A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume I Part 52

PARSON.

Help, help, neighbour Prat, neighbour Prat, In the worship of G.o.d, help me somewhat!

PRAT.

Nay, deal as thou canst with that elf, For why I have enough to do myself.

Alas! for pain I am almost dead; The red blood so runneth down about my head.

Nay, and thou canst, I pray thee help me.

PARSON.

Nay, by the ma.s.s, fellow, it will not be; I have more tow on my distaff than I can well spin; The cursed Friar doth the upper hand win.

FRIAR.

Will ye leave then, and let us in peace depart?

PARSON AND PRAT.

Yea, by our lady, even with all our heart.

FRIAR AND PARDONER.

Then adieu to the devil, till we come again.

PARSON AND PRAT.

And a mischief go with you both twain![182]

THE WORLD AND THE CHILD.

MR COLLIER'S PREFACE.

When the Rev. T.F. Dibdin a.s.serted ("Typographical Antiquities," ii. 9.) that "in the Drama there is no single work yet found, which bears the name of Winken de Worde as the printer of it," he committed one of those singular over-sights of which very learned men have before been sometimes guilty. "Hickscorner," perhaps the most ancient printed dramatic piece in our language, and well-known to those who are at all acquainted with the history of our stage, was from his press, and his colophon is at its conclusion: "Enprynted by me Wynkyn de Worde." Mr Dibdin, in opposition to his own statement, inserts it among the works of that early professor of the typographic art.

The subsequent dramatic production is also from the types of Wynkyn de Worde, but it was not discovered in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, until after the appearance of the second volume of Mr Dibdin's new edition of Ames.[183]

[Yet a copy was in the "Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica," 1815, and in 1817 the piece was reprinted for the Roxburghe Club].

"Hickscorner" is without date, but "The World and the Child" was printed in July 1522. Only one other copy of it is known, and it is here republished from a faithful transcript of the original.[184] As a specimen of our ancient moralities, it is of an earlier date, and in several respects more curious, than almost any other piece in the present collection. From a line in the epilogue, it might be inferred that it was performed before the king and his Court.

HERE BEGINNETH A PROPER NEW INTERLUDE OF THE WORLD AND THE CHILD, OTHERWISE CALLED MUNDUS ET INFANS, AND IT SHOWETH OF THE ESTATE OF CHILDHOOD AND MANHOOD.

MUNDUS. Sirs, cease of your saws what so befall, And look ye bow b.o.n.e.rly[185] to my bidding, For I am ruler of realms, I warn you all, And over all fodes[186] I am king: For I am king, and well known in these realms round, I have also palaces i-pight: I have steeds in stable stalwart and strong, Also streets and strands full strongly i-dight: For all the world[187] wide I wot well is my name, All riches readily it renneth in me, All pleasure worldly, both mirth and game.

Myself seemly in sale[188] I send with you to be, For I am the world, I warn you all, Prince of power and of plenty: He that cometh not, when I do him call, I shall him smite with poverty, For poverty I part[189] in many a place To them that will not obedient be.

I am a king in every case: Methinketh I am a G.o.d of grace, The flower of virtue followeth me!

Lo, here I sit seemly in se,[190]

I command you all obedient be, And with free will ye follow me.

INFANS. Christ our king, grant you clearly to know the case.

To meve[191] of this matter that is in my mind, [And] clearly declare it, Christ grant me grace.

Now, seemly sirs, behold on me, How mankind doth begin: I am a child, as you may see, Gotten in game and in great sin.

Forty weeks my mother me found,[192]

Flesh and blood my food was tho: When I was ripe from her to sound, In peril of death we stood both two.

Now to seek death I must begin, For to pa.s.s that strait pa.s.sage For body and soul, that shall then twin,[193]

And make a parting of that marriage.

Forty weeks I was freely fed Within my mother's possession: Full oft of death she was a-dread, When that I should part her from: Now into the world she hath me sent, Poor and naked, as ye may see, I am not worthily wrapped nor went, But poorly p.r.i.c.ked in poverty.

Now into the world will I wend, Some comfort of him for to crave.

All hail! comely crowned king, G.o.d that all made you see and save!

MUNDUS. Welcome, fair child, what is thy name?

INFANS. I wot not, sir, withouten blame; But oftime my mother in her game Called me Dalliance.

MUNDUS. Dalliance, my sweet child, It is a name that is right wild,[194]

For when thou waxest old, It is a name of no substance, But, my fair child, what wouldst thou have?

INFANS. Sir, of some comfort I you crave: Meat and clothes my life to save, And I your true servant shall be.

MUNDUS. Now, fair child, I grant thee thine asking: I will thee find while thou art ying,[195]

So thou wilt be obedient to my bidding.

These garments gay I give to thee, And also I give to thee a name, And clepe thee Wanton in every game, Till fourteen year be come and gone, And then come again to me.

WANTON. Gramercy, world, for mine array; For now I purpose me to play.

MUNDUS. Farewell, fair child, and have good day: All recklessness is kind for thee.

WANTON. Ha, ha, Wanton is my name: I can many a quaint game.

Lo, my top I drive in same, See, it turneth round!