‘Men of Starford’ hired the Chelmsford (q.v.) wardrobe during 1564-6. I find no Starford, but a Stapleford Tawney and a Stapleford Abbots in Essex.
Sir John Howard ‘ȝafe to the pleyeres of Stoke, ijˢ’ on Jan. 12, 1466.
Lord Howard ‘paid to the pleirs of Turton Strete xxᵈ’ on Aug. 29, 1481. Thorington is still the name given to part of Stoke. There is also an independent township so named in Essex.
On May 22, 1482, Lord Howard ‘yaff to the cherche on Whitson Monday at the pley xˢ.’
On Jan. 2, 1491, the Earl of Surrey paid iijˢ iiijᵈ ‘in reward to the panget’ [? pageant][911].
Stone players were at Lydd in 1490.
The churchwardens’ accounts in 1578 mention payments for ‘the players’ geers, six sheep-skins for Christ’s garments’; and an inventory of 1585 includes ‘eight heads of hair for the Apostles, and ten beards, and a face or vizier for the Devil[912].’
The churchwardens’ accounts for 1451-2 include a receipt:—
‘de incremento unius ludi vocati Christmasse play[913].’
See Texts (i), Towneley Plays.
Players of ‘Wymborne Minster’ were rewarded by Henry VII on Jan. 1, 1494 (Appendix E, viii).
The early use of the Quem quaeritis in the liturgy of the cathedral served by the Benedictines of St. Swithin’s Priory has been fully discussed in Chapter xviii and Appendix O.
In 1486, Henry VII was entertained at dinner on a Sunday in the castle with a performance of Christi descensus ad inferos by the ‘pueri eleemosynarii’ of the monasteries of St. Swithin’s and Hyde[914].
On May 24, 1416, Henry V invested the Emperor Sigismund with the Garter, the annual feast being deferred from April 23 for that purpose. Mr. John Payne Collier says, ‘A chronicle in the Cottonian collection gives a description of a performance before him and Henry V, on the incidents of the life of St. George. The representation seems to have been divided into three parts, and to have been accomplished by certain artificial contrivances, exhibiting, first, “the armyng of Seint George, and an Angel doyng on his spores [spurs]”; secondly, “Seint George riding and fightyng with the dragon, with his spere in his hand”; and, thirdly, “a castel, and Seint George and the Kynges daughter ledyng the lambe in at the castel gates.” Here we have clearly the outline of the history of St. George of Cappadocia, which often formed the subject of a miracle-play; but whether, in this instance, it was accompanied with dialogue, or was (as is most probable) merely a splendid dumb show, assisted by temporary erections of castles, &c., we are not informed.’ This performance is accepted from Collier, i. 29, by Ward, i. 50, Pollard, xx, and other distinguished writers. They ought to have known him better. The authority he quotes, Cotton. MS. Calig. B. II, is wrong. But in Cotton. MS. Julius B. I, one of the MSS. of the London Chronicle, is the following passage, ‘And the first sotelte was our lady armyng seint George, and an angel doyng on his spores; the ijᵈᵉ sotelte was seint George ridyng and fightyng with the dragon, with his spere in his hand; the iijᵈᵉ sotelte was a castel, and seint George, and the kynges doughter ledynge the lambe in at the castel gates. And all these sotelties were served to the emperor, and to the kyng, and no ferther: and other lordes were served with other sotelties after theire degrees[915].’ The representation, then, was in cake or marchpane. The term ‘soteltie’ is surely not uncommon[916]. But it has led a French scholar into another curious mistake. According to M. E. Picot ‘La sotelty paraît n’avoir été qu’une simple farce, comme la sotternie néerlandaise[917].’ A mumming by Lydgate in 1429-30 seems to have introduced a ‘miracle’ of St. Clotilda and the Holy Ampulla (cf. vol. i. p. 397).
‘Barnaby Riche of Witham’ hired the Chelmsford (q.v.) wardrobe in 1566.
