Chapter XV (2)

There is a good deal of information about the dresses of the actors in the pageants. Annas and Caiaphas wore "mitres,"[706] Christ and Peter wigs of a gold colour.[707] The tormentors who took part in the scourging had jackets of "blake bokeram" ... with nayles and dysse (dice) upon them.[708] It was the custom for actors to paint their faces.[709] In _Doomsday_ the "saved souls" were clothed in white leather, while those damned were made hideous by blackened faces, and--it seems--a parti-coloured dress of black and yellow, the yellow being so combined as to represent flame.[710] It sounds crude but effective; and effective also, no doubt, was the blare of trumpets when the four angels of the judgment standing on their "pulpits" or raised platform called on the dead to appear before the judgment-seat.

No doubt the artist who painted the blackened and all but invisible fresco of the judgment day over the chancel arch of Trinity church, saw in his mind's eye as he painted Christ seated on the rainbow, with saints and angels, lost and saved souls to His left and right, the rude and realistic representation enacted on the drapers' pageant at Corpus Christi-tide.

Another procession took place on S. George's day,[711] but there is no evidence that any play was acted on this occasion. S. George, however, had a legendary connection with Coventry; and he appears in two occasional pageants, the welcome to Prince Edward in 1474 and that to Prince Arthur in 1498; in the former case with elaborate stage setting, so that there may have been a play in his honour. Another dragon-slayer, S. Margaret, walked in the Corpus Christi procession,[712] and it is possible she may have had a part in the play, as also the other six champions of Christendom, who greeted Queen Margaret in 1457, but here all is conjecture. S. George's long dramatic life in the Mummers' Christmas play in Warwickshire has, of course, only ceased in our time.

Other occasional pageants, noted in the annals, afford us glimpses of tantalising brevity of dramatic shows and gorgeous preparations for the reception of royalty. Thirteen years after Arthur's visit, the prince's brother, King Henry VIII., and Queen Catharine, who must have entered on the eastern side of the city, found at Jordon Well three pageants, embellished with the "nine orders of angels," to greet them. There were others, with "divers beautiful damsels," and "goodly stage play" upon them, but we have no record of the verses composed in the King's honour.[713] While the mercers' pageant stood gallantly trimmed at the Cross Cheaping in 1526 to welcome the Princess Mary. This was before the divorce question had become the talk of Europe, and the daughter of Catherine of Arragon was still held in high honour; so that the citizens made great preparations for her coming, even taking down the heads and quarters of traitors from the gates lest they should annoy the lady's sight.[714]

Fifty years later another sovereign witnessed a memorable performance of the Coventry men. On Hox Tuesday--the Tuesday after the second Sunday after Easter--certain folk-games were held to commemorate, so the historians of the sixteenth century declared, the defeat of the Danes in the eleventh.[715] These games, "invented"--so say the annals--in 1416, fell into disuse soon after the Reformation, but were revived on the occasion of Elizabeth's visit to Kenilworth in 1575. At that time certain "good harted men of Couentree," led on by Captain Cox, alecunner and mason, presented the "olld storiall sheaw" before the Queen, "whereat," Laneham tells us in his delightful letter, quoted in Gascoigne's _Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth Castle_, "her Maiestie laught well," while the players "wear the iocunder ... becauz her highnes had giuen them too buckes and fiue marke in mony to make mery togyther." The play consisted in a sham fight between the English and the Danish "launsknights," but whether accompanied by folk-rymes or no we cannot tell. "Eeuen at the first entree," says Laneham, who greatly enjoyed the fun, "the meeting waxt sumwhat warm.... A valiant captain of great prowez az fiers az a fox assauting a gooz, waz so hardy to give the first stroke: then get they grisly togyther: that great waz the activitee that day too be seen thear a both sidez: ton[716] very eager for purchaz of pray, toother[717] utterly stoout for redemption of libertie: thus, quarrell enflamed fury a both sidez. Twise the Danes had ye better, but at the last conflict, beaten down, ouercom, and many led captiue for triumph by our English weemen." The last detail was no doubt well liked by her majesty, who was certainly proving that she shared in the mettle of these women of long ago, and who could laugh well--that great royal Tudor laugh--at the rude performances of her subjects.

Music was always a great feature of these pageants and processions. "Mynstralcy of harp and lute," or of "small pypis," or that of "orgon pleyinge," formed a part of the greeting which came to Prince Edward from the stages whereon S. Edward, the prophets, or "the iii Kyngs of Colen" or "seint George" were shadowed forth. There were four chosen minstrels or city waits, and it may be remembered how on one occasion the mayor and aldermen sent for these and bade them go before the throng making their way from Whitley to the city, "which is by the space of a mile largely or more," and pipe and play as they went, "like as the people had done a great conquest or victory." The waits played also on less stirring occasions than the opening of Bristow's meadows, being greatly in request at the banquets of the guilds and crafts,[718] and much sought after in all the country round. They wore silver chains and badges charged with the arms of the city,[719] and besides occasional fees given for their performance during feasts, they received a regular "quarteredge," that is to say, a penny from every citizen having "a hallplace," and a halfpenny from every one dwelling in a cottage four times a year for their maintenance.[720]

The citizens themselves delighted in music; some must have been practised singers, as the representation of the Corpus Christi pageants was diversified by songs. One of these, a lullaby from the tailors' and sheremen's play, is so pretty that it will well bear quotation.

"Lully, lulla, thow littell tine child, By by, lully lullay, thow littell tyne child, By by lully lullay. O sisters too, how may we do For to preserve this day This pore yongling, for whom we do singe, By by lully lullay?

Herod, the king, in his raging Chargid he hath this day His men of might in his owne sight All yonge children to slay.

That wo is me, pore child, for thee, And ever morne and may For thi parting nether say nor singe By by, lully lullay."

The provision of these games, pageants and processions must have entailed great cost and labour, yet every member of the various fellowships helped to support them, and bore as well his part in the common labours and duties involved in his citizenship. Every one was compelled to obey the mayor's summons under penalty of a fine, whether called upon to come to the leet, or the council, or to help in the common labour of the town. In 1451, when wars were threatening, the call went round for all to come and aid in the work of cleansing the town ditch.[721] The summons went twice round the town according to the watch, we are told, in "right great charge and in special" to the poor folk, who had to leave their other occupations in consequence, besides paying their quota towards the taxes, which were necessarily heavy at that time. And the council hearing thereof ordered that £12, 10s. should be collected from "thrifty" men to pay for the work, and the poor people spared, save that labourers earning 4d. a day were to pay 1d. or 2d. towards the required sum. In addition to their labour in the common defence, all citizens were required to make one of the company of watchmen when their turn came round, or to find a substitute. Fifteen men usually kept the nightly watch, but in times of disturbance their number was increased; thus in 1450 it was enacted that "forty men of decent, good and honest communication and strong in body ... shall nightly watch and guard the city from the ninth hour until the beating of the bell called daybell,"[722] and the light enabled all to see thief or enemy approach.

Neither were the citizens permitted to shirk the common military duties. At the "view of arms" all the freemen appeared in military accoutrement as suited their degree, and the threat of a siege turned artisans into soldiers and aldermen and councillors "for savegard of the cite" into captains of the wards and guardians of the gates. In 1469--the year of the battle of Edgcote--the city was changed into a very arsensal and barracks, so lively were the military preparations going forward at that time. The city accounts show the heavy charges which the distribution of arms and armour entailed upon the public purse.

"Item," says the _Leet Book_, "delyvered to Robert Onley on Maudelyn day a serpentyne ... for the Newe yate and a honde gunne with a pyke in the ynde and a fowler." To John Hadley for Bishop Gate "i staffe gunne." "Item delyvered to William Saunders, meyr, ii staffe gunnes and a grett gunne with iii chamburs, iii jacks and xxiv arowys." "Item ... to John Wyldgris i gunne with iii chamburs." There also follows the mention of the distribution of jacks and arrows to the various captains,[723] until possibly the supplies ran short, and the last obtained but "i newe jacke and a olde." In the "Lenton" of 1471 the scene was repeated. Guns and pelettes were again delivered to the captains for the gates, and money was hastily collected throughout the wards for the company of soldiers who followed my lord of Warwick to Barnet Field, whereby the citizens incurred King Edward's enmity and great displeasure.

