THE MIDDLE ENGLISH RELIGIOUS LYRIC 87 
very slightly lyrical, if lyrical at all in any sense, and very occasionally 
I have paused to comment incidentally upon didacite types such as ties 
Ten Commandments. 
Perhaps the non-dramatic type most frequently incorporated into the 
plays is the general prayer addressed, as the occasion may serve, to God 
the Father, Christ the Son and very frequently also to the Virgin Mary. 
There are thousands of these prayers to be found in the devotional 
poetry of the day, and hundreds in the plays.? It is fairly certain that 
many of these were taken over as ready-made lyrics by the play-writers 
and adapted to dramatic purposes. Thus the celebrated mediaeval 
Latin hymn, Veni creator, spiritus,? seems to have been taken over 
bodily by Chester in The Emission of the Holy Ghost,3 and probably 
has escaped notice up to the time, mainly because it is so abominably 
translated.4 Of the prayers to Christ’ two types especially have exerted 
a very marked and definite influence upon the drama. Of both types 
there are scores in Middle English literature. The one is the prayer 
of a repentant sinner, lamenting his past offenses;° the other consists 
of that class of prayers in which the sufferings and bodily wounds of 
* Chester Plays (ed. Thomas Wright, Shaks. Soc., Vol. I), Vol. I, pp. 97, 162; Vol. II, pp. 159, 160, 
179; York Mystery Plays (ed. Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith), pp. 3, 36, 61, 100, 108, 433; The Towneley Plays 
(ed. A. W. Pollard, EETS), pp. 3, 23, 40, 99, 195; Coventry Mysteries (ed. J. O. Halliwell, Shaks. Soc., Vol. 
ID), pp. 40, 49, 57, 104, 380. For examples of prayers of a somewhat similar nature, see Minor Poems of the 
Vernon MS (EETS), Vol. I, pp. 26, 145, 149, 355; An Old English Miscellany (EETS), p. 100; Religious 
Pieces (EETS), p. 59; Eng. Stud., Vol. IX, p. 49; Anglia, Vol. I, p. 67; Specimens of Lyric Poetry (Percy 
Soc., Vol. IV), p. 49; Richard Rolle of Hampole (ed. Horstmann, ‘‘ Yorkshire Writers”), Vol. I, pp. 363 ff.; 
Bannatyne MS (pr. for the Hunterian Club), Vol. I, pp. 84, 107. 
2 See Das deutsche Kirchenlied (Wackernagel), Vol. I, p. 75. See further, Minor Poems of V. MS, Vol. I, 
Pp. 43; Hymni Latini (Mone), Vol. I, pp. 241 ff. 
3 Chester, Vol. II, pp. 127 ff. In the Hegge Mary’s Betrothment (p. 93), the stage directions order the 
singing of this hymn, but the existing text does not contain it. In the York Descent of the Holy Spirit (p. 469) 
we are told that the angels sang this hymn to Mary. 
4 See for dramatic customs in connection with the hymn, Chambers, The Med. Stage, Vol. II, p. 66. 
See for parallels, Appendix of the present discussion, pp. 16 f.; anyone who may desire to verify the parallels 
may consult the Appendix to the present article published by me in Modern Philolog’y, Vol. V, pp. 16 ff. 1907. 
5 Chester, Vol. II, pp. 99, tox ff.; York, pp. 177, 212, 368, 424 ff., 504; Town., pp. 325 ff., 340 ff.; Cov., 
Pp. 223, 356, 403. For prayers to Christ of various kinds, see Minor Poems of the V. MS, Vol. I, pp. 37, 45, 
48, 131 ff., 154, 332; Vol. Il, 440, 451, 464 ff.; Richard Rolle of Hampole (‘‘ Yorkshire Writers ’’), Vol. I, pp. 
72 ff., 363 ff.; William of Shoreham (EETS), pp. 79 ff., Gude and Godlie Ballatis (Scot. T. Soc.), pp. 21, 24, 
62, 64, 73 ff.; The Poems of Dunbar, Vol. II (Scot. T. Soc.), p. 65; Political, Religious, and Love Poems, re-ed 
Furnivall (EETS), pp. 123 ff.; Anglia, Vol. V, Anzeiger, p. 119; Vol. XII, p. 595; Eng. Stud., Vol. VIII 
pp. 255 ff.; Vol. X, pp. 232 ff.; Herrigs Archiv, Vol. XCVIII, p. 120. 
6 Chester, Vol. II, pp. 6, 180 ff., 192 ff.; York, pp. 30 ff., 30, 138, 174, 311; Town., pp. 343, 351 ff.; 
Minor Poems of the V. MS, Vol. I, pp. 48 ff.; Vol. II, pp. 606, 785 ff.; Rich. R. of Hampole, Vol. I, pp. 74 ff., 
368 ff.; Polit., Relig. and Love Poems, pp. 123 ff.; Hymns to V. and C. (EETS), pp. 95 ff.; Reliquiae Antiquae, 
