+---------------------------------------------------------+
    |                        NOTE:                            |
    |                                                         |
    | Text that surrounds _word_ indicates italics.           |
    | Text that surrounds =word= indicates bold.              |
    | Transcriber notes are found at the end of this text.    |
    | The Contents and List of Illustrations apply to         |
    |   this volume only                                      |
    +---------------------------------------------------------+





THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE

VOL. I




Oxford University Press

    _London_      _Edinburgh_      _Glasgow_      _Copenhagen_
    _New York_     _Toronto_       _Melbourne_     _Cape Town_
    _Bombay_      _Calcutta_        _Madras_       _Shanghai_

Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY

[Illustration:

    _Emery Walker ph. sc._

_Wedding Mask of Sir Henry Unton_

_National Portrait Gallery_]




    THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE
    BY E. K. CHAMBERS. VOL. I

    OXFORD: AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
    M.CMXXIII




Printed in England




PREFACE


In 1903 I explained the origin of _The Mediaeval Stage_ out of
preliminary investigations for a little book on Shakespeare. That little
book is still unwritten, and perhaps it was only a mirage, since working
days have their term, and all that I can now offer, after an interval of
twenty years, is another instalment of _prolegomena_. It has been in
hand, more or less, throughout that period, which now ends felicitously
with the tercentenary of the First Folio. But it has often been laid
aside for other literary diversions, and still more often through the
preoccupations of a life mainly concerned with activities remote from
letters. As a result, I have constantly had to take account of new
material furnished by the research or the speculations of others; and I
only hope that in the process of revision I have succeeded in achieving
a reasonable completeness of statement and a reasonable consistency in
the conclusions of chapters drafted at very different dates.

Much in these volumes is of course mere archaeology, but the historian
may find some interest in the development of the stage as an
institution, and in the social and economic conditions which made such a
development possible. My First Book is devoted to a description, perhaps
disproportionate, of the Elizabethan Court, and of the ramifications in
pageant and progress, tilt and mask, of that instinct for spectacular
_mimesis_, which the Renaissance inherited from the Middle Ages, and of
which the drama is itself the most important manifestation. The Second
Book gives an account of the settlement of the players in London, of
their conflict, backed by the Court, with the tendencies of Puritanism,
and of the place which they ultimately found in the monarchical polity.
To the Third and Fourth belong the more pedestrian task of following in
detail the fortunes of the individual playing companies and the
individual theatres, with such fullness as the available records permit.
The Fifth deals with the surviving plays, not in their literary aspect,
which lies outside my plan, but as documents helping to throw light upon
the history of the institution which produced them. I have not for the
most part carried my investigations beyond the death of Shakespeare, and
although I have sometimes regretted that I did not push on to the
closing of the theatres, the decision not to do so has long been
irretrievable.

Obviously I am treading a region far more carefully charted by
predecessors than that of _The Mediaeval Stage_; but the progress of
Elizabethan scholarship during recent years has been so great as to
render a fresh attempt at a synthesis justifiable. I am conscious of a
deeper debt than I can express to many fellow-workers, notably to my
friends Dr. W. W. Greg and Mr. A. W. Pollard and Professor Feuillerat of
Rennes, and to a growing band of American students, of whom I may name
Professor C. W. Wallace and Mr. J. T. Murray as examples.

    E. K. C.

     _January, 1923._




CONTENTS




VOLUME I


                                            PAGE

    PREFACE                                  vii

    LIST OF AUTHORITIES                       xv


BOOK I. THE COURT

    I. ELIZABETH AND JAMES                     1

    II. THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD                   27

    III. THE REVELS OFFICE                    71

    IV. PAGEANTRY                            106

    V. THE MASK                              149

    VI. THE MASK (_continued_)               175

    VII. THE COURT PLAY                      213


BOOK II. THE CONTROL OF THE STAGE

    VIII. HUMANISM AND PURITANISM            236

    IX. THE STRUGGLE OF COURT AND CITY       269

    X. THE ACTOR'S QUALITY                   308

    XI. THE ACTOR'S ECONOMICS                348





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


    Wedding Mask of Sir Henry Unton. From
     picture in National Portrait Gallery        Vol. i, _frontispiece_




NOTE ON SYMBOLS


I HAVE found it convenient, especially in Appendix A, to use the symbol
<, following a date, to indicate an uncertain date not earlier than that
named, and the symbol >, followed by a date, to indicate an uncertain
date not later than that named. Thus 1903 <> 23 would indicate the
composition date of any part of this book. I have sometimes placed the
date of a play in italics, where it was desirable to indicate the date
of production rather than publication.




LIST OF AUTHORITIES


[_General Bibliographical Note._ The few books here named are mainly
those whose range is sufficiently wide to cover the greater part of my
own ground. Others, more limited in their scope, are reserved for
mention in the preliminary notes to the chapters upon whose
subject-matter they directly bear; and in particular the bibliography of
the drama, as distinct from the stage, receives full treatment in Book
V. The scanty Restoration notices of the pre-Restoration stage are to be
found in R. Flecknoe, _A Short Discourse of the English Stage_ (1664),
the anonymous _Historia Histrionica_ (1699) ascribed to James Wright,
and J. Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1708). W. R. Chetwood's _General
History of the Stage_ (1749) is of no value, and its honesty is suspect.
The first scholar to attempt a systematic history was E. Malone, in his
_Account of our Ancient Theatres_ (1790) and _Historical Account of the
Rise and Progress of the English Stage_ (1790), of which a revised
version, with much fresh matter, was included by J. Boswell in the
_Third Variorum Shakespeare_ (1821). Something was added by G. Chalmers
in the _Account of the Rise and Progress of the English Stage_ which
forms part of his _Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare-Papers_
(1797), and in an enlarged shape of his _Supplemental Apology_ (1799).
The first edition of J. P. Collier's _History of English Dramatic Poetry
and Annals of the Stage_ appeared in 1831. Thereafter Collier made many
further contributions to the subject, in the publications of the
_Shakespeare Society_, and in his _New Facts regarding the Life of
Shakespeare_ (1835), _New Particulars regarding the Works of
Shakespeare_ (1836), and _Farther Particulars regarding Shakespeare and
his Works_ (1839). These abound in forgeries, of which some are analysed
in C. M. Ingleby, _A Complete View of the Shakspere Controversy_ (1861),
and which have not all been excluded from the current edition of the
_History_ (1879). Some new ground was broken by F. G. Fleay, who gave
real stimulus to investigation by the series of hasty generalizations
and unstable hypotheses contained in his _On the Actor Lists, 1578-1642_
(_R. H. Soc. Trans._ ix. 44), _On the History of Theatres in London,
1576-1642_ (_R. H. Soc. Trans._ x. 114), _Shakespeare Manual_ (1876,
1878), _Introduction to Shakespearian Study_ (1877), _Life and Work of
Shakespeare_ (1886), _Chronicle History of the London Stage_ (1890), and
_Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama_ (1891). Little is added
to or corrected in Fleay by H. Maas, _Äussere Geschichte der englischen
Theatertruppen_ (1907). Some useful documents were brought together by
W. C. Hazlitt, _The English Drama and Stage under the Tudor and Stuart
Princes_ (1869). An interesting account from the French point of view is
given of the earlier part of the period by J. J. Jusserand, _Le Théâtre
en Angleterre depuis la Conquête jusqu'aux prédécesseurs immédiats de
Shakespeare_ (1878, 1881). R. A. Small, _The Stage-quarrel between Ben
Jonson and the So-called Poetasters_ (1899), and G. P. Baker, _The
Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist_ (1907), are also valuable
studies. Light is thrown upon stage-history by other specialist books
about Shakespeare, particularly J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines of
the Life of Shakespeare_ (1881, 1890), and S. Lee, _Life of William
Shakespeare_ (1898, 1915, 1922). In recent years fresh material has been
brought together by various researchers, notably by J. T. Murray in
_English Dramatic Companies_ (1910) and by C. W. Wallace in _The
Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars_ (1908), _The Evolution of the
English Drama up to Shakespeare_ (1912), and in a number of papers in
the _Nebraska University Studies_ and elsewhere. The Dulwich documents
originally published by J. P. Collier in _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_
(1841), _Alleyn Papers_ (1843), and _Henslowe's Diary_ (1845) have been
more scientifically edited by W. W. Greg in _Henslowe's Diary_ (1904-8)
and _Henslowe Papers_ (1907), and the _Extracts from Accounts of Revels
at Court_ (1842) by P. Cunningham have been superseded and supplemented
by A. Feuillerat, _Documents relating to the Office of the Revels in the
Time of Queen Elizabeth_ (1908) and _Documents relating to the Revels at
Court in the Time of King Edward VI and Queen Mary_ (1914). The work of
gathering together miscellaneous documents and studies passed from _The
Shakespeare Society's Papers_ (1844-9) to the _Transactions of the New
Shakspere Society_ (1874-92), and is now carried on by the _Collections_
(1907-13) of the _Malone Society_. A summary of both the older and the
recent learning will be found in A. H. Thorndike, _Shakespeare's
Theater_ (1916), and a full account of the theatres in J. Q. Adams,
_Shakespearean Playhouses_ (1917). Little importance need be attached to
H. B. Baker, _The London Stage_ (1889, 1904), or to C. Hastings, _The
Theatre: its Development in France and England_ (1901), or to R. F.
Sharp, _A Short History of the English Stage_ (1909), or to M. Jonas,
_Shakespeare and the Stage_ (1918). But J. Genest, _Some Account of the
English Stage_ (1832), is still valuable on the Restoration period, of
which a modern account is given in R. W. Lowe, _Thomas Betterton_
(1891), while W. J. Lawrence, _The Elizabethan Playhouse_ (1912, 1913),
and A. Thaler, _Shakspere to Sheridan_ (1922), help to trace the
connexion with Elizabethan days.--The chief histories of the Elizabethan
drama are A. W. Ward, _History of English Dramatic Literature to the
Death of Queen Anne_ (1875, 1899), J. A. Symonds, _Shakspere's
Predecessors in the English Drama_ (1884, 1900), F. E. Schelling,
_Elizabethan Drama_ (1908), C. F. T. Brooke, _The Tudor Drama_ (1912). A
special aspect is dealt with in F. S. Boas, _University Drama in the
Tudor Age_ (1914), and a daughter period in G. H. Nettleton, _English
Drama of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century_ (1914). The drama of
modern Europe generally is treated in J. Klein, _Geschichte des Dramas_
(1865-75), and R. Prölss, _Geschichte des neueren Dramas_ (1881-3), both
of which are now of less value than the comprehensive _Geschichte des
neueren Dramas_ (1893-1916) of W. Creizenach, from which part of the
English section has been translated as _The English Drama in the Age of
Shakespeare_ (1916). Treatises on contemporary foreign stages are A.
d'Ancona, _Origini del Teatro italiano_ (1891), E. Rigal, _Le Théâtre
français avant la période classique_ (1901), and H. A. Rennert, _The
Spanish Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega_ (1909).--Of general histories
of English literature the most important are Hazlitt-Warton, _History of
English Poetry, from the Twelfth to the close of the Sixteenth Century_
(1871), H. A. Taine, _History of English Literature_ (1890), H. Morley,
_English Writers_ (1887-95), J. J. Jusserand, _Histoire littéraire du
peuple anglais_ (1894-1904), G. Körting, _Grundriss der Geschichte der
englischen Literatur_ (1910, mainly of bibliographical value), W. J.
Courthope, _History of English Poetry_ (1895-1910), and _The Cambridge
History of English Literature_ (1907-16), of which vols, v and vi are
wholly devoted to the pre-Restoration drama. The social conditions of
the period may be best studied in _Shakespeare's England_ (1916). The
most valuable bibliographical data are in W. W. Greg, _A List of English
Plays_ (1900) and _A List of Masques, Pageants, &c._ (1902), and in the
_Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers_, edited by E.
Arber (1875-94), for 1554-1640, and by G. E. B. Eyre (1913-14) for
1640-1708. The _Dictionary of National Biography_ is a standard work of
reference. Of the periodicals in which dissertations on the stage and
drama have been published, the most important are, in England, _The
Modern Language Quarterly_ (1896-1902) and its successor _The Modern
Language Review_ (1905-22), _Notes and Queries_ (1850-1922), and _The
Library_ (1889-1922); in America, _Modern Philology_ (1903-22), _Modern
Language Notes_ (1886-1922), _The Publications of the Modern Language
Association of America_ (1886-1922), _The Journal of English and
Germanic Philology_ (1897-1921), and _Studies in Philology_ (1915-22);
and in Germany, the _Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft_
(1865-1921), _Englische Studien_ (1877-1922), _Anglia_ (1878-1922), and
_Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen_
(1848-1922).

The following list of books is mainly intended to elucidate the
references in the foot-notes, and has no claim to bibliographical
completeness or accuracy.]

     _Abstract._ Truth Brought to Light and Discovered by Time.
     1651. [With Abstract of revenue and expenditure for 1617.]

     ADAMS. A Dictionary of the Drama. By W. D. Adams. Vol. i, A-G,
     1904 [all issued].

     ADAMS. Shakespearean Playhouses. By J. Q. Adams. 1917.

     AIKIN, _Eliz._ Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth. By L.
     Aikin. 2 vols., 1818.

     AIKIN, _James_. Memoirs of the Court of James I. By L. Aikin. 2
     vols., 1822.

     ALBRECHT. Das englische Kindertheater. Von A. Albrecht. 1883.
     [Halle dissertation.]

     ALBRIGHT. The Shakespearian Stage. By V. E. Albright. 1909.

     ANCONA. Origini del Teatro italiano. Per A. d'Ancona. 2nd ed.,
     2 vols., 1891.

     _Anglia._ Zeitschrift für englische Philologie. Vols. i-xlvi.
     1878-1922. Beiblatt zu _Anglia_. Mitteilungen über englische
     Sprache und Literatur. Vols. i-xxxiii. 1891-1922.

     ANKENBRAND. Die Figur des Geistes im Drama der englischen
     Renaissance. Von H. Ankenbrand. 1906.

     ANSON. The Law and Custom of the Constitution. By W. R. Anson.
     4th ed., 2 vols., 1909, 1911.

     ARBER. Transcript of the Registers of the Company of
     Stationers, 1554-1640. Edited by E. Arber. 5 vols., 1875-94.

     _Archiv._ Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und
     Literaturen. Vols. i-cxliii., 1848-1922. [Known as _Herrig's
     Archiv_. In progress.]

     ASHMOLE. The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Garter. By
     E. Ashmole. 1672.

     AUBREY. 'Brief Lives', Chiefly of Contemporaries, set down by
     John Aubrey. Edited by A. Clark. 2 vols., 1898.

     AYDELOTTE. Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds. By Frank
     Aydelotte. 1913. [_Oxford Historical and Literary Studies._]

     BAKER. The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist. By G. P.
     Baker. 1907.

     BAKER. The London Stage: Its History, 1576-1888. By H. B.
     Baker. 2 vols., 1889; 2nd ed. 1 vol., 1904.

     BALDWIN. The King's Council in England during the Middle Ages.
     By J. F. Baldwin. 1913.

     BALLWEG. Das klassizistische Drama zur Zeit Shakespeares. Von
     O. Ballweg. 1910.

     BAPST. Essai sur l'Histoire du Théâtre. Par E. Bapst. 1893.

     BATES-GODFREY. English Drama. A Working Basis. By K. L. Bates
     and L. B. Godfrey. 1896. [_Wellesley College._]

     BATIFFOL. The Century of the Renaissance. By L. Batiffol.
     Translated by E. F. Buckley. 1916.

     BAYFIELD. A Study of Shakespeare's Versification. By M. A.
     Bayfield. 1920.

     BEARD. The Office of Justice of the Peace in England in its
     Origin and Development. By C. A. Beard. 1904. [_Columbia Univ.
     Studies._]

     BEAUMONT. L'Ambassade de France en Angleterre sous Henri IV.
     Mission de Christophe de Harley, Comte de Beaumont (1602-5).
     Par P. P. Laffleur de Kermaingant. 2 vols., 1895.

     BEESLY. Queen Elizabeth. By E. S. Beesly. 1892.

     _Berkeley MSS._ Catalogue of the Muniments at Berkeley Castle.
     By I. H. Jeayes. 1892.

     BESANT. London in the Time of the Stuarts. By W. Besant. 1903.

     BESANT. London in the Time of the Tudors. By W. Besant. 1904.

     BESANT. London South of the Thames. By W. Besant. 1912.

     _Bibliographica._ Bibliographica. 3 vols., 1895-7.

     _Bibl. Soc._ The Bibliographical Society.

     _Bibl. Trans._ Transactions of the Bibliographical Society. 15
     vols., 1893-1919. Index to vols. i-x, 1910; to vols. xi-xv,
     1919. [Amalgamated from 1920 with _The Library_ (q.v.).]

     _Biog. Dram._ Biographia Dramatica: Memoirs of Dramatic Writers
     and Actors. To 1764 by D. E. Baker, continued to 1782 by I.
     Reed, and to 1811 by S. Jones. 3 vols. in 4, 1812.

     BIRCH, _Eliz._ Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from the
     Year 1581 till her Death. By T. Birch. 2 vols., 1754.

     BIRCH, _Henry_. The Life of Henry Prince of Wales, Eldest Son
     of King James I. By T. Birch. 1760.

     BIRCH, _James_. The Court and Times of James the First. Edited
     [from collections of T. Birch] by the Author of 'Memoirs of
     Sophia Dorothea'. 2 vols., 1848.

     _B. L._ The Belles-Lettres Series.

     BOAS. Shakspere and his Predecessors. By F. S. Boas. 1896.

     BOAS. University Drama in the Tudor Age. By F. S. Boas. 1914.

     BOHUN. A Full Account of the Character of Queen Elizabeth. By
     E. Bohun. 1693.

     BOISSISE. L'Ambassade de France en Angleterre sous Henri IV.
     Mission de Jean de Thumery, Sieur de Boissise (1596-1602). Par
     P. P. Laffleur de Kermaingant. 2 vols., 1886.

     BOLTE. Die Singspiele der englischen Komödianten und ihrer
     Nachfolger in Deutschland, Holland, und Scandinavien. Von J.
     Bolte. 1893.

     BOND, _Lyly_. The Complete Works of John Lyly. Edited by R. W.
     Bond. 3 vols., 1902.

     BRADLEY. Shakespearean Tragedy. By A. C. Bradley. 1904.

     BRADLEY. Life of the Lady Arabella Stuart. By E. T. Bradley. 2
     vols., 1889.

     BRAINES. Holywell Priory and the Site of the Theatre,
     Shoreditch. By W. W. Braines. 1915.

     BRAINES. The Site of the Globe Playhouse. By W. W. Braines.
     1921.

     BRANDL. Quellen des weltlichen Dramas in England vor
     Shakespeare. Von A. Brandl. 1898.

     BREWER. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign
     of Henry VIII. Arranged and catalogued by J. S. Brewer [and
     afterwards J. Gairdner and R. H. Brodie]. 21 vols., 1862-1910.
     [_Calendars of State Papers._]

     BRODMEIER. Die Shakespeare-Bühne nach den alten
     Bühnen-Anweisungen. Von C. Brodmeier. 1904.

     BROOKE. The Shakespeare Apocrypha. Edited by C. F. T. Brooke.
     1908.

     BROOKE. The Tudor Drama; a History of English National Drama to
     the Retirement of Shakespeare. By C. F. T. Brooke. 1912.

     BROTANEK. Die englischen Maskenspiele. Von R. Brotanek. 1902.

     BRUCE. Letters of Elizabeth and James VI. By J. Bruce. 1849.
     [_C. S._ xlvi.]

     BULLEN, _O. E. P._ A Collection of Old English Plays. Edited by
     A. H. Bullen. 4 vols., 1882-5.

     BURGON. Life and Times of Sir T. Gresham. By J. W. Burgon. 2
     vols., 1839.

     BURN. The High Commission. By J. S. Burn. 1865.

     BURN. The Star Chamber. By J. S. Burn. 1870.

     _Cabala._ Cabala, sive Scrinia Sacra: Mysteries of State and
     Government in Letters of Illustrious Persons and Great
     Ministers of State. 1654. 3rd ed., 2 Parts, 1691.

     CAMDEN. G. Camdeni Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum
     Regnante Elizabetha. 1615-25. Edidit T. Hearnius. 3 vols.,
     1717. Transl. 3rd ed. 1635.

     CAMDEN, _James_. Gulielmi Camdeni Annales ab Anno 1603 ad Annum
     1623 [appended to _Camdeni et Illustrium Virorum Epistolae_,
     1691].

     CAPELL. Notitia Dramatica; or, Tables of Ancient Playes (from
     their Beginning to the Restoration of Charles the Second) so
     many as have been printed, with their Several Editions:
     faithfully compiled and digested in quite new method, by
     E[dward] C[apell] [1783]. [Part of _The School of
     Shakespeare_.]

     CARLISLE. An Inquiry into the Place and Quality of the
     Gentlemen of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Chamber. By N.
     Carlisle. 1829.

     CAREY. Memoirs of Robert Cary Earl of Monmouth. Edited by G. H.
     Powell. 1905.

     CASTELAIN. Ben Jonson: l'homme et l'œuvre. Par M. Castelain.
     1907.

     _C. D. I._ Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de
     España. Por M. Fernandez de Navarrete. 112 vols., 1842-95.

     CECIL. Life of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. By A.
     Cecil. 1915.

     _C. H._ The Cambridge History of English Literature. Edited by
     A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller. 14 vols., 1907-16.

     CHALMERS. An Apology for the Believers in the
     Shakspeare-Papers. [By G. Chalmers.] 1797. [Includes an
     _Account of the Rise and Progress of the English Stage_,
     reprinted in _Variorum_ iii. 410.]

     CHALMERS, _S. A._ A Supplemental Apology for the Believers in
     the Shakspeare-Papers. [By G. Chalmers.] 1799. [Contains an
     enlarged _Account of the English Stage_.]

     CHAMBERLAIN. Letters written by John Chamberlain during the
     Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Edited by S. Williams. 1861. [_C. S._
     lxxix.]

     CHAMBERLAYNE. Angliae Notitiae, or The Present State of
     England. By J. Chamberlayne. 1669, &c.

     CHAMBERLIN. The Private Character of Queen Elizabeth. By F.
     Chamberlin. 1921.

     CHAMBERS. Cyclopaedia of English Literature. New edition by D.
     Patrick. 3 vols., 1901-3. W. and R. Chambers.

     CHAMBERS. A Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book. Edited by R. W.
     Chambers. 1914. [_E. E. T. S._ o. s. cxlviii.]

     CHAMBERS. The Mediaeval Stage. By E. K. Chambers. 2 vols.,
     1903.

     CHAMBERS. Notes on the History of the Revels Office under the
     Tudors. By E. K. Chambers. 1906.

     CHAPMAN. Ancient Royal Palaces in and near London. Drawn in
     Lithography by T. R. Way. With Notes compiled by F. Chapman.
     1902.

     CHARVET. Sébastien Serlio. Par L. Charvet. 1897.

     CHASE. The English Heroic Play. By L. N. Chase. 1903.

     _Chaucer Records._ Life Records of Chaucer. By F. J. Furnivall
     and R. E. G. Kirk. 4 Parts, 1875-1900. [_Chaucer Soc._ ii. 12,
     14, 21, 32.]

     CHETWOOD. The British Theatre. Containing the Lives of the
     English Dramatic Poets; with an Account of all their Plays. By
     W. R. Chetwood. 1750, 1752.

     CHETWOOD. A General History of the Stage, from its Origin in
     Greece down to the Present Time, with Memoirs of the Principal
     Performers. By W. R. Chetwood. 1749.

     CHEYNEY. A History of England, from the Defeat of the Armada to
     the Death of Elizabeth. By E. P. Cheyney. Vol. i, 1914. [In
     progress.]

     CHURCHILL. Richard the Third up to Shakespeare. By G. B.
     Churchill. 1900.

     CLAPHAM-GODFREY. Some Famous Buildings and their Story. By A.
     W. Clapham and W. H. Godfrey. [1913.]

     CLEPHAN. The Tournament. Its Periods and Phases. By R. C.
     Clephan. 1919.

     CLODE. The Early History of the Guild of Merchant Taylors. By
     C. M. Clode. 2 vols., 1888.

     CLODE. Memorials of the Guild of Merchant Taylors. By C. M.
     Clode. 1875.

     COHN. Shakespeare in Germany in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
     Centuries. By A. Cohn. 1865.

     COKAYNE. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great
     Britain, and the United Kingdom. By G. E. C[okayne], 8 vols.,
     1887-98; 2nd ed. by V. Gibbs, 1910-21. [In progress.]

     COLLIER. The History of English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of
     Shakespeare: and Annals of the Stage to the Restoration. By J.
     P. Collier. 3 vols., 1831; new ed. [cited], 3 vols., 1879.

     COLLIER, _M. A._ Memoirs of Edward Alleyn. By J. P. Collier.
     1841. [_Shakespeare Society._]

     COLLIER, _A. P._ Alleyn Papers: Original Documents illustrative
     of the Life of Edward Alleyn, and of the Early Stage. By J. P.
     Collier. 1843. [_Shakespeare Society._]

     COLLIER, _N. F._ New Facts regarding the Life of Shakespeare.
     By J. P. Collier. 1835.

     COLLIER, _N. P._ New Particulars regarding the Works of
     Shakespeare. By J. P. Collier. 1836.

     COLLIER, _F. P._ Farther Particulars regarding Shakespeare and
     his Works. By J. P. Collier. 1839.

     COLLIER, _Illustr._ Illustrations of Old English Literature. By
     J. P. Collier. 3 vols., 1866.

     _Columbia Sh. Studies._ Shaksperian Studies by the Members of
     the Department of English and Comparative Literature in
     Columbia University. Edited by B. Matthews and A. H. Thorndike.
     1916.

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BOOK I


THE COURT

    See where she comes, lo! where,
      In gaudy green arraying,
    A prince of beauty rich and rare
      Pretends to go a-Maying.

    _Triumphs of Oriana._





I

ELIZABETH AND JAMES

     [_Bibliographical Note._--The formal history of the period is
     covered, with the exception of the years 1588-1603, by J. A.
     Froude, _History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the
     Defeat of the Armada_ (1856-70), and S. R. Gardiner, _History
     of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the
     Civil War_ (1863-84). A beginning towards filling the gap has
     been made in vol. i of E. P. Cheyney, _History of England from
     the Defeat of the Armada to the Death of Elizabeth_ (1914), in
     which the organization of the court and administration is very
     fully treated. For specifically social history may be added J.
     R. Green, _History of the English People_ (1877-80), an
     expansion of the same writer's _Short History of the English
     People_ (1874), and H. D. Traill, _Social England_ (1893-7).
     Shorter surveys are A. D. Innes, _England under the Tudors_
     (1905), A. F. Pollard, _History of England, 1547-1603_ (1910),
     G. M. Trevelyan, _England under the Stuarts_ (1904), F. C.
     Montague, _History of England, 1603-60_ (1907), all with
     detailed bibliographies, of which Professor Pollard's is
     notably full and good. The chief contemporary chronicles are
     those of Holinshed (1577), Stowe (1580, &c.), and Camden
     (1615-25), while personalia and Court details are preserved in
     R. Naunton, _Fragmenta Regalia_ (1641), J. Finett, _Philoxenis_
     (1656), E. Bohnn, _Character of Queen Elizabeth_ (1693), and
     the malicious pamphlets collected by Sir W. Scott in his
     _Secret History of the Court of James the First_ (1811). Court
     life is the main theme of L. Aikin, _Memoirs of the Court of
     Queen Elizabeth_ (1818) and _Memoirs of the Court of James I_
     (1822), and of A. Strickland, _The Life of Queen Elizabeth_
     (1840), while the best biographical studies of the sovereigns
     are E. S. Beesly, _Queen Elizabeth_ (1892), M. Creighton,
     _Queen Elizabeth_ (1896), and T. F. Henderson, _James I_ and
     _VI_ (1904). Court ceremonies are treated in J. Nichols,
     _Progresses of Elizabeth_ (2nd ed., 1823). Contemporary England
     is pictured in W. Harrison, _Description of Britain_ (1577),
     and W. B. Rye, _England as Seen by Foreigners_ (1865), and the
     extracts in J. D. Wilson, _Life in Shakespeare's England_
     (1911). The studies of social details in N. Drake, _Shakespeare
     and his Times_ (1817), and G. W. Thornbury, _Shakspere's
     England_ (1856), are now superseded by the combined work of
     many collaborators in _Shakespeare's England_ (1916), where
     special bibliographies on numerous subjects will be found.
     Shorter books of interest are H. Hall, _Society in the
     Elizabethan Age_ (1886), H. T. Stephenson, _The Elizabethan
     People_ (1910), and P. H. Ditchfield, _The England of
     Shakespeare_ (1917). London may be specially studied in C. L.
     Kingsford's edition (1908) of J. Stowe's _Survey of London_
     (1598) and in W. J. Loftie, _History of London_ (1883), H. B.
     Wheatley, _London Past and Present_ (1891), T. F. Ordish,
     _Shakespeare's London_ (1904), W. Besant, _London in the Time
     of the Stuarts_ (1903), _London in the Time of the Tudors_
     (1904), _London South of the Thames_ (1912), H. T. Stephenson,
     _Shakespeare's London_ (1905), J. A. de Rothschild,
     _Shakespeare and his Day_ (1906), H. A. Harben, _A Dictionary
     of London_ (1918), and the publications of the _London
     Topographical Society_; Westminster in J. T. Smith,
     _Antiquities of Westminster_ (1807), and E. Sheppard, _The Old
     Royal Palace of Whitehall_ (1902); and the royal houses
     generally in F. Chapman, _Ancient Royal Palaces in and near
     London_ (1902), R. S. Rait, _Royal Palaces of England_ (1911),
     A. W. Clapham and W. H. Godfrey, _Some Famous Buildings and
     their Story_ (1913), and the numerous monographs cited in the
     notes to the present chapter. Perhaps the most useful books of
     general reference are _The Dictionary of National Biography_,
     G. E. C[okayne]'s _Complete Peerage_, W. A. Shaw's _The Knights
     of England_, and _The Victoria History of the Counties of
     England_.

     Behind and beyond these treatises, much social and personal
     material is available in prints or abstracts of official and
     private letters and analogous documents. The following is not
     an exhaustive list of sources. There are the _Calendars of
     State Papers_, of which the _Domestic_, _Foreign_, _Scottish_,
     _Spanish_, and _Venetian Papers_ are the most valuable. There
     are the Privy Council minutes in J. R. Dasent, _Acts of the
     Privy Council_ (1890-1907), and those of the Welsh Council in
     R. Flenley's _Calendar_ (1916). There is, unfortunately, no
     collection of the letters missive of Elizabeth. There are full
     texts, by no means only of treaties, in T. Rymer's _Foedera_
     (1704-35). Proclamations are calendared in R. Steele,
     _Bibliography of Royal Proclamations_ (1910-11), and London
     civic correspondence in _Analytical Index to the Remembrancia_
     (1878). There are the _Reports of the Historical Manuscripts
     Commission_, covering private collections, of which the
     _Hatfield MSS._ (papers of Lord Burghley and Sir R. Cecil) are
     by far the most important, while the _Rutland MSS._, _Loseley
     MSS._ (Sir T. Cawarden and Sir W. More), _Pepys MSS._ (Earl of
     Leicester), _Finch MSS._ (Sir T. Heneage), and _Middleton MSS._
     are also useful. With these may be classed J. E. Jackson,
     _Longleat Papers_ (_Wilts. Archaeological Magazine_, xiv,
     xviii, xix), I. H. Jeayes, _Catalogue of the Muniments at
     Berkeley Castle_ (1892, George Lord Hunsdon), and H. W.
     Saunders, _Stiffkey MSS._ (1915, Sir Nathaniel Bacon). There is
     a long series of collections of letters from the seventeenth
     century onwards, in some of which the interest is mainly
     diplomatic, in others ecclesiastical, in others again personal;
     _Cabala_ (1654, Lord Burghley), D. Digges, _The Compleat
     Ambassador_ (1655, Sir F. Walsingham), E. Sawyer, _Winwood
     Memorials_ (1725), F. Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_ (1732), A.
     Collins, _Sydney Papers_ (1746), T. Birch, _Memoirs of Queen
     Elizabeth_ (1754, Anthony Bacon), S. Haynes and W. Murdin, _A
     Collection of State Papers_ (1740-59, Lord Burghley), L.
     Howard, _A Collection of Letters_ (1753), H. Harington, _Nugae
     Antiquae_ (1769, 1804, Sir J. Harington), Earl of Hardwicke,
     _Miscellaneous State Papers_ (1778), E. Lodge, _Illustrations
     of British History and Manners_ (1791, 1838), A. Clifford,
     _Sadleir Papers_ (1809), H. Ellis, _Original Letters
     Illustrative of English History_ (1825-46), A. J. Kempe,
     _Loseley MSS._ (1835), T. Wright, _Queen Elizabeth and her
     Times_ (1838), G. Goodman, _Court of King James I_ (1839), J.
     P. Collier, _Egerton Papers_ (1840, Sir T. Egerton), H.
     Robinson, _Zurich Letters_ (1842-5), T. Birch, _Court and Times
     of James I_ (1848), J. Bruce, _Letters of Elizabeth and James
     I_ (1849), J. Bruce and T. T. Perowne, _Correspondence of M.
     Parker_ (1853), S. Williams, _Letters of John Chamberlain_
     (1861), I. H. Jeayes, _Letters of Philip Gawdy_ (1906). There
     are biographies, in which also collections of letters are often
     included; J. Smyth, _Lives of the Berkeleys_ (_c._ 1618),
     _Memoirs of Robert Carey_ (1577-1627), J. Strype, _Sir T.
     Smith_ (1698), T. Birch, _Henry Prince of Wales_ (1760), N. H.
     Nicolas, _William Davison_ (1823), E. Nares, _William Cecil
     Lord Burghley_ (1828-31), J. H. Wiffen, _The House of Russell_
     (1833), J. W. Burgon, _Sir T. Gresham_ (1839), N. H. Nicolas,
     _Sir C. Hatton_ (1847), W. B. Devereux, _The Devereux, Earls of
     Essex_ (1853), J. Spedding, _Francis Bacon_ (1861-74), E.
     Edwards, _Sir W. Raleigh_ (1868), E. T. Bradley, _Arabella
     Stuart_ (1889), B. C. Hardy, _Arbella Stuart_ (1913), E. Gosse,
     _John Donne_ (1899), L. P. Smith, _Sir H. Wotton_ (1907), Mrs.
     A. Richardson, _The Lover of Queen Elizabeth_ (1907), A. H.
     Mathew and A. Calthrop, _Sir T. Matthew_ (1907), C. Stählin,
     _Sir F. Walsingham und seine Zeit_ (1908), M. A. E. Green,
     _Elizabeth Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia_ (1909), A.
     Cecil, _Sir R. Cecil, Earl of Salisbury_ (1915). The Camden
     Society has published the diaries of John Dee (1842), Henry
     Machyn (1848), John Manningham (1868), Sir Francis Walsingham
     (1870), and Sir Roger Wilbraham (1902). Finally the
     ambassadorial dispatches analysed in the calendars are
     supplemented, for Scotland by Sir James Melville's _Memoirs_
     (1827), for the Netherlands by J. Kervyn de Lettenhove,
     _Relations politiques des Pays-Bas et de l'Angleterre_
     (1882-1900), for Spain by the _Correspondencia de Felipe II con
     sus embajadores en Inglaterra_ (_C. D. I._ lxxxvii,
     lxxxix-xcii) and the _Viaje de Juan Fernandez de Velasco á
     Inglaterra_ (_C. D. I._ lxxi), and for France by many
     publications, of which C. P. Cooper, _Correspondance
     diplomatique de La Mothe Fénelon_ (1838-75), the _Mémoires_
     (1850) of the Duc de Sully, and _Ambassades de M. de la Boderie
     en Angleterre_ (1750) are the richest in court detail.]


AT the close of the Middle Ages, the mimetic instinct, deep-rooted in
the psychology of the folk, had reached the third term of its social
evolution. After colouring the liturgy of the Church and the festival
celebrations of the municipal guilds, it had attached itself, in an
outgrowth of minstrelsy, to the household of the sovereign, which had
now definitely become, with the advent of the Tudors, the centre of the
intellectual and artistic life of the country. It will be manifest, in
the course of the present treatise, that the palace was the point of
vantage from which the stage won its way, against the linked opposition
of an alienated pulpit and an alienated municipality, to an ultimate
entrenchment of economic independence. On the literary side the _milieu_
of the Court had its profound effect in helping to determine the
character of the Elizabethan play as a psychological hybrid, in which
the romance and the erudition, dear to the bower and the library,
interact at every turn with the robust popular elements of farce and
melodrama. It is worth while, therefore, to attempt to recover something
of the atmosphere of the Tudor Court, and to define the conditions under
which the presentation of plays formed a recurring interest in its
bustling many-coloured life.

In every court the personality of the sovereign is naturally a dominant
factor. Who shall say with what bitter discretion learnt in the hard
school of adversity, or with what burden of secret policy for the
shaping of the nation's destiny in critical hours, Elizabeth mounted the
steps of her throne when her summons came in 1558. Our concern, at
least, is with externalities. Elizabeth, at twenty-five, was a young and
attractive queen, with her full share of the sensuous Tudor blood, and
of her father's early gust for colour and for amusement, for jewels and
for pageantry. 'Regina tota amoribus dedita est venationibusque,
aucupiis, choreis et rebus ludicris insumens dies noctesque,' wrote one
of her own subjects in 1563; and the dispatches of the Spanish and
Venetian diplomatists strike the same note.[1] Although these things had
their appeal for her to the end, she was perhaps not so utterly absorbed
in them, even at the beginning, as the observers thought. Yet it was
assuredly the love of excitement and spectacle, no less than the desire
to win the heart of London, that led her to encourage by her presence
the revived folk-festivals of the citizens and the lawyers, the morris
dances and May-games by land and water, and the Midsummer watch, which
she hurried from Richmond to behold _incognita_ from the Earl of
Pembroke's house at Baynard's Castle. There was much talk of marriage
for her in these early years. Philip of Spain himself, incredible as it
now sounds, the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, the Archdukes Charles and
Ferdinand of Austria, the Duke of Nemours, the Earl of Arran, and of her
own subjects, the Earl of Arundel, Lord Robert Dudley, Sir William
Pickering, were some of the possible consorts whose names passed from
mouth to mouth. The gaiety of Whitehall was enhanced by the outward show
of courtship, the embassies and their trains, the gifts and compliments,
the receptions and banquets. But it soon became apparent that, from
policy or from temperament, the Queen had no serious intention of
trusting herself in marriage. Gradually the troops of suitors faded
away. Dudley alone was left, and with Dudley the Tudor lack of
reticence, which had already brought Elizabeth into trouble as a girl,
permitted familiarities wherein hostile and interested critics soon
found material for a scandal. Whether her heart or her senses, now or at
any time, were touched cannot be said. After all, Dudley had, as time
went on, to share her favours, such as they were, with Hatton and with
Oxford, with Heneage and with Raleigh and with Blount. But it is to our
purpose that, when the embassies were gone, and Elizabeth became more
and more involved in the web of political intrigues, and began to lose
her looks and her health, the court which had started so brilliantly
might well have sunk into the commonplace of middle age, had it not been
for the presence of a band of high-spirited youths, bound in the
interests of their careers to maintain the traditions of official
gallantry, and above all to incur no small expense in leading the revels
for the recreation of an imperious and critical mistress. For although
Elizabeth loved magnificence, she loved economy more. The repair of a
ruined exchequer was one of the primary objects and triumphs of her
statecraft. Her household, although stately, was by no means on her
father's, or even her sister's, scale of expenditure. The splendours of
her jewel-house and even of her wardrobe largely owed their origin to
the _strenae_ of successive New Years. A similar policy governed the
ordering of her amusements. Her Christmas annals afford no parallels to
the costly masks, with their marvels of architectural decoration, which
had glorified the court of Henry and were to glorify that of James. Her
masks, at least those she paid for, were dances, not pageants. The great
spectacles of the reign were liturgies, undertaken by her gallants, or
by the nobles whose country houses she visited in the course of her
annual progresses. The most famous of all, the 'Princely Pleasures of
Kenilworth' in 1575, was at the expense of Dudley, to whom the ancient
royal castle had long been alienated. Gradually, no doubt, the financial
stringency was relaxed. Camden notes a growing tendency to luxury about
1574; others trace the change to the coming of the Duke of Alençon in
1581.[2] Elizabeth had found the way to evoke a national spirit, and at
the same time to fill her coffers, by the encouragement of piratical
enterprise, and the sumptuous entertainments prepared for the welcome of
Monsieur were paid for out of the spoils brought back by Drake in the
_Golden Hind_.[3] The Alençon negotiations, whether seriously intended
or not, represent Elizabeth's last dalliance with the idea of matrimony.
They gave way to that historic pose of unapproachable virginity, whereby
an elderly Cynthia, without complete loss of dignity, was enabled to the
end to maintain a sentimental claim upon the attentions, and the purses,
of her youthful servants. The strenuous years, which led up to the final
triumph over the Armada in 1588, spared but little room for revels and
for progresses. They left Elizabeth an old woman. But with the removal
of the strain the spirit of gaiety awoke. The entertainments during the
progresses of 1591 and 1592 hardly yield to those of 1575 in the cost
and ingenuity of their symbolical devices. Essex, the darling of these
later years, perhaps found it easier to keep the court alive with tilts
and masks, than to play his required part in the sentimental comedy. The
love of the dance endured with Elizabeth to the verge of the grave. Her
share in the Twelfth Night revels of 1599 was reported to Spain with the
sarcastic comment that 'the head of the Church of England and Ireland
was to be seen in her old age dancing three or four gaillards'. A year
or so later, she was still dancing 'gayement et de belle disposition' at
the wedding of Anne Russell, and in April 1602 she trod two gaillards
with the Duke of Nevers.[4] It was near the end of her life, too, when
her desire to see Falstaff in love inspired Shakespeare, to the regret
of those who sentimentalize over Falstaff, with the racy English farce
of _The Merry Wives of Windsor_. During these last years of all, there
was a touch of fever in her restless activity. She needed much
entertainment both within doors and without in the course of 1600, and
her wearied statesmen resented the arduousness of the progress upon
which she resolved on the verge of sixty-seven. She went a-Maying at
Highgate in 1601 and at Lewisham in 1602. During the next winter her
councillors provided a special series of festivities, with the object of
inducing her to spend Christmas in London, instead of at Richmond; and
we learn that the Court 'flourisht more then ordinarie' with plays, only
a month before the indomitable lady took to her bed, and died of no very
clearly ascertained disease, but in 'a settled and unremoveable
melancholy'.

When James came to London he adopted the traditional splendours of the
English Court, in place of the simpler style of living to which he had
been accustomed in Edinburgh. His scale of expenditure, indeed, was from
the beginning far in excess of Elizabeth's, and landed him before long
in considerable embarrassment of the purse. For this there were various
reasons: the necessity of keeping up supplementary establishments for a
queen consort and an heir apparent, the personal inclination of Anne of
Denmark for ostentatious prodigality, the crowd of hungry Scots
demanding provision for their needs; above all, no doubt, the absence of
any statesmanlike instinct for financial control. There is plenty of
evidence that the dignity and sobriety which, on the whole, had
characterized Elizabeth's Court soon vanished under the lax rule of her
successors. But extravagance and wantonness, although deplorable in
themselves, are not necessarily unfriendly to the arts. The transference
of the leading companies of players to the direct service of the royal
households made it clear that the drama would occupy no less important
a place in the new order of things than it had done in the old. And in
fact the yearly tale of performances at court soon doubled and trebled
that which had sufficed for the Christmas 'solace' of Elizabeth.
Doubtless the King had some personal taste for the drama, though perhaps
less than other members of his family.[5] He had long entertained the
English actor, Laurence Fletcher, into his service and shown him high
favour, and Jonson is our authority for the statement that Shakespeare's
plays did 'take', not only 'Eliza' but 'our James'. But his great
preoccupation was the hunt, to which he hurried on every opportunity,
regardless of the discontent of London and even of the claims of
business. Anne, on the other hand, brought up in a court which had been
one of the first to come under the influence of the English players
abroad, and wedded into a court from which the Kirk had never succeeded
in expelling the French habits of amusement domiciled by Mary Queen of
Scots, found her chief pleasure in the spectacular arts; and to her
influence is mainly due that great development of the Jacobean mask,
which gave such scope to the exercise of courtly pens, and to the
remarkable decorative genius of Inigo Jones.[6] Anne's interest in all
forms of the drama, which even led her to the innovation of visiting a
theatre, was fully shared by the royal children, and combined in Henry
Frederick, Prince of Wales, with a passion for the knightly exercise of
the tilt to prolong into the seventeenth century the Renaissance
tradition of spectacular feats of arms. The death of this beloved
prince, to whom the thoughts of England, disillusioned of his father,
turned as the hope of the future, fell near the end of our period. The
splendour of the Court festivities reached a climax with the wedding of
the Princess Elizabeth in 1613, and faded even before the death of Anne
herself in 1619. It had its revival under Henrietta Maria.

The Court was a movable institution, constituted by the actual presence
of the sovereign. Abundant choice both of 'standing houses' or 'houses
of abode' and of country manors was available.[7] The most important
palaces, under Elizabeth, were five in number, Whitehall, Hampton Court,
Greenwich, Richmond, and Windsor. All of these stood upon the river, and
all except Windsor and in part Greenwich dated structurally from the
reign of Henry VII or that of Henry VIII. The ancient palace of
Westminster, with its royal chapel of St. Stephen and its great hall
built by William Rufus and rebuilt by Richard II, served for coronations
and for the housing of Parliament and the courts of justice. But it was
no longer used as a royal residence, and the name of one of its
principal chambers, the 'white hall', had been transferred to the
neighbouring structure of York Place, originally begun by Wolsey, and
surrendered to Henry VIII, a fruitless sacrifice, at the moment of the
great Cardinal's downfall in 1530.[8] This was the metropolitan palace.
It was an extensive and irregular pile, covering many acres. Through its
centre ran the highway from London to Westminster, piercing two arched
gateways, of which the northern one was the work of Holbein. The hall
and chapel, with the royal lodgings, galleries, and privy garden, stood
on the east, and were connected with the river by a flight of privy
stairs. On the west, reached by galleries over the gateways, were many
additional lodgings, grouped round a cockpit, a tennis-court, and a
tilt-yard. At the back of these lay St. James's Park.[9] Richmond and
Hampton Court, a few miles up the river, and Greenwich, a few miles
down, were all accessible by river as well as by road, and the royal
barge lay ready in its bargehouse opposite Whitehall, off Paris Garden
on the Surrey side. Both for Court and city the Thames was a frequented
water-way. Richmond had been built by Henry VII to replace the older
palace of Sheen, destroyed by fire in 1497.[10] Hampton Court, also upon
the site of an earlier royal manor-house, was like Whitehall a monument
of the architectural taste of Wolsey, and like Whitehall became part of
the spoil of Henry VIII, by whom it was completed.[11] Greenwich owed
its origin to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who gave it the name of
'Placentia' or 'Pleasaunce'. It had been enlarged by Henry VII and was
the birthplace and the favourite habitation of Henry VIII.[12] Windsor,
on the other hand, which stood in a wide hunting domain some score or
more of miles up the river, was an ancient fortress of the English
kings. William the Conqueror had built it; William of Wykeham had added
to it for Edward III, who established the college of St. George within
its walls upon an older foundation of Henry I, and made it the
habitation of his chivalric Order of the Garter. Elizabeth modified the
mediaeval aspect of the castle, by adding a library and a garden
terrace.[13]

Some older royal residences in London had long been converted to other
purposes. The Tower served as a wardrobe or storehouse and a prison, but
was only occupied by the sovereign on the eve of a coronation.[14] The
Wardrobe on St. Andrew's Hill was assigned to the Master of the Wardrobe
as an office and personal lodging.[15] The Savoy held a hospital,
together with various sets of lodgings.[16] Baynard's Castle had been
granted to the Herberts, nominally as keepers, in 1546.[17]

Crosby Hall was the abode of wealthy merchants.[18] Somerset House, the
unfinished palace of the Protector on the Strand, had been made over to
Elizabeth as princess by Edward VI in 1552. She sometimes occupied it,
in order to be near the city, but more usually kept it available for
foreign visitors or favoured courtiers.[19] For the latter purpose it
was supplemented by Durham House, farther westwards on the Strand, which
Henry VIII had acquired by exchange from the see of Durham in 1536.[20]
Most of the ecclesiastical buildings, which had reverted to the Crown on
the dissolution of the religious orders, such as the Blackfriars, the
Whitefriars, and the Charterhouse, had been alienated.[21] Elizabeth
retained the priory of St. John in Clerkenwell, and placed there some
of the minor Household offices, including that of the Revels.[22]
Somewhat retired from the press of city life lay St. James in the
Fields, built on the site of an old leper hospital by Henry VIII in
1532. It ranked almost as a country house. A park, enclosed in 1537 and
adorned with the artificial water known as Rosamund's Pool, separated it
from Whitehall, and on the other side of it stretched the enclosures of
Hyde and Marylebone Parks.[23] There were many country houses still
farther afield. Oatlands, on the Surrey border of Windsor Forest, served
for hunting.[24] To this, and to Nonsuch in Surrey, the Queen often made
resort.[25] Eltham, in Kent, was another hunting ground, convenient of
access from Greenwich. Visits were paid from time to time to Havering
Bower in Essex, Enfield in Middlesex, Hatfield, where Elizabeth had
lived as a princess, in Hertfordshire, the monastic spoil of Reading
Abbey in Berkshire, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, and the ancient capital of
Winchester in Hampshire.[26] But for the most part these, and yet other
royal castles and manors in more distant counties, slept peacefully
under the privileged sway of their constables and keepers.[27] There
were some changes at the succession of James. Somerset House was
assigned to Queen Anne, and a not very successful attempt was made to
re-name it Queen's Court. This appellation was revived when the creation
of an Earl of Somerset in 1613 seemed suggestive of confusion, and then
abandoned in favour of Denmark House.[28] Nonsuch, Havering, and
Hatfield, with many other manors, were also assigned to Anne as part of
her dowry. Hatfield was exchanged in 1607 with Lord Salisbury for
Theobalds, to which James rather than Anne appears to have taken a
fancy, and the transfer gave occasion for a characteristic entertainment
by Ben Jonson. Oatlands was given to Anne in 1611 and Greenwich in
1613.[29] At the beginning of the reign Oatlands had been the royal
nursery for Henry and Elizabeth, and it continued to be Henry's country
home for some years.[30] Elizabeth, however, was soon placed in the
charge of Lord Harington, first at Exton in Rutlandshire and then at
Combe Abbey in Warwickshire. When she came to Court in 1608, a house was
found for her at Kew. Both she and Henry sometimes resided at Hampton
Court and at Whitehall, where they were lodged in that part of the
palace known as the Cockpit, on the border of St. James's Park.[31] But
St. James's Palace itself was reserved for the ultimate use of Henry,
and here he set up his establishment as Prince of Wales in 1610 and died
in 1612. Richmond and Woodstock were given him for country houses, and
at his death he was also buying up interests in Sheen House and
Kenilworth.[32] For Charles Holdenby or Holmby House in Northamptonshire
was bought in 1605, and on his brother's death he succeeded to St.
James's.[33] The King was thus left with Whitehall, Hampton Court, and
Windsor as his principal palaces. Naturally those of his wife and son
remained available for occasional visits, and the hunting facilities of
Theobalds and Woodstock were an agreeable addition to those of Hampton
Court and Windsor themselves.[34] But they did not suffice for James,
who set about providing himself with hunting quarters in various
localities. The most important of these was Royston Priory, on the
borders of Cambridgeshire and Herts., which he bought after a year's
trial in 1604 and enlarged into a house of some pretensions.[35] Others
were at Newmarket, Thetford, Hinchinbrook, Ware, and Woking, while
stables were kept up at St. Albans and Reading.[36] Theobalds, Royston,
and Newmarket were all reached by a private road, maintained, like the
King's Road to Hampton Court and another to Greenwich, by James
himself.[37]

The arrangement of the principal rooms of a Tudor palace can be well
studied on the plan of Hampton Court.[38] There is a great Hall, and at
the back of it the entrance to a Great Chamber. At Hampton Court and
Richmond this appears to have served also as a Guard or Watching
Chamber, but at Whitehall the Guard Chamber and the Great Chamber were
distinct.[39] Out of the Great Chamber opens the Presence Chamber, and
out of this again the Privy Chamber, which gives admittance to the
private apartments of the sovereign. These included one or more Parlours
or Withdrawing Chambers, as well as the Bed Chamber.[40] From the
opposite end of the Great Chamber runs a gallery, which passes round two
sides of a court and leads to the royal Closet, overlooking and forming
part of the Chapel. Into this gallery also opens the Council Chamber.
The Presence Chamber and the Privy Chamber were the essential elements
of the scheme, and had to be contrived, no matter how humbly the Court
was lodged.[41] The Presence Chamber seems to have been open to any one
who was entitled to appear at Court at all. Access to the Privy Chamber,
on the other hand, where Elizabeth dined and supped and sat with her
ladies, was jealously reserved for privy councillors and other favoured
persons.[42] At Whitehall there were also a Privy Gallery and a Privy
Garden, which counted as parts of the Privy Chamber.[43] Occasionally
ambassadors or distinguished foreign visitors might have audience there,
or even in a Withdrawing Chamber.[44] But ordinarily presentations were
made in the Presence Chamber, and here the crowd of courtiers waited on
Sundays for the ceremony of the Queen's going to chapel. Paul Hentzner
has described the scene as he saw it at Greenwich in 1598.[45]

In the Presence Chamber, too, Hentzner saw the royal table laid and the
ceremony of tasting performed, before the royal dishes were carried to a
more private apartment. An ancient custom by which the sovereign
occasionally dined in state in the Presence Chamber, and was served by
great nobles of the realm upon the knee, from cupboards of massy plate,
had fallen into disuse, but was revived by James.[46] In the Hall, or if
more convenient in the Great Chamber, plays were given.[47] For this
purpose the dimensions, in the larger palaces, were fully adequate. The
hall of Hampton Court is 115 ft. × 40 ft., that of Windsor 108 ft. × 33
ft., that of Eltham, locally known as King John's Barn, 100 ft. × 36 ft.
These alone survive, but the hall of Richmond is known to have been 100
ft. × 40 ft., and that of Whitehall 100 ft. × 45 ft.[48] But for an
exceptional entertainment, such as a great banquet or mask, more space
was desirable, and temporary structures, known as banqueting-houses,
were erected as required. The device had already been employed by Henry
VIII. A banqueting-house had been one of the splendours at the Field of
the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and two others, one of which was called the
'long house', or 'disguising house', were decorated by Holbein for the
reception of a French embassy at Greenwich in 1527.[49] Edward VI also
had had a banqueting-house in Hyde Park for the reception of another
French embassy in 1551.[50] In the first year of Elizabeth's reign she
used four banqueting-houses, one for the French ambassadors at
Westminster in May, two others at Greenwich and Cobham Hall in July,[51]
and a fourth at Horsley in August. A later one, prepared at Whitehall in
June 1572 for the reception of the Duke of Montmorency, required 116
workmen to decorate it at a cost of £224. It was hung with birch and
ivy, and garnished with bushels of roses and honeysuckles from the royal
gardens.[52] Finally, one even more elaborate was erected, also at
Whitehall, for the coming of Alençon's ambassadors in 1581.[53] This,
although only constructed of fir and deal, was strong enough to stand
until 1606. James then had it pulled down and replaced by a new one of
brick and stone, which was ready in time for the Christmas festivities
of 1607.[54] This in its turn stood until 12 January 1619, when it was
destroyed by fire, and in its place arose the stately edifice of Inigo
Jones, which still glorifies Whitehall.[55] A supplementary room of more
temporary character was put up for the Princess Elizabeth's wedding in
1613.[56]

The mediaeval court had been largely an ambulatory one. The principal
feasts, at which the King wore his crown, were generally kept in one of
the great cities--Westminster, Winchester, Gloucester; and for the rest
of the year the household passed by short 'removes' from castle to
castle and manor to manor throughout the realm. For this there were
economic as well as political reasons. Many mouths had to be fed, and it
was easier and less onerous upon the country to devour one local
storehouse after another, than to organize an effective transport from
the various sources of supply to a single capital. But with the new
political stability and the enhanced royal wealth, which followed the
coming of the Tudors, a more settled order of things prevailed.
Henceforward the greater part of the year was spent at one or other of
the 'standing houses' within reach of the administrative head-quarters
on the Thames, and the wanderings were confined to a 'progress' of one
or two summer months, during which the sovereign took the air, and
hunted, and made his presence familiar to his outlying subjects. Under
Elizabeth the year may be said to have begun in the middle of November,
when she returned to London, generally by road from one of the Surrey
palaces through Chelsea. The event, at any rate during the later years
of the reign, almost took rank as a ceremony of state. The Queen came by
night, with the Master of the Horse leading her palfrey by the bridle
and a great noble carrying the sword. Ambassadors were invited to be
present, and the Lord Mayor and citizens were called upon to don their
rich gowns and chains and give a torchlight welcome.[57] The date was no
doubt determined, partly by the approach of winter, partly by that of
Accession Day or, as it was often but incorrectly called, Coronation
Day, on 17 November. This anniversary, from 1570 onwards, was kept with
a solemn celebration, which appears to have originated spontaneously in
or near Oxford, to have been adopted throughout the country, to have
been revived during the next reign as an indication of popular
discontent with James, and to have been still traceable in the form of a
holiday at the Exchequer and at the schools of Westminster and Merchant
Taylors in 1827.[58] It was on this day that the tilt-yard of
Westminster blazed with the pageantry and rang with the spears of the
manhood of England, gathered under the leadership of Sir Henry Lee to do
honour to the virgin Queen. The Earl of Essex gave the final touch of
flattery to the occasion in 1592 by appearing in his collar of SS, 'a
thing unwonted', except on days of the most solemn ceremony.[59] In
1588, after the Armada, Elizabeth ordered a renewal of the tilting upon
19 November, which happened to be St. Elizabeth's day, but this second
triumph seems to have been only occasional.[60]

Christmas was ordinarily kept at Whitehall; the occasional substitution
of Richmond, Greenwich, Hampton Court, or even Windsor is sometimes to
be explained by the prevalence of the plague in London, sometimes
perhaps by nothing more than a royal whim. But during the years of
strain which preceded the Armada Elizabeth appears to have shunned
Whitehall as much as possible, not merely at Christmas but at all times,
probably from a sense that her personal security could be better
provided for in some more compact and less accessible abode.[61] Whether
in Whitehall or elsewhere, the twelve days of Christmas, from the
Nativity to the Epiphany, were a season of high revels. I do not find
that Elizabeth, like her father and brother, ever appointed a Lord of
Misrule, although there is some trace of an election of a King of the
Bean on the last and greatest day of all, Twelfth Night.[62] But Twelfth
Night itself, with St. Stephen's, St. John's, Innocents', and New Year's
Day, were regularly appointed for plays and masks, which often
overflowed on to other nights during the period. Sometimes, too, there
was another tilt, or a barriers in the hall or banqueting-room. And on
New Year's Day it was etiquette for the lords and ladies at Court and
many of the officers of the household to present the Queen with the New
Year gifts or _strenae_ which had been immemorial in European courts
since the days of the Roman Empire, while she in turn rewarded the
donors with gilt plate from the royal jewel house and distributed
largess amongst her personal attendants and other customary
recipients.[63]

The revels were renewed for Candlemas (2 Feb.) and for Shrovetide,
either at the Christmas head-quarters or at some other palace to which
the Court had meanwhile removed. Some part of the early spring was
nearly always spent away from Westminster, and during her later years
Elizabeth not infrequently left part of the household behind her and
made a short 'by progress' to the house of Lord Burghley at Theobalds or
that of Sir Thomas Gresham at Osterley or some other favoured courtier.
The rest of the spring and summer was divided between Westminster and
the river palaces, to and from which the Queen went by land or water,
dining on the way, often at Chelsea or at the house of one John Lacy at
Putney, and breaking the long journey from Greenwich to Richmond or
Hampton Court by a night's rest, generally at the archiepiscopal abode
of Lambeth. It was customary to ring the church bells as she entered or
left a parish, and the entries of payments to ringers in the accounts of
churchwardens serve as a convenient clue to her comings and goings.
Easter, with the distribution of alms and washing of feet on Maundy
Thursday, and Whitsuntide were kept as ecclesiastical, rather than
secular, feasts. On 23 April, St. George's Day, the Queen went in
procession about the Court with the Knights of the Garter and the Chapel
in their copes. This was the occasion for the choosing of new knights,
but their subsequent installation at a Garter feast took place without
the Queen at Windsor, whither they rode in great and costly
splendour.[64] During the summer there might be another tilt, and the
Queen is recorded to have kept 'Mayings' on 1 May and to have taken part
from time to time in other survivals of the ancient folk festivals.[65]
About July she started for her 'progress', which might occupy from one
to two months, according to her fancy, or if there was to be no regular
progress, departed for one of the more sequestered houses, Windsor or
Reading, Oatlands or Nonsuch, where she delighted to spend the autumn.
During this period fell her birthday, on 7 September.[66]

The Jacobean calendar underwent certain modifications, largely
determined by the King's sporting instincts. James kept his Court for
the most part at Whitehall, Hampton Court, and Windsor. After the winter
of 1603, when plague held him at Hampton Court, his Christmasses and
Shrovetides were invariably at Whitehall, and hither he always proceeded
at the end of October, in time for the celebration of All Saints' Day on
1 November.[67] On 5 November was kept, after 1605, the anniversary of
Gunpowder Plot, and to this day, in course of time, the winter bonfires
of folk custom transferred themselves.[68] The Twelve Nights, with
Candlemas and Shrovetide, remained the chief seasons for plays and
masks, but the plays were greatly increased in number. One was often
given on All Saints' Day (1 Nov.) to usher in the winter, and others
were called for at intervals during the winter months. James was also
regularly at Whitehall on his Accession Day, 24 March, which, like his
predecessor, he honoured with a tilt.[69] He maintained the tradition of
the progress, generally choosing the direction of such hunting grounds
as Sherwood, Wychwood, the New Forest, or Salisbury Plain; and during
the course of his progress, on 5 August, he celebrated another
anniversary, that of his delivery from the Gowry conspiracy in 1600. On
this day ambassadors were expected to pursue him from London and offer
their congratulations.[70] The progress generally ended at Havering
early in September.[71] Thereafter the household was established at
Windsor or Hampton Court until winter began again. But James's personal
life was a far less settled one than that of Elizabeth. He disliked
London, and at all times of the year, and wherever the Court might be,
he was constantly leaving the greater part of it behind, referring the
transaction of business to the Privy Council, and betaking himself with
the Master of the Horse and Sir Thomas Lake, a clerk of the signet who
acted as his private secretary, to Theobalds or Royston, or some other
hunting box, at which his favourite pursuit might be conveniently
enjoyed. From thence he would hurry back, often for a day or two only,
when some office of state or Court ceremony urgently demanded his
attendance. There is abundant evidence that this abnormal passion for
the chase had much to do with the early unpopularity of James. It led to
neglect of business, the grave inconvenience of ministers, excessive
purveyance, and the trampling of crops; and the popular discontent soon
found vent in libels on the stage and elsewhere. But James said that he
could not lead a sedentary life and must study his health above all
things.[72]

During both reigns the normal tenor of Court life was naturally
disturbed from time to time by some exceptional event. Parliaments
required to be opened in state, although neither Sovereign was fond of
summoning Parliaments.[73] The thanksgiving for the Armada on 24
November 1588 was a notable day of triumph for Elizabeth. James did not
win battles, but he created his son Prince of Wales in 1610 and married
his daughter in 1613 with considerable pomp. In 1607, being in need of a
loan, he fluttered city life by dining with the Lord Mayor on 12 June
and the Merchant Taylors on 16 July.[74] The arrival of extraordinary
ambassadors or other foreign visitors of importance necessitated
frequent provision for their entertainment. The constant relations which
Elizabeth maintained with France led to a number of special missions,
for one purpose or another, diplomatic or complimentary, throughout the
reign. The most interesting of these, from the point of view of an
annalist of Court revels, were concerned with the negotiations, already
referred to, for a marriage with the Duke of Alençon, afterwards Duke of
Anjou and 'Monsieur' of France, the brother of Henri III. These began in
1578 and came to a head in 1581, when a visit by Francis de Bourbon,
Dauphin de Montpensier, and other commissioners in the spring was
followed by another by Anjou himself in November, which lasted over
Christmas to the following February. Both occasions were honoured with
sumptuous tilts and other entertainments. Before and after Monsieur
came in 1572 Francis Duke of Montmorency and Marshal of France, in 1601
Marshal Biron, and in 1602 the Duke of Nevers. Biron appears to have
been a substitute for his master, Henri IV, whom Elizabeth would have
welcomed, but who apparently could not bring himself to face the perils
of the Channel crossing. Chapman puts the comment in the Queen's mouth:

    We had not thought that he whose virtues fly
    So beyond wonder and the reach of thought,
    Should check at eight hours' sail, and his high spirit,
    That stoops to fear less than the poles of heaven,
    Should doubt an under-billow of the sea,
    And, being a sea, be sparing of his streams.[75]

Of visitors from other lands than France may be noted Cecilia,
Margravine of Baden and sister of the King of Sweden, in 1565, Feother
Pissenopscoia, an ambassador in search of a bride for Ivan I, Tsar of
Muscovy, in 1583, and Ludovic Verreyken, ambassador from the archiducal
court of Flanders in 1600. Visits were expected from Mary of Scots in
1562 and from James in 1590, but in fact Mary never came until she was a
fugitive or James until he was King.[76] Elizabeth, however, on her
side, sent complimentary embassies for the intended wedding of James in
1589, and the baptism of his son Henry in 1594. The most important
visitor to James himself was the Queen's brother, Christian, King of
Denmark, who came twice. His elaborate state visit in July and August
1606 left several unpleasant memories behind it. The Kings fell out over
James's indifference to Christian's sister. Hunting bored Christian and
James disliked being outshone by his brother-in-law in running at the
ring. Nor did the subjects more readily mix, for the Danes thought the
English haughty, and the English thought the Danes gross; and in
particular the heavy drinking habits of the north, although by no means
uncongenial to James personally, led to scenes which were scandalous in
the eyes of all who remembered the austerer fashions of Elizabeth.[77]
It was a general relief when Christian decided to abridge the period
originally set down for his stay. He came again, briefly and informally,
in 1614. Other Jacobean visitors were the Duke of Holstein, another
brother of the Queen, in 1604, the Prince de Joinville in 1607, the
Prince of Brunswick, a nephew of the Queen, in 1610, the Duc de Bouillon
in 1612, and the Elector Palatine, for his wedding with the Princess
Elizabeth, in the same year. James received congratulations on his
accession from ambassadors extraordinary sent by the Emperor and the
Kings of France and Spain, as well as from other representatives of
minor powers. Subsequently Juan de Velasco, Constable of Castile, came
as ambassador extraordinary from Spain, with other Spanish and Flemish
commissioners, for the signing of a treaty of peace in 1604, and had the
honour of being waited upon by Shakespeare as groom of the chamber.[78]

In addition to extraordinary ambassadors there were generally also
permanent or 'lieger' ambassadors in residence. These varied in number
with the shifting diplomacies of the time. France was the foreign
country most constantly represented at Elizabeth's Court.[79] There was
generally also a Scottish ambassador. Diplomatic relations with Spain
were broken off in 1584;[80] and there were no Italian ambassadors, in
spite of overtures to Venice, until the last few months of the reign,
when the Doge and Senate sent over the Secretary Scaramelli.[81] The
accession of James and the peace with Spain brought about a considerable
change in international relations, and henceforward there were regularly
'lieger' ambassadors from France, Spain, Venice, and Flanders, as well
as ambassadors or agents from the Dutch states, Savoy and Florence. For
the entertainment of these an occasional dinner or supper with the King
sufficed, together with invitations to such ceremonies of state, revels,
and tilts as were held in ordinary course. But the revels were perturbed
and an infinity of trouble given to the officials who organized them by
the persistent jealousies and disputes for precedence which prevailed
amongst the diplomatic representatives themselves. The records of these
intrigues, which especially centred round the great Court masks, and
often determined the dates on which they were held, occupy much space in
the dispatches sent home to Paris and to Venice, and furnished Sir John
Finet in 1656 with material for the curious pages of his _Philoxenis_.
The rival claims of the 'Catholic' King of France and the 'most
Christian' King of Spain to be regarded as the first Sovereign in
Christendom had already caused trouble as far back as 1564.[82] The
question had naturally been in abeyance during the rupture with Spain.
Under James it broke out again, and each ambassador had the strictest
order from his government not to abate a jot or tittle of his full
claims to precedence. James, being _rex pacificus_, had no desire to
commit himself to a decision on so knotty a point, and did his best to
evade it, by not inviting both ambassadors to the same festivity. But
even then one festivity differed from another in glory, and the attempt
to keep an even balance gave rise to endless _tracasseries_. During the
earlier years it seems clear that a variety of causes, amongst which
must be counted his own superior astuteness, a liberal distribution of
bribes, the Spanish proclivities of Anne, and probably also the
deliberate trend of James's foreign policy, enabled Juan de Taxis to
snatch more than one advantage from his French rivals. He secured an
invitation to the Queen's mask both in 1604 and 1605. This double rebuff
led to a change in the French embassy, and a similar success of De Taxis
in 1608 so infuriated Henri IV that he threatened to withdraw his
ambassador altogether, until James judged it discreet to call his
attention to the still unpaid financial obligations which he had
incurred to the English Crown in the previous reign. After the death of
Henri in 1610 and the consequent _rapprochement_ between France and
Spain, the balance of political forces shifted, and, for a time at
least, the English Court laid itself out to gratify rather than
humiliate the French. Minor bones of precedence were worried between
Venice and Flanders, and between Florence and Savoy, while the Spanish
ambassador took offence if he was asked to appear in public with the
representative of the revolted Spanish provinces of the Netherlands.[83]


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Francis to Sir Thomas Chaloner (Dec. 1563) in Froude, vii.
92; cf. _Sp. P._ i. 10, 127; _V. P._ vii. 80, 101.]

[Footnote 2: Camden (tr.), 179; Bohun, 345, from R. Johnston, _Hist.
rerum Brit._ (1655), 353; Carey, 2.]

[Footnote 3: _Sp. P._ iii. 91.]

[Footnote 4: _Sp. P._ iv. 650; Chamberlain, 99, 126; _Hatfield MSS._
xii. 253; Boissise, i. 415; Beaumont, 21; Goodman, i. 17.]

[Footnote 5: Carleton to Chamberlain, Jan. 15, 1604 (_S. P. D., Jac. I_,
vi. 21): 'The first holy dayes we had every night a publicke play in the
great hale, at which the king was ever present, and liked or disliked as
he saw cause; but it seems he takes no extraordinary pleasure in them.
The Queen and Prince were more the players frends, for on other nights
they had them privately, and hath since taken them to theyr
protection.']

[Footnote 6: J. A. Lester, _Some Franco-Scottish Influences on the Early
English Drama in Haverford Essays_ (1909).]

[Footnote 7: Scaramelli wrote to the Signory in July 1603 (_V. P._ x.
71) that James had eight palaces on the Thames, of which Hampton Court
was the biggest. Each had its own furniture, which was never taken to
furnish another. I suppose the eight must be Whitehall, St. James's,
Somerset House, the Tower, Greenwich, Richmond, Hampton Court, and
Windsor. Letters of 1602, when Elizabeth was at Oatlands, contemplate
her return to 'Richmond or some other of her houses of abode' and to 'a
standing house' (_Hatfield MSS._ xii. 385, 448). I suppose that these
were the permanently furnished houses.]

[Footnote 8: Cheyney, i. 143, says that the Exchequer court near
Westminster Hall, the gallery of which was built or repaired in 1570,
'served the queen and court not infrequently as a ball-room'; but this
is only an old tradition, for which Smith, _Westminster_, 54, could find
no confirmation in 1807, and for which the records of Court
entertainments certainly furnish none.]

[Footnote 9: The accounts of Smith and Sheppard (cf. _Bibl. Note_) may
be supplemented from W. R. Lethaby in _Archaeologia_, lx. 131; _London
Topographical Record_, i. 38; ii. 23; vi. 23, 35; vii. _passim_. Von
Wedel (_2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans._ ix. 234) describes the palace in 1584.]

[Footnote 10: E. B. Chancellor, _Historical Richmond_ (1885); R.
Garnett, _Richmond on the Thames_ (1896); Chapman, 123; _Survey_ of 1503
in Grose and Astle, _Antiquarian Repertory_; _Survey_ of 1649 in
Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 412.]

[Footnote 11: E. Law, _History of Hampton Court Palace_ (1885-91); W. H.
Hutton, _Hampton Court_ (1897). De Silva reports to Philip on 13 Oct.
1567 (_Sp. P._ i. 679) that Elizabeth was then at Hampton Court for the
first time since her attack of small-pox there in 1562, after which she
took a dislike to it. It was the largest of all the palaces, 'with 1800
inhabitable rooms or at least with doors that lock' (_V. P._ x. 71).]

[Footnote 12: A. G. K. L'Estrange, _The Palace and the Hospital:
Chronicles of Greenwich_ (1886); Chapman, 9. The building is shown in
Wyngaerde's drawing of _c._ 1543 (Mitton, I). Hentzner was told in 1598
that it was Elizabeth's preferred abode.]

[Footnote 13: W. H. St. J. Hope, _Windsor Castle_ (1913); R. R. Tighe
and J. E. Davis, _Annals of Windsor_ (1858); E. Ashmole, _The
Institution, Lawes and Ceremonies of the Garter_ (1672); J. Pote,
_History and Antiquities of Windsor Castle_ (1749); G. M. Hughes,
_Windsor Forest_ (1890).]

[Footnote 14: R. Gower, _The Tower of London_ (1901-2); Clapham and
Godfrey, 29. Elizabeth was there in 1559, 1561, and 1565.]

[Footnote 15: For its mediaeval use as an occasional royal lodging, cf.
N. H. Nicolas, _Wardrobe Accounts of Edw. IV_, 121, 127.]

[Footnote 16: W. J. Loftie, _Memorials of the Savoy_ (1878); Chapman,
42.]

[Footnote 17: Elizabeth paid visits there in 1559, 1562, 1564, 1566, and
1575.]

[Footnote 18: Chapman, 36; Clapham and Godfrey, 119.]

[Footnote 19: S. Pegge, _Curialia_ (1806); R. Needham and A. Webster,
_Somerset House, Past and Present_ (1905). Elizabeth was there in 1558,
1562, 1571, 1573, 1582, 1583, 1585, 1587, 1588, 1589, 1590, 1593, 1594,
and 1599. She gave lodgings there to Somerset's son, the Earl of
Hertford, and amongst other guests were the Duke of Holstein (1560),
Cornelius de la Noye, an alchemist (1567), the Duke of Montmorency
(1572), and the Duke of Mayenne (1600). Conferences were held there with
Alençon's commissioners in 1581. In 1574 (_Berkeley MSS._ 223) the
keepership was given to Henry Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain, who
took up his residence there, and after his death to Lady Hunsdon. In
early documents of the reign, the name Strand House (_P. C. Acts_, Jan.
1563; _Procl._ 496) or Strand Place (_Procl._ 497) occurs; in the patent
of Hunsdon's predecessor John West in 1559 (_Berkeley MSS._ 218) it is
'Somersett Place _al._ Strande House _al._ Somersett House'.]

[Footnote 20: M. A. S. Hume, _A Palace in the Strand_ in _The Year after
the Armada_ (1896), 263; Nichols, _James_, i. 75; Clapham and Godfrey,
151; T. N. Brushfield, _The History of Durham House, London_, in _Trans.
of Devon. Assoc._ xxxv. 539. Elizabeth was there in 1565 or 1566.
Lodgings were assigned to Alvaro de la Quadra, the Spanish ambassador
(1559-63), Cecilia of Sweden, Margravine of Baden (1565), Walter, Earl
of Essex (1572), Sir Walter Raleigh (1584-1603), Sir Edward Darcy (_c._
1600-3). In 1603 James turned Raleigh and Darcy out and restored the
freehold to Toby Mathew, Bishop of Durham, who retained the river front,
and leased the Gatehouse on the Strand. The lease passed to Lord
Salisbury, who built there the New Exchange or Britain's Burse in 1609.]

[Footnote 21: L. Hendriks, _The London Charterhouse_ (1889); W. F.
Taylor, _The Charterhouse of London_ (1912). The Charterhouse, after
temporary use as a storehouse for the Tents (cf. _Tudor Revels_, 13),
was granted to Sir Edward North, afterwards Lord North of Kirtling, in
1545 and the grant was confirmed by Mary in 1554. Elizabeth visited him
there in Nov. 1558 and July 1561. After his death in 1564 the second
lord kept a house in Charterhouse Square, which passed to the Earls of
Rutland and as Rutland House became the scene of Davenant's _First Day's
Entertainment_ in 1656. The main building was bought in 1565 by Thomas,
fourth Duke of Norfolk, and called Howard Place. Elizabeth visited him
there in 1568. On his attainder in 1572, she lodged the Portuguese
ambassador in the house, but afterwards granted it to Norfolk's son
Thomas, Lord Howard of Walden, whom she visited there in Jan. 1603. In
1611 Thomas Sutton bought the Charterhouse from Howard for a hospital.
On the Blackfriars and Whitefriars, cf. ch. xvii.]

[Footnote 22: Clapham and Godfrey, 165; cf. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 23: E. Sheppard, _Memorials of St. James's Palace_ (1894).
Elizabeth was there in 1561, 1564, 1566, 1571, 1572, 1575, 1576, 1581,
1583, 1584, 1588, and 1593.]

[Footnote 24: _V. H. Surrey_, iii. 478. Elizabeth was there in 1560,
1562, 1564, 1567, 1569, 1570, 1574, 1577, 1580, 1582, 1583, 1584, 1585,
1587, 1589, 1590, 1591, 1593, 1600, and 1602.]

[Footnote 25: _V. H. Surrey_, iii. 266; _Gent. Mag._ viii. (1837) 139;
Clapham and Godfrey, 3. Elizabeth was there in 1559, 1563, 1565, 1567,
1574, 1580-5 (yearly), 1587, 1589, 1591, 1592, 1593, 1594, 1595, 1596,
1598, 1599, 1600. The house was begun by Henry VIII and finished by Lord
Lumley, son-in-law of the Earl of Arundel, to whom the property was
alienated in 1556. Elizabeth bought the house about 1590-2. 'Nonsuch,
which of all other places she likes best,' wrote Rowland White in 1599
(_Sydney Papers_, ii. 120).]

[Footnote 26: For Eltham (visits in 1559, 1560, 1576, 1581, 1596, 1597,
1598, 1599, 1601, 1602), once an important palace, cf. J. C. Buckler,
_Account of Eltham_ (1828), Chapman, 1, Clapham and Godfrey, 47; for
Havering (visits in 1561, 1568, 1572, 1576, 1578, 1579, 1591, 1597),
Nichols, _Eliz._ iii. 70, Clapham and Godfrey, 145; for Hatfield (visits
in 1558, 1566, 1568, 1571, 1572, 1575, 1576), _V. H. Herts._ iii. 92;
for Reading (visits in 1568, 1570, 1572, 1574, 1576, 1592, 1601), J. B.
Hurry, _Reading Abbey_ (1901), T. J. Pettigrew in _Journal of Brit.
Arch. Ass._ xvi. 192; for Woodstock (visits in 1566, 1572, 1574, 1575,
1592), E. Marshall, _Early Hist. of Woodstock Manor_ (1873), and ch.
xxiii, s.v. Lee. Elizabeth was at Enfield in 1561, 1564, 1568, 1572,
1587, 1591, 1594, 1597, and at Winchester in 1560, 1574, 1591.]

[Footnote 27: Schedules of royal houses and other possessions to which
places of profit were attached form part of the Fee Lists described in
the _Bibl. Note_ to ch. ii. That of 1598 (_H. O._ 262) includes 37
castles under constables, keepers, or porters, 17 other houses, 11
forests, and 8 parks, together with the Fleet prison under a warden
keeper, the Baths (at Bath) under a keeper, the Haven of the Duchy of
Cornwall under a havenor, the Honour of Tutbury under a steward, and
Paris Garden under the keepers of Bears and Mastiffs (cf. ch. xvi, s.v.
Hope); in all 78.]

[Footnote 28: Occasionally it was still used as a guesthouse. The
Constable of Castile was lodged here in 1604, the Danish ambassador in
1605, Christian of Denmark in 1606 and 1614. Fuller, _Church History_,
vii. 46, says that the name Denmark House was adopted by proclamation in
honour of King Christian, but I can find no such proclamation. Arthur
Wilson (_Compleat Hist._ ii. 685) dates the change _c._ 1610, and says
that the new name 'continued her time among her people; but it was
afterwards left out of the common calendar, like the dead Emperor's
new-named month'. On the other hand I find Cecil dating from 'Queens
Court' on 6 March 1605 (_S. P. D._ xiii. 15), Chamberlain writing in
Feb. 1614 of the performance of Daniel's _Hymen's Triumph_ that it was
in a 'little square paved court' at 'Somerset House or Queens Court, as
it must now be called' (W. W. Greg in _M. L. Q._ vi. 59, from _Addl.
MS._ 4173, ff. 368, 371), and plays acted by Anne's men 'at Queenes
Court' in 1615 (cf. App. B). The reason suggested in the text for the
second attempt to change the name seems to me a plausible conjecture.
Perhaps 'Denmark House' was tried at Christian's second visit in 1614.
In any case, neither novelty permanently established itself. The first
use of 'Denmark House' I have noticed is in 1615; that of 'Somerset
House' was resumed under Charles I.]

[Footnote 29: Lodge, iii. 62; Birch, i. 279; Devon, 63, 176; _V. P._ x.
87; xiii. 81; _S. P. D., Jac. I_, xxvii. 31; lxv. 79, 80; _V. H.
Surrey_, iii. 478; _V. H. Herts._ iii. 447; Goodman, i. 174; J. E.
Cussans, _Hist. of Herts._, pts. ix, x. 209; Nichols, _James_ ii. 127.
Theobalds, in Cheshunt, had been often visited by Elizabeth; cf. App. A.
James had already been there yearly in 1603-1606, and found it
convenient for Waltham Forest.]

[Footnote 30: Green, 7; _V. P._ x. 71.]

[Footnote 31: Green, 8, 17; _V. P._ xii. 194; Pory to Sir Thomas
Puckering (3 Jan. 1633) in _Court and Time of Charles I_, ii. 213: 'In
case the Queen [of Bohemia] do come for England, I hear that her lodging
appointed in court is the Cockpit, at Whitehall, where she lay when she
was a maid.' On the Cockpit, cf. ch. vii.]

[Footnote 32: Birch, _Life of Henry_, 330; Cunningham, viii; _V. P._
xii. 194, 207; Devon 153, 164, 179; _S. P. D., Jac. I_, viii. 104;
Marshall, _Woodstock_, 174.]

[Footnote 33: Devon, 37, 80; _V. P._ xiii. 81; Birch, i. 41.]

[Footnote 34: James was at Richmond in 1605, 1606, 1607, and 1611, at
Oatlands in 1604, 1606, 1607, 1608, 1610, 1611, 1613, and 1615, and at
Woodstock in 1603, 1604, 1605, 1610, 1612, and 1614. Some of his hunting
trophies are still preserved at Ditchley Park; cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Lee.
Theobalds, like Royston, he visited several times a year. Evidently it
was more his than Anne's. In 1607 and 1615 his departure from London is
spoken of as going 'home' (Birch, i. 68, 298).]

[Footnote 35: _V. H. Herts._ iii. 253.]

[Footnote 36: _Abstract_, 52.]

[Footnote 37: T. F. Ordish in _L. T. R._ viii. 6. The road crossed
Holborn at Kingsgate.]

[Footnote 38: Law, _Hampton Court_, i. 1.]

[Footnote 39: At the wedding of Princess Elizabeth in 1613 (Rimbault,
163) James went 'from his Privie Chamber, throughe the presence and
garde chamber, and throughe a new bankettinge house erected of purpose
for to solemnenize this feast in, and so doune a paire of stayers at the
upper end therof hard by the Courte gate, wente alonge uppon a stately
scaffold to the great chamber stayers, and throughe the greate chamber
and lobby to the clossett, doune the staiers to the Chappell'; cf.
Pegge, i. 68. Traces of the Great Chamber at Whitehall possibly still
exist, over the building known as Cardinal Wolsey's cellar (_L. T. R._
vii. 40).]

[Footnote 40: Davison to Leicester (1586, _Hardwicke Papers_, i. 302):
'I found her majesty alone, retired into her withdrawing chamber'; Lord
Talbot to Anon. (1587, _Rutland MSS._ i. 213): 'She had my wife called
in to the withdrawing chamber, where no one but the Queen, my Lord, and
Secretary Walsingham were'; Sussex to Burghley (1573, 2 Ellis, iii. 27):
'The Queen sate in the grete Closette or Parler [at Greenwich]'; R.
Cecil to Essex (1596, Devereux, i. 347), reporting that Sir A. Shirley
was 'used with great favour, both in the privy and drawing chambers'.
The 'Withdrawing Chamber' of Law's Hampton Court plan appears to be the
Privy Chamber. They were certainly distinct at Richmond in 1600, for
Vereiken was taken through the Privy Chamber for an audience in the
Withdrawing Chamber (_Sydney Papers_, ii. 170).]

[Footnote 41: Cf. ch. iv.]

[Footnote 42: _H. O._ 154 (1526); _Procl._ 962 (1603).]

[Footnote 43: Pegge, i. 68.]

[Footnote 44: _V. P._ vii. 91 (1559, Montmorency); ix. 531 (1603,
Scaramelli).]

[Footnote 45: Cf. App. F. Von Wedel (_2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans._ ix. 250)
describes the ceremony at Hampton Court in 1584.]

[Footnote 46: _V. P._ x. 46, 121; xi. 430; xii. 273, 547; Gawdy, 132;
Birch, i. 69; Sully, _Mémoires_, 469. Von Wedel, however, saw Elizabeth
dine in state at Greenwich in 1584 (loc. cit., 262).]

[Footnote 47: Cf. ch. vii.]

[Footnote 48: The position of the Hall at Whitehall can be fairly well
identified as extending across Horse Guards Avenue; cf. _L. T. R._ vii.
41.]

[Footnote 49: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 189; Reyher, 336.]

[Footnote 50: _Tudor Revels_, 17; _Hatfield MSS._ i. 92, from which it
appears that there was one house only, with a kitchen, and also stands
in Hyde and Marylebone Parks.]

[Footnote 51: _V. P._ vii. 91; Holinshed, iii. 1510; Machyn, 203: 'The x
day of July was set up in Greenwich park a goodly banketting-house made
with fir powlles, and deckyd with byrche and all manner of flowers of
the feld and gardennes, as roses, gelevors, lavender, marygolds, and all
maner of strowhyng erbes and flowrs'; Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 81: 'Robert
Trunckewell ... woorking ... vppon toe modells of the Masters device for
a rowfe and a cobboorde of a bancketinge howse', 97, 106.]

[Footnote 52: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 163: 'The Banketting House made at
Whitehall for thentertaynement of the seide duke did drawe the charges
ensving for the covering therof with canvasse: the decking therof with
birche & ivie: and the ffretting, and garnishing therof, with fflowers,
and compartementes, with pendentes & armes paynted & gilded for the
purpose. The ffloore therof being all strewed with rose leaves pickt &
sweetned with sweete waters &c.' The details include £9 14_s._ 4_d._
'for flowers broughte into the Cockpitt at White hall with other
necessaries, viz. fflowers of all sortes taken vp by comyssion &
gathered in the feeldes', while William Hunnis, who was keeper of the
gardens at Greenwich, as well as Master of the Chapel, provided 79
bushels of roses, with pinks, honeysuckles, and privet flowers.]

[Footnote 53: Holinshed, iii. 1315, from _Harleian MS._ 293, f. 217: 'A
banketting house was begun at Westminster, on the south west side of hir
maiesties palace of White hall, made in maner and forme of a long
square, three hundred thirtie and two foot in measure about; thirtie
principals made of great masts, being fortie foot in length a peece,
standing vpright; betweene euerie one of these masts ten foot asunder
and more. The walles of this house were closed with canuas, and painted
all the outsides of the same most artificiallie with a worke called
rustike, much like to stone. This house had two hundred ninetie and two
lights of glasse. The sides within the same house was made with ten
heights of degrees for people to stand upon: and in the top of this
house was wrought most cunninglie upon canuas, works of iuie and hollie,
with pendents made of wicker rods, and garnished with baie, rue, and all
maner of strange flowers garnished with spangles of gold, as also
beautified with hanging toseans made of hollie and iuie, with all maner
of strange fruits, as pomegranats, orenges, pompions, cucumbers, grapes,
carrets, with such other like, spangled with gold, and most richlie
hanged. Betwixt these works of baies and iuie, were great spaces of
canuas, which was most cunninglie painted, the clouds with starres, the
sunne and sunne beames, with diuerse other cotes of sundrie sortes
belonging to the queenes maiestie, most richlie garnished with gold.
There were of all manner of persons working on this house, to the number
of three hundred seuentie and fiue: two men had mischances, the one
brake his leg, and so did the other. This house was made in three weekes
and three daies, and was ended the eighteenth daie of Aprill; and cost
one thousand seuen hundred fortie and foure pounds, nineteene shillings
and od monie; as I was crediblie informed by the worshipfull maister
Thomas Graue surueior vnto hir maiesties workes, who serued and gaue
order for the same, as appeareth by record.' Stowe, _Annales_, 688,
copies Holinshed; cf. _Sp. P._ iii. 91. Von Wedel (_2 R. Hist. Soc.
Trans._ ix. 236) saw the house in 1584, and was told that birds sang in
the bushes overhead, while entertainments were in progress. A Record
Office was constructed below the banqueting house in 1597 (_Hatfield
MSS._ vii. 431).]

[Footnote 54: Camden, _Annalium Apparatus_, 6 (c. 12 Oct. 1607), 'Camera
convivialis de novo construitur apud Whitehall'; Stowe, _Annales_, 688,
892, 910, 'the beautiful room at Whitehall'; Devon, 44, 302, 'James
Acheson ... hath, by our direction, formed a model for the roof of our
Banqueting-house at Whitehall'; _V. P._ xi. 86, 'At the close of the
ceremony [mask of Jan. 1608] he said to me that he intended this
function to consecrate the birth of the Great Hall which his
predecessors had left him built merely in wood, but which he had
converted into stone'. But James had been displeased with the building
when he first saw it about 16 Sept. 1607 (_S. P. D._ xxviii. 51).
Goodman, ii. 176, says that the City had to bear the cost in return for
the transfer to them of Blackfriars, Whitefriars, and other liberties
(cf. ch. xvii, s.v. Blackfriars).]

[Footnote 55: Chamberlain to Carleton (Birch, ii. 124): 'One of the
greatest losses spoken of is the burning of all or most of the writings
and papers belonging to the offices of the Signet, Privy Seal, and
Council Chamber, which were under it'; cf. Reyher, 342; Goodman, ii.
175, 187.]

[Footnote 56: _V. P._ xii. 533; Stowe, 916; Birch, i. 229; Finett, 11;
cf. p. 14.]

[Footnote 57: Stowe, 787, 789, 791; Von Wedel in _2 R. Hist. Soc.
Trans._ ix. 256; P. P. Laffleur de Kermaingant, _Mission de Jean de
Thumery_, i. 368, both describing the procession at length; _Mission de
Christophe de Harlay_, 252, 'la coustume a tousjours esté, et mesmes du
temps de la feue Royne de trés heureuse memoire, que les ambassadeurs
residens en Angleterre sont priez d'accompagner les roys, lorsqu'ilz
retournent en leur ville de Londres, après leur progrès'; Goodman, i.
164, 'The Queen's constant custom was a little before her coronation-day
to come from Richmond to London, and to dine with my lord Admiral at
Chelsea, and to set out from Chelsea at dark night, where the Lord Mayor
and the Aldermen were to meet her'. Precepts by the Lord Mayor and other
records of civic expenditure on the receptions are in Arber, i. 510; v.
lxxvii; Kitto, 538; Young, _Barber Surgeons_, 108; Welch, _Pewterers_,
ii. 33.]

[Footnote 58: Camden, 191, 'Anno iam regni Elizabethae duodecimo
feliciter exacto, in quo aureum ut vocarunt diem creduli Pontificii sibi
ex ariolorum predictione expectabant, boni omnes per Angliam laetanter
triumphabant et xvii Novembris Anniversarium regni inchoati diem,
gratiarum actionibus, concionibus per Ecclesias, votis multiplicatis,
laetisona campanarum pulsatione, hastiludiis, et festiva quadam laetitia
celebrare coeperunt, et in obsequiosi amoris testimonium, dum illa
viveret, non destiterunt'; La Mothe, v. 204; Arber, i. 561, 566, 578;
_Sydney Papers_, i. 371, 'the Triumphes of her Coronation'; Ellis, II.
iii. 160, citing _Pauls Cross Sermon_ of T. Holland on 17 Nov. 1599,
published 1601, with a _Defence of the Church of England for keeping
Queen's Day_, for the origin at Oxford under Vice-Chancellor Cooper,
which is perhaps confirmed by the records of the tilt (cf. ch. iv). But
the City churches rang their bells on the day before 1570; cf.
_Westminster_, 18 (1568), 'ringing for the prosperous reign of the
eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth'; Kitto, 248, 'ringing for the quene
the xvij of November 1569', 269 (1572), 'ringing at the quenes
maᵗᶦᵉˢ chaunginge of her raign', &c. _The Chamber Accounts_ for 1595-6
use the term 'Raigne day'. Goodman, i. 98, notes the Jacobean revival.]

[Footnote 59: Birch, _Eliz._ i. 92.]

[Footnote 60: _Sp. P._ iv. 494; cf. Kitto, 407: 'Pᵈ ye iijᵈ of November
to yᵉ Parritoʳ for a warrant to kepe holy yᵉ xixᵗʰ
day At wᶜʰ tyme heʳ maᵗᶦᵉ should a gone to Powles'. The
ceremony, however, was deferred to 24 Nov. There was also a tilt on 19
Nov. in 1590. Von Wedel (_2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans._ ix. 236, 256) says in
1584 that this was a regular day for tilting; but he also says it was the
royal birthday, which was 7 Sept.]

[Footnote 61: I find no prolonged stay at Whitehall between May 1584 and
Jan. 1589. If her presence in London was necessary during this period
Elizabeth seems to have preferred St. James or Somerset House. She
opened Parliament in Feb. 1586 from Lambeth; there were other visits to
Lambeth and the Lord Admiral's house (Hance's) in Westminster.]

[Footnote 62: _V. P._ vii. 374 (6 Jan. 1566). Machyn, 273, records a
visit to the court of a lord of misrule from the city in 1561.]

[Footnote 63: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 238. Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 108;
ii. 65, 249; iii. 1, 445, prints rolls of gifts to and from the Queen
for 1562, 1578, 1579, 1589, and 1600 from manuscripts in the British
Museum and in private hands. A roll for 1585 is noticed in _Arch._ i.
11. Those for 1563, 1577, 1598, and 1603 appear to be among the
_Miscellaneous Rolls of Chancery_ in the R. O. (Scargill-Bird², 363),
but are unprinted. Nichols also prints shorter lists of jewels given to
the Queen for a number of years.]

[Footnote 64: Machyn, 195, 232, 257, 280, 305; _V. P._ vii. 74; Hawarde,
74, 109; _Sydney Papers_, ii. 44; cf. E. Ashmole, _The Institution of
the Order of the Garter_ (1672); N. H. Nicolas, _Orders of Knighthood_
(1841); G. F. Beltz, _Memorials of the Order of the Garter_ (1841).
Henri IV was installed by proxy in Apr. 1600, and the attendance of the
Admiral's men perhaps implies a play (_Hatfield MSS._ x. 118, 269;
Henslowe, i. 120). There are Garter allusions in _Merry Wives of
Windsor_.]

[Footnote 65: Cf. Appendix A. The Chamber Accounts show an annual
payment for a bonfire on Midsummer Day.]

[Footnote 66: _Westminster_, 19 (1579), &c., and Kitto, 364 (1584), &c.,
record the ringing of London bells. It can hardly have been a day for
tilting (cf. p. 19) as the Court was usually in progress.]

[Footnote 67: _V. P._ xi. 57, 59, refers to an 'old custom' of keeping
All Saints' Day in the city (i.e. Westminster) with the Knights of the
Garter and the court; cf. Nichols, _James_, ii. 155. It can only have
been a Jacobean custom, for Elizabeth did not as a rule reach
Westminster by 1 Nov.]

[Footnote 68: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 124, 248. _V. P._ xii. 237,
notes ringing on 5 Nov. 1611. Williams, _Founders_, 86, prints a guild
order of 1611 for sermons at Paul's Cross and dinners on 'Coronation'
day, 5 Aug. and 5 Nov., as days 'of meeting for the kings majesties
sarves'.]

[Footnote 69: Cf. ch. iv.]

[Footnote 70: Camden, _Annalium Apparatus_, 2 (Aug. 1603), 'Indicitur ut
hic dies festus celebretur ob Regem à Gowriorum conjuratione liberatum';
cf. Goodman, i. 3; Boderie, i. 283; _V. P._ xii. 26, 196, 409. The
question as to the bona fides of the plot commemorated is discussed by
A. Lang, _James VI and the Gowrie Mystery_ (1902).]

[Footnote 71: Goodman, i. 247.]

[Footnote 72: _S. P. D._ xii. 13; _V. P._ x. 81, 90, 95, 195, 218; xi.
276; xii. 41, 381; Lodge, iii. 41, 108, 110, 141; Sully, 455, 458;
Boderie, i. 310; Winwood, iii. 182.]

[Footnote 73: _V. P._ vii. 23, describes the ceremony in 1559, and Von
Wedel, _2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans._ ix. 260, in 1584.]

[Footnote 74: Cf. ch. iv and App. A. In 1612 the Elector Palatine
attended the banquet on Lord Mayor's Day; Henry's illness kept him
away.]

[Footnote 75: _Conspiracy of Byron_, iv. 25. An undated letter from
Elizabeth to Henri regrets that in spite of 'nostre sejour en deux lieux
si proches l'un de l'autre ... nous sommes tous deux empeschez de passer
la mer'; she adds, 'je me resoudray dans peu de jours de m'en retourner
à Londres' (Sully, 364; Berger de Xivrey, _Lettres missives de Henri
IV_, v. 464). This was doubtless written early in Sept. 1601 when
Elizabeth was at Basing and Henri at Calais. Sully, followed by
Strickland, 678, has an elaborate account of the business, including an
interview between himself and Elizabeth at Dover, but the itinerary (cf.
App. A) makes it impossible that she can have gone to Dover.]

[Footnote 76: _V. P._ viii. 496; cf. ch. v.]

[Footnote 77: Cf. ch. v for Harington's description of a drunken mask at
Theobalds; there is confirmatory evidence in _V. P._ x. 386; Boderie, i.
241, 283, 297.]

[Footnote 78: Cf. ch. xiii, s.v. King's.]

[Footnote 79: Gilles de Noailles, Abbé de Lisle (1559), Michel de Seurre
(1560-2), Paul de Foix (1562-6), Jacques Bochetel, Sieur de la Forest
(1566-8), Bertrand de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (1568-75), Michel de
Castelnau, Sieur de Mauvissière (1575-85), Guillaume de L'Aubespine,
Baron de Chasteauneuf (1585-9), Le Sieur de Beauvoir (de La Nocte)
(1589-98?), Le Sieur Thumery de Boissise (1598-1601), Christophe de
Harlay, Comte de Beaumont (1601-5), Antoine Le Fèvre, Sieur de la
Boderie (1606-11), Samuel Spifame, Sieur des Bisseaux (1611-15), Gaspard
Dauvet, Sieur des Marets (1615-18). Complete lists of lieger and
extraordinary ambassadors, with notes of the manuscripts containing
their dispatches, are given by A. Baschet in _Reports of Deputy Keeper
of the Records_, xxxvii, App. 1, 188; xxxix, App. 573; and C. H. Firth
and S. C. Lomax, _Notes on the Diplomatic Relations of England and
France_, 1603-88 (1906); cf. _General Bibl. Note_, s.v. Beaumont,
Boissise, La Boderie, La Mothe.]

[Footnote 80: The Spanish ambassadors during 1558-84 were Don Gomez
Suarez de Figueroa, Count of Féria (Jan. 1558-May 1559), Don Alvaro de
la Quadra, Bishop of Aquila (May 1559-Aug. 1563), Don Diego Guzman de
Silva (Jan. 1564-Sept. 1568), Don Guerau de Spes (Sept. 1568-Dec. 1571),
Don Bernardino de Mendoza (March 1578-Jan. 1584); their dispatches are
in _Colección de Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España_,
lxxxvii, lxxxix-xcii, and are calendared, with those of Antonio de
Guaras, a merchant who acted as agent 1573-7, in M. A. S. Hume,
_Calendar of Letters and State Papers relating to English Affairs,
preserved principally in the Archives of Simancas_ (1892-9, cited as
_Sp. P._). The ambassadors 1603-16 were Don Juan de Taxis, Count of
Villa Mediana (Aug. 1603-July 1605), Don Juan Fernandez de Velasco, Duke
of Frias and Constable of Castile, and Alessandro Rovida, Senator of
Milan (extraordinary as commissioners, with John de Ligne, Prince of
Brabançon and Count of Aremberg, Juan Richardot, Councillor of State,
and Ludovic Verreyken, Audiencier, representing the Archduke Albert and
Archduchess Isabella of Flanders, for the treaty of Aug. 1604), Don
Pedro de Zuniga (July 1605-May 1610), Don Fernando de Giron
(extraordinary, 1608-9), Don Alonzo de Velasco (May 1610-Aug. 1613), Don
Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, afterwards Conde de Gondomar (Aug. 1613).
Their dispatches are not in print, but a _Relacion de la Jornada del
Excᵐᵒ Condestable de Castilla_ is in the _Colección de Documentos
Inéditos_, lxxi. 467.]

[Footnote 81: The Venetian ambassadors were Giovanni Carlo Scaramelli
(Secretary, Feb.-Nov. 1603), Pietro Duodo (extraordinary, 1603), Nicolò
Molin (Nov. 1603-Dec. 1605), Giorgio Giustinian (Dec. 1605-Oct. 1608),
Marc' Antonio Correr (Oct. 1608-Apr. 1611), Francesco Contarini
(extraordinary, 1610), Antonio Foscarini (Apr. 1611-Dec. 1615), Gregorio
Barbarigo (Sept. 1615-May 1616). Reports of the state of England by
Molin, Contarini, and Correr are in N. Barozzi e Guglielmo Berchet, _Le
Relazioni degli Stati Europei ... nel secolo decimosettimo_, iv (1863).
The current dispatches are calendared in _Calendar of State Papers and
Manuscripts relating to English Affairs ... in Venice and ... Northern
Italy_ (cited as _V. P._). A report to the Senate by Zuanne Falier and
others who visited England privately in 1575 states that they were
advised by a Bolognese groom of the privy chamber, favoured by Elizabeth
as an excellent musician [? Alfonso Ferrabosco], to suggest the
desirability of an embassy (_V. P._ vii. 524). Retiring Venetian
ambassadors were sometimes knighted and given a lion of England to
quarter on their shields (_V. P._ xii. 163; xiv. 85).]

[Footnote 82: _Sp. P._ i. 382, 385, 403, 451, 545.]

[Footnote 83: _S. P. D., Jac. I_, vi. 21; xii. 16; Winwood, iii. 155; P.
L. de Kermaingant, _Mission de Christophe de Harlay_, 173, 252; De la
Boderie, _Ambassades_, i. 240, 262, 271, 277, 291, 353; iii. 1-192
_passim_; _V. P._ x. 139, 149, 212, 234, 388, 408; xi. 83, 86, 212. I
have given some details in relation to the masks in ch. xxiii; cf. also
ch. vi. There is a connected narrative of the Franco-Spanish disputes in
M. Sullivan, _Court Masques of James I_, which perhaps lays insufficient
stress on incidents occurring at state ceremonies and tilts as distinct
from masks.]




II

THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD

     [_Bibliographical Note._--There is no systematic history of the
     household, but the growing tendency, notable in such recent
     works as those of Professor Baldwin and Professor Tout, to
     dwell on the administrative, as distinct from the
     'constitutional', aspect of politics suggests that the gap may
     some day be filled. A useful short study is R. H. Gretton, _The
     King's Government_ (1913). Of the numerous books bearing more
     or less directly on the subject, I give here mainly those which
     I have found of practical value in writing this chapter.
     Professor Tout's _Chapters in the Administrative History of
     Mediaeval England_, of which the first two volumes have
     subsequently (1920) appeared, is of course of fundamental
     importance. The best worked section is that of mediaeval
     origins. The general surveys of W. Stubbs, _The Constitutional
     History of England in its Origin and Development_ (1880), and
     W. R. Anson, _The Law and Custom of the Constitution_
     (1886-92), may be supplemented for the earliest period by L. M.
     Larson, _The King's Household in England before the Norman
     Conquest_ (1904); for the eleventh to thirteenth centuries by
     H. W. C. Davis, _Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum_, i (1913), T.
     Madox, _History and Antiquities of the Exchequer_ (1769), R. L.
     Poole, _The Exchequer in the Twelfth Century_ (1912), J. H.
     Round, _The King's Serjeants and Officers of State_ (1911), and
     L. W. Vernon Harcourt, _His Grace the Steward and the Trial of
     Peers_ (1907); for the fourteenth century by T. F. Tout, _The
     Place of the Reign of Edward II in English History_ (1914), J.
     C. Davies, _The Baronial Opposition to Edward II_ (1918), F. J.
     Furnivall and R. E. G. Kirk, _Life Records of Chaucer_
     (1875-1900), and J. R. Hulbert, _Chaucer's Official Life_
     (1912); for the fifteenth century by C. Plummer, _Sir John
     Fortescue's Governance of England_ (1885), and by the 'courtesy
     books' or treatises on domestic service and etiquette in F. J.
     Furnivall, _The Babees Book_, &c. (1868, _E. E. T. S._), _Queen
     Elizabeth's Achademy_, &c. (1869, _E. E. T. S._), and R. W.
     Chambers, _A Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book_ (1914, _E. E. T.
     S._); for the Privy Council by N. H. Nicolas, _Proceedings and
     Ordinances of the Privy Council_ (1834-7), J. R. Dasent, _Acts
     of the Privy Council_ (1890-1907), A. V. Dicey, _The Privy
     Council_ (1887), J. F. Baldwin, _The King's Council in England
     during the Middle Ages_ (1913), T. F. T. Plucknett, _The Place
     of the Council in the Fifteenth Century_ (1918, _4 R. Hist.
     Soc. Trans._ i. 157), E. Percy, _The Privy Council under the
     Tudors_ (1907), and C. Hornemann, _Das Privy Council von
     England zur Zeit der Königin Elisabeth_ (1912); and for the
     Star Chamber, W. P. Baildon's edition of John Hawarde's
     _Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata_ (1894), and C.
     Scofield, _The Court of Star Chamber_ (1900). Some of the above
     extend to the sixteenth century; but in the main the
     Tudor-Stuart period has received less attention than it
     deserves. Even the lists of the great officers, as given in the
     ordinary books of reference, are generally incorrect. The most
     valuable summary is the quite recent one of E. P. Cheyney,
     _History of England from the Defeat of the Armada to the Death
     of Elizabeth_, i (1914). Samuel Pegge set out to write an
     account of the Hospitium Regis and published four sections, on
     the Esquires of the Body, the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber,
     the Gentlemen Pensioners, and the Yeomen of the Guard as a
     first volume of _Curialia; or an Historical Account of the
     Royal Household_ (1791). From the material left at his death,
     J. Nichols published two more, on Somerset House and the
     Serjeants at Arms, in a second volume of _Curialia_ (1806), and
     some fragments in _Curialia Miscellanea_ (1818). Other special
     studies are F. S. Thomas, _Notes of Materials for the History
     of Public Departments_ (1846), and _The Ancient Exchequer of
     England_ (1848), N. Carlisle, _An Inquiry into the Place and
     Quality of the Gentlemen of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy
     Chamber_ (1829), E. K. Chambers, _The Elizabethan Lords
     Chamberlain_ (1907, _Malone Soc. Collections_, i. 31), W.
     Nagel, _Annalen der Englischen Hofmusik_ (1894, _Beilage zu den
     Monatsheften für Musikgeschichte_, 26), H. C. De Lafontaine,
     _The King's Musick_ (1909), _Lists of the King's Musicians_
     (_Musical Antiquary_, i-iv, _passim_). A. P. Newton's valuable
     paper on _The King's Chamber under the Early Tudors_ (1917, _E.
     H. R._ xxxii. 348) appeared after my paragraphs on the
     Treasurer of the Chamber were written, but has helped me to
     revise them. An account of the post-Restoration household is
     given in J. Chamberlayne, _Angliae Notitiae, or The Present
     State of England_ (1669), which became an annual; and this,
     with the works of Pegge and Carlisle, were drawn upon for the
     historical part of W. J. Thoms, _The Book of Court_ (1838). The
     modern household is the subject of W. A. Lindsay, _The Royal
     Household_ (1898). A summary, useful for comparison, of the
     sixteenth-century French household, is in L. Batiffol, _The
     Century of the Renaissance_ (1916, tr.), 92.

     There is, of course, ample material for the historian of the
     Tudor-Stuart Household when he presents himself. The personal
     references of annalists, diplomatists, and letter-writers (cf.
     _Bibl. Note_ to ch. i) help out the more formal documents
     preserved in large numbers in the Record Office (cf. S. R.
     Scargill-Bird, _Guide to Various Classes of Documents in the
     Public Record Office_³, 1908) and the British Museum (cf.
     sections on _Public Revenue and State Establishments in
     Classified Catalogue of Manuscripts_), of which a few have been
     printed in _A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the
     Government of the Royal Household_ (_Society of Antiquaries_,
     1790, cited as _H. O._), in J. Nichols, _Progresses and Public
     Processions of Queen Elizabeth_² (1823), and _Progresses,
     Processions, and Festivities of James I_ (1828), and elsewhere.
     The Record Office, in addition to many records, such as those
     of the Auditors of Prests (cf. App. B), which relate to the
     Household, contains the special archives of the Lord
     Chamberlain's Department and the Lord Steward's Department
     themselves; both, however, are very fragmentary. The earlier
     documents of the Lord Chamberlain's Department mainly relate to
     the Wardrobe. The Warrant books only begin about the reign of
     Charles I; a selection of entries bearing upon the stage is
     given by C. C. Stopes in _Jahrbuch_, xlvi. 92. The papers in
     the British Museum are partly official records which have
     strayed from their proper custody, partly the collections of
     antiquaries, and partly the administrative memoranda of
     ministers such as Lord Burghley, Lord Salisbury, and Sir Julius
     Caesar. Similar collections in private hands are calendared in
     the reports of the _Historical Manuscripts Commission_, and in
     particular in the _Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis
     of Salisbury_ (1883-1915, cited as _Cecil MSS._ or _Hatfield
     MSS._). The most important documents for tracing the history of
     the household consist (_a_) of account-books, (_b_) of royal
     ordinances and of ceremonials either for the household as a
     whole or for some branch of it, to the more comprehensive of
     which are sometimes attached schedules of offices with the fees
     and other allowances belonging to them, and (_c_) lists of the
     actual occupants of offices drawn up from time to time for
     various administrative purposes. The most complete lists seem
     to be those of officers receiving liveries at coronations and
     funerals. These are appended to the special _Accounts_ of the
     Masters of the Wardrobe for such ceremonies, and copies,
     covering _inter alia_ the coronation (1559) and funeral (1603)
     of Elizabeth, the coronation (1604) and funeral (1625) of
     James, the funeral (1612) of Henry, and the funeral (1619) of
     Anne, are preserved as precedents in _Lord Chamberlain's
     Records_, ii. 4-6. On the other hand, it is necessary to
     exercise caution in using the very numerous lists which bear
     some such title as 'A Generall Collection of all the Offices in
     England with their Fees in her Maiesties Gift'. Of these I have
     noted the following: _Stowe MS._ 571, f. 6 (1552); _Harl. MS._
     240 (1545-53); _Stowe MS._ 571, f. 133 (1575-80); _Stowe MS._
     571, f. 159 (1587-90); _Lansd. MS._ 171, f. 246ᵛ (1587-91);
     _Cotton MS._, _Titus_ B iii, f. 163ᵛ (1585-93); _S. P. D._,
     _Eliz._ ccxxi (1588-93); _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, v. 33
     (1593); _Hargrave MS._ 215 (1592-5); _Stowe MS._ 572, f. 26
     (1592-6); _Harl. MS._ 2078, f. 6 (1592-6); _H. O._ 241
     (misdated 1578) from Peck, i. 51 (1598); _Addl. MS._ 35848
     (1605-7); _Addl. MS._ 38008 (1605-7); _Archaeologia_, xv. 72
     (1606); _Stowe MS._ 574 (_temp._ Jac. I); _Stowe MS._ 575
     (1616). The dates are mostly approximate, rendered possible by
     the fact that the occupants of a few of the chief posts are
     usually named. The list of 1552 alone has all the names and is
     in the full sense an Establishment List. The rest should
     probably be regarded not as official lists but as convenient
     handbooks prepared for courtiers seeking patronage. Errors of
     transcription are frequent, and often recur in several
     manuscripts. _Stowe MS._ 574 is interesting, because a second
     hand has corrected several errors. It seems pretty clear that
     the names of offices were sometimes retained on these lists
     after the offices were in fact obsolete. They are not limited
     to Household Offices, but are usually arranged in four
     sections, Courts of Justice, Household (1, Household proper, 2,
     Standing offices; cf. p. 49), Military Posts, Keeperships (cf.
     p. 11). They include fees payable in the household, as well as
     at the Exchequer; and have prototypes, in less fixed form, in
     lists _temp._ Hen. VIII (Brewer, ii. 873; iii. 364; iv. 868). A
     more careful list, of somewhat similar type, with names
     appended, but limited to fees payable at the Exchequer, is to
     be found in the abstract of revenue and expenditure in 1617
     printed with the pamphlet _Truth Brought to Light and
     Discovered by Time_ (1651, cited as _Abstract_).

     But there are no comprehensive ordinances for the Tudor-Stuart
     Household, which must largely be studied from its origins. The
     best text of the _Constitutio Domus Regis_ of Henry I (_c._
     1135) is in T. Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_² (1774), i. 341;
     a less good one in H. Hall, _The Red Book of the Exchequer_
     (1896, Rolls Series), iii. 807. For Edward I we have unprinted
     ordinances of 1279 (_Addl. MS._ 4565 H; _Lord Steward's Misc._
     298), and the description of the palace jurisdictions by a
     contemporary lawyer (_c._ 1290) in John Selden's edition of
     _Fleta, seu Commentarius Juris Anglicani_ (1685); for Edward II
     ordinances of 1318 and 1323 edited from the French original in
     Tout, 267, and from a translation by Francis Tate (1601) in
     _Life Records of Chaucer_, ii. 1, together with related
     Exchequer ordinances in Hall, iii. 908, 930. Ordinances of
     Edward III, not known to be extant, are referred to by the
     compiler of the _Liber Niger Domus Regis Angliae_ in the reign
     of Edward IV. Of the _Liber Niger_ a large number of
     manuscripts exist (_Lord Steward's Misc._ 299; _Exchequer T. of
     R. Misc._ 230; _Harl. MSS._ 293, f. 19; 298, f. 41; 369, f.
     56ᵛ; 610, f. 1; 642, f. 196ᵛ; _Soc. Antiq. MS._). It is not
     certain from which of these the bad text in _H. O._ 13 is
     printed; probably it used the last two. The _Liber Niger_ is
     less an ordinance than an unfinished literary treatise by a
     household clerk, probably motived by the actual ordinances of
     1478, of which an unprinted copy is in _Exchequer T. of R.
     Misc._ 206. An ordinance of Henry VII (1493) and a ceremonial
     of the same reign are in _H. O._ 107. The documents of Henry
     VIII's time are complicated. There appear to be three sets of
     ordinances: (_a_) the Eltham Articles drawn up by Wolsey
     (Halle, ii. 56) in Jan. 1526 (_Lord Steward's Misc._ 299, ff.
     158, 163; _Exchequer T. of R. Misc._ 231; _H. O._ 137-61, from
     _Harl. MS._ 642); (_b_) ordinances related to a 'new book of
     household', _c._ 1540 (_H. O._ 228-40); (_c_) scattered
     ordinances, _c._ 1532-44 (_H. O._ 208-27). Subsidiary lists and
     documents of about the period of (_a_) are in _Lord Steward's
     Misc._ 299, and, perhaps with some of other dates, in Brewer,
     IV. i. 860. Those printed from a _Dunch MS._ in _Genealogist_,
     xxix, xxx, appear to belong to the 'new book' of (_b_). A third
     set, of _c._ 1544-6, are in _H. O._ 165-207. Much other
     material is scattered through the twenty-one volumes of the
     _Calendar of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the
     Reign of Henry VIII_ (1862-1910, cited as Brewer), including
     some of earlier date than the Eltham Articles.--I need hardly
     add that for the purposes of this chapter I have rarely been
     able to go beyond printed sources.]


The ordering of court life and ceremonial was in the hands of a group of
departments which made up the somewhat complicated establishment of the
royal Household. But the Household, at a time when the personal capacity
of the Crown was as yet imperfectly differentiated from its national
capacity, was not merely a domestic organization; it was still to a
large extent an instrument of central executive government. It must in
fact be regarded as the direct descendant of the eleventh-century _curia
regis_, through which all the important functions, deliberative,
judicial, financial, and administrative, had been carried out. The
_curia_ had consisted partly of the territorial magnates, earls, and
barons, who had been, or whose fathers had been, the King's _comitatus_
in battle; partly of knights still in attendance upon the King's person,
and hoping some day, in reward for their services, to become territorial
magnates in turn; partly, and to an increasing extent as government
became more complicated and difficult, of clerks whose trained skill
with the pen and with figures made them more practically useful than the
lay knights in all those branches of affairs which entailed book-keeping
and correspondence. All the members of the _curia_, in smaller or
greater numbers, according to the magnitude of the business to be
transacted and the willingness of the lords to leave their estates, sat
with the King from time to time, and advised him as his _consilium_; but
except on great occasions of state it was left to the knights to wait at
his table and order his servants about, and to the clerks to write and
send his letters, and to act as his assessors or his deputies in the
exercise of justice or the collection and spending of his revenue. In
course of time some of the functions of the original _curia_ had become
specialized in distinct departments, which acquired a permanent
habitation at Westminster, ceased to follow the King's wanderings, and
were no longer regarded as part of the personal Household. Thus the
_curia_ as a judicial body became the Courts of Law; the _curia_ as a
financial body became the Exchequer; while at a somewhat later date the
Chancery undertook the double function of issuing royal grants and other
formal correspondence of the Crown, and of supplementing the Courts of
Law by exercising an equitable jurisdiction in cases which ordinary law
was inadequate to cover. To the central _curia_ or Household, still
composed of lay and clerical officers lodged in the King's palace and
eating in his hall, wherever that might happen to be, three things were
left. It ministered to the material well-being and splendour of the
Sovereign himself; it exercised under his personal direction such
functions of administration, for example the control of foreign policy
and war, as had not passed to the specialized departments; and, perhaps
most important of all, it remained potentially able to resume at his
will the exercise of functions precisely analogous to those which had so
passed. This paradox of the duplicate exercise of royal functions,
through the specialized departments and through the Household, lies at
the bottom of an understanding of mediaeval government.

The differentiation of the Courts of Law, the Exchequer, and the
Chancery from the Household was complete by the thirteenth century; but
the same tendency towards the budding off of quasi-independent
departments of state from the administrative nucleus continued to
manifest itself in a minor degree up to and even, for all their
centralizing instinct, within the period of the Tudors. Moreover, as the
scale of the Household became larger and its individual ministers began
to require assistance, there grew up a corresponding tendency towards
the formation of separate offices within the nucleus itself. The
staffing of these offices with servants of various grades, their
responsibilities and interrelations, and the control of them through the
chief officers of the Household, were determined by royal ordinances,
which go into minute detail, and reveal a complex organization, based
upon long-standing tradition, and at the same time flexible in its
capacity of adaptation to shifting circumstances. The main structure of
the Household, as we find it under Elizabeth, appears to have been
already fixed in the time of Edward IV and even in that of Edward II,
although minor changes had been introduced, largely through Tudor
imitation of the French _hôtel du roi_, just as there had been minor
changes under Richard II and his Lancastrian successors, some of which
are noted to our advantage by a clerk of literary tastes, who about 1478
bethought him to compile in the so-called _Liber Niger_ a systematic
account or _rationale_ of the establishment in which doubtless he played
a part. And the beginnings of the same structure can be traced back
farther still, through ordinances of Edward I in 1279 to the
_Constitutio Domus Regis_ as it stood at the end of Henry I's reign in
1135, and even perhaps, so far as the principal officers are concerned,
to the Normanized Anglo-Saxon Court of pre-Conquest days. And after
Elizabeth's reign the structure lasted, again with modifications of
detail, for nearly two centuries more, until it was somewhat severely
overhauled, in a moment of reforming zeal, by what is known as Burke's
Act of 1782.[84] This conservatism of structure may perhaps justify us
in finding an explanation of the tripartite character which the
organization of the Household at every stage displays, as arising
naturally out of the local arrangement of a primitive royal habitation.
The palace stood in a court-yard, and it consisted essentially of a hall
where the King feasted and took counsel with his _comitatus_, and of a
chamber where he retired to sleep and to be private, and where he
probably kept his treasure-chest. The duties of his personal servants
fell either in the court-yard or in the hall or in the chamber. In the
court-yard the _constabularii_ drilled the royal body-guard and the
_marescalli_ looked after the horses; in the hall the _dapiferi_ and the
_pincernae_ ministered food and drink; in the chamber the _camerarii_ or
_cubicularii_, aided as time went on by the _clerici_, watched the
King's treasure and his bed, and stood ready to receive and transmit his
personal mandates. Originally, it would seem, there were several
officers of each class. Afterwards they were reduced to one, or one was
chosen as _magister_ over the rest; whatever the process, a single chief
officer, with a group of subordinates beneath him, emerges as
representative of each of the three departments. Perhaps the change was
assisted by the demand of the barons, jealous of the rise in their
absence of new men at Court, to have Household posts conferred upon them
as part of their hereditaments. By the middle of the twelfth century
there were already a hereditary Great Chamberlain, a High Steward, a
High Constable, a Chief Butler, and an Earl Marshal.[85] But,
obviously, if the King was in the habit of appointing two chamberlains
or two stewards, he could make one of each pair hereditary, and still
have another at his own appointment. And he could call on the hereditary
officer to officiate on state occasions and the appointed officer to
officiate in daily life. The hereditary man would have the greater
dignity and the appointed man the greater power. This, rather than
deputation by the hereditary officers, seems to be the explanation of
the existence of a Chamberlain of the Household side by side with the
Lord Great Chamberlain and of a Steward of the Household side by side
with the Lord High Steward. It is really only another example of the
duplication of functions, through officers of state on the one hand, and
Household officers on the other, to which attention has already been
called; with the added feature that in this case the officers of state
seem to have had sinecures from the beginning.

The tripartite organization is traceable clearly enough in the Household
of Elizabeth, as in that of her predecessors. There was, of course, a
close co-operation at many points between the different departments;
and, indeed, the simplicity of the original scheme had inevitably been
interfered with, as the sovereigns began more and more to retire from
their hall and to subdivide their chamber in order to adapt it to the
complicated needs of an increasingly luxurious private life. The
department of the court-yard, moreover, would appear, long before
Elizabeth's time, to have shed many of what must be supposed to have
been its original functions. The hereditary Lord High Constable had left
no _constabularius_ behind him at court, and although the Earl Marshal,
also hereditary, continued to exercise certain functions, such as an
oversight over the heralds, he was in no sense the head of a Household
department. The Knight Marshal, who exercised a jurisdiction over
breaches of peace within the verge (_virgata_) of twelve leagues round
the court, was nominally at least his deputy, but the only other
marshals in the Household were officers of the Hall. Similarly the
oversight of the guard seems to have passed to the Chamberlain. Nor had
the Marshal any longer the responsibility for the stable which the
etymology of his name suggests.[86] The Stable was, indeed, still a
distinct department, but its head was the Master of the Horse, who,
although he ranked as one of the three chief officers of the Household,
was of comparatively recent origin.[87]

By a somewhat troublesome variation in the use of terms, the Lord
Steward's department is sometimes called the 'Household' in a very
narrow sense, which excludes the Chamber and the Stable. The author of
the _Liber Niger_ distinguishes it as the _domus providentiae_ from the
Chamber as the _domus magnificentiae_.[88] Roughly speaking, it
concerned itself with the material necessities, the food and drink, the
lighting and the fuel, of the Sovereign and his court, while all else
that ministered to his personal life and the dignity of his state, his
lodging and his apparel, his entertainments, his study and his
recreations, fell within the sphere of the Chamber. Its original nucleus
was still represented under Elizabeth by the officers of the Hall,
Marshals, Sewers, and Surveyors; but the Hall had shrunk in importance
since the Sovereign had ceased to dine in it, and some of these posts
had long been duplicated within the Chamber itself, and even there were
tending to become honorific rather than effective.[89] The real
functions of the department were now exercised in the subsidiary
offices of provision, which had grown up round the Hall. Of these there
were twenty, each under a Serjeant or other head with an appropriate
staff of clerks, yeomen, grooms, pages, and children. They were the
Kitchen, the Bake-house, the Pantry, the Cellar, the Buttery, the
Pitcher-house, the Spicery, the Chandlery, the Wafery, the
Confectionery, the Ewery, the Laundry, the Larder, the Boiling-house,
the Accatry, the Poultry, the Scalding-house, the Pastry, the Scullery,
and the Woodyard. The department also included the Almonry under a Lord
High Almoner, who was an ecclesiastic, and the Porters. Administrative
control was exercised by the Board of Green Cloth, consisting of the
Treasurer and Comptroller of the Household, and the Cofferer or
household cashier.[90] These had the assistance of a staff of clerks and
clerk comptrollers, known as the Counting House. Above all was the chief
officer of the department, the Lord Steward of the Household. The
Steward, whose name seems to be an exact equivalent for both the Latin
terms _dapifer_ and _Senescallus_, is not likely to have had in the
beginning any priority over the _camerarius_; but historical reasons had
brought him to the forefront towards the end of the thirteenth century,
and thereafter he continued to rank as first officer of the Household.
Henry VIII, following a French analogy, had renamed him Grand Master of
the Household, but the new term had not permanently succeeded in
establishing itself. Under Elizabeth the post was sometimes left vacant.
But it was always filled during the session of a Parliament, for it was
the ancient custom for the lords of Parliament to dine at the Lord
Steward's table in the court.[91] In the absence of a Lord Steward, the
department was managed, under some general supervision from the Lord
Chamberlain, who then became first officer, by the Treasurer and
Comptroller, who were important personages with seats on the Privy
Council. The original _dapiferi_ had had as colleagues the _pincernae_,
but the Chief Butlership was now an hereditary sinecure, and the duties
were divided between the subordinate office of the Cellar and the
Cupbearer, who was an officer of the Chamber.

