1523, he wrote the most cutting and most personal of all his satires, Why come ye nat to Courte? He says there

"Our barons be so bolde

Into a mouse hole they wolde
Rynne away and crepe

Lyke a mayny of shepe;
Dare nat loke out at dur

For drede of the mastyue cur,
For drede of the bochers dogge
Wold wyrry them lyke an hogge.
For and this curre do gnar,
They must stand all a far

For all their noble blode
He pluckes them by the hode,
And shakes them by the eare
And brynges them in such feare;
He bayteth them lyke a bere,
Lyke an oxe or a bull:

Theyr wyttes, he saith, are dull;
He sayth they have no brayne

Theyr astate to mayntayne;

And maketh them to bow theyre kne
Before his majeste."

And further on

"Ones yet agayne

Of you I wolde frayne,

Why come ye nat to Court ?—

To whyche court?

To the kynges court

Or to Hampton Court?

Nay to the kynges court:

The kynges courte

Shulde have the excellence;

But Hampton Court

Hath the preemynence,

And Yorkes Place,
With my lordes grace,
To whose magnifycence
Is all the conflewence,
Sutys and supplycacyons,
Embassades of all nacyons.
Strawe for lawe canon,
Or for the lawe common,
Or for lawe cyvyll!"

When Wolsey's wrath is aroused he is said to despatch his

opponents forthwith to prison:

Extortions are made, exorbitant taxes are imposed at will, and Wolsey takes bribes from abroad, while the French, we are told, had been wholly subdued by the brave Earl of Surrey;

"But yet they ouer shote us

Wyth crownes and wyth scutus;
With scutis and crownes of gold
I drede we are bought and solde;
It is a wondrous warke;
They shote all at one marke,
At the Cardynals hat,

They shot all at that;

Oute of theyr stronge townes

They shote at him with crownes;

With crownes of golde enblased

They make him so amazed,

And his eyen so dased

That he ne se can

To know God nor man."

And the favour which Wolsey enjoys at the hands of King Henry is made out to be a species of sorcery. For what is there so attractive about the man? As to his birth

"He came of the rank royall

That was cast out of a bocher's stall."

In the way of learning he was

"But a poore maister of arte

Got wot, had lytell parte
Of the quatriuials

Nor yet of triuials,

Nor of philosophy
Nor of philology
Nor of good pollycy,

Nor of astronomy

WOLSEY'S REVENGE.

His Latyne tongue dothe hobbyll,
He doth but cloute and cobbill
In Tullis faculte

Called humanyte;

Yet proudly he dare pretende
How no man can him amende:

But have ye not harde this,
How an one eyed man is
Well sighted when

He is amonge blynde men?"

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And as to Wolsey's character and morals, he is said to be proud, arrogant, hard-hearted, and ungrateful, leading an irreligious life of extravagance, eating flesh on fast days, and many a worse thing.

It cannot be wondered at that Wolsey's patience was worn out at last, and that the hour came when Skelton's position as "orator regius" and late preceptor to the King could no longer shield the malicious satirist from the vengeance of the Cardinal-legate. Skelton was barely able to escape from his antagonist's myrmidons, but took refuge in the Sanctuary of Westminster, where he seems to have resided up to the time of his death on June 21, 1529.

Before taking our final leave of the greatest English poet of this period, we shall still have to consider him as a dramatist.

III.

It was of the utmost importance to the future of the Drama that even before this date-its development no longer remained exclusively in the hands of dilettanti, and that there were persons who made dramatic art a profession. And even though it can scarcely be said that there were professional dramatists in those days, there were undoubtedly professional actors.

A sign of the time may be found in the endeavour which the municipal authorities of York made, in 1476, to improve the art of acting. It was decreed that annually at Shrovetide four of the more eminent and skilled actors in the city, should be called before the mayor and requested to undertake a strict examination of all the players, plays, and pageants for the performances at the feast of Corpus Christi; and that such persons as were found to be unsatisfactory, as regards their art, their voice or appearance, should forthwith be dismissed.

Such rules, however, would have been of little avail-in fact, could not have been carried out-had there been no choice but to engage honest workmen, whose custom it had been once a year to quit their workshops for the stage, which represented the world.

There are various other indications also to prove that, as early as the reign of Henry VI., there existed a considerable number of professional actors. The account-books of York mention three players from Donington, one from Wakefield, four from London, who had performed in the northern metropolis in 1446-1447; in the payment-books of the Augustinian canons at Maxstoke, in Warwickshire, there is frequent mention of players and mummers from different English towns, also of such as were in the service of the nobility, and who had visited the above-mentioned monastery. The Prologue to the so-called Coventry Mysteries, and the Prologue to the Moral Play entitled "The Castle of Perseverance," both refer to a troop of wandering players who were in the habit of performing at fairs and on other such occasions.

It is significant that in the reign of Edward IV. the

THE EARLY DRAMA.

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technical expression interludentes-players of interludescame into vogue. For the interlude was precisely the species best adapted to further the development of dramatic art, in a far higher degree than were the numerous other performances given on the great popular festivals; and the dramaturgic advance of the interlude was mainly dependent upon the advance of the mimic art itself.

Richard III., who is known to have been an enthusiastic patron of music, and to have encouraged bear-dancing and bear-baiting, was also in no way averse to dramatic performances, and, even as Duke of Gloucester, had his Company of Players. Henry VII. kept two special troops : the Players of the King's Interludes and the Gentlemen of the Chapel. In addition to these, shortly after the birth of Prince Arthur, there were the "Prince's Players." And other companies, also, not unfrequently gave performances at court the Players of the Duke of Buckingham, of the Earls of Oxford and Northumberland, the players belonging to various English towns, and finally the French troop. When Henry's eldest daughter (Dunbar's "Rois") started for Scotland to be married to James IV., there was among her retinue a troop of comedians who, partly at least, were recruits drawn from the players of interludes, formerly in her father's service. Characteristic of the increasing interest in masques, plays, and other such entertainments, is the appointment of an "Intendant," whose duty it was to superintend all such matters at court, and who, under the first of the Tudor sovereigns, bore the title either of Abbot or Lord of Misrule.

Under these circumstances, dramatic composition, too, acquired somewhat more of an artistic and literary character. Poets, who might be regarded as possessing culture and scholarship, began to direct their attention to the drama, and in many cases their works were handed over in print, to the reading world of the day as well as to posterity. To poets of culture and learning the Mysterium, or "religious play," had but little attraction. It remained principally in the hand of the Guilds, as an inheritance from the Past, and appears not to have developed at all, or but little, during this period. As regards the Miracle Plays, the case was somewhat better. Thus, in the reign