66 The costume of the fair performers in this interlude is dimly shadowed forth by the items in an account discovered with this paper. Venus, it appears, was arrayed in a surcoat and mantle of yellow sarcenet, adorned with hearts and wings of silver; and a piece of cypress silk, valued at 4s., was spent and employed for the tyer (attire) of the lady called Bewte, and the other half for the lady called Venus." * A taste more fanciful than classical seems, therefore, to have prevailed at this period; and the antiquary alone would understand, or be interested in, the long dry list of" Garments for Players," quoted also by Mr. Collier, † and dated the 7th of Henry the Eighth. They appear to have been principally intended for miracle-plays, and were composed of the richest stuffs, cloths of gold and silver, crimson and blue velvets and satins, &c.; and the list terminates with "Item, cappes of divers fassions for players, and of divers colours, xviii. of sattin and sarcenet, olde peces. Item, certain peces of garments in a coofer (coffer), with borders of embroidery, being loose to some, to alter garments from tyme to tyme, as shal be thought convenient." In the thirteenth year of the same reign (1522), the Lord of Misrule paid, amongst other charges, for disguisings, &c. at Christmas, To a man at Datchet, for playing the Fryer before the Princesse (Mary) 8d. gar "Item. For making a payre of sloppys for Jakes when he played the Shipman; and a blewe garment made lyke harness (armour) for the same Jakys, and another ment for Master Renyngton, 12d.' The said Master Jakes, or Jack, or whatever his name might be, was therefore dressed in the loose breeches, called slops, worn at this period by sailors; but whether the shipman he represented was supposed to be of his own time, or of * Annals of the Stage, vol. i. p. 65-6. Household Expenses of the Princess Mary, Chapterhouse, Westminster. Collier's Annals, vol. i. p. 9. Noah's, we have no evidence before us. There is also an item, "Paid for mendyng of Adam's garments that was brokyn, 4d." If this Adam was not the player himself, we must suppose it was a miracle-play on "The Creation" that was performed; in which case we must hope it was after the expulsion from Paradise that Adam's garments were broken. An entry in the same account of "8d. paid to a man at Wyndsore, for killing of a calfe before my lady's grace, behynde a clothe," Mr. Collier thinks inexplicable unless we knew the story of the play. It was most probably that of the "Prodigal Son," which has furnished the subject for a drama in our own days. If so, the killing of a real fatted calf was indeed a vigorous adherence to the sacred original. Under the date 1527,* we find an entry for "divers necessaries bought for the trymyng of the Father of Heaven!" which establishes the curious fact that, even at that time, the Creator was introduced as a character in a pageant, in the same manner as he had been in the miracle-plays. St. George, likewise, figured in the spectacle; and 4s. were paid for the work of two tailors for two days upon his coat. Cavendish, in his "Life of Cardinal Wolsey," mentions an interlude played at Greenwich, in Latin and French, the apparel for which was "of such exceeding riches that it passeth his capacity to expound ;" and the original account of it by Gibson † furnishes us with the following enumeration of the singular dresses and characters in it. We shall modernise the spelling for the accommodation of our readers. "First, an orator in apparel of gold; a poet in apparel of cloth of gold; Religion, Ecclesia, Veritas, like novices, in garments of silk, and veils of lawn and cypress silk; Heresy, False-Interpretation, Corruptio scriptoris, like ladies of Bohemia, apparelled in garments of silk of divers colours; the heretic Luther, like a party friar, in russet damask and black taffeta; Luther's wife, * Folio volume in Chapter-house, Westminster. Collier's Annals, vol. i. p. 99. † Offic. Copy, Chapter-house. Collier, vol. i. p. 107-9. -a most like a 'frow' of Spires in Germany, in red silk; Peter, Paul, and James, in three habits of white sarcenet, with three red mantles, and hairs (wigs) of silver of Damaske,* and pelyuns (whatever they may be) of scarlet,mysterious apostolic costume, of which the perukes are by no means the least extraordinary portion; a cardinal in his apparel; two sergeants in rich apparel; the Dauphin and his brother, in coats of velvet embroidered with gold, and caps of satin bound with velvet; a messenger in tinsel satin; six men in gowns of green sarcenet; six woman in gowns of crimson sarcenet; War, in rich cloth of gold, and feathers, armed; four Germans in