The Master of the Revels was a position within the British royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship, until this function was transferred to the Lord Chamberlain in 1624. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom, and is to be distinguished However it seems the Master of the Revels, who normally reported to the Lord Chamberlain in any case, continued to perform the function on behalf of his superior until the Civil War closed the London theatres in 1642. The office continued until nearly the end of the 18th century, though with rather reduced status.

Contents 1 History 2 The Revels Office 3 List of Masters of the Revels 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References

History

The history of the Revels Office has an interesting place in the history of the English stage. Among the expenses of the royal Wardrobe we find provision made for tunicae and viseres (shirts and hats) in 1347 for the Christmas ludi (plays) of Edward III; during the reign of King Henry VII, payments are also recorded for various forms of court revels; and it became regular, apparently, to appoint a special functionary, called Master of the Revels, to superintend the royal festivities, quite distinct from the Lord of Misrule. A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body Originally an item of underwear worn exclusively by men it has become in American English a catch-all term for A hat is a headcovering It may be worn for protection against the elements for religious reasons for safety or as a Fashion accessory. A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters Edward III (13 November 1312 &ndash 21 June 1377 was one of the most successful English monarchs of the Middle Ages. The Lord of Misrule, known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the Prince des Sots, was an officer appointed by lot at

In Henry VII's time the Master of the Revels seems to have been a minor official of the household. In Henry VIII's court, however, the post became more important, and an officer of the Wardrobe was permanently employed to act under the Master of the Revels. Henry VIII (28 June 1491 &ndash 28 January 1547 was King of England and Lord of Ireland, later King of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of With the patent given to John Farlyon in 1534 as Yeoman of the Revels, what may be considered as an independent office of the Revels (within the general sphere of the Lord Chamberlain) came into being; and in 1544 Sir Thomas Cawarden received a patent as Master of the Revels, he being the first to become head of an independent office. The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom, and is to be distinguished Soon after his appointment, the office and its stores were transferred to a dissolved Dominican monastery at Blackfriars, having previously been housed at Warwick Inn in the city, the London Charterhouse, and then at the priory of St. John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell, to which a return was made after Cawarden's death. The Order of Preachers ( Latin: Ordo Praedicatorum) after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is This article concerns the buildings occupied by monastics. For the life inside monasteries and its historical roots see Monasticism. Blackfriars is an area of central London, which lies in the south-west corner of the City of London. The London Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery in London, England, to the north of what is now Charterhouse Square. A priory is a House of men or women under religious vows headed by a Prior or prioress The Knights Hospitaller (also known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St Clerkenwell Priory was a Priory of the Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem located in Clerkenwell, London

Sir Thomas Benger succeeded Cawarden, and Edmund Tylney followed him (1579–1610); it was the appointment of the latter's nephew, Sir George Buck, as deputy-master, with the reversion to the mastership, which led to so much repining on the part of the dramatist, John Lyly, who was himself a candidate. Edmund Tilney (c 1536 - 1610 was a courtier best known now as Master of the Revels to Elizabeth I and James I. Sir George Buck or Buc (1560 &ndash 1622 was an Antiquarian who served as Master of the Revels to King James I of England. John Lyly ( Lilly or Lylie) (c 1553 or 1554 &ndash November 1606 was an English writer best known for his books Euphues The Anatomy of Wit Under Tylney, the functions of Master of the Revels gradually became extended to a general censorship of the stage, which in 1624 was put directly in the hands of the Lord Chamberlain, thus leading to the licensing act of 1737. Year 1737 ( MDCCXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a

For the study of English Renaissance theatre, the Accounts of the Revels Office provide one of the two crucial sources of reliable and specific information from the Tudor and Stuart eras (the other being the Register of the Stationers Company). English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642. The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was an English royal Dynasty that lasted 118 years from 1485 to 1603 a period known as the Tudor period The House of Stuart or Stewart was a Royal house of the Kingdom of Scotland, later also of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (better known as the Stationers' Company) is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London The Revels Accounts provide scholars with facts, dates, and other data available nowhere else.

The Revels Office

In 1608, Edmund Tilney wrote a memorandum on the Office that offers a vivid picture of its operation. He wrote that the Office

". . . consisteth of a wardrobe and other several [i. e. separate] rooms for artificers to work in (viz. tailors, embroiderers, property makers, painters, wire-drawers and carpenters), together with a convenient place for the rehearsals and setting forth of plays and other shows. . . . "^[1]

Tilney went on the note that the Office also provided a house for the Master and his family, and other residences for some of the office's personnel, if specified in the "patents" of their positions.

In the year of the Tilney document, the Revels Office had moved to the Whitefriars district outside the western city wall of London, though throughout its history it was located in several other places about the city, including the Blackfriars district. Blackfriars is an area of central London, which lies in the south-west corner of the City of London.

Accourding to Thomas Blount in his 1656 dictionary "Glossographia", the origin of the word "Revels" is the French word "reveiller", to wake from sleep. He goes on to define "Revels" as:

'Sports of Dancing, Masking, Comedies, and such like, used formerly in the Kings House, the Inns of Court, or in the Houses of other great personages; And are so called, because they are most used by night, when otherwise men commonly sleep' ^[2]

List of Masters of the Revels

• Walter Hallyday (1461–83)
• Sir Thomas Cawarden (1544–59)
• Sir Thomas Benger (1560–72)
• Edmund Tilney (1579–1610)
• George Buc (1610–22)
• John Astley (1622–40)
• Sir Henry Herbert (1640–73, de facto from 1623)
• Thomas Killigrew (1673–77)
• Charles Killigrew (1677–1725)
• Charles Henry Lee (1725–44)
• Solomon Dayrolles (1744–86)

See also

• Artists of the Tudor court
• Serjeant Painter

Notes

References

• Chambers, E.K. Notes on the History of the Revels Office Under the Tudors. Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers (1866&ndash1954 was an English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar London, A. H. Bullen, 1906.
• Clare, Janet. Art Made Tongue-Tied by Authority: Elizabethan and Jacobean Dramatic Censorship. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1990.
• Dutton, Richard. Mastering the Revels: The Regulation and Censorship of English Renaissance Drama. Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 1991.
• Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Frank Ernest Halliday (February 10 1903 &ndash March 26 1982 was a twentieth-century English academic and author Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic