Based on the evidence contained in Captain Haies' account of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's visit to reclaim Newfoundland for Elizabeth I, it can be speculated that mumming activities occurred at St John's exactly four hundred years ago, making 1583 a new first date for theatrical performance in Canada and North America.
A la lumière du récit fait par le capitaine Haies à l'occasion de la visite du sieur Humphrey Gilbert, à Newfoundland pour en réclamer l'appartenance au nom d'Elizabeth I, on est en mesure de poser que la 'mumming' ait eu lieu à St John's il y a exactement 400 ans, faisant de 1583 la date d'origine de la première representation théâtrale au Canada et en Amérique du Nord.
The confirmed date for the beginning of play production in Canada is, of course, 1606, when Marc Lescarbot's Le Théâtre de Neptune en la Nouvelle-France1 was performed primarily on the waters before the Habitation at Port Royal. If we expand our definition of theatre to include the religious and shamanistic performance rituals of the Native Peoples, then theatre in Canada can be traced back ten, thirty, possibly fifty thousand years, to the virtual dawn of human civilization. And between these Asiatic beginnings of the Native Peoples and the European beginnings at Port Royal lie centuries of North American exploration, most notably highlighted by the Viking settlements now proven to have existed at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.2 The Viking Saga of the Greenlanders tells us that 'games and entertainments' were played at Vinland 3 and carbon-dating has established that L'Anse aux Meadows was contemporaneous with Vinland (c. A.D. 1000); so, we can quite reasonably presume that European, medieval 'games and entertainments' also occurred on the western tip of the Great Northern peninsula of Newfoundland, approximately one thousand years ago. However, while many earlier unrecorded starting-times for theatre in Canada undoubtedly existed, probably the only new date that has any chance of being authenticated is August 1583. This August past, 1983, saw the four-hundredth anniversary of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's historic visit to St John's to reclaim Newfoundland for Elizabeth I. It could serve, as well, to commemorate four hundred years of European theatre in Canada.
The essential evidence for 1583 is contained in Captain Edward Haies's 'A report ...', first published in the 1589 edition of Richard Hakluyt's The Principall Navigations ... of the English Nation. Captain Haies's forty-ton ship, the, Golden Hind (renamed after Francis Drake's heroic vessel), was the major one to survive Gilbert's 1583 expedition. Nestled in Haies's post-voyage account of the preparations to sail, we discover the following:
We were in number in all about 260 men: among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as Shipwrights, Masons, Carpenters, Smithes, and such like, requisite to such an action: also Minerall men and Refiners. Besides, for solace of our people, and allurement of the Savages, we were provided of Musike in good variety: not omitting the least toyes, as Morris dancers, Hobby Horsse, and Maylike conceits to delight the Savage people, whom we intended to winne by all faire meanes possible.4
But be forewarned. This single, enticing
reference to 'Morris dancers, Hobby Horsse and Maylike conceits' is our
only specific mention of these medieval mumming activities. If a performance
did occur it would be a good example of the kind of folkloric prototheatre
that preceded the age of Elizabeth. But no actual performance is confirmed,
either on shore or on board ship in the harbour of St John's, at least
in the scant research material so far available. However, this does not
deter the renowned historian, Samuel Morison, and so, perhaps, it should
not deter us. Morison states quite categorically in The European Discovery
of America that 'Ashore the morris dancers, hobby horses, and jack
o' the greens cavorted, to the delight of the fishermen, many of whom joined
in'.5 However,
the assumptions that mumming performances did occur, that they occurred
on shore, and that others joined in, are based on probability and wish-fulfillment,
and cannot yet be taken as historical fact. Still, with the presence of
Morris dancers and the Hobby-horse as a part of Gilbert's expedition, the
likelihood of performance is undoubtedly there, and it is an attractive
conjecture of genuine significance for the history of theatre in Canada
and North America.
'The Case for 1583' must be made.
The mention of 'Musike in good variety' is not a surprise. In 1982, when Henry VIII's warship, the Mary Rose, was raised from the ocean floor, musical instruments were discovered on board. There were drummers and trumpeters with Jacques Cartier in Canada in 1535, 6 and during Sir Francis Drake's three-year circumnavigation of the world (1577 to 1580), a small shipboard orchestra - trumpets, Drake's drum and a 'consort of viols' - entertained at meal hours and on other occasions.7 Some scholars believe Drake sheltered from a storm on the west coast of Vancouver Island on 5 June 1579.8 If so, and if he stayed long enough to sup, Canada's Pacific coast may well have experienced its first European culture in 1579.
