The public pageantries of this reign are proofs of the growing familiarity and national diffusion of classical learning. I will select an in Les autres suivent la coustume Many ample and authentic records of the royal household of France, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, written on waxen tablets, are still preserved. Waxen tablets were constantly kept in the French religious houses, for the same purpose as at Winchester college. Thus in the Ordinary of the Priour of saint Lo at Rouen, printed at Rouen, written about the year 1250:-"Qui, ad missam, lectiones aut tractus dicturi sunt, in tabula cerea primitus recitentur." pag. 261. Even to this day, several of the collegiate bodies in France, more especially the chapter of the cathedral of Rouen, retain this usage of marking the successive rotation of the ministers of the choir. See the Sieur le Brun's Voyage Liturgique, 1718. p. 527. The same mode of writing was used for registering the capitular acts of the monasteries in France. Du Cange, in reciting from an ancient manuscript the Signs enjoined to the monks of the order of saint Victor at Paris, where the rule of silence was rigorously observed, gives us, among others, the tacit signals by which they called for the style and tablet :-" Pro SIGNO Grafii.-Signo metalli præmisso, extenso pollice cum indice simila [simula] scribentem. Pro SIGNO Tabularum.Manus ambas complica, et ita disjunge quasi aperiens Tabulas." Gloss. ut supr. V. SIGNA. tom. iii. p. 866. col. 2. edit. vet. Among the implements of writing allowed to the Carthusians, Tabula and Graphium are enumerated. Statut. Antiq. Carthusian. 2 part. cap. xvi. § 8. This, bowever, at Winchester college, is the only express specification which I have found of the practice, in the religious houses of England. Yet in many of our old collegiate establishments it seems to be pointed out by implication; and the article here extracted from the roll at Winchester college, explains the manner of keeping the following injunction in the Statutes of saint Elizabeth's college at Winchester, now destroyed, which is a direction of the same kind, and cannot be well understood without supposing a waxen tablet. These statutes were given in 1301. "Habeat itaque idem præcentor unam Tabulam semper in capella appensam, in qua scribat quolibet die sabbati post prandium, et ordinet, qualem Missam quis eorum capellanorum in sequenti septimana debeat celebrare; quis qualem lectionem in crastino legere debeat; et sic de cæteris divinis officiis in prædicta capella faciendis. Et sic cotidie post prandium ordinet idem præcentor de servicio diei sequentis: hoc diligentius observando, quod capellani Missam, ad quam die sabbati, ut præmittitur, intitulantur, per integram celebrent septimanam.” Dugd. Monast. tom. iii. Eccles. Coll. i. 10. Nothing could have been a more convenient method of temporary notation, especially at a time when parchment and paper were neither cheap nor common commodities, and of carrying on an account, which was perpetually to be obliterated and renewed: for the written surface of the wax being easily smoothed by the round or blunt end of the style, was soon again prepared for the admission of new characters. And among the Romans, the chief use of the style was for fugitive and occasional entries. In the same light, we must view the following parallel passage of the Ordination of bishop Wykeham's sepulchral chantry, founded in Winchester cathedral, in the year 1404:-"Die sabbati cujuslibet septimanæ futuræ, monachi prioratus nostri in ordine sacerdotali constituti, valentes et dispositi ad celebrandum, ordinentur et intitulentur in Tabula seriatim ad celebrandum Missas prædictas cotidie per septimanam tunc sequentem," &c. B. Lowth's WYKEHAM. Append. p. xxxi. edit. 1777. Without multiplying superfluous citations 5, I think we may fairly conclude, that whenever a Tabula pro Clericis intitulandis occurs in the more ancient rituals of our ecclesiastical fraternities, a PUGILLARE or waxen tablet, and not a schedule of parchment or paper, is intended. The inquisitive reader, who wishes to see more foreign evidences of this mode of writing during the course of the middle ages, is referred to a Memoir drawn up with great diligence and research by M. l'Abbé Lebeuf. Mem. Litt. tom. xx. p. 267. edit. 4to. The reasonings and conjectures of Wise and others, who have treated of the Saxon AESTEL, more particularly of those who contend that king Alfred's STYLE is still in being at Oxford, may perhaps receive elucidation or correction from what is here 4 But see Wanley's account of the text of S. Chad. Catal. Codd. Anglo-Sax. p. 289. seq. 5 See Statut. Eccles. Cath. Lichf. Dugd. Mon. iii. p. 244. col. 2. 10. p. 247. col. 2. 20. Statut. Eccles. Collegiat. de Tonge, ibid. Eccles. Coll. p. 152. col. 2. 40. stance, among others, from the shows exhibited with great magnificence at the coronation of queen Anne Boleyn, in the year 1533. The procession to Westminster abbey began from the Tower; and the queen, in passing through Gracechurch-street, was entertained with a representation of mount Parnassus. The fountain of Helicon, by a bold fiction unknown to the bards of antiquity, ran in four streams of Rhenish wine from a basin of white marble. On the summit of the mountain sate Apollo, and at his feet Calliope. On either side of the declivity were arranged four of the Muses, playing on their respective musical instruments. Under them were written epigrams and poesies in golden letters, in which every Muse praised the queen, according to her character and office. At the Conduit in Cornhill appeared the three Graces; before whom, with no great propriety, was the spring of Grace perpetually running wine. But when a conduit came in the way, a religious allusion was too tempting and