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great Duke of Hell. It was the anniversary of Lucifer's fall from heaven, and the devils were keeping high tide and festival:

This devil and I walked arm in arm
So far till he had brought me thither,
Where all the devils of hell together
Stood in array in such apparel

As for that day there meetly fell :—
Their horns well gilt, their claws full clean,
Their tails well kempt, and, as I ween,
With sothery butter their bodies anointed :
I never saw devils so well appointed !
The master-devil sat in his jacket,
And all the souls were playing at racket:
None other rackets they had in hand
Save every soul a good firebrand;
Wherewith they played so prettily
That Lucifer laughed merrily,
And all the residue of the fiends

Did laugh thereat full well like friends.

The Pardoner looked around for his friend, but could not find her, and durst not yet ask after her. An usher then brought him into the presence of Lucifer, who received him graciously:

By Saint Anthony

He smiled on me well-favouredly,

Bending his brows as broad as barn-doors,

Shaking his ears as rugged as burrs,

Rolling his eyes as round as two bushels,

Flashing the fire out of his nostrils,
Gnashing his teeth so vaingloriously

That methought time to fall to flattery.

Neither low obeisance nor seasonable panegyric did the Pardoner spare; and after some preliminary colloquy, he ventured to unfold the object of his visit :

I am a Pardoner,

And over souls as controller

RESCUE OF MARGERY CORSON.

Throughout the earth my power doth stand,
Where many a soul lieth on my hand,
That speed in matters as I use them,

As I receive them or refuse them.

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Such being the authority of his office, he proposes to exchange the soul of any wight alive the devil chooses for that of his friend. Lucifer agrees:

Lucifer

Ho, ho! quoth the devil, we are well pleased!

What is his name thou wouldst have eased?

Nay, quoth I, be it good or evil,

My coming is for a she devil.

What call'st her, quoth he, thou whoreson ?.
Forsooth, quoth I, Margery Corson.

This demure and casual introduction of the woman's name strikes one as highly comic, after so much preparation; and the immediate effect produced is no less dramatic. Lucifer forgets all about the bargain, and swears that not a devil in hell shall withhold her:

And if thou wouldest have twenty mo,
Wer't not for justice, they should go !

For all we devils within this den

Have more to do with two women

Than with all the charge we have beside.

He therefore begs the Pardoner, by good-will and fellowship, to leave the men to their sins, and to apply all his pardons in future to womankind, in order that hell at least may be rid of the sex. Margery had been drafted into the kitchen, and there the Pardoner found her, spitting the meat, basting and roasting it.

But when she saw this brought to pass,

To tell the joy wherein she was,

And of all the devils, for joy how they
Did roar at her delivery,

And how the chains in hell did ring,
And how all the souls therein did sing,
And how we were brought to the gate,
And how we took our leave thereat,
Be sure lack of time suffereth not

To rehearse the twentieth part of that!

The gratification afforded by the Pardoner's story almost distracts attention from its lie. The Pedlar comments on the danger of the journey. The Palmer takes it seriously; but one point, he says, perplexes him. He cannot understand why women have such bad characters in hell. He has wandered over earth and sea, and visited every town in Christendom :

And this I would ye should understand,
I have seen women five hundred thousand
And oft with them have long time tarried,

1;

Yet in all places where I have been,

Of all the women that I have seen,

I never saw or knew in my conscience
Any one woman out of patience.

Thus quietly, and with this force of earnest asseveration, does the largest and most palpable lie leap out of the Palmer's lips. The plaintiffs and the judge are unanimous :

Poticary.

By the mass, there is a great lie!

Pardoner.

I never heard a greater, by our Lady!

Pedlar.

A greater! Nay, know ye any so great?

It only remains for the Pedlar to pass judgment, and to assign the prize of victory to the Palmer. This he does at some length, discoursing with comical details

THE PALMER'S TRIUMPH.

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upon the composition of woman's character, and demonstrating how shrewishness, whatever other qualities may co-exist, is a fixed element in every member of the female sex. The Interlude concludes with a sound and wholesome homily from the stout-hearted old author, put into the Pedlar's mouth, whereby he expounds his own views about the right use of pilgrimage and pardons, and lectures the materialistic apothecary upon the necessity of saving virtues. Thus the fun of the piece is turned to good doctrine at its close.

I have indulged myself in a detailed analysis of Heywood's Interlude, and in copious quotations, partly because of its intrinsic excellence, but more especially because it is unique as a dramatic composition of the purest English style, unmodified by erudite or foreign elements. It presents the England of the pre-Renaissance and pre-Reformation period with singular vivacity and freshness; the merry England which had still a spark of Chaucer's spirit left, an echo of his lark-like morning song. The Drama was not destined to expand precisely on the lines laid down by Heywood. Indeed, a very few years made his Interlude almost as archaic to the men of Elizabeth's reign as it is to us. Italian and classical influences were already at work in the elaboration of a different type of art. Still the vigour of this piece is so superabundant, that to neglect it would be to leave out of account the chief factor— native dramatic faculty-which rendered our playwrights in the modern style superior to those of Italy or France.

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IV.

Two formal comedies of an early date may be fitly included in this study. These are Ralph Roister Doister' and Gammer Gurton's Needle.' Heywood's 'Four P's' was written, in all probability, soon after the year 1530. Roister Doister' had been produced to the public before 1550. Gammer Gurton' was acted at Cambridge in 1566. These dates bring three epoch-making compositions in the comic art almost within the compass of a quarter of a century. No serious dramatic essays, tragedies, or histories, of like artistic excellence existed at that period.

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To combine a skilfully constructed fable with Heywood's character-delineation was all that comedy required to bring it to maturity. This union Nicholas Udall effected in his Ralph Roister Doister.' The author of this, the first regular comedy in the English language, was born about 1505 in Hampshire. He was a Protestant throughout his life, and won some scholarly distinction by translating portions of the Paraphrase of the New Testament by Erasmus. While a student at Oxford, Udall enjoyed Leland's intimacy. Bale praised him for his learning and accomplishments. For some time he held the head mastership of Eton College, which he had to resign on a charge, not fully proved, of conniving at a robbery of College plate. He died in 1556, having been for a few years before his death head master of Westminster School. This sketch of Udall's biography prepares us for the taste, propriety of treatment, and just proportions

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