Revels (Inns of Court)
The revels were a traditional period of merrymaking and entertainment held at the Inns of Court, the professional associations, training centres and residences of barristers in London, England.
The inns elected a "prince" to lead the festivities and put on a sequence of elaborate entertainments and wild parties.
The inns revived the revels in the mid 20th-century and they now comprise a seasonal offering of entertainment in the form of sketches, songs and jokes.
Elizabeth I attended one revels session at the Inner Temple where she noted the dancing ability of Christopher Hatton, whom she later appointed Lord Chancellor of England.
There was also some involvement in playwriting: Arthur Brooke was a member of the Inner Temple and wrote a masque (a short performance including music, acting and dancing), Beauty and Desire for the 1561–1562 revels and The Supposes was produced by Gray's Inn for 1566.
[9] It is thought that professional playwrights of this era wrote plays specifically with the revels' audience in mind and may have featured legal scenes in the hope of them being selected for a performance.
[7] The inns played a key role in providing venues and funding for performances and were a great encouragement to early British actors and playwrights.
[2] The Lincoln's Inn and Middle Temple performed a revels masque at the royal court to celebrate the wedding of Elizabeth Stuart to Frederick V of the Palatinate.
The scene in The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1590–1592) showing the arrival of Lucentio at the university in Padua and a reminder from Tranio not to neglect his own pleasure whilst there may have been written by Shakespeare with an audience of law students in mind.
In the same play the scene where the pedlar Christopher Sly temporarily gains the status of a lord may have been a reference to the temporary reigns of the inns' princes during the revels.
[12] In Henry IV, Part 2 (c. 1596-99) Shakespeare has a justice of the peace, Robert Shallow, recall his time at the revels where, together with his friends, "you had not four such swinge bucklers in the Inns of Court again; and again I say to you we knew where the bon robas [prostitutes] were and had the best of them at commandment".
[2] A performance of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors took place at the Gray's Inn revels on 28 December 1594 and is considered to be one of the best documented events of his life.
[13] The play formed part of a sequence of events focused on the Twelve Days of Christmas, though the revels themselves lasted until Shrove Tuesday (7 February 1595) with a performance of the Masque of Proteus before the queen.
[11] Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was performed by the Queen's Men at the Middle Temple revels on 2 February 1602, at a time when one of his cousins was a student there.
[2] In 1610 the entire "barre" (fellows) of Lincoln's Inn refused to dance during the revels, on an occasion when judges had been invited to witness the festivities.
[16][2] The revels were revived at the inns in the mid-20th century by Master Hubert Monroe of the Middle Temple and have since provided seasonal entertainment in the form of sketches, songs and jokes.
