There into so farre a grounde, Whiche the noble kynge of late memory, Of the 'mery conseytes' in the piece, to render it more attractive, the following part of a scene between Sensual Appetite, the Taverner, and Humanity, will serve as a specimen. Sen[sual Appetite.]—Why, wyll ye folowe my counsell ? Humanity.]-Ye. Sen.—Then we wyll have lytell Nell, A proper wenche, she daunsith well; And Jane with the black lace. Hu.-Now, be it so: thou art saunce pere. After dinner, they discuss, thus humorously, the merits of one of the ladies recommended by the Taverner. 'Sen.-Mary thus, canst thou tell us yet Where is any rose water to get? ' The following list of his wines, enumerated by Taverner at that date, is worth quoting: Ye shall have Spayneshe wyne and Gascoyn, Rose coloure, white, claret rampyon, Tyre, Capryck and Malvesyne, Sak, raspyce, Alicaunt, Rumney, For yf ye drynke a draught or too Ta.-Ye, that I can well purvey As good as ever you put to your nose, Sen. By god, I wolde a pynte of that Ta.-Yet I had lever she and I Were both to gyther secretly; For, by god, it is a prety gyrle. O lorde god, how she wyll tryp! She wyll bounce it, she wyll whyp, The author does not seem to have succeeded in his avowed experiment of making the stage a vehicle of scientific instruction, and we have no proof that any other writer followed his example. It does not appear where the 'disguising', mentioned in the title-page, was to be introduced, if more variety were required in the performance. Skelton's 'goodly interlude and a merry', called Magnyfycence, requires examination in some detail, on account of the celebrity of its author, and of its importance as a literary composition. On the title-page he is called 'Mayster Skelton, poet-laureate', and the additional information is supplied, that at the time this Moral-play1 was printed he was 'late deceasyd'. Warton states that it appeared in 1533, and that it was printed by Rastell; but, both these points are conjectural, inasmuch as neither date nor printer's name is found in the old copy. 1 The Rev. T. F. Dibdin (Ames, iii, 106) says, that this production is 'called a Morality'; but this is a mistake. It is a Moral-play, and on the title-page it is called an 'Interlude'. The type certainly resembles that used by John Rastell, and most likely the production came from his press. The date when it was written is also a matter of doubt, although we know that it was in existence in 1523, because Skelton mentions it with other pieces by him (some of them of the same description),1 in his Garlande or Chapelet of Lawrell, which 1 The enumeration is curious, and an extract may not be unacceptable. Skelton mentions, in the following stanzas, at least three dramatic performances-The Sovereign Interlude of Virtue, The Comedy of Achademios, and Magnificence, upon the latter of which he seems to dwell with unusual satisfaction 'In primis the boke of honorous astate, Item the boke how men shulde fle synne, 'Of vertu also the soverayne enterlude, The boke of ye rosiar: prince arturis creacyoun, The false fayth yt now goth which dayly is renude: Item antomedon of loves meditacyoun, Item new gramer in englysshe compylyd, Item bowche of courte, where drede was be gyled. 'His com'edy achademios callyd by name, Of tullis familiars the translacyoun; Item good advysement that brainles doth blame, VOL. II. How cownterfet cowntenaunce, of the new get, Wt. courtely abusyoun: who prynteth it wele in mynde R was printed by R. Faukes in that year. Skelton's Nigramansir was printed, according to Warton, in 1504, and very possibly Magnyfycence was written before the end of the reign of Henry VII, and while the author was tutor to Henry VIII, whose chaplain he afterwards became. The moral purpose of Magnyfycence is to show the vanity of worldly grandeur. It opens with a soliloquy by Felicity, who is soon joined by Liberty, and while they are discussing the degree to which freedom ought to be allowed, Measure enters to moderate between the disputants, and he thus enlarges on his own importance. 'Oracius to recorde in his volumys olde, With every condycyon measure must be sought : 'Of manerly margery, maystres mylke and ale, Skelton carries on the enumeration much farther, but the titles of all the other productions he mentions are to be found in a note in Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet., iii, 163, 8vo. edit. The whole of this Garlande or Chapelet of Lawrell is a remarkable piece of egotism, and was probably written by the author in his old age. He gives the titles of at least fifty pieces from his pen, and he tells us, besides, that he had omitted many, as it were to[o] long a proces to reherse all by name that he hath compylyd'. There is, I believe, but one copy of this tract in existence, that in the Royal Library: the author's vanity seems to have induced him also to place his portrait at the back of the title-page. It was reprinted by the late Rev. Mr. Dyce in 1843, in his two volumes of Skelton's Works. I ponder by nomber, by measure, all thynge is wrought. Which provyth well that measure shold have domynyon. Magnificence is immediately afterwards introduced, and becomes acquainted with Fancy (who calls himself Largess), with Counterfeit-countenance, Crafty-conveyance, Cloked-collusion, Courtly-abusion and Folly, who also impose upon him under feigned names. Courtly-abusion offers to carry him to a young lady, whose virtue is not inaccessible, and whose beauty is described with some luxuriance of style : 'A fayre maystresse, That quyckly is envyved with rudyes of the rose, Her eyen relucent as carbuncle so clere: Her mouth embawmed dylectable and mery, Her lusty lyppes ruddy as a chery.' Magnificence, ruined by his friends and retainers, falls into the hands of Adversity and Poverty, and the latter, in the following striking lines, contrasts the present with the former condition of Magnificence: 'That was wonte to lye on fetherbeddes of downe, |
