Sound, Vision, and Representation: Pageantry in 1610 Chester

This article examines a civic entertainment staged in Chester in 1610. It explores how visual, verbal, and aural elements of the event contributed to its construction of popular and elite responses, revealing complex circuits of representation. Multiple elements of identity overlap in the show’s portrayal of Chester’s place in Jacobean Britain. A discussion of different textual forms, contexts, musical resources, constructions of authorship, and evidence of reception associated with the event elucidates this portrayal. We must examine the non-verbal elements, especially music, alongside the verbal elements of occasional drama, if we are to fully recognize the complexity of their strategies of representation.