Shakespeare Class Homepage

Stratford-On-Avon by Sidney Lee

 

Begin Page 51

 

Chapter 6: THE GUILD

               

BUT medieval life at Stratford in the later Middle Ages developed a new feature, which gives it by far its greatest attraction to the student of English municipal history. Self­ government was in the Middle Ages the aim of every English town which deserved the name; but so far as our investigations have led us, the townsmen of Stratford had made no advance in that direction. Before the four­teenth century closed, however, an institution had arisen and taken formal shape in their midst, which was to deprive the Bishops of Worcester of their ancient authority. The Guild, that then went by the triple name of the Holy Cross, the Blessed Virgin, ,and St. John the Baptist, and which still gives its name to the picturesque chapel in Church Street, embodied

 

End Page 51

______________________

 

Begin Page52

this en1ancipating influence. . I t very possibly represents the union of three distinct guilds, each bearing one of the names cited; but we have no historical evidence of their combina­tion, and for our present purpose it is sufficient to regard it as a single institution.1

The early English guilds must not be con­founded with the modern survival in the city of London. The guilds owed their origin to popular religious observances, and developed into institutions of local self-help. They were societies at once religious and friendly, "col­lected for the love of God and our soul's need." Members of both sexes-and the women were almost as numerous as the men-were admitted on payment of a small annual subscription. This primarily secured for them the perform­

_________________

Footnote 1 Ample materials for the history of the Stratford Guild are to be found in "Stratford-on-Avon Corporation Records -The Guild Accounts," by Mr. Richard Savage, reprinted from the Stratford-on­-Avon Herald for 1885. This is a calendar of the extant accounts for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which was prepared at the ex­pense of Mr. Charles Flower of Stratford. Mr. Savage has prepared for publication another collection of guild documents preserved at Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford. See also Toulmin-Smith's " Docu­mentary History if English Guilds," published by the Early English Text Society, Mr. J. C. Jeaffreson's "Report on the Stratford University," published in the Eighth Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, and Thomas Fisher's extracts from the Guild Records which appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1835.

 

End Page 52 

___________________________________

 

(There is no text on Pages 53-54)

____________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

Begin Page 55

 

tances of certain religious rites, which were more valued than life itself. While the members lived, but more especially after their death, lighted tapers were duly distributed in their behalf, be­fore the altars of the Virgin and of their patron saints in the parish church. A poor man in the

Middle Ages found it very difficult, without the intervention of the guilds, to keep this road to salvation always open. Relief of the poor and of necessitous members also formed part of,

the guild's objects and gifts were frequently awarded to members anxious to make pilgrim­age to Canterbury, and at times the spinster members received dowries from the association. The regulation which compelled the members to attend the funeral of any of their fellows united them among themselves in close bonds of intimacy.

But the social spirit was mainly fostered by a great annual meeting. On that oc­casion all members were expected to attend in special uniform. With banners flying they marched in procession to church, and subse­quently sat down together to a liberal feast. The guilds were strictly lay associations. Priests in many towns were excluded from

 

End Page 55

_____________________________

 

Begin Page 56

 

them, and, where they were admitted, held no more prominent places than the laymen. The Guilds employed mass priests to celebrate their religious services, but they were the paid servants of the fraternity. Every member was expected to leave at his death as much property as he could spare to the guilds, and thus in course of time they became wealthy corporations. They all were governed by their own elected officers-wardens, aldermen, beadles, and clerks -- and a common council formed of their repre­sentatives kept watch over their property and rights.

Although these religious guilds did not concern themselves with trade, in many instances there grew up under their patronage smaller and subsidiary guilds, each formed of members engaged in one trade, and aiming at the pro­tection of their interests in their crafts. Under  the name of craft-guilds, these offshoots often, as in London, survived the decay of the religious associations; their pedigrees became obscured and they were credited with greater originality and antiquity than they could justly claim. Guilds of the religious kind can be traced far back in Anglo-Saxon times. King Ine and

 

 

 

Begin Page 57

 

King Alfred mention them in their legal codes. But the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries saw

their palmiest days. Chaucer includes some of their members among his Canterbury pilgrims.

