Yorkshire Almanac Michael Steele of Skelton (York) complains to Star Chamber about the following comic playlet, alleging an adulterous affair with his maidservant, Francis Thornton

17 May 1602: Michael Steele of Skelton (York) complains to Star Chamber about the following comic playlet, alleging an adulterous affair with his maidservant, Francis Thornton

William Bowes, Edward Mennell and Francis Mitchell. 1602. Star Chamber Case. Online: Records of Early English Drama. These are the alleged authors. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

To the tune of ffiliday ffloutes mee.
M Come to me pritty Lasse.
and Harken to my Plainte.
ffor since I maried was.
I have Liued discontent.
My wife is very olde.
I Cannot merry be.
there is nor ‸⸢wealth⸣<...>th nor golde
Can make her sweete to me:
I Lye both daie and night
in suche a Heauye plighte.
that nothinge can delight.
Comforte me ffauncis

F Sweet Michaell shewe your greefe
vnto your trustie ffreinde.
Yf I can yealde releife.
you shall have me at Commaunde.
And ffaithfull will I proue
Soe longe as life doth laste.
Doubte not my dearest Loue
but shew your Sorrowes past
And I will ready bee
to ease your maladie.
In this extremetie.
F welcome to Frauncis:

M For this Kindnes of Love
a Thousand thanks to the
yff thou wilt Constant proue
I will disclose to thee
the greefe and mightie paine
I live in Howerly
with suche a Ielous queane
ffrowninge soe sowerly
That livinge in this striffe
I loose my very life
ffye on my wicked wife
F Welcome to ffrauncis.

M This night yf thou Consent
I meane so<.>e sicke to be
My wife thou shalt acquainte
with my Infirmitie
And shew her in this Case
I meane alone to lye
And to haue thee my Lasse
to beare me Companie
Where we shall passe this nighte
with greate Ioye and delighte
suspected of noe weight
F Welcome to Francis.

It shall not be denyed
to worke this pollicie
ffarewell sweete Master myne
I goe with speed from thee
vnto my Mistress then
for to shew her this Case
M Adue sweete I praie,
god guide you on the waie
I shall praie night and daie
ffor my sweete ffrauncys.

Etc. etc.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

The bill of complaint is under the play. Here are all the documents in the archive relating to the case.

“Phillada flouts me” dealt with a shepherd rejected by a milkmaid, and like the subsequent tunes recycled, was very well known at the time, in various versions. Here’s another version:

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Comment

The bill of complaint is under the play. Here are all the documents in the archive relating to the case.

“Phillada flouts me” dealt with a shepherd rejected by a milkmaid, and like the subsequent tunes recycled, was very well known at the time, in various versions. Here’s another version:

Something to say? Get in touch

2 February 1609: A crowd-pleasing morality play at Candlemas at Gouthwaite Hall in Catholic Nidderdale lands the cordwainer-players and their patron before the Star Chamber

20 September 1635: Angry villagers bear William Hodshon on a pole into Sunday service at Appleton Wiske (Northallerton), assisted by a bagpiper and a churchwarden

22 August 1572: The head of Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland and leader of the Catholic Rising of the North, is impaled on Micklegate Bar, York, where it stays for two years

28 May 1574: William Ireland fails to become Rector of Harthill (South Yorkshire) because of his abysmal ignorance

27 May 1576: The Elizabethan Ecclesiastical Commission at York prohibits performance of a Corpus Christi play at Wakefield

18 February 1889: An effigy of Jack Nelson, wife-beater, is paraded with rough music through Hedon (Holderness) by a furious crowd

9 January 1827: Writing from Halifax, the comedian Charles Mathews longs for Leeds

6 October 1903: Egged on by his wife, Percy Broomhead, fishmonger, imputes the chastity of Ethel Hawkins, assistant to Mrs Bland, a neighbouring grocer at Walkley, Sheffield

14 May 1604: One of the compensatory “northern poems” registered today by Dr John Favour, Vicar of Halifax, to celebrate the union under James of Scotland and England a year ago

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Comment

T.W. Hanson clearly established Favour’s authorship in 1946 (Hanson 1946). Here’s the Stationers’ Register entry.

The final verse makes a clearer case for unity. Dickens, though he cites Hanson, has got more of it, so presumably saw Northerne Poems:

Old Albion is but one by nature’s lore
Environed round with the vast ocean shore.
To make it two, nature denies it bounds,
It is united fast by solid grounds.
The peoples’ manners do resemble each,
There is small difference in their mother speech.
As for religion it hath professed but one,
One God, one truth, one faith in Christ alone.
(Dickens 1963)

The collection was probably written, not in 1603, but in the year of Northerne Poems‘ appearance, 1604, in response to southern excess:

On 5 April, James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise that he did not keep), and progressed slowly southwards. Local lords received him with lavish hospitality along the route and James was amazed by the wealth of his new land and subjects, claiming that he was “swapping a stony couch for a deep feather bed”. James arrived in the capital on 7 May, nine days after Elizabeth’s funeral.[84][86] His new subjects flocked to see him, relieved that the succession had triggered neither unrest nor invasion.[87] On arrival at London, he was mobbed by a crowd of spectators.[88]

James’s English coronation took place on 25 July at Westminster Abbey. An outbreak of plague restricted festivities. The Royal Entry to London with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson was deferred to 15 March 1604.[89] Dekker wrote that “the streets seemed to be paved with men; stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children; open casements filled up with women”.[90]

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