A*+<* \v4sw Wt« r- ? ^VS Vj " wmjMm*' vs 1880 fyxmll Wlmvmity ptag FROM THE INCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUEST OF UUillnrd Tiskt Librarian of the University 1 868-1 883 1905 3>»4 Cornell University Library PR 2464. V8 1880 The vision of the twelve goddesses:a roy 3 1924 013 128 776 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013128776 THE VISION OF THE TWELVE GODDESSES opall iiafque, BY SAMUEL DANIEL. Presented upon Sunday night, being the eight Of January, 1604, in. the- Greate Hall at . HAMPTON GOtlRT, ana j&eifoitateli bg tjje &utent$ S^oft Ci-cdlenr 9$aj'effit, attentieb bp CEleuen Hatu'ess of honour. Reprinted ancj edited, with Introduction and Notes by ERNEST LAW. BERNARD QUARITCH, 15, PICCADILLY, 188a, THE VISION OF THE TWELVE GODDESSES. CsS£§2d THE VISION OF THE TWELVE GODDESSES: a opll iiafque, BY SAMUEL DANIEL. Presented upon Sunday night, being the eight of January, 1604, in the Greate Hall at HAMPTON COURT, ann ^erConateO lip tfje &ninm8 9t£off €xtzllznt S^afettie, attertoeU ft? (Elmen 3Ubic0 of honour* Reprinted and edited, with Introduction and Notes by ERNEST LAW. tyg&x LONDON: BERNARD QUARITCH, 15, PICCADILLY. 1880. K A.VJ07S+ CHISWICK PRESS :-C. WHITTW5HAM, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 3Jnttotmctton* ) HE Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, which is reprinted in the following pages, was a masque written by Samuel Daniel, and acted by the Queen, Anne of Denmark, and her ladies of honour at Hampton Court, on the 8th of January, 1604. Before de- scribing the masque itself, it may be as well to give a short sketch of the state of the Court at the time of its representation, and of the persons who took part in it ; and to glance at some of the other amuse- ments and festivities, that enlivened the first Christ- mas which King James and his Queen spent in their new kingdom. It was about the beginning of December, 1603, that they resolved to move to Hampton Court for the ensuing season. Probably the recollection of the splendid entertainments of which it had been the scene during the reigns of the Tudor sovereigns, 6 INTRODUCTION. and especially of the late Queen, suggested it as the most appropriate royal residence in which to cele- brate their advent to the throne. Of all the English palaces it was then, as it is now, the most spacious ; and, with its magnificent suite of reception-rooms, of which only the Great Hall and Withdrawing Chamber now remain, the most adapted for brilliant Court gaieties. The desire of the King and Queen to rival the splendour of their predecessors doubtless had weight with them in selecting a masque as the principal feature of the festivities. For it, was just about this time that these entertainments were be- ginning to be popular. Towards the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign they had gradually tended towards the form they eventually assumed under the skilful hands of Ben Jonson ; they were, in fact, developing from the mere masquerades or mummings into dra- matic representations of a high lyrical order, which found their noblest embodiment in Milton's sublime poem, "Comus." And it will be interesting to inquire into this masque of Daniel's in particular, because it ! was, in a certain sense, the first true masque ever pre- \ sented, and because it holds a position midway be- \ tween the earlier revels of Tudor times and the more finished compositions which have been alluded to. The Queen, besides, was not altogether a stranger to these entertainments. On her way southwards from Scotland she had been received at Althorp in INTRODUCTION. 7 a most elaborate and exquisitely beautiful pageant j designed by Ben Jonson. As the royal cortege \ approached the house, on all sides from the woods ' and shrubberies, persons dressed in the guise of sylvan deities issued forth to greet her with songs and pretty speeches ; while groups of minstrels were hidden at various points, and played strains of soft music as the procession moved forward. Afterwards, when the Queen and her attendants arrived at the house, the masqueraders performed picturesque dances " in country footing " on the lawns, to the accompaniment " of flutes and soft recorders," and addresses were spoken and songs were sung wel- coming her to England. Again, at Winchester, in the month of October, a masque of some sort, of which no detailed account is extant, was acted before the Court and the Spanish ambassador. These graceful and beautiful entertainments seem to have been par ticularl y pleasing to the young Queen, accustomed as she was to the dull austerity of the Scottish Court ; and it at once became her fancy to" give something similar, in which the parts should be taken by herself and the ladies of her Court. The first notice we have of the intention of the King and Queen to pass Christmas at Hampton Court, is in a letter dated the 8 th of December, 1603, from the beautiful, charming, and accom- plished, but ill-fated Lady Arabella Stuart, the story 8 INTRODUCTION. of whose loves and misfortunes is so pathetically told by Isaac D'Israeli in his " Curiosities of Litera- ture." She is writing from Fulston, near Sitting- bourne, in Kent, where the Queen's Court then was, to the Earl of Shrewsbury ; and after giving a lively account of the dulness of the life they were leading there, she says : " The Spaniih Ambaflador invited Madame Beaumont (the French ambaflador's wife) to dinner, requefting her to bring fomeEnglifh Ladies with her. She brought my Lady Bedford, Lady Rich, Lady Sufan (Vere), Lady Dorothy (Haftings) with her, and great cheer they had. . . . Yefterday the Spaniftv ambaflador, the Florentine, and Madame de Beaumont, took their leave of the Queen till (he come to Hampton Court." In the meanwhile, preparations for their recep- tion were busily going on, as appears by some old accounts preserved m the Record Office, from which the following are extracts : — " Item paid to Sir Richard Coningjbie, gentleman, ujher the way tor for th' allowance of him/elf, one yeoman ufher, three yeomen, two groomes of the chamber, two groomes of the wardrobe, and one groome-porter for making readie at Hampton Court the Hall there for the Kinge cjf the §{ueene to dyne with the Ambaffadors by thefpace of two days mens. OH. 1603. as appeared by a bill figned by the Lo. Chamberlain. INTRODUCTION. 9 " Item {to the fame) for making readie Hampton Courte for the Kinge, the Queene, &? the Prince by the /pace of twentie days." And very soon after the Court arrived here, as we learn from another letter of Lady Arabella Stuart's, which gives us the first intelligence of the gaieties in prospect. It is dated, " Hampton Courte December the 18th," and is addressed to Lord Shrewsbury. Having noticed that the Queen arrived on Friday, the 16th, she goes on : — " The King will be heere to-morrow. The Polonian ImbafTador fhall have audience on Thurs- day next. The Queen intendeth to make a mafk this Chriftmas, to which end my Lady Suffolk and my Lady Walfingham hath warrant to take of the late Queen's belt apparrell out of the Tower of theyr difcretion. Certain noblemen (whom I may not yet name to you becaufe fome of them have made me of theyr counfell) intend another. Certain gentlemen of good fort another. It is faid there fhall be 30 playes. The King will feaft all the Imbafladors this Chriftmas." Sir Dudley Carleton also writes on the 22 nd from London, where he had apparently gone for the day, to his " afiured frend Mr. John Chamber- lain : — Sir we have left Salifbury plaines to the froft and fnow, and.the pleafant walkes at Wilton to as good durt as ever you faw in Smithfield io INTRODUCTION. when it is at the beft, and comming to Hampton Courte were there welcomed with fogs and mifts, which make us march blindfold ; and we feare we fliall now {tumble into the ficknefs, which till now we have miraculoufly fcaped. . . . Hether I came to heare what newes of our frendes, but find defla- tion in every corner, and at your Doctors more than anywhere elfe, onely I mett with good newes that all is well where you are, which I was moft glad of, and wifh myfelf with you though it were but for an hower to know what you have done, and requite you with my adventures fince I faw you. . . . We Ihall have a merry Chriftmas at Hampton Court, for both male and female malkes are all ready be- fpoken, whereof the Duke is reiipr chori of th'one fide, and the La. Bedford of the other. After Chriftmas if the ficknefs ceafe we fhall come to Whitehall. ... So I reft your moft aflured Dudley Carleton. From Waterfon's fhop." And the next day Sir Thomas Edmonds writes thus to Lord Shrewsbury from Hampton Court: — " . . . . There hath latelie fallen out an occafion which ftaieth M r . Sanford's journey for a few daies, and that your Lordfhip maie be enformed of the trueth this is the caufe : Both the King's and Queene's majefties have an humour to have fome Mafks this Chriftmas time and therefore, for that purpofe, both the younge Lordes and chief Gentle- INTRODUCTION. n men of one parte, and the Queene and her Ladyes of the other parte, doe feverallie undertake the ac- complifhing and furnifhing thereof; and becaufe there is ufe of invention therein, fpeciall choice is made of M r . Sanford to dyrecl: the order and courfe of the Ladyes, which is an occafion to ftaie him here till that bufynes be donne." These extracts present a vivid picture of what was going on. The reception of ambassadors, however, who had hastened to congratulate the King on his acceflion, was not unattended, we shall find, with those petty jealousies and continual bickerings in which the representatives of foreign Courts seem to have spent the greater part of their time. Quarrels about precedence, offence taken because one ambassador was asked to dinner when another was not, and struggles to get lodgings in the royal palace formed their chief occupation, and caused endless annoyance to ministers here. At Winchester when the Spanish ambassador feasted the French ambassador's wife, with the Ladies Rich, Bedford, etc., as we have just seen, and had a little music and dancing after dinner, the Frenchman spoilt the party by wrangling the whole time who should lead the dances, so that the company returned "very ill fatisfied for cheer and entertainment." The Spanish ambassador also seems to have been of a cantan- 12 INTRODUCTION. kerous nature. In journeying from Winchester to Hampton Court, he could never be induced to pay his hotel bill without " fquaring in all places with his hoftes for matter of reckoning," so that at Salisbury there resulted a disturbance. " A great number of thofe rude townfmen " attacked him and his party, whereby one of his men was slain. Sir John Finett's " Philoxenis " — in which he sets forth: " Som choice obfervations touching the Reception, and Precedence, the Treatment and Audience, the PuncYdlios and contefts of Forren Ambafladors in England " — contains many curious anecdotes of this sort. The childish contests never ceased, till the custom prevailed that the precedence of ambassadors should be determined, according to the time they have been accredited to any particular Court. The prevalence of the plague, to which Dudley Carleton refers, might well have thrown a gloom over the whirl of gaieties. It will be remembered that the coronation of the King and Queen in the month of July had to be on a very small scale for fear of infection from the crowds ; and the sickness diffused itself even to Hampton Court, where, in the same month, two or three persons died every day in the tents, erected hear the Palace in the Park, for the lower sort of attendants. By this time, however, its virulence had much abated, the deaths INTRODUCTION. 