Chapter XIII: Book I: The Court (10)

Finally, a curious document of this same year, 1572, indicates the widespread popularity which the mask had acquired, as a form of social entertainment. It is preserved amongst Lord Burghley's papers, and is a complaint by one Thomas Giles against the Yeoman of the Revels, who had the custody of the Queen's masks, and made a practice of letting them out on hire to persons of all degrees, noble and mean, both in the city and in the country.[553] Thomas Giles was a haberdasher, and from time to time supplied goods to the Revels. He bases his complaint mainly on the damage done to the royal property, but at the end he allows it to appear that he himself made a business of letting out masking apparel for hire, and found his prices undercut by those of the Yeoman. He appends a list of a score of occasions during the past year on which loans had taken place. The garments lent appear to have been mostly those made for the Court festivities of the previous winter. One set is described as 'the coper clothe of golde gownes which was last made'. This must have been the mask of Muses given on 15 June. It was lent with another mask, 'into the contre to the maryage of the dowter of my lorde Montague', at some date between 15 September and 6 October. This was the occasion of Gascoigne's verses just described, although it must have been the other mask, a mask of men, which those verses presented.

It may be collected from scattered items of expenditure that the Court masks of 1572-3 were two in number.[554] There was a mask of Janus on 1 January, with a snow-storm of comfits and a presentation of snowballs, made out of sponges covered with fine lamb's-wool, to the Queen. And on some later date there was a double mask of men and women, representing Fishermen and probably Fruit-women. Haunce Eottes is again said to have painted 'patternes' for the masks. There are some traces of a mask, with women, as well as Mariners and Turks, in it, when Elizabeth received the French ambassador Mareschal de Retz at Canterbury during the progress of 1573; and there was one at Greenwich, probably not at the royal expense, for the marriage of William Drury in the following November or December.[555] For the winter of 1573-4 a complete list is preserved.[556] There was a mask of Lance Knights in blue satin, with torch-bearers in black and yellow taffeta, on 27 December; a mask of Foresters in green satin and cloaks of crimson sarcenet, with Wild Men in moss and ivy as torch-bearers, on New Year's Day; and a mask of Sages in 'counterfeit' cloth of gold, with torch-bearers in red damask, on Twelfth Night. There were six maskers in each case. The Foresters were equipped with a hollow tree and with comfits made to resemble wild fruits; also with horns garnished with silver, 'which hornes', says the Revels account, 'the maskers detayned and yet doeth kepe them against the will of all the officers'. At Candlemas Haunce Eottes made designs for a mask of six ladies in green satin and gold sarcenet, representing Virtues, and carrying lights and 'properties', including a silk tree, in specially made candlesticks. Perfumes were prepared to burn at the end of matches, and speeches for delivery to Her Majesty written in fair text. But after all the mask was not shown 'for the tediusnesse of the playe that night'. Finally there were two masks on Shrove Tuesday. One was of seven Warriors, with a shipmaster to utter a speech, and six torch-bearers; the other of seven ladies, also with a 'tronchwoman', and torch-bearers. Probably this was a double mask, and in some way there came into it nine children, who had been drilled and taught their speeches by one Nicholas Newdigate, and in various ways gave a good deal of trouble.[557] During the winter of 1574-5 I can only trace with confidence one mask, on an uncertain date. It was a mask of six Pedlars, who had little hampers, and looking-glasses with posies written on them in fine yellow paint.[558] There were not improbably others, the details of which cannot now be disentangled in the Revels Accounts from those relating to plays. A mask, 'for riches of aray, of an incredibl cost', was planned as part of the Kenilworth festivities of July 1575; but was not in the end performed.[559] Nothing is known of the masks during the winter of 1575-6, for the Revels Accounts are missing. For Twelfth Night 1577 a 'longe' mask was prepared, of six dancers in murrey satin, with torch-bearers in crimson damask. There were to have been seven speeches 'framed correspondent to the daie', and Nicholas Newdigate again trained boys to deliver these. But for some reason the mask was put off, and given on Shrove Tuesday without any speeches at all.[560] The Revels Accounts of 1577-8 are missing. A mask by Henry Goldingham was given at Norwich on 21 August 1578 during the progress. It was of Gods and Goddesses, who entered the privy chamber with a presenter, torch-bearers, and musicians, marched about the room and gave characteristic gifts, but apparently did not dance.[561] On 11 January 1579 there was a double mask for the entertainment of the French ambassador, M. de Simier, who had come about the Alençon marriage. Patterns of the mask were submitted for approval to the Lord Chamberlain. One party consisted of six Amazons, the other of six Knights.[562] Each party had its torch-bearers and a 'troocheman', who made a speech to the Queen and delivered her a table with the speech written upon it. These speeches had been translated into Italian and inscribed upon the tables by Petruchio Ubaldini. The Amazons and Knights danced together and afterwards fought at barriers. Some of the plumes which had been hired for the Knights were 'dropt with torches', and the Revels Office had to pay damages for them. Patterns were also shown to the Lord Chamberlain of a 'Mores' mask intended for Shrove Tuesday, but this seems to have fallen through.[563] I do not know whether the invention of the Court poets had failed, or whether for some other reason Elizabeth had become discontent with masks; but, although there are full Revels Accounts for the winters of 1579-80 and 1580-1, and although plays were numerous, no single performance of a mask is recorded. But the spirit of revelry awoke in 1581, at the coming of French commissioners to complete negotiations for the Anjou marriage in the spring, followed by that of Anjou himself in the autumn. Patterns of masks were prepared and the construction of a mount begun in March.[564] These were not proceeded with at the time, and the famous tilt before the Fortress of Perfect Beauty was substituted as an entertainment for the commissioners. But in the winter there were two masks, and amongst the devices employed were a mount with a castle on the top of it, a dragon, an artificial tree, an artificial lion, and a horse made of wood.[565] These details suggest a revival of the scheme abandoned in the previous spring, for the personal delectation of Anjou.

