Para1The pageant book is not listed in the London’s Stationer’s Register, but neither are most pageant books (Hill, Owners and Collectors 153). Given that Nelson himself was a bookseller, he may have sold the book in his own shop, although the book contains no imprint that would indicate this with certainty. It is likely that the book was privately commissioned and distributed only to members of the Fishmongers’ Company, and perhaps a few of the company’s associates, as a souvenir (Meagher 95); after all the pageant books, as Robertson and Gordon remind us, were intended primarily as commemorative texts (xxxiii). A copy does not exist currently in Fishmongers’ Hall, but again, such an absence is not atypical (Hill, Owners and Collectors 154). It is possible that copies were lost along with Fishmongers’ Hall itself when it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

Para2There is only one known extant copy, a single quarto sheet in the British Library’s collections. The present edition uses the EEBO image of that text. Although Hill describes the show as the first to be printed in roman type, implying a kind of cultural elevation for the genre (Pageantry 253), the pageant book is in fact only partially printed in roman. The title page is in roman and italic; the speech headings are in roman with the first letter of each speech being a large roman capital, except at the beginning of one line on A3 and at another line on A2, which features a standard roman capital within a factotum ornament (Meagher 96). The remainder of each speech is printed in the kind of English type that Nelson, as a late Tudor printer and balladeer, would have worked with extensively. The exception is the proper names mentioned in the speeches—these appear in roman, perhaps to emphasize historically important individuals (John Allot in Plenty’s speech, Walworth in Richard II’s lines, and Jack Straw in Straw’s own speech). The prose passage following the speeches is in English type as well. The final piece, Time’s epilogue, is in roman and features a larger font than the preceding lines. Time’s epilogue presents some additional difficulties that I will detail below.

Para3The text itself displays a variety of verse forms following the titlepage, which centers the full title and then displays T. Nelson flush right. On the next page the first speaker, the merman rider, introduces the merman in a six-line stanza (ending with the cause shall soon appear), with an ababcc rhyme scheme and indentation at the b lines. This stanzaic pattern—either with the indentation on the b and sometimes second c lines, with sometimes single and sometimes double indents, or at other times with no indents at all—repeats itself in over half the speeches: Fame (one stanza), Peace of England (one stanza), God’s Truth (two stanzas), Plenty (two stanzas), Loyalty and Concord (one stanza shared between the two speakers), Ambition (one stanza), Commonwealth (one stanza), Science and Labour (one stanza shared between two speakers), and Commonwealth again (two stanzas) to conclude the speaking parts before the prose stage directions and Time’s epilogue. Two more figures speak in fourteener rhyming couplets, a verse form by then regarded as old-fashioned in the popular theater (Lancashire, Comedy 15); these are delivered by the merman rider—immediately after his opening six-line stanza—and Jack Straw. Lancashire views the fourteeners as linking the allegedly perverse flouting of dietary laws (the subject of the merman rider’s complaint) with popular rebellion (Comedy 15), but her suggestion does not explain why Ambition, presumably another rebellious figure, speaks in the same stanzaic form as the figures who express unqualified support for the crown and the lord mayor. Other verse forms add structural variation to the show. The unicorn rider speaks in three four-line stanzas with an abab rhyme scheme, followed by an eight-line stanza following the same pattern and with every other line indented. Rhyming couplets are spoken by Wisdom and Policy (three couplets alternating between speakers or spoken in unison) and Richard II (one couplet). Two prose paragraphs of stage directions (or alternatively, descriptive notes to the reader–a likely scenario given that the lines utilize past tense verbs), with the first line of each paragraph indented, follow Commonwealth’s second speech. Time’s epilogue concisely ends the text with four short (four- or five-syllable) lines in an abab rhyme pattern with indents at the b lines.

Para4Two modern editions of the pageant book have been published, both of which maintain the old spelling. As noted above, Geoffrey Bullough’s Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare presents the show as an analogue to the Jack Cade scenes in 2 Henry VI (91), commenting that the Peasants’ Revolt held great relevance in 1590 when Allott, a fishmonger like the rebel-slaying Walworth, was inducted. Bullough’s text offers no preface describing the original text, no description of his editorial choices, and no footnotes. Bullough regularizes the type while keeping the speech headings in italic; indentation and capitalization, for the most part, adhere to the original. However, although the edition appears aimed at reproducing the original as closely as possible, it contains some unexplained changes and omissions. The present edition footnotes these variants.

