As to the iij. answere, my seyde fader seith be promissed me never to make me yerely worth iij. times the lordship of Wyghton, saving the displesir of his good faderhode, I can wel telle the place where it was seyde, that is to say, in a gardin in the parke of Alausom. As to the remanent of that answere I can, be my seide faderis leve, replye thereto better be mouth than be writing.

As to the iij. answere, I sey nat in my iiij. article that my seyde fader wrote to me to com to hym, ne desyred me to leve my lorde of Gloucestris servyse, whoos soule God assoyle. But I have tolde the causes of all in my iij. article and in the iij. replication. As to the remanent of that answere I can, be the sevde licence, replie thereto better be mouth than be wryting.

As to the v. answere, I sey that I rehersed noo thing in my v. article but as trouth was and is, save my seyde fader may saye as it pleseth hym. The remanent of that answere I shal replye thereto be mouth, be my seide faderes leve.

As to the vj. answere, where it is seyde, as it pleseth my seyde fader, that myn outrageousenes caused moche thing, I have, mesemeth, answered thereto in the iij. replication. And where it is seyde I sholde suffre myn owne faderes feffes (to) selle certeyne of myn owne faderes lyfelood, every reasonable man may conceyve that the suffraunce most nedes a been, for I was at that time but x or xij. yere of age, and fer loygned froo th(ere) be sevde fader Fastolf thorugh hys forseyde sale made to the Justice William Gascoyne, as at that tyme my seyde fader ded with me as it plesed hym. To the remanent shall I replye be mouth, and he wil geve me leve.

As to the vij. answere, I sey that lyvelode coude I noon gete, to I woold me maryed, and maried coude I nat be withoute that I made streyte bondes, what may be supposed than myght folwe thereof, etc. But and it had plesed me seyde fader to avaunced me to lifelode, or that I had sette me to maryage, I wolde have trosted to God, have

maryed to more avyse that I ded, and to a kept me oute of the daungeres that I have ben in. And to the remanent of that answere I can replie be mouth, if my seyde fader wille geve me leve.

As to the viij. answere, where there is thoughte moch unkindenes in me symple persone; I dar saufelye seye, and my seyde fader had a son of his owne body begeten, he shold nat have had better wylle to adoon hym servyse and plesir than I had. To the surplus of that answere, be the license aforeseyde, I can well replie be mouth.

As to the ix. answere, where my seyde fader seyth that he is enheryted during his lyfe as wele as I, I wene nat soo: for I am com of the blode and he but be gifted of jentilnes. And where it is seyde that my seyde lady and moder wold have yoven it to hym in fee, I have herde her sey the contrarie, and soo hath oother that yet lyveth moo than I: And where it is seyde that I have confermed it to my seyde fader hys lyfe, saving his displesir, than mesemeth I ought the better to have hys gode grace, and nat to be rebuked for my piteous complent. For it is now more than v. yere sen my seyd lady my foder discessed, whoos soul God of hys hygh mercy assoile.17 Soo thorough that confirmation he had everi yere sythen vo. marke, the whych amounteth ijm. and vo. marke. To the surplus of that answere I can wel replye, be my seyde faderes leve.

If I have seyde in thees foreseyde replications oother wyse than reson and conscience woold of necligence, simplenes, or unkonnynge, I aske pardon and grace. And where it semeth to my seide fader that I sholde nat akepte thees articles soo longe in my breste; forsooth be my wille I wold a kepte theym longer, for I seyde at all tymes that the hye witte and the grete trouth and jentilnesse of my seyde fader knewe full wele what was for to

This fixes the date of this paper 1452, the Lady Millicent having died in 1466.

do: for an oolde proverb seyth, a wyse man be the halfe tale wote what the hoole tale meneth.

As to my x. article, the whych I sente a parte be Moaster Clement Denston, I have noon answere.

(Endorsed)-Escriptz de moy a mon pere F.

It seems likely that Stephen Scrope got no more redress in the end from Fastolf's executors for the losses he so plaintively catalogues than he had from the knight himself while living. His circumstances, however, must have improved somewhat on his at length possession, being above the age of sixty, of his maternal estates.

Among the evidences of the straits to which he was driven by his embarrassments are a bond for 400 marks to John Dereward, dated 1448, and a revisionary grant of a message in Castle Combe to John Whitehorne, clothier, dated 1457, to take effect after the death of Fastolf."

APPENDIX B.

EDMUND TILNEY, MASTER OF REVELS

That the reader may understand the absolute despotism of the Master of the Revels, under the Queen and the Lord Chamberlain, I give in full the following most interesting and important historical document.2

A NEW DOCUMENT REGARDING THE AUTHOR-
ITY OF THE MASTER OF THE REVELS

OVER PLAY-MAKERS, PLAYS AND
PLAYERS IN 1581

I send for insertion in the next volume of "The Shakespeare Society's Papers" what I am entitled to call one of the most curious documents connected with the history of our stage, only two or three years before our great dramatist became a writer for and an actor upon it. Moreover, it is quite a novelty, no hint for its existence being anywhere given. It was communicated to me by Mr. Palmer, of the Rolls' Chapel, a short time since, as being on the patent rolls and as unknown to Mr. Payne Collier when he published his "History of English Dranatic Poetry and the Stage," in 1831.

It is entitled Commissio specialis pro Edo. Tylney, Ar. Magistro Revellorum, and it will be recollected that Edmund Tylney had been appointed Master of the Revels in July, 1579; the document before me bears date 24th December, in the 24th year of Elizabeth; i. e., the day before Christmas, 1581, for the 24th year of her reign did not end until 16th November, 1582. Tylney had therefore been only a short time in office when he was entrusted

"The Shakespeare Society Paper, Vol. III, p. 1, 1847. Rot. Paten. de diversis annis tempore R. Elizabeth.

with the extraordinary powers communicated to him by this patent.

It will be remarked also that it preceded the formation of the company of "the Queen's Players," which Howes, in his continuation of Stow's Annals, informs us consisted of twelve performers, including Robert Wilson and Richard Tarlton. Sir Francis Walsingham is said to have been instrumental in the selection of the actors; and we know, on the authority of the Accounts of the Expenses of the Revels, that Tylney was sent for by "Mr. Secretary" on 10th March, 1582, "to chuse out a company of Players for her Majesty."

That this important theatrical event was contemplated when the subjoined instrument was placed in the hands of Tylney, we need have little doubt: it must, in fact, have been preparatory to it; and anything more arbitrary, or, as we should now call it, unconstitutional, was perhaps never heard of. It seems framed in some degree upon the model of the unrestricted powers, at much earlier dates, given to the Master of the Children of the Chapel, &c., to take boys from the choirs of any cathedrals or churches, in order that they might be employed in the Chapel Royal. Tylney warrant, however, does not apply to mere singing boys, but to grown men, artificers, actors, and dramatists; and, as will be seen, it is much larger and more imperative in the authority it conveys.

For the purposes of the Revels at Court for the amusement of the Queen, it enables Tylney, or his deputy, in the first place to command the services of any painters, embroiderers, tailors, property-makers, &c., he thought fit, and, in case of refusal or neglect, to commit them during his pleasure "without bail or mainprise"; so that they had no remedy but to submit. But the most remarkable part of the Patent comes afterwards where the same