Shakespeare's environment

by C. C. Stopes

FOOTNOTES:

[95] This phrase is repeated every time.

[96] A “peece” does not here mean an indefinite quantity, but a known length for each material, 6, 12, 18, or 36 yards.

XXVII
ELIZABETH’S FOOLS AND DWARFS

It has been presumed that Elizabeth found her life interesting enough, and her Court attractive enough, to be able to do without the spice of the Court Fool or the contrasts of the Court Dwarf. But though no facetiae have come down to us as memorials of their existence in contemporary letters or State Papers, it is evident that she sometimes, at least, had such attendants. From the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, we can see that Mary and Elizabeth supported William Somers, their father’s Fool, until his death. (He was buried in St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, on 15th June 1560.)

Scrappy notes are scattered through the Warrants and Wardrobe Accounts in the Lord Chamberlain’s Books, and give us a few details. There is one series of these in English, and another in Latin, richly garnished with English borrowings. In later papers we find references to “the Fool,” and other allusions to unclassified persons who may have acted as such. There are “Sara Snow,”[97] “Monarcho,” “William Shenton,” “a little Blackamoor,” and “Thomazina, our Woman Dwarf.” There is also a mysterious “Ipolyta the Tartarian,” who has a warrant dormant granted her for sets of robes and garments every year, dated 4 and 5 Elizabeth, in which she is described as “Ipolyta the Tartarian, our dearly beloved woman.” Some of the particular payments for her robes and kirtles and the richness of her clothes show she was dressed on a level with the Court ladies. About the same time are granted clothes to another woman, and between the two is mentioned unconnectedly “The Foole.” This is the first time any fool is mentioned. Such rarely are referred to without a name, if it is so done here. It is possible it may refer to one of the women. It has been said that “there have been no women fools.” But I answered that statement in my paper in this journal on “Jane, the Queen’s Fool” (12th August 1905). To understand the present reference I must give it here in full:

Sara Snow.	For twelve yardes of black satten to make her a gowne, and 2 yardes of velvet to gard the same.
The Foole.	Item, for 2 yardes of crimson sarcenet delivered to Henry Herne to lyne the said Foles hosen.
Ipolyta the Tartarian.	Item, to the said Henry Herne for 8 paire of cloth hosen for her, all of our great Warderobe. Item, to the said Garret Johnson for six paire of Spanish Lether shoes for her.—“L. C.,” v, 34, p. 17.
Ipolyta.	Item, to the said Adam Blande for furring of two cassocks of cloth for Ipolyta the Tartarian with 12 black coney skins from our great wardrobe.—p. 43.

On page 41 is another of those entries which suggest more than they tell, the first notice of “Monarcho”:

To Thomas Ludwell for making of a gowne of red grograyne chamblet for an Italian named Monarcho garded with three yardes of blue velvet with buttons of copper gold, a doublet for him of striped sackcloth faced with red taffeta,

lined with fustian furred, and “a hat of blue taffeta striped with gold lace.”

On page 240 there were a number of similar robes entered “for Monarcho,” and after these,

Item, for making of a Gascon coate for a lytle Blackamore of white Taffata, cut and lyned under with tincel, striped down with gold and silver, and lined with buckram and bayes, poynted with poynts and ribands ... and faced with taffata ... with a white taffata doublet with gold and silver lace, silver buttons, faced with Taffata; a payre of Gascons, a pair of knit hose, a paire of white shoes and pantoufles, a dozen of poynts, and a paire of gaiters.

On page 266 appears:

The Foole. Item, for making of a Gaskyn cote for a foole of graie cloth, striped with sylke lace sewed with sylke, with buttons and poyntynge riband faced with taffata, lined with fustian; for making of a doublet for him of Striped Sackcloth trymmed with silk lace, faced with taffeta lined with fustian.... Item, for making a hatt for the said foole of gray clothe, layd upon with sundry devices of sylke lace and a feather trimmed with gold and spangles. For a pair of gaskins for a foole of gray clothe trimmed with lace of divers colours.

On page 310:

Monarcho ... a gowne of gold Tincell for Monarcho guarded with yellow velvet layd on with lace, faced with chaungeable macadowe ... a doublet for him of striped sackcloth trymmed with lace ... a jerkin [for him] of chaungeable mockado striped above with billymente lace, furred with 44 black coney skynnes and 10 white lamb skynnes.

On page 312:

Item, for making of a coate of freyze for William Shenton our Foole, cut and lined underneath with mockado ... for making of a doblet of striped sackcloth trymmed with lace ... a pair of gascons of mockado trimmed all over with billyment lace, 2 paire of knit stockings, garters, and girdle of leven taffata and 2 knit cappes.