Court masks are but little in evidence during the next few years. There was one of ladies, with torch-bearers and eight boys, on 5 January 1583, and during the same winter one of Seamen was prepared, but not brought into use.[566] There was a mask in 1583-4, of which no details are given; while for 1585-6 and 1586-7 no information, in the absence of the Revels Accounts, is forthcoming.[567] The accounts for 1584-5 and 1587-8 have a general reference to masks in their headings, which may be no more than common form.[568] In September 1589, however, a mask was prepared to be sent into Scotland, as a compliment to James VI on the occasion of his wedding to Anne of Denmark.[569] It does not appear to have been a very sumptuous affair, and only cost the Revels Office £17 10_s._ 10_d._ We are not told what the maskers represented.

There were six of them, with vizards and falchions, in purple coats, crimson bases, and orange and purple and white mantles. They had torch-bearers in red and yellow damask, and four persons garlanded with flowers 'to vtter speches'. The description of the torch-bearers reads uncommonly like that of the torch-bearers to the abandoned mask of Seamen, and if they wore 'translated' garments of 1583, there cannot have been much masking in the interval.

After 1589 the Revels Accounts altogether fail us, and although it is probable that the mask shared in the general renewal of festivity which followed the passing of the Spanish peril, we have only side-lights upon it during the last decade of the reign. Certainly it was still flourishing in the winter of 1594-5, when one Arthur Throgmorton planned to use it, with a rather skilful introduction of some personal abasement and the gift of a jewel, as a means of recovering the forfeited favour of the Queen. The occasion seems to have been the wedding of William Earl of Derby, and Lady Elizabeth Vere, granddaughter of Burghley, on 26 January 1595.[570] It was in this same winter, too, that a very magnificent Shrovetide mask was brought to Court by the men of Gray's Inn, as a wind-up to their notable Christmas revels under the Prince of Purpoole. Of this a detailed account is preserved in the _Gesta Grayorum_, with songs and speeches which can be assigned respectively to Thomas Campion and Francis Davison. These had for theme a controversy between certain adventurous knights and the sea-god Proteus, and for object the flattery of Elizabeth, the virtue of whose presence obliges Proteus to release the knights from their durance in an Adamantine Rock.[571] Of the place of this mask in the history of the literary form something will be said at a later point.

The gallantry of Gray's Inn was emulated a few years later by the Middle Temple, who, after presenting several masks in their own hall during the Christmas revels of their Prince d'Amour, did their devoir at Court on Twelfth Night with a mask in which the nine Passions issued from a Heart. The mask was followed by a barriers, and preceded by a cavalcade through the streets of a type of which examples have already been noted in 1377 and 1559.[572] In the summer of 1600 one of Elizabeth's maids of honour, Anne, daughter of Elizabeth Lady Russell, left the Court to be married to Henry Lord Herbert, son of the Earl of Worcester. The Queen was present at the wedding on 16 June. She dined at Lady Russell's house in Blackfriars, and supped and lodged for the night in that of Lord Cobham hard by. After supper a mask came in. Eight Muses, represented by maids of honour and others, were come to seek their lost companion. After they had done their performance, they wooed the Queen to dance. She was not proof against the ready tongue of Mary Fitton, and complied. 'Elle dansa gayement et de belle disposition,' says the French ambassador, M. de Boississe, who was present.[573]

Finally, in the spring of 1602, negotiations were passing between Sir Robert Cecil and Sir John Popham on behalf of the Middle Temple, for some entertainment to gratify the Queen, for which the benchers were prepared to contribute 200 marks.[574] Probably this was a mask, but whether and when it actually came off is not known. It may have been designed to celebrate the coming of the Duke of Nevers and other Frenchmen in the following April, and it may have been the mask a song from which was copied by John Manningham, a member of the Middle Temple, on a fly-leaf of his diary with the date 'Nov. 2'.[575]

Under James I the material for tracing the history of the mask becomes remarkably abundant, owing to the regular practice, of which the _Gesta Grayorum_ is the only Elizabethan example, of issuing elaborate descriptions, with copies of the songs and speeches used, for the information of those unable to be present, and the incidental glorification of performers, poets, and producers.[576] In view of the full details compiled from these descriptions and other sources in the bibliographical appendix, a brief chronicle will suffice for a conclusion of this chapter. The main factors to be borne in mind are, firstly, the personal participation of Queen Anne, who took a special delight in all kinds of spectacle and revelry;[577] secondly, the employment of such poets as Jonson, Campion, Daniel, Beaumont, and Chapman, to give the masks their literary setting;[578] and thirdly, the great development of the scenic element through the mechanical and decorative genius of Inigo Jones. Anne gave her first mask, of which no details are preserved, as a welcome to Prince Henry, when he came to join the Court at Winchester during the plague-stricken wanderings which filled the autumn of 1603. An English official describes it as 'a gallant mask', and the French ambassador, more critically, as less a '_ballet_' than a '_masquarade champêtre_'. At any rate it whetted the appetite of the Court for more to come, and there was soon talk of the splendours foreshadowed for the following Christmas.[579] This, still owing to the plague, was held at Hampton Court. The principal mask was danced by the Queen, with Lady Bedford and other ladies of the court, on 8 January. Through the influence of Lady Bedford, Samuel Daniel was employed as poet, and produced his _Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_. Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe was ransacked to provide material for the costumes. The lords of the Court, led by the Duke of Lennox, danced a mask of Indian and Chinese knights on 1 January, and certain Scotchmen one resembling a sword dance on Twelfth Night; but of neither of these has a full description been preserved. The masks of subsequent Christmases took place at Whitehall, where in 1607 the old timber banqueting house of 1581 gave way to a permanent structure designed to house them with magnificence. The Queen's mask of 1604-5 was the _Mask of Blackness_, and began the long and fruitful co-operation of Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. It was on Twelfth Night, and did honour to the creation of Prince Charles as Duke of York. A mask of Juno and Hymenaeus given on 27 December by friends of Sir Philip Herbert, in celebration of his marriage to Lady Susan Vere, has not been preserved. The only Christmas masks of the next two winters were of similar origin. Jonson's _Hymenaei_ was given at the wedding of Robert Earl of Essex and Lady Frances Howard on 5 January 1606, and a mask of the Knights of Apollo by Thomas Campion, who had had a share in the verses for the Gray's Inn mask of 1595, at that of James Lord Hay and Honora Denny on 7 January 1607. As a mask must be accounted, I suppose, the extraordinary exhibition of _Solomon and the Queen of Sheba_ before James and Christian of Denmark at Theobalds in July 1606, of which a description is forthcoming from the satirical pen of Sir John Harington.[580] By the winter of 1607-8 the new banqueting house was ready, and the series of Queen's masks was resumed with Jonson's _Mask of Beauty_ on 10 January. In a second mask, sometimes called, although not by its author, _The Hue and Cry after Cupid_, for the wedding of John Viscount Haddington and Lady Elizabeth Radcliffe on 9 February, Jonson appears to have considered that he took a definite step forward in the evolution of the mask-form, by the introduction of an antimask or group of grotesque dancers as a foil to the mask proper. The Queen's mask for 1608-9 was Jonson's _Mask of Queens_ at Candlemas, and there was no other. During the winter of 1609-10, which was devoted to Prince Henry's mimetic barriers, there was no mask at all, unless indeed the anonymous and undated _Mask of the Twelve Months_ belongs to this year. But on the following 5 June came Daniel's _Tethys' Festival_, which was the Queen's contribution to the festivities attending the creation of Henry as Prince of Wales. In 1610-11 there was a Queen's mask, Jonson's _Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly_, on 3 February, and also a Prince's mask, Jonson's _Oberon_, on 1 January. Jonson's _Love Restored_ was a Prince's mask of 6 January 1612. The masks of 1612-13 were all given in celebration of the wedding of the Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine of the Rhine, Frederick V, at Shrovetide. There were three of them. Campion's _Lords' Mask_ was danced by lords and ladies of the Court on the actual day of the wedding, 14 February. The other two were contributed by the Inns of Court, and each was preluded by a public procession or triumph, such as had been found natural in earlier years when a mask came from London to the palace. The Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn came by road on 15 February with a mask of Virginians by George Chapman; the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn by water on 16 February, with a mask of Olympian Knights by Francis Beaumont. This, however, they were not able to dance until 20 February. Jonson took no part in these hymeneal festivities, and may have been abroad. The masks for the wedding of Robert Earl of Somerset and Lady Frances Howard on 26 December 1613 almost vied in magnificence, and more than vied in number, with those given for the princess. The bride had passed through stormy days since Jonson's _Hymenaei_ hailed her first marriage in 1606, and was to pass through stormier still. Campion was again selected as the poet for the actual wedding day. In his mask, sometimes called the _Mask of Squires_, and danced by lords and gentlemen of the Court, he had the assistance, not of Jones, but of Constantine de' Servi, who does not appear to have been very successful. Jonson's _Irish Mask_, which was given on 29 December and repeated on 3 January, was a comparatively slight performance, danced by five Englishmen and five Scots. Thomas Middleton's _Mask of Cupid_, unfortunately lost, was an exceptional performance given not at Court, but by the City in the Merchant Taylors' hall on 4 January, after a request from the King that they should do honour to the earl. Finally the _Mask of Flowers_, the authors of which are only known by the initials I. G., W. D., and T. B., was given by Gray's Inn on 6 January, at the charges of Sir Francis Bacon, who had already taken an active part in promoting the joint Inner Temple and Gray's Inn mask of the previous year. When Anne married her favourite maid of honour, Jane Drummond, to Lord Roxborough on 2 February, she perhaps thought that another mask would be something of an anti-climax, and the performance in a little paved court at Somerset House took the shape of a pastoral, Daniel's _Hymen's Triumph_.

After the wedding carnivals of two successive years, the masks of 1614-15 and 1615-16 were comparatively insignificant, and even their chronology is not quite certain. To one of these winters belongs Jonson's _Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists_, but it is not certain to which, and to the other his _Golden Age Restored_. In each year there were duplicate performances, on 6 and 8 January 1615 and on 1 and 6 January 1616. Both masks were danced by lords and gentlemen of the Court. That of 1615 was contrived to serve the interests of George Villiers, who was soon to replace the already tottering Somerset in the esteem of his royal master. A mask, of which no details are known, seems also to have been given by the Spanish ambassador in February 1615. Of masks elsewhere than at Court during 1603-16 there are few to record. The Princess Elizabeth seems, on at least one occasion, to have had a mask for her private delectation.[581] One by John Marston formed part of the entertainment given by the Earl of Huntingdon to Alice Countess of Derby, at Ashby in August 1607, and one by Campion part of that given by Lord Knollys to Anne at Caversham on 27 April 1613. William Browne's _Ulysses and Circe_ glorified the Inner Temple feast on 13 January 1615. The palmy days of the Jacobean mask close with our period. Henry was dead; Elizabeth was gone. Anne, ailing and retired during her later years, died in 1619. She had danced her last mask in 1611. Charles made his début as an adult masker in 1618, and most of the Court masks to the end of the reign are Prince's masks. But it takes a Queen to make a Court, and the English mask had to wait for its _renouveau_ until the coming of Henrietta Maria.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 513: _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 390.]

[Footnote 514: Ibid. 394; Reyher, 499; from _Harl. MS._ 247, f. 172ᵛ]

[Footnote 515: _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 396.]

[Footnote 516: Leland, _Collectanea_, v. 359; Reyher, 500; from Ralph Starkey, _Booke of Certain Triumphes_ (_Harl. MS._ 69, f. 29v); Grose and Astle, _The Antiquarian Repertory_, ii. 249.]

[Footnote 517: Halle, i. 15, 21, 22, 25, 40; Brewer, ii. 2, 1490 _sqq._, from _Revels Accounts_ (_Misc. Bks. Exch., T. of R._ 217).]

[Footnote 518: Brotanek, 118; Reyher, 14, citing, _inter alia_, _A Manifest Detection of ... Diceplay_ (_Percy Soc._ lxxxvii), 37, 'If it be winter season when masking is most in use ... they hire ... a suit of right masking apparel, and after, invite divers guests to a supper, all such as be then of estimation, to give them credit by their acquaintance, or such as ... will be liberal to hazard some thing in a mumchance; by which means they assure themselves, at the least, to have supper scot free; perchance to win xxˡᶦ about. And howsoever the common people esteem the thing I am clear out of doubt, that the more half of your gay masks in London are grounded upon such cheating crafts, and tend only the pouling and robbing of the King's subjects'. The dice were loaded otherwise for Richard II. A 'mummery', with 'foure visards, foure gownes, a boxe and a drumme', is dramatized in _Soliman and Perseda_ (Boas, _Kyd_, 189), ii. 1, 187, where for 'Charleman is come' (l. 228), _lege_ 'Christemas is come'. It is in dumb show, which confirms the supposed etymological connexion with 'mum' (cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 396). 'Mumchance' is a common term for dice-play. But the French _momon_, _momerie_, and Italian _mumia_ do not appear to have been specialized in the English sense. 'Some goodly mummery at supper' was planned for the meeting of Henry VIII and Charles V at Gravelines in July 1520 (_Rutland Papers, C. S._ 54). Jonson introduces Mumming as a dancer in his _Masque of Christmas_ (1616).]

[Footnote 519: For France, cf. the examples of 1377, 1389, 1393, 1457, &c., cited by Brotanek, 287, Prunières, 3; the verses of Charles d'Orléans (> 1415) for a _mommerie_ of women (ed. d'Héricault, i. 148); the 'danse en barboire, en laquelle fut dancé à la mode de France, de l'Allemaigne, d'Espaigne et Lombardye, et à la fin en la manière de Poitou' at the betrothal of Claude of France and Charles of Austria in 1501 (Jean d'Auton, _Chron. de Louis XII_, ii. 99); and the revels during the Italian campaigns of Louis at Pavia and Milan in 1507 (Jean d'Auton, iv. 289, 311). At Milan lords danced 'en masque' and ladies danced 'a relays les unes après les autres', but it is not definitely said that ladies and maskers danced together. The 'danse en barboire' possibly illustrates the enigmatical _barbaturiae_ of which the nuns of St. Radegund in Poitou were guilty in the eighth century (_Mediaeval Stage_, i. 362). For Burgundy, cf. Prunières, 10, citing accounts of the crusaders' Feast of the Pheasant (1454), and the wedding of Duke Charles and Margaret of York (1468). In 1454 there were dumb shows of the Golden Fleece, followed by the entry of Grâce-Dieu and her train of Virtues, who delivered a speech and then 'commencèrent à danser en guise de mommeries'. In 1468 there were 'entremectz mouvans' of the Labours of Hercules (Olivier de la Marche, ed. _Soc. H. F._ iii. 134, 143). These shows were given while the guests were still at table. When they were over, the tables were cleared away, and the guests danced.]

[Footnote 520: To the _entremetz_ of France correspond the _intermedii_ of Italy. These, as described by Creizenach, ii. 419; D'Ancona, ii. 168, 420; Symonds, _Shakspeare's Predecessors_, 321; _Renaissance in Italy_, v. 122; Prunières, 28; Cunliffe, _Early English Classical Tragedies_, xxxix, and in _M. L. A._ xxii. 150 and _M. P._ iv. 597, were _entr'actes_ to late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century plays, but very similar shows were given independently at banquets; e. g. the mimetic _chori_ with Silenus for _risus_ devised by Bergonzio Botta for the wedding of Giangaleazzo Sforza and Isabella of Aragon at Tortona in 1489 (Calchi, _Nuptiae Mediolaniorum Ducum_ in Graevius, _Thesaurus_, ii. 1, 509). _Trionfi_ are primarily out-of-door processions with cars.]

[Footnote 521: Halle, i. 40; Brewer, ii. 1497, from _Revels Accounts_.]

[Footnote 522: _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 401; cf. Brotanek, 67.]

[Footnote 523: Evans, xxi; Reyher, 491; Cunliffe in _M. L. A._ xxii. 140.]

[Footnote 524: Cf. Marlowe, _Edward II_, 55 'He haue Italian maskes by night'. 'Mask' seems to be derived from a Teutonic root related to Lat. _macula_, and means a 'net' or 'stain'. Both 'maske' and 'maskel' are M.E. forms; but I do not find the word used in connexion with disguisings, either for the performance or for the vizard, before 1512. Halle's book was unfinished at his death in 1547, and for him 'maske' and its derivative 'masker' are regular for the performance and the performer. He also uses a 'masker' (i. 215), a 'maskery' (i. 209), 'in maskeler' (i. 209), 'apparel of maskery' (i. 217), and 'maskyng apparel' (i. 171, 217; ii. 220). For the face-mask he retains 'viser'. The _Revels Accounts_ for 1512-22 use 'maskeller' or 'meskeller' as noun abstract and adjective, and 'maskelyng' or 'meskellyng' as adjective or participle. 'Masking garments', and 'a maske' for the performance first appear in a Revels document of 1539. In those of Cawarden's time 'maske' and its derivatives are established. Jonson (cf. p. 176) seems responsible for stereotyping the spelling 'masque', which, however, Lyly (cf. _Works_, ii. 103) had used before him.]

[Footnote 525: Ronsard (ed. Marty-Leveaux), vi. 310.]