The provision of soldiers according to the terms of the commissions of array, so common in civil warfare, were a heavy tax on municipal resources. When the city officers were ordered by the King's commission to send the local forces to join the royal army, the corporation had to "reteyn" their contingent, provide their dresses, badges and equipment, appoint a captain, and collect money, according to assessment, throughout the wards for their pay. At the beginning of the civil war all went merrily enough, and the citizens threw themselves with right good will into the equipment of the soldiers who were to have gone to St Alban's. But in a few years the artizans, called from their homes and business, were heartily weary of the continual strife, and clamoured for 12d. a day in payment. The hiring of recruits must have become a more difficult matter as time went on, though, like the clinching of all bargains in the Middle Ages, it was accompanied by plentiful drinking. The _Leet Book_ records the following items in July 1470, after Edward IV. had summoned a company of archers to a rendezvous at Nottingham: "dedit ad le sowders ad bibendum xvid.," ... "a gallon wyne vid.," ... "pro ale to the sowders vi_d._"[724] But even after the Wars of the Roses were over we have a sorry picture of the numerous inconveniences attending the hiring of troops. In February 1481, Edward IV. sent commissioners to find out what money or what number of men the burghers would provide in the event of an invasion of Scotland in the summer. After various discussions, commandings and countermandings, it was finally agreed that sixty men should be waged for the royal service for a quarter of a year at a cost of £148, 6s. 6d.; recruits were found and arrows and salets distributed amongst them. More, however, was to be wrung from the reluctant burghers; £40 was collected from 180 of the "most sufficient" men of the town to provide horses and jackets for the soldiery.[725] But sixty archers were not deemed a sufficient contingent by the Court; and when in the following June Lord Rivers came to know if the number could be increased, the mayor called a "Hall" of divers out of every ward to know what the common will was in this matter, and it was finally ordained that the citizens should equip and pay forty additional men, bringing up the number to 100. As all the recruits could not be drawn from the ranks of the townsfolk, the worthy men enlisted the service of strangers, and these had to be kept together, housed and fed, at great trouble and cost[726] until the time for departure. In the end, however, the levy was countermanded, and the troops thus laboriously collected were merely dispersed;[727] a statement of facts the town clerk may be pardoned for recording in a murmuring and discontented spirit.

But however onerous these duties may have been, the Coventry men were loyally proud of their city and citizenship. Albeit a traveller, the mediæval merchant loved, as he loved nothing else on earth, the small stretch of land enclosed by the walls of his native town. He or his ancestors had won and maintained at great cost the city's liberties, and he and they spared no pains to make it beautiful. Historians are wont to despise the English burgher of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by reason of his insignificance and poverty, and his neglect of the highest forms of art, and pointedly contrast his small achievements with those of the merchant princes of Italy, or the proud and daring members of the Hanseatic League. It is true he was a commonplace person, living in what was for his country a commonplace age; nevertheless his doings are worthy of remembrance. If the English townsfolk never produced a Van Eyck or a Da Vinci, a Peter Fischer or a Donatello, they patronised all the local forms of art they knew. They had the same great delight in the common possession of a beautiful object as the people of the Italian republics. Though they lacked wealth to build themselves tall and stately houses like their brethren on the Continent, the English burghers could raise tall steeples, build vast churches, adorn their common halls, and rear exquisite crosses in the market place. The fifteenth century glass in S. Mary's Hall, Coventry, still attests the skill of John Thornton, a native of the city, and one of the first acts of the council of Forty-eight was to decree that a cross should be set up in the Cheaping, which was done, though at a cost of £50.[728] In Coventry, as elsewhere, the rich merchants and craftsmen set carvers to carve the miserere seats--enjoying the grim humour these sometimes display, a quality which crops up everywhere in the fifteenth century, even now and then in legal documents--and bade the engraver commemorate the dead by tracing their effigies on brass, or the mason by fashioning their portraits in stone.

