These are extracts from John Bale's morality play, A COMEDY CONCERNYNGE THRE LAWES, OF NATURE, MOSES, AND CHRIST, CORRUPTED BY THE SODOMYTES, PHARYSEES AND PAPYSTES (1538)
These are extracts from John Bale’s morality play, A COMEDY CONCERNYNGE THRE LAWES, OF NATURE, MOSES, AND CHRIST, CORRUPTED BY THE SODOMYTES, PHARYSEES AND PAPYSTES (1538).
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Bale (‘Bilious Bale’, as he was known to some of his contemporaries) was educated in a monastery, but became a convinced and ferocious Protestant. Appointed Bishop of Ossory (Ireland) in 1553, he had his plays performed by young people in the market place, in an attempt to spread Protestantism among the Irish. Mary Tudor came to the throne later in that year, and so ended Bale’s attempts to use play writing for propagandistic purposes.
In the course of the ‘comedy’, we see God (who enters with my candidate for the hardest line ever written for an actor to deliver convincingly, ‘I am Deus Pater, a substaunce invysyble’) commission the laws of Nature, Moses and Christ to rule over and guide humankind. After this, in the first main episode, the law of nature is corrupted by the overall Vice of the play, ‘Infidelity’ (ie, being an infidel, untrue to God’s word) and the vices Idolatry and Sodomy. As Bale’s directions for playing explain: ‘Lete Idolatry be decked lyke an olde wytche, Sodomy lyke a monke of all sectes’. In our extract, which is most of Act 2 of the play, Bale links Idolatry (Catholicism, in his view) and witchcraft. With her fellow vice, Idolatry infects the Law of Nature with Leprosy. ‘Sodomy’ here means all kinds of sexual depravity, especially homosexuality, anything opposed to matrimony, which Bale, as a Protestant, sees as closer to God’s plan than priestly celibacy (in his view, this means a recourse to sodomy, etc). Subsequently, Ambition and Covetousness corrupt the Law of Moses, False Doctrine and Hypocrisy assail the Law of Christ, but finally God’s vengeance appears to rescue the Gospel and restore all the Three Laws, now purified.
Infidelitas (speaks to The Law of Nature, who has just left his company as unfit)
And are ye gone in dede?
Small wyttam be your spede; [may foolishness go with you, cited OED]
Except ye take good hede
I wyll be next of your counsell.
Now wyll I worke soch masterye,
By craftes and sutyle polycye,
The lawe of nature to poyson
With pestylent ydolatrye
And with most stynkynge sodomye,
That he shall have no foyson. [harvest, fruit]
Where are these vyllen knaves,
The devyls owne kychyn slaves, [ie, the witch and the monk]
That them I can not se?
I conjure yow both here, [he is conjuring them up, as evil spirits]
And charge ye to apere,
Lyke two knaves as ye be!
Ambo is a name full cleane.
[as] Monachus [monk]
Knowe ye not what I meane,
And are so good a clarke? [off-stage, Sodomy seems to be saying that both
(‘ambo’) ‘knave’ ‘villain’ and equally good names for a monk]
By Tetragrammaton,
I charge ye, apere anon
And come out of the darke.
Intrant simul [Sodomy and Idolatry appear together.]
Have in than, at a dash,
With swash, myry annet swash; [Vice characters often enter with a nonsensical
swagger or oath]
Yet maye I not be to rash
For my holy orders sake,
Nor I, sonne, by my trouth.
[as] Necromantic
Cha caute a corage of slouth,
And soch a comberouse couth,
Ych wote not what to do. [Just as Sodomy enters with a quickly tempered
swagger, Idolatry seems to say that she cannot be ‘too rash’ as she has ‘caught’ a slothful ‘corage’, and an encumbering cough. The Necromancer has to be careful about who she or he meets]
At Christmas and at Paske [easter]
Ye maye daunce the devyll a maske
Whyls hys great cawdron plawe.
Yow soch a prati mynyon, [pretty darling, ironic for the witch]
And yow now in relygyon,
Soch two I never sawe.
Is not thy name Ydolatrye?
Yes, an wholsom woman verelye,
And wele seane in phylosophye; [adept in, like Faustus who is ‘well seen in
minerals]
Mennys fortunes she can tell.
She can by sayenge her Ave Marye,
And by other charmes of sorcerye,
Ease men of toth ake by and bye, [tooth ache]
Yea, and fatche the devyll from hell.
She can mylke the cowe and hunte the foxe,
And helpe men of the ague and poxe,
So they brynge moneye to the boxe,
Whan they to her make mone.
She can fatch agayne all that is lost,
And drawe drynke out of a rotten post,
Without the helpe of the holye Ghost:
In workynge she is alone.
