CHAPTER XVII

MASKS AND MISRULE

[_Bibliographical Note._--On the history of the English Masque A. Soergel, _Die englischen Maskenspiele_ (1882); H. A. Evans, _English Masques_ (1897); J. A. Symonds, _Shakespeare’s Predecessors_, ch. ix; A. W. Ward, _English Dramatic Literature_, passim; W. W. Greg, _A List of Masques, Pageants, &c._ (1902), may be consulted. Much of the material used by these writers is in Collier, _H. E. D. P._ vol. i, and P. Cunningham, _Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court_ (Shakespeare Soc. 1842). For the early Tudor period E. Hall’s _History of the Union of Lancaster and York_ (1548) and the Revels Accounts in J. S. Brewer and J. Gairdner, _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII_, vols. ii, iii, are detailed and valuable. R. Brotanek’s very full _Die englischen Maskenspiele_ (1902) only reached me when this chapter was in type.]

Already in Saxon England Christmas was becoming a season of secular merry-making as well as of religious devotion[1413]. Under the post-Conquest kings this tendency was stimulated by the fixed habit of the court. William the Bastard, like Charlemagne before him, chose the solemn day for his coronation; and from his reign Christmas takes rank, with Easter, Whitsuntide, and, at a much later date, St. George’s day, as one of the great courtly festivals of the year. The _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ is at the pains to record the place of its celebration, twelvemonth after twelvemonth[1414]. Among the many forgotten Christmassings of mediaeval kings, history lays a finger on a few of special note: that at which Richard II, with characteristic extravagance and the consumption of ‘200 tunns of wine and 2,000 oxen with their appurtenances,’ entertained the papal legate in 1398; and that, more truly royal, at which Henry V, besieging Rouen in 1418, ‘refreshed all the poore people with vittels to their great comfort and his high praise[1415].’ The Tudors were not behindhand with any opportunity for pageantry and display, nor does the vogue of Christmas throughout the length and breadth of ‘merrie England’ need demonstration[1416]. The Puritans girded at it, as they did at May games, and the rest of the delightful circumstance of life, until in 1644 an ordinance of the Long Parliament required the festival to give place to a monthly fast with the day fixed for which it happened to coincide[1417].

The entertainment of a mediaeval Christmas was diverse. There was the banquet. The Boy Bishop came to court. Carols were sung. New Year gifts were exchanged. _Hastiludia_--jousts or tournaments--were popular and splendid. Minstrels and jugglers made music and mirth. A succession of gaieties filled the Twelve nights from the Nativity to the Epiphany, or even the wider space from St. Thomas’s day to Candlemas. It is, however, in the custom of masquing that I find the most direct legacy to Christmas of the Kalends celebrations in their _bourgeois_ forms. _Larvae_ or masks are prominent in the records and prohibitions of the Feast of Fools from the decretal of Innocent III in 1207 to the letter of the Paris theologians in 1445[1418]. I take them as being, like the characteristic hood of the ‘fool,’ sophistications of the _capita pecudum_, the sacrificial _exuviae_ worn by the rout of worshippers at the _Kalendae_. Precisely such _larvae_, under another name, confront us in the detailed records of two fourteenth-century Christmasses. Amongst the documents of the Royal Wardrobe for the reign of Edward III are lists of stuffs issued for the _ludi domini regis_ in 1347-8 and 1348-9[1419]. For the Christmas of 1347, held at Guildford, were required a number of ‘viseres’ in the likeness of men, women, and angels, curiously designed ‘crestes,’ and other costumes representing dragons, peacocks, and swans[1420]. The Christmas of 1348 held at Ottford and the following Epiphany at Merton yield similar entries[1421]. What were these ‘viseres’ used for? The term _ludi_ must not be pressed. It appears to be distinct from _hastiludia_, which comes frequently in the same documents, although in the _hastiludia_ also ‘viseres’ were used[1422]. But it does not necessarily imply anything dramatic, and the analogies suggest that it is a wide generic term, roughly equivalent to ‘disports,’ or to the ‘revels’ of the Tudor vocabulary[1423]. It recurs in 1388 when the Wardrobe provided linen coifs for twenty-one counterfeit men of the law in the _ludus regis_[1424]. The sets of costumes supplied for all these _ludi_ would most naturally be used by groups of performers in something of the nature of a dance; and they point to some primitive form of masque, such as Froissart describes in contemporary France[1425], the precursor of the long line of development which, traceable from the end of the following century, culminates in the glories of Ben Jonson. The vernacular name for such a _ludus_ in the fourteenth century was ‘mumming’ or ‘disguising[1426].’ Orders of the city of London in 1334, 1393, and 1405 forbid a practice of going about the streets at Christmas _ove visere ne faux visage_, and entering the houses of citizens to play at dice therein[1427]. In 1417 ‘mummyng’ is specifically included in a similar prohibition[1428]; and in a proclamation of the following year, ‘mommyng’ is classed with ‘playes’ and ‘enterludes’ as a variety of ‘disgisyng[1429].’ But the disport which they denied to less dignified folk the rulers of the city retained for themselves as the traditional way of paying a visit of compliment to a great personage. A fragmentary chronicle amongst Stowe’s manuscripts describes such a visit paid to Richard II at the Candlemas preceding his accession in 1377. The ‘mummers’ were disguised with ‘vizards’ to represent an emperor and a pope with their _cortèges_. They rode to Kennington, entered the hall on foot, invited the prince and the lords to dice and discreetly lost, drank and danced with the company, and so departed[1430]. This is the first of several such mummings upon record. Some chroniclers relate that it was at a mumming that the partisans of Richard II attempted to seize Henry IV on Twelfth night in 1400[1431]. In the following year, when the Emperor Manuel of Constantinople spent Christmas with Henry at Eltham, the ‘men of London maden a gret mommyng to hym of xij aldermen and there sons, for whiche they hadde gret thanke[1432].’ In 1414 Sir John Oldcastle and his Lollards were in their turn accused of using a mumming as a cloak of sedition[1433]. Thus the London distrust of false visages had its justification, and it is noteworthy that so late as 1511 an Act of Parliament forbade the visits of mummers disguised with visors to great houses on account of the disorders so caused. Even the sale of visors was made illegal[1434].

So far there is nothing to point to the use of any dialogue or speeches at mummings. The only detailed account is that of 1377, and the passage which describes how the mummers ‘saluted’ the lords, ‘shewing a pair of dice upon a table to play with the prince,’ reads rather as if the whole performance were in dumb show. This is confirmed by the explanation of the term ‘mummynge’ given in a contemporary glossary[1435]. The development of the mumming in a literary direction may very likely have been due to the multifarious activity of John Lydgate. Amongst his miscellaneous poems are preserved several which are stated by their collector Shirley to have been written for mummings or disguisings either before the king or before the lord mayor of London[1436]. They all seem to belong to the reign of Henry VI and probably to the years 1427-30. And they show pretty clearly the way in which verses got into the disguisings. Two of them are ‘lettres’ introducing mummings presented by the guilds of the mercers and the goldsmiths to lord mayor Eastfield[1437]. They were doubtless read aloud in the hall. A _balade_ sent to Henry and the queen mother at Eltham is of the same type[1438]. Two ‘devyses’ for mummings at London and Windsor were probably recited by a ‘presenter.’ The Windsor one is of the nature of a prologue, describing a ‘myracle’ which the king is ‘to see[1439].’ The London one was meant to accompany the course of the performance, and describes the various personages as they enter[1440]. Still more elaborate is a set of verses used at Hertford. The first part of these is certainly spoken by a presenter who points out the ‘vpplandishe’ complainants to whom he refers. But the reply is in the first person, and apparently put in the mouths of the ‘wyues’ themselves, while the conclusion is a judgement delivered, again probably by the presenter, in the name of the king[1441].

Whether Lydgate was the author of an innovation or not, the introduction of speeches, songs, and dialogues was common enough in the fully-developed mummings. For these we must look to the sumptuous courts of the early Tudors. Lydgate died about 1451, and the Wars of the Roses did not encourage revelry. The _Paston Letters_ tell how the Lady Morley forbade ‘dysguysyngs’ in her house at Christmas after her husband’s death in 1476[1442]. There were _ludi_ in Scotland under James III[1443]. But those of his successor, James IV, although numerous and varied[1444], probably paled before the elaborate ‘plays’ and ‘disguisings’ which the contemporary account-books of Henry VII reveal[1445]. Of only one ‘disguising,’ however, of this period is a full account preserved. It took place in Westminster Hall after the wedding of Prince Arthur with Katharine of Spain on November 18, 1501, and was ‘convayed and showed in pageants proper and subtile.’ There was a castle, bearing singing children and eight disguised ladies, amongst whom was one ‘apparelled like unto the Princesse of Spaine,’ a Ship in which came Hope and Desire as Ambassadors, and a Mount of Love, from which issued eight knights, and assaulted the castle. This allegorical compliment, which was set forth by ‘countenance, speeches, and demeanor,’ ended, the knights and ladies danced together and presently ‘avoided.’ Thereupon the royal party themselves fell to dancing[1446]. ‘Pageants’ are mentioned in connexion with other disguisings of the reign, and on one occasion the disguising was ‘for a moryce[1447].’ Further light is thrown upon the nature of a disguising by the regulations contained in a contemporary book of ‘Orders concerning an Earl’s House.’ A disguising is to be introduced by torch-bearers and accompanied by minstrels. If there are women disguised, they are to dance first, and then the men. Then is to come the morris, ‘if any be ordeynid.’ Finally men and women are to dance together and depart in the ‘towre, or thing devised for theim.’ The whole performance is to be under the control of a ‘maister of the disguisinges’ or ‘revills[1448].’

It is possible to distinguish a simpler and a more elaborate type of masked entertainment, side by side, throughout the splendid festivities of the court of Henry VIII. For the more or less impromptu ‘mumming,’ the light-hearted and riotous king had a great liking. In the first year of his reign we find him invading the queen’s chamber at Westminster ‘for a gladness to the queen’s grace’ in the guise of Robin Hood, with his men ‘in green coats and hose of Kentish Kendal’ and a Maid Marian[1449]. The queen subsequently got left out, but there were many similar disports throughout the reign. One of these, in which the king and a party disguised as shepherds broke in upon a banquet of Wolsey’s, has been immortalized by Shakespeare[1450]. Such mummings were comparatively simple, and the Wardrobe was as a rule only called upon to provide costumes and masks, although on one occasion a lady in a ‘tryke’ or ‘spell’ wagon was drawn in[1451]. But the more formal ‘disguisings’ of the previous reign were also continued and set forth with great splendour. In 1527 a ‘House of Revel’ called the ‘Long House’ was built for their performance and decorated by Holbein[1452], and there was constant expenditure on the provision of pageants. ‘The Golldyn Arber in the Arche-yerd of Plesyer,’ ‘the Dangerus Fortrees,’ ‘the Ryche Mount,’ ‘the Pavyllon un the Plas Parlos,’ ‘the Gardyn de Esperans,’ ‘the Schatew Vert’[1453] are some of the names given to them, and these well suggest the kind of allegorical spectacular entertainment, diversified with dance and song, which the chroniclers describe.

The ‘mumming’ or ‘disguising,’ then, as it took shape at the beginning of the sixteenth century, was a form of court revel, in which, behind the accretions of literature and pageantry, can be clearly discerned a nucleus of folk-custom in the entry of the band of worshippers, with their sacrificial _exuviae_, to bring the house good luck. The mummers are masked and disguised folk who come into the hall uninvited and call upon the company gathered there to dice and dance. It is not necessary to lay stress upon the distinction between the two terms, which are used with some indifference. When they first make their appearance together in the London proclamation of 1418 the masked visit is a ‘mumming,’ and is included with the ‘enterlude’ under the generic term of ‘disguising.’ In the Henry VII documents ‘mumming’ does not occur, and in those of Henry VIII ‘mumming’ and ‘disguising’ are practically identical, ‘disguising,’ if anything, being used of the more elaborate shows, while both are properly distinct from ‘interlude.’ But I do not think that ‘disguising’ ever quite lost its earlier and widest sense[1454]. It must now be added that early in Henry VIII’s reign a new term was introduced which ultimately supplanted both the others. The chronicler Hall relates how in 1513 ‘On the daie of the Epiphanie at night, the kyng with a xi other were disguised, after the maner of Italie, called a maske, a thyng not seen afore in Englande, thei were appareled in garmentes long and brode, wrought all with gold, with visers and cappes of gold & after the banket doen, these Maskers came in, with sixe gentlemen disguised in silke bearyng staffe torches, and desired the ladies to daunce, some were content, and some that knewe the fashion of it refused, because it was not a thyng commonly seen. And after thei daunced and commoned together, as the fashion of the Maske is, thei tooke their leaue and departed, and so did the Quene, and all the ladies[1455].’

The good Hall is not particularly lucid in his descriptions, and historians of the mask have doubted what, beyond the name, was the exact modification introduced ‘after the maner of Italie’ in 1512. A recent writer on the subject, Dr. H. A. Evans, thinks that it lay in the fact that the maskers danced with the spectators, as well as amongst themselves[1456]. But the mummers of 1377 already did this, although of course the custom may have grown obsolete before 1513. I am rather inclined to regard it as a matter of costume. The original Revels Account for this year--and Hall’s reports of court revels are so full that he must surely have had access to some such source--mentions provision for ‘12 nobyll personages, inparylled with blew damaske and yelow damaske long gowns and hoods with hats after the maner of maskelyng in Etaly[1457].’ Does not this description suggest that the ‘thing not sene afore in England’ was of the nature of a domino? In any case from 1513 onwards ‘masks,’ ‘maskelers’ or ‘maskelings’ recur frequently in the notices of the revels[1458]. The early masks resembled the simpler type of ‘mumming’ rather than the more elaborate and spectacular ‘disguising,’ but by the end of the reign both of the older terms had become obsolete, and all Elizabethan court performances in which the visor and the dance played the leading parts were indifferently known as masks[1459]. Outside the court, indeed, the nomenclature was more conservative, and to this day the village performers who claim the right to enter your house at Christmas call themselves ‘mummers,’ ‘guisers’ or ‘geese-dancers.’ Sometimes they merely dance, sing and feast with you, but in most places, as a former chapter has shown, they have adopted from another season of the year its characteristic rite, which in course of time has grown from folk-dance into folk-drama[1460].

I now pass from the mask to another point of contact between the Feast of Fools and the Tudor revels. This was the _dominus festi_. A special officer, told off to superintend the revels, pastimes and disports of the Christmas season, is found both in the English and the Scottish court at the end of the fifteenth century. In Scotland he bore the title of Abbot of Unreason[1461]; in England he was occasionally the Abbot, but more usually the Lord of Misrule. Away from court, other local designations present themselves: but Lord of Misrule or Christmas Lord are the generic titles known to contemporary literature[1462]. The household accounts of Henry VII make mention of a Lord or Abbot of Misrule for nearly every Christmas in the reign[1463]. Under Henry VIII a Lord was annually appointed, with one exception, until 1520[1464]. From that date, the records are not available, but an isolated notice in 1534 gives proof of the continuance of the custom[1465]. In 1521 a Lord of Misrule held sway in the separate household of the Princess Mary[1466], and there is extant a letter from the Princess’s council to Wolsey asking whether it were the royal pleasure that a similar appointment should be made in 1525[1467]. Little information can be gleaned as to the functions of the Lord of Misrule during the first two Tudor reigns. It is clear that he was quite distinct from the officer known as the ‘Master of the Revels,’ in whose hands lay the preparation and oversight of disguisings or masks and similar entertainments. The Master of the Revels also makes his first appearance under Henry VII. Originally he seems to have been appointed only _pro hac vice_, from among the officials, such as the comptroller of the household, already in attendance at court[1468]. This practice lasted well into the reign of Henry VIII, who was served in this capacity by such distinguished courtiers, amongst others, as Sir Henry Guildford and Sir Anthony Browne[1469]. Under them the preparation of the revels and the custody of the properties were in the hands of a permanent minor official. At first such work was done in the royal Wardrobe, but under Henry VIII it fell to a distinct ‘serjeant’ who was sometimes, but not always, also ‘serjeant’ to the king’s tents. In 1545, however, a permanent Master of the Revels was appointed in the person of Sir Thomas Cawarden, one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber[1470]. Cawarden formed the Revels into a regular office with a clerk comptroller, yeoman, and clerk, and a head quarters, at first in Warwick Inn, and afterwards in the precinct of the dissolved Blackfriars, of which he obtained a grant from the king. This organization of the Revels endured in substance until after the Restoration[1471]. Not unnaturally there were some jealousies and conflicts of authority between the permanent Master of the Revels and the annual Lord of Misrule, and this comes out amusingly enough from some of Cawarden’s correspondence for 1551-3, preserved in the muniment room at Loseley. For the two Christmases during this period the Lordship of Misrule was held by George Ferrers, one of the authors of the _Mirrour for Magistrates_[1472]; and Cawarden seems to have put every possible difficulty in the way of the discharge of his duties. Ferrers appealed to the lords of the council, and it took half a dozen official letters, signed by the great master of the household, Mr. Secretary Cecil, and a number of other dignitaries, to induce the Master of the Revels to provide the hobby horses and fool’s coat and what not, that were required[1473]. Incidentally this correspondence and the account books kept by Cawarden give some notion of the sort of amusement which the Lord of Misrule was expected to organize. In 1551 he made his entry into court ‘out of the mone.’ He had his fool ‘John Smith’ in a ‘vice’s coote’ and a ‘dissard’s hoode,’ a part apparently played by the famous court fool, Will Somers. He had a ‘brigandyne’; he had his ‘holds, prisons, and places of execuc’on, his cannypie, throne, seate, pillory, gibbet, hedding block, stocks, little ease, and other necessary incydents to his person’; he had his ‘armury’ and his stables with ‘13 hobby horses, whereof one with 3 heads for his person, bought of the carver for his justs and challenge at Greenwich.’ The masks this year were of apes and bagpipes, of cats, of Greek worthies, and of ‘medyoxes’ (‘double visaged, th’ one syde lyke a man, th’ other lyke death’)[1474]. The chief difficulty with Cawarden arose out of a visit to be paid by the Lord to London on January 4. The apparel provided for his ‘viij counsellors’ on that occasion was so ‘insufficient’ that he returned it, and told Cawarden that he had ‘mistaken y^e persons that sholde weere them, as S^r Rob^t Stafford and Thom^s Wyndesor, w^h other gentlemen that stande also upon their reputac̃on, and wold not be seen in London, so torche-berer lyke disgysed, for as moche as they are worthe or hope to be worthe[1475].’ After all it took a letter from the council to get the fresh apparel ready in time. It was ready, for Machyn’s _Diary_ records the advent of the Lord and his ‘consell’ to Tower Wharf, with a ‘mores danse,’ and the ‘proclamasyon’ made of him at the Cross in Cheap, and his visit to the mayor and the lord treasurer, ‘and so to Bysshopgate, and so to Towre warff, and toke barge to Grenwyche[1476].’ Before the following Christmas of 1552 Ferrers was careful to send note of his schemes to Cawarden in good time[1477]. This year he would come in in ‘blewe’ out of ‘_vastum vacuum_, the great waste.’ The ‘serpente with sevin heddes called hidra’ was to be his arms, his crest a ‘wholme bush’ and his ‘worde’ _semper ferians_. Mr. Windham was to be his admiral, Sir George Howard his master of the horse, and he required six councillors, ‘a divine, a philosopher, an astronomer, a poet, a phisician, a potecarie, a m^r of requests, a sivilian, a disard, John Smyth, two gentleman ushers, besides jugglers, tomblers, fooles, friers, and suche other.’ Again there was a challenge with hobby horses, and again the Lord of Misrule visited London on January 6, and was met by Sergeant Vauce, Lord of Misrule to ‘master Maynard the Shreyff’ whom he knighted. He then proceeded to dinner with the Lord Mayor[1478]. As he rode his cofferer cast gold and silver abroad, and Cawarden’s accounts show that ‘coynes’ were made for him by a ‘wyer-drawer,’ after the familiar fashion of the Boy Bishops in France[1479]. These accounts also give elaborate details of his dress and that of his retinue, and of a ‘Triumph of Venus and Mars[1480].’ In the following year Edward was dead, and neither Mary nor Elizabeth seems to have revived the appointment of a Lord of Misrule at court[1481].

But the reign of the Lord of Misrule extended far beyond the verge of the royal palace. He was especially in vogue at those homes of learning, the Universities and the Inns of Court, where Christmas, though a season of feasting and _ludi_, had not yet become an occasion for general ‘going down.’ Anthony à Wood records him in several Oxford colleges, especially in Merton and St. John’s, and ascribes his downfall, justly, no doubt, in part, to the Puritans[1482]. At Merton he bore the title of _Rex fabarum_ or _Rex regni fabarum_[1483]. He was a fellow of the college, was elected on November 19, and held office until Candlemas, when the winter festivities closed with the _Ignis Regentium_ in the hall. The names of various _Reges fabarum_ between 1487 and 1557 are preserved in the college registers, and the last holder of the office elected in the latter year was Joseph Heywood, the uncle of John Donne, in his day a famous recusant[1484]. At St. John’s College a ‘Christmas Lord, or Prince of the Revells,’ was chosen up to 1577. Thirty years later, in 1607, the practice was for one year revived, and a detailed account of this experiment was committed to manuscript by one Griffin Higgs[1485]. The Prince, who was chosen on All Saints’ day, was Thomas Tucker. He was installed on November 5, and immediately made a levy upon past and present members of the college to meet the necessary expenses. Amongst the subscribers was ‘Mr. Laude.’ On St. Andrew’s day, the Prince was publicly installed with a dramatic ‘deuise’ or ‘showe’ called _Ara Fortunae_. The hall was a great deal too full, a canopy fell down, and the ‘fool’ broke his staff. On St. Thomas’s day, proclamation was made of the style and title of the Prince and of the officers who formed his household[1486]. He also ratified the ‘Decrees and Statutes’ promulgated in 1577 by his predecessor and added some rather pretty satire on the behaviour of spectators at college and other revels. On Christmas day the Prince was attended to prayers, and took the vice-president’s chair in hall, where a boar’s head was brought in, and a carol sung. After supper was an interlude, called _Saturnalia_. On St. John’s day ‘some of the Prince’s honest neighbours of St. Giles’s presented him with a maske or morris’; and the ‘twelve daies’ were brought in with appropriate speeches. On December 29 was a Latin tragedy of _Philomela_, and the Prince, who played Tereus, accidentally fell. On New Year’s day were the Prince’s triumphs, introduced by a ‘shew’ called _Time’s Complaint_; and the honest chronicler records that this performance ‘in the sight of the whole University’ was ‘a messe of absurdityes,’ and that ‘two or three cold plaudites’ much discouraged the revellers. However, they went on with their undertaking. On January 10 were two shews, one called _Somnium Fundatoris_, and the other _The Seven Days of the Weeke_. The dearth in the city caused by a six weeks’ frost made the President inclined to stop the revels, as in a time of ‘generall wo and calamity’; but happily a thaw came, and on January 15 the college retrieved its reputation by a most successful public performance of a comedy _Philomathes_. _The Seven Days of the Weeke_, too, though acted in private, had been so good that the vice-chancellor was invited to see a repetition of it, and thus Sunday, January 17, was ‘spent in great mirth.’ On the Thursday following there was a little _contretemps_. The canons of Christ Church invited the Prince to a comedy called _Yuletide_, and in this ‘many things were either ill ment by them, or ill taken by vs.’ The play in fact was full of satire of ‘Christmas Lords,’ and it is not surprising that an apology from the dean, who was vice-chancellor that year, was required to soothe the Prince’s offended feelings. Term had now begun, but the revels were renewed about Candlemas. On that day was a _Vigilate_ or all-night sitting, with cards, dice, dancing, and a mask. At supper a quarrel arose. A man stabbed his fellow, and the Prince’s stocks were requisitioned in deadly earnest. After supper the Prince was entertained in the president’s lodging with ‘a wassall called the five bells of Magdalen church.’ On February 6, ‘beeing egge Satterday,’ some gentlemen scholars of the town brought a mask of _Penelope’s Wooers_ to the Prince, which, however, fell through; and finally, on Shrove Tuesday, after a shew called _Ira seu Tumulus Fortunae_, the Prince was conducted to his private chamber in a mourning procession, and his reign ended. Even yet the store of entertainment provided was not exhausted. On the following Saturday, though it was Lent, an English tragedy of _Periander_ was given, the press of spectators being so great that ‘4 or 500’ who could not get in caused a tumult. And still there remained ‘many other thinges entended,’ but unperformed. There was the mask of _Penelope’s Wooers_, with the _State of Telemachus_ and a _Controversy of Irus and his Ragged Company_. There were an _Embassage from Lubberland_, a _Creation of White Knights of the Order of Aristotle’s Well_, a _Triumph of all the Founders of Colleges in Oxford_, not to speak of a lottery ‘for matters of mirth and witt’ and a court leet and baron to be held by the Prince. So much energy and invention in one small college is astonishing, and it was hard that Mr. Griffin Higgs should have to complain of the treatment meted out to its entertainers by the University at large. ‘Wee found ourselves,’ he says, ‘(wee will say justly) taxed for any the least errour (though ingenious spirits would have pardoned many things, where all things were entended for their owne pleasure) but most vnjustly censured, and envied for that which was done (wee daresay) indifferently well.’

Amongst other colleges in which the Lord of Misrule was regularly or occasionally chosen, Anthony à Wood names, with somewhat vague references, New College and Magdalen[1487]. To these may certainly be added Trinity, where the _Princeps Natalicius_ is mentioned in an audit-book of 1559[1488]. But the most singular of all the Oxford documents bearing on the subject cannot be identified with any particular college. It consists of a series of three Latin letters[1489]. The first is addressed by _Gloria in excelsis_ to all mortals _sub Natalicia ditione degentibus_. They are bidden keep peace during the festal season and wished pleasant headaches in the mornings. The vicegerent of _Gloria in excelsis_ upon earth is an annually constituted _praelatia_, that so a longer term of office may not beget tyranny. The letter goes on to confirm the election to the kingly dignity of Robertus Grosteste[1490], and enjoins obedience to him _secundum Natalicias leges_. It is _datum in aere luminoso supra Bethlemeticam regionem ubi nostra magnificentia fuit pastoribus promulgata_. The second letter is addressed to _R[obert] Regi Natalicio_ and his _proceres_ by _Discretio virtutum omnium parens pariter ac regina_. It is a long discourse on the value of moderation, and concludes with a declaration that a moderate _laetitia_ shall rule until Candlemas, and then give way to a moderate _clerimonia_. The third is more topical and less didactic in its tone. It parodies a papal letter to a royal sovereign. _Transaetherius, pater patrum ac totius ecclesiasticae monarchiae pontifex et minister_ complains, _R. Regi Natalicio_, of certain abuses of his rule. His _stolidus senescallus_, _madidus marescallus_ and _parliamenti grandiloquus sed nugatorius prolocutor_ have _ut plura possent inferre stipendia_ assaulted and imprisoned on the very night of the Nativity, _Iohannem Curtibiensem episcopum_. In defence of these proceedings the Rex has pleaded _quasdam antiquas regni tui, non dico consuetudines, sed potius corruptelas_. Transaetherius gives the peccant officials three hours in which to make submission. If they fail, they shall be excommunicated, and Iohannes de Norwico, the warden of Jericho, will have orders to debar them from that place and confine them to their rooms. The letter is _datum in vertice Montis Cancari, pontificatus nostri anni non fluxibili sed aeterno_. I think it is clear that these letters are not a mere political skit, but refer to some actual Christmas revels. The waylaying of _Iohannes Curtibiensis episcopus_ to make him ‘pay his footing’ is exactly the sort of thing that happened at the Feast of Fools, and the _non consuetudines, sed potius corruptelas_ is the very language of the decretal of 1207[1491]. But surely they are not twelfth-or early thirteenth-century revels, as they must be if ‘Robertus Grosteste’ is taken literally as the famous bishop of Lincoln[1492]. There was no _parliamenti prolocutor_, for instance, in his day. They are fourteenth-, fifteenth-, or even sixteenth-century fooling, in connexion with some _Rex Natalicius_ who adopted, to season his jest, the name of the great mediaeval legislator against all such _ludi_.

At Cambridge an order of the Visitors of Edward VI in 1549 forbade the appointment of a _dominus ludorum_ in any college[1493]. But the prohibition did not endure, and more than one unsuccessful Puritan endeavour to put down Lords of Misrule is recorded by Fuller[1494]. Little, however, is known of the Cambridge Lords; their bare existence at St. John’s[1495] and Christ’s Colleges[1496]; and at Trinity the fact that they were called _imperatores_, a name on the invention of which one of the original fellows of the college, the astronomer John Dee, plumes himself[1497]. At schools such as Winchester and Eton, the functions of Lord of Misrule were naturally supplied by the Boy Bishop. At Westminster there was a _paedonomus_, and Bryan Duppa held the office early in the seventeenth century[1498].

The revels of the Inns of Court come into notice in 1422, when the _Black Book_ of Lincoln’s Inn opens with the announcement _Ceux sont les nouns de ceux qe fuerunt assignes de continuer yci le nowel_[1499]. They are mentioned in the _Paston Letters_ in 1451[1500], and in Sir Fortescue’s _De laudibus Legum Angliae_ about 1463[1501]. Space compels me to be very brief in summarizing the further records for each Inn.

Lincoln’s Inn had in 1430 its four revels on All Hallows’ day, St. Erkenwold’s (April 30), Candlemas and Midsummer day, under a ‘Master of the Revels.’ In 1455 appears a ‘marshal,’ who was a Bencher charged to keep order and prevent waste from the last week of Michaelmas to the first of Hilary term. Under him were the Master of the Revels, a butler and steward for Christmas, a constable-marshal, server, and cup-bearer. In the sixteenth century the ‘grand Christmassings’ were additional to the four revels, and those of Candlemas were called the ‘post revels.’ Christmas had its ‘king.’ In 1519 it was ordered that the ‘king’ should sit on Christmas day, that on Innocents’ day the ‘King of Cokneys’[1502] should ‘sytt and haue due seruice,’ and that the marshal should himself sit as king on New Year’s day. In 1517 some doors had been broken by reason of ‘Jake Stray,’ apparently a popular anti-king or pretender, and the order concludes, ‘Item, that Jack Strawe and all his adherentes be from hensforth uttrely banyshed and no more to be used in Lincolles Inne.’ In 1520 the Bench determine ‘that the order of Christmas shall be broken up’; and from that date a ‘solemn Christmas’ was only occasionally kept, by agreement with the Temples. Both Lincoln’s Inn and the Middle Temple had a ‘Prince,’ for instance, in 1599. In 1616 the choice of a ‘Lieutenant’ at Christmas was forbidden by the Bench as ‘not accordinge to the auncyant Orders and usages of the House.’ In 1624 the Christmas vacation ceased to be kept. There were still ‘revels’ under ‘Masters of the Revels’ in Michaelmas and Hilary terms, and there are notices of disorder at Christmas in 1660 and 1662. But the last ‘Prince’ of Lincoln’s Inn, was probably the Prince de la Grange of 1661, who had the honour of entertaining Charles II[1503].

The Inner Temple held ‘grand Christmasses’ as well as ‘revels’ on All Saints’, Candlemas, and Ascension days. The details of the Christmas ceremonies have been put together from old account books by Dugdale. They began on St. Thomas’s day and ended on Twelfth night. On Christmas day came in the boar’s head. On St. Stephen’s day a cat and a fox were hunted with nine or ten couple of hounds round the hall[1504]. In the first few days of January a banquet with a play and mask was given to the other Inns of Court and Chancery. The Christmas officers included a steward, marshal, butler, constable-marshal, master of the game, lieutenant of the tower, and one or more masters of the revels. The constable-marshal was the Lord of Misrule. He held a fantastic court on St. Stephen’s day[1505], and came into hall ‘on his mule’ to devise sport on the banquetting night. In 1523 the Bench agreed not to keep Christmas, but to allow minstrels to those who chose to stay. Soon after 1554 the Masters of Revels cease to be elected[1506]. Nevertheless there was a notable revel in 1561 at which Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards earl of Leicester, was constable-marshal. He took the title of ‘Palaphilos, prince of Sophie,’ and instituted an order of knights of Pegasus in the name of his mistress Pallas[1507]. In 1594 the Inner Temple had an emperor, who sent an ambassador to the revels of Gray’s Inn[1508]. In 1627 the appointment of a Lord of Misrule led to a disturbance between the ‘Temple Sparks’ and the city authorities. The ‘lieutenant’ claimed to levy a ‘droit’ upon dwellers in Ram Alley and Fleet Street. The lord mayor intervened, an action which led to blows and the committal of the lieutenant to the counter, whence he escaped only by obtaining the mediation of the attorney-general, and making submission[1509]. A set of orders for Christmas issued by the Bench in 1632 forbade ‘any going abroad out of the Circuit of this House, or without any of the Gates, by any Lord or other Gentleman, to break open any House, or Chamber; or to take anything in the name of Rent, or a distress[1510].’

The Middle Temple held its ‘solemn revels’ and ‘post revels’ on All Saints and Candlemas days, and on the Saturdays between these dates; likewise its ‘solemn Christmasses[1511].’ An account of the Christmas of 1599 was written by Sir Benjamin Rudyerd under the title of _Noctes Templariae: or, A Briefe Chronicle of the Dark Reigne of the Bright Prince of Burning Love_. ‘Sur Martino’ was the Prince, and one ‘Milorsius Stradilax’ served as butt and buffoon to the company. A masque and barriers at court, other masques and comedies, a progress, a mock trial, a ‘Sacrifice of Love,’ visits to the Lord Mayor and to and from Lincoln’s Inn, made up the entertainment[1512]. In 1631 orders for Christmas government were made by the Bench[1513]. In 1635 a Cornish gentleman, Francis Vivian, sat as Prince d’Amour. It cost him £2,000, but after his deposition he was knighted at Whitehall. His great day was February 24, when he entertained the Princes Palatine, Charles, and Rupert, with Davenant’s masque of the _Triumphs of the Prince d’Amour_[1514].

There is no very early mention of revels at Gray’s Inn, but they were held on Saturdays between All Saints and Candlemas about 1529, and by 1550 the solemn observation of Christmas was occasionally used. In 1585 the Bench forbade that any one should ‘in time of Christmas, or any other time, take upon him, or use the name, place, or commandment of _Lord_, or any such other like[1515].’ Nevertheless in 1594 one of the most famous of all the legal ‘solemn Christmasses’ was held at this Inn. Mr. Henry Helmes, of Norfolk, was ‘Prince of Purpoole[1516],’ and he had the honour of presenting a mask before Elizabeth. This was written by Francis Davison, and Francis Bacon also contributed to the speeches at the revels. But the great glory of this Christmas came to it by accident. On Innocents’ day there had been much confusion, and the invited Templarians had retired in dudgeon. To retrieve the evening ‘a company of base and common fellows’ was brought in and performed ‘a Comedy of Errors, like to Plautus his Menaechmus[1517].’ In 1617 there was again a Prince of Purpoole, on this occasion for the entertainment of Bacon himself as Lord Chancellor[1518]. Orders of 1609 and 1628 mention respectively the ‘twelve’ and the ‘twenty’ days of Christmas as days of license, when caps may be doffed and cards or dice played in the hall[1519]: and the duration of the Gray’s Inn revels is marked by notices of Masters of the Revels as late as 1682 and even 1734[1520].

Nobles and even private gentlemen would set up a Lord of Misrule in their houses. The household regulations of the fifth earl of Northumberland include in a list of rewards usually paid about 1522, one of twenty shillings if he had an ‘Abbot of Miserewll’ at Christmas, and this officer, like his fellow at court, was distinct from the ‘Master of the Revells’ for whom provision is also made[1521]. In 1556 the marquis of Winchester, then lord treasurer, had a ‘lord of mysrulle’ in London, who came to bid my lord mayor to dinner with ‘a grett mene of musysyonars and dyssegyssyd’ amongst whom ‘a dullvyll shuting of fyre’ and one ‘lyke Deth with a dart in hand[1522].’ In 1634 Richard Evelyn of Wotton, high sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, issued ‘Articles’ appointing Owen Flood his trumpeter ‘Lord of Misrule of all good Orders during the twelve dayes[1523].’ The custom was imitated by more than one municipal ape of gentility. The lord mayor and sheriffs of London had their Lords of Misrule until the court of common council put down the expense in 1554[1524]. Henry Rogers, mayor of Coventry, in 1517, and Richard Dutton, mayor of Chester, in 1567, entertained similar officers[1525].

I have regarded the Lord of Misrule, amongst the courtly and wealthy classes of English society, as a direct offshoot from the vanished Feast of Fools. The ecclesiastical suggestion in the alternative title, more than once found, of ‘Abbot of Misrule,’ seems to justify this way of looking at the matter. But I do not wish to press it too closely. For after all the Lord of Misrule, like the Bishop of Fools himself, is only a variant of the winter ‘king’ known to the folk. In some instances it is difficult to say whether it is the folk custom or the courtly custom with which you have to do. Such is the ‘kyng of Crestemesse’ of Norwich in 1443[1526]. Such are the Lords of Misrule whom Machyn records as riding to the city from Westminster in 1557 and Whitechapel in 1561[1527]. And there is evidence that the term was freely extended to folk ‘kings’ set up, not at Christmas only, but at other times in the year[1528]. It was a folk and a Christmas Lord whose attempted suppression by Sir Thomas Corthrop, the reforming curate of Harwich, got him into trouble with the government of Henry VIII in 1535[1529]. And it was folk rather than courtly Lords which, when the reformers got their own way, were hardest hit by the inhibitions contained in the visitation articles of archbishop Grindal and others[1530]. So this discussion, _per ambages atque aequora vectus_, comes round to the point at which it began. It is a far cry from Tertullian to Bishop Grosseteste and a far cry from Bishop Grosseteste to Archbishop Grindal, but each alike voices for his own day the relentless hostility of the austerer clergy during all ages to the ineradicable _ludi_ of the pagan inheritance.

END OF VOL. I

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Deuteronomy_, xxii. 5, a commonplace of anti-stage controversy from Tertullian (_de Spectaculis_, c. 23) to _Histrio-Mastix_. Tertullian (_loc. cit._) asserts, ‘non amat falsum auctor veritatis; adulterium est apud ilium omne quod fingitur.’

[2] J. Denis, _La Comédie grecque_ (1886), i. 50, 106; ii. 535. The so-called mimes of Herodas (third cent. B. C.) are literary pieces, based probably on the popular mime but not intended for representation (Croiset, _Hist. de la Litt. grecque_, v. 174).

[3] Livy, vii. 2; Valerius Maximus, ii. 4. 4 (364 B. C.).

[4] Juvenal, x. 81; Dion Chrysostom, _Or._ xxxii. 370, 18 M.; Fronto, _Princip. hist._ v. 13. A fourth-century inscription (_Bull. d. Commis. arch. comun. di Roma_, 1891, 342) contains a list of small Roman _tabernarii_ entitled to _locum spectaculis et panem_.

[5] The holding capacity of the theatre of Pompey is variously given at from 17,580 to 40,000, that of the theatre of Balbus at from 11,510 to 30,085, that of the theatre of Marcellus as 20,000.

[6] Friedländer, ii. 100; Haigh, 457; Krumbacher, 646; Welcker, _Die griechischen Tragödien_ (1841), iii. 1472.

[7] Juvenal, i. 1; Pliny, _Epist._ vi. 15; vii. 17; Tacitus, _de Oratoribus_, 9, 11.

[8] The _Sententiae_ of Publilius Syrus were collected from his mimes in the first century A.D., and enlarged from other sources during the Middle Ages (Teuffel-Schwabe, § 212). Cf. the edition by W. Meyer, 1880. The other fragments of the mimographs are included in O. Ribbeck, _Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta_ (3rd ed. 1898). Philistion of Bithynia, about the time of Tiberius, gave the mime a literary form once more in his κωμῳδίαι βιολογικαί (J. Denis, _La Com. grecque_, ii. 544; Croiset, _Hist. de la Litt. grecque_, v. 449).

[9] _Incerti_ (fourth century) _ad Terentium_ (ed. Giles, i. xix) ‘mimos ab diuturna imitatione vilium rerum et levium personarum.’ Diomedes (fifth century), _Ars Grammatica_, iii. 488 ‘mimus est sermonis cuiuslibet imitatio et motus sine reverentia, vel factorum et dictorum turpium cum lascivia imitatio.’

[10] Ovid, _Tristia_, ii. 497:

‘quid, si scripsissem mimos obscoena iocantes, qui semper vetiti crimen amoris habent.’

[11] _Hist. Augusta, Vita Heliogabali_, 25 ‘in mimicis adulteriis ea quae solent simulato fieri effici ad verum iussit’; cf. the _pyrrichae_ described by Suetonius, _Nero_, 12. The Roman taste for bloodshed was sometimes gratified by mimes given in the amphitheatre, and designed to introduce the actual execution of a criminal. Martial, _de Spectaculis_, 7, mentions the worrying and crucifixion of a brigand in the mime _Laureolus_, by order of Domitian:

‘nuda Caledonio sic pectora praebuit urso non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus.’

[12] Martial, i. 1; Ausonius, _Ecl._ xviii. 25; Lactantius (†300), _de Inst. div._ i. 20. 10. Probably the influence of a piece of folk-ritual is to be traced here.

[13] The ‘mimus’ type is exactly reproduced by more than one popular performer on the modern ‘variety’ or ‘burlesque’ stage.

[14] Macrobius, _Sat._ ii. 7; Cicero, _ad Atticum_, xiv. 3; Suetonius, _Augustus_, 45, 68; _Tiberius_, 45; _Caligula_, 27; _Nero_, 39; _Galba_, 13; _Vespasian_, 19; _Domitian_, 10; _Hist. Augusta, Vita Marc. Aurel._ 8. 29; _Vita Commodi_, 3; _Vita Maximini_, 9.

[15] Petronius, _Satyricon_, liii; cf. _Taming of the Shrew_, i. 1. 258 ‘’Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady; would ’twere done!’

[16] Lucian, _de Saltatione_, 69.

[17] Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 63; Zosimus (450-501 A. D.), i. 6 (_Corp. Script. Hist. Byz._ xx. 12) ἥ τε γὰρ παντόμιμος ὄρχησις ἐν ἐκείνοις εἰσήχθη τοίς χρόνοις ... πολλῶν αἴτια γεγονότα μέχρι τούδε κακῶν.

[18] This is not wholly so, at any rate in Tacitus, who seems to include the players both of mimes and of Atellanes amongst _histriones_ (_Ann._ i. 73; iv. 14). For the origin of the name, cf. Livy, vii. 2 ‘ister Tusco verbo ludius vocabatur.’ Besides _ludius_, _actor_ is good Latin. But it is generally used in some such phrase as _actor primarum personarum_, protagonist, and by itself often means _dominus gregis_, manager of the _grex_ or company. _Mimus_ signifies both performer and performance, _pantomimus_ the performer only. He is said _saltare fabulas_.

[19] Dion Cassius, liv. 17.

[20] Tacitus, _Annales_, i. 77; iv. 14; Dion Cassius, lvii. 21; Suetonius, _Tiberius_, 37.

[21] Tacitus, _Annales_, xiii. 25; xiv. 21; Dion Cassius, lix. 2; lxi. 8; lxviii. 10; Suetonius, _Nero_, 16, 26; _Titus_, 7; _Domitian_, 7; Pliny, _Paneg._ 46; _Hist. Augusta, Vita Hadriani_, 19; _Vita Alex. Severi_, 34.

[22] The _pyrricha_, a Greek concerted dance, probably of folk origin (cf. ch. ix), was often given a mythological _argumentum_. It was danced in the amphitheatre.

[23] Valerius Maximus, ii. 6. 7 ‘eadem civitas severitatis custos acerrima est: nullum aditum in scenam mimis dando, quorum argumenta maiore in parte stuprorum continent actus; ne talia spectandi consuetudo etiam imitandi licentiam sumat.’

[24] A. H. J. Greenidge, _Infamia_ (_passim_); Bouché-Leclercq, _Manuel des Institutions romaines_, 352, 449; _Edictum praetoris in C. I. C. Digest_, iii. 2. 1 ‘infamia notatur qui ... artis ludicrae pronuntiandive causa in scaenam prodierit.’ The jurists limited the application of the rule to professional actors. _Thymelici_, or orchestral musicians, were exempt. Diocletian made a further exemption for persons appearing in their minority (_C. I. C. Cod. Iust._ ii. 11. 21). The censors, on the other hand, spared the _Atellani_, whose performances had a traditional connexion with religious rites.

[25] _C. I. L._ i. 122.

[26] _C. I. C. Digest_, xlviii. 5. 25. A husband may kill an actor with whom his wife is guilty.

[27] _Ibid._ xxiii. 2. 42, 44; xxxviii. 1. 37; Ulpian, _Fragm._ xiii.

[28] Tacitus, _Annales_, i. 77. An attempt to restore the old usage under Tiberius was unsuccessful.

[29] Caesar was tolerably magnanimous, for Laberius had already taken his revenge in a scurrilous prologue. It had its touch of pathos, too:

‘eques Romanus lare egressus meo domum revertar mimus.’

[30] Cicero, _ad Fam._ x. 32; Dion Cassius, xlviii. 33; liii. 31; liv. 2; lvi. 47; lvii. 14; lix. 10; lxi. 9; lxv. 6; Tacitus, _Ann._ xiv. 20; _Hist._ ii. 62; Suetonius, _Augustus_, 45; _Domitian_, 8.

[31] Suetonius, _Nero_, 21; Tacitus, _Ann._ xiv. 14; Juvenal, viii. 198; Pseudo-Lucian, _Nero_, 9.

[32] Dion Cassius, lxxvii. 21; _Hist. Augusta, Vita Heliogabali_, 12. Yet in the time of Severus a soldier going on the stage was liable to death (_C. I. C. Digest_, xlviii. 19. 14).

[33] _C. I. C. Cod. Iust._ xii. 1. 2.

[34] Cf. p. 38.

[35] Tacitus, _Ann._ xiv. 20; Juvenal, vi. 60; viii. 183; Martial, ix. 28. 9; Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv. 6. 18; xxviii. 4. 32; Macrobius, ii. 1. 5, 9.

[36] M. Aurelius, _Comm._ xi. 6; _Hist. Augusta, Vita M. Aurel._ 15. This refers directly to the _circus_.

[37] Gibbon, ii. 447; Schaff, v. 49; Dill, 34, 100; P. Allard, _Julien l’Apostat_, i. 272; Alice Gardner, _Julian the Apostate_, 201; G. H. Rendall, _The Emperor Julian_ (1879), 106. The most interesting passage is a fragmentary ‘pastoral letter’ to a priest (ed. Hertlein, _Fragm. Ep._ p. 304 B; cf. _Ep._ 49, p. 430 B); Julian requires the priests to abstain even from reading the Old Comedy (_Fragm. Ep._ p. 300 D). He also thinks that the moral layman should avoid the theatre (_Misopogon_, p. 343 c).

[38] On the critical problem offered by such _vitae_ cf. Prof. Bury in Gibbon, i. l. B. von der Lage, _Studien zur Genesius-legende_ (1898), attempts to show that the legends of St. Genesius (_Acta SS. Aug._ v. 122), St. Gelasius (_Acta SS. Feb._ iii. 680), St. Ardalio (_Acta SS. Apr._ ii. 213), St. Porphyrius (_Acta SS. Sept._ v. 37), and another St. Porphyrius (_Acta SS. Nov._ ii. 230) are all variants of a Greek story originally told of an anonymous _mimus_. The _Passio_ of St. Genesius represents him as a _magister mimithemelae artis_, converted while he was mimicking a baptism before Diocletian and martyred. It professes to give part of the dialogue of the mime. The legends of St. Philemon (_Menologium Basilii_, ii. 59; cf. _Acta SS. Mar._ i. 751) and St. Pelagia or Margarita (_Acta SS. Oct._ iv. 248) appear to be distinct. Palladius, _Vita Chrysostomi_, 8, records how the stage of Antioch in the fifth century rang with the scandals caused by the patriarch Severus and other Monophysite heretics.

[39] Tertullian, _De Spect._, especially cc. 4, 26, 30. Schaff, iv. 833, dates the treatise †200. An earlier Greek writing by Tertullian on the same subject is lost; cf. also his _Apologeticus_, 15 (_P. L._ i. 357). The information as to the contemporary stage scattered through Tertullian’s works is collected by E. Nöldechen, _Tertullian und das Theater_ (_Z. f. Kirchengeschichte_ (1894), xv. 161). An anonymous _De Spectaculis_, formerly ascribed to St. Cyprian, follows on Tertullian’s lines (_P. L._ iv. 779, transl. in _Ante-Nicene Christian Libr._ xiii. 221).

[40] Tatian, _ad Graecos_, 22 (_P. G._ vi. 856); Minucius Felix, _Octavius_, 27 (_P. L._ iii. 352); Cyprian, _Epist._ i. 8 (_P. L._ iv. 207); Lactantius, _de Inst. div._ vi. 20 (_P. L._ vi. 710), ‘quid de mimis loquar, corruptelarum praeferentibus disciplinam, qui docent adulteria, dum fingunt, et simulatis erudiunt ad vera?’; cf. Du Méril, _Or. Lat._ 6; Schaff, iii. 339. A remarkable collection of all conceivable authorities against the stage is given by Prynne, 566, 685, &c.

[41] _Canones Hippolyti_, 67 (Duchesne, 509) ‘Quicumque fit θεατρικός vel gladiator et qui currit vel docet voluptates vel [_illegible_] vel [_illegible_] vel κυνηγός vel ἱπποδρόμος [?], vel qui cum bestiis pugnat vel idolorum sacerdos, hi omnes non admittuntur ad sermones sacros nisi prius ab illis immundis operibus purgentur.’ This is from an Arabic translation of a lost Greek original. M. Duchesne says ‘ce recueil de prescriptions liturgiques et disciplinaires est sûrement antérieur au iv^e siècle, et rien ne s’oppose à ce qu’il remonte à la date indiquée par le nom d’Hippolyte’ [†198-236].

[42] _Conc. Illib._ cc. 62, 67 (Mansi, ii. 16); _Conc. Arelat._ c. 5 (Mansi, ii. 471); 3 _Conc. Carth._ cc. 11, 35 (Mansi, iii. 882, 885); 4 _Conc. Carth._ cc. 86, 88 (Mansi, iii. 958).

[43] The strongest pronouncement is that of Augustine and others in 3 _Conc. Carth._ c. 11 ‘ut filii episcoporum vel clericorum spectacula saecularia non exhibeant, sed non spectent, quandoquidem ab spectaculo et omnes laici prohibeantur. Semper enim Christianis omnibus hoc interdictum est, ut ubi blasphemi sunt, non accedant.’

[44] 4 _Conc. Carth._ c. 88 ‘Qui die solenni, praetermisso solenni ecclesiae conventu, ad spectacula vadit, excommunicetur.’

[45] _D. C. A._ s. vv. _Actor_, _Theatre_; Bingham, vi. 212, 373, 439; Alt, 310; Prynne, 556. Some, however, of the pronouncements of the fathers came to have equal force with the decrees of councils in canon law. The _Code_ of Gratian (†1139), besides 3 _Conc. Carth._ c. 35 ‘scenicis atque ystrionibus, ceterisque huiusmodi personis, vel apostaticis conversis, vel reversis ad Deum, gratia vel reconciliatio non negetur’ (_C. I. Can._ iii. 2. 96) and 7 _Conc. Carth._ (419) c. 2 (Mansi, iv. 437) ‘omnes etiam infamiae maculis aspersi, id est histriones ... ab accusatione prohibentur’ (_C. I. Can._ ii. 4. 1. 1), includes two patristic citations. One is Cyprian, _Ep._ lxi. (_P. L._ iv. 362), which is ‘de ystrione et mago illo, qui apud vos constitutus adhuc in suae artis dedecore perseverat,’ and forbids ‘sacra communio cum ceteris Christianis dari’ (_C. I. Can._ iii. 2. 95); the other Augustine, _Tract. C. ad c. 16 Iohannis_ (_P. L._ xxxv. 1891) ‘donare res suas histrionibus vitium est immane, non virtus’ (_C. I. Can._ i. 86. 7). Gratian adds Isidorus Hispalensis, _de Eccl. Off._ ii. 2 (_P. L._ lxxxiii. 778) ‘his igitur lege Patrum cavetur, ut a vulgari vita seclusi a mundi voluptatibus sese abstineant; non spectaculis, non pompis intersint’ (_C. I. Can._ i. 23. 3).

[46] Sathas, 7; Krumbacher, 644. Anastasius Sinaita (bp. of Antioch, 564) in his tract, _Adversus Monophysitas ac Monothelitas_ (Mai, _Coll. Nov. Script. Vet._ vii. 202), speaks of the συγγράμματα of the Arians as θυμελικὰς βίβλους, and calls the Arian Eunomius πρωτοστάτης τῆς Ἀρείου θυμελικῆς ὀρχήστρας. I doubt if these phrases should be taken too literally; possibly they are not more than a criticism of the buffoonery and levity which the fragments of the Θάλεια display. Krumbacher mentions an orthodox Ἀντιθάλεια of which no more seems to be known.

[47] Alt, 310; Bingham, vi. 273; Schaff, v. 106, 125; Haigh, 460; Dill, 56; P. Allard, _Julien l’Apostat_. i. 230. The _Codex Theodosianus_, drawn up and accepted for both empires †435, contains imperial edicts from the time of Constantine onwards.

[48] _Spectacula_ are forbidden on Sunday, unless it is the emperor’s birthday, by _C. Th._ xv. 5. 2 (386), which also forbids judges to rise for them, except on special occasions, and _C. Th._ ii. 8. 23 (399). The exception is removed by _C. Th._ ii. 8. 25 (409) and _C. Iust._ iii. 12. 9 (469). The Christian feasts and fasts, Christmas, Epiphany, the first week in Lent, Passion and Easter weeks are added by _C. Th._ ii. 8. 23 (400) and _C. Th._ xv. 5. 5 (425). According to some MSS. this was done by _C. Th._ ii. 8. 19 (389), but the events of 399 recorded below seem to show that 400 is the right date.

[49] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 1, 2 (371); xv. 7. 4 (380); xv. 7. 9 (381). Historians have seen in some of these rescripts which are dated from Milan the influence of St. Ambrose. _C. Th._ xv. 7. 13 (414) seems to withdraw the concessions, in the interest of the public _voluptates_, but this may have been only a temporary or local measure.

[50] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 11 (393); xv. 7. 12 (394); xv. 13. 1 (396).

[51] _C. Th._ iv. 6. 3 (336) ‘scenicae ... quarum venenis inficiuntur animi perditorum’; xv. 7. 8 (381), of the relapsing _scenica_, ‘permaneat donec anus ridicula, senectute deformis, nec tunc quidem absolutione potiatur, cum aliud quam casta esse non possit.’

[52] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 12 (394).

[53] _C. Th._ xv. 6. 2 (399) is explicit, ‘ludicras artes concedimus agitari, ne ex nimia harum restrictione tristitia generetur.’

[54] _C. Th._ vi. 4. 2 (327); vi. 4. 4 (339); vi. 4. 29 (396); vi. 4. 32 (397). It appears from the decree of 396 that the ‘theatralis dispensio’ of the praetors had been diverted to the building of an aqueduct; they are now to give ‘scenicas voluptates’ again. Symmachus, _Ep._ vi. 42, describes his difficulties in getting _scenici_ for his son’s praetorship, which cost him £80,000. They were lost at sea; cf. Dill, 151.

[55] See Appendix A.

[56] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 5 (380); xv. 7. 10 (385); _C. Iust._ xi. 41. 5 (409).

[57] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 8 (381); xiv. 7. 3 (412).

[58] _C. Th._ xvi. 10. 3 (346). But _C. Th._ xvi. 10. 17 (399) forbids ‘voluptates’ to be connected with sacrifice or superstition.

[59] A. Puech, _St. Jean Chrysostome et les Mœurs de son Temps_ (1891), 266, has an interesting chapter on the _spectacula_. He refers to _Hom. in Matt._ 6, 7, 37, 48; _Hom. in Ioann._ 18; _Hom. in Ep._ 1 _ad Thess._ 5; _Hom. de Dav. et Saul_, 3; _Hom. in Prisc. et Aquil._ 1, &c. Most of these works belong to the Antioch period; cf. also Allard, i. 229. In _de Sacerdotio_ 1, Chrysostom, like Augustine, records his own delight in the stage as a young man.

[60] _P. G._ lvi. 263.

[61] _C. I. C. Nov. Iust._ cv. 1 (536) ‘faciet processum qui ad theatrum ducit, quem pornas vocant, ubi in scena ridiculorum est locus tragoedis et thymelicis choris’; cf. Choricius, _Apology for Mimes_, ed. Ch. Graux, in _R. d. Philologie_, i. 209; Krumbacher, 646.

[62] _C. Th._ iv. 6. 3 (336); _C. Iust._ v. 5. 7 (454).

[63] _C. Iust._ v. 4. 23 (520-3) allows the marriage on condition of an imperial rescript and a _dotale instrumentum_. _C. Iust._ i. 4. 33 (534) waives the rescript. It also imposes penalties on _fideiussores_ or sureties of actresses who hinder them from conversion and quitting the stage. For similar legislation cf. _Nov._ li; lxxxix. 15; cxvii. 4. By _Nov._ cxvii. 8. 6 a man is permitted to turn his wife out of doors and afterwards repudiate her, if she goes to theatre, circus, or amphitheatre without his knowledge or against his will.

[64] Gibbon, iv. 212, 516 (with Prof. Bury’s additions); C. E. Mallet in _E. H. Review_, ii. 1; A. Debidour, _L’Impératrice Théodora_, 59. Neither Prof. Bury nor the editor of the _C. I. C._ accepts M. Debidour’s dating of _C. Iust._ v. 4. 23 under Justinian in 534.

[65] Mansi, xi. 943. Canon 3 excludes one who has married a σκηνική from orders. C. 24 forbids priests and monks θυμελικῶν παιγνίων ἀνέχεσθαι, and confirms a decree of the council of Laodicea (cf. p. 24, n. 4) obliging them, if present at a wedding, to leave the room before τὰ παίγνια are introduced. C. 51 condemns, both for clergy and laity, τοὺς λεγομένους μίμους καὶ τὰ τούτων θέατρα and τὰς ἐπὶ σκηνῶν ὀρχήσεις. For clergy the penalty is degradation, for laity excommunication. C. 61 provides a six-years’ excommunication for bear-leaders and such. C. 62 deals with pagan religious festivals of a semi-theatrical character; cf. ch. xiv. C. 66 forbids the circus or any δημώδης θέα in Easter week.

[66] Sathas, _passim_; Krumbacher, 644.

[67] Jerome, _in Ezechiel_ (410-15) ‘a. spectaculis removeamus oculos arenae circi theatri’ (_P. L._ xxv. 189); Augustine, _de Fide et Symbolo_ (393) ‘in theatris labes morum, discere turpia, audire inhonesta, videre perniciosa’ (_P. L._ xl. 639); cf. the sermon quoted in Appendix N, N^o. x.

[68] Ausonius, _Idyl._ iv. 46; Sidonius, _Ep._ iv. 12 ‘legebamus, pariter laudabamus, iocabamurque.’

[69] Augustine, _Conf._ iii. 2, 3 (_P. L._ xxxii. 683). The whim took him once ‘theatrici carminis certamen inire.’

[70] Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, ii. 8 (_P. L._ xli. 53) ‘et haec sunt scenicorum tolerabiliora ludorum, comoediae scilicet et tragoediae; hoc est, tabulae poetarum agendae in spectaculis, multa rerum turpitudine sed nulla saltem sicut alia multa verborum obscoenitate compositae; quas etiam inter studia quae honesta ac liberalia vocantur pueri legere et discere coguntur a senibus.’

[71] Jerome, _Ep._ 21 (_alii_ 146) _ad Damasum_, written 383 (_P. L._ xxii. 386) ‘at nunc etiam sacerdotes Dei, omissis evangeliis et prophetis, videmus comoedias legere, amatoria bucolicorum versuum verba canere, tenere Vergilium, et id quod in pueris necessitatis est, crimen in se facere voluptatis’ (_C. I. Can._ i. 37. 2).

[72] Orosius, _Hist. adv. Paganos_ (417), iv. 21. 5 ‘theatra incusanda, non tempora.’ On the character of the treatise of Orosius cf. Dill, 312; Gibbon, iii. 490. Mr. Dill shows in the third book of his admirable work that bad government and bad finance had much more to do with the breakdown of the Empire than the bad morals of the stage.

[73] Dill, 58, 137; Hodgkin, i. 930. Salvian was a priest of Marseilles, and wrote between 439 and 451.

[74] Salvian, vi. 31 ‘quae est enim in baptismo salutari Christianorum prima confessio? quae scilicet nisi ut renuntiare se diabolo ac pompis eius et spectaculis atque operibus protestentur?’ The natural interpretation of this is that the word ‘spectaculis’ actually occurred in the _formula abrenuntiationis_. Was this so? It was not when Tertullian wrote (†200). He gives the _formula_ as ‘renunciare diabolo et pompae et angelis eius,’ and goes on to argue that visiting ‘spectacula’ amounts to ‘idolatria,’ or worship of the ‘diabolus’ (_de Spectaculis_, c. 4). Nor is the word used in any of the numerous versions of the _formula_ given by Schaff, iii. 248; Duchesne, 293; Martene, i. 44; Martin von Bracara, _de Caeremoniis_ (ed. Caspari), c. 15.

[75] Salvian, vi. 69, 87.

[76] Augustine, _de Cons. Evang._ i. 33 (_P. L._ xxxiv. 1068) ‘per omnes pene civitates cadunt theatra ... cadunt et fora vel moenia, in quibus demonia colebantur. Unde enim cadunt, nisi inopia rerum, quarum lascivo et sacrilego usu constructa sunt.’

[77] This point was made also by Chrysostom in the Easter-day sermon, already cited on p. 15.

[78] Salvian, vi. 39, 42, 49.

[79] Sidonius, _Ep._ i. 10. 2 ‘vereor autem ne famem Populi Romani theatralis caveae fragor insonet et infortunio meo publica deputetur esuries’; cf. _Ep._ i. 5. 10.

[80] Sidonius, _Carm._ xxiii. 263 (†460); cf. _Ep._ ix. 13. 5.

[81] Cassiodorus, _Variae_, iii. 51 ‘quantum histrionibus rara constantia honestumque votum, tanto pretiosior est, cum in eis probabilis monstratur affectus’; this is illustrated by the conduct of one ‘Thomas Auriga’; _Var._ ii. 8 ‘Sabinus auriga ... quamvis histrio honesta nos supplicatione permovit’; _Var._ vi. 4 ‘tanta enim est vis gloriosae veritatis, ut etiam in rebus scenicis aequitas desideretur.’

[82] Schaff, v. 122; Dill, 55. The rescript of Constantine is _C. Th._ xv. 12. 1 ‘cruenta spectacula in otio civili et domestica quiete non placent; quapropter omnino gladiatores esse prohibemus (325).’

[83] Cassiodorus, _Var._ iv. 51. Of the mime is said ‘mimus etiam, qui nunc modo derisui habetur, tanta Philistionis cautela repertus est ut eius actus poneretur in litteris’ (cf. p. 4, n. 1); of the pantomime, ‘orchestrarum loquacissimae manus, linguosi digiti, silentium clamosum, expositio tacita.’

[84] Cassiodorus, _Var._ i. 20, 31-3.

[85] Cf. Appendix A.

[86] Cassiodorus, _Var._ ix. 21 ‘opes nostras scaenicis pro populi oblectatione largimur.’

[87] Du Méril, _Or. Lat._ 13, quotes from Mariana, _Hist. of Spain_, vi. 3, the statement that Sisebut, king of the Visigoths, deposed Eusebius, bishop of Barcelona, in 618, ‘quod in theatro quaedam agi concessisset quae ex vana deorum superstitione traducta aures Christianae abhorrere videantur.’ Sisebuthus, _Ep._ vi (_P. L._ lxxx. 370), conveys his decision to the bishop. He says, ‘obiectum hoc, quod de ludis theatriis taurorum, scilicet, ministerio sis adeptus nulli videtur incertum; quis non videat quod etiam videre poeniteat.’ But I cannot find in Sisebut or in Mariana, who writes Spanish, the words quoted by Du Méril. For ‘taurorum’ one MS. has ‘phanorum.’ I suspect the former is right. A bull-fight sounds so Spanish, and such festivals of heathen origin as the _Kalends_ (cf. ch. xi) were not held in theatres. A. Gassier, _Le Théâtre espagnol_ (1898), 14, thinks such a festival is intended; if so, ‘theatriis’ probably means not literally, ‘in a theatre,’ but merely ‘theatrical’; cf. the ‘ludi theatrales’ of the Feast of Fools (ch. xiii). In any case there is no question of ‘scenici.’

[88] Isidorus Hispalensis, _Etymologiarum_ (600-636), xviii. 42 (_P. L._ lxxxii. 658).

[89] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, ii. 1. 5, 9.

[90] Chrysostom, _Hom. in Ep. ad Col. cap._ 1, _Hom._ i. cc. 5, 6 (_P. G._ lxii. 306).

[91] Jerome, _Ep._ 117 (_P. L._ xxii. 957) ‘difficile inter epulas servatur pudicitia’; cf. Dill, 110.

[92] _Conc. of Laodicea_ (†343-81) can. 54 (Mansi, ii. 574) ὅτι οὐ δεῖ ἱερατικοὺς ἢ κληρικούς τινας θεωρίας θεωρεῖν ἐν γάμοις ἢ δείπνοις, ἀλλὰ πρὸ τοῦ εἰσέρχεσθαι τοὺς θυμελικοὺς ἐγείρεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀναχωρεῖν. _Conc. of Braga_ (†572) c. 60 (Mansi, v. 912), _Conc. of Aix-la-Chapelle_ (816) c. 83 (Mansi, vii. 1361); and finally, _C. I. Can._ iii. 5. 37 ‘non oportet ministros altaris vel quoslibet clericos spectaculis aliquibus, quae aut in nuptiis aut scenis exhibentur, interesse, sed ante, quam thymelici ingrediantur, surgere eos de convivio et abire.’ It is noteworthy that ‘scenis’ here translates δείπνοις.

[93] Muratori _Antiq. Ital. Med. Aev._ ii. 847, traces the _pantomimi_ in the Italian _mattaccini_.

[94] Cf. Appendix B.

[95] Ten Brink, i. 11; P. Meyer in _Romania_ (1876), 260; G. Paris, 36; Gautier, ii. 6; Kögel, i. 2. 191.

[96] Tacitus, _Ann._ i. 65; iv. 47; _Hist._ ii. 22; iv. 18; v. 15; _Germ._ 3; Ammianus Marcellinus, xvi. 12. 43; xxxi. 7. 11; Vegetius, _de re militari_, iii. 18; cf. Kögel, i. 1. 12, 58, 111; Müllenhoff, _Germania_, ch. 3. The _barditus_ or _barritus_ of the Germans, whatever the name exactly means, seems to have been articulate, and not a mere noise.

[97] Tacitus, _Germ._ 2 ‘quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est.’

[98] Jordanis, _de orig. Getarum_ (in _M. G. H._), c. 4 ‘in priscis eorum carminibus pene storico ritu in commune recolitur.’

[99] Tacitus, _Ann._ ii. 88 ‘canitur adhuc barbaras apud gentes.’

[100] Cassiodorus, _Var._ viii. 9.

[101] Kögel, i. 1. 122, quoting Paulus Diaconus, i. 27.

[102] Kögel, i. 1. 122; i. 2. 220; Gautier, i. 72; G. Paris, _Hist. Poét. de Charlemagne_, 50; cf. _Poeta Saxo_ (†890) in _M. G. H. Scriptores_, i. 268 ‘est quoque iam notum; vulgaria carmina magnis laudibus eius avos et proavos celebrant. Pippinos, Karolos, Hludiwicos et Theodricos, et Carlomannos Hlothariosque canunt.’

