many places a corrupt text, written on very thin vellum, through which the ink of one side showed on the other, and both sides had faded. The consequence was, that after troubling Mr Brock and Mr T. Wright, and getting all that was gettable out of them, I was obliged to have recourse to the officers of the MS. Department in the Museum and worry them. Mr Scott kindly gave up much time to the difficult places, but some of them have beaten even him. Professor Seeley has been good enough to give me a literal English translation of the Latin pieces in Part II., but has often had to guess instead of translate. Monsieur Michelant, of the Imperial Library, courteously sent me the first French Poem in the same Part. Without the help of the gentlemen above named I could have made nothing of this Part II., and to them all I am greatly indebted. The ready way in which help is given to one, whenever it is asked for, is one of the pleasantest incidents of one's work.

It only remains for me to say that the woodcuts at the end of the book cost the Society nothing; that the freshness of my first interest in the poems which I once hoped to re-produce in these Forewords, has become dulled by circumstances and the length of time that the volume has been in the press-it having been set aside (by my desire) for the Ayenbite, &c.;-and that the intervention of other work has prevented my making the collection as complete as I had desired it to be. It is, however, the fullest verse one that has yet appeared on its subject, and will serve as the beginning of the Society's store of this kind of material.' If we can do all the English part of the work, and the Master of the Rolls will commission one of his Editors to do the Latin part, we shall then get a fairly complete picture of that Early English Home which, with all its shortcomings, should be dear to every Englishman now.

3, St George's Square, N. W.,

5th June, 1867.

1 If any member or reader can refer me to any other verse or prose pieces of like kind, unprinted, or that deserve reprinting, I shall be much obliged to him, and will try to put them in type.

PREFACE TO RHODES.

KING Edward the Fourth had in 1461-82 A.D. "Chapleynes and Clerkes of the Chapell, XXVI, by the King's choyce or by the deane his election or denomination, of men of worshipp, endowed with vertuuse morall and speculatiff, as of theyre musike, shewing in descant, clene voysed, well releesed and pronouncynge, eloquent in reding, sufficiaunt in organes pleyyng, and modestiall in all other manner of behaving 1". Such a one, I doubt not, was Hewe Rodes of the Kinges Chappell before 1554, the author of the Boke of Nurture first following2, a Devonshire worthy of Henry VIII's time, much impressed with the duty of teaching Children, Masters and Servants, Young and Old, the way they should go and the good manners they should use, a very Polonius in his overflow of saws and precepts, but alas a man who had to declare of his acquaintance and friends,

In all my lyfe I could scant fynde

One wight true and trusty.

From his care for children, I should like to suppose Rodes to have been Master of the young people who in his sovereign's time represented Edward's "Children of Chapell, VIII, founden by the King's Jewel-house for all thinges that belongeth to thayre apparayle, by the handes or oversight of the Deane, or by the maistyr of songes assigned to teche them; which maister is apoynted by the seyd 2 Page 61, below.

1 Household Ordinances, p. 50.

Dean, and chosen one of the numbyr of the seyd felyshypp of chapell. And he to drawe these chyldren, as well in the schoole of facet, as in songe, organes, or suche other vertuous thinges." But there seems to be little chance of squeezing our author in between William Crane, who we know was Henry the Eighth's Master of the Children up to A.D. 15412 (and, no doubt, beyond), and Richard Bowyer, who was their Master in 1548.3 We may, however, glean something of the position in society, the pay and food, of both the Gentlemen and Children of the Chapel in Rodes's time, and this I proceed to do.

Unluckily there is no full account of the members or duties of Henry the Eighth's Chapell,' in the Ordinances made at Eltham, A.D. 1526; but in the table of Wages and Fees, p. 169-70, the members are mentioned thus:

1 Fr. Facet, A Primmer, or Grammer for a yong scholler. Cotgrave.

2 In the Arundel MS. No. 67, Plut. clxiii F, the book of Henry VIII.'s Household Expenses for the 29-33 years of his reign, Crane is still Master. Payments for the Children occur at fol. 144, 1. 37; fol. 159 b, fol. 164 b, 1. 20; fol. 175, 1. 1 ("in Febr., Anno xxxij° [A.D. 1541] Item for the children of the chapelle, bourdwages, xxvj s. viij d."); and at fol. 164 b, l. 22, is an entry of a New Year's gratuity to Crane of £6. 13s. 4d. "Rewardes geven on Saterday, New-yeres day at Hamptoncourte, Anno xxxijo, " [A.D. 1541.] "Item, for Wm. Crane for playinge before the King with the children of the Chappelle, in rewarde, vi. li. viiij s. iiij d." Compare Lord Percy's like payments, p. xxi, below. Among these 66 Newyeres Rewardes " is one that the future editor of our Alexander Romances should notice, "Item to Anthony Tote servaunt that brought the king a table of the storye of kinge Alexander vj s. viijd." The Christmas and New Year presents to the King, mentioned in this MS. and the one that Nicolas printed, are curious. 3 To Dr Rimbault's kindness I owe the following list of

Masters of the Children of the Royal Chapel.

