A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume I Part 58

The fifth article I shall you tell: Then the spirit of G.o.dhead went to h.e.l.l, And bought out the souls that there did dwell By the power of His own might.

The sixth article I shall you say: Christ rose upon the third day, Very G.o.d and man without nay: That all shall deem and dight, He sent man's soul into heaven Aloft all the angels everychone, There is the Father, the Son, and the soothfast Holy Ghost.

The eighth article we must believe on, That same G.o.d shall come down, And deem man's soul at the day of doom, And on mercy then must we trust.

The ninth article without strife, Every man, maiden and wife, And all the bodies that ever bare life, And at the day of doom body and soul shall 'ppear.

Truly the tenth article is, All they that hath kept G.o.d's service They shall be crowned in heaven bliss, And Christ's servants to Him full dear.

The eleventh article, the sooth to sayne, All that hath falsely to G.o.d guided them They shall be put into h.e.l.l pain, There shall be no sin-covering.

Sir, after the twelfth we must worch, And believe in all the sacraments of holy church, That they been necessary, both last and first, To all manner of mankind.

Sir, ye must also hear and know tho commandments ten.

Lo, sir, this is your belief;[273] and all men Do after it, and ye shall heaven win Without doubt, I know.

AGE. Gramercy, Perseverance, for your true teaching For in the spirit of my soul will I find, That it is necessary to all mankind Truly for to know.

Now, sirs, take all ensample by mo, How I was born in simple degree, The world royal received me, And dubbed me a knight, Then Conscience met me, So after him came Folly: Folly falsely deceived me, Then Shame my name hyght.[274]

PERSEVERANCE. Yea, and now is your name Repentance, Through the grace of G.o.d almight.

And therefore without any distance I take my leave of king and knight, And I pray to Jesu, which has made us all, Cover you with his mantle perpetual. Amen.[275]

G.o.d'S PROMISES.

_EDITION_.

"_A Tragedy or Interlude manifesting the chief promises of G.o.d unto man by all ages in the old law, from the fall of Adam to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Compiled by John Bale, Anno Domini_ MDx.x.xVIII. _In the word (which is now called the eternal son of G.o.d) was life from the beginning, and that life was the light of men. This light yet s.h.i.+neth in the darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not_."--JOAN I.[276] ...

4, black letter.

PREFACE.

John Bale, author of the morality of "G.o.d's Promises," is more known as an historian and controversialist than as a dramatic writer. He was [the son of Henry and Margaret Bale, and was] born on the 21st of November 1495, at Cove, a small village near Dunwich, in Suffolk. His parents, having many other children, and not being in very affluent circ.u.mstances, sent him, at the age of twelve years, to the monastery of Carmelites at Norwich,[277] where he received part of his education, and whence he removed to [Jesus] College,[278] Cambridge.[279] While he continued at the University, being as he says seriously stirred up by the ill.u.s.trious the Lord Wentworth, he renounced the tenets of the Church of Rome; and, that he might never more serve so execrable a beast, I took, says he, to wife the faithful Dorothy, in obedience to that divine command, "Let him that cannot contain, marry," Bishop Nicolson insinuates that his dislike to a state of celibacy was the means of his conversion, more than any doubts which he entertained about the truth of his faith. The change of his religion exposed him to the persecution of the Romish clergy, particularly of Lee, Archbishop of York, and Stokesley, Bishop of London; but he found an able and powerful protector in the person of Lord Cromwell, the favourite of Henry the Eighth. On the death of this n.o.bleman, he withdrew into the Low Countries, and resided there eight years; in which time he wrote several pieces in the English language. On the accession of King Edward the Sixth, he was recalled into England, and obtained the living of Bishopstoke, in the county of Southampton. During his residence at his living, he was almost brought to the point of death by an ague; when hearing that the king was come in progress to Southampton, five miles only from where he dwelt, he went to pay his respects to him. "I toke my horse," says he, "about 10 of the clocke, for very weaknesse scant able to sytt him, and so came thydre. Betwixt two and three of the clocke, the same day, I drew towardes the place where as his majestie was, and stode in the open strete ryght against the gallerye. Anon, my frinde Johan Fylpot, a gentylman, and one of hys previe chambre, called unto him two more of hys companyons, which in moving their heades towardes me, shewed me most frendely countenaunces.

By one of these three the kynge havynge informacion that I was there in the strete, he marveled thereof, for so much as it had bene tolde hym a lytle afore that I was bothe dead and buried. With that hys grace came to the wyndowe, and earnestly behelde me a poore weake creature, as though he had upon me so symple a subject an earnest regard, or rather a very fatherly care." This visit to the king occasioned his immediate appointment to the bishopric of Ossory, which was settled the next day, as he declared[280] afterwards, _against his will, of the king's own mere motion only, without suit of friends, meed, labour, expenses, or any other sinister means else_. On the [2d February] 1553,[281] he was consecrated at Dublin by the archbishop of that see, and underwent a variety of persecutions from the Popish party in Ireland, which at length compelled him to leave his diocese, and conceal himself in Dublin.

