Note 1321 — Chapter XV · THE BOY BISHOP

Machyn’s Diary, 75 ‘The xij day of November [1554] was commondyd by the bysshope of London to all clarkes in the dyoses of London for to have Sant Necolas and to go a-brod, as mony as wold have ytt ... [the v day of December, the which was Saint Nicholas’ eve, at even-song time, came a commandment that St. Nicholas should not go abroad, nor about. But, notwithstanding, there went about these Saint Nicholases in divers parishes, as St. Andrew’s, Holborn, and St.] Nicolas Olyffe in Bredstret.’ Warton, iv. 237, says that during Mary’s reign Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman or musician of the Chapel royal, printed in black letter quarto a poem of thirty-six octave stanzas, entitled The Song of the Chyldbysshop, as it was songe before the queenes maiestie in her privie chamber at her manour of saynt James in the Feeldes on Saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche with his company.’ Warton apparently saw the poem, for he describes it as ‘a fulsome panegyric on the queen’s devotion, in which she is compared to Judith, Esther, the Queen of Sheba, and the Virgin Mary,’ but no copy of it is now known; cf. F. J. Furnivall, The Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), lxxxv.