Part 14
These storyes of the Testamente at this tyme, you knowe, In a common Englishe tongue never read nor harde; Yet thereof in these pagentes to make open shewe, This moonke & moonke was nothing afreayde, With feare of hanginge, breninge, or cutting off heade, To sett out, that all maye disserne & see And parte good be lefte, beleeve you mee.
As all that shall see them shall moste welcome be, Soe all that here them wee moste humble praye Not to compare this matter or storie With the age or tyme wherein we presentlye staye, But in the tyme of ignorance, wherein we did straye; Then doe I compare that this lande throughout Non had the like, nor the like dose sett out.
. . . . .
This worthy Knighte, Arnway, then mayor of this Citie, This order took, as declare to you I shall, That by twenty-fower occupations, artes, crafts, or misterie, These pagentes shoulde be played, after breeffe rehearsall; For everye pagente a cariage to be provyded withall; In which sorte we porpose, this Whitsontyde, Our pageantes into three partes to devyde.
. . . . .
But a much older and more valuable “Banes” has been found by Canon Morris amongst the Harleian MSS.[31] (not numbered or catalogued), and has been printed in his _Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor Periods_.[32]
[31] Collected by the Randle Holme family of Chester.
[32] By his kind permission printed here.
THE BANES OR PROCLAMATION OF THE PLAYES.
The comen bannes to be proclaymed and Ryddon with the Stewardys of every occupacon:--
Lordings Royall and Reverentt Lovelie ladies that here be lentt Sovereigne Citizens hether am I sent A message for to say.
I pray you all that be present That you will here with good intent And all your eares to be lent Hertfull I you pray.
Our worshipfull mair of this Citie With all his royall cominaltie Solem pagens ordent hath he At the fest of Whitsonday tyde.
How every craft in his decree Bryng forth their playes solemplie I shall declare you brefely Yf ye will a while abyde.
The worshipfull tanners of this towne Bryng forth the heavenly manshon Th’ orders of angells and theire creation According done to the best.
And when the angells be made so clere Then folowyth the falling of Lucifere To bring forth this play with good chere The tanners be full prest.
You worshipfull men of the draperye Loke that paradyse be all redye Prepare also the mappa mundi Adam and eke Eve.
The waterleders and drawers of Dee Loke that Noyes shipp be sett on hie That you lett not the storye And then shall you well chrue.
The barburs and wax channdlers also that day Of the Patriarche you shall play Abram, that put was to assay To sley Isack his sonne.
The cappers and pynners forth shall bring Balack that fears [fierce] and mightie Kyng And Balam on an asse sytting: Loke that this be done.
Youe wrights and slaters will be fayne Bring forth your cariage of Marie myld quene, And of Octavian so cruell and kene And also of Sybell the sage.
For findyng of that Royal thing I grant you all the blessing Of the high imperiall King Both the maister and his page.
Paynters glasiars and broderers in fer Have taken on theym with full good chere That the Sheppards play then shall appere And that with right good wyll.
The vynteners then as doth befall Bringe forth the 3 Kings Royall Of Colyn or pagent memoryall And worthy to appere.
Then shall you see how that Kynges all Came bouldly into the hall Before Herode proude in paulle Of Crysts byrth to heare.
The mercers worshipfull of degre The presentation that have yee Hit falleth best for your see By right reason and style Of caryage I have no doubt Both within and without It shall be deckyd y^t all the Rowte Full gladly on it shall be to loke With sundry cullors it shall glime Of velvit satten and damaske fine Taffyta sers-nette of poppyngee grene.
The gouldsmyths then full soone will hye And masons theyre craft to magnifye Theis two crafts will theim applye Theyre worshipp for to wynne How Herode King of Galalye For that intent Cryste to distrye Slew the Innocents most cruely Of tow yeres and within.
Semely smythis also in hyght A lovely caryage the will dyght Candilmas day for soth it hyght The find it with good will.
The buchers pagene shall not be myst How Satan tempted our Savyour Cryst It is an history of the best As witnesseth the gospell.
