A declaration of Popish imposture

you who have heard before—Mr. Cornelius, Mr. Dibdale, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Stemp, Mr. Tyrrell, Mr. Dryland, Mr. Tulice, Mr. Sherwood, Mr. Winkefield, Mr. Mud, Mr. Dakins, Mr. Ballard, and others besides, who were daily comers and goers.

This play of sacred miracles was performed in various houses suited for the feat: in the house of the Lord Vaux at Hackney, of Mr. Barnes at Fulmer, of Mr. Hughes at Uxbridge, of Sir George Peckham at Denham, and of the Earl of Lincoln in Chanon Row in London. The years chosen to act and publish these wonders were 1585 and 1586, ending with the apprehension and execution of Ballard, Babington, and the rest of that impious consort.

And because the gentle inviter of us to come and see his wonders—himself and his actors—plays at being unseen when we arrive, it has been thought appropriate to send for him, and as many of his play-fellows as Tyburn the site of the gallows in London will allow to come, to confer further with them regarding this mystical play. We shall ask whether the parts have been handled handsomely and cunningly or not; what the scope of the author, Edmunds, and his associates was in this wonderful pageant; and whether good decorum dramatic propriety or suitability has been kept in acting the same. Wherein (I must tell you) some pains have been taken by those in authority to find the agents, patients, and assistants who furnished the stage, and to bring them to speak their parts so clearly on the stage that every young child may see who he is, what he means, and where his part tends.

Marwood and Trayford cannot yet be found; it is thought they have been conveyed beyond the seas (as some others of their play-fellows should have been) for telling tales. The other four possessed have come to light and, upon gentle conference, have frankly and freely avowed,