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SECTION XXXIV.

IN a work of this general and comprehensive nature, in which the fluctuations of genius are surveyed, and the dawnings or declensions of taste must alike be noticed, it is impossible that every part of the subject can prove equally splendid and interesting. We have, I fear, been toiling for some time through materials, not perhaps of the most agreeable and edifying nature. But as the mention of that very rude species of our drama, called the MORALITY, has incidentally diverted our attention to the early state of the English stage, I cannot omit so fortunate and seasonable an opportunity of endeavouring to relieve the weariness of my reader, by introducing an obvious digression on the probable causes of the rise of the MYSTERIES, which, as I have before remarked, preceded, and at length produced, these allegorical fables. In this respect I shall imitate those map-makers mentioned by Swift, who

O'er inhospitable downs,

Place elephants for want of towns.

Nor shall I perhaps fail of being pardoned by my reader, if, on the same principle, I should attempt to throw new light on the history of our theatre, by pursuing this enquiry through those deductions which it will naturally and more immediately suggest,

About the eighth century, trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, which lasted several days. Charlemagne established many great marts of this sort in France; as did William the Conqueror, and his Norman successors, in En

Compare vol. ii. p. 67.

VOL. III.

gland. The merchants, who frequented these fairs in numerous caravans or companies, employed every art to draw the people together. They were therefore accompanied by juglers, minstrels, and buffoons; who were no less interested in giving their attendance, and exerting all their skill, on these occasions. As now but few large towns existed, no public spectacles or popular amusements were established; and as the sedentary pleasures of domestic life and private society were yet unknown, the fair-time was the season for diversion. In proportion as these shews were attended and encouraged, they began to be set off with new decorations and improvements: and the arts of buffoonery, being rendered still more attractive by extending their circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people. By degrees the clergy, observing that the entertainments of dancing, music, and mimicry, exhi→ bited at these protracted annual celebrities, made the people less religious, by promoting idleness and a love of festivity, proscribed these sports, and excommunicated the performers. But finding that no regard was paid to their censures, they changed their plan, and determined to take these recreations into their own hands. They turned actors; and instead of profane mummeries, presented stories taken from legends or the bible. This was the origin of sacred comedy. The death of saint Catharine, acted by the monks of saint Dennis, rivalled the popularity of the professed players. Music was admitted into the churches, which served as theatres for the representation of holy farces. The festivals among the French, called La fete de FouX, DE L'ANE', and DES INNOCENS, at length

See supr. vol. ii. p. 115.

i For a most full and comprehensive account of these feasts, see "Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la FETE DE Foux, qui se faisoit autrefois dans plusieurs eglises. Par M. du TILLIOT, gentilhomme ordinaire de son Altesse royale Monseigneur le duc de BERRY. A LAUSANNE et a GENEVE, 1741." 4to. Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln in the eleventh century, orders his dean and chapter to

abolish the FESTUM ASINORUM, cum sit vanitate plenum, et voluptatibus spurcum, which used to be annually celebrated in Lincoln cathedral on the feast of the Circumcision. Grossetesti EPISTOL.xxxii. apud Browne's FASCICUL. p. 331. edit. Lond. 1690. tom. ii. Append. And p. 412. Also he forbids the archdeacons of his diocese to permit ScOT-ALES in their chapters and synods, (Spelm. Gl. p. 506.) and other LUDI on holidays.

became greater favorites, as they certainly were more capricious and absurd, than the interludes of the buffoons at the fairs. These are the ideas of a judicious French writer, now living, who has investigated the history of human manners with great comprehension and sagacity.

Voltaire's theory on this subject is also very ingenious, and quite new. Religious plays, he supposes, came originally from Constantinople; where the old Grecian stage continued to flourish in some degree, and the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were represented, till the fourth century.* About

Ibid. Epistol. xxii. p. 314. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 82. See in the MERCURE FRANCOIS for September, 1742, an account of a mummery celebrated in the city of Besançon in France, by the canons of the cathedral, consisting of dancing, singing, eating and drinking, in the cloisters and church, on Easterday, called BERGERETTA, or the SONG OF THE SHEPHERDS; which remained unabolished till the year 1738. From the RITUAL of the church, pag. 1930, ad ann. 1582. See Carpentier, SUPPL. Du Cang. LAT. GLoss. tom. i. p. 523. in V. And ibid. V. BOCLARE, p. 570.

prohibited female Christian proselytes from appearing upon the stage; who were thus allowed to resume their profession, without the fear of spiritual censure. (Mimas diversis adnotationibus liberatas ad proprium officium summâ instantiâ revocari decernimus. L. xv. Cod. Th. Tit. 7. L. 18.) The capture of Carthage (439) was effected by Genseric, whilst the inhabitants were engaged at the theatre; and the language of Theodoret upon this occasion, unless we are to accept it as a mere rhetorical flourish, might be strained to imply, that the dramas of schylus and Sophocles were still exhibited in the Empire, or at least that they were generally known. An edict of Justinian, only forbids deacons, priests, and bishops, from attending any species of scenic representation; and under the same emperor (588), Gregory bishop of Antioch was publicly defamed by the spectators at the theatre, and ridiculed by the actors on the stage. In the year 692 the council of Trullo prohibited all christians, both clergy and laity, under pain of suspension or excommunication, from following the occupation of a player, and from frequenting the games of the circus and the the atre. (Can.51.) And lastly, the canons of Nicephorus, and of Photius, both framed in the ninth century, only re-echo the edict of Theodosius, that the theatre ought to be closed upon Sundays and days of solemn festival.The history of the West will afford us nearly similar notices. The theatres of France and Italy, especially those of Rome and Marseilles, continued in high celebrity long