obvious to be omitted. Before the spring, however, sate a poet, describing in metre the properties or functions of every Grace: and then each of these four Graces allotted in a short speech to the queen, the virtue or accomplishment over which she severally presided. At the Conduit in Cheapside, as my chronicler says, she was saluted with "a rich pageaunt full of melodie and song." In this pageant were Pallas, Juno, and Venus: before them stood Mercury, who presented to her majesty, in the name of the three goddesses, a golden ball or globe divided into three parts, signifying wisdom, riches, and felicity. At entering saint Paul's gate, an ancient portal leading into the church-yard on the east, and long since destroyed, three ladies richly attired showered on her head wafers, in which were contained Latin distichs. At the eastern side of saint Paul's church-yard, two hundred scholars of saint Paul's school addressed her in chosen and apposite passages from the Roman poets, translated into English rhymes. On the leads of saint Martin's church stood a choir of boys and men, who sung, not spiritual hymns, but new balads in praise of her majesty. On the conduit without Ludgate, where the arms and angels had been refreshed, was erected a tower with four turrets, within each of which was placed a Cardinal Virtue, symbolically habited. Each of these personages in turn uttered an oration, promising to protect and accompany the queen on all occasions. Here we see the pagan history and my casually collected on a subject, which needs and deserves a full investigation. To a Note already labouring with its length I have only to add, that without supposing an allusion to this way of writing, it will be hard to explain the following lines in Shakspeare's Timon of Athens, act i. sc. 1. My free drift Halts not particularly, but moves itself Why Shakspeare should here allude to this peculiar and obsolete fashion of writing, to express a poet's design of describing general life, will appear, if we consider the freedom and facility with which it is executed. It is not yet, I think, discovered, on what original Shakspeare formed this drama. 1 Hall's Chronicle, fol. ccxii. Among the Orations spoken to the Queen, is one too curious to be omitted. At Leadenhall sate saint Anne with her numerous progeny, and Mary Cleophas with her four children. One of the children made " a thology predominating in those spectacles, which were once furnished from the Golden Legend. Instead of saints, prophets, apostles, and confessors, we have Apollo, Mercury, and the Muses. Instead of religious canticles, and texts of scripture, which were usually introduced in the course of these ceremonies, we are entertained with profane poetry, translations from the classics, and occasional verses; with exhortations, not delivered by personified doctors of the church, but by the heathen divinities. It may not be foreign to our purpose, to give the reader some distinct idea of the polite amusements of this reign, among which, the Masque, already mentioned in general terms, seems to have held the first place. It chiefly consisted of music, dancing, gaming, a banquet, and a display of grotesque personages and fantastic dresses. The performers, as I have hinted, were often the king, and the chief of the nobility of both sexes, who under proper disguises executed some preconcerted stratagem, which ended in mirth and good humour. With one of these shows, in 1530, the king formed a scheme to surprise cardinal Wolsey, while he was celebrating a splendid banquet at his palace of Whitehall". At night his majesty in a masque, with twelve more masquers all richly but strangely dressed, privately landed from Westminster at Whitehall stairs. At landing, several small pieces of cannon were fired, which the king had before ordered to be placed on the shore near the house. The cardinal, who was separately seated at the banquet in the presencechamber under the cloth of state, a great number of ladies and lords being seated at the side-tables, was alarmed at this sudden and unusual noise; and immediately ordered lord Sandys, the king's chamberlain, who was one of the guests, and in the secret, to inquire the reason. Lord Sandys brought answer, that thirteen foreign noblemen of distinction were just arrived, and were then waiting in the great hall below; having been drawn thither by the report of the cardinal's magnificent banquet, and of the beautiful ladies which were present at it. The cardinal ordered them immediately into the banqueting-room, to which they were conducted from the hall with twenty new torches and a concert of drums and fifes. After a proper refreshment, they requested in the French language to dance with the ladies, whom they kissed, and to play with them at mum-chance"; producing at the same time a great golden cup filled with many hundred crowns. Having played for some time with the ladies, they designedly lost all that remained in the cup to the cardinal; whose sagacity was not easily to be deceived, and who now began, from some circumstances, to suspect one of them to be the king. On finding their plot in danger, they answered, "If your grace can point him out, he will readily discover himself." The cardinal pointed to a masque with a black beard, but he was mistaken, for goodlie oration to the queene, of the fruitfulness of saint Anne, and of her generation; trusting the like fruit should come of hir." m It then belonged to Wolsey. it was sir Edward Nevil. At this, the king could not forbear laughing aloud; and pulling off his own and sir Edward Nevil's masque, convinced the cardinal, with much arch complaisance, that he had for once guessed wrong. The king and the masquers then retired into another apartment to change their apparel; and in the meantime the banquet