I comawnde alle þe ratones þat are here abowte, Þat non dwelle in þis place, withinne ne withowte, Thorgh þe vertu of Iesu Crist, þat Mary bare abowte, Þat alle creatures owyn for to lowte, And thorgh þe vertu of Mark, Mathew, Luke, an Ion,— 5 Alle foure Awangelys corden into on,— Thorgh þe vertu of Sent Geretrude, þat mayde clene, God graunte þat grace Þat <non> raton dwelle in þe place Þat here namis were nemeled in; 10 And thorgh þe vertu of Sent Kasi, Þat holy man, þat prayed to God Almyty For skathes þat þei deden Hys medyn Be dayes and be nyȝt, 15 God bad hem flen and gon out of euery manesse syȝt. _Dominus Deus Sabaot!_ Emanuel, þe gret Godes name! I betweche þes place from ratones and from alle oþer schame. God saue þis place fro alle oþer wykked wytes, Boþe be dayes and be nytes! _et in nomine Patris et Filii_, 20 &c. [Foot-note: 13 skathes] t _altered from_ f (?) _MS._] XVI THE YORK PLAY 'HARROWING OF HELL' British Museum MS. Addit. 35290 (about 1430-40), f. 193 b. The miracle play _Harrowing of Hell_ is assigned to the craft of Saddlers in the York cycle, edited by Miss L. Toulmin-Smith, Oxford 1885, pp. 372 ff. This is the text reproduced below. It is also found, though in a less perfect form, among the _Towneley Plays_, ed. England and Pollard, E.E.T.S., 1897, pp. 293 ff. All the mediaeval stories of Christ's Descent into Hell are based on the gospel of Nicodemus, which seems to date from the fourth century, though the legend is referred to nearly two centuries earlier. This apocryphal narrative was popular throughout the Middle Ages. There is a prose translation in late Anglo-Saxon, and a Middle English verse rendering supplies some of the phrases in the play. Two points deserve notice for their bearing on the development of miracles. A trace of their origin in the services of the Church is seen in the use made of the Scriptural passage 'Attollite portas, principes, vestras, et elevamini portae aeternales, et introibit rex gloriae', the dramatic possibilities of which were recognized in ritual from an early date. And the growing taste for comic scenes is met, without prejudice to the serious characters, by the rudimentary buffoonery of the Devil and his companions. DRAMATIS PERSONAE. ADAME EUA ISAIAH SYMEON IESUS IOHANNES BAPTISTA MOYSES BELSABUB SATTAN DAUID BELLIALL MICHILL (Archangel) PRIMUS DIABOLUS SECUNDUS DIABOLUS [SCENE I, _outside the gates of Hell_.]