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WHETHER as Picts or Saxons
or by any other racial cognomen, one thing is certain, that Scotland was
inhabited by men of the Norse race. The Norse Joel or Yule-tide formed
the chief public event in the lives of this people and, taking place as
it did in mid-winter, furnished the occasion for that tangible
expression of the joy which was the common heritage of both gods and
men.
Between those early
manifestations of a drama, which followed out an evolutionary, process
similar to the Grecian and Roman product, whose mimetic dances were
regarded as part of their religious ceremonies, and the development of
such, there is little, historically, speaking, which may help us to
breach the hiatus which necessarily exists. But although the gulf cannot
be directly bridged by historical aid, the institution of the drama as a
real entity may be considered as commencing with the use of poetry as a
medium for the exploitation of the heroic feats, mythological and
otherwise, which the first rhapsodists employed in singing the praises
of their heroes. Indeed, in those primeval days poetry occupied a higher
national position than it can ever hope to do in the present days of
philistinism. Its early potency is well illustrated in Sir Walter
Scott's Essay on Romance.
"Poets are the
historians and often the priests of the tribe. Their command of
language, then in its infancy, excites not merely pleasure, but
enthusiasm and admiration. When separated into a distinct class—as
was the case with the Celtic bards—they rank high in the scale of
society, and we not only find kings and nobles listening to them
with admiration, but emulous of their art and desirous to be
enrolled amongst their numbers. Several of the most renowned
northern kings and champions valued themselves as much upon their
powers of poetry, as upon their martial exploits, and of the Welsh
princes, the Irish kings, and the Highland chiefs of Scotland, very
many practised the arts of poetry and music. Llywarch Hen was a
prince of the Cymraig, Brian Boromhe a harper and musician--and
without resorting to the questionable authenticity of Ossian several
instances of the kind might be produced in the Highlands."
The Scottish minstrels
are mentioned in the same Essay. The French language was still being
spoken at the English court, and latterly, this common tongue formed
itself into that mixed dialect known as Anglo-Norman.
Thomas the Rhymer of
Erceldoune (1226-1297 A.D.), borrowing his subject-matter from the Welsh
traditions and the events connected with King Arthur and his Knights of
the Round Table, became the author of the first classical English
romance, and is commemorated as such by his great English contemporary,
Robert de Brunne. This did not imply the non-existence of any English
literature, but is due to the fact that his predecessors and
contemporaries had contented themselves by assuming the easier task of
translating the French romances, such as Sir Thopas, Sir Isenbras, and
Golagros and Gawarne, all of which have been traced to this source.
Regarded as a prophet, the popular belief was that Thomas had been
spirited away by the fairies and had remained in their land the space of
seven years. Upon his death he returned to that sweet Elysium, and it is
said now "drees his weird" until the hour when he is permitted to
re-visit the earth. All of which is circumstantially set forth in the
Border Ballad.
"True Thomas lay on Hunt
lie bank,
A ferlie he spied wi' his e'e,
And there he saw a lady bright
Come riding down by the Eildon Tree.
* * * * *
"'Now, ye maun go wi' me,'
she said,
'True Thomas, ye maun go wi' me;
And ye maun serve me seven years,
Thro' weal or woe, as may chance to be.
* * * * *
"But Thomas, ye maun hold
your tongue,
Whatever ye may hear or see,
For if you speak word in Elflyn land
Ye'Il never get back to your ain countrie.'
* * * * *
It was mirk, mirk nicht,
and there was nae stern light,
And they waded thro' red blude to the knee;
For a' the blude that's shed on earth
Runs thro' the springs o' that countrie.
* * * * *
"He has gotten a coat of
the even cloth
And a pair of shoes of velvet green,
And till seven years were gane and past
True Thomas on earth was never seen."
According to Walter
Bower, a zealous chronicler of the first half of the fifteenth century,
the royal youth, Alexander III. was crowned at Scone, in the year 1249
A.D., with every circumstance of pomp and magnificence. Clad in his
regal mantle, crowned and sceptred, they placed him upon. the Stone of
Destiny. Then there stood forward out of the stately throng a venerable,
hoary-headed Highlander, attired in scarlet cloak, who proceeded to
recite in the Gaelic tongue the genealogy of the young king, tracing his
descent from the fabulous Gathelus. This was one of the prominent events
which served to shew the dignity with which the office of the Bard was
regarded.
The second poet with whom
we have to deal is Archdeacon John Barbour (1316-1395). He was clerk of
audit to the household of the English King Richard II. In the year 1375,
at the request of King David, he commenced his epic poem, The Acts
and Life of that most Victorious Conqueror, Robert Bruce, King of
Scotland, wherein are contained the Martail Deeds of those Valient
Princes, Edward Bruce, Syr James Douglas, Erie Thomas Randal, Walter
Stewart and sundrie others. Of this poem Dr. David Irving says:
"Barbour seems to have been acquainted with those finer springs of the
human heart which elude vulgar observation: he catches the shades of
character with a delicate eye, and sometimes presents us with instances
of nice discrimination. His work is not a mere narrative of events: it
contains specimens of that minute and skilful delineation which marks
the hand of a poet." The poem is written in octo-syllabic lines forming
rhymed couplets, of which there are seven thousand.
The first printed edition
was published about 1570. The lines quoted are taken from King Robert's
address to the Scots on the eve of Bannockburn.
For we hae thre great
awantageis
The fyrst is that we haf the rycht,
And for the rycht ay God will fycht;
The tothyr is, that thai cummyn ar
For lyppnnyng off thair gret powar,
To sek us in our owne land:
And has brought her, rycht till our hand
Ryches in to sa gret quantite
That the powrest of you sail be
Both rych, and mychty thar with all,
Gift that we wyne, as weill may fall.
The third is, that we for our lyvis,
And for our childre, and for our wywis,
And for our fredome, and for our land
Ar strenyeit into bataill for to stand."
Barbour has also been
credited on somewhat uncertain grounds with a poem entitled The Brut,
in which is related the history of the Stuarts, beginning with their
descent from the fabulous King Brut; and another entitled The
Slewarts Oryginalle, in which he derives the house of Stewart from
Ninus, the founder of Nineveh. His undoubted poem on Bruce secured to
him £10 Scots to be derived from the revenues of the city of Aberdeen,
and a pension of 20s. from the Burgh mail, a fact which brings Scotland
into the early records of poet-laureateship.
The name of Andrew
Wyntoun (1350-1420) brings us to the third of the Scots poets.
Canon-regular of St. Andrews, about the year 1395 he was elected Prior
of the Monastery of St. Serf in Lochleven. His contribution to Scots
literature consisted of the great historical poem, An Orygynale
Cronykil of Scotland, which illustrates many of the leading events
in the history of the country. It begins by describing the return of
King David II. from captivity.
"Yet in prison was King
Davy,
And when a lang time was Bane bye
Frae prison and perplexitie
To Berwick Castle brought was he,
With the Earl of Northamptoun,
For to treat there of his ransoun."
No history of the period
would be complete without the inclusion of the name of Henry the
Minstrel, or, to give him his more familiar title, Blind Harry. He was
living and working during the last quarter of the fifteenth century, but
for the most part his personal history
is shrouded in darkness.
Supposed to be blind from birth, he eked out a living by reciting "
gestes " before the nobility. His claim to record is based upon the epic
poem, Ye Arts and Deidis of ye Muster and Vailzeand Campioun Schir
William Wallace, Knicht of Ellerslie. It is written in decasyllabic
lines, a style of verse which became more common at a later date. The
only MS. of the poem appears in the Advocates' Library, and is dated
1488. The lines depicting "The Death of Wallace" are worthy of quotation
in the modernised version.
"On Wednesday the false
Southron forth him brought
To martyr him, as they before had wrought,
Of men in arms led him a full great rout,
With a bold sprite good Wallace blink'd about,
A priest he asked for God that died on tree.
King Edward then commanded his clergy
And said, `I charge you upon loss of life,
None be so bold yon tyrant for to shrive,
He has reigned long in contrare my highness.'
A blithe bishop soon, present in that place,
Of Canterbury he then was righteous lord,
Against the King he made this right record,
And said, ' Myself shall hear his confessioun
If I have might, in contrare of thy crown
Anst thou through force will stop me of this thing
I vow to God who is my righteous King
That all England I shall her interdict,
And make it known thou art a heretic."
The name of the
unfortunate King James I. (1394 - 1437) forms another link in the list
of Scotland's representative poets. A student of Chaucer, Gower, and
Lydgate, the sweet spell of their muse had quite captivated his mind. At
Windsor Castle he fell in love with the daughter of the Duke of
Somerset, and niece to Henry IV., Jane Beaufort, who was the "begetter"
of the celebrated Kingis Quhair (quire or book), in which is told the
story of his love.
"Kest I doun myn eye
ageyne
Quhare as I saw walkyng under the Toure
Full secretely, new camyn hir to pleyne
The fairest or the freschest young floure
That ever I saw, mcthoucht, before that houre,
For quhich sodayne abate, anone astert
The blude of all my body to my hert."
Stopford Brooke speaks of
this poem thus: "In six cantos, sweeter, tenderer, and purer than any
verse till we come to Spenser, he describes the beginning of his love
till its happy end. 'I must write so much because I have come so from
Hell to Heaven.'" By the irony of fate, the murder of James I. at the
Carthusian Monastery forms the subject matter of another poem—Rossetti's
The King's Tragedy. Amongst minor works that have been attributed
to the royal poet may be mentioned Christis Kirk on the Green and Peblis
to the Play. The authorship of both of these has been disputed, and
while Professor Veitch makes out a fairly strong case for James I.,
Professor Skeat holds, that the poem is an imitation of one by the King,
and that when its language, style, and metre are considered, it is at
least half a century older than 1437.
We must content ourselves
with the bare mention of the names of Robert Henryson, or Henderson
(1430-1506), the Dunfermline schoolmaster, whose Testament of Fair
Cresside forms the sequel to Chaucer's story of Troilus; of William
Dunbar (1460-1517), who wrote that celebrated prothalamion, The Thrissil
and the Rois, in honour of the Princess Margaret, sister of Henry VIII.
and the affianced bride of James IV.
Quhen Merche was with
variand windis past
And Apperyl had with her silver shouris
Tane lief of Nature with due Orient blast,
And lusty May, that rnuciciir is of Flouris
IIad maid the hirdis to begyn chair houris,
Amang the tender ocionris reid & quhyt,
Quhois harmony to heir it was delyt."
And last, though not the
least, of that sweet, singer, Gavin Douglas (1474-1522).
Laying aside for the
moment the question of literary interest, our purpose will best be
served by a rapid survey of the habits of the people and the special
regard with which they cherished the pleasures of life. For the Scots
have always suffered from a neighbour's too easy acceptance of the
dictum that the Northerner is too serious-minded readily to accept the
pleasures that lie nearest to him. The history of these times conveys
quite a different impression. Warton, in his Scottish Poetry, regards
the historical guisards as being "composed of moral personifications";
they formed part of the festivities of Christmas time, and were
performed by itinerant maskers. When Church service had ended,- the
Sabbath was not looked upon as being particularly sacred. It was the
fashion to hold markets and fairs on that day, and after the rustic had
attended Mass, he adjourned to the alehouse to sell his meal or dispose
of his live stock. Sometimes the priest himself followed his
parishioners to the kirk-yard to witness their skill in archery, and
join in the merry sports and frolics of Robin Hood and Little John. The
purpose of those archery. bouts was patriotic, as well as pleasurable.
The Act of James I., Parl. I., cap. i8, provided:—.
"That all men busk
them to be archers from 10 years (sic) of age and upwards, and that
in each i o pounds of land there be made bow marks, especially near
to parish churches, whereon upon holy days men come and at least
shoot three about."
To the playgoer, the
inclusion in this history of such sports may be regarded as totally
irrelevant, as bearing upon the subject in hand; but the story of those
rustic games is so inseparably interwoven with the very root principles
of Scottish drama that it becomes an essential factor in helping us to
trace out its later developments.
Mention should here be
made of what was really the forerunner of the present music-hall artist,
the wandering player of the thirteenth and succeeding century. The
strolling player might easily be found jogging along the open road in
company with the pedlar. That generic term used by historians to denote
the wayfarers, minstrels or jongleurs, included musicians, singers,
jugglers, dancers, tumblers, and buffoons. While the genuine bard or
troubadour recited or chanted his versified romances and confined his
performances to the "big Nooses," the strolling player was ever ready to
accept what accommodation the gods gave, inn or market, wayside house,
all was one. Consequently, he was a man of the people, satirising the
political follies of the day or eulogising for paltry pelf the feats of
any local hero. The licensed jester of the day, with a free entry
anywhere, he performed his share in the evolution of social life by
disseminating the sentiments of revolt in many a revolutionary lay.
Sometimes, indeed, these minstrels were employed to instigate political
revolutions, and often they were the carriers of private information.
They were made free of hall, inn, tavern, or fair: no gathering was
complete without its band of strolling players.
The first drama of which
we have any, satisfactory evidence was a Mystery-play called The Haly
Blude, which was acted at Aberdeen m 1445, an account of which will
be given in the chapter relating to that city. These Mysteries were
promulgated, as was the case in all European countries, by the Roman
Catholic priesthood for educational purposes, and they enjoyed a goodly
vogue until the dawn of the Reformation. The theme was taken from the
Scriptures and was reproduced in the more assimilative form of a play.
The Scottish Mystery-play, following out the same course as elsewhere,
gradually fell to the indignity of parody. Equally with the French
fetes-des-foux, the occasion lent the opportunity for a, burlesque of
Church ceremonies. One of the most popular forms of it was The Feast of
Asses. The chief actor was Balaam's ass, or that which stood beside the
manger, or the one upon which the Saviour rode. A donkey, garbed in
grotesque canonicals, was brought into the most sacred part of the
church, where the mob made high sport with the beast, and indulged in
all manner of profanity. The Feast dedicated to the Innocents provided
an excuse for the children to exercise their talent for mischief amongst
the vestments, ornaments, and shrines of the church.
Curiously enough, these
unseemly exhibitions were at first tolerated by the clergy, but in the
year 1547 a macer of the Primate of St. Andrews appeared at Borthwick
with letters of excommunication against the Lord of Misrule, which the
curate was enjoined to publish at High Mass in the Parish Church. The
inhabitants of the Castle happened at that moment to be engaged in the
sport of acting the Abbot of Unreason. With this mock dignitary heading
the procession, they laid violent hands upon the macer, ducked him
repeatedly in the nearest mill-dam, and then compelled him to eat up his
parchment letters, which by a merciful whim were made palatable through
steeping in wine. Sometimes the lord of the revels was called the Boy
Bishop, or the President of Fools. Under his leadership the people
entered the church, gave a mock imitation of the sacred rites and sung
indecent parodies of the Church hymnal.
The next step in the
evolutionary process from the Mystery-play was that of the Morality,
in which the characters
of Holy Writ were changed into persons representing the Virtues. These
latter often assumed a satirical form. One record at least tells how
James Wedderburn of Dundee, in 1540, converted the histories of John the
Baptist and Dionysius the Tyrant into plays which were acted at that
town, and in which he "carped roughlie the abuses and corruptions of the
Papists, counterfeiting their lying impostures and miracles." But this
was a dangerous practice, as he found to his intense personal
inconvenience. He was denounced as a heretic, and had to flee to France
for safety, where eventually he died.
Amongst the most
celebrated of those satirical plays stands Sir David Lyndsay's Satire of
the Thrie Estatis, which was performed before the King at Linlithgow on
the first day after Epiphany, 1540. The best account we get of the play
is that upon its performance at Cupar on 7th June, 1552. Some time
before the performance, it was advertised in the market place by means
of two or three actors who strolled into the market and played an
interlude to excite curiosity. A messenger appeared and, addressing the
crowd, said: —
"Richt famous Pepill, ye
sail understand
How that an Prince richt wyiss and vigilant
Is shortly for to cum into this land;
And purposis to hold ane Parliament,
His Three Estaitis thereto hes done consent
In Cowpar Toun, in to thair best array
With support of the Lord Omnipotent,
And thairto hes afixt ane certane day."
An old cottar next came
upon the scene and declared his wish to be present: --
"And drink a quart at
Cowpar Toun
Wi' my gossip, John Williamson,"
but fears his "devil of a
wife" will prevent him. That worthy arrives and justifies his
description by soundly rating her husband, whom she orders to stay at
home, and watch the kye while she attends the play. They are still
squabbling when Fyndlaw of the Foolband, an arrant coward who had fled
from Pinkie Cleuch, appears and boasts of his exploits, ending with the
prayer that "the great God of his grace" may
"Send us weir and never
peace
That I may fecht my fill."
After this braggadocio
speech, according to the stage direction, the character lies down and
falls asleep. A fool then plays a trick on the old man at the suggestion
of his wife, and puts Fyndlaw's courage to the proof by presenting a
sheep's head on a staff. Before this formidable weapon the "fighting"
captain flees in terror. The messenger ends the interlude by again
announcing the date of the play: —
"As for this day I haf nae
mair to say you
On Whitsone Tysday cum see our play I pray you;
That samise day is the sevinth of June,
Thairfor get up right airly and disjune. (breakfast.)
On the appointed day,
accordingly, at the hour of 7 A.M., every man, woman, and child who
could get there, gathered at the Castle Hill, and the "Satire" began. It
consisted of seven parts or interludes loosely strung together. Lyndsay
acted upon the stage maxim adopted by Goethe—that the manager who brings
much upon the scene brings something for everybody. The first part is
the tale of the temptation of King Humanity by Dame Sensuality: the
second is the cheating of a poor man by a Roman pardon-monger; the third
a sermon by Folly: in the fourth, King Humanity again appears, and is
misled by Flattery, Deceit, and Falsehood, who in the fifth part
overcomes Verity and Chastity: the sixth is the Parliament of
Correction, from which the drama takes its name of The Satire of the
Thrie Estatis, whose acts were drawn with a view to reform the abuses
then prevalent both in Church and State: and the whole matter ends with
the punishment of the Vices. It took nine hours to perform, which
certainly speaks volumes for the patience of the audience. Two meal
hours were included in this time, and if the auditors followed out the
advice of the messenger who announced the play,
"With gude stark wynne
your flaconnis see ye fill,"
they probably did not
limit this part of their refreshment to the stated intervals.
In connection with the
Moralities, a quaint item exists in the records of the Town Council of
Edinburgh of I54, where the Treasurer is ordered to pay:
"to Walter Bynning
five lib for making of the playground, painting the hand scenes and
the players faces, and for preserving so as to be forthcoming to the
town when required, 8 play hats, a king's crown, a mitre, a fool's'
head, a foxis, a pair of angel's wings, two angels' hair and a
chaplet of triumph."
Surely here is an outfit
comprehensive enough to satisfy the most celestially-minded mortal!
That farces did exist
about this period can only remain matter for conjecture. In Sir David
Lyndsay's Coinplaynt of the Papyngo, a record of the most distinguished
poets of Scotland, he speaks of Sir James Inglis:-
"Quho can say more than
schir James Inglis sayis
In ballates, farsis and in plesand playis."
Upon this Warton writes:
-----
"I know nothing of
Sir James Inglis or of his ballads, farces, and pleasant plays. But
one John Inglis was master of a company of players, as we have
before seen at the marriage of James IV. Here is a proof, however,
that theatrical representations were now in high repute in the court
of Scotland."