We come now to the Lord Chamberlain, incomparably the most important
figure at court in all matters concerned with entertainments. The
_camerarii_ and _cubicularii_ are discernible before the Conquest, and
the corresponding Anglo-Saxon terms appear to be _burþegn_, _bedþegn_,
and _hræglþegn_. Perhaps the _hrægl_ or wardrobe was already becoming
separated from the _bur_ or bed-chamber.[92] In the days of William
Rufus one Herbert was _regis cubicularius et thesaurarius_.[93] This was
before the Exchequer under its Lord High Treasurer had branched off as a
separate department of state, but the post of Chamberlain of the
Exchequer continued for many centuries to testify to the original
location of the treasure chest in the _camera_. About 1135 there was a
_magister camerarius_, the equal in salary and allowances of the
_cancellarius_, the _dapiferi_, the _magister pincerna_, the
_thesaurarius_, and the _constabularii_. There were also other
_camerarii_ of lower degrees taking turns of duty, and a special
_camerarius candelae_, ranking lower still.[94] Presumably the _magister
camerarius_ became the hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain, whose
coronation services, which are connected with the charge of the King's
bed-chamber, the handing of a basin and towel at the banquet, and the
preparation of the royal oblations, afford a sufficient indication of
the duties of the court office.[95] And on the retirement of the
hereditary officer from court, it seems probable that one of the other
_camerarii_ advanced to the position of acting _magister_. At any rate,
when the treatise known as _Fleta_ was compiled about 1290, there was a
single _camerarius_ with a _sub-minister_ and other officers beneath
him. Perhaps he was by this time barely the equal of the _senescallus_,
to whom he sat as assessor in the court _de placitis_ _Aulae Regis_,
although he had also an independent jurisdiction over his own officers
and those of the Wardrobe, who were exempt from the Steward's court.[96]
On the other hand he was, as Robert of Westminster calls him, 'custos
capitis regis', and the author of _Fleta_ tells us in another connexion
that 'in hospitio pro regula habetur, quod quanto propinquior sit quis
Regi, tanto dignior'.[97] On the whole it seems probable that, whatever
his traditional status may have been, the practical tendency of the
extensive political use made by Edward I of the Steward and the clerical
officers of the Wardrobe was to throw the Chamberlain into the
background.[98] We also learn from _Fleta_ that it was the business of
the Chamberlain to look after the King's bed and chamber, and that as
fees he had his keep in court, fines from ecclesiastic and lay homagers,
the disused plenishings of the _camera_, and a share of all gifts and
offerings of food made to the King.[99]

After the break-up of the power of the Wardrobe in the earlier part of
the fourteenth century, the propinquity of the Chamberlain to the King
gave him an increasing political importance, and attempts were made by
the barons to secure his appointment in Parliament. Both in that
assembly and in the Privy Council he frequently served as the royal
mouthpiece, and he became the regular channel through which petitions
for the exercise of the royal prerogative of pardon reached the
King.[100] But he continued to discharge his domestic responsibilities,
which are detailed both in the _Liber Niger_ about 1478 and in early
Tudor documents.[101] The Tudor change in the relation between the Crown
and the nobility is well indicated by the fact that, while in the
fourteenth century the Chamberlain had been a banneret or even a simple
knight, in Elizabeth's time the office was an object of ambition for
earls and barons. But the dual functions, political and domestic,
remained unaltered. The 'Lord' Chamberlain, as he was now generally
called, was in regular attendance at court, where his power and
responsibility were alike considerable.[102] He gave personal attention
to the distribution of lodgings in the palace.[103] He made the
arrangements for the progress.[104] He received the ambassadors and
others entitled to a royal audience and conducted them into the
presence.[105] He was liable to be rated by the Queen if there was not
enough plate on the cupboard.[106] He not merely planned the revels but
himself kept order in the banqueting-hall. And for this purpose the
white staff, which was the symbol of his office, was a practical
instrument ready to his hand.[107] The delivery of this white staff to
him by the Sovereign constituted his appointment, which was during
pleasure; and at its determination he delivered it up again. The Lord
Steward and the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Household were
similarly appointed, and it is a picturesque touch that at the funeral
of the Sovereign the Household officers broke their white staves over
the bier.[108] Elizabeth's Chamberlains had a fee of £133 6_s._ 8_d._
and a table and other allowances at court; also a livery from the Great
Wardrobe of fourteen yards of tawny velvet, which had been converted by
1606 into an additional fee of £16.[109]

Elizabeth's first Lord Chamberlain was her great-uncle, Lord William
Howard, a younger son of the second Duke of Norfolk, who had been
created Lord Howard of Effingham in 1554.[110] He was appointed by 20
November 1558, and resigned on becoming Lord Privy Seal in July 1572.
His successor was Thomas Radcliffe, third Earl of Sussex, who appears to
have held office continuously, in spite of occasional absence from his
duties, until his death on 9 June 1583. Then came Charles, second Lord
Howard of Effingham, for a short period from Christmas 1583 or earlier
until his appointment as Lord Admiral about June 1585; and then on 4
July 1585 Elizabeth's first cousin, Henry Carey, first Lord Hunsdon, who
established and handed down to his son the famous company of players
which included William Shakespeare. Hunsdon was himself a soldier rather
than a courtier.[111] He died on 22 July 1596, and the Chamberlainship
passed to William Brooke, seventh Lord Cobham. But on 5 March 1597
Cobham himself died, and the office reverted to the house of Hunsdon in
the person of George Carey, second lord, who retained it to the end of
the reign. By this time he was in ill health, and although he was at
first formally continued in his post with the rest of the household, he
was replaced on 4 May 1603 by Thomas, Lord Howard of Walden, who on the
following 21 July was created Earl of Suffolk. He died on 9 September
1603. Suffolk remained Lord Chamberlain during the palmy days of the
Jacobean revels. But in 1614 he became Lord Treasurer, and on 10 July
the Chamberlainship was conferred upon the then reigning royal
favourite, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, much to the disappointment of
Shakespeare's patron, William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, who had
to content himself with a promise of the reversion.[112] This, however,
fell in sooner than might have been hoped for. Somerset came to disaster
for his share in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1615, and on 2
November, shortly before he was sent to the Tower, Lord Wotton, the
Comptroller of the Household, came from the King to demand his seals and
the white staff. He handed over the seals, says our informant, the
Venetian ambassador, 'and as for the staff, which he pointed out to him
in a corner of the room, he might take it'. Lord Wotton replied that the
King did not order him to take it, but Somerset to give it, 'which he
did'.[113] Pembroke was appointed on 23 December 1615 and remained Lord
Chamberlain until 3 August 1626, when he was succeeded by his brother
Philip Earl of Montgomery.[114]

The illness, or employment elsewhere, of a Lord Chamberlain sometimes
rendered necessary the appointment of a deputy. Both Howard of Effingham
and Hunsdon appear to have acted in this capacity during Sussex's tenure
of office; Howard in 1574-5 and Hunsdon in 1582. Similarly Howard de
Walden acted without having the white staff during the second Lord
Hunsdon's illness in 1602, and again for a month before his own
appointment in 1603.[115] There was indeed provision for the regular
assistance of the Lord Chamberlain by a Vice-Chamberlain, an officer who
had existed at least as far back as the fourteenth century, and is
probably indeed the 'subminister' of the thirteenth.[116] Elizabeth's
fee lists provide for a Vice-Chamberlain at a fee of £66 13_s._ 4_d._
and a table at court. But the post was not always filled up. Sir Edward
Rogers held it from 1558 to 1559, Sir Francis Knollys from 1559 to
1570, Sir Christopher Hatton from 1577 to 1587, and Sir Thomas Heneage
from 1589 to 1595. There seem to have been vacancies from 1570 to 1577
and from 1595 to 1601, although Sir William Pickering's appointment was
under consideration in 1572 and Sir Henry Lee's in 1597. During
Hunsdon's illness there was much speculation as to the probability of a
Vice-Chamberlain being appointed. Sir Walter Raleigh hoped for the post,
but in February 1601 it was given to Sir John Stanhope, afterwards Lord
Stanhope of Harrington, who kept it until 1616.[117]

The Chamber was less divided up into semi-independent working sections
than the Lord Steward's department, although three of these, the Jewel
House under a Master, and the Wardrobe of Robes and the Removing
Wardrobe of Beds, each under a Yeoman, looked after the Queen's plate
and jewels, her clothes, and the furniture of the Chamber
respectively.[118] But there was an elaborate hierarchy of individual
officers and groups of officers, each with definite and recognized
functions to perform under the general superintendence of the Lord
Chamberlain. The main basis of grading goes back to the social
organization of the Middle Ages. In the fourteenth century every lay
household officer fell within one or other of five well-defined grades.
He was a knight banneret, a knight bachelor, an esquire (_scutifer_,
_armiger_) or serjeant (_serviens_), a yeoman (_valettus_), or a groom
(_garcio_). Pages and boys were later additions.[119] Each grade had its
uniform rates of salary and allowances, and there was regular promotion
from one to another. And while some officers of each grade were
definitely assigned to special duties (_mestiers_), others were more
loosely attached either to the Household as a whole or to the _camera_
in particular. The clerical officers were similarly arranged in grades
distinct from, but parallel to, those of the laymen. But between the
fourteenth century and the sixteenth a good many changes had come about.
The most important of these were due to the early Tudors, who had not
merely made a distinction within the Chamber itself between the Privy
Chamber and the Outer or Presence Chamber and their respective staffs,
but had also, perhaps following a French model, brought into existence
two hybrid grades in the Gentlemen and Grooms of the Privy Chamber.[120]
'Gentleman' has the same significance as 'Esquire', but this particular
group, whose members were intended to be the personal companions of the
Sovereign, seems to have been an amalgamation of two groups belonging to
the earlier establishment, one squirely, the Esquires of the Household,
the other knightly, the Knights of the Body. And if the Gentlemen of the
Privy Chamber were more nearly knights than esquires, the Grooms of the
Privy Chamber were in like manner more nearly esquires than grooms or
even yeomen.[121] Probably, however, they replaced an earlier group of
Yeomen of the Chamber. The duties of the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber,
in addition to those of companionship, seem to have consisted chiefly in
dressing and undressing the Sovereign. The Grooms attended to the
orderliness of the rooms, and were supervised, under the Chamberlain, by
officers holding a very ancient post, the _hostiarii camerae_ or
Gentlemen Ushers.[122] Obviously the normal staffing of the Privy
Chamber required some modification in the case of a virgin queen.
Elizabeth appears usually to have had no more than two or three
Gentlemen and from five to ten Grooms, in place of the eighteen
Gentlemen and fourteen Grooms provided for in the fee lists, and to have
supplemented these by making feminine appointments in corresponding
grades. There were Ladies or Gentlewomen, some of the Bedchamber and
some of the Privy Chamber, and beneath these Chamberers, who appear also
to have been known as 'the Queen's Women'.[123] The First Lady of the
Privy Chamber acted as Mistress of the Robes, and she or another of the
Ladies took charge of the jewels actually in use by the Queen and
accounted for them to the Jewel-house.[124] In addition there were the
six Maids of Honour, who were not salaried officers, but girls of good
birth, for whom the court served as a finishing school of manners, and
who attended the Queen in public, sat and walked with her in the Privy
Chamber and Privy Garden, and kept her entertained with the dancing
which she delighted to witness. They were generally dressed in white,
and were lodged in the Coffer Chamber under the care of a lady called
the Mother of the Maids.[125] And they learnt other things at the court
besides manners. Gossip is full of the troubles which Elizabeth
underwent in the attempt to establish the cult of Cynthia amongst the
maids of honour and the younger ladies of the Privy Chamber.[126] A few
older ladies of rank, some of them relatives of the Queen, were also
assigned lodgings in court, and were apparently known as Ladies of the
Presence Chamber.[127]

The Outer Chamber was also supervised by Gentlemen Ushers, some in
daily, others in quarterly waiting, with Grooms of the Chamber, headed
by a Groom Porter, and Pages of the Chamber under them to maintain the
apartments in order, Yeomen Ushers to keep the doors, and a body of
Messengers of the Chamber, ranking with the Yeomen, who besides their
domestic uses were at the disposal of the Privy Council and the
Secretaries for political purposes, and become very numerous by the end
of the reign.[128] The Gentlemen Ushers also took part in the
arrangements for lodging the court during progresses, in co-operation
with a Knight Harbinger and four subordinate Harbingers who went in
advance as billeting officers.[129] To the Outer Chamber, moreover,
belonged the Esquires of the Body, who slept in the Presence Chamber,
and took charge of the whole Chamber after the ceremony known as the All
Night at nine o'clock, and a group of officers 'for the mouth',
including Carvers, Cupbearers, Sewers for the Queen, and Surveyors of
the Dresser.[130] These had anciently been of importance, all ranking as
esquires, and the Carvers and Cupbearers from the fifteenth century as
knights.[131] But their functions had dwindled, like those of the Hall
officers at an earlier date, when the Tudor sovereigns ceased as a rule
to dine even in the Presence Chamber, and by the end of the reign the
posts of Carver and Cupbearer were claimed by great nobles as dignified
sinecures.[132] The actual service of Elizabeth's meals was done by her
ladies.[133] Similarly the Sewers for the Chamber, who apparently
represent those of the Esquires of the Household who did not become
Gentlemen of the Chamber, had probably neither duties nor salaries under
Elizabeth.[134] It had long proved convenient to the Crown to entertain
a number of nominal servants, who without giving actual attendance in
the household upon ordinary occasions, could be called upon for the
great ceremonies of state or for the household array in times of battle,
and at other times helped to increase the royal prestige and to
strengthen the royal hold upon the localities in which they lived.[135]
And naturally there were many aspirants to the _status_ and the
protection which even a nominal membership of the royal household
afforded. Survivals, such as the Sewerships for the Chamber, were well
adapted to this purpose, but it was also possible to meet it by
appointing supernumerary members to effective groups.[136] Elizabeth
certainly made many 'extraordinary' as well as 'ordinary' appointments,
especially of Esquires of the Body and Grooms of the Chamber, and a
status midway between the ordinary and extraordinary Grooms seems to
have been assigned to the players belonging to companies under the royal
patronage.[137] It may be that the 'extraordinary' appointments were
sometimes of the nature of grants in reversion, and that the holders
looked forward to passing on to 'ordinary' posts in due course.[138]

Duties in the Outer Chamber were also fulfilled by the various bodies of
royal guards. Of these there were three. The oldest was constituted by
the Serjeants-at-Arms, who held the rank of Esquires, and were appointed
by investment with the collar of SS at the hands of the Sovereign on the
way to chapel.[139] They are little heard of under Elizabeth, and their
posts were probably to a large extent honorific. The Yeomen of the Guard
were a foot-guard established by Henry VII in 1485. The Yeomen Ushers of
the Chamber were selected from amongst them, and on their establishment
an older body of Yeomen of the Crown, itself in origin a guard of
archers, seems to have been allowed to lapse.[140] The Yeomen were the
working palace guard, and were under a Captain, a Standard Bearer, and a
Clerk of the Cheque.[141] The Gentlemen Pensioners or 'Spears' were a
horse-guard established by Henry VIII in 1509.[142] Both these Tudor
guards seem to have been modelled on analogous French establishments.
The Pensioners had a Captain, a Lieutenant, a Standard Bearer, and a
Clerk of the Cheque. They were gentlemen of good birth, and to them the
Court looked for its supply of accomplished tilters. They attended the
Queen, bearing gilded battle-axes, on her way to chapel, and in public
processions.[143] By the sixteenth century the control of the guards
clearly fell within the sphere of the Lord Chamberlain. Both the
Hunsdons themselves acted as Captains of the Pensioners, and the
Captaincy of the Yeomen was sometimes, although not always, attached to
the Vice-Chamberlainship.

The Secretaries, with the Clerks of the Signet and Privy Council, the
Master of the Posts, and the Masters of Requests, although they had
grown out of the Chamber, and were still, like the Lords Treasurer,
Chancellor, Admiral, and Privy Seal, lodged in the Household, cannot at
this period be regarded as under the Lord Chamberlain.[144] But he had
some responsibility for the royal Chaplains, the Chapel, the Vestry, and
the Clerks of the Closet, whence the Queen heard prayers, especially
after Elizabeth suppressed the Deanship of the Chapel.[145] And he
controlled the physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, the astronomer,
the serjeant-painter, the surveyor of ways, the various hunting
equipages, the rat-taker and mole-taker, and a number of artificers
ministering to the diverse needs of the Queen and the palace. Probably
he controlled the royal fools and other survivals of that characteristic
mediaeval interest in mental and physical abnormality.[146] And, what is
more to our purpose, he certainly controlled the players, and the
extensive establishment of musicians. Amongst these the old royal
_ministralli_ or _histriones_ of the Middle Ages, with their
_marescallus_, were still represented by a body of trumpeters under a
serjeant.[147] But the personal taste of Henry VIII for music had
brought a stream of new performers to court, and this had continued
under Elizabeth. Many of them were of foreign extraction, and certain
families, such as the Laniers, the Ferrabosci, the Bassani of Venice, or
rather, as their name denotes, of Bassano in the Veneto, the Lupi of
Milan, formed little dynasties of their own at court, father, son, and
grandson succeeding each other, in the royal service through the best
part of a century. At the end of her reign Elizabeth was entertaining at
least seven distinct bodies of musicians, whose members numbered in all
between sixty and seventy. For wind instruments there were, besides the
trumpeters, the recorders, the flutes, and the hautboys and sackbuts;
for string instruments the viols or violins and the lutes. There were
also an organist attached to the chapel and possibly players on the
virginals.[148] The most important of these were the lutenists, who sang
as well as played, and often composed their own songs, and appear to
have been of higher standing than the mere instrumentalists. One of them
was specially designated as the Lute of the Privy Chamber.[149] It seems
probable that some of the superfluous Sewerships for the Chamber were
conferred on them, and Alfonso Ferrabosco may have been about 1575 a
Groom of the Chamber.[150]

Finally, there were a number of offices, called in Elizabethan parlance
'standing offices', each under a Master or other head of its own, which
can only be regarded as on the borderline of the Household. These were
the Great Wardrobe, the Revels, the Tents, the Toils, the Works, the
Armoury, the Ordnance, and the Mint. They were financed separately from
the Household, and had their various head-quarters in London away from
the palace. But their officers were regarded as members of the
Household, and although largely independent, they were in many or all
cases subject to some kind of supervision by the Lord Chamberlain.[151]
Probably the explanation of their origin is given by a phrase used about
1478 by the writer of the _Liber Niger_. Here the Wardrobe is spoken of
as 'an office of chaumbre outward'.[152] In these standing offices, and
also in the Secretariat, we seem to have examples of that budding off
from the main administrative organization by which those great
departments of state, the Exchequer and the Chancery, had already come
into existence. Doubtless the process was facilitated, when
considerations of practical convenience and a desire to reduce the
number of mouths to be provided for in the palace led to the location of
particular branches of work in permanent and independent premises. The
history of the Revels Office, which will form the subject of another
chapter, well serves to illustrate the kind of development
involved.[153]

Members of the standing offices were generally appointed for life, those
of the regular Household during the royal pleasure. The former received
letters patent; the latter were only sworn in before one or other of the
chief officers, and as most of the early records of the Lord
Chamberlain's department have perished, no complete list of them is upon
record. The uniform rates of pay and allowances for each grade of
officer which prevailed in the fourteenth century had undergone many
complications by the middle of the sixteenth. Each officer had, of
course, his fee or wages, payable either at the Exchequer or by the
Treasurer of the Chamber, whose functions will shortly be described, or,
as in the case of most of the regular officers of Household and Chamber,
by the Cofferer of the Household. The rates had gradually increased,
perhaps with a decrease in the purchasing power of money. Those for the
recently established Tudor posts were reckoned in pounds; the older ones
in marks. Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber and Pensioners got £50,
Esquires of the Body £33 6_s._ 8_d._ (fifty marks), Gentlemen Ushers of
the Privy Chamber £30, Grooms of the Privy Chamber £20, Grooms of the
Chamber £2 13_s._ 4_d._ (four marks). These may serve for examples.
Obsolete mediaeval rates of so many pence a day still survived here and
there.[154] The Grooms and Pages of the Chamber had also a traditional
'great reward' of £100 among them at Christmas, while the fees payable
to the officers of the Chamber by lay and ecclesiastic homagers were
not--and are not yet--extinct.[155] Exceptional 'rewards', from foreign
visitors of rank and so forth, were naturally forthcoming from time to
time, and, as naturally, largesse often became indistinguishable from
bribe. The allowances, other than salary, were of several kinds.
Firstly, there was diet, that is to say, dinner and supper at the
appointed tables in hall or chamber. Most of the officers of the regular
Household enjoyed this; a few, whose attendance was not required daily
or at all times in the day, received instead a money allowance from the
Cofferer known as 'board wages'.[156] Secondly, there was, 'bouche of
court', a commons of bread and ale, candles and fuel, served only to
those of sufficient rank to be lodged in the palace itself.[157] It is
probably an evidence, not of economy, but of change of social habits,
that in the sixteenth century ale had replaced the wine of the
fourteenth. Originally the 'bouche of court' had to suffice for
breakfast, but under Elizabeth the Maids of Honour and a few other
favoured groups were allowed to share the queen's breakfast of
beef.[158] Thirdly, there was 'livery' in the narrow sense, clothes or
the material for clothes from the Great Wardrobe, or a money payment in
lieu thereof. Even in the fourteenth century there was already much
commutation of livery, which in the case of yeomen and grooms also
included an allowance for shoes, known as _calciatura_. By the end of
the fifteenth century it was definitely thought derogatory for men of
rank to wear even the sovereign's livery, except in some quite
symbolical form.[159] Under Elizabeth some of the salaries seem to have
had livery allowances added on to them. The process of commutation can
still be traced. But liveries were issued in kind to the yeomen,
messengers, grooms, pages, and stable footmen. These seem to have been
of two kinds; 'watching' liveries issued from the Wardrobe in the
winter, and 'summer' liveries, for which payment was made direct from
the Exchequer.[160] The latter were gorgeous and costly, of scarlet
cloth, with spangles and embroidery of Venice gold, taking the shape of
a rose and crown and the letters 'E. R.', with some distinction between
yeomen and grooms. The present costume of the Yeomen of the Guard, or
'beef-eaters', is a later modification of this livery.[161] In their
capacity as Grooms of the Chamber the royal players were entitled to
wear the Queen's 'coat'.[162] The officers of the standing offices had
livery or livery allowance, if it was appropriate to their rank. They
did not have diet or 'bouche of court'. But they were in some cases
entitled to supplement their fees by charging 'wages' for actual days of
service in the accounts which their Masters annually rendered to the
Exchequer.[163] 'Extraordinary' officers probably got no salaries or
allowances of any kind, unless they were called up for special duty. But
it must be added that all royal servants, whatever their office, and
whether 'ordinary' or 'extraordinary', received a customary allowance of
red cloth at the coronation and of black cloth at a royal funeral, and
that the schedules of recipients on these occasions form the most
complete establishment lists available.

The accession of James did not materially alter the general structure of
the Household. The chief changes were in the Privy Chamber. The Wardrobe
of Robes was placed under a Gentleman, afterwards called a Master. The
Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were increased in number, reduced to
quarterly terms of waiting, and deprived of salary.[164] The salaries of
the Lord Chamberlain, Gentlemen Ushers, and Grooms were raised. And
what was practically a new department was brought into existence in the
Bedchamber, which had a staff of Gentlemen, Grooms, and Pages,
independent of the Lord Chamberlain and controlled by their own First
Gentleman, who was also known as Groom of the Stole.[165] The Bed
Chamber, chiefly composed of Scots, furnished James with his most
confidential servants.[166] As might be expected, James enlarged his
hunting establishment, and one of his new appointments was a
Cockmaster.[167] He had a conspicuous Fool in Archie Armstrong.[168] And
he instituted in the Lord Chamberlain's department an officer known as
the Master of the Ceremonies, whose function was to look after the
lodgings and the general well-being of ambassadors, and to grapple with
the knotty problems entailed by their inveterate stickling for
precedence and etiquette.[169] A separate household was formed for the
Queen, to which the various grades of ladies found at Elizabeth's court
were transferred.[170] There were minor households for the royal
children. That of Henry was much enlarged when he was created Prince of
Wales in 1610, and in many respects, especially on the literary and
artistic side, came to rival his father's.

One other officer, whose name has already been mentioned, must now, in
virtue of his special relation to the playing companies, be fully
considered. This is the Treasurer of the Chamber. His history affords an
admirable example of that capacity of duplicating the functions of the
departments of state, which was inherent in the Household as the
successor in a direct line of the undifferentiated _curia regis_. After
the development of the Exchequer was completed in the course of the
twelfth century, the great bulk of the royal revenue was dealt with by
that organization, and payments into and out of the royal account were
made through the clerks of the branch known as the Receipt of the
Exchequer. The posts of _camerarius_ and _thesaurarius_ were now
distinct. But the change was never quite exhaustively carried out.
Presumably the sovereign found it convenient to retain a certain residue
of his funds under his personal control. Side by side with the Exchequer
and its great officer it is still possible to trace into the thirteenth
century a _thesaurus camerae regis_ and a _thesaurarius camerae_; and
the Pipe Rolls continue to refer to payments made _in camera curiae_, or
_ipsi regi in camera curiae_, and to receipts taken by debtors _de
camera curiae_, both of which were certified to the Exchequer _per breve
regis_ and put on final record there.[171] There were also _clerici
camerae_, who probably wrote these _brevia_, and it is conjectured that
the privy seal, as distinct from the great seal of Chancery, came into
existence as a means of authenticating the _brevia_ as impressed with
royal authority. Thus the _camera_ was able to duplicate the functions
of the Chancery as well as those of the Exchequer.[172] About the middle
of the thirteenth century the Pipe Rolls take to referring to the
exceptional financial transactions as taking place not in the _camera_
but in the _garderoba_. There are _clerici garderobae_ and a chief
officer called indifferently the _custos_ and the _thesaurarius
garderobae_.[173] Presumably the _garderoba_ or 'wardrobe' was at first
merely that apartment of the _camera_ in which the financial work was
done, and there are still indications of some such early relationship in
the position of the Wardrobe when we first get a clear view of the
operations at the very end of the century.[174] But by this time its
scope had greatly increased, owing to the policy of Henry III and Edward
I, who found in it a financial and administrative instrument, both more
ready to hand and less subject to baronial control and criticism than
either the Exchequer or the Chancery. Much of the revenue had come to
pass through its hands, under a system of tallies, which were issued to
it in block by the Exchequer on the authority of a royal warrant
dormant, exchanged for incomings with accountants, and ultimately
presented as vouchers at the Exchequer of Account. As part of the same
process, the clerical head of the Wardrobe had acquired an importance
almost equal to that of the Chamberlain. Indeed, so far as he was
controlled by any lay officer, it was less the Chamberlain than the
Steward, under whom he sat at the daily review of household expenditure
which formed a feature of the Wardrobe system, and was continued into
Tudor times by the Board of Green Cloth. Here also sat a _consocius_ of
the Treasurer, the _contrarotulator_, who kept duplicates of his
accounts as a check upon him, and had the charge of the privy seal. The
Wardrobe held not only the money and jewels of the King, but also his
'secrets'. Its officers were his _secretarii_ in the earlier
unspecialized sense, his confidential agents, both in finance and in
diplomacy and other affairs of state. The extant account-books show that
it not merely defrayed the expenses of his household, his alms, and his
amusements, but also those entailed by the fortification and
victualling of his castles, and the wages and equipment of his army and
navy and his ambassadors and other _nuntii_.

During the reign of Edward II the power of the Wardrobe was broken up,
partly by the direct action of baronial hostility, partly by a discreet
process of reorganization within the household, in the face of baronial
criticism. The responsibilities of the Treasurer and Comptroller were
limited to the purely domestic expenditure of the Steward's department,
much as we find them in Tudor times. The charge of the privy seal was
dissociated from the Comptrollership; its use, like that of the great
seal before it, was subjected to regulation in the baronial interest;
and it soon became superfluous. Offices, such as the Great Wardrobe for
the purveyance of cloth, furs, and other bulky commodities, which had
recently come into existence as branches of the Wardrobe, were now
placed on an independent footing, and began to account direct to the
Exchequer. And now once more, after remaining in obscurity for the best
part of a century, emerges into renewed activity the financial
organization of the Chamber. To it appears to have been assigned, as
part of the scheme of reform, such expenditure as could not with
propriety be withdrawn from the personal supervision of the
sovereign.[175] With this as a nucleus, it was not particularly
difficult to convert the Chamber into just such a financial and
administrative organ as the Wardrobe had been before it. The funds at
its disposal were gradually increased, as opportunities offered
themselves of adding to them the revenues of one escheated manor after
another. Its clerks in turn became the _secretarii_, out of whom the
royal Secretaries in the Tudor sense were in course of time developed.
Even the lost privy seal proved capable of replacement by a series of
other small seals, the 'secret' seal under Edward II, the 'griffin' seal
under Edward III, and finally the 'signet', which remained to the end in
the hands of the Secretaries. It was only up to a point that the trained
bureaucrats, with the power of knowledge behind them, proved amenable to
baronial control. It is probably only up to a point that they will prove
amenable to democratic control.

The actual use made of the Chamber varied considerably in different
reigns. It flourished at the end of the reign of Edward II, and again
during the first half of that of Edward III. Soon after the middle of
the fourteenth century, it lost much of its political status, owing to
the separation from it of the Secretaries, who now had their own clerks
in the Signet Office, and on the financial side it was for long little
more than a privy purse in strict subordination to the Exchequer. It was
still, however, capable at need of serving as a medium of war
expenditure, and with the appointment of Thomas Vaughan by Edward IV in
1465 its financial importance began to revive.[176] Up to the end of the
fourteenth century, its financial officers are generally called
Receivers of the Chamber; during the next the double title of Treasurer
of the Chamber and Keeper of the King's Jewels establishes itself.[177]
They are sometimes, although perhaps not always, appointed by patent,
and at any rate from the time of Henry IV are only accountable to the
King in person.[178] On the execution of Vaughan in 1583 the posts of
Treasurer of the Chamber and Keeper of the Jewels were divided; and it
may serve as an illustration of the conservatism of courts that this was
still a subject of grievance in the Jewel House two hundred years
later.[179]

At the beginning of Henry VII's reign the functions of Treasurer of the
Chamber were discharged by Thomas, afterwards Sir Thomas, Lovell.[180]
On his appointment as Treasurer of the Household in August 1592, he was
succeeded by John, afterwards Sir John, Heron, who had in fact acted as
his assistant and kept his books from 1487.[181] Under the Tudors, with
their general tendency to elaborate the personal control of government
by the sovereign, the post remained one of first-class importance. It
was regulated in 1511 by a statute, the recital of which sets out that
it had been the practice for certain Receivers of royal lands to account
before persons appointed by Henry VII 'for the more speedy payment of
his revenues and the accounts of the same to be more speedily taken than
could have been after the course of the Exchequer', and after accounting
to pay sums to the use of the King in his chamber.[182] The record of
these transactions, signed by the King or 'his trusty servant John
Heron' had been no legal discharge to the accountants in the Exchequer.
Henry VIII had set up by patent a body of General Surveyors and
Approvers of the King's Lands to take the accounts, and the statute
confirms this proceeding and appoints John Heron to be Treasurer of the
Chamber, and to be answerable, with his successors, direct to the King,
and not to the Exchequer.[183] John Heron continued in office until
1521.[184] His successor was John Miklowe, who had been Comptroller of
the Household.[185] But Miklowe's tenure of office must have been short,
for in 1523 a statute, passed in renewal of that of 1511, names as
Treasurer Sir Henry Wyatt, who was the father of the poet, Sir Thomas
Wyatt.[186] In 1526 Wyatt was placed on the Privy Council[187]; and on
13 April 1528 he was succeeded as Treasurer by Sir Brian Tuke, who held
office until 1545.[188] In 1541 a new statute was passed which erected
the Surveyors of the King's Lands into a court of record, appointed the
Treasurer of the Chamber as Treasurer of the Court, and required him to
account before the Court or such other persons as the King might
appoint, both in this capacity and also for 'all and every the receytes
issues profyttes dettes and thinges concernyng his office of
Treasurership of the Kinges Chamber'.[189] Tuke was succeeded on 25
November 1545 by Sir Anthony Rous, to whom one John Dawes acted as
deputy[190]; and Rous on 19 February 1546, by Sir William Cavendish, to
the disappointment of Stephen Vaughan, Henry's financial agent at
Antwerp, who had hoped for the post. Cavendish also had the assistance
of a deputy, Robert Oliver.[191] During Cavendish's tenure of office,
two further changes in the position of the Treasurership took place. A
patent of 1547, subsequently confirmed by statute under Edward VI in
1553, dissolved alike the Court of Surveyors and the analogous Court of
Augmentations, created to deal with the revenues of surrendered
religious houses in 1535, and established in place of these a combined
Court of Augmentation and Revenues of the King's Crown, of which the
Treasurer of the Chamber was to continue to act as Treasurer.[192]
Hardly, however, had this readjustment received legislative sanction,
when it was upset again. A patent of 1554, under the authority of an Act
of Mary's first Parliament, suppressed the Court of Augmentation, by
annexing its business to the Exchequer, and directed the revenues to be
paid into the Exchequer and accounts to be audited there, as before the
Court was set up.[193] Cavendish did not find the Treasurership a bed of
roses. On Tuke's death it was anticipated that his successor would
receive a legacy of official debts.[194] A book containing copies of
'certificates' or reports made by Cavendish to the Privy Council show
that he soon had occasion to be perturbed.[195] About Lady Day 1546 he
represented that his receipts had been dislocated to the extent of about
£14,000, and that in view of his liabilities, which he detailed, there
was urgent need to consider the state of the office. In another paper he
called attention to the enormous number of securities for old debts to
the Crown, some of them dating from the time of Henry VII, with which he
found from Tuke's books that he was charged; and, as 'a yonge officer
not long exercised in the same', prayed that these might be reviewed,
and a decision arrived at as to how much of the total nominal amount of
£322,980 covered by them stood for 'sperat' and how much for 'desperat'
debts. The book also contains summaries of his liabilities during 1547,
at the end of 1548, when he declared that he had debts of £14,000 and no
ready money in the office, and finally at Lady Day 1554. This last item
does not disclose how far his revenue had in the interval been made
sufficient for his needs. It is possible that it had been made more than
sufficient, for on 17 August 1556 the Privy Council called upon him to
appear before them with 'Cade his clerc', and on 9 October 1557 they
returned his book of account, stating that he owed £5,237 5_s._
0¾_d._ and must appear and answer particularities, either in person
or, if ill, by his clerks.[196] It seems clear that the Tudor period had
seen a very considerable increase in the scope of the financial
transactions with which the Treasurer of the Chamber had to deal. In
addition to privy purse expenditure in the narrower sense, such as the
royal pocket-money, alms and oblations, largesse and rewards, and the
like, he became responsible for many wages and annuities, some of which,
including those of the royal players, had formerly been charged direct
upon the Exchequer.[197] He purchased the jewels and costly stuffs in
which much of the Tudor wealth was invested. He financed or helped to
finance the Surveyor of Works, the Great Wardrobe, and even for a time
the Cofferer of the Household. And beyond the limits of anything which
could be called domestic expenditure, he undertook much that was
concerned with 'the King's outward causes', the maintenance of posts and
ambassadors, royal loans, secret service; even, it would appear,
although perhaps out of a special account, the service of war. His
income, originally derived from the Exchequer, was put on to an
independent basis, by the direct assignment to him of numerous revenues,
both ordinary and extraordinary, including most of the new sources of
wealth on which the financial policy of Henry VII had firmly based the
power of the Crown. Some of his payments were made in accordance with
old established custom or under household ordinances or other standing
instructions.[198] But the great majority depended upon the personal
authority of the sovereign, communicated either by word of mouth or by
warrant under the sign manual or the signet, or in course of time
through the medium of a minister such as Wolsey or the Privy Council.
Similarly he rendered his accounts at first to the King in person, and
the early books bear the signatures of Henry VII and Henry VIII in token
of audit on many pages.[199] The responsibility grew to be a very heavy
one, with a turnover of some £100,000 in the course of a year, and we
find Brian Tuke in 1534 writing of it as 'a charge that far surmounteth
any in England', and pressing 'that for things ordinary I may have for
payments an ordinary warrant, and that for things extraordinary I may
always have special warrant or else some such way as I, dealing truly,
may be truly discharged', lest if there were any misunderstanding, 'I
might be undone in a day, lacking any warrant when I sue for it'. It
would appear to have been the special difficulty of the Treasurer's
position which led to the system of audit by means of a 'Declared
Account', as a substitute at once for the cumbrous method of the earlier
Exchequer, and the more recent practice of personal verification by the
sovereign. When Sir Henry Wyatt left office he was directed to declare
his account before a General Surveyor of the King's Lands, and this
method was adopted when the Surveyors became a statutory court in 1541
and ultimately passed after the dissolution of the special courts into
ordinary Exchequer practice.[200]

Sir William Cavendish, who was ill when the Privy Council asked for
details of his account on 9 October, died on 25 October 1557. An account
for 1 April to 31 December 1557 is in the name of Edmund Felton, perhaps
only an _interim_ administrator.[201] The Treasurership of the Chamber,
together with the Mastership of the Posts, was granted by patent on 29
October 1558 to Sir John Mason, with a fee of £240 and 1_s._ a day.[202]
Mason was continued in office by Elizabeth, and on 23 December 1558 the
Lord Chamberlain, the Comptroller of the Household, the Secretary, and
the Chancellor of the Exchequer were appointed as a committee of the
Privy Council 'to survey the office of the Treasurer of the Chamber and
to assigne order of paymente'.[203] As a result, considerable changes
seem to have been made, which reversed the policy of the last
half-century and much reduced the Treasurer's responsibilities. On the
one hand, the funds assigned to the Cofferer of the Household, the
Surveyor of Works, the Master of Posts, and the Ambassadors no longer
passed through his account; on the other, a separate account was
established for the more personal expenditure of the Queen, which was
put into the charge of a Groom of the Privy Chamber, acting as keeper of
the Privy Purse. Both accounts seem to have become subject to audit and
declaration at the Exchequer; but while that of the Treasurer of the
Chamber was declared annually, the only extant Privy Purse account of
the reign is one for the ten years 1559-69 declared after the death of
the first keeper, John Tamworth.[204] This was a small account, mainly
fed by New Year and other gifts to the Queen. The expenditure out of it
only averaged about £2,500 a year. Most of it was upon gifts and
rewards, which were detailed in a book of particulars under the sign
manual, unfortunately not preserved. A payment of £5,000 to the Earl of
Moray suggests that it proved a convenient channel for secret service
funds. It also includes items for the keep of the royal fool, for the
purchase of jewels, and for certain annuities, wages, riding charges,
and expenses of the stable and hunt. The Treasurer of the Chamber, under
the new arrangement, spent about £12,000 a year.[205] Out of this he
defrayed the royal alms, certain rewards, wages, annuities, and riding
charges, the maintenance of prisoners, and the expenses of 'apparelling'
the Queen's houses and keeping her gardens. Obviously the two accounts
come very near overlapping at several points. One may suppose that in
the main the Treasurer of the Chamber was responsible for customary
payments and such as could be made on the authority of officers of state
or household; the Keeper of the Privy Purse with those which depended on
the personal pleasure of the sovereign. The officers borne on the
Treasurer of the Chamber's wage list were those who belonged neither to
the household proper nor to the 'standing' offices; the Yeomen of the
Guard, the Watermen, the Apothecaries, the Musicians and Players, the
Hunt, the Footmen and Boys of the Stable, the Artificers, the Rat and
Mole Takers, the Keepers of Paris Garden, the Surveyor of Gates and
Bridges, the Chester Post. That they should also have included the
officers of the Jewel House is explicable from the original connexion
between these and the Treasurer. The Treasurer's own salary and his
office expenses also appear in his account.

The distinction now drawn between the Treasury of the Chamber and the
Privy Purse must have had the effect of putting the Treasurer in a
position analogous to that of the Secretaries. He was on the way to
becoming an officer of state rather than an officer of the household.

The order of payment determined upon by the Privy Council appears to
have been that salaries chargeable to the Treasurer of the Chamber
should be payable upon 'warrants dormant', 'riding charges' for
messengers upon warrants from the Secretary, and miscellaneous payments,
such as rewards for plays at court, upon warrants from the Privy Council
itself.[206] Sir Francis Knollys became Treasurer of the Chamber when
Mason died upon 21 April 1566[207]; and Thomas, afterwards Sir Thomas,
Heneage, when Knollys was appointed Treasurer of the Household, on 15
February 1570.[208] Knollys, throughout his period of office, and
Heneage, from 1589, combined the Treasurership with the duties of
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household. Heneage died in October 1595, and
there was some delay before a successor was appointed.[209] A trial of
strength seems to have taken place between Essex and Burghley, who
regarded the filling of the vacancy, together with the much more
important vacancy in the Secretaryship, as critical to his chances of
prolonging his dynasty. Burghley's candidate was John Stanhope; Essex's
Sir Henry Unton, to whom he wrote about his prospects on 24 October
1595, telling him that Robert Cecil was troubled at the competition, and
thought that neither would carry it.[210] I am not sure that Cecil had
been quite straightforward with Essex. Another aspirant was Sir Edward
Wotton.[211] There is gossip about the matter in Rowland Whyte's letters
to Sir Robert Sidney.[212] On 29 October he wrote, 'Probi is comanded to
wayt at court; hath spoken with her Majestie, and is sayd he shall haue
the Disbursing of the Treasory of the Chamber, till her Majestie be
pleased to bestow yt. Sir H. Umpton and Mr. John Stanhope, stands for
yt.' On 5 November, 'Peter Proby paies the money till a Treasorer of the
Chamber be chosen, which will not be in hast'. Peter Proby was a useful
hanger-on of Burghley's, and had been his barber. On 20 November 'Sir
Thomas Heneges Funerals were solemnised, his Offices all vnbestowed'. By
7 December Whyte ventures a prophecy:

     'I heare that Mr. Killigrew shall receve and pay the Treasure
     of the Chamber, till the Queen find one fitt for it; but if
     this continew true, Mr. Killigrew will haue it in the End
     himself.'

Whyte was wrong, however. William Killigrew was a mere stop-gap.[213] On
20 December, Whyte has an inkling of what is going on, and commits his
new information to cipher.

     'The Queen hath promised him [Sir H. Unton] the Thresureship of
     the Chamber, and stands constant in it, and at his return to
     haue it. But if 900 [Burghley] and 200 [Cecil], that would 40
     [Stanhope] had it, can hinder it, the other shall goe without
     it.'

It was not until 5 July that, according to an amused letter from Anthony
Bacon, 'Elephas peperit' with the swearing in of Sir Robert Cecil as
Secretary and John Stanhope as Treasurer of the Chamber, 'so that now
the old man may say with the rich man in the gospel _requiescat anima
mea_'.

Burghley himself notes the appointment without comment in his
diary.[214] John Stanhope, who was knighted on his appointment and
created Lord Stanhope of Harrington on 4 May 1605, did not get the
Vice-Chamberlainship until 1601. He remained Treasurer until his death
in 1617. There was some characteristic Stuart traffic in the reversion.
Sir Thomas Overbury held it at his death in 1613. Lord Rochester then
bought it from Stanhope for £2,000, and offered it to Sir Henry Neville,
who declined to take it from a subject. Finally it passed to Sir William
Uvedale, who in fact became Treasurer in succession to Stanhope.[215]

During Stanhope's tenure of office, some changes in the 'order of
payment' took place. The account for 1607-8 recites a privy seal of 27
January 1608 as authority for the transfer from the Privy Purse to the
Treasurer of the Chamber of certain payments made on warrants from the
Lord Chamberlain. Similar payments thereafter form a regular section of
the account from year to year. By a later privy seal of 11 October 1614,
still extant, an additional sum of £1,500 a year is put at the disposal
of the Treasurer to enable him to meet them.[216] His total assignment
was thus increased to about £20,000 or rather more than half as much
again as the office had cost under Elizabeth. That of the Privy Purse
was now about £6,000.[217] We have seen that there had been
possibilities of overlapping between the two accounts, but it is rather
odd that amongst the items transferred should be specified allowances
for plays, bear-baitings and other sports, since such allowances had
regularly been paid by the Treasurer of the Chamber for something more
than a century past. It is, however, the case that from 1614-15 onwards,
the payments were made on warrants from the Lord Chamberlain instead of
the Privy Council.

It is rather surprising that the Privy Council, whose members were
carrying out duties roughly analogous to those of a modern Cabinet,
should at any time have concerned itself with such trifling matters of
domestic routine as the signature of certificates authorizing the
payment of rewards at recognized rates to companies of actors and other
entertainers. The explanation, however, is that the Privy Council, like
the Household and the Departments of State themselves, was a direct
representative of the Norman _curia regis_, and that the _curia regis_
had been the organization through which the King's subjects and servants
gave him assistance in all his affairs, small and great, domestic as
well as political.[218] For all practical purposes, indeed, the
Elizabethan Privy Council consisted of little more than the chief
officers of the State departments and Household, sitting together, and
acting collectively. The great territorial magnates, who at certain
periods of its history had turned it into an instrument for the control
rather than the exercise of the royal prerogative, were now, unless
they happened to hold official positions, rarely sworn amongst its
members; but upon it, side by side with the Chancellor and the
Treasurer, the Admiral and the Privy Seal, sat not only the Secretaries,
but also the Steward and the Chamberlain, the Master of the Horse, the
Treasurer and Comptroller of the Household, and often the
Vice-Chamberlain or the Treasurer of the Chamber. It was therefore
natural enough, to Tudor no less than to mediaeval ways of thinking,
that among its numerous and imperfectly defined activities should be
included some which give it the aspect of a Household board of control.
It was in fact by means of a Household ordinance that Henry VIII
regulated the composition of the Privy Council and directed the constant
attendance of the members upon his own person[219]; and throughout
Elizabeth's reign we find the Council in the closest possible
association with the Court, following it from palace to palace, and even
from stage to stage of the progress, so that the record of its meetings
serves practically as a royal itinerary, and sitting under the most
direct Household influences in some convenient apartment of the Privy
Chamber. There was even no longer, as in the time of Henry VIII, a
'council at London' as well as a 'council with the King', with the
exceptions that, if the Court was very far from head-quarters, a few of
the lords sometimes stayed behind to look after current affairs, and
that the council as a whole seems occasionally to have met at
Westminster when the Court was not there, either in connexion with the
sittings of the Star Chamber, or for special business in the lodgings of
one or other of its members.[220] This tradition of propinquity between
the Sovereign and his council was, however, broken through by James, who
at an early date in his reign took to leaving the lords to transact
business at court, while he went hither and thither on his endless
hunting journeys.

In the absence of any contemporary _ordinale_ for the Privy Council,
some idea of its methods can be gathered from the register of
transactions kept by its clerks and from other sources.[221] It is
probable that the Queen sometimes sat with the lords, although her
attendance is never recorded in the register.[222] The usual president
was the Lord Chancellor; the earlier Tudor post of President of the
Council was rarely, if ever, filled up by Elizabeth.[223] But the
general supervision of the clerks and the preparation of business for
consideration, other than that which lay directly within the department
of some particular officer, seems to have fallen to the Secretary. The
number of councillors was gradually reduced from twenty-four at the
beginning to thirteen at the end of the reign. Of these not more than
half were generally present at any one sitting. But there appears to
have been no fixed quorum; occasionally only two members or even one
transacted business. At first three meetings a week sufficed; later they
were often held daily, both by morning and afternoon, and even on
Sundays. Wednesday and Friday were generally set aside for petitions and
other private business, and the remaining days devoted to public
affairs. Drafts of proclamations were passed by the Council before they
received the royal sign manual, and thus became of the nature of Orders
in Council.[224] Where a proclamation was not in question, the
conclusions arrived at by the Council were embodied in a minute, and
submitted through the Secretary for royal approval. When this had been
obtained, any executive action was then taken in the form of warrants or
letters to administrative officers, central or local, or to individuals,
according to the nature of the business. These required the signature of
not less than six councillors, who were not necessarily those present
when the business was discussed. Before they were put forward for
signature they were subscribed by the Secretary or one of the clerks.
Warrants to the Treasurer of the Chamber or other paymasters were also
impressed by the clerk with the special seal of the council. The minutes
were ultimately placed in the council chest, which is unfortunately
lost. But copies or abstracts of those which related to public affairs,
or in some cases copies of the letters finally issued, were made by the
clerks and from time to time bound up in volumes, of which a series, far
from continuous, is preserved.[225] Even at their fullest, however,
these 'Acts of the Council' cannot be supposed to form a complete record
of its proceedings. Council letters are to be found in many local
archives of which no note exists in the register. There were four or
five Clerks of the Council who took duty, two at a time, according to a
monthly rota, and it is clear that some of them were more business-like
than others. But it is also probable that much business of a
confidential character was deliberately left without record. In addition
to the clerks, there was a Keeper of the Council Chamber door, probably
one of the Ushers of the Chamber, and the Messengers of the Chamber were
available to carry such letters as could not conveniently be entrusted
to the regular staff of the Master of Posts.[226]

The ordinary sittings of the Privy Council were of course held in
private, and each member took a special oath of secrecy upon
appointment. But on each Wednesday and Friday during term time they
resolved themselves into the Court of Star Chamber, and held a public
sitting to inquire into cases of riot, libel, disregard of
proclamations, and the like. Herein they were exercising the old power
of the _curia regis_ to duplicate the functions of the law courts.[227]
For Star Chamber purposes they associated with themselves judges, who
ranked as 'ordinary' but not 'privy' councillors.[228] 'Ordinary'
councillors also were the Queen's 'counsel learned in the law', who
included the Attorney- and Solicitor-Generals and the Queen's Serjeants,
and the Masters of Requests who, by another exercise of curial
jurisdiction, sat in the old 'white hall' at Westminster to deal, under
the general direction of the Privy Council, with civil cases arising out
of the suits of poor men or of royal servants.[229] The political
functions of the Privy Council lie beyond the scope of this study, but
their concern with all matters affecting breach of the peace, sedition,
heresy, and public health entailed, under more than one of these heads,
a general supervision of the stage, which will be the subject for
discussion in a later chapter.[230] Similarly, the players, or those of
them who were royal servants, came as such under the jurisdiction of the
Court of Requests, and some interesting information as to their
contracts and disputes is derived from the records of that
tribunal.[231]


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 84: _22 George III_, c. 82.]

[Footnote 85: Stubbs, i. 382; Round, 68, 76, 82, 112, 140; Tout, 67. By
Elizabeth's accession the High Stewardship and High Constableship had
reverted to the Crown, and the offices were only temporarily conferred
for occasions of state. The Great Chamberlainship was _de iure_ in the
same position, but was accepted under a misunderstanding as hereditary
in the house of De Vere, Earls of Oxford. The Chief Butlership was
hereditary in the house of Fitzalan, Earls of Arundel, and the Earl
Marshalship in that of Howard, Dukes of Norfolk. It reverted on the
attainder of Thomas 4th Duke in 1572. On 28 Dec. 1597 it was conferred
on Robert Earl of Essex, and after his execution on 25 Feb. 1601 was
placed in commission. These great offices, granted as hereditaments, are
to be distinguished from serjeanties, or grants of land _per
servientiam_ to the holders of minor household posts, which thus became
hereditary. Grants of serjeanties ceased early in the thirteenth
century, and the only household duties exercised by their holders in the
sixteenth century were formal ones on special occasions.]

[Footnote 86: The derivation is through the French from O. H. G.
_marascalh_ (_marah_, horse; _scalh_, servant). Round, 84, traces an
early connexion of the marshal with the stable.]

[Footnote 87: A Squire of the Body held the office of Master of the
Horse in 1480 (Nicolas, _Wardrobe Accts. of Ed. IV_). The term 'Master',
generally applied to heads of offices in the outer ring of the
Household, does not seem to be of very early origin. It probably
replaces the fourteenth-century 'Serjeant'. Sir Thomas Cawarden got a
'Mastership' of the Revels in 1544, as he 'did mislyke to be tearmed a
Seriaunt because of his better countenaunce of roome and place beinge of
the kinges maiesties privye Chamber' (_Tudor Revels_, 2). The Mastership
of the Horse was held by Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of
Leicester (11 Jan. 1559-87), Robert Earl of Essex (23 Dec. 1587-25 Feb.
1601), Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester (deputy Dec. 1597; Master
21 Apr. 1601-2 Jan. 1616), Sir George Villiers, afterwards Duke of
Buckingham (3 Jan. 1616). The appointment, like that of other 'Masters',
but unlike that of the Chamberlain and Steward, was by patent and
carried a fee of 1,000 marks (£666 13_s._ 4_d._). Amongst the lesser
Stable officers were the royal Footmen, whom we might expect to find in
the Chamber.]

[Footnote 88: _H. O._ 19, 55.]

[Footnote 89: For the functions of Hall officers, as understood in the
fifteenth century, cf. the 'courtesy' books, especially J. Russell's
_Boke of Nurture_, the anonymous _Boke of Kervynge_ and _Boke of
Curtesye_ (Furnivall, _Babee's Book_), and R. W. Chambers, _A
Fifteenth-Century Courtesy Book_.]

[Footnote 90: The Treasurers of the Household were Sir Thomas Cheyne
(1558-9), Sir Thomas Parry (1559-70), Sir Francis Knollys (1570-96),
Roger Lord North (1596-1600), Sir William Knollys, afterwards Lord
Knollys (1602-16); the Comptrollers, Sir Thomas Parry (1558-9), Sir
Edward Rogers (1559-67), Sir James Croft (1570-90), Sir William Knollys
(1596-1602), Sir Edward Wotton, afterwards Lord Wotton (1602-16); cf.
_D. N. B._, _passim_ (with some errors); Dasent, vii. 3, 43; _V. P._
vii. 1; _Sp. P._ ii. 227; Wright, i. 355; _Sadleir Papers_, ii. 368;
_Carew Correspondence_ (C.S.), 152.]

[Footnote 91: The Lords Steward were Henry Earl of Arundel (1558-64),
William Earl of Pembroke (1567-70), Edward Earl of Lincoln (1581-4),
Robert Earl of Leicester (1585-8), Henry Earl of Derby (1588-93),
Charles Earl of Nottingham (1597-1615), Ludovick Duke of Lennox and
afterwards Richmond (1615-24); cf. Dasent, xxviii. 60, 107; _S. P. D.
Eliz._ clxxiii. 94; Stowe, 664; _Sc. P._ ix. 611; _Sp. P._ i. 18, 368,
631; ii. 239, 455; iv. 122; _V. P._ vii. 3; _Hatfield MSS._ i. 452; xi.
478; _Sydney Papers_, ii. 75, 77; Hawarde, 84; Camden (trans.), 124,
226, 373, and _James_, 14; La Mothe Fénelon, ii. 332; iv. 437; v. 60;
Goodman, i. 178, 191; Cheyney, 28; _Lords Journals_, i. 543, 581; ii.
21, 62, 64, 116, 146, 169, 192, 227, &c.; Wright, _Arthur Hall_, 194-7.]

[Footnote 92: Larson, 132; J. H. Round, _The Officers of Edward the
Confessor_ in _E. H. R._ xix. 90.]

[Footnote 93: _Hist. Mon. Abingdon_, ii. 43.]

[Footnote 94: _Constitutio Domus Regis_ in H. Hall, _Red Book of
Exchequer_, iii. 807; Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, i. 352: 'Magister
Camerarius par est Dapifero in lib[er]acione ... Camerarius qui vice sua
servit, ii solid. in die ... Camerarius Candelae, viiiᵈ in die ...
Camerarii sine liberacione in domo comedent, si voluerint'; cf. Stubbs,
i. 391; Poole, 96; Round, 62.]

[Footnote 95: Round, 112.]

[Footnote 96: _Fleta_, ii. 2: 'Auditis querimoniis iniuriarum in aula
regia audire et terminare [Senescallum], assumptis sibi Camerario,
hostiario, vel marescallo aulae militibus, vel aliquo illorum, si omnes
interesse non possint'; ii. 6: 'Camerarius autem et subminister
Camerarii a jurisdictione Senescalli et Marescalli exempti sunt, veluti
omnes garderobarii ut in quibusdam; non enim extendit se iurisdictio
Senescalli ad modica delicta Camerariorum vel garderobariorum audienda
vel terminanda, eo quod ex consuetudine hospitii sunt exempti, dum tamen
illi de quibus exigi contigerit curiae coram Senescallo Cameris Regis et
Reginae, et garderobae assidue sunt intendentes; sed coram ipsis
Thesaurario et Camerario audiantur querimoniae de huiusmodi ministris et
subditis suis, et terminabuntur, praesente tamen clerico Regis ad
placita aulae deputato; ita quod de finibus et amerciamentis ex
huiusmodi placitis provenientibus nihil Regi depereat.']

[Footnote 97: _Flores Historiarum_, iii. 194; cf. _Fleta_, ii. 16.]

[Footnote 98: Tout, 12, 68, 169. The 'Seneschal' and 'chambirleyne' are
on the same footing as regards fees and allowances in the ordinances of
1318 (Tout, 270). They are knights, and may be bannerets.]

[Footnote 99: _Fleta_, ii. 6: 'Debet enim Camerarius decenter disponere
pro lecto Regis, et ut Camerae tapetis et banqueriis ornentur, et quod
ignes sufficienter fiant in caminis, et providere ne ullus defectus
inveniatur quatenus officium suum contigerit'; ii. 7: 'Foeda autem
Camerarii sunt haec, parata sibi debent esse quaecunque pro corpore suo
sint necessaria; videlicet, cibus, potus, busca, et candela; et de
caeteris foedis sic statuitur. Camerarii Domini Regis habeant de caetero
ab Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Abbatibus, Prioribus, et aliis personis
Ecclesiasticis, Comitibus, Baronibus, et aliis integram Baroniam
tenentibus, rationabilem finem, cum pro Baroniis suis homagium fecerint
aut fidelitatem; et si partem teneant Baroniae, tunc rationabilem finem
capiant secundum portionem ipsos contingentem.... Permissum est etiam
quod Camerarius ex antiqua consuetudine habeat omnia vetera banqueria et
tapetos, curtinas et lecta Regis, nec non et omnia ornamenta Camerae
usitata et derelicta, et de omnibus exeniis Regi factis Cameram
ingredientibus, dum tamen de victualibus aliquam portionem.']

[Footnote 100: Nicolas, _P. C._ vi. ccxix.]

[Footnote 101: _H. O._ 31 (1478): 'A chamberlayn for the King in
household, the grete officer sitting in the Kinges chambre.... He
presenteth, chargeth, and dischargeth all suche persounes as be of the
Kinges chaumbre, except all suche officers of household, as ministre for
any vytayle for the Kinges mouthe, or for his chambre; for all those
take theire charge at the grene cloth in the countynghouse. This is the
chief hed of rulers in the Kinges chambre.... Item, he hath the punition
of all them that are longing to the chaumber for any offence or
outrage.... The Chaumberlayne taketh his othe and staffe of the King or
of his counsayle; he shall at no tyme within this courte be covered in
his service.... Within the Kinges gates, no man shall harborow or
assigne but this chambyrlayn or ussher, or suche under hym of the King's
chambre havyng theyr power. This chamberlayn besyly to serche and
oversee the King's chambres, and the astate made therein, to be
according, first for all the array longing to his proper royall person,
for his proper beddes, for his proper boarde at meale tymes, for the
diligent doyng in servyng thereof to his honour and pleasure; to assigne
kervers, cupbearers, assewers, phisitians, almoners, knyghts, or other
wurshypfull astate for the towell, and for the basyn squires of the body
to be attendaunt'; 116 (1493): 'In the absence of the chamberlaine, the
usher shall have the same power to command in like manner; alsoe, it is
right necessarie for the chamberlaine and ushers to have ever in
remembrance all the highe festival dayes in the yeare, and all other
tymes, what is longing to their office, that they bee not to seeke when
neede is; for they shall have many lookers-on. And such thinges as the
ushers know not, lett them resort unto the chamberlaine, and aske his
advice at all tymes therein; and soe the ushers bee excused, and the
chamberlaine to see that hee reveale himselfe at all tymes, that hee may
bee beloved and feared of all such as belong to the chamber.']

[Footnote 102: Goodman, i. 178, speaking of Hunsdon's time: 'The lord
chamberlain, there being at that time no lord steward, is the greatest
governor in the King's house; he disposeth of all things above stairs,
he hath a greater command of the King's guard than the captains hath, he
makes all the chaplains, chooseth most of the King's servants, and all
the pursuivants; there being then no dean of the King's chapel, he
disposeth of all in the chapel.']

[Footnote 103: Young, _Mary Sidney_, 16, gives from _Sydney Papers_, i.
271, and manuscripts several letters of 1574-8 from Lady Sidney to Lord
Chamberlain Sussex about her accommodation at court. Heneage reported to
Hatton on 2 Apr. 1585 (Nicolas, _Hatton_, 415) the Queen's anger with
the Lord Chamberlain for allowing Raleigh to be put in Hatton's lodging.
Lord Hunsdon apologizes to Sir Robert Cecil for his ill lodging in 1594
(_Hatfield MSS._ iv. 504).]

[Footnote 104: Cf. ch. iv.]

[Footnote 105: Cf. App. F. Secretary Walsingham in 1590 refers an
applicant for an audience to the Lord Chamberlain, 'who otherwise will
conceave, as he doth alreadie, that I seke to drawe those matters from
him' (_Hatfield MSS._ iv. 3).]

[Footnote 106: _Sp. P._ ii. 606. The default was at the reception of
Alençon's envoys in Aug. 1578. The Calendar makes Sussex 'Lord Steward',
but the original (_Documentos Inéditos_, xci. 270) has 'gran Camarero'.
In 1582, at the reception of a lord mayor, 'some young gentilman, being
more bold than well mannered, did stand upon the carpett of the clothe
of estate, and did allmost leane upon the queshions. Her Highnes found
fault with my Lord Chamberlayn and Mʳ Vice-Chamberlayn, and with the
Gentlemen Ushers, for suffering such disorders' (Fleetwood to Burghley
in Wright, ii. 174).]

[Footnote 107: Cf. ch. vi, p. 205, on the misadventure of Jonson and Sir
John Roe in 1603; also Jonson's _Irish Mask_ (1613), 12, 'Ish it te
fashion to beate te imbasheters here, and knoke 'hem o' te heads phit te
phoit stick?', and Beaumont and Fletcher, _Maid's Tragedy_ (_c._ 1611),
1. ii. 44, 'I cannot blame my lord Calianax for going away: would he
were here! he would run raging amongst them, and break a dozen wiser
heads than his own in the twinkling of an eye'. John Chamberlain says of
Comptroller Sir Thomas Edmondes in 1617 (Birch, i. 385), 'They say he
doth somewhat too much flourish and fence with his staves, whereof he
hath broken two already, not at tilt, but stickling at the plays this
Christmas', and Osborne, _James_, 75, of Philip, Earl of Pembroke, that
'he was intolerable choleric and offensive, and did not refrain, whilst
he was Chamberlain, to break many wiser heads than his own [_vide
supra_]: Mʳ. May that translated Lucan having felt the weight of his
staff: which had not his office and the place, being the
Banqueting-house, protected, I question whether he would ever have
struck again'. This was in Feb. 1634 (_Strafford Papers_, i. 207).]

[Footnote 108: Machyn, 183, of Mary's funeral, 'All the offesers whent
to the grayffe, and after brake ther stayffes, and cast them into the
grayffe'; Gawdy, _Letters_, 128, of Elizabeth's, 'I saw all the whit
staves broken uppon ther heades'.]

[Footnote 109: _Lord Chamberlains Books_, 811, ff. 178, 206, 236,
contains warrants to the Wardrobe for the liveries of Lord Sussex, Lord
Howard, and George Lord Hunsdon. The fee of £16 appears in a memorandum
of 1606-7 (Nichols, _James_, ii. 125).]

[Footnote 110: The ordinary books of reference give a very inaccurate
list of Elizabethan Chamberlains. I have collected the evidence in _M.
S. C._ i. 31.]

[Footnote 111: Goodman, i. 178, says that Hunsdon was 'ever reputed a
very honest man, but a very passionate man, a great swearer, and of
little eminency'. Naunton (ed. Arber, 46) gives a similar account.]

[Footnote 112: Stowe, _Annals_, 936; Birch, _James_, i. 336; Wotton,
_Letters_, ii. 40, 41.]

[Footnote 113: _V. P._ xiv. 65; Camden, _James_, 14.]

[Footnote 114: Birch, _James_, i. 382; Camden, _James_, 15; _V. P._ xiv.
100. Philip Herbert himself became Earl of Pembroke at his brother's
death on 10 Apr. 1630. He took the parliamentary side in politics, and
surrendered his staff on 23 July 1641. Robert Devereux, third Earl of
Essex, although also a parliamentarian, succeeded him from 24 July 1641
to 12 Apr. 1642 (_L. Ch. Records_, v. 96).]

[Footnote 115: _M. S. C._ i. 34, 40. Howard of Effingham is described in
the _Revels Accounts_ (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 238) as 'my L. Chamberlayne
the L. Haward' on 5 Dec. 1574, and more precisely in the Chamber Order
Book of Worcester as 'Lord Chamberlayn in the absence of the E. of
Sussex' in Aug. 1575 (Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 533).]

[Footnote 116: Nicolas, _P. C._ vi. ccxxi; cf. p. 37.]

[Footnote 117: Dasent, vii. 3, 43; Wright, i. 355; La Mothe, v. 60;
_Sadleir Papers_, ii. 368, 410; _Sydney Papers_, ii. 89, 198, 216;
Chamberlain, 100; _D. N. B._]

[Footnote 118: Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, i. 352, 'Portator lecti
Regis in domo comedet, & homini suo iii ob. & i summarium cum
liberacione sua'; cf. _H. O._ 39, 42, 251. These Wardrobes were
distinct, alike from the Great Wardrobe and from the standing Wardrobes,
to which the furniture of the permanently equipped palaces was committed
(_H. O._ 262).]

[Footnote 119: _H. O._ 39.]

[Footnote 120: Carlisle, 11, assigns the institution of the Gentlemen to
Henry VII, but this is inconsistent with the official document of 1638
printed by him (112), which definitely refers it to Henry VIII. He also
gives from _Addl. MS._ 5758, ff. 263ᵛ, 269ᵛ, a list described by him as
of Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber at the time of the King's 'French
expedition, in 1513'. But in the manuscript the list is simply headed
'The Kinges prevy chamber'; it is part of an enumeration of 'the King's
Trayne to Bulloyne', is not dated 1513, and probably belongs to 1544.
Similarly a list of Gentlemen, printed by Brewer, ii. 871, from _Royal
MS._ 7, F. xiv. 100, and dated by him 1516, proves on scrutiny to be
certainly later than 1520, and may therefore be later still, while a
number of alleged grants to Gentlemen and Grooms of the Privy Chamber
between 1510 and 1514 (Brewer, i. 148, 195, 205, 280, 364, 748) may be
seen by comparison with other entries for some of the same personages
(i. 11, 18, 91, 96, 113, 243, 410, 425, 448, 493, 600, 612) to be merely
due to bad abstracting. Evidently Brewer, when working upon his first
volume, had not distinguished between a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber
and a Gentleman Usher of the Chamber, or between a Groom of the Privy
Chamber and a Groom of the Chamber. The first clear example of Grooms
and Pages of the Privy Chamber which I have come across is in a military
list of June 1513 (Brewer, i. 634). Here there are no Gentlemen, but in
Sept. 1518 a parallel list of French and English names (Brewer, ii.
1357) has a section of Gentlemen of the Chamber, in which occur, besides
French names, those of Sir E. Nevell, Arthur Poole, Nicolas Carewe,
Francis Brian, Henry Norris, William Coffyn. I believe the categories of
this list to be French rather than English. In 1520 (Brewer, iii. 244) a
Chamber list gives the names of four squires for the body followed by
'William Cary in the Privy Chamber', and in the same year a list of
quarterly wages due from the Treasurer of the Chamber (Brewer, iii. 408)
has, besides four Grooms of the Privy Chamber at 50_s._ each, 'Henry
Norris and William Caree of the privy chamber' at £8 6_s._ 8_d._ each.
On the other hand, a list of Chamber officers of 1526, probably just
before the Eltham Articles (_Lord Steward's Misc._ 299, f. 153), has
still no Gentlemen, though it has Grooms of the Privy (here called
'King's') Chamber. As I read these facts, the distinction between the
Outer and the Privy Chamber was made in Henry VII's reign or early in
Henry VIII's. The Grooms were then divided into two classes. But the
institution of the Gentlemen was later and apparently upon a French
model. At first, about 1520, one or two Squires were personally assigned
to attendance in the Privy Chamber. Then the arrangement was regulated,
and a definite class of Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber established, by
the Eltham Articles in 1526. As to _status_, the duties of the Gentlemen
seem to have been in practice much those of the Squires of Household in
the _Liber Niger_ (1478), which were probably already exercised by
Chaucer in the same capacity a century before. 'These Esquiers of
houshold of old be accustumed, wynter and somer, in aftyrnoones and in
eveninges, to drawe to lordes chambres within courte, there to kepe
honest company aftyr theyre cunnynge, in talkyng of cronycles of kings
and of other polycyes, or in pypeyng, or harpyng, syngyng, or other
actes martialles, to help occupy the courte, and accompany straungers,
tyll the tyme require of departing' (_H. O._ 46). Stowe (_Annales_,
565), describing the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, calls the
Gentlemen 'Esquires of Honour'. Their precedence under Elizabeth was
after that of the Esquires of the Body (Carlisle, 86). On the other
hand, some of the Gentlemen appointed in 1526 had been Knights of the
Body, and the office of Knight of the Body appears shortly after to have
become obsolete. Knights are included as chamber officers in the
Elizabethan fee lists, but I can find no evidence that any were in fact
appointed.]

[Footnote 121: The Grooms were distinguished from the Gentlemen in the
post-Restoration court (Chamberlayne, 247) by not wearing sword, cloak,
or hat in the Chamber.]

[Footnote 122: _Constitutio Domus Regis_ (_c._ 1135) in Hearne, _Liber
Niger Scaccarii_, i. 356, 'Hostiarius Camerae unaquaque die, quo Rex
iter agit, iiijᵈ ad lectum Regis'; cf. _H. O._ 37, and p. 37, _supra_.
On the etiquette of Bedchamber service, as inherited from the fifteenth
century, cf. Furnivall, _Babee's Book_, 175, 313.]

[Footnote 123: The feminine posts do not appear in the fee lists.
_Lansd. MS._ lix, f. 43, gives (_c._ 1588) two ladies at 50 marks (£33
6_s._ 8_d._) and one at £20 as 'The Bed chamber', five at 50 marks as
'Gentlewomen of yᵉ privey Chamber', and four at £20 as 'Chamberers'. The
term 'The Queen's Women' appears in the list of liveries for Elizabeth's
funeral. Beyond these there were probably only a few women, e. g. a
'lawndrys', employed at court; cf. Cheyney, i. 18. In the New Year Gift
lists the official women are mixed up with wives of men officers and
others in attendance at court.]

[Footnote 124: Katharine Astley seems to have been First Lady in 1562
(Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 116), Katharine Howard, afterwards Lady Howard of
Effingham, from 1572-87 (_Sloane MS._ 814; Nichols, i. 294; ii. 65, 251;
_Sp. P._ ii. 661), and Dorothy Lady Stafford in 1587 (_Sp. P._ iv. 14).
But Mary Ratcliffe had charge of the jewels from July 1587 to the end of
Elizabeth's reign (Nichols, iii. 1, 445; _Egerton Papers_, 313; _S. P.
D. Jac. I_, i. 79; _Addl. MS._ 5751, f. 222; _Royal MS. Appendix_, 68),
apparently in succession to Blanche Parry.]

[Footnote 125: For the white dresses, cf. App. F; _Sydney Papers_, ii.
170; _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclxxxii. 48 (vol. iv, p. 114); L. Cust in _Trans.
Walpole Soc._ iii. 12; for the lodging in the Coffer Chamber, doubtless
where the 'sweet coffers' were kept, _Sydney Papers_, ii. 38.
Elizabeth's predecessors, at least from the reign of Edward II (Tout,
280; cf. _H. O._ 44), had maintained some of the young lads who were
royal wards at court under the name of Henchmen, but on 11 Dec. 1565
Francis Alen wrote to Lord Shrewsbury (Lodge, i. 438), 'Her Highness
hath of late, whereat some do much marvel, dissolved the ancient office
of the Henchmen'.]

[Footnote 126: This may be exemplified from the histories of Robert
Dudley and Mrs. Cavendish, of Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth Throgmorton,
of Robert Tyrwhitt and Bridget Manners, of Southampton and Elizabeth
Vernon, of Essex and Elizabeth Brydges, Mary Howard, Elizabeth Russell
and Elizabeth Southwell, and of Pembroke and Mary Fitton.]

[Footnote 127: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 24; _Sp. P._ i. 45; ii. 675.]

[Footnote 128: Philip Henslowe (ch. xi), George Bryan (ch. xv), and John
Singer (ch. xv) were Grooms, and Anthony Munday (ch. xxii) and possibly
Lawrence Dutton (ch. xv) Messengers of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 129: Cf. ch. iv. I doubt whether the Harbingers were
originally Chamber officers, but they seem to be so classed under Henry
VIII (_H. O._ 169) and in the Elizabethan fee lists.]

[Footnote 130: An order of 1493 'for all night' is in _H. O._ 109;
Pegge, ii. 16, has a long account of the same usage in the
post-Restoration Household. John Lyly (ch. xxiii) and Sir George Buck
(ch. iii) were Esquires of the Body. A brawl in 1598 between the Earl of
Southampton and Ambrose Willoughby, who was in charge of the Presence
Chamber as Esquire of the Body after the Queen had gone to bed, is
recorded in _Sydney Papers_, ii. 83.]

[Footnote 131: _H. O._ 33 (_c._ 1478), 'In the noble Edwardes [Ed. III]
dayes worshipfull esquires did this servyce, but now thus for the more
worthy'.]

[Footnote 132: At Elizabeth's funeral the Earl of Shrewsbury had a
livery as Cupbearer and the Earl of Sussex as Carver.]

[Footnote 133: Cf. App. F.]

[Footnote 134: Philip Henslowe (ch. xi) became a Sewer of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 135: Brewer, ii. 871 (assigned to 1516, but probably later
than 1526). The livery list for Elizabeth's coronation includes 7 Ladies
of the Privy Chamber 'without wages' and 11 others 'extraordinary', 4
'ordinary' Esquires of the Body, and 6 Gentlemen Waiters (i. e. of the
Privy Chamber) 'unplaced'; that for her funeral 16 Grooms of the Chamber
'in ordinarie' and 23 'extraordinary, but daily attendant', 5 Pages of
the Chamber 'in ordinary' and 3 'extraordinary', and a number of
Esquires of the Body and Sewers of the Chamber far in excess of anything
contemplated by the fee lists.]

[Footnote 136: Batiffol, 93, describes a similar practice in the French
household.]

[Footnote 137: Cf. ch. xiii (Queen's, King's).]

[Footnote 138: Philip Henslowe (ch. xi) seems to have passed from the
'extraordinary' to the 'ordinary' status as Groom of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 139: Pegge, v. 49. There were 'xx servientes, unusquisque jᵈ
in die' in the _Domus_ of Henry I (Hearne, _Liber Niger Scaccarii_, i.
356).]

[Footnote 140: Pegge, iii; Tout, 304 (1318): 'Item xxiiij archers a pee,
garde corps le roi, qirrount deuaunt le roi en cheminant par pays'; _H.
O._ 38 (1478).]

[Footnote 141: Sir Christopher Hatton was Captain of the Guard 1572-87,
Sir Walter Raleigh 1587-1603, Sir Thomas Erskine, afterwards Viscount
Fenton (1605) and Earl of Kelly (1619), 1603-32.]

[Footnote 142: Halle, i. 14; ii. 294; Pegge, ii. An Elizabethan book of
orders for the Pensioners (1601) is in _H. O._ 276.]

[Footnote 143: Cf. App. F.]

[Footnote 144: On the development of the Secretaries, cf. Tout, 175;
Davies, 228; Nicolas, _P. C._ vi, xcvii; Cheyney, i. 43; R. H. Gretton,
_The King's Government_, 25; L. H. Dibben, _Secretaries in the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries_ (_E. H. R._ xxv. 430).]

[Footnote 145: On the Chapel, cf. ch. xii, s.v.]

[Footnote 146: Payments on account of Robert Grene, a court fool, appear
in the _Privy Purse Accounts_ for 1559-69 (Nichols, i. 264). Apparently
the post was hereditary; a warrant of 1567 for the clothes of 'Jack
Grene our foole' is in _Addl. MS._ 35328. C. C. Stopes, _Elizabeth's
Fools and Dwarfs_ (_Shakespeare's Environment_, 269), adds from a
Wardrobe book of 1577-1600 (_Lord Chamb. Books_, v. 36) 'Thomasina', a
dwarf or _muliercula_, and from another (_Lord Chamb. Books_, v. 34)
'The Foole', 'William Shenton our Foole', 'Ipolyta the Tartarian', 'an
Italian named Monarcho', 'a lytle Blackamore'. References to Monarcho,
including _L. L. L._ IV. i. 101, are collected in _Var._ iv. 345, and
McKerrow, _Nashe_, iv. 339. Dee, 7, records a visit from the Queen's
dwarf 'Mʳˢ Thomasin' on 7 June 1580.]

[Footnote 147: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 50.]

[Footnote 148: Lafontaine, 45. Numerous records of the musical
establishment are collected by Lafontaine from the _Lord Chamberlain's
Records_, and by W. Nagel, _Annalen der englischen Hofmusik_ (_Beilage
zu den Monatsheften für Musikgeschichte_, Bd. 26), and more completely
in the _Musical Antiquary_ (Oct. 1909-Apr. 1913) from the _T. C.
Accounts_. The fee lists are not to be relied upon.]

[Footnote 149: This was Mathias Mason. The lutenists also include Robert
Hales (1586-1603), Henry Porter (1603), also described in the same year
as a sackbut, and Philip Rosseter (1604-23), on whom cf. ch. xv.]

[Footnote 150: John Heywood was certainly a Sewer of the chamber to
Henry VIII (cf. ch. xii, s.v. Paul's), and Edward VI had a group of
singers holding these posts (Lafontaine, 9), but there is no definite
evidence of a similar arrangement under Elizabeth. On Alfonso
Ferrabosco, cf. ch. xiv (Italians).]

[Footnote 151: On the relation of the Lord Chamberlain to the Revels in
particular, cf. ch. iii. The issues from the Great Wardrobe were mainly
upon his warrants.]

[Footnote 152: _H. O._ 37. The post of Clerk of Works is also called an
'office outward' (_H. O._ 54).]

[Footnote 153: Cf. ch. iii, especially Tilney's list of 'standing
offices' _c._ 1607. The 'maisters of the standing offices' also appear
in the description of James's coronation (Nichols, _James_, i. 325).]

[Footnote 154: Thus the curious fee of £11 8_s._ 1½_d._ a year
represents 7½_d._ a day, the regular wages of esquires, serjeants,
and many clerks under Edward II (Tout, 270).]

[Footnote 155: The £100 was 'from the King's privy coffers' _c._ 1478
(_H. O._ 41), but by 1508 it was from the Exchequer (Henry, _Hist. of
Great Britain_, xii. 454), and here it was still paid in the seventeenth
century (Sullivan, 252, from _Pells Order Books_).]

[Footnote 156: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 47, from return of Board of Green
Cloth (1576).]

[Footnote 157: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 45, 51. 'Bouche' or 'bouge' of court
is clearly from _busca_, bush, firewood. The allowance was as old as
1290, for _Fleta_, ii. 7, notes _cibus_, _potus_, _busca_, and _candela_
amongst the Chamberlain's fees (cf. p. 37). It is set out for each
officer in 1318 (Tout, 270) and _c._ 1478 (_H. O._ 15).]

[Footnote 158: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 44.]

[Footnote 159: _H. O._ 34, 'because ray clothinge is not according for
the king's knightes, therefore it was left'. But an order of June 1478
(_T. R. Misc._ 206, f. 11) required Lords, Knights, Squires of the Body,
and others within the household to wear 'a colour of the kings livery
about their nekkes'.]

[Footnote 160: Cheyney, i. 32; Devon, 24, 43, 67, 83; _Abstract_, 8;
Pegge, iii. 27; Nichols, _James_, ii. 125; _V. P._ vii. 12; Hentzner,
_Itinerarium_ (quoted App. F); _Addl. MS._ 5750, f. 114; _Lord
Chamberlain's Records_, v. 90, 91. The 'watchyng clothing' is as old as
Edward IV (_H. O._ 38, 41). It seems to have been 4 yards of medley
colour at 5_s._ a yard (Sullivan, 253). The sovereigns seem to have made
some use of personal colours as distinct from the royal scarlet. Those
of Edward VI were green and white (Von Raumer, ii. 71); those of
Elizabeth black and white; cf. pp. 142, 161 (1559, 1560, 1564).]

[Footnote 161: Pegge, iii. 92.]

[Footnote 162: Cf. ch. xiii (Queen's).]

[Footnote 163: Cf. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 164: Carlisle, 90, with a list of many of James's Gentlemen.]

[Footnote 165: The order of 1526 for the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber
prescribes that one of them, Henry Norris, 'shall be in the roome of Sir
William Compton, not only giveing his attendance as groome of the Kings
stoole, but also in his bed-chamber, and other privy places, as shall
stand with his pleasure' (_H. O._ 156). Naturally the post had lapsed
during female reigns, although a hope of Sir Robert Sidney for a
'Bedchamber lordship' in 1597 suggests that a renewal may have been
contemplated (_Hatfield MSS._ vii. 225). James had had Gentlemen of the
Bed Chamber in Scotland. Later court usage, represented already by
Chamberlayne, 262, in 1669, interpreted 'stole' as 'vestment', but I
suspect that in origin it was the close stool, which was kept _c._ 1478
by the Wardrobe of Beds (_H. O._ 40); cf. Marston, _Fawn_, 1. ii. 46,
'Thou art private with the duke; thou belongest to his close-stool'.]

[Footnote 166: Goodman, i. 389, says that the prime gentleman of the bed
chamber and groom of the stole was 'a man of special trust' and had a
table for guests 'employed in the king's most private occasions'.
Viscount Fenton combined the post with that of Captain of the Guard
under James. According to Newcastle, 213, the Earls of Arundel and
Pembroke laboured in vain to be of the Bed Chamber throughout the reign.
Carey, _Memoirs_, 79, 91, describes the heart-burnings to which the
office gave rise. Robert Carr, afterwards Earl of Somerset, began his
career as a Page of the Bed Chamber (Nichols, _James_, i. 600).]

[Footnote 167: _S. P. D. Jac. I_ (8 Nov. 1604). The French ambassador
wrote in 1606 (Boderie, i. 56) that the king 'vit combattre les cocqs,
qui est un plaisir qu'il prend deux fois la semaine'.]

[Footnote 168: Cf. _D. N. B._. Anne also had a 'jester', Thomas Derry,
in 1612 (Cunningham, xliii).]

[Footnote 169: _Abstract_, 46; Devon, 17, 72 and _passim_; _Cott. MS.
Vesp._ C. xiv, f. 108; _Addl. MS._ 33378, f. 34ᵛ; _V. P._ x. 102; Sully,
443; Boderie, i. 39, 272, 362. Sir Lewis Lewknor received a formal
appointment as Master of Ceremonies by patent, with a salary of £200, on
7 Nov. 1605, but had in fact been exercising the functions since 1603.
Amongst his assistants were Sir William Button, who was employed by 1607
and obtained a reversion of the post on 10 Sept. 1612, and John Finett,
who ultimately himself became Master, and published a record of his
service from 1612 in his _Philoxenis_ (1656).]

[Footnote 170: Worcester to Shrewsbury, 2 Feb. 1604 (Lodge, iii. 88);
'Now, having done with matters of state, I must a little touch the
feminine commonwealth, that against your coming you be not altogether
like an ignorant country fellow. First, you must know we have ladies of
divers degrees of favour; some for the private chamber, some for the
drawing chamber, some for the bed-chamber, and some for neither certain,
and of this number is only my Lady Arabella and my wife. My Lady Bedford
holdeth fast to the bed-chamber; my Lady Harford would fain, but her
husband hath called her home. My Lady Derby the younger, the Lady
Suffolk, Ritche, Nottingham, Susan, Walsingham, and, of late, the Lady
Sothwell, for the drawing-chamber; all the rest for the private-chamber,
when they are not shut out, for many times the doors are locked; but the
plotting and malice amongst them is such, that I think envy hath tied an
invisible snake about most of their necks to sting one another to death.
For the present there are now five maids; Cary, Myddelmore, Woodhouse,
Gargrave, Roper; the sixth is determined, but not come; God send them
good fortune, for as yet they have no mother.']

[Footnote 171: Madox, i. 262; Thomas, 24; Tout in _E. H. R._ xxiv. 496.]

[Footnote 172: Tout, 63.]

[Footnote 173: Madox, i. 267; _P. R. O. Lists and Indexes_, xi. 102;
Tout in _E. H. R._ xxiv. 496. The following summary of the history of
the wardrobe and chamber in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth
centuries is largely based on Tout, _The Place of Edward II in English
History_ (1914). Additional material has since been published in J. C.
Davies, _The Baronial Opposition to Edward II_ (1918).]

[Footnote 174: _Fleta_, ii. 6, quoted on p. 37.]

[Footnote 175: J. C. Davies, _The First Journal of Edward II's Chamber_
(1915, _E. H. R._ xxx. 662), gives extracts from a Chamber account of
1322-3, including a payment of 7 Jan. 1323 'a iiij clers de Sneyth
iuantz entreludies en la sale de Couwyk deuant le Roi et monsire Hugh
[le Despenser] de doun le Roi par les mayns Harsik liuerant a eux les
deniers xlˢ', which adds an interesting early use of the term
'interlude' to those given in _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 181, 256.]

[Footnote 176: Newton, 351; Ramsay, _Lancaster and York_, i. 317; ii.
466. Henry VIII's Treasurers of the Chamber sometimes kept separate war
accounts (Brewer, iv. 1. 82), and there is a similar example as late as
1599 (_R. O. Audit Office_, _Various_, 3, 108).]

[Footnote 177: _P. R. O. Lists and Indexes_, xxxv. 220, and _Cal. Patent
Rolls_, both passim.]

[Footnote 178: _C. P. R._, _1 Hen. VI_, p. 3, m. 5 (3 May 1423), _5 Edw.
IV_, p. 2, m. 28 (29 June 1465), _1 Rich. III_, p. 5, m. 21 (26 Apr.
1484). I think Newton is wrong in regarding Vaughan's appointment by
patent as exceptional. The _Liber Niger_, _c._ 1478 (_H. O._ 42), fully
describes the Jewel House, with its 'architectour, called clerk of the
King's, or keeper of the King's jewelles, or tresorer of the chambyr',
and says 'all thinges of this office inward or outward, commyth and
goyth by the knowledge of the Kyng, and his chamberlaynes recorde'.]

[Footnote 179: Sir Gilbert Talbot, Master of the Jewel House in 1680,
represented (_Archaeologia_, xxii. 118) that anciently the Master was
Treasurer of the Chamber, 'till that branch was taken out and made an
office apart; and is now five times more beneficiall than the
Jewell-House; all the regulation of expence being apply'd to the
remaining parts of the perquisites of the Jewell-House, the fees of the
Treasurer of the Chamber and Master of the Ceremonys being left
entire'.]

[Footnote 180: Campbell, i. 228, 316; ii. 105, 296, 320, 445. Newton,
351, 353, thinks the exact dates of Edmund Chaderton's and Lovell's
appointments uncertain, and supposes the keepership of the jewels to
have been detached on the latter occasion. But it was clearly on the
former, the date of which is given in _C. P. R._, _1 Rich. III_, p. 5,
m. 21, as 26 Apr. 1484. Lovell is described as Treasurer of the King's
Chamber on 26 Feb. 1486 and of the Queen's Chamber about the following
Easter (Campbell, i. 228, 316). There is no patent for him, and my
impression is that both posts had been annexed to the Chancellorship of
the Exchequer, granted him on 12 Oct. 1485 (_C. P. R._, _1 Hen. VII_, p.
1, m. 18).]

[Footnote 181: Newton, 354, with a full account of Heron's career.]

[Footnote 182: This arrangement had already been legalized by _1 Hen.
VIII_, c. 3 (_Statutes_, iii. 2), which authorizes the payment of
certain revenues to Heron as General Receiver, 'and to other persons ...
hereafter in like office to be deputed and assigned as in the time of
the late ... King Henry the vijᵗʰ hath been used', but does not refer to
him as Treasurer of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 183: _3 Hen. VIII_, c. 23 (_Statutes_, iii. 45). It is
provided by § 6 'that the Kinges forenamed trusty servant John Heron be
from hensfurth Tresourer of the Kinges Chamber, and that he by the name
of Tresourer of the Kinges Chambre be named accepted and called; and
that he and every other persone whom the King hereaftur shall name and
appoint to the said roome or office of Tresourer of his Chamber be not
Charged ne chargeable for any suche his or their Receipt of any parte or
parcell of the premisses as before ys expressed or therefor to accompte
answere or make repayment to any persone or persones other then to the
King or his heires in his or their Chamber, and not in the said
Eschequier'. The Act only had force to 30 Nov. 1512, but it was
continued by _4 Hen. VIII_, c. 18, _6 Hen. VIII_, c. 24, _7 Hen. VIII_,
c. 7, _14-15 Hen. VIII_, c. 15, and made permanent by _27 Hen. VIII_, c.
62 in 1535 (_Statutes_, iii. 68, 145, 182, 219, 631). The account of
this legislation in Newton, 361, treats the Act of _6 Hen. VIII_ as its
starting-point.]

[Footnote 184: His salary was at first £10, afterwards £25 a quarter
(Brewer, iii. 407). He died on 10 June 1522 (Newton, 358).]

[Footnote 185: A letter in Brewer, iii. 781 (N.D. but dated by Brewer 2
Dec. 1521), speaks of 'Master Myclo the new treasurer in Master Heron is
room'. Certain payments were made by John Myklowe, 'late treasurer of
the King's chamber', from 1 June 1521 to 1 May 1522, and thereafter by
Edmund Peckham (Brewer, iii. 1156), until 1 Jan. 1523. Conceivably
Peckham, who had been a clerk in the counting-house, and was cofferer by
1524 (Brewer, iv. 422), may have been Treasurer for a short period
between Miklowe and Wyatt, unless indeed these payments belong to a
special war loan or subsidy account, such as Wyatt himself rendered in
1524 (Brewer, iv. 82), probably not strictly in his capacity as
Treasurer of the Chamber. Miklowe is described as Treasurer on 10 Apr.
1522 and was dead by 28 June 1522 (Brewer, iii. 924, 998). For his
earlier history, cf. Brewer, ii. 436; iii. 332; xxi. 2. 426; Ellis, iii.
3, 271.]

[Footnote 186: Wyatt is described as Treasurer in an indenture of 18
Feb. 1523 (Brewer, iii. 1190). In one of Cavendish's memoranda as
printed in _Trevelyan Papers_, ii. 12, the name of Sir Thomas has been
substituted for that of Sir Henry as a predecessor of Cavendish. This is
an error, or more probably a forgery, as Collier edited the volume, and
called special attention to the entry. Sir Thomas Wyatt was riding in
1524 on war loan business, payment for which is in his father's account
(Brewer, iv. 85). On 21 Oct. 1524 he became clerk of the jewels. It is
just possible that the old connexion of the Treasurer with the Jewel
House suggested the confusion, on which cf. Simonds, _Sir Thomas Wyatt_,
19.]

[Footnote 187: _H. O._ 159.]

[Footnote 188: Brewer, iv. 1843.]

[Footnote 189: _33 Hen. VIII_, c. 39 (_Statutes_, iii. 879).]

[Footnote 190: Brewer, xx. 2. 452; Dasent, i. 323, 470.]

[Footnote 191: Brewer, xxi. 1. 125, 147; _Trevelyan Papers_, i. 197.]

[Footnote 192: _7 Edw. VI_, c. 2 (_Statutes_, iv. 1, 164).]

[Footnote 193: _1 Mary_, Sess. 2, c. 10 (_Statutes_, iv. 1, 208);
Thomas, 15.]

[Footnote 194: Wriothesley to Paget in Brewer, xx. 2. 338 (5 Nov. 1545).
A later letter of 11 Nov. (Brewer, xx. 2. 365) refers to debts of the
Surveyors' Court 'which is the Chamber'. In 1552 Charles Tuke was called
on by the Privy Council to bring his father's accounts to the Lord
Chamberlain for view and consideration (Dasent, iv. 164).]

[Footnote 195: _Trevelyan Papers_, ii. 1. The book is now in the R. O.
It is in the statement of 1548 that Sir T. Wyatt's name has been
inserted.]

[Footnote 196: Dasent, v. 329; vi. 182; _Hatfield MSS._ i. 256.]

[Footnote 197: Cf. ch. xiii (Interluders).]

[Footnote 198: Examples are in _H. O._ 120, 139, 147.]

[Footnote 199: Cf. App. B.]

[Footnote 200: A fuller account of the Tudor Chamber finance is given by
Newton, 360; cf. M. D. George, _The Origin of the Declared Account_ (_E.
H. R._ xxxi. 41).]

[Footnote 201: Felton was cofferer in 1553 (_Archaeologia_, xii. 372).]

[Footnote 202: _S. P. D. Mary_, xiv. The fee of £240 represents the old
fee of £100 attached to the Treasurership, together with allowances of
£100 for board wages, £20 for clerks, £10 for boat-hire, and £10 for
office necessaries, which Cavendish's accounts show that he enjoyed. The
1_s._ a day was presumably the fee for the Posts.]

[Footnote 203: Dasent, vii. 15, 27; _S. P. D. Eliz. Addl._ ix. 3.]

[Footnote 204: Nicholas, _Eliz._ i. 264, printed the accounts of Edmund
Downing as executor to John Tamworth for 1559-69 from the audited copy
in _Harleian Rolls_, A. A. 23. Copies are also in the _Pipe Office
Declared Accounts_, 2791, and the _Audit Office Declared Accounts_,
2021, 1. No later Elizabethan Privy Purse Accounts are known, but it
appears from the lists of New Year gifts for 1561, 1578, 1579, 1589, and
1600 (Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 108; ii. 65, 249; iii. 1, 445) that Henry
Sackford succeeded John Tamworth as custodian of gifts given in cash,
and he is described as Keeper at Elizabeth's death (_S. P. D. Jac. I_,
vi. 2). His successor was Sir George Home, afterwards (1605) Earl of
Dunbar (_S. P. D. Docquet_ of 17 May 1603). Jacobean accounts for 1603-5
are in _Pipe Office Declared Accounts_, 2792, and in _Audit Office
Declared Accounts_, 2021. Some extracts are in Cunningham, xviii. In
1617 (_Abstract_, 6) the Privy Purse disposed of £5,000 and an
additional £1,100 from New Year gifts.]

[Footnote 205: This estimate is based on the account for 1594-5;
doubtless there was some variation from year to year. A memorandum of
_c._ 1596 (_Hatfield MSS._ vi. 571) gives the annual assignment to the
office by warrant dormant as £13,800.]

[Footnote 206: On 23 July 1581 Heneage wrote to Hatton (Hatton, 181)
that he could only grant allowances to couriers sent to Mr. Secretary in
France if signed for by the Lord Treasurer, Lord Chamberlain, or
Vice-Chamberlain. On 26 May 1590 (_Cecil Papers_, iv. 35) a royal
warrant directed Heneage to pay on warrants subscribed by Burghley, as
formerly by Walsingham. Both documents refer to temporary arrangements
in the absence of a Secretary. When Herbert became Second Secretary in
1600, it was 'doubted that his warrants for money matters will be of no
force to the Treasurer of the Chamber, which office depends upon the
principal Secretary's warrants' (_Sydney Papers_, ii. 194).]

[Footnote 207: Camden (tr.), 130; Haynes-Murdin, ii. 761; _S. P. D.
Eliz._ xl. 20.]

[Footnote 208: Wright, _Eliz._ i. 355; Hatton, 39; Heneage's accounts
begin on 15 Feb. 1570.]

[Footnote 209: Camden (tr.), 450; Dasent, xxv. 4.]

[Footnote 210: _Cecil Papers_, iv. 68.]

[Footnote 211: _D. N. B._ from _Lansd. MS._ lxxix, No. 19.]

[Footnote 212: _Sydney Papers_, i. 356, 357, 363, 373, 382.]

[Footnote 213: _Cecil Papers_, v. 500; Haynes-Murdin, ii. 808. Killigrew
rendered an account from 16 Dec. 1595 to 3 July 1596.]

[Footnote 214: Birch, _Eliz._ ii. 61; Haynes-Murdin, ii. 809.]

[Footnote 215: Birch, _James_, i. 277; _S. P. D. Jac. I_, lxxxi. 15.]

[Footnote 216: _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, v. 81-3. The recital runs:
'Whereas we have thought fitt to disburden our privy purse of certaine
paymentes used of late to be made out of it, And to assigne the said
paymentes to be henceforth made by you our Tr_easur_er of our Chamber
... for allowances to players, for playes made before vs., for
bullbayting, beare-bayting, and anie other sport shewed vnto vs.' The
Treasurer is to pay 'vpon billes rated allowed and subscribed by our
Chamberlaine'. Warrants for rewards for plays were still signed by the
Privy Council during 1608-14, but by the Chamberlain from 1614.]

[Footnote 217: _Abstract_, 7, 12. During 1603-17 the Treasurer of the
Chamber had also had £21,362 for 'extraordinary disbursements'.]

[Footnote 218: The development has been fully worked out by Professor
Baldwin.]

[Footnote 219: _H. O._ 159 (1526).]

[Footnote 220: Cheyney, i. 67, 106; Hornemann, 52; Dasent, _passim_.
Certain regulations called Orders in Star Chamber (cf. App. D, No. cxx)
appear to proceed from the Council sitting in the Star Chamber, but in
an administrative, not a judicial, capacity.]

[Footnote 221: Cf. generally for this paragraph Cheyney, i. 65;
Hornemann, 19, 49; E. R. Adair, _The Privy Council Registers_ (_E. H.
R._ xxx. 698); and prefaces to Dasent, _passim_.]

[Footnote 222: La Mothe, iv. 29 (22 March 1571): 'J'y suys arrivé sur le
poinct que ceux de son conseil venoient de débattre, devant elle, les
poinctz du tretté.']

[Footnote 223: Hornemann, 54, cites _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclxxviii. 55 as
evidence that Essex was President of the Council; but surely it was the
Council in Ireland. Scaramelli (_V. P._ ix. 567) reports an interview
with the Council on 24 Apr. 1603, at which he says the Archbishop of
Canterbury, President of the Council, was not present. This suggests
that James had appointed a President. 'These Lords of the Council', adds
Scaramelli, 'behave like so many kings.']

[Footnote 224: Steele, xiv.]

[Footnote 225: Cf. App. D, _Bibl. Note_.]

[Footnote 226: Robert Laneham was Keeper and describes his functions
(Laneham, 59): 'Noow, syr, if the Councell sit, I am at hand, wait at an
inch, I warrant yoo. If any make babling, "peas!" (say I) "woot ye whear
ye ar?" if I take a lystenar, or a priar in at the chinks or at the
lokhole, I am by & by in the bones of him; but now they keep good order;
they kno me well inough: If a be a freend, or such one az I lyke, I make
him sit dooun by me on a foorm, or a cheast: let the rest walk, a God's
name!']

[Footnote 227: Baldwin, 439; Cheyney, i. 81; Dicey, 68, 94.]

[Footnote 228: Baldwin, 450; Percy, 17.]

[Footnote 229: Cheyney, i. 109; Percy, 48.]

[Footnote 230: Cf. ch. ix.]

[Footnote 231: Cf. chh. xiii (Pembroke's, Worcester's), xvi (Theatre,
Globe), xvii (Blackfriars).]




III

THE REVELS OFFICE

     [Sixteenth-century material is collected by A. Feuillerat,
     _Documents relating to the Office of the Revels in the Time of
     Queen Elizabeth_ (1908, _Materialien_, xxi), and _Documents
     relating to the Office of Revels in the Time of Edward VI and
     Mary_ (1914, _Materialien_, xliv), which replace the extracts
     from Sir Thomas Cawarden's papers in A. J. Kempe, _The Loseley
     Manuscripts_ (1835), and the report by J. C. Jeaffreson in
     _Hist. MSS._ vii. 596 (1879), the Audit Office records in P.
     Cunningham, _Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court_
     (1842), and Sir Henry Herbert's copies of official papers in J.
     O. Halliwell-Phillipps, _A Collection of Ancient Documents
     respecting the Office of Master of the Revels_ (1870, cited
     from its running title as _Dramatic Records_). A study of the
     documents is contained in A. Feuillerat, _Le Bureau des
     Menus-Plaisirs et la Mise en Scène à la Cour d'Elizabeth_
     (1910). Much of my own _Notes on the History of the Revels
     Office under the Tudors_ (1906) is incorporated in the present
     chapter. Cunningham's book is still useful for the seventeenth
     century; the authenticity of some of his documents is discussed
     in Appendix B. Of earlier historians of the stage, George
     Chalmers, _Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare-Papers_
     (1797), deals most fully with the Revels Office; it is matter
     for regret that Sir George Buck's 'particular commentary' of
     the 'Art of Revels' has disappeared. In his _Supplementary
     Apology_ (1799) Chalmers made many extracts from the office
     books, now apparently lost, of Sir Henry Herbert (1623-73).
     Others had already been published by Malone (_Variorum_, iii).
     These have now been collected with other material, including
     the later documents from _Dramatic Records_, in J. Q. Adams,
     _The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert_ (1917, cited as
     Herbert).]


One of the 'standing' offices which, from the general oversight
exercised over them by the Lord Chamberlain, may also be regarded as
'offices outward of the Chamber' was the Revels Office. This, in its
fullest establishment, consisted of a Master, a Clerk Comptroller, and a
Clerk, whose services it shared with the analogous Office of Tents, a
Yeoman, and a Groom. It was of Tudor origin. The first mention of a
Master of Revels is in a Household order of 31 December 1494.[232] But
the post appears to have been at this period a purely temporary one,
conferred upon some existing officer of the Household, who had been
selected to supervise and defray the expenses of the revels for a
particular feast. Several of these _ad hoc_ Masters are recorded at the
court of Henry VIII; the most prominent was Sir Henry Guildford, who
held various offices, including that of Comptroller of the Household.
The Masters appear to be distinct from the Lords of Misrule, who were
also appointed _pro hac vice_ during the Christmas season, but whose
duties were ceremonial and quasi-dramatic, rather than
administrative.[233] In dealing with the details of Revels organization,
the transitory and fluctuating Masters had, from the beginning of the
reign, the assistance of a permanent official, who belonged originally
to the establishment of the Wardrobe. It was his business to carry into
effect the general directions of the Master; to obtain stuffs from
mercers or from the Wardrobe itself, and ornaments from the Jewel House
and the Mint; to engage architects, carpenters, painters, tailors and
embroiderers; to superintend the actual performances in the
banqueting-hall or the tilt-yard, and attempt to preserve the costly and
elaborate pageants from the rifling of the guests; to have the custody
of dresses, visors, and properties; and finally, to render accounts and
obtain payment for expenses from the Exchequer. These duties, with
others of like character, were long performed by one Richard Gibson,
whose careful accounts, compiled in an execrable orthography, preserve
many curious details of forgotten pageantries, including the employment
of none other than Hans Holbein in the decoration of a banqueting-hall
at Greenwich. Gibson had a double qualification for his functions. In
addition to his office as Porter and Yeoman Tailor of the Wardrobe, he
had been, as far back as 1494, one of the King's players.[234] He had
apparently the art of making himself indispensable, for he gradually
accumulated both posts and pensions. He held the ancient office of
Pavilionary or Serjeant of Tents, and in this capacity made the
arrangements for the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. By 1526 he was
one of the royal Serjeants-at-Arms.[235] Machyn, who records the burning
of his son for heresy at Smithfield in 1557, describes him as 'sergantt
Gybsun, sergantt of armes, and of the reywelles, and of the kynges
tenstes'.[236] It is not, however, clear that he held a distinct post as
Serjeant of Revels, and when a patent was issued to his successor, John
Farlyon, in 1534, it was not as Serjeant, but only as Yeoman.[237]
Farlyon also became in course of time Serjeant of Tents, and the
traditional connexion between Tents and Revels was never wholly broken.

Whether John Travers, who became Serjeant of Tents on Farlyon's death
in 1539, had any supervision over John Bridges, who became Yeoman of
Revels, is rather doubtful.[238] But the position becomes quite clear in
1545, when the Serjeantship of Tents was converted into a Mastership,
and its holder, Sir Thomas Cawarden, was also appointed, under a
separate patent of 11 March 1545, to an entirely new post as a permanent
Master of the Revels, to whom the Yeoman naturally became
subordinate.[239] This continued to be John Bridges until 1550, when he
was succeeded by John Holt, who had acted as his deputy since 1547.[240]
Cawarden enlarged the establishment by securing the appointment of a
Clerk Comptroller to check and of a Clerk to keep the books, thus
leaving the Yeoman free to devote himself to the practical side of the
business.[241] Both these officers served, and continued throughout our
period to serve, alike for the Tents and the Revels. John Barnard was
Clerk Comptroller from 1545 to 1550, when he was succeeded by Richard
Lees.[242] The first Clerk was Thomas Philipps, who was appointed in
1546, and held his post until 1560.[243] But from 1551 most of the
duties were performed by a deputy, Thomas Blagrave, who succeeded to the
Clerkship on 25 March 1560.[244] Blagrave was a personal 'servant' of
Cawarden, who probably saw to it that all the subordinate officers
appointed after the retirement of Bridges were his own nominees. Each,
however, held his post under a patent direct from the Crown, and this
arrangement bore the promise of administrative complications when the
personal relation with the Master had terminated. The following document
illustrates the organization of the office as settled by Cawarden about
1546:[245]

     _Constituc_i_ons howe the King's Revells ought to be usyd_:

     Fyrst, an Invyntory to be made by the Clarke controwler and
     Clarke, by the Survey and apowentinge of the mastyr of the
     Revells, Aswell of all and singular masking garments w_i_th all
     thear furnyture, as allso of all bards for horsis, coveryng of
     bards and bassis of all kynds, w_i_th all and singular the
     appurtenances, which Invytory, subscribyd by the yoman and
     clarke, ought to remayne in the custody of the Master of the
     Offyces and the goodes for the saeffe kepyng.

     It_e_m, that no kynd of stuff be bowght, but at the
     apowyentment of the Master or his depute Clarke controwler,
     being counsell therin, and that he make menc_i_on therof, in
     his booke of recept w_hi_ch ought to be subscribyd as afforseyd
     by the Master.

     It_e_m, that the Cla_r_ke be privey to the cutting of all kynds
     of garments, and that he make menc_i_on in his booke of
     thyssuing owt howe moche it takyth of all kynds to ev_er_y
     maske, revelle, or tryumph, w_hi_ch boke ought to be subscrybyd
     as afforseyd by the Master.

     It_e_m, that the Clarke kepe check of all daye men working on
     the p_re_misses, and to make two lyger boks of all wags and
     provisions of all kynd whate so ev_er_, th_e_ one for the paye
     master and th_e_ other for the Master.

     It_e_m, that no garments forseyd, bards, cov_er_ying of bards,
     bassis, or suche lyck, be lent to no man w_i_thout a specyall
     comaundment, warrant, or tokyn, from the Kyng's Ma_ies_tie, but
     that all be leyd up in feyr stonderds or pressis, and every
     presse or stonderd to have two locks a pece, w_i_th sev_er_all
     wards, w_i_th two keys, th_e_ one for the Master or Clarke, and
     th_e_ other for the yoman, so that non of them cum to the stuff
     without th_e_ other.

In Farlyon's time the Revels stuff had been housed at the royal mansion
of Warwick Inn in the City.[246] Cawarden moved it in 1547 to the
Blackfriars, where various parts of the old Priory buildings served at
different times as store-rooms and work-rooms or as residences for the
officers.[247] Much material bearing upon the activities of the Revels
during 1544-59 is preserved at Loseley Hall, amongst the papers of
Cawarden's executor, Sir William More, who also acquired his interest in
the Blackfriars. Cawarden lived just long enough to superintend the
festivities at Elizabeth's coronation. After his death on 29 August
1559, his offices were distributed.[248] The Mastership of the Tents was
given to Henry Sackford of the Privy Chamber. Banqueting houses,
however, which had originally been the concern of the Tents, seem now to
have been put in charge of the Revels. The Mastership of the Revels was
given, by a patent dated 18 January 1560, to Sir Thomas Benger.[249] The
Clerk Comptroller and Clerk continued as in former years to be joint
officers for the Tents and the Revels. Benger is a somewhat shadowy
personage. It is upon record that he gave Elizabeth a ring as a New
Year's gift in 1562; that the Westminster boys rehearsed the
_Heautontimoroumenos_ and _Miles Gloriosus_ before him in 1564 and spent
6_d._ on 'pinnes and sugar candee'; that he got a licence to export 300
tons of beer in 1566; that he had players of his own at Canterbury in
1569-70; and that the corporation of Saffron Walden spent 3_s._ 6_d._
upon a 'podd' of oysters for him at Elizabeth's visit to Audley End in
1571.[250] Apparently he began his administration with good intentions.
The following note is affixed to his first Revels' estimate, that for
the Christmas of 1559-60:

     'Memorandum, that the chargies for making of maskes cam never
     to so little a somme [£227 11_s._ 2_d._] as they do this yere,
     for the same did ever amount, as well in the Quenes Highnes
     tyme that nowe is, as at all other tymes hertofore, to the
     somme of £400 alwaies when it was leaste.

     'Mᵐ. also, that it may please the Quenes Maᵗᶦᵉ to appoint some
     of her highnes prevy Counsaile, immediatly after Shroftyde
     yerely, to survey the state of the saide office, to thintent it
     may be knowne in what case I fownd it, and how it hathe byn
     since used.

     'Mᵐ. also, that the saide Counsailors may have aucthoritie to
     appoint suche fees of cast garments as they shall think
     resonable, and not the Mʳ. to appoint any, as hertofore he
     hathe done; for I think it most for the Mʳˢ. savegarde so to be
     used.'[251]

The cast garments were a perquisite of the officers, and were sold by
them, doubtless to actors. The change in the Mastership led also to a
change in the local habitation of the Revels. It is to be supposed that
the buildings with which Cawarden had supplemented the official
storehouse were no longer available after they had passed to his
executors. In any case, it is clear from the survey of 1586-7 described
below that upon Cawarden's death the Office of the Revels was removed
to the 'late Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem' in Clerkenwell. Probably
the transfer had taken place by 10 June 1560, as an inventory was drawn
up on that date of 'certeyne stuff remaynynge in the Black Fryers in
London'.[252] The Tents, as well as the Revels, seem to have been moved
to St. John's.[253]

In accordance with Benger's request, a survey of the Revels was
undertaken, under a warrant from the Privy Council of 27 April 1560, by
Sir Richard Sackville and Sir Walter Mildmay, the Under Treasurer and
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a draft of a document submitted to
them is preserved at Loseley.[254] This contains a detailed account of
the transactions of the Office since the last audit in 1555, as a result
of which Cawarden's executors established a claim for a balance or
'surplusage' of £740 13_s._ 10½_d._ against the Exchequer. The total
expenditure of the Office for the period covering Elizabeth's coronation
and first Christmas had been £602 11_s._ 10_d._ To the account are
appended inventories showing the sets of masking garments which existed
in 1555, the materials since issued from the Wardrobe, the use made of
both of these in the fashioning of new garments and the 'translation' of
old ones, and the sets found in the Office at the time of the survey.
These are marked as either 'serviceable' or 'not serviceable' or
'chargeable', but 'fees', and the warrant from the Council instructs the
commissioners that cast garments 'being fees incydente to the saide
office may be taken by yᵉ Master of yᵉ Revelles & dystributed in soche
sorte as haue bene accostomed'. Probably the officers sold them to
players.[255] No further detailed accounts are available until the last
year of Benger's Mastership, but there are summaries which show an
average annual expenditure of about £570.[256] For some reason, there
was a great increase of cost in 1571-2, which is the first of a series
of years for which elaborate accounts exist in the Record Office. These
are of a detailed nature, much like that of Cawarden's accounts at
Loseley, and arranged more or less under heads. Schedules of the plays
and masks given during the periods to which they relate are in some
cases attached. A brief analysis of the account for 1571-2 will show the
general character of the entries. I can only dwell here upon those which
relate to the organization of the Revels Office, and not upon those of
merely dramatic or scenic interest. The main account runs from the end
of Shrovetide, 1571, to the end of Shrovetide, 1572, and covers,
firstly, a period of nine months from March to November, during which
the occupation of the Office was limited to the airing and safeguard of
'stuff' and attendance upon the Master during the progress, and,
secondly, an active three months of revels and preparation for revels,
from December to February. This expenditure is accounted for under two
main heads, _Wages and Allowances_ and _Emptions and Provisions_. It may
be abstracted as follows:

A. WAGES AND ALLOWANCES.

(i.) _March to November._

                                            £  _s._ _d._      £  _s._ _d._

    Tailors and Attendants                  26   0    0
    Attendants (9) on Progress              13  19    0
    Porter (60 days)                         3   0    0
    Diet of Officers (60 days)              30   0    0
    Necessaries bought by Yeoman             3  13    0       76  12   0

(ii.) _December to February._

    Tailors and Attendants                 113   8    8
    Property-makers, Embroiderers,
    Haberdashers                            39   1    2
    Painters                                35  18    2
    Porter (80 days, 15 nights)              4  15    0
    Diet of Officers (80 days, 15 nights)   47  10    0        240 13  0

B. EMPTIONS AND PROVISIONS.

(i.) _March to November._ Nil.

(ii.) _December to February._

    Mercers (4)                            938   8    7
    Draper                                  52  15    3
    Upholster                               32   5    8
    Silkwomen (Joan Bowll and another)      74  14    4½
    Petty Cash (Comptroller)                 1   0    0
    Petty Cash (Yeoman)                     80  11     2
    Implements for Properties               14  11     1
    Furrier                                  2   2     6
    Colours                                 13  16     1
    Wiredrawer                               6  16     0
    Vizards (Thomas Giles)                   4   5     0
    Necessaries for Hunters                  1   1     8
    Device for Thunder and Lightning         1   2     0
    Chandler                                 5  15     5
    Hire of Armour                           3   9     8
    Buskin-maker                             0  11     4
    Brian Dodmer (travelling expenses,
    &c.)                                     3   0     0
    Boat-hire, &c., for Comptroller          1   0     0
        "       "       Clerk (_per_
      John Drawater)                         1   0     0
    Green cloth, &c., for Clerk              3   6     8    1,241  12   5½

_Summa Totalis._

                                                     £   _s._ _d._
    Wages and Allowances                            317   5   0
    Emptions and Provisions                       1,241  12   5½
                                                ------------------
                                                 £1,558  17   5½
                                                ==================

In many cases reference is made to the bills of the tradesmen for
further details. At the end of the account is appended a supplementary
account, amounting to £26 3_s._ 2_d._, for the three months from March
to May, 1572, during which a further airing took place. The airings
involved an elaborate process of what would now be called the
'spring-cleaning' of all the stuff in the office. There is also a list
of six plays and six masks performed during Christmas and Shrovetide.
The plays were acted by companies of men or children who were
'apparelled and ffurnished', and provided with 'apt howses, made of
canvasse, fframed, ffashioned and paynted accordingly' by the Revels
Office. It is noted that the six plays were 'chosen owte of many and
ffownde to be the best that then were to be had; the same also being
often perused and necessarely corrected and amended by all the
afforeseide officers'. Four of the masks were new; the other two 'were
but translated and otherwise garnished being of the former number by
meanes wherof the chardge of workmanshipp and attendaunce is cheefely to
be respected'. It will be observed that the Account does not include any
items for the fees of the officers or for the hire of lodgings or
storehouses. The former were payable under their patents at the
Exchequer, the latter provided in the royal house of St. John's. The
officers get an allowance for diet when on active duty, either in the
time of airings or in that of revels; and this is fixed, for each day or
night, at 4_s._ for the Master, 2_s._ for the Clerk Comptroller, 2_s._
for the Clerk, and 2_s._ for the Yeoman. There is a similar allowance of
1_s._ for a Porter, described more fully in a later account as the
Porter of St. John's Gate. His name was John Dauncy.[257] The Account
discloses some changes in the establishment since 1559. Thomas Blagrave
is still Clerk. Richard Lees had been succeeded as Clerk Comptroller on
30 December 1570 by Edward Buggin.[258] During the earlier part of the
period John Holt is still Yeoman, but exercises his functions through a
deputy, William Bowll, a Yeoman of the Chamber; he was replaced by John
Arnold on 11 December 1571.[259] There is a letter to Cecil from William
Bowll, written at some date after March 1571, in which he recites that
he has recently delivered to Cecil letters from the Lord Treasurer (the
Marquis of Winchester), Sir Thomas Benger, and John Holt, for a joint
grant of the Yeomanship to himself and John Holt; that he has long
served as Holt's deputy and paid him money on a composition as well as
meeting some of the debts of the Office; that Holt is now dead and that
he and his family will be undone unless Cecil procures him the
post.[260] His suit, however, was obviously unsuccessful. Holt's tenure
of the Yeomanship had thus extended from 1547 to 1571. He may himself
have been an actor, if, as seems likely, he is the 'John Holt, momer',
who received rewards for attendance on the Westminster boys at a pageant
in 1561.

If Arnold was appointed in the winter of 1571, it was against him,
rather than against Holt or his deputy Bowll, that a complaint was
lodged with Burghley about a year later by one Thomas Giles. Giles was
one of the tradesmen of the Revels. He is described in the Accounts as a
haberdasher, and purchases of vizards were made from him. The burden of
his complaint was that the officers of the Revels, and particularly the
Yeoman, who had the custody of the masking garments, were in the habit
of letting these out on hire, to their manifest deterioration, and, one
fears, also to the injury of Giles's business. He enumerates twenty-one
occasions upon which masks, including the new cloth of gold, black and
white, and murrey satin ones, made for the Queen's delectation during
the previous Christmas, had been so let out to lords, lawyers, and
citizens, in town and country, between January and November 1572.[261]

It is probable that Burghley, who became Lord Treasurer in July 1572,
took early steps to look into the administration of the Revels Office,
for which the death of Sir Thomas Benger about June of the same year
afforded an opportunity.[262] Certainly there was no possibility of
bringing about any immediate economy, for the embassy of the Duc de
Montmorency from France had already caused a great increase of cost. The
Revels bill for 1572-3 amounted to £1,427 12_s._ 6½_d._ or very
little less than that for 1571-2. Of this about £1,000 was directly due
to Montmorency's visit. Moreover, the greater part of the expenditure
upon revels was not directly defrayed through the Office. They bought
some stuff in the open market, and employed some workmen. But they had
also large supplies from the Great Wardrobe, while the structure of
banqueting-houses and the like was undertaken by the Office of Works.
The total cost, therefore, for any one year would have to be pieced
together from the accounts of all three offices. This task has never
been essayed, but on Montmorency's coming an imprest of £200 was made to
Lewis Stocket, Surveyor of the Works, and another of £300 to John
Fortescue, Master of the Great Wardrobe, while a memorandum in
Burghley's papers cites a warrant of 12 July 1572 which authorizes the
delivery by Fortescue to Benger of stuffs to no less value than £1,757
8_s._ 1½_d._[263]

Pending Burghley's investigation no patent was issued for a successor to
Benger. During the Christmas of 1573, the oversight of the Office was
committed jointly to Fortescue and to Henry Sackford, the Master of the
Tents, and the whole of the account for the period from 1 June 1572 to
31 October 1573 is signed by them, together with the inferior officers
of the Revels. There are signs of an ambition towards economy in entries
showing that on several occasions during the year claims upon the Office
were reduced after examination by the Comptroller and other
officers.[264] The auditors in their turn had an eye upon the Office. A
sum of £50 was originally included in the account with the explanation:

     'Item more for new presses to be made thorowowte the whole
     storehowse for that the olde were so rotten that they coulde by
     no meanes be repayred or made any waye to serve agayne. The
     Queenes Maiesties store lyeng now on the ffloore in the store
     howse which of necessitie must preasently be provyded for
     before other workes can well beginne. Whiche presses being made
     as is desyred by the Officers wilbe a greate safegarde to the
     store preasently remayning and lyke-wise of the store to coome
     whereby many things may be preserved that otherwyse wilbe
     vtterly lost and spoyled contynually encreasing her Maiesties
     charge.'

To this is appended a note:

     'Not allowid for so moche as the said presseis ar not
     begonn.'[265]

It may be admitted that the cost of the Revels would have been less if
the officers had been in a position to pay for the goods supplied to
them in ready money. They probably got small 'imprests' or advances at
the beginning of the year when they could, but for the most part they
had to obtain credit and satisfy their tradesmen with debentures,
redeemable when the accounts had been audited and a warrant under the
privy seal for the payment of the certified expenses issued. Elizabeth
succeeded to an exchequer already burdened with the debt of past reigns,
and the issue of these warrants was often delayed. William Bowll had
made it part of his claim to be appointed Yeoman in succession to John
Holt that he had made advances for 'payment to the workemen and other
poore creditors for mony due unto them in the said office, accordinge to
thear necessities before any warant graunted, only for to mayntayn the
credit of the said office'. An undated letter is preserved amongst
Burghley's papers in which he makes an attempt to recover a sum of £236
due to him for goods supplied over a period of two years and nine
months.[266] A similar letter, written on behalf of the creditors and
artificers serving the office, and signed by 'Poore Bryan Dodmer a
creditour, to saue the labour of a great number whose exclamacion is
lamentable', refers specifically to the unpaid balance of the office
account on 28 February 1574, which stood at £1,550 5_s._ 8_d._[267]
Bryan Dodmer had received a legacy from Sir Thomas Cawarden in 1559,
and is shown by the account of 1571-2 to have been at that time occupied
in the affairs of the Revels Office, although not on the establishment.
To 1573 and 1574 may be ascribed three memoranda, which were evidently
prepared for Burghley's assistance in considering schemes of reform. Two
of these, although longer than can be printed here, are singularly
illuminating to students of departmental history. One, in particular,
gives a very capable summary of the situation, and is informed by a good
deal of sound administrative sense.[268] It begins with a short
historical notice of the origin and foundation of the Revels and a
suggestion for a fresh amalgamation of the Mastership with those of the
Tents and Toils. The writer then considers the possibility of either
farming out the office, or fixing a definite allowance for all ordinary
charges, and rejects both proposals as impracticable. Nor does he see
much room for economy in the 'airings', or in a reduction in the number
of officers; on the contrary, he is in favour of supplementing the
Master, who must give attendance at Court, by a working head of the
Office with the rank of Serjeant. He lays stress on the importance of
co-operation amongst the officers, and while not prepared to abrogate
the quasi-independence of the Master which the appointment of the
inferior officers by patent gave them, submits an elaborate draft of new
ordinances provisionally dated in the regnal year 1572-3, and intended
to replace those which he understands to have been delivered 'before my
time' to some of the Queen's Privy Council.[269] This deals, not only
with the functions of each officer, but also with the time-table of the
year's work, the control of the artificers, the economical employment of
wardrobe stuff, the books to be kept, and the avoidance of debt by a
liberal imprest. An historian of the stage can wish that the suggestion
had been adopted for order to be annually given 'to a connynge paynter
to enter into a fayer large ligeard booke in the manner of limnynge the
maskes and shewes sett fourthe in that last seruice, to thende varyetye
may be vsed from tyme to tyme'. I think that the author of this document
was probably Buggin, the Clerk Comptroller, since the two other
memoranda are clearly on internal evidence the work of Blagrave, the
Clerk, and one of the Yeomen, and Burghley is likely to have given each
officer a chance of expressing his views. It might, however, have been
Henry Sackford, in view of the suggestion for amalgamation with the
Tents, and in any case Buggin probably had Sackford's interests in mind,
not to speak of his own chances of obtaining the contemplated Serjeanty.
Blagrave's proposals are in matters of detail not unlike Buggin's, but
he does not endorse the suggestion of a Serjeant, and is less skilful in
keeping his personal ambitions in the background.[270]

     If it please her highnes to bestowe the M_aste_rship of the
     office vpon me (as I trust myne experience by acquayntaunce
     w_i_t_h_ those thaffaires and contynuall dealing therein by the
     space of xxvij or xxviij yeres deserveth, being also the
     auncient of the office by at the leaste xxiiij of those yeres;
     otherwise I wolde be lothe hereafter to deale nor medle
     w_i_t_h_ it nor in it further then apperteyneth to the clerke,
     whose allowaunce is so small as I gyve it holy to be discharged
     of the toyle and attendaunce). I haue hetherto w_i_t_h_oute
     recompence to my greate chardge and hynderaunce borne the
     burden of the M_aste_r, and taken the care and paynes of that,
     others haue had the thankes and rewarde for, w_hi_ch I trust
     her Ma_ies_tie will not put me to w_i_t_h_oute the fee,
     alowaunce, and estimac_i_on longing to it, nor if her highnes
     vouchesafe not to bestowe it vpon me to let me passe
     w_i_t_h_oute recompence for that is done and paste.

     If the Fee and allowaunce be thought to muche, then let what
     her Ma_ies_tie and Honerable counsaile shall thinke mete for
     any man that shall supplie that burden and place to haue
     toward_es_ his chardg_es_ be appointed of certeyntie, and I
     will take that, and serve for as litle as any man that meanes
     to Deale truly, so I be not to greate a loser by it.

The Yeoman's _Memorandum_ is short enough to be given in full.[271]

     A note of sarten thing_es_ which are very nedefull to be
     Redressed in the offys of the Revelles.

     1. Fyrste the Romes or Loging_es_, where the garments and other
     thing_es_, as hedpeces and suche lyke, dothe lye, Is in suche
     decaye for want of rep_a_racions, that it hath by that meanes
     perished A very greate longe wall, which parte thereof is falne
     doune and hath broke undoune A greate presse, which stoode all
     Alongest the same, by w_hi_ch meanes I ame fayne to laye the
     garment_es_ vppon the grounde, to the greate hurt of the same,
     so as if youre honoure ded se the same it woolde petye you to
     see suche stoffe so yll bestowed.

     2. Next there is no convenyent Romes for the Artifycers to
     wourke in, but that Taylours, Paynters, Proparatiue makers,
     and Carpenders are all fayne to wourke in one rome, which is A
     very greate hinderaunce one to Another, w_hi_ch thinge nedes
     not for theye are slacke anowe of them selves.

     3. More, there ys two whole yeares charg_es_ be hinde vn payde,
     to the greate hinderaunce of the poore Artyfycers that wourke
     there. In so mvche that there be A greate parte of them that
     haue byn dryven to sell there billes or debentars for halfe
     that is dewe vnto them by the same.

     4. More, yt hath broughte the offyce in suche dyscredet with
     those that dyd delyver wares into the offyce, that theye will
     delyuer yt in for A thirde parte more then it is woorthe, or
     ellce we can get no credet of them for the same, which thinge
     is A very greate hinderaunce to the Queenes ma_ies_tie and A
     greate discredet to those that be offecers in that place, which
     thinge for my parte I Ame very sory to see.

This is endorsed,

     'For the Reuels. Matters to be redressed there.'

The documents are proposals for reform rather than statements of
existing practice; but proposals for reform made by permanent officials
are not generally very sweeping, and I think it may be taken that we get
a pretty fair notion of the actual working of a Government department in
the sixteenth century, not without certain hints of jealousies and
disputes between the various officers as to their respective functions
and privileges, which in those days as in these occasionally tended to
interfere with the smooth working of the machine. The determination of
these functions and privileges by regulation; the keeping of regular
books, inventories, journals, and ledgers; the institution of a system
of finance which would avoid the necessity of employing credit; the
prohibition of the hiring-out of Revels stuff; these are amongst the
improvements in organization which suggested themselves to practical men
who were not in the least likely to suggest the transference of the
duties of their own rather superfluous Office to the Office of Works or
the Wardrobe. Both Buggin and Blagrave ask that the hands of the
officers might be strengthened by a commission; that is, apparently, a
warrant entitling them to enforce service on behalf of the Crown, such
as the Master of the Children of the Chapel had to 'take up'
singing-boys, and other departments of the Household, including probably
the Tents, had for the purveyance of provisions and cartage. Probably
the Revels had already enjoyed this authority upon special occasions.
The _Account_ for the banqueting house of 1572 includes an item for
'flowers of all sortes taken up by comyssion and gathered in the
feeldes'.[272] At the bottom of the documents there is a feeling that
the weak point in the organization is the Mastership. The Master had to
be a courtier, dancing attendance on the Queen and the Lord Chamberlain,
and was likely to have the qualities and failings of a courtier; and
then he came to the office, and gave instructions to people who knew
their own business much better than he did.

Blagrave's ambitions to become Master of the Office were not wholly
gratified. He was allowed to act as Master for some years, but he never
received a patent, and after Benger's death he had the mortification of
seeing the post given to another, while he was left to content himself
with his much despised Clerkship. His regency lasted from November 1573
until Christmas 1579, and his signature stands alone or heads those of
the other officers upon the Accounts relating to that period, with the
exception of the last, on which the name of the incoming Master
appears.[273] His appointment was presumably from year to year. It is
stated in the Account for 1573-4 to have been made by 'her Majestie's
pleasure signefyed by the right honorable L. Chamberlaine', and in that
for 1574-5 to appear from 'sundry letters from the Lorde Chamberlayne'.
And the vacancy emphasized the dependence of the Revels upon that great
branch of the tripartite Household, the Chamber, over which the Lord
Chamberlain presided. All Blagrave's activities were subject to control
by his superior officer. He and his subordinates were constantly going
by boat or horse to Richmond, or wherever the Court might be, to take
instructions from the Lord Chamberlain, to submit patterns of masks and
alterations of plays, and to obtain payment of expenses.[274] Blagrave
himself had a house at Bedwyn in Wiltshire, and couriers were sometimes
sent after him when his presence in London was urgently needed.[275]
Upon his entrance into office the officers were called together 'for
colleccion and showe of eche thinge prepared for her Maiesties regall
disporte and recreacion as also the store wherewith to ffurnish, garnish
and sett forth the same; wherof, as also of the whole state of the
office the L. Chamberlayne according to his honours appointment was
throughly advertised'.[276] The store was also carefully perused and the
inventories checked upon the death of John Arnold the Yeoman, and the
appointment on 29 January 1574 of Walter Fish in his room.[277] The
Accounts continue to include allowances for the diet of the Clerk as
well as that of the Master. I have no doubt that Blagrave was quite
capable of drawing them both; but it is also likely enough that some
unestablished person undertook the duties of 'Acting' Clerk. If so, this
was most probably Bryan Dodmer, who was very useful on financial
business during 1573-4 and 1574-5. After this year he disappears from
the Accounts and his place is apparently taken by John Drawater. William
Bowll, the ex-Deputy-Yeoman and silkweaver, and Thomas Giles, the
haberdasher, in spite of their complaints against the Office, continue
to supply it with goods.[278]

The general character of the Accounts, both under Fortescue and
Sackford, and under Blagrave, is much the same as that of the one,
already analysed, for 1571-2. Periods of activity, mainly at Christmas
and Shrovetide, still alternate with periods of quiescence,
stock-taking, and 'airing'. Occasionally the Office has to bestir itself
to accompany a progress.[279] Some unusually detailed entries in 1576-7
give interesting information as to the rates of wages ordinarily paid to
workmen. The head tailor got 20_d._ for each day or night, and other
tailors 12_d._ Carpenters got 16_d._; the Porter and other attendants
12_d._ Painters, haberdashers, property-makers, joiners, carvers, and
wire-drawers were paid 'at sundrie rates'. In a later year, 1579-80, the
first and second painter got 2_s._ and 20_d._ respectively, and the rest
18_d._ The first wire-drawer got 20_d._, and the rest 16_d._[280] The
payments for night-work really represent double wages for overtime,
since we learn from Buggin and Blagrave that the length of a night was
reckoned at about half that of a day. The workmen who waited on the mask
before Montmorency in 1572 got extra rewards, because they 'had no tyme
to eat theyer supper'; and while the banqueting-house was building Bryan
Dodmer had to buy bread and cheese 'to serve the plasterers that
wroughte all the nighte and mighte not be spared nor trusted to go
abrode to supper'.[281] An important function of the Office consisted in
'calling together of sundry players and pervsing, fitting and reformyng
theier matters (otherwise not convenient to be showen before her
Maiestie)'.[282] Dodmer paid 40_s._ in 1574-5 for 'paynes in pervsing
and reformyng of playes sundry tymes as neede required for her
Maiestie's lyking', and it is a pity that the name of the payee is left
blank in the Account.[283] When the plays had been chosen and knocked
into shape, they had to be rehearsed. Now and then they were taken
before the Lord Chamberlain for this purpose; but as a rule the
rehearsals went on in the presence of the officers at St. John's. Here
were a 'greate chambere where the workes were doone and the playes
rezited', a storehouse, and the mansions of the officers. The Clerk had
an office with a nether room next the yard.[284] Fish complains of the
inconvenience of having only one room for every kind of artificer to
work in. Items for yellow cotton to line 'the Monarkes gowne' and for
his jerkin and hose perhaps point to the use of a lay figure.[285] One
Nicholas Newdigate was extremely useful in hearing and training the
children who frequently performed.[286] Naturally these gave a good deal
of trouble. At Shrovetide 1574 nine of them were employed for a mask at
Hampton Court. They had diet and lodging at St. John's, 'whiles thay
learned theier partes and jestures meete for the mask'. They were taken
from Paul's Wharf to Hampton Court in a barge with six oars and two
'tylt whirreys'. They arrived on Monday, but the Queen would not see
them until the Tuesday, and they were lodged for the two nights at
Mother Sparo's at Kingston. An Italian woman and her daughter were
employed to dress their heads. When they got back to London on
Ash-Wednesday, 'sum of them being sick and colde and hungry', fire and
victuals were provided at Blackfriars. Each child received a reward of
1_s._[287] Trouble was caused also sometimes by the behaviour of the
courtiers who took part in festivities. Six horns garnished with silver
were provided at a cost of 18_s._, for a mask of hunters on 1 January
1574, and there is a note in the Account that these horns 'the maskers
detayned and yet dooth kepe them against the will of all the officers'.
This sort of difficulty was traditional. It was already perplexing the
worthy Gibson more than half a century before.[288] That the practice of
lending out the Revels stuff was not wholly abandoned is shown by an
application from Magdalen College, Oxford, to Tilney in 1592 for
furniture for a play.[289] Finance was also a cause of trouble. On his
appointment in 1573 Blagrave succeeded in obtaining a 'prest' of £200 to
begin the year upon. In 1574 he did the same, but not until Dodmer had
applied in vain to the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Treasurer, and Mr.
Secretary Walsingham, and was finally 'after long attendaunce (and that
none of the afore-named coulde get the Queenes Maiestie to resolve
therin) dryven to trouble her Maiestie himselfe and by special peticion
obtayned as well the grawnt for ccˡᶦ in prest as the dettes to be paid'.
At the end of each year there were formalities and delays to be gone
through before the bills could be paid. The accounts had to be made up,
to be passed by the auditors, and to be declared before the Lord
Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Then a royal warrant had
to be obtained for a privy seal, then the privy seal itself, and finally
actual payment at the Exchequer. All these processes necessitated
constant fees and gratuities. In 1579 the estimated charges for audit
and payment amounted to £8. For his considerable financial services in
1574-5 Bryan Dodmer demanded £13 6_s._ 8_d._, but this was ruthlessly
cut down by the officers to £6 13_s._ 4_d._ They in their turn found the
auditor disallowing a small payment because it had been entered in the
books after the sum had been cast, and was not properly certified.
Dodmer had advanced the money, but he could not be repaid until the
following year.[290]

A letter of 8 April 1577 from Leicester to Burghley reminds him that a
certain suit of Sir Jerome Bowes and others 'touching plays' had been
referred to them, together with the Lord Chamberlain, by the Queen for
consideration. They had 'myslyked of the perpetuytie they sutors
desierd', but a report still had to be made.[291] There is nothing to
show the nature of this 'suit', but it is not unnatural to conjecture
that it arose in some way out of the vacancy in the Mastership. No more,
however, is heard of Sir Jerome Bowes in this connexion. It was not
until seven years after Benger's death that Blagrave met with the rebuff
of finding himself passed over in favour of an outsider, and reduced to
his former position of Clerk, with its subordinate duties and its
miserable allowances for the 'ordynary grene cloth, paper, incke,
counters, deskes, standishes', and so forth. The new Master was Edmund
Tilney, who had dedicated to Elizabeth, in 1568, a dialogue on matrimony
under the title of _The Flower of Friendship_. Tilney was a connexion of
Lord Howard of Effingham, to whose influence at Court he probably owed
his appointment. His patent is dated on 24 July 1579, but the fee was to
run from the previous Christmas, and he may therefore have formally
assumed his duties at that period. His signature is attached with those
of Blagrave and the other officers to the Account for the whole of the
period from 14 February 1578 to 31 October 1579, but the details do not
afford any evidence that he took a personal share in the work of the
Office.[292] In 1581 he was spoken of as a possible ambassador to Spain,
but this does not appear to have led to anything.[293]

Only a few detailed Accounts belonging to Tilney's Mastership are in
existence. These are made up regularly from each 1 November to the
following 31 October. They do not disclose any noteworthy change in the
previous routine of the Office. On 8 August 1580 Thomas Sackford, a
Master of the Requests, and Sir Owen Hopton, the Lieutenant of the
Tower, were instructed by the Council to take a view of the Revels stuff
upon the appointment of the new Master, and to deliver inventories of
the same to Tilney. Accordingly, a charge of 40_s._ 'for the ingrossinge
of three paire of indentid inventories' appears in the Account.[294]
Blagrave appears to have sulked at first, for in 1581 the employment of
a professional scribe to make up the accounts was explained by the
absence of a clerk. The auditors, very properly, made a marginal note of
surprise, and Blagrave resumed his duties.[295] In 1582-3 considerable
repairs were required at the Revels Office, owing to the fact that a
chamber which formed part of Blagrave's lodging had fallen down. An
office and a chamber for the Master seem for a time to have been
provided at Court during the attendance of the Master, and warmed with
billets and coals at the expense of the Revels, but by 1587-8 they had
been crowded out, and an allowance of 10_s._ was made for the hire of
rooms.[296] Another entry for 1582-3 marks an epoch of some importance
in the history of the Elizabethan stage. On 10 March 1583 Tilney was
summoned to Court by a letter from Mr. Secretary [Walsingham] 'to choose
out a companie of players for her Ma_ies_tie'. Horse hire and charges on
the journey cost him 20_s._[297] Outside the Accounts there is one
document of considerable interest belonging to the early years of
Tilney's rule. This is a patent, dated 24 December 1581, and giving to
the Master of the Revels such a 'commission' or grant of exceptional
powers over the subjects of the realm, as had been stated in the
_Memoranda_ of 1573 to be eminently desirable in the interests of the
office.[298] The Master is authorized to take and retain such workmen
'at competent wages', and take such 'stuff, ware, or merchandise', 'at
price reasonable', together with such 'carriages', by land and by water,
as he may consider to be necessary or expedient for the service of the
Revels. He or his deputy may commit recalcitrant persons to ward. He may
protect his workmen from arrest, and they are not to be liable to
forfeit if their service in the Revels obliges them to break outside
contracts for piece-work. The licensing powers also conferred upon the
Master by this patent are considered elsewhere.[299]

Tilney's accession to office coincided with the beginning of the period
of heightened splendour in Court entertainments, due to the negotiations
for Elizabeth's marriage with the Duke of Anjou.[300] A magnificent
banqueting-house was built at Whitehall, and Sidney, Fulke Greville, and
others, equipped as the Foster Children of Desire, besieged the Fortress
of Perfect Beauty in the tilt-yard. One might have expected to find a
considerably larger expenditure accounted for by the officers of the
Revels. But this was not so, except for the one winter of Anjou's visit.
The cost of the Office, which in 1571-3 had grown to about £1,500 a
year, rapidly fell again. In 1573-4 it was about £670; in 1574-5 about
£580; and thereafter it generally stood at not more than from £250 to
£350. In 1581-2, however, it reached £630.[301] It is probable that the
figures do not point to any real reduction of expenditure, but only mean
that, after the experience of John Fortescue, the Master of the
Wardrobe, as Acting Master of the Revels in 1572-3, it was found
economical to supply the needs of the Office, to a greater extent even
than in the past, through the organization of the Wardrobe and the
Office of Works, instead of by the direct purchase of goods or
employment of labour in the open market. Stowe records, for example,
that the banqueting-house of 1581 cost £1,744 19_s._, but no part of
this appears in the Revels Account, although the banqueting-house of
1572 had cost the Office £224 6_s._ 10_d._[302] Probably it was all met
by the Office of Works. About 1596 a further reform in the interests of
economy was attempted, by the establishment of a fixed annual allowance
for expenses, including the 'wages' or 'diet' hitherto allowed to the
officers for each day or night of actual attendance at 'airings' or at
the rehearsals or performances of plays. The last payment under the old
system was made on 30 May 1594 by a warrant to Tilney for a sum of £311
2_s._ 2_d._ in respect of works and wares and officers' wages for
1589-92, together with an imprest of £100 for 1592-3.[303] The next
warrant was made out on 25 January 1597, and directed the payment of
£200 for 1593-6, together with an annual payment of £66 6_s._ 8_d._, 'as
composition for defraying the charges of the office for plays only,
according to a rate of a late reformation and composition for ordinary
charges there'.[304] The amount of £311 2_s._ 2_d._ paid for the three
years 1589-92 is so small as to suggest that the distinction between
'ordinary' and 'extraordinary' charges may have already existed during
the period, and may thus have preceded the reduction of 'ordinary'
charges to a 'composition'. The warrant of 25 January 1597, however,
never became operative. There is an entry of it in the Docquet Book of
the Signet Office, and in the margin are the notes 'Remanet: neuer
passed the Seales' and 'Staid by the L_ord_ Thre_a_s_ore_r: vacat'.
Fortunately we are able to trace the causes which led to this
interposition by Burghley. It will perhaps be remembered that Edward
Buggin, in his _Memorandum_ of 1573, had considered a possible reform of
the administration of the Revels Office on lines very similar to those
now adopted, and had decided that it was impracticable.[305] Doubtless
the same view was held by the officers of 1597, and after the manner of
permanent officials they took steps to ensure that it should be
impracticable. Disputes arose between the Master and the inferior
officers as to the distribution of the sum allowed for ordinary charges,
and, pending a settlement of these, all payments out of the Office were
suspended. The result was a memorial to Burghley from the 'creditors and
servitors' of the Revels, which called attention to the fact that five
years' arrears due to them were withheld 'only throughe the discention
amoungest the officers'.[306]

This was in the first instance referred to Tilney for his observations,
and he writes:

     All _tha_t I can saye Is, _tha_t _th_er Is a Composition layd
     vppo_n_ me by Quens ma_ies_te and signed by her self, rated
     verbatimly by certayn orders sett down by my L_ord_ Treasorer
     vnder his L_ordshippes_ Hand, whervnto I haue appealed, because
     _th_e other officers will nott be satisficed w_ith_ ayni
     reason, whert_o_ I am now teyd & nott vnto there friuilus
     demandes. Wherefore lett _th_em sett down In writtinge _th_e
     speciall Causes why they shuld reiect _th_e forsayd orders and
     _th_e Compositio_n_ gronded theron, Then am I to reply vnto
     _th_e same as I can, for tell then _th_es petitioners can nott
     be satisfied.

    Ed. Tyllney.

The document was then referred to Burghley, with the following summary
of its contents:

     5 November 1597.

     They shewe _tha_t theie are vnpaid theise five yeares last past
     for wares deliuered and service done in _th_e office of _th_e
     Revells, throughe _th_e dissencion amongest _th_e officers to
     _the_ir greate hinderance theise deare yeares beeinge poore
     men.

     Vppon _thei_r_e_ mocion to _th_e m_aste_r of _th_e office, his
     answere is, _tha_t _th_e faulte is not in him, but he is redy
     to satisfie _th_em all such allowances as are dew vnto _the_m,
     either by yo_u_r L_ordshippes_ former order, or in righte theie
     can challeng, vppon _whi_ch order _th_e m_aste_r doth wholly
     relie but _th_e other reiect _th_e same.

       for _tha_t _the_re is no licklyhood of _thei_re agreem_en_t,
       whereby _th_e petecioners may be satisfied, Theie Humbly pray
       yo_u_r L_ordshippe_ to Command som order for _th_e releving
       _thei_re poore estates.


Burghley then gave this direction:

     One of the Awdito_u_rs of the prest w_i_th one of the Barons of
     _th_e Eschecqr to heare the officers of the Revels, and thes
     petitioners, and either to ende the questions betwene them, or
     to certefie theyre opinions.

    W. Burghley.

The document is then further endorsed with the report of Burghley's
referees:

    quinto Januarii 1597 [1597/8].

     Pleaseth it yo_u_r good Lordeship to be advertized that, after
     longe travaile and paines taken betwene the M_aste_r of the
     Revells and the Officers thereof, It is agreed by o_u_r
     entreaty that, out of the xlˡᶦ by yeare allowed for Fees or
     wage for their attendaunces, the M_aste_r of the Revell_es_
     shall yearely allowe and paye the severall Somes of mony
     vnd_e_r written, viz.

    To the Clarke Comptroller of that office      viijˡᶦ
    To the Yeoman of the Revell_es_               viijˡᶦ
    To the Groome of the Office                   xlˢ
    To the Porter of St. Johns                    xxˢ

     whereof xxˢ, p_ar_cell of the saide viijˡᶦ allowed to the
     yeoman, is to be aunswered by the same yeoman after this yeare
     to the said Groome.

     Which yf it may stande w_i_th yo_u_r good Lordshippes lyking,
     wee truste will bring contynuall quietnes and dutifull service
     to her ma_ies_tie.

    John Sotherton.
    Jo. Conyers.


Hereon Burghley comments:

     My desire is to be better satisfied howe the Credito_u_rs shall
     be payd.

    W. Burghley.

Here the minutes stop, but Burghley must have been satisfied and must
have allowed the arrangement to go forward, for on 10 January 1598 a new
warrant was issued, in the place of that previously stayed, for the £200
due on account of 1593-6, and for the annual £66 6_s._ 8_d._, 'by way of
composition for defraying the ordinary services of plays only'.
Apparently the fixed rate was made retrospective for 1593-6.[307] Two or
three points of interest arise from the document just printed. It seems
curious that no share in the composition is awarded to the Clerk.
Possibly Blagrave, old and disappointed, was in practical retirement at
Bedwyn; but in that case he would naturally have appointed and claimed
allowance for a deputy. On the other hand, a new post, of Groom of the
Revels, corresponding to that of Groom of the Tents which had existed
since 1544, seems to have been created, probably for the benefit of
Thomas Clatterbocke, who, unless two generations are involved, had
served the Office continuously as a foreman tailor since 1548;[308] and
it is to be gathered that some redistribution of duties and emoluments
between the Yeoman and the Groom was in progress. The Porter of St.
John's Gate, also, now seems to be classed as an officer, or perhaps
rather a 'servitor', of the Revels; and in this post John Dauncy has
been succeeded since 1588-9 by John Griffeth.[309] The sum of £66 6_s._
8_d._ allowed for ordinary charges was evidently made up of £40 for
officers' 'wages' and £26 6_s._ 8_d._ for tradesmen's bills and
miscellaneous expenses. This last sum is so small as to suggest that the
Office had been relieved both of the emption of stuffs and of the
payment of tailors and property-makers. After paying £19 to the inferior
officers, Tilney had £21 left for his own 'wages'. This amount is out of
proportion to the double rate, of 4_s._ as against the 2_s._ paid to
each inferior officer, which the Master had been accustomed to receive
for each day's or night's attendance. But the accounts for 1582-3,
1584-5, and 1587-8 show that the attendances made by Tilney, who
possibly exercised a much more detailed supervision of his Office than
either Benger or Cawarden had attempted, were far in excess, during
those years, of those of his subordinates. Every officer attended for
the twenty annual days of 'airing' and for the actual nights, which
were sixteen in 1582-3, and fourteen in 1584-5 and 1587-8, of the
performances. In addition, Tilney attended for 106, 117, and 116 days
respectively, and the other officers for only 60, 51, and 28 (in the
case of the Yeoman, 38) days respectively, in these three years.[310]
Probably he liked to be at Court, whether there was much to do or not.
The average allowances for wages had therefore been about £29 10_s._ a
year for the Master and £7 10_s._ a year for each inferior officer, so
that the composition was by no means unduly in Tilney's favour.
Moreover, he had introduced a practice of taking to Court a doorkeeper
and three other attendants, and charging 1_s._ a day as diet for each.
Probably these were his personal servants, and he got no further
allowance for them under the composition. The precedence of the Master
of the Revels at Court was fixed by a certificate of the Heralds in
1588, which directed that in the procession to St. Paul's for a
thanksgiving after the Armada he should walk with the Knights
Bachelor.[311]

Of course, the 'wages' dealt with by the composition and charged to the
Revels Account were quite distinct from the 'fees' payable to the
officers out of the Exchequer in virtue of their patents. These had been
settled in Cawarden's time, and, so far as the inferior officers were
concerned, do not appear to have been varied since. The Clerk
Comptroller was entitled to 8_d._ a day, together with four yards of
woollen cloth, worth 6_s._ 8_d._ each, from the Wardrobe. In practice,
however, the livery had been replaced by a money allowance of 26_s._
8_d._ charged half on the Revels and half on the Tents.[312] The Clerk
had 8_d._ a day, and a money payment from the Treasury of 24_s._ a year
in lieu of livery; the Yeoman 6_d._ a day, and a livery 'such as Yeomen
of the household have' at the Wardrobe. The Master's fee, alike in the
patents of Cawarden, Benger, and Tilney, is given as £10. But Tilney,
according to a statement made by his successor about 1611, received £100
'for a better recompence'.[313] In addition to fee and wages, each of
the officers was entitled under his patent to an official residence. The
Master held his place 'cum omnibus domibus mansionibus regardis
proficuis iuribus libertatibus et advantagiis eidem officio quovismodo
pertinentibus sive spectantibus vel tali officio pertinere sive spectare
debentibus'. The Clerk Comptroller could claim a house, 'ubi paviliones
... positi sunt aut erunt' to be assigned by the Master of the Tents;
the Clerk, one at the _staura_ of the Revels or the Tents, to be
assigned by the Master of one or other Office; the Yeoman 'one
sufficient house or mancion such as hereafter shall be assigned to him'
for the keeping of the vestures. Cawarden had provided these houses at
the Blackfriars and had taken allowances in his accounts of £10 for his
own and £5 each for those of his three subordinates, as well as one of
£6 13_s._ 4_d._ for the work and store rooms of the Office.[314] After
his death suitable lodgings were available at St. John's. During the
interregnum the Master's lodging was utilized as a supplementary
storehouse. It was consequently not ready for Tilney on his appointment,
and he was allowed £13 6_s._ 8_d._ a year for lodgings elsewhere.[315]
An undated letter from him at the Revels Office to Sir William More,
complaining of the conduct of a neighbour, suggests that he found these
at the Blackfriars, and here he seems to have remained, at any rate
until 1582.[316] But by 1586-7 he had moved to St. John's, where he
occupied not his proper lodging but that of the Comptroller, for which
he paid £16 a year. This we learn from a careful survey made at that
date by Thomas Graves, Surveyor of the Office of Works.[317] He was
comfortably housed enough, for he had thirteen chambers, with a parlour,
hall, kitchen, stable and other appurtenances, and a 'convenient
garden'. The Clerk had eleven rooms and a stable, and the Yeoman seven
and a barn. The addition of the Master's lodging to the space available
for official purposes had presumably removed the difficulties of
accommodation of which Fish had complained in 1574. In addition to the
'Great Hall' and a 'great chamber', there were a cutting house and three
'woorking housez' below the hall. It may be added that there had been
some changes during Tilney's Mastership, both of Clerk Comptroller and
of Yeoman. On 15 October 1584 William Honing was appointed Comptroller
in place of Edward Buggin.[318] On 25 June 1596, Honing having resigned,
Edmund Pakenham was appointed as from 29 September 1595.[319] The last
Yeoman of the reign was Edward Kirkham. His patent, in succession to
Walter Fish, then dead, is dated on 28 April 1586.[320] But it refers to
his 'service done in the Revels', and it is clear from the account for
1582-3 that he was already employed during that year, probably as deputy
to Fish, in whose place he signed the book.[321] Fish signed that for
1580-1, and that for 1581-2 is missing. Kirkham's activities as a member
of the syndicate formed to finance the Chapel plays in 1601 are a matter
for discussion elsewhere.[322]

Tilney remained Master of the Revels until his death on 20 August 1610.
But with the new reign he appears to have exercised most of his
functions through his nephew, Sir George Buck, as his deputy and
prospective successor. Buck had been in the Cadiz expedition of 1596,
and was not improbably the Mr. Buck who carried dispatches for Cecil to
Middelburgh in the Low Countries and afterwards in England during the
autumn of 1601.[323] At the funeral of Elizabeth he received livery as
an Esquire of the Body, probably extraordinary.[324] Hopes of the
Mastership seem to have been held out to him as early as 1597, to the
despair of another Esquire of the Body, John Lyly, the dramatist, who
considered that he had claims upon the reversion to the Mastership, and
pretty clearly regarded the bestowal of it upon another as a distinct
breach of faith on the part of the Queen. Several letters of his
referring to the matter are preserved at Hatfield and elsewhere. The
earliest and most important of these is dated 22 December 1597 and
addressed to Sir Robert Cecil. Herein Lyly says:

     'I haue not byn importunat, that thes 12 yeres w_it_h vnwearied
     pacienc have entertayned the p_ro_rogui_n_g of her ma_ies_ties
     promises, w_hi_ch if in the 13 may conclud w_it_h the
     Parlement, I will think the greves of tymes past but pastymes
     ... Offices in Reuersion are forestalld, in possession ingrost,
     & that of _th_e Reuells countenanced upon Buck, wherein the
     Justic of an oyre shewes his affection to _th_e keper &
     partialty to _th_e sheppard, a french fauor.'

To the Queen herself Lyly wrote:

     'I was entertayned yo_u_r Mai_es_ties servant by yo_u_r owne
     gratious ffavo_u_r, stranghthened w_i_th condic_i_ons, that I
     should ayme all my courses att the Revells (I dare not saye,
     w_i_th a promise, butt a hopeffull Item, of the Reversion);
     ffor the w_hi_ch, theis tenn yeares, I haue attended, w_i_th an
     vnwearyed patience, and I knowe not whatt crabb tooke mee ffor
     an oyster, that, in the middest of the svnnshine of yo_u_r
     gratious aspect, hath thrust a stone betwene the shelles, to
     eate mee alyve, that onely lyve on dead hopes.'

The date of this petition is probably 1598, since a second letter to
Cecil, dated 9 September 1598, specifies the same period of 'ten yeres',
during which Lyly had had 'nothing applied to my wantes but promises'.
On 27 February 1601, a third letter to Cecil, asking for his aid in
obtaining a grant out of property forfeited after the Essex conspiracy,
suggests that 'after 13 yeres servic and suit for _th_e Revells, I may
turne all my forces & frends to feed on _th_e Rebells'. This was written
in connexion with a second petition to the Queen, in which occurs the
following passage:

     'It pleased yo_u_r Mai_es_tie to except against Tentes and
     Toyles. I wishe, that ffor Tentes I might putt in Tenem_en_tes:
     soe should I bee eased with some Toyles; some landes, some
     goodes, ffynes, or fforffeytures, that should ffall, by the
     just ffall of these most ffalce Trayto_u_rs, that seeinge
     nothinge will come by the Revells, I may praye vppon Rebells.
     Thirteen yeares, yo_u_r Highnes Servant, butt yett
     nothinge....'[325]

The general drift of these documents is fairly clear. It would seem that
Lyly received promises of advancement from Elizabeth about 1585,
probably as a result of the success of his plays; that in 1588 he was
'entertained the queen's servant', with a more or less authorized
expectation of place in the Revels; that in 1597 his claims were set
aside in favour of Buck; and that, after unavailing protests, he made
the best of the situation and attempted to obtain what compensation he
could for his disappointment. I find some confirmation of the view that
about 1588 Lyly came to be regarded, possibly on account of the aid
rendered by his pen to the bishops against Martin Marprelate, as having
some right of succession to a place at Court, in an allusion of Gabriel
Harvey, who in his _Advertisement for Papp-Hatchett_, dated 5 November
1589, but not published until it was included in his _Pierce's_
_Supererogation_ of 1593, says of Papp-Hatchett, who is almost certainly
Lyly, 'He might as truly forge any lewd or villanous report of any one
in England; and for his labour challenge to be preferred to the
Clerkship of the whetstone'; and again, 'His knavish and foolish malice
palpably bewrayeth itself in most odious actions; meet to garnish the
foresayd famous office of the whetstone'.[326] The actual phrasing of
Lyly's letters is, of course, characteristically obscure. It is possible
that the 'keper' referred to in the first of them is the Lord Keeper,
Sir Thomas Egerton, to whom, if Collier may be trusted, Buck sent, in
1605, a copy of a poem called [Greek: DAPHNIS POLYSTEPHANOS], with some
lines referring to an obligation of long standing towards his
patron.[327] The allusion to 'Tentes and Toyles' may mean that, after
giving up hope of the Mastership of the Revels, Lyly had turned his
thoughts to the Mastership of the Tents and Toils, the actual holder of
which, in 1601, Henry Sackford, had been appointed to the Tents as far
back as 1559, and must therefore have been an oldish man; or possibly
that, if he could not have the higher place, Lyly would have been
content with the reversion of one of the two subordinate appointments,
the Clerkship or the Clerk Comptrollership, which the Revels shared with
the Tents.[328]

I may complete the story by pointing out that Buck, no less than Lyly,
was making interest with Cecil. As a connexion of the Howards, he had of
course a powerful influence behind him, and after the death of Nicasius
Yetswiert, French Secretary and Clerk of the Signet, Lord Howard of
Effingham had written to Cecil on 28 April 1595[329]:

     'In favour of Mʳ. Buck, whom Her Majesty, talking with Mʳ. John
     Stanhope, herself named, showing a gracious disposition to do
     him good, and think him fit, as sure he is, for one of the two
     offices of Mʳ. Necasius, that is called unto God's mercy. For
     the French tongue he can do it very well to serve her Majesty.'

Four years later, on 1 June 1599, Buck himself wrote to the
Secretary[330]:

     'I understood by a friend of mine, not many months since, that
     you were very well affected to mine old long suit, and of your
     own disposition offered to move the Queen in my behalf. Ever
     since I reckoned myself in your good favour till yesterday that
     I heard you had given your goodwill to another, and besides
     had persuaded one of my chiefest friends to be solicitor for
     him. My interest therein accrued out of frank almoin, and
     therefore I can claim no estate but during pleasure, yet I
     hoped, as other poor true tenants do, not to be turned out so
     long as I performed my honest duties.'

This may reasonably be taken as referring to the Mastership of the
Revels, and makes it clear that, whatever Elizabeth had said or done in
1597, she had not given Buck any irrecoverable promise. Very likely she
never did. But early in the new reign, on 23 June 1603, Buck received a
formal grant by patent of the reversion to Tilney.[331] On the same day
was issued a new commission for the office, similar to that of 1581, but
in Buck's name instead of Tilney's, from which it is to be inferred that
he had become the acting Master.[332] On 23 July 1603 he was
knighted.[333] Tilney, however, continued to render the accounts, which,
with two exceptions, only exist for the whole of the reign of James in a
summary form. The account for 1609-10 is by Tilney's executor, Thomas
Tilney; and from 1610-11 onwards Buck is accounting officer, and in full
enjoyment of the Mastership.[334] One of the two detailed accounts is
Tilney's for 1604-5, the other Buck's for 1611-12. These are made
interesting by their schedules of Court performances, the authenticity
of which may now be regarded as fairly vindicated.[335] They show that
the establishment remained precisely upon its sixteenth-century lines.
The close of Elizabeth's reign witnessed the termination by death of
Blagrave's fifty-seven years' service in the Revels.[336] William
Honing, the former Comptroller, returned to the Office as Clerk in his
room, under a patent made retrospective to 25 March 1603.[337] He was
still there, as was Edward Kirkham, the Yeoman, in 1617.[338] On the
other hand there was a rather rapid succession of Clerk Comptrollers:
Edmund Pakenham to 1605-6, Edmund Fowler from 1606-7 to 1608-9, William
Page in 1609-10, and Alexander Stafford from 24 April 1611 to 1617 or
later.[339] The Groom or Purveyor, like the Porter of St. John's,
appears to have been a servitor and not an officer by patent. During
1603-15 he was Stephen Baile, who had succeeded Thomas Clatterbocke. The
Porter of St. John's, during the same period, was Richard Prescot.[340]

The change of reign brought with it another change in the financial
arrangements for the office. The 'composition' introduced by Burghley in
1597 was abandoned, and henceforth the Master regularly received an
imprest of £100 at the beginning of each financial year, together with
the balance due on an account rendered by him for all charges since the
time of the last imprest. The total amount passing through his hands was
not large. During the earlier years of the reign it varied from £150 to
£300, and during 1611-15 from £300 to £500.[341] In 1617 the 'ordinary'
issues for the Revels were still estimated at £300.[342] Nor was there
any special need for 'extraordinary' issues, since the organization of
the masks, in which Jacobean Court extravagance centred, was not
entrusted to the Revels at all, but to some nominated officer, under the
direct supervision of the Lord Chamberlain and the Master of the Horse,
who received funds direct from the Treasury for any expenditure which
did not fall within the provinces of the Wardrobe or the Office of
Works.[343] The Revels Officers continued indeed to give their personal
attendance on mask nights, and to charge for their diet accordingly. But
their actual responsibility for the entertainments appears to have been
limited to the supervision of the fittings, such as the 'music house' in
the hall or banqueting-house, and in particular of the elaborate
arrangements for lighting. The wire-drawer's bill is the chief outgoing
represented in the annual accounts. There is very little else except the
personal allowances for the officers and the Master's four servants,
their office expenses and boat-hire, the audit and exchequer costs, and
occasional repairs to the 'tiring-house' used for rehearsals and other
parts of the premises which they occupied. The Master charges diet for
himself and his men for every day between All Hallows and Ash Wednesday,
together with an extra amount for each actual night of play or mask, and
for a varying number of days of tilting and running at the ring and
twenty days of 'airing' in the summer. The Comptroller, Clerk, and
Yeoman get £13 6_s._ 8_d._ each and the Groom £6 13_s._ 4_d._ for the
whole of their required attendance. Beyond a stray property or garment
here and there, there is nothing spent on emptions of stuff or on
tailors and the like. I think it is clear that the result of the policy
initiated by Burghley had been to reduce the Revels, regarded as a
branch of the Household organization, to comparative insignificance.
Henceforward its domestic duties sink into the background of the
quasi-political functions given to the Master as stage censor by the
commissions of 1581 and 1603. But these functions were peculiar to the
Master, who carried them out with the aid of his personal servants.[344]
The other Revels officers had no claim to share in them, and though
Tilney and Buck built up a considerable income out of licensing fees,
which probably accounts for the discontinuance in Buck's case of the
'better recompense' of £100 granted by Elizabeth to Tilney, no penny of
these fees ever passed through the Revels Accounts.

The slight increase of cost observable in course of time is mainly due
to charges for lodgings. The want of accommodation at Hampton Court in
the winter of 1603-4 obliged the officers to rent rooms at Kingston for
a month at a cost of £4.[345] In 1607 a far more serious problem was
presented by the impending loss of St. John's. This had remained in
Crown hands throughout Elizabeth's time, although on 31 October 1601 we
find John Chamberlain writing to Dudley Carleton, 'The Quene sells land
still and the house of St. Johns is at sale'.[346] James, however, after
leasing the Gatehouse for life to Sir Roger Wilbraham in 1604, carried
out his predecessor's intention by selling the greater part of the
Priory to Ralph Freeman on 9 May 1607.[347] Presumably the premises
which had been assigned to the Revels were not covered by this sale, for
of these the King made a gift in the same year to his cousin Esmé
Stuart, eighth Lord Aubigny.[348] The Revels therefore had to be
dispossessed. But the Office had to be housed somewhere; and the
officers were all entitled to official residences under the terms of
their patents. It was doubtless in connexion with this transaction that
the following memorandum, which is preserved amongst Sir Julius Caesar's
papers and endorsed 'Mr. Tilney's writinge touching his Office', was
drawn up.[349]

     The Office of _th_e Revells Is noted to be one of _th_e Kinges
     Ma_ie_st_e_s standinge Offices, as are the Jewellhowsse, _th_e
     wardropp, _th_e Ordinance, the Armorye, and the Tentes with
     _th_e like Allowances everie wayes _th_at any of _th_em haue.

     W_hi_ch Office of _th_e Revells Consistethe of a wardropp and
     other severall Roomes for Artifficers to worke in (viz.
     Taylors, Imbrotherers, Properti makers, Paynters, wyerdrawers
     and Carpenters), togeather with a Convenient place for _th_e
     Rehearshalls and settinge forthe of Playes and other Shewes for
     those Services.

     In w_hi_ch Office _th_e Master of _th_e Office hath ever hadd a
     dwellinge Howsse for him self and his Famelie, and _th_e other
     Officers ar to haue eyther dwellinge Howsses Assigned unto
     _th_em by _th_e M_aste_r (for so goeth the wordes of _th_er
     Pattent_es_) or else a Rente for _th_e same as _th_ei had
     before they Came unto St. Johnes.

     For by ther Pattents, w_hi_ch be all eyther new graunted or
     Confirmed by the King_es_ Ma_ies_tie, They ar Allowed as the
     Master Is to haue eache of them a dwellinge Howsse w_i_th
     garden and Stable for Terme of _th_er lyues, as ther
     Predicessors hadd (viz. w_i_thin St. Johnes), w_hi_ch Cannot
     well be taken from vs w_i_thout good Consideration for the
     same: or _th_e lyke Allowance for Howssroome.

     Elye Howsse Is possessed agayne by _th_e Byshopp as I doe
     heare.

     But S_i_r Thomas Knevitt hath vnder neathe his keepershipp of
     Whitehaull, dyvers howsses, as Hawnces and Baptistas with ij or
     iij howsses more Appertayninge ther vnto, near vnto _th_e olde
     Pallas In westminster w_hi_ch I doe doubte be all rented out by
     him for Terme of his lyeffe.

The difficulty was met by a plan which had served before in the history
of the Revels. The officers were allowed to provide their own lodgings,
and to charge £15 each for the purpose in the Office account. A similar
allowance (£20) was made to the Master for the provision of an
office.[350] The actual removal, so far as the office was concerned,
took place in the spring of 1608. The accounts show expenses 'in
providing a place for th'office of the Revells' between 10 February and
the middle of April, and there is independent evidence that on the 10th
of March, it was located next door to the Whitefriars theatre.[351]
Tilney's personal allowance first appears in the account for 1608-9, and
is made retrospective to Michaelmas 1607. Perhaps the Clerk and Yeoman
were not disturbed quite so soon. Their allowances first appear in
1610-11, and are retrospective to Hallowmas 1608.[352] It may be assumed
that the Comptroller's lodging was treated as a charge on the Tents. On
Tilney's death, Buck was allowed £30 to cover both the Office and his
own lodging, and the payment antedated to Michaelmas 1608. He protested
that he had in fact to pay a rent of £50, and although Salisbury
probably turned a deaf ear, his appeal was allowed when his Howard
connexions, Suffolk and Northampton, became Treasury Commissioners in
1612, and the allowance was finally fixed at £50.[353] It should be
added that Buck also secured in 1612-13, and very likely in other years,
a quite distinct allowance of £16, under a warrant from the Lord
Chamberlain to the Treasurer of the Chamber, as compensation for the
absence of a lodging for him at a crowded Court during the winter revels
season.[354] The Office cannot have stayed long in the Whitefriars, for
on 24 August 1612 Buck dedicated a treatise on _The Third University in
England_ to Sir Edward Coke 'from his Majesties office of the Revels,
upon St. Peter's Hill'.[355] This is an account of the seats of learning
in London, and was printed by Howes as an appendix to the 1615 edition
of Stowe's _Annales_. Chapter 47 is _Of the Art of Revels_, and is worth
quoting:

     'I might add herunto for a corollary of this discourse the Art
     of Revels which requireth knowledge in Grammar, Rhetoric,
     Logic, Philosophy, History, Music, Mathematics, and in other
     Arts (and all more than I understand I confess) and hath a
     settled place within this City. But because I have described it
     and discoursed thereof at large in a particular commentary,
     according to my talent, I will surcease to speak any more
     thereof: blazing only the Arms belonging to it; which are
     Gules, a cross argent, and in the first corner of the
     scutcheon, a Mercury's petasus argent, and a lion gules in
     chief or.'[356]

It is matter for deep regret that Buck's 'particular commentary' is
lost. He made other contributions to letters, writing commendatory
verses to Thomas Watson's [Greek: EKATOMPATHIA] (_c._ 1582) and to
Camden's _Britannia_ (1607), and a poem called [Greek: DAPHNIS
POLYSTEPHANOS] (1605).[357] His _History of the Life and Reigne of
Richard III_ was published posthumously in 1607.[358]

Reversions of the Mastership were granted during Buck's lifetime to
Edward Glasscock in 1603, to John, afterwards Sir John, Astley or Ashley
on 3 April 1612, to Benjamin Jonson on 5 October 1621, and to William
Painter on 29 July 1622.[359] His actual successor was Sir John Astley.
On 30 March 1622 John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton, 'Old Sir
George Buck, master of the revels, has gone mad'.[360] On 29 March 1622
a warrant was issued by the Lord Chamberlain to swear Astley in as
Master, followed on 16 May by a letter requiring Buck to deliver up the
books and other property of the Office.[361] His death took place on 20
September 1623.[362] Astley almost immediately sold his office to Sir
Henry Herbert, whose tenure of it belongs to the history of the Caroline
stage.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 232: _Order for Sitting in the King's Great Chamber_ (_H. O._
113): 'If the master of revells be there, he may sitt with the chapleyns
or with the esquires or gentlemen ushers.']

[Footnote 233: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 404.]

[Footnote 234: Cf. ch. xiii.]

[Footnote 235: Brewer, i. 24, 283, 690, 828; ii. 875, 1044, 1479; iii.
129; iv. 868; cf. _Tudor Revels_, 6.]

[Footnote 236: Machyn, 157.]

[Footnote 237: Brewer, vii. 560; Feuillerat, _M. P._ 22; cf. _Tudor
Revels_, 7.]

[Footnote 238: Brewer, xiv. 1. 574; 2. 102, 159.]

[Footnote 239: Patent in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 53. The appointment was
retrospective from 16 March 1544. Cawarden had taken an inventory of
Revels stuff for the King as far back as 10 Dec. 1542 (Feuillerat, _M.
P._ 27). The historical memorandum of 1573 (cf. p. 82) printed in _Tudor
Revels_, 2, says, 'After the deathe of Travers Seriaunt of the said
office. Sir Thomas Carden knight, beinge of the kinges maiesties pryvie
Chamber, beinge skilfull and delightinge in matters of devise, preferred
to that office, did mislyke to be tearmed a Seriaunt because of his
better countenaunce of roome and place beinge of the kinges maiesties
privye Chamber. And so became he by patent the first master of the
Revelles.']

[Footnote 240: Patent in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 70; cf. Feuillerat, _Edw.
and M._ 4, 9.]

[Footnote 241: _Tudor Revels_, 2, from memorandum of 1573.]

[Footnote 242: Brewer, xx. I. 213; Feuillerat, _M. P._ 28; _Edw. and M._
49; Patent to Lees in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 56.]

[Footnote 243: Patent in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 66.]

[Footnote 244: Patent in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 68; cf. _Edw. and M._ 74,
180, 272. Blagrave is described as Cawarden's 'servant' in 1546-7, and
again in Cawarden's will of 1559. He was aged about 50 on 27 June 1572
(_M. S. C._ ii. 52).]

[Footnote 245: Kempe, 93.]

[Footnote 246: Brewer, i. 636, 757; ii. 179; xvi. 603.]

[Footnote 247: Feuillerat, _Edw. and M._ 3; cf. ch. xvii (Blackfriars).]

[Footnote 248: _Tudor Revels_, 3, from memorandum of 1573. An account of
Cawarden's life by T. Craib is in _Surrey Arch. Colls._ xxviii. 7
(1915). There is a doubt as to the exact date of his death. The i.p.m.
gives 29 Aug.; his epitaph 25 Aug. Similarly the Blechingley register
gives 29 Aug. for his funeral; Machyn, 208, gives 5 Sept.]

[Footnote 249: Patent in Rymer, xv. 565; Collier, i. 170, from privy
seal; Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 54.]

[Footnote 250: Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 115, 280; _Athenaeum_ (1903), i. 220;
_3 Library_, ix. 252; Collier, i. 185. A reference to the Master of
'Revels' in _Hatfield MSS._ i. 551 is a mistake for 'Rolls'. Benger was
son of Robert Benger or Berenger of Marlborough (_Harl. Soc.
Visitations_, lviii. 10), was knighted 2 Oct. 1553 (Machyn, 335), and
was auditor to Elizabeth as princess (Hearne, _John of Glastonbury_,
519). Further personal notes are in Stopes, _Hunnis_, 104, 311.]

[Footnote 251: Collier, i. 171 (assigned in error to Cawarden);
Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 110, from _S. P. D. Eliz._ vii. 50.]

[Footnote 252: _Hist. MSS._ vii. 615.]

[Footnote 253: Lady Derby writes to Sir Christopher Hatton in 1580 that
she had been with her cousin Sackford (Master of the Tents) in 'his
house at St. John's' (Nicolas, _Hatton_, 148).]

[Footnote 254: Printed by Feuillerat, _Edw. and M._ 180; _Eliz._ 18,
77.]

[Footnote 255: Sometimes garments no longer useful for masks, but not
yet cast as fees, had been altered for players, and either kept in the
office and 'often used by players', or given to the players or musicians
'by composicion' or 'for their fee'. Some were missing because 'the
lordes that masked toke awey parte', or they had been 'gyven awaye by
the maskers in the queenes presence'. Some were treated as fees, because
'to moche knowen'; in an earlier inventory of 1555 we find 'ffees
because the King hath worin hit' (Feuillerat, _Edw. and M._ 299; _Eliz._
24, 25, 27, 40.)]

[Footnote 256: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 109, 119, 124, 125, 126. Possibly the
amounts of imprests are in some years to be added.]

[Footnote 257: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 130, 135.]

[Footnote 258: Patent in Feuillerat, 58.]

[Footnote 259: Patent in Feuillerat, 72.]

[Footnote 260: Feuillerat, 408, from _S. P. D. Eliz. Add._ xx. 101;
Collier, i. 230, who thinks that the application was for the Mastership
of the Revels.]

[Footnote 261: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 409; Collier, i. 191; from _Lansd.
MS._ 13; cf. ch. v.]

[Footnote 262: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 429. He died in debt, and his will
was not proved until 1577 (Chalmers, 482). This led me into thinking
(_Tudor Revels_, 26) that during 1572-7 he was alive, but not actively
exercising his functions, and possibly into some injustice in suggesting
that he had 'in the end proved an extravagant and unbusinesslike
Master'. Yet Blagrave's memorandum of 1573 (_vide infra_) seems to lay a
special stress on the importance of appointing a Master who shall be
'neither gallant, prodigall, nedye, nor gredye'.]

[Footnote 263: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 187, 456, correcting Collier, i. 198
and _Tudor Revels_, 26.]

[Footnote 264: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 157, 160, 172, 178.]

[Footnote 265: Ibid. 186.]

[Footnote 266: _Tudor Revels_, 28; Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 416; from _Lansd.
MS._ 83, f. 145, misdated in pencil 'July 1597'.]

[Footnote 267: _Tudor Revels_, 29; Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 412; from _Lansd.
MS._ 83, f. 147. Dodmer was still pursuing a claim in the Court of
Requests in May 1576 (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 413).]

[Footnote 268: Text in full in _Tudor Revels_, 1, 31, and Feuillerat,
_Eliz._ 5, from _Lansd. MS._ 83, f. 158.]

[Footnote 269: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 432, points out that, as Elizabeth's
Privy Council is referred to, these ordinances can hardly have been
those of Cawarden (cf. p. 74) as I suggested in _Tudor Revels_, 34.]

[Footnote 270: Text in full in _Tudor Revels_, 42, and Feuillerat,
_Eliz._ 17, from _Lansd. MS._ 83, f. 154. The time-references agree with
1573 or 1574, if Blagrave's unestablished service in the Revels began as
early as 1546.]

[Footnote 271: _Lansd. MS._ 83, f. 149. The reference to two years'
debts suggests a date, when compared with Dodmer's, in the summer of
1574; if so, the writer will be Fish, rather than Arnold.]

[Footnote 272: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 164.]

[Footnote 273: A _Declared Account_ for 14 Feb. 1578 to 14 Feb. 1579 is
in Blagrave's name.]

[Footnote 274: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 212, 218, 238, 247, 267, 277, 295,
296, 297, 298, 299, 300.]

[Footnote 275: Ibid. 192, 266, 277, 297, 301.]

[Footnote 276: Ibid. 191.]

[Footnote 277: Patent in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 73; cf. 191, Collier, i.
227, and _Variorum_, iii. 499.]

[Footnote 278: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 197, 204, 212, 228, 247, 268, 277,
291, 300.]

[Footnote 279: Ibid. 182, 225.]

[Footnote 280: Ibid. 256, 321.]

[Footnote 281: Ibid. 162, 165.]

[Footnote 282: Ibid. 191.]

[Footnote 283: Ibid. 242.]

[Footnote 284: Ibid. 179, 186, 277, Table III.]

[Footnote 285: Ibid. 185.]

[Footnote 286: Ibid. 204, 219, 268.]

[Footnote 287: Ibid. 218.]

[Footnote 288: Ibid. 202; cf. _Tudor Revels_, 5.]

[Footnote 289: _Hist. MSS._ iv. 300.]

[Footnote 290: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 227, 247, 277, 300, 310, 457.]

[Footnote 291: App. D, No. xxxiii.]

[Footnote 292: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 55 (text of patent), 285, 302, 310,
312; _Variorum_, iii. 57; Chalmers, 482; Collier, i. 230, 235; _Dramatic
Records_, 2.]

[Footnote 293: Digges, 359.]

[Footnote 294: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 330.]

[Footnote 295: Ibid. 434.]

[Footnote 296: Ibid. 354, 358, 370, 381, 391.]

[Footnote 297: Ibid. 359.]

[Footnote 298: See text in App. D, No. lvi.]

[Footnote 299: Cf. ch. x.]

[Footnote 300: Cf. ch. i.]

[Footnote 301: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ Table II.]

[Footnote 302: Stowe, _Annales_, 689; Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 168; cf. ch.
i.]

[Footnote 303: _S. P. D. Eliz._ ccxlviii, p. 512.]

[Footnote 304: Ibid, cclxii, p. 351. The calendar does not, however,
note the _marginalia_ to the docquet referred to below.]

[Footnote 305: Cf. p. 82.]

[Footnote 306: _Tudor Revels_, 64, and Feuillerat, 417, from _Lansd.
MS._ 83, f. 170.]

[Footnote 307: _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclxvi, p. 5.]

[Footnote 308: Feuillerat, _Edw. and M._ 29; cf. p. 100.]

[Footnote 309: Feuillerat, 394, 417.]

[Footnote 310: Feuillerat, 352, 360, 367, 372, 379, 382.]

[Footnote 311: _S. P. D._ cclxxix. 86.]

[Footnote 312: Feuillerat, 108.]

[Footnote 313: Chalmers, 486, 490; _S. P. D. Jac. I_, lxv. 2. The fee
lists (cf. p. 29) confirm this, sometimes adding 'diet in court'.]

[Footnote 314: Feuillerat, 108.]

[Footnote 315: Ibid. 310, 463.]

[Footnote 316: _Hist. MSS._ vii. 661; Feuillerat, 467.]

[Footnote 317: Feuillerat, 47. Owing to the omission of Burghley's title
in the address of the report, I misdated it in _Tudor Revels_, 20. The
history of St. John's is given by W. P. Griffith, _An Architectural
Notice of St. John's Priory, Clerkenwell_ (_1 London and Middlesex Arch.
Soc. Trans._ iii. 157); A. W. Clapham, _St. John of Jerusalem,
Clerkenwell_ (_St. Paul's Ecclesiological Soc. Trans._ vii. 37). It was
a Priory of the Knights Hospitallers, founded _c._ 1100, and enlarged in
the fifteenth century. The Gatehouse, which still stands, was rebuilt by
Prior Thomas Docwra in 1504. After the dissolution in 1540, the stones
of the church were used for Somerset House, and the rest granted to
Dudley. Mary resumed it and refounded the Priory. After the second
dissolution by Elizabeth, the property remained in the hands of the
Crown.]

[Footnote 318: Patent in Feuillerat, 60.]

[Footnote 319: Patent in Feuillerat, 63.]

[Footnote 320: Ibid. 74.]

[Footnote 321: Ibid. 360.]

[Footnote 322: Cf. ch. xii.]

[Footnote 323: _Hatfield MSS._ xi. 359, 379, 380. The 'Mr. Buck'
implicated in the Essex rebellion of 1601 (_Hist. MSS._ xi. 4. 10) was
Francis Buck (_Hatfield MSS._ xi. 214).]

[Footnote 324: _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, 554. Can he also have been
a Gentleman of the Chapel? A Gentleman was sworn in 'in Mr. Buckes
roome' on 2 July 1603, just after he became acting Master (Rimbault,
6).]

[Footnote 325: The letters are printed in full in Bond, _Lyly_, i. 64,
68, 70, 378, 392, 395. A contemporary note by Sir Stephen Powle to a
copy of the 1601 appeal says, 'He was a suter to be Mr. of the Reuelles
and tentes and Toyles, but eauer crossed'.]

[Footnote 326: Grosart, _Harvey_, ii. 211.]

[Footnote 327: Collier, i. 361.]

[Footnote 328: The conjecture of R. W. Bond (_Lyly_, i. 41) that Lyly
was actually Clerk Comptroller is rendered untenable by our complete
knowledge of the succession to that post; cf. _Tudor Revels_, 60, and
Feuillerat, _Lyly_, 194, who shows that Lyly was the Queen's 'servant'
as Esquire of the Body.]

[Footnote 329: _Hatfield MSS._ v. 189.]

[Footnote 330: Ibid. ix. 190.]

[Footnote 331: _Patent Roll, 1 Jac. I_, p. 24, m. 25; Text from
seventeenth-century copy in _Dramatic Records_, 14; docquet, dated 21
June, in _S. P. D. Jac. I_, ii. p. 16. The terms, which follow those of
earlier patents, are recited in the Declared Accounts of the Office from
1610-11 onwards.]

[Footnote 332: _Patent Roll, 1 Jac. I_, p. 24, m. 31. The date 1613
given by Chalmers, 491, is an error. An imperfect copy is in _Dulwich
MS._ xviii. 5, f. 51 (Warner, 338). The docquet in _S. P. D. Jac. I_,
ii. p. 16, is dated 21 June.]

[Footnote 333: Nichols, _James_, i. 215.]

[Footnote 334: He did not, however, get Tilney's fee of £100 (cf. p.
103) but only the original £10 (_Abstract_ of 1617) or, according to
some of the manuscript fee lists (_Stowe MSS._ 574, f. 16; 575, f. 22ᵛ),
£20. Tilney's monument is in Streatham church (Lysons, _Environs_, i.
365) but does not give the exact date of his death.]

[Footnote 335: Cf. App. B.]

[Footnote 336: The pedigree in _Middlesex Pedigrees_ (_Harl. Soc._ lxv),
83, dates his death in error 18 Jan. 1590, but it is interesting to note
that his daughter Mary married William, brother of Thomas Lodge. He was
buried at Clerkenwell.]

[Footnote 337: Patent in _Dramatic Records_, 9, dated 5 (? 15) June;
docquet of 10 June in _S. P. D. Jac. I_, ii. p. 14; draft of 30 May in
_S. P. D. Eliz. Addl._ ix. 58.]

[Footnote 338: _Abstract_, 60.]

[Footnote 339: _Dramatic Records_, 63; _Accounts_, _passim_.]

[Footnote 340: _Accounts_, _passim_. Feuillerat, 475, names Thomas
Cornwallis as Groom Porter in 1603. But there was no such post at the
Revels. Cornwallis was Groom Porter of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 341: Cunningham, 209, 217; _Declared Accounts_, _passim_; _S.
P. D. Jac. I_, x. p. 178; xxxi. p. 410; lviii. p. 652; lxii. p. 17;
lxviii. p. 110; Collier, i. 347, 363; Devon, 118.]

[Footnote 342: _Abstract_, 8.]

[Footnote 343: Cf. ch. vi.]

[Footnote 344: Henslowe took receipts for licensing fees from Michael
Bloomson, John Carnab, Robert Hassard, William Hatto, Robert Johnson,
William Playstowe, Thomas and William Stonnard, Richard Veale, and
Thomas Whittle, 'men' of the Master of the Revels, between 1595 and
1602. Johnson was of Leatherhead, where Tilney had a house. I regret to
say that on one occasion Henslowe thought fit to make a loan to William
Stonnard (Greg, _Henslowe_, i. 3, 5, 12, 28, 39, 40, 46, 54, 72, 83, 85,
103, 109, 116, 117, 121, 129, 132, 148, 160, 161; _Dulwich MSS._ i.
37).]

[Footnote 345: _Declared Account._]

[Footnote 346: Chamberlain, 120. A proposal (_c._ 1589) for the
establishment of an 'Accademye for the studye of Antiquitye and
Historye' (_Anglia_, xxxii. 261) contains a suggestion that its library
might be housed in St. John's.]

[Footnote 347: _S. P. D._ (22. xi. 04); _1 London and Middlesex Arch.
Soc. Trans._ iii. 157.]

[Footnote 348: The gift to Aubigny is recited in the Treasury warrants
of 10 Nov. 1610 and 31 March 1611 for lodging allowances cited below.]

[Footnote 349: _Lansd. MS._ 156, f. 368.]

[Footnote 350: _S. P. D. Jac. I_, xxviii, p. 391. The authority was
given by a privy seal.]

[Footnote 351: Cf. ch. xvii.]

[Footnote 352: Cunningham, xxi, from _Audit Office Enrolments_, ii. 108.
The authority is a Treasury warrant to auditors of 10 Nov. 1910.]

[Footnote 353: _S. P. D. Jac. I_, lxv. 2, contains (i) a letter of 1
July 1611 from Buck to Salisbury's secretary, Dudley Norton, asking for
authority to be given by privy seal and not a mere letter to the
auditors, and enclosing (ii) a letter to Salisbury, putting his case and
pleading that Tilney had £35, 'besides £100 for a better recompense
which had not been continued to Buck, (iii) a copy of a Treasury warrant
to the auditors for the £30, dated 31 March 1611, and (iv) a draft of
the privy seal asked for. Chalmers, 490, printed (ii) and (iii), and
Cunningham printed a draft for (ii) from _Harl. MS. 6850_ in _Sh. Soc.
Papers_, iv. 143. On 19 Dec. 1612 the Treasury sent a warrant to the
auditors to allow the £50 (Cunningham, xxii). But Buck's preference for
a privy seal was sound, for at a later date Auditor Beale complained
that authority for the lodging allowances was wanting (_Dramatic
Records_, 84; Herbert, 129).]

[Footnote 354: _Chamber Accounts._ Similar expenses for earlier years
were charged in the _Revels Accounts_; cf. p. 89.]

[Footnote 355: There was yet another change later. Herbert said after
the Restoration (_Dramatic Records_, 39; Herbert, 108) that the Office
had been 'time out of minde' in the parish of St. Mary Bowe, in the ward
of Cheap. St. Peter's Hill is divided between Queen Hithe and Castle
Baynard wards.]

[Footnote 356: Chalmers, _Apology_, 531, 628, has an engraving from a
block of the Revels Office seal or stamp, as used by Thomas Killigrew
under Charles II. It has Killigrew's arms with the legend 'Sigill:
Offic: Iocor: Mascar: Et Revell: Dni: Reg.']

[Footnote 357: Cf. p. 98. The verses to the _Britannia_ are headed
'Georgij Buc Equitis aurati Reg[iorum] Sp[ectaculorum] C[uratoris]
Heptastichon'.]

[Footnote 358: This is sometimes ascribed to a younger Buck, but the
manuscript copy in _Cott. MS. Tiberius_, E. x, is dated from the Revels
Office on St. Peter's Hill in 1619.]

[Footnote 359: Feuillerat, _Lyly_, 237; _Dramatic Records_, 11, 39;
Herbert, 7, 102; _S. P. D. Jac. I_ (cxxxii, p. 432). Chalmers, 492,
says, 'Yet, this was not old Ben, as it seemeth, who died in 1637, but
young Ben, who died in 1635'. This seems rather improbable. Was Jonson
already a suitor for the post in 1601, when Dekker wrote _Satiromastix_,
iv. i. 244, 'Master Horace ... I have some cossens Garman at Court,
shall beget you the reuersion of the Master of the Kings Reuels, or else
be his Lord of Misrule now at Christmas'?]

[Footnote 360: _S. P. D. Jac. I_, cxxviii. 96.]

[Footnote 361: Murray, ii. 193, from _Inner Temple MS._ 515; cf.
Collier, i. 402; Gildersleeve, 64.]

[Footnote 362: Herbert, 67, 109.]




IV

PAGEANTRY

     [_Bibliographical Note._ A mass of material on the progresses
     is collected in J. Nichols, _Progresses of Elizabeth_ (ed. 2,
     1823) and _Progresses of James I_ (1828), which may be
     supplemented by W. Kelly, _Royal Progresses and Visits to
     Leicester_ (1884), and F. S. Boas, _University Drama in the
     Tudor Age_ (1914). Most of the contemporary descriptions of
     entertainments reprinted by Nichols will be found noticed in
     chh. xxiii, xxiv, and a more complete itinerary than his is
     attempted in Appendix A with the help of the dates of Privy
     Council meetings and the accounts of the Treasurer of the
     Chamber, which he did not utilize. Most of the hosts of royalty
     can be identified with the aid of the _Victoria County
     Histories_, and of other local histories, to which some guide
     is afforded by J. P. Anderson, _Book of British Topography_
     (1881), of which a new edition is looked for, C. Gross,
     _Bibliography of Municipal History_ (1897), and A. L.
     Humphreys, _Handbook to County Bibliography_ (1917). Three of
     the most important home counties are described in J. Norden's
     _Middlesex_ (1593), _Herts_ (1598), and _Essex_ (1840), and the
     main roads are surveyed at a date rather after the period in J.
     Ogilby, _Britannia_ (1675), the progenitor of a long line of
     road-books.

     On the Lord Mayor's show, J. G. Nichols, _London Pageants_
     (1837), and F. W. Fairholt, _Lord Mayor's Pageants_ (1843-4)
     and _The Civic Garland_ (1845), may be consulted; and further
     details can be gleaned from C. M. Clode, _Memorials of the
     Guild of Merchant Taylors_ (1875) and _Early History of the
     Guild of Merchant Taylors_ (1888), and other publications of
     individual guilds.

     Elizabethan hunting is dealt with by D. H. Madden, _The Diary
     of Master William Silence_ (1897). There is no adequate history
     of the dance; the chapter by A. F. Sieveking in _Shakespeare's
     England_, ii. 437, and the sources there cited may be
     consulted. The tilt has been recently dealt with by F. H.
     Cripps-Day, _The History of the Tournament_ (1918), and R. C.
     Clephan, _The Tournament, Its Periods and Phases_ (1919), which
     appeared after this chapter was written. Contemporary records
     are collected by W. Segar, _Honor Military and Civill_ (1602),
     and armature is learnedly treated in J. Hewitt, _Ancient Armour
     and Weapons in Europe_ (1855-60), and C. Ffoulkes, _Armour and
     Weapons_ (1909).

     R. Withington, _English Pageantry_ (vol. i, 1918), also
     published since this chapter was written, deals more fully with
     the origins and mediaeval history of pageantry than with its
     Elizabethan examples.]


The tradition of pageantry had its roots deep in the Middle Ages. But it
made its appeal also to the Renaissance, of which nothing was more
characteristic than the passion for colour and all the splendid external
vesture of things; while the ranging curiosity of the Renaissance was
able to stimulate into fresh life the fading imaginative energies of the
past, weaving its new fancies from classical mythology, from epic and
pastoral, from the explorations of history and folk-lore, no less
delightfully than incongruously, into the old mediaeval warp of
scripture and hagiology and allegory. So that the Tudor kings and queens
came and went about their public affairs in a constant atmosphere of
make-believe, with a sibyl lurking in every court-yard and gateway, and
a satyr in the boscage of every park, to turn the ceremonies of welcome
and farewell, without which sovereigns must not move, by the arts of
song and dance and mimetic dialogue, to favour and to prettiness.

The fullest scope for such entertainments was afforded by the custom of
the progress, which led the Court, summer by summer, to remove from
London and the great palaces on the Thames and renew the migratory life
of earlier dynasties, wandering for a month or more over the fair face
of the land, and housing itself in the outlying castles and royal
manors, or claiming the ready hospitality of the territorial gentry and
the provincial cities. This was a holiday, in which the sovereign sought
change of air and the recreation of hunting and such other pastimes as
the country yields.[363] But it cannot be doubted that it had also a
political object, in the strengthening, by the give and take of gracious
courtesies, of the bonds of personal affection and loyalty upon which
much of the wisdom of Elizabeth's domestic statecraft so securely
rested. And accordingly the procedure retained much of the solemnity of
a state function. The Queen went on horseback or in a coach or litter,
attended by her bodyguards and the great officers of state, with the
Master of the Horse leading her bridle and a great noble carrying the
sword before her.[364] The sheriff met her at the boundary of each
county, and as she entered a castle or a city the constables offered up
their keys and the corporations their maces, and received them again at
her hands. And with the Queen came the Household in a body, Hall and
Chamber and Stable, followed by a long train of carts bearing the royal
'stuff' which was destined to supply the needs of the household offices,
and to furnish the often empty walls of temporary lodgings, where were
reproduced, if only on a miniature scale, the conventional ordering of
presence chamber, privy chamber, and the like, which were the essentials
of a royal dwelling.[365] Careful arrangements had, of course, to be
made in advance; on the one hand for the maintenance of communications
with London and the transaction or postponement of business during the
absence of Queen and Council, and on the other for the housing and
provisioning of so great a multitude in the country districts.[366] The
latter had of old been the care of a special group of Hall officers
known as the Harbingers.[367] These still exercised functions of detail.
But the general control, like so much else, had passed into the hands of
the Lord Chamberlain. Early in the summer, as soon as the royal decision
as to the direction and duration of the progress could be obtained, a
document was drawn up, known as the 'gestes' or 'jestes', by which must
be understood, I think, not a chronicle of _res gestae_, but a table of
the 'gysts' or _gîtes_ appointed for each night's lodging, which is what
in fact it contained.[368] Copies of the 'gestes' were signed by the
Lord Chamberlain and given with warrants from himself to Gentlemen
Ushers of the Chamber, who took them as instructions to the mayors of
towns, and doubtless also to the lord-lieutenants of counties, through
which the progress would pass. The Ushers were directed to view and
report upon the lodgings available.[369] The royal Waymaker studied the
roads, and the Guard the security of the neighbourhood.[370] The local
officials were required to see that a sufficient provision of food,
drink, and fuel was secured, and to furnish that important safeguard, a
certificate that their districts were free from the dangerous infection
of the plague.[371] The 'gestes' were also published in the household,
and individual courtiers hastened to send them to their friends, and to
give advice to those scheduled as royal hosts about the kind of
entertainment which the sovereign would expect. There is plenty of
evidence in the private correspondence of the period that the honour of
a royal visit was not anticipated without some anxieties. That of Sir
William More at Loseley contains several references to the subject.
There is a letter from Sir Anthony Wingfield, who tells More that he has
reported to the Lord Chamberlain 'what fewe smal romes and howe unmete
your howes was for the Quenes majesty'. She had decided to go to a
manor-house of her own, but had again changed her mind. Wingfield had
spoken to Lord Admiral Clinton, 'for that ytt shalbe a grete trouboul
and a henderanes to you', and advises More to try his influence with
Leicester. This must have been written before the present fine house at
Loseley, built during 1562-8, was sufficiently completed to house the
Queen. More, however, had a visit in 1567, and another in 1576, after
which his neighbour, Henry Goringe of Burton, who expected one in 1577,
wrote to ask him 'what order was taken by her Maiesties offycers at that
tyme that her grace was with youe, and whether your howse were furnyshed
with her highnes stufe, wyne, beer, and other provycion, or that you
purveyd for the same or any parte thereof'. He had a third in 1583, of
which he was warned by Sir Christopher Hatton in a letter of 4 August,
directing him to see everything well ordered, and the house 'sweete and
cleane'. There had been a 'brute' of infection, but this was now
reported as 'a misinformation'. On 24 August, Hatton wrote again. More
should 'avoyd' his family, and make everything ready 'as to your owne
discretion shall seeme most needefull for her maiesties good
contentation'. The sheriff was not to attend her on this occasion, but
More and some other gentlemen had better meet her in Guildford. Finally,
he had one in 1591, and one Mr. Constable came with a letter from Lord
Hunsdon, asking for More's help in selecting suitable lodgings on the
way to Petworth or Cowdray.[372] To these letters can be added others
from various sources. In 1572 Sir Nicholas Bacon wrote to Burghley from
Gorhambury that he understood 'by comen speche' that the Queen was
coming, and being uncertain of the date and desirous to 'take that cours
that myght best pleas her maiestie', begged for advice 'what you thinke
to be the best waye for me to deale in this matter: ffor, in very deede,
no man is more rawe in suche a matter then my selfe'.[373] Only a few
days later Burghley also had a letter from the Earl of Bedford, then on
his way to Woburn Abbey to make preparations. He wishes his rooms and
lodgings were better, and says, 'I trust your Lordship will have in
remembraunce to provide and helpe that her Maiesties tarieng be not
above two nights and a daye; for, for so long tyme do I prepare'.[374]
In the following year, 1573, it was the turn of Archbishop Parker to be
both flattered and perturbed by the intimation of a visit to Canterbury.
He can lodge the Queen, he tells Burghley, and also, at any rate 'for a
progresse-tyme', the Treasurer himself, the Chamberlain, Leicester, and
Hatton, 'thinking that your Lordships will furnisshe the places with
your owne stuffe'. The house, indeed, was 'of an evill ayer, hanging
upon the churche and having no prospect to loke on the people: but yet,
I trust, the convenience of the building would serve'. Possibly the
Queen would prefer 'her owne pallace at St. Austens', and the lords
could go to the dean and prebendaries, several of whom have offered to
take Burghley. In any case he would wish to dine the Queen, and the
nobles and her train in 'my bigger hall'. Meanwhile he will write to the
Lord Chamberlain on some things that concern his office.[375] In 1577 it
was the Lord Chamberlain himself, the Earl of Sussex, who received a
touching appeal from Lord Buckhurst for 'some certenty of the progres,
yf it may possibly be'. Will the Queen come to Lewes, and if so, for how
long? All the provision in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex is already taken up
by the Earl of Arundel, Viscount Montagu and others, and he will have to
send over to Flanders. Unless the Queen will 'presently determin', he
does not see how he can perform that 'which is du and convenient.' And
may it please God 'that the hous do not mislike her; that is my cheif
care'. Apparently Buckhurst, like More a decade earlier, was building,
for he adds, 'But yf her Highness had taried but on yere longer, we had
ben to to happy; but Gods will and hers be doon'.[376] Sussex, though
called upon to advise others, had his own subjects for reflection. He
had offered the Queen hospitality at New Hall, apparently at short
notice on some change of programme, and she replied that 'it were no
good reason and less good manners' to trouble him. In forwarding her
message Leicester had added, perhaps maliciously, for there was no love
lost between him and Sussex, 'Nevertheless, my lord, for mine own
opinion, I believe she wil hunt, and visit your house, coming so neer.
Herein you may use the matter accordingly, since she would have you not
to look for her.' Attempts were being made to dissuade her from having a
progress at all, 'But it much misliketh her not to go some wher to have
change of air', and the progress was 'most like to go forward, since she
fancieth it so greatly herself'.[377] However, there was a good deal of
plague about, and in the end the progress was abandoned, doubtless to
the relief of both Sussex and Buckhurst. Perhaps the most amusing letter
of all, in its delicate attempt to balance deprecation with loyalty, is
one written by Sir William Cornwallis to Walsingham in 1583, on behalf
of the Earl of Northumberland at Petworth. The earl wished to learn 'as
much certeinty as he can' of the expected visit, and after mentioning
'the shortness of the tyme' for provision and the illness of Lady
Northumberland, Cornwallis continues, 'Notwithstanding, Sir, this is
very trew, yet it may not be advertysed, lest it might be thought to
give impediment to her Majesties coming, wherof I perceyve my lord very
glade and desirous'. Finally he ventures a discreet hint on his own
account, fearing that 'her Majestie will never thank him that hath
perswaded this progreyse, nor those lords that shall receive her, how
great entertaynment soever they give her, considering the wayes by which
she must come to them, up the hill and down the hill, so as she shall
not be able to use ether coche or litter with ease, and those ways also
so full of louse stones, as it is carefull and painfull riding for
anybody, nether can ther be in this cuntrey any wayes devysed to avoyd
those ould wayes. In truth, Sir, thus I find it, and I wyshe some others
knew it, so I wear not the author; who though I write it for care of the
Queen, yet might it be interpreted otherwise.'[378] Northumberland had
at this time good reason to be diplomatic. Probably he was already under
Walsingham's suspicion, and before the end of the year he was in the
Tower, for his participation in the Throgmorton plot. Against all this
uneasiness may be set the genuine spirit of welcome and personal
affection for the Queen which appears to have prevailed in the much
visited household of Lord Norris of Rycote. Leicester reports to Hatton
in 1582 his own 'piece of cold entertainment' at the hands of Lady
Norris, because he and Hatton 'were the chief hinderers of her Majesty's
coming hither, which they took more unkindly than there was cause
indeed'. Inverting Cornwallis's plea, he had alleged 'the foul and
ragged way' as an excuse, and adds as his comment, 'A hearty noble
couple are they as ever I saw towards her Highness'.[379]

Much additional inconvenience was evidently caused to voluntary and
involuntary hosts alike by the characteristic indecision which led
Elizabeth, in small things as well as great, to be constantly chopping
and changing her plans. The 'gestes' might be set down, but they were
never final, to the last minute. The good city of Leicester was warned
four times to make preparation, in 1562, 1575, 1576, and 1585, and never
had the felicity of beholding its sovereign at all.[380] The point comes
out clearly enough in the letters already quoted; perhaps even more
clearly in a final group written in August 1597 by one of Burghley's
secretaries, Henry Maynard, from London to another, Michael Hicks, who
was in fluttered anticipation of a visit at Ruckholt in Essex. Maynard
wrote three times in the course of five days. On the 10th he warned
Hicks to expect the Queen in the following week, 'if the iestes hold,
which after manie alterations is so sett downe this daie'. He will let
him know if there is any further change, 'for wee are greatlie aferd of
Theobalds'. On the 12th there had been no change as yet and Hicks had
better come to court for advice. There was still danger of Theobalds,
'but as yett it is not sett downe'. With a sigh, Maynard adds, 'This
progresse much trowbleth mee, for that we knowe not what corse the Queen
will take'. On the 15th he can at last announce that no change was now
expected. He had told the Lord Chamberlain that Hicks was troubled at
the insufficient accommodation he could provide for the royal train.
'His awnsweare was that you weare unwise to be at anie such charge: but
onelie to leave the howse to the Quene: and wished that theare might be
presented to hir Majestie from your wief sum fine wastcoate, or fine
ruffe, or like thinge, which he said would be acceptablie taken as if it
weare of greate price.' Maynard was still anticipating a descent on
Theobalds, although nothing had been said about it.[381] As a matter of
fact, his anticipation was justified, and Theobalds was visited in the
course of September. In 1599 there was a scare lest the short progress
planned should be extended, 'by reason of an intercepted letter, wherein
the giving over of long voyages was noted to be sign of age'.[382]

Contact with the great is not ordinarily, for the plain man, a bed of
roses; and there is no reason to suppose that it was otherwise in the
spacious times of Elizabeth. You probably got knighted, if you were not
a knight already, which cost you some fees, and you received some
sugared royal compliments on the excellence of your entertainment and
the appropriateness of your 'devices'. But you had wrestled for a month
with poulterers and with poets. You had 'avoided' your house, and made
yourself uncomfortable in a neighbouring lodge. You had seen your trim
gardens and terraces encamped upon by a locust-swarm of all the tag-rag
and bobtail that follows a court. And with your knowledge of that queer
streak in the Tudor blood, you had been on tenterhooks all the time lest
at some real or fancied dislike the royal countenance might become
clouded, and the compliments give way to a bitter jest or to open
railing. 'I have had hitherto a troublesome progress,' writes Cecil to
Parker in 1561, 'to stay the Queen's majesty from daily offence
conceived against the clergy, by reason of the undiscreet behaviour of
the readers and ministers in these countries of Suffolk and
Essex.'[383] Parker himself was something of a favourite with Elizabeth,
yet John Harington can record an incredible insult to his wife on the
doorstep of Lambeth.[384] And Richard Topcliffe, hunter of recusants,
describes with indecent glee how the hospitality of Edward Rookwood in
1578 was rewarded with a committal to prison and a public obloquy on his
religion.[385] The arrogance of the royal train had always to be
reckoned with. As far back as 1526 Henry VIII had issued a formal
household order against the spoliation of houses in progress.[386] In
1574 Leicester instigated a surprise visit to Berkeley Castle, which
was not in the 'gestes', and so ruined the head of deer by killing
twenty-seven in one day that Lord Berkeley in a passion disparked the
estate. This appears to have been a deliberate scheme by Leicester to
bring Berkeley into disfavour and secure the castle himself.[387] The
Stuart households were probably just as bad. After Anne's visit in 1603,
the Leicester corporation had to pursue the court 'aboute lynnyns and
pewter that was myssinge'.[388]

It is not quite clear how far these annoyances were aggravated by the
financial burden of the royal entertainment. There is some evidence
that, so far as the essentials of food and drink and fuel were
concerned, the household was prepared to pay its way, and that, although
the hosts had to make provision of these necessaries, they were entitled
to recoupment for the cost by the Cofferer.[389] Certainly the progress,
once an economy for the Crown, had become an expense.[390] Burghley's
papers contain an estimate, based on the accounts of 1573, showing an
'increase of chardgies in the time of progresse' to the extent of
£1,034, 'which should not be if her Majestie remeynid at her Standing
Howses within XX myles of London'.[391] This is not wholly conclusive,
because in any case part of the time was usually spent, not in private
houses, but at royal manors or even in inns.[392] But its indication is
confirmed, so far as civic visits are concerned, by entries in
corporation accounts, which appear to be limited to expenditure upon the
hire or purchase of plenishing, the repair of streets and pavements and
painting of gates and public buildings, the provision of a fairly costly
gift in the form of a gold cup with money in it, and the payment of fees
to the queen's waymaker for inspecting the roads, and to various
officers of the chamber, hall, and stable. The visit of 1575 cost the
city of Worcester £173, raised partly out of corporation funds, partly
by a special levy. The city of Leicester met that of 1612 with a levy of
£74 1_s._ 9_d._, while that of 1614 cost them £102 12_s._ 6½_d._[393]
Anything in the way of a mimetic entertainment would probably fall by
civic custom on the guilds.[394] And the establishment of the Revels,
which followed the progress, was ready to help at need, with a mask or
banqueting house.[395] There are definite statements as to the
recoupment of the cost of light, rushes, and fuel at Oxford in 1566, and
of beer when Prince Charles passed through Leicester in 1604.[396] Of
course, the Crown used its feudal right of purveyance; that is to say,
of purchase within the verge at rates fixed by itself; and for this
purchase a local jury was empanelled to assist the Clerk of the Market
in drawing up a tariff and supervising weights and measures.[397]

But the abuses of purveyance, which included the impressment of
vehicles by the royal cart-takers, cannot have borne very heavily upon
districts rarely visited, although the home counties, which were more
often traversed and contained standing houses, had no doubt their
grievances.[398]

The Hicks correspondence suggests that, even in 1597, the household was
still prepared to provision itself, at any rate in the smaller private
houses. But there is a good deal of evidence to show that, where persons
of wealth were concerned, a different practice grew up. A visit to
Gorhambury in 1577 cost Sir Nicolas Bacon £577.[399] Parker's son
recorded that his father's entertainment of the Queen at Canterbury and
other houses, with his gifts to her and the lords and ladies, cost him
above £2,000, and that in addition he spent £170 at Canterbury in
rewards to the officers of the household.[400] Burghley's domestic
biographer tells us that the twelve visits to Theobalds cost him 'two or
three thousand pounds every tyme', which sufficiently explains why his
adherents were not particularly anxious for a visit in 1597.[401] Parker
had to find many nights' lodging, as the Queen passed up and down
stream, and at Canterbury Elizabeth is known to have occupied a house of
her own. But Burghley's heavy expenditure must surely have covered more
than the mere gifts and the spectacular side of his entertainments. A
visit to the Marquis of Winchester in 1601 was 'with more charge than
the constitution of Basing may well bear'.[402] For that to Harefield in
1602 the bills are preserved, and amount to £2,013 18_s._ 4_d._, of
which £1,255 12_s._ 0_d._ was apparently for provisions, £199 9_s._
11_d._ for temporary buildings, and the balance presumably for gifts,
spectacles, and the like. There is no indication of any repayments by
the royal Cofferer, although Sir Thomas Egerton's friends came nobly to
his assistance, and sent in innumerable presents, including no less than
eighty-six stags and bucks, eleven oxen, sixty-five sheep, and forty-one
sugar-loaves, as well as birds, fish, oysters, Selsea cockles,
cheese-cakes, sweetmeats, wine, wheat, and salt.[403] Finally we have
the definite statement of the French ambassador La Mothe Fénelon in
1575, that at Kenilworth Leicester 'a deffrayé toute la court a cent
soixante platz d'assiette, l'espace de douze jours'.[404] And we have
that of the Venetian ambassador Foscarini in 1612, that 'his Majesty's
charges are borne by the owners of the houses where he lodges'.
Foscarini had accompanied the progress to Belvoir, and was much struck
with the large numbers, more than a thousand, who were housed there, and
with the costly style in which things were done, 'far exceeding that of
the court when in London or a neighbouring palace'. He found personally,
as others have found since his day, that visiting was much more
expensive than staying at home, on account of the largesse
expected.[405] I am inclined to think that we have come here upon a
point of honour, and that, while it was not in theory incumbent upon a
poor man to feed as well as lodge his mistress, it gradually became
customary for rich men to give a special proof of their devotion by
omitting to claim the recoupment to which they were strictly entitled.
And if this was so, of course in the long run the poor men had to follow
suit. Sir William Clarke in 1602 was counted a churl, for he 'neither
gives meat nor money to any of the progressors. The house Her Majesty
has at commandment, and his grass the guard's horses eat, and this is
all.'[406] The right to occupy the house of a subject was indeed a
matter of feudal tradition. All manors were ultimately held of the
Crown. We find Elizabeth dating from 'our manor of Cheneys' in 1570,
although Chenies had long been in the hands of the Russells; and it was
an _obiter dictum_ of Lord Northampton in a Star Chamber case of 1606
that 'the kinge by his prerogative may take vp any howse in his
progres'.[407]

Those who accompanied the progress had their own woes to bear. There was
a good deal of 'roughing it'. The rate of advance, at ten or twelve
miles a day, broken by a dinner at some wayside mansion or in a
temporarily constructed 'dining house', was inevitably slow. The weather
and the roads were often unkind; nor was the advance guard of two
hundred and twenty carts carrying baggage likely to have mended the
condition of the latter.[408] The numbers were great, and if
accommodation was scant, some had to make shift with tents and booths.
The commissariat was not always perfect. Even the Queen might come off
badly. On one occasion Leicester reported to Burghley that the beer had
been unsatisfactory. 'Hit did put her very farr out of temper, and
almost all the company beside.' Happily, a better brew had been
discovered. 'God be thanked she is now perfectly well and merry.'[409]
Burghley himself was apparently timed to join the progress at Dudley,
and he received a discreet hint from Walsingham that a change of
programme would bring the Queen there earlier than had been expected,
'whereuppon your Lordship may take some just cause to excuse you not
coming thither'.[410] No doubt Burghley's duties as Lord Treasurer often
kept him at Westminster. But the fact is that the sixteenth-century
growth of luxury was making a migratory court something of an
anachronism.[411] The progress was by no means always on the same scale
of elaboration. In some years it was limited to a month or so in the
counties nearest to London; in others it extended over three or four
months, and the Queen went fairly far afield. During the earlier years
the most important progresses were those of 1564 and 1566, which
included visits to Cambridge and to Oxford respectively. In 1562, 1563,
and 1565 there were no progresses at all, owing to plague or other
reasons. The period of the great progresses was the second decade of the
reign; and it culminated in the 'Princely Pleasures' of Kenilworth of
1575. During 1572, 1574, and 1575 Elizabeth covered a large part of the
Midlands; during 1573 Kent and Sussex; during 1578 East Anglia. She
reached Southampton in 1560 and 1569, Dover in 1573, Bristol in 1574,
Stafford and Chartley in 1575. Farther north or west I do not find her;
visits were planned to the chief towns of the Presidencies of Wales and
of the North, to Shrewsbury in 1575 and to York in 1584, but these never
came off. Progresses were practically suspended during the troublous
decade before the Armada, when the Queen's life was hardly ever safe
from plots, and she generally spent the autumn quietly at Oatlands or
Nonsuch. In 1591 and 1592 the old custom was revived; Southampton was
revisited in the former year, Oxford and the Cotswolds in the latter.
There was another revival towards the end of the reign, and there were
short progresses in 1597, 1600, 1601, and 1602. Two unsuccessful plans
were made to get as far as Wiltshire. Elizabeth's strength was failing,
but the restlessness of her latter years was upon her, and she would not
have it said that she was too old to travel. She had to reckon, however,
with courtiers who had learnt to love their ease. 'The Lords are sorry
for it,' wrote Rowland White to Sir Robert Sidney, when she determined
to set out from Nonsuch in 1600, 'butt her majestie bids the old stay
behind, and the young and able to goe with her. She had just cause to be
offended, that at her remove to this place she was soe poorely attended;
for I never saw so small a train.'[412] At all times, and particularly
during the later years, the formal progresses were supplemented by short
visits of a few days, or even a few hours, to favoured courtiers,
sometimes by way of a 'by-progress' in spring or autumn, sometimes in
the course of a remove from one standing house to another, sometimes
merely to relieve a continuous residence at the same palace.[413]
Several of the twelve visits to Theobalds, for which Elizabeth had
evidently a liking, and which had been rebuilt to accommodate her, were
by progresses. The household did not always accompany her on these
occasions. Within London itself, she also occasionally paid a visit. In
the last winter of her life, several entertainments were carefully
arranged for her, in the hope of keeping her at Whitehall.[414] In 1601
and 1602 she went a-Maying at Highgate and Lewisham. Another day's
visit, probably of 1600, is elaborately described by Sir Robert Sidney
to Sir John Harington.[415]

With the arrival of James and his horde of hungry Scots, and the
setting-up of supernumerary establishments for Anne and the royal
children, the progress became a more unwieldy institution than ever.
During the greater part of 1603 the court was abroad. The triumphal
descent of the King in April and May was practically a progress. So was
that of Anne in June. There was a regular progress in August and
September, and the prevalence of plague compelled the prolongation of
this throughout the autumn, until the weary court sank into its winter
quarters at Christmas. A groan went up to Lord Shrewsbury from Robert
Lord Cecil at Woodstock, which he found an 'unwholesome' and 'uneaseful'
house, not able to lodge more than the King and Queen, the privy chamber
ladies, and some three or four of the Scottish Council. 'Neither
Chamberlain, nor one English counsellor have a room, which will be a
sour sauce to some of your old friends that have been merry with you in
a winter's night, from whence they have not removed to their bed in a
snowy storm.' The plague was driving the court up and down. 'God bless
the king, for once a week one or other dies in our tents.'[416] In the
same strain wrote Levinus Muncke a little later to Winwood from Wilton
of 'these arrant removes', in which 'we endure misserie apace and want
of all things, which I never thought the country so unable to supply
us'.[417] Nevertheless, James maintained the tradition, and devoted a
month or two in each year to a progress, which, but for the occasional
presence of the queen or prince, and the attendance, not quite
invariable, of the council and household, did not differ much in
character from his far more frequent hunting journeys. His direction was
generally determined by the existence of hunting facilities, and such
districts as the New Forest, Wychwood and Sherwood Forests, and
Salisbury Plain figure again and again in the 'gestes'. He had reached
Southampton and even the Isle of Wight in 1603, and probably repeated
his visit in 1607 and 1611. He also touched the sea at Lulworth in 1615.
He visited Oxford from Woodstock in 1605 and Cambridge twice during
hunting journeys in 1615. Anne made an independent progress to the west,
for the sake of the Bath waters, in 1613, and got as far as Bristol.

We have had sufficient peeps behind the court arras to give a pleasantly
sub-acid flavour of irony to the effusive accounts of royal receptions
contained in official chronicles, or in the semi-official narratives of
poets who were anxious to preserve the memory of the verses and devices
contributed by themselves.[418] These in their turn enable us to
recapture something of whatever rapture the rather artless forms of
_mimesis_ employed may have awakened in Renaissance breasts; although of
course the few devices of which details have reached us are but a tithe
of those on whose fantasy and grace the dust of oblivion has for
centuries lain thick. It was naturally at the visits to private houses
that the spirit of sheer entertainment had fullest scope, and a glance
at the diaries for Kenilworth in 1575 or for Elvetham in 1591 will show
the variety of pastime which ministered spectacle to the eyes and
flattery to the self-esteem of Oriana on her holidays. The visit to
Kenilworth extended over three weeks. The Queen arrived on 9 July and
was greeted with speeches by Sibylla, by a porter as Hercules, and by
the Lady of the Lake, and that she might not forget that she was a
scholar, with a Latin speech by a Poet. July 10 was a Sunday, and after
divine service there was a display of fireworks. On 11 July the Queen
hunted, and on her return listened to an out-of-door dialogue between a
Savage Man--the mediaeval folk-personage known as the 'wodwose'--and the
classical Echo. July 12 was a day of rest, and 13 July was again devoted
to hunting. On 14 July came a bear-baiting, another display of
fireworks, and acrobatic feats by an Italian. After two days' interval,
the sports began again on 17 July, with country shows of a bride-ale, a
quintain, and the Coventry Hock-Tuesday play.[419] This was followed in
the evening by a play and banquet. A mask was held in readiness, but not
used. On 18 July, after a hunt, came the principal show, an aquatic one
of the Delivery of the Lady of the Lake, with the classical Arion riding
on a dolphin; and the Queen held an investiture, and 'touched' poor folk
for the 'evil'. On 19 July the Coventry show was repeated, and by this
time the weather had broken up, and the royal zest for spectacles was
perhaps exhausted. A projected show of Zabeta and a device of an ancient
minstrel were laid aside, and the final week was uneventful, until the
departure on 27 July after a show in farewell by Silvanus. All this was
described, for the benefit of such of the Queen's lieges as had not the
fortune to be present, in a printed narrative by George Gascoigne, who
shared with William Hunnis of the Chapel Royal the main responsibility
for the mimetic devices, and in another, racy and full of vivid detail,
by one Robert Laneham, keeper of the council chamber door, who was in
attendance as an officer of the household.[420] The entertainment at the
much shorter visit to the Earl of Hertford at Elvetham in Hampshire,
sixteen years later, was on very similar lines. The house was small, and
a temporary 'room of estate' and other buildings had been constructed in
the park, near an artificial pond, containing a Ship Isle, a Fort, and a
Snail Mount. The Queen was greeted on arrival with a Latin speech by a
Poet, and a ditty by the Graces and the Hours. A salute was fired from
the pond. After supper there was a concert with a pavane by Thomas
Morley. On the second day, after the Countess had made her offering in
the morning, there was a great water-show on the pond, with Silvanus and
the sea-gods Neptune, Oceanus, Nereus, and Neaera, which served to
introduce further gifts. On the third day Elizabeth was awakened with a
pastoral song of Phyllida and Corydon. After dinner there was an
exhibition game of 'board and cord', which must have been a very close
anticipation of lawn-tennis, and in the evening a banquet in the garden
and a display of fireworks. On the fourth morning came Aureola, the
fairy queen, with a round of dancing fairies, and as the Queen departed
there were Nereus and Sylvanus and their companies at the pond, the
Hours and Graces weeping, a speech from the Poet dressed in black, and a
farewell ditty at the park gate.[421] I have set the Kenilworth and
Elvetham entertainments side by side, partly to illustrate the
permanence of type, and partly because, if any actual sea-maid and
fireworks gave Shakespeare a hint for Oberon's famous speech in _A
Midsummer-Night's Dream_, it must surely have been those which were
comparatively fresh in the memories of his hearers.[422]

The medley of Kenilworth and Elvetham repeats itself elsewhere; nor is
the imaginative range a very wide one. Classical, romantic, pastoral,
and folk-lore elements blend in quite sufficient congruity. The pagan
divinities called upon are the out-of-door ones, Pan and Ceres at
Bisham, Apollo and Daphne at Sudeley; and these, with the Nymphs
(Orpington, Cowdray, Harefield) and Satyrs (Harefield, Althorp), may
make easy acknowledgement of fundamental kinship with Aureola or Queen
Mab and the native fairies (Woodstock, Norwich, Hengrave, Althorp) and
woodwoses (Cowdray, Bisham). So, too, the rustic revelry of morris or
country dance (Warwick, Cowdray, Althorp, Wells) or the choosing of the
Cotswold Queen (Sudeley) passes readily enough into the manner of the
formal pastoral, as we find it in Sidney's _Lady of the May_ (Wanstead)
or his sister's later dialogue of _Thenot and Piers_; which in turn have
their affinities to the mediaeval _débat_, surviving in the dialogue of
Constancy and Inconstancy (Woodstock), and in the 'contentions' of Sir
John Davies between a Gentleman Usher and a Poet, and a Maid, a Wife,
and a Widow.[423] To a modern taste, perhaps the most attractive
entertainments are the simple ones in which the Gardener and the
Mole-catcher or the Bailiff and the Dairymaid offer the naïve welcome of
the rustic folk, or those to which the circumstances of place and time
give something of a personal touch; as at Theobalds, where the hermit's
cell typifies the temporary retirement of Burghley from public life, or
at Rycote, where messengers bring in letters and jewels from sons and
daughters of the house in Ireland, Flanders, France, and Jersey. Only
fragments are preserved of the Harefield entertainment in 1602, but here
a delicate fancy must have governed the devices, suggesting, for
example, the presentation of a robe of rainbows on behalf of St.
Swithin, and the personification of Harefield itself as Place 'in a
partie-colored robe, like the brick house', accompanied by Time 'with
yeollow haire, and in a green roabe, with an hower glasse, stopped, not
runninge'. Here, too, was repeated the pretty notion of Elvetham, and at
the royal departure there was Place again 'attyred in black mourning
aparell', to bid farewell. In many instances the _mimesis_ is so
contrived as to lead to the introduction of the gift, which we may
gather from the Hicks correspondence to have been looked upon as an
obligatory rite of hospitality. The frugal and ostentatious soul of
Elizabeth loved gifts; but James is said, at any rate on his first
coming, to have thought it the more kingly part to decline them.[424]
The mimetic entertainment itself, indeed, seems to have lost something
of its vogue with the change of reign; possibly the King was less
tolerant than his predecessor of pedantries other than his own. There
are, of course, the three Sibyls at Oxford in 1605, which are said to
have given a hint for _Macbeth_, and the amazing Queen of Sheba show in
1606, which has been preserved for us by the wicked wit of Sir John
Harington.[425] And there are three examples from the pen of Ben Jonson,
to whose ingenuity and learning the _genre_ made a natural appeal, and
who had the art to give dramatic life and point even to such trifles.
These are the _Satyr_, with which Lord Spencer welcomed Anne and Henry
at Althorp in 1603, the _Penates_, written when James, like Elizabeth
before him, went a-Maying with Sir William Cornwallis at Highgate in
1604, and the graceful Theobalds entertainment, in which the Genius of
the house, first weeping for the loss of his master, and then consoled
by Mercury, Good Event, and the Parcae, made symbolical delivery of it
to the Queen on its exchange by Lord Salisbury with James for Hatfield
in 1607.

The civic entertainments naturally followed more formal lines than those
in private houses. The citizens rode in their official gowns of black or
scarlet. There was a learned oration by the recorder, and very likely
also by the schoolmaster or a promising scholar of the grammar school.
In a cathedral town there was divine service to be attended in state.
The gift was no fantastic trifle, but a solid cup with angels in it. The
_mimesis_, too, was of a more old-fashioned type. Mercury or a nymph
might be there, but there were also the traditional pageants of the
guilds, bearing their scenes from the miracle plays, or more modern
allegories, or representations of local history and industry. At
Coventry, in 1566, stood the Corpus Christi cars of the Tanners,
Drapers, Smiths, and Weavers.[426] The variegated Norwich entertainment
of 1578 included a speech by King Gurgunt, a pageant of the
Commonwealth, with local craftsmen working at their looms, and a pageant
of the City of Norwich, with Deborah, Esther, Judith, and Queen
Martia.[427] Even as late as 1613, it was with scriptural pageants,
curiously contaminated with intrusive classical themes, that the
citizens of Wells greeted Queen Anne when she visited them from the
Bath. The Hammermen furnished the Building of the Ark, Vulcan, Venus,
and Cupid, and part of St. George; the Tanners, Chandlers, and Bakers,
St. Clément and his Friar, part of Actaeon and Diana, and 'a carte of
old virgines' in hides; the Cordwainers Saints Crispin and Crispinian;
the Tailors Herodias and John Baptist; and the Mercers the remaining
parts of St. George and of Actaeon and Diana. Three morrises also
accompanied the pageants.[428] George Ferebe's shepherd's song, as the
Queen had crossed the Wansdyke at Bishop's Cannings, two months before,
had struck a more up-to-date note.

In the university cities, municipal eloquence was redoubled by that of
public orators and professors. The sovereign was expected to attend
sermons and the academic exercise of disputations, and perhaps to wind
up the latter with a Latin speech. The spectacles generally took the
form of regular plays in Latin and occasionally in English. As the
academic drama lies rather aside from the main purpose of this book, I
confine myself to a brief chronicle. Elizabeth's first and only visit to
Cambridge was from 5 to 10 August 1564.[429] The plays took place in the
chapel of King's College, since the hall had been found unsuitable, and
the two provided by the University were directed by Dr. Roger Kelke, the
Master of Magdalene, with the aid of five others, one of whom was Thomas
Legge of Trinity, himself a dramatist. On Sunday, 6 August, the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus was given by actors selected from colleges other
than King's. Courtiers ignorant of Latin were wearied, but Elizabeth sat
through the three hours' performance without sign of fatigue. On 7
August came _Dido_, a Latin tragedy by Edward Halliwell, formerly Fellow
of King's, and on 8 August _Ezechias_, an English comedy by Nicholas
Udall, who was an Oxford man. Both these plays were performed by King's
men and both are lost. Elizabeth's patience was now exhausted, and she
gave some disappointment by declining to hear a Latin translation of the
_Ajax Flagellifer_ of Sophocles, which men of various colleges had been
appointed to give on 9 August. A contemporary letter from the Spanish
ambassador gives an account of a singular epilogue to the royal visit.
On 10 August Elizabeth had made her farewells, picking out Thomas
Preston of King's for special favour on account of his performances both
in the disputation and as an actor in _Dido_, and had reached the next
stage in her progress, Sir Henry Cromwell's at Hinchinbrook.

Hither she was pursued by some of the scholars with what appears to
have been a mask, originally intended to serve as an afterpiece to the
_Ajax Flagellifer_. They were allowed to present it, but it proved to
have been conceived in a spirit unsuited to the colour of the Queen's
Protestantism, and gave considerable offence. It was, in fact, a
burlesque of the Mass.[430] Two years later, from 31 August to 6
September 1566, it was the turn of Oxford.[431] The plays were in Christ
Church Hall, and in them the University had the assistance of Richard
Edwardes, formerly Student of Christ Church, and now Master of the
Children of the Chapel Royal. At the first, a Latin prose comedy called
_Marcus Geminus_, on 1 September, the Queen was not present. But she
attended Edwardes's _Palamon and Arcite_, an English play in two parts,
given on 2 and 4 September, and expressed high appreciation of the play
and the acting. The fact that three persons were killed by the fall of a
wall near the entrance door was not allowed to interfere with the
representation.[432] She also attended James Calfhill's Latin tragedy
_Progne_ on 5 September. The plays were all written by Christ Church
men, but the actors appear to have been drawn in part from other
colleges. John Rainolds of Corpus, afterwards a bitter opponent of the
academic stage, played Hippolyta in _Palamon and Arcite_.[433] All the
plays are unfortunately lost. The Spanish ambassador reported that there
had been nothing about religion in them, and delivered himself of the
compliment, 'Memorabilia profecto sunt Oxoniensium spectacula'.[434]
More deserving, more felicitous, or less audacious than Cambridge,
Oxford received the honour of a second royal visit in 1592.[435] It
lasted from 22 to 28 September.[436] The plays, given on 24 and 26
September, were Leonard Hutten's _Bellum Grammaticale_ and Gager's
_Rivales_. Both performances were at Christ Church, but probably actors
from other colleges took part. A jaundiced Cambridge visitor described
them as 'but meanely performed'. Elizabeth, however, was gracious, and
before departing 'schooled' John Rainolds, who had recently been
fulminating against Gager, for 'his obstinate preciseness'. It was,
perhaps, as a result of the mirth shown at Oxford, that both
Universities were invited to produce English plays at Court during the
following Christmas. This, however, Cambridge at any rate declined to
do, giving as their excuse the shortness of time, but more particularly
the customary limitation of their academic plays to the Latin
tongue.[437] There is no evidence, and little probability, that Oxford
were any more amenable.

James passed through the outskirts of Oxford in 1604, but plague
deferred his formal visit until 1605, when he came with the Queen and
Henry, and stayed from 27 to 31 August.[438] As he came down St. Giles',
he was greeted from St. John's with Matthew Gwynne's device of the _Tres
Sibyllae_. The plays were in Christ Church hall, and apparel was hired
from the King's Revels company in London. Inigo Jones, 'a great
traveller', was employed to furnish special machinery for changing the
scenes, but opinions differed as to his success, and also as to the
extent to which the King kept awake during the performances. Of these
there were four. On 27 August a piece, variously named _Alba_ and
_Vertumnus_, and written in part by Robert Burton, was acted by Thomas
Goodwin and other Christ Church men.[439] On 28 August actors from
various colleges gave an _Ajax Flagellifer_, not apparently a
translation from Sophocles, but an independent play. On 29 August St.
John's men gave a play by Gwynne, also called _Vertumnus, sive Annus
Recurrens_. These three, of which only the last survives, were in Latin.
On 30 August, for the sake of the ladies, the fourth play, again by men
of various colleges, was in English. It was Daniel's _Arcadia
Reformed_, afterwards published as _The Queen's Arcadia_. The King was
not present on this occasion. It is a little surprising that he did not
visit Cambridge until 1615. He had been preceded by Henry, who was there
with the Elector Palatine in 1613, and saw performances by Trinity men
in their college hall of Samuel Brooke's _Adelphe_ and _Scyros_ on 2 and
3 March respectively.[440] James went from Royston, and stayed from 7 to
11 March 1615.[441] The plays, given in Trinity College hall, were
successively Edward Cecil's Latin _Aemilia_, by St. John's men, which is
lost, Ruggle's _Ignoramus_, by men from Clare Hall and other minor
colleges, and Tomkis's _Albumazar_ and Brooke's _Melanthe_, both by
Trinity men. King's had prepared Phineas Fletcher's _Sicelides_, but the
King did not stay long enough to hear it. The visit evoked an outburst
of satirical verses, both from Oxford and from the lawyers, who were
stung by the wit of _Ignoramus_, with which the King was so pleased
that, after a vain attempt to get the actors to Whitehall, he paid
another visit to Cambridge, and saw it again on 13 May.[442] In March
1616 Cambridge men played before him at Royston; the name of the play is
not known.[443] Oxford did not get its chance again until 1618, which
falls outside the scope of this record.

The opportunities for spectacular display, which provincial towns
enjoyed during a progress, fell to London chiefly at the time of a
coronation, when on the day before the actual ceremony the sovereign
passed in state from the Tower to Westminster, through the principal
streets of the city which claimed to be, in a special sense, the royal
'Chamber'.[444] The outstanding architectural features of these
streets, St. Paul's, the gates at Ludgate and Temple Bar, the conduits
in Cornhill and Fleet Street, the great and little conduits, the
Standard, and the Cross in Cheapside, were recognized stations for
music, speechifying, and pageantry. At some of them temporary arches,
adorned with symbolical devices and hung with verses, spanned the
highway. When Elizabeth started, in a slight snow-storm, on 14 January
1558, the City companies, in their black and red hoods, lined both sides
of the way from Fenchurch to the Cross. The Queen, a coronetted and
golden figure, rode in a litter, surrounded by her train of pensioners
bearing their axes, and yeomen of the guard in their scarlet liveries
with the Tudor rose and crown upon their backs. Behind came the Master
of the Horse, leading a white hackney, and the Lords of the
Council.[445] There were seven pageants, each with its verses in English
or Latin and a child for interpreter. At the first, on a scaffold near
Fenchurch, the child delivered a speech of welcome. At the upper end of
Gracechurch Street was an arch bearing 'The Uniting of the two Houses of
Lancaster and York'; at the Cornhill conduit another, with 'The Seat of
Worthy Governance'; at the great conduit a third, with 'The Eight
Beatitudes'. The first bore representations of Henry VII, Henry VIII,
and Elizabeth herself; the other two allegorical figures of the morality
type. At the Cross stood the Mayor and Aldermen, with a speech by the
Recorder, and a thousand marks in a purse. At the little conduit was the
fourth and principal arch, with sterile and green mounts symbolizing 'A
Ruinous and a Flourishing Commonweal'; and Time and Truth presented the
Queen as she went by with an English Bible. At the door of the school in
St. Paul's Churchyard, a boy of Colet's foundation delivered a Latin
speech. At the Fleet Street conduit was 'Deborah, with her Estates,
consulting for the good Government of Israel'. At St. Dunstan's church
was another speech by a child of the hospital. And, finally, at Temple
Bar stood those ancient folk-figures and palladia of the City, without
whose beneficent presence no holiday could be complete, the giants
Gotmagot and Corineus.[446] When James was crowned on 25 July 1603, a
state entry on the traditional lines was planned, but when the arches
were already up it was decided that the risk of plague was too great,
and the ceremony was put off, first to the opening of a parliament
contemplated in October, and ultimately to the following spring.[447] It
took place on 15 March 1604. Jonson, Dekker, and Middleton were employed
to furnish verses and devices, and the structure of the five pageants
provided by the City was entrusted to Stephen Harrison, a joiner.[448]
There were three additional ones, of which two were contributed by the
Italian and Dutch traders in London, and the third, erected outside the
City boundary, by the City of Westminster and the Savoy Liberty. The
Venetian ambassador was perhaps prejudiced in reporting that the Italian
pageant excelled the others in design and workmanship. But all the
pageants, although they were enlivened by speeches and songs, for which
the services of trained actors were enlisted, appear to have relied more
upon architectural embellishment and less upon allegorical symbolism
than those of 1559.[449] The order was as follows: At Fenchurch were the
Genius of London and Thamesis, impersonated by Edward Alleyn of the
Prince's men and a boy from the Queen's Revels; at the Exchange the
Dutch and Italian arches, in neither of which a definite theme is
traceable; at Soper Lane end 'Arabia Britannica', with a speech by a
Paul's choir-boy and the song 'Troynovant is now no more a city'. In
Cheapside stood once more the civic dignitaries, with a speech by the
Recorder and three cups of gold for the King, Queen, and Prince. At the
Cross were Sylvanus and Vertumnus, with the 'Garden of Eirene and
Euporia'. In Paul's Churchyard the choristers sang, and a boy from the
grammar school was ready with his Latin. The pageant at Fleet conduit,
where William Borne of the Prince's had a speech as Zeal, represented
the 'Globe of the World'; that at Temple Bar the 'Temple of Janus'; that
of Westminster and the Savoy in the Strand the Rainbow, Sun, Moon, and
Pleiades. Jonson seems to have been responsible for the devices at
Fenchurch, Temple Bar, and the Strand; Dekker for those at Soper Lane
and the Cross; Middleton for at any rate a part of that in Fleet Street.
A few London entertainments of less importance are upon record. When
Elizabeth first came to the Tower on 28 November 1558, there were 'in
serten plasses chylderyn with speches, and odur places, syngyng and
playing with regalles'.[450] When James first came to London on 7 May
1603, Dekker had prepared a show of the Genius Loci and Saints George
and Andrew for performance at the Bars beyond Bishopsgate, which he
afterwards printed; but he was disappointed, for James entered by
another route, direct from Stamford Hill to the Charterhouse.[451] On 31
July 1606 he brought the King of Denmark to see the City, and there was
an arch with Neptune, Mulciber, Concord, and the Genius of London, and a
Summer Bower with a shepherd and shepherdess on the Fleet Street
conduit.[452] On 16 July 1607 he dined with Henry at the hall of the
Merchant Taylors, who spent £1,000 on the festivity. Ben Jonson wrote
verses to be spoken by John Rice, then a boy actor at the Globe, as an
angel of gladness, with a taper of frankincense in his hand, and the
hall was filled with music. There were lutenists in the windows,
wind-instruments on the screen, and three singers in a ship hanging
aloft. The court musicians, Thomas Lupo and Mr. Lanier, and Nathaniel
Giles and the Chapel were amongst those who made melody.[453] London was
to the fore again in welcome to Prince Henry on his creation as Prince
of Wales, sending the barges of the Lord Mayor and the companies to meet
him, as he came up by river from Richmond on 31 May 1610, with Corinea
on a whale to offer salutation on behalf of Cornwall at Chelsea, and
Amphion on a dolphin to do the same for Wales at Whitehall. The speeches
were written by Anthony Munday and delivered by Richard Burbage and John
Rice.[454] A month earlier, on 23 April, another show in Henry's honour
had been held at Chester. It was devised by Robert Amerie, an
ex-sheriff of the town, and consisted of a horse-race on the Roodeye,
after a procession in which the bearers of the bells that served as
prizes were accompanied by St. George and his dragon pursuing a Green
man or 'wodwose', while speeches were uttered by Fame, Mercury, Chester,
Britain, Cambria, Rumour and Peace, and Joy composed a _débat_ between
Love and Envy.[455]

Even in the absence of the sovereign, London had pageantry for its own
delight; folk-pageantry in the May-games, morrises and lords of misrule,
which sometimes made their way to Court;[456] municipalized
folk-pageantry in the Midsummer and St. Peter's Eve 'watches', which
barely survived into Elizabeth's reign;[457] municipal pageantry fully
established in the ceremony which has come down to our own day of the
Lord Mayor's show. The Mayor was installed on St. Simon and St. Jude's
Day, 28 October, and on 29 October he went by water to Westminster Hall
to be admitted before the barons of the Exchequer in the Exchequer
chamber. On his return he was met by his guildsmen and other citizens at
the waterside, and escorted to dinner in the Guildhall, and after dinner
to service in St. Paul's and back to his own house. There had been
pageants on this occasion in the fifteenth century, but these were
suppressed in 1481, and during the earlier part of the sixteenth century
the spectacular element was limited to a 'foyst or wafter' upon the
river, such as that with a device of a crowned falcon on a mount
environed with white and red roses, which the City provided by royal
command for the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533.[458] But shortly
after, and perhaps as a result of, the discontinuance of the 'watches'
in 1538, the installation pageant makes its appearance again. It can be
traced in 1540, and then, with the accompaniment of speeches, fireworks,
devils, and wodwoses', in the pages of Machyn's diary during most years
from 1553 to 1562.[459] Many details are preserved of the Merchant
Taylors' pageant of 1561 for Sir William Harper, and of the Ironmongers'
pageant of 1566 for Sir James Draper, in the device of which James
Peele, clerk of Christ's Hospital, and father of George Peele, had a
hand. On both occasions the speeches and songs were entrusted to boys
from Westminster, under the 'Mʳ of the quirysters', John Taylor.[460]
Some speeches are preserved from the Merchant Taylors' pageant of St.
John Baptist for Sir Thomas Roe in 1568, while James Peele was again
engaged by the Ironmongers to prepare a device, which, however, came to
nothing, for Sir Alexander Avenon in 1569.[461] It must be doubtful
whether there was a pageant in every year, but when William Smythe
described the installation ceremonies in 1575, he included as regular
features the 'deveils and wyldmen' which met the returning mayor at
Paul's Wharf, and 'the pageant of Tryumphe rychly decked, whervppon by
certayne fygures and wrytinges (partly towchinge the name of the sayd
mayor) some matter towchinge justice and the office of a magestrate is
represented'.[462] Von Wedel saw the Drapers' pageant for Sir Thomas
Pullison in 1584.[463] Custom seems to have assigned the provision of
the pageant to the 'bachelors' of the Lord Mayor's company, that is to
say, those freemen who were not yet advanced to be members of the
'livery' or governing body. The Ironmongers paid for the printing of
their pageant in 1566, but the first printed description now extant is
that of the Skinners' pageant for Woolstan Dixie in 1585, which was
written by George Peele. Peele seems to have inherited his father's
connexion, for he had, according to the _Merry Jests_, 'all the
oversight of the pageants', and certainly he devised the Drapers'
pageant for Martin Calthorpe in 1588, which is now lost, and the
_Descensus Astraeae_ of the Salters for William Webbe in 1591. The
Fishmongers' pageant for John Allot in 1590 was, however, by one T.
Nelson, a stationer. The absence of Elizabethan prints later than these
does not necessarily mean that pageants fell out of use. There was one
in 1600;[464] the Merchant Taylors had one for Sir Robert Lee in 1602;
there would have been one in 1603 but for the plague; and there was
probably one in 1604.[465] On the other hand, it can hardly be inferred
from the chaff of Munday as a 'peeking pageanter' in _Histriomastix_ and
as 'pageant-poet to the city of Milan' in _The Case is Altered_ that he
stepped regularly into Peele's shoes about 1591. Jonson's reference, at
least, is subsequent to Munday's first 'book' of a pageant, which was,
so far as we know, the Merchant Taylors' _Triumphs of Reunited
Britannia_ for Sir Leonard Holliday in 1605. I do not know on what
evidence _Campbell, or the Ironmongers' Fair Field_, for Thomas Campbell
in 1609, the only known copy of which has lost its title-page, is
sometimes ascribed to him. But he was responsible for the Goldsmiths'
_Chryso-Thriambos_ for Sir James Pemberton in 1611, the Drapers'
_Himatia Poleos_ for Sir Thomas Hayes in 1614 and their _Metropolis
Coronata_ for Sir John Jolles in 1615, and the Fishmongers'
_Chrysanaleia_ for John Leman in 1616. His chief competitors in civic
favour were Dekker and Middleton, the former of whom prepared the
Merchant Taylors' _Troja Nova Triumphans_ for Sir John Swinnerton in
1612, and the latter the _Triumphs of Truth_ for Sir Thomas Middleton in
1613, to the 'book' of which he annexed an account of a quite
exceptional entertainment on occasion of the opening of Hugh Middleton's
New River on 29 September 1613.

Middleton's title-page refers scornfully to the 'common writer' of
mayoral pageants, which may perhaps indicate Munday. A full analysis of
all this municipal imagery would be extremely tedious. The original
single pageant with its devils and 'wodwoses' underwent much elaboration
in the seventeenth century. 'By this light', says a character in
_Greenes Tu Quoque_ (1611-12), 'I do not think but to be Lord Mayor of
London before I die, and have three pageants carried before me, besides
a ship and an unicorn.' Dekker's _Troja Nova Triumphans_ has three
movable 'land-triumphs', a chariot of Neptune, a chariot of Virtue, and
a House of Fame, which met the Mayor successively at Paul's Chain,
Paul's Churchyard, and the Cross in Cheapside, while the little conduit
was transformed into a Castle of Envy, and met an assault with
fireworks. Sometimes the old 'foist' was revived, and part of the
spectacle took place on the water. Or one of the land pageants was
designed in the form of a ship. There were personages mounted on strange
beasts. Speeches and dialogues afforded opportunities for laudation of
the Lord Mayor and his brethren. There was generally some theme bearing
upon the history of the company or the industry to which it was related.
The Fishmongers made play, both in 1590 and 1616, with Sir William
Walworth; the Drapers, both in 1614 and 1615, with Sir Henry Fitz
Alwine, and with the Ram with the Golden Fleece. The Merchant Taylors,
on whose roll Prince Henry had been inscribed at the dinner of 1607,
proudly displayed an impersonation of him in 1611. Often the _mimesis_
was renewed on the way to St. Paul's in the afternoon, or at the Lord
Mayor's house in the evening. The Ironmongers have preserved an
interesting series of coloured designs for _Chrysanaleia_, the notes on
which indicate that the pageants were preserved as permanent decorations
for the company's hall. The ship, which held musicians at the Merchant
Taylors' dinner of 1607, was probably a relic of their pageant of 1602.

The growing maritime power of England during the sixteenth century and
the significance of the river as a highway between London and the
palaces up and down stream led naturally to a development of pageantry
by water. There was a water triumph, with an assault of a castle, on
Midsummer Day, 1561, and another, arranged by Captain Stukeley, when
Elizabeth went down to Greenwich in June 1563.[466] Christian of Denmark
gave James a show of the Burning of the Seven Deadly Sins' in 'wildfire'
near his flag-ship at Gravesend on 11 August 1606.[467] The creation of
Henry was celebrated by a mock sea-fight between merchantmen and
Turkish pirates on 6 June 1610, and the effect of this spectacle was
also enhanced by a display of fireworks. On the previous 31 May Henry
had been given the welcome of the City, as he came up the river, with a
device by Anthony Munday, in which Burbage and Rice of the King's men
rode upon two great fishes to deliver the speeches. Burbage, as Amphion,
represented Wales, and Rice, as Corinea, Cornwall.[468] Similarly the
festivities at the Princess Elizabeth's wedding in 1613 included a fight
between Venetian and Turkish galleys on 11 February and a firework
representation of St. George delivering the Amazonian Queen Lucida from
Mango the Necromancer.[469] The City had to find a pension for a man who
was maimed in this triumph.[470] Bristol, the second seaport of the
realm, also favoured water shows, welcoming Elizabeth in 1574 with an
assault on the forts of Peace and Feeble Policy, and Anne in 1613 with a
version of the more modern theme of merchantman and pirate.[471] We do
not know the nature of the _Devises of Warre_ prepared by Thomas
Churchyard for one of Sir Thomas Gresham's entertainments of Elizabeth
at Osterley; but an example of the conversion of military training into
_mimesis_ is afforded by the archery show of Prince Arthur with his
Knights of the Round Table, which was displayed by Hugh Offley before
the Queen between Merchant Taylors and Mile End in 1587.[472]

More than two centuries before this, when Edward III associated this
same Round Table with the foundation of his chivalric order of the
Garter, pageantry had already begun to cast its mantle over the
mediaeval exercises of knightly feats of arms. As the actual practice of
warfare dissociated itself more and more from the domination of the
mail-clad horseman, the spectacular tendency had naturally grown. Not
that, even at Whitehall, the tournament had ever become a mere pageant
and nothing more. It had still its value, both as part of the courtly
training of a gentleman and as a test of physical endurance; and it was
chiefly about the preliminaries, the challenge and the entrance of the
knights into the lists, that the decorative fancy of the Renaissance
gave itself free play. The double appeal of vigorous exercise and
sumptuous spectacle was irresistible to the youthful temperament of
Henry VIII, and the pages of Halle gleam with his tiltings as Cœur Loyal
in 1511, of which a fine heraldic record is preserved, and with the
international splendours of the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.[473]
It was largely to a desire to maintain the tradition of the spear that
the existence of the Pensioners as an element in the royal household
must be ascribed. Elizabeth had much of her father's blood in her, and
to the end took delight in the strength of a man and a horse, so that it
was still possible for an aspiring youth, such as Sir Henry Lee or Sir
Robert Carey, to win his way to Court favour by the accuracy of his seat
or the appropriateness of his trappings, no less than by his proficiency
in the gentler antics of the mask. The rules for courtly combat had been
laid down by John Tiptoft, Earl of Warwick and Constable of England in
1466, and revised for Elizabeth in 1562.[474] The generic term 'jousts
of peace' covered three distinct varieties of exercise. The most
important was the tilt, in which horsemen met in the shock of blunted
spears across the 'tilt' or _toile_, a barrier covered with cloths,
which ran longitudinally down the centre of the 'lists' or space staked
out for the encounter. A record was kept of the courses run, in which
marks were credited to the competitors for spears fairly broken or for
'attaints' on the head or body, and corresponding deductions made for
spears ill broken. The tourney was also on horseback, with swords
instead of spears; while in the foot-tourney or 'barriers' the
assailants were dismounted and fought alternately with push of pike and
stroke of sword across a wooden obstacle.[475]

The tilt and tourney took place by daylight. Henry VIII constructed a
tiltyard in Whitehall, which was improved and closed in by Elizabeth in
1561.[476] It ran between the highway and St. James's Park, from the
stables on the site of the present Admiralty to the tennis court and
cockpit on the site of the present Treasury buildings, and at the south
end was a gallery for spectators, communicating by another across the
highway with the privy apartments. The sentries in the courtyard of the
Horse Guards have been officially known to recent times as the Tiltyard
guards. There were permanent tiltyards also at Greenwich and at Hampton
Court; at the latter spectators were accommodated in five small towers,
of which one still survives.[477] The less serious exercise of the
barriers was sometimes conducted by torchlight, and even within doors,
on the floor of a banqueting house.[478] Thus it could be introduced, in
a purely mimetic form, as an episode in a mask, or even a play.[479]
Tilts took place in almost every year of Elizabeth's reign.[480] The
custom was for a few picked champions to issue a challenge for a given
day, on which they would be prepared to meet the onset of all who chose
to offer themselves as 'answerers' or defendants. Sussex, Leicester,
Hunsdon, and of the next generation Oxford and Arundel, are prominent
amongst the challengers. I do not find that any particular season was at
first especially appropriated to tilts. There was often one early in the
new year, but just as often one in the spring or summer. But at some
date, possibly as early as 1570, and almost certainly as early as 1581,
Sir Henry Lee was forward in establishing an annual tilt on Queen's Day,
the anniversary of the accession on 17 November. He may have enrolled
some kind of guild of tilters; certainly he undertook to appear
personally as challenger year by year, and for this purpose received or
assumed the designation of Knight of the Crown. In his devices he
appears under the personal name of Loricus.[481]

Only occasional examples of the pageantry used at tilts are upon
record. An account of the proceedings on the occasion of the wedding of
Ambrose Earl of Warwick and Anne Russell, daughter of the Earl of
Bedford, on 11 November 1565 will show how it was introduced. The
challenge took place in August, at the churching of the Princess Cecilia
of Baden. York Herald introduced Richard Edwardes of the Chapel, who
assumed the character of a post sent from four strange knights, and
announced their challenge to be defended before the Queen and Cecilia in
November. On 11 November the Queen was in the gallery at the end of the
tiltyard. Edwardes entered with a trumpeter, and delivered another
speech. Then the challengers rode in from the mews, each accompanied by
a patron and by an Amazon with his spare horse. They circled round the
tilt and took up their position at the Queen's end, to await the
defendants, hanging their shields on posts beneath her window. Then the
actual tilting began. The programme, although departed from, was one
which seems to have been conventional, of one day for tilt, one for
tourney, and one for barriers.[482] The women leading the horses by
their bridles perhaps appear more frequently in earlier _hastiludia_
than in those of the sixteenth century.[483] They represent, I think,
the 'damsels' of the ladies in whose names the knights fought, and whose
colours they were accustomed to wear. Elizabeth's personal colours for
this purpose were black and white.[484] It was a function of the ladies
to award to the most successful of the defendants a jewel provided by
the challengers. The principal opportunities for mimetic speechifying
were afforded by the challenge, which was sometimes delivered in person,
sometimes, as in the 1565 example, by deputy, and was probably also
hung up on the court gates, and by the shields which bore _imprese_ or
mottoed emblems, and called for interpretation by the squires or pages
who bore them.[485] Often, moreover, the tilters themselves entered in
elaborately mimetic caparisons, incongruous enough to a modern taste
with the vigorous manly exercise to which they were a preliminary, but
no doubt attractive to that of the Renaissance, which for all its
literary talk about 'decorum' cared at heart but little for congruity.
The speechifying might be resumed when the tilting was over, or at the
banquet which closed the day's festivity.[486] I gather together the few
details of this tilt pageantry which have escaped a perhaps merited
oblivion. There were speeches, and a chariot with a damsel and an old
knight made their appearance at the torchlight tourney for the Duc de
Montmorency in 1572.[487] In 1579 Oxford and his fellow challengers
prepared a device, 'prettier than it happened to be performed', the
nature of which is not specified.[488] In 1581 Arundel issued a
challenge on 6 January, under the name of Callophisus, for a tilt which
took place on 22 January, and there were 'devices in the mean season',
to which some documents in a romantic vein amongst the _Lansdowne MSS._
probably belong.[489] The coming of the French commissioners in 1581 was
the occasion of spectacular entertainments on an elaborate scale. There
appear to have been two distinct jousts. One, at Hampton Court, probably
on 6 and 7 May, is described in a French report. An antique tower with a
triangular lantern at the top was rolled forward. Out of this issued a
snake, which endeavoured to climb fruit-laden trees. Then followed six
eagles, concealing musicians, and two Irish youths dressed in floating
robes of silver tiffany, with long gilded hair and mounted on gilded
horses. Finally came a triumphal car moving backwards, on which were the
Fates, holding prisoner in a golden chain a knight in brown velvet and
golden armour. The next day furnished new devices, including little
coaches drawn by asses sewn up in white satin.[490] The second, at
Whitehall on 15 and 16 May, is the famous triumph in which Sir Philip
Sidney tilted before 'that sweet enemy, France'. The royal gallery was
transformed into a Fortress of Perfect Beauty, and the four challengers,
Arundel, Windsor, Sidney, and Fulke Greville, besieged it before each
day's tilting as the Four Foster Children of Desire, finally making
their submission, through a boy clad in ash-colour and bearing an
olive-branch, to the unconquerable occupant. Each of the twenty-one
defendants also had his 'invention' and speech, including Sir Thomas
Perrot and Anthony Cooke, 'both in like armour, beset with apples and
fruit, the one signifying Adam, the other Eve, who had hair hung all
down her helmet'. In the midst of the first day's tilting came in Sir
Henry Lee as an unknown knight, broke his spears, and departed in true
romantic fashion without revealing his identity.[491] In 1587, when the
tilting on Queen's Day was 'not so full of devises and so riche as I
have seene', is a mention of books given 'for a token' to the
spectators[492]; and to 1590 belongs such a book in the extant
_Polyhymnia_ of George Peele.[493] This was a notable occasion, for upon
it Sir Henry Lee, now past his youth, resigned the post of challenger to
the Earl of Cumberland. Peele describes the _imprese_ of the tilters.
But the principal device took place after the courses had been run. A
Temple of Vesta rose out of the earth, and at its door Lee's emblem of
the crowned pillar. An appropriate song was sung, the well-known

    'My golden locks time hath to silver turned,'

and the Vestal Virgins presented the Queen with a veil and cloak and
safeguard; after which Lee doffed his armour, put it on Cumberland as
his successor, and himself assumed, as a sign of his retirement, a side
coat of black velvet and a buttoned cap of the country fashion. He
continued, however, by the royal direction, to attend the annual Queen's
day, as a kind of Master of the Ceremonies. Cumberland, who took the
name of the Knight of Pendragon Castle, probably remained knight of the
crown until the end of the reign, but may have been rather overshadowed
by the reputation, both as a courtier and a tilter, of the popular and
magnificent Earl of Essex.[494] Robert Carey also claims to have played
a considerable figure in the jousts, and tells us how in 1593 he
appeared and made the Queen a present as 'the forsaken knight that had
vowed solitarinesse' at a cost of £400.[495] To 1595 belongs the device
of Eros and Philautia, in which Essex is believed to have had the
assistance of no less a hand than that of Francis Bacon.[496] In 1598 it
is noted that Queen's day passed 'without any extraordinarie matter
more than running and ringing'. In 1600 Essex, then under a cloud, was,
contrary to expectation, 'no actor in our triumphs', but Cumberland
delivered a speech in the capacity of a Melancholy Knight. In 1602 one
Garret came disguised, like Carey in 1593, and gave the Queen his
scutcheon and _impresa_.[497] In 1601 there seems to have been a
barriers, for which Sir John Davies was invited by Sir Robert Cecil
through Cumberland to write an introductory speech.[498]

James transferred the annual tilting to his own accession day, and it
continued to be regularly observed on 24 March. Shows 'costly and
somewhat extraordinary' are recorded on this day in 1605.[499] In 1607
the French ambassador comments that there were 'plus de beaux habits que
de bons gendarmes'.[500] In 1609 Sir Richard Preston made a sensation
'in a pageant which was an elephant with a castle on his back'.[501]
James himself was no tilter; his horsemanship was considerable, but he
employed it in the chase rather than in the onset. It is noteworthy that
running at the ring, which was quite a subsidiary sport at the court of
Elizabeth, tends under her successor to replace the more hazardous
jousts. And even at the ring the marked inferiority of James to his
brother-in-law Christian of Denmark during the latter's visit in 1606
became the subject of popular comment, and did not tend to improve the
relations between the sovereigns. The 'incomparable pair of brethren',
William Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Earl of Montgomery, shone in the
tilt-yard[502]; and it was a fall from his horse at a joust that first
attracted the King's attention to Robert Carr, afterwards Earl of
Somerset.[503] But the most prominent man-at-arms, during the earlier
years of the reign, was James's cousin, Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Lennox.
He led on one side for Truth, against the Earl of Sussex for Opinion on
the other, at a barriers given to celebrate the wedding of the Earl of
Essex on 6 January 1606, and the invaluable Jonson wrote a dialogue of
Truth and Opinion as a setting for the combat.[504] Later in the same
year Lennox was at the head of a plan to honour the visit of King
Christian by a challenge to be issued by certain knights of the
Fortunate Island, who fabled themselves to be inspired by the adventure
of the Lucent Pillar, foretold by Merlin, and declared their intention
to joust on behalf of certain amorous propositions in the valley of
Mirefleur. The original idea was to publish the challenge in the courts
of Europe, but this feature was dropped, somewhat to the relief of the
French ambassador, who had received instructions from Paris to
discourage it, as a coming royal baptism there would make sufficient
demands on shrunken French pockets, and feats of arms had, moreover,
fallen into disuse in France since the days of Henri II. A challenge was
in fact proclaimed, for England only, in the royal presence and the
public places of Greenwich, on 1 June. Then the death of the
child-princess Mary supervened, and although there was a tilt, in which
Christian took part, on 5 August, it does not appear that the romantic
setting was used.[505] Merlin, however, was utilized by Jonson, some
years later, when Prince Henry, to whom knightly exercises were as
congenial as they were repugnant to his father, made his first public
appearance in the barriers of 6 January 1610.[506] He issued his
challenge under the name of Meliadus, Lord of the Isles, and Jonson's
device, in which Merlin and the Lady of the Lake hail him as the
awakener of Chivalry from her cave, reflects something of the enthusiasm
with which Englishmen were beginning to look forward to the future of
the high-spirited prince.[507] There was a joust on 6 June 1610, after
Henry's creation as Prince of Wales, although Henry did not himself take
part in it.[508] He was tilting daily in January 1612, and a challenge
by Lennox, Southampton, Pembroke, and Montgomery is dated in this
year.[509] But the chivalric revival was fated to be dashed for ever by
the untimely death of its princely patron on the following 6 November.
The Accession tilt of 1613 is made memorable by the fact that the Earl
of Rutland had the signal honour of being furnished with an _impresa_ by
the united genius of Shakespeare and Burbage, whom we must presume to
have been the poet and the painter respectively.[510] At Elizabeth's
wedding in 1613 there was ringing only.[511] One more device by Jonson,
with Cupids and Hymen, introduced a tilt on 1 January 1614, after the
wedding of the Earl of Somerset, and my chronicle must end with the
Accession tilt of 1616, for which again Burbage furnished the Earl of
Rutland with a shield, although the name of Shakespeare, then probably
on his death-bed, does not appear.[512]


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 363: Thomas Herbert to Robert Cecil, 26 Aug. 1601 (_Hatfield
MSS._ xi. 362): 'Her Majesty, God be praised, liketh her journey, the
air of this soil, and the pleasures and pastimes showed her in the way,
marvellous well'; cf. p. 111 (1577). In March 1581, Thomas Scot reported
to Leicester (_S. P. D._ cxlviii. 34) the scurrilous statement of one
Henry Hawkins, 'that my Lord Robert hath had fyve children by the
Queene, and she never goethe in progress but to be delivered'.]

[Footnote 364: Machyn, 262, 267, describes the start from and return to
London in 1561. Puttenham, iii. 22 (ed. Arber, 266), has a story of
Elizabeth's mirth at one Serjeant Bendlowes, 'when in a progresse time
comming to salute the Queene in Huntingtonshire he said to her Cochman,
stay thy cart good fellow, stay thy cart, that I may speake to the
Queene'.]

[Footnote 365: Hunsdon to Cecil, 31 Aug. 1599 (_S. P. D._ cclxxii. 94):
'She ... will go more privately than is fitting for the time, or
beseeming her estate; yet she will ride through Kingston in state,
proportioning very unsuitably her lodging at Hampton Court unto it,
making the Lady Scudamores lodging her presence chamber, Mrs. Ratcliffes
her privy chamber.' James said of certain law courts, 'They be like
houses in progress, where I have not, nor can have, such distinct rooms
of state as I have here at Whitehall or at Hampton Court' (Bacon,
_Apophthegms_, in _Works_, vii. 166). The distribution of rooms at
Theobalds for a visit of 1572 is given in _Hatfield MSS._ xiii. 110.]

[Footnote 366: Dasent, vii. 238; viii. 401; x. 284, 286, 305.]

[Footnote 367: The Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Cecil in 1570 (_Hatfield
MSS._ i. 481) to 'speak but one good word for me to the harbingers, in
case my man shall not be able to entreat them to help me to some lodging
near the court'. The harbingers, as in origin Hall officers, would
provide for the Court generally; the Gentlemen Ushers of the Chamber for
the Queen in person. A P. C. warrant of 29 June 1575 (Dasent, viii. 402)
is for post-horses for Simon Boier, Gentleman Usher, 'being this
progresse tyme appointed to prepare her Majesties lodginges' (cf. App.
A, _Bibl. Note_).]

[Footnote 368: For references to the 'gestes', cf. 1 Ellis, ii. 274;
Wright, ii. 16; Kempe, 266; Birch, _Eliz._ i. 87; Hunter, _Hallamshire_,
123. Copies of those for 1603 and 1605 are at the Heralds' College
(Lodge, _App._ 97, 99, 108, 109). Those for 1605 are printed (from
_Harl. MS._ 7044?) by Leland, _Coll._ ii. 626, and those for 1614, with
the corporation's endorsement of receipt, from the Leicester archives by
Nichols, _James_, iii. 10.]

[Footnote 369: A survey of houses for a progress in Herts is in _S. P.
D._ CXXV. 46.]

[Footnote 370: _Hatfield MSS._ v. 19, 309; vii. 378.]

[Footnote 371: Kelly, _Progresses_, 302, 319, 345, 360; Nichols,
_James_, iii. 11; Wright, ii. 16; Howard, 211. A 'Remembrance for the
Progress' of 1575 (_Pepys MS._ 179) contains elaborate notes for routes
(not those ultimately followed) and mileage, for the provision of
vehicles, for instructions to sheriffs about corn and hay, and justices
about flesh, fish, and fowl, for the carriage of wine from London, and
the brewing of beer locally. If the country ale doesn't please the
Queen, a London supply must be provided, or a brewer taken down.]

