Shakespeare's environment

No previous sovereign had made on his coronation so sudden and complete a change in the Chapel Royal of his predecessor as Mary did. The Bishop of Norwich was the Dean; six priests replaced so many clerks and gentlemen; little boys to bear censers and crosses were introduced; the communion table became the altar once more; the English service was replaced by the Latin; the metrical Psalms were banished, and the old Psalters and Antiphonals took their place. Doubtless to the gentlemen of the Chapel who had taken the oath of fealty this latter change was welcome, from the Psalms sung in unison (for there is no mention of Crowley’s four parts having been used at Court) to the richer harmonies and more “curious” music of the old service. But Mary’s changes marked conservative, not revolutionary, ideas. She never thought her young brother old enough to understand or to judge for himself in matters of such great moment, and she wanted to conform to the customs of her progenitors on their accession in so far as she could.

Therefore, among other things, she ordered a play to be performed at her Coronation, and the “gentlemen of the Chapel Royal,” as was their wont, were to perform it.

Meanwhile her poet, whoever he was, must have taken his cue from a general caution. On 16th August the Privy Council prepared a “Proclamation for reformation of busy medlers in matters of religion, and for redresse of Prechers, printers, players.” This was printed[93] and circulated on 18th August, and treated of “the playing of Interludes and printing of false fond bookes, ballettes, rhymes, and other lewde treatises in the English tongue concerning matters now in Question and controversy.” No one was to play an interlude without the Queen’s licence in writing. Collier, “History of the Stage,” i, 154, says that “a play had been ordered on the occasion of her coronation, which, we may presume, was performed by the gentlemen of the Chapel.” But he says no more. Stowe does not further allude to it, and the name of the play is not known. Others state that it was postponed until Christmas. Therefore it is of some importance that certain definite facts should be recorded and preserved concerning it. Apparently the play was performed by the gentlemen of the Chapel, and their dresses, which had probably been prepared before, were given out to them on 30th September.

Among the papers subsidiary to the Wardrobe Accounts is a Royal Warrant (Excheq. Acc., 427, 5 (9)):

Among the old plays which have come down to us, either in print or in manuscript, I cannot find any which would fit this cast. It could not have been “The Castle of Perseverance,” as Humanum Genus there enters as a child, and except the “good and bad angel,” the characters are all different; nor the other allegory called by Collier “Mankind,” which gives Mercy, New Guise, and Now-a-days, Mischief, Nought, etc. Nor could it have been “Respublica,” said to have been made in the year 1553, 1 Mary, and to have been played before the Queen. The Prologue is spoken by the author himself in the character of the Poet, and the other characters are Respublica (England), Authority, Policy, Oppression, Avarice, Insolence, Adulation, Nemesis, Misericordia, Justitia, Honesty, Pax, People. Nor could it have been the old play of Nature and Reason; nor the Interlude of Youth. So it may be reckoned as an interlude of which neither the name nor the text is as yet known, but it may some day be discovered through this cast. Of its plot we may at least guess that it would be in supposed prophetic relation to the Queen’s reign, and that all the good characters would triumph over the bad. Of its author no clue has as yet been found.

John Heywood was an interlude writer of the time, formerly a singing gentleman in the Chapel, and jester to Queen Mary. Udall had written plays, and various scholars of the universities had tried their hands. It might have been put together by one of these, or by one of the gentlemen of the Chapel: Richard Farrant, afterwards Master of the Children of Windsor, is known to have written interludes, and so is William Hunnis, author of many pieces in “The Paradise of Dainty Devises,” and many religious poems in the following reign, when he was also the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal, and designer of the great festivities at Kenilworth, 1575. His friend Thomas Newton writes of him that in the prime of youth he had written besides “sonets sweete,” also “interludes and gallant lays,” which have not come down to us.

If we do not know the author, there is a good deal to learn about the actors. From the “Order of the Royal Household of Edward IV” we know their necessary qualifications and duties, not their numbers; for while there were twenty gentlemen and eight children in Henry VIII’s time, in Edward’s they were raised to thirty-two gentlemen and twelve children, a number kept up by Mary. From the royal warrants to the Keeper of the Great Wardrobe we know that they all had new liveries for the Coronation. A further warrant for new surplices includes several other small items for chapel use, and a list of the names of the gentlemen. As there is no list previous to 1561 printed, except that of Hawkins and Burney in their “History of Music,” without date, and with the hazy reference to “A MS. in the British Museum,” which has thus indefinitely been followed by all musical writers and by Rimbault in his “Cheque-Book of the Chapel Royal,” it will be as well to print this duly authenticated list here. One referring to the mourning for Edward VI appeared in “Archaeologia.” I have found three others at the British Museum with definite references and one at the Society of Antiquaries, but none of them agrees exactly with that of Hawkins and Burney, the original of which has yet to be found.

Exchequer Accounts, 427. 5, (10) By the Quene.

It may be noted that there are only thirty-one instead of thirty-two. It is possible that one has been accidentally omitted, probably John Lucam, yeoman; or some one may have refused even then to take the oath of allegiance. Several other names appear in other lists. Every one of these, in his day, must have been of some note.

The Chapel Royal was the haven of the best musical talent of the day. Every music lover knows of Shepherd, Tallis, Farrant; and Marbeck’s service was harmonized by these in conjunction with some of the minor names above. Thomas Byrde was the father of William Byrde, the pupil and associate of Tallis. Thomas Palfreyman was a well-known writer on moral philosophy, as well as a musician.

We have no clue to the names of the twenty-three performers selected from these, either for their fitness, or as a special mark of honour. Richard Bowyer was the Master of the Children then, William Hunnis and Richard Farrant were Masters of the Children afterwards, so these three would probably have definite histrionic powers. Of their appearance we know little. We only know of one of them, William Hunnis, that he was a very handsome young man, as this is stated in the examinations of the prisoners at the Tower in 1556.

As to the day and hour of the performance, there is no definite information. John Stow mentions that during her progress from the Tower to Westminster on Saturday 30th September

It may be remembered that it was after she reached Westminster in the afternoon that she signed the warrant for the dresses. After the Coronation services in the Abbey on Sunday, which are of course well known, came the Coronation feast, the details of which are not so well known, and are worth recording. “She was conveyed in goodly order unto Westmynster Hall to dinner” (Cotton MS., App. xxviii, 24). In MS. 34, 320, f. 97, Brit. Mus., we find the

The food served at these five boards is most remarkable, and accounts for a considerable part of the levy of £20,000 which Mary made on the City of London. To note it all would take too much space, but the Queen’s dinner is really too interesting to pass. In the same MS. (f. 86) we find:

Apparently each of these was reduplicated three times, except the subtleties; and the three “messes” seem to have been one for the Queen, one for the Bishop (i.e., of Winchester, who had crowned her that day) and one for the two ladies who sat at her board. That this distinction was carried out may be inferred from the following note:

The most noticeable peculiarity beyond its variety is the apparent setting on of salt and sweet together which is still a custom in Eastern feasts, and the making a second and a third course, as of another complete dinner, also of salt and sweet dishes. The crown of each was the “Subtelty,” a comparatively artistic design in jelly and candied sugar, something like a modern trifle, but always utilized for bearing the motto of the feast, and consequently it was probably the last to be demolished. No wines are mentioned in this manuscript. It must have taken a long time even to eat a morsel of each selection.

And after the feast was over would come into the hall, as was the custom with her progenitors, the gentlemen of her Chapel Royal and perform their play about Humankind and the good and bad angels. The customary prayer for the Queen by the performers, would close the proceedings.

“Athenæum,” 1st September 1905.