men of the Chappell nearly to the Physicians' level. As to their dinner, I assume from the way in which 'messe of meate' is used in the Ordinances, p. 185, that the 'one messe of grosse meate' allowed to the Gentlemen of the Chappell, meant nearly the same as the 'Diett for the Phisitions and Chirurgions' given at p. 178 of Household Ordinances, which cost by the yeare, everie messe, £66. 7s. 5d. for the Kings Highnesse and his side (p. 192), or £66. 7s. 6d. for the Queenes Grace and her side (p. 193). Here it is:

Sonday, Tuesday, Thursday, Monday, and Wednesday.

The Queen's Phisition and Apothecary, one messe of the like Fare."

The only distinction between the Phisition and Chirurgion here is, ♦ that the former got five penny-worth of Baked Meate or Pie at dinner, and three pen'orth of Doulcetts (see "Russell's Boke of Nurture, p. 146) at supper, more than the Chirurgion. If then the Gentlemen of the Chappell came between the two, how would the Clerk to the Kychyn mark the difference, I wonder? Give them Conies, 1 mess, 24d. (H. Ord., p. 181), or Egges, 24d. (p. 178), for their voices at the one; or an extra quart of wine or gallon of Ale, 14d. (ib. p. 191) at the other, to cheer them up before going to bed? Who shall say?

The Gentlemen-of-the-Chappell's 'Bouche of Court as the Physicians' from the officers other than those of the Kitchen, is stated at p. 163-4 of Household Ordinances :

"GENTLEMEN USHERS OF THE PRIVY CHAMBER, AND GENTLEMEN USHERS DAYLY WAYTERS; FOR THE KING AND THE QUEENES PHISICIONS, AND CLERKES OF THE SPICERY.

"Every of them being lodged within the court, after supper, one chet loafe, one gallon of ale, one quart of wyne; and from the last day of October unto the first day of Aprill, by the weeke two lynckes, by the day one sise, four white lights, four talshides, four faggotts, and . . . . . and from the last day of March unto the first day of November, to have the moyety of the said waxe, white lights, wood and coales; which amounteth to the sume of viiil. v s. ob. q.1

.....

This Bouche of Court, the reader will perceive, was a daily allowance of lights and fuel, and also of bread, ale, and wine, for a nightcap before going to bed, and perhaps for breakfast next morning. That some extra food was wanted will be acknowledged when the times for dinner and supper are stated. H. Ord., p. 151,

"DYNNER AND SUPPER IN THE HALL TO BE KEPT AT HOWRES CERTAINE.

Cap. 44.. it is ordeyned that the household, when the hall is kept, shall observe times certeyne for dynner and souper, as followeth ; that is to say, the first dynner in eating dayes to begin at tenn of the

1 At p. 210 of Household Ordinances, seemingly in the year 1544, the cost of the Surgeons' Bouche is entered, "Item, the Bouch of Court served for two Surgeons, everie of them at £6 13s. 03⁄4d. by the yeare, per mandatum Domini Thesaurarii, 21° die Martis £13 6s. 1d." This would give a Gentleman of the Chappell about £1. 12s. a year more than a Surgeon. The Apothecary's Bouche in 1526 was only iiiil. xiis. id. ob. q. (H. Ord., p. 163).

clock, or somewhat afore; and the first supper at foure of the clock on worke dayes; and on holy dayes, the first dynner to begin after the King be gone to the chappel, to his divine service, and likewise

at souper.

Cap. 45. And at such time as the Kings hall is not kept, the service for dynner, as well in the King and Queen's chambers, as in all other places of the house where any allowance of meate is had, to be observed at one certaine and convenient houre; that is to say, for dinner at eleven of the clock before noone, or neere thereupon, and for supper at six of the clock at afternoon, or neere thereupon; not tarrying nor digressing from this order for the Kings highnesse, nor for such as shall attend upon his Grace in his disporte or otherwise."

Evidently, if Hewe Rodes followed his own precept to rise at six of the clock (p. 72, 1. 61, below), he would need some of his bouche of Court before ten or eleven, to stay his stomach.

This, then, is all I can find with regard to the status and diet of our author. Of the duties of him and his fellow-gentlemen, the Ordinances give us only the following information, p. 160, that whenever the King

"shall lye in his castle of Windsor, his mannors of Bewlye, Richmond, and Hampton Court, Greenwitch, Eltham or Woodstock, his hall shall be ordinarily kept and contynued; unlesse than for any reasonable cause by his Grace to be approved, it shall be thought otherwise expedient; and at all such tymes of keeping the said hall, the King's noble chappell to be kept in the same place, for the administration of divine service, as apperteyneth.

"Cap. 78. Nevertheless, forasmuch as it is goodly and honourable, that there should be allwayes some divine service in the court, whereby men might be elected unto the devotion, and that it would not only be a great annoyance, but also excessive labour, travell, charge, and paine, to have the King's whole chappell continually attendant upon his person, when his grace keepeth not his hall, and specially in rideing journeys and progresses; it is for the better administration of divine service ordeyned, that the master of the children, and six men, with some officers of the vestry, shall give their continuall attendance in the King's court, and dayly, in absence of the residue of the chappell, to have a masse of our Lady before noone, and on sundayes and holydayes, masse of the day, besides our Lady masse, and an antheme in the afternoone; for which purpose no great carriage, either of vestments or bookes, shall be required the said persons to have allowance of board wages, or bouch of court, with lodgeing in or neere to the same, and convenient carriage; as in such case hath been accustomed."

