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The anti-catholic play actually took place at Hinchenbrook, not far from
Cambridge, where the Queen stopped on her way back to Westminster after her
royal visit to Cambridge in 1564.  An impromptu performance was given there
by some overly enthusiastic students who had followed the Queen to her
overnight lodging in the town .  The Queen was deeply offended by the
performance, according to Guzman de Silva, the Spanish Ambassador, who
reported:

"The actors came in dressed on some of the impriosoned [Catholic] bishops.
First came the bishop of London carrying a lamb in his hands as if he were
eating it as he walked along, and then others with [other] devices, one
being in the figure of a dog with the Host in his mouth.  They write that
the OEueen was so angry that she at once entered her camber using strong
language and the men who held the torches, it being night, left them in the
dark, and so ended the thoughtless and scandalous representation."
(translated by M. A. S. Hume in _State Papers Relating to English Affairs,
Preserved Principally bin the Archives of Simancas_.  Ed. M. A. S. Hume.  4
vols.   London 1892-99.)

The targets of this burlesque appear to have been Edmund Bonner, Bishop of
London under Queen Mary and, by 1564, in prison, and the Roman doctrine of
transubstantiation.  The Queen's visit to Oxford 2 years later, as well as
other evidence, suggests that polemical religious drama, at least at such
highly publicized events, was no longer tolerated at the universities.
You'll find some discussion of this matter in Frederick Boas, _University
Drama in the Tudor Age_ (Oxford UP, 1914), Chambers _Elizabethan Stage_.  I
discuss it in _Theatre and Reformation_, p. 107.  And of course Nelson
records the above account in REED Cambridge.

Paul W. White
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1356
Tel. (765) 494-3748; Fax (765)494-3780

http://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~paulwhit/english/

> ----------
> From:         candlharp
> Reply To:     REED-L: Records of Early English Drama Discussion
> Sent:         Saturday, June 1, 2002 4:50 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Question re: Cambridge, REED document
>
> I recently had the opportunity to meet Prof. Alan Nelson of UC Berkeley,
> who
> has done quite a bit of work for REED, including Cambridge, Records of
> Early
> English Drama, 2 vols. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989).  One
> of
> our conversations involved an anti-Catholic performance, or burlesque,
> given
> for Elizabeth I at Cambridge in August,1564--a performance to which the
> Queen, in a fit of temper, called a halt (some of which is related in
> Nichols' Progresses).  If I'm recalling correctly, Prof. Nelson indicated
> that there is an extant fragment from this burlesque published in the
> above
> referenced title.  My university library has many of the volumes in the
> REED series, but unfortunately does not appear to own that for Cambridge.
> The library does own Prof. Nelson's Early Cambridge Theatres: University,
> College, and Town Stages, 1464-1720 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
> 1994); but while Nelson does offer certain details regarding Elizabeth's
> visit to Cambridge c. 1564, he does not include the fragment in this
> volume.
> Would anyone on the list who has access to the former publication be
> willing
> to expound on this document, or possibly scan the article and email it to
> me
> as an attachment?  Or, I would be happy to pay for Xerox copies and
> postage
> if someone is willing to snail mail it to me.  I would be most
> appreciative.
> The excerpt should be in Latin, but I may stand corrected.  Thanks all for
> your attention.
>
> --Christopher Paul
>
>