Copyright held by
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Further details of licences are available from our
Licences page. For more
information, contact the project director,
Born digital. Article contributed by
This essay offers an introduction to the sounds of early modern pageantry. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
Most MoEML documents, or significant fragments with mol:
prefix and accessed through the web application
with their id + .xml
.
The molagas prefix points to the shape representation of a location on MoEML’s OpenLayers3-based rendering of the Agas Map.
Links to page-images in the Chadwyck-Healey
Links to page-images in the
The mdt (MoEML Document Type) prefix used on
The mdtlist (MoEML Document Type listing) prefix used in linking attributes points to a listings page constructed from a category in the central MDT taxonomy in the includes file. There are two variants, one with the plain _subcategories
, meaning all subcategories of the category.
The molgls (MoEML gloss) prefix used on
This molvariant prefix is used on
This molajax prefix is used on
The molstow prefix is used on
Our editorial and encoding practices are documented in detail in the Praxis section of our website.
In sheer scale of sensory experience, few early modern events could compare to London’s pageants and processionals. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century body
of the shows, 238-262; and Manley, 212-293. On Lord Mayor’s Shows, see Hill, especially her analysis of eyewitness accounts of the shows, 118-213. On Elizabethan progresses, see Leahy, especially his discussion of the common audience
, 53-100.
We can hear the traces of this The [Lord Mayor
thundering
sounds that
A great variety of sounds made up the well-appointed
musicians (described in constant
explosions of fireworks and gunfire, and he goes on to note that the insolence of the crowd is extreme
, with its noisy, chaotic mixture
of people (Busino 1266). Amidst all of this tumult, he scarcely alludes to the refined verse and elaborate speeches that the leading poets of the day fashioned for outdoor pageants, to be spoken aloud. These diverse sounds did not always work to a unified purpose: some sounds blasted out a declaration of royal authority, while others asserted the power of livery companies, allowed poets to articulate didactic agendas, or arose from the revelry of bustling crowds—sometimes all at once.
What do overwhelmingly noisy pageants have to do with silence? The poets and artisans who designed London’s
Pageant poets addressed this problem by educating their audiences in the symbolic meaning of the spectacles. Continuing the long tradition of festival books that illustrated courtly ceremonies and events, poets composed printed pamphlets that commemorated pageants and outlined their allegorical programs. It is standard for these printed records to claim to represent all components of a spectacle completely and veraciously, as in the title page of
The particularities of every Invention in all the Pageants, Shewes and Triumphs both by Water and Land, are here following fully set downe(Taylor sig. A2r). All that is literally
set downe, however, is
offenſiue, and troubleſomdelay, but the speech is nevertheless printed so that readers might peruse it
with much better leyſure(Munday sig. C1v). With notable exceptions including the pageants of
barges richly decked with banners, steamers, and ensigns, and sundry sorts of loud-sounding instruments aptly placed among them(Middleton 35-37). As was often the case in
a personage figuring London, endeavor to subdue the trumpets and the other sounds that filled the air, asking
To make our loves the better understood, / Silence thy watery subjects, this small flood(Middleton 54-55).
The rest of
The allegorical personage
commanding power
of the over-greedy
noise that threatens to disrupt the communicability of his verses and the symbolic content of the spectacle. Yet he frames his description in such a way as to clear out a space for audition, revealing how a preponderance of noise might give way to a greater
, more silent
experience. It is no coincidence that
After all, silence is a cultural imposition—a way of channeling out what we do not want to hear in a world that is constantly reverberating with sound waves. When pageant poets and impresarios demand silence, they venture to determine what counts as meaningful.
insubstantial pageant, as he calls it, with the command,
No tongue! all eyes! Be silent(Shakespeare 4.1.59, 4.1.155). He continues to manage levels of audition throughout the spectacle, using
Soft music(Shakespeare 4.1.59 s.d.) to set the scene and insisting that the audience remain silent in the middle of it:
Sweet now, silence! Juno andCeres whisper seriously;There’s something else to do. Hush and be mute, Or else our spell is marred.
strange, hollow, and confused noise
that interrupts the spectacle, a noise associated with the play’s subaltern rebellion (Shakespeare 4.1.138 s.d.). Like the poets and impresarios of the pageant tradition, Prospero is all too aware of the power, and fragility, of silence.
