The Trial of Nicholas Throckmorton ed. by Annabel Patterson

Abstract

REVIEWS Phaer’s sensible judgement is most clearly manifest in his abandonment of all forms of “surgery” for these diseases, namely cupping, scarification, and phlebotomy. He avoids harsh upward and downward purges and noxious alternatives in favour o f topicals , ointments, bandages, plasters, and broths based on animal stock and other benign ingredients, while for many diseases he recommends doing nothing at all. He often keeps to local bor­ ages, ferns, mint, nenuphar, and such “cold” seeds and plants as were apt to reduce fever. He used a high proportion of ani­ mal fats, swan and goose grease, and sweet butter for plasters and ointments, as well as violet and rose waters for washes, and flower conserves for electuaries. In all of this elaborate regimen, there are “subtexts” relating simply to care: the warming, the tender handling, the washes and bathing, and the presumed re­ assurances that create a climate of comfort and healing. Such a configuration of attentions, along with belief in the pharma­ ceuticals, generates the placebo effect at its best, and in that the best of Renaissance healing practices. Phaer, at the same time, holds to a minimum the use of “methodical” cures, folk remedies, occult practices, magical cures, charms, prayers, and incantations that were still being urged by certain serious med­ ical writers. The work, though brief, is a cabinet de curiosités for the modern reader, remote from matters literary to be sure, but a genuine piece of Tudor culture. Bowers has done his work well. He is judicious in the claims that he makes for the book, fills in the background nicely, and supplies just the right quantity of critical apparatuses. If this book is within your purview of interests, it should be acquired. DONALD A. BEECHER / Carleton University Annabel Patterson, ed. The Trial of Nicholas Throckmorton. Toronto: The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 1998. vi, 103. Imagine a courtroom scene with numerous judges and lawyers representing the case for the prosecution while the defendant, denied legal counsel of any kind, stands alone. Political show 211 ESC 27, 2001 trials are not unknown in recent history, and the lack of justice in the proceedings themselves indicates a propagandistic rather than a purely judicial purpose. The Early Modern period had its show trials too. In 1554 Nicholas Throckmorton, accused of conspiring in Thom as W yatt’s rebellion against Queen Mary, stood trial for treason. As in English treason trials until 1696, the defendant, presumed to have attacked the monarch, was not allowed to retain anyone to speak on his behalf because speaking in defense of a traitor was itself tantamount to trea­ son. Amazingly, against these odds, Throckmorton was acquit­ ted. Skilled in logic and rhetoric, and able to undermine both the slender evidence arraigned against him and the nature of the proceedings, Throckm orton was saved by the presence of an audience susceptible to such a presentation who were also empowered to convict or acquit: a jury. These ten men symbol­ ize the uniqueness of the English political and judicial system, and caution us against the simplistic application of models of modern totalitarian regimes to Tudor rule. It is intended that Patterson’s modernized edition of this remarkable document will be of interest to students of litera­ ture as well as scholars of legal history and political thought. Although it probably originally circulated as a pamphlet as well as in manuscript (three copies are extant), the printed text sur­ vives only in the 1577 and 1587 editions of Holinshed’s Chroni­ cles, one of Shakespeare’s favourite sources. Drawing attention to the “dramatic form” o f the trial, Patterson notes its repro­ duction in dialogue form, with speech prefixes for the speak­ ers; conjectures about memorial reconstruction versus verbatim transcription and authorial composition; and points out what she calls “occasional stage directions,” which recount the tran­ sition from one part of the proceedings to the next, the reading of depositions, the entrance and exit of witnesses, as well as the summary of what was said or who was speaking (9-10). At one point the editor draws a connection between Throck­ morton’s use of the biblical tag “what you measure you...