Para5Meagher’s edition, published in English Literary Renaissance in 1973, contains a brief discussion of late Tudor pageantry, Nelson’s professional background, and the printing and circulation of the pageant book. The edited text reproduces the unique printed copy as it stands (95), meaning that it retains the original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, and indentation, while regularizing type size and spacing. Meagher disregards the original’s conventional employment of long s and random use of spurred r as well as the occasional uncertainties of punctuation endemic to English type, such as a random turned u and a numeral lost by cropping in the printing process (95-96). Meagher’s detailed textual footnotes encompass historical context, information on common staging practices, and speculation about visual and auditory performance elements.

Para6The present text is thus the first scholarly edition in fifty-five years, as well as the very first modern-spelling edition of the show. In keeping with the intent of the MoEML Anthology of Mayoral Shows, this modernized text has been prepared for an interdisciplinary audience of scholars, teachers, and students, the last of which may include readers encountering mayoral shows for the first time. Generally, the text has been modernized in keeping with the site editors’ spelling, capitalization, and punctuation guidelines. Most old spellings have not been preserved, given that there is no case in which the old spelling conveys a significantly different meaning that its modernized form. Archaic verb forms and salutations, however, have been retained (rideth, supporteth, thee). Only one contraction (’stablished, with apostrophe added by me) has been retained, and this has been done to preserve the meter. Allott’s name (spelled with one t in the original) has been changed to match the authority name listed on the MoEML site, which in this case draws from Lancashire’s Mayors and Sheriffs of London and Beaven’s Aldermen of the City of London. The only proper name modernized from the old spelling is Jack Straw (Jacke in the original).

Para7Capitalized nouns have been standardized according to modern usage, with emphasis capitals reduced to lowercase. The beginnings of all lines of verse have been capitalized, in similar fashion to a modernized text of a Shakespeare play. The original text inconsistently capitalizes the names of the allegorical figures; I have capitalized these names only when the character, and not the abstract quality to which the character refers, clearly is intended. City has been capitalized throughout in reference to City of London as an administrative body. The salutation Lord has been left capitalized, although in two places Lord refers to the Christian deity rather than Allott. The speeches themselves should make the intended referent clear (Lord, still I pray as opposed to Rule now, my Lord).

Para8Punctuation generally has been modernized to conform to today’s standards of grammatical correctness and thus communicate the meaning of the original to modern readers. For example, the original text contains many commas that would be considered excessive by modern standards and may even impede the reader’s understanding; these commas have been eliminated. Yet at the same time, the imperative to communicate the show’s meaning clearly also requires attention to dramatic effects. In a few instances, commas have been inserted in lines that contain a direct request or command followed by a relative clause naming the addressee (ex: Attend, my Lord, and mark the tale I tell)–in these cases, the commas reinforce the status of the Lord Mayor as the primary addressee and possibly also indicate physical action (as when Richard II asks for Walworth’s help with an advancing enemy). Colons have been added to speech headings to introduce the ensuing speeches; a colon also has been added to highlight the dramatic tension prefacing a pronouncement from Peace of England regarding Elizabeth (ex: I sit as shadow for that royal blood / Whose life is pure and still hath this pretence: / That whilst she lives, even with her heart and might, / She seeks in Peace for to defend your right). For the speeches, punctuation decisions were made keeping in mind not only the dictum to know […] the stop and place it appropriately (Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 5.1.120), but to determine what length of pause—colon, period, or mere comma—best captures the dramatic moment. Decisions involving editorial interpretation are explained in the annotations.

Para9Previous criticism recognizes Time’s epilogue, as it appears in the original text, to pose a particular conundrum. This passage is set in larger font than that of the speeches and not, like the preceding speeches, in English type. Moreover, the first line (Time) suggests a speaker and yet—while the other speakers are introduced in different font than their ensuing speeches—Time’s own introduction appears in the same font as the ensuing four lines. Given these typological differences, it is possible that the epilogue was added as a separate note to the printed book and not performed at all, as Withington speculates (11, n. 7). On the other hand, given the lack of a clear conclusion in Commonwealth’s final speech and the prose description immediately following, it is also possible that the epilogue, which references the time that is past, was delivered on the day of the performance, which would be consistent with the show’s emphasis on history and legacy. Time appears frequently as a personified figure in early modern art and pageantry (Kiefer 50) and therefore would not be anomalous as a speaker here. By italicizing the first line of the passage and adding a colon instead of a period, thus making it appear as the other speech headings, I endorse the assumptions of other scholars, such as Meagher (104, n. 154-8) and Lancashire (Comedy 8), who consider the passage to be a speech, given on the day of the show, by a figure named Time. The text remains open to debate on this issue and others, but this edition of it has shown that although the time has past since Nelson penned The Device of the Pageant, there is still much to be said about this too frequently neglected mayoral show.