* God hymfelf Mary and Johon As he was done the rode upon †, "In to the cyte of Babylone; Our Saviour. And "As he died upon the cross." So in an old fragment cited by Hearne, Gloff. Rub. Br. Ire. P. 634. Pyned under Ponce Pilat, Done on the red after that. Dare. I do not understand this. He feems to mean the Sultan of Dames, or Damascus. See Du Cange, Joinv. p. 87. ** The French romance. tt Antiently no perfon feems to have been gallantly equipped on horseback, un. lefs the horfe's bridle, or fome other part of the furniture, were fuck full of fmall bells. Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about 1264, cenfures this piece of pride in the knights templars. They have, fays he, bridles embroidered, or gilded, or adorned with filver, " Atque in pectoralibus CAMPANULAS INFIXAS MAGNUM emittentes BONITUM, ad gloriam corum et decorem." Hift. lib. xxx. cap. 85. Wicliffe, in his 1 And his peytrell* and hys arfowne + Have flayne Rycharde with treafowne And he was ware of that shame, His eres § with waxe were ftopped faste, He ftroke the ftede that under hym wente, Was paynted a ferpent, Wyth the fpere that Rycharde helde Rycharde fmote the fende with fpores | kene, his TRILOGE, inveighs against the priests for their “fair hors, and jolly and gay fadels, and bridles ringing by the way, &c." Lewis's WICKLIFFE, p. 121. And hence Chaucer may be illuftrated, who thus defcribes the ftate of a monk on horieback, Pol. Cant. v. 170. And when he rode, men might his bridell bere GINGLING in a whistling wind as clere, And eke as lowde, as doth the chapell bell. That is, because his horse's bridle or trappings were ftrung with bells. The breaft-plate, or breaft band of a horfe. Poitral, Fr. Pectorale, Lat. Thus Chaucer of the Chanon YEMAN's horse. Chan. Yon. Prol. v. 575. Urr. About the PEYNTRELL flood the fome ful hie. The faddle-bow. "Arcenarium extenceliatum cum argento," occurs in the wardrobe rolls, ab ann, 21 ad an. 23 Edw. iii. Membr. xi. This word is not in Du Cange or h s fupplement. F. bird. ** Schiltron. I believe foldiers drawn up in a circle. defcribing the battle of Fowkirke, Chron. p. 305. Ears. Rob. de Brunne uses it in || Spurs. Thar SCHILTRON fone was fhad with Inglis that wer gode. Sbad is feparated. Whan Whan the kyng of Fraunce and hys men wyfte They waxed bold, and gode herte toke Stedes beftrode, and fhaftes fhoke *.' In the poetical romance of Guy Earl of Warwick, the expedition of that hero into the Soldan's camp, is drawn with great force and fpirit. Guy asked his armes anone, Hofen of yron Guy did upon : Full of tentes and pavylyons bee: Guy wift therebie it was the Soudones 1 Tyll he came to the Soudan's borde §; He Table. Chaucer, Squ. T. 105. And up he rideth to the hie borde. At dinner. Chaucer fays that his knight had often "begon the bord abovin all nations." Prol. 52. The term of chivalry, to begin the board, is to be placed in the uppermoft feat in the hall. Anftis, Ord. Gart. i. App. p. xv. "The Earl of Surry began the borde in prefence: the Earl of Arundale washed with him, and fatt both at the firft meffe. Began the borde at the chamber's end," i. e. fat at the head of that table which was at the end of the chamber. This was at Windfor, A. D. 1519. In Syr Egla mour of Artoys, we have to begin the dese, which is the fame thing. ... Lordes in halle were fette And waytes blewe to the mete.- Sign. D. iii. See Chaucer, Squ. T. 99. And Kn. T. 2002. In the celebration of the feaft of Christmas at Greenwich, in the year 1488, we have, "The Duc of Bedeford beganne the table on the right fide of the hall, and next untoo hym was the Lorde He ne rought with whom he mette, "Arte thou the bolde knyght Guyon, "Thou flueft my cofyn Coldran "Of all Sarafyns the boldest man, &c. ‡" The little room we have now left for further attention to this ingenious work, we fhall affign to an entertaining account of those early theatrical exhibitions which, however rude and fimple, were introductory to the English drama. 'Our drama, fays Mr. Warton, feems hitherto [fourteenth century] to have been almost entirely confined to religious fubjects, and these plays were nothing more than an appendage to the fpecious and mechanical devotion of the times. I do not find exprefsly, that any play on a profane fubject, either tragic or comic, had as yet been exhibited in England. Our very early ancestors fcarce knew any other hiftory than that of their religion. Even on fuch an occafion as the triumphant entry of a king or queen into the city of London, or other places, the pageants were almoft entirely fcriptural. Yet I muft obferve, that an article in one of the pipe-rolls, perhaps of the reign of King John, and confequently about the year 1200, feems to place the rudiments of hiftrionic exhibition, I mean of general fubjects, at a much higher period among us than is commonly imagined. Lorde Dawbeneye, &c." That is, be fate at the head of the table. 