 

            An Haberdasher and a Carpenter, A Webbe, a Deyer, and a Tapiser,

            Were all y-c1othed in 0 Iivere Of a solemne and grete fraternite.

            Wel semed eche of hem a fayre burgeis, To sitten in a gild halle, on the deis. Everich, for the wisdom that he can, Was shapelich for to ben an alderman.

 

At Stratford the guild claimed a very ancient history. “The guild has lasted," wrote its chief officers in 1389, "and its beginning was, from time whereunto the memory of man reacheth not." Its muniments now collected in the birthplace at Stratford prove that it had been in existence early in the thirteenth century, and that bequests were then made to it. William Sude, who lived in the reign of Henry II I, is the name of the author of the earliest extant deed of gift, and he gave a messuage of the yearly value of sixpence. Many of his contemporaries are known to have followed this example, for the sake of their own souls or

 

End Page_57____________________________________________________

 

 

Begin Page58

 

those of their fathers and mothers. The Bishops of Worcester encouraged such gifts, and apparently contrived that some of the guild's revenues should be devoted to the relief of poor priests ordained by them without any sure title. Godfrey Giffard, on 7th October 1270, issued letters of indulgence for forty days to all sincere penitents who had duly confessed their sins, and had conferred benefits on the Guild of the Holy Cross of Stratford-on-Avon. Before Edward II's reign closed the guild was wealthy in houses and lands. In 1353, from which year the extant account-books date, there was scarcely a street in Stratford without a house belonging to the association.

I t was in Edward I's time that the elder Robert of Stratford laid for the guild the foundation of a special chapel, and of neigh­bouring almshouses. These buildings, with the hall of meeting, called the Rode or Rood Hall (rood being equivalent to cross), were doubtless situated in Church Street, where the guildhall and guild buildings subsequently stood, as they stand at this day. The fourteenth century witnessed a rapid growth of the guild's pros­perity. In 1332 Edward II I gave the corpora­-

 

End Page 58

____________________________

 

Pages 59 and 60 have no text

____________________________

 

  

 

Begin Page 61

 

tion a charter which confirmed its right to all its possessions, and to the full control of its own affairs. In 1389 Richard II sent commis­sioners to report upon the ordinances of the guilds throughout England, and the return for Stratford is stilI extant, though the historians of the town have persistently overlooked it. The details are so picturesque that I make no apology for quoting them in. full.

1'hese are the ordinances (the document begins) of the brethren and sisters of the Guild of the Holy Cross of Stratford. "

First,' Each of the brethren who wishes to remain in the guild, shall give four pence a year, payable four times in the year; namely, a penny on the feast of St. Michael, a penny on the feast of St. Hilary, a penny at Easter, and a penny on the feast of St. John Baptist. Out of which payments there shall be made and kept up one wax candle, which shall be done in worshipful honour of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the blessed Virgin and of the Holy Cross. And the wax candle shall be kept alight every day throughout the year, at every mass il1 the church, before the blessed Cross; so that God and the blessed Virgin, and the venerated Cross, may keep and guard all the brethren and sisters of the guild from every ill. And whoever of the brethren or sisters neglects to come at the above-named times [when the payments are due], shall pay one penny.

It is also ordained by the brethren and sisters of the guild, that, when any of them dies, the wax candle before named together with eight smaller ones, shall be carried

 

End Page 61

_____________________________________ 

 

 

Begin Page 62

 

from the church to the house of him that is dead; and there they shall be kept alight before the body of the dead until it is carried to the church; and the wax candles shall be carried and kept alight until the body is buried, and after­wards shall be set before the Cross. Also, all the brethren of the guild are bound to follow the body to church, and to pray for his soul until the body is buried. And who­ever does not fulfil this, shall pay one halfpenny.

It is also ordained by the brethren and sisters, that if any poor man in the town dies, or if any stranger has not

means of his own out of which to pay for a light to be kept' burning before his body, the brethren and sisters shall, for their ~ souls' health, whosoever he may be, find four wax candles, and one sheet, and a heargecloth to layover the coffin until the body is buried.

