in his poem called The Daunce of Macabre,' introduces members of all classes of society, as summoned by Death and making a reply to his summons, while he brings forward minstrels and tragitours, or juglers, says nothing of players: he even mentions John Rykell, tragitour of Henry V., by name*, which may be thought to fix the period at which The Daunce of Macabre' was written. Yet Lydgate was himself the author of a series of pageants or Miracle-plays +; and in a work written at a subsequent date, which is generally known by the title of The Interpretacyon of the names of Goddys and Goddesses ‡,' but in fact an

Harl. MS., No. 116. There is another imperfect copy of this poem in the British Museum; and in the catalogue it is erroneously stated to be a dramatic performance. It is, in fact, only a series of inscriptions for a succession of pictures representing the Dance of Death. Death says to the Minstrel,—

'O! thou mynstrall, that canst so note and pipe
'Unto folkes for to do pleasaunce,'

which may serve to shew that, in the time of Lydgate, minstrels were composers of music, as well as performers upon instruments; and so far support Bishop Percy. To John Rykell, who is introduced as the representative of the class to which he belonged, Death says,

'Maister John Rykell, sometyme tregitoure

‹ Of noble Henry kynge of Englonde,

And of Fraunce the myghty conqueroure,

'For all the sleightes and turnyngs of thyne honde,

'Thou must come nere this daunce to understonde,' &c.

6

A tragitour was a performer of tricks of sleight of hand; and Rykell, in his answer to Death, laments that Lygarde de mayne [legerde'main] now helpeth me right nought.'

Ritson, Bibl. Poet., 79; the reference he gives to Harl. MS. No. 2255 does not bear him out.

Dr. Dibdin (Typ. Ant., ii, 322) assigns the printing of this poem

to

elaborate allegory upon human life, assailed by vices and defended by virtues, he does mention the profes

to Wynkyn de Worde, on the authority of Herbert; but it was certainly also from the press of Pynson; and this edition was sold among Kemble's books. An imperfect copy of it was in the hands of Mr. Rodd of Newport-street. In the manner in which the story is conducted, it is very dramatic; and from its variety it is far less dull than most pieces of the kind: that it is picturesquely written may be judged from the following description of the seven principal leaders on the side of Virtue, in her contest with Vice:

"Next to the chare seven capteyns there roode,
"Echone after other in ordre by and by.
'Humylyte was the fyrst, a lambe he bestroode,
'With contenance demure he rood full soberly;
A fawcon gentyll stood on his helme on hy;
And next after hym came there Charyte,
'Rydyng on a tigre as fyll to his degre.

'Roody as a roose ay he kept his chere;

'On his helme on hyghe a pellycan he bare:
'Next whom cam Pacyence, that no where hath no pere;
'On a camell rydyng as voyde of all care;

'A fenix on his helm stood, so forth gan he fare.

Who next hym folowed but Lyberalyte,

C Syttyng on a dromedary that was both good and fre.

'On his helme, for his crest he bare an ospray :
And next after hym folowed Abstynence,
Rydyng on an herte was trapure and gay;
'He semed a lorde of ryght grete excellence:
'A popynjay was his crest, he was of gret dyffence.
'Next hym folowed Chastyte on an unicorne,
'Armed at all poyntes behynde and beforne.

'A tortyldove he bare on hyghe for his crest.
'Than came Good Besynesse, last of tho seven,
'Rydyng on a panter, a sondry coloured best,

Gloryously beseen, as he had come from heven:
A crane on his hede stood, his crest for to steven.
All these vii capteyns had standardis of pryce,
'Eche of hem accordyng after his devyse.'

sion of a player' it is where Virtue says, that Sensuality must change his character, like an actor :—

Is he so? qd Vertue.-Well shall he be taught, 'As a player sholde.'

The reign of Henry VI. may be fixed upon as the epoch of the adoption of a new species of dramatic representation, which was afterwards known by the name of a Moral: its nature and construction is examined in that part of the present work which relates to the Origin and Progress of Dramatic Poetry in this country. Malone was of opinion that the first Moral (or Morality, as he miscalls it) did not appear until the reign of Edward IV.*; but three pieces of this description are extant, which are at least as old as the period when Henry VI. was on the throne, and perhaps belong to the earlier part of his reign†.

The profession of an actor about the period now referred to was probably common, and itinerant companies of players seem to have been well known. One of the manuscript Morals just mentioned, (the Castle of Perseverance,) was represented by persons who

*Shakespeare, by Boswell, iii. 30.

They were formerly in the collection of Dr. Cox Macro, and are now in the possession of Hudson Gurney, Esq., M.P., who at the instance of my friend, Mr. Amyot, readily obliged me with the unrestricted use of them. It will be seen that in the proper place I have examined the construction of these very singular performances with the attention and minuteness they deserve.

made it their business to travel round the country for the purpose. Whenever they arrived in a populous district, they despatched their standard-bearers and trumpeters to announce on what day, and at what hour, the performance would take place. The annual accompt-roll of the Augustine Priory of Bicester, in A. D. Oxfordshire, cited by Warton, shews that, in 1431. the year 1431, the minstrels of different nobility, Lord Talbot, Lord Strange, Lord Lovel, the Duke of Gloucester*, &c., visited the priory; but ministralli is the word there invariably used in the accounts, however, of the Augustine Canons of Maxtoke in Warwickshire, anterior to the year 1461, the terms mimi and lusores constantly occur. Warton has not inserted the particular dates of his extracts, but he states that none of them are later than the reign of Henry VI†. Citharista and joculatores are also words employed in the same accounts; but they probably mean nothing more than harp-players and

:

*The Duke of Gloucester had an Italian poet in his pay in 1437, named Titus Livius de Frulovisiis de Ferraria. He was naturalized in that year. Rymer's Fœd., iv. Part I. p. 37.

The following are among the entries.-Warton, H. E. P., i. 94. edit. 8vo.

juglers: jocatores, which is likewise found there, may point at something more dramatic.

<

A short poem, in the Harleian Collection, partly English and partly Latin, on the dissoluteness of 'manners temp. Henry VI.' (as it is entitled in the catalogue), may be adduced to shew that the performance of plays,' especially on God's holidays,' was then so frequent as to be considered by the writer a crying evil. The author says,

'Inglond goith to noughte, plus fecit homo viciosus, 'To lust man is brought, nimis est homo deliciosus ; 'Goddis halidays non observantur honestè,

For unthryfty pleyis in eis regnant manifestè.'*

We do not find from any record that players of interludes were in the pay of Henry VI.; but, in 1445, the minstrels belonging to the household were

* There are two copies of this satire in the Harleian Collection, viz. Nos. 536 and 941. As it is a curious and early specimen of this species of composition, and bears internal evidence of its date, a few lines, ridiculing the preposterous dress of men of the time, may be worth extracting:

'Thei bere a new faccion, humeris in pectore tergo,
'Goddes placinacion non illis complacent ergo:
'Wyde colers & hygh, gladio sunt colla parata,

'Ware the prophesy contra tales recitata.

Longe spores on here heles, et rostra fovent ocrearum,

'Thei thinke it doith welle, non sit regula Sarum.

'A streite bende hath the hose, languent a corpore crura,
'Thei may not, I suppose, curvare genu sine cura.
'Whan other kneelis, pro Christo vota ferentes,
'Thei stonde on here helis, sed non curvare volentes,
'For hurtyng of here hose non inclinare laborant,
'I trow for here longe toes, dum stant ferialiter orant.'