Jacobean Civic Pageants 9781474467933

Table of contents :
Contents
General Introduction
Bibliography
Introduction to The Magnificent Entertainment
The Magnificent Entertainment
Introduction to The Triumphs of Reunited Britannia
The Triumphs of Reunited Britannia
Introduction to The Triumphs of
The Triumphs of Truth
Introduction to Monuments of Honour
Monuments of Honour

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JACOBEAN CIVIC PAGEANTS

Ryburn Renaissance Texts and Studies produced in association with Northern Renaissance Seminar Text Group Series Editor Richard Dutton (Lancaster University) Northern Renaissance Seminar Editorial Advisers Jonathan Bate (The University of Liverpool) Kate Chedgzoy (University ofWarwick) Elspeth Graham (Liverpooljohn Moores University) Marion Wynne-Davies (The University of Dundee) Editorial Adviser for this volume Jonathan Bate

RYBURN RENAISSANCE TEXTS AND STUDIES

JACOBEAN CIVIC PAGEANTS Edited by Richard Dutton

RYBURN PUBLISHING KEELE UNIVERSITY PRESS

First published in 1995 by Ryburn Publishing an

imprint of Keele University Press

Keele University, Staffordshire, England This edition published by Edinburgh University Press Ltd

22 George Square. Edinburgh

!J;.J the editors and EUP

Transferred to digital print 2013 All rights reserved Composed by Keele University Press

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

ISBN 978 1 85331 107 9

Contents

General Introduction

7

Bibliography

15

Introduction to The Magnificent Entertainment

19

The Magnificent Entertainment by Thomas Dekker and BenJonson

27

Introduction to The Triumphs of Reunited Britannia

117

The Triumphs ofReunited Britannia by Anthony Munday

119

Introduction to The Triumphs of Truth

137

The Triumphs of Truth by Thomas Middleton

141

Introduction to Monuments of Honour

169

Monuments ofHonour by John Webster

173

General Introduction

Despite some recent scholarly interest, civic pageantry remains a neglected area of Stuart drama, especially in the classroom. The reasons for this are obvious enough: it was a drama both of and for its time, designed to celebrate particular events and persons in an age when the outward manifestation of authority was still critically important. Unlike the court masque, it never proved amenable to development at the hands of a stagedesigner of genius like Inigo Jones, and so left no real legacy in the history of theatre; by its very nature, it was tied to street-performance, usually with a succession ofbrief, relatively static tableaux performed along a processionroute, amidst large crowds, and this offered the dramatists little scope to develop those qualities in their presentations which might hope to outlive their occasions - depth and development of character, sophisticated dialogue, significant plot, unity of action, rapport with an audience. Although there was always fierce competition for the commissions to write these pageants, the form never attracted an author who was strongly convinced of its inherent value, asjonson was of the masque's. Nevertheless, to ignore the civic pageants of the Tudor and Stuart period is to ignore the one form of drama which we know must have been familiar to all the citizens of London, and thus an important key to our understanding of those times and of the place of dramatic spectacle in early modem negotiations of national, civic and personal identity. The sheer popularity of the Lord Mayors' Shows was cynically attested, as a number of writers have observed, by King James's politic decision to have Sir Waiter Ralegh executed on the day of the show in 1618; Ralegh had become an embarrassment injames's relations with Spain, and so had acquired a degree of popular support. But the great crowds for the street theatre in London diminished those for the final act of the private tragedy being acted out in Westminster, thereby averting a major incident. But the new historicism of recent years has taught us also to consider the impact of theatre in more subtle and insidious forms, as a principal medium within which early modem society negotiated its power relations. And it is

7

clear that, in these terms, civic pageantry was at least as influential arguably more so - than the works performed in the public theatres, so many of which were later to acquire canonical status as literature. To continue to neglect it (as we once neglected the court masque) is thus not only a sin of omission; it also distorts our perception of those very texts by Shakespeare,Jonson, Middleton and others- whose significance has been so radically re-mapped in recent years (while they remain, as some have grudgingly observed, as canonical as ever). With all that in mind, this volume is an attempt to fill a specific gap observed by David M. Bergeron: 'texts need to be made readily available in forms appropriate for classroom use' . 1 Within the space available, I have tried to provide readable texts, fully annotated on-page, of a variety of Jacobean pageants, with basic introductions and extensive suggestions for further reading. The decision to include The Ma!;tli.ficent Entertainment inevitably precludes the inclusion of a greater range of smaller texts, but the pageantry of that day was so significant in itself, and the rivalry between Jonson and Dekker in it so symptomatic of other developments in Jacobean culture, that it could hardly be omitted. For the most part, civic pageants fell into three main categories: dramatic entertainments presented to divert and instruct royalty on their progresses around the kingdom; similar theatricals to mark the formal entry of royalty into a town or city; and shows to honour civic dignitaries, particularly the Lord Mayors of London on their inauguration, which took place annually on 29 October. The Ma!;tli.ficent Entertainment belongs to the second category; the other works in this volume fall into the third. Given the limitations of the form which I have outlined, it is difficult to say that there was any real development in it. Jonson's work in The Ma!;tlificent Entertainment suggests possible lines of development in the analogy between civic pageants and Roman triumphs, but this was not a form to which he returned often enough to impose his thinking. Also, modem criticism has consistently identified the Lord Mayors' Shows for 1612 and 1613 (Dekker's Troia-Nova Triumphans and Middleton's The Triumphs of Truth) as having more of the dramatic structure and thematic unity that we associate with the Jacobean public theatres than most of their counterparts. 2 But neither instance led to sustained development within the form; indeed, it has been suggested that the principal patrons of civic pageantry, the merchant elite of the Livery Companies, deliberately clung to its traditional and less adventurous forms. 3 1. 2. .'3.

8

Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theater, p. 11. See Bibliography, below. See Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, cited in the Bibliography.

If, then, we may say that any one of these works is more impressive or satisfactory (at least on paper) than another, it is not because the form itself has been significantly changed or advanced, but because an author has risen to a particular occasion, infusing new life into the old forms, usually in the felicity of his 'invention' - the imaginative theme with which he attempts to hold together the disparate pieces ofhis show.Jonson underlines the importance that he attaches to the 'invention' when he half-apologizes for the pageant In the Strand at the end of The Magnificent Entertainment, informing us not only that it was a rushed job (completed in twelve days), but also that he was not responsible for the 'invention'- which probably signals that he did not find the commission congenial. In the case of Munday's The Triumphs of Reunited Britannia, the problem is that the 'invention' seems to be pulling in two directions at once celebrating the inauguration of the Lord Mayor on the one hand, but devoting most of its attention to the reunification of Britain under King James on the other- and Munday did not have the ingenuity (or did not recognize the need) to draw these together satisfactorily. At least both Middleton and Webster succeeded in providing convincing, unified 'inventions' in those of their works included here. Of course, no matter how satisfactory the dramatist's contribution, everything finally depended on the presentation in the streets. Practical arrangements for performances were generally entrusted to a committee in the case of the Lord Mayors' Shows, from the Livery Company to which the new mayor belonged; in the case of The Magnificent Entertainment, one representing the whole City council and all twelve of the Livery Companies. These committees appointed the dramatists and vetted their scripts (see, .for example, Dekker's problems over the song 'Troynovant is no more a city' in The Magnificent Entertainment) and also controlled the workmen who staged them. Our information about the staging of these shows is very patchy, though we know that London progresses all tended to follow almost the same formula and route. Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, drawing on a number of earlier accounts, offers this synopsis of events on the day of a Lord Mayor's Show. [It] began early on the morning of October 29th, when the new Lord Mayor, the Aldermen of the city, and the liveried members of the mayor's company boarded the barges for a procession down the Thames to Westminster. Upon taking the oath, the mayor and his entourage returned by barge to Baynard's Castle landing, passing a tableaux erected upon barges on the river. The mayor was greeted upon landing by a larger assemblage of guildsmen, and mounted a 'triumphal chariot' for a procession through the city streets to Guildhall. The procession

9

encountered pageants at regular intervals along the route, traditionally Paul's Churchyard, the Little Conduit in Cheapside, and the Cross in Cheap. The pageants consisted of emblematic tableaux, accompanied by speeches honouring the mayor and his guild. Once the Lord Mayor had witnessed a pageant, the pageant wagons joined the procession immediately ahead of the mayor's chariot. The procession concluded at Guildhall, where the mayor hosted a banquet for the aldermen, sheriffs and guild officers. After the banquet, the procession resumed, returning the mayor to his house after nightfall. 4 King James's route during The Mag;nificent Entertainment differed, naturally, since there was no oath-taking and no Guildhall dinner; and, since the tableaux were related to seven fixed arches, there was no question of pageant wagons attaching themselves to his train. He started, appropriately, from the oldest royal fortress in the city, the Tower of London, and encountered the first pageant at Fenchurch, the second near the Cross Keys Inn in Gracious Street, and the third by the Royal Exchange. His route then began to overlap with that of the Lord Mayors, since Dekker's first pageant was at Soper-Lane End in Cheapside; the City Recorder addressed him by the Cross at Cheap (where Sylvanus was meant to accost him and lead him to the next arch); thence by St Paul's Churchyard to (routes diverging again) the conduit in Fleet Street, leaving London by Temple Bar and encountering a final arch 'In the Strand' on the way back to royal Westminster. In both instances, the processional nature of the entertainment meant that the King or the Lord Mayor was inevitably an actor in the drama as well as its principal audience - and, indeed, that only those immediately accompanying him saw all the pageants performed. Although we have Stephen Harrison's excellent drawings of the arches he designed for The Magnificent Entertainment, the only pictorial record we have of a Lord Mayor's Show is a handful of manuscript sketches of Munday's Chrysanaleia: The Golden Fishing of 1616. 5 The payment records of the Livery Companies give more clues, and it is clear that some artificers, like John Grinkin (mentioned in The Triumphs of Truth) and Gerard Christmas, were connected with the staging of civic pageants over long periods of time. While it emerges that they were responsible for many impressive and ingenious effects, we have almost no information on how 4. 5.

10

'The Triumphs ofGolde: Economic Authority in the Jacobean Lord Mayor's Show', pp. 880-1; see Bibliography. Reproduced in Bergeron's English Civic Pageantry, 1558-1642; see Bibliography.

these were created or whether there was any general theoretical principle in their approach to stagecraft, analogous to that developed by Inigo J ones for the masque. At least in the Jacobean period, however, there does not seem to have been the same tension between the dramatists and the artisans in the civic pageants that there was betweenjonson andjones in their court masques; once Middleton inaugurated the practice of acknowledging those responsible for staging the Lord Mayors' Shows (in The Triumphs of Truth), others adopted it and seem to have been happy to compliment the skill of the artificers. The only sour notes were over the use of porters, apparently to convey the pageants about the city streets; Dekker seems to have found the practice quite distasteful, mainly because of the porters' unruly behaviour, and Webster replaced them with horses at one point in his show, apparently to achieve a more stately effect (see Monuments ofHonour, p.l81 and note). 6 One parallel with the masques, however, is that visual effects and ingenious stagings seem eventually to have carried more weight with the committees than the dramatists' 'inventions'. Theodore Leinwand observes how 'the Lord Mayors' shows abound in vocabularies and emblems that legitimize the merchant elite's authority ... [and] offered them a special chance not only to dazzle the "throng" with their power and to convince them of their goodness, hut to convince themselves as well'. 7 With such mixed - and, in some ways, dubious motives - the need to dazzle doubtless always ran ahead of calls for intellectual complexity. So it was inevitable that expenditure would be lavish and that the committees should encourage particularly memorable effects; one imagines, for example, that they would have been especially pleased with the firework that Humphrey Nichols concocted for The Triumphs of Truth - which caused a jet of flame to spring from the head of Zeal and set fire to the chariot of Errorat least as much for its inherent excitement as for its artistic validity at that point in the show. The pressure for impressive effects seems to have increased throughout the Caroline period, when the Lord Mayors' Shows (it has been argued) became expressions of civic pride in virtual opposition to the royal selfassertion of the court masques. But there is no clear evidence of such a polarization in the Jacobean period. The shows did swell in cost and magnificence, but this was probably as much in response to James's retreat See Jean Robertson, 'Rapports du Poete et de l'Artiste clans la Preparation des Corteges du Lord Maire (Londres 1553-1640)', in Fetes de la Renaissance, ed.J.Jacquot, 2 vols. (Paris, 1956), I, 265-78. 7. 'London Triumphing: The Jacobean Lord Mayor's Show',pp. 149, 151; see Bibliography.