Wittersham players were at New Romney in 1426 and Lydd in 1441.
‘Mrs. Higham of Woodham Walter’ hired the Chelmsford (q.v.) wardrobe in 1570-2.
See Texts, (i) Towneley Plays.
A cathedral inventory of 1576 includes:—
‘players gere
A gowne of freres gyrdles. A woman’s gowne. A Kˢ cloke of Tysshew. A Jerkyn and a payer of breches. A lytill cloke of tysshew. A gowne of silk. A Jerkyn of greene, 2 cappes, and the devils apparell[918].’
There was a Corpus Christi play, mentioned in 1467 and 1559. It consisted of five pageants, maintained by the crafts, and was held yearly, if the corporation so decided. In 1584 a lease of the ‘vacant place where the pagantes do stand’ was granted for building, and there was a building known as the ‘Pageant House’ until 1738[919].
The corporation of Shrewsbury saw a play by ‘quibusdam interlusoribus de Wrexam’ in 1540 (Appendix E, vi).
‘Parker of Writtell’ twice hired the Chelmsford (q.v.) wardrobe during 1570-2. See also p. 184, n. 2.
Henry VII rewarded players of Wycombe on Dec. 31, 1494 (Appendix E, viii).
Wye players were at New Romney in 1491.
An account of the ‘husbands for the wache and play of Wymondham,’ made up to June, 1538, includes payments for ‘the play,’ ‘devyls shoes,’ ‘the giant,’ a man ‘in armour,’ ‘the revels and dances[920].’ It was at this play on July 1, 1549, that Kett’s rebellion broke out. According to Alexander Neville, the ‘ludi ac spectacula ... antiquitus ita instituta’ lasted two days and nights; according to Holinshed, ‘one day and one night at least[921].’
The churchwardens’ accounts of St. Nicholas’s contain items between 1462 and 1512 for ‘making a new star,’ ‘leading the star,’ ‘a new balk line to the star and ryving the same star.’ In 1473 and 1486 are mentioned plays on Corpus Christi day; in 1489, a play at Bartholomew tide; in 1493, a game played on Christmas day[922].
[Authorities.—The chief are R. Davies, Municipal Records of the City of York (1843); L. Toulmin Smith, York Plays (1885). From one or other of these all statements below, of which the authority is not given, are taken. The municipal documents used are enumerated in York Plays, ix. The earliest date from 1371. F. Drake, Eboracum (1736); R. H. Skaife, Guild of Corpus Christi (Surtees Soc.); H. T. Riley, in Hist. MSS. Comm. i. 109; M. Sellers, City of York in the Sixteenth Century, in Eng. Hist. Rev. ix. 275; and some craft-guild documents in Archaeological Review, i. 221; Antiquary, xi. 107; xxii. 266; xxiii. 27, may also be consulted.]
The traditional Statutes of York Cathedral, supposed to date in their present form from about 1255, provide for the Pastores and the Stella.
‘Item inueniet [thesaurarius] stellas cum omnibus ad illas pertinentibus, praeter cirpos, quos inueniet Episcopus Puerorum futurorum [? fatuorum], vnam in nocte natalis Domini pro pastoribus, et ijᵃˢ in nocte Epiphaniae, si debeat fieri presentacio iijᵘᵐ regum[923].’