Nedys must I rehers the glover The give me gloves and gay gere The find the toumbs of Lazarey That pagene cometh next.
Also the corvesers with all their myght The fynde full fayre syght Jerusalem their caryage hyght For so sayth the text.
And the bakers also be dene The find the Maunday as I wene It is a carriage full well besene As then it shall appeare.
Flechers bowyers with great honours The Cowpers find the Tormentors That bobbyde God with gret honors As he sat in his chere [chair].
The Iron mongers find a caryage good How Jesus dyed on y^e rode And shed for us his precyus blud The find it in fere.
Cryst after his passion Brake Hell for our redempcion That find the cookes and hostelers of this towne And that with full good chere.
Also the skynners they be boune With great worshipp and renowne They find the Resurection Fayre maye them befall.
Sadlers and Foysters [“Fusterers”] have the good grace They find the Castell of Emawse Where Crist appered to Cleophas A faire pagend you shall see.
Also the Taylers with trew Intent Have taken on them verament The Assencyon by one assent To bringe it forth full right.
Fysshe mongers men of faith As that day will doe their stayth To bringe there caryage furth in trayth Wyt Sonday it hight.
The worshipfull wyves of this towne Ffyne of our lady thassumpcon It to bryng forth they be bowne And meyntene with all theyre might.[33]
The Shermen will not [be] behynd Butt bryng theire cariage with good mynde The pagent of prophettys they do fynd That prophecied ffull truly Off the coming of Anticrist That goodys ffaith would resist That cariage I warrand shall not myst Butt sett forth full dewly.
The hewsters that be men full sage They bryng forth a wurthy cariage That is a thing of grett costage Antycryst hit hight. They weyvers in very dede Ffynd the day of Dame, well may they spede I graunt them holly to theire neede The blysse of heven bright.
Sovereigne syrs to you I say And to all this ffayre cuntre That played shalbe this godely play In the whitson weke That is brefely for to sey Uppon Monday Tuysday and Wennysday Whoo lust to see theym he may And non of theym to sek.
{ Also maister maire of this Citie { Withall his bretheryn accordingly “_Erased_ { A solempne procession ordent hath he { To be done to the best { Appon the day of Corpus Christi _in_ { The blessed sacrament caried shalbe { And a play sett forth by the clergye { In honor of the fest _the_ { Many torches there may you see { Marchaunts and craftys of this citie { By order passing in their degree _Booke.”_ { A goadly sight that day { They come from Saynt Maries on the Hill { The Church of Saynt Johns untill { And there the sacrament leve they will { The sauth [sooth] as I you say.
Whoo so comyth these plays to see With good devocon merelye Hertely welcome shall he be And have right good chere. Sir John Arnway was maire of this citie When these playes were begon truly God graunt us merely And see theym many a yere.
Now have I done that lyeth in me To procure this solempnitie That these playes contynued may be And well sett fourth alway. Jhu [Jesu] Crist that syttys on hee _And his blessed mother Marie_ [_erased_] Save all this goodely company And kepe you nyght and day.
[33] Played in 1488.
With regard to the Banes we must notice first that it is in the same metre and rhyming stanza as the Plays themselves, and may have been written with them. Secondly, it sheds light on some very important points. Here is one:--
“The worshipfull wyves of this towne Ffyne of our lady thassumpcon It to bryng forth they be bowne And meyntene with all theyre might.”[34]
[34] It is worth noting, that in 1483, at York, four men came before the Mayor, “& by the assent of all the Innholders of this said Citie tuke upon them to bring furth yerely during the term of VIII. yere, then next folluying the pagent of the Coronacion of our Lady perteyning to the said Innholders, etc.” It seems likely, then, that the “worshipful wyves” were the ale-wives of Chester, and it is by no means improbable that Chester again followed the lead of York. As Mrs. Green says, “Cooks and brewers and hostellers were naturally deeply interested in the preservation of the good old customs, and it was, in some cases, certainly this class (the most powerful in a mediæval borough), who raised the protest against the indifference and neglect of the townspeople for public processions and merry-making, because ‘thereby the victuallers lose their money’; and who insisted on the revival of these festivals for the encouragement of trade.”--_Town Life XV. Century_, i. p. 153.