was removed, and the table covered afresh with perfumed clothes. Soon afterwards, the king, with his company, returned, and took his seat under the cardinal's canopy of state. Immediately two hundred dishes* of the most costly cookery and confectionary were served up; the contrivance and success of the royal joke afforded much pleasant conversation, and the night was spent in dancing, dice-playing, banketting and other triumphs. The old chronicler Edward Hall, a cotemporary and a curious observer, acquaints us, that at Greenwich, in 1512, "on the daie of the Epiphanie at night, the king with eleven others was disguised after the maner of Italie, called a Maske, a thing not seene before in England; they were apparelled in garments long and broad, wrought all with gold, with visors and caps of gold. And after the banket doone, these maskers came in, with six gentlemen disguised in silke, bearing staffe-torches, and desired the ladies to danse; some were content, and some refused; and after they had dansed and communed togither, as the fashion of the maske is, they tooke their leave and departed, and so did the queene and all the ladies P." I do not find that it was a part of their diversion in these entertainments to display humour and character+. Their chief aim seems to have been, to surprise, by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the visors, and by the singularity and splendor of the dresses. Every thing was out of nature and propriety. Frequently the Masque was attended with an exhibition of some gorgeous machinery, resembling the wonders of a modern pantomime. For instance, in the great hall of the palace, the usual place of performance, a vast mountain covered with tall trees arose suddenly, from whose opening caverns issued hermits, pilgrims, shepherds, knights, damsels, and gypsies, who being regaled with spices and wine danced a morisco, or morris-dance. They were then again received into the mountain, which with a symphony of rebecs and recorders closed its caverns; and tumbling to pieces, was replaced by a ship in full sail, or a castle besieged. To be more particular. The fol lowing device was shown in the hall of the palace at Greenwich. A castle was reared, with numerous towers, gates, and battlements; and furnished with every military preparation for sustaining a long siege. *[Can we imagine, that though the Cardinal was giving such a magnificent entertainment, he would have had 200 costly dishes in reserve, ready to set on, if he had not been in the secret about the king's masqued visit? As to the mistake about his person, this might be real or pretended. -ASHBY.] • Hollinsh. Chron. iii. 921. seq. P Chron. fol. xv. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 21 et seq.] + [Of these there was probably about as much as would be found in a modern masquerade, consisting of the king and his court, lords of the bed-chamber and maids of honour.-ASHBY.] From the windows On the front was inscribed Le fortresse dangereux. looked out six ladies, clothed in the richest russet satin, "laid all over with leaves of gold, and every one knit with laces of blew silk and gold, on their heads coifs and caps all of golde." This castle was moved about the hall; and when the queen had viewed it for a time, the king entered the hall with five knights, in embroidered vestments, spangled and plated with gold, of the most curious and costly workmanship. They assaulted the castle; and the six ladies, finding them to be champions of redoubted prowess, after a parley, yielded their perilous fortress, descended, and danced with their assailants. The ladies then led the knights into the castle, which immediately vanished, and the company retired. Here we see the representation of an action. But all these magnificent mummeries, which were their evening-amusements on festivals, (notwithstanding a parley*, which my historian calls a communication, is here mentioned,) were yet in dumb show', and without dialogue. But towards the latter part of Henry's reign, much of the old cumbersome state began to be laid aside. This I collect from a set of new regulations given to the royal household about the year 1526, by cardinal Wolsey. In the Chapter For keeping the Hall and ordering of the Chapel, it is recited, that by the frequent intermission and disuse of the solemnities of dining and supping in the great hall of the palace, the proper officers had almost forgot their duty, and the manner of conducting that very long and intricate ceremonial. It is therefore ordered, that when his majesty is not at Westminster, and with regard to his palaces in the country, the formalities of the Hall, which ought not entirely to fall into desuetude, shall be at least observed when he is at Windsor, Beaulieu, or Newhalls in Essex, Richmond, Hampton-court, Greenwich, Eltham, and Woodstock; and that at these places only, the whole choir of the chapel shall attend. This attempt to revive that which had begun to cease from the nature of things, and from the growth of new manners, perhaps had but little or no lasting effect; and with respect to the Chapel, my record adds, that when the king is on journeys or progresses, only six singing boys and six gentlemen of the choir shall make a part of the royal retinue; who "daylie in absence of the 9 Hollinsh. iii. 812. * [About the terms on which to surrender the fortress that six fine ladies had defended.-ASHBY.] But at a most sumptuous Disguising in 1519, in the hall at Greenwich, the figure of FAME is introduced, who, "in French, declared the meaning of the trees, the rocke, and turneie." But as this show was a political compliment, and many foreigners present, an explanation was necessary. See Hall, Chron. fol. lxvi. This was in 1512. But in the year 1509, a more rational evening-amusement took |