Engiisi Drama
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volume 20, number 1 (1995) A Newsletter published by RBBD, University of Toronto, in association with McMaster University. Helen Ostovich, editor Records ofEar(,7~ EngIisI Drama Contents Un-civil rites and playing sites: some early modem entertainment records from Kingston-upon-Hull Patricia Badir 1 Minstrels and minstrelsy: household retainers or instrumentalists? Abigail Ann Young 11 Sir Henry Herbert and William Sands the puppeteer : some corrections N.W. Bawcutt 17 News from Norwich JoAnna Dutka 19 Report on the Southampton Joint Conference John J. McGavin 21 Corrigenda 23 In Memoriam: David Parry 24 PATRICIA BADIR Un-civil rites and playing sites: some early modern entertainment records from Kingston-Upon-Hull The Bench Books and Chamberlains' Accounts of the Medieval and Early Modern magistrates of Kingston-upon-Hull are preserved in remarkable condition and in full sequence in the city record office (xuRo) . However, unlike the records of York which are replete with evidence of local dramatic activity, Hull's accounts are disappointingly unforthcoming for the years leading up to 1642. The few fragments of information that the records do preserve may, nonetheless, be of some interest to those particularly con- cerned with the development and implementation of anti-theatrical censorship as a func- tion of religious reform in the provinces in the latter half of the sixteenth century. While 1 Medieval guild records and chamberlains' accounts make note of the Noah play exten- sively surveyed by Anna J. Mill and contain some evidence of civic waits and travelling players, I will be, in this instance, directing attention to the performance-related entries in the Bench Books which cover the years 1445-1650 . 1 Some of the following records have been noted by early Hull historians George Hadley, John Tickell and J J. Shehan, but none have been transcribed in detail? The Bench Books, which contain the minutes of council meetings covering common- place subjects such as the appointment of preachers, street cleaning and provisions for the poor hold no sixteenth-century entries related to pageantry or guild drama . What evidence there is of theatrical enterprise is largely a catalogue of prohibition . The follow- ing entry dates from 1554 (KHRo: BRB 1 f 230v) : Kyngston Super bull Tempore Willelmi Knolles maioris In the Counsell howse chambre there the Thirsday the xxiijt' day of Septembre in the xxvij yere of the Reigne of King harry the viijdt It is ordeynyd and decreed by the hole advyse assent and consent of the Said Maire and his brethern aldermen that no maire herafter for the tyme beyng shall gif any reward or rewardes to any Mynstrell playere Iogelar beyrward or any othere Such lyke person wherwith the Comentie of this town in any wyse myght be chargied but that he only Shall gif all such reward or rewardes, at his proper costes and expenses not chargyng the goodes of the Comen chambre with the Same in theire or his accomptes The tenor of this ordinance seems to suggest that dramatic entertainment itself was not prohibited, but that it was considered to be of no benefit to the `Commonalty' as in other towns where corporation funds were diverted towards entertainment for the pur- poses of enhancing the prestige of corporate and guild structures, for courting patrons, and for encouraging the development of a sense of community or of civic consciousness . In Hull any evidence of specifically theatrical activity would, as a consequence of this legislation, have been registered in household accounts which do not survive . After 1554, records concerned with players are exclusively prohibitive . City ordinances set forth `to the glory of god and the well orderinge of this comonwelth' order that `none within this town doe singe any filthy, vayne, dishonest or Rybawlde iestes or songes' (xHxo : BRB 2 f 67v, 1566) and by 1572 the liberty of going a-mumming was restricted as follows (xHxo: BRB 2 f 87v) : the libertie of Whereas of Laite by sinister perswasions of some Lewde and ill disposed goin ge a persons some prentizes in the to n „be intized to becomme mommers mnmma taiken a a and diseplaiers hereb ma ense e diuers mischeifes and inconveniences . ffor Redresse hereof t s ordered and agreed b the said master maior and aldermen the thirde da of Ianuar in the ere afforesaid. That from hence „fourthe no person[s] or persons ithin this to ne shall goe a momminge or disguised in an maskinge apparell but suche onl as shalbe thereto licensed b master maior for the time beinge . And that suche 2 person or persons as no e have or hereafter shall have an momminge or maskinge apparell ithin the to n shall b no means vse Lende or Lette for mummer an suche apparell vpon peine of