Oct. 9, 1885.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



his attack on the religious frauds of the mendicant friars. 

 He represents him as exhibiting wine drunk at the 

 wedding of Adam and Eve ; " a box full of humble bees 

 that stung Eve as she sat on her knees tasting the fruit 

 to her forbidden;" a slipper of one of the Seven 

 Sleepers ; the jaw-bone of AH Saints ; a buttock-bone 

 of the Holy Ghost ; and "the great toe of the Trinity," 

 on which the 'Poticary remarks : — 



I pray you turn that relic about : 



Either "the Trinity had the gout, 



Or else, because it is tliree toes iu one, 



God made it as much as three toes alone.» 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his Study of Sociolugij, refer^ 

 to an illuminated missal in the possession of Mr. Huth, 

 in which the Trinity is represented by three persons 

 standing in one pair of boots. Heywood's satire is 

 justified by the disclosures made in his time in the report 

 of the Commissioners appointed by Thomas Cromwell to 

 inquire into the state of the monasteries,! and by the 

 currency of legends such as that gravely related of St. 

 Clara de Monte Falconis : — • 



That after her death there was found in her gall a plain 

 testimony of the Holy Trinity, consisting of three balls o£ equal 

 figure, colour, and size, and of equal weight, one weighing the 

 weight of two and also of three, yet all three weighing no more 

 than one 1 



But we pass beyond the assigned limits of our subject in re- 

 ferring to the Interlitdes, so called because they were played 

 in the intervals of banquets and other festivities, since 

 these fill the gap between the Moral-play and the regular 

 drama. The abstract characters of the former were slowly 

 displaced by concrete figures from history, the portrayal of 

 whose actions came so much nearer men's " business and 

 bosoms " in those stirring times than any life of prophet, 

 warrior,or kingof a remote past and unsubstantial age, how- 

 ever crowded with supernatural detail. In addition to this, 

 the institution fell into disrepute by reason of the indecency 

 and buffoonery which were no longer in harmnnj- with the 

 improving taste of the people. So the reliLj-iiais drar.-ia 

 passed from the hands of the guilds to those uf tlie sfi-nlling 

 player in town and country fairs, and the bans cf the 

 heralds to the "walk up, walk up " of the puppet show- 

 man. In the S^irctafor of March IG, 1711, Steele intimates 

 that Powell the showman exhibited religious subjects 

 with his puppets under the little piazza in Covent Garden, 

 and talks of " his next opera of Snsmtnah or Innocence 

 betrayed, whieh will be exhibited next week with a pair of 

 new EUliys," while the following droll specimen from 

 Strutt's Sports and rastlmes also evidences to the per- 

 formance of Mj-steries in this country as late as the 

 eighteenth century: — 



" Jli/ 1,,-r M,r;.jh-i y/, ',•;,; ;,«;,.,(. At ITeallv's booili, over against the 



ofU, 



■ Carden of Eden, 

 avadisc. 



* " Dodslcy," Vol. I., p. 362. 



t Langton sends to Cromwell, among other reliques, Our Ladies 





-ship 



8. Joseph and Mary flew away by night upon an ass. 



9. King Herod's cruelty ; his men's spears laden with children. 



10. Rich Dives invites his friends, and orders his porter to keep 

 the beggars from his gate. 



11. Poor Lazarus comes a begging at rich Dives' gate, and the 

 dogs lick his sores. 



12. The good angel and death contend for Lazarus's life. 



13. Kich Dives is taken sick and dieth. He is buried in great 

 solemnity. 



14. Kich Dives in hell, and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, seen in 

 a most glorious object, all in machines descending in a throne, 

 guarded with multitudes of angels, with the breaking of the clouds, 

 discovering the palace of tlie sun, in double and treble prospects, to 

 the admiration of all spectators. Likewise several rich and large 

 figures, with dances. ji-"_'s, s:iralii:iiiii>, antirks, and country dances 



betwt 





rsof Sir John 



.lis ..f ^ 



Spendall and I 



exposed. Perf'^; '-ma.. 



Enough, lin/,. 1 : li'l cited to show 



that the Minicle I'lay has an mtei-e.^t lu.i .-. L-nl, f r tlie 

 antiquarian as for the student ofcukiir i' ' /. - 

 ledge of the manifold causes which ce- 

 moral development of England durinir '■'■ '''■■' ' 'i, 

 fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries "''''I'l ' '■ '" O' 

 imperfect if we omitted the i 

 on a people among whom 



began to be circulated as late as tne sixieiuui et]uiir_). 

 It at least iiowerfully aifeeted human conduct in 

 supplying men with" concej.tions, rude and false 

 though wc now know them to have been, of a 

 divine government of the world and a tribunal at 

 which they would at the last be judged, but at the 

 same time it did quite otherwi.-:e than contribute 

 to the permanence of anyone fa-in if theology. In 

 view of the political and jm i • ,' \\hich in 



England precipitated the Re f. * easy to 



apportion to the religious pi i -1 their 



share in the dethronement ef '.1 in the 



substitution of the anthoritv nf i;,. WW'..- Ir that of 

 the Church, whirl, pi-ovrd to be but an rxehange of 

 fetters; enough that 



whei 



it s. 



Fo 



nd loe: 



thought cannot be litei 

 tation of the Deity in a linen coat a; 

 only quicken the advance of conception- 

 to surround Him with the limitations of i'er 



LIVE STOCK IX EUROPE. t 



THE United States Consul in (' ; ' ' " -it 



the subject of the live St o, , , --a; 



the number of hornrd eaitle tl: i ' 



mated :,1 al. .,:■ '.-:. - '.' \ " 



Denmark rankiu- first on the list with 7."<5 head of 

 horned e.iitle im- 1,000 inhabitants, next Servia with 

 609, then Norway with 562, and, lastlj', Sweden with 

 483. France may be taken as representing the European 

 average, whilst below the average come Great Britain, 

 Spain Belnuni, Creece, Portn-al. rtnd Italv- Of sheep, 

 S'l-Nia h.u^v:\:u^■'^ il ' ' ' ■--'-••, -•• •-■ly, 2,200 



I'','',',.' ': ' i." ' l;. .luA-e'the 



' the Monasteries. Camden 



t JouriMl ofSoeictij of Art*. 