Four years later, in 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert also carried a similar musical ensemble. From a haunting entry in Captain Haies's report, we learn of an actual performance, the first known Atlantic coastline concert. It occurred on 28 August 1583, the night before Gilbert's flagship, the Delight, was lost off the coast of Sable Island. Sir Humphrey was not on board the Delight when it sank, preferring to sail in his own small frigate, the tiny ten-ton Squirrel, whose size allowed him to explore the shallow bays and inlets. Presumably from the deck of the Squirrel Gilbert listened to his modest orchestra playing across the waters on this fateful night. Then, demoralized by the tragic loss of the Delight, he headed home accompanied by the Golden Hind, and eleven nights after the concert (9 September 1583), the Squirrel also was swamped in a tempest off the Azores and Gilbert drowned.9
Probably most of the musicians and entertainers drowned, too, when the Delight went down, but there is always hope that fresh research will uncover comments from those who did survive. Although nearly one hundred men lost their lives in the Sable Island storm, sixteen clambered into a rowboat 'the bignes of a Thames barge' 10 and, with a single oar, and by drinking their own urine, they managed to get back to a deserted stretch of Newfoundland, where a French trader rescued them and brought them back to Spain. We know only that they made it home to England.11 Then the trail is lost. Of Gilbert's initial fleet of five ships, the Swallow and the Golden Hind were able to return at separate times, but only Captain Haies in the Hind made a full report.
We get an idea of the variety of instruments employed by Gilbert's musicians from Haies's account of the prophetic concert-at-sea, 28 August 1583:
The evening was faire and pleasant, yet not without token of storm to ensue, and most part of this Wednesday night, like the Swanne that singeth before her death, they in the Admiral [i.e., the flag ship that customarily carried the Admiral], or Delight, continued in sounding of Trumpets, with Drummes, and Fifes: also winding the Cornets, Haughtboyes: and in the end of their jolitie, left with the battell and ringing of dolefull knels.12
The ship's bells were traditionally
rung at funerals and Haies seems to consider them an omen of death. There
would appear to be no strings, no viols, as there were with Drake.
If the music, then, comes as no surprise, what is new and unexpected is the mention of 'Morris dancers, Hobby Horsse' and the talk of 'Maylike conceits'. Haies seems to infer a little company of mummers in addition to the musicians.
There is no need to dwell lengthily on the Morris dance, so familiar from the plays of Shakespeare. Many of the variations of the Morris dance saw the traditional six (or multiples of six) performers depicted as fools and animal-men, with tails or even antlers, and 'The name Morris is also associated with groups of mummers who act, rather than dance, the death -and-survival rite at the turn of the year.' 13 The usual theatrical adjuncts of the 'Maylike conceits' and the Morris dance were the Hobby-horse and those short 'death- and-resurrection' plays that were a part of the mummers' stock-in-trade. These plays still survive in Canada at Christmas in the outports of Newfoundland, but are not, I regret to say, a consistent tradition since the time of Humphrey Gilbert.14
Some of these little skits centred around a Fool and his Hobby-horse, the Fool and 'his Lady' (another clown dressed as a woman), or all three. At May-time, a Jack-o'-the-Green could be included, or featured, instead of the Fool. Robin Hood, dressed always in green, was another, later, substitution, again leading or 'riding' the Hobby-horse and now accompanied by Maid Marian. (Another variation saw the horse become a dragon in combat with St. George.)15
The Hobby-horse may have been chosen for the New World because it is a probable extension of the primitive custom of dressing up in animal skins. Richard Southern believes the Hobby-horse was really the interesting transformation of an animal mask into a complete personality.16 The actor inside the dancing Hobby-horse wore an elaborate wicker, or wooden, hoop, approximately five feet in diameter, suspended horizontally upon his shoulders and draped in shiny, tar-black cloth that reached to the ground like a skirt, and enveloped him completely. At the front of the hoop a small carved horse's head was attached, with flying mane and a moveable jaw, and at the back there was a carefree tail that swished in the faces of the street audience. The opening of the mouth and the biting of the teeth were controlled by a wire from inside. Protruding through the top of the cloth-covered hoop was the actor's head and face, giving the appearance of a stocky little rider. His face would be masked and bearded like a demon, with a red tongue lolling lasciviously from its mouth and, above the pointed ears, the head would be crowned with a sharply-pointed head-dress reminiscent of Merlin's magical witch-hat, or the jester's traditional paper cap, or 'foolscap'. 