they encounter the relic-bearers, and are restored in eye and limb; the recovered cripple swears and rages; but the man born blind, ravished by the wonders of the world, breaks forth in praise to God. The higher Morality naturally selected types of character for satire or commendation. It is easy to perceive how such a comic art as that of Moliere lay in germ in this species of the mediaeval drama. At a late period examples are found of the historical Morality. The pathetic _l'Empereur qui tua son Neveu_ exhibits in its action and its stormy emotion something of tragic power. The advent of the pseudo-classical tragedy of the Pleiade checked the development of this species. The very name "Morality" disappears from the theatre after 1550. The _sottie_, like the Morality, was a creation of the fifteenth century. Whether it had its origin in a laicising of the irreverent celebration of the Feast of Fools, or in that parade of fools which sometimes preceded a Mystery, it was essentially a farce, but a farce in which the performers, arrayed in motley, and wearing the long-eared cap, distributed between them the several roles of human folly. Associations of _sots_, known in Paris as _Enfants sans Souci_, known in other cities by other names, presented the unwisdom or madness of the world in parody. The _sottie_ at times rose from a mere diversion to satire; like the Morality, it could readily adapt itself to political criticism. The _Gens Nouveaux_, belonging perhaps to the reign of Louis XI., mocks the hypocrisy of those sanguine reformers who promise to create the world anew on a better model, and yet, after all, have no higher inspiration than that old greed for gold and power and pleasure which possessed their predecessors. Louis XII., who permitted free comment on public affairs from actors on the stage, himself employed the poet Pierre Gringoire to satirise his adversary the Pope. In 1512 the _Jeu du Prince des Sots_ was given in Paris; Gringoire, the _Mere-Sotte_, but wearing the Papal robes to conceal for a time the garb of folly, discharged a principal part. Such dangerous pleasantries as this were vigorously restrained by Francois I.