[103] Gautier, i. 37; Gröber, ii. 1. 447. The shades of opinion on the exact relation of the _cantilenae_ to the _chansons de gestes_ are numerous.

[104] _Vita S. Willelmi_ (_Acta SS. Maii_, vi. 801) ‘qui chori iuvenum, qui conventus populorum, praecipue militum ac nobilium virorum, quae vigiliae sanctorum dulce non resonant, et modulatis vocibus decantant qualis et quantus fuerit’; cf. Gautier, i. 66. The merest fragments of such folk-song heroic _cantilenae_ are left. A German one, the Ludwigslied, on the battle of Saucourt (881) is in Müllenhoff und Scherer, _Denkmäler deutscher Poesie und Prosa_ (1892), N^o. xi; cf. Kögel, i. 2. 86; Gautier, i. 62. And a few lines of a (probably) French one on an event in the reign of Clotaire (†620) are translated into Latin in Helgarius (†853-76), _Vita S. Faronis_ (_Historiens de France_, iii. 505; Mabillon, _Acta SS. Benedictinorum_, ii. 610). Helgarius calls the song a ‘carmen rusticum’ and says ‘ex qua victoria carmen publicum iuxta rusticitatem per omnium pene volitabat ora ita canentium, feminaeque choros inde plaudendo componebant.’ The _Vita S. Faronis_ in _Acta SS._ lx. 612, which is possibly an abridgement of Helgarius, says ‘carmine rustico ... suavi cantilena decantabatur’; cf. Gautier, i. 47; Gröber, ii. 1. 446.

[105] Ten Brink, i. 148, quotes from _Hist. Ely_, ii. 27 (†1166), a fragment of a song on Canute, ‘quae usque hodie in choris publice cantantur,’ and mentions another instance from Wm. of Malmesbury. Cf. _de Gestis Herewardi Saxonis_ (Michel, _Chron. Anglo-Norm._ ii. 6) ‘mulieres et puellae de eo in choris canebant,’ and for Scotland the song on Bannockburn (1314) which, says Fabyan, _Chronicle_ (ed. Ellis), 420, ‘was after many days sungyn in dances, in carolles of ye maydens and mynstrellys of Scotlande’; cf. also Gummere, _B. P._ 265.

[106] It is important to recognize that the _cantilenae_ of the folk and those of the professional singers existed side by side. Both are, I think, implied in the account of the St. William songs quoted above: the folk sung them in choruses and on wake-days, the professional singers in the assemblies of warriors. At any rate, in the next (twelfth) cent. Ordericus Vitalis, vi. 3 (ed. _Soc. de l’Hist. de France_, iii. 5), says of the same Willelmus, ‘Vulgo canitur a ioculatoribus de illo cantilena.’ M. Gautier (ii. 6) will not admit the filiation of the _ioculatores_ to the _scôpas_, and therefore he is led to suppose (i. 78) that the _cantilenae_ and _vulgaria carmina_ were all folk-song up to the end of the tenth cent. and that then the _ioculatores_ got hold of them and lengthened them into _chansons de gestes_. But, as we shall see (p. 34), the Franks certainly had their professional singers as early as Clovis, and these cannot well have sung anything but heroic lays. Therefore the _cantilenae_ and _vulgaria carmina_ of the Merovingian and Carolingian periods may have been either folk-song, or _scôp_-song, or, more probably, both (Gröber, ii. 1. 449). _Cantilena_ really means no more than ‘chant’ of any kind; it includes ecclesiastical chant. So Alcuin uses it (e.g. _Ep._ civ. in Dümmler, ii. 169); and what Gautier, ii. 65, prints as a folk-song _cantilena_ of S. Eulalia is treated by Gröber, ii. 1. 442, as a sequence.

[107] Gummere, _G. O._ 260.

[108] Grein, i. 1.

[109] Grein, i. 278.

[110] _Beowulf_, 89, 499, 869, 1064, 1162, 2106, 2259, 2449.

[111] William of Malmesbury, _de gestis Pontif. Angl._ (R. S.), 336 ‘quasi artem cantitandi professum, ... sensim inter ludicra verbis scripturarum insertis.’

[112] Grein, ii. 294.

[113] Grein, i. 284. A similar poem is _The Sea-farer_ (Grein, i. 290).

[114] Cynewulf, _Elene_, 1259 (Grein, ii. 135); _Riddle_ lxxxix (Grein, iii. 1. 183). But A. S. Cook, _The Christ_ (1900), lv, lxxxiii, thinks that Cynewulf was a thane, and denies him the _Riddle_.

[115] Cynewulf, _Christ_ (ed. Gollancz), 668; _Gifts of Men_ (Grein, iii. 1. 140); _Fates of Men_ (Grein, iii. 1. 148).

[116] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Reg. Angl._ (R. S.), i. 126, 143.

[117] Asserius, _de rebus gestis Alfredi_ (Petrie-Sharp, _Mon. Hist. Brit._ i. 473). Alfred was slow to learn as a boy, but loved ‘Saxonica poemata,’ and remembered them. His first book was a ‘Saxonicum poematicae artis librum,’ and ‘Saxonicos libros recitare et maxime carmina Saxonica memoriter discere non desinebat.’

[118] Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 133 ‘Statuimus atque decernimus ut episcopi vel quicunque ecclesiastici ordinis religiosam vitam professi sunt ... nec citharoedas habeant, vel quaecunque symphoniaca, nec quoscunque iocos vel ludos ante se permittant, quia omnia haec disciplina sanctae ecclesiae sacerdotes fideles suos habere non sinit.’

[119] _Ibid._ iii. 369 (can. 20) ‘ut monasteria ... non sint ludicrarum artium receptacula, hoc est, poetarum, citharistarum, musicorum, scurrorum.’ Can. 12 shows a fear of the influence of the _scôp_ on ritual: ‘ut presbyteri saecularium poetarum modo in ecclesia non garriant, ne tragico sono sacrorum verborum compositionem et distinctionem corrumpant vel confundant.’ Cf. the twelfth-century account of church singers who used ‘histrionicis quibusdam gestis,’ quoted by Jusserand, _E. L._ 455, from the _Speculum Caritatis_ of Abbot Ælred of Rievaulx.

[120] Bede to Egbert in 734 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 315) ‘de quibusdam episcopis fama vulgatum est ... quod ipsi ... secum habeant ... illos qui risui, iocis, fabulis ... subigantur.’

[121] Gutberchtus to Lullus in 764 (Dümmler, _Epist. Mer. et Car._ in _M. G. H._ i. 406).

[122] Alcuin, _Ep._ 124 (797) ‘melius est pauperes edere de mensa tua quam istriones vel luxuriosos quoslibet ... verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio. ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam; sermones patrum, non carmina gentium. quid Hinieldus cum Christo? angusta est domus; utrosque tenere non poterit ... voces legentium audire in domibus tuis, non ridentium turbam in plateis.’ The allusion to a lost epic cycle of Hinieldus (Ingeld) is highly interesting; on it cf. Haupt in _Z. f. d. A._ xv. 314.

[123] The _Vitae of Dunstan_ (Stubbs, _Memorials of Dunstan_, R. S. 11, 20, 80, 257) record that he himself learnt the ‘ars citharizandi.’ One day he hung ‘citharam suam quam lingua paterna hearpam vocamus’ on the wall, and it discoursed an anthem by itself. Anthems, doubtless, were his mature recreation, but as a young clerk he was accused ‘non saluti animae profutura sed avitae gentilitatis vanissima didicisse carmina, et historiarum frivovolas colere incantationum naenias.’

[124] _Anglo-Saxon Canons of Edgar_ (906), can. 58 (Wilkins, i. 228), _sic Latine_, ‘docemus artem, ut nullus sacerdos sit cerevisarius, nec aliquo modo scurram agat secum ipso, vel aliis’; _Oratio Edgari Regis_ (969) _pro monachatu propaganda_ (Wilkins, i. 246) ‘ut iam domus clericorum putentur ... conciliabulum histrionum ... mimi cantant et saltant.’

[125] Strutt, 172 and _passim_.

[126] Wright-Wülker, 150, 311, 539. A synonym for _scôp_ is _leodwyrhta_. On 188 _lyricus_ is glossed _scôp_. But the distinctive use of _scôp_ is not in all cases maintained, e.g. _tragicus vel comicus unwurð scôp_ (188), _comicus scôp_ (283), _comicus id est qui comedia scribit, cantator vel artifex canticorum seculorum, idem satyricus, i. scôp, ioculator, poeta_ (206). Other western peoples in contact with Latin civilization came to make the same classification of poet and buffoon. Wackernagel, i. 51, says that the German _liuderi_ or poet is opposed to the _skirnun_ or _tûmarâ_, _scurra_ or _mimus_. The buffoon is looked askance at by the dignified Scandinavian men of letters (Saxo Grammaticus, _Hist. Danica_, transl. Elton, vi. 186); and Keltic bardism stands equally aloof from the _clerwr_ (cf. p. 76). Of course Kelts and Teutons might conceivably have developed their buffoons for themselves, independently of Roman influence, but so far as the Germans go, Tacitus, _Germ._ 24, knows no _spectaculum_ but the _sweorda-gelác_ or sword-dance (ch. ix).

[127] Brooke, i. 12; Merbot, 11. The _gleómon_, according to Merbot, became mixed with the _plegman_ or _mimus_. In the glosses _pleȝa_ = _ludus_ in the widest sense, including athletics; and _pleȝ-stowe_ = _amphitheatrum_ (Wright-Wülker, 342). A synonym of _pleȝa_ is the etymological equivalent of _ludus_, _lâc_ (cf. ch. viii). _Spil_ is not A. S., _spilian_, a loan-word (Kögel, i. 1. 11).

[128] _Scôp_, the O. H. G. _scopf_ or _scof_ is the ‘shaper,’ ‘maker,’ from _skapan_, ‘to make’; it is only a West-German word, and is distinct from _scopf_, a ‘scoff,’ ‘mock,’ and also from O. N. _skald_. This is not West-German, but both ‘sing’ and ‘say’ are from the same root _seg_ (Kögel, i. 1. 140). _Gleómon_ is from _gleo_, _gleow_, _gliw_, _glig_ = ‘glee,’ ‘mirth.’ The harp, in _Beowulf_ and elsewhere, is the ‘glee-beam,’ ‘glee-wood.’

[129] Jordanis, _de hist. Get._ (in _M. G. H._), c. 5 ‘ante quos etiam cantu maiorum facta modulationibus citharisque cantabant.’

[130] Cassiodorus, _Variae_, ii. 40, 41. Kögel, i. 1. 130, thinks that the professional singer, as distinct from the _chorus_, first became known to the Franks on this occasion. But one may rather infer from Theodoric’s letter to Boethius that the _citharoedus_ was to replace barbaric by civilized music.

[131] Priscus, _Hist. Goth._ (ed. Bonn) 205 ἐπιγενομένης δὲ ἑσπέρας δ̂ᾷδες ἀνήφθησαν, δύο δὲ ἀντικρὺ τοῦ Ἀττήλα παρελθόντες βάρβαροι ᾄσματα πεποιημένα ἔλεγον, νίκας αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰς κατὰ πόλεμον ᾄδοντες ἀρετάς ἐς οὓς οἱ τῆς εὐωχίας ἀπέβλεπον, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἤδοντο τοῖς ποιήμασιν, οἱ δὲ τῶν πολέμων ἀναμιμνησκόμενοι διηγείροντο τοῖς φρονήμασιν, ἄλλοι δέ ἐχώρουν ἐς δάκρυα, ὧν ὑπὸ τοῦ χρόνου ἠσθένει τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἡσυχάζειν ὁ θυμὸς ἠναγκάζετο. μετὰ δὲ τὰ ἄσματα Σκύθης τις παρελθὼν φρενοβλαβής, ... ἐς γέλωτα πάντας παρεσκεύασε παρελθεῖν. μεθ’ ὃν ... Ζέρκων ὁ Μαυρουσιος ... πάντας ... ἐς ἄσβεστον ὁρμῆσαι γέλωτα παρεσκεύασε, πλὴν Ἀττήλα. Cf. Gibbon, iii. 440; Hodgkin, ii. 86; Kögel, i. 1. 114.

[132] Procopius, _de bell. Vandal._ ii. 6; Victor Vitensis, _de persec. Vandal._ i. 15. 47.

[133] Sidonius, _Ep._ i. 2. 9 ‘sane intromittuntur, quamquam raro, inter coenandum mimici sales, ita ut nullus conviva mordacis linguae felle feriatur.’ There are no musicians, ‘rege solum illis fidibus delenito, quibus non minus mulcet virtus animum quam cantus auditum.’ In _Carm._ xii Sidonius mentions Gothic songs, without specifying whether they are professional or choric.

[134] Alcuin, _Ep._ cclxxxi (793-804), to a disciple in Italy, ‘melius est Deo placere quam histrionibus, pauperum habere curam quam mimorum’; _Ep._ ccl (†801), to the monks of Fulda, ‘non sint [adulescentuli] luxuriosi, non ebrietati servientes, non contemptuosi, non inanes sequentes ludos’; _Ep._ ccxliv (†801), to Fredegis, master of the palace school, ‘non veniant coronatae columbae ad fenestras tuas, quae volant per cameras palatii, nec equi indomiti inrumpant ostia camerae; nec tibi sit ursorum saltantium cura, sed clericorum psallentium.’ The ‘coronatae columbae’ were Charlemagne’s wanton daughters. Dümmler (_Ep. Mer. et Car._ ii. 541) prints a _responsio_ of Leidradus, Abp. of Lyons, to Charles. This is interesting, because it contrasts the ‘mobilitas histrionum’ which tempts the eye, with the ‘carmina poetarum et comediarum mimorumque urbanitates et strophae,’ which tempt the ear. This looks as if _histriones_, in the sense of _pantomimi_, were still known, but the piece also mentions ‘teatrorum moles’ and ‘circenses,’ and is, I suspect, quite antiquarian.

[135] _Ep._ clxxv (799), to Adalhart, Bp. of Old Corbey, ‘Vereor, ne Homerus [Angilbert] irascatur contra cartam prohibentem spectacula et diabolica figmenta. quae omnes sanctae scripturae prohibent, in tantum ut legebam sanctum dicere Augustinum, “nescit homo, qui histriones et mimos et saltatores introducit in domum suam, quam magna eos immundorum sequitur turba spirituum.” sed absit ut in domo christiana diabolus habeat potestatem’ (the quotation from Augustine cannot be identified): _Ep._ ccxxxvii (801), also to Adalhart, ‘quod de emendatis moribus Homeri mei scripsisti, satis placuit oculis meis ... unum fuit de histrionibus, quorum vanitatibus sciebam non parvum animae sui periculum imminere, quod mihi non placuit, ... mirumque mihi visum est, quomodo tam sapiens animus non intellexisset reprehensibilia dignitati suae facere et non laudabilia.’ Angilbert also seems to have had relations unbecoming an abbot with one of the ‘coronatae columbae.’

[136] _Capit. of Mantua_ (Boretius, i. 195), can. 6 ‘neque ulla iocorum genera ante se fieri permittant quae contra canonum auctoritatem eveniunt.’

[137] _Capit. Generale_ (Boretius, i. 64; _P. L._ xcvii. 188), c. 31 ‘ut episcopi et abbates et abbatissae cupplas canum non habeant, nec falcones, nec accipitres, nec ioculatores.’ If this is the _carta_ of Alcuin’s _Ep._ clxxv, and I know of no other which it can be, Dümmler’s date for the letter of 799 seems too late. Mabillon’s 791 is nearer the mark.

[138] _Capit. Gen._ (Boretius, i. 96), can. 23 ‘cleri ... non inanis lusibus vel conviviis secularibus vel canticis vel luxuriosis usum habeant.’

[139] _Conc. of Tours_ (Mansi, xiv. 84), c. 7 ‘histrionum quoque turpium et obscoenorum insolentiis iocorum et ipsi [sacerdotes] animo effugere caeterisque sacerdotibus effugienda praedicare debent.’

[140] Einhard, _Vita Caroli Magni_, c. 29 ‘barbara et antiquissima carmina, quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantur, scripsit memoriaeque mandavit.’

[141] Alcuin, _Ep._ cxlix (798), to Charlemagne, ‘ut puerorum saevitia vestrorum cuiuslibet carminis dulcedine mitigaretur, voluistis’; Alcuin, who doubtless had to _ménager_ Charlemagne a little, is apparently to write the poem himself.

[142] Kögel, i. 2. 222. The _Chronicon Novaliciense_, iii. 10, describes how after crossing Mt. Cenis in 773, Charlemagne was guided by a Lombard _ioculator_ who sung a ‘cantiunculam a se compositam de eadem re rotando in conspectu suorum.’ As a reward the _ioculator_ had all the land over which his _tuba_ sounded on a hill could be heard. The _Monachus S. Galli_ (Jaffé, _Bibl. rer. Germ._ iv), i. 13, tells how (†783) a _scurra_ brought about a reconciliation between Charlemagne and his brother-in-law Uodalrich. The same writer (i. 33) mentions an ‘incomparabilis clericus’ of the ‘gloriosissimus Karolus,’ who ‘scientia ... cantilenae ecclesiasticae vel iocularis novaque carminum compositione sive modulatione ... cunctos praecelleret.’

[143] Philippe Mouskes, _de Poetis Provincialibus_ (quoted Ducange, s. v. _leccator_):

‘Quar quant li buens Rois Karlemaigne Ot toute mise à son demaine Provence, qui mult iert plentive De vins, de bois, d’aigue, de rive, As lecours, as menestreus, Qui sont auques luxurieus, Le donna toute et departi.’

[144] Kögel, i. 2. 220.

[145] Theganus, _de gestis Ludovici Pii_ (_M. G. H. Scriptores_, ii. 594), c. 19 ‘Poetica carmina gentilia, quae in iuventute didicerat, respuit, nec legere nec audire nec docere voluit,’ and ‘nunquam in risu exaltavit vocem suam, nec quando in festivitatibus ad laetitiam populi procedebant thymelici, scurrae, et mimi cum choraulis et citharistis ad mensam coram eo, tunc ad mensuram ridebat populus coram eo, ille nunquam vel dentes candidos suos in risu ostendit.’ The ‘carmina gentilia,’ so much disliked by Louis, were probably Frankish and not classic poems.

[146] Benedictus Levita, vi. 205 (_M. G. H. Leges_, ii. 2. 83), ‘ne in illo sancto die vanis fabulis aut locutionibus sive cantationibus vel saltationibus stando in biviis et plateis ut solet inserviant.’ On this collection see Schaff, v. 272.

[147] This capitulary is of doubtful date, but belongs to the reign either of Louis the Pious, or Lothair (Boretius, i. 334; Pertz, i. 324; Ben. Levita, ii. 49) ‘ut in palatiis nostris ad accusandum et iudicandum et testimonium faciendum non se exhibeant viles personae et infames, histriones scilicet, nugatores, manzeres, scurrae, concubinarii, ... aut servi aut criminosi’; cf. R. Sohm, _Die fränk. Reichs-und Gerichtsverfassung_, 354.

[148] For ninth-century prohibitions see _Statutes_ of Haito, Bp. of Basle (807-23), c. 11 (Boretius, i. 364); _Conc. of Maintz_ (847), c. 13 (Boretius, ii. 179); _Conc. of Maintz_ (852), c. 6 (Boretius, ii. 187); _Capit._ of Walter of Orleans (858), c. 17 (Mansi, xv. 507), _Capit._ of Hincmar of Rheims (_P. L._ cxxv. 776); and cf. Prynne, 556. Stress is often laid on the claims of the poor; e.g. Agobardus (†836), _de Dispens. Eccles. Rer._ 30 (_P. L._ civ. 249) ‘satiat praeterea et inebriat histriones, mimos, turpissimosque et vanissimos ioculares, cum pauperes ecclesiae fame discruciati intereant.’

[149] Otto Frisingensis, _Chronicon_, vi. 32, records of the Emperor Henry III in 1045 that ‘quumque ex more regio nuptias Inglinheim celebraret, omne balatronum et histrionum collegium, quod, ut assolet, eo confluxerat, vacuum abire permisit, pauperibusque ea quae membris diaboli subtraxerat, large distribuit.’ After the death of the Emperor Henry I of Germany his widow Matilda ‘neminem voluit audire carmina saecularia cantantem’ (_Vita Machtildis Antiquior_ in _M. G. H. Scriptores_, iv. 294).

[150] Honorius Augustodunensis, _Elucidarium_ (†1092), ii. 18 (_P. L._ clxxii. 1148) ‘Habent spem ioculatores? nullam; tota namque intentione sunt ministri Satanae’; on the vogue of this book cf. _Furnivall Miscellany_, 88.

[151] The following passages of the _Decretum Gratiani_, besides those already quoted, bear on the subject: (_a_) i. 23. 3, _ex Isid. de Eccl. Officiis_, ii. 2 ‘His igitur lege Patrum cavetur, ut a vulgari vita seclusi a mundi voluptatibus sese abstineant; non spectaculis, non pompis intersint’: (_b_) i. 44. 7, _ex Conc. Nannetensi_ ‘Nullus presbyterorum ... quando ad collectam presbyteri convenerit ... plausus et risus inconditos, et fabulas inanes ibi referre aut cantare praesumat, aut turpia ioca vel urso vel tornatricibus ante se fieri patiatur’; I cannot identify the Council of Nantes referred to: the canon is not amongst those supposed to belong to the Council of 660, and given by Mansi, xviii. 166: (_c_) i. 46. 6, _ex Conc. Carthag._ iv. c. 60 [398. Mansi, iii. 956] ‘Clericum scurrilem et verbis turpibus ioculatorem ab officio retrahendum censemus’: (_d_) ii. 4. 1. 1, _ex Conc. Carthag._ vii (419) ‘Omnes etiam infamiae maculis aspersi, id est histriones ... ab accusatione prohibentur.’ The _Decretum Gratiani_ was drawn up †1139. The _Decretales_ of Gregory IX (1234) incorporate can. 16 of the _Lateran Council_ (Mansi, xxii. 1003), held in 1215 (_Decr. Greg. IX_, iii. 1. 15) ‘[Clerici] mimis, ioculatoribus, et histrionibus non intendant’; and the _Liber Sextus_ of Boniface VIII (1298) adds the following decree of that Pope (_Sext. Decr._ iii. 1. 1) ‘Clerici qui, clericalis ordinis dignitati non modicum detrahentes, se ioculatores seu goliardos faciunt aut bufones, si per annum artem illam ignominiosam exercuerint, ipso iure, si autem tempore breviori, et tertio moniti non resipuerint, careant omni privilegio clericali.’

[152] Wilkins, i. 585. For can. 16 of the Lateran council see last note. The prohibition is again confirmed by can. 17 of the Synod of Exeter in 1287 (Wilkins, ii. 129).

[153] _Constitutiones_ of Bp. Grosseteste in his _Epistolae_ (R. S.), 159 ‘ne mimis, ioculatoribus, aut histrionibus intendant.’ In 1230, Grosseteste’s predecessor, Hugh of Wells, had bid his archdeacons inquire, ‘an aliqui intendant histrionibus’ (Wilkins, i. 627).

[154] _Annales de Burton_ (_Ann. Monast._ R. S. i. 485) ‘histrionibus potest dari cibus, quia pauperes sunt, non quia histriones; et eorum ludi non videantur, vel audiantur, vel permittantur fieri coram abbate vel monachis.’

[155] _Const._ of Roger de Mortival, § 46 (Dayman and Jones, _Sarum Statutes_, 76) ‘licet robustos corpore, laborem ad quem homo nascitur subire contemnentes, et in delicato otio sibi victum quaerere sub inepta laetitia saeculi eligentes, qui “menestralli” et quandoque “ludorum homines” vulgari eloquio nuncupantur, non quia tales sunt, sed quia opus Dei nostramque naturam conspicimus in eisdem, nostris domibus refectionis gratia aliquotiens toleremus,’ yet no money or goods convertible into money may be given them; ‘nec ad fabulas quas referunt, et quae in detractationibus, turpiloquio, scurrilitate consistunt, ullus voluntarium praebeat auditum, nec ad eas audiendas aures habeat prurientes, sed per obauditionem ab huiusmodi relatibus, quin potius latratibus, in quantum fieri poterit, excludantur, tamen nemo libenter invito referat auditori.’ They may, if they are not women, have their dole of bread, and keep peace from evil words. ‘Nec debet de huiusmodi personarum, quae infames sunt, laude, immo verius fraude, seu obloquio, aut alias vanae laudis praeconio, ecclesiasticus vir curare, cum nihil eo miserius sit praelato, qui luporum laudibus gloriatur.’ The statute is headed ‘De maledicis, adulatoribus, histrionibus, et detractoribus respuendis.’

[156] Thomas Walsingham, _Gesta Abbatum S. Albani_ (ed. Riley, R. S. ii. 469) ‘illicita spectacula prorsus evitent’ (1326-35).

[157] J. T. Fowler, _Memorials of Ripon Minster_, ii. 68 (Surtees Soc.); the charge was that ‘vicarii, capellani, et caeteri ministri ... spectaculis publicis, ludibriis et coreis, immo teatricalibus ludis inter laicos frequentius se immiscent.’

[158] The _Statutes_, i. 5. 4, of St. Paul’s, as late as †1450, direct the beadles ‘quod menestrallos coram altaribus Virginis et Crucis indevote strepitantes arceant et eiiciant’ (W. S. Simpson, _Register of St. Paul’s_, 72).

[159] John of Salisbury, _Polycraticus_ (†1159), i. 8 (_P. L._ cxcix. 406) ‘satius enim fuerat otiari quam turpiter occupari. Hinc mimi, salii vel saliares, balatrones, aemiliani, gladiatores, palaestritae, gignadii, praestigiatores, malefici quoque multi, et tota ioculatorum scena procedit.’

[160] Cf. _Representations_, s.v. London.

[161] R. Mannyng de Brunne (†1303), _Handlyng Synne_ (ed. Furnivall), 148. ‘Here doyng ys ful perylous’ he translates William of Wadington’s ‘Qe unt trop perilus mester’; and tells a tale of divine judgement on ‘a mynstralle, a gulardous,’ who disturbed a priest at mass.

[162] _Piers the Plowman, C. text_, viii. 97:

‘Clerkus and knyȝtes · welcometh kynges mynstrales, And for loue of here lordes · lithen hem at festes; Muche more, me thenketh · riche men auhte Haue beggars by-fore hem · whiche beth godes mynstrales.’

[163] _Cant. Tales_ (ed. Skeat), § 69 ‘Soothly, what thing that he yeveth for veyne glorie, as to minstrals and to folk, for to beren his renoun in the world, he hath sinne ther-of, and noon almesse.’

[164] e.g. Stubbes, _Anatomy_, i. 169.

[165] _Aucassin et Nicolete_ (†1150-1200), ed. Bourdillon (1897), 22. The term ‘caitif’ has puzzled the editors. Surely the minstrel has in mind the abusive epithets with which the clergy bespattered his profession. See Appendix B.

[166] See especially _Le Tombeor de Notre Dame_ (_Romania_, ii. 315). Novati (_Rom._ xxv. 591) refers to a passage quoted by Augustine, _de Civ. Dei_, vi. 10, from the lost work of Seneca, _de Superstitionibus_, ‘doctus archimimus, senex iam decrepitus, cotidie in Capitolio mimum agebat, quasi dii libenter spectarent quem illi homines desierant.’ Somewhat similar are _Don Cierge qui descendi au Jougleour_ (Gautier de Coincy), _Miracles de Nostre Dame_ (†1223, ed. Poquet, 1859), and _Le Harpeor de Roncestre_ (Michel, _Roms., Contes, Dits, Fabl._ ii. 108). _Saint Pierre et le Jongleur_ (Montaiglon Raynaud, v. 117) is a witty tale, in which a minstrel, left in charge of hell, loses so many souls to St. Peter at dice, that no minstrel has been allowed there since. B. Joannes Bonus (_Acta SS. Oct._ ix. 693) was a minstrel in his youth, but the patron saints of the minstrels were always St. Genesius the mime (cf. p. 10), and St. Julian Hospitator (_Acta SS. Jan._ iii. 589), who built a hospital and once entertained an angel unawares.

[167] Paris, 113; Bédier, 333.

[168] Brooke, _Eng. Lit._ 305; Ten Brink, i. 149.

[169] Sophus Bugge, in _Bidrag til den aeldste Skaldedigtnings Historie_ (1894; cf. L. Duvau in _Rev. Celt._ xvii. 113), holds that Skaldic poetry began in the Viking raids of the eighth and ninth centuries, under the influence of the Irish _filid_. The tenth-century skald as described in the _Raven-Song_ of Hornklofi at the court of Harold Fair-hair is very like the _scôp_ (_C. P. B._ i. 254), and here too tumblers and buffoons have found their way. Cf. Kögel, i. 1. 111; E. Mogk, in Paul, _Grundriss_^2, iii. 248.

[170] Guy of Amiens, _de Bello Hastingensi_ (†1068), 391, 399:

‘Histrio, cor audax nimium quem nobilitabat ... ... Incisor-ferri mimus cognomine dictus.’

Wace, _Roman de Rou_ (†1170) (ed. Andresen, iii. 8035):

‘Taillefer, ki mult bien chantout, Sor un cheval ki tost alout, Devant le duc alout chantant De Karlemaigne et de Rolant Et d’Oliver et des vassals Qui morurent en Rencevals.’

Cf. Freeman, _Norman Conquest_, iii. 477.

[171] Domesday Book, _Gloc._ f. 162; _Hants_, f. 38 (b). Before the Conquest, not to speak of Widsith and Deor, Edmund Ironside had given the hills of Chartham and Walworth ‘cuidam ioculatori suo nomine Hitardo’ (Somner-Battely, _Antiq. of Canterbury_, app. 39). Hitardus, wishing to visit Rome, gave it to Christ Church, Canterbury.

[172] Bernhard, iii. 378, gives a thirteenth-century regulation for the Petit Pont entry of Paris: ‘Et ausi tot li jougleur sunt quite por i ver de chançon.’

[173] Gautier, ii. 124.

[174] There were 426 at the wedding of Margaret of England with John of Brabant in 1290 (Chappell, i. 15, from _Wardrobe Bk._ 18 Edw. I).

[175] Rigordus, _de gestis Philippi Augusti_ (1186) ‘vidimus quondam quosdam principes qui vestes diu excogitatas et variis florum picturationibus artificiossisimis elaboratas, pro quibus forsan viginti vel triginta marcas argenti consumpserant, vix revolutis septem diebus, histrionibus, ministris scilicet diaboli, ad primam vocem dedisse.’

[176] The _Annales_ (†1330) of Johannes de Trokelowe (R. S.), 98, tell _s. a._ 1317, how when Edward II was keeping Pentecost in Westminster ‘quaedam mulier, ornatu histrionali redimita, equum bonum, histrionaliter phaleratum, ascensa, dictam aulam intravit, mensas more histrionum circuivit.’ She rode to the king, placed an insulting letter in his hands, and retired. The ‘ianitores et hostiarii,’ when blamed, declared ‘non esse moris regii, alicui menestrallo, palatium intrare volenti, in tanta solemnitate aditum denegare’; cf. Walsingham, _Hist. Angl._ (R. S.). i. 149.

[177] Strutt, 189, has a fourteenth-century story of a youth rebuked for coming to a feast in a coat bardy, cut German fashion like a minstrel’s; cf. the complaint against knights in _A Poem on the times of Edward II_ (Percy Soc. lxxxii), 23:

‘Now thei beth disgysed, So diverselych i-diȝt, That no man may knowe A mynstrel from a knyȝt Wel ny.’

The miniatures show minstrels in short coats to the knees and sometimes short capes with hoods. The _Act of Apparel_ (1463, 3 _Edw. IV_, c. 5) excepts minstrels and ‘players in their interludes.’ The Franciscan story (p. 57) shows that some of the humbler minstrels went shabby enough.

[178] Klein, iii. 635; Du Méril, _Or. Lat._ 30; Gautier, ii. 104; Geoffrey of Monmouth, _Historia Britonum_, ix. 1 ‘rasit capillos suos et barbam, cultumque ioculatoris cum cithara cepit.’ Cf. the canon quoted on p. 61 requiring Goliardic clerks to be shorn or shaven, to obliterate the tonsure. The flat shoe had been a mark of the _mimi planipedes_ at Rome.

[179] Gautier, ii. 105. Thus Nicolete (_Aucassin et Nicolete_, ed. Bourdillon, 120) ‘prist une herbe, si en oinst son cief et son visage, si qu’ele fu tote noire et tainte. Et ele fist faire cote et mantel et cemisse et braies, si s’atorna a guise de jogleor’; cf. _King Horn_ (ed. Hall, 1901), 1471-2:

‘Hi sede, hi weren harpurs, And sume were gigours.’

[180] Roger de Hoveden, _Chronicon_ (R. S.), iii. 143 ‘De regno Francorum cantores et ioculatores muneribus allexerat, ut de illo canerent in plateis; et iam dicebatur quod non erat talis in orbe.’

[181] Ten Brink, i. 314.

[182] Malory, _Morte d’Arthur_, x. 27, 31. Even King Mark let the minstrel go quit, because he was a minstrel.

[183] Cf. p. 40.

[184] Ordericus Vitalis, _Hist. Eccles._ xii. 19 ‘pro derisoriis cantionibus ... quin etiam indecentes de me cantilenas facetus choraula composuit, ad iniuriam mei palam cantavit, malevolosque mihi hostes ad cachinnos ita saepe provocavit.’ Lucas de Barre seems to have been of noble birth, but ‘palam cantavit cantilenas.’

[185] Cf. p. 30.

[186] _Speculum Perfectionis_ (ed. Sabatier), 197. When Francis had finished his Canticle of the Sun, he thought for a moment of summoning ‘frater Pacificus qui in saeculo vocabatur rex versuum et fuit valde curialis doctor cantorum,’ and giving him a band of friars who might sing it to the people at the end of their sermons: ‘finitis autem laudibus volebat quod praedicator diceret populo: “Nos sumus ioculatores Domini, et pro his volumus remunerari a vobis, videlicet ut stetis in vera paenitentia.” Et ait: “Quid enim sunt servi Dei nisi quidam ioculatores eius qui corda hominum erigere debent et movere ad laetitiam spiritualem.”’ Cf. Sabatier, _Life of St. Francis_, 9, 51, 307. Perhaps Francis may have heard of Joachim of Flora, his contemporary, who wrote in his _Commentary on the Apocalypse_, f. 183. a. 2 ‘qui vere monachus est nihil reputat esse suum nisi citharam.’

[187] The MS. of the famous thirteenth-century canon _Sumer is icumen in_ has religious words written beneath the profane ones; cf. Wooldridge, _Oxford Hist. of Music_, i. 326. Several religious adaptations of common motives of profane lyric are amongst the English thirteenth-century poems preserved in Harl. MS. 2253 (_Specimens of Lyrical Poetry_: Percy Soc., 1842, no. 19, and ed. Böddeker, Berlin, 1878).

[188] Jusserand, _E. W. L._ 195, 199, 215; Strutt, 194-5, 210, 227; Hazlitt-Warton, ii. 119; Chappell, i. 15; Collier, i. 22; _Wardrobe Accounts of Edward I_ (Soc. Antiq.), 163, 166, 168.

[189] Cf. Appendix C.

[190] Cf. Appendix D.

[191] This cannot be the famous Adan de le Hale (cf. ch. viii), known as ‘le Bossu,’ if Guy, 178, is right in saying that his nephew, Jean Mados, wrote a lament for his death in 1288. He quotes _Hist. Litt._ xx. 666, as to this.

[192] Gautier, ii. 103; Bédier, 405, quote many similar names; e.g. Quatre Œufs, Malebouche, Ronge-foie, Tourne-en-fuie, Courtebarbe, Porte-Hotte, Mal Quarrel, Songe-Feste a la grant viele, Mal-appareillié, Pelé, Brise-Pot, Simple d’Amour, Chevrete, Passereau.

[193] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Reg. Angl._ (R. S.), ii. 494.

[194] Ordericus Vitalis, v. 12, &c. On one occasion ‘ad ecclesiam, quia nudus erat, non pervenit.’

[195] Bédier, 359.

[196] Gautier, chs. xx, xxi, gives an admirable account of the _jougleur’s_ daily life, and its seamy side is brought out by Bédier, 399-418. A typical _jougleur_ figure is that of the poet Rutebeuf, a man of genius, but often near death’s door from starvation. See the editions of his works by Jubinal and Kressner, and the biography by Clédat in the series of _Grands Écrivains français_.

[197] Morley, _Bartholomew Fair_, 1-25, from _Liber Fundacionis_ in _Cott. Vesp. B. ix_; Leland, _Collectanea_, 1, 61, 99; Dugdale, _Monasticon_, ii. 166; Stow, _Survey_, 140; C. Knight, _London_, ii. 34; Percy, 406. No minstrels, however, appear in the formal list of Henry I’s Norman Household (†1135), which seems to have been the nucleus of the English Royal Household as it existed up to 1782 (Hall, _Red Book of Exchequer_, R.S., iii. cclxxxvii, 807).

[198] Gautier, ii. 47, 54; G. Paris, § 88; Ambroise, _L’Estoire de la Guerre Sainte_, ed. G. Paris (_Documents inédits sur l’Hist. de France_, 1897).

[199] Percy, 358.

[200] Madox, _Hist. of Exchequer_, 268.

[201] Percy, 365.

[202] Walter Hemmingford, _Chronicon_, c. 35 (_Vet. Hist. Angl. Script._ ii. 591).

[203] Chappell, i. 15, from _Wardrobe Book_, 18 Edw. I.

[204] _Wardrobe Accounts of Edw. I_ (Soc. Antiq.), 323.

[205] Anstis, _Register of Order of the Garter_, ii. 303, from _Pat. de terr. forisfact._ 16 Edw. III. Cf. _Gesta Edw. de Carnarvon_ in _Chron. of Edw. I and II_ (R. S.), ii. 91 ‘adhaesit cantoribus, tragoedis, aurigis, navigiis et aliis huiuscemodi artificiis mechanicis.’

[206] Strutt, 194; _Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham_ (ed. Devon), 54-57, 296-8.

[207] _Household Ordinances_, 4, 11.

[208] Rymer, vii. 555.

[209] Ibid. ix. 255, 260, 336.

[210] Ibid. x. 287; xi. 375.

[211] _Household Ordinances_, 48.

[212] Rymer, xi. 642; cf. Appendix D.

[213] Ibid. xiii. 705; Collier, i. 45; Campbell, i. 407, 516, 570; ii. 100, 224.

[214] _Wardrobe Accounts of Edw. I_ (Soc. Antiq.), 7, 95; _Calendar of Anc. Deeds_, ii. A, 2050, 2068, 2076.

[215] Strutt, 189.

[216] Collier, i. 46; Campbell, i. 407, 542, 572; ii. 68, 84, 176.

[217] The entry ‘ad solvendum histrionibus’ occurs in 1364 (_Compoti Camerarii Scot._ i. 422). The Exchequer Rolls from 1433-50 contain payments to the ‘mimi,’ ‘histriones,’ ‘ioculatores regis’; and in 1507-8 for the ‘histriones in scaccario’ or ‘minstrels of the chekkar’ (_Accounts of Treasurer of Scotland_, i. xx, cxcix; ii. lxxi).

[218] Cf. Appendix C.

[219] Collier, i. 21, from _Lansd. MS._ 1. Two of this lord’s _menestriers_ were entertained by Robert of Artois, who also had his own (Guy, 154).

[220] Gautier, ii. 51; cf. the extracts from various _computi_ in Appendix E. There are many entries also in the accounts of King’s Lynn (_Hist. MSS._ xi. 3. 213); Beverley (Leach, _Beverley MSS._ 171), &c.

[221] L. T. Smith, _Derby Accounts_ (C. S.), xcvi.

[222] Percy, _N. H. B._ 42, 344.

[223] Stowe, _Survey_, 39 (London); Smith, _English Guilds_, 423, 447 (Bristol, Norwich); Davies, 14 (York); Kelly, 131 (Leicester); Morris, 348 (Chester); Civis, No. xxi (Canterbury); Sharpe, 207 (Coventry); _Hist. MSS._ xi. 3. 163 (Lynn); Leach, _Beverley MSS._ 105, &c. (Beverley); for Shrewsbury cf. Appendix E. On _Waits’ Badges_, cf. Ll. Jewitt, in _Reliquary_, xii. 145. Gautier, ii. 57, describes the communal _cantorini_ of Perugia, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The usual Latin term for the Beverley waits is _speculatores_; but they are also called _ministralli_, _histriones_ and _mimi_. Apparently waits are intended by the _satrapi_ of the Winchester Accounts (App. E. (iv)). Elsewhere _histriones_ is the most usual term. The signatories to the 1321 statutes of the Paris guild include several _guètes_ (Bernhard, iii. 402).

[224] _Household Ordinances_, 48 ‘A Wayte, that nyghtly, from Mighelmasse till Shere-Thursday, pipeth the watche within this courte fower tymes, and in the somer nyghtes three tymes.’ He is also to attend the new Knights of the Bath when they keep watch in the chapel the night before they are dubbed.

[225] The Lynn waits had to go through the town from All Saints to Candlemas. Those of Coventry had similar duties, and in 1467 were forbidden ‘to pass this Cite but to Abbotts and Priors within x myles of this Cite.’

[226] The six minstrels of the Earl of Derby in 1391 had a livery of ‘blod ray cloth and tanne facings’ (Wylie, iv. 160).

[227] _Household Ordinances_, 48: ‘Mynstrelles, xiii, whereof one is verger, that directeth them all in festivall dayes to theyre stations, to bloweings and pipynges, to suche offices as must be warned to prepare for the king and his houshold at metes and soupers, to be the more readie in all servyces; and all these sittinge in the hall togyder; whereof sume use trumpettes, sume shalmuse and small pipes, and sume as strengemen, comyng to this courte at five festes of the yere, and then to take theyre wages of houshold after iiij^d ob. a day, if they be present in courte, and then they to avoyde the next day after the festes be done. Besides eche of them anothyr reward yerely, taking of the king in the resceyte of the chekker, and clothing wynter and somer, or xx^s a piece, and lyverey in courte, at evyn amonges them all, iiij gallons ale; and for wynter season, iij candels wax, vj candells peris’, iiij talwood, and sufficiaunt logging by the herberger, for them and theyre horses, nygh to the courte. Also havyng into courte ij servauntes honest, to beare theyre trumpettes, pipes, and other instrumentes, and a torche for wynter nyghts, whyles they blowe to souper, and other revelles, delyvered at the chaundrey; and allway ij of these persons to continue in courte in wages, beyng present to warne at the kinge’s rydinges, when he goeth to horse-backe, as ofte as it shall require, and by theyre blowinges the houshold meny may follow in the countries. And if any of these two minstrelles be sicke in courte, he taketh ij loves, one messe of grete mete, one gallon ale. They have no part of any rewardes gevyn to the houshold. And if it please the kinge to have ij strenge Minstrelles to contynue in like wise. The kinge wull not for his worshipp that his Minstrelles be too presumptuous, nor too familier to aske any rewardes of the lordes of his londe, remembring De Henrico secundo imperatore [1002-24] qui omnes Ioculatores suos et Armaturos monuerit, ut nullus eorum in eius nomine vel dummodo steterint in servicio suo nihil ab aliquo in regno suo deberent petere donandum; sed quod ipsi domini donatores pro Regis amore citius pauperibus erogarent.’

[228] Percy, _N. H. B._ (†1512), 339. The king’s shawms, if they came yearly, got 10_s._, the king’s jugler and the king’s or queen’s bearward, 6_s._ 8_d._; a duke’s or earl’s trumpeters, if they came six together, also got 6_s._ 8_d._, an earl’s minstrels only 3_s._ 4_d._ If the troupe came only once in two or three years, and belonged to a ‘speciall Lorde, Friende, or Kynsman’ of the earl, the rate was higher.

[229] Gautier, ii. 107, from _Bibl. de l’Arsenal MS._ 854; e.g. ‘_Deprecatio pro dono instrioni impendendo_. Salutem et amoris perpetui firmitatem. R. latorem praesentium, egregium instrionem qui nuper meis interfuit nuptiis, ubi suum officium exercuit eleganter, ad vos cum magna confidentia destinamus, rogantes precibus, quibus possumus, quatinus aliquid subsidium gracie specialis eidem impendere debeatis.’ Collier, i. 42, gives a letter of Richard III for his bearward.

[230] Collier, i. 41.

[231] Strutt, 194; Gautier, ii. 173-8; H. Lavoix, ii. 198. They are called _Scolae ministrorum_, _Scolae mimorum_. They can be traced to the fourteenth century. Genève and Bourg-en-Bresse also had them. The Paris statutes of 1407 (cf. Appendix F) require a licence from the _roi des ménestrels_ for such an assembly. A Beauvais _computus_ (1402) has ‘Dati sunt de gratia panes ducenti capitulares mimis in hac civitate de diversis partibus pro cantilenis novis addiscendis confluentibus.’

[232] Hearne, _Appendix ad Lelandi Collectanea_, vi. 36; Percy, 367. The proclamation is dated Aug. 6, 9 Edw. II (i. e. 1315).

[233] No technical term seems, however, intended in _Launfal_ (ed. Ritson), 668:

‘They hadde menstrales of moch honours, Fydelers, sytolyrs, and trompours.’

[234] C. J. Ribton-Turner, _Vagrants and Vagrancy_, chs. 3, 4, 5. The proclamation of 1284 against ‘Westours, Bards, and Rhymers and other idlers and vagabonds, who live on the gifts called Cymmortha,’ and the Act of 1402 (4 _Hen. IV_, c. 27) in the same sense, seem only to refer to the Welsh bards (cf. p. 77).

[235] Ribton-Turner, 107 (14 _Eliz._ c. 5). Whipping is provided for ‘all Fencers Bearewardes Comon Players in Enterludes & Minstrels, not belonging to any Baron of this Realme or towards any other honourable personage of greater Degree; all Juglers Pedlars Tynkers and Petye Chapmen; whiche said Fencers Bearewardes comon Players in Enterludes Mynstrels Juglers Pedlars Tynkers & Petye Chapmen, shall wander abroade and have not Lycense of two Justices of the Peace at the leaste, whereof one to be of the Quorum, wher and in what Shier they shall happen to wander.’ The terms of 39 _Eliz._ c. 4 (1597-8) are very similar, but 1 _Jac. I_, c. 7 (1603-4), took away the exemption for noblemen’s servants.

[236] Appendix F.

[237] Gautier, ii. 156; Ducange, s.v. _Ministelli_.

[238] Gautier, ii. 158. Strutt, 195, quotes from _Cott. MS. Nero_, c. viii a payment of Edw. III ‘ministrallo facienti ministralsiam suam coram imagine Beatae Mariae in Veltam, rege praesente.’ Chaucer’s pilgrims had no professional minstrels, but the miller did as well:

‘He was a janglere and a goliardeys, ... ... A baggepype wel koude he blowe and sowne, And therwithal he broghte us out of towne.’

It was in the absence of regular minstrels that the pilgrims fell to telling one another stories.

[239] Gautier, ii. 160. Richard Swinfield, bishop of Hereford, more than once rewarded minstrels on his episcopal rounds (J. Webb, _Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield_, C. S. i. 152, 155). The bishops of Durham in 1355, Norwich in 1362, and Winchester in 1374, 1422, and 1481 had ‘minstrels of honour,’ like any secular noble (see Appendix E, &c.). Even the austere Robert Grosseteste had his private harper, if we may credit Mannyng, 150:

‘He louede moche to here the harpe; For mannys wyt hyt makyth sharpe. Next hys chaumbre, besyde hys stody, Hys harpers chaumbre was fast therby.’

Mannyng represents Grosseteste as excusing his predilection by a reference to King David.

[240] Madox, _Hist. of Exchequer_, 251.

[241] _Norfolk Archaeology_, xi. 339 (Norwich); Hazlitt-Warton, ii. 97; Kennet, _Parochial Antiq._ ii. 259 (Bicester); _Decem Scriptores_, 2011 (Canterbury); for the rest cf. Appendix E.

[242] Hazlitt-Warton, ii. 97; iii. 118, quotes from the _Register_ of St. Swithin’s amongst the _Wolvesey MSS._; in 1338 ‘cantabat ioculator quidam nomine Herebertus canticum Colbrondi, necdum gestum Emmae reginae a iudicio ignis liberatae, in aula prioris’: in 1374 ‘In festo Alwynis episcopi ... in aula conventus sex ministralli, cum quatuor citharisatoribus, faciebant ministralcias suas. Et post cenam, in magna camera arcuata domini Prioris, cantabant idem gestum.... Veniebant autem dicti ioculatores a castello domini regis et ex familia episcopi.’ The ‘canticum Colbrondi’ was doubtless a romance of Guy of Warwick, of which Winchester is the locality. Fragments of early fourteenth-century English versions exist (Ten Brink, i. 246; Jusserand, _E. L._ i. 224; Zupitza, _Guy of Warwick_, E. E. T. S.; G. L. Morrill, _Speculum Gy de Warewyke_, E. E. T. S. lxxxi).

[243] Bartholomaeus (Albizzi) de Pisis (1385-99), _Liber Conformitatum_ (ed. 1590, i. 94^b); Antoninus Episc. Florentiae (1389-1459), _Chronicon_ (ed. 1586, iii. 752) ‘alterius linguae ioculatores eos existimans’; cf. A. Wood, _Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon._ (1674), i. 69; _City of Oxford_ (O. H. S.), ii. 349.

[244] See Appendix E. At Paris the _Statutes_ of Cornouaille College (1380) required abstinence from ‘ludis mimorum, ioculatorum, histrionum, goliardorum, et consimilium.’ Bulaeus, v. 782, gives another Paris regulation allowing ‘mimi, ad summum duo’ on Twelfth Night (Rashdall, ii. 674).

[245] Thomas Aquinas, _Summa Theologiae_ (†1274), ii. 2, quaest. 168, art. 3 ‘Sicut dictum est, ludus est necessarius ad conversationem vitae humanae. ad omnia autem, quae sunt utilia conversationi humanae, deputari possunt aliqua officia licita. et ideo etiam officium histrionum, quod ordinatur ad solatium hominibus exhibendum, non est secundum se illicitum, nec sunt in statu peccati: dummodo moderate ludo utantur, id est, non utendo aliquibus illicitis verbis vel factis ad ludum, et non adhibendo ludum negotiis et temporibus indebitis ... unde illi, qui moderate iis subveniunt, non peccant, sed iusta faciunt, mercedem ministerii eorum iis attribuendo. si qui autem superflue sua in tales consumunt, vel etiam sustentant illos histriones qui illicitis ludis utuntur, peccant, quasi eos in peccatis foventes. unde Augustinus dicit, _super Ioan._ quod _donare res suas histrionibus vitium est immane_,’ &c., &c.

[246] Cf. Appendix G.

[247] Another version of this story is given by Petrus Cantor (ob. 1197), _Verbum Abbreviatum_, c. 84 (_P. L._ ccv. 254) ‘Ioculatori cuidam papa Alexander (Alex. III) nec concessit vivere de officio suo, nec ei penitus interdixit.’ In c. 49 of the same work Petrus Cantor inveighs learnedly _Contra dantes histrionibus_. Doubtless the Alexander in question is Alexander III (1159-81), though the (Alex. III) above may be due to the seventeenth-century editor, Galopinus. A hasty glance at the voluminous and practically unindexed decrees and letters of Alexander III in _P. L._ cc. and Jaffé, _Regesta Pontificum Romanorum_ (ed. 2, 1885-8), ii. 145-418, has not revealed the source of the story; and I doubt whether the Pope’s decision, if it was ever given, is to be found in black and white. The two reports of it by Thomas de Cabham and Petrus Cantor are barely consistent. In any case, it never got into the Gregorian Decretals.

[248] Gautier, ii. 42; Bédier, 389; Ten Brink, i. 186; Ducange, s. vv. _Golia_, &c.; O. Hubatsch, _Lat. Vagantenlieder des Mittelalters_ (1870).

[249] _Le Département des Livres_ (Méon, _N. R._ i. 404):

‘A Bouvines delez Dinant Li perdi-je Ovide le grant ... Mon Lucan et mon Juvenal Oubliai-je a Bonival, Eustace le grant et Virgile Perdi aus dez a Abeville.’

[250] The chief collections of goliardic verse are Schmeller, _Carmina Burana_ (ed. 3, 1894), and T. Wright, _Latin Poems attributed to Walter Mapes_ (C. S. 1841): for others cf. Hubatsch, 16. Latin was not unknown amongst lay minstrels: cf. _Deus Bordeors Ribauz_ (Montaiglon-Raynaud, i. 3):

‘Mais ge sai aussi bien conter, Et en roumanz et en latin.’

[251] Hubatsch, 15. The origin, precise meaning, and mutual relations of the terms _Golias_, _goliardi_ are uncertain. Probably the goliardic literature arose in France, rather than in England with Walter Mapes, the attribution to whom of many of the poems is perhaps due to a confusion of G[olias] with G[ualterus] in the MSS. Giraldus Cambrensis (ob. 1217), _Speculum Ecclesiae_, says ‘Parasitus quidam Golias nomine nostris diebus gulositate pariter et leccacitate famosissimus ... in papam et curiam Romanam carmina famosa ... evomuit’: but the following note points to a much earlier origin for Golias and his _pueri_, and this is upheld by W. Scherer, _Gesch. d. deutsch. Dichtung im 11. und 12. Jahrh. 16._

[252] Early decrees forbidding the clergy to be _ioculatores_ are given on p. 39. More precise is the order of Gautier of Sens (†913) in his _Constitutiones_, c. 13 (Mansi, xviii. 324) ‘Statuimus quod clerici ribaldi, maxime qui dicuntur de familia Goliae, per episcopos, archidiaconos, officiales, et decanos Christianitatis, tonderi praecipiantur vel etiam radi, ita quod eis non remaneat tonsura clericalis: ita tamen quod sine periculo et scandalo ita fiant.’ If Mansi’s date is right, this precedes by three centuries the almost identical _Conc. of Rouen_, c. 8 (Mansi, xxiii. 215), and _Conc. of Castle Gonther_ (Tours), c. 21 (Mansi, xxiii. 237), both in 1231. Gautier, _Les Tropaires_, i. 186, dwells on the influence of the _goliardi_ on the late and ribald development of the tropes, and quotes _Conc. of Treves_ (1227), c. 9 (Mansi, xxiii. 33) ‘praecipimus ut omnes sacerdotes non permittant trutannos et alios vagos scholares aut goliardos cantare versus super _Sanctus_ et _Agnus Dei_.’ On their probable share in the Feast of Fools cf. ch. xiv. For later legislation cf. Hubatsch, 14, 95, and the passage from the _Liber Sextus_ of Boniface VIII on p. 39. It lasts to the _Conc. Frisingense_ (1440) ‘statuimus ne clerici mimis, ioculatoribus, histrionibus, buffonibus, galliardis, largiantur’ (Labbe, xiii. 1286). By this time ‘goliard’ seems little more than a synonym for ‘minstrel.’ The ‘mynstralle, a gulardous,’ of Mannyng, 148, does not appear to be a clerk, while Chaucer’s ‘goliardeys’ is the Miller (_C. T._ prol. 560). On the other hand, Langland’s ‘Goliardeys, a glotoun of wordes’ (_Piers Plowman_, prol. 139), speaks Latin. Another name for the _goliardi_ occurs in an _Epistola Guidonis S. Laurentii in Lucina Cardinalis_, xx. (1266, Hartzheim, iii. 807) against ‘vagi scolares, qui Eberdini vocantur,’ and who ‘divinum invertunt officium, unde laici scandalizantur.’

[253] Baudouin de Condé in his _Contes des Hiraus_ contrasts the ‘grans menestreus,’ the

‘Maistres de sa menestrandie, Qui bien viele ou ki bien die De bouce’

with the ‘felons et honteux,’ who win pence,

‘l’un por faire l’ivre, L’autre le cat, le tiers le sot,’

while in _Les États du Monde_ his son Jean sets up a high standard of behaviour for the true minstrels:

‘Soies de cuer nes et polis, Courtois, envoisiés, et jolis, Pour les boinnes gens solacier’

(Scheler, _Dits et Contes de Baudouin de Condé et de son fils Jean de Condé_, i. 154; ii. 377). Cf. Watriquet de Couvin, _Dis du fol menestrel_ (ed. Scheler, 367):

‘Menestriex se doit maintenir Plus simplement c’une pucele, ... Menestrel qui veut son droit faire Ne doit le jangleur contrefaire, Mais en sa bouche avoir tous dis Douces paroles et biaus dis, Estre nés, vivre purement.’

These three writers belong to the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century.

[254] A. Jubinal, _Jongleurs et Trouvères_, 165. Cf. Gautier, ii. 78; Bédier, 418.

[255] F. Diaz, _Poesie der Troubadours_ (ed. Bartsch), 63; K. Bartsch, _Grundriss der provenzalischen Literatur_, 25; F. Hueffer, _The Troubadours_, 63. Diaz, _op. cit._ 297, prints the documents.

[256] There is nothing to show that Scilling, the companion of Widsith (_Widsith_, 104), was of an inferior grade.

[257] Hueffer, 52; G. Paris, 182: A. Stimming in Grober’s _Grundriss_, ii. 2. 15; Gautier, ii. 45, 58. The commonest of phrases in troubadour biography is ‘cantet et trobet.’ The term _trobador_ is properly the accusative case of _trobaire_.

[258] Petrarch, _Epist. Rerum Senil._ n. 3 ‘sunt homines non magni ingenii, magnae vero memoriae, magnaeque diligentiae, sed maioris audaciae, qui regum ac potentum aulas frequentant, de proprio nudi, vestiti autem carminibus alienis, dumque quid ab hoc, aut ab illo exquisitius materno praesertim charactere dictum sit, ingenti expressione pronunciant, gratiam sibi nobilium, et pecunias quaerunt, et vestes et munera.’ Fulke of Marseilles, afterwards bishop of Toulouse, wrote songs in his youth. He became an austere Cistercian; but the songs had got abroad, and whenever he heard one of them sung by a _joglar_, he would eat only bread and water (_Sermo_ of Robert de Sorbonne in Hauréau, _Man. Fr._ xxiv. 2. 286).

[259] In the first edition of his _Reliques_ (1765), Percy gave the mediaeval minstrel as high a status as the Norse _scald_ or Anglo-Saxon _scôp_. This led to an acrid criticism by Ritson who, in his essay _On the ancient English Minstrels_ in _Ancient Songs and Ballads_ (1829), easily showed the low repute in which many minstrels were held. See also his elaborate _Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy_ in his _Ancient English Metrical Romances_ (1802). The truth really lay between the two, for neither appreciated the wide variety covered by a common name. On the controversy, cf. Minto in _Enc. Brit._ s. v. _Minstrels_, Courthope, i. 426-31, and H. B. Wheatley’s Introduction to his edition of Percy’s _Reliques_, xiii-xv. Percy in his later editions profited largely by Ritson’s criticism; a careful collation of these is given in Schroer’s edition (1889).

[260] Magnin, _Journal des Savants_ (1846), 545.

[261] Lambertus Ardensis, _Chronicon_, c. 81 (ed. Godefroy Menilglaise, 175) ‘quid plura? tot et tantorum ditatus est copia librorum ut Augustinum in theologia, Areopagitam Dionysium in philosophia, Milesium fabularium in naeniis gentium, in cantilenis gestoriis, sive in eventuris nobilium, sive etiam in fabellis ignobilium, ioculatores quosque nominatissimos aequiparare putaretur.’

[262] Freymond, _Jongleurs et Menestrels_, 34:

‘Il est de tout bons menesterieux: Il set peschier, il set chacier, Il set trop bien genz solacier; Il set chançons, sonnez et fables, Il set d’eschez, il set des tables, Il set d’arbalestre et d’airon.’

[263] _Daurel et Beton_ (ed. Meyer, _Soc. des anc. textes fr._ 1886), 1206:

‘El va enant, a lor des jocz mostratz, Dels us e dels altres, qu’el ne sap pro asatz. Pueis pres l[a] arpa, a .ij. laisses notatz, Et ab la viola a los gen deportat[z], Sauta e tomba; tuh s’en son alegratz.’

[264] Montaiglon-Raynaud, i. 1:

‘Ge sai contes, ge sai flabeax; Ge sai conter beax dix noveax, Rotruenges viez et noveles, Et sirventois et pastorels. Ge sai le flabel du Denier, . . . . . . . Si sai de Parceval l’estoire, . . . . . . . Ge sai joer des baasteax, Et si sai joer des costeax, Et de la corde et de la fonde, Et de toz les beax giex du monde, . . . . . . . De totes les chansons de geste.’

[265] Three of these _Enseignamens_, by Guiraut de Cabreira (†1170), Guiraut de Calanso (†1200), and Bertran de Paris (†1250), are printed by K. Bartsch, _Denkmäler der provenzalischen Litteratur_, 85-101. Cf. Bartsch, _Grundriss der prov. Lit._ 25; Hueffer, _The Troubadours_, 66; _Hist. Litt._ xvii. 581.

[266] Bernhard, iii. 397, gives some French references, one dated 1395, for ‘menestriers de bouches,’ a term signifying minstrels who sang as well as played instruments.

[267] There are numerous payments to jugglers, tumblers and dancers in the Household Accounts of Henry VII (Bentley, _Excerpta Historica_, 85-113; Collier, i. 50). A letter to Wolsey of July 6, 1527, from R. Croke, the tutor of Henry VIII’s natural son, the Duke of Richmond, complains of difficulties put in his way by R. Cotton, the Clerk-comptroller of the duke’s household, and adds: ‘At hic tamen in praeceptore arcendo diligens, libenter patitur scurras et mimos (qui digna lupanari in sacro cubiculo coram principe cantillent) admitti’ (Nichols, _Memoir of Henry Fitzroy_ in _Camden Miscellany_, iii. xxxviii).

[268] For the _ioculator regis_, cf. Appendix E, and Leach, _Beverley MSS._ 179. He is called ‘jugler’ in _N. H. B._ 67. Is he distinct from the royal _gestator_ (_gestour_, _jester_)? Both appear in the Shrewsbury accounts (s. ann. 1521, 1549). In 1554 both _le jugler_ and _le gester_ were entertained. The _gestator_ seems to have merged in the _stultus_ or court fool (ch. xvi). The accounts in App. E often mention the royal bearward, who remained an important official under Elizabeth.

[269] 2 _Hen. IV_, ii. 4. 12.

[270] Cf. Appendix H (i).

[271] Courthope, i. 445; A. Lang, s.v. _Ballad_ in _Enc. Brit._ and in _A Collection of Ballads_, xi; _Quarterly Review_ (July, 1898); Henderson, 335; G. Smith, 180. But I think that Gummere, _B. P. passim_, succeeds in showing that the element of folk-poetry in balladry is stronger than some of the above writers recognize.

[272] Sidney, _Apologie for Poetrie_ (ed. Arber), 46 ‘Certainly I must confess my own barbarousness. I never heard the old song of _Percy and Douglas_, that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet. And yet is it sung but by some blind Crowder, with no rougher voice than rude style.’ For the Puritan view, see Stubbes, i. 169.

[273] Ritson, ccxxiv, quotes the following lines, ascribed to Dr. Bull (†1597), from a _Harl. MS._, as the epitaph of minstrelsy:

‘When Jesus went to Jairus’ house (Whose daughter was about to dye), He turned the minstrels out of doors, Among the rascal company: Beggars they are, with one consent, And rogues, by Act of Parliament.’

[274] _Du Vilain au Buffet_ (Montaiglon-Raynaud, iii. 202):

‘Li quens manda les menestrels, Et si a fet crier entr’els Qui la meillor truffe sauroit Dire ne fere, qu’il auroit Sa robe d’escarlate nueve. L’uns menestrels a l’autre rueve Fere son mestier, tel qu’il sot, L’uns fet l’ivre, l’autre le sot; Li uns chante, li autres note, Et li autres dit la riote, Et li autres la jenglerie; Cil qui sevent de jouglerie Vielent par devant le conte; Aucuns i a qui fabliaus conte, Où il ot mainte gaberie, Et li autres dit l’_Erberie_, Là où il ot mainte risée.’

Cf. p. 67; also the similar list in Wace, _Brut_, 10823, and _Piers Plowman_, Passus xvi. 205:

‘Ich can nat tabre ne trompe · ne telle faire gestes, Farten, ne fithelen · at festes, ne harpen, Iapen ne iogelen · ne gentelliche pipe, Nother sailen ne sautrien · ne singe with the giterne.’

[275] Gautier, ii. 63; Strutt, 207. L. T. Smith, _Derby Accounts_ (Camden Soc.), 109, records a payment by Henry of Bolingbroke when in Prussia in 1390-1 ‘cuidam tumblere facienti ministralciam suam.’ See miniatures of tumblers (Strutt, 211, 212), stilt-dancing (ibid. 226), hoop-vaulting (ibid. 229), balancing (ibid. 232-4), a contortionist (ibid. 235).

[276] _Annales Corbeienses_, s. a. 1135 (Leibnitz, _Rer. Brunsv. Script._ ii. 307) ‘funambulus inter lusus suos in terram deiectus.’

[277] Gautier, ii. 64, quotes _Annales Basilienses_, s. a. 1276 ‘Basileam quidam corpore debilis venit, qui funem protensum de campanili maioris ecclesiae ad domum cantoris manibus et pedibus descendebat’; for later English examples cf. ch. xxiv.

[278] Strutt, 172, 176, 209; Jusserand, i. 214, and _E. W. L._ 23.

[279] Strutt, 173, 197; Jusserand, _E. W. L._ 212; Wright, 33-7.

[280] Gautier, ii. 67, quotes _Joufrois_, 1146:

‘Ainz veïssiez toz avant traire Les jogleors et maint jou faire. Li uns dançoit ... Li autre ovrent de nigremance.’

[281] Strutt, 194, quotes from Cott. MS. _Nero_, c. viii, a payment ‘Janins le Cheveretter (bagpiper) called le Tregettour,’ for playing before Edw. II. Collier, i. 30, quotes Lydgate, _Daunce de Macabre_ (Harl. 116):

‘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. . . . . . . . . Lygarde de mayne now helpeth me right nought.’

[282] Ducange, s. v. _bastaxi_; Gautier, ii. 11; C. Magnin, _Hist. des Marionnettes en Europe_ (ed. 2, 1862); cf. ch. xxiv. _Bastaxus_ seems to be the origin of the modern _bateleur_, used in a wide sense of travelling entertainers.

[283] Du Méril, _Com._ 74; Strutt, 253; Jusserand, _E. W. L._ vi. 218. Amongst the letters commendatory of minstrels quoted by Gautier, ii. 109, is one ‘De illo qui scit volucrum exprimere cantilenas et voces asininas.’ Baudouin de Condé mentions a minstrel who ‘fait le cat’ (cf. p. 63, n. 1).

[284] See figures of bears (Strutt, 176, 214, 239, 240), apes (ibid. 240, 241; Jusserand, _E. W. L._ 218), horses (Strutt, 243, 244), dog (ibid. 246, 249), hare (ibid. 248), cock (ibid. 249). For the _ursarius_ and for lion, marmoset, &c., cf. pp. 53, 68, and Appendix E.

[285] Strutt, 256. A horse-baiting is figured in Strutt, 243.

[286] Strutt, 244, figures a combat between man and horse. Gautier, ii. 66, cites _Acta SS. Jan._ iii. 257 for the intervention of St. Poppo when a naked man smeared with honey was to fight bears before the emperor Henry IV (†1048).

[287] Strutt, 260, 262.

[288] _Adam Davie_ (†1312):

‘Merry it is in halle to here the harpe, The minstrelles synge, the jogelours carpe.’

