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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The morality of Mundus et Infans exists in a print dated 1522, from Wynkyn de Worde's press, and is styled by him a ‘new production.‘ The word must be taken for what it is worth, but it should be remembered that Wynkyn was not afraid to print old works, and call them such. In his print of Ragmannes Rolle, Wynkyn adds an envoy attributing the faults of the poem to “Kynge Ragman holly, whiche dyde the make many yeres ago.” The printer is therefore entitled to some confidence, especially since certain internal evidence points to the same fact.
page 486 note 1 Here begynneth a propre newe Interlude of the worlde and the ehylde otherwyse called [Mundus et Infans] & it sheweth of the estate of chyldehode and Manhode.“ Colophon: ” Here endeth the Interlude of Mundus & Infans. Imprynted at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of ye Sonne by me Wynkyn de worde. The yere of our Lorde m.ccccc. and xxij. The xvij daye of July.“ Ed. Roxburghe Club, 1877, Collier's Dodsley, vol. xii, 1827; Hazlitt's Dodsley, vol. i; Manly, Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama, i, 353-385.
The continual rhyming of words in -y, -ye with words in -e goes to show that the play must have been written later than 1450. Examples (Collier's ed., p. 318, glorye: me: be, p. 319, me: lechery. be: me: enuy: company; me: be: glotonye. Similarly the rhyme (loc. cit., p. 330), recreaoyon: saluacyon: Inuersacyon: dampnacion, points to late 15th century work. For in the early part of the century the rhyme is final, not penultimate. On p. 314, wrought: mought (=mōte), shows the loss of the guttural, which is rare in the early fifteenth century. There are numerous cases of assonance, and the metre in general is of a rude type. E. K. Chambers, Mediœval Stage, ii, 440, refers to Collier and Pollard who “ assign the play to the reign of Henry VII,” while Brandi thinks that “ the use of the Narrenmotiv points to a date of composition not long before that of publication.”
page 486 note 2 See Collier's Dodsley, xii, p. 308, where the lines are quoted.
page 487 note 1 This practice, as we may guess from comparing similar lines in Dux Moraud, was a regular dramatic convention in early plays.
page 487 note 2 An alternate rhyme is used elsewhere, it is true, but only as a preliminary to the tail-rhymes in triplets. This is true of the first speeches of Mundus, Conscience, Perseverance, and Age.
page 488 note 1 Dr. Furnivall printed the poem from Lambeth ms., 853, in E. E. T. S., 24, Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, pp. 58-78. Other mss. are Balliol, 354, which lacks the last 21 stanzas at the end, but adds a stanza after I. 392; and Un. Lib. Camb., Ff. 5. 48. The poem contains 656 lines.
| Debate: | Mirror: |
| 1. As I lay in a wintris nyht | 9. In a wintris nyht or I awakid |
| In a droukening bifor the day | In my siepe I dremid so |
| For soþ I sawe a sely syht | I sawe a child al modir nakid |
| A body on a bere that lay. | And newe borne the modir fro. |
page 489 note 2 I need not quote the Debate; those who know it (and no one that reads it can forget it) will see the similarity of the following lines to the theme of the greater poem:
Against this picture,
The poet on a winter's night sees a newborn child ready to go out into the world. The world agrees to find it till it grows old. Bodily gifts, God's commandments, the Pleasures, the seven works of mercy, the Creed, Vices and Virtues offer their services to the child. Free-Will offers, and is answered by Conscience (1-64). At seven years the Good and Wicked Angels advise the child (65-80). At fourteen (81-112) and at twenty (113-248) the Seven Virtues and Seven Vices, Reason, Lust and Conscience give their advice to the child who is now called Man. At thirty (249-304) Conscience, who has hitherto spoken only in a minor part before the contest of Virtues and Vices, now comes forward and pleads, but is disregarded by Man. At forty (305-320) Strength and Lust, at fifty (321-336) Covetousness strive for Man against Conscience. At sixty (337-424) Man, now called Age, is mocked by Youth, and as he goes nearer the grave (70 years at 1. 425, 80 at 1. 455, 90 at 1. 486, 100 at 1. 577) turns to Repentance. The Seven Deadly Sins forsake him, and Sickness comes with Despair, reproved by Conscience. Good Hope and Good Faith teach him at the last, and the Man learns that Repentance, the Commandments, the seven works of mercy and the Creed shall let him in at heaven's gate. The poem closes with an exhortation to all to choose wisely and pray to God and His Mother for grace (633-656).
page 490 note 1 Poem, 11. 438 ff., Youth speaks to Age:
all þese (the gifts of health, etc.), þou hast wastide amys From wisdom into folies fele.
page 491 note 1 Herford, Literary Relations between England and Germany in the xvi Century, notes Lydgate's Order of Fools, but omits “ The 51 Follies,” printed in “Twenty-six Poems,” E. E. T. S., E. S., 1903; “ Ces sunt xxx folies,” Landsdowne ms., 564, “ Cinkante et dix folis,” ms. Arundel 507 (Brit. Mus.); “Les xxxii Folies,” Univ. Lib. Camb. ms. Gg. i, 1, the latter by Ralph of Lynham (?); all earlier than 1500.
page 492 note 1 Poem, 52: Mi fair child what hast þou þouзt.
Play, 60: But my fayre child what woldest thou haue.
page 492 note 2 Lines 401, 409, 715.
page 493 note 1 At Oxenforde, whither Reasoun has advised him to go to study law.
page 496 note 1 I should like to call attention to some verses on the seven ages of man, in B. M. Adds. 37049, 28b-29a, as yet, I believe, unprinted. Under a picture of each “ act,” representing man, his good angel, and the fiend, is given 8 lines of dialogue, somewhat recalling parts of the Mirror.