At the Court of James I. both King and Queen maintained a fool; and we find the latter paying thirteen shillings a week “for the diet and lodging of Tom Derry,” who seems to have been held of some importance, since a gallery at Somerset House where he used to loiter and make jokes was named after him. We find Sir Thomas Jermyn, Sir Ralph Sheldon, and Thomas Badger mentioned as “fools or buffoons,” and on Sir Edward Zouch, Sir George Goring, and Sir John Finett was bestowed the honour of being “the chief and master fools.” Archie Armstrong was a special favourite of James, and seems to have been on familiar terms with him, and Howell thus writes of him: “Our cousin Archie hath more privilege than any; for he often goes with his fool’s coat when the Infanta is with her meninas and ladies of honour, and keeps a blowing and a blustering among them, and flirts out what he lists.” After the death of James he passed into the service of Charles, but his fall came through his insulting Laud—whom he hated—by saying the following grace in his presence: “Great praise be to God, and little laud to the devil.”
For this offence Archie was taken before the King, and despite his pleading his privilege of jester, he was punished, as the following order, dated March 11, 1637. will show:—
“It is this day ordered by his Majesty that Archibald Armstrong, the King’s fool, for certain scandalous words of a high nature, spoken by him against the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, his Grace, and proved to be uttered by him by two witnesses, shall have his coat pulled over his head, and be discharged of the King’s service, and banished the Court, for which the Lord Chamberlain of the King’s household is prayed and required to give order to be executed.” And immediately the same was put into force, the King himself being present when Archie’s coat was stripped from him.
At the Court of Charles II., Tom Killigrew, whom Pepys styles “a merry droll, but a gentleman of great esteem with the King,” seems to have been in much requisition as a jester; and under February 13, 1667-68, the diarist makes this entry: “Mr. Brisband tells me, in discourse, that Tom Killigrew hath a fee out of the wardrobe for cap and bells, under the title of the King’s Foole or Jester, and may revile or jeer anybody, the greatest person without offence, by the privilege of his place.” For a time he is said to have been the most conspicuous man at Court, and to have kept up the traditions of his class by his eccentric pranks. One day he appeared before Charles in the disguise of a pilgrim, whereupon his Majesty inquired, “Whither away?”
“I am going to hell,” replied Killigrew, “to ask the devil to send back Oliver Cromwell to take charge of the affairs of England; for, as to his successor, he is always employed in other business.”
The patronage bestowed by Queen Anne on Tom d’Urfey, the song-writer of her era, resembled that extended by the sister queens, Mary and Elizabeth, to their dramatic buffoons, Heywood and Tarleton. After dinner D’Urfey took his stand by the sideboard at the time of dessert, to repeat political gibes or doggerel ballads, so framed as to flatter some of the well-known prejudices of his royal mistress.
CHAPTER XX
ROYALTY AND THE DRAMA
It is affirmed that the ex-monarch Dionysius died of excess of joy at receiving intelligence that a tragedy of his own had been awarded a poetical prize at a public competition. Whatever the truth of this story, there can be no doubt that, even in its primitive form, the monarch, like his subjects, interested himself in the production and performance of the drama. At an early period in our own history the courts of our kings and the castles of the great earls and barons “were crowded with the performers of the secular places, where they were well received and handsomely rewarded.”[133] Thus Eleanora of Aquitaine, queen of Henry II., patronised representations nearly allied to the regular drama, and we find Peter of Blois congratulating his brother William on his tragedy of Flaura and Marcus played before the Queen. Richard III., when Duke of Gloucester, entertained a company of players, and in the reign of Henry VII. dramatic performances seem to have been frequent throughout England. When Margaret, the King’s eldest daughter, was sent to Scotland on her marriage with James IV., John English was the principal member of a company of players forming part of the retinue of the Princess. Sometime after the birth of Prince Arthur in 1486, there was a company of actors under the name of “The Prince’s Players” who were required to contribute to the amusement of the Court. In the household books of Henry, extending from 1492 to 1509, we find numerous items relating to the theatrical amusements at this period.
During the first four years of his reign, Henry VIII. kept up the theatrical establishment of his father, but in 1514 he added a new company of actors to his domestic retinue, and henceforth we find payments to the “King’s players” and to the “King’s old players.” And associated with the year 1516 we find an enumeration of the players’ dresses under the title of “Garments for Players,”[134] which is of considerable value and interest as throwing light on the nature of the theatrical amusements of the period. It appears that the nobility continued to patronise plays, and, following the example of the King, most of them kept theatrical retainers of their own. According to Collier,[135] one of the earliest indications of anything like a classical taste in matters connected with the English stage is to be found in 1520, when, for the entertainment of four French hostages who had been left in this country for the execution of the treaty relating to the surrender of Tournay, Henry caused his great chamber at Greenwich to be staged when, among the performances, “there was a goodly comedy of Plautus played.”