[Footnote 372: Kempe, 265. Wingfield's letter is only dated 2 Aug.; Lord
Clinton, who is named, became Earl of Lincoln in May 1572. More
preserved a letter of 5 Aug. 1567 from William Lord Howard to the Mayor
of Guildford, asking for a close to graze his horses in during the
Queen's visit to the town. On 24 Aug. 1576 a Mr. Horsman wrote to More
(Nichols, ii. 7), 'Tis thought the Queen will not come to your house
this summer'.]

[Footnote 373: 1 Ellis, ii. 265.]

[Footnote 374: Ibid. 266. In 1570 Bedford had written to urge on Cecil
the unsuitability of Chenies for the Queen (_Hatfield MSS._ i. 477).]

[Footnote 375: 1 Ellis, ii. 267.]

[Footnote 376: Ibid. 271.]

[Footnote 377: Ibid. 272.]

[Footnote 378: _Sussex Arch. Collections_, v. 194.]

[Footnote 379: Nicolas, _Hatton_, 269. Lady Norris, to whom Elizabeth
wrote affectionately as her 'crow', was the daughter of Lord Williams of
Thame, who had befriended her as a prisoner at Woodstock; on the Rycote
entertainment of 1592, cf. p. 125.]

[Footnote 380: Kelly, _Progresses_, 296. On 6 July 1576 Gilbert Talbot
wrote to Lord Shrewsbury (Lodge, ii. 75): 'There hath been sundry
determinations of her Majesty's progress this summer.... These two or
three days it hath changed every five hours.']

[Footnote 381: 1 Ellis, ii. 274.]

[Footnote 382: Sir Charles Danvers to the Earl of Southampton (_Hatfield
MSS._ ix. 246). For other letters of courtly deprecation, which I have
no room to quote, cf. Hatton, 223; _Hatfield MSS._ v. 19, 299, 309.]

[Footnote 383: _Parker Correspondence_, 148.]

[Footnote 384: Harington, ii. 16, 'She gave him very speciall thanks,
with gratious and honorable tearms, and then looking on his wife; "and
you (saith she) _Madam_ I may not call you, and _Mistris_ I am ashamed
to call you, so I know not what to call you, but yet I do thanke you".']

[Footnote 385: Lodge, ii. 119: 'This Rookwood is a Papist of kind newly
crept out of his late wardship. Her majesty, by some means I know not,
was lodged at his house, Ewston, far unmeet for her Highness, but fitter
for the blackguard; nevertheless (the gentleman brought into her
Majesty's presence by like device) her excellent Majesty gave to
Rookwood ordinary thanks for his bad house, and her fair hand to kiss;
after which it was braved at. But my Lord Chamberlain, nobly and gravely
understanding that Rookwood was excommunicated for Papistry, called him
before him; demanded of him how he durst presume to attempt her real
presence, he, unfit to accompany any Christian person; forthwith said he
was fitter for a pair of stocks; commanded him out of the Court, and yet
to attend her Council's pleasure; and at Norwich he was committed. And,
to decipher the gentleman to the full; a piece of plate being missed in
the Court, and searched for in his hay house, in the hay rick such an
image of our Lady was there found, as for greatness, for gayness, and
workmanship, I did never see such a match; and, after a sort of country
dances ended, in her Majesty's sight the idol was set behind the people,
who avoided. She rather seemed a beast raised up on a sudden from hell
by conjuring, than the picture for whom it had been so often and long
abused. Her Majesty commanded it to the fire, which in her sight by the
country folks was quickly done, to her content, and unspeakable joy of
every one but some one or two who had sucked of the idol's poisoned
milk.' Rookwood's committal and release are recorded in the P. C. Acts
(Dasent, x. 310, 312, 342). He suffered at a later date as a recusant
and died in gaol. His cousin, Ambrose Rookwood of Stanningfield, was a
Guy Fawkes conspirator (_D. N. B._; Dasent, xxv. 118, 203, 252, 371,
419; Copinger, _Manors of Suffolk_, i. 292).]

[Footnote 386: _H. O._ 145: 'It is often and in manner dayly seene, that
as well in the kings owne houses, as in the places of other noblemen and
gentlemen, where the kings Grace doth fortune to lye or come unto, not
onely lockes of doores, tables, formes, cupboards, tressells, and other
ymplements of household, be carryed, purloyned, and taken away, by such
servants and others as be lodged in the same houses and places; but also
such pleasures and commodities as they have about their houses, that is
to say, deer, fish, orchards, hay, corne, grasse, pasture, and other
store belonging to the same noblemen and gentlemen, or to others
dwelling neere abouts, is by ravine taken, dispoiled, wasted and spent,
without lycence or consent of the owner, or any money paid for the same,
to the kings great dishonour, and the no little damage and displeasure
of those to whose houses the Kings Highnesse doth fortune to
repaire....']

[Footnote 387: 1 Ellis, ii. 277, evidently misdated 'ann. 15' for 'ann.
16'.]

[Footnote 388: Kelly, _Progresses_, 325.]

[Footnote 389: The Cofferer's Account for the progress of 1561, printed
in Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 92, from _Cott. Vesp._ C. xiv, shows expenditure
while the court lay or dined at several private houses. On 24 July 1560
Sir N. Bacon wrote to Parker, 'The Queen's majesty meaneth on Monday
next to dine at Lambeth; and although it shall be altogether of her
provision, yet I thought it meet to make you privy thereto, lest, other
men forgetting it, the thing should be too sudden' (Parker, 120). This
was a dinner on a remove from Greenwich to Richmond, not during a
progress; but the principle was probably the same. The older practice
was certainly for the crown to pay. Puttenham, iii. 24 (ed. Arber, 301),
records that Henry VII, 'if his chaunce had bene to lye at any of his
subiects houses, or to passe moe meales then one, he that would take
vpon him to defray the charge of his dyet, or of his officers and
houshold, he would be maruelously offended with it, saying what priuate
subiect dare vndertake a Princes charge, or looke into the secret of his
expence?' And the discreet courtier adds, 'Her Maiestie hath bene knowne
oftentimes to mislike the superfluous expence of her subiects bestowed
vpon her in times of her progresses'.]

[Footnote 390: Cf. p. 17.]

[Footnote 391: 1 Ellis, ii. 265, from _Lansd. MS._ 16, f. 107.]

[Footnote 392: In 1576 the Board of Green Cloth paid £3 6_s._ 8_d._ by
way of 'rewards given to inns in progress time where her majesty hath
been' (Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 48).]

[Footnote 393: Kelly, _Progresses_, 298, 320, 345, 359; Nichols, _Eliz._
i. 551.]

[Footnote 394: At Coventry in 1566 'The tanners pageant stood at St.
Johns Church, the drapers pageant at the Cross, the smiths pageant at
Little Park Street End, and the weavers pageant at Much Park Street' (H.
Craig, _Coventry Corpus Christi Plays_, xxi, misdated 1567; cf. ibid.
106).]

[Footnote 395: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 105, 109, 118, 130, 182, 225, shows
that the Revels followed the progresses of 1559, when they furnished a
banqueting house and mask at Horsley; of 1566, when their expenses came
to £187 8_s._ 11½_d._; of 1571, when the Master took nine men, three
horses and a wagon; of 1573, when they spent £21 10_s._ 8_d._ on
carriage and apparently the mask at Canterbury; and of 1574, when they
furnished the Italian players at Windsor and Reading. A Green Cloth
document of 1576 (Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 50) also records the expenditure
of £109 1_s._ 11_d._ by the Woodyard on 'necessaries, as plancks,
boards, quarters, tressets, forms, and carpenters, hired in time of
progresses'. Another of 1604 (Nichols, _James_, i. xi) is a record of
wood felled to furnish the king's house with fuel during the recent
progress.]

[Footnote 396: _Ch. Ch. Accts._ 1566 (Boas, 107), 'to the clerkes of the
greene clothe for unburdeninge at our requeste the universitie & us of
the lightes & rushes iij payre of gloves ... xviijˢ ... to the yeoman of
the woodyarde for helpinge us to a recompence of our woode & cole spent
... xˢ'. Kelly, _Progresses_, 328, 'for the which you shall have
satisfaction'.]

[Footnote 397: Kelly, _Progresses_, 361, prints the precept for the jury
at Leicester in 1614. Jacobean proclamations (_Procl._ 950, 994, 1096,
1098, 1135), regulating the functions of the Clerk of the Market, claim
that local prices, especially on progress, are often extortionate.
Nichols, _Eliz._ iii. 252, prints a memorandum of Puckering's for
Elizabeth's intended visit in 1594, which contemplates 'purveyed diet'.]

[Footnote 398: On the history of purveyance in general, the protests of
Jacobean parliaments, and the attempts to persuade the shires to accept
'compositions', cf. Gardiner, i. 170, 299; ii. 113; Cheyney, i. 29; Bray
in _Archaeologia_, viii. 329; Nichols, _James_, i. x; Kempe, 272;
_Procl._ 1033. Nichols prints a table of c. 1604 showing the proportion
of carts, 220 in all, charged on each of eight counties at removes from
Richmond, Windsor, Hampton Court, Nonsuch, or Oatlands. The king paid
2_d._ a mile and required not more than twelve miles a day. A Green
Cloth order of 1609 limits the charge on the bailiwick of Surrey (in
Windsor Forest) to eight carts on a remove from Windsor or other houses
in the bailiwick, or from Easthampstead, to Hampton Court, Oatlands,
Richmond, or Farnham. The household officers were accused of
blackmailing owners of carts to avoid impressment, and of requisitioning
superfluous provisions and reselling them at a profit. In 1605 the
Venetian ambassador reported (_V. P._ x. 267, 285) that James's servants
were under less good control than Elizabeth's, and that the longer time
now spent in the country and more frequent removes aggravated the burden
of purveyance. The carts were wanted for harvest. Moreover, hunting
destroyed the crops.]

[Footnote 399: Birch, _Eliz._ i. 12.]

[Footnote 400: Parker, xii.]

[Footnote 401: Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_, 25.]

[Footnote 402: Thomas Tooke to John Hubbard (Goodman, ii. 20).]

[Footnote 403: _Egerton Papers_, 340. The second of the documents there
printed is one of Collier's forgeries. On 27 April 1603 Sir Robert Cecil
wrote to Egerton (_Egerton Papers_, 369) to borrow some plate, 'because
of my self I am not able to furnish my house at Theobalds of all such
necessarys as are convenient for his Maiestys reception without the
helpe of my frends'.]

[Footnote 404: La Mothe, vi. 478. Gossip said that Leicester's
magnificence was in return for an 'octroy de quelques vaquanz' worth
200,000 crowns.]

[Footnote 405: _V. P._ xii. 409.]

[Footnote 406: Northumberland to Cobham (_S. P. D._ cclxxxiv. 97).]

[Footnote 407: Wright, i. 370; Hawarde, 311.]

[Footnote 408: Nichols, i. 601, prints from _Lansd. MS._ 16, 'The Q.
Prayer after a Progress, Aug. 15 [1574] being then at Bristow'. It
contains a thanksgiving for 'preseruinge me in this longe and dangerus
jorneye'.]

[Footnote 409: Kelly, _Progresses_, 301, from _Harl. MS._ 6996. The
letter is undated, but as the court was going to Kenilworth, it may
belong to 1575.]

[Footnote 410: Wright, ii. 16.]

[Footnote 411: 'I am old, and come now evil away with the inconveniences
of progress. I followed her Majesty until my man returned and told me he
could get neither fit lodging for me nor room for my horse,' writes Sir
Henry Lee in 1591 (_Hatfield MSS._ iv. 136).]

[Footnote 412: _Sydney Papers_, ii. 210.]

[Footnote 413: Walsingham wrote to Shrewsbury from Oatlands on 2 Sept.
1584 (Lodge, ii. 245), that the Privy Council was divided 'by reason of
a little by progress her Majesty hath made for her recreation'.]

[Footnote 414: Chamberlain, 166, 169, 'All is to entertain the time, and
win her to stay here if may be'.... 'These feastings have had their
effect to stay the Court here this Christmas, though most of the
cariages were well onward on theire waye to Richmond.']

[Footnote 415: Harington, i. 314: 'Her Highness hath done honour to my
poor house by visiting me, and seemed much pleased at what we did to
please her. My son made her a fair speech, to which she did give most
gracious reply. The women did dance before her, whilst the cornets did
salute from the gallery; and she did vouchsafe to eat two morsels of
rich comfit cake, and drank a small cordial from a gold cup. She had a
marvelous suit of velvet borne by four of her first women attendants in
rich apparel; two ushers did go before, and at going up stairs she
called for a staff, and was much wearied in walking about the house, and
said she wished to come another day. Six drums and six trumpets waited
in the court, and sounded at her approach and departure. My wife did
bear herself in wondrous good liking, and was attired in a purple
kyrtle, fringed with gold; and my self, in a rich band and collar of
needle-work, and did wear a goodly stuff of the bravest cut and fashion,
with an under body of silver and loops. The Queen was much in
commendation of our appearances, and smiled at the ladies, who in their
dances often came up to the stepp on which the seat was fixed to make
their obeysance, and so fell back into their order again. The younger
Markham did several gallant feats on a horse before the gate, leaping
down and kissing his sword, then mounting swiftly on the saddle, and
passed a lance with much skill. The day well nigh spent, the Queen went
and tasted a small beverage that was set out in divers rooms where she
might pass; and then in much order was attended to her palace, the
cornets and trumpets sounding through the streets.']

[Footnote 416: Lodge, iii. 38.]

[Footnote 417: Winwood, ii. 155.]

[Footnote 418: Many of the numbers in the song-books of the madrigalists
and lutenists probably had their origin in entertainments. _The Triumphs
of Oriana_ (1601), for example, may have been written as a whole for a
royal birthday or maying; cf. also examples in Fellowes, 121, 328, 434,
464, 485.]

[Footnote 419: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 154.]

[Footnote 420: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 421: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 422: _M. N. D._ 11. i. 148:

                    'Thou rememb'rest
    Since once I sat upon a promontory.
    And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
    Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
    That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
    And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
    To hear the sea-maid's music.'

On the chronology, cf. _Sh. Homage_, 154.]

[Footnote 423: On the _débat_, cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 79, 187; ii.
153, 201.]

[Footnote 424: _V. P._ x. 25. Leicester left the Queen by will in 1588
(_Sydney Papers_, i. 71) a 'Jewel with three great Emrodes with a fair
large Table Diamond in the middest, without a foyle, and set about with
many Diamonds without foyle, and a Roape of fayre white Pearl, to the
number six Hundred, to hang the said Jewel at; which Pearl and Jewel was
once purposed for her Majesty, against a Coming to Wansted'. Rowland
Whyte says of the visit to Lord Keeper Puckering at Kew in 1595 (_Sydney
Papers_, i. 376), 'Her Intertainment for that Meale was great and
exceeding costly. At her first Lighting, she had a fine Fanne, with a
Handle garnisht with Diamonds. When she was in the Midle Way, between
the Garden Gate and the Howse, there came Running towards her, one with
a Nosegay in his Hand, deliuered yt vnto her, with a short well pened
speach; it had in yt a very rich Iewell, with many Pendants of vnfirld
Diamonds, valewed at 400_l_ at least. After Dinner, in her Privy
Chamber, he gaue her a faire Paire of Virginals. In her Bed Chamber,
presented her with a fine Gown and a Juppin, which Things were pleasing
to her Highnes; and, to grace his Lordship the more, she, of her self,
tooke from him a Salt, a Spoone, and a Forcke, of faire Agate'. Of the
visit to the Earl of Nottingham in 1602, Chamberlain, 169, writes, 'The
Lord Admiralls feasting the Quene had nothing extraordinarie, neither
were his presents so precious as was expected; being only a whole suit
of apparell, whereas it was thought he wold have bestowed his rich
hangings of all the fights with the Spanish Armada in eightie-eight'.
These hangings were bought by James at the Princess Elizabeth's wedding
in 1613 (_Abstract_, 15; _V. P._ xii. 499) for £1,628, and were long
preserved in the House of Lords.]

[Footnote 425: Cf. ch. vi, p. 172.]

[Footnote 426: Cf. p. 116.]

[Footnote 427: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 428: Nichols, ii. 673; _V. P._ xiii. 36; _Hist. MSS._ i. 107.]

[Footnote 429: There are four narratives: (_a_) MS. by Matthew Stokys,
the University Registrary, printed by Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 151, and from
a transcript in _Harl. MS._ 7037 (_Baker MS._ 10) and with a wrong
ascription to N. Robinson, by Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_, ii. 259; (_b_)
Anon. in _Camb. Univ. Library MS._, Ff. v. 14, f. 87, printed by
Nichols, i. 183; (_c_) Abraham Hartwell (of King's), _Regina Literata_
(1565), reprinted by Nichols, _Eliz._¹ (1788), i; (_d_) Nicholas
Robinson (of Queen's), _Commentarii Hexaemeri Rerum Cantabrigiae
actarum_, printed by Nichols, _Eliz._¹ iii. 27. The ascription of _Dido_
to Halliwell is due to Hatcher's biographies of King's men in _Bodl.
Rawl. MS._ B. 274. Hartwell gives some analysis both of _Dido_ and of
_Ezechias_.]

[Footnote 430: I borrow from Boas, 383, De Silva's description to the
Duchess of Parma as given in Froude's transcript (_Addl. MS._ 26056 A,
f. 237) of the original in the Simanças archives. There is a translation
in _Sp. Papers_, i. 375. Froude, vii. 205, paraphrases the story. After
premising that during the Queen's visit 'they wished to give her another
representation, which she refused in order to be no longer delayed', and
that, 'those who were so anxious for her to hear it followed her to her
first stopping-place, and so importuned her that at last she consented',
De Silva continues, 'Entráron los representantes en habitos de algunos
de los Obispos que estan presos; fué el primo el de Londres [Bonner]
llevando en las manos un cordero como que le iba comiendo, y otros con
otras devisas, y uno en figura de perro con una hostia en la boca. La
Reyna se enojó tanto segun escriben que se entró á priesa en su camara
diciendo malas palabras, y los que tenian las hachas, que era de noche,
los dexáron á escuras, y assí cesó la inconsiderada y desvergonçada
representaçion.' Of course, there is nothing about this in the academic
narratives. It was an indecent proceeding, but in view of the character
of the _farsa_ or mummery which enlivened Elizabeth's first Christmas
(cf. ch. v), the misunderstanding of her taste is perhaps explicable.]

[Footnote 431: There are five narratives: (_a_) _Twyne MS._ xvii, f.
160, in the University archives, by Thomas Neale, Professor of Hebrew,
used by A. Wood, _Hist. of Oxford_, ii. 154, and Boas, 98; (_b_) Richard
Stephens, _A Brief Rehearsall_, a summary of (_a_), printed by Nichols,
_Eliz._¹ i. 95, and C. Plummer, _Elizabethan Oxford_, 193; (_c_) _Twyne
MS._ xxi. 792, by Miles Windsor of Corpus; (_d_) Nicholas Robinson (of
Queens', Cambridge), _Of the Actes done at Oxford_, printed from _Harl.
MS._ 7033, f. 142, by Nichols, i. 229, and Plummer, 173; (_e_) John
Bereblock (of Exeter), _Commentarii de Rebus Gestis Oxoniae_, printed by
T. Hearne (1729) and Nichols, _Eliz._¹ i. 35, and from _Bodl. Addl. MS._
A. 63, by Plummer, 113, and translated by W. Y. Durand in _M. L. A._ xx.
502. Bereblock gives full analyses of the plays. Boas, 106, adds
extracts from a Christ Church account of the expenditure.]

[Footnote 432: Bereblock (Plummer, 128) says, 'Hoc malum quamvis potuit
communem laetitiam contaminare, nihilominus tamen eandem commaculare non
potuit. Ad spectacula itaque omnes, alieno iam periculo cautiores,
revertuntur'.]

[Footnote 433: Cf. Boas, 106, 390.]

[Footnote 434: _Sp. Papers_, i. 578; cf. Boas, 385.]

[Footnote 435: Sometimes the Chancellor brought distinguished foreign
visitors, who were entertained with plays. In May 1569 Thomas Cooper,
Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Christ Church, wrote to Leicester (_Pepys
MSS._ 155), proposing 'a playe or shew of the destruction of Thebes, and
the contention between Eteocles and Polynices for the governement
therof', for a projected visit on 15 May by Odet de Coligny, Cardinal de
Châtillon, and asking help 'for provision for some apparaile' (not
'apparaiti', as the _Hist. MSS._ report on the _Pepys MSS._ has it). It
is not certain that the visit actually took place (Boas, 158). But in
1583 Leicester brought Albertus Alasco, Prince Palatine of Siradia in
Poland, who saw the _Rivales_ and _Dido_ of William Gager (q.v.) on 11
and 12 June. The plays were given at Christ Church by men of that and
other colleges, with the assistance of George Peele (Boas, 179, from
Holinshed and academic archives). In Jan. 1585 Leicester came again,
with Pembroke and Philip Sidney, and saw Gager's _Meleager_ at Christ
Church, and possibly also a comedy at Magdalen. Apparel was borrowed
from John Lyly, who was then connected with the Blackfriars theatre
(Boas, 192, from academic archives).]

[Footnote 436: There is only one narrative, by Philip Stringer (of St.
John's, Cambridge), printed by Nichols, _Eliz._¹, and Plummer, 245.
Wood, _Hist. of Oxford_, ii. 248, follows an independent source. Boas,
252, makes some additions from academic archives, and cites from _Twyne
MS._ xvii, f. 174, an order that 'the schollers which cannot be admitted
to see the playes, doo not make any outcries or undecent noyses about
the hall stayres or within the quadrangle of Christchurch, as usually
they were wont to doo'. This was repeated at the visit of 1605. John
Sanford's _Apollinis et Musarum Eidyllia_, reprinted by Plummer, 275,
contains verses laudatory of the various guests.]

[Footnote 437: _M. S. C._ i. 198, from _Lansd. MS._ 71, f. 204.]

[Footnote 438: There are four narratives: (_a_) Anthony Nixon, _The
Oxford Triumph_ (1605, S. R. 19 Sept. 1605); (_b_) Isaac Wake, _Rex
Platonicus, sive Musae Regnantes_ (1607); (_c_) a Cambridge report,
probably by Philip Stringer, printed from _Harl. MS._ 7044, by Leland,
_Coll._ ii. 626, and Nichols, i. 530; (_d_) a letter from John
Chamberlain in Winwood, ii. 140. F. S. Boas and W. W. Greg (_M. S. C._
i. 247) print schedules of the apparel and necessaries obtained from
Kirkham and Kendall of the Queen's Revels, and from one Matthew Fox.
They were partly for _The Queen's Arcadia_, partly, I think, for _Ajax
Flagellifer_, and partly for _Alba_. Provision was made for a magician,
and 'those scenes of the Magus', for which Robert Burton tells his
brother (Nichols, iv. 1067) that he was thanked by Dr. King, Dean of
Christ Church, were presumably in _Alba_. This is Stringer's name for
the first play. Wake calls it _Vertumnus_, but it is clear from his
analyses that it is distinct from Gwynne's, which he calls _Annus
Recurrens_. Stringer's rather critical narrative contrasts with the
self-complacency of the Oxford writers. He tells us how bored the King
was and how the Queen and the ladies disliked the almost naked man in
_Alba_.]

[Footnote 439: Goodwin's performance was made an excuse for securing the
King's recommendation for his election as a Student of Christ Church
(_S. P. D. Addl. Jac. I_, xxxvii. 66, 67, 70).]

[Footnote 440: Birch, i. 214; Winwood, iii. 441; Nichols, iv. 1087, from
Hacket's _Life of Williams_.]

[Footnote 441: Birch, i. 303; Stowe, _Annales_ (1631), 1023; _Hardwicke
Papers_, i. 394; _Truth Brought to Light_, 64; Nichols, iii. 43. The
names of the plays are given in a MS. _penes_ Sir Edward Dering, printed
by S. Pegge in _Gent. Mag._ (May 1756) and Hawkins, _Ignoramus_, xxx. I
adopt the dates of this MS., which fit better into James's movements
than the 12-15 March suggested by Chamberlain's letter in Birch, i. 303.
The Vice-Chancellor ordered 'that noe Graduate of the Universitie under
the degree of Master of Arts, or fellow-commoner, presume to come into
the streets neare Trinity Colledge in the tymes the Comedyes are
actinge; or after the Stage-Keepers be come forth; nor that any Schollar
or Student, but those onely before excepted, by any meanes presume or
attempte to come within the said Colledge or Hall to heare any of the
said Comedyes'.]

[Footnote 442: Birch, i. 360, 361; Hawkins, _Ignoramus_, cxix, from a
narrative by James Tabor, Registrary.]

[Footnote 443: Birch, i. 395, 397. Can the play have been _Susenbrotus_,
for which there seems no room in the visit of 1615, although the MS.
claims a performance before James and Charles at Trinity in '1615'?]

[Footnote 444: The term recalls the old use of the _Camera_ as a
treasury; cf. ch. ii. Similarly Bristol claimed to be the 'chamber' of a
queen consort; cf. the patent to the Children of Bristol (ch. xii).]

[Footnote 445: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 446: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 172.]

[Footnote 447: _V. P._ x. 64, 67, 74; Birch, i. 8, 9. Chamberlain wrote
to Carleton (10 July 1603), 'Our pageants are pretty forward, but most
of them are such small timbered gentlemen that they cannot last long,
and I doubt, if the plague cease not the sooner, they will rot and sink
where they stand.' The double preparation must have cost the City
something. There was a levy, amounting to £12 10_s._ on some of the
guilds, in 1603, and in February 1604 another £400 had to be raised 'for
the full performance and finishing of the pageants'. Towards this the
Carpenters paid £2, but in all they had to pay an additional £8 3_s._
4_d._ in 1604. There must have been protests, for the wardens of the
Brewers were imprisoned for refusing to pay a levy of £50 (Jupp, _The
Carpenters_, 68, 294; Young, _The Barber-Surgeons_, 110; Williams, _The
Founders_, 222).]

[Footnote 448: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 449: Dekker sadly records that a great part of the speeches
was left unspoken, lest they should be tedious to James.]

[Footnote 450: Machyn, 180.]

[Footnote 451: See ch. xxiv, s.v. Dekker, _Coronation Entertainment_. On
15 April 1605 the Spanish ambassador provoked a riot by 'joys and shews'
to celebrate the birth of a Spanish prince (Lodge, iii. 147; Stowe,
_Annales_, 862).]

[Footnote 452: _V. P._ x. 384; Nichols, iv. 1074.]

[Footnote 453: Clode, _Early History of the Merchant Taylors_, i. 276,
gives many details from records of the company, including the item, 'To
Mʳ. Hemmyngs for his direccion of his boy that made the speech to his
Majesty 40_s._, and 5_s._ given to John Rise the speaker'.]

[Footnote 454: Cf. ch. xxiii. The entry of payments to Burbage and Rice,
trumpeted as a discovery by C. W. Wallace in _The Times_ for 28 March
1913, was in fact published by Halliwell-Phillipps in the _Athenaeum_
for 19 May 1888; it is also in Stopes, _Burbage_, 108.]

[Footnote 455: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 456: Machyn, 191, 196, 201, 261, 273; cf. App. A (1559-1561).]

[Footnote 457: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 165, 382. Machyn, 287, records
a watch with a 'castylle' at the Tower on 28 June 1562. There was
another on 28 June 1564, which Elizabeth saw privately from Baynard's
Castle (_Sp. P._ i. 366; cf. App. A). Puttenham, 165, speaks of 'these
midsommer pageants in London, where to make the people wonder are set
forth great and vglie Gyants marching as if they were aliue, and armed
at all points, but within they are stuffed full of browne paper and tow,
which the shrewd boys vnderpeering, do guilefully discouer and turne to
a great derision'.]

[Footnote 458: Sharpe, _Letter Book_, L. 187, prints an order of 23 Oct.
1481 forbidding from thenceforth any 'disguysyng nor pageoun', when the
Mayor went from his house to the water or the water to his house, 'as it
hath been used nowe of late afore this time'. Halle, ii. 232, describes
the reception of Anne Boleyn.]

[Footnote 459: Machyn, 47, 72, 96, 117, 155, 270, 294. In 1553 were a
'duyllyll' and 'ii grett wodyn, with ii grett clubes all in grene, and
with skwybes bornyng'. For 1540, cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 166. A
fragment of a Salters' pageant, printed by E. D. Adams in _M. L. N._
xxxii. 285, from _T. C. C. MS._ B. 15, 39, may belong to 1530 or 1542,
when they had Mayors.]

[Footnote 460: Clode, ii. 262; Nicholl, _Ironmongers_, 84; cf. ch. xii
(Westminster). The subject in 1566 is not recorded. Richard Baker,
painter-stainer, had £18 for the pageant and everything except the
children and their apparel; John Tailor 40_s._ to find six children 'as
well for the speeches as songs'; James Pele 30_s._ 'for his devise and
paynes in the paggent'; and Thomas Giles of Lombard Street (cf. chh.
iii, v) £5 10_s._ for apparel. The company paid 5_s._ 'to the prynter
for printing of poses speches and songs, that were spoken and songe by
the children in the pagent'.]

[Footnote 461: Clode, _Memorials_, 115; Nicholl, _Ironmongers_, 97,
'Paid unto James Pele and Peter Baker, for the devise of a pageant,
which tok none effecte, xxvjˢ. viijᵈ.']

[Footnote 462: W. Smythe, _A breffe description of London_ (1575); cf.
_Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 165. Dramatic allusions are 2 _Promos and
Cassandra_, i. 6, '[_Enter_] Two men, apparrelled lyke greene men at the
Mayor feast, with clubbes of fyreworke'; _Cobbler's Prophecy_, 469,
'comes there a Pageant by, Ile stand out of the green mens way for
burning my vestment'; _Dutch Courtesan_, iii. 1, 117, 'all will scarce
make me so high as one of the giants' stilts that stalks before my Lord
Mayor's pageant'; _Northward Hoe_, ii. 1, p. 195, 'Simon and Jude's
gentlemen ushers'.]

[Footnote 463: _2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans._ ix. 252, 'a representation in
the shape of a house with a pointed roof painted in blue and golden
colours and ornamented with garlands, on which sat some young girls in
fine apparel, one holding a book, another a pair of scales, the third a
sceptre. What the others had I forget.' He gives full details of all the
installation ceremonies.]

[Footnote 464: Chamberlain, 93.]

[Footnote 465: Clode, _Early History_, i. 264, 390, cites payments for a
ship, a pageant, a lion, and a camel, and to Mr. Haines, schoolmaster of
the Merchant Taylors school, for a wagon and the apparel of ten
scholars, who represented Apollo and the Muses before the Mayor in
Cheapside. Young, _Barber-Surgeons_, 111, prints the Lord Mayor's letter
of 22 Oct. 1603 directing that there should be no show that year. Felix
Kingston entered 'a thing touching the pagent' in S. R. on 29 Oct. 1604
(Arber, iii. 273).]

[Footnote 466: Machyn, 261, 309.]

[Footnote 467: Stowe, _Annales_ (1615), 887.]

[Footnote 468: Cf. ch. xxiii.]

[Footnote 469: John Taylor, _Heaven's Blessing and Earth's Joy_
(Nichols, ii. 527). The use of fireworks at Kenilworth in 1575 and
Elvetham in 1591, with a miniature sea-fight at the latter, has already
been noted. An undated device for three days' fireworks by an Italian
before the Queen, 'in the meadow', 'in the courtyard of the Palace', 'in
the river' (_Pepys MSS._ 178) may belong to 1575, or possibly to the
Warwick visit of 1572, at which a firework assault upon a fort in the
meadow below the castle is recorded by La Mothe, v. 96.]

[Footnote 470: _M. S. C._ i. 89.]

[Footnote 471: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 472: Nichols, _Eliz._ ii. 529, from a MS. in private hands.]

[Footnote 473: Halle, i. 22, 189; Cripps-Day, 118 (misdated 1510). The
illuminated roll of 1511 is engraved in _Vetusta Monumenta_, i, pll.
xxi-xxvi. Some interesting documents on early Tudor tilting are given in
Cripps-Day, xliii, from _Harl. MS._ 69 (_The Book of Certaine
Triumphes_).]

[Footnote 474: The rules are extant in _Heralds' College MSS._ I. 26, M.
6; _Harl. MSS._ 69, 1354, 1776, 2358, 2413, 6064; _Bodl. Ashm. MS._ 763;
versions are printed in _Vetusta Monumenta_, i; Grose and Astle,
_Antiquarian Repertory_, i. 144; Meyrick, _Antient Armor_, ii. 179;
Harington, i. 1; Cripps-Day, xxvii. Viscount Dillon prints (_Arch._
lvii. 29) an illuminated fifteenth-century collection of ordinances of
chivalry which belonged to Prince Henry.]

[Footnote 475: Dillon, _An Elizabethan Armourer's Album_ (_Arch.
Journal_, lii. 113), _Tilting in Tudor Times_ (_A. J._ lv. 296),
_Barriers and Foot-Combats_ (_A. J._ lxi. 276), _Armour and Arms in
Shakespeare_ (_A. J._ lxv. 270); C. ffoulkes. _Jousting Cheques of the
Sixteenth Century_ (_Archaeologia_, lxiii. 31), W. Segar, _Honor,
Military and Ciuill_ (1602), iii. 54, records a number of Elizabethan
jousts, or, as he calls them, 'triumphs'. Dillon (_A. J._ lv. 303)
reproduces drawings of a tilt, tourney, and barriers by William Smith
(_c._ 1597).]

[Footnote 476: W. L. Spiers in _L. T. R._ vii. 62; Machyn, 269.]

[Footnote 477: E. Law, _Hampton Court_, i. 135, 206.]

[Footnote 478: Segar (Nichols, ii. 335) describes a tourney, presumably
a foot-tourney, at Whitehall by night before the French ambassador,
François de Montmorency, in June 1572, with the yeomen of the guard
holding 'an infinite number of torches on the terrace and in the
preaching place'.]

[Footnote 479: The play of _Paris and Vienna_ on 19 Feb. 1572 included a
triumph with hobby-horses 'where Paris wan the christall sheelde for
Vienna at the turneye and barryers' (Feuillerat, 141). A barriers was
also fought by Amazons and Knights in a mask of 11 Jan. 1579
(Feuillerat, 287).]

[Footnote 480: Cf. App. A.]

[Footnote 481: Cf. ch. xxiv. The date at which the annual tilt began is
not clear. It cannot be earlier than the institution of Queen's Day
itself (1570? cf. p. 18), but as that is said to have originated at
Oxford, hard by Woodstock, the two may have come into existence
together. Segar, who compares Lee's enterprise to 'the Knighthood della
Banda in Spaine' assigns it to the beginning of the reign. On the other
hand, I have not found any actual evidence for a tilt on 17 Nov. before
1581, although there is plenty afterwards. The references to the matter
on Lee's tombstone and in the fragments of the _Ferrers MS._ do not
help, unless fragment (iv) belongs to the Woodstock entertainment of
1575, in which case the vow 'not far from hence' must be before that
date. Is it possible that the tilting at first took place at Oxford or
Woodstock itself and was transferred to Whitehall about 1581? In 1593,
perhaps owing to the plague, it was held at Windsor.]

[Footnote 482: Leland, _Collectanea_, ii. 666.]

[Footnote 483: Thus at a joust of 1494 (Kingsford, _Chronicle_, 201),
'iiij fayre ladyes ... ladde their Bridellis with iiij silkyn laces of
white and blewe'. After a joust in May 1571, ladies led the armed
victors to receive their prizes in the presence chamber (Nichols, ii.
334, from Segar).]

[Footnote 484: Cf. p. 52. Hunsdon and Dudley, as challengers, wore black
and white in 1559; in 1560 the heralds were in black and white (Machyn,
216, 231).]

[Footnote 485: A galley on the waterside at Whitehall is described as
hung with these shields by Von Wedel (_2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans._ ix. 236)
in 1584 and by Hentzner in 1598, 'emblemata varia papyracea, clypei
formam habentia, quibus, adiectis symbolis, nobiles in exercitiis
equestribus & gladiatoriis uti sunt soliti, hic memoriae caussa
suspensa', and Manningham, 3, describes 'certayne devises and empresaes
taken by the scucheons in the Gallery at Whitehall' in 1602. The Shield
Gallery was still extant in the time of Pepys. Aubrey, _Wilts._ 88, says
that a similar collection of shields at Wilton were 'of pastboard
painted with their devices and emblems, which was very pretty and
ingenious'. Of course, these were not used in the actual encounter. On
_imprese_, cf. F. Brie, _Shakespeare und die Impresa-Kunst seiner Zeit_
(1914, _Sh.-Jahrbuch_, l. 9); G. F. Barwick, _Impresas_ (_2 Library_,
vii. 140); Lee, _Shakespeare_, 455. A contemporary treatise is Paolo
Giovio, _Dialogo dell' Imprese Militari et Amorose_ (1555). Good
examples are afforded by _Pericles_, II. ii.]

[Footnote 486: Von Wedel (loc. cit. 258) describes the accession tilt of
1584: 'About twelve o'clock the queen with her ladies placed themselves
at the windows in a long room of Whitehall palace, near Westminster,
opposite the barrier where the tournament was to be held. From this room
a broad staircase led downwards, and round the barrier stands were
arranged by boards above the ground, so that everybody by paying 12_d._
could get a stand and see the play.... During the whole time of the
tournament all who wished to fight entered the lists by pairs, the
trumpets being blown at the time and other musical instruments. The
combatants had their servants clad in different colours; they, however,
did not enter the barrier, but arranged themselves on both sides. Some
of the servants were disguised like savages, or like Irishmen, with the
hair hanging down to the girdle like women, others had horse manes on
their heads, some came driving in a carriage, the horses being equipped
like elephants, some carriages were drawn by men, others appeared to
move by themselves; altogether the carriages were of very odd
appearance. Some gentlemen had their horses with them and mounted in
full armour directly from the carriage.... When a gentleman with his
servant approached the barrier, on horseback or in a carriage, he
stopped at the foot of the staircase leading to the queen's room, while
one of his servants in pompous attire of a special pattern mounted the
steps and addressed the queen in well-composed verses or with a
ludicrous speech, making her and her ladies laugh. When the speech was
ended he in the name of his lord offered to the queen a costly present,
which was accepted and permission given to take part in the
tournament.']

[Footnote 487: Nichols, ii. 335, from Segar.]

[Footnote 488: Lodge, ii. 146.]

[Footnote 489: Nichols, ii. 334, from Segar; _M. S. C._ i. 181, from
_Lansd. MS._ 99, f. 259.]

[Footnote 490: Von Raumer, ii. 431, from a letter of M. Nellot of the
French Embassy in _Dupuy MS._ xxxiii. I do not feel sure that the writer
is really describing a distinct joust from that of Whitehall, although
he certainly locates it at Hampton Court, and the French commissioners
certainly visited Hampton Court, with Leicester and Pembroke, on 6 May
(Walsingham's _Journal_). He gives Arundel and Windsor as challengers,
and the two 'Irish youths' might be Perrot and Cooke. Tilney only
charged in the Revels Account (Feuillerat, 341) for one challenge and
two days' triumph.]

[Footnote 491: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 492: Gawdy, 25, sent his father 'ij small bookes for a token,
the one of them was gyven me that day that they rann at tilt, divers of
them being gyven to most of the lordes, and gentlemen about the court,
and one especially to the Quene'. On 18 Nov. 1595, John Danter entered
in _S. R._ (Arber, iii. 53) 'a new ballad of the honorable order of the
Runnynge at Tilt at Whitehall the 17 of November in the 38 year of her
Maiesties reign', but it does not appear to be extant.]

[Footnote 493: Cf. ch. xxiii (s.v. Lee).]

[Footnote 494: Gawdy, 67 (n.d. but ascribed by ed. to 1592), 'Uppon the
coronation day at nyght ther cam two knightes armed vpp into the pryvy
chamber videlicet my L. of Essex and my L. of Cumberland and ther made a
challenge that vppon the xxvjth of ffebruary next that they will runn
with all commers to mayntayn that ther M. is most worthiest and most
fayrest Amadis de Gaule'.]

[Footnote 495: R. Carey, _Memoirs_, 32.]

[Footnote 496: Cf. ch. xxiii (s.v. Bacon).]

[Footnote 497: Chamberlain, 29, 163; Winwood, i. 271, 274.]

[Footnote 498: _Hatfield MSS._ xi. 462, 540, 544.]

[Footnote 499: Winwood, ii. 54.]

[Footnote 500: Boderie, ii. 144.]

[Footnote 501: Birch, i. 92.]

[Footnote 502: Rowland Whyte (Lodge, iii. 162) writing of a 'great tilt'
in which Montgomery was to take part on 20 May 1605, adds the lines--

    The Herberts every cockpit day.
    Do carry away
    The gold and glory of the day.

The Westminster tilt-yard was, of course, close to the Cockpit.]

[Footnote 503: A. Wilson (_Compleat Hist._ ii. 686).]

[Footnote 504: Cf. ch. xxiii (s.v. Jonson, _Hymenaei_).]

[Footnote 505: W. Drummond of Hawthornden, _Works_ (1711), 231; Boderie,
i. 58, 105, 136, 173, 185, 260. The challenge of the Knights Errants,
who were the Earls of Lennox, Arundel, Pembroke, and Montgomery, is sent
by Drummond to a correspondent, with a reply in the same vein, but there
is nothing to suggest that he was the author. Ford's (q.v.) _Honour
Triumphant_ (1606) is addressed to the four Earls.]

[Footnote 506: There are several extant portraits of Henry in tilting
armour; one is engraved in Drayton's _Polyolbion_ (1613). Dillon (_A.
J._ lii. 125; lx. 132) notes that he had five suits of tilting-armour.
One, given him by Lee, cost £200. Another, given by Prince de Joinville,
is in the Tower. A third, at Windsor, was made by William Pickering at
Greenwich, apparently on one of the designs by Jacobe now at South
Kensington. As early as 18 Aug. 1604, when he was ten years old, the
Constable of Castile saw Henry at pike and horse exercise, and gave him
a pony (_V. P._ x. 178).]

[Footnote 507: Cf. ch. xxiii (s.v. Jonson, _Prince Henry's Barriers_).]

[Footnote 508: Nichols, ii. 361.]

[Footnote 509: Clephan, 133, 176, from _Harl. MSS._ 4888, art. 20; cf.
App. A.]

[Footnote 510: _Rutland MSS._ iv. 494, 'Item 31 Martii to Mʳ. Shakspeare
in gold about my Lords impreso xliiijˢ. To Richard Burbadge for paynting
and making yᵗ in gold xliiijˢ'. Wotton, ii. 17, mentions the 'bare
_imprese_, whereof some were so dark that their meaning is not yet
understood, unless perchance that were their meaning, not to be
understood'.]

[Footnote 511: Nichols, ii. 549.]

[Footnote 512: _Rutland MSS._ iv. 508, 'Paid given Richard Burbidg for
my lordes shield and for the embleance, 4ˡ. 18ˢ'.]




V

THE MASK

     [_Bibliographical Note._ The origins of the mask are treated in
     my book on _The Mediaeval Stage_ (1903), ch. xvii, and, with
     its Tudor and Stuart developments, in R. Brotanek, _Die
     englischen Maskenspiele_ (1902), and P. Reyher, _Les Masques
     anglais_ (1909). An earlier study of merit is A. Soergel, _Die
     englischen Maskenspiele_ (1882). R. Bayne contributes a chapter
     on _Masque and Pastoral_ (_C. H._ vi.), and P. Simpson one on
     _The Masques_ (_Sh. England_, ii. 311). I have not seen W.
     Scherm, _Englische Hofmaskeraden_. Useful material, handled
     with imperfect scholarship, is in M. Sullivan, _Court Masques
     of James I_ (1913), and there are dissertations by A. H.
     Thorndike, _The Influence of the Court-Masque on the Drama_,
     1608-15 (_M. L. A._ xv. 114), J. W. Cunliffe, _Italian
     Prototypes of the Masque and Dumb Show_ (_M. L. A._ xxii. 140),
     W. Y. Durand, _A Comedy on Marriage and some Early
     Anti-masques_ (_J. G. P._ vi. 412), and J. A. Lester, _Some
     Franco-Scottish Influences on the Early English Drama_ (1909,
     _Haverford Essays_). Most of the scanty Elizabethan material is
     in A. Feuillerat, _Documents relating to the Office of the
     Revels in the Time of Queen Elizabeth_ (1908, _Materialien_,
     xxi, cited as Feuillerat, _Eliz._), and the relation of the
     Revels Office to masks is studied in his _Le Bureau des
     Menus-Plaisirs et la Mise en Scène à la Cour d'Elizabeth_
     (1910, cited as Feuillerat, _M. P._); cf. also ch. iii. Many of
     the contemporary descriptions of masks are edited amongst the
     works of the poets, and are also to be found, with the few that
     are anonymous, in J. Nichols, _Progresses of Elizabeth_ (1823),
     and _Progresses of James I_ (1828); P. Cunningham and J. P.
     Collier, _Inigo Jones, a Life; and Five Court Masques_ (_Sh.
     Soc._ 1848); and H. A. Evans, _English Masques_ (1897). A
     valuable bibliography is W. W. Greg, _A List of Masques,
     Pageants, &c._ (_Bibl. Soc._ 1902). Analogous French texts are
     in P. Lacroix, _Ballets et Mascarades de Cour_ (1868-70), and
     are studied in V. Fournel, _Les Contemporains de Molière_
     (1863), ii. 173, G. Bapst, _Essai sur l'Histoire du Théâtre_
     (1893), 193, and H. Prunières, _Le Ballet de Cour en France_
     (1914).]


The mask is not primarily a drama; it is an episode in an indoor revel
of dancing. Masked and otherwise disguised persons come, by convention
unexpectedly, into the hall, as a compliment to the hosts or the
principal guests. Often they bring them gifts; always they dance before
them, and then invite them to join the dance. They bring torch-bearers
and musicians, who light and accompany the choric evolutions. Their
intention lends itself to elaboration by spokesmen or presenters, and to
such spectacular decoration as a pageant or scene affords; thus it
readily assumes a mimetic setting. It is necessary to lay stress on the
fact that the guests mingle with the maskers in the dance. This intimacy
between performers and spectators differentiates the mask from the
drama to the end; its goal is the masked ball, not the opera. And as a
corollary to this intimacy, the performers are of the same social
standing as the audience; the mask is an amateur and not a professional
performance.

I have attempted elsewhere to indicate a possible folk origin for the
mask in the visits of excited worshippers, with fragments of a divine
and immolated animal, from house to house of a village, in order that
all may share the direct contact of the beneficent and potent thing.
Those persistent vizards and torches may perhaps recall, the one the
head and skin of the sacrificed victim, the other the brand snatched
from the sacrificial fire, itself perhaps the survival of a sunshine
charm even older than the sacrifice.[513] Obviously in the humanist and
even sceptical court of Elizabeth any consciousness of the 'luck' of the
mask must have been quite subliminal. It was a custom, like the rest,
belonging of right to the twelve days of the Christmas rejoicing, but
adaptable readily enough to a wedding or any other occasion of mundane
festivity. As a medium of courtly compliment to a sovereign it is
already well established in the fourteenth century. When Prince Richard,
afterwards Richard II, was keeping Candlemas at Kennington in 1377,
citizens of London, to the number of 130, rode to visit him with
musicians and torch-bearers. They wore vizards and were dressed to
represent the members of an imperial and a papal court. Entering the
hall, they diced with the prince and his company for jewels, using
loaded dice so as to be sure of losing. After the dicing the music
sounded, and 'the prince and the lordes danced on the one syde and the
mummers on the other a great while and then they dronck and tooke their
leaue'. The whole proceeding is called 'mumming'.[514] It is to be noted
that the 'lucky' character of the gifts is emphasized by the show of
dicing, and that the fraternization of maskers and spectators in the
dance is clearly marked. This is important, because during the changes
of the fifteenth century this particular and primitive element was
apparently forgotten. It was a period of literary and spectacular
elaboration. The dance in disguise attracted to itself other forms of
courtly entertainment that were then in vogue; the speech and dialogue
of allegorical or mythological personages, the architectural pageant,
the mimic tournament, even the interlude.[515] Splendid devices were
shown in Westminster Hall before the sovereigns under their cloths of
estate at the wedding of Prince Arthur and Katharine of Aragon in
1501.[516] On the first night three great pageants were successively
wheeled in. The first was a castle drawn by four beasts and bearing
eight disguised ladies. The second was a ship with mariners, whose
'counteynaunces speaches and demeanor' doubtless furnished an element of
comedy. They brought Hope and Love, who were ambassadors from the third
pageant, a Mount of Love, which bore eight knights. These descended and
assaulted the castle, and finally the ladies yielded and knights and
ladies danced together. On the second night the pageants represented an
arbour and a lanthorn; on the third two mountains; on the fourth, at
Richmond, a chapel. Very similar to these revels of Henry VII's reign
are those described by the chronicler Halle during the early years of
that of Henry VIII.[517] Many variations are possible. There is not
always a pageant. The comic element may take the form of a 'morris'. The
whole thing may form a setting or afterpiece to an interlude.
Occasionally a dicing is introduced, and to this variety the term
'mumming' or 'mummery' appears by the sixteenth century to have been
specialized.[518] The more generic term is 'disguising'. For all its
elaboration, the early sixteenth-century disguising retained many of its
original features. Vizards and torches are employed. The disguisers come
in suddenly, as a surprise to the guests. But unlike the visitors of
Richard II in 1377, they do not, so far as the records show, call upon
the guests to take a part in the dancing. This characteristic feature of
the primitive ceremony seems, under these particular conditions, to have
dropped out. Generally, though not always, there are two sets of
disguised persons, lords and ladies, corresponding to the 'double mask'
of later days, and these dance together. When they go out, the guests
very likely dance amongst themselves, before the 'void', or refreshment
of wine and spices, comes in. But of direct contact between disguisers
and guests, except in the old-fashioned 'mummery' with its dice-play,
there is nothing.

This same divorce between performers and spectators seems to rule in the
_momeries_ and _entremets_, which correspond to the English disguisings
in fifteenth-century France and Burgundy, and in many of the
_intermedii_ and _trionfi_ of fifteenth-century Italy.[519] But
somewhere in Italy, possibly in the carnival masks of Florence, the
primitive practice must have survived; and from Italy it made its way
back again to France, and also to England, under the rather
unjustifiable colour of a novelty.[520] It was on the Twelfth Night of
1512, according to Halle, that 'the Kyng with xi other wer disguised,
after the maner of Italie, called a maske, a thyng not seen afore in
Englande, thei were appareled in garmentes long and brode, wrought all
with gold, with visers and cappes of gold, and after the banket doen,
these maskers came in, with sixe gentlemen disguised in silke bearyng
staffe torches, and desired the ladies to daunce, some were content, and
some that knew the fashion of it refused, because it was not a thyng
commonly seen. And after thei daunced and commoned together, as the
fashion of the maskes is, thei toke their leave and departed, and so did
the Quene, and all the ladies.'[521] There has been much dispute as to
what the precise nature of the innovation of 1512 was. I formerly
thought that it lay in the introduction of some Italian detail of
costume, probably the 'long gowns and hoods with hats' of which the
contemporary _Revels Account_ speaks.[522] But after a careful review of
the earlier descriptions of disguisings, I now feel little doubt that
those are right who find the point precisely in that 'commoning' between
maskers and spectators which remained a characteristic feature of the
mask throughout the days of its most sumptuous development, and which
the good Halle could hardly be expected to recognize as merely a
reversion to a fourteenth-century English usage.[523] Nor is there any
reason to doubt that the impulse to the new-old mode, and perhaps also
the name which, although in an English form, accompanied it, had an
immediate origin in Italy.[524] Ronsard makes a similar acknowledgement
for France:[525]

    Mascarade et Cartels ont prins leur nourriture,
    L'un des Italiens, l'autre des vieux François, ...
    ... L'accord Italien quand il ne veut bastir
    Un Théâtre pompeux, un cousteux repentir,
    La longue Tragedie en Mascarade change.
    Il en est l'inuenteur; nous suyuons ses leçons,
    Comme ses vestemens, ses mœurs et ses façons,
    Tant l'ardeur des François aime la chose estrange.

And in fact it is an Italian festivity of 1492 that furnishes the only
clear account of a revel in which disguised persons took the ordinary
guests out to dance that I have yet come across between 1377 and
1512.[526]

For some time the mask and the old-fashioned disguising are traceable
side by side at the court of Henry VIII. Ultimately they amalgamated. By
the end of the reign, 'mask' has become the official name, and
'disguising' is obsolete.[527] The 'commoning' between maskers and
guests is firmly established. And the mask has taken to itself the
elaborations of the disguisings, the introductory speeches, the pageant,
the mimic fight, the double sets of dancers, the close association with
the interlude.[528] Or, more strictly speaking, it can be either simple
or elaborate, a mere masked dance, or a far-fetched and costly device,
as occasion and economy may demand. As far as I can see, the whole
evolution of the form, as we find it in the seventeenth century, was
already complete under Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn, in 1532, led the first
recorded mask in which women took lords out to dance.[529] Even the
fixed scene had made its appearance, as an alternative to the movable
pageant, before the end of the reign.[530]

The mask retained its vogue under Edward VI and Mary, and Elizabeth,
with her special love of dancing, was not likely to neglect it.[531] The
annals of her court, indeed, have left us few such detailed descriptions
of masks as Halle affords for that of Henry VIII and the mask-writers
themselves for that of James I. This may be an accident, or it may be
that either economy or taste led Elizabeth to a preference for the mask
simple over the mask spectacular, which most invites description. The
story of the Elizabethan mask has to be pieced together from the
account-books of the Revels Office, or, where these fail, from scattered
sources. But though we would gladly have more detail, especially on the
literary and dramatic side, the result of such a survey is sufficient to
show that this particular type of _mimesis_ contributed at least as much
to the Christmas entertainment of Gloriana as to that of either her
father or her successor.

The first mask of the reign was on Twelfth Night, 1559. Some of its
details recall, across a space of two centuries, those of the Kennington
'mumming' of 1377. In both cases the performers represented
ecclesiastical personages, and in both there was the somewhat
exceptional feature of a parade in the streets. Naturally the
Elizabethan show, with its crows, asses, and wolves dressed as
cardinals, bishops, and abbots, made a characteristic sixteenth-century
appeal to the sympathies of a reviving Protestantism.[532] But even in
1377 the satirical element had not been lacking, for after emperor and
pope came riding at the end of the procession '8 or 10 arayed and with
black vizerdes like deuils, nothing amiable, seeming like legates'. The
1559 mask appears to have been on a much larger scale than was
customary. There were at least four cardinals and six priests. There
were popes, monks, summoners, and vergers. And there were friars, in
black, white, yellow, russet, and green, apparently a pair of each
colour. The russet friars wore velvet garments, with sleeves of yellow
velvet and purple satin 'partie paned'; the popes and cardinals rochets
of white sarcenet; the monks kirtles and cowls of black taffeta with
sleeves of purple satin. The Revels Office was careful to provide hats
for the cardinals and 'croger-staves' for the bishops. Four other masks
followed during the same winter. Two formed part of the festivities
accompanying the coronation, which took place on 15 January. These were
a mask, probably of Conquerors in white cloth of silver, on 16 January,
and a mask, probably of six Moors, on 22 January. The Moors had apparel
of cloth of gold and blue velvet, with sleeves of silver sarcenet and
'bases' of red satin. On their heads was curled hair made of black lawn
and wreathed with red gold sarcenet and silver lawn. Their limbs and
faces were of black velvet, and of these it is recorded that 'the lords
that masked toke awey parte'. They carried darts of 'tree and paste
paper gilded', and as the Revels Office also prepared bells and staves,
it is probable that a morris was introduced. The torch-bearers to this
mask were eight Moorish friars, with head-pieces of crimson satin. The
remaining two masks were at Shrovetide. On the Sunday was a double mask,
with an assault in it. The Queen's maids were rifled and rescued
again.[533] One party consisted of eight Swart Rutters, in black and
white jerkins and long breeches, with laced hats, dags, and silvered and
gilded partisans; the other probably of six Hungarians in blue and
purple cloth of gold. The torch-bearers were six Almayns, and the music
a drum and fife. On the Tuesday was another double mask, but of women,
being six Fisher Wives and eight Market Wives, dressed in bodies and
kirtles of various cloths of gold and silver, with elaborate trimmings,
and wearing wicker head-pieces painted with red and silver, and hats
covered with gold lawn. They seem to have had Fishermen for
torch-bearers, and six minstrels in yellow damask, as well as a drum and
fife.

Four masks were given during the summer of 1559. One was on 24 May in a
banqueting house built at Westminster, for the entertainment of the Duke
of Montmorency, Constable of France, who came to ratify a treaty. This
was of Astronomers, in long robes of Turkey red cloth of gold, with
torch-bearers in green damask. The second was in a banqueting house at
Greenwich on 11 July, after a tilt by the Queen's pensioners. The other
two were in August during the progress. One was given by the Earl of
Arundel at Nonsuch on 6 August.[534] The other was in a specially built
banqueting house at Lord Admiral Clinton's place of West Horsley. This
last was a double mask of Shipmen, appropriate to an Admiral, in blue
cloth of gold, and Country Maids. Two 'grasyers or gentillmen of the
cuntrye', whose black damask gowns appear in a Revels inventory, may
have acted as presenters.

The winter masks of 1559-60 were five in number. On New Year's day was a
mask of six Barbarians, in red cloth of gold, with Venetian commoners in
white damask for torch-bearers. On Twelfth Night was a double mask, of
six Venetian Patriarchs in green, with purple head-pieces, and six
Italian Women in white and crimson. They were accompanied by
torch-bearers and a drum and fife. On Shrove Tuesday was another double
mask, of an elaborate mythological character, for which a device of 'a
rocke of founteyne' was employed. The women represented Diana in purple
and three pairs of Huntress Nymphs, in carnation, purple, and blue
respectively; the men Actaeon and his six fellows, in purple, with
orange buskins and gilt boar-spears. They had a drum and fife and, as
torch-bearers, eight Maidens in purple with variously coloured kirtles,
and eight Hunters in yellow with murrey buskins. And they were
accompanied by twelve hounds. It is noted in the Revels inventory that
Actaeon's garments were 'all to cutt in small panes and steyned with
blood'. There were also a mask on New Year's Eve and a second mask at
Shrovetide.[535] One of these was of six Nusquams, allegorical
personages in white, crimson, and yellow, having the breasts of their
scapulars 'steyned with the posy of poco a poco'. Their torch-bearers
were six Turkish commoners in murrey and white. The other was of eight
Clowns in red and green, with flails and spades of gilt wood, black
high-laced shoes made out of the limbs of the previous year's Moors,
hedging mittens, and white gold sarcenet aprons, which were 'gyven awaye
by the maskers in the queenes presence'. They had eight Hinds for
torch-bearers, and a shepherd for a minstrel.[536]

The absence of _Revels Accounts_ renders it impossible to construct a
full catalogue of masks between the Shrovetide of 1560 and the Christmas
of 1571; but there is every reason to suppose that they were given
yearly, and a number of scattered notices have survived. Brantôme, who
came to court during October 1561, in the train of the Grand Prior
Francis of Lorraine, describes a mask of Wise and Foolish Virgins,
performed by Elizabeth's maids of honour, who did the Frenchmen the
courtesy of taking them out to dance.[537] There was a mask at Baynard's
Castle when Elizabeth visited the Earl of Pembroke on 15 January 1562, a
'grett maske' at Whitehall on 18 January after the performance of
_Gorboduc_ by the Inner Temple, and on 1 February 'the goodlyest masket
that ever was seen', which came in procession from the city to the
court.[538] During May 1562 elaborate masks were in preparation for a
projected meeting between Elizabeth and Mary of Scots at Nottingham
Castle.[539] The meeting never came off, but a scheme for the masks is
preserved, and is sufficiently detailed to show the point which had been
reached in the evolution of the form. It covers the entertainment of
three successive nights. On the first a prison of Extreme Oblivion,
under the keepership of Argus or Circumspection, is to be made in the
hall. A mask of six or eight ladies is to enter, leading Discord and
False Report captive, and preceded by Pallas riding on a unicorn and
Prudentia and Temperantia on two lions. Pallas is to declare the
intention to the queen in verse; Discord and False Report are to be
committed to the prison; and 'then the trompettes to blowe, and
thinglishe ladies to take the nobilite of the straunger and daunce'. On
the second night the structure in the hall is to be a castle called the
Court of Plenty, whereof Ardent Desire and Perpetuity, serving
respectively Prudentia and Temperantia, are to be porters. The mask
proper is again to consist of six or eight ladies, accompanied by
Friendship on an elephant, drawing Peace in a chariot to dwell in the
castle. Friendship is to speak explanatory verses. 'Then shall springe
out of the cowrte of plentie condittes of all sortes of wynes, duringe
which tyme thinglishe lordes shall maske with the Scottishe ladyes.' The
third night's mask is to be a double one. Disdain and Prepensed Malice
are to draw in six or eight lady maskers, sitting in an orchard of
golden apples, and to demand on behalf of Pluto the surrender either of
Discord and False Report, or of Peace. These are to be followed by six
or eight lords, with Discretion and Valiant Courage or Hercules.
Discretion is to offer the services of Valiant Courage as champion.
Prudentia and Temperantia are to let down tokens of peace from their
castle, a grandgarde and a girdle and sword, which are to be laid at the
feet of the queens. There is to be an assault between Valiant Courage
and Disdain and Prepensed Malice. 'After this shall come out of the
garden, the vj, or viij, ladies maskers, with a song, that shalbe made
herevppon, as full of armony, as maye be devised.' One may note the
allegorical theme, the use both of fixed and of movable pageants, the
persistent episode of the assault at arms, the gifts to the principal
spectators, and the somewhat formal speeches of the presenters, eked out
on the last night with a song, but not yet broken up into dramatic
dialogue. The draft makes it clear that English and Scots are to mingle
in the dance, but not quite so clear that the invitation is to come from
the maskers, although that was probably the intention.[540]

There were 'gret mummeres and masks' again at Baynard's Castle on each
of the four days, 17-20 February 1563, devoted to celebrating the double
wedding of Lord Herbert of Cardiff to Lady Catherine Talbot and of Lord
Talbot to Lady Anne Herbert. But we are not told that Elizabeth was
present, although it is not improbable.[541] On 9 June 1564 there was a
device for the entertainment of Artus de Cossé, Seigneur de Gonnor, who
came as ambassador from France to confirm the treaty of Troyes. It was
of a martial character and entailed the preparation of a castle and an
arbour and three masks, and a total cost of £87 9_s._ 6_d._[542] A month
later, on 5 July, Elizabeth was entertained at the house of Sir Richard
Sackville by maskers in her colours of black and white, who presented a
sonnet in her honour. The host was the father of Thomas Sackville,
afterwards Earl of Dorset, one of the authors of _Gorboduc_ and of _The
Mirror for Magistrates_.[543] During the winter of 1564-5 there were
several masks, apparently given in close relation to the plays of the
same season. One was at Christmas and another, of Hunters and Muses, on
18 February, while at Shrovetide no less than four were made ready,
although only two, of Tilters and of Satyrs, were actually seen.[544] On
16 July 1565 Elizabeth attended the marriage at Durham Place of Henry,
son of Sir Francis Knollys, to Margaret, daughter of Sir Ambrose Cave;
and the entertainment included two masks.[545] Similarly, at Shrovetide
1566, she was present at the marriage of Henry Earl of Southampton, to
Mary Browne, daughter of Anthony Lord Montague, and on 1 July 1566 at
that of Thomas Mildmay to Frances, sister of Thomas Earl of Sussex, and
on each occasion there was a mask with an oration 'spoken and
pronounced' by Mr. Pound of Lincoln's Inn. The July mask introduced
Venus, Diana, Pallas, and Juno.[546] We know that there were four masks
during the winter of 1567-8, and that there were masks during those of
1568-9, 1569-70, and 1570-1, but practically we know no more.[547] For
1571-2, however, fuller information is available, since with this winter
begins the series of detailed Revels Accounts, which extends, with
occasional interruptions, to 1589. There were six masks, on unspecified
dates. For two of these the costumes were 'translated' from old sets.
Four were new made; one of yellow cloth of gold, with torch-bearers in
red and yellow changeable taffeta; one of crimson, purple, and green
cloth of gold, with torch-bearers in red damask; one of white and black
branched loom-work, with torch-bearers in blue and yellow changeable
taffeta; and one in murrey satin, with torch-bearers in changeable
taffeta of an unspecified colour. The maskers were six or eight in
number in each case, and wore vizards, gloves, at 6_d._ a pair, and
strange heads. Devices of canvas were made for some or all of them. One
set carried flowers of silk and gold, and before them went a child
dressed as Mercury, with two special torch-bearers, who made a speech,
and offered the Queen three similar flowers, signifying victory, peace,
and plenty.[548] On 15 June 1572 an elaborate mask was given in honour
of another French embassy under the Duc de Montmorency. The theme
evidently bore some resemblance to the abandoned devices of 1562.[549] A
vizard was made for Argus and a collar and shackles and curls of black
silk for Discord. There were two pageants, a castle upon which Lady
Peace was brought in, and a chariot measuring 14 ft. by 8 ft. with a
rock and fountain for Apollo and the nine Muses. These were probably the
dancers. The performance is called both a 'mask' and a 'triumph'. The
total cost was £409 3_s._ 2_d._, exclusive of the value of stuffs
supplied by the Wardrobe, and it is recorded that the chariot was broken
and spoiled. Payments were made to a Mistress Swego, apparently for
head-dressing, and to a 'muzisian that towghte the ladies'; also to
Haunce Eottes for 'patternes', and to Petrucio, for his 'travell and
paynes' taken in the preparations.[550] This is doubtless Petrucio
Ubaldini, and it may also be assumed that the 'Mʳ. Alphonse', who
apparently had the general direction or 'apoyntment' of the proceedings,
and wore a pair of cloth-of-gold buskins, was Alfonso Ferrabosco, the
musician.

This example attests the continuance of the spectacular element in the
mask. Its literary aspect also finds illustration during 1572. The scene
was again a house of Lord Montague, who was celebrating the double
wedding of his son and daughter to those of Sir William Dormer. The
dancers were eight kinsmen of the host, dressed as Venetians. There was
a long introductory narrative, spoken by a boy-actor. The motive of this
was suggested by the supposed community of blood between the Montagues
of England and the Montagues of Venice. The actor represented a boy of
the English house, who had been taken prisoner by the Turks, together
with four English soldiers, who were the torch-bearers. He had been
rescued by Italian Montagues, who were returning with him to Italy, when
a storm drove them on the shores of Kent, and they took the opportunity
to visit their kinsmen in London. After the mask there was a shorter
speech by Master Thomas Browne, whom the actor drew from the company,
and presented to the maskers to replace him as their 'trounchman', and
the maskers then took their leaves. The author of the verses was George
Gascoigne. They contain no indication that Elizabeth was present, and
therefore she probably was not. But they furnish a very good example of
the way in which introductory speeches, still stiff and undramatic, were
used to give topical point and meaning to the disguises assumed by
maskers.[551] With this Montague mask may be compared that at the
wedding of Henry Unton, represented in one of the scenes from his life
and death by which his portrait, now in the National Portrait Gallery,
is surrounded. The wedding party is shown at table in a great chamber,
overlooking a hall below, in which sit six minstrels. At each end of the
hall are steps, and up and down these and over the floor of the chamber
passes the mask procession, a drummer, a 'trounchman' with a paper in
his hand, Mercury, Diana, six Nymphs, and ten Cupids, five white and
five black, as torch-bearers.[552]

Finally, a curious document of this same year, 1572, indicates the
widespread popularity which the mask had acquired, as a form of social
entertainment. It is preserved amongst Lord Burghley's papers, and is a
complaint by one Thomas Giles against the Yeoman of the Revels, who had
the custody of the Queen's masks, and made a practice of letting them
out on hire to persons of all degrees, noble and mean, both in the city
and in the country.[553] Thomas Giles was a haberdasher, and from time
to time supplied goods to the Revels. He bases his complaint mainly on
the damage done to the royal property, but at the end he allows it to
appear that he himself made a business of letting out masking apparel
for hire, and found his prices undercut by those of the Yeoman. He
appends a list of a score of occasions during the past year on which
loans had taken place. The garments lent appear to have been mostly
those made for the Court festivities of the previous winter. One set is
described as 'the coper clothe of golde gownes which was last made'.
This must have been the mask of Muses given on 15 June. It was lent with
another mask, 'into the contre to the maryage of the dowter of my lorde
Montague', at some date between 15 September and 6 October. This was the
occasion of Gascoigne's verses just described, although it must have
been the other mask, a mask of men, which those verses presented.

It may be collected from scattered items of expenditure that the Court
masks of 1572-3 were two in number.[554] There was a mask of Janus on 1
January, with a snow-storm of comfits and a presentation of snowballs,
made out of sponges covered with fine lamb's-wool, to the Queen. And on
some later date there was a double mask of men and women, representing
Fishermen and probably Fruit-women. Haunce Eottes is again said to have
painted 'patternes' for the masks. There are some traces of a mask, with
women, as well as Mariners and Turks, in it, when Elizabeth received the
French ambassador Mareschal de Retz at Canterbury during the progress of
1573; and there was one at Greenwich, probably not at the royal expense,
for the marriage of William Drury in the following November or
December.[555] For the winter of 1573-4 a complete list is
preserved.[556] There was a mask of Lance Knights in blue satin, with
torch-bearers in black and yellow taffeta, on 27 December; a mask of
Foresters in green satin and cloaks of crimson sarcenet, with Wild Men
in moss and ivy as torch-bearers, on New Year's Day; and a mask of Sages
in 'counterfeit' cloth of gold, with torch-bearers in red damask, on
Twelfth Night. There were six maskers in each case. The Foresters were
equipped with a hollow tree and with comfits made to resemble wild
fruits; also with horns garnished with silver, 'which hornes', says the
Revels account, 'the maskers detayned and yet doeth kepe them against
the will of all the officers'. At Candlemas Haunce Eottes made designs
for a mask of six ladies in green satin and gold sarcenet, representing
Virtues, and carrying lights and 'properties', including a silk tree, in
specially made candlesticks. Perfumes were prepared to burn at the end
of matches, and speeches for delivery to Her Majesty written in fair
text. But after all the mask was not shown 'for the tediusnesse of the
playe that night'. Finally there were two masks on Shrove Tuesday. One
was of seven Warriors, with a shipmaster to utter a speech, and six
torch-bearers; the other of seven ladies, also with a 'tronchwoman', and
torch-bearers. Probably this was a double mask, and in some way there
came into it nine children, who had been drilled and taught their
speeches by one Nicholas Newdigate, and in various ways gave a good deal
of trouble.[557] During the winter of 1574-5 I can only trace with
confidence one mask, on an uncertain date. It was a mask of six Pedlars,
who had little hampers, and looking-glasses with posies written on them
in fine yellow paint.[558] There were not improbably others, the details
of which cannot now be disentangled in the Revels Accounts from those
relating to plays. A mask, 'for riches of aray, of an incredibl cost',
was planned as part of the Kenilworth festivities of July 1575; but was
not in the end performed.[559] Nothing is known of the masks during the
winter of 1575-6, for the Revels Accounts are missing. For Twelfth Night
1577 a 'longe' mask was prepared, of six dancers in murrey satin, with
torch-bearers in crimson damask. There were to have been seven speeches
'framed correspondent to the daie', and Nicholas Newdigate again trained
boys to deliver these. But for some reason the mask was put off, and
given on Shrove Tuesday without any speeches at all.[560] The Revels
Accounts of 1577-8 are missing. A mask by Henry Goldingham was given at
Norwich on 21 August 1578 during the progress. It was of Gods and
Goddesses, who entered the privy chamber with a presenter,
torch-bearers, and musicians, marched about the room and gave
characteristic gifts, but apparently did not dance.[561] On 11 January
1579 there was a double mask for the entertainment of the French
ambassador, M. de Simier, who had come about the Alençon marriage.
Patterns of the mask were submitted for approval to the Lord
Chamberlain. One party consisted of six Amazons, the other of six
Knights.[562] Each party had its torch-bearers and a 'troocheman', who
made a speech to the Queen and delivered her a table with the speech
written upon it. These speeches had been translated into Italian and
inscribed upon the tables by Petruchio Ubaldini. The Amazons and Knights
danced together and afterwards fought at barriers. Some of the plumes
which had been hired for the Knights were 'dropt with torches', and the
Revels Office had to pay damages for them. Patterns were also shown to
the Lord Chamberlain of a 'Mores' mask intended for Shrove Tuesday, but
this seems to have fallen through.[563] I do not know whether the
invention of the Court poets had failed, or whether for some other
reason Elizabeth had become discontent with masks; but, although there
are full Revels Accounts for the winters of 1579-80 and 1580-1, and
although plays were numerous, no single performance of a mask is
recorded. But the spirit of revelry awoke in 1581, at the coming of
French commissioners to complete negotiations for the Anjou marriage in
the spring, followed by that of Anjou himself in the autumn. Patterns of
masks were prepared and the construction of a mount begun in March.[564]
These were not proceeded with at the time, and the famous tilt before
the Fortress of Perfect Beauty was substituted as an entertainment for
the commissioners. But in the winter there were two masks, and amongst
the devices employed were a mount with a castle on the top of it, a
dragon, an artificial tree, an artificial lion, and a horse made of
wood.[565] These details suggest a revival of the scheme abandoned in
the previous spring, for the personal delectation of Anjou.

Court masks are but little in evidence during the next few years. There
was one of ladies, with torch-bearers and eight boys, on 5 January 1583,
and during the same winter one of Seamen was prepared, but not brought
into use.[566] There was a mask in 1583-4, of which no details are
given; while for 1585-6 and 1586-7 no information, in the absence of the
Revels Accounts, is forthcoming.[567] The accounts for 1584-5 and 1587-8
have a general reference to masks in their headings, which may be no
more than common form.[568] In September 1589, however, a mask was
prepared to be sent into Scotland, as a compliment to James VI on the
occasion of his wedding to Anne of Denmark.[569] It does not appear to
have been a very sumptuous affair, and only cost the Revels Office £17
10_s._ 10_d._ We are not told what the maskers represented.

There were six of them, with vizards and falchions, in purple coats,
crimson bases, and orange and purple and white mantles. They had
torch-bearers in red and yellow damask, and four persons garlanded with
flowers 'to vtter speches'. The description of the torch-bearers reads
uncommonly like that of the torch-bearers to the abandoned mask of
Seamen, and if they wore 'translated' garments of 1583, there cannot
have been much masking in the interval.

After 1589 the Revels Accounts altogether fail us, and although it is
probable that the mask shared in the general renewal of festivity which
followed the passing of the Spanish peril, we have only side-lights upon
it during the last decade of the reign. Certainly it was still
flourishing in the winter of 1594-5, when one Arthur Throgmorton planned
to use it, with a rather skilful introduction of some personal abasement
and the gift of a jewel, as a means of recovering the forfeited favour
of the Queen. The occasion seems to have been the wedding of William
Earl of Derby, and Lady Elizabeth Vere, granddaughter of Burghley, on 26
January 1595.[570] It was in this same winter, too, that a very
magnificent Shrovetide mask was brought to Court by the men of Gray's
Inn, as a wind-up to their notable Christmas revels under the Prince of
Purpoole. Of this a detailed account is preserved in the _Gesta
Grayorum_, with songs and speeches which can be assigned respectively to
Thomas Campion and Francis Davison. These had for theme a controversy
between certain adventurous knights and the sea-god Proteus, and for
object the flattery of Elizabeth, the virtue of whose presence obliges
Proteus to release the knights from their durance in an Adamantine
Rock.[571] Of the place of this mask in the history of the literary form
something will be said at a later point.

The gallantry of Gray's Inn was emulated a few years later by the Middle
Temple, who, after presenting several masks in their own hall during the
Christmas revels of their Prince d'Amour, did their devoir at Court on
Twelfth Night with a mask in which the nine Passions issued from a
Heart. The mask was followed by a barriers, and preceded by a cavalcade
through the streets of a type of which examples have already been noted
in 1377 and 1559.[572] In the summer of 1600 one of Elizabeth's maids of
honour, Anne, daughter of Elizabeth Lady Russell, left the Court to be
married to Henry Lord Herbert, son of the Earl of Worcester. The Queen
was present at the wedding on 16 June. She dined at Lady Russell's house
in Blackfriars, and supped and lodged for the night in that of Lord
Cobham hard by. After supper a mask came in. Eight Muses, represented by
maids of honour and others, were come to seek their lost companion.
After they had done their performance, they wooed the Queen to dance.
She was not proof against the ready tongue of Mary Fitton, and complied.
'Elle dansa gayement et de belle disposition,' says the French
ambassador, M. de Boississe, who was present.[573]

Finally, in the spring of 1602, negotiations were passing between Sir
Robert Cecil and Sir John Popham on behalf of the Middle Temple, for
some entertainment to gratify the Queen, for which the benchers were
prepared to contribute 200 marks.[574] Probably this was a mask, but
whether and when it actually came off is not known. It may have been
designed to celebrate the coming of the Duke of Nevers and other
Frenchmen in the following April, and it may have been the mask a song
from which was copied by John Manningham, a member of the Middle Temple,
on a fly-leaf of his diary with the date 'Nov. 2'.[575]

Under James I the material for tracing the history of the mask becomes
remarkably abundant, owing to the regular practice, of which the _Gesta
Grayorum_ is the only Elizabethan example, of issuing elaborate
descriptions, with copies of the songs and speeches used, for the
information of those unable to be present, and the incidental
glorification of performers, poets, and producers.[576] In view of the
full details compiled from these descriptions and other sources in the
bibliographical appendix, a brief chronicle will suffice for a
conclusion of this chapter. The main factors to be borne in mind are,
firstly, the personal participation of Queen Anne, who took a special
delight in all kinds of spectacle and revelry;[577] secondly, the
employment of such poets as Jonson, Campion, Daniel, Beaumont, and
Chapman, to give the masks their literary setting;[578] and thirdly, the
great development of the scenic element through the mechanical and
decorative genius of Inigo Jones. Anne gave her first mask, of which no
details are preserved, as a welcome to Prince Henry, when he came to
join the Court at Winchester during the plague-stricken wanderings which
filled the autumn of 1603. An English official describes it as 'a
gallant mask', and the French ambassador, more critically, as less a
'_ballet_' than a '_masquarade champêtre_'. At any rate it whetted the
appetite of the Court for more to come, and there was soon talk of the
splendours foreshadowed for the following Christmas.[579] This, still
owing to the plague, was held at Hampton Court. The principal mask was
danced by the Queen, with Lady Bedford and other ladies of the court, on
8 January. Through the influence of Lady Bedford, Samuel Daniel was
employed as poet, and produced his _Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_.
Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe was ransacked to provide material for the
costumes. The lords of the Court, led by the Duke of Lennox, danced a
mask of Indian and Chinese knights on 1 January, and certain Scotchmen
one resembling a sword dance on Twelfth Night; but of neither of these
has a full description been preserved. The masks of subsequent
Christmases took place at Whitehall, where in 1607 the old timber
banqueting house of 1581 gave way to a permanent structure designed to
house them with magnificence. The Queen's mask of 1604-5 was the _Mask
of Blackness_, and began the long and fruitful co-operation of Ben
Jonson and Inigo Jones. It was on Twelfth Night, and did honour to the
creation of Prince Charles as Duke of York. A mask of Juno and Hymenaeus
given on 27 December by friends of Sir Philip Herbert, in celebration
of his marriage to Lady Susan Vere, has not been preserved. The only
Christmas masks of the next two winters were of similar origin. Jonson's
_Hymenaei_ was given at the wedding of Robert Earl of Essex and Lady
Frances Howard on 5 January 1606, and a mask of the Knights of Apollo by
Thomas Campion, who had had a share in the verses for the Gray's Inn
mask of 1595, at that of James Lord Hay and Honora Denny on 7 January
1607. As a mask must be accounted, I suppose, the extraordinary
exhibition of _Solomon and the Queen of Sheba_ before James and
Christian of Denmark at Theobalds in July 1606, of which a description
is forthcoming from the satirical pen of Sir John Harington.[580] By the
winter of 1607-8 the new banqueting house was ready, and the series of
Queen's masks was resumed with Jonson's _Mask of Beauty_ on 10 January.
In a second mask, sometimes called, although not by its author, _The Hue
and Cry after Cupid_, for the wedding of John Viscount Haddington and
Lady Elizabeth Radcliffe on 9 February, Jonson appears to have
considered that he took a definite step forward in the evolution of the
mask-form, by the introduction of an antimask or group of grotesque
dancers as a foil to the mask proper. The Queen's mask for 1608-9 was
Jonson's _Mask of Queens_ at Candlemas, and there was no other. During
the winter of 1609-10, which was devoted to Prince Henry's mimetic
barriers, there was no mask at all, unless indeed the anonymous and
undated _Mask of the Twelve Months_ belongs to this year. But on the
following 5 June came Daniel's _Tethys' Festival_, which was the Queen's
contribution to the festivities attending the creation of Henry as
Prince of Wales. In 1610-11 there was a Queen's mask, Jonson's _Love
Freed from Ignorance and Folly_, on 3 February, and also a Prince's
mask, Jonson's _Oberon_, on 1 January. Jonson's _Love Restored_ was a
Prince's mask of 6 January 1612. The masks of 1612-13 were all given in
celebration of the wedding of the Princess Elizabeth to the Elector
Palatine of the Rhine, Frederick V, at Shrovetide. There were three of
them. Campion's _Lords' Mask_ was danced by lords and ladies of the
Court on the actual day of the wedding, 14 February. The other two were
contributed by the Inns of Court, and each was preluded by a public
procession or triumph, such as had been found natural in earlier years
when a mask came from London to the palace. The Middle Temple and
Lincoln's Inn came by road on 15 February with a mask of Virginians by
George Chapman; the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn by water on 16 February,
with a mask of Olympian Knights by Francis Beaumont. This, however, they
were not able to dance until 20 February. Jonson took no part in these
hymeneal festivities, and may have been abroad. The masks for the
wedding of Robert Earl of Somerset and Lady Frances Howard on 26
December 1613 almost vied in magnificence, and more than vied in number,
with those given for the princess. The bride had passed through stormy
days since Jonson's _Hymenaei_ hailed her first marriage in 1606, and
was to pass through stormier still. Campion was again selected as the
poet for the actual wedding day. In his mask, sometimes called the _Mask
of Squires_, and danced by lords and gentlemen of the Court, he had the
assistance, not of Jones, but of Constantine de' Servi, who does not
appear to have been very successful. Jonson's _Irish Mask_, which was
given on 29 December and repeated on 3 January, was a comparatively
slight performance, danced by five Englishmen and five Scots. Thomas
Middleton's _Mask of Cupid_, unfortunately lost, was an exceptional
performance given not at Court, but by the City in the Merchant Taylors'
hall on 4 January, after a request from the King that they should do
honour to the earl. Finally the _Mask of Flowers_, the authors of which
are only known by the initials I. G., W. D., and T. B., was given by
Gray's Inn on 6 January, at the charges of Sir Francis Bacon, who had
already taken an active part in promoting the joint Inner Temple and
Gray's Inn mask of the previous year. When Anne married her favourite
maid of honour, Jane Drummond, to Lord Roxborough on 2 February, she
perhaps thought that another mask would be something of an anti-climax,
and the performance in a little paved court at Somerset House took the
shape of a pastoral, Daniel's _Hymen's Triumph_.

After the wedding carnivals of two successive years, the masks of
1614-15 and 1615-16 were comparatively insignificant, and even their
chronology is not quite certain. To one of these winters belongs
Jonson's _Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists_, but it is not certain
to which, and to the other his _Golden Age Restored_. In each year there
were duplicate performances, on 6 and 8 January 1615 and on 1 and 6
January 1616. Both masks were danced by lords and gentlemen of the
Court. That of 1615 was contrived to serve the interests of George
Villiers, who was soon to replace the already tottering Somerset in the
esteem of his royal master. A mask, of which no details are known, seems
also to have been given by the Spanish ambassador in February 1615. Of
masks elsewhere than at Court during 1603-16 there are few to record.
The Princess Elizabeth seems, on at least one occasion, to have had a
mask for her private delectation.[581] One by John Marston formed part
of the entertainment given by the Earl of Huntingdon to Alice Countess
of Derby, at Ashby in August 1607, and one by Campion part of that given
by Lord Knollys to Anne at Caversham on 27 April 1613. William Browne's
_Ulysses and Circe_ glorified the Inner Temple feast on 13 January 1615.
The palmy days of the Jacobean mask close with our period. Henry was
dead; Elizabeth was gone. Anne, ailing and retired during her later
years, died in 1619. She had danced her last mask in 1611. Charles made
his début as an adult masker in 1618, and most of the Court masks to the
end of the reign are Prince's masks. But it takes a Queen to make a
Court, and the English mask had to wait for its _renouveau_ until the
coming of Henrietta Maria.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 513: _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 390.]

[Footnote 514: Ibid. 394; Reyher, 499; from _Harl. MS._ 247, f. 172ᵛ]

[Footnote 515: _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 396.]

[Footnote 516: Leland, _Collectanea_, v. 359; Reyher, 500; from Ralph
Starkey, _Booke of Certain Triumphes_ (_Harl. MS._ 69, f. 29v); Grose
and Astle, _The Antiquarian Repertory_, ii. 249.]

[Footnote 517: Halle, i. 15, 21, 22, 25, 40; Brewer, ii. 2, 1490 _sqq._,
from _Revels Accounts_ (_Misc. Bks. Exch., T. of R._ 217).]

[Footnote 518: Brotanek, 118; Reyher, 14, citing, _inter alia_, _A
Manifest Detection of ... Diceplay_ (_Percy Soc._ lxxxvii), 37, 'If it
be winter season when masking is most in use ... they hire ... a suit of
right masking apparel, and after, invite divers guests to a supper, all
such as be then of estimation, to give them credit by their
acquaintance, or such as ... will be liberal to hazard some thing in a
mumchance; by which means they assure themselves, at the least, to have
supper scot free; perchance to win xxˡᶦ about. And howsoever the common
people esteem the thing I am clear out of doubt, that the more half of
your gay masks in London are grounded upon such cheating crafts, and
tend only the pouling and robbing of the King's subjects'. The dice were
loaded otherwise for Richard II. A 'mummery', with 'foure visards, foure
gownes, a boxe and a drumme', is dramatized in _Soliman and Perseda_
(Boas, _Kyd_, 189), ii. 1, 187, where for 'Charleman is come' (l. 228),
_lege_ 'Christemas is come'. It is in dumb show, which confirms the
supposed etymological connexion with 'mum' (cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i.
396). 'Mumchance' is a common term for dice-play. But the French
_momon_, _momerie_, and Italian _mumia_ do not appear to have been
specialized in the English sense. 'Some goodly mummery at supper' was
planned for the meeting of Henry VIII and Charles V at Gravelines in
July 1520 (_Rutland Papers, C. S._ 54). Jonson introduces Mumming as a
dancer in his _Masque of Christmas_ (1616).]

[Footnote 519: For France, cf. the examples of 1377, 1389, 1393, 1457,
&c., cited by Brotanek, 287, Prunières, 3; the verses of Charles
d'Orléans (> 1415) for a _mommerie_ of women (ed. d'Héricault, i. 148);
the 'danse en barboire, en laquelle fut dancé à la mode de France, de
l'Allemaigne, d'Espaigne et Lombardye, et à la fin en la manière de
Poitou' at the betrothal of Claude of France and Charles of Austria in
1501 (Jean d'Auton, _Chron. de Louis XII_, ii. 99); and the revels
during the Italian campaigns of Louis at Pavia and Milan in 1507 (Jean
d'Auton, iv. 289, 311). At Milan lords danced 'en masque' and ladies
danced 'a relays les unes après les autres', but it is not definitely
said that ladies and maskers danced together. The 'danse en barboire'
possibly illustrates the enigmatical _barbaturiae_ of which the nuns of
St. Radegund in Poitou were guilty in the eighth century (_Mediaeval
Stage_, i. 362). For Burgundy, cf. Prunières, 10, citing accounts of the
crusaders' Feast of the Pheasant (1454), and the wedding of Duke Charles
and Margaret of York (1468). In 1454 there were dumb shows of the Golden
Fleece, followed by the entry of Grâce-Dieu and her train of Virtues,
who delivered a speech and then 'commencèrent à danser en guise de
mommeries'. In 1468 there were 'entremectz mouvans' of the Labours of
Hercules (Olivier de la Marche, ed. _Soc. H. F._ iii. 134, 143). These
shows were given while the guests were still at table. When they were
over, the tables were cleared away, and the guests danced.]

[Footnote 520: To the _entremetz_ of France correspond the _intermedii_
of Italy. These, as described by Creizenach, ii. 419; D'Ancona, ii. 168,
420; Symonds, _Shakspeare's Predecessors_, 321; _Renaissance in Italy_,
v. 122; Prunières, 28; Cunliffe, _Early English Classical Tragedies_,
xxxix, and in _M. L. A._ xxii. 150 and _M. P._ iv. 597, were
_entr'actes_ to late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century plays, but
very similar shows were given independently at banquets; e. g. the
mimetic _chori_ with Silenus for _risus_ devised by Bergonzio Botta for
the wedding of Giangaleazzo Sforza and Isabella of Aragon at Tortona in
1489 (Calchi, _Nuptiae Mediolaniorum Ducum_ in Graevius, _Thesaurus_,
ii. 1, 509). _Trionfi_ are primarily out-of-door processions with cars.]

[Footnote 521: Halle, i. 40; Brewer, ii. 1497, from _Revels Accounts_.]

[Footnote 522: _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 401; cf. Brotanek, 67.]

[Footnote 523: Evans, xxi; Reyher, 491; Cunliffe in _M. L. A._ xxii.
140.]

[Footnote 524: Cf. Marlowe, _Edward II_, 55 'He haue Italian maskes by
night'. 'Mask' seems to be derived from a Teutonic root related to Lat.
_macula_, and means a 'net' or 'stain'. Both 'maske' and 'maskel' are
M.E. forms; but I do not find the word used in connexion with
disguisings, either for the performance or for the vizard, before 1512.
Halle's book was unfinished at his death in 1547, and for him 'maske'
and its derivative 'masker' are regular for the performance and the
performer. He also uses a 'masker' (i. 215), a 'maskery' (i. 209), 'in
maskeler' (i. 209), 'apparel of maskery' (i. 217), and 'maskyng apparel'
(i. 171, 217; ii. 220). For the face-mask he retains 'viser'. The
_Revels Accounts_ for 1512-22 use 'maskeller' or 'meskeller' as noun
abstract and adjective, and 'maskelyng' or 'meskellyng' as adjective or
participle. 'Masking garments', and 'a maske' for the performance first
appear in a Revels document of 1539. In those of Cawarden's time 'maske'
and its derivatives are established. Jonson (cf. p. 176) seems
responsible for stereotyping the spelling 'masque', which, however, Lyly
(cf. _Works_, ii. 103) had used before him.]

[Footnote 525: Ronsard (ed. Marty-Leveaux), vi. 310.]

[Footnote 526: This is at the end of a _farsa_ by Jacopo Sannazaro given
before Alfonso Duke of Calabria in 1492 (D'Ancona, ii. 98, from _Opere_
of 1723). 'Subito uscirono li trombetti sonando, tutti vestiti
riccamente d'una maniera, l'illustrissimo signore Principe di Capua con
gli altri in mumia, delicatamente vestiti ad una maniera del Signore di
Castiglia ... con torcie in mano ballando. Da poi, ciascuno prese una
Signora per la mano, e ballò la sua alta e bassa; e con le torchie in
mano se ne tornorono: e per quella sera così ebbe fine la festa.' In a
revel at Ferrara in 1473 (Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Script._ xxiv. 244),
Duke Hercules and his fellows danced with the ladies, and then came in
'grande multitudini di mascare', and danced; but it is not clear that
the Duke was a masker, or that the masked persons danced with the
ladies. I should add that I have not been able to make any complete or
first-hand investigation of foreign analogies to the mask. Doubtless the
street masks of the Florentine carnival had a folk origin like that
which I assign to the English mumming; for their elaboration by Lorenzo
de' Medici (1448-92) cf. Symonds, _Renaissance in Italy_, iv. 338;
D'Ancona, i. 253; Prunières, 20. M. Prunières appears to regard the
'taking out' to dance as no part of the original custom, but an
adaptation due to the courts of Ferrara and Modena at the end of the
fifteenth century.]

[Footnote 527: It is significant that John Farlyon in 1534 was appointed
Yeoman of masks, revels, and disguisings; Cawarden in 1544 Master of
revels and masks (_Tudor Revels_, 7, 9; cf. p. 72). In Jonson's _Masque
of Augurs_ (1623) Notch says to the Groom of the Revels, 'Disguise was
the old English word for a masque, Sir, before you were an implement
belonging to the Revels'.]

[Footnote 528: Halle, i. 57, 117, 143, 149, 153, 171, 176, 179, 208,
215, 220, 234, 238, 247, 249, 256; ii. 24, 79, 87, 108, 149, 183, 220,
303, 360; Brewer, ii. 2, 1490; iii. 1548; iv. 418, 1390, 1415, 1603,
from _Revels Accounts_.]

[Footnote 529: Halle, ii. 220.]

[Footnote 530: The descriptions of the devices employed in the 'great
chamber of disguisings' at Greenwich in 1527 (Halle, ii. 86, 108)
suggest that they were fixed. The setting for one of the masks was
certainly revealed 'by lettyng doune of a courtaine', not by wheeling in
a pageant.]

[Footnote 531: The available material for 1547-58 is collected, mainly
from the Revels documents in the _Loseley MSS._, by A. Feuillerat in
_Materialien_, xliv.]

[Footnote 532: Il Schifanoya to Castellan of Mantua (_V. P._ vii. 11),
'As I suppose your Lordship will have heard of the _farsa_ performed in
the presence of her Majesty on the day of the Epiphany, and I not having
sufficient intellect to interpret it, nor yet the mummery performed
after supper on the same day, of crows in the habits of Cardinals, of
asses habited as Bishops, and of wolves representing Abbots, I will
consign it to silence.... Nor will I record the levities and unusual
licentiousness practised at the Court in dances and banquets, nor the
masquerade of friars in the streets of London.']

[Footnote 533: Il Schifanoya to Mantuan Ambassador at Brussels (_V. P._
vii. 27), 'Last evening at the Court a double mummery was played: one
set of mummers rifled the Queen's ladies, and the other set, with wooden
swords and bucklers, recovered the spoil. Then at the dance the Queen
performed her part, the Duke of Norfolk being her partner, in superb
array.']

[Footnote 534: Machyn, 204, 206.]

[Footnote 535: On 31 Jan. (Machyn, 221) 'ther was a play a-for her
grace, the wyche the plaers plad shuche matter that they wher commondyd
to leyff off, and contenent the maske cam in dansyng'.]

[Footnote 536: The succession of masks for 1558-60 is traceable with the
aid of Il Schifanoya from an analysis of the following Revels documents,
(_a_) an inventory of 26 March 1555 (Feuillerat, _Ed. and M._ 180),
(_b_) the accounts from 26 March 1555 to 29 Sept. 1559 (Feuillerat, _Ed.
and M._ 195-242; _Eliz._ 79-108), (_c_) an estimate of the cost of the
1559-60 masks (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 110), (_d_) a 'rere-account' of the
uses to which the masks inventoried in (_a_) and certain stuffs
subsequently issued to the Masters of the Revels had been put during
1555-60 (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 18), and (_e_) an inventory of _c._ May
1560 (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 37). There were fifteen sets of masking
garments in store in 1555, Mariners, Venetian Senators, Turkish
Magistrates, Greek Worthies, Albanian Warriors, Turkish Archers, Irish
Kerns, Galley-Slaves (torch-bearers), Falconers (torch-bearers), Palmers
(torch-bearers), Turkish Commoners (torch-bearers), Huntresses, Venuses,
Nymphs, and Turkish Women. Some of these were no longer serviceable and
became fees; the rest were gradually pulled to pieces during 1555-60 and
used with fresh material in constructing new sets. As a result the
inventory of 1560 contains none of the sets of 1555, but seventeen of
later origin, Patriarchs, Actaeons, Hunters (torch-bearers to Actaeons),
Nusquams, Turkish Commoners (torch-bearers to Nusquams, not the set of
1555), Barbarians, Venetian Commoners (torch-bearers to Barbarians),
Clowns, Hinds (torch-bearers to Clowns), Swart Rutters, Almayns
(torch-bearers to Swart Rutters, although not so described), Moors,
Diana and her Nymphs, Maidens (torch-bearers to Diana), Italian Women,
Fishwives, and Marketwives. The rere-account shows that in the interim
between 1555 and 1560 eleven other sets had come into existence and been
picked to pieces again. There were Almayns (not the 1560 set), Palmers
(not the 1555 set), Irishmen (not the 1555 set), Hungarians, Conquerors,
Mariners, or Shipmen (not the 1555 set), Moorish friars (torch-bearers),
Fishermen (torch-bearers), Astronomers, and unnamed torch-bearers to
Astronomers and to Patriarchs. A number of ecclesiastical costumes had
also been made, of which a few were still in store in 1560, and which
evidently belong to the mask described by Il Schifanoya. It seems clear
from the _Revels Accounts_ that the only new mask between 1555 and the
end of Mary's reign was one of Almayns, Pilgrims, and Irishmen on 25
April 1557 (Feuillerat, _Edw and M._ 225). This accounts for three of
the twelve interim sets. The other nine and the seventeen in the 1560
inventory must all be Elizabethan. The documents give or indicate dates
for most of them. A process of exclusions obliges us to place the
Conquerors, Moors, and Hungarians in the early part of 1559. Here are
three vacant dates. Il Schifanoya tells us that there was a second
company of maskers on Shrove Sunday, besides the Swart Rutters, whom the
accounts assign to that day. The Hungarians would be appropriate
antagonists to the Swart Rutters. There were also two unspecified masks
at the time of the Coronation, one on the next day, 16 Jan., the other
'on the Sondaye seven nighte after the Coronacion', which as 15 Jan. was
itself a Sunday, probably means 22 rather than 29 Jan. As part of the
garments of the Moors had previously been used for the Conquerors
(Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 20), the Moors must have been the later of the two.
The masks of 11 July and 6 August 1559 were probably not given at the
royal cost, as the Revels documents are quite silent about them. My list
agrees in the main with that in Wallace, i. 199, which however has some
errors. There is no evidence for masks on 2 Feb. and 6 Feb. 1559. The
list in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ xiii, is incomplete.]

[Footnote 537: Brantôme, _Hommes illustres et Capitaines françois_ (ed.
Buchon, i. 312), 'La reyne ... donna un soir à soupper, où après se fit
un ballet de ses filles, qu'elle avoit ordonné et dressé, représentant
les vierges de l'Évangile, desquelles les unes avoient leurs lampes
allumées, et les autres n'avoient ny huille ny feu, et en demandoient.
Ces lampes estoient d'argent, fort gentiment faictes et elabourées; et
les dames estoient très-belles, bien honnestes et bien apprises, qui
prindrent nous autres François pour dancer.']

[Footnote 538: Machyn, 275, 276, 'The furst day of Feybruary at nyght
was the goodlyest masket cam owt of London that ever was seen, of a C.
and d' [? 150] gorgyously be-sene, and a C. cheynes of gold, and as for
trumpettes and drumes, and as for torchelyghte a ij hundered, and so to
the cowrt, and dyvers goodly men of armes in gylt harnes, and Julyus
Sesar played.' The last word is in a later hand, and according to
Wallace, i. 200, is a nineteenth-century forgery.]

[Footnote 539: _M. S. C._ i. 144; Collier, i. 178; from _Lansd. MS._ v,
f. 126, endorsed 'Maij 1562'. A warrant of 10 May 1562 for the delivery
of silks for masks and revels to the Master of the Revels is in
Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 114.]

[Footnote 540: I strongly suspect that the second night's mask was
really intended to be one of lords, not ladies.]

[Footnote 541: Machyn, 300. Machyn, 215, 222, 248, 288, 300, records
several masks in the City during 1559-63. The diary ends in August
1563.]

[Footnote 542: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 116, 'the ixᵗʰ of Iune repayringe and
new makinge of thre maskes with thare hole furniture and diuers devisses
and a castle ffor ladies and a harboure ffor lords and thre harrolds and
iiij trompetours too bringe in the devise with the men of armes and
showen at the courtte of Richmond before the Quenes Maiestie and the
ffrench embassitours, &c.']

[Footnote 543: Froude, vii. 199; De Silva to Philip (_Sp. P._ i. 367,
385), 'after supper ... the Queen came out to the hall, which was lit
with many torches, where the comedy was represented. I should not have
understood much of it, if the Queen had not interpreted, as she told me
she would do. They generally deal with marriage in the comedies.... The
comedy ended, and then there was a mask of certain gentlemen who entered
dressed in black and white, which the Queen told me were her colours,
and after dancing a while one of them approached and handed the Queen a
sonnet in English, praising her.' A banquet followed, ending at 2 a.m.]

[Footnote 544: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 116, 'Cristmas ... canvas to couer
diuers townes and howsses and other devisses and clowds for a maske and
a showe and a play by the childerne of the chaple.... The xviijᵗʰ of
Fabruarie ... provicions for a play maid by Sir Percivall Hartts sones
with a mask of huntars and diuers devisses and a rocke, or hill for the
ix musses to singe vppone with a vayne of sarsnett dravven vpp and downe
before them.... Shroftid ... foure maskes too of them nott occupied nor
sene with thare hole furniture which be verie fayr and riche of old stuf
butt new garnished with frenge and tassells to seme new'; cf. De Silva
to Philip of the revel after a tilt on 5 March (_Sp. P._ i. 404). It
began after supper with 'a comedy in English of which I understood just
as much as the Queen told me. The plot was founded on the question of
marriage, discussed between Juno and Diana, Juno advocating marriage and
Diana chastity. Jupiter gave a verdict in favour of matrimony, after
many things had passed on both sides in defence of the respective
arguments. The Queen turned to me and said, "This is all against me".
After the comedy there was a masquerade of Satyrs, or wild gods, who
danced with the ladies, and when this was finished there entered 10
parties of 12 gentlemen each, the same who fought in the foot tourney,
and these, all armed as they were, danced with the ladies; a very novel
ball, surely.']

[Footnote 545: Hume, _Year after Armada_, 283; De Silva to Philip (_Sp.
P._ i. 452), 'a ball, a tourney, and two masks'. These were after supper
and ended at 1.30 a.m.]

[Footnote 546: Pound's speeches are in _Rawl. Poet. MS._ 108 (_Bodl.
MS._ 14601), f. 24; De Silva to Philip (July 1566, _Sp. P._ i. 565), 'a
masquerade and a long ball, after which they entered in new disguises
for a foot tournament'. The chief challenger was Ormond. On Pound's
career as a masker and its strange end, cf. ch. xxiii.]

[Footnote 547: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 119, 'the altering and newe makinge
of sixe maskes out of ould stuff with torche bearers thervnto wherof
iiijᵒʳ hathe byne shewene before vs, and two remayne vnshewen', 124,
125, 126.]

[Footnote 548: Ibid. 129, 134, 139, 146.]

[Footnote 549: Fleay, 19; Brotanek, 25. But the resemblances are only
partial, cf. _M. S. C._ i. 144.]

[Footnote 550: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 153.]

[Footnote 551: G. Gascoigne, _A devise of a Maske for the right
honorable Viscount Mountacute_ (_Works_, i. 75, from _The Posies_ of
1575). The date is fixed by Thomas Giles's letter.]

[Footnote 552: The reproductions in Strutt, _Manners and Customs_, iii,
pl. xi, and Withington, i. 208, omit the wedding table. The pictures
must be later than Sir H. Unton's death in 1596. Ashmole, _Berks_, iii.
313, dates his wedding with Dorothy, daughter of Sir Thomas Wroughton of
Broad Hinton, Wilts, in 1580.]

[Footnote 553: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 409.]

[Footnote 554: Ibid., _Eliz._ 171-81, 'gloves for maskers', 'the lordes
gloves', 'the torcheberers gloves', 'ladye maskers', 'women maskers',
'Haunce Eottes for painting of patternes for maskes', 'the masks on New
Yeres daye', 'the dubble mask', 'a keye for Janus', 'ffyn white lam to
make snoballs', 'spunges for snoballs', 'musk kumfettes ... corianders
... clove cumfettes ... synamon kumfettes ... rose water ... spike water
... gynger cumfettes ... all whiche served for fflakes of yse and hayle
stones in the maske of Ianvs the roze water sweetened the balls made for
snow-balles presented to her Maiestie by Ianvs', 'a nett for the
ffishers maskers', 'berdes for fyshers vj', curled heare for fyshers
capps', 'roches counterfet ... whitings ... thornebackes ... smeltes ...
mackerells ... fflownders', 'wooll to stuf the fishes', 'banketting
frutes', 'basketes of ffrute', 'mowldes to cast the frutes and ffishes
in'.]

[Footnote 555: Ibid. 183, 191.]

[Footnote 556: Ibid. 193-221.]

[Footnote 557: Cf. p. 87.]

[Footnote 558: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 234-46, 'vj bandes for hattes for
maskers', 'gloves for ... maskers', '23ᵒ Decembris ... Mirors or
looking-glasses for the pedlers mask xij small at ijˢ the peece and vj
greater at iiijˢ the peece', '29ᵒ Decembris ... ffayer wryting of pozies
for the mask', '6ᵒ Ianuarii ... ix little hampers at xxᵈ the peece for
the pedlers mask', 'ffyne yolow to wryte vpon the mirrors'.]

[Footnote 559: Laneham, 33; cf. chh. iv, p. 123, and xxiv.]

[Footnote 560: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 264-70.]

[Footnote 561: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 562: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 286, 294; _Sp. P._ ii. 627, 630, 'an
entertainment in imitation of a tournament, between six ladies and a
like number of gentlemen who surrendered to them'. Mr. Tresham and Mr.
Knowles were Knights.]

[Footnote 563: Ibid. 308.]

[Footnote 564: Ibid. 340, 345, '1ᵒ Aprilis 1581, what monnie is to be
allowed in prest for certayne shewes to be had at Whitehal ... The
Mounte, Dragon with the fyer workes, Castell with the fallyng sydes,
Tree with shyldes, Hermytage and hermytt, Savages, Enchaunter,
Charryott, and incydentes to theis cc markes'.]

[Footnote 565: Ibid. 344 (table), 346.]

[Footnote 566: Ibid. 349.]

[Footnote 567: Ibid. 360 (table). The _Jervoise MSS._ (_H. M. C. Various
MSS._ iv. 163) contain verses dated 1586 for a mask from Basingstoke to
Richard Pawlett, doubtless a kinsman of the Marquis of Winchester at
Basing.]

[Footnote 568: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 365, 378. A mask followed the play of
_Catiline_, with which Lord Burghley was entertained at Gray's Inn on 16
Jan. 1588 (_M. S. C._ i. 179).]

[Footnote 569: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 392.]

[Footnote 570: Arthur Throgmorton to Robert Cecil (_Hatfield MSS._ v.
99; cf. _Sh. Homage_, 158), 'Matter of mirth from a good mind can
minister no matter of malice, both being, as I believe, far from such
sourness (and for myself I will answer for soundness). I am bold to
write my determination, grounded upon grief and true duty to the Queen,
thankfulness to my lord of Derby (whose honourable brother honoured my
marriage), and to assure you I bear no spleen to yourself. If I may I
mind to come in a masque, brought in by the nine muses, whose music, I
hope, shall so modify the easy softened mind of her Majesty as both I
and mine may find mercy. The song, the substance I have herewith sent
you, myself, whilst the singing, to lie prostrate at her Majesty's feet
till she says she will save me. Upon my resurrection the song shall be
delivered by one of the muses, with a ring made for a wedding ring set
round with diamonds, and with a ruby like a heart placed in a coronet,
with this inscription _Elizabetha potest_. I durst not do this before I
had acquainted you here with, understanding her Majesty had appointed
the masquers, which resolution hath made me the unreadier: yet, if this
night I may know her Majesty's leave and your liking, I hope not to come
too late, though the time be short for such a show and my preparations
posted for such a presence. I desire to come in before the other masque,
for I am sorrowful and solemn, and my stay shall not be long. I rest
upon your resolution, which must be for this business to-night or not at
all.']

[Footnote 571: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 417, and ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 572: Cf. J. A. Manning, _Memoirs of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd_, 9,
and _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 416, where, however, the date suggested is the
Christmas of 1599-1600. But the Court was not in London that winter, and
the indications of days of the week agree with 1597-8. The manuscript
description written by Rudyerd is dated 'anno ab aula condita 27'. The
Middle Temple hall was built in 1572. The masks in this hall were on 31
Dec. and 7 and 21 Jan. The maskers were accompanied to Court on 6 Jan.
by nine torch-bearers carrying devices, eleven knights, eleven squires,
and a hundred other torches, as well as trumpeters and heralds. 'Sur
Martino', no doubt Richard Martin, the Prince d'Amour, was their leader.
Doubtless they took out ladies, as Mrs. Nevill, afterwards a maid of
honour, is said to have 'borne the bell away' in the revels.]

[Footnote 573: Boississe, i. 415. He says that some gentlemen masked
with the _filles_, of which there is no trace in the other accounts.
Letters from Lady Russell about the wedding are in _Cecil Papers_, x.
121, 175, and it is also referred to by Chamberlain, 79, 83. 'I doubt
not but you have heard of the great mariage at the Lady Russell's ...
and of the maske of eight maides of honour and other gentlewomen in name
of the muses that came to seeke one of theire fellowes', and by Rowland
Whyte (_Sydney Papers_, ii. 195, 197, 201, 203),'Mʳˢ Fitton led, and
after they had done all their own ceremonies, these eight Ladies Maskers
chose eight Ladies more to dance the measures. Mʳˢ Fitton went to the
Queen, and wooed her to dance; her Majesty asked what she was.
"Affection," she said. "Affection!" said the Queen, "Affection is
false." Yet her Majesty rose and danced.' A picture of the Marcus
Gheeraerts school (cf. L. Cust in _Trans. Walpole Soc._ iii. 22)
probably representing Elizabeth's passage through Blackfriars on this
occasion is extant in two versions at Melbury and Sherborne, and has
often been reproduced; e. g. in _Shakespeare's England_, i. _f.p._]

[Footnote 574: Popham to Cecil, 8 Feb. 1602 (_Hatfield MSS._ xii. 47),
'I have so dealt with some of the Benchers of the Middle Temple as I
have brought that the House will be willing to bear 200 marks towards
the charge of what is wished to be done, to her Majesty's good liking,
and if the young gentlemen will be drawn in to perform what is of their
part, I hope it will be effected. Some of the young men have their
humors, but I hope that will be over-ruled, for I send for them as soon
as other business of her Majesty is dispatched. But the Ancients of the
House, who wish all to be done to her Majesty's best content, depend
upon your favour if anything through young men's error should not have
that carriage in the course of it, as they would wish it might not yet
be imputed unto them.' There is no reference to any mask in the records
of the Middle Temple, which in 1601-2 kept a 'solemn' but not a 'grand'
Christmas.]

[Footnote 575: Manningham, 1, 'Song to the Queene at the Maske at Court,
Nov. 2'. The Song begins, 'Mighty Princes of a fruitfull land'. The
November of 1602 is the only one covered by the period of the diary; but
Elizabeth was then at Richmond, rather out of reach of a lawyers' mask.]

[Footnote 576: An Italian model for such printed descriptions may be
found in that of G. Cecchi's Florentine _Esaltazione della Croce_
(1589); cf. A. D'Ancona, _Sacre Rappresentazioni_, iii. 1, 235; Symonds,
_Renaissance in Italy_, iv. 282.]

[Footnote 577: J. A. Lester, _Some Franco-Scottish Influences on the
Early English Drama_ (_Haverford Essays_, 1909), 145, notes the vogue of
the mask at Holyrood under Mary Stuart and the _pompae_ written for such
occasions by Buchanan. He asserts that Anne acquired the taste for masks
during her thirteen years' residence in Scotland, but in fact he cites
no example of a mask proper during 1590-1603, and only one, in 1581,
during the reign of James. There were other forms of mimetic revelry.
The pageants introduced by Bastien Pagez into a banquet at the baptism
of James in 1566 and accompanied with verses by Buchanan are analogous
to those at the baptism of Henry Frederick in 1594 (_Somers Tracts_, ii.
179).]

[Footnote 578: Jonson told Drummond in 1619 (_Conversations_, 4), 'That
next himself, only Fletcher and Chapman could make a mask'. No
independent mask by Fletcher is known, and that in _The Maid's Tragedy_
is probably Beaumont's. Fletcher may have written the Triumph of Time in
_Four Plays or Morall Representations_, which is practically a mask.]

[Footnote 579: Lodge, iii. 58; Beaumont to Villeroy (27 Oct. 1603) in
_King's MS._ 124, f. 175, 'Elle fit jl y' a quelques jourz vn ballet ou
pour mieux dire vne masquarade champêtre. Car il n'y avoit ni ordre ni
depense. Mais Elle se propose d'en faire d'autres plus beaux cet hiver
en recompense et semble que le Roy et ses Principaux Ministres, qui sont
toujourz en Jalousie de son Esprit, soient bien aises de le voir occupé
en cet exercice.']

[Footnote 580: Harington, i. 349, 'One day, a great feast was held, and,
after dinner, the representation of Solomon his Temple and the coming of
the Queen of Sheba was made, or (as I may better say) was meant to have
been made, before their Majesties, by device of the Earl of Salisbury
and others. But alass! as all earthly thinges do fail to poor mortals in
enjoyment, so did prove our presentment hereof. The Lady who did play
the Queens part, did carry most precious gifts to both their Majesties;
but, forgetting the steppes arising to the canopy, overset her caskets
into his Danish Majesties lap, and fell at his feet, tho I rather think
it was in his face. Much was the hurry and confusion; cloths and napkins
were at hand, to make all clean. His Majesty then got up and would dance
with the Queen of Sheba; but he fell down and humbled himself before
her, and was carried to an inner chamber, and laid on a bed of state;
which was not a little defiled with the presents of the Queen which had
been bestowed on his garments; such as wine, cream, jelly, beverage,
cakes, spices, and other good matters. The entertainment and show went
forward, and most of the presenters went backward, or fell down; wine
did so occupy their upper chambers. Now did appear, in rich dress, Hope,
Faith, and Charity: Hope did assay to speak, but wine rendered her
endeavours so feeble that she withdrew, and hoped the King would excuse
her brevity: Faith was then all alone, for I am certain she was not
joyned with good works, and left the court in a staggering condition:
Charity came to the King's feet, and seemed to cover the multitude of
sins her sisters had committed; in some sorte she made obeysance and
brought giftes, but said she would return home again, as there was no
gift which heaven had not already given his Majesty. She then returned
to Hope and Faith, who were both sick and spewing in the lower hall.
Next came Victory, in bright armour, and presented a rich sword to the
King, who did not accept it, but put it by with his hand; and, by a
strange medley of versification, did endeavour to make suit to the King.
But Victory did not tryumph long; for, after much lamentable utterance,
she was led away like a silly captive, and laid to sleep in the outer
steps of the anti-chamber. Now did Peace make entry, and strive to get
foremoste to the King; but I grieve to tell how great wrath she did
discover unto those of her attendants; and, much contrary to her
semblance, most rudely made war with her olive branch, and laid on the
pates of those who did oppose her coming.']

[Footnote 581: _Chamber Accounts_ (1610-11, Apparellings), 'for making
ready the La: Eliz: Lodginges for a maske'.]




VI

THE MASK (_continued_)


The historical sketch given in the last chapter needs to be supplemented
by some analysis of the stage of development which the mask had reached,
in relation to its origins, by the Jacobean period. And first of all, on
the side of scenic effect. Looking back over the reign of Henry VIII, in
the light of what followed, we may discover two fairly distinct types of
masks. There is the mask simple, in which the dancers, with their richly
hued and sparkling costumes, their torch-bearers and their musicians,
may be regarded as furnishing their own decoration. There is the mask
spectacular, to which added éclat is given by the pageant, mobile, or
towards the end of the reign stationary, with its additional lights, its
carvings and mouldings, its gilt and colours, and the elements of
illusion and surprise afforded by its facilities for the concealed entry
of personages. Elizabeth, perhaps as has been hinted upon grounds of
economy, perhaps from the more legitimate and attractive motive of a
special interest in the dancer's art, used mainly the mask simple. But
the pageant was not altogether forgotten, and recurs from time to time
amongst the preparations for festivities on some exceptionally elaborate
scale. The most notable example is perhaps to be found in the devices
for the contemplated meeting with Mary of Scots in 1562, which involved
the construction of a prison, a castle, and an orchard, and of which
even Henry VIII would have had no reason to be ashamed. We hear also of
a rock of fountain for the mask of Diana and Actaeon in 1560, of a
castle and arbour at the visit of Artus de Cossé in 1564, of a rock with
a veil of sarcenet for the mask of hunters in 1565, of a chariot and
castle for the visit of the Duc de Montmorency in 1572, and of a mount,
a castle, an orange tree, and a house for that of the Duc d'Anjou in
1581. The Gray's Inn maskers of 1595 had their Rock Adamantine, and
those of the Middle Temple about 1598 sallied forth from a Heart.

I do not know that any special inferences need be drawn from the fact
that on most of these occasions the English Court was putting its best
foot foremost to entertain a visitor from France, for in fact during the
greater part of Elizabeth's reign France was the only continental
country of the first importance with which she maintained constant
diplomatic relations.[582] Nor is enough known of the development of the
French mask in the middle of the sixteenth century to make it possible
to say how far, if at all, that country then gave the lead to
England.[583] Brantôme reports how Catherine de Médicis would amuse
herself by inventing 'quelques nouvelles danses ou quelques beaux
ballets, quand il faisoit mauvais temps', and the writings of Clément
Marot and Mellin de Saint-Gelais and of the Pléiade contain several sets
of verses composed for the purposes of 'mommeries' and
'mascarades'.[584] I should suppose that the distinction drawn by M. de
Beaumont in 1603 between a 'mascarade' and a 'ballet' corresponds pretty
closely with that made above between the mask simple and the mask
spectacular. The history of the 'ballet' proper in France seems to begin
under Italian influences during the last quarter of the century. Its
pioneer was one Baldassarino da Belgiojoso, a groom of the chamber to
Catherine de Médicis and to her son Henri III, who came to France about
1555 and gallicized his name as Baltasar de Beaujoyeulx. When Henri, not
yet King of France, left Paris to receive the crown of Poland in 1573,
Baldassarino arranged the spectacle for his farewell. Sixteen nymphs
issued from a movable rock, offered gifts, and danced in the hall. A
printed description by Jean Dorat contains engravings of the rock and
the dances, and verses in Latin and French, to which Ronsard and Amadis
de Jamyn contributed.[585] This appears to have been a mask on lines
already familiar in both France and England. But eight years later
Baldassarino got an opportunity for a far more elaborate undertaking.
His _Balet Comique de la Royne_ was devised for the wedding of the
Queen's sister, Mlle de Vaudemont, to the Duc de Joyeuse on 15 October
1581.[586] His own share seems to have lain in the invention of the
general scheme of the entertainment and in the dances; he had the
assistance of M. de la Chesnaye for the verses, Lambert de Beaulieu for
the music, and Jacques Patin for the painting. The Queen herself led the
dancers. There was an intricate combination of choregraphy and
mythological setting. The maskers proper were twelve Naiads in white and
four Dryads in green; the presenters Circe, a Fugitive from her garden,
Glaucus, Thetis, Mercury, Pan, Minerva, Jupiter; the musicians mermaids,
tritons, satyrs, virtues, and others; the torch-bearers twelve pages. At
the top of the hall was a daïs for the royal seats, and to the right and
left in front places for ambassadors. Behind, and also lower down the
hall, were tiers of seats, and above them two galleries; in all 9,000 or
10,000 spectators were present. On the left of the hall was a Gilded
Vault for musicians, on the right the Grove of Pan, and at the foot the
Garden of Circe, both veiled by curtains. In the roof, between the Vault
and the Grove, hung a cloud. On each side of the Garden, trellises
covered the entrance. After a preliminary episode between Circe and the
Fugitive, the Naiads appeared on a movable fountain, and danced twelve
geometrical figures as the 'première entrée du ballet'. They were then
enchanted by Circe, and taken to her garden, with Mercury, who dropped
from the cloud in a vain attempt at rescue. After two 'intermèdes' of
music and song, during which the Dryads entered and the Grove of Pan was
disclosed, came Minerva on a chariot, and called Jupiter from the cloud
and Pan from the Grove for an assault on the Garden. Circe was captured,
and her wand presented to the King. Then the Naiads and Dryads danced
fifteen 'passages' as the 'entrée du grand ballet', and forty more of a
geometrical character for the 'grand ballet' itself. Finally, they
presented the King and gentlemen with 'choses de mer' and appropriate
'devises' or mottoes, and took them out for 'le grand bal' followed by
'bransles' and other dances.

So far as published documents go, the _Balet Comique_ is closely the
prototype of the fully developed 'ballet' or court mask, as we find it
both in France and in England.[587] The Gray's Inn mask of 1595, with
its printed description and its theme of enchantment, confesses an
influence; and there were only two directions in which the devisers of
Henri IV and of James I were able to make any notable advance upon
Baldassarino's model. One of these was the introduction of the antimask,
to which it will be necessary to return; the other was the concentration
of the scenic setting. The setting of the _Balet Comique_ is not
concentrated but dispersed. It is not even all stationary. The interest
of the spectators is not merely divided amongst the Garden of Circe at
the foot of the hall, the Grove of Pan on the right, the musicians'
vault on the left, and the cloud overhead. It is claimed at certain
points by the movable fountain upon which the maskers enter and the
chariot of Minerva. This dispersed setting recurs in the first of Queen
Anne's great masks, Daniel's _Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_, in 1604.
A mountain stood at the lower end of the hall in Hampton Court, and at
the upper end a Cave of Sleep on one side and a Temple of Peace on the
other. A contemporary observer notes an inconvenience of this
arrangement. 'The Halle was so much lessened by the workes that were in
it', writes Dudley Carleton, 'so as none could be admitted but men of
apparance.' This difficulty proved fatal to the dispersed setting, and
in all later Jacobean masks the setting was concentrated in a scene
erected at the lower end of the hall, and ample space was thus left both
for the evolutions of the dancers and for the seating of the
spectators.[588]

This change at least synchronizes with the emergence of Inigo Jones and
the beginning of the architectural domination which for nearly half a
century he was destined to exercise over the mask. His is the first
outstanding name which we can associate with the history of English
scenic decoration. Under Elizabeth and her predecessors the apparel and
pageantry of a mask were the care of the Revels officers, and they
naturally called in such painters and other men of taste about the court
as were likely to prove useful. These were often foreigners. Alfonso
Ferrabosco, the musician, seems to have had the general oversight of an
important mask in 1572, and amongst his collaborators was another
Italian, Petruccio Ubaldini, while Hans Eottes drew the patterns. Eottes
was similarly employed in 1573 and 1574, and Ubaldini was called upon
again in 1579 to write out the speeches of a mask in his native
Italian.[589] The responsibilities of Inigo Jones were much wider than
those of any of these predecessors. His singular name has an Italian
ring, but he was born of London parentage in 1573 and is said to have
been apprenticed to a joiner.[590] Through the generosity of the third
Earl of Pembroke he had opportunities of travel, and spent much of his
early life in Italy and in the service of Christian IV of Denmark. He
seems to have been back in England by 28 June 1603, when the accounts of
the Earl of Rutland record a payment of £10 to 'Henygo Jones, a picture
maker'. He is not known to have taken part in the masks of the following
winter, but Jonson acknowledges that 'the bodily part' of the _Mask of
Blackness_ on 6 January 1605 was his 'design and act', and in August of
the same year he took charge of the plays given before James in the hall
of Christ Church, Oxford, and contrived their changes of scene with the
aid of revolving triangular screens of Italian design. His place as an
architect of court masks was now assured, and even the poets, to whom
the descriptions of the performances naturally fell, found it impossible
to conceal the fact that his functions were at least as important as
their own. Jonson in his earlier descriptions is punctilious in
rendering due credit to his colleague.[591] So too are Daniel and
Campion.[592]

It was not until Caroline days that the smouldering antagonism between
Jonson and Jones broke out into open warfare, and stung Jonson to
various indiscretions, amongst them the ironical outburst of the famous
_Expostulation_--

    Painting and carpentry are the soul of masque![593]

Of thirteen spectacular masks given at court from 1605 to 1613 nine were
certainly contrived by Jones, and there is no positive evidence that the
other four were not his.[594] He had also a share in the preparations
for Prince Henry's barriers of 1610. When the prince set up his
household in the following December Jones was appointed surveyor of his
works. After Henry's death he obtained a reversion of a similar
appointment in the royal Office of Works, but this reversion did not
fall in until the death of Simon Basil on 1 October 1615, and after the
marriage of the Princess Elizabeth in 1613 Jones paid a visit of some
duration to Italy. He therefore took no part in the masks for the
Somerset wedding during the following winter. For one at least of these,
Campion's _Mask of Squires_, his substitute was Constantine de' Servi, a
Florentine who had also been in the service of Henry as his architect;
but Campion was not pleased with his coadjutor, and wrote that 'he being
too much of himself, and no way to be drawn to impart his intentions,
failed so far in the assurance he gave that the main invention, even at
the last cast, was of force drawn into a far narrower compass than was
from the beginning intended'. Jones was back in England by 29 January
1615, and was to plan many more masks before his death in 1652. But none
can be definitely ascribed to him before Jonson's _Mask of Christmas_ in
1617. During the latter part of his career he was busy as an architect,
and the present banqueting-house in Whitehall, built during 1619-22,
represents a fragment of one of his grandiose schemes for the complete
reconstruction of the old palace.

The concentrated setting, as it took shape in the first period of Inigo
Jones, appears to have been regularly designed on the principle of what
is sometimes called the 'picture-stage'.[595] It was framed by a
proscenium arch, from side to side of which stretched, at first view, a
curtain. This arch was of a familiar Renaissance type. On either side
were pilasters, or statuesquely modelled figures, or a combination of
the two, which bore up a frieze. The decorations were in harmony with
the theme of the mask and the frieze might contain a scroll or panel
setting forth its title.[596] It cannot perhaps be demonstrated that
Jones invariably used a proscenium from the beginning, but at any rate
by 1608 (_Haddington Mask_) 'the arch' appears to have been a recognized
element of a setting. The most elaborate description of a proscenium is
that written by Jones himself for _Tethys' Festival_ in 1610. On this
occasion the proscenium was itself covered by a curtain until the
audience were seated. It is possible, however, that it sometimes framed
a front curtain. The use of curtains was, of course, no innovation. They
had served, when concealment and revelation were required, both in the
mobile and in the fixed settings of earlier days. Thus for an
Elizabethan mask of 1565, of which the pageant was 'a rock or hill for
the ix musses to singe vppone', the Revels Office had provided 'a vayne
of sarsnett drawen vpp and downe before them'.[597] The Jacobean curtain
itself might form part of the setting. It was painted to represent a
wooded 'landtschap' (_Blackness_), clouds (_Hay Mask_, _Tethys'
Festival_), night (_Beauty_), a red cliff (_Haddington Mask_), a city
wall and gate (_Flowers_). But at an early moment it was removed, to
'discover' a more solidly constructed scene within. Often it is called a
'traverse', and when it is 'drawne' it may either 'slide away', or 'sink
down' (_Marston's Mask_).[598] I have not come across a certain case in
which it was drawn up, either directly by a roller, or diagonally by
cords towards the corners of the proscenium; but these methods may also
have been employed. In some masks the drawing of the curtain
'discovered' the maskers on the scene; in others their entry was
deferred and variously contrived. The maskers, and sometimes the
presenters, had, before the actual dances began, to come forward
through the proscenium arch to the dancing place, which was on the floor
of the hall, or on a stage only slightly raised above it, and was
regularly laid with green cloth by the official 'mattleyer' of the
court.[599] This advance was managed in divers ways. The old device of a
movable pageant might be revived, as an element subsidiary to the fixed
scene, and the maskers brought in on a chariot (_Queens_, _Oberon_), or
enthroned on a floating isle (_Beauty_). They might be let down by a
cloud from the upper part of the scene (_Hymenaei_, _Lords' Mask_). For
the _Mask of Blackness_ Jones made an artificial sea on a wheeled stage,
which lifted them forwards in a concave shell. It was quite effective as
a spectacle, if they stepped in their bravery down a slope (_Hay Mask_)
or a double stairway (_Chapman's Mask_, _Squires_) leading from the
scene to the lower level of the dancing place.

