A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Performing Consumption and Consuming Performance: A 17th Century Play Collection Maria Kirk Submitted for the qualification of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature University of Sussex February 2016 i Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature:.................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Mat Dimmock, whose advice, guidance and persistent faith in my ability to complete this thesis have been invaluable. I would also like to thank my secondary supervisor Professor Margaret Healy who has supported my academic endeavours throughout my time as a postgraduate. I am also grateful to all of the Sussex CEMMS staff and doctoral students who have helped and supported me over the years. This thesis would not have been possible without the funding I received from the Arts and Humanities Research council, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank The National Trust and all the staff at Petworth House, in particular Exhibition Manager Andy Loukes who has been endlessly accommodating and enthusiastic about my research. I grateful to have received book handling training from Ylva Dahnsjo, and would also like to thank Tom Dommett, who provided me with important information about recent archaeological findings at Petworth. I would especially like to extend my gratitude to Professor Nicholas Pickwoad; without his expert guidance and information about bindings much of the first chapter in this thesis would not have been possible. I would like to extend special thanks to Lord Egremont for permitting me to use material from the Petworth House Archives in this thesis, for allowing me to access to his personal library, and also for sharing his thoughts on the Petworth play collection with me. I am grateful to the staff at Sussex University Library, The British Library, Senate House Library and the West Sussex Records Office, particularly archivists Alison McCann, Caroline Adams and Jennifer Mason at the latter, all of whom have been extremely helpful and accommodating in allowing me to access the Petworth House Archives. I am also grateful to the Duke of Northumberland for allowing me to access the the Northumberland Archives on microfilm. Special thanks also go to Stewart Collins, Tam Williams, and the cast of “The Petworth Plays” for bringing the collection to life on stage. During my studies I have crossed paths with a number of scholars working on either plays in the volumes or the Percy family and their wider circle. I am grateful to Dr Daniel Starza-Smith, Dr David McInnis and most of all to Professor Robert Alexander for their extremely valuable insights. As ever, I am grateful to my wonderful family: my parents, grandparents and sister who have all been infinitely supportive throughout my entire university career. Most importantly, I want to thank my husband Matt for his incredible and unfailing support over the years. Finally, I also acknowledge the contribution of our daughter Robyn: while her birth may have somewhat delayed the completion of this thesis, her happy smile is a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. iii UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX MARIA KIRK DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE PERFORMING CONSUMPTION AND CONSUMING PERFORMANCE: A 17th CENTURY PLAY COLLECTION Summary This thesis explores the relationship between performance and consumption in relation to play collection in the 1630s, and also examines the wider contexts of performance and consumption in that decade. It proposes that the 1630s were a decade characterised by particularly self-conscious performances of consumption, and that this environment contributed directly to the beginnings of the collection of books for display purposes. A focus on the Petworth collection and its original collector is maintained throughout the thesis, which weaves together the material and literary content of the collection. Using material evidence from the volumes themselves, this thesis demonstrates that the collection was purchased in 1638 by the 10th Earl of Northumberland through an agent who assembled the collection specifically for the Earl just prior to his purchase of it. It also demonstrates, again using evidence from the volumes themselves, that the purchase was partly informed by principles of education, personal taste and a consideration for family history, but that the overwhelming motive was the drive to consume and to perform that consumption. Using the literary content of the collection to explore representations of performed consumption, this thesis tracks the development of the conceptualisation