In this piece there is a rather conspicuous absence of motive and dramatic construction, the author claiming apparently the freedom of the masque.  The verse is mainly octosyllabic, sometimes blank, but the rough accentual ‘rime’ is also used.  Decasyllabics are rare.  There is also some prose in the comic part sustained by Autolicus and Conto and the aged clown Jarbus, as well as a certain amount of Spenserian archaism, and a good deal of dialect.  Whether comic or romantic, the characters are singularly out of keeping with their surroundings, while the conceit of paganizing the Christian worship appears to be carried to ludicrous lengths, until one recollects that it depends almost entirely upon the substitution of the name of Pan for that of the Deity—­a process no doubt facilitated by false etymology.  Thus Christ, who is spoken of by name, is called ’Pannes blest babe.’  After describing the foundation of Salisbury Cathedral, the old shepherd proceeds: 

    But sturdy shepherds brought all the other stones,
    And reard up that great Munster all at once,
    Wher shepherds each one, both woman and man,
    Do come to worship theyr great God Pann.

A rustic show formed the first part of an entertainment witnessed by Charles and Henrietta Maria at Richmond, after their return from a visit to Oxford in 1636.  A clown named Tom comes in bearing a present for the queen, and is on the point of being unceremoniously removed by the usher, when he espies Mr. Edward Sackville, to whom he appeals, and a dialogue ensues between the two.  After he has offered his present, Madge, Doll, and Richard come in, and the four perform a country dance.  They are all plain Wiltshire rustics who talk a broad vernacular, but at the end a shepherd and shepherdess enter and sing a duet in a more courtly strain.  The author of this slight production is not known, but it is regarded by the latest authority on masques as an imitation, in the looseness of its construction, of Davenant’s Prince d’Amour.[351]

Little poetic ability was displayed by Heywood on the only occasion on which he introduced pastoral tradition into a Lord Mayor’s pageant.  The ‘first show by land’ of the Porta Pietatis, presented by the drapers in 1638 on the occasion of Sir Maurice Abbot’s mayoralty, consisted of a speech by a shepherd, which is preceded in the printed copy by a short account of the properties, natural history, and general usefulness of sheep, as well as of their peculiar importance in relation to the craft honoured in the person of the newly appointed Lieutenant of the city of London.  Heywood was famous for his wide, miscellaneous, and often startling information.