The Triumphs of Truth |
The Triumphs of Truth
Welcome to the online edition of The Triumphs of Truth. Thomas Middleton wrote The Triumphs of Truth in 1613, to honour the Lord Mayor of the same name, Sir Thomas Middleton, Grocer.
The Route
- The Lord Mayor begins the day at Guildhall.
- Musicians are already playing as the Lord Mayor makes his way from Guildhall to Soper-Lane End. After a song, the Lord Mayor is welcomed with a trumpet flourish. London greets him and makes her first speech.
- The Lord Mayor, his company, and the waits of the city (a small body of wind instrumentalists maintained by a city), are led down to the banks of the Thames, where they see the five islands for the first time.
- The Lord Mayor then proceeds by water to Westminster where he swears his Oath of Mayoralty.
- The Lord Mayor returns to the City and is met by Truth’s Angel and Zeal at Baynard’s Castle. Lawrence Manley suggests that landing at Baynard’s Castle is a deviation from the standard route of the Lord Mayor’s show. In his Literature and Culture in Early Modern London, he shows the route using Paul’s Stairs instead (Manley 226-27). The green line on the map represents the route that Manley suggests was standard, and the yellow line represents the route that The Triumphs of Truth took.
- Truth’s Angel and Zeal accompany the Lord Mayor to Paul’s Chain, where he is "assaulted" by Error and his champion, Envy. Truth arrives with "her celestial handmaidens, the Graces and Virtues" to give the Lord Mayor some advice.
- Everyone moves to Paul’s Churchyard. The five islands seen earlier on the river are now set up in the Churchyard, but now they carry the Five Senses. A ship carrying Moorish royalty is "sailing" on dry land towards the party.
- The Pageant moves into Cheapside with the islands in the lead. Once at the Little Conduit they encounter "London’s Triumphant Mount," veiled in Error’s mist and guarded by his evil monsters. Truth drives the fog away to reveal London accompanied by Religion, Liberality, and Perfect Love.
- The whole "Triumph' moves to the cross in Cheap. Error continuously shrouds "London’s Triumphant Mount" in his mist, and Truth keeps banishing it. This battle continues all the way to the Standard.
- At the Standard, Error succeeds in covering the Mount in mist until the Pageant reaches St. Laurence Lane End, where Truth drives the mist away.
- The Pageant makes its way back to Guildhall for the feast.
- Following the pink line on the map, the Lord Mayor, after feasting, is taken to St. Paul’s to "perform those yearly ceremonial rights which ancient and grave order hath determined," with Error and Truth shrouding and uncovering the Mount along the way.
- Following the orange line on the map, the Pageant moves from St. Paul’s to "the entrance of his lordship’s gate near Leadenhall," where Error is vanquished once and for all in a spectacular fireworks show.
-- Lacey Marshall (Student Contributor), 2002.
Sources
Manley, Lawrence. Literature and Culture in Early Modern London. Cambridge: Cambridge, UP, 1997.
Middleton, Thomas. The Triumphs of Truth. London, 1613. STC 17903. Rpt. Early English Books Online. http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home.