‘En France elle a de sotie le nom,
Parce que sotz des gens de grand renom
Et des petits jouent les grands follies
Sur eschaffaux en parolles polies.’
[1368] Cf. ch. viii.
[1369] Creizenach, i. 395; Julleville, Les Com. 46; La Com. 19; Rép. Com. 20; E. Langlois, Robin et Marion, 13; Guy, 337; M. Sepet, Le Jeu de la Feuillée, in Études romaines dédiées à G. Paris, 69. The play is sometimes called Le Jeu d’Adam. The text is printed in Monmerque et Michel, Théâtre français au Moyen Âge, 55, and E. de Coussemaker, Œuvres de Adam de la Halle, 297.
[1370] The extant sotties are catalogued by Julleville, Rép. Com. 104, and E. Picot, in Romania, vii. 249.
[1371] Creizenach, i. 406; G. Gregory Smith, Transition Period, 317; Goedeke, Deutsche Dichtung, i. 325; V. Michels, Studien über die ältesten deutschen Fastnachtspiele, 101. The latter writer inclines to consider the Narr of these plays as substituted by fifteenth century for a more primitive Teufel. The plays themselves are collected by A. von Keller, Fastnachtspiele aus dem 15. Jahrhundert (1853-8).
[1372] C. H. Herford, Literary Relations of England and Germany, 323 sqq.; cf. G. Gregory Smith, op. cit. 176. On an actual pseudo-chivalric Order of Fools cf. p. 375.
[1373] F. C. Hingeston-Randolph, Register of Bishop Grandisson, ii. 1055, Litera pro iniqua fraternitate de Brothelyngham. ‘Ad nostrum, siquidem, non sine inquietudine gravi, pervenit auditum, quod in Civitate nostra Exonie secta quedam abhominabilis quorundam hominum malignorum, sub nomine Ordinis, quin pocius erroris, de Brothelyngham, procurante satore malorum operum, noviter insurrexit; qui, non Conventum sed conventiculam facientes evidenter illicitam et suspectam, quemdam lunaticum et delirum, ipsorum utique operibus aptissime congruentem, sibi, sub Abbatis nomine, prefecerunt, ipsumque Monachali habitu induentes ac in Theatro constitutum velut ipsorum idolum adorantes, ad flatum cornu, quod sibi statuerunt pro campana, per Civitatis eiusdem vicos et plateas, aliquibus iam elapsis diebus, cum maxima equitum et peditum multitudine commitarunt [sic]; clericos eciam laicos ceperunt eis obviam tunc prestantes, ac aliquos de ipsorum domibus extraxerunt, et invitos tam diu ausu temerario et interdum sacrilego tenuerunt, donec certas pecuniarum summas loco sacrificii, quin verius sacrilegii, extorserunt ab eisdem. Et quamvis hec videantur sub colore et velamine ludi, immo ludibrii, attemptari, furtum est, tamen, proculdubio, in eo quod ab invitis capitur et rapina.’ There is no such place as Brothelyngham, but ‘brethelyng,’ ‘brethel,’ ‘brothel,’ mean ‘good-for-nothing’ (N. E. D., s. vv.).