[Illustration: FIG. 20.--_Pall from the Church of Folleville, France, now in the Museum at Amiens. It is of black velvet, with stripes of white silk let in, embroidered with black and gold thread. It was placed over the coffin. Similar palls existed in England, and one or two are still preserved in our national collections._]
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--_Scene from Richard III._--_The body of Henry VI. being by chance met by Richard on its way to Chertsey, he orders the bearers to set it down, and then pleads his cause to the Lady Anne._]
Shakespeare, whose knowledge of Catholicism of course came to him from immediate tradition, possibly remembered a very ancient custom when, in _Richard III._, he makes the Duke of Glo'ster command the attendants who follow the body of Henry VI. to set it down,--an order which they obey reluctantly enough,--thereby giving him an opportunity to make love to Lady Anne in the presence of her murdered father-in-law's remains. In Catholic times the streets were adorned not only by many fine crosses, such as those at Charing and Cheapside, but also by numerous chapels and wayside shrines. Funerals, when they passed these, were in the habit of stopping, and the assistants, kneeling, prayed for the dead person whom they were carrying to the grave. They likewise stopped, also, and very frequently too, at certain well-known public-houses or taverns, the members of the family of the deceased being obliged by custom to "wet the lips" of the "thirsty souls" who carried the corpse. Sometimes very disorderly scenes ensued. The hired mourners and more unruly members of the guilds got drunk; and it is on record that on more than one occasion the body was pulled out of its coffin by these rascals and outraged, to the horror and indignation of honest people. It has frequently occurred to the writer, that if the attendants in the curious scene in the tragedy just mentioned, were to convey the body of the dead King to the side or back of the stage, in front of some shrine or cross, and occupy themselves with prayer, they would render the astonishing dialogue between Glo'ster and Lady Anne much more intelligible than when we hear it spoken, as is usually the case, before a number of persons for whose ears it was certainly never intended.