Returning to the Robin
Hood plays, they gradually became a very popular institution. It was the
custom on the first Sabbath of May for the public to assemble together
under the patronage of their magistrates to assist at the frolics of the
famous outlaw. In this month, too, the young maidens and children had
their May Queen celebration, the occasion of much singing and dancing.
Against these the Parliament of 1555 issued a summary objection by which
they declared (Mary, VI., cap. 61) that if any provost, bailies,
council, or community chose personages such as Robin Hood, Little John,
Abbot of Unreason or Queen of May, they should lose their freedom for
five years, and that if any women, by singing about summer trees made
perturbation to the queen's lieges, they should be put upon the cuk-stool
of the burgh or town.
The thirty years that
followed upon this eventful one were fruitful in change. Mystery-plays
fell into disrepute, and the Moralities became the common form of
entertainment. The General Assembly of 1575, in an endeavour to stamp
out what they considered godless entertainments, enjoined that no
clerk-plays or comedies based upon the canonical Scriptures should be
acted either upon Sabbath or work-days, and that profane plays should be
examined before they were exhibited, and in no case on Sabbath. The
Bailie of Dunfermline (1576) craved leave from the Assembly, to perform
a play on Sunday, but permission was refused (vide Book of Universal
Kirk). If one may conclude from authoritative evidence, the moral
condition of the people was then at the lowest ebb. "Universally," says
the Assembly, "throughout the realm there is neither religion nor
discipline with the poor, but the most part live in filthy adultery,
incest, fornication; their children are unbaptised, and they themselves
never resort to the church nor participate in the Sacrament." As an
offset against this, we must remember that the peasantry of that period
were miserably poor, and, as a natural result, their poverty coloured
their morality, or rather the hygienic and sanitary quality of their
environment was not conducive to that morality which is the high
prerogative of the comfortably-housed and clad.
A pretty side-light is
thrown upon the amusements of the worthy Knox by an entry which appears
in the Diary of James Melville, under date 1571.
"This yeir in the
monthe of July Mr. Jhone Davidsone one of our Regents maid a play at
the marriage of John Colvin quhilk I saw playit in Mr. Knox
presence, wherein according to Mr. Knox doctrine the castell of
Edinbruche was beseiged and takin and the Captain with an or twa
with him hangit in effigie."
The Davidson referred to
was Regent in St. Leonard's College, Aberdeen, and had written a few
plays of a similar character. His last satire had an unfortunate result.
Having directed it against the Regent Morton, this dignitary took
summary vengeance upon him by ordering his banishment from the realm.
Whatever obstacles may
have been placed in the way of public enterprise in this direction, no
opposition was offered to private amusements, provided the individuals
interested were aristocratic enough. To cross over the Border for a
moment, we are reminded of the entertainment which was given at
Kenilworth Castle in honour of Queen Elizabeth, an interesting account
of which is given by Scott in Kenilworth. Robert Laneham in one of his
letters describes it thus:
"The pageant of 'The
Lady of the Floating Island ' was performed; the raft on which she
came landed at Mortimer's Tower, where accompanied by her attendants
she presented herself to the Queen, delivering an address of homage,
duty, and welcome to the peerless Elizabeth. Next appears Arion on
his dolphin from amongst the other maritime deities. The facetious
Lambourne, who had taken up the part in the absence of Wayland,
being chilled through remaining immersed for such a long time and
having forgotten his speech, tore off his vizard and swore 'Cogs
bones! he was none of Arion or Orion either, but honest Mike
Lamborne, that had been drinking her Majesty's health till midnight,
and was come to bid her heartily welcome to Kenilworth Castle.' The
Queen laughed heartily, and swore in her turn that he had made the
best speech she had heard that day. Lamborne, who instantly saw his
jest had saved his bones, jumped on shore, gave his dolphin a kick,
and declared that he would never meddle with fish again, except at
dinner."
