In Their Own Words

Part of a series that aims to print the records of all plays in England before 1642, this volume makes available the late 15th- and early 16th-century evidence for plays sponsored by London's religious houses, its parishes, and its cathedral.

Continuing in the tradition established by previous volumes of the Records of Early English Drama, Ecclesiastical London presents the ecclesiastically generated dramatic records of London, notably its parishes and St. Paul's Cathedral.

Among the topics addressed by editor Mary Erler are parish calendar customs such as hocking and maying, parish pageant cars and costumes, and the widespread popularity of boy bishops and of Palm Sunday prophets throughout London. Erler also looks at St. Paul's choristers' theater under master Sebastian Westcote and examines its controversial venue. Among the many primary source materials examined in this volume are records from London's religious houses and parish accounts, as well as episcopal visitation injunctions and other documents of control and authority at the time.

Ecclesiastical London concludes with ten appendices that look at subjects from Paul's Cross sermons to boy bishops. This volume presents a significant amount of new information about the history of drama in London, including discussion of a previously unknown performance by 'the clerks of London' in 1391-92, and the 1540 inventory of Henry Walton, which contains two substantial collections of costumes and identifies Walton as an important theatrical entrepreneur of the mid-16th century.