392 Elbert N. S. Thompson 
cleverly withheld, bawls from behind the scenes, “I com with my 
leggis vndur me.” The curiosity of the crowd, supposedly, is roused 
to a high pitch, but it is not to be too readily gratified. New-Gyse 
provokingly declares, 
Now gostly to owur purpos, worschypfull souerence! 
We intende to gather mony, 
for 
Ellys ber xall no man hym se. 
What the contribution must amount to is not specified. Now-a-days 
boldly asserts, 
He |Tytivillus] louyth no grotis, nor pens or to-pens: 
Gyf ws rede reyallys [gold pieces], yf ze wyll se hys abhom- 
ynabull presens. 
But New-Gyse, as he tests first “be goode man of pis house,” 
modifies this demand: 
Not so! ze bat mow not pay be ton, pay pe tober! 
Then after the passing of the hat, Tytivillus enters, “ drest like a 
devil, & with a net in his hand,” and at once all fall to badgering 
the crowd on its stinginess, just as the writer once heard some 
jugglers on the market-place in Freiburg tease a crowd of frugal 
Germans whose pfennige were not forthcoming. ‘Lend me a peny,” 
the devil asks of New-Gyse. But the vice answers with a shake 
of his empty wallet, 
I haue no monay ; 
By be masse, I fayll 1) farthyngis of an halpeny; 
dSyt hade I x! [10 pounds], bis nyght bat was, 
and his two fellows confirm his report. 
Similar allusions to the levying of contributions are found in other 
plays.t. One may therefore assume that, since the generosity of 
the playgoers would vary directly with their enjoyment, the actors, 
who worked for no higher end than personal profit, would not long 
hold to the drama’s religious purpose. Hence the theological frame- 
work of Mankind has been completely covered by the coarsest sort. 
of realism—the new environment of the inn, to which people flocked 
not for instruction, triumphing completely over the old, the church. 
For it was no easy matter to win the favor of the tavern-crowd. 
The prologue of the early play, The Pride of Life, was mindful 
to ask, 
/ 

' Life and Death of Mary Magdalene, Prologue. 

