The mediaeval stage, volume 2 (of 2)Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever)
History
The mediaeval stage, volume 2 (of 2)
Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever)
Drama, Medieval -- History and criticism; Theater -- History -- Medieval, 500-1500
Mary, syr, I must tell yoo: Az all endeuoour waz too mooue mirth &
pastime (az I tolld ye): éeuen so a ridiculoous deuise of an auncient
minstrell & hiz song waz prepared to haue been profferd, if méet time
& place had béen foound for it. Ons in a woorshipfull company, whear,
full appointed, he recoounted his matter in sort az it should haue been
vttred, I chaunsed too be: what I noted, heer thus I tel yoo: A parson
very méet séemed he for the purpoze, of a xlv. yéers olld, apparelled
partly as he woold himself. Hiz cap of: his hed séemly roounded tonster
wyze: fayr kemb, _that_ with a spoonge deintly dipt in a littl capons
greaz was finely smoothed too make it shine like a Mallard’s wing. Hiz
beard smugly shauen: and yet hiz shyrt after the nu trink, with ruffs
fayr starched, sléeked, and glistening like a payr of nu shooz: marshalld
in good order: wyth a stetting stick, and stoout, that euery ruff stood
vp like a wafer: a side gooun of kendall green, after the freshnes of the
yéer noow, gathered at the neck with a narro gorget, fastened afore with
a white clasp and a keepar close vp to the chin: but easily for heat too
vndoo when he list: Séemly begyrt in a red caddiz gyrdl: from that a payr
of capped Sheffield kniuez hanging a to side: Out of hiz bozome drawne
forth a lappet of his napkin, edged with a blu lace, & marked with a
trulooue, a hart, and A. D. for Damian: for he was but a bachelar yet.
Hiz gooun had syde sleeuez dooun to midlegge, slit from the shooulder
too the hand, & lined with white cotten. Hiz doobled sleeuez of blak
woorsted, vpon them a payr of poynets of towny Chamblet laced a long
the wreast wyth blu threeden points, a wealt toward the hand of fustian
anapes: a payr of red neatherstocks: a pair of pumps on hiz féet, with a
cross cut at the toze for cornz: not nu indéede, yet cleanly blakt with
soot, & shining az a shoing horn.
Aboout hiz nek a red rebond sutable too hiz girdl: hiz harp in good grace
dependaunt before him: hiz wreast tyed to a gréen lace, and hanging by:
vnder the gorget of hiz gooun a fair flagon cheyn, (pewter, for) siluer,
as a squier minstrel of Middilsex, that trauaild the cuntrée this soommer
seazon vnto fairz & worshipfull mens hoousez: from hiz chein hoong a
Schoochion, with mettall & cooller resplendant vpon hiz breast, of the
auncient armez of Islington:
[Apparently the minstrel was got ready; but not shown. He was to have
recited an Arthurian romance in verse.]
II. THE COVENTRY HOCK-TUESDAY SHOW.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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