What, sumtyme thu wert an he! [Idolatry was once male]
Yea, but now ych am a she,
And a good mydwyfe per De, [midwifery was an occupation often suspected
of witchcraft]
Yonge chyldren can I charme,
With whysperynges and whysshynges, [to whish is to hush, silence]
With crossynges and with kyssynges,
With blasynges and with blessynges, [either something to do with flames, or boasts]
That spretes do them no harme. [‘spirits’: here, she claims to be a ‘blessing
witch’]
Then art thu lyke to Clisthenes, [Bale shows off with a list of classical cross-
dressers]
To Clodious and Euclides,
Sardinapalus and Hercules,
Whych themselves oft transfourmed
Into a womannys lyckenes,
With agylyte and quyckenes,
But they had Venus syckenes, [desire/ VD]
As writers have declared.
Lete her tell fourth her matter.
Idololatria [In the following speech she describes the
powers of her charms, both to do harm and assist, if she is pleased]
With holye oyle and watter,
I can so cloyne and clatter, [deceive, cited OED]
That I can at the latter,
Manye suttyltees contryve. [contrive subtleties]
I can worke wyles in battle,
If I do ones but spattle, [spit]
I can make corne and cattle,
That they shall never thryve.
Whan ale is in the fatt, [vat, barrel]
If the bruar please me natt,
The cast shall fall downe flat, [she will prevent ale brewing]
And never have any strength.
No man shall tonne nor bake, [brew, put in a barrel]
Nor meate in season make,
If I agaynst hym take,
But lose hys labour at length.
Their wellys I can up drye,
Cause trees and herbes to dye,
And slee all pullerye [poultry]
Where as men doth me move.
I can make stoles to daunce,
And earthen pottes to praunce,
That non shall them enhaunce,
And do but cast my glove.
I have charmes for the plowgh,
And also for the cowgh;
She shall geve mylke ynowgh,
So longe as I am pleased.
Apace the mylle shall go,
So shall the credle do, [cradle]
And the musterde querne also,
No man therwith dyseased. [She apparently means that she can cause all
these things to happen by supernatural agency, the cradle to rock itself, etc]
Than art thu for me fytt.
The woman hath a wytt,
And by her gere can sytt,
Though she be sumwhat olde.
It is myne owne swete bullye,
My muskyne and my mullye,
My gelover and my cullye,
Yea, myne owne swetehart of golde.
I saye yet not to bolde. [Sodomy is making sexual advances on her]
Peace, fondelinge, tush a button.
What wylt thu fall to mutton, [an old woman]
And playe the hungry glutton,
Afore thys cumpanye? [ie, th audience, in public]
Ranke love is full of heate;
Where hungry dogges lacke meate
They wyll durty puddynges eate
For want of befe and conye.
Hygh, mynyon, for monye,
As good is draffe as honye,
Whan the daye is whote and sonnye,
By the blessed rode of Kent.
Saye fourth your mynde, good mother,
For thys man is non other
But our owne lovynge brother,
And is very wele content.
Idololatria [In this speech, the prayers of Catholicism and the
charms of witchcraft are mixed; offerings to the saints which reformers found particularly superstitious are listed]
I never mysse but paulter [mumble through]
Our blessed ladyes psaulter
Before saynt Savers aulter, [St Saviour’s altar]
With my bedes ones a daye. [beads, her rosary, told once a day]
And thys is my commen cast,
To heare Masse first or last,
And the holy frydaye fast,
In good tyme mowt I it saye.
With blessynges of saynt Germyne,
I wyll me so determyne
That neyther foxe nor vermyne
Shall do my chuckens harme.
For your gese seke saynt Legearde,
And for your duckes saynt Lenarde,
For horse take Moyses yearde, [hazel twigs?]
There is no better charme.
Take me a napkyn folte, [folded napkin]
With the byas of a bolte, [head of an arrow?]
For the healynge of a colte,
No better thynge can be.
For lampes and for bottes [swellings in a horse’s mouth; maggots]
Take me saynt Wylfrides knottes,
And holy saynt Thomas lottes,
On my lyfe I warande ye.
For the cowgh take Judas eare, [a mushroom]
With the parynge of a peare, [pear-peelings]
And drynke them without feare
If ye wyll have remedy.
Thre syppes are for the hyckock, [hiccups]
And six more for the chyckock; [hooping cough]
Thus maye my praty pyckock
Recover by and by.
If ye can not slepe but slumber,
Geve otes unto saynt Uncumber, [St Uncumber was prayed to by women
to deliver them from unwanted husbands]
And beanes in a serten number
Unto saynt Blase and saynt Blythe;
Geve onyons to saynt Cutlake,
And garlyke to saynt Cyryake,
If ye wyll shurne the head ake, [shun, be rid of, the head ache]
Ye shall have them at Quene hythe.