[Footnote 526: This is at the end of a _farsa_ by Jacopo Sannazaro given before Alfonso Duke of Calabria in 1492 (D'Ancona, ii. 98, from _Opere_ of 1723). 'Subito uscirono li trombetti sonando, tutti vestiti riccamente d'una maniera, l'illustrissimo signore Principe di Capua con gli altri in mumia, delicatamente vestiti ad una maniera del Signore di Castiglia ... con torcie in mano ballando. Da poi, ciascuno prese una Signora per la mano, e ballò la sua alta e bassa; e con le torchie in mano se ne tornorono: e per quella sera così ebbe fine la festa.' In a revel at Ferrara in 1473 (Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Script._ xxiv. 244), Duke Hercules and his fellows danced with the ladies, and then came in 'grande multitudini di mascare', and danced; but it is not clear that the Duke was a masker, or that the masked persons danced with the ladies. I should add that I have not been able to make any complete or first-hand investigation of foreign analogies to the mask. Doubtless the street masks of the Florentine carnival had a folk origin like that which I assign to the English mumming; for their elaboration by Lorenzo de' Medici (1448-92) cf. Symonds, _Renaissance in Italy_, iv. 338; D'Ancona, i. 253; Prunières, 20. M. Prunières appears to regard the 'taking out' to dance as no part of the original custom, but an adaptation due to the courts of Ferrara and Modena at the end of the fifteenth century.]

[Footnote 527: It is significant that John Farlyon in 1534 was appointed Yeoman of masks, revels, and disguisings; Cawarden in 1544 Master of revels and masks (_Tudor Revels_, 7, 9; cf. p. 72). In Jonson's _Masque of Augurs_ (1623) Notch says to the Groom of the Revels, 'Disguise was the old English word for a masque, Sir, before you were an implement belonging to the Revels'.]

[Footnote 528: Halle, i. 57, 117, 143, 149, 153, 171, 176, 179, 208, 215, 220, 234, 238, 247, 249, 256; ii. 24, 79, 87, 108, 149, 183, 220, 303, 360; Brewer, ii. 2, 1490; iii. 1548; iv. 418, 1390, 1415, 1603, from _Revels Accounts_.]

[Footnote 529: Halle, ii. 220.]

[Footnote 530: The descriptions of the devices employed in the 'great chamber of disguisings' at Greenwich in 1527 (Halle, ii. 86, 108) suggest that they were fixed. The setting for one of the masks was certainly revealed 'by lettyng doune of a courtaine', not by wheeling in a pageant.]

[Footnote 531: The available material for 1547-58 is collected, mainly from the Revels documents in the _Loseley MSS._, by A. Feuillerat in _Materialien_, xliv.]

[Footnote 532: Il Schifanoya to Castellan of Mantua (_V. P._ vii. 11), 'As I suppose your Lordship will have heard of the _farsa_ performed in the presence of her Majesty on the day of the Epiphany, and I not having sufficient intellect to interpret it, nor yet the mummery performed after supper on the same day, of crows in the habits of Cardinals, of asses habited as Bishops, and of wolves representing Abbots, I will consign it to silence.... Nor will I record the levities and unusual licentiousness practised at the Court in dances and banquets, nor the masquerade of friars in the streets of London.']

[Footnote 533: Il Schifanoya to Mantuan Ambassador at Brussels (_V. P._ vii. 27), 'Last evening at the Court a double mummery was played: one set of mummers rifled the Queen's ladies, and the other set, with wooden swords and bucklers, recovered the spoil. Then at the dance the Queen performed her part, the Duke of Norfolk being her partner, in superb array.']

[Footnote 534: Machyn, 204, 206.]

[Footnote 535: On 31 Jan. (Machyn, 221) 'ther was a play a-for her grace, the wyche the plaers plad shuche matter that they wher commondyd to leyff off, and contenent the maske cam in dansyng'.]

[Footnote 536: The succession of masks for 1558-60 is traceable with the aid of Il Schifanoya from an analysis of the following Revels documents, (_a_) an inventory of 26 March 1555 (Feuillerat, _Ed. and M._ 180), (_b_) the accounts from 26 March 1555 to 29 Sept. 1559 (Feuillerat, _Ed. and M._ 195-242; _Eliz._ 79-108), (_c_) an estimate of the cost of the 1559-60 masks (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 110), (_d_) a 'rere-account' of the uses to which the masks inventoried in (_a_) and certain stuffs subsequently issued to the Masters of the Revels had been put during 1555-60 (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 18), and (_e_) an inventory of _c._ May 1560 (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 37). There were fifteen sets of masking garments in store in 1555, Mariners, Venetian Senators, Turkish Magistrates, Greek Worthies, Albanian Warriors, Turkish Archers, Irish Kerns, Galley-Slaves (torch-bearers), Falconers (torch-bearers), Palmers (torch-bearers), Turkish Commoners (torch-bearers), Huntresses, Venuses, Nymphs, and Turkish Women. Some of these were no longer serviceable and became fees; the rest were gradually pulled to pieces during 1555-60 and used with fresh material in constructing new sets. As a result the inventory of 1560 contains none of the sets of 1555, but seventeen of later origin, Patriarchs, Actaeons, Hunters (torch-bearers to Actaeons), Nusquams, Turkish Commoners (torch-bearers to Nusquams, not the set of 1555), Barbarians, Venetian Commoners (torch-bearers to Barbarians), Clowns, Hinds (torch-bearers to Clowns), Swart Rutters, Almayns (torch-bearers to Swart Rutters, although not so described), Moors, Diana and her Nymphs, Maidens (torch-bearers to Diana), Italian Women, Fishwives, and Marketwives. The rere-account shows that in the interim between 1555 and 1560 eleven other sets had come into existence and been picked to pieces again. There were Almayns (not the 1560 set), Palmers (not the 1555 set), Irishmen (not the 1555 set), Hungarians, Conquerors, Mariners, or Shipmen (not the 1555 set), Moorish friars (torch-bearers), Fishermen (torch-bearers), Astronomers, and unnamed torch-bearers to Astronomers and to Patriarchs. A number of ecclesiastical costumes had also been made, of which a few were still in store in 1560, and which evidently belong to the mask described by Il Schifanoya. It seems clear from the _Revels Accounts_ that the only new mask between 1555 and the end of Mary's reign was one of Almayns, Pilgrims, and Irishmen on 25 April 1557 (Feuillerat, _Edw and M._ 225). This accounts for three of the twelve interim sets. The other nine and the seventeen in the 1560 inventory must all be Elizabethan. The documents give or indicate dates for most of them. A process of exclusions obliges us to place the Conquerors, Moors, and Hungarians in the early part of 1559. Here are three vacant dates. Il Schifanoya tells us that there was a second company of maskers on Shrove Sunday, besides the Swart Rutters, whom the accounts assign to that day. The Hungarians would be appropriate antagonists to the Swart Rutters. There were also two unspecified masks at the time of the Coronation, one on the next day, 16 Jan., the other 'on the Sondaye seven nighte after the Coronacion', which as 15 Jan. was itself a Sunday, probably means 22 rather than 29 Jan. As part of the garments of the Moors had previously been used for the Conquerors (Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 20), the Moors must have been the later of the two. The masks of 11 July and 6 August 1559 were probably not given at the royal cost, as the Revels documents are quite silent about them. My list agrees in the main with that in Wallace, i. 199, which however has some errors. There is no evidence for masks on 2 Feb. and 6 Feb. 1559. The list in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ xiii, is incomplete.]

