cidedly East Midland stamp-though a deeper criticism may yet fix its locality more closely-and must have been composed shortly after the middle of the thirteenth century. It treats in independent form an apocryphal subject which belongs to the Easter cycle and appears worked up among the French Mysteries in the Resurrection Play; it is Christ's descent to Hades,* or The Harrowing of Hell. This subject, which has inspired many an English poet, early and late, has more of an epic than a dramatic character. The victorious Saviour, to whom is assigned the hero's part, leaves in reality very little room for the interference of the other actors-the powers of Hell; while the patriarchs and prophets awaiting the Redeemer in Limbo are necessarily doomed to passivity. The old dramatist, besides, has missed a main effect by making these passive characters give vent to their feelings only after Hell has been conquered, when the action only wanted its crowning effort. In the Gospel of Nicodemus, and in the majority of derived descriptions, it is these very characters who begin the action. The light which goes before the Saviour and penetrates into the under-world fills their hearts with hope, and they predict the arrival of Him for whom they wait. But, in throwing away this motive, the poet, indeed, sought and obtained an effect of another kind: His hero opens the drama, which begins before the gates of Hell, and afterwards penetrates into the interior, and here he advances alone into the dim Unknown in the greatness of his purpose. But the kernel of this dramavery different from the traditional form-is a controversy between Christ and Satan; we might here repeat what we said in speaking of the poem on the Owl and Nightingale (vol. i. p. 214), for such controversies were characteristic of that age. Satan defends himself with the statement that what one has bought is his own: "Adam came hungry to me, and as Suzerain I made him do homage; he is mine and all his race for an apple

*See Introduction to Our Early English Literature, by W. Clarke Robinson, page 63. We must here, however, observe that the divisions of the stage were not placed behind, but beside, each other, and open to the spectators.

which I gave him." But the Saviour replies, "Satan, mine was the apple which thou gavest to him; the apple and the apple-tree were both my creation. How could you, then, dispose of goods which belonged to another? Since he has, therefore, been bought with my own, he is mine by right." Satan now gives up the point of right, betakes himself to entreaty, and appeals to the reasonableness of it: "Retain heaven and earth for thyself; leave the souls in hell to me. Let me retain what I have; what you have you may peacefully possess." "Be silent, Satan," speaks the Lord, "for you have cast double-ace! * Do you think that I have died for naught? By my death mankind is redeemed. Those who have served me shall dwell with me in heaven. You shall suffer greater pains than anyone in this place." Satan: "None can do worse to me than I have already borne. I have suffered so great evil that it is indifferent to me where my lot fall. If you rob me of mine, I will also rob you of yours. I will go from one man to another and draw away many from you." The Lord: "God knows, I will speak a word with you, and compel you to keep peace; I will bind you so firmly that you will rob me of few. . . . Only the smaller devils of little power will be permitted, henceforth, to go among men, and to get possession of all those who will not resist them." The victory in the controversy is now followed by successful action. Christ advances on the gates of Hell, the sentinel takes to flight, the gates fall down; the Lord binds Satan, who must abide in his chains till the last day. And now the Saviour turns to those for whose deliverance he has come; and they welcome him with reverence and shouts of joy. Adam, Eve, Abraham, David, John the Baptist, Moses, pray in words of deepest fervor, humility, repentance, and anxious hope; the response of the Redeemer breathes love and peace.

The technics of the drama in the Middle Ages, as shown in this play, are in a very low state of development; the representation is simple, dignified, very curt, in broad

* Double-ace is the lowest throw in dice.

outlines, somewhat angular and stiff; no overflowing pathos, although deep feeling; no realism in the miniatures; no fun, and no vulgarity. Whatever the poet wants to say to his hearers, he says with deep earnestness and does not fail of his effect. We say "his hearers," for hearing was, in this case, more important than seeing; the centre of gravity of the representation lies entirely in things which become quite clear even without action. And this drama is an example of the species which has not yet quite cast the shell of the epic-liturgical period: a narrative prologue introduces us to the play.

About a generation--but hardly much more-separates this oldest extant English drama from the next. The play of Jacob and Esau,* as we take the liberty of calling it, appears to have been composed not far from the mouth of the Humber, and probably to the north of the dialect line. The influence of the East Midlands is seen in the choice of subject, which was not popular on the earlier stage elsewhere, and the manner of treatment also reminds us of the districts and the century which produced the poems of Genesis and Exodus.†

In Jacob and Esau the dramatic art is still of a low standard; the situations are not made much use of; the characteristics show little depth or originality. The poet is full of reverence for his subject, and dramatizes faithfully what seems to him its most important traits, without putting to it much of his own originality. He writes in good verses, in simple, vivid language, but hardly ever exerts his powers of invention, and he also evidently requires no special means of excitement to fascinate and affect an audience not spoiled by such exhibitions. But so much greater are the demands he makes on the imagination of his spectators. We are told nothing in the drama of Jacob's long residence with Laban; and the poet does not even feel the necessity of filling up the time in which the episode occurs by suggesting any other action, but, by a salto mortale, simply skips the whole period. Perhaps Jacob left the

*See Appendix.

↑ See vol. i. of this work, p. 198 (English Version).

stage for some minutes and returned, bringing back with him Rachel, Leah, children, and dependents. As we read the drama now, one and the same monologue of Jacob begins on the journey to Haran and ends on his journey home. The significant period is simply indicated by the words: Hic egrediatur Jacob de Aran in terram nativitatis suæ. The poet observes closely the unity of idea, viz., Israel's election. Hence the scenes between God and Jacob are much more important in his eyes than those describing Jacob's relation to Esau ; and the reconciliation between the two brothers, which ends the drama, makes this idea perfectly clear; for it at once does justice to the humanitarian and kindly basis on which the sublimest destinies are founded.*

III.

Jacob and Esau has been preserved pretty much in its original form, partly because the subject, being complete in itself, and without direct reference to the Church feasts, did not induce later poets to undertake a revision or a new treatment. But those plays which formed the centre of the religious dramas experienced all sorts of metamorphoses and variations, in which early forms were often replaced by later alterations. This is specially true of the Christmas and Easter Plays. Both contained the germs for a rich development, which proceeded in two different directions and finally joined together the branches of the mighty trees which had grown originally from the same soil.

In the first place, the Adoration of Christ by the Shepherds stood in the closest relation to the Birth of Christthe nucleus of the Christmas Plays; indeed, the former might have directly represented the latter. But to the Shepherds in St. Luke's gospel are added the Three Kings in the gospel of St. Matthew, and in connec

The last words of the piece are: "Jacob: God reward thee, brother, that thou hast so wished to kiss thy servant. Esau: No, Jacob, dear brother, I will tell thee something quite different: Thou art my Lord by the decree of fate. Let us go together, thou and I, to my father and to his wife, who loves thee, brother, as her life."

tion with them appear the Flight to Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem. From St. Luke, again, was taken the Purification of Mary, which indeed caused great chronological difficulties to bring it into the successive chain of events, but such difficulties were not long allowed to prevail. Candlemas was generally placed after the Slaughter of the Innocents, and to this was added the Dispute in the Temple, which occurs at the end of the second chapter of Luke. But the Christmas Mysteries extended still further, with a backward reach: The Annunciation and the Visit to Elizabeth naturally occur as prologue; but the train of religious thought is carried far back, even into the Old Testament. As in the Church year, Christmas Eve is introduced by the day consecrated to Adam and Eve, and as in the Church liturgy, no less than in its homiletics and art, the Old and New Testament are generally placed side by side, giving at the same time cause and effect, promise and fulfillment, type and realization; so also in the Mysteries this tendency was followed, and the redemption of the world was traced back to its origin and motive, and Christ's ancestors and antitypes were represented side by side with his own personal appearance. The Mysteries, therefore, commenced with the Creation of the World and the Fall of Lucifer, brought in next the Fall of Adam and the Murder of Abel, went on through the Flood to the Sacrifice of Isaac, from Abraham to Moses, and, recapitulating the predictions of the prophets, arrived at the New Testament. In this there was really nothing new. The Christmas cycle of the liturgical Mysteries embraced from the first two great groups. The one, proceeding from the Gospels, and partly also from the Apocrypha, had for its central point the Birth of Christ. The other had for its nucleus the long line of prophets, and its text also was drawn from an old portion of the Christmas service, from a sermon long attributed to St. Augustine, and from which in the course of time several Old Testament dramas were detached and gained a more or less independent existence. An important outgrowth from this group is seen already in the Anglo-Norman Mystery of Adam. Thus the