I happened by chance today upon a report by the BBC News North East about a novel by Glen James Brown set in the Durham area in the early fifteenth century. As regular readers will recall I am not much of a fan or reader of historical fiction, and I must admit I am not entirely sure that I particularly feel drawn to the book under discussion from the comments from the author. Maybe I will give it a try.
However, like him, I do respond to the fact, and it is a solitary fact, that in the accounts for the cathedral priory at Durham for 1433-34 there is a payment to a visiting entertainer. Known as Mother Naked - “ Modyr Nakett “ - he was a minstrel who received a mere 4d for his performance, the lowest such fee paid out by any bursar in the priory records.
The suggestion is that Mother Naked was a “Betty” , a female impersonator, perhaps originating with folk dance, and the precursor of Pantomime Dames, and not a few great comedians. The suggestion is that his small fee indicated that his act was deemed inappropriate or even obscene. Perhaps it was that he just wasn’t very good. The vision of the Durham monks sitting down to watch a drag act in the 1430s is an intriguing one to say the least.
Given the reaction of some modern Evangelicals to actors in drag appearing at children’s libraries it does make one wonder. But then one also hears stories of Catholic and AngloCatholic seminaries with rather rumbustuous end of year pantomimes, and with the tradition of the use of “Names in Religion” in such places, so maybe it is more traditional than one might have thought.
It would be interesting to know how often minstrels were engaged to entertain the monks, and at what time of the year - the accounts run from November 11, Martinmas, each year.
Drama as entertainment was clearly not unknown in cathedral communities. I recall seeing a reference to the residentiary canons of the cathedral in Lincoln, which had a vibrant tradition of religious drama, putting on a play to raise the mood in, I think, 1317, when famine, bad weather and political turmoil swirled around.
The BBC article can be viewed at Name from old Durham Cathedral record inspires new novel
No comments:
Post a Comment