Printed pageant records typically begin with a precise description of their honorees, setting, commissioning livery companies, and (last but not least) poets. The title page of
At the particular coſt and charge of the right worſhipfull and ancient Society of of the Haberdaſhers .
The poet receives varying amounts of acclaim. While
Directed, written, and redeem’d into Forme from the Igno- rance of ſome former times, and their Common Writer, By Thomas Middleton .
It is Forme
or aesthetic shape that (according to this title page) enables him to redeem
the past. The printed pamphlet advertises him as more refined and capable than history’s Common Writer
, a term that appears to refer not to a specific person but to a base, mundane style of recording history.
Other poets, including
ſpeak according to the nature of the preſent buſines in hand, without any imputation of groſneſſe or error, conſidering the lawes of Poeſie grants ſuch allowance and libertye(Munday sig. B1r). For
the powerfull vertue of Poeſiehas a unique capacity to bear witness to the past, revive a common political purpose, and move across historical barriers (Munday sig. B1v). It is through the virtues of poetry that
See, after ſo long ſlumbring in our tombs Such multitudes of yeares, rich poeſie That does reuiue vs to fill vp theſe roomes And tell our former ages Hiſtorie, (The better to record Brute s memorie,)Turnes now our accents to another key, To tell olde Britaines new borne happy day.
Speaking in the rime royal verse form associated with
The irony that underlies
on, as planned, but guild records from that year indicate a different story:Tueſday the 29. of October. 1605
by reason of the greate rayne and fowle weather hapnyng(qtd. in Sayle 83). Thethe greate coste the Company bestowed upon their Pageant and other shewes were in mann[er] cast away and defaced
Poets took varying outlooks on the ways in which pageant verse related to the environment of its performance.
Neither was it becoming, or could it stand with the dignity of these shows, after the most miserable and desperate shift of the puppets, to require a truchman [interpreter] or (with the ignorant painter) one to write,This is a dogorThis is a hare, but so to be presented as upon the view they might without cloud or obscurity declare themselves to the sharp and learned. And for the multitude, no doubt but their grounded judgements gazed, said it was fine and were satisfied.
provides an ideal reconstruction, rather than an account of what anyone saw or heard on(Dekker, Harrison, Jonson, and Middleton 219).15 March 1604
Why should a poet bother to explain his verses to the multitude
if they are incapable of understanding his verse? For sharp and learned
to remember and appreciate the significance of the event. Audiences and passersby are at best window dressing and, at worst, nuisances.
In
When every tongue speakes Musick: when each Pen (Dul’d and dyde blacke in Galle) is white agen, And dipt in Nectar, which by Delphick fire Being heated, melts into an Orphean-quire.
In some ways this passage is just as pedantic as Delphick fire
implies that his own Apollonian pen has the power to heat and fuse the diverse voices that contribute to the pageant into a unified choir. Yet Every tongue speakes Musick
because every audience member contributes to the legitimacy of the celebration, honoring the king through their collective will.
In the passage above, music is partly a metaphor for written poetry; tongues speak
music and are associated with the ink of pen[s]
. Yet, according to
Among the most conspicuous sounds that resonated through the streets of London on pageant days were the heralds and flourishes of trumpets and cornets. for kettel drum[m]es with 4 trumpeters on horsebacke
(Robertson and Gordon 96).
Music extended well beyond these blaring soundmarks
, a term for sounds that are distinctive or specially regarded in a given social setting (Schafer 10). Sprinkled regularly through
music roomwith a variety of
tunes that danced round about it; for in one place were heard a noise of cornets, in a second a consort; the third (which sat in sight) a set of viols, to which the Muses sang(Dekker, Harrison, Jonson, and Middleton 1728-1731).
The core of the musicians involved in London’s pageants were the
excellent and expert Muſitiansin his dedicatory epistle (Morley A2r).
Despite the prominence of music in pageant performances, it is very rare for pageant books to include musical notation. Although there was increasing demand for musical notation beginning in the early seventeenth century, the trade in printed music remained a relatively specialized venture, and pageant records (like printed drama) generally do not expend the additional effort and cost necessary to provide specific tunes.
