THE MEDIAEVAL STAGE

BY E. K. CHAMBERS

VOLUME I

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4

GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA CAPE TOWN SALISBURY NAIROBI IBADAN ACCRA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG

FIRST EDITION 1903 REPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY IN GREAT BRITAIN BY LOWE & BRYDONE, PRINTERS, LTD., LONDON FROM SHEETS OF THE FIRST EDITION 1925, 1948, 1954, 1963

To N. C.

[Pg v]

PREFACE

Some years ago I was thinking of a little book, which now may or may not ever get itself finished, about Shakespeare and the conditions, literary and dramatic, under which Shakespeare wrote. My proper task would have begun with the middle of the sixteenth century. But it seemed natural to put first some short account of the origins of play-acting in England and of its development during the Middle Ages. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that the basis for such a narrative was wanting. The history of the mediaeval theatre had never, from an English point of view, been written. The initial chapter of Collier’s Annals of the Stage is even less adequate than is usual with this slovenly and dishonest antiquary. It is with some satisfaction that, in spite of the barrier set up by an incorrect reference, I have resolved one dramatic representation elaborately described by Collier into a soteltie or sweetmeat. More scholarly writers, such as Dr. A. W. Ward, while dealing excellently with the mediaeval drama as literature, have shown themselves but

little curious about the social and economic facts upon which the mediaeval drama rested. Yet from a study of such facts, I am sure, any literary history, which does not confine itself solely to the analysis of genius, must make a start.

An attempt of my own to fill the gap has grown into these two volumes, which have, I fear, been unduly swelled by the inclusion of new interests as, from time to time, they took hold upon me; an interest, for example, in the light-hearted and coloured life of those poverelli of letters, the minstrel folk; a very deep interest in the track across the ages of certain customs and symbols of rural gaiety which bear with them the inheritance of a remote and ancestral heathenism. I can only hope that this disproportionate treatment of parts has not wholly destroyed the unity of purpose at which, after all, I aimed. If I may venture to define for myself the formula of my work, I would say that it endeavours to state[Pg vi] and explain the pre-existing conditions which, by the latter half of the sixteenth century, made the great Shakespearean stage possible. The story is one of a sudden dissolution and a slow upbuilding. I have arranged the material in four Books. The First Book shows how the organization of the Graeco-Roman theatre broke down before the onslaught of

Christianity and the indifference of barbarism, and how the actors became wandering minstrels, merging with the gleemen of their Teutonic conquerors, entertaining all classes of mediaeval society with spectacula in which the dramatic element was of the slightest, and in the end, after long endurance, coming to a practical compromise with the hostility of the Church. In the Second Book I pass to spectacula of another type, which also had to struggle against ecclesiastical disfavour, and which also made their ultimate peace with all but the most austere forms of the dominant religion. These are the ludi of the village feasts, bearing witness, not only to their origin in heathen ritual, but also, by their constant tendency to break out into primitive forms of drama, to the deep-rooted mimetic instinct of the folk. The Third Book is a study of the process by which the Church itself, through the introduction of dramatic elements into its liturgy, came to make its own appeal to this same mimetic instinct; and of that by which, from such beginnings, grew up the great

popular religious drama of the miracle-plays, with its offshoots in the moralities and the dramatic pageants. The Fourth and final Book deals summarily with the transformation of the mediaeval stage, on the literary side under the influence of humanism, on the social and economic side by the emergence from amongst the ruins of minstrelsy of a new class of professional players, in whose hands the theatre was destined to recover a stable organization upon lines which had been departed from since the days of Tertullian.

