The English Moral Plays 371 
Truth and Chastity, repudiated alike by all three estates, are set 
in the stocks. Only Divine Correction is strong enough to overcome 
the evil advisers, to free the prisoners, and to induce the king to 
summon Parliament for the redress of grievances. 
In the second part of this long play redress is made. There is 
withal ample room for some reflection of Scotland’s religious re- 
form. The ignorance and vice of the clergy, especially of the 
pardoners, is ruthlessly exposed; steps are taken to expel all lazy, 
ignorant, and vicious priests, and to abolish the order of nuns; and 
good clergymen are found, from one of whom the audience is 
favored with an exemplary sermon on the Passion and Atonement, 
and with a Protestant version of the Apostles’ Creed. But all this 
is overshadowed by the call for civil reform. The plea of Pauper 
for justice to himself and his motherless children, and the protests 
of John Commonwealth, lay bare the corruption of the state. The 
Parliament is summoned, and passes legislation looking to the 
establishment of justice for all, the fair rental of lands, the main- 
tenance of an intelligent and moral clergy, and the prohibition of 
pluralities and other forms of oppression. There is little distinctly 
Protestant theology in the play, little that is not found in the 
satires of Heywood and Chaucer; but there is loud protest against 
economic and political abuses. 
Owing to the course taken by the Reformation in England, the 
English controversial drama necessarily dealt largely with such 
public questions. The moral play, Godly Queen Hester, uses Biblical 
narrative, after the fashion of the miracle-plays, to enforce the lesson 
of humility. But the play is near of kin to the political moralities; 
for in it are plain references to England’s sumptuary laws, the 
abuse of pluralities, the treatment of the Jews, and the political 
controversies of Tudor times as waged in 
The slanderous reports, the lies that be made, 
The feigned detractions and contumelious, 
The rhymes, the railings so far set abroad, 
Both painted and printed in most shameful wise. (269) 
In the report of the troubles between the lords and the Cardinal, 
to which most space is given, Dr. Grosart has shown that there is 
much that is suggestive of the career of Wolsey. 



fore, he continues, we should scrutinize apparent virtues as money- 
changers examine coins, to see if they be really genuine (I. c., 611; see 
also Pastoral Care, Part 2, chap. 9). 
1 262-64, 269. 
Trans. Conn. Acap., Vol. XIV. 25 Marcu, 1910. 
