e mop![69]
Of oure crede thou art crop;[70]
I wold drink on thy cop,
Litel day starne.

_Tertius Pastor._

Hail, derling dere,
Full of godhede!
I pray thee be nere
When that I have nede.
Hail! swete is thy chere;[71]
My hart wolde blede
To see thee sitt here
In so poore wede,
With no pennys.
Hail! Put forth thy dall![72]
I bring thee bot a ball;
Have and play thee with all,
And go to the tenis!"{17}

The charm of this will be felt by every reader; it lies in a curious
incongruity--extreme homeliness joined to awe; the Infinite is contained
within the narrowest human bounds; God Himself, the Creator and Sustainer
of the universe, a weak, helpless child. But a step more, and all would
have been irreverence; as it is we have devotion, human, naive, and
touching.

It would be interesting to show how other scenes connected with Christmas
are handled in the English miracle-plays: how Octavian (Caesar Augustus)
sent out the decree that all the world should be taxed, and learned from
the Sibyl the birth of Christ; how the Magi were led by the star and
offered their symbolic gifts; how the raging of the boastful tyrant
Herod, the |138| Slaughter of the Innocents, and the Flight into Egypt
are treated; but these scenes, though full of colour, are on the whole
less remarkable than the shepherd and Nativity pieces, and space forbids
us to dwell upon them. They contain many curious anachronisms, as when
Herod invokes Mahounde, and talks about his princes, prelates, barons,
baronets and burgesses.[73]

The religious play in England did not long survive the Reformation. Under
the influence of Protestantism, with its vigilant dread of profanity and
superstition, the cycles were shorn of many of their scenes, the
performances became irregular, and by the end of the sixteenth century
they had mostly ceased to be. Not sacred story, but the play of human
character, was henceforth the material of the drama. The rich, variegated
religion of the people, communal in its expression, tinged everywhere
with human colour, gave place to a sterner, colder, more individual
faith, fearful of contamination by the use of the outward and visible.

* * * * *

There is little or no trace in the vernacular Christmas plays of direct
translation from one language into another, though there was some
borrowing of motive