I am very conscious of the manifold imperfections of these volumes. They are the work, not of a professed student, but of one who only plays at scholarship in the rare intervals of a busy administrative life. They owe much to the long-suffering officials of the British Museum and the London Library, and more recently to the aid and encouragement of the Delegates[Pg vii] of the Clarendon Press and their accomplished staff. The literary side of the mediaeval drama, about which much remains to be said, I have almost wholly neglected. I shall not, I hope, be accused of attaching too much importance in the first volume to the vague and uncertain results of folk-lore research. One cannot be always giving expression to the minuter shades of probability. But in any investigation the validity of the inferences must be relative to the nature of the subject-matter; and, whether I qualify it in words or not, I do not, of course, make a statement about the intention, say, of primitive sacrifice, with the same confidence which attaches to one about matters of historic record. The burden

of my notes and appendices sometimes appears to me intolerable. My excuse is that I wanted to collect, once for all, as many facts with as precise references as possible. These may, perhaps, have a value independent of any conclusions which I have founded upon them. And even now I do not suppose that I have been either exhaustive or accurate. The remorseless ideal of the historian’s duties laid down in the Introduction aux Études Historiques of MM. Langlois and Seignobos floats before me like an accusing spirit. I know how very far I am from having reached that austere standard of scientific completeness. To begin with, I had not the necessary training. Oxford, my most kindly nurse, maintained in my day no École des Chartes, and I had to discover the rules of method as I went along. But the greater difficulty has been the want of leisure and the spacious life. Shades of Duke Humphrey’s library, how often, as I jostled for my turn at the crowded catalogue-shelves of the British Museum, have I not envied those whose lot it is to tread your ample corridors and to bend

over your yellowing folios! Amongst such happy scholars, the canons of Clio may claim implicit obedience. A silent company, they ‘class’ their documents and ‘try’ their sources from morn to eve, disturbed in the pleasant ways of research only by the green flicker of leaves in the Exeter garden, or by the statutory inconvenience of a terminal lecture.—

‘Tanagra! think not I forget!’

E. K. C.

London, May, 1903.

[Pg ix]

LIST OF AUTHORITIES

[General Bibliographical Note. I mention here only a few works of wide range, which may be taken as authorities throughout these two volumes. Others, more limited in their scope, are named in the preliminary notes to the sections of the book on whose subject-matter they bear.—An admirable general history of the modern drama is W. Creizenach’s still incomplete Geschichte des neueren Dramas (Band i, Mittelalter und Frührenaissance, 1893; Bände ii, iii, Renaissance und Reformation, 1901-3). R. Prölss, Geschichte des neueren Dramas (1881-3), is slighter. The earlier work of J. L. Klein, Geschichte des Dramas (13 vols. 1865-76), is diffuse, inconvenient, and now partly obsolete. A valuable study is expected from J. M. Manly in vol. iii of his Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama, of which two volumes, containing selected texts, appeared in 1897. C. Hastings, Le Théâtre français et anglais (1900, Eng. trans. 1901), is a compilation of little merit.—Prof. Creizenach may be supplemented for Germany by R. Froning, Das Drama des Mittelalters (1891). For France there

are the exhaustive and excellent volumes of L. Petit de Julleville’s Histoire du Théâtre en France au Moyen Âge (Les Mystères, 1880; Les Comédiens en France au Moyen Âge, 1885; La Comédie et les Mœurs en France au Moyen Âge, 1886; Répertoire du Théâtre comique au Moyen Âge, 1886). G. Bapst, Essai sur l’Histoire du Théâtre (1893), adds some useful material on the history of the stage. For Italy A. d’ Ancona, Origini del Teatro italiano (2nd ed., 1891), is also excellent.—The best English book is A. W. Ward’s History of English Dramatic Literature to the death of Queen Anne (2nd ed., 1899). J. P. Collier, History of English Dramatic Poetry (new ed., 1879), is full of matter, but, for various reasons, not wholly trustworthy. J. J. Jusserand, Le Théâtre en Angleterre (2nd ed., 1881), J. A. Symonds, Shakespeare’s Predecessors in the English Drama (1884), and G. M. Gayley, Representative English Comedies (1903), are of value. Texts will be found in Manly’s and Gayley’s books, and in A. W. Pollard, English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes

(3rd ed., 1898); W. C. Hazlitt, Dodsley’s Old Plays (15 vols. 1874-6); A. Brandl, Quellen des weltlichen Dramas in England (1898). F. H. Stoddard, References for Students of Miracle Plays and Mysteries (1887), and K. L. Bates and L. B. Godfrey, English Drama; a Working Basis (1896), are rough attempts at[Pg xiv] bibliographies.—In addition the drama of course finds treatment in the general histories of literature. The best are: for Germany, R. Kögel, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgange des Mittelalters (1894-7, a fragment); K. Gödeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen (2nd ed., 1884-1900); W. Scherer, Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur (8th ed., 1899): for France, L. Petit de Julleville (editor), Histoire de la Langue et de la Littérature françaises (1896-1900); G. Paris, La Littérature française au Moyen Âge (2nd ed., 1890): for Italy, A. Gaspary, Geschichte der italienischen Litteratur (1884-9, Eng. transl. 1901): for England, T. Warton, History of English Poetry (ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1871); B. Ten Brink, History

of English Literature (Eng. trans. 1893-6); J. J. Jusserand, Literary History of the English People (vol. i. 1895); W. J. Courthope, History of English Poetry (vols. i, ii. 1895-7); G. Saintsbury, Short History of English Literature (1898), and, especially for bibliography, G. Körting, Grundriss der Geschichte der englischen Litteratur (3rd ed., 1899). The Periods of European Literature, edited by Prof. Saintsbury, especially G. Gregory Smith, The Transition Period (1900), and the two great Grundrisse, H. Paul, Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (2nd ed., 1896-1903), and G. Gröber, Grundriss der romanischen Philologie (1888-1903), should also be consulted.—The beginnings of the mediaeval drama are closely bound up with liturgy, and the nature of the liturgical books referred to is explained by W. Maskell, A Dissertation upon the Ancient Service-Books of the Church of England (in Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 2nd ed., 1882, vol. iii); H. B. Swete, Church Services and Service-Books before the Reformation (1896); Procter-Frere, New History of

the Book of Common Prayer (1901). The beginnings of Catholic ritual are studied by L. Duchesne, Origines du Culte chrétien (3rd ed., 1902, Eng. trans. 1903), and its mediaeval forms described by D. Rock, The Church of our Fathers (1849-53), and J. D. Chambers, Divine Worship in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (1877).

The following list of books is mainly intended to elucidate the references in the footnotes, and has no claim to bibliographical completeness or accuracy. I have included the titles of a few German and French dissertations of which I have not been able to make use.]

Aberdeen Records. Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen. Edited by J. Stuart. 2 vols. 1844-8. [Spalding Club, xii, xix.]

Acta SS. Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, quas collegit[Pg xv] I. Bollandus. Operam continuavit G. Henschenius [et alii], 1734-1894. [In progress.]

Ahn. English Mysteries and Miracle Plays. By Dr. Ahn. Trier, 1867. [Not consulted.]

Alcuin. See Dümmler.

Allard. Julien l’Apostat. Par P. Allard. 3 vols. 1900-3.

Allen. The Evolution of the Idea of God: an Enquiry into the Origins of Religion. By Grant Allen, 1897.

Alt. Theater und Kirche in ihrem gegenseitigen Verhältniss. Von H. Alt, 1846.

Anal. Hymn. Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi. Ediderunt C. Blume et G. M. Dreves. 37 parts, 1886-1901. [In progress.]

Ancona. Origini del Teatro italiano. Per A. d’Ancona, 2nd ed. 2 vols. 1891.

Ancona, Sacr. Rappr. Sacre Rappresentazioni dei secoli xiv, xv e xvi, raccolte e illustrate per cura di A. d’Ancona, 1872.

Anglia. Anglia: Zeitschrift für englische Philologie. 24 vols. 1878-1903. [In progress.]

Ann. Arch. Annales Archéologiques, dirigées par Didron aîné. 28 vols. 1844-81.