6.

11

from public self-display 8 as in emulation of his authority: they filled a palpable void. Indeed, David Bergeron argues that, throughout the early Stuart period, the elevation of the Lord Mayor was never implicitly subversive: 'All the while the street pageants continue to glorifY and celebrate the City and its mayor, who comes to be viewed as the king's substitute' rather than his rival. 9 Whatever the precise implications of the growing dependence on magnificent spectacle in these shows, it is clear that once the classic Renaissance balance between poetic 'invention' and symbolic presentation was lost, even had there been no intervention from the Puritans, the Lord Mayors' Shows were destined for the long decline which Pope mockingly laments in The Dunciad. 10 The civic pageants offer the clearest evidence we have of a real continuity of tradition between the biblical and morality drama of the Middle Ages and the great secular drama of the Elizabethan/Jacobean period; they kept alive the use of moral and biblical themes and the tradition of drama being commissioned and paid for by the trade guilds or 'mysteries'. While the purpose of a civic pageant was invariably to honour an important individual, it was regarded as natural that this should be effected not only through panegyric, but also through appropriately chosen scenes depicting virtues with which the person honoured was associated wherever possible linking these in turn with those who were staging the pageant. The use ofbiblical themes and motifs in this connection declined during Queen Elizabeth's reign, but the morality tableau remained a mainstay of the form until its temporary extinction in the 1640s. Flanking this heavy dependence on morality themes was a consistent use of allegorical and symbolic characters, representing specific qualities such as Fame, Justice or Peace. The essence of these characters was that they should be identified easily and their role in the drama established with a minimum of exposition. Benjonson could joke about this, for example, in his 1604 entertainment for the King and Queen at the house of Sir William Cornwallis; Mercury, in traditional costume, accosts the royal guests, sa)'lng: 'To tell you, who I am, and wear all these notable, and speaking ensigns about me, were to challenge you of most impossible ignorance ... ' Similarly, in The Magnificent Entertainment, Dekker can say: 'Having told you that her name was justice, I hope you will not put me to describe what properties she held in her hands, sithence every painted cloth can inform you.' In the same vein, Webster is able to write merely: 8. See introduction to The 1l1ag;nijicent Entertainment. 9. 'Pageants, Politics, and Patrons', p. 150; see Bibliography. 10. 1742, Book I, 85-106. See Paulajohnson, :Jacobean Ephemera and the Immortal Word', Renaissance Drama NS 8 (1977), 151-71. 12

justice with her properties', knowing that his readers will be able to picture her for themselves. This familiarity must have encouraged an immediate and comprehensible type of drama, however limited in scope, with conflicting forces such as truth and falsehood, virtue and vice (in their various guises) being immediately recognizable. It is also clear that, when writing for the commercial theatres, dramatists were able to capitalize on the familiarity of symbolic characters which was so largely perpetuated by the civic pageants: Rumour in 2 Henry IV, 'painted full of tongues', is a version of the stock Fame character; Time in The JiVi"nter's Tale andJuno, Ceres and Iris in The Tempest were all familiar figures from the city streets. Certain kinds of plays - Cynthia's Revels, for example, and Heywood's four 'Age' plays - are even more pervasively indebted to the pageanttableau Jsymbolic character mode, which was the stock-in-trade of civic entertainments. Given that many of the principal Jacobean dramatists Jonson, Dekker, Middleton, Heywood and Webster among them - wrote for the civic pageants, it is hardly surprising that their influence should be perceived in plays written for the theatre. It is perhaps more surprising that, until recently, this influence has been largely overlooked or ignored: an awareness of the civic pageantry of the period may usefully cause us to rethink our assumptions about the modes of Jacobean drama (not least with regard to the vexed questions of its 'realism' and formal unity). It should certainly inform our thinking about the place of theatre as a whole in what Stephen Greenblatt has called 'the circulation of social energy' in the early modern period.

13

Bibliography

Texts

For the most part, there are no modern texts ofjacobean civic entertainments which are both convenient and satisfactory; the only attempt that was ever made to collect such works was by John Nichols, The Prog;resses, Processions, and Mag;nijicent Festivities of King James the First, 4 vols. (London, 1828), which is still useful for that reason and for some of the historical information that he collated. He also produced a parallel three volumes for the Elizabethan period. R. T. D. Sayle collected together Lord Mayors' Pageants of the Merchant Taylors'Compan;y in the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries (London, 19.'31 ), including the Munday and Webster pageants of this volume. For the rest, there have usually been modem editions - if at all - only in the Collected Works of the individual authors. Dekker's part in The Mag;nijicent Entertainment is given in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, ed. Fredson Bowers (Cambridge, 1955), 11. (The Introductions, Notes and Commentaries to that edition are separate and are by Cyrus Hoy (Cambridge, 1980). Volume II includes comments on The Magnificent Entertainment.)Jonson's part in that work is in Ben Jonson, ed. C. H. Herford, P. and E. Simpson, 11 vols. (Oxford, 19251952), VII (Notes in Vol.X). The Triumphs of Truth is in The Works of Thomas Middleton, ed. A. H. Bullen (London, 1886), VII (and will be in the forthcoming Oxford Middleton, ed. Gary Taylor), and Monuments of Honour is in The Complete Works of John Webster, ed. F. L. Lucas (London, 1927), Ill. There has never been a collected edition ofMunday's works, but David M. Bergeron produced a scholarly edition of Pageants and Entertainments by Anthony Munday, including The Triumphs of Reunited Britannia (New York, 1985). Criticism and Backg;round

The modem appreciation of Elizabethan and early Stuart civic pageantry essentially begins with David M. Bergeron's English Civic Pageantry,

1558-1642 (London, 1971 ), which subsumes a string of earlier, groundbreaking articles and for the first time invests the whole subject with the seriousness it deserves; his focus is largely on the development of ritualparticularly that associated with the inauguration of the Lord Mayors of London - as a dramatic form. Professor Bergeron has returned repeatedly to the subject since then, with editions of the pageants of both Munday and Heywood (New York, 1985 and 1986 respectively), and numerous articles which all carry his unique authority. Recent examples include 'The Bible in English Renaissance Civic Pageants', Comparative Drama 20 (1986), 160-70; 'Representation in Renaissance English Civic Pageants', Theatre Journal40 (1988), 319-31; and 'Pageants, Politics, and Patrons', Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 6 (1993), 139-52. EngLish Civic Pageantry is complemented by Gordon Kipling, 'Triumphal Drama: Form in English Civic Pageantry', Renaissance Drama, NS 8 {1977), 37-56, which stresses the continuity between medieval and Renaissance civic pageantry and the triumphal emphasis of much of this street theatre. M. Berlin, 'Civic Ceremony in Early Modem London', Urban History Yearbook ( 1986), 15-27, however, argues for significant differences between medieval and Tudor f Stuart ritual forms, stressing the secularization that went with 'the celebration of the office of Lord Mayor' and suggesting that there was a growing emphasis on 'the privatized values of civic honour and pecuniary worth', to the relative neglect of themes of social integration. The political dimension of the city pageants was centrally addressed for the first time in Muriel Bradbrook, 'The Politics of Pageantry', in Shakespeare in his Context: The Constellated Globe, Collected Papers of Muriel Bradbrook, IV (Brighton, 1989), 95-109, though Margot Heinemann located Middleton's pageants in particular in a different tradition of Puritan/ appositional drama (Puritanism and Theatre: Thomas Middleton and Opposition Drama under the Early Stuarts (Cambridge, 1980)), and the studies cited below by Leinwand and Lobanov-Rostovsky, as well as Bergeron's 'Pageants, Politics, and Patrons', all examine different facets of this question. Several studies examine the relationship between civic pageantry and the City of London, the site of the great majority of it; for example, S. Wells, 'Jacobean City Comedy and the Ideology of the City', English Literary History 48 (1981), 37-60, and Gail K. Paster, 'The Idea of London in Masque and Pageant', in Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theatre, ed. David Bergeron (Athens, Georgia, 1985), pp. 48-64. James Knowles relates the London pageantry 'to the wider context of civic rhetoric and urban consciousness', attempting to show how civic ceremony 'seeks to embody reconciliation and inculcate order, not simply in its explicit rhetoric, but in its very form, especially the processional element, which

16

actually manifested the whole, social body and constitution of the City for its citizens': see his 'The Spectacle of the Realm: Civic Consciousness, Rhetoric and Ritual in Early Modem London', in Theatre and Govemment under the Early Stuarts, ed.J. R. Mulryne and M. Shewring (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 157-89. Theodore B. Leinwand, 'London Triumphing: The Jacobean Lord Mayor's Show', Clio 11 (1982), 137-53, and Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, 'The Triumphs of Golde: Economic Authority in the Jacobean Lord Mayor's Show', ELH 60 (1993), 879-98, both follow David Bergeron's lead (in English Civic Pageantry, 1.558-1642) in recognizing the innovative formal unity and dramatic vitality in Dekker's TroiaNova Triumphans (1612) and Middleton's The Triumphs of Truth, but focus particularly on how these works reflect more generally the interests and values of the merchant elite of the Livery Companies which commissioned them. But while Leinwand sees these shows as broadly representative of their patrons' self-interest, Lobanov-Rostovsky argues that 'Dekker and Middleton introduced a tension between matter and manner, language and literary style, that distracted from the public affirmation of economic and political authority desired by the merchant elite' (p. 892), suggesting that this was why their innovations were not pursued in later pageants, including those by Dekker and Middleton themselves. As these items demonstrate, the most informed current criticism of Jacobean pageantry is being written against a background of debate about the growth of London itself, the pressures to which this gave rise, the measures adopted by the authorities to contain them, and the relationship of all this to popular culture. That the City authorities and those of the crown did not always see eye-to-eye on these matters is an issue in itself. Among useful contributions to this debate are: S. Rappaport, 'Social Structure and Mobility in Sixteenth Century London' (in two parts: Part 1,London]oumal9 (1983), 107-35; Part2,London]ournal10 (1984), 107-34); Valerie Pearl, 'Change and Stability in Seventeenth Century London', London Joumal 5 (1979), 3-33, and 'Social Policy in Early Modem London', in H. Lloyd-Jones, V. Pearl and B. Word en (eds ), History and Imagination: Essa_-vs in Honour ofH. R. Trevor-Roper (London, 1981 ), pp. 115-31; E.Jones, 'London in the Seventeenth Century: An Ecological Approach', London Joumal 6 (1980) 121-33; K. ·Lindley, 'Riot Prevention and Control in Early Stuart London', Transactions ofthe Royal Historical Society 33 (1983), 109-26; Anne Barton, 'London Comedy and the Ethos of the City',London Joumal4 (1978), 150-80; R. Ashton, 'Popular Entertainment and Social Control in Later Elizabethan and Stuart London', London Joumal 9 (1983), 3-19; P. Burke, 'Popular Culture in Seventeenth-Century London', in B. Reay (ed. ), Popular Culture in Seventeenth-Century England (Beckenham, 1985), pp. 31-58. Two

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useful, more widely focused collections are: A. L. Beier and R. Findlay (eds ), London 1500-1700: The Making ofthe Metropolis (London, 1986); and A. Fletcher andJ. Stevenson (eds ), Order and Disorder in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 1985). George Unwin's The Gilds and Companies of London (London 1903; reprinted 1963) remains indispensable as a guide to the traditions and mores of the Livery Companies. Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theatre, edited by David Bergeron and cited above, is - in the main - less about civic pageants themselves than about their influence on, and relationship to, the commercial drama and the court masques of the period - pageantry in a wider sense. Also in this vein, see C. E. McGee, '2 Henry IV: The Last Tudor: Royal Entry', inj. C. Gray (ed.),Mirror up to Shakespeare: Essays in Honour of G. B. Hibbard (Toronto, 1984), pp. 149-58; Frances D. Rhome, 'From the Street to the Stage: Pageantry in the History Plays', The Upstart Crow 5 (1984), 64-74; Mary E. Hazard, '"Order Gave Each Thing View": "Shows, Pageants and Sights of Honour" in King Henry VIII', Word and Image 3 (1987), 9 5-1 03; and Martin Randall, 'Elizabethan Civic Pageantry in Henry VI', University ofToronto Quarterly 60 (1990-91), 244-64. S. Schoenbaum (ed.), Renaissance Drama I: Essays PrincipaUy on Masques and Entertainments (Evanston, 1968), also contains a number of articles on Jacobean civic pageantry. Items relating to the specific pageants included in this volume, or their authors, are discussed in the individual introductions.

