after a deal of urging, offers up his rod, and the miracle is at once apparent.  When asked if he will be married to the maiden, he deprecates such an event with all his might, and pleads his old age in bar of it; nevertheless the marriage proceeds.  Some while after, Joseph informs the Virgin that he has hired “a pretty little house” for her to live in, and that he will “go labouring in far country” to maintain her.  Then comes the Parliament of Heaven.  The Virtues plead for pity and grace to man; Verity objects, urging that there can be no peace made between sin and the law; this calls forth an earnest prayer from Mercy in man’s behalf; Justice takes up the argument on the other side; Peace answers in a strain that brings them all to accord.  The Son then raises the question how the thing shall be done.  Verity, Justice, Mercy, and Peace having tried their wit, and found it unequal to the cause, a council of the Trinity is held, when the Son offers to undertake the work by assuming the form of a man; the Father consents, and the Holy Ghost agrees to co-operate.  Gabriel is then sent to salute Mary and make known to her the decree of the Incarnation.

Joseph is absent some months.  On his return he is in great affliction, and reproaches Mary, but, an angel explaining the matter to him, he makes amends.  The bishop holds a court, and his officer summons to it a large number of people, all having English names, and tells the audience to “ring well in their purse”; which shows that money was collected for the performance.  Mary is brought before the court, to be tried for naughtiness, and Joseph also for tamely bearing it.  His innocence is proved by his drinking without harm, a liquid which, were he guilty, would cause spots on his face.  Mary also drinking of the same, unhurt, one of the accusers affirms that the bishop has changed the draught, but is cured of his unbelief by being forced to drink what is left.  The fifteenth play relates to the nativity.  Joseph, it seems, is not yet satisfied of Mary’s innocence, and his doubts are all removed in this manner:  Mary, seeing a tall tree full of ripe cherries, asks him to gather some for her; he replies that the father of her child may help her to them; and the tree forthwith bows down its top to her hand.  This is soon followed by the Saviour’s birth.

Besides the three sets of Miracle-Plays in question, there are other specimens, some of which seem to require notice.  Among these are three, known as the Digby Miracle-Plays, on the Conversion of St. Paul.  One of the persons is Belial, whose appearance and behaviour are indicated by the stage-direction, “Enter a Devil with thunder and fire.”  He makes a soliloquy in self-glorification, and then complains of the dearth of news:  after which we have the stage-direction, “Enter another Devil called Mercury, coming in haste, crying and roaring.”  He tells Belial of St. Paul’s conversion, and declares his belief that the Devil’s reign is about to end; whereat Belial is in stark dismay.  They then plot to stir up the “Jewish Bishops” in the cause, and soon after “vanish away with a fiery flame and a tempest.”