A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume I Part 88

The legend of St Wenefrid is well known. Those who desire more information on this subject may be referred to "The Legenda Aurea,"

Bishop Fleetwood's Works, or Mr Pennant's "Tour in Wales," p. 28.

341. Or Botolph's town, in Lincolnshire, where St Botolph was buried--

"Delicious Wytham leads to _holy Botolph's_ town."

--_Poly-Olbion_, Song xxv.

342. "Is named of Kinge Edmunde, whom the comon Chronicles call St Edmund, or Edmund the Martyr; for Bury is but to say a Court or Palace.

It was first a Colledge of Priests, founded by Athelstane the kinge of Ingland, to the Honour and Memorye of Edmund that was slayne at Hoxton (then called Eylesdund [or Eglesdon], as Leland thinketh), whose Bones he removed thyther. The hole hystorie of this matter is so enterlaced with miracles, that Polydor himselfe (who beleaved them better then I) began to delye with it; sayinge, _that Monkes weare much delighted with them_"

(Lambarde's "Dictionarium," p. 35).

343. This place, which was much frequented by pilgrims, was situate on a lake called Logh Derg, in the Southern part of the county of Donegal, near the borders of Tyrone and Fermanagh. It was surrounded with wild and barren mountains, and was almost inaccessible by hors.e.m.e.n even in summer time, on account of great bogs, rocks, and precipices which environed it.

The popular tradition concerning it is as ridiculous as is to be found in any legend of the Romish Martyrology. After continuing in great credit many years, it began to decline; and in the 13th of Henry the Seventh was demolished with great solemnity, on St Patrick's Day, by the Pope's express order. It, however, afterwards came into reputation again, insomuch that, by an order of the Privy Council, dated 13th of September 1632, it was a second time destroyed. From this period, as pilgrimages grew less in fashion, it will appear extraordinary that the place should be a third time restored to its original state, and as much visited as in any former period. In this condition it continued until the second year of Queen Anne, when an Act of the Irish Parliament declared, that all meetings and a.s.semblies there should be adjudged riots and unlawful a.s.semblies, and inflicted a penalty upon every person meeting or a.s.sembling contrary to the Statute. The ceremonies to be performed by the pilgrims are very exactly set forth in Richardson's "Great Folly, Superst.i.tion, and Idolatry of Pilgrimages in Ireland, especially of that to St Patrick's Purgatory," Dublin, 8vo. 1727.

Enough hath been already said on the subject of "Saint Patrick's Purgatory," I shall therefore only add, that it is often mentioned in Froissard's "Chronicle," and that Sir James Melvil, who visited it in 1545, describes it as looking "like an old coal-pit, which had taken fire, by reason of the smoke that came out of the hole" (Melvil's "Memoirs," p. 9., edit. 1683).

It is mentioned in Erasmus's "Praise of Folie," 1549, Sign. A: "Whereas before ye satte all heavie and glommyng, as if ye had come lately from Troponius cave, or _Saint Pattrickes purgatorie_."

344. Within three miles of St Alban's. "At this place," says Norden, "were founde the reliques of Amphiball, who is saide to be the instructour and convertour of Alban from Paganisme, of whose reliques such was the regard that the abbottes of the monasterie of Alban had, that they should be devoutly preserved, that a decree was made by Thomas then abbott, that a pryor and three munckes should be appointed to this holie function, whose allowance in those dayes amounted yearely to 20 pound, or upwardes, as much as three hundred pound in this age"

("Description of Hartfordshire." p. 22).

See also Weever's "Funeral Monuments," p. 585. Dr Middleton, in his "Letter from Home," says: "Bishop Usher has proved that this saint never existed, and that we owe the honour of his saintship to a mistaken pa.s.sage in the Legend of St Alban, where the _Amphibolus_ there mentioned is nothing more than a _cloak_."

