¹ I wish to thank Sir Geoffrey Elton for reading early drafts of this paper and making useful structural and organizational suggestions. I wish also to thank Arthur Kinney, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, for his assistance. A version of this essay was given at the ‘Conference on framing fact and fiction: Perspectives in early modem England’, Arizona State University, April 1990, and at the British History Seminar, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, January 1991. Citations to More's work are from the Yale edition of the Complete Works of St Thomas More: Sylvester, Richard L., ed., The history of King Richard III, II (New Haven, CT, 1962)Google Scholar and Kinney, Daniel, ed., Historia Richardi Tertii, xv (New Haven, CT, 1986)Google Scholar; Bevington, David, From mankind to Marlowe: growth ofstructure in the popular drama ofTudor England (Cambridge, MA, 1962), pp. 1–2, notes an overemphasis on classical origins for renaissance dramaCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁵ For the mystery plays sec: (1) The Towneley plays, ed. George England and Pollard, Alfred W., Early English Text Society, E.S., LXXI (London, 1897)Google Scholar, called Wakefield in the text; (2) The Chester mysltfy cycle, ed. Lumiansky, R. M. and Mills, David, Early Engligh Text Society, S.S., m (London, 1974); (3)Google Scholarludus Covenlriae or The Plait Called Corpus Christi, ed. Block, K. S., Early English Text Society, E.S., cxx (London, 1922), called Hegge in the TextGoogle Scholar; (4) York plays: the plays performed by the crafts or mysteries of York on the day of Corpus Christi…, ed. Lucy T. Smith (Reprint, New York, 1963); I read but did not refer to The Digby mysteries, ed. Fumivail, Frederick J., The New Shaktpere Society (London, 1882)Google Scholar. See also Davenport, William A., Fifteenth-tentury English drama: the early moral plays and their literary relations (Totowa, NJ, 1986), pp. 23–7Google Scholar; Gray, Douglas, Themes and images in the medieval English religious lyric (London, 1972), p. 7Google Scholar; Woolf, Rosemary, The English mystery plays (Berkeley, CA, 1972), p. 239Google Scholar; Taylor, Jerome, ‘The dramatic structure of the middle English Corpus Christi, or cycle, plays’, in Medieval English drama: essays critical and contextual, ed. Taylor, J. and Nelson, A. H. (Chicago, 1972), p. 155Google Scholar; Marcus, Leah, ‘The Christ child as sacrifice: a medieval tradition and the Corpus Christi plays’, Speculum, XLVIII (1973), 491, 497-8, 500–-7Google Scholar.

⁸ Hardison, O. B., Jr., Christian rite and Christian drama in the middle ages: essays on the origin and early history of modern drama (Baltimore, MD, 1965), pp. 41–5Google Scholar.

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⁹ McElroy, Maruine D., ‘Literary patronage’, pp. 128, 168Google Scholar; Travis, Peter W., Dramatic design in the Chester cycle (Chicago, 1982), pp. 21-5, 40Google Scholar; Cawley, A. C., The staging of medieval drama, the revels history of drama in English (London, 1983); pp. 22–4Google Scholar; Rose, Martial, The Wakefitld mystery plays (London, 1961), pp. 24–5; for disobedience, seeGoogle ScholarWunderli, Richard M., London church courts and society on the eve of the Reformation (London, 1981), p. 122Google Scholar.

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¹⁴ York records: extracts from the municipal records of the city of Tork, II, 72-3; in Hanham, Alison, Richard III, p. 63Google Scholar; for dykes, see Branston, Brian, The lost gods of England (London, 1984), p. 40Google Scholar; for Moses cursed as a dog and a devil, see York, xi, 240; for ‘Seldom lies the Devil dead in a ditch (by the dike side)’, see Tilley, Morris, A dictionary of the proverbs in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Ann Arbor, MI, 1950), D293Google Scholar; for the comment that the devil ‘came in over the dyke, in the likeness of ane dog’, see Davidson, Thomas, Rowan tret and red thread, p. 16Google Scholar; Ramsey, Lee C., Chivalric romances: popular literature in Medieval England (Bloomington, IN, 1983), p. 53Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Hanham, Alison, Richard III, pp. 121 n. 4, 122-3. The left and right sides were written in latei possibly in a second handGoogle Scholar.

