Chapter XVII: Masks and Misrule (10)

[1430] Stowe, _Survey_ (ed. Thoms), 37, from a fragment of an English chronicle, in a sixteenth-century hand, in _Harl. MS._ 247, f. 172^v (cf. _Archaeologia_, xxii. 208). I print the original text, which Stowe paraphrases, introducing, e.g., the term ‘maskers’: ‘At y^e same tyme y^e Comons of London made great sporte and solemnity to y^e yong prince: for upon y^e monday next before y^e purification of our lady at night and in y^e night were 130 men disguizedly aparailed and well mounted on horsebacke to goe on mumming to y^e said prince, riding from Newgate through Cheape whear many people saw them with great noyse of minstralsye, trumpets, cornets and shawmes and great plenty of waxe torches lighted and in the beginning they rid 48 after y^e maner of esquiers two and two together clothed in cotes and clokes of red say or sendall and their faces covered with vizards well and handsomely made: after these esquiers came 48 like knightes well arayed after y^e same maner: after y^e knightes came one excellent arrayed and well mounted as he had bene an emperor: after him some 100 yards came one nobly arayed as a pope and after him came 24 arayed like cardinals and after y^e cardinals came 8 or 10 arayed and with black vizardes like deuils appearing nothing amiable seeming like legates, riding through London and ouer London bridge towards Kenyton wher y^e yong prince made his aboad with his mother and the D. of Lancaster and y^e Earles of Cambridge, Hertford Warrick and Suffolk and many other lordes which were with him to hould the solemnity, and when they were come before y^e mansion they alighted on foot and entered into y^e haule and sone after y^e prince and his mother and y^e other lordes came out of y^e chamber into y^e haule, and y^e said mummers saluted them, shewing a pair of dice upon a table to play with y^e prince, which dice were subtilly made that when y^e prince shold cast he shold winne and y^e said players and mummers set before y^e prince three jewels each after other: and first a balle of gould, then a cupp of gould, then a gould ring, y^e which y^e said prince wonne at thre castes as before it was appointed, and after that they set before the prince’s mother, the D. of Lancaster, and y^e other earles euery one a gould ringe and y^e mother and y^e lordes wonne them. And then y^e prince caused to bring y^e wyne and they dronk with great joye, commanding y^e minstrels to play and y^e trompets began to sound and other instruments to pipe &c. And y^e prince and y^e lordes dansed on y^e one syde, and y^e mummers on y^e other a great while and then they drank and tooke their leaue and so departed toward London.’ Collier, i. 26, speaks of earlier mummings recorded by Stowe in 1236 and 1298; but Stowe only names ‘pageants’ (cf. ch. xxiii). M. Paris, _Chronica Maiora_ (R. S. lvii), v. 269, mentions ‘vestium transformatarum varietatem’ at the wedding of Alexander III of Scotland and Margaret of England in 1251, but this probably means ‘a succession of rapidly changed robes.’

[1431] _A Chronicle of London_ (†1442, ed. N. H. Nicolas or E. Tyrrell, 1827), 85 ‘to have sclayn the kyng ... be a mommynge’; _Incerti Scriptoris Chronicon_ (before 1455, ed. J. A. Giles), 7 ‘conduxerunt lusores Londoniam, ad inducendum regi praetextum gaudii et laetitiae iuxta temporis dispositionem, ludum nuncupatum Anglice Mummynge’; Capgrave, _Chronicle of England_ (†1464, R. S.), 275 ‘undir the coloure of mummeris in Cristmasse tyme’; _An English Chronicle_ (†1461-71, C. S.), 20 ‘to make a mommyng to the king ... and in that mommyng they purposid to sle him’; Fabian, _Chronicle_, 567 ‘a dysguysynge or a mummynge.’ But other chroniclers say that the outbreak was to be at a tournament, e.g. _Continuatio Eulogii_ (R. S. ix), iii. 385; _Annales Henrici_ (R. S. xxviii), 323 ‘Sub simulatione natalitiorum vel hastiludiorum.’ I suppose ‘natalitia’ is ‘Christmas games’ and might cover a mumming. Hall, _Chronicle_ (ed. 1809), 16, makes it ‘justes.’ So does Holinshed (ed. 1586), iii. 514, 516, but he knew both versions; ‘them that write how the king should have beene made awaie at a justs; and other that testifie, how it should have been at a maske or mummerie’; cf. Wylie, _Henry the Fourth_, i. 93; Ramsay, _L. and Y._ i. 20.

[1432] Stowe, _Survey_ (ed. Thoms), 37, doubtless from _A Chronicle of London_ (†1442, _ut supra_), 87. I do not find the mumming named in other accounts of the visit.