Neither should we regard as contemptible the Englishman's achievements in trade and travel. The Merchant Adventurers, in the teeth of the opposition of the Staplers and the Hanseatic League, first by piracy and chance trading and then by organised and chartered commerce, filled the North Sea with their ships, founded settlements at Bergen and Antwerp, and on the ruins of their rivals built up one of the most successful trading companies of northern Europe. English merchants carried from Crete or Lisbon the precious stores of eastern wine and spices, and brought their bales of wool to the port of Pisa to supply the makers of Florentine cloth, or to the ports of Normandy to supply the looms of northern France.[729]

But it is not for his patronage of art or for his enterprise in foreign trade that the English burgher is chiefly noteworthy, but rather for his "politic guiding" of the cities in which he lived. Pirates, perhaps, on the Narrow Seas, he and his fellows were at home, for the most part, law-abiding men. A certain innate conservatism, a truly British love of appeal to custom and precedent, marks their rule, and, although the populace was frequently unquiet and discontented, the result was, on the whole, happy and successful. If the dangers of foreign commerce made them hardy and fearless, their political and civic life, with its manifold responsibilities, taught them a prudence and worldly wisdom, which appears in all their transactions. Never were men who paid such heed to the Gospel precept, "Be ye wise as serpents." Liable to be deserted or oppressed by the King, thwarted by the open violence or secret maintenance of some great noble or the factiousness of some fellow-burgher, their self-reliance turned these necessities to "glorious gain." It is true that we meet with little heroism, and few distinct types of character. The men of this class can boast of no individuals who can be rightly considered as important historical figures. Like the great Gothic architects, these men, who built up such a flourishing and successful society, have been chary of leaving their names to us. Now and then, however, a bit of grimy and neglected parchment reveals a striking history. We see the clothes they wore and hear the words they said. The quarrel resounds once more in the guild-hall. The stern recorder testifies against the supposed factiousness of Laurence Saunders; and the aged men, lifting up their hands, swear to the ancient extent of the common pasture. These are not heroic or world-known scenes, but they represent the life of the citizens of an old-time city, men whose labours are not entirely forgotten.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 600: Perhaps to Bishop Patteshull, who died 1238. Beresford, _Diocesan Hist. Lichfield_, 127.]

[Footnote 601: In 1391 the prior agreed to pay an annual pension of 100s. for eight years and to provide six trees if the parishioners would rebuild the chancel of Trinity church at their own charge, providing the materials and paying for workmanship (Sharp, _Antiq._, 71).]

[Footnote 602: Besides parochial chaplains there were six chantry priests at S. Michael's in 1522; two at Trinity; a warden and seven secular priests at Bablake; and, at the Reformation, according to one account, fourteen or fifteen chaplains at S. Nicholas' church (_ib._, 5, 72, 129, 132).]

[Footnote 603: _Ib._, 25.]

[Footnote 604: Sharp, 81.]

[Footnote 605: Green, i. 154.]

[Footnote 606: The scissors of the shearmen may yet be seen in a clear-story window in S. Michael's.]

[Footnote 607: Sharp, _Antiq._, 30. The girdelers paid 3s. for their chapel to the churchwardens (_ib._, 33). The company of the cappers is still in existence; and one day in every year the members repair to the parvise adjoining the chapel and eat bread and butter and drink wine there.]

[Footnote 608: Sharp, _Antiq._, 92.]

[Footnote 609: The drapers, mercers, dyers, cardmakers, and saddlers (later the cappers), smiths, and girdlers had chapels in S. Michael's church; the butchers, dyers, and tanners in Trinity. The fullers held the chapel of S. George on the Gosford Gate. Some of the inferior crafts, viz. the pinners, tilers, and coopers, had their annual mass and drinking at Whitefriars.]

[Footnote 610: This matter of the candles seems to have roused dissensions at an early date. In 1282 the corpse of a woman to be buried in the friars' cemetery at Dunstable was first conveyed to the priory church there for the funeral mass. The monks boasted that out of eight candles they only gave two to the Franciscans, keeping all the rest for themselves (_Cornh. Mag._, vi. 835.)]

