THE RUINED CHAPEL.

EORGE ELIOT-who ought to be indict- | ornamentation indoors-these suggest at every

GEORGE ELIOT gudents where theorem pat reich foundation. With this real

ject, I resolved to delve among the old records and chronicles in the British Museum and the London Library, and find what I could about the ancient city and the bases of its legendsespecially that of Lady Godiva's ride through it. In this search I have come across some curious facts.

rich plums which adorn the heads of "his" chap-ing, but with no positive knowledge of the subters grew quotes over the eighth chapter of Felix Holt the following sentence: "The mind of man is as a country which was once open to squatters, who have bred and multiplied, and become masters of the land. But there happeneth a time when new and hungry comers dispute the land; and there is trial of strength, and the stronger wins. Nevertheless, the first squatters be they who have prepared the ground, and the crops to the end will be sequent (though chiefly on the nature of the soil, as of light sand, mixed loam, or heavy clay, yet) somewhat on the primal labor and sowing."

Up to the year 1016 there stood on the site of Coventry a large Saxon convent. This was entirely destroyed by Edric, who, in the year stated, invaded Mercia. From this time the history of the city becomes blended with its patron saint, Lady Godiva. Whatever, under historic scrutiny, may befall the actual existence of Godiva, it is pretty certain to survive any skepticism. That the Countess of Mercia, with

most distinguished devotee of the middle of the eleventh century Matthew of Westminster, who wrote about 250 years after Earl Leofric, writes:

This exquisite illustration might be specialized by the substitution in it of "Coventry" for "country." I mean this in the historical rather than any philological sense, though there be ety-whom that name is now associated, was the mologists who might establish a near relationship between "country" and "Coventry"-that is, "Convent-tre," tre being the old word for "town." Walking about the streets of this old city, listening to its poor ragged minstrels singing and hawking its legends done into doggerel, witnessing the Fair and its pageant, one is at first bewildered at finding these things in the England of to-day, and at length perceives that they are the cropping up, through centuries of English formations, of an old and alien life which squatted hereon in an almost pre-historical era. The quaint and airy gables overhanging narrow streets, the airy build of churches with their cool stone pavements, the frequent use of external ornament on plain houses-so characteristic of southern people, who live out of doors, and so different from the English style, which keeps all VOL. XXXIII.-No. 197.-TT

"In the same year [A.D. 1057], in September, died Count Leofric, of worthy memory, and was buried with honor in the monastery at Coventry, which he and his wife, the devout and noble Countess Godiva, worshiper of God and lover of the Holy Virgin Mary, built from the foundation, out of their own patrimony. And the monastery buildings being erected, they so endowed them with lands and with ornaments that in all England no other monastery could be found with such abundance of gold, silver, and precious gems."

He then goes on to mention various other towns whose monasteries she, Lady Godiva, founded and endowed. But it is evident that Sir William Dugdale, whose Antiquities of Warwickshire was published in 1656, had very thoroughly consulted every record about Coventry.

From him we learn that "Leofrick wedded | tivities and pageants. In 1456 Queen MarGodeva, a most beautifull and devout lady," and that she was the sister of Therald de Burgenhall, sheriff of Lincolnshire. With reference to the convent, which Leofric and Godiva built in 1044, Dugdale says that Godiva

garet, being at Coventry, saw "alle the pagentes pleyde save domesday, which might not be pleyde for lak of day." In 1575, in the celebrated entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, "certain good harted men of Coventree," according to Laneham's narrative, "exhibited their old storiall sheaw." It is sur

"Gave her whole Treasure thereto, and sent for skillfull Goldsmiths; who with all the gold and silver she had, made Crosses, Images of Saints, and other Curious Orna-prising what admirable courtiers the old prophments, which she devoutly disposed thereto.....And even

at the point of her death gave a rich Chain of pretious stones, directing it to be put about the neck of the Blessed Virgin's Image; so that they that came of devotion thither should say as many Prayers as there were severall Gems

therein."

The monastery thus founded had twenty-four Benedictine monks, and the church connected with it was consecrated "to the honor of God, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, St. Osburg, and all the Saints." William of Malmesbury has incidentally mentioned its extraordinary ornamentation, declaring that "it was enriched and beautified with so much gold and silver that the walls seemed too narrow to contain it; insomuch that Robert de Limesi, bishop of the diocese, in the time of King William Rufus, scraped from one beam that supported the shrines 500 marks of silver."

ets and martyrs became in the presence of royalty. I have seen, in an old Coventry book, a

gag" used by the Prophet Jeremy in addressing Henry VI. and his Queen, when they were present with their little son, Prince Edward, at the play in Coventry, in which he (Jeremy) says to them:

"Unto the rote of Jesse rote likkyn you well I may, The fragrante floure sprongen of you shall so Encrcce and sprede-"

The "floure" being, of course, the little Prince.

