musicians, sham fights, and rude games.1

Besides these, there were numerous mountebanks, who were accustomed to exhibit feats of mingled agility and buffoonery, which were probably the origin of the modern pantomime, and in which, as it has been shown by a high authority,2 there is reason to believe a dress very similar to that of our harlequins was employed. It is probably to these mountebanks, or possibly to the troubadours or wandering minstrels, who had then become common, that St. Thomas Aquinas referred in a passage which excited a fierce controversy in the seventeenth century. In discussing the subject of amusement, the saint suggested the question whether the profession of an 'actor' was essentially sinful; and, having enumerated some special circumstances that might make it so, he answers the question in the negative, 'because,' as he says, ' recreation is necessary to mankind,' and also because it had been revealed to

1 Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the English People. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Dissert., 29. In Italy the sham fights were carried on on a vast scale and with wooden swords, and were the cause of many deaths. Amusements somewhat similar to those which were once popular in Italy are said to continue in Russia. Storch, Econ. Polit., tom. iii. p. 403.

2 Riccoboni, Hist. du Théâtre Italien depuis l'an 1500 jusqu'à l'an 1660, tom. i. pp. 4-6. The author of this remarkable book (who was known professionally under the name of Lelio) was one of the greatest Italian actors of his time. He travelled much from theatre to theatre, and in the different cities he visited ransacked the public libraries for works bearing upon his history. His book was originally written in French, and is dedicated to Queen Caroline of England.

3 He says distinctly, 'Officium histrionum, quod ordinatur ad

the blessed Paphnutius that 'a clown' was to be his companion in heaven.'

Such, then, was the character of public amusements before the revival of learning. The time, however, was at hand when a profound change, fraught with momentous consequences to the Church, was manifested; and it is worthy of notice, that while that change was ultimately caused by the advance of civilisation, the Church itself was its pioneer. The first revival of the theatre is undoubtedly to be found in the religious plays. From the earliest times men seem to have been accustomed to throw into dramatic forms the objects of their belief; and the pagan mys

solatium hominibus exhibendum, non est secundum se illicitum.' It appears certain that when this was written there were no public theatres or dramatic representations, except the religious ones. At the same time, it is impossible to draw a clear line between the public recitation of verses or the exhibitions of mountebanks on the one hand, and the simplest forms of the drama upon the other. Bossuet has cited a passage from St. Thomas's work De Sententiis, in which he speaks of the exhibitions that had formerly taken place in the theatres.' At all events, the saint was not very favourable to these histriones,' for he speaks of gains that have been acquired 'de turpi causâ, sicut de meretricio et histrionatu.' See on this subject Concina, De Spectaculis, pp. 36-41; Lebrun, Discours sur le Théâtre, pp. 189-194; Bossuet, Réflexions sur la Comédie, §§ 22-25.

'Joculator.' Bossuet, however, says that the Acts of St. Paphnutius show that this was simply a perambulant flute-player. After all, Bossuet is obliged to make the following admission: Après avoir purgé la doctrine de Saint Thomas des excès dont on la chargeoit, il faut avouer avec le respect qui est dû à un si grand homme, qu'il semble s'être un peu éloigné, je ne dirai pas des sentimens dans le fond, mais plutôt des expressions des anciens Pères sur le sujet des divertissemens.' (Réflexions sur la Comédie, § 31.)

teries, which were essentially dramatic,1 retained their authority over the popular mind long after every other portion of the ancient worship was despised. The first biblical play on record is on Moses, and is the composition of a Jew named Ezekiel, who lived in the second century. The second is a Greek tragedy on the Passion, by St. Gregory Nazianzen. The religious ceremonies, and especially those for Christmas, Epiphany, and Holy Week, became continually more dramatic, and the monks and nuns after a time began to relieve the monotony of the cloister by private representations. The earliest known instance of this is of the tenth century, when a German abbess named Hroswitha composed two or three dramas, with a religious object, but imitated, it is said, in part from Terence, which were acted by the nuns. The subject of one of them is curious. A hermit had brought up in the ways of piety a beautiful girl, but she rebelled against his authority, neglected his counsels, and fled to a house of ill fame. The hermit, having discovered the place of her resort, assumed the dress and the manners of a soldier, penetrated to her retreat, supported his character so skilfully that he deceived its inmates, and at last found an opportunity of reclaiming his ward.2

1 Mackay's Religious Developement of the Greeks and Hebrews, vol. ii. pp. 286-297. Besides the drama, it is probable that the gladiatorial spectacles (which are of Etruscan origin) were originally religious. They seem at first to have been celebrated at the graves, and in honour of the dead.

2 See Villemain, Moyen Age; Martonne, Piété du Moyen Age; Leroy, Études sur les Mystères, p. 41.

In the extreme weariness of the conventual life, amusements of this kind were welcomed with delight, and, though often and severely censured, they contitinued in some monasteries till far into the eighteenth century. The form, however, which they generally assumed was not that of secular dramas with a religious tendency, but of mysteries or direct representations of scenes from Scripture or from the lives of the saints. Until the latter part of the thirteenth century they were exclusively Latin, and were usually acted by priests in the churches; but after this time they assumed a popular form, their religious character speedily declined, and they became at last one of the most powerful agents in bringing the Church, and indeed all religion, into disrepute.2 The evidence of this is not to be found in the representations of the Almighty that were so frequent upon the stage; 3 for these, though inexpressibly shocking in our eyes, were perfectly in harmony with the intellectual condition. of the time; but rather in the gross indecency which the worst days of the Roman theatre had scarcely

1 Concina, who published his work, De Spectaculis, in 1752, at the request of Benedict XIV., mentions that the custom still continued in some monasteries; and he devoted a dissertation to proving that monks who laid aside their ecclesiastical dress to personate laymen were guilty of mortal sin.

2 See the collections of these by Hone, Jubinal, Jacob, &c.; and the works of Leroy, Suard, and Collier upon their history.

3 On which see Malone, Hist. of the English Stage, pp. 12-13. Some curious examples of it have been collected by Hone; and also in Strutt's History of the Manners of the People of England, vol. iii. pp. 137–140.

surpassed,1 and perhaps still more in the strange position that was assigned to Satan. At first the mysteries had probably contributed much to the religious terrorism. The glare and smoke of the fire of hell were constantly exhibited, and piercing shrieks of agony broke upon the ear. Very soon, however, Satan was made to act the part of a clown. His appearance was greeted with shouts of laughter. He became at once the most prominent and most popular character of the piece, and was emancipated by virtue of his character from all restraints of decorum. One of the most impressive doctrines of the Church was thus indissolubly associated in the popular mind with the ridiculous, and a spirit of mockery and of satire began to play around the whole teaching of authority.

It is difficult, indeed, to say how far these rude dramatic representations contributed to that disruption of old religious ties that preceded and prepared the Reformation. At a very early period those strange festivals, the Feast of Fools and the Feast of

1 Some striking instances of this indecency, which indeed is sufficiently manifest in most of the mysteries, are given by Jacob in his Introduction to his collection of Farces. Wherever the seventh commandment was to be broken, the actors disappeared behind a curtain which was hung across a part of the stage; and this is the origin of the French proverbial expression about things that are done derrière le rideau.' More than once the Government suppressed the sacred plays in France on account of their evil effects upon morals. In England matters seem to have been if possible worse; and Warton has shown that on at least one occasion in the fifteenth century, Adam and Eve were brought upon the stage strictly in their state of innocence. In the next scene the fig-leaves were introduced. (Malone's History of the English Stage, pp. 15, 16.)