The adoption of the concentrated setting was a matter of convenience; it
did not mean that the mask could dispense with the variety of interest
which the multiplied scenes of the dispersed setting had afforded.
Jones's chief problem as a producer was that of securing this variety of
interest under new conditions, and if possible with some added sensation
of curiosity or surprise. One device was to retain the multiplied
scenes, and to juxtapose them, or to superimpose one upon another within
the frame of the proscenium. It was easy enough to divide the curtain
either vertically or horizontally and to 'draw' the sections separately.
Thus in the _Hymenaei_, which was a double mask, the altar of Hymen and
the globe containing the men maskers were first discovered below.
Subsequently the 'upper part of the scene' opened, and the women maskers
floated out on _nimbi_. In _Lord Hay's Mask_ there was a 'double veil'
of which the lesser part covered a Bower of Flora on the right of the
stage, and the greater part covered a House of Night on the left, and a
grove and hill crowned by a Tree of Diana in the centre. This method
paid homage to the tradition of the dispersed setting; another, which
could be used in combination with the first, was capable of more
intricate development. The manœuvre of the front curtain might be
repeated. The whole, or a fragment, of the inner scene might be shifted,
so as to discover a new vision which had at first been concealed. Often
this was only a local and particular transformation. Thus it was in the
two masks just cited, when the globe behind the altar of Hymen revolved
and showed the maskers seated in a cave, or the trees in the grove of
Diana were drawn into the ground, and the maskers appeared out of their
cloven tops. Similarly the splitting of a rock, to let out personages
concealed therein, is an incident which recurs in more than one mask
(_Haddington Mask_, _Oberon_, _Chapman's Mask_). The development of the
antimask, with the emphatic contrast between the grotesque and the
magnificent which this implied, seems to have been the motive which led
to the introduction of more wholesale changes of scene. In the _Mask of
Queens_ the background for the antimask was a Hell, and when it was over
'the whole face of the scene altered, scarce suffering the memory of
such a thing', and in place of the Hell appeared a House of Fame. In
_Mercury Vindicated_, again, the Laboratory of the antimasks gave way to
a Bower of Nature for the mask proper. In _Oberon_ the antimask was
before a cliff with a rising moon, and thereafter the scene twice
opened, to disclose, first the 'frontispiece' and then the interior of a
palace of Fays. The art of transformation was perhaps carried to its
greatest extent during this period in the _Lords' Mask_ for the Princess
Elizabeth's wedding, of which the Venetian ambassador in his report to
the Signory especially noted the three changes of scene as an
outstanding feature. This elaborate spectacle affords examples of nearly
all the devices of juxtaposition, superimposition, partial and complete
transformation, by which a variety of scenic interest is reconciled with
a concentrated setting. The original scene was horizontally divided. The
lower half, which was first discovered, contained side by side a wood, a
thicket of Orpheus, and a cave of Mania. Before this danced the
antimask. Then a curtain fell from the upper part of the scene, and
discovered amongst clouds Prometheus and eight Stars. The Stars were
individually transformed to men maskers, and the clouds to the House of
Prometheus. Beneath torch-bearers emerged and danced, still in front of
the wood. The whole face of the scene was then overspread with a cloud
on which the men maskers descended. The lower part of the scene was then
changed from a wood to a façade of niches containing statues, which were
individually transformed into women maskers. The mask proper followed,
and when the dancing was over, there was a final change of the whole
scene to a porticoed perspective, leading up to the obelisk of Sibylla.
Even by 1613 the art of Jones had handsomely accomplished its task of
ministering to the pride of the eyes. In his later or Caroline period he
advanced to even greater triumphs, and did not shrink from the
decorative and mechanical difficulties entailed by as many as five
changes of scene.[600] The actual mechanism employed by Jones to obtain
his effects is perhaps better known to us for this later period, in view
of the numerous plans and designs preserved at Chatsworth and elsewhere,
than for the earlier one. The action of a mask was in all cases
'continuous', and therefore he was happily debarred from the awkward
modern convention of a drop-curtain. Jones ultimately worked out a
system of back-cloths and shutters or flats, arranged and painted so as
to produce a perspective and an illusion of solid scenery. These ran in
horizontal grooves, so that those belonging to one scene could be placed
close behind those belonging to another, and each set could be
successively removed by lateral withdrawal. It was, in fact, a
multiplied use of the primitive 'traverse' or sliding curtain. This
system may have already been at his disposal in the Jacobean period; it
was well adapted, in particular, for the splitting of a rock. But it is
clear that he also used a device based upon a different principle, a
_machina versatilis_, which by means of a circular motion was capable of
displaying successively the different faces of a comparatively solid
decorative structure placed upon it. Jonson applies the term _machina
versatilis_ to the House of Fame in the _Mask of Queens_. Presumably the
rotating globe in _Hymenaei_ and the rotating throne of Beauty in the
_Mask of Beauty_ are other examples; and yet another is furnished by
_Tethys' Festival_, where however the _truc_ was used, not to carry
scenery, but to cover a change of scene by directing the attention of
the spectators to three whirling circles of lights and glasses. It is
hardly necessary to dwell upon such subsidiary devices as the trapdoors
in the floor of the stage, or the pulleys by which floating clouds were
let down from the heavens, for such obvious and primitive machinery had
been familiar, long before the advent of Jones, as an element in the
rudimentary technique of the popular theatre.[601]

The approximation of mask to drama entailed by the adoption of the
concentrated setting was not the only point of interaction between these
parallel forms of _mimesis_. In the first instance it was perhaps the
drama, rather than the mask, which underwent an influence. The various
forms of spectacular entertainment with which the mask became entangled
during the fifteenth century might be introduced at more than one moment
in the long story of a Renaissance festival. They were equally well
adapted to enliven the intervals between the courses of a meal, and the
intervals between the parts of an organized dramatic performance. The
detached character of the Senecan chorus, and the Roman practice of
dividing up tragedies and comedies into acts, which was itself a
departure from the Greek principle of continuous action, facilitated
this intrusive development; and in the history of the Italian stage, as
it shaped itself at Ferrara and elsewhere from 1486 until the middle of
the next century, nothing is more remarkable than the tendency to bury
the actual play, tragedy or comedy, classical or modern, in a wilderness
of decorative _intermedii_, ordinarily consisting of dances and song,
framed in some ingenuity of allegorical, mythological, or other
device.[602] It is, I think, a true affiliation which traces to the
_intermedii_ the analogous dumb-shows of English usage.[603] These
belong primarily to the learned court drama, with its admitted classical
and Italian inspiration. To some extent they found their way also on to
the popular stage, which had, moreover, its own simpler devices for the
avoidance of monotony in the way of 'jigs' and 'themes'.[604] But the
influence of the dumb-show upon the drama is not wholly to be measured
by the extent to which it was adopted as a formal element in the
structure of plays. It introduced a spectacular tendency, which
continued to prevail long after the position of the dumb-show as an
interact had been surrendered. Indeed, the extreme Italian development
of the _intermedii_ constituted a danger against which the lovers of a
purer dramatic art were soon in protest.[605] If tragedy and comedy had
not succeeded in absorbing spectacle, they would have been overwhelmed
by it. The first battle was won when it was admitted that the subjects
of the _intermedii_ ought to be related to the theme of the drama, which
was by no means always the case at Ferrara; the second when the
spectacle was taken out of the intervals between the acts and treated as
an integral part of the action. This is the normal, although not of
course the invariable, Elizabethan practice. Elizabethan drama is
abundantly spectacular, and often enough the spectacle is irrelevant or
excessive, but as a rule it is, formally at least, within the plot.
There are the drums and tramplings of battles and trials and funerals.
There are the divine epiphanies in mythological pieces. There are the
endless opportunities afforded for song and dance by banquets,
weddings, and rustic merry-makings. And if all else fails, what more
easy than to introduce a dumb-show in a dream or as a specimen of the
magician's art?[606] A somewhat paradoxical type of incorporated
spectacle is the play within the play, as we find it, for example, in
_Hamlet_, where indeed the inner play has the further elaboration of its
accompanying dumb-show.[607] And with the play within the play comes the
mask within the play. In the _intermedii_ the mask, as already
suggested, tended to lose its individuality. There were dancers, no
doubt, and the dancers were disguised, and might be masked; and there
are signs of an extended use of the term 'mask' to cover such an
entertainment.[608] But the characteristic feature of the mask proper,
the taking out of spectators to dances, did not lend itself to the
conditions of performances given while the spectators sat at meat, or of
performances on the raised and isolated stage of an interlude. When a
mask proper was closely associated with an early Tudor play, it was as
an afterpiece rather than as an inter-act. The dancers of the
_intermedii_ kept to themselves, and if the sexes intermingled it was in
a 'double' choir. But when the spectacles became episodes, instead of
_intermedii_, the central incident of the mask could be restored.
Dancers who were personages of a play could obviously 'take out'
spectators who were also personages of the same play; and the
introduction of a mask, generally as a revel in a royal feast or wedding
banquet, becomes a regular dramatic device at least from the last decade
of the sixteenth century onwards. Perhaps the first example is in an
academic play, Gager's _Ulysses Redux_ of 1592, where at the beginning
of Act II 'Proci larvati alicunde prodeunt, saltantque in scena', and as
we learn from the criticism of Rainolds, some of Penelope's handmaids,
seated amongst the audience, were 'entreated by the wooers to rise and
danse upon the stage'.[609] Shakespeare has a mask in _Love's Labour's
Lost_, and another in _Romeo and Juliet_, to which the episode is handed
down from the ultimate source in Italian narrative.[610] Another early
example is in _1 Richard II_ (iv. 2). Munday has a mask in his _Death of
Robert Earl of Huntingdon_ (_1598_; ii. 2), Dekker (ii. 204) in his
_Whore of Babylon_ (_c. 1607_) and his _Satiromastix_ (_1601_; l. 2302),
and Tourneur, if it was Tourneur, in his _Revenger's Tragedy_ (_c.
1607_; v. 3). These are examples from the public theatres. When the
boys' companies came into existence at the end of the century, dance and
song proved well within their means; and their principal writers,
Marston, Chapman, Middleton, Field, Jonson, all make use of the
mask.[611] So do Beaumont and Fletcher, both in plays for boys and in
plays for men.[612] But the enumeration of earlier names is of itself
enough to dispose of the theory that to Beaumont and Fletcher is due, in
some special way, the transference of the court mask to the popular
stage, and in particular the introduction of Shakespeare to the supposed
new idea. Doubtless the mask in _A Maid's Tragedy_ is set out with
somewhat greater elaboration of presentment than was usual in earlier
plays, and doubtless the antimask of Beaumont's contribution to the
Princess Elizabeth's wedding was furbished up again for the delight of a
popular audience in _The Two Noble Kinsmen_. But it hardly follows that
Shakespeare, after using the mask in _Love's Labour's Lost_ and _Romeo
and Juliet_, had anything to learn from his younger rivals before he
used it in _The Tempest_, and a writer who can assert that Ben Jonson
'did not mix his masques and plays' must have simply forgotten
_Cynthia's Revels_.[613] The mask in this play is of special interest,
because it is Elizabethan and antedates by some four years the first of
the long series of Jonson's Jacobean masks. It occupies, in the quarto
version, the greater part of the last seven scenes of the play. In iv. 5
Arete, a principal lady at court, desires revels for Cynthia, and
Amorphus proposes a 'masque'. Arete undertakes to send for Criticus, and
get his advice.[614] In iv. 6 Criticus hesitates to write for such
revellers as Amorphus and his crew. Arete encourages him. The presence
will restrain them when they are masked, and Cynthia needs the
opportunity to reform them. Criticus then invokes Apollo and Mercury. In
v. 1 Cynthia, awaiting the mask, holds flattering discourse with Arete
on its author. In v. 2 enters 'the first masque'. Cupid 'disguised like
Anteros', presents four virgins from the palace of Perfection, Storge,
Aglaia, Euphantaste, and Apheleia. He interprets their devices, and
presents on their behalf a crystal, in which Cynthia sees her own image.
In v. 3 Cynthia discusses the mask with Criticus and Arete. In v. 4
enters 'the second masque'. Mercury presents and interprets the four
sons of Eutaxia, who are Eucosmos, Eupathes, Eutolmos, and Eucolos. In
iv. 5 'the masques joyne'. They dance the first, second, and third
'straine', while Cupid and Mercury converse, outside the _cadre_ of the
mask. The dancers do not proceed to 'take out' spectators, but that is
presumably because they are interrupted by Cynthia, who bids them unmask
and administers her reproof.

The masks inserted in plays are rarely described with anything like the
fullness of _Cynthia's Revels_, although there is a fair amount of
detail in _The Maid's Tragedy_ and a somewhat less amount in _Your Five
Gallants_ and in _No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's_. It must be borne in
mind that the main action of a mask was mute, and that the stage
directions of the printed texts are not intended to be descriptive.
Moreover, the structural place of the mask in a plot often leads, as in
_Cynthia's Revels_, to its abrupt termination. The disguises cover an
intrigue of murder (_2 Antonio and Mellida_, _Revenger's Tragedy_) or of
robbery (_A Mad World, my Masters_), or of elopement (_A Woman is a
Weathercock_). Or a quarrel breaks out (_Dutch Courtesan_), or a masker
is discovered to be dead (_Satiromastix_). As a rule, too, the
presenters' speeches are omitted or cut short, since it is spectacle,
and not mere dialogue, that is required.[615] Nevertheless, in its main
features, the dramatized mask confirms what we know of the mask from
other sources. It has its dancers, its presenters, its torch-bearers,
and its music.[616] _Your Five Gallants_ adds 'shield boys' to carry the
'devices'. When the performers have finished their measures, they
generally take out the ladies. At the end they unmask, 'honour' the
guests (_A Women is a Weathercock_), and depart, or proceed to a
banquet. And in some interesting points the dramatized mask supplements
other information. To begin with, it is a simpler type of mask than is
represented by the full Jacobean descriptions. For obvious reasons
architectural pageantry could hardly be introduced. In _The Maid's
Tragedy_ there is a rock, in _Satiromastix_ a chair; in _May Day_ Cupid
'descends', a feat, as already noted, well within the compass of an
ordinary theatre. And that is about all. You get the mask as it was
practised at Elizabeth's court, rather than at that of James. Then there
are sometimes subsidiary scenes, which throw light upon aspects of the
mask, not much dwelt on in the Jacobean descriptions. Often there is a
scene of preparation, when the 'maskery' is planned, and a 'device',
'imprezza', or 'mott' ordered of the painter, or 'a few tinsel coats' of
the vizard-maker (_1 Antonio and Mellida_, _Insatiate Countess_, _A Mad
World, my Masters_, _Your Five Gallants_, _A Woman is a Weathercock_).
Or there is a scene of bustle, when a 'state' and canopy are set up in
the 'presence' (_Satiromastix_) and room is made for the dancers, either
by the cry of 'A hall, a hall!' (_Romeo and Juliet_, _May Day_) or by
the more violent ministrations of the torch-bearers (_A Woman is a
Weathercock_) or of court officials. Thus in _The Maid's Tragedy_ the
mask is preluded by the activities of Calianax, the lord chamberlain,
who 'would run raging among them, and break a dozen wiser heads than his
own in the twinkling of an eye', and of Diagoras the gentleman usher,
who is keeping the doors against the impatient crowd without, and
placing the ladies, all except those who come in 'the king's troop', in
a gallery 'above'. There is a similar scene in Beaumont and Fletcher's
_Four Plays in One_, a piece which consists of three short playlets,
divided by 'triumphs' or _intermedii_, and concluded by a mask. This may
be regarded as an experiment, in which the influence of the
mask-tradition has exceptionally modified the typical structure of the
drama. Nor does it stand quite alone. Peele's _Arraignment of Paris_ is
of course spectacular throughout, and the last scene, in which the
golden apple is handed to Elizabeth, is clearly, in its recognition of
the audience, a divergence from the normal detachment of the drama.[617]
Perhaps the same may be said of the epithalamic end of _A
Midsummer-Night's Dream_, but as a rule the element of mask remains an
episode, and does not dominate the play which admits it.

The debt of the mask to the play may be traced in the increased skill in
which the later masks are arranged around a 'device' or dramatic idea.
The mask had had its presenters as far back as Lydgate. Even in a
learned court, the more recondite forms of allegory or mythology
sometimes require explanation. The maskers proper seem to have been
traditionally mum and therefore unable to explain themselves. Let us
remember that they were not professional actors, but English men and
women of good birth and breeding, and that therefore their limbs could
more easily be trained than their wits and voices. If explanation was
required, it must be given in an introductory speech by a subsidiary
performer. Such a spokesman seems to have been known to the Elizabethan
Revels as a 'truchman' or interpreter.[618] In addition to his function
of elucidation he became the natural vehicle of whatever compliment was
to be paid by the mask, and when Arthur Throgmorton wished to turn the
heart of Elizabeth in 1595, we find him undertaking the part himself.
The Elizabethan truchmen do not seem to have got much beyond formal
speeches, and the child dressed as Mercury or Cupid became rather
_banal_ through much repetition. If anything more dramatic was
attempted, either through the presenters, or by dividing the dancers
into a double mask, it was apt to be based upon the mediaeval idea of an
assault. In the device for the abortive masks of 1562 the presenters
were to do most of the fighting. In 1559, on the other hand, it was
successive bands of maskers that rifled and rescued the Queen's maids.
How far the mask of Diana and Actaeon in the following winter took a
dramatic form we do not know. The development of the mask on dramatic
lines seems to have been a slow business. Even Jonson, in _Cynthia's
Revels_, has not got beyond Cupid and Mercury and the formal speeches.
On the other hand, the Gray's Inn mask, which preceded _Cynthia's
Revels_ by some years, and nearly all the Jacobean masks, especially
Jonson's, show a marked progress in this respect. A dramatic idea is
nearly always dominant, and there is ingenuity in grouping the fixed
elements of the mask about it. A comparison between Gascoigne's
treatment of a wedding mask in 1572 and Jonson's in 1608 may serve to
illustrate this. Gascoigne's maskers are Montagues of Italy, who have
been driven by a storm to the shores of England, and take the
opportunity to visit their English kinsmen, in whose house the wedding
happens to be taking place. The idea is not without point, but it is all
expounded in a single and inevitably tedious speech by the truchman,
during which the dancers must remain motionless. When Jonson has to
celebrate the wedding of James Ramsay and Elizabeth Radcliffe in 1608 he
proceeds very differently. Even the curtain introduces the hymeneal
theme with its graceful symbolism of a red cliff. From the top of this
Venus descends with her Graces. She is in search of her son, and bids
the Graces ask whether he is concealed in the eyes or between the
swelling breasts of the ladies in the audience. The Graces sing their
appeal for the discovery of 'Venus' runaway'. Cupid now emerges, with a
train of Joci and Risus, each bearing two torches, who dance a dance of
triumph. Venus captures Cupid, and demands the cause of his jubilation.
He slips away, but the explanation is given by Hymen, in a speech of
flattery to the King on the 'state', to the bridegroom who saved the
King's life, and to the maid of the Red Cliff, who is the bride. Hymen
is followed by Vulcan, who splits the cliff, and discloses a concave
fashioned by his art, in which sit the maskers. They are the twelve
Signs of the Zodiac, to each of whom is assigned some influence upon
marriage. They advance and dance their measures, while Vulcan's
attendants, the Cyclopes, Brontes and Steropes, beat time with their
sledges, and in the pauses of the dancing the musicians, dressed as
priests of Hymen, sing the verses of an epithalamion. How neatly it is
all done! The maskers, the presenters, the torch-bearers, the musicians,
all have their place in the scheme, and contribute towards the
complimenting of the bridal pair.

It would perhaps be difficult to say how far the approximation to drama
in the Jacobean masks was due to the subconscious mental processes of
mask poets who were themselves playwrights, and how far to a deliberate
intention to combine two arts.[619] As a rule it is safe to credit
Jonson, at least, with fully conscious artistry. And here too the model
set by Baldassarino's _Balet Comique_ must not be neglected. The printed
description of this contains a preface, in which Baldassarino justifies
his use of the term 'comique' on the ground that he has arranged his
'balet' in acts and scenes like a comedy, and claims to be an innovator
in this interweaving of poetry with the dance, to which 'le premier
tiltre et honneur' are still left. The Jacobean poets did not essay a
treatment by acts and scenes, which indeed has no great significance
even in the _Balet Comique_. But Baldassarino's main idea, of the
inhibition of the dance by the magic of Circe until the gods come to the
rescue, may fairly be regarded as responsible for the several episodes
of disenchantment or transformation which recur in the work of his
successors.[620]

Jonson's mask for the Ramsay-Radcliffe wedding in 1608 represents a
stage of importance in the evolution of the dramatic form. The entry of
the maskers is preluded by a dance of the torch-bearing Joci and Risus.
In describing his _Mask of Queens_ of the following year, Jonson says,
'And because her majesty (best knowing that a principal part of life in
these spectacles lay in their variety) had commanded me to think on some
dance, or shew, that might precede hers, and have the place of a foil,
or false masque, I was careful to decline, not only from others, but
mine own steps in that kind, since the last year, I had an antimasque of
boys; and therefore now devised that twelve women, in the habit of hags
or witches, sustaining the persons of Ignorance, Suspicion, Credulity,
&c., the opposites to good Fame, should fill that part, not as a masque,
but a spectacle of strangeness, producing multiplicity of gesture, and
not unaptly sorting with the current and whole fall of the device'. I am
not quite sure what Jonson intends by the distinction here drawn between
a 'masque' and a 'spectacle', for in fact the Hags dance 'a magical
dance full of preposterous change and gesticulation', which is
interrupted by a burst of loud music and an alteration in the face of
the scene, heralding the introduction of the Queens in the House of
Fame. However this may be, Jonson's innovation, with its obvious
advantages of added variety, must have been immediately successful, for
in practically all subsequent examples of the period the antimask
appears as a fixed element in the scheme, preceding and setting off what
Beaumont calls the 'maine' mask, and usually divided from it by a change
of scene.[621] There are some slight further elaborations to record. In
_Oberon_, in the _Lords' Mask_, and in _Chapman's Mask_, the antimask is
followed by a dance of torch-bearers, to which also Chapman gives the
name of 'antimask'. _Beaumont's Mask_, the _Mask of Squires_, _Mercury
Vindicated_, and _Browne's Mask_ have each two regular antimasks, and
in the _Mask of Squires_ the second antimask is interpolated in the
middle of the dances of the main mask. There is only one antimask in
_The Twelve Months_, but two dances are assigned to it. The _Mask of
Flowers_ has, besides the antimask 'of dances', a preliminary antimask
'of song'. The name 'antimask' has given some trouble. Jonson's
references to 'a foil, or false masque' and to 'opposites' suggest
clearly enough that he used the prefix 'anti' to indicate an antithesis
or contrast. But in _Tethys' Festival_ Daniel uses the form
'antemasque', and this spelling, probably due to a misunderstanding by
the worthy Daniel of the point of the innovation, recurs in _Chapman's
Mask_ and in _The Twelve Months_.[622] The _Mask of Flowers_, again,
affords a third variation, in 'anticke-maske', and this also, I think,
_pace_ Dr. Brotanek, must have its origin in a misunderstanding.[623] An
'antic' dance is a grotesque dance, and this epithet is often applied to
the personages of the antimasks and their evolutions, from the
_Haddington Mask_ onwards, since the characteristic antithesis which the
antimask renders possible is precisely the antithesis between the
grotesque prelude and the splendour of the main mask that follows.[624]
I want to emphasize the point that this element of contrast introduced
by the juxtaposition of mask and antimask is analogous to what critics
have always regarded as a special feature of the Elizabethan, and
particularly the Shakespearian drama, the juxtaposition of comedy and
tragedy, either in the form of what is called tragicomedy, or by the
inclusion of scenes of 'comic relief' in tragedy proper. It is perhaps
worth noting that in the French masks of 1610 and 1612 printed by
Lacroix we find side by side with the 'grand ballet' elements variously
described as the 'première et plaisante entrée' (1610) and 'la
bouffonnerie' (1612), which appear to serve just the same purpose as the
English antimask.[625] But, of course, I do not mean to suggest that
either in France or in England the grotesque made its way into the mask
for the first time during the seventeenth century. The clowns, mariners,
'wodwoses' and so forth of the earlier Elizabethan revels must have lent
themselves to humorous treatment, and indeed mirth has at all times been
of the essence of revels. There is some reason to think that a
traditional form of grotesque mask at court was the morris. This is of
course a familiar type of folk-dance, and may owe its Tudor name to the
_moresche_, which were dances introduced as _intermedii_ into Italian
plays.[626]

The spectacular and literary elaboration of the Jacobean mask must not
be allowed to blind our eyes to the fact that after all it was not a
dramatic illusion but a choregraphic compliment which remained the
central purpose of the entertainment. Scenery and speech and song occupy
perhaps a disproportionate share of the attention of the poets who, to
their own glorification and that of the architects, wrote the
descriptions; but the greater part of the considerable number of hours
during which the mask lasted was devoted to the actual dancing. And the
dancing involved an intimacy, and not a detachment, in the relation
between performers and spectators. It is true that some of the
traditional features which accompanied the mask, when court ceremonial
first took it up from folk custom, tended under the new conditions to
pass into the state of survivals. Thus the torch-bearers, whether or not
their burning brands represent some original element of ritual in the
folk festival, were certainly _de rigueur_ as a concomitant of the mask
during the sixteenth century. They had two clear functions. They
provided, in dim halls, the abundance of light which was so necessary to
give full value to the bright stuffs and metallic spangles worn by the
dancers. And their own costumes, harmonized or contrasting with those of
the dancers, afforded the variety of interest which otherwise, while the
presenters were still limited to one or two 'truchmen', might have been
lacking. They were always kept in strict subordination to the maskers
proper. They were their attendants; Hinds in a mask of Clowns, Almains
in a mask of Swart Rutters, Moorish friars in a mask of Moors. Their
garments were inferior, taffeta, as against satin or cloth of gold. When
George Ferrers, as Lord of Misrule in 1552, had occasion to complain of
the apparel furnished by the Master of the Revels for his councillors,
he wrote that the gentlemen who were to take the parts 'wolde not be
seen in London so torchebererlyke disgysed for asmoche as they ar worthe
or hope to be worthe'.[627] And when the measures began, they had little
to do, but to stand and look on.[628] In the seventeenth century they
were not so indispensable, either for illumination, which could be
better supplied by fixed lights upon the scene, or for variety.[629] And
with the multiplication of other purposes the room which they took up
could ill be spared. In _Tethys' Festival_, given exceptionally during
the heat of summer, there were no torch-bearers, on the ground that
'they would have pestered the roome, which the season would not well
permit'. And therewith begins a tendency either, as already indicated,
to merge them in the antimask, or to omit them altogether.[630] The
vizard again and the ceremonial unvizarding at the end of the
performance, although usual, and of course essential parts of the
tradition, do not appear to have been quite invariable under James
I.[631] As early as the _Mask of Blackness_ in 1605, blackened faces and
arms were substituted, which, says a contemporary writer, were 'disguise
sufficient' and an 'ugly sight', and the experiment was not repeated. I
do not know that for any historic period there is evidence that the
maskers regularly brought gifts with them, although they sometimes did,
and one may suspect that such gifts represented the 'luck' of the
primitive custom. A jewel was all very well when Arthur Throgmorton
wanted to use a mask as a medium for recovering the lost favour of
Elizabeth.[632] But it may be assumed that Elizabeth would think it a
useless expense, when a mask was only conventionally a surprise visit,
and was really designed on her own instructions in her own Office of the
Revels. And although James did on one occasion pay no less than £40,000
for the jewel used in the mask of Indian and Chinese Knights, this was
in the first year of his reign, when his predecessor's hoarded wealth
was still there for the lavishing, and the special purpose was to be
served of impressing Henri IV through his diplomatic
representative.[633] When there were gifts, they were as a rule
trifling, and incidental to the 'device' of the mask. The abortive
scheme of 1562 provides for a grandguard and a sword and girdle.
Elizabeth got on one occasion flowers of silk and gold, signifying
victory, peace, and plenty; on another snowballs of lamb's wool
sweetened with rose-water in a mask of Janus; on a third looking-glasses
with posies inscribed on them in a mask of Pedlars. In _The Twelve
Goddesses_ the maskers presented their emblems, and Sibylla laid them in
the temple. In the _Mask of Blackness_ the Daughters of Niger presented
their fans. In _Tethys' Festival_ there were a trident for James and a
sword, worth 20,000 crowns, and a scarf for Henry. In the _Mask of
Squires_ Anne plucked a bough from a golden tree, wherewith to
disenchant the Knights. Often the gifts were represented by the merely
conventional offering of a copy of verses, or of shields bearing
_imprese_ or painted allegorical devices, such as were also brought by
the runners in tilts.[634] These sometimes required interpretation and
led to some preliminary 'commoning' with the guests of honour.
Interchanges of wit at this stage between Elizabeth and Mary Fitton in
1600 and James and Philip Herbert in 1604 are upon record. But of course
the chief 'commoning' was when the maskers 'took out' the principal
spectators of the opposite sex to dance. Whether the Jacobean maskers
kissed the ladies whom they took out I do not know, but this was the
earlier custom.[635] At any rate the 'taking out' is the critical moment
of intimacy between performers and spectators in the mask, and serves,
even more than the gifts and even more than the personal compliments in
theme and speech, to distinguish it from the drama.[636] The period of
'intermixed' dancing (_Hymenaei_), which it introduced, served as a
sequel to the greater part of the mask proper, and is sometimes
described as 'the revels' (_Love Freed_; _Twelve Months_). More
precisely, the order of the dancing, subject to minor variations, was as
follows. After the dialogue of presentation and the antimask, the
maskers entered and began a series of 'masque dances' (_Oberon_; _Love
Freed_), 'changes' (_Malecontent_; _Insatiate Countess_), or 'strains'
(_Hymenaei_; _Cynthia's Revels_; _A Woman is a Weathercock_). These are
also called the 'single' dances, to distinguish them from the
'intermixed' dances (_Blackness_) or more usually and simply, the
maskers 'own' dances or the 'new' dances. Sometimes the 'first' dance is
distinguished from the 'main' dance (_Twelve Months_; _Lords' Mask_;
_Mercury Vindicated_; _Golden Age_). After one, two, or three 'new'
dances, the maskers 'dissolved' (_Hymenaei_) and 'took out' for the
'revels'. Finally they gathered again for their 'going off' (_Twelve
Months_), the 'last', 'parting', 'departing' or 'retiring' dance, which
sometimes took them 'into the work' (_Oberon_). If they did not dance
back 'into the work', they probably unmasked at this stage, after a
ceremonial reverence to the company, known as the 'honour' (_Hay Mask_;
_Your Five Gallants_; _A Woman is a Weathercock_).[637] The revels
consisted partly of the solemn figured dances known as 'measures',
partly of 'lighter' dances (_Hay Mask_). Those most often mentioned are
the galliard, coranto, and lavolta; others were the brawl (_Browne's
Mask_), duretto (_Beaumont's Mask_; _Mask of Flowers_), and morasco
(_Mask of Flowers_).[638] Of course, only 'ordinary' measures (_Indian
and Chinese Knights_) and familiar court dances were available for the
revels. The mask dances proper, on the other hand, as the epithet 'new'
indicates, were specially designed and carefully learnt for each
occasion. They appear to have always been 'measures'. Baldassarino
regards 'meslanges geometriques' as being of the essence of the mask.
The dances were a technical matter, with which the poets were not much
concerned, and they do not as a rule attempt any notation, or even
detailed description of the figures. An occasional literary touch was,
however, to their fancy. In _Hymenaei_ some of the figures were 'formed
into letters very signifying to the name of the bridegroom', and again
in the _Mask of Queens_ one of the dances was 'graphically disposed into
letters, and honouring the name of the most sweet and ingenious Prince,
Charles, Duke of York'. These graphic dances, which Bacon deprecates,
were also used in the French _Ballet de Monseigneur le Duc de Vandosme_
of 1610.[639]

It is of a piece with the intimacy between maskers and spectators that
the former appear always to have been volunteers, and that to dance in a
mask, at any rate at court, was not derogatory even to persons of the
highest rank. I have no proof that Queen Elizabeth ever masked in
person, as her father and brother certainly did, but in view of her
notorious fondness for the exercise of the dance it is extremely
probable. Unfortunately we know very little of the personnel of the
Elizabethan masks. The _Revels Accounts_, a source of generous
information on many points, never name the maskers. Scattered notices
elsewhere suggest that they may not infrequently have been the maids of
honour. It was so when Brantôme was present in 1561, and at Anne
Russell's wedding in 1600, when Elizabeth, contrary to the ordinary rule
of sex-exchange, was 'taken' out by Mary Fitton. Among the stray names
of revellers that have floated to us down the stream of time are those
of George Brooke, who came to the scaffold in 1603, and Sir Robert
Carey, who boasts of his share in all court triumphs in 1586.[640]
Naunton is the authority for the statement that Sir Christopher Hatton
first appeared before Elizabeth in one of the masks which were sent from
time to time as the contributions of the Inns of Court to the royal
gaiety.[641] Lists of the dancers in most of the Jacobean masks are
preserved. That of James himself is not among them; he was ungainly and
indolent except on horseback. But Anne danced in her own 'Queen's' masks
of 1604, 1605, 1608, 1609, 1610, and probably 1611, and allowed herself
to be 'taken out' as a compliment to her hosts at Caversham as late as
the summer of 1613. With her in 1610 was the Princess Elizabeth, and in
1608 and 1610 the Lady Arabella Stuart. Henry was 'taken out' as a boy
and 'tost from hand to hand like a tennis bal' by the ladies in the
_Twelve Goddesses_ of 1604.

He masked himself in _Oberon_ (1611) and in the undatable _Twelve
Months_. The only appearance of Charles before 1618 was as Zephyrus
amongst the presenters of _Tethys' Festival_ (1610). Next to Anne
herself, the most conspicuous performer in the Queen's masks was perhaps
Lucy Countess of Bedford, who had already won her reputation as a 'fine
dancing dame' at the end of the previous reign, and whose costume in one
at least of her extant portraits is conjectured to represent masking
attire.[642] Other names which recur frequently in the lists are those
of Elizabeth Countess of Derby and her sister Susan Countess of
Montgomery, Alethea Countess of Arundel, Anne Countess of Dorset, and
Audrey Lady Walsingham; while amongst the men shone the two brothers
Herbert, William Earl of Pembroke and Philip Earl of Montgomery, and
that most splendid and extravagant of all the Jacobean courtiers, James
Lord Hay. The Earl of Somerset does not appear to have been a dancer,
but when the star of George Villiers was rising in 1615 his friends were
careful to give him his opportunity of shining in a mask. It is not
surprising to find that the numerous sons and daughters of the Earl of
Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain, and the Earl of Worcester, Master of the
Horse, who shared the official oversight of the masks, were not seldom
called upon to display their skill. One fears that there must often have
been heart-burnings. Lady Hatton's pique at being left out in 1605
contributed something to the strained relations with her husband, Lord
Coke, which long made mirth for London.[643]

The masks could not dispense altogether with professional assistance. In
the _Mask of Beauty_ the torch-bearing Cupids were 'chosen out of the
best and ingenious youth of the kingdom'. In _Tethys' Festival_ the
presenters included, in addition to the Duke of York, two gentlemen 'of
good worth and respect', who played the Tritons, and the antimask
included eight 'little ladies, all of them the daughters of Earls or
Barons'. But this mask was for the exceptional occasion of the creation
of Henry as Prince of Wales, and Daniel expressly boasts that 'there
were none of inferior sort mixed among these great personages of state
and honour (as usually there have been); but all was performed by
themselves with a due reservation of their dignity'. The normal practice
seems to have been to hire players and their boys for the antimask and
for the speaking parts, which of course required a trained
elocution.[644] Sometimes, however, a part might be taken by one of the
numerous persons employed as devisers or trainers. I do not know that
the statement that 'Ben Jonson turned the globe of the earth standing
behind the altar' in _Hymenaei_ necessarily implies Jonson's personal
presence on the stage, actor though he had been, for in fact the globe
seems to have been moved by unseen machinery, without even the apparent
assistance of a presenter. But the dance-masters Thomas Giles and Jerome
Heron certainly played the Cyclopes in the _Haddington Mask_, and Giles
also played Thamesis in the _Mask of Beauty_. The musicians again, some
or all of whom were generally disguised, were a professional body, of
which the nucleus was probably formed by members of the various bands of
the royal households. Thus John Allen, who sang in the _Mask of Queens_
and the _Mask of Squires_, was 'her majesty's servant', and Nicholas
Lanier, who also sang in the _Mask of Squires_, was one of the King's
flutes. Both musicians and dancing-masters had other important functions
in connexion with the masks, outside the actual performances. The former
had to compose the airs and set them for the musical instruments and the
dances; the latter had to arrange the dances and to drill the
dancers.[645] Campion, being a composer as well as a poet, was naturally
responsible for his own music, and the musical element in his masks
tended to be predominant. Jonson seems generally to have obtained the
co-operation of Alfonso Ferrabosco, probably a son of the Ferrabosco who
was devising masks for Elizabeth about 1572.[646] He was originally a
lutenist, but at the time of his death in 1627 'enjoyed four places,
viz. a musician's place in general, a composer's place, a violl's place,
and an instructor's place to the prince in the art of musique'.[647]
Amongst the musicians who gave minor assistance, either as composers or
as executants, were Thomas Ford (_Chapman's Mask_), John Cooper
(_Lords_; _Squires_), the lutenists Robert Johnson (_Oberon_; _Love
Freed_; _Lords_; _Chapman's Mask_), John and Robert Dowland (_Chapman's
Mask_), and Philip Rossiter (_Chapman's Mask_), and the violinists
Thomas Lupo the elder (_Hay Mask_; _Oberon_; _Love Freed_; _Lords_),
Rowland Rubidge (_Oberon_), and Alexander Chisan (_Oberon_).[648] As
dancing-masters we hear of Thomas Cardell under Elizabeth in 1582;[649]
and under James of Jerome Heron (_Haddington Mask_; _Queens_; _Oberon_;
_Lords_), Confess (_Oberon_; _Love Freed_), Bochan (_Love Freed_;
_Lords_), and Thomas Giles (_Hymenaei_; _Beauty_; _Haddington Mask_;
_Queens_; _Oberon_; _Lords_), who was musician and teacher of the dance
to Henry, and may be identical with the Thomas Giles who became Master
of the Paul's boys in 1584.[650]

The court masks ordinarily took place in what was called the
banqueting-house, but might with more appropriateness have been called
the masking-house, at Whitehall.[651] The occasional exceptions readily
explain themselves. Whitehall was under the ban of plague in the winter
of 1604, and the masks were in the great hall of Hampton Court. During
the winter of 1606, when the Elizabethan banqueting-house had been
pulled down and the Jacobean one was not yet ready, the great hall of
Whitehall itself was used. Here also was given _Chapman's Mask_, on the
second night of the Princess Elizabeth's wedding, doubtless because the
banqueting-house was still encumbered with the scenery belonging to the
_Lords' Mask_ of the previous night. The hall had also been assigned to
_Beaumont's Mask_ on the third night, but when this was put off for a
few days, the greater dignity of the banqueting-house was granted as a
compensation for the disappointment of the dancers. The aspect of the
room and its arrangements are well described in 1618, only a year before
the first Jacobean banqueting-house was burnt down, by Orazio Busino,
almoner to the Venetian ambassador, Piero Contarini.[652] This may be
supplemented by Campion's description of the great hall at Whitehall as
arranged for the mask at Lord Hay's wedding, and by the careful note of
John Finett, then an assistant to the Master of the Ceremonies, upon the
seating of the ambassadors in 1616.[653] At the lower or screen end was
the scene; at the upper end, and divided from the scene by the
dancing-place, was the royal 'state', on a raised daïs and under a
canopy. Behind the state, along the sides of the room to right and left
of the dancing-place, and in galleries above, were tiers of seats, some
of which were divided into boxes. James himself seems always to have
been present, returning if necessary from his hunting journeys for mask
nights, and sometimes starting off again the next morning at daybreak.
Busino's account suggests that he liked to see vigorous and sustained
dancing; but his patience failed him when he was asked to sit through
three masks on successive nights in 1613, and he insisted on putting off
the third, although the maskers had already come, telling Sir Francis
Bacon, who protested that this was to bury them quick, that the
alternative was to bury him quick, for he could last no longer. On the
other hand, he was sufficiently gratified by the _Irish Mask_ in 1613
and _Mercury Vindicated_ in 1615 to be willing to call for a second
performance in each case. With the King sat members of the royal family
and sometimes ambassadors or other specially honoured guests. Finett
records that in 1616 the French, Venetian, and Savoyard ambassadors were
all on the King's right hand, but in places of nicely graded dignity,
'not right out, but byas forward'. The ambassadorial suites appear to
have been accommodated in boxes raised above the level of the state, to
the right and left. Guests of honour, but of lesser honour, might be
placed on special benches assigned to lords and privy councillors.
Evidently the masks were solemn occasions, and the laws of precedence
strictly followed. An allusion in _The Maid's Tragedy_ suggests that
ladies, other than those ladies of the court and ambassadors' wives who
formed the king's 'troop', were ordinarily seated in the galleries.[654]
One of the principal objects of the masks was the entertainment of
ambassadors, and the jealousies amongst them were constantly involving
James and his Council in awkward diplomatic questions.[655] These have
recently been the subject of a special study, and need not here be
described in detail.[656] By far the most important was the standing
conflict for precedence between the representatives of France and Spain.
James consistently refused to commit himself to either claim, and was
careful not to invite both ambassadors to the same function.[657] But
some occasions were more honourable than others, and it seems clear that
in the minds of the ambassadors themselves the bestowal or withholding
of an invitation often counted for a diplomatic triumph or rebuff.
Matters were complicated during the earlier years of the reign by Anne's
far from discreet advocacy of the Spanish cause, and the dispatches of
M. de Beaumont in 1605 and M. de la Boderie in 1608 are largely occupied
with the embarrassment caused to James and the humiliation inflicted
upon those ambassadors themselves by the Queen's determination that her
masks should be graced by the presence of the astute and courtly
Spaniard, Juan de Taxis. In the latter year James had to stave off an
open rupture with Henri IV by an opportune demand for the repayment of a
long-standing debt. The relations between France and Spain were
paralleled by similar feuds for precedence between Venice and Flanders
and between Florence and Savoy, while the King of Spain was naturally
unwilling that his representative should be received on terms of
equality with the representative of Holland and thus appear to
acknowledge the claims of rebellious provinces to rank as a sovereign
state. Occasional visitors of rank had their own points of etiquette to
raise. Thus in 1604 the Duke of Holstein stood for three hours rather
than sit below the Venetian ambassador. Generally speaking, indeed, the
newly established office of Master of the Ceremonies must have been
anything but a bed of roses. The chief mask of the year, which every
ambassador intrigued to attend, was traditionally danced on Twelfth
Night; but often it was put off to a later date, in order to meet
diplomatic exigencies.[658]

The banqueting-house, with the 'state' in it, was probably regarded as
technically part of the Presence Chamber. At any rate, it was under the
supervision of the Lord Chamberlain and the officers of the Chamber,
headed by the Gentleman Usher. They seated the audience, kept the doors
against the turbulent crowds knocking for admission, cleared the
dancing-place when the King was seated, and supplied the principal
guests with programmes or abstracts of the device prepared by the
poet.[659] The Chamberlain's white staff was no mere symbol when there
was whiffling to be done, and even Ben Jonson, 'ushered by my Lord
Suffolk from a mask' on 6 January 1604, the year before his own
sovereignty over masks began, required to be consoled by his fellow in
misfortune, Sir John Roe, with the reminder,--

    Forget we were thrust out; it is but thus,
    God threatens Kings, Kings Lords, as Lords do us.[660]

Obviously, as John Chamberlain suggests in a letter to Dudley Carleton,
to be befriended at court was to secure the easier admission. But
subject to the limitations of space and the discretion of the
door-keepers, the performances seem to have been open to all comers,
although the wicked wit of the dramatists is apt to suggest that
citizens' wives sometimes found access more readily than the citizens
themselves.[661] It is difficult to say how many the room would hold.
One of De la Boderie's dispatches speaks of 10,000, which was probably a
considerable over-estimate.[662] Many of those who besieged the doors
must of course have been disappointed, and perhaps many of those who got
in experienced more satisfaction than comfort.[663] In order to save
space, it was decreed in 1613 that no ladies should be admitted in
farthingales, and the repetition of the _Irish Mask_ of 1613 and the
_Mercury Vindicated_ of 1615 may have been due in part to an unsatisfied
demand for seats as well as to the intrinsic merit of the performances.

The mask, beginning after supper, was prolonged far into the night. That
at Sir Philip Herbert's wedding lasted three hours; _Tethys' Festival_
was not over until hard upon sunrise. The pent-up audience dissolved in
some confusion. Apparently the Tudor custom of finishing the proceedings
by rifling the pageant and the dresses of their decorations had not been
wholly abandoned.[664] A hardly less riotous scene followed. A banquet
was spread in another room, the great chamber in 1605, the presence
chamber in 1616, the specially built 'marriage' room in 1613. It was
not etiquette for the King to partake of this with his guests, but he
usually conducted the maskers to the tables, and took a survey of them
before he retired. Then the fray began. The banquet was 'dispatched with
the accustomed confusion', says a chronicler in 1604. In 1605 it 'was so
furiously assaulted that down went tables and tressels before one bit
was touched'. _Tethys' Festival_ in 1610 closed with 'views and
scrambling'. At Beaumont's mask in 1613, 'after the King had made the
tour of the tables, everything was in a moment rapaciously swept
away'.[665] Tired and unfed, the ladies made their way out into the
courtyards of the palace, perhaps to find, as in 1604, that chains and
jewels were gone, and that they were even 'made shorter by the
skirts'.[666]

Next day the poets sat down to turn the programmes into books, which the
stationers could print and sell at sixpence each, and so save them from
being pestered for copies of the verses.[667] And the Lord Chamberlain's
Secretary sat down to compare his expenses with his imprests, and to
draw up his accounts for endorsement by his lord and the Master of the
Horse, and presentation at the Exchequer. Any estimate of the cost of
masking that we can now form must be approximate in character. Under
Elizabeth, so long as masks were the care of the Revels, their expenses
naturally appear in the accounts of that office; but in part only, since
requisitions appear to have been made upon the Wardrobe and the Office
of Works, and the services rendered by these departments not charged to
the Revels. Moreover, the methods of bookkeeping employed by the
officers of the Revels did not provide for distinguishing expenditure
upon masks and upon plays when, as was usually the case, both types of
entertainment were in concurrent preparation.[668] It is therefore
rarely that the cost of an Elizabethan mask can be isolated, and still
more rarely that it can be assumed to be complete. Four masks in the
winter of 1559 only cost the Revels £127 11_s._ 2_d._, and it was
estimated that two more at Shrovetide would cost another £100. The
spectacular mask in June 1572 cost £506 11_s._ 8_d._, but it is noted
that the 'Warderobe stuf' was 'excepted' from the reckoning. An
estimate for another spectacular mask in April 1581 amounts to about
£380, and again it is clear that the materials for garments are not
included. It is rather surprising to find that a mask intended to
accompany the embassy to Scotland at the time of James VI's wedding cost
no more than £17 10_s._ 10_d._, but this was a simple mask without a
pageant, and garments already in store were 'translated' for the
purpose.[669] Nor did Elizabeth desire to do any excessive honour to her
cousin. On the other hand, the accounts, and particularly the
inventories attached to those for the earliest years of the reign, show
that the richest materials were used without stint to deck out the
maskers. Clothes of gold and silver, shot with innumerable hues and
often further enriched with embroidered 'works', velvets and sarcenets,
satins, taffetas, and damasks; all recur in a truly royal profusion, and
at a cost of anything up to a guinea or so a yard. The cheaper stuffs
were no doubt used for torch-bearers, and there was room for economy in
the Cologne and Venice gold and silver and other forms of tinsel that
served for fringes and trimmings.[670] Copper lace, as the Duke of
Newcastle gravely informed Charles II at the Restoration, looked as well
as gold for the two or three nights before it tarnished: 'All Queen
Elizabethes dayes shee had itt, & Kinge James.'[671] Burghley's
reorganization of the Revels in 1597 apparently left the office without
any responsibility for the preparation of masks, and it is not clear
what arrangements were made for these during the last few years of the
reign. Under James the Revels claimed fees for the personal attendance
of the officers at masks, for the lighting of the banqueting-house, for
small repairs to its fittings, and for no more.[672] Small sums also
appear in the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber for services of
the mat-layer in making ready the dancing-floor, and of Grooms of the
Chamber in attendance on the maskers, and in those of the Office of
Works for the erection of stages and scaffolds. The incidence of the
main expenditure of course depended upon whether the mask was ordered
by James himself, or contributed out of the loyalty of others. James
appears to have paid, in whole or in part, for at least fourteen of the
twenty-five court masks traceable during the years 1603-16. These
include the six Queen's masks (_Twelve Goddesses_, _Blackness_,
_Beauty_, _Queens_, _Tethys' Festival_, _Love Freed_), two Prince's
masks (_Oberon_, _Love Restored_), and five other masks by lords and
gentlemen, one at the first Christmas of the reign (_Indian and Chinese
Knights_), one at his daughter's wedding (_Lords_), one at Somerset's
(_Squires_), and two of later date (_Mercury Vindicated_, _Golden Age
Restored_). He may also have paid for the _Mask of Scots_ in 1604 and
the _Irish Mask_ in 1613, but these were probably non-spectacular and
cheap. As to the finance of the Winchester mask of 1603 and of the
_Twelve Months_ nothing is known, or whether the latter, evidently
planned for a Prince's mask, was ever in fact performed. To _Oberon_ and
_Love Restored_ James contributed amounts of at least £387 and at least
£280 respectively, but so far as _Oberon_ is concerned this was by no
means the whole cost, for a sum of £1,076 6_s._ 10_d._ was charged to
Henry's personal account, and it is probable that the burden of _Love
Restored_ was similarly divided. I have no evidence that Anne's personal
account was ever charged with any part of the cost of the Queen's masks.
Certainly it was not so with _Love Freed_ in 1611, for of this mask, and
of this alone, a full balance-sheet happens to be available. It was a
comparatively cheap mask, deliberately so, because _Tethys' Festival_ in
the summer before had been 'excessively costly'. It was intended that it
should cost no more than £600. In fact the total expenditure came to
£719 1_s._ 3_d._ Of this £238 16_s._ 10_d._ went to Inigo Jones on 'his
byll', doubtless for the scenery; £69 17_s._ 5_d._ in minor items of
costume; £292 in 'rewards', making a total of £600 14_s._ 3_d._, of
which £400 had already been received from the Exchequer. This agrees
closely with the original estimate, but there was a further amount of
£118 7_s._ due to the Master of the Wardrobe for materials which he had
supplied for costumes, and the document concludes with a memorandum
signed by the Earls of Suffolk and Worcester to the effect that this
amount, over and above the £600 14_s._ 3_d._, is payable. These lords,
one as Lord Chamberlain, the other as Master of the Horse, seem
regularly to have had the supervision of 'emptions and provisions for
masks given at the royal expense'.[673] The financial procedure was as
follows. At an early date, the King directed a warrant under the privy
seal to the Exchequer, in which the names of the supervising officers
were set out, and the Treasurer was authorized to make payments upon
certificates by them.[674] A letter of 1608 suggests that up to that
date it had been usual to name a maximum cost in the warrant, but
thenceforward the supervising officers seem normally to have had a free
hand.[675] Their own methods varied. Sometimes they asked the Exchequer,
as occasion arose, to pay small sums direct to Inigo Jones and others;
sometimes they wrote acknowledgements on the bills of furnishers, and
sent these forward for Exchequer payment; sometimes they authorized a
subordinate officer to draw one or two large sums and meet the
expenditure out of these. For 'rewards' no doubt the last was the more
convenient way. We find one Bethell, a gentleman usher of the chamber,
thus designated as payee in 1608, Henry Reynolds in 1609, Meredith
Morgan in 1612, 1613, 1614, and 1616, Walter James in 1615, and Edmund
Sadler in 1616.[676] The balance-sheet for _Love Freed_, although it
contains items for the dresses of the presenters, antimaskers, and
musicians, contains none which can be assigned to those of the main
maskers, and there is other evidence for thinking that, even in a royal
mask, the lords or ladies who danced were expected to dress themselves.
Thus John Chamberlain tells us of the _Mask of Squires_ that the King
was to bear the charge, 'all saving the apparel'. The practice, however,
was probably not invariable, for the Exchequer documents relating to
_Tethys' Festival_ contain a silkman's bill for lace used for the
dresses of fourteen ladies. For the _Twelve Goddesses_ warrants were
issued to Lady Suffolk and Lady Walsingham to take Queen Elizabeth's
robes from the wardrobe in the Tower. The list of 'rewards' for _Love
Freed_ can be supplemented from similar lists for _Oberon_ and the
_Lords' Mask_ and a few scattered records. The largest amounts went to
the poets and the architect. Jones had £50 for the _Lords' Mask_ and £40
each for _Love Freed_ and _Oberon_, Jonson £40 for _Love Freed_, Daniel
£20 for _Tethys' Festival_, Campion, being both poet and musician, £66
13_s._ 4_d._ for the _Lords' Mask_. Dancers and composers got from £10
to £40; lutenists and violinists £1 or £2; players £1 each. For the
total cost we are mainly reduced to guess-work, although contemporary
gossip, sometimes a little disturbed at the extravagance, may help us,
if it was not itself based on guess-work.[677] We hear of £2,000 to
£3,000 for the _Twelve Goddesses_ and the two other masks of the first
winter, £3,000 and 25,000 _scudi_ for _Blackness_, 6,000 or 7,000 and
later 30,000 _scudi_ for _Beauty_, £1,500 for _Mercury Vindicated_,
£2,000 for _Queens_, which, however, M. Reyher estimates from Exchequer
documents which he does not print, at more than £4,000.[678] These
figures probably include the contributions of the Wardrobe, as these
were to be repaid out of the special allowances in 1611. There is yet
one other source of information. A return of extraordinary disbursements
of the Exchequer for 1603-9, during which period there were six or seven
royal masks, gives £4,215 under this head, and a similar return for
1603-17, during which there were from fourteen to sixteen, including the
_Vision of Delight_ in 1617, gives £7,500.[679] But this last figure is
specifically stated not to include 'the provisions had out of the
Warderobe and materials and workmen from the Office of the Works'. At a
venture, I should say that a royal mask cost about £2,000 on the
average. Something may also be gleaned about the finance of those masks
that were not wholly charged on the Exchequer. _Oberon_, to which both
James and Henry contributed, was supervised by the chamberlain of
Henry's household, Sir Thomas Chaloner. The Inns of Court masks brought
to the Princess Elizabeth's wedding were paid for out of admission fees
to chambers and levies raised upon the members of the Inns, according to
their status. Chamberlain estimated the cost of the two masks as 'better
than £4,000', and the accounts that have been preserved show that in
fact Chapman's mask cost Lincoln's Inn and the Middle Temple £1,086
8_s._ 11_d._ each, and Beaumont's cost Gray's Inn and the Inner Temple
over £1,200 each. On the other hand, the whole cost of the _Mask of
Flowers_, given by Gray's Inn at the Earl of Somerset's wedding, being
over £2,000, was met by Sir Francis Bacon, who refused an offered
contribution of £500 from Sir Henry Yelverton. The masks at the weddings
of Sir Philip Herbert, Lord Essex, Lord Hay, and Lord Haddington were
all, certainly or probably, complimentary offerings of friends of the
hymeneal couples. Lady Rutland, who danced in _Hymenaei_, paid £80 to
Bethell, and £26 11_s._ more for her own apparel. The _Haddington Mask_
cost each of the twelve dancers £300, and must therefore have been one
of the most expensive masks of the period. Obviously the highest
estimates for the masks do not include the value of the jewels with
which the dancers bedizened themselves. In the _Twelve Goddesses_ Anne
is said to have worn £100,000 worth and the other ladies £20,000 worth.
Of _Hymenaei_ John Pory says, 'I think they hired and borrowed all the
principall jewels and ropes of perle both in court and citty. The
Spanish ambassador seemed but poore to the meanest of them.' Even this
Chamberlain could cap for _Beauty_. 'One lady, and that under a
baroness, is said to be furnished for better than a hundred thousand
pounds. And the Lady Arabella goes beyond her; and the queen must not
come behind.' Thus they revelled it.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 582: Perhaps Jonson's persistent use of 'masque' for the older
'mask' confesses a sense of derivation in his mind.]

[Footnote 583: The data are collected by Prunières, 34.]

[Footnote 584: Brantôme (ed. Soc. H. F.), vii. 346; Prunières, 48 sqq.;
Brotanek, 291.]

[Footnote 585: _Magnificentissimi spectaculi ... in Henrici Regis
Poloniae ... gratulationem Descriptio Io Aurato Poeta Regio Autore_
(1573); cf. Lacroix, i. xxi, and the engraving reproduced by Prunières
as pl. 2. Prunières, 70, thinks that Baltasar had already taken part in
the 'mascarade', half-tilt, half-dance, at the wedding of Henri of
Navarre in 1572.]

[Footnote 586: _Balet comique de la Royne faict aux Nopces de Monsieur
le Duc de Joyeuse et de Mademoyselle de Vaudemont, sa Sœur, par Baltasar
de Beaujoyeulx, Valet de Chambre du Roy et de la Royne, sa Mere_ (1582).
This is reprinted, but without the engravings, by Lacroix, i. 1; cf.
Prunières, 75, who gives one of the engravings as his pl. 3.]

[Footnote 587: Prunières, 94 _sqq._ Lacroix, i. 89, 109, 237, 271, 305,
prints four French masks which allow of a useful comparison with those
of England, viz. _Ballet des Chevaliers François et Béarnois_ (1592),
_Balletz representez devant le Roy_ (1593), _Ballet de Monseigneur le
Duc de Vandosme_ (1610); _Ballet du Courtisan et des Matrones_ (1612);
also a description of _Le Grand Bal de la Reine Marguerite_ (1612),
which shows the relation of the mask to the contemporary non-mimetic
state ball. On French masks of 1605, 1609, 1612, and 1615, cf. Sullivan,
29, 52, 67, 99.]

[Footnote 588: Exceptionally, the main scene was supplemented by a
throne 'in midst of the hall' in the _Mask of Beauty_ and by a mount and
tree at the upper end of the hall in _Tethys' Festival_.]

[Footnote 589: On Hans Eottes, or Eworth, first traceable as Jon
Eeuwowts of Antwerp in 1540, and the considerable body of portrait work
now ascribed to him, cf. L. Cust, _The Painter E_ (_Annual of Walpole
Soc._ ii. 1; iii. 113). On Ferrabosco and Ubaldini, ch. xiv (Italians).]

[Footnote 590: For the career of Jones, cf. _D. N. B._, Reyher, 75; R.
Blomfield in _Portfolio_ (1889), 88, 113, 126; and _Renaissance
Architecture in England_, i. 97; H. P. Horne, _An Essay on the Life of
Inigo Jones, Architect_ in _The Hobby Horse_ (1893), 22, 64; Cunningham,
_Inigo Jones_ (1848). Designs by Jones for the scenery, stage-machinery,
and dresses of masks and other court entertainments are in _Lansdowne
MS._ 1171, and in the collections of the Duke of Devonshire at
Chatsworth and of the Royal Institute of British Architects. They are
mostly of the Caroline rather than the Jacobean period. A few have been
reproduced by Cunningham, Reyher, and Lawrence, ii. 97. P. Simpson (_Sh.
England_, ii. 311) gives eight figures for the _Mask of Queens_.]

[Footnote 591: 'The design and act of all which, together with the
device of their habits, belong properly to the merit and reputation of
Master Inigo Jones, whom I take modest occasion in this fit place to
remember, lest his own worth might accuse me of an ignorant neglect from
my silence' (_Hymenaei_); 'The structure and ornament ... was entirely
Master Jones's invention and design.... All which I willingly
acknowledge for him; since it is a virtue planted in good natures, that
what respects they wish to obtain fruitfully from others they will give
ingenuously themselves' (_Queens_).]

[Footnote 592: 'The artificiall part onely speakes Master Inago Jones'
(_Tethys' Festival_); 'I suppose few have ever seen more neat artifice
than Master Inigo Jones shewed in contriving their motion, who in all
the rest of the workmanship which belonged to the whole invention shewed
extraordinary industry and skill, which if it be not as lively exprest
in writing as it appeared in view, rob not him of his due, but lay the
blame on my want of right apprehending his instructions for the adorning
his art' (_Lords_).]

[Footnote 593: Cunningham, _Jonson_, iii. 211.]

[Footnote 594: _Mask of Blackness_ (1605); _Hymenaei_ (1606);
_Haddington Mask_ (1608); _Mask of Queens_ (1609); _Tethys' Festival_
(1610); _Oberon_ (1611); _Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly_ (1611);
_Lords' Mask_ (1613); _Chapman's Mask_ (1613). The designers of the _Hay
Mask_ (1607), _Beaumont's Mask_ (1613), and the _Mask of the Twelve
Months_ are not named. Jonson says that the scene of the _Mask of
Beauty_ (1608) was 'put in act' by the King's Master Carpenter. This was
an officer of the Works, one William Portington (Jupp, _Carpenters'
Company_, 165). He was not necessarily the designer, but Jonson does
not, as one would expect, mention Jones. _Love Restored_ (1612) had a
chariot, but perhaps no scene. The _Irish Mask_ (1613) seems to be a
Jacobean example of the simple mask. The _Caversham Mask_ (1613) is
another, but this was not at court.]

[Footnote 595: A far more thorough treatment than is possible for me
will be found in the chapter on _La Mise en Scène_, in Reyher, 332.]

[Footnote 596: Designs by Jones for _proscenia_ (of Caroline date) are
reproduced by Lawrence (i. 97), _The Mounting of the Carolan Masques_;
on proscenium titles, cf. Lawrence, i. 46.]

[Footnote 597: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 117; cf. Halle, ii. 87.]

[Footnote 598: An ingenious paper on _The Story of a Peculiar Stage
Curtain_ in Lawrence, i. 109, suggests an affiliation between this
sinking curtain and the Roman _aulaeum_.]

[Footnote 599: _Chamber Accounts_; cf. Reyher, 358.]

[Footnote 600: Reyher, 367.]

[Footnote 601: Cf. ch. xx.]

[Footnote 602: Cf. ch. xix.]

[Footnote 603: Cunliffe, _The Influence of Italian on Early Elizabethan
Drama_ (_M. P._ iv. 597), and _Early English Classical Tragedies_, xl.]

[Footnote 604: F. A. Foster, _Dumb Show in Elizabethan Drama before
1620_ (_E. S._ xliv. 8); cf. ch. xviii.]

[Footnote 605: Cunliffe, xxxi, xxxix.]

[Footnote 606: For the spectacle as dream, cf. _Henry VIII_, iv. 2;
_Cymbeline_, v. 4, which, like the epiphany in _A. Y. L._ v. 4, perhaps
illustrates the point all the better in that it is probably an
interpolation; for the spectacle as magic show, Marlowe, _Dr. Faustus_,
515, 721, 1263; _Macbeth_, iv. 1; _Tempest_, iii. 3, and the mock magic
of _Merry Wives_, v. 5. The mask of _Tempest_, iv. 1, is of course both
mask and magic.]

[Footnote 607: _Hamlet_, iii. 2. 146. On the play within a play, cf. H.
Schwab, _Das Schauspiel im Schauspiel zur Zeit Shaksperes_ (1896).]

[Footnote 608: In _Spanish Tragedy_, i. 5, Hieronimo brings in a
'pompous jest' in which three knights hang up their scutcheons and
capture three kings. This is called a 'mask' (l. 23), but there is no
dance, only a dumb-show interpreted by Hieronimo. Similarly the 'Maske
of Cupid' in Spenser, _F. Q._ III. xii, is merely an allegorical
procession, without a dance. Later, Dekker and Ford's play of _The Sun's
Darling_ (1656) is described on the title-page as 'a moral masque'.]

[Footnote 609: Cf. Boas, 206.]

[Footnote 610: _L. L. L._ v. 2; _R. J._ i. 4, 5. Similarly the mask in
_Hen. VIII_, i. 4, is suggested by the historic source. In _M. V._ ii.
5, 28, Shylock warns Jessica against masks in the street, with their
drum and 'wry-necked fife', but none is shown.]

[Footnote 611: Marston, _1 Antonio and Mellida_ (_1599_; v. 1), _2
Antonio and Mellida_ (_1599_; v. 1, 2), _Dutch Courtesan_ (_1603_; iv.
1), _Malcontent_ (_1604_; v. 2, 3), _Insatiate Countess_ (_c. 1610_; ii.
1); Chapman, _May Day_ (_1602_; v. 1), _Widow's Tears_ (_1605_; iii. 2),
_Byron's Tragedy_ (_1608_; ii. 1); Middleton, _The Old Law_ (a mask in a
tavern, _1599_; iv. 1), _Blurt Master Constable_ (_c. 1600_; ii. 2), _A
Mad World, my Masters_ (_c. 1604-6_; ii. 2, 4, 5), _Your Five Gallants_
(_1607_; iv. 8; v. 1, 2), _No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's_ (_c. 1613_;
iv. 2); Field, _A Woman is a Weathercock_ (_c. 1609_; v. 1, 2); Jonson,
_Cynthia's Revels_ (_1601_; iv. 5, 6; v. 1-5).]

[Footnote 612: _The Coxcomb_ (_1610_; i. 1), _Maid's Tragedy_ (_1611_;
i. 1, 2), _Four Plays in One_ (_1612_; i. v), _Two Noble Kinsmen_ (not
strictly a mask, _1613_; iii. 5), _Henry VIII_ (_1613_; i. 4), _Wit at
Several Weapons_ (_1614_; v. 1).]

[Footnote 613: A. H. Thorndike, _The Influence of the Court-Masques on
the Drama_ (_M. L. A._ xv. 114); _The Influence of Beaumont and Fletcher
on Shakspere_, 130, 148.]

[Footnote 614: I think Criticus must here be taken to be Jonson's
self-portrait. He told Drummond in 1619 that 'by Criticus is understood
Done' (_Conversations_, 6); but the reference there appears to be to the
lost 'preface of his _Arte of Poesie_'. In the folio text of the play
Criticus becomes Crites.]

[Footnote 615: The maskers in _Wit at Several Weapons_, v. i, are
'something like the abstract of a masque'; cf. _R. J._ i. 4. 3--

    The date is out of such prolixity.
    We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf,
    Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
    Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper;
    Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
    After the prompter, for our entrance.
]

[Footnote 616: _Satiromastix_, 2325, 'The watch-word in a maske is the
bolde drum'.]

[Footnote 617: I do not wish to exaggerate this detachment. Peele builds
upon the customary prayer for the queen or lord at the end of an
interlude (cf. chh. x, xviii, xxii), and there are the plays with
inductions, such as _The Taming of the Shrew_ and _The Knight of the
Burning Pestle_, in which the personages of the induction mediate
between the action and the audience.]

[Footnote 618: I find 'tronchwoman' (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 217),
'troocheman' (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 287), 'trounchman' (Gascoigne, i. 85),
and as interpreters of mimetic tilts 'crocheman' (Halle, i. 13),
'trounchman' (Peele, _Polyhymnia_, 47); also 'an interpreter or a
truchman' accompanying the 'orator speaking a straunge language' in the
train of the Lord of Misrule in 1552-3 (Feuillerat, _Edw. and M._ 89,
123). W. D. Macray has the following note to 'truckman' which appears in
the text of Clarendon, _History_, i. 75, 'i. e. _truchman_ = _dragoman_.
In the old editions the word "interpreter" was substituted as an
explanation; in the last editions "trustman" was given as the reading of
the MS.'. _N. E. D._ gives the earliest use of the word as 1485 and
derives through Med. Lat. _turchemannus_ from Arab. _turjam[=a]n_,
interpreter, whence also _dragoman_.]

[Footnote 619: Generally speaking, the themes of the Jacobean masks are
more literary than those of their Elizabethan precursors. The following
analysis is based upon the disguises of the maskers, which may be
classed under four main heads: _National Types_--(Elizabethan), Moors,
Swart Rutters, Lance-Knights, Hungarians, Barbarians, Venetian
Patriarchs, Italian Women, Venetians, Turks; (Jacobean), Indian and
Chinese Knights, Virginians, Irishmen. _Occupations_--(Elizabethan),
Ecclesiastics, Fisherwives, Marketwives, Astronomers, Shipmen, Country
Maids, Clowns, Hunters, Tilters, Fishermen and Fruitwives, Mariners,
Foresters, Warriors, Pedlars, Seamen; (Jacobean), none. _Inanimate
Objects_--(Elizabethan), none; (Jacobean), Signs of Zodiac, Stars and
Statues, Flowers. _Abstractions_--(Elizabethan), Nusquams, Virtues,
Passions; (Jacobean), Humours and Affections, Ornaments of Court,
Months. _Historical and Mythical Personages_--(Elizabethan), Conquerors,
Huntsmen of Actaeon and Nymphs of Diana, Wise and Foolish Virgins,
Satyrs, Greek Goddesses, Janus, Sages, Wild Men, Amazons and Knights,
Knights of Purpulia, Muses; (Jacobean), Goddesses, Daughters of Niger
(_bis_), Powers of Juno, Knights of Apollo, Sons of Mercury, Nymphs of
English Rivers, Knights of Oberon, Daughters of Morn, Knights of
Olympia, Disenchanted Knights, Sons of Nature, Circe's Lovers, Sons of
Phoebus. It is possible that the mediaeval _barbatoriae_ (_Mediaeval
Stage_, i. 362) were dances representing national types. Jean d'Auton
(_Chroniques_, ii. 99) describes, amongst other _mommeries_ at the court
of Louis XII in 1501, 'une danse en barboire, en laquelle fut dancé à la
mode de France, d'Allemaigne, d'Espaigne et Lombardye, et à la fin en la
manière de Poictou ... lesquelz estoyent tous habillez à la sorte du
pays dont ils dancerent à la mode'.]

[Footnote 620: _Gesta Grayorum_; _Hay Mask_; _Lords' Mask_; _Mask of
Squires_; _Mask of Flowers_; _Browne's Mask_ (introducing Circe). As
late as 1632 Aurelian Townshend and Inigo Jones borrow the episode of
Circe and the Fugitive in _Tempe Restored_.]

[Footnote 621: An exception is _Love Restored_, where the place of an
antimask is taken by the long comic induction by Masquerado, Plutus, and
Robin Goodfellow.]

[Footnote 622: Chapman also uses the phrase 'mocke-maske', which is
analogous to Jonson's 'antimasque'.]

[Footnote 623: Brotanek, 141. I find 'antick Maske' also in an Exchequer
record (Reyher, 509) relating to the _Lords' Mask_ of 1613.]

[Footnote 624: Cf. the opening stage-direction to _James IV_ (1598),
'Enter after Oberon, King of Fayries, an Antique, who dance about a
Tombe'.]

[Footnote 625: Lacroix, i. 241, 262, 291, 296.]

[Footnote 626: The relation of the morris-dance to the folk is described
in _The Mediaeval Stage_, i. 195, but I think that the history of the
name requires further examination. There are traces of morris-dances at
court in 1559 and 1579, and there was a sword-dance on 6 Jan. 1604.]

[Footnote 627: Feuillerat, _Edw. and Mary_, 59.]

[Footnote 628: _Romeo and Juliet_, i. 4. 38, 'I'll be a candle-holder
and look on'; cf. Reyher, 90, citing W. Rankins, _Mirrour of Monsters_
(1587), 'There were certain petty fellows ready, as the custom is in
maskes, to carry torches'; _Westward Hoe_, i. 2, 'He is just like a
torch-bearer to maskers; he wears good clothes, and is ranked in good
company, but he doth nothing'; Overbury, _Characters_ (1614, ed.
Rimbault, 55, _An Ignorant Glory Hunter_), 'In any shew he will be one,
though he be but a whiffler or a torch-bearer'.]

[Footnote 629: A disguising of 1501 had already 'a goodly pageant made
round after the fashion of a lanthorne cast out with many proper and
goodly windows fenestred with fine lawne wher in were more than an
hundred great lightes' (Reyher, 503).]

[Footnote 630: Before 1610 torch-bearers may have been omitted from
_Hymenaei_ and the _Haddington Mask_; after 1610, they are only noticed
in _Oberon_, the _Lords' Mask_, and _Chapman's Mask_.]

[Footnote 631: The descriptions often say nothing of vizards, but
probably they take them for granted, for as late as 1618 Chamberlain
writes of the Gray's Inn _Mask of Mountebanks_ (Birch, ii. 66), 'I
cannot call it a masque, seeing they were not disguised, nor had
vizards'. Similarly the unmasking is rarely described (_Indian and
Chinese Knights_; _Twelve Goddesses_; _Hay Mask_), and may have been
omitted as a formal stage, especially when the maskers danced off into
the pageant.]

[Footnote 632: Cf. p. 168.]

[Footnote 633: Cf. ch. xxiii (Daniel, _Twelve Goddesses_).]

[Footnote 634: Cf. ch. iv.]

[Footnote 635: _R. J._ i. 5. 95; _Hen. VIII_, i. 4. 95,

    I were unmannerly to take you out.
    And not to kiss you.

The amorous tradition of the 'commoning' which apparently frightened
some of the ladies at Henry's court, survived under Elizabeth. In Lyly's
_Euphues and his England_ (_Works_, ii. 103), Philautus takes Camilla by
the hand in a mask and begins 'to boord hir' in this manner, 'It hath
ben a custome faire Lady, how commendable I wil not dispute, how common
you know, that Masquers do therfore couer their faces that they may open
their affections, & vnder yᵉ colour of a dance, discouer their whole
desires'; cf. Reyher, 23.]

[Footnote 636: _Maid's Tragedy_, i. 1. 9, 'They must commend their King,
and speak in praise Of the assembly, bless the Bride and Bridegroom, In
person of some God; th'are tyed To rules of flattery'.]

[Footnote 637: This old phrase, known to Sir T. Elyot, _The Governour_,
i. 22, is still traditional in folk dances.]

[Footnote 638: On these dances, cf. Reyher, 441.]

[Footnote 639: Lacroix, i. 256, 262.]

[Footnote 640: Goodman, i. 70, 'George Brooks ... brother to Cobham ...
was a great reveller at court in the masques where the queen and
greatest ladies were'; Carey, 6, 'In all triumphs I was one; either at
tilt, tourney, or barriers, in masque or balls'.]

[Footnote 641: Naunton, 44, 'Sir Christopher Hatton came into the court
... as a private gentleman of the inns of court in a mask, and for his
activity and person, which was tall and proportionable, taken into
favour'.]

[Footnote 642: C. C. Stopes, _A Lampoon on the Opponents of Essex, 1601_
(_Sh.-Jahrbuch_, xlvi. 21); Reyher, 98, apparently referring to the
full-length portrait by Marc Geeraerts at Woburn Abbey, reproduced in
Henderson, _James I_, 232. It is a fantastic costume, but not obviously
that of a mask.]

[Footnote 643: Winwood, ii. 40.]

[Footnote 644: _Dekker His Dream_ (1620, _Works_, iii. 7), 'I herein
imitate the most courtly revellings; for if Lords be in the grand
masque, in the antimasque are players'; Jonson, _Love Restored_
(_Works_, iii. 83). 'The rogue play-boy, that acts Cupid, is got so
hoarse, your majesty cannot hear him half the breadth of your chair'.
The accounts for _Oberon_ include £10 to 'xiijⁿ Holt boyes' and £15 to
'players imployed in the maske'; those for _Love Freed_ £10 to '5 boyes,
that is 3 Graces Sphynx and Cupid', and £12 to 'the 12 fooles that
danced', and those for the _Lords' Mask_ £1 each to '12 madfolkes' and
'5 speakers' (Reyher, 508).]

[Footnote 645: The rehearsals were a serious business, lasting in 1616
no less than fifty days; cf. Reyher, 35. There were dress rehearsals;
cf. Osborne in note to p. 206, _infra_.]

[Footnote 646: Cf. p. 163, and _D. N. B._, s.v. Ferrabosco.]

[Footnote 647: Lafontaine, 63.]

[Footnote 648: Reyher, 79.]

[Footnote 649: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 356.]

[Footnote 650: Reyher, 78.]

[Footnote 651: _Blackness_ certainly and _Hymenaei_ probably were in the
Elizabethan room. The Jacobean room was first used for _Beauty_ (10 Jan.
1608). It was also used for _Queens_, _Oberon_, _Lords_, _Beaumont's_,
_Squires_, and _Flowers_, and probably for all others from 1608 to 1616
except _Chapman's_.]

[Footnote 652: Busino, _Anglopotrida_ (_V. P._ xv. 110), describing
Jonson's _Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue_ on 6 Jan. 1618, 'A large hall
is fitted up like a theatre, with well secured boxes all round. The
stage is at one end and his Majesty's chair in front under an ample
canopy. Near him are stools for the foreign ambassadors.... Whilst
waiting for the king we amused ourselves admiring the decorations and
beauty of the house with its two orders of columns, one above the other,
their distance from the wall equalling the breadth of the passage, that
of the second row being upheld by Doric pillars, while above these rise
Ionic columns supporting the roof. The whole is of wood, including even
the shafts, which are carved and gilt with much skill. From the roof of
these hang festoons and angels in relief with two rows of lights. Then
such a concourse as there was, for although they profess only to admit
the favoured ones who are invited, yet every box was filled notably with
most noble and richly arrayed ladies, in number some 600 and more
according to the general estimate;... On entering the house, the cornets
and trumpets to the number of fifteen or twenty began to play very well
a sort of recitative, and then after his Majesty had seated himself
under the canopy alone, the queen not being present on account of a
slight indisposition, he caused the ambassadors to sit below him on two
stools, while the great officers of the crown and courts of law sat upon
benches. The Lord Chamberlain then had the way cleared and in the middle
of the theatre there appeared a fine and spacious area carpeted all over
with green cloth. In an instant a large curtain dropped, painted to
represent a tent of gold cloth with a broad fringe; the background was
of canvas painted blue, powdered all over with golden stars. This became
the front arch of the stage.']

[Footnote 653: Finett, 32. The plan from _Lansd._ 1171 in Reyher, 346,
dates from 1635 and represents the great Hall arranged not for a mask
but for a pastoral; but the general scheme was probably much the same.]

[Footnote 654: _Maid's Tragedy_, i. 2. 32.]

[Footnote 655: Birch, i. 24 (27 Nov. 1603), 'many plays and shows are
bespoken, to give entertainment to our ambassadors'.]

[Footnote 656: Sullivan, _Court Masques of James I_; cf. my notes on the
individual masks in ch. xxiii.]

[Footnote 657: De Silva's dispatches of 1564-6 (cf. p. 26) show that a
precisely similar situation had established itself at Elizabeth's
court.]

[Footnote 658: Beaumont in _B. M. Kings MS._ cxxiv, f. 328, 'le ...
ballet ... de la Reine qui se devoit danser au vendredy dernier jour des
festes de Noël selon la façon d'Angleterre et le plus honnorable pour la
ceremonie qui s'y obserue de tout temps publiquement'; Finett, 6, 'il se
pourroit soustenir que le dernier jour seroit a prendre pour le plus
gran jour comm'il s'entend en plusiours autres cas, et nommement aux
festes de Noël, que le Jour des Roys qui est le dernier se prend pour le
plus gran jour'. The chief masks of 1606-7, 1611-12, 1613-14, and
1614-16, were on 6 Jan. In 1603-4, 1607-8, and 1608-9, the Queen's masks
were planned for that day, but put off. In 1605-6 and 1609-10 the day
was given to barriers.]

[Footnote 659: Cf. p. 39. The accounts for the _Lords' Mask_ include
fees of £1 each to three Grooms of the Chamber; those of _Chapman's
Mask_, given exceptionally in the great Hall, £1 to the Ushers of the
Hall. The manuscript of the _Mask of Blackness_ appears to be an
abstract for use at the performance. In 1613 a Groom of the Chamber was
also paid £7 for 42 nights watching in the banqueting-house while
workmen were there (_Chamber Accounts_).]

[Footnote 660: Donne, _Poems_ (ed. Grierson), i. 414; cf. Jonson,
_Conversations_, 10.]

[Footnote 661: _Four Plays in One_, 2, 'Down with those City-Gentlemen,
&c. Out with those ---- I say, and in with their wives at the back
door'; _Love Restored_, 'By this time I saw a fine citizen's wife or two
let in; and that figure provoked me exceedingly to take it'. Here Robin
Goodfellow is recounting his various attempts to secure admission, as an
engineer, a tirewoman, a musician, a feather-maker of Blackfriars and
the like. Carleton wrote of the mask on 27 Dec. 1604 (_S. P. Dom. Jac.
I_, xii. 6), 'One woeman among the rest lost her honesty for which she
was caried to the porters lodge being surprised at her bassnes on the
top of the taras'.]

[Footnote 662: _Ambassades_, iii. 13.]

[Footnote 663: Osborne, _James_, 75, 'So disobliging were the most
grateful pleasures of the Court; whose masks and other spectacles,
though they wholly intended them for show, and would not have been
pleased without great store of company, yet did not spare to affront
such as come to see them; which accuseth the King no less of folly, in
being at so vast an expense for that which signified nothing but in
relation to pride and lust, than the spectators (I mean such as were not
invited) of madness, who did not only give themselves the discomposure
of body attending such irregular hours, but to others an opportunity to
abuse them. Nor could I, that had none of their share who passed through
the most incommodious access, count myself any great gainer (who did
ever find some time before the grand night to view the scene) after I
had reckoned my attendance and sleep; there appearing little observable
besides the company, and what Imagination might conjecture from the
placing of the Ladies and the immense charge and universal vanity in
clothes, &c.']

[Footnote 664: Jonson, _Mask of Blackness_, 7, 'Little had been done to
the study of magnificence in these, if presently with the rage of the
people, who (as a part of greatness) are privileged by custom to deface
their carcases, the spirits had also perished'; cf. Halle, i. 27, 117.
At _Tethys' Festival_ the Duke of York and six young noblemen led off
the maskers 'to avoid the confusion which usually attendeth the desolve
of these shewes'.]

[Footnote 665: Cf. ch. xxiii; also Busino in _V. P._ xv. 114.]

[Footnote 666: Winwood. ii. 43.]

[Footnote 667: On 2 Feb. 1604, the Earl of Worcester wrote to the Earl
of Shrewsbury of _The Twelve Goddeses_ (Lodge, iii. 87), 'I have been at
sixpence charge with you to send you the book'. He adds that the books
of another _ballet_ were 'all called in'. After the _Mask of Beauty_
Lord Lisle wrote to Shrewsbury (Lodge, App. 102) that he could not get
the verses, because Jonson was busy writing more for the Haddington
wedding.]

[Footnote 668: Cf. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 669: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 110, 153, 168, 345, 392.]

[Footnote 670: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 18, 112, _et passim_.]

[Footnote 671: Newcastle, _On Government_ (S. A. Strong, _Cat. of
Documents at Welbeck_, 223). The direct reference is to tilts, but an
earlier passage runs, 'Well Sʳ Then your Maᵗᶦᵉ is well returned to
White-Halle & ther prepare a maske for twelve-tyde,--Etaliens makes the
Seanes beste,--& all butt your Maᵗᶦᵉ maye have their Glorius Atier
off Coper which will doe as well for two or three nightes as Silver or
Golde & much less charge, which otherwise will bee much founde falte
withall by those thatt attendes your Maᵗᶦᵉ in the maske'.]

[Footnote 672: Cunningham, 203-17; cf. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 673: They certainly supervised _Queens_, _Tethys' Festival_,
_Love Freed_, _Lords' Mask_.]

[Footnote 674: The privy seal of 1 Dec. 1608 for _Queens_ is in _S. P.
D. Jac. I_, xxxviii. 1, and that of 7 Jan. 1613 for the _Lords' Mask_ in
Collier, i. 364; a certificate of 25 May 1610 for _Tethys' Festival_ is
printed by Sullivan, 219, from _S. P. D. Jac. I_, liv. 74.]

[Footnote 675: Sullivan, 201, misdated 27 Nov. 1607 for 1608, from _S.
P. D. Jac. I_, xxxvii. 96. The mask was _Queens_.]

[Footnote 676: Reyher, 508, 520; cf. ch. xxiii.]

[Footnote 677: W. ffarington writes on 7 Feb. 1609 (_Chetham Soc._
xxxix. 151), 'The Comonalty do somewhat murmur at such vaine expenses
and thinke that that money worth bestowed other waies might have been
conferred upon better use, but _quod supra nos, nihil ad nos_'.]

[Footnote 678: Reyher, 72.]

[Footnote 679: Collier, i. 349; _Abstract_, 13. The _Lords' Mask_ is
separately reckoned at £400. This was just about the amount of the
'rewards'.]




VII

THE COURT PLAY

     [_Bibliographical Note._--The books cited at the head of ch.
     iii, with F. S. Boas, _University Drama in the Tudor Age_
     (1914), provide material for this chapter; cf. A. Thaler, _The
     Players at Court_ (1920, _J. G. P._ xix. 19).]


The foregoing chapters have illustrated the overflow of the Renaissance
passion for drama, taking shape in the spectacular enrichment of
elements in court life which were not originally mimetic in their
intention; the welcome, the exercise of arms, the dance. They are
subordinate in their interest to us, as they were in fact subordinate by
reason of their occasional character to the play itself, which formed,
both in Elizabeth's reign and in that of James, the staple amusement of
the court winter. The ordinary season for plays was a comparatively
restricted one. Traditionally it began with All Saints, but Elizabeth at
least rarely reached her winter quarters by the beginning of November,
and her revels began with the Christmas festival itself, the twelve days
of ancient licence in Calends and Saturnalia that extended from Nativity
to Epiphany.[680] Within this period the three feasts of St. Stephen,
St. John, and the Innocents, with New Year's Day and Twelfth Night, were
nearly always gladdened by play or mask. Sometimes one of them was
omitted, and sometimes, in substitution or addition, another day, often
the Sunday in Christmas week, was selected. I know no record of a play
on Christmas Day itself. Chamberlain writes in January 1608, 'The king
was very earnest to have one on Christmas night, though, as I take it,
he and the prince received that day, but the Lords told him it was not
the fashion. Which answer pleased him not a whit, but said, "What do you
tell me of the fashion? I will make it a fashion."'[681] But the Chamber
accounts show that he dropped the point. After Twelfth Night there was a
lull, broken perhaps by an occasional play, notably on February 2 at
Candlemas, until a group of two or three at Shrovetide brought revelling
to a conclusion before the rigours of Lent. This was the close of the
official season, and the Revels office had now little to think of but
the annual airing of the wardrobe stuff, at any rate until the progress
came round.

The longest number of plays given before Elizabeth in any one winter
was probably in 1600-1, when there were eleven. During the greater part
of the reign the number ranged from six to ten. For some of the earliest
years only two or three are on record. It is possible that a few may
have escaped notice owing to the absence of a 'reward', or conceivably
the charge of a reward to funds other than those covered by the very
complete accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber.[682] Naturally, if an
Inn of Court or gentlemen such as the sons of Sir Percival Hart played,
they did not take a money payment. The schoolboys of Eton and
Westminster did, but the latter perhaps not from the very beginning. The
only winter for which the Treasurer of the Chamber records no rewards is
that of the plague year 1563-4. But the Revels Office provided for three
plays at Windsor, and if it was thought dangerous to bring companies
from London or elsewhere to court, Eton or the Windsor choir would have
been the natural substitutes. In 1574 again the Revels Office were
furnishing plays at Windsor and Reading by Italians, no payments to whom
can be traced. Elizabeth occasionally ordered a mask outside the winter
season, for some such purpose as the entertainment of an ambassador. I
do not find clear evidence that she ever ordered a play. But, both in
winter and in summer, she was from time to time present at a play given
by some one else, in progress or at a wedding or banquet in London.[683]

James gave the impression, when he first came to England, of taking,
unlike Queen Anne and Prince Henry, 'no extraordinary pleasure' in
plays.[684] But he had a great many more than his predecessor, and
reverted in some years to the early practice of opening the play season
at the beginning of November. Nor, on the other hand, was he strict in
his observance of Lent, and in some years the performances continued at
intervals until after Easter. During his first winter he saw eleven
plays and gradually increased this number, reaching a maximum of
twenty-three in 1609-10. Up to 1615 he never saw less than eleven,
except during 1612-13, the winter of Henry's death, when the number fell
to seven. Moreover, even when he himself escaped to a hunting-box, he
was liberal in ordering additional plays for the prince and court, and
yet others seem to have been charged to the private funds of Anne and
the royal children.[685] The records do not in all years give the dates
of individual performances; but in 1611-12, to take one example, the
programme was as follows. The King himself was present at plays on
October 31, November 1, and November 5, on the four nights after
Christmas, on January 5, on Candlemas, and on Shrove Sunday and Tuesday.
On January 6 was the mask. Most of the intervening days he spent in
visits to his various hunting quarters. Meanwhile there were at least
twenty-six other plays before one or more of the royal children, at
which Anne was probably also present. Two of these were in November, one
in the middle of December, one in Christmas week, eight in January after
Twelfth night, and nine in February, both before and after Lent had
begun. Two plays at the end of March and three in April, none of these
in the King's presence, exhausted the official supply, but not the
enthusiasm of Prince Henry. He spent a fortnight with Anne at Greenwich
during January, and there was 'every night a play', some of which the
Queen probably paid for; and in March he was entertained by the Marquis
of Winchester at supper, again with plays.[686] Occasionally James
ordered a play during the summer; there were four for the entertainment
of the King of Denmark in 1606, of which one, by the Paul's boys, is
not traceable in the Chamber accounts, and one for the Duke of Savoy's
ambassador in 1613. All plays at the Jacobean court was given by
professional companies; if the lawyers came to court, it was not in a
play, but a mask.

Whether the revels were kept at Westminster, Hampton Court, Greenwich,
Richmond, or Windsor, sufficient accommodation could be afforded for a
play in the great hall, which thus for a brief space resumed its ancient
glories as the state apartment of the sovereign. At the first three of
those palaces, there is definite evidence of the use of the hall. But
Whitehall, at least, was spacious enough to offer other alternatives.
The banqueting-house might be available, if it was not occupied by the
preparations for a mask. And performances were sometimes given in the
'great chamber', which at Whitehall was distinct from both the presence
chamber and the 'guard' or 'watching' chamber which served as an
ante-room to the presence.[687] It seems also that provision could be
made, perhaps only on the less public and crowded occasions when the
King was not present, for a stage in the octagonal cockpit, which stood
on the edge of St. James's Park, in the western extension of the
palace.[688] As a courtesy to a royal visitor, a play was given in 1565
at the Savoy, where the Lady Cecilia of Sweden was housed, and in 1614
Anne's pastoral of _Hymen's Triumph_ took place in 'a little square
paved court' at Somerset House.

It is a curious illustration of the functions of the Privy Council as a
household board that, during the whole of Elizabeth's time and the
greater part of that of James, the actors could not get their fee or
'reward', except through the medium of a formal warrant addressed by
that body to the Treasurer of the Chamber. These warrants are not in
existence, but their issue is noted, rather irregularly and
inaccurately, in the collection of minutes known as the Council
register, and they are recited, with their dates and places of
signature, and the names of the actors or managers to whom they
appointed payment to be made on behalf of the companies, in the annual
accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber as audited and declared before
the Exchequer.[689] The amount of the reward was, subject to certain
historical developments, a uniform one. It had been fixed, early in the
reign of Henry VIII, at ten marks (£6 13_s._ 4_d._) a play, and this
rate continued to rule, when Elizabeth came to the throne, and for some
years thereafter. But in 1572 a tendency to an increase shows itself,
and up to 1575 the amounts are irregular. Sometimes the normal fee is
paid, sometimes a double fee of £13 6_s._ 8_d._, sometimes an
intermediate one of £10. The Treasurer of the Chamber records various
explanations of the extra sums. They are 'a more rewarde by her
maiesties owne comaundement', or they are paid in respect of special
charges incurred by the companies, as for example when Farrant had to
bring his boys from Windsor to Whitehall. And after 1575 things had
evidently settled down on the basis of a normal £10, which was
conventionally regarded as made up of £6 13_s._ 4_d._ 'for presentinge'
the play, and £3 6_s._ 8_d._ 'by way of speciall reward'. The formulas
in the accounts are not invariably the same, but they all come to this;
and the shadowy distinction between the two amounts is preserved in the
practice by which, if a play was ordered and then counter-ordered, the
£6 13_s._ 4_d._ was paid, but not the £3 6_s._ 8_d._ The £10 rate was
maintained, with insignificant exceptions, during the rest of
Elizabeth's reign, and was taken over as 'the usuall allowaunce' or 'the
ordinary rates formerly allowed' by James.[690] If, however, a play was
ordered for the Prince only and not the King, the 'speciall rewarde' was
omitted, so far as the Treasurer of the Chamber was concerned, although
it is quite possible that the Prince may have supplied it out of his
privy purse.[691] A quite exceptional amount of £30 was paid to the
King's men for a play at Wilton in December 1603, to cover their 'paynes
and expences' in coming from Mortlake to give the performance. Plague
was raging, and they were probably practicing at Mortlake for the court
entertainments of the following Christmas. It may be added that the
King's company, and that alone, received a subsidy of £30 from the
Treasurer of the Chamber, in aid of its maintenance during this
plague-winter. Similar payments, of £40 and £30 respectively, were made
after the plague-winters of 1608-9 and 1609-10.[692]

In 1614 there was an innovation in the procedure, by which the
responsibility for signing warrants for allowances to players was
transferred from the Privy Council to the Lord Chamberlain; and
thenceforward the payments are recorded in a special section of the
Treasurer's accounts, devoted to expenditure which the Chamberlain had
power to authorize, and most of which had been at one time charged to
the Privy Purse.[693] An example from a later date of a Lord
Chamberlain's warrant for payment is preserved, together with a schedule
of the plays covered by the amount paid. The warrant refers to the
'acquittance for the receipt' of the money, which the Treasurer would
take from the players, and is in fact endorsed with receipts by one of
them for the successive instalments paid, and with a final one for the
whole sum due.[694] References in the _Chamber Accounts_ for 1605-6 and
1609-10 to similar schedules in or annexed to the warrants show that, at
an earlier date, the Privy Council had evidence before them, perhaps
from the Lord Chamberlain, perhaps from the Master of the Revels, as to
the number of plays which a company had given.[695] It is a pity that
the Treasurer of the Chamber only on rare occasions thought it worth
while to record the name of the play for which he was paying. A chance
memorandum of Henslowe's tells us that, as perhaps we might have
guessed, some of the money stuck to the hands of officials in the form
of fees. To get the £10 due to Worcester's men for a play in 1601-2,
Henslowe had had to give the Clerk of the Council 7_s._ for 'geatynge
the cownselles handes to' the warrant, and 10_s._ 6_d._ 'for fese' to
one Mr. Moysse 'at the receuinge of the mony owt of the payhowsse'.[696]
On the other hand, the players got their money pretty quickly; the
warrants were generally signed within a month or so, sometimes within a
day or so, of the performances to which they relate. Considerable delays
during the years 1596-9 possibly reflect the disorganization of the
Revels Office by the disputes of the officers; just as similar delays
about 1615-17 probably reflect the general disorganization of Jacobean
finance.

Plays were given in private houses, as well as at court, and not only
when there was a royal guest to be entertained. As the public theatres
were open by daylight, the companies were easily available for private
engagements after supper. Naturally the record of such occasions has in
most cases perished with the domestic account-books in which it was
entered. But Sir Edward Hoby invited Sir Robert Cecil to a performance
of _Richard II_--at least, I think so--in 1595.[697] The gossip of
Rowland Whyte informs us of the banquets and plays given in honour of
Sir Robert Cecil by Sir Walter Raleigh and other friends on the eve of
his mission to France in 1598, of the two plays at a supper about the
same date by Sir Gilly Meyrick at the rival political head-quarters of
Essex House, and of the performances of _Henry IV_ under its original
title of _Sir John Oldcastle_, when Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon feasted the
Flemish ambassador Louis Verreyken in 1600.[698] Similarly, in 1606 John
Chamberlain went to a play at Sir Walter Cope's, now Holland House, and
'had to squire his daughter about, till he was weary', and in 1613 Sir
Robert Rich had a play for the delectation of the Savoyard ambassador
after a supper in Holborn.[699] An amusing side-light on the improvised
stage-arrangements necessary in private houses is given by a
stage-direction in Percy's _Aphrodysial_, 'Here went furth the whole
Chorus in a shuffle as after a Play in a Lord's howse'.[700] Wealthy
citizens, if they were not too puritanically disposed, could well afford
to follow the lead of the nobles and gentry of the court. And in the
years before the controversy between the corporation and the actors
became acute, a play was thought no inappropriate accompaniment to the
annual feast of a guild, or the welcome or valediction of a civic
dignitary.[701] The domestic plays of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges
had their origin in the Renaissance theories of education, and dispensed
with the professional mimes. A detailed study of them lies outside the
scope of these volumes.[702] The Inns of Court men, too, could hold
their own upon the boards at will. But for their ordinary solace they
were accustomed to take the easier course of calling in professional
aid. At the Inner Temple, Beaumont mentions a Christmas show of Lady
Amity, probably not long after his admission in 1600, and the
Treasurer's accounts of the Inner Temple, which are extant from 1605,
show that from that year to 1611 there was always a play, at a cost of
£5, either upon Candlemas or upon All Saints' Day, and in some years on
both dates. At Candlemas 1611, something must have gone wrong, for on
February 10 the Benchers passed a decree:

     'For that great disorder and scurrility is brought into this
     House by lewd and lascivious plays, it is likewise ordered in
     this parliament that from henceforth there shall be no more
     plays in this House, either upon the feast of All Saints or
     Candlemas day, but the same from henceforth to be utterly taken
     away and abolished.'

At the following feast of All Saints the only expenditure entered by the
Treasurer is of £2 10_s._ for a 'consort' of music and £2 for antics and
puppets. These must have proved but inadequate substitutes, for on
November 24 the period of austerity was brought to an end by the
withdrawal of the interdict.

     'Whereas of late years upon the two festival days of All Saints
     and Candlemas, plays have been used after dinner for recreation
     which have lately been laid down by order in parliament, it is
     now ordered that the same order shall henceforth stand
     repealed.'

The payments are now resumed, and continue twice a year, generally at
the increased rate of £6 13_s._ 4_d._ At Candlemas 1613 some
misunderstanding seems to have led to a supplementary payment to
'another company of players which were appointed to play the same day'.
On All Saints 1614 and both Candlemas and All Saints 1615, the players
are specified to have been the King's men.[703] From the other Inns the
story is more fragmentary. The devices for the famous Gray's Inn
Christmas of 1594-5, reported in the _Gesta Grayorum_, were mainly due
to the fertile imagination of the lawyers themselves. In addition to the
continuous burlesque of state ceremonies in the court of Purpoole and
the mask sent to Whitehall at Shrovetide, they included a special show
of Amity for the reception of the ambassador of Templaria on January 3.
But this had its origin in the disorders of an earlier revel on
Innocents' Day, when the confusion was so great that the Inner Temple
men left in dudgeon, and the show then intended was not given. To supply
its place, 'a Comedy of Errors (like to _Plautus_ his _Menechmus_) was
played by the players. So that night was begun, and continued to the
end, in nothing but Confusion and Errors; whereupon, it was ever
afterwards called, _The Night of Errors_.' On the following day there
was a trial, and a supposed sorcerer or conjurer was arraigned on the
charge amongst others 'that he had foisted a Company of base and common
Fellows, to make up our Disorders with a Play of Errors and
Confusions'.[704] Similarly the Middle Temple in 1597-8 varied their own
fooling with plays on 28 December and 2 January, which from the absence
of details in the narrative were probably supplied by professional
actors.[705] And this house, too, must have been accustomed to keep
Candlemas with a play, for a note of February 1602 in John Manningham's
diary makes mention of _Twelfth Night_ as given 'at our feast'.[706] The
same practice, known as the Post Revels, prevailed at Lincoln's Inn.
Here the notices are of an earlier date, and preserve the memory of
performances by the Chapel boys in 1565, 1566, and 1580, and by Lord
Roche's, or more probably Lord Rich's, men in 1570.[707]

I have digressed somewhat from the ways of the court. The arrangements
for performances were in the hands of the Revels, and are therefore only
traceable in detail before 1589, after which year the extant accounts of
that office are very summary. As Christmas drew near, symptoms of bustle
began to show themselves in the work-rooms. A good deal of time was
spent in the discovery and preparation of suitable pieces. It would seem
that the available companies were invited to submit the various plays in
which they had exercised themselves by public performance, that these
were then recited, and a selection made from them to the number which
her majesty intended to hear.[708] Both in 1574-5 and in 1576-7 the
accounts record the trying over of plays that were not ultimately given.
These 'rehearsals' or 'proofs' took place in the hall or the 'great
chamber' of St. John's, or the Master's lodgings, and were of an
elaborate character, for it was thought worth while to bring in cumbrous
properties for them and to employ musicians. When the selection had
been made, further rehearsals were required, especially as the texts had
to undergo a process of 'reforming' or editing, in order that they might
be 'convenient' for her majesty's hearing. There had been a bad blunder
at the second Christmas of the reign when 'the plaers plad shuche matter
that they wher commondyd to leyff off'.[709] Sometimes the office called
in special aid to make such alterations; sometimes, as we learn from
Henslowe's diary, the companies employed their own poets to carry them
out, or to write special prologues or epilogues.[710] At first the
perusal of plays appears to have been a common responsibility of the
officers.[711] While Blagrave was in charge, it was supervised by the
Lord Chamberlain, for whose satisfaction rehearsals sometimes took place
at court. Tilney was encouraged by his commission of 1581 to treat it as
his personal function, and charged wages for attendance at the office,
with a porter and three other servitors, but as a rule without his
colleagues, on nearly every day between All Saints and Christmas for the
purpose of carrying it out.[712] All the officers, on the other hand,
were concerned with the provision of the fittings of the stage and the
properties and apparel necessary to furnish a sumptuous appearance for
the players. The details of this provision are so mixed up in the
accounts with those for the masks that they can only occasionally be
assigned to individual plays. The wording of certain entries suggests
that, while some plays required a complete outfit, for others the Revels
was only called upon to supplement what the companies already
possessed.[713] Probably the stuffs employed were less expensive than
those lavished on the masks. Certain articles, such as armour, were
generally hired. Elaborate properties, which might entail the designing
of special 'patterns', had often to be constructed. The fixed
'composition' of £66 6_s._ 8_d._ for all the ordinary charges of plays
imposed upon the office in 1598 cannot have left much margin for apparel
and properties.[714] But probably by this date the companies were
themselves better equipped.

When the actual night of performance arrived, all the officers gave
personal attendance at Court. Here they had, in Tilney's time, until
they were crowded out and driven to hire for themselves, an office and a
chamber for the Master, both of which they kept supplied with fuel and
rushes.[715] They had also to superintend the conveyance of the 'stuff',
either by wagon or by barge and tiltboat, to fit the players with the
gloves which seem to have been _de rigueur_ at a Court performance, and
to furnish such amenities of the tiring-house as 'an iron cradle to make
fire in' and a close-stool.[716] With the officers came a doorkeeper and
three servitors, who probably acted as dressers.[717] As the court
performances were always at night, beginning about 10 p.m. and ending
about 1 a.m., the arrangements for lighting were a constant
preoccupation.[718] From the wire-drawers' bills incorporated in the
accounts we can gather that use was made of candlesticks of various
kinds and sizes, of lanterns, and of branches large and small.
Candelabra were formed of as many as twenty-four branches, each bearing
four lights, and hung upon wires strained across the hall.[719] But here
again the precise provision made for plays cannot be disentangled from
that made for masks. There is no special reference to footlights.

Except for the lighting and the maintenance of a 'music-house', the
situation of which is unknown, the functions of the Revels do not appear
to have extended beyond the tiring-house and the decorative enrichment
of the stage.[720] The fabric, both of the stage and of the seating for
spectators, was a matter for the Works.[721] The 'apparelling' of the
room was under the supervision of the Gentleman Usher of the Chamber,
and in the marshalling of the audience the Lord Chamberlain could count
on the assistance of the 'white staves' of the Household, and of the few
officers who still survived from the once important office of the
Hall.[722] No picture or detailed description of the auditorium
survives.[723] A brief notice of 1594 shows us Elizabeth conspicuous 'in
a high throne, richly adorned', and next to her chair the Earl of Essex,
'with whom she often devised in sweet and favourable manner'.[724] This
high throne was no doubt the 'state', which was brought into the action
of _The Arraignment of Paris_. Something more may be gleaned from the
narratives of royal visits to the universities. That to Cambridge in
1564, indeed, affords no very close analogy, for the structure of the
stage was of quite an abnormal type.[725] It was not in a hall, but in
the chapel of King's College, and was built five feet high right across
the nave from wall to wall. The 'state' for the Queen was placed on the
stage itself, against the south wall. She reached it by a bridge from
the choir door. At the other end of the stage, under the north wall,
stood the actors, with two side chapels to serve for their entrances and
exits. Cecil and Dudley, as Chancellor and High Steward of the
University, 'vouchsafed to hold both books on the scaffold themselves,
and to provide that sylence might be kept with quietness'. I am not
quite clear whether these books were prompt-books, or copies of the
texts, provided in order that the Queen or her train, if they thought
fit, might help out their Latinity. When the Westminster boys brought
the _Miles Gloriosus_ to Court in 1565, they spent 11_s._ on 'one
Plautus geuen to the Queenes maiestie and fowre other unto the
nobilitie', and the _Sapientia Salomonis_ which they gave Elizabeth in
1565-6 is still extant.[726] Only a few other privileged spectators were
allowed on the King's College stage, at the north end. Seats were
provided for ladies and gentlemen in the rood loft, and for the chief
officers of the Court at 'the twoe loer Tables' below the rood loft. The
only lighting was provided by the torches of the guard, who were aligned
along the sides of the stage. At Oxford, on the other hand, where the
plays were given in Christ Church hall, it is reasonable to assume that
the arrangements were directly modelled upon those prevalent in the
palaces.[727] There was, however, one exceptional feature, due to the
desire to enable the Queen to reach the hall, without being incommoded
by the press of spectators. A temporary door was cut in the side of the
hall and a 'proscenium' or 'porch' built in front of it, which was
approached by a wooden 'bridge' or stairway, adorned with a painted roof
and hung with greenery.[728] It was a wise precaution, for
undergraduates were not excluded, as they had been at Cambridge, and the
press on the main staircase of the hall was so great that one of the low
bounding walls was broken down and killed a college cook and two other
persons.[729] The interior appearance of the hall is fully described by
Bereblock. The stage was at the upper or western end, raised high above
a flight of steps. The Queen had a high seat beneath a gilded state, the
exact location of which is not specified. The lords and ladies were
accommodated on scaffolds round the walls, and the lesser personages in
galleries above them. Every kind of lighting device seems to have been
utilized, including 'ramuli' and 'orbes', in which we may see the
'branches' and 'plates' of the Revels Accounts. The Christ Church hall,
with a stage at its upper end, was used again when James came in 1605,
and we hear of a dispute between the academic functionaries and those of
the Household as to the placing of the King's chair. The latter
complained that it was fixed so low that only His Majesty's cheek would
be visible to the auditory; the latter attempted to explain that, by the
laws of perspective, the King would have a much better view than if he
sat higher. There was a solemn debate in the council chamber, resulting
in the decision that a King must not merely see, but be seen, and the
state was moved to the middle of the hall, twenty-eight feet from the
stage, which in fact proved too far, as he could not well hear or
understand the long speeches. The Queen and Prince shared the state with
the King; in front, but on a lower level, were seats for ladies; the
state itself was ringed with lights; on either side were placed nobles;
and the populace thronged around the walls.[730]

I think it may be taken that this seating, with the sovereign in the
middle of the floor and directly opposite the stage, was that ordinarily
employed. It may be illustrated by a French engraving of Louis XIII in
Richelieu's Palais Royal theatre of the mid-seventeenth century, which
also shows very clearly the seating round the walls and the lighting by
means of suspended chandeliers.[731] I notice that Mr. Ernest Law, in
tracing the outlines of the vanished hall of Whitehall, places the stage
at the lower or screen end of the building, and suggests that the pantry
was utilized as a tiring-room.[732] He may have evidence as to this in
reserve; but the Christ Church analogy, for what it is worth, points to
a stage at the upper or daïs end. The Revels Accounts contain many items
bearing upon the scenic decoration of the plays; but, as they were
compiled, unfortunately, to satisfy the financial appetite of
contemporary auditors, rather than to elucidate the archaeological
problems of posterity, they not unnaturally take for granted a
familiarity with the general system of that decoration which we do not
happen to possess. The discussion of the problems, which cannot be
dissociated from those presented by the public theatres, must be left
for treatment, with the aid of the evidences furnished by plays
themselves, in a later chapter.[733] But the actual information
furnished by the accounts may conveniently be summarized at this point.
The outstanding features were evidently certain 'houses', appropriate to
the action of the plays, and specially prepared, with considerable
trouble and expense, for each production, although no doubt the Revels
officers, as in the case of masking garments, exercised their economical
ingenuity where possible in the 'translation' of old material.[734]
These houses appear to have been structures in relief, presumably
practicable for entrances and exits, and perhaps also on occasion for
interior action. Wooden frame-works, fitted with hooped tops, were
covered with painted cloths of canvas, which was strained on with nails
or pins, and was sometimes fringed.[735] From the amount of canvas
used, it may be judged that they were of considerable size.[736] The
painting of the cloths was a matter of skilled workmanship. William
Lyzarde, with thirty assistants, was employed upon it in 1571.[737] In
1572-3 'patternes' were prepared for the play of _Fortune_.[738] In most
of the earlier accounts the houses are only mentioned incidentally and
generically. But in 1567-8 they are stated to have consisted of
'Stratoes howse, Gobbyns howse, Orestioes howse, Rome, the Pallace of
Prosperitie, Scotland and a gret Castell one thothere side'.[739] And
when Edmund Tilney became Master of the Revels in 1579, he introduced,
perhaps under pressure from the auditors, a practice, which lasted for
some years, of including in the preliminary schedule of plays, with
which his accounts began, a note of the specific houses constructed for
each. Thus in 1579-80, there were a country house and a city for _The
Duke of Milan and the Marquis of Mantua_, a city and a battlement for
_Alucius_, a city and a mount for _The Four Sons of Fabius_, a city and
a battlement for _Scipio Africanus_, a city and a country house for an
unnamed play, a city and a town for _Portio and Demorantes_, a city for
a play on the Soldan and a duke, and a great city, a wood, and a castle
for _Serpedon_.[740] In 1580-1 there were a city and a battlement for
_Delight_, a great city and a senate house for _Pompey_, a city and a
battlement for each of two unnamed plays, a house and a battlement for a
third, a city and a palace for a fourth, and a great city for a
fifth.[741] In 1582-3 there were four pavilions for _A Game of the
Cards_, a cloth and a battlement of canvas for _Beauty and Housewifery_,
and a city and a battlement of canvas for each of four other plays.[742]
In 1584-5 there were a great curtain, a mountain, and a great cloth of
canvas for _Phillida and Corin_, a battlement and a house of canvas for
_Felix and Philiomena_, a great cloth and a battlement, well, and mount
of canvas for _Five Plays in One_, a house and a battlement for _Three
Plays in One_, and a house for an unnamed play.[743] It is evident that
decorative variety was sought after. Even when several successive plays
could be fitted into the normal scheme of a city and a battlement, the
stage architects had to prepare a separate device for each.

I think that when the Elizabethans spoke of 'houses' on the stage, they
were perhaps regarding them primarily as the habitations of the actors
rather than of the personages whom these represented. They were the
tiring-houses, in which the actors remained when they were not in action
and to and from which they made their exits and their entrances. At any
rate, the term in its technical use seems wide enough to cover, not
merely the palaces and the more humble domestic edifices which made
appropriate backgrounds to the comings and goings of individual kings
and citizens--of an Orestes, a Dobbyn--but also more elaborate and
composite structures of 'battlements' and 'cities', of which the former
doubtless represented the external view of the walls and gates of a town
or castle, and the latter some internal town scene, a street or
market-place, perhaps before the doors of more than one house in the
narrower sense. We hear of such specialized forms of 'house' as
'pavilions' or tents, the 'Senat howse' used for _Quintus Fabius_ in
1573-4 and the 'prison' which must have formed part of the 'cittie' for
_The Four Sons of Fabius_ in 1579-80. These, and probably other houses,
were no doubt sufficiently practicable for personages to be seen, and in
some cases also heard, inside them; and the senate house was veiled by
curtains, which doubtless remained closed until the proper moment for
interior action to take place. There are other references to curtains,
the mechanism by which they were drawn, and the sarcenet of which they
were made.[744] It has been suggested that some of these were front
curtains, but there is no reason, so far as the evidence in the Revels
Accounts is concerned, why they should not all, like the senate house
curtain, have been veils for individual 'houses', such as were used in
masks, and had been used in the corresponding _domus_ of miracle-plays.
It is possible, although not certain, that some of the 'great cloths'
provided may have been for hangings to the back and side walls of the
stage, rather than for covering houses. There is no reason why these
should not have been painted in perspective, but the extent to which, if
at all, perspective was employed is one of the points on which we are
most in the dark.[745] Subsidiary structures, hollow trees, arbours,
gibbets, altars, wells, gave variety to the action, and helped out the
decorative effect of the houses.[746] For these also timber frames and
canvas served. The hollow tree was doubtless a feature of the wood
scenes, in which the painter's art, whether in relief or in perspective,
was supplemented by the natural foliage of holly and ivy.[747] Elaborate
rocks, such as are familiar in the masks, were also constructed. That
for _The Knight in the Burning Rock_ in 1578-9 required much timber,
carried a chair, and was reached by a scaling ladder. The effect of
burning was produced by lighted _aqua vitae_.[748] I am not quite sure
whether a cloud drawn up and down by a cord and pulleys in the same year
belonged to this play or to a mask, but obviously there was much give
and take between the methods of plays and masks.[749] Spectacular
elements were freely introduced into plays. A 'monster' of hoops and
canvas, with a man moving inside it, was as easy for the managers of a
_Perseus and Andromeda_ in 1572-3 as for those of a _Peter Pan_ in our
own day; and doubtless the character was equally popular.[750] Hounds'
heads were 'mowlded' for the cynocephali in _The History of the
Cenofalles_ of 1576-7.[751] The mediaeval 'devices for hell, and hell
mowthe' were still in vogue in 1571-2, and in the same year _Narcissus_
was enlivened by thunder and lightning and by the sounds of a hunt which
rang through the palace court-yard, and _Paris and Vienna_ by a tourney
and barriers, in which players mounted on hobby-horses contended for a
'christall sheelde'.[752] So far as minor properties and apparel are
concerned, it is often difficult to distinguish the respective needs of
masks and plays in the long lists of provisions which the Revels
officers detail.[753]

Something may be gleaned, to eke out the rather tantalizing indications
of the account-books, from the more descriptive accounts of performances
at the universities. The process is legitimate, because the organization
of such productions was largely in the hands of Revels and Works experts
brought from London by the Lord Chamberlain, who would naturally employ
or adapt the methods already found successful at the Court itself. But
even the university writers take a good deal of contemporary knowledge
for granted. Of the Cambridge visit in 1564 we learn no more than that
two chapels before which the stage was set served for 'houses'; of the
Oxford visit in 1566 that 'palatia' and 'aedes' were built up 'ex
utroque scenae latere', and that a temple in a wood was staged for an
out-of-doors episode; of the Oxford visit of 1592 nothing.[754] Greater
detail is forthcoming in 1605. The chroniclers were interested by the
experiments of 'one Mʳ. Jones, a great Traveller', the result of which
was stupendous in the eyes of the Oxford Public Orator, although an
envious spy from Cambridge declared that he 'performed very little to
that which was expected'. The stage on this occasion was slightly raked,
so that the actors as they entered appeared to be coming down hill. At
the back was a false wall, with a space of five or six paces behind it,
'for their howses and receipt of the actors'. In this wall Jones had set
revolving pillars or peripetasmata, obviously based on the triangular
[Greek: periaktoi] of Vitruvius, whereby 'with the help of other painted
clothes', he was able to change the face of the scene twice in the
course of each play. Thus in _Ajax Flagellifer_ the scene successively
represented first 'Troia et littus Sigaeum', then 'Sylvae et solitudines
horrenda antra et furiarum domicilia', and finally 'Tentoriorum
naviumque facies'. The machines which worked these changes were painted
'motantibus quasi nubibus, ut eas, Sole Britannico statim ingressuro,
aufugientes putares'.[755]

The changing stage of 1605 was obviously an advance from the Elizabethan
methods of twenty years before. But it can hardly be assumed that the
new principles were regularly adopted in the Jacobean Court. In 1614-15
the Revels office was still buying 'canvas for the boothes and other
necessaries for a play called Bartholmewe Faire', and the entry seems to
suggest 'houses' of the old type.[756] Possibly Inigo Jones was not
sufficiently successful with his Oxford mechanism to inspire confidence.
It is not until much later, in Caroline days, that we can clearly
discern him beginning to apply to the presentation of Court plays the
proscenium arch and the other perfected results of his studies in the
mask.[757] There is no obvious trace of the new methods even in his
interesting design for the new Cockpit at Court, which may date from
about 1632. This shows a building 58 feet square without and octagonal
within. Five sides of the octagon are occupied by the auditorium, which
contains a pit with balconies above, and apparently a royal box at the
back; the other three by a stage 35 feet wide and 16 deep, which stands 4½
feet above the pit level, and has a 5-foot apron and a semicircular back
wall of a 15-foot radius. This does not appear to be adapted either for
hangings or for shifting scenes, but is a Palladian façade of two stories
in solid architecture adorned with niches and busts and a tablet inscribed
'Prodesse et delectare'. It is pierced below by a large archway and four
other doors, and above the archway is a single window.[758]


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 680: On the earlier custom cf. S. Cox (App. C, No. xliv).
Buggin's memorandum on the Revels in 1573 (_Tudor Revels_, 36)
contemplates the possibility of service at 'Hollantide'.]

[Footnote 681: Birch, i. 69.]

[Footnote 682: Cf. App. B. The _Revels Accounts_ record plays which the
Treasurer of the Chamber did not reward, by the Chapel (1559-60); by
unnamed companies (3 plays) at Windsor (1563-4); by Westminster (_Miles
Gloriosus_; cf. Murray, ii. 168), the Chapel, Sir Percival Hart's sons,
and 'showes' by Gray's Inn (1564-5); by an unnamed company (1567-8); by
an unnamed company (1581-2); and by Gray's Inn (_Misfortunes of Arthur_,
1587-8). For years not covered by these accounts must be added the Inner
Temple _Gorboduc_ (1562), probably their _Gismond of Salerne_ (1566?),
and not impossibly others by Gray's Inn, who, according to Elizabeth in
1595 (_Gesta Grayorum_, 68), 'did always study for Sports to present
unto her'. I cannot understand Collier's unreferenced notice of a
payment to men of George Evelyn (cf. ch. xiii) for a play in 1588. A
letter of 4 Dec. 1592 from the University of Cambridge (_M. S. C._ i.
198, from _Lansd. MS._ 71), deprecating an invitation to play an English
comedy at court, shows that a similar suggestion had been made to
Oxford; there is no evidence that either University actually played. It
is conceivable that plays may sometimes have been rewarded out of the
Privy Purse (cf. ch. ii) instead of by the Treasurer of the Chamber.]

[Footnote 683: Cf. Calendar, _s.a._ 1559 (7 Aug., Paul's at Nonsuch),
1564 (5 July, play at Mr. Sackville's), 1567 (April 13, play before
Elizabeth and Spanish ambassador), 1575 (plays on progress at Lichfield
by Warwick's, at Kenilworth, and at Woodstock), 1578 (Aug., Ipswich play
at Stowmarket), 1579 (play at Osterley), 1595 (Jan., probable
performance of _M. N. D._ at Derby's wedding), 1601 (Aug.,
'playing-wenches' at Caversham), 1601 (29 Dec., play at Hunsdon's in
Blackfriars). There are also, of course, the plays at Oxford and
Cambridge (cf. ch. iv). For these no money reward was paid, but the
Works and Revels met some of the expenses, and the actors got a warrant
for venison out of Woodstock to make a feast.]

[Footnote 684: Cf. p. 7.]

[Footnote 685: Cf. App. B, _s.a._ 1612-13, 1615-16.]

[Footnote 686: For other entertainments of the court with plays by
private hosts, cf. Calendar _s.a._ 1605 (3 Jan., play by Spanish
ambassador for Duke of Holst; 9 < > 14 Jan., _Love's Labour's Lost_ by
Southampton or Cranborne for Anne), 1607 (May 25, _Aeneas and Dido_ by
Arundel for Prince de Joinville).]

[Footnote 687: Cf. also _M. N. D._ iii. 1. 57; _Isle of Gulls_, iii (ed.
Bullen, p. 67), 'in the great Chamber at the Reuels'. The Elizabethan
_Chamber Accounts_ rarely show the room; in 1597-8 the hall at Hampton
Court, in 1600-1 the hall and in 1601-2 the great chamber at Whitehall.
I have examined only a few Jacobean ones on this point; the hall, great
chamber, and banqueting-house, at Whitehall, were all used in 1604-5;
the hall, banqueting-house, and cockpit in 1610-11; the banqueting-house
twice in April 1612-13.]

[Footnote 688: Cf. App. B, _s.a._ 1608-12. On the Cockpit cf. Stowe,
_Survey_, ii. 102, 374; Sheppard, _Whitehall_, 66; W. J. Lawrence in _E.
S._ xxxv. 279; _L. T. R._ i. 38; ii. 23; vii. 49, 61; Adams, 384. I am
not quite clear where the original pit stood. Stowe puts on the right
hand as you go down Whitehall 'diuers fayre Tennis courtes, bowling
allies, and a Cocke-pit, al built by King Henry the eight'. Wyngaerde
and Agas show various buildings here, of which one in Agas is of pit
shape. Faithorne's map of Westminster (1658), which is said to represent
the locality at a much earlier date, shows, just south of the tilt-yard,
a quadrangle divided off from the road by a low boundary wall, with
buildings all round it and an angled building in the midst. This must I
think be the Cockpit, and some of the buildings round it the lodgings
which also bore that name and were occupied by the Princess Elizabeth
before her marriage (Birch, _Charles I_, ii. 213) and by Lady Somerset
in 1615 (_Rutland MSS._ i. 448). Here presumably provision for Cockpit
was made for James in 1604 (cf. p. 53), and Henry and Elizabeth saw
plays in 1608-13 (App. B). But I doubt whether this is the Cockpit shown
in Fisher's Restoration plan of Whitehall and in an engraving, probably
from a seventeenth-century drawing, reproduced in _L. T. R._ ii. 23, and
Adams, 407. This was square externally, and apparently stood farther
west than Faithorne's from the line of the tilt-yard, at the extreme
north-west angle of the palace buildings where they jutted into St.
James's Park. I think Adams is clearly right in identifying this
building with the little theatre a plan of which by Inigo Jones was
published from a Worcester College MS. by H. Bell in _Architectural
Record_ (1913), 262 (cf. p. 234). Adams further identifies it with a
'new theatre at Whitehall' opened about 1632, no doubt to replace the
old Cockpit. If so, Faithorne is clearly out of date. This later Cockpit
was on the site of the present Treasury buildings, and the locality long
continued to bear its name. Treasury letters were dated from the
Cockpit, and the King's speech is said to have been rehearsed there as
late as 1806. The passage leading from Whitehall to the Treasury is
still called the Cockpit passage. A quite distinct cockpit near Birdcage
Walk is marked by the extant Cockpit Steps. It existed by 1720 and was
destroyed in 1816. Whether the angled building shown in this direction
by Wyngaerde can represent it, or a predecessor, I do not know.]

[Footnote 689: Cf. App. B.]

[Footnote 690: There may have been special reasons why the Chapel only
got £15 for two plays in 1583-4, Oxford's £6 13_s._ 4_d._ for a play in
1584-5, the Queen's £20 for three plays in 1587-8, and the Chapel £5 for
a 'showe' in 1600-1. The accounts for 1605-6 seem to point to an
unsuccessful attempt to establish a flat rate of £5 for a 'rewarde' and
£3 6_s._ 8_d._ for a 'more rewarde', for plays before James and Henry
alike. The payments of 17 May 1615 of £43 6_s._ 8_d._ for six plays
before 'his highnes' (which in these accounts generally means the
Prince) perhaps really represent one play before James and five before
Charles.]

[Footnote 691: Henry's accounts for 1610-12 (Cunningham, xiii) include
payments for making ready the Cockpit for plays, and rewards to
musicians and a juggler, but none for players; but Elizabeth lost a play
in a wager in 1612, and Anne paid for two plays at Somerset House in
1615. The only play recorded by the Treasurer of the Chamber as
specially before Anne (10 Dec. 1604) was paid for at £10. Naturally she
was present at plays entered as before the King or Prince, and in 1612
plays paid for at the King's rate seem in fact to have been shown before
Anne and Henry in his absence (cf. App. B).]

[Footnote 692: The £10 fee continued to be paid under Charles I, but by
1630-1 the players had established a claim to an additional £10 if their
service at court lost them a day at the theatre, owing to a journey to
Hampton Court or Richmond or an occasional performance or rehearsal at
Whitehall in the day-time. During 1636-7, however, the theatres were
closed for plague (_M. S. C._ i. 391), and the King's men had an
allowance of £20 a week to maintain them near the court (_S. P. D. Car.
I_, cccxxxvii. 33), and did not get the extra £10 a play; cf. E. Law,
_More about Shakespeare Forgeries_, 37, and the extracts from the _Lord
Chamberlain's Records_ in C. C. Stopes, _Shakespeare's Fellows and
Followers_ (_Jahrbuch_, xlvi. 92).]

[Footnote 693: Cf. ch. ii, p. 66.]

[Footnote 694: The documents are printed by Cunningham, xxiv, and by
Law, _More_, 39, 71, who gives the warrant more fully. They were removed
by Cunningham from the Audit Office, and when returned to the Record
Office were classed in error as papers subsidiary to the Revels
Accounts, instead of to those of the Treasurer of the Chamber. But Law,
_More_, 61, successfully vindicates their authenticity, and I may add
that the dockets of Chamberlain's warrants for other years (_Jahrbuch_,
xlvi. 94) refer to schedules now lost, and that a schedule of the plays
of the King's men for 1638-9 was facsimiled from a private manuscript by
G. R. Wright in _Brit. Arch. Ass. Journal_, xvi. 275, 344 (1860), and in
his _Archaeologic and Historic Fragments_ (1887). In this the claims for
'our day lost' are clearly specified.]

[Footnote 695: The schedule attached to a warrant of 1633 (_Jahrbuch_,
xlvi. 97) appears to have been a bill signed by the Master of the
Revels.]

[Footnote 696: Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, 109; but his note is a slip.]

[Footnote 697: Cf. ch. xiii (Chamberlain's).]

[Footnote 698: _Sydney Papers_, ii. 86 (30 Jan. 1598), 'My Lord Compton,
my Lord Cobham, Sir Walter Rawley, my Lord Southampton, doe severally
feast Mr. Secretary before he depart, and have plaies and banquets. My
Lady Darby, my Lady Walsingham, Mrs. Anne Russell, are of the company,
and my Lady Rawley'; ii. 90 (15 Feb. 1598), 'Sir Gilley Meiricke made at
Essex House yesternight a very great supper. There were at yt, my Ladys
Lester, Northumberland, Bedford, Essex, Rich; and my Lordes of Essex,
Rutland, Monjoy, and others. They had 2 plaies, which kept them up till
1 a clocke after midnight'; ii. 175 (8 March 1600), 'All this Weeke the
Lords haue bene in London, and past away the Tyme in Feasting and
Plaies; for Vereiken dined vpon Wednesday, with my Lord Treasurer, who
made hym a Roiall Dinner; vpon Thursday my Lord Chamberlain feasted hym,
and made hym very great, and a delicate Dinner, and there in the After
Noone his Plaiers acted, before Vereiken, Sir John Old Castell, to his
Great Contentment'. It seems that, for their patron, the Chamberlain's
men would give up an afternoon.]

[Footnote 699: _S. P. D. Jac. I_, xix. 12 (1606); Birch, i. 243;
Winwood, iii. 461. A gallant might also have his private play at night
in a tavern; cf. Nashe, _Lenten Stuffe_ (1599, _Works_, iii. 148), 'To
London againe he will, to reuell it, and haue two playes in one night,
inuite all the Poets and Musitions to his chamber the next morning'; _A
Mad World, my Masters_, v. i. 78, 'a right Mitre supper;--a play and
all'.]

[Footnote 700: _Aphrodysial_, v. 5, cited by Reynolds, _Percy_, 258.]

[Footnote 701: Machyn, 222, 290, notes a play, either in the Guildhall
or in that of the Lord Mayor's company, on 6 Jan. 1560, and a play at
the Barber Surgeons' feast on 10 Aug. 1562. The Pewterers collected
'playe pence' at their 'yemandrie feast' about 1563 (C. Welch,
_Pewterers_, i. 233). Recorder Fleetwood saw a play at a dinner with the
outgoing sheriffs on 29 Sept. 1575 (_Hatfield MSS._ ii. 116; dated 1573
in error in Murdin, ii. 259, and Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 357).]

[Footnote 702: They are fully treated for the sixteenth century by F. S.
Boas, _University Drama in the Tudor Age_ (1914), and more briefly for
the whole period, with a valuable bibliography, by the same writer, in
_C. H._ vi. 293. I have recorded the extant plays, English and Latin, in
App. K.]

[Footnote 703: Ch. xxiii, s.v. Beaumont; Inderwick, _Inner Temple
Records_, i. lxv, 219; ii. xlix, 23 _sqq._, 56, 64. A payment of 20_s._
'to the players' at the Christmas of 1615 was probably, in view of the
amount, for musicians. The earlier account-books are not preserved. On
the plays, not necessarily professional, of the 1561-2 Christmas, cf.
ch. xxiii, s.v. Brooke.]

[Footnote 704: _Gesta Grayorum_ (M. S. R.), 22, 23. R. J. Fletcher, _The
Pension Book of Gray's Inn_ (1901), prints entries of payments for 'the
play at Shrove-tyde' 1581, of which nothing more is known, and 'the play
in Michaelmas terme' and 'the Tragedie' in 1587-8, in which year the Inn
gave _Catiline_ at home before Lord Burghley on 16 Jan. (_M. S. C._ i.
179) and _The Misfortunes of Arthur_ at court on 28 Feb. Gascoigne's
_Supposes_ and _Jocasta_ were both produced at Gray's Inn in 1566-7. The
Inn was to have entertained the Duke of Bracciano with 'shewes' at
Christmas 1600-1, but he left too soon (Chamberlain, 99; Camden (tr.),
535).]

[Footnote 705: B. Rudyerd, _Memoirs_, 12, 13. The ascription of these
revels to 'the Christmas of 1599' in _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 416, is an
error; cf. p. 169.]

[Footnote 706: Manningham, 18.]

[Footnote 707: J. D. Walker, _Black Books of Lincoln's Inn_, i. xxxiii,
344, 348, 352, 362, 374, 418; ii. 55. It was ordered on 2 Feb. 1565 that
'Mʳ Edwards shall have in reward liijˢ, iiijᵈ for his plee, and his
hussher xˢ, and xˢ more to the children that pleed' (in margin,
'Children of the Quenes Chappell'). The accounts of 1564-5, however,
show £1 18_s._ 2_d._ for a supper and for staff torches, clubs, and
other necessaries for the play, and £1 as reward for the boys; those of
1565-6 £2 to the boys of the Queen's chapel and their master for a play
at the Purification; those of 1569-70 £1 'lusoribus' of 'Lord Roche' at
the Purification; those of 1579-80 £3 6_s._ 8_d._ on 9 Feb. 'to Mʳ
Ferrand [Farrant] one of the Queen's chaplains _pro commedia_'. On 12
May 1598, a levy was made for the expenses of 'the gentlemen that were
actors in the matter of the shew the last Christmas'. No more is known
of this show. On the Inns of Court Christmases generally cf. _Mediaeval
Stage_, i. 413.]