[289] John of Salisbury, _Polycraticus_, i. 8 ‘Quorum adeo error invaluit, ut a praeclaris domibus non arceantur, etiam illi qui obscenis partibus corporis oculis omnium eam ingerunt turpitudinem, quam erubescat videre vel cynicus. Quodque magis mirere, nec tunc eiiciuntur, quando tumultuantes inferius crebro sonitu aerem foedant, et turpiter inclusum turpius produnt’; Adam of Bremen (_M. G. H._), iii. 38 ‘Pantomimi, qui obscoenis corporis motibus oblectare vulgus solent.’ Raine, _Hist. Papers from Northern Registers_ (R. S.), 398, prints a letter of Archbishop Zouche of York on the indecent behaviour of some clerks of the bishop of Durham in York Minster on Feb. 6, 1349, ‘subtus imaginem crucifixi ventositates per posteriora dorsi cum foedo strepitu more ribaldorum emittere fecerunt pluries ac turpiter et sonore.’

[290] Gautier, ii. 69; Lavoix, _La Musique au Siècle de Saint-Louis_, i. 315; cf. Appendix C.

[291] W. Mapes, _de Nugis Curialium_ (Camden Soc.), dist. v. prol., ‘Caesar Lucani, Aeneas Maronis, multis vivunt in laudibus, plurimum suis meritis et non minimum vigilantia poetarum; nobis divinam Karolorum et Pepinorum nobilitatem vulgaribus rithmis sola mimorum concelebrat nugacitas.’

[292] Lavoix, ii. 295.

[293] Ibid. ii. 344. The Paris MS. (_B. N._ f. fr. 2168) of _Aucassin et Nicolete_ preserves the musical notation of the verse sections. Only three musical phrases, with very slight variations, are used. Two of these were probably repeated, alternately or at the singer’s fancy, throughout the tirade; the third provided a cadence for the closing line (Bourdillon, _Aucassin et Nicolette_ (1897), 157).

[294] Chaucer, _House of Fame_, 1197:

‘Of alle maner of minstrales, And gestiours, that tellen tales, Bothe of weping and of game.’

Cf. _Sir Thopas_, 134; and Gower, _Confessio Amantis_, vii. 2424:

‘And every menstral hadde pleid, And every disour hadde seid.’

The evidence of Erasmus is late, of course, for the hey-day of minstrelsy, but in his time there were certainly English minstrels who merely recited, without musical accompaniment; cf. _Ecclesiastes_ (_Opera_, v. col. 958) ‘Apud Anglos est simile genus hominum, quales apud Italos sunt circulatores, de quibus modo dictum est; qui irrumpunt in convivia magnatum, aut in cauponas vinarias; et argumentum aliquod, quod edidicerunt, recitant; puta mortem omnibus dominari, aut laudem matrimonii. Sed quoniam ea lingua monosyllabis fere constat, quemadmodum Germanica; atque illi studio vitant cantum, nobis latrare videntur verius quam loqui.’

[295] Ten Brink, i. 193, 225, 235, old gleeman tradition was probably less interfered with in the lowlands of Scotland than in England proper; cf. Henderson, _Scottish Vernacular Literature_, 16.

[296] Ten Brink, i. 322; Jusserand, i. 360; Courthope, i. 197. Minot’s poems have been edited by J. Hall (Oxford, 1887). See also Wright, _Political Songs_ (C.S.) and _Political Poems and Songs_ (R.S.). Many of these, however, are Latin.

[297] On Welsh bardism see H. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _Intr. à l’Étude de la Litt. celtique_, 63; Stephens, _Literature of the Kymry_, 84, 93, 97, 102; Ernest David, _Études historiques sur la Poésie et la Musique dans la Cambrie_, 13, 62-103, 147-64. In Wales, an isolated corner of Europe, little touched by Latin influences, the bards long retained the social and national position which it is probable they once had held in all the Aryan peoples. Their status is defined in the laws of Howel Dha (†920) and in those of Gruffyd ab Cynan (1100). The latter code distinguishes three orders of bards proper, the _Pryddyd_ or Chair bards, the _Teuluwr_ or Palace bards, and the _Arwyddfardd_ or heralds, also called _Storiawr_, the _cantores historici_ of Giraldus Cambrensis. The _Pryddyd_ and _Teuluwr_ differ precisely as poets and executants, _trouvères_ and _jougleurs_. Below all these come the _Clerwr_, against whom official bardism from the sixth to the thirteenth century showed an inveterate animosity. These are an unattached wandering folk, players on flutes, tambourines, and other instruments meaner than the _telyn_ or harp, and the _crwth_ or viol which alone the bards proper deigned to use. Many of them had also picked up the mime-tricks of the foreigners. It was probably with these _Clerwr_ that the English and French neighbours of the Kelts came mainly into contact. Padelford, 5, puts this contact as early as the Anglo-Saxon period.

[298] Giraldus Cambrensis, _Descriptio Cambriae_, i. 17 ‘famosus ille fabulator Bledhericus, qui tempora nostra paulo praevenit.’ Thomas, _Tristan_ (†1170, ed. Michel, ii. 847):

‘Mès sulum ço que j’ai oy N’el dient pas sulum Breri, Ky solt les gestes e les cuntes De tuz les reis, de tuz les cuntes Ki orent esté en Bretaingne.’

[299] G. Paris, in _Hist. Litt._ xxx. 1-22; _Litt. Fr._ §§ 53-5; Nutt, _Legend of the Holy Grail_, 228; Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, 370-90. These views have been vigorously criticized by Prof. Zimmer in _Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen_ (1891), 488, 785, and elsewhere.

[300] David, _op. cit._ 13, 235; cf. p. 54.

[301] Paris, §§ 118, 122, and _Orig._ (_passim_); Jeanroy, 1, 84, 102, 387; _Lang. et Litt._ i. 345; cf. ch. viii. Texts of _chansons à personnages_ and _pastourelles_ in Bartsch, _Altfranzösische Romanzen und Pastourellen_; of _aubes_ in Bartsch, _Chrestomathie de l’ancien français_.

[302] Paris, § 126; _Orig._ (_passim_); Jeanroy, 45, and in _Lang. et Litt._ i. 384; Bartsch, _Grundriss der prov. Lit._ 34; Hueffer, _The Troubadours_, 112; Stimming in Gröber’s _Grundriss_, ii. 2. 24.

[303] In 1386 we hear of ‘des compaingnons, pour de jeux de parture juer et esbattre’ at Douai (Julleville, _Rép. Com._ 323), which looks as if, by the end of the fourteenth century, the _partures_ were being professionally performed.

[304] Paris, § 109; Bédier, 31. A _fabliau_ is properly a ‘conte à rire en vers’; the term _dit_ is applied more generally to a number of short poems which deal, ‘souvent avec agrément, des sujets empruntés à la vie quotidienne.’ Some _dits_ are satirical, others eulogistic of a class or profession, others descriptive. But the distinction is not very well defined, and the _fabliaux_ are often called _dits_ in the MSS.

[305] Montaiglon-Raynaud, i. 1; ii. 257. The _dit_ is also called _La Jengle au Ribaut et la Contrejengle_.

[306] Rutebeuf (ed. Kressner), 99.

[307] Barbazan-Méon, i. 356. Bédier, 33, considers _Courtois d’Arras_ as the oldest French comedy, a _jeu dramatique_ with intercalated narrative by a _meneur de jeu_. But the fact that it ends with the words _Te Deum_ leads one to look upon it as an adaptation of a religious play; cf. ch. xix.

[308] On the _débats_ in general, see _Hist. Litt._ xxiii. 216 sqq.; Paris, _Litt. fr._ §§ 110, 155; Arthur Piaget, _Littérature didactique_ in _Lang. et Litt._ ii. 208; Jeanroy, 48; R. Hirzel, _Der Dialog_, ii. 382; _Literaturblatt_ (1887), 76. A full list is given by Petit, _Rép. Com._ 405-9. The _débats_ merge into such allegorical poems as Henri d’Andeli’s _Bataille des Vins_ (Barbazon-Méon, i. 152) or _Le Mariage des Sept Arts et des Sept Vertus_ (Jubinal, _Œuvres de Rutebeuf_, ii. 415); cf. Paris, _Litt. fr._ 158.

[309] Ten Brink, i. 215; Hubatsch, 24; Gummere, _B. P._ 200, 306. The _Débat de l’Yver et de l’Esté_ has the nearest folk-lore origin; cf. ch. ix. Paris, _Origines_, 28, mentions several Greek and Latin versions beginning with Aesop (Halm, 414). The most important is the ninth-century _Conflictus Veris et Hiemis_ (Riese, _Anth. Lat._ i. 2. 145), variously ascribed to Bede (Wernsdorff, _Poetae Latini Minores_, ii. 239), Alcuin (_Alc. Opera_, ed. Froben, ii. 612) and others. French versions are printed in Montaiglon-Rothschild, _Anc. Poés. fr._ vi. 190, x. 41, and Jubinal, _N. R._ ii. 40. There are imitations in all tongues: cf. M. Émile Picot’s note in Mont.-Rothsch. _op. cit._ x. 49; _Hist. Litt._ xxiii. 231; Douhet, 1441.--_La Disputoison du Vin et de l’Iaue_ is printed in Jubinal, _N. R._ i. 293; Wright, _Lat. Poems of Walter Mapes_, 299; _Carmina Burana_, 232. It is based on the _Goliae Dialogus inter Aquam et Vinum_ (Wright, _loc. cit._ 87); cf. _Hist. Litt._ xxiii. 228; _Romania_, xvi. 366.--On the complicated history of the _Débat du Corps et de l’Âme_, see T. Batiouchkof in _Romania_, xx. 1. 513; G. Kleinert, _Ueber den Streit von Leib und Seele_; _Hist. Litt._ xxii. 162; P. de Julleville, _Répertoire Comique_, 5, 300, 347; Wright, _Latin Poems_, xxiii. 95, 321. Latin, French and other versions are given by Wright, and by Viollet-Leduc, _Anc. Thé. fr._ iii. 325.--_Phillis et Flora_, or _De Phyllis qui aime un chevalier et de Flora qui aime un prêtre_, is also referred by Paris, _Orig._ 28, to a folk-song beginning; cf. _H. L._ xxii. 138, 165; _Romania_, xxii. 536. Latin versions are in _Carmina Burana_, 155; Wright, _Latin Poems of W. Mapes_, 258.--A possible influence of the Theocritean and Virgilian eclogues upon these _débats_, through their neo-Latin forms, must be borne in mind.

[310] Wülker, 384; Brooke, i. 139, ii. 93, 221, 268; Jusserand, i. 75, 443. The passages of dialogue dwelt on by these writers mostly belong to the work of Cynewulf and his school. It has been suggested that some of them, e.g. the A.-S. _Descent into Hell_ (Grein, iii. 175; cf. _Anglia_, xix. 137), or the dialogue between Mary and Joseph in Cynewulf’s _Christ_, 163 (ed. Gollancz, p. 16), may have been intended for liturgical use by half-choirs; but of this there is really no proof. Wülker, _loc. cit._, shows clearly that the notion of a dramatic representation was unfamiliar to the Anglo-Saxons.

[311] Ten Brink, i. 312. Several English versions of the _Debate between Body and Soul_ are given by Wright, _loc. cit._ 334. An English _Debate and Stryfe betwene Somer and Wynter_ is in W. C. Hazlitt, _Early Popular Poetry_, iii. 29.

[312] Cf. ch. xx.

[313] Ten Brink, i. 214, 309. _The Owl and the Nightingale_ (c. 1216-72), was printed by J. Stevenson (Roxburghe Club); _the Thrush and the Nightingale_ and _the Fox and the Wolf_, by W. C. Hazlitt, _Early Popular Poetry_, i. 50, 58. There are also a _Debate of the Carpenter’s Tools_ (Hazlitt, i. 79) and an English version of a Latin _Disputacio inter Mariam et Crucem_ (R. Morris, _Legends of the Holy Rood_, 131); cf. Ten Brink, i. 259, 312. An A.-S. version of the _Debate between Body and Soul_ is in the _Exeter Book_ (Grein, ii. 92).

[314] Ælred (†1166), _Speculum Charitatis_, ii. 23 (_P. L._ cxcv. 571) ‘Videas aliquando hominem aperto ore quasi intercluso halitu expirare, non cantare, ac ridiculosa quadam vocis interceptione quasi minitari silentium; nunc agones morientium, vel extasim patientium imitari. Interim histrionicis quibusdam gestibus totum corpus agitatur, torquentur labia, rotant, ludunt humeri; et ad singulas quasque notas digitorum flexus respondet. Et haec ridiculosa dissolutio vocatur religio!... Vulgus ... miratur ... sed lascivas cantantium gesticulationes, meretricias vocum alternationes et infractiones, non sine cachinno risuque intuetur, ut eos non ad oratorium sed ad theatrum, non ad orandum, sed ad spectandum aestimes convenisse.’ Cf. _op. cit._ ii. 17 ‘Cum enim in tragediis vanisve carminibus quisquam iniuriatus fingitur, vel oppressus ... si quis haec, vel cum canuntur audiens, vel cernens si recitentur ... moveatur’; and Johannes de Janua, s.v. _persona_ (cited Creizenach, i. 381) ‘Item persona dicitur histrio, repraesentator comoediarum, qui diversis modis personat diversas repraesentando personas.’ All these passages, like the ninth-century _responsio_ of arch-bishop Leidradus referred to on p. 36, may be suspected of learning rather than actuality. As for the epitaph of the mime Vitalis (Riese, _Anth. Lat._ i. 2. 143; Baehrens, _P. L. M._ iii. 245), sometimes quoted in this connexion, it appears to be classical and not mediaeval at all; cf. Teuffel-Schwabe, §§ 8. 11; 32. 6. Probably this is also the case with the lines _De Mimo iam Sene_ in Wright, _Anecdota Literaria_, 100, where again ‘theatra’ are mentioned.

[315] Cf. p. 71. The mention of a ‘Disare that played the sheppart’ at the English court in 1502 (Nicolas, _Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York_) is too late to be of importance here.

[316] Creizenach, i. 383, citing at second-hand from fourteenth-century accounts of a Savoy treasurer ‘rappresentando i costumi delle compagnie inglesi e bretoni.’

[317] Creizenach, i. 380.

[318] Thomas de Cabham mentions the _horribiles larvae_ of some minstrels. A. Lecoy de la Marche, _La Chaire française_ (ed. 2, 1886), 444, quotes a sermon of Étienne de Bourbon in _MS. B. N. Lat._ 15970, f. 352 ‘ad similitudinem illorum ioculatorum qui ferunt facies depictas quae dicuntur artificia gallicè, cum quibus ludunt et homines deludunt.’ Cf. Liudprand, iii. 15 (Pertz, iii. 310) ‘histrionum mimorumve more incedere, qui, ut ad risum facile turbas illiciant, variis sese depingunt coloribus.’ The _monstra larvarum_, however, of various ecclesiastical prohibitions I take to refer specifically to the Feast of Fools (cf. ch. xiii).

[319] Schack, _Gesch. der dram. Litt. und Kunst in Spanien_, i. 30, quotes a Carolingian capitulary, from Heineccius, _Capit._ lib. v. c. 388 ‘si quis ex scenicis vestem sacerdotalem aut monasticam vel mulieris religiosae vel qualicunque ecclesiastico statu similem indutus fuerit, corporali poena subsistat et exilio tradatur.’ This prohibition is as old as the _Codex Theodosianus_; cf. p. 14.

[320] _Œuvres_ de Rutebeuf (ed. Kressner), 115; cf. _Romania_, xvi. 496; Julleville, _Les Com._ 24; _Rép. Com._ 407.

[321] Creizenach, i. 386, further points out that a stage was not indispensable to the Latin _mimus_, who habitually played before the curtain and probably with very little setting; that the favourite situations of fifteenth-century French farce closely resemble those of the mimes; and that the use of marionettes is a proof of some knowledge of dramatic methods amongst the minstrels.

[322] On this treatise, cf. ch. xx.

[323] A ‘japer’ is often an idle talker, like a ‘jangler’ which is clearly sometimes confused with a ‘jongleur’; cf. Chaucer, _Parson’s Tale_, 89 ‘He is a japere and a gabber and no verray repentant that eft-soone dooth thing for which hym oghte repente.’ Langland uses the term in a more technical sense. _Activa Vita_ in _Piers Plowman_, xvi. 207, is no minstrel, because ‘Ich can not ... japen ne jogelen.’ No doubt a ‘jape’ would include a _fabliau_. It is equivalent etymologically to ‘gab,’ and Bédier, 33, points out that the _jougleurs_ use _gabet_, as well as _bourde_, _trufe_, and _risée_ for a _fabliau_.--The use of ‘pleye’ as ‘jest’ may be illustrated by Chaucer, _Pardoner’s Tale_ (_C. T._ 12712) ‘My wit is greet, though that I bourde and pleye.’--The ‘japis’ of the _Tretise_ are probably the ‘knakkes’ of the passage on ‘japeris’ in _Parson’s Tale_, 651 ‘right so conforten the vileyns wordes and knakkes of japeris hem that travaillen in the service of the devel.’

[324] Montaiglon-Raynaud, ii. 243. Cf. _Hist. Litt._ xxiii. 103; Jusserand, _Lit. Hist._ i. 442. A shorter prose form of the story is found in _La Riote du Monde_ (ed. Fr. Michel, 1834), a popular _facétie_ of which both French and Anglo-Norman versions exist; cf. Paris, _Litt. fr._ 153. And a Latin form, _De Mimo et Rege Francorum_ is in Wright, _Latin Stories_, No. 137. The point consists in the quibbling replies with which the _jougleur_ meets the king’s questions. Thus, in _La Riote du Monde_: ‘Dont ies tu?--Je suis de no vile.--U est te vile?--Entor le moustier.--U est li moustiers?--En l’atre.--U est li atres?--Sor terre.--U siet cele terre?--Sor l’iaue.--Comment apiel-on l’iaue?--On ne l’apiele nient; ele vient bien sans apieler.’

[325] Cf. Appendix V.

[326] Cf. ch. viii.

[327] Ed. P. Meyer, in _Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur_, vi. 163. The piece was probably written in Flanders, between 1266 and 1290. Cf. Creizenach, i. 398.

[328] See Appendix U. References for the earlier non-dramatic versions in Latin, French, and English of the story are given by Jusserand, _Lit. Hist._ i. 447. A Cornish dramatic fragment of the fourteenth century is printed in the _Athenæum_ for Dec. 1, 1877, and _Revue celtique_, iv. 259; cf. Creizenach, i. 401.

[329] Stephens-Hunt, ii. 301; F. S. Stevenson, _Robert Grosseteste_, 126. The disciplinary attack seems to have begun with Grosseteste’s predecessor, Hugh de Wells, in 1230 (Wilkins, i. 627), but he, like Roger Weseham, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, in 1252 (_Annales Monastici_, R. S. i. 296), merely condemns _ludi_, a term which may mean folk-festivals or minstrelsy, or both. A similar ambiguity attaches to the obligation of the anchoresses of Tarrant Keyneston not to look on at a _ludus_ (_pleouwe_) in the church-yard (_Ancren Riwle_, C. S. 318).

[330] In 1236 Grosseteste wrote to his archdeacons forbidding ‘arietum super ligna et rotas elevationes, caeterosque ludos consimiles, in quo decertatur pro bravio; cum huiusmodi ludorum tam actores quam spectatores, sicut evidenter demonstrat Isidorus, immolant daemonibus, ... et cum etiam huiusmodi ludi frequenter dant occasiones irae, odii, pugnae, et homicidii.’ His _Constitutiones_ of 1238 say ‘Praecipimus etiam ut in singulis ecclesiis denuncietur solenniter ne quisquam levet arietes super rotas, vel alios ludos statuat, in quibus decertatur pro bravio: nec huiusmodi ludis quisquam intersit, &c.’ About 1244 he wrote again to the archdeacons: ‘Faciunt etiam, ut audivimus, clerici ludos quos vocant miracula: et alios ludos quos vocant Inductionem Maii sive Autumni; et laici scotales ... miracula etiam et ludos supra nominatos et scotales, quod est in vestra potestate facili, omnino exterminetis’ (Luard, _Letters of Robert Grosseteste_ (R. S.) _Epp._ xxii, lii, cvii, pp. 74, 162, 317). For his condemnations of the Feast of Fools cf. ch. xiv.

[331] _Const. Walt. de Cantilupo_ (Wilkins, i. 673) ‘prohibemus clericis ... nec sustineant ludos fieri de Rege et Regina, nec arietas levari, nec palaestras publicas fieri, nec gildales inhonestas.’ The clergy must also abstain and dissuade the laity from ‘compotationibus quae vocantur scottales’ (Wilkins, i. 672). On ‘ram-raisings,’ &c., cf. ch. vii; on ‘gildales’ and ‘scotales’ ch. viii.

[332] Surely the reference is to the mock kings and queens of the village festivals, and not, as Guy, 521; Jusserand, _Litt. Hist._ i. 444, suggest, to the question-and-answer game of _Le Roi qui ne ment_ described in Jean de Condé’s _Sentier Batu_ (Montaiglon-Raynaud, iii. 248), although this is called playing ‘as rois et as reines’ in Adan de la Hale’s _Robin et Marion_ (ed. Monmerqué-Michel, 121) and elsewhere (cf. Guy, 222), and possibly grew out of the festival custom. Yet another game of _King and Queen_, of the practical joke order, is described as played at Golspie by Nicholson, 119.

[333] Wilkins, i. 666.

[334] Anstey, _Munimenta Academica_ (R. S.), i. 18 ‘ne quis choreas cum larvis seu strepitu aliquo in ecclesiis vel plateis ducat, vel sertatus, vel coronatus corona ex foliis arborum, vel florum vel aliunde composita alicubi incedat ... prohibemus.’

[335] _Inquisitiones ... de vita et conversatione clericorum et laicorum_ in _Annales de Burton_ (_Ann. Monast._ R. S. i. 307) ‘an aliqui laici mercata, vel ludos, seu placita peculiaria fieri faciant in locis sacris, et an haec fuerint prohibita ex parte episcopi.... An aliqui laici elevaverint arietes, vel fieri faciant schothales, vel decertaverint de praeeundo cum vexillis in visitatione matricis ecclesiae.’

[336] Wilkins, ii. 129 ‘c. 13 ... Ne quisquam luctas, choreas, vel alios ludos inhonestos in coemeteriis exercere praesumat; praecipue in vigiliis et festis sanctorum, cum huiusmodi ludos theatrales et ludibriorium spectacula introductos per quos ecclesiarum coinquinatur honestas, sacri ordines detestantur.’

[337] Wilkins, iii. 68 ‘c. 2 ... nec in ipsis [locis sacris] fiant luctationes, sagittationes, vel ludi.’ A special caution is given against ludi ‘in sanctorum vigiliis’ and ‘in exequiis defunctorum.’

[338] T. F. Kirby, _Wykeham’s Register_ (Hampshire Record Soc.), ii. 410, forbids ‘ad pilas ludere, iactaciones lapidum facere ... coreas facere dissolutas, et interdum canere cantilenas, ludibriorum spectacula facere, saltaciones et alios ludos inhonestos frequentare, ac multas alias insolencias perpetrare, ex quibus cimeterii huiusmodi execracio seu pollucio frequencius verisimiliter formidetur.’

[339] _Handlyng Synne_ (ed. Furnivall), p. 148, l. 4684:

‘Daunces, karols, somour games, Of many swych come many shames.’

This poem is a free adaptation (†1303) of the thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman _Manuel de Péché_, which is probably by William de Wadington, but has been ascribed to Bishop Grosseteste himself. The corresponding lines in this are

‘Muses et tieles musardries, Trippes, dances, et teles folies.’

Cf. also _Handlyng Synne_, p. 278, l. 8989:

‘Karolles, wrastlynges, or somour games, Who so euer haunteþ any swyche shames, Yy cherche, oþer yn cherche-ȝerde, Of sacrylage he may be a ferde; Or entyrludës, or syngynge, Or tabure bete, or oþer pypynge, Alle swychë þyng forbodyn es, Whyle þe prest stondeþ at messe’;

where the _Manuel de Péché_ has

‘Karoles ne lutes nul deit fere, En seint eglise qe me veut crere; Car en cymiter neis karoler Est outrage grant, ou luter: Souent lur est mes auenu Qe la fet tel maner de iu; Qe grant peche est, desturber Le prestre quant deit celebrer.’

[340] The Puritan Fetherston, in his _Dialogue agaynst light, lewde, and lascivious Dancing_ (1583), sign. D. 7, says that he has ‘hearde of tenne maidens which went to set May, and nine of them came home with childe.’ Stubbes, i. 149, has a very similar observation. Cf. the adventures of Dr. Fitzpiers and Suke Damson on Midsummer Eve in Thomas Hardy’s novel, _The Woodlanders_, ch. xx.

[341] Grosseteste, in 1236, quotes ‘Isidorus’ as to the pagan origin of ‘_ludi, in quo decertatur de bravio_.’ The reference is to Isidore of Seville (560-636), _Etymologiarum_, xviii. 27, _De ludis circensibus_ (_P. L._ lxxxii. 653). This, of course, refers directly to the religious associations of Roman rather than Celto-Teutonic _ludi_.

[342] Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 30 ‘idolorum cultus insequere, fanorum aedificia everate.’

[343] Bede, _Hist. Eccl._ i. 30; Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 37 ‘Dicite [Augustino], quid diu mecum de causa Anglorum cogitans tractavi: videlicet quia fana idolorum destrui in eadem gente minime debeant; sed ipsa quae in illis sunt idola destruantur, aqua benedicta fiat, in eisdem fanis aspergatur, altaria construantur, reliquiae ponantur: quia si fana eadem bene constructa sunt, necesse est ut a cultu daemonum in obsequium veri Dei debeant commutari, ut dum gens ipsa eadem fana sua non videt destrui, de corde errorem deponat, et Deum verum cognoscens ac adorans, ad loca, quae consuevit, familiarius concurrat. Et quia boves solent in sacrificio daemonum multos occidere, debet eis etiam hac de re aliqua solemnitas immutari: ut die dedicationis, vel natalitii sanctorum martyrum quorum illic reliquiae ponuntur, tabernacula sibi circa easdem ecclesias quae ex fanis commutatae sunt, de ramis arborum faciant, et religiosis conviviis sollemnitatem celebrent; nec diabolo iam animalia immolent, sed ad laudem Dei in esum suum animalia occidant, et donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias referant: ut dum eis aliqua exterius gaudia reservantur, ad interiora gaudia consentire facilius valeant. Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscindere impossibile esse non dubium est, quia et is qui summum locum ascendere nititur gradibus vel passibus non autem saltibus elevatur’....

[344] Stanley, _Memorials of Canterbury_, 37.

[345] H. B. Wheatley, _London, Past and Present_, iii. 39; Donne, _Poems_ (Muses’ Library), ii. 23.

[346] Bede, ii. 13 ‘iussit sociis destruere ac succendere fanum cum omnibus septis suis.’ In Essex in a time of plague and famine (664), Sigheri and his people ‘coeperunt fana, quae derelicta sunt, restaurare, et adorare simulacra.’ Bp. Jaruman induced them to reopen the churches, ‘relictis sive destructis fanis arisque’ (Bede, iii. 30).

[347] Bede, ii. 15. So too in eighth-century Germany there were priests who were equally ready to sacrifice to Wuotan and to administer the sacrament of baptism (Gummere, 342). See also Grimm, i. 7, and the letter of Gregory the Great to queen Brunichildis in _M. G. H. Epist._ ii. 1. 7 ‘pervenit ad nos, quod multi Christianorum et ad ecclesias occurrant, et a culturis daemonum non abscedant.’

[348] Willibald (_Gesch.-Schreiber der deutschen Vorzeit_, 27) relates that in Germany, when Boniface felled the sacred oak of Thor (robur Iovis) he built the wood into a church.

[349] A Saxon _formula abrenuntiationis_ of the ninth century (Müllenhoff-Scherer, _Denkmäler deutscher Poesie und Prosa aus dem 8.-12. Jahrhundert_, 1892, No. li) specifically renounces ‘Thuner ende Uuôden ende Saxnôte ende allum thêm unholdum thê hira genôtas sint.’ Anglo-Saxon laws and council decrees contain frequent references to sacrifices and other lingering remnants of heathenism. Cf. _Councils of Pincanhale and Cealcythe_ (787), c. 19 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 458) ‘si quid ex ritu paganorum remansit, avellatur, contemnatur, abiiciatur.’ _Council of Gratlea_ (928), c. 3 (Wilkins, i. 205) ‘diximus ... de sacrificiis barbaris ... si quis aliquem occiderit ... ut vitam suam perdat.’ _Council of London_ (1075) (Wilkins, i. 363) ‘ne offa mortuorum animalium, quasi pro vitanda animalium peste, alicubi suspendantur; nec sortes, vel aruspicia, seu divinationes, vel aliqua huiusmodi opera diaboli ab aliquo exerceantur.’ Also _Leges_ of Wihtred of Kent (696), c. 12 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 235), and other A.-S. laws quoted by Kemble, i. 523.

[350] _Penitential of Theodore_ (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 189), i. 15, _de Cultura Idolorum_; _Penitential of Egbert_ (H.-S. iii. 424), 8, _de Auguriis vel Divinationibus_.

[351] Pearson, ii. 1 (Essay on _Woman as Witch_); cf. A.-S. spells in Kemble, i. 528, and Cockayne, _Leechdoms_ (R. S.), iii. 35, 55. Early and mediaeval Christianity did not deny the existence of the heathen gods, but treated them as evil spirits, demons.

[352] An Essex case of 664 has just been quoted. Kemble, i. 358, gives two later ones from the _Chronicle of Lanercost_. In 1268 ‘cum hoc anno in Laodonia pestis grassaretur in pecudes armenti, quam vocant usitate Lungessouth, quidam bestiales, habitu claustrales non animo, docebant idiotas patriae ignem confrictione de lignis educere et simulachrum Priapi statuere, et per haec bestiis succurrere.’ In 1282 ‘sacerdos parochialis, nomine Johannes, Priapi prophana parans, congregatis ex villa puellulis, cogebat eis, choreis factis, Libero patri circuire.’ By Priapus-Liber is probably meant Freyr, the only Teutonic god known to have had Priapic characteristics (Adam of Bremen, _Gesta Hammaburgensis Eccles. Pontif._ iv. 26 in _M. G. H. Script._ vii. 267).

[353] Grimm, i. 5, 11, 64, 174; iii. xxxiv-xlv; Keary, 90; Pearson, ii. 16, 32, 42, 243, 285, 350. The Virgin Mary succeeds to the place of the old Teutonic goddess of fertility, Freyja, Nerthus. So elsewhere does St. Walpurg. The toasts or _minni_ drunk to Odin and Freyja are transferred to St. John and St. Gertrude. The travels of Odin and Loki become the travels of Christ and St. Peter. Many examples of the adaptation of pre-existing customs to Christianity will be found in the course of this book. A capitulary of Karlmann, drawn up in 742 after the synod of Ratisbon held by Boniface in Germany, speaks of ‘hostias immolatitias, quas stulti homines iuxta ecclesias ritu pagano faciunt sub nomine sanctorum martyrum vel confessorum’ (Boretius, _Capitularia Reg. Franc._ i. 24 in _M. G. H._; Mansi, xii. 367). At Kirkcudbright in the twelfth century bulls were killed ‘as an alms and oblation to St. Cuthbert’ (_F. L._ x. 353).

[354] In the present state of Gaulish and still more of Irish studies, only a glimmering of possible equations between Teutonic and Keltic gods is apparent.

[355] Recent ethnological research is summed up in G. Vacher de Lapouge, _L’Aryen_ (1899); W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_ (1900); A. H. Keane, _Ethnology_ (1896); _Man, Past and Present_ (1899); J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (1900); G. Sergi, _The Mediterranean Race_ (1901). The three racial types that, in many pure and hybrid forms, mainly compose the population of Europe may be distinguished as (1) _Homo Europaeus_, the tall blonde long-headed (dolichocephalic) race of north Europe, (including Teutons and red-haired ‘Kelts’), to which the Aryan speech seems primarily to have belonged; (2) _Homo alpinus_, the medium coloured and sized brachycephalic (round-headed) race of central Europe; (3) _Homo meridionalis_ (Lapouge) or _mediterranensis_ (Keane), the small dark dolichocephalic race of the Mediterranean basin and the western isles (including dark ‘Kelts’). During the formative period of European culture (2) was probably of little importance, and (1) and (3) are possibly of closer racial affinity to each other than either of them is to (2).

[356] Gomme, _Ethnology in Folk-lore_, 21; _Village Community_, 69; _Report of Brit. Ass._ (1896), 626; _F. L. Congress_, 348; _F. L._ x. 129, ascribes the fire customs of Europe to Aryans and the water customs to the pre-Aryans. A. Bertrand, _Religion des Gaulois_, 68, considers human sacrifice characteristically pre-Aryan. There seems to me more hope of arriving at a knowledge of specific Mediterranean cults, before the Aryan intermixture, from a study of the stone amulets and cup-markings of the megaliths (Bertrand, _op. cit._ 42) or from such investigations into ‘Mycenaean’ antiquity as that of A. J. Evans, _Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult_ (1901). The speculations of Nietzsche, in _A Genealogy of Morals_ and elsewhere, as to the altruistic ‘slave’ morality of the pre-Aryan and the self-regarding morality of the conquering Aryan ‘blond beast’ are amusing or pitiful reading, according to one’s mood.

[357] Frazer, _G. B._ i. 9 ‘The fundamental principles on which it [savage magic] is based would seem to be reducible to two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and second, that things which have once been in contact, but have ceased to be so, continue to act upon each other as if the contact still persisted. From the first of these principles, the savage infers that he can produce any desired effect merely by imitating it; from the second he concludes that he can influence at pleasure and at any distance any person of whom, or any thing of which, he possesses a particle. Magic of the latter sort, resting as it does on the belief in a certain secret sympathy which unites indissolubly things that have once been connected with each other may appropriately be termed sympathetic in the strict sense of the term. Magic of the former kind, in which the supposed cause resembles or simulates the supposed effect, may conveniently be described as imitative or mimetic.’ Cf. Jevons, 31 ‘The savage makes the generalization that like produces like; and then he is provided with the means of bringing about anything he wishes, for to produce an effect he has only to imitate it. To cause a wind to blow, he flaps a blanket, as the sailor still whistles to bring a whistling gale.... If the vegetation requires rain, all that is needed is to dip a branch in water, and with it to sprinkle the ground. Or a spray of water squirted from the mouth will produce a mist sufficiently like the mist required to produce the desired effect; or black clouds of smoke will be followed by black clouds of rain.’ I do not feel that magic is altogether a happy term for this sort of savage science. In its ordinary sense (the ‘black art’), it certainly contains a large element of what Dr. Frazer distinguishes from magic as religion, ‘a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life.’ True, these powers are not to whom the orthodox religion is directed, but the approach to them is religious in the sense of the above definition. Such magic is in fact an amalgam of charms, which are Dr. Frazer’s ‘magic,’ and spells, which are his ‘religion.’ But so are many more recognized cults.

[358] Some facts of European animal worship are dealt with in two important recent papers, one by S. Reinach in _Revue celtique_, xxi. 269, the other by N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 227. The relation of such worship to the group of savage social institutions classed as totemism is a difficult and far from solved problem, which cannot be touched upon here.

[359] Gummere, 39; Caesar, _de B. G._ iv. 1. 7; vi. 22. 2; Tacitus, _Germ._ 26.

[360] Schräder-Jevons, 281, says that the Indo-Europeans begin their history ‘acquainted with the rudiments of agriculture,’ but ‘still possessed with nomadic tendencies.’ He adds that considerable progress must have been made before the dispersion of the European branches, and points out that agriculture would naturally develop when the migratory hordes from the steppes reached the great forests of central Europe. For this there would be two reasons, the greater fertility of the soil and the narrowed space for pasturage. On the other hand, V. Hehn, _Culturpflanzen und Haustiere_, and Mommsen, _Hist. of Rome_, i. 16, find the traces of agriculture amongst the undivided Indo-Europeans very slight; the word yáva-ζέα, which is common to the tongues, need mean nothing more than a wild cereal.

[361] Jevons, 240, 255; Pearson, ii. 42; O. T. Mason, _Woman’s Share in Primitive Culture_, 14.

[362] Burne-Jackson, 352, 362; Rhys, _C. F._ i. 312; _F. L._ v. 339; Dyer, 133; Ditchfield, 70; cf. ch. vi. One of the hills so visited is the artificial one of Silbury, and perhaps the custom points to the object with which this and the similar ‘mound’ at Marlborough were piled up.

[363] Frazer, ii. 261, deals very fully with the theriomorphic corn-spirits of folk belief.

[364] On these triads and others in which three male or three female figures appear, cf. Bertrand, 341; A. Maury, _Croyances et Légendes du Moyen Âge_ (1896), 6; _Matronen-Kultus_ in _Zeitschrift d. Vereins f. Volkskultur_, ii. 24. I have not yet seen L. L. Paine, _The Ethnic Trinities and their Relation to the Christian Trinity_ (1901).

[365] Mogk, iii. 333; Golther, 298; Grimm, iv. 1709; Kemble, i. 335; Rhys, _C. H._ 282; H. M. Chadwick, _Cult of Othin_ (1899).

[366] Mogk, iii. 366; Golther, 428.

[367] Mogk, iii. 374; Golther, 488; Tille, _Y. and C._ 144; Bede, _de temp. ratione_, c. 15 (_Opera_, ed. Giles, vi. 179) ‘Eostur-monath qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a dea illorum, quae Eostre vocabatur, et cui in illo festa celebrabant, nomen habuit; a cuius nomine nunc paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquae observationis vocabulo gaudia novae solemnitatis vocantes.’ There seems no reason for thinking with Golther and Tille, that Bede made a mistake. Charlemagne took the name _Ôstarmánoth_ for April, perhaps only out of compliment to the English, such as Alcuin, at his court.

[368] _A Charm for unfruitful or bewitched land_ (O. Cockayne, _Leechdoms of Early England_, R. S. i. 399); cf. Grimm, i. 253; Golther, 455; Kögel, i. 1. 39. The ceremony has taken on a Christian colouring, but retains many primitive features. Strips of turf are removed, and masses said over them. They are replaced after oil, honey, barm, milk of every kind of cattle, twigs of every tree, and holy water have been put on the spot. Seed is bought at a double price from almsmen and poured into a hole in the plough with salt and herbs. Various invocations are used, including one which calls on ‘Erce, Erce, Erce, Eorthan modor,’ and implores the Almighty to grant her fertility. Then the plough is driven, and a loaf, made of every kind of corn with milk and holy water, laid under the first furrow. Kögel considers _Erce_ to be derived from _ero_, ‘earth.’ Brooke, i. 217, states on the authority of Montanus that a version of the prayer preserved in a convent at Corvei begins ‘Eostar, Eostar, Eordhan modor.’ He adds: ‘nothing seems to follow from this clerical error.’ But why an error? The equation Erce-Eostre is consistent with the fundamental identity of the light-goddess and the earth-goddess.

[369] Tacitus, _Ann._ i. 51; Mogk, iii. 373; Golther, 458; cf. ch. xii.

[370] Gomme, _Village Community_, 157; B. C. A. Windle, _Life in Early Britain_, 200; F. W. Maitland, _Domesday Book and Beyond_, 142, 337, 346.

[371] I have followed in many points the views on Teutonic chronology of Tille, _Deutsches Weihnacht_ (1893) and _Yule and Christmas_ (1899), which are accepted in the main by O. Schräder, _Reallexicon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, s.vv. Jahr, Jahreszeiten, and partly correct those of Weinhold, _Ueber die deutsche Jahrtheilung_ (1862), and Grotefend, _Die Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters_ (1891).

[372] In Scandinavia the winter naturally began earlier and ended later. Throughout, Scandinavian seasons diverged from those of Germany and the British Isles. In particular the high summer feast and the consequent tripartition of the year do not seem to have established themselves (_C. P. B._ i. 430). Further south the period of stall-feeding was extended when a better supply of fodder made it possible (Tille, _Y. and C._ 56, 62; Burne-Jackson, 380).

[373] Cf. ch. xi, where the winter feasts are discussed in more detail.

[374] Grimm, ii. 675, 693, 762, notes the heralds of summer.

[375] Jahn, 34; Mogk, iii. 387; Golther, 572; Schräder-Jevons, 303. The Germans still knew three seasons only when they came into contact with the Romans; cf. Tacitus, _Germ._ 26 ‘annum quoque ipsum non in totidem digerunt species: hiems et ver et aestas intellectum ac vocabula habent, autumni perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur.’ I do not agree with Tille, _Y. and C._ 6, that the tripartition of the year, in this pre-calendar form, was ‘of foreign extraction.’ Schräder shows that it is common to the Aryan languages. The Keltic seasons, in

## particular, seem to be closely parallel to the Teutonic. Of the three

great Keltic feasts described by Rhys, _C. H._ 409, 513, 676; _C. F._ i. 308, the Lugnassad was probably the harvest feast, the Samhain the old beginning of winter feast, and the Beltain the high summer feast. The meaning of ‘Beltain’ (cf. _N. E. D._ s.v. Beltane) seems quite uncertain. A connexion is possible but certainly unproved with the Abelio of the Pyrenean inscriptions, the Belenus-Apollo of those of the eastern Alps, and, more rarely, Provence (Röscher, _Lexicon_, s.v. Belenus; Holder, _Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz_, s.vv. Belenus, Abelio; Ausonius, _Professores_, iv. 7), or the Bel of Bohemia mentioned by Allso (ch. xii). The Semitic Baal, although a cult of Belus, found its way into the Roman world (cf. Appendix N, No. xxxii, and Wissowa, 302), is naturally even a less plausible relation. But it is dear to the folk-etymologist; cf. e.g. S. M. Mayhew, _Baalism_ in _Trans. of St. Paul’s Ecclesiological Society_, i. 83.

[376] Tille, _Y. and C._ 7, 148, suggests an Egyptian or Babylonian origin, but the equation of the Gothic _Jiuleis_ and the Cypriote ἰλαῖος, ἰουλαῖος, ἰουλίηος, ἰούλιος as names for winter periods makes a Mediterranean connexion seem possible.

[377] Cf. ch. xi.

[378] Grimm, ii. 615, notes that Easter fires are normal in the north, Midsummer fires in the south of Germany. The Beltane fires both of Scotland and Ireland are usually on May 1, but some of the Irish examples collected by J. Jamieson, _Etym. Dict. of the Scottish Language_, s. v., are at midsummer.

[379] Tille, _Y. and C._ 71; Rhys, _C. H._ 419. The primitive year was thermometric, not astronomic, its critical moments, not the solstices, a knowledge of which means science, but the sensible increase and diminution of heat in spring and autumn. The solstices came through Rome. The _Sermo Eligii_ (Grimm, iv. 1737) has ‘nullus in festivitate S. Ioannis vel quibuslibet sanctorum solemnitatibus solstitia ... exerceat,’ but Eligius was a seventh-century bishop, and this _Sermo_ may have been interpolated in the eighth century (O. Reich, _Über Audoen’s Lebensbeschreibung des heiligen Eligius_ (1872), cited in _Rev. celtique_, ix. 433). It is not clear that the un-Romanized Teuton or Kelt made a god of the sun, as distinct from the heaven-god, who of course has solar attributes and emblems. In the same _Sermo_ Eligius says ‘nullus dominos solem aut lunam vocet, neque per eos iuret.’ But the notion of ‘domini’ may be post-Roman, and the oath is by the permanent, rather than the divine; cf. A. de Jubainville, _Intr. à l’Étude de la Litt. celt._ 181. It is noticeable that German names for the sun are originally feminine and for the moon masculine.

[380] Mogk, iii. 393; Golther, 584; Jahn, 84; Caspari, 35; Saupe, 7; Hauck, ii. 357; Michels, 93. The ploughing feast is probably the _spurcalia_ of the _Indiculus_ and of Eadhelm, _de laudibus virginitatis_, c. 25, and the _dies spurci_ of the _Hom. de Sacrilegiis_. This term appears in the later German name for February, _Sporkele_. It seems to be founded on Roman analogy from _spurcus_, ‘unclean.’ Pearson, ii. 159, would, however, trace it to an Aryan root _spherag_, ‘swell,’ ‘burst,’ ‘shoot.’ Bede, _de temp. rat._ c. 15, calls February _Sol-monath_, which he explains as ‘mensis placentarum.’ September, the month of the harvest-festival, is _Haleg-monath_, or ‘mensis sacrorum.’

[381] Pfannenschmidt, 244; Brand, ii. 1; Ditchfield, 130; Burne-Jackson, 439; Burton, _Rushbearing_, 147; Schaff, vi. 544; Duchesne, 385. The dedication of churches was solemnly carried out from the fourth century, and the anniversary observed. Gregory the Great ordered ‘solemnitates ecclesiarum dedicationum per singulos annos sunt celebrandae.’ The A.-S. _Canons_ of Edgar (960), c. 28 (Wilkins, i. 227), require them to be kept with sobriety. Originally the anniversary, as well as the actual dedication day, was observed with an all night watch, whence the name _vigilia_, wakes. Belethus, _de rat. offic._ (_P. L._ ccii. 141), c. 137, says that the custom was abolished owing to the immorality to which it led. But the ‘eve’ of these and other feasts continued to share in the sanctity of the ‘day,’ a practice in harmony with the European sense of the precedence of night over day (cf. Schräder-Jevons, 311; Bertrand, 267, 354, 413). An Act of Convocation in 1536 (Wilkins, iii. 823) required all wakes to be held on the first Sunday in October, but it does not appear to have been very effectual.

[382] S. O. Addy, in _F. L._ xii. 394, has a full account of ‘Garland day’ at Castleton, Derbyshire, on May 29; cf. _F. L._ xii. 76 (Wishford, Wilts); Burne-Jackson, 365.

[383] The classification of agricultural feasts in U. Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebräuche_, seems throughout to be based less on the facts of primitive communal agriculture, than on those of the more elaborate methods of the later farms with their variety of crops.

[384] Frazer, i. 193; ii. 96; Brand, i. 125; Dyer, 223; Ditchfield, 95; Philpot, 144; Grimm, ii. 762; &c., &c. A single example of the custom is minutely studied by S. O. Addy, _Garland Day at Castleton_, in _F. L._ xii. 394.

[385] A. B. Gomme, ii. 507; Hartland, _Perseus_, ii. 187; Grimm, iv. 1738, 1747; Gaidoz, _Un vieux rite médical_ (1893).

[386] Tacitus, _Germania_, 40.

[387] Vigfusson and Ungar, _Flateyjarbok_, i. 337; Grimm, i. 107; Gummere, _G. O._ 433; Mogk, iii. 321; Golther, 228.

[388] Sozomenes, _Hist. Eccles._ vi. 37. Cf. also _Indiculus_ (ed. Saupe, 32) ‘de simulacro, quod per campos portant,’ the fifth-century _Vita S. Martini_, c. 12, by Sulpicius Severus (_Opera_, ed. Halm, in _Corp. Script. Eccl. Hist._ i. 122) ‘quia esset haec Gallorum rusticis consuetudo, simulacra daemonum, candido tecta velamine, misera per agros suos circumferre dementia,’ and Alsso’s account of the fifteenth-century _calendisationes_ in Bohemia (ch. xii).

[389] Cf. ch. x.

[390] Cf. _Representations_ (Chester, London, York). There were similar watches at Nottingham (Deering, _Hist. of Nott._ 123), Worcester (Smith, _English Gilds_, 408), Lydd and Bristol (Green, _Town Life in the Fifteenth Century_, i. 148), and on St. Thomas’s day (July 7) at Canterbury (_Arch. Cant._ xii. 34; _Hist. MSS._ ix. 1. 148).

[391] Harris, 7; Hartland, _Fairy Tales_, 71.

[392] Dyer, 205.

[393] Cf. ch. viii.

[394] Dyer, 275; Ditchfield, III; cf. the phrase ‘in and out the windows’ of the singing game _Round and Round the Village_ (A. B. Gomme, s. v.).

[395] M. Deloche, _Le Tour de la Lunade_, in _Rev. celtique_, ix. 425; Bérenger-Féraud, i. 423; iii. 167.

[396] Bower, 13.

[397] Duchesne, 276; Usener, i. 293; Tille, _Y. and C._ 51; W. W. Fowler, 124; Boissier, _La Religion romaine_, i. 323. The Rogations or _litaniae minores_ represent in Italy the Ambarvalia on May 29. But they are of Gallican origin, were begun by Mamertus, bishop of Vienne (†470), adapted by the _Council of Orleans_ (511), c. 27 (Mansi, viii. 355), and required by the English _Council of Clovesho_ (747), c. 16 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 368), to be held ‘non admixtis vanitatibus, uti mos est plurimis, vel negligentibus, vel imperitis, id est in ludis et equorum cursibus, et epulis maioribus.’ Jahn, 147, quotes the German abbess Marcsuith (940), who describes them as ‘pro gentilicio Ambarvali,’ and adds, ‘confido autem de Patroni huius misericordia, quod sic ab eo gyrade terrae semina uberius provenient, et variae aeris inclementiae cessent.’ Mediaeval Rogation litanies are in _Sarum Processional_, 103, and York Processional (_York Manual_, 182). The more strictly Roman _litania major_ on St. Mark’s day (March 25) takes the place of the _Robigalia_, but is not of great importance in English folk-custom.

[398] _Injunctions_, ch. xix, of 1559 (Gee-Hardy, _Docts. illustrative of English Church History_, 426). Thanks are to be given to God ‘for the increase and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth.’ The _Book of Homilies_ contains an exhortation to be used on the occasion. The episcopal injunctions and interrogatories in _Ritual Commission_, 404, 409, 416, &c., endeavour to preserve the Rogations, and to eliminate ‘superstition’ from them; for the development of the notion of ‘beating of bounds,’ cf. the eighteenth-century notices in Dyer, _Old English Social Life_, 196.

[399] The image is represented by the doll of the May-garland, which has sometimes, according to Ditchfield, 102, become the Virgin Mary, with a child doll in its arms, and at other times (e.g. Castleton, _F. L._ xii. 469) has disappeared, leaving the name of ‘queen’ to a

## particular bunch of flowers; also by the ‘giant’ of the midsummer

watch. The Salisbury giant, St. Christopher, with his hobby-horse, Hob-nob, is described in _Rev. d. T. P._ iv. 601.

[400] Grimm, i. 257; Golther, 463; Mogk, iii. 374; Hahn, _Demeter und Baubo_, 38; Usener, _Die Sintfluthsagen_, 115. There are parallels in south European custom, both classical and modern, and Usener even derives the term ‘carnival,’ not from _carnem levare_, but from the _currus navalis_ used by Roman women. A modern survival at Fréjus is described in _F. L._ xii. 307.

[401] Ditchfield, 103; _Transactions of Devonshire Association_, xv. 104; cf. the Noah’s ship procession at Hull (_Representations_, s. v.).

[402] Brand, ii. 223; Grimm, ii. 584; Elton, 284; Gomme, _Ethnology_, 73; Hartland, _Perseus_, ii. 175; Haddon, 362; Vaux, 269; Wood-Martin, ii. 46; Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 291; R. C. Hope, _Holy Wells_; M.-L. Quiller-Couch, _Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall_ (1894); J. Rhys, _C. F._ i. 332, 354, and in _F. L._ iii. 74, iv. 55; A. W. Moore, in _F. L._ v. 212; H. C. March, in _F. L._ x. 479 (Dorset).

[403] A. B. Gomme, s. v.; Haddon, 362.

[404] Schaff, iii. 247; Duchesne, 281, 385; Rock, iii. 2. 101, 180; Maskell, i. cccxi; Feasey, 235; Wordsworth, 24; Pfannenschmidt, _Das Weihwasser im heidnischen und christlichen Cultus_ (1869). The _Benedictio Fontium_ took place on Easter Saturday, in preparation for the baptism which in the earliest times was a characteristic Easter rite. The formulae are in _York Missal_, i. 121; _Sarum Missal_, 350; Maskell, i. 13.

[405] Frazer, iii. 237; Gomme, in _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896), 626; Simpson, 195; Grenier, 380; Gaidoz, 16; Bertrand, 98; Gummere, _G. O._ 400; Grimm, ii. 601; Jahn, 25; Brand, i. 127, 166; Dyer, 269, 311, 332; Ditchfield, 141; Cortet, 211.

[406] To this custom may possibly be traced the black-a-vised figures who are persistent in the folk _ludi_, and also the curious tradition which makes May-day especially the chimney-sweeps’ holiday.

[407] The reasons given are various, ‘to keep off hail’ (whence the term _Hagelfeuer_ mentioned by Pfannenschmidt, 67), ‘vermin,’ ‘caterpillars,’ ‘blight,’ ‘to make the fields fertile.’ In Bavaria torches are carried round the fields ‘to drive away the wicked sower’ (of tares?). In Northumberland raids are made on the ashes of neighbouring villages (Dyer, 332).

[408] Cf. p. 113.

[409] I know of no English Easter folk-fires, but St. Patrick is said to have lit one on the hill of Slane, opposite Tara, on Easter Eve, 433 (Feasey, 180).

[410] Schaff, v. 403; Duchesne, 240; Rock, iii. 2. 71, 94, 98, 107, 244; Feasey, 184; Wordsworth, 204; Frazer, iii. 245; Jahn, 129; Grimm, ii. 616; Simpson, 198. The formulae of the _benedictio ignis_ and _benedictio cereorum_ at Candlemas, and the _benedictio ignis_, _benedictio incensi_, and _benedictio cerei_ on Easter Eve, are in _Sarum Missal_, 334, 697; _York Missal_, i. 109; ii. 17. One York MS. has ‘Paschae ignis de berillo vel de silice exceptus ... accenditur.’ The correspondence between Pope Zacharias and St. Boniface shows that the lighting of the _ignis_ by a crystal instead of from a lamp kept secretly burning distinguished Gallican from Roman ceremonial in the eighth century (Jaffé, 2291). All the lights in the church are previously put out, and this itself has become a ceremony in the _Tenebrae_. Ecclesiastical symbolism explained the extinction and rekindling of lights as typifying the Resurrection. Sometimes the _ignis_ provides a light for the folk-fire outside.

[411] Belethus (†1162), _de Div. Offic._ c. 137 (_P. L._ ccii. 141), gives three customs of St. John’s Eve. Bones are burnt, because (1) there are dragons in air, earth, and water, and when these ‘in aere ad libidinem concitantur, quod fere fit, saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos vel in aquas fluviales eiiciunt, ex quo lethalis sequitur annus,’ but the smoke of the bonfires drives them away; and (2) because St. John’s bones were burnt in Sebasta. Torches are carried, because St. John was a shining light. A wheel is rolled, because of the solstice, which is made appropriate to St. John by _St. John_ iii. 30. The account of Belethus is amplified by Durandus, _Rationale Div. Offic._ (ed. corr. Antwerp, 1614) vii. 14, and taken in turn from Durandus by a fifteenth-century monk of Winchelscombe in a sermon preserved in _Harl. MS._ 2345, f. 49 (b).

[412] Gaidoz, 24, 109; Bertrand, 122; Dyer, 323; Stubbes, i. 339, from Naogeorgos; Usener, ii. 81; and the mediaeval calendar in Brand, i. 179.

[413] Gomme, in _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896), 636 (Moray, Mull); _F. L._ ix. 280 (Caithness, with illustration of wood used); Kemble, i. 360 (Perthshire in 1826, Devonshire).

[414] Grimm, ii. 603; Kemble, i. 359; Elton, 293; Frazer, iii. 301; Gaidoz, 22; Jahn, 26; Simpson, 196; Bertrand, 107; Golther, 570. The English term is _need-fire_, Scotch _neidfyre_, German _Nothfeuer_. It is variously derived from _nôt_ ‘need,’ _niuwan_ ‘rub,’ or _hniotan_ ‘press.’ If the last is right, the English form should perhaps be _knead-fire_ (Grimm, ii. 607, 609; Golther, 570). Another German term is _Wildfeuer_. The Gaelic _tin-egin_ is from _tin_ ‘fire,’ and _egin_ ‘violence’ (Grimm, ii. 609). For ecclesiastical prohibitions cf. _Indiculus_ (Saupe, 20) ‘de igne fricato de ligno, i. e. _nodfyr_’; _Capit. Karlmanni_ (742), c. 5 (Grimm, ii. 604) ‘illos sacrilegos ignes quos _niedfyr_ vocant.’

[415] Gaidoz, 1; Bertrand, 109, 140; Simpson, 109, 240; Rhys, _C. H._ 54. The commonest form of the symbol is the swastika, but others appear to be found in the ‘hammer’ of Thor, and on the altars and statues of a Gaulish deity equated in the _interpretatio Romana_ with Jupiter. There is a wheel decoration on the _barelle_ or cars of the Gubbio _ceri_ (Bower, 4).

[416] Brand, i. 97; Dyer, 159; Ditchfield, 78. Eggs are used ceremonially at the Scotch Beltane fires (Frazer, iii. 261; Simpson, 285). Strings of birds’ eggs are hung on the Lynn May garland (_F. L._ x. 443). In Dauphiné an omelette is made when the sun rises on St. John’s day (Cortet, 217). In Germany children are sent to look for the Easter eggs in the nest of a hare, a very divine animal. Among the miscellaneous Benedictions in the _Sarum Manual_, with the _Ben. Seminis_ and the _Ben. Pomorum in die S^{ti} Iacobi_ are a _Ben. Carnis Casei Butyri Ovorum sive Pastillarum in Pascha_ and a _Ben. Agni Paschalis, Ovorum et Herbarum in die Paschae_. These Benedictions are little more than graces. The _Durham Accounts_, i. 71-174, contain entries of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century payments ‘fratribus et sororibus de Wytton pro eorum Egsilver erga festum pasche.’

[417] _Tw. N._ i. 3. 42 ‘He’s a coward and a coystrill, that will not drink to my niece till his brains turn o’ the toe like a parish-top.’ Steevens says ‘a large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipt in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise and out of mischief while they could not work.’ This is evidently a ‘fake’ of the ‘Puck of commentators.’ Hone, _E. D. B._ i. 199, says ‘According to a story (whether true or false), in one of the churches of Paris, a choir boy used to whip a top marked with _Alleluia_, written in gold letters, from one end of the choir to the other.’ The ‘burial of Alleluia’ is shown later on to be a mediaeval perversion of an agricultural rite. On the whole question of tops, see Haddon, 255; A. B. Gomme, s. v.

[418] Leber, ix. 391; Barthélemy, iv. 447; Du Tilliot, 30; Grenier, 385; Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 427; Belethus, c. 120 ‘Sunt nonnullae ecclesiae in quibus usitatum est, ut vel etiam episcopi et archiepiscopi in coenobiis cum suis ludant subditis, ita ut etiam se ad lusum pilae demittant. atque haec quidem libertas ideo dicta est decembrica ... quamquam vero magnae ecclesiae, ut est Remensis, hanc ludendi consuetudinem observent, videtur tamen laudabilius esse non ludere’; Durandus, vi. 86 ‘In quibusdam locis hac die, in aliis in Natali, praelati cum suis clericis ludunt, vel in claustris, vel in domibus episcopalibus; ita ut etiam descendant ad ludum pilae, vel etiam ad choreas et cantus, &c.’ Often the ball play was outside the church, but the canons of Evreux on their return from the _procession noire_ of May 1, played ‘ad quillas super voltas ecclesiae’; and the Easter _pilota_ of Auxerre which lasted to 1538, took place in the nave before vespers. Full accounts of this ceremony have been preserved. The dean and canons danced and tossed the ball, singing the _Victimae paschali_. For examples of Easter hand-ball or marbles in English folk-custom, cf. Brand, i. 103; Vaux, 240; _F. L._ xii. 75; Mrs. Gomme, s. v. _Handball_.

[419] Brand, i. 93; Burne-Jackson, 335. A Norfolk version (_F. L._ vii. 90) has ‘dances as if in agony.’ On the Mendips (_F. L._ v. 339) what is expected is ‘a lamb in the sun.’ The moon, and perhaps the sun also, is sometimes ‘wobbly,’ ‘jumping’ or ‘skipping,’ owing to the presence of strata of air differing in humidity or temperature, and so changing the index of refraction (Nicholson, _Golspie_, 186). At Pontesford Hill in Shropshire (Burne-Jackson, 330) the pilgrimage was on Palm Sunday, actually to pluck a sprig from a haunted yew, traditionally ‘to look for the golden arrow,’ which must be solar. In the Isle of Man hills, on which are sacred wells, are visited on the Lugnassad, to gather ling-berries. Others say that it is because of Jephthah’s daughter, who went up and down on the mountains and bewailed her virginity. And the old folk now stop at home and read _Judges_ xi (Rhys, _C. F._ i. 312). On the place of hill-tops in agricultural religion cf. p. 106, and for the use of elevated spots for sun-worship at Rome, ch. xi.

[420] Simpson, _passim_; cf. _F. L._ vi. 168; xi. 220. _Deasil_ is from Gaelic _deas_, ‘right,’ ‘south.’ Mediaeval ecclesiastical processions went ‘contra solis cursum et morem ecclesiasticum’ only in seasons of woe or sadness (Rock, iii. 2. 182).

[421] Dr. Murray kindly informs me that the etymology of _withershins_ (A.-S. _wiþersynes_) is uncertain. It is from _wiþer_, ‘against,’ and either some lost noun, or one derived from _séon_, ‘to see,’ or _sinþ_, ‘course.’ The original sense is simply ‘backwards,’ and the equivalence with _deasil_ not earlier than the seventeenth century. A folk-etymology from _shine_ may account for the aspirate.

[422] Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 196; Jevons, 130; Frazer, ii. 352; Grant Allen, 318; Hartland, ii. 236; Turnbull, _The Blood Covenant_. Perhaps, as a third type of sacrifice, should be distinguished the ‘alimentary’ sacrifice of food and other things made to the dead. This rests on the belief in the continuance of the mortal life with its needs and desires after death.

[423] Grimm, i. 47; Golther, 565; Gummere, _G. O._ 40, 457. Gregory III wrote (†731) to Boniface (_P. L._ lxxxix. 577) ‘inter cetera agrestem caballum aliquantos comedere adiunxisti plerosque et domesticum. hoc nequaquam fieri deinceps sinas,’ cf. _Councils of Cealcythe and Pincanhale_ (787), c. 19 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 458) ‘equos etiam plerique in vobis comedunt, quod nullus Christianorum in Orientalibus facit.’ The decking of horses is a familiar feature of May-day in London and elsewhere.

[424] C. J. Billson, _The Easter Hare_, in _F. L._ iii. 441.

[425] N. W. Thomas in _F. L._ xi. 227.

[426] Grimm, i. 55; Golther, 559, 575; Gummere, _G. O._ 456. The universal Teutonic term for sacrificing is _blôtan_.

[427] Frazer, _Pausanias_, iii. 20; Jevons, 130, 191. Does the modern huntsman know why he ‘bloods’ a novice?

[428] Grimm, i. 47, 57, 77; Jahn, 24; Gummere, _G. O._ 459. Hence the theriomorphic ‘image.’

[429] Robertson Smith, 414, 448; Jevons, 102, 285; Frazer, ii. 448; Lang, _M. R. R._^1 ii. 73, 80, 106, 214, 226; Grant Allen, 335; Du Méril, _Com._ i. 75. Hence the theriomorphic _larva_ or mask (Frazer, _Pausanias_, iv. 239).

[430] Grimm, i. 46, 57; Golther, 576; Frazer, ii. 318, 353; Jevons, 144; Grant Allen, 325. Savages believe that by eating an animal they will acquire its bodily and mental qualities.

[431] Jahn, 14, and for classical parallels Frazer, ii. 315; _Pausanias_, iii. 288; Jevons, _Plutarch_, lxix. 143. Grant Allen, 292, was told as a boy in Normandy that at certain lustrations ‘a portion of the Host (stolen or concealed, I imagine) was sometimes buried in each field.’

[432] Frazer, ii. 318; Grant Allen, 337; Jevons, 206.

[433] _F. L._ vi. 1.

[434] Frazer, ii. 319; Jevons, 214; cf. the πάνσπερμα at the Athenian Pyanepsia.

[435] In the Beltane rite (_F. L._ vi. 2) a bit of the bannock is reserved for the ‘cuack’ or cuckoo, here doubtless the inheritor of the gods.

[436] Grimm, iii. 1240.

[437] Elton, 428.

[438] Grimm, i. 59; Gummere, _G. O._ 455.

[439] V. Hehn, _Culturpflanzen_, 438.

[440] Grimm, i. 44, 48, 53; Golther, 561; Gummere, _G. O._ 459; Schräder, 422; Mogk, iii. 388; Meyer, 199, and for Keltic evidence Elton, 270. Many of these examples belong rather to the war than to the agricultural cult. The latest in the west are _Capit. de partib. Saxon._ 9 ‘Si quis hominem diabolo sacrificaverit et in hostiam, more paganorum, daemonibus obtulerit’; _Lex Frisionum_, additio sup. tit. 42 ‘qui fanum effregerit ... immolatur diis, quorum templa violavit’; _Epist. Greg. III_, 1 (_P. L._ lxxxix, 578) ‘hoc quoque inter alia crimina agi in partibus illis dixisti, quod quidam ex fidelibus ad immolandum paganis sua venundent mancipia.’

[441] Frazer, ii. 1; Jevons, 279.

[442] Frazer, ii. 5, 59.

[443] Strabo, iv. 5. 4; Bastian, _Oestl. Asien_, v. 272. The Mexican evidence given by Frazer, iii. 134, does not necessarily represent a primitive notion of the nature of the rite.

[444] Jevons, 291; _Plutarch_, lxx. For traces of the blood-guiltiness incurred by sacrifice, cf. the βουφόνια at Athens and the _regifugium_ at Rome (Frazer, ii. 294; Robertson Smith, i. 286).

[445] Frazer, ii. 15, 55, 232; Jevons, 280; Grant Allen, 242, 296, 329.

[446] In three successive years of famine the Swedes sacrificed first oxen, then men, finally their king Dômaldi himself (_Ynglingasaga_, c. 18).

[447] Frazer, ii. 24; Jevons, 280; Grant Allen, 296.

[448] The British rule in India forbids human sacrifice, and the Khonds, a Dravidian race of Bengal, have substituted animal for human victims within the memory of man (Frazer, ii. 245).

[449] Hartland, iii. 1; Frazer, _Pausanias_, iv. 197; v. 44, 143; Bérenger-Féraud, i. 207. Mr. Frazer enumerates forty-one versions of the legend.

[450] Hartland, iii. 81; Grimm, ii. 494; Gummere, _G. O._ 396. The slaves of Nerthus were drowned in the same lake in which the goddess was dipped.

[451] _F. L._ vi. i.

[452] Frazer, iii. 319; Gaidoz, 27; Cortet, 213; Simpson, 221; Bertrand, 68; _F. L._ xii. 315. The work of Posidonius does not exist, but was possibly used by Caesar, _B. G._ vi. 15; Strabo, iv. 4. 5; Diodorus, v. 32. Wicker ‘giants’ are still burnt in some French festival-fires. But elsewhere, as in the midsummer shows, such ‘giants’ seem to be images of the agricultural divinities, and it is not clear by what process they came to be burnt and so destroyed. Perhaps they were originally only smoked, just as they were dipped.

[453] Gomme, _Ethnology_, 137; _F. L._ ii. 300; x. 101; xii. 217; Vaux, 287; Rhys, _C. F._ i. 306.

[454] _F. L._ ii. 302; Rhys, _C. F._ i. 307. In 1656, bulls were sacrificed near Dingwall (_F. L._ x. 353). A few additional examples, beyond those here given, are mentioned by N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 247.

[455] 1 _N. Q._ vii. 353; Gomme, _Ethnology_, 32; _Village Community_, 113; Grant Allen, 290. The custom was extinct when it was first described in 1853, and some doubt has recently been thrown upon the ‘altar,’ the ‘struggle’ and other details; cf. _Trans. of Devonshire Assn._ xxviii. 99; _F. L._ viii. 287.

[456] 1 _N. Q._ vii. 353; Gomme, _Ethnology_, 30; Vaux, 285.

[457] Blount, _Jocular Tenures_ (ed. Beckwith), 281; Dyer, 297.

[458] Dunkin, _Hist. of Bicester_ (1816), 268; P. Manning, in _F. L._ viii. 313.

[459] P. Manning, in _F. L._ viii. 310; Dyer, 282.

[460] N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 227; Dyer, 285, 438, 470; Ditchfield, 85, 131.

[461] Certain lands were held of the chapter for which a fat buck was paid on the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and a fat doe on the Commemoration of St. Paul (June 30). They were offered, according to one writer, alive, at the high altar; the flesh was baked, the head and horns carried in festal procession. The custom dated from at least 1274 (Dyer, 49; W. Sparrow Simpson, _St. Paul’s Cath. and Old City Life_, 234).

[462] _F. L._ iv. 9; x. 355. White bulls are said to have been led to the shrine by women desirous of children. F. C. Conybeare, in _R. de l’Hist. des Religions_, xliv. 108, describes some survivals of sacrificial rites in the Armenian church which existed primitively in other Greek churches also.

[463] _F. L._ vii. 346. Bull-baiting often took place on festivals, and in several cases, as at Tutbury, the bull was driven into or over a river. Bear-baiting is possibly a later variant of the sport.

[464] Burton, 165; _Suffolk F. L._ 71; Ditchfield, 227; Dyer, 387; Pfannenschmidt, 279; cf. the Abbots Bromley Horn-dance (ch. viii).

[465] _F. L._ iv. 5. The custom of sacrifice at the foundation of a new building has also left traces: cf. Grant Allen, 248; _F. L._ xi. 322, 437; Speth, _Builders’ Rites and Ceremonies_.

[466] Douce, 598, gives a cut of a hobby-horse, i. e. a man riding a pasteboard or wicker horse with his legs concealed beneath a foot-cloth. According to Du Méril, _Com._ i. 79, 421, the device is known throughout Europe. In France it is the _chevalet_, _cheval-mallet_, _cheval-fol_, &c.; in Germany the _Schimmel_.

[467] Dyer, 182, 266, 271; Ditchfield, 97; Burton, 40; _F. L._ viii. 309, 313, 317; cf. ch. ix on the ‘fool’ or ‘squire’ in the sword and morris dances, and ch. xvi on his court and literary congener. The folk-fool wears a cow’s tail or fox’s brush, or carries a stick with a tail at one end and a bladder and peas at the other. He often wears a mask or has his face blacked. In Lancashire he is sometimes merged with the ‘woman’ grotesque of the folk-festivals, and called ‘owd Bet.’

[468] W. Gregor, _F. L. of N. E. Scotland_, 181, says that bread and cheese were actually laid in the field, and in the plough when it was ‘strykit.’

[469] Dyer, 20, 207, 447; Ditchfield, 46; _F. L._ vi. 93. Pirminius v. Reichenau, _Dicta_ (†753), c. 22, forbids ‘effundere super truncum frugem et vinum.’

[470] _F. L. Congress_, 449, gives a list of about fifty ‘feasten’ cakes. Some are quite local; others, from the Shrove Tuesday pancake to the Good Friday hot cross bun, widespread.

[471] Grimm, i. 57; Frazer, ii. 344; Grant Allen, 339; Jevons, 215; Dyer, 165; Ditchfield, 81.

[472] _F. L._ vi. 57; viii. 354; ix. 362; x. 111.

[473] _F. L._ vi. 1.

[474] Ditchfield, 116, 227; _Suffolk F. L._ 108; Dyer, _Old English Social Life_, 197. The boys are now said to be whipped in order that they may remember the boundaries; but the custom, which sometimes includes burying them, closely resembles the symbolical sacrifices of the harvest field (p. 158). Grant Allen, 270, suggests that the tears shed are a rain-charm. I hope he is joking.

[475] Brand, ii. 13; _Suffolk F. L._ 69, 71; _Leicester F. L._ 121. A ‘harvest-lord’ is probably meant by the ‘Rex Autumnalis’ mentioned in the _Accounts_ of St. Michael’s, Bath (ed. Somerset Arch. Soc. 88), in 1487, 1490, and 1492. A _corona_ was hired by him from the parish. Often the reaper who cuts the last sheaf (i.e. slays the divinity) becomes harvest-lord.

[476] Gomme, _Village Community_, 107; Dyer, 339; Northall, 202; _Gloucester F. L._ 33.

[477] Frazer, i. 216; E. Pabst, _Die Volksfeste des Maigrafen_ (1865).

[478] Frazer, i. 219; Cortet, 160; Brand, i. 126; Dyer, 266; Ditchfield, 98.

[479] Tacitus, _Germ._ c. 43 ‘apud Nahanarvalos antiquae religionis lucus ostenditur. praesidet sacerdos muliebri ornatu.’

[480] _Conc. of Trullo_ (692), c. 62 (Mansi, xi. 671) ‘Nullus vir deinceps muliebri veste induatur, vel mulier veste viro conveniente’; _Conc. of Braga_ (of doubtful date), c. 80 (Mansi, ix. 844) ‘Si quis ballationes ante ecclesias sanctorum fecerit, seu quis faciem suam transformaverit in habitu muliebri et mulier in habitu viri emendatione pollicita tres annos poeniteat.’ The exchange of head-gear between men and women remains a familiar feature of the modern bank-holiday. Some Greek parallels are collected by Frazer, _Pausanias_, iii. 197. E. Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_ (1902), viii. 371, suggests another explanation, which would connect the custom with the amorous side of the primitive festivals.

[481] Frazer, ii. 93, 109.

[482] Ibid. i. 220; Brand, i. 157; Dyer, 217; Ditchfield, 97; Kelly, 62: cf. ch. viii.

[483] Pearson, ii. 24, 407. Cf. the evidence for a primitive human pairing-season in Westermarck, 25.

[484] Purity of life is sometimes required of those who are to kindle the new fire (Frazer, iii. 260, 302).

[485] H. Spencer, _Principles of Psychology_, ii. 629; K. Groos, _Play of Man_, 361; Hirn, 25.

[486] Gummere, _G. O._ 331.

[487] Frazer, i. 217; iii. 258.

[488] Chaucer says of the Miller (_C. T._ prol. 548):

‘At wrastlynge he wolde have alwey the ram’;

and of Sir Thopas (_C. T._ 13670):

‘Of wrastlynge was ther noon his peer, Ther any ram shal stonde.’

Strutt, 82, figures a wrestling from _Royal MS._ 2, B. viii, with a cock set on a pole as the prize.

[489] Cf. Appendix I., and Frazer, ii. 316; Jevons, _Plutarch_, lxix. 143, on the struggle between two wards--the Sacred Way and the Subura--for the head of the October Horse at Rome.

[490] Haddon, 270. The tug-of-war reappears in Korea and Japan as a ceremony intended to secure a good harvest.

[491] Mrs. Gomme, s. vv. _Bandyball_, _Camp_, _Football_, _Hockey_, _Hood_, _Hurling_, _Shinty_. These games, in which the ball is fought for, are distinct from those already mentioned as having a ceremonial use, in which it is amicably tossed from player to player (cf. p. 128). If _Golf_ belongs to the present category, it is a case in which the endeavour seems to be actually to bury the ball. It is tempting to compare the name _Hockey_ with the _Hock-cart_ of the harvest festival, and with _Hock-tide_; but it does not really seem to be anything but _Hookey_. The original of both the hockey-stick and the golf-club was probably the shepherd’s crook. Mr. Pepys tried to cast stones with a shepherd’s crook on those very Epsom downs where the stockbroker now foozles his tee shot.

[492] _F. L._ vii. 345; M. Shearman, _Athletics and Football_, 246; Haddon, 271; Gomme, _Vill. Comm._ 240; Ditchfield, 57, 64; W. Fitzstephen, _Vita S. Thomae_ (†1170-82) in _Mat. for Hist. of Becket_ (R. S.), iii. 9, speaks of the ‘lusum pilae celebrem’ in London ‘die quae dicitur Carnilevaria.’ Riley, 571, has a London proclamation of 1409 forbidding the levy of money for ‘foteballe’ and cok-thresshyng.’ At Chester the annual Shrove Tuesday football on the Roodee was commuted for races in 1540 (_Hist. MSS._ viii. 1. 362). At Dublin there was, in 1569, a Shrove Tuesday ‘riding’ of the ‘occupacions’ each ‘bearing balles’ (Gilbert, ii. 54).

[493] Haddon, _loc. cit._; Gomme, _loc. cit._; _Gloucester F. L._ 38. Cf. the _conflictus_ described in ch. ix, and the classical parallels in Frazer, _Pausanias_, iii. 267.

[494] _F. L._ iii. 441; Ditchfield, 85.

[495] _F. L._ vii. 330 (a very full account); viii. 72, 173; Ditchfield, 50. There is a local aetiological myth about a lady who lost her hood on a windy day, and instituted the contest in memory of the event.

[496] Mrs. Gomme, s. v. _Oranges and Lemons_.

[497] Mrs. Gomme, s. vv.

[498] Dyer, 6, 481. ‘Stang’ is a word, of Scandinavian origin, for ‘pole’ or ‘stake.’ The Scandinavian _nið-stöng_ (scorn-stake) was a horse’s head on a pole, with a written curse and a likeness of the man to be ill-wished (Vigfusson, _Icel. Dict._ s. v. _níð_).

[499] Cf. with Mr. Barrett’s account, Northall, 253; Ditchfield, 178; _Northern F. L._ 29; Julleville, _Les Com._ 205; also Thomas Hardy’s _Mayor of Casterbridge_, and his _The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s_ (_Wessex Poems_, 201). The penalty is used by schoolboys (_Northern F. L._ 29) as well as villagers.

[500] Grenier, 375; Ducange, s. v. _Charivarium_, which he defines as ‘ludus turpis tinnitibus et clamoribus variis, quibus illudunt iis, qui ad secundas convolant nuptias.’ He refers to the statutes of Melun cathedral (1365) in _Instrumenta Hist. Eccl. Melud._ ii. 503. Cf. _Conc. of Langres_ (1404) ‘ludo quod dicitur Chareuari, in quo utuntur larvis in figura daemonum, et horrenda ibidem committuntur’; _Conc. of Angers_ (1448), c. 12 (Labbé, xiii. 1358) ‘pulsatione patellarum, pelvium et campanarum, eorum oris et manibus sibilatione, instrumento aeruginariorum, sive fabricantium, et aliarum rerum sonorosarum, vociferationibus tumultuosis et aliis ludibriis et irrisionibus, in illo damnabili actu (qui cariuarium, vulgariter _charivari_, nuncupatur) circa domos nubentium, et in ipsorum detestationem et opprobrium post eorum secundas nuptias fieri consuetum, &c.’

[501] Cf. ch. xvi, and Leber, ix. 148, 169; Julleville, _Les Com._ 205, 243. In 1579 a regular _jeu_ was made by the Dijon _Mère-Folle_ of the _chevauchée_ of one M. Du Tillet. The text is preserved in _Bibl. Nat. MS._ 24039 and analysed by M. Petit de Julleville.

[502] In Berks a draped horse’s head is carried, and the proceeding known as a Hooset Hunt (Ditchfield, 178).

[503] Ducange, s. v. _Asini caudam in manu tenens_.

[504] Julleville, _Les Com._ 207.

[505] So on Ilchester Meads, where the proceeding is known as Mommets or Mommicks (Barrett, 65).

[506] On Hock-tide and the Hock-play generally see Brand-Ellis, i. 107; Strutt, 349; Sharpe, 125; Dyer, 188; S. Denne, _Memoir on Hokeday_ in _Archaeologia_, vii. 244.

[507] Cf. Appendix H. An allusion to the play by Sir R. Morrison (†1542) is quoted in chap. xxv.

[508] Laneham, or his informant, actually said, in error, 1012. On the historical event see Ramsay, i. 353.

[509] There were performers both on horse and on foot. Probably hobby-horses were used, for Jonson brings in Captain Cox ‘in his Hobby-horse,’ which was ‘foaled in Queen Elizabeth’s time’ in the _Masque of Owls_ (ed. Cunningham, iii. 188).

[510] Cf. _Representations_, s. v. Coventry.

[511] Rossius, _Hist. Regum Angliae_ (ed. Hearne, 1716), 105 ‘in cuius signum usque hodie illa die vulgariter dicta Hox Tuisday ludunt in villis trahendo cordas partialiter cum aliis iocis.’ Rous, who died 1491, is speaking of the death of Hardicanute. On the event see Ramsay, i. 434. Possibly both events were celebrated in the sixteenth century at Coventry. Two of the three plays proposed for municipal performance in 1591 were the ‘Conquest of the Danes’ and the ‘History of Edward the Confessor.’ These were to be upon the ‘pagens,’ and probably they were more regular dramas than the performance witnessed by Elizabeth in 1575 (_Representations_, s. v. Coventry).

[512] Leland, _Collectanea_ (ed. Hearne), v. 298 ‘uno certo die heu usitato (_forsan_ Hoc vocitato) hoc solempni festo paschatis transacto, mulieres homines, alioque die homines mulieres ligare, ac cetera media utinam non inhonesta vel deteriora facere moliantur et exercere, lucrum ecclesiae fingentes, set dampnum animae sub fucato colore lucrantes, &c.’ Riley, 561, 571, gives London proclamations against ‘hokkyng’ of 1405 and 1409.

[513] Brand-Ellis, i. 113; Lysons, _Environs of London_, i. 229; C. Kerry, _Accts. of St. Lawrence, Reading_; Hobhouse, 232; _N. E. D._ s. vv. _Hock_, &c.

[514] Owen and Blakeway, _Hist. of Shrewsbury_, i. 559.

[515] Dyer, 191; Ditchfield, 90.

[516] _N. E. D._ s. v. _Hock-day_.

[517] Brand-Ellis, i. 106.

[518] Ibid. i. 109.

[519] Ducange, s. v. _Prisio_; Barthélemy, iv. 463. On Innocents’ Day, the customs of taking in bed and whipping were united (cf. ch. xii).

[520] _Northern F. L._ 84; Brand-Ellis, i. 94, 96; Vaux, 242; Ditchfield, 80; Dyer, 133.

[521] Brand-Ellis, i. 106; Owen and Blakeway, i. 559; Dyer, 173; Ditchfield, 90; Burne-Jackson, 336; _Northern F. L._ 84; Vaux, 242. A dignified H. M. I. is said to have made his first official visit to Warrington on Easter Monday, and to have suffered accordingly. Miss Burne describes sprinkling as an element in Shropshire heaving.

[522] Belethus, c. 120 ‘notandum quoque est in plerisque regionibus secundo die post Pascha mulieres maritos suos verberare ac vicissim viros eas tertio die.’ The spiritually minded Belethus explains the custom as a warning to keep from carnal intercourse.

[523] Dyer, 79; Ditchfield, 83.

[524] Brand-Ellis, i. 114; Ditchfield, 252. Mr. W. Crooke has just studied this and analogous customs in _The Lifting of the Bride_ (_F. L._ xiii. 226).

[525] _Suffolk F. L._ 69; _F. L._ v. 167. The use of _largess_, a Norman-French word (_largitio_), is curious. It is also used for the subscriptions to Lancashire gyst-ales (Dyer, 182).

[526] Ditchfield, 155.

[527] Frazer, ii. 233; Pfannenschmidt, 93.

[528] Haddon, 335; Grosse, 167; Herbert Spencer in _Contemp. Review_ (1895), 114; Groos, _Play of Man_, 88, 354. Evidence for the wide use of the dance at savage festivals is given by Wallaschek, 163, 187.

[529] Grimm, i. 39; Pearson, ii. 133; Müllenhoff, _Germania_, ch. 24, and _de antiq. Germ. poesi chorica_, 4; Kögel, i. 1. 8. The primitive word form should have been _laikaz_, whence Gothic _laiks_, O. N. _leikr_, O. H. G. _leih_, A.-S. _lâc_. The word has, says Müllenhoff, all the senses ‘_Spiel, Tanz, Gesang, Opfer, Aufzug_.’ From the same root come probably _ludus_, and possibly, through the Celtic, the O. F. _lai_. The A.-S. _lâc_ is glossed _ludus_, _sacrificium_, _victima_, _munus_. It occurs in the compounds _ecga-gelâc_ and _sveorða-gelâc_, both meaning ‘sword-dance,’ _sige-lâc_, ‘victory-dance,’ _as-lâc_, ‘god-dance,’ _wine-lâc_, ‘love-dance’ (cf. p. 170), &c. An A.-S. synonym for _lâc_ is _plega_, ‘play,’ which gives _sweord-plega_ and _ecg-plega_. _Spil_ is not A.-S. and _spilian_ is a loan-word from O. H. G.

[530] Gummere, _B. P._ 328; Kögel, i. 1. 6.

[531] S. Ambrose, _de Elia et Ieiunio_, c. 18 (_P. L._ xiv. 720), _de Poenitentia_, ii. 6 (_P. L._ xvi. 508); S. Augustine, _contra Parmenianum_, iii. 6 (_P. L._ xliii. 107); S. Chrysostom, _Hom._ 47 _in Iulian. mart._ p. 613; _Hom._ 23 _de Novilun._ p. 264; _C. of Laodicea_ (†366), c. 53 (Mansi, ii. 571). Cf. _D. C. A._ s. v. Dancing, and ch. i. Barthélemy, ii. 438, and other writers have some rather doubtful theories as to liturgical dancing in early Christian worship; cf. Julian. _Dict. of Hymn._ 206.

[532] Du Méril, _Com._ 67; Pearson, ii. 17, 281; Gröber, ii. 1. 444; Kögel, i. 1. 25; _Indiculus Superstitionum_ (ed. Saupe), 10 ‘de sacrilegiis per ecclesias.’ Amongst the prohibitions are Caesarius of Arles (†542), _Sermo_ xiii. (_P. L._ xxxix. 2325) ‘quam multi rustici et quam multae mulieres rusticanae cantica diabolica, amatoria et turpia memoriter retinent et ore decantant’; _Const. Childeberti_ (c. 554) _de abol. relig. idololatriae_ (Mansi, ix. 738) ‘noctes pervigiles cum ebrietate, scurrilitate, vel canticis, etiam in ipsis sacris diebus, pascha, natale Domini, et reliquis festivitatibus, vel adveniente die Dominico dansatrices per villas ambulare ... nullatenus fieri permittimus’; _C. of Auxerre_ (573-603), c. 9 (Maassen, i. 180) ‘non licet in ecclesia choros secularium vel puellarum cantica exercere nec convivia in ecclesia praeparare’; _C. of Chalons_ (639-54), c. 19 (Maassen, i. 212) ‘Valde omnibus noscetur esse decretum, ne per dedicationes basilicarum aut festivitates martyrum ad ipsa solemnia confluentes obscoena et turpia cantica, dum orare debent aut clericos psallentes audire, cum choris foemineis, turpia quidem decantare videantur. unde convenit, ut sacerdotes loci illos a septa basilicarum vel porticus ipsarum basilicarum etiam et ab ipsis atriis vetare debeant et arcere.’ _Sermo Eligii_ (Grimm, iv. 1737) ‘nullus in festivitate S. Ioannis vel quibuslibet sanctorum solemnitatibus solstitia aut vallationes vel saltationes aut caraulas aut cantica diabolica exerceat’; _Iudicium Clementis_ (†693), c. 20 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 226) ‘si quis in quacunque festivitate ad ecclesiam veniens pallat foris, aut saltat, aut cantat orationes amatorias ... excommunicetur’ (apparently a fragment of a penitential composed by Clement or Willibrord, an A.-S. missionary to Frisia, on whom see Bede, _H. E._ v. 9, and the only dance prohibition of possible A.-S. _provenance_ of which I know); _Statuta Salisburensia_ (Salzburg: †800; Boretius, i. 229) ‘Ut omnis populus ... absque inlecebroso canticu et lusu saeculari cum laetaniis procedant’; _C. of Mainz_ (813), c. 48 (Mansi, xiv. 74) ‘canticum turpe atque luxuriosum circa ecclesias agere omnino contradicimus’; _C. of Rome_ (826), c. 35 (Mansi, xiv. 1008) ‘sunt quidam, et maxime mulieres, qui festis ac sacris diebus atque sanctorum natalitiis non pro eorum quibus debent delectantur desideriis advenire, sed ballando, verba turpia decantando, choros tenendo ac ducendo, similitudinem paganorum peragendo, advenire procurant’; cf. _Dicta abbatis Pirminii_ (Caspari, _Kirchenhistorische Anecdota_, 188); _Penitentiale pseudo-Theodorianum_ (Wasserschleben, 607); _Leonis IV Homilia_ (847, Mansi, xiv. 895); Benedictus Levita, _Capitularia_ (†850), vi. 96 (_M. G. H. Script._ iv. 2); and for Spain, _C. of Toledo_ (589), c. 23 (Mansi, ix. 999), and the undated _C. of Braga_, c. 80 (quoted on p. 144). Cf. also the denunciations of the _Kalends_ (ch. xi and Appendix N). Nearly four centuries after the _C. of Rome_ we find the _C. of Avignon_ (1209), c. 17 (Mansi, xxii. 791) ‘statuimus, ut in sanctorum vigiliis in ecclesiis historicae saltationes, obscoeni motus, seu choreae non fiant, nec dicantur amatoria carmina, vel cantilenae ibidem....’ Still later the _C. of Bayeux_ (1300), c. 31 (Mansi, xxv. 66) ‘ut dicit Augustinus, melius est festivis diebus fodere vel arare, quam choreas ducere’; and so on _ad infinitum_. The pseudo-Augustine _Sermo_, 265, _de Christiano nomine cum operibus non Christianis_ (_P. L._ xxxix. 2237), which is possibly by Caesarius of Arles, asserts explicitly the pagan character of the custom: ‘isti enim infelices et miseri homines, qui balationes et saltationes ante ipsas basilicas sanctorum exercere non metuunt nec erubescunt, etsi Christiani ad ecclesiam venerint, pagani de ecclesia revertuntur; quia ista consuetudo balandi de paganorum observatione remansit.’ A mediaeval preacher (quoted by A. Lecoy de la Marche, _Chaire française au Moyen Âge_, 447, from _B. N. Lat. MS._ 17509, f. 146) declares, ‘chorea enim circulus est cuius centrum est diabolus, et omnes vergunt ad sinistrum.’

[533] Tille, _D. W._ 301; G. Raynaud, in _Études dédiées à Gaston Paris_, 53; E. Schröder, _Die Tänzer von Kölbigk_, in _Z. f. Kirchengeschichte_, xvii. 94; G. Paris, in _Journal des Savants_ (1899), 733.

[534] H. E. Reynolds, _Wells Cathedral_, 85 ‘cum ex choreis ludis et spectaculis et lapidum proiectionibus in praefata ecclesia et eius cemeteriis ac claustro dissentiones sanguinis effusiones et violentiae saepius oriantur et in hiis dicta Wellensis ecclesia multa dispendia patiatur.’

[535] Menestrier, _Des Ballets anciens et modernes_ (1863), 4; on other French church dances, cf. Du Tilliot, 21; Barthélemy, iv. 447; Leber, ix. 420. The most famous are the _pilota_ of Auxerre, which was accompanied with ball-play (cf. ch. vi) and the _bergeretta_ of Besançon. Julian, _Dict. of Hymn._ 206, gives some English examples.

[536] Grove, 106. A full account of the ceremony at the feast of the Conception in 1901 is given in the _Church Times_ for Jan. 17, 1902.

[537] Grove, 103; Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 430; _Mélusine_ (1879), 39; _N. and Q._ for May 17, 1890. The dance is headed by the clergy, and proceeds to a traditional tune from the banks of the Sûre to the church, up sixty-two steps, along the north aisle, round the altar _deasil_, and down the south aisle. It is curious that until the seventeenth century only _men_ took part in it. St. Willibrord is famous for curing nervous diseases, and the pilgrimage is done by way of vow for such cures. The local legend asserts that the ceremony had its origin in an eighth-century cattle-plague, which ceased through an invocation of St. Willibrord: it is a little hard on the saint, whose prohibition of dances at the church-door has just been quoted.

[538] Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 409. A similarly named saint, St. Martial, was formerly honoured in the same way. Every psalm on his day ended, not with the _Gloria Patri_, but with a dance, and the chant, ‘Saint-Marceau, pregas per nous, et nous epingaren per vous’ (Du Méril, _La Com._ 68).

[539] Cf. p. 26. There were ‘madinnis that dansit’ before James IV of Scotland at Forres, Elgin and Dernway in 1504, but nothing is said of songs (_L. H. T. Accounts_, ii. 463).

[540] _Carm. Bur._ 191:

‘ludunt super gramina virgines decorae quarum nova carmina dulci sonant ore.’

_Ibid._ 195:

‘ecce florescunt lilia, et virginum dant agmina summo deorum carmina.’

[541] W. Fitzstephen, _Descriptio Londin_. (_Mat. for Hist. of Becket_, R. S. iii. 11) ‘puellarum Cytherea ducit choros usque imminente luna, et pede libero pulsatur tellus.’

[542] Jeanroy, 102, 387; Guy, 504; Paris, _Journal des Savants_ (1892), 407. M. Paris points out that dances, other than professional, first appear in the West after the fall of the Empire. The French terms for dancing--_baller_, _danser_, _treschier_, _caroler_--are not Latin. Caroler, however, he thinks to be the Greek χοραυλεῖν, ‘to accompany a dance with a flute.’ But the French _carole_ was always accompanied, not with a flute, but with a sung _chanson_.

[543] Paris, _loc. cit._ 410; Jeanroy, 391. In Wace’s description of Arthur’s wedding, the women _carolent_ and the men _behourdent_. Cf. Bartsch, _Romanzen und Pastourellen_, i. 13:

‘Cez damoiseles i vont por caroler, cil escuier i vont por behorder, cil chevalier i vont por esgarder.’

[544] On the return of Edward II and Isabella of France in 1308, the mayor and other dignitaries of London went ‘coram rege et regina karolantes’ (_Chronicles of Edward I and Edward II_, R. S. i. 152). On the birth of Prince Edward in 1312, they ‘menerent la karole’ in church and street (Riley, 107).

[545] Kögel, i. 1. 6.

[546] Mrs. Gomme, ii. 228; Haddon, 345.

[547] Cf. ch. vi on the motion _deasil_ round the sacred object. It is curious that the modern round dances go _withershins_ round a room. Grimm, i. 52, quotes Gregory the Great, _Dial._ iii. 28 on a Lombard sacrifice, ‘caput caprae, hoc ei, per circuitum currentes, carmine nefando dedicantes.’

[548] At Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts (which preserves its Anglo-Saxon church), and at South Petherton, Somerset, in both cases on Shrove Tuesday (Mrs. Gomme, ii. 230); cf. Vaux, 18. The church at Painswick, Gloucester, is danced round on wake-day (_F. L._ viii. 392). There is a group of games, in which the players wind and unwind in spirals round a centre. Such are _Eller Tree_, _Wind up the Bush Faggot_, and _Bulliheisle_. These Mrs. Gomme regards as survivals of the ritual dance round a sacred tree. Some obscure references in the rhymes used to ‘dumplings’ and ‘a bundle of rags’ perhaps connect themselves with the cereal cake and the rags hung on the tree for luck. In Cornwall such a game is played under the name of ‘Snail’s Creep’ at certain village feasts in June, and directed by young men with leafy branches.

[549] Du Méril, _La Com._ 72; Haddon, 346; Grove, 50, 81; Haigh, 14; N. W. Thomas, _La Danse totémique en Europe_, in _Actes d. Cong. intern. d. Trad. pop._ (1900).

[550] Plot, _Hist. of Staffs._ (1686); _F. L._ iv. 172; vii. 382 (with cuts of properties); Ditchfield, 139.

[551] The O. H. G. _hîleih_, originally meaning ‘sex-dance,’ comes to be ‘wedding.’ The root _hi_, like _wini_ (cf. p. 170), has a sexual connotation (Pearson, ii. 132; Kögel, i. 1. 10).

[552] Coussemaker, _Chants populaires des Flamands de France_, 100:

‘In den hemel is eenen dans: Alleluia. Daer dansen all’ de maegdekens: Benedicamus Domino, Alleluia, Alleluia. ‘t is voor Amelia: Alleluia. Wy dansen naer de maegdekens: Benedicamus, etc.’

[553] Frazer, i. 35; Dyer, 7; Northall, 233. A Lancashire song is sung ‘to draw you these cold winters away,’ and wishes ‘peace and plenty’ to the household. A favourite French May _chanson_ is

‘Étrennez notre épousée, Voici le mois, Le joli mois de Mai, Étrennez notre épousée En bonne étrenne. Voici le mois, Le joli mois de Mai, Qu’on vous amène.’

If the _quêteurs_ come on a churl, they have an ill-wishing variant. The following is characteristic of the French peasantry:

‘J’vous souhaitons autant d’enfants, Qu’y a des pierrettes dans les champs.’

Often more practical tokens of revenge are shown. The Plough Monday ‘bullocks’ in some places consider themselves licensed to plough up the ground before a house where they have been rebuffed.’

[554] Mrs. Gomme, ii. 1, 399; Haddon, 343; Du Méril, _La Com._ 81. Amongst the _jeux_ of the young Gargantua (Rabelais, i. 22) was one ‘à semer l’avoyne et au laboureur.’ This probably resembled the games of _Oats and Beans and Barley_, and _Would you know how doth the Peasant?_ which exist in English, French, Catalonian, and Italian versions. On the mimetic character of these games, cf. ch. viii.

[555] Text from _Harl. MS._ 978 in H. E. Wooldridge, _Oxford Hist. of Music_, i. 326, with full account. The music, to which religious as well as the secular words are attached, is technically known as a _rota_ or _rondel_. It is of the nature of polyphonic part-song, and of course more advanced than the typical mediaeval _rondet_ can have been.

[556] On these songs in general, see Northall, 233; Martinengo-Cesaresco, 249; Cortet, 153; Tiersot, 191; Jeanroy, 88; Paris, _J. des Savants_ (1891), 685, (1892), 155, 407.

[557] H. A. Wilson, _Hist. of Magd. Coll._ (1899), 50. Mr. Wilson discredits the tradition that the performance began as a mass for the obit of Henry VII. The hymn is printed in Dyer, 259; Ditchfield, 96. It has no relation to the summer festival, having been written in the seventeenth century by Thomas Smith and set by Benjamin Rogers as a grace. In other cases hymns have been attached to the village festivals. At Tissington the well-dressing,’ on Ascension Day includes a clerical procession in which ‘Rock of Ages’ and ‘A Living Stream’ are sung (Ditchfield, 187). A special ‘Rushbearers’ Hymn’ was written for the Grasmere Rushbearing in 1835, and a hymn for St. Oswald has been recently added (E. G. Fletcher, _The Rushbearing_, 13, 74).

[558] Dyer, 240, from Hertfordshire. There are many other versions; cf. Northall, 240.

[559] Kögel, i. 1. 32.

[560] Pertz, _Leges_, i. 68 ‘nullatenus ibi uuinileodos scribere vel mittere praesumat.’ Kögel, i. 1. 61: Goedeke, i. 11, quote other uses of the term from eighth-century glosses, e.g. ‘_uuiniliod_, cantilenas saeculares, psalmos vulgares, seculares, plebeios psalmos, cantica rustica et inepta.’ _Winiliod_ is literally ‘love-song,’ from root _wini_ (conn. with _Venus_). Kögel traces an earlier term O. H. G. _winileih_, A.-S. _winelâc_ = _hîleih_. On the erotic motive in savage dances, cf. Grosse, 165, 172; Hirn, 229.

[561] _Romania_, vii. 61; _Trad. Pop._ i. 98. Mr. Swinburne has adapted the idea of this poem in _A Match_ (_Poems and Ballads_, 1st Series, 116).

[562] _Romania_, ix. 568.

[563] K. Bartsch, _Chrest. Prov._ 111. A similar _chanson_ is in G. Raynaud, _Motets_, i. 151, and another is described in the _roman_ of _Flamenca_ (ed. P. Meyer), 3244. It ends

‘E, si parla, qu’il li responda: Nom sones mot, faitz vos en lai, Qu’entre mos bracs mos amics j’ai. Kalenda maia. E vai s’ en.’

[564] _Trimousette_, from _trî mâ câ_, an unexplained burden in some of the French _maierolles_.

[565] Guy, 503.

[566] Tiersot, _Robin et Marion_; Guy, 506. See the refrain in Bartsch, 197, 295; Raynaud, _Rec. de Motets_, i. 227.

[567] Langlois, _Robin et Marion: Romania_, xxiv. 437; H. Guy, _Adan de la Hale_, 177; J. Tiersot, _Sur le Jeu de Robin et Marion_ (1897); Petit de Julleville, _La Comédie_, 27; _Rep. Com._ 21, 324. A _jeu_ of _Robin et Marion_ is recorded also as played at Angers in 1392, but there is no proof that this was Adan de la Hale’s play, or a drama at all. There were folk going ‘desguiziez, à un jeu que l’en dit Robin et Marion, ainsi qu’il est accoutumé de fere, chacun an, en les foiries de Penthecouste’ (Guy, 197). The best editions of _Robin et Marion_ are those by E. Langlois (1896), and by Bartsch in _La Langue et la Littérature françaises_ (1887), col. 523. E. de Coussemaker, _Œuvres de Adam de la Halle_ (1872), 347, gives the music, and A. Rambeau, _Die dem Trouvère Adam de la Halle zugeschriebenen Dramen_ (1886), facsimiles the text. On Adan de la Hale’s earlier _sottie_ of _La Feuillée_, see ch. xvi.

[568] Thomas Wright, _Lyrical Poems of the Reign of Edward I_ (Percy Soc.).

[569] Cf. ch. xvii.

[570] The May-game is probably intended by the ‘Whitsun pastorals’ of _Winter’s Tale_, iv. 4. 134, and the ‘pageants of delight’ at Pentecost, where a boy ‘trimmed in Madam Julias gown’ played ‘the woman’s part’ (i. e. Maid Marian) of _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, iv. 4. 163. Cf. also W. Warner, _Albion’s England_, v. 25:

‘At Paske began our Morrise, and ere Penticost our May.’

[571] _Flores Historiarum_ (R. S.), iii. 130 ‘aestimo quod rex aestivalis sis; forsitan hyemalis non eris.’

[572] Cf. Appendix E.

[573] ‘King-play’ at Reading (_Reading St. Giles Accounts_ in Brand-Hazlitt, i. 157; Kerry, _Hist. of St. Lawrence, Reading_, 226).

[574] ‘King’s revel’ at Croscombe, Somerset (_Churchwardens’ Accounts_ in Hobhouse, 3).

[575] ‘King’s game’ at Leicester (Kelly, 68) and ‘King-game’ at Kingston (Lysons, _Environs of London_, i. 225). On the other hand the King-game in church at Hascombe in 1578 (_Representations_, s. v. Hascombe), was probably a miracle-play of the Magi or Three Kings of Cologne. This belongs to Twelfth night (cf. ch. xix), but curiously the accounts of St. Lawrence, Reading, contain a payment for the ‘Kyngs of Colen’ on _May day_, 1498 (Kerry, _loc. cit._).

[576] Cf. ch. xvii. Local ‘lords of misrule’ in the _summer_ occur at Montacute in 1447-8 (Hobhouse, 183 ‘in expensis Regis de Montagu apud Tyntenhull existentis tempore aestivali’), at Meriden in 1565 (Sharpe, 209), at Melton Mowbray in 1558 (Kelly, 65), at Tombland, near Norwich (_Norfolk Archaeology_, iii. 7; xi. 345), at Broseley, near Much Wenlock, as late as 1652 (Burne-Jackson, 480). See the attack on them in Stubbes, i. 146. The term ‘lord of misrule’ seems to have been borrowed from Christmas (ch. xvii). It does not appear whether the lords of misrule of Old Romney in 1525 (_Archaeologia Cantiana_, xiii. 216) and Braintree in 1531 (Pearson, ii. 413) were in winter or summer.

[577] Owen and Blakeway, i. 331; Jackson and Burne, 480 (cf. Appendix E). Miss Burne suggests several possible derivations of the name; from _mar_ ‘make mischief,’ from Mardoll or Marwell (St. Mary’s Well), streets in Shrewsbury, or from Muryvale or Meryvalle, a local hamlet. But the form ‘Mayvoll’ seems to point to ‘Maypole.’

[578] _Representations_, s. v. Aberdeen. Here the lord of the summer feast seems to have acted also as presenter of the Corpus Christi plays.

[579] Cf. ch. xvii.

[580] Batman, _Golden Books of the Leaden Gods_ (1577), f. 30. The Pope is said to be carried on the backs of four deacons, ‘after the maner of carying whytepot queenes in Western May games.’ A ‘whitepot’ is a kind of custard.

[581] Such phrases occur as ‘the May-play called Robyn Hod’ (Kerry, _Hist. of St. Lawrence, Reading_, 226, s. a. 1502), ‘Robin Hood and May game’ and Kynggam and Robyn Hode’ (_Kingston Accounts_, 1505-36, in Lysons, _Environs of London_, i. 225). The accounts of St. Helen’s, Abingdon, in 1566, have an entry ‘for setting up Robin Hood’s bower’ (Brand-Hazlitt, i. 144). It is noticeable that from 1553 Robin Hood succeeds the Abbot of Mayvole in the May-game at Shrewsbury (Appendix E). Similarly, in an Aberdeen order of 1508 we find ‘Robert Huyid and Litile Johne, quhilk was callit, in yers bipast, Abbat and Prior of Bonacord’ (_Representations_, s. v. Aberdeen). Robin Hood seems, therefore, to have come rather late into the May-games, but to have enjoyed a widening popularity.

[582] The material for the study of the Robin Hood legend is gathered together by S. Lee in _D. N. B._ s. v. Hood; Child, _Popular Ballads_, v. 39; Ritson, _Robin Hood_ (1832); J. M. Gutch, _Robin Hood_ (1847). Prof. Child gives a critical edition of all the ballads.

[583] _Piers Plowman_, B-text, passus v. 401.

[584] Fabian, _Chronicle_, 687, records in 1502 the capture of ‘a felowe whych hadde renewed many of Robin Hode’s pagentes, which named himselfe Greneleef.’

[585] Cf. p. 177.

[586] Kühn, in Haupt’s _Zeitschrift_, v. 481.

[587] Ramsay, _F. E._ i. 168.

[588] In the Nottingham _Hall-books (Hist. MSS._ i. 105), the same locality seems to be described in 1548 as ‘Robyn Wood’s Well,’ and in 1597 as ‘Robyn Hood’s Well.’ Robin Hood is traditionally clad in green. If he is mythological at all, may he not be a form of the ‘wild-man’ or ‘wood-woz’ of certain spring dramatic ceremonies, and the ‘Green Knight’ of romance? Cf. ch. ix.

[589] The earliest mention of her is (†1500) in A. Barclay, _Eclogue_, 5, ‘some may fit of Maide Marian or else of Robin Hood.’

[590] _Hist. MSS._ i. 107, from _Convocation Book_, ‘pecuniae ecclesiae ac communitatis Welliae ... videlicet, provenientes ante hoc tempus de Robynhode, puellis tripudiantibus, communi cervisia ecclesiae, et huiusmodi.’

[591] The accounts of Croscombe, Somerset, contain yearly entries of receipts from ‘Roben Hod’s recones’ from 1476 to 1510, and again in 1525 (Hobhouse, 1 sqq.). At Melton Mowbray the amount raised by the ‘lord’ was set aside for mending the highways (Kelly, 65).

[592] Lysons, _Environs_, i. 225. Mention is made of ‘Robin Hood,’ ‘the Lady,’ ‘Maid Marion,’ ‘Little John,’ ‘the Frere,’ ‘the Fool,’ ‘the Dysard,’ ‘the Morris-dance.’

[593] _Archaeologia Cantiana_, xiii. 216.

[594] C. Kerry, _History of St. Lawrence, Reading_, 226. ‘Made Maryon,’ ‘the tree’ and ‘the morris-dance,’ are mentioned.

[595] _L. H. T. Accounts_, ii. 377.

[596] Stowe, _Survey_ (1598), 38. He is speaking mainly of the period before 1517, when there was a riot on ‘Black’ May-day, and afterwards the May-games were not ‘so freely used as before.’

[597] Appendix E (vi).

[598] Cf. _Representations_.

[599] Bower (†1437), _Scotichronicon_ (ed. Hearne), iii. 774 ‘ille famosissimus sicarius Robertus Hode et Litill-Iohanne cum eorum complicibus, de quibus stolidum vulgus hianter in comoediis et tragoediis prurienter festum faciunt, et, prae ceteris romanciis, mimos et bardanos cantitare delectantur.’ On the ambiguity of ‘comoediae’ and ‘tragoediae’ in the fifteenth century, cf. ch. xxv.

[600] Gairdner, _Paston Letters_, iii. 89; Child, v. 90; ‘W. Woode, whyche promysed ... he wold never goo ffro me, and ther uppon I have kepyd hym thys iij yer to pleye Seynt Jorge and Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Nottyngham, and now, when I wolde have good horse, he is goon into Bernysdale, and I withowt a keeper.’ The _Northumberland Household Book_, 60, makes provision for ‘liveries for Robin Hood’ in the Earl’s household.

[601] Printed by Child, v. 90; Manly, i. 279. The MS. of the fragment probably dates before 1475.

[602] Printed by Child, v. 114, 127; Manly, i. 281, 285. They were originally printed as one play by Copland (†1550).

[603] Printed in Dodsley-Hazlitt, vol. viii. These plays were written for Henslowe about February 1598. In November Chettle ‘mended Roben hood for the corte’ (_Henslowe’s Diary_, 118-20, 139). At Christmas 1600, Henslowe had another play of ‘Roben hoodes penerths’ by William Haughton (_Diary_, 174-5). An earlier ‘pastoral pleasant comedie of Robin Hood and Little John’ was entered on the Stationers’ Registers on May 18, 1594. These two are lost, as is _The May Lord_ which Jonson wrote (_Conversations with Drummond_, 27). Robin Hood also appears in Peele’s _Edward I_ (†1590), and the anonymous _Look About You_ (1600), and is the hero of Greene’s _George a Greene the Pinner of Wakefield_ (†1593). Anthony Munday introduced him again into his pageant of _Metropolis Coronata_ (1615), and a comedy of _Robin Hood and his Crew of Soldiers_, acted at Nottingham on the day of the coronation of Charles II, was published in 1661. On all these plays, cf. F. E. Schelling, _The English Chronicle Play_, 156.

[604] Furnivall, _Robert Laneham’s Letter_, clxiii. Chaucer, _Rom. of Rose_, 7455, has ‘the daunce Joly Robin,’ but this is from his French original ‘li biaus Robins.’

[605] Cf. p. 176.

[606] Dyer, 278; Drake, 86; Brand-Ellis, i. 157; Cutts, _Parish Priests_, 317; _Archaeologia_, xii. 11; Stubbes, i. 150; _F. L._ x. 350. At an ‘ale’ a cask of home-brewed was broached for sale in the church or church-house, and the profits went to some public object; at a church-ale to the parish, at a clerk-ale to the clerk, at a bride-ale or bridal to the bride, at a bid-ale to some poor man in trouble. A love-ale was probably merely social.

[607] At Reading in 1557 (C. Kerry, _Hist. of St. Lawrence, Reading_, 226).

[608] At Tintinhull in 1513 (Hobhouse, 200, ‘Robine Hood’s All’).

[609] Brand-Ellis, i. 157; Dyer, 278. A carving on the church of St. John’s, Chichester, represents a Whitsun-ale, with a ‘lord’ and ‘lady.’

[610] Cf. p. 141.

[611] At Ashton-under-Lyne, from 1422 to a recent date (Dyer, 181). ‘Gyst’ appears to be either ‘gist’ (_gîte_) ‘right of pasturage’ or a corruption of ‘guising’; cf. ch. xvii.

[612] Cf. p. 91. On _Scot-ale_, cf. Ducange, s. v. Scotallum; _Archaeologia_, xii. 11; H. T. Riley, _Munimenta Gildhallae Londin_. (R. S.), ii. 760. The term first appears as the name of a tax, as in a Northampton charter of 1189 (Markham-Cox, _Northampton Borough Records_, i. 26) ‘concessimus quod sint quieti de ... Brudtol et de Childwite et de hieresgiue et de Scottale, ita quod Prepositus Northamptonie ut aliquis alius Ballivus scottale non faciat’; cf. the thirteenth-century examples quoted by Ducange. The _Council of Lambeth_ (1206), c. 2, clearly defines the term as ‘communes potationes,’ and the primary sense is therefore probably that of an _ale_ at which a _scot_ or tax is raised.

[613] Malory, _Morte d’ Arthur_, xix. 1. 2.

[614] Hall, 515, 520, 582; Brewer, _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII_, ii. 1504. In 1510, Henry and his courtiers visited the queen’s chamber in the guise of Robin Hood and his men on the inappropriate date of January 18. In Scotland, about the same time, Dunbar wrote a ‘cry’ for a maying with Robin Hood; cf. _Texts_, s. v. Dunbar.

[615] Latimer, _Sermon vi before Edw. VI_ (1549, ed. Arber, 173). Perhaps the town was Melton Mowbray, where Robin Hood was very popular, and where Latimer is shown by the churchwardens’ accounts to have preached several years later in 1553 (Kelly, 67).

[616] Machyn, 20.

[617] Ibid. 89, 137, 196, 201, 283, 373. In 1559, e.g. ‘the xxiiij of June ther was a May-game ... and Sant John Sacerys, with a gyant, and drumes and gunes [and the] ix wordes (worthies), with spechys, and a goodly pagant with a quen ... and dyvers odur, with spechys; and then Sant Gorge and the dragon, the mores dansse, and after Robyn Hode and lytyll John, and M[aid Marian] and frere Tuke, and they had spechys round a-bout London.’

[618] ‘Mr. Tomkys publicke prechar’ in Shrewsbury induced the bailiffs to ‘reform’ May-poles in 1588, and in 1591 some apprentices were committed for disobeying the order. A judicial decision was, however, given in favour of the ‘tree’ (Burne-Jackson, 358; Hibbert, _English Craft-Gilds_, 121). In London the Cornhill May-pole, which gave its name to St. Andrew Undershaft, was destroyed by persuasion of a preacher as early as 1549 (Dyer, 248); cf. also Stubbes, i. 306, and Morrison’s advice to Henry VIII quoted in ch. xxv.

[619] Archbishop Grindal’s _Visitation Articles_ of 1576 (_Remains_, Parker Soc. 175), ‘whether the minister and churchwardens have suffered any lords of misrule or summer lords or ladies, or any disguised persons, or others, in Christmas or at May-games, or any morris-dancers, or at any other times, to come unreverently into the church or churchyard, and there to dance, or play any unseemly parts, with scoffs, jests, wanton gestures, or ribald talk, namely in the time of Common Prayer.’ Similarly worded _Injunctions_ for Norwich (1569), York (1571), Lichfield (1584), London (1601) and Oxford (1619) are quoted in the _Second Report_ of the Ritual Commission; cf. the eighty-eighth _Canon_ of 1604. It is true that the _Visitation Articles_ for St. Mary’s, Shrewsbury, in 1584 inquire more generally ‘whether there have been any lords of mysrule, or somer lords or ladies, or any disguised persons, as morice dancers, maskers, or mum’ers, or such lyke, within the parishe, ether in the nativititide or in som’er, or at any other tyme, and what be their names’; but this church was a ‘peculiar’ and its ‘official’ the Puritan Tomkys mentioned in the last note (Owen and Blakeway, i. 333; Burne-Jackson, 481).

[620] Stafford, 16.

[621] Stubbes, i. 146; cf. the further quotations and references there given in the notes.

[622] 6 _Mary_, cap. 61.

[623] Child, v. 45; cf. _Representations_, s.v. Aberdeen, on the breaches of the statute there in 1562 and 1565.

[624] Dyer, 228; Drake, 85. At Cerne Abbas, Dorset, the May-pole was cut down in 1635 and made into a town ladder (_F. L._ x. 481).

[625] Grimm, ii. 784; _Kleinere Schriften_, v. 281; Pearson, ii. 281.

[626] Frazer, ii. 82; Grant Allen, 293, 315; Grimm, ii. 764; Pearson, ii. 283.

[627] Frazer, ii. 86; Martinengo-Cesaresco, 267. Cf. the use of the bladder of blood in the St. Thomas procession at Canterbury (_Representations_, s. v.).

[628] Frazer, iii. 70. Amongst such customs are the expulsion of Satan on New Year’s day by the Finns, the expulsion of Kore at Easter in Albania, the expulsion of witches on March 1 in Calabria, and on May 1 in the Tyrol, the frightening of the wood-sprites Strudeli and Strätteli on Twelfth night at Brunnen in Switzerland. Such ceremonies are often accompanied with a horrible noise of horns, cleavers and the like. Horns are also used at Oxford (Dyer, 261) and elsewhere on May 1, and I have heard it said that the object of the Oxford custom is to drive away evil spirits. Similar discords are _de rigueur_ at Skimmington Ridings. I very much doubt whether they are anything but a degenerate survival of a barbaric type of music.

[629] Frazer, iii. 121.

[630] Tylor, _Anthropology_, 382.

[631] Caspari, 10 ‘qui in mense februario hibernum credit expellere ... non christianus, sed gentilis est.’

[632] Frazer, ii. 91.

[633] Frazer, ii. 60.

[634] Sometimes the _Pfingstl_ is called a ‘wild man.’ Two ‘myghty woordwossys [cf. p. 392] or wyld men’ appeared in a revel at the court of Henry VIII in 1513 (_Revels Account_ in Brewer, ii. 1499), and similar figures are not uncommon in the sixteenth-century masques and entertainments.

[635] Frazer, ii. 62.

[636] Ibid. ii. 61, 82; E. Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_, 374, 409.

[637] _Syr Gawayne and the Grene Knyghte_ (ed. Madden, Bannatyne Club, 1839); cf. J. L. Weston, _The Legend of Sir Gawain_, 85. Arthur was keeping New Year’s Day, when a knight dressed in green, with a green beard, riding a green horse, and bearing a holly bough, and an axe of green steel, entered the hall. He challenged any man of the Round Table to deal him a buffet with the axe on condition of receiving one in return after the lapse of a year. Sir Gawain accepts. The stranger’s head is cut off, but he picks it up and rides away with it. This is a close parallel to the resurrection of the slain ‘wild man.’

[638] Frazer, ii. 105, 115, 163, 219; _Pausanias_, iii. 53; v. 259; Gardner, _New Chapters in Greek History_, 395, give Russian, Greek, and Asiatic parallels.

[639] Frazer, ii. 71; Pfannenschmidt, 302. The victim is sometimes known as the Carnival or Shrovetide ‘Fool’ or ‘Bear.’

[640] Dyer, 93. The Jack o’ Lent apparently stood as a cock-shy from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, and was then burnt. Portuguese sailors in English docks thrash and duck an effigy of Judas Iscariot on Good Friday (Dyer, 155).

[641] Alleluia was not sung during Lent. Fosbrooke, _British Monachism_, 56, describes the Funeral of Alleluia by the choristers of an English cathedral on the Saturday before Septuagesima. A turf was carried in procession with howling to the cloisters. Probably this cathedral was Lincoln, whence Wordsworth, 105, quotes payments ‘pro excludend’ Alleluya’ from 1452 to 1617. Leber, ix. 338; Barthélemy, iii. 481, give French examples of the custom; cf. the Alleluia top, p. 128.

[642] Dyer, 158. Reeds were woven on Good Friday into the shape of a crucifix and left in some hidden part of a field or garden.

[643] Dyer, 333. The village feast was on St. Peter’s day, June 29. On the Saturday before an effigy was dug up from under a sycamore on May-pole hill; a week later it was buried again. In this case the order of events seems to have been inverted.

[644] Frazer, i. 221. The French May-queen is often called _la mariée_ or _l’épouse_.

[645] Frazer, i. 225; Jevons, _Plutarch R. Q._ lxxxiii. 56.

[646] Waldron, _Hist. of Isle of Man_, 95; Dyer, 246.

[647] Olaus Magnus, _History of Swedes and Goths_, xv. 4, 8, 9; Grimm, ii. 774.

[648] Grimm, ii. 765; Paul, _Grundriss_ (ed. 1), i. 836.

[649] Frazer, _Pausanias_, iii. 267.

[650] Cf. ch. iv.

[651] Grimm, ii. 675, 763; Swainson, _Folk-lore of British Birds_ (F. L. S.), 109; Hardy, _Popular History of the Cuckoo_, in _F. L. Record_, ii; Mannhardt, in _Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie_, iii. 209. Cf. ch. v.

[652] Aristotle, _Poetics_, i. 5 αὐτῷ δέ τῷ ῥυθμῷ [ποιεῖται τὴν μίμησιν] χωρὶς ἁρμονίας ἡ [τέχνη] τῶν ὀρχηστῶν, καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι διά τῶν σχηματιζομένων ῥυθμῶν μιμοῦνται καὶ ἤθη καὶ πάθη καὶ πράξεις. Cf. Lucian, _de Saltatione_, xv. 277. Du Méril, 65, puts the thing well: ‘La danse n’a été l’invention de personne: elle s’est produite d’elle-même le jour que le corps a subi et dû refléter un état de l’âme.... On ne tarda pas cependant à la séparer de sa cause première et à la reproduire pour elle-même ... en simulant la gaieté on parvenait réellement à la sentir.’

[653] Wallaschek, 216; Grosse, 165, 201; Hirn, 157, 182, 229, 259, 261; Du Méril, _Com._ 72; Haddon, 346; Grove, 52, 81; Mrs. Gomme, ii. 518; G. Catlin, _On Manners ... of N. Amer. Indians_ (1841), i. 128, 244. Lang, _M. R. R._ i. 272, dwells on the representation of myths in savage mystery-dances, and points out that Lucian (_loc. cit._) says that the Greeks used to ‘dance out’ (ἐξορχεῖσθαι) their mysteries.

[654] The _chanson_ of _Transformations_ (cf. p. 170) is sung by peasant-girls as a semi-dramatic duet (_Romania_, vii. 62); and that of _Marion_ was performed ‘à deux personnages’ on Shrove Tuesday in Lorraine (_Romania_, ix. 568).

[655] Giraldus Cambrensis, _Itinerarium Cambriae_, i. 2 (_Opera_, R.S. vi. 32) ‘Videas enim hic homines seu puellas, nunc in ecclesia, nunc in coemiterio, nunc in chorea, quae circa coemiterium cum cantilena circumfertur, subito in terram corruere, et primo tanquam in extasim ductos et quietos; deinde statim tanquam in phrenesim raptos exsilientes, opera quaecunque festis diebus illicite perpetrare consueverant, tam manibus quam pedibus, coram populo repraesentantes. videas hunc aratro manus aptare, illum quasi stimulo boves excitare; et utrumque quasi laborem mitigando solitas barbarae modulationis voces efferre. videas hunc artem sutoriam, illum pellipariam imitari. item videas hanc quasi colum baiulando, nunc filum manibus et brachiis in longum extrahere, nunc extractum occandum tanquam in fusum revocare; istam deambulando productis filis quasi telam ordiri: illam sedendo quasi iam orditam oppositis lanceolae iactibus et alternis calamistrae cominus ictibus texere mireris. Demum vero intra ecclesiam cum oblationibus ad altare perductos tanquam experrectos et ad se redeuntes obstupescas.’

[656] Cf. p. 151 with Mrs. Gomme’s _Memoir_ (ii. 458) _passim_, and Haddon, 328. Parallel savage examples are in Wallaschek, 216; Hirn, 157, 259.

[657] Mrs. Gomme, ii. 399, 494 and s. vv.; Haddon, 340. Similar games are widespread on the continent; cf. the Rabelais quotation on p. 167. Haddon quotes a French formula, ending

‘Aveine, aveine, aveine, Que le Bon Dieu t’amène.’

[658] Wallaschek, 273; Hirn, 285.

[659] The German data here used are chiefly collected by Müllenhoff and F. A. Mayer; cf. also Creizenach, i. 408; Michels, 84; J. J. Ammann, _Nachträge zum Schwerttanz_, in _Z. f. d. Alterthum_ xxxiv (1890), 178; A. Hartmann, _Volksschauspiele_ (1880), 130; F. M. Böhme, _Geschichte des Tanzes in Deutschland_ (1886); Sepp, _Die Religion der alten Deutschen, und ihr Fortbestand in Volkssagen, Aufzügen und Festbräuchen bis zur Gegenwart_ (1890), 91; O. Wittstock, _Ueber den Schwerttanz der Siebenbürger Sachsen_, in _Philologische Studien: Festgabe für Eduard Sievers_ (1896), 349.

[660] Tacitus, _Germania_, 24 ‘genus spectaculorum unum atque in omni coetu idem. nudi iuvenes, quibus id ludicrum est, inter gladios se atque infestas frameas saltu iaciunt. exercitatio artem paravit, ars decorem, non in quaestum tamen aut mercedem; quamvis audacis lasciviae pretium est voluptas spectantium.’

[661] _Beowulf_, 1042. It is in the hall of Hrothgar at Heorot,

‘þæt wæs hilde-setl: heah-cyninges, þonne sweorda-gelác: sunu Healfdenes efnan wolde: nǽfre on óre lǽg wíd-cúþes wíg: þonne walu féollon.’

[662] Appendix N, no. xxxix; ‘arma in campo ostendit.’

[663] Strutt, 215. The tenth-century τὸ γοτθικόν at Byzantium seems to have been a kind of sword-dance (cf. ch. xii _ad fin._).

[664] Strutt, 260; Du Méril, _La Com._ 84.

[665] Mayer, 259.

[666] Müllenhoff, 145, quoting _Don Quixote_, ii. 20; _Z. f. d. A._ xviii. 11; Du Méril, _La Com._ 86.

[667] Webster, _The White Devil_, v. 6, ‘a matachin, it seems by your drawn swords’; the ‘buffons’ is included in the list of dances in the _Complaynt of Scotland_ (†1548); cf. Furnivall, _Laneham’s Letter_, clxii.

[668] Tabourot, _Orchésographie_, 97, _Les Bouffons ou Mattachins_. The dancers held bucklers and swords which they clashed together. They also wore bells on their legs.

[669] Cf. Appendix J.

[670] Henderson, 67. The sword-dance is also mentioned by W. Hutchinson, _A View of Northumberland_ (1778), ii _ad fin._ 18; by J. Wallis, _Hist. of Northumberland_ (1779), ii. 28, who describes the leader as having ‘a fox’s skin, generally serving him for a covering and ornament to his head, the tail hanging down his back’; and as practised in the north Riding of Yorks, by a writer in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ (1811), lxxxi. 1. 423. Here it took place from St. Stephen’s to New Year’s Day. There were six lads, a fiddler, Bessy and a Doctor. At Whitby, six dancers went with the ‘Plough Stots’ on Plough Monday. The figures included the placing of a hexagon or rose of swords on the head of one of the performers. The dance was accompanied with ‘_Toms_ or _clowns_’ masked or painted, and ‘_Madgies_ or Madgy-Pegs’ in women’s clothes. Sometimes a farce, with a king, miller, clown and doctor was added (G. Young, _Hist. of Whitby_ (1817), ii. 880).

[671] Cf. Appendix J.

[672] R. Bell, _Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England_, 175.

[673] Cf. Appendix J.

[674] Mayer, 230, 417.

[675] Henderson, 67. The clown introduces each dancer in turn; then there is a dance with raised swords which are tied in a ‘knot.’ Henderson speaks of a later set of verses also in use, which he does not print.

[676] R. Bell, _Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England_, 175 (from Sir C. Sharpe’s _Bishoprick Garland_). A Christmas dance. The captain began the performance by drawing a circle with his sword. Then the Bessy introduced the captain, who called on the rest in turn, each walking round the circle to music. Then came an elaborate dance with careful formations, which degenerated into a fight. Bell mentions a similar set of verses from Devonshire.

[677] Bell, 172. A Christmas dance. The clown makes the preliminary circle with his sword, and calls on the other dancers.

[678] Bell, 181. The clown calls for ‘a room,’ after which one of the party introduces the rest. This also is a Christmas dance, but as the words ‘we’ve come a pace-egging’ occur, it must have been transferred from Easter. Bell says that a somewhat similar performance is given at Easter in Coniston, and Halliwell, _Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales_, 244, describes a similar set of rhymes as used near York for pace-egging.

[679] Described by Müllenhoff, 138, from _Ausland_ (1857), No. 4, f. 81. The clown gives the prologue, and introduces the rest.

[680] Cf. p. 221.

[681] Mayer prints and compares all three texts.

[682] Cf. p. 185. The original names seem to be best preserved in the Styrian verses: they are Obersteiner (the _Vortänzer_) or Hans Kanix, Fasching (the _Narr_), Obermayer, Jungesgsell, Grünwald, Edlesblut, Springesklee, Schellerfriedl, Wilder Waldmann, Handssupp, Rubendunst, Leberdarm, Rotwein, Höfenstreit.

[683] H. Pröhle, _Weltliche und geistliche Volkslieder und Volksschauspiele_ (1855), 245.

[684] Müllenhoff, _Z. f. d. A._ xx. 10.

[685] Brand-Ellis, i. 142; Douce, 576; Burton, 95; Gutch, _Robin Hood_, i. 301; Drake, 76.

[686] Burton, 117; Warner, _Albion’s England_, v. 25 ‘At Paske begun our Morrise, and ere Penticost our May.’ The morris was familiar in the revels of Christmas. Laneham, 23, describes at the Bride-ale shown before Elizabeth at Kenilworth ‘a lively morrisdauns, according too the auncient manner: six daunserz, Mawdmarion, and the fool.’

[687] A good engraving of the window is in _Variorum Shakespeare_, xvi. 419, and small reproductions in Brand, i. 145; Burton, 103; Gutch, i. 349; Mr. Tollet’s own account of the window, printed in the _Variorum_, _loc. cit._, is interesting, but too ingenious. He dates the window in the reign of Henry VIII; Douce, 585, a better authority, ascribes it to that of Edward IV.

[688] Ben Jonson, _The Gipsies Metamorphosed_ (ed. Cunningham, iii. 151):

‘_Clod._ They should be morris-dancers by their gingle, but they have no napkins.

‘_Cockrel._ No, nor a hobby-horse.

‘_Clod._ Oh, he’s often forgotten, that’s no rule; but there is no Maid Marian nor Friar amongst them, which is the surer mark.

‘_Cockrel._ Nor a fool that I see.’

[689] The lady, the fool, the hobby-horse are all in Tollet’s window, and in a seventeenth-century printing by Vinkenboom from Richmond palace, engraved by Douce, 598; Burton, 105. Cf. the last note and other passages quoted by Douce, Brand, and Burton. In _Two Noble Kinsmen_, iii. 5, 125, a morris of six men and six women is thus presented by Gerrold, the schoolmaster:

‘I first appear ... The next, the Lord of May and Lady bright, The Chambermaid and Serving-man, by night That seek out silent hanging: then mine Host And his fat Spouse, that welcomes to their cost The galled traveller, and with a beck’ning Informs the tapster to inflame the reck’ning: Then the beast-eating Clown, and next the Fool, The Bavian, with long tail and eke long tool; _Cum multis aliis_, that make a dance.’

Evidently some of these _dramatis personae_ are not traditional; the ingenuity of the presenter has been at work on them. ‘Bavian’ as a name for the fool, is the Dutch _baviaan_, ‘baboon.’ His ‘tail’ is to be noted; for the phallic shape sometimes given to the bladder which he carries, cf. Rigollot, 164. In the Betley window the fool has a bauble; in the Vinkenboom picture a staff with a bladder at one end, and a ladle (to gather money in) at the other. In the window the ladle is carried by the hobby-horse. ‘The hobby-horse is forgot’ is a phrase occurring in _L. L. L._ iii. 1. 30; _Hamlet_, iii. 2. 144, and alluded to by Beaumont and Fletcher, _Women Pleased_, iv. 1, and Ben Jonson, in the masque quoted above, and in _The Satyr_ (Cunningham, ii. 577). Apparently it is a line from a lost ballad.

[690] Stubbes, i. 147, of the ‘devil’s daunce’ in the train of the lord of misrule, evidently a morris, ‘then haue they their Hobby-horses, dragons & other Antiques.’ In W. Sampson’s _Vow-breaker_ (1636), one morris-dancer says ‘I’ll be a fiery dragon’; another, ‘I’ll be a thund’ring Saint George as ever rode on horseback.’

[691] Burton, 40, 43, 48, 49, 56, 59, 61, 65, 69, 75, 115, 117, 121, 123, cites many notices throughout the century, and gives several figures. The morris is in request at wakes and rushbearings. Both men and women dance, sometimes to the number of twenty or thirty. Gay dresses are worn, with white skirts, knee-breeches and ribbons. Handkerchiefs are carried or hung on the arm or wrist, or replaced by dangling streamers, cords, or skeins of cotton. Bells are not worn on the legs, but jingling horse-collars are sometimes carried on the body. There is generally a fool, described in one account as wearing ‘a horrid mask.’ He is, however, generally black, and is known as ‘King Coffee’ (Gorton), ‘owd sooty-face,’ ‘dirty Bet,’ and ‘owd molly-coddle.’ This last name, like the ‘molly-dancers’ of Gorton, seems to be due to a linguistic corruption. In 1829 a writer describes the fool as ‘a nondescript, made up of the ancient fool and Maid Marian.’ At Heaton, in 1830, were two figures, said to represent Adam and Eve, as well as the fool. The masked fool, mentioned above, had as companion a shepherdess with lamb and crook.

[692] Burton, 115, from _Journal of Archaeol. Assoc._ vii. 201. The dancers went on Twelfth-night, without bells, but with a fool, a ‘fool’s wife’ and sometimes a hobby-horse.

[693] Jackson and Burne, 402, 410, 477. The morris-dance proper is mainly in south Shropshire and at Christmas. At Shrewsbury, in 1885, were ten dancers, with a fool. Five carried trowels and five short staves which they clashed. The fool had a black face, and a bell on his coat. No other bells are mentioned. Staves or wooden swords are used at other places in Shropshire, and at Brosely all the faces are black. The traditional music is a tabor and pipe. A 1652 account of the Brosely dance with six sword-bearers, a ‘leader or lord of misrule’ and a ‘vice’ (cf. ch. xxv) called the ‘lord’s son’ is quoted. In north-east Shropshire, the Christmas ‘guisers’ are often called ‘morris-dancers,’ ‘murry-dancers,’ or ‘merry-dancers.’ In Shetland the name ‘merry dancers’ is given to the _aurora borealis_ (J. Spence, _Shetland Folk-Lore_, 116).

[694] _Leicester F. L._ 93. The dance was on Plough Monday with paper masks, a plough, the bullocks, men in women’s dresses, one called Maid Marian, Curly the fool, and Beelzebub. This is, I think, the only survival of the name Maid Marian, and it may be doubted if even this is really popular and not literary.

[695] P. Manning, _Oxfordshire Seasonal Festivals_, in _F. L._ viii. 317, summarizes accounts from fourteen villages, and gives illustrations. There are always six dancers. A broad garter of bells is worn below the knee. There are two sets of figures: in one handkerchiefs are carried, in the other short staves are swung and clashed. Sometimes the dancers sing to the air, which is that of an old country-dance. There is always a fool, who carries a stick with a bladder and cow’s tail, and is called in two places ‘Rodney,’ elsewhere the ‘squire.’ The music is that of a pipe and tabor (‘whittle’ and ‘dub’) played by one man; a fiddle is now often used. At Bampton there was a solo dance between crossed tobacco-pipes. At Spelsbury and at Chipping Warden the dance used to be on the church-tower. At the Bampton Whit-feast and the Ducklington Whit-hunt, the dancers were accompanied by a sword-bearer, who impaled a cake. A sword-bearer also appears in a list of Finstock dancers, given me by Mr. T. J. Carter, of Oxford. He also told me that the dance on Spelsbury church-tower, seventy years ago, was by women.

[696] Norfolk, Monmouthshire, Berkshire (Douce, 606); Worcestershire, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Warwickshire, and around London (Burton, 114).

[697] _L. H. T. Accounts_, ii. 414; iii. 359, 381.

[698] Pfannenschmidt, 582; Michels, 84; Creizenach, i. 411. Burton, 102, reproduces, from _Art Journal_ (1885), 121, cuts of ten morris-dancers carved in wood at Munich by Erasmus Schnitzer in 1480.

[699] Douce, 585, and Burton, 97, reproduce Israel von Mecheln’s engraving (†1470) of a morris with a fool and a lady.

