Change and Continuity

During the sixteenth century, Henry VIII began the process of the Reformation: monasteries were famously dissolved, but other changes threatened many cultural traditions that were based on the traditional Catholic faith. Biblical plays came under suspicion because their message was unreformed, and many processions and other customs performed on feast days such as Corpus Christi were endangered by Edward VI’s abolition of the very feasts they celebrated. Records from York, for instance, show that its mystery plays began to be performed less often; then the texts were called in for examination by the ecclesiastical authorities – and finally, in 1572, the York Cycle ceased to be performed.

All over England, from the time of Queen Elizabeth, it became an offence not to attend Anglican church services; those who did not, called ‘recusants’ (literally, ‘refusers’), were punished.

In 1615, the Bishop of Durham, William James, imprisoned Robert Hindmers, a recusant dancer born in Durham who toured with his wife Anne, entertaining households throughout the county. We don’t know their itinerary, nor what kind of dances they performed; but we do know that he was supported by the Catholic community – among them William Southerne, a priest later to be martyred in Newcastle. Probably Robert Hindmers was imprisoned not for his dancing, nor even simply for recusancy, but for using his dance tours to gain support for English Catholicism.

Dramatic disputes

The Rev. Peter Smart, Puritan Prebendary in Durham (left), accused Bishop John Cosin (right), who practised a more traditional form of worship, of turning

the Sacrament itselfe…wel neere into a theatricall stage play, that when men’s mynds should be occupied about heavenly meditations of Christ’s bitter Death and Passion, [and] of their own sinnes,… theire ears are possest with pleasant tunes, and their eyes fed with pompous spectacles of glittering pictures, and histrionicall gestures…

For us, it is remarkable that, to a strict Protestant reformer, the old religion itself should seem to be a performance!

People could be accused in the Church courts of unseemly behaviour on Sundays – which in some cases meant carrying on traditional customs: Robert Hewetson was reported in 1603 ‘for makinge a may game on the Sabbaoth daie’ (Act and visitation correction books of archdeacon of Durham).

However, another accusation made by Peter Smart against John Cosin in 1630 shows that local people determinedly carried on their May Games well into the seventeenth century: he mentions ‘an old, rotten ridiculous robe used by the boys and wenches of Durham above 40 yeares in theyr sports and May-games’. The robe belonged to the Cathedral.

More cakes and ale!

So religious change certainly did not mean the end of cultural life. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the reveller Sir Toby Belch taunts the Puritan Malvolio: ‘Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?’ In the play, the festive spirit triumphs over Malvolio’s repressiveness. In Durham, people kept their appetite for shows and marvels, including worms and dragons! In 1569 the parish register of St Nicholas’ Church notes an exciting event: an Italian showman brought a fearsome and ‘monstrous’ man-eating dragon from Ethiopia, sixteen feet long, to thrill local people – though not to frighten them too much: it was already dead. We are not told which ‘whole countrey’ it had destroyed!

London and the North-East

In 1576, actor-manager James Burbage built the first purpose built theatre in London called The Theatre. Soon many more permanent playhouses were built in London, sparking an unprecedented cultural phenomenon in English theatre history. By the 1590s the London theatre scene with its permanent playhouses, repertory system and fierce competition was marked by increasing commercialisation of dramatic art – very different from the old traditions of religious community theatre.

Was the North-East being left behind? Evidently not: records from our region in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries show that its cultural life remained lively and innovative. London musicians and acting companies toured Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland, performing in towns and at great houses such as Londesborough, East Riding.

This page from the Londesborough accounts shows payments of between 10s. and 30s. to groups of musicians (from Hull and York) and several companies of touring players including Lord Derby’s and ‘a Companie goeing by the name of the Kinges players’.

Local attractions

Locally-based companies performed the same up-to-date repertoire as could be found in London: The Simpson players, a touring company from Egton, North Yorkshire, were organised on the same lines as London professional companies and performed the same repertoire. At Gowthwaite Hall, Nidderdale, during Christmastide of 1609/10 they performed a saint play, St. Christopher, as well as recently printed works including Pericles, Prince of Tyre (by Shakespeare and Wilkins), and King Lear (possibly Shakespeare’s).

Even in parishes, new plays were being performed by local groups: Richard Shann’s Commonplace Book records a play in Methley, West Riding, at Whitsun 1614, called ‘Cannimore and Lionley’, which attracted ‘a multitude of people’. The play has not survived, but Richard Shann did record the cast list!

What now?

In the last few decades, many of the old plays, music and dances have been rediscovered and reinvigorated to become once again part of our own culture: early music, mystery plays and morris dances are all performed regularly in our region. Here are a few examples.
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