Warwick Pageant (1906) - Librettist Statement

Librettist Statement

The pageant secured almost universally ecstatic press reviews. Louis N. Parker explained what inspired him:

In arranging the Warwick Pageant I have clung as closely as the exigencies of time and space would allow to history and tradition. My chief authorities have been The Countess of Warwick’s “Warwick Castle” and Mr Thomas Kemp’s “A History of Warwick and its People”, but I have used “The Black Book of Warwick” and “The Book of John Fisher” very freely. I have also taken hints from “The Rowl of Master John Rows of Warrewyk” and I am acquainted with Dugdale, Field, Smith, Rivington, Burgess and a number of minor pamphlets. I think I may say I have some sort of authority for every action represented, if not for every word spoken. I have been specially favoured in my Collaborators. My old and tried friend Mr James Rhoades has dignified the whole Pageant with his verse; Mr Edward Hicks, not content with helping me in all sorts of ways with extraordinary patience and enthusiasm, has also contributed the greater part of the First Episode; The Rev W. T. Keeling, Headmaster of Warwick School, has written a Latin Carmen which I expect the school will be singing centuries hence; Miss Ahrons has exercised her graceful muse in the service of the High School for Girls; and I wish to express my very particular thanks to the authors of Episodes VI and VII – Kit Marlowe and William Shakespeare.