To Sir Thomas Awdley, Lord Chancellor.
In most humble wise sheweth unto your goode Lordshippe your dayly orator John Yonge mercer, that whereas he with one John Slye, David Sotherne, and John Mounffeld, late servants unto the most gracious Queene Jane, abought a yere and 3 quarters past, to thentent for the further increase of lyvinge to travail into the north partes in exercising theire usuall feates of playinge in interludes, he your said orator, with his other companions aforesaid, hyred a gelding of oon Randolphe Starkey to beare there playing garments, paying for the use of the same gelding twenty pence weekley till there comyng home ageyne, at which time the said Starkey well and truly promysed to your said orator and other his said companions that the said gelding should be goode, and able to performe there journey where of trouthe the same geldinge was defectyve, and skarsly servyed them in there said journey, by the space of four wekes, by occasion whereof your said orator, with other his said companyons, susteyned great damadge, as may evidently appere to all that have experience in such travayles and affayres. Ageynst whom they can attayne small redress onles they shuld leve other their more necessary affayers to be undoon, yet nevertheless the said Starkey, intending to have more for the hyer of the said geldinge then of equitie is due, And also to charge your said orator of the hoolle hyer, where of trought he made his bargayne and receyved ernest for the hyer of the said geldinge, as well of thother thre aforenamed as of your said orator. He late commenced a playnt of det uppon the demande of twenty-four shillings only agaynst your said orator before the Sheriffes of London, who uppon the same caused hym to be arrested, in which accion he declared upon a graunte of payment of forty shillings for the said geldinge to be made by yor said orator sole, whereof he affyrmed hymself to be satisfied of sixteen shillings, wherewith yor said orator, having no lerned councill, pleaded that he owed him nothinge, &c.... In which Accyon your said Orator is nowe lyke to be condempned onles yor goode Lordshippes lefful favour be to hym shewed in this behalf. In consideracion whereof it may please the same to graunte a writ of Cerciorari to be directed unto the Lord Mayor and Sherevez of London commandinge theym by the same to remove the tenor and cause of youre saide orator’s arrest before your Lordship in the King’s Highe Courte of the Chancery at a certaine daye by your gracious Lordship to be lymytted, to thentent the cyrcumstances thereof maye be by your saide Lordeship examined and ordered according to equytie and good conscience. And your said orator shall ever more praye to God for the prosperous preservation of your goode Lordship in Honor.
Atkyns (attorney).
Further papers concerning this suit do not seem to have been preserved. But it gives the earliest picture yet known of “the glorious vagabonds who erstwhile carried fardels on their backs” under the title of “the Queen’s players.”
“Athenæum,” 24th January 1914.
XXIV
MARY’S CHAPEL ROYAL AND HER CORONATION PLAY
No previous sovereign had made on his coronation so sudden and complete a change in the Chapel Royal of his predecessor as Mary did. The Bishop of Norwich was the Dean; six priests replaced so many clerks and gentlemen; little boys to bear censers and crosses were introduced; the communion table became the altar once more; the English service was replaced by the Latin; the metrical Psalms were banished, and the old Psalters and Antiphonals took their place. Doubtless to the gentlemen of the Chapel who had taken the oath of fealty this latter change was welcome, from the Psalms sung in unison (for there is no mention of Crowley’s four parts having been used at Court) to the richer harmonies and more “curious” music of the old service. But Mary’s changes marked conservative, not revolutionary, ideas. She never thought her young brother old enough to understand or to judge for himself in matters of such great moment, and she wanted to conform to the customs of her progenitors on their accession in so far as she could.
Therefore, among other things, she ordered a play to be performed at her Coronation, and the “gentlemen of the Chapel Royal,” as was their wont, were to perform it.
Meanwhile her poet, whoever he was, must have taken his cue from a general caution. On 16th August the Privy Council prepared a “Proclamation for reformation of busy medlers in matters of religion, and for redresse of Prechers, printers, players.” This was printed[93] and circulated on 18th August, and treated of “the playing of Interludes and printing of false fond bookes, ballettes, rhymes, and other lewde treatises in the English tongue concerning matters now in Question and controversy.” No one was to play an interlude without the Queen’s licence in writing. Collier, “History of the Stage,” i, 154, says that “a play had been ordered on the occasion of her coronation, which, we may presume, was performed by the gentlemen of the Chapel.” But he says no more. Stowe does not further allude to it, and the name of the play is not known. Others state that it was postponed until Christmas. Therefore it is of some importance that certain definite facts should be recorded and preserved concerning it. Apparently the play was performed by the gentlemen of the Chapel, and their dresses, which had probably been prepared before, were given out to them on 30th September.
Among the papers subsidiary to the Wardrobe Accounts is a Royal Warrant (Excheq. Acc., 427, 5 (9)):