13 in London being only three or four hundred a week, whereas they had been as many thousands. The rifling of Queen Elizabeth's wardrobes to supply dresses for the masque is of a piece with all James's acts. Even before he had left Scotland, in the spring, he had written to the Council requesting them to send up some of the Queen's jewels and robes in order to deck out his wife with becoming splendour, and was much vexed because they re- fused, having, they said, no authority to send such things out of the kingdom. When her late Majesty's treasures came to be sorted, there were found no less than 500 robes, all of the greatest magnificence, some of which she appeared to have worn but once. They cannot have been very well adapted for turn- ing into the classical costumes required for the masque. But though the designs were probably deficient in archaeological accuracy, it does not ap- pear that Anne of Denmark perpetrated on this occasion such a violation of taste as she did on another, when she acted a Grecian goddess in a fardingale ! The " Duke " who is mentioned by Dudley Carleton as director of the gentlemen's masque was Lodowick Stuart, Duke of Lennox. He was a first cousin of the King's, and a great favourite of his. He married, some years after this, Frances, Lady Hertford, one of the performers in 14 INTRODUCTION. the masque. As to Mr. Sanford, whom Sir Thomas Edmonds mentions as being " ftayed by the occafion lately fallen out," nothing is known beyond the fact that he was a friend or attendant of Lord Shrews- bury's. He seems to have had the designing and management of the dances, and perhaps undertook in a general way the duties of stage-manager. What these dances were like, we must now proceed to consider. First there were the " meafures," which the ladies performing danced among themselves. These were slow and stately dances resembling, in their general characteristics, the minuet. Special varieties were composed for this entertainment, introducing many new changes and complex movements " fram'd into motions circular, fquare, triangular." One of the most famous of these " measures," which were called " Passamezzi," rendered in English " Passy- measures " — a word which often occurs in Shake- speare — was the Pavan, or Pavy, which is thus described in an early manuscript list of dances : " 2 Angles and a double forward, and Angles fide, — Repryce back." The time to this dance is given in a curious music -book of Lady NeviU's, dated 1591, and now in the possession of Lord Abergavenny ; it consists of two and a-half bars or paces in the first strain. After these, " Passy-measures," the INTRODUCTION. 15 performers danced, as we shall see, " Galliards & Corantos " with the gentlemen of the Court. The Galliard usually followed the Pavan, which was in some sense a diminutive of it, as the Galliard con- sisted of five paces or bars in the first strain, whence it was called a cinque pace, or sink-a-pace. It was a lively, sprightly dance, but still far removed in sprightliness from our modern so-called " dance " the polka. There were several varieties of it, and many persons composed special ones, which were named after their inventors. Thus we have " The Earle of Eflex his Galliarde," " Captaine Piper his Galliard," " M r - Henrie Noel his Galliard." The following is a description of it as far as can be gathered from an ancient work by Fabritio Ca- roso, entitled " II Ballarino," published at Venice in 1 58 1, and well known in England at this time. It was divided into several parts, and was danced by ladies and gentlemen in couples, each couple being independent of the other. It began by the gentlemen taking the ladies' hands ; they then bowed to each other in a stately manner, and next, hand in hand, took steps which, in number and rapidity, were regulated by the time of the music. Two bows were then interposed, followed by quick, continuous steps. The partners were sometimes opposite to each other, sometimes side-by-side, and danced side steps, back steps, pirouettes, and many other gyra- 1 6 INTRODUCTION. tions and turns. The whole must have been graceful, and very difficult to learn. Sir John Davies, at one time Attorney-General for Ireland, in his poem on dances, called the " Orchestra," de- scribes it as follows (" fhe " in the second line is Venus) : — "But for more diverce and more pleafing mow, A fwift and wandering Dance (he did invent, With paffages uncertain to and fro, Yet with a certain anfwer and confent, To the quick mufic of the inftrument, Five was the number of the mufic's feet Which ftill the dance did with five paces meet." In the next stanza he speaks of it thus : — " With lofty turns and caprioles in the air Which with the lufty tunes accordeth fair." The Coranto was another dance very popular at this time, and in great favour at Court. The reader will remember Sir Toby Belch's question to Sir Andrew Aguecheek in "Twelfth-Night": "Why doft thou not go to church in a galliard and come home in a coranto ? " Writers differ in their descriptions of this dance, some designating it as "the most solemn of all dances ; " others as " a swift and lively dance." The subjoined stanza from Davies' poem seems to favour the view of those who think it was a lively dance : — INTRODUCTION. 17 " What fhall I name thefe Current traverfes That on a triple daftyl foot do run, Clofe by the ground with Aiding paflages, Wherein that dancer greateft. praife hath won, Which with beft order can all order fhun : For everywhere he wantonly muft range, And turn and wind with unexpected change."- The Coranto was danced to an air consisting of three crotchets in a bar, but moving by quavers, in the measure of |, with two strains or reprises, each beginning with an odd quaver. Many varieties of this dance, also, both in music and step, were com posed. Whitelocke, the author of the " Memorials," and who was at one time Commissioner of the Great Seal and an Ambassador, relates in the memoirs of his own life that he invented a Coranto in which the Queen greatly delighted, and he adds with some Complacency that whenever he was present at plays, his Coranto was always called for out of compliment to him. The scenery and mechanical appliances for the masque were probably designed by Inigo Jones. He had just returned from Denmark, where he had been staying with the Queen's brother, Christian IV., from whom he brought letters of recommendation, that soon procured him the office of architect to the Queen. His name is frequently mentioned in subsequent 18 INTRODUCTION. years as the designer of the scenic effects in the many masques given at Court, nor was his share in these entertainments considered of less importance than that of the author. Daniel, in his masque, " The Tethys' Feftival " — written to celebrate the creation of Prince Henry as Prince of Wales — is careful to give him his due, saying : " In thefe things, wherein the only life confifts in fhew, the arte and invention of the architect gives the greater grace and is of the moft importance, and therefore have I interferted the defcription of the artificiall part, which fpeaks only Mailer Inago Jones." The great architect, indeed, seems to have taken conside- rable pride in his contributions to these entertain- ments ; and Ben Jonson's omission on one occasion to confess the value of his assistance nearly led to a serious breach between them. Once, when the prin- cipal effect was obtained by the revolving of a large globe, on which various pictures were represented, Inigo Jones did not disdain to do the duty of scene-shifter and turn the machinery himself, so important did he regard these matters. With respect to the music, nothing positive can be ascertained. All that we know is, that Master Alphonso Ferrabosco, " a man planted by himfelf in that divine fphere and mattering all the fpirits of mufic," as Ben Jonson says of him, was a frequent INTRODUCTION. 