During Elizabeth's reign, in the days before the interweb the good folk of Norwich entertained themselves in simpler ways, one of which is celebrated on this appropriately odd totem pole in Chapelfield Gardens.
Will Kempe statue, courtesy Old Dive.
A certain Will Kempe, one of Shakespeare's most popular comic players, for reasons known only to himself decided to Morris Dance all the way from London to Norwich (as you do). Apparently he stopped at each village on the way, assembling a crowd outside the alehouse and proceeded to give "demonstrations of leaping." Much better than today's telly.
The journey took him nine days and was celebrated at the time as the Nine Days' Wonder, from whence we get the phrase that we now use with irony. Will and his feat are commemorated by the naming of a thoroughfare behind Norwich Forum as Will Kemp (sic) Way.
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth's visit had left the city deeply in debt and the freshly pimped houses and streets were soon falling back into decay. After the slaughter of Kett's rebellion, the bonfire of the heretics under Mary, flood, fire, famine, plague, murder most foul, drought and the decay of the Worsted industry made Norwich a pretty grim place to live during the otherwise glorious reign of Gloriana. "The Tudors" TV show it was not!
Blomefield tells us that in 1551 a gibbet was erected outside St.Stephen's Gate, wherein was hung in irons "a lad of about sixteen years old, for ravishing and quartering a child." … Nice …
One rather unfortunate man, Matthew Hammond was accused of speaking seditious words against the queen. He was set in the pillory outside Norwich Castle with his ears nailed to the wood, to be pelted by the populace for his perfidy.
Before he was freed, the Norwich hangman cut off poor Matthew's ears. Immediately after which he was dragged straight back into Norwich Castle gaol where the Bishop of Norwich accused him of blasphemy for somewhat understandably yelling the name of our Lord while his ears were being hacked from his head. Summarily pronounced guilty he was dragged back outside and burnt in the castle ditch.
As were, in short order, John Lewes, Peter Cole and Francis Kett (of Robert Kett's family of Wymondham), also for blasphemy.
On a brighter note, printing arrived in Norwich in the form of Dutchman Anthony Solen, awarded the freedom of the city for his services.
To cap it all, almost at the end of Elizabeth's reign (this from the Norwich Roll of 1601):
"On Wednesday the 29th of April, a sudden storm of hail and rain fell about five o'clock in the afternoon, which caused a great darkness, and a shock of thunder and lightning followed, with a noisome stink of brimstone, and in a moment the upper part of the spire of the cathedral was struck down, which not long before was finished with the fane thereon; the stone and woodwork therein, for twenty foot in height, was cast down on the north roof of the church, which it braked down, shaked the walls and roof of the quire, and split the spire from the south-east part from top to bottom, causing about twenty holes that men might creep through, on the north-west side; divers stones which fell out of them sunk above half-a yard into the ground of the Bishop's garden."
Blomefield quotes witness statements, including one from John Colne who was rather unwisely sheltering from the storm in the nave. He was one of several witnesses, one being the rector of Thorpe, who saw ball lightning enter the cathedral with the stink of brimstone before the spire fell.
Such then was the grim reality of life in Elizabethan Norwich … Much more fun was being had in the capital, with Shakespeare and Marlowe and the incomparably petty Robert Greene (he of "A Groats-worth of Wit"), so wonderfully played by Mark Heap in the best Elizabethan TV show since Blackadder II: Upstart Crow (highly recommended as a tonic for our times, especially for those who love their Shakespeare).
Alas and alack, with the passing of the last Tudor monarch the crown passed to the Stuarts. Ghastly people.
Sources:
Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition.
The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.
Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.
Francis
Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of
Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich:
published 1753 to 1775
Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society
East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009
Lollardy and the Reformation in England: An Historical Survey: James Gairdner: 1908: 4 Vols
Holinshed's Chronicles: 1577: Old Dive's 1808 edition. 5 Vols.
The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002
Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996
Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005
Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004
Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981
Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983
2 comments:
I guess I'd better get Britbox. All the best shows are on it.
When this bizarre pandemic is over I might consider Morris dancing from London to Norwich, or at least taking the train and stopping in towns along the way to assemble crowds inside the alehouses.
A nine-day pub crawl from London to Norwich sounds like a splendid idea. No pubs open at the moment, though, but a couple of the local breweries are doing deliveries of firkins.
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