Introduction to

The Magnificent Entertainment

Queen Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March 1603. Under the guiding hand of Sir Robert Cecil, KingJames VI of Scotland (by no means the only possible successor) was proclaimed King of England at Whitehall later that morning and in the City of London that afternoon. There was general rejoicing at the prospect of a male, Protestant monarch who already had sufficient children to ensure the succession. The City of London immediately set about preparing elaborate entertainments for the forthcoming coronation, which was set for 25 July (StJames's Day). But then disaster struck; the plague sprang up in London in a particularly virulent form - eventually killing over 30,000 people. After some hesitation, the coronation went ahead as planned, but omitting 'all show of state and pomp', including theatricals, in the hope of avoiding the contagion. Preparations for the pageants went on for a month longer, but were then suspended until the plague relented. The following year James decided to ride ceremonially through his new capital before opening Parliament; the date set for this was 15 March. Six weeks beforehand, work started afresh on the theatrical entertainments; the long delay had given the organizing committee plenty of time to get things right - and possibly also to change their minds about commissions for writing the entertainments. When an early coronation was expected, Thomas Dekker (1570?-1632) had set about writing a first device, to be performed at Bishopsgate, on the themes of St George and St Andrew, patron saints of England and Scotland. For some reason, this was never performed. When the ceremonial entry finally took place, the first entertainment was at Fenchurch and was written by BenJonson (1572-1637); toJonson was also entrusted the final London device at Temple Bar (together with the slighter, concluding, Westminster device). To Dekker was left the writing of three intervening pageants, plus a commission to write an account of the entire proceedings, including Jonson's contributions

19

and those of resident Italian and Dutch merchants who staged the second and third devices to confront the King. We do not know why the committee changed their minds (if that is what they did)- possibly Jonson had added to his reputation with the entertainment given for Queen Anne and Price Henry at Althorpe in June 1603 - but the situation they arrived at was about as unsatisfactory as could be imagined. The fact is that Jonson and Dekker simply did not get on with one another; both had been involved in the so-called 'War of the Theatres', satirizing each other in plays like Satiromastix and Poetaster, and in this instance at least the antagonism seems to have been genuine, not merely assumed for the benefit of the public. Years later Jonson was to call Dekker a 'rogue' (Drummond). Indeed, knowing what we do of their relationship, it is difficult not to read the rebufl' which Genius Orbis gives to the Flamen, in the device at Temple Bar, asjonson's comment on Dekker (and perhaps on most other potential rivals): thy ignorance presumes Too much in acting any ethnic rite In this translated temple: here no wight To sacrifice, save my devotion comes. It seems likely that they did not collaborate in preparing their parts for the entertainment as a whole, and Jonson took it upon himself to publish a separate account of his own part in the proceedings, very fully aJmotated, before Dekker got into print. Dekker's account, entided The Magnificent Entertainment, is quite sketchy about Jonson's parts, pokes fun at their ostentatious learning and occasional inaccuracy, and never actually mentions Jonson by name (though Middleton is duly credited with having supplied one of the speeches). 1 Fortunately, these differences did not spoil the entertainment, mainly because the committee had decided on a format which did not actually require the dramatists to collaborate at all closely. Seven triumphal arches were to be erected along the King's route, each one being the setting for a separate symbolic presentation. It was only really necessary for there to be no significant duplication of material. The arches (at least, the five City ones) were constructed by 'Stephen Harrison,Joiner ... who was the sole inventor of the architecture', who also undertook, on his own initiative, to publish a folio called The. Arches of Triumph which, while drawing heavily l.

20

See Glynne Wickam, 'Contribution de Ben Jonson et de Dekker aux Fetes du Couronnement deJacques ler', in Fetes de la Renaissance, ed.J.Jacquot, 2 vols. (Paris 1956), I, 279-83.

on Dekker's andJonson's accounts, corrects them in some particulars and also includes his own drawings of the seven arches; these are invaluable in helping us to appreciate a dramatic form which places so much emphasis on visual effects and content. His description of the day also includes some practical details ignored by the dramatists:

r

between the hours of 11 and 12 and before 5 the King] had made his royal passage through the City, having a canopy borne over him by 8. knights. The first object that his Majesty's eye encountered (after his entrance into London) was part of the children of Christs Church Hospital, to the number of300. who were placed on a scaffold, erected for that purpose in Barking Churchyard by the Tower. The way from the Tower to Temple Bar was not only sufficiently graveled, but all the streets (lying between those two places) were on both sides (where the breadth would permit) rail'd in at the charges of the City, Paul's Churchyard excepted. The Liveries of the Companies (having their streamers, ensigns, and banerets spread on the tops of their rails before them) reached from the middle of Mark Lane, to the pegme at Temple Bar. Two Marshals were chosen for the day, to clear the passage, both of them being well mounted, and attended on by six men (suitably attir'd) to each Marshal. The conduits of Cornhill, of Cheap, and ofFleetstreet, that day ran claret wine very plenteously: which (by reason of so much excellent music, that sounded forth not only from each several pegme, but also from divers other places) ran the faster and more merrily down into some bodies' bellies. Jonson's account of his own parts in the entertainment, like so many of the texts of his works in the period 1603-9, is annotated in ferocious detail, offering substantial evidence of the classical authority for his content. Dekker's account is altogether more relaxed, determined to convey something of the celebratory nature of the occasion; he attempts to impose some order on the written proceedings by likening the geography of the whole city, for the day, to that of the Royal Court - for example, he (not unnaturally) puts forward two of his own creations (Nova Faelix Arabia and Hortus Euporiae) as the King's Presence and Privy Chambers. Between the seven arches and the various other diversions offered, most of the patriotic, moral and mythological motifs that were to recur in the pageantry of the reign were given an airing that day. We suspect, however, thatjames did not hear and appreciate them all: at the end of his account, Dekker belatedly admits: 'Reader, you must understand, that a regard being had that his Majesty should not be wearied with tedious speeches: a great part of those which are in this book set 21

down, were left unspoken.' What was omitted is unclear, though there is a hint that the part of Sylvanus at Hortus Euporiae may have suffered ('his Grace was (at least it was appointed he should have been) met ... '), which would have been particularly galling to Dekker, since Sylvanus was also intended to act as a link with the next device, the New World Arch in Fleet Street. The fact is that King James was not a willing participant in such public theatricals. The speech given by the scholar from St Paul's School, whenJames was due to pass by there, tried elaborately- but almost certainly in vain - to remind the King of his obligations in these matters: 'yet do I fully and freely believe, that a King (so crowned with wisdom as yourself) hath (this day) put on such strong armour of patience to bear-off tediousness ... that the extension and stretching out of any part of time, can by no means seem irksome unto him' (see The Mag;nificent Entertainment, p.86, note 1). Arthur Wilson, an early biographer ofJames, records that the City and suburbs of London were: one great pageant, wherein he must give his ears time to suck in their gilded oratory, though never so nauseous to the stomach. He was not like his predecessor, the late Queen offamous memory, that 'h>ith a wellpleased affection met her people's acclamations, thinking most highly of herself, when she was borne up on the wings of their humble supplications. He endured this day's brunt with patience, being assured he should never have such another, and his triumphal riding to the Parliament that followed: but afterwards in his public appearances (especially in his sports) the accesses of the people made him so impatient, that he often dispersed them with frowns, that we may not say with curses. 2 Sir John Oglander recorded an earthier version of James's response to crowds which were so eager to see him: 'Then he would cry out in Scottish "God's wounds! I will pull down my breeches and they shall also see my arse."' Queen Anne, however, was altogether more amenable, as one observer wrote: 'our gracious Queen, mild and courteous, placed in a chariot of exceeding beauty, did all the way so humbly and with mildness salute her subjects, never leaving to bend her body this way and that, that men and women wept withjoy.' 3 There is a brief but focused narrative of the whole day's events in Jacobean Pageant: The Court ofKing James I by G. P. V. Akrigg (London, 1962), pp. 30-3. The relationship of the day's pageantry to James's ideological view of kingship (as distinct, perhaps, from his personal response to the day's affairs) is briefly explored by 2. 3.

22

See Life andReig;n ofKing]ames the First, 1653. Both quoted from David Harris Wilson,King]ames VI & I (London, 1956), pp.165-6.

Jonathan Goldherg in James I and the Politics of Literature (Baltimore and London, 1983), pp. 30-4. This is the first time that the two parts of The Magnificent Entertainment have been integrated as a continuous whole, giving the entire text of what Kingjames saw and heard (or, at least, what he was supposed to see and hear) on that day. This cuts across the reality of the original printings, of course, but in a way (I hope) that emphasizes the real differences betweenJonson's and Dekker's approach to their commissions. It is not just thatJonson adorned his texts with a formidable array of side-notes, marshalling his 'authorities' so thoroughly that they sometimes clogged the printed page. It is more that he claimed a very different status - for what he had written, for the text as he printed it, and so for his own standing as a writer - from anything to which Dekker pretended. The nub of the difference is spelled out at the end of the Temple Bar entertainment, which concluded the London (as distinct from Westminster) part of the day's proceedings: 'Thus hath both Court-, Town- and Country-Reader, our portion of device for the City; neither are we ashamed to profess it, being assured well of the difference between it and pageantry.' For Jonson, what he had written were 'devices', informed by the 'invention' of a poet, and authorized by scholarly learning and the best precedents. He avoids altogether the traditional terms of 'pageant' and 'pageantry', which he openly scorns here, implicitly dismissing such work as the unskilled labour of artisans, much as elsewhere he condemned the work of'playwrights' in antithesis to his own pretensions as a 'poet'. Furthermore, as he underlines by spelling out three distinct categories of 'reader', the text he is producing here is not simply an artless account of what went on that day; it is a detailed explication of his invention, something which the reader can experience through a close study of the printed work, in effect without reference to the events of 15 March themselves. Print preserves and gives currency to the ideas that informed the visual splendour and overwhelming detail of the day itself, just as it preserves the 'soul' of the court masques which were to follow. In doing so, it gives a new authority to their author, who adopts for the first time here the distinctive spelling of his name, Jonson without an 'h', by which he is known to posterity. 'B.Jon[son) His Part ofKingJames his Royal and Magnificent Entertainment ... '-Jonson intends in every way to be distinctive. Dekker, by contrast, is quite relaxed, comfortable with traditional pageantry and the relative anonymity of its authorship, though not quite so comfortable as not to bridle and mock at some ofJonson's claims, which were apparently in print before his own Qonson's text was entered in the Stationers' Register on 19 March; Dekker's on 4 April). Dekker was also somewhat old-fashioned in the subject-matter of his pageants, his imagery