[1433] _Gregory’s Chronicle_ (before 1467, in _Hist. Collections of a Citizen of London_, C. S.), 108 ‘the whyche Lollers hadde caste to have made a mommynge at Eltham, and undyr coloure of the mommynge to have destryte the Kynge and Hooly Chyrche.’

[1434] _Acte against disguysed persons and Wearing of Visours_ (3 Hen. VIII, c. 9). The preamble states that ‘lately wythin this realme dyvers persons have disgysed and appareld theym, and covert theyr fayces with Vysours and other thynge in such manner that they sholde nott be knowen and divers of theym in a Companye togeder namyng them selfe Mummers have commyn to the dwellyng place of divers men of honor and other substanciall persones; and so departed unknowen.’ Offenders are to be treated as ‘Suspectes or Vacabundes.’

[1435] The _Promptorium Parvulorum_ (†1440 C. S.), ii. 348, translates ‘_Mummynge_’ by ‘_mussacio vel mussatus_’ (‘murmuring’ or ‘keeping silence,’ conn. _mutus_), and gives a cognate word ‘Mummȳn, as they that noȝt speke _Mutio_.’ This is of course the ordinary sense of _mum_. But Skeat (_Etym. Dict._ s.v.) derives ‘mummer’ from the Dutch through Old French, and explains it by the Low German _Mumme_, a ‘mask.’ He adds ‘The word is imitative, from the sound _mum_ or _mom_, used by nurses to frighten or amuse children, at the same time pretending to cover their faces.’ Whether the fourteenth-century mumming was silent or not, there is no reason to suppose that the primitive folk-procession out of which it arose was unaccompanied by dance and song; and silence is rarely, if ever (cf. p. 211) _de rigueur_ in modern ‘guisings.’

[1436] They are in _Trin. Coll. Camb. MS._ R. iii. 20 (Shirley’s; cf. E. P. Hammond, _Lydgate’s Mumming at Hertford_ in _Anglia_, xxii. 364), and copied by or for Stowe ‘out of þe boke of John Sherley’ in _B. M. Add. MS._ 29729, f. 132 (cf. E. Sieper, _Lydgate’s Reson and Sensuallyte_, E. E. T. S. i. xvi). The Hertford verses have been printed by Miss Hammond (_loc. cit._) and the others by Brotanek, 306. I do not find any notice of disguisings when Henry VI spent the Christmas of 1433 at Lydgate’s own monastery of Bury St. Edmunds (F. A. Gasquet. _A Royal Christmas_ in _The Old English Bible_, 226). Devon, _Issues of the Exchequer_, 473, notes a payment for the king’s ‘plays and recreations’ at Christmas, 1449.

[1437] ‘A lettre made in wyse of balade by daun Johan, brought by a poursuyant in wyse of Mommers desguysed to fore þe Mayre of London, Eestfeld, vpon þe twelffeþe night of Cristmasse, ordeyned Ryallych by þe worthy Merciers, Citeseyns of london’ and ‘A lettre made in wyse of balade by ledegate daun Johan, of a mommynge, whiche þe Goldesmythes of þe Cite of London mommed in Right fresshe and costele welych desguysing to þeyre Mayre Eestfeld, vpon Candelmasse day at nyght, affter souper; brought and presented vn to þe Mayre by an heraude, cleped ffortune.’ The Mercer’s pursuivant is sent from Jupiter; the Goldsmiths’ mummers are David and the twelve tribes. The Levites were to sing. William Eastfield was mayor 1429-30 and 1437-8. Brotanek, 306, argues that, as a second term is not alluded to, this was probably the first. Fairholt, _Lord Mayors’ Pageants_, ii. 240, prints a similar letter of Lydgate’s sent to the Sheriffs at a May-day dinner.

[1438] ‘A balade made by daun John Lidegate at Eltham in Cristmasse for a momyng tofore þe kyng and þe Qwene.’ Bacchus, Juno and Ceres send gifts ‘by marchandes þat here be.’ The same collections contain a balade, ‘gyven vnto þe Kyng Henry and to his moder the quene Kateryne sittyng at þe mete vpon the yeares day in the castell of Hertford.’ Some historical allusions make 1427 a likely date (Brotanek, 305).

[1439] ‘Þe devyse of a momyng to fore þe kyng henry þe sixte, beinge in his Castell of wyndesore, þe fest of his crystmasse holdyng þer, made by lidegate daun John, þe munk of Bury, howe þampull and þe floure delys came first to þe Kynges of ffraunce by myrakle at Reynes.’ An allusion to Henry’s coming coronation in Paris fixes the date to 1429-30.

