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do I recollect any other inftance of a royal dinner, even on a festival, accompanied with this fpecies of diverfion". The ftory of this interlude, in which the chief characters were Christ, Adam, Eve, Abraham, and John the Baptift, was not uncommon in the antient religious drama, and I believe made a part of what is called the LUDUS PASCHALIS, or Eafter Play'. It occurs in the Coventry plays acted on Corpus Chrifti day'; and in the Whitfun-plays at Chester, where it is called the HARROWING OF HELL. The reprefentation is Chrift entering hell triumphantly, delivering. our first parents, and the most facred characters of the old. and new testaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into Paradise.. There is an ancient poem, per-haps an interlude, on the fame fubject; among the Harleian. manufcripts; containing our faviour's dialogues in hell with Sathanas, the Janitor, or porter of hell, Adam, Eve, Habraham, David, Johan Baptift, and Moyfes. It begins,

Alle herkneb to me nou:
A ftrif wolle y tellen ou
Of Jhefu ant of Sathan
po Jhefus was to hell y-gan'.

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LUDUS PASCHALIS as old as the twelfth century. TEATRO ITALIANO, tom. i. See Un Iftoria del Teatro, &c. prefixed,, p. ii. Veron. 1723. 12mo.

b [See fupr. vol. i.] "Nunc dormiunt "milites, et veniet anima Chrifti de in"ferno cum Adam et Eva, Abraham,, Joh. Baptifte, et aliis."

MSS. Harl. 2013. PAGEAUNT XVI. fol. 138.

d MSS. Harl. 2253. 21. fol. 55. b.. There is a poem on this fubject, MS. Bodl. 1687.

How Jefu Crift barowed helle Of hardi geftes ich wille telle. [See fupr. vol. i. p. 18.]

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The compofers of the MYSTERIES did not think the plain and probable events of the new teftament fufficiently marvellous for an audience who wanted only to be furprised. They frequently selected their materials from books which had more of the air of romance. The fubject of the MYSTERIES juft-mentioned was borrowed from the PSEUDO-EVANGELIUM, or the FABULOUS GOSPEL, afcribed to Nicodemus: a book, which, together with the numerous apocryphal narratives, containing infinite innovations of the evangelical history, and forged at Conftantinople by the early writers of the Greek church, gave birth to an endless variety of legends concerning the life of Chrift and his apostles"; and which, in the barbarous

e In Latin. A Saxon tranflation, from a manufcript at Cambridge, coeval with the conqueft, was printed at Oxford, by Thwaites, 1699. In an English tranflation by Wynkyn de Worde, the prologue fays, Nichodemus, which was a worthy prynce,

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dydde wryte thys bleffyd ftorye in He"brewe. And Theodofius, the emperour, "dyde it tranflate out of Hebrew into "Latin, and byfshoppe Turpyn dyde "tranflate it out of Latyn into Frenfshe." With wooden cuts, 1511. 4to. There was another edition by Wynkyn de Worde, 1518. 4to. and 1532. See a very old French verfion, MSS. Harl. 2253. 3. fol. 33. b. There is a tranflation into English verfe, about the fourteenth century. MSS. Harl. 4196. 1. fol. 206. See alfo, 149. 5. fol. 254. b. And MSS. coll. Sion. 17. The title of the original is, NICODEMI DISCIPULI de Jefu Chrifti paffione et refurrectione EVANGELIUM. Sometimes it is entitled GESTA SALVATORIS noftri Jefu Chrifti. Our lord's Defcent into hell is by far the beft invented part of the work. Edit. apud ORTHODOX. PATR. Jac. Greyn. [Bafil. 1569. 4to.] pag. 653. feq. The old Latin title to the pageaunt of this story in the Chefter plays is, "DE DESCENSU "AD INFERNA, et de his que ibidem "fiebant fecundum EVANGELIUM NICO"DEMI," fol. 138. ut fupr. Hence the first line in the old interlude, called HicksCORNER, is illustrated.

Now Jefu the gentyll that brought Adam from bell.

There is a Greek homily on Saint John's Defcent into Hell, by Eufebius Alexandrinus. They had a notion that faint John was our Saviour's precurfor, not only in this world, but in hades. See Allat. de libr. ecclef. Græcor. p. 303. feq. Compare the Legend of Nicodemus, Chrift's defcent into hell, Pilate's exile, &c. MSS. Bodl. B. 5. 2021. 4. feq.

f In the manufcript register of faint Swithin's priory at Winchester, it is recorded, that Leofric, bishop of Exeter, about the year 1150, gave to the convent, a book called GESTA Beatiffimi Apoftoli Petri cum Glofa. This is probably one of these commentitious hiftories. By the way, the fame Leofric was a great benefactor in books to his church at Exeter. Among others, he gave Boetii Liber ANGLICUS, and, Magnus liber ANGLICUS omnino METRICE defcriptus. What was this tranflation of Boethius, I know not; unless it is Alfred's. It is ftill more difficult to determine, what was the other piece, the GREAT BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE, at fo early a period. The grant is in Saxon, and, if not genuine, muft be of high antiquity. Dugdal. MONAST. tom. i. p. 222. I have given Dugdale's Latin tranflation. The Saxon words are, Boerier boc on englirc.-And 1. mycel englire boc be gebpilcum pingum on leodpiran gepoppt."

