Volume Ii Part 6 (1/2)
CHARITY.
We thank all this presence Of their meek audience.
HUMILITY.
Jesu that sitteth in heaven so high, Save all this fair company:[28]
Men and women that here be, Amen, amen, for Charity.[29]
l.u.s.tY JUVENTUS.
A MORALITY.
_An Enterlude called l.u.s.ty Juuentus, lyuely describing the frailtie of youth: of natur p.r.o.ne to vyce: by grace and good counsayll traynable to vertue.
The parsonages that speake.
Messenger, l.u.s.ty Juuentus, Good Counsaill, Knowledge, Sathan the deuyll, Hypocrisie, Felows.h.i.+p, Abhominable Lyuyng, G.o.ds mercifull promises.
Foure maye playe it easely, takyng such partes as they thinke best: so that any one take of those partes that be not in place at once.
[Col.] Imprynted at London, in Lothbury, ouer agaynst Sainct Margarits Church, by Wyllyam Copland. 4, black-letter_.[30]
HAWKINS'S PREFACE.
The editor has been favoured with two copies of this moral interlude; one of which is preserved in the library belonging to Lincoln Cathedral,[31] the other is in the possession of Mr. Garrick. It was written in the reign of Edward the Sixth by one R. Wever, of whom the editor can give the reader no further information. The former was printed at London by Abraham Vele. The latter is a very different copy from the other. A more obsolete spelling runs through the whole, and it contains great variations besides, which the reader will find at the bottom of each page. The conclusion being imperfect, the printer's colophon is wanting, so that it cannot be known where this edition was printed. According to Dr Percy's tables, it was printed by Richard Pinson.[32]
The design of this interlude was to expose the superst.i.tions of the Romish Church, and to promote the Reformation. The stage (as the learned Dr Percy observes) in those days literally was what wise men have always wished it--a supplement to the pulpit: chapter and verse are as formally quoted as in a sermon. See ”Prologue of the Messenger,”
&c. From this play we learn that most of the young people were new gospellers, or friends to the Reformation; and that the old were tenacious of the doctrines imbibed in their youth, for thus the Devil is introduced lamenting the downfall of superst.i.tion--
The old people would believe still in my laws, But the younger sort lead them a contrary way; They will not believe, they plainly say, In old traditions and made by men, But they will live as the scripture teacheth them, &c.
And in another place Hypocrisy urges--
The world was never merry, Since children were so bold; Now every boy will be a teacher, The father a fool, and the child a preacher.
[This is certainly a piece of rather heavy and tedious morality, replete with good instruction, but didactic to a fault. It is deficient in the curious allusions, which abound in other productions of the same kind; and even that mysterious character, _Abominable Living_, whose introduction promises some amus.e.m.e.nt and ill.u.s.tration, moves off the scene almost immediately after her first appearance, while _Little Bess_, whose entrance might have been a vehicle for some diverting or sentimental situation, does not ”come on” at all.]
l.u.s.tY JUVENTUS.
THE PROLOGUE OF THE MESSENGER.
For as much as man is naturally p.r.o.ne To evil from his youth, as Scripture doth recite,[33]
It is necessary that he be speedily withdrawn From concupiscence of sin, his natural appet.i.te: An[34] order to bring up youth Ecclesiasticus doth write,-- An untamed horse will be hard, saith he, And a wanton child wilful will be.
Give him no liberty in youth, nor his folly excuse, Bow down his neck, and keep him in good awe, Lest he be stubborn: no labour refuse To train him to wisdom and teach him G.o.d's law, For youth is frail and easy to draw By grace to goodness, by nature to ill: That nature hath ingrafted, is hard to kill.
Nevertheless, in youth men may be best Trained to virtue by G.o.dly mean; Vice may be so mortified and so supprest, That it shall not break forth, yet the root will remain; As in this interlude by youth you shall see plain, From his l.u.s.t by Good Counsel brought to G.o.dly conversation, And shortly after to frail nature's inclination.
The enemy of mankind, Satan, through Hypocrisy Feigned or chosen holiness of man's blind intent, Forsaking[35] G.o.d's word, that leadeth right way, Is brought to Fellows.h.i.+p and ungracious company, To Abhominable Living till he be wholly bent, And so to desperation, if good counsel were not sent From G.o.d, that in trouble doth no man forsake That doth call, and trust in him for Christ's sake.