P. 19, l. 1. Ω.] In MS., oo.
P. 22, l. 8. And make the man Adam.] A marginal note on the verso of fol. 74 informs us that Adam was created on the tenth of the calends of April.
P. 27, l. 24. For to hide.] Dr. Marriott, the editor of A Collection of English Miracle Plays, 8vo. Basel, 1838, quotes a play entitled, The Travailes of the three English Brothers, 4to. Lond. 1607, to show that an exact representation of the primitive state of our forefathers in the garden of Eden was exhibited on the English stage "as late as the close of the sixteenth century." This is an absurd misrepresentation, and has been founded on an erroneous interpretation of a passage in the play above-mentioned, which is spoken by Kemp, the actor, in a conversation with Sir Anthony Sherley. According, however, to one of the stage directions in the Chester Mysteries, Adam and Eve stabunt nudi et non verecundabuntur; so that, joined with the present passage in the Coventry Mysteries, there is at least some ground for believing that such was actually the case at an earlier period.[1]
Dr. Marriott's mistake has been already noticed by the Rev. A. Dyce, in his interesting introduction to Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder, reprinted for the Camden Society, p. XV; and I take the opportunity of introducing in this place some particulars relating to Kemp, which throw a new light upon his history, more especially in relation with the above-mentioned play, and proves that the introduction of the comic actor, and his interview with Sherley, was strictly founded upon fact. The authors of the play, indeed, assert in their prologue their intention of
"Clothing our truth within an argument,
Fitting the stage and your attention;
Yet not so hid but that she may appeare
To be herselfe, even truth."
But dramatic critics have not given much credit to these professions
- ↑ John of Salisbury thus complains of the indelicacy of actors:—"Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a præclaris domibus non arceantur, etiam illi qui obscenis partibus corporis, oculis omnium eam ingerunt turpitudinem, quam erubescat videre vel Cynicus."—De Nugis Curialium, lib. i. cap. 8, edit. 1639, p. 34.
