APPENDIX A
A COURT CALENDAR
[Bibliographical Note.—This is primarily a list of plays, masks, and
quasi-dramatic entertainments at court. The chronological evidence for
the plays mainly rests upon Appendix B. Tilts and a few miscellaneous
entertainments are included. And it has seemed worth while to trace the
movements of the court, partly in order to locate the palaces at which
the winter performances were given, partly because of the widespread use
of mimetic pageantry during Elizabeth's progresses and visits abroad. For
the main migrations of the household (in small capitals), the authorities
here cited are confirmed by the daily or weekly indications of a much
more detailed Itinerarium than can be printed. Additions from sources
not explored by me may be possible to the record of shorter visits or even
that of the by-progresses, upon which Elizabeth was not always accompanied
by the full household. I have not attempted to deal so completely
with the Jacobean period. The King's constant absences from court on
hunting journeys are difficult to track and of no interest to dramatic
history. Appendix B will show at which of the court plays he was personally
present. The principal material used may be classified as follows:
(a) The royal movements are frequently noted in ambassadorial dispatches,
in private letters, notably those of Roger Manners to the Earls of Rutland
(Rutland MSS.), of Rowland Whyte, court postmaster, to Sir Robert
Sidney (Sydney Papers), and of John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton
(Letters, ed. Camden Soc., and Birch, Court of James) and Sir Ralph
Winwood (Winwood Memorials); and in the diaries of Henry Machyn,
Lord Burghley (Haynes-Murdin, ii. 745; Hatfield MSS., i. 149; v. 69; xiii.
141, 199, 389, 464, 506, 596), Sir Francis Walsingham (Camden Miscellany,
vi), and John Dee. (b) Collections of State and quasi-State Papers
contain many dated and located documents emanating from the court,
such as proclamations, privy seals, signet letters, and less formal communications
from the sovereign or a secretary or other officer in attendance.
Unfortunately Elizabeth's letters missive have never been collected, and
many of them are unlocated. Naturally ministerial documents require
handling with discretion, lest the writers should be away from court.
Letters patent bear the date and location of the Chancellor's recepi, and
the Chancellor was largely detached from the court. The sources for
(a) and (b) are given in the Bibl. Note to ch. i. (c) The Register of the
Privy Council records the localities of the meetings of that body, but it
must be borne in mind that the registration was not very perfect (cf. ch. ii),
and also that, although the Council ordinarily followed the court, meetings
were occasionally held in Westminster or London, either at the Star
Chamber or in the house of a councillor or even a citizen, when the court
happened to be out of town. (d) Church bells were rung when the sovereign
moved into or out of a parish, and the churchwardens entered the ringers'
fees in their accounts. The entries in J. V. Kitto, The Accounts of the
Churchwardens of St. Martin's in the Fields, 1525-1603 (1901, cited as
Martin's), record many comings and goings from Whitehall, but in some
cases the date entered appears to be other than that of the actual ringing,
either by error or because the payment was on a different day. The