[Footnote 537: Brantôme, _Hommes illustres et Capitaines françois_ (ed. Buchon, i. 312), 'La reyne ... donna un soir à soupper, où après se fit un ballet de ses filles, qu'elle avoit ordonné et dressé, représentant les vierges de l'Évangile, desquelles les unes avoient leurs lampes allumées, et les autres n'avoient ny huille ny feu, et en demandoient. Ces lampes estoient d'argent, fort gentiment faictes et elabourées; et les dames estoient très-belles, bien honnestes et bien apprises, qui prindrent nous autres François pour dancer.']

[Footnote 538: Machyn, 275, 276, 'The furst day of Feybruary at nyght was the goodlyest masket cam owt of London that ever was seen, of a C. and d' [? 150] gorgyously be-sene, and a C. cheynes of gold, and as for trumpettes and drumes, and as for torchelyghte a ij hundered, and so to the cowrt, and dyvers goodly men of armes in gylt harnes, and Julyus Sesar played.' The last word is in a later hand, and according to Wallace, i. 200, is a nineteenth-century forgery.]

[Footnote 539: _M. S. C._ i. 144; Collier, i. 178; from _Lansd. MS._ v, f. 126, endorsed 'Maij 1562'. A warrant of 10 May 1562 for the delivery of silks for masks and revels to the Master of the Revels is in Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 114.]

[Footnote 540: I strongly suspect that the second night's mask was really intended to be one of lords, not ladies.]

[Footnote 541: Machyn, 300. Machyn, 215, 222, 248, 288, 300, records several masks in the City during 1559-63. The diary ends in August 1563.]

[Footnote 542: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 116, 'the ixᵗʰ of Iune repayringe and new makinge of thre maskes with thare hole furniture and diuers devisses and a castle ffor ladies and a harboure ffor lords and thre harrolds and iiij trompetours too bringe in the devise with the men of armes and showen at the courtte of Richmond before the Quenes Maiestie and the ffrench embassitours, &c.']

[Footnote 543: Froude, vii. 199; De Silva to Philip (_Sp. P._ i. 367, 385), 'after supper ... the Queen came out to the hall, which was lit with many torches, where the comedy was represented. I should not have understood much of it, if the Queen had not interpreted, as she told me she would do. They generally deal with marriage in the comedies.... The comedy ended, and then there was a mask of certain gentlemen who entered dressed in black and white, which the Queen told me were her colours, and after dancing a while one of them approached and handed the Queen a sonnet in English, praising her.' A banquet followed, ending at 2 a.m.]

[Footnote 544: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 116, 'Cristmas ... canvas to couer diuers townes and howsses and other devisses and clowds for a maske and a showe and a play by the childerne of the chaple.... The xviijᵗʰ of Fabruarie ... provicions for a play maid by Sir Percivall Hartts sones with a mask of huntars and diuers devisses and a rocke, or hill for the ix musses to singe vppone with a vayne of sarsnett dravven vpp and downe before them.... Shroftid ... foure maskes too of them nott occupied nor sene with thare hole furniture which be verie fayr and riche of old stuf butt new garnished with frenge and tassells to seme new'; cf. De Silva to Philip of the revel after a tilt on 5 March (_Sp. P._ i. 404). It began after supper with 'a comedy in English of which I understood just as much as the Queen told me. The plot was founded on the question of marriage, discussed between Juno and Diana, Juno advocating marriage and Diana chastity. Jupiter gave a verdict in favour of matrimony, after many things had passed on both sides in defence of the respective arguments. The Queen turned to me and said, "This is all against me". After the comedy there was a masquerade of Satyrs, or wild gods, who danced with the ladies, and when this was finished there entered 10 parties of 12 gentlemen each, the same who fought in the foot tourney, and these, all armed as they were, danced with the ladies; a very novel ball, surely.']

[Footnote 545: Hume, _Year after Armada_, 283; De Silva to Philip (_Sp. P._ i. 452), 'a ball, a tourney, and two masks'. These were after supper and ended at 1.30 a.m.]

[Footnote 546: Pound's speeches are in _Rawl. Poet. MS._ 108 (_Bodl. MS._ 14601), f. 24; De Silva to Philip (July 1566, _Sp. P._ i. 565), 'a masquerade and a long ball, after which they entered in new disguises for a foot tournament'. The chief challenger was Ormond. On Pound's career as a masker and its strange end, cf. ch. xxiii.]

[Footnote 547: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 119, 'the altering and newe makinge of sixe maskes out of ould stuff with torche bearers thervnto wherof iiijᵒʳ hathe byne shewene before vs, and two remayne vnshewen', 124, 125, 126.]

[Footnote 548: Ibid. 129, 134, 139, 146.]

[Footnote 549: Fleay, 19; Brotanek, 25. But the resemblances are only partial, cf. _M. S. C._ i. 144.]

[Footnote 550: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 153.]

[Footnote 551: G. Gascoigne, _A devise of a Maske for the right honorable Viscount Mountacute_ (_Works_, i. 75, from _The Posies_ of 1575). The date is fixed by Thomas Giles's letter.]

