audience at their own pleasure; while we are kept here without, as mere ribalds. Let us cry out a rowe [haro] and out upon them all! they have done us wrong; and we will speak so loud that in spite of thein they shall hear us." Then Satan and his spirits cried out all at once, "Michael! Provost, Lieutenant, and Commissary of the high Judge! do us right, without exception or favour of any party. You know very well that in every upright court the prosecutor is admitted to make his accusation and propose his petition; but you first admit the defendant to make his excusation. This manner of judging is suspicious; for were these pilgrims innocent, yet, if reason were to be heard, and right were to prevail, the accusers would have the first hearing to say what they would, and then the defendants after them, to excuse themselves if they could : we, then, being the prosecutors, hear us first, and then the defendants."-After Satan's complaint, the Soul heard within the curtain, "a longe parliament;" and, at the last, there was another proclamation ordered by sound of trumpet as follows:"All ye that are accustomed to come to our judgments, to hear and to see, as assessors, that right be performed, come forth immediately and take your seats; ye well knowing your own assigned places. Ye also that are without, waiting the sitting of the court, present yourselves forthwith to the judgment thereof, in order as ye shall be called; so that no one hinder another, or interrupt another's discourse. Ye pilgrims approach the entrance of this curtain, awaiting without; and your wardens, because they are our equals, belonging to our company, are to appear, as of right they ought, within our presence." After this proclamation was observed, the Guardian Angel said-" Provost Michael! I here present to you this pilgrim committed to my care in the world below: he has kept his faith to the last, and ought to be received into the heavenly Jerusalem, whereto his body hath long been travelling."-Satan answered-"Michael! attend to my word and I shall tell you another tale." He urged that the Soul, after baptism, on arriving at mature age, defiled himself by sin. "It is written," says Satan, "in the midst of his visage, read it who that will. There ye may see the shame and confusion which he hath wilfully wrapped himself in. By that I ask judgment that he be delivered to me. "Satan then enumerated the Soul's various sins, and asked "who is it that ought, or may, or dare excuse him? I ask no other witness but he that hath always been next of his counsel, his own Conscience, who dare not, nor will not lie in the matter he is mine by right; in heaven hath he nought; let him therefore he delivered to me that I may go hence forthwith." The Soul then relates, that in great dread and heaviness he knew not what to do or say, but when he saw his warden remain silent, he was in still greater dread. He said to me then, says the Soul, that "I must answer for myself to the accusation, and if I could defend myself I had the right to do so, but if I could not or durst not in my own person, I must get some advocate to speak for me. But I well knew that advocates are not willing to plead any man's cause without it is a just one, or else that they hope to be rewarded after; and for so poor a man as I, there would no advocate plead without being paid before hand: for pleaders in worldly courts have tongues like to the languet of the balance that draweth him away to the party that will give the best reward." Nevertheless the advocates of heaven were of another kind, and ready to speak for the soul; yet he still thought, that as he was poor, and had nothing to give an advocate, and had no acquaintance with any saint,