The first mention is in 1378, when part of a fine levied on the Bakers is assigned ‘a la pagine des ditz Pestours de corpore cristi.’ In 1394 a civic order required all the pageants to play in the places ‘antiquitus assignatis,’ in accordance with the proclamation, and under penalty of a fine. In 1397 Richard II was present to view the plays. In 1415 the town clerk, Roger Burton, entered in the Liber Memorandorum a copy of the Ordo paginarum ludi Corporis Christi, which was a schedule of the crafts and their plays, together with the Proclamacio ludi corporis cristi facienda in vigilia corporis cristi. At this date the plays were given annuatim. About 1440 the existing manuscript of the plays was probably written. It was a ‘register,’ drawn up from the ‘regynalls’ or ‘origenalls’ in the possession of the several crafts, and kept by the city[924]. Halfway through the sixteenth century performances become irregular. In 1535 the Creed play, in 1558 the Paternoster play was given instead. In 1548 ‘certen pagyauntes ... that is to say, the deyng of our lady, the assumption of our lady, and the coronacion of our lady,’ were cast out. In 1550 and 1552 the play was suppressed on account of the plague, half the ‘pageant silver’ in 1552 being given to the sick. In 1562 the corporation attempted in vain to defer it to St. Barnabas day. In 1564, 1565, and 1566 it was not given, on account of war and sickness. In 1568 there was a dispute as to whether it should be played, and it was ordered that it must be ‘perused and otherwaise amended’ first. In 1569 it was given on Whit-Tuesday. It then seems to have lain dormant until 1579, when the Council made an order that it should be played but ‘first the booke shalbe caried to my Lord Archebisshop [Edwin Sandys] and Mr. Deane [Mathew Hutton] to correcte, if that my Lord Archebisshop doo well like theron.’ Various notes upon the ‘register,’ addressed to a ‘Doctor,’ and indicating that this or that play had been revised, were probably written at this time. In 1580 the citizens petitioned for the play, and the mayor replied that the request would be considered. There is no proof that any performance took place after this date; although the Bakers were still choosing ‘pageant-masters’ in 1656[925].
The ordering of the plays about 1415 was as follows: Yearly in the first or second week in Lent, the town clerk copied the ‘sedulae paginarum’ from the Ordo in the Liber Memorandorum and delivered it to the crafts ‘per vj servientes maioris ad clavam.’ On the eve of Corpus Christi a proclamation of mayor and sheriffs forbade ‘distorbaunce of the kynges pees, and ye play, or hynderyng of ye processioun of Corpore Christi.’ It went on to direct that the pageants must be played at the assigned places, that the men of the crafts are to come forth in customary array and manner, ‘careynge tapers of ye pagentz,’ that there shall be provided ‘good players, well arayed and openly spekyng,’ and that all shall be ready to start ‘at the mydhowre betwix iiijᵗʰ and vᵗʰ of the cloke in the mornynge, and then all oyer pageantz fast followyng ilk one after oyer as yer course is, without tarieng.’ Fines are imposed for any neglect or failure. At this date the play and the Corpus Christi procession were on the same day. In 1426 it is recorded that a Franciscan preacher, William Melton, while commending the play, ‘affirmando quod bonus erat in se et laudabilis valde,’ urged that it should be put on the day before Corpus Christi, so as not to interfere with the ecclesiastical feast[926]. This seems to have been agreed to, but the arrangement did not last. The procession was under the management of a Corpus Christi guild, founded in 1408, and the statutes of this guild dated in 1477 show that it was then the procession which was displaced, falling on the Friday after Corpus Christi day[927].
Thus the plays were essentially the affair of the whole community, and the control of them by the mayor and council may be further illustrated. In 1476 the council made an order regulating the choice of actors, and laid down—
‘That yerely in the tyme of lentyn there shall be called afore the maire for the tyme beyng iiij of the moste connyng discrete and able players within this Citie, to serche, here, and examen all the plaiers and plaies and pagentes thrughoute all the artificers belonging to Corpus Xᵗⁱ Plaie. And all suche as thay shall fynde sufficiant in personne and connyng, to the honour of the Citie and worship of the saide Craftes, for to admitte and able; and all other insufficiant personnes, either in connyng, voice, or personne to discharge, ammove, and avoide. And that no plaier that shall plaie in the saide Corpus Xᵗⁱ plaie be conducte and reteyned to plaie but twise on the day of the saide playe; and that he or thay so plaing plaie not ouere twise the saide day, vpon payne of xlˢ to forfet vnto the chaumbre as often tymes as he or thay shall be founden defautie in the same.’
