Pièce 6b - Notes on dates of Twelfth Night celebrations, by G. E. Bentley

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Transcript

1605/6

The title page of the 1606 edition of Jonson’s Hymenaei says that the masque and the barriers were “Magnificently performed on the eleventh,/ and twelfth Nights, from Christmas;/ at Court:” John Pory wrote Sir Robert Cotton on 7 January 1605/6 “I haue seen both the mask on Sunday (5th) and the barriers on Munday (6th) night {1}. . . . . The second night the Barriers were as well performed. . .” (H & S Ben Jonson x, 465–7) Jonson seems to have thought of the night of the 5th as eleventh night and the night of the 6th as Twelfth Night.

1607/8

On 5 January 1607/8 John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton “The maske goes forward at court for Twelfth day. . .” and to the same correspondent he wrote on the 8th “On Twelfth eve there was great golden play at court, no gamester admitted that brought not 300li at least.” (Letters of John Chanberlain†, ed McClure, i, 250 and 253) Chamberlain seems to be distinguishing the night of the 5th as “Twelfth eve” and that of the 6th as “Twelfth day”

1613/14

John Finett wrote “The three and twentieth of December 1613 I was sent to the Ambassador of Venice . . . . . with this formall Message . . . . . that if he would be pleased to honour with his presence the Maske of Gentlemen of the Inns of Court to be performed on Twelfe night . . . . .” (Finetti Philoxenie, 1656. p. 12)

On 5 January 1613/14 John Chamberlain wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton “Master Atturneyes maske is for to morrow, and for a conclusion of Christmas and these shewes together . . . .” (Letters, i, 499)

Both the S.R. entry and the title page of the Gray’s Inn Maske of Flowers say that it was acted “vppon Twelfe Night 1613”

1614/15

John Finett wrote, “The 5. of January 1614. The Earl of Sommerset . . . . . gave me directions to invite the Spanish and the Venetian . . . . . to a Maske of Gentlemen set forth at the charge of his Majesty, and to come at an houre, about six in the Evening to a supper that should be prepared for them in the Council Chamber. They both . . . . . accepted the Invitation and came the next day at the time appointed. . . .” (Finetti Philoxenis, 1656. p. 19) {2}

5 January 1614/15 John Chamberlain wrote “To morow night there is a maske at court. . . . .” (Letters, i, 567) Again on January 12th he wrote in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton “The only matter I can advertise since I wrote last weeke is the successe of the maske on Twelfe Night, which was so well liked and applauded that the King had yt represented again the Sonday night after. . . .” (Ibid. p. 569–70)

1616/17

The heading in the 1640 edition of Jonson’s Christmas His Masque says only “As It Was Presented At Covrt. 1616” but the line of the song which reads in the folio “and for Twelfe-night more meet too” has a variant in the Harleian MS 4955 which reads “this night” instead of “Twelfe-night” (H & S B. J. vii, 445) Therefore this was presumably the masque performed Twelfth Night 1616/17.

On 18 January 1616/17 John Chamberlain wrote to Sir Dudlet† Carleton “On Twelfe Night was a maske wherin the new made earle [Buckingham] and the earle of Mongomerie daunced with the Quene” (Letters, ii, 49) Unfortunately the Earl seems to have been created on the 5th, so that this evidence gets us nowhere with our problem.

1617/18

7 January 1617/18 Sir Edward Harwood wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton “. . . . the last night being twelfthnight was the masque, the anti-masque being of little boyes dressed like bottells . . . .” (S. P. Dom. James I, xcv, No,† 8, quoted Sullivan, Court Masques of James I, p. 118) Several other letters say the masque was performed on Twelfth Night (See Bentley, Jac. & Car. Stage, iv, 669–71)

1619/20

In the letter of the Venetian ambassador to the Doge and Senate, dated 7 January 1619/20 [i.e. 17 January More Veneto] the Ambassador says “Yesterday at the prince’s masque I saw Hay, though hurriedly, and paid my respects” (C.S.P. Venetian xvi [1619–20] p. 135). {2} The account of the masque which follows later perhaps was written the night before, since it says “This night, etc” I think I was fooled by this into dating News from the New World 7 Jan instead of 6 Jan. (Jac & Car iv 663–667) In any case, the Ambassador said on the 7th that the Prince’s masque was on the 6th. Unfortunately there seems no evidence that this masque was called a Twelfth Night one.

1620/21

On 13 January 1620/21 John Chamberlain wrote Sir Dudley Carleton “That night they [French embassy] had a bal at Whitehall, and on Twelfth Day were invited to the maske there, which was handsomly performed, but that there was a puritan brought in to be flowted and abused, which was somwhat unseemly and unseasonable, specially as matters stand now with those of the religion in Fraunce.” [Letters, ii, 333] John Finett wrote “On Twelfeday following, the Ambassador and his chiefe followers were brought to Court by the Earle of Warwick to be present at a Maske.” [Finnetti† Philox. 1656. p. 71]

1621/22

4 January 1621/22 John Chamberlain wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton “To morow shalbe the Princes maske at court” [Letters, ii, 420] The title page of the 1621 edition of Jonson’s Masque of Augurs says “Presented on Twelfe night.” This is the only significant piece of evidence I have found that a Twelfth night masque was presented on January 5th. Since it contradicts all the other evidence I have found on the subject, I am inclined to think that Chamberlain was in error. Perhaps he misdated his letter, as I suggested (Jac. & Car. iv, 657) though I was there much too confident of the date of Twelfth Night celebrations, and I should have collected evidence of Chamberlain’s misdatings.

1622/3

“Upon Twelfe night, the Masque being put off, A Vowe and a Good One was acted by the princes servants. . . . . Upon Sonday, being the 19th of January, the Princes Masque appointed for Twelfte daye, was performed.” [Office Book of Sir Henry Herbert, ed. Adams, p. 50] The fact that Sir Henry uses “Twelfe night” and “Twelfte daye” interchangably as the intended date for the masque, surely indicates that he did not think of the 6th as Twelfth Day and the 5th as Twelfth Night.

1633/4

“On Monday night, the sixth of January and the Twelfe Night, was presented at Denmark-house, before the King and Queene, Fletchers pastorall called The Faithfull Shepheardesse. . . .”

This seems to be most conclusive. In Herbert’s other records when he mentions Twelfth Night he does not mention the day of the month; in each instance except this, the date seems to have been added by Malone.

1664–9

Perhaps it cannot be considered significant in this connection, but I note that Samuel Pepys had celebration parties on the night of January 6th in the years 1664/5, 1665/6, 1667/8, and 1668/9. I note no celebrations on the night of January 5th.

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Typed, except a couple of marginal marks, a few corrections, and the additions mentioned below. The notes are undated, but were probably made not long before 1/6a, which is dated 29 March 1956. The notes are carelessly punctuated and were evidently typed in some haste. The square brackets are in the original. In the original the headings (i.e. the years) are on the same line as the immediately succeeding text.

{1} ‘5th’ and ‘6th’ are written above ‘Sunday’ and ‘Munday’ respectively. The brackets have been supplied.

{2} Closing bracket supplied.

Pinned to 1/6a.

Formerly inserted in Greg's copy of his and Boswell's edition of the Records of the Court of the Stationers’ Company, 1576 to 1602 (1930) (V. 11. 125).

The information in these notes was incorporated in Greg’s article ‘When was Twelfth Night?’, the first of ‘Two Notes’ by him in Elizabethan and Jacobean Studies presented to Frank Percy Wilson in Honour of his Seventieth Birthday (1959), pp. 59–62.

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.