It treats of the P A S S ! O N in metre, But not in dramatiek dialogue,
entitled Mount Calvary r.
The fir& ordinale of ‘the creation begins thus (God the Esther
fpeaking):
Cornifli.
En Tas a Ne£ ym Gylmyr
Formyer pub tra'a vydh gwrys
Onan ha tryonyngwyr
1 En Tas^ han Mai, ban Spyrys.. *
Ha hethyn me athejyr,
Drebu grath dalleth an,Bys
Y lavaraf, nefj ha Tyr
..Formyys ©rthe oii brys.
This metre is not ill chofen or
/ Endued. .
■ T,he father of Hf'aven I'me Maker, 1
Former of every thing that lhall be made,
One, and Three, truly, ' -
The Faüi^.‘fcé»Sïr ■
•' this-day itiïi.iny Will
'J... ^Of thè world!
1 s {ip IkvMfald it—fïeivëh .and Earth
Be ye. formed J)y mlflouniel.
unmufieal.
The fcanning to be performed in the following manner :
En Tas-a Nef-ym
FSnn^Sf' |}0'b--tfa
It is the Trochaic Heptafyllable, otherwile called the Trochaic
litameter Cataleptic *. It confifts of three trochees- and a femiptd.
Ariftophanes was very fond of it at times ’. 7
• In Latin, Horace adopts it,
Non ebur ncque aureum.
In Englifh, Shakefpeare frequently ufes.,it; and.Dryden J(or/his
tendereft numbers:
Softly fweet in Ly3ianJJroeamre,'‘
Soon he footh’d his fbld to* pleafure.
Thje language fhits the metres as the fufejetSt'is^fublime,.«thertom-
pofition is not; unfuitable, as may be feen by the above and following
ftanza:
Yn pefwere gwreys perfyth
Then fays ol golowys glan,
Haga hynwyn j a vyth
An Houl, an Lor, h’an Steryan.
Me a fet a hugh ah gueyth
Yn creys an Ebron avan,
An Lor yn nos, Houl yn geyth
May rollons y golow Splan.
For tHe world all the"refplehdent lights', |I s
Arid; r will) that, t^ey.be-call|d_ j.
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.
Them Will {I (place on high
In the rhidft of,the firmament above, 1
Thatthe" Moon :by night, the Sun by day,
May yield their glowing fplendour.
The ftanza confifts of eight verfes with alternate rhymes; fometimes
this is changed for a ftanza offix/ of*which the firftand fecond are
of one rhyme, the fourth and fifth of“kribther, and the third and
fixth line o f a third rhyme ; blit thelieptafyllable metre continues
throughout with few deviations in this piece and all the others.
r Mr. Scawen had a copy of this book hi 1678,
long before Mr. Ed. Lhuyd had his copy from Mr.
Anftis, and gives a literal translation of it. ; ,The
M S has. been mentioned before, and isvin the poffeffion
o f , the Reverend Dr. Lyttelton, Dean of
Exeter.-^
4 Upton-on Shakefpeare, book 111.
»‘ Ibid.
The
t-The poetry «I the leafocxceptionable part of thefe interludes: A Drama,
perfon call'ëd^rtfiOrdinary, was the chief-manager; every thing was
done as he pifeferibed, and,fpoken;|pii he prompted “. The perfons
o f the drama-ipre/numerous^ in this no le’fs than fifty-fix in number;
in thé 2d,’ €2j inhhe ,|d;.6o; Princes; Patriarchs, Saints, Angels,
^ g b^ an d :bad-) - and even4the perfons of thereiceWblefiedTrinity
are^iitébduced.^;^Jnity q^^time, aétion; arid place,. is nof at. all
attended «■ > ibis firft-meritioned pléy fipS<thróijgh a {pace of time
from tho creation toKingSolpmbnk building the Temple,and incon-
gruoufly o rd^ihg a Biffibp fo keep riijt It takes in alfo l the- fabulous
legend-of the Martyrdorn !ofvMaximilk, in.whieh part the a&ors
are a Bifhop, a Grofifef-feap^ri arMeflenger, -four Tormentors, the
Martyr, Gebal, and Amalëk. The Bifhop gives to the tormentors
fca> putting tfie Martyr to.,death; Behethlan,. Bofaneth, and all Che-
Hary 3 King Q®lomon Ipeaks the. Epilogue; the audience, with a
ftriét charge tot appéar 1 early. on; the morrow, in order /to fee- the
P A S S 1 0 N a<9:e4, is difinifièd in thefo words:.
Abarth an Xas,*
Menftroles a’ ras
Pebourgh whare,
Hag eïis pub dre.
Erigliihedr
In the name of die Father,
Ye MihdTels holy, -
Tune your pip^
And let eveay one go ter his home.
[JTh!^!may' fefve to give a geriÖal notion ‘of thefe interludes,
wjii|h were all- tranflatcd into Englifh by the'(ate Mr. John Reig-
w^ri^bf Möirfêhöle, at the defire . of the late Right Reverend Sir
Jbriathairi 'Trélawney, Baronet, Bifhop of Winchefter, in a literal
manfier, for'the better underflariding the language, tho’ to the difad
vantage of the Poet, arid his language too:/THë beft: competition
riow extant in the Cornifh toriguè, is that called Mount Calvary,
which^fs riot drariiatic, but narrative, and more fblemn; the incidents
(With few exceptions) are all taken fibril the Gofpel Hiftory of
the Paflion, and the circtimftances of diftrds and fufiering very afFeét-
ing. It was firfl: turned into metre (as I imagine') by the before-
mentioned Mr. Keigwyn at the inftance of Mr. Scawen of Molinek before
mentioned ; but Mr. Scawen difliking that tranflation, has placed
a1 literal one iri the Lyttelton copy. But to return to the interludes:
The places where they were a£ted were the Rounds, a kind of amphi-
theate^fwith benches either of-ftone or turf. Of the former fort
that exhibited in the Antiquities of Cornwall (page 196, Plate xvi.
Fig. 1.) fërved this purpofè; but a much larger one; of higher
" Car. page and Kegyllek.
v The wages he gives to the mechanics for * Places in Cornwall,
their labour is all the field of Behethlcn, all r See Scawen’s own account in Tonkin’s M S,
Penryn-wpod, Enys,- and Arwinek, Tregeuler, page 96.
4 G mound.