f the Mediator, in which I hope I shall
terminate my short time on earth in the peace of God enduring unto all
eternity."

He died in the year 1810, at the age of 71, shortly after the death of
his wife, who seems to have been a faithful, loving partner. By her side
he was buried in the earth of the graveyard of the White Church, near
Denbigh. There can be little doubt that the souls of both will be
accepted on the great day when, as Gronwy Owen says:--

"Like corn from the belly of the ploughed field, in a thick crop,
those buried in the earth shall arise, and the sea shall cast forth a
thousand myriads of dead above the deep billowy way."

CHAPTER LX

Mystery Plays--The Two Prime Opponents--Analysis of Interlude--Riches and
Poverty--Tom's Grand Qualities.

In the preceding chapter I have given an abstract of the life of Tom O'
the Dingle; I will now give an analysis of his interlude; first, however,
a few words on interludes in general. It is difficult to say with
anything like certainty what is the meaning of the word interlude. It
may mean, as Warton supposes in his history of English Poetry, a short
play performed between the courses of a banquet or festival; or it may
mean the playing of something by two or more parties, the interchange of
playing or acting which occurs when two or more people act. It was about
the middle of the fifteenth century that dramatic pieces began in England
to be called Interludes; for some time previous they had been styled
Moralities; but the earliest name by which they were known was Mysteries.
The first Mysteries composed in England were by one Ranald, or Ranulf, a
monk of Chester, who flourished about 1322, whose verses are mentioned
rather irreverently in one of the visions of Piers Plowman, who puts them
in the same rank as the ballads about Robin Hood and Maid Marion, making
Sloth say:

"I cannon perfitly my Paternoster as the priest it singeth,
But I can rhymes of Robin Hood and Ranald of Chester."

Long, however, before the time of this Ranald Mysteries had been composed
and represented both in Italy and France. The Mysteries were very rude
compositions, little more, as Warton says, than literal representations
of portions of Scripture. They derived their name of Mysteries from
being generally founded on the more mysterious parts of Holy Writ, for
example the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the Resurrection. The
Moralities displayed s