tice was subsisting in the Greek church two hundred years afterwards: for Balsamon, patriarch of Antioch, complains of the gross abominations committed by the priests at Christmas and other festivals, even in the great church at Constantinople; and that the clergy, on certain holidays, personated a variety of feigned characters, and even entered the choir in a military habit, and other enormous disguises P. I must however observe here, what perhaps did not immediately occur to our lively philosopher on this occasion, that in the fourth century it was customary to make christian parodies and imitations in Greek, of the best Greek classics, for the use of the christian schools. This practice prevailed much under the emperor Julian, who forbad the pagan poets, orators, and philosophers, to be taught in the christian seminaries. Apollinaris bishop of Laodicea, above mentioned, wrote Greek tragedies adapted to the stage, on most of the grand events recorded in the Old Testament, after the manner of Euripides, On some of the familiar and domestic stories of scripture, he composed comedies in imitation of Menander. He wrote christian odes on the plan of Pindar. In imitation of Homer, he wrote an heroic poem on the history of the bible, as far as the reign of Saul, in twenty-four books. Sozomen says, that haps Theophylact was only the first who admitted these buffooneries within the walls of a church; and thus prepared the way for their reception among the Christians of the West. Their origin may with more probability be referred to an earlier period, when the Iconoclast Emperors sought to degrade the Roman Pontiffs, by an absurd mockery of the papal election, the ceremonies of the Western church, and all its observances both civil and spiritual. Gibbon has detailed in part, the conduct taken by the Emperor Michae! III. in such a scene ; and has noticed the sources whence the curious reader may derive a confirmation, or rather a strong corroboration, of this opinion. Decl. and Fall of the Rom. Emp. cap. 49. n. 18.-EDIT.] P COMMENT. ad CANON. lxii. SYNon.vi. in Trullo. Apud Beverigii SYNODIC. tom. i. Oxon. fol. 1672. p. 230. 231. In return, he forbids the professed players to appear on the stage in the habit of monks. Saint Austin, who lived in the sixth century, reproves the paganising christians of his age, for their indecent sports on holidays; but it does not appear that these sports were celebrated within the churches. "In sanctis festivitatibus horos ducendo, cantica luxuriosa et turpia, &c. Isti enim infelices ac miseri homines, qui balationes ac saltationes ANTE IPSAS BASILICAS Sanctorum exercere nec metuunt nec erubescunt.". SERM. ccxv. tom. x. opp. S. Augustin. edit. Froben. 1529. fol. 763. B. See also SERM. excvii. excviii. opp. edit. Benedictin. tom. v. Paris. 1683. p. 904. ct seq. Sozomen (ubi infra) says, that he compiled a system of grammar, Xia VIX TUT, on the christian model. these compositions, now lost, rivalled their great originals in genius, expression, and conduct. His son, a bishop also of Laodicea, reduced the four gospels and all the apostolical books into Greek dialogues, resembling those of Plato'. But I must not omit a much earlier and more singular specimen of a theatrical representation of sacred history, than this mentioned by Voltaire. Some fragments of an antient Jewish play on the EXODUS, or the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt under their leader and prophet Moses, are yet preserved in Greek iambics. The principal characters of this drama are Moses, Sapphora, and God from the Bush, or God speaking from the burning bush. Moses delivers the prologue, or introduction, in a speech of sixty lines, and his rod is turned into a serpent on the stage. The author of this piece is Ezekiel a Jew, who is called 'Ο των Ιουδαικων τραγωδιων ποιητής, or the tragic poet of the Jews'. The learned Huetius endeavours to prove, that Ezekiel wrote at least before the christian era". Some suppose that he was one of the seventy, or septuagint, interpreters of the bible under the reign of Ptolomy Philadelphus. I am of opinion, that Ezekiel composed this play after the destruction of Jerusalem, and even in the time of Barocbas, as a political spectacle, with a view to animate his dejected countrymen with the hopes of a future deliverance from their captivity under the conduct of a new Moses, like that from the Egyptian servitude". Whether a theatre subsisted among the Jews, who by their peculiar situation and circumstances were prevented from keeping pace with their neighbours in the cul * Socrates, iii. 16. ii. 46. Sozomen, v. 18. vi. 26. Niceph. x. 25. In Clemens Alexandrin.lib.i. STROM. p.344.seq. Eusebius, PRÆPARAT. EVANG. c. xxviii. xxix. Eustathius ad Hex. p. 25. They are collected, and translated into Latin, with emendations, by Fr. Morellus, Paris. 1580. See also CORPUS POETAR. GR. TRAGICOR. et COMICOR. Genev. 1614. fol. And POETA CHRISTIAN. GRÆCI, Paris. 1609. 8vo. See Scaliger, ad EUSEB. p. 401. "DEMONSTRAT. EVANGELIC. p. 99. W See Le Moyne, Овs. ad VAR. SACR. tom. i. pag. 336. [The author of this Jewish tragedy seems to have belonged to that class of Hellenistico-Judaic writers of Alexandria, of which was the author of the apocryphal Book OF WISDOM : a work originally written in Greek, perhaps in metre, full of allusions to the Greek poets and customs, and containing many lessons of instruction and consolation peculiarly applicable to the distresses and situation of the Jews after their dispersion.