345. The abbey of Hales, in Gloucestershire, was founded by Richard, King of the Romans, brother to Henry the Third. This precious relic, which was commonly called _the blood of Hailes_, was brought out of Germany by Richard's son Edmund, who bestowed a third part of it upon his father's abbey of Hales, and some time after gave the other two parts to an abbey of his own foundation at Ashridge, near Berkamstead. It was given out, and believed to have this property, that, if a man was in mortal sin, and not absolved, he could not see it; otherwise, he might see it very well: therefore, every man that came to see this miracle, this most precious blood, confessed himself first to one of the priests there; and then, offering something at the altar, was directed to a chapel, where the miracle was shown; the priest who confessed him, in the meantime, retiring to the back part of the said chapel, and putting forth a little cabinet or vessel of crystal, which being thick on the one side, that nothing could be seen through it, but on the other side thin and transparent, they used diversely, as their interests required. On the dissolution of the abbey, it was discovered to be nothing more than honey clarified and coloured with saffron, "an unctowse gumme coloured, which in the gla.s.se apperyd to be a glisterynge red resemblyng partlie the color of blood, and owte of the gla.s.se apparaunte glystering yelow colour like amber or ba.s.se gold" (Certificate of visitors, printed at end of Hearne's Benedictus Abbas, II. 751).

346. i.e., Saint David. Drayton, in his "Poly-Olbion," Song xxiv., says--

"Whose Cambro Britons so their saints as duly brought, T' advance the Christian faith, effectually that wrought; Their _David_ (one deriv'd of th' royal British blood), Who 'against Pelagius' false and d.a.m.n'd opinions stood; And turn'd Menenia's name to _David's_ sacred see.

The patron of the Welsh deserving well to be."

See an account of him in an extract from Bale, in G.o.dwin "de Praesulibus Angliae," p. 573, edit. 1743. He is said to have been bishop 65 years, and to have lived 146. He died, according to some accounts, in the year 546, according to others, in the year 542. His shrine, I am informed, remains in the wall of his cathedral in Pembrokeshire.

347. St Denis, the patron of France, is said to have been the disciple of St Paul, and the first who preached the gospel to the French. The legend concerning him affirms that, after he was beheaded near Paris, he walked four miles with his head in his hands. His body was said to be entombed very magnificently at the abbey of St Denis, to which the pilgrims used to resort.

348. At the Church of St Mark, in Venice, they pretend to have the body of that evangelist, which was brought thither by certain merchants from Alexandria, in Egypt, in the year 810. Coryat says, that the treasure of this church was of that inestimable value, that it was thought no treasure whatsoever in any other place in Christendom might compare with it, neither that of St Denis in France, nor St Peter's in Rome, nor that of Madonna de Loretto in Italy, nor that of Toledo in Spain, nor any other. See Coryat's "Crudities," p. 214, and "The Commonwealth and Government of Venice," by Contareno, translated by Lewes Lewkenor, Esq., 1599, p. 165.

349. Who this John Shorn was, I can give no account. In the preface to "The Accedence of Armorie," 4to, 1562, a story is told of one who had been called to worship in a city within Middles.e.x, and who being desired by a herald to show his coat (i.e., of arms), "called unto his mayd, commanding her to fetch his coat, which, being brought, was of cloth garded with a burgunian gard of bare velvet, well bawdefied on the halfe placard, and squallotted in the fore quarters. Lo, quoth the man to the heraught, here it is, if ye will buy it, ye shall have time of payment, as first to pay halfe in hand, and the rest by and by. And with much boste he said, he ware not the same since he came last from Sir John Shorne," &c.

350. Catwade Bridge is in Samford Hundred, in the county of Suffolk, where there may have been a famous chapel and rood.--G.

351. _Herry_ edit. 1569.

352. "In September, the same yeare (says Weever), viz., an. 30 Hen. 8, by the speciall motion of great Cromwell, all the notable images, vnto the which were made any especiall pilgrimages and offerings, as the images of our Lady of Walsingham, Ipswich, Worcester, the Lady of Wilsdon, the rood of grace of our Ladie of Boxley, and the image of the rood of Saint Saviour at Bermondsey, with all the rest, were brought vp to London, and burnt at Chelsey, at the commandement of the foresaid Cromwell, all the Iewels and other rich offerings to these, and to the shrines (which were all likewise taken away, or beaten to peeces) of other Saints throughout both England and Wales were brought into the King's Treasurie" (Edit.

