The French playwrights, quite as much as the English, love comic shepherd scenes with plenty of eating and drinking and brawling. A traditional figure is the shepherd Rifflart, always a laughable type. In the strictly mediaeval plays the shepherds are true French rustics, but with the progress of the Renaissance classical elements creep into the pastoral scenes; in a mystery printed in 1507 Orpheus with the Nymphs and Oreads is introduced. As might be expected, anachronisms often occur; a peculiarly piquant instance is found in the S. Genevieve mystery, where Caesar Augustus gets a piece of Latin translated into French for his convenience. [Illustration: THE SHEPHERDS OF BETHLEHEM. From "Le grant Kalendrier compost des Bergiers" (N. le Rouge, Troyes, 1529). (Reproduced from a modern broadside published by Mr. F. Sidgwick.)] |141| Late examples of French Christmas mysteries are the so-called "comedies" of the Nativity, Adoration of the Kings, Massacre of the Innocents, and Flight into Egypt contained in the "Marguerites" (published in 1547) of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, sister of Francois I. Intermingled with the traditional figures treated more or less in the traditional way are personified abstractions like Philosophy, Tribulation, Inspiration, Divine Intelligence, and Contemplation, which largely rob the plays of dramatic effect. There is some true poetry in these pieces, but too much theological learning and too little simplicity, and in one place the ideas of Calvin seem to show themselves.{20}