It is further ordained by the brethren and sisters, that each of them shall give two pence a year, at a meeting which shall be held once a year; namely, at a feast which shall be held in Easter week, in such manner that brotherly love shall be cherished among them, and evil-speaking be driven out; that peace shall always dwell among them, and true love be upheld. And every sister of the guild shall bring with her to this feast a great tankard; and all the tankards shall be filled with ale; and afterwards the ale shall be given to the poor. So likewise shall the brethren do; and their tankards shall, in like manner, be filled with ale, and this also shall be given to the poor. But, before that ale shall be given to the poor, and before any brother or sister shall touch the feast in the hall where it is accustomed, to be held, all the brethren and sisters there gathered together shall put up their prayers, that God and the blessed Virgin

and the venerated Cross, in whose honour they have come together, will keep them from all ills and sins. And if any

 

End Page 62

________________________________________________

 

Begin Page 63

 

sister does not bring her tankard, as is above said, she shall pay a halfpenny. Also, if any brother or sister shall, after the bell has sounded, quarrel, or stir up a quarrel, he shall pay a halfpenny.

It is also ordained, that no one shall remain in this guild unless he is a man of good behaviour.

It is moreover ordained, that when one of the brethren dies, the officers shall summon a third part of the brethren, who shall watch near the body, and pray for his soul, through the night. Whoever, having been summoned, neglects to do this, shall pay a halfpenny.

It is ordained by the Common Council of the whole guild, that two of the brethren shall be Aldermen j and six other brethren shall be chosen, who shall manage all the affairs of tbe guild with the Aldermen j and whoever of them is absent on any day agreed among themselves for a meeting, shall pay four pence.

If any brother or sister brings with him a guest, without leave of the steward he shall pay a halfpenny,

Also, if any stranger, or servant, or youth, comes in, without, the knowledge of the officers, he shall pay a halfpenny. Also, if any brother or sister is bold enough to take the seat of another, he shall pay a halfpenny.

Also, if it happens that any brother or sister has been robbed, or has fallen into poverty, then, so long as he bears himself well and rightly towards the brethren and sisters of the guild, they shall find him in food and clothing and what else he needs.

These ordinances, providing for kindly gifts of beer to the poor, for the preservation of good fellowship among all the members and for their

 

End Page 63

_______________________________________

 

Begin Page 64

 

participation in each others' joys and griefs, vividly put before us the simple piety and charity of the Stratford townspeople. The regulations for the government of the guild by two wardens or aldermen and six others prove the progress of the town in the direc­tion of self-government. I t is not difficult to perceive how an association, which grew to in­clude all the substantial householders of the dis­trict, necessarily acquired much civil jurisdiction;

how its members referred to its council their disputes with one another; how the aldermen were gradually regarded as the administrators of the municipal police; or how the burgesses preferred this new regime to servile dependence on the steward of the lord of the manor. The college priests were very jealous of the guild's growing influence, and when the guild resisted the payment of tithes brought a lawsuit against it to compel their payment. But this seemed to be the fraternity's only external obligation.

The ledgers or account-books of the guild, still extant for the fourteenth and fifteenth'

centuries, well repay close study. Their micro­scopic details enable the historian to trace the progress of the society in all its aspects

 

End Page 64 --  Pages 65 and 66 have no text.

 

__________________________________________________

 

 

Begin Page 67

 

from year to year and almost from month to month.

The receipts under the various headings of "light-money," rents, and fines increase with satisfactory regularity, and the expenses grow correspondingly. Candles both of tallow and

wax, repairs of house property, the setting up of hedges, form large items of expenditure, but in each year's balance-sheet the details of the food and drink provided for the annual feast occupy more and more extravagant space. The small pigs and large pigs; the pullets, geese, veal, and " carcases" of mutton; the eggs, butter, and honey; the almonds, raisins, currants, garlic, salt, pepper, and other spices were gathered in from all the neighbouring villages in appalling quantities. Gallons of wine and bushels of malt for brewing ale were likewise provided in generous measure.