[700] Coquillart, _Œuvres_ (†1470), 127.

[701] _Mémoires de Pétrarque_, ii. app. 3, 9; Petrarch danced ‘en pourpoint une belle et vigoureuse moresque’ to please the Roman ladies on the night of his coronation.

[702] _Somers Tracts_, ii. 81, 87. The Earl of Nottingham, when on an embassy from James I, saw morrice-dancers in a Corpus Christi procession.

[703] Douce, 480; Favine, _Theater of Honor_, 345: at a feast given by Gaston de Foix at Vendôme, in 1458, ‘foure young laddes and a damosell, attired like savages, daunced (by good direction) an excellent _Morisco_, before the assembly.’

[704] Tabourot, _Orchésographie_, 94: in his youth a lad used to come after supper, with his face blackened, his forehead bound with white or yellow taffeta, and bells on his legs, and dance the morris up and down the hall.

[705] Douce, 577; Burton, 95.

[706] A dance certainly of Moorish origin is the fandango, in which castanets were used; cf. the comedy of _Variety_ (1649) ‘like a Bacchanalian, dancing the Spanish Morisco, with knackers at his fingers’ (Strutt, 223). This, however, seems to show that the fandango was considered a variety of morisco. Douce, 602; Burton, 124, figure an African woman from Fez dancing with bells on her ankles. This is taken from Hans Weigel’s book of national costumes published at Nuremberg in 1577.

[707] Tabourot’s morris-dancing boy had his face blackened, and Junius (F. Du Jon), _Etymologicum Anglicanum_ (1743), says of England ‘faciem plerumque inficiunt fuligine, et peregrinum vestium cultum assumunt, qui ludicris talibus indulgent, ut Mauri esse videantur, aut e longius remota patria credantur advolasse, atque insolens recreationis genus ad vexisse.’ In _Spousalls of Princess Mary_ (1508) ‘morisks’ is rendered ‘ludi Maurei quas morescas dicunt.’ In the modern morris the black element is represented, except at Brosely, chiefly by ‘owd sooty face,’ the fool: in Leicestershire it gives rise to a distinct figure, Beelzebub.

[708] Du Méril, _La Com._ 89, quotes a sixteenth-century French sword-dance of ‘Mores, Sauvages, et Satyres.’ In parts of Yorkshire the sword-dancers had black faces or masks (Henderson, 70).

[709] Cotgrave, ‘_Dancer les Buffons_, To daunce a morris.’ The term ‘the madman’s morris’ appears as the name of the dance in _The Figure of Nine_ (temp. Charles II); cf. Furnivall, _Laneham’s Letter_, clxii. The _buffon_ is presumably the ‘fool’; cf. Cotgrave, ‘_Buffon_: m. A buffoon, jeaster, sycophant, merrie fool, sportfull companion: one that lives by making others merrie.’

[710] Henderson, 70. In Yorkshire the sword-dancers carried the image of a white horse; in Cheshire a horse’s head and skin.

[711] Cf. ch. x; also Wise, _Enquiries concerning the Inhabitants, ... of Europe_, 51 ‘the common people in many parts of England still practise what they call a Morisco dance, in a wild manner, and as it were in armour, at proper intervals striking upon one another’s staves,’ &c. Johnson’s _Dictionary_ (1755) calls the morris ‘a dance in which bells are gingled, or staves or swords clashed.’

[712] Müllenhoff, 124; cf. Mayer, 236.

[713] Douce, 602; Burton, 123. The bells were usually fastened upon broad garters, as they are still worn in Oxfordshire. But they also appear as anklets or are hung on various parts of the dress. In a cut from Randle Holme’s _Academie of Armorie_, iii. 109 (Douce, 603; Burton, 127), a morris-dancer holds a pair of bells in his hands. Sometimes the bells were harmonized. In _Pasquil and Marforius_ (1589) Penry is described as ‘the fore gallant of the Morrice with the treble bells’; cf. Rowley, _Witch of Edmonton_, i. 2.

[714] Müllenhoff, 123; Mayer, 235.

[715] Tabourot, _Orchésographie_, 97.

[716] Cf. Appendix J. A figure with a bow and arrow occurs in the Abbots Bromley horn-dance (p. 166).

[717] W. Kempe’s _Nine Days Wonder_ (ed. Dyce, Camden Soc.) describes his dancing of the morris in bell-shangles from London to Norwich in 1599.

[718] Müllenhoff, 114.

[719] The ‘Squire’s Son’ of the Durham dances is probably the clown’s son of the Wharfdale version; for the term ‘squire’ is not an uncommon one for the rustic fool. Cf. also the Revesby play described in the next chapter. Why the fool should have a son, I do not know.

[720] The ‘Nine Worthies’ of _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, v. 2, are a pageant not a dance, and the two sets of speeches quoted from Bodl. Tanner MS. 407, by Ritson, _Remarks on Shakespeare_, 38, one of which is called by Ashton, 127, the earliest mummers’ play that he can find, also probably belong to pageants. The following, also quoted by Ritson _loc. cit._ from _Harl. MS._ 1197, f. 101* (sixteenth century), looks more like a dance or play:

‘I ame a knighte And menes to fight And armet well ame I Lo here I stand With swerd ine hand My manhoud for to try.

Thou marciall wite That menes to fight And sete vppon me so Lo heare J stand With swrd in hand To dubbelle eurey blow.’

[721] Mayer, 230, 425, finds in the dance a symbolical drama of the death of winter; but he does not seem to see the actual relic of a sacrificial rite.

[722] Müllenhoff, 114; Du Méril, _La Com._ 82; Plato, _Leges_, 815; Dion Cassius, lx. 23; Suetonius, _Julius_, 39, _Nero_, 12; Servius _ad Aen._ v. 602; cf. p. 7. A Thracian sword-dance, ending in a mimic death, and therefore closely parallel to the west European examples mentioned in the next chapter, is described by Xenophon, _Anabasis_, v. 9.

[723] Müllenhoff, 115; Frazer, iii. 122; W. W. Fowler, _The Roman Festivals_, 38, 44. The song of the _Salii_ mentioned Saeturnus, god of sowing. It appears also to have been their function to expel the Mamurius Veturius in spring. Servius _ad Aen._ viii. 285, says that the _Salii_ were founded by Morrius, king of Veii. According to Frazer, Morrius is etymologically equivalent to Mamurius--Mars. He even suggests that Morris may possibly belong to the same group of words.

[724] Cf. Appendix J. In other dances a performer stands on a similar ‘knot’ or _Stern_ of swords. Mayer, 230, suggests that this may represent the triumph of summer, which seems a little far-fetched.

[725] Mayer, 243; O. Wittstock, in _Sievers-Festgabe_, 349.

[726] Grimm, i. 304, gives the following as communicated to him by J. M. Kemble, from the mouth of an old Yorkshireman: ‘In some parts of northern England, in Yorkshire, especially Hallamshire, popular customs show remnants of the worship of Fricg. In the neighbourhood of Dent, at certain seasons of the year, especially autumn, the country folk hold a procession and perform old dances, one called the giant’s dance: the leading giant they name _Woden_, and his wife _Frigga_, the principal

## action of the play consisting in two swords being swung and clashed

together about the neck of a boy without hurting him.’ There is nothing about this in the account of Teutonic mythology in J. M. Kemble’s own _Saxons in England_. I do not believe that the names of Woden and Frigga were preserved in connexion with this custom continuously from heathen times. Probably some antiquary had introduced them; and in error, for there is no reason to suppose that the ‘clown’ and ‘woman’ of the sword-dance were ever thought to represent gods. But the description of the business with the swords is interesting.

[727] Müllenhoff, _Z. f. d. A._ xviii. 11, quoting Covarubias, _Tesoro della lengua castellana_ (1611), s.v. _Danza de Espadas_: ‘una mudanza que llaman la degollada, porque cercan el cuello del que los guia con las espadas.’ With these sword manœuvres should be compared the use of scythes and flails in the mock sacrifices of the harvest-field and threshing-floor (p. 158), the ‘Chop off his head’ of the ‘Oranges and Lemons’ game (p. 151), and the ancient tale of Wodan and the Mowers.

[728] Mayer, 229.

[729] _Gentleman’s Magazine_, lxxxi (1811), 1. 423. The dance was given in the north Riding from St. Stephen’s day to the New Year. Besides the Bessy and the Doctor there were six lads, one of whom acted king ‘in a kind of farce which consists of singing and dancing.’

[730] Bell, 178; cf. p. 193. I do not feel sure whether the actual parish clergyman took part, or whether a mere personage in the play is intended; but see what Olaus Magnus (App. J (i)) says about the propriety of the sword-dances for _clerici_. It will be curious if the Christian priest has succeeded to the part of the heathen priest slain, first literally, and then in mimicry, at the festivals.

[731] Printed by Mr. T. F. Ordish in _F. L. J._ vii. 338, and again by Manly, i. 296. The MS. used appears to be headed ‘October Ye 20, 1779’; but the performers are called ‘The Plow Boys or Morris Dancers’ and the prologue says that they ‘takes delight in Christmas toys.’ I do not doubt that the play belonged to Plough Monday, which only falls just outside the Christmas season.

[732] On the name Pickle Herring, see W. Creizenach, _Die Schauspiele der englischen Komödianten_, xciii. It does not occur in old English comedy, but was introduced into Anglo-German and German farce as a name for the ‘fool’ or ‘clown’ by Robert Reynolds, the ‘comic lead’ of a company of English actors who crossed to Germany in 1618. Probably it was Reynolds’ invention, and suggested by the _sobriquet_ ‘Stockfish’ taken by an earlier Anglo-German actor, John Spencer. The ‘spicy’ names of the other Revesby clowns are probably imitations of Pickle Herring.

[733] The lines (197-8)

‘Our old Fool’s bracelet is not made of gold But it is made of iron and good steel’

suggest the vaunt of the champions in the St. George plays.

[734] Is ‘Anthony’ a reminiscence of the Seven Champions? The Fool says (ll. 247-9), like Beelzebub in the St. George plays,

‘Here comes I that never come yet, ... I have a great head but little wit.’

He also jests (l. 229) on his ‘tool’; cf. p. 196 n.

[735] Brand, i. 278; Dyer, 37; Ditchfield, 47; Drake, 65; Mrs. Chaworth Musters, _A Cavalier Stronghold_, 387. Plough Monday is the Monday after Twelfth night, when the field work begins. A plough is dragged round the village and a _quête_ made. The survivals of the custom are mainly in the north, east and east midlands. In the city, a banquet marks the day. A Norfolk name is ‘Plowlick Monday,’ and a Hunts one ‘Plough-Witching.’ The plough is called the ‘Fool Plough,’ ‘Fond Plough,’ ‘Stot Plough’ or ‘White Plough’; the latter name probably from the white shirts worn (cf. p. 200). At Cropwell, Notts, horses cut out in black or red adorn these. In Lincolnshire, bunches of corn were worn in the hats. Those who draw the plough are called ‘Plough Bullocks,’ ‘Boggons’ or ‘Stots.’ They sometimes dance a morris-or sword-dance, or act a play. At Haxey, they take a leading part in the Twelfth day ‘Hood-game’ (p. 150). In Northants their faces are blackened or reddled. The plough is generally accompanied by the now familiar grotesques, ‘Bessy’ and the Fool or ‘Captain Cauf-Tail.’ In Northants there are two of each; the Fools have humps, and are known as ‘Red Jacks’; there is also a ‘Master.’ In Lincolnshire, reapers, threshers, and carters joined the procession. A contribution to the _quête_ is greeted with the cry of ‘Largess!’ and a churl is liable to have the ground before his door ploughed up. Of old the profits of the _quête_ or ‘plow-gadrin’ went into the parish chest, or as in Norfolk kept a ‘plow-light’ burning in the church. A sixteenth century pamphlet speaks of the ‘sensing the Ploughess’ on Plough Monday. Jevons, 247, calls the rite a ‘worship of the plough’; probably it rather represents an early spring perambulation of the fields in which the divinity rode upon a plough, as elsewhere upon a ship. A ploughing custom of putting a loaf in the furrow has been noted. Plough Monday has also its water rite. The returning ploughman was liable to be soused by the women, like the bearer of the ‘neck’ at harvest. Elsewhere, the women must get the kettle on before the ploughman can reach the hearth, or pay forfeit.

[736] Printed by Mrs. Chaworth Musters in _A Cavalier Stronghold_ (1890), 388, and in a French translation by Mrs. H. G. M. Murray-Aynsley, in _R. d. T. P._ iv. 605.

[737] ‘Hopper Joe’ also calls himself ‘old Sanky-Benny,’ which invites interpretation. Is it ‘Saint Bennet’ or ‘Benedict’?

[738]

‘In comes I, Beelzebub, On my shoulder I carry my club, In my hand a wet leather frying-pan; Don’t you think I’m a funny old man?’

Cf. the St. George play (p. 214).

[739] ‘Dame Jane’ says,

‘My head is made of iron, My body made of steel, My hands and feet of knuckle-bone, I think nobody can make me feel.’

In the Lincolnshire play Beelzebub has this vaunt. Cf. the St. George play (p. 220).

[740] The Doctor can cure ‘the hipsy-pipsy, palsy, and the gout’; cf. the St. George play (p. 213).

[741] Printed in French by Mrs. Murray Aynsley in _R. d. T. P._ iv. 609.

[742] The farce recorded as occasionally introduced at Whitby (cf. p. 192, n. 1) but not described, probably belonged to the ‘popular’ type.

[743] Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, 169, prints a Peebles version. Instead of George, a hero called Galatian fights the Black Knight. Judas, with his bag, replaces Beelzebub. But it is the same play. Versions or fragments of it are found all over the Lowlands. The performers are invariably called ‘guizards.’ In a Falkirk version the hero is Prince George of Ville. Hone, _E. D. B._, says that the hero is sometimes Galacheus or St. Lawrence. But in another Falkirk version, part of which he prints, the name is Galgacus, and of this both Galacheus and Galatian are probably corruptions, for Galgacus or Calgacus was the leader of the Picts in their battle with Agricola at the Mons Graupius (A. D. 84; Tacitus, _Agricola_, 29).

[744] Appendix K. Other versions may be conveniently compared in Manly, i. 289; Ditchfield, 310. The best discussions of the St. George plays in general, besides Mr. Ordish’s, are J. S. Udall, _Christmas Mummers in Dorsetshire_ (_F. L. R._ iii. 1. 87); Jackson and Burne, 482; G. L. Gomme, _Christmas Mummers_ (_Nature_, Dec. 23, 1897). The notes and introductions to the versions tabulated above give many useful data.

[745] In _F. L._ x. 351, Miss Florence Grove describes some Christmas mummers seen at Mullion, Cornwall, in 1890-1. ‘Every one naturally knows who the actors are, since there are not more than a few hundred persons within several miles; but no one is supposed to know who they are or where they come from, nor must any one speak to them, nor they to those in the houses they visit. As far as I can remember the performance is silent and dramatic; I have no recollection of reciting.’ The dumb show is rare and probably a sign of decadence, but the bit of rural etiquette is archaic and recurs in savage drama.

[746] In Berkshire and at Eccleshall, Slasher is ‘come from Turkish land.’ On the other hand, the two often appear in the same version, and even, as at Leigh, fight together.

[747] Burne-Jackson, 483.

[748] Ibid. 483. He appears in the MSS. written by the actors as ‘Singuy’ or ‘Singhiles.’ Professor Skeat points out that, as he ‘sprang from English ground,’ St. Guy (of Warwick) was probably the original form, and St. Giles a corruption.

[749] Here may be traced the influence of the Napoleonic wars. In Berkshire, Slasher is a ‘French officer.’

[750] _F. L._ v. 88.

[751] Ditchfield, 12.

[752] Sandys, 153.

[753] P. Tennant, _Village Notes_, 179.

[754] Beelzebub appears also in the Cropwell Plough Monday play; cf. p. 209. Doubtless he once wore a calf-skin, like other rural ‘Fools,’ but, as far as I know, this feature has dropped out. Sandys, 154, however, quotes ‘Captain Calf-tail’ as the name of the ‘Fool’ in an eighteenth-century Scotch version, and Mr. Gomme (_Nature_, Dec. 23, 1897), says ‘some of the mummers, or maskers as the name implies, formerly disguised themselves as animals--goats, oxen, deer, foxes and horses being represented at different places where details of the mumming play have been recorded.’ Nowadays, Beelzebub generally carries a club and a ladle or frying-pan, with which he makes the _quête_. At Newport and Eccleshall he has a bell fastened on his back; at Newbold he has a black face. The ‘Fool’ figured in the Manchester chap-book resembles Punch.

[755] See notes to Steyning play in _F. L. J._ ii. 1.

[756] Mr. Gomme, in _Nature_ for Dec. 23, 1897, finds in this broom ‘the magic weapon of the witch’ discussed by Pearson, ii. 29. Probably, however, it was introduced into the plays for the purposes of the _quête_; cf. p. 217. It is used also to make a circle for the players, but here it may have merely taken the place of a sword.

[757] Parish, _Dict. of Sussex Dialect_, 136. The mummers are called ‘John Jacks.’

[758] Cf. p. 268, n. 4.

[759] Sandys, 301.

[760] Cf. Capulet, in _Romeo and Juliet_, i. 5. 28 ‘A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls’; and Puck who precedes the dance of fairies in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, v. 1. 396

‘I am sent with broom before, To sweep the dust behind the door.’

[761] Ditchfield, 315. ‘The play in this village is performed in most approved fashion, as the Rector has taken the matter in hand, coached the actors in their parts, and taught them some elocution.’ This sort of thing, of course, is soon fatal to folk-drama.

[762] Burne-Jackson, 484; Manly, i. 289.

[763] Burne-Jackson, 402, 410; _F. L._ iv. 162; Dyer, 504. The broom is used in Christmas and New Year _quêtes_ in Scotland and Yorkshire, even when there is no drama. Northall 205, gives a Lancashire Christmas song, sung by ‘Little David Doubt’ with black face, skin coat and broom. At Bradford they ‘sweep out the Old Year’; at Wakefield they sweep up dirty hearths. In these cases the notion of threatening to do the unlucky thing has gone.

[764] Ditchfield, 12. An ‘Old Bet’ is mentioned in 5 _N. Q._ iv. 511, as belonging to a Belper version. The woman is worked in with various ingenuity, but several versions have lost her. The prologue to the Newcastle chap-book promises a ‘Dives’ who never appears. Was this the woman? In the Linton in Craven sword-dance, she has the similar name of ‘Miser.’

[765] I hardly like to trace a reminiscence of the connexion with the _renouveau_ in the ‘General Valentine’ and ‘Colonel Spring’ who fight and are slain in the Dorset (A) version; but there the names are. Mr. Gomme (_Nature_ for Dec. 23, 1897) finds in certain mumming costumes preserved in the Anthropological Museum at Cambridge and made of paper scales, a representation of leaves of trees. Mr. Ordish, I believe, finds in them the scales of the dragon (_F. L._ iv. 163). Some scepticism may be permitted as to these conjectures. In most places the dress represents little but rustic notions of the ornamental. Cf. Thomas Hardy, _The Return of the Native_, bk. ii. ch. 3: ‘The girls could never be brought to respect tradition in designing and decorating the armour: they insisted on attaching loops and bows of silk and velvet in any situation pleasing to their taste. Gorget, gusset, bassinet, cuirass, gauntlet, sleeve, all alike in the view of these feminine eyes were practicable spaces whereon to sew scraps of fluttering colour.’ The usual costume of the sword-dancers, as we have seen (p. 200), was a clean white smock, and probably that of the mummers is based upon this.

[766] T. F. Ordish, in _F. L._ iv. 158.

[767] Printed in _The Old English Drama_ (1830), vol. iii. Burne-Jackson, 490, think that ‘the masque owes something to the play,’ but the resemblances they trace are infinitesimal. A play of _St. George for England_, by William or Wentworth Smith, was amongst the manuscripts destroyed by Warburton’s cook, and a Bartholomew Fair ‘droll’ of _St. George and the Dragon_ is alluded to in the _Theatre of Compliments_, 1688 (Fleay, _C. H._ ii. 251; Hazlitt, _Manual_, 201).

[768] In the Dorset (A) version, the king of Egypt is ‘Anthony’ and the doctor ‘Mr. Martin Dennis.’ Conceivably these are reminiscences of St. Anthony of Padua and St. Denys of France. The Revesby Plough Monday play (cf. p. 208) has also an ‘Anthony.’ The ‘Seven Champions’ do not appear in the English sword-dances described in ch. ix, but the morris-dancers at Edgemond wake used to take that name (Burne-Jackson, 491). Mrs. Nina Sharp writes in _F. L. R._ iii. 1. 113: ‘I was staying at Minety, near Malmesbury, in Wilts (my cousin is the vicar), when the mummers came round (1876). They went through a dancing fight in two lines opposed to each other--performed by the Seven Champions of Christendom. There was no St. George, and they did not appear to have heard of the Dragon. When I inquired for him, they went through the performance of drawing a tooth--the tooth produced, after great agony, being a horse’s. The mummers then carried into the hall a bush gaily decorated with coloured ribbons.... [They] were all in white smock frocks and masks. At Acomb, near York, I saw very similar mummers a few years ago, but they distinguished St. George, and the Dragon was a prominent person. There was the same tooth-drawing, and I think the Dragon was the patient, and was brought back to life by the operation.’ I wonder whether the ‘Seven Champions’ were _named_ or whether Mrs. Sharp _inferred them_. Anyhow, there could not have been _seven_ at Minety, without St. George. The ‘bush’ is an interesting feature. According to C. R. Smith, _Isle of Wight Words_ (_Eng. Dial. Soc._ xxxii. 63) the mummers are known in Kent as the ‘Seven Champions.’

[769] Entered on the _Stationers’ Registers_ in 1596. The first extant edition is dated 1597. Johnson first introduced Sabra, princess of Egypt, into the story; in the mediaeval versions, the heroine is an unnamed princess of Silena in Libya. The mummers’ play follows Johnson, and makes it Egypt. On Johnson was based Heylin’s _History of St. George_ (1631 and 1633), and on one or both of these Kirke’s play.

[770] Jackson and Burne, 489: ‘Miss L. Toulmin Smith ... considers that the diction and composition of the [Shropshire] piece, as we now have it, date mainly from the seventeenth century.’

[771] Dyer, 193; Anstis, _Register of the Garter_ (1724), ii. 38; E. Ashmole, _Hist. of the Garter_ (ed. 1672), 188, 467; (ed. 1715), 130, 410.

[772] F. Blomefield, _Hist. of Norfolk_ (1805), iv. 6, 347; Mackerell, MS. _Hist. of Norfolk_ (1737), quoted in _Norfolk Archaeology_, iii. 315; _Notices Illustrative of Municipal Pageants and Processions_ (with plates, publ. C. Muskett, Norwich, 1850); Toulmin Smith, _English Gilds_ (E. E. T. S.), 17, 443; Kelly, 48. Hudson and Tingey, _Cal. of Records of Norwich_ (1898), calendar many documents of the guild.

[773] Hartland, iii. 58, citing Jacobus à Voragine, _Legenda Aurea_, xciii, gives the story of St. Margaret, and the appearance of the devil to her in the shape of a dragon. She was in his mouth, but made the sign of the cross, and he burst asunder.

[774] Cf. p. 177.

[775] Kelly, 37. The ‘dressyng of the dragon’ appears in the town accounts for 1536. The guild had dropped the riding, even before the Reformation.

[776] Harris, 97, 190, 277; Kelly, 41. The guild was formed by journeymen in 1424. Probably there was a riding. In any case, at the visit of Prince Edward in 1474, there was a pageant or _mystère mimé_ ‘upon the Conddite in the Crosse Chepyng’ of ‘seint George armed and Kynges dought^r knelyng afore hym w^t a lambe and the fader and the moder beyng in a toure a boven beholdyng seint George savyng their dought^r from the dragon.’ There was a similar pageant at the visit of Prince Arthur in 1498.

[777] Kelly, 42.

[778] Morris, 139, 168; Fenwick, _Hist. of Chester_, 372; Dyer, 195. The Fraternity of St. George was founded for the encouragement of shooting in 1537. They had a chapel with a George in the choir of St. Peter’s. St. George’s was the great day for races on the Rooddee. In 1610 was a famous show, wherein St. George was attended by Fame, Mercury, and various allegorical figures.

[779] Cf. _Representations_, s. v. York, Dublin.

[780] Dyer, 194, gives from Coates, _Hist. of Reading_, 221, the account for setting-up a ‘George’ in 1536. Dugdale, _Hist. of Warwickshire_, 928, has a notice of a legacy in 1526 by John Arden to Aston church of his ‘white harneis ... for a George to were it, and to stand on his pewe, a place made for it.’

[781] R. W. Goulding, _Louth Records_, quotes from the churchwardens’ accounts for 1538 payments for taking down the image of St. George and his horse.

[782] _Representations_, s. v. Windsor, Lydd, New Romney, Bassingbourne.

[783] For the legend, see _Acta Sanctorum_, _April_, iii. 101; Jacobus à Voragine, _Legenda Aurea_ (1280), lviii; E. A. W. Budge, _The Martyrdom and Miracles of St. George of Cappadocia: the Coptic Texts_ (Oriental Text Series, 1888). In Rudder, _Hist. of Gloucestershire_, 461, and _Gloucester F. L._ 47, is printed an English version of the legend, apparently used for reading in church on the Sunday preceding St. George’s day, April 23. Cf. also Gibbon (ed. Bury), ii. 472, 568; Hartland, _Perseus_, iii. 38; Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, 266; Zöckler, s. v. St. Georg, in Herzog and Plitt’s _Encyclopedia_; F. Görres, _Ritter St. Georg in Geschichte, Legende und Kunst, in Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie_, xxx (1887), 54; F. Vetter, _Introduction_ to Reimbot von Durne’s _Der heilige Georg_ (1896). Gibbon identified St. George with the Arian bishop George of Cappadocia, and the dragon with Athanasius. This view has been recently revived with much learning by J. Friedrich in _Sitzb. Akad. Wiss. München_ (_phil.-hist. Kl._), 1899, ii. 2. Pope Gelasius (†495) condemned the _Passio_ as apocryphal and heretical, but he admits the historical existence of the saint, whose cult indeed was well established both in East and West in the fifth century. Budge tries to find an historical basis for him in a young man at Nicomedia who tore down an edict during the persecution of Diocletian (†303), and identifies his torturer Dadianus with the co-emperor Galerius.

[784] Du Méril, _La Com._ 98. He quotes Novidius, _Sacri Fasti_ (ed. 1559), bk. vi. f. 48^{vo}:

‘perque annos duci monet [rex] in spectacula casum unde datur multis annua scena locis.’

A fifteenth-century Augsburg miracle-play of St. George is printed by Keller, _Fastnachtsspiele_, No. 125; for other Continental data cf. Creizenach, i. 231, 246; Julleville, _Les Myst._ ii. 10, 644; D’Ancona, i. 104.

[785] Rabelais, _Gargantua_, iv. 59. The dragon was called Graoully, and snapped its jaws, like the Norwich ‘snap-dragons’ and the English hobby-horse.

[786] Cf. p. 138. The myth has attached itself to other undoubtedly historical persons besides St. George (Bury, _Gibbon_, ii. 569). In his case it is possibly due to a misunderstood bit of rhetoric. In the Coptic version of the legend edited by Budge (p. 223), Dadianus is called ‘the dragon of the abyss.’ There is no literal dragon in this version: the princess is perhaps represented by Alexandra, the wife of Dadianus, whom George converts. Cf. Hartland, _Perseus_, iii. 44.

[787] Cf. ch. xxiv, as to these plays.

[788] I ought perhaps to say that in one of the Coptic versions of the legend St. George is periodically slain and brought back to life by a miracle during the space of seven years. But I do not think that this episode occurs in any of the European versions of the legend.

[789] ‘Sant George and the dragon’ are introduced into a London May-game in 1559 (ch. viii).

[790] See the Manchester _Peace Egg_ chap-book. At Manchester, Langdale, and, I believe, Coniston, the play is performed at Easter: cf. Halliwell, _Popular Rhymes_, 231. The Steyning play is believed to have been given at May-day as well as Christmas. Of course, so far as this goes, the transference might have been from Christmas, not to Christmas, but the German analogies point the other way. The Cheshire performance on All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2), mentioned by Child, v. 291, is, so far as I know, exceptional.

[791] Cf. ch. xvii: In the Isle of Wight the performers are called the ‘Christmas Boys’ (C. R. Smith, _Isle of Wight Words_, in _E. D. S._ xxxii. 63). The terms ‘Seven Champions’ (Kent) and ‘John Jacks’ (Salisbury) have already been explained. The Steyning ‘Tipteers’ or ‘Tipteerers’ may be named from the ‘tips’ collected in the _quête_. The ‘Guisers’ of Staffordshire become on the Shropshire border ‘Morris-dancers,’ ‘Murry-dancers,’ or ‘Merry-dancers’--a further proof of the essential identity of the morris- or sword-dance with the play.

[792] Tille, _Y. and C._ 78, 107; Rhys, _C. H._ 519; cf. ch. v.

[793] Tille, _Y. and C._ 18; _D. W._ 6. Bede, _D. T. R._ 15, gives Blot-monath as the Anglo-Saxon name for November, and explains it as ‘mensis immolationum, quia in ea pecora quae occisuri erant, Diis suis voverent.’

[794] Burton, 15, notes a tradition at Disley, in Cheshire, that the local wake was formerly held after the first fall of snow.

[795] Tille, _Y. and C._ 18.

[796] Mogk, iii. 391; Tille, _Y. and C._ 24, find the winter feast in the festival of Tanfana which the Marsi were celebrating when Germanicus attacked them in A. D. 14 (Tacitus, _Ann._ i. 51). Winter, though imminent, had not yet actually set in, but this might be the case in any year after the festival had come to be determined by a fixed calendar.

[797] Tille, _Y. and C._ 57.

[798] Rhys, _C. H._ 513, says that the _Samhain_ fell on Nov. 1. The preceding night was known as _Nos Galan-geaf_, the ‘night of winter calends,’ and that following as _Dy’ gwyl y Meirw_, ‘the feast of the Dead.’ In _F. L._ ii. 308 he gives the date of the Manx _Samhain_ as Nov. 12, and explains this as being Nov. 1, O. S. But is it not really the original date of the feast which has been shifted elsewhere to the beginning of the month?

[799] Tille, _Y. and C._ 12, citing M. Heyne, _Ulfilas_, 226: ‘In a Gothic _calendarium_ of the sixth century November, or _Naubaímbaír_, is called _fruma Iiuleis_, which presupposes that December was called *_aftuma Iiuleis_.’

[800] Bede, _de temp. rat._ c. 15. Tille, _Y. and C._ 20, points out that the application of the old tide-name to fit November and December by the Goths and December and January by the Anglo-Saxons is fair evidence for the belief that the tide itself corresponded to a period from mid-November to mid-January.

[801] Tille, _Y. and C._ 147. The terms _gehhol_, _geóhel_, _geól_, _giúl_, _iûl_, &c. signify the Christmas festival season from the ninth century onwards, and from the eleventh also Christmas Day itself. The fifteenth-century forms are _Yule_, _Ywle_, _Yole_, _Yowle_. In the A.-S. Chronicle the terms used for Christmas are ‘midewinter,’ ‘Cristes mæssa,’ ‘Cristes tyde,’ ‘Natiuitedh.’ As a single word ‘Cristesmesse’ appears first in 1131 (Tille, _Y. and C._ 159). The German ‘Weihnacht’ (M.H.G. _wich_, ‘holy’) appears †1000 (Tille, _D. W._ 22).

[802] Pfannenschmidt, 238, 512.

[803] The notion is of a circular course of the sun, passing through the four turning- or wheeling-points of the solstices and equinoxes. Cf. ch. vi for the use of the wheel as a solar symbol.

[804] Mogk, iii. 391, quoting Kluge, _Englische Studien_, ix. 311, and Bugge, _Ark. f. nord. Filolog._ iv. 135. Tille, _Y. and C._ 8, 148, desirous to establish an Oriental origin for the Three Score Day tides, doubts the equation *_jehwela_ = _ioculus_, and suggests a connexion between the Teutonic terms and the old Cypriote names ἰλαῖος, ἰουλαῖος, ἰουλίηος, ἰούλιος for the period Dec. 22 to Jan. 23 (K. F. Hermann, _Über griech. Monatskunde_, 64), and, more hesitatingly, with the Greek Ἴουλος or hymn to Ceres. Weinhold, _Deutsche Monatsnamen_, 4; _Deutsche Jahrteilung_, 15, thinks that both the Teutonic and Cypriote names are the Roman _Julius_ transferred from mid-summer to mid-winter. Northall, 208, makes _yule_ = _ol_, _oel_, a feast or ‘ale,’ for which I suppose there is nothing to be said. Skeat, _Etym. Dict._ s. v., makes it ‘a time of revelry,’ and connects with M.E. _youlen_, _yollen_, to ‘yawl’ or ‘yell,’ and with A.-S. _gýlan_, Dutch _joelen_, to make merry, G. _jolen_, _jodeln_, to sing out. He thus gets in a different way much the sense given in the text.

[805] At a Cotswold Whitsun ale a lord and lady ‘of yule’ were chosen (_Gloucester F. L._ 56). Rhys, _C. H._ 412, 421, 515, and in _F. L._ ii. 305, gives _Gwyl_ as a Welsh term for ‘feast’ in general, and in

## particular mentions, besides the _Gwyl y Meirw_ at the _Samhain_,

the _Gwyl Aust_ (Aug. 1, Lammas or Lugnassad Day). This also appears in Latin as the _Gula Augusti_ (Ducange, s. v. temp. Edw. III), and in English as ‘the Gule of August’ (Hearne, _Robert of Gloucester’s Chron._ 679). Tille, _Y. and C._ 56, declares that _Gula_ here is only a mutilation of _Vincula_, Aug. 1 being in the ecclesiastical calendar the feast of St. Peter _ad Vincula_.

[806] Kluge and Lutz, _English Etymology_, s. v. Yule.

[807] Bede, _D. T. R._ c. 15 ‘ipsam noctem nobis sacrosanctam, tunc gentili vocabulo _Modranicht_ [v.l. _Modraneht_], id est, matrum noctem appellabant; ob causam ut suspicamur ceremoniarum, quas in ea pervigiles agebant.’

[808] Mogk, iii. 391. Tille, _Y. and C._ 152, gives some earlier explanations, criticizes that of Mogk, and offers as his own a reference to a custom of baking a cake (_placenta_) to represent the physical motherhood of the Virgin. The practice doubtless existed and was condemned by Pope Hormisdas (514-23), by the Lateran Council of 649, the Council of Hatfield (680), and the Trullan Council (692). But Bede must have known this as a Christian abuse, and he is quite plainly speaking of a pre-Christian custom. J. M. Neale, _Essays in Liturgiology_ (1867), 511, says, ‘In most Celtic languages Christmas eve is called the night of Mary,’ the Virgin, here as elsewhere, taking over the cult of the mother-goddesses.

[809] Tille, _Y. and C._ 65. In his earlier book _D. W._ 7, 29, Dr. Tille held the view that there had always been a second winter feast about three weeks after the first, when the males held over for breeding were slain.

[810] According to Bede, _D. T. R._ c. 15, the Anglo-Saxons had adopted the system of intercalary months which belongs to the pre-Julian and not the Julian Roman calendar. But Bede’s chapter is full of confusions: cf. Tille, _Y. and C._ 145.

[811] All Saints’ day or Hallowmas (November 1) and All Souls’ day (November 2) have largely, though not wholly, absorbed the November feast of the Dead.

[812] Pfannenschmidt, 203; Jahn, 229; Tille, _Y. and C._ 21, 28, 36, 42, 57; _D. W._ 23.

[813] Tille, _D. W._ 29; Müller, 239, 248. According to Tille, _D. W._ 63, Christmas only replaced the days of St. Martin and St. Nicholas as a German children’s festival in the sixteenth century.

[814] Tille, _Y. and C._ 34, 65; Pfannenschmidt, 206; Dyer, 418; N. Drake, _Shakespeare and his Times_ (1838), 93. Martinmas was a favourite Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval legal term. It survived also as a traditional ‘tyme of slauchter’ for cattle. ‘Martlemas beef’ was a common term for salt beef. In Scotland a Mart is a fat cow or bullock, but the derivation of this appears to be from a Celtic word _Mart_ = cow.

[815] Rhys, in _F. L._ ii. 308.

[816] Mommsen, _C. I. L._ i^2. 287; Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._ s. v. _Bruma_; Tomaschek, in _Sitzb. Akad. Wiss. Wien_, lx (1869), 358.

[817] Ovid, _Fasti_, i. 163 ‘bruma novi prima est veterisque novissima solis.’

[818] Cf. p. 112.

[819] Preller, ii. 408; P. Allard, _Julien l’Apostat_, i. 16; J. Réville, _La Religion à Rome sous les Sévères_ (1885); Wissowa, 306. An earlier cult of the same type introduced by Elagabalus did not survive its founder.

[820] The earliest reference is probably that in the calendar of the Greek astronomer, of uncertain date, Antiochus, Ἡλίου γενέθλιον· αὔξει φῶς (Cumont, i. 342, from _Cod. Monac._ gr. 287, f. 132). The _Fasti_ of Furius Dionysius Philocalus (A.D. 354) have ‘VIII. KAL. IAN. N[atalis] INVICTI C[ircenses] M[issus] XXX’ (_C. I. L._ i^2. 278, 338). Cf. Julian, _Orat._ 4 (p. 156 ed. Spanheim) εὐθέως μετὰ τὸν τελευταῖον τοῦ Κρόνου μῆνα ποιοῦμεν ἡλίῳ τὸν περιφανέστατον ἀγῶνα, τὴν ἑορτὴν Ἡλίῳ καταφημίσαντες Ἀνικήτῳ; Corippus, _de laud. Iust. min._ i. 314 ‘Solis honore novi grati spectacula circi’; cf. the Christian references on p. 242. Mommsen’s _Scriptor Syrus_ quoted _C. I. L._ i^2. 338 tells us that lights were used; ‘accenderunt lumina festivitatis causa.’

[821] Preller, ii. 410; Gibbon, ii. 446.

[822] On Mithraicism, cf. F. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra_ (1896-9); also the art. by the same writer in Roscher’s _Lexicon_, ii. 3028, and A. Gasquet, _Le Culte de Mithra_ (_Revue des Deux Mondes_ for April 1, 1899); J. Réville, _La Religion à Rome sous les Sévères_, 77; Wissowa, 307; Preller, ii. 410; A. Gardner, _Julian the Apostate_, 175; P. Allard, _Julien l’Apostat_, i. 18; ii. 232; G. Zippel, _Le Taurobolium_, in _Festschrift f. L. Friedländer_ (1895), 498. Mithra was originally a form of the Aryan Sun-god, who though subordinated in the Mazdean system to Ahoura Mazda continued to be worshipped by the Persian folk. His cult made its appearance in Rome about 70 B.C., and was developed during the third and fourth centuries A.D. under philosophic influences. Mithra was regarded as the fount of all life, and the yearly obscuration of the sun’s forces in winter became a hint and promise of immortality to his worshippers: cf. _Carm. adv. paganos_, 47 ‘qui hibernum docuit sub terra quaerere solem.’ Mithraic votive stones have been found in all parts of the empire, Britain included. They are inscribed ‘Soli Invicto,’ ‘Deo Soli Invicto Mithrae,’ ‘Numini Invicto Soli Mithrae,’ and the like.

[823] Cumont, _Textes et Mon._ i. 325; ii. 66, and in Roscher’s _Lexicon_, ii. 3065; Lichtenberger, _Encycl. des Sciences religieuses_, s. v. Mithra.

[824] Preller, _R. M._ ii. 15; Mommsen, in _C. I. L._ i^2. 337; Marquardt and Mommsen, _Handbuch der römischen Alterthümer_, vi. 562; _Dict. of Cl. A._ s. v. Saturnalia; Tille, _Y. and C._ 85; Frazer, iii. 138; W. W. Fowler, 268; C. Dezobry, _Rome au Siècle d’Auguste_ (ed. 4, 1875), iii. 140.

[825] Horace, _Satires_, ii. 7. 4:

‘age, libertate Decembri, quando ita maiores voluerunt, utere; narra.’

[826] The democratic character of the feast is brought out in the νόμοι put by Lucian (Luc. _Opp._ ed. Jacobitz, iii. 307; _Saturnalia_, p. 393) in the mouth of the divinely instructed νομοθέτης, Chronosolon, and in the ‘Letters of Saturn’ that follow.

[827] According to Tacitus, _Ann._ xiii. 15, Nero was king of the Saturnalia at the time of the murder of Britannicus. On the nature of this sovereignty, cf. Arrian, _Epictetus_, i. 25; Martial, xi. 6:

‘unctis falciferi senis diebus, regnator quibus imperat fritillus.’

Lucian, _Saturnalia_, p. 385, introduces a dialogue between Saturn and his priests. Saturn says ἑπτὰ μὲν ἡμερῶν ἡ πᾶσα βασιλεία, καὶ ἢν ἐκπρόθεσμος τούτων γένωμαι, ἰδιώτης εὐθύς εἰμι, καὶ τοῦ πολλοῦ δήμου εἷσ· ἐν αὐταῖς δέ ταῖς ἑπτὰ σπουδαῖον μὲν οὐδὲν οὐδὲ ἀγοραῖον διοικήσασθαί μοι συγκεχώρηται, πίνειν δὲ καὶ μεθύειν καὶ βοᾶν καὶ παίζειν καὶ κυβεύειν καὶ ἄρχοντας καθίσταναι καὶ τοὺς οἰκέτας εὐωχεῖν καὶ γυμνὸν ἄδειν καὶ κροτεῖν ὑποτρέμοντα, ἐνίοτε δὲ καὶ ἐς ὕδωρ ψυχρὸν ἐπὶ κεφαλὴν ὠθεῖσθαι ἀσβόλῳ κεχρισμένον τὸ πρόσωπον, ταῦτα ἐφεῖταί μοι ποιεῖν; and again: εὐωχώμεθα δὲ ἤδη καὶ κροτῶμεν καὶ ἐπὶ τῆ ἑορτῆ ἐλευθεριάζωμεν, εἲτα πεττεύωμεν ἐς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἐπὶ καρύων καὶ βασιλέας χειροτονῶμεν καὶ πειθαρχῶμεν αὐτοῖσ· οὕτω γὰρ ἂν τὴν παροιμίαν ἐπαληθεύσαιμι, ἥ φησι, παλίμπαιδας τοὺς γέροντας γίγνεσθαι. The ducking is curiously suggestive of western festival customs, but I do not feel sure whether it was the image of Saturn that was ducked or the _rex_ with whom he appears to half, and only half, identify himself. Frazer, iii. 140, lays stress on the primitive sacrificial character of the ‘rex,’ who is said still to have been annually slain in Lower Moesia at the beginning of the fourth century A.D.; cf. _Acta S. Dasii_, in _Acta Bollandiana_, xvi. (1897), 5; Parmentier et Cumont, _Le Roi des Saturnales_, in _R. de Philologie_, xxi (1897), 143.

[828] Frazer, iii. 144, suggests that the _Saturnalia_ may once have been in February, and have left a trace of themselves in the similar festival of the female slaves, the _Matronalia_, on March 1, which, like the winter feasts, came in for Christian censure; cf. Appendix N. No. (i).

[829] Preller, _R. M._ i. 64, 178; ii. 13; C. Dezobry, _Rome au Siècle d’Auguste_ (ed. 4, 1875), ii. 169; Mommsen and Marquardt, vi. 545; vii. 245; Roscher, _Lexicon_, ii. 37; W. W. Fowler, 278; Tille, _Y. and C._ 84; M. Lipenius, _Strenarum Historia_ in J. G. Graevius, _Thesaurus Antiq. Rom._ (1699), xii. 409. The last-named treatise contains a quantity of information set out with some obsolete learning. The most important contemporary account is that of Libanius (314-†95) in his είς τὰς καλάνδας and his καλανδῶν ἔκφρασις (ed. Reiske, i. 256; iv. 1053; cf. Sievers, _Das Leben der Libanius_, 170, 204). In the former speech he says ταύτην τὴν ἑορτὴν εὔροι τ’ ἂν τεταμένην ἐφ’ ἅπαν, ὅσον ἡ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴ τέταται, in the latter, μίαν δὲ οἶδα κοινὴν ἁπάντων ὁπόσοι ζῶσιν ὑπὸ τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχήν. Under the emperors, who made much of the _strenae_ and _vota_, the importance of the Kalends grew, probably at the expense of the Saturnalia; cf. Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i. 2. 1 ‘adsunt feriae quas indulget magna pars mensis Iano dicati.’

[830] Preller, i. 180; Mommsen and Marquardt, vi. 14; vii. 245; W. W. Fowler, 278; Tille, _Y. and C._ 84, 104. _Strenia_ was interpreted in the sense of ‘strenuous’; cf. Symmachus, _Epist._ x. 15 ‘ab exortu paene urbis Martiae strenarum usus adolevit auctore Tatio rege, qui verbenas felicis arboris ex luco Streniae anni novi auspices primus accepit.... Nomen indicio est viris strenuis haec convenire virtute.’ Preller calls Strenia a Sabine _Segensgöttin_.

[831] Mommsen and Marquardt, vii. 245; Lipenius, 489. The gifts were often inscribed ‘anno novo faustum felix tibi.’ It is probable that the sweet cakes and the lamps like the _verbenae_ had originally a closer connexion with the rites of the feast than that of mere omens. The emperors expected liberal _strenae_, and from them the custom passed into mediaeval and Renaissance courts. Queen Elizabeth received sumptuous new year gifts from her subjects. For a money payment the later empire used the term καλανδικόν or _kalendaticum_. _Strenae_ survives in the French _étrennes_ (Müller, 150, 504).

[832] Appendix N, Nos. (i), (ii).

[833] The most recent authorities are Tille, _Y. and C._ 119; H. Usener, _Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen_, i, _Das Weihnachtsfest_ (1889); L. Duchesne, _Origines du Culte chrétien_ (ed. 2, 1898), 247, and in _Bulletin critique_ (1890), 41; F. C. Conybeare, _The History of Christmas_, in _American Journal of Theology_ (1899), iii. 1, and _Introduction_ to _The Key of Truth_ (1898); F. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments mithraïques_, i (1899), 342, 355. I have not been able to see an article praised by Mr. Conybeare, in P. de Lagarde, _Mittheilungen_ (1890), iv. 241.

[834] Conybeare, _Am. J. Th._ iii. 7, cites, without giving exact references, two ‘north Italian homilies’ of the fourth century, which seem to show this.

[835] _Sermo_ ccii (_P. L._ xxxviii. 1033).

[836] The _depositio martyrum_, attached to the _Fasti_ of Philocalus drawn up in 354, opens with the entry ‘viii kl. ianu. natus Christus in Bethleem Iudeae.’ December 25 was therefore kept as the birthday at least as early as 353. Usener, i. 267, argued that the change must have taken place in this very year, because Liberius, while veiling Marcellina, the sister of St. Ambrose, on the Epiphany, spoke of the day as ‘natalem Sponsi tui’ (_de Virginibus_, iii. 1, in _P. L._ xvi. 219). But it is not proved either that this event took place in 363, or that it was on Epiphany rather than Christmas day. Liberius refers to the Marriage at Cana and the Feeding of the Five Thousand. But the first allusion is directly led up to by the _sponsalia_ of Marcellina, and both events, although at a later date commemorated at Epiphany, may have belonged to Christmas at Rome, before Epiphany made its appearance (Duchesne, _Bulletin critique_ (1890), 41). Usener adds that Liberius built the _Basilica Liberii_, also known as _Sta. Maria ad Praesepe_ or _Sta. Maria Maggiore_, which is still a great station for the Christmas ceremonies, in honour of the new feast. But Duchesne shows that the dedication to St. Mary only dates from a rebuilding in the fifth century, that the _praesepe_ cannot be traced there before the seventh, and that the original Christmas _statio_ was at St. Peter’s.

[837] Duchesne, _Bulletin critique_ (1890), 44. This document also belongs to the collection of Philocalus.

[838] Conybeare, _Key of Truth_, clii-clvii, quoting an Armenian bishop Hippolytus in _Bodl. Armen. Marsh_ 467, f. 338^a, ‘as many as were disobedient have divided the two feasts.’ According to the _Catechism of the Syrian Doctors_ in the same MS., Sahak asked Afrem why the churches feast Dec. 25: the teacher replied, ‘The Roman world does so from idolatry, because of the worship of the Sun. And on the 25th of Dec., which is the first of Qanûn; when the day made a beginning out of the darkness they feasted the Sun with great joy, and declared that day to be the nuptials [? ‘natals,’ but cf. p. 241, n. 1] of the Sun. However, when the Son of God was born of the Virgin, they celebrated the same feast, although they had turned from their idols to God. And when their bishops (_or_ primates) saw this, they proceeded to take the Feast of the Birth of Christ, which was on the sixth of January, and placed it there (viz. on Dec. 25). And they abrogated the feast of the Sun, because it (the Sun) was nothing, as we said before.’ Mommsen, _C. I. L._ i^2. 338, quotes to the same effect another _Scriptor Syrus_ (in Assemanus, _Bibl. Orient._ ii. 164): cf. p. 235. The early apologists (Tertullian, _Apol._ 16; _ad Nationes_, i. 13; Origen, _contra Celsum_, viii. 67) defend Christianity against pagan charges of Sun-worship.

[839] Conybeare, _J. Am. Th._ iii. 8.

[840] Most of these dates were in the spring (Duchesne, 247). As late as †243 the Pseudo-Cyprianic _de Pascha computus_ gives March 28. On the other hand, December 25 is given early in the third century by Hippolytus, _Comm. super Danielem_, iv. 23 (p. 243, ed. Bonwetsch, 1897), although the text has been suspected of interpolation (Hilgenfeld, in _Berlin. phil. Wochenschrift_, 1897, p. 1324, s.). Ananias of Shirak (†600-50), _Hom. de Nat._ (transl. in _Expositor_, Nov. 1890), says that the followers of Cerinthus first separated the birth and baptism: cf. Conybeare, _Key of Truth_, cliv. This is further explained by Paul of Taron (ob. 1123), _adv. Theopistum_, 222 (quoted Conybeare, clvi), who says that Artemon calculated the dates of the Annunciation as March 25 and the Birth as December 25, ‘the birth, not however of the Divine Being, but only of the mere man.’ Both Cerinthus (end of 1st cent.) and Artemon (†202-17) appear to have held Adoptionist tenets: cf. Schaff, iv. 465, 574. Paul adds that Artemon calculated the dates from those for the conception and nativity of John the Baptist. This implies that St. John Baptist’s day was already June 24 by †200. It was traditional on that day by St. Augustine’s time, ‘Hoc maiorum traditione suscepimus’ (_Sermo_ ccxcii. 1, in Migne, _P. L._ xxxviii. 1320). The six months’ interval between the two nativities may be inferred from _St. Luke_ i. 26. St. Augustine refers to the symbolism of their relation to each other, and quotes with regard to their position on the solstices the words ascribed to the Baptist in _St. John_ iii. 30 ‘illum oportet crescere, me autem minui’ (_Sermo_ cxciv. 2; cclxxxvii. 3; cclxxxviii. 5; Migne, _P. L._ xxxviii. 1016, 1302, 1306). Duchesne, 250, conjectures that the varying dates of West (Dec. 25) and East (Jan. 6) depended on a similar variation in the date assigned to the Passion, it being assumed in each case that the life of Christ must have been a complete circle, and that therefore he must have died on the anniversary of his conception in the womb. Thus St. Augustine (_in Heptat._ ii. 90) upbraids the Jews, ‘non coques agnum in lacte matris suae.’ March 25 was widely accepted for the Passion from Tertullian onwards, and certain Montanists held to the date of April 6. Astronomy makes it impossible that March 25 can be historically correct, and therefore the whole calculation, if Duchesne is right, probably started from an arbitrary identification of a Christian date with the spring equinox, just as, if Ananias of Shirak is right, it started from a similar identification of another such date with the summer solstice. But it seems just as likely that the birth was fixed first, and the Annunciation and St. John Baptist’s day calculated back from that. If the Passion had been the starting-point, would not the feast of Christmas, as distinct from the traditional date for the event, have become a movable one?

[841] The Armenian criticism just quoted only re-echoes that put by St. Augustine in the mouth of the Manichaeans in _Contra Faustum_, xx. 4 (_Corp. Script. Eccl._ xxv) ‘Faustus dixit ... solemnes gentium dies cum ipsis celebratis ut Kalendas et solstitia.’ Augustine answers other criticisms of the same order in the course of the book, but he does not take up this one.

[842] Augustine, in his sermons, uses a solar symbolism in two ways, besides drawing the parallel with St. John already quoted. Christ is _lux e tenebris_: ‘quoniam ipsa infidelitas quae totum mundum vice noctis obtexerat, minuenda fuerat fide crescente; ideo die Natalis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et nox incipit perpeti detrimenta, et dies sumere augmenta’ (_Sermo_ cxc. 1 in _P. L._ xxxviii. 1007). He is also _sponsus procedens de thalamo suo_ (_Sermo_ cxcii. 3; cxcv. 3, in _P. L._ xxxviii. 1013, 1018). Following this Caesarius or another calls Christmas the _dies nuptialis Christi_, on which ‘sponsae suae Ecclesiae adiunctus est’ (_Serm. Pseudo-Aug._ cxvi. 2, in _P. L._ xxxix. 1975). Cumont, i. 355, gives other examples of _Le Soleil Symbole du Christ_ from an early date, and especially of the use of the phrase _Sol Iustitiae_ from _Malachi_, iv. 2.

[843] Pseudo-Chrysostom (Italian, 4th cent.), _de solstitiis et aequinoctiis_ (_Op._ Chrys. ed. 1588, ii. 118) ‘Sed et dominus nascitur mense Decembri, hiemis tempore, viii kal. Ianuarias.... Sed et invicti natalem appellant. Quis utique tam invictus nisi dominus noster qui Mortem subactam devicit? vel quod dicant Solis esse natalem, ipse est Sol iustitiae de quo Malachias propheta dixit’; St. Augustine, _Sermo_ cxc. 1 (_P. L._ xxxviii. 1007) ‘habeamus, igitur, fratres, solemnem istum diem; non sicut infideles propter hunc solem, sed propter eum qui fecit hunc solem’; _Tract. in Iohann._ xxxiv. 2 (_P. L._ xxxv. 1652) ‘numquid forte Dominus Christus est Sol iste qui ortu et occasu peragit diem? Non enim defuerunt heretici qui ita senserunt ... (c. 4) ne quis carnaliter sapiens solem istum intelligendum putaret’; Pseudo-Ambrose (perhaps Maximus of Turin, †412-65), _Sermo_ vi. (_P. L._ xvii. 614) ‘bene quodammodo sanctum hunc diem natalis Domini solem novum vulgus appellat ... quod libenter nobis amplectendum est; quia oriente Salvatore non solum humani generis salus, sed etiam solis ipsius claritas innovatur’; Leo Magnus, _Sermo_ xxii, _in Nativ. Dom._ (_P. L._ liv. 198) ‘Ne idem ille tentator, cuius iam a vobis dominationem Christus exclusit, aliquibus vos iterum seducat insidiis, et haec ipsa praesentis diei gaudia suae fallaciae arte corrumpat, illudens simplicioribus animis de quorumdam persuasione pestifera, quibus haec dies solemnitatis nostrae non tam de nativitate Christi quam de novi, ut dicunt, solis ortu honorabilis videatur’; _Sermo_ xxvii, _in Nat. Dom._ (_P. L._ liv. 218) ‘De talibus institutis etiam illa generatur impietas ut sol in inchoatione diurnae lucis exsurgens a quibusdam insipientioribus de locis eminentioribus adoretur; quod nonnulli etiam Christiani adeo se religiose facere putant, ut priusquam ad B. Petri apostoli basilicam, quae uni Deo vivo et vero est dedicata, perveniant, superatis gradibus quibus ad suggestum areae superioris ascenditur, converso corpore ad nascentem se solem reflectant, et curvatis cervicibus, in honorem se splendidi orbis inclinent. Quod fieri partim ignorantiae vitio, partim paganitatis spiritu, multum tabescimus et dolemus.’ Eusebius, _Sermo_ xxii. περὶ ἀστρονόμων (_P. G._ lxxxvi. 453), also refers to the adoration of the sun by professing Christians. The ‘tentator’ of Leo and the ‘heretici’ of Augustine are probably Manichaeus and his followers, against whose sun-worship Augustine argues at length in _Contra Faustum_, xx (_Corp. Script. Eccl._ xxv).

[844] Duchesne, 248.

[845] Cf. p. 14.

[846] _C. Agathense_, c. 21 (Mansi, viii. 328) ‘Pascha vero, natale domini, epiphania, ascensionem domini, pentecostem, et natalem S. Ioannis Baptistae, vel si qui maximi dies in festivitatibus habentur, non nisi in civitatibus aut in parochiis teneant.’

[847] _Conc. Bracarense_ (†560), Prop. 4 (Mansi, ix. 775) ‘Si quis natalem Christi secundum carnem non bene honorat, sed honorare se simulat, ieiunans in eodem die, et in dominico; quia Christum in vera hominis natura natum esse non credit, sicut Cerdon, Marcion, Manichaeus, et Priscillianus, anathema sit.’ A similar prohibition is given by Gregory II (†725), _Capitulare_, c. 10 (_P. L._ lxxxix. 534). To failings in the opposite direction the Church was more tender: cf. _Penitentiale Theodori_ (Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 177), _de Crapula et Ebrietate_ ‘Si vero pro infirmitate aut quia longo tempore se abstinuerit, et in consuetudine non erit ei multum bibere vel manducare, aut pro gaudio in Natale Domini aut in Pascha aut pro alicuius Sanctorum commemoratione faciebat, et tunc plus non accipit quam decretum est a senioribus, nihil nocet. Si episcopus iuberit, non nocet illi, nisi ipse similiter faciat.’

[848] Tille, _Y. and C._ 122.

[849] Cf. Appendix N, No. xxii.

[850] _Epist. Gregorii ad Eulogium_ (Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 12).

[851] _Epist. Bedae ad Egbertum_ (Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 323).

[852] _Leges Ethelredi_ (Thorpe, _Ancient Laws_, i. 309) ‘Ordâl and âdhar sindon tocweden ... fram Adventum Domini odh octavas Epiphanie.... And beo tham hâlgum tîdan eal swa hit riht is, eallum cristenum mannum sib and sôm gemæne, and ælc sacu getwæmed.’ Cf. _Leges Edwardi_ (Thorpe, i. 443).

[853] _C. Moguntiacum_, c. 36 (Mansi, xiv. 73) ‘In natali Domini dies quatuor, octavas Domini, epiphaniam Domini.’

[854] Tille, _Y. and C._ 203.

[855] Cf. the collection of prohibitions in Appendix N.

[856] _C. of Tours_, c. 18 (Appendix N, No. xxii).

[857] R. Sinker, in _D. C. A._ s. v. Circumcision.

[858] On this difficult subject see Tille, _Y. and C._ 134; H. Grotefend, _Taschenbuch der Zeitrechnung_ (1898), 11; F. Ruhl, _Chronologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit_ (1897), 23; C. Plummer, _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, ii. cxxix; R. L. Poole, in _Eng. Hist. Review_ (1901), 719.

[859] The position of Christmas would have made it natural that it should attract observances from the spring festivals also, and, in fact, it did attract the Mummers’ play: cf. p. 226. It cannot of course be positively said whether the Epiphany fires and some of the other agricultural rites to be presently mentioned (ch. xii) came from the November or the ploughing festival.

[860] _C. of Auxerre_ (573-603), c. 11 (Appendix N. No. xxv).

[861] In the south of France Christmas is _Chalendes_, in Provence _Calendas_ or _Calenos_. The log is _calignau_, _chalendau_, _chalendal_, _calignaon_, or _culenos_, and the peasants sang round it ‘Calène vient’ (Tille, _D. W._ 286; Müller, 475, 478). Thiers, i. 264, speaks of ‘le pain de Calende.’ Christmas songs used to be known in Silesia as _Kolendelieder_ (Tille, _D. W._ 287). The Lithuanian term for Christmas is _Kalledos_ and the Czechic _Koleda_ (Polish _Kolenda_, Russian _Koljada_). A verb _colendisare_ appears as a Bohemian law term (Tille, _Y. and C._ 84); while in the fourteenth century the Christmas _quête_ at Prague was known as the _Koledasammeln_ (Tille, _D. W._ 112). The Bohemian Christmas procession described by Alsso (cf. ch. xii) was called _Calendizatio_, and according to tradition St. Adalbert (tenth century) transferred it from the Kalends to Christmas, and called it _colendizatio_ ‘_a colendo_.’

[862] _C. of Auxerre_ (573-603), c. 5 (Appendix N, No. xxv). Pfannenschmidt, 498, has collected a number of notices of _Martinalia_ from the tenth century onwards.

[863] Pfannenschmidt, 279; Dyer, 386, describe the ‘Horn Fair’ at Charlton, Kent, on St. Luke’s Day, Oct. 18. A king and queen were chosen, who went in procession to the church, wearing horns. The visitors wore masks or women’s clothes, and played practical jokes with water. Rams’ horns were sold at the fair, which lasted three days, and the gilt on the gingerbread took the same shape. It will be remembered that the symbol of St. Luke in Christian art is a horned ox.

[864] Cf. p. 114. According to Spence, 196, the Shetland Christmas begins on St. Thomas’s Day and ends on Jan. 18, known as ‘Four and Twenty Day.’ Candlemas (Feb. 2) is also often regarded as the end of the Christmas season. The Anglo-Saxon Christmas feast lasted to the Octave of Epiphany (Tille, _Y. and C._ 165).

[865] Dyer, 451; Ashton, 118, where the custom is said to have been ‘started by the Rev. J. Kenworthy, Rector of Ackworth, in Yorkshire, ... for the special benefit of the birds.’

[866] Frazer, i. 177, ii. 172, 286; Grimm, iv. 1783; Tille, _D. W._ 50, 178; Alsso, in Usener, ii. 61, 65.

[867] Lipenius, 423; cf. Appendix N, Nos. i, vi, xiii, xxiv.

[868] Tille, _Y. and C._ 103, 174; Philpot, 164; Jackson and Burne, 397; Dyer, 457; Stow, _Survey of London_ (ed. 1618), 149 ‘Against the feast of Christmas, euery mans house, as also their parish Churches, were decked with Holm, Iuy, Bayes, and whatsoever the season of the yeere aforded to be greene. The Conduits and Standards in the streetes were, likewise, garnished.’ He gives an example from 1444.

[869] Burne-Jackson, 245, 397, 411; Ashton, 95. Customs vary: here the evergreens must be burnt; there given to the cattle. They should not touch the ground (Grimm, iii. 1207). With this taboo compare that described by ancient writers, probably on the authority of Posidonius, as existing in a cult of a god identified with Dionysus amongst the Namnites on the west coast of Gaul. A temple on an island was unroofed and reroofed by the priestesses annually. Did one of them drop her materials on the ground, she was torn to pieces by her companions (Rhys, _C. H._ 196). They are replaced on Candlemas by snowdrops, or, according to Herrick, ‘the greener box.’ In Shropshire a garland made of blackthorn is left hanging from New Year to New Year, and then burnt in a festival fire (_F. L._ x. 489; xii. 349).

[870] The Christmas, rivalry between holly and ivy is the subject of carols, some dating from the fifteenth century; cf. Ashton, 92; Burne-Jackson, 245.

[871] Grimm, iii. 1205.

[872] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxi. 95.

[873] Ashton, 81, 92; Ditchfield, 18; Brand, i. 285; Dyer, 458; Philpot, 164. Mistletoe is the chief ingredient of the ‘kissing-bunch,’ sometimes a very elaborate affair, with apples and dolls hung in it. The ecclesiastical taboo is not universal; in York Minster, e.g., mistletoe was laid on the altar.

[874] Tille, _Y. and C._ 174; _D. W._ 256, and in _F. L._ iii. 166; Philpot, 164; Ashton, 189; Kempe, _Loseley MSS._ 75. The earliest English mention is in 1789.

[875] Tille, _Y. and C._ 170.

[876] Ibid. 172; Ashton, 105, quoting Aubrey, _Natural Hist. of Wilts_, ‘Mr. Anthony Hinton, one of the officers of the Earle of Pembroke, did inoculate, not long before the late civill warres (ten yeares or more), a bud of Glastonbury Thorne, on a thorne, at his farm house, at Wilton, which blossoms at Christmas, as the other did. My mother has had branches of them for a flower-pott, several Christmasses, which I have seen. Elias Ashmole, Esq., in his notes upon _Theatrum Chymicum_, saies that in the churchyard at Glastonbury grew a walnutt tree, that did putt out young leaves at Christmas, as doth the King’s Oake in the New Forest. In Parham Park, in Suffolk (Mr. Boutele’s), is a pretty ancient thorne, that blossomes like that at Glastonbury; the people flock hither to see it on Christmas day. But in the rode that leades from Worcester to Droitwiche is a black thorne hedge at Clayes, half a mile long or more, that blossoms about Christmas-day for a week or more together. Dr. Ezerel Tong sayd that about Rumly-Marsh in Kent, are thornes naturally like that near Glastonbury. The Soldiers did cutt downe that near Glastonbury: the stump remaines.’ Specimens are still found about Glastonbury of _Crataegus oxyacantha praecox_, a winter-flowering variety of hawthorn: some of the alleged slips from the Glastonbury thorn appear, however, to be _Prunus communis_, or blackthorn. A writer in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1753 reports that the opponents of the ‘New Style’ introduced in 1752 were encouraged by the refusal of the thorns at Glastonbury and Quainton in Buckinghamshire to flower before Old Christmas day. A Somerset woman told a writer in 3 _N. Q._ ix. 33 that the buds of the thorns burst into flower at midnight on Christmas Eve, ‘As they comed out, you could hear ‘um haffer.’

[877] Tille, _Y. and C._ 175.

[878] Usener, ii. 61. Alsso says that St. Adalbert substituted a crucifix for the idol, and the cry of ‘Vele, Vele,’ for that of ‘Bely, Bely.’

[879] Ashton, 244; Dyer, 483; Ditchfield, 15. The dolls sometimes represent the Virgin and Child. ‘Wesley-bob’ and the alternative ‘vessel-cup’ appear to be corruptions of ‘wassail.’

[880] Cf., however, the Burghead ceremony (p. 256).

[881] Brand, i. 217; Burne-Jackson, 381; Dyer, 405; Ditchfield, 25, 161; Northall, 216; Henderson, 66; Haddon, 476; Pfannenschmidt, 206. The _N. E. D._ plausibly explains ‘gooding,’ which seems to be used of any of these _quêtes_ as ‘wishing good,’ and ‘hooding’ may be a corruption of this.

[882] Brand, i. 1; Dyer, 501; Ditchfield, 42; Northall, 183. Skeat derives _wassail_, M.E. _wasseyl_, ‘a health-drinking,’ from N.E. _wæs hǽl_, A.-S. _wes hál_, ‘be whole.’

[883] Ducange, _Gloss_, s. v. Kalendae Ianuarii, quoting _Cerem. Rom. ad calcem Cod. MS. eccl. Camerac._ ‘Hii sunt ludi Romani communes in Kalendis Ianuarii. In vigilia Kalendarum in sero surgunt pueri, et portant scutum. Quidam eorum est larvatus cum maza in collo; sibilando sonant timpanum, eunt per domos, circumdant scutum, timpanum sonat, larva sibilat. Quo ludo finito, accipiunt munus a domino domus, secundum quod placet ei. Sic faciunt per unamquamque domum. Eo die de omnibus leguminibus comedunt. Mane autem surgunt duo pueri ex illis, accipiunt ramos olivae et sal, et intrant per domos, salutant domum: Gaudium et laetitia sit in hac domo; tot filii, tot porcelli, tot agni, et de omnibus bonis optant, et antequam sol oriatur, comedunt vel favum mellis, vel aliquid dulce, ut totus annus procedat eis dulcis, sine lite et labore magno.’