17 The total effect was eerie and somewhat frightening, as if a runt devil were astride a knight's canopied black horse. Led by his master, the Fool or 'Mayer' [May-man], the object was to swoop and prance, and threaten to bite the onlookers, or attack the young ladies. One of these damsels (probably a male performer) was usually symbolically 'raped' by being engulfed underneath the skirting and given 'the mark of the horse', a dab of soot on her face, from a bag carried underneath. Once the woman had escaped, the horse was beaten by its master until it 'died', only to revive miraculously at the end, in the true Easter/ fertility spirit of joyous resurrection associated with mumming. Cornwall still celebrates 'Obby Oss Day' (or 'Oss Oss Day'), on the first of May, with a performance in the seaside town of Padstow, in Cornwall, just sixty miles from Dartmouth, where Humphrey Gilbert (c. 1539-83) was born.
Returning to the 1583 expedition, we realize that with the inclusion of masons and carpenters there can be little doubt that Gilbert's original intention was to spend a winter in the New World (probably Virginia) and establish a colony there. Therefore the necessity of winning over 'the savage people' and the desire for some diversion amongst themselves were very real concerns and worthy of serious consideration in the preparations to sail. Gilbert was a lover and promoter of the arts and even something of an educational reformer. He once proposed an academy in London to teach the children of the nobility music, dancing, riding, sword-play, etc, a far more liberal curriculum than that provided by Oxford and Cambridge, where the essential training was always directed towards the Church.18
From Captain Haies's report, it would appear that we are dealing with two separate groups of entertainers, or possibly three: the musicians, the dancers and the comedians. However, I can imagine the mummers, in true Shakespearean fashion doubling as Morris dancers. In terms of numbers, therefore, the acting/dancing company would require at least six members to accommodate both the Morris dance and the casting of a typical Mumming play. This relates well to the average size of an early sixteenth-century troupe which would include four or five senior actors and a boy.
The players could, of course, have been amateurs drawn from the ranks of Gilbert's roster of smiths and carpenters, or they might have been one of the newly-emerging professional ensembles. In the same year of 1583, players gained stature when Elizabeth conferred royal patronage upon a carefully selected company of her own.19 However, the Queen's Players numbered a dozen actors, somewhat more than would seem to be required for Morris dancing and Hobby-horse dramas, and there is no suggestion in Haies's account that anything more than mumming plays was required of Gilbert's entertainers. But we should bear in mind that acting troupes of this period were being taken abroad to perform during military campaigns. Will Kemp, for instance, the 'nine-days-wonder' Morris dancer, was a member of the Earl of Leicester's company that travelled to the Netherlands in 1585 and to Elsinore, Denmark, in 1586. 20
Because Haies takes pains to differentiate between the musicians and the dancer/actors, one does get the impression of at least two companies. However, if they were 'Waits' there might have been only a single group of entertainers. 'Waits' [whets] were the Renaissance survivors of the medieval minstrel tradition, multi-talented performers who sang, played musical instruments and also acted. The name 'Waits' probably comes from musical servants who either watched or waited at table, or served as watchmen on the grounds.21 Then again, being entertainers, they may simply have filled the 'waits' between the courses of a banquet. By the mid-sixteenth century, the 'Waits' were being organized into small professional groups hired either by a municipality or by a lord. Francis Drake, for example, hired the five waits of the City of Norwich in 1589, to accompany him on a campaign to Portugal.22 We do know that Sir Humphrey had his own troupe of musicians, who were identified with his name and presumably wore a recognizable livery,23 but we do not know if they could be classified as 'Waits'.
Gilbert had attempted to sail to America once before, in 1578, but got no further than Ireland. On that occasion he carried 'a flag band consisting of a drummer, a trumpeter, and six "Musitians"'. 24 For the 1583 expedition we have no indication of the exact number but the musical instrumentation suggests a similar size. I would estimate, therefore, that the total complement of entertainers would number eight if there were a single company of 'Waits', and fourteen (eight musicians and six actor/dancers), if there were two groups.
We know none of their names, with the possible exception of the trumpeter. The youthful captain of the Swallow, Maurice Browne, served as an advance organizer for the trip, and in his correspondence to John Thynne we discover extended negotiations for Thynne's trumpeter, Master [Cecil?] Lowe. As early as a year before they finally sailed, Browne was making his bid for Lowe, offering a young twelve-year-old drummer-boy in temporary exchange.25
It was customary for the musicians to travel with the commander of the fleet, in his flagship, or 'Admiral', so we can expect all the entertainers to have shipped first on the Raleigh, the large two-hundred-ton vessel donated by Gilbert's younger half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh.26 However, just before sailing, nineteen men deserted from the Raleigh and, in characteristic pique, the tall, red-headed Gilbert switched his flag to the ill-starred Delight. All the entertainers must have been transferred over as well, for as we have seen, the shipboard concert of 28 August took place on board the Delight, and it is unlikely that Edward Haies would have bothered even to mention the Morris dancers and the Hobby-horse (in his post-voyage chronicle) if they had not been present throughout the journey. It is again fortunate that they did change ships, for two days out to sea the bark Raleigh turned back, reportedly because it was 'infected with a contagious sicknesse'. 27
Gilbert's fleet consisted now of four vessels: the Delight; the Golden Hind, captained by Edward Haies; the Swallow; and the Squirrel. All four ships reached Newfoundland safely after a long crossing, and spent a total of seventeen days, from 3 to 20 August 1583, in the harbour of St John's, surveying the area and taking on fresh supplies. Following this hiatus of two and a half weeks, the Swallow was sent home carrying those who were ill or uncommitted to the winter in Virginia, while the Delight, the Golden Hind and the Squirrel headed south for their fateful rendezvous with Sable Island.
When Sir Humphrey's fleet entered the harbour of St John's on 3 August, they found to their surprise no fewer than thirty-six ships 'of all nations' awaiting them (English, French, Portuguese and Spanish).28 Because so many of Gilbert's men were known pirates, Haies tells us that they were denied entrance to the harbour. Only when the Devonshire knight 'shewed his commission to take possession of those lands' on behalf of England, were they welcomed.29 Two days later, on Monday, 5 August 1583, there was a ceremony. Gilbert set up a pavilion tent upon a hillside stretch of open land overlooking the harbour, 30 and formally took possession, reading the commission from Elizabeth I, and receiving a hazel rod and a turf of Newfoundland soil. David Quinn, the acknowledged authority on the Gilbert voyage, says that 'The ship's consort [of musicians] from the Delight, and trumpeters and drummers, if there were any, from the other vessels, would simply act as a small marching band in such a ceremonial as is described', and that there is 'no sign of any theatrical performance on this occasion'. 31 'Maylike conceits' would also have been inappropriate around a wooden pillar bearing the arms of England, when it was erected sometime later. Hales implies that, drawings were made of the actual raising of the pole, 32 but any visual clue these sketches might have afforded disappeared with the Delight when she went down.
We do have two other contemporary observers of the scene, but their reports prove singularly disappointing. Sir Richard Whitbourne, who at the time was a crewman on a Southampton whaling-ship in the harbour, merely writes [in 1620] that he had been 'an eyewitnesse' when Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland in the Queen's name.33
Our second witness is the learned Hungarian poet, Stephen Parmenius of Buda[pest], who was to be Gilbert's chronicler. He drowned with the Delight but one letter in Latin, dated 6 August, was received by his former room-mate at Oxford University, the revered compiler of English exploration, Richard Hakluyt. Again, we learn only that the shore ceremony took place and raise an eyebrow when Parmenius suggests that the best way to clear through impenetrable forests would be to set them all afire.34
If, then, there is little likelihood of theatrical performance at the formal ceremony in which Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland, are there other occasions when we can envision the Morris dancers and the Hobby-horse in action? Happily there are.