Here we have _The Assumption_ definitely classed as one of the Chester series (a point hitherto unknown), and also, we see that it was provided by women; this is unique, I think. In none of the other cycle centres do the women manage a play by themselves.[35]
[35] Canon Morris says: “It is omitted from Bellin’s transcript in 1600, and was, in all probability, discontinued in Edward VI.’s reign, in deference to the religious feeling of the time.”
Again,
“Also maister maire of this Citie Withall his bretheryn accordingly A solempne procession ordent hath he To be done to the best Appon the day of Corpus Christi The blessed sacrament caried shalbe And a play sett forth by the clergye, In honor of the fest. Many torches there may you see Marchaunts and craftys of this citie By order passing in their degree A goadly sight that day. They come from Saynt Maries on the Hill The Church of Saynt Johns untill And there the sacrament leve they will The sauth as I you say.”
It will be seen that the Mayor and Corporation had ordered a procession at Corpus Christi, and that the clergy were to provide a play. What this play was we have, unfortunately, no means of knowing.
This may account for the transference of the gild plays to Whitsun week. The clergy, anxious to have the Corpus Christi procession to _themselves_ without the trade gilds, may have said to the citizens, “If you will have your plays at another time we will, at our own charge and expense, provide a play on Corpus Christi, so that there shall be no loss to the citizens in that respect.”[36] Thus the plays got transferred to Whitsuntide.
[36] This is precisely what happened at York, where after 1426 the Corpus Christi procession and the plays were separated.
My third quotation must be:--
“Sir John Arnway was maire of this citie[37] When these playes were begon truly God graunt us merely And see theym many a yere.”
[37] Arneway was Mayor, 1268-76.
This is the earliest mention of their origin.
At last the momentous Monday in Whit-week arrived, and early in the morning the first car started from the great gates of the Abbey, where the Abbot and his followers sat in state, and proceeded down the street to the High Cross, where the Mayor and Corporation were assembled. As each car finished its play, its place was taken by another, and so in regular succession and at appointed places, the whole series of plays was gone through in three days. By this sensible and orderly arrangement a citizen could retain his standing place or seat, and be assured of missing nothing. No doubt seats at the performing points commanded a premium, and documents exist of an interesting law-suit between two citizens with reference to the right to occupy a “roome or place for the Whytson plaies in the Bridge-gate streets in the Cyty of Chester.”
We can imagine the pride of the Cestrian housewife when she saw her husband magnificently dressed as “Herod,” or her sons in parti-coloured costumes as “devils” rushing from the bottom to the top of the car only to disappear in “Hell’s mouth” amidst fire, smoke, and sulphur, and the laughter and applause of her neighbours; and may not she have felt a holy thrill when, perhaps, her youngest boy on bended knee offered his small shepherd’s pipe or his nutting stick as a gift to the “Lord of all”?
Depend upon it Chester was full of legitimate pride on such occasions, for, as the citizens said in their Banes, “None had the like, nor the like did sett out.”
And the educational force of this cannot be overestimated. The young citizen when he took up the freedomship of his company, took up also duties of stage craft and stage management which had been traditional for generations in that company. If he possessed ability as an actor he had no difficulty in obtaining a part to play, and if he could not act then he found plenty to do in preparation for the play, which _esprit de corps_ demanded should not be behind other companies.
And so the Elizabethan drama found a people already prepared, by centuries of familiarity with the stage as an amusement, to respond to the demands good plays might make on their imagination and receptive faculties. The Mysteries were but young plants--Shakespeare was the fruit.
The fact is, the whole country was given up to plays of this sort, and we know of more than one hundred towns and villages which enjoyed these entertainments. The annual play at Wymonham (or Windham), in Norfolk, lasted two days and two nights; and the inhabitants of Lydd, in Kent, were so keen that they went to the play on a Sunday, while watchmen were paid to keep guard on the shore against a surprise from the French.