23

largely tied to medieval conceptions of the commonwealth, whereasJonson was keyed to the Augustan aspiration ofKingJames as a scholar I statesman. Indeed, it is quite significant that Dekker refers repeatedly to the dead Queen. In Nova Faelix Arabia, Circumspection speaks of the 'phoenix' which died and is born again, a natural image for the royal succession, but one that stresses continuity and sameness rather than a radical new beginning. And in Dekker's last pageant, at the conduit in Fleet Street, he focuses on Astraea, a figure much associated with Elizabeth; it was Middleton who wrote the speech of Zeal there, explicitly invoking 'the funeral pile I Of her dead female Majesty', but Dekker seems to have been responsible for the overall conception. As David Riggs puts it: 'Dekker's "New World" could just as well have been brought about by the appearance of Queen Elizabeth I. Jonson's, by contrast, focused on the person ofJames Stuart and exhibited a wealth of novel iconographic material'. 4 J onson, especially in the arch at Temple Bar, does not scruple to suggest that all was not well in Elizabeth's reign - he talks of 'old malicious arts', 'vile spies' and 'innocence ... the spoil of ravenous greatness'- and looks to James for a real difference. J onson was certainly the man of the hour. Dekker was not employed on another civic commission until the Lord Mayor's Show of 1612, TroiaNova Triumphans, and then not again until three successive such shows in 1627-9.Jonson, however, was paid quite handsomely for a 'device, and a speech' presented before King James at the Lord Mayor's Show later in 1604, the first of what seem to have been several such commissions. But none of these has survived; Jonson did not choose to preserve them in print- an omission which must subtly colour our sense of his career. Mter his first foray, he was clearly at pains to dissociate his public image as far as possible from the 'pageantry' which seems in practice to have been an indelible part of civic (as distinct from royal and aristocratic) commissions. When he came to republish the 1604 devices in the 1616 folio ofhis Works, he attempted to disguise their provenance (including the question of who had paid for them). They head the royal entertainments, appearing shortly before the court masques, with a title-page announcing them as 'Part of the King's Entertainment In Passing to His Coronation', which of course is simply not true: it is what they should have been, hut, because of circumstances, never actually were. Here again,J onson, by then de facto Poet Laureate, is polishing his public image, smoothing out the wrinkles in his career by which he achieved that eminence. The fact that the --------------4. Ben Jon50n: A Life (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1989), p. 111. See Riggs more generally, pp. 10 7-15, on the place of these entertainments in Jonson's self-definition as a poet.

24

standard edition of Jonson, that of Herford and Simpson, 5 reprints the folio version only perpetuates the illusion of Olympian mastery which the 1616 J onson tried to generate. My copy-texts are the quarto versions of the rival texts as they would have been available to readers by May 1604 - at which point (14 May) Jonson's publisher, Edward Blount, was forced by the Stationers' Company to surrender all the remaining copies of his stock to Dekker's publisher, Thomas Mann Jr. The legal basis of this is unclear, unless Dekker was able to argue that his commission from the City authorities to publish an account of the day's proceedings precludedjonson's right to print his own contributions- which, very literally, was all he had done. 6 Jonson's quarto had been published in an uncorrected state, presumably to catch the topical interest, hut improvements were made as the print run continued; I only mention those variants which substantially affect the sense. The main differences between the corrected quarto and the 1616 folio are also noted; these include, apart from the change in title, the omission of the quoted passage in which Jonson disclaims 'pageantry' - by 1616 he no longer feels the need to air his differences with Dekker, preferring to ignore him altogether. Dekker, too, brought out a quarto, The Mag;nificent Entertainment, which required corrections as the printing continued. There was a second edition later in the year, probably after Blount had been forced to stop selling the Jonson, emphatically retitled The Whole Mag;nificent Entertainment, although the only substantial additions are translations of the Latin speeches composed for the Italian and Dutch pageants. Dekker nowhere quotes Jonson's verse - nor, indeed, does he ever acknowledge him by name. My copy-text is a corrected first-edition quarto, with substantive differences in the second edition (including the translations) indicated in the notes.

5. 6.

See Bibliography. On this, see Herford and Simpson, VII, 67, 77-9; Bowers, Dekker, II, 2.'31.

25

THE MAGNIFICENT ENTERTAINMENT Given to Kingjames, Queen Anne his wife, and Henry Frederick the prince, upon the day of His Majesty's triumphant passage (from the Tower) through his Honourable City (and Chamber) 1 of London, being the 15. ofMarch. 1603. 2 As well by the English as by the strangers: 3 with the speeches and songs, delivered in the several 4 pageants Martial:

Templa deis, mores populis dedit, otia jerTO Astra suis, caelo sydera, serta jovi. 5 Thomas Dekker

ADEVICE 6 (projected down/ but till now not publish'd,} that should have served at His M;Uesty's first access to the City.

I. 2. .'3.

4. 5.

6. 7.

Chamber] SeeJonson (below, p. 38) on London's title as the Royal Chamber. 1603] Old Style . strangers] Italians and Dutchmen resident in London who staged (respectively) the second and third arches. several] Various. Templa ... jovz] Martial, Epigrams, IX.101, lines 21-2: 'he gave temples to the gods, morals to the people, rest to the sword, immortality to his own kind, to heaven stars, wreaths tojove'. A Device] Never actually presented; see pp. 29-33 below. projected down] Drafted.

27

The sorrow and amazement, that like an earthquake began to shake the distempered body of this island (by reason of our late sovereign's departure) being wisely and miraculously prevented,' and the feared wounds of a civil sword, (as Alexander's fury was with music) being stopp'd from bursting forth, by the sound of trumpets that proclaimed Kingjames: all men's eyes were presently tum'd to the north/ standing even stone-still in their circles,3 like the points of so many geometrical needles, 4 through a fLxed and adamantine desire to behold this forty-five years' 5 wonder now brought forth by Time: their tong;ues neglecting all language else, save that which spake zealous prayers, and unceasable wishes, for his most speedy and long'd-for arrival. Insomuch 6 that the night was thought unworthy to be crown'd with sleep, and the day not fit to be look'd upon by the sun, which brought not some fresh tidings of His Majesty's more near and nearer approach. At length Expectation (who is ever waking) and that so long was great, grew near the time ofher delivery, Rumour coming all in a sweat to play the midwife, whose first comfortable words were, that this treasure of a kingdom (a man-ruler) 7 hid so many years from us, was now brought to light, and at hand. Martial.

Et populi vox erat una, Venit. 8

And that he was to be conducted through some utter part of this his City, to his royal castle the Tower, that in the age of a man 9 (till this very minute) had not been acquainted nor borne the name of a King's Court. Which entrance of his (in this manner) being fam'd abroad, because his loving subjects the citizens would g;ive a taste of their duty and affection: the device following was suddenly made up, as the first service, to a more royal and serious ensuing entertainment: and this (as it was

1.

2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

prevented] Forestalled. north] i.e. anticipating his approach from Scotland. circles] Sockets. geometrical needles] Needles of compass. forty-five years] the length of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558-1603). Insomuch] To the extent. man-ruler] There had not been a King in England since Edward VI (died 155.'3).

8. 9.

Et ... Venit] Martial, Epigrams, X.6, line 8: 'And the voice of the people was all one: "He comes".' in the age of a man] In living memory.

then purposed) should have been performed about the bars beyond Bishopsgate. 1

The Device. Saint George, Saint Andrew, 2 (the patrons of both kingdoms) having a long time look'd upon each other, with countenances rather of mere 3 strangers, than of such near neighbours, upon the present aspect 4 of His Majesty's approach toward London, were (in his sight) to issue from two several 5 places on horseback, and in complete armour, their breasts and caparisons 6 suited with the arms of England and Scotland, (as now tl1ey are quartered) to testifY their leagued combination, and new sworn brotherhood. These two armed knights, encount'ring one another on the way, were to ride hand in hand, till they met His Majesty. But the strangeness of this newly-begotten amity, flying over the earth, it calls up the Genius of the City, who (not so much 'maz'd, as wond'ring at the novelty) intercepts their passage. And most aptly (in our judgement) might this domesticmn numen (the Genius of place) lay just claim to this preeminence of first bestowing salutations and welcomes on His Majesty, Genius being held (inter fictos deos),i to be god ofhospitality and pleasure: and none but such a one was meet 8 to receive so excellent and princely a guest. Or if not worthy, for those two former respects: yet being deus generationis, and having a power aswell over countries, herbs and trees, as over men, and the City having now put on a regeneration, or new birth; the induction of such a person, might (without a warrant from the court of critists) 9 pass very current. 10 1. first service ... Bishopsgate) The first pageant actually presented was not at

2. .'3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

10.

Bishopsgate, where there was no triumphal arch, but at Fenchurch, and it was written by Jonson. Saint George, Saint Andrew] Munday employed this motifin his Lord Mayor's Show for 1609. See Bergeron, English Civic Pageants, pp. 145-8 . mere] Perfect. present aspect] Immediate appearance. several] Different. caparisons] Trappings on the saddles and harnesses of the horses. inter fictos deos] Among the fictitious gods. meet] Fit. critists] Almost certainly a side-glance at Jonson, whose apparent spokesman in Cynthia's Revels (1600) is Criticus (changed to Crites in the folio text). See Satiromastix II.ii.8-9. pass very current] Be generally acceptable.

29

To make a false flourish here with the borrowed weapons of all the old masters of the noble science of poesy, and to keep a tyrannical coil, in anatomizing Genius, from head to foot, 1 (only to show how nimbly we can carve up the whole mess 2 of the poets) were to play the executioner, and to lay our City's household god on the rack, to make him confess, how many pair of Latin sheets, we have shaken and cut into shreds to make him a garment. Such feats of activity are stale, and common among scholars, (before whom it is protested we come not now (in a pageant) to play a master's prizer1 for Nunc ego ventosae plebis su.ffragia venor. 4 The multitude is now to be our audience, whose heads would miserably run a-wool-gathering, 5 if we do but offer to break them with hard words. But suppose (by the way) contrary to the opinion of all the doctors 6 that our Genius (in regard the place is feminine, and the person itself, drawn.figura humana, sed ambiguo sexu)1 should at this time be thrust into woman's apparel. It is no schism: be it so: our Genius is then a female; 8 antique, 9 and reverend both in years and habit: a chaplet of mingled flowers, (inter-woven with branches of the plane tree) crowning her temples: her hair long and white: her vesture a loose robe, changeable 10 and powd'red with stars: and being (on horseback likewise) thus furnished, this was the tune of her voice. GENIUS LOCI: Stay: we conjure you, by that potent name, Of which each letter's (now) a triple charm: Stay; and deliver us, 11 of whence you are, 1. to keep ... foot] Satiric reference toJonson's description of, and sidenote of,

2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

30

'Genius Urbis' (seep. 40 and note 3, below); Dekker's principal objection is to Jonson's ostentatious, and possibly redundant, display oflearning; to 'keep a tyrannical coil' means to make an almighty fuss. mess) Portion of meat or food. to play ... prize] Term derived from fencing, with its three degrees (Master's, Provost's, Scholar's), for each of which a prize or match was publicly played. Nunc ... venor] Horace, Epistles, I.xix ..37: 'Now I chase the votes of the fickle masses.' a-wool-gathering] Indulge in wandering fancies. contrary ... doctors] Jonson's Genius Urbis in the Fenchurch pageant is male. fig;ura ... sexu] Latin: A human figure, but ambiguous as to sex. Dekker follows the authority ofNatalis Comes' Mytholog;iae o£1581. Genius ... female] Middleton follows his example in The Triumphs of Truth. antique] In the manner of the ancients. changeable) Shot (showing different colours at different angles). deliver us] Tell us.

And why you bear (alone} th'ostent 1 of war, When all hands else rear olive-boughs and palm: And Halcyonean days assure all's calm. When every tongue speaks music: when each pen (Dull'd and dy'd black in gall) 2 is white again, And dipp'd in nectar, which by delphic-fire 3 Being heated, melts into an Orphean-choir. When Troy's 4 proud buildings show like fairy-bowers, And streets (like gardens) are perfum'd like flowers: And windows glaz'd only with wond'ring eyes; (In a King's look such admiration lies!) And when soft-handed Peace, so sweetly thrives, That bees in soldiers' helmets build their hives: 5 Whenjoy a-tip-toe stands on Fortune's wheel, In silken robes: how dare you shine in steel? SAINT GEORGE:

Lady, what are you that so question us?

GENIUS: I am the place's Genius, whence now springs A vine, whose youngest branch shall produce kings: 6 This little world of men; this precious stone, That sets out7 Europe: this (the glass 8 alone), Where the neat sun each morn himself attires, And gilds it with his repercussive 9 fires. This jewel of the land; England's right eye: 10 Altar oflove; and sphere of majesty: 1. os tent) Vainglorious display. 2. gall] Excrescence produced on trees by the action of insects, used in the manufacture of ink; by association with animal gall (secretion of the liver), thought of as intensely bitter; hence used metaphorically of satiric writing (see Prologue to Jonson's Volpone, line 33). 3. delphic] From the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. 4. Troy's] Allusion to the legend of London as Troynovant, New Troy (see Munday's The Triumphs ofReunited Britannia). 5. bees ... hives) Derived from a famous emblem, reproduced in Whitney's Choice ofEmblems ( 1586) and elsewhere. 6. vine ... kings] Blunt allusion to Kingjames having children (three living), whereas Queen Elizabeth did not. 7. sets out] Sets off. 8. glass] Mirror. 9. repercussive] Reflected. 10. England's ... eye] See Middleton's The Triumphs ofTruth,p.146.

31

Green Neptune's minion, 'bout whose virgin-waist, Isis 1 is like a crystal girdle cast. Of this are we the Genius; here have I Slept (by the favour of a deity) Forty-four 2 summers and as many springs, Not frighted 3 with the threats offoreign kings. But held up in that gowned state I have, By twice twelve 4 fathers politic and grave: Who with a sheathed sword, and silken law, Do keep (within weak walls) millions in awe. I charge you therefore say, for what you come? What are you? BOTH:

Knights at arms.

ST.GEORGE:

St. George.

ST.ANDREW: For Scotland's honour I.

St.Andrew.

ST. GEORGE: For England's I. Both sworn into a League of Unity. GENIUS: I clap my hands for joy, and seat you both Next to my heart: in leaves of purest gold, This most auspicious love shall be enroll'd. Bejoin'd to us: and as to earth we bow, So, to those royal feet, bend your steel'd brow. In name of all these senators,5 (on whom Virtue builds more than those of antique Rome) Shouting a cheerful welcome: since no clime, Nor age that has gone o'er the head ofTime, Did e'er cast up such joys nor the like sum (But here) shall stand in the world years to come, 1.

2. 3. 4. 5.

32

--------------····----------Isis] The Thames. Forty-four] A more exact allusion to the length of Elizabeth's reign. frighted) Some texts read 'fraighted'. twice twelve] In fact, there were 26 aldermen at this time; Dekker may just be using a round figure. senators] Aldermen (by analogy with the senators of ancient Rome).

Dread King, our hearts make good, what words do want, To hid thee boldly enter Troynovant. 1 Rerum certa salus, terrarum gloria Caesar! Martial Sospite quo, mag;nos credimus esse deos: 2 Dilexere prius pueri, juvenesque senesque, Idem. At nunc infantes te quoque Caesar amant. 3

This should have been the first off' ring of the City's love: hut His Majesty not making his entrance (according to expectation) it was (not utterly thrown from the altar) but laid hy. 4 Martial:

lam crescunt media Paegmata celsa via. 5

By this time imagine that poets (who draw speaking pictures) and painters (who make dumb poesy) 6 had their heads and hands full; the one for native and sweet invention: the other for lively illustration of what the former should devise: both of them emulously contending (but not striving) with the prop'rest and brightest colours of wit and art, to set out the beauty of the great triumphant-day. For more exact and formal managing of which business, a select number both of aldermen and commoners {like so many Roman aediles) were (communi counsilio) chosen forth, to whose discretion, the charge, contrivings, projects, and all other dependences, owing to so troublesome a work, was entirely andjudicially committed. 7 Many days were thriftily consumed, to mould the bodies of these triumphs comely, and to the honour of the place: and at last, the stuff whereof to frame them was beaten out. The soul that should give life and a tongue to this Entertainment, being to breathe out of writers' pens. The limbs of it to lie at the hard-handed mercy of mechanicians. 8 1.

2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Troynovant] See page 122, note 2. Rerum ... deos] Martial, Epigrams, ll.9l. lines 1-2: 'Sure saviour of the state, the glory of the world, Caesar, from whose safety we may believe that the great gods exist.' Dilcxere ... amant] Martial, Epigrams, IX.9-10: 'Boys loved you before, and young men, and old men; but now even the infants love you, Caesar.' See Introduction. lam ... via] De spectaculis liber, 11.2: 'Now very tall stages grow up in the middle of the street.' poets ... poesy] Renaissance commonplace; seejonson,Discoverics, 1510-12. Dekker gives more details of those employed in the last pages of The Magnificent Entertainment. mechanicians] Artisans skilled in the building of machinery.

33

In a moment therefore of time are carpenters,joiners, carvers, and other artificers sweating at their chisels. (Virgil):

Accingunt omnes operi. 1

Not a finger but had an office: 2 he was held unworthy ever after to 'suck the honey-dew of peace,' that (against his coming, by whom our peace wears a triple wreath) would offer to play the drone. 3 The streets are surveyed; heights, breadths, and distances taken, as it were to make fortifications, for the solemnities. Seven pieces of ground (like so many fields for a battle) are plotted forth, upon which these Arches ofTriumph must show themselves in their glory: aloft, in the end do they advance their proud foreheads. Circum pueri, innuptaeque puellae, (Virgil): Sacra canunt,funemque manu contingere gaudent. 4

Even children (might they have been suff'red)S would gladly have spent their little strength, about the engines, that mounted up the frames: such a fire oflove and joy was kindled in every breast. The day (for whose sake these wonders of wood climb'd thus into the clouds) is now come; being so early up by reason of artificial lights, which wakened it, that the sun over-slept himself, and rose not in many hours after, yet bringing with it into the very bosom of the City, a world of people. The streets seem'd to be paved with men: stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children, open casements fill'd up with women. All glass windows taken down, but in their places sparkled so many eyes, that had it not been the day, the light which reflected from them was sufficient to have made one: he that should have compared the empty and untrodden walks of London, which were to be seen in that late mortallydestroyi~g deluge, 6 with the thronged streets now, might have believed that upon this day began a new creation, and that the City was the only workhouse wherein sundry nations were made. A goodly and civil order was observed, in martialling all the companies according to their degrees: the first beginning at the upper end of Saint 1. Accing;unt ... open] Aeneid 11.233: 'They all make ready for the work.' 2. office] Appointed task. 3. drone] Non-working male honey-bee; hence, sluggard. 4. Circum ... gaudent] Aeneid 11.238-9: 'Boys and unwedded girls sang hymns around it, and rejoiced to touch the ropes with their hands.' 5. might ... suff'red] Had they been allowed. 6. late ... deluge] The plague ofl603.

34

Mark's Lane, and the last reaching above the conduit in Fleet Street: their seats being double-rail'd: 1 upon the upper part whereon they leaned, the streamers, ensigns and bannerets, of each particular company decently fixed: and directly against them, (even quite through the body of the City, so high as to Temple Bar) a single rail (in fair distance from the other) was likewise erected to put off the multitude. Amongst whose tongues (which in such consorts never lie still) though there were no music, yet as the poet says: (Martial):

Vox diversa sonat, populorum est vox tamen una. 2

Nothing that they speak could be made anything, 3 yet all that was spoken sounded to this purpose, that still His Majesty was coming. They have their longings: and behold, afar off they spy him, richly mounted on a white jennet, 4 under a rich canopy, sustained by eight Barons of the Cinque Ports; 5 the Tower serving that morning but for his withdrawing chamber, wherein he made him ready: and from thence stepp'd presently into his City of London, which for the time might worthily borrow the name of his Court Royal: 6 his passage alongst that Court, offering itself (for more state) through seven gates, of which the first was erected at Fenchurch.

Thus presenting itself It was an upright flat square, (for it contained fifty foot in the perpendicular, and fifty foot in the ground-line) the upper roofthereof(on distinct grices 7) bore up the true models of all the notable houses, turrets, and steeples, within the City. The gate under which His Majesty did pass, was 12 foot wide, and 18 foot high: a postern likewise (at one side of it) being four foot wide and 8 foot in height: on either side of the gate, stood l.

2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

double-rail' d) The double rails marked out special seating for the members of the Livery Companies, who were responsible for staging the pageants. Vox ... una] De spectaculis liber, 111.2: 'Different voices speak, but the voice of the people is one.' made anything] Made out. jennet] Small Spanish horse. Cinque Ports] Originally the five ports ofDover, Sandwich, Hastings, Romney and Hythe, to which were added Rye and Winchelsea; their special status as protectors of the realm was already more traditional than real by 1604. Court Royal] The court is no one fixed place, but follows the monarch. grices] Greces, steps.

35

a great French term, 1 of stone, advanced upon wooden pedestals; two half pilasters of rustic, 2 standing over their heads. I could shoot more arrows at this mark, and teach you without the carpenter's rule how to measure all the proportions belonging to this fabric. But an excellent hand 3 being at this instant curiously describing all the seven, and bestowing on them their fair prospective 4 limbs, your eye shall hereafter rather be delighted in beholding those picture, than now be wearied in looking upon mine.

The personages (as weU mutes as speakers) in this pageant, were these: viz. 1. The highest person was The Britain Monarchy. 2. At her feet, sat Divine Wisdom. 3. Beneath her, stood The Genius of the City, a man. 4. At his right hand was placed a personage, figuring The Counsel of

the City. 5 5. Under all these lay a person representing Thamesis the River. Six other persons (being daughters to Genius) were advanced above him, on a spreading ascent, of which the first was,

1. 2. 3. 4.

Gladness.

The second, Veneration. The third, Promptitude. The fourth, Vigilance. 5. The fifth, Loving Affection. 6. The sixth, Unanimity.

Of all which personages, Genius and Thamesis were the only speakers: Thamesis being presented by one of the Children of Her Majesty's Revels, Genius by Master Alleyn 6 (servant to the young Prince); his gratulatory speech (which was delivered with excellent action, and a well-tun'd audible voice) being to this effect: term] 'A statue or bust like those of the god Terminus, representing the upper part of the body ... terminating below in a pillar or pedestal out of which it appears to spring': OED. 2. rustic] 'Characterized by a surface artificially roughened or left rough-hewn': OED. 3. excellent hand) That ofStephen Harrison (see Introduction). 4. prospective] Perspective. 5. Counsel ... City] Dekker omits 'the warlike force of the City' who, according to Jonson (p.41 ), came next. 6. Master Alleyn) Edward Alleyn, the great actor; member of Prince Henry's Men (formerly the Admiral's Men). 1.

That London may be proud to behold this day, and therefore in name of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the Council, Commoners and Multitude, the heartiest welcome is tendered to His Majesty, that ever was bestowed on any king, &:.c. Which banquet being taken away with sound of music, 1 there, ready for the purpose, His Majesty made his entrance into this his Court Royal: under this first gate, upon the batdements of the work, in great capitals was inscribed, thus: LONDINIUM 2

And under that, in a smaller (but not different 3) character, was written, CAMERA REGIA:

The King's Chamber.

*

*

*

*

*

[Benjonson's account of the Fenchurch Arch]

The Pegme 4 at Fenchurch Presented itself in a square and flat upright, like to the side of a City: the top thereof, above the vent,5 and crest, adorn'd with houses, towers, and steeples, set off in prospective. Upon the batdements in a great capital letter was inscribed, LONDINIUM:

according to Tacitus: At Suetonius mira constantia, medios inter hosteis Londinium perrexit, cognomento quidem coloniae non insigne, sed copia 1.

