liam Brown, a student of that society, about the year 1620" From this piece, as a fpecimen of the temple-mafques in this view, I make no apology for my anticipation in tranfcribing the following ode, which Circe fings as a charm to drive away fleep from Ulyffes, who is difcovered repofing under a large tree. It is addreffed to Sleep. THE CHARME. Sonne of Erebus and Nighte! of English poets, there was a correfpon- After the Refloration, when the dignity of the old monarchical manners had fuffered a long eclipfe from a Calvinistic ufurpation, a feeble effort was made to revive thefe liberal and elegant amufements at Whitehall. For about the year 1675, queen Catharine ordered Crowne to write a Paftoral called CALISTO, which was acted at court by the ladies Mary and Anne daughters of the duke of York, and the young nobility. About the fame time lady Anne, afterwards queen, plaid the part of Semandra, in Lee's MITHRIDATES. young noblemen were inftructed by Betterton, and the princeffes by his wife; who perhaps conceived Shakespeare more fully The than any female that ever appeared on the ftage. In remembrance of her theatrical inftructions, Anne, when queen, affigned Mrs. Betterton an annual pension of one hundred pounds. Langb. DRAM. P. p. 92. edit. 1691. Cibber's APOL. p. 134. This was an early practice in France. In 1540, Margaret de Valois, queen of Navarre, wrote Moralities, which the called PASTORALS, to be acted by the ladies of her court. Printed from a manufcript in Emanuelcollege at Cambridge, by Tho. Davies. WORKS of W. Browne, Lond. 1772. vol. iii. p. 121. In the dedication to the Society the author fays, " If it degenerate in "kinde from those other the fociety hath produced, blame yourselves for not keeping a happier mufe." Wood fays that "Browne "retiring to the inner temple, became famed there for his poetry." ATH. OXON. i. p 492. Thrice Thrice I charge thee by my wand, And with th' iafpis. Then arise In praise of this fong it will be sufficient to say, that it reminds us of fome favorite touches in Milton's Coмus, to which it perhaps gave birth. Indeed one cannot help obferving here in general, although the observation more properly belongs to another place, that a masque thus recently exhibited on the story of Circe, which there is reason to think had acquired fome popularity, fuggefted to Milton the hint of a masque on the ftory of Comus. It would be fuperfluous to point out minutely the abfolute fimilarity of the two characters: they both deal in incantations conducted by the fame mode of operation, and producing effects exactly parallel. From this practice of performing interludes in the inns of court, we may explain a paffage in Shakespeare: but the present establishment of the context embarrasses that explanation, as it perplexes the fentence in other refpects. In the SECOND PART OF HENRY THE FOURTH, Shallow is boasting to his cousin Silence of his heroic exploits when he studied the law at Clement's-inn. "I was once of Clement's "inn, where I think they will talk of mad Shallow yet. "Sil. You were called lufty Shallow then, coufin. Shal. I was called any thing, and I would have done any thing, "indeed too, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, &c. You had not four "fuch fwinge-bucklers in the inns of court again. We "knew where all the Bona Roba's were, &c.-Oh, the mad days that I have spent!" Falstaffe then enters, and, is recognised by Shallow, as his brother-ftudent at Clement's inn; on which, he takes occafion to resume the topic of his juvenile frolics exhibited in London fifty years ago. "She's "old, and had Robin Night work, before I came to Cle"ment's inn.-Ha, coufin Silence, that thou hadst That that "this knight and I have seen! Hah, Sir John, &c." Falstaffe's recruits are next brought forward to be inrolled. One of them is ordered to handle his arms: when Shallow fays, ftill dwelling on the old favorite theme of Clement'sinn, "He is not his craft-mafter, he doth not do it right. I "remember at Mile-End Green, when I lay at Clement's-inn, "I was then Sir Dagonet in ARTHUR'S SHOW, there was a little quiver fellow, and he would manage you his piece thus, &c." Does he mean, that he acted fir Dagonet at Mile-end Green, or at Clement's-inn? By the application of a parenthesis only, the paffage will be cleared from ambiguity, and the fenfe I would affign will appear to be juft." I re"member at Mile-end Green, (when I lay at Clement's-inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in ARTHUR'S SHOW,) there was a little quiver fellow, &c." That is, "I remember, when "I was a very young man at Clement's-inn, and not fit to "act any higher part than Sir Dagonet in the interludes. "which we used to play in the fociety, that among the foldiers "who were exercised in Mile-end Green, there was one remark «able fellow, &c." The performance of this part of Sir Dagonet was another of Shallow's feats at Clement's-inn, on which he delights to expatiate: a circumftance, in the mean time, quite foreign to the purpose of what he is saying, but introduced, on that account, to heighten the ridicule of his character. Juft as he had told Silence, a little before, that he faw Schoggan's head broke by Falstaffe at the court-gate, In the text, "When I laid at Clement's inn," is lodged, or lived. So Leland. "An "old manor-place, where in tymes paste "fum of the Moulbrays LAY for a starte." That is LIVED for a time, or fometimes. ITIN. vol. i. fol. 119. Again, "Maister Page hath translated the House, and now "much LYITH there." Ibid. fol. 121. And in many other places. " and " and the very fame day, I did fight with one Sampfon Stockfith, a fruiterer, behind Gray's-inn." Not to mention the fatire implied in making Shallow act Sir Dagonet, who was King Arthur's Fool. ARTHUR'S SHOW, here fuppofed to have been presented at Clement's-inn, was probably an interlude, or mafque, which actually exifted, and was very popular, in Shakespeare's age: and feems to have been compiled from Mallory's MORTE ARTHUR, or the history of king Arthur, then recently published, and the favorite and moft fashionable romance'. When the focieties of the law performed these shews within their own respective refectories, at Christmas, or any other festival, a Christmas-prince, or revel-master, was constantly appointed. At a Christmas celebrated in the hall of the Middle-temple, in the year 1635, the jurifdiction, privileges, and parade, 'of this mock-monarch, are thus circumftantially described. He was attended by his lord keeper, lord treasurer, with eight white staves, a captain of his band of pensioners and of his guard; and with two chaplains, who were so seriously impreffed with an idea of his regal dignity, that when they preached before him on the preceding Sunday in the Temple church, on ascending the pulpit, they faluted him with three low bows. He dined, both in the hall, and in his privy-chamber, under a cloth of estate. The pole-axes for his gentlemen penfioners were borrowed of lord Salisbury. Lord Holland, his temporary Juftice in Eyre, fupplied him with venifon, on demand: and the lord mayor and fheriffs of London, with wine. On twelfth-day, at going to church, he received many petitions, 1 That Mile-end green was the place for public fports and exercifes, we learn from Eroiffart. In the affair of Tyler and Straw he fays, "Then the kynge fende to them "that they fhulde all drawe to a fayre "playne place, called Myle-end, where the ." people of the cytie did sport themselves "in the fomer feafon." &c. Berner's TRANSL. tom. i. c. 383. f. 262. a. See alfo Dugd. ORIG. Jurid. p. 151. where many of the circumstances of this officer are defcribed at large: who also mentions, at Lincoln's-inn, a KING OF THE COCKNEYS on childermas-day, cap. 64. ·P. 247. which he gave to his master of requests: And, like other kings, he had a favorite, whom, with others, gentlemen of high quality, he knighted at returning from church. His expences, all from his own purfe, amounted to two thoufand pounds. We are alfo told, that in the year 1635, "On Shrovetide at night, the lady Hatton feafted the king, queen, and princes, at her house in Holborn. The Wednesday before, the PRINCE OF THE TEMPLE invited the prince Elector and his brother to a Masque at the Temple', "which was very compleatly fitted for the variety of the "scenes, and excellently well performed. Thither came the queen with three of her ladies difguifed, all clad in the "attire of citizens.-This done, the PRINCE was depofed, "but fince the king knighted him at Whitehall *.' But these spectacles and entertainments in our law-focieties, not so much because they were romantic and ridiculous in their mode of exhibition, as that they were inftitutions celebrated for the purposes of merriment and festivity, were fuppreffed or fufpended under the falfe and illiberal ideas of reformation and religion, which prevailed in the fanatical court of Cromwell. The countenance afforded by a polite court to such entertainments, became the leading topic of animadverfion and abuse in the miferable declamations of the puritan theologifts; who attempted the business of national reformation without any knowledge of the nature of society, and whofe cenfures proceeded not so much from principles of a purer morality, as from a narrowness of mind, and from that ignorance of human affairs which neceffarily accompanies the operations of enthusiasm. h STRAFFOLDE'S LETTERS, ut fupr. vol. i. p. 507. The writer adds, “ All "this is done, to make them fit to give the "prince elector a royal entertainment, "with masks, dancings, and fome other "exercises of wit in orations or arraing"ments, that day they invite him." This, I think, was Davenant's TRI UMPHS OF PRINCE D'AMOUR, written at |