THE CHESTER MYSTERIES. 193 
the Ark. In the Chester Mysteries she refuses to leave her 
‘good gossips,” with whom she sits drinking and singing the 
good gossip’s song, whilst F 
‘The flood comes flitting in full fast,” 
until she is carried into the Ark by main force, by Shem and 
Japhet. Noah tries to conciliate her by saying— 
“‘ Welcome, wife, into this boat,” 
but receives a blow in the face in return, with the words— 
“‘ Have thou this for thy note.” 
And then he shuts the window of the Ark, and there is silence 
for a little space ; after which we hear the Voice of God pro- 
claiming the Covenant of the Rainbow, and the play, which was 
acted by “the good simple Water-leaders and Drawers of Dee,” 
concludes. 
‘Finis. Deo Gratis. Per me, Geo. Bellin, 1592,” is the signa- 
ture; and, as at the end of every other play in the set, the 
copyist adds the words— 
“ Come, Lord Jesu, come quickly.”’ 
But the favourite play in the whole series, and the one in 
which the extraordinary alternation of farce with solemnity is 
the most remarkable, is “ the Shepherds’ Play.” The Shepherds 
are not named in Scripture, and therefore it was, as has been 
said, considered permissible to invent both names and charac- 
ters, and in every one of the Mystery plays the pageant De 
Pastoribus opens with some rude scene of rustic humour. In 
the Chester play the three Shepherds, and their boy Trowle, are 
simple Cheshire and Lancashire folk. The First Shepherd 
begins by declaring, in the homeliest way, how well he under- 
stands his business :— 
‘«« From comely Conway unto Clyde 
A better shepherd on no side, 
No yearthly man may have.” 
The Third Shepherd is deaf, and may not well hear. 
‘Call him Tudde, Tibbe’s son, 
Then will the Shrewe come, 
For in good faith, it is his wonne 
To love his dame’s (mother’s) name,” 
says the Primus Pastor, and, after some shouting, Tudde, the 
son of Tibbe, appears, and excuses his delay by saying that he 
has had 
‘¢To seithe salve for our sheep.” 
He knows every point that belongs to his craft, he says, and 
proceeds to name all the herbs of which the salve is made. 
Also, lest his wife should discover what he has been doing, he 
observes that he has been scouring the old pan ‘with great 
gravel and grit,’ for (he adds) it is not unknown to good men 
that there are matters in which every husband has to give in to 
his wife. : 