Although they generally lack musical notation, pageant pamphlets frequently make reference to music in verse and prose, providing lyrics for songs and outlining the ideals of musical harmony as they relate to the pageant’s symbolic program. Some poets, notably
concordantand rhythmical,
Lemnian Forge:
A fire is ſeene in the Forge, Bellowes blowing, ſome filing, ſome at other workes; Thunder and Lightning on occaſion. As the Smiths are at worke, they ſing in praiſe of Iron, the Anuile and Hammer: by the concor-dant ſtrokes and ſoundes of which, Tuballecayne be-came the firſt inuentor of Muſicke.
Alluding to the Book of Genesis, where an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron
(Gen. 4:22), stroakes and soundes
of urban manufacturing.
In the song that follows, we hear from the smiths directly:
Listen to the smiths’ song, read by Stanley Plumly, poet laureate of the state of Maryland.
The four-stress couplets and the onomatopoetic refrain of the song prompt an audience to sing, stamp, or shout along. Indeed, the onomatopoeia is so thick that we cannot help but privilege the immediate, sensory environs of its utterance. The Thwick a-Thwack
s and knick-a-knock
s are indexical signifiers: they draw our attention to what the smiths call the Ground
(The Art of Musicke has her Ground
). In the early modern period, ground denotes a recurring melodic line, usually in the bass, that underlies variation in upper parts. In the smiths’ song, our attention is directed to this background: the song’s acoustic surroundings come to be at the center of its musical meaning and experience. Thus, even though the notation for this song is not extant, we can gather a visceral sense of its music.
However brilliant pageant music strove to be, it would have had difficulty competing with the sounds of uproarious crowds. Looking below us onto the street we saw a huge mass of people, surging like the sea, moving here and there in search of places to watch or rest—which proved impossible because of the constant press of newcomers. It was a chaotic mixture.
chaotic mixture
because they brought London’s underclasses face-to-face with its tradesmen, monied citizens, livery company officials, aristocrats, and even royalty. Although the cheering, clapping, cursing, and shouting of these crowds threatened to make poets’ verses inaudible, it was important to the success of a pageant’s political goals. Crowds legitimized the power of the dignitaries being celebrated, reinforcing the sense that the pageant was a monumental occasion and providing an opportunity to disseminate propaganda. Yet crowds could also be unsettling and even dangerous, placing officials amidst an unruly public that might be uninterested in the official subject of the pageant or resentful of those in power.
seething
populace could inspire:
The insolence of the crowd is extreme. They swing up onto the back of carriages, and if one of the drivers turns on them with his whip, they jump to the ground and hurl stinking mud at him
If Some men masked as wild giants strode through the crowd with wheels and fireballs, hurling sparks here and there at the bodies and faces of the multitude, but to no avail at making a wide and clear route for the procession.
The Pomeranian traveler fire-engines ornamented with garlands, out of which they throw water on the crowd, forcing it to give way, for the streets are quite filled with people
(von Wedel 225).
Due in significant part to their distaste for public crowds, Stuart monarchs came to withdraw support for outdoor pageantry.wylie Multitude
(Dugdale B1v). In his account of the
the rudenes of the Multitude, who regardles of time [place or] perſon will be ſo troubleſome(Dugdale B2r). Justifying
pre[ss]ing,
ſtro[n]g ſtream of people violently run[n]ing in the midſt [of the guildmen lining the streets], inclined
with ſuch hurly burly, to run vp and downe with ſuch vnreuerent raſhnes(Dugdale B3v, B1v).
Over the course of the early seventeenth century, monarchal spectacles became increasingly insular, focusing less on outdoor pageantry and more on the indoor
As we have seen, pageants were extraordinarily noisy enterprises. The flowery verses of allegorical personages, the sweet music of instruments and voices, and the yells and cheers of boisterous crowds competed not only with each other but with London’s everyday sounds, from the cries of street vendors selling their wares to the creaking of wagon wheels and the neighing of horses. On top of all of this, and epitomizing the experience of pageantry for many onlookers, were the fireworks and gunfire that boomed above the Thames and sparkled in the faces of the crowds.
