5 /4 THE DRAMA. 



belief were put under contribution by the inventors of pantomimes, so as to 

 give more attraction and splendour to these spectacles, which were solely 

 intended to gratify the eye. 



Up to the middle of the sixteenth century, the farces, soties, and moralites 

 continued to attract the public, and the scenic tradition of the Middle Ages 

 was still much the same as it had been two centuries previously. But in 1541 

 the Paris Parliament forbade the actors who represented tin- Mi/xtv-y of flir 

 Acts of the Apostles to open their theatre upon saints' days and Sundays, and 

 even upon certain week-days. This was the origin of a hot dispute, in which 

 the Provost of Paris and the King himself intervened, and which terminated, 

 after, many delays and difficulties, by a definite authorisation granted to the 

 actors, who took up their quarters at the Hotel de Bourgogne, in the Rue 

 Francoise. The ancient privileges of the Brothers of the Passion were 

 confirmed by a decree of the Parliament dated November 19th, 1548, upon 

 the express condition that " for the future they shall play only secular, 

 lawful, and decent subjects, and no longer introduce into their plays anything 

 touching the mysteries or religion." The miracles, the mysteries, and the 

 moralites were accordingly eliminated from their repertory. The Brothers 

 of the Passion, who had the right to represent yrandes Mstoirea par peraonnages 

 (narratives with the characters in them personated), such as the Destruction <if 

 Troy the Great, by Jacques Millet (Fig. 389), abandoned their dramatic 

 undertaking, and ceded their play-room and privileges to a troupe of regular 

 actors who gave there representations of tragedy and comedy. The Hotel de 

 Bourgogne, over the principal entrance to which was still retained a sculptured 

 bas-relief with the instruments of Christ's Passion, became the cradle of the 

 Theatre Francais. 



Thus exiled from the capital, the mysteries took refuge in the provinces, 

 where they held possession of the stage, in some few towns, for the whole of 

 the sixteenth century, competing for public favour with the buffoons and 

 mountebanks who attended the fairs (Fig. 390). The farces and soties 

 had also been proscribed. In 1516 the Bazochiens were forbidden by 

 parliamentary decree, and by order of the Provost of Paris, to make any allu- 

 sion to the royal family in the pieces which they represented. In 1536 they 

 were forbidden to " exhibit spectacles or^writings taxing or noting (blaming 

 or criticizing) anv person whatsoever." Two years later they were compelled 

 to submit their pieces to the censorship of Parliament before putting them 