[1440] ‘Þe deuyse of a desguysing to fore þe gret estates of þis lande, þane being at London, made by Lidegate daun Johan, þe Munk of Bury, of dame fortune, dame prudence, dame Rightwysnesse and dame ffortitudo. beholdeþe, for it is moral, plesaunt and notable.’ A fifth dame is ‘Attemperaunce.’ The time is ‘Cristmasse.’ An elaborate pageant in which Fortune dwelt is described. A song is directed at the close. Henry V is spoken of as dead.

[1441] ‘Nowe foloweth here the maner of a bille by weye of supplycation put to the kynge holdinge his noble fest of crystmasse in the castell of hartford as in dysguysinge of þe rude vpplandishe people complayninge on their wyues with the boystrus answere of ther wyues deuysed by lidgate at þe requeste of the countrowlore Brys slain at louiers.’ Louviers was taken by the French in 1430 and besieged next year (Brotanek, 306). The text has marginal notes, ‘demonstrando vj rusticos,’ &c.

[1442] Cf. p. 393. There is a disguising of 1483 in the Howard Accounts (Appendix E, vii).

[1443] _L. H. T. Accounts_, i. ccxl ‘Iohanni Rate, pictori, pro le mumre regis’ (1465-6); ad le mumre grath’ (1466-7).

[1444] Ibid. i. lxxix, cxliv, ccxxxix; ii. lxxi, cx; iii. xlvi, lv, and passim, have many payments for dances at court, of which some were morris dances, with ‘leg-harnis,’ and also to ‘madinnis,’ ‘gysaris,’ or ‘dansaris’ who ‘dansit’ or ‘playit’ to the king in various parts of the country.

[1445] Campbell, _Materials for a Hist. of Henry VII_ (R. S.), _passim_; Collier, i. 38-64; Bentley, _Excerpta Historica_, 85-133; Leland, _Collectanea_, iii. 256.

[1446] Collier, i. 58, from _Harl. MS._ 69. A word which Collier prints ‘Maskers’ is clearly a misprint for ‘Masters,’ and misleading.

[1447] Ibid. i. 53. The ‘morris’ provided a grotesque element, analogous to the ‘antimasque’ of Jonson’s day.

[1448] Ibid. i. 24, from _Fairfax MSS._ Of this _Booke of all manner of Orders concerning an Earle’s house_ ‘some part is dated 16 Henry VII, although the handwriting appears to be that of the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII.’

[1449] Hall, 513; Brewer, ii. 1490.

[1450] _Hen. VIII_, i. 4; Hall, 719; Stowe, _Chronicle_, 845; Cavendish, _Life of Wolsey_, 112; Boswell-Stone, _Shakespeare’s Holinshed_, 441; R. Brown, _Venetian Papers_, iv. 3, 4.

[1451] Brewer, iii. 1552.

[1452] Ibid. iv. 1390-3; Hall, 722.

[1453] Ibid. ii. 1495, 1497, 1499, 1501, 1509; iii. 1558.

[1454] Hall, 597, speaks of a disguising in 1519, which apparently included ‘a goodly commedy of Plautus’ and a mask. Away from court in 1543 four players were committed to the Counter for ‘unlawful disguising’ (_P. C. Acts_, i. 109, 110, 122). They surely played interludes. It may be further noted (i) the elaborate disguisings of Henry VII and Henry VIII, with much action and speechifying besides the dancing, are difficult to distinguish when merely described from interludes. What Hall, 518, calls in 1511 an interlude, seems from the Revels Accounts (Brewer, ii. 1495) to have been really a disguising. Hall, 641, speaks of a ‘disguisyng or play’ in 1522, and Cavendish, _Life of Wolsey_, i. 136, of a ‘disguising or interlude’ in 1527; (ii) a disguising or dance might be introduced, as _entr’acte_ or otherwise, into an interlude. In 1514 an interlude ‘conteyned a moresk of vj persons and ij ladys’ (Collier, i. 68). In 1526 a moral play was ‘set forth with straunge deuises of Maskes and Morrishes’ (Hall, 719). The interlude of _The Nature of the Four Elements_ (early Hen. VIII) has after the _dramatis personae_ the direction, ‘Also yf ye lyst ye may brynge in a dysgysynge’; cf. Soergel, 21.

[1455] Hall, 526.

[1456] Evans, xxi. Other not very plausible suggestions are made by Ward, i. 150; Soergel, 13. There is a good account of the Italian _mascherata_ from about 1474 in Symonds, _Shakespeare’s Predecessors_, 321.

[1457] Brewer, ii. 1497. There is a further entry in an account of 1519 (Brewer, iii. 35) of a revel, called a ‘masklyne,’ after the manner of Italy.