If the trade gilds showed any desire to shirk such representations, the Mayor could, and did, issue a notice commanding a performance; and it was also the Mayor’s duty, as officer of the King’s peace, to issue proclamations on all festive occasions of this sort.
The ordinances of the Mayor of York, in 1394 and subsequently, show that the regulations to control the plays and populace were most stringent and comprehensive, and that the plays began as early as 4.30 A.M.
In addition to the ordinary series of Chester Mystery Plays, we find that the play of the _Assumption_ was performed at the High Cross in 1488, and before Prince Arthur in 1497, both at the Abbey gates and at the High Cross; and also in 1515 in St. John’s Churchyard. We find, also, the Cappers, Pewterers, and Smiths undertaking plays in 1520-1; and that in 1529 _King Robert of Sicily_ had been performed at the High Cross.
THE PLAYS
The number of plays now existing is twenty-five, but we know that the _Assumption_ has been lost, and there are signs of two plays being compressed into one, as in the _Histories of Lot and Abraham_, so that the original number was no doubt larger. Fluctuations would undoubtedly take place with the rise and fall of City Companies, if for no other reasons. As the number of gilds expanded or were reduced, so the plays were increased or amalgamated.[38] The list of plays and the gilds that performed them will be found in the “Banes” already printed. The Chester series is noted for two plays that occur nowhere else, viz. No. 23, on _Prophecies_, and No. 24, on _Anti-Christ_.
[38] At York the MS. of the plays (_c._ 1430) shows 48; but in 1415 there had been 51; and another earlier list shows 57.
The English employed seems to be of the beginning of the fifteenth century, many of the stage directions are in Latin, and the Three Kings, Octavian, and Herod occasionally use French, that being the Court language.[39]
[39] It is not generally considered to afford any argument as to the plays being derived from the French.
It is not to be supposed that we have the text of the plays as written _at first_, for the original plays are without doubt much older than the fifteenth century. We find that the quarrels of Noah and his wife formed so familiar a story that they became proverbial. Chaucer says:--
“Hast thou not heard (quod Nicholas) also The sorowe of Noe with his felowship Or that he might get his wife to ship.”
Chaucer wrote this about 1390, and it appears certain, therefore, that our play of _Noah_, and probably those on the same subject at Wakefield and Newcastle-on-Tyne, were often performed by the middle of the fourteenth century.
The metre employed varies, but a large proportion is in eight line stanzas, sometimes with two rimes:--
a a a b a a a b
and sometimes with three;
a a a b c c c b
as may be seen in the following example:--
CHRIST’S ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM
THE CORVYSORS PLAYE
_Pagina decima Quarta, de Jesu intrante domum Simonis Leprosi, et de aliis rebus._
JESUS.
Brethren, goe we to Bethanye, To Lazarre, Martha, and Marye, For I love moche their companye! a a a b Thedder nowe will I wende. Symond the Leaper hath praied me In his house to take charatye; a a a b With them nowe it liketh me A whyle for to lende.
PETRUS.
Lorde, all readye shall we be In life and death to goe with thee; Greate joye they maye have to see a a a b Thy cominge into their place.
PHILIPPE.
Lazarre thou raysed through thy pittie, And Symonde also, messille was he, Thou clensed, Lorde, that wotten we, a a a b And holpe them through thy grace.
_Tunc ibunt versus domum Simonis Leprosi._
LAZARRUS.
Welckome, Lorde, sweete Jesu, Blessed be the tyme that I thee knewe! From death to liffe through thy vertue a a a b Thou raysed me not yore; Fower dayes in eairth when I [had] layne, Thou granteste me life againe. Thee I honoure with all my mayne, c c c b Nowe and ever more.
But other metres are frequently used.
A very fine dramatic effect is produced in some of the plays by the sudden use of the short Skeltonian metre. In the play of the _Passion_ the Tormentors cry:--
And thou be messye And loth for to lye Who smote thee? Crye If thou be Christe.
