for customs and other things to that fair appertaining, nor hindering, molesting, nor in any way aggrieving the Prior and Canons of the said place as to the receiving of the customs and profits aforesaid, nor, as much in you lies, permitting them to be molested or aggrieved. And if any shall presume to diminish the customs and rights of the said fair, then be you in aid to the said Prior and Canons, or their bailiffs of the said fair, when hereupon you shall be requested by them or any one of them, by such ways and methods as shall seem to you the more expedient, to compel and distrain those who would diminish the said customs and rights to yield and pay the said customs and rights to the said Prior and Convent: and this do you in no wise omit. And, that those all and every the premises may come to the knowledge of all, and that no one, of what state or condition soever he be, under grave forfeiture to us, and under the peril incumbent thereon, may presume in any manner to practise any covin or any other acts calculated to disturb in any way that fair or the profit of the fair, or the merchants or others, so that they cannot lawfully, without damage and in peace come to that fair with their merchandise, and do their business there, and return therefrom, do you cause the same to be publicly proclaimed, observed and held within your bailiwick and districts, where it shall seem to you most expedient, as often as and when hereupon by the said Prior and Convent, or any one of them, you shall on our behalf be requested. Witness Ourself at Westminster the first day of August in the fiftieth year of our reign of England, but of our reign of France the thirty-seventh. Faryngton. ¶ This proclamation was made. _Miracle Plays._—This Fair of St. Bartholomew was long the scene of “miracle plays.” The Company of Parish Clerks—an incorporated company or gild who had charge of the records, the burials, and afterwards of the births in London, during a very long period—played at Skinners’ Well (near Smithfield) before Richard II. and his Queen and Court, towards the close of the fourteenth century; and early in the following they played before Henry IV. at the same place, during eight days, “Matter from the Creation of the world.” The early plays at this fair are believed to have been representations of great miracles ascribed to St. Bartholomew. Later came the “mysteries,” and finally the “moralities,” out of which our modern drama has been developed. All these in their turns were presented at this once famous fair.