Bold Beauchamps

Historical Records

None known.

Theatrical Provenance

Staged before 1607; auspices unknown.

Probable Genre(s)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

References to the Play

Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607)

Wife. […] I was nere at one of these playes as they say, before; but I should haue seene Iane Shore once, and my husband hath promised me any time this Twelue-moneth to carry me to the Bold Beauchams, but in truth he did not, I pray you beare with me. (sig. Bv)

John Suckling, The Goblins (1638)

1 Th. No, none of these:

They are by themselves in some other place;

But here's he that writ Tamerlane.

P. I beseech you bring me to him,

There's something in his Scene

Betwixt the Empresses a little high and clowdie,

I would resolve my selfe.

1 Th. You shall Sir.

Let me see — the Author of the bold Beauchams,

And Englands Ioy.

Po. The last was a well writ peice, I assure you,

A Brittane I take it; and Shakespeares very way:

I desire to see the man […] (Fragmenta Aurea, sig. C7)

=Hudibras. The Second Part (1663)

An allusion to "Bold Beauchamps" appears in the spurious Hudibras. The Second Part (printed before Butler's genuine Second Part appeared). It is the only explicit reference that links the play to Heywood.

The Ancient Poet Heywood draws

From Ancestors of These his Laws

Of Dramma, to fill up each Sceane

With Souldiers good, to please Plebe'ne,

And in those famous Stories told

The Grecian Warrs, and Beauchamps bold. (sig. B8)

William Davenant, The Playhouse to Be Let (1663)

Play. […] There is an old tradition

That in the times of mighty Tamberlane,

Of conjuring Faustus, and the Beauchamps bold,

You Poets us'd to have the second day.

This shall be ours, Sir, and to morrow yours.

Poet. I'll take my venture, 'tis agreed! (Works, sig. K3v)

John Lacy, The Dumb Lady (1672)

How would the Poets all rejoyce to see

This age appear i'th' old simplicity;

To have your wives and you come ten times o'er,

To see the pudding eaten in Jane shore;

To cry up the bold Beauchamps of the Stage?

There was a blessed understanding age. (sig. A4)

Critical Commentary

For What It's Worth

Proverbial Title

The association of boldness with the name Beauchamp was proverbial, appearing in several contemporaneous collections of adages: "Bolde Beauchampe" (Draxe, s.v. "Boldnesse"), "As bolde as Beauchampe" (Clarke, s.v. "Impudentiæ"), "As bold as Beauchamp" (Ray, sig. T4v). Michael Drayton, in the eighteenth book of Poly-Olbion, imagines the term originated with Thomas de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick during Edward III's wars in France:

Warwick, of England then High-constable that was,

As other of that race, heere well I cannot passe;

That braue and god-like brood of Beuchamps, which so long

Them Earles of Warwick held; so hardy, great, and strong,

That after of that name it to an Adage grew,

If any man himselfe adventrous hapt to shew,

Bold Beuchampe men him tearm'd, if none so bold as hee. (sig. 2C)

Apparently, some attributed the currency of the proverb to its alliterative quality, but Thomas Fuller in his Worthies of England (where he discusses the phrase as a local Warwickshire proverb), makes the case for its validity:

Some will say the concurrence of these two B. B. did much help the Proverbe, and I think (as in others of the same kind) they did nothing hinder it. However this quality could not be fixed on any name with more truth. If it be demanded, what Beauchamp is chiefly meant, amongst the many of that Surname, Earls of Warwick? The answer of mutinous people is true in this case, One and all.
1. William. 2. Guy. 3. Thomas. 4. Thomas. 5. Richard. 6. Henry.
Such a series there was of successive undauntedness in that noble Family. (sig. 3P3).

However, Fuller ultimately sides with Drayton, choosing Thomas as the most likely candidate: "But, if a better may be allowed amongst the best, and a bolder amongst the boldest; I conceive that Thomas the first of that name, gave the chief occasion to this Proverbe…" Fuller cites a particularly impressive anecdote from the chronicle histories:

At Hogges in Normandy, in the year of our Lord 1346. being there in safety arrived with Edward the third, this Thomas leaping over ship-board, was the first man who went on land, seconded by one Esquire, and six Archers, being mounted on a silly Palfray, which the suddain accident of the business first offered to hand; with this company, he did fight against one hundred armed men, and in hostile manner overthrew every one which withstood him: and so at one shock, with his seven assistants, he slew sixty Normans, removed all resistance, and gave means to the whole fleet to land the Army in safety.

Works Cited

Beaumont, Francis. The Knight of the Burning Pestle. London, 1613.

Clarke, John. Parœmiologia Anglo-Latina. London, 1639.

Davenant, William. The Play-house to be Let. In The Works of Sr William Davenant. London, 1673.

Draxe, Thomas. Bibliotheca Scholastica Instructissima. London, 1616.

Drayton, Michael. Poly-Olbion. London, 1612.

Fuller, Thomas. The History of the Worthies of England. London, 1662.

Hudibras. The Second Part. London, 1663.

Lacy, John. The Dumb Lady, or, The Farriar Made Physician. London, 1672.

Suckling, John. The Goblins. In Fragmenta Aurea. London, 1646.

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