English Civic Pageantry 1558-1642, Revised Edition

This revised version of English Civic Pageantry looks anew at the variety and vitality of English civic pageants from the beginning of Elizabeth's reign to the closing of the theaters in 1642, focusing on royal entries, progress pageants, and Lord Mayor's Shows. Bergeron argues that civic pageants partake of the burgeoning theater world and indeed contribute significantly to it. In a world rich in metaphorical possibilities, civic pageants with their spectacle and speech captured attention on noblemen's estates and in the streets of London. In the new Introduction, Bergeron evaluates where pageantry studies have been and where they might go, underscoring areas ripe for additional investigation and analysis.

These pageants appealed to thousands of spectators in London's streets or wherever they took place, they engaged outstanding dramatic talent (playwrights and actors); they displayed extraordinary technical skill (from triumphal arches to fireworks); they utilized large sums of financial support from city governments and guilds; and they participated in the political and symbolic ratification of the sovereign's or mayor's office.

This revised book seeks to call renewed and vigorous attention to this sometimes marginalized dramatic form by insisting that civic pageants constituted a major part of cultural and theatrical life in early modern England. Bergeron's fresh look at this material seeks to recover and analyze the world of English civic pageantry, opening its richness for inspection and wonder.