is nowhere even hinted at, but the expense must have been very considerable, as the dresses were composed of the most costly materials. The Queen was of course Katherine of Arragon. It is most likely that the King was himself a performer, but he is not specially mentioned.

Fresh revels were ordered by Henry VIII. on the 28th of February following; and here we are distinctly told by Gibson that "the dysguysyng was had and made by the advyse of the Earl of Essex;" but why, or on what occasion he advised it, we are left in the dark. The Earl of Essex at this date was Henry Bourchier, who had come to the title in 1483, and who died in 1539, when, as is very well known, the peerage became extinct, and it was conferred upon Cromwell. It is to be observed, that the father, Henry of Bourchier, appears to have been a great encourager of early dramatic performances, and he was one of the very first of our nobility who had a company of players in his pay and service.

On the 28th February the court preparations seem to have been on a much more extensive and expensive scale, for, instead of twelve, no fewer than thirty-four personages were engaged in the revels. Gibson thus gives the enumeration:—

"Sum of personagys in this Revell, of Lordys

and gentylmen

Of Ladys

Of Mynstrells......

Summa totalis xxxiiij personagys."

xxij

vj

vj

The names of none of the "lords and gentlemen" are supplied, but among the "ladies," Mrs. Knevett and Mrs. Margaret Bryan are particularized. The "Disguisyng" took place in the Parliament Chamber at Westminster, and upon this occasion it is quite clear that Henry VIII. was a principal performer, for cloth of gold is charged for doublets for the King's Grace, for the Earl of Essex, Sir Harry Stafforthe, Sir

Knevett, the Earl of Suffolk, and Master Edward Knevett. This Earl of Suffolk was Edmund de la Pole, who, twelve years afterwards, was attainted, and lost his honours and his head. The six ladies, we are told in the account, had "kirtles of blue satin and " garments of strange device," which strange device, we afterwards learn, was of "Moryans," or Moorish fashion, so that the six ladies of the court figured as so many female blackamoors.

It is singular that the Earl of Hastings (whose father, the Lord Chamberlain, had been beheaded in 1483) was provided with "a pair of shoes" for the occasion; and in another part of the document we find that other peers who danced were furnished with the same part of dress at the public expense. However, some spirit of economy was displayed, because "Harry Wentworth," who acted as temporary Master of the Revels, gave Gibson several old dresses "out of the King's store,” which were to be altered and applied according to the best skill of the yeoman-tailor. The minstrels were clothed in "Jackets of Satin of Bregs," a material I do not understand, unless it mean satin of Bruges: we hear also of “tinsel of Bregs," which was used on the garments of Sir Edward Haward, "that bare the keyes before the mummers." In what way these keys were employed, or what they indicated, we can only guess, for the account affords us no sort of explanation. A number of the persons engaged had Turkish dresses.

A profusion of gold seems to have been employed, and Robert Amadas, the King's jeweller, furnished sheafs of arrows and "five hundred and ninety pieces in gold," perhaps cloth of gold, as well as forty-five "payers of roosys of gold enamelled,” and a large quantity of "gold in bolyon."

The sum expended on these occasions is not given at the end of the document; but Mr. Collier informs us, (vol. i., p. 60) from papers he had seen, that the cost of revels at Court during the feast of Christmas, 1509-10, in gold plate, silks,

and apparell only, was nearly £600, not far short of as many thousands in money of the present day. At the end of the document we read, "Thus end the Revels of the fyrst yere ;" but in addition Gibson was required, on the 17th of March, to provide a garment "of purpul velvet for hys Grace for the running at the ryng.”

In Gibson's accounts of the next year we meet with a remarkable memorandum in no way connected with his peculiar duties: it is in these terms:

66

Ephepany, the nyght, the secound yere he (?) dd. [delivered] the Quynes Graces in her chambyr of a Pryns, whos sowll ys among the holy Innocents."

This of course refers to the birth of Henry, the eldest son of the King and Katherine of Arragon; but Stow tells us that the child was born, not on Epiphany at night, which of course was January 6th, 1510-11, but “on new-years day;" and he adds that the Prince lived until 23rd February following. Gibson's account, it should be mentioned, bears date on the 15th November, long after the death of the Prince. How he came to insert a notice of this historical event, so much out of place, is no where explained.

