“A Mirror of Men”: Sovereignty, Performance, and Textuality in Tudor England, 1501-1559 by Jessica Erin Riddell A thesis submitted to the Department of English In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada February, 2009 Copyright © Jessica Erin Riddell, 2009 ABSTRACT Sixteenth-century England witnessed both unprecedented generic experimentation in the recording of spectacle and a shift in strategies of sovereign representation and subject formation: it is the central objective of this dissertation to argue for the reciprocal implication of these two phenomena. Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I used performance to legitimate their authority. Aristocratic and civic identities, in turn, were modelled on sovereign identity, which was disseminated through narratives in civic entries, tournaments, public progresses, and courtly pageantry. This dissertation investigates the relationship between ritualized social dramas (a marriage, birth, and coronation) and the mechanisms behind the recording and dissemination of these performances in courtly and civic texts in England from 1501 to 1559. Focussing on The Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne (London 1501), The Great Tournament Roll of Westminster (Westminster 1511), and The Quenes Maiesties Passage (London 1559), this project attempts to understand the role performance texts played in developing conceptions of social identity. Specifically, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate that a number of new hybrid genres emerged in Tudor England to record ritualized social dramas. I argue that each of the texts under scrutiny stands out as a unique record of performance as their authors use unprecedented narrative strategies to invest their accounts with “liveness,” situating the reader as a “spectator” of the sovereign within a performative context. An important objective of these hybrid genres was to control the audience/reader’s response to the symbology of performance. Each monarch attempted to influence social and political identities through courtly performance; however, the challenges of governing differed among reigns. While Henry VII struggled against charges of illegitimacy, Henry VIII had to consolidate the loyalties of his nobles, and Elizabeth I came to the throne ii amidst religious turmoil and anxieties about female rule. Strategies for the performance and recording of sovereign authority shifted, therefore, to account for the changes in England’s political structure. By examining how performance is textualized in these new genres, I attempt to expose the tensions animating the relationships among the monarch, his/her nobility, and the civic authorities. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS One of the central themes of this study is that performance is not a unified, coherent product of a single animating author. Instead, multiple agents are responsible for the production of meaning: a host of valuable contributors are essential to the success or contestation of larger figural narratives. In the case of this dissertation, that set of collaborators includes a great number of friends, family members, and colleagues who have generously dedicated countless hours of their time reading drafts, critiquing arguments, fixing format, providing suggestions, and always giving boundless support. I cannot possibly acknowledge every such debt here, but first among these essential resources is my supervisor, Margaret Pappano. Margaret has been my guide from this study’s humble beginnings, acting first as my mentor during my Special Topics presentation, and then throughout the dissertation process. Her incisive comments, sharp insights, and limitless patience continue to amaze and inspire me. Marta Straznicky, my second supervisor, has been a role model for me since I was a Master’s student; her professionalism, warmth, and genuine interest in my development have ensured that I stay on task and always challenge myself to improve as a scholar and teacher. Elizabeth Hanson is someone I admire beyond measure. Without her help and advice, I would not be where I am today. It would be impossible for me to overstate the formative influence my parents have had, not only on my career but on my development as an individual. They have loved and supported me unconditionally, and inspired within me the confidence that I can achieve any task I undertake. I am so proud to have them as my parents, and feel so grateful to also call them my friends. My twin brother, Patrick Riddell, was always on the other end of the phone providing me with advice, counsel, and comfort. Tara MacDonald, iv who has been with me from the first day of grad school, is the best friend anyone could hope to have; she has always been there to listen, support, cajole, edit, and calm me down during all the highs and lows life has to offer. My colleagues at Concordia require special mention here because they have welcomed me into their department with great warmth. I have benefited so much from their collegiality, and even more so from their friendships. Manish Sharma has been an invaluable support, reading and editing the dissertation with care and attention that humbled me. Without his guidance, there were times where the project would have surely run amok. Caroline Herbert and Meredith Evans were also wonderfully engaged in the project and I am so grateful for their advice, suggestions, and camaraderie. I would also like to thank my students who remind me, with their enthusiasm and voracious appetites for learning, why I went into this profession in the first place. I would like to dedicate this accomplishment to my parents, who inspire me daily to be the best scholar, teacher, partner, daughter, and human being I can be. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………........…….............………...ii Acknowledgments………………………………………………….....................………..iv Chapter One Introduction……………………………………………………….....................….1 Chapter Two “A gentle and princely spectator”: Specular Subjectivity and Dynastic Spectacle in The Receyt of the Lady Katherine (1501)….................................................................................................................31 Chapter Three “A Mirror of Men”: Sovereignty and Chivalric Masculinity in the Great Tournament at Westminster (1511)…………………………………………...................................................107 Chapter Four “[O]n every side she cast her countenance”: Sovereignty and Subjecthood in Elizabeth’s Coronation Entry into London (1559)…………………………………………………………...................……195 Conclusion……………………………………………………………...................….....276 Works Cited and Consulted………………………………………...................…….…..316 vi Chapter One “words do fly, but writing doth remain” ( QMP 88): Performance & Textuality in Tudor England Remarking on late twentieth-century scholarship on sixteenth-century drama, Sydney Anglo states that contributions have “been modest, and, with a few exceptions, … confined to matters of detail (1997, vii). Anglo also notes that “almost every study of Tudor spectacle has been descriptive rather than analytic, and, as a result, much of its significance has been missed” (3). Sixteenth-century courtly and civic performance, such as tournaments, masques, disguisings, interludes, and civic entries, have been understood almost exclusively as “propaganda,” a univocal instrument of the state deployed for hegemonic purposes: Malcolm Vale, for instance, claims that these spectacles were produced by a “singular, monocentric, sovereign gaze” (49).1 Similarly, Alan Young argues that tournaments and pageantry were important sites for the production of propaganda to “bolster the status of the monarch” (25);2 and, despite his remarkable contributions to the field of Tudor performance, Anglo overlooks the role drama played in shaping social identity rather than merely reflecting subjecthood, asserting that sixteenth- century pageantry was “a straightforward display of sovereign power” (1997, 353).3 Increased scholarly interest in non-commercial drama in recent years has revised this critical attitude. New studies of Tudor courtly and civic drama focus on the complex relationship between performance and politics. 4 Jennifer Loach argues that Tudor courtly entertainments are “now universally recognized as having a serious political purpose; to transmit a message about the dynasty and its ambitions, and to claim for England a place among the cultural elite of Europe” (43). 5 In keeping with this new scholarly attitude, Lloyd Kermode, Jason-Scott Warren, and Martine Van Elk declare the necessity “for reengagement with non-canonical drama in its own right, and not necessarily set over and 1 against the writings of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Jonson” (2). 6 With this approach in mind, I investigate courtly and civic drama and its textualization in order to argue that non-commercial drama and its various modes of dissemination played a crucial role in the reflection, shaping, and troubling of social identity in Tudor England. Several surveys of Tudor drama in the last thirty years have broadened our understanding of early modern culture and its relationship to performance. David Bevington’s pioneering study, Tudor Drama and Politics , provides a cursory glance at tournaments and courtly pageants. 7 Glynne Wickham supplies a broad overview of various dramatic representations from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, including tournaments, royal processions, miracle plays, mummings, and interludes. 8 W.R. Streitberger surveys