Recoctsrofeav(J~ English Drama

volume 18, number 2 (1993)

A Newsletter published by University of Toronto Press in association with Erindale College, University of Toronto. JoAnna Dutka, editor

RecoctsrofEav(J~ English Drama

Contributors to this issue are Barra Boydell (St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland) on patronage of musicians by the first earl of Cork, and A .E Johnston on a reference to `Amys and Amylon' in Bicester Priory accounts . News items include notices of various sorts of `publishing' projects and, from the Director, A .F. Johnston, information on REED'S funding status.

BARRA BOYDELL

The Earl of Cork's musicians: a study in the patronage of music in early seventeenth century Anglo-Irish society

The early seventeenth century in Ireland was a period during which the old Gaelic order was declining in the face of increasing English influence and plantation . Although unsettled conditions and considerable social upheaval were to follow the 1641 rising and the Cromwellian Wars, the earlier part of the century saw relatively peaceful conditions prevailing, especially in Dublin, much of Leinster, and Munster . The subject of this paper, Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork (1566-1643), was one of the New English, the colonists, planters, and adventurers who settled in Ireland during the Tudor and early Stuart periods . These formed a group distinct from the Old English, namely those whose ancestors had come to Ireland during the medieval period and who had become largely assimilated by custom and religion with the native Irish population . Richard Boyle, whose principal seat was at Usmore, Co Waterford, will be shown to have maintained a permanent band of up to six musicians. Furthermore, evidence for the purchase and main- tenance of musical instruments, as well as for contact with Irish harpers, will be shown .

I Conclusive evidence that household musicians were maintained by the Anglo-Irish aristocracy at this period has been limited . One exception was Lord Howth, of Howth Castle just north of Dublin : while in Dublin in 1606 Richard Boyle himself paid 2s to `my Lord of hoathes [Howth] musitions' ; 1 in the master's accounts of the merchant tailors' guild of Dublin two payments, each of 3s, occur to `the Lord of Howth's musicians': in 1609 ('Mr Huggarte and his Company being at Mr Mayor's') and in 1610 : ('Mr Huggarte being at the Circuits').2 William Huggard was leader of the Dublin city musicians between 1599 and 1632 .3 Richard Boyle also made a payment in Cork on 11 June 1617 of 2s 6d `to my Lord Presidentes musiciantes', apparently referring to Donough O'Brien, Earl of Thomond, who was Lord President of Munster from 1615 to 1624.4 Born in Canterbury of humble origins, Richard Boyle arrived in Ireland in 1588, penniless but ambitious. He rose through a succession of influential contacts, the purchase of lands (most notably the Munster estates of Sir Walter Raleigh which he bought in 1602 for the sum of £1000), and two advantageous marriages, eventually becoming the wealthiest English landowner of his generation. The rapid increase in Boyle's finan- cial position was matched by a no less striking climb in his social standing- knighted in 1603, he occupied a series of important posts in Irish affairs, culminating in his appointment as one of the two Lord Justices of Ireland from 1629 to 1633, and as Lord High Treasurer from 1631 . In 1640 he attained his longstanding ambition when his achievements were recognized at the English court by his appointment to the king's privy council .5 The very number of Boyle's household musicians emphasizes the extent of his wealth: commenting on the permanent group of two boys and three to five men maintained during the period 1607 to 1612 by Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, Lynn Hulse wrote:

Few early seventeenth-century aristocratic households maintained a group of professional musicians in full-time employment . . . . A number of patrons could assemble a consort of singers and/or instrumentalists, but some of its members were either competent amateurs gathered from within the household or professional musicians borrowed temporarily from relatives and friends or from court.6

The size of Boyle's musical household thus equalled or even surpassed the norm in England, despite the geographical isolation from the English court. The bulk of Boyle's personal papers, including his diaries (which cover most of his career) and extensive correspondence, is held at Chatsworth House (Lismore having passed to the Devonshire family in the 18th century) . Some of this material has been edited and published.7 In addition the National Library of Ireland contains unpub- lished material including the surviving household accounts from Lismore from 1605-9, from 1611, and from late 1626 continuously until 1645, two years after Boyle's death in 1643 .8 Material remaining at Lismore is of more recent date . In order to understand the context of music in Boyle's household in Ireland it is help-

2 ful to look briefly at the social conditions amongst Munster planters during the early seventeenth century, and at the social and cultural aspects of the life and career of Richard Boyle himself. Recent historical research has emphasized the degree of relative peace and stability which prevailed over most of Ireland between the Battle of Kinsale in 1603 and the outbreak of rebellion in 1641. Particularly in Munster a relatively set tied society with an established infrastructure of trade and communications existed against which background English settlers could enjoy a lifestyle not significantly different from that which prevailed in England itself. The historian Michael McCarthy Morrogh has commented :

the tendency to imagine early seventeenth century [Munster] as wild, lawless and radically different from England was shared by many at that time, and some historians today . English residents in Ireland were pained by this ignorant assumption and would careful- ly explain the similarities and common civilisation between the two countries . .. . these comments confirm the image of Munster as akin to a slightly raffish county on the English borders .9

Nicholas Canny highlighted how acutely aware Boyle was both of his being very much a parvenu amongst the English aristocracy and of his lack of a cultured, aristocratic up- bringing.10 Canny drew attention to the efforts which Boyle made to counter the first of these shortcomings by forging alliances with both the English and the Irish aristo- cracies (both Gaelic and Old English) through the marriages of his many children . To compensate for his lack of a cultured, aristocratic background he not only took great care in the education of his sons along socially appropriate lines, but he also lavished enormous attention on his houses and estates at Lismore, at Youghal, and elsewhere in Ireland. The two youngest of his seven sons, Francis (b 1623) and Robert (b 1627), the latter of whom was to become famous as one of the leading scientists of his day who established 'Boyle's Law,' were educated at Eton . There they were taught `to play on the vyol and to sing."' That singing was regarded for young gentlemen as more an aid to elocution than a musical training is, however, evident in a letter to Boyle from Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton :

My good Lord, I have commended seriously and with promise of a good reward your spiritay Robin to the Master of oure choristers heere: who maketh profession (and hath in one or two before, given good roofe thereof) to correct the errors of voices and pronuncia- .ltion

Subsequently the two boys were sent on the Grand Tour, during which their tuition included dancing, again primarily as a form of exercise and as a training in deport- ment. 13 On his Irish estates Boyle employed the finest craftsmen, garden designers, and others, creating a fashionable, aristocratic milieu he could show off with pride to his in-laws and connections from the English court . 14 It is against this background

