I'd suggest looking at the possibility of a partial London Midsummer Watch
pageant reference. In the 1512 Watch, e.g., one of the pageants was a
Castle of War; and although we haven't much in the way of detail about
this particular pageant, in other Midsummer Watch pageants in other years
a Castle of War can involve a sultan: see, e.g., 1521. (REED: Civic
London, vol. 1)  Both the 1512 pageant and the 1521 pageant were Drapers'
Company pageants, but participants in the pageant were hired and so need
not have been Drapers--and More's reference is general in any case. The
1521 pageant involved wildfire and darts. Also usually there were no
speeches in MSW pageants; and the reference is to a sultan as standing,
not speaking. The MSW does not, however, involve stages; Watch pageants
are not stage plays. More, however, could be making a general point about
acting rather than a specific reference to one type of "playing" only.

Anne Lancashire


> I would like to ask the list about the theater-historical context of
> remarks made by Thomas More in his history of Richard III, whe
> commenting on the invented drama of Richard scheming his way to the
> crown in 1483. (Textual notes are at the bottom.)
>
> "And in a stage plaie, the people knowe right well that he that plaieth
> the sowdain [soldan, sultan], is percase a souter [shoemaker], yet if
> one of acquaintaunce perchaunce of litle nurture should call hym by his
> name while he standeth in his maiestie one of his tourmentours might
> fortune breke his hed for marryng the plaie. And so thei saied, these
> matters be kynges games, as it were staige playes, and for the moste
> part plaied vpon scaffoldes [execution platforms], in which poore menne
> be but lookers on, and thei that wise bee will medle no ferther, for
> thei that steppe vp with them when thei cannot plaie their partes thei
> disorder the plaie and do theim selues no good."
>
> Now, More was writing about 1513, and apparently as a boy in the service
> of Cardinal Morton 1492-94 had not only been in London audiences for
> miracle plays, interludes, and the like but also would "step up and
> play" with the players. (See the early life by More's son-in-law William
> Roper and Richard Marius' modern biography, p.22). My specific question
> is about the skit (or whatever) about a shoemaker pretending to be a
> sultan. Can anyone identify that and point me to any theater-history
> about it?
>
> Note on the text: The textual history of More's history is amazingly
> complicated, and those who are very interested should refer to Richard
> S. Sylvester, ed., /The Complete Works of St. Thomas More/, Vol. 2
> (Yale, 1963). In brief, the text quoted above is the earliest English
> version (1543) of what More wrote (ca. 1513 in English and Latin), from
> a corrupted MS used in the continuation by chronicler/publisher Richard
> Grafton (d.ca. 1572) of /Hardyng's Chronicle/. This is transcribed from
> fol. 76r in STC 12766, available at EEBO; the most convenient
> transcription is in Sir Henry Ellis' edition (London, 1812), p. 515,
> online at
> https://archive.org/details/chronicleofiohnh00harduoft/page/515/mode/1up
> These sentences appear at the very end of the Edward V chapter in Hall's
> Chronicle (1548, 1550), where More's history appeared second in English.
>
> Cheers,
> Al Magary
> Hall's Chronicle Project
> SF
>