imprisonment & to pa such fine as to e said master maior & aldermen shalbe tho ght convenient/ While Cro n injunctions stipulated that actors could step be ond their social degree for the purposes of entertainment and therefore should be e empted from statutes on dress, Hull ordinances specificall prohibit dressing-up under an circumstances .3 B the end of the centur, the corporation's tolerance of pla s performed b travel- ling pla ers had reached its end . The Puritan loathing of practices hich cluttered the to nscape ith an intrusive bodil festivit as clearl manifested in late si teenth- centur attitudes to itinerant entertainers, licensed or not . The follo ing order is from 1599 (KHRo : BRB 2 f 325) 4 : The vijth of September .1599. Pla ers Wheareas hearetofore & et their are resorte to the to n of Kingston vpon Hull divers Idle & le de persons pla ers, or setters oute of pla es or enterludes ithin this to ne, to ith pla es man of thinhabitantes heare haue gon & ben present at, & spent theire t mes & also their monie in hearinge such fi volous & va ne e ercises to the evill e ample of man ffor reformacion hereof And b cause the pla ers are for the most part straingers, and therefore not soe convenientlie restre ned frome pla inge, as thinhabitantes of this to ne frome hearinge, and for that the vse there- of is thought to be ver vngodlie & icked: It is therefore ordered and agreed b the maior & Aldermen of Kingston vpon Hull in the presence of mr Iohn Graves maior. mr Thurscros mr Richardson mr L ster mr [Cooke] Chapman mr Cooke mr Burnsell & mr Arm nge: That noe Burgesse or inhabitant ithin the to n of Kingston vpon hull neither man nor oman shall at an tme hereafter resort toe or be present at or hen anie pla e or enterlude is pla inge or sho ed in an place ithin Kingston vpon hull vpon pa ne that euerie such person [being] offendinge therein to forfeict for euerie t me & offence the some of ij s . vj d. to the Maior & Burgesses of Kingston vpon hull, And also that the o ner of euerie ho se or place here such pla es or enterludes are pla ed or harde shall for euerie offence or t me forfeict s. to the vse aforesaide/. Such an understanding of the potential of popular dramatic activit to occup public space, to cause disruption, and ultimatel to subvert accepted versions of social place lurks behind much of the iconoclastic sentiment of the Reformation period . The con- siderable challenges sustained b the church and state upon the ph sical topograph and conceptual geograph of the inhabitants of the countr ere place-forming strate- gies hich effectivel assigned social positions and modes of behaviour to individuals 3 and groups, allo ing them to conceive of themselves as the Protestant subjects of the sovereign and citizens of the common ealth.5 Ho ever, because it is difficult to establish a theatrical tradition against hich a ne Protestant iconoclasm ould have instated itself, I think that it is more likel that dra- matic entertainments never figured prominentl in a to n hose distinction as con- ceived of in terms of its strategic location and its martial fortifications.6 As the above-cited entr reveals, Hull magistrates ere e tremist in their interpretation of censorship acts and injunctions for religious reform . Puritan zeal rendered a pla a particularl un-civilgathering. Dramatic representation and, perhaps more pertinentl , communal gathering ere understood as occupations of public space hich inserted into abstract conceptualizations of the cit an indeterminac or a material point of con- tact ith urban dailiness hich threatened to undermine a social order that prescribed for ever citizen a place ithin corporate space . Thus atching a pla as rendered as un holesome as active participation in the pla itself. The restrictions placed upon theatrical activit participate in the same logic as other Bench Book orders against scolds, rumour-mongers, blasphemers, fornicators, adulter- ers, the riotous, the idle and all other malefactors acting `to the great provocacion or kindlinge of godes raithe against is to n' ( nno: BRB 2 f 50r, 1563). These `he no s offendors & insensible persons' hose presence threatened the unit and coherence of the sequestered to n are diagnosed as infectious in plague-related rhetorical tropes designed to naturalize prescriptive and punitive measures . The `Learned zealo s and godl preachers of the moste sacred and hol orde of god' set out to preach in open and commons spaces `against the blaspheminge of the moste hol na me rof god'.' Drunkenness, prostitution and an infinit of `other abhormi1nable and detestable s nnes enorm ties and offences' ere attributed to both `the great noomber of aile ho ses' and `the vnreasonable and e cessive stronge aile b aile bre eres their bre ed' (KHRo: BRB 2 f 117v, 1574).