The dresses used by the actors were very gorgeous and splendid, though little care was bestowed upon the appropriateness of the costumes.  The words of the play of the Creation differ in the various versions which have come down to us.  Strutt thinks that the clerks’ play, acted before “the most part of the nobles and gentles in England,” was very similar to the Coventry play, which cannot compare in grandeur and vigour with the York play discovered in the library of Lord Ashburnham, and edited by Miss Toulmin Smith[58].  But as the north-country dialect of the York version would have been difficult for the learned clerks of London to pronounce, their version would doubtless resemble more that of Coventry than that of York.  The first act represents the Deity seated upon His throne and speaking as follows: 

       Ego sum Alpha et Omega, principium et finis. 
     My name is knowyn, God and Kynge;
       My work to make now wyl I wende;
     In myselfe resteth my reynenge,
       It hath no gynnyng, ne no ende,
     And all that evyr shall have beynge
       Is closed in my mende;[59]
     When it is made at my lykynge
       I may it save, I may it shende[60]
     After my plesawns."[61]

[Footnote 58:  Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1885.  A portion of this is published in Mr. A.W.  Pollard’s English Miracle Plays.]

[Footnote 59:  Mind.]

[Footnote 60:  Destroy.]

[Footnote 61:  Pleasure.]

At the close of this oration, which consists of forty lines, the angels enter upon the upper stage, surround the throne of the Deity, and sing from the Te Deum: 

     Te Deum laudamus, te dominum confitemur.

The Father bestows much honour and brightness on Lucifer, who is full of pride.  He demands of the good angels in whose honour they are singing their songs of praise.  Are they worshipping God or reverencing him?  They reply that they are worshipping God, the mighty and most strong, who made them and Lucifer.  Then Lucifer daringly usurps the seat of the Almighty, and receives the homage of the rebellious angels.  Then the Father orders them and their leader to fall from heaven to hell, and in His bliss never more to dwell.  Then does Lucifer reply: 

     “At thy byddyng y wyl I werke,
     And pass from joy to peyne and smerte. 
     Now I am a devyl full derke,
     That was an angel bryght. 
     Now to Helle the way I take,
     In endless peyn’y to be put;
     For fere of fyr apart I quake
     In Helle dongeon my dene is dyth.”

Then the Devil and his angels sink into the cavern of hell’s mouth.

We cannot follow all the scenes in this strange drama.  The final representation included the Descent into Hell, or the Harrowing of Hell, as it was called, when the soul of Christ goes down into the infernal regions and rescues Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the saints of old.  The Anima Christi says: