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the most expensive mayoral pageant of the Renaissance, and, despite the propaganda that is construed negatively today, it was arguably
finest(Bergeron Civic 179).
a sustained moral allegory(Heinemann 127). It relies on theme and symbolism rather than plot, and the theme that is
sustainedthroughout the pageant is
Truth prevails over Error.
No other pageant-dramatist(Bergeron Civic 182). Lawrence Manley says thatgives greater evidence of understanding the traditional iconographical presentation of allegorical figures. It is not merely a portrait, however, for it has a dramatic function: to sharpen the contrast between good and evil
(Manley 282). InMiddleton ’s pageants, sponsored by such Puritan-dominated companies as the Grocers or the Skinners, were especially frank in their allusions to contemporary vices threatening the City rulers
cast mists, and to bring the Lord Mayor bribes.
The Lord Mayor’s Show was unlike a stage play in that the pageant was
peripatetic, and no one member of the audience saw it from start to
finish. There was a need to write in a simple style and incorporate
repetitive action (like the struggle between Error and Truth with the
mist), so that the cause of dramatic unity
is
strengthened in
movement throughout the processional of all the devices; thus the audience at almost any point has a chance to understand the dramatic action(Bergeron Civic 186).
Unity in
white silkwhich is
powdered with stars of goldand Truth is adorned in
white satin, and wears a
diadem of stars, while Error wears
ash-colour silke.
Taking the conflict of the light/dark imagery a step further are the
Moors. The King of the Moors makes reference to his dark face, but
states that Truth in [his] soul sets up the light of grace
. It seems
that this King of Moors and his queen had been converted to
Christianity by English merchants traveling in their land
(183), and they rejoice in their
new found religion. As well as setting up a hierarchy with Good
over
Evil
, in this scene of
Christianover
Pagan. In this sense,
Perhaps judged his audience rightly
and
wrote in such a style that might procure for him future work (125). If this was
This text is based on a collation of the two editions of
The two original editions were printed by
Unlilke other
assaultedby Error and his champion, Envy. Truth arrives with
her celestial handmaidens, the Graces and Virtuesto give the Lord Mayor some advice.
sailingon dry land towards the party.
London’s Triumphant Mount, veiled in Error’s mist and guarded by his evil monsters. Truth drives the fog away to reveal London accompanied by Religion, Liberality, and Perfect Love.
Triumphmoves to the cross in Cheap. Error continuously shrouds
London’s Triumphant Mountin his mist, and Truth keeps banishing it. This battle continues all the way to the Standard.
perform those yearly ceremonial rights which ancient and grave order hath determined, with Error and Truth shrouding and uncovering the Mount along the way.
the entrance of his lordship’s gate near Leadenhall, where Error is vanquished once and for all in a spectacular fireworks show.
While much is known about the mechanics of the court masque, the mechanics of the Lord Mayor’s Show is an under-investigated field. In
the fire-workethat defeated Error, but what exactly is meant by
the fireworkis unknown. The direction in the text for Error’s fiery defeat states that
a Flame shootes from the head of Zeale, which fastening upon the / chariot of Error sets it on fire, and all the beasts that are joynde to it.Robert Withington says that Error and his companions were
obviously not alive(Withington 35), suggesting that effigies had replaced them in the chariot. This theory is sound because Error does not speak in the last scene of the Pageant, and an effigy could easily be substituted for the character of Error while everyone was distracted by the speeches of London and Truth. But how did Zeal shoot a flame from his head? Zeal could not have been an effigy, because he makes a speech as he shoots Error, saying
Then here’s to the destruction of the seate, / There’s nothing seene of thee but fire shall eate. With the danger involved, it seems unlikely that fireworks would have been rigged to an actor’s head. Perhaps Zeal shot some sort of symbolic flame towards Error’s chariot, and someone would have been standing by to start the fireworks and light the chariot on fire.
Somewhat easier to explain is the staging of the five islands that first
appear in the river Thames. These pieces of the set
, presumably
constructed by trolleys
(Unwin
279). By using trolleys, one could build a boat on which an
The last problem with staging
thick, sulphurous darkness, and as
a fog or mist. In reality, the
mistwas just material that Error used to shroud
London’s Triumphant Mountover and over again. The reason Truth and Error raise and lower the shroud all the way from the cross in Cheap to the end of the pageant is so that all the onlookers get to see what is going on. This action basically sums up the entire plot of the play -- Truth wins over Error -- so it is important that the audience sees it. Had the shroud been raised only once, the majority of Londoners watching the Show would have missed its message.
Civic pageantry does not refer to court masques or plays produced in
commercial theatres. Civic pageantry refers to entertainments that were
generally accessible to the public
(Bergeron Civic 2). Examples of civic pageantry include the
Royal Entry and the Lord Mayor’s Show. David M.
Bergeron also points out that [t]he involvement of the trade guilds and
the cities in preparation and production of many of these entertainments
also accounts for the ‘civic’ nature of the shows
(3). The civic pageant, like the court
masque, was designed for a specific occasion
and therefore had a
limited lifespan. When the occasion ended, so did the dramatic life of
the pageant
(3).
The Lord Mayor’s Show, celebrated on the morrow next after Simon and
Judes day
, was probably the most familiar form of civic pageantry to a
Londoner of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. The Show has its
origins in another civic pageant called
a sort of civic torchlight tattoo(Blackham 41). The Watch, which was
part folk tradition, part military exercise, part civic display, consisted of a
night-time procession through the City streetsof
armed men, bowmen, cresset light bearers,(Lancashire 81). As with its successor, the Lord Mayor’s Show, the livery companies or trade guilds were involved in The Midsummer Watch. Each company was responsible for paying its cresset-bearers, archers, and men in harness, and the Companymusicians, and morris dancers
to whom the mayor and sheriffs belonged provided their pageants, giants, and morris dancers(Unwin 269). The expense of The Watch to the Companies was significantly less than the expense of a Lord Mayor’s Show. Compare the £3 that the Carpenters spent in
The Midsummer Watch was suppressed by royal edict in traditional Catholic
dates and elements
(Lancashire
83). Instead the typical Watch pageantry
translated into the
secular Lord Mayor’s Show (83), and it became the one great civic pageant of the year
(Unwin 274), almost
immediately after the suppression of The Watch (Manley 265).
Though the office of Lord Mayor has existed since Lord Mayor was not
adopted until
(The Lord Mayor’s Show 2002),
and Robert Withington suggests that the first definite Lord Mayor’s
Show
was not until 1553 (Withington
13), though some sort of procession had been going on since
much earlier. In be presented to the Sovereign
for approval and
(The Lord Mayor’s Show 2002), and so the
tradition of the procession to Westminster
began. In fact, the original
Before the mid-fifteenth century, the journey [to Westminster] was normally made entirely by
land
(Lancashire 82). It was
not until the barge that he sat in
making him the
burn on the water
,originator of the fire-barge, which afterwards became a regular feature
of all pageants
(Unwin 275).
Eventually, all the Companies bought or hired barges for the procession
on the Thames (Blackham 45),
which progressed in the traditional hierarchy
of the guilds (Knowles 166). Even if a Company
was not a Great Company, its barge was still a matter of guild pride
(166).
The Lord Mayor’s Shows were [c]ommissioned and paid for by the
bachelors of the company
(Manley 261), who were elected because they
were the wealthiest men of the yeomanry, which was the general body of
freemen of a livery company. The Lord Mayor’s Show was the Company’s
gift to one of its illustrious members
(261). As time went on, the
The Companies showed their wealth and affluence through the extravagance
of their pageant. This resulted in a healthy rivalry
, which also
generate[d] expensive productions
(Bergeron Civic 138). For example, the
the characters were given long speeches(Blackham 43). Eventually, the pageants had about a
half-dozen different scenesand
numerous personages, all of which George Unwin calls
natural product[s] of the Elizabethan age(Unwin 275).
The first pageant only the speeches spoken by the characters in
the pageant
(Withington 23),
unlike
well-known dramatist [was] responsible for the entertainment(Bergeron Civic 131). Other widely known writers who penned civic pageants were
The pageant theatre
, says David M. Bergeron, is the quintessence of
emblematic theatre
(Bergeron Civic
2), and the writer who was used to creating pieces for the
theatre would have to take a different approach when writing civic
pageantry. The pageant had to be accessible and understandable to those
people watching, and therefore could not be plot-based, and if there is
little or no plot, then the dramatic burden of the pageant must fall on
theme
(7). The theme of
Truth conquers Error. Anyone watching the pageant at any point on the route would be able to discern this theme from the emblematic costumes and the simple action, even without being able to hear the speeches.
The Elizabethan and Jacobean eras were sympathetic to and indeed
educated to symbolism
(Bergeron
Civic 2), and therefore playwrights and pageantwrights could
use symbols and emblems to tell the crowd what exactly the pageant was
about. At the same time, the symbols were used to reinforce the
greatness of the host Company (like the five islands in
oligarchic dominationof the Companies (Manley 267). The Lord Mayor’s Show
celebrat[ed] the power and the values of the City’s innermost mercantile elite(284). As much as it was a day of fun for the average Londoner, the Show was also used as propaganda for the Companies.
The reign of was the
Golden Age of the Lord Mayor’s Show
(Unwin 277). As the seventeenth century
progressed,the pageants reached the height of their extravagance (Blackham 43), only to move in a
new direction during the Restoration. The Shows of the Restoration were
comical, and replaced the stilted speeches
of the Renaissance with
jocular songs and clowning
(43-44). Raymond D. Tumbleson says the shift from serious to
silly is because [b]y
(Tumbleson
54).
The livery companies were the most important organizations in London in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and even more important to
London, perhaps, than the monarchy. The livery companies were
responsible in part for the extreme wealth in London, and even provided
the monarch with money. Robert J. Blackham writes, The livery
companies, with their political and municipal power, are peculiar to
London. No other city has permitted such a development of its mistries
and trades, nowhere else in England have chartered associations of the
kind attained such wealth and power
(Blackham 2).
The livery companies originated from medieval organizations called
voluntary associations formed originally for
mutual protection, with religious, benevolent and social elements
(Grocers’ 1). The guilds were a
mixture of worldly and religious ideals
and there was a strong sense
of Christian brotherhood
between the members of a particular guild
(Blackham 2). Being a
member of a Worshipful Company was a source of pride and dignity for
the old world trader
(3).
The guilds were not just for social elements
and mutual protection
,
they were also about money. The guildsmen were not just merchants,
traders and craftsmen
, they were also bankers and financiers
(13) helping to establish London
as the commercial and financial capital of the world. commercial capital
from Antwerp (13).
Regarding the commercial aspect of the guilds, Blackham says they were
designed to represent the interests of
(12). The guilds
protected its members by being able to regulate the establishment of
businesses in the crafts and trades they controlled
(Rappaport 29). No one could practice a
certain trade except the members of the corresponding Company (Blackham 13), and this
protected the employer from the incompetency of the artisan
(11). The Company controlled the
intake of apprentices and the rates of wages, and no journeyman was
permitted to work outside his Company (13). The Company was committed to
protecting the journeyman, who was a trained workman
, by preventing
his being undersold in the labour market by an unlimited number of
competitors
(11).
It is no surprise, with their great financial and political power, that
the livery companies were the most important social organizations in
sixteenth-century London
(Rappaport
26). By the early seventeenth century, two-thirds of the men
in London were citizens of a livery company (53), and the responsibilities of the
companies had been extended to providing relief for the poor, collecting
taxes, and organizing pageants (26).
The first twelve companies eventually came to be known as The Twelve
Great Companies
. They are: the Mercers, the Grocers (for whom
In fact, citizens, or a simple ceremony at the
hall
, and become a member of the Company (Rappaport 23-4). Soon after, the former
apprentice (usually now a journeyman), would go to Guildhall where he would be sworn as a
citizen or a freeman of London (24).
With his new found freedom, the citizen acquired a number of rights
that the engage independently
in economic activity
(29). It
is interesting to note that, while there was no law preventing women
from accepting the freedom, it is clear they were excluded from the
right and privileges of citizens
(49). In practice, they were excluded from becoming
apprentices, with a few exceptions. There were only seventy-three women
enrolled as apprentices during the entire sixteenth century (37), and in fact, the Weavers’
Company made it policy in not to take on women apprentices
(37).
Apprentices were the bottom of the social hierarchy within the livery
companies (232). Above them
were the journeymen, the householders, the liverymen, and the assistants
at the very top (217). The
apprentices could work their way up through the ranks, but first they
had to complete their apprenticeship. Apprenticed to a master for a
certain number of years, the apprentice had a set of rules he was
expected to follow. He was not allowed to marry or commit fornication
,
nor take part in any unlawful games
like dice or cards, and he was not
supposed to go to the taverns or the theatres (234). The master provided his apprentice
with clothing, as well as room and board (234). When the apprentice completed his
term, the master also paid the fees for making him a free man and a
member of the company
(235).
Above the apprentices in the hierarchy were the journeymen, who worked
for wages, and householders, who ran their own shops (221). These two groups formed a
sub-organization in the Company called illegal fraternities of journeymen in late
medieval London
(219). These
journeymen capitalized on labour shortages, working only for double or
triple the normal wage (219),
and threatening strikes against masters who employed foreigners
(220). It was like a union for
journeymen. Something happened during the fifteenth century, in which
the fraternities underwent a striking transformation
(220), and by the sixteenth century London’s
yeomanries included journeymen and householders -- the employees and
employers
(220).
