Or els let me with the go; I pray the leyfe me not behynde.

_Jesus._ Nay, tratur, thou shalle won in wo,[575]

And tille a stake[576] I shalle the bynde.

_Sathanas._ Now here I how thou menys[577] emang With mesure and malyce for to melle,[578]

Bot sen thou says it shalbe lang, Yit som let alle wayes with us dwelle.

_Jesus._ Yis, witt thou welle, els were greatt wrang, Thou shalle have Caym[579] that slo Abelle, And alle that hastes theym self to hang, As dyd Judas and Architoph.e.l.le; And Daton and Abaron and alle of thare a.s.sent,[580]

Cursyd tyranttes ever ilkon[581] that me and myn tormente.

And alle that wille not lere[582] my law That I have left in land for new[583]

That makes my commyng knaw,[584]

And alle my sacramentes persew;

My deth, my rysyng, red by raw,[585]

Who trow thaym not thay ar untrewe, Unto my dome[586] I shalle theym draw, And juge thaym wars[587] then any Jew.

And thay that lyst to lere my law and lyf therby Shalle never have harmes here, bot welth as is worthy.

_Sathanas._ Now here my hand, I hold me payde, Thise poyntes ar playnly for my prow,[588]

If this be trew as thou has saide We shalle have mo then we have now;

Thise lawes that thou has late here laide I shalle thym lere not to alow,[589]

If thay myn take[590] thay ar betraide, And I shalle turne thym tytte I trow.[591]

I shalle walk eest, I shalle walk west, And gar theym wyrk welle war.[592]

_Jesus._ Nay feynde, thou shalbe feste,[593]

That thou shalle flyt no far.[594]

_Sathanas._ Feste? fy! that were a wykyd treson!

Belamy, thou shalle be smytt.[595]

_Jesus._ Deville, I commaunde the to go downe Into thi sete where thou shalle syt.

_Sathanas._ Alas! for doylle[596] and care, I synk into h.e.l.le pyt.

_Rybald._ Sir Sathanas, so saide I are,[597]

Now shalle thou have a fytt.

_Jesus._ Com now furthe, my childer alle, I forgyf you youre mys;[598]

Withe me now go ye shalle To joy and endles blys.

_Adam._ Lord, thou art fulle mekylle of myght,[599]

That mekys thi self on this manere, To help us alle as thou had us hight, When bothe frofett I and my fere;[600]

Here have we dwelt withoutten light Four thousand and six hundreth yere, Now se we by this solempne sight How that mercy makes us dere.

_Eva._ Lord, we were worthy more tornamentes[601] to tast,[602]

Thou help us lord of thy mercy, as thou of myght is mast.[603]

_Johannes._ Lord, I love the inwardly, That me wold make thi messyngere, Thi commyng in erthe to cry, And teche thi fayth to folk in fere;[604]

Sythen before the forto dy,[605]

To bryng theym bodword[606] that be here, How thay shuld have thi help in hy, Now se I alle those poyntes appere.

_Moyses._ David, thi prophette trew, Of tymes told unto us; Of thi commyng he knew, And saide it shuld be thus.

_David._ As I said ere yit say I so, _Ne derelinquas, domine, Animam meam in inferno_;[607]

Leyfe never my saulle, Lord, after the,

In depe h.e.l.le whedur[608] dampned shalle go Suffre thou never thi sayntes to se The sorrow of thaym that won in wo,[609]

Ay, fulle of fylthe, and may not fle.[610]

_Moyses._ Make myrthe bothe more and les, And love oure lord we may, That has broght us fro bytternes In blys to abyde for ay.

_Ysaias._ Therfor now let us syng To love oure lord Jesus, Unto his blys he wille us bryng, _Te Deum laudamus._

THE INTERLUDE OF "G.o.d'S PROMISES"

BY JOHN BALE

CHARACTERS

Pater Clestis _The Heavenly Father_ Adam Primus h.o.m.o _Adam, the First Man_ Justus Noah _Just Noah_ Abraham Fidelis _Faithful Abraham_ Moses Sanctus _Saint Moses_ David Rex Pius _The Pious King, David_ Esaias Propheta _The Prophet Isaiah_ Baleus Prolocutor _John Bale, who speaks the Prologue_

G.o.d'S PROMISES

_A Tragedy or interlude manifesting the chief promises of G.o.d unto man by all ages in the old law, from the Fall of Adam to the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Compiled by John Bale, (Anno Domini MDx.x.xVIII.)._

_Baleus Prolocutor._ If profit may grow, most Christian audience, By knowledge of things which are but transitory, And here for a time, of much more congruence, Advantage might spring, by the search of causes heavenly, As those matters are that the gospel specify.

Without whose knowledge no man to the truth can fall, Nor ever attain to the life perpetual, For he that knoweth not the living G.o.d eternal The Father, the Son and also the Holy Ghost, And what Christ suffered for redemption of us all, What he commanded, and taught in every coast, And what he forbode, that man must needs be lost, And clean secluded, from the faithful chosen sort, In the Heavens above, to his most high discomfort.

You therefore, good friends, I lovingly exhort, To weigh such matters as will be uttered here, Of whom ye may look to have no trifling sport In fantasies feigned, nor such-like gaudy gear, But the things that shall your inward stomach cheer.

To rejoice in G.o.d for your justification, And alone in Christ to hope for your salvation.

Yea first ye shall have the eternal generation Of Christ, like as John in his first chapter write, And consequently of man the first creation The abuse and fall, through his first oversight, And the rise-again through G.o.d's high grace and might; By promises first which shall be declared all: Then by his own Son, the worker princ.i.p.al.

After that, Adam bewaileth here his fall; G.o.d will shew mercy to every generation, And to his kingdom of his great goodness call His elected spouse, or faithful congregation, As shall appear by open protestation, Which from Christ's birth shall to his death conclude: They come, that thereof will shew the cert.i.tude.

ACT I