[1458] ‘Maske’ first appears in 1514 (Collier, i. 79 ‘iocorum larvatorum, vocat. Maskes, Revelles, and Disguysings’); ‘masque’ is not English until the seventeenth century (Evans, xiii). Skeat derives through the French _masque_, _masquer_, _masquerer_, and the Spanish _mascara_, _mascarada_ (Ital. _mascherata_) from the Arabic _maskharat_, a buffoon or droll (root _sakhira_, ‘he ridiculed’). The original sense would thus be ‘entertainment’ and that of ‘face-mask’ (_larva_, ‘vizard,’ ‘viser’) only derivative. But late Latin has already _masca_, _talamasca_ in this sense; e.g. Burchardus of Worms, _Coll. Decretorum_ (before 1024), bk. ii. c. 161 ‘nec larvas daemonum quas vulgo Talamascas dicunt, ibi ante se ferri consentiat’; cf. Ducange, s.v. _Talamasca_; Pfannenschmidt, 617, with some incorrect etymology. And the French _masque_ is always the face-mask and never the performance; while _se masquier_, _masquillier_, _maschurer_, are twelfth-to thirteenth-century words for ‘blacken,’ ‘dirty.’ I therefore prefer the derivation of Brotanek, 120, from a Germanic root represented by the M. E. _maskel_ ‘stain’; and this has the further advantage of explaining ‘maskeler,’ ‘maskeling,’ which appear, variously spelt, in documents of †1519-26. Both terms signify the performance, and ‘maskeler’ the performer also (Brotanek, 122). Face-masks were _de rigueur_ in the Mask to a late date. In 1618 John Chamberlain writes ‘the gentlemen of Gray’s Inn came to court with their show, for I cannot call it a masque, seeing they were not disguised, nor had vizards’ (Nichols, _James I_, iii. 468).

[1459] Ben Jonson, iii. 162. _Masque of Augurs_ (1623) ‘Disguise was the old English word for a masque, sir, before you were an implement belonging to the Revels’; ii. 476, _A Tale of a Tub_ (1634), v. 2:

‘_Pan._ A masque! what’s that?

_Scriben._ A mumming or a shew,
With vizards and fine clothes.

_Clench._ A disguise, neighbour,
Is the true word.’

[1460] Cf. ch. x. Less dramatic performances are described for the ‘guizards’ of the Scottish Lowlands by R. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, 169, for the ‘mummers’ of Ireland in _N. and Q._ 3rd series, viii. 495, for the ‘mummers’ of Yorkshire in _F. L._ iv. 162. The latter sweep the hearth, humming ‘mumm-m-m.’

[1461] _L. H. T. Accounts_, i. ccxl, 270, 327; ii. cx, 111, 320, 374, 430, 431; iii. 127. In 1504 is a payment ‘to the barbour helit Paules hed quhen he wes hurt with the Abbot of Unresoun.’ Besides the court Abbot, there was an ‘Abbot of Unresone of Linlithgow’ in 1501, who ‘dansit to the king,’ and an ‘Abbot of Unresoun of the pynouris of Leith’ in 1504. Such entries cease after the Scottish Act of Parliament of 1555 (cf. p. 181).

[1462] Stowe, _Survey_, 37 ‘There was in the feast of Christmas in the King’s house, wheresoever he was lodged, a Lord of Misrule or Master of Merry Disports; and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of honour or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal. Among the which, the Mayor of London and either of the Sheriffs had their several Lords of Misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make the rarest pastimes to delight the beholders. These Lords beginning their rule on Allhollons eve, continued the same til the morrow after the feast of the Purification, commonly called Candlemas-day. In all which space there were fine and subtle disguisings, masks and mummeries’; Holinshed (ed. 1587), iii. 1067 ‘What time [at Christmas], of old ordinarie course, there is alwaies one appointed to make sport in the court, called commonlie lord of misrule: whose office is not unknowne to such as haue beene brought up in noble mens houses, & among great house keepers which use liberall feasting in that season.’ The sense of ‘misrule’ in this phrase is ‘disorder’; cf. the ‘uncivil rule’ of _Twelfth Night_, ii. 3. 132.

[1463] Collier, i. 48-55; Bentley, _Excerpt. Historica_, 90, 92; Leland, _Collectanea_ (ed. Hearne), iv. 255. The ‘Lords’ named are one Ringley in 1491, 1492, and 1495, and William Wynnesbury in 1508. In this year the terms ‘Lordship’ and ‘Abbot’ are both used. The ‘Lord’ got a fee each year of £6 13_s._ 4_d._ Also the queen (1503) gave him £1.

