William Cecil's Masques for Two Queens.

The first “disguising” of which we would seem to have an explicit record was

...a disguysing of the Rude upplandisshe people compleyning on hir wyves , with the boystous aunswere of hir wyves devised by [L]ydegate at the Request of the Countre Roullour Brys slayne at Loviers...¹

Alain Renoir reminds us that

the Mumming at Hertford acts as a bridge between two eras: it looks back to Walter Map and Chaucer, and forward to Gammer Gurton's Needle.²

That said, there is no official record of Brys death but the loss and subsequent siege of Loviers took place in 1430-31. The disguising is thought to have been performed before King Henry IV at some time shortly after 1430.

I have recently made a distinction — in my Shakespeare's The Tempest: a Wedding Masque for Susan de Vere — between the mummings, disguisings, pageants, etc., and masques-proper, regardless that all tended to utilize masks until well into the 17^th century. We will return to the subject momentarily.

Feuillerat — from whose exceptional work we have taken our first quote — confirms the date and place and passes on to the subject of the first Masters of the Revels (Bureau Des Menus – Plaisirs). The first holders of this office held it only for the duration of a single holiday or festival during the reign of King Henry VII. The following list is provided:

1485/6, Epiphanie ... Richard Pudsey .

1486, Christmas...… Richard Pudsey 2 .

1491 , Christmas...... Walter Alwyn .

1492, Christmas....... Walter Alwyn .

1493 , June ...............Peche .

1493, ? Christmas ... Jaques Haute .

1494 , Christmas ..... Jaques Haute .

1501 , October …… Jaques Haute et William Pawne .

1501 , ? .....................John Atkinson .

1502/3 , ? ..................Lewes Adam .

1507, Christmas ….. Master Wentworth

Notably, all of these names are known — inasmuch as they are known at all — as low level servants of the king's household. It is not until 1494 that the term Master of Revels was first used.

The term ‘Master of the Revels' is in none of these cases used. But in an ‘Order for sitting in the King's great Chamber,’ dated Dec. 31, 1494 (Ordinances and Regulations, Soc. Antiq. 113), it is laid down that “if the master of revells be there, he may sit with the chaplains or with the squires or gentlemen ushers.”³

The social level of the master of the revels was raised under Henry VIII who took his revels rather more seriously. He chose gentlemen of his household. Each served for a term of one year. A staff was involved. The master's role was managerial.

It was not until 1545 — shortly before Henry VIII's death — that the first permanent master was appointed: “Sir Thomas Cawarden, one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber.”⁴ Therefore the title was formalized: Magistrum Jocorum Revelorum & Mascorum nostrorum (Master of our Pastimes Revels and Masques). The term of the appointment was pro Termino Vitæ suæ (for life). The salary was Decem Librarum Sterlingorum (₤10) paid ad Festa Sancti Michaelis Archangeli & Paschæ per æquales Portiones (in equal portions semi-annually at Michaelmas and Easter).⁵

Cawarden's term ended in 1559. Among his last duties was to provide entertainment around the coronation of Elizabeth.

Sir Thomas Cawarden lived just long enough to superintend the festivities at Elizabeth's coronation. He died at Nonsuch on August 29, 1559, and was buried at Bletchingley in Surrey, where he had a great house, costing ₤500 a year, with forty liveried retainers under special licence, on September 5.⁶

He was scceeded in January 18, 1560 by Sir Thomas Benger.

The duties of the office began by 1571 to be distributed to volunteer members of the Court. Benger's term was cut short in 1572 for reasons unknown. He died some five years later.

Some years later, on July 24, 1579, Edward Tilney was next named Master of the Revels. Tilney served until August 20, 1610.

Whatever the history of Benger, during the preparations for a projected visit of the Queens of England and Scotland, at Nottingham Castle, during the summer of 1562, three pageants were devised. While the visit was canceled, we have the descriptions of the pageants. This because they were in the papers of Sir William Cecil, Primary Secretary to the Queen, rather than the archives of the Revels Office.

Of course, they are generally referred to as “masques”. With names such as “Discorde” and “False Reporte,” for the featured characters, however, and a single, un-choreographed dance, they are properly described as “pageants”.

As it turns out, we have our best description of the papers from Collier.

So certain did Sir W. Cecill consider the meeting of the two Queens in May, that he employed a poet of the day (it is not stated whom) to draw up a scheme of the entertainment, in the nature of emblematical masks and pageants, to be exhibited before them: this scheme is the ‘ Devices’ above mentioned, preserved among the papers of Sir W. Cecill...

*

This document is furnished with dates and marginal notes in the hand-writing of Sir W. Cecill, from which we gain the interesting fact, not elsewhere recorded, that Richard Edwards (whose name will again occur presently) was the author of a ‘tragedy’ (possibly his Damon and Pythias) acted before the Queen, at Christmas 1564-5, by the children of the Chapel, of whom he was then master.’⁷

It seems, at least when the entertainment involved two queens, that Cecil took the role of Master of the Revels. Such ad hoc arrangements may not have been uncommon.

There is no sign that he wrote the precis but it seems likely that this was only the final clean copy of a process in which he directed the poet to make changes he thought necessary.

One can hardly resist picturing Polonius with all the confidence of having acted in a play at university.

Polonius. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.

*

Pol. This is too long.

*

First Player. ' But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen,—'

Hamlet. 'The mobled queen?'

Pol. That's good; 'mobled queen ' is good.

1 Feuillerat, Albert. Le Bureau Des Menus – Plaisirs (1910). 13. Citing (Ms. Trin. Coll . Camb . R. 3. 20 , pp. 40-48 , publié par E. P. Hammond , dans Anglia , Bd . 22 , pp. 364-374).

2 Renoir, Alain. “On the Date of John Lydgate's Mumming at Hertford”.  Philologia Vol. 4 (1963) p. 141-143

3 Chambers, E. K. The Medieval Stage (1903). I.404n. Citing Campbell, Materials for Hist. of Hen. VII (R.S.), et alii.

4Chambers, 405. Citing Foedera XV. 62.

5Rymer, Thomas. Foedera XV.62&3.

6Chambers, E. K. Notes on the History of the Revels Office Under the Tudors (1906). 18.

7Collier, John Payne. The History of English Dramatic Poetry (1879). I177-8, 183.

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