Horsemen were often equipped at the guild's expense to bring in the supplies. After the feast was done there came the settlement for such items a~ washing the napery, rushes for the floor of the dining hall, coal and charcoal for the kitchen, the cooks' and other servants' wages. At times the feast was enlivened by professional minstrelsy. Twenty pence was paid to minstrels

 

End Page 67

 

Begin Page 68

 

from Warwick in 1424 and a single performer was often engaged at a fee of five pence.

The guild buildings, the chief room of which was the guildhall, were enlarged and embellished after 1400. A parlour was added in 1427; it was paved with tiles, and the window was of glass. A chimney was provided for the counting-house at the same time and a school­house was built. The building material all came from neighbouring places-tiles from

Warwick, stone from Drayton or Grafton, plaster from Welcomb. Additions were also made to the almshouses set up near at hand for

the guild's pensioners, and towards the close of

the fifteenth century the chapel was carefully re­

paired. Meanwhile the number of ,the members steadily increased. One curious feature of the later conditions of membership was that the souls of the dead could be made free of the fraternity on payment from the living as easily as the

living themselves. Thus, early in the fifteenth century six persons surnamed Whittington, the dead children of John Whittington, of Stratford, were all admitted to a share in the guild's spirit­

ual benefit for the sum of ten shillings. Before the Middle Ages closed, the fame of the guild

 

End Page 68

__________________________________________

 

'

,

,

Begin Page 69

 

had grown wide enough to attract to its ranks noblemen like George, Duke of Clarence, Edward IV's brother, and his wife, with

Edward, Lord Warwick, and Margaret, two of their children; and so distinguished a judge as Sir Thomas Lyttleton was one of the members.

Merchants of towns as far distant as Bristol

and Peterborough joined it, and few towns or villages of Warwickshire were unrepresented on its roll of members. All the neighbouring clergy were prominent members.

The fee for admission at its flourishing epochs varied from six shillings and eight pence to four pounds, according to the wealth of the

candidates. Those artificers and traders unable to pay the entrance fee in money were allowed to defray it in work. Thus, in 1408 Simon Gove, carpenter, was admitted on his under­taking to build a porch at the door of the guild, and in 14°9 John I remonger was admitted on

covenanting to build a house on the guild ground, at the end of Henley Street. Five years later John Ovyrton, a cook, of Warwick, and his wife, were received into the fraternity on condition of cooking the annual dinner, for which they were. to receive the hood of the

 

End Page 69

________________________________________

 

Begin Page 70

 

guild-the chief part of its distinctive uniform-­and their expenses. In 1427 several weavers were made free of the guild on condition of supplying cloth for the members' hoods and a

banner with paintings on it. In other years, building material:-tiles, plaster of Paris, stone -was taken instead of the fees. Gifts in kind from the prosperous members were frequent. Silver cups, silver spoons, ecclesiastical vest­ments, missals, statues of saints, and wax for candles were often presented by novices. Con­tributions to the annual feasts of corn, malt, salt, white or red wine, were always welcomed. In 1416 the guild received from five members

"a great pot for frumetty, a broad dish of

mascolyn, one basin, one board - cloth, and one towel"; and in 1426 eight couples of rabbits, two ewes with Iamb, and a boar. In 1421 the presents included a silver chalice and a coat of armour, and in 1474 seven pewter dishes and ten pewter saucers. A schedule of "the diverse goodes and jueIlies beynge in the GildehaIle" in 1 434 is remark­able for the number and richness of its

contents. N or was there any failing off in the bequests of houses and lands. The

 

End Page 70

 

_____________________________________

 

,

Begin Page 71

 

guild acquired in 1481 the rectory and chapelry of Little Wilmecote, where the Ardens-the ancestors of Shakespeare's mother -had property with all its tithes and profits. In 1419 a tenement in Church Street, and in 1478 a shop in the Middle Row, came into its possession, and later nearly all High Street and Chapel Lane - then called Dead Lane or Walker Street-owned the guild as landlord.