he had better defend himself. He commences, however, by complaining that be who is now his accuser was his seducer. He suggests that if he had been a sinner he ought not to have been suffered to go on so long. He affirms that he has no wisdom to demean himself, and appeals to Charity, to Jesus, to the Virgin Mary, and to all the saints against his enemy, who, while he was in the flesh, by deceits and frauds, drove him to misdoing. Then, Justice spoke to the following effect:-" Sir Judge! Repentance and petition is now useless! nor can any advocate plead here who is not from the earth below, and it is against the law and custom of the court to attempt to excite and stir favor to himself. The soul had leisure in his lifetime to have prayed, and obtained procurators to promote his interests, but now it is too late." Proclamation was accordingly made thus :- "The manner and usage of the Court is, that the pilgrim answer for himself personally, and plainly give account of his journey, and other plea nor process ought not to be heard nor admitted in this place." The soul thus pressed, endeavoured to defend himself in the best manner he could. He began by tendering exceptions to Satan's proceedings :—that he ought not to answer the action brought against him by satan and others, because they were infamous and condemned, and therefore driven from heaven; because Satan had always been the defendant's personal enemy, by pursuing, lying in wait, forestalling, spreading nets, arraying traps and setting other engines, to take and deceive him. Further, he alleged that Satan was not a proper person to prosecute the action, he being eternally condemned, and therefore could not answer to the soul for the wrong done him, if the action were disallowed; and, lastly, he alleged that it was well known that Satan was then, and ever had been, an open liar, the author of all falsehood, and untruth, and always ready to do and say the worst. To these exceptions Satan answered to nearly as follows: that the manner and custom of heaven is not the same as upon earth; that he had seizin of accusement inasmuch as the Court had accepted his accusation: that when he was kept standing without, the soul did not then except : that although, true it was, that if the action were avoided, that he personally could not be heard by reason of his insufficiency, yet there was one who could in no way be excepted to, and who knew the soul's inmost thoughts. Whereupon Satan called Synderesys to testify the truth. The soul's description of this witness is very curious :-"Then came forth by me an old one, that long time had hid himself nigh me, which, before that time I had not perceived. He was wonderfully hideous, and of cruel countenance; and he began to grin, and shewed me his jaws and his gums, for teeth he had none, they being all broken and worn away. And when I espied him, I was full sore abashed. He was dreadfully loathsome and foul to look upon: he had no body, but under his head, he had only a tail, which seemed the tail of a worm, of exceeding length and greatness. To me this loathsome beast began to speak, and said :-I am come to accuse thee. I am not accustomed to make fables, nor tell no gabbings, but I am believed of truth. I know well thy thoughts, thy deeds, and thy words. Thou canst make no exception to me; and I shall be believed in this Court better than thee. Often have I warned thee in private, for thy own sake and advantage, of thy misconduct, both in thoughts and words; and so often bitten thee that all my teeth are wasted and broken; and yet thou hast been so obstinate, that no sore biting could turn thee from thy evil ways. And further, I

counselled thee to go to the priest and shew him the hideousness of thy soul, which by keeping private is blemished and deformed, although that priest, upon thy disclosure, would have absolved thee." The Soul inquiring of the witness who he is, receives for answer; "I am the Worm of Conscience; for, like a worm, I am wont to bite and to wound them that wrong themselves."-This specimen, modernized in orthography and style, shews that the curious piece from whence it is extracted, is not only pregnant with allegory, but is a theological parody upon proceedings in courts of law. It is issued, as is elsewhere stated, from the press of Caxton, the first English printer, in the reign of Edward the Fifth.

One remark, in conclusion, concerning Mysteries. It seems pretty well agreed that the performance of these religious plays ceased about 1578. Subjoined is the title of a play, printed at London in that year, with the names of the characters. A moral and pitiful Comedi, intituled ALL FOR MONEY: plainly representing the maners of men and fashion of the world now adayes. Compiled by T. LUPTON. The names of them that plaie this Comœdie. Theologie. Science. Arte. Money. Adulation. Mischievous helpe. Pleasure. Prest for pleasure. Sinne. Swifte to sinne. Damnation. Satan. Pryde. Gluttonie. Learning with Money. Learning without Money. Money without Learning. All for Money. Neyther Money nor Learning. Moneyles and Friendles. Gregorie graceless. Moneyles. William with the two wives. Nychol. S. Laurence. Mother Crooke. Judas. Dives. Godly admonition. Vertue. Humilitie. Charitie." Lupton's amalgam of mystery with morality was an accommodation to the general liking for the old performances. From about that period it is easy to trace the rapid improvement of popular taste, in the plays of successive authors, until Shakspeare, exploring the sources of human action exemplified all possible varieties of character, and taught the philosophy of social life in his imperishable dramas.

(grand mercie, fr.) Lemenyd, limned, emblazoned.