ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: MUSICIANS AND COMMONERS IN LATE MEDIEVAL LONDON Simon Polson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2020 Dissertation directed by: Professor Barbara Haggh-Huglo School of Music This dissertation examines music making in late medieval London (c.1300-c.1550) from the commoners’ perspective, and with this emphasis, does not discuss royal or monastic musical ensembles or music in aristocratic households, nor does it examine the music of St Paul’s Cathedral in detail. This shifts the focus from mensurally notated, pre-composed music towards monophony and extemporized polyphony which, unnotated, was realized in performance. These kinds of music more than any others were those made by medieval musicians and heard by commoners; through a study of archival documents and their printed editions, including account books, chronicles and other sources, the dissertation identifies the events at which musicians performed and commoners encountered music: civic and royal processions; the Midsummer Watches; processions of criminals with “rough music”; liturgical feast days, and at associated meals. It also locates the music of daily life in the streets and in many dozens of parish churches. The extant notated music from medieval London is mostly in chant books. No complete extant source of polyphony survives, but neither would such a source accurately represent a musical culture in which mensural polyphony and notated music itself were inaccessible to most. Used with methodological caution, documents from London reveal details where little notated music survives and describe or hint at the music that commoners knew. Also examined are two songs (“Sovereign Lord Welcome Ye Be,” “Row the bote Norman”) with surviving texts that may be original. A major appendix lists over 300 musicians who flourished in London in the period. MUSICIANS AND COMMONERS IN LATE MEDIEVAL LONDON by Simon Polson Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Advisory Committee: Professor Barbara Haggh-Huglo, Chair Professor Caroline Barron (Royal Holloway, University of London) Professor Olga Haldey Professor Franklin Hildy Professor Edward Maclary © Copyright by Simon Polson 2020 To my mum and dad, and to Thomas with the Trompe and all other Mynstrelles of this Citie of london ii Acknowledgements I acknowledge first my debt to the editors of the rich published archive of medieval London documents, whose unimaginably long hours spent reading, transcribing, and translating the original scribes’ work has placed so much more of London’s archive in my hands than I could ever have read myself. Anne Lancashire (editor, REED Civic London) and Mary Erler (editor, REED Ecclesiastical London) have communicated with me about the texts in their editions, and Lisa Jefferson (editor, Mercers’ and Wardens’ accounts editions) answered my questions. That I could read the manuscripts cited here is thanks to Heather Wolfe and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC. I thank Sarah Powell for her assistance in interpreting some of the texts. I acknowledge the financial assistance of the Dean’s Fellowship (University of Maryland, College Park), the Eleanor Sophia Wood Travelling Bequest (University of Sydney), and the award of a Cosmos Scholars grant (Cosmos Club Foundation, Washington DC). I thank the many scholars whose names appear here in the footnotes and bibliography, and especially those who were willing to communicate with me, and to share their ideas and give feedback on mine: Nicholas Bell, Julia Boffey, Clive Burgess, Helen Coffey, Sean Curran, Helen Deeming, Jane Hardie, Andrew Kirkman, Peter Lefferts, Kathleen Nelson, Christopher Page, Christian Steer, Ian Stone, and Mio Ueno. I also thank the staff of the library systems at the University of Maryland, College Park, especially Austin Smith, and the University of Sydney, especially Andrea Dib. iii I especially thank Giles Darkes for his permission to edit and reproduce his map of medieval London given here as figure 1, the London Metropolitan Archives for permission to reproduce figure 2, and Professor Sally-Beth MacLean for permission to reproduce the selections of REED Civic London given as appendix 3. I thank my dissertation committee, Professors Olga Haldey, Frank Hildy and Edward Maclary, and especially Professor Caroline Barron and my advisor, Professor Barbara Haggh-Huglo. To have studied under Barbara, I must number among the luckiest of PhD students; with her enthusiasm, generosity and friendship, and that of Caroline Barron, I have often fancied myself like those young men in medieval London, apprenticed to masters and learning the crafts of musical and historical enquiry from them. And to my friends at the University of Maryland, College Park (especially Erin and Collin), in Washington DC (especially Lucas, John, Elizabeth, and the late Patrick), London (especially Natasha, Gemma, and Nick), and Sydney (especially Daniel and Peta, Mark, Brenda, and Joseph), as well as to my mum and dad, and my brothers and their families, I can only say that while each of you at times may have distracted or delayed me in my work, without you, it would not have been fulfilling, nor half as much fun. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements iii List of Tables vii List of Figures viii List of Abbreviations ix Documents and Citations x Editorial Policy xvi I. Introduction 1 Sources, Methodology, and Problems of Evidence 7 Outline of this Study 18 “Musicians” and “Commoners” 21 The Meaning of “Late Medieval” 24 The City of London 26 II. Minstrels and Musicians in Late Medieval London 28 “Minstrels” and Instruments 32 The Minstrels’ Company and Regulations for Minstrelsy 36 The Waits 42 Thomas the Trumpeter 51 III. Music Heard in the Streets and on the River Thames 56 Key Streets, Sites and Processional Routes 62 Bells 64 Music at Night and in the Night Watches 73 The Midsummer Watches 76 Processions of Civic Officials 90 Royal Occasions 105 Punishment and Crime 117 Private Music in Barges 122 Conclusion 126 IV. Music in the Churches 130 Clerks and Church Musicians 138 Boy Singers 145 The Organ and Organ Players 152 Boy Bishops 173 v Palm Sunday 178 Corpus Christi Day 184 Dedication Feasts and Feasts of Patron Saints 189 Company Feasts and Dinners 196 Conclusion 207 V. Music in Books and on Paper 212 Surviving Notated Music from London 217 Printed Music 220 Notated Music for the Organ 222 Books of Polyphony 225 Private Ownership of Notated Music 238 Lost Manuscripts 241 Lost Vernacular Songs 248 “Sovereign Lord Welcome Ye Be” 249 “Row the bote Norman” 252 VI. Conclusion 257 Appendix 1: Roll of Musicians in Late Medieval London—A Preliminary List 265 Appendix 2: Minstrels and Musicians at Civic Processions—Two Calendars of Data 286 Table A2.1: Calendar of Data for the Mayor’s Processions, 1369-1558 288 Table A2.2: Calendar of Data for the Sheriffs’ Processions, 1382-1521 302 Appendix 3: Ordinances of the Minstrels’ Company 316 Appendix 3.1: Ordinances, 1350 316 Appendix 3.2: Ordinances, 1500 320 Appendix 3.3: Ordinances, 1518 324 Appendix 3.4: Ordinances, 1553 328 Bibliography 331 Manuscript Sources Cited 331 Printed Primary Sources 333 Secondary Sources 336 vi List of Tables Table 4.1. Earliest references to organs in parish churches, and other references to their purchase, construction, and significant maintenance, and their relocation and sale in churchwardens’ documents, with additional information provided by the Reformation Inventories, by church. 154-61 Table 5.1. Extant notated sources of vocal music and fragments from London, or previously (but doubtfully) identified as from London (indicated by *), with RISM sigla, after Haggh, “Sources of Plainchant.” 218-19 Table 5.2. References to books of music used at organs. 223 Table 5.3a. References to pricking and books of pricksong in London parish churches in churchwardens’ documents, with additional information provided by the Reformation Inventories, by church. 228-29 Table 5.3b. References to pricking and books of pricksong in London parish churches in churchwardens’ documents, with additional information provided by the Reformation Inventories, by year. 230-31 Table 5.4. Books probably with musical notation, and presumably now lost, that are identified by their texts in the churchwardens’ accounts. 243-45 Table A1. Roll of Musicians in Late Medieval London. 267-85 Table A2.1. Calendar of Data for the Mayor’s Processions, 1369-1558. 288-301 Table A2.2. Calendar of Data for the Sheriffs’ Processions, 1382-1521. 302-15 vii List of Figures Fig. 1. Map of late medieval London, showing streets and key sites (except parish churches) named in this dissertation. 63 Fig. 2. Plainchant notation and significative letters for the Passion according to St Matthew, for Palm Sunday: Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.1.15 (Missal, fourteenth century, St Margaret’s Lothbury), 69v. 211 viii List of Abbreviations BHO British History Online, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/. CL Transcription of a record from Anne Lancashire, ed. Records of Early English Drama: Civic London to 1558, 3 vols. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2015). CWD Churchwardens’ documents (see List of Documents & Citations, and Editorial Procedures). EL Transcription of a record from Mary Carpenter Erler, ed. Records of Early English Drama: Ecclesiastical London (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). GMO Grove Music Online, via Oxford Music Online, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic. LMA London Metropolitan Archives, City of London. MSL Anne Lancashire, “The Mayors and Sheriffs [of London], 1190-1558,” appendix 7 of CL, 983-1037 (also online and regularly updated at https://masl.library.utoronto.ca/). ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://www.oxforddnb.com/. OED Oxford English Dictionary, https://www.oed.com/. PRI Transcription of a record from the (parish churches’) Reformation Inventories, from H. B. Walters, London Churches at the Reformation (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: Macmillan, 1939).1 STA C.