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ages,

ages, was better esteemed than the genuine gospel, on account of its improbabilities and abfurdities.

But whatever was the fource of thefe exhibitions, they were thought to contribute fo much to the information and instruction of the people on the most important subjects of religion, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who reforted peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitfun week at Chester, beginning with the creation, and ending with the general judgment; and this indulgence was feconded by the bishop of the diocefe, who granted forty days of pardon: the pope at the fame time denouncing the sentence of damnation on all those incorrigible finners, who prefumed to disturb or interrupt the due celebration of these pious fports'. It is certain that they had their use, not only in teaching the great truths of scripture to men who could not read the bible, but in abolishing the barbarous attachment to military games, and the bloody contentions of the tournament, which had so long prevailed as the fole fpecies of popular amusement. Rude and even ridiculous as they were, they foftened the manners of the people, by diverting the public attention to spectacles in which the mind was concerned, and by creating a regard for other arts than those of bodily ftrength and savage valour.

f MSS. Harl. 2124. 2013.

Vol. II.

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SECT. X.

HE only writer deferving the name of a poet in the reign of Henry the feventh, is Stephen Hawes. He was patronised by that monarch, who poffeffed fome tincture of literature, and is faid by Bacon to have confuted a Lollard in a public difputation at Canterbury".

Hawes flourished about the clofe of the fifteenth century; and was a native of Suffolk. After an academical education at Oxford, he travelled much in France; and became a complete master of the French and Italian poetry. His polite accomplishments quickly procured him an establishment in the houshold of the king; who ftruck with the liveliness of his conversation, and because he could repeat by memory most of the old English poets, especially Lydgate, made him groom of the privy chamber. His facility in the French tongue was a qualification, which might strongly recommend him to the favour of Henry the feventh; who was fond of studying the best French books then in vogue,

Hawes has left many poems, which are now but imperfectly known, and fcarcely remembered. These are, the TEMPLE OF GLASSE. The CONVERSION OF SWERERS, in octave ftanzas, with Latin lemmata, printed by de Worde in 1509'. A JOYFULL MEDITATION OF ALL ENGLOND, OR

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THE CORONACYON TO OUR MOST NATURAL SOVEREIGN Llord KING HENRY THE EIGTH IN VERSE. By the fame, and with+ out date; but probably it was printed foon after the ceremony which it celebrates. These coronation-carols were customary. There is one by Lydgate. THE CONSOLATION OF LOVERS. THE EXEMPLAR OF VIRTUE. THE DELIGHT OF THE SOUL. OF THE PRINCE'S MARRIAGE. THE ALPHABET OF BIRDS. Some of the five latter pieces, none of which I have feen, and which perhaps were never printed, are faid by Wood to be written in Latin, and feem to be in profe.

The best of Hawes's poems, hitherto enumerated, is the TEMPLE OF GLASS On a comparison, it will be found to

8 A BALLAD prefented to Henry the fixth the day of his coronation. Princ. "Mot "noble prince of cryften princes all." MSS. Afhmol. 59. ii.

h By mistake, as it feems, I have hither quoted Hawes's TEMPLE of GLASS, under the name of Lydgate. See fupr. vol. i. p. 410. 417. It was firft printed by Wynken de Worde, in 1500. Here by"genneth the TEMPLE of GLASS. By "Stephen Hawes, grome of the chamber

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to king Henry vii." [Ames, Hift. Print. pag. 86. 8vo. in twenty-feven leaves. Afterwards by Berthelette, without date, or name of the author, with this colophon. "Thus endeth the temple of glaffe. Em"printed at London, in Fleteftrete, in the "houfe of Thomas Berthelette, near to the "cundite, at the fygne of the Lucrece, "Cum privilegio." I will give the beginning, with the title.

This boke called the Temple of glafe, is in many places amended, and late diligently imprynted.

Through conftreynt and greuous heuyness,
For great thought and for highe penfyue-

neffe,

To bedde I went nowe this other night,
Whan that Lucina with her pale dyght,

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All defolate for conftraynt of my wo,
The long night walowyng to and fro,
Tyll at laft, or I gan take kepe, &c.

This edition, unmentioned by Ames, is
in Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. C. 39. Art. Seld.
4to. In the fame library are two manu-
fcript copies of this poem. MSS. Fairfax,
xvi. membran. without a name. And MSS.
Bodl. 638. In the first leaf of the Fair-

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fax manufcript is this entry. "I bought "this at Gloucefter, 8 Sept. 1650, intending to exchange it for a better boke. Ffairfax." And at the end, in the fame hand. "Here lacketh feven leaves "that are in Jofeph Holland's boke." This manufcript, however, contains as much as Berthelett's edition. Lewis mentions the Temple of Glafs by John Lydgate, in Caxton's fecond edition of CHAUCER. [LIFE CH. p. 104. See alfo Middleton's DisSERT. p. 263. But no fuch poem ap

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