[Footnote 708: The Westminster accounts of 1564-5 (Murray, ii. 168)
include 'at yᵉ rehersing before Sir Thomas Benger for pinnes and sugar
candee viᵈ' and 'the second tyme att the playing of Heautonti, for
pinnes halfe a thousand viᵈ', but there is nothing to suggest that any
play but _Miles Gloriosus_ was given before the Queen. The _Revels
Accounts_ (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 145, 176, 179, 238, 277, 325, &c.) have
(1571-2), 'playes ... chosen owte of many and ffownde to be the best
that then were to be had, the same also being often pervsed, &
necessarely corrected & amended (by all thafforesaide officers)';
(1572-3), 'muzitians that plaide at the proof of Duttons play' ...
'rushes in the hall & in the greate chambere where the workes were doone
& the playes rezited'; (1574-5) 'at Wynsor ... for peruzing and
reformyng of Farrantes playe' ... 'wheare my Lord of Leicesters menne
showed theier matter of Panecia' ... 'where my Lord Clyntons players
rehearsed a matter called Pretestus', &c.; (1576-7), 'To Whitehall and
back againe to recyte before my Lord Chamberleyn' ... 'to Sᵗ Johns ...
for the play of Cutwell'; (1579-80) 'Thinges ... brought into the
Masters Lodginge for the rehearsall of sondrie playes to make choise of
dyvers of them for her maiestie', &c., &c.]

[Footnote 709: Machyn, 221.]

[Footnote 710: Cf. chh. xxiii, xxiv, s.vv. Chettle (1602); Dekker,
_Fortunatus, Phaethon_; the anonymous _Histriomastix_. The prints of
several plays contain special court prologues or epilogues, e.g. Lyly's
_Campaspe_ and _Sapho and Phaon_.]

[Footnote 711: Buggin's Revels memorandum of 1573 (_Tudor Revels_, 33)
indicates that his proposed Serjeant 'is with the master and the reast
of the officers to be at the rehersall of playes'.]

[Footnote 712: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 326 (1579-80, 50 days), 337 (1580-1,
70 days), table ii (1581-2, 44 days), 352 (1582-3, 62 days), table iii
(1583-4, 56 days), 368 (1584-5, 66 days), 389 (1587-8, 64 days; 1588-9,
57 days). The commission (App. D, No. lvi) authorized the Master to
command players 'to appear before him with all suche plaies tragedies
comedies or showes as they shall haue in readines or meane to sett forth
and them to presente and recite before our said servant or his
sufficient deputie'.]

[Footnote 713: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 145, 193, 286, 320. In 1571-2 all the
plays were 'throwghly apparelled and ffurnished'; in 1573-4 all were
'fytted and ffurnyshed with the store of thoffice and with the
woorkmanshipp and provisions herein expressed'; in 1578-9 the clerk
seems to distinguish between plays furnished with 'sondrey', 'some',
'manie', and 'verie manie' things; in 1579-80 seven out of nine plays
were 'wholie furnyshed in this offyce', and of the others one had
'sondrie' and one 'many' things; cf. Graves, 83.]

[Footnote 714: Cf. ch. iii, p. 93.]

[Footnote 715: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 354, 370, 381, 391; cf. ch. iii, p.
89.]

[Footnote 716: Ibid. 140, 174, 236, 320, 336, 349 (gloves); 338
(cradle); 205 (close-stool). The Westminster boys in 1565 found their
own 'sugar candee', 'comfetts', and 'butterd beere for yᵉ children being
horse' (Murray, ii. 168).]

[Footnote 717: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 337.]

[Footnote 718: Tarlton, 10, records a jest, 'Tarlton having plaied
before the queen till one a clock at midnight'. De Silva describes
entertainments of Elizabeth in private houses early in the reign which
ended at 1.30 and 2 a.m. (ch. v, pp. 161, 162). Under James, a play on 7
Jan. 1610, began at 10 p.m. (_Arch._ xii. 268).]

[Footnote 719: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 159, 202, 216, 300, 353, 368, &c. We
hear of 'high', 'vice', 'stock', 'pricke', 'plate', and 'hand'
candlesticks.]

[Footnote 720: Cunningham, 214 (1611-12), 'For a musik house dore in the
hall and a doore for the musik house in the Bancketing house with
lockes'; possibly that in the hall was used for plays rather than
masks.]

[Footnote 721: Cf. App. B and the Works Account of 'Chardges done for
the revells in the hall' at Shrovetide 1568 in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 120.
But the Revels themselves had 'to enlardge the scaffolde in the hall' in
1579-80 (327).]

[Footnote 722: Cf. ch. ii, p. 34.]

[Footnote 723: On the woodcut in _Three Lords and Three Ladies of
London_ (1590), cf. _Bibl. Note_ to ch. xviii.]

[Footnote 724: Cf. App. A.]

[Footnote 725: Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_, ii. 267 (from account of
Matthew Stokys in _Harl. MS._ 7037 (_Baker MS._ 10)); 'For the hearing
and playing whereof was made, by her highness surveyor and at her own
cost, in the body of the church, a great stage containing the breadth of
the church from the one side to the other, that the chapels might serve
for houses. In the length it ran two of the lower chapels full, with the
pillars on a side. Upon the south wall was hanged a cloth of state, with
the appurtenances and half path, for her majesty. In the rood loft,
another stage for ladies and gentlewomen to stand on. And the two lower
tables, under the said rood loft, were greatly enlarged and railed for
the choice officers of the court. There was, before her majesty's
coming, made in the King's College hall, a great stage. But, because it
was judged by divers to be too little, and too close for her highness
and her company, and also far from her lodging, it was taken down. When
all things were ready for the plays, the Lord Chamberlain with Mr.
Secretary came in, bringing a multitude of the guard with them, having
every man in his hand a torch-staff for the lights of the play (for no
other lights were occupied) and would not suffer any to stand upon the
stage, save a very few upon the north side. And the guard stood upon the
ground by the stage side, holding their lights. From the quire door unto
the stage was made as 'twere a bridge, railed on both sides, for the
queen's grace to go to the stage; which was straitly kept.' This account
is also in Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 151. In his first edition Nichols (iii.
27) also gave an account by Nicholas Robinson, which adds the detail
that the stage was 'structura quaedam ex crassioribus asseribus
altitudine pedum quinque'; cf. also Boas, 91.]

[Footnote 726: Cf. ch. xii and App. K.]

[Footnote 727: Plummer, 123 (from Bereblock's account): 'Primo ibi ab
ingenti solido pariete patefacto aditu proscenium insigne fuit, ponsque
ab eo ligneus pensilis, sublicis impositus, parvo et perpolito tractu
per transversos gradus ad magnam Collegii aulam protrahitur; festa
fronde coelato pictoque umbraculo exornatur, ut per eum, sine motu et
perturbatione prementis vulgi, regina posset, quasi aequabili gressu, ad
praeparata spectacula contendere. Erat aula laqueari aurato, et picto
arcuatoque introrsus tecto, granditate ac superbia sua veteris Romani
palatii amplitudinem, et magnificentia imaginem antiquitatis diceres
imitari. Parte illius superiori, qua occidentem respicit, theatrum
excitatur magnum et erectum, gradibusque multis excelsum. Iuxta omnes
parietes podia et pegmata extructa sunt, subsellia eisdem superiora
fuerunt multorum fastigiorum, unde viri illustres ac matronae
suspicerentur, et populus circumcirca ludos prospicere potuit. Lucernae,
lichni, candelaeque ardentes clarissimam ibi lucem fecerunt. Tot
luminaribus, ramulis ac orbibus divisis, totque passim funalibus,
inaequali splendore, incertam praebentibus lucem, splendebat locus, ut
et instar diei micare, et spectaculorum claritatem adiuvare candore
summo visa sint. Ex utroque scenae latere comoedis ac personatis
magnifica palatia, aedesque apparatissimae extruuntur. Sublime fixa
sella fuit, pulvinaribus ac tapetiis ornata, aureoque umbraculo operta,
Reginae destinatus locus erat'; cf. Boas, 99.]

[Footnote 728: I think Feuillerat, _M. P._ 73, must be misled by the
Cambridge analogy and the use of the term 'proscenium' in supposing the
'pons' to have been within the auditorium and the state on the stage.
The 'proscenium' was doubtless the 'porch' taken down after the visit
(Boas, 106). The exterior of the hall has been refaced since 1566, but
Dr. Boas tells me that during some recent alterations an unexplained
aperture was traceable from within.]

[Footnote 729: Cf. ch. iv.]

[Footnote 730: Cf. p. 234.]

[Footnote 731: Jusserand, _Shakespeare in France_ (tr.), 93, pl. xi.]

[Footnote 732: _L. T. R._ vii. 41. In _The Times_ for 3 Dec. 1917 Mr.
Law has a similar reconstruction of the arrangements at Hampton Court,
wherein he assigns the stage to a point before the screens, with the
gallery over the screens for 'upper chamber scenes', rooms behind the
screens for tiring-houses, and a players' supper room, and the Watching
Chamber for rehearsals. But again he produces no evidence.]

[Footnote 733: Cf. ch. xix.]

[Footnote 734: The expenses of 1578-9 (_vide infra_) included the
'mending' of houses. But I agree, broadly, with the argument of Graves,
53, that scenery for a Court performance had to be either new or
renewed.]

[Footnote 735: In 1563-5, 'canvas to couer diuers townes and howsses and
other devisses and clowds' (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 116); in 1571-2, 'sundry
Tragedies Playes Maskes and sportes with their apte howses of paynted
canvas' (129); in 1572-3, 'sparres to make frames for the players
howses' (175); in 1573-4, 'hoopes for tharbour and topp of an howse' ...
'pynnes styf and great for paynted clothes' ... 'nayles to strayne the
canvas' ... 'canvas to paynte for howses for the players and for other
properties as monsters, greate hollow trees and suche other' ...
'cariage for the fframes for the howses that served in the playes' ...
'iij elme boordes and vij ledges for the frames for the players' ...
'cariage of fframes and painted clothes for the players howses' (197,
201, 203, 204, 218); in 1574-5, 'canvas to make frenge for the players
howse' (244); in 1576-7, 'cariadge ... of a paynted cloth and two
frames' (266); in 1587-9, 'timber bordes and workmanshipp in mending and
setting vp of the houses by greate' (390); in 1587-8 'paynters for ...
clothe for howses' (381); in 1579-80, 'ffurre poles to make rayles for
the battlementes and to make the prison for my Lord of Warwickes men'
(327).]

[Footnote 736: Feuillerat, _M. P._ 69, calculates that enough cloth was
painted in 1580-1, 1582-3, and 1584-5 to allow of about 16 square yards
for every house or other _décor_ used.]

[Footnote 737: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 134.]

[Footnote 738: Ibid. 176.]

[Footnote 739: Ibid. 119.]

[Footnote 740: Ibid. 320.]

[Footnote 741: Ibid. 336.]

[Footnote 742: Ibid. 349.]

[Footnote 743: Ibid. 365.]

[Footnote 744: In 1571-2, 'curtyn ringes' (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 140); in
1573-4, 'poles and shivers for draft of the curtins before the senat
howse ... curtyn ringes ... edging the curtins with ffrenge ... tape and
corde for the same' (200); in 1576-7, 'a lyne to draw a curteyne' (275);
in 1580-1, a purchase of 8 ells of orange taffeta double sarcenet at 10s
an ell for a curtain for a play (338); in 1584-5 'one greate curteyne'
of sarcenet for _Phillyda and Corin_ (365).]

[Footnote 745: Cf. ch. xix.]

[Footnote 746: In 1572-3, 'an awlter for Theagines' (Feuillerat, _Eliz._
175); in 1573-4, 'lathes for the hollo tree' ... 'one baskett with iiij
eares to hang Dylligence in the play of Perobia ... a iebbett to hang vp
Diligence' ... 'hoopes for tharbour' (199, 200, 203); in 1578-9 'a rope,
a pulley, a basket' (296); in 1584-5, a well for _Five Plays in One_
(365). For Cutwell, rehearsed but not performed in 1576-7 (277), 'the
partes of yᵉ well counterfeit' were brought from the Bell to St.
John's.]

[Footnote 747: In 1572-3, 'a tree of holly for the Duttons playe ...
holly for the forest ... tymber for the forest ... provizion and cariage
of trees and other things to the Coorte for a wildernesse in a playe'
(Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 175, 180); in 1573-4, 'holly and ivye for the play
of Predor' (203); in 1574-5, 'moss and styckes' and holly and ivy (239,
244).]

[Footnote 748: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 306. There were rocks or mountains
also in 1574-5, 1579-80, and 1584-5 (244, 320, 365).]

[Footnote 749: Ibid. 240. It was an old device. Graves, 27, quotes
Palsgrave, _Acolastus_ (1540), 'in stage-playes, when some god or some
saynt made to appeare forth of a cloude; and succoureth the parties
which seemed to be towardes some great danger, through the Soudans
crueltie'.]

[Footnote 750: 'Andramedas picture' ... 'Benbow for playing in the
monster' ... 'canvas for a monster' ... 'hoopes for the monster' (ibid.
175, 176, 181).]

[Footnote 751: Ibid. 265.]

[Footnote 752: Ibid. 140, 141. The 'hunters that made the crye after the
fox (let loose in the Coorte) with their howndes, hornes, and hallowing'
had already been a feature of Edwardes' _Palaemon and Arcite_ at Oxford
in 1566.]

[Footnote 753: Feuillerat, _M. P._ 57, gives an excellent summary of the
data in the Accounts, but his schedule of properties does not attempt to
disentangle masks and plays. The latter were liberally supplied. The
Italians at Reading and Windsor during the progress of 1574, for
example, were furnished with 'golde lether for cronetes', 'shepherdes
hookes', 'lam-skynnes for shepperds', 'arrowes for nymphes', 'a syth for
Saturne', 'iij deveils cotes and heades and one olde mannes fries cote'
(Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 227). Probably the apparel used on the stage was of
less costly materials than that worn by lords and ladies in masks, but
it was doubtless calculated to present the same glittering effect.]

[Footnote 754: Cf. p. 226, and Plummer (from Bereblock), 138, 'Fiunt
igitur in silvis septa marmorea' with three altars.]

[Footnote 755: I. Wake, _Rex Platonicus sive Musae Regnantes_ (1607),
46, 79, 112, 134; Nichols, i. 530 (from account, probably by Philip
Stringer, in _Harl. MS._ 7044, f. 201). Wake thus describes the hall:
'Partem Aulae superiorem occupavit Scena, cuius Proscenium molliter
declive (quod actorum egressui, quasi e monte descendentium, multum
attulit dignitatis) in planitiem desinebat. Peripetasmata scenicaque
habitacula, machinis ita artificiose ad omnium locorum rerumque
varietatem apparata, ut non modo pro singulorum indies spectaculorum,
sed etiam pro Scenarum una eademque fabula diversitate subito (ad
stuporem omnium) compareret nova totius theatralis fabricae facies....
Media cavea thronus Augustalis cancellis cinctus Principibus erigitur,
quem utrinque optimatum stationes communiunt: reliquum inter thronum et
theatrum interstitium Heroinarum Gynaeceum est paulo depressius.' In
_Annus Recurrens_ the scene was a zodiac with a sun moving by artifice,
and the play lasted from the Ram to the Fishes. Stringer adds the
details about the turning pillars, the false wall, and the participation
of Jones.]

[Footnote 756: _Pipe Office, Declared Accounts_ (_Revels_), 2805.]

[Footnote 757: Thorndike, 191.]

[Footnote 758: Cf. p. 217.]




BOOK II


THE CONTROL OF THE STAGE

[Greek: Alla ma Di', ephê, ouk epi toutô mega phronô. All' epi tô mên;
Epi nê Dia tois aphrosin. houtoi gar ta ema neuropasta theômenoi
trephousi me.]--Xenophon, _Symposium_.




VIII

HUMANISM AND PURITANISM

     [_Bibliographical Note._--Most of the material for the present
     chapter, including extracts from a few pre-Elizabethan writers,
     is collected in Appendix C; the more official documents in
     Appendix D are occasionally drawn upon. The Puritan controversy
     has been studied by C. H. Herford, _A Sketch of the History of
     the English Drama in its Social Aspects_ (1881), and E. N. S.
     Thompson, _The Controversy between the Puritans and the Stage_
     (1903), from the academic point of view in F. S. Boas,
     _University Drama in the Tudor Age_ (1914), and in relation to
     the theory of dramatic criticism by H. S. Symmes, _Les Débuts
     de la Critique dramatique en Angleterre jusqu'à la Mort de
     Shakespeare_ (1903), and Renaissance criticism in general by J.
     E. Spingarn, _History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance_
     (1899), and G. Saintsbury, _History of Criticism_, vol. ii
     (1902). Useful collections of contemporary treatises are G.
     Gregory Smith, _Elizabethan Critical Essays_ (1904), and J. E.
     Spingarn, _Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century_ (1908).]


The investigations of my opening book have shown clearly enough that in
the Tudor, as in the mediaeval, scheme of things there was ample room
for the stage and its players. The revelling instinct survived, and the
old native love of _mimesis_ and _spectacle_ had been reinforced by a
literary delight in the revival of classical drama and in every form of
the give and take of dialogue. Nor was the appreciation of the folk for
the ruder forms of sensational and farcical entertainment less keen; and
a period of general acceptance of the stage as an element in social life
might have been anticipated, in which it stood greatly to gain by the
more settled and less migratory habits of the royal household and the
possibilities of building up a permanent head-quarters for itself in
London which resulted from the change. Unfortunately, however, events
moved otherwise. A new factor emerged, which militated against anything
like general acceptance; and the period of the greatest literary
vitality in the development of the English drama proved to be also a
period of embittered conflict with widespread ethical and religious
tendencies, which in fact ranged over the whole of social life and was
ultimately destined to shatter, not only the stage, but the Tudor scheme
of things itself. In its main outlines the issue was that which had been
set ever since the decadent theatre of Greece and Rome came face to face
with Semitic asceticism and barbarian indifference. The traditional
dislike and contempt of the moralist for the mime had still to find
their last expression. But it is a noteworthy aspect of this new revival
of the secular struggle, that the attack came less from official
churchmanship than from those extreme champions of reformation
principles, whose zeal against abuses, and in particular against abuses
countenanced by official churchmanship, won them the name of Puritans.
The rise of Puritanism was coincident with the beginnings of the
agitation against the stage, and the growth of Puritanism in London was
the chief feature in a process which stirred the local magistracy, as
represented by the Lord Mayor and Corporation of the City, to try its
strength, with the stage as a bone of contention, against the central
authority of the Privy Council. The controversy is so important a one,
from the point of view of the history of the stage and of civilization,
that even at the risk of retraversing ground already trod, it is
desirable to consider at some length the forces that were at work.[759]

The general relation of Reformation sentiment to the drama is a matter
of rather complicated cross-currents. In the first place, there was the
humanist rediscovery of the classics, fanning into flame the enthusiasm
for Terence which had smouldered throughout the Middle Ages themselves,
and making full use in its theory of education of the school-play as a
means of inculcating pure Latinity, sound moral precepts, and
gentlemanly self-possession in the conduct of affairs. In some at least
of its manifestations this tendency is comprehensive enough to include
the professional, as well as the academic, player. An example may be
found in the treatise _De recta reipublicae administratione_ of the
German jurist, John Ferrarius. This was written in 1556 and translated
into English by William Bavande of the Middle Temple in 1559. It was
probably not without its influence upon the line of apologetic adopted
by those gentlemen of the Inns of Court to whom the London stage came to
look as its warmest supporters. For Ferrarius players are no longer the
proscribed folk of the Middle Ages. They have become one of the seven
handicrafts of the commonweal; and, provided that care is taken that
their performances shall stand with honesty, they have a function, not
merely to delight in times of recreation, but also to further morals by
ministering ensamples of virtue and goodness to be embraced, and of vice
and filthy living to be eschewed. In his short chapter, Ferrarius makes
use of two notions, which became commonplaces of Elizabethan dramatic
criticism. Both are derived from classical sources. One is Horace's
statement in the _De Arte Poetica_ of the double object of comedy in the
mingling of delight with profit;[760] the other the Plutarchan image of
the bee sucking its honey even from noxious herbs, the honey of ethical
precept from the herbs of wanton or foolish writings.[761] Even more
famous, from its glorification in _Hamlet_, is a third passage which
Ferrarius does not cite, and that is the definition of comedy,
attributed by the fourth-century grammarian Donatus to Cicero but not
discoverable in his extant works, as _imitatio vitae, speculum
consuetudinis, imago veritatis_.[762]

There were, however, other humanists who may have shared the abstract
ideal of Ferrarius, but who at any rate were sufficiently conscious of
the extent to which the popular stage of their own day fell short of
that ideal, and were in consequence led to condemn, or perhaps more
often to ignore, it. Of such was Ludovicus Vives, who devoted to
dramatic poetry a section of his work on the corruption of the arts, in
which, while accepting the Horatian account of the end of comedy, he
points out that, with the notable exception of the author of
_Celestina_, the playwrights, having been driven by the resentment of
the great against satire to find their material in love-intrigues and
similar themes, had lamentably failed to justify themselves by a proper
determination of their plots to the ends of salutary morals. Even for
Vives, Plautus and Terence are necessary to education; but he would use
his blue pencil, and is by no means so warm a champion of the Latin
drama on its ethical side as his older and more famous contemporary
Erasmus. In his formal writings on education Erasmus gives Terence the
first place amongst Latin writers, adding Plautus with more hesitation
and with a stipulation for carefully selected plays. And in a letter
written about 1489 to an anonymous friend he tilts with vehemence
against the doctrine of certain _homunciones imperituli, imo lividuli_,
who maintain that Terence is no fit reading for Christians, and explains
to their ignorance that the end of dramatic writing lies precisely in
the refutation of vice. Erasmus is closely followed by his English
disciple, Sir Thomas Elyot, whose defence of comedies in _The Governour_
(1531), as no 'doctrinall of rybaudrie' but 'a mirrour of man's life,
wherin iuell is not taught but discouered', served as a standard
authority to be quoted in support of much later apologetic. Nor is the
point of view confined to what may be called the secular wing of
humanism. The Terentian school-play is an essential feature in the
pedagogy of such convinced reformers as Philip Melanchthon at Wittenberg
and John Sturm at Strasburg,[763] and from Sturm the tradition passes
direct to one of the most scholarly and by no means one of the least
austere of early English Protestants, Roger Ascham. It is to be
observed, however, that Ascham's concern for Terence is wholly on the
side of letters and Latinity. Both Vives and Erasmus had had their
moments of uneasiness as to how far, after all, the ethics of pagan Rome
were quite meet to be assimilated by Christian youth. Vives would
expurgate both Plautus and Terence, and Erasmus Plautus at least.
Ascham, very much impressed with the demoralizing influence of Italian
books and Italian manners on English civilization, has no doubt at all
that, necessary as both Plautus and Terence are to the schoolmaster,
their matter is but 'base stuff' for the contemplation of the budding
divine or civil servant. Views similar to Ascham's had already
established themselves amongst both Catholic and Protestant teachers,
and the attempt to combine Roman impeccability of phrase with Christian
impeccability of theme and incident had produced the remarkable dramatic
type known as the 'Christian Terence'.[764] This had had its vernacular,
as well as its Latin, developments in many lands. Its acceptability in
the eyes of the earlier reformers in England may be illustrated from the
chapter _De honestis ludis_, which forms part of the treatise _De regno
Christi_ written by Martin Bucer as a New Year's gift for Edward VI in
1551.[765] Bucer allows of plays, both for the exercise of youth, and
for the honest and not unprofitable delectation of the public. They must
be written by learned and pious men, and may be either comedies or
tragedies, which deal respectively with mean and exalted actions. For
comic themes he instances the dissension between the shepherds of
Abraham and Lot, the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob's service
amongst the flocks of Laban; and he expounds no less than six moral
lessons which the first of these plots may serviceably inculcate. As for
tragedy, the histories of patriarchs, kings, prophets, and apostles,
from Adam onwards, are full of those [Greek: peripeteiai] upon which
Aristotle lays such stress. It is from such sources that Christians
should draw their poetry, rather than from the impious fables and
histories of the Gentiles. And care must be taken to let vice awaken a
horror of sin and well-doing a sense of the divine grace; for
edification is to be the end of the action, even if, in order to attain
it, some sacrifice of literary decorum is necessitated. Bucer holds that
plays conceived in this spirit may with advantage be performed by youth
in the vernacular, as well as in Greek and Latin; and declares that some
have already been written which, although men of secular learning may
miss in them the literary graces to be found in the comedies of
Aristophanes, Plautus, and Terence and the tragedies of Sophocles,
Euripides, and Seneca, are yet to be preferred for their religious
character to pieces whose effect upon morality can only be deplorable.
It is to be noticed that Bucer proposes to submit all plays before
production to the judgement of persons at once expert in the dramatic
art and of sound divinity, one of whose functions it shall be to let
nothing which is _leve aut histrionicum_ be shown. This is interesting
not only because it anticipates the actual Tudor experiments in a
dramatic censorship, but also because it indicates that the idea of a
censorship arose out of ethical, as well as out of merely political,
considerations. It is possible that Bucer may have been familiar with
the actual working of the system at Geneva, to which further reference
will presently be made.

In actual practice the Protestant religious drama, whether it was
imitating Latin comedy or advancing on the lines of the popular
morality, used the Scriptures with some discrimination. It drew freely
upon the historical books and upon the parables. The parable of the
prodigal son, in particular, perhaps because it was so obviously
cognate to beloved Terentian themes, became the parent of a copious
dramatic literature, both in Christian Latin and in all the vernaculars.
The central topics, the mysteries of the faith in creation, fall, and
incarnation, and the life of Christ himself, were much more charily
touched. This may have been due to a reprobation of the methods of the
miracle-plays, which is itself traceable to more than one cause.
Protestant reverence could hardly fail to reinforce the criticism of the
_leve aut histrionicum_ in the popular representations, which often made
itself heard even amongst orthodox Churchmen. Luther is at one with
Ludovicus Vives on the point.[766] And Protestantism had its own
particular ground of quarrel with the miracle-plays, in that they were
hardly dissociable from the Catholic doctrines of transubstantiation and
the like, which their great feast-day of Corpus Christi had been
specially invented to glorify. Certainly the decadence of the Corpus
Christi play sets in pretty quickly after the middle of the sixteenth
century, and in more than one instance the hand of the Protestant
reformer is to be traced in the process.[767] It is of the Corpus
Christi plays, as well as of the Hock-play at Coventry, that Robert
Laneham is thinking when he regrets 'the zeal of certain theyr
Preacherz: men very commendabl for their behauiour and learning, & sweet
in their sermons, but sumwhat too sour in preaching awey theyr
pastime'.[768] An exception to the normal temper of Protestantism in
this respect is to be found in that fiery protagonist of the earlier
English reformation, John Bale, amongst whose few extant plays are a
_Prophetae_, a _John Baptist_, and a _Temptation_, while a list of his
various dramatic experiments, which he has himself left upon record,
indicates that they included a continuous New Testament cycle from the
_Presentation in the Temple_ to the _Resurrection_.[769]

It is, of course, in form only and not in spirit that Bale touched the
ecclesiastical compilers of the Corpus Christi plays. The author of
_Kinge Johan_ and the translator of _Pammachius_ is the typical English
figure of that characteristic sixteenth-century movement whereby the
drama, like every other form of literary expression, bound itself for a
time to the service of heretical controversy. Both the Christian
Terence and the vernacular morality contained elements which could be
readily adapted to the purposes of polemic, no less than to those of
edification; and Bale appears to have been the principal agent of
Cromwell's statecraft in what was probably a deliberate attempt to
capture so powerful an engine as the stage in the interests of
Protestantism. And it is to be observed that this movement was not
confined to those academic branches of the drama in which it may be
supposed to have had its origin. For once the theologian and the
_histrio_ laid aside their ancient antagonism, and not in school and
college refectories only, but in every inn-yard and on every village
green, the praises of the pure Gospel were sung, and Pope and priests
were derided in play, at the bidding of the wily Privy Seal. Of this
there is sufficient evidence in the passionate protest of Bale after
Cromwell had fallen, and the players' mouths had been shut by the _Act_
for the _Advancement of true Religion_ in 1543.[770]

     None leave ye unvexed and untrobled, no, not so much as the
     poore minstrels, and players of enterludes, but ye are doing
     with them. So long as they played lyes, and sange baudy songes,
     blasphemed God, and corrupted men's consciences, ye never
     blamed them, but were verye well contented. But sens they
     persuaded the people to worship theyr Lorde God aryght,
     accordyng to hys holie lawes and not yours, and to acknoledge
     Jesus Chryst for their onely redeemer and Saviour without your
     lowsie legerdemains, ye never were pleased with them.

No doubt many things were changed in English Protestantism after the
days of the Marian exile; and a ready explanation of the active Puritan
hostility to the stage is afforded by the substitution of a Calvinist
for a Lutheran bias in the conduct of the Reformation. But the
antithesis must not be pressed too far. Assuredly the returning
preachers brought with them a new seriousness in their view of life and
a haunting mistrust of the moral evils lurking even in innocent modes of
recreation. The 'merry England' of tradition formed no part of their
ideal. Moreover, they were less in bondage than their predecessors of
Henry's reign to the prestige of secular learning, and less likely to be
impressed, therefore, by the literary and educational significance of
the drama. But so far as the popular stage is concerned, there is no
reason to suppose that they would have failed to see eye to eye with
John Bale himself, for it is pretty clear from the passage quoted above
that Bale's tolerance of the interlude-players was entirely conditioned
by the polemical use he had been enabled to make of them, and that,
apart from what he chose to regard as their conversion, they would have
had short shrift at his hands. Now by the time of the Puritans this
break in the normal relations of the stage to the pulpit had come to an
end. The drama of Protestant controversy survived its original
manipulator, Cromwell. It flourished greatly under Edward VI. It won the
imitation of the Catholics under Mary. And when Elizabeth came, its
exponents made haste to re-enter a field which was probably by now
capable of yielding profit in a worldly as well as a spiritual sense. It
is clear that at the beginning of the reign Elizabeth and her ministers
deliberately continued Cromwell's policy of encouraging stage-polemic.
During the Christmas of 1558 the court and the streets were full of
masks, in which cardinals, bishops, and abbots were held up to derision
as crows, asses, and wolves.[771] During the debates on the Act of
Uniformity in the following spring, Abbot Feckenham protested against
the way in which 'by the onely preachers and scaffold players of this
newe religion, all thinges are turned up-side downe'.[772] Almost
simultaneously the dispatches of Venetian agents mention the prevalence
of anti-Catholic plays in hostels and taverns, and dwell particularly
upon one performance in which Philip and Mary and Cardinal Pole were
represented in exposition of their religious views.[773] The inwardness
of the movement is made clear by a letter of the Duke of Féria to Philip
himself, in which he reports Elizabeth's diplomatic repudiation of the
insolent pieces, and adds that he knew for a fact that the arguments
were given to the players by none other than Sir William Cecil.[774] The
Elizabethan methods of government were tortuous, and it is a little
difficult to say how long the licence of the stage to deal with matters
of religion lasted. Ostensibly the proclamation of 16 May 1559,
presumably issued in deference to De Feria's complaints, brought it to a
very definite stop. But it was one thing to issue a proclamation and
another to see that it was enforced; and as late as the June of 1562 we
find De Feria's successor, the Bishop of Aquila, still protesting
against Elizabeth's failure to carry out her perpetual promises, by
suppressing the books, farces, and songs which were written in dishonour
of his royal master.[775] The burden of these, however, may have been
political rather than strictly religious. Certainly, when Elizabeth
considered that she had 'settled' the affairs of the Church, it in no
way remained part of her intention that they should continue to be
matter for public debate. Nor is it likely that the extreme vulgarities
of Protestant controversy were altogether to her private taste. Already
during the Christmas of 1559 a play at court had been broken off for
some unknown offence, and when some Cambridge students pursued the queen
to Hinchinbrook in the autumn of 1564 with a scandalous dramatic parody
of Catholic ritual, the royal displeasure was unmistakable.[776]
Meanwhile the pulpit attacks upon the 'fleshly and filthy' sayings and
doings of players begin with Bishop Alley's St. Paul's sermon delivered
in 1561, and it is natural to suppose that the temporary alliance
between Church and Stage was already dissolved and the normal hostility
restored, before Bishop Grindal came to pen his vehement outburst to
Cecil on 23 February 1564 in favour of the permanent inhibition of the
'_histriones_, common playours', that 'idle sorte off people, which have
ben infamouse in all goode common weales'. The theory that the first
controversial phase of the Elizabethan popular drama was but of short
duration need not be regarded as invalidated by the fact that plays of
distinctly Protestant type continued to be published until at least the
third decade of the reign. There is no very obvious proof that these
plays were performed at all, and certainly none that they belonged to
the popular rather than the academic stage. Moreover, there is no reason
to suppose that the dates of composition fell anywhere near the dates of
publication, and in some cases such evidence as is available points to a
period very shortly after Elizabeth's accession. Several Protestant
plays of Edwardian or earlier origin were apparently revived by
publishers at about the same time.[777] In some of these the closing
prayers have been altered so as to apply to Elizabeth, and a similar
revision has taken place in the text, extant only in manuscript, of
Bale's _Kinge Johan_. This seems to be evidence, perhaps more certainly
as regards the manuscript than as regards the prints, of actual
performance during the new reign.

If, then, what might have been the natural attitude of the earlier
English Protestantism to the popular stage was deflected by something of
an accident, it is also not quite true to suppose that Calvinism was
always and everywhere uncompromisingly opposed to the drama in its more
respectable forms. Calvin himself was not unaffected by humanist
influences, and more than one of his near associates, notably Theodore
Beza, his successor at Geneva, are to be reckoned amongst academic
playwrights. The annals of stage-history at Geneva throw a valuable
light upon the order of ideas from which the Puritans started. During
the later Middle Ages the city had taken its full delight in
_spectacula_ of many kinds. The abuses connected with these had formed
the subject of constant ecclesiastical prohibitions, the tradition of
which had only been continued by the reformers.[778] Calvin's principal
forerunner, William Farel, had published _theses_ at Bâle in 1524, in
which he laid down abstinence from disguisings as a counsel of
perfection.[779] But he did not succeed in making his principles wholly
operative at Geneva, and even when, after an abortive attempt in 1537,
the so-called 'theocracy' was finally established by Calvin's
constitutions of 1541, there was no absolute condemnation, except for
the clergy, of plays.[780] Dances were prohibited and such heathen
ceremonies as the _Roi-boit_ at Twelfth Night and the _Mardigras_[781];
but it seems to have been thought sufficient to leave plays under the
close inspection and control of the body of ministers, whose functions
included the maintenance of Church discipline with the aid of a
consistory of elders, and the advising of the secular town council on
all matters appertaining to faith and morals. It was not long, however,
before more radical views began to commend themselves to a certain
section of the ministers, and the question came to a serious issue in
some stormy episodes of the year 1546. On 2 May, being Quasimodo Sunday,
the council had permitted the performance of a morality by one Roux
Monet and others. They had before them a certificate from the ministers
that it was of an edifying character, although some grumbling persons
declared that its object was to ridicule and satirize the
tradesmen.[782] About a month later, two fresh applications came before
them. One was apparently from a troupe of travelling players and
acrobats, and this was summarily refused as likely to cause
scandal.[783] The other was more plausible. Some local _joueurs des
ystoires_ desired to represent for the edification of the people a
dramatization of _The Acts of the Apostles_. The council ordered the
book of the piece to be submitted to Calvin, and agreed that it might
be performed, should his report be favourable. Calvin and the other
ministers did not much like the proposal, more particularly as the
players declined to give alms to the poor out of the profits of the
enterprise. It so happened, however, that one of the ministers, Abel
Poupin, was himself the author of the play, and partly because of this,
and partly because he was not sure that an attempt to prevent the
performance would be successful, Calvin seems to have persuaded his
colleagues to offer no objection. The formal sanction of the council was
therefore given, and Abel Poupin was ordered to make himself responsible
for the conduct of the play. Reading between the lines, we may perhaps
discern some resentment amongst the ministers, not only at the
performance itself, which they considered a waste of money that might
have gone in charity, but also at the domineering attitude adopted by
Calvin and Poupin. Even while the matter was still under discussion, one
of them, Philibert de Beauxlieux, was haled before the consistory for
saying that Calvin was taking the part of the Pope and Poupin that of
the cardinal. And when the decision was arrived at there was an
outbreak. A preacher of fiery temper, Michel Cop, got into the pulpit
and denounced the play, accusing the women performers of a shameless
desire to display themselves in public and thereby ensnare the eyes of
men. For this he was summoned before the council; but Calvin took his
part, and although they had differed as to the toleration of the play,
claimed that Cop had only exercised the preacher's proper liberty in
saying freely what he thought on a question of morals.[784] The
documents concerning this incident include, in addition to numerous
entries in official registers, two private letters from Calvin to
Farel,[785] in which he describes what had taken place, and makes it
clear that his own willingness to allow the play arose from motives of
expediency and from a feeling that there were limits to the pressure
which could be put upon the public to abstain from recreation. In reply
the aged reformer anticipated the probable future destiny of the
frequenters of plays in terms which recall the worst ferocities of
Tertullian on this subject.[786] Something more may be gathered as to
Calvin's personal attitude towards plays from a sermon preached in 1556,
in which he expounds the prohibition of the change of sex-costume in
_Deuteronomy_ xxii. 5 as an absolute one, and as applying particularly
to the wearing of men's dresses by women and of women's dresses by men
in masks and mummeries.[787] This is an exegesis which counted for a
good deal in the Puritan criticism of a stage in which boys habitually
took the female parts.

Abel Poupin's much-discussed _Acts of the Apostles_ was duly given, and
the council ordered themselves _loges_ at the public expense to see the
show, and decreed a four days' suspension of arrest for debt in honour
of the occasion. Shortly afterwards the ministers approached the council
as a body in order to urge that the money devoted to plays might be
better bestowed on the poor, and it was thereupon resolved that no more
_ystoyres_ should be given '_jusque lon voye le temps plus
propre_'.[788] This determination must, I think, have been motived by
some temporary conditions of special economic distress, for it was far
from being the end of plays in Geneva. In the following year, 1547,
Richard Chaultemps and his wife and children were refused permission for
a _jeu de passe-temps_, which was thought contrary to Christianity, and
were given a _teston_ to go on their way. On the other hand, the council
attended officially in the same year at a performance of a Latin
dialogue '_du livre de Joseph_' by the scholars of the college. In 1548
a wandering _tragechieur_ was allowed to perform on condition of
avoiding any '_chose contre Dieu_'. In 1549 the scholars played a comedy
of Terence in a meadow, and received a gift of two crowns for a banquet.
In 1551 the council forbade the recitation of a _ballade_ by Abel Poupin
at a banquet, but sanctioned a '_petite farce de joyeuseté_' for
recreation's sake. In 1558 the seigneurs of Berne paid a visit to Geneva
and one Maître Enoch proposed a play on a subject taken from the Berne
_armoiries_ of Jupiter and Europa, and another on the execution of five
Berne scholars at Lyons. This application was referred to Calvin for a
report. In 1560 the reprinting of Beza's tragedy of _Abraham's
Sacrifice_ was approved by the consistory. In 1561 Conrad Badius's
comedy of _Le Pape Malade_ was performed in the college hall and
afterwards printed, and permission was also given for a comedy by Jerome
Wyart, '_si M. Calvin est de cet avis_'. An interval of some years
without plays followed, until in 1568 the series was resumed with
Jacques Bienvenu's comedy of _Le Monde Malade et Mal Pansé_.[789] It is
hardly necessary to carry the record further, since the proof is
sufficient that, whatever the private opinions of some of the ministers
may have been, the actual working of the theocracy was not inconsistent
with the production, under a careful censorship, of academic or
bourgeois plays, or even, although more rarely, of entertainments of the
type afforded by a professional _tragechieur_. It was not until 1572
that the Synod of Nîmes passed a constitution for the whole of the
French reformed churches, by which all plays, other than those of a
strictly educational character, were forbidden.[790]

It must be doubtful whether even this decree would have fully met the
views of Michel Cop and his supporters. At any rate, it is possible to
trace the growth of a sentiment amongst English theologians of the
Calvinistic persuasion, which was not prepared to exclude the academic
play from the general condemnation of things theatrical. Naturally this
tendency shows itself mainly at the Universities, where tragedies and
comedies, both in Latin and in English, continued to be part of the
ordinary exercise of youth, especially when Christmas was kept or
entertainment had to be found for a royal visit, and where men of high
ecclesiastical standing, such as James Calfhill, Penitentiary of St.
Paul's and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, did not disdain to
furnish dramas for the use of their scholars.[791] So far as Cambridge
is concerned, we find Vice-Chancellor Beaumont reporting to Archbishop
Parker in 1565 that 'two or three in Trinity College think it very
unseeming that Christians should play or be present at any profane
comedies or tragedies'.[792] We find Sir John Harington, who was an
undergraduate from 1576 to 1578, noting his recollection about 1597 that
'in Cambridge, howsoever the presyser sort have banisht them, the wyser
sort did, and still doe mayntayn them'. And we find John Smith of
Christ's haled before the University for an unguarded attack upon the
less strict practice of his fellows in a Lenten sermon of 1586.[793] It
was at Oxford, however, that the divergence of opinion became most
articulate. The protagonist was John Rainolds, afterwards President of
Corpus Christi College, and a man of great influence in the Puritan
party, whom he represented at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604.
Rainolds first touched the question, to which his attention was probably
called by the dispute then raging in London, with a passing allusion to
the '_pestes scenicorum, theatralia spectacula_' as one of the great
interruptions to Oxford studies, in his preface to some disputations
published in 1581. There is no reason to suppose that he voiced the
general view of the University, and in particular of those of its
members who were still under the influence of the humanist spirit.
Probably these were better represented by the commentaries on the
_Ethics_ and _Politics_ of Aristotle published by John Case, Fellow of
St. John's College, in his _Speculum moralium quaestionum_ (1585) and
_Sphaera civitatis_ (1588). Case commends plays, provided that they are
an expression of _comitas_, the Aristotelian [Greek: eutrapelia], and
not of its excess _scurrilitas_. They are sanctioned by the use of
antiquity, and they give a lively picture of antiquity itself. They
teach experience of things and of the human heart, and afford
training--it is the _scenae trigemina corona_--in the management of the
voice, the features, the gestures. All this is, of course, in the
traditional humanist vein. Some of the current criticisms of the drama
are quoted, only to be refuted. It is not necessarily _indecorum_ for a
man to wear the dress of a harlot on the stage, if his object is to
expose the vices of harlotry, '_non est enim monstrum vestes sed mores
meretricis induere_'. It is true that the Fathers condemned plays, but
they had in mind the abuses of plays and in particular the devotion of
plays to the service of idols. It is ridiculous to hold that the dignity
of kingship is offended if it is impersonated by an actor. The offence
is no more than when the outlines of a king are represented in a
picture. No doubt Case has the academic drama almost wholly in his mind,
and would have been inclined to dismiss the professional stage
contemptuously enough as _scurrilitas_.[794] He is certainly careful to
make it clear that the plays of which he approves are not '_inanes et
histrionicae fabulae, Veneris illecebrae_', but witty comedies and
magnificent tragedies '_in quibus expressa imago vitae morumque
cernitur_'. He did not convince John Rainolds; it is just possible that
the ninepin arguments, which in true scholastic fashion he set up and
knocked down again, were hardly to be accepted as an adequate statement
of the Puritan position. Rainolds evidently acquired a reputation in the
University for 'preciseness' as regards the drama; and the time came
when the academic playwrights thought it well to challenge him in
public. Their champion was Dr. William Gager of Christ Church, two of
whose plays, _Ulysses Redux_ and _Rivales_, were down for performance by
the Christ Church students during the Christmas of 1591-2. Rainolds was
invited by one Thomas Thornton to see the _Ulysses Redux_. He refused
and being pressed gave his reasons. It was not therefore unnatural that
when Gager appended to the _Hippolytus_, which was also given, a new
apologetical epilogue in which arguments against the stage, very similar
to those of Rainolds, were put into the mouth of one Momus, our
theologian should infer that by Momus none other was intended than
himself. He must have cried '_Touché_', and thereby gave Gager an
opportunity of sending him a printed copy of _Ulysses_, with an
enlarged epilogue and a repudiation of any personal intention in the
character of Momus. This led to a letter from Rainolds, in which he set
out his views upon the stage at great length and with considerable
learning, to a reply from Gager, who was or professed to be stung by
some of the reflections cast by Rainolds upon the Christ Church men, and
to a rejoinder from Rainolds, in which he reiterated his original
arguments with even greater elaboration. His main contentions were four
in number. Firstly, he laid stress upon the _infamia_ with which the
Roman praetors had 'noted' _histriones_, and refused to accept Gager's
pleas that this only applied to those who played for gain, or that
gentlemen who only appeared upon the stage rarely and at long intervals
could not properly be called _histriones_ at all. Secondly, he adopted
Calvin's interpretation of the Deuteronomic prohibition of the change of
sex-costume as an absolute one, belonging to the moral and not merely
the ceremonial law. Gager had taken the view, which later on had the
support of the learned Selden, and which to a folklorist hardly needs
demonstration, that what Moses had in mind was a change of costume
forming part of an idolatrous ritual; and had also committed himself to
the weaker argument that a man might justifiably, as Achilles did, put
on a woman's clothing to save his life. The latter Rainolds denied, and
pointed out that, even if it held good, it would hardly cover a change
designed for a purely histrionic purpose. His third argument was based
on the moral deterioration entailed by counterfeiting wanton behaviour
in a play; and his fourth on the waste both of time and money involved.
He does not wish to be thought an enemy either of poetry or of
reasonable recreation, but he expresses a doubt whether some hours were
not spent over Gager's plays that ought to have been spent at sermons.
The theory of humanistic educators that acting teaches lads
self-confidence he is not prepared to admit as a sufficient
justification of their practice. The debate is, of course, a good deal
complicated by topics of mere erudition and by disputes as to whether
Momus was really meant as a caricature of Rainolds, or as to whether
Rainolds's abstract argument about _infamia_ bore the concrete
implication that such honest youths as the Christ Church students or so
well-voiced a musician as the Master of the Choristers, who had played
with them, were in fact _infames_, or as to the extent of approval
implied by the presence of University dignitaries and of the queen
herself at performances of Gager's pieces. Anyway, said Rainolds, the
queen's laws set down players as vagabonds. Given their common
premises, it must be acknowledged that both in learning and in logic
the Puritan had the advantage over his opponent, although common sense
was on the side of the latter, and it is with some scepticism that one
reads the statement of the printer who gave Rainolds's share of the
controversy to the world in 1599, that ultimately Gager 'let goe his
hold, and in a Christian modestie and humilitie yeelded to the truth,
and quite altered his judgement'. My own conviction is that Gager would
have subscribed to anything, in order to have done with receiving
argumentative letters from Rainolds. But when Rainolds had disposed of
Gager, he had to meet a fresh adversary in Alberico Gentili, an Italian
who held the professorship of civil law at Oxford and had committed
himself to a different view as to the force of the praetorian _infamia_.
Between these two pundits the discussion continued for some time without
contributing much to the elucidation of the main issue. Rainolds's book,
the first line of the title of which was _Th' overthrow of
Stage-Playes_, furnished many weapons later on for the armoury of
Prynne, and material for ridicule in the play of _Fucus, sive
Histriomastix_, produced at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1623.

The problem with which, long before the University disputants handled
the matter at all, the London Puritans had to deal, was not one of nice
differentiation between the position of the amateur and that of the
professional player. Their concern with the academic drama was
comparatively small; some at least of them were prepared to subscribe to
all the allowances for it that were made by the Synod of Nîmes.[795]
What they were face to face with was the rapid growth in London of
professional playing as a recognized occupation, using an increasing
number of playing-places, almost entirely free from control on its
ethical side, and tending more and more to become a permanent element in
the life of the community. And the attitude of condemnation which they
adopted was in the main one in which Lutheran, Calvinist, and humanist,
Case and Gager no less than Rainolds, would in theory at least have
concurred. The writings against the stage, especially those of the
critical period from 1576 to 1583, are of a very heterogeneous
character. The most important are, on the one hand, long passages in two
treatises by ministers devoted to the flagellation of social evils
generally, the _Dicing, Dauncing, Vaine Playes, or Enterludes_ (1577) of
John Northbrooke, and the _Anatomie of Abuses_ (1583) of Phillip
Stubbes; and on the other, three special pamphlets by sometime
playwrights who had embraced conversion, and had the advantage of
speaking from inner knowledge of the profession they were attacking. Of
these two, _The Schoole of Abuse_ (1579) and _Playes Confuted in Five
Actions_ (1582) were by Stephen Gosson, who became the vicar of St.
Botolph's in the City, and the third was by Anthony Munday, who, as
Gosson put it, returned to his own vomit again, and resumed
play-writing. Munday's contribution was the _Third Blast_ of a composite
publication issued under the title of _A Second and Third Blast of
Retrait from Plaies and Theaters_ (1580). The _Second Blast_ was a
translation of the chapter against _spectacula_ from Salvian's
fifth-century _De Gubernatione Dei_.[796] These five books form the main
indictment of the stage, as it developed itself at Puritan hands or
under Puritan influences. In addition there were many minor onslaughts,
in sermons by Thomas White (1577), John Stockwood (1578), and others at
the famous City pulpit of Paul's Cross, in works of devotional theology,
such as Gervase Babington's _Exposition of the Commandements_ (1583),
and in many examples of the miscellaneous literature that stood for
modern journalism. The arguments used in support of the attack are
naturally various. Some of them coincide with those used later by
Rainolds at Oxford. Calvin's objection, based on Deuteronomy, to the
wearing of women's clothes by boys makes its appearance.[797] The
condemnations of _histriones_ by the Fathers and by the austerer pagans
are applied without discrimination to their Elizabethan successors, and
there is a deliberate attempt to brand these alike with the Roman note
of _infamia_ and with the more recent stigma of vagabondage. The
historical disquisitions lay much stress on the origin of pagan plays in
idolatry. Gosson, who in his second book affects a methodical treatment
of the subject, and draws upon his recollection of Aristotle for
analysis of the efficient, material, formal, final causes and effects of
plays, justifies himself from Tertullian in finding the efficient cause
of plays in none other than the incarnate Devil.[798] He also derives
from Aristotle, although he knew less of Aristotle than did John Case, a
theory that acting, being essentially the simulation of what is not, is
by its very nature 'with in the compasse of a lye, which by Aristotle's
judgment is naught of it selfe and to be fledde'.[799] A similar
doctrine is readily applied to the imaginations of poets which give
actors their opportunity.[800] As Touchstone puts it, poetry is not
'honest in deed and word' nor 'a true thing', for 'the truest poetry is
the most feigning'.[801]

Whatever weight such abstract reasonings may have carried, they were
after all but the fringes and trimmings of the controversy. The main
burden of the complaints raised by the Puritans rested neither on
theology nor on history, but on the character of the London plays as
they knew them, and on the actual conditions under which representations
were given. In a stage from which Protestant polemic was now banned,
they found nothing but _scurrilitas_. They resented the impurity of
speech and gesture. They resented the scoffs at virtue and religion,
especially when these were interlaced with themes taken, as dramatic
themes were still often taken, from the Scriptures.[802] And their
disapproval was hardly less when the plays were wholly secular, for in
tragedies they could discern nothing but examples to honest citizens of
murders, treacheries, and rebellions, and in comedies nothing but
demoralizing pictures of intrigues and wantonness. Plays, they declared,
are the snares of the devil set to catch souls. By plays the imagination
of youth is corrupted, and matronly chastity first turned to thoughts of
sin. With their ready touch upon vituperative rhetoric, they found for
the theatre a string of nicknames of which Gosson's 'the school of
abuse' was the model, and 'the school of bawdery', 'the nest of the
devil', 'the consultorie of Satan', may serve as further samples. And
what the plays began, they held that the surroundings of the playhouses
were only too well adapted to finish. In them was focused all the sin of
the city. Here men came, not merely to waste their time and their money,
but to meet wantons, and to whisper dishonourable proposals in the ears
of any respectable women with whom they found themselves in company. The
constant presence of harlots amongst the audience, the dallying with
them in the front of the galleries, the manning of them home afterwards,
even if the buildings adjacent to the stage did not themselves afford a
convenient shelter for ill-doing, are dwelt upon with a vigour of
description which perhaps testifies to the horror wherewith this
connexion of the stage with sexual immorality had affected the Puritan
mind.[803]

Above all, there was Sabbatarianism to be taken into account. During the
earlier part of Elizabeth's reign, Sunday was the usual day for plays.
The trumpets blew for the performances just as the bells were tolling
for afternoon prayer; and writer after writer bears testimony to the
fact that too often the yards and galleries were filled with an
appreciative crowd, while the preacher's sermon was unfrequented.[804]
Thus a touch of professional _amour propre_ gave its sting to the
conflict, and there is no one point that is more insisted upon in sermon
after sermon and pamphlet after pamphlet than the desecration of the
Lord's Day which the attendance at theatres directly entailed. The
preachers did not disdain an appeal to popular superstitions which they
probably themselves shared, and the visitations of plague from which
Elizabethan London regularly suffered,[805] no less than such events as
earthquakes[806] or the fall of ruinous buildings,[807] were interpreted
as tokens of divine wrath at the wickedness of plays and in particular
at the breach of the Fourth Commandment. A curious legend was whispered
abroad in various forms, to the effect that the devil himself had been
known on occasion to take an unrehearsed part in this or that godless
piece.[808]

The playwright, no less than the theologian, has a ready pen, and the
Puritan attacks naturally provoked a counter-literature of apology. This
first took shape in critical prefaces attached to such contemporary
plays, mainly of literary rather than stage origin, as reached the
honours of print.[809] Gosson's _Schoole of Abuse_, a treacherous
performance from the point of view of his former colleagues, called for
a more elaborate reply. More than one pamphlet was written, of which the
_Honest Excuses_ (_c._ 1579) Thomas Lodge has alone come down to us. The
serious argument of this, as well as of the prefaces which preceded it,
continues the main humanist tradition. Against the denunciations of the
Fathers and of certain pagan moralists, the apologists set the antiquity
of plays and the honour in which after all they were held in the palmy
days of Greece and Rome. The examples of violence and wantonness in
tragedy and comedy they justify by the moral end of drama. Decorum--the
literary sense of what is psychologically appropriate to a given
character--requires that, as George Whetstone puts it, 'grave old men
should instruct, yonge men should show the imperfections of youth,
strumpets should be lascivious, boyes unhappy, and clownes should be
disorderly'. But whether the action be merry or mournful, grave or
lascivious, the ultimate object is edification, even as the bee sucks
honey from flowers and weeds alike. 'By the rewarde of the good, the
good are encowraged in well doinge; and with the scowrge of the lewde,
the lewde are feared from evil attempts.' Comedy, no doubt, aims at
delight, but it is a delight which, on the Horatian principle, is
mingled with the useful. This appears to have been the especial theme of
the _Play of Plays and Pastimes_, in which the actors essayed their own
defence on the boards of the Theatre. Unfortunately this piece is only
known by Gosson's unfriendly account of its plot in _Playes
Confuted_.[810] It was in the form of an allegorical morality, in which
was shown the dependence of Life on Delight and Recreation as a
protection from Glut and Tediousness, and how Zeal, in order to govern
Life aright, must be reduced to Moderate Zeal and work hand in hand with
Delight, using comedies for which it is prescribed 'that the matter be
purged, deformities blazed, sinne rebuked, honest mirth intermingled,
and fitte time for the hearing of the same appointed'. It is the note of
humanism, again, which is prominent in the group of critical writings of
which the first and most important is Sir Philip Sidney's _Defence of
Poetry_ (_c._ 1583). It is reasonable to suppose that this treatise had
its origin in the train of ideas awakened by the Puritan outcries.
Gosson had dedicated _The Schoole of Abuse_ to Sidney, and as Gabriel
Harvey told Spenser, was 'for hys labor scorned; if at leaste it be in
the goodnesse of that nature to scorne'. Certainly the _Defence_ can
hardly be regarded as a direct contribution to the controversy. Sidney
was not particularly concerned to uphold the contemporary stage, and
occupied himself rather with answering a general attack upon poetry
contained in _The Schoole of Abuse_, which had been merely incidental to
Gosson's principal argument. But in the course of his discussion he
comes to examine tragedy and comedy as branches of imaginative
literature, and the definitions which he frames are conceived once more
in the full spirit of humanism. He speaks of 'high and excellent
tragedy, that openeth the greatest wounds, and showeth forth the ulcers
that are covered with tissue; that maketh kings fear to be tyrants and
tyrants manifest their tyrannical humors; that with stirring the
effects of admiration and commiseration teacheth the uncertainty of this
world, and upon how weak foundations gilden roofs are builded'. So, too,
the work of the comic poet is 'an imitation of the common errors of our
life which he representeth in the most ridiculous and scornful sort that
may be, so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be
such a one'. The _Defence_ was not published until 1595, but it must
have been well known in private before that, since, itself founded on
such Italian writers as Scaliger, Minturno, and Castelvetro, it in turn
furnished inspiration for William Webbe's _Discourse of English Poesie_
(1586), Puttenham's _Arte of English Poesie_ (1589), and Sir John
Harington's _Apologie of Poetrie_ (1591). All these three writers
emphasize the moral lessons of tragedy and comedy on the familiar
humanist lines.

It must be admitted that the humanist theory was not altogether
conclusive as an answer to the Puritans. These were not prepared to
accept the authority of Horace as making delight, even in conjunction
with the useful, a legitimate end, when, as they pointed out, the
delight was a carnal and not a spiritual one.[811] Nor could the
arguments in favour of decorum, which were wholly of a literary and not
an ethical nature, be expected to appeal to them. And as to the moral
lessons to be learned by witnessing plays, whether tragedies or
comedies, they were entirely sceptical. They return again and again,
with obvious irritation, to the probably mythical story of a good woman
who swore by her troth that she had been as much edified at a play as at
any sermon.[812]

     If, says Northbrooke, you will learne howe to bee false and
     deceyue your husbandes, or husbandes their wyues, howe to playe
     the harlottes, to obtayne ones loue, howe to rauishe, howe to
     beguyle, howe to betraye, to flatter, lye, sweare, forsweare,
     howe to allure to whoredome, howe to murther, howe to poyson,
     howe to disobey and rebell against princes, to consume
     treasures prodigally, to mooue to lustes, to ransacke and
     spoyle cities and townes, to bee ydle, to blaspheme, to sing
     filthie songes of loue, to speake filthily, to be prowde, howe
     to mocke, scoffe and deryde any nation ... shall not you
     learne, then, at such enterludes howe to practise them.[813]

And if sometimes notorious evil-doers are held up to reprobation on the
stage, it seems to the preachers that such rebuke might more suitably
come from the pulpit, since in a theatre the appeal must needs be made
to an audience hardly fit to be judges in any man's cause.[814] Gosson
and Munday, having been playwrights, and having presumably suffered at
the hands of their masters, pay off old scores with another argument. If
plays had really a moral influence, would not this be apparent in the
lives of those who are most conversant with them, the players
themselves. Yet the players are not only extremely insolent and
swaggering persons, but notoriously practise in real life the very vices
which they represent on the stage. Moreover, they take young boys and
bring them up in shamelessness. How can it be expected that good shall
be done, where there is no will in the agent to do good?[815] The
inconclusiveness of the discussion was of course largely due to the fact
that the Puritan and the humanist disputants were not talking about
quite the same thing. Obviously the influence of a play, if any, upon
conduct must depend on the manner of handling and on the dramatic idea
involved; and it may be taken for granted that the ideal comedy and
tragedy, which the humanists praised and which some of them tried to
realize, were often very imperfectly represented by the actual pieces
put before a London audience. This is to some extent admitted on both
sides. Sidney is frankly contemptuous of the popular stage. Whetstone
speaks of his 'commendable exercise' as 'discredited with the tryfels of
yonge, unadvised, and rashe witted wryters'. Lodge and the author of
_The Play of Plays_ are fully conscious of abuses, which must be
remedied if the drama is to take the place assigned to it in the
humanist scheme of things. On the other hand, Gosson is fair-minded
enough to admit that certain plays, principally his own, are beyond
reproach; and even that, as compared with an earlier period than that of
which he wrote, there had been some purging of the language used on the
boards.[816] Yet, when all allowance has been made on this score, it
would seem that there must still remain some fundamental incompatibility
between the views of the Puritans and those of the humanists as regards
the psychological effects of the drama upon conduct. Perhaps this is
hardly to be wondered at. After all, the psychological effect of a
drama, or of any other work of art, is not a simple thing, but depends
upon an incalculable relation between what the artist puts into his work
and what the spectator brings to the contemplation of it. And it may
fairly be assumed that what a Sidney brought and what a limb of
Limehouse brought were sufficiently different things. Were this a
philosophic work on the drama and not merely a history of the stage, it
might be appropriate to dwell upon the fact that, however much the
Puritans and the humanists might disagree, they were at one in
referring their judgement of the drama to purely ethical standards of
value, and that the conception of aesthetic value, which means so much
for modern thought, was in the main beyond the scope of Elizabethan
criticism.

So far as the character of the particular plays put on the stage was
material, the case for the defence grew stronger as these approached
more nearly to literature. Thus Thomas Nashe, whose _Pierce Penilesse
His Supplication_ (1592) contains by far the most effective of the
apologies for the drama from a popular point of view, is in a position,
not only to vaunt the respectability of English actors as compared with
the 'squirting baudie comedians' of beyond the seas, to repudiate the
idea that rowdy apprentices were wanted in the theatres at all, and to
claim a distinct superiority for play-going over gaming, whoreing and
drinking as a pastime for courtiers and other idle men; but also to give
point to his glorification of the moral purpose of tragedy and comedy by
a special reference to the chronicle plays then at the height of their
success, 'wherein our forefathers valiant acts, that haue line long
buried in rustie brasse and worme-eaten bookes, are reuiued, and they
themselues raised from the graue of obliuion, and brought to pleade
their aged honours in open presence; than which, what can be a sharper
reproofe to these degenerate, effeminate dayes of ours?' Nashe can even
illustrate his contention from the Talbot scenes of Shakespeare's _1
Henry VI_; and it is indeed the ultimate paradox of the Puritan
controversy that a movement, which was undoubtedly designed in the
interests of honest and clean living, would have had the result, if it
had been successful, of shutting out the world from the possibilities of
a Shakespeare.

After the publication of the _Anatomie of Abuses_ in 1583 there was some
slackening in the literary warfare carried on by the Puritans. The duty
of abstinence from plays becomes a commonplace of treatises on morals
and devotion, and the preachers continue to complain, but the only
specialist pamphlet during the next quarter of a century is the
comparatively unimportant _Mirrour of Monsters_ (1587) by another cast
playwright, William Rankins. It must be doubtful whether this was due to
any decrease in the strength of the sentiment against the stage. But the
trial of forces was over, and for a time there was little further
advance to be made. Something, as will be seen in the next chapter, had
been won, so far as the observance of Sunday was concerned; on the other
hand, the main issue had been pretty definitely lost. Moreover, there
were other things to be thought of; firstly the Martin Marprelate
controversy, which for a while absorbed much ink and paper, and
secondly, the persecution which recusants had to undergo at the hands of
the dominant party in Church and State. Aggressive at the beginning of
Elizabeth's reign, by its close Puritanism had to stand on its defence.
A corresponding change in its relations with the stage was inevitable.
From an assailant, it became an object of assault. The players had never
been disposed to endure criticism without hitting back. Lewis Wager, as
early as 1566, has his word against the hypocrites, who slander plays
from fear lest their own wickedness should be revealed in public; and
one may be sure that the actor's side of the question was as
remorselessly pressed from the scaffold as that of the Puritan from the
pulpit. This tendency can only have gathered impetus from the official
encouragement given for a time to the players to intervene against
Martin Marprelate.[817] The tone of the later apologists for the stage
has become insolent rather than deprecatory. Nashe, always ready to
carry any war into the enemy's quarter, boldly ascribes the attacks upon
plays to the envy felt by vintners, alewives, and victuallers for more
respectable places of entertainment than their own, and to the
indifference to greatness of avaricious citizens, who 'know when they
are dead they shall not be brought upon the stage for any goodness, but
in a merriment of the Usurer and the Diuel, or buying Armes of the
Herald'. So, too, Henry Chettle, in his _Kind-Harts Dreame_ (1592), puts
into the mouth of the ghost of Tarleton, not only the usual serious
defence of the moral value of plays and an appeal to the youth of the
city not to disturb the peace of the theatres, but also a mock protest
from the keepers of bowling-alleys, dicing-houses, and brothels against
the competition of actors with their trades, and the discovery in jig
and jest of 'our crosse-biting, our conny-catching, our traines, our
traps, our gins, our snares, our subtilties'. Nashe and Chettle are
perhaps tilting rather at some of the civic allies of the Puritans, than
at the Puritans themselves. But the latter had to bear their full share
of the stage's revengeful triumph. The printer of _Th' Overthrow of
Stage Playes_ in 1599 notes in his preface how some 'haue not bene
afraied of late dayes to bring vpon the stage the very sober
countenances, graue attire, modest and matronelike gestures & speaches
of men & women to be laughed at as a scorne and reproch to the world'. A
detailed analysis of the satire of Puritanism in later Elizabethan and
in Jacobean comedy would pass beyond the limits of this study. For a
sample may be taken the figure of Rabbi Zeal-of-the-Land Busy in
Jonson's _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614). Busy has a scruple against eating
pig at the fair, 'for the very calling it a _Bartholmew_-pigge, and to
eat it so, is a spice of _Idolatry_, and you make the _Fayre_, no better
than one of the high _Places_'. But the lust of the flesh overcomes him,
and he eats 'two and a half to his share' and drinks 'a pailefull'.
This, however, does not dispose him to be lenient to the pride of the
eyes at the fair. He condemns a doll with 'See you not Goldylocks, the
purple strumpet, there? in her yellow gowne, and greene sleeues?' and
pulls down a pile of gingerbread cakes as 'this idolatrous groue of
images, this flasket of idols'. Naturally, his extreme wrath is against
the puppet, which he calls Dagon, and 'a beame in the eye of the
brethren; a very great beame, an exceeding great beame; such as are your
_Stage-players_, _Rimers_, and _Morrise-dancers_, who have walked hand
in hand, in contempt of the _Brethren_, and the _Cause_'. He disputes
with the puppet, and produces the 'old stale argument' of the male
putting on the apparel of the female and the female of the male, and is
finally refuted when the puppet 'takes up his garment', and reveals that
it has no sex.[818]

When Puritanism gathered head again under James, it was the sting of
caricature which directly led to the renewal of the old controversy. Two
hypocrites in _The Puritan_ (_c._ 1606) had been christened after the
churches of St. Antholin and St. Mary Overies, which were known to be
the principal centres in London of Puritan faith and practice. William
Crashaw, the father of the poet, protested in a sermon at Paul's Cross.
Two years later, he again rebuked the players for their opposition to
the Virginian expedition, which he declared to be due to pique at the
godly determination of the adventurers to take no company to their
plantation. There were other 'seditious sectists' at work, and a leading
actor of the Queen's men, who was also a prolific dramatist, Thomas
Heywood, took up the cudgels for his 'quality' against these
'over-curious heads' in an elaborate _Apology for Actors_, which must
have been written about 1608, but was not published until 1612. This
resumes, effectively enough, most of the arguments both of the humanists
and of popular disputants such as Nashe, but does not contribute
anything very novel upon a subject as to which, indeed, little novel
remained to be said, with the exception of a reminder to the preachers
that, whatever the Fathers may have thought about the Roman _ludi_,
nothing had been said against them by either Christ or his
Apostles.[819] Heywood dwells, of course, upon the established position
to which by his time actors had attained in the favour both of English
and of foreign sovereigns. But he is not blind to the abuses of his
profession, and while lauding many of his fellows as men 'of substance,
of government, of sober lives and temperate carriages, house-keepers,
and contributory to all duties enjoyned them', regrets the
licentiousness of others, as well as a growing tendency to inveigh upon
the stage both against 'the state, the court, the law, the citty', and
against 'private men's humors'.[820] Heywood was answered by one I. G.
in _A Refutation of the Apologie for Actors_ (1615), which in its turn
covered much ground already trod; and a year later another actor, Nathan
Field, was moved to a _Remonstrance_ by some personal attacks levelled
at himself and the rest of the King's men by Thomas Sutton, minister of
St. Mary Overies. This brings us to the limit of the Shakespearian
period, and in the distance still lie the final and portentous
presentation of the whole Puritan case in Prynne's _Histriomastix_
(1633), the closing of the theatres by the Long Parliament, and the
reaction of the Restoration under which men looked back to the stage of
James and Charles as a model of decency and order.[821]

There is one clear heritage of English Puritanism from the Genevan
theocracy, and that is the claim of the ministers, not only to direct
the consciences of their flocks, but also to call upon the municipal
authorities to put down with the might of the secular arm whatever in
the life of the community did not conform to the religious and ethical
standards which they preached. Most of the sermons and pamphlets of
1576-83 are quite deliberately addressed to the 'magistrate', with a
view to the exercise of the regulative powers conferred by the
proclamation of 1559 and the statute of 1572 for the remedy of the
abuses of playhouses, and if possible to the complete suppression of
playing. The City fathers, although Gosson railed against their
'sleepiness', were by no means deaf to these appeals.[822] Many of them
had themselves adopted Puritanic principles. And apart from strictly
religious considerations, they had their own reasons for looking with
disfavour upon plays. They were husbands and employers, and their wives
and apprentices wasted both time and money in gadding abroad to
theatres, at a risk to their virtue and even their honesty. They were
dignitaries, and were not invariably treated with respect upon the
boards. They were the health authority, and even if plays did not stir
the divine wrath to send a plague or an earthquake, the crowded
assemblies certainly helped to spread infection, and the rickety
structures brought hazard to life and limb.[823] They were responsible
for the maintenance of law and order, and plays were not only the
occasions for frays and riots, but also brought bad characters together,
and were suspected of affording secret opportunities for the hatching of
sedition. It must be borne in mind that, so far as the external abuses
of theatres go, the complaints of their bitterest enemies are fairly
well supported by independent evidence. The presence of improper persons
in the theatres is amply testified to by the satirists, and by
references in the plays themselves.[824] Intrigues and other nefarious
transactions were carried on there[825]; and careful mothers, such as
Lady Bacon, anxiously entreated their sons to choose more salutary
neighbourhoods for their lodgings.[826] Some serious disturbances of the
peace of which theatres were the centres will require attention in the
next chapter, while law-court and other records preserve the memory of
both grave crimes and minor misdemeanours of which they were the
scenes.[827] Like the bawdy-houses, they appear to have been at the
mercy of the traditional rowdiness of the prentices on Shrove
Tuesday.[828]

On divers grounds therefore the Corporation of London seem to have
reached the conclusion, about 1582 if not before, that the only way to
reform the theatres was to end them. Probably they were influenced by
the views of some of their permanent officials, of whom Thomas Norton,
Remembrancer from 1571 to 1584, although himself a part-author of the
tragedy of _Gorboduc_, and William Fleetwood, Recorder from 1571 to
1594, are known to have been determined opponents of the stage. The
voluminous reports on city affairs, which Fleetwood was in the habit of
sending to Lord Burghley, add much to our knowledge of a critical
period.[829] Had the matter rested wholly with the Corporation, the
policy of prohibition would doubtless have been brought into effective
operation. But it did not rest wholly with them. Not only were the most
important theatres, from 1576, outside the limits of their jurisdiction,
but also account had to be taken of an authority greater even than that
of the City of London, the authority, ill-defined but imperative, of the
Privy Council. And the Privy Council was, as a rule, swayed by
principles and personalities by no means enamoured of prohibition. Of
this the anti-stage pamphleteers show themselves fully conscious.
Gosson, addressing his _Schoole of Abuse_ to the Lord Mayor for the time
being, acknowledges the difficulties which the 'letters of
commendations' held by the companies put in the way of reform, and
laments that players share the natures of the cuttle-fish and the
torpedo, so that 'how many nets so euer ther be layde to take them, or
hookes to choke them, they haue ynke in their bowels to darken the
water, and sleights in their budgets, to dry up the arme of euery
magistrate'. In _Playes Confuted_, he prayed for 'some noble Scipio in
the courte' to drive the 'daunsing chaplines of Bacchus' out of England,
and in a prefatory epistle to Sir Francis Walsingham he declared that
the cleansing of the Augean stable was only possible for 'some Hercules
in the court, whom the roare of the enimy can never daunt'. No doubt he
hoped that the combined functions of a Scipio and of a Hercules would be
undertaken by Walsingham himself.[830] Anthony Munday is even more
explicit. He urges the city not to be daunted by 'particular men of
auctoritie', and inveighs against the nobility who 'restraine the
magistrates from executing their office', in order to pleasure servants
whom they are unwilling to maintain themselves, and therefore license to
roam throughout the country, publishing their 'mametree' in every temple
of God, and begging alms in their masters' names from house to
house.[831] The Council, however, were by no means disposed to give the
City a free hand, and with themselves the policy of prohibition made
little headway. They had, indeed, to reconcile conflicting
considerations. They too, like the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, feared the
opportunities for riots and seditions which the theatres afforded;[832]
and the danger of the spread of plague was their constant preoccupation.
Moreover, they were especially concerned to see that the players did not
touch upon matters of state or religion, and to visit with sharp
chastisement any offences in these directions. They frequently,
therefore, thought it well to intervene with temporary inhibitions of
plays, particularly during hot summers when the anticipations of plague
were at their greatest. But they were never prepared to assent to the
chronic request of the City that these inhibitions should be made
permanent. After all, the people must have their recreation, and, what
was more, the Queen must have hers.[833] And if her majesty's 'solace'
at Christmas was to be provided upon economical terms, it was necessary
that the players should be allowed facilities for 'exercise', and
incidentally for earning their living, through public performances.[834]
In a sense, therefore, it was really the Court play which saved the
popular stage, and enabled the companies to establish themselves in a
position which neither preachers nor aldermen could shake. One may
suppose that the members of the Privy Council did not all quite see eye
to eye on the theatrical question; and there were occasional
fluctuations of policy which caused alarm in the tiring-rooms. Even in
the high quarters where the natural attitude to the drama was that of
humanism, Puritan sympathies were sometimes to be found. Leicester,
indeed, who frequently curried favour with the Puritans, failed them in
this respect, as may be seen from a letter written in 1581 by John
Field, minister of the word of God, and author of an _Exhortation_ on
the fall of Paris Garden, in which he rebukes Leicester for his
patronage of plays 'to the great greife of all the godly'.[835] Burghley
may have been personally inclined to the views of his friend and
correspondent William Fleetwood, although even at the end of his long
life he had not forgotten the services of the stage to his earlier
statecraft.[836] It was to Walsingham that Gosson looked as a Scipio
and a Hercules in the dedication of his _Playes Confuted_ in 1583, but
Gosson was unlucky in his dedications, and in the following year
Walsingham was officially concerned in the formation of the company of
Queen's players. One would gladly know who was the 'notable wise
counseller' dead in 1591, who, according to Sir John Harington, stood up
for the play of _The Cards_, against those who thought that it was
'somewhat too plaine'. I should not be surprised if this were
Walsingham.[837] By virtue of their offices, the Lord Chamberlain and
Vice-Chamberlain, who were responsible for Court entertainments, were
almost bound to take the players' part. But there was a moment of
trepidation when Lord Cobham, who was known to be touched with
Puritanism, succeeded for a few months in 1596 the 'old lord', Henry
Lord Hunsdon, on whom the companies had learnt to rely. There is nothing
to show that Elizabeth, beyond holding out for her 'solace', took any
personal interest in the controversy. That very irritating document, the
_Acts of the Privy Council_, which is little more than a letter-book,
does not record whether she was present or not at the Council meetings
at which theatrical affairs were discussed. But it must be assumed that
the general attitude of the Council had her concurrence. Certainly she
had no Puritan tendencies, and on the rare occasions on which her
interference can be traced she was acting in the interests of one or
other favoured company.[838]


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 759: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 206.]

[Footnote 760: Horace, _De Arte Poetica_, 343:

    Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci,
    lectorem delectando pariterque monendo.

Horace's treatise was first translated into English by Thomas Drant in
1567; cf. O. L. Jiriczek, _Der Elisabethanische Horaz_ (1911,
_Sh.-Jahrbuch_, xlvii. 42).]

[Footnote 761: Plutarch, _Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debet_, c.
xii.]

[Footnote 762: Donatus (ed. Wessner, i. 22), _Excerpta de Comoedia_; cf.
_Hamlet_, III. ii. 23, also Gosson's criticism of Lodge's scholarship on
this point in App. C, No. xxx.]

[Footnote 763: W. H. Woodward, _Studies in Education during the Age of
the Renaissance_, 218; C. H. Herford, _Studies in the Literary Relations
of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century_, 101.]

[Footnote 764: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 216.]

[Footnote 765: Extract in App. C, No. v. Symmes, 31, cites Peter Martyr
Vermigli as representing the same point of view, but the passage on
plays in his _In librum Iudicum Commentarii_ (1563), c. 14, reproduced
in his _Loci Communes_ (1563), Classis ii, c. 12, is not very lucid.]

[Footnote 766: J. E. Gillet (_M. L. A._ xxxiv. 465), citing e.g. an
utterance of 1530, 'Et ego non illibenter viderem gesta Christi in
scholis puerorum ludis seu comoediis latine et germanice rite ac pure
compositis repraesentari propter rei memoriam et affectum iunioribus
augendum'.]

[Footnote 767: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 111.]

[Footnote 768: _Robert Laneham's Letter_ (ed. Furnivall), 27.]

[Footnote 769: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 224, 446.]

[Footnote 770: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 222. The passage quoted is from
the _Epistel Exhortatorye of an Inglyshe Christian_ (1544), written
under the pseudonym of Henry Stalbridge. Foxe, _Book of Martyrs_, vi.
57, says of Bishop Gardiner, 'He thwarteth and wrangleth much against
players, printers, preachers. And no marvel why: for he seeth these
three things to be set up of God, as a triple bulwark against the triple
crown of the Pope to bring him down; as, God be praised, they have done
meetly well already.']

[Footnote 771: Cf. ch. v.]

[Footnote 772: Strype, _Annals_, 1. ii. 436, 'Sithence the comynge and
reigne of our most soveraigne and dear lady quene Elizabeth, by the
onely preachers and scaffold players of this newe religion, all thinges
are turned up-side downe, and notwithstandinge the quenes majesties
proclamations most godly made to the contrarye, and her vertuous example
of lyvinge, sufficyent to move the hearts of all obedyent subjects to
the due service and honour of God.' If a proclamation as to plays is
meant, it must be the earlier one of 8 April 1559, as the speech was
probably delivered in the debate on the second reading of the Act of
Uniformity on 26 April. Strype, 1. i. 109, points out that it is
definitely assigned by _Cotton MS. Vesp._ D. 18, to Feckenham, and that
Burnet's ascription to Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, which has
been followed by Collier, i. 168, and others, rests on a mistaken note
by a later hand on a copy in a _C. C. C. C. Synodalia MS._]

[Footnote 773: _V. P._ vii. 65, 71, 80.]

[Footnote 774: _Sp. P._ i. 62 (29 April 1559), 'She was very emphatic in
saying that she wished to punish severely certain persons who had
represented some comedies in which your Majesty was taken off. I passed
it by, and said that these were matter of less importance than the
others, although both in jest and earnest more respect ought to be paid
to so great a prince as your Majesty, and I knew that a member of her
Council had given the arguments to construct these comedies, which is
true, for Cecil gave them, as indeed she partly admitted to me.']

[Footnote 775: _Sp. P._ i. 247. England and Protestantism got as good as
they gave. Bohun, 99, records how, about 1560-2, Sir Nicholas
Throgmorton was made the butt of French court jesters and comedians.
Mary of Scotland was hardly persuaded, in 1565, to punish some Catholics
who had made a play against the ministers, with a mock baptism of a cat
in it (Randolph to Cecil, in Wright, _Eliz._ i. 190).]

[Footnote 776: Cf. ch. v.]

[Footnote 777: Cf. ch. xxii.]

[Footnote 778: Calvin, _Opera_, xxi. 207 (_Annales Calviniani_), gives
prohibitions made under Farel's influence in 1537; for earlier records,
cf. E. Doumergue, _Jean Calvin_, iii. 579; H. D. Foster, _Geneva before
Calvin_ in _American Hist. Review_, viii. 231.]

[Footnote 779: A. L. Herminjard, _Correspondance des Réformateurs dans
les pays de langue française_, i. 195, 'Christianum alienum oportet a
bachanalibus quae gentium more celebrantur, et ab hypocrisi Iudaica in
ieiuniis et aliis quae non directore spiritu fiunt: ac cavere oportet a
simulachris quam maxime.' Possibly, however, 'simulachra' means 'images'
rather than 'disguisings'.]

[Footnote 780: Calvin, _Opera_, xᵃ. 5, 16.]

[Footnote 781: The proceedings against Mme Françoise Perrin for allowing
a dance in her house are described in A. Roget, _Hist. du Peuple de
Genève_, ii. 225. In 1550 the council resolved (Calvin, _Opera_, xxi.
460), 'Item des ordonnances des dances qu'elles ne soyent point
admoindries mais que l'on ne soufre pas cela. Surquoy est arreste que
soyent faictes cries a voix de trompe que nulz naye a danser ny chanter
chansons deshonnestes ny dancer en façon que soit: sur poienne de estre
mis troys iours en prison en pain et eaue et de soixante sols pour une
chescune foy la moytie applique a l'hospital et laultre moytie a la
court'. In 1557 (_Opera_, xxi. 662) persons were brought before the
consistory on an accusation of 'insolences faictes a un royaulme'. They
had a cake, and in one girl's slice 'y mirent ung grain de genievre et
pour ce lappellerent Royne et crierent a aulte voix la Royne boit'.]

[Footnote 782: Calvin, _Opera_, xxi. 379; cf. Roget, ii. 235.]

[Footnote 783: Calvin, _Opera_, xxi. 382; cf. Roget, ii. 238, 'Aulcungs
joueurs des antiques et puissance de Hercules ont prié que plaise a MM.
de les laisser jouer de bonne grâce la bataille des Mores et puissance
de Harodes et aultres antiques héros. Arresté pour obvier scandalle que
ne doibgent point jouer, mes que demain se doibgent retirer.' Cf. the
notices of the Hercules performances at Paris in 1572 and at Utrecht in
1586 (ch. xiii, s.v. Leicester's), and p. 152, n. 1, for an early
Italian parallel.]

[Footnote 784: Calvin, _Opera_, xxi. 381-4; cf. Roget, ii. 236;
Doumergue, iii. 579; W. Walker, _John Calvin_, 298.]

[Footnote 785: Calvin, _Ep._ 800 (_Opera_, xii. 347), '... Nihil hic
habemus novi, nisi quod secunda comedia iam cuditur. Cuius actionem
testati sumus nobis minime probari. Pugnare tamen ad extremum noluimus,
quia periculum erat ne elevaremus nostram autoritatem, si pertinaciter
repugnando tandem vinceremur. Video non posse negari omnia oblectamenta.
Itaque mihi satis est si hoc, quod non est adeo vitiosum, indulgeri sibi
intelligant, sed nobis invitis....' This was on 3 June. _Ep._ 807
(_Opera_, xii. 355), of 4 July, describes the dissensions amongst the
ministers, and adds, 'Auditis fratribus, respondi multas ob causas nobis
non videri expedire ut agerentur, et simul causas exposui; nos tamen
nolle contendere, si senatus contenderet ... nunc ludi aguntur'.]

[Footnote 786: Calvin, _Ep._ 802 (_Opera_, xii. 351) 'Farellus Calvino
... Isti qui tam delectantur ludis, utinam non serio dolore torqueantur.
Timendum est, ne qui alienis personis oblectantur quum propriam in
Christo debeant sustinere in omni genere officiorum, ne ferre cogantur
non personatos, qui fingunt nocere, sed qui nimis vere afflictent et
angant. Sed quis tandem perfectam ... habebit plebem? Utinam in malis
personati tandem essent, nec aliquid ipsi facerent, tantum aliorum
peccata repraesentarent ... omnes ea vitarent, in bonis veri essent
actores, imo factores.... 16 Iunii, 1546.']

[Footnote 787: Calvin, _Sermo_, cxxvi (_Opera_, xxviii. 18), 'Ainsi donc
ce n'est point sans cause que ceste loy a esté mise; et ceux qui
prennent plaisir à se desguiser, despittent Dieu: comme en ces masques,
et en ces momons, quand les femmes s'accoustrent en hommes, et les
hommes en femmes, ainsi qu'on en fait: et qu'adviendra-t-il? Encores
qu'il n'y eust point nulle mauvaise queue, la chose en soy est
desplaisante à Dieu: nous oyons ce qui en est ici prononcé: _Quiconques
le fait, est en abomination_.' Other sermons, e.g. _Sermo_ lvii, condemn
dances and _jeux_ generally, without any special stress on plays; cf. P.
Lobstein, _Die Ethik Calvins_, 113.]

[Footnote 788: Calvin, _Opera_, xxi. 385.]

[Footnote 789: Calvin, _Opera_, xxi. 406, 450, 684, 734; Roget, ii. 238,
243; iii. 139; vi. 192; Doumergue, iii. 579, sqq.]

[Footnote 790: _Discipline des Églises Réformées_, ch. xiv, art. 28
(_Bulletin de la Soc. de l'Hist, du Protestantisme_, xxxv. 211), 'Il ne
sera aussi permis aux fidèles d'assister aux comédies, tragédies,
farces, moralités et autres jeux, joués en public ou en particulier, vu
que de tout temps cela a été défendu entre chrétiens, comme apportant
corruption de bonnes mœurs, mais surtout quand l'Écriture sainte est
profanée; néanmoins, quand, dans un collège, il sera trouvé utile à la
jeunesse de représenter quelque histoire, on la pourra tolérer pourvu
qu'elle ne soit comprise en l'Écriture sainte, qui n'est pas donnée pour
être jouée, mais purement prêchée, et aussi que cela se fasse rarement
et par l'avis du Colloque qui en verra la composition.' The original
decree of the Synod of Poitiers in 1560, to which this was an addition,
only laid down that 'les momeries et batelleries ne seront point
souffertes, ni faire le Roi boit, ni le Mardi gras'.]

[Footnote 791: Cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Calfhill, for Walter Haddon's
somewhat slighting reference to his _theatri celebritas_.]

[Footnote 792: _Parker Correspondence_ (Parker Soc.), 226.]

[Footnote 793: Strype, _Annals_ (1824), III. i. 496. Smith had said, 'Si
illud verum sit quod auditione accepi, istius modi certe ludos diris
devoveo et actores et spectatores'.]

[Footnote 794: I am not writing the history of the Oxford stage, but it
is pertinent to note that a statute of 1584, just as Case was writing,
had excluded common stage-plays from the University, both on grounds of
health and economy, and that 'the younger sort ... may not be
spectatours of so many lewde and evill sports as in them are practised'
(Boas, 225).]

[Footnote 795: Northbrooke, 103. Stubbes took the same line in the
_Preface_ to his first edition, but afterwards cancelled the passage.]

[Footnote 796: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 18.]

[Footnote 797: Gosson, _P. C._ 195.]

[Footnote 798: Gosson, _P. C._ 169.]

[Footnote 799: Gosson, _P. C._ 197.]

[Footnote 800: Gosson, _P. C._ 188; Munday, 145.]

[Footnote 801: _A. Y. L._ III. iii. 17.]

[Footnote 802: Northbrooke, 92; Munday, 144; Stubbes, 140.]

[Footnote 803: Gosson, _S. A._ 35; _P. C._ 215; Munday, 139.]

[Footnote 804: Northbrooke, 92; Stockwood, 23; Munday, 128; Field,
_Epistle_.]

[Footnote 805: White, 46; Gosson, _P. C._ 215.]

[Footnote 806: Stubbes, 180, speaks of serious accidents at theatres due
to panic at an earthquake, which must be that of 6 April 1580; but the
account published at the time (cf. App. C, No. xxv) makes no reference
to theatres, although it does, oddly enough, record that the only deaths
were those of two children who were listening to a sermon in Christ
Church, Newgate.]

[Footnote 807: The fall of the Paris Garden bear-baiting house on 13
January 1583 led John Field, in his _A Godly Exhortation_ (1583) on that
event, which is closely related to the anti-stage literature, to
anticipate a similar fate for the theatres. The Puritans should have
taken to heart the wise comment of Sir Thomas More on a similar occasion
(cf. ch. xvi, s.v. Hope).]

[Footnote 808: Cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Marlowe, _Dr. Faustus_.]

[Footnote 809: Cf. App. C, Nos. iv, ix, x, xiv, xix. Something might be
added from the prefaces of the Senecan translators (cf. ch. xxiii).]

[Footnote 810: Gosson, _P. C._ 201.]

[Footnote 811: Gosson, _P. C._ 203.]

[Footnote 812: Northbrooke, 92; Munday, 139; Stubbes, 143.]

[Footnote 813: Northbrooke, 92; cf. Stubbes, 144.]

[Footnote 814: Munday, 150.]

[Footnote 815: Gosson, _P. C._ 182; Munday, 147.]

[Footnote 816: Gosson, _S. A._ 37.]

[Footnote 817: Cf. ch. ix and App. C, No. xl.]

[Footnote 818: _B. Fair_, i. 2, 3, 6; iii. 2, 6; iv. 1, 6; v. 5; cf.
Jonson's _Epigr._ lxxv. _On Lippe the Teacher_. I suppose that the
treatise on the question of sex-apparel which Selden sent to Jonson in
1616 (App. C, No. lxii) was meant to furnish annotations for _B. Fair_.]

[Footnote 819: Heywood, 24.]

[Footnote 820: Heywood, 43, 61.]

[Footnote 821: Cf. App. J.]

[Footnote 822: Gosson, _P. C._ 211.]

[Footnote 823: Henslowe, i. 136, records a payment of 10_s._ by the
Admiral's in May 1601, 'to geatte the boye into the ospetalle which was
hurt at the Fortewne'. At St. James, Clerkenwell, was buried on 26 May
1613 (_Harl. Soc._ xvii. 123) 'John Brittine yᵗ was killed with a fall
in the Pley howse'. There was a shooting accident also in an Admiral's
play of 1587; cf. ch. xiii.]

[Footnote 824: Cf. ch. xviii.]

[Footnote 825: One of the charges brought against the Venetian
ambassador Foscarini on his return to Venice in 1616 was that he had
tried to seduce the penitent of an English religious attached to the
embassy, 'sometimes attending the public comedies and standing among the
people on the chance of seeing her' (_Venetian Papers_, xiv. 593). About
1594 a diamond stolen from the loot of a Spanish carrack was bought by
some goldsmiths from a mariner whom they met by chance 'at a play in the
theatre at Shoreditch', and who afterwards showed them the diamond in
Finsbury Fields (_Cecil Papers_, vii. 504).]

[Footnote 826: Cf. ch. xvi, s.v. Bull.]

[Footnote 827: In _Stukeley_, 610, the hero owes the bailiff of
Finsbury, 'for frays and bloodshed in the Theatre fields, five marks'.
The Middlesex justices had to deal with cases of stealing a purse at the
Curtain in 1600, of a 'notable outrage' at the Red Bull in 1610, of
abusing gentlemen at the Fortune in 1611, of stealing a purse at the Red
Bull in 1613, and of stabbing at the Fortune in 1613 (_Middlesex County
Records_, i. 205, 217, 259; ii. xlvii, 64, 71, 86, 88). On 7 July 1602
James wrote from Scotland to one James Hudson to intercede with the
Council for John Henslay or Henchelawe of Grimsby, who was assaulted by
Nicholas Blinstoun or Blunston at a play about the previous Whitsunday
(23 May), and slew him (_Scottish Papers_, ii. 815; _Hatfield MSS._ xii.
363). Dekker (ii. 326), in _Jests to Make you Merrie_ (1607), gives the
private playhouse as the habitat of the 'foist' or pickpocket, and says,
'The times when his skirmishes are hottest, or yᵉ time when they run
attilt, is ... a new play'. Again (iii. 158), in _The Belman of London_
(1608), he tells us that rogues haunt playhouses, and (iii. 212) in
_Lanthorne and Candlelight_ (1609), 'A foyst nor a nip shall not walke
into a fayre or a Play-house, but euerie cracke will cry looke to your
purses'.]

[Footnote 828: Divers persons were slain and others hurt and wounded in
an attempt to pull down the Cockpit in Drury Lane on Shrove Tuesday 1617
(_M. S. C._ i. 374); cf. Camden, _Annales_ (4 March 1617), 'Theatrum
ludionum nuper erectum in Drury-Lane a furente multitudine diruitur, et
apparatus dilaceratur'; John Taylor, _Jack a Lent_ (1620, ed. Hindley),
'Put play houses to the sack and bawdy houses to the spoil'; _The Owles
Almanack_ (1618), 9, 'Shroue-tuesday falls on that day, on which the
prentices plucked downe the cocke-pit, and on which they did alwayes vse
to rifle Madam _Leakes_ house, at the vpper end of _Shorditch_'. This
was not Puritanism, but a traditional Saturnalia of apprentices at
Shrovetide; cf. Earle, _Microcosmography_, char. 64 (A Player),
'Shrove-tuesday he feares as much as the bawdes'; Busino, _Anglopotrida_
(1618, _V. P._ xv. 246), describing the bands of prentices, 3,000 or
4,000 strong, who on Shrove Tuesday and 1 May do outrages in all
directions, especially the suburbs, where they destroy houses of
correction; E. Gayton, _Festivous Notes upon Don Quixote_ (1654), 271,
'I have known upon one of these festivals, but especially at
Shrove-tide, where the players have been appointed, notwithstanding
their bills to the contrary, to act what the major part of the company
had a mind to. Sometimes _Tamerlane_, sometimes _Jugurtha_, sometimes
_The Jew of Malta_, and sometimes parts of all these; and at last, none
of the three taking, they were forced to undress and put off their
tragick habits, and conclude the day with _The Merry Milkmaides_. And
unless this were done, and the popular humour satisfied (as sometimes it
so fortun'd that the players were refractory), the benches, the tiles,
the laths, the stones, oranges, apples, nuts, flew about most liberally;
and as there were mechanicks of all professions, who fell every one to
his trade, and dissolved a house in an instant, and made a ruin of a
stately fabric'.]

[Footnote 829: Most of these letters are printed in Wright, _Eliz._; a
few are still unprinted among the _Lansdowne_ and _Hatfield MSS._; cf.
App. D, Nos. xxxv, xxxvii, lxxiv.]

[Footnote 830: Gosson, _S. A._ 56; _P. C._ Epistle, 178.]

[Footnote 831: Munday, 128.]

[Footnote 832: Occasionally players were of use as spies. On 30 March
1603 four players gave information of an alleged proclamation of Lord
Beauchamp as king by Lord Southampton (_Hist. MSS._ xiii. 4. 126).]

[Footnote 833: Cf. App. D, Nos. xl, liii, lviii, lxxi, lxxiii, lxxv,
lxxxiv, lxxxv, ci, cxiv. The notion of the need of the public, as
distinct from that of the Queen, for dramatic recreation gradually makes
its appearance (cf. especially App. D, No. cii); but imperial Rome might
have taught its lesson of _panem et circenses_.]

[Footnote 834: Taylor, _Wit and Mirth_ (1629, Hazlitt, _Jest Books_,
iii. 62), burlesques the point of view in a story of the visit of the
Queen's ape to Looe in Cornwall. The showman approached the mayor, who
did visit and 'put off his hat and made a leg', and there was a
proclamation, 'These are to will and require you, and every of you, with
your wives and families, that upon the sight hereof, you make your
personall appearance before the Queenes Ape, for it is an Ape of ranke
and quality, who is to bee practised through her Majesties dominions,
that by his long experience amongst her loving subjects, hee may bee the
better enabled to doe her majesty service hereafter; and hereof faile
you not, as you will answer the contrary'.]

[Footnote 835: App. D, No. liv.]

[Footnote 836: Hawarde, 48, records that in a Star Chamber case of
cozening on 18 June 1596 'The Lord Treasurer would haue those yᵗ make
the playes to make a comedie hereof, & to acte it with these names'; cf.
p. 244. In _Hatfield MSS._ vii. 270 is a 'lewd saucy letter' of 25 June
1597 from Sir John Hollis to Burghley, who on the last Star Chamber day
had pronounced Hollis's great-grandfather 'an abominable usurer, a
merchant of broken paper, so hateful and contemptible a creature that
the players acted him before the King [Henry VII or VIII] with great
applause'. It is printed in H. Walpole, _Royal and Noble Authors_ (ed.
Park, ii. 283).]

[Footnote 837: App. C, No. xlv. Was this the Chapel _Game of the Cards_
on 26 Dec. 1582, or was it the play in which Tarlton (cf. ch. xv)
glanced at Raleigh as the knave commanding the queen?]

[Footnote 838: These interventions were the Admiral's men in 1600 and
for Oxford's and Worcester's men in 1602 (cf. App. D, Nos. cxvii,
cxxx).]




IX

THE STRUGGLE OF COURT AND CITY

     [_Bibliographical Note._--Most of the material for the present
     chapter is collected in Appendix D. An outline of the subject
     was given in _Tudor Revels_ (1906), and it is well and fully
     treated in V. C. Gildersleeve, _Government Regulation of the
     Elizabethan Drama_ (1908). G. M. G., _The Stage Censor_ (1908),
     and F. Fowell and F. Palmer, _Censorship in England_ (1913),
     are perhaps more valuable on later periods. Vagabond life and
     legislation may be studied in G. Nicholls, _History of the
     English Poor Law_² (1898), C. J. Ribton-Turner, _History of
     Vagrants and Vagrancy_ (1887), E. M. Leonard, _Early History of
     English Poor Relief_ (1900), and F. Aydelotte, _Elizabethan
     Rogues and Vagabonds_ (1913), and the working of local
     government in C. A. Beard, _The Office of Justice of the Peace
     in England_ (1904), and E. Trotter, _Seventeenth Century Life
     in the Country Parish_ (1919).]


The foregoing chapter has endeavoured to define the practical and
spiritual forces which underlay the controversy between Puritanism and
the stage; it remains to study the working of the constitutional forms
through which, as a resultant of those forces, the 'quality' of the
player ultimately established itself as a recognized constituent of the
polity. And first, for the social status of the players. The wittier
Puritans were fond of twitting them, on the ground that, if all men had
their rights, they would count as no better than vagabonds. There is
little more than a verbal truth in the taunt. No doubt, in certain
circumstances, players, like minstrels before them, might fall within
the danger of a series of statutes which, in the course of formulating
the provisions of a nascent poor-law, attempted also to regulate the
wandering elements of society. It was part of the mediaeval conception
of things to assign to every individual a definite function in the
social organism and to expect from him the regular fulfilment of that
function. To such a theory the migratory beggar and the masterless man
were naturally repugnant. But it was primarily a shortage of labour
towards the end of the fourteenth century which brought about the first
serious endeavour to check vagabondage by legislation, and to compel the
able-bodied vagrant, through the machinery of local government, to
return to the village of his domicile and there take up again the
service which he had abandoned. This policy was continued and developed
by the Tudors. The principal act which was operative, when Elizabeth
came to the throne, had been passed under Henry VIII in 1531. It
provided that any able-bodied beggar or idle vagrant, having no land or
master, and using no lawful merchandise, craft, or mystery for his
living, should be brought before a justice of the peace, or in a
corporate town the mayor, who should see him whipped at the cart-tail,
and then, if a beggar, returned to his place of birth or residence,
there to work as a true man ought to do, or if an idle person but no
beggar, either put to labour or set in the stocks until he found surety
to go to service. This statute was replaced by one of greater severity
in 1547, under which vagabonds were to be branded and put to forced
labour as slaves. But it was revived in 1550 and kept in force by
frequent renewals, of which the last was under Elizabeth herself in
1563. In these Acts there is no mention by name either of players or of
minstrels.[839] It may, however, be assumed that the quality of a player
would no more be regarded than that of a tinker or a pedlar as a
merchandise, craft or mystery, and the fact that some of the early
companies were composed of men for whom playing had originally been
subsidiary to a regular craft would hardly serve them, after they had
obviously deserted that craft and were travelling abroad to make a
living by the arts of migratory entertainment.[840] Their actual
safeguard was quite a different one. By definition the vagabond was a
masterless man, and with the exception of a few bodies of town players,
who probably did not wander far from their settled habitations, the
Tudor companies were not masterless. They were all under the protection
of some nobleman or gentleman of position, as whose 'servants' they
passed, bearing with them, no doubt, at any rate after this was required
by a proclamation of 1554, a 'certificate' or letter of recommendation
as proof of identity.[841] No doubt the relation in the larger companies
of lord and servants was little more than a nominal one. The strict
regulations of Henry VII against retainers who were not household
servants had become relaxed with the disappearance of the conditions
which necessitated them.[842] The players would wear a livery or badge,
and would do some courtesy of attendance on festival occasions. The lord
might intervene to help them if they got into an undeserved difficulty,
and would see to it that they did not bring his name into bad repute.
There was no economic dependence; the players lived by their earnings,
not by wages. But they were not reckoned as masterless men.

A secure status, however, did not mean complete absence of control. The
players had no free hand to play just when and where and what they
liked. They were subject to certain conveniences as to times and seasons
and localities, to precautions against breaches of the peace and dangers
to public health and safety. Above all, in a time of political and
ecclesiastical ferment, the sentiments of their plays had to be such as
would stand the scrutiny of a government by no means tolerant of
criticism. On these matters it was not, except in so far as heresy was
constituted by Acts of Uniformity and the like, with statutes that they
had to deal, but with the administrative regulations of the local and
central executives. All over the country there were bodies charged with
a general responsibility for public order, public safety, and public
decency, as the Elizabethans conceived it. In the rural districts there
were the justices of the peace, with powers more considerable than
clearly defined; in the towns there were mayors and corporations, also
acting as justices, but armed with a further authority derived both from
custom and from charters, and with a very clear intention to use this
authority to the full in the government of their communities. The
regulation of amusements had always been regarded as falling within the
scope of municipal activity, and in the end it proved a fortunate thing
for the players, in London at any rate, that the central authority found
itself driven by the pressure of circumstances to take over a large
measure of the responsibility for stage control from the hands of the
corporations.

For it need hardly be said that in the Tudor scheme of things the power
of the local authorities was an immediate rather than an ultimate one.
Both the justices of the peace and, for all their charters, the
corporations had to reckon with a considerable and growing measure of
central control, resting upon the royal prerogative, and claiming not
merely to further define, but also in some respects to replace, dispense
with, or override legislative enactments. This development of regulation
from the centre is, of course, an established feature of
sixteenth-century history. It arose out of many convergent causes, the
strength of the monarchy in face of the great houses weakened by civil
contention, the personal qualities of the Tudor sovereigns, the urgent
need of fresh machinery to deal with problems created by ecclesiastical
changes, by the growth of the press, by the growth of the stage itself,
for which the legal and administrative traditions of the Middle Ages
provided no solution. And if it was largely unconstitutional and
destined ultimately to bring the prerogative to perdition, this did not
in the meantime affect the position of the actor, who would certainly be
fined and imprisoned if he did not obey, or to any great extent that of
the justices or corporations, who might prove recalcitrant or at least
argumentative, but in the long run found it profitable to obey also.
There were three main avenues through which the royal prerogative found
exercise. The first of these was the ancient procedure of Chancery. The
will of the sovereign might be expressed in a writ or mandate, directed
to the subject, and stamped for greater solemnity with the impression of
the Great Seal of England. Such a writ was generally used in granting
licences, in conferring offices, or in issuing commissions to execute
functions on behalf of the Crown. It took the form of letters patent, so
called because they were intended as open communications to all whom
they might concern. These were handed to the recipient after an
elaborate diplomatic process during which they passed successively under
the royal Sign Manual, the Signet, the Privy Seal, and the Great Seal
itself, while a copy was enrolled in the Court of Chancery, and thus
became matter of public record.[843] Secondly, there was the
proclamation. This was in theory the formal announcement either of an
executive act, or of the royal intention as to the enforcement or
interpretation of a statute. In practice it tended more and more, during
the Tudor period, itself to take the place of a statutory enactment.
Proclamations were made by direction of the sovereign in council, and
were enrolled, like the patents, in Chancery. Both proclamations and, at
a comparatively late stage, patents were made use of in the process of
regulating players. But they were largely supplemented by the third
method through which the royal prerogative expressed itself, namely that
day-by-day activity of the Privy Council in the general co-ordination
and supervision of affairs, which has already been described.[844] The
Council Register itself and the local archives, especially those of
London, are full of letters from head-quarters to justices and
corporations, directing them as to the allowance or inhibition of plays
in general, or calling for special action in cases in which a company of
players had provoked a breach of the peace or had brought themselves
under suspicion of heresy or sedition. No doubt the corporations, in
particular, would often have preferred to act upon their own discretion.
Sometimes they argued or protested or deferred compliance. But the
Council had the powers of the Star Chamber behind them; and if in the
end they resorted to more direct ways of control, this was probably
rather for the sake of avoiding administrative friction than because
they found any ultimate difficulty in imposing their will by means of
correspondence upon reluctant magistrates.

It was, of course, until plague and Puritanism became serious
preoccupations, with the subject-matter of plays, rather than the
details of times and places, that the central government mainly
concerned itself; and it was apparently the disturbed ecclesiastical
position of the later years of Henry VIII that directed attention to the
drama as a subject of state instead of merely local concern. I have
dealt elsewhere with the encouragement given to controversial interludes
by Cromwell and Cranmer, with the swing of the pendulum when the
controversialists began to apply themselves, not merely to points of
church government which Henry desired to alter, but with heresies which
he was not prepared to adopt, and with the proclamations and
counter-proclamations and the interventions by the Privy Council to
which the problem gave rise under Edward VI and Mary.[845] Some
additional material which has more recently been published throws light
upon the regulative functions of the City of London in particular during
1549 and 1550.[846] More than once the prevalence of 'lewd' and
'naughty' plays on this side or that led to the complete inhibition of
all performances for a season. There is also some trace of a system of
licences for particular companies. It is not clear why Lord Dorset
should have thought it necessary to obtain a special authorization from
the Council for his men to play in his presence only in 1551.[847] A
forged licence taken from some players and sent to Sir William Cecil in
1552 may perhaps have purported to have been nothing more than such a
certificate from a lord as was required by the proclamation of
1554.[848] Two general conclusions may be drawn from these early
records. One is that, although the local authorities were certainly
responsible for the regulation of plays as a matter of public order,
they were not always in a position to make their control effective
without an appeal to head-quarters. The performances were popular and
the players had inherited from the minstrels a prescriptive right to
municipal encouragement and reward, rather than interference. And if
they bore the badge of some great personage, himself perhaps a privy
councillor, one may be sure that Dogberry and Verges would think twice
before they ventured on a rebuff. Even in London the Lord Mayor had to
appeal to the Privy Council in 1543 to get certain joiners imprisoned
and reprimanded for playing on a Sunday.[849] And if this was so in
London, where the Lord Mayor had certainly a firm seat in his saddle, it
was naturally still more so in the county areas, whose looser methods of
government ultimately proved to have a very marked significance for the
history of the London theatres. The weak position of the Surrey
justices, for example, is illustrated by a letter from Stephen Gardiner,
Bishop of Winchester, to Sir William Paget, Secretary of State, written
on 5 February 1547, shortly after the death of Henry VIII. He asks that
Paget or the Protector will intervene to prevent Lord Oxford's men, who
have threatened 'to try who shall have most resort, they in game or I in
earnest', from giving a play in Southwark at the moment when he sings
his _Dirige_ for the dead king; and he reports that one Master Acton, a
justice of the peace, has attempted to stop the assembly, but the
players 'smally regard' him, and 'press him to a peremptory answer,
whether he dare lett them play or not; whereunto he answereth neither
yea nor nay as to the playing'.[850]

The second point is that, although the Privy Council might intervene to
help the magistrates, their own primary interest at this time was in the
exclusion of heresy and sedition from plays. This shows itself in two
ways. Individual plays are brought before the Council itself, and lead
to disciplinary measures. But there is also the germ of a censorship. At
first it is exercised through the local authorities. The London aldermen
in 1549 appoint two of the Corporation officers, known as the
Secondaries of the Compters, who are bound under recognizances to
'peruse' plays and report upon them to the Lord Mayor. But in the
following year the London players themselves are bound only to perform
plays licensed by the King himself or the Privy Council, and this too is
the basis of Edward's proclamation of 1551 and Mary's of 1553.[851] The
former requires a licence 'in writing vnder his maiesties signe, or
signed by vj of his highnes priuie counsail'; the latter 'her graces
speciall licence in writynge for the same'. By 1557, however, another
change has taken place, and the duty of licensing is apparently
delegated to the ecclesiastical authorities, that is to say the
Commissioners for Religion.[852] These licences are of course for
individual plays, and distinct from any general licences needed by a
company in order to enable it to play at all.

When Elizabeth came to the throne she was perhaps more able than her
predecessor to rely upon the municipalities in carrying out her
ecclesiastical policy. It is true that the _Act of Uniformity_, like
Edward's before her, forbade any words in the derogation, depraving or
despising of the Book of Common Prayer, and committed the enforcement of
this prohibition to the ecclesiastical ordinary as well as to the
justices of assize and the civic mayors. It is true also that the
general powers of jurisdiction in cases of sedition given to the High
Commission by the patent of 19 July 1559 are wide enough to cover 'words
or showings' as well as 'books'. But the elaborate provisions for a
literary censorship under the Commission contained in the ecclesiastical
_Injunctions_ of the same year extend to printed matter only, and for
the detailed supervision of plays the Government was at first content to
look to the magistrates.[853] There seem to have been two proclamations.
The first, which is not extant, is said to have been made on 7 April
1559 and to have restrained plays for a stated period. The second, of
the following 16 May, was intended as a permanent regulation. After
noting that the usual season for interludes was now over until 1
November, and the inconvenience of some recently given, it goes on to
forbid any, whether in public or private, which have not been licensed
by the Mayor in a town, or in a shire by the Lord Lieutenant or two
justices for the immediate locality. The licensing authorities are
enjoined to allow no handling of matters of religion or state in plays,
and the nobility and gentry are warned to take order that 'their
seruantes being players' shall respect the proclamation. It will be
observed that only the licensing of plays and not the status of players
was covered. Status was left as the Act of 1531, which was still in
force and was explicitly confirmed in 1563, had left it. The position
was then as follows. Players, at any rate when they performed away from
home, must have a licence either from their lord or possibly from the
local magistrates. Whether at home or abroad, they were subject to the
regulation of the magistrates as to times and places, and the
precautions needed to secure public health and order. In addition, the
magistrates had a special responsibility under the proclamation for
allowing their individual plays, but this, in rural areas where there
were many Justice Shallows, might alternatively be exercised by the Lord
Lieutenant for the county as a whole. It is, I suppose, a licence for
their repertory rather than for their travelling that Lord Robert Dudley
asked for his men from the Earl of Shrewsbury, who as President of the
North stood in the place of a Lord Lieutenant for Yorkshire, about a
month after the issue of the proclamation. He calls it, indeed, a
licence to play, but he dwells on the 'tollerable and convenient'
character of their pieces, and it is easy to see how one conception of
the purpose for which a licence was required would slip into another.

The history of play-licensing in London, which must now be followed in
detail, really turns upon an attempt of the Corporation, goaded by the
preachers, to convert their power of regulating plays into a power of
suppressing plays, as the ultimate result of which even the power of
regulation was lost to them, and the central government, acting through
the Privy Council and the system of patents, with the Master of the
Revels as a licenser, took the supervision of the stage into its own
hands. The issue does not define itself very clearly until the
'seventies, perhaps partly because the Puritan sentiment took some time
to grow, and partly because the earlier years are much less fully
documented than the later ones.

As with all narratives pieced together out of fragmentary records, care
must be taken not to lay too much stress on merely negative evidence
with regard to any particular point. The two chief sources of
information are the _Register_ of the Privy Council, which contains
minutes of letters written to the City Corporation or the Justices of
Middlesex and Surrey and of other action taken by the Council with
regard to plays, and the City _Remembrancia_, a book containing copies
of letters passing between the Corporation and the Council or other
persons of importance. But neither record is continuous during the whole
controversy, and although the two frequently help each other out, some
of the gaps unfortunately synchronize. In particular there is a
comparative absence of information upon the first part of the reign,
since the _Register_ only begins to help in 1573 and the _Remembrancia_
in 1580. It is possible, therefore, that the Court and the City may have
come to grips on the vexed question of stage-control in London somewhat
earlier than is now apparent.

It is certain, indeed, that some negotiations had taken place between
the two authorities before the period to which the documents mainly
relate. These are appealed to in a City letter of 1574, and it is
claimed that, in view of the objections of the Corporation, the Council
had 'long since' refrained from pressing a proposal that some private
person should be nominated to license playing-places within the City.
This is the first mention of a new type of 'licence', distinct from
those of companies as such, or of plays as such, and presumably owing
its origin to the general local regulative powers of the magistrates.
The date of the proposal is not given, and as regards the years 1558-71,
there is only occasional evidence of any serious interference, other
than such as was necessitated by plague, with the activities of the
players, although it is clear that the rulers of the City were
exercising the powers of supervision with which the proclamation of 1559
invested them. There is an indication that plays were suspended by a
precept from the Lord Mayor in the September of the first and greatest
of the Elizabethan plague-years, 1563; and in the following February
Edmund Grindal, the Bishop of London, wrote to Sir William Cecil,
pointing out that the players set up their bills daily, and especially
on holidays, and that the excessive resort of young people to their
performances could only be a cause of infection. Both on religious and
on hygienic grounds, he urged the desirability of inhibiting plays by
proclamation, either permanently or at least for a complete year, and
not only within the City, but for a circuit of three miles outside its
boundaries. Penalties should, he thought, be imposed for disobedience,
not only upon the players, but also upon the owners of the houses where
they played. The cessation of the plague probably made it unnecessary
for Cecil to entertain the suggestion seriously; but it is interesting
to observe that the policy of the Puritans, with whom Grindal was in
sympathy, was already in 1564 one of complete suppression, and also that
the comparative inefficacy of measures limited to the City, in view of
the populous suburbs outside the London jurisdiction and subject only to
the Middlesex or Surrey Justices and to the Privy Council, had been
already realized.

During the next few years there is little to record, although if _The
Children of the Chapel Stript and Whipt_, alleged to have been printed
in 1569, were ever recovered, it might throw more light upon the growing
flood of Puritan sentiment than is afforded by Warton's scanty
quotations. There was some plague in each of the three years 1568, 1569,
and 1570, and in the summer of 1569 the City suspended plays, as a
precautionary measure, from the last day of May to the last day of
September. There was another suspension on 27 November 1571, for which
plague is not alleged as a reason, but a few days later the Corporation
appear to have changed their minds and licences were issued during this
winter for performances by Leicester's and Abergavenny's men.

The year 1572 is marked by two measures of government, each of which had
its reaction on the _status_ of players throughout the country. The
first entailed some regularization of the position of noblemen's
companies. The fifteenth-century struggle between the power of the Crown
and that of the great feudal houses had led to enactments forbidding
subjects to attach to themselves, by the giving and taking of a livery
or badge, retainers who were not in some bona-fide sense their own
household servants or officers. The Acts against retainers had been
continued up to the reign of Henry VII, who had confirmed them in 1487;
and had then, upon the firm establishment of the royal supremacy by the
Tudors, largely fallen into desuetude, in spite of a proclamation of
1545, already noticed, which was intended to call renewed attention to
them. They were, however, still technically operative, and a
proclamation of 3 January 1572 announced an intention to enforce them
from the following 20 February. Their relation to the players is shown
by the fact that the company which had been performing under the Earl of
Leicester's name immediately wrote to their lord, and, while making it
clear that they did not expect any wages beyond the livery to which they
had been accustomed, begged for a definite appointment as his household
servants and for a licence to certify the same as a security against
interference under the revived statutes during their annual travels in
the provinces. A second proclamation of the same character was issued on
19 April 1583. More important than the proclamation, but probably
representing the same policy, was the repeal by Parliament of the
Vagabond Act of 1531 and the substitution of a new statute, which came
into force upon 24 August. This included in a definition of vagabonds,
not only 'juglers, pedlars, tynkers and petye chapmen', but also
'fencers, bearewardes, comon players in enterludes, and minstrels, not
belonging to any baron of this realme, or towardes any other honorable
personage of greater degree'. Specific power was, however, given for the
issue of local travelling licences by mayors and county justices. So far
as noblemen's players were concerned, the Act was presumably no more
than declaratory of their existing position. But the knight or plain
gentleman lost his privilege of protection altogether; and in future, if
his servants wished to travel as players, they had to get their licence
from the magistrates. As a matter of fact, with the exception of those
forming part of the royal household itself, practically all the
companies of professional players which appeared in London during
Elizabeth's reign were noblemen's servants. A few performances were
given at Court in early years by Sir Robert Lane's men, but these
disappeared or transferred their services to a more honourable personage
upon the legislation of 1572.[854] The most important of the provincial
companies which did not come to London also bore the names of noblemen,
and although many others were entertained by mere knights and gentlemen,
it is probable that, at any rate after 1572, these did not range very
widely from their head-quarters.[855] The necessity of procuring a fresh
licence for every shire would doubtless, as was its intention, afford an
obstacle to free circulation.[856] Apart from its defining clause, the
main object of the Act of 1572 was to try once more the experiment,
which had failed under Edward VI, of treating vagabondage with an
increased severity. The summary whipping by individual magistrates was
abolished except for children. An adult offender was to be committed to
gaol until the next quarter sessions, and then, unless he could find a
master to take him for a year's service, to be whipped and branded as a
rogue by boring through the ear. On a second offence he was to be
adjudged a felon, unless he could secure service for two years, and a
third offence was to be treated as felony without benefit of clergy. The
classification of unlicensed minstrels as rogues led to the insertion of
a clause confirming the ancient privilege of the house of Dutton to
issue licences within the county of Chester;[857] and another qualifying
provision, the importance of which in connexion with players has been
overlooked, safeguarded the validity, as overriding the statute, of
licences passed under the Great Seal of England. It is in 1572 also that
symptoms of a conflict of judgement between the City and the Privy
Council first declare themselves. The annalist Harrison records that in
this year plays were 'banished' out of London for fear of infection, and
on 20 May a minute of the Court of Aldermen records that letters had
been received from the Council for renewed allowance under reasonable
conditions, and that, in place of immediate compliance, a letter of
protest, based on the peril of assemblies during a hot summer, was to be
sent to Lord Burghley. A somewhat similar situation seems to have
developed in 1573, which made it necessary in July for the Council to
write two letters to the Corporation, of which the second had a
peremptory note about it, in order to obtain permission for some Italian
players to exhibit an 'instrument of strange motions', or puppet-show.
The following year was evidently one of considerable friction. On 2
March the Corporation wrote to the Lord Chamberlain with reference to a
suggestion that the licensing of playing-places within the City should
be put in the hands of one Holmes. They maintained their earlier
refusal, already mentioned, to commit such a matter to any private
person, and added that they had other offers for the licensing rights on
terms that would be profitable 'to the relefe of the poore in the
hospitalles'. The terms of the letter make it clear that they regarded
the plan as one which, besides being practically inconvenient, would
entail a precedent 'farre extending to the hart of our liberties'. In
the meantime plays were apparently inhibited, for on 22 March the
Council wrote to inquire the causes of the restraint, 'to thintent their
Lordships may the better aunswer suche as desyre to have libertye for
the same'. It may be conjectured that the reply was unsatisfactory, for
in May a remedy for which provision had been made by anticipation in the
Vagabond Act of 1572 was resorted to, and a patent under the Great Seal
was issued to the Earl of Leicester's men, which over-ruled the
proclamation of 1559 and ignored the position of the Corporation
altogether. By this the company received permission to play during the
royal pleasure either within London itself or within or without any
other town throughout the country. The licence was only subject to two
provisions. One was that there should be no performance during common
prayer or during plague times in London; the other that all plays should
be seen and allowed by the Master of the Revels. As the Master of the
Revels was an officer of the royal household, subordinate to the Lord
Chamberlain, the action taken practically amounted to a transference of
control, so far as this particular company was concerned, from the
Corporation to the Court itself. Nothing specific was said in the patent
about the allowing of playing-places as distinct from the allowing of
plays, and it may have left the Corporation with some reasonable
discretion on this point. It is not known that a similar licence was
issued to any other Elizabethan company besides Leicester's men,
although this could hardly be definitely asserted without a complete
examination of the Patent Rolls for the reign. My own impression is that
the issue of the patent served its purpose by bringing the Corporation
to a more reasonable frame of mind, and that it was not found necessary
to repeat the experiment, at any rate exactly in the same form. On 22
July the Council issued a passport to 'the comedie plaiers' to go to
London, and also wrote to the Corporation requiring their admission and
favourable usage. I feel little doubt that the company in question were
the Italians who had been at Windsor and Reading during the progress. In
any case it may be taken for granted from the events of the following
winter that the Corporation were now beaten, and yielded. But it can
only have been with reluctance. The enforced toleration of the Italian
players, who seem to have brought with them some female acrobats, had
added strength to the Puritan criticisms. Thomas Norton, the City
Remembrancer, writing a preface to a summary of City customs for the use
of the new Lord Mayor, James Hawes, and dwelling on the need for better
regulations against the contagion of the plague, lays special stress on
the danger of 'the unnecessarie and scarslie honeste resorts to plaies'
and of such assemblies as those attracted by 'the unchaste, shamelesse
and unnaturall tomblinge of the Italion weomen'. With a characteristic
touch of Puritan logic he adds, 'To offend God and honestie, is not to
cease a plague'. In fact, the increase of plague gave London a respite
from plays during the winter. On 15 November the Privy Council wrote to
the Justices of Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey to inhibit assemblies
within ten miles of London until Easter; and the City hardly needed the
stimulus of an 'admonition' from their lordships to persuade them to
adopt a similar course. They used the interval to enact an elaborate
code for the regulation of plays, whose continuance in their midst,
whether they liked it or not, they now saw to be inevitable. This took
the form of an Act of Common Council, which is dated on 6 December 1574.
The preamble sets out the various 'disorders and inconvenyences' which
from the civic point of view had arisen from plays in the past, the
unchaste and seditious speeches, the waste of money and interference
with divine service, the accidents due to the fall of wooden structures
and to the use of firearms upon the stage, the opportunities afforded by
the performances for frays and quarrels, for purse-cutting, for the
corruption of youth by 'previe and unmete contractes', for incontinency
in the inner chambers of the 'greate innes' to which the stages were
adjacent. It then proceeds to recite the recent inhibition for plague,
and the need to provide against the renewal of such 'enormyties' upon
the expected withdrawal of God's hand of sickness by securing that 'the
laweful, honest and comelye use of plaies, pastymes and recreacions'
should alone be permitted. The actual regulations are six in number. No
unchaste, seditious, or otherwise improper plays were to be performed,
upon a penalty of fourteen days' imprisonment and a fine of £5 for each
offence. No play was to be shown which had not first been perused and
allowed by such persons as the Lord Mayor and Aldermen might appoint.
All playing-places and the persons in control of them were to be
licensed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. All licensees were to be bound
to the City Chamberlain for the keeping of good order. No licence was to
be operative during a restraint for sickness or other good reason, nor
were plays to be given or spectators received during the usual times for
divine service on Sundays and holidays. Every licensee was to make such
contributions to the poor and sick of the City as might be agreed upon
with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. Machinery was provided for the
recovery of penalties, which were also to be for the benefit of the poor
and sick, and an exception was made for plays in private houses for
which no money was taken. The only regulation to which these were to be
subject was that against the introduction of unchaste and seditious
matters.

It is often stated that the regulations of 1574 were followed in 1575 by
a decree of the Corporation banishing players totally and finally from
the confines of the City. This is, however, a mistake due to an
erroneous endorsement of date upon some documents which belong in
reality to about 1584. The regulations remained operative for a
considerable number of years. It is true that, reasonable and moderate
as they were, they were not accepted as satisfactory either by the
players or by their critics. After all, they left a good deal in working
to the discretion of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for the time being; and
the players seem to have come to the conclusion that it would be better
to be independent, as far as possible, of the risks attaching to this
discretion. They turned to the easier conditions afforded by the lax
county government of the suburbs. Within two or three years after the
issue of the regulations two houses had been built expressly for playing
in the liberty of Halliwell, which was within the jurisdiction of
Middlesex; the Theatre in 1576 and the Curtain either in the same year
or early in 1577. A third house, at Newington Butts on the Surrey side,
was already obsolete about 1592, and seems to have been in existence by
1580. Exactly upon what considerations the private house in the
Blackfriars was established, also in 1576, is less certain. But at any
rate, as a result of the action of the Corporation in 1574, the main
locality of the popular drama was shifted from the courtyards of the
London inns to the specialized suburban theatres. It must not, of
course, be supposed that the inns fell altogether into disuse. The new
arrangement was not without its inconveniences for the players. During
the summer months it was no hardship for pleasure-seekers to cross the
river or the fields in search of a spectacle. But the short evenings and
dirty lanes of winter left an advantage to the inns in the heart of the
City, which was not lightly to be forgone. It was still, therefore, a
matter of importance for the companies to maintain their footing in the
City, even if this meant compliance with harassing restrictions, and
they were ready to use all their influence with the masters whose
liveries they wore, with the Lord Chamberlain, and with the Privy
Council, in opposition to any further limitation of their privileges. So
far as the summer was concerned, the building of the suburban theatres
was a serious check to the policy of the Corporation. It was still the
young folk of the City who crowded the audiences; nor could the greater
distance diminish the danger of infection, the neglect of divine
service, the waste of time and money, or the likelihood of falling into
bad company by the way. In future it was not sufficient to make salutary
regulations for London; it was necessary to secure, by invoking the
goodwill of the county justices, or in default of that even the aid of
the Privy Council itself, that similar order should be taken outside
the liberties. In this direction the City never met with more than very
partial success. The county government was naturally not as closely
organized as their own, and it was in the hands of officials and local
gentlemen to whom the business considerations and the growing Puritan
instincts of the City tradesmen did not appeal. Richard Young, in
particular, who was a prominent member of the Middlesex bench for many
years, earned an evil reputation as a persecutor of Puritans.[858] On
the other hand, the Corporation might look for the co-operation of his
colleague William Fleetwood, who was their own Recorder,[859] and
machinery had been established between the two areas in the form of a
joint committee or court of assistants for dealing with the control of
plays and other matters of 'good order'.[860]

And if the players needed a refuge from the regulations of 1574, these
must have been far from satisfactory to the Puritans. They fell very far
short of the wholesome Genevan model. There was still toleration for the
infamous _histriones_. Plays were not even wholly forbidden on Sundays
and holy days, and the crowd flocked to the inn-yard gates, already open
in spite of the regulation, while the bells were still ringing for
divine service in the empty churches. And although the Corporation
certainly did not mean to commit the licensing of plays to the Master of
the Revels or to any court nominee, there is nothing to show that they
had any intention of leaving it to the ministers. The rise of the
'sumptuous' theatres, monuments of triumphant wickedness, in the fields,
could only add fuel to the wrath of the moralists. With Thomas White's
Paul's Cross sermon and John Northbrooke's _Treatise_ of 1577 begins a
period of active diatribe in pulpit and pamphlet, the deliberate
intention of which was to stir the 'magistrate' to a stronger sense of
the moral responsibilities of government, so that in London at least
the letters of commendation furnished by godlessly-minded nobles for
their servants might be disregarded and the accursed thing driven from
the gates. And if only, through a Sidney or a Walsingham or a Leicester
or a Burghley, the heart of the Council could be touched, it might
perhaps even be driven from the suburbs also.

For some time after 1574 the relations between Whitehall and Guildhall
were comparatively peaceful. Such plague as prevailed in 1575 and 1576
seems to have affected Westminster rather than the City. In 1577,
however, an outbreak led the Corporation to suspend plays, and the
Council ordered the Middlesex Justices to do the same from August to
Michaelmas. The Theatre may have been open again by 5 October, although
plague seems to have been still prevalent in November. It was over by
January, and on the 13th of that month the Council instructed the Lord
Mayor to let the famous Italian actor Drusiano Martinelli and his
company perform in the City until the beginning of Lent. The autumn of
1578 again proved plaguesome, and on 10 November the Council ordered the
Surrey Justices to inhibit plays in Southwark. On 23 December, however,
a further order was issued to London, Middlesex, and Surrey, permitting
the exercise of plays, subject to certain orders appointed against
infection. This was followed on the next day by another letter to the
Lord Mayor, specifying six companies who were summoned to Court and to
whom therefore the privilege of exercising in public was to be limited.
In the spring of the following year the Council appear to have been
disturbed at the neglect of Lent, and on 13 March they wrote both to the
Lord Mayor and to the Middlesex Justices, to direct that no plays should
be allowed during the penitential season, either in that or in any
subsequent year. By 1580 the battery of 'the preachers dayly cryeng
against the Lord Maior and his bretheren' seems to have had its effect
upon the civic conscience. Naturally most of the sermons against the
stage were never printed, but an example, in addition to that of Thomas
White, is to be found in the Paul's Cross sermon of John Stockwood on 24
August 1578. Gosson's _Schoole of Abuse_ had followed Northbrooke's
_Treatise_ in 1579, and in 1580 itself appeared the _Second and Third
Blast of Retrait_, the conspicuous civic arms upon which are perhaps
significant of the attitude now adopted by the Corporation. On 6 April
there was an earthquake, which was seized upon by the controversialists
as a sign of God's wrath against plays. The series of civic letters
contained in the _Remembrancia_ begins in this year, and shows a spirit
of hostility towards the stage far more pronounced than was indicated
by the regulations of 1574. Under the stimulus of further pamphlets,
Gosson's _Playes Confuted_ in 1582 and Stubbes's _Anatomy of Abuses_ in
1583, this tendency continued to grow, and finally landed the
Corporation in a state of acute conflict with the Council. The earliest
letter preserved is from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Chancellor, Sir
Thomas Bromley, on 12 April 1580. In this he took occasion, on the
strength of a recent disturbance at the Theatre, of the admonition of
the hand of God in the earthquake, and of a charge from the Council to
avoid uncleanness and pestering of the city, to point out that players
were 'a very superfluous sort of men and of such facultie as the lawes
have disalowed', and to suggest the desirability of an order by which
they should be 'wholy stayed and forbidden', both within and without the
liberties. The disturbance at the Theatre was probably a fray between
the Inns of Court and Oxford's men, which led to the imprisonment of
some of the latter by the Council. Some months before John Brayne and
James Burbage had been indicted for bringing about a breach of the peace
by causing unlawful assemblies. There was not in fact much plague this
summer, but the Council assented to a temporary inhibition until
Michaelmas and called upon the Middlesex and Surrey Justices to extend
it to Newington Butts and other places in their jurisdictions. Perhaps
emboldened by his success, the Lord Mayor wrote a second letter on 17
June to Lord Burghley, in which he expressed the opinion that the
haunting of unchaste plays in the suburbs was a serious danger to the
City, and again proposed their restraint as part of a series of measures
in the interests of the public health. Burghley's answer is not upon
record. Presumably plays went on as usual during the winter of 1580. An
incident of the following year makes it apparent that, at some uncertain
but probably recent date, the Corporation had attempted to render the
code of 1574 more stringent by forbidding performances upon Sundays.
Lord Berkeley's men, who claimed to be ignorant of this, performed upon
Sunday, 9 July 1581, and became involved in a fray with some Inns of
Court men, which led to the committal of both parties to the Counter. On
the very next day the Privy Council wrote to London and to Middlesex,
and directed an inhibition of plays on the ground of plague until
Michaelmas. The City responded by a suspension for an indefinite period
on 13 July. They seem to have taken advantage of this to press their
point about Sundays. On 14 November the Mayor issued a precept against
the setting up of bills for plays within the ward jurisdictions of the
aldermen. On 18 November a letter was received from the Council pointing
out that the infection had ceased, and that 'theis poore men the
players' should now be permitted to exercise within the City for their
'releife' and 'redinesse with convenient matters for her highnes solace
this next Christmas'. Nothing is here said about Sundays, but the
Council Register contains a minute for a letter of 3 December to the
Mayor, distinct, unless there is some confusion of date, from that of 18
November, of which there is no entry in the Register, and referring to a
petition from the players, and a stipulation made with them that Sundays
should be excluded, and performances limited to holy days and other
week-days. This looks as if the Corporation had questioned the first
mandate and had secured a concession as the price of submission. It must
count as a victory for the Puritans, but they were not content, and one
of the London ministers, John Field, took occasion to address a letter
of reproach to the Earl of Leicester for yielding to the players, 'to
the great greife of all the godly'.

