The Fishers, the Apostles.
The Merchants, the Prophets.
And the Butchers, the Tormentors.
These interludes and representations carried with them the appearance of the superstition of the times, which John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, afterwards laboured to reform, by writing, with more sobriety, several comedies and tragedies in the reign of King Edward VI., and, during his banishment, in that of Queen Mary, upon religious subjects. Several of those pieces are yet extant, printed in black letter; and though they show the taste of the age, they would by no means please the present."—The History of the City of Dublin, by Walter Harris, Esq. 8vo. Dublin, 1766, pp. 142, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
CHAPTER III.—Vol. iii., p. 36.
"Running Footmen."
Mr. Weber, in a note to "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," in his edition of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Vol. i. p. 194, Edinburgh, 1812, observes, that "the running footmen were a fashionable piece of splendid folly prevalent at that time. They were still kept by some noblemen in Scotland about the middle of the last century, and are yet to be met with occasionally upon the continent. Like the jockeys, they are put upon a particular diet; and in order to prevent cramps, the calves of their legs are greased."