1 SCENE II.-" Have I not here the best cards for the game?"

THERE is a general notion that cards were invented for the amusement of Charles VI. of France, who suffered an almost constant depression of spirits, nearly allied to insanity. This opinion was derived from an entry in an accountbook of the treasurer to that unhappy king, about 1393, in which we find "fifty-six sols of Paris given to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards, gilt and coloured, and of different

sorts, for the diversion of his majesty." From a passage discovered in an old manuscript copy of the Romance of Renard le Contrefait, it appears that cards were known in France about 1340; and there is no doubt that they were coinmonly used in France and Spain, about the end of the fourteenth century. The earliest printed cards known are those engraved by the celebrated artist known as "the Master of 1466;" and parts of a pack, in most beautiful preservation, were in the possession of Mr. Tiffin, of the Strand, who kindly permitted us to copy the following specimens:

3SCENE IV.

1

"Upon the altar at St. Edmund's-Bury." This celebrated altar is represented in our engraving at the end of the "Introductory Notice." The shrine is taken from Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund, Harl. MS. 2278; the manner of taking the oath from an illumination in the Metrical Hist. of Richard II., representing the Earl of Northumberland at Conway Castle, swearing on the gospels to secure safe conduct to Richard on his journey to London; Harl. MS., 1319; the costume from the effigies of Salisbury, Pembroke, and other contemporary monuments.

4 SCENE VII. "Many carriages."

In vol xx. of the Archæologia, there is a history of carriages in England, by Mr. Markland, illustrated by engravings-among which is the principal figure of the following engraving, copied from a very valuable MS. formerly in the Roxburgh Library, entitled, "Le Roman du Roy Meliadus," written at the close of the fourteenth century. The elegant form of the wheel of this carriage (similar to what, in architecture, is called a Catherine wheel) deserves particular notice. The vehicles in the back-ground are taken from a

Ir is unnecessary for us to do more than refer our readers to Holinshed for an account of the long protracted dispute between the Pope and John, which ended in the mean submission which Shakspere has so strikingly recorded in the first Scene of this Act. The chronicler also details the attempt which the Pope made to dissuade the French king from the invasion of England, and the determination of the Dauphin to assert what he called his right to the throne. These narratives are too long, and have too little of dramatic interest, to be here given as illustrations of the poet. We subjoin, however, Holinshed's account, which he gives on the authority of Matthew Paris, of the disclosures of Melun, which determined the revolted lords to return to their obedience to John. But the story is very apocryphal :

"About the same time (1216, An. Reg. 18), or rather in the year last past, as some hold, it fortuned that the Viscount of Melune, a Frenchman, fell sick at London, and perceiving that death was at hand, he called unto him certain of the English barons, which remained in the city, upon safe

guard thereof, and to them made this protestation : 'I lament (saith he) your destruction and desolation at hand, because you are ignorant of the perils hanging over your heads. For this understand that Lewis, and with him sixteen earls and barons of France, have secretly sworn (if it shall fortune him to conquer this realm of England, and be crowned king) that he will kill, banish, and confine all those of the English nobility (which now do serve under him, and persecute their own king) as traitors and rebels, and furthermore will dispossess all their lineage of such inheritance as they now hold in England. And because. (saith he) you shall not have doubt hereof, I, which lie here at the point of death, do now affirm unto you, and take it on the peril of my soul, that I am one of those sixteen that have sworn to perform this thing. Wherefore I advise you to provide for your own safeties, and your realm's which you now destroy, and keep this thing secret which I have uttered unto you.' After this speech was uttered he straightways died."

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Matthew Paris, and Matthew of Westminster, have minutely described the route taken by the king, previous to his death. "The country being wasted on each hand, the king passeth forward till he came to Wellestreme Sands, where, in passing the Washes, he lost a great part of his array, with horses and carriages." "Yet the king himself, and a few others, escaped the violence of the waters, by following a good guide." The Long Wash between Lynn and Boston, was formerly a morass, intersected by roads of Roman

construction. The memory of the precise spot where John lost his baggage is still preserved in the name of a corner of a bank between Cross Keys Wash and Lynn, called King's Corner. The poet, having another dramatic purpose in view, did not take that version of the king's death which ascribed his last illness to be the result of anguish of mind occasioned by this loss; but he supposes the accident to have befallen the forces under the Bastard.

"Myself, well-mounted, hardly have escaped."

The death of John, by poison administered by a monk, is thus described by Holinshed, upon the authority of Caxton:

"There be which have written that after he had lost his army, he came to the abbey of Swineshead, in Lincolnshire, and there understanding the cheapness and plenty of corn, shewed himself greatly displeased therewith; as he that for the hatred which he bare to the English people, that had sotraitorously revolted from him unto his adversary Lewis, wished

all misery to light upon them, and thereupon said in his anger, that he would cause all kind of grain to be at a far higher price ere many days should pass. Whereupon a monk that heard him speak such words, being moved with zeal for the oppression of his country, gave the king poison in a cup of ale, whereof he first took the assay, to cause the king not to suspect the matter, and so they both died in manner at one time." The following representation of the event is from Fox's Acts and Monuments: