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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. 63 64
