MORALITIES

MYSTERIES, and MIRACLES. A kind of theatrical representations, which were made by the monks, friars, and other ecclesiastics of the middle ages, the vehicle of instruction to the people. Their general character was the same, but the miracles may be distinguished as those which represented the miracles wrought by the holy confe ors, and the sufferings by which the perseverance of the martyrs was manifested; of which kind the first specified by name is a scenic representation of the legend of St. Catherine. The moralities were certain allegorical representations of virtues or vices, always so contrived as to make virtue seem desirable, and vice ridiculous and deformed. The mysteries were representations often of great length, and requiring several days’ performance, of the Scripture narrative, or of several parts of it, as, for instance, the descent of Christ into hell. Of these mysteries two complete series have lately been published from ancient manuscripts, the Townley Mysteries , performed by the monks of Wood church, near Wake field, and the different leading companies of that town; and the Coventry Mysteries , performed with like help of the trades in Coventry, by the Grey Friars of that ancient city. Both of these collections begin with the creation, and carry on the story in different pageants or scenes until the judgment-day. It will not be supposed that these plays are free from the deformities of every other kind of literature of the times to which they are referred; nor that the performance of them was without a great deal more of the coarsene of an unrefined age than would be tolerated now: neither need it be concealed that the theology therein embodied was sometimes rather Popish than Catholic. On the whole it may fairly be said, that these miracles , mysteries , and moralities , were wholesome for the times; and that though they afterwards degenerated into actual abuses, yet that they are not to be condemned without measure and without mercy. Their history and character are interesting, not only as giving a fair picture of the character of remote ages, but also because they seem to be the original from which arose stage plays and oratorios. As a specimen of these old moralities see in Dodsley’s collection of Old Plays— God’s Promises , by Bale, bishop of O ory, which dramatizes the leading events of the Sacred History. It was printed in 1538.