King Xerxes

Anon. (1575)

Historical Records

Accounts of the Office of the Revels

The accounts of the Office of the Revels record various expenses disbursed in the preparation of the performance of "Xerxes" and its aftermath. Payments were made for Thomas Blagrave's two trips to peruse and reform the play; for armor lent from the armorer Roger Tindall; for wax for a cake; for a wig to be worn by Xerxes' sister; for a canvas fringe to decorate the set; and for the transportation of three loads of materials to Blackfriars after the play was performed.

	Thomas Blagrave esquier for mony by him disburced
	vpon sundry occazions concerning this Office and Thaffares
	thereof as foloweth videlicet
	26o Novembris. 1574
Iorneyeng charges	Horshyer and charges by the waye at Wynsor
	stayeng there ij dayes in November iiij
	daies for pervzing & Reformyng of ffarantes
	playe &c.	xlijs vjd
	.5o. Decembris 1574
	Horsehyer to hampton Coorte to conferr with
	my Lord Chamberlayne the Lord Haward, &
	Mr Knevett vpon certayne devices & to pervze
	ffarantes playe there againe iij daies the charges
	wherof with horsemeate at kingston is	xxvijs viijd
	[…]
	6o Ianvarij
	[…]
Hier of Armour	To Roger Tyndall tharmerer for Lending of Armor for
	ffarrantes playe and for attending the same	xjs. iiijd.
	[…]
Wexchaundler	Wax for A Cake in ffarrantes playe	iijs vjd.
	[…]
	Edward Buggyn gentleman clerkcomptrowler of Thoffice
	for mony by him disburced videlicet
	[…]
	xjo. Ianvarij.
	for A periwigg of Heare for king xerxces syster
	in ffarrantes playe	iiijs. viijd.
	for Cariage of iij Lode of stuf (for the playe &c. on
	twelfe Nighte) to the watersyde at the Blackfryers	iijs.
	[…]
	.jo. ffebruarij .1574.
neccessaries	for ij ells of Canvas to make frenge for the players
	howse in farrantes play	xxd

(The National Archives, AO 3/907/4, ff. 9r–10r, 12r; qtd. Feuillerat 238-40, 244)

Declared Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber

(MSC VI, 9)

Theatrical Provenance

Performed on 6 January 1575 by the Children of Windsor before the Queen at Hampton Court.

Probable Genre(s)

Classical History (?) (Harbage)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

<Enter any information about possible or known sources. Summarise these sources where practical/possible, or provide an excerpt from another scholar's discussion of the subject if available.>

References to the Play

None known. (Content welcome.)

Critical Commentary

Wallace (124) assumes that the play was authored by Farrant, describing its tragic theme "well suited to such serious-mindedness of the man as exhibited in his rolling anthems."

Arkwright (129), notes that one of Farrant's extant songs, "O Jove, from the stately throne," refers to a character named "Altages"; assuming that this was intended to be a Persian name, he speculates that the song may have been written for "Xerxes."

Wiggins (121-22) offers a narrative reconstruction of the play (see above). He also proposes that the "Marrynels whissell," which appears in the Revels accounts unconnected to a specific play (Feuillerat 236), might well have been used in the production of "Xerxes." On the subject of Thomas Blagrave's "perusal" of the play, he suggests that Blagrave either read the play or saw it performed, and that in his second trip he may have been aided by Thomas Knyvet.

Streitberger (122n) argues, contra Wiggins, that there is "no evidence for the speculation […] that Knyvet assisted Blagrave in reforming" the play. Rather, given "Knyvet's connection to the storehouse at Westminster, he was probably consulting on material for the revels."

For What It's Worth

Farrant's song "O Jove, from stately throne" is found in the consort song part-books, British Library, Add MS 17786-17791. The text of the song reads:

O Joue from stately throne

   Cast downe thine heavenly eye,

And search the secrets of my hart

   Accused wrongfully.

Aye mee, if you in heaven

    Regard the faithfull wight,

Defend O God my righteous cause

   And bringe the truth to light.

[Alas, alas,] Alas to just request

   You gratious graunt, ah yeald

That my Altages may perceave

   How truth my hart doth shild. ("Early Elizabethan," 32)

Works Cited

Arkwright, G.E.P. "Elizabethan Choirboy Plays and Their Music." Proceedings of the Musical Association 40 (1913-14): 117-38.

"Early Elizabethan Stage Music." The Musical Antiquary 1 (1910): 30-40.

Streitberger, W.R. The Masters of the Revels and Elizabeth I's Court Theatre. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2016.

Wallace, Charles William. The Evolution of the English Drama Up to Shakespeare. Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1912.

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