These courtly speeches by sacred to royal personages indicate a very important phase of the growth of the English drama out of the old miracle-plays. I must sum up in a few words what were a profoundly interesting history to trace. It is generally believed that the first miracle-plays were invented and acted by Leofric is a distinctly historical character. He pilgrims to and from the Holy Sepulchre for was the fifth Earl of Mercia, a district which com- their edification. At this time the subjects were prised the present counties of Warwick, Worces- exclusively Scriptural. At a later period the ter, Nottingham, Northampton, Lincoln, Leices- priesthood, seeing a means of gain in them, ter, Derby, Stafford, Gloucester, Chester, Salop, took them under their own charge. The Pope and Oxford. He was, under Canute, Captain- granted indulgences to those who went to see General of the royal forces; took an active part them. In the MS. of the Chester plays in the in securing the succession of Harold; assisted British Museum [MS. 2124] the author speaks in the elevation of Edward the Confessor, and of his having gone to Rome to obtain leave of in upholding the monarch against Earl Godwyn. the Pope to have the "mysteries" done into the He and his Countess were buried in the great English tongue-showing that they were originporch of the church of this monastery, of which ally in Latin. At this second period, under the Reformation left not one stone upon another. the priests, there was a large introduction of But while this great monastery remained un-elements from the Apocryphal Gospels and der such magnificent endowment and patronage the Legends of Saints. Toward the close of Coventry became the centre of French pilgrims the 15th century the legend of St. George and and place - hunters. Indeed these swarmed the Dragon seems to have been a great novelty through the Earl of Mercia's realm, so that I in Coventry, and had a great run." St. find the most ancient laws of the city written in George, it must be remembered, was, according French. With these came the "mysteries," or to the unquestionable authority of the "History "miracle-plays," with which Coventry is above of the Seven Champions of Christendom," born all other towns associated. Thus Dugdale writes: in Coventry, and after his great achievements "Before the suppression of the monasteries this cittye brought his bride hither: was very famous for the pageants that were play'd therein upon Corpus Christi day. These pageants were acted with mighty state and reverence by the fryers of this house, and conteyned the story of the New Testament, which was composed into old English rime. The theatres for the several scenes were very large and high; and being placed upon wheeles were drawn to all the eminent places of the cittye, for the better advantage of the spectators. In that incomparable library belonging to Sir Thomas Cotton there is yet one of the books which perteyned to this pageant, entitled Ludus Corporis Christi, or Ludus Coventric. I myselfe have spoke with some old people who had, in their younger yeares, bin eyewitnesses of these pageants soe acted; from whom I have bin told that the confluence of people from farr and neare to see that show was extraordinary great, and yielded noe small advantage to this cittye."

In the 15th century it became the fashion to make these plays a leading feature in royal fes

"Where being in short space arriv'd,
Unto his native dwelling-place,
Therein with his dear love he liv'd,
And fortune did his nuptials grace.
They many years of joy did see,
And led their lives at Coventry."

Percy's Reliques.

When, in the year 1474, Prince Edward, son of Edward IV., visited Coventry, he was first addressed in an octave stanza by one representing Edward the Confessor, and afterward by St. George in armor: a king's daughter stood holding a lamb, and supplicating his assistance to protect her from a terrible dragon. The Champion was placed upon a "conduit" "running wine in four places, and minstrelsy of organ

