a breathing time....

_Harrison on Religious Hatred._

1560. The French Protestantes are exiled out of Frankeford, Aprillis 23,
onely for that, in doctrine, they did not agree with Luther, the Augustane
confession, pacification at Wittenberg, & reconciliation made at
Frankeford: a slender cause, God wote! If it be well examined, you shall
find it a thing onely diuised, thereby to put their brethren to
incumbrauns. But when I consider what hatred the Lutheranes do here vnto
the Calvinistes, & the Precisians to the Protestantes, I can liken the
same to nothing better then that mallice which reigneth betwene the
papistes & the gospellers....

_The Spire of St. Paul's struck by Lightning._

1560. The Rooffe, with the Spire & steple of Paules church in London, is
consumed to ashes, Junij 4, by lightning. Certes the toppe of this Spire,
where the wethercocke stode, was 520 foote from the ground, of which the
spire was the one halfe. the bredth of the church also, saith Stow, is 130
foote, & the length 2690, or 836 yardes, 2 foote, at this present. Also an
erthquake is felt in the kingdome.... (_Stowe_, p. 1095.--F.)

_Queen Elizabeth at Oxford. "Falamon and Arcite."_

1565. The Queene of England beginneth hir progresse, & vpon the 31 of
August cometh to Oxford, where she visiteth eche college after other, &
making an oration vnto them in Latine, as she had done in Cambridge two
yeres passed, to the gret comfort of all soche as are, or had bene,
studentes there. During her being there also the Academicall exercises
were holden as in their vsuall termes. Diuerse Commedies & plaies also
were set forthe by the studentes of Christes Church, where her Majestie
lodged; but of all the rest, onely that of "Arcite & Palemon"[239] had a
tragicall successe; for, by the falle, of a walle & wooden gallery that
leadeth from the staiers vnfinished to the hall, diuers persons were sore
hurt, & 3 men killed out right, which came to behold the pastimes. [This
paragraph takes up seven lines, and 1-1/4 inch of the height, of
Harrison's MS.; so close is the writing.--F.]....

_Evils of Plays and Theatres._[240]

1572. Plaies are banished for a time out of London, lest the resort vnto
them should ingender a plague, or rather disperse it, being alredy
begonne. Would to god these comon plaies were exiled for altogether, as
semenaries of impiety, & their theaters pulled downe, as no better then
houses of baudrie. It is an euident toke