[1464] Collier, i. 74, 76; Brewer, i. cxi. Wynnesbury was Lord in 1509, 1511 to 1515, and 1519, Richard Pole in 1516, Edmund Trevor in 1518, William Tolly in 1520. The fees gradually rise to £13 6_s._ 8_d._ and a ‘rewarde’ of £2. Madden, _Expenses of Princess Mary_, xxvi, enters a gift in 1520 ‘domino mali gubernatoris [? gubernationis] hospicii domini Regis.’

[1465] Brewer, vii. 589.

[1466] Madden, _op. cit._ xxviii. He was John Thurgood.

[1467] Ellis, _Original Letters_ (1st series), i. 270.

[1468] Campbell, _Materials for Hist. of Hen. VII_ (R. S.), i. 337; ii. 60, 83; Collier, i. 50; Yorke, _Hardwicke Papers_, 19. Payments are made for ‘revels’ or ‘disguisings’ to Richard Pudsey ‘serjeant of the cellar,’ Walter Alwyn, Peche, Jaques Haulte, ‘my Lord Suff, my Lord Essex, my Lord Will^m, and other,’ John Atkinson, Lewes Adam, ‘master Wentworth.’ In 1501 Jaques Hault and William Pawne are appointed to devise disguisings and morisques for a wedding. The term ‘Master of the Revels’ is in none of these cases used. But in an ‘Order for sitting in the King’s great Chamber,’ dated Dec. 31, 1494 (_Ordinances and Regulations_, Soc. Antiq. 113), it is laid down that ‘if the master of revells be there, he may sit with the chaplains or with the squires or gentlemen ushers.’

[1469] _Revels Accounts_ (Brewer, ii. 1490; iii. 1548), s. ann. 1510, 1511, 1512, 1513, 1515, 1517, 1522; Brewer, i. 718; ii. 1441; xiv. 2. 284; Kempe, 69; Collier, i. 68. Guildford is several times called ‘master of the revels’; so is Harry Wentworth in 1510. In 1522 Guildford is ‘the hy kountrolleler.’ It was the ‘countrowlore’ at whose request Lydgate prepared one of his disguisings (p. 398).

[1470] Rymer, xv. 62 ‘dedimus et concessimus eidem Thomae officium Magistri Iocorum Revelorum & Mascorum omnium & singularium nostrorum vulgariter nuncupatorum Revells & Masks.’ The tenure of office was to date from March 16, 1544, and the annual fee was £10.

[1471] Collier, i. 79, 131, 139, 153; Kempe, 69, 73, 93, 101; _Molyneux Papers_ (Hist. MS. Comm., seventh Rep.), 603, 614; Brewer, ii. 2. 1517; xiii. 2. 100; xiv. 2. 159, 284; xvi. 603; Halliwell, _A Collection of Ancient Documents respecting the Office of Master of the Revels_ (1870); P. Cunningham, _Extracts from the Accounts of Revels at Court_ (Sh. Soc. 1842).

[1472] Kempe, 19; Collier, i. 147; Holinshed (_ut cit. supra_, p. 403); W. F. Trench, _A Mirror for Magistrates, its Origin and Influence_, 66, 76.

[1473] Kempe, 23. One of Ferrers’ letters to Cawarden is endorsed ‘Ferryrs, the Lorde Myserable, by the Cunsell’s aucketorryte.’ Ferrers solemnly heads his communications ‘Qui est et fuit,’ and alludes to the king as ‘our Founder.’

[1474] Kempe, 85.

[1475] Ibid. 28.

[1476] Machyn, 13.

[1477] Kempe, 32; Collier, i. 148; W. F. Trench, _op. cit._ 21; D. N. B. s. v. _William Baldwin_; G[ulielmus] B[aldwin] _Beware the Cat_ (1570, reprinted by Halliwell, 1864). In this pamphlet Baldwin tells a story heard by him at court ‘the last Christmas,’ where he was with ‘Maister Ferrers, then maister of the King’s Majesties pastimes.’ The date seems fixed to 1552 by a mention of ‘Maister Willott and Maister Stremer, the one his [Ferrers’] Astronomer, the other his Divine’ (cf. Kempe, 34). The pamphlet was probably printed in 1553 and suppressed.

[1478] Machyn, 28; Stowe, _Annals_, 608. Abraham Fleming in Holinshed (ed. 1587), copying Stowe, transfers the events of this Christmas by mistake to 1551-2.

[1479] Kempe, 53; cf. p. 369.

[1480] Ibid. 47.

[1481] The letter from Ferrers dated in Kempe, 37 ‘Saynt John’s Daye, ano 1553,’ clearly belongs to the Christmas of 1552. The additional garments asked for therein are in the accounts for that year (Kempe, 52).