The "Lady Godiva Pageant" which still lingers at Coventry, being one of three ancient pageants whose ghosts still haunt the England of to-day, the other two being the Lord Mayor's and the Shrewsbury Shows, is certainly traceable to the "mysteries" I have been describing. I find in a Coventry book, the author's name I do not know, a statement that there is one tradition in the city that when the monasteries were suppressed and the Catholic religion prohibited, the plays and pageants for which the city had been so famous were continued as a mockery. According to this account:

playing." Gradually the Scriptural personages, the Penates, and conducted to her privy-chamthe saints and angels, were put more and more ber by Mercury; in the afternoon, when she in the back-ground, and the present royal per- condescended to walk in the garden, the lake sonages more in the front; as, in another kind was covered with Tritons and Nereids; the of art, the Venetian nobility were represented pages of the family were converted into Woodpictorially as Madonnas and Saints by the serv-nymphs, who passed from every bower; and the ile masters. And yet the dramatic Darwin of footmen gamboled over the lawn in the figure the future will no doubt trace Shakspeare's of Satyrs. celebrations and representations of kings and heroes back to these courtly interpolations on the part of the Jeremys and Josephs for the gratification of their royal patrons. Indeed Mr. Howard Staunton, the well-known Shakspearian editor and critic, has shown me several comparative notes that he has made, indicating that Shakspeare has used various expressions explicable only by reference to the plays and shows of Coventry (a short distance only from Stratford-on-Avon), which he must have seen, and which may have been the original means of kindling his genius. In the time of Shakspeare, however, the "mysteries," or "miracleplays," had fallen more or less into desuetude, having been replaced considerably by "pageants" and "moralities."* The acting of religious subjects had been originally a real thing, and the people were solemnly impressed by the Bible stories which so few could read, and which were to them literally novels. But when they began to be patronized and appropriated by royalty, it became impossible that all the long speeches should be made or listened to. The characters were dressed up and paraded in costumes and attitudes along the streets when the kings and queens were to pass, or the play was thus transformed into the pageant.

And now came the Reformation, which swept the friars and their plays out of existence, burned vast quantities of "mystery" literature, a leaf of which could now bring any price, but which, after its first fury was past, really left the people of England very much the same as before. The passion for pageants was greater than ever before or since. All through the 16th century the chronicles are crowded with accounts of the pageants which attended every step of royalty. In these many of the personages of the "miracle" and "morality" plays-as King David, Moses, Justice, Truth, etc.-appeared in a kind of carnival. The age of Elizabeth was above all an age of pageants. Warton says that on account of the encouragement given by her to classical learning, the entire ancient mythology was wrought into spectacles for her honor. When she paraded through a country town almost every pageant was a pantheon. When she paid a visit at the house of any of her nobility, on entering the hall she was saluted by

"Theatrically considered, Mysteries' are dramatic representations of religious subjects from the Old or New Testament, or Apocryphal Story, or the Lives of Saints; • Moralities' are dramatic allegories, in which the characters personify certain vices and virtues, with the intent to enforce some moral or religious principle. Moralities were of later origin than Mysteries, but they existed together, and sometimes each partook of the nature of the other."-Hone.

"A Naked Woman on horseback was introduced to ridicule the Sacred Host; immediately after her came a Merry Andrew, to divert the populace with profane jests; he was drawn in a kind of house on wheels, and from looking frequently out of the window, acquired the name of Peeping Tom; but one of these adventurers dying on leaving the house, no one could afterward be found with sufficient hardihood to follow his example, hence Peeping Tom ceased to form part of the Procession. Before the naked lady they placed a man in armor to represent St. George; this gigantic figure was preceded by a group of men, in rusty bits of armor, as mock guards, and the procession closed with a burlesque against the Bishops and Clergy."

This tradition adds: "From this public profanation of sacred things the city of Coventry became so despicable as to give rise to the wellknown proverb of 'Sending a man to Coventry,** which is to say, he is not worthy to be spoken to by men of reputation. As the inhabitants of Coventry have long been ashamed to acknowledge this as the origin of their splendid show, they esteem it more creditable to consider its celebration as a memorial of their gratitude to the Countess Godiva." I give, quantum valeat, this theory in which the Roman Catholic interest is very discernible, and which has a suspicious completeness, and proceed to discuss the probabilities in the case.

Only those who have particularly looked into the history of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries can know how much of the trade of England in those days was carried on by means of Fairs. Steam and advertisements have done away with much of their importance, though they are still kept up with much spirit and with considerable profit to the neighborhoods in which they occur;

* The following-which I find quoted without name in a Coventry Local Guide-seems to me a mere probable account of this phrase: "The inhabitants of this inland city were formerly most decidedly averse to any correspondence with the military quartered within its limits. A female known to speak to a man in a scarlet coat became the object of town scandal. So rigidly indeed did the natives abstain from communication with all who bore his Majesty's military commission, that officers were here confined to the interchanges of the mess-room, and in the mess-room the term of sending a man to Coventry, if you wish to shut him from society, is supposed to have originated."