The comedies, histories, tragedies, and poems of William Shakspere . ^ of the said gowns, and a redrose crowned and embroidered thereupon. Inthe following design (the figure of which, amonk at his devotions, is from a drawing byQuellinus, a pupil of Eubens,) the costume istaken from an illumination in the indenturenow recited, which illumination represents theabbot, the priest, and the almsmen receiving TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. 67. the indenture. The first almsman bears astring of beads upon his hand. The sco-chyn made and set upon the gown remindsus of the badge of poor Edie Ochiltree, inthe
The comedies, histories, tragedies, and poems of William Shakspere . ^ of the said gowns, and a redrose crowned and embroidered thereupon. Inthe following design (the figure of which, amonk at his devotions, is from a drawing byQuellinus, a pupil of Eubens,) the costume istaken from an illumination in the indenturenow recited, which illumination represents theabbot, the priest, and the almsmen receiving TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. 67. the indenture. The first almsman bears astring of beads upon his hand. The sco-chyn made and set upon the gown remindsus of the badge of poor Edie Ochiltree, inthe Antiquary; and this brings us back to Beadsmen. This prince of mendicants was,as our readers will remember, a Kings Bedes-man—an order of paupers to whom the kingsof Scotland were in the custom of distributinga certain alms, in conformity with the ordi-nances of the Catholic church, and who wereexpected, in return, to pray for the royal wel-fare and that of the state. The similarity inthe practices of the Kings Bedesmen ofScotland, and the Almesse men of HenryVII., is precise. This order, as Sir WalterScott tells us in his advertisement to the An-tiquary, from which the above description iscopied, is still kept up. The poor oratorsand beadsmen of England live now only in afew musty records, or in the allusions of Spen-ser and Shakspere; and in the same way the Blue Gowns or Kings Bedesmen of Scot-land, who are now seldom
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Keywords: ., bookauthorshakespearewilliam15641616, bookcentury1800, booksubje
