POPULAR RELIEFS. 



249 



while the clergy inaugurated the serious drama by histories taken from the 

 sacred books and the legends of the saints. The mystery-plays and farces 

 were, therefore, so much to the credit of the Feast of Buffoons, but there is 

 an interval of three or four centuries between the " Prose of the Ass " and 





Fig. 177. Staff of the Dijon Infantry in 1482. Fac-uimile of a Design communicated by 



M. Bnggieri. 



the scenic compositions of Jean Michel, of Andre de la Vigne, and of Peter 

 Gringoire. (See below, chapter on the Theatre.) 



Many instances might be given of popular errors which had their source 

 in the traditions of antiquity, and which maintained the ideas of paganism 



K K 



