_Hocus pocus_, used in the Bartholomew Fair pamphlet as a generic term for conjurors, is derived from the assumed name of one of the craft, of whom Ady, in 'A Candle in the Dark,' wrote as follows:-- "I will speak of one man more excelling in that craft than others, that went about in King James's time, and long since, who called himself the King's Majestie's most excellent Hocus Pocus; and so was he called because at playing every trick he used to say, _Hocus pocus tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo_--a dark composition of words to blind the eyes of the beholders." All these professors of the various arts of popular entertainment had, at this period, to pay an annual licence duty to the Master of the Revels, whose office was created by Henry VIII. in 1546. Its jurisdiction extended over all wandering minstrels and every one who blew a trumpet publicly, except "the King's players." The seal of the office, used under five sovereigns, was engraved on wood, and was formerly in the possession of the late Francis Douce, by whose permission it was engraved for Chalmers's 'Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare MSS.,' and subsequently for Smith's 'Ancient Topography of London.' The legend round it was, "SIGILL : OFFIC : JOCOR : MASCAR : ET REVELL : DNIS REG." The Long Parliament abolished the office, which, indeed, would have been a sinecure under the Puritan rule, for in 1647 the entertainers of the people were forbidden to exercise their vocation, the theatres were closed, the May-poles removed, and the fairs shorn of all their wonted amusements, and reduced to the status of annual markets. There is, in the library of the British Museum, a doggrel ballad, printed as a broad-sheet, called _The Dagonizing of Bartholomew Fair_, which describes, with coarse humour, the grossness of which may be attributed in part to the mingled resentment and contempt which underlies it, the measures taken by the civic authorities for the removal from the fair of the showmen who had pitched there, in spite of the determination of the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, to suppress with the utmost rigour everything which could move to laughter or minister to wonder. Among these are mentioned a fire-eating conjuror, a "Jack Pudding," and "wonders made of wax," being the earliest notice of a wax-work exhibition which I have been able to discover.