Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 12

The figures of the drama are contemporaries of the spectators both in garb and character; they are not Orientals of ancient times, but Europeans of the end of the Middle Ages. Bethlehem is a "faier borow,"

Herod a "mody king," like unto some haughty, capricious, and violent monarch of the time, the shepherds are rustics of England or Germany or France or Italy, the Magi mighty potentates with gorgeous trains, and the Child Himself is a little being subject to all the pains and necessities of infancy, but delighted with sweet and pleasant things like a bob of cherries or a ball. The realism of the writers is sometimes astounding, and comic elements often appear--to the people of the Middle Ages religion was so real and natural a thing that they could laugh at it without ceasing to believe in or to love it.

The English mediaeval playwrights, it may safely be said, are surpa.s.sed by no foreigners in their treatment of Christmas subjects. To ill.u.s.trate their way of handling the scenes I may 130 gather from the four great cycles a few of the most interesting pa.s.sages.

From the so-called "Ludus Coventriae" I take the arrival of Joseph and Mary at Bethlehem; they ask a man in the street where they may find an inn:--

"_Joseph._ Heyl, wurchepful sere, and good day!

A ceteceyn of this cyte ye seme to be; Of herborwe[43] ffor spowse and me I yow pray, ffor trewly this woman is fful were, And fayn at reste, sere, wold she be;

We wolde ffulffylle the byddynge of oure emperoure, ffor to pay tribute, as right is oure, And to kepe oureselfe ffrom dolowre, We are come to this cyte.

_Cives._ Sere, ostage in this towne know I non, Thin wyff and thou in for to slepe; This cete is besett with pepyl every won, And yett thei ly withowte fful every strete.

Withinne no walle, man, comyst thou nowth, Be thou onys[44] withinne the cyte gate; Onethys[45] in the strete a place may be sowth, Theron to reste, withowte debate.

_Joseph._ Nay, sere, debate that wyl I nowth; Alle suche thyngys pa.s.syn my powere: But yitt my care and alle my thought Is for Mary, my derlynge dere.

A! swete wyff, wat xal we do?

Wher xal we logge this nyght?

Onto the ffadyr of heffne pray we so, Us to kepe ffrom every wykkyd whyt.

_Cives._ Good man, o word I wyl the sey, If thou wylt do by the counsel of me; Yondyr is an hous of haras[46] that stant be the wey, Amonge the bestys herboryd may ye be. 131

_Maria._ Now the fadyr of hefne he mut yow yelde!

His sone in my wombe forsothe he is; He kepe the and thi good be fryth and ffelde!

Go we hens, husbond, for now tyme it is."{11}

The scene immediately after the Nativity is delicately and reverently presented in the York cycle. The Virgin worships the Child, saluting Him thus:--

"Hayle my lord G.o.d! hayle prince of pees!

Hayle my fadir, and hayle my sone!

Hayle souereyne sege all synnes to sesse!

Hayle G.o.d and man in erth to wonne![47]

Hayle! thurgh whos myht All this worlde was first be-gonne, merkness[48] and light.

Sone, as I am sympill sugett of thyne, Vowchesaffe, swete sone I pray the, That I myght the take in the[r] armys of mine, And in this poure wede to arraie the; Graunte me thi blisse!

As I am thy modir chosen to be in sothfastnesse."

Joseph, who has gone out to get a light, returns, and this dialogue follows:--

"_Joseph._ Say, Marie doghtir, what chere with the?

_Mary._ Right goode, Joseph, as has been ay.

_Joseph._ O Marie! what swete thyng is that on thy kne?

_Mary._ It is my sone, the soth to saye, that is so gud _Joseph._ Wel is me I bade this day, to se this foode![49]

Me merueles mekill of this light That thus-gates shynes in this place, For suth it is a selcouth[50] sight! 132 _Mary._ This hase he ordand of his grace, my sone so ying, A starne to be schynyng a s.p.a.ce at his bering

_Joseph._ Nowe welcome, floure fairest of hewe, I shall the menske[51] with mayne and myght.

Hayle! my maker, hayle Crist Jesu!

Hayle, riall king, roote of all right!

Hayle, saueour.

Hayle, my lorde, lemer[52] of light, Hayle, blessid floure!

_Mary._ Nowe lord! that all this worlde schall wynne, To the my sone is that I saye, Here is no bedde to laye the inne, Therfore my dere sone, I the praye sen it is soo, Here in this cribbe I myght the lay betwene ther bestis two.

And I sall happe[53] the, myn owne dere childe, With such clothes as we haue here.

_Joseph._ O Marie! beholde thes beestis mylde, They make louyng in ther manere as thei wer men.

For-sothe it semes wele be ther chere thare lord thei ken.

_Mary._ Ther lorde thai kenne, that wate I wele, They worshippe hym with myght and mayne; The wedir is colde, as ye may feele, To halde hym warme thei are full fayne, with thare warme breth."{12}

The playwrights are at their best in the shepherd scenes; indeed these are the most original parts of the cycles, for here the writers found little to help them in theological tradition, and were thrown upon their own wit. In humorous dialogue and nave sentiment the l.u.s.ty burgesses of the fifteenth century were thoroughly at home, and the comedy and pathos of these scenes must have been as welcome a relief to the spectators, from the 133 long-winded solemnity of many of the plays, as they are to modern readers. In the York mysteries the shepherds make uncouth exclamations at the song of the angels and ludicrously try to imitate it.

The Chester shepherds talk in a very natural way of such things as the diseases of sheep, sit down with much relish to a meal of "ale of Halton," sour milk, onions, garlick and leeks, green cheese, a sheep's head soused in ale, and other items; then they call their lad Trowle, who grumbles because his wages have not been paid, refuses to eat, wrestles with his masters and throws them all. They sit down discomfited; then the Star of Bethlehem appears, filling them with wonder, which grows when they hear the angels' song of "Gloria in excelsis." They discuss what the words were--"glore, glare with a glee," or, "glori, glory, glorious," or, "glory, glory, with a glo." At length they go to Bethlehem, and arrived at the stable, the first shepherd exclaims:--

"Sym, Sym, sickerlye Heare I see Marye, And Jesus Christe faste by, Lapped in haye."{13}

Joseph is strangely described:--

"Whatever this oulde man that heare is, Take heede howe his head is wh.o.r.e, His beirde is like a buske of breyers, With a pound of heaire about his mouth and more."{14}

Their gifts to the Infant are a bell, a flask, a spoon to eat pottage with, and a cape. Trowle the servant has nought to offer but a pair of his wife's old hose; four boys follow with presents of a bottle, a hood, a pipe, and a nut-hook. Quaint are the words of the last two givers:--

"_The Thirde Boye._

O, n.o.ble childe of thee!

Alas! what have I for thee, Save only my pipe? 134 Elles trewly nothinge, Were I in the rockes or in, I coulde make this pippe That all this woode should ringe, And quiver, as yt were.

_The Fourth Boye._

Nowe, childe, although thou be comon from G.o.d, And be G.o.d thy selfe in thy manhoode, Yet I knowe that in thy childehoode Thou wylte for sweete meate loke, To pull downe aples, peares, and plumes, Oulde Joseph shall not nede to hurte his thombes, Because thou hast not pleintie of crombes, I geve thee heare my nutthocke."{15}

Let no one deem this irreverent; the spirit of this adoration of the shepherds is intensely devout; they go away longing to tell all the world the wonder they have seen; one will become a pilgrim; even the rough Trowle exclaims that he will forsake the shepherd's craft and will betake himself to an anchorite's hard by, in prayers to "wache and wake."

More famous than this Chester "Pastores" are the two shepherd plays in the Towneley cycle.{16} The first begins with racy talk, leading to a wrangle between two of the shepherds about some imaginary sheep; then a third arrives and makes fun of them both; a feast follows, with much homely detail; they go to sleep and are awakened by the angelic message; after much debate over its meaning and over the foretellings of the prophets--one of them, strangely enough, quotes a Latin pa.s.sage from Virgil--they go to Bethlehem and present to the Child a "lytyll spruse cofer," a ball, and a gourd-bottle.

The second play surpa.s.ses in humour anything else in the mediaeval drama of any country. We find the shepherds first complaining of the cold and their hard lot; they are "al lappyd in sorow." They talk, almost like modern Socialists, of the oppressions of the rich:--

"For the tylthe of our landys lyys falow as the floore, As ye ken. 135 We ar so hamyd,[54]

For-taxed and ramyd,[55]

We ar mayde hand-tamyd, With thyse gentlery men.

Thus thay refe[56] us our rest, Our Lady theym wary![57]

These men that ar lord-fest,[58] they cause the ploghe tary."

To these shepherds joins himself Mak, a thieving neighbour. Going to sleep, they make him lie between them, for they doubt his honesty. But for all their precautions he manages to steal a sheep, and carries it home to his wife. She thinks of an ingenious plan for concealing it from the shepherds if they visit the cottage seeking their lost property: she will pretend that she is in child-bed and that the sheep is the new-born infant. So it is wrapped up and laid in a cradle, and Mak sings a lullaby. The shepherds do suspect Mak, and come to search his house; his wife upbraids them and keeps them from the cradle. They depart, but suddenly an idea comes to one of them:--

"_The First Shepherd._ Gaf ye the chyld any thyng?

_The Second._ I trow not oone farthyng.