ABSTRACT
The reign of Henry VIII saw a flourishing of court drama in England. Both royal establishments acknowledged and exploited the consciously spectacular court culture of the early sixteenth century. Apart from a few fragments from quasi-dramatic games, we have only Sir David Lyndsay’s Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, and the two existing versions of that script document not a court production but large-scale public, outdoor performances in the 1550s. Without scripts the search for a Scottish interlude tradition seems frustrated before it begins. Initially, the terminology of plays and playcoats might seem to suggest a very different kind of dramatic tradition from the political courtly interlude. There is good evidence that Scotland in the 1530s was no stranger to drama as an instrument of politics beyond the court, and James himself appears to have been adept at exploiting the topical relevance of both literature and performance.
