But the word HISTRIO, in the Latin writers of the barbarous ages", generally comprehends the numerous tribe of mimics, juglers, dancers, tumblers, musicians, minstrels, and the like public practitioners of the recreative arts, with which those ages abounded: nor do I recollect a single instance in which it precisely bears the restrained modern interpretation. As our thoughts are here incidentally turned to the rudi Frenchmen to feast with you in this hall? Behold, there is the shield of Richard, the magnanimous king of England! All the Frenchmen present will eat their dinner in fear and trembling!" Matt. Paris. p. 871. sub HENR. III. edit. Tigur. 1589. fol. Whether this was a preconcerted compliment, previously suggested by the king of France, or not, it is equally a proof of the familiarity with which the minstrels were allowed to address the most eminent personages. " There is a passage in John of Salisbury much to our purpose, which I am obliged to give in Latin, "At eam [desidiam] nostris prorogant HISTRIONES. Admissa sunt ergo SPECTACULA, et infinita lenocinia vanitatis.-Hinc mimi, salii vel saliares, balatrones, amiliani, gladiatores, palæstritæ, gignadii, præstigiatores, malefici quoque multi, et tota JoCULATORUM SCENA procedit. Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a præclaris domibus non arceantur etiam illi, qui obscœnis partibus corporis, oculis omnium eam ingerunt turpitudinem, quam erubescet videre vel cynicus. Quodque magis mirere, nec tunc ejiciuntur, quando TUMULTUANTES INFERIUS crebro sonitu aerem fædant, et turpiter inclusum turpius produnt. Veruntamen quid in singulis possit aut deceat, animus sapientis advertit, nec APOLOGOS refugit, aut NARRATIONES, aut quæcunque SPECTACULA, dum virtutis," &c. POLYCRAT. lib. i. cap. viii. p. 28. edit. Lugd. Bat. 1595. Here, GIGNADII, a word unexplained by Du Cange, signifies wrestlers, or the performers of athletic exercises: for gignasium was used for gymnasium in the barbarous Latinity. By apologos, we are perhaps to understand an allegorical story or fable, such as were common in the Provencial poetry; and by narra tiones, tales of chivalry: both which were recited at festivals by these HISTRIONES. Spectacula I need not explain: but here seems to be pointed out the whole system of antient exhibition or entertainment. I must add another pertinent passage from this writer, whoin the reader will recollect to have flourished about the year 1140. 1 "Non facile tamen crediderim ad hoc quemquam impelli posse litteratorem, ut HISTRIONEM profiteatur. GESTUS siquidem EXPRIMUNT, rerum utilitate deducta." Ibid. lib. viii. cap. xii. p. 514. [Compare Blount's ANT. TENURES, p. 11. HEMINGSTON.] See With regard to APOLOGI, mentioned above, I have farther to observe, that the Latin metrical apologues of the dark ages, are probably translations from the Provencial poetry. Of this kind is Wircker's SPECULUM STULTORUM, or BURNELL'S Ass. See supr. vol. ii. p. 254. And the ASINUS PENITENTIARIUS, in which an ass, wolf, and fox, are introduced, confessing their sins, &c. Matt. Flacius, Catal. Test. Verit. p. 903. edit. 1556. In the British Museum there is an antient thin folio volume on vellum, containing upwards of two hundred short moral tales in Latin prose, which I also class under the APOLOGI here mentioned by John of Salisbury. Some are legendary, others romantic, and others allegorical. Many of them I believe to be translations from the Provencial poetry. Several of the Esopian fables are intermixed. In this colÎection is Parnell's HERMIT, De ANGELO et Heremita Peregrinum occisum sepelientibus, Rubr. 32. fol. 7. And a tale, I think in Fontaine, of the king's son who never saw a woman. Rubr. 8. fol. 2. The stories seem to have been collected by an Englishman, at least in England: for there is, the tale of one Godfrey, a priest of Susser. Rubr. 40. fol. 8. MSS. Harl. 463. The story of Parnell's HERMIT is in Gesta Romanorum, MSS. Harl, 2270. ch. lxxxx. ments of the English stage, I must not omit an anecdote, entirely new, with regard to the mode of playing the MYSTERIES at this period, which yet is perhaps of much higher antiquity. In