"The city of Dublin anciently consisted," says Harris, "of twenty corporations, to which five have been in latter times added. "An ancient custom prevailed for a long time in the city of Dublin, always against the great festivals of the year, to invite the Lord Deputy, the nobility, and other persons of quality and rank, to an entertainment, in which they first diverted them with stage plays, and then regaled them with a splendid banquet. The several corporations also, upon their patron's days, held themselves obliged to the like observances, which were for a long time very strictly kept up and practised. "Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the year 1528, was invited to a new play every day in Christmas; Arland Usher being then Mayor, and Francis Herbert and John Squire Bailiffs; wherein the Taylors acted the part of Adam and Eve; the Shoemakers represented the story of Crispin and Crispianus; the Vintners acted Bacchus and his story; the Carpenters that of Joseph and Mary; Vulcan, and what related to him, was acted by the Smiths; and the comedy of Ceres, the goddess of Corn, by the Bakers. Their stage was erected on Hoggin-Green, now called College-Green, and on it the priors of Saint John of Jerusalem, of the blessed Trinity, and of All-Hallows, caused two plays to be acted, the one representing the Passion of our Saviour, and the other the several deaths which the apostles suffered." It is stated in a manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, "That in the parliament of 1541, wherein Henry VIII. was declared king of Ireland, there were present the Earls of Ormond and Desmond, the Lord Barry, Mac-Gilla-Phadrig Chieftaine of Ossory, the sons of O'Brien, Mac-Carthy-More, with many Irish lords; and on Corpus Christi Day they rode about the streets with the procession in their parliament robes; and the nine worthies was played, and the Mayor bore the mace before them on horseback. The Sunday following King Henry was proclaimed king of Ireland in Saint Patrick's church; and the next Sunday they had tournaments on horseback, and running at the ring with spears on horseback." Sir James Ware briefly alludes to these entertainments in the following words: "_Epulas comædias, et certamina ludicra, quæ sequebantur, quid attinet dicere?_" "It is needless," he remarks, "to relate what banquets, comedies, and sports followed." We now return to Harris's History of the City of Dublin. "Among other days of solemnity the festival of Saint George was celebrated with high veneration. In the choir-book of the city of Dublin are several entries to that effect: