The churchwarden’s accounts of a particular parish[115] may in
themselves be thought, justly, as a matter of no great consequence, and
not worthy of much regard. But these seem to deserve some consideration,
as they relate to a very remarkable period in our history, and prove by
facts the great alterations that were made in religious affairs under
the reigns of queen Mary and queen Elizabeth, together with the time and
manner of putting them into execution; and may therefore serve both to
confirm and illustrate several things related by our ecclesiastical
historians.
1. We find mention made in these extracts of the _rood_ and _rood loft_.
By the former of which was meant either a crucifix, or the image of some
saint erected in popish churches. And here that name is given to the
images of saint Mary and saint John, and to saint Helen, the patroness
of the church. These images were set in shrines, or tabernacles, and the
place where they stood was called the rood loft, which was commonly over
or near the passage out of the body of the church into the chancel. In
1548, the first of king Edward VI., all images and their shrines were
ordered to be taken down, as bishop Burnett informs us. But they were
restored again on the accession of queen Mary, as we find here, by the
first article.
2. The _ship for frankincense_, mentioned in the year 1556, was a small
vessel in the form of a ship or boat, in which the Roman catholics burn
frankincense to perfume their churches and images.
3. The _boke of articles_, purchased in 1556, seems to be that which was
printed and sent over the kingdom by order of queen Mary, at the end of
the year 1554, containing instructions to the bishops for visiting the
clergy.
4. We find frequent mention made of lights and other expenses at a
_funeral_, the _months mind_, the _years_ and _two years mind_, and the
_obit_ of deceased persons, which were masses performed at those seasons
for the rest of their souls; the word _mind_, meaning the same as
_memorial_ or _remembrance_. And so it is used in a sermon yet extant of
bishop Fisher, entitled _A mornynge remembrance had at the monteth minde
of the most noble prynces Margarete, countesse of Richmonde and Darbye_,
&c. As to the term _obits_, services of that kind seem to have been
annually performed. The office of the mass for each of these solemnities
may be seen in the _Roman Missal_, under the title of _Missal pro
defunctis_. And it appears by the different sums here charged, that the
expenses were suited to persons of all ranks, that none might be
deprived of the benefit which was supposed to accrue from them.
5. It was customary in popish countries on Good Friday to erect a small
building, to represent the sepulchre of our Saviour. In this they put
the host, and set a person to watch both that night and the next. On the
following morning very early, the host being taken out, Christ is risen.
This was done here in 1557 and two following years, the last of which
was in the reign of queen Elizabeth. Du Fresne has given us a particular
account of this ceremony as performed at Rouen in France, where three
persons in female habits used to go to the sepulchre, in which two
others were placed to represent angels, who told them Christ was risen.
(_Latin Glossary_, under the words _Sepulchro officinum_.) The building
mentioned must have been very slight, since the whole expense amounted
to no more than seventeen shillings and sixpence.
6. In the article of _wax to thense the church_, under the year 1558,
the word _thense_ is, I presume, a mistake for cense, as they might use
wax with the frankincense in censing or perfuming the church.
7. In 1559 the _altar_ was taken down, and in 1560 the communion table
was put in its place, by order of queen Elizabeth.
8. Masses for the dead continued to this time, but here, instead of a
_moneths mynde_, the expression is _a months monument_. But as that
office was performed at the altar, and this being taken down that year,
the other could not be performed. And yet we have the word _mass_
applied to the service performed on Christmas-day the year following.
9. The _morrice bells_, mentioned under the year 1560 as purchased by
the parish, were used in their morrice dances, a diversion then
practised at their festivals; in which the populace might be indulged
from a political view, to keep them in good humour.
10. In 1561 the _rood loft_ was taken down, and in order to obliterate
its remembrance, (as had been done before in the reign of king Edward
VI.,) some passages out of the Bible were painted in the place where it
stood, which could give but little offence, since the images had been
removed the preceding year by the queen’s injunction, on the
representation of the bishops.