[Footnote 552: The reproductions in Strutt, _Manners and Customs_, iii, pl. xi, and Withington, i. 208, omit the wedding table. The pictures must be later than Sir H. Unton's death in 1596. Ashmole, _Berks_, iii. 313, dates his wedding with Dorothy, daughter of Sir Thomas Wroughton of Broad Hinton, Wilts, in 1580.]

[Footnote 553: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 409.]

[Footnote 554: Ibid., _Eliz._ 171-81, 'gloves for maskers', 'the lordes gloves', 'the torcheberers gloves', 'ladye maskers', 'women maskers', 'Haunce Eottes for painting of patternes for maskes', 'the masks on New Yeres daye', 'the dubble mask', 'a keye for Janus', 'ffyn white lam to make snoballs', 'spunges for snoballs', 'musk kumfettes ... corianders ... clove cumfettes ... synamon kumfettes ... rose water ... spike water ... gynger cumfettes ... all whiche served for fflakes of yse and hayle stones in the maske of Ianvs the roze water sweetened the balls made for snow-balles presented to her Maiestie by Ianvs', 'a nett for the ffishers maskers', 'berdes for fyshers vj', curled heare for fyshers capps', 'roches counterfet ... whitings ... thornebackes ... smeltes ... mackerells ... fflownders', 'wooll to stuf the fishes', 'banketting frutes', 'basketes of ffrute', 'mowldes to cast the frutes and ffishes in'.]

[Footnote 555: Ibid. 183, 191.]

[Footnote 556: Ibid. 193-221.]

[Footnote 557: Cf. p. 87.]

[Footnote 558: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 234-46, 'vj bandes for hattes for maskers', 'gloves for ... maskers', '23ᵒ Decembris ... Mirors or looking-glasses for the pedlers mask xij small at ijˢ the peece and vj greater at iiijˢ the peece', '29ᵒ Decembris ... ffayer wryting of pozies for the mask', '6ᵒ Ianuarii ... ix little hampers at xxᵈ the peece for the pedlers mask', 'ffyne yolow to wryte vpon the mirrors'.]

[Footnote 559: Laneham, 33; cf. chh. iv, p. 123, and xxiv.]

[Footnote 560: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 264-70.]

[Footnote 561: Cf. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 562: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 286, 294; _Sp. P._ ii. 627, 630, 'an entertainment in imitation of a tournament, between six ladies and a like number of gentlemen who surrendered to them'. Mr. Tresham and Mr. Knowles were Knights.]

[Footnote 563: Ibid. 308.]

[Footnote 564: Ibid. 340, 345, '1ᵒ Aprilis 1581, what monnie is to be allowed in prest for certayne shewes to be had at Whitehal ... The Mounte, Dragon with the fyer workes, Castell with the fallyng sydes, Tree with shyldes, Hermytage and hermytt, Savages, Enchaunter, Charryott, and incydentes to theis cc markes'.]

[Footnote 565: Ibid. 344 (table), 346.]

[Footnote 566: Ibid. 349.]

[Footnote 567: Ibid. 360 (table). The _Jervoise MSS._ (_H. M. C. Various MSS._ iv. 163) contain verses dated 1586 for a mask from Basingstoke to Richard Pawlett, doubtless a kinsman of the Marquis of Winchester at Basing.]

[Footnote 568: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 365, 378. A mask followed the play of _Catiline_, with which Lord Burghley was entertained at Gray's Inn on 16 Jan. 1588 (_M. S. C._ i. 179).]

[Footnote 569: Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 392.]

[Footnote 570: Arthur Throgmorton to Robert Cecil (_Hatfield MSS._ v. 99; cf. _Sh. Homage_, 158), 'Matter of mirth from a good mind can minister no matter of malice, both being, as I believe, far from such sourness (and for myself I will answer for soundness). I am bold to write my determination, grounded upon grief and true duty to the Queen, thankfulness to my lord of Derby (whose honourable brother honoured my marriage), and to assure you I bear no spleen to yourself. If I may I mind to come in a masque, brought in by the nine muses, whose music, I hope, shall so modify the easy softened mind of her Majesty as both I and mine may find mercy. The song, the substance I have herewith sent you, myself, whilst the singing, to lie prostrate at her Majesty's feet till she says she will save me. Upon my resurrection the song shall be delivered by one of the muses, with a ring made for a wedding ring set round with diamonds, and with a ruby like a heart placed in a coronet, with this inscription _Elizabetha potest_. I durst not do this before I had acquainted you here with, understanding her Majesty had appointed the masquers, which resolution hath made me the unreadier: yet, if this night I may know her Majesty's leave and your liking, I hope not to come too late, though the time be short for such a show and my preparations posted for such a presence. I desire to come in before the other masque, for I am sorrowful and solemn, and my stay shall not be long. I rest upon your resolution, which must be for this business to-night or not at all.']

[Footnote 571: Cf. _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 417, and ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 572: Cf. J. A. Manning, _Memoirs of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd_, 9, and _Mediaeval Stage_, i. 416, where, however, the date suggested is the Christmas of 1599-1600. But the Court was not in London that winter, and the indications of days of the week agree with 1597-8. The manuscript description written by Rudyerd is dated 'anno ab aula condita 27'. The Middle Temple hall was built in 1572. The masks in this hall were on 31 Dec. and 7 and 21 Jan. The maskers were accompanied to Court on 6 Jan. by nine torch-bearers carrying devices, eleven knights, eleven squires, and a hundred other torches, as well as trumpeters and heralds. 'Sur Martino', no doubt Richard Martin, the Prince d'Amour, was their leader. Doubtless they took out ladies, as Mrs. Nevill, afterwards a maid of honour, is said to have 'borne the bell away' in the revels.]