the year 1487, while Henry the Seventh kept his residence at the castle at Winchester, on occasion of the birth of prince Arthur, on a sunday, during the time of dinner, he was entertained with a religious drama called CHRISTI DESCENSUS AD INFEROS, or Christ's descent into helly. It was represented by the PUERI ELEEMOSYNARII, or choir-boys, of Hyde abbey, and saint Swithin's priory, two large monasteries at Winchester. This is the only proof I have ever seen of choir-boys acting in the old MYSTERIES: nor do I recollect any other instance of a royal dinner, even on a festival, accompanied with this species of diversion". The story of this interlude, in which the chief characters were Christ, Adam, Eve, Abraham, and John the Baptist, was not uncommon in the antient religious drama, and I believe made a part of what is called the LUDUS PASCHALIS, or Easter Play. It occurs in the Coventry plays acted on Corpus Christi day; and in the Whitsun-plays at Chester, where it is called the HARROWING OF HELL. The representation is Christ entering hell triumphantly, delivering our first parents, and the most sacred characters of the Old and New Testaments, from the dominion of Satan, and conveying them into Paradise. There is an ancient poem, perhaps an interlude, on the same subject, among the Harleian manuscripts; containing our Saviour's dialogues in hell with Sathanas, the Janitor, or porter of hell, Adam, * See supr. vol. ii. p. 70. seq. y Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin. Winton. MS. ut supr. Except, that on the first Sunday of the magnificent marriage of king James of Scotland with the princess Margaret of England, daughter of Henry the Seventh, celebrated at Edinburgh with high splendour, "after dynnar a MoBALITE was played by the said master Inglyshe and hys companyons in the presence of the kyng and qwene. On one of the preceding days," After soupper the kynge and qwene beyng togåder in hyr grett chamber, John Inglysh and Eve, Habraham, David, Johan Baptist, and Moyses. It begins, Alle herkneb to me nou: A strif wolle y tellen ou Po Jhesu wes to helle y-gand. The composers of the MYSTERIES did not think the plain and probable events of the New Testament sufficiently marvellous for an audience who wanted only to be surprised. They frequently selected their materials from books which had more of the air of romance. The subject of the MYSTERIES justmentioned was borrowed from the PSEUDO-EVANGELIUM, or the FABULOUS GOSPEL, ascribed to Nicodemus: a book, which, together with the numerous apocryphal narratives, containing infinite innovations of the evangelical history, and forged at Constantinople by the early writers of the Greek church, gavę birth to an endless variety of legends concerning the life of d MSS. Harl. 2253. 21. fol. 55. b. [See Mr. Strutt's Manners and Customs of the People of England, vol.ii.-EDIT.] There is a poem on this subject, MS. Bodl. 1687. How Jesu Crist harowed helle [See supr. vol. i. p. 15.] e In Latin. A Saxon translation, from a manuscript at Cambridge, coeval with the Conquest, was printed at Oxford, by Thwaites, 1699. In an English translation by Wynkyn de Worde, the prologue says, "Nichodemus, which was a worthy prynce, dydde wryte thys blessyd storye in Hebrewe. And Theodosius, the emperour, dyde it translate out of Hebrew into Latin, and bysshoppe Turpyn dyde translate it out of Latyn into Frensshe." With wooden cuts, 1511. 4to. There was another edition by Wynkyn de Worde, 1518. 4to. and 1532. See a very old French version, MSS. Harl. 2253. 3. fol. 33. b. There is a translation into English verse, about the fourteenth century. MSS. Harl. 4196. 1. fol. 206. See also, 149. 5. fol. 254. b. And MSS. Coll. Sion. 17. The title of the original is, NICODEMI DISCIPULI de Jesu Christi passione et resurrectione EVANGELIUM. Sometimes it is entitled GESTA SALVATORIS nostri Jesu Christi. Our lord's Descent into hell is by far the best invented part of the work. Edit.apud ORTHODOX. PATR. Jac. Greyn. [Basil. 1569. 4to.] pag. 653. seq. The old Latin title to the pageaunt of this story in the Chester plays is, "DE DET SCENSU AD INFERNA, et de his que ibidem fiebant secundum EVANGELIUM NICODEMI, "fol. 138. ut supr. Hence the first line in the old interlude, called HICKS-CORNER is illustrated. Now Jesu the gentyll that brought Adam from hell. Christ and his apostles f; and which, in the barbarous ages, was better esteemed than the genuine Gospel, on account of its improbabilities and absurdities. But whatever was the source of these exhibitions, they were thought to contribute so much to the information and instruction of the people on the most important subjects of religion, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who resorted peaceably to the plays performed in the Whitsun week at Chester, beginning with the creation, and ending with the general judgment; and this indulgence was seconded by the bishop of the diocese, who granted forty days of pardon the pope at the same time denouncing the sentence of damnation on all those incorrigible sinners, who presumed to disturb or interrupt the due celebration of these pious sports. It is certain that they had their use, not only in teaching the great truths of Scripture to men who could not read the Bible, but in abolishing the barbarous attachment to military games, and the bloody contentions of the tournament, which had so long prevailed as the sole species of popular amusement. Rude and even ridiculous as they were, they' softened the manners of the people, by diverting the public attention to spectacles in which the mind was concerned, and by creating a regard for other arts than those of bodily strength and savage valour, f In the manuscript register of saint Swithin's priory at Winchester, it is recorded, that Leofric, bishop of Exeter, about the year 1150, gave to the convent, a book called GESTA Beatissimi Apostoli Petri cum Glosa. This is probably one of these commentitious histories. By the way, the same Leofric was a great benefactor in books to his church at Exeter. Among others, he gave Boeti Liber ANGLICUS, and, Magnus liber ANGLICUS omnino METRICE descriptus. What was this translation of Boethius, I know not; unless it is Alfred's. It is still more difficult to determine, what was the other piece, the GREAT BOOK OF EN- SECTION XXVIII. THE only writer deserving the name of a poet in the reign of Henry the Seventh, is Stephen Hawes. He was patronised by that monarch, who possessed some tincture of literature, and is said by Bacon to have confuted a Lollard in a public disputation at Canterbury 2. Hawes flourished about the close of the fifteenth century; and was a native of Suffolk. After an academical education at Oxford, he travelled much in France; and became a complete master of the French and Italian poetry. His polite accomplishments quickly procured him an establishment in the household of the king; who struck with the liveliness of his conversation, and because he could repeat by memory most of the old English poets, especially Lydgate, made him groom of the privy chamber. His facility in the French tongue was a qualification which might strongly recommend him to the favour of Henry the Seventh, who was fond of studying the best French books then in vogued. Hawes has left many poems, which are now but imperfectly known, and scarcely remembered. These are, the TEMPLE OF GLASSE. The CONVERSION OF SWERERS, in octave stanzas, with Latin lemmata, printed by de Worde in 1509f. A JOYFULL MEDITATION OF ALL Englond, or the CORONACYON TO OUR MOST NATURAL SOVEREIGN LORD KING HENRY THE EIGTH IN VERSE. By the same, and without date; but pro a LIFE of HENRY VII. p. 628. edit. ut supr. One Hodgkins, a fellow of King's college in Cambridge, and vicar of Ringwood in Hants, was eminently skilled in the mathematics; and on that account, Henry the Seventh frequently condescended to visit him at his house at Ringwood. Hatcher, MS. Catal. Præpos. et Soc. Coll. Regal. Cant. b Wood, Ath. Oxon. i. 5. Bale says, that he was called by the king "ab interiori camera ad privatum cubiculum." Cent. viii. d Bacon, ut supr. p. 637. e "The CONVERSYON OF SWERERS, made and compyled by Stephen Hawes, groome of the chamber of our sovereigne lord kynge Henry VII.” to. f It contains only one sheet in quar |