citing laughter descended from the devil
in the _mystery_, to _vice_ or _iniquity_ in the _morality_, and was
personified by _pride_ or _gluttony_, or any other evil propensity; and
even when regular tragedies and comedies came upon the stage, we may
trace the descendants of this line in the clowns and fools who undertook
this portion of the entertainment, to the no small detriment of the more
serious parts of the best tragedies. In Hamlet's direction to the
players, allusion is made distinctly to this. The secular plays which
existed before mysteries were invented, differed very materially from
either them or moralities, and were far inferior to them in refinement
and delicacy; they retained their popularity, however, notwithstanding
their clerical rivals, and the efforts that were diligently made to do
away with them.

_Interludes_ were a variety of these secular plays, and probably gave
birth to the _farce_ of later times; they were facetious or satirical
dialogues, calculated to promote mirth. A representation of this
character before Henry the Eighth, at Greenwich, is thus related by
Hall:--"Two persons played a dialogue, the effect whereof was to declare
whether riches were better than love; and when they could not agree upon
a conclusion, each knight called in three knights well armed; three of
them would have entered the gate of the arch in the middle of the
chamber, and the other three resisted; and suddenly between the six
knights, out of the arch fell down a bar all gilt, for the which bar the
six knights did battle, and then they departed; then came in an old man
with a silver beard, and he concluded that love and riches both be
necessary for princes; that is to say, by love to be obeyed and served,
and with riches to reward his lovers and friends."

Another is described by the same author as performed at Windsor, when
"the Emperor Maximilian and King Henry, being present, there was a
disguising or play; the effect of it was, that there was a proud horse,
which would not be tamed or bridled; but _Amity_ sent _Prudence_ and
_Policy_, which tamed him, and _Force_ and _Puissance_ bridled him. The
horse was the French king, Amity the king of England, and the emperor and
other persons were their counsel and power."

When regular plays became established, these motley exhibitions lost
their charm for all, save the vulgar; the law set its face against them,
performers were stigmatised as rogues and vagabonds,