Assuming, then, as certain, that the business of Hewe Rodes's

life was to assist in "the administration of divine service," and as possible, that he further taught the ten Children of the Chappell their grammar, "songe, organes, or suche other vertuous thinges," we need not wonder that he who had experienced the change from Devonshire manners to courtly ones should have desired to impress on others the lessons he had learnt himself, and lay down, at parson length, the maxims that he had drawn from his own experience and the sayings of the wise men of the Court. What manner of man he himself was he does not tell us. The only allusion he makes to his art is A tendable seruaunt standeth in fauour / for his auawntage Promoted shal he be in offyce or fe / the easyer to lyue in age Vse honest pastyme, talke or synge, or some instrument vse Though they be thy betters, they wyll not the refuse.

Whether he was in youth a Chorister, impressed for the service 2 and forced from his home and school like Tusser was

There for my voice, I must (no choice)

Away of force, like posting horse;

For sundry men had placards then

Such child to take.

Tusser, Author's Life, in Thoms's Book of the Court, p. 381

(from Hawkins, ii. 526, iii. 466)—

we do not know; nor does he tell us whether as a child of the

1 It was not until the reign of Henry VIII. that the duties of the Chapel Royal were performed at St James's Palace, which was first built by that monarch. Thoms.

2 See Henry VI.'s precept dated 1454, authorizing this measure, in Rymer's Fadera, says Thoms. (Hawkins refers to Strype, Mem. Eccl., v. ii. p. 538-9, fər the authority to seize children in Edward the Sixth's time.)

1 find the following as to how Henry VI. supplied himself with Minstrels.

De Ministrallis propter Solatium Regis providendis (A.D. 1456, an 34 H. 6, Pat. 34, H. 6. m. 19).

Rex, dilectis sibi Waltero Halyday, Roberto Marshall, Willielmo Wykes, & Johanni Clyffe, Salutem.

Sciatis quòd Nos, considerantes qualiter quidam Ministralli nostri jam tardè Viam universæ Carnis sunt ingressi, aliisque, loco ipsorum, propter Solatium nostrum de necesse indigentes, Assignavimus vos, conjunctim & divisim, ad quosdam Pueros, Membris Naturalibus Elegantes, in Arte Ministrellatûs instructos, ubicunque invenire poterint, tàm infra Libertates, quàm extra, Capiendum, & in Servitio nostro ad Vadia nostra Ponendum;

Et ideo vobis Mandamus quòd circa Præmissa diligenter intendatis, ac ea faciatis & exequamini in formâ prædictâ.. Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium decimo die Martis. Rymer, xi. 375.

Edward IV. formed his minstrels into a Fraternity or Gild. See the Patent in Rymer, xi. 642-4.

chappell he was whipped for any Prince's faults, as the custom was '. Was he ever snubbed by the Dean, I wonder, who had "all corrections of chapell-men in moribus et sciencia-reserved some cases to the Steward and countyng house 4"-Was he ever found "defectife or disobedient, and putt oute of wages" on a Friday when the Dean "kept a conventicle with all the chapell-men, and there rehersed their fautes and appointed the remedies 2?" Did he prove one of "the rascals and hangers upon thys courte," who were to "be sought oute and avoyded from euery office monethly 32" Far be it from us to believe so. He was never sent to the Marchalcye Prison by suspection (we may be sure), "as a theefe or outrageous royatour, or for muche hauntyng sclaunderous places, companyes and other 4," nor was he "knowen for a commyn dayly drunkyn man": he was not of the "pykers, malefactours of outward people or inward," nor did he use "to swere customably by Goddes body, or any of his other partes unreverently, against the Kinges vertuous disposition and the law of God," but lived as a man of worship, endowed with moral virtues, as by his ordinance he was bound to do. If he had the chance of playing at "pryckis" with his burly Sovereign like William Crane, the Master of the Children, up to (and perhaps beyond) 1541, had, no doubt he took the chance, and tried to win £7. 2s. 6d. of his King as Master Crane succeeded in doing; but for any such

1 Burnet (Own Times, i. 244, says Hawkins, iii. 252-3) mentions Barnaby Fitzpatric as whipping-boy to Prince Edward, and a Mr Murray as whipping-boy to Charles I. The working of the process is well explained by an old comedy of Christopher Tye's, quoted by Mr Thoms (from Hawkins):

Cranmer: So, sir, this policie was well devised.

Since he was whipped thus for the Prince's faults,
His grace hath got more knowledge in a month

Than he attained in a year before:

For still the fearful boy, to save his breech,
Doth hourlye haunt him wheresoc'er he goes.

Tye: 'Tis true, my lord, and now the Prince perceives it;
As loath to see him punished for his faults,

Plies it on purpose to redeeme the boy, &c.

1 Household Ordinances, p. 49.

3 Ib. p. 66.

4 Ib. p. 67.

5 The last daye [of June, 1532] paied to William Crane for so moche money as he wanne of the kingis grace at pryckis, xix Angellis, in money currant vij li. ij s. vjd. Nicolas's Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII, from Nov. 1529 to Dec. 1532