matter' contrary to the doctrines of the Church of Rome: the penalty in either case is a fine of £10, and imprisonment for three montlis for the first offence, and forfeiture of all goods and commitment to 'perpetual prison' for the second offence. To show, however, that this law was not directed against theatrical performances generally, a proviso is added in favour of songs, plays and interludes,' which have for object ❝ the rebuking and reproaching of vices, and the set⚫ting forth of virtue; so always the said songs, plays,

⚫ or interludes meddle not with the interpretations of Scripture.'

How far this statute was rendered necessary by the theatrical productions of the time it is hardly possible for us to judge, since few of the interludes, intended at so early a date to advance the interests of the Protestant faith, have descended to us. That many had been written there can be no doubt; and a novel piece of evidence regarding them has fallen into my hands, which was found among Cromwell's correspondence in the Chapter-house, Westminster. It is a letter from Thomas Wylley, who styles himself Vicar of Yoxford in Suffolk, in which he complains to the Lord Privy Seal, that the priests of that county would not allow him to preach in their churches, because he had made a play against the Pope's counsellors: he also mentions in it several other dramatic performances of a religious character, of which he was the author, or which he was then composing. It is without date, but

it was evidently written after 1535, when Cromwell was appointed visitor-general of the monasteries: it is in these singular terms:

'The Lorde make you the instrument of my

helpe, Lorde Cromwell, that I may have fre lyberty to preche the trewthe.

'I dedycat and offer to your Lordeshype A Reverent Receyvyng of the Sacrament, as a Lenton • matter, declaryd by vj chyldren, representyng Chryst, 'the worde of God, Paule, Austyn, a Chylde, a Nonne caulyd Ignorancy; as a secret thyng that shall have hys ende ons [once] rehersyd afore your eye by the 'sayd chyldren.

The most part of the prystes of Suff. wyll not reseyve me ynto ther chyrchys to preche, but have dysdaynyd me ever synns I made a play agaynst the popys Counselerrs, Error, Colle Clogger of Con

scyens, and Incredulyte*. That, and the Act of Par❝lyament had not folowyd after, I had be countyd a gret lyar.

I have made a playe caulyd A Rude Commynawlte. I am a makyng of a nother caulyd The • Woman on the Rokke, yn the fyer of faythe a fynyng, and a purgyng in the trewe purgatory; never 'to be seen but of your Lordshyp's eye.

*We have no farther intelligence regarding this piece, or any of the others of which Willey states himself to have been the author: the 'Lenten matter declared by six children,' was evidently dramatic, and his other productions against the Pope's counsellors,' and ‘A rude commonalty' he himself terms 'plays.' The name of Thomas Wylley is new in dramatic history.

Wylly of

you for the Vykor fatherlesse and forsaken

Cromwell had been beheaded some years when the statute 34 and 35 Henry VIII. was passed, but it was aimed at dramatic productions similar to those written by Wylley, and regarding which he seems to have taken the visitor-general into his confidence. The act produced considerable alarm among the favourers of the new religion, and excited fresh animosity against the Roman Catholics. It is hardly to be expected, that these consequences should appear in contemporary publications in England; but in the very year when the statute was passed, a writer of the name of Edward Stalbridge printed abroad, and dated from Basle, The Epistle Exhortatory of an English Christian to his dearly beloved Country,' which contains the following vituperation, addressed to the Roman Catholics, and referring in terms to the 34 and 35

Henry VIII. c. 1:-' None leave ye unvexed and un'trobled-no, not so much as the poore minstrels, and players of enterludes, but ye are doing with them. 'So long as they played lyes, and sange baudy songes, 'blasphemed God, and corrupted mens consciences, 'ye never blamed them, but were verye well contented. But sens they persuaded the people to worship theyr Lorde God aryght, accordyng to hys 'holie lawes and not yours, and to acknoledge Jesus Chryst for their onelye redeemer and saviour, with' out your lowsie legerdemains, ye never were pleased ' with them.'

A. D.

Two of Bales's religious plays, in which the principles of the Reformation are strenuously advocated, and various popish doctrines confuted, as from the mouth of the Saviour himself, were printed abroad about six years before the passing of the act in question. It is in the years 1544 and 1545 that, in the accounts of the expenses of the crown, we meet with no entries of salaries or gifts to the King's, Queen's, or Prince's players of interludes. Whether, as has been already suggested, this silence be attributable to the unsettled state of the public mind on points of religion, must be matter of speculation.

1544.

In 1546, it has been generally supposed that Henry VIII. created a new office for the management and control of the pastimes of his Court, under the title of Magister jocorum, revellorum, et mascorum*: a patent for this purpose was granted to Sir Thomas Chalmers's 'Apology for the Believers,' 475.

Cawarden, who had long been one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber. There is some doubt, I apprehend, whether he was, in fact, the first master of the revels, as, in the Lansdown collection of MSS.*, I find a trace of the appointment having been given to another individual, though it was certainly not long retained by him: it is in a paper thus headed:-Feod: pro offic: conces: per Dom Henricum nup: regem Angl: viij, pro term vitæ ; and the particular entry to which I refer runs thus:

.Edm. Tho. Mo Jocorum et revellorum. 101.' The Mo. may be, and no doubt is to be, taken as the abbreviation of Magistro; and, hence it would seem, that a person, for whose names Edm. Tho.' stands in the account, had an annuity of 101. granted to him by Henry VIII., for term of life, as master of the games and revels. The document from which this information is derived seems to have been made out just after the decease of Henry VIII., and we can only reconcile the difficulty by supposing, that there was a Master of the Revels appointed for life anterior to the patent to Sir Thomas Cawarden. Perhaps he was superseded, and the annuity of 10l. allowed him as a compensation for the loss. In the same MS. a player, not before nor afterwards mentioned, of the name of John Yonge, is allowed an annuity of 31. 6s. 8d. as agitator comediarum, a more precise designation of an actor of plays than is usually given.

* No. 156.