1631, p. 111).

353. The church dedicated to Saint Mary at Southwell, in Nottinghamshire.

354. In the county of Kent, near Greenwich.

355. In Finsbury Hundred, Middles.e.x, the chapel dedicated to St Mary. See above, note 1.

356. "Muswell Hill, called also Pinsenall Hill: there was a chapple sometime bearing the name of our ladie of Muswell: where now Alderman Roe hath erected a proper house, the place taketh name of the well and of the hill, Mousewellhill; for there is on the hill a spring of faire water, which is now within the compa.s.s of the house. There was sometime an image of the ladie of Muswell, whereunto was a continuall resort, in the way of pylgrimage, growing, as is (though as I take it fabulouslie) reported in regard of a great cure which was performed by this water, upon a king of Scots, who being strangely diseased was, by some devine intelligence, advised to take the water of a well in England, called Muswell, which after long scrutation and inquisition, this well was found and performed the cure" (Norden's "Speculum Britanniae," p. 36, edit. 1723). I am informed that the mosaic pavement and other ruins of this well and its chapel were to be seen about twenty-five years ago [Edit. 1780].

357. This was probably Richard Fitz[-Neale,] bishop of London, and treasurer of England, in the time of Henry the Second. His shrine was, as Weever observes, p. 714, in St Paul's Church; and as he contributed largely to the building of the church, he conjectures it to have been erected there on that account. Drayton, however, in his "Poly-Olbion,"

Song xxiv., speaks of others of that name, as

"Richard, the dear son to Lothar king of Kent, When he his happy days religiously had spent; And feeling the approach of his declining age, Desirous to see Rome in holy pilgrimage; Into thy country come, at Lucca left his life, Whose miracles there done, yet to this day are rife."

Again--

"So countries more remote with ours we aid acquaint, As Richard for the fame his holiness had won, And for the wondrous things that through his prayers were done; From this his native home into Calabria call'd, And of St Andrew's there the bishop was installed; For whom she hath profess'd much reverence to this land."

Again--

"So other southern sees, here either less or more.

Have likewise had their saints-- --we have of Chichester Saint Richard, and with him St Gilbert, which do stand Inroll'd amongst the rest of this our mitred band."

358. Saint Roke, or Roch, was born at Montpelier, in France; and died in prison at Angleria, in the province of Lombardy, where a large church was built in honour of him. See "Legenda Aurea," p. 238.

359. Stepha.n.u.s' "World of Wonders," 1607, translated by R.C., p. 316.-- _O[ctavius] G[ilchrist]_.

360. _Obtaye_, 1st edit.

361. _a.s.suredly_, 2d edit.

362. _Thy_, 1st edit.

363. _Pardoner_. "Pardoners were certaine fellowes that caried about the Pope's Indulgences, and sold them to such as would buy them; against whom Luther, by Sleydans report, incensed the people of Germany in his time, exhorting them _ne merces tam viles tanti emerent_" (Cowell's "Interpreter," 1607, Sign. A A A 2).

364. _You_, edit. 1569.

365. _Yet welcome_, 1st edit.

366. _For_, 1st edit.

367. _Paynes_, 2d edit.

368. _Ere_, edit. 1569.

369. _My_, edit. 1569.

370. _You_, edit. 1569.

371. _Nother_, 1st edit.

372 _Running_, 1st edit.--_Dodsley_. This is a mistake, the first edition reading _ronnying_, which is the old spelling of _running_. Another error was committed in printing it hitherto "running to Rome," the correct reading being "ronnying at Rome."--_Collier_.

373. _Scofte_, 1st. edit.

374. _Kepe_, 1st edit.