19 composer for the music of the marches and songs in- terspersed in these charming trifles. What remains of his compositions fully leads us to endorse the high opinion held of him by his contemporaries, and he may well have employed his talents on this occasion. Some mention must now be made of Samuel Daniel, who, as the title-page of this reprint will have informed the reader, was the author of this masque. He was born in 1562, and, by the time which we are now treating of, had acquired a very considerable reputation as a writer of graceful and polished verse. His " Complaint of Rofamund," and his " Sonnets to Delia," and other small poems, were particularly well known, and had given him a position among the poets of the age which modern times have hardly confirmed to him ; though Mr. Collier does not hesitate to class him with Shake- speare, Ben Jonson, and Spenser as one of .the four greatest Elizabethan poets. Early in the year 1603, he had been selected to write " A Panegyric Congratulatory," presented to the King on his visit to Harrington- Burley, now called Burley-on-the-Hill, which belonged at that time to Sir John Harrington, father of the famous Lucy, Countess of Bedford, of whom more will be said further on. He was at one time tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, 20 INTRODUCTION. from whose well-known diary some extracts will shortly be given. The success of the "Panegyric," combined doubtless with the influence of these two ladies, pointed him out as the most fitting person to write the Queen's masque. From this time Daniel's advancement was unbroken. He became a great favourite with the Queen, and she soon made him a gentleman-in-waiting extraordinary, and afterwards a groom-in-waiting of her privy chamber. He was also appointed " Matter of the Queen's Children of the Revells," who were to be trained for the acting of stage plays, and whose education he had to supervise. The exact date of this appointment does not appear ; but at the latest it must have been soon after the performance of the "Vifion of the Twelve Goddefles," as, on the 31st of January, 1604, we find an order that all plays to be acted by the Queen's revellers should be submitted to Samuel Daniel. Shakespeare, it would seem, was also a candidate for this office; for in a letter of Daniel's to Sir Thomas Egerton, in which he thanks him for procuring him the place, occurs this passage : — " I cannot but knowe that I am lefle deferving then fome, that fued by other of the nobility unto her Majeftie.for this roome; if M. Draiton, my good friend, had been chofen, I fhould not have murmured, for fure I am he would have fitted it INTRODUCTION. 21 moft excellentlie ; but it feemeth to myne humble judgement, that one who is the authour of playes now daylie prefented on the public ftage of Lon- don, and the pofleflbr of no fmall gaines, and more- over himfelfe an actor in the king's companie of comedians could not with reafon pretend to be M r . of the Queene's Majeftie's revells, for as much as he wold fometimes be afked to approve and allow his own writings." (See Halliwell's " Life of Shake- speare," p. 205, and Collier's " New Facts," ed. 1835, p. 48.) Shakespeare accordingly did not get the place, but Daniel, to judge from the following curious extract, from the manuscripts in the Bod- leian, kindly sent to me by the librarian, succeeded in making a good deal out of it, and securing " no small gaines " to himself therefrom : — " Jac. I. Accounts of Treafurer of the Chamber. MS. Rawl. A. 204, p. 251. " Itebt Paid to Samuell Daniell and Henrie Evans uppon the Councells warrant dated at the Court of Whitehall, 24'* die Februdrii 1 604 for two Inter- ludes or Playes, prefented before the Kings Majejlieby the Queen's Maj ty CMldren of the Revells, the one on New yeares daye at night loft and the other on the third daye of Januarie at night following : the fame oftwentie marke and by waye of his highnes reward twentie nobles in all the fome of xx ti.'\ that is £20, which was worth in those days at least ^200. 22 INTRODUCTION. From this time Daniel resided much at Court in the discharge of his duties, and the Queen, we are told, " delighted much in his converfation & poems." Among his patronesses, as we have seen, was the Lady Bedford, to whom he dedicated this masque with an explanatory introduction reprinted below. This celebrated and beautiful woman took a leading part in the getting up of the whole entertainment, and throughout seems to have been the directing genius of it. Nichols in his " Progresses of James the First," was ignorant who the ladies were that took parts in it ; but in the British Museum I have found a copy of the first edition, in which the names are inserted in a handwriting of the time. They are instructive as affording evidence how soon Anne of Denmark gathered round her the ladies to whom she clung for the rest of her life ; and it is curious to note that every one of them afterwards became famous, or at least notorious, in the annals 'of this reign. The following extracts from letters written about this time will afford some insight into the state of the Court and the relations of the Queen with her ladies, besides containing reference to " The Vifion of the Twelve Goddefles." Sir Thomas Edmonds writes thus to Lord Shrewsbury on the 13th of June, 1603 : — "It is faid that the Queen hath hitherto refufed to admitt my lady Kildare and the Lady INTRODUCTION. 23 Walfingham to her Privy Chamber and hath only as yett fworne my Ladye of Bedfourd to that place ;" and not long afterwards Lady Anne Clifford, writing in her diary, says : — " Hither came my La : Bedford who was fo great a woman with the Queene as everie-body much refpected hir, {he havinge attended the Queene out of Scotland ; " and she adds in a note : " At Althorpe we faw the Queenes favour to my Lady Hatton and my La : Cecill for Ihe fhowed noe favour to the elderly Ladies but to my Lady Rich & fuch like companie." And again : — " At Hampton Court my mother, myfelfe and the Ladies dined in the prefence as they ufed in Queene Eliza- beth's tyme; but that cuftome lafted not longe; about this tyme my La : of Hertford began to grow great with the Queene & the Queene wore her pic- ture. " And Lord Worcester wrote to Lard Shrews- bury not long after this : — " I muft give you a little touche of the feminine commonwelthe that agaynft youer coming you bee not altogether like an ignorant countrey fellow. Firft youe muft knowe we have Ladyes of divers degrees of favor — fome of the privat chamber, fome for the withdrawing fome for the bed-chamber, and fome forneyther certeyn, and of this nomber onely my Lady Arabella, and my wyfe. My Lady Bedford howldethe fail to the bed-cham- ber ; Lady Harford would fayn, but her hufbande hath cawled her home. My Lady Darbee the 24 INTRODUCTION. yonger, the Lady SufFolke, Ritche, Nottingham, Sufan, Walfingham, and, of late, Lady Sothwell, for the drawing chamber ; and the reft for the pri- vate chamber, when they are not fhut owt,for mayny tymes the dores are lokt ; but the plotting and mal- lice amongft them is futche that I think envy hathe teyd an invifible fnake abowt moft of ther neks to fling each other to deathe. For the prefence there are nowe 5 maids, .... God fend them good fortune for as yet they have no mother." The "mother of the maids" was an office held by some severe old lady, whose duties were somewhat like those of a duenna, and who kept the young ladies under strict discipline. With the exception of Lady Kildare and Lady Southwell, all the ladies here mentioned were selected to take parts in the masque. It may be interesting to give a short sketch of the lives of some of the most celebrated. Lucy, Countess of Bedford, was the daughter of Sir John Harrington, who was created a baron by James in the Great Hall at Hampton Court on the aist of July, 1603. She was about thirty years of age at this time, and had married in 1 59 1 , Edward Russell, third Earl of Bedford. She was one of the chief ornaments of James I.'s Court ; her beauty, her accomplishments, her kindness and good-nature, won her the applause of all the poets and wits of the age. Her ambition seems to have been to INTRODUCTION. 25 excel as a woman of taste and refinement, and for that object she neglected no exertions and spared no expense. She was skilled in several languages, was a great collector of, and authority on, ancient medals, and designed herself a beautiful garden at Modi- Park, in Hertfordshire, now belonging to Lord Ebury, which Sir William Temple charac- terized as " the perfecteft figure of a garden I ever faw." In every scene of splendour and amusement, at all the brilliant balls, and in all the beautiful Court masques, of which the" fertile' genius of Ben Jonson produced such a large proportion, Lady Bedford took a pro'minent part. Above" all, she was the patroness of men of talent, of artists and. poets. We have seen how much Daniel owed his advancement to her influence, and he testified his gratitude in a poetic epistle to her, in. which he speaks of Virtue as " gracing you. comes graced thereby." Michael Drayton also — among the Eliza- bethan poets only second, perhaps, to Shakespeare for sweetness and airy fancy — adds his voice to the chorus of praise. And, above all, Ben Jonson, who enjoyed her patronage,, and was favoured with her friendship, in one of his epigrams apostrophizes ■ her thus : — "Lucie, you brightneffe of our ffiheare, who are Life of the Mules' day, their morning ftarre ! " and he addressed another epigram to. her,, which is 26 INTRODUCTION. so beautiful, and gives so vivid a picture of her charms, that no apology is requisite for inserting it here: — " On Lucie, CounteJJe of Bedford. " This morning, timely rapt with holy lire, I thought to forme unto my zealous mufe, What kinde of creature I could moll defirc, To honour, ferve, and love; as poets ufe. " I meant to make her faire, and free, and wife, Of greateft blood and yet more good than great ; I meant the day-ftarre ihould not brighter rife, Nor lend like influence from his lucent feat. " I meant fhe mould be courteous, facile, fweet, Hating that folemne vice of greatnefle, pride; I meant each fofteft virtue there ihould meet, Fit in that fofter bofome to refide. " Only a learned, and a manly foule 1 purpofed her ; that ihould, with even powers, The rock, the fpindle, and the iheeres controule Of Deftinie, and fpin her owne free houres. " Such when I meant to faine, and wiihed to fee, My mufe bade Bedford write, and that was ihe ! " By the death of her brother, about the year 1 6 19, six months after he had succeeded to his father's title and estates, she became possessed of the bulk of his property, and was able to gratify still more her artistic tastes, and indulge in all the splendour and display she loved so much. But in spite of INTRODUCTION. 