Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 78 · Christmas Customs and Traditions · Page 108 in print
Twelfth Night
Since 1795 the Baddeley Cake has been cut at Drury Lane on Twelfth Night, paid for by the actor Robert Baddeley, a former pastry chef, who left money for cake and wine for the performers in the green room.
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The words
Baddeley Cake
Twelfth Night cake cut at Drury Lane since 1795.
Blessed Chalk
Chalk used to mark the door at Epiphany.
Drury Lane
London theatre where the Baddeley Cake is cut.
First Folio
The 1623 collection in which Twelfth Night was first printed.
Royal Shakespeare Company: Dating the play (opens a new tab)
Green Room
Where Baddeley’s will provided cake and wine for the performers.
Haxey Hood
Struggle for a leather ‘hood’ at Haxey, Lincolnshire, every 6 January.
Inns of Court
London law societies, the Middle Temple among them.
Folger Shakespeare Library: John Manningham’s (opens a new tab) · Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition (opens a new tab)
King of the Bean
The mock monarch chosen by a bean on Twelfth Night.
Lintel
The beam over the front door marked with chalk at Epiphany.
Lord of Misrule
Master of Christmas revels whom Miles compares with the Twelfth Night king.
Malvolio
The steward tricked by a forged letter in Twelfth Night.
Folger Shakespeare Library: John Manningham’s (opens a new tab)
Manningham
John Manningham, whose diary first records Twelfth Night.
Royal Shakespeare Company: Dating the play (opens a new tab) · Folger Shakespeare Library: John Manningham’s (opens a new tab)
Middle Temple
Inn of Court where Twelfth Night was played on 2 February 1602.
Royal Shakespeare Company: Dating the play (opens a new tab) · Folger Shakespeare Library: John Manningham’s (opens a new tab)
Shakespeare
Author of the play Twelfth Night.
Royal Shakespeare Company: Dating the play (opens a new tab) · Folger Shakespeare Library: John Manningham’s (opens a new tab)
Twelfth Cake
The cake of Twelfth Night, once used to choose a mock king.
Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition (opens a new tab) · Spitalfields Life: The Ceremony (opens a new tab)
Sources
- The Ceremony Of The Baddeley CakeSpitalfields Life (‘the gentle author’), ‘The Ceremony of the Baddeley Cake’, 6 January 2016
- The EpiphanyCatholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, ‘The Epiphany – Chalking the doors’
- Dating the playRoyal Shakespeare Company, ‘When did Shakespeare write Twelfth Night – and how do we know?’
- Clement A. Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (London, 1912), Project Gutenberg ebook 19098Project Gutenberg
- John Manningham’s Diary: earliest mention of Twelfth Night and a Shakespeare anecdoteFolger Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare Documented, ‘John Manningham’s Diary: earliest mention of Twelfth Night’ (Heather Wolfe; images from the British Library)