In 1436, we find the Bishop of Hola, in Iceland, whimsically enough hiring the master of a London merchant ship to sail to Iceland as his proxy, and to perform the necessary visitation of his see; the good prelate dreading in person to encounter the boisterous northern ocean.

I doubt not that almost every bishop in the kingdom may do the same generous act with less damage to their sees than his late Grace of Dublin; much of whose lands were out in fee-farms, or leases for lives, and I am sorry that the good example of that prelate hath not been followed.

Its laborious affectation is all the more irritating when we remember that its author, on turning his attention to the more or less unseemly brawling of the Martin Mar-prelate pasquilade, revealed a command of effective vernacular hardly, if at all, inferior to that of his friend Nashe; and its complex artificiality becomes but more apparent when applied to dramatic work.

And when thei han brought it thider, the chief prelate smytethe of the hede, and leythe it upon a gret platere of Gold and of sylver, zif so be he be a riche man; and than he takethe the hede to the sone; and thanne the sone and his other kyn syngen and seyn manye orisouns: and thanne the prestes, and the religious men, smyten alle the body of the dede man in peces: and thanne thei seyn certeyn orisouns.