ient la mer en son espace.

_Marie._

Il plait a Dieu qu'ainsy se face."

At last Christ is born, welcomed by the song of the angels, adored by His
mother. In the heathen temples the idols fall; Hell mouth opens and shows
the rage of the demons, who make a hideous noise; fire issues from the
nostrils and eyes and ears of Hell, which shuts up with the devils within
it. And then the angels in the stable worship the Child Jesus. The
adoration of the shepherds was shown with many naive details for the
delight of the people, and the performance ended with the offering of a
sacrifice in Rome by the Emperor Octavian to an image of the Blessed
Virgin.{19}

The French playwrights, quite as much as the English, love comic shepherd
scenes with plenty of eating and drinking and brawling. A traditional
figure is the shepherd Rifflart, always a laughable type. In the strictly
mediaeval plays the shepherds are true French rustics, but with the
progress of the Renaissance classical elements creep into the pastoral
scenes; in a mystery printed in 1507 Orpheus with the Nymphs and Oreads
is introduced. As might be expected, anachronisms often occur; a
peculiarly piquant instance is found in the S. Genevieve mystery, where
Caesar Augustus gets a piece of Latin translated into French for his
convenience.

[Illustration:

THE SHEPHERDS OF BETHLEHEM.

From "Le grant Kalendrier compost des Bergiers"
(N. le Rouge, Troyes, 1529).

(Reproduced from a modern broadside published
by Mr. F. Sidgwick.)]

|141| Late examples of French Christmas mysteries are the so-called
"comedies" of the Nativity, Adoration of the Kings, Massacre of the
Innocents, and Flight into Egypt contained in the "Marguerites"
(published in 1547) of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, sister of Francois
I. Intermingled with the traditional figures treated more or less in the
traditional way are personified abstractions like Philosophy,
Tribulation, Inspiration, Divine Intelligence, and Contemplation, which
largely rob the plays of dramatic effect. There is some true poetry in
these pieces, but too much theological learning and too little
simplicity, and in one place the ideas of Calvin seem to show
themselves.{20}

The French mystery began to fall into decay about the middle of the
sixteenth century. It was attacked on every side: by the new poets of the
Renaissance, who preferred classical to Christian subjects; by the
Protestants, who deemed the religious