It is difficult to resist the belief that a measure taken during this
same December arose from a desire of the Council to counteract the
growing recalcitrancy of the Corporation by a device similar to that
which had been successful in 1574. The precedent set in the issue of a
patent to Leicester's men was not, however, exactly followed. The
position was now dealt with in a more comprehensive fashion, by the
issue of a commission under a patent to the Master of the Revels
himself. The object of this commission was in part to invest the Master
with authority to press workmen and wares for the service of the Revels.
But it also empowered him to call upon players and playmakers to appear
before him and recite their pieces, presumably with a view to their
consideration for performance at Court. And, as it were incidentally to
the exercise of such a power, the patent went on to declare in the most
general terms that the Master of the Revels was thereby appointed 'of
all suche showes plaies plaiers and playmakers together with their
playing places to order and reforme auctorise and put downe as shalbe
thought meete or unmeete unto himselfe or his said deputie in that
behalfe'. Like the licence of 1574, the commission of 1581 is expressed
as being 'any acte statute ordynance or provision' to the contrary
notwithstanding.

The functions thus assigned to the Master of the Revels came to be of
the first importance in the history of the stage. But for the moment the
result of their stroke can hardly have satisfied the expectations of the
Council. The Corporation were not so ready to retreat from an untenable
position as they had been seven years before. Either in ignorance of the
Master's commission, or with the deliberate intention of asserting the
privileges ignored therein, they seem to have definitely committed
themselves, in the course of 1582, to the policy, long advocated by
their spiritual advisers, of a complete suppression of the stage. The
method of attack adopted was, so far as any records yet published
disclose, a new one. Instead of relying upon their licensing powers, now
very doubtful and in any case of no validity in the suburbs, they issued
on 3 April a precept to the City guilds, enjoining them to charge all
freemen with the responsibility of keeping their servants and other
dependants from repairing to any play, whether in city or in suburbs,
upon penalty of punishment both for the offending servant and for his
master. This is presumably the 'late inhibition' against playing after
evening prayer on holidays, which the Privy Council asked the Lord Mayor
to revoke by a letter of 11 April, in which they expressed the opinion
that in the absence of infection such playing might be used 'without
impeachment of the service of God whereof we have a speciall care',
provided always that Sundays should be excepted, and that fit persons
should be appointed by the Corporation to 'consider and allowe of such
playes onely as be fitt to yeld honest recreacion and no example of
euell'. It is to be observed that the Council do not suggest that the
allowance shall be done by the Master of the Revels or make any allusion
to the powers conferred by his patent. Perhaps this indicates some
willingness to come to a compromise. The Lord Mayor's reply, written two
days later, is in its turn not otherwise than conciliatory. He suggests
that the Council may perhaps not be fully aware of the difficulties
entailed by plays on holidays. He has found that either he has to
tolerate the admission of the audience during the times of prayer, or
else the plays must continue until a very inconvenient time of night for
servants and children to be abroad. He also calls attention to the
growth of the plague, which seems to him to justify the continuance of
the restraint for the present, and finally hints that later on he will
fall in with the views of the Council and duly appoint suitable
licensers. Plague was in fact rife during 1582, and perhaps left the
Council no choice but to drop the question for a time. In July the Lord
Mayor apologized on the ground of infection for refusing a request from
the Earl of Warwick that a servant of his might be allowed to give a
public display of fencing at the Bull in Bishopsgate. All that he could
promise was to let the man pass through the City with his company and
drum on the way to the Theatre or some other place in the suburbs.
Possibly the correspondence of April was only a cloak for the real
intentions of the Corporation; or possibly they miscalculated the
Council's reasons for not carrying it further. At any rate, still
profiting by the continuance of the plague, they determined in the
course of the autumn to risk another step in advance. The plan for
working through the guilds was ill-conceived, and had probably failed;
obviously masters could not effectively prevent their apprentices from
slipping off to Finsbury or Southwark on holiday afternoons. At any rate
nothing more is heard of it. To this date probably belongs an Act of
Common Council, which after dealing with other matters of civic
government, briefly enacted that public plays should 'wholly be
prohibited as ungodly', and that suit should be made to the Council for
a like prohibition 'in places near unto the city'.

It was not long before an opportunity for opening the projected campaign
against the outside houses presented itself. On Sunday, 13 January 1583,
eight persons were killed by the fall of a scaffold during a
bear-baiting at Paris Garden in Surrey. John Field, Leicester's
correspondent of 1581, was quick to point the Puritan moral in _A Godly
Exhortation_ dedicated to the Corporation. But already, on the day after
the accident, the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Blank, had written to Lord
Burghley to urge that this interposition of the hand of God called for
redress of the abuse of the Sabbath day, and to beg for Burghley's good
offices with the Surrey Justices, some of whom were willing to take
action but alleged that they lacked commission. Burghley promised that
the Council would consider the matter, and suggested that it was within
the scope of the Corporation's authority to make a general order against
the attendance of Londoners at Sunday entertainments. The previous
year's experience, however, had probably impressed the Corporation with
the difficulty of securing that such an order should not be a dead
letter outside their own jurisdiction; and although the Council
_Register_ is deficient at this point, it is certain that the event at
Paris Garden did in fact result in the extension by the Council itself
of the prohibition against Sunday performances from the City to the
counties. But this was not until after the Lord Mayor had again pressed
the question in a letter to the Council of 3 July, in which he alleged
the attractions of unlawful spectacles as a reason for the decay of
archery, of which the Council had complained, and declared that Paris
Garden was rebuilt and the Sunday bear-baitings in full swing, and that
blame was thrown upon the City authorities in Paul's Cross sermons and
elsewhere, 'to our shame and greif, when we cannot remedie it'. If the
Council yielded on this point, they remained quite firm on the general
question of the toleration of plays, on all days other than Sundays,
within the City as well as without. We do not know what steps, if any,
they took to enforce the licensing powers of the Master of the Revels.
But it is likely that the formation from the existing companies of the
Queen's men in the March of 1583 was a deliberate and to some extent a
successful attempt to overawe the City by the use of the royal name. It
may be inferred from letters of the Lord Mayor to Richard Young of
Middlesex and to Sir Francis Walsingham in April and May that plague
prevented plays during the greater part of the year. But on 26 November
the Council wrote that there was now no infection, and that Her
Majesty's players were to be suffered to play as usual until the
following Shrovetide. The Corporation, for all their Act of Common
Council, made no open resistance, but they qualified the permission by
limiting it to holy days, and it took a further letter from Sir Francis
Walsingham on 1 December to get it extended to ordinary working days.

The struggle, however, was only deferred, and the real crisis came in
1584. During Whit-week there were frays amongst the knots of serving-men
and prentices who hung about the doors of the Theatre and Curtain. The
Corporation approached the Council and, although there seems to have
been no plague, obtained sanction, in spite of the opposition of the
Lord Chamberlain and Vice-Chamberlain, to the suppression of both
houses. When the winter came round the Queen's men brought their case
before the Council, and pointed out that the time of their service was
at hand, that for the sake thereof as well as of their living they
needed to exercise, and that the season of the year was past to play at
any of the theatres outside the City. They petitioned for letters to the
Lord Mayor to admit them to London, and also for an order to the
Middlesex Justices, doubtless to revoke the suppression of the previous
summer. Their case was set out more fully in a body of annexed articles.
Unfortunately these are lost, but their tenor can be gathered from the
City rejoinder. This took the form partly of an historical summary and
partly of a detailed reply to the contentions of the players. The
Corporation recited the reluctant toleration granted in 1574, the
disregard of the rule against receiving spectators during divine
service, the continued prevalence of abuses and the agitation of the
preachers, the Act of Common Council conjecturally assigned to 1582,
and finally the ruin of Paris Garden and the abolition of Sunday plays
to which it led. The analysis of the arguments of the Queen's men is in
a mercilessly critical vein, very different to the reasonable
regulations of 1574, and may perhaps be ascribed to the malicious wit of
Recorder Fleetwood. The writer deals first with the alleged need for
exercise before playing at Court, and suggests that exercise in private
houses might suffice, as it was unsuitable, let alone the danger of
bringing infection into the royal presence, to offer to Her Majesty
pieces already produced before the basest assemblies of London and
Middlesex. As to the stay of the players' living, the view, which must
surely have gone back some decades for its justification, is put forward
that in times past it had not been thought meet that players should look
to playing for a living, 'but men for their lyvings using other honest
and lawfull artes, or reteyned in honest services, have by companies
learned some enterludes for some encreasce to their profit by other mens
pleasures in vacant time of recreation'. The players had claimed in
their first article that the Lord Mayor's order of toleration on holy
days should continue; but the Act of Common Council had cancelled this,
and moreover the provision against the reception of audiences before the
end of common prayer had been disregarded. Nor was it comely for youth
to run 'streight from prayer to playes, from Gods service to the
Deuells'. The second article had dwelt on the difficulty in a dark and
foul season of either going into the fields for plays, or deferring them
until after evening prayer; but the true remedy was 'to leave of that
unnecessarie expense of time, wherunto God himself geveth so many
impediments'. The third article had proposed to make plays permissible,
so long as the deaths from plague were below fifty a week. The reply is
that 'to play in plagetime is to encrease the plage by infection: to
play out of plagetime is to draw the plage by offendinges of God upon
occasion of such playes'. But if the number of deaths from plague were
to be taken as the basis of toleration, it must be remembered that this
number was an inadequate measure of the danger of infection amongst the
living, and to wait until it rose to fifty would be to run too great a
risk for the sake of a few 'whoe if they were not her Maiesties servants
shold by their profession be rogues'. The normal weekly number of deaths
out of plague-time was between forty and fifty, and commonly under
forty; surely it would be enough to allow plays when the rate from all
causes had been for two or three weeks together under fifty. Toleration
was only claimed for the Queen's players. But this had been so in the
previous winter, and all the playing-places had been filled with players
calling themselves the Queen's men. Any letters or warrants for
toleration should set out the number and names of the company. Much of
this dialectic could hardly be taken seriously; it was accompanied by
some suggested remedies of a practical character. The City still thought
the limitation to private houses the better course. Failing that, the
regulations of 1574 should be revived, subject to the conditions that
playing should only be allowed when the total deaths had been under
fifty a week for twenty days together, that no plays should be given on
the Sabbath or before the close of evening prayer on holy days, that the
audience should not be received during prayer-time, that the
performances should be short enough to let the audience get home before
dark, and that the Queen's men alone should be tolerated and should not
be allowed to divide themselves into several companies. It was
apparently contemplated that these conditions should apply to city and
county alike.

I have described these arguments in some detail, because of the
clearness with which they set out the divergent views. Unfortunately the
documents from which they are drawn do not record any decision upon
them. But whether the remedies were accepted, wholly or in part, or not,
there can be no doubt whatever that the attempt to enforce an absolute
prohibition had utterly failed, and that for several years afterwards
the companies continued to find their winter quarters within London
itself. Henceforward it became the settled policy of the Corporation to
defer to the authority of the Privy Council, and to content themselves
with doing their best to influence that body in the direction of their
own ideals. There came a day when they were destined to reach some
measure of success along these lines. For the time, however, events
followed a quiet course. During two or three years there is a blank in
the correspondence. Plays were suspended in London and Surrey during the
summer of 1586, at the Lord Mayor's request, on the ground that the
growing heat might breed a plague, and a similar measure in 1587 had an
additional provocation in disturbances which had taken place at the
play-houses. In both years the inhibition was declared early in May, and
in 1587 it was fixed to terminate at the end of August. On 29 October
the Council had to call the attention of both the Surrey and the
Middlesex Justices to the imperfect observance of the order against
Sunday plays. There was, of course, an undercurrent of Puritan
discontent during these years at the lame issue of the anti-stage
agitation. This is well shown by a grumbling letter from a correspondent
of Walsingham's in January 1587, in which 'the daily abuse of
stage-plays' is represented as still 'an offence to the godly'. The
redress of Sabbath-breaking is acknowledged, but still 'two hundred
proud players jet in their silks' under the protection of various lords,
as well as of Her Majesty. The writer proposes that every stage shall be
required to pay a weekly subsidy in aid of the poor. The flood of
pamphlets had, however, subsided. The _Mirror of Monsters_, published by
William Rankins in 1587, is of markedly less importance than its
predecessors. In November 1587 the City sent a deputation to the Privy
Council in the hope of securing the suppression of plays within their
boundaries; so far as is known, they were unsuccessful. A year or two
later new combative relations were established between the players and
the Puritans as an outcome of the Martin Marprelate controversy, which
began with a series of anonymous pamphlets attacking the principles of
episcopacy, and continued throughout 1589 and 1590. The players were not
at first particularly concerned against their hereditary enemies.
Tarlton, who died on 3 September 1588, is said himself to have satirized
the existing ecclesiastical order in a mock discovery of Simony 'in Don
John of Londons cellar'. And indeed the ribald style in which Martin
Marprelate canvassed the bishops was held to be modelled on the manners
of the theatre. 'The stage is brought into the church; and vices make
play of church matters', said one episcopalian writer, and described
Martin as declaring on his death-bed, 'All my foolery I bequeath to my
good friend Lanam and his consort, from whom I had it'. Bacon also
condemned 'this immodest and deformed manner of writing lately
entertained, whereby matters of religion are handled in the style of the
stage'.[861] But before long the vigour of the attack drove the bishops
to seek on their side for an equally effective literary retort. They
hired writers, including John Lyly and Thomas Nashe; and these not only
answered Martin in his own vein, but also made use of the theatres for
what must have been the congenial task of producing scurrilous plays
against him. To this campaign there are many allusions in the pamphlets
belonging to the controversy. The Puritans hit back with all their old
contempt of the rogues and vagabonds dressed in the Queen's liveries;
but the laugh was on the other side when Martin was brought dressed like
a monstrous ape on the stage, and wormed and lanced to let the blood and
evil humours out of him, or when Divinity appeared with a scratched
face, complaining of the assaults received in the hideous creature's
attacks upon her honour. _Vetus Comoedia_, the savage Aristophanic
invective, was assuredly in full swing upon the English boards. Nashe
professed to have another device ready, in which Martin was to figure in
a grotesque pageant called the _May-Game of Martinism_; but the scandal
was now getting too great, and the Government was obliged to disavow its
own instruments. According to Nashe, it was by 'sly practice' that the
comedies which had been penned were not allowed to be played. However
this may have been, we find the Lord Mayor writing to Lord Burghley on 6
November 1589 that, in accordance with what he understood from a letter
of his lordship to Mr. Young of Middlesex to be his desire, he had
stayed plays in the City, in that the Master of the Revels 'did utterly
mislike the same'. Almost immediately afterwards, on 12 November, the
Privy Council issued three letters from 'the Starre Chamber' to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Mayor, and the Master of the Revels,
directing the Master to join with a divine and with a person 'learned
and of judgement' nominated by the other two, and form a commission for
allowing the books of plays and striking out or reforming 'suche partes
and matters as they shall fynde unfytt and undecent to be handled in
playes, both for Divinitie and State'. Perpetual disabilities are
threatened to players who produce any pieces not so allowed.

There are indications that in the next year or two a considerable
increase took place in the number of plays given during each week. Other
kinds of amusement, no less than more serious occupations, suffered, and
in a letter of 25 July 1591 to London, Middlesex, and Surrey, the Privy
Council had not merely to insist once more upon the due observance of
Sunday, but also to forbid plays on Thursdays, on the ground that on
this day bear-baiting and other like pastimes, maintained for the royal
pleasure if occasion should require, had 'ben allwayes accustomed and
practized'. In the following year the Corporation were moved to approach
Archbishop Whitgift with a view to obtaining some redress of their
grievances through his influence. By a letter of 25 February they set
out the evils of plays in the familiar terms, expressing themselves as
moved by the 'earnest continuall complaint' of the preachers and
declaring that by no one thing was the government of the City 'so
greatly annoyed and disquieted'. They explained the difficulty in which
they were put by the authority conferred upon the Master of the Revels,
who had licensed the playing-houses, 'which before that time lay open
to all the statutes for the punishing of these and such lyke disorders',
and begged the Archbishop to confer with the Master as to the
possibility of providing for the Queen's recreation without the
necessity of public performances. A second letter of 6 March thanks the
Archbishop for his advice, which apparently was, quite frankly, to bribe
the Master. A committee of the Corporation was appointed on 18 March to
treat with Tilney, but the scheme fell through for financial reasons. On
22 March the Court of the Merchant Taylors Company discussed a
'precepte' from the Lord Mayor, which called attention to the evils of
plays and suggested 'the payment of one anuytie to one Mr. Tylney,
mayster of the revelles of the Queenes house, in whose hands the
redresse of this inconveniency doeth rest, and that those playes might
be abandoned out of this citie'. The Court sympathized, but 'wayinge the
damage of the president and enovacion of raysinge of anuyties upon the
Companies of London', declined to unloose their purse-strings. On 12
June the Lord Mayor reported to Lord Burghley a disturbance in
Southwark, the pretence for which had been furnished by a gathering at a
play, held in defiance of orders on a Sunday. Anticipation of a renewal
of disorder on Midsummer Day led the Council on 23 June to impose an
inhibition on plays until the following Michaelmas. Three undated papers
in the Henslowe-Alleyn collection at Dulwich may perhaps suggest that
later in the summer they became willing to relax their severity. The
first of these is a petition to the Council from Lord Strange's men,
begging to be allowed to use their play-house on the Bankside, both for
their own sake, as otherwise they would have to travel at considerable
charge, and for that of the watermen who 'nowe in this long vacation'
look for relief through ferrying spectators to and from the plays. The
second is a petition from the watermen themselves to the same effect.
The third is a copy of a warrant from the Council, setting out that not
long since they had restrained Lord Strange's men from playing at the
Rose and enjoined them to play at Newington Butts, and removing the
injunction, 'by reason of the tediousness of the waie and that of longe
tyme plaies have not there bene used on working daies'. If these
documents really belong to 1592, which must remain doubtful, the
permission to resume playing was almost certainly rendered nugatory by a
plague more serious than any that had devastated London since 1563. In
fact Henslowe's _Diary_ shows no performances at the Rose between 22
June and 29 December, and the short winter season that followed was
abruptly broken off by a renewed outbreak and an order from the Privy
Council on 28 January for the suppression of all assemblies for purposes
of amusement within seven miles of London. This was probably renewed in
April, and the companies, who had waited for some months in hopes of
relaxation, had perforce to travel. On 29 April and 6 May the Council
itself issued warrants of authorization to Lord Sussex's and Lord
Strange's men respectively to assist them in taking this course.
Probably the theatres remained closed during the greater part of the
next eighteen months. Henslowe's _Diary_ only indicates performances
from 27 December 1593 to 6 February 1594, evidently interrupted by
another restraint within five miles of London under a Council order of 3
February, and then a few more in April and in May. The Countess of
Warwick's men seem to have been negotiating with the City for toleration
on 10 May. Regular playing, however, was not resumed on Bankside until 3
June. The plague was now fairly over, and the shattered companies began
to reconstruct themselves. In October Lord Hunsdon wrote to the Lord
Mayor begging permission for his men to use the Cross Keys in
Gracechurch Street. In November Francis Langley, one of the alnagers for
London, was planning a new theatre, the Swan, on the Bankside, and the
Lord Mayor once more detailed the objections to plays in a letter of
protest to Lord Burghley. This was followed up on 13 September 1595 by a
formal petition from the Corporation for 'the present stay and finall
suppressing' of plays in Middlesex and Surrey. Herein the origin of yet
another prentice riot was traced to the obnoxious performances.
Obviously the request was not acceded to. Henslowe's _Diary_ shows no
break in the sequence of plays, except for Lent, until the July of 1596,
when plague once more called for an inhibition. At about the same time
the balance of parties on the Privy Council was seriously disturbed by
the death of Henry Lord Hunsdon, who had been Lord Chamberlain since
1585. His successor, Lord Cobham, was less favourable to the players. In
the course of the long vacation Thomas Nashe wrote of them as 'piteously
persecuted by the Lord Maior and the Aldermen: and however in their old
Lord's tyme they thought there state setled it is now so uncertayne they
cannot build upon it'. In November there was a petition from inhabitants
of the Blackfriars against the erection of a theatre in the precinct,
which recited how 'all players being banished by the Lord Mayor from
playing within the city by reason of the great inconveniences and ill
rule that followeth them, they now think to plant themselves in
liberties.' At last the City had gained the point denied them in 1574
and again in 1584. Their importunity, in season and out of season, had
moved the hearts of the autocratic body at Whitehall. Hence-forward,
although play-houses might stand thick enough within the rapidly growing
suburbs beyond the gates, there were to be none, or at any rate none but
'private' houses, within the closely guarded circuit of the liberties. A
fuller account of the transaction, without any clear indication of its
date, is given many years later by Richard Rawlidge in _A Monster Lately
Found Out, or The Scourging of Tipplers_ (1628), and five play-houses
are enumerated as pulled down and suppressed under authority from the
Queen and Council by the 'religious senators'.[862]

The events of the next year must have given the Corporation high hopes
of making an equally clean sweep in the suburbs. They had by now learnt
that, although there were many abuses of the stage to which the Council
would turn a blind eye, any interference in politics or encouragement,
direct or indirect, to civil commotion, was not one of them. On 28 July
1597 they were able, in renewing their appeal for a 'present staie and
fynall suppressinge' of the Middlesex and Surrey theatres, to add to
their summary of 'inconveniences' a definite statement of a recent
confession by some unruly apprentices that plays had served as the
'randevous' of their 'mutinus attemptes'. On the same day the Council
wrote to the Middlesex and Surrey Justices, ordering not merely that
there should be a restraint of plays within three miles of the City
until Allhallowtide, but also that the owners of the theatres should be
required 'to pluck downe quite the stages, gallories and roomes that are
made for people to stand in, and so to deface the same as they maie not
be ymploied agayne to suche use'. As their reason they cited the
disorders, due partly to the 'confluence of bad people' at the
play-houses, and partly to the handling of 'lewd matters' on the stage.
There is reason to suppose that their action was not altogether
determined by the representations of the City. A 'seditious' play called
_The Isle of Dogs_ had been shown on one of the Bankside stages.[863]
This had been brought to their notice by the famous heretic-hunter and
informer, Richard Topcliffe, and was, according to Henslowe's _Diary_,
the cause of the restraint. The players and one of the makers of the
play had been committed to prison; the other, Thomas Nashe, had fled to
Yarmouth, leaving incriminating papers in his lodgings. On 15 August a
commission was issued to Topcliffe and others to examine further into
the matter and ascertain how far the 'lewd' play had been spread abroad.
The second writer has recently been found to be Benjamin Jonson, who
thus makes his stormy entry into a field of activity which he was
destined, more than any other save one, to illustrate and adorn. It is
natural to suppose that, in ordering the complete gutting of the
theatres, the Council contemplated the continuance of the restraint even
beyond Allhallowtide. But if so, they again changed their minds, and the
City were disappointed. On 3 October a warrant was sent to the Keeper of
the Marshalsea for the release of Jonson and of the offending players,
and Henslowe's _Diary_ notes the resumption of playing a week later.
Evidently the Council had satisfied themselves, perhaps under the
influence of another new Lord Chamberlain, George Lord Hunsdon, who had
succeeded Lord Cobham in the course of the year, that it was after all
impossible, in view of the amenities of the royal Christmas, wholly to
dispense with plays.

This winter of 1597-8 is really an important turning-point in the
history of stage-control. The events of the past two years, following
upon a long period of vexatious conflict, seem to have brought the
Government to the conclusion that the method of regulation through the
magistrates had now broken down, and that the time had come for the
resettlement of the matter upon the more centralized basis already
foreshadowed by the commission to the Master of the Revels in 1581. Of
this there are two indications. And first, for the county as a whole, a
new Vagabond Act, replacing that of 1572, had been called for by the
progressive development of the Elizabethan poor-law policy on the humane
lines of a local rate, and the consequent possibility of discriminating
more closely between the deserving poor and the idle vagrants. The
latter class were again to be treated with greater severity. Summary
whipping was reinstated and might be inflicted in future by local
constables as well as justices. The more dangerous rogues were to be
transported, and treated as felons if they returned. These were the main
objects of the statute, but incidentally the status of players and
minstrels was affected. The power of justices to license travelling was
taken away. Before long even John Dutton had to prove his claim to his
Cheshire privilege. The right of noblemen to protect their servants was
not interfered with, and indeed must now have become even more
important, as they acquired a monopoly; but it must be exercised under
hand and seal and, although this point is not dealt with in the statute,
must presumably be endorsed by the Master of the Revels. As regards
London and its suburbs in particular, the Privy Council, with the Master
of the Revels as an adviser and agent, took the control into its own
hands, and decided that the companies to be licensed should be limited
to two. It seems likely that this policy took shape in a solemn order in
Star Chamber, although the document itself has not reached us.[864] At
any rate the rule is set out and confirmed in a letter written by the
Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Admiral to the Justices and the Master of
the Revels on 19 February 1598, in which complaint is made of the
intrusion of a third company, not included in the Council's sanction and
not bound to the Master of the Revels for observance of the conditions
imposed. In principle it continued to prevail until the end of the
reign, although in practice it was not found very easy to restrict the
number of companies, and still less that of theatres. On the Surrey
side, indeed, an element of local feeling adverse to the stage began to
show itself, which perhaps owed its origin to little more than a dispute
about the liability of the players to contribute to local assessments.
It took shape in a petition from the vestry of St. Saviour's, Southwark,
to the Council on 19 July 1598 for the closing of the play-houses in the
parish, on account of the enormities that came thereby. But on 28 March
1600 the vestry were content that the churchwardens should 'talk with
the players for tithes for their playhouses and for money for the poor,
according to the order taken before my lords of Canterbury and London
and the Master of the Revels'. In Middlesex, on the other hand, the
growth of the western suburbs and their convenience for theatrical
purposes led to divers new enterprises. The most important of these was
the erection of the Fortune in St. Giles's, Cripplegate, by Edward
Alleyn during 1600. The Council seem to have been in two minds about the
desirability of the scheme. In January the project had been encouraged
by a personal letter from the Lord Admiral to the Middlesex Justices.
Some of the inhabitants, however, raised a protest, and in March the
Council ordered the Justices in nowise to permit the building, as that
would be inconsistent with the order for the plucking down of theatres
given them 'not longe sithence'. If this means the order of 28 July
1597, the Council seem to have forgotten that their own action later in
the same year had rendered it nugatory; nor were they very consistent
when, on 15 May 1600, they allowed the use of the Swan, which certainly
should have been plucked down in 1597, for feats of activity by Peter
Bromvill, an acrobat specially recommended to Elizabeth by the French
king. Ultimately the question of the Fortune received a final
reconsideration. The inhabitants, just as in Southwark, were squared by
the promise of liberal contributions towards poor relief. Possibly,
also, the Queen herself intervened in Alleyn's favour, and on 8 April
the consent of the Council was signified by a further letter to the
justices. On 22 June the allowance was explained and the principle
adopted in 1597 reaffirmed by an Order in Council, which was not,
however, passed without some 'question and debate'. There were to be two
houses and no more, the Fortune in Middlesex for the Admiral's men and
the Globe in Surrey for the Chamberlain's. In addition to the old
prohibitions of plays on Sunday, in Lent or during infection, two new
restrictions make their appearance. No plays were in future to be given
in any 'common inn', and neither of the privileged companies was to play
more than twice a week. A few months before, on 1 April 1600, the
Middlesex Justices had stopped a contemplated play-house in East
Smithfield on the strength of the Star Chamber order. But the
twice-repeated limitation of the Privy Council, for all the formality of
its expression, seems to have had the shortest of lives. By October 1600
it had already been broken by Pembroke's men, who began to play in that
month as a third company at the Rose. During the same year the Chapel
boys and those of St. Paul's were also performing, although no doubt
these were technically located in 'private' houses. Blackfriars, where
the Chapel plays were given, was not yet in the full sense part of the
City; it was, however, to the Lord Mayor that the Council gave
instructions on 11 March 1601 to stop plays in the Blackfriars, as well
as at St. Paul's, during Lent. In May the Curtain was open, and although
the Council suppressed a particular play there, they did not suppress
the house. By the end of 1601 the order of the previous year had fallen
into complete disregard. There were a 'multitude of play-howses' and a
daily concourse of people to the plays. The Corporation complained and
were informed by the Council on 31 December that the fault lay largely
with themselves and their predecessors, as they had failed to see to the
execution of their lordships' directions. These were renewed, and a
reminder was also sent to the county Justices. It has been suggested
that the attitudes of the Corporation and the Council had now been
reversed, and that the former had become favourably disposed towards the
players.[865] I find no evidence of this. Probably the City policy was
to show that the Council's attempt at regulation had broken down, and
that complete prohibition had become the only remedy. On 31 March 1602
the Council wrote again to the Lord Mayor, who had reported some
amendment of the abuses, and announced that, 'upon noteice of her
Maiesties pleasure at the suit of the Earle of Oxford', a third company,
made up of the Earl's servants and of those of the Earl of Worcester,
were to be tolerated, and were to have the Boar's Head as their sole
playing-place.

Plays were suspended by the Council on 19 March 1603 during the illness
of the Queen, which terminated fatally on 24 March. Their resumption was
anticipated on the coming of James, one of whose first acts was to issue
on 7 May a proclamation against plays or bear-baiting on Sundays. But
plague intervened, a plague more deadly even than that of 1592-4; and it
was not until after the Lent of 1604 that on 9 April the Council
authorized the three companies of players to the King, Queen, and Prince
to perform at the Globe, Curtain, and Fortune, so long as the weekly
plague-deaths should not exceed thirty. These were the former companies
of the Chamberlain's, Worcester's, and the Admiral's men, now taken
directly into the royal service. By a piece of generosity not paralleled
during the late reign, the King's men had received a payment of £30 from
the Treasurer of the Chamber in February for their 'maintenance and
relief', in view of the prohibition of performances during the plague.
The attachment of the three companies to the royal households is to be
regarded as something a little more than a mere honour bestowed upon
them. It signified a further advance on the lines already laid down in
1597 and 1600 of direct royal control in affairs theatrical. In favour
of the King's men, the precedent set for Leicester's men in 1574 was
revived, and their privileges, formerly dependent upon orders of the
Privy Council, were conferred upon them by a licence under letters
patent. A similar patent was drafted for Queen Anne's men, but was not
at the time executed. In 1606 a provincial detachment of these men was
using a letter of recommendation from the Queen herself as a warrant;
they did not receive a licence under letters patent until 1609.
Gradually, however, the issue of a patent became the normal Jacobean
method of licensing the privileged London players. The Children of the
Queen's Revels received theirs in 1604 and a new one in 1610, the
Prince's men in 1606, the Duke of York's in 1610, the Lady Elizabeth's
in 1611, and the Elector Palatine's in 1613. In 1615 a patent of an
exceptional type was issued to Philip Rosseter and his partners for a
new theatre at Porter's Hall in the Blackfriars. In the patents for
companies the model of the 1574 patent is in the main followed, but as a
rule the 'usual howse' in which the company will play is named. This,
however, does not seem to be meant to fetter their discretion to use
some other convenient house, and a general authority to play in the
provinces is, except in the case of the Revels Children, always added.
There is no such limitation on playing to two days a week as was imposed
on the companies by the Council order of 1600. Most of the patents
contain a clause reserving 'all auctoritie power priuiledges and
profittes' appertaining to the Master of the Revels under his patent or
commission. This is omitted in the licence for the King's men and in
both of those for the Revels Children, whose 1604 patent contains a
special clause requiring their plays to have the 'approbacion and
allowaunce' of Samuel Daniel, whom Queen Anne had appointed for that
purpose.[866] It became the duty of the Master to scrutinize the
phraseology of plays in the light of an _Act to Restrain Abuses of
Players_, passed in May 1606, which imposed a penalty of £10 for any
profane or jesting use of the names of God, Christ Jesus, the Holy
Ghost, or the Trinity, in any stage-play, interlude, show, May-game, or
pageant. This statute, even if not always literally observed, entailed
much revision of existing dramatic texts.

If the system of patents did not render the London players independent
of the Master of the Revels, still less did it abrogate from the
ultimate authority of the King in Council. There is evidence that the
theatres were closed in the autumn of 1605, during which plague was
prevalent, and in this matter the responsibility for action still rested
with the Council.[867] Unfortunately the full Register for the period
1603-13 is missing. A letter of 12 April 1607 from the City asking for a
restraint is addressed to the Lord Chamberlain, whose function it would
no doubt be to move the Council. In this or some later year the
Whitefriars vestry seem also to have made a protest against the dumping
of a play-house in their precinct.[868] That plague interfered with
plays in 1608-9, and 1609-10 also, is indicated by payments made to the
King's men 'for their private practice' during these years. After 1610
London was no more troubled by the plague until 1625. Other reasons for
inhibiting plays sometimes presented themselves. Some bad political
indiscretions of 1608, which will require consideration in the next
chapter, led to a temporary suspension of performances and a royal
threat of permanent suppression. The untimely death of Prince Henry on 7
November 1612 threw a shadow upon all mirth, and the Council declared
that 'these tymes doe not suite with such playes and idle shewes, as are
daily to be seene in and neere the cittie of London, to the scandall of
order and good governement at all occasions when they are most
tollerable'. On 29 March 1615 the Council summoned representatives of
all the London companies before them, to answer for playing in Lent,
contrary to the express direction of the Lord Chamberlain given through
the Master of the Revels. The records of suburban administration show
the Middlesex Justices trying William Claiton, an East Smithfield
victualler, on 20 December 1608, for suffering plays to be performed in
his house during the night season, and on 1 October 1612 making an Order
for Suppressing Jigs at the End of Plays, on the ground that the lewd
jigs, songs, and dances so used at the Fortune led to the resort of
cutpurses and other ill-disposed persons and to consequent breaches of
the peace. Generally speaking, the problem of metropolitan stage-control
may be said, during the reign of James I, to have reached a condition of
comparative stability.

As regards the provinces there has been some misapprehension. The royal
patents of course ran there, and there is one example of a patent issued
to a company which actually had its head-quarters in a provincial town,
that to the Children of the Queen's Chamber of Bristol, granted through
the influence of Queen Anne, who had visited Bristol on her progress in
1613. But in the provinces the patented companies had no monopoly; side
by side with them still wandered both unlicensed vagrants and the
protected servants of noblemen. It is true that a Vagabond Act of 1604,
which in the main and with certain exceptions, such as dropping the
experiment of transportation, continued the policy of that of 1597, has
been supposed to have withdrawn the privilege of protection.[869] But
the provincial records show that in fact the noblemen's companies were
still afoot, and the provision of the statute itself, when carefully
read, bears quite another interpretation.[870] It professes to be
declaratory of that of Elizabeth on which 'divers doubtes and questions'
had arisen, and after reciting the catalogue of persons who were to be
classed as vagrants, which includes not only players of interludes, but
also fencers, bearwards, minstrels, begging scholars and sailors,
palmists, fortune-tellers, proctors, and others, it lays down that no
authority shall be given by noblemen to 'any other person or persons';
that is surely, to any of the persons named in the catalogue, other than
the players of interludes belonging to the noblemen and authorized under
their hands and seals, for whom exception is specifically made
therein.[871] The system of patents lent itself to certain abuses by
travelling companies. Exemplifications were taken out in duplicate, and
while the regular company remained in London, a quite distinct one would
go on tour with one of the duplicates and, if necessary, an instrument
of deputation from the man named in the patent of which it was a
copy.[872] This practice was condemned in 1616 by a warrant of the Lord
Chamberlain, to whose department the supervision of the issue of playing
patents, as well as the general supervision of the Master of the Revels,
appears to have been entrusted. The same document also condemns a
company which had been travelling under a 'warrant,' by which is
apparently meant a licence under the royal sign manual or signet, used
instead of an elaborate and doubtless expensive patent.[873] The signet
licences were, however, such an obvious convenience that it was not long
before they came to be regularly issued to players under the
administration of the Lord Chamberlain himself.[874] This is a topic
which lies rather beyond my purview. Nor can I dwell at any length on
the evidence which shows that the licences given to players, like other
assumptions of the royal prerogative, did not pass altogether without
criticism from contemporary constitutionalists. I do not know whether it
was a weak point that the statutory sanction taken for the patents in
1572 was not re-enacted in 1597. Their wording purported clearly enough
to give the holders an authority to play both within and without the
liberties and freedoms of any cities, towns, and boroughs. But Chief
Justice Sir Edward Coke, charging a Norwich jury on 4 August 1606,
appears to have told the justices that the remedy of the abuses due to
players was entirely in their hands--'they hauing no commission to play
in any place without leaue: and therefore, if by your willingnesse they
be not entertained, you may soone be rid of them'.[875] Too much stress
must not be laid upon this, for Coke vigorously repudiated the accuracy
of the printed edition of his charge from which the passage is
taken.[876] But Prynne seems to insinuate a very similar argument in his
_Histriomastix_ of 1633,[877] and in any event the validity of the
patents was terminated by the final ordinance for the suppression of
plays passed by the Long Parliament on 9 February 1648, which enacted
that 'all stage-players, and players of interludes, and common playes,
are hereby declared to be, and are, and shall be taken to be, rogues,
... whether they be wanderers or no, and notwithstanding any license
whatsoever from the King or any person or persons to that purpose'.[878]
We, however, are now concerned, not with the decadence of the stage, but
with its palmy days under Elizabeth and James.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 839: Aydelotte, 58, misrepresents the Act of 1531 on this
point. The clearest proof that the unprotected player was a vagabond is
in a Privy Council letter of 30 April 1556 to Lord Shrewsbury (Lodge, i.
260), which, after directing that Sir Francis Leek shall not let his
servants travel as players, adds, 'And in case any person shall attempt
to set forth these sort of games or pastimes at any time hereafter,
contrary to this order; and do wander, for that purpose, abroad in the
country; your Lordship shall do well to give the Justices of the Peace
in charge to see them apprehended out of hand, and punished as
vagabonds, by virtue of the statute made against loitering and idle
persons'.]

[Footnote 840: Cf. App. C, s.vv. Gosson (1582), 215; Cox (1591); App. D,
No. lxxv (2) (_b_). An Act of 1552 (_5 & 6 Edw. VI_, c. 21) required
every travelling 'Pedler, Tynker, or Pety Chapman' to have a licence
from two justices of the shire in which he resided (_Statutes_, iv.
155). This was merged in the Act of 1572 (App. D, No. xxiv), but not
formally repealed until _1 Jac. I_, c. 25, in 1604 (_Statutes_, iv.
1052).]

[Footnote 841: _Procl._ 455; cf. Dasent, v. 73; Machyn, 69.]

[Footnote 842: Cf. _M. S. C._ i. 350; Aydelotte, 14. _Procl._ 273 laid
down (1545) 'that noe person of what estate, degree or condicion soever
he be, doe in any wise hereafter name or avowe any man to be his
servant, unles he be his houshold servant, or his bailiffe or keeper, or
such other as he may keepe and retayne by the lawes and statutes of this
realme, or be retayned by the kings maiestys licence' (Hazlitt, _E. D.
S._ 7). But the laws against retainers had fallen into desuetude again
by 1572; cf. App. D, No. xix.]

[Footnote 843: Scargill-Bird³, 80; W. R. Anson, _Law and Custom of the
Constitution_, ii. 1. 55; H. Hall, _Studies in English Official
Historical Documents_, 263; _M. S. C._ i. 260. The stages of a patent,
as settled by _27 Hen. VIII_, c. 11 (1535), were (_a_) a Petition
setting out the grant desired, and (_b_) a direction by the Sovereign
for the preparation of (_c_) a King's Bill. In this the wording of the
intended patent was settled, and this wording was followed, with varying
initial and final _formulae_, in the subsequent instruments. The King's
Bill received the royal Sign Manual and became the authority for the
issue by a Clerk to the Signet of (_d_) a Signet Bill. This was sent to
the Lord Privy Seal, who based upon it (_e_) a Writ of Privy Seal, which
was addressed to the Lord Chancellor, and became in its turn the
authority for the issue of (_f_) the actual Letters Patent under the
Great Seal. These were handed to the recipient, while the Writ of Privy
Seal passed on to the Six Clerks in Chancery, for (_g_) an Enrolment of
its contents upon the Patent Roll.]

[Footnote 844: Cf. ch. ii.]

[Footnote 845: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 216.]

[Footnote 846: Cf. App. D, Nos. ii-v.]

[Footnote 847: Dasent, iii. 307.]

[Footnote 848: _S. P. D. Edw. VI_, xv. 33. By _5 & 6 Edw. VI_ of 1552
(_Statutes_, iv. 155) travelling tinkers and pedlars could hold a
licence from two justices of the peace. This arrangement is continued by
the Act of 1572 (_vide infra_), and tinkers and pedlars are there
grouped with players. Possibly therefore such local licences had also
been issued to players who were not 'servants', even before 1572.]

[Footnote 849: Dasent, i. 104, 109, 110, 122. The nature of the joiners'
offence is clear; three of those imprisoned were named Hawtrell, Lucke,
and Lucas. They had played 'wythowt respect ether off the day or the
ordre whiche was knowen openlye the Kinges Highnes intended to take for
repressinge off playes'. At the same time the Lord Warden's men were
committed 'for playing contrary to an ordre taken by the Mayour'.]

[Footnote 850: P. F. Tytler, _England under the Reigns of Edward VI and
Mary_, i. 21, from _S. P. D. Edw. VI_, i. 5.]

[Footnote 851: Gildersleeve, 5, points out that I was misled by Collier,
i. 119, into citing the Marian proclamation in _Mediaeval Stage_, ii.
220, under 1533 as well as 1553. I regret the error.]

[Footnote 852: Dasent, vi. 102. The Lord Mayor is to send offending
players 'to the Commissioners for Religion to be by them further
ordered, and also to take ordre that no playe be made hencefourthe
within the Citie except the same be first seen and allowed and the
players aucthorised'.]

[Footnote 853: Cf. ch. xxii and App. D, Nos. ix, xii, xiii. The
Commission had also an authority over vagrants in or near London, which
apparently disappeared after the legislation of 1572 (_vide infra_).]

[Footnote 854: There is a doubtful notice of a Court play by the
servants of George Evelyn of Wotton in 1588. Sir Percival Hart's sons
played in 1565.]

[Footnote 855: The list of small travelling companies in Murray, ii. 77,
113, includes 14 belonging to knights and 3 to gentlemen in 1558-72, and
8 belonging to knights and 2 to gentlemen in 1573-97; also 7 companies
under the names of their towns only in 1558-72 and 11 in 1573-97.
Alexander Houghton of Lea in Lancashire wrote on 3 Aug. 1581 (G. J.
Piccope, _Lancashire and Cheshire Wills_, ii. 238), 'Yt ys my wyll that
Thomas Houghton of Brynescoules my brother shall have all my
instrumentes belonginge to mewsyckes and all maner of playe clothes yf
he be mynded to keppe and doe keppe players. And yf he wyll not keppe
and maynteyne playeres then yt ys my wyll that Sir Thomas Heskethe
Knyghte shall haue the same instrumentes and playe clothes. And I moste
hertelye requyre the said Syr Thomas to be ffrendlye unto Foke Gyllome
and William Shakshafte now dwellynge with me and ether to take theym
unto his servyce or els to helpe theym to some good master'. Was then
William Shakshafte a player in 1581?]

[Footnote 856: _S. P. D. Eliz._ clx. 48; clxiii. 44, record a dispute in
1583 between Sir Walter Waller and Mr. Potter, a J.P. of Kent. Waller,
summoned before the Council, denies that his servants played an
interlude at Brasted, and is confirmed by the constable and
parishioners, who assert that Mr. Potter factiously sent the men to gaol
as rogues. Lord Cobham made a vain attempt to reconcile the parties.]

[Footnote 857: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 259, on the history of this
privilege. The reservation was continued by _39 Eliz._ c. 4, § 10
(1598). By _43 Eliz._ c. 9, § 2 (1601), it was made dependent on a
certificate by the Lords Justices to the validity of Dutton's claim.
Presumably this was obtained as the privilege was reserved
unconditionally by _1 Jac. I_, c. 7, § 8 (1604). There were several
Elizabethan actors of the name of Dutton (cf. ch. xv), but it is not
known whether they belonged to the Cheshire house.]

[Footnote 858: For documents addressed to Richard Young or mentions of
him, cf. App. D, Nos. lxviii, lxxiv, xc. He is often referred to in the
_Hatfield MSS._, in connexion with a monopoly of starch which he held,
and otherwise. In 1593 (iv. 393) he writes 'from my house, Stratford the
Bowe'. On 30 Nov. 1594 (v. 25) he wrote to the Queen, 'in these my aged
and extreme or last days' with notes of many examinations, chiefly of
papists, taken by him. On the other hand, Carter, _Shakespeare Puritan
and Recusant_, 145, quotes an inscription on the coffin of Roger Rippon,
who died in Newgate in 1592, 'his blood crieth for speedy vengeance
against ... Mʳ. Richard Young, a justice of the peace in London, who in
this and many like points hath abused his power for the upholding of the
Romish Antichrist, Prelacy and Priesthood'.]

[Footnote 859: Cf. p. 265. Collier, i. 254, quotes an epigram calling
Fleetwood 'the enemy of all poor players'. John Field dedicates his
_Godly Exhortation_ (1583) to him as a Middlesex and Surrey Justice.]

[Footnote 860: Cf. App. D, Nos. xxxvii, lxviii.]

[Footnote 861: Bacon, _On the Controversies of the Church_ (Spedding,
viii. 76).]

[Footnote 862: Cf. ch. xvi, introduction.]

[Footnote 863: Cf. ch. xxiii, s.vv. Jonson, Nashe.]

[Footnote 864: Cf. App. D, No. cxx.]

[Footnote 865: Wallace, ii. 162.]

[Footnote 866: There is no reference to licensing in the later Queen's
Revels patent of 1610. That for the Queen's men in 1609 has the usual
provision for licensing by the Master of the Revels. This was, however,
not inconsistent with 'a kind of gouernment and suruey ouer the said
players' by the Chamberlain of the Queen's Household (cf. ch. xiii).]

[Footnote 867: Philip Gawdy (_Letters_, 160) writes on 28 Oct. 1605 of
his nephew in London, 'Playes he was never at any, for they are all put
downe'; cf. App. D, Nos. cxxxix, cxl.]

[Footnote 868: Cf. ch. xvii.]

[Footnote 869: Some interesting light is thrown on the workings of the
Vagabond Acts in the North Riding of Yorkshire by the presentations in
_Quarter Sessions Records_ (_North Riding Record Soc._), i. 204, 260;
ii. 110, 119, 197. At Topcliffe on 2 Oct. 1610 Thomas Pant, apprentice
to Christopher Simpson of Egton, shoemaker and recusant, was released
from his indentures on complaining that he had been 'trayned up for
these three yeres in wandering in the country and playing of
interludes'. At Helmesley on 8 July 1612 Christopher Simpson, late of
Egton, was presented and fined as a player, and Richard Dawson, tanner
and constable of Stokesley, for allowing Christopher and also Robert
Simpson of Staythes, shoemaker, Richard Hudson of Hutton Bushell,
weaver, and Edward Lister of Allerston, weaver, to wander as common
players of interludes. A similar charge was made against William
Blackborne, labourer and constable of Marton, as regards Robert Simpson,
Richard Knagges of Moorsham, William Fetherston of Danby, and James
Pickering of Bowlby, mason. At Helmesley on 9 Jan. 1616 a number of
gentlemen and yeomen were presented for receiving players in their
houses and giving them bread and drink. John, Richard, and Cuthbert
Simpson, recusants, of Egton, Robert Simpson, of Staythes, and four
other players were fined 10_s._ each. There were similar cases at Hutton
Bushell on 4 April 1616, at Thirsk on 10 April 1616 and 7 April 1619,
and at Helmesley on 9 July 1616. Presumably the Simpsons were the same
men who brought Sir John Yorke into trouble with the Star Chamber in
1614 (cf. p. 328).]

[Footnote 870: Gildersleeve, 28, 35, 38. The origin of the error is
probably in the shoulder-note 'No Licence by any Noblemen shall exempt
Players' to _1 Jac. I_, c. 7, § 1, in the R. O. edition of the
_Statutes_.]

[Footnote 871: The players of Lords Berkeley, Chandos, Dudley, Evers,
Huntingdon, and Mounteagle (Murray, ii. 28, 32, 43, 45, 49, 57), as well
as those of the Duke of Lennox (cf. ch. xiii), are still traceable after
1604.]

[Footnote 872: Cf. App. D, No. clviii, and ch. xiii, s.v. Anne's.]

[Footnote 873: Cf. ch. xii, s.v. King's Revels. A later warrant of 20
Nov. 1622 deals with the same abuse of players and others who 'without
the knowledge and approbacon of his maiesties office of the Revels'
travel 'by reason of certaine grants comissions and lycences which they
haue by secret meanes procured both from the Kings Maiestie and also
from diuerse noblemen' (Murray, ii. 351).]

[Footnote 874: _M. S. C._ i. 284; Murray, ii. 192.]

[Footnote 875: _The Lord Coke his Speech and Charge. With a Discouerie
of the Abuses and Corruption of Officers_ (1607) H₂. There is an
epistle to the Earl of Exeter signed R. P., said (_D. N. B._) to be
Robert Pricket.]

[Footnote 876: Coke, _Preface to 7th Report_, 'libellum quendam ...
rudem et inconcinnum ... quem sane contestor non solum me omnino
insciente fuisse divulgatum, sed ... ne unam quidem sententiolam eo
sensu et significatione, prout dicta erat, fuisse enarratam'; cf.
Gildersleeve, 40; J. Haslewood in _Gentleman's Magazine_, lxxxvi. 1.
205; _1 N. Q._ vii. 376, 433.]

[Footnote 877: Prynne, 492, 497.]

[Footnote 878: Hazlitt, _E. D. S._ 67.]




X

THE ACTOR'S QUALITY

     [_Bibliographical Note._--This chapter mainly rests upon the
     official documents in Appendix D, the plague-data in Appendix
     E, and the detailed accounts of individual companies in Book
     III. To the books and dissertations cited for those sections
     and for chapter viii may be added, as studies of the stage in
     its political aspect, R. Simpson, _The Political Use of the
     Stage in Shakespeare's Time_ and _The Politics of Shakespere's
     Historical Plays_ (1874, _N. S. S. Trans._ 371, 396), S. R.
     Gardiner, _The Political Element in Massinger_ (1875-6, _N. S.
     S. Trans._ 314), S. Lee, _The Topical Side of the Elizabethan
     Drama_ and _Elizabethan England and the Jews_ (1887-92, _N. S.
     S._ 1, 143), J. A. de Rothschild, _Shakespeare and his Day_
     (1906), T. S. Graves, _Some Allusions to Religious and
     Political Plays_ (1912, _M. P._ ix. 545), and _The Political
     Use of the Stage during the Reign of James I_ (1914, _Anglia_,
     xxxviii. 137). The fragments of Sir Henry Herbert's
     office-book, showing the working of the censorship from 1623 to
     1642, usually cited from the _Shakespeare Variorum_ (1821), and
     G. Chalmers, _Supplemental Apology_ (1799), are now
     conveniently collected in J. Q. Adams, _The Dramatic Records of
     Sir Henry Herbert_ (1917). A useful study has recently appeared
     in A. Thaler, _The Travelling Players in Shakespeare's England_
     (1920, _M. P._ xvii. 489).]


The history detailed in the foregoing chapter represents, from the point
of view of the playing companies, a vexed progress towards that state of
regulative security which, in the case of any industry dependent upon a
permanent habitation and the outlay of capital, is the first condition
of economic stability. More than once in the course of the struggle was
an approach made to a settlement before it was actually reached. The
rather obscure period of the first attempts of the companies to
establish themselves in London was closed by the experimental patent to
Leicester's men and the fairly reasonable City regulations of 1574. But
the building of the suburban theatres on the one hand and the
aggressiveness of the preachers on the other broke down the equilibrium;
and there followed a period of acute conflict, of which the commission
to the Master of the Revels in 1581, the City prohibition of 1582, the
appointment of the Queen's men in 1583, and the controversy before the
Privy Council in 1584 formed the final stages. The players were
victorious, and the result of their victory was an assured position
under the Council and the Master of the Revels, which was not indeed
wholly accepted by the City, and was seriously threatened in 1596 and
1597, but only to be the more firmly established in the latter year
when the central government assumed direct responsibility for the
regulation of the stage throughout the London area. I think that 1597
must be regarded as the critical moment at which complete stability was
attained; the substitution under James I of letters patent for Star
Chamber orders as the licensing machinery was of comparatively slight
importance. From 1597 onwards it was definitely the Crown and not the
local authorities which determined the companies to whom, subject to the
detailed administrative control of the Privy Council, the Lord
Chamberlain, and his subordinate the Master of the Revels, the privilege
of playing within the neighbourhood of London should be conceded. And
the policy of the Crown, alike under Elizabeth and under the Stuarts,
was consistently in favour of such solace and recreation for the
Sovereign and the subjects as the players ministered.

And so, tentatively up to 1584, and thereafter with a security which
received final confirmation in 1597, the actor's occupation began to
take its place as a regular profession, in which money might with
reasonable safety be invested, to which a man might look for the career
of a lifetime, and in which he might venture to bring up his children.
As early as 1574 the patent to Leicester's men refers to playing as an
'arte and facultye'. In 1581 the Privy Council call it a 'trade'; in
1582 a 'profession'; in 1593 a 'qualitie'. The order of 1600 explicitly
recognizes that it 'may with a good order and moderacion be suffered in
a well gouerned estate'. So that when Fleetwood takes occasion in 1584
to recall that originally interludes were merely the by-work of 'men for
their lyvings using other honest and lawfull artes, or reteyned in
honest services', his argument has already become anachronistic, not
wholly justified even as an antiquarian quibble, and still less as a
serious appreciation of the administrative facts with which the writer
had to deal. The player of the seventeenth century is in fact as
necessary a member of the polity as the minstrel of the twelfth or the
fourteenth; with this distinction that, in London at least, he is a
householder and not a vagrant, and is therefore able to perform his
function on a larger scale and with a fuller use of the methods and
advantages of co-operation.

Obviously the player's status, like any other status in a civilized
community, depended upon the observance on his side of certain
obligations. He had to get his formal authority or licence for the
exercise of his art. He had to respect certain prescribed limitations of
times and seasons. He had to shoulder certain responsibilities imposed
upon him as a subject and a citizen. To each of these aspects of his
calling some measure of detailed consideration is due.

A company of players was not in form, like a company of merchants, a
guild or association of independent men. Its constitution had a
mediaeval element, by which the derivation of playing from minstrelsy is
strongly recalled. The nature of the licence which it must hold, at any
rate if it desired to secure itself from the arbitrary discretion of
local justices, was determined by statute. And this licence, whether it
took the form of a warrant from a nobleman with the confirmation of the
Master of the Revels, or of a royal licence by patent, was always such
as to set up a relation of service between the company and a 'lord'. Nor
is this relation to be dismissed as a mere empty formality. Probably the
players of many country nobles and gentlemen continued to the end to
consist of their ordinary household servants, who played only at
Christmas and other times of recreation, and mainly at their lord's
expense.[879] With the regular travelling companies, and particularly
with the London companies, it was different. Financially, at least, they
were independent. But even of these the 'service', though largely a
legal fiction, was not wholly so. The Statutes of Retainers, kept alive
by the proclamations of 1572 and 1583, forbade the maintenance of
retainers who were not in some real sense household servants. The
consequent application made by his players to the Earl of Leicester in
1572 does not suggest that the distinction was a very vital one.
Certainly they guard themselves against being supposed to be asking
their lord for a fee. But I think it is clear that the lord was expected
to take some responsibility for the conduct of those who used his name,
and to exercise some discipline in cases of misdemeanour. It was so in
1559, when the proclamation against unlicensed plays expressly called
upon noblemen and gentlemen having players to see that it received
attention from their servants. And it must still have been so in 1583,
when the ill behaviour of Worcester's men at Norwich was effectively
checked by a threat to certify their lord of their contempt. On the
other hand there is abundant evidence that the lord might be looked to,
in time of need, to intervene for the active furtherance of the
interests of his players, over and above the general recommendation to
favour for his sake, which is common form in the warrants of protection
and even in the royal patents. Thus Leicester is found writing to the
President of the North on behalf of his men in 1559, Berkeley and
Hunsdon to the City in 1581 and 1594 respectively, Nottingham to
Middlesex in 1600, Lennox for his men in 1604; while the toleration of
Oxford's and Worcester's men as a third London company in 1602 is
expressly stated by the Privy Council to be due to the suit of the Earl
of Oxford to the Queen. On their side the players no doubt had
reciprocal courtesies, if no more, to pay. They wore the lord's livery
and bore his badge.[880] Leicester's men refer to their livery in their
letter of 1572, and in 1588 they had occasion to make their complaint to
the Norwich Corporation of a local cobbler 'for lewd woords uttered
ageynst the ragged staff'. A practice of offering up a prayer for the
lord's well-being at the end of a performance was probably of ancient
derivation, although whether it survived in the public theatres may
perhaps be doubted.[881] There are instances, moreover, which suggest
that, if the lord had need of players for the celebration of a wedding
or other festivity, it was to his own servants that he would naturally
turn. Thus Leicester had his company with him on his expedition to the
Netherlands in 1585, and it was the Chamberlain's men who were called
upon to play _Henry IV_ at Hunsdon's house in the Blackfriars when he
entertained the Flemish ambassador Verreyken in 1600. Similarly the
royal companies, under both Elizabeth and James, formed integral parts
of the royal household. They were attached to the Lord Chamberlain's
department, and ranked as Grooms of the Chamber. And on one occasion at
least, the visit of the Constable of Castile in 1604, the King's and
Queen's men were actually assigned, in their capacity as Grooms, to the
service of the distinguished strangers. Their exact status is, however,
a matter of some difficulty. The old interlude players had held an
independent position as such, with fees charged originally on the
Exchequer and afterwards on the Chamber, at higher rates than those of
Grooms of the Chamber, and the liveries not of Grooms but of Yeomen.
When they died out, they were replaced by the Queen's men of 1583. Howes
tells us that these 'were sworn the queen's servants and were allowed
wages and liveries as grooms of the chamber'. Howes is not quite a
contemporary authority, and makes at least a technical mistake when he
adds that until 1583 'the queene had no players'. If by 'wages' he means
such annual fees as the interlude players had received, his statement is
not confirmed by the Chamber Accounts, and it is not very likely that
such payments were put back upon the Exchequer. It is true that
fee-lists, not only Elizabethan but Jacobean, continue to include eight
players of interludes at £3 6_s._ 8_d._ each, but I doubt whether this
can be safely taken as evidence that the vacancies were filled.[882] No
doubt, however, Howes was accurate on the main point, for Tarlton is
described in a document of 1587 as an 'ordenary grome off her majestes
chamber', and both Tarlton and Johnson as 'groomes of her majesties
chamber' in another of 1588. I may add that in a list of the sixteen
ordinary grooms who received allowances at Elizabeth's funeral are to be
found the names of George Brian and John Singer.[883] These had been
respectively a Chamberlain's and an Admiral's man, but both seem to have
left playing before the date of the list, and I suspect that they
retired on taking up these active Household appointments. For the King's
players there is fuller testimony, although most of it is Caroline
rather than Jacobean. The players are not called Grooms of the Chamber
in their patents of appointment; but this proves nothing, as most of the
Household posts were conferred, not by patent, but by swearing-in before
the Lord Chamberlain or other high officer. But they received payment as
'his Maiesties Groomes of the Chamber and Players', when they waited
upon the Spanish ambassador in 1604, and are entered in the Chamber
Accounts for this payment as a distinct group, apart from the seven
ordinary and four extraordinary grooms who were also assigned to the
ambassador's service. The Queen's men, who waited upon the Flemish
commissioners, are similarly described as being 'Groomes of the Chamber
and the Queenes Players'. A few months before the King's, Queen's, and
Prince's players had all received 4½ yards of red cloth each as a
livery at the time of James's coronation procession.[884] Nearly a
quarter of a century later we find very similar liveries furnished for
both the King's and the Queen's men by a series of Lord Chamberlain's
warrants to his Wardrobe, which begin in 1622.[885] These liveries were
renewed every two years and consisted at first of three, and afterwards
of four, yards of bastard scarlet for a cloak, and a quarter of a yard
of crimson velvet for a cap. These were of course state liveries, not
the 'watching' liveries of medley-coloured cloth, at 5_s._ a yard as
against the 26_s._ 8_d._ paid for the scarlet.[886] The Chamberlain's
books of the same period also contain warrants for the swearing-in of
new members of the King's and other companies, and in these the players
are directed to be sworn as 'grooms of the chamber in ordinary without
fee'.[887] These are, as I say, Caroline records, but if we may assume
that the procedure which they disclose was no novelty, and that the
royal players from 1583 onwards held this intermediate position as
'grooms in ordinary without fee' between the ordinary and the
extraordinary Grooms of the Chamber, we get an explanation of their
status which, on the assumption that Howes was not quite well informed,
is at least consistent with all the few known facts.

The times and seasons at which plays might be given formed, of course,
one of the chief battle-grounds in the controversy with the preachers;
and it was here that the Puritans, routed on the main issue of the
campaign, were able to secure their principal victory. From the
beginning it was an understood thing that plays must not be given during
the hours of divine service, either on Sundays, or on the Saints' days,
which continued long after the Reformation to be observed as public
holidays. This, however, did not prevent the audiences from gathering,
so that the play-houses were already full, while the bells were still
ringing in the empty services.[888] The City regulations of 1574
attempted to remedy this scandal by extending the prohibition to the
opening of the doors. The same point is made in the 'Remedies' put
forward by the City advocates in 1584. But there was a practical
difficulty, which increased when the theatres in the distant fields or
over the water came into use. Afternoon prayer did not begin until 2
p.m., and if the theatres waited until 4 p.m., the performances were not
over, except in the height of summer, before dark, and the audiences
must make their way home as best they could. The City 'Remedy' for this
was a shortening of the plays; but in 1594 Lord Hunsdon suggested that
to begin at 2 instead of 4 p.m. might after all be the least of two
evils, and this seems to have been the solution ultimately adopted.[889]
The proviso against playing in time of common prayer, which finds a
place in the licence to Leicester's men of 1574, is not repeated in any
of the Jacobean licences, with the exception of Queen Anne's personal
warrant to her provincial company in 1606.

Obviously the clash with divine service became of minor importance when
the Puritans had made good their protest against plays on Sundays, and
when, on the other hand, the theatres came to be open on every week-day,
instead of principally on holidays. Both of these processes were
complete before the final settlement of the status of players was
arrived at.[890] It was the failure to exclude Sundays that above all
things made the City regulations of 1574 inadequate in the eyes of the
preachers, and formed the leading topic of their railings against the
lukewarmness of the 'magistrates'. In the City itself they had gained
this point at least by 1581, with the assent of the Privy Council, who,
while pressing for the toleration of plays both on ordinary week-days
and on holidays, was quite prepared to concede the sanctity of the
Sabbath. With the potent aid afforded by the ruin of Paris Garden at a
Sunday baiting, the City were able about 1583 to get the principle
extended to the suburbs, although both in 1587 and in 1591 the Privy
Council had to call the attention of the county justices to the neglect
of the regulation.[891] In Southwark there is mention of a disturbance
at a play on Sunday as late as 11 June 1592, but as the Lord Mayor
intervened, this can hardly have been at a regular theatre, for there
was only the Rose, which was outside his jurisdiction. On the other
hand, the evidence of Henslowe's _Diary_, as interpreted by Dr. Greg,
shows that the prohibition was strictly observed at the theatres under
his control between 1592 and 1597, and also that the Sunday abstinence
was fully compensated for by continuous playing on every other day of
the week.[892] It is probable that the proclamation against Sunday
plays, issued by James I as one of the first acts of his reign, did no
more, so far as London was concerned, than reaffirm an already accepted
practice. More puzzling is the provision in the Council order of 1600,
whereby each of the two privileged companies was limited to performances
on two days in each week. It must be exceedingly doubtful whether this
limitation was ever in fact observed. There is no evidence in Henslowe's
_Diary_ of any slackening in the output of new plays by the Admiral's
men after 1600. And there is no corresponding limitation in the Jacobean
patents. Moreover, an agreement entered into by Queen Anne's men in June
1615 specifically contemplates performances upon six days a week.

The companies were also expected not to play during Lent. This
limitation may have been traditional. It first becomes explicit in the
Privy Council's permit of 1578 to the Italian company of Martinelli
Drusiano, which is expressed as lasting to the first week in Lent. In
the following year a general inhibition for the coming and all
subsequent Lents was decreed by the Council. The entries in Henslowe's
_Diary_ show some observance of the rule during the last decade of the
sixteenth century. Strange's men in 1592 played right through Lent, with
the exception of Good Friday. The Admiral's men, on the other hand,
during 1595 to 1600, seem regularly to have broken off for some weeks
during Lent. In 1595 and 1596 the interval covered all but the first few
days; in 1597 it was less than three weeks, and thereafter the company
played three days a week up to Easter. A reservation was made for Lent
by the Council order of 1600, and in 1601 the Council sent a special
instruction to the Lord Mayor to stop plays at St. Paul's and the
Blackfriars during the penitential season. Presumably the same practice
prevailed under James I, for the permission to resume playing in April
1604 is expressed as motived by 'the time of Lent being now passt',
while on 29 March 1615 representatives of the London companies were
summoned before the Privy Council, to answer for playing in Lent
contrary to an express direction given them by the Lord Chamberlain
through the Master of the Revels.[893] Some light is thrown on this
proceeding by the fact that two years later each of the companies
undertook to pay the Master of the Revels 44_s._ 'for a Lenten
dispensation'.[894]

A Privy Council letter of 1591 imposes one other curious limitation,
with which the Puritans at any rate can have had nothing to do, upon the
players. They are to lie idle upon Thursdays and leave that day free for
bear-baitings and similar pastimes, which were 'allwayes accustomed and
practized upon it'. I am not sure whether the claim of the bearwards to
Thursday really went back beyond 1583, when it seems to have become
desirable, owing to the impulse to Puritan sentiment given by the Paris
Garden accident, to substitute some other day for the Sunday upon which
baitings had formerly been usual. Nor does it seem that the attempt to
give a special protection to the royal 'game' permanently maintained
itself. The Admiral's men, in spite of Edward Alleyn's interest in the
Bear Garden, certainly did not yield the Thursdays from 1594 to 1597,
and when about 1614 Henslowe and Jacob Meade had occasion to combine
playing and baiting in the Hope, they had to insert special stipulations
in their agreements with the actors, in order to secure one day a
fortnight for the bears.[895]

Obviously the privileges given to players were not intended to exempt
them from the ordinary duties and responsibilities of citizenship. In
the first place, they were called upon to make their contributions to
local burdens in the districts in which they set up their play-houses.
To this they had probably no objection; on the contrary, they more than
once found that a readiness to pay their tithes for the use of the poor
was an effective method of smoothing away difficulties with local
officials.[896] Nor had they less to gain than others from a reasonable
expenditure of money on the repair of the highways.[897]

And secondly, they had to exercise a constant watchfulness against the
danger of allowing their play-houses to become the centres of riot and
sedition, and the cognate danger of allowing matter to creep into their
plays which was contrary to public morals as conceived by those who were
not Puritans, or displeasing to persons of importance, or inconsistent
with the views of Tudor and Stuart governments upon religious and
political questions. The disturbances which form a count in the
sixteenth-century indictments of theatres are not particularly
conspicuous in the seventeenth. There were bad characters enough, both
male and female, amongst the audience. Pockets might be picked and even
modesty endangered; and occasionally brawls and bloodshed were the
result.[898] But in the more important theatres, such as the Globe and
the Fortune, which made their appeal to the well-to-do and the
fashionable, no less than to the groundlings, the maintenance of order
was at least as much in the interests of the players themselves as in
that of any other section of the community. In avoiding subject-matter
of offence, so far as the texts of their plays were concerned, the
companies had of course the assistance of the Master of the Revels, upon
whom, in view of the unwillingness of the City either to appoint
licensing officers themselves or to accept a nominee of the Privy
Council, the functions of a stage censor had, as an alternative policy,
been conferred.[899] The employment of a royal official for this purpose
was in effect a resumption by the central government of a responsibility
which it had already attempted to discharge during the earlier Tudor
reigns, and had then delegated to the local justices by the proclamation
of 1559. The selection of the Master of the Revels explains itself
naturally enough as an extension of the duties which already fell to him
of scrutinizing and, if need be, 'reforming' the plays proposed for
presentation at Court.[900] The actual establishment of his authority
appears to have been a gradual process. It is tentative and limited to
the plays of one company in the patent for Leicester's men of 1574. It
is as wide as possible in the commission issued to the Master in 1581,
overriding the proclamation of 1559, and giving him a complete control,
not only over individual plays, but over players, playmakers, and
playing-places generally. Shortly afterwards, in 1584, the Leicester
archives record that the credentials of Worcester's men at that date
included, in addition to the warrant from their lord, a licence from the
Master of the Revels, from the terms of which it appears that the
company were 'bound to the orders prescribed' by him, and in particular
that all their plays were to be 'allowed' by him, and to have 'his hand
at the latter end of the said booke they doe play'.[901] In London, on
the other hand, the correspondence of 1582-4 between the Privy Council
and the City makes no mention of the Master, and the Council are still
pressing for the appointment of fit persons to consider and allow of
plays by the City itself. In 1589, however, the Lord Mayor cited the
Master's 'mislike' of the Martin Marprelate plays as a reason for
suppressing them, and a step forward was probably taken by the
appointment in the same year of a commission to 'allow' plays,
consisting of the Master himself and of two assessors nominated by the
Lord Mayor and the Archbishop of Canterbury. I find no later reference
to these assessors and it may be that before long the Master succeeded
in divesting himself of their assistance.[902] In any case, their
functions did not go beyond the 'allowing' of the actual plays. The
general licensing of companies and of play-houses remained with the
Master, and by 1592 we find the City acknowledging their powerlessness
to redress the 'inconvenience' of the stage without him and debating the
advisability of approaching him with a bribe. Henslowe's _Diary_
discloses the Master between 1592 and 1597 as regularly licensing both
theatres and plays, and taking fees, which appear to have amounted to
7_s._ for each new play produced, and 5_s._, 6_s._ 8_d._, and ultimately
10_s._ for each week during which a theatre was open.[903] To some
extent the assumption of a more direct control by the Privy Council in
1597 must have limited his responsibility. But he continued to act as
the agent of the Privy Council or the Lord Chamberlain in transmitting
inhibitions and other orders to the companies.[904] Bonds had still to
be given to him for the due observance of the regulations.[905] And he
still drew fees from the theatres which were in fact again advanced in
1599 from 10_s._ to 15_s._ a week. Due reservation is regularly made for
his 'aucthoritie power priuiledges and profittes' in the majority of the
Jacobean patents issued to the London companies.[906] He continued to
license those travelling companies which held no direct royal authority;
and in the course of the seventeenth century he succeeded in
establishing his jurisdiction over many travelling entertainers who were
not strictly players.[907] Above all, it still rested with him to
'allow' the production, even by the patented companies, of individual
plays, and about 1607 he undertook also the allowance of plays for the
press, which had previously been in the hands of licensers appointed
under the High Commission for London.[908] A few manuscripts of plays
are extant which have been submitted to the Master of the Revels for
purposes of censorship, notably those of _Sir Thomas More_ (_c._ 1600)
and _The Second Maiden's Tragedy_ (1611), and give interesting
indications of the manner in which he apprehended his duties.[909]
Tilney, in dealing with _Sir Thomas More_, was perturbed by two
features. The play, as submitted to him, began with a dispute between
Londoners and certain Lombard aliens, leading up to the riots of 'ill
May day' and the reputation won by Sir Thomas More as the restorer of
peace. This was still a ticklish subject at the end of the sixteenth
century, for there had been comparatively recent disturbances on the
alien question, directed against Frenchmen rather than Lombards, and
Tilney therefore went carefully through the earlier pages, altering here
and there 'Frenchman' or 'straunger' into 'Lombard', and marking for
omission or alteration certain passages which might be read as
suggestions to the citizens to take matters into their own hands. In the
margin of one passage he wrote 'Mend this'. Presumably the effect of
these 'reformations' did not satisfy him, for at the beginning of the
first scene he has inserted what Dr. Greg calls 'a very conditional
licence', but what is in fact a direction for the complete recast of the
first part of the play by the omission of the dangerous episodes.[910]
Similarly he was pulled up by a later scene in which More's refusal to
sign articles sent him by the King seemed to be of bad precedent for
subjects, and here he drew a line through a substantial section of the
dialogue, and added a note that all must be altered. _The Second
Maiden's Tragedy_ is a Jacobean, not an Elizabethan, play, and the
censor was Sir George Buck. He, too, is on the look-out for political
criticism, and political criticism in 1611 was likely to be criticism of
King and Court. The passages, therefore, amended by Buck or at his
instigation are a few which speak lightly of courtiers and knights and
ladies of high position, and one in particular which seemed to him to
dwell with too much point and detail upon the delicate theme of
tyrannicide. But this was merely verbal caution. He did not attempt to
eliminate tyrannicide from the plot, in which it formed an essential
element, and returned the copy duly endorsed with a licence over his
signature that it 'may with the reformations bee acted publikely'. One
more point shows some development of censorial practice as between
Tilney and Buck. The latter, presumably with the _Act to Restrain Abuses
of Players_ in his mind, concerns himself not only with politics but
with propriety. It is a perfunctory business enough. In half a dozen
places such expletives as 'life' and 'heart' are excised; in many more
these and others, such as 'mass' and 'faith', which one would have
supposed to be as much or as little objectionable, remain
unquestioned.[911]

It has been the experience of many governments that the most rigid
censorship of the 'books' of plays does not afford a complete guarantee
of the inoffensiveness of the performances actually given upon the
stage. A few lines of 'gag' are easily inserted; an emphasis, a gesture,
a 'make-up' may fill with malicious intention a scene which read
harmlessly enough in the privacy of the censor's study. And as nothing
draws like topical allusions, it sometimes happened that the activities
of the Master of the Revels did not prevent the players from
overstepping the boundaries of what the somewhat arbitrary
susceptibilities of the government would tolerate. It must not be
supposed that the Elizabethan injunction against any intermeddling with
politics or religion on the stage was to be taken with absolute
literalness. Up to a point the players had a fairly free hand even with
contemporary events. They might represent, if they would, such feats of
English arms as the siege of Turnhout with all realism.[912] They might
mock at foreign potentates, if they did not, as was sometimes the case,
embarrass Elizabeth's diplomacy in so doing.[913] It has already been
made clear that at the beginning of the reign Cecil made use of
interludes, after the manner of his master Cromwell, as a political
weapon against Philip of Spain and the Catholics; and many years after
both Philip and James of Scotland had their grievances against the
freedom with which their names were bandied by the London
comedians.[914] Similarly, when it was desired that Puritanism should be
unpopular, the players were not debarred from satirizing Puritans.[915]
But if the public discussion of religious controversies became a
scandal, as in the case of the Marprelate plays, and still more if
freedom of speech turned to criticism of the government itself, as
probably happened in _The Isle of Dogs_, it very soon became apparent
that the time for toleration was over, and the punishment which fell
upon the companies was swift and sharp and undiscriminating. Sometimes
it even happened, in spite of the special pains of the Master of Revels,
that a play was brought to Court which gave offence. Such a play had to
be stopped incontinently during the Christmas of 1559, and another is
recorded at a much later date, which drew some displeasing political
morals from the suits of a pack of cards, and would have brought the
performers into serious disgrace but for the friendly intervention of a
councillor with a sense of humour.[916] In addition to the
susceptibilities of the government itself, there were also those of
powerful individuals to be considered. Cecilia of Sweden, who had
outstayed her welcome, complained that her husband was mocked by the
players in her presence.[917] Tarlton, although a _persona grata_ at
Court, got into trouble for his hits at Leicester and Raleigh, possibly
in the very play on the pack of cards already mentioned.[918] A protest
from a descendant of Sir John Oldcastle obliged Shakespeare to change
the original name of his Falstaff. And on 10 May 1601 the Privy Council
sent an order to the Middlesex justices to examine and, if need be,
suppress a play at the Curtain, in which were presented 'the persons of
some gentlemen of good desert and quality that are yet alive, under
obscure manner, but yet in such sort as all the hearers may take notice
both of the matter and of the persons that are meant thereby'. A rather
inexplicable part was taken by players in the wild scenes that closed
the career of Robert Earl of Essex in 1601. Essex was a popular hero,
and as the prologue to _Henry V_ shows, a name to conjure with in the
theatre. Bacon records how in August 1599, after his return from
Ireland, 'did fly about in London streets and theatres seditious
libels'.[919] That he should become an object of ridicule rather than of
honour on the boards was one of the bitterest stings in his disgrace.
'Shortly', he wailed to Elizabeth on 12 May 1600, 'they will play me in
what forms they list upon the stage.'[920] And when the last mad step of
rebellion was taken in February 1601 it was a play, none other than
Shakespeare's _Richard II_, to which the plotters looked to stir the
temper of London in their favour.[921] The curious thing is that in this
case, although Essex and more than one of his followers lost life or
liberty, no very serious results seem to have followed to the company
involved. The incident has been thought to have inspired the references
to an 'innovation' and the consequent travelling of the players in
_Hamlet_. But in fact the Chamberlain's men cannot be traced in the
provinces during 1601, and they were admitted to give their full share
of Court performances during the following Christmas.[922]

For some years after the coming of James, the freedom of speech adopted
by the stage, in a London much inclined to be critical of the alien King
and his retinue of hungry Scots, was far beyond anything which could
have been tolerated by Elizabeth. The uncouth speech of the Sovereign,
his intemperance, his gusts of passion, his inordinate devotion to the
chase, were caricatured with what appears incredible audacity, before
audiences of his new subjects. 'Consider for pity's sake,' writes
Beaumont, the French ambassador, on 14 June 1604, 'what must be the
state and condition of a prince, whom the preachers publicly from the
pulpit assail, whom the comedians of the metropolis bring upon the
stage, whose wife attends these representations in order to enjoy the
laugh against her husband.'[923] Beaumont's evidence is confirmed by a
letter of 28 March 1605 from Samuel Calvert to Ralph Winwood, in which
he writes that 'the play[er]s do not forbear to represent upon their
stage the whole course of this present time, not sparing either King,
state, or religion, in so great absurdity, and with such liberty, that
any would be afraid to hear them'.[924] That in spite of all the
companies continued to enjoy a substantial measure of royal favour,
while speaking well for the good sense of the government, may perhaps
also justify the inference that by the seventeenth century the theatre
had so far established itself as an integral part of London life that a
vindictive measure of suppression had become impracticable. From time to
time, however, the blow fell upon some unusually indiscreet company, or
playwright, and at one moment, owing to diplomatic complications, the
prospect of suppression became, as will be seen, an imminent danger.
Possibly the countenance given by Queen Anne to the comedians may have
been in part responsible for the long-suffering with which their
insolence was met. It could have been no object for James to underline
by any public action the strained relations between King and Consort
which already embarrassed the conduct of Court life. One of the
companies, indeed, which was most frequently in trouble, was that which
had been taken in 1604 under the direct protection of the Queen, with
the title of 'Children of the Queen's Revels'. This was a company of
boys, in a sense attached to the Court itself and formerly known as the
Children of the Chapel, which played at the 'private' house of the
Blackfriars under conditions not quite the same as those of the public
theatres. The patent under which this company was reconstructed in 1604
had exempted its plays from the jurisdiction of the Master of the
Revels, possibly because the Master was an officer of the King's
Household from which that of the Queen was distinct, and had committed
the licensing of them to the poet Samuel Daniel, who had been nominated
by Anne for the purpose. Daniel was extremely unfortunate in the
exercise of his functions. Before a year was out, offence had already
been given by the play of _Philotas_, of which he was himself the
author. In 1605 followed _Eastward Ho!_ with some audacious satire upon
the Scottish nation, which brought Jonson and Chapman into prison,
although they maintained that the offending 'clawses' were due not to
their pens, but to those of their collaborator Marston, who had
apparently made his escape. As a result of the misdemeanour of _Eastward
Ho!_ Anne appears to have been induced to withdraw her direct patronage
of the company, which for a time was known, not as the Children of the
Queen's Revels, but as the Children of the Revels pure and simple. But
it was allowed to go on playing at the Blackfriars, and here in February
1606 was produced Day's _Isle of Gulls_, another satire on the relations
of English and Scots, which landed some of those responsible in
Bridewell. Further irregularities took place in 1608, of which a lively
account is given in a dispatch of the French ambassador, M. de la
Boderie. The company produced two offending plays in rapid succession.
Of one, now lost, which satirized James in person, the author was
probably John Marston. The other, which provoked the ambassador to
protest by its allusions to the domestic arrangements of the French
king, was Chapman's _Byron_.[925] A general inhibition of plays was now
ordered, but De La Boderie correctly anticipated that James's anger
would soon be mollified, especially as the four other London companies
had offered an indemnity which he estimates at what seems the incredibly
high figure of 100,000 francs. He thought that similar episodes would be
prevented in future by refusing allowance to plays whose subjects were
taken from contemporary history. This may, in fact, have been the
solution adopted, as a standing order against the representation of any
'modern Christian King' on the stage is quoted in 1624.[926] Clearly,
however, it left the even more dangerous resources of allegory and of
historical parallel still open to the 'seditious' playwright.[927] The
Revels boys seem again to have been in trouble in 1610 owing to an
offence taken by Lady Arabella Stuart at a passage of Ben Jonson's
_Epicoene_, which she seems to have misunderstood.

The Paul's boys vaunt their abstention from libels in the prologue to
their _Woman Hater_ of 1606. But it must not be supposed that the
dramatic indiscretions were limited to a single company. Even the King's
men themselves, though probably without any intention to offend,
sometimes misjudged the limits of what was permissible. The Earl of
Northampton haled Ben Jonson before the Privy Council for his _Sejanus_
of 1603. On 18 December 1604 a Court gossip writes of a play of
_Gowry_, no longer extant, that 'whether the matter or the manner be not
well handled, or that it be thought unfit that Princes should be played
on the stage in their lifetime, I hear that some great councellors are
much displeased with it, and so 'tis thought shall be forbidden'.[928] A
somewhat vague allusion to an 'unwilling error' of players and a
consequent restraint, contained in the epilogue for a revival of
_Mucedorus_, first published in 1610, may possibly relate to some later
episode not otherwise recorded, but possibly only to the _Byron_
episode, with which the King's men had nothing directly to do. Nor do we
know who were the 'much-suffering actors' of Daborne's 'oppressed and
much-martird Tragedy', _A Christian Turned Turk_, of about the same
date. Conceivably this is itself the play for which _Mucedorus_
apologizes. Even provincial plays sometimes brought their promoters
before the Star Chamber. Sir Edward Dymock was imprisoned and fined
£1,000 in May 1610 for a scurrilous play against the Earl of Lincoln on
a Maypole green.[929] And what seems a curiously belated incident is
recorded in 1614, when Sir John Yorke suffered a similar fate for
encouraging some vagrant players to perform an interlude in favour of
the Popish religion.[930]

And when players had got their warrants and their licences, and signed
their recognizances to the Master of the Revels, and paid their tithes,
and made up their minds to observe the taboos of Sunday and of Lent, and
to purge their plays of all perilous stuff, they had still to encounter
the ordinary changes and chances incident to all mortality. The profits
swelled in term time and dwindled in vacation.[931] Easter, Whitsuntide,
Bartholomew Fair, were recurring seasons of prosperity.[932] Were the
streets full for such an occasion as the entry of an ambassador, the
theatres reaped their harvest.[933] A period of public mourning, on the
other hand, as at the deaths of Elizabeth and of Prince Henry, meant the
cessation of business.[934] Political changes--although, like the other
elements of Stuart society, the players probably paid little attention
to the forces that were gathering for their ultimate overthrow--might
prove more disastrous still. But the dreaded enemy, in whose mysterious
workings the Puritans recognized a direct expression of the wrath of
God, was undeniably the plague. The menace, and too often the actual
reality, of plague, in a city whose growth had far outstripped the
advance of sanitary knowledge, was one of the principal domestic
preoccupations of Elizabethan administrators. And the precaution, which
was always resorted to, of forbidding public assemblies as probable
centres of infection, reacted terribly upon theatrical enterprise. A
study of the plague calendar which forms an appendix to the present
volumes will show that there were three grave visitations of plague
during the years which it covers, in 1563, in 1592-4, and in 1603; that
in the long period 1564 to 1587 following the first visitation, and in
the shorter period 1604 to 1609 following the third visitation, plague
had become endemic, generally showing itself from July to November and
reaching its maximum in September or October; that during these periods
certain years, such as 1579 and 1580 in the one and 1604 in the other
were comparatively free; and that probably during 1588-91, and certainly
during 1595-1602 and 1610-16, plague was so far absent as to be
practically negligible. In fact, after 1609 plague did not again become
a serious factor in London life until 1625. The greatest developments
of the Elizabethan drama thus coincide with the longest periods of
exemption, and perhaps this simple physical fact has something to do
with the break-down of the Puritan opposition and the settlement of
theatrical conditions in 1597. Certainly the plaguesome years 1564-87
are marked by a series of inhibitions of plays on account of plague,
some of which seem to be hardly justified by the actual state of things
prevailing, and suggest that the Privy Council occasionally found it
convenient to avoid controversy with the City by acquiescing in an
inhibition for which the dread of infection was little more than the
ostensible reason. This tendency seems to have come very near to
bringing about a regular autumnal close season for plays. Ultimately,
however, a different principle of regulation was adopted. This was based
upon the showings of the plague-bill, a weekly summary of deaths from
plague and from other causes respectively, prepared from returns
rendered on behalf of each of the 109 parishes within the City area and
a few of those in the suburbs.[935] The first indication of an appeal to
this criterion is to be found in the documents belonging to the inquiry
of 1584, to which the players appear to have contributed the proposal
that their activities should continue to be tolerated so long as the
deaths from plague in any one week did not exceed fifty. The City
questioned the security afforded by this figure, and as an alternative
offered toleration whenever the deaths from all causes should have
remained below fifty for three weeks together. It is difficult to say
whether this reply was intended to be taken seriously. Probably not, in
view of the general attitude adopted in the argument of which it forms
part. If it had been applied to the years 1578-82, for which
plague-bills are extant, there would have been only fifteen weeks of
playing during the five years, six weeks in 1580, and nine weeks in
1581.[936] The precise issue of the discussion of 1584 is unknown; but
the principle then mooted is found in effective operation during the
seventeenth century. Most of the patents do not make any specific
reservation for times of plague, but that for the King's men, issued
during the plague of 1603, and the unexecuted draft for the Queen's men
are expressed as coming into operation 'when the infection of the plague
shall decrease', and more precisely in the case of the Queen's men 'when
the infeccion of the plague shall decrease to the nomber of thirtie
weekly within our Citie of London and the liberties therof'. Similarly
the Privy Council letter of 9 April 1604 in allowance of the resumption
of plays is guarded by the proviso 'except there shall happen weeklie to
die of the plague aboue the number of thirtie within the Cittie of
London and the liberties therof; att which time we think it fitt they
shall cease and forbeare any further publicklie to playe untill the
sicknes be again decreaced to the saide number'. This criterion of
thirty deaths was much less favourable to the players than that of fifty
which they had themselves suggested in 1584. It appears to have ruled
until about 1607 and then to have been replaced by the more liberal
allowance of forty, which is the number specified in the later patents
of 1619 and 1625 to the King's men.[937]

It is clear that a plague, if at all prolonged, hit the players very
hard, partly because it was customary to divide up the profits weekly or
even daily, and the companies, as distinct from prudent individuals,
seem to have kept no reserve funds. In particular the plague of 1592-4
forms a regular watershed in the history of the companies. Some went
under altogether; others, such as the famous Queen's men, failed for
ever after to recover a foothold in the metropolis. The reconstructed
organizations of 1594 have practically no continuity with those in
existence up to 1592. The obvious resource in a time of inhibition was
to travel, since a London plague did not necessarily extend far into the
provinces.[938] It was a regrettable necessity. In favourable economic
conditions, the London companies tended to grow, to effect
amalgamations, to occupy more than one theatre.[939] Travelling, for
more than a few summer weeks, meant the reduction of establishments to
the level of provincial profits, the breaking up of partnerships, the
division of books and apparel, the dismissal of hired men.[940] But
plague was inexorable. Reluctantly the drums and trumpets were bought,
the last stoup was quaffed at the Cardinal's Hat, and the rufflers of
London streets resigned themselves to the hard life of country
'strowlers'.[941] On the road, with his wagon, the actor necessarily
laid aside the conditions of a householder, and reverted to those of his
grandfather, the minstrel.[942] And it is fair to say that, as a rule,
although there were Puritans in the provinces as well as in London, he
received a minstrel's welcome. His advent, about 1574, to a western
borough is thus described by one R. Willis, in a half-autobiographical,
half-religious, treatise entitled _Mount Tabor_, published in 1639:[943]

     'In the City of _Gloucester_, the manner is (as I think it is
     in other like corporations) that when Players of Enterludes
     come to towne, they first attend the Mayor, to enforme him what
     noble-mans servants they are, and so to get licence for their
     publike playing; and if the Mayor like the Actors, or would
     shew respect to their Lord and Master, he appoints them to play
     their first play before himselfe, and the Aldermen and common
     Counsell of the City; and that is called the Mayors play, where
     every one that will comes in without money, the Mayor giving
     the players a reward as hee thinks fit, to shew respect unto
     them. At such a play my father tooke me with him, and made me
     stand betweene his leggs, as he sate upon one of the benches,
     where wee saw and heard very well.'

The account given by Willis receives general confirmation from the
numerous entries with regard to players exhumed from the municipal
archives not only of Gloucester itself, but of many other towns, and
notably Canterbury, Dover, Southampton, Winchester, Exeter, Plymouth,
Barnstaple, Oxford, Abingdon, Marlborough, Bath, Bristol, Shrewsbury,
Chester, York, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry,
Stratford-on-Avon, Maldon, Ipswich, Cambridge, and Norwich.[944] As a
rule the information consists of a record in the annual accounts
rendered by the Chamberlains or other borough treasurers of the
'rewards' paid to the companies for performing the 'Mayor's play'. These
are often stated to have been paid at the 'appointment' of the Mayor, or
of the Mayor and the Aldermen or other body who were his 'brethren'. The
name of the company is generally given; sometimes the date of the
performances, and more rarely the name of the play or some other detail
which struck the fancy of the Chamberlains, is added. Sometimes,
moreover, there is subsidiary expenditure to record; a stage has to be
put up and lit;[945] damage done has to be repaired;[946] the players
are entertained with the municipal courtesy of 'wine and sugar', or
with a 'drinkinge', 'banket', or 'breakfast' at their inn.[947] At
Gloucester the entertainment, of 'wine and chirries', took place in the
house of 'Mr. Swordbearer', an official of the corporation. In the main
the customs of the different towns seem to have been singularly uniform,
but here and there variations of detail present themselves. Thus the
mayor's play was not everywhere, as at Gloucester, open to all comers. A
'free' play is noted at Newcastle; at Bath and Canterbury on the other
hand there was a 'gathering', supplemented by the town's reward.[948] At
Leicester the same arrangement prevailed up to the end of the sixteenth
century. The 'gathering' was levied upon the members of the two councils
known as the 'Twenty-four' and the 'Forty-eight'; and orders are upon
record limiting this liability to performances by the royal companies or
the servants of privy councillors.[949] In 1590-1 collections were also
taken 'at the hall dore'.

A Bridgnorth order of 1570 that no charge should be put upon the town
fund appears to be exceptional at this date, and did not prove
permanent.[950] The 'rewards' entered in the accounts are generally
round sums; where they are broken, they probably went to make up the
results of the 'gatherings' to round sums. At the beginning of
Elizabeth's reign the amounts often do not exceed a few shillings, but a
general tendency to increase is apparent throughout the next
half-century, and by 1616 rewards of £2 and even £3 are not uncommon.
The establishment of the Queen's men in 1583 led to a rise in the rate
of reward for that company, which in course of time brought about
increased generosity to others.[951] The highest sums I have noted were
£4 to the Queen's men at Ipswich in 1599, and to various companies at
Coventry from 1612 onwards. Nottingham distinguished itself by economy,
and did not go beyond 20_s._ at the best. In most places the rates
fluctuate considerably to the end; being determined partly by the
importance of the 'lord' and his relations to the town, partly in all
probability by the opinion of the stage held by the mayor or the town,
partly, one may hope, by the merits of individual plays and their
interpreters. Commonly enough, the mayor's play took place in the
guild-hall, in spite of the criticisms of those who, whatever their real
motives, alleged the damage done and the interruption to municipal
business.[952] For subsequent performances other quarters had often to
be found. These were ordinarily in an inn;[953] occasionally in the
church itself or the churchyard.[954] Great Yarmouth had its specially
provided 'game house'; a theatre contemplated at York in 1608-9 was to
have its own company, as 'a means to restrayne the frequent comminge of
other stage players', but the scheme was never actually carried
out.[955]

To some extent the evidence of the accounts can be eked out by that of
other records throwing a more direct light upon the responsibilities
assumed by the civic authorities in regard to plays. Singularly
interesting is the register of the Mayor's Court at Norwich, in which
are recorded the attendances of players on their arrival in the town to
submit their credentials and obtain leave for their performances.[956]
The patent companies produced their letters patent in original or in
exemplification, in addition to which the Court seems to have expected
some instrument of deputation, if none of the men actually named in the
document were present.[957] The nature of the evidence forthcoming from
other companies is not so clearly specified, but no doubt it consisted
of the warrant of appointment by their lord, and after 1581 of the
confirmatory licence from the Master of the Revels. Worcester's men were
in a difficulty at Leicester in 1583 because, although they could
produce the warrant from their lord, their licence from the Master had
been purloined by another company.[958] It was probably as a quite
special privilege that, when Strange's and Sussex's men travelled in
1593, they carried with them letters of assistance from the Privy
Council itself. It may be gathered from the terms of the Norwich entries
that the Court regarded its own permission or 'licence' as essential
before players were entitled to set up their 'bills' or give their
performances within its jurisdiction. The lord's warrant might protect
his servants from the penalties of vagabondage; but it was not
necessarily accepted, in the provinces any more than in London, as
overriding the traditional right of the municipal governments to control
the entertainments which might have serious results both upon the
morality and the order of their areas. On the other hand, even if the
plays had been less popular than they were, the livery of the Queen or
of a powerful noble was not a thing to be lightly flouted. Perhaps the
difficulty was solved by taking the warrant at its face value as a
courteous letter of recommendation, and letting the licence to play and
the 'reward' stand as return courtesies from the corporation to their
very good lord. This fiction, however, can hardly have been applicable
to the terms in which the Master of the Revels may be supposed to have
worded his licence, and still less to those of the royal patents, which
claimed to give direct authority to play 'within anie town halls or
moute halls or other conveniente places within the liberties and
freedoms of any cittie, vniversitie, towne or boroughe whatsoever within
our realmes and domynions'. The corporations were not very likely to act
upon the advice attributed to the Lord Coke in 1606 that such licences
from the Crown were _ultra vires_.[959] No doubt they remained the
arbiters as to what places were 'conveniente'. They also prescribed
times and seasons, forbidding plays at their discretion on Sunday[960]
or at night,[961] or in Lent,[962] or during divine service,[963] and
laying down for each company the number of days during which it was at
liberty to perform, or the interval which must elapse between one visit
and the next. At Norwich the number of days ranged from one to eight,
sometimes one performance and sometimes two being allowed on each day.
The royal signet warrants which came into use about 1616 authorized the
companies holding them to stay fourteen days in any one town. Sometimes
Dogberry and Verges found good reason for refusing leave to play. It was
a season of plague or of social disturbance in the town.[964] In 1603
when the Admiral's men visited Canterbury, 'it was thought fit they
should not play at all in regard that our late Queen was then ether very
sick or dead as they supposed'. Or even if the public playing was
allowed, the corporation might be too busy for a Mayor's play to be
appropriate. In either event the players generally got their fee all the
same, and the Chamberlain, if punctilious, entered it not as a 'reward'
but as a 'gratuity', and noted in his book that the company 'did not
playe'.[965] Certain indications show themselves here and there that the
Puritan controversy had spread to the provinces, and even that the
desire to have done with plays altogether was not wholly confined to
London. As early as 1590 there was a dispute in the corporation of
Maldon between an ex-bailiff of the town and certain colleagues whom he
abused as 'a sort of precisians and Brownists' because they forbade a
performance on a Sunday evening.[966] In 1596 the Chester corporation
made an order for the suppression of plays, and fixed a 'gratuity' of
20_s._ for the Queen's men, and 6_s._ 8_d._ for those of any noble. But
it does not seem that the resolution was persisted in, and in 1615 the
city was still suffering from 'the common brute and scandal' of 'obscene
and unlawfull plaies or tragedies', and did no more than bar them out
from the Common Hall and confine them to the day-time.[967] At Hull too
fines were enacted against citizens resorting to plays and landlords
harbouring them in 1598.[968] The players did not always prove
conformable to municipal discipline. Several cases are recorded at
Norwich, in which companies played contrary to orders, and were punished
by committal to prison, or by threats that their lord should be
certified of their contempt, and that they should never more have
reward of the city.[969] One of the mutinous companies in 1583 was
Worcester's, who in the following year repeated their offence at
Leicester, going 'with their drum and trumppytts thorowe the towne in
contempt of Mr. Mayor' and using 'evyll and contemptyous words' of that
dignitary, who had given them an angel (3_s._ 4_d._) towards their
dinner. The threat of reporting them to their lord reduced them to
submission, and after all they were allowed to play, and made a public
apology to Mr. Mayor as a prologue.

The worst of travelling was that, after all the tramping of bad roads,
and all the wrangling with jacks-in-office, there was but a scanty
living to be made out of it, even with the aid of the few shillings to
be picked up in the larger villages, from such a windfall as is
described in _Ratseis Ghost_,[970] or from the generous hospitality of a
friendly manor.[971] The competition was considerable, for in the
provinces the London companies found rivals in the shape of other
companies which rarely or never came to London at all, but were none the
less substantial and permanent organizations. Thus Queen Elizabeth's men
travelled for years between their last London appearance in 1594 and the
end of the reign, and continued all the time to secure the exceptionally
high rates of 'reward' which were due to the royal name. Other famous
provincial companies, each of which can be traced through a period of
years, were those of the Duchess of Suffolk (1548-63), and the Lords
Mountjoy (1564-78), Stafford (1574-1604), Sheffield (1577-86), Berkeley
(1578-1610), Chandos (1578-1610), Morley (1581-1602), Darcy (1591-1603),
Mounteagle (1593-1616), Huntingdon (1597-1606), Evers (1600-13), and
Dudley (1600-36). Some of these had a comparatively limited range;
others covered the whole country. Their presence in the field, and that
of many minor companies, must have made it difficult for the
Londoners.[972] The charge of travelling, again, as Strange's men
complained to the Privy Council about 1592, was intolerable, and the
necessity for dividing the larger companies, so as to cover more ground,
led to disorganization. Pembroke's men, when they travelled in 1593,
could not save their charges, and had to pawn their apparel and return
home. The years of plague and travellings were the lean years which sent
the books of plays into the hands of the publishers.[973] And for a
company to part with the books and garments that formed its stock in
trade was a confession of failure.

The wanderings of English actors were by no means confined to England
itself. They crossed the border to Scotland, where towards the end of
the sixteenth century they incurred the hostility of the Kirk Sessions,
which did not prevent James I from appointing one or more of them as
Court comedians, and bringing them back with him in 1603 to figure in
the lists of the patented royal companies.[974] Somewhat later they
braved the Irish Channel, and are found at Youghal.[975] And on the
Continent they ranged far and wide.[976] Notices of them in France,
indeed, are rarer than might be expected, perhaps because of the barrier
of religion, perhaps because the Italians had already occupied the
ground, perhaps only because the archives have not been thoroughly
searched. To Italy and to Spain they just penetrated. In northern
Europe, on the other hand, in the Netherlands, in Germany, even in
Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, they found a constant welcome, until their
movements were checked by the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1620.
A pioneer company, which made its way from Leicester's head-quarters at
Utrecht to the Courts of Copenhagen and Dresden in 1586, included
members who afterwards became fellows of Shakespeare as Lord
Chamberlain's men. The shifting relations of the numerous bands which
followed them are beyond research, but the initiative in organizing the
raids seems to have been largely taken by two men. One of these was
Robert Browne, who paid not less than five visits abroad between 1590
and 1620, and appears to have had many associates, of whom the most
important was John Green. The other was John Spencer, who first appears
in 1604, and whose operations were probably quite independent of
Browne's. The industry of German scholars has made it possible to trace
in outline the stories of Spencer and of a group of companies owing
their origin more or less directly to Browne. Their adventures were
clearly much facilitated by the existence of numerous petty German
courts, under cultivated rulers who were glad to take a troop of actors
into their service for a year or two at a time, and then let them go for
a while on their travels from one to another of the great towns.
Conspicuous amongst such patrons were the Electors Joachim Frederick
(1598-1608) and John Sigismund (1608-91) of Brandenburg, the Electors
Christian I (1586-91), Christian II (1591-1611), and John George (1611-56)
of Saxony, Henry Julius (1589-1613) Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and
Maurice (1592-1627) Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. Naturally, also, the actors
made their way to Heidelberg, whither the Elector Palatine Frederick V
brought his English bride in 1613. These were Protestant princes, but
Catholic Germany, although less often visited, was not closed to the
English, who found particular favour with the house of the Archduke
Ferdinand of Styria, afterwards the Emperor Ferdinand II. Of the great
cities of Germany the most hospitable to actors, so far as our knowledge
goes, were Cologne, Strassburg, Ulm, Augsburg, Nuremberg, and above all
Frankfort, where the two great marts or fairs held annually at Easter and
in the autumn served as a rallying-point for travellers and entertainers
of every species. The early successes of the English in Germany are
reported by Fynes Moryson, who was at Frankfort for the autumn fair of
1592:

     'Germany hath some fewe wandring Comeydians, more deseruing
     pitty then prayse, for the serious parts are dully penned, and
     worse acted, and the mirth they make is ridiculous, and nothing
     lesse then witty (as I formerly haue shewed). So as I remember
     that when some of our cast dispised stage players came out of
     England into Germany, and played at Franckford in the tyme of
     the Mart, hauing nether a complete number of Actours, nor any
     good Appareil, nor any ornament of the Stage, yet the Germans,
     not vnderstanding a worde they sayde, both men and women,
     flocked wonderfully to see theire gesture and Action, rather
     then heare them, speaking English which they vnderstoode not,
     and pronowncing peeces and patches of English playes, which my
     selfe and some English men there present could not heare
     without great wearysomenes. Yea my selfe comming from
     Franckford in the company of some cheefe marchants Dutch and
     Flemish, heard them often bragg of the good markett they had
     made, only condoling that they had not the leasure to heare the
     English players.'

In the Netherlands the English players, according to Moryson, brought
themselves into a singular difficulty. Here, too, was no native stage:

     'For Commedians, they litle practise that Arte, and are the
     poorest Actours that can be imagined, as my selfe did see when
     the Citty of Getrudenberg being taken by them from the
     Spanyards, they made bonsfyers and publikely at Leyden
     represented that action in a play, so rudely as the poore
     Artizans of England would haue both penned and acted it much
     better. So as at the same tyme when some cast players of
     England came into those partes, the people not vnderstanding
     what they sayd, only for theere action followed them with
     wonderfull concourse, yea many young virgines fell in loue with
     some of the players, and followed them from citty to citty,
     till the magistrates were forced to forbid them to play any
     more.'[977]

Moryson's account finds confirmation in the praise lavished upon English
acting by German writers, such as Erhard Cellius in 1605, Joannes
Rhenanus about 1610, and Daniel von Wensin in 1613.[978] Undoubtedly the
German stage, which had been slow to develop on professional lines,
owed a great impetus to the invasions. Germans attached themselves to
the English companies, and in course of time imitated the English
methods in companies of their own. The English plays served as models
for German dramatists, of whom Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick and Jacob
Ayrer of Nuremberg were the best known.[979] On the other hand, the
invaders themselves became denizened, at any rate to the extent of
learning to give their performances in the German tongue. Moryson found
Browne's company handicapped by their use of English at Frankfort in
1592. A Münster chronicler tells us that an anonymous company which
visited his town in 1601 still played 'in ihrer engelschen Sprache', but
that between the acts the clown amused the audience with 'bôtze und
geckerie' in German.[980] In 1605 actors who petition for leave to
appear at the Frankfort fair advertise their intention to give their
comedies and tragedies 'in hochteutscher sprache', and there can be
little doubt that, whatever may have been the case in Anglomaniac
courts, theirs was the practice which ultimately prevailed in the
cities.[981] Such portions of the repertories of the English actors as
have been preserved are without exception in German. They are of
singularly little literary value, fully bearing out Moryson's
description of them as no more than 'peeces and patches' of English
plays. But occasionally one of them possesses a critical interest as
representing a play now lost or some earlier version of its model than
that extant in an English text. In addition to actual plays, enough
lists of performances are upon record to give a fair notion of the range
of the travelling repertories. Both recent productions of the London
stage and more old-fashioned pieces were drawn upon for adaptation. The
choice was doubtless determined by the availability of prompter's copies
or printed texts, as the case might be, when a company was collecting a
stock-in-trade for its adventure. Sometimes variety was obtained by
using the experiments of a German dramatist, or one of those scriptural
comedies, _Susanna and the Elders_, _The Prodigal Son_, _Dives and
Lazarus_, which had been the delight of the German, even more than the
English, Renaissance.

The most obvious thing about the life of the English actor on the road
in Germany is that it was uncommonly like his life on the road in
England. Perhaps this is hardly surprising when it is borne in mind
that, as already pointed out, the player away from his permanent theatre
reverted to the status of the minstrel, and that throughout the ages the
minstrel had been cosmopolitan. That in a land of alien speech, even
more than at home, the strict arts of comedy and tragedy had to be eked
out with music and buffoonery and acrobatics goes without saying. Even
as late as 1614 and at the court of Berlin the terms on which actors
were engaged bound them to render service 'mit Springen, Spielen und
anderer Kurzweil', as their lord might require.[982] Away from court, in
Germany as in England, they were mainly dependent upon the goodwill of
the civic magistrates, to whom on approaching each town they addressed
elaborate petitions, of which many are preserved, in which they recited
their own merits, and made play with the names of any princes whose
servants they were entitled to call themselves, or whose recommendation
some successful display had enabled them to gain. There was always the
chance that, on the strength of plague or some other pretext, they might
be refused admission altogether. At the best, they must expect to have
the length of their stay, the days and hours of their performances, the
sums they might charge for standing-room and seats, most thoughtfully
and minutely regulated for them. And when all the preliminaries were
gone through, and the Rathaus or an inn-yard put at their disposal, and
the creaking boards set up, and the tattered frippery extracted from the
hamper, it might perhaps after all, as at Brunswick in 1614, be a case
of 'kein Volk' and the Council might give them a thaler out of charity
and send them on their way.[983] In Germany too, as in England, they had
to make their account with the wise, to whom their performances were
folly, and the 'unco' guid', to whom they were an offence.[984]
Evidently they were not always discreet in their choice of themes. At
Elbing in 1605 a company received a gratification of twenty thalers for
a performance before the Council; and the record continues, '... daneben
aber auch ihnen zu untersagen, dass sie nunmehr zu agiren aufhören
sollen in Anmerkung, dass sie gestern in der Comödie schandbare Sachen
fürgebracht'.[985] Even princes sometimes got into trouble by
encouraging these foreigners of doubtful respectability. There was glee
in Cassel when Landgrave Maurice decided to disband the 'verfluchten'
English in 1602. Possibly in this case it was the taxpayer rather than
the Puritan who felt relief; but when the Duke of Pommern-Wolgast and
his mother allowed the Schlosskirche at Lötz to be used for a
performance in 1606 they brought upon themselves a shower of letters
from Hofprediger Gregorius Hagius, which precisely re-echo the familiar
English diatribes of Stephen Gosson and John Rainolds.[986] Presumably
the whole business paid its way, or Browne would not have gone over four
or five times or Spencer spent fifteen years in the country. A recent
investigator, who has made a far more elaborate analysis of all the
financial material than I have room for, calculates that, what with
court salaries, and what with admission fees to public performances at
the rate of about three kreuzers or less than a penny a head, an actor
might hope to make on the average about £60 a year.[987] This was enough
to live upon, even if, as was sometimes the case, wife and children
accompanied the expedition. It seemed attractive enough to poor Richard
Jones, who was making at home 'some tymes a shillinge a day and some
tymes nothinge'. But it hardly bears out the statement of Erhard Cellius
that the English returned home 'auro et argento onusti'. And in fact
those who essayed a career in Germany were the failures of London. 'Some
of our cast dispised stage players', Moryson calls them, and many years
later, in 1625, the same tale is told by the words put into the mouths
of actors in _The Run-away's Answer_: 'We can be bankrupts on this side
and gentlemen of a company beyond the sea: we burst at London, and are
pieced up at Rotterdam.'[988] There were, indeed, those who made their
fortunes abroad, but they were those who, like Thomas Sackville, forsook
the stage and devoted their energies to an honest trade.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 879: Murray, ii. 77, gives records of seventy-nine 'Lesser
Men's Companies', many of which appear at one town only, while all have
a narrow range. Naturally the names of the great nobles carried weight
over a wider area. The players in _Ratseis Ghost_ (Halliwell-Phillipps,
i. 326) 'denied their owne Lord and Maister, and used another Noblemans
name'.]

[Footnote 880: The showman of the royal ape in Taylor's _Wit and Mirth_
(cf. p. 267) wears 'a brooch in his hat, like a tooth drawer, with a
Rose and Crowne, and two letters'.]

[Footnote 881: Harington, _Metamorphosis of Ajax_ (1596), 135, 'I will
neither end with sermon nor with prayer, lest some wags liken me to my
L. (____) players, who when they have ended a bawdy comedy, as though
that were a preparative to devotion, kneel down solemnly, and pray all
the company to pray with them for their good Lord and master'; _A Mad
World, my Masters_, v. ii. 200, 'This shows like kneeling after the
play; I praying for my good lord Owemuch and his good countess, our
honourable lady and mistress'. This prayer might be combined with one
for the Sovereign and estates; cf. chh. xviii, xxii.]

[Footnote 882: Cf. ch. xiii (Interluders).]

[Footnote 883: _R. O. Lord Chamberlain's Records_, ii. 4 (4).]

[Footnote 884: _N. S. S. Trans._ (1877-9), 15*, from _Lord Chamberlain's
Records_, vol. 58_a_, now ii. 4 (5).]

[Footnote 885: Sullivan, 250; C. C. Stopes in _Sh.-Jahrbuch_, xlvi. 92;
from _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, ii. 48; v. 92, 93. I am not sure
whether the velvet was for a 'cap' or a 'cape'.]

[Footnote 886: Sullivan, 253; cf. vol. i, p. 52.]

[Footnote 887: Stopes (_supra_). I find a confirmatory note to a
Household list of 1641 in _Lord Chamberlain's Records_, iii. 1, 'Note
that _th_e Companyes of Players under the Titles of the Kings, Queenes,
Qu_eene_ of Bohemia, Prince & Duke of Yorke are all of them sworne
Groomes of the Chamber in ord_inary_ w_i_thout fee'. I cannot accept
Miss Sullivan's theory that 'without fee' means that the players did not
have to buy their places.]

[Footnote 888: Cf. App. C, Nos. xvii, xxxi.]

[Footnote 889: Platter in 1599 (cf. ch. xvi, introd.) says that plays
were given 'alle tag vmb 2 vhren nach mittag'. T. S. Graves, in _E. S._
xlvii. 66, argues in favour of occasional night performances, and is
answered by W. J. Lawrence in _E. S._ xlviii. 213. Whatever may have
been done before 1574 or thereabouts, I find no later evidence which is
not to be explained either by private performances or by a loose use of
'night' for the evening hour at which plays terminated in winter. Nor
can I go with Lawrence in supposing an exception for Sunday. The
Southwark play at 8 p.m. on Sunday, 12 June 1592, cannot have been at a
regular theatre, for there was none within the Lord Mayor's
jurisdiction. The allusion in Crosse's _Vertue's Commonwealth_ (1603)
can quite well be to private plays (cf. App. C), and Henslowe's entry
(i. 83) of a loan of 30_s._ 'when they fyrst played Dido at nyght', on
Sunday, 8 Jan. 1598, only suggests to me the payment by Henslowe of the
shot for a supper after the first performance. Or it may have been a
private performance, for Henslowe does not appear (_vide infra_) to have
opened the Rose on Sundays.]

[Footnote 890: Cf. App. D, No. xv (1564), 'now daylye, but speciallye on
holydayes'; No. xvi (1569), 'on the Saboth dayes and other solempne
feastes commaunded by the church to be kept holy'; No. xvii (1571),
'vpon sondaies, holly daies, or other daie of the weke, or ells at
night'; No. xxxii (1574), 'on sonndaies and holly dayes, at which tymes
such playes weare chefelye vsed'; App. C, No. xxii (1579), 'These
because they are allowed to play euery Sunday, make iiii or v Sundayes
at least euery weeke'.]

[Footnote 891: There was a disorder at the Theatre on Sunday, 10 April
1580, but by July 1581 the Lord Mayor had made an order against Sunday
plays, which Berkeley's men disregarded. The Privy Council letter of 3
Dec. 1581 to the City accepts the exclusion of Sunday. Gosson, _Playes
Confuted_ (1582), 167, and Field (Jan. 1583), C. iii, acknowledge the
change of day. When therefore Stubbes (1 March 1583), 137, criticizes
Sunday plays, he must have the suburbs in mind. Paris Garden fell on
Sunday, 13 Jan. 1583. On 3 July 1583 the Lord Mayor told the Privy
Council that Sunday baitings were resumed. The documents of the 1584
controversy, however, state that as a result of the accident, letters
were obtained to banish plays (and doubtless also baiting) 'in the
places nere London' on the Sabbath days. Whetstone (1584) also alludes
to a 'reforme' by the 'magistrate' in this matter.]

[Footnote 892: Henslowe, ii. 324.]

[Footnote 893: Cf. Middleton, _A Mad World, my Masters_ (1608), I. i.
38, 'Tis Lent in your cheeks; the flag's down'; T. Earle,
_Microcosmography_, char. 64, of a player, 'Shrove-tuesday hee feares as
much as the bawdes, and Lent is more damage to him then the butcher'.]

[Footnote 894: _Variorum_, iii. 65, from Sir Henry Herbert's papers,
which also record a similar payment in 1618 'for toleration in the
holydays'. Herbert himself sold similar indulgences and in a list of
customary Revels fees drawn up in 1662 includes £3 'for Lent fee',
together with £3 'for Christmasse fee' (_Variorum_, iii. 266). Prynne,
_Histriomastix_ (1633), 784, notes the custom of suppressing plays 'in
Lent, till now of late'.]

[Footnote 895: Cf. ch. xiii (Lady Elizabeth's). About 1617 Prince
Charles's men were complaining to Alleyn that 'intemperate Mr. Meade'
had taken 'the day from vs which by course was ours'.]

[Footnote 896: By 1574 the City had offers to farm their licensing
rights 'to the relefe of the poore in the hospitalles'; but their
regulations of Dec. 1574 provide for direct contributions to the poor
and sick by holders of licences for playing-places. A weekly subsidy to
the poor from every stage is suggested by Walsingham's correspondent of
1587. Hunsdon, in asking for the use of the Cross Keys in 1594, promised
that his men would 'be contributories to the poore of the parishe where
they plaie accordinge to their habilities'. In 1600 the Southwark Vestry
were negotiating with the players for tithes and contributions for the
poor on the basis of an 'order taken before my lords of Canterbury and
London and the Master of the Revels'. In the same year the inhabitants
of Finsbury recite the 'very liberall porcion' of money promised weekly
for the relief of the poor as one of their grounds for assenting to the
building of the Fortune. The accounts of the overseers of Paris Garden
between 1611 and 1621 show varying sums, amounting to about £4 or £5 a
year, as received during several years from the players at the Swan.]

[Footnote 897: The Middlesex records for 1616 show the Queen's men at
the Red Bull as in arrear for their contribution, 'being taxed by the
bench 40_s._ the yeare by theire own consentes'.]

[Footnote 898: Cf. ch. viii.]

[Footnote 899: As far back as 1549 the City had appointed two
Secondaries of the Compters to license plays; but this arrangement
doubtless terminated when the King and Council assumed the function; cf.
ch. ix. In 1572 the Council were pressing the City to appoint 'discreet
persons' for the purpose, and in 1574 suggested the suitability of one
Mr. Holmes. But the City, who claimed to have had profitable offers to
farm the licensing, repeated a former refusal to commit it to any
private person. The regulations of 1574 provide for the appointment by
the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of persons to peruse and allow plays. But
the Council are still urging, and the City promising, the appointment of
licensers in 1582.]

[Footnote 900: Cf. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 901: The unauthorized company which stole this licence (cf.
ch. xiii, s.v. Worcester's) is probably that which appeared as the
Master of the Revels' players at Ludlow on 7 Dec. 1583 and at Bath and
Gloucester in 1583-4 (Murray, ii. 201, 282, 325). I do not think that
Tilney himself had a company. His predecessor had. Plomer (_3 Library_,
ix. 252) notes a Canterbury payment, omitted by Murray, in 1569-70, to
'Syr Thomas Bernars [? Benger's] players, Master of the Quenes Majesties
Revells'. But this was before the Act of 1572.]

[Footnote 902: Possibly the Southwark order for tithes from players,
taken before 'my lords of Canterbury and London and the Master of the
Revels' about 1600, implies some continuance of the commission. The
issue of licences, both for the performance and after 1607 for the
printing of plays, 'under the hand of' the Master (cf. ch. xxii), does
not exclude the possibility of his acting on the report of an expert
assessor, and one is tempted to conjecture that this may have been the
position of Segar, who sometimes licensed for the press as deputy to
Buck. But it is clear from passages in Sir Henry Herbert's office-book
(_Variorum_, iii. 229-42) that he at least personally read the 'books'
of plays.]

[Footnote 903: Henslowe, ii. 113, where Dr. Greg _inter alia_ disposes
of Mr. Fleay's theory that some of the fees entered in the _Diary_ are
for licences authorizing the publication, not the performance, of
plays.]

[Footnote 904: Cf. App. D, No. cliv.]

[Footnote 905: The intruding company of 1598 had not been 'bound' to the
Master. The Master's licence to Worcester's men in 1583 is described as
an 'indenture of lycense', and the players were 'bound to the orders
prescribed by the said Edmund Tyllneye'. On 2 Jan. 1595 Henslowe paid
the Master £10 'in full payment of a bonde of one hundreth powndes'
(Henslowe, i. 39). This looks as if he had forfeited a recognizance.]

[Footnote 906: The licence to the Queen's Revels (1604) is an exception.
Here there is no reference to the Master and the allowance of plays is
committed to Samuel Daniel 'whome her pleasure is to appoynt for that
purpose'. Nor is the Master mentioned in the unexecuted draft (_c._
1604) for the Queen's men. Probably the reason is to be found in the
existence of a separate Chamberlain for the Queen's Household. The
Master of the Revels was of course an officer of the King's Lord
Chamberlain. The Master's rights are reserved in the patent actually
issued to the Queen's men in 1609. Daniel's licensing had been far from
a success; cf. p. 326. Oddly enough, whatever Daniel's legal rights, it
appears from his exculpation of his _Philotas_ (q.v.) that the Master
did in fact 'peruse' that play.]

[Footnote 907: A Chamberlain's warrant of 20 Nov. 1622 requires a
licence from the Master for any travellers who 'shall shewe or present
any play shew motion feats of actiuity and sights whatsoeuer' (Murray,
ii. 352). This was motived by certain irregular licences procured 'both
from the Kings Maiestie and also from diuerse noblemen'. The commission
of 1581 is wide enough to cover all 'shewes'; possibly the actual
practice was extended when the Act of 1604 restricted the protection of
noblemen to players of interludes proper--a restriction evidently still
imperfectly observed in 1622. The earliest licence for a non-dramatic
show on record is one of date earlier than 5 Oct. 1605 to John Watson,
ironmonger, 'to shewe two beasts called Babonnes' (Murray, ii. 338; cf.
ch. xxiv, s.v. _Sir G. Goosecap_), and this was a royal warrant, perhaps
under the signet. But on 6 Sept. 1610 Buck issued a licence to 'shew a
strange lion, brought to do strange things, as turning an ox to be
roasted, &c.' (_S. P. D. Jac. I_, lvii. 45), and the keeper of a
'motion' in _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614), V. 5, 18, says, 'I have the
Master of the _Reuell's_ hand for it'. Later examples of signet warrants
for shows are in Murray, ii. 342, and of licences from the Master in
Murray, ii. 351 sqq., and Herbert, 46; cf. Gildersleeve, 64, 72.]

[Footnote 908: Cf. ch. xxii. Herbert noted at the Restoration (_Dramatic
Records_, 96), 'Severall playes allowed by Mister Tilney in 1598. As Sir
William Longsword allowed to be acted in 1598, The Fair Maid of London.
Richard Cor de Lyon. See the Bookes.']

[Footnote 909: The manuscript of _The Honest Man's Fortune_ (1613) has
some censorial notes and an allowance at the end of the book by Herbert
on the occasion of a revival in 1625. Of later manuscripts, that of _Sir
John Van Olden Barnevelt_ (Bullen, _O. E. P._ ii. 101) has corrections
by Herbert, but no allowance, and that of Massinger's _Believe As You
List_ (facs. in _T. F. T._) is a second draft, prepared to meet
criticisms by Herbert, and allowed by him; cf. Gildersleeve, 114, 123.]

[Footnote 910: The extent to which Tilney's handiwork is apparent in the
text is a matter of great palaeographical difficulty fully studied by
Dr. Greg, who takes the view that the insertions and many of the
corrections in the manuscript were made before it was submitted to
Tilney, and are not an attempt to carry out the revision directed by
him. If so, he was very easy-going as regards willingness to peruse a
most disorderly text.]

[Footnote 911: Herbert (_Variorum_, iii. 235) records a conversation
between Charles I and himself about the language of Davenant's _Wits_,
at the end of which he noted in his office-book, 'The Kinge is pleased
to take faith, death, slight, for asseverations and no oaths, to which I
doe humbly submit as my masters judgment; but under favour conceive them
to be oaths, and enter them here, to declare my opinion and submission'.
I also find Herbert occasionally expurgating 'obsceanes' and 'ribaldry'
from plays (_Variorum_, iii. 208, 232, 241). But it is obvious from
extant texts that neither he nor his predecessors made any attempt to
enforce a high standard of decency.]

[Footnote 912: R. Whyte to Sir R. Sidney on 26 Oct. 1599 (_Sydney
Papers_, ii. 136), 'Two daies agoe, the ouerthrow of _Turnholt_, was
acted vpon a Stage, and all your Names vsed that were at yt; especially
_Sir Fra. Veres_, and he that plaid that Part gott a Beard resembling
his, and a Watchet Sattin Doublett, with Hose trimd with Siluer Lace.
You was also introduced, Killing, Slaying, and Overthrowing the
_Spaniards_, and honorable Mention made of your Service, in seconding
_Sir Francis Vere_, being engaged'. Turnhout was taken from the Spanish
by Count Maurice of Nassau, with the help of an English contingent, on
24 Jan. 1598.]

[Footnote 913: Winwood to Cecil from Paris on 7 July 1602 (Winwood, i.
425), 'Upon Thursday last, certain Italian comedians did set up upon the
corners of the passages in this towne that that afternoone they would
play _l'Histoire Angloise contre la Roine d'Angleterre_'. Winwood
protested and secured an inhibition, but 'It was objected to me before
the Counsaile by some Standers by, that the Death of the Duke of Guise
hath ben plaied at London; which I answered was never done in the life
of the last King; and sence, by some others, that the Massacre of St.
Bartholomews hath ben publickly acted, and this King represented upon
the stage'. The play introducing Henri IV was probably a revival by the
Admiral's men of Marlowe's _Massacre at Paris_, for which Henslowe was
making advances in Nov. 1601 and Jan. 1602; cf. Bk. III. Evidently
Elizabeth got as good as she gave on the stage. On 2 June 1598 Dr.
Fletcher describes to Sir R. Cecil (_Hatfield MSS._ viii. 190) a recent
dumb show at Brussels in which she was mocked at. On 7 June 1598 one Mr.
Hungerford describes to Essex (_Hatfield MSS._ viii. 197) another, or
perhaps the same, show at Antwerp, in which also she appeared. In Oct.
1607 Walter Yonge records in his _Diary_ (Camden Soc.), 15, a play at
the Jesuit College of Lyons. It lasted two days, and employed 100
actors. An abbess played the Virgin. Calvin, Luther, and others 'with
our late good Queen Elizabeth, condemned', were represented. The
episodes included 'the meritorious deed intended of gunpowder; the
conspiracy of Babington, and others, against Queen Elizabeth; all which
were rewarded with the joys of Paradise'. Yonge adds that a storm broke,
and 'the three resembling the Trinity, and the abbess were stricken with
the hand of the Lord, and it was never known what became of them'. He
says that books were printed about the incident; there are in fact no
less than five recorded in Arber, iii. 361-4 (cf. App. M).]

[Footnote 914: Cf. ch. viii. On 20 July 1586 the Venetian ambassador in
Spain reported (_V. P._ viii. 182) Philip's resentment at 'the
masquerades and comedies which the Queen of England orders to be acted
at his expense. His Majesty has received a summary of one of these which
was lately represented, in which all sorts of evil is spoken of the
Pope, the Catholic religion, and the King, who is accused of spending
all his time in the Escurial with the monks of St. Jerome, attending
only to his buildings, and a hundred other insolences which I refrain
from sending to your Serenity'. This is confirmed by Collier, i. 279,
from a manuscript _Declaration of the True Causes of the Great Troubles
supposed to be Intended against the Realm of England_ (1592). On 15
April 1598 George Nicolson wrote from Edinburgh to Burghley (_Sc. P._
ii. 749), 'It is regretted that the comedians of London should scorn the
king and the people of this land in their play; and it is wished that
the matter should be speedily amended lest the king and the country be
stirred to anger'.]

[Footnote 915: Cf. ch. viii.]

[Footnote 916: Cf. App. C, No. xlv.]

[Footnote 917: _S. P. F._ xi. 567. Cecilia complained to her brother,
King John of Sweden, 'Another time she being bidden to see a comedy
played, there was a black man brought in, and as he was of an evil
favoured countenance, so was he in like manner full of lewd, spiteful
and scornful words, which she said represented the marquis, her
husband'.]

[Footnote 918: Burn, 153, notes from _Lansd. MS._ 232, that the Star
Chamber inflicted a severe punishment for the impersonation of Leicester
in a play.]

[Footnote 919: Bacon (Spedding, ix. 177), _The Proceedings of the Earl
of Essex_.]

[Footnote 920: _S. P. D. Eliz._ cclxxiv. 138.]

[Footnote 921: Cf. ch. xiii (Chamberlain's).]

[Footnote 922: It is probably unnecessary to take literally Arabella
Stuart's letter of 16 Feb. 1603 to Edward Talbot (Bradley, _Arabella
Stuart_, i. 128; ii. 119), 'I am as unjustly accused of contriving a
comedy, as you (on my conscience) a tragedy'.]

[Footnote 923: Von Raumer, ii. 206.]

[Footnote 924: Winwood, ii. 54. Furnivall, _Stubbes_, 79*, tried in vain
to identify a manuscript tract on the abusive attacks of players stated
by Haslewood in _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1816), lxxxvi. 1. 205, to be in
the British Museum. Possibly it was _Sloane MS._ 3543, ff. 19ᵛ, 49, a
_Treatise Apologeticall for Huntinge_, which refers to the 'taxation' of
James on the stage for his love of sport; cf. R. Simpson in _N. S. S.
Trans._ (1874), 375, and E. J. L. Scott in _Athenaeum_ (1896), i. 756.]

[Footnote 925: Cf. ch. xii (Chapel).]

[Footnote 926: Sir Edward Conway to the Privy Council, 12 Aug. 1624
(Chalmers, _Apology_, 500, from _S. P. D. Charles I_, clxxi. 39), 'His
Majesty remembers well there was a commandment and restraint given
against the representing of any modern Christian Kings in those
stage-plays'. This was written about the performance of Middleton's _A
Game of Chess_, reflecting on the Spanish policy of James I, by the
King's men; cf. _M. S. C._ i. 379. Other post-Shakespearian
indiscretions were a performance of a play on the Marquis D'Ancre by an
unnamed company in 1617 (_M. S. C._ i. 376), and one of _Sir John Van
Olden Barnavelt_ by the King's men in 1619 (Bullen, _O. E. P._ iv. 381,
from _S. P. D. James_ cx. 37); cf. Gildersleeve, 113.]

[Footnote 927: This work is not directly concerned with the literary
content of stage-plays. But I may be allowed to express the opinion that
the search for the 'topical' in Elizabethan drama has been pushed beyond
the limits of good sense. Thus I agree with P. W. Long, _The Purport of
Lyly's Endimion_ (_M. L. A._ xxiv. 164), that there is little ground for
the elaborate theories of a dramatization of Elizabeth's personal amours
propounded successively by N. J. Halpin, _Oberon's Vision_ (_Sh. Soc._
1843), G. P. Baker, _Lyly's Endymion_ (1894), xli, and R. W. Bond,
_Works of Lyly_ (1902), iii. 81. Similarly the conjectures of R. Simpson
in his _School of Shakespeare_ (1878) and elsewhere, and of Fleay, and
of most of the writers, other than Small, on the 'war of the theatres'
require handling with the utmost caution.]

