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Mary'. Nearly the same period, a translation of ECCLESIATES into rhyme by Oliver Starkey occurs in bishop Tanner's library, if I recollect right, together with his Translation of Sallust's two histories. By the way, there was another vernacular versification of ECCLESIASTES by Henry Lok, or Lock, of whom more will be said hereafter, printed in 1597. This book was also translated into Latin hexameters by Drant, who will occur again in 1572. The ECCLESIASTES was versified in English by Spenser.

I have before mentioned the SCHOOL-HOUSE OF WOMEN, a satire against the fair sex. This was answered by Edward More of Hambledon in Buckinghamshire, about the year 1557, before he was twenty years of age. It required no very powerful abilities either of genius of judgment to confute such a groundless and malignant invective. More's book is entitled, The DEFENCE OF WOMEN, especially English women, against a book intituled the SCHOOL-HOUSE OF WOMEN. It is dedicated to Master William Page, secretary to his neighbour and patron sir Edward Hoby of Bisham-abbey, and was printed at London in 15602.

With the catholic liturgy, all the pageantries of popery were restored to their ancient splendour by queen Mary. Among others, the procession of the boy-bishop was too popular a mummery to be forgotten. In the preceding reign of Edward VI., Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman or musician of the royal chapel, published an English poem with the title, THE BOKE OF NURTUR for men seruants and children, or of the gouernaunce of youth, with STANS PUER AD MENSAM3. In the following reign of Mary, the same poct printed a poem consisting of 36 oct. stanzas, entitled, ‘The SONG of the CHYLD-BYSSHOP, as it was songe1 'before the queenes maiestie in her priuie chamber at her manour of

1 A short treatise of certayne thinges abused,

In the popish church long used;

But now abolyshed to our consolation,

And God's word advanced, the light of our salvation.

In eight leaves qto., Bl. Lett. Fox mentions one William Punt, author of a ballade made against the Pope and Popery under Edward VI., and of other tracts of the same tendency under queen Mary. MARTYR. p. 1605. edit. vet. Punt's printer was William Hyll at the sign of the hill near the west door of saint Pauls. See in Strype, on account of Underhill's Sufferings in 1553, for writing a ballad against the Queen, he being a witty and facetious 'gentleman.' ECCL. MEM. ii. 60, 61. ch. vi. Many rhimes and Ballads were written against the Spanish match, in 1554. Strype, ibid. p. 127. ch. xiv. Fox has preserved some hymns in Sternhold's metre sung by the protestant martyrs in Newgate, in 1555. MART. fol, 1539. edit. 5597. vol. ii.

In quarto. PRINCIP.

'Venus unto thee for help, good Lady do I call."

Our author, if I remember right, has furnished some arguments to one William Heale of Exeter college; who wrote, in 1609, AN APOLOGY FOR WOMAN, in opposition to Dr. Gager above-mentioned, who had maintained at the Public Act, that it was lawful for husband, to beat their wives. Wood says, that Heale was always esteemed an ingenious man, but 'weak, as being too much devoted to the female sex.' ÁTH. OXON. i. 314.

3 In qto. Bl. Lett. PR. Prol. There is few things to be understood." The poem begins, Alle ye that wolde learn and wolde be called wyse.'

In the church of York, no chorister was to be elected boy-bishon, nisi habuerit claram 'vocem puerilem' Registr. Capitul. Eccles- Ebor. sub ann. 1390. MSS. ut supr.

834 THE BOY-BISHOP PAYMENT ABOLISHED BY ACT OF HENRY VIIL

saynt James in the ffeeldes on saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche ' with his company. LONDINI, in ædibus Johannis Cawood typographi ‘reginæ, 1555. Cum privilegio, &c2? By admitting this spectacle into her presence, it appears that her majesty's bigotry condescended to give countenance to the most ridiculous and unmeaning ceremony of the Roman ritual. As to the song itself, it is a fulsome panegyric on the queen's devotion in which she is compared to Judith, Esther, the queen of Sheba, and the virgin Mary. This show of the boy-bishop not so much for its superstition as its levity and absurdity, had been formally abrogated by Henry VIII., fourteen years before, in the year 1542, as appears by a ' Proclamation devised by the Kings Majesty by 'the advys of his Highness Counsel the xxii day of Julie, 33 Hen. vii, 'commanding the ffeasts of saint Luke, saint Mark, saint Marie Mag'dalene, Inuention of the Crosse, and saint Laurence, which had bea ' abrogated, should be nowe againe celebrated and kept holie days' of which the following is the concluding clause. 'And where as 'heretofore dyuers and many superstitious and chyldysh obseruance: 'have be vsed, and yet to this day are obserued and kept, i 'many and sundry partes of this realm, as vpon saint Nicholas,

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1 In the old statutes of saint Pauls, are many orders about this mock-solemnity. Ok that the canon, called STAGIARIUS, shall find the boy-bishop his robes, and 'honestum.' MSS. fol. 86. Diceto dean. In the statutes of Salisbury cathedral, it s ordered, that the boy-bishop shall not make a feast, sed in domo communi cum socis enversetur, nisi eum ut Choristam, ad domum Canonici, causa solatii, ad mensam co 'evocari.' Sub anno 1319. Tit. xlv. De STATU CHORISTARUM. MSS.

