Yasmine Lee

998197197

ENG331H

Matthew Sergi

April 2, 2014

Chester and Censorship: Mayor Henry Hardware II

Henry Hardware II was the mayor of Chester for one term, from 1599-1600.[1] It was only three years after leaving the office that he died in Peele, 1603.[2] He was the son of Henry Hardware I, who had been mayor of Chester before him for two terms – first from 1559 to 1560, then from 1575 to 1576.[3] Both gained notoriety in their time (which carried on to the present time) for banning activities that the townspeople enjoyed because it contradicted their Puritan religious beliefs.[4] For Henry Hardware II, it was his censorship of the Midsummer festivities that gave him such a marking place in Chester’s history.[5]

The Midsummer Show in Chester is believed to have had its first performance in 1498 during the mayoral term of Richard Goodman,[6] “emerging from circumstances in which a group of armored men gathered ceremonially to represent the military defense of the city.”[7] It is still held annually in modern-day Chester, where it is known as the “Midsummer Watch Parade” and where it is characteristic to the location.[8] The Watch was held every year, except for years when the Whitsun plays were held; “when the midsomer show wente then the whitson plays wente not. When the whitson plays wente then the show at midsomer wente not.”[9] This parade consisted of a lot of interesting items, which were marched through the town. In an agreement made by the City of Chester with Thomas Poole and Robert Hallwood, an arrangement for the provision of “won vnicorn...won Luce, won Camell, won Asse, won dragon, sixe hobby horses & sixteen naked boyes” which were “to be borne & carried during the seid wache from place to place” was made.[10] This agreement also included a number of other items and “ornamentes” that were to be provided by Poole and Hallwood for use in the parade.[11] These “ornamentes”, in fact, were the main things Henry Hardware II banned from the Midsummer Show.[12]

 Of his personal life, not much is known about Hardware. What has been discovered relates mainly to his career and eventual position as mayor of Chester.[13] His religious beliefs, however, are well documented. In the “Mayors Lists” found in the Records of Early English Drama, Hardware is described as a “godlye [ouer] zealous man” who “kepte a verye worshippfull and A plentefull howse”.[14] The Records also mention how John Bruen of Stapleford, a strong believer in Puritanism who built a chapel inside his own home and to whom many of the “major country families…sent children to be brought up in his household”, greatly influenced Henry Hardware II.[15] Henry Hardware I, his father, was also a strong adherer to the Puritan faith and “did not authorize a performance of the [Whitsun] plays in either his first mayoral term in 1559-60 or his second in 1575-6.”[16]

It is no wonder, then, that Henry Hardware II followed so closely in his Puritan father’s footsteps and censored so many aspects of the Midsummer Show. The Mayors List 16 records:

…the saide Mayor caused the giantes not to goe at midsomer watche, but in stede a man in armore on horse backe, in white armor, Also in the same showe he put downe the diuill ridinge for ye butchers and caused a boy, to ride for them as the reste of the companies. he also put downe the cuppes and cannes, with diuills in the same showe, Also the dragon with naked boyes.[17]

This document lists all the items that Hardware removed from the Midsummer Watch, to the dismay of so many of the citizens of Chester. The giants, which were “enormous structures made of buckram and pasteboard and carried by two or more men”, as well as the dragon and the Butchers’ devil were already considered “oulde customes of this cittye” and so this decision was not received happily by the general public.[18] One interesting thing about Hardware’s demands is that not only did he ban the use of giantes, but he also ordered “the giantes which vse to goes at midsomer to be broken” which caused some “ill will amonge the Commons”.[19] The fact that Hardware went so far as to order the giants to be destroyed is very telling of just how strongly he felt about these Midsummer traditions. It is also interesting that he replaced these parade items with other, safer items after censoring their original plans rather than let the companies choose something more suitable themselves.[20] For example, the man on horseback Hardware placed instead of the giants and the boy riding at the head of the Butchers’ procession instead of their traditional feathered devil.[21]

          Another interesting record on Henry Hardware II says: “The Maior for his tyme Altered many ancient Customs as ye shootinge for the sheriffs Breakefaste the goinge of the gyants at Midsomer etc. and would not suffer any playes beare Baits or Bullbaites”.[22] This can be cross-referenced to another record in which, along with the giants and dragon, he also ordered “The bull ringe at the high crosse to be taken vp”.[23] This demonstrates that not only was Hardware censoring the Midsummer Watch, he was also prohibiting other activities he deemed unsuitable from occurring – like bear and bull baiting as well as the “shootinge for the sheriffs Breakefaste” and an activity called “cuppes and cannes”.[24] 

Despite all of this, however, Hardware was still considered a “godly zealous man” who “ruled well” – at least by the writers of these Mayors Lists.[25] Although his decisions regarding this type of revelry brought him “greate yll will Amonge the commons”, he was not an unfavourable mayor to at least some of the population. One Mayors List describes Henry Hardware II as a man who “kepte a worshippfull howse. gyvinge enterteynement, vnto knightes and gentlemen of good fashions, and kynde vnto his friends & neighbours”.[26] Hardware II was an interesting man who, despite only having had the post of Mayor of Chester for one year, managed to be remembered and recorded in detail because of his Puritan beliefs and actions. Although not all agreed with his decisions, he was still considered a good person by the writers of these records, and surely by many others as well, due to his Puritan background. The fact that one person with enough authority can order and change a parade involving an entire city is interesting in itself, as censorship still occurs today. But if the current state of Chester’s modern Midsummer Watch is to be believed, censorship does not last for long. 

  

[1] Records of Early English Drama, “Cheshire, including Chester,” 272

[2] Robert Tittler, “Henry Hardware’s moment and the Puritan attack on drama,” Early Theatre 1.1 (1998): 41

[3] Robert Tittler, 39

[4] Tittler, 39

[5] REED, “Cheshire”, 272-3

[6] REED, “Cheshire,” xxv

[7] Susannah Crowder, “Children, Costume and Identity in the Chester Midsummer Show,” Early Theatre 10.1 (2007): 14

[8] N.a., “History,” 2013, Chester’s Midsummer Watch & Winter Parade, Mar 31 2014

[9] REED, “Cheshire,” 345

[10] REED, “Cheshire,” 111

[11] REED, “Cheshire,” 111-2

[12] REED, “Cheshire,” 272-3

[13] Tittler, 42

[14] REED, “Cheshire,” 272

[15] REED, “Cheshire,” xxxi

[16] REED, “Cheshire,” xxxvi

[17] REED, “Cheshire,” 273

[18] “History,” Chester’s Midsummer Watch < http://www.midsummerwatch.co.uk/history/>;

    REED, “Chester,” 272

[19] REED, “Cheshire,” 272

[20] REED, “Cheshire,” 273

[21] Records of Early English Drama, “Chester,” liii

[22] REED, “Cheshire,” 272

[23] REED, “Cheshire,” 272

[24] REED, “Cheshire,” 273

[25] REED, “Cheshire,” 272

[26] REED, “Cheshire,” 273

Works Cited

Chester’s Midsummer Watch & Winter Parade. N.p., 2013. Web. 31 Mar 2014.

Crowder, Susannah, et al. "Children, Costume, and Identity in the Chester Midsummer show." Early Theatre 10.1 (2007): 13-34. Web. 27 Mar 2014.

Records of Early English Drama. “Cheshire including Chester,” vols. I and II. Print.

Records of Early English Drama. “Chester.” Print.

Tittler, Robert. "Henry Hardware's moment and the Puritan attack on drama." Early Theatre 1.1 (1998): 39-54. Academic OneFile. Web. 30 Mar 2014.