[1482] A. Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_ (ed. Bliss), iii. 480 ‘The custom was not only observed in that [St. John’s] college, but in several other houses, particularly in Merton College, where, from the first foundation, the fellows annually elected, about St. Edmund’s day, in November, a Christmas lord, or lord of misrule, styled in their registers _Rex Fabarum_ and _Rex Regni Fabarum_; which custom continued until the reformation of religion, and then, that producing puritanism, and puritanism presbytery, the profession of it looked upon such laudable and ingenious customs as popish, diabolical and antichristian’; _Hist. and Antiq. of the Univ. of Oxford_, ii. 136, ‘s. a. 1557’ mentions an oration ‘de ligno et foeno’ made by David de la Hyde, in praise of ‘Mr. Jasper Heywood, about this time King, or Christmas Lord, of the said Coll. [Merton] being it seems the last that bore that commendable office. That custom hath been as ancient for ought that I know as the College itself, and the election of them after this manner. On the 19th of November, being the vigil of S. Edmund, king and martyr, letters under seal were pretended to have been brought from some place beyond sea, for the election of a king of Christmas, or Misrule, sometimes called with us of the aforesaid college, Rex Fabarum. The said letters being put into the hands of the Bachelaur Fellows, they brought them into the Hall that night, and standing, sometimes walking, round the fire, there reading the contents of them, would choose the senior Fellow that had not yet borne that office, whether he was a Doctor of Divinity, Law, or Physic, and being so elected, had power put into his hands of punishing all misdemeanours done in the time of Christmas, either by imposing exercises on the juniors, or putting into the stocks at the end of the Hall any of the servants, with other punishments that were sometimes very ridiculous. He had always a chair provided for him, and would sit in great state when any speeches were spoken, or justice to be executed, and so this his authority would continue till Candlemas, or much about the time that the Ignis Regentium was celebrated in that college’; _Life and Times_ (O. H. S.), i. 423 ‘Fresh nights, carolling in public halls, Christmas sports, vanished, 1661.’

[1483] The title is borrowed from the Twelfth-Night King; cf. p. 260. Perhaps ‘Rex de Faba’ was an early name for the Lord of Misrule at the English court. In 1334 Edward III made a gift to the minstrels ‘in nomine Regis Fabae’ (Strutt, 344).

[1484] G. C. Brodrick, _Memorials of Merton College_, 46 and _passim_; B. W. Henderson, _Merton College_, 267.

[1485] _The Christmas Prince in 1607_, printed in _Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana_ (1816); M. L. Lee, _Narcissus: A Twelfth Night Merriment_, xvii.

[1486] The Prince’s designation was ‘The most magnificent and renowned THOMAS by the fauour of Fortune, Prince of Alba Fortunata, Lord S^t. Iohn’s, high Regent of y^e Hall, Duke of S^t. Giles, Marquesse of Magdalens, Landgraue of y^e Groue, County Palatine of y^e Cloisters, Cheife Bailiffe of y^e Beaumonts, high Ruler of Rome, Maister of the Man̄or of Waltham, Gouernour of Gloster-greene, Sole Com̄aunder of all Titles, Turneaments and Triumphes, Superintendent in all Solemnities whatsoeuer.’ His seal, a crowned and spotted dog, with the motto _Pro aris et focis_, bears the date 1469. Amongst his officers was a ‘M^r of y^e Reuells.’ His Cofferer was Christopher Wren.

[1487] Wood, _Hist. of Oxford_ (_ut supra_, p. 408), ii. 136, has the following note ‘New Coll. in Cat. MSS., p. 371 ... Magd. Coll. v. Heylin’s Diary, an. 1617, 1619 et 1620.’

[1488] Warton, iii. 304 ‘pro prandio Principis Natalicii eodem tempore xiii^s. ix^d.’

[1489] H. H. Henson, _Letters relating to Oxford in the fourteenth century_ in the Oxford Hist. Soc.’s _Collectanea_, i. 39. The learned editor does not give the MS. from which he takes the letters, but the rest of his collection is from the fourteenth-century _Brit. Mus. Royal MS._ 12 D, xi.

[1490] ‘Quocirca festi praesentis imminenti vigilia, vos ut accepimus in loco potatorio, hora extraordinaria prout moris est, unanimiter congregati, dominum Robertum Grosteste militem in armis scolasticis scitis [Ed. satis] providum et expertum, electione concordi sustulistis ad apicem regiae dignitatis.’

[1491] Cf. p. 279.

[1492] Grosseteste probably became a student at Oxford before 1196. About 1214 he became Chancellor, and it seems hardly likely, as Mr. Stevenson thinks, that he would have been _rex natalicius_ as late as †1233 (F. S. Stevenson, _Robert Grosseteste_, 8, 25, 110). There were of course no colleges †1200; if _rex_, he was _rex_ at a hall. But 1200 is an early date even in the history of the Feast of Fools.