27 such emphatic testimony to her charms, some of those writers whose chief delight it seems, under the plea of criticism, to malign those whom history concurs to extol, and above all to rake up something against a beautiful woman, have endeavoured to detract from her fame. Thus, old Pennant says : " Her vanity and extravagance met with no check during the reign of her quiet fpoufe ; " and other writers have been equally ill-natured. Whether these vague charges, however, can be substantiated or not, -at any rate the pictures that remain of her refute any slanders against her personal charms. In the Duke of Bedford's collection at Woburn Abbey there are three pictures of her reported to be very beautiful. One is by Honthcerst ; and of the two others, one is engraved in Lodge's portraits, the other in the first volume of Nichols' " Progresses of James the First." Another performer in the masque was Catherine, Countess of Suffolk. She was the daughter of Sir Henry Knevet, of Charlton, Wilts, and had married first, Richard, eldest son of Robert, Lord Rich, and secondly, about 1583, Lord Thomas Howard, a distinguished naval officer in the reign of Eliza- beth, who was created Earl of Suffolk on the 21st of July, in the Great Hall at Hampton Court. Of this lady, who held a very high position at Court, one writer says : " fhe was more famed 28 INTRODUCTION. for accomplishments than virtues ; " another, that " Ihe was notorious for the abufe of her perfonal charms," which were at last destroyed by the small- pox, " which fpoiled," as Lady Anne Clifford says in her diary, " that good face of hers which had brought to others much mifery, and to herfelf greatnefs which ended in much unhappinefs." It will be remembered that her husband, who was at this time Lord Chamberlain, was instrumental in detecting the Gunpowder Plot. In after years she was implicated with him in certain dishonourable relations with the Spanish Court, and was for a short time confined in prison. Her extortions and rapacity seem to have made her particularly odious to her contemporaries. Her daughter, Lady Elizabeth Howard, who also had a part in this masque, was afterwards married to William Knollys, who became Earl of Banbury, but she preferred to live with Lord Vaux, whom she eventually married. Her descendants having, in modern times, claimed the Earldom of Banbury, there has thence resulted the famous trial respecting that peerage. Another masquer was Penelope, Lady Rich, the favourite and devoted sister of the unfortunate Essex. She also was endowed with " warm passions and fatal impetuosity," and being forced to marry Lord Rich, whom she detested, instead of Sir Charles INTRODUCTION. 29 Blount, whom she loved, she renounced her husband for her lover. She was eventually divorced from her husband and afterwards married Blount. From all accounts, she was a charming and beautiful woman, and a great favourite of the Queen's. Lady Dorothy Hastings, daughter of George, fourth Earl of Huntingdon, also acted in the masque. She had the misfortune to be robbed in the Palace at Whitehall about a year after this, and, according to a letter-writer of the day, " fpoyled of all that ever God fent her, fave that fhe had on her back," which cannot have been much, as it was in the middle of the night. She married first Sir James Blantyre, who was killed in a duel with Sir George Wharton on November 8th, 1609; and secondly, Robert Dillon, Earl of Roscommon. Lady Susan Vere, daughter of Edward Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, by Anne, daughter of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, was another masquer in " The Vifion of the Twelve Goddefles." It was her marriage to Sir Philip Herbert, brother of the Earl of Pembroke, which was celebrated at Court with such a magnificent masque on St. John's day at the end of this year, 1 604. The King on that occasion was in a high state of excitement : he kissed the bride, and declared if he was not married already he would marry her. Lady Hatton, the fourth daughter of Thomas 3o INTRODUCTION. Cecil, first Earl of Exeter, also acted in Daniel's masque. She had married Sir William Hatton, and was now a widow. "This beautiful creature, says GifFord, " afterwards married Sir Edward Coke, a strange match, and which seems to have afforded more amusement to the bystanders than comfort to the parties concerned." Lady Nottingham, another performer, had mar- ried the Earl of Nottingham in September, 1603. Robert Cecil speaks of the marriage in these words : " The Earl of Nottingham hath begon the union, for he hath married the Lady Margaret Stwart, and came up y e morning after to tell the King he hath wedded his cofen. All is well liked and the King pleafed." Of the Queen, who personated the goddess Pallas, nothing need be said. There are, in the Hampton Court collection, two excellent pictures of her by Vansomer, numbered 273 and 346 in the cata- logue. Of the other performers there is nothing worth recording, except a few bare facts "which, for the curious in these matters, are inserted in the Notes. With so many ladies, who, as we have seen, were not on the best of terms, Daniel and Sanford and the others must have had no small amount of trouble. Modern theatrical experience suggests the sort of difficulties that would arise : the con- INTRODUCTION. 31 tention as to who should do this part, and who that; the dissatisfaction of ladies with their costumes, and so on. In fact, we find that Lady Hatton, about a year after this, took such deep offence at not having a part in the masque acted at White- hall at Lady Susan Vere's marriage, that she left the Palace altogether, and went home. However, in this case the rehearsals seem to have gone off without any very serious contests — at least, none serious enough to be noted by the chro* niclers of that day. Among the Record Office papers, in an old account, half worm-eaten and decayed with damp, there is an entry for work done in relation to this masque, which may be inserted here : — " Item, Paid for making readie the lower ende^ with certain Roomes of the Hall at Hampton Court for the Queene's Mat' and ladies again/} their mafque by the /pace of three dayes." In the meanwhile there was no lack of amuse- ment and occupation for the rest. The whole world was flocking to Hampton Court; ambas- sadors to offer their congratulations, nobles and gentlemen to testify their loyalty to their new sove- reign, and crowds of needy adventurers on the look out for the honours, pensions, and places which were being showered in such profusion by James on his new subjects. The crowd was so great that 32 INTRODUCTION. even with upwards of 1,200 rooms, besides out- buildings, the Palace could not contain the numbers of retainers and servants that congregated here, so that tents had to be set up in the park to shelter them. Every day there were festivities : banquets, receptions of ambassadors, balls, masquerades, plays, tennis matches, and a grand running at the tilt. These extracts from the old accounts make it appear that the timid King summoned up sufficient cou- rage on the occasion to take part in this tilting match : — " Paid to Sir Richard Coningjbie .... for making readie the gallorie with other roomes in M r Huggins' lodgings at Hampton Courte for his Mat' to {dine ?) with the Lordes and Knightes after the running at the Tylt for the /pace of two days mens : Januarii 1603. " Item .... for making readie a flanding for the ^ueene's Majeftie in the Parke at Hampton Courte to fee the Kinge's Majeftie and the Lordes running at the Ringe . . ." The Mr. Huggins here mentioned was probably the Queen's embroiderer, who presented on New Year's Day, 1606, " one payre of perfumed gloves, the cuffs laced with four bone laces of Venice gold ; and two payre of plaine perfumed gloves." But there were some to whom this whirl of gaieties was rather uncongenial. For Cecil in a letter to Lord Shrewsbury on the 23 rd of December INTRODUCTION. 33 writes in this strain : — " Other fluff (i.e. news) I can fend you none from this place where now we are to feaft 7 Embafladors; Spain, France, Poland, Florence and Savoy, befyde mafks and much more ; during all which tyme I wold with all my heart I were with that noble Ladye of yowrs by her turf fire." In Lady Arabella Stuart's letter of the 1 8th of December mention is made of thirty plays to be acted ; and there is an entry in the old accounts of money paid for " making readie the Hall for the plays againft Chriftmas." The number " thirty " must probably be set down to the exaggeration of a vivacious mind, but that there were many is evident from an account given in a letter of Dudley Carleton's to John Chamberlain, dated the 15th of January, 1604. It is among the State Papers in the Record Office, and has never before been printed. It contains an interesting picture of the celebration of the " Grand Chriftmas " at the Palace this year. " We have had a merry Chriftmas and nothing to difquiet us fave brabbles amongft our ambafladors, and one or two poore companions that died of the plague. The firft holy dayes we had every night a publicke play in the great hale, at which the King was ever prefent, and liked or difliked as he faw 34 INTRODUCTION. caufe : but it feemes he takes no extraordinary plea- fure in them. The Queen and Prince were more the players frends, for on other nights they had them privately, and hath fince taken them to theyr protection. On New Yeares night we had a play of Robin Goode-fellow, and a Mafke brought in by a magician of China. There was a heaven built at the lower end of the hall, out of which our magi- cian came downe, and after he had made a long fleepy fpeach to the King of the nature of the country from whence he came comparing it with owre for ftrength and plenty, he fayde he had brought in clouds certain Indian and China Knights to fee the magnificency of this Court and there- uppon a travers (i.e. a curtain) was drawne and the mafkers feene fitting in a vaulty place with theyr torchbearers and other lights which was no un- pleafing fpedtacle. The Mafqiiers were brought in by two boyes and two muficians who began with a fong and whilft that went forward they prefented themfelfs to the King. The firft gave the King an Imprefa in a fhield with a fonat in a paper to exprefs this device and prefented a jewell of 40,000 Crowns valew which the King is to buy of Peter van Lore, but that is more than every man knew, and it made a faire fhew to the french ambaflador's eye whofe matter would have bin well pleafed with fuch a mafker's prefent, but not at that prife. The reft in INTRODUCTION. 