[Footnote 611: The MS. annals note that in 1438 "Friar Bredon got the old strike again" (Harl. MS. 6388, f. 18).]

[Footnote 612: _Leet Book_, 228.]

[Footnote 613: Leland, _Collectanea_, v. 304; Sharp, _Antiq._, 207.]

[Footnote 614: _Leet Book_, 338. The old archery ground is commemorated in "the Butts," now a street, but once outside the walls. A "butt" is properly a mound on which the target is set up. In Edward IV's reign butts were ordered to be made in every township, and the inhabitants were to shoot on all feast days under pain of 1/2d. at every omission (Strutt, _Sports and Pastimes_, 57).]

[Footnote 615: Chamberlains to make a ring for the "baiting of bulls as heretofore" (_Leet Book_, 83).]

[Footnote 616: No one to shoot arrows in "le cokfyting place" (_ib._, 196).]

[Footnote 617: _Ib._, 656.]

[Footnote 618: _Chamberlains' and Wardens' Accounts_ (Corp. MS. A. 7b, f. 2). "Paid to Sir ffoulke Grevile Bearewarde iii_s._ iiii_d._"]

[Footnote 619: Corp. MS. A. 7_b_, ff. 2, 8.]

[Footnote 620: "Paid for 3 sermons of Mr Butler's and ringing to them 35s. 3d." (_ib._, f. 1).]

[Footnote 621: _Leet Book_, 271.]

[Footnote 622: _Ib._, 629.]

[Footnote 623: _Ib._, 652. "Blind inns" were secret taverns, where, of course, all sorts of irregular proceedings went on.]

[Footnote 624: _i.e._ Draughts.]

[Footnote 625: _Leet Book_, 786.]

[Footnote 626: _Ib._, 690.]

[Footnote 627: _Leet Book_, 28.]

[Footnote 628: _Ib._, 28.]

[Footnote 629: See below, the Harcourt and Stafford quarrel.]

[Footnote 630: Sharp, _Mysteries_, 169.]

[Footnote 631: Wife of the famous Talbot.]

[Footnote 632: _i.e._ Who.]

[Footnote 633: _i.e._ Edge tool.]

[Footnote 634: _Paston Letters_, i. 73.]

[Footnote 635: Sharp, _Mysteries_, 180.]

[Footnote 636: _Leet Book_, 204.]

[Footnote 637: Corp. MS. A. 6. _Corpus Christi Guild Accounts_, ff. 54, 56, 80.]

[Footnote 638: Corp. MS. A. 6. _Corpus Christi Guild Accounts_, f. 43.]

[Footnote 639: The smiths spent money recklessly at this season until 1472, when it was ordained that the master of the craft should be allowed 5s. on Midsummer, and 3s. 6d. on S. Peter's eve, "and not a penny more," wherewith to provide supper (Sharp, _Mysteries_, 183).]

[Footnote 640: _Ib._, 179.]

[Footnote 641: _Ib._, 176.]

[Footnote 642: See quotation from Stowe in Sharp, _Mysteries_, 175.]

[Footnote 643: This was a universal custom, but there were special local feasts. For instance, at Canterbury, on the eve of the Translation of S. Thomas, a watch was kept. At Chester, Shrove Tuesday was a day for general merry-making (Green, i. 149).]

[Footnote 644: Among the dyers, the penalty was 13s. 4d.(Sharp, _op. cit._, 183).]

[Footnote 645: _Ib._, 160.]

[Footnote 646: _Ib._, 184.]

[Footnote 647: _Ib._, 193-4.]

[Footnote 648: _Ib._, 194.]

[Footnote 649: _Ib._, 196.]

[Footnote 650: The cappers paid 9d. for canvas to make a new skirt for the giant, and "for mendyng of hys head and arme, xvi_d_." (_ib._, 201). The dyers also furnished a pageant wherein a hart and a herdsman blowing a horn figured. Perhaps this was a cause why they had been so long allowed to escape from providing a pageant on Corpus Christi day. See above, p. 220.]

