Tudor Interlude at Court: Reconstructing the Scenes behind the Scenes of Henry Medwall’s Fulgens and Lucres

Abstract

The earliest wholly secular Interlude that still survives, Henry Medwall`s Fulgens and Lucres invites vigorous scholarly attempts to reconstruct the contexts behind its first staging in 1497. The play`s secular and humanistic concerns of marriage and true nobility, its political function as a diplomatic entertainment, and last of all, its indoor setting unique to the genre of Interlude necessitate the examination of the contextual circumstances that led to its composition and performance, such as the political and social backdrop behind Medwall`s commissioned writing of the play, the playwright s relationship with the early Tudor Politics and contemporary dramaturgical practice, and the technical difficulties and solutions in staging indoors the play about an obscure common man having an ascendancy over a nobleman in the presence of diplomatic emissaries and noble audience. Mainly dealing with the social and political scenes both inside and outside the venue of the play`s performance, this paper aims to supplement other previous studies done on the play` relation to the early Tudor politics and the performance aspects of Tudor Interlude in general.