A dramme of a shepes tyrdle, [turd]
And good saynt Frances gyrdle,
With the hamlet of an hyrdle,
Are wholesom for the pyppe. [the pip: depression]
Besydes these charmes afore,
I have feates many more
That I kepe styll in store
Whome now I over hyppe. [hop over, skip over]
It is a spoart I trowe
To heare how she out blowe [boasts]
Her witche craftes on a rowe;
By the Masse I must nedes smyle.
Now, I praye the, lete me knowe
What sedes that thu cannyst sowe
Mankynde to over throwe,
And the lawe of nature begyle.
My selfe I so behave,
And am so vyle a knave
As nature doth deprave
And utterlye abhorre.
I am soche a vyce trulye
As God in hys great furye
Ded ponnysh most terryblye
In Sodome and in Gomorre.
In the fleshe I am a fyre,
And soch a vyle desyre,
As brynge men to the myre
Of fowle concupyscence.
We two togyther beganne
To sprynge and to growe in manne,
As Thomas of Aquyne scanne
In the fort boke of hys sentence.
I dwelt amonge the Sodomytes,
The Benjamytes and Madyanytes
And now the popysh hypocrytes
Embrace me every where.
I am now become all spyrytuall,
For the clergye at Rome and over all
For want of wyves, to me doth fall,
To God they have no feare.
The chyldren of God I ded so move,
That they the doughters of men ded love,
Workynge soch wayes as ded not behove,
Tyll the floude them over went.
With Noes sonne Cham I was half joyned,
Whan he hys dronken father scorned;
In the Gomorytes I also reigned,
Tyll the hand of God them brent.
I was with Onan not unacquaynted,
Whan he on the grounde hys increase shed;
For me hys bretherne Joseph accused,
As Genesis doth tell.
David ones warned all men of us two,
'Do not as mules and horses wyll do;
Confounded be they that to ymages go,
Those are the wayes to hell.'
Both Esaye and Ezechiel,
Both Hieremy and Daniel,
Of us the abhomynacyons tell,
With the prophetes everychon;
For us two God strake with fyre and watter
With battayle, with plages and fearfull matter,
With paynefull exyle than at the latter,
Into Egipt and Babylon.
As Paule to the Romanes testyfye,
The gentyles after Idolatrye
Fell to soch bestyall Sodomye
That God ded them forsake.
Who foloweth us as he confesse
The kyngedom of God shall never possesse,
And as the Apocalyps expresse
Shall synke to the burnynge lake.
We made Thalon and Sophocles,
Thamiras, Nero, Agathocles,
Tiberius and Aristoteles,
Themselves to use unnaturallye:
I taught Aristo and Fulvius,
Semiramis and Hortensius,
Crathes, Hyliscus, and Pontius
Beastes to abuse most monstruouslye.
Marry, thu art the devyll hymselfe!
If ye knewe how he coulde pelfe, [make money]
Ye wolde saye he were soch an elfe,
As non under heaven were els.
The fellawe is wele decked,
Dysgysed and wele necked,
Both knavebalde and pyepecked,
He lacketh nothynge but bels.
In the first age I beganne,
And so perseverde with manne,
And styll wyll if I canne,
So longe as he endure.
If monkysh sectes renue,
And popysh prestes contynue,
Whych are of my retynue,
To lyve I shall be sure.
Cleane marryage they forbyd,
Yet can not their wayes be hyd;
Men knowe what hath betyd,
Whan they have bene in parell.
Oft have they buryed quycke
Soch as were never sycke;
Full many a propre trycke,
They have to helpe their quarell.
In Rome to me they fall,
Both byshopp and cardynall,
Monke, fryre, prest and all,
More ranke they are than antes.
Example in Pope Julye,
Whych sought to have in hys furye
Two laddes, and to use them beastlye,
From the Cardynall of Nantes.
Well yow two are for my mynde,
Steppe fourth and do your kynde;
Leave never a poynt be hynde
That maye corrupt in man
The lawe wryt in hys hart:
In hys flesh do thy part,
Ad Sodo. [to Sodomy]
And hys sowle to pervart
Ad Idol. [to Idolatry]
Do thu the best thu can.
Here have I pratye gynnes,
Both brouches, beades and pynnes,
With soch as the people wynnes
Unto ydolatrye
Take thu part of them here,
Beades, rynges, and other gere,
And shortlye the bestere
To deceyve Man properlye.
Take thys same staffe and scryppe,
With a God here of a chyppe,
And, good beldame, forewarde hyppe,
To set fourth pylgrymage.