35 theyr order delivered theyre fcutchins with letters ; and there was no great Hay at any of them fave onely at one who was putt to the interpretacion of his device. It was a faire horfe colt in a faire greene field, which he meant to be a colt of Bufephalus race, and had this virtue of his fire that none could mount him but one as great at leaft as Alexander. The King made himfelf^ merry with threatening to fend this colt to the liable, and he could not breake ]oofe till he promifed to dance as well as Bankes his horfe. The firfl: meafure was full of changes and feemed confufed, but was well gone through withall. And for the ordinary meafures they tooke out the Queen, the ladies of Darby, Harford, SufFolke, Bedford, Sufan Vere, Suthwell th' elder and Rich. In the corantoes they ran over fome other of the young ladies, and fo ended as they began with a fong ; and that done, the magician diflblved his enchantment, and made the mafkers appear in theyr likenes to be th' Erie of Pembroke, the Duke, Mons r dAubigny, yong Somerfet, Philip Harbert the yong Bufephal, James Hayes, Richard Prefton, and S r Hen. Godier. Thyr attire was rich but fomewhat too heavy and cumberfome for dances which putt them befides theyr galliardes. They hadloofe robes of crimfonfatin embroderedwith gold, and bordered with broad filver laces, and dublets of cloth of filver ; buflcins fwordes and hatts alike and 36 INTRODUCTION. in thyr hats ech of them an Indian bird for a fether with fome Jewells. "The twelfe-day the French Ambaflador was feafted publickely, and at night there was a play in the Queen's prefence, with a mafquerado of cer- taine fcotchmen, who came in with a fword dance, not unlike a matachin, and performed it clenly from thence the King went to dice, into his owne prefence, and loft 500 Crs. which marred a gamefter; for fince he appeared not there, but once before was at it in the fame place and parted a winner. The Sunday following was the great day of the Queenes mafke at which was prefent the Spanifh and Polack ambafladors with theyr whole traynes, and the moft part of the Florentines, and Savoyards, but not th' Ambafladors themfelfs who were in fo ftrong competition for place and precedence, that to difpleefe nether it was thought beft to lett both alone. The like difpute was betwixt the French and y e Spanifh Ambaflador, and hard hold for y e greateft honor which y e Spaniard thincks he hath caried away by being firft feafted (as he was y" firft holyday and y e Polack y e next) and invited to the greateft mafke, and the French feemes to be greatly difcontented that he was flatly refufed to be admitted to the laft, abowt which he ufed un- manly Expoftulacons with the King and for a few dayes trubled all the Court ; but the Qj was faine INTRODUCTION. 37 to take the matter uppon her who as a Mafquer had invited y" Spaniard, as y e Duke before had done y e French, and to have them there could not be without blud-fhed." The King's company of actors had been incorpo- rated by a warrant of King James a few months before this, and prominent among the names — coming, in fact, second in the roll — is that of William Shakespeare. They were " freely to ufe and exercife the arts and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, hiftories, enterludes, moralls, paftoralls, ftage plaies, and fuch other like, as thei have already ftudied, or hereafter mall ufe or ftudie, as well for the recrea- tion of our loving fubjects, as for our folace and pleafure, when we mall think good to ufe them." That they were at Hampton Court this Christmas is evident from the " Accounts of the Treafurer of the Chamber," among which is the following entry : — " To John Hemynges one of his Ma*™ 3 players uppon the Councells Warrant dated at Hampton Court 18 January 1 603 for the paynes and expences of him- Jelf and the reft of his companye in prejentinge of fixe interludes or playes before the Kings Ma tu ~ and prince viz. on St Stephens daye at night, St Johns day at night, Innocents daye and New yere's daye at night before the kings Ma tie for each of the fayde playes twentie nobles apeece and to them by waye of his Ma tia 38 INTRODUCTION. rewarde fyve marks, and for twoe playes before the prince on the xxx th of December and the ffirfte of January 1 603 twentie nobles apeece in all amountinge to thefome of Liii £." The date 1603 is, of course, the Old Style for what we should call 1604. Dudley Carleton has told us that the play on New Year's night was " Robin Good- fellow " — no copy of this play exists. The " mad prankes and merrie jeftes" of this mythical personage seem to have been introduced into many plays be- sides " A Midsummer Night's Dream." Perhaps the particular one acted by Hemynges, Shakespeare and Burbage, and the rest of the company, was that by Henry Chettle, which he was writing in Septem- ber, 1602, and for which two entries for money paid are inserted in Henslow's diary. And now at last " the great day," as Dudley Carleton calls it, towards which the Court had been looking forward for a full month, had come. It was on Sunday, the 8th of January, 1604, in the Great Hall of the Palace that the grand represen- tation took place. It may surprise some that a Sunday was chosen for so profane an entertainment; but it should be remembered that in England, until the days of the Puritans, the Sabbath was not ob- served with the rigour that it was afterwards. Plays, revels, bearbaiting, dancing, leaping, archery, etc., INTRODUCTION. 39 were not only allowed, but encouraged. For King James, soon after the time we are treating of, pub- lished his " Book of Sportes ' ' for the use of his subjects, in which he declared these and many other recreations to be lawful on Sunday, and stigmatized the Puritanical mode of observing the day as lead- ing to " filthie tippling and drunkennesse." / The time was about nine or ten o'clock in the evening, and towards that hour the guests would be seen coming from their lodgings in various parts of the Palace, or from lodgings outside the gates, along the cloisters, preceded by their attendants bearing torches. They would pass up the large wooden staircase which leads from the cloisters to the Hall, through the doors now closed, but which then opened under the minstrel gallery. Others would arrive under the archway beneath the clock, and go up the stone staircase, the usual entrance now, also leading into the Hall, under the minstrel gallery. The King, the Prince, and the ministers and great Lords of State on the other hand, would approach from the withdrawing chamber at the upper end of the Hall, which then communicated directly with the galleries and chambers belonging to the State Rooms. The whole appearance presented by the Hall must have been very imposing. On both sides, the seats for the spectators were arranged, rising doubt- 40 INTRODUCTION. less in tiers one above another, and leaving a large space in the middle of the room for the procession of the Goddesses to advance, and ample scope for them to execute their " meafures." At the lower or minstrel gallery end, was reared an elaborate piece of scenery, representing a mountain, rising high into the roof, and concealing the whole of the end wall ; at the upper end of the Hall on the left hand side, on the dais, was built the " Temple of Peace," with a lofty cupola, and in the interior an altar tended by the Sibylla. Not far from the Temple was the cave of Somnus, " Sleep." When everything was ready, and all the company assembled, the doors at the top of the Hall would be flung open, and the heralds proclaiming aloud " The King," would sound a loud blast on their trumpets, at which the whole company rising would make obeisance to the King, who entered with a throng of courtiers, and counsellors, and ambassadors. He sat beneath the canopy of State, placed near the beautiful south oriel window. The spectacle must have been brilliant in the extreme. The beautiful scenery for the masque, the splendid and costly dresses of the crowd of courtiers and ladies, the gorgeous colours and mar- vellous workmanship of the tapestry hangings, "than which the world can fhow nothing finer," the rich decorations of the exquisitely moulded windows, INTRODUCTION. 41 filled with lustrous stained glass, and above all the glorious gothic roof, with its maze of delicately carved and softly-tinted beams, spandrels, and cor- bels, amid the pierced tracery of which flickered hundreds of little lamps, must have combined to produce an effect never experienced in modern times. Milton surely had some such scene in his mind when he wrote the lines : — " From the arched roof, -Pendent by fubtle magic many a row Of ftarry lamps and blazing creffets fed With naphtha and afphaltus yielded light As from a Sky." And when we consider who were present on that night: all the beauty, rank, and state of the Courts of England and Scotland ; ambassadors of foreign Powers; statesmen on whom hung the present and future destinies of the British Empire ; and beyond all, the greatest philosopher, and the greatest poet that the world has ever known — we feel that the interest of the occasion can hardly be equalled in English History. And now the masque began : — First appeared "Night," decked in a black vesture, set over with glittering stars. She rose up by a sort of trap-door arrangement in the middle of the floor from the cellars below, and marched slowly up to the cave, where her son, " Sleep," lay, 42 INTRODUCTION. and awakened him in the speech given hereafter in the masque, and beginning with the words ; " Awake, dark Sleep," etc. Her son at once obeyed her summons, and at her request, consented to call forth a Vision, to gratify the assembled court, which he forthwith proceeded to do by an invocation and a waving of his wand, and then retired to slumber again. As soon as he had gone, Iris, the messen- ger of the Goddesses, appeared on the top of the mountain, clad in a robe striped with all the colours of the rainbow, and descending, advanced to the Temple of Peace. Here she announced to the Sibyl, the priestess thereof, the approach of a " celeftial prefence of Goddefles," and at the same time gave her a scroll, in which she might read a description of them, and of the symbolical meaning of their several attires. The Sibyl taking the scroll then read the " pro- fpective " set forth in it. As soon as she had done so, there were seen at the top of the mountain the three Graces in silver robes, emerging from the rocks and trees, and coming down the winding pathway hand in hand, with stately step, to the sound of a loud march, played by minstrels attired as satyrs, or sylvan gods, and seen half disclosed amid the rocks. Next came the Twelve Goddesses, three and three, in various coloured dresses, which are fully described hereafter in Daniel's explanatory INTRODUCTION. 