be doubtful whether n in resurgens were not ; and u in mortuis is so like n in aronzt, that it would actually be taken for n were mortuis a word of equivocal meaning. But in whatever way the error came upon the plate, Hearne has himself cured it by quoting the passage, in "our vernacular tongue, out, out, arougt,” as the words of the print. To this may be added, that arougt rhymes to out, out, and is the last line of a distich,

Out, Out,
Arougt.

Such a couplet it would be quite natural for a monkish writer in a rhyming age to conceive a happy thought, and to introduce on such an occasion. Taking then arougt to be the real word, I just observe, that in all the engravings that I have seen of the Descent wherein devils appear, they are represented to be roaring, or violently clamoring in great fear; and to assist the reader, I beg him to recollect that the terrified devil in the print, accompanies the distich, out, out, arougt, with a blast of his horn, as an alarm to the infernal host.

Arougt I have not been able to find in any dictionary within reach; but there is arout, to assemble together, in Urry's edition of Chaucer, where it stands thus:

In all that land no Christin durst arout

All Christin folk ben flemed fro that countre. (1)

Now if arout were really Chaucer's word, it would go nigh in my opinion to settle the question; but on looking further it appears that Chaucer's word is route, and that the letter a is prefixed by Urry, who put initial or final syllables to Chaucer's words for the purpose of assisting the measure where he supposed it deficient. (2) It reads in Tyrwhitt's, as well as in other editions,

In all that lond no cristen dorsté route.-1. 4960.

For the present taking arougt as a summons to assemble, the

(1) Urry's Chaucer, p. 53. Man of Lawe's Tale, 1. 541.

(2) Ibid. Thomas's Preface.

words that seem most likely to exemplify it are as follow:Teutonic or old Dutch, rot, a crowd or band of men ;(1) rotten, to congregate: (2) old German, rotte, turba vagabonda, a wandering crowd, also a party or faction (3) old English, route, a company. (4) The statute 2 Rich. II. cap. 6. speaks of riding in great routes to make entry into lands. (5) Rout also signifies the meeting of a large social party invited by a lady; the assembly is called her rout. (6) But leaving this sense, I find in Saxon, reotan, or wreotan, crepitare, strepere, to clatter, or make a noise: (7) Scottish, ruther, a loud noise, a tumultuous cry, an uproar: AngloSaxon, hruth, commotion: Cambro-Britannic, rhuthr, impetus: rhuthro, cum impetu ferri: Irish, ruathar, pillage, and hrid, a combat: Scottish, rutuor, a spoiler, an oppressor: also rout, rute, a blow, a severe or weighty stroke. (8)

As in Hearne's engraving, the word projects beyond the ruled border, copied from the page of the calendar, is it not probable that the word arougt was a contraction of the amanuensis, to avoid an unseemly projection into the margin, which seldom or never occurs in MSS. beyond the extent to which arougt has exceeded its boundary line. Hearne would not have called the inscription, "words in our vernacular tongue," if their spelling and pronunciation had not denoted their sense; if then, spelt as arougt is, and recollecting the confined space which had been transgressed, we discover no one word that can reasonably be imagined to be arougt, may it not be an abbreviation of two words? I imagine that a quotation from Spencer, in the Rev. Archdeacon Nares's glossary, is a clue to these words:—

Harrow now, out, and well away! he cryde.—Faery Queen, II. vi. 43.

Mr. Nares defines harrow, an exclamation of sorrow or alarm. The word out, a common exclamation of grief where we should now say alas is also an interjection expressive of abhorrence and is used in that sense by Shakspeare: Queen Margaret says to

(1) Kilian. Skinner. (2) Kilian. (3) Wachter. (4) Minsheu. (6) Jamieson.

(7) Lye.

(8) Jamieson.

(5) Ibid.

Gloster, "out devil!" (1) Now omit the second word in Spenser's line, and we have harrow out, or arougt, a cry suitable to the porter of hell under his surprise and sudden terror. Jamieson, among other particulars respecting harro, says, that it is an outcry for help, and that it seems to be merely the French word haro, or harou, a cry used by the Normans, which when raised against a capital offender all were bound to pursue and seize him. The Devil in the Newcastle play of Noah's Ark, (2) exclaims

Harro, and wel away,

That ever I uprose this day.