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¹⁷ This debate was also about whether the Tower events took place on 13 June. See Ross, Charles, Richard III (Berkeley, CA, 1981), p. 84 n. 62Google Scholar; Wood, Charles T., ‘Richard III, William, Lord Hastings, and Friday the Thirteenth, ’ in Kings and noblts in Ike laltr middle ages: a tribute to Charles Ross, ed. Griffiths, Ralph A. and Sherborne, James (New York, 1986), pp. 155–68. Rumours in 1483 said the boys were in his control by 13 June. SeeGoogle ScholarThe usurpation of Richard III, ed. Armstrong, Charles A. J. (Oxford, 1969), p. 89Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Helterman, Jeffrey, Symbolic action in the plays of the Wakefield cycle, p. 121Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Elliott, John R. Jr, ‘The sacrifice of Isaac as comedy and tragedy’, Medieval English drama, pp. 157–76Google Scholar; in a 1519 debate over the Abbey's sanctuary rights, Cardinal Wolsey proposed that his legatine powers be used to expel its oflendors. See Ives, E. W., ‘Crime, sanctuary, and royal authority under Henry VIII: the exemplary sufferings of the Savage family’, in On tht laws and customs of England: essays in honour of Samuel E. Thome (Chapel Hill, NC, 1981), pp. 296–300Google Scholar.

²⁰ Nelson, Alan, The nudieval English stage, pp. 13–14; 13 June was also the day of St Anthony of Padua, a patron of pigs. SeeGoogle ScholarHutchison, Ruth and Adams, Ruth, Every day's a holiday (New York, 1951), pp. 132–3Google Scholar; Scullard, Howard H., Festivals and ceremonies of the Roman republic (Ithaca, NY, 1981), pp. 126, 153Google Scholar.

²¹ Schell, Edgar, Strangers and pilgrims.from the Castle of Perseverance to King Lear (Chicago, 1983), pp. 47–8, indicates mankind becoming more grotesque in looks as he commits more vicesGoogle Scholar; Anderson, M. D., Drama and imagery in English medieval churches (Cambridge, 1963), p. 173, for the devil and sleeping lateGoogle Scholar; Wright, Thomas, The homes of other days: a history of domestic manners and sentiments in England (Reprint, London, 1871), 261, 432; see alsoGoogle ScholarArmstrong, Charles A.J., ‘The piety of Cecily, duchess of York’, in For Hilaire Belloc: essays in honour of Ms 72nd birthday, ed. Woodruff, D. (London, 1942), pp. 73–94Google Scholar.

²² Cosman, Madeleine, Fabulousfeasts: medieval cookery and ceremony (New York, 1976), p. 121; in the Latin (p. 487) More specifies prandiumGoogle Scholar.

²³ Branston, Brian, The lost gods, pp. 51, 127Google Scholar; Leach, Maria, ed., Funk and Wagnall's standard dictionary of folklore, mythology, and legend (New York, 1949–1950), II, 1084Google Scholar.

²⁴ For first-fruit sacrifices, see James, Edwin O., Seasonal feasts andfestivals (New York, 1961), pp. 107-9, 139–43; for animal and fruit offerings to devils, seeGoogle ScholarThe Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Spenger, ed. Summers, Montague (New York, 1971), P. 47; for berries, seeGoogle ScholarBaker, Margaret, Folklore and customs of rural England (Totowa, NJ, 1974), p. 74Google Scholar; MacCulloch, John, The Celtic and Scandinavian religions (Reprint, 1973), p. 90Google Scholar; The mythology of all races, ed. Gray, Louis H. (New York, 1964), III, 54–5Google Scholar; Graves, Robert, The Greek myths, I, 95; since Shakespeare, who may never have seen the cycles, or at least not many performances of them, may not have realized More's meaning, this need not challengeGoogle ScholarRoss, Law Tence J., ‘The meaning of strawberries in Shakespeare’, Studies in the Renaissance, VII (1960), 225–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Wilson, J. Dover, ‘A note on “Richard III”: the bishop of Ely's strawberries’, Modern Language Review, LII (1957), 563–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²⁶ Ley, Willey, Dawn of Zoology (Englediffs, NJ, 1968), pp. 79–82;Google ScholarFurnivall, Frederick J., ed., Early English meals and manners (London, 1868), p. 85, n. to p. 181Google Scholar; Markham, Gervase, The English housewife (1615), ed. Best, Michael R. (Kingston, Can., 1986), p. XXXVGoogle Scholar; Henisch, Bridget A., Fast and feast: food in medieval society (University Park, PA, 1976), p. 115Google Scholar; Mead, William E., The English medieval feast (New York, 1967), pp. 109, 163, 250.Google Scholar For their sour taste, see Fuller, Thomas, The history of the worthies of England (London, 1662), I, 396.Google Scholar In ‘London Lackpenny’ Lydgate did refer to the hawking of strawberries in London, but these had most likely been gathered in the woods. See ‘Lydgate's minor poems’, in Early English poetry and popular literature of the middle ages, XXII (London, 1848), p. 105Google Scholar; Roach, Frederick A., Cultivated fruits of Britain: their origin and history (Oxford, 1985), pp. 23–9.Google Scholar Attitudes were changing. See Lorwin, Madge, Dining with William Shakespeare (New York, 1976), pp. 407–9.Google Scholar For records about the Holborn garden that did not mention strawberries, see Robertson, D. W., Chaucer's London (New York, 1968), p. 15Google Scholar; Aston, Margaret, Thomas Arundell: a study of church life in the reign of Richard II (Oxford, 1967), pp. 272 n. 274.Google Scholar The strawberry symbolized both treachery and righteousness. See Ferguson, George, Signs and symbols in Christian art, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1955). pp. 48–9;Google ScholarDiehl, Huston, An index of icons in English emblem books, 1500–1700 (Norman, OK, 1986), 182, 191.Google Scholar More's strawberries probably led to a folk poem about two babes lost in the woods with these lines:

And when they were dead

The robins so red

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²⁸ Helterman, Jeffrey, Symbolic action in the plays of the Wakefield, pp. 83–4Google Scholar.