By ‘twise’ is probably meant ‘in two distinct pageants’; for each pageant repeated its performance at several stations. In 1394 these stations were ‘antiquitus assignatis.’ In 1399 the commons petitioned the council to the effect that ‘le juer et les pagentz de la jour de corpore cristi’ were not properly performed on account of the number of stations, and these were limited to twelve. In later years there were from twelve to sixteen, and from 1417 the corporation made a profit by letting to prominent citizens the right to have stations opposite their houses. A list of ‘Leases for Corpuscrysty Play’ in 1554, for instance, shows twelve stations bringing in from xiijᵈ to iijˢ iiijᵈ each, while nothing was charged for the places ‘at the Trinitie yaits where the clerke kepys the register,’ ‘at the comon Hall to my Lord Maior and his bredren,’ ‘at Mr. Bekwyth’s at Hosyerlane end, where as my Lady Mayres and her systers lay’ and ‘uppon the Payment.’
Outward signs of the civic control were the ‘vexilla ludi cum armis civitatis,’ which were set up at the stations by order of the mayor on Corpus Christi eve. Apparently the city claimed also to put its mark on the pageants themselves, for in an agreement of 1422 merging the pageants of the Shoemakers, Tilemakers, Hayresters, and Millers it was declared, ‘quod nulla quatuor artium praedictarum ponet aliqua signa, arma, vel insignia super paginam praedictam, nisi tantum arma huius honorabilis civitatis.’ But the more important crafts, who had a pageant to themselves, may not have been subject to this restriction.
Although the corporation profited from the ‘dimissio locorum ludi Corporis Christi,’ they did not meet many of the expenses. They paid for the services of the minstrels employed, and for refreshments for themselves and for important visitors to the town. They occasionally helped out the resources of a poor craft. The following extract from the Chamberlains’ accounts for 1397 seems to be quite exceptional:—
‘Expens’ in festo de Corpore Xp’ i.
Item: pro steyning de iiijᵒʳ pannos ad opus paginae, iiijˢ.
Et pro pictura paginae, ijˢ.
Et pro vexillo novo cum apparatu, xijˢ ijᵈ.
Et in portacione et reportacione meremii ad barras coram Rege, ijˢ jᵈ.
Et pro xx fursperres ad barras praedictas coram Rege, vˢ xᵈ.
Et pro xix sapplynges emptis de Iohanne de Craven pro barris praedictis, vjˢ viijᵈ.
Et viij portitoribus ducentibus et moventibus paginam, vˢ iiijᵈ.
Et Ianitori Sanctae Trinitatis pro pagina hospitanda, iiijᵈ.
Et ludentibus, iiijᵈ.
Et ministrallis in festo de Corpore Xp’i, xiijˢ iiijᵈ.
Et in pane, cervisiis, vino, et carnibus, et focalibus pro maiore et probis hominibus in die ad ludum, xviijˢ viijᵈ.
Et in ministrallis domini Regis ac aliorum dominorum supervenientibus, vijˡⁱ vijˢ iiijᵈ.
Et ministris camerae in albo panno et rubeo pro adventu Regis, lviijˢ xᵈ.’
Certainly the corporation did not themselves provide a ‘pagina’ in 1415 or later years. I think that in 1397 they prepared one for some allegorical performance of welcome, distinct from the play itself, to Richard II. The king was evidently placed at the gate of Trinity Priory, where was the first station as late as 1569.