11. In 1562 a _Bible_ is said to have been bought for the church, which
cost ten shillings. This, I suppose, was the _Geneva_ Bible, in 4to.,
both on account of its low price, and because that edition, having the
division of verses, was best suited for public use. It was an English
translation, which had been revised and corrected by the English exiles
at Geneva, in queen Mary’s reign, and printed there in 1560, with a
dedication to queen Elizabeth. In the year 1576 we find another _Bible_
was bought, which was called the _New_ Bible, and is said to have cost
forty shillings; which must have been the large folio, usually called
archbishop _Parker’s_ Bible, printed at London, in 1568, by Richard
Jugge, the queen’s printer. They had _prayer-books_, _psalters_, and
_song-books_, for the churches in the beginning of this reign, as the
whole Bible was not easily to be procured.
12. In 1565 there is a charge of sixpence for _two common prayer-books
against invading the Turke_. It was then thought the common cause of the
Christian states in Europe to oppose the progress of the Turkish arms by
all methods, both civil and religious. And this year the Turks made a
descent upon the Isle of Malta, where they besieged the town and castle
of St. Michael four months, when, on the approach of the Christian
fleet, they broke up the siege, and suffered considerable loss in their
flight. (Thuanus; lib. 38.) And as the war was afterwards carried on
between them and the emperor Maximillian in Hungary, the like
prayer-books were annually purchased for the parish till the year 1569
inclusive.[116]
13. In 1566 there is an article of eighteenpence for _setting up Robin
Hoode’s bowere_. This, I imagine, might be an arbour or booth, erected
by the parish, at some festival. Though for what purpose it received
that name I know not, unless it was designed for archers.
14. In 1573 charge is made of paper for _four bookes of Geneva psalms_.
It is well known, that the vocal music in parochial churches received a
great alteration under the reign of queen Elizabeth, being changed from
_antiphonyes_ into metrical psalmody, which is here called the _Geneva_
psalms.
15. In the year 1578 tenpence were paid for a book of the articles.
These articles were agreed to and subscribed for by both houses of
convocation in 1562, and printed the year following. But in 1571, being
again revised and ratified by act of parliament, they seem to have been
placed in churches.
16. The last article in these extracts is fourpence for _an houre glass
for the pulpit_. How early the custom was of using hour glasses in the
pulpit, I cannot say; but this is the first instance of it I ever met
with.
It is not to be thought that the same regulations were all made within
the same time in all other places. That depended with the several
bishops of their dioceses, and according to their zeal for the
Reformation. Abingdon lies in the diocese of Salisbury, and, as bishop
Jewel, who was first nominated to that see by queen Elizabeth, and
continued in it till the year 1571, was so great a defender of the
reformed religion, it is not to be doubted but every thing was there
carried on with as much expedition as was judged consistent with
prudence.
[114] Manchet, or cheat-bread.
[115] Fuller’s Hist. of Waltham Abbey, p. 13. T. Lewis’s Hist. of the
English Translation of the Bible, p. 199.
[116] Pref ad Camdeni “Eliz.” p. xxix. l. i. g.
* * * * *
~Garrick Plays.~
No. XIII.
[From the “Battle of Alcazar, a Tragedy,” 1594.]
_Muly Mahamet, driven from his throne into a desart, robs the Lioness to
feed his fainting Wife Calipolis._
_Muly._ Hold thee, Calipolis; feed, and faint no more.
This flesh I forced from a Lioness;
Meat of a Princess, for a Princess’ meat.
Learn by her noble stomach to esteem
Penury plenty in extremest dearth;
Who, when she saw her foragement bereft,
Pined not in melancholy or childish fear;
But, as brave minds are strongest in extremes,
So she, redoubling her former force,
Ranged through the woods, and rent the breeding vaults
Of proudest savages, to save herself.
Feed then, and faint not, fair Calipolis;
For, rather than fierce famine shall prevail
To gnaw thy entrails with her thorny teeth.
The conquering Lioness shall attend on thee,
And lay huge heaps of slaughter’d carcases
As bulwarks in her way to keep her back.
I will provide thee of a princely Ospray,
That, as she flieth over fish in pools,
The fish shall turn their glistering bellies up,
And thou shall take the liberal choice of all.