[Footnote 928: Winwood, ii. 41.]

[Footnote 929: Gildersleeve, 108, from _Hist. MSS._ iii. 57.]

[Footnote 930: _7 N. Q._ iii. 126; _Hist. MSS._ iii. 62; _S. P. D. Jac.
I_, lxxvii. 58 (John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton); Burn, 78, from
_Harl. MS._ 1227. Yorke was fined and imprisoned with his wife and
brothers, 'pur admittinge de certeigne comon players (vizᵗ) les Simpsons
de player en son meason un enterlude in q. la fuit disputation perenter
Popish preist et English minister et le preist est de convince le
minister in argument et le weapon de le minister esteant le bible et le
preist le crosse et le Diabole fuit counterfeit la de prender le English
minister et son Angle prist le preist per q. enterlude le religion ore
profeste fuit grandment scandall et pluss del audience fueront
recusants.... Le cheife Justice [Coke?] dit q. players de enterludes
sont Rogues per le statute ... et le very bringing de religion sur le
stage est libell.' On the career of the Simpsons, cf. ch. ix. The actual
offence may have been some years earlier than the Star Chamber sitting
of 1614, for Devon, 261, records a payment to the Keeper of the
Gatehouse at Westminster for the diet of Lady Julian, wife of Sir John
Yorke, as a prisoner from 5 Nov. 1611 to 13 Oct. 1613. The Yorkes were
not of those who learn by experience, for in 1628 the Star Chamber
sentenced Christopher Malloy for playing the devil in a performance at
Sir John Yorke's house in Yorkshire, in which part he carried King James
on his back to hell, and alleged that all Protestants were damned (Burn,
119).]

[Footnote 931: Dekker, _Work for Armourers_ (1609, _Works_, iv. 96),
'Tearme times, when the Twopeny Clients and Peny Stinkards swarme
together to heere the Stagerites'.]

[Footnote 932: Dekker, _The Dead Tearme_ (1608, _Works_, iv. 22), of
Bartholomewtide, 'when thou (O thou beautifull, but bewitching Citty)
... allurest people from all the corners of the land, to throng in
heapes, at thy Fayres and thy Theators'.]

[Footnote 933: Dekker, _Seven Deadly Sins of London_ (1606, _Works_, ii.
52), 'The players prayd for his [Sloth's] comming: they lost nothing by
it, the comming in of tenne Embassadors was never so sweete to them, as
this our sinne was: their houses smoakt every after noone with Stinkards
who were so glewed together in crowdes with the steames of strong
breath, that when they came foorth, their faces lookt as if they had
beene per-boyld'.]

[Footnote 934: Cf. App. D, Nos. cxxxi, cli.]

[Footnote 935: Cf. App. E.]

[Footnote 936: The full tables are in Murray, ii. 181.]

[Footnote 937: _Your Five Gallants_ (1607), iv. 2. 30, 'If the bill down
rise to above thirty, here's no place for players' (cf. App. E, s. a.
1605); _Ram Alley_ (1607-8), iv. 1, 'I dwindle as a new player does at a
plague bill certefied forty'. Thorndike, _Influence of Beaumont and
Fletcher upon Shakespeare_, 16, doubts whether the theatres can in fact
have been wholly closed from Aug. 1608 to Dec. 1609, when the bill was
almost continuously over 40. I think that Murray, ii. 175, sufficiently
answers some of his points, but in _Shakespeare's Theater_, 241, he
cites _Keysar v. Burbage_ (cf. ch. xii, s.v. Chapel) as evidence that
the King's played at Blackfriars during the plague season of 1609. Both
disputants seem to have overlooked the special payments to the King's
men (App. B) for private practice before the Christmases of 1608-9 and
1609-10. It is possible that they were allowed, in spite of a general
restraint, to use the Blackfriars for this purpose, and even admit a
select audience. If a similar relaxation was given to the Revels at
Whitefriars, the dating of _Epicoene_ in' 1609' would be explained. I do
not agree with Murray that it is likely to have been produced in the
provinces. After all, the plague bill was well under 40 by 7 Dec. 1609,
although it went up to 39 again on 28 Dec.]

[Footnote 938: In 1574, a restraint covers 10 miles from the city; in
1581 (a civic precept), 2 miles; in 1593, 7 miles; in 1594, 5 miles; in
1597, 3 miles.]

[Footnote 939: Cf. App. D, Nos. lxxii, lxxv, and the use of the Curtain
as an 'easer' to the Theatre (ch. xvi); also the relations of the
Admiral's and Strange's during 1589-94.]

[Footnote 940: Strange's men petitioned _c._ 1592 (App. D, No. xcii),
'oure Companie is greate, and thearbie our chardge intollerable, in
travellinge the Countrie, and the contynuance thereof wilbe a meane to
bringe vs to division and seperacion'. My impression is that, when they
did have to travel in 1592 or 1593, Pembroke's (cf. ch. xiii) budded off
from them. Their own travelling warrant was for 6 men, but this does not
exclude hirelings. The provincial records do not give much evidence as
to the actual size of travelling companies. The strength of seven
companies which visited Southampton in 1576-7 (Murray, ii. 396) ranged
from 6 to 12. I incline to agree with Murray and W. J. Lawrence (_T. L.
S._, 21 Aug. 1919) that the average may be put at about 10 for the
latter part of the sixteenth century and that it grew in the
seventeenth. A Lord Chamberlain's licence of 1621 (Murray, ii. 192) sets
a limit of 18. Probably 10 men, duplicating parts, could play many of
the London plays without alteration, but obviously not the more
spectacular ones.]

[Footnote 941: Dekker, _The Wonderfull Yeare_ (1603, _Works_, i. 100),
'The worst players Boy stood vpon his good parts, swearing tragicall and
busking oathes, that how vilainously soeuer he randed, or what bad and
vnlawfull action soeuer he entred into, he would in despite of his
honest audience be halfe a sharer (at leaste) at home, or else strowle
(thats to say trauell) with some notorious wicked floundring company
abroad'; _News from Hell_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 146), 'a companie of
country players, ... that with strowling were brought to deaths door';
_Belman of London_ (1608, _Works_, iii. 81), 'Nor Players they bee, who
out of an ambition to weare the best Ierkin (in a Strowling company) or
to Act great Parts, forsake the stately and our more than Romaine Cittie
Stages, to trauel vpon the hard hoofe from village to village for chees
& butter-milke'; _Lanthorne and Candlelight_ (1608, _Works_, iii. 255),
'Strowlers; a proper name given to country players that (without socks)
trotte from towne to towne vpon the hard hoofe'; _The Raven's Almanac_
(1609, _Works_, iv. 196), 'Players, by reason they shal have a hard
winter, and must travell on the hoofe, will lye sucking there for pence
and twopences, like young pigges at a sow newly farrowed'.]

[Footnote 942: 'Paid to the plaiers with the waggon' (Exeter, 1576-7);
'Misdemeanoure done in the towne vppon misusage of a wagon or coache of
the Lo. Bartlettes [Berkeley's] players' (Faversham, 1596-7); Dekker,
_Satiromastix_, 1522, of Horace-Jonson, 'Thou hast forgot how thou
amblest (in leather pilch) by a play-wagon, in the high way'; cf. ch.
xi.]

[Footnote 943: R. W., _Mount Tabor_, 110 (repr. Harrison, iv. 355),
_Upon a Stage-play which I saw when I was a child_. The play was the
morality of _The Castle of Security_; cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 189.]

[Footnote 944: Cf. _Bibl. Note_ to ch. xii.]

[Footnote 945: 'For lynks to give light in the euenyng' (Bristol, 1577);
'for candells and torches then spent' (Canterbury, 1574); 'for the
skafowld' (Exeter, 1604-5); 'to make a scaffolde in the Bothall'
(Gloucester, 1559-60, with similar entries in other years up to 1568);
'a pounde of candelles' (Gloucester, 1561-2); 'for nayles ... for
layeing the tymber off ye stage together' (Maidstone, 1568-9); 'bordes
that was borowed for to make a skaffold to the Halle' (Nottingham,
1572); 'for bearinge of bordes and other furniture' (Plymouth, 1580-1);
'for setting up stoopes for players' (Stafford, _c._ 1616).]

[Footnote 946: 'For amendynge the seelynge in the Guildhall that the
Enterlude players had broken downe there this yeare' (Barnstaple,
1593-4); 'for mending the bord in the Yeld hall and the doers there,
after my L. of Leycesters players who had leave to play there' (Bristol,
1577-8); 'for mending of ii forormes which were taken out of Sᵗ George
Chapple and set in the Yeld hall at the play, and by the disordre of the
people were broken' (Bristol, 1581); 'for mendinge the cheyre in the
parlor at the Hall ... which was broken by the playars' (Leicester,
1605); 'for mendinge the glasse wyndowes att the towne hall more then
was given by the playors whoe broake the same' (Leicester, 1608); &c.]

[Footnote 947: Murray, ii. 205, 229, 247, 261-3, 277-81, 284-5, 377-8,
&c.]

[Footnote 948: Ibid. 202, 224, 'Given to the Queens plaiers xixˢ iiijᵈ,
and was to make it up xxvjˢ viijᵈ that was gathered at the benche' (Bath,
1587); 'xvˢ beside the gatheringe' (Bath, 1588); 'xvˢ vjᵈ besides that
which was given by the companie' (Bath, 1592); 'iijˢ viijᵈ on and besyde
the benevolens of the people' (Canterbury, 1549); G. B. Richardson,
_Extracts from the Municipal Accounts of Newcastle_, 'the Erle of Sussessx
plaiers in full payment of £3 for playing a free play, commanded by Mʳ
Maiore' (1594).]

[Footnote 949: Kelly, 197, 209, 247. On 22 Nov. 1566 a Corporation 'Act
agaynst Waystynge of the Towne Stock' laid down that at plays there
should be no 'greate alowance' out of the stock for rewards to players,
but that 'euery one of the Maiores Brethren & of the xlviij beinge
requyred, or havinge sommons by the comaundement of Mʳ. Maior for the
tyme beinge to be there shall beare euery one of theym his & theire
porcion'. This was confirmed on 4 Jan. 1570. On 16 Nov. 1582, 'It is
agreed that frome henceforthe there shall not bee anye ffees or rewards
gevon by the Chamber of this Towne, nor anye of the xxiiijᵗᶦ or
xlviijᵗᶦ to be charged with anye payments ffor or towards anye Bearewards,
Beearbaytings, Players, Playes, Enterludes or Games, or anye of theym
except the Quenes Maiesties or the Lords of the Privye Counsall, nor
that anye Players bee suffred to playe att the Towne Hall (except before
except) & then butt onlye before the Mayor & his bretherne, vppon peyne
of xlˢ to be lost by the Mayor that shall suffer or doe to the contrarye,
to be levyed by his successour, vpon peyne of vˡᶦ if he make default
therein'. On 30 Jan. 1607, 'It is agreed that non of either of the Twoe
Companies shalbee compelled at anie tyme hereafter to paye towards anie
playes, but such of them as shalbee then present at the said playes: the
Kings Maiesties playors, the Queenes Maiesties playors, and the young
Prince his playors excepted; and alsoe all such playors as doe belonge to
anie of the Lords of his Maiesties most honorable Privie Counsell alsoe
excepted; to theise they are to paye accordinge to the auncyent custome,
havinge warnynge by the Mace bearer to bee att euerye such play'.]

[Footnote 950: Murray, ii. 206, 'Order by the bailiffes and 24 aldermen,
as also by the comburgesses, that no playars or berwardes shalbe receved
upon the Townes chardges, but if any will see the same plaies or bere
baytinges, the same must be upon there owne costes and chardges'.]

[Footnote 951: When performances were prohibited at Chester in 1596 the
city fixed the scale of 'gratuity' at 20_s._ for the Queen's players and
6_s._ 8_d._ for noblemen's players (Morris, 333). The Queen's men were
'much discontented' with 6_s._ at Dunwich in 1596-7 (_Hist. MSS._,
_Various Collections_, vii. 82).]

[Footnote 952: 'Forasmuch as the grauntinge of leave to stage players or
players of interludes and the like, to act and represent theire
interludes playes and shewes in the towne-hall is very hurtfull
troublesome and inconvenyent for that the table, benches and fourmes
theire sett and placed for holdinge the Kinges Courtes are by those
meanes broken and spoyled, or at least wise soe disordered that the
Mayor and bayliffes and other officers of the saide courts comminge
thither for the administracion of justice, especially in the Pipowder
Courts of the said Towne, which are there to bee holden twice a day yf
occasion soe require, cannot sit there in such decent and convenient
order as becometh, and dyvers other inconvenyences do thereupon ensue,
It is therefore ordered by generall consent that from henceforth no
leaue shall bee graunted to any Stage players or interlude players or to
any other person or persons resortinge to this towne to act shewe or
represent any manner of interludes or playes or any other sportes or
pastymes whatsoeuer in the said hall' (Southampton, 1623); 'Forasmuch as
we finde the glass windows in the Council Chamber to be much broken, and
the city thereby suffereth much damage, ordered that no plaies nor
players be suffered to have any use thereof' (Worcester, 1627). An
earlier Worcester order had limited players to 'the lower end onlie' of
the guildhall. At Chester in 1615 the exclusion of players from the hall
was openly based on 'the common brute & scandall' due to 'convertinge
the same beinge appointed & ordained for the judicial hearinge &
determininge of criminall offences, & for the solempne meetinge &
concourse of this howse into a stage for plaiers & a receptacle for idle
persons'.]

[Footnote 953: 'At the New Ynn' (Abingdon, 1559); 'Certen playars,
playinge uppon ropes at the Crosse Keys' (Leicester, 1590). Worcester's
men played at Norwich in 1583 'in their hoste his hows', and the Queen's
men in the same year at the Red Lion. A Norwich order of 1601 forbade
plays at the White Horse in Tombland. A Salisbury order of 1624 laid
down that all plays should in future be at the George in High Street.
Where the house of a named citizen is given as the play-place, one may
perhaps generally infer an inn; but in 1573 Leicester's men seem to have
played at Bristol 'in the Mayors house', and at Plymouth in 1559-60
'players of London' performed 'in the vycarage'.]

[Footnote 954: 'In the churche' (Doncaster, 1574); 'in the colledge
churche yarde' (Gloucester, 1589-90); 'in the churche lofte' (Marlow,
1608-9); 'in the churche' (Plymouth, 1559-60, 1565-6, 1573-4); 'in XXe
churche' (Norwich, 1589-90); 'the Chappell nere the Newhall' (Norwich,
1616); 'because they should not play in the church' (Syston, 1602). On
the religious opposition to this practice, cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, ii.
191.]

[Footnote 955: M. Sellers, in _E. H. R._ xii. 446, from _Corporation
Minute Book_, xxxiii, f. 187.]

[Footnote 956: Murray, ii. 335.]

[Footnote 957: Cf. ch. xii (Chapel).]

[Footnote 958: So, too, the Norwich accounts record in 1590 a reward to
'the lorde Shandos players' and 'Item more in rewarde to another company
of his men that cam with lycens presently after saying that thos that
cam before were counterfete and not the L. Shandos men'.]

[Footnote 959: Cf. ch. ix.]

[Footnote 960: 'There shall not any playes ... be played ... on any
Sabaothe dayes nor aboue twoe daies together at any tyme. And no players
... to be suffered to playe againe ... within twentie and eighte daies
nexte after such tyme as they shall haue laste played.... And they shall
not exceede the hower of nyne of the clocke in the nighte' (Canterbury,
_Burghmote Book_, 1595); 'This day lycens ys graunted to the L. of
Huntington his players to playe one daye & not vppon the Saboath daye'
(Norwich, 1597); 'The Quenes players had leave guiven them to play for
one weeke so that they play neither on the Saboth day nor in the night
nor more then one play a day' (Norwich, 1611).]

[Footnote 961: 'Not ... after nyne of the clocke' (Norwich, 1599); cf.
Canterbury, above. A Chester order of 1615 fixed 6 p.m. and a Salisbury
order of 1623 7 p.m. as the limit; an Exeter order of 1609 (_H. M. C.
Exeter MSS._ 321) allowed 6 p.m. between Annunciation and Michaelmas and
5 p.m. between Michaelmas and Annunciation.]

[Footnote 962: Lord Coke, as Recorder of Coventry, wrote to the
Corporation on 28 March 1615 (Murray, ii. 254): 'Forasmuch as this time
is by his Maiesties lawes and iniunctions consecrated to the service of
Almighty God, and publique notice was given on the last Sabaoth for
preparacion to the receyving of the holy communion. Theis are to will
and require you to suffer no common players whatsoever to play within
your Citie for that it would tend to the hinderance of devotion, and
drawing of the artificers and common people from their labour. And this
being signified vnto any such they will rest therewith (as becometh
them) satisfied, otherwise suffer you them not and this shall be your
sufficient warrant.' The letter is endorsed 'The Lord Coke his lettre
concerning the La: Eliza: Players'. The Earl of Cumberland would not let
Lord Vaux's men play in 1609 'because it was Lent & therefor not
fitting' (Murray, ii. 255).]

[Footnote 963: Murray, ii. 234 (Chester, 1595). The Privy Council
warrant for the provincial tour of Strange's men in 1593 expressly
excludes plays in service time.]

[Footnote 964: 'The tyme was busy, they dyd not play' (Bristol, 1541);
'for that they should not playe here by reason that the sicknes was then
in this Cytye' (Canterbury, 1608); 'for that the tyme was not
conveynyent' (Leicester, 1584); 'to avoyd the meetynge of people this
whote whether for fear of any infeccon as also for that they came fro an
infected place' (Norwich, 1583). On 6 May 1597 the Privy Council wrote
to the Suffolk justices to prohibit stage plays during the Whitsun
holidays at Hadleigh (App. D, No. cviii), 'doubting what inconveniences
may follow thereon, especially at this tyme of scarcety, when disordred
people of the comon sort wilbe apt to misdemeane themselves'. There had
been tumults in Norfolk during April, owing to the scarcity of grain
(Dasent, xxvii. 88). The Privy Council did not, however, often interfere
directly with provincial plays; another example is the letter of 23 June
1592 to the Earl of Derby (cf. App. D, No. xci), forbidding plays on
Sundays and holidays in his lieutenancy.]

[Footnote 965: I think there is a clear distinction in municipal
accounts between a 'reward' for playing and a 'gratuity' for not
playing; cf. the Norwich orders in Murray, ii. 339, 341, 'beinge
demaunded wherefore their comeing was, sayd they came not to ask leaue
to play but to aske the gratuetie of the Cytty' (1614), 'he was desired
to desist from playing & offered a benevolence in money which he refused
to accept' (1616), 'this house offered him a gratuitie to desist'
(1616).]

[Footnote 966: A. Clark, _Shirburn Ballads_, 48. He complained that
'Before tyme noble-mens menn hadd such entertaynement when they came to
the towne that the towne hadd the favour of noble-men, but now
noble-mens menn hadd such entertaynement that the towne was brought into
contempt with noble-menn'. The players were probably Essex's men, as
their performance on Sunday was contrary to his 'lettre'. He was,
however, also High Steward of Maldon.]

[Footnote 967: Cf. p. 336.]

[Footnote 968: T. Gent, _Hist. of Hull_, 128.]

[Footnote 969: Murray, ii. 337, 'This day John Mufford one of the Lᵈ
Beauchamps players being forbidden by Mʳ Maiour to playe within the
liberties of this Citie and in respect thereof gave them among them xxˢ
and yett notwithstanding they did sett up bills to provoke men to come
to their playe and did playe in XXe churche. Therefore the seid John
Mufford is comytted to prison' (1590); cf. ch. xiii (Worcester's, 1583;
Essex's, 1585; Derby's, 1602). So, too, at Coventry in 1600 'the lo:
Shandoes [Chandos's] players were comitted to prison for their contempt
agaynst Mʳ Maior & ther remayned untill they made their submisshon under
their hands as appeareth in the fyle of Record and their hands to be
seene'. At Nottingham in 1603 a penalty on the host is recorded in the
entry 'Richard Jackson commytted for sufferinge players to sound thyere
trumpetts and playinge in his howse without lycence, and for suffering
his guests to be out all night'.]

[Footnote 970: Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 326, reprints from this tract (S.
R. 31 May 1605) the chapter 'a pretty Prancke passed by Ratsey upon
certain Players that he met by chance in an Inne, who denied their Lord
and Maister, and used another Noblemans name'. Gamaliel Ratsey,
highwayman, harangued the players, like Hamlet, on 'striving to
over-doe, and go beyond yourselves ... yet your poets take great paines
to make your parts fit for your mouthes, though you gape never so wide',
and on the ups and downs of the profession, for some 'goe home at night
with fifteene pence share apeece', while others become wealthy. Later he
met them again passing 'like camelions' under the name of another lord.
They gave a 'private play' before Ratsey, who rewarded them with 40_s._,
'with which they held themselves very richly satisfied, for they scarce
had twentie shillings audience at any time for a play in the countrey'.
Next day he met them with their wagon in the highway, robbed them, bade
them pawn their apparel, 'for as good actors and stalkers as you are
have done it, though now they scorne it', gave them leave to play under
his protection and share with him, and advised their leader to get to
London.]

[Footnote 971: Payments to travelling companies appear in the household
accounts of the Earl of Rutland at Belvoir (_Rutland MSS._ iv. 260), the
Earl of Cumberland at Skipton Castle (Murray, ii. 255), the Duchess of
Suffolk at Grimsthorpe (_Ancaster MSS._ 459), Sir George Vernon at
Haddon Hall (G. Le B. Smith, _Haddon_, 121), Lord North at Kirtling
(Murray, ii. 295), the Earl of Derby at Lathom House, New Park, and
Knowsley Hall (Murray, ii. 296), the Shuttleworths at Smithills and
Gawthorpe Hall (Murray, ii. 393), and Francis Willoughby at Wollaton
(_Middleton MSS._ 421). In _A Mad World, my Masters_, v. 1, 2,
characters shamming to be Lord Owemuch's players come to Sir Bounteous
Progress's, and perform _The Slip_, until they are interrupted by a
constable.]

[Footnote 972: Murray, ii. 19-98, records, in addition to the above, the
names of from fifty to sixty patrons between 1559 and 1616, under whose
names companies are not traceable in London.]

[Footnote 973: Cf. ch. xxii.]

[Footnote 974: Cf. ch. xiii (King's, Anne's).]

[Footnote 975: Grosart, _Lismore Papers_, 1. xix; W. J. Lawrence, _Was
Shakespeare ever in Ireland?_ (_Sh.-Jahrbuch_, xlii. 65). The earliest
notice is of Prince Charles's men in Feb. 1616.]

[Footnote 976: Cf. ch. xiv.]

[Footnote 977: C. Hughes, _Shakespeare's Europe_, 304, 373. Moryson
again refers to the vogue abroad of 'stragling broken companyes' from
England in his account of the London theatre; cf. ch. xvi,
introduction.]

[Footnote 978: E. Cellius, _Eques Auratus Anglo-Wirtembergicus_ (1605),
229 'Profert enim multos et praestantes Anglia musicos, comoedos,
tragoedos, histrionicae peritissimos, e quibus interdum aliquot
consociati sedibus suis ad tempus relictis ad exteras nationes
excurrere, artemque suam illis praesertim Principum aulis demonstrare
ostentareque consueverunt. Paucis ab hinc annis in Germaniam nostram
Anglicani musici dictum ob finem expaciati, et in magnorum Principum
aulis aliquandiu versati, tantum ex arte musica, histrionicaque sibi
favorem conciliarunt, ut largiter remunerati domum inde auro et argento
onusti sunt reversi'; Johannes Rhenanus, in dedication of _Streit der
Sinne_ (a translation of the English play of _Lingua_) to Maurice of
Hesse-Cassel, '... die Engländischen Comoedianten (ich rede von geübten)
anderen vorgehn und den Vorzug haben'; Daniel von Wensin, _Oratio contra
Britanniam_, in Fr. Achillis Ducis Würtemberg, _Consultatio de
principatu inter provincias Europae habita Tubingae in illustri
collegio_ (1613), 'Nec diu est cum plerique artifices in Anglia
peregrini et exteri et aurifabri Londini pene omnes fuerunt Germani:
Anglis interea gulae voluptatibus ... et rebus nihili, atque adeo
histrioniae iugiter operam dantibus; in qua sic profecerunt, ut iam apud
nos Angli histriones omnium maxime delectent'.]

[Footnote 979: Another example is Ioannes Valentinus Andreae, who writes
in his _Vita_ (ed. 1849), 10 'Iam a secundo et tertio post millesimum
sexcentesimum coeperam aliquid exercendi ingenii ergo pangere, cuius
facile prima fuere Esther et Hyacinthus comoediae ad aemulationem
Anglicorum histrionum iuvenili ausu factae'.]

[Footnote 980: M. Röchell, _Chronik_, in _Die Geschichtsquellen des
Bisthums Münster_, iii. 174.]

[Footnote 981: E. Mentzel, _Geschichte der Schauspielkunst in
Frankfurt_, 52.]

[Footnote 982: Cohn, lxxxviii.]

[Footnote 983: A. Glaser, _Geschichte des Theaters in Braunschweig_,
13.]

[Footnote 984: _Archiv für Litteratur-Geschichte_, xv. 212, from diary
of Martin Crusius at Tübingen in 1597: 'Es sind wol x Comoedianten hie
gewesen: qui 5 aut 6 dies comoedias egerunt in domo frumentaria.
Dicuntur Angli esse et miri artifices. Sunt illi quibus Dux noster 300
fl. donasse dicitur. Ego non spectaui. Quid ad hominem ista
septuagenario maiorem? fuerunt illa dramata amatoria. Hodie Susannam
egerunt. Ego sum scriptoribus Homericis occupatus.']

[Footnote 985: Cohn, lxxx.]

[Footnote 986: C. F. Meyer in _Sh.-Jahrbuch_, xxxviii. 200.]

[Footnote 987: C. Harris in _M. L. A._ xxii. 446.]

[Footnote 988: Cohn, xcvi.]




XI

THE ACTOR'S ECONOMICS

     [_Bibliographical Note._--The material for this chapter is
     mainly to be found in Book III (Companies) and Book IV
     (Theatres) and the works there cited. My account of Henslowe is
     practically all based on W. W. Greg, _Henslowe's Diary_
     (1904-8) and _Henslowe Papers_ (1907). W. Rendle made a useful
     contribution in _Philip Henslowe_ (_Genealogist_, n. s. iv).
     Since I completed this chapter, useful studies in theatrical
     finance have been contributed by A. Thaler, _Shakespeare's
     Income_ (1918, _S. P._ xv. 82), _Playwright's Benefits and
     Interior Gathering in the Elizabethan Theatre_ (1919, _S. P._
     xvi. 187), _The Elizabethan Dramatic Companies_ (1920, _M. L.
     R._ xxxv. 123).]


Withal the actors, or the more discreet of them, prospered. This fact
peeps out from the diatribes of their critics, and is indeed part of the
case against them. The theatres are thronged, while the churches are
empty. The drones suck the honey stored up by London's laborious
citizens. Already, in 1578, John Stockwood estimates the aggregate gain
of eight play-houses, open but once in the week, at £2,000 by the year.
The players began to ruffle it, in garments fit only for their betters.
'The very hyrelings', says Gosson in 1579, 'which stand at reuersion of
viˢ by the weeke, iet under gentlemen's noses in sutes of silke,
exercising themselues too prating on the stage, and common scoffing when
they come abrode, where they looke askance ouer the shoulder at euery
man, of whom the Sunday before they begged an almes'; and in like vein
Walsingham's correspondent of 1587 bewails to him the 'wofull sight to
see two hundred proude players jett in their silkes, wheare five hundred
pore people sterve in the streets'. It is, however, possible to lay
undue stress upon the public finery as an evidence of prosperity, for
this was apt to be borrowed from the tiring-house wardrobe, and in time
it was found that the advertisement earned hardly justified the
detriment to the common stock of apparel. The articles signed by those
joining the Lady Elizabeth's men about 1614 bound them amongst other
things not to go out of the theatre with any of the apparel on their
bodies. The surest economic sign of a growing industry is the capacity
to spend money on building, and it was a true instinct that led
Stockwood to discommend the gorgeous playing-places erected at 'great
charges' in the fields, and William Harrison to note it as 'an evident
token of a wicked time when plaiers wexe so riche that they can build
suche houses'. And when Robert Greene wanted to paint a picture of a
typical successful actor in 1592, he made him describe himself as one
who had once travelled on foot and carried his properties on his back,
but now his very share in playing apparel would not be sold for £200,
and he was reputed by his neighbours able 'at his proper cost to build a
windmill'.[989] James Burbadge was 'the first builder of playhowses',
and thereby laid the foundations of the prosperity of his family. He had
been a joiner, before he became a player, and perhaps this suggested the
enterprise of the Theatre, which he put up in 1576 upon borrowed
capital. When his son Richard died in 1619 he was reckoned worth £300 a
year in land. Even more fortunate was Edward Alleyn, who was in a
position to retire from the stage before he was forty, to purchase the
manor of Dulwich for £10,000, to build the College of God's Gift, and
thereafter to spend upon the maintenance of his household and his
foundation at the rate of some £1,700 a year. Other actors, mainly of
the King's company, can be shown to have made their more modest piles.
Thomas Pope, Augustine Phillips, Henry Condell, all appear from their
wills to have been substantial men when they died. John Heminge is
described in 1614 as 'of greate lyveinge wealth and power'. The
Restoration story that Shakespeare spent £1,000 a year at Stratford is
probably apocryphal, in view of the fact that his known investments only
amount to a little over £1,000; but at least he returned as a moneyed
man to the scene of his father's bankruptcy, and enjoyed consideration
as the owner of the best house in his native town. Aubrey's statement
that he left property worth about £200 or £300 a year, which gives him a
fortune about equal to Richard Burbadge's, seems not unreasonable.[990]
Like true Englishmen, the successful players sought after less material
proof of their worth than was afforded by their lands and houses.
Alleyn, having long been lord of a manor, and having connected himself
by marriage with the Dean of St. Paul's, was desirous in 1624 of 'sum
further dignetie', probably a knighthood. Others were content with
acquiring or assuming a claim to armorial bearings, which would entitle
them to rank as 'gentlemen'. Shakespeare in 1596 obtained a confirmation
of a grant of arms made to his father as bailiff of Stratford nearly
thirty years before; and in 1599 sought additional authority to impale
the coat of his mother's family, the Ardens.[991] Heminges obtained a
confirmation of arms in 1629. Such grants did not go altogether
unstrictured by heraldic purists, and the cases of Shakespeare and of
his fellow Richard Cowley formed part of the material for a charge of
making grants to 'base and ignoble persons' brought by a rival against
the responsible king-of-arms. Augustine Phillips and Thomas Pope did not
trouble the heralds, but went to an heraldic painter, and bought, the
one the arms of Sir William Phillips, Lord Bardolph, and the other those
of Sir Thomas Pope, Chancellor of the Augmentations.[992] These
ambitions of the players, no less than their investments, yielded stuff
both for moralizing and for satire. Henry Crosse, in his _Vertues
Common-wealth_ (1603), rebukes the pride of the 'copper-lace gentlemen'
who 'purchase lands by adulterous playes'.[993] And in the tract of
_Ratseis Ghost_ (1605), already cited, Gamaliel Ratsey speaks of those
'whom Fortune hath so well favored that, what by penny-sparing and long
practise of playing, are growne so wealthy that they have expected to be
knighted, or at least to be conjunct in authority and to sit with men of
great worship on the bench of justice'; and he advises the country
player, with whom he has fallen in, to get him to London, 'and when thou
feelest thy purse well lined, buy thee some place or lordship in the
country, that, growing weary of playing, thy mony may there bring thee
to dignitie and reputation'. The player too heard 'of some that have
gone to London very meanly, and have come in time to be exceeding
wealthy'. Ratsey then knights him 'Sir Simon Two Shares and a Halfe',
and tells him he is 'the first knight that ever was player in
England'.[994]

Certainly all players did not grow rich, even in London. Some of them
to the end, perhaps the majority, remained threadbare companions enough;
in and out of debt, spongers upon their fellows, frequenters of
pawnshops, acquainted with prison. Partly it was a matter of character.
Those who had to do with the stage were not all such riff-raff as a
hasty reading of the Puritan literature might suggest. Gosson, indeed,
admits as much, allowing that some among those professing 'the qualitie'
are 'sober, discreete, properly learned honest housholders and citizens
well thought on amonge their neighbours at home'; while on his side
Thomas Heywood is quick to maintain the harm wrought by the licentious
to a calling in which many are 'of substance, of government, of sober
lives and temperate carriages, house-keepers and contributory to all
duties enjoyned them', and to plead that if there be a few of degenerate
demeanour, his readers will not 'censure hardly of all for the misdeeds
of some'.[995] Doubtless there is a certain instability of temperament,
which the life of the theatre, with its ups and downs of fortune, its
unreal sentiments and its artificially stimulated emotions, is well
calculated to encourage; and we may perhaps find the victims of such a
temperament in certain actors who, although clearly of standing in their
profession, seem to have been constantly shifting from company to
company, without attaining any secure position or, as one may
conjecture, reaping any substantial harvest from their labour and their
skill. One of these was Richard Jones, originally a fellow of Alleyn
with Lord Worcester's men, presently selling to Alleyn his share of
clothes and books, at one time reduced to 1_s._ a day or nothing, at
another setting out to tour the Continent with Robert Browne, then back
again with Alleyn amongst the Admiral's men, then transferring himself
to the Swan and returning a few months later to the Rose, and finally
allowing himself to be bought out for £50 and passing into obscurity.
Another was Martin Slater, also at one time one of the Admiral's men,
whom he left and went to law with, then a wanderer with Laurence
Fletcher in Scotland, and afterwards successively traceable with Lord
Hertford's men, with Queen Anne's, as a member of the King's Revels
syndicate, and with Queen Anne's again as manager of one of the
provincial companies travelling under the Queen's warrant. Perhaps it is
merely another way of stating the same issue to say that the financial
success of a player depended on his obtaining an interest, not merely in
the day-to-day profits of a company, but also in the permanent
investment represented by a theatre. This becomes readily apparent upon
an analysis of the business methods employed in the organization of the
dramatic industry. The basis of this organization was the banding
together of players into associations or partnerships, the members of
which acted together, held a common stock of garments and play-books,
incurred joint expenditure, and daily or at other convenient periods
divided up the profits of their enterprise. In a legal document an
associate of such a company is described as 'a full adventurer, storer
and sharer among them';[996] the term in ordinary use was 'sharer'. No
doubt the sharing arrangement was in origin traditional; it is described
in 1614 as 'accordinge to the custome of players'.[997] But it became
convenient to formulate it in a legal agreement or 'composition', which
provided for the co-operation of the sharers and defined their relations
to each other. Thus the composition of the Duke of York's men in 1610
bound them to play together for three years, and deprived a member who
left without the consent of his fellows of any interest in the common
stock. Under that of Queen Anne's men about 1612 a retiring sharer was
entitled to a payment at the rate of £80 for a full share. Such
provisions, which were intended to obviate the breaking up of a stock,
and of themselves indicate a substantial investment of capital, seem to
have been usual. Alleyn had £50 on leaving the Admiral's men in 1597,
Jones and Shaw £50 in 1602; under the composition of the same company,
then the Prince's men, in 1613, a sharer retiring with consent was
entitled to £70. Both the Queen's and the Prince's men made a similar
allowance to the widow of a sharer. Each of the sharers signed a bond
for the observance of the composition, which also covered certain
disciplinary regulations imposed by the company on its members. Thus the
articles signed by Robert Dawes, on joining the Lady Elizabeth's men in
1614, not only made him a partaker in the contractual and financial
liabilities of the company, but also exposed him to penalties if he
missed plays or rehearsals, or came late or in a state of intoxication,
or took apparel or other common property away from the theatre. As the
compositions grew more detailed and the enterprises more important, it
proved convenient that one of the sharers should be appointed, formally
or informally, to act as trustee and manager for the rest, to receive
and make payments, to hold the composition, bonds, licences, and other
legal papers, and generally to look after the business interests of his
fellows. Thus it is pleaded in a lawsuit concerning Queen Anne's men
that Thomas Greene was 'one of the principall and cheif persons of the
said companie', and did 'laie out or disburse' moneys on their behalf;
and that, after his death in 1612, the company 'did put the managing of
thier whole businesses and affaires belonging vnto them ioyntly as they
were players in trust' unto Christopher Beeston, by whom they were
'altogether ruled'. John Heminge seems to have acted in a similar
capacity for the King's men, and to have had the custody of their deeds.
He regularly appears as their payee at Court, and it is probable that he
gave up acting in order to devote himself to business management. The
members of a company did not invariably share and share alike. It is
possible that in some cases the manager or a leading actor had a
preponderant interest.[998] Tucca, in _The Poetaster_, at the end of his
interview with Histrio, bids him commend him to 'Seven Shares and a
Half'. So, too, Gamaliel Ratsey knights his player as 'Sir Simon Two
Shares and a Halfe'. Perhaps this is only the chaff of the satirists. In
any case one hopes that there is no foundation for the further
suggestion of Tucca, when he offers to take the players into his
service, and 'ha' two shares for my countenance'.[999] We know what
Ratsey's corresponding threat to 'share with thee againe for playing
under my warrant' means, for Ratsey was a highwayman, and levied his
share not by 'composition', but at the end of a pistol. An actual
example of a privileged share is that held by Alleyn in the Admiral's
company about 1600, which seems to have been free of any liability to
contribute towards the upkeep of the stock or other current
expenses.[1000] The shares were often subdivided, so that some members
of the company were full sharers, others half sharers or three-quarter
sharers.[1001] The number of shares varied; an ordinary London company
may be taken to have consisted of about ten or twelve sharers.[1002] For
travelling purposes it is probable that separate compositions were
entered into, except perhaps for short summer tours, and that the
numbers were smaller.[1003] It should be made clear that the companies
of players, although based upon the bodies of royal or noble servants
constituted under patents or other warrants of appointment, were not
precisely identical with these. Each company had to get the authority of
such a warrant, before it was licensed to act at all, but the legal bond
of association between its members was not the warrant, but the
composition. As a rule the terms of the patents give or imply a power to
those named in them to associate themselves with others. New members
could doubtless be sworn into the service of the lord without any need
for a fresh patent. But it cannot be held that every fellow sharer was
necessarily a servant of the same lord, and still less that every
servant named in a warrant was necessarily a sharer of any particular
company acting under that warrant. Thus there is no proof that Laurence
Fletcher, who is named first amongst the King's servants of 1603, ever
acted with the King's men. Similarly Martin Slater and certain other
Queen's servants and Gilbert Reason, a Prince's servant, did not, during
long periods, act with the corresponding London companies, but toured
the provinces with companies of their own, taking out for this purpose
duplicates or exemplifications of the patents, a practice which came to
be regarded by the authorities as an abuse.[1004] On the other hand, the
servants of two lords sometimes played as a single company.[1005] Thus
Lord Oxford's men and Lord Worcester's were 'ioyned by agrement
togeather in on companie' at the Boar's Head during 1602. Similarly Lord
Hunsdon's men and Lord Howard's came as a single company to Court in
1586; the Queen's men and Lord Sussex's were 'togeather' at the Rose in
1594, while Rosseter's patent for the Porter's Hall theatre in 1615
contemplates its use by no less than three companies, the Lady
Elizabeth's, the Prince's, and the Queen's Revels, probably as a united
body. Or the servant of one lord might attach himself as an individual
to the company passing under the name of another. Thus Alleyn was still
an Admiral's man when he toured with Lord Strange's men in 1593,
possibly as the last representative of a more complete combination
between two companies. Similarly Robert Pallant remained a Queen's man
while playing successively with the Lady Elizabeth's and the Duke of
York's in 1614-16, and William Rowley appeared in the Prince's livery at
King James's funeral in 1625, although he had probably joined the King's
men some two years before.[1006]

The sharers did not, however, take the whole risk of a theatrical
enterprise; the owner or owners of the play-house stood in with them.
This arrangement certainly goes back to the days of the elder Burbadge,
'the first builder of play-houses'. I do not know whether it had also
prevailed in the London inn-yards. Instead of paying a fixed rent for
the building placed at their disposal, the sharers assigned to the owner
a fixed part of the takings at each performance. Originally Burbadge had
the whole of the payments made at the entrances to the galleries; his
successors contented themselves with half these payments, together with,
at the Globe, half those made at the tiring-house door. The other half,
and the full payments at all other outer doors went to the sharers. The
owner was apparently allowed to safeguard his interests by appointing
the 'gatherers' or money-takers for the galleries.[1007] When the Globe
was opened in 1599 the Burbadges of the second generation hit upon the
device of binding the interests of some of the leading actors more
closely to their own by giving them a share in these profits of the
'house'. To this end the site was conveyed by lease in two distinct
moieties. One the Burbadges held; the other was divided amongst five of
the actors. Subsequently it was several times redivided into a varying
number of fractions, according as one man dropped out, or it was desired
to admit another to participate in the benefits. The tenures of the
fractions, while such as to secure joint control, did not prevent the
alienation of the profits attached to them. This gave rise to some
trouble, owing to the remarriage of widows with persons who were not
members of the company at all. Incidentally it enabled John Heminge and
Henry Condell, who had business capacity, to buy up by degrees the whole
moiety. There was a rent payable to the ground landlord, and to this
each holder of a fraction made a proportionate contribution. A levy was
also called when the Globe had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1613. The
Burbadges claimed to have been at the cost of the original building and
to have raised a loan for the purpose. We know that they pulled down the
Theatre and carried the materials across the water. The lease of the
Globe formed a precedent for a somewhat similar transaction when the
King's men took over responsibility for the Blackfriars in 1608. In this
case the freehold belonged to Richard Burbadge, who leased out the
play-house in sevenths, keeping one fraction himself, and allotting the
rest to his brother, to the representative of a former tenant, and to
four of the players. At some later date the interest was divided into
eighths instead of sevenths. It is to be noted that it was only certain
selected men who thus acquired rights in the profits of the houses, and
one of the effects of the policy adopted was to set up a distinction
amongst the members of the association itself, of whom some were both
'housekeepers', as they came to be called, and ordinary sharers, while
others were ordinary sharers alone. At the Blackfriars from the
beginning, and at the Globe as rights under the leases were alienated,
there were also housekeepers who were not sharers at all, and might even
be members of rival companies. A dispute arising from these anomalies
throws light upon the responsibilities undertaken and the advantages
enjoyed by housekeepers and sharers respectively. It is of late date,
but there is no reason to think that the conditions revealed were
substantially different from those of earlier years. About 1630 all the
rights in both houses were held, mainly through deaths and alienations,
by persons who were not actors. Shortly afterwards two or three of the
leading members of the company were allowed to acquire interests, and in
1635 three other sharers brought the state of things before the notice
of the Lord Chamberlain, who exercised some equitable control over the
affairs of the company as a part of the royal Household, and petitioned
that they too might be admitted to the same privilege of purchasing
fractions of the leases 'at the usuall and accustomed rates'. The
pleadings and the orders of the Lord Chamberlain form the record known
as the _Sharers Papers_.[1008] From them it emerges that the
housekeepers were entitled to receive a full moiety, 'without any
defalcation or abatement at all' of all takings from the galleries and
boxes in both houses and from the tiring-house door of the Globe. The
sharers had the other moiety, together with the takings at the outer
doors. If a man was a sharer as well as a housekeeper, he claimed under
both heads. The outgoings were also apportioned, and in the view of the
sharers, most unfairly. The housekeepers only had to pay the rent and
the cost of repairs. The sharers had to find hired men and boys, and to
meet all charges for apparel, poets, music, lights, and so forth. The
Lord Chamberlain was apparently impressed by the justice of the
representation, and made an order for a transfer of interests in both
houses.

The method of organization adopted by the Burbadges was subject to
abuses, both from alienation and from the agglutinative tendencies of
Heminge and Condell. But, at any rate during the earlier years of its
working, it seems to have served its purpose of attaching the individual
King's men, by means of a capital investment, to the welfare and
stability of their company. It was adopted by their principal rivals, by
the Queen's men at the Red Bull from the beginning of the reign, by
Alleyn and the Prince's men at the Fortune from a somewhat later date.
Certainly these companies rested upon a firmer foundation than those
which had to look for their theatre to an outside capitalist, especially
when that outside capitalist was Philip Henslowe. I have more than once
had occasion to mention Henslowe, whose personality stands out, more
clearly perhaps than any other, from the stage history of our whole
period. It is to the labours of my friend Dr. Greg that we owe an
adequate presentment of that personality. He appears to have been a
younger son of a good family, originally of Devonshire, but settled in
Sussex, where his father was Master of the Game in Ashdown Forest and
Brill Park. He had evidently had little formal education, and was a poor
man when, probably at some date in the 'seventies, he married Agnes
Woodward, a wealthy widow, to whose former husband he had been
'servant'. Agnes had a daughter Joan, who in 1592 married Edward Alleyn,
between whom and Henslowe, ever after if not before this event, the
closest business and personal relations existed. The occupation which
Henslowe thus, in the traditional manner of apprentices, acquired may
have been that of a dyer; he is described in documents of about 1584-7
as 'citizen and dyer of London'. But he had a shrewd business capacity,
which he turned to many other ways of making money. He was at one time
engaged in the manufacture of starch. From at least 1587 onwards he was
interested in theatrical property. Between 1593 and 1596 he was carrying
on, through agents, a pawnbroking establishment. By 1592 at latest he
had obtained an appointment as Groom of the Chamber at Court.[1009] In
1603 he was promoted to be Gentleman Sewer of the Chamber to King
James. About 1594 he began to finance the Southwark bear-baiting, under
a licence from the Master of the Royal Game of Paris Garden, and by
arrangement with Alleyn who held the Bear Garden, and Jacob Meade who
was Keeper of the Bears. After more than one unsuccessful attempt,
Henslowe and Alleyn secured a transfer to themselves of the joint
Mastership of Paris Garden in 1604. Meanwhile Henslowe was steadily
amassing house property, most of it in Southwark, and some of it, at
least by origin, of a rather questionable character.[1010] His own
residence is given in 1577 as in the Liberty of the Clink, more
precisely in 1593 as 'on the bank sid right over against the clink',
whereby is doubtless meant the prison which gave its name to the
Liberty; and in the Clink he continued to dwell to the end. For
subsidies he was regularly assessed at £10. He filled parochial offices,
becoming vestryman of St. Saviour's, Southwark, in 1607, churchwarden
in 1608, and governor of the free grammar school in 1612. His death on 6
January 1616 was followed almost immediately by that of his widow in
April 1617, and most of his property passed into the hands of the
Alleyns, together with a mass of papers, which are now amalgamated with
Alleyn's own at Dulwich. The collection is of the first importance both
for dramatic and for social history. It contains title-deeds of
theatres, agreements, and bonds entered into by companies of players,
private correspondence between the members of Henslowe's family and with
the poets and actors dependent upon him, inventories of stage costumes,
book-holder's 'plots' or outlines of plays, and many other documents
touching in innumerable ways upon the finance and control of the stage.
It also contains Henslowe's famous 'Diary'. This is not in fact a diary
at all, but a folio memorandum book, which Henslowe used principally
during 1592-1603, and in which he entered in picturesque confusion
particulars of accounts between himself and the companies occupying his
theatres, together with jottings on many personal and business matters,
and records of loans, which are often written, signed, or witnessed in
the autographs of players and poets.

From the diary and the related documents it is possible to reconstruct
in its main outlines the history of Henslowe's theatrical enterprises,
and to contrast his policy as a capitalist with that of his rivals, the
Burbadges. During the earlier years covered by our information, the
theatre with which he was mainly concerned was the Rose, which he had
himself built on the Bankside, although he appears also to have had an
interest in the distant and practically disused house at Newington
Butts. At one or other of these he entertained a succession of companies
for the short periods during which playing was possible in the
plague-stricken period of 1592-4. In the autumn of 1594 he settled down
with Alleyn and the Admiral's men at the Rose, and this combination
lasted, with some reorganization of the company in 1597, until 1600,
when the Admiral's men moved to the newly built Fortune, and were
succeeded a couple of years later at the Rose by Lord Worcester's men.
It seems clear from an analysis of the accounts which he kept during
1592-7, that Henslowe, like the housekeepers at the Globe, was in the
practice of taking his profits as landlord in the form, not of a fixed
rent, but of a share of the daily takings at the theatre, and in his
case also the sum allotted seems to have been half the proceeds of the
galleries as distinct from the outer doors of the play-house. He was
responsible for keeping the building in repair, and for the fees to the
Master of the Revels for licensing its use; all other outgoings had
presumably to be met by the company. If, as sometimes happened, the
theatre was put at the disposal of some fencer or other performer not
belonging to the company, the profits of the subletting were apportioned
between Henslowe and the actors.[1011] It should be added that, under an
agreement entered into when the building of the Rose was being planned
in 1587, Henslowe had assigned half his profits for a term of eight
years and a quarter to one John Cholmley in return for fixed quarterly
payments. The covenants of the agreement entitled the parties jointly to
appoint actors to perform in the play-house, and gatherers to collect
the entrance fees, and reserved to each of them the right 'to suffer
theire frendes to go in for nothinge'. They were to share the cost of
repairs and Cholmley, who was a grocer, was to have the monopoly of
selling drink on the premises. The agreement was probably terminated by
Cholmley's death; if not, it would have served Henslowe for an insurance
over the lean years of the long plague.[1012]

The character of Henslowe's entries in the diary changes towards the end
of 1597, but the indications do not suggest any alteration in the
conditions upon which the Admiral's men remained his tenants. On the
other hand, the new series of accounts reveals certain relations between
himself and the company for which there is no known analogy in the
organization of the King's men. Quite apart from payments for the use of
the theatres, the players had to meet divers costs of maintenance,
including the purchase of play-books from dramatists and the provision
of properties and garments for new productions. These charges were heavy
and fluctuating, and proved a difficulty for men who lived from hand to
mouth, and had acquired the thriftless habit of sharing their takings
weekly or even daily, and keeping no reserve fund. Henslowe, as a
capitalist, came to the rescue. Perhaps tentatively at first, but
certainly from 1597 as a regular system, he met the claims of poets and
tradesmen as they fell due, and debited the sums advanced to a running
account with the company, which forms the main subject-matter of the
diary. Of course he had to recoup himself from time to time; and Dr.
Greg has made it pretty clear that, when the system was in full working,
he did this by claiming a lien upon the residue of the gallery takings
which, although collected by his own 'gatherers', would otherwise, under
the tenancy agreement, have been handed over to the sharers. For a time
he seems to have satisfied himself with reserving half of this residue
towards his account. In July 1598, however, he notes in the diary 'Here
I begyne to receue the wholle gallereys'. Even so the repayments did not
keep pace with the expenditure, and from time to time he struck a
balance and took an acknowledgement from the company of the amount of
their outstanding debt. Most of Henslowe's advances were either for
properties and apparel or for the writing of plays, and I see no reason
to doubt that substantially the whole expenditure of the company under
these two heads passed through his hands. Sometimes, but not always, he
paid the fee demanded by the Master of the Revels for the licensing of a
new play; and occasionally he put his hand in his pocket for travelling
or legal expenses, or for the shot of a corporate jollification at a
tavern. On the other hand, there were certain regular outgoings with
which he had nothing to do, and for which the company must have had to
make provision in other ways; for lighting and cleaning and the rushes
which obviated the need for cleaning, for music, for the wages of stage
attendants and those actors who were not sharers, the 'hirelings', as
they were called from an early date.[1013] Probably the boys who took
the female parts were apprenticed to individual sharers; in one case a
boy was apprenticed to Henslowe, who charged the company or one of its
members a weekly sum for his services.[1014] It is, however,
interesting to observe that in the case of the Admiral's men, the legal
instruments which secured the continuity of the services of individual
actors sometimes at least took the form, for sharers no less than for
hirelings, not of bonds given to their fellows, but of contracts of
service entered into, under penalties for breach, with Henslowe himself.
As it was open to Henslowe to terminate these contracts, the
constitution of the company was to a certain extent dependent upon his
good will, and in fact he more than once refers to them as 'my
company'.[1015] He was not, however, in any strict sense the 'director'
or even the 'manager' of the company. Dr. Greg more aptly describes him
as their 'banker'.[1016] The entries of his advances on their behalf are
so worded as to imply that they were made on specific authorities given
by one or more leading members of the company; and some of these
authorities in fact exist in the shape of letters asking Henslowe to
make payments to poets in respect of plays which the company have heard
and approved. That in practice the banker had a considerable say in
influencing the policy of the company is probable enough; and also that
to the poor devils of poets he, rather than the actors, must have often
appeared in the welcome guise of paymaster. Both poets and actors were
under frequent personal obligations to him for small loans;[1017] and he
sometimes found the capital sum necessary to enable an actor to become a
sharer, and took it back by instalments.[1018]

Henslowe's method of financing the Admiral's men endured for some time
after their transference to the Fortune. Here, however, they prospered,
and he notes himself in the diary as 'begininge to receue of thes meane
ther privet deates which they owe vnto me'. The diary is practically
closed in 1603. An exceptional entry in 1604 records that he 'caste vp
all the acowntes from the begininge of the world vntell this daye' with
the Prince's men, as they had then become, and found 'all reconynges
consernynge the company in stocke generall descarged & my sealfe
descarged to them of al deates'. It is possible that henceforward the
relations of the company were less with Henslowe than with Alleyn, with
whom they had entered into some kind of 'composicion' in 1600. Certainly
the few remaining documents with regard to the Prince's men now at
Dulwich seem to be of Alleyn rather than Henslowe _provenance_. Henslowe
had, however, by agreement with Alleyn, a half interest in the 'house'
of the Fortune, an arrangement which may have been modified if, as seems
probable, some of the sharers were taken into partnership as
housekeepers in 1608. Henslowe had a running account with the Earl of
Worcester's men at the Rose from 1602; and these relations had probably
also terminated when, as the Queen's men, they set up on an independent
basis at the Red Bull in 1604. About 1611-15, however, we again become
able to study Henslowe's finances, shortly before his death, in a group
of related documents which illustrate and are illustrated by the diary
in an extremely interesting way.[1019], The first of these is a bond in
£500 given to Henslowe by the Lady Elizabeth's men in 1611 for the
observance of certain articles. Unfortunately the articles are not
annexed, but it may perhaps be taken for granted that they constituted
an agreement under which the company were to play at a house provided by
Henslowe. This may in the first instance have been the Swan, but in the
spring of 1613 Henslowe probably acquired an interest in the
Whitefriars, and in the following autumn he and his partner Jacob Meade
entered into a contract with a builder to convert the old Bear Garden
into a house capable of being used for plays, as well as for baiting. At
this, which was renamed the Hope, the Lady Elizabeth's men certainly
performed. The second document, in fact, consists of articles between
Henslowe and Meade on the one side and Nathan Field on behalf of the
company on the other, whereby the former undertake during a term of
three years to house the company, to give them the use of an existing
stock of apparel, including a suitable supply for travelling purposes if
necessary, and to disburse such sums upon the furnishing of new plays
with apparel as four or five sharers, whom Henslowe and Meade are to
name for the purpose, may require. They also undertake to make similar
disbursements for plays, receiving repayment after the second or third
day's performance, to remove non-conforming players at the request of a
majority of the company, and to hand over all forfeits for failures to
attend rehearsal and the like. The close of the document is mutilated,
but it is pretty clear that it provided for a nightly account of gallery
takings, out of which Henslowe and Meade were to retain half for rent,
and the other half towards the repayment of disbursements on apparel and
of an outstanding debt of £124 until this should be extinguished. It is
to be noted that, since the days of the Admiral's men, Henslowe had
differentiated between the procedure for recovering his advances on
account of apparel and of play-books respectively. The articles
contemplate that individual players will be under contracts with
Henslowe and Meade, and the third document is such a contract, dated 7
April 1614, with one Robert Dawes, who then joined the company. Certain
covenants therein with regard to the personal conduct of the actor have
already been described. In addition he bound himself to play for three
years as a sharer in such company as Henslowe and Meade might appoint,
and to consent to the retention by them of a moiety of the gallery and
tiring-house takings for the use of the house, and of the other moiety
towards the cost of apparel and the debt of £124. Henslowe and Meade
also reserve the right to use the house for baiting on one day in each
fortnight. The fourth document is the most illuminating of all. It is
divided into two sections, one headed _Articles of Grieuance against Mr.
Hinchlowe_, the other _Articles of Oppression against Mr. Hinchlowe_;
and although unsigned was evidently drawn up by the company in the
spring of 1615, for reference to some arbitrator, or perhaps to the Lord
Chamberlain. The charges against Henslowe are partly of definite acts of
dishonesty in the manipulation of his accounts with the company, partly
of an oppressive use of his legal position to his own advantage and
their detriment. If the allegations are well founded, he had cheated
them by failing to bring to account sums due to them and to make a
heavy payment with which they were debited, by charging the common stock
with loans made to individuals, by putting an inflated value upon
apparel taken over from himself, by saddling them with the cost of an
excessive number of gatherers and with bonuses which he had promised out
of his own pocket, in order to induce particular actors to join the
company. Under these heads they claim a heavy rebate against the debt of
£600 which he was maintaining to be due from them. They assert that, to
gain his ends, he had bribed their own representative Field; that while
bonds had been taken from them to an amount far in excess of their real
obligations, the articles binding Henslowe and Meade had never been
signed; that Henslowe had taken advantage of this to repudiate his
liability to hand over the apparel and play-books, for the greater part
of which the company had already paid; and that he had similarly taken
advantage of the fact that the agreements with the hired men were in his
name to withdraw these men, and thus force a reconstruction of the
company, whenever it suited his convenience. Thus, they say, 'within
three yeares hee hath broken and dissmembred five companies'. It is a
little difficult to make up the number of five companies, even if the
Children of the Revels, who during the years covered by the statement
were absorbed for a time in the Lady Elizabeth's men, are included. But
the transactions described serve well to illustrate the distinction
between the status of a company as a body of household servants and its
status as a legal association, since there is no reason to doubt that,
throughout all the shifting phases of its relations to Henslowe, a
continuous body of players performed in public and at Court under the
title of the Lady Elizabeth's men, and by authority of the patent issued
to these men in 1611. One other point, in which Henslowe's earlier
practice appears to have undergone modification by the period of his
connexion with the Lady Elizabeth's men, emerges from his correspondence
with the playwright Robert Daborne. Instead of merely paying for
Daborne's plays as agent for the company, as had been his practice for
the Admiral's and Lord Worcester's men, he appears to have bought the
plays himself, and resold them, probably at a profit, to the
company.[1020]

The protesting players represent Henslowe's dealings with them as
governed by a desire to be what the modern capitalist calls 'master in
his own house'. They declare that he gave the reason of his often
breaking with them in his own words, 'Should these fellowes come out of
my debt, I should have noe rule with them'. The principle is plausible
enough, and is familiar to tradesmen in all poor neighbourhoods. The man
burdened with debt must lose the fruits of his labour, because he is not
free to revise his contracts on terms more beneficial to himself. Once
the players got out of debt and accumulated a reserve fund, they would
acquire their own theatre, and Henslowe's might stand empty. If the
charges were justified--and as Dr. Greg points out, we have not
Henslowe's answer--he certainly resorted to oppressive devices to
prevent the Lady Elizabeth's men from achieving independence. It must
not be too hastily assumed that he followed a similar policy in his
earlier dealings with the Admiral's men. So far as we know, they brought
no accusation against him, and the connexion seems to have been
advantageous to both parties. The Admiral's men held together, and
maintained a standing hardly inferior to that of their principal rivals,
the Chamberlain's men. They had Alleyn for a fellow; and it may be that
Alleyn, whose 'industrie and care', according to the deposition of a
common acquaintance, 'were a great meanes of the bettering of the estate
of the said Philip Henslowe', was able to give his partner advice, more
equitable and perhaps in the long run not less profitable, even from the
capitalist point of view, than was afterwards forthcoming from
'intemperate Mʳ. Meade'.[1021] At any rate there is an agreement which
shows that a compromise was arrived at after Henslowe's death with
Alleyn and Meade upon the question of the disputed debt.[1022] I am not
Henslowe's biographer, and am therefore not concerned either to
whitewash or to vilify his character. But it is fair to say that,
outside the _Articles of Grievance and Oppression_, there is not much,
in the mass of papers which have descended to us, that necessarily bears
an unfavourable interpretation. Henslowe's private loans to players and
poets were innumerable. They were generally, but not always, repaid, and
it would be difficult to prove that he even exacted interest in such
cases, although it is possible that the full sums entered in his
accounts did not really change hands. On the other hand, too much stress
must not be laid on the expressions of esteem with which his debtors
approached him. Thus Daborne dwells on 'your tried curtesy' and 'the
great love I have felt from you', and Field, addresses him as 'Father
Hinchlow' and signs himself 'your loving son', as if he were Ben
Jonson.[1023] An application for money is, however, not even an
affidavit. In his will he appears to have stated that he had not used
his wife very well and would make amends;[1024] but his private
correspondence reveals family affection and a turn for pious sentiment,
probably sincere. Neither quality is necessarily inconsistent with
unscrupulous methods of business. Whether Henslowe was a good or a bad
man seems to me a matter of indifference. He was a capitalist. And my
object is to indicate the disadvantages under which a company in the
hands of a capitalist lay, in respect of independence and economic
stability, as compared with one conducted upon the lines originally laid
down by the Burbages for the tenants of the Globe. Not being owners of
their own theatre, such a company were liable to eviction, and were
drained to a large extent of the profits of their prosperous years.
Relying upon their financier to meet in the first instance all
extraordinary expenditure, they had no occasion to build up a reserve
fund, and constantly tended to drift into debt. Organized upon a legal
basis which made an act of association between the members of less
importance than individual contracts entered into by sharers and
hirelings alike with the capitalist, they were at his mercy if, for
purposes of his own, he chose to use his powers under those contracts to
bring about their dissolution.[1025]

A few figures bearing on the actual profits of playing can be brought
together. And first for the 'house'. Henslowe's takings at the Rose, as
disclosed by the diary, seem to have averaged about 30_s._ a day during
1592-7. A short season at Newington Butts brought him in no more than
9_s._ a day. As the Rose was normally open for about 240 days in the
year, his total annual receipts may be estimated at £360. No doubt the
cost of upkeep was substantial. The landlord had to find a site, build a
house, maintain it in repair, and take out a licence. The ground-rent of
the Rose was £7, of the Globe £14 10_s._, of the Fortune £16. The total
rent of the site and building of the Blackfriars was £40. The building
of the Fortune in 1600 cost £520, and its rebuilding in 1622 £1,000; the
rebuilding of the Globe in 1613 about £1,400; the conversion of the
Bear Garden into the Hope in 1613, £360. There was probably some set-off
in all these cases for the profits from taphouses and other tenements
attached to the theatres; this was estimated at from £20 to £30 for the
Globe and Blackfriars together in 1635. There were also occasional
lettings to outsiders.[1026] The housekeepers in 1635 complained of the
'chargeable reparacions'; in earlier years, when theatres were built
largely of wood, they must have been more chargeable still. The Rose was
not built earlier than 1587, but Henslowe had to spend £108 on it in
1592. The fee charged by the Master of the Revels for licensing a
theatre rose during 1592-9 from £1 to £3 a month. The only estimates of
net profits are for the King's men and of rather late date. The
pleadings in _Ostler v. Heminges_ (1615) give a single housekeeper's
profits as £20 from one-fourteenth of the Globe and £20 from one-seventh
of the Blackfriars, thus indicating £280 and £140 as the total annual
value of the 'houses' at the Globe and Blackfriars respectively; those
in _Witter v. Heminges and Condell_ (1619), coming from a less
trustworthy witness, allege that the Globe was worth £420 to £560 before
the fire and more after the rebuilding.[1027] The bearing of the figures
is complicated by our ignorance of the proportions in which the King's
men made use of their two theatres. By 1635 the importance of the
Blackfriars had outstripped that of the Globe. Its 'house' then yielded
£700-£800 a year; that of the Globe about 54_s._ a day, nearly twice as
much as the Rose half a century earlier.

As to the earnings of a sharer we have even less information. One of the
disputants in 1635 put them at no more than 3_s._ a day at the Globe;
another at £180 a year from all sources. If both were accurate, the
Blackfriars must by that date have been doing far better business than
the Globe, even after allowing for the inclusion in the £180 of a share
of the fees for private performances at Court and elsewhere. The
customary Court fee was £10, or £6 13_s._ 4_d._ if the King was not
present. Private performances were ordinarily at night, and did not
interfere with public performances in the afternoon. If the Court was
out of London, however, the theatre had to be closed. No special
allowance seems to have been made for this until about 1631, when the
fee was doubled for a performance in the daytime or away from
London.[1028] The King's men got the principal share of the Court work,
being called on in 1611-12 for as many as twenty-two plays. Their Court
fees during 1603-16 amounted on an average to £125 a year.[1029] The
exact number of sharers is not known; it was probably not more than
twelve. All things considered, it is not unreasonable to put the
earnings of a sharer in the King's men during the first decade of the
seventeenth century at about £100 to £150 a year, to which, if he were a
'housekeeper' with an interest in both houses, he might be able to add
another £40 or £50. This estimate agrees with Sir Henry Herbert's
valuation of the shares which he held before the war in the companies
other than the King's at £100 each on an average.[1030] Sir Sidney Lee's
figure of £700 for Shakespeare's total professional income, which
includes £40 for the books of his plays, seems to me vastly
overestimated.[1031] Even the more modest £200 or so was a handsome
income for the time, since the purchasing power of money in the
seventeenth century is variously reckoned at from five to eight times as
much as at present. Of course, in times of inhibition from plague or
other cause the income vanished altogether, and was very inadequately
replaced by the meagre gains of travelling, together with the allowance
made by King James to his men for private practice during the infection.

The gross takings of the sharers were naturally much greater. But they
were subject to heavy outgoings. The King's men reckoned these in 1635
at £3 a day or from £900 to £1,000 a year for hired 'journeymen' and
boys, music, lights, and so forth, in addition to 'extraordinary'
charges for apparel and poets.[1032] The wages of a hireling are given
by Gosson in 1579 as 6_s._ a week; some of Henslowe's agreements of
1597 provide for wages of 5_s._, 6_s._ 8_d._, and 8_s._[1033] There was
some economy to be secured by doubling small parts.[1034] How far this
was facilitated by any use of masks is open to doubt.[1035] Boys were
regularly employed to take female parts, and although it would be going
rather too far to say that a woman never appeared upon an Elizabethan
stage, women were not included in the ordinary companies.[1036] The boys
were apprenticed to individuals, and their masters had to pay rather
than receive premiums. In return they charged wages to the company.
Henslowe gave £8 for a boy in 1597 and got 3_s._ a week from the
Admiral's for his wages. John Shank in 1635 claimed that he had had to
give £40 for a single boy, and £200 in all.[1037] Contributions to local
rates came to about £5 a year.[1038] The cost of apparel and properties
is difficult to estimate. A company bought or accumulated a stock, and
might also have at its disposal a stock belonging to the owner of its
theatre. Individual actors may have had their private wardrobes.[1039]
Fresh purchases were only necessitated by new productions, but these
were frequent. The special mounting of Court performances was helped out
by the Revels Office.[1040] The actor in Greene's _Groatsworth of Wit_
(1592) boasted that his share of apparel would not be sold for £200,
but he was fictitious. Richard Jones, in fact, sold his share in a stock
of apparel, play-books, instruments, and other commodities for £37
10_s._ in 1589. The cost of such things has a tendency to grow. If the
sums of from £50 to £80 received by retiring sharers early in the
seventeenth century may be taken as representing their interests in the
stocks, the total value of the contents of a tiring-house might be
anything from £500 to £1,000. Henslowe sold the stock of the Lady
Elizabeth's men for £400 in 1615; apparently this did not include their
play-books, which they valued at £200. I reckon that in 1597-1603
Henslowe spent in all £1,317 for the Admiral's men, or about £1 for each
day of playing; of this play-books accounted for £652, apparel and
properties for £561, and miscellaneous expenses for £103. The garments,
by Henslowe's time at least, had become costly enough, as much as £19
being given for a single cloak, while a tailor was employed to make up
satin at 12_s._ 6_d._ and velvet at £1 a yard.[1041] Second-hand finery
was sometimes to be obtained from a serving-man or a needy
courtier.[1042] It was probably the lavish use of apparel, more than
anything else, which led both friends and foes to dwell upon the stately
furnishing of the English theatres.[1043] Strictly scenic effects were
limited by the structural conditions of the stage, and Henslowe's
inventories do not suggest that any vast stock of movable properties was
kept.[1044] Animals and monsters were freely introduced.[1045] Living
dogs and even horses may have been trained; but your lion or bear or
dragon was a creature of skin and brown paper.[1046]

An old 'book' could be bought for £2, but the value to the company might
be much more. A good stock piece was a perpetual 'get-penny' and could,
of course, be furbished up from time to time.[1047] In _Downton v.
Slater_ (1598) the Admiral's men valued a misappropriated book at £13
6_s._ 8_d._ and claimed £30 damages for withholding it. The court
awarded £10 10_s._ New plays cost more, and entailed fees of 7_s._ each
to the Master of the Revels for licensing.[1048] A play by Greene would
fetch £6 13_s._ 4_d._ about 1592. The prices paid by the Admiral's and
Lord Worcester's men between 1597 and 1603 ranged from £4 to £10 10_s._;
a fee of £6 may be taken as about normal. 'An they'll give me twenty
pounds a play, I'll not raise my vein', says Antonio Balladino, who is
Anthony Munday, in _The Case is Altered_, a play of about 1598.[1049] In
1613 Robert Daborne was bargaining for plays with Henslowe at rates of
from £10 to £20, and boasting that he could get £25 elsewhere. It seems
likely that Henslowe charged a commission on these prices to the
company. There are some traces of the system, used at a later date, by
which the author was entitled to a 'benefit' night shortly after the
production of a new play.[1050] He was also entitled to free admission
to the house.[1051] The poets received their fees from Henslowe in
instalments, drawing £1 or so in 'earnest' when the commission was
given, and as each batch of sheets was handed in, and the balance when
the play was finished. This plan proved disastrous to them. The
instalments often found them in a debtor's prison, and some of them
became mere bond-slaves.[1052] Thus both Henry Porter and Henry Chettle
were reduced to making agreements which pledged them to write for no
other company than the Admiral's. The device is familiar to the modern
publisher. Robert Daborne's correspondence with Henslowe is eloquent of
the straits to which a hack playwright might be brought. Daborne was a
man of good family, and had lawsuits about his 'estate', which added to
his embarrassments. He had been interested in the management of the
Queen's Revels, and it may have been the absorption of this company by
the Lady Elizabeth's men that brought him into contact with Henslowe.
His letters preserved at Dulwich run from April 1613 to July 1614.[1053]
During this period he was engaged upon at least four plays. The history
of one of them, the tragedy of _Machiavel and the Devil_, may be taken
as typical. On 17 April 1613 he signed an agreement to complete it by
the end of May for an 'earnest' of £6 down, £4 on completion of three
acts, and £10 'vpon delivery in of yᵉ last scean perfited'; and for the
observance of the agreement he gave a bond of £20. On 25 April he wrote
to borrow £1 from Henslowe, explaining that he was 'vpon yᵉ sodeyn put
to a great extremity in bayling my man committed to Newgate vpon taking
a possession for me', and had unfortunately taken 'less money of my
kinsman a lawier that was with me then servd my turn'. On 3 May he got
another £1, although the three acts were not yet finished; another on 8
May; and another on 16 May, making £11 in all. 'Sir,' he wrote, 'my
occations of expenc have bin soe great & soe many I am ashamed to think
how much I am forct to press you.' On 19 May he had probably handed in
his three acts, as he then signed an acquittance for £16 received up to
date, noting at the foot 'This play to be delivered in to Mr. Hinchlaw
with all speed'. It was not, however, ready by 31 May, and on 5 June
came a piteous appeal for an advance of £2 'which stands me vpon to send
over to my counsell in a matter concerns my whole estate'. Henslowe
shall not be the loser by his kindness: 'wher I deale otherways then to
your content may I & myne want ffryndship in distress'. By 10 June, 'yᵉ
necessity of term busines exacts me beyond my custom to be trublesome
vnto you', to the tune of yet another £1. By this time Henslowe was
evidently calling out for the play; and Daborne protests, 'I perceav you
misdoubt my readynes. Sir, I would not be hyred to break my ffayth with
you; before God they shall not stay one hour for me.' He was still
protesting on 25 June; but soon after must have brought _Machiavel and
the Devil_ to an end and drawn the £1 still due to him on balance, since
on 18 June he was already beginning to negotiate for his next play, _The
Arraignment of London_. And so the correspondence goes on; the
instalments always anticipated, the applications always larded with
declarations of his own honesty and with mingled flattery and complaint
of a patron who, generous as he was, showed an inexplicable tendency to
'meat' Daborne 'by yᵉ common measuer of poets'. The result was
inevitable. Daborne's terms came down from £20 to £12 and even £10 a
play; and in addition to reselling to the company at a profit, Henslowe
seems on one occasion at least to have squeezed out of Daborne 'half my
earnings in the play', by which, I take it, the proceeds of his benefit
are meant. By the end of 1613 Daborne was in considerable distress; 'if
you doe not help me to tenn shillings by this bearer, by the living God
I am vtterly disgract'. There is not much more of the correspondence. It
is clear from another source that Daborne did not for some time get
free, for when Henslowe lay on his death-bed, Mrs. Daborne called for
some papers belonging to her husband, and Henslowe gave her a bond for
£20 of which she was ignorant, possibly the very bond signed for
_Machiavel and the Devil_, saying, 'I knowe you and with all my hart doe
freely forgive you all that you owe me'.[1054] By 1618 Daborne had taken
orders. He became Chancellor of Waterford and Prebendary and Dean of
Lismore, and thus, as a contemporary poem has it, 'died amphibious by
the ministry'.

The wrongs of authors are not inarticulate, and they have an appeal to
posterity from the injustice of their age. The exploitation of poets by
the playing companies brought about some cross-currents in the tone of
the allusions to the theatre, which are so frequent in occasional
literature. On the one hand, the pamphleteers, and in a less degree the
satirists, are with the players as against their enemies the Puritans;
on the other hand, they have their own grievances to publish and avenge.
A note of hostility makes its appearance not long after the first
invasion of the province of stage-writing by the university wits; and by
the embittered close of Robert Greene's reckless life the relations were
acute. Thomas Lodge in 1589 swore to abandon dramas and 'pennie-knaves
delight.'[1055] Thomas Nashe canvassed the players in his prefatory
epistle to Greene's _Menaphon_ (1589), and Greene himself, with humour
in his _Quip for an Upstart Courtier_ (1592), and in his
autobiographical romances of _Never Too Late_ (1590) and _Greene's
Groatsworth of Wit_ (1592), and with unsparing invective in the warning
_To those Gentlemen his Quondam Acquaintance, that spend their Wits in
making Plaies_, which he appended to the latter. In these pamphlets the
'vaine glorious tragedians' are twitted with their mouthings on the
stage, with their chameleon-like shifting from the service of one lord
to that of another,[1056] with the contrast between their rapid rise to
wealth and their obscurity when they carried their fardles afootback
upon the roads, with the romances and morals--_Delphrigus_ and _The King
of the Fairies_, _Man's Wit_, and the _Dialogue of Dives_--that formed
their stock-in-trade before the masters of arts came to their rescue.
But the real gravamen is that they live on the wits of scholars. They
are 'apes', 'buckram gentlemen', 'a company of taffaty fooles' tricked
up with poets' feathers, 'puppits that speake from our mouths', 'anticks
garnisht in our colours'. They cleave like burrs to their victims. An
alleged comparison by Cicero of the Roman actor Roscius to the crow in
Aesop is called in aid, and the taunt of 'vpstart crow, beautified with
our feathers' is not spared to an actor before whose dramatic genius
that of Greene and his fellows was to fade as a rush-light before the
sun.[1057] The actors had something on their side to complain of, with
Greene no less than with Daborne. In a remorseful moment he tells us of
the 'arch-plaimaking poet' Roberto, how 'what euer he fingered aforehand
was the certaine meanes to vnbinde a bargaine'; and a detractor accuses
him of selling the same play to two companies, and defending himself by
maintaining that no faith was to be kept with players.[1058] During the
seventeenth century, it is mainly Dekker, as critic of the players, no
less than in other ways, who carries on the tradition of Greene and
Nashe.[1059] Himself an active playwright, it is with black looks that
he stands by, in thronged term-time or at the coming of ambassadors, and
watches the companies battening upon the fruits of divine poetry, like
swine on acorns; and when plague arrives, although his own occupation be
gone, it is with savage glee that he sees the flag hauled down and the
doors closed, and his gloomy paymasters setting out once more on the
hard life of 'strowlers'.

One interesting result of the feud between poets and players was that
some of the former were led to encourage and even acquire financial
interests in a rival type of theatrical organization which for a time at
least entered into successful competition with the professional
companies. This organization rested upon the use of boy actors. I have
elsewhere expounded the important share taken by school plays in the
earlier development of the Renaissance drama.[1060] The grammar schools
of Eton, Westminster, and Merchant Taylors and the song schools of the
Chapel Royal, Windsor, St. Paul's and the private chapel of the Earl of
Oxford continued, far into Elizabeth's reign, to give their performances
at Court side by side with the growing companies of noble and royal
servants. It was not until the professionals called upon the university
wits and began to mingle literary with popular elements in their
productions that the destinies of the drama passed definitely into their
hands. The earlier boy companies died out soon after 1590. A decade
later the Paul's and Chapel companies were revived, the latter at least
under somewhat new economic conditions. Formerly the plays had been
managed by schoolmasters and song-masters, as by-activities of
institutions primarily established for other objects. For the revived
Paul's plays, so far as we know, Edward Pearce, the choirmaster, was
similarly responsible. The Chapel children, on the other hand, were
placed upon a more regular business footing. The official Master of the
Children, Nathaniel Giles, took part in the undertaking; and the royal
commission to impress singing boys, which he held, was unscrupulously
used to compel the services of boys who could not sing, and were only
needed as recruits for the stage. But long before James had come to the
decision that on religious grounds the connexion between the Chapel and
the plays must be broken, the actual control of the organization had
passed from the Master to a financial syndicate, associated much on the
principle adopted by the ordinary playing companies, whose members hired
a theatre, charged themselves with the maintenance of the boys and of
the performances, and divided up the profits as their reward. During the
history of the Chapel boys and of the group of Revels companies which
succeeded them, several of these syndicates came into existence, and
shares in one or other of them were held by Marston, Drayton, Barry,
Mason, Daborne, and very possibly also by other dramatists. The articles
of association of the King's Revels company in 1608 may perhaps be taken
as typical. One of the sharers, Martin Slater the actor, who was
evidently a kind of manager, is to have lodgings in the theatre, which
was the Whitefriars, and the right to sell refreshments, and is to
travel with the children if necessary, in which event he is to enjoy a
share and a half in the profits. The children are to be apprenticed to
him for three years each, and he is to bind himself in £40 not to
transfer the indentures. The 'whole chardges of the howse, the
gatherers, the wages, the childrens bourd, musique, booke keeper,
tyreman, tyrewoman, lights, the Maister of the revells duties, and all
other things needefull and necessary' are to be deducted in due
proportions from each day's takings, so that the company may not run
into debt. No sharer is to take away any apparel or other common
property, or print any play-book, on pain of losing his interest.

The boys played in what were called 'private' houses, and it is not
quite clear how far they were amenable to the usual principles of stage
regulation; an order by the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor to suppress
plays during the Lent of 1601 was obviously intended to be enforced
against them. Their performances, especially while they were novel,
proved a serious menace to the prosperity of the adult companies. The
classical allusions on the subject are that of Jonson in _The Poetaster_
to the winter of 1600-1, which made the players poorer than so many
starved snakes,[1061] and the elaborate apology for the travelling of
the company in _Hamlet_, which is so germane to the matter now under
discussion that it must, however familiar, be given in full:[1062]

     _Hamlet._ ... What players are they?

     _Rosin._ Euen those you were wont to take delight in the
     Tragedians of the City.

     _Ham._ How chances it they trauaile? their residence both in
     reputation and profit was better both wayes.

     _Rosin._ I thinke their Inhibition comes by the meanes of the
     late Innouation?

     _Ham._ Doe they hold the same estimation they did when I was in
     the City? Are they so follow'd?

     _Rosin._ No indeed, they are not.

     _Ham._ How comes it? doe they grow rusty?

     _Rosin._ Nay, their indeauour keepes in the wonted pace; But
     there is Sir an ayrie of Children, little Yases, that crye out
     on the top of question; and are most tyrannically clap't for't:
     these are now the fashion, and so be-ratled the common Stages
     (so they call them) that many wearing Rapiers, are affraide of
     Goose-quils, and dare scarse come thither.

     _Ham._ What are they Children? Who maintains 'em? How are they
     escoted? Will they pursue the Quality no longer then they can
     sing? Will they not say afterwards if they should grow
     themselues to common Players (as it is like most if their
     meanes are no better) their Writers do them wrong, to make them
     exclaim against their owne Succession.

     _Rosin._ Faith there ha's bene much to do on both sides: and
     the Nation holds it no sinne, to tarre them to Controuersie.
     There was for a while, no mony bid for argument, vnlesse the
     Poet and the Player went to Cuffes in the Question.

     _Ham._ Is't possible?

     _Guild._ Oh there ha's beene much throwing about of Braines.

     _Ham._ Do the Boyes carry it away?

     _Rosin._ I that they do my Lord, _Hercules_ & his load too.

The be-rattling of the common stages and their spirited replies, thought
by some to include a 'purge' in _Troilus and Cressida_, with which
Shakespeare 'put down' Ben Jonson, form an element in the literary
conflict known as 'the war of the theatres', in which, however, this
issue is much complicated with others arising from the personalities
of the dramatists engaged, and notably from that of Ben Jonson
himself.[1063] Thus is explained the apparent paradox by which plays
as well as pamphlets become the vehicle of attacks upon players. Three
such plays, _Histriomastix_, _The Poetaster_, and the second part of _The
Return from Parnassus_, call for special attention. The player-scenes
in _Histriomastix_ seem to belong mainly, though not wholly, to the
original form of the play, which I regard as an outcome of the campaign
of Robert Greene and his fellows about 1590, although the extant text,
not printed until 1610, represents a later recension, probably undertaken
by Marston, as one of the 'musty fopperies of antiquity' produced by the
Paul's boys about 1600.[1064] The piece is of the nature of a political
morality, and the scenes in question serve as one illustration of its
general theme, which is that of the cyclical rotation of society through
the successive stages of Peace, Plenty, Pride, Envy, War, Poverty, and so
to Peace again. Many side-lights are thrown upon the methods of company
organization which have already been described in these pages. In Act I
some idle and drunken artisans, Gulch, Clout, Belch the beard-maker, Gut
the fiddle-string-maker, Incle the pedlar, combine to form a company.
Their poet is Master Posthaste, whom they call a gentleman scholar, but
who is evidently a caricature of Anthony Munday, dramatist and Messenger
of the Chamber. A scrivener is called in to 'tye a knott of knaves
togither', and Bougie the mercer will furnish them with 'rich stuff' at
a price. They call themselves Sir Oliver Owlet's men, and take his badge
of an owl in an ivy-bush. In Act II they appear on the steps of a market
cross and 'cry' a play to be given in the town-house at three o'clock.
Their repertory includes _The Lascivious Knight_, _Lady Nature_, _Mother
Gurton's Needle_ (a tragedy), _The Devil and Dives_ (a comedy), _A Russet
Coat and a Knight's Cap_ (an infernal), _A Proud Heart and a Beggar's
Purse_ (a pastoral), _The Widow's Apron Strings_ (a nocturnal).[1065]
Posthaste is also working on 'the new plot of the _Prodigall Childe_',
with a prologue 'for lords' and an epilogue. They are invited to play
before Lord Mavortius, and thereupon throw over 'the town play', and
attend him, singing:

    Some up and some down, there's players in the town:
      You wot well who they bee.
    The sum doth arise to three companies:
      One, two, three, foure, make we.
    Besides we that travel, with pumps full of gravell,
      Made all of such running leather,
    That once in a week, new masters we seeke,
      And never can hold together.

The actual performance, perhaps owing to a Marstonian interpolation,
consists of a fragment of _The Prodigal Child_, together with a fragment
of a piece on _Troilus and Cressida_. At the end Posthaste extemporizes
on a 'theame' and the company are rewarded with 3_s._ 4_d._ In Act III a
Marstonian passage introduces them to a new poet Chrisoganus, who asks
ten pounds a play. But 'our companie's hard of hearing of that side',
and they will be content with their goose-quillian Posthast'.
Chrisoganus rates their pride and the 'windy froth of bottle-ale' which
passes muster for poetry on the stage. The 'proud statute rogues' also
refuse an offer from Mavortius of 13_s_. 4_d._ or even £1 6_s._ 8_d._
for another performance, and in view of their 'expense in sumptuous
clothes' they must have 'ten pound a play, or no point comedy'. Their
insolence is condemned:

    How soone can they remember to forget
    Their undeserved fortunes and esteeme.
    Blush not the peasants at their pedigree,
    Suckt pale with lust? What bladders swolne with pride,
    To strout in shreds of nitty brogetie!

In Act IV they are rehearsing, and fine Posthaste 1_s._ for coming late.
And they quarrel amongst themselves. Clout is discontented with his
half-share, and will have 'a whole share, or turn camelion'. Acts V and
VI bring Nemesis. As they set up their bills, they are pressed for the
wars. There is no remedy. They have alienated the town officers by
refusing the town's reward. The 'master-sharers' must even provide their
equipment out of their own purses. The soldiers loot their apparel. They
will be the sharers now, and the players the hired men. They bid one who
'would rend and tear a cat upon a stage' not to 'march like a drowned
rat', but 'look up and play the Tamburlaine'. The hostess claims her
shot, 'The sharers dinners sixpence a piece. The hirelings ---- pence';
and the hamper has to be searched for a cloak to pawn. The constable
demands his dues for tax-money to relieve the poor, and the excuse that
but fifteen pence was shared last week is not accepted in face of the
idle and immoral lives that the rascals have led. In the end they are
shipped off remorselessly to serve beyond the seas. It will be obvious
that, while most of the points of criticism taken by the dramatist are
those familiar to the literary pamphleteers, he is also not
unsympathetic to the Puritan view of players as a canker in the state.

Jonson wrote his _Poetaster_ in the spring of 1601. He had already heard
of the intention of the Chamberlain's men against him, which afterwards
took shape in Dekker and Marston's _Satiromastix_, and got in the first
blows by depicting his assailants as 'a sort of copper-lac't scoundrels'
in ancient Rome and their poets as Demetrius 'a dresser of plaies about
the town here' and Crispinus 'poetaster and plagiary'. Some of his
matter has its reminiscences of _Histriomastix_; some probably rests on
details with regard to individual Chamberlain's men which are now
irrecoverable.[1066] His allusions to their poor winter season of 1600-1
and to the accumulation of shares by leading actors have already been
quoted. The chief scene devoted to the players is that in which Histrio
is bullied by Tucca, the huffing captain, who calls him 'stalker',
'gulch', 'stiffe toe', 'twopenny teare-mouth', and 'penny-biter', bids
him turn fiddler again, get a bass violin at his back and march in a
tawny coat with one sleeve to Goose Fair, and accuses his company of
being usurers and brokers, who prey upon younger sons and citizens, and
furnish facilities at their house for immoral practices. Tucca would
bring his 'cockatrice' to see a bawdy play, but the players have nothing
but humours, revels, and satires; to which Histrio replies that he is
confusing them with 'the other side of Tyber', for 'we haue as much
ribaldries in our plaies, as can bee, as you would wish, Captaine: all
the sinners, i' the suburbs, come, and applaud our action, daily'.
Crispinus is introduced as one who will teach the actors to tear and
rant. Tucca bids Histrio give him forty shillings in earnest, since 'if
hee pen for thee once, thou shalt not need to trauell, with thy pumps
full of grauell, any more, after a blinde iade and a hamper: and stalke
vpon boords, and barrell heads, to an old crackt trumpet'. Yet inasmuch
as some of the players are 'honest gent'men-like scoundrels, and
suspected to ha' some wit', Histrio may make Tucca a supper, and bring
Frisker 'my zany' and Mango 'your fat fool', so long as he does not
laugh too much or beg rapiers or scarfs; but by no means 'your eating
plaier' Polyphagus, nor 'the villanous-out-of-tune fiddler' Aenobarbus,
nor Aesop, 'your politician'. Later in the play Histrio and Aesop inform
against Ovid and Horace, who is Jonson, to the government, and although
Tucca promises Aesop 'a monopoly of playing, confirm'd to thee and thy
couey, vnder the Empirours broad Seale, for this seruice', his actual
reward is to be whipped.[1067] In the _Apologetical Dialogue_ printed
with the play Jonson admits his hostility to the players:

    Now for the Players, it is true, I tax'd 'hem,
    And yet, but some; and those so sparingly,
    As all the rest might haue sate still, vnquestion'd,
    Had they but had the wit, or conscience,
    To thinke well of themselues. But, impotent they
    Thought each man's vice belong'd to their whole tribe:
    And much good doo't 'hem. What th' haue done 'gainst me,
    I am not mou'd with. If it gaue 'hem meat,
    Or got 'hem clothes, 'tis well. That was their end.
    Onely amongst them, I am sorry for
    Some better natures, by the rest so drawne,
    To run in that vile line.

_The Return from Parnassus_ is of less significance, as being a
Cambridge, not a London, play, and merely an echo of the main
controversy. It was acted during the Christmas of 1601-2, and is a
satire of things in general from the university point of view. Amongst
other topics the relations of scholarship to the stage are touched upon.
Burbadge and Kempe come in, boasting of their victory over Ben Jonson,
and trying to recruit poets into their service.[1068] The scholars
resent such thraldom:

    And must the basest trade yeeld vs reliefe?
    Must we be practis'd to those leaden spouts,
    That nought doe vent but what they do receiue.

And in the end they decide rather to take the road as fiddlers:

    Better it is mongst fidlers to be chiefe,
    Then at a plaiers trencher beg reliefe.
    But ist not strange these mimick apes should prize
    Vnhappy schollers at a hireling rate.
    Vile world, that lifts them vp to hye degree,
    And treades vs downe in groueling misery.
    England affordes those glorious vagabonds,
    That carried earst their fardels on their backes,
    Coursers to ride on through the gazing streetes,
    Sooping it in their glaring satten sutes,
    And pages to attend their maisterships:
    With mouthing words that better wits haue framed,
    They purchase lands, and now esquiers are namde.

It is the old burden of Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe once more.[1069]

The disturbance of theatrical conditions due to the revival of the boy
companies became in time less acute. No doubt, the novelty of their
performances wore off. Moreover, the companies were not very successful
in holding together, partly because of the indiscretions of their
managers and the inadequacy of their finance to stand the strain of
plague years, but more because the boys, as might perhaps have been
expected, grew up and ceased to be boys. Already about 1608 the
Blackfriars boys 'were masters themselves' of their own company, and
when this arrangement broke down, they began to be drafted into the
adult associations. Other boy companies followed, but these were subject
to the same difficulties, and the vogue of the original 'little eyases'
was never quite recaptured.[1070] But, after all, the competition had
not disappeared, but had merely taken another form. The younger
generation was knocking at the gates; Field and Taylor waiting in eager
rivalry for Burbadge's shoes, and meanwhile forming new combinations of
their own which, however unstable, at least cut at the profits of their
more firmly established rivals. The 'monopoly' offered by Jonson in jest
would no doubt have been welcomed by the principal companies in earnest.
The policy of the Privy Council from 1597 to 1600 pointed in this
direction, but for whatever reason was not brought into effective
operation. There are several indications of the pressure of competition
during the earlier part of the seventeenth century. In 1609 it was worth
the while of the Queen's Revels and the King's men to unite in buying
off the Paul's boys at the cost of £20 a year. Dekker in the same year
prophesies that the contention of the two houses of York and Lancaster
will be as nothing to that of the three houses, by which he means the
Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull.[1071] Finally, in 1610, the
preacher William Crashaw, commenting upon the hostility shown by the
players to the plantation of Virginia, declares explicitly that it was
motived by the fact that they were so multiplied in England that one
could not live by another, and by the refusal of the promoters of the
colony to give any of them a chance of trying their fortunes in the new
world.[1072]

The palmy days of playing lasted beyond the formal limits set to this
investigation. But they did not last for ever. The coming of the end can
here only be adumbrated. It perhaps shows itself first in an increasing
unwillingness amongst the provincial corporations to hear the players.
It was in 1623, the year of the publication of the First Folio, that the
City of Norwich took the step of making a representation to the Privy
Council and obtaining leave not to suffer any players within their
liberties. It is true that the inhibition was not strictly carried out
and that the authority was renewed in 1640. Nevertheless it is a sign of
the times. Other cities, Chester in 1615, Southampton in 1623, Worcester
in 1627, closed their public buildings to performances.[1073] From this
time onwards the entries of payments to players in municipal accounts
tend more and more to take the form of 'gratuities' given them 'because
they should not play' or 'to dismiss them', or 'to put them off', or in
more emphatic terms still 'to rid the town of them'.[1074] Meanwhile the
Puritan controversy breaks out again, winding up to that alarming
compilation of learning and argument in Prynne's _Histriomastix_ of
1633, which indeed cost its author his ears, but must none the less have
hung like a shadow of fate upon the doomed stage for ever after. And in
1642 the shadow moved, and on the outbreak of war came that dignified
ordinance of 2 September, which waved frivolity aside, what time the
nation girded itself for matters of moment:[1075]

     _An Order of the Lords and Commons concerning Stage-playes._

     Whereas the distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own
     Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatned with a
     Cloud of Blood, by a Civill Warre, call for all possible meanes
     to appease and avert the Wrath of God appearing in these
     Judgements; amongst which, Fasting and Prayer having bin often
     tryed to be very effectuall; have bin lately, and are still
     enjoyned; and whereas publike Sports doe not well agree with
     publike Calamities, nor publike Stage-playes with the Seasons
     of Humiliation, this being an Exercise of sad and pious
     solemnity, and the other being Spectacles of pleasure, too
     commonly expressing laciuious Mirth and Levitie: It is
     therefore thought fit, and Ordeined by the Lords and Commons in
     this Parliament Assembled, that while these sad Causes and set
     times of Humiliation doe continue, publike Stage-Playes shall
     cease, and bee forborne. Instead of which, are recommended to
     the people of this Land, the profitable and seasonable
     Considerations of Repentance, Reconciliation, and peace with
     God, which probably may produce outward peace and prosperity,
     and bring againe Times of Joy and Gladnesse to these Nations.

     Die Veneris Septemb. 2. 1642.

I need not here attempt to trace the faint flutterings of the mimetic
instinct which survived this ordinance and even that, final and more
detailed, of 9 February 1648, 'for the utter suppression and abolishing
of all stage-playes and interludes', whereby players were made amenable
to the statutes against vagabonds 'notwithstanding any license
whatsoever from the King or any person or persons to that purpose', and
the justices were ordered to demolish the houses, and to subject the
players, if found, to a whipping.[1076] It is sufficient that from 1642
to 1660 there was substantially no public stage in London. Some of the
King's men, we are told, went into the army, 'and, like good men and
true, served the King their master, though in a different, yet more
honourable capacity'. Under the Commonwealth they were 'reduced to a
necessitous condition', and we have one glimpse of the last of
Shakespeare's fellows, John Lowin, keeping an inn, the Three Pigeons, at
Brentford, where he died very old, 'and his poverty was as great as his
age'.[1077]

    Printed in England at the Oxford University Press


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 989: App. C, No. xlviii.]

[Footnote 990: C. Severn, _Diary of John Ward_ (_c._ 1661-3), 183, 'I
have heard that Mʳ. Shakespeare ... in his elder days lived at
Stratford: and supplied the stage with 2 plays every year, and for itt
had an allowance so large, that hee spent att the rate of a 1,000_l_ a
year, as I have heard'; Aubrey, ii. 226, 'I thinke I have been told that
he left 2 or 300 _li_ per annum there and thereabout [i.e. at Stratford]
to a sister'.]

[Footnote 991: Lee, 281; G. R. French, _Shakespeareana Genealogica_,
514; _Herald and Genealogist_, i. 492.]

[Footnote 992: Lee, 285, citing (_a_) manuscript notes by Ralph Brooke
on William Dethick's grants of arms, in which both Shakespeare and
Cowley appear in a list of persons given arms on false pretences, and
(_b_) a manuscript _Discourse of the Causes of Discord amongst the
Officers of Arms_ by William Smith, Rougedragon, 'Phillipps the player
had graven in a gold ring the armes of Sʳ Wᵐ Phillipp, Lord Bardolph,
with the said L. Bardolphs cote quartred, which I shewed to Mʳ York
[Brooke, York Herald] at a small gravers shopp in Foster Lane.... Pope
the player would have no other armes but the armes of Sʳ Tho. Pope,
Chancelor of yᵉ Augmentations'.]

[Footnote 993: App. C, No. liv.]

[Footnote 994: Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 325; cf. ch. x.]

[Footnote 995: App. C, Nos. xxii, lvii; cf. Wright (App. I, ii) on the
'grave and sober behaviour' of the later King's men.]

[Footnote 996: Cf. ch. xiii (Anne's).]

[Footnote 997: Cf. ch. xiii (Lady Elizabeth's).]

[Footnote 998: Dekker and Webster, _Northward Ho!_ IV. i. 1:

    '_Bellamont._         Sirrah, I'll speak with none.

    _Servant._ What? Not a player?

    _Bellamont._                   No; though a sharer bawl.
    I'll speak with none, although it be the mouth
    Of the big company.'

Cf. Dekker, _News from Hell_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 99), 'Marrie players
swarme there as they do here, whose occupation being smelt out, by the
Caco-daemon, or head officer of the Countrie, to bee lucrative, he
purposes to make vp a company, and to be chiefe sharer himselfe'; also
_A Mad World, my Masters_, V. i. 42, where one of the sham Lord
Owemuch's players is a 'politician', who 'works out restraints, makes
best legs at court, and has a suit made of purpose for the company's
business' and 'has greatest share and may live of himselfe'.]

[Footnote 999: Jonson, _Poetaster_, III. iv. 373, 'Commend me to
seuen-shares and a halfe, and remember to morrow--if you lacke a
seruice, you shall play in my name, rascalls, but you shall buy your
owne cloth, and I'le ha' two shares for my countenance'. It appears from
a list of Sir Henry Herbert's profits as Master of the Revels, drawn up
in 1662, that he had secured a share, which he valued at £100 a year,
from each of the London companies, other than the King's men
(_Variorum_, iii. 266).]

[Footnote 1000: It is impossible to say what arrangement underlies the
statement in an undated letter from Richard Jones to Alleyn about a
German tour (_Henslowe Papers_, 33) that Robert Browne was 'put to half
a shaer, and to stay hear, for they ar all against his goinge'.]

[Footnote 1001: _Hamlet_, III. ii. 286:

     '_Hamlet._ Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers--if
     the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two Provincial
     roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of
     players.

     _Horatio._ Half a share.

     _Hamlet._ A whole one, I.'

For half-sharers, cf. ch. xiii (Queen's, Admiral's). Three-quarter
sharers existed in the Lady Elizabeth's men about 1614; cf. T. M.,
_Father Hubburd's Tales_ (Bullen, _Middleton_, viii. 64), 'The ant began
to stalk like a three-quarter sharer'.]

[Footnote 1002: The number of players named in the Jacobean patents
varies from 7 to 14, but this gives little direct guidance as to the
number of sharers. It is, however, consistent with my estimate, which is
based mainly upon the number of Admiral's men shown at various times in
contractual relations with Henslowe. There were 12 sharers in the Lady
Elizabeth's company in 1611 and 12 in Queen Anne's company in 1617.
Probably the Elizabethan companies ran rather smaller.]

[Footnote 1003: Dekker, _News from Hell_ (1606), 'a companie of country
players, being nine in number, one sharer and the rest jornymen'; cf. p.
362.]

[Footnote 1004: Cf. ch. ix.]

[Footnote 1005: Amalgamated companies also toured the provinces, and
even entered into partnership with companies, such as Lord Morley's,
which were purely provincial. Thus we find Hunsdon's and Morley's at
Bristol in 1583, and Hunsdon's and Howard's at Leicester in 1585; the
Queen's and Sussex's at Southampton, Gloucester, and Coventry in 1590-1;
the Queen's and Morley's at Aldeburgh on 11 Oct. 1592 (Stopes, _Hunnis_,
314); the Admiral's, Strange's (or Derby's), and Morley's variously
combined at Ipswich, Southampton, Bath, Shrewsbury, York, and Newcastle
in 1592-4. Sometimes players worked with musicians, tumblers or
rope-dancers; of course this was so in London itself, but naturally the
old methods of the mimes tended to reassert themselves more markedly in
the provinces.]

[Footnote 1006: Murray, i. 172 (table), 237.]

[Footnote 1007: Henslowe's agreement with John Cholmley, probably for
the Rose, in 1587, provides for joint appointment by the parties as
landlords. The same arrangement is implied, so far as the galleries are
concerned, by the Lady Elizabeth's agreement of 1614. In 1612 Robert
Browne wrote to Alleyn to procure 'a gathering place' for the wife of
one Rose, a hireling of Prince Henry's men. Apparently the sharers had
to pay the gatherers' wages. An undated letter from William Bird, also
of Prince Henry's men, to Alleyn tells him of the dishonesty of John
Russell, 'that by yowr apoyntment was made a gatherer with us'. The
company will not let him 'take the box', but will pay his wages as 'a
nessessary atendaunt on the stage', and if he likes, employ him also as
a tailor. Henslowe made the Lady Elizabeth's pay for nine gatherers more
than he was entitled to. In _Frederick and Basilea_, the gatherers came
on as supers (_Henslowe Papers_, 3, 24, 63, 85, 89, 137). The 'place or
priviledge' in the Globe and Blackfriars left by Henry Condell to
Elizabeth Wheaton in 1627 was presumably that of a gatherer. A satirist
wrote in _The Actors Remonstrance_ of 1643 (Hazlitt, _E. D. S._ 263),
'Our very doore-keepers men and women most grievously complaine that by
this cessation they are robbed of the privilege of stealing from us with
licence: they cannot now, as in King Agamemnon's dayes, seeme to scratch
their heads where they itch not, and drop shillings and half
croune-pieces in at their collars'. The money taken at the door or in
the gallery was traditionally put in a box and kept for division; cf.
Rankins, _Mirrour of Monsters_ (1587), f. 6, 'door-keepers and
box-holders at plays'.]

[Footnote 1008: Cf. ch. xvi (Globe) and ch. xvii (Blackfriars); the
document is printed in Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 312.]

[Footnote 1009: This is the only point on which I have anything to add
to Dr. Greg's personal information as to Henslowe; it is important as
bearing on the history of Lord Strange's men (q.v.). He is described as
Groom of the Chamber in an undated document (_Henslowe Papers_, 42)
belonging to a series dealing with the opening of the Rose for Strange's
men in a long vacation. This cannot be put later than 1592, as there was
plague throughout the long vacation of 1593 and Lord Strange became Earl
of Derby in Sept. 1593. On the other hand, Dr. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 9;
_Henslowe Papers_, 36), following Warner, 8, argues that Henslowe must
have become Groom of the Chamber later than 7 April 1592, since he is
not named in a list of Grooms appended to a warrant of that date and is
named in a similar list of 26 Jan. 1599. These warrants are in _Addl.
MS._ 5750, ff. 114, 116. They are original warrants for the 'watching
liveries' which were issued annually, but on irregular dates, to the
Yeomen of the Guard and to the Groom Porter and fourteen Grooms of the
Chamber. A complete series of copies of these warrants is preserved in
_Lord Chamberlain's Records_, v. 90, 91, and shows that Henslowe only
received a watching livery during three consecutive years, on 14 Nov.
1597, 26 Jan. 1599, and 27 Oct. 1599. Yet we know that he was a Groom in
Aug. 1593 from the address on one of Alleyn's letters (_Henslowe
Papers_, 36), and about 1595-6 from a petition to the first Lord
Hunsdon, who died in June 1596 (_Henslowe Papers_, 44). Therefore the
absence of his name from the livery list of 7 April 1592 is no proof
that he was not then already a Groom. Probably Henslowe was only an
Extraordinary Groom, and only some of the Extraordinary Grooms were
needed to supplement the twelve Ordinary ones for watching purposes.]

[Footnote 1010: Dr. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 22, 25) shows that Henslowe
almost certainly held a lease of the Barge, the Bell, and the Cock
'vppon the banke called Stewes', describes these houses as 'licensed
brothels', and infers that Henslowe was 'the intermediate landlord
between the stew-keepers and the Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop
of Winchester'. It is possible that the tradition, as well as the name,
of the district endured into Elizabeth's reign, but Dr. Greg forgets, in
his Voltairean mood, that the system of episcopal licences terminated in
the reign of Henry VIII (Rendle, _Bankside_, xi). Ultimately Alleyn
secured on the property the settlement of his wife Constance, daughter
of John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, which must surely have established
its respectability.]

[Footnote 1011: Henslowe, i. 98, 'Jemes Cranwigge the 4 of November 1598
playd his callenge in my howsse & I sholde haue hade for my parte xxxxˢ
which the company hath receuyd & oweth yᵗ to me'.]

[Footnote 1012: Cf. vol. ii, p. 408.]

[Footnote 1013: Cf. Gosson, _S.A._ 39 (App. C, No. xxii), 'the very
hyrelings of some of our players, which stand at reuersion of vi s by
the weeke'; Dekker, _News from Hell_ (_Works_, ii. 146), 'a companie of
country players, being nine in number, one sharer, & the rest iornymen';
_The Raven's Almanac_ (iv. 193), 'a number of you (especially the
hirelings) shall be with emptie purses at least twice a week'; _Jests to
Make you Merrie_ (ii. 353), 'Nay, you mercenary soldiers, or you that
are as the Switzers to players (I meane the hired men) by all the
prognostications that I haue seene this yeare, you make but a hard and a
hungry liuing of it by strowting [? 'strowling'] up and downe after the
waggon. Leaue therefore, O leaue the company of such as lick the fat
from your beards (if you haue any) and come hether, for here I know you
shall be sharers'.]

[Footnote 1014: Cf. Chapman, _May Day_, III. iii. 228, 'Afore heaven,
'tis a sweet fac'd child: methinks he would show well in woman's
attire.... I'll help thee to three crownes a week for him, and she can
act well'. The will of Augustine Phillips in 1605 mentions his
apprentice James Sands, and his late apprentice, Samuel Gilburne. The
'boys' of various Admiral's men appear in Henslowe's diary and in the
Dulwich 'plots' of plays; cf. Henslowe, i. 71, 73, 'Thomas Dowtones
biger boy'; _Henslowe Papers_, 137, 138, 142, 147, 'E. Dutton his boye',
'Mʳ. Allens boy', 'Mʳ. Townes boy', 'Mʳ. Jones his boy', 'Mʳ. Denygtens
little boy'.]

[Footnote 1015: Henslowe, i. 201; _Henslowe Papers_, 48. There is also a
contract by which Thomas Downton of the Admiral's men hires an unnamed
player (Henslowe, i. 40). Augustine Phillips (1605) calls Christopher
Beeston his 'servant', and Nicholas Tooley (1623) calls Richard
Burbadge, then deceased, his 'late master'. But Beeston and Tooley were
King's men by patent before the dates in question, and it is a little
difficult, though not impossible, to suppose that a hireling would
appear in a patent. Probably the terms only retain the memory of former
apprenticeships.]

[Footnote 1016: Henslowe, ii. 120.]

[Footnote 1017: The diary records loans to Jonson, Chapman, Porter,
Chettle, Day, Haughton, Munday, Dekker, Anthony Wadeson, and Robert
Wilson, and to the actors Martin Slater, John Singer, Thomas Towne,
Edward Dutton, Robert Shaw, Thomas Downton, William Borne, John Helle,
Gabriel Spencer, Richard Alleyn, John Tomson, Humphrey Jeffes, Anthony
Jeffes, Richard Jones, Charles Massey, John Duke, Richard Bradshaw,
Thomas Heywood, William Kempe, Thomas Blackwood, John Lowin, Abraham
Savery, Richard Perkins; as well as to Henslowe's nephew, Francis
Henslowe. Except Francis Henslowe and Abraham Savery, of the Queen's
men, and John Tomson, of whom nothing is known, all these men are
traceable in connexion with either the Admiral's or Worcester's men. A
few of the loans to poets, e.g. to Chettle, seem to have been on behalf
of the Admiral's men, rather than of Henslowe himself.]

[Footnote 1018: Henslowe, i. 47, 63, 67, 'Rᵈ. of Bengemenes Johnsones
share as ffoloweth'; 'Rᵈ. of Gabrell Spencer at severall tymes of his
share in the gallereyes as foloweth'; 'A juste acownte of the money
which I haue receued of Humfreye Jeaffes hallffe sheare ... as
foloweth.... This some was payd backe agayne vnto the companey of my
lord admeralles players ... & they shared yt amonste them'. In such
cases Henslowe may merely have acted as agent of the company in securing
the payment out of gallery money of sums due from incoming sharers.]

[Footnote 1019: _Henslowe Papers_, 18, 23, 86, 111, 123; cf. ch. xiii
(Lady Elizabeth's).]

[Footnote 1020: Cf. p. 375.]

[Footnote 1021: Henslowe, ii. 19.]

[Footnote 1022: _Henslowe Papers_, 90, 93; cf. ch. xiii (Prince
Charles's).]

[Footnote 1023: _Henslowe Papers_, 67, 70.]

[Footnote 1024: Henslowe, ii. 19.]

[Footnote 1025: Similar methods were employed by Henslowe's rival,
Francis Langley, at the Swan (q.v.) in 1597. He provided apparel for a
company, and was allowed for it out of their 'moytie of the gains for
the seuerall standinges in the galleries of the said howse which
belonged to them'. Having quarrelled with the company before he was
completely reimbursed, he kept the apparel. He took individual bonds to
play with him for three years, released some of the company from their
bonds, and sued the rest, who could not play without their fellows, for
breach of contract.]

[Footnote 1026: J. Hall, _Virgedemiarum_ (1597), i. 3, appears to
satirize performances by amateurs 'upon a hired stage'; cf. p. 361.]

[Footnote 1027: Similarly in _Keysar v. Burbadge_ (1610) the pleadings
of Robert Keysar grossly exaggerated the profits of the Blackfriars.]

[Footnote 1028: Cf. ch. vii.]

[Footnote 1029: Cf. App. B.]

[Footnote 1030: _Variorum_, iii. 266.]

[Footnote 1031: Lee, 315; cf. A. Thaler, _Shakespeare's Income_ (_S. P._
xv. 82), who halves Lee's estimate.]

[Footnote 1032: In 1628 Sir Henry Herbert notes in his office-book
(_Variorum_, iii. 176), 'The Kinges company with a general consent and
alacritye [poor devils! E. K. C.] have given mee the benefitt of too
dayes in the yeare, the one in summer, thother in winter, to bee taken
out of the second daye of a revived playe, att my owne choyse. The
housekeepers have likewyse given their shares, their dayly charge only
deducted, which comes to some 2ˡ 5ˢ. this 25 May, 1628.' Herbert words
it oddly, but the 'dayly charge' must be that of the sharers, not the
housekeepers, who had none, and the estimate agrees fairly with that of
1635. Herbert took during 1628-33 sums of from £1 5_s._ to £6 7_s._,
averaging £4 8_s._ 6_d._, out of five performances at the Globe, and £9
16_s._ to £17 10_s._, averaging £13 10_s._, from five performances at
the Blackfriars. The gross takings averaged therefore £6 13_s._ 6_d._ at
the Globe and £15 15_s._ at the Blackfriars. In 1633 Herbert compounded
for a payment of £10 at Christmas and £10 at Midsummer. But in 1662
(_Variorum_, iii. 266) he included amongst the incomings of his office
the profits of a summer's day and a winter's day at the Blackfriars,
which he valued at £50 each.]

[Footnote 1033: Cf. p. 363 and ch. xiii (Admiral's).]

[Footnote 1034: Cf. W. W. Greg in _T. L. S._ (12 Feb. 1920) and his
analysis of the Dulwich 'plots' (_H. P._ 152). Here also we find the
tireman, gatherers, and attendants used as 'supers'.]

[Footnote 1035: Puttenham, i. 14, says that Roscius 'brought vp these
vizards, which we see at this day vsed'. In _The Longer Thou Livest_,
1748, 1796, God's Judgement has 'a terrible visure' and Confusion 'an
ill fauowred visure', and in _All For Money_, 389, 1440, 1462,
Damnation, Judas, and Dives have vizards. But this is early evidence,
and perhaps drawn from the private stage. Harington, _Metamorphosis of
Ajax_ (1596, _An Anatomy_, 5), speaks of 'an ill-favoured vizor, such as
I have seen in stage plays, when they dance Machachinas', but this
rather tells against the use by ordinary actors at that date.]

[Footnote 1036: Women only began to act regularly at the Restoration;
cf. Ward, iii. 253. There had been occasional earlier examples; even in
1611 Coryat, _Crudities_, i. 386, says that at Venice 'I saw women acte,
a thing that I never saw before, though I have heard that it hathe beene
sometimes used in London'. The exceptions are, I think, such as prove
the rule; private plays such as _Hymen's Triumph_, Venner's gulling show
of _England's Joy_, the Italian tumblers of 1574, the virago Moll Frith
at the Fortune (cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Dekker, _Roaring Girl_). On 22 Feb.
1583 Richard Madox 'went to the theater to see a scurvie play set out al
by one virgin, which there proved a fyemarten without voice, so that we
stayed not the matter' (_Cotton MSS. App._ xlvii, f. 6ᵛ; cf. _S. P.
Colonial, E. Indies_, 221). As to the skill of the boys, cf. Ben Jonson
on Richard Robinson in _The Devil is an Ass_, II. viii. 64.]

[Footnote 1037: Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 316.]

[Footnote 1038: Cf. ch. xvi (Swan).]

[Footnote 1039: Cf. ch. xiii (Admiral's).]

[Footnote 1040: Cf. ch. vii.]

[Footnote 1041: Cf. ch. xiii (Admiral's).]

[Footnote 1042: Cf. the account of Platter in 1599 (ch. xvi,
introduction); also Donne, _Satire_, iv. 180 (ed. _Muses' Library_, ii.
196):

    As fresh and sweet their apparels be, as be
    The fields they sold to buy them. 'For a king
    Those hose are,' cry the flatterers; and bring
    Them next week to the theatre to sell;

and Jonson, _Underwoods_, xxxii:

    Is it for these that Fine-man meets the street
    Coached, or on foot-cloth, thrice changed every day,
    To teach each suit he has the ready way
    From Hyde Park to the stage, where at the last
    His dear and borrowed bravery he must cast.
]

[Footnote 1043: Cf. App. C, Nos. xxx, xlvi; _Case Is Altered_, ii. 4,
'Theatres! ay, and plays too, both tragedy and comedy, and set forth
with as much state as can be imagined'; cf. Graves, 68.]

[Footnote 1044: Cf. chh. xx, xxi _passim_, and _Henslowe Papers_, 113.]

[Footnote 1045: Wegener, 135.]

[Footnote 1046: _Henslowe Papers_, 117, 'j lyone skin; j beares skyne
... j dragon in fostes [_Faustus_] j lyone; ij lyone heades; j great
horse with his leages; j black dogge'. For brown paper monsters, cf.
App. C, Nos. xxii, xxx, and for a controversy as to the use of live
animals, ch. xx.]

[Footnote 1047: _E. Hoe_, IV. ii. 92, 'thy name shall be written upon
conduits, and thy deeds plaid i' thy lifetime by the best companies of
actors, and be call'd their get-peny'; _Barth. Fair_, V. i. 13 (of a
'motion'), 'the _Gunpowder-plot_, there was a get-peny! I haue presented
that to an eighteene, or twenty pence audience, nine times in an
afternoone'. Dekker, _News from Hell_ (1606, _Works_, ii. 146), speaks
of 'a Cobler of Poetrie called a play-patcher'.]

[Footnote 1048: Henslowe, ii. 115; cf. ch. x. By the end of Sir Henry
Herbert's time the fee had been raised to £2; even for an old play he
exacted £1 (_Variorum_, iii. 266).]

[Footnote 1049: C. IS A. I. i.]

[Footnote 1050: _Henslowe_, i. 113, 136 (Admiral's, 1599, 1601), 181
(Worcester's, 1602), 'for Mʳ. Mundaye & the reste of the poets at the
playnge of Sʳ John Oldcastell the ferste tyme' [_in margin_, 'as a
gefte']; 'John Daye ... after the playinge of the 2 part of Strowde';
'Thomas Deckers ... over & above his price of his boocke called A
Medysen for a Cvrste Wiffe'. These are exceptional disbursements. The
Daborne-Henslowe correspondence of 1613-14 (_Henslowe Papers_, 71, 75,
76, 82) suggests a more regular practice: 'I pay you half my earnings in
the play'; 'We will hav but twelv pownds and the overplus of the second
day'; 'You shall hav the whole companies bonds to pay you the first day
of my play being playd'; 'I desyr you should disburse but 12ˡ a play
till they be playd'. Probably the actual day selected for the poet's
benefit varied; thus the third day is suggested by Dekker's prologue to
_If It be not Good, the Devil is in It_ (1612), a Red Bull play:

                        not caring, so he gains
    A cram'd third day, what filth drops from his brains.

Malone (_Variorum_, iii. 157) quotes later evidence for a variation of
days, together with Davenant, _The Play-house to be Let_:

                  There is an old tradition,
    That in the times of mighty Tamberlane,
    Of conjuring Faustus and the Beauchamps bold,
    You poets used to have the second day.
    This shall be ours, sir, and tomorrow yours.

The actual term 'benefit' appears first in connexion with the interest
of the Master of the Revels (cf. p. 370), not that of the poet. Nor do
we know what exactly the 'overplus' assigned to the poet was calculated
upon.]

[Footnote 1051: _B. Fair_, V. iii. 30, 'What, doe you not know the
_Author_, fellow _Filcher_? you must take no money of him; he must come
in _gratis_: Mʳ. _Littlewit_ is a voluntary; he is the _Author_'.]

[Footnote 1052: Henslowe, i. 83, 100, 101, 107, 119 (Admiral's,
1598-1600), 'to disecharge Mʳ. Dicker owt of the cownter in the
Powltrey'; 'Harey Chettell to paye his charges in the Marshallsey'; 'to
descarge Thomas Dickers frome the areaste of my lord chamberlens men';
'to descarge Harey Chettell of his areste from Ingrome'; 'Wᵐ Harton to
releace hime owt of the Clyncke'; also Henslowe, i. 103, 165 (Admiral's,
1599, 1602), 'Harey Porter ... gaue me his faythfulle promysse that I
shold haue alle the boockes which he writte ether him sellfe or with any
other'; 'at the sealleynge of H. Chettells band to writte for them'.]

[Footnote 1053: _Henslowe Papers_, 67; cf. ch. xiii (Lady Elizabeth's).]

[Footnote 1054: Henslowe, ii. 20.]

[Footnote 1055: Lodge, _Scillaes Metamorphosis_ (1589):

                          by oath he bound me
    To write no more of that whence shame doth grow,
      Or tie my pen to Pennie-knaves delight.
]

[Footnote 1056: The pun on 'comoedians' and 'camoelions' had been made
by 'certayne gentlemen' against the Duttons as early as 1580; cf. ch.
xiii (Warwick's). It is still in use in _Ratseis Ghost_ (1605); cf. p.
340, n. 2.]

[Footnote 1057: The Aesopic allusion is complicated by another to the
story in Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, ii. 4, 30, perhaps based on Martial,
xiv. 73, of the cobbler who tried to teach a crow to say 'Ave Caesar' in
flattery of Augustus after the battle of Actium; cf. Mr. McKerrow's note
to Nashe's _Pierce Penilesse_ (_Works_, iv. 105). Both ideas are
suggested in Nashe's _Menaphon_ preface, and Greene, in _Francescos
Fortunes_ (App. C, No. xliii), combines them with a third story, also
due, perhaps through Cornelius Agrippa (App. C, No. xii), to Macrobius
(_Sat._ III. xiv. 12), of a debate on the respective powers of orator
and actor between Cicero and Roscius, into an obviously apocryphal jest:
'_Cicero._ Why _Roscius_, art thou proud with _Esops_ Crow, being pranct
with the glory of others feathers? Of thy selfe thou canst say nothing,
and if the Cobler hath taught thee to say _Aue Caesar_, disdain not thy
tutor, because thou pratest in a kings chamber.' Fleay, i. 258, chooses
to identify the cobbler with Marlowe and Roscius with Robert Wilson, and
(being ignorant of Macrobius) cites the use of the phrase 'Ave Caesar'
in _Edward III_, I. i. 164, which he ascribes to Marlowe, as evidence.
Such equations are always hazardous. The point of the passage is in the
indebtedness of the players as a body to the poets as a body. If any
individual actor were designated as Roscius about 1590, it would be more
likely to be Alleyn than another; the compliment to him is not unusual
later (cf. ch. xv). But he had hardly a monopoly of the name; and in the
present case there is really no reason to suppose that Greene had any
individual in mind, other than the historical Roscius. The name is given
to Ostler (q.v.) in 1611, and was in common generic use for a player;
cf. e.g. Marston, _Satires_ (1598), ii. 42:

    That fair-framed piece of sweetest poesy,
    Which Muto put between his mistress' paps ...
    Was penned by Roscio the tragedian;

and _Scourge of Villainy_ (1598), xi. 40:

    Say who acts best? Drusus or Roscio?

Similarly Fleay, ii. 279, has no real ground for supposing that the
player in the _Groatsworth of Wit_ is Wilson in particular. If, again,
any individual is meant, it might just as well be James Burbage.
Throughout Fleay is inclined to exaggerate the extent of the theatrical
references in the pamphlets of Greene and Nashe. But R. Simpson is much
worse in his hopelessly uncritical Introduction to _Faire Em_ in _The
School of Shakspere_, ii. 339, which is an attempt to trace a _vendetta_
against the actors and especially Shakespeare as a main motive in
Greene's writing from 1584 onwards. As far as I can see, Greene's
attacks on the stage are limited to the three pamphlets named in the
text, and Nashe's to the _Menaphon_ preface. It is doubtful whether
Greene was writing for the stage at all before about 1590; in any case
it may be assumed that neither writer was normally engaged in tilting
against his paymasters.]

[Footnote 1058: Cuthbert Conny-Catcher, _The Defence of Conny-Catching_
(1592, Greene, _Works_, xi. 75), 'What if I should prove you a
Conny-Catcher, Maister _R. G._ would it not make you blush at the
matter?... Aske the Queens Players, if you sold them not _Orlando
Furioso_ for twenty Nobles, and when they were in the country sold the
same Play to the Lord Admirals men for as much more. Was not this plaine
_Conny-Catching_, Maister _R. G._?... But I hear, when this was
objected, you made this excuse; that there was no more faith to be held
with players than with them that valued faith at the price of a feather;
for as they were comedians to act, so the actions of their lives were
Camelion-like; that they were uncertain, variable, time-pleasers, men
that measured honesty by profit, and that regarded their authors not by
desert, but by necessity of time.']

[Footnote 1059: Dekker, _Jests to Make you Merrie_ (1607, _Works_, ii.
303, 352), 'As proud as a player that feedes on the fruité of diuine
poetry (as swine on acorns).... O you that are the Poets of these
sinfull times, ouer whome the Players haue now got the vpper hand, by
making fooles of the poore country people, in driuing them like flockes
of geese to sit cackling in an old barne: and to swallow downe those
playes for new which here euery punck and her squire (like the
interpreter and his poppet) can rand out by heart they are so stale, and
therefore so stincking; I know the Lady Pecunia and you come very hardly
together, & therefore trouble not you'; cf. his references to
'strowlers' in note to p. 332. Another seventeenth-century critic is
H[enry] P[arrot], _Laquei Ridiculosi or Springes for Woodcocks_ (1613),
_Epig._ 131, _Theatrum Licentia_:

    Cotta's become a player most men know,
      And will no longer take such toyling paines;
    For here's the spring (saith he) whence pleasures flow
      And brings them damnable excessive gaines:
    That now are cedars growne from shrubs and sprigs,
      Since Greene's _Tu Quoque_ and those Garlicke Jigs.
]

[Footnote 1060: _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 194, 214. For Elizabethan
school-plays at Shrewsbury, cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Ashton. Murray, ii. 204,
216, 243, 324, 364, 382, records plays by schoolboys or other children
at Bath (1602), Bristol (1594), Coventry (1601-2), Ludlow (1562,
1575-6), Norwich (1564-5), Plymouth (Totnes boys, 1564-74).]

[Footnote 1061: _Poetaster_, III. iv. 344, 'O, it will get vs a huge
deale of money, Captaine, and wee haue need on't; for this winter ha's
made vs all poorer, then so many staru'd snakes: No bodie comes at vs;
not a gentleman, nor a ----.']

[Footnote 1062: _Hamlet_, II. ii. 339. This is the Folio text. The
Second Quarto omits all but the first ten lines, but that there was some
reference to the children in the original version of the play, the date
of which may be 1601, is shown by the First Quarto text:

     _Hamlet._ How comes it that they trauell? Do they grow restie?

     _Gilderstone._ No my lord, their reputation holds as it was
     wont.

     _Hamlet._ How then?

      _Gilderstone._ Yfaith my Lord, noueltie carries it away,
      For the principali publike audience that
      Came to them, are turned to private playes,
      And to the humour of children.
]

[Footnote 1063: The main interest of the 'war of the theatres', or
'Poetomachia' as Dekker, _Satiromastix_, Epist. 10, calls it, is for
literature and biography, rather than for stage-history. I refer to it
under the plays concerned in chh. xxiii, xxiv, and can only add a brief
summary here. The treatment of R. A. Small, _The Stage Quarrel_ (1899),
is excellent, and may be supplemented by H. C. Hart's papers, _Gabriel
Harvey_, _Marston and Ben Jonson_ (_9 N. Q._ xi. 201, 281, 343, 501;
xii. 161, 263, 342, 403, 482) and _On Carlo Buffone_ (_10 N. Q._ i.
381), while the less critical view, partly derived from Fleay, of J. H.
Penniman, _The War of the Theatres_ (1897), is revised in his edition of
_Poetaster_ and _Satiromastix_. The protagonists are Jonson and Marston,
with whom became allied Dekker. Daniel and many others, whose names have
been brought under discussion, do not seem to have been really
concerned. Jonson himself tells us, in the _Apologetical Dialogue_,
probably written late in 1601, to _Poetaster_ that 'three yeeres, They
did provoke me with their petulant stiles On every stage'. This takes us
to 1599, up to which year there is no just ground for suggesting any
conflict between Jonson and Marston. Jonson may then have taken offence
at Marston's portrait of him, intended to be complimentary, as
Chrisoganus in _Histriomastix_. In the same year he criticized Marston's
style in _E. M. O._ In 1600 Marston satirized Jonson as Brabant Senior
in _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, and in 1601 as Lampatho Doria in _What
You Will_. Jonson in turn brought Marston into _Poetaster_ (1601) as
Crispinus, and added Dekker as Demetrius. Dekker retorted a month or two
later with his caricature of Jonson as Horace in _Satiromastix_. Some
unascertained part in the 'purge' given to Jonson is ascribed in _3
Parnassus_ (1601) to Shakespeare. Jonson and Marston seem to have been
reconciled by 1603; but the dispute had not been merely a paper one, for
Jonson, _Conversations_, 11, 20, claims that he 'beat Marston, and took
his pistol from him'.]

[Footnote 1064: Small, 67, has an excellent analysis of _Histriomastix_.
He dates it in 1596, but not convincingly. It might just as well be
1588-90. The text is in R. Simpson, _The School of Shakespeare_, ii. 1,
and needs re-editing. Moreover, Simpson thought that Posthaste was
Shakespeare. The actor-scenes are i. 112-62; ii. 70-147, 188-344; iii.
179-243, 265-78; iv. 159-201; v. 61-102, 238-43; vi. 187-240. Of these I
think that ii. 247-80; iii. 179-217, 265-78 may belong to the Marstonian
revision.]

[Footnote 1065: Cf. _Hamlet_, II. ii. 415, 'The best actors
in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral,
pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical,
tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem
unlimited'.]

[Footnote 1066: _Poetaster_, III. iv; IV. iv; V. iii. 108-38.]

[Footnote 1067: Can the Aesop episode be a reminiscence of the part
played by Augustine Phillips in the Essex innovation? Cf. vol. ii, p.
205.]

[Footnote 1068: _2 Return from Parnassus_, iv. 3; v. 1.]

[Footnote 1069: In certain other plays which have actors amongst their
dramatis personae (e.g. _Midsummer-Night's Dream_ and Middleton's _Mayor
of Queenborough_) the point is reversed, and it is the regular companies
who satirize provincial companies or amateurs.]

[Footnote 1070: Thus in 1618 the Mayor of Exeter complained of a company
travelling under Daniel's patent for the Children of Bristol (q.v.)
that, though the patent was for children, the company consisted of men,
with only five youths amongst them.]

[Footnote 1071: Cf. ch. xii, introduction.]

[Footnote 1072: Cf. App. C, No. lviii.]

[Footnote 1073: Murray, ii. 235, 400, 410.]

[Footnote 1074: Ibid. 199, 231, 264, 312, 341, 384, &c.]

[Footnote 1075: The Order was appended to _A Declaration of the Lords
and Commons Assembled in Parliament, For the appeasing and quietting of
all unlawfull Tumults and Insurrections in the severall Counties of
England, and Dominion of Wales_ (1642). The whole pamphlet is facsimiled
in J. Knight's edition of J. Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1886).]

[Footnote 1076: Hazlitt, _E. D. S._ 65.]

[Footnote 1077: Wright, _Historia Histrionica_, 409, 411.]

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    |               TRANSCRIBER NOTES.                              |
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    | P. xvii 'Litteratur' changed to 'Literatur'.                  |
    | P. xxxiii 'Antient' changed to 'Ancient'.                     |
    | P. xxxiv 'O. S.' changed to 'C. S.'.                          |
    | P. xxxviii. 'Smith' changed to 'Strype'; moved alphabetically.|
    | P. xxxix 'Stow' changed to 'Stowe'.                           |
    | Footnote numbers that were left off are added on pages 95-97. |
    | P. 315. Added missing footnote number.                        |
    | P. 330. Added missing footnote number.                        |
    | P. 363. Added missing footnote number.                        |
    | Corrected various punctuation.                                |
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