True. It may be so; but these were the plays of those times. Afterwards, in the reign of King Henry VIII., both the subject and form of these plays began to alter, and have since varied more and more. I have by me a thing called "A Merry Play between the Pardoner and the Friar, the Curate and Neighbour Pratt." Printed the 5th of April 1533, which was 24 Henry VIII. (a few years before the dissolution of monasteries.) The design of this play was to ridicule Friars and Pardoners. Of which I'll give you a taste. To begin it, the Friar enters with these words:[90]
Deus hic; the holy trynyte
Preserve all that now here be.
Dere bretherne, yf ye will consyder
The cause why I am com hyder,
Ye wolde be glad to knowe my entent:
For I com not hyther for mony nor for rent,
I com not hyther for meat nor for meale,
But I com hyther for your soules heale, &c.
After a long preamble he addresses himself to preach, when the Pardoner enters with these words:
God and St Leonarde send ye all his grace,
As many as ben assembled in this place, &c.
and makes a long speech, showing his bulls and his reliques, in order to sell his pardons, for the raising some money towards the rebuilding
Of the holy chappell of sweet saynt Leonarde,
Which late by fyre was destroyed and marde.
Both these speaking together with continual interruption, at last they fall together by the ears. Here the curate enters (for you must know the scene lies in the church):
Hold your hands; a vengeance on ye both two,
That ever ye came hyther to make this ado,
To polute my chyrche, &c.