The resemblance between the dress of “William Shenton our Foole” and that of “Monarcho” makes me think the latter also of the class Fool.

Some have suggested that Richard Tarleton acted the Fool to Elizabeth, but he was very different. He was the chief of the Queen’s company of players, of whom Stow says “for a wondrous pleasant extemporal wit, he was the wonder of his time.”

After many years of accounts for “Ipolyta the Tartarian” she disappears, and her place in the books is filled by another (v. 36), even more gorgeously robed, in 1577-8 (page 110):

The Dwarf. Item, for making of two gownes, thone of white damask, thother of blew chamblet [for a woman dwarf] for two peticoats, thone of mockado, thother of red kersey [for the said Dwarf], laced with blew silk, upperbodied with mockado.

Page 174, 1578-9:

For making of a straight bodied gown of chamblet for Thomasina, a woman dwarf, garded with velvet, laid on with lace of crimson and white silk ... a paire of sleves of Carnation taffata cut [for her], lined with sarcenet; a peticoat of red mockado striped with copper gold, laid over with lace ... a straight bodied gown of watched taffeta with hanging sleeves laid with lace of counterfeit silver and silk ... a paire of sleeves of orange collored Taffata ... a peticoat of stamell coloured cloth garded with velvet laid on with lace of crimson sylke with bodies of crimson taffata.

The materials become richer as the years go on. 1580:

A gowne of blacke wrought vellat, the grounde yellow sattin, for Thomasina the dwarfe, layde with counterfeit silver lace ... a straight bodyed gown of yellow satten striped with silver ... a gowne of orrendge coloured chamblet garded with blacke vellat ... 3 paire of sleves of white satin (p. 239).

She was in mourning in 1585.

From the other series of accounts in Latin an even fuller description can be gained of the increasing gorgeousness of “Thomasina, our Woman dwarf”:

a toga of white satin with gold lace and ribbon, the sleeves jagged and lined with carnation satin.

In 1589 she had a

gown of carnation and black fygured satin lined with silver lace, a stomacher and sleeves of white satten cut and lined with silver lace; a gowne of changeable silk grograine with 2 paire of sleeves, and a stomacher and sleeves of white sattin, fringed with gold lace; a petycoat of changeable tuft-taffeta with 3 gold lace about, the bodyes carnation satin.

The following year she had a similar gown of tuft taffeta laced about with Venice silver, the bodice and sleeves wrought all over with like lace. The next gown for “Thomasina Muliercula” was a variety

in yelow vellat laced about with Venise silver, the sleeves cutt and drawne out with cobweb lawn, a stomacher of white satin lined with sarcenet laced with gold lace ... the bodyes of carnation satten.

Another year she had a gown of carnation velvet with silk lace, cut, and drawn out with cobweb lawn and tinsel, sleeves of white satin laced with gold. The price of the material is given in this series. In 1590 she had a blue velvet dress, seven yards, at 24s. the yard; the next year a carnation velvet of same price, richly adorned, sleeves of white satin and gold lace; a loose gown of black damask, with a pair of sleeves of tawny satin. In 1592 there is “a gowne of tawny silk grograine at 16s. the yard, sleeves of white satin”; next year a yellow velvet again. In 1594 we find

a haire coloured velvet gown and hanging sleeves wrought with silver, white satin showes laced with gold lace, a gown of white taffeta lined with satin tincel; a gowne of willow-coloured velvet at 22s. a yard.

She was in flame-coloured silk in 1596, next year in black velvet and black silk, and the following year in purple tuft taffeta, as if she had been in mourning. In 1600, after all the honourable ladies of the Court, appears “Thomasina our Woman Dwarf,” and the supply allowed to her is noted. The following volume in this series seems to have been lost.

But in another series she is entered still as “Thomazina Muliercula,” 43-44 Elizabeth, on which occasion she had a “robe of satin tawny with sleeves of cut satin lined with gold,” etc. This series runs through five volumes, but I am afraid of giving references, they have changed so often since I began to go through the whole of the books twelve years ago. They used to be L.C. II. 22, etc. I thought the names which I have selected worth noting, as they may hereafter explain some recondite allusions. I remember having seen “Monarcho” mentioned in contemporary literature, but forget the reference.[98] I have found no further notices of William Shenton, nor any further information about Thomasina. She disappears from the Lord Chamberlain’s books with her royal mistress, and she is resuscitated nowhere else. She evidently did nothing to distinguish herself for good or bad. But she lived longer in her office than any of the others, and she adds a feature to our picture of Court life during the later years of Elizabeth.

“Athenæum,” 16th August 1913.