ntroduced "Moralities"--fanciful pieces in
which God, the Devil, the Virtues, &c., were the dramatis personae. In
one of these, for instance, the Devil invites the Follies to a banquet
on their arrival in hell. When they sit down the table seems hospitably
spread, but as soon as they begin to touch the food it all bursts into
flame, and the piece concludes with fireworks. We can see that a comic
element might easily be introduced into such performances. But Charles
VI., who seems to have been fond of all mimetic exhibitions, formed
another company named "L'Institution Joyeuse," composed of the sons of
the best families in Paris, who, under the name of the "Enfans sans
Souci," and presided over by the "Prince des Sots," made France laugh at
the follies of the day, personal and political. The above mentioned
religious fraternity joined these gay performers without apparently
seeing anything objectionable in such a connection, and under the name
of the "Clercs de la Bazoche," or clerks of the revels, acted with them
alternately. Even in the Mysteries, an occasional element of humour was
evidently introduced, although many things which would appear ludicrous
to us did not so affect the people of that day. A tinge of buffoonery
was thought desirable. Thus in the "Massacre of the Holy Innocents," a
good deal of scuffling takes place on the stage, especially where the
women attack with their distaffs a low fool, who has requested Herod to
knight him that he may join in the gallant adventure. In France there
was "The Feast of Asses," in which the priests were attired like the
Ancient Prophets, and accompanied by Virgil! Balaam, armed with a
tremendous pair of spurs, rode a wooden ass, in which a man was
enclosed. Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, forbade the celebration
in churches of the "Feast of Fools," in which the clergy danced and
gesticulated in masks. The "Mysteries" seem sometimes to have been of
extraordinary length, for there was a play called "The Creation,"
performed at Clerkenwell which lasted eight days.

Pageantry as well as humour--devices appealing to the senses--were
largely employed to enliven the exhibitions of early times. In the
Christmas games in the reign of Edward I., we find they made use of
eighty tunics of buckram of various colours, forty-two vizors, fourteen
faces of women, fourteen of men, and the same number of angels, as well
as imitations of dragons, peacocks, and swans.

The taking of C