[The profane drama, however degenerated, maintained its footing both in the East and West, much later than the æra assumed in the text. It may be worth while to offer a few illustrations of this position. The Imperial edict of 399, which abolished the feast of Majuma, gave free permission for the continuance of all other public entertainments; and among these the theatre was of course included. The petition of the African bishops, drawn up in the same year according to Godefroy, or in 401 according to Baronius, merely solicits the suppression of plays upon Sundays, and other days observed as festivals in the Christian church; and begs an exemption for all Christians from being compelled to attend them. Nor was it till the year 425, that the prayer of this petition was confirmed by Theodosius the younger; and then restricted to the most important feasts in the calendar. Four years after, the same emperor found it necessary to rescind the law, which

that period, Gregory Nazianzen, an archbishop, a poet, and one of the fathers of the church, banished pagan plays from the stage at Constantinople, and introduced select stories from the Old and New Testament. As the antient Greek tragedy was a religious spectacle, a transition was made on the same. plan; and the choruses were turned into Christian hymns'. Gregory wrote many sacred dramas for this purpose, which have not survived those inimitable compositions over which they triumphed for a time: one, however, his tragedy called Xgioтos яασxaν, or CHRIST'S PASSION, is still extant. In the prologue it is said to be in imitation of Euripides, and that this is the first time the Virgin Mary has been produced on the stage. The fashion of acting spiritual dramas, in which at first a due degree of method and decorum was preserved, was at length adopted from Constantinople by the Italians; who framed, in the depth of the dark ages, on this foundation, that barbarous species of theatrical representation called MySTERIES, or sacred comedies, and which were soon afterwards received in France". This opinion will acquire probability, if we consider the early commercial intercourse between Italy and Constantinople: and although the Italians, at the time when they may be supposed to have imported plays of this

after the first incursions of the barbarians ; and the policy of Theoderic found it expedient to tolerate a pastime which he secretly condemned, and to encourage an abuse he could neither chasten nor correct. (Hæc nos fovemus necessitate populorum. Expedit interdum desipere, ut possumus populi desiderata gaudia continere.) For a period indeed, these amusements appear to have been suspended, by the ravages of Totila in Italy and of the Franks in" France. But in the time of Charlemagne, the Mimi and Histriones are spoken of in much the same terms of invective, cast upon their profession by the early Christian teachers; nor does the language of Agobard warrant a belief, that he was characterizing a different order of men, from those who fell

under the denunciations of his predecessors. (Satiat præterea et inebriat Histriones, Mimos, turpissimosque et vanissimos Joculares, cum pauperes Ecclesiæ fame discruciati intereant. Agobard, de Dispens. p.299.) See Discours sur la Comedie par Pierre Le Brun. Paris, 1731.-EDIT.]

1 See supr. vol. ii. p. 78.

Or. Greg. Nazianz. tom. ii. p. 253. In a manuscript cited by Lambeccius, it is called Agaua xar Evgwidn. iv. 22. It seems to have been falsely attributed to Apollinaris, an Alexandrian, bishop of Laodicea. It is, however, written with less elegance and judgement than most of Gregory's poetical pieces. Apollinaris lived about the year 370. " Hist. Gen. Addit. p. 138.

nature, did not understand the Greek language, yet they could understand, and consequently could imitate, what they saw.

66

In defence of Voltaire's hypothesis it may be further observed, that the FEAST OF FOOLS and of the Ass, with other religious farces of that sort, so common in Europe, originated at Constantinople. They were instituted, although perhaps under other names, in the Greek church, about the year 990, by Theophylact, patriarch of Constantinople, probably with a better design than is imagined by the ecclesiastical annalists; that of weaning the minds of the people from the pagan ceremonies, particularly the Bacchanalian and calendary solemnities, by the substitution of christian spectacles, partaking of the same spirit of licentiousness. The fact is, however, recorded by Cedrenus, one of the Byzantine historians, who flourished about the year 1050, in the following words. Εργον εκείνου, και το νυν κρατουν εθος, εν ταις λαμπραις και δημοτελεσιν ἑορταις ὑβρι ζεσθαι τον θεον, και τας τον άγιων μνημας, δια λογισμάτων απρεπων και γελώτων, και παραφόρων κραυγών, τελουμένων των θείων ύμνων· οὓς εδει, μετα καταλυξεως και συντριμμου καρδιας, ύπες της ήμων σωτη ρίας, προσφέρειν τῷ θεῷ. Πληθος γαρ συστησαμενος επιῤῥητων ανδρων, και εξαρχον αυτοίς επιστησας Ευθυμιον τινα Κασνην λεγουμενον, ὃν αυτός Δομέστικον της εκκλησιας προυβαλλετον και τας σατανικας ορ χήσεις, και τας ασήμους κραυγας, και τα εκ τριόδων και χαμαιτυπείων ηρανισμένα άσματα τελείσθαι εδίδαξεν.” That is, “Theophylact introduced the practice, which prevails even to this day, of scandalising god and the memory of his saints, on the most splendid and popular festivals, by indecent and ridiculous songs, and enormous shoutings, even in the midst of those sacred hymns, which we ought to offer to the divine grace with compunction of heart, for the salvation of our souls. But he, having collected a company of base fellows, and placing over them one Euthymius, surnamed Casnes, whom he also appointed the superintendant of his church, admitted into the sacred service, diabolical dances, exclamations of ribaldry, and ballads borrowed from the streets and brothels "." This prac

a Cedren. COMPEND. HIST. p. 639. B. edit. Paris. 1647. Compare Baron. Ax

NAL. sub ann. 956. tom. x. p. 752. C. edit. Plantin, Antw. 1603. fol. [Per

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