3 that we should measure Boyle's patronage of music, rather than seeing it as necessarily a reflection of his own personal tastes . In short, Boyle aspired to create in Ireland an estate modelled physically and culturally on the finest English examples of his day. The Lismore accounts contain only isolated references to music from the early years of the century: on 10 June 1605 9d was paid `to ML-iris Ann that she gaue to musitions,' on 20 March 1606 6s `for white wynne and bread a wensday morning for the Musicionn,' 15 and around Christmas 1607 3s 6d to `the mvsicions.'16 While the above payments were all apparently made at Lismore or at Youghal, they would seem to have been to visiting musicians on single occasions rather than to musicians in Boyle's regular employ . This is suggested by the absence of any regular payments at this period and by the amounts paid which are more in line with single payments than regular wages. Any musicians casually employed by Boyle would most likely have lived in Youghal .17 The first mention of a musician specifically in Boyle's employ is in his diary for 22 July 1616 when he records a payment of 50s to `Stacie my mvsicon .'18 As will be shown below, William Stacie [Stacy] was to remain one of Boyle's musicians until 1634 . Although music is not referred to in the context of Boyle's household over the next few years, between 1614 and 1616 his diaries on a number of occasions mention Donnell Duff 0 Cahill (harper to Anne of Denmark, King James i's queen) acting as a messenger delivering letters and sums of money to Boyle's sister's husband, Piers Power of Ballygarran. In July and August 1616 he is again mentioned in connection with money sent to Boyle's wife's brother, Sir William Fenton, in London . Thirteen years later, in May 1629, Donnell Duff 0 Cahill `the harper' was again to deliver money when Boyle was resident for a period in England . 19 Another harper is mentioned as a messenger on 21 July 1621, when Boyle gave 40s to 'Nedd skott my to Chichesters harp er' to deliver to Sir Arthur Chichester, Earl of Donegall and Lord Treasurer of Ireland .20 As well as recalling the traditional role in Gaelic society of travelling harpers acting as messengers, these references reflect the interest in the Irish harp amongst non-Gaelic communities in the early 17th century, an interest which is documented not only in England but also on the Continent.21 Although there is no evidence that Boyle maintained a harper himself on any regular basis (there are no payments to specified harpers in the available accounts), he owned an Irish harp and on at least one occasion presented an Irish harp as a gift, suggesting that he appreciated the instrument as a fine object in itself: in his diary for 20 February 1620 he wrote : `I lent my new harp to william Barry the blynde harper to raise.'22 Grattan Flood referred without source to `William FitzRobert FitzEdmund Barry, a famous blind harper' as being a retainer of Lord Barry- more in 1615. The Barrymore family was a leading Old English Munster family with whom Boyle cultivated close contacts, most notably in marrying his eldest daughter Alice to David, Viscount Bar ymore, in 1621 .23 On 10 October 1632 Boyle wrote in his diary: `My cozen W[illia]m Ryan sent me a faier new yrish Harp, which I sent to the Lo[rd] Keeper of England . .. & to his Lady a Ronlet of uskebagh [whiskey] . '24 Another reference to a harp amongst the circle of Boyle's English acquaintances occurs in his diary entry for 16 October 1638, where money is sent to Sir Henry Wotton at Eton `which with xxs he gave his man that brought over his harpe . .. .'25 Canny documented Boyle's dear intention prior to 1618 to transfer himself back to

4 England. However, after 1618 Boyle evidently determined to pursue his career in Ireland and to consolidate his power-base here .26 This decision may lie behind an apparent increase in musical activity from around this date . The reference to `Stacie my mvsicon' noted above in 1616 may imply that Stacy was Boyle's only musician at that time, since otherwise he might be expected to have referred to him as `one of my musicians.' How- ever, Michael Skryne, who was one of Boyle's musicians between 1627 (or earlier) and 1641, is independently recorded as a musician living in Youghal in 1615 (see note 17) . The first suggestion of an increase in musical activity is an entry in Boyle's diary on 29 June 1617 referrinlto £8 sterling `payd Mr Brian for a Cheste of vyolles he brought me from Mynnyott .'27 During the period up to the resumption of surviving household accounts in September 1626 there are no further direct references in Boyle's diaries to musical activity at his household. However, he mentions a payment of £5 to his children `for their Mask' on 24 October 1620 .28 From late 1626 regular references to household musicians occur in the accounts . At some point between the notice of the single(?) musician employed in 1616 and the resumption of surviving accounts in 1626, Boyle had established a permanent band of musicians at his household in Munster. This may have taken place around 1617, the year in which the chest of viols was bought. On 7 November 1626 the accounts record a payment to six musicians for half a year's wages . From that date onwards regular half- yearly wages were paid to a group of musicians at Lismore . The following payment, on 2 May 1627, was £14 for the six musicians (a once-off payment of 5s `to the Musitions by your Lordships direcion' had been made on 1st January 1627) . Until the payment made on 27 October 1628 six musicians are specified .29 The names of four of these are first referred to in Boyle's diary on 30 March 1627 :

I gaue to 3 of my mvsicons 3 english Cowes that I had for Herriotts, one to Michaell Skryne, another to An sweta husband ffrances (Jones), the third vnto vallentyne (Wayman?) . . . and I gaue to John Miles 50s. that was due for olde Iohn Crokforda.herriott, paid him in money.' 30

The names of the six musicians are confirmed in a number of entries in the accounts, most notably on 2 May 1629 : `Paid . .. to 5 Musitions, viz. to Stacy, Knowles, Vallen- tyne, Skryne, and Francis Zones for wages - xij li. x s.'; John Miles had previously been identified as a musician in the accounts of 14 November 1627.31 There are various people with the name Knowles mentioned in documents, of whom William Knowles appears to be the musician . Although never specified as such, he is frequently listed along with known musicians in rent receipts lists, etc . Nevertheless, an entry in Boyle's diary on 27 January 1632 mentions `William Knowles to be brewer in grose of Lismoor for 5 yeares.'32 If this is the same person as the musician, which cannot be confirmed, it would indicate that musicians were also engaged in other occupations . The only `Vallentyne' more closely identified is Vallentyne Wayman, whose name regularly occurs together with known musicians in the rent lists, especially from December 1637 to November 1641, and whose full name occurs in a payment directly associated with

5 musicians on 5 December 1636 (see below) . Vallentyne is also mentioned in the diaries on the same date in a non-musical context: `Lent my servant, vallentyne Wa man xh sterling gratis, to put him into a stock of Tobacko, repaiable at May, 1637 . The number of regular musicians mentioned in the accounts decreases to five after May 1629, the last time that John Miles is mentioned 34 For the next few years five musicians are specified, while on 30 June 1630 Boyle recorded in his diary : `Paid for ffive Clokes for my Mvsicons by Henry Staynes viij li.'35 The names of four musicians are again specified in Boyle's diaries on 1 November 1632 :

I gave order to mr wallet [?John Walley, steward of Lismore] to levye x li. sterling that was due to me for a Herriott vppon the death of widdoe Maunsfeild and to bestow it on 4 ofmy mvsitians viz to Michaell Skryne v li. to stacie xl s. to vallentyne xxx s. and vnto ffranck xxx s . in all x li 36

Although the half-yearly wages paid on 16 May 1635 (and subsequently) then specify four musicians, on 30 November 1636 there is a payment of 19 13s 6d to a William Page for 21 yards `of broadcloth to make six Clokes for yourMusitions, and 2 suites for your Lordships footmen:37 Boyle himself refers to this payment in his diary on the same date, confirming six musicians and indicating that the musicians wore red livery : 'cleered all accompts with William Page, the clothier, of Kilm(a)ckee, for the red cloathe to make 6 Jokes for my six musicons, and sutes for my 2 footmen, and paid him xxj li. ix s . vj d.,38 On 2 September 1634 William Stacy was paid `his half yeares Wages a little before hand, being not due vntill Michelmas next, to releeve him in his sicknes .'39 Although his name appeared regularly in conjunction with other musicians, particularly in rent lists up until November 1634, it does not reappear after that date . The inference may be that he died following his illness . The accounts between December 1636 and April 1637 indicate the temporary additional employment of a boy singer : on 5 December [or 31 March 1637?] Valentyne Wayman was paid 20s `which he laid forth for Clothes for the Musition Jack' ; on 20 December 9s was `Given to Iacke the singing Musition to make vp his liuery Cloke', and on 6 April 1637 is noted : `Given by your Lordship to the Musition boy dis- chardged v s .'40 Francis Jones, [William?] Knowles, Michael Skryne, and Vallentyne [Wayman?] continued as the four regular musicians until November 1641, their names also often occurring together in the rent receipts in May and November of most years . The effects of the 1641 rebellion and ensuing years of unrest are reflected in the increasing irregu- larity of the account books of those years, with matters of immediate military concern and the defence and repair of Lismore House taking over from regular payments to all but the most essential staff: It is therefore not wholly unexpected to find no further mention of the musicians after November 1641 . The one exception is a payment on 20 December 1641 `to one John Downing for a Trompett xx s .'41 The many military expenses at this time suggest the context of this trumpet The gradual reduction in the number of regular musicians employed at Lismore

