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There is no faireneffe, but fight tedious,
All gay colours I do hitte.

My horse runneth by dales and hilles,
And many he fmiteth dead and killes.
In my trap I take fome by every way,
By towns [and] caftles I take my rent.
I will not refpite one an houre of a daye,
Before me they must needes be present.
I flea all with my mortall knife,
And of duety I take the life.
HELL knoweth well my killing,

I fleepe never, but wake and warke;

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In the eighth chapter of our KALENDER are defcribed the feven vifions, or the punishments in hell of the seven deadly fins, which Lazarus faw between his death and refurrection. These punishments are imagined with great ftrength of fancy, and accompanied with wooden cuts boldly touched, and which the printer Wynkyn de Worde probably procured from fome German engraver at the infancy of the art. The PROUD are bound by hooks of iron to vast wheels, like mills, placed between craggy precipices, which are inceffantly whirling with the most violent impetuofity, and found like thunder. The ENVIOUS are plunged in a lake half frozen, from which as they attempt to emerge for ease, their naked limbs are instantly smote with a blast of such intolerable keenness, that they are compelled to dive again into the lake. To the WRATHFULL is affigned a gloomy cavern, in which their bodies are butchered, and their limbs man

That is, HELL. Compare the torments of Dante's hell. INFERN. Cant. v. vi. seq.

gled

gled by demons with various weapons. The SLOTHFULL are tormented in a horrible hall dark and tenebrous, swarming with innumerable flying ferpents of various fhapes and fizes, which fting to the heart. This, I think, is the Hell of the Gothic EDDA. The COVETOUS are dipped in cauldrons filled with boiling metals. The GLUTTONOUS are placed in a vale near a loathfome pool, abounding with venomous creatures, on whose banks tables are spread, from which they are perpetually crammed with toads by devils. CONCUPISCENCE is punished in a field full of immenfe pits or wells, overflowing with fire and fulphur. This vifionary fcene of the infernal punishments feems to be borrowed from a legend related by Matthew Paris, under the reign of king John: in which the foul of one Thurkhill, a native of Tidftude in Effex is conveyed by faint Julian from his body, when laid asleep, into hell and heaven. In hell he has a fight of the torments of the damned, which are presented under the form and name of the INFERNAL PAGEANTS, and greatly resemble the fictions I have juft defcribed. Among the tormented, is a knight, who had paffed his life in fhedding much innocent blood at tilts and tournaments. He is introduced, compleatly armed, on horfeback; and couches his lance against the demon, who is commiffioned to feize and to drag him to his eternal destiny. There is likewife a priest who never faid mass, and a baron of the exchequer who took bribes. Turkill is then conducted into the manfions of the bleffed, which are painted with strong oriental colouring: and in Paradise, a garden replenished with the most delicious fruits, and the most exquifite variety of trees, plants, and flowers, he fees Adam, a perfonage of gigantic proportion, but the most beautiful fymmetry, reclined on the fide of a fountain which fent forth four ftreams of different water and colour, and under the fhade of a tree of immenfe fize and height, laden with fruits of every kind, and breathing the richest odours. Afterwards faint Julian conveys the foul of Turkhill back to

his body; and when awakened, he relates this vifion to his parish-prieft'. There is a ftory of a fimilar caft in Bede, which I have mentioned before".

As the ideas of magnificence and elegance were enlarged, the public pageants of this period were much improved: and beginning now to be celebrated with new splendour, received, among other advantages, the addition of SPEAKING PERSONAGES. These spectacles, thus furnished with speakers, characteristically habited, and accompanied with proper fcenery, co-operated with the MYSTERIES, of whofe nature they partook at firft, in introducing the drama. It was customary to prepare these fhews at the reception of a prince, or any other folemnity of a fimilar kind: and they were prefented on moveable theatres, or occafional stages, erected in the ftrects. The fpeeches were in verfe; and as the proceffion moved forward, the speakers, who conftantly bore some allufion to the ceremony, either converfed together in the form of a dialogue, or addreffed the noble person whose prefence occafioned the celebrity. Speakers feem to have been admitted into our pageants about the reign of Henry the fixth.