of consumption on the stage from the wariness about dangerous consumption in the late Elizabethan period to the much more open, and yet still rather complex, attitudes of the 1630s. Finally, the thesis discusses some other kinds of public, performed consumption, including a procession by Northumberland and an entertainment with which he was connected, exploring the explicitly social elements of performance. The Petworth play collection is at once anomalous and typical as an example of mid-17th century book collection, and it can be used to illustrate and map the multitude of issues, concepts and attitudes which surround performance, consumption and collection in the 1630s, and beyond. iv Abbreviations EEBO – Early English Books Online ESTC – English Short Title Catalogue DEEP – Database of Early English Playbooks DOI – Digital Object Identifier JSTOR – Journal Storage MS - Manuscript PHA – Petworth House Archive URL – Uniform Resource Locator Further notes All images of the Petworth playbooks taken by the author and included with permission from The National Trust. All other images used with permission. Stable URLs are given for online sources, primarily from JSTOR and EEBO, or if these are not available then DOI numbers are given instead. All early printed books, except for the plays themselves, were accessed via EEBO. In some cases, EEBO copies of some of the Petworth plays were also consulted; stable URLs are provided in the bibliography for these editions only. All stable URLs given for EEBO access via Jisc Historical Books. v Contents Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Summary iii Abbreviations iv Notes iv Contents v List of figures vii List of tables viii Introduction 1 Petworth and the Percy family 8 The play collection 15 Playbooks, sammelbände and composite volumes 17 Methodology 23 Consumption, performance and collection: Defining some terms 25 The content of the thesis 33 Chapter 1: Consuming Collection 37 The shape of the collection and the “missing” plays 47 The purchase of the plays 53 The organisation of the collection 58 Authorship 60 Theme and genre 70 Date 74 Marks and annotation 80 Conclusion: methods of construction 98 Chapter 2: Performing Collection 103 Collecting in the 1630s: art and architecture 111 Learning to collect 115 Composite volumes as collections 124 Collecting in the 1630s: books 129 Play collection and popularity 140 Conclusion: the purpose of the collection 144 Chapter 3: Performing Consumption on the Theatrical Stage 151 Allure and danger 158 Intoxicants on the stage 169 Communities of consumption 180 Hospitality and morality 188 Consuming books on the early modern stage 202 Conclusion: performance, consumption and communication 209 Chapter 4: Consuming on the social stage 210 The entertained audience 214 The gift of feasting and the hospitable host 220 vi Procession and publicity 226 Performance and drama in the 10th Earl’s library 239 “To the Reader”: Books as entertainment and the imagined audience 245 Conclusion: deliberate consumption, deliberate performance 252 Conclusion 255 Belonging: the collection and the library 255 The 1630s: a time of change 262 Conclusion: the Petworth collection and its place in history 268 Bibliography 270 Appendix 1: List of plays in the Petworth collection by volume 285 Appendix 2: List of plays in the lost volumes 311 vii List of figures Chapter 1 1.1 Annotation on King Lear 43 1.2 Percy crest on volume 10 44 1.3 Play list for volume 1 48 1.4 1690 catalogue listing plays by volume 49 1.5 Detail of 1690 catalogue showing omission of most plays in volume 12 50 1.6 Detail of 1690 catalogue showing pencil ticks and zeros 51 1.7 Crossed out author name (“by John Lyly”) on Loves Metamorphosis 82 1.8 Crossed out author name (John Lyly) on The Woman in the Moon 82 1.9 Pre-emptive copying of worn lines on The Two Noble Kinsmen 84 1.10 Alteration of 0 to 6 on Wine, Beer, Ale and Tobacco 84 1.11 Asterisk on The Broken Heart 86 1.12 Ownership mark “Rich Crashawe” on A Woman Never Vext 87 1.13 Ownership mark “Rich Crashawe” on The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe 87 1.14 Ownership mark “Judith Cundel” on What You Will 88 1.15 Ownership mark “Elizabeth Wallor” on Two Wise Men and All the Rest Fools 89 1.16 Number annotation on title page of Poetaster 89 1.17 Number annotation on title page of A Looking Glass for London and England 89 1.18 Number annotation on title page of The Revenger’s Tragedy 89 1.19 Possible “bundle” price on the title page of Parasitaster 91 1.20 Restoration on Parasitaster 93 1.21 Restoration on Parasitaster 93 Chapter 2 th 2.1 Henry Percy, 9 Earl of Northumberland (1602) 106 th 2.2 Nicholas Hilliard, (c.1595).