The Talents (play)

The Talents, or Processus Talentorum, is a play from the Middle English recitals The Towneley Plays (ca. 1460).

This play contains an early example of macaronic English-Latin verse, spoken by the character Pontius Pilate:


 * Stynt, I say! gyf men place
 * quia sum dominus dominorum!
 * he that agans me says
 * rapietur lux oculorum;
 * Therfor gyf ye me space
 * ne tendam vim brachiorum,
 * And then get ye no grace
 * contestor Iura polorum,
 * Caueatis; Rewle I the Iure,
 * Maxime pure,
 * Towne quoque rure,
 * Me paueatis.
 * Stemate regali
 * kyng atus gate me of pila;
 * Tramite legali
 * Am I ordand to reyn upon Iuda,
 * Nomine wlgari
 * pownce pilate, that may ye well say,
 * Qui bene wlt fari
 * shuld call me fownder of all lay.
 * shuld call me fownder of all lay.