They were incorporated as a Society in Paris to give dramatic entertainments, and were known as the “Fraternity of the Passion.”  Originally the intention was to represent scenes in Scripture history, but gradually they introduced “Moralities”—­fanciful pieces in which God, the Devil, the Virtues, &c., were the dramatis personae.  In one of these, for instance, the Devil invites the Follies to a banquet on their arrival in hell.  When they sit down the table seems hospitably spread, but as soon as they begin to touch the food it all bursts into flame, and the piece concludes with fireworks.  We can see that a comic element might easily be introduced into such performances.  But Charles VI., who seems to have been fond of all mimetic exhibitions, formed another company named “L’Institution Joyeuse,” composed of the sons of the best families in Paris, who, under the name of the “Enfans sans Souci,” and presided over by the “Prince des Sots,” made France laugh at the follies of the day, personal and political.  The above mentioned religious fraternity joined these gay performers without apparently seeing anything objectionable in such a connection, and under the name of the “Clercs de la Bazoche,” or clerks of the revels, acted with them alternately.  Even in the Mysteries, an occasional element of humour was evidently introduced, although many things which would appear ludicrous to us did not so affect the people of that day.  A tinge of buffoonery was thought desirable.  Thus in the “Massacre of the Holy Innocents,” a good deal of scuffling takes place on the stage, especially where the women attack with their distaffs a low fool, who has requested Herod to knight him that he may join in the gallant adventure.  In France there was “The Feast of Asses,” in which the priests were attired like the Ancient Prophets, and accompanied by Virgil!  Balaam, armed with a tremendous pair of spurs, rode a wooden ass, in which a man was enclosed.  Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, forbade the celebration in churches of the “Feast of Fools,” in which the clergy danced and gesticulated in masks.  The “Mysteries” seem sometimes to have been of extraordinary length, for there was a play called “The Creation,” performed at Clerkenwell which lasted eight days.

Pageantry as well as humour—­devices appealing to the senses—­were largely employed to enliven the exhibitions of early times.  In the Christmas games in the reign of Edward I., we find they made use of eighty tunics of buckram of various colours, forty-two vizors, fourteen faces of women, fourteen of men, and the same number of angels, as well as imitations of dragons, peacocks, and swans.

The taking of Constantinople in 1453 scattered the men of learning throughout the West, and led to a revival of literature.  The drama recommenced with representations of the old plays of Plautus.  They were performed at the Universities, and on state occasions, as in 1528, when Henry VIII. had a stage erected in his great hall at Greenwich.