_In thys my chyrch I am allway recydent As my chyeff tabernacle, and most chosyn place, Among these goldyn condylstikkis, which represent My catholyk chyrch shynyng affor my face, With lyght of feyth, wisdom, doctryne, and grace, And mervelously eke enflamyd toward me Wyth the [un]extyngwible fyre of charyte._ _Wherefore, my welbelovid dowthyr Katharyn, Syth I have made yow to myne awn semblance In my chyrch to be maried, and your noble childryn To regn in this land as in their enherytance, Se that ye have me in speciall remembrance: Love me and my chyrch yowr spiritual modyr. For ye, dispysing that oon, dyspyse that othyr._ _Look that ye walk in my precepts, and obey them well: And here I give you the same blyssyng, that I Gave my well beloved chylder of Israell; Blyssyd be the fruyt of your bely; Yower substance and frutys I shall encrease and multyply; Yower rebellious enimyes I shall put in yowr hand, Encreasing in honour both yow and your land._ +Love.+ This would be censured now-a-days as profane to the highest degree. +True.+ No doubt on't: yet you see there was a time, when people were not so nicely censorious in these matters, but were willing to take things in the best sense; and then this was thought a noble entertainment for the greatest king in Europe (such I esteem king Henry VII. at that time) and proper for that day of mighty joy and triumph. And I must farther observe out of Lord Bacon's "History of Henry VII." that the chief man who had the care of that day's proceedings was Bishop Fox, a grave counsellor for war or peace, and also a good surveyor of works, and a good master of ceremonies; and it seems he approv'd it. The said Lord Bacon tells us farther that, whosoever had those toys in compiling, they were not altogether pedantical. +Love.+ These things, however, are far from that which we understand by the name of a play. +True.+ It may be so; but these were the plays of those times. Afterwards, in the reign of King Henry VIII., both the subject and form of these plays began to alter, and have since varied more and more. I have by me a thing called "A Merry Play between the Pardoner and the Friar, the Curate and Neighbour Pratt." Printed the 5th of April 1533, which was 24 Henry VIII. (a few years before the dissolution of monasteries.) The design of this play was to ridicule Friars and Pardoners. Of which I'll give you a taste. To begin it, the Friar enters with these words:[90] Deus hic; _the holy trynyte Preserve all that now here be._ _Dere bretherne, yf ye will consyder The cause why I am com hyder, Ye wolde be glad to knowe my entent: For I com not hyther for mony nor for rent, I com not hyther for meat nor for meale, But I com hyther for your soules heale_, &c.