Editing Master of the Revels (section)

==The Revels Office==
In 1608, Edmund Tylney wrote a memorandum on the office that offers a vivid picture of its operation. He wrote that the office:

{{quote|consisteth of a wardrobe and other several [i.e. separate] rooms for artificers to work in (viz. tailors, embroiderers, property makers, painters, wire-drawers and carpenters), together with a convenient place for the rehearsals and setting forth of plays and other shows ...<ref>{{harvnb|Halliday|1964|p=409}}; spellings modernised.</ref>}}

Tylney went on the note that the office also provided a house for the master and his family, and other residences for some of the office's personnel, if specified in the [[Letters patent|patents]] of their positions.

In the year of the Tylney document, the Revels Office had moved to the Whitefriars district outside the western city wall of London, though throughout its history it was located in several other places about the city, including the [[Blackfriars, London|Blackfriars]] district.

According to [[Thomas Blount (lexicographer)|Thomas Blount]] in his 1656 dictionary "Glossographia", the origin of the word "Revels" is the French word "reveiller", to wake from sleep. He goes on to define "Revels" as:

{{quote|Sports of Dancing, Masking, Comedies, and such like, used formerly in the Kings House, the Inns of Court, or in the Houses of other great personages; And are so called, because they are most used by night, when otherwise men commonly sleep.<ref>[http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/dance_em_dict.html "References to Dance in Sixteen Early Modern Dictionaries"] by Greg Lindahl, 2 August 2021</ref>}}