6 broadly reflects Boyle's often lengthy periods of absence . Boyle spent more than six years, from April 1628 until December 1634, in England and Dublin, only briefly visiting Lismore in the summer of 1631, and the last payment to six musicians was noted above as occurring at the beginning of May 1629, one year into this period of absence . Boyle stayed at Lismore for Christmas 1634, after which he returned to his Dublin house from late January 1635 to July 1636 . The apparent reduction to four regular musicians after the November 1634 payment thus coincides with this continued stay in Dublin. From July 1636 he spent his first period of prolonged residency at Lismore for eight years . It was during this period that the liveries specifying six musicians, possibly including two temporary appointments, were made in November 1636 and that `Jack the singing musician' was employed at Christmas 1636 . The wages paid to the musicians employed by Boyle remained at £5 annually (paid in two moieties) throughout the entire period under review. This falls broadly in the middle of the range of wages for other household servants at Lismore with whom the musicians' payments were often grouped 4 2 A groom was paid a total of £3 l Os per annum around 1630, Strongman Page (Lord Buttevant's servant) £5 in 1641, the park keeper £5 in 1620 (see note 45), later £6, while the head gardener (reflecting the considerable energy and cost expended by Boyle in creating a garden of the first rank) earned £6 13.,4d in 164143 The musicians' names regularly recur in the rent receipt lists twice a year, where they normally pay between 15 and 22s each `half year's rent for a mess,' indicating that they received meals in the house . Francis Jones's rent on 17 May 1640 specifies `for a house & garden .'44 That the musicians (and other servants) were not solely dependant on their wages is indicated by the 1627 gift, quoted above, to several musicians of cows received by Boyle as heriots and possibly by the fact that grazing rights were specified in 1620 in the payment of the park keeper who, as noted above, received approximately the same annual wage as the musicians .45 Sympathy was extend- ed to musicians (and to other regular servants) in times of illness, as when William Stacy in 1634 was paid his half-yearly wages two months early (see above) . Musicians and their wives also feature in various miscellaneous contexts in connection with the household: in 1635 Michael Skryne's wife Ann was paid for washing and for mending linen, and William Knowles was paid to accompany `Goodwife Burr e' to Youghal ; Francis Jones was one of the witnesses to a land lease signed in 1636 .4 Did Boyle bring his musicians with him when he spent lengthy periods living away from Lismore? The regular listing of the names of known musicians in both the half- yearly rent receipts and the wage payments at Lismore, whether or not Boyle was in residence, indicates that this was not the case. Furthermore, the fact noted above that the musicians rented houses and gardens on a regular basis, kept cattle, and were involved as servants in duties unconnected with music su -~ :ests that they were employed not so much as full-time musicians but as servants of the household who could provide music if and when the need arose. The relative paucity of accounts relating to the purchase and repair of instruments, strings, etc, further suggests that they may not have been called upon to play all that much . The occasions or contexts within which the musicians at Lismore would have played are not specified in the records . Apart from occasional references to visits of actors, of puppet players, and of `rope dancers', the only specific

7 occasions mentioned on which the musicians would have played are a masque in which Boyle's children took part in October 1620 (see above) and another masque at Christ- mas 1627 for which his fifteen-year-old eldest son Richard, Viscount Dungarvan, was paid £3 `to help . his Lordship with necessaries for his parse of the Maske.'47 Prior to a planned visit to Ireland by Dungarvan's English parents-in-law, Lord and Lady Clifford, Boyle wrote to Dungarvan on 21 July 1634 : '. . . I will promise my Lady [Clifford] fre- quent and good sermons, & musick in my owne Chappell ,48 Nor has any sheet music or other indication of what was played by the musicians come to light . There is a single undated sheet with the words of anew song' at the end of which is written in a different hand `To the tune let us goe to Virginia / Laddes and their wee shalbe merry.' This ballad contains references to the Count of Gondomar (Spanish ambassador to the court of James i), to parliament, and to the Duke of Buckingham : it would appear to relate to the events of March-April 1624 when Buckingham supported parliament in its refusal to support the Spanish match negotiated by King James between the Prince of Wales and the sister of Philip rv of Spain49 It has already been noted that two of Boyle's sons were taught to play the viol and to sing while at Eton ; the musicians' duties at Lis- more would very probably also have included teaching the lute, viol, or other instruments to the members of the family.50 The purchase of a chest of viols from England in 1619 has been noted, but further evidence as to what instruments Boyle's musicians played is limited to a payment in the accounts on 5 December 1626 `for stringes for the Vyalles and Lute bought by ffiancis Zones. v s.'51 In addition, a series of payments during 1626 and 1627 record the building of an organ in the chapel at Lismore House : on 6 November 1626 £22 was paid `to Lames Rose for the Wynde Instrument in the Chapple,' suggesting a small chamber-sized organ.52 This is the earliest evidence to date for an organ in a private household in Ire- land. Payments for materials and work in connection with what is variously referred to as the `wind instrument,' òrgan work,' and òrgans' were made to John Foxe, a joiner, on 18 November 1626 and subsequently to `the dutch joyner .'53 There are payments between 21-27 February 1630 of 3s 6d `for some repaire of the Wynd instruement' and on 20 June 1638 of 10s `for the mending of the Organs that are in the Chaple of Lismore house.54 The names of organists at Lismore in the 1630s are referred to in Boyle's diaries . On 20 December 1636 he mentions `my Organiste Thomas webb' being made a vicar choral of Lismore Cathedral . Three years later, on 4 June 1639, he wrote : Ì sent [my cousin dean] my presentacon for ffrances Baven to be presented to the vickaridge of colligan, fallen voide by the death of Thomas Vyning, my laste presenter, & organiste in my chapple.'55 It is not dear if a distinction should be made between the organist of the chapel of Lismore House and that of Lismore cathedral, which Boyle started to rebuild in 1633 . A college of five vicars choral had been founded at the cathedral in the thirteenth century, and it is known that there was a daily choral service in 1615 .56 The five vicars choral are mentioned in Boyle's papers on a number of occasions, sometimes by name, and they may also have sung in Lismore House, for example in the context of the 'musick in my owne Chappell' mentioned by Boyle in his letter to Dungarvan in 1634 (see above) . In his diary for 25 August 1626 Boyle first refers to an unspecified number of vicars choral in connection with the church at his model town of Tallagh [Tallow], Co Water- ford.57 On 6 December 1630 his chaplain William Snell `made request unto me to be made dean of Rascarbry [Rosscarbery, Co Cork], and parson of christchurch in Corke, he promised me to resign his chantership of Waterford, and his vickars chorals place in Lismoor, for Mr Stephen Jerrome.'58 We note, however, from Boyle's diaries that William Snell remained a vicar choral until December 1636 :

I paid Mr Win Snell . .. 20 li. ffor which he resigned his vicker chorals place in the cathedrall church of Lismoor for my Organiste Thomas webb, who is made a vicker chorall by the dean in his place. And webb is to repay me my 20 li. sterling.59

The number of vicars choral is specified in March 1638 in the context of `building the Cathedrall church and howses for the 5 vickars chorals of Lismoor .'60 A letter dated 25 May 1639 from Robert Naylor (Boyle's cousin . and dean of Lismore) to Boyle, who was then in England, mentions a'Mr Goodrich' who held a position as vicar choral . The same letter goes on to mention that:

We haue lately had a great mortality in ye Towne of Lismore, where wee haue buried 4 Vicars Chorall, Francis Jones his wife [ie, the wife of Francis Jones the musician?], .. . & many others, Gods heauy wrath is iustly fallen vpon them, it being growne one of ye most dissolute towns in Ireland, they haue all died of pestilentiall feuers . . . My greatest care hath been to supply our church with honest quiet Vicars Choralls ; among ye rest I haue bestowed one of ye places on Strongman Page (a man qualified for it because musicall) who deserues very well for his greate care he hath of his Little Lor+d.61