[Footnote 651: Sharp, 193. Drapers' Accounts, 1555, "payd to xviij gonnarys lxii_s_. iiij_d_.; payd for xijli of gonepother, xij_s_. vj_d_."]

[Footnote 652: Sharp, _Mysteries_, 184.]

[Footnote 653: "To gabriell for beryng the lilly iiij_d_." (_ib._, 162).]

[Footnote 654: The frequent mistakes in chronology made by all writers who depend on Sharp or the printed versions of the Annals for dates of these visits make it important to insist on them.]

[Footnote 655: The Shrewsbury mercers' guild imposed a fine on such of its members who missed the local procession through absence at Coventry fair. Chambers, _Mediæval Stage_, ii. 110.]

[Footnote 656: C. Mery Talys, lvi. (quoted Chambers, ii. 358).]

[Footnote 657: Chambers, _op. cit._, ii. 362. Bateson, _Leicester_, III. 111, 120, 127, 137.]

[Footnote 658: For this and the singing of the _Quem quæritis_, "whom seek ye?" we have a "stage direction" in the _Regularis Concordia_ of S. Ethelwold as early as Edgar's reign (959-79). See Chambers, ii. App. O.]

[Footnote 659: _Ib._, ii. 41.]

[Footnote 660: Bishop, 1188-1198. See Chambers, _op. cit._, ii. 36. _Cf._ the matter of the "castel of Emaus" in the cappers' play at Coventry, Sharp, 48.]

[Footnote 661: _Furnivall misc._, 206-7.]

[Footnote 662: See Hardin Craig, _Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays_, Early English Text Society, to which I am much indebted. The older work on this subject is Sharp's _Dissertation on the Dramatic Mysteries_. Chambers' _Mediæval Stage_ is very rich in Coventry material.]

[Footnote 663: See _Leet Book_, 205, for the case of the cardmakers, saddlers, painters and masons.]

[Footnote 664: _Ib._, 94, The case of the weavers' journeymen, who paid 4d. a piece, is the only one on record.]

[Footnote 665: Sharp, 8.]

[Footnote 666: _Ib._, 9, 10. There is no record that the dyers ever contributed to the Mystery Plays. In 1539 the Mayor of Coventry told Cromwell that the poor commons were at such expense with their plays and pageants that they fared the worse all the year after. Chambers, _op. cit._, ii. 358.]

[Footnote 667: Mr Chambers' surmise that the common lands were enclosed to build pageant-houses on is untenable. The rents derived from the enclosed lands was devoted to the upkeep of the pageants.]

[Footnote 668: Sharp, _op. cit._, 9.]

[Footnote 669: _Ib._, 20.]

[Footnote 670: See illustrations in _Furnivall Misc._ taken from MS. Bodl. 264 ff. 54_b_, 76_a_. These pageants do indeed look like a glorified Punch and Judy show, as Mr Chambers has said.]

[Footnote 671: It is difficult to say what they may not have endured. At Skinnerswell in 1411, a play lasted for seven days! There were twelve to sixteen stations at York; but the York plays were far shorter than the Coventry ones.]

[Footnote 672: Sharp, _op. cit._, 73.]

[Footnote 673: By the kindness of the editor of the _Victoria County History_, I am permitted to include this note from an unprinted MS., Inq. p.m. 19 H. 8, 46-45 (_P.R._O.) proof of age of Walter Smith of Coventry. It is important as furnishing proof that S. Christian is the right reading instead of S. Catherine, which Dr Craig would substitute. For S. Christianus, bishop of Auxerre in the ninth century, and S. Christiana, virgin, of Jermunde in Flanders, who flourished in the eighth century, see Smith and Wall, _Dict. Chr. Biog._ Miss Toulmin Smith, thinks that S. Christina and S. Christiana were distinct persons. There was a play in honour of the former at Bethersden in Kent. _York Plays_, lxv.]

[Footnote 674: Craig, _op. cit._ xxi.-ii.]

[Footnote 675: See Chambers, ii., 419-20.]

[Footnote 676: Dugdale, _op. cit._, i. 183.]

