♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Sept. 2;"., 1885. 



Sir, that comely comaundes hir youe too, 



And sais, al nakid this nyght as sche napped, 



With bene and with traye was sche trapped, 



With a sweuene (dream) that swiftely hir swapped (struck) 



Of one Jesu the juste man, the Jcwes will undo. 



She beseches you as hir souerayne that symple to saue 



Deme hym noght to deth, for drcde of vengeaunce.* 



In the Coventry' play of The Crucifi.cion, Pilate, vacil- 

 lating and disquieted in mind, brings Jesus before the 

 crowd, who shout that they have "no kynge but the 

 Emperour alon." Here (says the stage direction) thei 

 .ml brtjnge Barabas to the barre, and Jhesu, and ij Jeivys 

 in here shertys bare-legijyd, and Jhesus standyng at the 

 harre betwyo;t them ; and Annas and Cayphas xal gon into 

 the cowncelle hous qwhan Pylat syttyth.f Barabbas is 

 freed, and Pilate delivers Jesus to scourging and death, 

 with, as the York play has it, " a harlott on aythir side 

 hym." This term, it may be noted, was originally 

 applied to either sex, and not always in a very bad sense, 

 being equivalent to our "fellow." The etymology is of 

 uncertain origin. Probably it comes from Old High 

 German Jcarl, a man. 



The legend of Veronica,| one of the women who, 

 meeting Jesus sinking under the burden of the cross on 

 his way to Calvary, ofEeied him her handkerchief to wipe 

 the sweat from his brow, when his features were miracu- 

 lously imprinted on the handkerchief, is woven into the 

 plays. 



In the Coventry, when, in the stage direction, sche 

 "■'ii/pyth his face icith her herchy, Jesus says: — 



Veronyca, thi whipyng doth me ese ! 



My face is clene that was blak to se : 



I xal them kepe from alle mysese 



That lokyn on thi kerohy and remembyr nie ! 



Then thei pidle Jhesu out of his clothis and leyn them, 

 togedyr ; and ther thei pullyn hym down and leyn along on 

 the eras, and after that naylyn hym thereon, while they 

 begin "dawncyn abowte the cros" amidst the mockings 

 of the onlookers, the lamentations of the women, and the 

 cry of the crucified to his " Padyr in hevyn." In both 

 the York and Towneley plays the scene was invested with 

 a grim realism by the stretching of the victim on the 

 cross, the knitting of knots to bind him, the driving of 

 nails through hands and feet, and the upraising of the 

 cross with noise of hammers as they fit it into the mortice 

 and set it fast with wedges. The drawing of lots for 

 the garment of Jesus is in the Towneley series made the 

 subject of a farcical play — Processus Talentorum, in which 

 Pilate delivers a prologue in lines half English, half 

 monkish Latin, boasting of his royal 



but adding that "nomine valgari Pownce Pilat." He 

 then lies down to slnep, when three of the torturers of 

 Jesus enter to obtain his decision as to who is to have 

 the "cote," and on his awakening he haggles with 

 them to secure the " gowne " for himself, suggesting 



* York Mysteries, p. 282. 

 t Coventry Mysteries, p. 314. 



X For other legends of Veronica of. Cowper'.s Apoch, Gosj'ch. pp. 

 410, 434, 441, fp. 



§ For sir Sesar was my sior, 

 And I sothely his sonnc ; 

 And my modir hight (named) I'ila that proude was o pight 



(sets), 

 Pila that prowdc and Atus hir fadir he hight. 



Yoi-l; M.l'., 271. 



that they should draw cutts (lots) for it, to which they 

 agree, until he claims first draw : — 



Pilatus. We, me falles alle the fyrst, and forther'shalle ye. 

 Secundvs Tortor. Nay, drede you not doutles, for that do yc not, 



O, he sekys as he wold dyssave us now we se. 

 Tercius Tortor then produces " thre dyse " * to the 

 throwing of which Pilate, after more haggling, agrees, 

 and although Tercius Tortor, by name Spili-payn, wins, 

 Pilate by coaxing and threatening sec;ures the garment, 

 the Tortores cursing the dice and moralising on the vice 

 of gambling : 



Tercius Tirrtm: What commys ot <ly- i:_ I m; -. -, "n hark after 



But los of good in I I ■ I'l ,! .1 oft tymes 



•s slagli 



Thu! 



;i- if ther be 



Pilate dismisses them with an artful compliment a.' 

 "most conyng clerkes," and commends them to the can 

 of Mahomet : 



Mahowne n 



He kepe yo. 



)st myghty in castels and tow 



, lordynges, and alle youres. 



And havys alle gud day. 



Of these sacred dramas the Passion Play performed at 

 Ammergau, a village in the Bavarian mountains, is the 

 sole extant representative. When, about one hundred 

 years ago, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg forbade the 

 further performance of Mysteries and Miracle Plays, the 

 inhabitants of Ammergau were excepted from the pro- 

 hibition, that they might remain faithful to a vow made 

 in 1633, on the cessation of a dreadful plague, that the 

 Passion of Jesus should be performed every tenth year in 

 token of their thanksgiving. That performance has 

 taken place decennially ever since, the last occasion being 

 in 1880. 



MERCURY IN A THREE-INCH 

 TELESCOPE. 



Br A Fellow of the Royal Astroxomical Society. 



[The delay in the appearance of this final paper of a series com- 

 menced on p. 201 of the first volume of Knowledge, has had its 

 origin wholly in the fact that for tlie last two years the planet 

 Mercury has been invisible in the instrument wljicli we have em- 

 ployed for the purposes of descripti^.n and illustr.ation : he having 

 been obscured by the strange halo which, certainly sinee the be- 

 ginniog of 1883, has sun-ounded and extended to so considerable a 

 distance from the Sun. It was not until the morning of Tuesday, 

 September 15, that we at length succeeded in obtaining an available 

 observation of the planet.] 



MERCURY in a three-inch telescope is, to speak as 

 euphemistically as possible, a rather disappointing 

 object. Nor is the reason far to seek. Even in inferior 

 conjunction — when (save during the rare occasions of his 

 transit over the Sun's disc), he is, of course, invisible — his 

 diameter scarcely exceeds 10" ; while at the times of his 

 greatest elongation — east or west of the Sun, as the case 

 may be — his little crescent only measures some 7" from 

 cusp to cusp. Hence it becomes necessary to employ as 

 high a power as our telescope will bear to get any idea of 

 the planet's figure and general appearance ; while as to the 

 detail alleged in astronomical works to have been seen on 

 his surface, the possessor of such an instrament as that 

 with which our observations are made must be content 



* Among the items of expense given this occurs. "Imp. iiij. 

 Jakkets of blake bokeram for the tormentors with nayles and dyse 

 upon them." IHssert. Cor. My St., p. 16. 