On 28 May 1640 Thomas Badnedge, also writing from Lismore to Boyle in England, mentions a Mr Owens, one of the vicars choral .G Musicians are mentioned on a number of occasions outside the context of Boyle's household . His payments in Dublin in 1606 to Lord Howth's musicians and in Cork in 1617 to the Lord President of Munster's musicians have already been noted . On 10 August 1617, also in Cork, 12d was given `to the Musitions boy at mr Clayton,' and again on 17 March 1623 2s 6d was paid out for `musicons at Sir Randall Clayton : 63 On 8 October 1618 5s was paid to `the Musitions at Bandon .64 While in London Boyle on several occasions made payments to the king's musicians either as regular New Year's gifts or on the occasion of an audience with the king- on 19 May 1628, two days after having been presented `to his Majesty, whose royal hands I had the honour to kiss, accompanied with gracious language full of comfort' Boyle records in his diary that he `gave the Kings Trumpetters 2 peeces . . . and to other Trvmpetters xs : New Year's payments are mentioned on 3 January 1629 (`I gave . . . to the kings trumpetters xxs, to his drums x s .. . and to the Lords trumpetters vs') and on 4 January 1640 ('to his [Majesties] droms a peec') .65 In Dublin a similar pattern is repeated in regard to the

9 Lord Deputy's musicians and the city musicians: on 5 June 1632 Boyle noted : `This day the LordChancellor, the[] arl of kildare [Boyle's son in law], and my selfe were royally feasted by the Maior of dublin in their Courthouse with a plentefull bancquet, and then all 3 made freemen, and I gaue the Cytty mvsicons xx s sterling.'66 New Year's gifts to musicians in Dublin are noted on 1 January 1634 (I gaue for Newyears guiftes . . . to my Lo deputies Trumpeters : The Cyttie Musicons: The porters of the severall Portes [gates] of the Cyttie, & others several rewardes') and on 1 January 1636 (I gave . . . To the Trumpetters and droms of the Lo deputie xx s .').67 After the death of Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork, in 1643 and the return to more peaceful times following the turmoil of the 1641 Rebellion and the Cromwellian period, the picture that is suggested by the incomplete Lismore accounts, which survive from September 1662 to April 1664 and then from March 1677, is of a sharp decline in musical interest amongst Richard Boyle's surrecsors . Although they are broadly similar in general content and detail to earlier account books, the only regular musician repeated- ly mentioned is `Lord Cliffords trumpiter,' who received a quarterly salary of £1 1Os (or a half-year's salary of £3) on several occasions between December 1679 and April 1681 .68 Otherwise there are only isolated payments to pipers and drummers . While the position of music in leading Anglo-Irish families in the later 17th century is as yet unclear, this decline in musical activities at Lismore is in line with indications from other sources . For example, the extensive and detailed inventories of the various houses belonging to the Dukes of Ormonde list no musical instruments in the later 17th century, while a list of the servants of the Earl of Ossory (eldest son of the Duke of Ormonde), dated 29 September 1680, includes no musicians, although elsewhere trumpeters are mentioned.69 The picture concerning musical activity in Anglo-Irish society in the early seventeenth century which emerges from this study of the musical patronage of Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork, confirms that during the first half of the century a relatively stable society existed, in which leading families could employ regular musicians . Nevertheless the large number of musicians employed by Boyle may be unusual, reflecting his exceptional wealth and influence.70 With the culture and economy of Anglo-Irish families and of the major urban centres focussed on England, it must be assumed, in the absence of more concrete evidence, that the music played by these musicians would largely have reflected practices in England . In this respect the Lord Deputy's court at Dublin Castle would have exerted a significant influence as a centre for the introduction of English cultural fashions. In particular Sir Thomas Wentworth (later earl of Strafford), who was Lord Deputy between 1633 and 1641, sought to make Dublin into a leading cultural centre modelled on London . However, Anglo-Irsh musical life must surely have been to some extent influenced by native Irish music, in particular by the music of the Irish harpers : Richard Boyle's dealings with harpers and his owning an Irish harp indicate that he was open to local cultural influences . Boyle's death in 1643 coincided with a period of profound change in Irish society. The Cromwellian period in mid-century appears to have marked a watershed, not only, as is generally accepted, in Anglo-Irish relations and in the patterns of land ownership and society, but also in the patterns of musical patronage .

10' Postscript

I am grateful to the librarian and staff of the National Library of Ireland and to Peter Day and David Pearlman, librarians at Chatsworth House, for their assistance and for permission to publish material in their care ; in particular I wish to thank Alan J . Fletcher of University College Dublin, who has independently researched the Boyle material for his forthcoming REED volumes on Ireland; he has most generously made his transcriptions available to me and has verified my readings of other sources . The full texts of his transcriptions of the Boyle material will be published in his REED Volumes.

NOTES

1 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 2, item 20, f 31v (13 July 1606) . Dates have been adjust- ed to conform to modern practice (the new year falling on 1 January, not 25 March) . 2 Henry Berry, `The Merchant Tailors' Gild - That of St John the Baptist, Dublin, 1418- 18 41,'journal ofthe Royal Society ofAntiquaries oflrelana 48 (1918), 25. Berry notes the dates as 1608-9 and 1609-10 respectively: the dates given here are derived from the Mason transcripts of the lost guild originals (British Library, Ms Egerton 1765 . I am grateful to Alan J . Fletcher for this information) . 3 Barra Boydell, `Dublin City Musicians in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, to 1660,' Dublin Historical Record, 34 (1981), 46 . 4 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 8, item 55 . 5 Nicholas Canny, The Upstart Earl (Cambridge, 1982), 4-7. 6 Lynn Hulse, `The Musical Patronage of Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury (1563- 1612),' Journal ofthe Royal Musical Association, 116 (1991), 25-6. 7 Alexander B . Grosart (ed), The Lismore Papers: Series 1 (5 Vols: Autobiographical notes, Remembrances, and Diaries) ; Series 2 (5 Vols: Correspondence), (Private publication, 1886-8). See also Dorothea Townsend, The Life and Letters ofthe Great Earl of Cork (London, 1904) . 8 National Library of Ireland, Dublin (hereafter: Dn), mss 6243, 6895-6900 . These mss are largely unfoliated, notional foliation being indicated here by square brackets . 9 Michael McCarthy Morrogh, `The English Presence in Early Seventeenth Century Mun- ster,' Natives and Newcomers, (ed) Ciaran Brady and Raymond Gillespie (Dublin, 1986), 189-90. 10 Canny, ch 4. 11 Letter from Robert Carew to Boyle, Nov 1635 . Grosart, 2nd Series, iii, 225, 243 . 12 6 Dec 1635 . Grosart, 2nd Series, iii, 228 . 13 Grosart, 2nd Series, iii, 282; iv, 98, 100, 103, 113, 161, 170, 201, 232 . 14 McCarthy Murrogh, 185-6 ; Canny, 72. 15 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 1, Item 136, Vol 1, item 160, f 326 . The 1606 entry appears to refer to one musician . However the writing is ambiguous and 6s suggests that there was more than one musician . 16 Dn ms 6895, p 4.

