196 THE CHESTER MYSTERIES 
and the Nativity,” and it is, in the first instance, an amplification 
of the statement of the Evangelist, that ‘‘there went forth a 
decree from Ceesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” 
A personage called a Nuntius appears and proclaims :— 
- - + ‘Make room, lordings, and give us way, 
And let Octavian come and play, 
And Sibyl the Sage that well fare may 
To tell you of prophesy. 
That Lord that died on Good Friday, 
He save you all both night and day, 
Farewell, lordings, I go my way, 
I may no longer abide.” 
And then Octavian enters, and in a sabe Reach boasts of his 
own greatness, and the greatness of the Roman Empire. Andin 
this speech occur thirteen lines of French, such as have been 
already alluded to, of which the meaning has long been lost. 
*“« Segurrs tous se asmeles,” they begin, and we can just guess 
that this was once “‘ Seigneurs tous ici assemblés,” but the rest is 
quite unintelligible. The speech, however, is lengthy enough 
without these thirteen lines. 
‘* Since I was soveraine (he says) war clean can cease, 
And thoro’ this world now is peace, 
For so dread a duke sat never on dais, 
In Rome, that you may trust.” 
Therefore, to prove his might and power, he will send about 
and see ‘‘how many heads he has,” and king, clerke, knight, 
or knave, each man one penny shall pay, and this game shall 
begin in Judcea, because the folk of the Jewes are “in the 
medest of the world!” His bedell, who, oddly enough, swears 
by Mahound, hastens forth to do his bidding, and then the 
senators of Rome appear, to tell him they are sent from all 
Rome to offer to honour him as a god 
Octavian hesitates :— 
‘* Folly it were (he says) by many a waye, 
Seeing I must die I wot not what day, 
Neither of iron, tree, nor stone, 
Am I not wrought ye wot each one, 
And of my life most part is gone.” . . 4 
And there is no godhead, this he knows, without eternity, for 
‘* Godhead asks in al thinge 
Tyme that hath no begininge, 
Nor never shall have ending, 
And none of this have I.” 
PEK ge let them ask Sybil the Sage— 
‘Her that has grace for to see 
Things that afterwards shall be.” 
So Sibyl the Sage appears, and he asks her whether thers shall 
ever be any earthly king greater than himself. ‘ Yea, Sir,” 
she answers at once, 
«« A barn is born bliss to bring,” 
the which had never beginning, nor never shall have end. And 
on the Emperor’s further enquiries, she utters a distinct pro- 
