ls of the royal wardrobe, it appears that at the Christmas
festival in 1391, the sages of the law were made subjects for
disguisements, this entry being made: "Pro XXI _coifs_ de tela linea
pro hominibus de lege contrafactis pro Ludo regis tempore natalis
Domini anno XII." That is, for twenty-one linen coifs for
counterfeiting men of the law in the King's play at Christmas. And
Strutt[25] says that in the same year (1391) the parish clerks of
London put forth a play at Skinners' Wells, near Smithfield, which
continued three days: the king, queen, and many of the nobility, being
present at the performance.

[Illustration: [On one side is the legend, MONETA NOVA ADRIANI
STVLTORV PAPE, the last E being in the field of the piece, on which is
represented the Pope, with his double cross and tiara, with a fool in
full costume approaching his bauble to the pontifical cross, and two
persons behind, who form part of his escort. On the reverse is a
"mother fool," with her bauble, attended by a grotesque person with a
cardinal's hat, with the oft-recurring legend, STVLTORV INFINITVS EST
NVMERVS.]]

But the miracle plays and mysteries performed by the Churchmen
differed greatly from the secular plays and interludes which at this
period "were acted by strolling companies of minstrels, jugglers,
tumblers, dancers, bourdours, or jesters, and other performers
properly qualified for the different parts of the entertainment, which
admitted of a variety of exhibitions. These pastimes are of higher
antiquity than the ecclesiastical plays; and they were much relished
not only by the vulgar part of the people, but also by the nobility.
The courts of the kings of England, and the castles of the great earls
and barons, were crowded with the performers of the secular plays,
where they were well received and handsomely rewarded; vast sums of
money were lavishly bestowed upon these secular itinerants, which
induced the monks and other ecclesiastics to turn actors themselves,
in order to obtain a share of the public bounty. But to give the
better colouring to their undertaking, they took the subjects of their
dialogues from the holy writ, and performed them in the churches. The
secular showmen, however, retained their popularity notwithstanding
the exertions of their clerical rivals, who diligently endeavoured to
bring them into disgrace, by bitterly inveighing against the
filthiness and immorality of their exhibitions. On the other hand, the
it