5 io THE DRAMA. 



poet, furnishes the theme for a sort of moralite which may be described as 

 legendary. For instance, the Histoire de V Enfant Prodigue, the Laz d' Amour 

 Divin, the Histoire de Ste. Suzanne, exemplaire de toutes femrnes sages et de 

 tons les bons juges, are moralites in which religious mysticism is allied to 

 the teachings of practical wisdom, and the characters in which Envy Reason, 

 and Good Renown are introduced into the plot, like the Chorus of ancient 

 tragedy, to control, judge, and appreciate the respective position of the 

 personages in the drama, into which the author then introduces a sort of 

 dialogue, or moral and allegorical poem, similar to the Chevalier deliMre of 

 Olivier de la Marche (Fig. 385). 



The soties, farces, and moralites were never put upon the stage with 

 the splendour of the mysteries, and save with a few exceptions, the number 



Fig. 386. Portrait of Clement llarot. Fac-simile of an Engraving by Leonard Gaultier, fiom 

 the Series known as " Chronologic collee." In the Library of II. Ambroise Firmiu-Didot, 

 Paris. 



of the personages introduced was always very small. Moreover, a capital 

 difference is to be established between these two kinds of spectacle, viz. that 

 the mysteries were represented, so to speak, by everybody and for everybody, 

 under the patronage of the Church, whereas the farces, soties, and moralites 

 were played for a special public by private companies of laymen, who were, no 

 doubt, regular comedians. 



The jugglers and tale-tellers, who were many of them authors of satirical 

 and amusing poems, which they went about reciting from place to place, to the 

 accompaniment of the violin, might be regarded as the first actors of secular 

 pieces ; for not only did they sojourn in the castles of the nobles to recite 

 their poems, but they performed plays in character, which were in reality 

 scenic romances and dialogues, such as the metrical tale, " Aucassin and 