Now he is bounden Be he never so wounden Soon he shall be founden With flaps in fear.
In woe he is wounden And his grain is grounden, No lad unto London Such law can him lere (teach).
Again in the _Crucifixion_:--
SECUNDUS JUDAEUS.
This coat shall be mine, For it is good and fine And seam is not therein That I can see.
TERCIUS JUDAEUS.
Yea, God give me pain And (if) that shall be thine, For thou art ever incline To draw towards thee.
QUARTUS JUDAEUS.
Nay, fellow, by this day At the dice we will play, And there we shall essay That weed for to win.
SECUNDUS JUDAEUS.
His other clothes all To us four can fall; First part them I shall And after play for this.
This kyrtel mine I call, Take thou this pall, Each man in this hall Note I do not amiss.
Again, we get later rhythms grafted on to the original, as in the drinking trio sung by Noah’s wife and her gossips in _Noah’s Play_.
THE GOOD GOSSIPS’ SONG.
The flood comes flitting in full fast, On every side it spreads full far; For fear of drowning I am aghast; Then, good gossips, let us draw near. And let us drink ere we depart, For often times we have done so; For at a draught thou drinkest a quart, And so will _I_ do ere I go.
The “Song” concludes with what is probably a portion of the original trio. The other half stanza is unfortunately lost:--
Here is a pottle good and strong, It will rejoice both heart and tongue; Though Noah thinks us never so long, Here we will drink alike.[40]
[40] With revised spelling the whole has a very modern “ring” about it. The first two verses may have been sung as a solo and the last half stanza as a trio.
A similar instance is the Ale-wife’s speech, which has been tacked on to the end of the play The _Harrowing of Hell_.
In the _Resurrection_ play we have the following. It is one of the finest speeches in the plays:--
JESUS.
Earthly man that I have wrought, Awake out of thy sleep; Earthly man that I have bought, Of me thou hast no keep. From heaven man’s soul I sought, Into a dungeon deep, My dear leman from thence I brought, For ruth of her I weep. I am very prince of peace, And king of free mercy; Who will of sinnès have release On me they call and cry. And if they will of sinnès cease, I grant them peace truly, And thereto a full rich messe In bread my own body. I am very bread of life; From heaven I light and am sende, Who eateth that bread, man or wife, Shall live with me without end. And that bread that I give you, Your wicked life for to amend, Becomes my flesh through your belief, And doth release your sinful band. And whosoever eateth that bread In sin or wicked life, He receiveth his own death, I warn both man and wife.
Three personages other than actors sometimes occupied the stage--a Preco or page, an expositor, and a messenger. They all three appear in the play of _The Histories of Lot and Abraham_. The page appears on the “pageant carriage” immediately after the play of _Noah’s Flood_, and says:--
All lordings that be here present, And hearken me with good intent, How Noah away from us he went, And all his company; And Abraham, through God’s grace, He is comen into this place, And ye will give us room and space To tell you of story.
This play, forsooth, begun shall be In worship of the Trinity, That you may all hear and see That shall be done to-day; My name is Gobbet-on-the-Green, With you I may no longer bene; Farewel, my lordes, bydene For letting of your play.
The expositor or doctor takes care that the play is “understanded of the people.” He appears early in the play on horseback, and says:--
Lordinges, what maye this signify I will expound it appeartlye, That the unlearned standing here by May know what this may be.[41]
[41] Being on horseback, he would, of course, be more easily heard by the crowd. Everything in the play points to the fact that it was looked upon as a means of instruction for the people, and not a mere amusement. The play itself consists of two plays compressed into one, and seems to be one of the oldest of the series.
He interrupts at different points, and explains the rite of circumcision and the offering up of Isaac, and then we have the remarkable and significant fact that the crowd joins him in prayer.
_Here, let the docter knele downe, and saie_,
Such obedience grante us, O Lorde! Ever to thy moste holye worde, That in the same we may accorde As this Abraham was bayne; Then al togaither shall we That worthy kinge in heaven see, And dwell with him in greate glorye, For ever and ever, Amen.