The register of Cardinal Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1556 to 1558, opens with a large initial R, beginning the word Registrum. The scribe-artist has decorated the letter with strapwork, and within and around it he has illustrated a scene which appears to show the deaths of two lovers. The significance of this secular image, and its appearance in so prominent a position in an ecclesiastical register, have long been puzzling. The scene has now been identified by Elizabeth Danbury and proves to be a representation of the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe.

This legend, recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses, transmitted to medieval Europe by Boccaccio and translated into English by Chaucer, was a popular subject in art and literature for many decades before its use by Shakespeare. The dead Pyramus, the dying Thisbe, the lion and the mulberry tree with the berries which, according to legend, were turned from white to red by the lovers' blood, all figure in the decoration of the letter ‘R'.

The reason for the inclusion of the image is not immediately apparent. It may have been an acknowledgement of Cardinal Pole's patronage of Renaissance learning, an allegory representing the blood of Catholic martyrs under Edward VI, or simply the caprice of the artist. Decoration of administrative records, for whatever reason, could provide pleasurable diversion both for the artist and for the reader.