[1493] Cooper, _Annals of Cambridge_, ii. 32; _Stat. Acad. Cantab._ 161.

[1494] Fuller, _Good Thoughts in Worse Times_ (1646), 193 ‘Some sixty years since, in the University of Cambridge it was solemnly debated betwixt the Heads to debarre young schollers of that liberty allowed them in Christmas, as inconsistent with the Discipline of Students. But some grave Governors mentioned the good use thereof, because thereby, in twelve days, they more discover the dispositions of Scholars than in twelve moneths before’; _Hist. of Cambridge_ (ed. M. Prickett and J. Wright), 301 (s. a. 1610-11), describing a University Sermon by Wm. Ames, Fellow of Christ’s, who ‘had (to use his own expression) the place of a watchman for an hour in the tower of the University; and took occasion to inveigh against the liberty taken at that time, especially in such colleges who had lords of misrule, a pagan relic which (he said) as Polidore Vergil showeth, remaineth only in England.’ W. Ames had, in consequence, to ‘forsake his college.’ Polydore Vergil, _de Inventoribus Rerum_, v. 2 (transl. Langley, f. 102^v), speaks of ‘the Christemass Lordes’ of England.

[1495] Cooper, _op. cit._ ii. 112; Baker, _St. John’s_, ii. 573. Lords in 1545 and 1556.

[1496] Ibid. ii. 111. A lord in 1566. Peile, _Christ’s College_, 54, quotes payments of the time of Edward VI ‘for sedge when the Christenmasse lords came at Candlemas to the Colledge with shewes’; ‘for the lordes of S. Andrewes and his company resorting to the Colledge.’ These were perhaps from the city; cf. p. 419.

[1497] Dee, _Compendious Rehearsal_ (_Chronicle of John of Glastonbury_, ed. T. Hearne, 502), ‘in that College also (by my advice and by my endeavors, divers ways used with all the other colleges) was their Christmas Magistrate first named and confirmed an Emperor. The first was one Mr. Thomas Dun, a very goodly man of person, stature and complexion, and well learned also.’ Warton, iii. 302, describes a draught of the college statutes in _Rawl. MS. 233_, in which cap. xxiv is headed ‘de Praefecto Ludorum qui Imperator dicitur,’ and provides for the superintendence by the Imperator of the _Spectacula_ at Christmas and Candlemas. But the references to the Imperator have been struck out with a pen, and the title altered to ‘de Comoediis Ludisque in natali Christi exhibendis.’ This is the title of cap. xxiv as actually issued in 1560 (Mullinger, _University of Cambridge_, 579). The earlier statutes of 1552 have no such chapter.

[1498] H. King, _Funeral Sermon of Bishop Duppa_ (1662), 34 ‘Here he had the greatest dignity which the School could afford put upon him, to be the Paedonomus at Christmas, Lord of his fellow scholars: which title was a pledge and presage that, from a Lord in jeast, he should, in his riper age, become one in earnest’; cf. J. Sargeaunt, _Annals of Westminster School_, 64.

[1499] _Records of Lincoln’s Inn: Black Books_, i. 1.

[1500] _Paston Letters_, i. 186. The names of two gentlemen chosen stewards this year at the Middle and Inner Temples are mentioned.

[1501] Fortescue, _de Laudibus_, cap. xlix.

[1502] _N. E. D._ s. v. _Cockney_, supposes the word to be here used in the sense of ‘cockered child,’ ‘mother’s darling.’

[1503] _Records of Lincoln’s Inn: Black Books_, i. xxx, 181, 190; ii. xxvii, 191; iii. xxxii, 440; W. Dugdale, 246; W. Herbert, 314; J. A. Manning, _Memoirs of Rudyerd_, 16; J. Evelyn, _Diary_ (s. ann. 1661-2). As an appendix to vol. iii of the Black Book is reprinted ’Εγκυκλοχορεία, or _Universal Motion_, Being part of that Magnificent Entertainment by the noble Prince de la Grange, Lord Lieutenant of Lincoln’s Inn. Presented to the High and Mighty Charles II’ (1662). Evelyn mentions the ‘solemne foolerie’ of the Prince de la Grange.

[1504] Cf. p. 257.