[884] Du Tilliot, 67, quoting J. B. Thiers, _Traité des jeux et des divertissemens_, 452; Müller, 103. There are some Guillaneu songs in Bujeaud, ii. 153. The _quête_ was prohibited by two synods of Angers in 1595 and 1668.

[885] Brand, i. 247; Dyer, 505; Ditchfield, 44; Ashton, 217; Northall, 181; Henderson, 76; Tille, _Y. and C._ 204; Nicholson, _Golspie_, 100; Rhys, in _F. L._ ii. 308. Properly speaking, ‘Hogmanay’ is the gift of an oaten farl asked for in the _quête_. It is also applied to the day on which the _quête_ takes place, which is in Scotland generally New Year’s Eve. Besides the _quête_, Hogmanay night, like Halloween elsewhere, is the night for horse-play and practical joking. The name appears in many forms, ‘Hogmana,’ ‘Hogomanay,’ ‘Nog-money’ (Scotland), ‘Hogmina’ (Cumberland), ‘Hagmena’ (Northumberland), ‘Hagman heigh!’ ‘Hagman ha!’ (Yorkshire), ‘Agganow’ (Lancashire), ‘Hob dy naa,’ ‘Hob ju naa’ (Isle of Man). It is generally accepted as equivalent to the French _aguilanneuf_, _aguilanleu_, _guillaneu_, _hagui men lo_, _hoquinano_, &c., ad infin., the earliest form being _auguilanleu_ (1353). With the Scotch

‘Hogmanay, Trollolay, Give us of your white bread and none of your grey’!

may be compared the French,

‘Tire lire, Maint de blanc, et point du bis.’

On no word has amateur philology been more riotous. It has been derived from ‘au gui menez,’ ‘à gui l’an neuf,’ ‘au gueux menez,’ ‘Hálig monath,’ ἁγία μήνη, ‘Homme est né,’ and the like. Tille thinks that the whole of December was formerly Hogmanay, and derives from _monâth_ and either *_hoggva_, ‘hew,’ _hag_, ‘witch,’ or _hog_, ‘pig.’ Nicholson tries the other end, and traces _auguilanleu_ to the Spanish _aguinaldo_ or _aguilando_, ‘a New Year’s gift.’ This in turn he makes the gerund of *_aguilar_, an assumed corruption of _alquilar_, ‘to hire oneself out.’ Hogmanay will thus mean properly ‘handsel’ or hiring-money,’ and the first Monday in the New Year is actually called in Scotland ‘Handsel Monday.’ This is plausible, but, although no philologist, I think a case might be made out for regarding the terms as corruptions of the Celtic _Nos Galan-gaeaf_, ‘the night of the winter Calends’ (Rhys, 514). This is All Saints’ eve, while the Manx ‘Hob dy naa’ _quête_ is on Hollantide (November 12; cf. p. 230).

[886] A Gloucestershire wassail song in Dixon, _Ancient Poems_, 199, ends,

‘Come, butler, come bring us a bowl of the best: I hope your soul in heaven will rest; But if you do bring us a bowl of the small, Then down fall butler, bowl and all.’

[887] In Herefordshire and the south of Scotland it is lucky to draw ‘the cream of the well’ or ‘the flower of the well,’ i. e. the first pail of water after midnight on New Year’s eve (Dyer, 7, 17). In Germany _Heilwag_ similarly drawn at Christmas is medicinal (Grimm, iv. 1810). Pembroke folk sprinkle each other on New Year’s Day (_F. L._ iii. 263). St. Martin of Braga condemns amongst Kalends customs ‘panem in fontem mittere (Appendix N, No. xxiii), and this form of well-cult survives at Christmas in the Tyrol (Jahn, 283) and in France (Müller, 500). Tertullian chaffs the custom of early bathing at the _Saturnalia_ (Appendix N, No. ii). Gervase of Tilbury (ed. Liebrecht, ii. 12) mentions an English belief (†1200) in a wonder-working Christmas dew. This Tille (_Y. and C._ 168) thinks an outgrowth from the Advent chant _Rorate coeli_, but it seems closely parallel to the folk belief in May-dew.

[888] Burne-Jackson, 388; Simpson, 202; _F. L._ v. 38; Dyer, 410. The festival in its present form can only date from the reign of James I, but the Pope used to be burned in bonfires as early as 1570 upon the accession day of Elizabeth, Nov. 17 (Dyer, 422).

[889] Dyer, 389 (Sussex).

[890] Brand, i. 210, 215 (Buchan, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, North Wales).

[891] Pfannenschmidt, 207; Jahn, 240.

[892] Ashton, 47 (Isle of Man, where the day is called ‘Fingan’s Eve’).

[893] Jahn, 253.

[894] _F. L._ xii. 349; W. Gregor, _Brit. Ass. Rept._ (1896), 620 (Minnigaff, Galloway; bones being saved up for this fire); Gomme, _Brit. Ass. Rept._ (1896), 633 (Biggar, Lanarkshire).

[895] Brand, i. 14; Dyer, 22 (Gloucestershire, Herefordshire). Twelve small fires and one large one are made out in the wheat-fields.

[896] Dyer, 507; Ashton, 218; Simpson, 205; Gomme, _Brit. Ass. Rept._ (1896), 631; _F. L. J._ vii. 12; _Trans. Soc. Antiq. Scot._ x. 649.

[897] Simpson, 205, quoting Gordon Cumming, _From the Hebrides to the Himalayas_, i. 245.

[898] Bede, _D. T. R._ c. 17: cf. the A.-S. passage quoted by Pfannenschmidt, 495; Jahn, 252. Other Germanic names for the winter months are ‘Schlachtmonat,’ ‘Gormânaða’: cf. Weinhold, _Die deutschen Monatsnamen_, 54.

[899] Jahn, 229; Tille, _Y. and C._ 28, 65; Pfannenschmidt, 206, 217, 228.

[900] Dyer, 456, 470, 474, 477; Ashton, 171; Karl Blind, _The Boar’s Head Dinner at Oxford and an Old Teutonic Sun-God_, in _Saga Book_ of Viking Club for 1895.

[901] Dyer, 473.

[902] Hampson, i. 82.

[903] Gummere, _G. O._ 433.

[904] Tacitus, _Germ._ 45, of the Aestii, ‘matrem deum venerantur. insigne superstitionis formas aprorum gestant: id pro armis omnique tutela securum deae cultorem etiam inter hostis praestat.’

[905] Dyer, 439.

[906] Dyer, 492; Ashton, 204; Grimm, iv. 1816.

[907] Dyer, 481; N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 250. Cf. ch. xvii for the hunt of a cat and a fox at the ‘grand Christmas’ of the Inner Temple.

[908] Dyer, 494, 497; Frazer, ii. 442; Northall, 229.

[909] Ashton, 114 (Reculver); Dyer, 472 (Ramsgate); Ditchfield, 27 (Walmer), 28 (Cheshire: All Souls’ day).

[910] Dyer, 486.

[911] Ditchfield, 28.

[912] Bertrand, 314; Arbois de Jubainville, _Cycl. myth._ 385; Rhys, _C. H._ 77.

[913] Tille, _D. W._ 109.

[914] C. de Berger (1723), _Commentatio de personis vulgo larvis seu mascharis_, 218 ‘Vecolo aut cervolo facere; hoc est sub forma vitulae aut cervuli per plateas discurrere, ut apud nos in festis Bacchanalibus vulgo dicitur _correr la tora_’; J. Ihre (†1769), _Gloss. Suio-Gothicum_, s. v. Jul. ‘Julbock est ludicrum, quo tempore hoc pellem et formam arietis induunt adolescentuli et ita adstantibus incursant. Credo idem hoc esse quod exteri scriptores cervulum appellant.’ In the _Life of Bishop Arni_ (nat. 1237) it is recorded how in his youth he once joined in a _scinnleic_ or ‘hide-play’ (_C. P. B._ ii. 385). Frazer, ii. 447, describes the New Year custom of _colluinn_ in Scotland and St. Kilda. A man clad in a cowhide is driven _deasil_ round each house to bless it. Bits of hide are also burnt for amulets. Probably the favourite Christmas game of Blind Man’s Buff was originally a _scinnleic_ (N. W. Thomas, in _F. L._ xi. 262).

[915] Brand, i. 210, 217; Jackson and Burne, 381, 392, 407; Ashton, 178; Jahn, 487, 500; Müller, 487, 500. Scandinavian countries bake the Christmas ‘Yule-boar.’ Often this is made from the last sheaf and the crumbs mixed with the seed-corn (Frazer, ii. 29). Germany has its _Martinshörner_ (Jahn, 250; Pfannenschmidt, 215).

[916] Dyer, 501; Ashton, 214.

[917] Brand, i. 19; Dyer, 21, 447; Ashton, 86, 233. Brand, i. 210, describes a Hallow-e’en custom in the Isle of Lewis of pouring a cup of ale in the sea to ‘Shony,’ a sea god.

[918] Brand, i. 14; Dyer, 22, 448; Northall, 187. A cake with a hole in the middle is hung on the horn of the leading ox.

[919] Grimm, iv. 1808. Hens are fed on New Year’s day with mixed corn to make them lay well.

[920] Gregory, _Posthuma_, 113 ‘It hath been a Custom, and yet is elsewhere, to whip up the Children upon Innocents-Day morning, that the memory of this Murther might stick the closer, and in a moderate proportion to act over the cruelty again in kind.’ In Germany, adults are beaten (Grimm, iv. 1820). In mediaeval France ‘innocenter,’ ‘donner les innocents,’ was a custom exactly parallel to the Easter _prisio_ (Rigollot, 138, 173).

[921] Dyer, 24; Cortet, 32; Frazer, iii. 143; Deslyons, _Traités contre le Paganisme du Roi boit_ (2nd ed. 1670). The accounts of Edward II record a gift to the _rex fabae_ on January 1, 1316 (_Archaeologia_, xxvi. 342). Payments to the ‘King of Bene’ and ‘for furnissing his graith’ were made by James IV of Scotland between 1490 and 1503 (_L. H. T. Accounts_, 1. ccxliii; 11. xxiv, xxxi, &c.). The familiar mode of choosing the king is thus described at Mont St. Michel ‘In vigilia Epyphaniae ad prandium habeant fratres gastellos et ponatur faba in uno; et frater qui inveniet fabam, vocabitur rex et sedebit ad magnam mensam, et scilicet sedebit ad vesperas ad matutinam et ad magnam missam in cathedra parata’ (Gasté, 53). The pre-eminence of the bean, largest of cereals, in the mixed cereal cake (cf. ch. vi) presents no great difficulty; on the religious significance attached to it in South Europe, cf. W. W. Fowler, 94, 110, 130. Lady Jane Grey was scornfully dubbed a Twelfth-day queen by Noailles (Froude, v. 206), just as the Bruce’s wife held her lord a summer king (ch. viii).

[922] _Accts. of St. Michael’s, Bath_, s. ann. 1487, 1490, 1492 (_Somerset Arch. Soc. Trans._ 1878, 1879, 1883). One entry is ‘pro corona conducta Regi Attumnali.’ The learned editor explains this as ‘a quest conducted by the King’s Attorney’!

[923] Ashton, 119; Dyer, 388, 423, 427.

[924] Brand, i. 261, prints from Leland, _Itinerary_ (ed. 1769), iv. 182, a description of the proclamation of Youle by the sheriffs at the ‘Youle-Girth’ and throughout the city. In Davies, 270, is a letter from Archbp. Grindal and other ecclesiastical commissioners to the Lord Mayor, dated November 13, 1572, blaming ‘a very rude and barbarouse custome maynteyned in this citie and in no other citie or towne of this realme to our knowledge, that yerely upon St. Thomas day before Christmas twoo disguysed persons, called Yule and Yule’s wife, shoulde ryde throughe the citie very undecently and uncomely....’ Hereupon the council suppressed the riding. Drake, _Eboracum_ (1736), 217, says that originally a friar rode backwards and ‘painted like a Jew.’ He gives an historical legend to account for the origin of the custom. Religious interludes were played on the same day: cf. _Representations_. The ‘Yule’ of York was perhaps less a ‘king’ than a symbolical personage like the modern ‘Old Father Christmas.’

[925] Ramsay, _Y. and L._ ii. 52; Blomefield, _Hist. of Norfolk_, iii. 149. The riot was against the Abbot of St. Benet’s Holm, and the monks declared that one John Gladman was set up as a king, an act of treason against Henry VI. The city was fined 1,000 marks. In 1448 they set forth their wrongs in a ‘Bill’ and explained that Gladman ‘who was ever, and at thys our is, a man of sad disposition, and trewe and feythfull to God and to the Kyng, of disporte as hath ben acustomed in ony cite or burgh thorowe alle this realme, on Tuesday in the last ende of Cristemesse, viz. Fastyngonge Tuesday, made a disport with hys neyghbours, havyng his hors trappyd with tynnsoyle and other nyse disgisy things, coronned as kyng of Crestemesse, in tokyn that seson should end with the twelve monethes of the yere, aforn hym yche moneth disguysed after the seson requiryd, and Lenton clad in whyte and red heryngs skinns, and his hors trapped with oystyr-shells after him, in token that sadnesse shuld folowe, and an holy tyme, and so rode in diverse stretis of the cite, with other people, with hym disguysed makyng myrth, disportes and plays.’

[926] Jevons, _Plutarch’s Romane Questions_, 86. The Ides (Jan. 9) must have practically been included in the Kalends festival. The Agonium, probably a sacrifice to Janus, was on that day (W. W. Fowler, 282).

[927] Appendix N, Nos. ix, xi, xiv, xvii, xviii, xxviii, xxxvi.

[928] G. L. Gomme, in _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896), 616 sqq.; Tille, _D. W._ 11, _Y. and C._ 90; Jahn, 253; Dyer, 446, 466; Ashton, 76, 219; Grimm, iv. 1793, 1798, 1812, 1826, 1839, 1841; Bertrand, 111, 404; Müller, 478.

[929] Tille, _Y. and C._ 95.

[930] Dyer, 456; Ashton, 125, 188. A Lombard _Capitulary_ (App. N, No. xxxviii) forbids a Christmas candle to be burnt beneath the kneading-trough.

[931] Müller, 236; Dyer, 430; Ashton, 54; Rigollot, 173; _Records of Aberdeen_ (Spalding Club), ii. 39, 45, 66. In Belgium the household keys are entrusted to the youngest child on Innocents’ day (Durr, 73).

[932] Saupe, 9; Tille, _Y. and C._ 118; Duchesne, 267. A custom of feasting on the tombs of the dead on the day of St. Peter de Cathedra (Feb. 22) is condemned by the _Council of Tours_ (567), c. 23 (Maassen, i. 133) ‘sunt etiam qui in festivitate cathedrae domui Petri apostoli cibos mortuis offerunt, et post missas redeuntes ad domos proprias, ad gentilium revertuntur errores, et post corpus Domini, sacratas daemoni escas accipiunt.’ I do not doubt that the Germano-Keltic tribes had their spring _Todtenfest_, but the date Feb. 22 seems determined by the Roman _Parentalia_ extending from Feb. 13 to either Feb. 21 (_Feralia_) or Feb. 22 (_Cara Cognatio_): cf. Fowler, 306. The ‘cibi’ mentioned by the council of Tours seem to have been offered in the house, like the winter offerings described below; but there is also evidence for similar Germano-Keltic offerings on the tomb or howe itself; and these were often accompanied by _dadsisas_ or dirges; cf. Saupe, _Indiculus_, 5-9. Saupe considers the _spurcalia in Februario_, explained above (p. 114) as a ploughing rite, to be funereal.

[933] Pfannenschmidt, 123, 165, 435; Saupe, 9; Golther, 586; _C. P. B._ i. 43; Jahn, 251. The chronicler Widukind, _Res gestae Sax._ (Pertz, _Mon. SS._ iii. 423), describes a Saxon three-days’ feast in honour of a victory over the Thuringi in 534. He adds ‘acta sunt autem haec omnia, ut maiorum memoria prodit, die Kal. Octobris, qui dies erroris, religiosorum sanctione virorum mutati sunt in ieiunia et orationes, oblationes quoque omnium nos praecedentium christianorum.’ This is probably a myth to account for the harvest _Todtenfest_, which may more naturally be thought of as transferred with the agricultural rites from November. For the mediaeval _Gemeinwoche_, beginning on the Sunday after Michaelmas, was common to Germany, and not confined to Saxony. Michaelmas, the feast of angels, known at Rome in the sixth century, and in Germany by the ninth, also adapts itself to the notion of a _Todtenfest_.

[934] Pfannenschmidt, 168, 443.

[935] Mogk, in Paul, iii. 260; Tille, _Y. and C._ 107.

[936] Cf. p. 231.

[937] Appendix N, Nos. xii, xvii, xxvii, xxxiii, xxxv, xxxix.

[938] Appendix N, No. xlii.

[939] Martin of Amberg, _Gewissensspiegel_ (thirteenth century, quoted Jahn, 282), the food and drink are left for ‘Percht mit der eisnen nasen.’

[940] _Thes. Paup._ s. v. Superstitio (fifteenth century, quoted Jahn, 282) ‘multi credunt sacris noctibus inter natalem diem Christi et noctem Epiphaniae evenire ad domos suas quasdam mulieres, quibus praeest domina Perchta ... multi in domibus in noctibus praedictis post coenam dimittunt panem et caseum, lac, carnes, ova, vinum, et aquam et huiusmodi super mensas et coclearea, discos, ciphos, cultellos et similia propter visitationem Perhtae cum cohorte sua, ut eis complaceant ... ut inde sint eis propitii ad prosperitatem domus et negotiorum rerum temporalium.’

[941] Usener, ii. 84 ‘Qui preparant mensam dominae Perthae’ (fifteenth century). Schmeller, _Bairisch. Wörterb._ i. 270, gives other references for Perchte in this connexion.

[942] Usener, ii. 58.

[943] _Dives and Pauper_ (Pynson, 1493) ‘Alle that ... use nyce observances in the ... new yere, as setting of mete or drynke, by nighte on the benche, to fede Atholde or Gobelyn.’ In English folk-custom, food is left for the house-spirit or ‘brownie’ on ordinary as well as festal days; cf. my ‘Warwick’ edition of _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, 145.

[944] Jahn, 283; Brand, i. 18; Bertrand, 405; Cortet, 33, 45.

[945] Appendix N, No. xxiii. If the words ‘in foco’ are not part of the text, ‘youling’ (cf. pp. 142, 260) may be intended.

[946] Bertrand, 111, 404.

[947] Jahn, 120, 244, 269: the _Gertruden-minnes_ on St. Gertrude’s day (March 17) perhaps preserve another fragment of the spring _Todtenfest_, St. Gertrude here replacing the mother-goddess; cf. Grimm, iii. xxxviii.

[948] Grimm, i. 268, 273, 281; Mogk, in Paul, iii. 279. The especial day of Frau Perchte is Epiphany.

[949] Mogk, in Paul, iii. 260; Tille, _D. W._ 173.

[950] Grimm, iv. 1798.

[951] Ibid. iv. 1814.

[952] Tille, _D. W._ 163; Grimm, iv. 1782.

[953] Ashton, 104.

[954] Müller, 496.

[955] _Hamlet_, i. 1. 158. I do not know where Shakespeare got the idea, of which I find no confirmation; but its origin is probably an ecclesiastical attempt to parry folk-belief. Other Kalends notions have taken on a Christian colouring. The miraculous events of Christmas night are rooted in the conception that the Kalends must abound in all good things, in order that the coming year may do so. But allusions to Christian legend have been worked into and have transformed them. On Christmas night bees sing (Brand, i. 3), and water is turned into wine (Grimm, iv. 1779, 1809). While the genealogy is sung at the midnight mass, hidden treasures are revealed (Grimm, iv. 1840). Similarly, the cattle of heathen masters naturally shared in the Kalends good cheer; whence a Christian notion that they, and in particular the ox and the ass, witnesses of the Nativity, can speak on that night, and bear testimony to the good or ill-treatment of the farmers (Grimm, iv. 1809, 1840); cf. the _Speculum Perfectionis_, c. 114, ed. Sabatier, 225 ‘quod volebat [S. Franciscus] suadere imperatori ut faceret specialem legem quod in Nativitate Domini homines bene providerent avibus et bovi et asino et pauperibus’: also p. 250, n. 1.--Ten minutes after writing the above note, I have come on the following passage in Tolstoi, _Résurrection_ (trad. franç.), i. 297 ‘Un proverbe dit que les coqs chantent de bonne heure dans les nuits joyeuses.’

[956] Müller, 272.

[957] Pfannenschmidt, 207.

[958] Müller, 235, 239, 248.

[959] Tille, _D. W._ 107; _Y. and C._ 116; Saupe, 28; Io. Iac. Reiske, _Comm. ad Const. Porph., de Caeremoniis_, ii. 357 (_Corp. Script. Byz._ 1830) ‘Vidi puerulus et horrui robustos iuvenes pelliceis indutos, cornutos in fronte, vultus fuligine atratos, intra dentes carbones vivos tenentes, quos reciprocato spiritu animabant, et scintillis quaquaversum sparsis ignem quasi vomebant, cum saccis cursitantes, in quos abdere puerulos occursantes minitabantur, appensis cymbalis et insano clamore frementes.’ He calls them ‘die Knecht Ruperte,’ and says that they performed in the Twelve nights. The _sacci_ are interesting, for English nurses frighten children with a threat that the chimney-sweep (here as in the May-game inheriting the tradition on account of his black face) will put them in his sack. The _beneficent_ Christmas wanderers use the sack to bring presents in; cf. the development of the sack in the Mummers’ play (p. 215).

[960] Müller, 235, 248.

[961] A mince-pie eaten in a different house on each night of the Twelves (_not_ twelve mince-pies eaten _before_ Christmas) ensures twelve lucky months. The weather of each day in the Twelves determines that of a month (Harland, 99; Jackson and Burne, 408). I have heard of a custom of leaping over twelve lighted candles on New Year’s eve. Each that goes out means ill-luck in a corresponding month.

[962] Caesarius; Boniface (App. N, Nos. xvii, xviii, xxxiii); Alsso, in Usener, ii. 65; _F. L._ iii. 253; Jackson and Burne, 400; Ashton, 111; _Brit. Ass. Report_ (1896), 620. In some of the cases quoted under the last reference and elsewhere, _nothing_ may be taken out of the house on New Year’s Day. Ashes and other refuse which would naturally be taken out in the morning were removed the night before. Ashes, of course, share the sanctity of the fire. Cf. the maskers’ threat (p. 217).

[963] Boniface (App. N, No. xxxiii); cf. the Kloster Scheyern (Usener, ii. 84) condemnation of those ‘qui vomerem ponunt sub mensa tempore nativitatis Christi.’ For other uses of iron as a potent agricultural charm, cf. Grimm, iv. 1795, 1798, 1807, 1816; Burne-Jackson, 164.

[964] Cf. Burchardus (App. N, No. xlii); Grimm, iv. 1793, with many other superstitions in the same appendix to Grimm; Brand, i. 9; Ashton, 222; Jackson and Burne, 403. The practical outcome is to begin jobs for form’s sake and then stop. The same is done on Saint Distaff’s day, January 7; cf. Brand, i. 15.

[965] Harland, 117; Jackson and Burne, 314; _Brit. Ass. Rep._ (1896), 620; Dyer, 483; Ashton, 112, 119, 224. There is a long discussion in _F. L._ iii. 78, 253. I am tempted to find a very early notice of the ‘first foot’ in the prohibition ‘pedem observare’ of Martin of Braga (App. N, No. xxiii).

[966] _F. L._ iii. 253.

[967] _Kloster Scheyern MS._ (fifteenth century) in Usener, ii. 84 ‘Qui credunt, quando masculi primi intrant domum in die nativitatis, quod omnes vaccae generent masculos et e converso.’

[968] Müller, 269 (Italy). Grimm, iv. 1784, notes ‘If the first person you meet in the morning be a virgin or a priest, ’tis a sign of bad luck; if a harlot, of good’: cf. Caspari, _Hom. de Sacrilegiis_, § 11 ‘qui clericum vel monachum de mane aut quacumque hora videns aut o[b]vians, abominosum sibi esse credet, iste non solum paganus, sed demoniacus est, qui christi militem abominatur.’ These German examples have no special relation to the New Year, and the ‘first foot’ superstition is indeed only the ordinary belief in the ominous character of the first thing seen on leaving the house, intensified by the critical season.

[969] Tille, _D. W._ 189; _Y. and C._ 84, 95, 104.

[970] Cf. p. 238.

[971] Brand, i. 3, 209, 226, 257; Spence, _Shetland Folk-Lore_, 189; Grimm, iv. 1777-1848 _passim_; Jackson and Burne, 176, 380, &c., &c. Burchardus (App. N, No. xlii) mentions that the Germans took New Year omens sitting girt with a sword on the housetop or upon a [sacrificial] skin at the crossways. This was called _liodorsâza_, a term which a _glossator_ also uses for the kindred custom of _cervulus_ (Tille, _Y. and C._ 96). Is the man in _Hom. de Sacr._ (App. N, No. xxxix) ‘qui arma in campo ostendit’ taking omens like the man on the housetop, or is he conducting a sword-dance?

[972] Burchardus (App. N, No. xlii).

[973] Brand, i. 209.

[974] Grimm, iv. 1781, 1797, 1818.

[975] Quoted Pfannenschmidt, 489 ‘quod autem obscoena carmina finguntur a daemonibus et perditorum mentibus immittuntur, quidam daemon nequissimus, qui in Nivella urbe Brabantiae puellam nobilem anno domini 1216 prosequebatur, manifeste populis audientibus dixit: cantum hunc celebrem de Martino ego cum collega meo composui et per diversas terras Galliae et Theutoniae promulgavi. Erat autem cantus ille turpissimus et plenus luxuriosis plausibus.’ On _Martinslieder_ in general cf. Pfannenschmidt, 468, 613.

[976] T. Gascoigne, _Loci e Libro Veritatum_ (1403-58), ed. Rogers, 144.

[977] Aubrey, _Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (_F. L. S._), 1.

[978] Tille, _D. W._ 55; K. Simrock, _Deutsche Weihnachtslieder_ (1854); Cortet, 246; Grove, _Dict. of Music_, s. v. Noël; Julian, _Dict. of Hymn._ s. v. Carol; A. H. Bullen, _Carols and Poems_, 1885; Helmore, _Carols for Christmastide_. The cry ‘Noël’ appears in the fifteenth century both in France and England as one of general rejoicing without relation to Christmas. It greeted Henry V in London in 1415 and the Marquis of Suffolk in Rouen in 1446 (Ramsay, _Lancaster and York_, i. 226; ii. 60).

[979] Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, _de Caeremoniis Aulae Byzantinae_, Bk. i. c. 83 (ed. Reiske, in _Corp. Script. Hist. Byz._ i. 381); cf. Bury-Gibbon, vi. 516; Kögel, i. 34; D. Bieliaiev, _Byzantina_, vol. ii: Haupt’s _Zeitschrift_, i., 368; C. Kraus, _Gotisches Weihnachtsspiel_, in _Beitr. z. Gesch. d. deutschen Sprache und Litteratur_, xx (1895), 223.

[980] Fouquier-Cholet, _Hist. des Comtes de Vermandois_, 159, says that Heribert IV (ob. †1081) persuaded the clergy of the Vermandois to suppress the _fête de l’âne_. This would have been a century before Belethus wrote. But he does not give his _probatum_, and I suspect he misread it.

[981] Belethus, c. 72 ‘Festum hypodiaconorum, quod vocamus stultorum, a quibusdam perficitur in Circumcisione, a quibusdam vero in Epiphania, vel in eius octavis. Fiunt autem quatuor tripudia post Nativitatem Domini in Ecclesia, levitarum scilicet, sacerdotum, puerorum, id est minorum aetate et ordine, et hypodiaconorum, qui ordo incertus est. Unde fit ut ille quandoque annumeretur inter sacros ordines, quandoque non, quod expresse ex eo intelligitur quod certum tempus non habeat, et officio celebretur confuso.’ Cf. ch. xv on the three other _tripudia_.

[982] Lebeuf, _Hist. de Paris_ (1741), ii. 277; Grenier, 365:

_Ad amicum venturum ad festum Baculi._ Festa dies aliis Baculus venit et novus annus, Qua venies, veniet haec mihi festa dies.

Leonius is named as canon of N.-D. in the _Obituary_ of the church Guérard, _Cartulaire de N.-D._ in (_Doc. inédits sur l’Hist. de France_, iv. 34), but unfortunately the year of his death is not given.

[983] During the fifteenth century the _Chantre_ of N.-D. ‘porta le baston’ at the chief feasts as ruler of the choir (F. L. Chartier, _L’ancien Chapitre de N.-D. de Paris_ (1897), 176). This _baculus_ must be distinguished from the _baculus pastoralis_ or _episcopi_.

[984] Guérard, _Cartulaire de N.-D._ (_Doc. inéd. sur l’Hist. de France_), i. 73; also printed by Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_; _P. L._ ccxii. 70. The _charta_, dated 1198, runs in the names of ‘Odo [de Soliaco] episcopus, H. decanus, R. cantor, Mauricius, Heimericus et Odo archidiaconi, Galo, succentor, magister Petrus cancellarius, et magister Petrus de Corbolio, canonicus Parisiensis.’ Possibly the real moving spirit in the reform was the dean H[ugo Clemens], to whom the Paris _Obituary_ (Guérard, _loc. cit._ iv. 61) assigns a similar reform of the feast of St. John the Evangelist. Petrus de Corbolio we shall meet again. Eudes de Sully was bishop 1196-1208. His _Constitutions_ (_P. L._ ccxii. 66) contain a prohibition of ‘choreae ... in ecclesiis, in coemeteriis et in processionibus.’ In a second decree of 1199 (_P. L._ ccxii. 72) he provided a _solatium_ for the loss of the Feast of Fools in a payment of three _deniers_ to each clerk below the degree of canon, and two _deniers_ to each boy present at Matins on the Circumcision. Should the abuses recur, the payment was to lapse. This donation was confirmed in 1208 by his successor Petrus de Nemore (_P. L._ ccxii. 92).

[985] A ‘hearse’ was a framework of wood or iron bearing spikes for tapers (Wordsworth, _Mediaeval Services_, 156). The _penna_ was also a stand for candles (Ducange, s.v.).

[986] A _prosa_ is a term given in French liturgies to an additional chant inserted on festal occasions as a gloss upon or interpolation in the text of the office or mass. It covers nearly, though not quite, the same ground as _Sequentia_, and comes under the general head of _Tropus_ (ch. xviii). For a more exact differentiation cf. Frere, _Winchester Troper_, ix. _Laetemur gaudiis_ is a prose ascribed to Notker Balbulus of St. Gall.

[987] _cum farsia_: a _farsia_, _farsa_, or _farsura_ (Lat. _farcire_, ‘to stuff’), is a _Tropus_ interpolated into the text of certain portions of the office or mass, especially the _Kyrie_, the _Lectiones_ and the _Epistola_. Such farces were generally in Latin, but occasionally, especially in the Epistle, in the vernacular (Frere, _Winchester Troper_, ix, xvi).

[988] _Laetabundus_: i. e. St. Bernard’s prose beginning _Laetabundus exultet fidelis chorus; Alleluia_ (Daniel, _Thesaurus Hymnologicus_, ii. 61), which was widely used in the feasts of the Christmas season.

[989] The document is too long to quote in full. These are the essential passages. The legate says: The Church of Paris is famous, therefore diligence must be used ‘ad exstirpandum penitus quod ibidem sub praetextu pravae consuetudinis inolevit ... Didicimus quod in festo Circumcisionis Dominicae ... tot consueverunt enormitates et opera flagitiosa committi, quod locum sanctum ... non solum foeditate verborum, verum etiam sanguinis effusione plerumque contingit inquinari, et ... ut sacratissima dies ... festum fatuorum nec immerito generaliter consueverit appellari.’ Odo and the rest order: ‘In vigilia festivitatis ad Vesperas campanae ordinate sicut in duplo simplici pulsabuntur. Cantor faciet matriculam (the roll of clergy for the day’s services) in omnibus ordinate; rimos, personas, luminaria herciarum nisi tantum in rotis ferreis, et in penna, si tamen voluerit ille qui capam redditurus est, fieri prohibemus; statuimus etiam ne dominus festi cum processione vel cantu ad ecclesiam adducatur, vel ad domum suam ab ecclesia reducatur. In choro autem induet capam suam, assistentibus ei duobus canonicis subdiaconis, et tenens baculum cantoris, antequam incipiantur Vesperae, incipiet prosam _Laetemur gaudiis_: qua finita episcopus, si praesens fuerit ... incipiet Vesperas ordinate et solemniter celebrandas; ... a quatuor subdiaconis indutis capis sericis Responsorium cantabitur.... Missa similiter cum horis ordinate celebrabitur ab aliquo praedictorum, hoc addito quod Epistola cum farsia dicetur a duobus in capis sericis, et postmodum a subdiacono ... Vesperae sequentes sicut priores a _Laetemur gaudiis_ habebunt initium: et cantabitur _Laetabundus_, loco hymni. _Deposuit_ quinquies ad plus dicetur loco suo; et si captus fuerit baculus, finito _Te Deum laudamus_, consummabuntur Vesperae ab eo quo fuerint inchoatae.... Per totum festum in omnibus horis canonici et clerici in stallis suis ordinate et regulariter se habebunt.’

[990] The feast lasted from Vespers on the vigil to Vespers on the day of the Circumcision. The _Hauptmoment_ was evidently the _Magnificat_ in the second Vespers. But what exactly took place then? Did the cathedral precentor hand over the _baculus_ to the _dominus festi_, or was it last year’s _dominus festi_, who now handed it over to his newly-chosen successor? Probably the latter. The _dominus festi_ is called at first Vespers ‘capam redditurus’: doubtless the cope and _baculus_ went together. The _dominus festi_ may have, as elsewhere, exercised disciplinary and representative functions amongst the inferior clergy during the year. His title I take to have been, as at Sens, _precentor stultorum_. The order says, ‘si captus fuerit baculus’; probably it was left to the chapter to decide whether the formal installation of the _precentor_ in church should take place in any particular year.

[991] _P. L._ ccxv. 1070 ‘Interdum ludi fiunt in eisdem ecclesiis theatrales, et non solum ad ludibriorum spectacula introducuntur in eas monstra larvarum, verum etiam in tribus anni festivitatibus, quae continue Natalem Christi sequuntur, diaconi, presbiteri ac subdiaconi vicissim insaniae suae ludibria exercentes, per gesticulationum suarum debacchationes obscoenas in conspectu populi decus faciunt clericale vilescere.... Fraternitati vestrae ... mandamus, quatenus ... praelibatam vero ludibriorum consuetudinem vel potius corruptelam curetis e vestris ecclesiis ... exstirpare.’ As to the scope of this decretal and the glosses of the canonists upon it, cf. the account of miracle plays (ch. xx).

[992] _Decretales Greg. IX_, lib. iii. tit. i. cap. 12 (_C. I. Can._ ed. Friedberg, ii. 452). I cannot verify an alleged confirmation of the decretal by Innocent IV in 1246.

[993] _C. of Paris_ (1212), pars iv. c. 16 (Mansi, xxii. 842) ‘A festis vero follorum, ubi baculus accipitur, omnino abstineatur. Idem fortius monachis et monialibus prohibemus.’ Can. 18 is a prohibition against ‘choreae,’ similar to that of Eudes de Sully already referred to. Such general prohibitions are as common during the mediaeval period as during that of the conversion (cf. ch. viii), and probably covered the Feast of Fools. See e.g. _C. of Avignon_ (1209), c. 17 (Mansi, xxii. 791), _C. of Rouen_ (1231), c. 14 (Mansi, xxiii. 216), _C. of Bayeux_ (1300), c. 31 (Mansi, xxv. 66).

[994] _Codex Senonen._ 46 A. There are two copies in the _Bibl. Nat._, (i) _Cod. Parisin._ 10520 B, containing the text only, dated 1667; (ii) _Cod. Parisin._ 1351 C, containing text and music, made for Baluze (1630-1718). The _Officium_ has been printed by F. Bourquelot in _Bulletin de la Soc. arch. de Sens_ (1858), vi. 79, and by Clément, 125 sqq. The metrical portions are also in Dreves, _Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi_, xx. 217, who cites other _Quellen_ for many of them. See further on the MS., Dreves, _Stimmen aus Maria-Laach_, xlvii. 575; Desjardins, 126; Chérest, 14; A. L. Millin, _Monuments antiques inédits_ (1802-6), ii. 336; Du Tilliot, 13; J. A. Dulaure, _Environs de Paris_ (1825), vii. 576; Nisard, in _Archives des Missions scientifiques et littéraires_ (1851), 187; Leber, ix. 344 (l’Abbé Lebeuf). Before the _Officium_ proper, on f. 1^{vo} of the MS. a fifteenth-century hand (Chérest, 18) has written the following quatrain:

‘Festum stultorum de consuetudine morum omnibus urbs Senonis festivat nobilis annis, quo gaudet precentor, sed tamen omnis honor sit Christo circumciso nunc semper et almo’:

and the following couplet:

‘Tartara Bacchorum non pocula sunt fatuorum, tartara vincentes sic fiunt ut sapientes.’

Millin, _loc. cit._ 344, cites a MS. dissertation of one Père Laire, which ascribes these lines to one Lubin, an official at Chartres. The last eight pages of the MS. contain epistles for the feasts of St. Stephen, St. John the Evangelist, and the Innocents.

[995] Chérest, 14; Millin, _op. cit._ ii. 336 (plates), and _Voyage dans le Midi_, i. 60 (plates); Clément, 122, 162; Bourquelot, _op. cit._ vi. 79 (plates); A. de Montaiglon, in _Gazette des Beaux-arts_ (1880), i. 24 (plates); E. Molinier, _Hist. générale des Arts appliqués_, i; _Les Ivoires_ (1896), 47 (plate); A. M. Cust, _Ivory Workers of the Middle Ages_ (1902), 34. This last writer says that the diptych is now in the Bibl. Nationale. The leaves of the diptych represent a Triumph of Bacchus, and a Triumph of Artemis or Aphrodite. It has nothing to do with the Feast of Fools, and is of sixth-century workmanship.

[996] Dreves, 575, thinks the MS. was ‘für eine Geckenbruderschaft,’ as the chants are not in the contemporary Missals, Breviaries, Graduais, and Antiphonals of the church. But if they were, a separate _Officium_ book would be superfluous. Such special _festorum libri_ were in use elsewhere, e.g. at Amiens. Nisard, _op. cit._, thinks the _Officium_ was an imitation one written by ‘notaires’ to amuse the choir-boys, and cites a paper of M. Carlier, canon of Sens, before the Historic Congress held at Sens in 1850 in support of this view. Doubtless the _goliardi_ wrote such imitations (cf. the _missa lusorum_ in Schmeller, _Carmina Burana_, 248; the _missa de potatoribus_ in Wright-Halliwell, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, ii. 208; and the _missa potatorum_ in F. Novati, _La Parodia sacra nelle Letterature moderne_ (_Studi critici e letterari_, 289)); but this is too long to be one, and is not a burlesque at all.

[997] Cf. the chapter decree of 1524 ‘festum Circumcisionis a defuncto Corbolio institutum,’ which is doubtless the authority for the statements of Taveau, _Hist. archiep. Senonen_. (1608), 94; Saint-Marthe, _Gallia Christiana_ (1770), xii. 60; Baluze, note in _B. N. Cod. Parisin_. 1351 C. (quoted Nisard, _op. cit._).

[998] Dreves, 575; Chérest, 15, who quotes an elaborate opinion of M. Quantin, ‘archiviste de l’Yonne.’ M. Quantin believes that the hand is that of a charter of Pierre de Corbeil, dated 1201, in the Yonne archives. On the other hand Nisard, _op. cit._, and Danjou, _Revue de musique religieuse_ (1847), 287, think that the MS. is of the fourteenth century.

[999] Chérest, 35; Dreves, 576.

[1000] Liturgically a _conductus_ is a form of _Cantio_, that is, an interpolation in the mass or office, which stands as an independent unit, and not, like the Tropes, Proses and Sequences, as an extension of the proper liturgical texts. The _Cantiones_ are, however, only a further step in the process which began with Tropes (Nisard, _op. cit._ 191; Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 6). From the point of view of musical science H. E. Wooldridge, _Oxford Hist. of Music_, i. 308, defines a _conductus_ as ‘a composition of equally free and flowing melodies in all the parts, in which the words are metrical and given to the lower voice only.’ The term is several times used in the _Officium_. Clément, 163, falls foul of Dulaure for taking it as an adjective throughout, with _asinus_ understood.

[1001] Wordsworth, _Mediaeval Services_, 289; Clément, 126, 163. Dulaure seems to have taken the _tabula_ for the altar. The English name for the _tabula_ was _wax-brede_. An example (†1500) is printed by H. E. Reynolds, _Use of Exeter Cathedral_, 73.

[1002] Appendix L; where the various versions of the ‘Prose’ are collated.

[1003] There are many hymns beginning _Salve, festa dies_. The model is a couplet of Venantius Fortunatus, _Carmina_, iii. 9, _Ad Felicem episcopum de Pascha_, 39 (M. G. H. _Auct. Antiquiss_. iv. 1. 60):

‘Salve, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, qua Deus infernum vicit et astra tenet.’

[1004] Clément, 127, correcting an error of Lebeuf. A still more curious slip is that of M. Bourquelot, who found in the word _euouae_, which occurs frequently in the _Officium_, an echo of the Bacchic cry _évohé_. Now _euouae_ represents the vowels of the words _Seculorum amen_, and is noted at the ends of antiphons in most choir-books to give the tone for the following psalm (Clément, 164).

[1005] Clément, 138, reads _Conductus ad Ludos_, and inserts before _In Laudibus_ the word _Ludarius_. Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 221, reads _Conductus ad Laudes_. The section _In Laudibus_, not being metrical, is not printed by him, so I do not know what he makes of _Ludarius_. If Clément is right, I suppose a secular revel divided Matins and Lauds, which seems unlikely.

[1006] I follow Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 228. Clément, 151, has again _Ludarium_.

[1007] Prudentius, _Cathemerinon_, iii.

[1008] _Egerton MS._ 2615 (_Catalogue of Additions to MSS. in B. M._ 1882-87, p. 336). On the last page is written ‘Iste liber est beati petri beluacensis.’ On ff. 78, 110^v are book-plates of the chapter of Beauvais, the former signed ‘Vollet f[ecit].’ The MS. was bought by the British Museum in 1883, and formerly belonged to Signor Pachiarotti of Padua. It was described and a facsimile of the harmonized Prose of the Ass given in _Annales archéologiques_ (1856), xvi. 259, 300. Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 230 (1895), speaks of it as ‘vielleicht noch in Italien in Privatbesitz.’ This, and not the MS. used by Ducange’s editors, is the MS. whose description Desjardins, 127, 168, gives from a 1464 Beauvais inventory: ‘N^o. 76. Item ung petit volume entre deux ais sans cuir l’ung d’icelx ais rompu à demy contenant plusieurs proses antiennes et commencemens des messes avec oraisons commençant au ii^e feuillet _Belle bouche_ et au pénultième _coopertum stolla candida_.’ The broken board was mended, after 420 years, by the British Museum in 1884.

[1009] _B. M. Catalogue_, _loc. cit._, ‘Written in the xiii^{th} cent., probably during the pontificate of Gregory IX (1227-41) and before the marriage of Louis IX to Marguerite of Provence in 1234.’ There are prayers for Gregorius Papa and Ludovicus Rex on ff. 42, 42^v, but none for any queen of France.

[1010] Between ff. 40^{vo} and 41.

[1011] So _B. M. Catalogue_, _loc. cit._ To me it reads like ‘Conductus asi ... adducitur.’

[1012] F. 43.

[1013] Cf. ch. xix.

[1014] Louis VII married Adèle de Champagne in 1160 and died in 1180.

[1015] Pierre Louvet, _Hist. du Dioc. de Beauvais_ (1635), ii. 299, quoted by Desjardins, 124. I am sorry not to have been able to get hold of the original. Nor can I find E. Charvet, _Rech. sur les anciens théâtres de Beauvais_ (1881).

[1016] Grenier, 362. He says the ‘cérémonial’ is ‘tiré d’un ms. de la cathédrale de Beauvais,’ and gives the footnote ‘Preuv. part 1, n^o.  .’ On the prose _Kalendas Ianuarias_ and the censing his footnotes refer to Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_. The ‘Preuves’ for his history are scattered through the _MSS. Picardie_ in the _Bibl. Nat._ No doubt the reference here is to MSS. 14 and 158 which are copies of the Beauvais office (Dreves, in _Stimmen aus Maria-Laach_, xlvii. 575). These, or parts of them, are printed by F. Bourquelot, in _Bulletin de la Soc. arch. de Sens_ (1854), vi. 171 (which also, unfortunately, I have not seen), and chants from them are in Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 229. But here Dreves seems to speak of them as copies of Pacchiarotti’s MS. (_Egerton MS._ 2615). And Desjardins, 124, says that Grenier and Bourquelot used extracts from eighteenth-century copies of Pacchiarotti’s MS. in the library of M. Borel de Brétizel. Are these writers mistaken, or did Grenier only see the copies, and take his description from Louvet? And what has become of the twelfth-century MS.?

[1017] Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_, ‘MS. codice Bellovac. ann. circiter 500, ubi 1^a haec occurrit rubrica _Dominus ... ianuae_. Et alibi _Hac ... saucita_.’

[1018] Ducange, s. v. _Festum Asinorum_. Desjardins and other writers give the date of the ‘codex’ as twelfth century. But 500 years from 1733-6 only bring it to the thirteenth century. The mistake is due to the fact that the _first_ edition of Ducange, in which the ‘codex’ is not mentioned, is of 1678. Clément, 158, appears to have no knowledge of the MS. but what he read in Ducange; and it is not quite clear what he means when he says that it ‘d’après nos renseignements, ne renferme pas un office, mais une sorte de _mystère_ postérieur d’un siècle au moins à l’office de Sens, et n’ayant aucune autorité historique et encore bien moins religieuse.’ The MS. was contemporary with the Sens _Officium_, and although certainly influenced by the religious drama was still liturgic (cf. ch. xx).

[1019] Cf. Appendix L, on an _Officium_ (1553) for Jan. 1 without _stulti_ or _asinus_, from Puy.

[1020] Leber, ix. 238. This is a note by J. B. Salques to the reprint of D’Artigny’s memoir on the _Fête des Fous_. The writer calls the ceremony the ‘fête des apôtres,’ and says that it was held at the same time as the ‘fête de l’âne.’ He describes a Rabelaisian _contretemps_, which is said to have put an end to the procession in 1634. No authority is given for this account, which I believe to be the source of all later notices. I may add that Ducange gives the name _Festum Apostolorum_ to the feast of St. Philip and St. James on May 1.

[1021] _Cod. Senonens_. G. 133, printed by Chérest, 47; Quantin, _Recueil de pièces pour faire suite au Cartulaire général de l’Yonne_ (1873), 235 (N^o. 504) ‘mandamus, quatenus illa festorum antiqua ludibria, quae in contemptum Dei, opprobrium cleri, et derisum populi non est dubium exerceri, videlicet, in festis Sancti Ioannis Evangelistae, Innocentium, et Circumcisionis Domini, iuxta pristinum modum nullatenus faciatis aut fieri permittatis, sed iuxta formam et cultum aliarum festivitatum quae per anni circulum celebrantur, ita volumus et praecipimus celebrari. Ita quod ipso facto sententiam suspensionis incurrat quicumque in mutatione habitus aut in sertis de floribus seu aliis dissolutionibus iuxta praedictum ritum reprobatum adeo in praedictis festivitatibus seu aliis a modo praesumpserit se habere.’

[1022] L. Deschamps de Pas, _Les Cérémonies religieuses dans la Collégiale de Saint-Omer au xiii^e Siècle_ (_Mém. de la Soc. de la Morinie_, xx. 147). The directions for Jan. 1 are fragmentary: ‘In quo vicarii ceterique clerici chorum frequentantes et eorum episcopus se habeant in cantando et officiando sicut superius dictum est in festo Sanctorum Innocentium (cf. p. 370), hoc tamen excepto quod omnia quae ista die fiunt officiando quando est festum fatuorum pro posse fiunt et etiam ullulando ... domino decano fatuorum ferunt incensum sed prepostere ut dictum est.’ _Ululatus_ is, however, sometimes a technical term in church music; cf. vol. ii. p. 7.

[1023] _R. de Renard_, xii. 469 (ed. Martin, vol. ii. 14):

‘Dan prestre, il est la feste as fox. Si fera len demein des chox Et grant departie a Baieus: Ales i, si verres les jeus.’

Branch xii of the _Roman_ is the composition of Richart de Lison, who, according to Martin, suppl. 72, wrote in Normandy †1200. The phrase ‘faire les choux’ = ‘get drunk,’ cabbages being regarded as prophylactic of the ill effects of liquor.

[1024] _Hist. de l’Église d’Autun_ (1774), 469, 631 ‘Item innovamus, quod ille qui de caetero capiet baculum anni novi nihil penitus habebit de bursa Capituli’ (_Registr. Capit._ s. a. 1230).

[1025] Martene and Durand, _Thesaurus Anecdotorum_, iv. 1070 ‘in festo stultorum, scilicet Innocentium et anni novi ... multa fiunt inhonesta ... ne talia festa irrisoria de cetero facere praesumant.’

[1026] Ducange, s. v. _abbas esclaffardorum_, quoting _Hist. Delphin._ i. 132; J. J. A. Pilot de Thorey, _Usages, Fêtes et Coutumes en Dauphiné_, i. 182. The latter writer says that there was also an _episcopus_, who was not suppressed, that the canons did reverence to him, and that the singing of the _Magnificat_ was part of the feast.

[1027] C. Hidé, _Bull. de la Soc. acad. de Laon_ (1863), xiii. 115.

[1028] Grenier, 361 ‘Si hoc dicitur festum stultorum a subdiaconis fiat, et dominica eveniat, ab ipsis fiat festum in cappis sericis, sicut in libris festorum continetur.’ These _libri_ possibly resembled those of Sens and Beauvais.

[1029] _Summa Gulielmi Autissiodorensis de Off. Eccles._ (quoted by Chérest, 44, from _Bibl. Nat. MS._ 1411) ‘Quaeritur quare in hac die fit festum stultorum.... Ante adventum Domini celebrabant festa quae vocabant Parentalia; et in illa die spem ponebant credentes quod si in illa die bene eis accideret, quod similiter in toto anno. Hoc festum voluit removere Ecclesia quod contra fidem est. Et quia extirpare omnino non potuit, festum illud permittit et celebrat illud festum celeberrimum ut aliud demittatur: et ideo in matutinali officio leguntur lectiones quae dehortantur ab huiusmodi quae sunt contra fidem (cf. p. 245). Et si ista die ab ecclesia quaedam fiunt praeter fidem, nulla tamen contra fidem. Et ideo ludos qui sunt contra fidem permutavit in ludos qui non sunt contra fidem.’ There is clearly a confusion here between the Roman _Parentalia_ (Feb. 13-22) and _Kalendae_ (Jan. 1). On William of Auxerre, whose work remains in MS., cf. Lebeuf, in P. Desmolets, _Mémoires_, iii. 339; _Nouvelle Biographie universelle_, s. n. He was bishop of Auxerre, translated to Paris in 1220, ob. 1223. He must be distinguished from another William of Auxerre, who was archdeacon of Beauvais (†1230), and wrote a comment on Petrus Lombardus, printed at Paris in 1500 (Gröber, _Grundriss der röm. Philologie_, ii. 1. 239).

[1030] Gulielmus Durandus, _Rationale Div. Off._ (Antwerp, 1614), vi. 15, _de Circumcisione_, ‘In quibusdam ecclesiis subdiaconi fortes et iuvenes faciunt hodie festum ad significandum quod in octava resurgentium, quae significatur per octavam diem, qua circumcisio fiebat, nulla erit debilis aetas, non senectus, non senium, non impotens pueritia ... &c.’ A reference to the heathen Kalends follows; cf. also vii. 42, _de festis SS. Stephani, Ioannis Evang. et Innocentium_, ‘... subdiaconi vero faciunt festum in quibusdam ecclesiis in festo circumcisionis, ut ibi dictum est: in aliis in Epiphania et etiam in aliis in octava Epiphaniae, quod vocant festum stultorum. Quia enim ordo ille antiquitus incertus erat, nam in canonibus antiquis (extra de aetate et qualitate) multis quandoque vocatur sacer et quandoque non, ideo subdiaconi certum ad festandum non habent diem, et eorum festum officio celebratur confuso.’ On Durandus cf. the translation of his work by C. Barthélemy (1854). He was born at Puymisson in the diocese of Béziers (1230), finished the _Rationale_ (1284), became bishop of Mende (1285), and ob. (1296).

[1031] A. Lecoy de la Marche, _La Chaire française au M. A._ 368, citing _Bibl. Nat. MSS. fr._ 13314, f. 18; 16481, N^o. 93. The latter MS., which is analysed by Echard, _Script. Ord. Predicatorum_, i. 269, contains Dominican sermons delivered in Paris, 1272-3.

[1032] Chérest, 49 sqq., from Sens _Chapter Accounts_ in _Archives de l’Yonne_, at Auxerre. The _Compotus Camerarii_ begins in 1295-6. The _Chapter Register_ is missing before 1662: some of Baluze’s extracts from it are in _Bibl. Nat. Cod. Parisin._ 1351.

[1033] Chérest, 55 ‘pro servitio faciendo die dicti festi quatenus tangit canonicos subdiaconos in ecclesia.’

[1034] Towards the end of this period the accounts are in French: ‘le précentre de la feste aux fols.’

[1035] _Epistola de Reformatione Theologiae_ (Gerson, _Opera Omnia_, i. 121), from Bruges, 1st Jan. 1400 ‘ex sacrilegis paganorum idololatrarumque ritibus reliquiae,’ &c.; _Solemnis oratio ex parte Universitatis Paris. in praesentia Regis Caroli Sexti_ (1405, _Opera_ iv. 620; cf. French version in _Bibl. Nat. anc. f. fr._ 7275, described P. Paris, _Manus. franç. de la Bibl. du Roi_, vii. 266) ‘hic commendari potest bona Regis fides et vestrum omnium Dominorum variis modis religiosorum, ... in hoc quod iam dudum litteras dedistis contra abominabiles maledictiones et quasi idolatrias, quae in Francorum fiunt ecclesiis sub umbra Festi fatuorum. Fatui sunt ipsi, et perniciosi fatui, nec sustinendi, opus est executione’; _Rememoratio quorumdam quae per Praelatum quemlibet pro parte sua nunc agenda viderentur_ (1407-8, _Opera_, ii. 109) ‘sciatur quomodo ritus ille impiissimus et insanus qui regnat per totam Franciam poterit evelli aut saltem temperari. De hoc scilicet quod ecclesiastici faciunt, vel in die Innocentium, vel in die Circumcisionis, vel in Epiphania Domini, vel in Carnisprivio per Ecclesias suas, ubi fit irrisio detestabilis Servitii Domini et Sacramentorum: ubi plura fiunt impudenter et execrabiliter quam fieri deberent, in tabernis vel prostibulis, vel apud Saracenos et Iudaeos; sciunt qui viderunt, quod non sufficit censura Ecclesiastica; quaeratur auxilium potestatis Regiae per edicta sua vehementer urgentia’; _Quinque conclusiones super ludo stultorum communiter fieri solito_ (_Opera_ iii. 309) ‘qui per Regnum Franciae in diversis fiunt Ecclesiis et Abbatiis monachorum et monialium ... hae enim insolentiae non dicerentur cocis in eorum culina absque dedecore aut reprehensione, quae ibi fiunt in Ecclesiis Sacrosanctis, in loco orationis, in praesentia Sancti Sacramenti Altaris, dum divinum cantatur servitium, toto populo Christiano spectante et interdum Iudaeis ... adhuc peius est dicere, festum hoc adeo approbatum esse sicut festum Conceptionis Virginis Mariae, quod paulo ante asseruit quidam in urbe Altissiodorensi secundum quod dicitur et narrari solet, &c.’

[1036] _Council of Langres_ (1404) ‘prohibemus clericis ... ne intersint ... in ludis illis inhonestis quae solent fieri in aliquibus Ecclesiis in festo Fatuorum quod faciunt in festivitatibus Natalis Domini.’

[1037] _Council of Nantes_ (1431), c. 13 (J. Maan, _Sancta et Metrop. Eccl. Turonensis_, ii. 101) ‘quia in talibus Ecclesiis Provinciae Turonensis inolevit et servatur usus, ... quod festis Nativitatis Domini, Sanctorum Stephani, Ioannis et Innocentium, nonnulli Papam, nonnulli Episcopum, alii Ducem vel Comitem aut Principem in suis Ecclesiis ex novitiis praecipuis faciunt et ordinant ... Et talia ... vulgari eloquio festum stultorum nuncupatur, quod de residuis Kalendis Ianuariis a multo tempore ortum fuisse credatur.’

[1038] _Council of Basle_, sessio xxi (June 9, 1435), can. xi (Mansi, xxix. 108) ‘Turpem etiam illum abusum in quibusdam frequentatum Ecclesiis, quo certis anni celebritatibus nonnullis cum mitra, baculo ac vestibus pontificalibus more episcoporum benedicunt, alii ut reges ac duces induti quod festum Fatuorum, vel Innocentum seu Puerorum in quibusdam regionibus nuncupatur, alii larvales et theatrales iocos, alii choreas et tripudia marium et mulierum facientes homines ad spectacula et cachinnationes movent, alii comessationes et convivia ibidem praeparant.’

[1039] _Council of Bourges_, July 7, 1438 (_Ordonnances des Rois de France de la Troisième Race_, xiii. 287) ‘Item. Acceptat Decretum de spectaculis in Ecclesia non faciendis, quod incipit: _Turpem_, &c.’

[1040] F. Aubert, _Le Parlement de Paris, sa Compétence, ses Attributions_, 1314-1422 (1890), 182; _Hist. du Parlement de Paris_, 1250-1515 (1894), i. 163.

[1041] _Epistola et xiv. conclusiones facultatis theologiae Parisiensis ad ecclesiarum praelatos contra festum fatuorum in Octavis Nativitatis Domini vel prima Ianuarii in quibusdam Ecclesiis celebratum_ (H. Denifle, _Chartularium Univ. Paris_. iv. 652; _P. L._ ccvii. 1169). The document is too long and too scholastic to quote in full. The date is March 12, 144⁴⁄₅.

[1042] ‘Quis, quaeso, Christianorum sensatus non diceret malos illos sacerdotes et clericos, quos divini officii tempore videret larvatos, monstruosis vultibus, aut in vestibus mulierum, aut lenonum, vel histrionum choreas ducere in choro, cantilenas inhonestas cantare, offas pingues supra cornu altaris iuxta celebrantem missam comedere, ludum taxillorum ibidem exercere, thurificare de fumo fetido ex corio veterum sotularium, et per totam ecclesiam currere, saltare, turpitudinem suam non erubescere, ac deinde per villam et theatra in curribus et vehiculis sordidis duci ad infamia spectacula, pro risu astantium et concurrentium turpes gesticulationes sui corporis faciendo, et verba impudicissima ac scurrilia proferendo?’

[1043] ‘Concludimus, quod a vobis praelatis pendet continuatio vel abolitio huius pestiferi ritus; nam ipsos ecclesiasticos ita dementes esse et obstinatos in hac furia non est verisimile, quod si faciem praelati reperirent rigidam et nullatenus flexibilem a punitione cum assistentia inquisitorum fidei, et auxilio brachii saecularis, quam illico cederent aut frangerentur. Timerent namque carceres, timerent perdere beneficia, perdere famam et ab altaribus sacris repelli.’

[1044] T. Boutiot, _Hist. de la Ville de Troyes_ (1870-80), ii. 264; iii. 19. A chapter decree of 1437 lays down that a vicar who has served as ‘archbishop’ and has subsequently left the cathedral and returned again, need not serve a second time. It was doubtless an expensive dignity.

[1045] Boutiot, _op. cit._ iii. 20; A. de Jubainville, _Inventaire sommaire des Archives départementales de l’Aube_, i. 244 (G. 1275); P. de Julleville, _Les Com._ 35, _Rép. Com._ 330; A. Vallet de Viriville, in _Bibl. de l’École des Chartes_, iii. 448. The letter of Jean Leguisé to Louis de Melun is printed in _Annales archéologiques_, iv. 209; _Revue des Soc. Savantes_ (2nd series), vi. 94; _Journal de Verdun_, Oct. 1751, and partly by Rigollot, 153. It is dated only Jan. 23, but clearly refers to the events of 1444-5. The _Ordonnance_ of Charles VII is in Martene and Durand, _Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum_, i. 1804; H. Denifle, _Chartularium Univ. Paris_, iv. 657. Extracts are given by Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_. The king speaks of the Troyes affair as leading to the Theological Faculty’s letter. It is permissible to conjecture that he was moved, no doubt by the abstract rights and wrongs of the case, but also by a rumour spread at Troyes that he had revoked the Pragmatic Sanction. For, as a matter of fact, Peter of Brescia, the papal legate, was trying hard to get him to revoke it.

[1046] Boutiot, _op. cit._ i. 494, iii. 20. The chapters of St. Stephen’s and St. Urban’s and the abbey of St. Loup all continued to make payments for their feasts after 1445. They may have been pruned of abuses. In the sixteenth century the Comte of Champagne pays five sous to the ‘archevesque des Saulx’ at St. Stephen’s, and this appears to be the _droit_ charged upon the royal demesne up to 1789.

[1047] Chérest, 66, from _Acta Capitularia_ (Dec. 4, 1444) in _Bibl. Nat. Cod. Paris._ 1014 and 1351 ‘De servitio dominicae circumcisionis, viso super hoc statuto per quemdam legatum edito, et consideratis aliis circa hoc considerandis, et ad evitandum scandala, quae super hoc possent exoriri, ordinatum fuit unanimiter et concorditer, nemine discrepante, quod de caetero dictum servitium fiet, prout iacet in libro ipsius servitii, devote et cum reverentia; absque aliqua derisione, tumultu aut turpitudine, prout fiunt alia servitia in aliis festis, in habitibus per dictum statutum ordinatis, et non alias, et voce modulosa, absque dissonantia, et assistant in huiusmodi servitio omnes qui tenentur in eo interesse, et faciant debitum suum absque discursu aut turbatione servitii, potissime in ecclesia; nec proiiciatur aqua in vesperis super praecentorem stultorum ultra quantitatem trium sitularum ad plus; nec adducantur nudi in crastino festi dominicae nativitatis, sine brachis verenda tegentibus, nec etiam adducantur in ecclesia, sed ducantur ad puteum claustri, non hora servitii sed alia, et ibi rigentur sola situla aquae sine lesione. Qui contrarium fecerit occurrit ipso facto suspensionis censuram per dictum statutum latam; attamen extra ecclesiam permissum est quod stulti faciant alias ceremonias sine damno aut iniuria cuiusquam.’ The proceedings on the day after the Nativity are probably explained by the election of the precentor on that day (after Vespers). The victims ducked may have failed to be present at the election; but cf. the Easter _prisio_ (ch. vii).

[1048] Saint-Marthe, _Gallia Christiana_, xii. 96, partly quoted by Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_. The bishop describes the feast almost in the _ipsissima verba_ of the Paris Theologians, but in one passage (‘nudos homines sine verendorum tegmine inverecunde ducendo per villam et theatra in curribus et vehiculis sordidis, &c.’) he adds a trait from the Sens chapter act just quoted.

[1049] Chérest, 68. The councils of Sens in 1460 and 1485 (p. 300) are for the province. That of 1528 (sometimes called of Sens, but properly of Paris) is national. They are not evidence for the feast at Sens itself.

[1050] Ibid. 72 ‘Insolentias, tam de die quam de nocte, faciendo tondere barbam parte, ut fieri consuevit, in theatro ... ac ludere personagia, die scilicet circumcisionis Domini.’ The shaven face was characteristic of the mediaeval fool, minstrel, or actor (cf. ch. ii). Dreves, 586, adds that Tallinus Bissart, the precentor of this year, was threatened with excommunication.

[1051] Ibid. 75.

[1052] Ibid. 76 ‘prohibitum vicariis ne attentent, ultima die anni, in theatro tabulato ante valvas ecclesiae aut alibi in civitate Senonensi, publice barbam illius qui se praecentorem fatuorum nominat, aut alterius, radere, radifacere, permittere, aut procurare; et ne ad electionem dicti praecentoris die festo Sancti Iohannis Evangelistae sub poenis excommunicationis.’

[1053] Ibid. 77 ‘honeste, ac devote, sine laternis, sine precentore, sine delatione baculi domini precentoris, nec poterunt facere rasuram in theatro ante ecclesiam.’

[1054] Ibid. 78.

[1055] Dreves, 586.

[1056] _Prov. C. of Rouen_ (1445), c. 11 (Labbé, xiii. 1304) ‘prohibet haec sancta synodus ludos qui fatuorum vulgariter nuncupantur cum larvatis faciebus et alias inhoneste fieri in ecclesiis aut cemeteriis’; _Prov. C. of Sens_ (1485, repeats decrees of earlier council of 1460), c. 3 (Labbé, xiii. 1728), quoting and adopting Basle decree, with careful exception for _consuetudines_ of Nativity and Resurrection; cf. ch. xx; _Dioc. C. of Chartres_ (1526, apparently repeated 1550, tit. 16; cf. Du Tilliot, 62) quoted Bochellus, iv. 7. 46 ‘denique ab Ecclesia eiiciantur vestes fatuorum personas scenicas agentium’; _Nat. C. of Paris_ (1528, held by Abp. of Sens as primate), _Decr. Morum_, c. 16 (Labbé, xiv. 471) ‘prohibemus ne fiat deinceps festum fatuorum aut innocentium, neque erigatur decanatus patellae.’ The _Prov. C. of Rheims_ (1456, held at Soissons) in Labbé, xiii. 1397, mentions only ‘larvales et theatrales ioci,’ ‘choreae,’ ‘tripudia,’ but refers explicitly to the Pragmatic Sanction. This, it may be observed, was suspended for a while in 1461 and finally annulled in 1516. Still more general are the terms of the _C. of Orleans_ (1525, repeated 1587; Du Tilliot, 61); _C. of Narbonne_ (1551), c. 46 (Labbé, xv. 26); _C. of Beauvais_ (1554; E. Fleury, _Cinquante Ans de Laon_, 53); _C. of Cambrai_ (1565), vi. 11 (Labbé, xv. 160); _C. of Rheims_ (1583), c. 5 (Labbé, xv. 889); _C. of Tours_ (1583, quoted Bochellus, iv. 7. 40). See also the councils quoted as to the Boy Bishop, in ch. xv. Finally, the _C. of Trent_, although in its 22nd session (1562) it renewed the decrees of popes and councils ‘de choreis, aleis, lusibus’ (_Decr. de Reformatione_, c. 1), made no specific mention of ‘fatui’ (_Can. et Decr. Sacros. Oec. Conc. Tridentini_, (Romae, 1845), 127). Probably the range of the feast was by this time insignificant.

[1057] Cf. ch. xvi.

[1058] But there was another revel on Aug. 28. F. L. Chartier, _L’ancien Chapitre de N.-D. de Paris_, 175, quotes _Archives Nationales_, LL. 288, p. 219 ‘iniunctum est clericis matutinalibus, ne in festo S. Augustini faciant dissolutiones quas facere assueverant annis praeteritis.’

[1059] Dulaure, _Hist. de Paris_, iii. 81; Grenier, 370. A ‘cardinal’ was chosen on Jan. 13, and took part in the office.

[1060] Grenier, 362. A model account form has the heading ‘in die Circumcisionis, si fiat festum stultorum.’ The ‘rubriques du luminaire’ provide for a distribution of wax to the sub-deacons and choir-clerks.

[1061] Martonne, 49, giving no authority.

