Narratives of Exchange in Early Modern London, 1580-1600

ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output Narratives of exchange in early modern London, 1580-1600 https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40225/ Version: Full Version Citation: Tomlin, Rebecca Catherine (2016) Narratives of exchange in early modern London, 1580-1600. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email Narratives of Exchange in Early Modern London, 1580-1600 Thesis submitted in part fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Rebecca Catherine Tomlin Birkbeck, University of London 2016 2 Declaration I declare that the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. Rebecca Catherine Tomlin 3 Abstract This study examines some of the stories through which the inhabitants of early modern London comprehended and negotiated their rapidly changing city. The method that it follows is the investigation of the memoranda of alms collection petitions made at St Botolph’s without Aldgate between 1583 and 1600, and drama that was contemporary to those collections. Special attention is paid to Edward the Fourth (Heywood, 1599), A Warning for Fair Women (anon., c.1597), An Humorous Day’s Mirth (Chapman, 1599) and The Fair Maid of the West (Heywood, c.1603). The methodology adopted reads the alms petitions and plays alongside each other to show how they worked together in a common cultural discourse to shape ideas of neighbourhood in early modern London, and also to consider how the drama of the period emerges from and shapes that discourse. Both petitions and plays are found to be performative texts, expressing spatial practices that articulate early modern Londoners’ experiences of their city, especially in terms of charity, commerce and neighbourhood. The complexity and reciprocity of exchange is enacted in the process of narration, revealing some of the many ways in which early modern Londoners comprehended and shaped their city. The people of early modern London, as playgoers and charitable donors are shown to be constituted by playing and petitioning. Stories of charitable and commercial exchange are shown to shape the social relationships that constitute London’s spaces. 4 Contents Acknowledgements 5 List of Illustrations 7 Abbreviations 8 Notes on the Text 9 Introduction 11 Plays and Petitions 11 Storytelling and the Spaces of Early Modern London 16 Plays Selected 23 Playhouses, Neighbourhood and Repertoire 28 St Botolph’s Parish 40 Neighbourhood and Narrative in Early Modern London 49 Chapter One: Text, Community and the Space of St Botolph’s 52 Text as Performance: the Alms Petitions of St Botolph’s 54 Fires and the Genre of Alms Petitions 65 Maimed Soldiers and the Discourse of Begging 78 The Jarkeman and the Unstable Authority of Text 93 Performing Charity in Church 99 Chapter Two: The Places of Tragedy in Early Modern London 108 Performing London’s History as Tragedy 112 Ways of Walking the City 136 Women and the Spaces of the City 148 Chapter Three: Spaces of Commerce in the City 158 Female Credit and ‘Public’ Houses 161 Selling Women? 175 Close Walks and Private Rooms 184 Staging Credit, Commerce and Charity 193 Conclusion 210 Bibliography 215 5 Acknowledgements My thanks are due first to the two supervisors with whom I have been extremely fortunate to work. Without Adam Smyth’s help and encouragement I would not have embarked on this project; he has been generous in his support and guidance throughout. Sue Wiseman sparked my interest in Renaissance drama as a BA student, and her experience and insightful criticism has enabled me to complete this project. I am grateful to both of them and wish only that I had talked less and listened more when we met. Gillian Woods offered invaluable feedback on early draft chapters and other good advice along the way, and I am also grateful to Anthony Bale and Isabel Davies for their encouragement. I consider myself fortunate to have been taught by many wonderful academics over the years at Birkbeck and to each one I offer my gratitude. Much of my research has been carried out at Senate House Library and I thank the librarians there for their assistance, especially Charles Harrowell and Bianca Bristow. I am also grateful for help received from Sarah Wheale at the Bodleian Library, Vanessa Wilkie at the Huntington, librarians at Birkbeck library and the British Library and the archivists at the London Metropolitan Archives. Dr Mark Merry of the Institute of Historical Research was especially generous in sharing the Institute’s transcriptions of the St Botolph’s Memoranda after the webpage that they supported was closed in December 2014. I am grateful for the financial support that I have received which enabled me to carry out this project. An Arts Research Studentship Bursary from Birkbeck enabled me to embark on the first year of the project and The Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Doctoral Award allowed me to continue and complete it. I also received funding from Birkbeck to attend the 2014 meeting of The Shakespeare Association of America in St Louis, USA. I am grateful to Chris Highley, organiser of the ‘Theatre and Neighbourhood’ seminar at that conference, and my fellow participants, who offered extremely valuable feedback on the paper that I contributed, which became part of Chapter Two of this thesis. I have been a student at Birkbeck for many years now and am profoundly grateful to have found an institution that accommodates those of us who only find out what we really wanted to do rather late in life. I have learnt much from my fellow students, especially Anita Butler, Katherine Hunt, Mike Leahy, Simon Smith and Jackie Watson, who have demonstrated that finishing is possible and that there is life after the doctorate. Among my peer group, Beatrice Bazell and Emma Curry have provided tea 6 and sympathy when the going got tough, while Sue Jones and Cat Griffiths were reliable providers of ‘a pint of wine’ and some light relief. One of the most rewarding elements of my time at Birkbeck has been my involvement in the Birkbeck Early Modern Society, and I would like to thank my colleagues there for their continued spirit of intellectual enquiry and their friendship. The many speakers who we have been fortunate to welcome to the Society have provided an inspiring model of academic generosity. Finally, but not least, I would like to thank my mother, Elizabeth Williams, who instilled in me the belief (not always justified) that I could do anything to which I set my mind. Lizzie and Jim have put up with much distraction and absence on my part throughout this process but I hope that I have shown them that learning is a rewarding and life-time process. Finally, Julian, while at times mystified by the way that what started as a hobby has got so out of hand, has nevertheless been unfailing supportive all along the way and I could not have done this without him. 7 List of Illustrations Figure 1: The parish of St Botolph’s, Aldgate, c.1600. p.44 Figure 2: Note from St Botolph’s Memoranda Book for 1583. With p.57 permission of London Metropolitan Archives, City of London. Figure 3: Page from St Botolph's Churchwardens' Memoranda Book for p.58 1593-4, showing a collection for ‘the prisoners in the Kinge’s Benche’ (lower half of page). 9234/4 fol.110r (13 January1593/94). With permission of London Metropolitan Archives, City of London. Figure 4: Detail of John Norden’s map of London, showing walking routes p.142 described in Edward IV and A Warning. Figure 5: Pair of late medieval shops, Weald and Downland Open Air p.177 Museum. Figure 6: ‘Lechery’ from Stephen Batman, A Christall Glasse of Christian p.190 reformation (1569). With permission of The British Library, London. 8 Abbreviations Catalogues and Databases The following abbreviations are used throughout, in place of full bibliographic citation: CCed: Clergy of the Church of England Database, directed by Arthur Burns, Kenneth Fincham and Stephen Taylor < http://theclergydatabase.org.uk> [accessed 29 May 2015] DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, ed. by Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser <http://deep.sas.upenn.edu> [accessed 10 May 2015] EBBA: English Broadside Ballad Archive, University of California at Santa Barbara <http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu >[accessed 10 May 2015] ESTC: English Short Title Catalogue <http://estc.bl.uk> [accessed 10 May 2015] LEME: Lexicons of Early Modern English ed. by Ian Lancashire <www.leme.library.utoronto.ca> [accessed 10 May 2015] OED: Oxford English Dictionary <www.oed.com> [accessed 10 May 2015] ODNB: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography <www.oxforddnb.com> [accessed 10 May 2015] ReScript: Website of the IHR’s project of collaborative editing of historical texts online <www.rescript.org> [decommissioned December 2014] STC: A short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of English books printed abroad 1475-1640, ed. by A.W. Pollard and G.R. Redgrave, 2nd edn, ed. by W. A. Jackson, F.S.Ferguson and K.F. Pantzer, as cited in ESTC. Wiggins & Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson eds., British Drama 1533- Richardson 1642: A Catalogue (Oxford: Oxford University Press) vol.III (2013); Catalogue: vol.IV (2014); vol.V (2015). Wing: Short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English books printed in other countries, 1641-1700, ed. by Donald Goddard Wing, as cited in ESTC. Institutions LMA: London Metropolitan Archives SHL: Senate House Library, University of London IHR: Institute of Historical Research, University of London 9 Notes on the Text [1] All quotations of primary texts, including names, retain original spelling and punctuation.

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