Antiquarian Repertory. The Antiquarian Repertory: A Miscellaneous assemblage of Topography, History, Biography, Customs and Manners. Compiled by F. Grose and T. Astle. 2nd ed. 4 vols. 1807.

Arbois de Jubainville, Civ. Celt. La Civilisation des Celtes et celle de l’Épopée homérique. Par H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, 1899. [Vol. vi of Cours de littérature celtique.]

Arbois de Jubainville, Cycl. Myth. Le Cycle mythologique irlandais et la Mythologie celtique. Par H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, 1884. [Vol. ii of same.]

Archaeologia. Archaeologia: or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. 57 vols. 1770-1901. [In progress.]

Arnold. The Customs of London, otherwise Arnold’s Chronicle. Edited by F. Douce, 1811.

Ashton. A Righte Merrie Christmasse!!! By J. Ashton, n. d.

Bahlmann, Ern. Die Erneuerer des antiken Dramas und ihre ersten dramatischen Versuche: 1314-1478. Von P. Bahlmann, 1896.

Bahlmann, L. D. Die lateinischen Dramen von Wimpheling’s Stylpho bis zur Mitte des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts: 1480-1550. Von P. Bahlmann, 1893.

Bale. Scriptorum illustrium maioris Britanniae, quam nunc Angliam et Scotiam vocant, Catalogus. Autore Ioanne Baleo Sudouolgio Anglo. 2 vols. Basileae, Oporinus, 1557-9. [Enlarged from the edition in one vol. of 1548.]

Bale, Index. Index Britanniae Scriptorum quos ex variis bibliothecis non parvo labore collegit Ioannes Baleus. Edited by R. L. Poole and[Pg xvi] M. Bateson, 1902. [Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series, ix, from a MS. compiled 1549-1557.]

Bapst. Essai sur l’Histoire du Théâtre. Par G. Bapst, 1893.

Barbazan-Méon. Fabliaux et Contes des Poètes françois des xi, xii, xiii, xiv et xv siècles. Publiés par E. Barbazan. Nouvelle édition, par M. Méon. 4 vols. 1808.

Barrett. Riding Skimmington and Riding the Stang. By C. R. B. Barrett, 1895. [Journal of British Archaeological Association, N. S. vol. i.]

Barthélemy. Rational ou Manuel des divins Offices de Guillaume Durand, Évêque de Mende au treizième siècle. Traduit par M. C. Barthélemy. 5 vols. 1854.

Bartsch. Altfranzösische Romanzen und Pastourellen. Par K. Bartsch, 1870.

Bates. The English Religious Drama. By K. L. Bates, 1893.

Bates-Godfrey. English Drama: a Working Basis. By K. L. Bates and L. B. Godfrey, 1896.

Bede, D. T. R. Venerabilis Bedae Opera quae Supersunt Omnia. Edidit J. A. Giles. 12 vols. 1843-4. [The De Temporum Ratione forms part of vol. vi.]

Bede, E. H. See Plummer.

Bédier. Les Fabliaux. Études de Littérature populaire et d’Histoire littéraire du Moyen Âge. Par J. Bédier, 2nd ed. 1895.

Belethus. Rationale Divinorum Officiorum Auctore Joanne Beletho Theologo Parisiensi, 1855. [In P. L. ccii.]

Bell. Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. Edited by R. Bell, 1857.

Bérenger-Féraud. Superstitions et Survivances étudiées au point de vue de leur Origine et de leurs Transformations. Par L. J. B. Bérenger-Féraud. 4 vols. 1896.

Bernhard. Recherches sur l’Histoire de la Corporation des Ménétriers ou Joueurs d’Instruments de la Ville de Paris. Par B. Bernhard. [Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, iii. 377, iv. 525, v. 254, 339.]

Bertrand. Nos Origines: iv. La Religion des Gaulois; Les Druides et le Druidisme. Par A. Bertrand, 1897.