That the censorship
created by Act of Assembly, 1575, did not lie dormant is evinced by an
application which was made for a licence by a company of comedians at
the Perth Kirk Sessions. This was granted by a decree of date 3rd June,
1589, provisionally that "nae swearing nor nae scurrility shall be
spoken," and that nothing should be added to the register of the play
itself.
Amidst the obvious laxity
of the people in the matter of morals, as understood by the General
Assembly, royalty was not altogether devoid of its lapses from the
conventions so decreed. An extract from Sir Anthony Weldon's Secret
History relating to the court of James IV. states:-
"After the king
supped, he would come forth to see pastimes and fooleries in which
Sir Edward Zouch, Sir George Goring and Sir John Flint were the
chief and master fools —and surely the fooling got them more than
any others' wisdom—sometimes presenting David Droman and Archie
Armstrong, the king's fool, on the back of other fools, to tilt one
another till they fell together by the ears. Sometimes they
performed antick dances. But Sir John Millicent, who was never known
before, was commended for notable fooling and was indeed the best
extempore fool of them all."
With the regal
countenance given to theatrical displays and pageantries, it became a
very difficult matter for the Church to repress such practices. For more
than thirty years after the Reformation, the General Assembly had vainly
appealed to the Civil Authorities to interfere. The chief obstacle to
the successful enforcement of such enactments lay in their midst, and
consisted in the fact that the elders and deacons of the Kirk generally
presided over them. Pageants, too, were very popular in those days,
Royalty being received with pompous displays in the principal towns.
When James V. was married to Mary of Lorraine (or Guise) in the
Cathedral of St. Andrews, by David Beaton, a triumphal arch was erected
at the entrance of the Abbey, and at the New Gate a Masque was designed
by Sir David Lyndsay. It represented a fair Lady descending from a cloud
and handing the keys of the city to the bride, in token that all hearts
in Scotland were open to her. The Queen made a pretty speech to her
husband on the morrow in which she said "she never saw in France so many
good faces in so little room, as she saw that day in Scotland."
Pageants of this
character did not always boast of perfect stage management. An
interesting critique of one of those functions exists in Nugae Antigae,
I. (349-51). Of this, Sir John Harrington writes:-
"I have much
marvelled at these stage pageantries, and they do bring to my
remembrance what passed of this sort in our queen's days, of which I
was some time an humble presenter and assistant, but I did never see
such lack of good order, discretion and sobriety as I have now
done."
Then follows his comment
upon the reception of the Royal Danes, the friends of James VI., whose
wife was Anne of Denmark.
"One day a great
feast was held, and after dinner the representation of Solomon, his
temple, and the coming of the Queen of Sheba was made. The lady who
did play the Queen's part did carry most precious gifts to both
their majesties, but, forgetting the steps arising to the canopy,
overset her caskets into his Danish majesty's lap, and fell at his
feet although I rather think it was on his face. Much was the hurry
and confusion: cloths and napkins were at hand to make all clean.
His majesty then got up and would dance with the Queen of Sheba, but
he fell down and humbled himself before her, and was carried to an
inner chamber and laid on a bed of state. Now did appear in rich
dress Hope, Faith and Charity. Hope did essay; to speak, but wine
rendered her endeavours so feeble that she withdrew, and hoped the
king would excuse her brevity. Faith was then alone, for I am
certain she was not joined with good works, and left the Court in a
staggering condition. Charity came to the king's feet, and seemed to
cover the multitude of sins her sisters had committed; in some sort,
she made obeisance and brought gifts, but said she would return home
again, as there was no gift which heaven had not already given to
His Majesty. She then returned to Hope and Faith, who were both
sick."
The letter ends somewhat
caustically.
"Now did Peace make
entry and strive to get foremost to the king; but I grieve to tell
how great wrath she did discover unto those of her attendants: and
how, much contrary to her semblance, most rudely made war with her
olive branch, and laid on the pates of those who opposed her
coming."
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