43 introduction to the masque, each followed by a torchbearer dressed in a flowing white robe, studded over with golden stars, their heads bespangled with the same, and carrying long gilded waxen tapers. Thus in order the whole procession wended its course down the mountain's sinuous pathway, the whole being so arranged as to admit of all the per- formers being seen on the mountain at once. The first three Goddesses were Juno, Pallas, and Venus, the characters being represented respectively by Lady Suffolk, the Queen, and Lady Rich. The next three were Diana, Vesta, and Proserpine, re- presented by Lady Hertford, Lady Bedford, and Lady Derby. The next were Macaria, Concordia, and Astrasa, by Lady Hatton, Lady Nottingham, and Lady Walsingham. And lastly, Flora, Ceres, and Tethys, by Lady Susan Vere, Lady Dorothy Hastings, and Lady Elizabeth Howard. ' The parts of the Graces, Iris, the Sibyl, Night, and Somnus, as they involved speaking and singing, were probably, according to the custom that pre- vailed in Court Masques, entrusted to professional actors, of whom there were plenty in the Palace at this time. When the Goddesses reached the foot of the- mountain, they marched up the centre of the Hall towards the Temple of Peace, while the Graces stood aside on the dai's, and sang the song beginning 44 INTRODUCTION. with the words " Rewards, Deferts," etc., to the concert music which played in the dome of the Temple, out of sight. In the meanwhile the Goddesses went up one by one, and presented their gifts to the Sibyl, and then turning, came down into the midst of the Hall. Then, when the Graces had finished their song, they danced their measures, as Daniel says, " with greate majeftie and arte, confifting of divers ftraines, fram'd into motions, circular, fquare, triangular, with other proportions fucceeding rare and full of varietie," and then paufing, " they caft themfelves into a circle." The Graces hereupon sang another song, while the Goddesses prepared " to take out the Lords," which they did as soon as the song was finished, and danced with them those " galliards " and " corantoes," that have been described above. After this Iris appeared again, and announced to the Sibyl that "thefe Divine Powers" were about to depart, and then they " fel to a fhort parting dance and fo retired up the mountain in the fame order as they came down." The above account has been given, with details from two or three sources, that the reader might have a consecutive and complete description of the masque. But the following extract, in continuation of Dudley Carleton's letter, though he omits some INTRODUCTION. 4S particulars, will give as vivid an idea of the enter- tainment as could be desired: — " The Hale was much leffened by the workes that were in it, fo as none could be admitted but men of apparance, the one 1 end was made into a rock and in feveral places the waightes placed ; in attire like Savages. Through the midft from the top came a winding ftayre of breadth for three to march ; and fo defcended the mafkers by three and three ; which being all feene on the ftayres at once was the beft prefentacon I have at any time feene. Theyr attire was alike, loofe mantles and Petticotes, but of different colors the Stuffs embrodered fattins and cloth of gold and filver, for which they were beholding to Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe. "Theyr heads by theyr dreffing did onely dif- tinguifh the difference of y e Goddeffes they didrepre- fent. Onely Pallas hadatrickby herfelf, for herclothes were notfo much below the knee but that we might fee a woeman had both feete and legs which I never") knew before. She had a paire of bufkins fett with rich ftones, a helmet full of Jewells, and her whole attire embofed with Jewells of feuerall fafhions. Theyr torchbearers were pages in white fattin loofe gownes, fett with ftars of gold ; and theyr torches of white vergin wax guilded. Theyr dimarch was flow and orderly ; and firfl: they made theyr offrings at an altar in a Temple which was built on the left 46 INTRODUCTION. fide of the hall towards the upper end : The fonges and fpeaches that were there ufed I fend you here inclofed. Then after the walking of two rowndes fell into theyr meafures, which for variety was nothing inferior, but had not the life, as the former. For the common meafures they tooke out the Earl of Pembrooke, y e Duke, the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Hen: Howard, Southampton, Devonfheire, Sidney, Nottingham, Montegle Northumberland, Knoles, and Worcefter. For Galliardes and Coran- toes they went by difcretion, and the yong Prince was toft from hand to hand like a tennis bal. The La: Bedford and La: Sufan tooke owt the two Ambafladors : and they beftirred themfelves very lively; fpecially the Spaniard for his Spanifh galliard mewed himfelf a lufty old reveller. The Goddefles they danced with did theyr parts, and the reft were nothing behind hand when it came to theyr turnes, but of all for goode grace and goode footeman- fhip Pallas bare the bell away. They retired them- felves towardes midnight in order as they came and quickly returned unmafkt, but in theyr mafking attire. " From thence they went with the King and th' Ambafladors to a banquet provided in y e prefence which was difpatched with the accuftomed confufion : and fo ended that night's fport with the end of our Chriftmas gamboles." From the last few lines we INTRODUCTION. - 47 gather that the ladies wore masks ; this surviving element of the old masquerade, which can scarcely have added to the effect, was soon afterwards given up. The " accuftomed confufion '- with which, according to Dudley Carleton, the banquet was despatched, was characteristic of the times. In the same year, on St. John's Day, at the masque by Ben Jonson, acted by the Queen and her ladies at White- hall to celebrate Lady Susan's marriage, the riot at supper was so great that tables and chairs were overturned in the general scramble for food. " There was no fmall lofs that night of chaines and Jewells and many great ladies were made fhorter by their flcirts and were very well ferved that they could cut no better:" so says a Court chronicler in a news letter. Nor did the " gamboles " of the ladies and gentlemen of the Court end with the banquet. Often when the more staid had retired to rest, some of the livelier ones would roam about the Palace playing various tricks, such as storming] bed-rooms, sewing-up sheets, " with many other ' petty forceries," as an old writer calls them. On the occasion of Lady Susan's marriage, in particular, the King and his courtiers indulged in a most uproarious night's amusement. They wandered about playing the usual pranks and afterwards got up again at three o'clock, and in their night attire ran about the Palace waking everyone, and conduct- ' 48 INTRODUCTION. ing themselves in a way of which modern fastidious- ness would shrink from hearing the details! But to return to this masque. No small stir, as can be imagined, was made by this the firs^ royal dramatic representation ever witnessed in England.' Several accounts of it were written ; one by a Mr. Philippes purporting to be from Ortelio Renzo to Gio. Ant. Frederico, the Spanish Ambassador, preserved among the State Records, deserves per- haps to be cited. It is dated January the 3 1 st, 1 604, and is as follows : — "The Court is yet at Hampton Courte, where his Majeftie, the Queene and Prince have continued all thefe holydayes, now the Prince is goen to Otelandes, and about a fortnighte hence the Kinge, and Queene purpofe a remove to Whitehall. The holydayes were pafled over with the accuftomed Chriftmas recreation as playinge, dauncing, mafking, and the like, 2 maflces were famous, th' one acled by the Queene and 1 1 honorable ladyes the Sonday after twelfe daye. The French ambaflador was prefent at the firft and the Spanifh folemly invited came to the fecond albeit much againft the French his will, who laboured all he coulde to have crofled hym. All the ambafladors were feafted at Courte this Xmas. firft the Spanifh and Savoyer, 2. the French and Florentine, 3, the Polonian and Vene- tian, and all highly pleafed but the French who is INTRODUCTION. 49 malcontent to fee the Spaniard Co kyndly ufed, and it is plainly perceaved that he and the Florentine and in fome forte the Venetian labour all they can underhand to diverte us from making peace with Spain." On this topic of the ambassadors and their quarrel Dudley Carleton adds in his letter quoted above : " Since, the Savoyard hath dined privatly with y e King, and after diner was brought out into the great chamber to fee the Prince dance, and a nimble fellow vault. He then tooke his leave, but is not yet gone, and fome doubt his leave-taking was but cofenage to fteale a diner from the Florentine who expected to be firft entertained. The Spaniard and Florentine have not yet mett, for they both ftand uppon terms, the one of his greatnes ; the other uppon cuftome that the firft comer mould falute the other wellcome. The Polack doth this day feaft the Spaniard : he hath taken his leave and is pre- fented with Jewells and plate to y e value of 2000 crowns. The valuation of the King's prefents which he hath made to ambafladors fince his coming into England comes to 25000 crowns." On the 2nd of February Lord Worcester writes to Lord Shrewsbury: "Whereas youer Lordfhip faythe you wear neuer particularly advertifed of the maflce, I have been at 6 d charge with you to you the booke which wyll inform you better than I can, having noted the names of the Ladyes applied to 5© INTRODUCTION. eche Goddes. . . . This day the King dined with the Florentine Imbafladore, who takethe now his leaue very fhortly. He was with the King at the Play at nyght, and fooped with my Lady Ritch in her chamber." The " booke " for which Lord Worcester had been at " 6 d charge " was a surreptitious edition of the masque, published without the author's permission or name, and which seems to have given some offence to Daniel and the Court. It was printed in small quarto with the following title : — " The True defcription of a Royall Mafque pre- fented at Hampton Court upon Sunday night, being the eighth of January, 1 604, and perfonated by the Queenes moil excellent majeftie, attended by eleuen Ladies of Honour. London, Printed by Edward Allde, and are to be folde at the Long Shoppe ad- joyning unto S. Mildred's Church in the Poultrye, 1604." This is the " vnmannerly prefumption of an indifcrete printer, who, without warrant, hath divulged the late fhewe at Court, and the fame very diforderly fet forth," complained of by Daniel, which obliged him to issue an edition of his own, correcting the errors of the unauthorized copy, and giving elucidations of the more obfcure parts. Of this the author's edition in octavo — whose title is " The Vifion of the Twelve Goddefles prefented in a mafque at Hampton Court, the 8 of January, etc. INTRODUCTION. 