11 17 The council book of the corporation of Youghal indicates that the post of town drummer existed, certainly from 1610, but there are no other references to musicians paid or engaged by the council. However, in August 1615 Edmond Butler `late of King's Lynn, county of Norfolk' was apprenticed for seven years to `Michael Skryne, Musician,' indicating that the town was large enough to support a professional musician amongst its number. See Richard Caulfield (ed), The Council Book ofthe Corporation ofYoughah from 1610 to 1659, from 1666to 1687, andfrom 1690 to 1800 (Guildford, 1878), 9 et al; 203. Michael Skryne was one of Richard Boyle's musicians from 1627 (or earlier) until 1641, when the names of the musicians are last mentioned (see below) . 18 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 25, p 131 (Grosart, 1st Series, i, 119). 19 Grosart, 1st Series, i, 20 (3 March 1614), 36 (20 Jan 1614), 65 (22 Feb 1615), 100 (25 Feb 1616), 119 (20 & 22 July 1616), 120 (30 July 1616), 124 (26 August 1616) ; ii, 321 . Peter Holman ('The Harp in Stuart England,' Early Music, 15 (1987), 195) suggested that the harper Donal 0 Cahill may be identified with one Daniel Cahill listed in the account books of the household of Henrietta Maria, Charles i's queen, in 1629/30 and 1634/5 . The fact that Boyle still knew 0 Cahill in 1629 in England as a harper lends support to this identification . 20 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers vol 25, p 279 (Grosart, 1st Series, ii, 20) 'Ned Skott' is again mentioned in 1639 as `my tenant' at a time when Boyle was resident in England . It is unclear whether or not this is the same person (Diary, 30 May; see Grosart, 1st Series, v, 93) . Two brothers of the same surname, John and Henry Scott from Westmeath, are recorded as harper-composers at this same period . See Grainne Yeats, The Harp ofIre- land (Belfast, 1992), 40 . 21 See inter alia Joan Rimmer, The Irish Harp (3rd edn, Cork, 1984), 47f; Sean Donnelly, `An Irish Harper and composer: Cormac MacDermott (?-1618), Ceoh 8 (1986), 40-50 ; Holman (as n 19), 200 ; Michael Billinge and Bonnie Shaljean, `The Dalway or Fitzger- ald Harp (1621),' Early Music, 15 (1987), 175 -187 (p 183) ; Hulse (as n 6) . The signi- ficance of Michael Praetorius's reference to the Irish harp in Germany may be overrated : the Irish harp which he illustrated and described (Syntagma Musicum H. De Organographia (2nd edn, Wolfenbuttel, 1619 ; repr Kassel, 1976), 54, pl xviii) is very possibly the instrument listed in an inventory of the nearby Kassel court in 1638 (See Ernst Zulauf, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Landgrdflich-Hasische Hofkapelle zu Ka sel (Cassel, 1902), 133) . Queen Elizabeth i was godmother to the daughter of Landgraf Moritz of Kassel, to whom this Irish harp could have been given as a gift ; as such it may have been a rare, even isolated occurrence of the instrument in Germany. 22 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers vol 25, p 242 (Grosart, 1st Series, i, 241). The `raising' of a harp referred to the gradual bringing up to tension of the strings . See Sean Donnel- ly, `The Irish Harp in England 1590-1690,' Ceoh 7 (1984), 57. 23 Grattan Flood, History oflrish Music (3rd edn, Dublin, 1913 ; repr 1970),190; Canny, 46-8 . 24 Grosart, 1st Series, iii, 162. Boyle also refers to the same gifts in a letter from Dublin to Captain Price dated 14 October 1632 . See Calendar of State Papers Relating to Ireland - Charles 1(1625-1632), (London, 1900), 674 . This practice of giving an Irish harp as a gift was not apparently exceptional : Hulse records a similar gift by Eleanor, countess of Desmond, to Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, in 1597 (Hulse, 33) .

12 25 Grosart, 1st Series, v 61. 26 Canny, 66f. 27 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers vol 25, p 167 (Grosart, 1st Series i, 157). Minehead [`Mynny- ott'] in Somerset was the port normally used for ships sailing between Youghal and Eng- land. A number of people named [Mr] Brian are mentioned in the diaries at this time of whom Randall Brian, apparently a merchant or shipper (cf Grosart, 1st Series, ii, 5), would appear to be the most likely candidate . 28 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers vol 25, p 258 (Grosart, 1st Series, i, 262) . A later reference to a masque at Lismore occurs in the accounts for 24 December 1627 (see below) . 29 Dn ms 6897, ff [12v], [43], [21v], [137]. 30 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers vol 26, p 96 (Grosart, 1st Series, iii, 211) . Heriot: '.. . a render of the best live beast or dead chattel of a deceased tenant due by legal custom to the lord of whom he held' (ori) . 31 Dn ms 6897, ff [1711, [79] . 32 Grosart, 1st Series, iii, 123. 33 Grosart, 1st Series, iv, 214. 34 Five musicians were paid on 2 May 1629, John Miles on 29 May . Dn ms 6897, ff [171], [175] . 35 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers vol 26, p 220 (Grosart, 1st Series, iii, 41) . 36 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers vol 26, p 311 (Grosart, 1st Series, iii, 164) . 37 Dn ms 6899, f [24v] . 38 Grosart, 1st Series, iv, 214. Note the discrepancy between the payment as listed in the accounts and in the diary. 39 Dn ms 6898, f [188v]. 40 Dn ms 6899, ff [25v], [29v], [45v] . 41 Dn ms 6900, f [18] . 42 For example Dn ms 6899, f [25v], 5 Dec 1636: `Paid to Ferdnando Hayworth [personal servant?], to 4 Musitions, to John ffoster [a groom], and to Thorpe the Brewer for their seueral Wages due at Mich[aelm]as 1636 xvjh . xs:. `Four or five pounds a year' was suggested by one contemporary English writer as being a normal wage for musicians . See Hulse, 28. 43 See, for example, Dn ms 6897, ff [208], [236] (groom, 12 Dec 1629 ; 16 May 1630, both payments listed together with musicians) ; Ms 6243, f [137], ms 6900, f [13v] (Strongman Page, 13 March, 24 Nov 1641 . Strongman Page was recommended as a vicar choral at Lismore in 1639. See below, n 61) ; Ms 6977, f [234], ms 6243, f [112v] (keeper, 3 May 1630, 22 Oct 1640) ; Ms 6243, ff [145v], [161] (gardener, 26 April, 30 July 1641) . However, a new coachman was engaged on 11 July 1637 at an annual wage of £8 (Grosart, 1st Series, v, 20). 44 Dn ms 6243, f [78] . 45 `North [the new park keeper] . .. is to have vh a year, the grazing of 4 cowes and 2 horses in my park .. .,' Diary, 5 Jan 1620 (Grosart, 1st Series, i, 238). 46 Assuming these to be the musicians of the same names . Dn ms 6898, ff [223v], [240], [235v] (2 March, 2 June, 4 May 1635); Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 18, item 143 . 47 Dn ms 6897, f [801 (18 Nov 1627) ; Ms 6898, f [248v] (16 July 1635) ; Ms 6899, f [108]

