ans of dramatic representation. The
services of the church were in Latin, now become a dead language. This
_originated_, perhaps, rather in sincere reverence, and the dread of
profaning the sacred mysteries by transferring them into the vulgar tongue,
than in any systematic design of keeping the people in the dark; for, from
the gradual extinction of the Latin, as the vernacular idiom, and the
gradual growth of the modern languages, there was no marked period in
which the change might appear to be called for, until the question became
involved with weightier matters of controversy. The confusion of tongues,
almost throughout Europe, before the great predominant languages were
formed out of the conflicting dialects, must greatly have impeded the
preaching the Gospel, for which, in other respects, only a very small part
of the clergy were qualified. Though, in these times, most extraordinary
effects are attributed to the eloquence of certain preachers, for instance,
Fra. Giovanni di Vicenza, yet many of the itinerant friars, the first, we
believe, who addressed the people with great activity in the vulgar tongue,
must have been much circumscribed by the limits of their own patois.[1]
But the spectacle of the dramatic exhibitions everywhere spoke a common
language; and the dialogue, which, in parts of the Chester mysteries, is a
kind of Anglicized French, and which, even if translated into the native
tongue, was constantly interspersed with Latin, and therefore, but darkly
and imperfectly understood, was greatly assisted by the perpetual
interpretation which was presented before the eyes. The vulgar were thus
imperceptibly wrought up to profound feelings of reverence for the purity
of the Virgin; the unexampled sufferings of the Redeemer; the miraculous
powers of the apostles, and the constancy of the martyrs; we must add,
(for after all it was a strange Christianity, though in every respect the
Christianity of the age,) with the most savage detestation at the cruelty
of Herod or Pilate, and the treachery of Judas; and the most revolting
horror, at the hideous appearance, and blasphemous language of the Prince
of Darkness, who almost always played a principal part in these scriptural
dramas.--_Quarterly Review._

[1] It is related in the life of St. Bernard, that his pale and emaciated
appearance, and the animation and the fire, which seemed to kindle his
whole being as he spoke, made so deep an impression on those w