A Select Collection of Old English Plays, vol 2 | Page 8

Then shall ye be an heritor of bliss, Where all joy and
mirth is.
YOUTH. To the which eternal God bring the persons all Here being,
amen!
HUMILITY. Thus have we brought our matter to an end Before the
persons here present; Would every man be content, Lest another day
we be shent.
CHARITY. We thank all this presence Of their meek audience.
HUMILITY. Jesu that sitteth in heaven so high, Save all this fair
company:[28] Men and women that here be, Amen, amen, for
Charity.[29]

LUSTY JUVENTUS.
A MORALITY.

_An Enterlude called Lusty Juuentus, lyuely describing the frailtie of
youth: of natur prone to vyce: by grace and good counsayll traynable to
vertue.

The parsonages that speake.
Messenger, Lusty Juuentus, Good Counsaill, Knowledge, Sathan the
deuyll, Hypocrisie, Felowship, Abhominable Lyuyng, Gods mercifull
promises.
Foure maye playe it easely, takyng such partes as they thinke best: so
that any one take of those partes that be not in place at once.
[Col.] Imprynted at London, in Lothbury, ouer agaynst Sainct
Margarits Church, by Wyllyam Copland. 4°, black-letter_.[30]

HAWKINS'S PREFACE.
The editor has been favoured with two copies of this moral interlude;
one of which is preserved in the library belonging to Lincoln
Cathedral,[31] the other is in the possession of Mr. Garrick. It was
written in the reign of Edward the Sixth by one R. Wever, of whom the
editor can give the reader no further information. The former was
printed at London by Abraham Vele. The latter is a very different copy
from the other. A more obsolete spelling runs through the whole, and it
contains great variations besides, which the reader will find at the
bottom of each page. The conclusion being imperfect, the printer's
colophon is wanting, so that it cannot be known where this edition was
printed. According to Dr Percy's tables, it was printed by Richard
Pinson.[32]
The design of this interlude was to expose the superstitions of the
Romish Church, and to promote the Reformation. The stage (as the
learned Dr Percy observes) in those days literally was what wise men
have always wished it--a supplement to the pulpit: chapter and verse
are as formally quoted as in a sermon. See "Prologue of the
Messenger," &c. From this play we learn that most of the young people
were new gospellers, or friends to the Reformation; and that the old
were tenacious of the doctrines imbibed in their youth, for thus the
Devil is introduced lamenting the downfall of superstition--
The old people would believe still in my laws, But the younger sort
lead them a contrary way; They will not believe, they plainly say, In
old traditions and made by men, But they will live as the scripture
teacheth them, &c.
And in another place Hypocrisy urges--
The world was never merry, Since children were so bold; Now every

boy will be a teacher, The father a fool, and the child a preacher.
[This is certainly a piece of rather heavy and tedious morality, replete
with good instruction, but didactic to a fault. It is deficient in the
curious allusions, which abound in other productions of the same kind;
and even that mysterious character, Abominable Living, whose
introduction promises some amusement and illustration, moves off the
scene almost immediately after her first appearance, while Little Bess,
whose entrance might have been a vehicle for some diverting or
sentimental situation, does not "come on" at all.]

LUSTY JUVENTUS.
THE PROLOGUE OF THE MESSENGER.
For as much as man is naturally prone To evil from his youth, as
Scripture doth recite,[33] It is necessary that he be speedily withdrawn
From concupiscence of sin, his natural appetite: An[34] order to bring
up youth Ecclesiasticus doth write,-- An untamed horse will be hard,
saith he, And a wanton child wilful will be.
Give him no liberty in youth, nor his folly excuse, Bow down his neck,
and keep him in good awe, Lest he be stubborn: no labour refuse To
train him to wisdom and teach him God's law, For youth is frail and
easy to draw By grace to goodness, by nature to ill: That nature hath
ingrafted, is hard to kill.
Nevertheless, in youth men may be best Trained to virtue by godly
mean; Vice may be so mortified and so supprest, That it shall not break
forth, yet the root will remain; As in this interlude by youth you shall
see plain, From his lust by Good Counsel brought to godly
conversation, And shortly after to frail nature's inclination. The enemy
of mankind, Satan, through Hypocrisy Feigned or chosen holiness of
man's blind intent, Forsaking[35] God's word, that leadeth right way, Is
brought to Fellowship and ungracious company, To Abhominable
Living till he be wholly bent, And so to desperation, if good counsel