After dinner, they discuss the merits of one of the ladies recommended by the Taverner,

Sen. Mary thus, canst thou tell us yet
Where is any rose water to get?

• Ta. Ye, that can I well purvey,
'As good as ever you put to your nose,
For there is a feyre wenche callyd Rose
'Dystylleth a quarte every day.

'Sen. By god, I wolde a pynte of that
Were powryd evyn upon thy pate,
'Before all this presence.

The author does not seem to have succeeded in his experiment of making the stage a vehicle of scientific instruction, and we have no proof that any other writer followed his example. It does not appear where the disguising,' mentioned in the title-page, was to be introduced, if more variety were required in the performance.

Skelton's 'goodly interlude and a merry,' called

'Sak, raspyce, Alicaunt, Rumney,
'Greke, ipocrase, new made clary,
'Suche as ye never had;

'For yf ye drynke a draught or too
Yt wyll make you, or ye thens go,
'By goggs body, stark madde.'

6

Magnyfycence, requires examination in some detail, on account of the celebrity of its author, and of its importance as a literary composition. On the title-page he is called Mayster Skelton, poet-laureate,' and the additional information is supplied, that at the time this Moral* was printed he was late deceasyd.' Warton states that it appeared in 1533, and that it was printed by Rastell; but, both these points are conjectural, inasmuch as neither date nor printer's name is found in the old copy. The type certainly resembles that used by John Rastell, and most likely the production was from his press. The date when it was written is also a matter of doubt, although we know that it was in existence in 1523, because Skelton mentions it with other pieces by him, some of them of the same description †, in his Garlande or Chapelet of Lawrell, which was printed by R. Faukes, in that year. Skelton's

*The Rev. T. F. Dibdin (Ames, iii. 106) says, that this production is called a Morality;' but this is a mistake. It is a Moral-play, and on the title-page it is called an ‘Interlude.'

The enumeration is curious, and as I believe it has never yet been reprinted, an extract may not be unacceptable: he mentions, in the following stanzas, at least three dramatic performances-The Sovereign Interlude of Virtue-The Comedy of Achademios, and Magnificence, upon the latter of which he seems to dwell with unusual satisfaction"In primis the boke of honorous astate, 'Item the boke how men shulde fle synue, 'Item royall demenaunce worshyp to wyne, Item the boke to speke well or be styll, Item to lerne you to dye when ye wyll.

'Of vertu also the soverayne enterlude,

'The boke of ye rosiar: prince arturis creacyoun,

'The false fayth yt now goth which dayly is renude:

Nigramansir was printed, according to Warton, in 1504, and very possibly Magnyfycence was written before the end of the reign of Henry VII., and while

'Item his dialoggis of ymagynacyoun,
'Item antomedon of loves meditacyoun,
'Item new gramer in englysshe compylyd,
'Item bowche of courte, where drede was be gyled.

'His comedy achademios callyd by name,
"Of tullis familiars the translacyoun;

'Item good advysement that brainles doth blame,
'The recule ageinst gaguine of the frenche nacyoun:
Item the popingay yt hath in commendacyoun
'Ladyes and gentylwomen suche as deservyd,
'And such as he counterfettis they be reservyd.

'And of soveraynte a noble pamphelet,
'And of magnyfycence a notable mater;
'How cownterfet cowntenaunce of the new get,
'Wt crafty conveyaunce dothe smater and flater,
'And cloked collucyoun is brought in to clater
'W' courtely abusyoun: who prynteth it wele in mynde
'Moche dowblenes of the worlde therin he may fynde.

'Of manerly margery, maystres mylke and ale,
'To her he wrote many maters of myrthe,
'Yet thoughe he say it ther by lyith a tale,
'For margery wynshed and breke her hinder girth;
Lor, how she made moche of her gentyll birth
'Wt gingirly go gingirly her tayle was made of hay,
'Go she never so gingirly her honesty is gone a way.'

Skelton carries on the enumeration much farther, but the titles of all the other productions he mentions are to be found in a note in Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. iii., 163, 8vo. edit. The whole of this Garlande or Chapelet of Lawrell is a remarkable piece of egotism, and was probably written by the author in his old age. He gives the titles of at least fifty pieces from his pen, and he tells us, besides, that he had omitted many, 'as it were to long a proces to reherse all by name that he hath compylyd.' There is, I believe, but one copy of this tract in existence, that in the Royal Library. The author's vanity induced him also to place his portrait at the back of the title-page.

the author was tutor to Henry VIII., whose chaplain he afterwards became.

The moral purpose of Magnyfycence is to show the vanity of worldly grandeur. It opens with a soliloquy by Felicity, who is soon joined by Liberty, and while they are discussing the degree to which freedom ought to be allowed, Measure enters to moderate between the disputants, and he thus enlarges on his own importance.

'Oracius to recorde in his volumys olde,

With every condycyon measure must be sought: 'Welthe without measure wolde bere hymselfe to bolde, 'Lyberte w'out measure prove a thynge of nought. "I ponder by nomber, by measure, all thynge is wrought, As at the fyrst orygynall by godly opynyon; 'Which provyth well that measure shold have domynyon. 'Where measure is mayster, plenty dothe none offence, 'Where measure lackyth, all thynge dysorderyd is; 'Where measure is absent, ryot kepeth resydence, 'Where measure is ruler there is nothynge a mysse. 'Measure is treasure, how say ye, is it not this?' Magnificence is immediately afterwards introduced, and becomes acquainted with Fancy, (who calls himself Largess,) with Counterfeit-countenance, Craftyconveyance, Cloked-collusion, Courtly-abusion and Folly, who also impose upon him under feigned names. Courtly-abusion offers to carry him to a young lady, whose virtue is not inaccessible, and whose beauty is described with some luxuriance of style:

-a fayre maystresse,

'That quyckly is envyved with rudyes of the rose, Inpurtured with features after your purpose.

'The streynes of her veynes as asure Inde blewe,
'Enbudded with beautye and colour fresshe of hewe,
'As lyly white to loke upon her heyre,

" Her eyen relucent as carbuncle so clere :
'Her mouth embawmed dylectable and mery,
'Her lusty lyppes ruddy as a chery.'

Magnificence, ruined by his friends and retainers, falls into the hands of Adversity and Poverty, and the latter, in the following striking lines, contrasts the present with the former condition of Magnificence.

'That was wonte to lye on fetherbeddes of downe, 'Nowe must your fete lye hyer than your crowne. 'Where you were wonte to have cawdels for your hede, Nowe must you monche mamokes, and lumpes of brede.

' And where you had chaunges of ryche aray,

'Now lap you in a coverlet full fayne that you may. 'And where that ye were pomped with what that ye wolde,

'Nowe must ye suffre bothe hungre and colde.

With courtely sylkes ye were wonte to be drawe, 'Nowe must ye lerne to lye on the strawe.

"Your skynne that was wrapped in shertes of raynes, 'Nowe must be stormy beten with showres and raynes.' Despair and Mischief next encounter Magnificence, and at the suggestion of the latter, who furnishes him with a halter and a knife, he is on the point of committing suicide, when Good-hope steps in, and stays his hand he is followed by Redress, Circumspection and Perseverance, and they convince Magnificence of the weakness and vanity of his former state of exaltation, and he is content to move in a humbler and