Endeavouring to escape thence in a small trading vessel, he was taken prisoner by the captain of a Dutch man-of-war, who rifled him of all his money, apparel, and effects. The s.h.i.+p was then driven by stress of weather into St Ives in Cornwall, where he was taken up on suspicion of high treason, but soon discharged. From thence, after a cruise of several days, the s.h.i.+p arrived in Dover Road, and he was again put in danger by a false accusation. On his arrival in Holland, he was kept prisoner three weeks, and then obtained his liberty on payment of a sum of money. From Holland he retired to Basil in Switzerland, and continued abroad during the remainder of Queen Mary's reign. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, he returned to England; but being disgusted with the treatment he met with in Ireland, he went thither no more. He was promoted on the 15th of January 1560, to a prebend in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, and died in that city in [or before] November 1563, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. According to the manners of the times in which he wrote, he appears to have taken very indecent liberties with all his antagonists in his religious controversies, and to have considered himself as not bound by any rules of decorum in replying to those from whom he differed in matters, wherein the interests of religion were concerned. The acrimony of his style on these occasions acquired him the appellation of "Bilious Bale," and it was applied to him with singular propriety. His princ.i.p.al work is esteemed the "_Scriptorum ill.u.s.trium majoris Brytaniae quam nunc Angliam et Scotiam vocant Catalogus;" a j.a.pheto per 3618 annos usque ad annum hunc domini_ 1557, &c., first printed imperfectly at Wesel in 1549, and afterwards more completely in 1557 and 1559.[282] He was the author of a great number of dramatic pieces, [four[283]] of which only appear to have been published.

This present copy is taken from an old black letter edition in 4to, in the valuable collection of David Garrick, Esq.[284] The t.i.tle-page being damaged, I am unable to give the date of it.

What is remarkable in this drama is that it is divided into seven acts,[285] and at the end of each act has a kind of chorus, which was performed with voices and instruments.

INTERLOCUTORES.

PATER COELESTIS. ADAM _primus h.o.m.o_.

_Justus_ NOAH. ABRAHAM _fidelis_.

MOSES _sanctus_. DAVID _rex pius_.

ESAIAS _propheta_. JOANNES _baptista_.

BALEUS _prolocutor_.[286]

G.o.d'S PROMISES.

BALEUS _prolocutor_.

If profit may grow, most Christian audience, By knowledge of things which are not transitory And here for a time, of much more congruence Advantage might spring by the search of causes heavenly, As those matters are that the gospel specify.

Without whose knowledge no man to the truth can fall,[287]

Nor ever attain to the life perpetual.

For he that knoweth not the living G.o.d eternal, The Father, the Son, and also the Holy Ghost, And what Christ suffered for redemption of us all, What he commanded, and taught in every coast, And what he forbode, that man must needs be lost, And clean secluded from the faithful chosen sort, In the heavens above, to his most high discomfort.

You therefore, good friends, I lovingly exhort To weigh such matters, as will be uttered here, Of whom ye may look to have no trifling sport In fantasies feigned, nor such-like gawdish gear, But the things that shall your inward stomach cheer, To rejoice in G.o.d for your justification, And alone in Christ to hope for your salvation.

Yea, first ye shall have the eternal generation Of Christ, like as John in his first chapter writes, And consequently of man the first creation, The abuse and fall, through his first oversight, And the rise-again through G.o.d's high grace and might: By promises first which shall be declared all: Then by his own Son, the worker princ.i.p.al.

After that Adam bewaileth here his fall, G.o.d will show mercy to every generation, And to his kingdom of his great goodness call His elected spouse or faithful congregation, As here shall appear by open protestation, Which from Christ's birth shall to his death conclude: They come, that thereof will show the cert.i.tude.

ACTUS PRIMUS.[288]

PATER COELESTIS. In the beginning, before the heavens were create, In me and of me was my Son sempiternal, With the Holy Ghost, in one degree or estate Of the high G.o.dhead, to me the father coequal, And this my Son was with me one G.o.d essential, Without separation at any time from me.

True G.o.d he is, of equal dignity.

Since the beginning my Son hath ever be, Joined with his Father in one essential being.

All things were create by him in each degree, In heaven and earth, and have their diverse working: Without his power was never made anything, That was wrought; but through his ordinance Each have his strength and whole countenance.

In him is the life and the just recoverance For Adam and his, which nought but death deserved.

And this life to men is an high perseverance Or a light of faith, whereby they shall be saved.

And this light shall s.h.i.+ne among the people darkened With unfaithfulness. Yet shall they not with him take, But of wilful heart his liberal grace forsake.

Which will compel me against man for to make In my displeasure, and send plagues of correction, Most grievous and sharp, his wanton l.u.s.ts to slake By water and fire, by sickness and infection, Of pestilent sores molesting his complexion, By troublous war, by dearth and painful scarceness, And after this life by an extreme heaviness.

I will first begin with Adam for his lewdness, Which for an apple neglected my commandment.

He shall continue in labour for his rashness, His only sweat shall provide his food and raiment.

Yea, yet must he have a greater punishment, Most terrible death shall bring him to his end, To teach him how he his Lord G.o.d shall offend.

_Hic praeceps in terram cadit_ ADAMUS, _ac post quartum versum denuo resurgit_.

ADAM PRIMUS h.o.m.o. Merciful father, thy pitiful grace extend To me careful wretch, which have me sore abused, Thy precept breaking. O Lord, I mind to amend, If thy great goodness would now have me excused; Most heavenly Maker, let me not be refused, Nor cast from thy sight for one poor sinful crime; Alas! I am frail, my whole kind is but slim.

PATER COELESTIS. I wot it is so, yet art thou no less faulty, Then thou hadst been made of matter much more worthy.

I gave thee reason and wit to understand The good from the evil, and not to take on hand, Of a brainless mind, the thing which I forbade thee.

ADAM PRIMUS h.o.m.o. Such heavy fortune hath chiefly chanced me, For that I was left to mine own liberty.