therefore took up his residence at Dunstable, where he brought out the miracle-play of "St. Catherine," and borrowed from the sacrist of St. Albans some of the ecclesiastical vestments of the abbey to adorn his actors! On the following night, Geoffrey's house took fire, and the borrowed wardrobe perished in the flames; upon which, the said Geoffrey, considering it a judgment of Heaven, assumed the habitum religionis in good earnest, and subsequently becoming himself abbot of St. Albans, expired in the odour of sanctity, A.D. 1146.* This 'judgment," however, does not appear to have equally terrified the successors of Geoffrey in theatrical management; for in the" Manuel de Peché," a Norman-French poem,† written about the middle of the thirteenth century, the author charges the clergy not only with contriving and inventing miracle-plays, but says, they painted or disguised their faces with vizards, to act in them; and denounces as downright sacrilege the lending of any holy vestment, or horse, or harness, (most likely armour,) for the representation thereof. In the reign of Edward the Third, we find a glorious catalogue of dresses and properties furnished for the plays, maskings, or disguisings that took place when the King kept his Christmas in the Castle of Guilford; ‡ such as visors for men and for women, some to represent angels, "made with silver," mantles embroidered with heads of dragons, white tunics wrought with heads and wings of peacocks, others with heads and wings of swans, some painted with eyes of peacocks, and some embroidered with stars of gold and silver. These habits, however, were evidently so fantastic that it is probable they were assumed merely for a * Bulæus, Historia Universitatis Parisiensis. Paris, 1665, vol. ii. p. 225. + MS. Royal. 20 B. xiv. and Harl. Coll. 1701. Collier's Annals of the Stage, vol. i. p. 7. 9. Comp. J. Cooke, Provisoris Magnæ Gardarobæ, ab ann. 21 Edw. III. ad ann. 23. Membr. ix. Wharton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 72. Collier's Annals of the Stage, vol. i. p. 15. mumming, or dumb show,- a favourite entertainment of the middle ages. In the next reign, there is an entry in the wardrobe accounts, for "21 linen coifs, to represent men of the law with in the King's plays," at Christmas, in the twelfth year of his (Richard the Second's) reign, A.D. 1389. Imagine a play with twenty-one lawyers in it! But, genius of Ducrow! what is the next piece of information respecting dramatic pageantry which the annals of the English stage afford us? A chronicle in the Cotton Collection * gives a description of a performance at Windsor, before the Emperor Sigismond and King Henry the Fifth, during the visit of the former to England in 1416, founded on no less a subject than "St. George and the Dragon!" In the first part was exhibited the " armyng of St. George, an angel doing on his spurs;" in the second, St. George riding and fighting with the dragon, with his spear in his hand; and in the 66 third, St. George and the King's daughter leading the lamb in at the castle-gates. It is a question, we humbly conceive, whether "his Majesty's servants," in the year 1416, were not more splendidly and correctly attired than his Majesty's servants" in the year 1836. As far as the chivalric appointments went, indeed, it does not admit of a doubt; for nothing can be less like armour than the "leather conveniences" into which theatrical tailors stuff our modern representatives of the "mirrors of knighthood." The valuable labours of Mr. Wharton, in his "History of English Poetry," and of Mr. Payne Collier, in his "Annals of the Stage,' ," have brought to light many curious notices of the expenses attending the getting up of pageants and dramatic shows during the reigns of Henry the Sixth, Edward the Fourth, Richard the Third, and Henry the Seventh ; and the Chronicles of Hall and Holinshed are replete with descriptions of the gorgeous masqueradings of our eighth Harry and his splendid court. Grotesque effect, or mere magnificence, appear, however, to have been the principal objects in such exhibitions, which were little more than the disguisings and mummings we have before mentioned; but a roll in the Chapter-house at Westminster, examined by Mr. Collier, contains some particulars respecting the interludes performed at Richmond during the Christmas holidays, A.D. 1514-15. In one, called "The Triumph of Love and Beauty," written and acted by Master William Cornyshe, and others of the King's Chapel, and the children of the Chapel, "Venus and Bewte dyd tryumph over al ther enemys, and tamed a salvadge man and a lyon, that was made very rare and naturall; and moreover Venus dyd synge a song with Bewte, which was lykyd of al that harde yt, every staffe endyng after this sorte: "Bowe you downe, and doo your deutye, Kings attend when we doo call.'" * 3 vols. small 8vo. London, 1831. 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. There is also Noah's, we have no evidence before us. 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. |