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THE DRAMATURGICAL AND THEATRICAL HERITAGE
It is almost impossible to prove whether or not Shakespeare knew this play,
even if it was undoubtedly available in print in his lifetime.® It is also a fact that
in Shakespeare’s days, Skelton’s name was still remembered but not primarily
for having been Henry VIII’s Poet Laureate. In his The Arte of English Poesie,
the connection to Shakespeare of which I will discuss in another chapter, the
aforementioned George Puttenham mentions him as a poet who wrote verses
similar to the speeches of the Elizabethan dramatic characters of buffoons and
vices, and Puttenham emphasizes that Skelton intended to entertain common
people.* Nevertheless, from a methodological point of view, Magnyfycence, an
interlude supposedly written between 1515 and 1523,° or roughly a hundred
years before King Lear, may also help us focus on the macrotextual elements
and patterns that derive from Tudor drama. Thus, Magnyfycence provides a
perfect antipode to the more immediate source, The True Chronicle Historie
of King Leir.
CONCEPTUAL SIMILARITIES: THEATRICAL MIRRORS OF GOVERNANCE
The thematic similarities between the plays are striking even at first reading,
especially when the focus shifts onto the protagonists: Magnyfycence, Leir
and Lear are all monarch figures whose fate is of national importance. It is no
wonder that scholars have attempted to read these plays as political allegories.
Norland, for instance, argues that Magnyfycence, written as Skelton’s attack
against Cardinal Wolsey, has roots in the medieval mirror tradition, as it is a
kind of royal instruction addressed to Henry VIII by his tutor, John Skelton.
This claim builds even on intrinsic evidence, as there is a direct reference in
a dissipated braggart. They then proceed to complete his ruin, both moral and financial, by
enticing him into an orgy of self-indulgence, which drives prosperity and contentment (in
the form of Welthfull Felycyte) from the Court, and heralds the entrance of Adversity. At
this point the vices depart, leaving Magnyfycence prey to Poverte, Dyspare and the suicidal
promptings of Myschefe. He is only saved from self-destruction by the arrival of Good Hope,
Perseveraunce and Redresse, who lead him to realize the foolishness of his earlier behavior
and educate him in the divine origins of true wisdom. Thus regenerated by his experiences,
he returns to the Court accompanied by new, more responsible, companions.” Greg Walker:
A Domestic Drama: John Skelton’s Magnyfycence and the Royal Household, in Greg Walker:
Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics and the Court of Henry VIII., Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1991, 60-61.
Phoebe S. Spinrad: “Too Much Liberty:” Measure for Measure and Skelton’s Magnyfycence,
Modern Language Quarterly 60:4 (1999), 433.
“Such were the rimes of Skelton (vsurping the name of a Poet Laureat) being in deede but
a rude rayling rimer & all his doings ridiculous, he vsed both short distaunces and short
measures pleasing onely the popular eare: in our courtly maker we banish them vtterly.”
George Puttenham: The Arte of English Poesie 1589, A Scolar Press Facsimile, Menston, The
Scolar Press Limited, 1968, 69.
65 Walker: A Domestic Drama, 62.
6 Norland: Drama, 175-178.
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