To the pray we, as prince incomparable,
As thou art of mercy and pyte the well,
Thou bring unto thy joye eterminable

The foull of this lorde from all daunger of hell, 200
In endles blys with the to byde and dwell

In thy palace above the orient,

Where thou art lord, and God omnipotent.

O quene of mercy, O lady full of grace,

Mayden moft pure, and goddes moder dere, To forowful hartes chef comfort and folace,

Of all women O flowre without pere, Pray to thy son above the fterris clere, He to vouchefaf by thy mediacion

To pardon thy fervant, and bringe to falvacion.

In joy triumphaunt the hevenly yerarchy,

With all the hole forte of that glorious place,
His foull mot receyve into theyr company
Thorow bounty of hym that formed all folace:
Wel of pite, of mercy, and of grace,
The father, the fonn, and the holy ghoft
In Trinitate one God of myghts moste.

205

210

215

THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK.

Our great dramatic poet having occafionally quoted many ancient ballads, and even taken the plot of one, if not more, of his plays from among them, it was judged proper to pre

I 3

Jerve

Serve as many of these as could be recovered, and that they might be the more easily found, to exhibit them in one collective view. This SECOND BOOK is therefore fet apart for the reception of fuch ballads as are quoted by SHAKESPEARE, or contribute in any degree to illuftrate his writings: this being the principal point in view, the candid reader will pardon the admiffion of fome pieces, that have no other kind of merit. The defign of this BOOK being of a Dramatic tendency, it may not be improperly introduced with a few obfervations ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH STAGE, and ON THE CONDUCT OF OUR FIRST DRAMATIC POETS: a Jubject, which though not unsuccessfully handled by several good writers already*, will yet perhaps admit of fome farther illuftration.

ON

THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH STAGE,

&c.

It is well known that dramatic poetry in this and most other nations of Europe owes its origin, or at least its revival, to thofe religious fhows, which in the dark ages were ufually exhibited on the more folemn feftivals. At thofe times they were wont to reprefent in the churches the lives and miracles of the faints, or Jome of the more important stories of Scripture. And as the most myfterious fubjects were frequently chofen, fuch as the Incarnation, Paffion, and Refurrection of Chrift, &c.thefeexhibitions acquired the general name of MYSTERIES. At first they were probably a kind of dumb fhews, intermingled, it may be, with a few short fpeeches; at length they grew into a regular feries of connected dialogues, formally divided into acts and Scenes. Specimens of thefe in their most improved ftate (being at best but poor artless compofitions)

may

• Bp. Warburton's Shakefp. vol. 5. p. 338.-Pref. to Dodfley's Old Plays.-Riccoboni's Acct. of Theat. of Europe.

may be feen among Dodfley's OLD PLAYS and in Osborne's HARLEYAN MISCEL. How they were exhibited in their moft fimple form, we may learn from an ancient novel (often quoted by our old dramatic poets *) intitled.

...

a merge

Test of a man that was called Howleglas†, &c. being a tranflation from the Dutch language, in which he is named Ulenfpiegle. Howleglas, whofe waggish tricks are the fubject of this book, after many adventures comes to live with a priest, who makes him his parish-clark. This priest is described as keeping a LEMAN or concubine, who had but one eye, to whom Howleglas owed a grudge for revealing his rogueries to his mafter. The story thus proceeds, "And than in "the meane season, while Howleglas was paryshe clarke, at "Eafter they should play the refurrection of our lorde: and "for because than the men wer not learned, nor could not

. ....

read, the priest toke his leman, and put her in the grave for " an Aungell: and this feing Howleglas, toke to hym iij of "the fympleft perfons that were in the towne, that played "the iij Maries; and the Perfon [i. e. Parfon or Rector] played Chrifte, with a baner in his hand. Than faide Howleglas to the fymple persons, Whan the Aungel afketh "you, whome you feke, you may faye, The parfons leman with one iye. Than it fortuned that the tyme was come that they must playe, and the Angel afked them whom they fought, and than fayd they, as Howleglas had fhewed and lerned them afore, and than answered they, We feke the "priests leman with one iye. And than the prieste might And whan the priestes leman the grave, and would have

"heare that he was mocked "herd that, the arofe out of • Smyten with her fift Howleglas upon the cheke, but she missed him and fmote one of the fimple perfons that played one of

I 4

"the

* See Ben Fonfon's Poetafler, A. 3. fc. 4. and bis Masque of the Fortunate Ines..

Howleglas is faid in the Preface to have died in M.CCCC.L. At the end of the book, in M.ccc.L.

"the thre Maries; and he gave her another; and than toke fhe him by the beare [hair]; and that feing his wyfe, "came running haftely to fmite the priestes leaman; and than "the priest feeing this, cafte down hys baner and went to helpe his woman, fo that the one gave the other fore firokes, and made great noyfe in the churche. And than Howleglas feyng them lyinge together by the eares in the "bodi of the churche, went his way out of the village, and came no more there t."

63

66

As the old Myfteries frequently required the reprefentation of fome allegorical perfonage, fuch as Death, Sin, Charity, Faith, and the like, by degrees the rude poets of those unlettered ages began to form compleat dramatic pieces confifting intirely of fuch perfonifications. Thefe they intitled MORAL PLAYS, or MORALITIES. The Myfteries were very inartificial, reprefenting the Scripture ftories fimply according to the letter. But the Moralities are not devoid of invention; they exhibit outlines of the dramatic art; they contain something of a fable or plot, and even attempt to delineate characters and manners. I have now before me two that were printed early in the reign of Henry VIII; in which I think one may plainly difcover the feeds of Tragedy and Comedy: for which reafon I fhall give a fhort analyfis of them both.

One of them is intitled Every Man ". The fubject of this piece is the fummoning of man out of the world by death; and its moral, that nothing will then avail him but a well-spent life and the comforts of religion. This fubject and moral are opened in a monologue Spoken by the MESSENGER (for that was the name generally given by our ancestors to the prologue on their rude ftage:) then GOD is reprefented, who after Jome general complaints on the degeneracy of mankind, calls for DETH

†C. Imprynted. by Wyllpam Copland: without date, in 4to. bl. Let. among Mr. Garrick's Old Plays. K. vol. 10.

* See a farther account of this play in Vol. 2. p. 104. 105. where infiead of "Wynkyn de Worde" read Rycharde Pynjon.” The fecond perfon of the Trinity feems to be meant.