 - ; 
. 5 ‘ve 
622 Ancient Sports and Pastimes. 
is the principal comic character of the play, and amuses 
the audience by his mischievous tricks and his low buf- 
foonery. He is brought in when circumstances do not 
admit of the introduction of a human buffoon. The 
wicked human characters are, however, made to play the 
part of buffoons when possible; thus, in the miracle play 
of the Massacre of the Innocents by the satellites of Herod, 
his knights, as they are called by a laughable anachronism, 
and who are represented as swearing by Mahomet, are ex- 
posed to the alternate laughter and detestation of the 
audience. 
When the miracle plays were represented in churches, a 
tcmporary stage of wood was erected: it consisted of three 
platforms one above the other; the highest platform was 
reserved for the appearance of God and the angels, the 
second was devoted to the human characters, whilst the 
lowest was appropriated to the evil spirits. As before 
said, the priests and monks were the principal actors; but 
if there were not enough of these, the churchwardens 
called in the assistance of the secular players. 
The mysteries gradually gave way to the moralities, 
which differed from them in this, that instead of the real 
persons formerly introduced in the plays, the characters 
were personifications of abstract qualities, such as justice, 
mercy, temperance, folly, gluttony, and vice. Vice was 
always the comic character of the piece, though Satan was 
still retained to be tricked and baffled by vice, whom, how- 
ever, he finally carries off, as in the original puppet show 
of Punch; in fact, vice seems to be the ancestor of Punch, 
and also of Harlequin. The moralities were generally acted 
by the students at the universities, or by the members of 
the corporations in the principal cities; in the latter case, 
they were performed on a temporary stage erected in the 
open air, oron a platform which could be dragged along on 
wheels. These moveable platforms often formed part of 
the splendid processions which took place on great occa- 
sions. The pageants or shows which were exhibited on 
Lord Mayor's Day, and on coronation and other high days, 
were of this kind. Stages, richly decorated, were erected 
in the principal streets, and on these the various allegorical 
characters were placed in appropriate costume. 
The secular players were persons of the same class as 
the itinerant jugglers, and the minstrels already described. 
They performed a species of rude farce called an interlude. 
The monks generally discountenanced these players, and 
