Lord Mayor’s Shows

List documents mentioning Lord Mayor’s Shows

The Lord Mayor’s Show came into being in 1215 when King John granted a charter allowing the citizens to elect their own mayor on the condition that the mayor journeyed to Westminster to be presented or shown to the King and to swear allegiance to the Crown (Reid 1). As Lawrence Manley observes in Literature and Culture in Early Modern England, throughout the eight-hundred-year history of the London mayoralty, some form of ceremony has accompanied the annual inauguration (Manley 212). This ceremony, however, did not become a show in the form of a civic pageant until the mid-sixteenth century (Bergeron 123). These new pageants gradually replaced the Midsummer Shows originally presented by the trade guilds. In turn, the guilds began to compete with one another to see which company could produce the most elaborate pageant (Bergeron 123). Although earlier pageants were largely religious in content (Hutton 188), subsequent pageants incorporated mythology, history, and moral allegory. As Bergeron emphasizes, these pageants frequently suggest the basic morality tension: the conflict between virtue and vice (Bergeron 138).

Comparable to the royal entry, the Lord Mayor’s show was a procession through London. In contrast to the royal entry, however, which moved east to west from one destination to another, the Lord Mayor’s show was circular, beginning at the Guildhall and returning there to conclude the festivities. The guilds would commission playwrights to create various tableaux that were presented to the mayoral party along the route. The show in the simplest form […] would […] [contain] only one device […] but elaboration set in, and thus the number of devices increased, and entertainment on the Thames was added (Bergeron 123). In 1613, The Triumphs of Truth complicated the traditional actor/audience division by having a character speak directly to the Mayor thus drawing him into the remaining tableaux (Middleton 970).

With these developments, the most common route became a course from Guildhall along Soper Lane to the Thames. The Mayor proceeded by boat to Westminster, returned to the city along the river, landed at Paul’s Wharf and advanced to St. Paul’s Churchyard. Then, the entourage moved along Cheapside to the Little Conduit, passed the Standard, and returned to Guildhall via Laurence Lane. Before retiring to his home, the Mayor revisited St. Paul’s Cathedral to bring the evening to a close (Marshall and Campbell; Manley 226-227).

References

Citation
Bergeron, David M. English Civic Pageantry 1558–1642. London: Edward Arnold, 1971. Print.
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Citation
Hutton, Ronald. The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400-1700. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.
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- Lord Mayor’s Shows
Introduction to The Triumphs of Truth. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 05 May 2022, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/TRIU1_critical.htm.
Citation
Manley, Lawrence. Literature and Culture in Early Modern London. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. Print.
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Citation
Middleton, Thomas. The Triumphs of Truth. London, 1613. Ed. David M. Bergeron. Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works. Ed. Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino. Oxford: Clarendon, 2007. 968–976.
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Citation
Reid, Dominic. History of the Lord Mayor’s Show. The Lord Mayor’s Show, 2008.
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- Lord Mayor’s Shows

Cite this page

MLA citation

Joslin, Dalyce. Lord Mayor’s Shows. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 05 May 2022, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SHOW2.htm.

Chicago citation

Joslin, Dalyce. Lord Mayor’s Shows. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed May 05, 2022. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SHOW2.htm.

APA citation

Joslin, D. 2022. Lord Mayor’s Shows. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 7.0). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/7.0/SHOW2.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

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A1  - Joslin, Dalyce
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
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T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
ET  - 7.0
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/05/05
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SHOW2.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/SHOW2.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#JOSL1"><surname>Joslin</surname>, <forename>Dalyce</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">Lord Mayor’s Shows</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, Edition <edition>7.0</edition>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2022-05-05">05 May 2022</date>, <ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SHOW2.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SHOW2.htm</ref>.</bibl>

Personography

Amogha Lakshmi Halepuram Sridhar

ALHS

Research Assistant, 2020-present. Amogha Lakshmi Halepuram Sridhar is a fourth year student at University of Victoria, studying English and History. Her research interests include Early Modern Theatre and adaptations, decolonialist writing, and Modernist poetry.
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Kate LeBere

KL

Project Manager, 2020-2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019-2020. Research Assistant, 2018-2020. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English at the University of Victoria in 2020. She published papers in The Corvette (2018), The Albatross (2019), and PLVS VLTRA (2020) and presented at the English Undergraduate Conference (2019), Qualicum History Conference (2020), and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute’s Project Management in the Humanities Conference (2021). While her primary research focus was sixteenth and seventeenth century England, she completed her honours thesis on Soviet ballet during the Russian Cultural Revolution. During her time at MoEML, Kate made significant contributions to the 1598 and 1633 editions of Stow’s Survey of London, old-spelling anthology of mayoral shows, and old-spelling library texts. She authored the MoEML’s first Project Management Manual and quickstart guidelines for new employees and helped standardize the Personography and Bibliography. She is currently a student at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool, working on her masters in library and information science.
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Janelle Jenstad

