“Lowe and lay ministers of the peace”: The Proliferation of Officeholding Manuals in Early Modern England

Summary

IN William Shakespeare’s Richard III, even as he plots his way to the throne, Richard needs the support of English subjects—or at the very least, the appearance of their support. He solicits the aid of London’s lord mayor, who acts as his intermediary. Having heard Richard and Buckingham’s justification for executing Hastings, the Lord Mayor declares that he will “acquaint our duteous citizens / With all your just proceedings in this cause” (3.5.64–65). Richard applauds this intent, since “to that end we wish’d your lordship here, / T’avoid the censure of the carping world” (3.5.66–67). Later, ignoring Londoners’ refusal to voice their approval for Richard, the Lord Mayor urges Richard to accept the crown to which “your citizens entreat you” (3.7.200). The Lord Mayor plays exactly the role Richard desires of him, and his complicity enables Richard to accede to the throne. In Shakespeare’s dissection of monarchy and its legitimizing practices, London’s most important officeholder plays a crucial role.

Officeholders appear frequently on the early modern English stage, in roles ranging from lord mayors to constables to lord chancellors. Shakespeare’s officeholders include Henry VIII’s two lord chancellors, Thomas Wolsey and Thomas More; Much Ado About Nothing’s constable, Dogberry; Measure For Measure’s constable, Elbow; 2 Henry IV ’s Lord Chief Justice; and Justice Robert Shallow, who appears in both 2 Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Other dramatists feature officeholders in both central and marginal roles: Simon Eyre rises to become London’s lord mayor in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday; the Lord Mayor and Lord Justice pass judgment on the murderers George Brown, Nan Sanders, Anne Drury, and Roger Clement in the anonymous A Warning for Fair Women; similarly, the Knight who serves as justice of the peace in the anonymous A Yorkshire Tragedy laments the crimes of the Husband. In Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Part 1, London’s lord mayor welcomes the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth to London, even after Queen Mary’s lord chancellor, the Bishop of Winchester, has done his best to dispatch Elizabeth.

Often, these representations have been dismissed or considered only as caricature; in 1931, Leslie Hotson argued that Shakespeare created The Merry Wives of Windsor’sJustice Shallow as a bit of personal revenge, lampooning a local justice of the peace.