400 Elbert N. S. Thompson 
the offenders, mingling with these motives, in the heartless Eliza- 
bethan way, low comedy and merry songs. Yet the tragedy still 
bears the vestiges of the earlier native drama. It is the Vice, 
Haphazard, who conceives the stratagem by which Appius gains 
his will, and allegorical characters accompany every step in the 
development of the plot. As Appius before the crime feels mis- 
givings in his heart, Conscience and Justice pass in dumb show 
across the stage, one holding in his hand a burning lamp, the 
other a sword. Immediately after, when Appius leaves the stage, 
both introduce themselves in the stereotyped manner. The agonized 
father is calmed by Comfort, and at the end punishment is meted 
out to Appius and Haphazard by Justice and Reward. Some last 
elimmerings, then, of the moral play are found in regular tragedy. 
In another tragedy, Cambyses, the allegorical characters prolong 
the note struck by the political Tudor moralities. The hero is a 
Tamburlaine who sends to death an unjust judge, orders the heart 
cut out of a little child before the father’s eyes, and then murders 
first his brother and then his wife. He himself, the victim of an 
accident, dies a sudden death. But in this tragedy, also, the alle- 
gorical characters of the morality appear. Ambidexter, the Vice, 
prompts the king to his first crimes; Commons’ Cry and Commons’ 
Complaint petition the king for redress; Murder and Cruelty are 
his hired assassins. Even this forerunner of Marlowe and the tragedy 
of blood preserved the elements of the disintegrated political mor- 
ality. 
With still less loss the determinative features of the typical moral- 
ity were carried over by Robert Wilson in that interesting comedy, 
The Cobler’s Prophesie, which belongs to the group of mythological 
plays so popular with the boys’ companies of the sixteenth century. 
After the style of Lyly, Wilson brings the story of the corruption 
of Boeotia and the Grecian gods to English soil. Mars has forsaken 
his manly prowess under the spell of his faithless wife, Venus, and 
all ranks of Boeotian society, save only the poor soldiery, have lost 
their virtue and honesty. Melpomene and Clio lay aside their pens, 
for no longer are there deeds of heroes to sing. All this evil has been 
caused by Contempt, who under the disguise of Content—an old 
motive of the moralities'—has debauched Venus, and degraded 
courtier, scholar, and squire. Here, then, is the Vice of the moral 
play acting his well-learned part in this mythological story, and 
with him as servants of Venus go other allegorical characters, 

1 See above, 370. 