Disguisings were held this year on the 8th of November at Richmond; and on this occasion, as on the last, thirty-four "Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, Ladies, and Minstrells," figured, and some of the male masqueraders wore "Almayne Dobletts," a species of dress derived of course from Germany. One of the items is for a bonnet for a lady: "whiche lady was the Prynces of Castell [Castille]." "Mastres Knevett" and "Mastres Margaret Bryan" were again in requisition among the female dancers.

On the 15th of November following, some kind of dramatic entertainment was performed at Court, and Gibson delivered to John English, "by the Kynges commandement, for to play befoor the Kynges Grace, as by byll appereth, iiij ladyes gar

ments of saten of Bregs of the fyrst sort." Thus we see that the play represented under the direction of John English, who had been one of the interlude players of Henry VII., and continued in the same capacity with his son, had four parts for ladies in it; and at the same time, and for the same purpose, four dresses for men actors were delivered out of the king's store.

These particulars are followed by some undated details, (at least, my memorandum has no date) devised by "Master Harry Gyllfurth," (Sir Henry Guildford) which appears to have consisted of a "Morryshe Dance," or morris-dance, by the King's henchmen, who came out of an artificial hill on the top of which was "a goldyn stoke, branchyd with roses, and pomgarnats [pomegranates] crowned."

On the 12th of February there were farther revels at Whitehall, and in the account furnished by Gibson we have a very curious description of an artificial forest, which had been made within the house of the Blackfriars at Ludgate, and which is thus described: "The forest was xxvj feet long and xvj foot brode, and in the haythe ix foot of assyez, whiche forest was garnechyd with trees and bows artyfycyall, as hawthornes, okes, mapylls, hasylls, byrches, fern, broom, fyrs; with beasts and byrds in bosyd (embosched?) of sundry facyon, with forsters sytting and going on the top of the same: and a kastell in the sayd forest with a maydyn syttyng thereby with a garland, and a lyon of gret statyer and bygnes, with an antlope of lyke proporcyon after hys kynd, drawyng the sayd pagent or forest, with men in woodwys [woodwise] apparell, and ij maydyns syttyng on the sayd ij beasts: in the whiche forest were iiij men of arms rydyng, that yssoud out at a tyme apoynted."

It is not easy to imagine how so many objects could be crowded into a space of only twenty-six feet by sixteen. It seems that the revels continued for two days, and that a portion of the entertainment was a disguising of twelve lords

and ladies and eight minstrels. A singular item of expense was "a standish for the Subdean," which was placed upon a desk at the foot of the pageant, or artificial forest. William Cornish, who had "a playing gown," was the leader of the minstrels; and we are also informed that "Master Bryan had a playing gown," as if he had been a performer in the dramatic portion of the entertainment. It ought also to be stated that "Master Sub-dean was dressed in a garment of "blue damask set with winged faces," meaning probably the heads of cherubs, appropriate to his clerical profession.

One of the most noticeable circumstances in the revels of 15th November is, that a professed fool was one of the performers; for Gibson charges a halfpenny for "a turnyd ladyll spent for the foole:" he had likewise a new coat for the occasion, and clearly belonged to the morris-dance which was presented before the King. "The foole (we are informed) had on his legges and armys nine dozen belles: the whyte Knyght had nine dozen belles," and the black and green knights the same number, but in what way any of the knights were concerned in the morris-dance is not stated, and with our imperfect knowledge on such matters we cannot conjecture.

During the show, or part of it, when the King was not engaged as a performer, he sat in "a pavilion of blue velvet with a fringe of Venice silk.”

A singular custom is mentioned at the close of the document, viz., that the King's guard, "and other gentlemen,” had the privilege by any means of getting possession of whatever they could, that had belonged to the furniture of the royal revels. The consequence was that, when the show was at an end, they fell upon the artificial forest and tore it all to pieces; so that the bare timber-work alone remained. Gibson adds that two of the poor men, who had been appointed to keep the forest, had their heads broken, and that others escaped with difficulty. On the next day an attack was made upon the pavilions, and four of them were saved after a considerable struggle.