But the bulk of the cost fell upon the crafts. They had to build, repair, decorate, and draw the pageant (Latin, pagina; English, pagiaunt, paiaunt, pachent, pagende, pagyant, padgin, padgion, paidgion, padzhand, &c., &c.). They had to house it in one of the ‘pageant howses’ which until recently gave a name to ‘Pageant green,’ and for each of which a yearly rent of xijᵈ seems to have been the usual charge. They had also doubtless to provide dress and refresh the actors; and some of their members were bound personally to conduct the pageant on its journey. The fully organized craft-guilds appointed annual ‘pageant-masters,’ and met the ordinary charges by a levy of ‘pageant-silver’ upon each member according to his status. The amounts varied from 1d. to 8d., and were supplemented by the proceeds of fines and payments on admissions and on setting up shop. Smaller guilds were often grouped together, and produced one pageant amongst three or four of them. Even the unincorporated trades did not escape. In 1483 four Innholders undertook the responsibility of producing a pageant for eight years on condition of a fixed payment of 4d. from each innholder in the city. Exceptional expenses were sometimes met in exceptional ways. The Mercers gave free admission into their fraternity to one Thomas Drawswerd, on condition that he should ‘mak the Pagiant of the Dome ... of newe substanciale for vij marks and the old pageant.’[928] In 1501 the Cartwrights made four new wheels to a pageant, and were thereupon discharged from further charges for 6d. a year. Evidently the obligation of producing a pageant was considered an onerous one, and as trades rose and fell in York, the incidence of it upon this or that trade or trades was frequently altered. All such rearrangements came before the civic authorities, and many of them are upon record. Naturally they involved some corresponding revision, piecing together, or splitting up of plays (cf. p. 412). I only find one example of a play produced by any other body than a craft. The Hospital of St. Leonard produced the play of the Purification in 1415, but had ceased to do so some time before 1477. It is to be noted that in 1561 the Minstrels took their place with the other crafts, and became responsible for the Herod play[929].
Wyclif in his De Officio Pastorali, cap. 15 (1378), says that,—
‘herfore freris han tauȝt in Englond þe Paternoster in Engliȝcsh tunge, as men seyen in þe pleye of Yorke[930].’ The reference here is to a performance distinct from the Corpus Christi play. The preamble to a return of the ordinances and so forth of the guild ‘Orationis Domini,’ made in 1389, states that
‘Once upon a time, a Play setting forth the goodness of the Lord’s Prayer was played in the city of York; in which play all manner of vices and sins were held up to scorn, and the virtues were held up to praise.’
The guild was formed to perpetuate this play, and the members were bound to produce it and accompany it through the streets. In 1389 they had no possessions beyond the properties of the play and a chest. A computus of the guild for 1399 contains an entry of an old debt of 2s. 2d., owed by John Downom and his wife for entrance fee:—
‘Sed dictus Iohannes dicit se expendisse in diuersis expensis circa ludum Accidiae ex parte Ric. Walker ijˢ jᵈ, ideo de praedicto petit allocari[931].’
It would appear that by 1488 the guild had been converted to or absorbed in a guild of the Holy Trinity, which was moreover the craft-guild of the Merchants or Mercers. Certainly in that year this guild chose four pageant-masters to bring forth the Paternoster play. They were to bring in the pageants ‘within iiij days next after Corpus Christi Day[932].’ In 1488 the Paternoster play was presumably a variant for the usual Corpus Christi plays. It was similarly played on Corpus Christi day in 1558. The management was in the hands of one of the few unsuppressed guilds, that of St. Anthony; but the corporation gathered ‘pageant silver’ from the crafts and met the charges. A ‘bayn,’ or messenger, rode to proclaim the play on St. George’s day, and another on Whit Monday. Another performance took place on Corpus Christi day (now called ‘Thursday next after Trinitie Sonday’), 1572. The book was ‘perused, amended and corrected.’ Nevertheless, on July 30 the council sent a ‘trewe copie’ of it, at his request, to the Archbishop [Grindal] of York, and although in 1575 they sent a deputation to urge him to appoint a commission to reform ‘all suche the play bookes as perteyne this cittie now in his grace’s custodie,’ there is no proof that his grace complied.
