Dei vo gar, mai chére aimie,
Dit-i d'éne douce vol, &c.
very different from the gravity displayed in the Chester Mysteries, in the Wrightes Play, (about 1328.)
Gabriell.
Heale be thou, Marie mother free,
Full of grace god is wth thee
Among all women blessed thou bee
And the frute of thy bodye.”[1]
In the fourteenth pageant of the Coventry Plays there is, however, some buffoonery introduced, quite as gross as in this noël, but which was probably well calculated for the amusement of the rude imagination of the audiences in those times. Mary is brought to trial before Ahizachar, the Bishop, for infidelity. The accusers are called Primus et Secundus Detractor. Primus Detractor observes,
In feyth, I suppose that this woman slepte
Withowtyn all coverte, whyle that it dede snowe,
And a flake therof into hyre rnowthe crepte,
And therof the chylde in hyre wombe doth growe.
Secundus Detractor, following up the joke, warns her to take care, when the child is born, not to let the sun shine upon it.[2]
The fifth of these Noëi gives an account of the adoration and offering of the three kings, of which the following is an extract.
Ai lai Nativitai
Chanton, je vo suplie.
Troi Roi d’autre coutai
Moitre an estrôlôgie,
Be l’anfan nôvea nai
Saivein lai piôfecie.