(30 March 1638) ; Ms 6897, f [86v] (24 Dec 1627). One can only assume that any masque at Lismore would have been a relatively modest affair so far from court . David Price has commented in this context that `there was not only a considerable appetite among courtiers for the music and poetry of entertainments but . . . this delight was transmitted to various country households and often imitated there as soon as conveni- ently possible' ('Gilbert Talbot, Seventh Earl of Shrewsbury: An Elizabethan Courtier and His Music,' Music and Letters, 57 (1976), 146-7). It is likely that at least some of the music peformed in masques at Lismore would have been composed or arranged by Boyle's musicians. 48 Chatsworth, Boyle Letter Book ii, f 40 . 49 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 14, item 323 . The ballad has nine stanzas beginning 'Heigho Ile tell you newes / the pope is Sacke adandie / His head is shorne his arse is torne / Oh thats as good as Can be' and a refrain `With a heigh downe derry / heigh downe derry / Gondomar is an asse in graine / And therefore She be mer y. I am grateful to Dr Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth College for identifying the context of this ballad . 50 See Hulse, 31, in relation to the Earl of Salisbury's musicians' teaching duties . 51 Dn ms 6897, f [171 . 52 Dn ms 6897, f [12v] . The Earl of Salisbury paid £24 for a `portative wind instrument' bought from the English organ maker Thomas Dallam in 1608 . See Hulse, 31 . 53 Dn ms 6897, ff [13v] (18 Nov 1626), [15] (23 Nov 1626) ; [16] (2 Dec 1626), [17] (9 Dec 1626), [18] (16 Dec 1626), [19] (23 Dec 1626) ; [35] 20 March 1627 . The 'dutch joyner' appears in subsequent payments, but not specifying the organ : ibid, ff [46] (22 May 1627), [95v] (29 Feb 1628) . While this may reflect the fashion for Dutch artists and craftsmen in the early seventeenth century, it does not necessarily follow that the organ itself was Dutch (or northern European) . 54 Dn ms 6897, f [219v] (21-7 February 1630); Ms 6899, f [124v] . 55 Grosart, 1st Series, iv, 216; v, 94 . 56 The Very Rev Gilbert Hayes, Dean of Lismore, Saint Carthage's Cathedral Lismore: some historical notes (typed leaflet, Lismore, 1967) . 57 Grosart, 1st Series, ii, 195. 58 Grosart, 1st Series, iii, 65. 59 Grosart, 1st Series, iv, 216. 60 Grosart, 1st Series, v, 41-2; see also ibid, 46 (9 April 1638) . 61 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 20, item 36 . Strongman Page was Lord Buttevant's servant in 1641 . See above, n 43 . 62 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 21, item 17. 63 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 8, item 107; cf Grosart, 2nd Series, ii, 98 (15 August 1617); Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 14, item 1 . Sir Randal Clayton [Cleyton], an English planter like Boyle, was clerk of the council of Munster . He and his wife acted as fosterparents to several of Boyle's daughters . See Canny, 100-1, 188 . 64 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 9, item 80 . About 20 miles southwest of Cork, Bandon was one of Boyle's `model towns' built after the English manner . 65 Grosart, 1st Series, ii, 264, ii, 294; v, 120. 66 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers Vol 26, p 296 .

14 67 Chatsworth, Lismore Papers, Vol 27, pp 1, 119. 68 Dn ms 6902, ff [85] (1 Dec 1679), [95] 25 March 1680, [118] 30 Aug 1680, [152] 21 April 1681 . 69 Trumpeters: Dn MS 11047, item 75 (1680) ; MS 11047, items 28, 39 (1678) . Ormonde inventories of the later 17th century comprise the following : Dn MSS 2521-2, 2525, 2527-9, 2553 (also includes 18th century), 2554-5. 70 Alan J. Fletcher's forthcoming volumes on Ireland in the series Records ofEarly English Drama documenting all known references not only to theatre but also to musicians in Ireland up to 1642 should throw more light on this subject.

ALEXANDRA F. JOHNSTON

`Amys and Amylon' at Bicester Priory

As part of my research for the Oxfordshire collection, I was given access to five rolls from Bicester Priory that are preserved in Trinity College, Oxford .' Bicester was a small market town near the Buckinghamshire border on one of the main roads leading north- west from London towards such Midland towns as Coventry and Leicester . The August- inian Priory was founded there between 1182 and 1185, and by 1294 it had fallen under the patronage of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln .2 The Trinity rolls are additional to a substantial number of account rolls that have been preserved in the Public Record Office . Although my search of the pRo rolls remains to be done, they have been published in a translated and sometimes summary form by J .C. Blomfield in The History ofBicester, its Town and Priory3 This is the source of Ian Lancashire's information about Bicester in his Dramatic Texts and Records ofBritain.4 The roll for 1423-4 contains a surprising entry . On Sunday, 3 September, 1424, players from the town of Bicester performed 'Amys and Amylon' for Prior Richard Par- entyn. The record tells us: ` . ..Et in data lusoribus de Burcestrie de Amys & Amylon . iijo die Septembris .vj.s.viij.d. . . .'S That a performance was being mounted for a monastic house is not at all unusual .6 Prior Parentyn, like the later Prior More of Worcester,J is playing a familiar role as a patron of local and itinerant players . Two things, however, are unusual about this entry. The first is that this reference is one of the very few to a named `miracle play' in England; the second is that the payment is so substantial . The story of Amys and Amylon is a familiar one of blood brothers, incurable disease, and the sacrifice of the children of one friend to save the life of the other . Versions of the story in many forms are found `in every European literature from Norse to Hungarian .'8 There are four surviving manuscripts of the Middle English romance version of the tale believed to be east Midland in origin and to date from the end of the thirteenth century.9 The four versions seem to be independently derived from a lost Anglo-Norman original. No play on this subject survives in English, but a dramatic version forms part of the fourteenth-century French Les Miracles de Nostre Dame par Personnages. 10 The collection of plays dramatizing the miracles of the Virgin grew from an annual event in Paris

15 that spanned the years 1339-82. Graham Runnalls has proposed that the manuscript, as it has come down to us, was compiled as a presentation copy from the Goldsmiths of Paris to Charles vi of France and his bride Isabeau de Baviere on the occasion of her arrival in Paris in 1389 . 11 The English romance is remarkable for its restraint . After Amylon has been cured with the blood of Amys' children, the friends and Amys' wife go to bury the bodies of the children:

As 3e mow listun and lyth Into a chamber pey went swyp. Per pe children lay; With-out wemme and wound Hool and sound pe children found, And layen to-geder and play. (2416-51)

There is no dramatic divine intervention. The miracle is allowed to stand on its own . In contrast, the whole point of the French dramatic treatment of the story is to emphasize the role of the Virgin in the miracle . The hosts of heaven, including the Virgin, Christ, Gabriel and Michael, appear. Christ urges his mother to touch the children and restore them to life. The Virgin must then descend to earth to address the bodies of the children :

Enfans, en la Jhesu puissance, Qui est et mon filz et mon pere, En vous plaie nulle n'appere ; Mais soiez vifs et en bon point, Con se de mort n'eussiez point Onques eu . (1790-5)

The romance takes place in the quotidian world of houses and staircases and children in beds. The play represents the intersection of heaven and earth in a manner familiar from the Biblical drama of the period. Prior Parentyn's payment to the players of Bicester for Amys and Amylon' argues for a play performance rather than a recitation of the romance with musical accompaniment . It also argues for a production with greater stage effects than would have been required to stage a dramatized version of the English romance . This can be deduced from all the evidence of the accounts . When the evidence from the Trinity rolls is put together with the evidence from the rRo as printed by Blomfield, we have fifty-two separate payments to entertainers in four- teen separate years from 1296 to 1481 . Of these, twenty-seven are payments to local or itinerant minstrels travelling under the patronage of such national figures as Richard ii, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, young John of Lancaster, Lord Talbot, Lord Strange, Lord Lovell and, in the 1346 account, the earl of Northampton . Seven (and this figure may be higher when I have had a chance to examine the rolls in the mRo) are payments to clerks for St Nicholas celebrations. Three are for other feast days . Six are for players