As already stated, the guild of Corpus Christi had nothing to do with the regular craft-plays. But in 1446, William Revetor, a chantry priest and warden of the guild, bequeathed to it a ‘ludus incomparabilis’ called the ‘Crede play,’ to be performed every tenth year ‘in variis locis dictae civitatis.’ An inventory of 1465 includes:—
‘Liber vocatus Originale continens Articulos Fidei Catholicae in lingua anglicana, nuper scriptum, appreciatum xˡⁱ.
Et alius liber inveteratus de eodem ludo, cˢ.
Et alius liber de eodem anglice vocatus Crede Play continens xxij quaternos.’
There were also many banners and properties, amongst which
‘Et xij rotulae nuper scriptae cum articulis fidei catholicae, apprec’ iijˢ iiijᵈ.
Et una clavis pro sancto Petro cum ij peciis unius tunicae depictae, apprec’ xijᵈ.
Et x diademata pro Xp’o et apostolis cum una larva et aliis novem cheverons, vjˢ.’
Various performances of the Creed play are recorded. In 1483 it was given on Sunday, September 7, before Richard III, by order of the Council, ‘apon the cost of the most onest men of every parish in thys Cite.’ From 1495 decennial performances can be traced, generally about Lammas (August 1), and ‘at the common hall.’ In 1535 the Corpus Christi play proper was omitted, and the crafts contributed ‘pageant silver’ to the Creed play at Lammas. But they refused to give way to it again in 1545. The guild was suppressed in 1547, and the ‘original or regestre’ passed into the hands of the hospital of St. Thomas. In 1562 the corporation proposed the Creed play as a possible alternative for ‘th’ ystories of the old and new testament’ on St. Barnabas day; and in 1568 they again designed to replace the regular Corpus Christi play by it. But first they submitted it to the Dean of York, Matthew Hutton, who, in a letter still extant, advised that—
‘thogh it was plawsible to yeares ago, and wold now also of the ignorant sort be well liked, yet now in this happie time of the gospell, I knowe the learned will mislike it, and how the state will beare with it, I knowe not.’
Consequently the book was ‘delyveryd in agayn,’ and no more is heard of it.
Mr. Davies suggests that the play probably fell into twelve scenes, in each of which one of the apostles figured. If so, there is perhaps an allusion to a performance of it in a letter of Henry VIII to the justices of York in which he speaks of a riot which took place—
‘at the acting of a religious interlude of St. Thomas the Apostle made in the said city on the 23ʳᵈ of August now last past ... owing to the seditious conduct of certain papists who took a part in preparing for the said interlude.’
He requires them to imprison any who in ‘performing interludes which are founded on any portions of the Old or New Testament’ use language tending to a breach of the peace[933].
In April, 1554, the Council made an order for ‘Seynt George to be brought forth and ryde as hath been accustomed,’ and the following items in the accounts show that the personages in the procession were much the same as at Dublin (q.v.):—
‘to the waites for rydyng and playing before St. George and the play.’
‘to the porters for beryng of the pagyant, the dragon and St. Xp’ofer.’
‘to the King and Quene [of Dele] that playd.’
‘to the May [the Maid].’
‘to John Stamper for playing St. George[934].’
As the regular plays waned, the ‘show’ or ‘watch’ of armed men on Midsummer eve became important. There is an ordinance for it in 1581. In 1584 it took place in the morning, and in the afternoon John Grafton, a schoolmaster, gave at seven stations a play with ‘certaine compiled speaches,’ for which the council allowed him to have ‘a pageant frame.’ Apparently the Baker’s pageant was repaired for the purpose. In 1585 Grafton borrowed the pageants of the Skinners, Cooks, Tailors, Innholders, Bakers, and Dyers, and gave another play. Grafton’s account for 1585 mentions ‘the hearse,’ ‘the angell,’ ‘the Queene’s crowne,’ ‘the childe one of the furyes bare.’ He got iijˢ, vjˢ, viijᵈ for his pains[935].