286 



Cliarlea Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



Ch. 



w. 



Co. 

 Luke 1, 43. 



Y, 213-16. 



Ch. 



W. 



Wonderlj'e nowe marvailes me, 

 That Mavj'e, Godes mother f reye, 

 Greetes me this of symple degreey. 

 And this tymc may I blys, 

 That my lordes moder is 

 Comon thus unto me. 

 How is it that the modyr of God me xulde come to? 

 Et unde hoc mihi ut veniat mater Domini mei ad me? 



Sone als ha voyce of hine haj'lsing 

 Mog'ht myn neres entre and be, 

 he childe in vay wombe so yenge. 

 Makes grete myrthe vnto he. 

 When thou me greeteste, sweete Marye, 

 The childe stored in xny bodye, 

 For greate .ioj'e of thy companye. 

 For syn that tyme f ulle welle I wote, 

 The stevyn of angelle voce it smote, 



And rang now in myne ere ; 

 A selcouthe thyng is me betyde, 

 The chj^ld makys joy, as any byrd. 



That I in body bere. 



Co. 

 Luke 1, 44. 



T, 217-240. 

 Ch. 



Co. 



Ecce enim ut facta est vox salutationis tuae in auribus meis, exultavit 

 in gaudio infans in utero meo. 



A free rendering of the ' Magnificat,' broken by a stanza by Elizabeth. 



Luke 1, 46 and 47 quoted with slight changes, amplified in English, and 

 followed by a paraphrase of the remainder of the ' Magnificat.' 



Mary gives the Magnificat, sentence by sentence, and Elizabeth trans- 

 lates each sentence. 



The above comj^arisons lead naturally to four conclusions : — 



First. All lists of agreeing passages, where the agreement arises 

 from the literal translation of dramatic passages of the Biblical nar- 

 rative, are misleading when used to support a theory of direct inter- 

 dependence among the extant plays. 



Secondly. The earliest church plays gave with literal fidelity 

 the Biblical narrative when it was phrased in conversation, i. e. was 

 adapted to dramatic presentation. Later redactors were reluctant 

 to change passages that were already dramatic, and yet adhered 

 closely to the sacred story ; hence the unchanged play spread 

 through the churches. The writers of cycles were conversant with 

 the plays, each with those of his church, and adopted such passages 

 with but few changes, since the movement was dramatic, and the 

 language faithful to the sacred text ; hence a striking similarity 

 arose where sometimes no connection existed. 



Thirdly. Until as thorough-going an agreement is shown between 

 the church plays of France and those of England as is here shown 

 among the plays of different cycles, we must claim the Chester play 

 as a product of England. Here lies another strong proof that the 

 Chester plays were written on English soil. 



