North Authorship Theory in Context: A Different Set of Parallel Columns.

North Authorship Theory in Context Series:

• The Exchequer and Stage Directions.
• A Different Set of Parallel Columns.
• “AROUND(30)” So What?

Dennis McCarthy acknowledges that the Henry VIII stage-direction and passages regarding the Blackfriars trial were borrowed from George Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey. The text was widely circulated as a manuscript book for nearly a hundred years. I follow McCarthy's own method [link] and provide the correspondence highlighted in colored letters and in parallel columns. I use multiple colors to try to simplify the comparison.

Cavendish Wolsey	Henry VIII
Ye shall understande, as I saide before, that there was a courte erected in the Black Friars in London, whereas sat these two cardinalls [Wolsey and Campeggio] for judges in the same.
First, there was a courte planted with tables and benches, in manner of a consistory, one seat raised higher (for the judges to sit in) than the other were. Then as it were in the middest of the saide judges [Wolsey and Campeggio], aloafte above them three degrees highe, was a cloath of estate hanged, with a chaire royall under the same, wherein sat the king; and besides him, some distaunce from him, sat the queene ; and under the judges feete sat the scribes, and other necessary officers for the execution of the process, and other things appertaining to such a courte. The chiefe scribe was Doctor Stevens after bishoppe of Winchester, and the apparitour, who was called doctor of the courte, was one Cooke, most commonly called Cooke of Winchester. Then, before the king and the judges, within the courte, sat the archbishoppe of Canterbury, doctor Warham, and all the other bishops. Then stoode at bothe endes within, the consellors learned in the spirituall lawes, as well the king's, as the queene's.	Trumpets, Sennet , and Cornets. Enter two Vergers , with short silver wands ; next them two Scribes in the habite of Doctors; after them, the Bishop of Canterbury alone; after him, the Bishops of Lincolne, Ely, Rochester, and S. Asaph: Next them, with some small distance , followes a Gentleman bearing the Purse, with the great Seale, and a Cardinals Hat: Then two Priests, bearing each a Silver Crosse: Then a Gentleman Usher bare-headed, accompanyed with a Sergeant at Armes, bearing a Silver Mace: Then two Gentlemen bearing two great Silver Pillers : After them, side by side, the two Cardinals, two Noblemen, with the Sword and Mace. The King takes place under the Cloth of State. The two Cardinalls sit under him as Judges. The Queene takes place some distance from the King. The Bishops place themselves on each side the Court in manner of a Consistory. Below them the Scribes. The Lords sit next the Bishops. The rest of the Attendants stand in convenient order about the Stage. Car. Whil'st our Commission from Rome is read, Let silence be commanded .

Then called he againe the queene by the name of "Katherine queene of Englande, come into the courte," who made no aunswer thereto, but rose incontinent out of her chaire, whereas she sat, and because she could not come to the king directly, for the distance severed betweene them, she toke paine to goe about by the courte, and came to the king, kneeling downe at his feete in the sight of all the courte and people, to whom she sayd in effect these words, in broken Englishe, as hereafter followeth.

Scribe. Say, Katherine Queene of England, Come into the Court. Crier. Katherine Queene of England , &c The Queene makes no answer, rises out of her Chaire, goes about the Court, comes to the King, and kneeles at his Feete. Then speakes.

“Sir," quoth she, " I beseeche you to doe me justice and right, and take some pitty upon me, for I am a poore woman and a straunger, borne out of your dominion, having here no indifferent counsell, and lesse assuraunce of friendship. Alas! Sir, what have I offended you, or what occaision of displeasure have I shewed you, intending thus to put me from you after this sorte?

Sir, I desire you do me Right and Justice, And to bestow your pitty on me; for I am a most poore Woman, and a Stranger, Borne out of your Dominions: having heere No Judge indifferent, nor no more assurance Of equall Friendship and Proceeding. Alas Sir: In what have I offended you? What cause Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure ,

These from Life of Cardinal Wolsey (1852), pages 126-7, 8, and Charlotte Porter's edition of Shakespeare's The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight (1912), pages 48-9. Next we repeat some of the description in the Henry VIII stage-direction comparing it to an earlier passage from Cavendish describing Wolsey's daily processions to his office (as it were).

Nowe shall ye understande that he had two crosse bearers and two pillar bearers.
Nowe will I declare unto you his order in going to Westminster Hall, dayly in the tearme season.... Thus went he downe through the hall with a sergeaunt of armes before him bearing a great mace of silver, and two gentlemen carrying of two great pillars of silver...	Then two Priests, bearing each a Silver Crosse: Then a Gentleman Usher bare-headed, accompanyed with a Sergeant at Armes, bearing a Silver Mace: Then two Gentlemen bearing two great Silver Pillers

These from Life of Cardinal Wolsey (1852), pages 32, 37, then, compared to some of the above lines repeated from Charlotte Porter's edition of Shakespeare's The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight (1912), pages 48-9.

As for the importance of knowing Tudor context, for all Thomas North's journal entry does indeed share a considerable number of scattered words (no extended phrases) with the pageant direction from Henry VIII, there is an explanation that is far more probable than North having written the stage direction for the play. First, most are common words regularly in the mouths of all the educated population of England. More particularly Diocesan Cathedrals in England (and all of western Europe to the best of my knowledge) all featured Consistories. Whoever was the presiding officer of the given Consistory sat — exactly as did the Pope in his diocese — in the center, on a raised “estate,” beneath a canopy suited to his rank. The King may well have taken to presiding officer's position as a step in declaring himself Head of the Church of England.

The lesser clergy sat in rank-order, starting with the judges, in lesser chairs, on descending levels. The emblem of office of a Verger in England, as in Rome, was a silver wand/rod. The bearing of crosses in all Consistory processions hardly needs explaining.

What is unique to the Henry VIII scene is the officers carrying “the purse” before the highest officials present. It is a detail, however, that neither appears in Cavendish nor the fragments provided us from the travel journal. I am not aware that this very English touch was ever part of a Papal Consistory (or any other Roman procession).

“The purse” contains the high officiants' seals which will formalize the decisions of the court. It is not mentioned in Cavendish, it would seem, or in North's Journal, but it would have been marched past all of the spectators at an English procession to a Consistory presided-over by a Chancellor or above.

One did not have to go to Rome to see the procession described in Henry VIII. Identical processions to Diocesan Consistories, open to the public, occurred regularly at St. Paul's, in London, and at the Canterbury and York cathedrals.

When history has noticed the scene from Henry VIII it has made the normal observation that it was written from out of Cavendish. This due to the fact that keys lines were taken verbatim, and others nearly verbatim, from the latter. The matches were not a word or two within 30 words but rather continuous matching strings of words.

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