The best examples of the morality-play belong to the reign of Henry VIII., and are the "Magnificence" by John Skelton, and "A Satire of the Three Estates" by Sir David Lindsay. In those days, morality-plays were planned by men who sought the reformation of abuses; they helped them to express or form opinions of the people. Their personification of the virtues and vices in action could be used for an appeal to the people on great public questions in debate among them. 12. Of the two morality-plays just mentioned as the best of their kind, that by Skelton is in verse both humorous and earnest. It showed how Felicity argued with Liberty, who was over-impatient of restraint; how Measure, entering, set forth that "Liberty without Measure proveth a thing of nought;" how wealthful Felicity and Liberty allowed Measure to guide them, and resolved that "There is no prince but he hath need of us three, - Magnificence then entered, and took them discreetly for companions, but was presently beguiled by the vice Fancy, and practised upon by Fancy himself, under the name of the virtue Largeness, and by the vices Counterfeit Countenance, Crafty Conveyance, Cloaked Collusion, Courtly Abusion, and Folly, under the names of Good Demeanaunce, Surveyance, Sober Sadness, Pleasure, and Conceit. They separated Magnificence from Measure, Liberty, and Felicity; then left him to be beaten down by the blows of Adversity. He was next visited by Poverty, mocked by the vices that betrayed him, and left to give entrance to Despair. Upon Despair followed Mischief, and fallen Magnificence was about to slay himself, when Good Hope entering put to flight those tempters, arrested the sword, and told the sufferer that his physician is the Grace of God. Then came Redress and Sad Circumspection; and finally, by help of Perseverance, he rose to a higher than his old estate, after he had been taught "How suddenly worldly wealth doth decay; How wisdom, through wantonness, vanisheth away; For the wealth of this world cannot endure." 13. Lindsay's morality-play, "A Satire of the Three Estates," is by far the more important. This was a public setting forth of the condition of the country, with distinct and practical suggestion of the reforms needed. On one occasion, in 1540, at the Feast of Epiphany, King James V. of Scotland had this play acted at Linlithgow, before himself and his queen, and the whole council, temporal and spiritual. At the end of the piece James warned some of the bishops who were present, that, if they did not take heed, he would send some of the proudest of them to be dealt with by his uncle of England. 14. The rise of the modern drama, however, was not from a modification either of the miracle-plays, or of the moralityplays, but came, with the revival of letters, almost everywhere from imitation of the Latin dramatists. First, they were imitations actually written in Latin; afterward, they were imitations written in the language of the people for whom they were intended. Such was the case with the rise of the drama in England; and there the first example of true dramatic writing in English was a comedy. 15. There can be no doubt that the first known English comedy, although not printed until 1566, was produced in the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII. Its author was Nicholas Udall, born in Hampshire, in 1505 or 1506. In 1520 he was admitted a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he took his degree of M.A. in 1534. He became in succession master of Eton School, vicar of Braintree, prebendary of Windsor, and master of Westminster School; he wrote translations from Erasmus and Peter Martyr; he was at one time very active as a preacher; and he died in 1564. He seems to have had a strong fondness for the writing of plays. In 1532, he assisted in writing "The Pageant" exhibited by the mayor and citizens of London when Anne Boleyn entered the city after her marriage. Udall was at that time a schoolmaster. In 1533 he published, and dedicated to his boys, "Floures for Latin Spekynge," selected and gathered out of Terence, and the same translated into English. The selections were made from the first three comedies of Terence. In 1534, Udall, who was highly esteemed for his scholarship, was made head master of Eton School; and in 1538 appeared a newly-corrected edition of his "Flowers for Latin Speaking," enlarged from 110 to 192 pages. It was the custom at Eton for the boys to act at Christmas some Latin stage-play, chosen or written for them by the master. Among the writings ascribed to Udall about the year 1540 were several Latin comedies, and a tragedy on the Papacy, written probably to be acted by his scholars. When it occurred to him to write for his boys an English comedy, wherein, as its Prologue says, "All scurrility we utterly refuse, Avoiding such mirth wherein is abuse," and avowedly following Plautus and Terence, "which among the learned at this day bears the bell," he produced what is, as far as we know, the first English comedy. Its name is "Ralph Roister Doister," and it professed to be a wholesome jest against vain-glory. The name of this comedy is derived