Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T08:31:45.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - ‘An example of courtesy and liberality’: great households and performance

from PART II - ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Suzane Westfall
Edited by
Jane Milling  and
Peter Thomson
Jane Milling
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Peter Thomson
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Get access

Summary

A prince ought also to show himself a patron of ability, and to honour the proficient in every art …Further, he ought to entertain the people with festivals and spectacles at convenient seasons of the year; …and showhimself an example of courtesy and liberality….

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Twenty years ago, a volume on early modern theatre would not have contained an essay or chapter about household performances; very likely the term ‘household’ would not even appear in the index. But ironically, an awareness of household theatre and noble patronage has always silently haunted practically every volume about Renaissance drama. Whenever a performance at court is described, whenever a travelling troupe of players is mentioned, whenever minstrels are noted, whenever an interlude is analysed, whenever the antics of a fool are admired, household performance haunts the writing. So, it turns out we have been covertly discussing this topic for some time; all it takes is a slight shift of the lens, a change from background to foreground to produce this essay and other studies of patronage.

In our own time, the students and scholars of early modern theatre have focused primarily on the plays of the public stages, but long before the existence of the Blackfriars, the Rose, or the great Globe itself, private household auspices had offered cultural experiences that differed significantly from their vastly more famous progeny. Records of Early English Drama (REED) publications are verifying that during the peak years of the London stage, performances sponsored by noble patrons in the provinces, at households and towns, were increasing, which challenges the popular notion that the public stage replaced the private. So theatre historians, perhaps under the influence of New Historicism, have turned their attention to matters contextual to printed plays, and consequently such venues as the great households of England have become a focus of study rather than an incidental footnote.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of British Theatre , pp. 200 - 223
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anglo, S., Spectacle, Pageantry, and Early Tudor Policy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Astington, John, English Court Theatre, 1558–1642, Cambridge University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Bergeron, David, ‘ Women as patrons of English Renaissance drama ’, in Lytle, and Orgel, (eds.), Patronage in the Renaissance .
Blackley, F. D. and Hermansen, G. (eds.), The Household Book of Queen Isabella of England for the Fifth Regnal Year of Edward II, 8th July 1311 to 7th July 1312, Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Blackstone, Mary, ‘ Patrons and Elizabethan dramatic companies ’, in McGee, C. E. (ed.), Elizabethan Theatre X, Port Credit, Ontario: P. D. Meany, 1988.Google Scholar
Dawson, G. E. (ed.), Records of Plays and Players in Kent, 1450–1642, Malone Society Collections VII , Oxford University Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Dutton, Richard, Mastering the Revels: the Regulation and Censorship of English Renaissance Drama, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmison, Frederick, Tudor Food and Pastimes, London: Ernest Benn, 1964.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford, Local Knowledge, New York: Harper Collins, 1983.Google Scholar
Grose, Francis (comp.), ‘ The Earl of Northumberland's Household Book ’, The Antiquarian Repertory, vol. 4 , London: E. Jeffery, 1809.Google Scholar
Gurr, Andrew, The Shakespearian Playing Companies, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Edward, The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, London: G. Woodfall, 1809.Google Scholar
Honigmann, E. A. J., Shakespeare: the ‘Lost Years’, Manchester University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Lancashire, Ian, ‘ Orders for Twelfth Day and Night circa 1515 in the Second Northumberland Household Book ’, English Literary Renaissance 10 ( 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasocki, David, ‘ Professional recorder playing in England, 1500–1740 ’, Early Music 10 : 1 ( 1982).Google Scholar
McMillin, S. and MacLean, S., The Queen's Men and their Plays, Cambridge University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Myers, Alec R. (ed.), The Household Book of Edward IV: the Black Book and the Ordinance of 1478, Manchester University Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Nelson, A. H., Early Cambridge Theatres, Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Riggio, Milla Cozart, The ‘Wisdom’ Symposium, New York: AMS Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Southern, Richard, The Staging of Plays before Shakespeare, London: Faber and Faber, 1973.Google Scholar
Streitberger, W. R., Court Revels 1485–1559, University of Toronto Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westfall, Suzanne R., ‘ The chapel: theatrical performances in early Tudor great households ’, English Literary Renaissance 18 : 2 ( 1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westfall, Suzanne R., Patrons and Performance: Early Tudor Household Revels, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Paul Whitfield, Theatre and Reformation: Protestantism, Patronage, and Playing in Tudor England, Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
White, Paul Whitfield and Westfall, Suzanne (eds.), Shakespeare and Theatrical Patronage in Early Modern England, Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×