The Mediaeval Stage, Vol I (of 2)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.’