2. 3. 4.

5.

Which ... music] 'The waits and haut-boys (oboes) of London' (sidenote). All ofjonson's own annotations are indicated by '(sidenote)'. Londinium] Latin for London. smaller ... different] Comparejonson's 'less and different' (p.38); Dekker seems to be niggling. Pegme] 'Framework of stage used in theatrical pageants, sometimes bearing an inscription': OED. In the folio the opening reads: 'At Fenchurch. The scene presented itself.' See Introduction on the differences between quarto and folio texts. vent] Indentations of the parapet.

37

negotiatorum, & commeatu maxime celebre. 1 Beneath that, in a less and different character, was written CAMERA REGIA:

which title 2 immediately after the Norman conquest it began to have; and by the indulgence of succeeding princes, hath been hitherto continued. In the frieze over the gate, it seemeth to speak this verse:

Par domus haec coelo, Sed minor est domino. 3 Taken out of Martial, and implying, that though this city (for the state, and magnificence) might (by hyperbole) be said to touch the stars, and reach up to heaven, yet was it far inferior to the master thereof, who was His Majesty; and in that respect unworthy to receive him. The highest person advanc'd therein, was MONARCHIA BRITANNICA,

and fitly: applying to the above mentioned title of the City, The King's Chamber, and therefore here placed as in the proper seat of the empire: for, so the glory and light of the kingdom Master Camden, speaking of London, saith, she is totius Britanniae epitome, Britannicique imperii sedes, regumque Angliae camera, tantum inter omneis eminet, quantum (ut ait ille) inter viburna cupressus. 4 She was a woman, richly attir'd, in cloth of gold and tissue; a rich mantle; over her state 5 two crowns hanging, with pensile 6 shields through them; the one limn'd 7 with the particular coat of England, the other of Scotland: on either side also a crown with t.;_e like scutcheons, and peculiar coats of France, and Ireland. In her hand she

At Suetonius ... celebre] Annals 1.14 (sidenote): 'But Suetonius, undismayed, marched through disaffected territory to London. This town did not rank as a Roman settlement, but was an important centre for businessmen and merchandise.' 2. title] Cam( den). Brit(annia) 374 (sidenote). 3. Par domus ... domino] Lib. 8. Epig. 36 (sidenote): 'This house is on a par with the heavens, but it is less than its master'. 4. Master Camden ... cupressus] Brit(annia) 367; (sidenote): 'The epitome of the whole ofBritain, seat of the British military command, and chamber of the kings of England; it is as prominent in the state (so he [Virgil] says) as the cypress among the wayfaring trees.' 5. state] Chair of state. 6. pensile] Hanging. 7. limn'd] Painted. 1.

holds a sceptre; on her head a fillet of gold, interwoven, with palm and laurel; her hair bound into four several points, descending from her crowns; and in her lap a little globe, inscrib'd upon ORBIS BRITANNICUS. 1

And beneath, the word 2 DIVISUS AB ORBE. 3

To show, that this empire is a world divided from the world, and alluding to that of Claudian .

. . . Et Nostro diducta Britannia mundo. 4 And Virgil.

. .. Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos. 5 The wreath denotes victory and happiness. The sceptre and crowns sovereignty. The shields the precedency of the countries and their distinctions. At her feet was set THEOSOPHIA,

or Divine Wisdom, all in white, a blue mantle seeded with stars, a crown of stars on her head. Her garments figur'd truth, innocence, and clearness. She was always looking up; in her one hand she sustained a dove, in the other a serpent: the last to show her subtlety, the first her simplicity; alluding to that text of Scripture, Estote ergo prudentes sicut serpentes, & simplices sicut columbae. 6 Her word, 1. 2. 3. 4.

5.

6.

Orbis Britannicus] Latin: The British World. word] Motto. Divisus Ab Orbe] Latin: Divided from the world. Et ... m undo] De Malii Theodor. cons. Panegyri (sidenote): 'And Britain separated from our world'. Et ... Britannos] Eclog I (sidenote): 'And the British, deeply divided from the world'. The idea of Britain as a separate, specially favoured place was a popular one, andjonson used it again in The Masque of Blackness (1605). See J. W. Bennett, 'Britain among the Fortunate Isles', Studies in Philology 53 (1956), 114-40. Scripture ... columbae] Matth(ew) X.16 (sidenote): 'Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves' (Authorised Version).

39

PER ME REGIS REGNANT. 1

Intimating how by her, all kings do govern, and that she is the foundation and strength ofkingdoms, to which end she was here placed upon a cube, 2 at the foot of the Monarchy, as her base and stay. Directly beneath her stood GENIUS URBIS 3

a person attir'd rich, reverend, and antique: his hair long and white, crowned with a wreath of plane tree, which is said to be arbor genialis; 4 his mantle of purple, and buskins of that colour: he held in one hand a goblet, in the other a branch full of little twigs, to signifY increase and indulgence. His word HIS ARMIS: 5

pointing to the two that supported him, whereof the one on the right hand, was BOULEUTES.

Figuring the Counsel of the City, and was suited in black and purple; a wreath of oak 6 upon his head; sustaining for his ensigns, on his left arm a scarlet robe, and in his right hand the fasces/ as tokens of magistracy, with this inscription: 1. 2. .3.

4. 5. 6.

7.

40

Per ... Regnant) Prov(erbs) VIII.l5 (sidenote): 'By me kings reign' (AV). cube) To show stability; contrast Fortune's sphere . Genius Urbis] 'The ancients considered the Genius a god who gave birth to all things; made for cities as much as for men or other things': Lil. Gre. Gy. in Synt. deor. 15. &::. Rosin.Antiq. Ros. 1.2.c.14 (sidenote). arbor genialis] The nuptial tree. His Armis] Latin: With these arms. wreath of oak] 'The civic crown is made from a garland of oak leaves, since the most ancient parts of the oak were traditionally taken for food and sustenance': Ros.lib. 10. cap. 27 (sidenote). fasces] 'Bundles of twigs, within which an axe was bound, in this way- so that the iron should stick out beyond the longest faggot': Ros. l.7.c ..3. 'Whence it is to be noted that magistrates ought not to be hasty, or too easily angry. For a pause brought to bear, and a delay, while the twigs are gradually loosened, repeatedly changed the decision about punishment. When, however, some vices are correctable, but others are despaired of: the twigs punish what can be recovered, the axes cut off irrevocably': Plut( arch), Prob. Rom. 82 (sidenote).

SERVARE CIVES. 1

The other on the left hand. POLEMIUS,

The warlike force of the City, in an antique coat, or armour, with a target 2 and sword; his helm on, and crowned with laurel, implying strength and conquest: in his hand he bore the standard of the City, with this word, EXTINGUERE ET HOSTEIS. 3

Expressing by those several mots, connexed, that with those arms of counsel and strength, the Genius was able to extinguish the King's enemies, and preserve his citizens, alluding to those verses in Seneca,

Exting;uere hostem, maxima est virtus ducis. Servare cives, maior est patriae, patri. 4 Underneath these, in an aback 5 thrust out before the rest, lay THAMESIS.

The river, as running along the side of the City; in a skin-coat made like flesh, naked and blue. His mantle of sea-green or water colour, thin, and bolne 6 out like a sail; bracelets about his wrists, of willow and sedge, a crown of sedge and reed upon his head, mix'd with water-lilies; alluding to Virgil's description ofTiber;

... Deus ipse loci,jluvio Tjberinus amoeno, Populeas inter senior se attollere frondes Visus, eum tenuis glauco velabat amictu Carbasus, & crineis umbrosa tegebat Arundo.7 l.

2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

Servare Cives] Latin: To save the citizens. target] Small shield. Extinguere ... Hosteis] Latin: To destroy, verily, our enemies. Exting;uere ... patn] Oct(avia). Act 2 (sidenote): [This play is not now general!) thought to be by Seneca] 'To destroy the enemy is the greatest ability ofa commander; to save the citizens is an even greater one in the fu.ther of the country.' aback] Square tablet or compartment. bolne] By-form of'bollen', to swell out. Deus ... Arundo] Aen(eid) Lib. 8 (sidenote): 'And the god of the place appeared to him, old Tiber himself, arising from his pleasant stream and his poplar leaves. He was clothed in a gray garment of fine linen, and his hair was covered in shady reeds.'

His beard, and hair long, and overgrown. He leans his arm upon an earthen pot, out of which water, with live fishes, are seen to run forth, and play about him. His word, FLUMINA SENSERUNT IPSA. 1

A hemistich 2 of Ovid's: the rest of the verse being,

... quid esset amor. 3 Affirming, that rivers themselves, and such inanimate creatures, have heretofore been made sensible of passions, and affections; and that he now no less partook the joy of His Majesty's grateful approach to this City, than any of those persons to whom he pointed, which were the daughters of the Genius, and six in number: who, in a spreading ascent, upon several grices, 4 help to beautify both the sides. The first, EUPHROSYNE

or Gladness: was suited in green, a mantle of divers colours, embroid'red with all variety of flowers: on her head a garland of myrtle, in her right hand a crystal cruse.5 fill'd with wine, in the left a cup of gold: at her feet a timbre!, harp, and other instruments, all ensigns of gladness,

natis in usum laetitiae scyphis, &c. 6 And in another place,

Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero Pulsanda tellus, &c.7 Her word, HAEC AEVI MIHI PRIMA DIES 8

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

42

Flumina ... Ipsa] Amor(es) 1.3. el. 5 (sidenote): 'The rivers themselves felt'. hemistich] Half-line of verse. quid ... amor] Latin: What love is. grices] See above. cruse] Drinking vessel. natis ... &c] Hor(ace), Car{mina), Ode 27 (sidenote): 'With wine-cups made for the use of gladness &c'. Nunc ... &c] Et Ode 37 (sidenote): 'Now let us drink, now let the earth be struck with our free feet &c.' Haec ... Dies] Stat(ius), Syl(vas) 4. Epu Domit (sidenote): 'This is the first day of my life-time'.

As if this were the first hour of her life, and the minute wherein she began to be; beholding so long coveted, and look'd-for a presence. The second SEBASIS,

or Veneratio, was varied in an ash-colour'd suit, and dark mantle, a veil over her head of ash colour: her hands cross'd before her, and her eyes half clos'd. Her word, MIHI SEMPER DEUS 1

Implying both her office of reverence, and the dignity of her object, who being as god on earth, should never be less in her thought. The third PROTHYMIA,

or Promptitude, was attir'd in a short tuck'd garment of flame colour, wings at her back; her hair bright, and bound up with ribbons; her breast open, virago-like; her buskins 2 so ribboned: she was crowned with a chaplet of trifoly 3 to express readiness, and openness every way; in her right hand she held a squirrel, as being the creature most full of life and quickness: in the left a close round censer, with the perfume suddenly to be vented forth at the sides. Her word QUA DATA PORTA

Taken from another place in Virgil, where Eolus at the command ofjuno, lets forth the wind:

... ac venti velut agmine facto 0ta data porta ruunt, & terras turbine perflant 4 And show'd that she was no less prepar'd with promptitude, and alacrity, than the winds were, upon the least gate that shall be opened to his high command. The fourth 1.

2. .3. 4.

Mihi ... Deus] Virg(il), Ecl(ogues) 1 (sidenote): 'Always a god to me'. buskins] High-laced boots . trifoly] Trefoil. ac ... peiflant] Aen(eid) I (sidenote): 'The winds formed line, and charged through the outlet he had made (the motto), and they swept through the earth in a tornado.'

43

AGRYPNIA,

or Vigilance, in yellow, a sable mantle, seeded with waking eyes, and silver fringe: her chaplet of heliotropium, or tumsole; in her one hand a lamp, or cresset, 1 in her other a bell. The lamp signified search and sight, the bell warning. The heliotropium care; and respecting her object. Her word SPECULAMUR IN OMNEIS. 2

Alluding to that of Ovid, where he describes the office of Argus .

