Confrerie de la Conception, or Puy des
Palinods, of which I have already traced the beginning (see p. 69), in
the verses of Robert Wace.

The first of these old Mystery Plays had been merely copies of those
Fetes de l'Eglise, of which I have spoken in suggesting the origin of
the ceremonial at the Levee de la Fierte St. Romain, and were in fact
"tableaux vivants" of the religious office. Then dialogues were added,
and the "Drame Liturgique" appeared within the churches themselves.
But the inevitable element of caricature and buffoonery soon
necessitated an "outside show." The traces of this transition may be
seen in the Chapterhouse Records of Rouen. In 1451, for example, the
Christmas mystery is performed "cessantibus tamen stulticiis et
insolenciis," and in 1457 "ordinaverunt quod misterium pastorum fiat
isto festo nativitatis decenter in cappis." The "jeux de Fous" had
been forbidden by the Town Council in 1445 to be held in the churches,
and so was the "Procession de l'Ane" (from which the anthem "Orientis
partibus adventavit asinus" has been so often quoted) with its
prophets and sibyls, and the poet Virgil.

But in 1374 the Confrerie de la Passion led their procession in all
solemnity on the fete day of St. Patrice from his church to the parish
of their warden, and all the poor school children went before, and the
last twelve wardens followed after, each leading a beggar man by the
hand, whose feet they washed during the performance of their Mystery.
And this continued until 1636. The last written "Mystere du Lavement
des Pieds" that exists was by one Nicolle Mauger, who laboured under
the disadvantage of living in the same century with Corneille.

[Illustration: MAP OF ROUEN SHEWING EXTENSION EASTWARD IN FIFTEENTH
CENTURY]

CHAPTER VIII

_The Siege of Rouen by Henry V._

"War's ragged pupils; many a wavering line
Torn from the dear fat soil of champaigns hopefully tilled,
Torn from the motherly bowl, the homely spoon,
To jest at famine....
Over an empty platter affect the merrily filled;
Die, if the multiple hazards around said die."

The Mystery Plays which I have just mentioned in the last chapter were
undertakings at once so solemn and so popular that I can give no
better idea of coming trouble than is contained in the fact of the
postponement of the Mystery arranged by the Confrerie de la Passion
for 1410. On the 28th of March that year the sheriffs decided that