Page 1, line 6. With pleys ful glad.] In the _Promptorium Parvulorum_
is given the following curious analysis of the different kinds of plays
and players:—“Pley, ludus; pley, or somyr game, spectaculum; pley that
begynnythe with myrthe and endythe with sorowe, tragedia; pley that
begynnythe with sorow and endythe with myrthe, comedia; pleyare, lusor;
pleyare that alwey wyl pley, ludibundus; pleyar at the bal, pililudius;
pleyyng garment, ludix; pleyyng place, diludium.”—MS. Harl. 221, fol.
129. Chaucer gives us the same definition of tragedy in the prologue to
The Monkes Tale:—
Tragedie is to sayn a certain storie,
As olde bookes maken us memorie,
Of him that stood in gret prosperitee,
And is y-fallen out of high degree
Into miserie, and endeth wretchedly.
P. 9, l. 17. Mevelyd.] So in the MS., but probably it ought to be
_mervelyd_.
P. 17, l. 10. Dele the comma after the word _dwere_.
P. 19. THE CREATION.] Bagford has preserved in MS. Harl. 5931, v. 13, a
printed bill of the latter end of the seventeenth century, wherein it
is stated that “at Crawley’s show at the Golden Lion, near St. George’s
Church, during the time of Southwark-fair, will be presented the whole
story of the old creation of the world, or Paradice Lost, yet newly
reviv’d, with the addition of Noah’s flood.” See Strutt’s _Sports and
Pastimes_, ed. Hone, p. 166. The specimen 272 in the same volume is still
more curious, and shows that the performances of mysteries, howbeit in
a very different state, were continued in England up to a much later
period than is usually believed: —
“_By Her Majestie’s permission._ At Heatly’s booth, over against
the Cross Daggers, next to Mr. Miller’s booth, during the time of
Bartholomew-Fair, will be presented a little opera, called _The old
creation of the world_, newly reviv’d, with the addition of the glorious
battle obtained over the French and Spaniards by his Grace the Duke of
Marlborough. The contents are these:—