16 - all but one specified for the Christmas season; four record payments to harpers; two, payments to organ players; and one payment, in 1452, to the earl of Warwicl's bearward . The 6s 8d paid in 1424 for Amys and Amylon' is quite an extraordinary sum . In the 1420s the next highest payments are to Humphrey of Gloucester's minstrels - 3s in 1423-4 and 3s 4d in 1429-30 . These are twice and three times the payment for itinerant minstrels . In the entire run of accounts, the only amount that surpasses the `Amys and Amylon' payment is 13s 10 1/2d for a `magnus ludus' performed one year at the end of the fourteenth century in late June or early July. The roll that records this `great play has lost its heading, and Blomfield can come no closer to a year date than the reign of Richard ii, 1377-99 . Unless further examination of that roll in the Pno yields more information about the dating, we can do little but speculate. However, Richard Parentyn was prior from 1397 to his death in 1434 . The rolls survive from five of his years, just over one-third of the number of years that provide evidence of entertainments . Yet twenty-eight of the fifty- two references are from those years . It seems to have been Parentyn himself who particularly encouraged entertainers and patronized local productions . Richard u's minstrels visited Bicester priory twice in his first year as prior . It is possible that the 'magnus ludus' was commissioned by Parentyn in the last year of Richard's reign . It is also possible that news of or even a copy of the French play of `Amys and Amylon' had found its way through the royal minstrels from the court of Charles vi to the court of Richard and his child-queen Isabella, daughter of Charles and Isabeau . The `great play' could have been a version of the French miracle play complete with the panoply of heaven . The entry for 1424 may be a record of a revival of the play a generation later . It is also possible, of course, that what we have are recorded payments for two entirely different plays . The text of Amys and Amylon', however, could have found its way from France in the early fifteenth century in the baggage of the minstrels of one of Henry v's magnates such as Humphrey of Gloucester himself . These suggestions are, of course, mere speculation. Nevertheless, the transmission of the play from France could have happened in this way . The interpenetration of English and French societies during the hundred years war was quite remarkable - from the long presence in the English court of Charles d'Orl6ans to the conscious attempt by the English to colonize Normandy after Agincourt. 12 Embassies were constantly crossing the Channel l3 as were the English captains such as those whose minstrels found Paren- tyn's hospitality so rewarding in the 1420s . If, however, this reconstruction of how a French play portraying one of the miracles of the Virgin found its way to a small English market town and its priory has any validity, it also demonstrates the way religious drama cut across social boundaries . The Miracles began as performances by the Goldsmiths of Paris . The collected text was presented to the king. However the transmission took place, a play matching one of the plays in the collection was performed in England by townsfolk for the prior of a minor religious house . Whatever differences in taste might have existed in secular literature, religious literature was common to all levels of society.

17 NOTES

1 The rolls have no shelf marks. They are for the years 1396-7,1397-8,1423-4,1429-30, and 1481-2. 2 See William Page (ed), The Victoria History ofthe County of Oxford (London, 1907), 2 . 93-5 and 4 . 16-17. 3 J.C. Blomfield, TheHistory ofBicester, Its Town and Priory (Bicester, 1884) . 4 Ian Lancashire, Dramatic Texts and Records ofBritain (Toronto, 1984), 84-5 . 5 Trinity College, Oxford, no designation, dorse m2-ml . 6 The records of the monastic houses are relatively sparse . My recent research has led me to transcribe items from the rough paper account book of Maxstoke Priory in Warwick- shire (Ms Trin. Coll. C. 84 in the Bodleian Library) . I have also gone through many of the rolls in the Public Record Office of a number of houses during their last years that have survived because they were taken into the Court of Augmentation as evidence of the material wealth of the properties that were passing to the crown (See class sc/6) . In the case of almost every male house, when the `household' accounts of the abbot or prior have survived, we have evidence of the visits of local or itinerant entertainers . 7 See David IClausner (ed), Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Records of Early English Drama (Toronto, 1990), 459-530 . 8 W.R.J. Barron, English Medieval Romance (London, 1987), 200 . 9 MacEdward Leach (ed), Amis andAmiloun, Early English Text Society, os 203 (Oxford, 1937 for 1935) . 10 Gaston Paris and Ulysse Robert (eds), Miracles de Nostre Dame par Personnages vol 4, Societss des Anciens Textes Francais (Paris, 1879) . 11 Graham Runnalls, `The Manuscript of the Miracles de Nostre Dame par Personnages,' Romance Philology 22 (1968-9), 19. 12 See CT Allmand, Lancastrian Normandy (Oxford, 1983) . 13 See 'Les Ambassades Anglaises pendant La Guerre de Cent Ans,' Bibliotheque de lEeole des Chartes, 59 (1898) and 60 (1899) .

News from the REED Office

FROM THE DIRECTOR, A.F. JOHNSTON

In the last Newsletter, I promised news of our status within the structures of the Univer- sity of Toronto. I am delighted to be able to report two significant changes in our institutional support. For a series of complex historical reasons, when REED was being conceived in 1974-5, the English Department of the University of Toronto was not in a position to sponsor the project. As a result, the Centre for Medieval Studies become our formal sponsor within the University. This arrangement remained perfectly satisfactory until the last

18 few years when changes in the administration of the University put more and more emphasis on the channelling of priorities from departments to faculties and so to the senior administration . The Centre for Medieval Studies as a Graduate Centre does not have departmental status and exists as an 'Extra-Departmental Unit' within the School of Graduate Studies, itself an administrative unit with little budgetary authority . REED found itself being classed as an `Extra Departmental Unit of an Extra-Departmental Unit'! The institutional branch on which we were perched was getting more and more shaky. More important, we had no advocate within the powerful budgetary unit, the Faculty of Arts and Science . Last summer, I opened discussions with the present chairman of the Department of English, Professor T.H. Adamowski, with a view to having the sponsorship of REED transferred from the Centre to the department . Professor Adamowski has responded strongly and positively, and we are now firmly under the department's wing . Not only has he become our advocate with the Dean and the central administration, he has been able to provide us with two graduate student assistants this year and the `state of the art' equipment that we have needed to move forward with the multi-media project that Sally-Beth MacLean reported on in the last issue . Meanwhile, Professor Jill Webster, Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies, has expressed her happiness at this resolu- tion of the issue and promised to continue to lend what support the Centre can provide, particularly with graduate assistants, to the project . Our second institutional move has been at Victoria College where I hold my appointment and where we have been housed since the beginning of the project. We proposed to Victoria this year that it establish a Centre for Research in Early Theatre . REED would be the major component of such a centre, but it has the potential of including many of the related activities that have grown up around REED such as the association with ris, the sponsorship of the SITM conference in 1995, the building up of our already unique research collection, and the continued encouragement of research across national lines with colleagues in other language departments here and elsewhere . In return for status as a Centre (which brings with it a budget line and the potential for something, however modest, in that line), we have offered to share our editorial, typesetting, and computer expertise with the Victoria community. This proposal is now in the last stages of approval within the structures of Victoria . The letters from many of our supporters have been a key factor in establishing these firmer institutional links. Prophets are always without honour, and most Canadians have a deep-seated conviction that nothing good can come from Canada . Your support for the project set it in its proper scholarly context . On the funding front we also have good news . The National Endowment for the Humanities increased its grant to REED for the next two years. We are very grateful to Alan Nelson for all the work he did for that application . The Social Sciences and Human- ities Research Council of Canada has also provided personal grants to Sally-Beth and myself and Anne Lancashire. Most of these grants will be subcontracted to REED for work on our collections. Whereas we were $50,000 short on the 1993-4 budget at the beginning of this fiscal year, we have met the 1993-4 budget and have in hand the bud-

19 get for 1994-5 and more than two-thirds of the budget for 1995-6 . The grants we have just received will allow us time to seek the necessary balance for 1995-6 and continue our quest for more stable financing. The challenge for funding will always be before us, but, thanks to the efforts of many people, we have passed through a serious crisis intact .

Of Note

Dennis G. Jerz, a PhD candidate in the Department of English at the University of Toronto, has developed PSim (Pageant Simulator), a computer graphics study of wagon motion in the York Corpus Christi pageants. PSim, a teaching aid and research tool for DOS IBM-compatible computers with vGA or better graphics, models the motion of pageant wagons during a simulated production of the York Corpus Christi Cycle . Dots representing individual wagon-mounted plays move from station to station on a colour map of the city of York, while the computer displays either elapsed time or the time of day. The user can modify such data as the number of plays participating in the cycle, the number and location of stations, the performance length of each individual play, and the travel times between stations . The scholarly debate over how the plays were performed has settled down in favor of what had been the traditional view - that each short play, mounted on an individual stage-wagon, was pulled along a pre-determined route, stopping to perform for audiences at `stations' along the route. PSim confirms Margaret Rogerson's time-table defense 1 of this traditional view. Martial Rose 2 and Alan Nelson3 used time-tables to argue that a whole cycle required an unreasonable amount of time . Margaret Rogerson fine-tuned the organizational system for moving the wagons from station to station and produced the time-table study that has long stood as the last word on what the performance would have looked like. Other details which the scholarly debate didn't quite resolve, but that are important to our understanding of what the cycle was like, include the effect of the varying numbers of performance stations along the route and plays participating each year . Account- ing for the many possible combinations of variables - which has never been done before - is the perfect job for a computer program . The math is actually quite simple, as Alan Nelson reported in his original computer-aided time study . Those who have PSim have been impressed by how easily it conveys the processional concept, reasserting the peda- gogical truth to the diche, 'a picture is worth a thousand words .' The program offers options for 8, 10, 12, 14, or 16 stations, based on Meg Twycross's 4 study of station rentals ; options for Rogerson's 1972 time estimates of the actual performance times from REED's videotapes of the 1977 Toronto production of the full York cycle; and options for a full performance of the 48 plays in the register text, or a short- ened 32-play versions which might have been planned for 1535 . REED has expressed interest in marketing the program if interest from the academic community justifies doing so. A more user-friendly version for Windows is currently

20 under development. Please send comments, suggestions, or questions to the REED office or e-mail to 'djerzd)epasu.utoronto.ca.'

