168 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



Orleans MS/ Among these prophets Balaam is often introduced 

 riding upon his ass, as in the Rouen ritual.^ Since each prophet 

 gave his test4mony, it was easy, by adding adventitious circum- 

 stances, to develop his part into a separate scene, and what was more 

 natural than for the ass to speak as in the Bible narrative ? Here 

 comedy stepped in, and when the transition from scene to inde- 

 pendent play was made, as we see in the Daniel of Hilarius, of 

 the twelfth century, and the Daniel of Beauvais, w^hich joins the 

 vernacular with the Latin tongue, the Feast named from the ass, 

 now become more prominent than its rider Balaam, begins its 

 unsacerdotal course, to the horror of the devout.^ 



We cannot tarry longer on this most interesting subject, except 

 to note that these customs, transported to England by French 

 ecclesiastics, either quickly lost or never acquired the reckless pro- 

 fanity of the French customs. The moral sobriety of the English 

 mind makes it averse to religious frivolity. The Boy Bishop 

 became an illustrious example of the good boy;* otherwise Dean 

 Colet would hardly have required the boys of St. Paul's schooP to 

 attend the ministrations of the child bishop in St. Paul's.^ 



As we turn now to Germany a very different situation unfolds 

 itself. The pagan Roman beliefs never superseded the heathen 

 beliefs of the Teutonic peoples. The early customs of all the fam- 

 ilies of the Germanic race have proved wonderfully tenacious of life, 

 and the church in Germany found itself obliged to tolerate much, 

 though less in the South than in the North. 



During the centuries before the church of Germany adopted the 

 church festival of Christmas, it had accustomed itself to the holiday 

 festivities of the people. The Jul-fire burned in the homes of Ger- 

 many, Sweden, and Norway like the Yule log in the English home. 

 The Schimmelreiter, on his steed covered with white, a direct descend- 

 ant of Wodan,^ rode among the holiday makers, as did his kin of the 



1 Wright, p. 30. 



2 Du Cange, Festum Asinorum: Duo missi a Rege Balec dicant, Balaavfi, veni et fac. 

 Tunc Balaam ornatus, sedens super asinam (Mnc festo nomen), habens calcaria, reti- 

 neat lora, et calcaribus percutiat asinam, et quidam juvenis, tenens gladium, obstet 

 asinae. Quidam sub asina dicat : Cur me calcarilms miser'am sic kcditis ? 



3 For the genesis of the 'sottie' and 'sermon joyeux' from the Fete des Fous, see 

 Julleville, Les Comediens en France au Moyen Age, p. 32 ff. 



■i That he sometimes died young was proved by the discovery of the monument of a 

 Boy Bishop at Salisbury.— Hone, 196. 



5 In the statutes of St. Paul's school, founded 1512, Dean Colet orders the scholars to 

 " come to Paulis Churche and hear the Chylde-Byshop's sermon ; and after be at the 

 hygh masse, and each of them otfer a penny to the Chylde-Byshop."— Hone, p. 198. 



6 The entire subject of comedy in the early Middle Ages, and its development in the 

 church of France, demands an independent investigation. 



"! Haupt's Zeitschrift, vol. 5, p. 473, art. Wodan, by Kuhn. 