[Footnote 573: Boississe, i. 415. He says that some gentlemen masked with the _filles_, of which there is no trace in the other accounts. Letters from Lady Russell about the wedding are in _Cecil Papers_, x. 121, 175, and it is also referred to by Chamberlain, 79, 83. 'I doubt not but you have heard of the great mariage at the Lady Russell's ... and of the maske of eight maides of honour and other gentlewomen in name of the muses that came to seeke one of theire fellowes', and by Rowland Whyte (_Sydney Papers_, ii. 195, 197, 201, 203),'Mʳˢ Fitton led, and after they had done all their own ceremonies, these eight Ladies Maskers chose eight Ladies more to dance the measures. Mʳˢ Fitton went to the Queen, and wooed her to dance; her Majesty asked what she was. "Affection," she said. "Affection!" said the Queen, "Affection is false." Yet her Majesty rose and danced.' A picture of the Marcus Gheeraerts school (cf. L. Cust in _Trans. Walpole Soc._ iii. 22) probably representing Elizabeth's passage through Blackfriars on this occasion is extant in two versions at Melbury and Sherborne, and has often been reproduced; e. g. in _Shakespeare's England_, i. _f.p._]

[Footnote 574: Popham to Cecil, 8 Feb. 1602 (_Hatfield MSS._ xii. 47), 'I have so dealt with some of the Benchers of the Middle Temple as I have brought that the House will be willing to bear 200 marks towards the charge of what is wished to be done, to her Majesty's good liking, and if the young gentlemen will be drawn in to perform what is of their part, I hope it will be effected. Some of the young men have their humors, but I hope that will be over-ruled, for I send for them as soon as other business of her Majesty is dispatched. But the Ancients of the House, who wish all to be done to her Majesty's best content, depend upon your favour if anything through young men's error should not have that carriage in the course of it, as they would wish it might not yet be imputed unto them.' There is no reference to any mask in the records of the Middle Temple, which in 1601-2 kept a 'solemn' but not a 'grand' Christmas.]

[Footnote 575: Manningham, 1, 'Song to the Queene at the Maske at Court, Nov. 2'. The Song begins, 'Mighty Princes of a fruitfull land'. The November of 1602 is the only one covered by the period of the diary; but Elizabeth was then at Richmond, rather out of reach of a lawyers' mask.]

[Footnote 576: An Italian model for such printed descriptions may be found in that of G. Cecchi's Florentine _Esaltazione della Croce_ (1589); cf. A. D'Ancona, _Sacre Rappresentazioni_, iii. 1, 235; Symonds, _Renaissance in Italy_, iv. 282.]

[Footnote 577: J. A. Lester, _Some Franco-Scottish Influences on the Early English Drama_ (_Haverford Essays_, 1909), 145, notes the vogue of the mask at Holyrood under Mary Stuart and the _pompae_ written for such occasions by Buchanan. He asserts that Anne acquired the taste for masks during her thirteen years' residence in Scotland, but in fact he cites no example of a mask proper during 1590-1603, and only one, in 1581, during the reign of James. There were other forms of mimetic revelry. The pageants introduced by Bastien Pagez into a banquet at the baptism of James in 1566 and accompanied with verses by Buchanan are analogous to those at the baptism of Henry Frederick in 1594 (_Somers Tracts_, ii. 179).]

[Footnote 578: Jonson told Drummond in 1619 (_Conversations_, 4), 'That next himself, only Fletcher and Chapman could make a mask'. No independent mask by Fletcher is known, and that in _The Maid's Tragedy_ is probably Beaumont's. Fletcher may have written the Triumph of Time in _Four Plays or Morall Representations_, which is practically a mask.]

[Footnote 579: Lodge, iii. 58; Beaumont to Villeroy (27 Oct. 1603) in _King's MS._ 124, f. 175, 'Elle fit jl y' a quelques jourz vn ballet ou pour mieux dire vne masquarade champêtre. Car il n'y avoit ni ordre ni depense. Mais Elle se propose d'en faire d'autres plus beaux cet hiver en recompense et semble que le Roy et ses Principaux Ministres, qui sont toujourz en Jalousie de son Esprit, soient bien aises de le voir occupé en cet exercice.']

[Footnote 580: Harington, i. 349, 'One day, a great feast was held, and, after dinner, the representation of Solomon his Temple and the coming of the Queen of Sheba was made, or (as I may better say) was meant to have been made, before their Majesties, by device of the Earl of Salisbury and others. But alass! as all earthly thinges do fail to poor mortals in enjoyment, so did prove our presentment hereof. The Lady who did play the Queens part, did carry most precious gifts to both their Majesties; but, forgetting the steppes arising to the canopy, overset her caskets into his Danish Majesties lap, and fell at his feet, tho I rather think it was in his face. Much was the hurry and confusion; cloths and napkins were at hand, to make all clean. His Majesty then got up and would dance with the Queen of Sheba; but he fell down and humbled himself before her, and was carried to an inner chamber, and laid on a bed of state; which was not a little defiled with the presents of the Queen which had been bestowed on his garments; such as wine, cream, jelly, beverage, cakes, spices, and other good matters. The entertainment and show went forward, and most of the presenters went backward, or fell down; wine did so occupy their upper chambers. Now did appear, in rich dress, Hope, Faith, and Charity: Hope did assay to speak, but wine rendered her endeavours so feeble that she withdrew, and hoped the King would excuse her brevity: Faith was then all alone, for I am certain she was not joyned with good works, and left the court in a staggering condition: Charity came to the King's feet, and seemed to cover the multitude of sins her sisters had committed; in some sorte she made obeysance and brought giftes, but said she would return home again, as there was no gift which heaven had not already given his Majesty. She then returned to Hope and Faith, who were both sick and spewing in the lower hall. Next came Victory, in bright armour, and presented a rich sword to the King, who did not accept it, but put it by with his hand; and, by a strange medley of versification, did endeavour to make suit to the King. But Victory did not tryumph long; for, after much lamentable utterance, she was led away like a silly captive, and laid to sleep in the outer steps of the anti-chamber. Now did Peace make entry, and strive to get foremoste to the King; but I grieve to tell how great wrath she did discover unto those of her attendants; and, much contrary to her semblance, most rudely made war with her olive branch, and laid on the pates of those who did oppose her coming.']

[Footnote 581: _Chamber Accounts_ (1610-11, Apparellings), 'for making ready the La: Eliz: Lodginges for a maske'.]

VI

THE MASK (_continued_)