2 In qto. Bl. Lett. Strype says, that in 1556, 'On S. Nicolas even, Saint Nicolas, chur a 'a boy habited like a bishop in pontificalibus went abroad in most parts of London szu after the old fashion, and was received with many ignorant but well-disposed people intr 'their houses; and had as much good cheer as ever was wont to be had before.' EccL M iii. 310. ch. xxxix. See also p. 387. ch. 1. In 1554, Nov. 13. an edict was issued by at bishop of London, to all the clergy of his diocese, to have a boy-bishop in procession, & Strype. ibid. p. 202. ch. xxv. See also p. 205, 206. ch. xxvi.

3 In a poem by Llodowyke Lloyd, in the Paradise of dainti Deuises, (edit. 1505 ) on the death of sir Edward Saunders, queen Elizabeth is complimented much in the same man NUM. 32. SIGNET. E. 2.

O sacred seate, where Saba sage doth sit,

Like Susan sound, like Sara sad, with Hester's mace in hand,

With Iudithes sword, Bellona-like, to rule this noble land.

4 In Barnabie Googe's POPISH KINGDOM, a translation from Naogeorgius's REC ANTICHRISTI, fol. 55. Lond. 1570. 4to.

Saint Nicholas monie vsde to give to maydens secretlic,

Who that be still may vse his wonted liberalitie :

The mother all their children on the Eeve do cause to fast,

And when they euerie one at night in senselesse sleepe are cast,
Both apples, nuts and payres they bring, and other things beside,
As cappes, and shoes, and petticoates, with kertles they hide,

And in the morning found, they say, Saint Nicholas this brought, &c.' See a curious passage in bishop Fisher's Serinon of the MONTHS MINDE of Margaret co tess of Richmond. Where it is said, that she praied to S. Nicholas the patron and helper s all true maydens, when nine years old, about the choice of a husband: and that the st appeared in a vision, and announced the earl of Richmond. Edit. Baker, p. 8. There is a pe cept issued to the sheriff of Oxford from Edward I., in 1305, to prohibit tournaments being intermixed with the sports of the scholars on saint Nicholas's day. Rot. Claus. 33 Edw. A memb. 2.

I have already given traces of this practice in the college of Winchester and Ftes To which I here add another. Registr. Coll. Wint. sub. ann. 1427. 'Crux deaurata de cupre

'saint Catherine1, saint Clement2, the holie Innocents, and such like3, 'Children [boys] be strangelie decked and apparayled, to counterfeit 'Priestes, Bishopes, and Women, and so be ledde with Songes and 'Dances from house to house, blessing the people, and gathering of 'money; and Boyes do singe masse, and preache in the pulpitt, with 'such other vnfittinge and inconuenient vsages, rather to the derysyon 'than anie true glorie of God, or honor of his sayntes: The Kynges 'maiestie therefore, myndinge nothinge so moche as to aduance the 'true glory of God without vain superstition, wylleth and commandeth, 'that from henceforth all svch svperstitious obseruations be left and 'clerely extinguished throwout all this his realme and dominions, for'as moche as the same doth resemble rather the vnlawfull superstition 'of gentilitie, than the pvre and sincere religion of Christe.' With respect to the disguisings of these young fraternities, and their processions from house to house with singing and dancing, specified in this edict, in a very mutilated fragment of a COMPUTUS, or annual Accompt-roll, of saint Swithin's cathedral Priory at Winchester, under the year 1441, a disbursement is made to the singing-boys of the monastery, who, together with the choristers of saint Elizabeth's collegiate chapel near that city, were dressed up like girls, and exhibited their sports before the abbess and nuns of St. Mary's abbey at Winchester, in the public refectory of that convent, on Innocent's day1. 'Pro 'Pueris Eleemosynariæ una cum Pueris Capellæ sanctæ Elizabethæ,

[copper] cum Baculo, pro EPISCOPO PUERORUM.' But it appears that the practice subsisted in common grammar schools. 'Hoc anno, 1464, in festo sancti Nicolai non erat EPISCOPUS PUERORUM in schola grammaticali in civitate Cantarriæ ex defectu Magistrorum, viz. J. 'Sidney et T. Hikson, &c. Lib. Johannis Stone, Monachi Eccles. Cant. sc. De Obitibus et aliis Memorabilibus sui caenobii ab anno 1415 ad annum 1467. MSS. C. C. C. C. Q. 8. The abuses of this custom in Wells cathedral are mentioned so early as Decemb. 1. 1298. Registr. Eccl. Wellens.

