Bold Beauchamps

Thomas Heywood (?) (1606?)
This page is under construction.

Historical Records

None known.

Theatrical Provenance

Presumably staged in or before 1607; auspices unknown.

Probable Genre(s)

History (?) (Harbage)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Early references to the play's title (see below) suggest that it depicted the exploits of multiple generations of the Beauchamp family. It seems that Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th earl of Warwick, who fought at the Battles of Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), is the likeliest candidate to have appeared in a play with this title (see For What It's Worth). Narratives of Edward III's French wars could be found in the chronicle histories of Froissart and Holinshed, and were dramatized in Edward III (S.R. 1595, published 1596).

References to the Play

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

At the beginning of The Knight of the Burning Pestle, when the disruptive Citizen is joined by his Wife on the stage, she admits that she is an inexperienced playgoer:

Wife. By your leaue Gentlemen all, Im'e something troublesome, Im'e a stra[n]ger here, 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)

Suckling's allusion to "Englands Ioy" refers to a famous hoax in 1602 in which an audience paid a high admission for a play that was never performed (see England's Joy). The Poet's praise of the latter is thus likely meant to be ironic: the "point of the passage lies in the Poet's inability to distinguish Shakespeare's work from the crudest plays" (Beaurline 4.5.17n).

A Whip for an Ape (1645)

This pamphlet, a satirical commentary on the rivalry between the Royalist newpaper Mercurius Aulicus and the Parliamentarian Mercurius Britannicus, pauses to describe the martial achievements of Rupert and Maurice—"the two Germane Princes"—whose "strong inclination to Idolatrie and all manner of vanitie" have led them to fight for the cause of their uncle Charles II (sig. A3v). Nevertheless, even a Parliamentarian must admire their valor:

O the memorable acts of these bold Beacham's, not to be paraleld by those so often presented w^th generall applause in the publique Theater. These do not trust a companie of idle fellowes to tell their stories for 'em in a Play-house, but make all England the Stage, wherewith fire and sword they Act their parts themselves… (sig. A4; cited in Rollins 278n).

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 reference that explicitly 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)

Charles Sackville, "Epilogue to Every Man in His Humour" (1670)

The play is invoked in an epilogue written for a 1670 revival of Every Man in His Humour by Charles Sackville, later earl of Dorset (van Lennep 1.169-70). Halfway through the epilogue, the Ghost of Jonson appears and demands repentance of the audience for "the great offence / Your Ancestors so rashly did commit / Against the mighty powers of Art and Wit", namely the poor reception of his Sejanus and Cataline:

Repent, or not your guilty heads shall fall

The curse of many a rhyming Pastoral:

The three bold Beauchamps shall revive again,

And with the London-Prentice conquer Spain.

All the dull follies of the former age

Shall rise and find applause upon this Stage. (Collection, sig. C8-C8v)

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)

Martin Clifford, Notes Upon Mr. Dryden's Poems (1687)

In his commentary on Dryden's Conquest of Granada, responding in particular to the poet's claim that the character of Almanzor was modeled on Homer's Achilles, Clifford protests:

But the Four Sons of Ammon, the Three bold Beachams, the Four London Prentices, Tamerlain the Scythian Shepherd, Muleasses, Amurath, and Bajazet, or any raging Turk at the Red Bull and Fortune, might as well have been urged by you as a Pattern of your Almanzor, as the Achilles in Homer, but then our Laureat had not pass'd for so Learned a man as he desires his unlearned Admirers should esteem him. (sig. A4)

The other plays alluded to seem to be: The Four Sons of Aymon (a title first appearing in Henslowe's Diary in 1602 and reappearing when it was licensed for performance at the Red Bull in 1624), Heywood's Four Prentices of London, Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Mason's The Turk, Goffe's The Courageous Turk (Amurath) and The Raging Turk (Bajazet).

Critical Commentary

Possible References

Dyce found a possible allusion to the "Bold Beauchamps" in Middleton's A Mad World, My Masters (published 1608). Follywit's prologue for the play-within-the-play begins:

We sing of wandring knights, what them betyde,

Who nor in one place, nor one shape abide,

They're here now, & anon no scouts can reach em

Being euery man well horst like a bold Beacham,

The Play which we present, no fault shall meete

But one, youle say tis short, weele say tis sweete… (sig. H2-H2v)

According to Dyce, "Follywit […] seems to allude to one of the characters in a celebrated drama, produced before 1600, called The bold Beauchamps, which is frequently mentioned by our early writers: it no longer exists" (2.411).

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, when Warwick disembarks at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue:

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.

While this anecdote does not appear in Froissart or Holinshed, it was recorded in Thomas Walsingham's early 15th-century history Ypodigma Neustriae, which was published in an edition by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1574 (sig. P2v).

Possible References

J.D., The Knave in Graine (1640)

He's gone, I am still here, now Gentlemen,

If heretofore there hath been any Doll,

Any bold Beachum, and any Cut-purse Moll.

[…]

Grace me so farre to say, that of a Cheater

Though some have been more grave; scarce any greater,

But Gentlemen; what need we more repeating?

Knowing, that even in all Trades there is cheating?

Tis common both in buying and in selling,

In all Commerce; nay, even in mony telling.

Tis frequent 'twixt the Pander and the Whore,

We our selves finde it at the Play-house doore. (sig. M2v)

Works Cited

Beaurline, L. A., ed. The Works of John Suckling. Volume II: The Plays. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.

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

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

Clifford, M[artin]. Notes Upon Mr. Dryden's Poems. London, 1687.

A Collection of Poems Written upon Several Occasions by Several Persons. London, 1672.

D., J. The Knave in Graine, New Vampt. London, 1640.

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.

Dyce, Alexander, ed. The Works of Thomas Middleton. 5 vols. London, 1840.

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.

M[iddleton], T[homas]. A Mad World, My Masters. London, 1608.

Rollins, Hyder E. "A Contribution to the History of the English Commonwealth Drama." Studies in Philology 18 (1921): 267–33.

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

van Lennep, William, et al., eds. The London Stage, 1660–1800. 5 vols. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1960-68.

Parker, Matthew, ed. Historia Breuis Thomæ Walsingham. London, 1574.

A Whip for an Ape: or, Aulicus his Whelp worm'd. [London], 1645.

Site created and maintained by Misha Teramura, Harvard University; updated 30 July 2014.