AT this period of history we find no regular licenced theatres: yet places of public amusement were magnificently decorated, and, at their masques, pageants, and tournaments, no expence was spared to render them splendid.

The pageant appeared to take the lead; and men of the first-rate talents presided over them, and undertook / their management and direction, in allotting the parts to the different performers, and in paying them a stipulated salary, according to a prior agreement. This kept these kind of theatres under a respectable subordination; which, through it could not quell the licentious manners of many of the performers, yet kept up that regularity, which held them in proper bounds of decorum, before a respectable audience.

The manager of one of these places of public resort was Sir Thomas Knollys, a great favourite of Edward's, and, like all his other favourites, attached to the cause of Lancaster. Edward gave him an honourable employ about his person; and Sir Thomas, through his principles favoured the adverse party, was too honest a man to injure his lawful / prince. Had he not been possessed of those patriotic principles of honour, he might have become a dangerous enemy; for his profound abilities, as a scholar, and an eloquent speaker, were almost unequalled. He carefully revised the English language, and brought it, in comparison to what it had heretofore been, to a state of purity and elegance. To the proper accentuation of words, we are entirely indebted to this master and reformer of the English tongue.

He was amiable in private life; and his company and conversation were a perpetual treat to his numerous acquaintance.