The yeomanry of the Renaissance was a somewhat autonomous organization
within a Company (219), and
included the men who were not elite
enough to be in the livery
,
which was the other sub-organization within the Company. The livery
included only one-fifth of all members, making the yeomanry the bulk of
the company (219). The
yeomanry was able to stay somewhat autonomous
by providing its own
income through the collection of quarterage dues
(Archer 108). Among the responsibilities of
the yeomanry was enforcing many of the regulations governing a
company’s craft or trade
(Rappaport
224).
In the Great Companies, there was a separate livery of the yeomanry
called ‘the
(226).
This special livery would be created only on the year when a member of
that company was going to serve as Lord Mayor (226). The bachelors were responsible for
attend[ing] upon the Lord Mayor at his going to Westminster to take his oath and certain other days of like
service
(226). On the day of
the Lord Mayor’s Show, the bachelors would also be required to dress in
special costume (226). Being
elected to marked an important distinction between
the men of substance who might eventually attain the livery of their
company and the lesser artisans and shopkeeps who never would
(Manley 262-63).
Movement was possible between the members of the yeomanry and the elite
livery. One could be promoted from the yeomanry to the livery (Rappaport 221), but only the
wealthiest householders were chosen
(256). It was expensive to stay in the
livery. Upon being chosen, one would have to pay an admission fee (257), and buy a fur-lined
cloak and satin hood
for formal occasions (218). If a liveryman’s funds were
dwindling, he could find himself back in the yeomanry (258).
The responsibilities of a liveryman included serving on committees which
performed important administrative, [and] deliberative
as well as overseeing lawsuits and appeals for action to
the crown or parliament
(255). The elite liverymen, the
Since the Companies were so wealthy, the Tudor monarchy was heavily
dependent on the good will of the City
because the City’s wealth was a
source of financing more dependable than Parliament
(Manley 219). When a monarch demanded money
from a Company, it would collect from its members to meet the sum of the
request. When free of interest, and then was graciously
pleased to lend at 8 per cent!
(10). The Stuart family, however, was the worst for borrowing
huge sums of money and seldom repaying it. To fund supplied the money
first from their common stock, then by assessment, at first voluntary,
subsequently compulsory of individual members
(10).
Despite being constantly squeezed for money, the Companies were still
able to partake in good works, such as establishing almshouses and
providing pensions (Archer
120). The Companies would also two- to four-years
interest-free loans of ten to fifty pounds to young men in need of
capital to begin businesses
(Rappaport 39).
The livery companies have been described as the rock upon which the life
of the City was built
(Grocers’
1), and their presence certainly helped London achieve great
status during the Renaissance.
The Grocers’ Company, one of the Twelve Great Companies, emerged from a
much older Company -- the Pepperers. The Pepperers were first mentioned
in recognised as
general traders who bought and sold
(2). They were also the
guild that was in charge of weighing merchandise in the City (2), and they had access to
warehouses and shops for the purpose of garbling or cleaning spices,
drugs and kindred commodities
(2). cleansing
good
that were sold by weight, like spices and drugs (6).
The first mention of the Grocers is in Grossers
(6). It
was not until the Grocers of
London (Les Grocers de Loundres)
(6).
As was customary, the Grocers had a patron saint -- credited with
the power of curing skin diseases
(5). The reason for adopting
The Grocers Company was very wealthy during the reign of
As a salute to the Grocers’ Company,
permanent feature of the Lord Mayor’s Shows in the seventeenth century(271), as it served to indicate the Grocers’
association with the East from which they imported their drugs and spices(Blackham 41).
The Grocers were fond of
brickmason and landlord
, according to David M. Holmes (xvi), or a bricklayer and
builder
, according to Margot Heinemann (49). William died in
His mother remarried a broken grocer
named
At the age of eighteen, accompany the players
in hopes of making some money (50), and ended up marrying
Critical opinion of cynical
, amoral
, disgusting
, boring
,
and profoundly serious moral fables
, and his tragedies, according to
T.S. Eliot, have no point of view
(qtd. in Heinemann 1). Some sense a strong
Calvinist bias
in his work (1), while others feel his work suggests that he came from a
moderate Puritan background
(51).
During his early years as a dramatist, particularly for the Children of St.
Paul’s
for whom he did six plays
(63).
sharp satire on royal policy, was the
greatest box-office success of the whole Jacobean period(Heinemann 2). With such success came fame, or, in
ordered it to be suppressed and the dramatist punished(130). As a result of this decree,
finest and his most elaboratepageant, as well as the
most expensive mayoral pageant of the Renaissance(Bergeron Civic 179).
It is interesting to note that apparrell and porters
.
hurl a few barbs at his rival
in
The Grocers’ Company hired
the result is a rather undistinguished work(186). Distinguished or not,
some twenty plays, as well as several court masques (Heinemann vii). In addition to his creative work,