Matt. Parif. Hift. pag. 206. feq. Edit. Tig. Much the fame fort of fable is related, ibid. p. 178. feq. There is an old poem on this fubject, called OWAYNE MILES, MSS. COTT. CALIG. A. 12. f. 90.

8 See DISSERTATION ii. Signat. E. The DEAD MAN'S SONG there mentioned, feems to be more immediately taken from this fiction as it flands in our SHEPHERD'S KALENDER. It is entitled, The DEAD MAN'S SONG, whofe Dwelling_was near Bafingball in London. Wood's BALLADS, Muf. Afhmol. Oxon. It is worthy of doctor Percy's excellent collection, and begins thus. Sore ficke, dear frienns, long tyme I was, And weakly laid in bed, &c.

See also the legend of faint Patrick's cave, Matt. Parif. p. 84. And MSS. Harl. 2385. 82. De quodam ducto videre penas Inferni. fol. 56. b.

h I chufe to throw together in the Notes many other anonymous pieces belonging to this period, most of which are too minute to be formally confidered in the series of our poetry. The CASTELL OF HONOUR, printed in quarto by Wynkyn de Worde, 1506. The PARLYAMENT OF DEVYLLES. Princip. "As Mary was great with "Gabriel, &c." For the fame, in quarto, 1509. The HISTORIE OF JACOB AND HIS TWELVE SONS. In ftanzas. For the fame, without date. I believe about 1500. Princ." Al yonge and old that lyft to "here." A LYTEL TREATYSE called the Dyfputacyon or Complaynt of the Heart thorughe perced with the lokynge of the eye. For the fame, in quarto, perhaps before 1500. The first stanza is elegant, and deserves to be transcribed.

In

In the year 1432, when Henry the fixth, after his coronation at Paris, made a triumphal entry into London, many stanzas, very probably written by Lydgate, were addressed to his majesty, amidst a series of the moft fplendid allegorical spectacles, by a giant reprefenting religious fortitude, Enoch and Eli, the holy Trinity, two Judges and eight Serjeants of the coife, dame Clenneffe, Mercy, Truth, and other perfonages of a like nature'.

In the year 1456, when Margaret wife of Henry the fixth, with her little fon Edward, came to Coventy, on the feast of the exaltation of the holy crofs, fhe was received with the

In the fyrst weke of the season of Maye,
Whan that the wodes be covered in grene,
In which the nyghtyngale lyft for to playe
To fhewe his voys among the thornès kene,
Them to rejoyce which lovès fervaunts bene,
Which fro all comforte thynke them faft
behynd;

My pleafyr was as it was after fene

For my dyfport to chafe the harte and hynde.
The LYFE OF SAINT JOSEPH OF ARI-
MATHEA. For Pinfon, in quarto. 1520.
The LYFE OF PETRONYLLA. In ftanzas,
for the fame, without date, in quarto.
THE CASTLE OF LABOURE. In ftanzas.
For the fame, in quarto, without date, with
neat wooden cuts. THE LYFE OF SAINT
RADEGUNDA. In quarto, for the fame.
THE A. B. C. E. OF ARISTOTILLE, MSS.
Harl. 1304. 4. Proverbial verses in the
alliterative manner, viz.

Wofo wil be wife and worship defireth,
Lett him lerne one letter, and loke on ano-
ther, &c.

Again, ibid. 541. 19. fol. 213. [Com-
pare, ibid. 913. 10. fol. 15. b. 11. fol.
15. b.] See alfo fome fatyrical Ballads
written by Frere Michael Kildare, chiefly
on the Religious orders, Saints, the White
Friars of Drogheda, the vanity of riches,
&c. &c. A divine poem on death, &c.
MSS. Harl. 913. 3. fol. 7. 4. fol.
9. 5.
fol. 10. 13. fol. 16. [He has left a Latin
poem in rhyme on the abbot and prior of

Gloucefter, ibid. 5. fol. 10. And burlefque pieces on fome of the divine offices, ibid. 6. fol. 12. 7. fol. 13. b.] Hither we may also refer a few pieces written by one Whyting, not mentioned in Tanner, MSS. Harl. 541. 14. fol. 207. feq. doubtedly many other poems of this period, both printed and manufcript, have escaped my enquiries, but which, if discovered, would not have repaid the research.

Un

Among Rawlinfon's manufcripts there is a poem, of confiderable length, on the antiquity of the Stanley family, beginning thus.

I entende with true reporte to praise
The valiaunte actes of the floute Standelais,
Ffrom whence they came, &c.

It comes down no lower than Thomas earl
of Derby, who was executed in the reign
of Henry the feventh. This induced me to
think at first, that the piece was written
about that time. But the writer mentions
king Henry the eighth, and the fuppreffion
of Monafteries. I will only add part of a
Will in verfe, dated 1477. MSS. Langb.
Bibl. Bodl. vi. fol. 176. [M. 13. Th.]

Fleshly luftes and feftes,
And furures of divers beftes,

(A fend was hem fonde ;)
Hole clothe caft on shredys,
And wymen with thare hye hedys,
Have almost loft thys londe !

i Fabyan, ubi fupr. fol. 382. feq.

prefentation

presentation of pageants, in one of which king Edward the confeffor, faint John the Evangelift, and faint Margaret, each speak to the queen and the prince in verfe *. In the next reign in the year 1474, another prince Edward, son of Edward the fourth, visited Coventry, and was honoured with the same species of fhew: he was firft welcomed, in an octave stanza, by Edward the confeffor; and afterwards addreffed by faint George, completely armed: a king's daughter holding a lamb, and fupplicating his affiftance to protect her from a terrible dragon, the lady's father and mother, ftanding in a tower above, the conduit on which the champion was placed, "renning wine in four places, and

minftralcy of organ playing'. Undoubtedly the Francifcan friers of Coventry, whofe facred interludes, prefented on Corpus Chrifti day, in that city, and at other places, make fo confpicuous a figure in the history of the English drama", were employed in the management of these devifes: and that the Coventry men were famous for the arts of exhibition, appears from the share they took in the gallant entertainment of queen Elifabeth at Kenelworth-castle, before whom they played their old ftorial show".

At length, perfonages of another caft were added; and this species of spectacle, about the period with which we are

K LEET-BOOK of the city of Coventry. MS. fol. 168. Stowe fays, that at the reception of this queen in London, in the year 1445, feveral pageaunts were exhibited at Paul's-gate, with verfes written by Lydgate, on the following lemmata. Ingredimini et replete terram. Non amplius irafcar fuper terram. Madam Grace chancellor de dieu. Five wife and five foolish virgins. Of faint Margaret, &c. HIST. ENGL. pag. 385. edit. Howes. I know not whether thefe poems were Spoken, or only affixed to the pageaunts. Fabyan fays, that in thofe pageaunts there was refemblance of dyvirfe olde byftoryes. I fuppofe. tapestry. CRON. tom. ii. fol. 398. edit. 1533 See the ceremonies at the coronaVol. II.

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m See fupr. vol. i. p. 293. The friers themselves were the actors. But this practice being productive of fome enormities, and the laity growing as wife as the clergy, at least as well qualified to act plays; there was an injunction in the MEXICAN COUNCIL, ratified at Rome in the year 1589, to prohibit all clerks from playing in the Mysteries, even on CORPUS CHRISTIDAY. Neque in Comœdiis perfonam etiam in FESTO CORPORIS CHRIS"" TI. SACROSANCT. CONCIL. fol, per Labb. tom. xv. p. 1268. edit Parif. 1672. n See fupr. vol. i. p. 91.

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