1 The reader will recollect the old play of Saint Catharine, LUDUS CATHARINE, exhibited at St. Albans abbey in 1160. Strype says, in 1556, On St. Katharines day, at six of the 'clock at night, S. Katharine went about the battlements of S. Paul's church accompanied 'with fine singing and great lights. This was St. Katharine's Procession.' ECCL. MEM. iii. 309. ch. xxxix. Again, her procession, in 1553, is celebrated with five hundred great lights, round St. Paul's steeple, &c, Ibid. p. 51. ch. v. And p. 57. ch. v.

Among the church-processions revived by Queen Mary, that of S. Clement's church, in honour of this saint, was by far the most splendid of any in London. Their procession to S. Pauls in 1557, was made very pompous with So banners and streamers, and the waits of the city playing, and 60 priests and clarkes in copes. And divers of the Inns of Court were there, who went next the priests, &c.' Strype, ubi supr. iii. 377, ch. xlix.

3 In the SYNODUS CARNOTENSIS, under the year 1526, It is ordered, 'In festo sancti Nicholai, Catharina, Innocentium, aut alio quovis die, prætextu recreationis, ne Scholastici, Clerici, Sacerdotesve, stultum aliquod aut ridiculum faciant in ecclesia. Denique ab eccle'sia ejiciantur VESTES FATUORUM personas SCENICAS agentium." See Bochellus. Decret, ECCLES. GALL. lib. iv. TIT. vii. C. 43. 46. p. 586. Yet these sports seem to have remained in France so late as 1585. For in the Synod of Aix, 1585, it is enjoined, Cessent in die Sanc'torum Innocentium ludibria omnia et pueriles ac theatrales lusus.' Bochell. ibid. C. 45. p. 586. A Synod of Tholouse, an. 1590, removes plays, spectacles, and histrionum circulationes, from churches and their cemeteries. Bochell. ibid. lib. iv. TIT. 1. C. 98. p. 586. In the Register of Wodeloke bishop of Winchester, the following is an article among the INJUNCTIONS given to the nuns of the convent of Rumsey in Hampshire, in consequence of an episcopal visitation, under the year 1310. Item prohibemus, ne cubent in dormitorio pueri masculi cum monialibus, vel foemellæ, nec per moniales ducantur in Chorum, dum ibidem 'divinum officium ceiebratur.' fel. 134. In the same Register these Injunctions follow fin a literal French translation, made for the convenience of the nuns.

836

FESTIVAL OF ST. NICHOLAS.-MOCK PATRIARCHS.

'ornatis more puellarum, et saltantibus, cantantibus, et ludentibus, 6 coram domina Abbatissa et monialibus Abbathiæ beatæ Mariæ vir'ginis, in aula ibidem in die sanctorum Innocentium. And again, in a fragment of an Accompt of the Celerar of Hyde Abbey at Winchester, under the year 1490. 'In larvis et aliis indumentis Puerorum 'visentium Dominum apud Wulsey, et Constabularium Castri Winton, 'in apparatu suo, necnon subintrantium omnia monasteria civitatis 'Winton, in ffesto sancti Nicholai.' That is, 'In furnishing masks 'and dresses for the boys of the convent, when they visited the bishop at Wulvesey-palace, the constable of Winchester-castle, and all the 'monasteries of the city of Winchester, on the festival of saint Nicholas As to the divine service being performed by children on these feasts, it was not only celebrated by boys, but there is an injunction given to the Benedictine nunnery of Godstowe in Oxfordshire, by archbishop Peckham, in the year 1278, that on Innocent's day, the public prayers should not any more be said in the church of that monastery PER PARVULAS, that is, by little girls2.

The ground-work of this religious mockery of the boy-bishop, which is evidently founded on modes of barbarous life, may perhaps be traced backward at least as far as the year 867, or 870. At the Constantins politan synod under that year, at which were present three hundred and seventy-three bishops, it was found to be a solemn custom in the courts of princes, on certain stated days, to dress some layman in the episcopal apparel, who should exactly personate a bishop both in his tonsure and ornaments: as also to create a burlesque patriarch, who might make sport for the company3. This scandal to the clergy was anathematised But ecclesiastical synods and censures have often proved too weak to suppress popular spectacles, which take deep root in the public manners, and are only concealed for a while, to spring up afresh with new vigour.

