LORD OF MISRULE, the master of the revels at Christmas in any nobleman's or other great house. " First in the feast at Christmas," says Stowe, 'Survey of London,' "there was iu the king's house, wheresoever ho was lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or master of merry disports, and the like had ye iu the house of every nobleman of honour or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal ; amongst the which the mayor of London, and either of the sheriffs, had their several Lords of Misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or offence, who make the rarest pastimes to delight the beholders. These lords, beginning their rule on Alhallow-eve, continued. the same till the morrow after the Feast of Purification, commonly called Candlemas day : in all which space there•were fine and subtle disguieinga, masks, and mummeries, with playing at cards for counters, nailes, and points in every house, more for pastime than for gain." This lord of Misrule, or revel-master, n-as sometimes termed a Christmas prince. Warton, in his' (history of English Poetry,' tells us that in an original draught of the statutes of Trinity College at Cambridge, founded in 1546, one of the chapters is entitled, De air:elect° Ludorum, qui Imperator dicitur,' under whose direction and authority Latin comedies and tragedies are to be exhibited in the hall it Christmas; as also "sex apectacula," or as many dialogues. With regard to the peculiar business and office of Imperator, it is ordered that one of the Masters of Arts shall be placed over the juniors every Christmas, for the regulation of their games and diversions at that senaon of festivity. Ilia sovereignty was to last during the twelve days
if Christmas, and he was to exercise the same power on Candlemas lay. His fee was forty shillings. In an audit-book of Trinity College n Oxford, for the year 1559, Mr.lVarton found a disbursement " pro l'rineipts Aatalicii." A Christmas prince or lord of misrule, le adds, corresponding to the imperator at Cambridge, HMS a common temporary magistrate in the colleges at Oxford. The law societies of London had similar commemorations, and in 1635, the expenses of the Amster of the Revels in the Middle Temple ainceinted to 20001., paid 'nom his own purse, and when he was deposed, or his term of office had ,xpired, he was knighted by the king. After 1640 we hear nothing of he Lord of Misrule in England.
In Scotland, where the Reformation took a more severe and gloomy rum than in England, the "Abbot of Unreason," as he was there ailed, and other festive characters, were suppressed by the legiala ure as early as 1555. At Hodes, the capital of the province of tovergue in France, previous to the Revolution, they had an " Abb6 de is Malgouvernd," who corresponded exactly with our Lord of Misrule.