “to make that dreadful reckoning.” - -So Everyman stood before her shrine, and, when the curtains parted, he -saw that Knowledge was grave, and beautiful, and kind. - -To his great joy she promised to be his guide; but before all things she -told him he must first seek _Confession_, who would cleanse him from his -sins. - -So Knowledge brought him to Confession, a stately figure in a monk’s -cowl. Confession stepped from his shrine to counsel and instruct poor -Everyman, who confessed his sins, and begged that Good Deeds might be -strengthened. - -Kneeling before Confession, he prayed earnestly to God, and presently -Good Deeds stood at his side. - - “I thank God, now I can walk and go; - And am delivered of my sickness and woe (she said). - Therefore with Everyman I will go, and not spare. - His good works I will help him to declare.” - -With an encouraging smile, Knowledge bade the penitent Everyman be of -good cheer; and, with these words, she gave him a robe, which she told -him to wear. - - “It is (she said) a garment of sorrow: - From pain it will you borrow; - Contrition it is - That getteth forgiveness; - It pleaseth God passing well.” - -So Everyman put on the sad-coloured robe, and was preparing to set -forward on his journey with the two beautiful women, when Good Deeds -told him that three other people must go with them, their names being -_Discretion_, _Strength_, and _Beauty_. - - “Also (said Knowledge), ye must call to mind - Your five wits [five senses] as for your counsellors.” - -So Everyman called aloud, and Discretion, Strength, Beauty, and the Five -Senses (or wits), one after another, came towards him. They were all -splendid and stately figures, and the _Five Wits_ were five beautiful -women dressed in rainbow-coloured garments. - -Then Good Deeds addressed them, praying them all to accompany Everyman -on his last long journey, and each one in turn promised faithfully never -to forsake him. - -It seemed, therefore, as though the poor traveller had many friends with -him after all, and when Knowledge advised him to go to a priest and take -the Holy Sacrament, he consented gladly and humbly. - -On his return, Everyman found his companions waiting for him, but -suddenly he felt so weak that he knew he was almost at the end of that -journey commanded by Death. - -In the courtyard below the platform, at some distance, there was an open -grave; and looking at it he said to Beauty: - - “Friends, let us not turn again to this land, - Not for all the world’s gold; - For into this cave must I creep - And turn to earth, and then to sleep.” - - “What! into this grave? Alas! (exclaimed Beauty) - And what—should I smother here?” - - “Yes, by my faith (said Everyman), and never more appear; - In this world live no more we shall, - But in heaven, before the highest Lord of all.” - -Then, full of fear, Beauty declined to go with Everyman. - - “Peace, I am deaf; I look not behind me; - Not and thou would give me all the gold in thy chest,” - -she exclaimed; and turning from him in spite of her promise, she hurried -away. - -Strength followed, crying: - - “Thy game liketh me not at all!” - -And, after him, fled Discretion, saying: - - “When Strength goeth before, I follow after evermore.” - -Deserted by these three friends, Everyman, who had descended the steps -of the stage, was now quite close to the grave, and the scene was very -solemn and impressive. Evening was drawing near. Long shadows were cast -upon the courtyard, and across the sky, still clear, but rosy with -sunset, flights of birds moved slowly. The last rays of the sun touched -the roofs of the old grey houses, and the bells from the city churches -near were chiming together. - -One by one the beautiful figures who had forsaken him crossed the -courtyard and filed back to the world, across the stage, while Everyman, -in his black robe of sorrow, attended only by _Knowledge_ and _Good -Deeds_, stood at the brink of the tomb. - - “Oh, all things faileth save God alone! (he cried) - _Beauty_, _Strength_, and _Discretion_; - For when _Death_ bloweth his blast, - They all run from me full fast.” - -And now the _Five Senses_, who had come near to the tomb and formed a -shining group round it, also one by one turned away; and, in a failing -voice, Everyman murmured: - - “O Jesus, help! all hath forsaken me.” - -But _Good Deeds_, with a sweet smile, drew close to him. - - “Nay, Everyman” (she said), “I will bide with thee; - I will not forsake thee indeed; - Thou shalt find me a good friend at need.” - -Thus Everyman found that though he had loved all his other friends -better than _Good Deeds_, she alone was faithful, for even _Knowledge_, -who had so far followed him, now sadly moved aside, and he knew the -truth of the words uttered at the very edge of the grave by _Good -Deeds_: - - “All earthly things is but vanity: - _Beauty_, _Strength_, and _Discretion_ do man forsake; - Foolish friends and kinsmen that fair spake, - All fleeth save _Good Deeds_, and that am I.” - -Right into the grave she followed Everyman, and when, as he was sinking -back, he cried: - - “Have mercy on me, God most mighty; - And stand by me, thou Mother and Maid, holy Mary!” - -she answered: - - “Fear not, I will speak for thee.” - -And when the grave covered both of them, _Knowledge_ came near, and -bending over it, said: - - “Now hath he suffered that we all shall endure; - The _Good Deeds_ shall make all sure. - Now hath he made an ending.” - -She paused, listening, and in a joyful voice added: - - “Methinketh that I hear angels sing, - And make great joy and melody, - Where Everyman’s soul received shall be.” - -And indeed, almost before _Knowledge_ had finished speaking, there -appeared on the balcony, high above the stage, an angel with long wings -of rose-colour; and, while sweet music sounded, the angel spoke: - - “Come, excellent elect spouse, to Jesu:... - Thy reckoning is crystal-clear; - Now shalt thou into the heavenly sphere, - Unto the which ye all shall come - That liveth well, before the