The Talents (play)

The Talents or Processus Talentorum, is a play from the Middle English recitals The Towneley Plays (ca. 1460).[1][2]

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.

...

References

1. NeCastro, Gerard (2007). The Towneley Cycle, Play 24 - The Talents (Processus Talentorum). From Stage to Page - Medieval and Renaissance Drama. Online version dated 2007-10-22, accessed on 2009-06-25.
2. The Oxford Text Archive, The Towneley plays. Item 1397.