Master Of The Revels

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The Master of Revels selected the plays for actors to perform, held the auditions,controlled the scenery, chose
and made the costumes for each play, and censored the scripts. He accomplished this task by taking out some
parts that were scandalous and adding more acceptable material in place of the improper text.
He held an esteemed position in the English royal household. The Master of the Revels was also the only person
to have the completed script, the actors received only the scenes that they performed.

The Master of Revel's work is important to us today because he had authority over the entire production,
including publication, including publication of not only Shakespeare's plays but everyone's plays.
Today we benefit from scripts with production notes from many Elizabethan and Jacobean plays.

The title of the Master of the Revels was first given to Sir Edmund Tilney in 1579, each year the Master had to
select best plays for court performances before the ruling monarch and the accompanying courtiers and
aristocrats, this meant playing before Elizabeth the first, and later, James the first and then James and Charles
the first, the chosen players had to go to the Revels office to five readings in front of the Master who would
decide on the suitability of the various theatrical works.

Many playwrights including Shakespeare, would have brought their play scripts to be inspected by the Master of
Revels for their suitability to be performed to the court or indeed publicly, and the Master would remove any
passages he considered blasphemous, treasonable or seditious, criticising God, Sovereign to the state,
The various Masters usually read the plays in manuscript and if the play met approval, the text would be
signed off on the last page along with accompanying words of authorisation.
Two such manuscripts survive, the most famous being a play entitled 'Sir Thomas More' which was censored by
Tilney and is thought to include scenes written in the hand of Shakespeare.

Actors continue to rehearse plays that were to be performed at court for Tilney, who held this office until 1610
when he died, his large mansion being at the eastern end of what is now Aykebury Street,
The adjacent Priory buildings were used for making and storing costumes, stage sets and equipment for such
performances.

Origin of the word Revels- Latin-rebellare...Old French-reveler...Old English-revel
REVELS
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Revels
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[Redbeck]

[Redbeck]

Mark the powerful numbers aloft and Shakespeare's reference to courtly Tudor theatre beneath

The Tempest's Epilogue

"You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismayed; be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

William Shakespeare 1564-1616