which was chiefly composed of the inhabitants of the port. "You see," said a married woman who sat behind me, "that the injustice of husbands preceded the birth of the Saviour."

This reflection diverted those who heard it. The "Passion" followed

what we had just seen. The character of Judas was admirable; however, every body seemed to be of opinion that it was common, and might be met with every day. Herod, with a doctor's cap on his head, interpreted very badly, and discovered in the least actions of our Saviour sufficient cause for his crucifixion. Pontius Pilate washed his hands of the business with an air the most becoming and indifferent imaginable. The show, according to the announcement, finished with the Resurrection. The spectators retired, cracking a thousand jokes, upon the puppets changed into Jews and Romans, and I for a moment imagined myself carried back to that remote period of which Boileau speaks, when an ignorant troop of strollers represented mysteries on temporary scaffoldings

"Et sottement zélée en sa simplicité,

Jouait les saints, la Vierge, et Dieu par piété.""

The article concluded by some reflections on the abuse of this kind of spectacle, and the King's advocate, after minutely criticising it, called for the condemnation of M. Michelot, its acknowledged author. M. Chaix d'Este Ange, advocate for M. Michelot, offered to prove that the scandalous spectacle described by the author was really exhibited, and contended that the description was unaccompanied by comments. Upon which the tribunal gave judgment, that the article entitled, "Travelling Shows," was only a description of a theatrical representation which took place in the town of Dieppe, a fact not denied by the public prosecutor, and that the object of the article was not to outrage or turn into ridicule the religion of the state, but rather to shew the impropriety and the abuse of theatrical representations of holy mysteries, and to denounce them, if not to authority, at least to public opinion. The complaint was therefore dismissed.

The Theatre of Strasburg, in 1816, exhibited an improvement on the ancient performance of mysteries. It consisted of scenes accurately representing particular events in the life

of Christ from the best pictures of the great masters. Not a word was spoken, and there was very little motion: the harmonica, an instrument of dulcet sound, concealed from view, played sacred tunes, and occasionally the plaintive voices of females sung in parts. In this way were successively exhibited, the annunciation by Guido ; the adoration of the shepherds, after Domenichino; the offerings of the wise men, by Rembrandt; the raising of the widow's son, by Da Vinci; the Disciples at Emmaus, by Titian; the last supper, by Guido; the washing of the disciples' feet, by Rubens; the scourging, after S. Rosa; the crowning with thorns, by Spagnoletto; the crucifixion, by Rubens ; the descent from the cross, by Raphael; and the Resurrection, after An. Caracci. The representation was remarkably impressive.(1)

A gentleman educated in the Jesuits' seminary, belonging to the cathedral of the same city, Strasbourg, informs me that it was, and still is the custom, during the space of a fortnight previous to the vacations of that seminary, for the scholars to perform sacred plays, in the Latin Language; and, in particular, he well recollects the first representation in 1769, of the principal subjects in the Old and New Testament, commencing from the creation, and ending with the crucifixion, when he himself played Pilate, and his brother Christ, before audiences of the first rank and opulence. The Old Elector Theodore of Bavaria, especially patronized this species of entertainment, and preferred it to the legitimate drama. The inhabitants of Munich, Straubingen, Ingolstadt, Passau, and most of the towns on the right of the Danube, witnessed these exhibitions every Sunday during Lent, until the French interrupted them; but they have since been restored, and the Annunciation, Incarnation, and other Mysteries are regularly played, at the theatre for concerts and oratorios in Munich. If I am not misinformed the sermons of Father Parhamer, a Jesuit at the court of Joseph I. contain very remarkable anecdotes concerning these plays at that period. In the time of the Empress Maria Theresa, they were encouraged by the royal presence, attended by the court, and had the patron

(1) Blackwood's Magazine, Nov. 1817.

age of her government. At Berlin, in 1804 and 5, the grand sacred comedy of David, in five acts, with battles and choruses, was performed by the comedians in the National Theatre. Throughout March, April, and May, 1810, the same play was represented at Vienna; and while the Congress was held there in 1815, it was again performed with the utmost possible splendour. The back of the stage, extending into the open air, gradually ascended to a distance sufficient to admit carriages and horses, and the evolutions of at least five hundred Austrian soldiers, infantry and cavalry, who, hobited in the characters of Jews and Philistines, carried muskets and carbines, defiled and deployed, charged with the bayonet, let off their fire-arms, and played artillery, to represent the battles described in the Book of Kings. The Emperor Alexander of Russia, the king of Prussia, and other monarchs, with their ministers, and the representatives of different courts, at the Congress, attended these plays, which were exhibited at the great theatre An der Wien to crowded audiences, at the usual prices of admission.

