Account of Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels, listing plays performed for the year 1611-12

The Revels Book of 1611–12 records that the court saw only two of Shakespeare’s plays. This is five fewer than the seven performances recorded in the 1604–5 accounts. Nevertheless, two new plays from a playwright who had been entertaining the court since 1594–5 is no small feat.

While most Revels accounts survive only as summaries reported in annual Exchequer rolls, original books survive 1611–12, as shown here, in addition to two others (from 1604-5 and 1636-7). This 1611–12 book, like the 1604–5 book, is in the hand of William Honnyng, clerk of the Revels. It was Honnyng who wrote “Shaxberd” for “Shakespeare” in the 1604–5 Revels Book. That Honnyng’s spelling was considered defective in his own time is evident in corrections made to the 1611–12 book in George Buc’s hand: see, for example, the many instances in which “caled” has been changed to “called,” and the one instance in which “Lucrc” has been altered to “Lucr\e/c”.

In the closing months of 1612, Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels since 1610, submitted his accounts for the 1611–12 financial year. Honnyng created a table similar to that of 1604–5: the first column records playing companies, and the second records play titles, dates, and venues, while a third column, for names of the “poets,” is lacking. Notable are performances of The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale.

That The Winter’s Tale was new or at least fairly new in 1611–12 is reflected not only by its appearance on the Christmas court calendar of that year, but by the fact that it was licensed by Sir George Buc, as noted by Sir Henry Herbert in 1623:

For the king’s players. An olde play called Winter’s Tale, formerly allowed of by Sir George Bucke, and likewyse by mee on Mr. Hemmings his worde that there was nothing profane added or reformed, thogh the alowed booke was missinge; and therefore I returned it without a fee, this 19 of August, 1623. (Bawcutt, 45, 142)

Since Buc became Master of the Revels only in 1610, the play cannot have been licensed for performance at an earlier date. That the play was available to the public as well as at court is verified by Simon Forman’s report of a performance at the Globe on May 15, 1611. The fact that the “allowed booke” was “missinge” in 1623 implies that the company normally retained “old manuscripts” with their hand-written licenses.

The first two Revels Office books document the changing fortunes of plays and playwrights from 1604–5 to 1611–12. Seven of fourteen performances in 1604–5 were of plays by Shakespeare (counting both performances of Merchant of Venice), while two were of plays by Jonson. In 1611–12, two plays were by Shakespeare, none by Jonson. In the earlier season plays were selected from the whole of Shakespeare’s career (including The Comedy of Errors, from 1594 or earlier); for 1611–12, only new plays were selected. The differences correspond to the fact that in 1604–5 King James, his family, and many members of his court, were unfamiliar with London plays, and thus could be entertained with old fare; by 1611–12, however, only new plays could expect a favorable reception.