For the Epilogge a Cassocke of blacke Damaske and ix yardes of purple Damaske for a longe gowne for the same, xvi yardes
Item, a shorte gowne of rede damaske for the Ende, vi yardes
Item, thre shorte gownes of purple breges satten for the Ende, vi yardes for euery of them, xviii yardes
The bad angell iii. yardes of Kersey, and winges for the good angel and the bad, three thromde hates and tenn dosson of counters, and what you shall lake for the furniture hereof to provide and se them furnished, and theis shalbe yor warrante in this parte. Yeven at oure Pallace of Westminster the last of Septembre in the firste yere of oure reign.
Summa: Of Damaske xxi yardes, of breges satten vi score xiii yardes, of Kersey thre yardes.
Among the old plays which have come down to us, either in print or in manuscript, I cannot find any which would fit this cast. It could not have been “The Castle of Perseverance,” as Humanum Genus there enters as a child, and except the “good and bad angel,” the characters are all different; nor the other allegory called by Collier “Mankind,” which gives Mercy, New Guise, and Now-a-days, Mischief, Nought, etc. Nor could it have been “Respublica,” said to have been made in the year 1553, 1 Mary, and to have been played before the Queen. The Prologue is spoken by the author himself in the character of the Poet, and the other characters are Respublica (England), Authority, Policy, Oppression, Avarice, Insolence, Adulation, Nemesis, Misericordia, Justitia, Honesty, Pax, People. Nor could it have been the old play of Nature and Reason; nor the Interlude of Youth. So it may be reckoned as an interlude of which neither the name nor the text is as yet known, but it may some day be discovered through this cast. Of its plot we may at least guess that it would be in supposed prophetic relation to the Queen’s reign, and that all the good characters would triumph over the bad. Of its author no clue has as yet been found.
John Heywood was an interlude writer of the time, formerly a singing gentleman in the Chapel, and jester to Queen Mary. Udall had written plays, and various scholars of the universities had tried their hands. It might have been put together by one of these, or by one of the gentlemen of the Chapel: Richard Farrant, afterwards Master of the Children of Windsor, is known to have written interludes, and so is William Hunnis, author of many pieces in “The Paradise of Dainty Devises,” and many religious poems in the following reign, when he was also the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal, and designer of the great festivities at Kenilworth, 1575. His friend Thomas Newton writes of him that in the prime of youth he had written besides “sonets sweete,” also “interludes and gallant lays,” which have not come down to us.
If we do not know the author, there is a good deal to learn about the actors. From the “Order of the Royal Household of Edward IV” we know their necessary qualifications and duties, not their numbers; for while there were twenty gentlemen and eight children in Henry VIII’s time, in Edward’s they were raised to thirty-two gentlemen and twelve children, a number kept up by Mary. From the royal warrants to the Keeper of the Great Wardrobe we know that they all had new liveries for the Coronation. A further warrant for new surplices includes several other small items for chapel use, and a list of the names of the gentlemen. As there is no list previous to 1561 printed, except that of Hawkins and Burney in their “History of Music,” without date, and with the hazy reference to “A MS. in the British Museum,” which has thus indefinitely been followed by all musical writers and by Rimbault in his “Cheque-Book of the Chapel Royal,” it will be as well to print this duly authenticated list here. One referring to the mourning for Edward VI appeared in “Archaeologia.” I have found three others at the British Museum with definite references and one at the Society of Antiquaries, but none of them agrees exactly with that of Hawkins and Burney, the original of which has yet to be found.
Exchequer Accounts, 427. 5, (10) By the Quene.
Marye the Quene. We will and commande you furthwith upon the sight hereof to delyver, or cause to be delyuerid, unto our servaunte Robert Bassocke, serieante of our Vestrye, to be by hym employed within our chappell aboute the seruyce of God, these parcells followynge, that is to saie for our Subdeane of the said Chappell two surplices of drawne worke; for 32 gentilmen and yomen, threscore and foure surplices; for 12 children, foure and twentie surplices; for foure children for Sensers and tapers, eight Albes for ravyshmente with Amyttes to them; for three children to carie three crosses in precession, sixe albes with Amyttes to them; for the High Altar prestes, deacon, and subdeacon, for foure sewtes, twelve Albes, and for corporas clothes four elles of fyne clothe; for the two lowe alters foure Albes and foure elles for corporas cloths. For the high aultar foure aulter clothes of five Elles apece, for towelles for the said high aulter foure Ellys, and two Ellys for the Lowe Alters; for sixe Aulter clothes for the Lowe Aulters eighteen elles. Also two payer of Tynne Crewettes, one Lether potte for water and one gyspay of lether for wyne. Also sixe peace of Tape for tucking girdelles. Also twelve dosen of silke poyntes for Copes. Also one hundreth crochettes, and five hundreth hookes, for green clothe to folde stuffe upon three veardes. Also one coffer to trusse in plate. Also two bare hydes to cover the stuffe in cartes, one hammer and one payre of pynsons. Also one small fyre shovell to fyll censers, and a grete shovel to carie coles. And these our lettres shalbe yor suffycient warraunte and dischardge in that behalf. Yeven under our signet at our mannor of St Jeamys, the 17ᵗʰ day of September in the first yere of our reigne.