NOTES

1 Margaret Dorrell (Rogerson), `Two Studies of the York Corpus Christi Play,' LeedsSE, ns 6 (1972), 62-111 . Seen 5. 2 Martial Rose, The Wakefield Mystery Plays (London, 1961) . 3 Alan Nelson, `Principles of Processional Staging. York Cycle,' Mr, 67 (1970), 303-20 ; see also Alan Nelson, The Medieval English Stage (Chicago, 1974) . 4 Meg Twycross, `"Places to Hear the Play" : Pageant Stations at York, 1398-1572,' REEDN,, 3.2 (1978), 10-33 . 5 Margaret Rogerson, A Table of Contents for the York Corpus Christi Play,' Words and Wordsmiths: A Volume for H.L. Rogers, ed G. Barnes et al (Sydney, 1989) . See n 1.

Susan Fast (Music), Kathy Garay and Bernice Kaczynski (History), Madeleine Jeay (French), Laurel Means, Anne Savage, and Mary Silcox (English) from McMaster Uni- versity, with Nicholas Watson (English), University of Western Ontario have completed two instructional videos : Devotional Literature ofthe Middle Ages and The History ofthe Book, both based on medieval manuscripts and early printed books in the Mills Memo- rial Library, McMaster University. The videos are part of a larger project developing multi- media technology, which also includes computer software and CD-ROM, for Medieval and early Renaissance studies. The video Devotional Literature features three unique and intriguing manuscripts from fourteenth and fifteenth-century Europe : a French Book of Hours, a Dutch Leg- endary, and an Italian devotional work. Specialists in the literature and history of the later medieval period guide the viewer through a sort of archeology of the books, sharing their insights into the context and structure of the texts and into the period in which they were produced. The vHs colour video, 42 minutes in length, is available from Tides, McMaster Uni- versity Bookstore, Box 1022, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 1CO (fax 905-572-7160 or e-mail to [email protected]) . The price is $99 plus tax and postage for institutions ; $49 plus tax and postage for students .

Many scholars and linguists will be aware that the Oxford University Press is planning a comprehensive revision of the Oxford English Dictionary The Chief Editor of the oED is hoping to enlist the expertise of the literary and academic community to help in this task. The proposed Revision will build on the work done for the Second Edition of the OED, published in 1989. The main achievement of this edition lay in the complete com- puterization of the text of the original oED and its four-volume Supplement, which was then integrated into a single database of information about the the history of the English

21 language . Some revisions were made to this text - for instance, pronunciations were converted to the International Phonetic Alphabet - and a substantial number of new words were added. But as was made dear in the preliminary matter to the Second Edi- tion, the greater part of the text is still substantially that which was published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Sir James Murray and his successors . In the words of the Introduction to the Second Edition, `the full revision and updating of the Dictionary . . . must be regarded as a long-term goal, demanding considerable resources, and therefore to be approached in stages .' The first of these stages is the collecting together of the vast quantity of historical and linguistic information which has come to light since the publication of the first edition of the oED. The early ectors drew on a substantial body of learning in compiling the text, but in the light of current knowledge many of their etymologies, definitions, register labels, and first usage dates can be improved upon . Much work has since been done which has added to our understanding of how the Englsh language has developed across the centuries, and numerous antedatings and more modem examples of usage have become available. A great deal of this information has accumulated in the files of the Oxford University Press's Dictionary department since the beginning of this century, much of it contributed by scholars working with historical texts ; further evidence has been or will be uncovered by the oED's researchers working in libraries across the world . However, the very magnitude of the task of reviewing the oED inevitably means that not all this information can be tracked down by the Dictionary's researchers without the help of the scholars who generated it. Many writers and academics, in the course of their work, have come across and remarked upon earlier examples of usage than those recorded by the oED, senses not represented at all, and new etymological and bibliograph- ical information. These findings are often published in footnotes to books and articles, or as appendices, but in the ever-growing body of scholarly literature on texts and textual criticism many of these notes have inevitably failed to find their way into the store of information collected over the years by past and present editors of the Dictionary . The best means of ensuring that such discoveries are taken into account during the proposed revision is for scholars themselves to draw attention to their own work . The Chief Editor is therefore hoping that anyone working on a literary, social, or other historical text who has found a discrepancy between the material with which they are working and an entry in the oEDwill send their comments to the offices of the Dictionary . In particular he would like to hear of any textual material that is likely to modify the dating and status of words and meanings listed in the second edition of the Dictionary . He would also be grateful to receive references to any work in which information has been published which may have a bearing on the proposed revision of the oED text. All contributors will be thanked individually, and a file of the names of correspondents who have made substantial contributions will be maintained for acknowledgement in the final publication. Suggestions, comments, and details of publications should be sent to : The Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP (Fax 0865-267810; country code 44-865 or e-mail to oed3@oup .co.uk).

22 Chadwyck Healey announces the upcoming release of a new resource, English Verse Dram4 an electronic full-text database containing more than 1500 works by over 400 authors . Approximately 230 anonymous works are also included . English Verse Drama, available on both cD-ROM and magnetic tape, offers access to an unequalled collection . The database allows a researcher to look for any scene, speech, word or stage instruction . The software supplied with the CD-ROM edition enables users to search, browse and read . The entire text is double-keyed and sGr ti.-coded. For additional information on English Verse Drama Full-Text Database, please contact Paula Nourse-Ragland, Chadwyck-Healey Inc, 1101 King Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314-2944 . Fax: (703) 683-7589 .

This year's McMaster University English Association Conference, `Expanding the Canon : New Dimensions in English Renaissance Studies', will be held on November 18, 1994 . Scholars are invited to submit papers which rediscover and explore neglected areas of English writings, 1560-1625, such as lesser known dramatic, poetic, and prose works, travel literature, emblem books, women's writing, masques, and popular culture . Plenary speaker. Jean Howard (Columbia) . Respondent: Paul Stevens (Queen's) . Send completed 10-page/20-minute papers by OCTOBER 3, 1994, to Dr Helen Ostovich, Dept of English, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L9 .

CORRIGENDA TO VOLUME 18, NUMBER 1 (1993)

Please note an error in the matching of text and footnote numbers in John Ward's article . To restore order, insert note 50 on page 9 in line 5 after' 1670s' . All succeeding numbers must then be raised by one, so that note 50 on line 8 becomes note 51, etc .

Subscriptions to the REED Newsletter are invited. The cost per year of two issues is $10 .00 for Canadian subscribers and $10 .00 in U.S. funds for American subscribers . Cheques should be made payable to Records of Early English Drama, and mailed to 150 Charles St. W., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1K9, Canada . The cost per year for British and European :subscribers is £5 .50. Cheques should be made payable to University of Leeds, and mailed to Peter Meredith, School of English, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, England . Please address correspondence to the editor, REED Newsletter, % English Department, Etlndale College, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1C6, Canada .

Typ-set by William Rowcliffe

23,