²⁹ Kittredge, George L., Witchcraft in old and new England (Reprint, New York, 1972), pp. 17–18;Google Scholar I wish to thank Kenneth A. Hovey, University of Texas, San Antonio, for the information that in I Kings 13:4, God dried up Jeroboam's hand and then later restored it.

³⁰ Prosser, Eleanor, Drama and religion in the English mystery plays (Stanford, 1961), pp. 103–5Google Scholar

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³² Ingulph's chronicle of tht abbey of Croyland, ed. Riley, Henry T. (London, 1854), pp. 488, 491Google Scholar see also Mancinus, Dominicus, The usurpation of Richard the Third, ed. Armstrong, Charles A. J., edition (Oxford, 1969), p. 91Google Scholar.

³³ Mancinus, Dominicus, The usurpation of Richard tht Third, pp. 62–3,Google Scholar says that Richard accused Edward of being illegitimate, but Ross, CharlesRichard III, p. 89 n.Google Scholar remarks that it is curious that Richard would launch this attack on his mother, especially as having his nephews declared illegitimate was enough to obtain the throne. If he thus slandered her, there was a danger that he might cast aspersions on his own birth, for the reputation of a woman who was thought to have committed one immoral act was irretrievably damaged. See a discussion of honour in Warnicke, Retha M., ‘The eternal triangle and court politics: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Sir Thomas Wyatt’, Album, XVIII (1986), 565–79;Google Scholar no description of Richard, duke of York, has survived. See Johnson, P. A., Duke Richard of York, 1411–1460 (Oxford, 1988), pp. 2–3Google Scholar.

³⁴ Loomis, C. Grant, White magic: an introduction to the folklore of Christian legend (Cambridge, MA, 1948), p. 76Google Scholar; Spivack, Charlotte, The comedy of evil on Shakespeare's stage (Cranbury, NJ, 1978), pp. 13–39;Google ScholarRussell, Jeffrey B., Lucifer: the devil in the middle ages (Ithaca, 1984), p. 63; see alsoGoogle ScholarKolve, V. A., The play called Corpus Christi, p. 135Google Scholar; for antichrist, sec Travis, Peter, Dramatic design in the Chester cycle, p. 232Google Scholar; Vergil, Polydore in Three books of Polydore Vergil's English history, comprising the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III, ed. Ellis, Henry, Camden Society, XIX (London, 1844), 226,Google Scholar says he reigned ‘two years and so many monethes, and one day left over’. More seems to have followed Rous who had earlier said that Richard had reigned for three years and more like antichrist. See Hanham, Alison, Richard III, p. 122Google Scholar; Patrides, C. A., ‘“The Bloody and Cruell Turke:” The background of a renaissance commonplace’, Studies in the Renaissance, X (1963), 126–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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³⁶ Three books of Polydore Vergil's English history, p. 188, refers to the boys as babes but it is a later translation of Vergil. In Polydori Vergilii Vrbinatis Anglicae Historiae libri uiginti sex… (Basil, 1546), p. 547Google Scholar they are referred to as puer rather than infans, parvulus or pupa.; Stowe, John, A summarie of English chronicles (London, 1565), p. 163,Google Scholar for example, calls them ‘young children’; Marcus, Leah, ‘Christ child as sacrifice’, p. 491Google Scholar; in the last scene of the English text (p. 93) a reference is made to ‘one who had in his forehcd a bonch of flesh, ’ which he feared would be mistaken for a horn. Although this beast is identified elsewhere as an ass, it is interesting that More fails to so name him in this story, which actually seems to recall both the Wakefield shepherds’ play in which a sheep, masquerading as a lad, is referred to as ‘A hornyd lad or now’ (XIII, 601) and the Wakefield Judgment in which a shrew who is said to be ‘hornyd like a kowe’, a comment on her pointed headdress (XXX, 269). For the ass, see Hazlitt, W. Carew, Shakespeare jest books (London, 1864), III, 52–3Google Scholar.

³⁷ Sylvester, Richard, Richard III, The Yale Edition, pp. xxxi–xxxiii, xli–xlii, 1–li, IviGoogle Scholar.

³⁸ Kinney, Daniel, Historia Richardi, p. cliiGoogle Scholar.

³⁹ Ibid.; Sylvester, Richard, Richard III, The Yale edition, p. xxviiiGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁰ Ibid. pp. lv–lvi, lviii.