day of doom.” - -So, though the play had been very sad, it ended with beautiful sights -and sounds, and before the people in the audience moved, the Messenger -stood once more alone upon the stage, warning them to bear the moral of -Everyman in mind: - - “Forsake pride (he said), for he deceiveth you in the end; - And remember _Beauty_, _Five Wits_, _Strength_, and _Discretion_: - They all at the last do Everyman forsake, - Save his _Good Deeds_, there doth he take. - But beware, and they be small - Before God he hath no help at all.... - For after death amends may no man make.” - -But though this simple and beautiful old play is sometimes acted -nowadays, and though many people are interested and touched whenever it -is performed, yet, at any rate in England, the time for miracle plays -has gone by. - -If not wiser, the world has at least grown older since the days when -crowds of simple and unlearned folk assembled in market-places, or on -village-greens, to be taught the Bible history which they can now read -for themselves. - -A few men and women, it is true, occasionally write religious plays even -now. There is one, for instance, called _Bethlehem_, written by Laurence -Housman, which has lately been acted several times, and another by Miss -Buckland, with the title of _Eager Heart_, has for six years been played -every Christmas in the big hall at Lincoln’s Inn. - -But these modern religious dramas are like late violets blooming when -the real violet time is over. It may be delightful to find them still -growing here and there, but just as some flowers belong to the spring -and cannot live into the summer, so the real miracle plays which -flourished in the spring-time of our country’s history have died away -now that the country’s life is older. - -There is in Europe at the present day only one important religious play -to which, as in olden times, thousands of people flock, and that is -called the Ober Ammergau Passion Play, and is given once in ten years. - -Ober Ammergau is a village in Bavaria, and the play, acted by the -villagers, deals with the last days of Christ on earth, and is so -wonderful and so beautiful that it has become very celebrated. - -In a far-away German village like Ober Ammergau, where the natives are -simple folk living apart from the great world, such a performance as -this is still possible, and still a beautiful thing. Nevertheless it -remains true that for the great mass of people the age of miracle plays -is over. - -But though as national events they have passed away from our country for -ever, we must not forget that quite apart from the work of teaching -which they once performed, they are very important in the history of our -literature. - -Rough and often badly written as they are, these miracle plays prepared -the way for the drama which was to follow them in the days of Queen -Elizabeth. It is not too much to say that without them we might never -have had _Hamlet_, nor _As you like it_, nor any of the splendid and -beautiful plays of such a great dramatist as William Shakespeare. - - - _Printed by A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd., London and Oxford_ - - - - - ADVERTISEMENTS - - -The Story of St. Catherine of Siena - -By NETTA SYRETT. With 12 Illustrations and a Coloured Frontispiece. -Cloth, 2/6 net. - - Miss Syrett writes with a remarkable freshness and deftness of touch - which will appeal to readers of all ages, but especially to the young - reader. For the story as she tells it has the colour and joy of a - fairy tale—and yet is true; and the delicate reserve shown in dealing - with the religious side of the narrative adds to its impressiveness. - - -Roses of Martyrdom -Stories of the “Noble Army of Martyrs” for Children - - With 8 Illustrations in Colour. Cloth, 2/6 net. - - -Our Kings and Westminster Abbey -Being a revised and abridged Edition of “A Child’s History of -Westminster Abbey” - -By AGATHA G. TWINING, Author of _The Children’s Creed_; _The Childhood -of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ_, etc. With 33 Illustrations, and -Frontispiece in Colour. Cloth, 2/6 net. - - -Everyman’s History of the English Church - -By the Rev. PERCY DEARMER, D.D. With 112 Illustrations. 176 pages. Paper -boards, 1/- net; Cloth boards, 1/6 net. Gift Edition, cloth boards, -gilt, 2/- net. - - “A capital conspectus of English Church History.... It would be - difficult to name a better or cheaper work for the purpose in view, - one better printed or more convenient to handle and easier to - read.”—_Guardian._ - - -The Last Abbot of Glastonbury -A Tale of the Dissolution of the Monasteries - -By the late Rev. A. D. CRAKE, B.A. A new Edition, with 9 Illustrations -by George E. Kruger. Cloth, 2/6 net. - - “This is a very attractive volume, telling of a tragic episode in our - history which ought to be better known by Churchmen than it - is.”—_Guardian._ - - -The Doomed City -Or, the Last Days of Durocina -A Tale of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain, and the Mission of -Augustine - -By the late Rev. A. D. CRAKE, B.A. A new Edition, with 9 Illustrations -by George E. Kruger. Cloth, 2/6 net. - - -How the Church came to England - -By GERTRUDE HOLLIS, Author of _The Son of Aella_, _In the days of -Anselm_, etc. Cloth, limp, 1/- net; Cloth gilt, 1/6 net. - - “This book is meant for children, and has the excellent object of - teaching them to be loyal to the English Church.”—_Guardian._ - - -What the Church did for England -Being the Story of the Church of England up to A.D. 1215 - -With 15 Illustrations. By GERTRUDE HOLLIS. Cloth, 2/- net. - - - A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. Ltd., London and Oxford - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - -—Silently corrected a few typos. - -—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - -—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD MIRACLE PLAYS OF -ENGLAND *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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