Jove’s stately Bird with wide-commanding wing
Shall hover still about thy princely head.
And eat down fowls by shoals into thy lap.
Feed then, and faint not, fair Calipolis.[117]
* * * * *
[From the “Seven Champions of Christendom,” by John Kirk, acted 1638.]
_Calib, the Witch, in the opening Scene, in a Storm._
_Calib._ Ha! louder a little; so, that burst was well.
Again; ha, ha! house, house your heads, ye fear-struck
mortal fools, when Calib’s consort plays
A hunts-up to her. How rarely doth it languell
In mine ears! these are mine organs; the toad,
The bat, the raven, and the fell whistling bird,
Are all my anthem-singing quiristers.
Such sapless roots, and liveless wither’d woods,
Are pleasanter to me than to behold
The jocund month of May, in whose green head of youth
The amorous Flora strews her various flowers,
And smiles to see how brave she has deckt her girl.
But pass we May, as game for fangled fools,
That dare not set a foot in Art’s dark, sec-
-ret, and bewitching path, as Calib has.
Here is my mansion
Within the rugged bowels of this cave,
This crag, this cliff, this den; which to behold
Would freeze to ice the hissing trammels of Medusa.
Yet here enthroned I sit, more richer in my spells
And potent charms, than is the stately Mountain Queen,
Drest with the beauty of her sparkling gems,
To vie a lustre ’gainst the heavenly lamps.
But we are sunk in these antipodes; so choakt
With darkness is great Calib’s cave, that it
Can stifle day. It can?--it shall--for we do loath the light;
And, as our deeds are black, we hug the night.
But where’s this Boy, my GEORGE, my Love, my Life,
Whom Calib lately dotes on more than life?
I must not have him wander from my love
Farther than summons of my eye, or beck,
Can call him back again. But ’tis my fiend-
-begotten and deform’d Issue[118], misleads him:
For which I’ll rock him in a storm of hail.
And dash him ’gainst the pavement on the rocky den;
He must not lead my Joy astray from me.
The parents of that Boy, begetting him,
Begot and bore the issue of their deaths;
Which done[119], the Child I stole,
Thinking alone to triumph in his death,
And bathe my body in his popular gore:
But dove-like Nature favour’d so the Child,
That Calib’s killing knife fell from her hand;
And, ’stead of stabs, I kiss’d the red-lipt Boy.
* * * * *
[From “Two Tragedies in One,” by Robert Yarrington, who wrote in the
reign of Elizabeth.]
_Truth, the Chorus, to the Spectators._
All you, the sad Spectators of this Act,
Whose hearts do taste a feeling pensiveness
Of this unheard-of savage massacre:
Oh be far off to harbour such a thought,
As this audacious murderer put in act!
I see your sorrows flow up to the brim,
And overflow your cheeks with brinish tears:
But though this sight bring surfeit to the eye,
Delight your ears with pleasing harmony,
That ears may countercheck your eyes, and say,
“Why shed you tears? this deed is but a _Play_.”[120]
* * * * *
_Murderer to his Sister, about to stow away the trunk of the body,
having severed it from the limbs._
Hark, Rachel! I will cross the water strait,
And fling this middle mention of a Man
Into some ditch.
It is curious, that this old Play comprises the distinct action of two
Atrocities; the one a vulgar murder, committed in our own Thames Street,
with the names and incidents truly and historically set down; the other
a Murder in high life, supposed to be acting at the same time in Italy,
the scenes alternating between that country and England: the Story of
the latter is _mutatis mutandis_ no other than that of our own “Babes in
the Wood,” transferred to Italy, from delicacy no doubt to some of the
family of the rich Wicked Uncle, who might yet be living. The treatment
of the two differs as the romance-like narratives in “God’s Revenge
against Murder,” in which the Actors of the Murders (with the trifling
exception that they _were Murderers_) are represented as most
accomplished and every way amiable young Gentlefolks of either sex--as
much as _that_ differs from the honest unglossing pages of the homely
Newgate Ordinary.