which we have elsewhere alluded. "Le Mystère du Vieil Testament," for example, "n'est-pas une œuvre personnelle dont il y ait lieu de rechercher l'auteur; c'est une œuvre collective, qui a dû s'elaborer lentement pendant le cours du xvᵉ siècle."[1] Whatever importance the clergy possessed as the first makers of rude plays, both the making and acting, sooner or later, passed into the hands of guilds—either the trade-guilds of the town, or bodies of literary craftsmen who (like the Homêridæ or the Hebrew musician-clans) assumed the familiar organisation of the guild. Thus, the Chester Mysteries, performed for the last time in 1574, were acted by trading companies of that city. In France it was out of the Town-Guilds that the Confrèrie de la Passion was formed—a fraternity which, chiefly composed of tradesmen and citizens of Paris, played Mysteries from 1402 to 1548. At Coventry particular parts of the Mystery were assigned to particular trading companies; thus, the Smiths' Company acted the Trial and Crucifixion, the Cappers' Company acted the Resurrection and the Descent into Hell.[2] In Germany Master-Singer Guilds for the composition and recitation of verse were established at Mayence, Ulm, Nürnberg, and other towns, the old "Singing School" at Nürnberg being maintained as late as 1770. The famous scene of the Tower of Babel in the Mystère du Vieil Testament, in which the carpenter Gaste-Bois (Spoil-wood), the mason Casse-Tuileau (Break-tile), and the rest, are medieval guildsmen doing duty as Nimrod's workmen, graphically illustrates the dramatic workmanship of these literary guilds. But the impersonal view of human character taken by these corporations is a more interesting evidence of communal feeling than this impersonal
- ↑ Baron James de Rothschild's Introduction, p. iv.
- ↑ Cf. History of Early English Guilds, Early English Text Society, 1870.
