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The First Scottish Masters of Revels: Comptrollers of Popular Entertainment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
Extract
The office of Master of the Revels first appears in late fifteenth-century England. The appointment during the Elizabethan era was one which entailed the supervision of court entertainment of a theatrical nature. By the Jacobean period the Master was a censor of plays who exacted fees for pieces licensed for public performance. During the tenure of the most famous English Master of Revels, Sir Henry Herbert, the office declined in importance with the granting of patents to Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant in 1660. By 1737 with the Licensing Act, the function of the Master of the Revels had become the province of the Lord Chamberlain.
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- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1968
References
NOTES
1 See Chambers, E. K., Elizabethan Stage (Oxford, 1923), I, Chapter 3.Google Scholar
2 Elizabeth Barber, M., “Dramatic Censorship,” Oxford Companion to the Theatre (London, 1957), p. 194.Google Scholar
3 Campbell, Alexander, History of Poetry in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1798), p. 139.Google Scholar
4 Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, ed. Peter Hume Brown, IV, Aug. 5, 1673, 92. All further citations from this source will be indicated by the abbreviation RPC.
5 In 1669 the Town Council granted a warrant to Clerk, Robert and Grege, Stephen, “Inglishmen to act thos motions or plays within the Citie or suburbs, called Pollishingellow, or the beating of the sea, or such other rather motions quherin they ar expert, or can exercise and that till the first day of August nixt to come….” The Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1868–1908), X, 192.Google Scholar
Pollishingellow is probably Peter Dallman's Polichinella, a puppet play which was popular in London at this time. See Summers, Montague, The Playhouse of Pepys (New York, 1964), pp. 113–14.Google Scholar
6 Edinburgh Council Records, Aug. 13, 1673.
7 The Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, XXVII, 149.
8 RPC, VI, 292.
9 Cunningham, William, Diary and General Expenditure Book of William Cunningham of Craigends, ed. Dodds, James (Edinburgh, 1887), p. 39.Google Scholar
Dibdin, James, Annals of the Edinburgh Stage (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 28Google Scholar, indicates that there was other dramatic activity in 1679.
10 Cf. Abbotsford Club Miscellany (Edinburgh, 1837), I, 87–95.
11 RPC, VI, July 24,1679, 292.
12 Ibid., XII, Oct. 8, 1686, 483–84.
13 Ibid., VI, Sept., 1680, 547.
14 Edinburgh Gazette, Dec. 7–14, 1680.
15 RPC, VII, Feb., 1681, 37–38.
16 Ibid., VIII, June 6, 1682, 453.
17 SirLauder, John of Fountainhall, , Historical Notices of Scotish Affairs (Edinburgh, 1848), I, 326.Google Scholar
18 Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow: 1663–1690 (Glasgow, 1905), June 5, 1682, pp. 315–16.
19 Record of Convention of Royal Burghs, IV, 32 and 44. RPC, VIII, Feb. 9, 1684, 670–71; IX, July 22, 1684, 60. Records of Inverness (Edinburgh, n.d.), II, June 12, 1685, 305.
20 Records of Convention of Royal Burghs, IV, July 9, 1685, 57.
21 RPC, XII, 456, and Sept. 16, 1686, 466–67.
22 Lauder, , Historical Notices, p. 877.Google Scholar See also SirLauder, John of Fountainhall, , Chronological Notices of Scotish Affairs (Edinburgh, 1822), pp. 262–63.Google ScholarRPC, VIII, xliii.
23 Warrant for a Gift of the Office of Master of the Revells in Scotland to William McLean. Register House, Edinburgh. State Papers, 57/14, No. 665, pp. 505–57.
24 William Maclean acted as Master of Revels, 1690–1718. His successors include: Laurentes Johan Nieman, 1718–1719 [?]; Thomas Jones, 1720–1742; John La Motte, 1742–1748; Dugald Campbell, c. 1748–1764; David Beatt, 1764–1767 [?].