page_title: Revels (Inns of Court)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Revels (Inns of Court) / Description
caption_attribution_description: Galliard detail from a cassone panel depicting Antiochus and Stratonice
context_page_description: 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 revels were held annually from the early 15th to the early 18th centuries and were an extension of a general nationwide period of entertainment running from All Saints' Eve to Candlemas, though in some years they lasted as late as Lent. The inns elected a "prince" to lead the festivities and put on a sequence of elaborate entertainments and wild parties. The events included singing, dancing, feasting, the holding of mock trials and the performance of plays and masques. The revels played an important part in encouraging early English theatre and provided William Shakespeare with one of his most distinguished audiences in his early career. Several plays were written specifically for the revels and legal scenes in many plays from this era may have been written with this audience in mind. The revels declined in the 17th century and they last appear to have been held in 1733.
context_section_description: Written records of the revels do not seem to have been kept, or else have been subsequently lost, however some accounts remain.  It is known that the inns appointed "princes of misrule" to lead the revels at each institution.  At the Inner Temple this man was known as the "Prince of the Sophie" (the Sophy being a term used to refer to the ruler of Persia at that time); at the Middle Temple it was the "Prince D'Amour" (French for "Prince of Love"); Lincoln's Inn had the "Prince of the Grange" and Gray's Inn selected a "Prince of Purpoole".  The selection of the prince was not without controversy, at one time the poet John Davies, frustrated at not being named Prince D'Amour, entered the Middle Temple's dining hall and struck the man selected over the head with a club.  He was disbarred for a period and the Prince was later suspended after breaking into some barrister's chambers.  Sometimes important figures were selected, the Inner Temple in 1561 selected the Royal favourite Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester as the Prince of the Sophie, but also "Christmas Prince and Master of the Revels".  Dudley's revels are said to have been particularly extravagant.  At Gray's in 1594 the Prince took part in a grand enthronement procession from his lodgings to the inn's great hall, aping the custom of processions ahead of royal coronations.  Dozens of the inn's members played the role of the traditional attendants at such processions.  
  In general the revels were regarded as a period of extravagant entertainment and wild partying, though the events generally followed a set traditional sequence.  Members of the inn who refused to become involved in the events were fined as a punishment.  The nature of the revels often varied depending on the rank of the member.  The young students were noted to have taken part in energetic and intimate dances with women, such as the galliard, and exuberant singing whilst the more senior benchers had more formal, traditional dances and sang psalms.  Other entertainments included feasts and mock trials.  The revels attracted an audience of well-connected people of high rank. 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.  Sir Walter Raleigh attended the Middle Temple revels in 1598, a record of these survives and a script from them was performed at the inn in 1998 by the Middle Temple as a celebration of the historic event.
caption: A 15th-century depiction of the galliard
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