from its chief character, a swaggering simpleton, a feeble conceited fop of the days of Henry VIII., who is played upon and lived upon by Matthew Merrygreek, a needy humorist. The jest of the play was in the absurdities of Ralph's suit to Dame Christian Custance, "a widow with a thousand pound," already betrothed to a merchant, Gavin Goodluck, away at sea. The play, in lively rhyming couplets, interspersed with a few merry songs, was written with so good a sense of the reverence due to boys that it may be read by boys of the present day. The incidents provided good matter for merry acting, with an occasional burst of active fun, as in a brisk battle lost by Ralph and his men to Custance and her women, armed with broomsticks. The comedy showed also its origin in a schoolmaster, by including a good lesson on the importance of right pauses in reading. A love-letter sent by Ralph to Dame Christian Custance was read to her, with its sense reversed by putting the stops in the wrong places, thus: "Now by these presents I do you advertise That I am minded to marry you in no wise. I will keep ye right well from good raiment and fare; When ye seek your heart's ease, I will be unkind; and so forth, all reversible by change of punctuation. 16. Early in the reign of Henry VIII. was introduced a splendid and courtly dramatic entertainment, called the "Masque," which, a hundred years later, under Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones, reached great perfection, and an extraordinary favor among the nobility and royal family of England. Even so early as the reign of Edward III. a dramatic entertainment called a 66 Disguising" had formed part of the pleasures of the court. In a "Disguising," the performers wore merely peculiar costume; in a "Masque," besides that, they also covered the face. The Masque was introduced from Italy; its characters were taken by lords and ladies; and from the time of Henry VIII. to that of Charles I., it was an important feature in court entertainments. The chronicler Edward Hall has recorded that, at Greenwich, in 1512, "on the day of the Epiphany at night, the king, with eleven others, was disguised after the manner of Italy, called a Masque, a thing not seen before in England; they were apparelled in garments long and broad, wrought all with gold, with visors and caps of gold. And after the banquet done, these masquers came in with six gentlemen disguised in silk, bearing staff torches, and desired the ladies to dance; some were content, and some refused; and after they had danced and communed together, as the fashion of the Masque is, they took their leave, and departed." Holinshed has described a Masque at Greenwich in Henry VIII.'s time, with mechanical contrivances, and action in dumb show. A castle was built in the hall of the palace, with towers, gates, battlements, and mimic preparations for a siege. It was inscribed on the front Le Fortresse Dangereux." Six ladies, clothed in russet satin overlaid with leaves of gold, and with gold coifs and caps, looked from the castle windows. The castle was so made that it could be moved about the hall for admiration by the company. Then entered the king with five knights in embroidered vestments, spangled and plaited with gold. They besieged the castle until the ladies surrendered, and came out to dance with them. The ladies then led the knights into the castle, which immediately vanished, and the company retired. 17. Another form of entertainment, "after banquet done," or between meat and the banquet or dessert, was the "Interlude." This was satire in dialogue, ingeniously written for the entertainment of the company, and spoken by persons who assumed different characters; but there was no working out of a dramatic fable. This entertainment had long been popular in Spain, in Italy, and in France; and in the latter country it had been freely used for political and social satire. In England it appears first to have come into vogue in the time of Henry VIII., when John Heywood acquired considerable distinction as a writer of Interludes. He was born perhaps at North Mims, in Hertfordshire, where afterwards he certainly had a home. He was opposed to Lutheranism; and his friendship for Sir Thomas More having brought him into the king's favor, he retained it by his wit. He remained at court when Edward VI. was king, and under Queen Mary, for whom, when a young princess, he had shown a particular respect; but on the accession of Elizabeth he went abroad, and died at Mechlin, in 1565. Besides his Interludes, John Heywood wrote six hundred epigrams. Of the Interludes written by him and performed at the court of Henry VIII., two were printed in 1532: "The Play of Love; or, a New and a very Mery Enterlude of all Maner Weathers; and "A Mery Play between the Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte." One published in 1535 was called "Of Gentylnes and Nobylyte: a Dyaloge between the Marchaunt, the Knyght, and the Plowman, compiled in maner of an Enterlude, with divers Toys and Gestis added thereto to make Mery Pastyme and Disport." Of another, published without date, and called "The Foure P's: a very |