Backstage Photographs from Pride & Dame

To accompany the back stage photos for the medieval drama from the Magna Carta in Clare celebrations we include the programme notes for Pride and Dame Sirith.

THE PRIDE OF LIFE:

The Pride of Life is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, surviving play in the English language. 

There are many caveats to the above sentence.

Firstly, there are other surviving texts which come from about the same period in time, though it’s very difficult to put an exact date to these things.  Pride comes somewhere around 1350. 

Secondly, it doesn’t quite survive - not fully.  There are big gaps in the text we have and the second half / third is completely lost, so it can’t be classed as an extant play. 

Thirdly, though in English, the text is Irish in origin – at the very least by adoption, as this is where the manuscript was copied in the form which has come down to us.

So, on the face of it, not a very appropriate entertainment for a medieval banquet in 1215.

But what else is there?  When I was first approached to do something for the Magna Carta celebrations I racked my brains as to what was most appropriate.  We haven’t got any surviving plays in English prior to 1350 – and I didn’t think that the average persons knowledge of Latin would be up to it.  Thinking a little sideways I considered some later plays about King John.  But all three King John plays from the early modern period have one major deficiency. 

They don’t mention Magna Carta.  At all.

So I made a compromise – the earliest play that was doable and which features at least a thematic link to the story of King John.  The Pride of Life is, as the title suggests, about pride and a prideful King at that.  It resonates nicely.

For all the incompleteness of the text, it is performable thanks to the detail afforded by the banns that open the play – a prologue that tells the whole of the plot, including the ending.  To make the play more whole I have added a section of another early English play – from an East Anglian Mystery play about the death of Herod – to round off the story dramatically, as well as a playless Epilogue that has survived as a fragment.  It is possible this Epilogue has never been performed as part of a production for six hundred years as, being without a play to perform before it, why would anyone use it?  One can never be certain of such things, someone else might have had the idea before me, but it’s an exciting thought.

The Pride of Life has been performed more recently than the mid 14^th Century, though I haven’t had a chance to hunt out any specific productions – either student or professional.  The BBC produced a reasonably accurate version for the Third Programme in the 1950’s as part of their The First Stage series.  It used the prologue throughout the play (which, short as it was, was cut down and heavily modernised) to cover the gaps in the text.  Sadly this recording is only currently available if you can find the LP release of the series (which thanks to ebay I have) – which I doubt will get a wider airing.  I have therefore recorded our cast performing our text of the play and this audio recording (and video footage we hope to make of the last rehearsals and performance) will be put online for free to introduce interested people to the play.

As part of this production I have endeavoured to retain as much of the original text as possible and not overly modernise it.  We have only cut four lines from the extant play and altered some readings where the corrupted text gave me some license to be bolder with changing lines.  I have written two additional lines to one speech where a gap in the text doesn’t complete the rhyming scheme – though this reconstruction is based on patterns found in other plays of the period.  For those who are interested the original play ends with the final lines of Mirth, just as Death kills him.  Sadly none of the original dialogue for Death survived, which is a shame as he’s a marvellous conversationalist in most medieval texts.

I would like to thank the Magna Carta in Clare committee for hosting this Before Shakespeare* production and for producing such a welcoming atmosphere.
[*Our original incarnation - Ed]

Some rehearsal shots for Pride of Life - first full tryout with costumes.

Adam reading from his medieval mobile phone...

A Magna Carta Mumming

The first part of the evening is a completely true account of the story of Magna Carta – told in the fashion of a Mumming.  Mumming is a slippery term, it can mean a lot of different things depending when it was produced and who it was for.  It could involve song, dance or drama.  We’ve used a loose folk ritual to create something new, something special for this event.  It isn’t an historical re-enactment; it is a reimagining of a form designed to illicit a few cheap laughs, created in the spirit of the medieval entertainments of the day, not in absolute fact.

The Mummers Are: Michelle Allen, Robert Crighton, Pat Curtis, Katie Landon, Beth Norris, Clarissa Seeley, Alban Smith-Adams & Kate Terry.  Costumes by Mary Denton.

Dame Sirith

Edited and performed by Robert Crighton

Dame Sirith isn’t quite a fable, if only because it doesn’t have a moral.  It tells the story of a monk, Wilekin, who takes a fancy to the wife of a merchant, one Dame Margery.  When the merchant is away the monk tries to woo Margery but she’s having none of it and sends him away with a flea in his ear.  About to give into despair he meets a friend who recommends Dame Sirith the hend (wise) to help him. 

He goes to her and, after a little bartering, she agrees to get Margery to relent.  To do this she uses a small dog and a jar of mustard... but we wouldn’t want to ruin the ending for you by saying anymore. 

Unlike our very fake Mumming, Dame Sirith is genuinely medieval, appearing towards the end of the 12^th Century, and so is something that would have been about at the time of King John.

This version is only lightly modernised, so features many old words (gange is one of our favourites) and unfamiliar phrasing – but hopefully through the modern day translation service of the storyteller’s backchat it will be both clear and amusing.

And a few shots from backstage during the Mumming - and our strange array of Mummers!

The Reynes Extracts - An Epilogue

Here is the second of the Reynes extracts – I have previously blogged about the other A Speech of Delight.  This second fragment is an epilogue – perhaps to the same play, but it could easily be for any play of the period – a generic plea to the audience to forgive the players if they weren’t any good and not report them if they’d fluffed their lines – and some productions had strict rules over the players of plays, with fines exacted for being incompetent.  This short epilogue also mentions a church ale, which follows on from the production, suggesting both play and the ale were fundraisers for the local church.  One of the things we see with small scale medieval playing was it was often done to raise money for specific causes – the church roof for example.  Times don’t change.  I'm planning to use this speech in a production next year, popping it onto a play that doesn't have a proper ending.  That way this little speech will get to live in the real world once again - possibly the first time in a production for many hundreds of years.

listen to ‘An Epilogue - A Medieval Fragment’ on Audioboo

An Epilogue

Now worshipful sovereigns that sittyn here in sith

Lords and ladies and Franklins in fay

With all manner of obeisance we recommend us right

Pleasantly to your persons that present be in play.

And for your suffering silence that ye have kept this day

In playing of our play without any resistance

Dearly we thank you with might as we may

And for your laudable listening in good audience

That we have had this day.

And if we have passed any point in our playing

Or moved any matters in our saying

That should be to your persons displeasing

We beseech you report it not away.

For truly our intent was well to do

And if any fault be there found in it is our negligency

And short time advisement cause it also

For little time of learning we have had sickerly

And every man is not expert in eloquency

To utteryn his matter gaily unto your audience.

Wherefore we beseech you of your great gentry

The best to report of us in our absence

In every ilke a place.

Sovereigns all insame [in company]

Ye that are come to see our game

We pray you all in Gods name

To drink ere ye pass.

For an ale is here ordained by a comely assent

For all manner of people that appearyn here this day

Unto holy church to the increasement

All that exceedeth the costs of our play.