Sir H. Nicholas, in his Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, p. 85, col. 2, says, In the act of Resumption, 13 Edw. IV, Henry Abingdon was protected in the enjoyment of 40 marks per annum, which had been granted him in May, 5 Edw. IV, "for the fyndyng instruction and governaunce of the Children of the Chapell of oure Housholde."-Rot. Parl. v. 594; vi. 86. In the act of Resumption, of the 22 Edw. IV, Gilbert Banestre was protected in the enjoyment of the same salary for "their exhibition, instruction and governaunce."— Ibid. vi. 200.

Chappell and Vestry.

The Dean to eate with Mr Treasurer, or Mr Comptroller.

Gentlemen of the Chapell.

Master of the Children, for his wages and board-wages

Gospeller, for wages

Epistoller
Verger

Yeomen of the Vestry

Children of the Chappell, ten

10 0

56 13 4

The Chaplains were not, I assume, boarded in the Court, or at the King's cost, and are therefore not mentioned in the list. Besides their wages, the Gentlemen of the Chappell, no doubt, had regularly a New Yeres Rewarde, like the other of the Royal servants. In the Arundel MS., No. 67, above cited, we find at fol. 164, back, this gift to them in 1541, "Item to ye gentilmen of the chappelle for yeir peynes takinge, xiiij l. vj s. viij d.” And in July, 1531, in Henry's Household Expenses (ed. Nicolas) is an entry, "Item the same [xxvj] daye paied to the dean of the Chapell for the kinges rewarde to the Chapell men xls." Besides this they would share in the annual Chapel Feast, for which these payments appear in Nicolas's Hd. Expenses of Hen. VIII. "Item the vj daye [of Aug. 1530] paied to the dean of the Chapell for the chapelle feaste xls. Item the xj daye [of Aug. 1532] paied to maister dean of the kinges Chapell the olde ordinary rewarde for the Chapell feaste xl s." The allowances of the Gentlemen of the Chappell for board-wages are stated in H. Ord., p. 212, in the Increase of Charges in the Household, given in the "Additions to the Ordinances made at Eltham."

"ITEM, that the Kings Majesties pleasure was declared the 28th clay of Aprill, in the 36th. yeare of his most gracious Reigne [A.D. 1544] at St. James's, by the mouth of the Lord Great Master and Mr Comptroller, that the Gentlemen of the Chappell, Gospeller, Episteller, and Serjeant of the vestry, shall have from the last day of March forward, for their board-wages, everie of them 12d per

diem and the Yeomen and Groomes of the Vestry, everie of them 6 per diem; and twelve children of the chappell, everie of them 28. by the weeke."

And in a prior page (H. Ord. p. 208) we are informed that a daily mess of meat was subsequently given to them :

"ITEM, the King's pleasure was declared by the mouth of the Lord Great Master at Greenwitch, the 14th. day of June, in the 36th. yeare of his Graces reigne, after the accompt of his household, that James Hill and his fellows, Gentlemen Singers, shall have dayly from the kitchen, one messe of grosse meate, and from all other Officers like Bouche of Court among them as the Physicions; and att every removeing, allowance of a Cart for the carriage of their stuff."

6

Now the Physicions in 1526 were Doctor Chamber and Doctor Butts, and in the list of "The Ordinary of the King's Chamber which have Bouche of Court, and also their Dietts within the Court" (H. Ord. p. 166), these Physicians are put above the Apothecary, and The three Chirurgions, every of them, and Edmond Harmond, and Phillip,' who had the care of the children'; whence we may infer the social rank of our Gentlemen Singers or Gentlemen of the Chappell, that ancient and honourable estate of the realm,2above the Surgeons, Apothecaries, and Barbers, but below the Physicians. This assumes that the above-mentioned grant of a Bouche of Court equal to that of the Physicians, raised the Gentle

1 See H. Ord., p. 192. Edmond Harman was one of the "Barbours" at £20 a year (H. Ord., p. 166 and p. 169). I suppose he had the general household charge of the Children; Crane, the education of them. (The present Children live in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, with the Rev. Mr Helmore.) The charge of their Dietts yearly was at first, in 1526, Edmond Harmond, Phillip, and the children, £70. 10s. 04d., H. Ord., p. 192; but in 1539 their allowance was increased :-" Item, The charge of one messe of meate served to Edmond Harmon, Phillip and the children, by the commandment of Mr Comptroller at Hampton Court, 20th. day of June, Anno 31, £35. 5s. 04d. ;" and again in 1542 "the King's pleasure is declared by the mouth of Mr Phillip Hobby (? Sir Phillip Hobby, Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber, p. 169) unto the Lord Great Master, the 17th day of January, in the 334 yeare of his reigne at Westminster, that the children that be in the keeping of Philip and Edmond Harmon to be served with one messe of meate, like unto the other messe they had before." H. Ord., p. 208.

2 Mr Thoms mentions among its members, Richard Farrant, Thomas Bird (father of the celebrated William Bird), Thomas Tallis, William Hynnes, Henry Lawes (who composed the Coronation Anthem, and was the friend of Milton), Thomas Purcell, the uncle of the great composer, &c.-Book of the Court [from Hawkins].