Pageant designers typically employed greenmen to discharge fireworks and gun salutes, which were especially prominent during the perpetual shower of firecrackers rained from the windows
and wild giants strode through the crowd with wheels and fireballs
(Busino 1266, 1268). Recollections of gunfire are a typical feature of diarists’ accounts of pageants, as in the Russian ambassador
And the King’s trumpeters trumpeted, and they beat the drums and they played on litavra [kettle drums] and there were all sorts of various instruments. And they fired a great salute from the ship in which the Lord Mayor sailed and from other ships which were there and from big boats and from the City wall. And from all the small boats there was a great shooting of muskets.
Fireworks also feature prominently in literary allusions to pageantry, as in
When as the Pageants through Chepe-ſide are carried, What multitudes of people thither ſway, Thruſting ſo hard, that many haue miſcarried. If then you marke when as the fire-workes flye, And Elephants and Vnicornes paſſe by, How mighty and tumultuous is that preſſe.
In both of these examples, fireworks do not stand alone as acoustic events; instead, they mark a noisy climax in the broader experience of pageantry.
As with music, fireworks also work their way into pageant records, often as allusions designed to recall the majesty of the pageant day and occasionally as a more elaborate dimension of a pageant’s allegorical agenda. In
ADders ſhoote, hyſſe ſpeckled Snakes Vomit ſulphure to confound her, Fiendes and Furies (that dwell vnder) Lift hell gates from their hindges: come You clouen-foote-broode of Barrathrum, Stop, ſtay her, fright her, with your ſhreekes, And put freſh bloud in Enuie s cheekes.
At this point everyone in Shoote, Shoote, &c.
, and
The scene is all the more suggestive because it is impossible to distinguish the sounds of misrule and disruption from those of celebration. Fort of Furies
continue to parley with thoſe twelue that ride armed diſcharge their Piſtols, at which
(Dekker C4r)—vanquished by the same disorderly tools with which they are associated.
One implication of
concordant stroakesof the smiths’ banging melds with the drumming in and around the pageant floats, and the
Thunder and Lightningdepicted in the fictional Lemnian Forge cannot be distinguished from the fireworks and gunfire set off throughout the Lord Mayor’s Day. By emphasizing the explosive force of rockets, pistols, shrieks, and thunderous banging,
If silence is a process of filtering out what we do not wish not to hear, noise is what enters our ears nevertheless, unwelcome and uninvited. Theorists including R. Murray Schafer and Jacques Attali define noise as unwanted sound, and the term was sometimes used in this way during the early modern period as well, as in the strange, hollow, and confused noise
that disrupts
noisewas an unstable term in the early modern period: as the OED suggests, the term could denote
sound of any kind, including a
pleasant or melodious sound, as in
there was an heauenly noise / Heard sownd through all the Pallace pleasantly, / Like as it had bene many an Angels voice(Spenser I.ii.39). Note also that in communication theory,
noiserefers to anything that disrupts or interferes with the transmission of information from sender to receiver.
noises, / Sounds and sweet airsto the advantage of their rebellion (Shakespeare 3.2.135-136), and
Whether sound is wanted is a matter of perspective, that is, and defining what counts as noise could be a powerful act in itself. Poets would be wary of sounds that did not line up with their symbolic goals or that distracted from the exaltation of their patrons. In
stroakes and soundesof the smiths in are portrayed as
concordant, beautiful music, while in
over-greedy noiseof the rambunctious crowd is portrayed as an obstacle to the majesty of
Given the pressures involved in describing and defining varying types of noise, many of the sounds of pageantry would not have been recorded at all. Sounds thought by the pageant poet to be irrelevant or extraneous, such as the jingling of morris dancers’ bells or the hawking of balladmongers, might not be considered worthy of record. Embarrassing sounds—the giggling of impertinent onlookers, perhaps—might have been excised from written records or never have made it to the page in the first place. Quieter sounds such as the strumming of lutes or the whispering of courtiers might have been heard by too few people to be likely to survive. Conjuring up the
Since we can never know exactly what goes unacknowledged in surviving descriptions and records, hearing the sounds of pageantry requires imagination. The same could be said of other historical phenomena; manuscripts, printed books, and other materials from the past are constantly subject to destruction, forgetfulness, and misunderstanding. Before the advent of audio recording technologies, however, sound was especially vulnerable to ephemerality and loss. This makes listening to historical
My thanks to Stanley Plumly for his rendition of the smith’s song, Lauren Friedman for her help making the audio recording, and the reviewer of this essay for helpful suggestions.