Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/396

 382 PROBLEMS OF THE ENGLISH that, of Contemplations four stanzas, the first two should be spoken by the Angels and the second two by the Archangels. 1 There is no further ap- pearance of Contemplatio till the end of the ' Visit to Elizabeth,' play 13, when he makes his promised ' conclusyon.' Speaking very generally, and disregarding in- sertions and revision, we may say that the c Con- ception ' and ' Presentation/ plays 8 and 9, together with the 'Visit to Elizabeth,' 13, are in long oftaves, the 'Marriage' and 'Joseph's Trouble,' plays 10 and 12, in thirteeners, and the 'Annuncia- tion,' 1 1, in short oftaves. The speeches by Con- 1 The passage is certainly assigned to Contemplatio by the scribe, but at the top of the page, above the first stanza (there is, of course, no heading), there stands in the manuscript ' I 9 ,' i.e. Primus. Before the first line of the third stanza is the figure ' 2.' Stanzas 5 and 6 are spoken by Virtutes, stanza 7 by Pater (i.e. God), after which the discussion is carried on by Veritas, Miseri- cordia, Justicia, and Pax. Now, elsewhere Contemplatio is an expositor who takes no part in the adlion of the play. But in the four stanzas assigned to him here the deity is directly addressed, and the intercession on man's behalf begun, which is carried on in the speech of the Virtues. It is clear then that the speaker or speakers of these lines (for the manuscript clearly suggests that we have to do with two speeches, not one) must be characters of the play on a par with the Virtues. Who they are appears from the lines in speech of the latter : Aungelys, archaungelys, we thre, That ben in the fyrst ierarchie, For man to thin hy mageste, Mercy, mercy, mercy we crye. Angels, archangels, and virtues do in fa6l form, in ascending order, the first or lowest hierarchy of heavenly beings. Bonaventura, upon whose 'Meditationes' the subsequent 'parliament of heaven' is ultimately based, mentions the intercession of the 'beatissimi spiritus ' in heaven, and there could be no point in the playwright selecting the Virtues alone.