The last of these performances, no doubt, bore a close analogy to the well known mystery entitled Corpus Christi, or Ludus Coventriæ, the Coventry Play; transcripts of this play, nearly if not altogether coeval with the time of its representation, are yet in existence; one in particular is preserved in the Cotton Library. [536] The prologue to this curious drama is delivered by three persons, who speak alternately, and are called vexillators; it contains the argument of the several pageants, or acts, that constitute the piece, and they amount to no less than forty; and every one of these acts consists of a detached subject from the holy writ, beginning with the creation of the universe and concluding with the last judgment. In the first pageant, or act, the Deity is represented seated on his throne by himself, delivering a speech of forty lines beginning thus:
"Ego sum de Alpha et Omega principium et finis.
"My name is knowyn God and Kynge,
My worke for to make now wyl I wende,
In myself restyth my reyneynge,
It hath no gynnyg ne non ende."
The angels then enter, singing from the church service, "To Thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein; To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts." Lucifer next makes his appearance, and desires to know if the hymn they sang was in honour of God or in honour of him? The good angels readily reply, in honour of God; the evil angels incline to worship Lucifer, and he presumes to seat himself in the throne of the Deity; who commands him to depart from heaven to hell, which dreadful sentence he is compelled to obey, and with his wicked associates descends to the lower regions. I have given a much fuller account of this curious mystery in the third volume of the Manners and Customs of the English People, with long extracts, and from several others nearly equal in antiquity, to which the reader is referred. This play was acted by the Friars Minors, or Mendicant Friars, of Coventry; and commenced on Corpus Christi day, whence it received its title. Dugdale says, [537] for the performance of these plays they had theatres for the several scenes very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city for the better advantage of the spectators.
IV.—MYSTERIES DESCRIBED.
The mysteries often consisted of single subjects, and made but one performance. In the Bodleian Library at Oxford [538] I met with two mysteries that to the best of my knowledge have not been mentioned: the subject of one is the conversion of Saint Paul, and of the other the casting out of the devils from Mary Magdalene; they are both very old and imperfect, especially the latter, which seems to want several leaves. The first is entitled Saulus; and after a short prologue the stage direction follows, "Here outeyth Saul, goodly besene in the best wyse lyke an adventrous knyth, thus sayynge,