Ballad the singer has frequently a fine instinct for heroism, and can render full justice to such a theme as the sea-fight between Lord Howard and Sir Andrew Barton, the Scotch rover. Sir Andrew has beams attached to his maintop, which he lets fall upon the deck of the enemy, thus sinking the hostile vessel. Every Scot who has essayed to drop this contrivance has been shot by the English archer Horseley, and at last Sir Andrew comes forward himself in his armour of proof: This is historical; the incident occurred in 1511, and the "noble ship " became the second vessel in Henry VIII.'s navy. It is to be feared that there is not equal authority for the exploits, at the siege of Ghent, of the heroine of the spirited ballad, Mary Ambree, though they are probably not quite devoid of foundation: She led up her soldiers in battle array 'Gainst three times their number at break of the day; Was not this a brave bonny lass, Mary Ambree ? She filled the skies with the smoke of her shot, And her enemies' bodies with bullets so hot; Was not this a brave bonny lass, Mary Ambree ? And when her false gunner, to spoil her intent, Away all her pellets and powder had sent, Straight with her keen weapon she slashed him in three : It will be observed that Mary Ambree is written in anapæstic metre, which is also the case with a few of the ballads of the time. These are generally SONGS AND CATCHES 153 of a humorous character, such as The Miller of Mansfield. Perhaps the only example of trisyllabic metre being adapted to a theme of tragic interest is the Scotch ballad of The Bonnie Earl of Murray, and there is scarcely an instance of its being employed for songs before the Restoration. Anapæsts and their congeners, however, peep occasionally into old ballads like True Thomas, and largely leaven merry strains, such as the ringing Bacchanalian carol, Jolly Good Ale and Old, profanely attributed to a bishop : I love no roast but a nut-brown toast, And a crab laid in the fire; A little bread shall do me stead, Much bread I not desire. No frost, nor snow, nor wind, I trow, I am so wrapped and thoroughly lapped And Tib, my wife, that as her life Then doth she trowl to me the bowl Even as a maltworm shold, And saith, "Sweetheart, I took my part Of this jolly good ale and old." If Bishop Still was the author, which is not likely, "Tib" must be a fair creation of the poet, for he was not married in 1566, the date of the primitive English comedy, Gammer Gurton's Needle, where the song first appeared, though it is believed to be still older. World-wide drama CHAPTER IV THE PREDECESSORS OF SHAKESPEARE We have now arrived at the threshold of the literary movement which has given the age of Elizabeth rank among the most important intellectual epochs of the world. Its drama, and its drama alone, has bestowed upon it a place importanc of in literature corresponding to that which it has earned in political history the English by its deliverance of Europe by the discomfiture of the Armada and in science by the method of Bacon and the discoveries of, Gilbert and Harvey. Without its drama it would still have been a rich and glorious literary epoch for England, but no world-wide significance could have been attributed to it. Even without Shakespeare it would have vied not unsuccessfully with the dramatic literatures of France, Spain, and Germany, and attracted students and admirers from all those countries. With Shakespeare, it has obtained naturalisation in every civilised land, and more or less metamorphosed every national drama. Leaving theologians and philosophers and men of science out of the question, and confining our attention to letters, it may safely be affirmed that more has been written about Shakespeare than about all other European writers together between Dante and Goethe. The drama a the miracle play Nothing is more remarkable in the history of the Elizabethan drama than development of the extreme suddenness of its development. We seem to pass in an instant from an atmosphere of barbarism to an atmosphere of art. The transition was indeed abrupt, yet seemed more sudden than was really the case. had been slowly prepared by a long succession of antecedent developments, according, by a rare felicity, with the development of the nation itself. It has already been described in a previous chapter on the Miracle Play how the origin of the English drama was, like that of the Greek, religious; how the growing taste for pomp and show in church services, partly arising from the language in which they were conducted having become unintelligible to the people, generated spectacular performances of a religious cast too elaborate and too much leavened with profane elements to be suitable for performance in church, thus laying the foundation of the modern theatre. The circumstance that these representations were given on holidays greatly favoured the mirthful element they had included from the first, and at the zenith of the miracle play its constituent elements included precursors alike of the more dig nified tragedy and the more refined comedy of the coming age. Side by side with this entirely democratic form of drama existed another, the toy of the learned, but unknown to the people, the scholarly imitation of MIRACLE PLAY AND MORALITY 155 Terence, written by professors and schoolmasters for representation by their pupils. On the Continent this form of drama flourished greatly during the later Middle Age; in England the evidences of its existence are few and far between, but it certainly did exist. The preponderating elements of the drama at the time Chere begynneth a treatyle how ý hye when the drama fader of heuen lendeth dethe to lo mon euery creature to come and began to assert for itself an existence independent of the miracle play were comic, and it might be expected that the English drama would begin with comedy. Before, however, this step could be taken, it had to pass through a transition stagethe morality, corresponding to the Spanish and Portuguese auto, in which, although Man and his subtle Enemy play their part, and celestial and infernal personages may be called upon to enrich the action and redress its balance, the characters are for the most part abstractions, personified Vices and Virtues. Perhaps the earliest example of the morality is The Pride of Life, written probably about 1400, and printed in Professor Brandl's Quellen. It is a very rude and imperfect production. Mankind, also edited by Professor Brandl, was certainly written under Edward IV. We have already referred to a more elaborate example in The Castle of Perseverance, where Man is represented as hesitating between his good and his evil angel, and standing a siege in a stronghold garrisoned by all the Virtues. It was remarked that this development of the miracle play or mystery was favourable to the dramatic First page of "Everyman" From the Britwell copy The Morality art, rendering the poet more independent of conventionalities, and compelling him to rely mainly upon his own invention. It served as a steppingstone for the Portuguese Gil Vicente, incomparably the greatest dramatic poet of the first half of the sixteenth century, to rise into the regions of purely secular comedy and farce, where, as well as in his moralities, more amusing than devout, he displayed the unflagging humour and the unflagging melody of Aristophanes. No English writer of moralities was an eminent poet like Gil Vicente, nor did any venture upon the decisive step he took; yet the productions of this transition period evince a decided advance in art over the old miracle play. The most important of the pure moralities, primitive drafts of the Spanish autos, which became popular in England towards the end of the fifteenth century, and form a transition from the miracle play to the interludes of Heywood, without, however, any approximation to the secular drama or any but a strictly moral and religious purpose, are Everyman and Hickscorner, the former of which has become well known from its recent revival and republication. The circumstance argues some literary merit, and, in fact, although nothing can be balder or less quotable than the diction of Everyman, it is a remarkable instance of dramatic effect obtained by simple adherence to an interesting action. "The subject of this piece," says Bishop Percy, "is the summoning of man out of the world by death; and its moral that nothing will then avail him but a well-spent life and the comforts of religion." After giving a brief analysis, Percy observes with justice: "It is remarkable that in this old simple drama the fable is conducted upon the strictest model of the Greek tragedy. The action is simply one, the time of action is that of the performance, the scene is never changed, nor the stage ever empty. Except in the circumstance of Everyman's expiring on the stage, the Samson |