51 Printed by T. C. for Simon Waterlbn. 1604" — there are only two copies, so far as I can ascertain, one in the Bodleian Library, and one which was sold to Mr. Pickering in 1866, for nearly £9. Of the surreptitious edition, there are three copies in the British Museum, but no other, I believe, extant. It is in one of these, the copy belonging to the King's Library, that the names of the performers are in- serted in a handwriting of the time ; and as this handwriting bears a close resemblance to Lord Worcester's, it seems highly probable that this is the identical copy which he speaks of in the letter above. This little pamphlet of seven leaves, for which Worcester gave sixpence, would fetch now, it need hardly be said, many times its weight in gold. The reprint that follows is an exact repro- duction of the edition of 1623, as I have been unable to see Daniel's small octavo. With regard to the literary merit of this masque : although in it Daniel has not attained to the degree of excellence Ben Jonson subsequently reached in these pieces, and although he has not infused into it such exquisite poetry a§ we find in the " Masque of Queens," the " Masque of Beauty," or the "Masque of Oberon/'stillwe recognize in itan ingenious fancy, and that accuracy of versification and lucidity of expression, which earned for him the name of ■" the 52 INTRODUCTION. well-languaged Daniel." The coming of Iris, the " many -coloured messenger that ne'er doth disobey the wife of Jupiter," to announce the approach of the goddesses Juno, Ceres, etc., will remind the reader of the masque in the " Tempest," where the same incident occurs. The dedication to Lady Bedford can hardly boast of the quality of clear- ness. Daniel here seems to lose himself "in a maze of cloudy and recondite classical allusions in his endeavour to give a mystical explanation, according to the fashion of the time, to every incident. Enough has now, probably, been given to enable the reader to picture to himself a Court masque in the olden time. Unfortunately, the career of the masque, though brilliant, was short-lived. With the decay of the drama in Charles I.'s reign, masques entirely died out, and were not revived, when the taste for the theatre returned with Charles II. But the suggestion forces itself upon the mind that, in these days of revivals of whatever is beautiful in the past, these exquisite creations of fancy should not be allowed to slumber. Their later development is so peculiarly English, if their origin was not, and they are so superior in structure to the Italian opera, that it ought to be a point of national pride to restore, and still further develop them. Certainly, no play is so adapted for private \ INTRODUCTION. S3 theatricals as these English lyrical dramas. Though the number of them preserved in our old litera- ture is few — being at the utmost about thirty or forty — yet among them will be found some to suit every variety of circumstance and taste. In these entertainments, too, all can take part. There are speeches, dialogues, and situations, involving nice discriminations of character, for actors; songs for the musical ; and dances, dresses, and show for the rest. They are never vulgar, never dull, never extravagant ; but always full of a rich store of imagery, and instinct with the spirit of true poetry. The time has gone by when critics, knowing no- thing at all about them, sneered at and disparaged them. Isaac D'Israeli, Gifford, and others have placed them before the world in their true light. They have shown that representations, for which Ben Jonson took special pleasure in writing the librettos, and which even Shakespeare did not de- spise, for which Inigo Jones was proud of designing the scenery, for which even Bacon, Selden, and other great statesmen and lawyers sat on committees of management, and vied with one another in arrang- ing dances, marches, and other details, and even in taking parts, and in which Anne of Denmark and her whole Court took particular delight, were not the mere "bungling shows" they were alleged to be. The perfection to which modern stage carpentry, 54 INTRODUCTION. and theatrical costume have been brought, would make masques far easier of representation than they were in old days. A little tastefulness and origi- nality of design, for which they afford such large scope, could enable anyone to provide, at little expense, all the accessories they demand, and many people, con- templating private theatricals, would find in them pieces much more suitable than the vulgar farces, insipid comedies, and preposterous melodramas of the modern stage. At the end of the masque will be found a few notes, on points which seemed to require notice : such as authorities, references to manuscripts, and some explanations. Pjampton Court, December, 1879. THE VISION OF THE TWELVE GOD- defles, prefented in a Maske the eight o/yanuary^ at Hampton Court. By the Queenes mod excellent Maiefty, and her Ladies. By Samvel Daniel. LONDON, Printed by Nicholas Okes, for Simon Waterson. 1623. (57) TO THE RIGHT HO- norable the Lady Lucie, Countefle of Bedford. Madame. [N refpefl of the vnmannerly prefumption of an indifcreet Printer, who vvithout warrant hath divulged the late fliewe at Court, prefented the eight of January, by the Queenes Maieftie and her Ladies, and the fame very diforderly fet forth : I thought it not amifle, feeing it would otherwife pafle abroad, to the prejudice both of the Mafke and the inuen- tion, to defcribe the whole forme thereof in all points as it was then performed, and as the world wel knows very worthily performed, by a moft magnificent Queene, whofe heroicall fpirit, and bounty onely gaue it fo faire an execution as it had. Seeing alfo that thefe ornaments and delights of peace are in their feafon, as fit to enter- taine the world, and deferue to be made memorable as well as the grauer actions, both of them concurring to the decking and furniftiing of glory, and Maieftie, as the neceffary complements requifit for State and Greatnefle. And therefore firfte I will deliuer the intent and fcope of the proiedt : Which was onely to prefent the figure of h thofe 58 TO THE COVNTESSE thofe bleffings, with the wiih of their encreafe and coun- tinuance, which this mightie Kingdome now enioyes by the benefite of his moft gracious Maieftie, by whom we haue this glory of peace, with the acceffion of fo great ftate and power. And to exprefle the fame, there were deuifed twelue Goddefles, vnder whofe Images former times haue reprefented the feuerall gifts of heauen, and erected Temples, Altars, and Figures vnto them, as vnto diuine powers, in the lhape & name of women. As vnto Juno the Goddefle of Empire and regnorum pretfidi, they attributed that blefling of power. To Pallas, Wife- dome and Defence : to Venus, Loue and Amity ; to Vefta, Religion : to Diana, the gift of Chaftitie : to Proferpina riches : to Macaria, felicitie : to Concordia, the vnion of hearts. Aftrtea, luftice : Flora, the beauties of the earth. Ceres plenty. To Tethis power by Sea. And though thefe Images haue oftentimes diuers figni- fications, yet being not our purpofe to reprefent them, with all thofe curious and fuperfluous obferuations, we tooke them onely to ferue as Hierogliphicqs for our pre- fent intention, according to fome one propertie that fitted our occafion, without obferuing other their myfticall interpretations, wherein the authors themfelues are fo irrigular and confufed, as the bed Mytheologers, who will make fomwhat to feeme any thing, are fo vnfaithfull to themfelues, as they haue left vs no certaine way at all, but a trait of confufion to take our courfe at aduenture. And therefore owing no homage to their intricate obfer- uations, we were left at libertie to take no other know- ledge of them, then fitted our prefent purpofe, not were tied by any lawes of Heraldry to range them otherwife in their precidencies, then they fell out to (land with the nature of the matter in hand. And in thefe cafes it may well feeme ingenerofum fapere folum ex commentary! quaji maiorum inuenta indujiria nojlra viam precluferit, quaji in nobis offtsta fit vis natura, nihil ex fe parere, or that there can OF BEDFORD. 59 can be nothing done authenticall, vnlefle we obferue all the ftrict rules of the booke. And therefore we tooke their apteft reprefentations that lay beft and eafieft for vs. And firft prefented the Hiero- glephicq of Empire and Dominion, as the ground and matter whereon this glory of State is built. Then thofe bleffings, and beauties that preferue and adorne it : As armed policie, loue, Religion, Chaftitie, wealth, happi- nefle, Concord, Iuftice, florifhing feafons, plenty : and laftly power by fea, as to imbound and circle the greatnes" of dominion by land. And to this purpofe were thefe Goddefles thus pre- fented in their proper and feuerall attyres, bringing in the hands the particular figures of their power which they gaue to the Temple of Peace, erected vpon foure pillars, reprefenting the foure Vermes that fupported a Globe of the earth, I Iuno in a flcie-colour mantle imbrodered with gold, and figured with Peacocks feathers, wearing a Crowne of gold on her head, prefents a Scepter. 