JJ

Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and PI of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. She has taught at Queen’s University, the Summer Academy at the Stratford Festival, the University of Windsor, and the University of Victoria. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media (Routledge). She has prepared a documentary edition of John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Renaissance and Reformation,Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism, and The Silver Society Journal. Her book chapters have appeared (or will appear) in Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society (Brill, 2004), Shakespeare, Language and the Stage, The Fifth Wall: Approaches to Shakespeare from Criticism, Performance and Theatre Studies (Arden/Thomson Learning, 2005), Approaches to Teaching Othello (Modern Language Association, 2005), Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2007), New Directions in the Geohumanities: Art, Text, and History at the Edge of Place (Routledge, 2011), Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter, 2016), Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives (MLA, 2015), Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana, 2016), Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota, 2017), and Rethinking Shakespeare’s Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018).
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- Jenstad, Janelle and Joseph Takeda. Making the RA Matter: Pedagogy, Interface, and Practices. Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. Ed. Jentery Sayers. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2018. Print.
- Jenstad, Janelle. Building a Gazetteer for Early Modern London, 1550-1650. Placing Names. Ed. Merrick Lex Berman, Ruth Mostern, and Humphrey Southall. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2016. 129-145.
- Jenstad, Janelle. The Burse and the Merchant’s Purse: Coin, Credit, and the Nation in Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody. The Elizabethan Theatre XV. Ed. C.E. McGee and A.L. Magnusson. Toronto: P.D. Meany, 2002. 181–202. Print.
- Jenstad, Janelle. The City Cannot Hold You: Social Conversion in the Goldsmith’s Shop. Early Modern Literary Studies 8.2 (2002): 5.1–26..
- Jenstad, Janelle. The Gouldesmythes Storehowse: Early Evidence for Specialisation. The Silver Society Journal 10 (1998): 40–43.
- Jenstad, Janelle. Lying-in Like a Countess: The Lisle Letters, the Cecil Family, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34 (2004): 373–403. doi:10.1215/10829636–34–2–373.
- Jenstad, Janelle. Public Glory, Private Gilt: The Goldsmiths’ Company and the Spectacle of Punishment. Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society. Ed. Anne Goldgar and Robert Frost. Leiden: Brill, 2004. 191–217. Print.
- Jenstad, Janelle. Smock Secrets: Birth and Women’s Mysteries on the Early Modern Stage. Performing Maternity in Early Modern England. Ed. Katherine Moncrief and Kathryn McPherson. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 87–99. Print.
- Jenstad, Janelle. Using Early Modern Maps in Literary Studies: Views and Caveats from London. GeoHumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. Ed. Michael Dear, James Ketchum, Sarah Luria, and Doug Richardson. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.
- Jenstad, Janelle. Versioning John Stow’s A Survey of London, or, What’s New in 1618 and 1633?. Janelle Jenstad Blog. https://janellejenstad.com/2013/03/20/versioning-john-stows-a-survey-of-london-or-whats-new-in-1618-and-1633/.
- Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Internet Shakespeare Editions. U of Victoria. http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/MV/.
- Stow, John. A SVRVAY OF LONDON. Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, Increase, Moderne estate, and description of that Citie, written in the yeare 1598. by Iohn Stow Citizen of London. Also an Apologie (or defence) against the opinion of some men, concerning that Citie, the greatnesse thereof. With an Appendix, containing in Latine, Libellum de situ & nobilitate Londini: written by William Fitzstephen, in the raigne of Henry the second. Ed. Janelle Jenstad and the MoEML Team. MoEML. Transcribed.
Martin D. Holmes

MDH

Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.
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Dalyce Joslin

DJ

Student contributor enrolled in English 520: Representations of London in Early Modern Literature and Culture at the University of Victoria in Summer 2008. BA Honours English, University of Victoria. MA English, University of Victoria. Teaching assistant, 2005–2007. Dalyce Joslin’s research interests include representations of identity, place, and diaspora in Canadian literature. Now that she has completed her MA, Dalyce spends much of her time at the Camosun College library reference desk helping students with their research needs.
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- Release Notes for MoEML v.7.0
John I

John This numeral is a Roman numeral. The Arabic equivalent is 1I King of England Lackland

(b. 1167, d. 1216)

King of England 1199-1216.
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Locations

Westminster
Westminster is mentioned in the following documents:
London

The city of London, not to be confused with the allegorical character (London).
London is mentioned in the following documents:
Guildhall
Guildhall is mentioned in the following documents:
The Thames

Perhaps more than any other geophysical feature, the Thames river has directly affected London’s growth and rise to prominence; historically, the city’s economic, political, and military importance was dependent on its riverine location. As a tidal river, connected to the North Sea, the Thames allowed for transportation to and from the outside world; and, as the longest river in England, bordering on nine counties, it linked London to the country’s interior. Indeed, without the Thames, London would not exist as one of Europe’s most influential cities. The Thames, however, is notable for its dichotomous nature: it is both a natural phenomenon and a cultural construct; it lives in geological time but has been the measure of human history; and the city was built around the river, but the river has been reshaped by the city and its inhabitants.
The Thames is mentioned in the following documents:
Soper Lane

