Beiblatt zur Anglia. Mitteilungen über englische Sprache und Litteratur Preis: Für den Jahrgang 8 Mark. (Preis für 'Anglia' und 'Beiblatt' jährlich 24 Mark.) XIV. Bd. März 1903. I. SPRACHE UND LITTERATUR. Nr. III. The Weavers' Pageant (Coventry Corpus Christi Play) edited by Prof. Dr. F. Holthausen, Ausserord. Prof. der Engl. Phil. a. d. Universität Kiel. Anglia N. F. XIII, 2. When Prof. Holthausen's text of this most interesting mystery play appeared, I had an edition of it and of the Shearmen and Taylors' Pageant ready for publication by the Early English Text Society. Before putting my plays in press, I have examined Prof. H.'s text very carefully and it is the materials of this collation which I publish here. For the sake of a clearer treatment and by the kind permission of Prof. H. himself, I shall go to a certain extent into the elements in the composition of the play. As stated in the prefatory note, Prof. H. has re-edited from the edition of the antiquarian Thos. Sharp (Abbotsford Club, Edinburgh. 1836.) and has modified that edition in the following ways: He has punctuated the text, expressed in italics the scribal contractions retained in printing, numbered the lines and strophes, and in some places emended the text, the metre, and the strophe-structure. Prof. H., taking a sort of middle ground with regard to the illiterate spelling of Robert Crow, has also sought, by numerous bracketed letters and changes in the spelling of words, to render its comprehension by modern readers an easier matter. His most serious task perhaps was the division into strophes; for there 5 Anglia, Beiblatt XIV. are after all only a few places where Sharp's text is unintelligible. The difficulty of separating the strophes is due to the composite character of the play and it is necessary to form an idea of the nature and relative age of the different forms in order to understand the ploblems before Prof. H. in his treatment of strophe and metre. The dialogue of the Prophets (A. II. 1—174) is mainly in seven-line stanzas, four, sometimes five, stresses to the line and riming ababbcc 1). The rime of the final couplet is continued in the first and third lines of the succeeding strophe; three riming lines are thus thrown together, a circumstance which has no doubt rendered the metre liable to misunderstanding and corruption. This sevenline stanza was the original form of this disputation; but it is doubtful if several of the speeches of the second prophet, who is, at first, a sort of interlocutor, were ever in the regular strophe (A. 15-18 (?), 73–76, 91–96, 104-7). The corruptions which appear in 11. 45-7 and in 11. 108 ff. are attempts to conform in a general way to the scheme of the familiar eight-line stanza much used in the Chester Whitsun Plays. It rimes aaabaaab or aaabcccb and has four feet to the line except the fourth and eight which have three. 2) It is difficult to say how much, besides 11. 153-9 and 167-74, of the prophet-play after 1. 108, was originally in seven-line stanzas. From the nature of the matter, one would think that the redactor had simply freely rewritten; for the corresponding prophet scene in the Shearmen and Taylors play 3) is a prologue to the Adoration of the Kings just as the prophet scene here is to the Purification; and it reviews the events of the Nativity which precedes it, just as the prophets here review those of the Adoration which, in the cycle, immediately preceded it. These prophet scenes, altho not in the same metre, have such similarities in language and style that one is forced to believe them contemporaneous in origin, if not from the same hand, written probably before the union in STCO of the Nativity and the Adoration. Owing to this 1) Schipper, Eng. Met. I, § 171. 2) Schipper, loc. cit. § 154. 3) Spec. Pre-Shak. Dram. J. M. Manly. Boston. 1897 vol. I. pp. 131-6. similarity, it seems improbable that the last remodeller is responsible for the matter as he probably is for the stropheform of this part of the prophet scene. Throughout the play the passages written in the Chester metre offer in general the clearest readings, except for the omission of words and lines; and altho this metre enters to corrupt every other variety used, the passages written in it are frequently uninterrupted. Moreover the excrescences of story, the incidents, and inessential speeches are either wholly or in large part in Chester metre. The natural inference is that this was the favorite strophe-form used by the last redactor, whether he is responsible for all of it or not.) The seven-line stanzas are sadly corrupted in many places and Prof. H. has sought in several instances to restore them. The propriety of attempting this when it alters the sense of the passage is certainly to be questioned. I offer the following suggestions: It is possible that there may have been an older division after 1. 22. In strophe 7, there was a piecing together of familiar bits of the Processus Profetarum assigned properly in Sh. to Isaiah and Balaam: ii. Profeta. Where fynde you that in wholle scripture i. Profeta. Isaee the profett wrytith full sure: A man schuld spryng here in Isaraell; 1) How far this may be true also of STCo is a difficult question. Some passages are certainly from the same late source (Cp. STCo 133-42 and A. 419-86, B 413-20); but in general, much of the Chester metre in STCO is different in character, being essential to the story. Robert Crow's statement of work upon the pageant at the end of the play agrees pretty closely with that suffixed to STCo (Manly loc. cit. p. 151), the date being twelve days earlier for WCo. In STCo he says "nevly correcte", in WCo "nevly translate" which may mean that he altered the latter rather more seriously; and for this there is abundant evidence. The strophe form as it stands is not unusual, and the passage makes perfect sense. H. omits 1. 5 and transposes 6 and 7, which can hardly be nearer the original since it gives Balaam's words, the translation of exurget homo de Israel, to Isaiah. The lines as they stood in strophe 8 were no doubt meant to imitate the riming order of Chestre metre and, in scripture 46, there was perhaps reference to the rime of 48 and 49. The inversion of 49 and 50 gives a somewhat different meaning to the passage. Strophe 19 should perhaps, inspite of the emendation there 119 (Sh. till), have begun with 1. 116, in wich case intellegence 120 and dyfference 125 occupy relatively their proper places in the strophe. The Purification (A. 175-718) opens with 54 lines of rime-royal. 1) After that, with Simeon's speech 11. 230 ff., the seven-line octosyllabic stanza begins again, but with greater simplicity than in the prophet-play. With strophe 46, the Chestre structure again appears and continues irregularly throughout the scene between Simeon and his Clark. It is to be noted. however that the passages in the seven-line strophe, more or less perfectly preserved, give the necessary parts of the action (Cp. 331-41). The scene between Mary and Gabriel (11. 363 -92) is similar to the Annunciation in STCo 2) and has several verses borrowed from it. 3) It serves to introduce the long episode of the doves (11. 401-546) and the scene in which Joseph protests against going to Jerusalem (11. 547-81). There is little except Chester metre here or in the two episodes; but that little, inspite of its corruptions, again shows the outline of a complete story independent of the Chestre metre (cp. 363-6, 379-92, 455-8, 475-8, 502-17 (?), 543-61, 578-81). The passage beginning 1. 582, which is manifestly later than the similar passage earlier in the play (289 ff.), offers a good example of modification according to the Chestre 1) Schipper, loc. cit. p. 426 ff. 2) Manly, loc. cit. p. 122. 3) There is no way of telling when this was done; but stanza 53 at least seems to have been written, perhaps by the last redactor, to introduce and emphasize Joseph's part in the action. scheme. This second scene in the temple (11. 582-718) again shows a blending of stanza forms, Chestre metre predominating; but it is doubtful if there are any traces (except strophe 80) of the seven-line strophe. The other variety seems to be octosyllabic quatrains; and if that is so, we have in it the very oldest metre of the play of the Presentation in the Temple 1) (cp. 608-41, 654-61, 667-70, 692-705). With regard to division into strophes, I offer the following suggestions: In stanza 29, it is just possible that, instead of an omitted line, we have a quotation originally composed as four lines (cp. STCo 11. 6 and 7 which however need not be the source of the translation). The omission of a line 1. 261 f. is to be questioned. As it stands, it is a quatrain and is necessary for the action; besides spede 263 can hardly be meant to link with abyde 264. The amplification of this leave-taking, strophes 39 and 40, should perhaps have been combined into one strophe; request 274 may very well have been meant to rime with cost 268, especially since 269-74 is inessential matter. In stanza 50, line 349 is meant to rime with 354 and therefore properly has three feet and [ful] is not needed. 55 and 56 were perhaps also rewritten as one stanza. As strophe 77 stands in Sh., it is: O lawde be vnto thatt lorde soo exsellent For those to fowlis thatt I have soght! Fullfyllid now ys myn intent; My hart ys evyn as yt wold be; All care fro me ys past. Now thatt Mare, my wyff, these birddis had, For to make hir hart asse glad, To hir wyll I in hast. Prof. H. has made serious, and I think unnecessary, alterations in this stanza. Wolde be would better have been changed to oght. Prof. H. has emended by inserting [thoght]. (Cent. Dict. ought 2, 4.). Line 6 offers some difficulty, but it 1) It is also noteworthy that many of the parts most essential to the action and therefore pesumably the oldest parts of STCo are also in quatrains of four feet. |