338 Dtffertatton on the Lives and Writings in burial grounds. They borrowed, as had been ufual with Geoffry of St. Albans [], the ornaments of the church to decorate their theatre. It was always in the afternoon that thefe " Miracles' were reprefented. Women in particular thronged to them from all quarters ; the entertainment was often concluded by dances ; fometimes by wreftling, or tilting, a kind of play, which exercifed the body, and was much in vogue among the Englifh. Our poet lays great blame on thefe entertainments, thefe dances, and recreations ; more particularly when they engrofled a part of the fabbath. There is good reafon to believe that the clerks, who were the authors, were alfo the performers of thefe theatrical pieces. To embellim their works, they gave ample fcope to their imagina- tions, and the more marvellous their production, the more certainty of applaufe. Wadington, neverthelefs, forbids his readers to give faith to thefe prodigies, falfely attributed to the faints, and considers the authors of thefe theatrical pieces as no other than madmen. But that which principally raifes his indignation is the ufe of difguifes, with which they were able to reprefent the whole number of the different characters of their pieces. It does not clearly appear in what they confuted. He fays pofitively that they difguifed their faces ; but whether this was by maiks, or merely by colours, or, in ihort, by putting on the form of voracious animals, to which the martyrs were often expofed, is a fubjecl: on which the author fays nothing fufficiently clear for us to form a precife, and determinate opinion. As to the minfbrels or jongleurs [/] it feems that at his time they were [] Math. Paris loco citato. [/] Jongleurs. It is a word now fynonymous to bateleur (a juggler) who plays Height of hand. Formerly this name was given to a kind of minflrel, who went about fmging finall poems in the houfes of the great, and particularly in the court of the earls
