In Lambarde's "Dictionarium," p. 129, it is said: "It happened in the Reigne of Quene Marye, that the master of a Shippe passinge by while the Court lay theare, and meaninge (as the maner is) with Sayle and Shot to honor the Place, unadvisedly gave Fyre to a Piece charged with a Stone instede of a _Tampion_, which lightinge on the Quenes house ranne throughe a Chamber, and did no further Harme."
Our antiquary writes like one unacquainted with his subject; no man, I believe, ever talked _of charging_ a gun with a _tampion_; neither would the said _tampion_ (consisting of a piece of hard oak) have done much less mischief than a stone, if pointed from the Thames at the Queen's Palace at Greenwich.--_S_.
504. _The Regent_ was one of the largest ships of war in the time of King Henry the Eighth. In the fourth year of his reign, Sir Thomas Knevet, master of the horse, and Sir John Carew, of Devonshire, were appointed captains of her, and in company with several others she was sent to fight the French fleet near Brest haven. An action accordingly ensued, and the Regent grappled with a French carrick, which would have been taken, had not a gunner on board the vessel, to prevent her falling into the hands of the English, set fire to the powder-room. This communicating the flames to both ships, they shared the same fate together, being both burnt. On the part of the French 900 men were lost; and on that of the English more than 700 (See Hall's "Chronicle," 1548, fol. 21).
506. _This_, edit. 1569. 507. _Our_, 1st edit.
"And done _more_ cures ghostely."--_Collier_.
509. [Mr Child observes: "The Pardoner's descent into hell, in the 'Four P.P.,' is one of the most capital passages in our comic poetry" ("Four Old Plays," 1848, xxvi.)]
510. A _beck_, among other significations, has that of a salutation with the head. So, in Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens"--
"_A serving of _becks_, and jutting out of bums_."--_S_.
512. "Before the suppression of the monasteries, this city (_i.e_., Coventry) was very famous for the pageants that were played therein upon _Corpus Christi_ day (this is one of their ancient faires), which occasioning very great confluence of people thither from far and near, was no small benefit thereto; which pageants being acted with mighty state and reverence by the friers of this house, had theaters for the several scenes very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of spectators, and contained the story of the New Testament, composed in old English rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS. entitled 'Ludus Corporis Christi,' or 'Ludus Coventriae,' in Bibl. Cotton, (sub Effigie Vesp. D. 9)" (Dugdale's "Warwickshire," p. 116). [See the "Coventry Mysteries," edited by Halliwell, 1841.]