We get some indication of this in a key section of the Latin letter from Parmenius to Hakluyt, written the following day. One translation reads: 'At the moment we are regaling ourselves rather more cheerfully and sumptuously', 35 while Richard Hakluyt, himself, interprets the same sentence with a greater accent upon food: 'At this time our fare is somewhat better, and daintier, than it was before'. 36 In the context of the letter we realize that victuals ran very short on the o'er-lengthy crossing, so the Hakluyt interpretation is probably more accurate. However, the implications of 'regaling ourselves' and 'dainty dining' must not be overlooked, for turning again to Captain Haies's narrative we learn that Gilbert and his party were entertained, very extensively, and returned the compliment, while harbouring the two and a half weeks at St J ohn's. Indeed, they were entertained in a manner that anticipated Champlain's 'Order of Good Cheer' at Port-Royal. It seems the thirty-six vessels had evolved a friendly rotation system whereby they elected a new 'Admiral of the Harbour' every week and then commemorated the occasion with a feast. Haies tells us it was the excuse for a round-robin of constant entertaining, and that Gilbert was 'continually invited':
Moreover as the maner is in their fishing, every weeke to choose their Admirall anew, or rather they succeede in orderly course, and have weekely their Admirals feast solemnized: even so the General, Captaines and [ship's] masters of our fleete were continually invited and feasted.37
We even get a hint of the loneliness
and nostalgia that colonial entertainments must have evoked in an exile
far from home from the following reflective passage by Haies:
To grow short, ... the intertainment had bene delightfull, but after our wants and tedious passage through the Ocean, it seemed more acceptable, ... by how much the same was unexpectd in that desolate corner of the world: where at other times of the yeare, Wilde beasts and birds have only the fruition of all those countries, which now seemed a place very populous and much frequented.38
If the formal reading of the Commission
proved inappropriate for dancing and the high-jinks of the Horse, surely
these relaxed and informal feastings were not? The music and mumming entertainments
had been included 'to delight the Savage people', but not exclusively so.
They were also there 'for solace of our people'. In his letter to Hakluyt,
Parmenius regretted that he could not comment upon the native peoples because
none were in evidence, 39
but the 'natives' of Spain, Portugal and France remained to be 'allured'
and 'won by all fair means possible'; to say nothing of the English crews
far from home, to whom the Morris dance and the Hobby-horse would have
especial appeal.
Was a gentleman as well-born and artistically inclined as Humphrey Gilbert, someone who would have been familiar with the now-legendary largesse of his fellow-Devonshire knight, Sir Francis Drake, likely to have missed the opportunity to provide a concert and a 'disport' either for his own guests, or as a contribution to the feastings hosted by others? And, not only were there musicians, dancers and comic actors on board Humphrey Gilbert's Delight, but who knows how many more performing artists available in the thirty-six vessels anchored in the harbour of St John's? If there is a captive audience, available entertainers, a series of friendly and propitious social gatherings in an isolated corner of the world, I find it hard to believe that some form of musical and theatrical concert would not have taken place. We have seen that there was open ground enough to pitch a pavilion tent and assemble Gilbert's crews and the officers of thirty-six ships for the ceremony of annexation, so there was an outdoor playing-space if it was required, and even a tent in case of rain. Indeed, we learn both from Gilbert's biographer, William Gosling, and from David Quinn, that the forty-four-year-old Sir Humphrey took to spending nights ashore, probably sleeping in the tent, to the detriment of morale on board the ships.40 To this on-shore performing area should be added the often two-storied fishing 'Stages' that were erected on piers along the beaches for the drying and curing of cod.41 In later centuries, these covered sheds would be used as theatres both in Halifax and Victoria, and might well have served in 1583 for after-dinner revelry.
And if not on land, then why not a performance like The Theatre of Neptune, once more on water; on board the ships themselves, those floating homes-away-from-home? At night, with lanterns a-bobbing, and sails furled, the ships' galleys would be even better equipped to facilitate the preparation of food and provide the quality of service expected by noble lords travelling abroad. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his officers, and entertainers would have been rowed to many a nearby sailing vessel for supper and the evening; and it is inconceivable that Gilbert would not return this hospitality on board the Delight. Again we can easily conjure up the music, the drums and fifes, the cornets and hautboys, the trumpet of Cecil Lowe, echoing out in concert across the misty moonlit harbour of St John's. And with only a little stretch of the imagination, surely we can also make out the click-clack of wooden staves, the jingling of bells, and the laughter arising from the bawdy antics of the Hobby-horse, providing, of course, that he was not 'forgot'. 42
Some day, we may get the extra proof we need, from the discovery of a letter or diary-log belonging to one of the sailors of the thirty-six European ships anchored in the harbour, or one of the passengers of the Swallow that returned separately, or from one of the sixteen anonymous survivors of the Delight. Until that time, I would like, naturally, to accept the judgement of Alexander Leggatt, who has commented that the onus would now seem to lie with those who would disprove that there was mumming in Canada in 1583.43
I rest my case.