The inner constitution did not undergo much alteration until late in the fifteenth cen­tury. New ordinances were promulgated in 1444 and while they define with more pre-­

cision than the former ones the duties of the guild's officers, and the mode of election to them, they differ from their predecessors mainly in the increased importance attached to the priests or chaplains, now five in number, employed by the guild, and perhaps prove that its ancient independence of ecclesiasticism was in jeopardy. The chaplains were to perform five daily masses hour by hour, from six o' clock to ten in the morning. They were to live together in one house, under as strict a discipline con­cerning hours for sleep and meals as the choristers in the college by the churchyard.

 

End Page 71__________________________________________________________

 

 

 

Begin Page 72

 

They had to walk in procession with the guild in their copes and surplices, with crosses and banners, on the four principal feasts of the year, and to officiate with the priests of the college at the funeral of every member and ,of the pensioners in the almshouses. They were to avoid the county wakes, and not to say mass out of Stratford without the guild's permission. The guild had now its master, aldermen, and proctors elected yearly.

            Every new member was to be admitted in the presence of the master, the clerk, and at least two aldermen. No member could be chosen alderman unless he had first served the office of proctor. The proctors were, on the Monday following the nativity of St. John the Baptist (24th June), to receive, and account for the silver money received for providing candles, and all the rents of the guild. They were to make an annual inventory of the property. Their duties also included the repair of all the tenements of the Corporation, and the arrangements for the feasts and dinners, of the dates of which they were duly to in­form the members. There were more dinners than of old.  Private entertainments were

 

End Page 72

________________________________________________

 

Begin Page 73

given to neighbouring landlords. In 1463 the Bishop of Worcester was the guest of

the guild, with Sir John Greville and other persons of distinction. The master and alder­men met in council every quarter-day at least, and absentees without excuse were fined forty pence. The master saw to the purchase of cloth' for the members' hoods. The oath taken on admission was to the effect that the brother or sister would truly pay his fine; that he would seek in all things the profit of the fraternity; that he would refer all his

disputes with fellow-members to the master; and that he would sue none of his brethren without leave of the master and aldermen, upon

pain of a fine 'of twenty shillings. The date of

the annual feast was altered to the 6th July, the day of St. Peter and St. Paul. Several regulations were issued later to prevent the "great inconvenience and hurt that grow to this guild by private. affection and grant of the master and part of his brethren," by which land and houses were let at low rents to favoured friends.

By far the most important of the new objects of the guild in the fifteenth century

 

End Page 73

_______________________________

 

 

 

 

Begin Page 74

 

was the organisation of the grammar school for the children of the members. We have seen that the schoolhouse was built in 1427. Thomas Jollyffe is the name of the member always associated with its foundation, but it is now, proved to have been in existence before the date (1453) usually assigned to its origin. Attendance was free, and the school­master was forbidden to take anything from his pupils. The master of the guild paid him an annual salary of ten pounds. It was at the guild school, somewhat altered in shape, that Shakespeare was afterwards edu­cated.

When the fifteenth century closed the days of the guild's prosperity were numbered. It had grown inconveniently wealthy, and its wealth was administered by a narrow oligarchy. Men and women of position in all parts of the country had sought and obtained admission to it, but the extension of the guild's boundaries was not favourable to the simple fraternal senti­ment, and the duties of membership acquired a chilling formality. Religious feeling was de­clining, and the steady growth of the priests' influence in the guild's internal economy failed

 

End Page 74

____________________________________

 

Begin Page 75

 

to attract new members. The fee charged for admission fell gradually from twenty-five shill­ings to twenty-five pence, and yet candidates decreased. To the commercial progress of the country the decline may be in part attributed. Subsidiary guilds or companies, formed of men engaged in the same or cognate trades, had risen up among the members of the old Strat­ford guild, and had separated the great fraternity into small cliques. At first the parent guild appears to have encouraged the formation of these traders' unions. We know that one room of the guild buildings, where" John Smyth, alias Colyere, first made a clock, having the hand towards the street and figures all gilded," was known as the Drapers' Chamber as early as 1419, and was probably so called because the Stratford drapers were permitted to assemble there to regulate their business arrangements. Other trades soon secured the same privilege, and in the sixteenth century every commercial pursuit had its company at Stratford. When the old religious guild was dissolved, these trade ­societies or craft-guilds lived on and shared some of its traditions and repute.

 

End Page 75 

End Chapter VI (6)