[1062] Grenier, 361; Dreves, 583; Rigollot, 15, quoting _Actum Capit._ Leave was given to John Cornet, of St. Michael’s, John de Nœux of St. Maurice’s, rectors, and Everard Duirech, _capellanus_ of the cathedral, ‘pridem electi, instituti et assumpti in papatum stultorum villae Ambianensis ... quod dictus Cornet ... et sui praedecessores in ipso papatu ordinati superstites die circumcisionis Domini ... facerent prandium in quo beneficiati ipsius villae convocarentur ... ut inibi eligere instituere et ordinare valerent papam ac papatum relevarent absque tamen praeiudicio in aliquo tangendo servitium divinum ... faciendum.’ Apparently the parochial clergy of Amiens joined with the cathedral vicars and chaplains in the feast.

[1063] Grenier, 362; Rigollot, 15 ‘Servitium divinum facient honeste in choro ecclesiae solemne, absque faciendo insolentias aut aliquas irrisiones, nec deferendo aliquas campanas in dicta ecclesia, aut alibi, et si dicti vicarii facere voluerint aliqua convivia, erit eorum sumptibus et non sumptibus Dominorum canonicorum.’

[1064] Rigollot, 16 ‘inhibuerunt capellanis et vicariis ... facere recreationes solitas in pascha annotino, etiam facere electionem de Papa Stultorum.’ Later in the year the ‘iocalia Papae, videlicet annulus aureus, tassara (_sic_) argentea et sigillum’ were put in charge of the ‘canonicus vicarialis.’

[1065] Rigollot, 17 ‘licentiam dederunt ... ludere die dominica proxima brioris.’ Rigollot and Leber think that ‘brioris’ may be for ‘burarum,’ the feast of ‘buras’ or ‘brandons’ on the first Sunday in Lent. Can it be the same as the ‘fête des Braies’ of Laon?

[1066] Grenier, 414; Rigollot, 17.

[1067] L. Maziére, _Noyon Religieux_ in _Comptes-Rendus et Mémoires_ of the _Comité arch. et hist. de Noyon_ (1895), xi. 92; Grenier, 370, 413; Rigollot, 28, quoting _Actum Capit._ of 1497 ‘cavere a cantu carminum infamium et scandalosorum, nec non similiter carminibus indecoris et impudicis verbis in ultimo festo Innocentium per eos fetide decantatis; et si vicarii cum rege vadant ad equitatum solito, nequaquam fiet chorea et tripudia ante magnum portale, saltem ita impudice ut fieri solet.’

[1068] Grenier, 365; Rigollot, 29, quoting, I think, a ceremonial (1350) of the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-au-Parvis. The masquers obtained permission from some canons seated on a theatre near the house called _Grosse-Tête_.

[1069] Grenier, 365; Rigollot, 26; Dreves, 584, quoting cathedral _Actum Capit._ of 19 Dec. 1403, from Grenier’s _MS. Picardie_, 158. Five canons said ‘quod papa fieret in ecclesia, sed nulla elevatio, et quod, qui vellet venire, in habitu saeculari honesto veniret, et quod nulla dansio ibi fieret’; but the casting-vote of the dean was against them, ‘sed extra possent facere capellani et alii quidquid vellent.’

[1070] Grenier, 370; Rigollot, 22; E. Fleury, _Cinquante Ans de Laon_, 16; C. Hidé, in _Bull. de la Soc. académique de Laon_ (1863), xiii. 111.

[1071] Hidé, _op. cit._ 116, thinks that the Patriarch used _jetons de présence_, similar to those used by the Boy Bishop at Amiens and elsewhere (ch. xv). He figures some, but they may belong to the period of the _confrérie_.

[1072] _MS. Hist._ of Dom. Bugniatre (eighteenth century) quoted Fleury, _op. cit._ 16. I do not feel sure that the term ‘fête des ânes’ was really used at Laon.

[1073] Julleville, _Les Com._ 36; _Rép. Com._ 348; L. Paris, _Remensiana_, 32, _Le Théâtre à Reims_, 30; Coquillart, _Œuvres_ (Bibl. Elzév.), i. cxxxv. Coquillart is said to have written verses for the Basoche on this occasion.

[1074] Rigollot, 211, from A. Hugo, _La France pittoresque_, ii. 226, on the authority of a register of 1570 in the cathedral archives.

[1075] It begins ‘Cantemus ad honorem, gloriam et laudem Sancti Stephani.’

[1076] L. Deschamps de Pas, in _Mém. de la Soc. des Antiq. de la Morinie_, xx. 104, 107, 133; O. Bled, in _Bull. Hist., de la même Soc._ (1887), 62.

[1077] Deschamps de Pas, _op. cit._ 133 ‘solitum est fieri gaude in cena ob reverentiam ipsius sancti.’

[1078] Ibid. _op. cit._ 107. Grenier, 414, citing Sammarthanus, _Gallia Christiana_, x. 1510, calls Francis de Melun ‘bishop of Terouanne.’ An earlier reform of the feast seems implied by the undated Chapter Statute in Ducange, s. v. _Episcopus Fatuorum_ ‘quia temporibus retroactis multi defectus et plura scandala, deordinationes et mala, occasione Episcopi Fatuorum et suorum evenerint, statuimus et ordinamus quod de caetero in festo Circumcisionis Domini Vicarii caeterique chorum frequentantes et eorum Episcopus se habeant honeste, cantando et officiando sicut continetur plenius in Ordinario Ecclesiae.’

[1079] De la Fons-Melicocq, _Cérémonies dramatiques et Anciens Usages dans les Eglises du Nord de la France_ (1850), 4. In 1445 is a payment to the ‘évêque des fous de Saint-Aldegonde’ for a ‘jeu’; in 1474, one for the chapter’s share of ‘le feste du vesque des asnes, par dessus tout ce que ly cœurz paya.’

[1080] E. Hautcœur, _Hist. de l’Église collégiale de Saint-Pierre de Lille_ (1896-9), ii. 30; Id. _Cartulaire de l’Église_, &c. ii. 630, 651 (_Stat. Capit._ of July 7, 1323, confirmed June 23, 1328); ‘item volumus festum folorum penitus anullari.’

[1081] Hautcœur, _Hist._ ii. 215; De la Fons-Melicocq, _Archives hist. et litt. du Nord de France_ (3rd series), v. 374; Flammermont, _Album paléographique du Nord de la France_ (1896), No. 45.

[1082] Ducange, s. v. _Deposuit_ (_Stat. Capit. S. Petri Insul._ July 13, 1531, ex Reg. k.) ‘Scandala et ludibria quae sub Fatuitatis praetextu per beneficiatos et habituatos dictae nostrae ecclesiae a vigilia usque ad completas octavas Epiphaniae fieri et exerceri consueverunt ... deinceps nullus nominetur, assumatur et creetur praelatus follorum, nec ludus, quem Deposuit vocant, in dicta vigilia, aut alio quocumque tempore, ludatur, exerceatur, aut fiat.’ Probably to this date belongs the very similarly worded but undated memorandum in Delobel, _Collectanea_, f. 76, which Hautcœur, _Hist._ ii. 220, 224, assigns to 1490. This adds ‘de non ... faciendo officio ... per vicarios in octava Epiphaniae.’ The municipal duties of the _praelatus_ fell to the _confrérie_ of the Prince des Foux, afterwards Prince d’Amour, which held revels in 1547 (Du Tilliot, 87), and still later to the ‘fou de la ville’ who led the procession of the Holy Sacrament, and flung water at the people in the eighteenth century (Leber, ix. 265).

[1083] Rigollot, 14.

[1084] Two documents are preserved, each giving a full account of the event: (_a_) summons of the delinquents before the Parlement, dated March 16, 149⁸⁄₉ (J. F. Foppens, _Supplément_ (1748), to A. Miraeus, _Opera Diplomatica_, iv. 295). This is endorsed with some notes of further proceedings; (_b_) official notes of the hearing on Nov. 18, 1499 (_Bibl. de l’École des Chartes_, iii. 568); cf. Julleville, _Rép. com._ 355; Cousin, _Hist. de Tournay_, Bk. iv. 261. The Synod of Tournai in 1520 still found it necessary to forbid students to appear in church ‘en habits de fous, en représentant des personnages de comédie’ on St. Nicholas’ day, Innocents’ day, or ‘la fête de l’évêque’ (E. Fleury, _Cinquante Ans de Laon_, 54).

[1085] Rigollot, 19, 157.

[1086] Cf. ch. xix.

[1087] Martene, iii. 41 ‘[at second Vespers] Cantor ... dicit ter _Deposuit_ baculum tenens, et si baculus capitur, _Te Deum Laudamus_ incipietur ... [at Compline] ascendunt duo clerici super formam thesaurarii et cantant _Haec est sancta dies_, &c. et post _Conserva Deus_, et dum canitur verberant eum clerici baculis, et ante eos cantores festi et erupitores.... Post incipit cantor novus _Verbum caro factum est_, et hoc cantando ducunt eum in domum suam per parietes cum baculis feriendo. Si autem baculus non accipitur, nihil de iis dicitur, sed vadunt, et extinguitur luminare.’

[1088] Cf. Appendix L.

[1089] Chérest, 9, 55, quoting _Acta Capit._ (1453) ‘item circa festum Innocentium ordinatum est quod in ecclesia nullae fient insolenciae seu derisiones potissime tempore divini servitii et quod pulsentur matutinae non ante quartam horam. Permittimus tamen quod reverenter et in habitu ecclesiastico per Innocentes et alios iuvenes de sedibus inferioribus dictum fiat officium, saltem circa ea quae sine sacris ordinibus possunt exerceri’; (1510) ‘item turpem illum abusum festi fatuorum in nostra hactenus ecclesia, proh dolor, frequentatum quo in celebritate sanctorum Innocentium quidam sub nomine patriarchali divinum celebrant officium, penitus detestamus, abolemus et interdicimus.’

[1090] Lebeuf, _Mém. concernant l’Histoire ... d’Auxerre_ (ed. Challe et Quantin, 1848-55), ii. 30; iv. 232 (quoting _Acta Capit._ partly extracted by Ducange, s.v. _Kalendae_); and in Leber, ix. 358, 375, 385.

[1091] ‘Cum domini nostri rex et alii regales Franciae sint valde dolorosi, propter nova armaturae factae in partibus Ungariae contra Saracenos et inimicos fidei’; cf. Bury-Gibbon, vii. 35.

[1092] ‘Ordinavit quod de caetero omnes, qui de festo fatuorum fuerint, non pulsent campanam capituli sui post prandium, dempta prima die in qua suum episcopum eligent, et etiam quod in suis sermonibus fatuis non ponant seu dicant aliqua opprobria in vituperium alicuius personae.’

[1093] Lebeuf, _Hist. d’Auxerre_, ii. 30.

[1094] I suppose the intended action took shape in the _Quinque Conclusiones_ of Gerson (p. 292), in which he quotes the dictum of an Auxerre preacher that the feast of Fools was as _approbatum_ as that of the Conception. To this there seems to be a reference in the account of the Abbot of Pontigny’s sermon in the _Acta Capit._ ‘praedicavit ... quod dictum festum non erat, nec unquam fuerat a Deo nec Ecclesia approbandum seu approbatum.’ Lebeuf, in Leber, ix. 385, points out that Gerson was intimate with one member of the Auxerre chapter. This was Nicolas de Clamengis, whose _Opera_, 151 (ed. Lydius, 1613), include a treatise _De novis celebritatibus non instituendis_, in which the suppression of feasts in his diocese by Michael of Auxerre is alluded to.

[1095] These were canons of inferior rank at Auxerre (Ducange, s. v. _tortarius_).

[1096] Canons J. Boileaue, Devisco, Pavionis, Viandi and H. Desnoes. Was Viandi the canon John Vivien who, according to Lebeuf, _Hist. d’Auxerre_, iv. 234, noted on his Breviary (now _Bibl. Nat. Cod. Colbert._ 4227) that at first Vespers on the Circumcision, _Hodie Christus_ was sung after each Psalm, ‘quia Festum Circumcisionis vocatur in diversis ecclesiis festum Fatuorum’?

[1097] Chérest, 76; Julleville, _Les Com._ 234; Lebeuf, in Leber, ix. 358, 373, quoting a _Cry pour l’abbé de l’église d’Ausserre et ses supposts_, from the _Œuvres_ of Roger de Collerye (1536). This resembles the productions of the _confréries des fous_ (cf. ch. xvi) and begins,

‘Sortez, saillez, venez de toutes parts, Sottes et sots plus prompts que liépars.’

[1098] Dunot de Charnage, _Hist. de Besançon_, i. 227; Rigollot, 47; Leber, ix. 434; x. 40.

[1099] The anonymous author of the _Histoire de l’Église d’Autun_ (1774), 462, 628, gives _probata_ from the _Acta Capitularia_ for some, but not all of his statements. Du Tilliot, 24 and possibly Ducange, s. v. _Festum Asinorum_ appear also to have seen at least one register kept by the _rotarius_ which covered the period 1411 to 1416.

[1100] ‘Deliberaverunt super festo folorum quod fieri consuevit anno quolibet in festo Circumcisionis Domini, ad resecandum superfluitates et derisiones quae fieri consueverunt ... item quod amodo non adducatur asinus ad processionem dictae diei, ut fuit solitum fieri, nec dicatur cantilena quae dici solebat super dictum asinum, et supra officio quod fieri consuetum est dicta die in Ecclesia dicti Domini postea providebunt.’ Ducange says that the ass had a golden foot-cloth of which four of the principal canons held the corners. On the _cantilena_ cf. Appendix L.

[1101] ‘Ordinaverunt quod festum folorum penitus cesset.’

[1102] ‘Concluserunt ad requestum stultorum quod hoc anno fiat festum folorum ... cum solemnitatibus in dicto festo requisitis in libris dicti festi descriptis ... qui defecerit in matutinis et aliis horis statutis comburatur in fonte.’

[1103] ‘In fine Matutinarum nonnulli larvati alii inordinate vestiti choreas, tripudia et saltus in eadem ecclesia faciunt ... [aliquos] ad fontem deferunt et ibi aqua intinguntur.’

[1104] Cf. ch. xix. A representation of the ‘Flight into Egypt’ might well come into a play of Herod. The _Hist. d’Autun_, 462, says that, before the reform of 1411, the ass appeared as Balaam’s ass in connexion with a _Prophetae_ on a stage at the church door. There was a procession to church, and the Prose. The _rex_ received a cheese from the chapter.

[1105] Cf. ch. xv.

[1106] ‘Regna Herodis et Episcopatus Innocentium, seu fatuorum festa hactenus ... fieri solita ... abolentes.’

[1107] ‘Quod vulgo dicitur _Les Gaigizons_ ... amplius neminem balneare aut ... pignus aufferre.’ It is here only the choice of ‘bishop’ and ‘dean’ of Innocents, ‘quod festum fatuorum a nonnullis nuncupatur’ that is forbidden. Apparently ‘Herod’ had died out.

[1108] Du Tilliot, 100; Petit de Julleville, _Les Com._ 194. Amongst Du Tilliot’s woodcuts is one of a _bâton_ (No. 4) bearing this date 1482. It represents a nest of fools.

[1109] Ibid. 21.

[1110] Ibid. 74 ‘Icelle cour a ordonné et ordonne, que defenses seront faites aux Choriaux et habitués de ladite Église Saint-Vincent et de toutes autres Églises de son Ressort, et dorésnavant le jour de la Fête des Innocens, et autres jours faire aucunes insolences et tumultes esdites Églises, vacquer en icelles, et courir parmi les villes avec danses et habits indécens à leur état ecclésiastique.’

[1111] Pilot de Thorey, i. 177.

[1112] Pilot de Thorey, i. 178 (_Statuta_, c. 40) ‘Item statuimus et ordinamus, quod ex nunc cessent abusus qui fieri consueverunt per abbatem vulgariter vocatum stultorum seu sociorum ... Item statuimus et ordinamus, cum in ecclesia Dei non deceat fieri ludibria vel inhonesta committi, quod, in festis Sanctorum Stephani, Iohannis evangelistae, Innocentium et Epiphaniae, domino de cetero officiatur et desserviatur in divinis, prout in aliis diebus infra fieri statuetur, et quod nullus, de cetero, ut quandoque factum fuisse audivimus, portetur in Rost, et quod, de nulla persona ecclesiastica vel seculari cuiuscumque status existat, inhonesti vel diffamatorii rithmi recitentur, et quod nullus pignoret aut aliena rapiat quovisimodo.’ A Vienne writer, in Leber, ix. 259, adds that the performance of the office on the three post-Nativity feasts by deacons, priests, and choir in the high stalls was continued by these Statutes, but suppressed about 1670.

[1113] Lancelot, in _Hist. de l’Académie des Inscriptions_ (ed. 4to), vii. 255, (ed. 12mo), iv. 397; Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_; Du Tilliot, 46.

[1114] ‘... _Te Deum_, et tunc per consocios subtollitur, et elevatur, ac super humeros ad domum, ubi caeteri pro potu sunt congregati, laetanter deportatur, atque in loco ad hoc specialiter ornato et praeparato ponitur, statuitur et collocatur. Ad eius introitum omnes debent assurgere, etiam dominus Episcopus, si fuerit praesens, ac impensa reverentia consueta per consodales et consocios electo, fructus species et vinum cum credentia ei dentur, &c. Sumpto autem potu idem Abbas vel maior succentor ex eius officio absente Abbate incipit cantando ea quae secuntur; ab ista enim parte sclafardi, clericuli ceterique de suptus chorum debent esse simulque canere, ceteri vero desuper chorum ab alia parte simul debent respondere.... Sed dum eorum cantus saepius et frequentius per partes continuando cantatu tanto amplius ascendendo elevatur in tantum quod una pars cantando, clamando, _è fort cridar_, vincit aliam. Tunc enim inter se ad invicem clamando, sibilando, ululando, cachinnando, deridendo ac cum manibus demonstrando, pars victrix quantum potest partem adversam deridere conatur ac superare, iocosasque trufas sine taedio breviter inferre.

A parte Abbatis. _Heros._

Alter chorus. _Et nolic. nolierno._

A parte Abbatis. _Ad fons sancti bacon._

Alii. _Kyrie Eleison._

Quo finito illico gachia ex eius officio facit praeconizationem sic dicendo: _De par Mossenhor Labat è sos Cosselliers vos fam assaber que tot homs lo sequa, lay on voura anar, ea quo sus la pena de talhar lo braye_. Tunc Abbas aliique domum exeunt impetum facientes. Iuniores canonici chorarii scutiferique domini Episcopi et canonicorum Abbatem comitantur per urbem, cui transeunti salutem omnes impertiunt. In istis vero visitationibus (quae usque ad vigiliam Natalis Domini quotidie vespere fiunt) Abbas debet semper deportare habitum, sive fuerit manta, sive tabardum, sive cappa una cum capputio de variis folrato.’ It is curious how the characteristic meridional love of sheer noise and of gesture comes out.

[1115] _De indulgentiis dandis_:

[St. Stephen’s Day]

De par Mossenhor l’Evesque, Que Dieus vos donne gran mal al bescle, Avec una plena balasta de pardos E dos das de raycha de sot lo mento.

[St. John’s Day]

Mossenhor ques ayssi presenz Vos dona xx balastas de mal de dens, Et à vos autras donas atressi Dona 1^a coa de rossi.

[1116] ‘Deinde electus per sclafardos subtollitur et campanilla precedente portatur ad domum episcopalem, ad cuius adventum ianuae domus, absente vel praesente ipso domino Episcopo, debent totaliter aperiri, ac in una de fenestris magni tinelli debet deponi, et stans dat ibi iterum benedictionem versus villam.’

[1117] Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_; Bérenger-Féraud, iv. 14.

[1118] Papon, _Hist. de Provence_ (1784), iv. 212.

[1119] Rigollot, 125.

[1120] Bérenger-Féraud, iv. 131, quoting Mireur, _Bull. hist. et philos. du Comité des Travaux hist._ (1885), N^{os}. 3, 4.

[1121] Rigollot, 171; Fauris de Saint-Vincent, in _Magasin encyclopédique_ (1814), i. 24. A chapter inventory mentions a ‘mitra episcopi fatuorum.’ The _Council of Aix_ in 1585 (Labbé, xv. 1146) ordered the suppression of ‘ludibria omnia et puériles ac theatrales lusus’ on Innocent’s day.

[1122] Thiers, _Traité des Jeux et des Divertissements_, 449; Du Tilliot, 33, 39, quoting [Mathurin de Neuré] _Querela ad Gassendum, de parum Christianis Provincialium suorum ritibus ... &c._ (1645) ‘Choro cedunt omnes Therapeutae Sacerdotes, et ipse Archimandrita; in quorum omnium locos sufficiuntur Coenobii mediastini viles, quorum aliis manticae explendae cura est, aliis culina, aliis hortus colendus: Fratres Laicos vocant, qui tunc occupatis hinc et inde Initiatorum ac Mystarum sedibus, ... Sacerdotalibus nempe induuntur vestibus, sed laceris, si quae suppetant, ac praepostere aptatis, inversisque; inversos etiam tenent libros in quibus se fingunt legere, appensis ad nasum perspicillis, quibus detractum vitrum, eiusque loco mali aurati putamen insertum.... Thuricremi Sanniones in cuiusque faciem cineres exsufflarunt, et favillas ex acerris, quas per ludibrium temere iactantes, stolidis quandoque capitibus affundunt; sic autem instructi non hymnos, non Psalmos, non liturgias de more concinunt, sed confusa ac inarticula verba demurmurant, insanasque prorsus vociferationes derudunt.’ The same M. de Neuré (whose real name was Laurent Mesme) says more generally that in many towns of the province on Innocents’ day, ‘Stolidorum se Divorum celebrare festa putant, quibus stolide litandum sit, nec aliis quam stolidis illius diei sacra ceremoniis peragenda.’ He quotes (p. 72) from a _Rituale_ a direction for the singing of the _Magnificat_ to the tune ‘Que ne vous requinquez-vous, vielle? Que ne vous requinquez-vous donc?’

[1123] Bérenger-Féraud, iv. 17.

[1124] _C. of Toledo_, N^o. 38, in 1582 (Aguirre, _Coll. Conc. Hisp._ vi. 12); _C. of Oriolana_, in 1600 (Aguirre, vi. 452): cf. pp. 162, 350.

[1125] Pearson, ii. 285; C. M. Engelhardt, _H. von Landsberg_ (1818), 104; C. Schmidt, _H. von Landsberg_, 40. Herrad was abbess of Hohenburg, near Strasburg, 1167-95. The MS. of her _Hortus Deliciarum_ was destroyed at Strasburg in 1870, but Engelhardt, and from him Pearson, translated the bit about the Epiphany feasts: cf. ch. xx.

[1126] Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xx. 22 (from the Gradual, _Cod. Monacens._ 157, f. 231^{vo}); after quoting a decree against _cantiones_ of the _C. of Lyons_ in 1274; ‘ne igitur propter scholarium episcopum, cum quo in multis ecclesiis a iuniore clero ad specialem laudem et devotionem natalis Domini solet tripudiari, saecularia parliamenta nec non strepitus clamorque et cachitus mundanarum cantionum in nostro choro invalescant ... ego Iohannes, cognomine de Perchausen, Decanus ecclesiae Mosburgensis, antequam in decanum essem assumptus ... infra scriptas cantiones, olim ab antiquis etiam in maioribus ecclesiis cum scholarium episcopo decantatas, paucis modernis, etiam aliquibus propriis, quas olim, cum rector fuissem scholarium, pro laude nativitatis Domini et beatae Virginis composui, adiunctis, coepi in unum colligere et praesenti libro adnectere pro speciali reverentia infantiae Salvatoris, ut sibi tempore suae nativitatis his cantionibus a novellis clericulis quasi ex ore infantium et lactentium laus et hymnizans devotio postposita vulgarium lascivia possit tam decenter quam reverenter exhiberi.’

[1127] The following may all be for Jan. 1, and I do not think that there was a _scholarium episcopus_ on any other day at Mosburg: _Gregis pastor Tityrus_ (Dreves, _op. cit._ 110), _Ecce novus annus est_ (Dreves, 131, headed in MS. ‘ad novum annum’), _Nostri festi gaudium_ (Dreves, 131, ‘in circumcisione Domini’), _Castis psallamus mentibus_ (Dreves, 135, 251, ‘cum episcopus eligitur’), _Mos florentis venustatis_ (Dreves, 135 ‘dum itur extra ecclesiam ad choream’), _Anni novi novitas_ (Dreves, 136 ‘cum infulatus et vestitus praesul inthronizatur’). Some other New Year _cantiones_ found elsewhere by Dreves (pp. 130, 131) have no special reference to the feast.

[1128] Dreves, _op. cit._ 136 (beginning _anni novi novitas_), 250, with musical notation.

[1129] Dreves, _op. cit._ 110, 254, with notation.

[1130] Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_, s. v. _Epiphany_, quoting Crombach, _Hist. Trium Regum_ (1654), 752; Galenius, _de admir. Coloniae_ (1645), 661. The date of the _Ritual_ is not given, but the ceremony had disappeared by 1645.

[1131] ‘Admiscent autem natalitias cantiones, non sine gestientis animi voluptate.’

[1132] _Tractatus de precatione Dei_, i. 302 (†1406-15), in F. Palacký, _Documenta Mag. Ioannis Hus vitam illustrantia_ (1869), 722: ‘Quantam autem quamque manifestam licentiam in ecclesia committant, larvas induentes--sicut ipse quoque adolescens proh dolor larva fui--quis Pragae describat? Namque clericum monstrosis vestibus indutum facientes episcopum, imponunt asinae, facie ad caudam conversa, in ecclesiam eum ad missam ducunt, praeferentes lancem iusculi et cantharum vel amphoram cerevisiae; atque dum haec praetendunt, ille cibum potionemque in ecclesia capit. Vidi quoque eum aras suffientem et pedem sursum tollentem audivique magna voce clamantem: bú! Clerici autem magnas faces cereorum loco ei praeferebant, singulas aras obeunti et suffienti. Deinde vidi clericos cucullos pellicios aversa parte induentes et in ecclesia tripudiantes. Spectatores autem rident atque haec omnia religiosa et iusta esse putant; opinantur enim, hos esse in eorum rubricis, id est institutis. Praeclarum vero institutum: pravitas, foeditas!--Atque quum tenera aetate et mente essem, ipse quoque talium nugarum socius eram; sed ut primum dei auxilio adiutus sacras literas intelligere coepi, statim hanc rubricam, id est institutum huius insaniae, ex stultitia mea delevi. Ac sanctae memoriae dominus Ioannes archiepiscopus, is quidem excommunicationis poena proposita hanc licentiam ludosque fieri vetuit, idque summo iure, &c.’

[1133] The quotation given above is a translation by J. Kvíčala from the Bohemian of Huss. There seems to be a confusion between the ‘bishop’ and his steed. It was probably the latter who lifted up his leg and cried _bú_.

[1134] Grosseteste, _Epistolae_ (ed. Luard, R. S.), 118 ‘vobis mandamus in virtute obedientiae firmiter iniungentes, quatenus festum stultorum cum sit vanitate plenum et voluptatibus spurcum, Deo odibile et daemonibus amabile, ne de caetero in ecclesia Lincolniensi die venerandae circumcisionis Domini nullatenus permittatis fieri.’

[1135] Ibid. _op. cit._ 161 ‘execrabilem etiam consuetudinem, quae consuevit in quibusdam ecclesiis observari de faciendo festo stultorum, speciali authoritate rescripti apostolici penitus inhibemus; ne de domo orationis fiat domus ludibrii, et acerbitas circumcisionis Domini Iesu Christi iocis et voluptatibus subsannetur.’ The ‘rescript’ will be Innocent III’s decretal of 1207, just republished in Gregory IX’s _Decretales_ of 1234; cf. p. 279.

[1136] _Lincoln Statutes_, ii. 247 ‘quia in eadem visitacione nostra coram nobis a nonnullis fide dignis delatum extitit quod vicarii et clerici ipsius ecclesiae in die Circumcisionis Domini induti veste laicali per eorum strepitus truffas garulaciones et ludos, quos festa stultorum communiter et convenienter appellant, divinum officium multipliciter et consuete impediunt, tenore presencium. Inhibemus ne ipsi vicarii qui nunc sunt, vel erunt pro tempore, talibus uti de caetero non praesumant nec idem vicarii seu quivis alii ecclesiae ministri publicas potaciones aut insolencias alias in ecclesia, quae domus oracionis existit, contra honestatem eiusdem faciant quouismodo.’ Mr. Leach, in _Furnivall Miscellany_, 222, notes ‘a sarcastic vicar has written in the margin, “Harrow barrow. Here goes the Feast of Fools (_hic subducitur festum stultorum_).”’

[1137] What was _ly ffolcfeste_ of which Canon John Marchall complained in Bishop Alnwick’s visitation of 1437 that he was called upon to bear the expense? Cf. _Lincoln Statutes_, ii. 388 ‘item dicit quod subtrahuntur ab ipso expensae per eum factae pascendo ly ffolcfeste in ultimo Natali, quod non erat in propria, nec in cursu, sed tamen rogatus fecit cum promisso sibi facto de effusione expensarum et non est sibi satisfactum.’

[1138] _Statutes_ of Thos. abp. of York (1391) in _Monasticon_, vi. 1310 ‘in die etiam Circumcisionis Domini subdiaconis et clericis de secunda forma de victualibus annis singulis, secundum morem et consuetudinem ecclesiae ab antiquo usitatos, debite ministrabit [praepositus], antiqua consuetudine immo verius corruptela regis stultorum infra ecclesiam et extra hactenus usitata sublata penitus et extirpata.’

[1139] _Inventory_ of St. Paul’s (1245) in _Archaeologia_, l. 472, 480 ‘Baculus stultorum est de ebore et sine cambuca, cum pomello de ebore subtus indentatus ebore et cornu: ... capa et mantella puerorum ad festum Innocentum et Stultorum sunt xxviij debiles et contritae.’

[1140] Sarum _Inventory_ of 1222 in W. H. R. Jones, _Vetus Registr. Sarisb._ (R. S.), ii. 135 ‘Item baculi ii ad “Festum Folorum.”’

[1141] N^o. 27 in the list given for ch. x. Father Christmas says ‘Here comes in “The Feast of Fools.”’

[1142] Cf. the further account of these post-Nativity feasts in ch. xv.

[1143] The _C. of Paris_ in 1212 (p. 279) forbids the Feast of Fools in religious houses. But that in the Franciscan convent at Antibes is the only actual instance I have come across.

[1144] There were _canonici presbiteri_, _diaconi_, _subdiaconi_ and even _pueri_ at Salisbury (W. H. Frere, _Use of Sarum_, i. 51).

[1145] On the nature and growth of vicars choral, cf. Cutts, 341; W. H. Frere, _Use of Sarum_, i. xvii; _Lincoln Statutes_, passim; A. R. Maddison, _Vicars Choral of Lincoln_ (1878); H. E. Reynolds, _Wells Cathedral_, xxix, cvii, clxx. Vicars choral make their appearance in the eleventh century as choir substitutes for non-resident canons. At Lincoln they got benefactions from about 1190, and in the thirteenth century formed a regularly organized _communitas_. The _vicarii_ were often at the same time _capellani_ or chantry-priests. On chantries see Cutts, 438.

[1146] The Lincoln vicars chose two Provosts yearly (Maddison, _op. cit._); the Wells vicars two Principals (Reynolds, _op. cit._ clxxi).

[1147] Reynolds, _op. cit._, gives numerous and interesting notices of

## chapter discipline from the Wells _Liber Ruber_.

[1148] In Leber, ix. 379, 407, is described a curious way of raising funds for choir suppers, known at Auxerre and in Auvergne, and not quite extinct in the eighteenth century. It has a certain analogy to the _Deposuit_. From Christmas to Epiphany the Psalm _Memento_ was sung at Vespers, and the anthem _De fructu ventris_ inserted in it. When this began the ruler of the choir advanced and presented a bouquet to some canon or _bourgeois_ as a sign that the choir would sup with him. This was called ‘annonce en forme d’antienne,’ and the suppers _defructus_. The _C. of Narbonne_ (1551), c. 47, forbade ‘parochis ... ne ... ad commessationes quas defructus appellant, ullo modo parochianos suos admittant, nec permittant quempiam canere ut dicunt: Memento, Domine, _David sans truffe_, &c. Nec alia huiusmodi ridenda, quae in contemptum divini officii ac in dedecus et probrum totius cleri et fiunt et cantantur.’

[1149] When, however, Ducange says that the feast was not called _Subdiaconorum_, because the sub-deacons held it, but rather as being ‘ebriorum Clericorum seu Diaconorum: id enim evincit vox _Soudiacres_, id est, ad litteram, _Saturi Diaconi_, quasi _Diacres Saouls_,’ we must take it for a ‘sole joke of Thucydides.’ I believe there is also a joke somewhere in Liddell and Scott.

[1150] Cf. p. 60; Gautier, _Les Tropaires_, i. 186; and _C. of Treves_ in 1227 (J. F. Schannat, _Conc. Germ._ iii. 532) ‘praecipimus ut omnes Sacerdotes non permittant trutannos et alios vagos scolares aut goliardos cantare versus super _Sanctus_ et _Agnus Dei_.’

[1151] The ‘abbot’ appears to have been sometimes charged with choir discipline throughout the year, and at Vienne and Viviers exists side by side with another _dominus festi_. Similarly at St. Omer there was a ‘dean’ as well as a ‘bishop.’ The vicars of Lincoln and Wells also chose two officers.

[1152] I suppose that ‘portetur in rost’ at Vienne means that the victims were roasted like the fags in _Tom Brown_.

[1153] Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_.

[1154] Gibbon-Bury, v. 201. The Byzantine authorities are Genesius, iv. p. 49 B (_Corp. Hist. Byz._ xi. 2. 102); Paphlagon (Migne, _P. G._ cv. 527); Theophanes Continuatus, iv. 38 (_Corp. Hist. Byz._ xxii. 200); Symeon Magister, p. 437 D (_Corp. Hist. Byz._ xxii. 661), on all of whom see Bury, App. I to tom. cit.

[1155] _C. of Constantinople_ (869-70), c. 16 (Mansi, xvi. 169, _ex versione Latina, abest in Graeca_) ‘fuisse quosdam laicos, qui secundum diversam imperatoriam dignitatem videbantur capillorum comam circumplexam involvere atque reponere, et gradum quasi sacerdotalem per quaedam inducia et vestimenta sacerdotalia sumere, et, ut putabatur, episcopos constituere, superhumeralibus, id est, palliis, circumamictos, et omnem aliam Pontificalem indutos stolam, qui etiam proprium patriarcham adscribentes eum qui in adinventionibus risum moventibus praelatus et princeps erat, et insultabant et illudebant quibusque divinis, modo quidem electiones, promotiones et consecrationes, modo autem acute calumnias, damnationes et depositiones episcoporum quasi ab invicem et per invicem miserabiliter et praevaricatorie agentes et patientes. Talis autem actio nec apud gentes a saeculo unquam audita est.’

[1156] Cedrenus, _Historiarum Compendium_, p. 639 B (ed. Bekker, in _Corp. Hist. Byz._ xxiv. 2. 333), follows verbatim the still unprinted eleventh-century John Scylitzes (Gibbon-Bury, v. 508). Theophylactus was Patriarch from 933 to 956.

[1157] Theodorus Balsamon, _In Can. lxii Conc. in Trullo_ (_P. G._ cxxxvii. 727) Σημείωσαι τὸν παρόντα κανόνα, καὶ ζήτησον διόρθωσιν ἐπὶ τοῖς γινομένοις παρὰ τῶν κληρικῶν εἰς τήν ἑορτὴν ἐπὶ τῆς γεννήσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν Φώτων [Luminarium, Candlemas] ὑπεναντίως τούτῳ· καὶ μᾶλλον εἰς τὴν ἁγιωτάτην Μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν ... ἀλλὰ καί τινες κληρικοὶ κατά τινας ἑορτὰς πρὸς διάφορα μετασχηματίζονται προσωπεῖα. καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ξιφήρεις ἐν τῷ μεσονάω τῆς ἐκκλησίας μετὰ στρατιωτικῶν ἀμφίων εἰσέρχονται, ποτὲ δὲ καὶ ὡς μοναχοὶ προοδεύουσιν, ἢ καὶ ὡς ζῶα τετράποδα. ἐρωτήσας οὖν ὅπως ταῦτα παρεχωρήθησαν γίνεσθαι, οὐδέν τε ἕτερον ἤκουσα ἀλλ’ ἢ ἐκ μακρᾶς συνθείας ταῦτα τελεῖσθαι. τοιαῦτά εἰσιν, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, καὶ τὰ παρά τινων δομεστικευόντων ἐν κλήρῳ γινόμενα, τὸν ἀέρα τοῖς δακτύλοις κατὰ ἡνιόχους τυπτόντων, καὶ φύκη ταῖς γνάθοις δῆθεν περιτιθεμένων καὶ ὑπορρινομένων ἔργα τινὰ γυναικεῖα, καὶ ἕτερα ἀπρεπῆ, ἵνα πρὸς γελωτα τοὺς βλέποντας μετακινήσωσι. τὸ δὲ γελᾶν τοὺς ἀγρότας ἐγχεομένους τοῦ οἴνου τοῖς πίθοις, ὡσεί τι παρεπόμενον ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐστὶ τοῖς ληνοβατοισιν· εἰ μήτις εἴπη τὴν σατανικὴν ταύτην ἐργασίαν καταργεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ λέγειν τοὺς ἀγρότας συχνότερον ἐφ’ ἑκάστῳ μέτρῳ σχεδὸν τό, Κύριε ἐλέησον. τὰ μέντοι ποτὲ γινόμενα ἀπρεπῆ παρὰ τῶν νοταρίων παιδοδιδασκάλων κατὰ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν ἁγίων νοταρίων, μετὰ προσωπείων σκηνικῶν διερχομένων τὴν ἀγοράν, πρὸ χρόνων τινῶν κατηργήθησαν, καθ’ ὁρισμὸν τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου ἐκείνου πατριάρχου κυρίου Λουκᾶ.

[1158] Belethus, c. 120, compares the ecclesiastical ball-play at Easter to the _libertas Decembrica_. He is not speaking here of the Feast of Fools.

[1159] e.g. Du Tilliot, 2.

[1160] S. R. Maitland, _The Dark Ages_, 141, tilts at the Protestant historian Robertson’s _History of Charles V_, as do F. Clément, 159, and A. Walter, _Das Eselsfest_ in _Caecilien-Kalender_ (1885), 75, at Dulaure, _Hist. des Environs de Paris_, iii. 509, and other ‘Voltairiens.’

[1161] Chérest, 81.

[1162] J. Bujeaud, _Chants et Chansons populaires des Provinces de l’Ouest_, i. 63. The _ronde_ is known in Poitou, Aunis, Angoumois. P. Tarbé, _Romancero de Champagne_ (2^e partie), 257, gives a variant. Bujeaud, i. 61, gives another _ronde_, the _Testament de l’Âne_, in which the ass has fallen into a ditch, and amongst other legacies leaves his tail to the _curé_ for an _aspersoir_. This is known in Poitou, Angoumois, Franche-Comté. He also says that he has heard children of Poitou and Angoumois go through a mock catechism, giving an ecclesiastical significance to each part of the ass. The tail is the _goupillon_, and so forth. Fournier-Verneuil, _Paris, Tableau moral et philosophique_ (1826), 522, with the Beauvais _Officium_ in his mind, says ‘Voulez-vous qu’au lieu de dire, _Ite, missa est_, le prêtre se mette à braire trois fois de toute sa force, et que le peuple réponde en chœur, comme je l’ai vu faire en 1788, dans l’église de Bellaigues, en Périgord?’

[1163] Cf. ch. xx. Gasté, 20, considers the Rouen _Festum Asinorum_ ‘l’origine de toutes les Fêtes de l’Âne qui se célébraient dans d’autres diocèses’: but the Rouen MS. in which it occurs is only of the fourteenth century, and the Balaam episode does not occur at all in the more primitive forms of the _Prophetae_, while the Sens Feast of Fools is called the _festa asinaria_ in the _Officium_ of the early thirteenth century.

[1164] Tille, _D. W._ 31. In Madrid an ass was led in procession on Jan. 17, with anthems on the Balaam legend (Clément, 181).

[1165] Clément, 182; Didron, _Annales archéologiques_, xv. 384.

[1166] Dulaure, _Hist. des Environs de Paris_, iii. 509, quotes a legend to the effect that the very ass ridden by Christ came ultimately to Verona, died there, was buried in a wooden effigy at S^{ta}-Maria in Organo, and honoured by a yearly procession. He guesses at this as the origin of the Beauvais and other _fêtes_. Didron, _Annales arch._ xv. 377, xvi. 33, found that nothing was known of this legend at Verona, though such a statue group as is described above apparently existed in the church named. Dulaure gives as his authorities F. M. Misson, _Nouveau Voyage d’ Italie_ (1731), i. 164; _Dict. de l’ Italie_, i. 56. Misson’s visit to Verona was in 1687, although the passage was not printed in the first edition (1691) of his book. It is in the English translation of 1714 (i. 198). _His_ authority was a French merchant (M. Montel) living in Verona, who had often seen the procession. In _Cenni intorno all’ origine e descrizione della Festa che annualmente si celebra in Verona l’ ultimo Venerdì del Carnovale, comunamente denominata Gnoccolare_ (1818), 75, is a mention of the ‘asinello del vecchio padre Sileno’ which served as a mount for the ‘Capo de’ Maccheroni.’ This is probably Misson’s procession, but there is no mention of the legend in any of the eighteenth-century accounts quoted in the pamphlet. Rienzi was likened to an ‘Abbate Asinino’ (Gibbon, vii. 269).

[1167] Ducange, s. v. _Festum Asinorum_; cf. Leber, ix. 270; Molanus, _de Hist. SS. Imaginum et Picturarum_ (1594), iv. 18.

[1168] T. Naogeorgus (Kirchmeyer), _The Popish Kingdom_, iv. 443 (1553, transl. Barnabe Googe, 1570, in New Shakspere Society edition of Stubbes, _Anatomy of Abuses_, i. 332); cf. _Beehive of the Roman Church_, 199. The earliest notice is in Gerardus, _Leben St. Ulrichs von Augsburg_ (ob. 973), c. 4. E. Bishop, in _Dublin Review_, cxxiii. 405, traces the custom in a Prague fourteenth-century _Missal_ and sixteenth-century _Breviary_; also in the modern Greek Church at Moscow where until recently the Czar held the bridle. But there is no ass, as he says, in the Palm Sunday ceremony described in the _Peregrinatio Silviae_ (Duchesne, 486).

[1169] A peeress of the realm lately stated that this custom had been introduced in recent years into the Anglican church. Denials were to hand, and an amazing conflict of evidence resulted. Is there any proof that the _Palmesel_ was ever an English ceremony at all? The Hereford riding of 1706 (cf. _Representations_) was not in the church. Brand, i. 73, quotes _A Dialogue: the Pilgremage of Pure Devotyon_ (1551?), ‘Upon Palme Sondaye they play the foles sadely, drawynge after them an Asse in a rope, when they be not moche distante from the Woden Asse that they drawe.’ Clearly this, like Googe’s translation of Naogeorgus, is a description of contemporary continental Papistry. W. Fulke, _The Text of the New Testament_ (ed. 1633), 76 (_ad Marc._ xi. 8) quotes a note of the Rheims translation to the effect that in memory of the entry into Jerusalem is a procession on Palm Sunday ‘with the blessed Sacrament reverently carried as it were Christ upon the Asse,’ and comments, ‘But it is pretty sport, that you make the Priest that carrieth the idoll, to supply the roome of the Asse on which Christ did ride.... Thus you turn the holy mysterie of Christ’s riding to Jerusalem to a May-game and Pageant-play.’ Fulke, who lived 1538-89, is evidently unaware that there was an ass, as well as the priest, in the procession, from which I infer that the custom was not known in England. Not that this consideration would weigh with the mediaevally-minded curate, who is as a rule only too ready to make up by the ceremonial inaccuracy of his mummeries for the offence which they cause to his congregation.

[1170] Marquardt-Mommsen, vi. 191; Jevons, _Plutarch’s Romane Questions_, 134; Fowler, 304, 322; Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 531:

‘stultaque pars populi, quae sit sua curia, nescit; sed facit extrema sacra relata die.’

[1171] Fowler, 306.

[1172] Schaff, iii. 131.

[1173] Belethus, c. 70 ‘Debent ergo vesperae Natalis primo integre celebrari, ac postea conveniunt diaconi quasi in tripudio, cantantque _Magnificat_ cum antiphona de S. Stephano, sed sacerdos recitat collectam. Nocturnos et universum officium crastinum celebrant diaconi, quod Stephanus fuerit diaconus, et ad lectiones concedunt benedictiones, ita tamen, ut eius diei missam celebret hebdomarius, hoc est ille cuius tum vices fuerint eam exsequi. Sic eodem modo omne officium perficient sacerdotes ipso die B. Ioannis, quod hic sacerdos fuerit, et pueri in ipso festo Innocentium, quia innocentes pro Christo occisi sunt, ... in festo itaque Innocentium penitus subticentur cantica laetitiae, quoniam ii ad inferos descenderunt.’ Cf. also c. 72, quoted on p. 275. Durandus, _Rat. Div. Off._ (1284), vii. 42, _De festis SS. Stephani, Ioannis Evang. et Innocentium_, gives a similar account. At Vespers on Christmas Day, he says, the deacons ‘in tripudio convenientes cantant antiphonam de sancto Stephano, et sacerdos collectam. Nocturnos autem et officium in crastinum celebrant et benedictiones super lectiones dant: quod tamen facere non debent.’ So too for the priests and boys on the following days.

[1174] Honorius Augustodunensis, _Gemma Animae_, iii. 12 (_P. L._ clxxii. 646).

[1175] Ioannes Abrincensis (bishop of Rouen †1070), _de Eccl. Offic._ (_P. L._ cxlvii. 41), with fairly full account of the ‘officia.’

[1176] Ekkehardus IV, _de Casibus S. Galli_, c. 14 (ed. G. Meyer von Knonau, in _Mittheilungen zur vaterländischen Gesch._ of the Hist. Verein in St. Gallen, N. F., v.; _M. G. H. Scriptores_, ii. 84) ‘longum est dicere, quibus iocunditatibus dies exegerit et noctes, maxime in processione infantum; quibus poma in medio ecclesiae pavimento antesterni iubens, cum nec unum parvissimorum moveri nec ad ea adtendere vidisset, miratus est disciplinam.’ Ekkehart was master of the song-school, and von Knonau mentions some _cantiones_ written by him and others for the feast, e.g. one beginning ‘Salve lacteolo decoratum sanguine festum.’ He has another story (c. 26) of how Solomon who was abbot of the monastery, as well as bishop of Constance, looking into the song-school on the ‘dies scolarium,’ when the boys had a ‘ius ... ut hospites intrantes capiant, captos, usque dum se redimant, teneant,’ was duly made prisoner, and set on the master’s seat. ‘Si in magistri solio sedeo,’ cried the witty bishop, ‘iure eius uti habeo. Omnes exuimini.’ After his jest, he paid his footing like a man. The ‘Schulabt’ of St. Gall is said to have survived until the council of Trent.

[1177] Frere, _Winch. Troper_, 6, 8, 10. The deacons sang ‘Eia, conlevitae in protomartyris Stephani natalicio ex persona ipsius cum psalmista ouantes concinnamus’; the priests, ‘Hodie candidati sacerdotum chori centeni et milleni coniubilent Christo dilectoque suo Iohanni’; the boys, ‘Psallite nunc Christo pueri, dicente propheta.’

[1178] Rock, iii. 2. 214; Clément, 118; Grenier, 353; Martene, iii. 38. These writers add several references for the _triduum_ or one or other of its feasts to those here given: e.g. Martene quotes on St. Stephen’s feast _Ordinarium of Langres_, ‘finitis vesperis fiunt tripudia’; _Ordinarium of Limoges_, ‘vadunt omnes ad capitulum, ubi Episcopus, sive praesens, sive absens fuerit, dat eis potum ex tribus vinis’; _Ordinarium of Strasburg_ (†1364), ‘propinatur in refectorio, sicut in vigilia nativitatis.’

[1179] Martene, iii. 38 ‘tria festa, quae sequuntur, fiunt cum magna solemnitate et tripudio. Primum faciunt diaconi, secundum presbiteri, tertium pueri.’

[1180] Grenier, 353 ‘si festa [S. Stephani] fiant, ut consuetum est, a diaconis in cappis sericis ... fit statio in medio choro, et ab ipsis regitur chorus ... et fiant festa sicut docent libri’; and so for the two other feasts.

[1181] Martene, iii. 38 ‘cum in primis vesperis [in festo S. Stephani] ad illum cantici _Magnificat_ versiculum _Deposuit potentes_ perventum erat, cantor baculum locumque suum diacono, qui pro eo chorum regeret, cedebat’; and so on the other feasts.

[1182] Cf. p. 315.

[1183] Durr, 77. Here the sub-deacons shared in the deacons’ feast.

[1184] The _Consuetudinarium_ of †1210 (Frere, _Use of Sarum_, i. 124, 223) mentions the procession of deacons after Vespers on Christmas day, but says nothing of the share of the priests and boys in those of the following days. The _Sarum Breviary_ gives all three (Fasc. i. cols. cxcv, ccxiii, ccxxix), and has a note (col. clxxvi) ‘nunquam enim dicitur Prosa ad Matutinas per totum annum, sed ad Vesperas, et ad Processionem, excepto die sancti Stephani, cuius servitium committitur voluntati Diaconorum; et excepto die sancti Iohannis, cuius servitium committitur voluntati Sacerdotum; et excepto die sanctorum Innocentium, cuius servitium committitur voluntati Puerorum.’

[1185] _York Missal_, i. 20, 22, 23 (from fifteenth-century MS. _D_ used in the Minster) ‘_In die S. Steph._ ... finita processione, si Dominica fuerit, ut in Processionali continetur, Diaconis et Subdiaconis in choro ordinatim astantibus, unus Diaconus, cui Praecentor imposuerit, incipiat Officium.... _In die S. Ioann._ ... omnibus Personis et Presbyteris civitatis ex antiqua consuetudine ad Ecclesiam Cathedralem convenientibus, et omnibus ordinate ex utraque parte Chori in Capis sericis astantibus, Praecentor incipiat Officium.... _In die SS. Innoc._ ... omnibus pueris in Capis, Praecentor illorum incipiat.’ There are responds for the ‘turba diaconorum,’ ‘presbyterorum’ or ‘puerorum.’

[1186] _Lincoln Statutes_, i. 290; ii. ccxxx, 552.

[1187] Gasquet, _Old English Bible_, 250.

[1188] Martene, iii. 40.

[1189] Ibid. iii. 39.

[1190] In his second decree of 1199 as to the feast of the Circumcision at Paris (cf. p. 276), Bishop Eudes de Sully says (_P. L._ ccxii. 73) ‘quoniam festivitas beati protomartyris Stephani eiusdem fere subiacebat dissolutionis et temeritatis incommodo, nec ita solemniter, sicut decebat et martyris merita requirebant, in Ecclesia Parisiensi consueverat celebrari, nos, qui eidem martyri sumus specialiter debitores, quoniam in Ecclesia Bituricensi patronum habuerimus, in cuius gremio ab ineunte aetate fuimus nutriti; de voluntate et assensu dilectorum nostrorum Hugonis decani et capituli Parisiensis, festivitatem ipsam ad statum reducere regularem, eumque magnis Ecclesiae solemnitatibus adnumerare decrevimus; statuentes ut in ipso festo tantum celebritatis agatur, quantum in ceteris festis annualibus fieri consuevit.’ Eudes de Sully made a donative to the canons and clerks present at Matins on the feast, which his successor Petrus de Nemore confirmed in 1208 (_P. L._ ccxii. 91). Dean Hugo Clemens instigated a similar reform of St. John’s day (see p. 276).

[1191] Martene, iii. 40; Grenier, 353, 412. The _Ritual_ of Bishop Nivelon, at the end of the twelfth century, orders St. Stephen’s to be kept as a triple feast, ‘exclusa antiqua consuetudine diaconorum et ludorum.’

[1192] Schannat, iv. 258 (1316) ‘illud, quod ... causa devotionis ordinatum fuerat ... ut Sacerdotes singulis annis in festivitate Beati Iohannis Evangelistae unum ex se eligant, qui more episcopi illa die Missam gloriose celebret et festive, nunc in ludibrium vertitur, et in ecclesia ludi fiunt theatrales, et non solum in ecclesia introducuntur monstra larvarum, verum etiam Presbyteri, Diaconi et Subdiaconi insaniae suae ludibria exercere praesumunt, facientes prandia sumptuosa, et cum tympanis et cymbalis ducentes choreas per domos et plateas civitatis.’

[1193] At Rouen in 1445 the feast of St. John, held by the _capellani_, was alone in question. The chapter ordered (Gasté, 46) ‘ut faciant die festi sancti euangelistae Iohannis servicium divinum bene et honeste, sine derisionibus et fatuitatibus; et inhibitum fuit eisdem ne habeant vestes difformes, insuper quod fiat mensa et ponantur boni cantores, qui bene sciant cantare, omnibus derisionibus cessantibus.’ But in 1446 the feast of St. Stephen needed reforming, as well as that of St. John (A. Chéruel, _Hist. de Rouen sous la Domination anglaise_, 206); and in 1451 all three (Gasté, 47) ‘praefati Domini capitulantes ordinaverunt quod in festis solemnitatis Nativitatis Domini nostri Ihesu Christi proxime futuris, omnes indecencie et inhonestates consuete fieri in dedecus ecclesie, tam per presbyteros dyaconos quam pueros chori et basse forme, cessent omnino, nec sit aliquis puer in habitu episcopi, sed fiat servicium devote et honorifice prout in aliis festis similis gradus.’

[1194] _C. of Toledo_ (1473), c. 19 (Labbé, xiii. 1460) ‘Quia vero quaedam tam in Metropolitains quam in Cathedralibus et aliis Ecclesiis nostrae provinciae consuetudo inolevit ut videlicet in festis Nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et sanctorum Stephani, Ioannis et Innocentium aliisque certis diebus festivis, etiam in solemnitatibus Missarum novarum dum divina aguntur, ludi theatrales, larvae, monstra, spectacula, necnon quamplurima inhonesta et diversa figmenta in Ecclesiis introducuntur ... huiusmodi larvas, ludos, monstra, spectacula, figmenta et tumultuationes fieri ... prohibemus.... Per hoc tam honestas repraesentationes et devotas, quae populum ad devotionem movent, tam in praefatis diebus quam in aliis non intendimus prohibere’; _C. of Lyons_ (1566 and 1577), c. 15 (Du Tilliot, 63) ‘Es jours de Fête des Innocens et autres, l’on ne doit souffrir ès Églises jouer jeux, tragédies, farces, &c.’; cf. the Cologne statutes (1662) quoted on p. 352.

[1195] H. E. Reynolds, _Wells Cathedral_, 75 ‘_Quod non sint ludi contra honestatem Ecclesiae Wellensis_. Item a festo Nativitatis Domini usque ad octavas Innocentium quod Clerici Subdiaconi Diaconi Presbiteri etiam huius ecclesiae vicarii ludos faciant theatrales in ecclesia Wellensi et monstra larvarum introducentes, in ea insaniae suae ludibria exercere praesumunt contra honestatem clericalem et sacrorum prohibitionem canonum divinum officium multipliciter impediendo; quod de cetero in ecclesia Wellensi et sub pena canonica fieri prohibentes volumus quod divinum officium in festo dictorum sanctorum Innocentium sicuti in festis sanctorum consimilibus quiete ac pacifice absque quocunque tumultu et ludibrio cum devotione debita celebretur.’

[1196] Reynolds, _op. cit._ 87 ‘_Prohibitio ludorum theatralium et spectaculorum et ostentationum larvarum in Ecclesia_. Item, cum infra septimanam Pentecostes et etiam in aliis festivitatibus fiant a laicis ludi theatrales in ecclesia praedicta et non solum ad ludibriorum spectacula introducantur in ea monstra larvarum, verum etiam in sanctorum Innocentium et aliorum sanctorum festivitatibus quae Natale Christi secuntur, Presbyteri Diaconi et Subdiaconi dictae Wellensis ecclesiae vicissim insaniae suae ludibria exercentes per gesticulationem debacchationes obscenas divinum officium impediant in conspectu populi, decus faciant clericale vilescere quem potius illo tempore deberent praedicatione mulcere....’ The statute goes on to threaten offenders with excommunication.

[1197] F. C. Hingeston Randolph, _Bishop Grandison’s Register_,

## Part iii, p. 1213; _Inhibicio Episcopi de ludis inhonestis_. The

bishop writes to all four bodies in identical terms. He wishes them ‘Salutem, et morum clericalium honestatem,’ and adds ‘Ad nostram, non sine gravi cordis displicencia et stupore, pervenit noticiam quod, annis praeteritis et quibusdam praecedentibus, in Sanctissimis Dominice Nativitatis, ac Sanctorum Stephani, Iohannis, Apostoli et Evangelistae, ac Innocencium Solempniis, quando omnes Christi Fideles Divinis laudibus et Officiis Ecclesiasticis devocius ac quiescius insistere tenentur, aliqui praedicte Ecclesie nostre Ministri, cum pueris, nedum Matutinis et Vesperis ac Horis aliis, set, quod magis detestandum est, inter Missarum Sollempnia, ludos ineptos et noxios, honestatique clericali indecentes, quia verius Cultus Divini ludibria detestanda, infra Ecclesiam ipsam inmiscendo committere, Divino timore postposito, pernicioso quarundam Ecclesiarum exemplo, temere praesumpserunt; Vestimenta et alia Ornamenta Ecclesie, in non modicum eiusdem Ecclesie nostre et nostrum dampnum et dedecus, vilium scilicet scenulentorumque (_or_ scev.) sparsione multipliciter deturpando. Ex quorum gestis, seu risibus et cachinnis derisoriis, nedum populus, more Catholico illis potissime temporibus ad Ecclesiam conveniens, a debita devocione abstrahitur, set et in risum incompositum ac oblectamenta illicita dissolvitur; Cultusque Divinus irridetur et Officium perperam impeditur....’

[1198] On the _Pastores_ cf. ch. xix. Gasté, 33, gives several Rouen chapter acts from 1449 to 1457 requiring them to officiate ‘cessantibus stultitiis et insolenciis.’ These orders and those quoted on p. 341 above were prompted by the _Letter_ of the Paris theologians against the Feast of Fools and similar revels. In 1445 (or 1449) a committee was chosen ‘ad videndum et visitandum ordinationem ecclesiae pro festis Nativitatis Domini et deliberationes Facultatis Theologiae super hoc habitas et quod tollantur derisiones in ipsis fieri solitas.’

[1199] At Sarum a _Constitutio_ of Roger de Mortival in 1324 (Dayman and Jones, _Sarum Statutes_, 52) forbade drinking when the antiphon ‘O Sapientia’ was sung after Compline on Dec. 16. John of Avranches (†1070) allowed for the feast of his ‘O’ at Rouen ‘unum galonem vini de cellario archiepiscopi,’ and the ‘vin de l’O’ was still given in 1377 (Gasté, 47). On these ‘Oes,’ sung by the great functionaries of cathedrals and monasteries, see E. Green, _On the words ‘O Sapientia’ in the Kalendar_ (_Archaeologia_, xlix. 219); Cynewulf, _Christ_ (ed. A. S. Cook), xxxv. Payments ‘cantoribus ad ludum suum’ or ‘ad’ or ‘ante natale’ appear in Durham accounts; cf. _Finchale Priory_ ccccxxviii (Surtees Soc.,) and _Durham Accounts_, _passim_ (Surtees Soc.). I do not feel sure what feast is here referred to.

[1200] Chérest, 49 sqq.

[1201] Ioannes Abrincensis, _de Eccl. Offic._ (_P. L._ cxlvii. 42) ‘Licet, ut in morte Domini, _Te Deum_ et _Gloria in excelsis_ et _Alleluia_ in aliquot ecclesiis, ex more antiquo, omittantur; quia ut Christus occideretur tot parvuli occidi iubentur; et illis occisis fit mors Christi secundum aestimationem Herodis; tamen quia placuit modernis, placet et nobis ut cantentur’; cf. the passage from Belethus quoted on p. 336; also Honorius Augustodunensis, _Gemma Animae_, iii. 14 (_P. L._ clxxii. 646), and Martene, iii. 40.

[1202] _Ordinarium_ of Rouen (fourteenth century) in Ducange, s.v. _Kalendae_; _P. L._ cxlvii. 155; Gasté, 35. On the Rouen feast cf. also Gasté, 48.

[1203] These chants are taken from _Revelation_, xiv. 3 ‘nemo poterat dicere canticum, nisi illa centum quadraginta quatuor millia, qui empti sunt de terra. Hi sunt, qui cum mulieribus non sunt coinquinati, virgines enim sunt. Hi sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit.’ This passage is still read in the ‘Epistle’ at Mass on Holy Innocents’ day. Cf. the use of the same chants at Salisbury (Appendix M).

[1204] ‘Et tamdiu cantetur _Deposuit potentes_ quod baculus accipiatur ab eo qui accipere voluerit.’

[1205] _Ordinarium_ of Bayeux (undated) in Gasté, 37. On the Bayeux feast and its _parvus episcopus_ or _petit évêque_ cf. F. Pluquet, _Essai sur Bayeux_, 274.

[1206] ‘Dum perventum fuerit ad illum: _Deposuit potentes_, vadunt omnes ad medium ecclesiae et ibi qui in processione stant ordinate eumdem versum, episcopo inchoante, plures replicantes. Qui dum sic cantatur, offert ipse episcopus sociis suis de choro baculum pastoralem. Post multas itaque resumptiones dicti versus, revertuntur in chorum, _Te Deum laudamus_, si habent novum episcopum, decantantes, et ita canendo deducunt eum ad altare, et mitra sibi imposita et baculo cum capa serica, revertuntur in chorum, illo qui fuerat episcopus explente officium capellani, creato nihilominus novo cantore. Tunc chorus, si non fuerit ibi novus episcopus, vel novus episcopus qui baculum duxerit capiendum, cum suis sociis resumit a capite psalmum _Magnificat_, et sic cantant vesperas usque ad finem.’

[1207] _Novus Ordinarius_ of Coutances (undated) in Gasté, 39.

[1208] ‘Post Matutinas conveniant omnes pueri ad suam tabulam faciendam, quibus licitum est maiores personas Ecclesiae minoribus officiis deputare. Diaconis et subdiaconis ordinatis, thuribula imponantur et candelabra maiora videlicet et minora. Episcopo vero, cantori et aliis canonicis aquam, manutergium, missale, ignem et campanam possunt imponere pro suae libito voluntatis. Nihil tamen inhonestum aut impertinens apponatur; antiquiores primi ponantur in tabula et ultimi iuniores.’

[1209] ‘Quo facto dicat [Episcopus] _Deposuit_. Statimque electus Episcopus, tradito sibi baculo pastorali a pueris ad altare praesentetur, et osculato altari in domum suam a dictis pueris deferatur. Et interim, finito tumultu, eat processio ad altare S. Thomae martyris.’

[1210] _Rituale_ (fourteenth century) of Tours in Martene, iii. 39. There was a _cantor puerorum_ as well as the _episcopus_. At second Vespers ‘quando _Magnificat_ canitur, veniunt clericuli in choro cum episcopo habentes candelas accensas de proprio et quando _Deposuit_ canitur, accipit cantor puerorum baculum, et tunc in stallo ascendunt pueri, et alii descendunt.’

[1211] Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_.

[1212] ‘Omnes pueri et subdiaconi feriati, qui in numero dictorum Innocentium computantur.’

[1213] ‘Ipsa autem die de mane equitare habet idem episcopus Innocentium ad monasteria SS. Mansueti et Apri per civitatem transeundo in comitiva suorum aequalium, quibus etiam maiores et digniores personae dignitatum comitantur per se vel suos servitores et equos, et descendentes ad fores ecclesiarum praedictarum intonat unam antiphonam et dicit episcopus orationem, sibique debentur a quolibet monasteriorum eorundem xviij den. Tullenses, qui si illico non solvantur, possunt accipere libros vel vadia.’

[1214] ‘Cantatis eiusdem diei vesperis, episcopus ipse cum mimis et tubis procedit per civitatem cum sua comitiva, via qua fiunt generales processiones.’

[1215] ‘In crastino Innocentium, quo omnes vadunt per civitatem post prandium, faciebus opertis, in diversis habitibus, et si quae farsae practicari valeant, tempore tamen sicco, fiunt in aliquibus locis civitatis, omnia cum honestate.’ Another passage, referring more generally to the feast, has ‘Fiunt ibi moralitates vel simulacra miraculorum cum farsis et similibus ioculis, semper tamen honestis.’

[1216] ‘In octavis Innocentium rursus vadit episcopus cum omni comitiva sua in habitibus suis ad ecclesiam B. Genovefae, ubi cantata antiphona de ipsa virgine cum collecta, itur ad domum parochialem eius ecclesiae vel alibi, ubi magister et fratres domus Dei, quibus ipsa ecclesia est unita, paraverint focapam unam, poma, nuces, &c. ad merendam oportuna; et ibi instituuntur officiarii ad marencias super defectibus aut excessibus in officio divino per totum annum commissis.’

[1217] ‘Fit ... assignatio post coenam diei Innocentium; ita quod is qui illa die festum peregit, gratias refert episcopo et toti comitivae, ac excusari petit, si in aliquo defecit; et finaliter pileum romarini vel alterius confectionis floreum exhibet ipsi episcopo, ut tradat canonico in receptione sequenti constituto ad futurum annum ipsum festum agendum.’ Cf. the bouquets at the ‘defructus’ (p. 324).

[1218] ‘Si autem facere contemneret adveniente festo, suspenderetur cappa nigra in raustro medio chori, et tamdiu ibi maneret in illius vituperium, quamdiu placeret subdiaconis feriatis et pueris chori; et in ea re non tenerentur nobis capitulo obedire.’

[1219] Amiens: Rigollot, 13 and passim; cf. p. 339.

[1220] St. Quentin: Rigollot, 32; Grenier, 360.

[1221] Senlis: Rigollot, 26; Grenier, 360.

[1222] Soissons: Matton, _Archives de Soissons_, 75.

[1223] Roye: Rigollot, 33; Grenier, 359.

[1224] Peronne: Rigollot, 34; Grenier, 359, 413.

[1225] Rheims: Rigollot, 50; Petit de Julleville, _Rép. Com._ 348; Marlot, _Hist. de Rheims_, ii. 266. In 1479 the chapter undertook the expense, ‘modo fiat sine larvis et strepitu tubicinis, ac sine equitatione per villam.’ Martene, iii. 40, says that there is no trace of any of the _triduum_ ceremonies in the early thirteenth-century Rheims _Ordinarium_.

[1226] Brussels: Laborde, _Ducs de Bourgogne_, ii. 2. 286 ‘[1378] Item xxi decembris episcopo scholarium sanctae Gudilae profecto Sancti Nycolay quod scholares annuatim faciunt 1¹⁄₂ mut[ones].’

[1227] Lille: E. Hautcœur, _Hist. de Saint-Pierre de Lille_, ii. 217, 223. On June 29, 1501, Guillemot de Lespine ‘trépassa évêque des Innocens.’ His epitaph is in the cloister gallery (Hautcœur, _Doc. liturg. de S. P. de Lille_, 342).

[1228] Liège: Rigollot, 42; Dürr, 82. A statute of 1330 laid the expense on the last admitted canon ‘nisi canonicus scholaris sub virga existens ipsum exemerit.’

[1229] Laon: Rigollot, 21; Grenier, 356, 413; C. Hidé, _Bull. de la Soc. acad. de Laon_, xiii. 122; E. Fleury, _Cinquante Ans de Laon_, 52. A chapter act of 1546 states that the custom of playing a comedy at the election of the Boy Bishop on St. Eloi’s day (Dec. 1) has ceased. The Mass is not to be disturbed, but ‘si les escoliers veulent faire un petit discours, il seroit entendu avec plaisir.’

[1230] Troyes: T. Boutiot, _Hist. de Troyes_, iii. 20.