Soper Lane was located in the Cordwainers Street Ward just west of Walbrook Street and south of Cheapside Street. Soper Lane was home to many of the soap makers and shoemakers of the city (Stow 1:251). Soper Lane was on the processional route for the lord mayor’s shows.
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Paul’s Wharf

According to Schofield, Paul’s Wharf is one of the oldest wharfs on the Thames (Schofield 181). Located in both Castle Baynard Ward and Queenhithe Ward, Paul’s Wharf was situated near St. Paul’s Cathedral and St. Benet. Since Paul’s Wharf was only blocks away from St. Paul’s Cathedral, the clergy used the wharf as a point of travel.
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St. Paul’s Churchyard

Surrounding St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Paul’s Churchyard has had a multi-faceted history in use and function, being the location of burial, crime, public gathering, and celebration. Before its destruction during the civil war, St. Paul’s Cross was located in the middle of the churchyard, providing a place for preaching and the delivery of Papal edicts (Thornbury).
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Cheapside Street

Cheapside Street, one of the most important streets in early modern London, ran east-west between the Great Conduit at the foot of Old Jewry to the Little Conduit by St. Paul’s churchyard. The terminus of all the northbound streets from the river, the broad expanse of Cheapside Street separated the northern wards from the southern wards. It was lined with buildings three, four, and even five stories tall, whose shopfronts were open to the light and set out with attractive displays of luxury commodities (Weinreb and Hibbert 148). Cheapside Street was the centre of London’s wealth, with many mercers’ and goldsmiths’ shops located there. It was also the most sacred stretch of the processional route, being traced both by the linear east-west route of a royal entry and by the circular route of the annual mayoral procession.
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Little Conduit (Cheapside)

The Little Conduit (Cheapside), also known as the Pissing Conduit, stood at the western end of Cheapside Street outside the north corner of Paul’s Churchyard. On the Agas map, one can see two water cans on the ground just to the right of the conduit.
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The Standard (Cheapside)
The Standard (Cheapside) is mentioned in the following documents:
St. Laurence Lane (Guildhall)

In early modern London, there were two Laurence Lanes: St. Lawrence Poultney Lane, which served as the boundary between Downgate Ward and Candlewick Ward, and St. Laurence Lane, Guildhall which was in Cheap ward (Harben). The latter Laurence Lane, to which this page refers, held great importance in the procession of mayoral pageants. It ran north-south, connecting Cheapside at the south and Cateaton Street (labelled on the Agas map as Ketton St.) in the north. It ran parallel between Milk Street to the west and Ironmonger Lane to the east. It is drawn correctly on the Agas map and is labelled as S. Laurence lane.
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St. Paul’s Cathedral

St. Paul’s Cathedral was—and remains—an important church in London. In 962, while London was occupied by the Danes, St. Paul’s monastery was burnt and raised anew. The church survived the Norman conquest of 1066, but in 1087 it was burnt again. An ambitious Bishop named Maurice took the opportunity to build a new St. Paul’s, even petitioning the king to offer a piece of land belonging to one of his castles (Times 115). The building Maurice initiated would become the cathedral of St. Paul’s which survived until the Great Fire of London.
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Lord Mayor’s Shows

References

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Personography

ALHS

Roles played in the project

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Amogha Lakshmi Halepuram Sridhar is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:

Amogha Lakshmi Halepuram Sridhar is mentioned in the following documents:

KL

Roles played in the project

Contributions by this author

Kate LeBere is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:

Kate LeBere is mentioned in the following documents:

JJ

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Janelle Jenstad is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:

Janelle Jenstad is mentioned in the following documents:

Janelle Jenstad authored or edited the following items in MoEML’s bibliography:

MDH

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Martin D. Holmes is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:

Martin D. Holmes is mentioned in the following documents:

DJ

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Dalyce Joslin is mentioned in the following documents:

John This numeral is a Roman numeral. The Arabic equivalent is 1I King of England Lackland

John I is mentioned in the following documents:

Locations

Westminster is mentioned in the following documents:

London is mentioned in the following documents:

Guildhall is mentioned in the following documents:

The Thames is mentioned in the following documents:

Soper Lane is mentioned in the following documents:

Paul’s Wharf is mentioned in the following documents:

St. Paul’s Churchyard is mentioned in the following documents:

Cheapside Street is mentioned in the following documents:

Little Conduit (Cheapside) is mentioned in the following documents:

The Standard (Cheapside) is mentioned in the following documents:

St. Laurence Lane (Guildhall) is mentioned in the following documents:

St. Paul’s Cathedral is mentioned in the following documents: