Again, by our author, His flaggy wings when forth he did difplay, Were like two SAILES. I. II. 10. Thus Bayardo, in Ariofto, fights with a monstrous bird, whofe wings are like two fails. L'ale havea grande che parean DUO VALE *. Her wings fo huge, they feemed like a faile. B. v. c. v. f. iii. Harrington. And on her shoulder hung her shield bedeckt, Satan's fhield, in Milton, is compared to the moon: but to the moon as discerned through a telescope. B. v. c. v. f. xi. Her funfhiny helmet foone unlaced, Thinking, at once, both head and helmet to have raced. xii. But when as he discovered had her face, *C. 33. f. 84. + Par. Loft. I. 287. This is such a picture as Propertius gives us. Aufa ferox ab equo quondam oppugnare fagittis B. v. c. viii. f. xxxvii. At laft from his victorious shield he drew The veile, &c. And coming full before his horse's vew, As they upon him preft, it plain to them did shew. xxxviii. * So did the fight thereof their sense dismay, The Ægis is represented with the fame effect on horfes, in the fpirited poem of Valerius Flaccus. Ægida tum primùm virgo, Spiramque Medufa B. v. c. viii. f. xliii. Like as the curfed fon of Thefeus, 3. 10. † 6. 396, That That Of his owne steeds was all to pieces torne. Hippolitus was not torn in pieces by his own horfes, but by a monster fent from Neptune, as Euripides relates, Hipp. Cor. 1220. and other authors. In this account of the death of Hippolitus, he greatly varies from himfelf, 1. 5. 37. feq. B. v. c. ix. f. xxv. There as they entered at the fcreene, &c. SCREENE Occurs again, But he there flew him at the SCREENE, 5. 10. 37. The SCREEN, or entrance into the hall, was as familiar a term in Spenser's age, as the ceremonies, mentioned in the next note, to have been performed within it, were frequent: This is ftill to be feen before the halls of antient houses. Stow ufes it as a well-known word, "A maypole, to ftand in the hall, before the SCRINE, "decked with holme and ivie, at the feast of christmas. It is yet remembered in our universities. 66 B. v. c. ix. f. xxiii. The marshall of the hall to them did come, His name hight ORDER. VOL. II. E e Here Here Spenfer paints from the manners of his own age; in which the custom of celebrating a Serv'd up Feaft, in hall with fewrs and * feneshalls, was not entirely dropt. One of the officers at these folemnities was ftyled the marfhal of the hall: an office for which Chaucer tells us, his hoft at the tabard was properly qualified. A femely man our hofte was withal To ben a MARSHALL IN A LORDIS HALL t. As the guests at these pompous and public festivals were very numerous, and of various conditions; I fuppose the business of this office, was to place every perfon according to his rank, and to preserve peace and order. Another officer belonging to these antient feftivals, was a lord of the mifrule, whofe name is only now remembered. Stowe tells us, "In the feaft of chriftmas, there was in the king's house, wherefoever he lodged, a lord of mifrule, or mafter of merry disports, " and the like had yee in the house of nobleevery *Stow, fpeaking of a magnificent feaft in Ely-house, at which were present king Henry VIII, and queen Catharine, fays, that " Ed"ward Nevil was SENESHALL or Steward." Survey, p. 315. ed. 1599. + Prol. 753. cc man "man of honour, or good worship, were he spiritual or temporall *." In an original draught of the ftatutes of trinity-college, Cambridge, one of the chapters is entitled, De præfecto ludorum qui IMPERATOR dicitur, under whofe direction, comedies and tragedies are to be represented at christmas, in the hall; as alfo fex fpectacula, or else as many dialogues. Wood, in the Athenæ, mentions a christmas prince, in some of the colleges at Oxford, whofe office was the fame t. Another title to this ftatute, which feems to be subftituted by another hand in the place of the former, is, De comediis ludifque in natali Chrifti exhibendis. These ftatutes were drawn up in the reign of queen Mary, 15541. With regard to the ftate in which our old nobility lived, it is mentioned as an inftance of extraordinary pomp in cardinal Wolfey, that he kept a full choir in his chapel §, like the king. But this was common * Survey of London, pag. 149. edit. 1618. + The lords of mifrule, in colleges, were preached against at Cambridge, by the Puritans, in the reign of James I. as inconfiftent with a place of religious education, and as a PAGAN RELIC. Fuller's Ch. Hift. 1655. Hift. of Cambridge, pag. 159. But fee the Hearne's I. Glafton. Appendix. vol. 2. pag. 502. were common in the inns of court. See Dugdale's Orig. Juridical. ed. 2. 1671. fol. pag. 154. 156. 247. 235. Life of John Dee, Fol. on vellum, MSS. Rawlins. Bib. Bodl. Oxon. See cap. 24.. § See Stowe's Annals, by Howes, pag. 502. E e e 2 to |