Bibl. des Chartes. Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes. Revue d’Érudition consacrée spécialement à l’étude du Moyen Âge. [I quote the numbers of the annual volumes, without regard to the Séries.]

Bingham. The Works of Joseph Bingham. Edited by R. Bingham. New ed. 10 vols.

Blomefield. An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk. By F. Blomefield. 2nd ed. 11 vols. 1805-10.

Böhck. Die Anfänge des englischen Dramas. Von Dr. Böhck, 1890. [Not consulted.]

Bolton. The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children. By H. C. Bolton, 1888.

[Pg xvii]

Boretius. Capitularia Regum Francorum. Ediderunt A. Boretius et V. Krause. 2 vols. 1883-7. [M. G. H. Leges, Sectio ii.]

Bourquelot. Office de la Fête des Fous. Publié par F. Bourquelot, 1858. [Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Sens, vol. vi. Not consulted at first hand.]

Bower. The Elevation and Procession of the Ceri at Gubbio. By H. M. Bower, 1897. [F. L. S.]

Brand. Observations on Popular Antiquities, chiefly illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies, and Superstitions. By J. Brand. Enlarged by Sir H. Ellis. 3 vols. 1841-2.

Brand-Hazlitt. Observations on Popular Antiquities. By J. Brand. Edited with additions by W. C. Hazlitt. 3 vols. 1870.

Brandl. Quellen des weltlichen Dramas in England vor Shakespeare. Ein Ergänzungsband zu Dodsley’s Old English Plays. Herausgegeben von A. Brandl, 1898. [Quellen und Forschungen, lxxx.]

Brewer. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. Arranged and catalogued by J. S. Brewer [and afterwards J. Gairdner and R. H. Brodie]. 18 vols. 1862-1902. [Calendars of State Papers.]

Brooke. The History of Early English Literature: being the History of English Poetry to the Accession of King Alfred. By S. A. Brooke. 2 vols. 1892.

Brooke, Eng. Lit. English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest. By S. A. Brooke, 1898.

Brotanek. Die englischen Maskenspiele. Von R. Brotanek, 1902. [Wiener Beiträge zur englischen Philologie, xv.]

Brown. Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs, in the Archives and Collections of Venice and in other Libraries of North Italy. Edited by H. F. Brown and R. Brown. 10 vols. 1864-1900.

Brylinger. Comoediae et Tragoediae aliquot ex Novo et Vetere Testamento desumptae. Basileae, Brylinger, 1540.

Burchardus. Burchardi Wormaciencis Ecclesiae Episcopi Decretorum Libri xx, 1853. [In P. L. cxl.]

Burne-Jackson. Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings. Edited by C. S. Burne, from the collections of G. F. Jackson, 1883.

Burnet. A History of the Reformation of the Church of England. By G. Burnet. Edited by N. Pocock. 7 vols. 1865.

Burton. Rushbearing. By A. Burton, 1891.

Bury-Gibbon. See Gibbon.

Campbell. Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, from documents in the Public Record Office. By W. Campbell. 2 vols. 1873-7. [R. S. lx.]

Canel. Recherches historiques sur les Fous des Rois de France. Par A. Canel, 1873.

Captain Cox. See Laneham.

[Pg xviii]

Carmina Burana. See Schmeller.

Caspari. Eine Augustin fälschlich beilegte Homilia de Sacrilegiis. Herausgegeben von C. P. Caspari, 1886. [Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Christiania.]

Cassiodorus. Cassiodori Senatoris Variae. Recensuit Theodorus Mommsen, 1894. [M. G. H. Auctores Antiquissimi, vol. xii.]

Catholicon Anglicum. Catholicon Anglicum: an English-Latin Wordbook (1483). Edited by S. J. Herrtage, 1881. [C. S. N. S. xxx.]

Cavendish. The Life of Cardinal Wolsey. By J. Cavendish. Edited by S. W. Singer. 2 vols. 1825.