Forum - DAVID GARDNER ARGUES THE CASE FOR 1583
1 Le Théâtre
de Neptune en la Nouvelle-France was performed 14 November 1606 on
the waters and shoreline of today's Lower Granville, Annapolis Basin, Nova
Scotia. See MARC LESCARBOT, 'Les Muses de la Nouvelle-France', [1618 edition
included in French in] The History of New France, With an English
Translation, Notes and Appendices by W.L. Grant. Introduction by H.P. Biggar.
Volume III Toronto: Publications of the Champlain Society, 1911, pp 473-79.
English versions of Le Théâtre de Neptune have been
variously translated by HARRIETTE TABER RICHARDSON (1926-27), R. KEITH
HICKS (1927), EDNA B. HOLMAN (1927), and EUGENE and RENATE BENSON (1982).
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2 HELGE [MARCUS] INGSTAD,
'Vinland Ruins Prove Vikings Found the New World',
National Geographic
CXXVI 5 (November 1964) pp 708-34
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3 ANONYMOUS, 'Saga of the
Greenlanders', The Vinland Sagas, ed. and tr. MAGNUS MAGNUSSON and
HERMAN PALSSON Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1965, p 68
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4 CAPTAIN EDWARD HAIES,
'A report of the voyage and successe thereof, attempted in the yeere of
our Lord 1583 by Sir Humfrey Gilbert knight...', in RICHARD HAKLUYT, Voyages
and Documents, ed. Janet Hampden, London: Oxford University Press,
1958, p 250
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5 SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON,
The European Discovery of America, The Northern Voyages, A.D. 500-1600
New York: Oxford University Press, 1971, I, p 574
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6 H.P. BIGGAR, The Voyages
of Jacques Cartier Ottawa: Publications of the Public Archives of Canada,
No. 11, 1924, p 166: [At Hochelaga (Montréal) on 3 October 1535]
'The Captain [Cartier] next ordered the trumpets and other musical instruments
to be sounded, whereat the Indians were much delighted'. WILLY AMTMANN,
Music in Canada, 1600-1800 Montreal: Habitex Books, 1975, pp 263-64,
n 4, argues most convincingly that fifes and drums were the probable 'other
musical instruments' accompanying the trumpets.
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7 'Letter from Don Francisco
de Zarate to Don Martin Enriquez, Viceroy of New Spain [Mexico]', in The
World Encompassed and Analogous Contemporary Documents Concerning Sir Francis
Drake's Circumnavigation of the World, ed. N.M. Penzer, 1926; rpt.
New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1969, p 219
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8 R.P. BISHOP, 'Drake's
Course in the North Pacific', British Columbia Historical Quarterly,
III (1939) pp 151-82
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9 HAIES, Voyages and
Documents, p 279, tells us that he lost contact with the Squirrel
about midnight on 9 September 1583. Earlier that fatal afternoon the forty-four-year-old
Gilbert sat upon the deck with a book in his lap and, as the wind and waves
rose around him, he had shouted repeatedly across to Haies his now famous
epithet, 'We are as neere to heaven by sea as by land'. Because of the
words used, Gilbert is presumed to have been reading Sir Thomas More's
Utopia
(1516), so symbolic of the desire to found a new society. DAVID BEERS
QUINN, 'Introduction', The Voyages and Colonizing Enterprises of Sir
Humphrey Gilbert, Second Series, No. LXXXIII of the Hakluyt Society,
1940; rpt. Nendeln, Leichtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967, 1, p 89, n1, informs
us that in THOMAS MORE'S Utopia (Arber's reprint), p 30, the text
reads: 'He that hathe no grave is covered with the Skye: and, the way to
heaven out of all places is of like length and distance'.