Wel away, means alas! from palapa, Saxon, for woe on woe,(3) and is therefore with propriety coupled to harro. The word haro is often used by the devil as an interjection in the old French and English mysteries. There is a Lancashire word pronounced and spelt areawt, which signifies get out, or away with thee; (4) probably this provincialism is a reduction of the two words haro, out. But the orthography of English manuscripts in the age of Hearne's calendar was almost arbitrary. Its loose and undetermined character is sorely lamented by the preface writer to Bishop Bale's interlude of God's Promises; he says that "the same words being so constantly spelled different ways, makes it very certain they had no fixed rule of right and wrong in spelling; provided the letters did but in any manner make out the sound of the word they would express, it was thought sufficient."(5)

These hints are for consideration, and may be of assistance perhaps, to others, who with the same inclination, are happily better qualified to discover and explain the derivation and meaning of Hearne's word; it would ill become me to further agitate a point, that the learned alone can finally settle.

(2) King Richard III. act, 1. scene 3. (2) Brand's Newcastle, vol. ii. p. 375. (3) Nares's Glossary. (4) Boucher's Supp. to Johnson, art. aroint. (5) Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. i.

VII. ORIGIN OF MYSTERIES--FEAST OF FOOLS-FEAST OF THE ASS, &c.

"What does civil history acquaint us with, but the incorrigible rogueries of mankind; or, ecclesiastical history more than their follies?" Warburton.

A JEWISH Play, of which fragments are still preserved in Greek Iambics, is the first Drama known to have been written on a scripture subject. (1) It is taken from the Exodus, or the departure of the Israelites from Egypt under their leader and prophet Moses. The principal characters are "Moses, Sapphora, and God from the Bush," or God speaking from the burning bush. Moses delivers the prologue in a speech of sixty lines, and his rod is turned into a serpent on the stage. The author of the play is Ezekiel, a Jew, who is called the tragic poet of the Jews. Warton supposes that he wrote it after the destruction of Jerusalem, as a political spectacle to animate his dispersed brethren with the hopes of a future deliverance from their captivity under the conduct of a new Moses; and that it was composed in imitation of the Greek drama at the close of the second century. (2)

Rymer the antiquary relates, that in the first ages of Christianity any one concerned with the theatre was not allowed baptism. Cyril declares that when in our baptism we say, "I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy works and pomps," those pomps of the devil are stage plays and the like vanities. Tertullian affirms that they who in baptism renounce the devil and his pomps, can

(1) Translated into Latin by Fr. Morellus, Paris, 1580. (2) Warton, vol. ii. p. 371.

in

not to go to a stage play without turning apostates. Hence the Greek and Latin fathers had an ample field for their eloquence and declamation, before the Arians, the Gnostics, and other intestine heresies, sprang up to divert them. Cyprian, Basil, and Clement of Alexandria, are very warm upon the occasion; and so many of his homilies is Chrysostom, who cries shame that people should listen to a comedian with the same ears that they hear an evangelical preacher. Augustine maintains that they who go to plays are as bad as those that write or act them. Tertullian in his warmth against the tragedians, observes, that the devil sets them upon their high pantofles to give Christ the lie, who said, nobody can add one cubit to his stature. Rymer adds, that these flashes and drops of heat, from single authors, had no such wonderful effect, for the tragedian still walked on in his high shoes. "Yet might they well expect a more terrible storm from the reverend fathers when met in a body together in council œcumenical. Then indeed began the ecclesiastical thunder to fly about, and presently the theatres, tragedy, comedy, bear-baiting, gladiators, and heretics, are given all to the devil without distinction. Nor was it sufficient for the zeal of those times to put down stage plays. All heathen learning fell under the like censure and condemnation. One might as well have told them of the antipodes as persuaded the reading of Tully's Offices: they were afraid of the Greek philosophy like children of a bugbear, lest it fetch them away. A council of Carthage would not allow that a bishop should read any heathen book. How heartily St. Austin begs God pardon for having read Virgil with delight in his graver years! What a plunge was Jerome put to, by Ruffinus laying to his charge the reading of heathen authors." (2)

(1) Rymer's short View of Tragedy, 8vo, 1693, p. 32, &c.

The plunge, which Rymer says Jerome was put to by Ruffinus, arose during a controversy between them, in which Ruffinus charged Jerome with having perjured himself by reading the classics, after he had entered into an engagement of a most solemn nature that he would not. The affair is rather curious. - It is told of one Natalis, who lived before