[1231] Mans: Gasté, 43; Julleville, _Les Com._ 38.

[1232] Bourges: Martene, iii. 40.

[1233] Châlons-sur-Saône: Du Tilliot, 20; C. Perry, _Hist. de Châlons_ (1659), 435.

[1234] Grenoble: Pilot de Thorey, _Usages, Fêtes et Coutumes en Dauphiné_, i. 181.

[1235] _C. of Cognac_ (1260), c. 2 (Mansi, xxiii. 1033) ‘cum in balleatione quae in festo SS. Innocentium in quibusdam Ecclesiis fieri inolevit, multae rixae, contentiones et turbationes, tam in divinis officiis quam aliis consueverint provenire, praedictas balleationes ulterius sub intimatione anathematis fieri prohibemus; nec non et Episcopos in praedicto festo creari; cum hoc in ecclesia Dei ridiculum existat, et hoc dignitatis episcopalis ludibrio fiat.’ _C. of Salzburg_ (1274), c. 17 (Labbé, xi. 1004) ‘ludi noxii quos vulgaris elocutio Eptus puor. appellat’; _CC. of Chartres_ (1526 and 1575; Bochellus, _Decr. Eccl. Gall._ iv. 7. 46; Du Tilliot, 66) ‘stultum aut ridiculum in ecclesia’ on days of SS. Nicholas and Catharine, and the Innocents; _C. of Toledo_ (1565), ii. 21 (Labbé, xv. 764) ‘ficta illa et puerilis episcopatus electio’; _C. of Rouen_ (1581; Hardouin, _Concilia_, x. 1217) ‘in festivitate SS. Innocentium theatralia.’

[1236] There are traces of it in the eighteenth century at Lyons (Martene, iii. 40) and Rheims (Barthélemy, v. 334); at Sens, in the nineteenth, the choir-boys still play at being bishops on Innocents’ day, and name the ‘archbishop’ _âne_ (Chérest, 81).

[1237] Grenier, 358, quoting Le Vasseur, _Epistolae_, Cent. ii. Epist. 68; cf. on the Noyon feast, Leach, 135; Du Tilliot, 17; Rigollot, 27; L. Mazière, _Noyon religieux_, in _Comptes-Rendus et Mémoires_, xi. 91, of _The Comité arch. et hist. de Noyon_. Le Vasseur, an ex-Rector of the University of Paris, writes to François Geuffrin ‘ecce ludunt etiam ante ipsas aras; internecionem detestamur, execramur carnificem. Ludunt et placet iste ludus ecclesiae.... Tam grandis est natu ritus iste, quem viguisse deprehendo iam ante quadringentos annos in hac aede, magno totius orbis ordinum et aetatum plausu fructuque.... O miserum saeculum! ... solo gestu externoque habitu spectabiles, sola barba et pallio philosophi, caetera pecudes!’

[1238] _Chronicon Montis Sereni_ in Pertz, _Scriptores_, xxiii. 144.

[1239] _Monum. Boic._ xiii. 214, quoted by Specht, 228 ‘in festo nativitatis Dominicae annuatim sibi ludendo constituentes episcopum.’

[1240] Vitus Arnpekius, _Chron. Baioariorum_, v. 53, cited by Martene, iii. 40.

[1241] Specht, 228.

[1242] Ibid. 225; Creizenach, i. 391; both quoting E. Meyer, _Gesch. des hamburgischen Schul-und Unterrichtswesens im Mittelalter_, 197 ‘praeterea scholares nunquam, sive in electione sive extra, aliquos rhythmos faciant, tam in latino, quam in teutonico, qui famam alicuius valeant maculare.’ In the thirteenth century a child-abbot was chosen in Hamburg on St. Andrew’s day (Nov. 30). On St. Nicholas’ day (Dec. 6) he gave way to a child-bishop, who remained in office until Dec. 28 (Tille, _D. W._ 31, citing Beneke, _Hamburgische Geschichte und Sagen_, 90).

[1243] Specht, 229.

[1244] Ibid. 228.

[1245] Cf. p. 319.

[1246] Tille, _D. W._ 31.

[1247] Ibid. 299.

[1248] Dürr, 67, quoting a _Ritual_ of the cathedral (‘tempore Alberti’).

[1249] It began:

‘Iam tuum festum Nicolae dives more solemni recolit iuventus, nec tibi dignus, sacerdotum Caesar, promere laudes.’

[1250] Tille, _D. W._ 31, citing Nork, _Festkalender_, 783. Dürr’s tract was published at Mainz in 1755.

[1251] Wetzer und Welte, s. v. _Feste_ ‘consuetudo seu potius detestabilis corruptela, qua pueri a die S. Nicolai usque ad festum SS. Innocentium personatum Episcopum colunt ... ea puerilibus levitatibus et ineptiis plena coeperit esse multumque gravitatis et decoris divinis detrahat officiis ... ne clerus se pueris die SS. Inn. submittat ac eorum locum occupet, aut illis functiones aliquas in divinis officiis permittat, neque praesentes aliquis Episcopus benedictiones faciat, aliique pueri in cantandis horariis precibus lectionibus et collectis Sacerdotum, Diaconorum aut Subdiaconorum officia quaedam usurpent; multo minus convenit ut Canonici aut Vicarii ex collegarum suorum numero aliquem designent Episcopum qui reliquos omnes magnis impendiis liberali convivio excipiat.’

[1252] W. H. R. Jones, _Vetus Registr. Sarisb._ (R. S.), ii. 128; Wordsworth, _Proc._ 170 ‘Item, annulus unus aureus ad Festum Puerorum.’

[1253] _Constitutiones_, § 45 (Jones and Dayman, _Sarum Statutes_, 75; cf. Jones, _Fasti_, 295) ‘Electus puer chorista in episcopum modo solito puerili officium in ecclesia, prout fieri consuevit, licenter exequatur, convivium aliquod de caetero, vel visitationem exterius seu interius nullatenus faciendo, sed in domo communi cum sociis conversetur, nisi cum ut choristam ad domum canonici causa solatii ad mensam contigerit evocari, ecclesiam et scholas cum caeteris choristis statim post festum Innocentium frequentando. Et quia in processione quam ad altare Sanctae Trinitatis faciunt annuatim pueri supradicti per concurrentium pressuras et alias dissolutiones multiplices nonnulla damna personis et ecclesiae gravia intelleximus priscis temporibus pervenisse, ex parte Dei omnipotentis et sub poena maioris excommunicationis, quam contravenientes utpote libertates dictae ecclesiae nostrae infringentes et illius pacem et quietem temerarie perturbantes declaramus incurrere ipso facto, inhibemus ne quis pueros illos in praefata processione vel alias in suo ministerio premat vel impediat quoquomodo, quominus pacifice valeant facere et exequi quod illis imminet faciendum; sed qui eidem processioni devotionis causa voluerint interesse, ita modo maturo se habeant et honeste sicut et in aliis processionibus dictae ecclesiae se habent qui ad honorem Dei frequentant quando que ecclesiam supradictam.’

[1254] Appendix M.

[1255] Jones, _Fasti_, 299.

[1256] Wordsworth, _Proc._ 259. The _oblationes_ vary from lvi_s._ viii_d._ in 1448 to as much as lxxxix_s._ xi_d._ in 1456.

[1257] Jones, _Fasti_, 300; Rimbault, xxviii; Planché, in _Journal of Brit. Archaeol. Assoc._ xv. 123. Gregory, 93, gives a cut of the statue.

[1258] _Ordinale secundum Usum Exon._ (ed. H. E. Reynolds), f. 30.

[1259] _Archaeologia_, l. 446, 472 sqq. (_Invent._ of 1245) ‘mitra alia alba addubbata aurifrigio, plana est; quam dedit J. Belemains episcopo innocentum.... Mitra episcopi innocentum, nullius precii.... Capa et mantella puerorum ad festum Innocentum et Stultorum [cf. p. 323] sunt xxviij debiles et contritae.’ In 1402 there were two little staves for the Boy Bishop (Simpson, _St. Paul’s Cathedral and Old City Life_, 40).

[1260] _Statutes_, bk. i, pars vi. c. 9, _De officio puerorum in festo Sanctorum Innocencium_ (W. S. Simpson, _Registrum Statutorum et Consuetudinum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Sancti Pauli Londinensis_, 91).

[1261] ‘Memorandum, quod Anno Domini Millesimo cc lxiij. tempore G. de fferring, Decani, ordinatum fuit de officio Puerorum die Sanctorum Innocencium, prout sequitur. Provida fuit ab antiquis patribus predecessoribus nostris deliberacione statutum, ut in sollennitate Sanctorum Innocencium, qui pro Innocente Christo sanguinem suum fuderunt, innocens puer Presulatus officio fungeretur, ut sic puer pueris preesset, et innocens innocentibus imperaret, illius tipum tenens in Ecclesia, quem sequuntur iuvenes, quocumque ierit. Cum igitur quod ad laudem lactencium fuit adinventum, conversum sit in dedecus, et in derisum decoris Domus Dei, propter insolenciam effrenatae multitudinis subsequentis eundem, et affluentis improborum turbae pacem Praesulis exturbantis, statuendum duximus ut praedicti pueri, tam in eligendo suo Pontifice et personis dignitatum Decani, Archidiaconorum, et aliorum, necnon et Stacionariorum, antiquum suum ritum observent, tabulam suam faciant, et legant in Capitulo. Hoc tamen adhibito moderamine, ut nullum decetero de Canonicis Maioribus vel Minoribus ad candelabra, vel turribulum, vel ad aliqua obsequia eiusdem Ecclesiae, vel ipsius Pontificis deputent in futurum, set suos eligant ministeriales de illis qui sunt in secunda forma vel in tercia. Processionem suam habeant honestam, tam in incessu, quam habitu et cantu, competenti; ita vero se gerant in omnibus in Ecclesia, quod clerus et populus illos habeant recommendatos.’

[1262] ‘Die vero solemnitatis post prandium ad mandatum personae Decani convenient omnes in atrio Ecclesiae, ibidem equos ascendant ituri ad populum benedicendum. Tenetur autem Decanus Presuli presentare equum, et quilibet Stacionarius sua personae in equo providere.’

[1263] _Statutes_, bk. i, pars vii. c. 6 (Simpson, _op. cit._ 129), a statute made in the time of Dean Ralph de Diceto (1181-†1204) ‘Debet eciam novus Residenciarius post cenam die Sanctorum Innocencium ducere puerum suum cum daunsa et chorea et torchiis ad Elemosinariam, et ibi cum torticiis potum et species singulis ministrare, et liberatam vini cervisiae et specierum et candellarum facere, et ibidem ministri sui expectare, quousque alius puer Canonici senioris veniat. Et secundam cenam in octavis Innocencium tenebit, Episcopum cum pueris et eorum comitiva pascendo, et in recessu dona dando, et, si diu expectat adventum illorum nocte illa, ad matutinos non teneatur venire.’

[1264] Rimbault, xxxii.

[1265] Printed in Rimbault, 1. Duff, _Handlists_, ii. 5, notes also a _Sermo pro episcopo puerorum_ by J. Alcock, printed in the fifteenth century by R. Pynson.

[1266] _Concio de puero Iesu pronunciata a puero in nova schola Iohannis Coleti per eum instituta Londini in qua praesidet imago Pueri Iesu docentis specie_ (Erasmi _Opera_ (1704), v. 599). The English version was printed by W. Redman (Lupton, _Life of Colet_, 176). It is not clear that this _Concio_ was preached by a boy bishop, for Colet’s school (cf. next note) attended the ‘bishop’ of St. Paul’s song-school.

[1267] Lupton, _op. cit._ 175 ‘Alle these Chyldren shall every Chyldremasse day come to paulis Church and here the Chylde Bisshoppis sermon, and after be at the hye masse, and eche of them offre a 1^d. to the Childe Bisshopp; and with theme the Maisters and surveyours of the scole.’

[1268] _Lincoln Statutes_, ii. 98 ‘Inveniet [thesaurarius] Stellas cum omnibus ad illas pertinentibus, preter cirpos, quos inveniet Episcopus Puerorum futurorum [?fatuorum], vnam in nocte Natalis Domini pro pastoribus et ·ij^{as} in nocte Epiphanie, si debeat fieri presentacio ·iij^{um} regum.’

[1269] Warton, iv. 224 ‘Ioannes de Quixly confirmatur Episcopus Puerorum, et Capitulum ordinavit, quod electio Episcopi Puerorum in ecclesia Eboracensi de cetero fieret de eo, qui diutius et magis in dicta ecclesia laboraverit, et magis idoneus repertus fuerit, dum tamen competenter sit corpore formosus, et quod aliter facta electio non valebit.’

[1270] Warton, iv. 237 ‘nisi habuerit claram vocem puerilem.’

[1271] Warton, iv. 224.

[1272] Appendix M. Cf. Rimbault, xi, for further elucidations of the _Computus_.

[1273] Percy, _North. H. B._ 340.

[1274] _York Missal_, i. 23. The rubric at the beginning of Mass is ‘Omnibus pueris in Capis, Praecentor illorum incipiat.’ There are some responds for the ‘Praecentor’ and the ‘turba puerorum.’ After the Kyrie, ‘omnibus pueris in medio Chori stantibus et ibi omnia cantantibus, Episcopo eorum interim in cathedra sedente; et si Dominica fuerit, dicitur ab Episcopo stante in cathedra _Gloria in excelsis Deo_: aliter non.’ The _Sequentia_ for the day is

‘Celsa pueri concrepent melodia, eia, Innocentum colentes tripudia, &c.’

[1275] Rimbault, xvi. The dates are between 1416 and 1537.

[1276] Raine, _Fabric Rolls of York Minster_ (Surtees Soc.), 213 sqq. (†1500, the additions in brackets being †1510) ‘una mitra parva cum petris pro episcopo puerorum ... [unus annulus pro episcopo puerorum et duo owchys, unus in medio ad modum crucis cum lapidibus in circumferenciis cum alio parvo cum uno lapide in medio vocato turchas].... Capae Rubiae.... Una capa de tyssue pro Episcopo puerili ... [duae capae veteres olim pro Episcopo puerorum].’ Leach, 132, says ‘At York, in 1321, the Master of the Works gave “a gold ring with a great stone for the Bishop of the Innocents.” In 1491 the Boy Bishop’s pontifical was mended with silver-gilt.’

[1277] _Lincoln Statutes_, i. 290 (_Black Book_, †1300); ii. ccxxxi.

[1278] _Archaeologia_, liii. 25, 50; _Monasticon_, viii. 1282 ‘Item, a coope of Rede velvett w^t Rolles & clowdes ordenyd for the barne busshop w^t this scriptur “the hye wey ys best”.’ The entry is repeated in a later inventory of 1548.

[1279] Hereford, _Consuetudines_ of thirteenth century (_Lincoln Statutes_, ii. 67) ‘Thesaurarius debet invenire ... in festo Innocencium pueris candelas et ·ij^{os} cereos coram parvo Episcopo.’

[1280] Lichfield--J. C. Cox, _Sports in Churches_, in W. Andrews, _Curious Church Customs_, 3, quoting inventories of 1345 and of the fifteenth century. The latter uses the term ‘Nicholas Bishop.’

[1281] Gloucester--Rimbault, 14, prints from _Cotton MSS. Vesp._ A. xxv, f. 173, a _Sermon of the Child Bishop, Pronownysed by John Stubs, Querester, on Childermas Day, at Gloceter_, 1558.

[1282] Norwich--a fourteenth-century antiphonal of Sarum Use, probably of Norwich _provenance_ (_Lansd. MS._ 463, f. 16^v), provides for the giving of the _baculus_ to the _Episcopus Puerorum_ at Vespers on St. John’s Day.

[1283] Beverley--the fifth earl of Northumberland about 1522 gave xx_s._ at Christmas to the ‘Barne Bishop’ of Beverley, as well as to him of York (Percy, _North. H. B._ 340); cf. p. 357.

[1284] Wordsworth, _Proc._ 52; cf. Appendix M (1).

[1285] Ottery--_Statutes_ of Bishop Grandisson (1337), quoted by Warton, ii. 229 ‘Item statuimus, quod nullus canonicus, vicarius, vel secundarius, pueros choristas in festo sanctorum Innocentium extra parochiam de Otery trahant, aut eis licentiam vagandi concedant.’

[1286] Magdalen--see Appendix E.

[1287] All Souls--An inventory has ‘j chem. j cap et mitra pro Episcopo Nicholao’ (Rock, iii. 2. 217).

[1288] In 1299 Edward I heard vespers said ‘de Sancto Nicholao ... in Capella sua apud Heton iuxta Novum Castrum super Tynam’ (_Wardrobe Account_, ed. Soc. of Antiq., 25). In 1306 a Boy Bishop officiated before Edward II on St. Nicholas’ Day in the king’s chapel at Scroby (_Wardrobe Account_ in _Archaeologia_, xxvi. 342). In 1339 Edward III gave a gift ‘Episcopo puerorum ecclesiae de Andeworp cantanti coram domino rege in camera sua in festo sanctorum Innocentium’ (Warton, ii. 229). There was a yearly payment of £1 to the Boy Bishop at St. Stephen’s, Westminster, in 1382 (Devon, _Issues of Exchequer_, 222), and about 1528-32 (Brewer, iv. 1939).

[1289] The fifth earl of Northumberland (†1512) was wont to ‘gyfe yerly upon Saynt Nicolas-Even if he kepe Chapell for Saynt Nicolas to the Master of his Childeren of his Chapell for one of the Childeren of his Chapell yerely vj^{s.} viij^{d.} And if Saynt Nicolas com owt of the Towne wher my Lord lyeth and my Lord kepe no Chapell than to have yerely iij^{s.} iiij^{d.}’ (Percy, _North. H. B._ 343). An elaborate _Contenta de Ornamentis Ep., puer._, of uncertain _provenance_, is printed by Percy, _op. cit._ 439.

[1290] St. Mary at Hill (Brand, i. 233); St. Mary de Prees (_Monasticon_, iii. 360); St. Peter Cheap (Journal of _Brit. Arch. Ass._ xxiv. 156); Hospital of St. Katharine by the Tower (_Reliquary_, iv. 153); Lambeth (Lysons, _Environs of London_, i. 310); cf. p. 367.

[1291] Louth (E. Hewlett, _Boy Bishops_, in W. Andrews, _Curious Church Gleanings_, 241)--the payments for the Chyld Bishop include some for ‘making his See’ (_sedes_); Nottingham (_Archaeologia_, xxvi. 342); Sandwich (Boys, _Hist. of S._ 376); New Romney (_Hist. MSS._ v. 517-28), Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Somersetshire (J. C. Cox, _Sports in Churches_, in W. Andrews, _Curious Church Customs_); Bristol--L. T. Smith, _Ricart’s Kalendar_, 80 (1479-1506, Camden Soc.). On Nov. 24, the Mayor, Sheriff, and ‘worshipfull men’ are to ‘receyue at theire dores Seynt Kateryn’s pleyers, making them to drynk at their dores and rewardyng theym for theire playes.’ On Dec. 5 they are ‘to walke to Seynt Nicholas churche, there to hire theire even-song: and on the morowe to hire theire masse, and offre, and hire the bishop’s sermon, and have his blissyng.’ After dinner they are to play dice at the mayor’s counter, ‘and when the Bishope is come thedir, his chapell there to synge, and the bishope to geve them his blissyng, and then he and all his chapell to be serued there with brede and wyne.’ And so to even-song in St. Nicholas’ church.

[1292] _L. T. Accounts_, i. ccxlvi record annual payments by James IV (†1473-98) to Boy Bishops from Holyrood Abbey and St. Giles’s, Edinburgh.

[1293] Wilkins, ii. 38 ‘Puerilia autem solemnia, quae in festo solent fieri Innocentum post vesperas S. Iohannis, tantum inchoari permittimus, et in crastino in ipsa die Innocentum totaliter terminentur.’

[1294] _Archaeologia_, lii. 221 sqq.

[1295] _Transactions_ of _London and Middlesex Arch. Soc._ vols. iv, v.

[1296] _Athenæum_ (1900), ii. 655, 692 ‘data Pueris de Elemosinaria ludentibus coram Domino apud Westmonasterium, iij^{s.} iiij^{d.}’ Dr. E. J. L. Scott and Dr. Rutherford found in this entry a proof of the existence of the Westminster Latin play at ‘a period anterior to the foundation of Eton’!

[1297] Rimbault, xviii; _Finchale Priory_ (Surtees Soc.), ccccxxviii; _Durham Accounts_ (Surtees Soc.), iii. xliii, and passim.

[1298] _Hist. MSS._ xiv. 8. 124, 157.

[1299] _Computi_ of Cellarer (Warton, ii. 232, iii. 300) ‘1397, pro epulis Pueri celebrantis in festo S. Nicholai ... 1490, in larvis et aliis indumentis Puerorum visentium Dominum apud Wulsey, et Constabularium Castri Winton, in apparatu suo, necnon subintrantium omnia monasteria civitatis Winton, in festo sancti Nicholai.’

[1300] G. W. Kitchin, _Computus Rolls of St. Swithin’s_ (_Hampshire Rec. Soc._), passim; G. W. Kitchin and F. T. Madge, _Winchester Chapter Documents_ (_H. R. Soc._), 24.

[1301] Warton, ii. 231 ‘1441, pro pueris Eleemosynariae una cum pueris Capellae sanctae Elizabethae, ornatis more puellarum, et saltantibus, cantantibus, et ludentibus, coram domina Abbatissa et monialibus Abbathiae beatae Mariae virginis, in aula ibidem in die sanctorum Innocentium.’

[1302] Harpsfield, _Hist. Eccl. Angl._ (1622), 441, citing Peckham’s _Register_. He says the mandate was in French.

[1303] _Visitations of Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), 209 ‘Domina Iohanna Botulphe dicit ... quod ... habent in festo Natalis Domini iuniorem monialem in abbatissam assumptam, vocandi [? iocandi] gratia; cuius occasione ipsa consumere et dissipare cogitur quae vel elemosina vel aliorum amicorum largitione acquisierit ... Iniunctum est ... quod de cetero non observetur assumptio abbatissae vocandi causa.’

[1304] Gregory of Tours, x. 16 (_M. G. H. Script. Rerum Meroving._ i. 427), mentions among the complaints laid before the visitors of the convent of St. Radegund in Poitou, that the abbess ‘vittam de auro exornatam idem neptae suae superflue fecerit, barbaturias intus eo quod celebraverit.’ Ducange, s. v. _Barbatoriae_, finds here a reference to some kind of masquing, and Peter of Blois, _Epist._ 14, certainly uses _barbatores_ as a synonym for _mimi_. The M. G. H. editors of Gregory, however, explain ‘_barbatoria_’ as ‘_primam barbam ponere_’ the sense borne by the term in Petronius, _Sat._ lxxiii. 6. The abbess’s niece had probably no beard, but may not the reference be to the cutting of the hair of a novice when she takes the vows?

[1305] Ducange, s. v. _Kalendae_ (‘de monialibus Villae-Arcelli’), ‘Item inhibemus ne de caetero in festis Innocentum et B. M. Magdalenae ludibria exerceatis consueta, induendo vos scilicet vestibus saecularium aut inter vos seu cum secularibus choreas ducendo’; and again ‘in festo S. Iohannis et Innocentium mimia iocositate et scurrilibus cantibus utebantur, ut pote farsis, conductis, motulis; praecepimus quod honestius et cum maiori devotione alias se haberent’; Gasté, 36 (on Caen) ‘iuniores in festo Innocentium cantant lectiones suas cum farsis. Hoc inhibuimus.’ In 1423, the real abbess gave place to the little abbess at the _Deposuit_. Gasté, 44, describes a survival of the election of an ‘abbess’ from amongst the _pensionnaires_ on the days of St. Catherine and the Innocents in the Abbaye aux Bois, Faubourg St. Germain, from the _Mémoires_ of Hélène Massalska. This was about 1773.

[1306] Howlett, _Monumenta Franciscana_ (R. S.), ii. 93 ‘Caveant fratres in festo Sancti Nicolai seu Innocentium, vel quibuscunque aliis festis vestes extraneas religiosas seu seculares aut clericales vel muliebres sub specie devotionis induere; nec habitus fratrum secularibus pro ludis faciendis accommodentur sub poena amotionis confusibilis de conventu.’

[1307] Denifle, i. 532. It was forbidden ‘in eisdem festis vel aliis paramenta nec coreas duci in vico de die nec de nocte cum torticiis vel sine.’ But it was on Innocents’ Day that the _béjaunes_ or ‘freshmen’ of the Sorbonne were subjected to rites bearing a close analogy to the feast of fools; cf. Rigollot, 172 ‘1476 ... condemnatus fuit in crastino Innocentium capellanus abbas beiannorum ad octo solidos parisienses, eo quod non explevisset officium suum die Innocentium post prandium, in mundationem beiannorum per aspersionem aquae ut moris est, quanquam solemniter incoepisset exercere suum officium ante prandium inducendo beiannos per vicum super asinum.’

[1308] Denifle, iii. 166.

[1309] ‘Verbis nedum gallicis sed eciam latinis, ut ipsi qui de

## partibus alienis oriundi linguam gallicam nequaquam intelligebant

plenarie.’

[1310] S. F. Hulton, _Rixae Oxonienses_, 68. There had been many earlier brawls.

[1311] _Statute_ xxix (T. F. Kirby, _Annals of Winchester College_, 503) ‘Permittimus tamen quod in festo Innocencium pueri vesperas matutinas et alia divina officia legenda et cantanda dicere et exsequi valeant secundum usum et consuetudinem ecclesiae Sarum.’ The same formula is used in _New College Statute_ xlii (_Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford_, vol. i).

[1312] Cf. Appendix E. Kirby, _op. cit._ 90, quotes an inventory of 1406 ‘Baculus pastoralis de cupro deaurato pro Epõ puerorum in die Innocencium ... Mitra de panno aureo ex dono Dñi. Fundatoris hernesiat (mounted) cum argento deaurato ex dono unius socii coll. [Robert Heete] pro Epõ puerorum.’

[1313] _The Charter of King’s College_ (1443), c. 42 (_Documents relating to the Univ. of Camb._ ii. 569; Heywood and Wright, _Ancient Laws of the Fifteenth Century for King’s Coll. Camb. and Eton Coll._ 112), closely follows Wykeham’s formula: ‘excepto festo S^{ti} Nicholai praedicto, in quo festo et nullatenus in festo Innocentium, permittimus quod pueri ... secundum usum in dicto Regali Collegio hactenus usitatum.’ The Eton formula (c. 31) in 1444 is slightly different (Heywood and Wright _op. cit._ 560) ‘excepto in festo Sancti Nicholai, in quo, et nullatenus in festo Sanctorum Innocentium, divina officia praeter missae secreta exequi et dici permittimus per episcopum puerorum scholarium, ad hoc de eisdem annis singulis eligendum.’

[1314] Warton, ii. 228; Leach, 133. The passage from the _Consuetudinarium_ is given from _Harl. MS._ 7044 f. 167 (apparently a transcript from a _C. C. C. C. MS._) by Heywood and Wright, _op. cit._ 632; E. S. Creasy, _Eminent Etonians_, 91 ‘in die S^{ti} Hugonis pontificis solebat Aetonae fieri electio Episcopi Nihilensis, sed consuetudo obsolevit. Olim episcopus ille puerorum habebatur nobilis, in cuius electione et literata et laudatissima exercitatio, ad ingeniorum vires et motus excitandos, Aetonae celebris erat.’

[1315] _Eton Audit Book_, 1507-8, quoted by H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, _Hist. of Eton_ (ed. 1899), 149 ‘Pro reparatione le rochet pro episcopo puerorum, xj^{d.}’ An inventory of Henry VIII’s reign says that this rochet was given by James Denton (K. S. 1486) for use at St. Nicholas’ time.

[1316] Maxwell-Lyte, _op. cit._ 450.

[1317] Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, 674 ‘Item, unam Mitram de Cloth of goold habentem 2 knoppes arḡ. enameld, dat. ad occupand. per Barnebishop.’

[1318] John Stone, a monk of Canterbury, records in his _De Obitibus et aliis Memorabilibus sui Coenobii_ (_MS. C. C. C. C._, Q. 8, quoted Warton, ii. 230) ‘Hoc anno, 1464, in festo Sancti Nicolai non erat episcopus puerorum in schola grammatica in civitate Cantuariae ex defectu Magistrorum, viz. I. Sidney et T. Hikson.’

[1319] J. Stuart, _Extracts from Council Registers of Aberdeen_ (Spalding Club), i. 186. The council ordered on Nov. 27, 1542, ‘that the maister of thair grammar scuyll sell haf iiij^s Scottis, of the sobirest persoun that resauis him and the bischop at Sanct Nicolace day.’ This is to be held a legal fee, ‘he hes na uder fee to leif on.’

[1320] Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii. 860 ‘And whereas heretofore dyverse and many superstitious and childysshe observations have been usid, and yet to this day are observed and kept in many and sondry parties of this realm, as upon sainte Nicolas, sainte Catheryne, sainte Clement, the holye Innocentes, and such like; children be strangelye decked and apparelid to counterfaite priestes, bysshopps, and women; and so ledde with songes and daunces from house to house, bleasing the people, and gatherynge of monye; and boyes doo singe masse, and preache in the pulpitt, with suche other unfittinge and inconvenyent usages, rather to the derision than to any true glory of God, or honour of his saints; the kyng’s majestie therefore mynding nothing so moche, as to avaunce the true glorye of God without vayne superstition, willith and commaundeth, that from henceforth all suche superstitions be loste and clyerlye extinguisshed throughowte all this his realmes and dominions, forasmoche as the same doo resemble rather the unlawfull superstition of gentilitie, than the pure and sincere religion of Christe.’ Brand, i. 236, suggests that there was an earlier proclamation of July 22, 1540, to the same effect. Johan Bale in his _Yet a Course at the Romyshe Foxe_ (1542), says that if Bonner’s censure of those who lay aside certain ‘auncyent rytes’ is justified, ‘then ought my Lorde also to suffer the same selfe ponnyshment, for not goynge abought with Saynt Nycolas clarkes.’ Thomas Becon, _Catechism_, 320 (ed. Parker Soc.), compares a bishop who does not preach, a ‘dumb dog,’ to a ‘Nicholas bishop.’ The _Articles_ put to bishop Gardiner in 1550 required him to declare ‘that the counterfeiting St. Nicholas, St. Clement, St. Catherine and St. Edmund, by children, heretofore brought into the church, was a mockery and foolishness’ (Froude, iv. 550).

[1321] _Machyn’s Diary_, 75 ‘The xij day of November [1554] was commondyd by the bysshope of London to all clarkes in the dyoses of London for to have Sant Necolas and to go a-brod, as mony as wold have ytt ... [the v day of December, the which was Saint Nicholas’ eve, at even-song time, came a commandment that St. Nicholas should not go abroad, nor about. But, notwithstanding, there went about these Saint Nicholases in divers parishes, as St. Andrew’s, Holborn, and St.] Nicolas Olyffe in Bredstret.’ Warton, iv. 237, says that during Mary’s reign Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman or musician of the Chapel royal, printed in black letter quarto a poem of thirty-six octave stanzas, entitled _The Song of the Chyldbysshop, as it was songe before the queenes maiestie in her privie chamber at her manour of saynt James in the Feeldes on Saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche with his company_.’ Warton apparently saw the poem, for he describes it as ‘a fulsome panegyric on the queen’s devotion, in which she is compared to Judith, Esther, the Queen of Sheba, and the Virgin Mary,’ but no copy of it is now known; cf. F. J. Furnivall, _The Babees Book_ (E. E. T. S.), lxxxv.

[1322] _Machyn’s Diary_, 121 ‘The v day of Desember [1556] was Sant Necolas evyn, and Sant Necolas whentt a-brod in most partt in London syngyng after the old fassyon, and was reseyvyd with mony good pepulle in-to ther howses, and had myche good chere as ever they had, in mony plasses.’ Foxe, _Acts and Monuments_, viii. 726, celebrates the wit of a ‘godly matron,’ Mrs. Gertrude Crockhay, who shut ‘the foolish popish Saint Nicholas’ out of her house in this year, and told her brother-in-law, Dr. Mallet, when he remonstrated, that she had heard of men robbed by ‘Saint Nicholas’s clerks.’ This was a slang term for thieves, of whom, as of children, St. Nicholas was the patron; for the reason of which cf. _Golden Legend_, ii. 119. Another procession forbidden by the proclamation of 1541 was also revived in 1556; cf. _Machyn’s Diary_, 119 ‘[The xxiv day of November, being the eve of Saint Katharine, at six of the clock at night] sant Katheryn(’s) lyght [went about the battlements of Saint Paul’s with singing,] and Sant Katheryn gohying a prossessyon.’

[1323] At Exton in Rutlandshire, children were allowed at the beginning of the nineteenth century to play in the church on Innocents’ Day _(Leicester and Rutland Folk-Lore_, 96). Probably a few other examples could be collected.

[1324] At Mainz, not only the _pueri_, but also the _diaconi_ and the _sacerdotes_, had their _episcopus_ (Dürr, 71). On the other hand at Vienne the term used at all the feasts, of the _triduum_ and on January 1 and 6, was _rex_ (Pilot de Thorey, _Usages, Fêtes et Coutumes en Dauphiné_, i. 179). The Boy Bishops received, for their brief day, all the external marks of honour paid to real bishops. They are alleged to have occasionally enjoyed more solid privileges. Louvet (_Hist. et Ant. de Beauvais_, cited Rigollot, 142), says that at Beauvais the right of presentation to chapter benefices falling vacant on Innocents’ Day fell to the _pueri_. Jean Van der Muelen or Molanus (_De Canonicis_ (1587), ii. 43) makes a similar statement as to Cambrai: ‘Immo personatus hic episcopus in quibusdam locis reditus, census et capones, annue percipit: alibi mitram habet, multis episcoporum mitris sumptuosiorem. In Cameracensi ecclesia visus est vacantem, in mense episcopi, praebendam, quasi iure ad se devoluto, conferre; quam collationem beneficii vere magnifici, reverendissimus praesul, cum puer grato animo, magistrum suum, bene de ecclesia meritum, nominasset, gratam et raram habuit.’ At Mainz lost tradition had it that if an Elector died during the tenure of office by a Boy Bishop, the revenues _sede vacante_ would fall to him. Unfortunately the chapter and verse of history disprove this (Dürr, 67, 79). On the other hand it is certain that the Boy Bishops assumed the episcopal privilege of coinage. Rigollot, 52 sqq., describes and figures a long series of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century coins or medals mostly struck by ‘bishops’ of the various churches and monastic houses of Amiens. They are the more interesting, because some of them bear ‘fools’ as devices, and thus afford another proof of the relations between the feasts of Boys and Fools. Lille _monetae_ of the sixteenth century are figured by Vanhende, _Numismatique Lilloise_, 256, and others from Laon by C. Hidé, in _Bull. de la Soc. acad. de Laon_, xiii. 126. Some of Rigollot’s specimens seem to have belonged, not to Boy Bishops, but to _confréries_, who struck them as ‘jetons de présence’ (Chartier, _L’ancien Chapitre de N.-D. de Paris_, 178); and probably this is also the origin of the pieces found at Bury St. Edmunds, which have nothing in their devices to connect them with a Boy Bishop (Rimbault, xxvi).

[1325] Ivo Carnotensis, _Epist._ 67, _ad papam Urbanum_ (_P. L._ clxii. 87)

‘eligimus puerum, puerorum festa colentes, non nostrum morem, sed regis iussa sequentes.’

Cf. Rigollot, 143.

[1326] Lucas Cusentinus (†1203-24) _Ordinarium_ (Martene, iii. 39): ‘Puero episcopello pontificalia conceduntur insignia, et ipse dicit orationes.’

[1327] _The Ritual_ (†1264) of St. Omer (_Mém. de la Soc. des Antiq. de la Morinie_, xx. 186) has the following rubric for St. Nicholas’ Day ‘in secundis vesperis ... a choristis incipitur prosa _Sospitati dedit egros_, in qua altercando cantatur iste versus _Ergo laudes_ novies tantum, ne immoderatum tedium generet vel derisum.’ The same rubric recurs on St. Catherine’s Day. At St. Omer, as at Paris (cf. p. 363), these were the two winter holidays for scholars. Cf. also p. 289, and A. Legrand, _Réjouissances des écoliers de N.-D. de St. Omer, le jour de St.-Nicholas, leur glorieux patron_ (_Mémoires_, _ut cit._ vii. 160). The St. Omer _Episcopus puerorum_ also officiated on Innocents’ Eve and the octave. Dreves, _Anal. Hymn._ xxi. 82, gives various _cantiones_ for St. Nicholas’ Day; e.g.

‘Nicolai praesulis Festum celebremus, . . . . . In tanto natalitio Patrum docet traditio Ut consonet in gaudio Fidelium devotio, Est ergo superstitio Vacare a tripudio.’

In England it is probable that the Beverley Boy Bishop also officiated on St. Nicholas’ Day. A chapter order of Jan. 7, 1313, directs the transfer of the ‘servitium sancti Nicholai in festo eiusdem per Magistrum Scholarum Beverlacensium celebrandum’ to the altar of St. Blaize during the building of a new nave (A. F. Leach, _Memorials of Beverley Minster_, Surtees Soc. i. 307).

[1328] Tille, _D. W._ 32; Leach, 130. The connexion of St. Nicholas with children may be explained by, if it did not rather give rise to, either the legend of his early piety, ‘The first day that he was washed and bained, he addressed him right up in the bason, and he wold not take the breast nor the pap but once on the Wednesday and once on the Friday, and in his young age he eschewed the plays and japes of other young children’ (_Golden Legend_, ii. 110); or the various other legends which represent him as bringing children out of peril. Cf. _Golden Legend_, ii. 119 sqq., and especially the history of the resurrection of three boys from a pickle-tub narrated by Mr. Leach from Wace. A. Maury, (_Croyances et Légendes du Moyen Âge_ (ed. 1896), 149) tries to find the origin of this in misunderstood iconographic representations of the missionary saint at the baptismal font.

[1329] Leach, 130; _Golden Legend_, ii. 111.

[1330] Cf. ch. xi. The position of St. Nicholas’ Day in the ceremonies discussed in this chapter is sometimes shared by other feasts of the winter cycle: St. Edmund’s (Nov. 20), St. Clement’s (Nov. 23), St. Catherine’s (Nov. 25), St. Andrew’s (Nov. 30), St. Eloi’s (Dec. 1), St. Lucy’s (Dec. 13). Cf. pp. 349-51, 359, 366-8. The feast of St. Mary Magdalen, kept in a Norman convent (p. 362), was, however, in the summer (July 22).

[1331] Specht, 229; Tille, _D. W._ 300; Wetze and Welte, iv. 1411. Roman schoolmasters expected a present at the _Minervalia_ (March 18-23); cf. the passage from Tertullian in Appendix N (1).

[1332] Martin Franc, _Champion des dames_ (_Bibl. de l’École des Chartes_, v. 58).

[1333] Du Tilliot, 87.

[1334] Julleville, _Les Com._ 241.

[1335] Julleville, _Les Com._ 193, 256; Du Tilliot, 97. The chief officers of the chapel _fous_ were the ‘bâtonnier’ and the ‘protonotaire et procureur des fous.’ In the _Infanterie_ these are replaced by the emblematical _Mère Folle_ and the ‘Procureur fiscal’ known as ‘Fiscal vert’ or ‘Griffon vert.’ Du Tilliot and others have collected a number of documents concerning the _Infanterie_, together with representations of seals, badges, &c., used by them. These may be compared in Du Tilliot with the _bâton_ belonging to the Chapel period (1482), which he also gives. The motto of the _Infanterie_ is worth noticing. It was _Numerus stultorum infinitus est_, and was taken from _Ecclesiastes_, i. 15. It was used also at Amiens (Julleville, _Les Com._ 234).

[1336] At Amiens the ‘feste du Prince des Sots’ existed in 1450 (Julleville, _Les Com._ 233), but the ‘Pope of Fools’ was not finally suppressed in the cathedral for another century. But at Amiens there was an immense multiplication of ‘fool’-organizations. Each church and convent had its ‘episcopus puerorum,’ and several of these show _fous_ on their coins. Rigollot, 77, 105, figures a coin with _fous_, which he assigns to a _confrérie_ in the parish of St. Remigius; also a coin, dated 1543, of an ‘Evesque des Griffons.’

[1337] Julleville, _Les Com._ 144.

[1338] The term _cornard_ seems to be derived from the ‘cornes’ of the traditional fool headdress. Leber, ix. 353, reprints from the _Mercure de France_ for April, 1725, an account of a procession made by the _abbas cornardorum_ at Evreux mounted upon an ass, which directly recalls the Feast of Fools. A macaronic _chanson_ used on the occasion of one of these processions is preserved:

‘_De asino bono nostro,_ _Meliori et optimo,_ _Debemus_ faire fête. En revenant de Gravignariâ, Un gros chardon _reperit in viâ_; Il lui coupa la tête. _Vir monachus, in mense Iulio,_ _Egressus est e monasterio_, C’est dom de la Bucaille. _Egressus est sine licentiâ_, Pour aller voir donna Venissia, Et faire la ripaille.’

Research has identified Dom de la Bucaille and Donna Venissia as respectively a prior of St. Taurin, and a prioress of St. Saviour’s, in Evreux.

[1339] A _coquille_ is a misprint, and this _société_ was composed of the printers of Lyon.

[1340] _Conc. of Avignon_ (1326), c. 37, _de societatibus colligationibus et coniurationibus quas confratrias appellant radicitus extirpandis_ (Labbé, xi. 1738), forbids both clerks and laymen ‘ne se confratres priores abbatas praedictae societatis appellent.’ The charges brought against the _confréries_ are of perverting justice, not of wanton revelry, and therefore it is probably not ‘sociétés joyeuses’ that are in question; cf. Ducange, s. v. _Abbas Confratriae_, quoting a Paris example. Grenier, 362, however, mentions a ‘confrérie’ in the Hôpital de Rue at Amiens (†1210) which was under an ‘évêque’; cf. the following note.

[1341] I find an ‘évesque des folz’ at Béthune, a ‘M. le Cardinal’ as head of the ‘Joyeux’ at Rheims (Julleville, _Les Com._ 242; _Rép. Com._ 340), and an ‘évesque des Griffons’ at Amiens (Rigollot, 105). Exceptional is, I believe, the _Société des Foux_ founded on the lines of a chivalric order by Adolphe, Comte de Clèves, in 1380 (Du Tilliot, 84).

[1342] Julleville, 236; Guy, 471.

[1343] Julleville, 88, 136. The Paris _Basoche_ was a ‘royaume’; those of Chambéry and Geneva were ‘abbayes.’

[1344] Cf. p. 304.

[1345] Julleville, _Les Com._ 152.

[1346] Bulaeus, _Hist. Univ. Paris_, v. 690; Julleville, _Les Com._ 297; Rashdall, _Universities of Europe_, ii. 611. It was probably to this student custom that the Tournai rioters of 1499 appealed (cf. p. 301). In 1470 the Faculty of Arts ordered the suppression of it. Cf. C. Jourdain, _Index Chartarum Paris_. 294 (No. 1369). On Jan. 5 they met ‘ad providendum remedium de electione regis fatuorum,’ and decreed ‘quod nullus scolaris assumeret habitum fatui pro illo anno, nec in collegio, nec extra collegium, nisi forsan duntaxat ludendo farsam vel moralitatem.’ Several scholars ‘portantes arma et assumentes habitus fatuorum’ were corrected on Jan. 24, and it was laid down that ‘reges vero fatuorum priventur penitus a gradu quocumque.’

[1347] Grenier, 365; Ducange, s. v. _Deposuit_, quoting _Stat. Hosp. S. Iacobi Paris._ (sixteenth century), ‘après le diner, on porte le baton au cueur, et là est le trésorier, qui chante et fait le _Deposuit_.’ _Stat. Syn. Petri de Broc. episc. Autiss._ (1642) ‘pendant que les bâtons de confrérie seront exposez, pour être enchéris, l’on ne chantera _Magnificat_, et n’appliquera-t-on point ces versets _Deposuit_ et _Suscepit_ à la délivrance d’iceux; ains on chantera quelque antienne et répons avec l’oraison propre en l’honneur du Saint, duquel on célèbre la feste.’

[1348] Cf. ch. iii and Appendix F; and on the general character of the _puys_, Julleville, _Les Com._ 42; Guy, xxxiv; Paris, 185. Some documents with regard to a fourteenth-century _puy_ in London are in Riley, _Liber Custumarum_, xlviii. 216, 479 (_Munim. Gildh. Lond._ in R. S.); _Memorials of London_, 42.

[1349] Julleville, _Les Com._ 92, 233, 236, 241.

[1350] Clément-Hémery, _Fêtes du Dép. du Nord_, 184, states on the authority of a MS. without title or signature that this _fête_ originated in a prose with a bray in it, sung by the canons of St. Peter’s. The lay form of the feast can be traced from †1476 to 1668. Leber, x. 135, puts the (clerical) origin before 1282.

[1351] Julleville, _Les Com._ 92, 204, 247.

[1352] F. Guérard, _Les Fous de Saint-Germain_, in _Mélanges d’Hist. et d’Arch._ (Amiens, 1861), 17. On the Saturday before the first Sunday in May children in the rue St. Germain carry boughs, singing

‘Saint Germain, coucou, Ch’est l’fette d’chés fous, &c.’

In the church they used to place a bottle crowned with yellow primroses, called ‘coucous.’ The dwellers in the parish are locally known as ‘fous,’ and an historical myth is told to account for this. Probably May-day has here merged with St. Germain’s Day (May 2) in a ‘fête des fous.’ Payments for decking the church appear in old accounts.

[1353] Guérard, _op. cit._ 46.

[1354] Leber, x. 125, from _Mercure de France_ for April, 1726; Gasté, 46.

[1355] ‘ludunt ad quillas super voltas ecclesiae ... faciunt podia, choreas et choros ... et reliqua sicut in natalibus.’

[1356] Leber, ix. 261.

[1357] Julleville, _Les Com._ 233, quotes a decree of the municipality of Amiens in 1450, ‘Il a esté dit et declairié qu’il semble que ce sera tres grande recreacion, considéré les bonnes nouvelles que de jour en jour en disoit du Roy nostre sire, et que le ducée de Normendie est du tout reunye en sa main, de fere la feste du Prince des Sots.’

[1358] Ibid. 214.

[1359] Cf. ch. vii.

[1360] Julleville, _Les Com._ 209.

[1361] Leber, ix. 150, reprints the _Recueil de la Chevauchée faicte en la Ville de Lyon le dix septiesme de novembre_, 1578. Another Lyon _Recueil_ dates from 1566. Cf. Julleville, _Les Com._ 234 (Amiens), 243 (Lyon), 248 (Rouen).

[1362] Cf. chs. xiii, xiv. The _theatrales ludi_ of Pope Innocent III’s decree in 1207 probably refers only to the burlesque ‘offices’ of the feasts condemned; and even the terms used by the Theological Faculty in 1445--_spectacula_, _ludi theatrales_, _personagiorum ludi_--might mean no more, for at Troyes in the previous year the ‘_jeu du sacre de leur arcevesque_’ was called a ‘jeu de personnages,’ and this might have been a mere burlesque consecration. However, ‘jeu de personnages’ generally implies something distinctly dramatic (cf. ch. xxiv). It recurs in the Sens order of 1511. The Beauvais _Daniel_ was possibly played at a Feast of Fools: at Tours a _Prophetae_ and a _miraculum_ appear under similar conditions; at Autun a _Herod_ gave a name to the _dominus festi_. At Laon there were ‘mysteries’ in 1464 and 1465; by 1531 these had given way to ‘comedies.’ Farces were played at Tournai in 1498 and comedies at Lille in 1526.

[1363] Cf. ch. xv. The Toul _Statutes_ of 1497 mention the playing of miracles, morals, and farces. At Laon the playing of a comedy had been dropped before 1546.

[1364] Julleville, _Rép. Com._ 321 (_Catalogue des representations_), and elsewhere, gives many examples. The following decree (†1327) of Dominique Grima, bishop of Pamiers, is quoted by L. Delisle, in _Romania_, xxii. 274: ‘Dampnamus autem et anathematizamus ludum cenicum vocatum _Centum Drudorum_, vulgariter _Cent Drutz_, actenus observatum in nostra dyocesi, et specialiter in nostra civitate Appamiensi et villa de Fuxo, per clericos et laycos interdum magni status; in quo ludo effigiabantur prelati et religiosi graduum et ordinum diversorum, facientes processionem cum candelis de cepo, et vexilis in quibus depicta erant membra pudibunda hominis et mulieris. Induebant etiam confratres illius ludi masculos iuvenes habitu muliebri et deducebant eos processionaliter ad quendam quem vocabant priorem dicti ludi, cum carminibus inhonestissima verba continentes....’ The _confrates_ and the _prior_ here look like a _société joyeuse_, but the ‘ludus cenicus’ was probably less a regular play than a dramatized bit of folk-ritual, like the Troyes _Sacre de l’arcevesque_ and the _Charivaris_. The change of sex-costume is to be noted.

[1365] Cf. ch. xx.

[1366] Julleville, _Les Com._ 33; _La Com._ 73 ‘Le premier qui s’avisa, pendant l’ivresse bruyante de la fête, de monter dans la chaire chrétienne et d’y parodier le prédicateur dans une improvisation burlesque, débita le premier sermon joyeux. C’est à l’origine, comme nous avons dit, “une indécente plaisanterie de sacristain en goguette.”’ A list of extant _sermons joyeux_ is given by Julleville, _Rép. Com._ 259.

[1367] Julleville, _Les Com._ 32, 145; _La Com._ 68; E. Picot, _La Sottie en France_ (_Romania_, vii. 236). Jean Bouchet, _Épîtres morales et familières du Traverseur_ (1545), i. 32, thus defines the _Sottie_:

‘En France elle a de _sotie_ le nom, Parce que sotz des gens de grand renom Et des petits jouent les grands follies Sur eschaffaux en parolles polies.’

[1368] Cf. ch. viii.

[1369] Creizenach, i. 395; Julleville, _Les Com._ 46; _La Com._ 19; _Rép. Com._ 20; E. Langlois, _Robin et Marion_, 13; Guy, 337; M. Sepet, _Le Jeu de la Feuillée_, in _Études romaines dédiées à G. Paris_, 69. The play is sometimes called _Le Jeu d’Adam_. The text is printed in Monmerque et Michel, _Théâtre français au Moyen Âge_, 55, and E. de Coussemaker, _Œuvres de Adam de la Halle_, 297.

[1370] The extant _sotties_ are catalogued by Julleville, _Rép. Com._ 104, and E. Picot, in _Romania_, vii. 249.

[1371] Creizenach, i. 406; G. Gregory Smith, _Transition Period_, 317; Goedeke, _Deutsche Dichtung_, i. 325; V. Michels, _Studien über die ältesten deutschen Fastnachtspiele_, 101. The latter writer inclines to consider the _Narr_ of these plays as substituted by fifteenth century for a more primitive _Teufel_. The plays themselves are collected by A. von Keller, _Fastnachtspiele aus dem 15. Jahrhundert_ (1853-8).

[1372] C. H. Herford, _Literary Relations of England and Germany_, 323 sqq.; cf. G. Gregory Smith, _op. cit._ 176. On an actual pseudo-chivalric Order of Fools cf. p. 375.

[1373] F. C. Hingeston-Randolph, _Register of Bishop Grandisson_, ii. 1055, _Litera pro iniqua fraternitate de Brothelyngham_. ‘Ad nostrum, siquidem, non sine inquietudine gravi, pervenit auditum, quod in Civitate nostra Exonie secta quedam abhominabilis quorundam hominum malignorum, sub nomine Ordinis, quin pocius erroris, de Brothelyngham, procurante satore malorum operum, noviter insurrexit; qui, non Conventum sed conventiculam facientes evidenter illicitam et suspectam, quemdam lunaticum et delirum, ipsorum utique operibus aptissime congruentem, sibi, sub Abbatis nomine, prefecerunt, ipsumque Monachali habitu induentes ac in Theatro constitutum velut ipsorum idolum adorantes, ad flatum cornu, quod sibi statuerunt pro campana, per Civitatis eiusdem vicos et plateas, aliquibus iam elapsis diebus, cum maxima equitum et peditum multitudine commitarunt [sic]; clericos eciam laicos ceperunt eis obviam tunc prestantes, ac aliquos de ipsorum domibus extraxerunt, et invitos tam diu ausu temerario et interdum sacrilego tenuerunt, donec certas pecuniarum summas loco sacrificii, quin verius sacrilegii, extorserunt ab eisdem. Et quamvis hec videantur sub colore et velamine ludi, immo ludibrii, attemptari, furtum est, tamen, proculdubio, in eo quod ab invitis capitur et rapina.’ There is no such place as Brothelyngham, but ‘brethelyng,’ ‘brethel,’ ‘brothel,’ mean ‘good-for-nothing’ (_N. E. D._, s. vv.).

[1374] Du Tilliot, pl. 4.

[1375] Ibid. pll. 1-12 passim.

[1376] Julleville, _Les Com._ 234.

[1377] Ibid. 246; Rigollot, lxxxiv.

[1378] Marot, _Epistre du Coq en l’Asne_ (ed. Jannet, i. 224; ed. Guiffrey, iii. 352):

‘Attachez moy une sonnette Sur le front d’un moyne crotté, Une aureille à chaque costé Du capuchon de sa caboche; Voyla un sot de la Basoche, Aussi bien painct qu’il est possible.’

For other Paris evidence cf. Julleville, _Les Com._ 144, 147; E. Picot, in _Romania_, vii. 242.

[1379] Picot, in _Romania_, vii. 245; Keller, _Fastnachtspiele_, 258.

[1380] Rigollot, 73, 166, and passim; Strutt, 222; Douce, 516; Julleville, _Les Com._ 147. There are many examples in the literature referred to on p. 382.

[1381] Rigollot, lxxix.

[1382] F. de Ficoroni, _Le Maschere sceniche e le Figure comiche d’antichi Romani_, 186, pl. 72.

[1383] Dieterich, 237, traces the coxcomb to Italian comedy of the Atellane type; cf. ch. xxiii, on ‘Punch.’

[1384] Douce, pl. 3; cf. Leber, in Rigollot, lxi. 164, quoting the proverb ‘pisa in utre perstrepentia’ and a statement of Savaron, _Traité contre les Masques_ (1611), that at Clermont in Auvergne men disguised ‘en Fols’ ran through the streets at Christmas ‘tenant des masses à la main, farcies de paille ou de bourre, en forme de braiette, frappant hommes et femmes.’ I suppose the bauble, like the hood, was originally part of the sacrificial _exuviae_ and the _marotte_ a sophistication of it.

[1385] Julleville, _Les Com._ 147, quoting _Réponse d’Angoulevent à l’archipoète des pois pillez_ (1603):

‘Qu’après, dedans le char de la troupe idiotte Ayant pour sceptre en main une peinte marotte, Tu sois parmi Paris pourmené doucement, Vestu de jaune et vert en ton accoustrement.’

[1386] Leber, in Rigollot, lxviii.

[1387] Julleville, _Les Com._ 195, 203.

[1388] Du Tilliot, 84.

[1389] See e.g. the plate (p. 9) and description (p. xii) of Touchstone in Miss E. Fogerty’s ‘costume edition’ of _As You Like It_.

[1390] _Twelfth Night_, i. 5. 95, 101; _Lear_, i. 4. 220.

[1391] To the English data given by the historians of court fools may be added _Wardrobe Account_ 28 _Edw. I_, 1299-1300 (Soc. Antiq.), 166 ‘Martinetto de Vasconia fatuo ludenti coram dicto domino Edwardo,’ and _Lib. de Comp. Garderobae_, temp. Edw. II (_MS. Cotton, Nero_, C. viii. ff. 83, 85), quoted by Strutt, 194 ‘twenty shillings paid to Robert le Foll to buy a _boclarium ad ludendum_ before the king.’ Robert le Foll had also a _garcio_. For fools at the Scottish court of James IV cf. _L. H. T._ i. cxcix, &c.; iii. xcii, &c.; and on Thomas, the fool of Durham Priory in the fourteenth century, Appendix E (1).

[1392] Rigollot, 74; Moreau, 180, quoting a (clearly misdated) letter of Charles V to the municipality of Troyes, which requires the provision of a new ‘fol de cour’ by that city as a royal _droit_. The king’s eulogy of his fool is rather touching: ‘savoir faisons à leurs dessus dictes seigneuries que Thévenin nostre fol de cour vient de trespasser de celluy monde dedans l’aultre. Le Seigneur Dieu veuille avoir en gré l’âme de luy qui oneques ne faillit en sa charge et fonction emprès nostre royale Seigneurie et mesmement ne voult si trespasser sans faire quelque joyeuseté et gentille farce de son métier.’

[1393] Moreau, 177, 197.

[1394] Quoted by Julleville, _Les Com._ 148:

‘L’un [le poète] a la teste verte; et l’autre va couvert D’un joli chapperon, fait de jaune et de vert; L’un s’amuse aux grelots, et l’autre à des sornettes.’

[1395] _Requestes présentées au Roy ... par le S. de Vertau_ (1605), quoted by Leber, in Rigollot, lxvi; Julleville, _Les Com._ 147 ‘un habit ... qui estoit faict par bandes de serge, moitié de couleur verte et l’autre de jaune; et là où il y avoit des bandes jaunes, il y avoit des passemens verts, et sur les vertes des passemens jaunes ... et un bonnet aussi moitié de jaune et vert, avec des oreilles, &c.’

[1396] Kempe, _Loseley MSS_, 35, 47, 85.

[1397] Douce, 512; Doran, 293. Lodge, _Wits Miserie_ (1599), describes a fool as ‘in person comely, in apparell courtly.’ The Durham accounts (Appendix E (1)) contain several entries of cloth and shoes purchased for the fool Thomas, but there is no mention of a hood.

[1398] Douce, 510.

[1399] Ibid. 510, 511. Hence the common derived sense of ‘coxcomb’ for a foolish, vain fellow.

[1400] Douce, 509, quoting ‘the second tale of the priests of Peblis,’ which, for all I know, may be a translation, ‘a man who counterfeits a fool is described “with club and bel and partie cote with eiris”; but it afterwards appears that he had both a club and a bauble.’

[1401] Douce, 510.

[1402] Douce, 512, quoting _Gesta Grayorum_, ‘the scribe claims the manor of Noverinte, by providing sheepskins and calves-skins to wrappe his highness wards and idiotts in’; cf. _King John_, iii. 1. 129 ‘And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs.’

[1403] Douce, 511.

[1404] _Twelfth Night_, i. 5. 63; _As You Like It_, ii. 7. 13, 43; _King Lear_, i. 4. 160; _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, iv. 1. 215. But the ‘long motley coat guarded with yellow’ of _Hen. VIII_, prol. 16, does not quite correspond to anything in the ‘habit de fou.’

[1405] _King Lear_, i. 4. 106. Cf. _Taming of the Shrew_, ii. 1. 226 ‘What is your crest? a coxcomb?’

[1406] _All’s Well that Ends Well_, iv. 5. 32. There are _double entendre’s_ here and in the allusion to the ‘bauble’ of a ‘natural’ in _Romeo and Juliet_, ii. 4. 97, which suggest less a ‘marotte’ than a bauble of the bladder type; cf. p. 197.

[1407] _As You Like It_, ii. 4. 47.

[1408] Cf. ch. xxv.

[1409] _Twelfth Night_, ii. 3. 22.

[1410] Fools appear in _As You Like It_ (†1599), _All’s Well that Ends Well_ (†1601), _Twelfth Night_ (†1601), _King Lear_ (†1605); cf. the allusion to Yorick, the king’s jester in _Hamlet_, v. 1. 198 (†1603). Kempe seems to have left the Shakespearian company in 1598 or 1599.

[1411] According to Fleay, _Biog. Chron._ i. 25, Armin’s _Nest of Ninnies_, of 1608 (ed. Shakes. Soc.), is a revision of his _Fool upon Fool_ of 1605.

[1412] _As You Like It_, v. 4. 111. Cf. Lionel Johnson, _The Fools of Shakespeare_, in _Noctes Shakespearianae_ (Winchester Sh. Soc.); J. Thümmel, _Ueber Sh.’s Narren_ (_Sh.-Jahrbuch_, ix. 87).

[1413] Tille, _Y. and C._ 162; Sandys, 20. At Christmas, 1065, Edward the Confessor ‘curiam tenuit’ at London, and dedicated Westminster Abbey on Innocents’ day (Florence of Worcester, _Chronicle_, ed. Thorpe, i. 224).

[1414] Tille, _Y. and C._ 160; Ramsay, _F. of E._ ii. 43.

[1415] Sandys, 23; Ashton, 9.

[1416] Sandys, 53; Ashton, 14; Drake, 94.

[1417] Ashton, 26; Stubbes, i. 173. Cf. Vaughan’s _Poems_ (_Muses Library_, i. 107):

‘Alas, my God! Thy birth now here Must not be number’d in the year.’

[1418] Cf. ch. xiii. There is much learning on the use of masks in seasonal festivals in C. Noirot, _Traité de l’origine des masques_ (1609, reprinted in Leber, ix. 5); Savaron, _Traité contre les masques_ (1611); J. G. Drechssler, _de larvis natalitiis_ (1683); C. H. de Berger, _Commentatio de personis vulgo larvis seu mascheratis_ (1723); Pfannenschmidt, 617; Fr. Back, _de Graecorum caeremoniis in quibus homines deorum vice fungebantur_ (1883); W. H. Dall, _On masks, labrets and certain aboriginal customs_ (_Third Annual Report of American Bureau of Ethnology_, 1884, p. 73); Frazer, _Pausanias_, iv. 239.

[1419] _Archaeologia_, xxxi, 37, 43, 44, 120, 122.

[1420] ‘Et ad faciendum ludos domini Regis ad festum Natalis domini celebratum apud Guldefordum anno Regis xxj^o, in quo expendebantur iiij^{xx}. iiij. tunicae de bokeram diversorum colorum, xlij viseres diversorum similitudinum (_specified as_ xiiij similitudines facierum mulierum, xiiij similitudines facierum hominum cum barbis, xiiij similitudines capitum angelorum de argento) xxviij crestes (_specified as_ xiiij crestes cum tibiis reversatis et calciatis, xiiij crestes cum montibus et cuniculis), xiiij clocae depictae, xiiij capita draconum, xiiij tunicae albae, xiiij capita pavonum cum alis, xiiij tunicae depictae cum oculis pavonum, xiiij capita cygnorum cum suis alis, xiiij tunicae de tela linea depictae, xiiij tunicae depictae cum stellis de auro et argento vapulatis.’ The performers seem to have made six groups of fourteen each, representing respectively men, women, angels, dragons, peacocks, and swans. A notion of their appearance is given by the cuts from miniatures (†1343) in Strutt, 160.

[1421] ‘Et ad faciendum ludos Regis ad festum Natalis domini anno Regis xxij^{do} celebratum apud Ottefordum ubi expendebantur viseres videlicet xij capita hominum et desuper tot capita leonum, xij capita hominum et tot capita elephantum, xij capita hominum cum alis vespertilionum, xij capita de wodewose [cf. p. 185], xvij capita virginum, xiiij supertunicae de worsted rubro guttatae cum auro et lineatae et reversatae et totidem tunicae de worsted viridi.... Et ad faciendum ludos Regis in festo Epiphaniae domini celebrato apud Mertonum ubi expendebantur xiij visers cum capitibus draconum et xiij visers cum capitibus hominum habentibus diademata, x c^r tepies de bokeram nigro et tela linea Anglica.’

[1422] _Archaeologia_, xxxi. 29, 30, 118. The element of semi-dramatic _spectacle_ was already getting into the fourteenth-century tournament. In 1331 Edward III and his court rode to the lists in Cheap, ‘omnes splendido apparatu vestiti et ad similitudinem Tartarorum larvati’ (_Annales Paulini_ in _Chron. Edw. I and II_, R. S. i. 354). In 1375 ‘rood dame Alice Perrers, as lady of the sune, fro the tour of London thorugh Chepe; and alwey a lady ledynge a lordys brydell. And thanne begun the grete justes in Smythefeld’ (_London Chronicle_, 70). These ridings closely resemble the ‘mummings’ proper. But they were a prelude to _hastiludia_, which from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century constantly grew less actual and more mimetic. In 1343 ‘fuerunt pulchra hastiludia in Smethfield, ubi papa et duodecim cardinales per tres dies contra quoscumque tirocinium habuerunt’ (Murimuth, _Continuatio Chronicarum_, R. S. 146). And so on, through the jousts of Pallas and Diana at the coronation of Henry VIII (Hall, 511) to the regular Elizabethan ‘Barriers,’ such as the siege of the ‘Fortress of Perfect Beauty’ by the ‘Four Foster Children of Desire,’ in which Sidney took

## part in 1581.

[1423] This seems to be clearly the sense of the _ludi Domini Prioris_ in the accounts of Durham Priory (cf. Appendix E). The Scottish Exchequer Rolls between 1446 and 1478 contain such entries as ‘iocis et ludis,’ ‘ludis et interludiis,’ ‘ioculancium et ludencium,’ ‘ludos et disportus suos,’ where all the terms used, except ‘interludiis’ (cf. ch. xxiv), appear to be more or less equivalent (_Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland_, i. ccxxxix). The _Liber Niger_ of Edward IV declares that in the _Domus_ of Henry I were allowed ‘ludi honesti,’ such as military sports ‘cum ceterorum iocorum diversitate’ (_Household Ordinances_, 18). ‘Ioca’ is here exactly the French ‘jeux.’ Polydore Vergil, _Hist. Anglica_ (ed. Thysius), 772, says of the weddings of the children of Henry VII ‘utriusque puellae nuptiae omnium generum ludis factae.’ For ‘disports’ cf. Hall, 774, ‘enterludes ... maskes and disportes,’ and _Paston Letters_, iii. 314, where Lady Morley is said to have ordered in 1476 that on account of her husband’s death there should be at Christmas ‘non dysgysyngs, ner harpyng, ner lutyng, ner syngyn, ner non lowde dysports, but pleyng at the tabyllys, and schesse, and cards. Sweche dysports sche gave her folkys leve to play, and non odyr.’ I find the first use of ‘revels’ in the Household Books of Henry VII for 1493 (Collier, i. 50). In 1496 the same source gives the Latin ‘revelliones’ (Collier, i. 46). Sir Thomas Cawarden (1545) was patented ‘magister iocorum, revellorum et mascorum’ (Rymer, xv. 62). Another synonym is ‘triumph,’ used in 1511 (Arnold, _Chronicle_, xlv). The latter means properly a royal entry or reception; cf. ch. xxiii.

[1424] Warton, ii. 220, from _Compotus Magn. Garderobae_, 14 Ric. II, f. 198^b ‘pro xxi coifs de tela linea pro hominibus de lege contrafactis pro ludo regis tempore natalis domini anno xii.’

[1425] Froissart (ed. Buchon, iii. 176), Bk. iv, ch. 32, describes the dance of 1393, in which Charles VI dressed in flax as a wild man was nearly burnt to death.

[1426] The English _William of Palerne_, 1620 (†1350, ed. Skeat, E. E. T. S.), has ‘daunces disgisi.’

[1427] H. T. Riley, _Liber Albus_ (R. S. xii), i. 644, 645, 647, 673, 676; _Memorials of London_, 193, 534, 561. For similar orders elsewhere cf. L. T. Smith, _Ricart’s Calendar_, 85 (Bristol), and _Harl. MS._ 2015, f. 64 (Chester).

[1428] Riley, _Memorials_, 658.

[1429] Ibid. 669. It was proclaimed ‘that no manere persone, of what astate, degre, or condicioun that euere he be, duryng this holy tyme of Cristemes be so hardy in eny wyse to walk by nyght in any manere mommyng, pleyes, enterludes, or eny other disgisynges with eny feynyd berdis, peyntid visers, diffourmyd or colourid visages in eny wyse ... outake that hit be leful to eche persone for to be honestly mery as he can, with in his owne hous dwellyng.’

[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.