The comic element in the preserved plays is represented by Joseph, a weariful old husband, and natural grumbler, who becomes exceedingly fretful when bidden by Mary to find some doves for the Purification offering at the Temple.
"Swette Josoff," says Mary, "fuffyll ye owre Lordis hestes."
"Why," says her husband ruefully,
"Why and woldist th[o]u haue me to hunt bridis nestis?
I pray the hartely, dame, leve thosse jestis
And talke of thatt wol be.
For, dame, woll I neuer vast my wyttis,
To wayte or pry where the wodkoce syttis;
Nor to jubbard among the merle pyttis,
For thatt wasse neyuer my gyse.
Now am I wold and ma not well goo:
A small twyge wold me ouerthroo;
And yche[690] were wons lyggyd aloo,
Full yll then schulde I ryse."[691]
Finding the task inevitable, he murmurs that "the weakest go ever to the wall," and appeals for sympathy to the audience, particularly to the husbands of young and headstrong wives in the traditional manner beloved by mediæval play-goers,
"How sey ye all this company
Thatt be weddid asse well asse I?
I wene that ye suffer moche woo;
For he that weddyth a yonge thyng
Must fullfyll all hir byddyng,
Or els make his handis wryng,
Or watur his iis when he wold syng;
And thatt all you do know."[692]
Finally he subsides helplessly upon a "lond" or furrow, till the angel appears and thrusts the birds into his hands. No mention is made to Mary of the miraculous interposition when Joseph has hurried home, pluming himself upon the capture.
"I am full glade I haue them fond.
Am nott I a good husbonde?"
says the saint with glee. It is a delicious scene, and its writer was a comedian of no mean order.
Herod was the popular favourite of the Christmas play cycle, for the predecessors of Shakespeare's groundlings loved to have their ears split by his noisy arrogance. He "ragis in the pagond and in the strete also," according to a stage direction, and it is possible that his buffoonery was tinged with the memory of the wild frolic of the ancient Christmas festivals, the feast of the Ass and the feast of Fools.[693]