Set thu fourth sacramentals,
Ad Sodo.
Saye dyrge, and synge for trentals,
Stodye the Popes decretals,
And mixt them with buggerage.
Here is a stoole for the
A ghostlye father to be
To heare Benedicite,
A boxe of creame and oyle.
Here is a purse of rellyckes,
Ad Idol.
Ragges, rotten bones, and styckes,
A taper with other tryckes,
Shewe them in every soyle.
I wyll corrupt Gods Image
With most unlawfull usage,
And brynge hym into dottage,
Of all concupyscence.
Within the flesh thu art,
But I dwell in the hart,
And wyll the sowle pervart
From Gods obedyence.
Spare non abhomynacyon,
Nor detestable fashyon,
That mannys ymagynacyon
By wytt maye comprehende.
To quycken our spretes amonge
Synge now some myry songe,
But lete it not be longe,
Least we to moch offende.
Post cantionem Infidelitas alta voce dicet---
[after the song, Infidelity speaks in a different voice]
Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui ad imaginem / et similitudinem nostram
formasti laicos, da quaesumus / ut sicut eorum sudoribus vivimus ita eorum
uxoribus, / filiabus et domicellis perpetuo frui mereamur. Per dominum / nostrum
Papam. /
[let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, etc]
[Exeunt Sodomismus and Idololatria.]
Now are these whoresons forth;
It wyll be somwhat worth
To se how they wyll wurke,
The one to poyson the hart,
The other the outwarde part
Ingenyously wyll lurke.
The lawe of Nature they wyll
Infect, corrupt and spyll
With their abhomynacyon,
Idolatry with wyckednesse,
And Sodomy with fylthynesse,
To hys most utter dampnacyon.
These two wyll hym so use,
Ich one in their abuse,
And wrappe hym in soch evyll,
That by their wycked cast
He shall be at the last
A morsell for the devyll.
Now underneth her wynges
Idolatry hath kynges
With their nobylyte,
Both dukes, lordes, knyghtes and earles,
Fayre ladyes with their pearles,
And the whole commenalte.
Within the bownes of Sodomye
Doth dwell the spirytuall clergye,
Pope, cardinall and pryst,
Nonne, chanon, monke and fryre,
With so many els as do desyre
To reigne undre Antichrist.
Detestynge matrymonye,
They lyve abhomynablye,
And burne in carnall lust.
Shall I tell ye farther newes?
At Rome for prelates are stewes
Of both kyndes: thys is just.
The lawe of Nature, I thynke,
Wyll not be able to wynke
Agaynst the assaultes of them,
They havynge so hygh prelates,
And so manye great estates
From hens to Hierusalem.
Pause now a lyttle whyle;
Myne eares doth me begyle
If I heare not a sounde.
Yon folke hath sped, I gesse---
It is so, by the Messe!
Awaye now wyll I rounde.
Exit.
[Enter Law of Nature afflicted with leprosy]
I thynke ye marvele / to se soch alteracyon
At thys tyme in me, / whom God left here so pure.
Of me it cometh not, / but of mannys operacyon,
Whome dayly the devyll / to great synne doth allure,
And hys nature is / full bryttle and unsure.
By hym have I gote / thys fowle dysease of bodye,
And as ye se here, / am now throwne in a leprye.
I wrought in hys hart, / as God bad ernestlye,
Hym oft provokynge / to love God over all
With the inner powers. / But that false Idolatrye
Hath hym perverted / by slayghtes dyabolycall,
And so hath Sodomye / through hys abuses carnall,
That he is now lost, / offendynge without measure,
And I corrupted, / to my most hygh dyspleasure.
I abhorre to tell / the abusyons bestyall
That they daylye use / whych boast their chastyte;
Some at the aulter / to incontynency fall,
In confessyon some / full beastly occupyed be.
Amonge the close nonnes / reigneth thys enormyte---
Soch chyldren slee they / as they chaunce for to have,
And in their prevyes / provyde them of their grave.
Ye Christen rulers, / se yow for thys a waye:
Be not illuded / by false hypocresye;
By the stroke of God / the worlde wyll els decaye.
Permyt prestes rather / Gods lawfull remedye,
Than they shuld incurre / most bestyall Sodomye.
Regarde not the Pope, / nor yet hys whorysh kyngedom
For he is the master / of Gomor and of Sodome.
With Man have I bene / whych hath me thus defyled
With Idolatrye / and uncleane Sodomye,
And worthye I am / from God to be exyled.
Pytie me yet, Lorde, / of thy most bownteouse mercye:
I wyll fourth and mourne / tyll thu sende remedye.
Promyse hast thu made / to a gloryouse lyberte
To brynge heaven and earth: / than wylt thu, I trust, restore me.