Enterlude of detraction, light judgment, verity, and justice

Anon. (c.1550)

Historical Records

Print fragment

Five fragments from 2 leaves (E1 and E3) survive at the Huntington Library:

Anon., [Enterlude of detraction, light judgment, verity, and justice], [London : S.n., ca. 1550], RB 131401:11 (fragment).

(Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.)

The ordering of the fragments below follows Katharine Pantzer's conjectural reconstruction (typescript and MS notes accompanying the fragments at the Huntington, made in October 1973):

sig.E1r		sig.E1v

sig.E3r		sig.E3v

Transcription

		Ts to confounde
		And cast to grounde
		Bothe man and chylde
		As for you and me
		Our apparrell chaunged must be
		This aray is to wylde
		And by saynt James
		Bothe our names
		Must be of more grauyte
		Ye shall be callyd wysdom
		And I by my halydom
		Reformacyon wyll be
		For many tymes Detraccyon
		Pretendeth correccyon
		By sad dyreccyon
		To refourme yll
		And yet there is but dissymulacyon
		To optayne his owne wyll
		For ere it longe be
		Hether wyll com Veryty
		For to se true Justice
		Our saynge than must be
		How he is ouer the see
		Into the lande of Fryse
		And so shall take his way
		Streight ouer to sauoy
		And so forth to Boeme
		And from thens to Germanie
		And so com home by Ytalie
		Heretykes to reclayme
light iu.		¶And by the way here and there
			E i.

		To confounde Luthere
		And all his hole rable
		And lefte worde by you & me
		That to hym sholde veryte
		Hye hym in all haste possyble
		But whan this matter is broken
		It must be holyly spoken
		And with a fayre face
		Thy wordes must be sure
		And they countenaunce so demure
		As though that father grace
		From heuyn were com downe
		In his owne person
		With aungels great and smale
Detrac.		¶How cum in our chamberere
		That we apparellyd were				one bryngeth
		Accordynge to our tale				them aparell.
light iu.		¶
		Yf we handle it
		with worde and countenaunce wysely
detrac.		¶As well as we may
		Let vs assay
		To do it diligently
veryty,		¶ O lorde what rumour, and what busynes
		How greuous slaūdre, what defamacyon
		what dysorder, what wrathe, & vnkyndnes
		Dayly is had in comunicacion
		There is no regarde, nor no repetacyon
		But each man other, putteth to exaccyon
		Thrugh Light iudgement, & vyle detraccyon.
		If Justyce wyll nat prouyde remedy
		I fere in haste, each man shall other kyll

Theatrical Provenance

Unknown.

Probable Genre(s)

Moral (Wiggins).

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

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References to the Play

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Critical Commentary

See Wiggins 208.

For What It's Worth

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Works Cited

Anon., [Enterlude of detraction, light judgment, verity, and justice], [London : S.n., ca. 1550], RB 131401:11 (fragment).

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