. . . ipse procul mantis sublime cacumen Occupat, unde sedens partes speculatur in omneis. 3 and implying the like duty of care and vigilance in herself. The fifth, AGAPE,

or Loving Affection, in crimson fringed with gold, a mantle of flame colour, her chaplet of red and white roses; in her hand a flaming heart: the flame expressed zeal, the red and white roses, a mixture of simplicity with love: her robes freshness and fervency. Her word, NON SIC EXUCABIAE. 4

Out ofClaudian, in following:

... Nee circumstantia pila Quam tutatur amor. 5 Inferring, that though her sister before had protested watchfulness and circumspection, yet no watch or guard could be so safe to the estate, or person of a prince, as the love and natural affection of his subjects: which she in the City's behalf promised. The sixth,

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

44

cresset) Open metal vessel that bums oil, coal, etc., for light. Speculamur in Ornneis) Latin: We look out on all sides. ipse ... omneis] Met(amorphoses) (sidenote): 'He occupies the lofty summit of a mountain far away, where he sits and looks out on all sides.' Non sic Exucabiae) Latin: There are no such sentries. Nee ... amor] De 4. cons. Honor. Panegyri (sidenote): ' ... nor surrounding spear, as the love which stands guard'.

OMOTHYMIA,

Or Unanimity in blue, her robe blue, and buskins. A chaplet ofblue lilies, showing one truth and entireness of mind. In her lap lies a sheaf of arrows bound together, and she herself sits weaving certain small silver twists. Her word, FIRMA CONSENSUS FACIT. 1

Auxilia humilia firma, &c. 2 Intimating that even the smallest and weakest aids, by consent, are made strong: herself personating the unanimity, or consent of soul, in all inhabitants of the City to his service. These are all the personages, or live figures, whereof only two were speakers (Genius and Thamesis) the rest were mutes. Other dumb complements there were, as the arms of the Kingdom on the one side, with this Inscription. HIS VIREAS.

With these may'st thou.flourish On the other side the arms of the City, with HIS VINCAS

With these may'st thou conquer. lP. the centre, or midst of the pegme,3 there was an aback, or square, wherein this elogy was written:

Maximus hie Rex est, et luce serenior ipsa Principe quae talem cernit in urbe ducem; Cuius Fortunam superat sic unica virtus, Unus ut is reliquos vincit utraque viros. Praeceptis alii populos, multraque fatigant Lege; sed exemplo nos rapit ille suo. Cuique frui tota fas est uxore marito, Et sua fas simili pignora nosse patri. Ecce ubi pig;noribus circumstipata coruscis l. 2. 3.

Firma ... Facit] Latin: Concord makes strong. Auxilia ... firma &c] Pub. Syr. Mi. (sidenote): 'The humblest aids are strong'. pegme] See above.

45

It comes, et tanto vix minor AJV.NA viro. Haud metus est, Regem posthac ne proximus haeres, .Neu Successorem non amet ille suum. 1 This, and the whole frame, was covered with a curtain of silk, painted like a thick cloud, and at the approach of the K[ing] was instantly to be drawn. The allegory being, that those clouds were gathered upon the face of the City, through their long want of his most wished sight: but now, as at the rising of the sun, all mists were dispersed and fled. When suddenly, upon silence made to the musics, a voice was heard to utter this verse;

Totus adest oculis, aderat qui mentibus olim 2 SignifYing, that he now was really objected to 3 their eyes, who before had been only, but still, present in their minds. Thus far the complemental 4 part of the first; wherein was not only laboured the expression of state and magnificence (as proper to a triumphal Arch) but the very site, fabric, strength, policy, dignity, and affections of the City were all laid down to life: the nature and property of these devices being, to present always some one entire body, or figure, consisting of distinct members, and each of those expressing itself, in the own 5 active sphere, yet all, with that general harmony so connexed and disposed, as no one little part can be missing to the illustration of the whole: where also is to be noted that, the symbols used are not, neither ought to be, simply hieroglyphics, 6 emblems, or impreses/ but a mixed 1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7.

Maximus ... suum] Latin: This is the greatest king, and the more happy by that light which sees such a leader in his principal city; he is unique in that his unparalleled virtue rises above his fortune, and both of these triumph over other men. Others wear down their peoples with commands and many laws; but he carries us away with his own example. It is right that every husband should fully enjoy the company ofhis wife, and right that a father should similarly know his children. Behold where his partner goes, crowded round with glittering children; ANNA in truth scarcely less than such a man. There is no fear at all but that his nearest heir will in the future love both a Queen and his own successor. Totus ... olim] Claud(ian), de laud(ibus) Stil(ichonis), lib. 3 (sidenote). objected to] Presented before. complemental] OED cites this use in the sense of 'complimental': 'of the nature of a compliment or formal expression of courtesy'. the own] Its own. hieroglyphics] Literally, trees or animals used as symbolic characters. impreses] Embossed shields.

character, partaking somewhat of all, and peculiarly apted 1 to these more magnificent inventions: wherein, the garments and ensigns deliver the nature of the person, and the word the present office. Neither was it becoming, or could it stand with the dignity of these shows (after the most miserable and desperate shift of the puppets) to require a truchman, 2 or (with the ignorant painter 3 ) one to write, 'This is a dog'; or, 'This is a hare': but so to be presented as upon the view, they might, without cloud or obscurity, declare themselves to the sharp and learned: and for the multitude, no doubt but their grounded judgements 4 gazed, said it was fine, and were satisfied.

The speeches of Gratulation. GENIUS: Time, Fate, and Fortune have at length conspir'd, To give our age the day so much desir'd. What all the minutes, hours, weeks, months, and years, That hang in file upon these silver hairs, Could not produce, beneath the Briton 5 stroke, The Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman 6 yoke, This point of time hath done. Now London rear Thy forehead high, and on it strive to wear Thy choicest gems; teach thy steep towers to rise Higher with people: set with sparkling eyes Thy spacious windows; and in every street, Let thronging joy, love, and amazement meet. Cleave all the air with shouts, and let the cry Strike through as long, and universally, As thunder; for thou now art bliss'd 7 to see That sight, for which thou didst begin to be.

apted] Made appropriate. truchman] Interpreter. the ignorant painter] From Plutarch, De Adulatore et Amico XXIV. grounded judgements] The groundlings; a sneering theatrical pun which Jonson used often; 'gazed' became a more emphatic 'did gaze' in the folio verswn. 5. Briton] 'As being the first free and natural government of this island, after it came to civility' (sidenote). 6. Norman] 'In respect they were all conquests, and the obedience of the subject more enforced' (sidenote). 7. bliss'd] Blessed. l.

2. 3. 4.

47

When Brutus' 1 plough first gave thee infant bounds, And I, thy Genius walk'd auspicious rounds In every furrow; 2 then did I forelook, And saw this day mark'd white 3 in Clotho's 4 book. The several circles, 5 both of change and sway, Within this isle, there also figur'd lay: Of which the greatest, perfectest, and last Was this, whose present happiness we taste. 1.

Brutus'] 'Rather than the City should want a founder, we choose to follow the received story of Brute, whether fabulous, or true, and not altogether unwarranted in poetry: since it is a favour of antiquity to few cities to let them know their first authors. Besides, a learned poet of our time, in a most elegant work of his Con(iugium) Tam(esis) & Isis, celebrating London, hath this verse of her: "carrying off mother Troy's own lights as rivals to her." Here is also an ancient rite alluded to in the building of cities, which was, to give them their bounds with a plough, according to Virg(il) Aen(eid) Lib. 10. "Meanwhile Aeneas set the limits of the city with a plough." And Isidore (of Seville), lib. 15 cap. 2. "The city is named after the circle (urbsforbis), because ancient communities grew up in a circle; or from the plough-beam (urbum) part of the plough by which the walls were traced out, from wherever that was. And he chose a place to rule over, and enclosed it within a furrow'" (sidenote). The 'learned poet' was probably Camden, who quoted Coniugium &c. in his Britannia and probably wrote it himself. 2. furrow] 'That furrow is called "first guardian spirit" which is imprinted with a bull and a cow for the purpose of defining the limits when they are building a new city'; hitherto respects that ofCamd(en),Brit(annia) 368, speaking of this city: 'Whoever built it, however, his fortune told him that it had been constructed with a vital guardian spirit' (sidenote). 3. white] '"For so all happy days were": Plin(y) cap. 40. lib. 7. Nat(uralis) Hist(oria). To which Horace alludes, lib. LOde 36: "May no fine day lack its Cretan (good) mark". And the other Pliny (i.e. Pliny the Younger), epis(tulae) II.lib. 6: "0 happy day, which I must mark with the whitest voting stone (the better stone)". With many other in many places. Mart(ial), lib. 8 epi. 45., lib. 9. epi. 53., lib. 10. 38., lib. 11.37, Stat(ius) lib. 4. Syl(vae) 6, Pers(ius) sat. 2, Catull(us), epig. 69 &c.' (sidenote). 4. Clotho's] 'The Parcae, or Fates, Martianus calls them "clerks and head spinners of the gods above"; whereof Clotho is said to be the eldest, signifying in Latin Evocatio (calling forth)' (sidenote). 5. circles] Cycles. 'Those mentioned before of the Briton, Roman, Saxon, etc., and to this register of the Fates allude those verses ofOvid,Met(amorphoses): " ... you will see there records of things made with great effort out of brass and solid iron: safe and eternal they fear neither the shock of heaven nor the wrath of the thunderbolt, nor any other disaster. You will find there, when Fate has struck me down, in everlasting adamant &c"' (sidenote).

Why keep you silence daughters? What dull peace Is this inhabits you? Shall office 1 cease Upon th'aspect 2 ofhim, to whom you owe More than you are, or can be? Shall Time know That article, 3 wherein your flame stood still, And not aspir'd? 4 Now heaven avert an ill Of that black look. Ere pause possess your breasts I wish you more of plagues: 'Zeal when it rests, Leaves to be Zeal.' Up thou tame River, wake; And from thy liquid limbs this slumber shake: Thou drown'st thyself in inofficious 5 sleep; And these thy sluggish waters seem to creep, Rather than flow. Up, rise, and swell with pride Above thy banks. 'Now is not every tide'. 6 TAMESIS: To what vain end should I contend to show My weaker powers, when seas of pomp o'erflow The City's face' and cover all the shore With sands more rich than Tagus' 7 wealthy ore? When in the flood ofjoy, that comes with him, He drowns the world; yet makes it live and swim, And spring with gladness: not my fishes here, Though they be dumb, but do express the cheer Of these bright streams. No less may these, 8 and I Boast our delights, albe't we silent lie. GENIUS: Indeed, true gladness cloth not always speak: joy bred, and borne but in the tongue, is weak.' Yet (lest the fervour of so pure a flame As this my City bears, might lose the name, Without the apt eventing 9 ofher heat) Know greatestJames (and no less good, than great): l.

2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

office] Duty. aspect] Appearance. article] A nick of time joining two moments. aspir'd] Rising up. inofficious] Undutiful. Now ... tide] i.e. this is no ordinary day. Tagus'] 'A river dividing Spain and Portugal, and by the consent of poets styl'd aurifer [gold-producing)' (sidenote). these] 'Understanding Euphrosyne, Sebasis, Prothumia &.c.' (sidenote). eventing] Venting, issuing forth.

49

In the behalf of all my virtuous sons, Whereof my eldest 1 there, thy pomp foreruns, (A man without my flattering, or his pride, As worthy, as he's blest 2 to be thy guide) In his grave name, and all his brethren's right, (Who thirst to drink the nectar of thy sight) The council, commoners, and multitude; (Glad, that this day so long deni'd, is view'd) I tender thee the heartiest welcome yet That ever king had to his empire's 3 seat: Never came man, more long' cl for, more desir'd: And being come, more reverenc'd, lov'd, admir'd: Hear, and record it: 'In a prince it is No little virtue, to know who are his.' 4 With 5 like devotions, do I stoop t'embrace This springing glory of thy Godlike 6 race; His country's wonder, hope, love,joy and pride: How well cloth he become the royal side Of this erected, and broad spreading tree, Under whose shade may Britain ever be. And from this branch may thousand branches more Shoot o'er the main/ and knit with every shore In bonds of marriage, kindred, 8 and increase; And style this land the navel 9 of their peace. This is your servants' wish, your city's vow, 1.