apparel all cut and slit, of silk (that is, slashed in the full German fashion of that time); Lady Peace, in lady's apparel, all white and rich; and Lady Quietness, and Dame Tranquillity, richly beseen in lady's apparel.” A part of this "apparel," it appears, had been used in the preceding month of May; but a vast deal of it was new and costly, including "8 beards of gold, and 6 of silver set on vizors," and the hire of hairs (wigs) for the ladies, besides "the hire of a circlet, and a rich paste with the attire thereto." We might fill volumes with similiar descriptions; but the above is quite sufficient to illustrate the state of dramatic costume at this period, and to show that little or no progress had been made from the time of Edward the Third towards propriety of habiliments, which, in the eyes of all sorts of artists of the middle ages, consisted in clothing real personages of all eras according to the fashion of the passing hour, and imaginary ones in meaningless splendour, or allego. rical garments of so wild a fancy that, without their Wigs, called in those times "hairs," and "chevelers," (chevelures) are frequently described as made with silk, or gold and silver stuff. In a moral, called "Mind, Will, and Understanding," (Digby MSS. No. 133, in the Bodleian Library) Wisdom is represented with a beard of gold, (Esculapius was so described by the ancients), a cheveler or periwig on his head. "Four heares of silk, and foure garlandes of flowres," are mentioned in the Lansdown MSS. No. 59. Temp. Eliz. A.D. 1589. names were written upon them (by no means an uncommon practice), they must have been walking puzzles to all but the inventor. 66 and " With the reign of Elizabeth, the drama assumed a more regular shape ; and in the year 1571, we read of the representation of six plays before the Queen,* the expense of getting up which, together with six masques, amounted to 1558l. 17s. 5d. The plays were entitled, Lady Barbara;"" Effiginia" (a tragedy); “Ajax and Ulysses;" "Narcissus ;" ""Cloridon and Radiamanta;" Paris and Vienna ;" and, amongst the properties bought and made for them and the masques, are mentioned, horse-tails, hobby-horses, branches of silk, sceptres, wheat-staves, bodies of men in timber, dishes for devils' eyes, devices for hell and hell mouth, (the latter a favourite dramatic property in those days,) bows, bills, dags, swords, spears, fire-works, and twenty-one vizards with long beards, and six Turks' vizards. In the play of "Narcissus," a fox was let loose in the court, and pursued by dogs; the charge for which was 20s. and 8d. The cost for the counterfeit thunder and lightning was 22s. The vizards and beards we have mentioned were hired, it appears, from one Thomas Gylles, a person whose trade it was to let out apparel for public and private entertainments; for in this same year, 1571, he made a complaint in writing to Sir W. Cecil † that the yeoman of the Queen's revels injured his business, and the Queen's dresses, by improperly and for hire allowing them to be taken out of the office, in order to be worn at marriages, banquets, &c. in town and country. prays, therefore, that they may be taken to pieces after they have been worn at court, and subjoins a list of twenty-one instances in which he can prove that the apparel of the revels had been thus let out to hire. Some of the entries are curious, as they prove the universality of pageants at marriage-festivals; for instance, the fifteenth He * Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. iii. p. 364. Collier's Annals, vol. p. 196. Lansdown MSS. No. 13. Collier, vol. i. p. 198. charge is, that the yeoman of the revels lent the red cloth of gold gowns to a tailor marrying in the Black Friars on the 15th of September; and the very next on the list, that he lent the copper cloth of gold gowns which were last made, and another mask, into the country for the marriage of the daughter of Lord Montague. Upon such occasions, therefore, Joan was dressed as fine as my lady. Strutt, in his " Horda Angel Cynan," vol. iii. has given a print representing one of these marriage-festival masques or pageants. Annexed is a specimen from it of a Mercury, and Diana, &c. In the next year, 1572, an item occurs, " for the hire of armour for setting forth of divers playes ;"* and Discord, in a collar and shackles, appears to have been a prominent character in some entertainments produced out of compliment to the French ambassador. † In 1573-4, the following plays were acted at Whitehall by the servants of the Earl of Leicester, Lord *Lansdown MSS. No. 9. + Collier, vol. i. p. 206. Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. iii. p. 375. |