[Footnote 677: They may have been performed as late as 1591.]

[Footnote 678: Cott. Vesp D., viii. ed. by Halliwell Phillips.]

[Footnote 679: An error, since Old Testament scenes are also included.]

[Footnote 680: "Vulgo dicitur hic liber Ludus Coventriæ, sive ludus Corporis Christi."]

[Footnote 681: See Chambers, _op. cit._, ii. 416-22; Gayley, _Plays of Our Forefathers_, 135-9, 325-7; Shelling, _Eliz. Drama_, 20-1; Leach in _Furnivall Misc._, 232-3.]

[Footnote 682: See _Camb. Lit. Hist._ v. 13 for the York friar, who described himself as a "professor of pageantry."]

[Footnote 683: Mr Chambers suggests that, as the crafts admittedly altered and revised their plays, the _Ludus Coventriæ_ may be a discarded version.]

[Footnote 684: Leach in _Furnivall Misc._, 232.]

[Footnote 685: Craig, xviii.]

[Footnote 686: On the _Prophetae_, see Chambers, ii. 52, 70; Craig, xviii.]

[Footnote 687: Craig, xvi. This certainly was the subject of a play; see payment to S. Thomas of India above, p. 287.]

[Footnote 688: Particularly in the fragment of--probably--an earlier version, see Craig, _op. cit._, 119-122.]

[Footnote 689: See Craig, _op. cit._, xxiv.-v.]

[Footnote 690: Yche = I. And I were laid low. Jubbard = jeopard.]

[Footnote 691: Craig, 47.]

[Footnote 692: Craig, 48.]

[Footnote 693: See on this point and on Balaam's ass, Chambers, _op. cit._, ii. 57.]

[Footnote 694: _i.e._ they.]

[Footnote 695: Craig, 18.]

[Footnote 696: Sharp, 51.]

[Footnote 697: _Ib._, 31.]

[Footnote 698: York Plays, 277.]

[Footnote 699: Sharp, 47.]

[Footnote 700: _Ib._, 66-7.]

[Footnote 701: _Ib._, 37.]

[Footnote 702: Sharp, 36.]

[Footnote 703: Craig, 94, 97.]

[Footnote 704: Sharp, 73.]

[Footnote 705: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 706: _Ib._, 55.]

[Footnote 707: _Ib._, 26.]

[Footnote 708: _Ib._, 33.]

[Footnote 709: Craig, 90.]

[Footnote 710: Sharp, 70, 71.]

[Footnote 711: _Leet Book_, 589.]

[Footnote 712: Sharp, 166. For the riding of the George at Norwich, Leicester, Stratford, and elsewhere, _v._ Chambers, i. 221-3. Plays in honour of S. George were performed at Lydd, New Romney, Bassingbourne (_ib._, ii. 132).]

[Footnote 713: Harl. MS. 6388, f. 26 _dorso_.]

[Footnote 714: Sharp, _op. cit._, 158.]

[Footnote 715: Rous (_Hist. Regum Angliæ_, 105-6) ascribes it to the rejoicings on the death of Hardicanute. On Hock-tide, see Chambers, i. 154-5.]

[Footnote 716: The one.]

[Footnote 717: The other.]

[Footnote 718: The carpenters in 1464 paid 8d. to the minstrels at the feast (Sharp, 213); the dyers paid 2d. (_ib._, 214).]

[Footnote 719: _Ib._, 209]

[Footnote 720: _Ib._, 207.]

[Footnote 721: _Leet Book_, 258.]

[Footnote 722: _Leet Book_, 253.]

[Footnote 723: _Ib._, 345.]

[Footnote 724: _Leet Book_, 357.]

[Footnote 725: _Leet Book_, 476-481.]

[Footnote 726: 6d. a week was collected from all the citizens of the mayor's rank, and 4d. and 2d. from those of the sheriff's and warden's rank respectively to pay for the soldiers' board.]

[Footnote 727: _Leet Book_, 488.]

[Footnote 728: _Leet Book_, 57, 68.]

[Footnote 729: Green, i. 90-120.]