2.

eldest] 'The lord mayor, who for his year, hath senior place of the rest, & for the day was chief sergeant to the king.' (sidenote). blest] ~!\hove the blessing ofhis present office, the word had some particular allusion to his name, which is Benet (Sir Thomas Bennet, of the Mercers' Company) and hath (no doubt) in time been the contraction of Benedict'

(sidenote). 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9.

so

empire's] 'The City, which title is touch'd before' (sidenote). In a prince ... are his] From Martial, Epigrams, VIII.xv.8. With] 'To the prince' (sidenote); i.e. Prince Henry. Godlike] 'An attribute given to great persons, fitly above other humanity, and in frequent use with all the Greek poets, especially Homer, Iliad. a. "the god Achilles.'' And in the same book- "and godlike Polyphemus"' (sidenote). main] Sea. kindred] Text reads 'kinred'. navel] 'As Lactantius calls Parnassus, "the navel of the world'" (sidenote). A round stone in the temple at Delphi was known as the 'navel', supposedly marking the middle point of the world; not on Parnassus, as Lactantius claims.

Which still shall propagate itself, with you; And free from spurs of hope, that slow minds move: 'He seeks no hire, that owes his life to love.' 1 And 2 here she comes, that is no less a part In this day's greatness than in my glad heart. Glory of queens, and glory 3 of your name, Whose graces do as far outspeak your fame, As fame cloth silence, when her trumpet rings 4 You daughter, 5 sister, wife of several kings; Besides alliance, and the style of mother, In which one title you drown all your other. Instance, be that fair shoot 6 is gone before, Your eldest joy and top of all your store, With those/ whose sight to us is yet deni'd, But not our zeal to them, or aught beside This City can to you: for whose estate She hopes you will be still good advocate To her best lord. So, whilst you mortal are, No taste of sour mortality once dare Approach your house; nor fortune greet your grace But coming on, and with a forward face.

*

*

*

*

*

[Dekker's account continues] Too short a time (in their opinions that were glued there together so many hours, to behold him) did His Majesty dwell upon this first place: yet too long it seemed to other happy spirits, that' higher up in these Elysian fields I.

2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

He seeks ... to love] From Claudian, Panegricus de vi Cons Honorii, 610. And] 'To the queen' (sidenote); i.e. Queen Anne. glory] 'An emphatical speech, & well enforcing her greatness; being by this match, more than either her brother, father &c' (sidenote). rings] Proclaims. daughter] 'Daughter to Frederick (the) Second, king of Denmark, and Norway, sister to Christian the Fourth now there reigning, & wife to James our sovereign' (sidenote). fair shoot] 'The prince Henry Frederick' (sidenote). those] 'Charles, Duke ofRothsey, and the Lady Elizabeth' (sidenote).jonson is mistaken; Prince Henry was Duke ofRothsey, not Charles, who was Duke ofAlbany.

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awaited for his presence: he sets on therefore (like the sun in his zodiac) bountifully dispersing his beams amongst particular nations: the brightness and warmth of which was now spent first upon the Italians, and next upon the Belgians: 1 the space of ground, on which their magnificent arches were builded, being not unworthy to bear the name of the Great Hall to this our Court Royal: wherein was to be heard and seen the sundry languages and habits of strangers, which under princes' roofs render excellent harmony. In a pair of scales do I weigh these two nations, and find them (neither in hearty love to His Majesty, in advancement of the City's honour, nor in forwardness 2 to glorifY these triumphs) to differ one grain. 3 To dispute which have done best were to doubt that one had done well. Call their inventions therefore Twins: or if they themselves do not like that name (for happily they are emulous of one glory) yet thus we may speak of them. . .. Facies non omnibus una, Ovid. }fee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororurn. 4

Because, whosoever (fixis oculis 5 ) beholds their proportions,

Expleri mentern nequit, ardescitque tuendo.

Virgi1. 6

The street/ upon whose breast this Italian jewel was worn, was never worthy of that name which it carries, till this hour: for here did the King's eye meet a second object, that enticed him by tarrying to give honour to the place. And thus did the quaintness of the engine seem to discover itself before him.

The Italians' Pageant. The building took up the whole breadth of the street, of which the lower part was a square, garnished with four great columns: in the midst of 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

52

Belgians] A name adopted only relatively recently (from the Latin, Belgae) for the people ofThe Netherlands. forwardness] Eagerness. grain] The smallest unit of weight. Facies ... sororum] 'They have not all the same appearance, and yet not altogether different; as it should be with sisters': Metamorphoses 11.13.14. fixis ocul£s] Latin: With fixed eyes. Expleri ... tuendo] 'Her feelings could not be sated, and she burned with looking': Aeneid I. 713. street] 'Gracious Street' (sidenote).

which square was cut out a fair and spacious high gate, arched, being twenty-seven foot in the perpendicular line, and eighteen at the ground line: over the gate, in golden characters, these verses (in a long square) were inscribed:

Tzt Regere Imperio populos Jacobe memento, Hae tibi erunt artes, pacique imponere morem, Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos. 1 And directly above this was advanc'd the arms of the Kingdom. The supporters fairly cut out to the life: over the Lion (some pretty 2 distance from it) was written. JACOBO REGI MAGN. 3

And above the head of the Unicorn, at the like distance, this, HENRICI VII. ABNEP. 4

In a large square erected above all these King Henry the Seventh was royally seated in his imperial robes, to whom King James (mounted on horseback) approaches and receives a sceptre, over both their heads these words being written, HIC VIR, HIC EST. 5

Between two of the columns (on the right hand) was fixed up a square table 6 wherein, in lively and excellent colours, was limn'd a woman, figuring Peace, her head securely leaning on her left hand, her body modestly bestowed (to the length) upon the earth: in her other hand, was held an olive branch, the ensign of Peace, her word was out ofVirgil, being thus,

1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Tu Regere ... superbos] 'Rememher,James, that you have nations to govern under your command; and these shall be your skills. to make a tradition of peace, to spare the conquered and to subdue utterly the proud': Virgil, Aeneid VI.851-3 (where 'romane' stands for jacobe'). This is part of a passage quoted by KingJames himself at the end of Bas1:likon Doron. pretty] Considerable. Jacobo ... Magn(o)] Latin: To Great KingJames. Henrici VII. Abnep(os)] Latin: Great, great grandson of Henry VII. Hie ... est] Latin: This is the man, this is he. table] Flat piece of wood.

53

... Deus nobis haec otia fecit. 1 Beneath that piece was another square table, reaching almost to the bases of the two columns: in which two (seeming) sea personages were drawn to the life, both of them lying, or rather leaning on the bosom of the earth, naked; the one a woman, her back only seen; the other a man, his hand stretching and fast'ning itself upon her shoulder: the word that this dead body spake, was this,

I Decus, I Nostrum. 2 Upon the left-hand side of the gate, between the other two columns, were also two square tables: in the one of which were two persons portrayed to the life, naked, and wild in looks, the word,

Expectate solo Trinobanti. 3 And over that, in another square, carrying the same proportion, stood a woman upright, holding in her hand a shield, beneath whom was inscribed in golden characters,

... Spes ojidissima rerum. 4 And this was the shape and front of the first great square, whose top being flat was garnished with pilasters, and upon the roof was erected a great pedestal, on which stood a person carved out to the life (a woman), her left hand leaning on a sword, with the point downward, and her right hand reaching forth a diadem, which she seem'd by bowing of her knee and head to bestow upon His Majesty. On the four corners of this upper part stood four naked portraitures (in great 5 ) with artificial trumpets in their hands. In the arch of the gate was drawn (at one side) a company of palm trees, young and as it were but newly springing, over whose branches two naked winged angels, flying, held forth a scroll, which seem'd to speak thus,

Deus ... fecit] 'God made this peace for us': Virgil, Eclogues, 1.7. I Decus, I Nostmm] Latin: Pass on, our glory and our friend (adapted from Ovid, Ex Ponto, 11.8.25). 3. Expectate ... Trinobant~] Latin: Wait for him alone, citizens of London. (In a sidenote to The Artillery Garden, 1616, Dekker says that 'The Londoners were called Trinobants.') 4. Spes ... rerum] Latin: 0 surest hope of all things (adapted from Aeneid 11.281). 5. in great] On a large scale. 1.

2.

54

Spes altera. 1 On the contrary side was a vine, spreading itself into many branches and winding about olive and palm trees: two naked winged angels hanging likewise in the air over them, and holding a scroll between them, fill'd with this inscription,

Uxor tua, sicut vitis abundans, Et filii tui, sicut palmites olivarum. 2

If your imaginations (after the beholding of these objects) will suppose that His Majesty is now gone to the other side of this Italian trophy; 3 do but cast your eyes back, and there you shall find just the same proportions, which the fore-part or breast of our arch carrieth, with equal number of columns, pedestals, pilasters, limn'd pieces, and carved statues. Over the gate, this distichon 4 presents itself.

Nonne tuo imperio satis est Jacobe potiri? lmperium in musas, aemule quaeris? Habes. 5 Under which verses a wreath oflaurel seem'd to be ready to be let fall on His Majesty's head, as he went under it, being held between two naked antique women, their bodies stretching (at the full length) to compass 6 over the arch of the gate. And above those verses, in a fair azure table, this inscription was advanc'd in golden capitals: EXPECTATION! ORBIS TERRARUM, REGIB. GENITO NUMBEROSISS. REGUM GENITORI FAELICISS. REGI MARTIGENARUM AUGUSTISS. REGI MUSARUM GLORIOSISS.

Itali statuerunf laetitiae & cultus signum. 7 1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Spes altera] Latin: Our next hope. Uxor . . . olivarum) Latin: Your wife, like the overflowing vine, and your sons, like branches of olive-trees. trophy) Monument. distichon] Two lines of verse. Nonne ... Habes] Latin: Surely, James, it is enough that you are master ofyour own empire? Do you seek likewise an empire among the muses? You have it. compass] Circle. Expectationi . . . si~um] Latin: To the expectation of the world, born of innumerable kings. To the most fortunate father of kings. To the most majestic king of the sons of Mars. To the most glorious king of the muses. The Italians have erected this token ofjoy and honour.

55

On the right hand of this back part, between two of the columns was a square table, in which was drawn a woman, crown'cl with beautiful and fresh flowers, a caduceus 1 in her hand: all the notes of a plenteous and lively spring being carried about her. The soul that gave life to this speaking picture, was:

... Omnis Jeret omnia tellus. 2 Above this piece, in another square, was portrayed a Triton, 3 his trumpet at his mouth, seeming to utter thus much,

Dum coelum stellas. 4 Upon the left hand of this back part, in most excellent colours, antiquely attir'd stood the four kingdoms, England, Scotland, France 5 and Ireland, holding hands together; this being the language of them all,

Concordes stabili Fatorum numine. 6 The middle great square, that was advanced over the frieze of the gate, held Apollo, with all his ensigns and properties belonging unto him as a sphere, books, a caduceus, an octoedron/ with other geometrical bodies, and a harp in his left hand: his right hand with a golden wand in it, pointing to the battle of Lepanto 8 fought by the Turks (of which His Majesty hath written a poem 9 ) and to do him honour, Apollo himself cloth here seem to take upon him to describe: his word,

Fortunate puer. 10 1. caduceus] Wand of Mercury.

2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

9. 10.

Omnis ... tellus] 'The whole earth brings forth everything' (Eclogues, VI.39). Triton] A sea-god. Dum ... stell