[1505] ‘Supper ended, the Constable-Marshall presenteth himself with Drums afore him, mounted upon a Scaffold, born by four men; and goeth three times round about the Harthe, crying out aloud “A Lorde, a Lorde, &c.”--Then he descendeth and goeth to dance, &c., & after he calleth his Court, every one by name, in this manner: “Sir Francis Flatterer, of Fowleshurst, in the county of Buckingham. Sir Randle Rackabite, of Rascall Hall, in the County of Rakehell. Sir Morgan Mumchance, of Much Monkery, in the County of Mad Mopery. Sir Bartholmew Baldbreech, of Buttocke-bury, in the County of Brekeneck”.... About Seaven of the Clocke in the Morning the Lord of Misrule is abroad, and if he lack any Officer or attendant, he repaireth to their Chambers, and compelleth them to attend in person upon him after Service in the Church, to breakfast, with Brawn, Mustard, and Malmsey. After Breakfast ended, his Lordship’s power is in suspence, until his personal presence at night; and then his power is most potent.’

[1506] W. Dugdale, 153; Herbert, 205, 254; F. A. Inderwick, _Calendar of the I. T. Records_, i. xxxiv, 3, 75, 171, 183.

[1507] G. Legh, _Accedens of Armory_ (1562), describes the proceedings; cf. Dugdale, 151; Herbert, 248; Inderwick, _op. cit._ lxiv, 219. Machyn, 273, mentions the riding through London of this ‘lord of mysrull’ on Dec. 27.

[1508] Cf. references for _Gesta Grayorum_ in p. 417.

[1509] Ashton, 155, quoting _The Reign of King Charles_ (1655) ‘A Lieutenant, which we country folk call a Lord of Misrule.’ In the sixteenth century the lieutenant was only an officer of the constable-marshal.

[1510] Dugdale, 149; Herbert, 201.

[1511] Dugdale, 202, 205; Herbert, 215, 231, 235.

[1512] J. A. Manning, _Memoirs of Rudyerd_, 9. Carleton wrote to Chamberlain on Dec. 29, 1601, that ‘Mrs. Nevill, who played her prizes, and bore the belle away in the Prince de Amour’s revels, is sworn maid of honour’ (_Cal. S. P. Dom. Eliz._ 1601-3, 136).

[1513] Dugdale, 191.

[1514] G. Garrard to Strafford (_Strafford Letters_, i. 507); Warton, iii. 321; Ward, iii. 173.

[1515] Dugdale, 285; Herbert, 333; R. J. Fletcher, _Pension Book of Gray’s Inn_ (1901), xxviii, xxxix, xlix, 68 and passim.

[1516] His full title was ‘The High and Mighty Prince Henry, Prince of Purpoole, Arch-duke of Stapulia and Bernardia, Duke of High and Nether Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles and Tottenham, Count Palatine of Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell, Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington, Kentish Town, Paddington and Knightsbridge, Knight of the most heroical Order of the Helmet, and Sovereign of the same.’

[1517] Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 122; Ward, ii. 27, 628; Sandys, 93; Spedding, _Works of Bacon_, viii. 235; S. Lee, _Life of Shakespeare_, 70; W. R. Douthwaite, _Gray’s Inn_, 227; Fletcher, 107. A full description of the proceedings is in the _Gesta Grayorum_ (1688), reprinted in Nichols, _Progresses of Elizabeth_, iii. 262.

[1518] Douthwaite, _op. cit._ 234; Fletcher, 72, 299; Nichols, _Progresses of James I_, iii. 466. To this year belong the proceedings of ‘Henry the Second,’ Prince of Purpoole, printed by Nichols, _Eliz._ iii. 320, as the ‘Second Part’ of the _Gesta Grayorum_; cf. Hazlitt, _Manual_, 95, 161. ‘Henry the Second, Prince of Graya and Purpulia,’ was a subscriber to Minsheu’s _Dictionary_ (1617). An earlier Prince of Purpoole is recorded in 1587 (Fletcher, 78).

[1519] Dugdale, 281, 286; Herbert, 334, 336.

[1520] Douthwaite, _op. cit._ 243, 245.

[1521] Percy, _N. H. B._ 344, 346.

[1522] Machyn, 125.

[1523] _Archaeologia_, xviii. 333; Ashton, 144. Other passages showing that lords of misrule were appointed in private houses are given by Hazlitt-Brand, i. 272.

[1524] Ashton, 144; cf. p. 407.

[1525] _Hist. of Cov._ in Fordun, _Scotichronicon_, ed. Hearne, v. 1450; Morris, 353.

[1526] Cf. p. 261.

[1527] Machyn, 162, 274. The Westminster lord seems to have been treated with scant courtesy, for ‘he was browth in-to the contur in the Pultre; and dyver of ys men lay all nyght ther.’

[1528] Cf. p. 173.

[1529] Brewer, ix. 364. The lord of misrule was chosen in the church ‘to solace the parish’ at Christmas.

[1530] Cf. p. 181.