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10 HAIES, Voyages and
Documents p 272
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11 [Richard Clarke's narrative
in] WILLIAM GILBERT GOSLING, The Life of Sir Humphrey Gilbert London:
Constable, 1911, pp 261-64
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12 HAIES, Voyages and
Documents p 269. 'Haughtboyes' (hautboys) were oboe-like woodwind instruments.
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13 The New Encyclopaedia
Britannica 15th ed, Micropaedia VII p 35
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14 See H. HALPERT and
G.M. STORY, Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland Memorial University
of Newfoundland, St. John's: University of Toronto Press, 1969, and GERALD
M. SIDER, Mumming in Outport Newfoundland Toronto: New Hogtown Press,
1977. The contemporary tradition of mumming in Canada would seem to date
from the 1770s.
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15 CHAMBERS, The Mediaeval
Stage I pp 196-97. The bulk of my material on the Morris dance (and
the Hobby-horse) has been drawn from Chambers, pp 160-204, with an especial
look at pp 195-204. See also The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th
ed, Micropaedia VII p 35. From PHYLLIS HARTNOLL, 'Robin Hood', The Oxford
Companion to the Theatre, 3d ed 1967; rpt London: Oxford University
Press, 1972, p 803 we learn that Robin Hood may have been a survival of
the Jack-o'-the-Green figure.
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16 RICHARD SOUTHERN, The
Seven Ages of the Theatre New York: Hill and Wang Dramabook, 1963,
pp 78 and 97. Much of my précis on the Hobby-horse comes from Southern's
section on 'The Padstow [Cornwall] Horse', pp 40-44. See alsro PHYLLIS
HARTNOLL, 'Hobby-horse', The Oxford Companion to the Theatre 3d
ed, p 444; HALPERT and STORY, Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland, pp
46-47, 66, 167, and 175. GLYNNE WICKHAM, The Medieval Theatre London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974, p 131 describes the Hobby-horse as 'an inanimate
and vestigal survivor of the man who in wearing the head and skin of the
newly sacrificed animal had formerly become the living image of a tribal
God'. It would also appear that the Hobby-horse may have derived from pagan
Celtic or Druidic fertility rites, in which a horse was involved sexually
in the initiation of kings, or its skeleton head was mounted on a stick
as a talisman.
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17 H.W. FOWLER, F.G. FOWLER,
eds, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English 4th ed 1911;
rpt. London: Oxford University Press, 1958, p 463 tells us that the Fools-cap
or foolscap, became the watermark of some seventeenth-century paper of
folio size. In The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th ed, Micropaedia
VII p 35 we learn that the central man-horse figure of the Padstow ceremony
('Oss Oss') is considered to be 'a witch-doctor disguised as a horse and
wearing a medicine mask'.
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18 MORISON, The European
Discovery of America I pp 565-66. Richard Hakluyt for example was trained
as a clergyman at Oxford.
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19 ORDISH, Early London
Theatres pp 60-61
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20 HARTNOLL, 'William
Kempe', The Oxford Companion to the Theatre 3d ed, p 534. However,
M.C. BRADBROOK, The Rise of the Common Player London: Chatto and
Windus, 1962, pp 22, 34 and 43 tells us that while Leicester's players
went to war, others 'pleaded their livery' in an attempt to avoid military
service.
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21 See HARTNOLL, 'Waits',
The Oxford Companion to the Theatre 3d ed, p 994 and The Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary, prepared by William Little, H.W. Fowler
and Jessie Coulson, rev and ed by C.T. Onions, 3d ed London: Oxford University
Press, 1975, 11 p 2497. 1 am also indebted to Professor David Galloway,
of the University of New Brunswick, for conversations about 'Waits' held
4 and 12 June 1980.
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22 City of Norwich, Mayors'
Court Books, p 233r, 25 January 1588/9. From the Norwich Chamberlains'
Accounts for 1588/9, p 305v, nd, we learn that three of the five Waits
lost their lives in Portugal. Again, my special thanks to Professor Galloway
for providing me with this information.
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23 [John Thynne Papers,
Longleat], in DAVID B. QUINN and NEIL M. CHESHIRE, The New Found Land
of Stephen Parmenius Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972, p
45. The entry reads 'Gyven in Reward to Sir Homfrye Gylbards musicions
primo, martii 1582[-3] - xviijd' (On 1 March 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert's
musicians were paid 18 pence).
