Dramatic texts and records of Britain : a chronological topography to 1558

736 Pages·029.056 MB·English

by  Ian Lancashire

DRAMATIC TEXTS AND RECORDS OF BRITAIN
In 1800 entries this valuable reference work covers texts and records of
dramatic activity for about 400 sites in Britain from Roman times to
1558. Grouped in sections - Texts listed chronologically; Records of
England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Other, classified by county, site,
and date; and Doubtful Texts and Records - the entries summarize the
contents of each record and give bibliographic information.
Professor Lancashire presents a comprehensive survey of almost every
type of literary and historical record, document, and work: civic,
church, guild, monastic, and royal court minutes and financial
accounts; national records - Chancery, Parliament, Privy Council,
Exchequer; royal proclamations; wills; local court rolls; jest-books,
poems, prose treatises, sermons; archaeological remains, artifacts, illus-
trations. He brings together works in several normally unrelated
fields: Roman theatre in Britain; medieval drama as such, including
the Corpus Christi play and the moral play; court revels of the Tudors,
and of their predecessors in England and Scotland; and finally Latin
and Greek drama as played in Oxford and Cambridge colleges.
An introduction outlines the history of early drama in Britain. Appen-
dixes include indexes of about 335 towns or patrons with travelling
players, complete with rough itineraries; about 180 playwrights; and
about 320 playing places and buildings. There are illustrations, four
maps, and a large general subject and name index.
IAN LANCASHIRE is Professor of English at the University of Toronto.
STUDIES IN EARLY ENGLISH DRAMA 1
General Editor: J.A.B. Somerset
IAN LANCASHIRE
Dramatic Texts and
Records of Britain:
A Chronological Topography
to 1558
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto and Buffalo
www.utppublishing.com
iversity of Toronto Press 1984
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-5592-3
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lancashire, Ian.
Dramatic texts and records of Britain
(Studies in early English drama)
ISBN 0-8020-5592-3
1. English drama - To 1500 - Indexes. 2. English
drama - Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -
Indexes. I. Title. II. Series.
Z2014.D7L36 1983 016.822 C83-099088-7
Publication of this work has been assisted by a grant from the
Publications Fund of the University of Toronto Press
For A.C. Cawley
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Contents
INTRODUCTION ix
Form and Scope ix
A Brief History x
Areas for Further Research xxxi
Dating xxxiii
List of Play-Texts xxxiii
Topographical Survey of Records xxxiv
Bibliographical Sources xxxvi
Doubtful Texts and Records xxxvii
Appendixes xxxvii
How to Use this Guide xxxviii
General Index xxxix
Acknowledgments xxxix
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS xliii
ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS Ixvii
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF DRAMATIC TEXTS 3
TOPOGRAPHICAL LISTS OF DRAMATIC RECORDS 33
List of Sites 35
England 45
Wales 302
Scotland 305
Ireland 327
Other 331
Doubtful Texts and Records 334
viii Contents
APPENDIXES 347
I An Index of Playing Companies to 1558 349
A Companies Identified by Place-names 349
B Companies Identified by Patron or Player 373
II An Index of Playwrights 409
III An Index of Playing Places and Buildings to 1558 429
IV Chronological List of Salient Dates and Entry Numbers 461
GENERAL INDEX 479
Introduction
FORM AND SCOPE
1 This topographical guide to British dramatic texts and records up to
the accession of Elizabeth I is less than a full descriptive calendar and
more than a finding list. Each entry has four parts: (1) a reference num-
ber; (2) a date or chronological limits; (3) the name of a text; or the
record of a dramatic representation or show, a playing place, a play-
wright, visits of acting troupes, an official act of control over playing, or
other evidence relating to plays and their production; and (4) a brief
bibliographical reference to the most reliable published editions of the
text or the record, or - lacking these - to manuscript sources. I have tried
to be complete up to 1558. For isolated records, my entries are fuller than
for bulky, complex records, from which, rather than attempting a full
descriptive summary, I have gleaned essential facts, useful for indexing
purposes, and directed students to the edited materials themselves, which
tend to resist simplification or paraphrase.
2 The known body of dramatic texts and records reveals intense,
varied, and widespread dramatic activity in these island kingdoms both
in the Roman occupation from the first to fifth centuries and in the
Middle Ages and early Renaissance from the tenth century onward. Up
to the reign of Elizabeth there are about 160 existing dramatic texts or
fragments, evidence of dramatic activity or interest from about 395 sites
or dioceses, and additional documentation for 334 itinerant playing
troupes, of which 205 are identified by their home site and 129 by their
patron or principal player. E.K. Chambers, who last collected this evi-
dence-in appendixes w and X of his Mediaeval Stage (n, 329-461), pub-
lished eighty years ago - has less than seventy sites. Since then, theatre