Note 37 — Chapter VII · THE BETRAYAL OF THE KINGDOM (continued 2)

[In 1402 letters-patent were issued by the king permitting the bourgeois of Paris to constitute themselves into a religious fraternity for the representation of the “Mystery of the Passion.” This is the origin of the modern tragic theatre. The “morality plays,” or comedies, were created by the clerks of the basoche—the corporation formed by the clerks of the procureurs of the parliament of Paris. This body exercised extensive jurisdiction over its members—its head bore the title of “king.” In the reign of Charles VI playing-cards were perfected, and about 1420 Jan van Eyck, called Jean of Bruges, discovered a drying oil, which has caused him to be regarded as the inventor of oil painting. Hitherto men had used distemper, fresco, gum, paste, or white of egg.b]