--- ADDITIONS.] ture of the social and elegant arts, is a curious speculation. It seems most probable, on the whole, that this drama was com→ posed in imitation of the Grecian stage, at the close of the second century, after the Jews had been dispersed, and intermixed with other nations. Boileau seems to think, that the antient PILgrimages introduced these sacred exhibitions into France. Chez nos devots ayeux le theatre abhorré Iöua les SAINTS, la VIERGE, et DIEU, par piété. The authority to which Boileau alludes in these nervous and elegant verses is Menestrier, an intelligent French antiquary. The pilgrims who returned from Jerusalem, saint James of Compostella, saint Baume of Provence, saint Reine, Mount saint Michael, Notre dame du Puy, and other places esteemed holy, composed songs on their adventures; intermixing recitals of passages in the life of Christ, descriptions of his crucifixion, of the day of judgement, of miracles, and martyrdoms. To these tales, which were recommended by a pathetic chant and a variety of gesticulations, the credulity of the multitude gave the name of Visions. These pious itinerants travelled in companies; and taking their stations in the most public streets, and singing with their staves in their hands, and their hats and mantles fantastically adorned with shells and emblems painted in various colours, formed a sort of theatrical spectacle. At length their performances excited the charity and compassion Des Represent. en MUSIQUE. p. 153. seq. * ART. POET. cant. iii. 81. of some citizens of Paris; who erected a theatre, in which they might exhibit their religious stories in a more commodious and advantageous manner, with the addition of scenery and other decorations. At length professed practitioners in the histrionic art were hired to perform these solemn mockeries of religion, which soon became the principal public amusement of a devout but undiscerning people. To those who are accustomed to contemplate the great picture of human follies, which the unpolished ages of Europe hold up to our view, it will not appear surprising, that the people, who were forbidden to read the events of the sacred history in the bible, in which they were faithfully and ́beautifully related, should at the same time be permitted to see them represented on the stage, disgraced with the grossest improprieties, corrupted with inventions and additions of the most ridiculous kind, sullied with impurities, and expressed in the language and gesticulations of the lowest farce. On the whole, the MYSTERIES appear to have originated among the ecclesiastics; and were most probably first acted, at least with any degree of form, by the monks. This was certainly the case in the English monasteries". I have already mentioned the play of saint Catharine, performed at Dunstable abbey by the novices in the eleventh century, under the superintendence of Geoffry a Parisian ecclesiastic: and the exhibition of the PASSION, by the mendicant friers of Coventry and other places. Instances have been given of the like practice among the French". The only persons who could read were in the religious societies: and various other circumstances, In some regulations given by cardinal Wolsey, to the monasteries of the canons regular of St. Austin, in the year 1519, the brothers are forbidden to be LUSORES aut MIMICI, players or mimics. Dugd. Monast. ii. 568. But the prohibition means, that the monks should not go abroad to exercise these arts in a secular and mercenary capacity. See ANNAL. BURTONENSES, p. 437. supra citat. p. 40, 41. By the way, MIMICUS might also literally be construed a player, according to Jonson, Eric. 195. But the Vice Acts old iniquity, and in the fit See supra, vol. ii. p. 81. peculiarly arising from their situation, profession, and institu→ tion, enabled the monks to be the sole performers of these representations. As learning encreased, and was more widely disseminated from the monasteries, by a natural and easy transition the practice migrated to schools and universities, which were formed on the monastic plan, and in many respects resembled the ecclesiastical bodies. Hence a passage in Shakespeare's HAMLET is to be explained; where Hamlet says to Polonius, "My lord, you played once in the UNIVERSITY, you say." Polonius answers, "That I did, my Lord, and was accounted a good actor. -I did enact Julius Cesar, I was killed i̇' th' capitol "." Boulay observes, that it was a custom, not only still subsisting, but of very high antiquity, vetustissima consuetudo, to act tragedies and comedies in the university of Paris. He cites a statute of the college of Navarre at Paris, dated in the year 1315, prohibiting the scholars to perform any immodest play on the festivals of saint Nicholas and saint Catharine. "In festis sancti Nicolai et beatæ Catharinæ nullum ludum inhonestum facianta ̧” [The tragedy called JULIUS CESAR, and two comedies, of Jaques Grevin, a learned physician and an elegant poet of France, were first acted in the college of Beauvais at Paris, in the years 1558 and 1560*.-ADDITIONS.] Reuchlin, one of the German classics at the restoration of antient literature, was the first writer and actor of Latin plays in the academies of Germany. He is said to have opened a theatre at Heidelberg; in which he brought ingenuous youths or boys on the stage, in the year ACT. iii. sc. 5. HIST. UNIV. PARIS. tom. ii. p. 226. See also his History De Patronis quatuor Nationum, edit. 1662. HIST. UNIV. PARIS. tom. iv. p. 93. Saint Nicholas was the patron of scholars. Hence at Eton college saint Nicholas has a double feast. The celebrity of the Boy-bishop began on St. Nicholas's day. In a fragment of the cellarer's COMPUTUS of Hyde abbey near Winches. ter, A. D. 1397. "Pro epulis PUERI CE LEBRANTIS in festo S. Nicholai." That is the Chorister celebrating mass. MSS. Wulves. Winton. Carpentier mentions an indecent sport, called le VIRELI, celebrated in the streets on the feast of St. Nicholas, by the vicar and other choral officers of a collegiate church. SUPPL. Du Cang. LAT. GLOSS. in V. tom. iii. p. 1178. * [Bibl. Verdier, ut supra, tom. ii. p. 284. La Croix du Maine, i. p. 415. seq.] |