The Fuel of Middle English Drama

ENG331H1S Drama to 1603

Prof. Matthew Sergi

By Jasmine Cornforth 998143940

March 31, 2014

The Fuel of Middle English Drama

Keywords: food, meat, Dorset Cornwall, Lancashire, Devon

This report seeks to explore food as an important element in the production of early drama, based on information found within the Records of Early English Drama (REED). Specifically, it will look at the various ways in which food was used around or during dramatic productions, as well as attempt to explain when and why it was consumed. It will also identify some of the foods that the people involved in drama to 1603 consumed, whether at feasts or as simple subsistence. This information will be retrieved from three REED volumes: Dorset Cornwall, Lancashire and Devon.

To begin with, what was food used for? Obviously, everyone needed to eat regardless of whether or not they were involved in a dramatic production, but we can generally assume that REED provides us with records of food that is used specifically to help make said dramatic productions possible. Please note that while drinks were very important in the middle ages, this essay will try to limit its discussion to food only.

In the Devon volume, there is one record for the town of Plymouth for what appears to be the account for a Corpus Christi dinner. It is said in this record that all diners were to be provided with food and drink, but that a charge would be reckoned for each individual. However, they would be able to pay their providers back at their own leisure. As we know from class, plays (specifically mystery plays) were performed on Corpus Christi. They were apparently put on as entertainment while the audience enjoyed their feast. Corpus Christi meals were one of the main ways in which food was important to dramatic productions; the feasts were accompanied by the plays. The feasts would likely have been quite popular seeing as those who attended were not pressured to pay for their meals immediately, so they would have been able to draw people as diners/audience members in regardless of how much money they had. The amount of people who showed up for these plays was therefore potentially somewhat reliant on the feast that was provided to them.

Corpus Christi is not the only event at which dramatic performances occurred and required food, of course. For example, the Dorset Cornwall volume mentions a more secular custom called Cobb ale, which apparently fostered the community spirit of townsfolk while raising funds for various civic projects. Cobb ale occurred annually in Lyme Regis (located in West Dorset) and lasted between two and three weeks. It seems to have lasted from around 1554 to 1606, according to REED. We know that ample food as well as drink was required for Cobb ale to take place, but this volume of REED does not make it clear whether this food and drink was exclusively that which was consumed by the performers themselves, or by the audiences of the productions as well. The performers are said to have traveled to nearby towns together during the celebration, so they did not remain exclusively local, and would have needed to have been “fueled” by the production company. This is only one very specific example of traveling performers needing to be fed and provided for, but we can easily assume that this was a common practice in many different cases.

Also in the Dorset Cornwall volume, there are several accounts listing food and other items that were apparently purchased for Hocktide or “Hock days” in the Blandford Forum (located in Dorset) in the year 1603. We can probably assume that since Hocktide was a festival, the food mentioned in these records was consumed either by audiences at feasts, or by the performers themselves while traveling.

Food was also apparently given as gifts to those in higher positions or in the place of money. For example, in the Dorset Cornwall volume, eels were supposedly given to an influential political figure named Sir George Trenchard as gifts in an undated record. In the same volume, malt, wheat and even bacon were given in the place of money at a fundraising event.

The Dorset Cornwall and Lancashire volumes are especially helpful in that they list a plethora of different types of food that were consumed, with notable overlap between the two volumes, meaning that the most important types of food are basically guaranteed to make appearances in these records.

It should be noted that a good number of the mentions of food in the Lancashire volume are from the “Household accounts of Thomas Walmesley”, a collection which postdates 1603 by 1-4 decades. There were two Thomas Walmesleys; one was a rich lawyer and the other was his son. The household records belong to the second Walmesley. He and his wife were said to have entertainers visit their manor frequently; that is why these records are relevant. I assume that these records were not written long enough after the 16^th century for the types of food used for entertainment to be radically different than they would have been 40 or less years before.

Apples, pears, lemons, cherries, prunes, raisins, and oranges are all the fruits that are mentioned in these volumes. “Pepper” is also mentioned, but it is implied that this pepper was bought in a condiment form. While most of the fruits are only listed in the aforementioned Hocktide lists, it still seems odd that so many types of them were used, because vegetables seem much less popular than fruits were. There is no mention whatsoever of vegetables in the Dorset Cornwall volume, while the Lancashire volume only mentions leeks and peas.

Animal products, such as eggs, cheese and butter, were consumed. Interestingly, there is no mention of milk. Spices and other condiments, such as vinegar, mustard, honey, jelly, salt and pepper, were used. Grains were important; specifically, malt and wheat. The wheat was needed for bread, cakes and biscuits. Bread was especially commonplace; this is evident by the sheer amount of mentions there are of bread throughout all three volumes of records consulted.

Meat was, of course, consumed often (the word for food itself was generally “meat” or some variation on that spelling). This volume lists bacon, beef, brawn, calves/calves' heads, chicken, capon and many other types of fowl, chitterlings, drippings, fish and many other types of seafood, lamb, mutton, neat's tongues, pigs, suet, tripe, veal and venison as the different animals and meat dishes that were consumed. It is worth noting that, when separated into food categories, an outstanding amount of the food mentioned in these two volumes would fall under the “meat” category. This tells us just how important meat was to the people involved in early English drama.

The reader of this essay should now be familiar with the reasons for which food appears so often throughout the records left behind from Middle English dramatic productions. For the most part, food is found on accounts and inventory lists. Generally, it was needed either in order to feed audiences at the feasts at which the plays would be performed, or to feed the performers themselves as they traveled. Food was also sometimes given as gifts. The Dorset Cornwall and Lancashire volumes provide a decent idea of the kinds of food involved – meat of all kinds were especially important, as well as bread. Logic dictates that food may have also been used and consumed onstage during dramatic productions as props, but there does not seem to be any solid evidence for this in the three REED volumes consulted.

Bibliography

1. Hays, Rosalind Conklin et al. Dorset Cornwall – Records of Early English Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. Print.
2. George, David F. Lancashire – Records of Early English Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991. Print.
3. Wasson, John M. Devon – Records of Early English Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986. Print.