Dr. Burney says, it is certain that the modern tragedy is taken from the mysteries, and that the Oratorio is only a mystery, or morality in music. The Oratorio commenced with the priests of the Oratory, a brotherhood founded at Rome in 1540, by St. Philip Neri, who in order to draw youth to church, had hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs, or cantatas, sung either in chorus, or by a single favourite voice. These pieces were divided into two parts, the one performed before the sermon, and the other after it. Sacred stories, or events from scripture, written in verse, and by way of dialogue, were set to music, and the first part being performed, the sermon succeeded, which the people were induced to stay and hear, that they might be present at the performance of the second part. The subjects in early times were the good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Tobit with the angel, his father, and his wife, and similar histories, which by the excellence of the composition, the band of instruments, and the performance, brought the Oratory into great repute; and hence this species of musical drama obtained the general appellation of Oratorio.

"All this was done with solemnity of celebration and appetite of seeing." Gregorie.

ST. NICHOLAS, Bishop of Myra in the fourth century, was a

saint of great virtue, and disposed so early in life to conform to ecclesiastical rule, that when an infant at the breast he fasted on Wednesday and Friday, and sucked but once on each of those days, and that towards night. (1) An Asiatic gentleman sending his two sons to Athens for education, ordered them to wait on the bishop for his benediction. On arriving at Myra with their baggage they took up their lodging at an inn, purposing, as it was late in the day, to defer their visit till the morrow; but in the

(1) Ribadeneira, vol ii. p. 503.

meantime the innkeeper, to secure their effects to himself, killed the young gentlemen, cut them into pieces, salted them, and intended to sell them for pickled pork. St. Nicholas being favoured with a sight of these proceedings in a vision, went to the inn, and reproached the cruel landlord for his crime, who immediately confessing it, entreated the Saint to pray to heaven for his pardon. The Bishop moved by his confession and contrition, besought forgiveness for him, and supplicated restoration of life to the children. He had scarcely finished when the pieces re-united, and the animated youths threw themselves from the brine-tub at the Bishop's feet: he raised them up and exhorted them to return thanks to God alone, gave them good advice for the future, bestowed his blessing on them, and sent them to Athens with great joy to prosecute their studies. (1)

This miracle, were there no other, sufficiently accounts for St. Nicholas having been anciently selected by scholars and youth for their patron, as well as for the children of the choir selecting his

(1) Rev. W. Cole, (in Gent.'s Mag. vol. xlvii. p. 158.) from a Life of St. Nicholas, 3rd edit., 4to. Naples 1645. See Brand, vol. i. p. 325. The Salisbury Missal of 1534, fol. xxvii. contains a prayer to St. Nicholas, before which is an engraving on wood of the Bishop with the children rising from the tub; but better than all, by a licence that artists formerly assumed of representing successive scenes in the same print, the landlord himself is shown in the act of reducing a limb into sizes suitable for his mercenary purpose: to be sure there are only two children in the story, and there are three in the tub: but it is fairly to be conjectured that the story was thought so good as to be worth making a little better. As St. Nicholas is the patron of the company of Parish Clerks of London, of whom from their former performance of Mysteries there will be occasion to speak hereafter, as well as the patron of scholars, who also represented these religious plays and likewise personated the Boy Bishop, I have thought it seemly to precede the above narration by a facsimile of the Missal cut. St. Nicholas is likewise the patron of sailors, for which there are reasons enough in Ribadeneira, if relations of miracles be reasons. That writer also says of St. Nicholas that "being present at the Council of Nice, among three hundred and eighteen bishops, who were there assembled together to condemn the heresy of Arius, he shone among them all with so great clarity, and opinion of sanctity, that he appeared like a sun amongst so many stars."-Lives of the Saints, vol. ii., p. 507.