237. edit. 1770. To begin the bourd is to begin the tournament. Troy, B. ii. ch. 14. The grete juftes, bordes, or tournay. Leland. Coll, iii, I will here take occafion to correct Hearne's explanation of the word Bourder in Brunne's Chron. p. 204. A knygt a BOURDOUR King Richard hade A douty man in ftoure his name was Markade BOURDOUR, fays Hearne, is boarder, penfioner. But the true meaning is, a Wag, an arch fellow, for he is here introduced putting a joke on the King of France. BOURDE is jeft, trick, from the French. See above, p 75. Chauc. Gam. 1974. and Non. Urr. 2294. Knyghton mentions a favourite in the court of England who could procure any grant from the King burdando. Du Cange Not. Joinv. p. 116. Who adds, "De là vient le mot de Bourdeurs qui eftoient ces farceurs ou plaifantin's qui divertif foient les princes par le recit des fables et des hiftoires des Romans Aucuns eftiment que ce mot vient des bebourds qui eftoit une espece des Tournois." See also Diff. Joinv. p. 174. Cared, valued. Chaucer, Rom. R. 1873. I ne rought of deth ne of life. Those who believe. Sign. Q. iii. It It is in these words: "Nicola uxor Gerardi de Canvill, reddit com putum de centum marcis pro maritanda Matildi filia fua cuicunque voluerit, exceptis MIMICIS regis,"—" Nicola, wife of Gerard of Canville, accounts to the King for one hundred marks for the privilege of marrying his daughter Maud to whatever perfon fhe pleases, the King's MIMICS excepted." Whether or no MIMICI REGIS are here a fort of players kept in the King's houshold for diverting the court at ftated feafons, at leaft with performances of mimicry and masquerade, or whether they may not strictly imply MINSTRELS, I cannot indeed determine. Yet we may remark that MIMICUS is never used for MIMUS, that certain theatrical entertainments called mafcarades, as we fhall fee below, were very ancient among the French, and that thefe MIMICI appear, by the context of this article, to have been perfons of no very refpectable character. I likewife find in the wardrobe-rolls of Edward the Third, in the year 1348, an account of the dresses, ad faciendum LUDOS domini regis ad ffeftum Natalis domini celebratos apud Guldeford, for furnishing the plays or fports of the King, held in the caftle of Guildford at the feast of Christmas. In thefe LUDI, fays my record, were expended eighty tunics of buckram of various colours, forty-two vifours of various fimilitudes, that is, fourteen of the faces of women, fourteen of the faces of men with beards, fourteen of heads of angels, made with filver; twenty-eight crefts, fourteen mantles embroidered with heads of dragons; fourteen white tunics wrought with heads and wings of peacocks; fourteen heads of fwans with wings; fourteen tunics painted with eyes of peacocks; fourteen tunics of English linen painted, and as many tunics embroidered with ftars of gold and filver. In the rolls of the wardrobe of Kind Richard the Second, in the year 1391, there is also an entry which feems to point out a fport of much the fame nature. "Pro xxi. coifs de tela linea pro hominibus de lege contrafactis pro LUDO regis tempore natalis domini anno xii." That is, " for twenty-one linen coifs for counterfeiting men of the law in the King's play at Christmas." It will be fufficient to add here on the lait record, that the ferjeants at law at their creation, anciently wore a cap of linen, lawn, or filk, tied under the chin this was to diftinguish them from the clergy, who had the tonfure. Whether in both these inftances we are to understand a dumb fhew, or a dramatic interlude with speeches, I leave to the examination of those who are profeffedly making enquiries into the hiftory of our stage from its rudeft origin. But that plays on general fubjects were no uncommon mode of entertainment in the royal pa laces of England, at leaft at the commencement of the fifteenth century, may be collected from an old memoir of fhews and ceremo nies exhibited at Christmas, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, in the palace of Weftminfter. It is in the year 1489. "This cristmas I faw no difguyfings, and but right few PLAYS. But ther was an abbot of Mifrule, that made much fport, and did right well his office." And again, “At nyght the kynge, the qweene, and my ladye the kynges moder, cam into the Whitehall, and ther hard a PLAY." As to the religious dramas, it was cuftomary to perform this fpecies of play on holy feftivals in or about the churches. In the register |