After the form of a legitimate stage had appeared in England, MYSTERIES and MIRACLES were also revived by queen Mary, as an appendage of the papistic worship.

'We

1MS. in Archiv. Wulves. apud Winton. It appears to have been a practice for itinerant players to gain admittance into the nunneries, and to play Latin MYSTERIES before the r There is a curious Canon of the COUNCIL of COLOGNE, in 1549, which is to this effect. "have been informed, that certain Actors of Comedies, not contented with the stage and 'theaters, have even entered the nunneries, in order to recreate the nuns, ubi virginibus.com moveant voluptatem with their profane, amorous, and secular gesticula ions. Which spec 'tacles, or plays, although they consisted of sacred and pious subjects, can yet notwithstand 'ing leave little good, but on the contrary much harm, in the minds of the nuns, who bebud and admire the outward gestures of the performers, and understand not the words. There 'fore we decree, that henceforward no Plays, Comedias, shall be admitted into the convents 'of nuns, &c.' Sur. CONCIL. tom. iv. p. 852. Binius, tom. iv. p. 765.

2 Harpsfield, HIST. ECCL. ANGL. p. 441. edit. 1622.

3 Surius, CONCIL iii, 529. 539. Baron. ANNAL. Ann. 869. §. 11. See CONCIL. Basil. num. xxxii. The French have a miracle play, BEAU MIRACLE DE S. NICOLAS, to be acted by 24 personages, printed at Paris, for Pierre Sergeant, in qto. without date, Bl. Lett.

[Virgil, Georg. iv. 495.]

- En, iterum crudelia retro Fata vocant ! In the year 1556, a goodly stage-play of the PASSION OF CHRIST was presented at the Grey friers in London, on Corpus-Christi day, before the lord mayor, the privy-council, and many great estates of the realm'. Strype also mentions, under the year 1557, a stage-play at the Grey-friers of the passion of Christ, on the day that war was proclaimed in London against France, and in honour of that occasion2. On saint Olave's day in the same year, the holiday of the church in Silver-street which is dedicated to that saint, was kept with much solemnity. At eight of the clock at night, began a stage-play of goodly matter, being the miraculous history of the life of that saint3, which continued 4 hours, and was concluded with many religious songs1.

Many curious circumstances of the nature of these miracle plays, appear in a roll of the church-wardens of Bassingborne in Cambridgeshire, which is an accompt of the expenses and receptions for acting the play of SAINT GEORGE at Bassingborne, on the feast of St. Margaret in the year 1511. They collected upwards of four pounds in twenty-seven neighbouring parishes for furnishing the play. They disbursed about two pounds in the representation. These disbursements are to four minstrels, or waits, of Cambridge for three days, v, s. vj, d, To the players, in bread. and ale, iij, s. ij, d. To the garnement-man for garnements, and propyrts", that is, for dresses, decorations, and implements, and for play-books, xx, s. To John Hobard brotherhoode preeste, that is, a priest of the guild in the church, for the play-book, ij, s. viij d. For the crofte, or field in which the play was exhibited, j, s. For propyrte-making, or furniture, j, s. iv, d. For fish and bread, and to setting up the stages, iv, d.' For painting three fanchoms and four tormentors, words which I do not understand, but perhaps phantoms and devils . . . The rest was expended for a feast on the occasion, in which are recited, Four chicken for the gentilmen, iv, d.' It appears from the manuscript of the Coventry plays, that a temporary scaffold only, was erected for these performances. And Chaucer says, of Absolon a parish-clerk, and an actor of king Herod's character in these dramas, in the MILLER'S TALE,

1 MSS. Cott, VITELL. E. 5. STRYPE, See LIFE OF SIR THOMAS POPE, PREF. p. xii. 2 ECCL. MEM. vol. iii. ch. xlix.

As

3 Strype, ibid, p. 379- With the religious pageantries, other ancient sports and spectacles also, which had fallen into disuse in the reign of Edward VI. began to be now revived. thus, On the 30th of May was a goodly Maygame in Fenchurch-street, with drums, and guns, and pikes, with the NINE WORTHIES Who rid. And each made his speech. There was also the Morice-dance, and an elephant and castle, and the Lord and Lady of the May 'appeared to make up this show,' Strype, ibid. 376. ch. xlix.

Ludovicus Vives relates, that it was customary in Brabant to present annual plays in honour of the respective saints to which the churches were dedicated: and he betrays his great credulity in adding a wonderful story in consequence of this custom. Nor. in Augustin. De CIVIT. DEI. lib. xii. cap. 25. C.

The property-room is yet known at our theatres.

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