the Tudor sovereigns, and the fashion set by the Court
was followed in the country. Queen Elizabeth was not only devoted to
the drama, and herself performed, but she was very critical and
exacting; and the high demand which she did so much to stimulate, was
followed by such supply as was given by the surpassing dramatic
genius of the Elizabethan age of literature. Later, Ben Jonson and
Inigo Jones combined to produce the Court masks, one of which,--the
well-known "Mask of Christmas," had for chief characters, Christmas
and his children, Misrule, Carol, Mince Pie, Gambol, Post and Pair,
New Year's Gift, Mumming, Wassel, Offering, and Baby's Cake. In the
17th century the Christmas Mummeries of the Inns of Court were
conducted with great magnificence and at large cost.

All such entertainments were severely suppressed during the
Commonwealth, at which time the words "Welcome, or not welcome, I am
come," were introduced into Father Christmas's part.

At one time the Jester of the piece (he is sometimes called the
Jester, and sometimes the Fool, or the Old Fool) used to wear a calf's
hide. Robin Goodfellow says, "I'll go put on my devilish robes--I mean
my Christmas calf's-skin suit--and then walk to the woods." "I'll put
me on my great carnation nose, and wrap me in a rousing calf-skin
suit, and come like some hobgoblin." And a character of the 18th
century "clears the way" with--

"My name is Captain Calftail, Calftail--
And on my back it is plain to be seen,
Although I am simple and wear a fool's cap,
I am dearly beloved of a queen--"

which looks as if Titania had found her way into that mummery!

"The Hobby Horse's" costume was a horse's hide, real or imitated. I
have no copy of a Christmas Play in which the Hobby Horse appears. In
the north of England, "The Old Horse" and "The Old Tup" are the
respective heroes of their own peculiar mummeries, generally performed
by a younger, or perhaps a rougher, set of lads than those who play
the more elegant mysteries of St. George. The boy who acts "Old Tup"
has a ram's head impaled upon a short pole, which he grasps and uses
as a sort of wooden leg in front of him. He needs some extra support,
his back being bent as If for leap-frog, and covered with an old rug
(in days when "meat" was cheaper it was probably a hide). The hollow
sound of his peg-leg upon the "flags" of the stone passages and
kitchen floor, and the yearly test of courage supplied by the