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24 MORISON, The European
Discovery of America I p 568
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25 [Letters of negotiation
for Master (Cecil) Lowe from Maurice Browne to John Thynne], in QUINN and
CHESHIRE, The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius: 6 July 1582 (p
191); 1 November 1582 (pp 199-200); 17 December 1582 (pp 200-01); 19 December
1582 (p 203); and ? May 1583 (p 208)
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26 Sir Humphrey Gilbert's
mother, née Katherine Champernowne, was widowed when Gilbert was
eight years old. She later remarried Walter Raleigh, Senior, of Devon,
and Humphrey's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh was born in 1522. Walter
Raleigh was fifteen years younger than Sir Humphrey. See MORISON, The
European Discovery of America I p 563.
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27 HAIES Voyages and
Documents p 250
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28 IBID p 255. QUINN,
The Voyages and Colonizing Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert I
p 85 says that there were twenty Spanish and Portuguese ships, and sixteen
French and English ships in the harbour of St John's on 3 August 1583.
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29 HAIES, Voyages and
Documents p 255. Perhaps realizing that Gilbert's stopover would be
short, the harbour vessels 'caused foorthwith to be discharged all the
great Ordinance of their fleete in token of our welcome' (p 256).
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30 QUINN and CHESHIRE,
The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius p 53, n 13 tell us that
traditionally the site of the 1583 pavilion tent is claimed to be where
the old Hotel Newfoundland (built in 1926) was located. This hotel was
razed in February 1983; a new Hotel Newfoundland has been built alongside.
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31 DAVID BEERS QUINN,
personal letter to the author, 22 February 1980
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32 HAIES, Voyages and
Documents pp 258-59
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33 SIR RICHARD WHITBOURNE,
'The Preface', A Discourse and Discovery of New-Found-Land London,
1620; rpt. Amsterdam, New York: Da Capo Press, 1971, np, B3: 'At that time
[1583] Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a Devonshire Knight, came thither ... and
in her name [Elizabeth's] tooke possession of that Countrey, in the Harbour
of S. Johns, whereof I was an eye-witness'. (Whitbourne is far more illuminating
about a mermaid he saw in the harbour of St. John's in 1610.)
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34 QUINN and CHESHIRE,
The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius [original Latin letter]
p 65; [Cheshire's translation], pp. 168-73; [Hakluyt's translation], pp
174-76
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35 Letter from PARMENIUS
to HAKLUYT 6 August 1583 anonymous translation, 'What Strange New Radiance:
Sir Humphrey Gilbert and the New World'; Exhibit at the Public Archives
of Canada, Ottawa, April 1979
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36 PARMENIUS to HAKLUYT
6 August 1583 in QUINN and CHESHIRE The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius
p 175
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37 HAIES Voyages and
Documents p 256
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38 IBID
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39 DAVID B. QUINN, 'Stephanus
Parmenius', D.C.B. I p 532. Parmenius wished to comment on the native
peoples but could see or hear of none; Quinn adds, 'showing how completely
the Beothuk Indians had deserted southeastern Newfoundland'.
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40 GOSLING, The Life
of Sir Humphrey Gilbert p 254 and QUINN and CHESHIRE, The New Found
Land of Stephen Parmenius p 57
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41 GILLIAN T. CELL, 'Jacket
Illustration', English Enterprise in Newfoundland, 1577-1660 Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1969. The illustration of the Drying Stage
is taken from ERIC MOLL'S map of North America, published 1712-14, and
located in the Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa.
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42 CHAMBERS, The Mediaeval
Stage, I, pp 196-97, quotes a phrase from a lost ballad, 'The Hobbyhorse
is forgot', (left behind), probably the result of Puritan influence, and
cites references in Love's Labour's Lost and Hamlet; see
also Women Pleased, by Beaumont and Fletcher, for an amusing scene
of Puritan vs hobby horse.
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43 ALEXANDER M. LEGGATT,
University of Toronto 19 January 1982 on the occasion of the University
College Symposium Four, The Renaissance: Rediscovery & Exploration,
when an initial draft of this paper was first presented. (The current
text is that read at the ACTH Conference at University of British Columbia,
Vancouver 29 May 1983.)
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