A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 15Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 15
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
+Love.+ I perceive these holy matters consisted very much of
praying; but I pity poor St Edward the Confessor who, in the
compass of a few years, was made to promise his favour and
assistance to two young princes, of the same name indeed, but
of as different and opposite interests as the two poles. I know
not how he could perform to both.
+True.+ Alas! they were both unhappy, notwithstanding these
fine shows and seeming caresses of fortune; being both
murdered, one by the hand, the other by the procurement, of
Richard, Duke of Gloucester. I will produce but one example
more of this sort of action or representations; and that is of
later time, and an instance of much higher nature than any yet
mentioned; it was at the marriage of Prince Arthur, eldest son
of King Henry VII., to the Princess Catherine of Spain, ann.
1501. Her passage through London was very magnificent, as I
have read it described in old MS. chronicle of that time.[89]
The pageants and speeches were many; the persons represented,
St Catherine, St Ursula, a senator, noblesse, virtue, an
angel, King Alphonse, Job, Boetius, &c. Among others, one is
thus described:--_"When this spech was ended, she held on
her way tyll she came unto the standard in Chepe, where was
ordeyned the fifth paygend made like an hevyn, theryn syttyng
a personage representing the fader of hevyn, beyng all formyd
of gold, and brennyng beffor his trone vii candyilis of wax
standyng in vii candylstykis of gold, the said personage beyng
environed with sundry hyrarchies off angelis, and sytting in
a cope of most rich cloth of tyssu, garnishyd wyth stoon and
perle in most sumptuous wyse. Foragain which said pagend upon
the sowth syde of the strete stood at that tyme, in a hows
wheryn that tyme dwellyd William Geffrey habyrdasher, the king,
the queene, my lady the kingys moder, my lord of Oxynfford,
wyth many other lordys and ladys, and perys of this realm, wyth
also certayn ambassadors of France lately sent from the French
king: and so passyng the said estatys, eyther guyving to other
due and convenyent saluts and countenancs, so sone as hyr grace
was approachid unto the sayd pagend, the fadyr began his spech
as folowyth"_
Hunc veneram locum, septeno lumine septum.
Dignumque Arthuri totidem astra micant.
_I am begynyng and ende, that made ech creature.
My sylfe, and for my sylfe, but man especially
Both male and female, made aftyr myne aun fygure,
Whom I joyned togydyr in matrimony,
And that in paradyse, declaring opynly
That men shall weddying in my chyrch solempnize,
Fygurid and signifyed by the erthly paradyze._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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