2 Pallas (which was the perfon her Maieftie chofe to reprefent) was attyred in a blew mantle, with a filuer imbrodery of all weapons and engines of war, with a helmet-drefling on her head, and prefents a Launce and Target. 3 Venus, in a Mantle of Doue-colour, and filuer, imbro- dred Doues, prefented (inftead of her Gejlus, the girdle of Amity) a Skarfte of diuers colours. 4 Vefta, in a white Mantle imbrodred with gold-flames, with a dreffing like a Nun, prefented a burning Lampe in one hand, and a Booke in the other. Diana, 60 TO THE COVNTESSE i Diana, in a greene Mantle imbrodered with filuer halfe Moones, and a croiflant of pearle on her head : prefents a Bow and a Quiuer. 6 Proferpina, in a blacke Mantle imbrodered with gold- flames, with a crowne of gold on her head : prefented a Myne of gold-ore. 7 Macaria, the Goddefle of Felicitie, in a Mantle of purple and filuer, imbrodered with the Figures of Plentie and Wifedome, (which concurre to the making of true happineffe) prefents a Cadaceum with the Figure of abundance. 8 Concordia, in a party coloured Mantle of Crimfon and White (the colours of England and Scotland ioyned) im- brodered with filuer hands in hand, with a drefling like- wife of party coloured Rofes, a Branch whereof in a wreath or knot fhe prefented. 9 AJlraa, in a Mantle Crimfon, with a filuer imbrodery,, Figuring the Sword and Balance (as the Characters of Iultice) which (he prefented. 10 Flora, in a Mantle of diuers colours, imbrodered with all forts of Flowers, prefents a Pot of Flowers. ii Ceres, in Strawe colour and Siluer imbrodery, with eares of Come, and a drefling of the fame, prefents a Sickle. Tethes, OF BEDFORD. 61 12 Tethes, in a Mantle of Sea-greene, with a filuer imbro- dery of Waues, and a drefling of Reedes, prefents a Trident. Now for the introducing this Shew : It was deuifed that the Night reprefented in a blacke vefture fet with Starres, fliould arife from below, and come towards the vpper end of the Hall : there to waken her fonne Somnus, fleeping in his Caue, as the Proem to the Vifion. Which Figures when they are thus prefented in humane bodies, as all Vertues, Vices, Paflions, Knowledges, and what- foeuer Abftra£ls elfe in imagination are, which we would make vifible, we produce them, vfing humane actions, and euen Sleepe it felfe (which might feeme im- properly to exercife waking motions) hath beene of often fhewed vs in that manner, with fpeech and gefture. As for example : ExcuJJit tandem fibi fe ; cubitoque levatus £hiid veniat (cognouit enirri) Scitatur. Intanto foprauenne, & gli occhi chlufe A i Signori, & a i Sergenti il pigro Sonno. And in another place : 77 Sonno viene, & Sparfo il corpo Jlanco Col ramo intimo nel liquor di Lethe. So there, Sleepe is brought in, as a body, vfing fpeech and motion : and it was no more improper in this forme to make him walke, and ftand, or fpeake, then it is to giue voyce or paffion to dead Men, Ghofts, Trees, and Stones :, and therefore in fuch matters of Shewes, thefe like Characters (in what forme foeuer they be drawne) ferue vs but to read the intention of what we would reprefent : as in this proiect of ours, Night & Sleepe were to 62 TO THE COVNTESSE to produce a Vifion, an effeft proper to their power, and fit to fhadow our purpofe, for that thefe apparitions & fhewes are but as imaginations, and dreames that protend our affe&ions, and dreames are neuer in all points agree- ing right with waking actions : and therefore were they apteft to fliadow whatfoeuer error might be herein pre- fented. And therefore was Sleepe (as hee is defcribed by Philq/lratus in Amphirai imagine) apparelled in a white thin Vefture caft ouer a blacke, to fignifie both the day and the night, with wings of the fame colour, a Garland of Poppy on his head, and in ftead of his yuoyrie and transparent home, hee was (hewed bearing a blacke Wand in the left hand, and a white in the other, to effedr. either confufed or fignificant dreames, according to that inuoca- tion of Statins. Nee te totas infundere pehnas Luminibus compello meis, hoc turba precatur, Latior, extreme me tange cacumine virgee. And alfo agreeing to that of Si I. It a I. Tangens Lethea tempora Virga. And in this action did he here vfe his white Wand, as to infufe fignificant Vifions to entertaine the Spectators, and fo made them feeme to fee there a Temple, with a Sybilla therein attending vpon the Sacrifices j which done, Iris (the Meffenger of Iuno) defcends from the top of a Mountaine raifed at the lower end of the Hall, and march- ing vp to the Temple of Peace, giues notice to the Sybilla of the comming of the Goddeffes, and withall deliuers her a Profpectiue, wherein fhe might be hold the Figures of their Deities, and thereby defcribe them ; to the end that at their defcending, there might be no ftay or hinde- rance of their Motion, which was to be carryed without any interruption, to the action of other entertainments that were to depend one of another, during the whole Shew OF BEDFORD. 63 Shew : and that the eyes of the Spectators might not beguile their eares, as in fuch cafes it euer happens, whiles pompe and fplendor of the fight takes vp all the intention without regard what is fpoken, and therefore was it thought fit their descriptions fliould be deliuered by the Sybilla. Which as foone as fhe had ended, the three Graces in filuer Robes with white Torches, appeared on the top of the mountaine, defcending hand in hand before the God- defles j who likewife followed three and three, as in a number dedicated vnto Sanctity and an incorporeall na- ture, whereas the Dual, Hierogliphice pro immudis acci- pitur. And betweene euery ranke of Goddefles, marched three Torch-bearers in the like feuerall colours, their heads and Robes all dect with Starres, and in their de- fcending, the Cornets fitting in the Concaues of the Mountaine, and feene hut to their breatts, in the habit of Satyres, founded a ftately March, which continued vntill the Goddefles were approached iuft before the Temple, and then ceafed, when the Confort Muficke (placed in the Cupula thereof, out of fight) began : whereunto the three Graces retyring themfelues afide, fang, whiles the Goddefles one after an other with folemne pace afcended vp into the Temple, and deliuer- ing their prefents to the Sybilla (as it were but in paffing by) returned downe into the midft of the Hall, preparing themfelues to their dance, which (affoone as the Graces had ended their Song) they began to the Muficke of the Violls and Lutes, placed on one fide of the Hall. Which dance being performed with great maiefty and Arte, confiding of diuers ftraines, fram'd vnto motions circular, fquare, triangular, with other proportions ex- ceeding rare and full of variety ; the Goddefles made a paufe, cafting themfelues into a circle, whilft the Graces againe fang to the Muficke of the Temple, and prepared to take out the Lords to dance. With whom after they had 64 TO THE COVNTESSE had performed certaine Meafures, Galliards, and Cur- ranto's, Iris againe comes and giues notice of their plea- fure to depart : whofe fpeech ended, they drew them- felues againe into another fhort dance, with fome few pleafant changes, ftill retyring them toward the foote of the Mountaine, which they afcended in that fame manner as they came downe, whilft the Cornets taking their Notes from the ceafing of the Muficke below, founded another delightfull March. And thus Madame, haue I briefly deliuered, bath the reafon and manner of this Mafke ; as well to fatisfie the defire of thofe who could not well note the carriage of thefe paflages, by reafon (as I fayd) the prefent pompe and fplendor entertain'd them otherwife (as that which is moft regardfull in thefe Shewes) wherein (by the vnpar- tiall opinion of all the beholders Strangers and others) it was not inferiour to the beft that euer was prefented in Chriftendome : as alfo to giue vp my account hereof vnto your Honour, whereby I might cleere the reckoning of any imputation that might be layd vpon your judgement, for preferring fuch a one, to her Maiejiy in this imploy- ment, as could giue no reafon for what was done. And for the captious Cenfurers, I regard not what they can fay, who commonly can do little elfe but fay ; and if their deepe judgements euer ferue them to produce any thing, they mult Ttand on the fame Stage of Cenfure with other men, and peraduenture performe no fuch great wonders as they would make vs beleeue : and I comfort my felfe in this, that in Court I know not any vnder him, who a£ts the greateft parts) that is not obnoxious. to enuy, and a finifter interpretation. And whofoeuer ftriues to fhew moft wit about thefe Puntillos of Dreames and (hewes, are fure ficke of a difeafe they cannot hide, and would faine haue the world to thinke them very deeply learned in all mifteries whatfoeuer. And peraduenture they thinke themfelues fo, which if they do, they are in a farre OF BEDFORD. 65 farre worfe cafe then they imagine ; Non poteft non indoftus tjfe qui fe do&um credit. And let vs labour to fliew neuer fo much flrill or Arte, our weaknefles and ignorance will be feene, whatfoeuer couering we caft ouer it. And yet in thefe matters of fhewes (though they be that which moft entertaine the world) there needs no fuch exa !■ x 5- State Papers. James First, vol. vi. No. 21. P. 34, 1. 22. "Impresa" is thus defined in Camden's " Remains concerning Britain," ed. 1 674, p. 447 : " A device in Picture, with his Motto, or Word, born by Noble and Learned Parsonages to notifie some particular conceit of their owne." P. 35, 1. 10. "Bankes his horse:" This was a famous and clever horse called " Morocco," which belonged to one Bankes in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His shoes, it is said, were of silver, and one of his exploits was the ascent of St. Paul's steeple ! P. 35, 1. 20. " The Earl of Pembroke." This was William Herbert, third Earl. His mother NOTES. 79 was the famous " Subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother." " Philip Harbert " was his younger brother, who married Lady Susan Vere, and eventually succeeded him in the Earldom. P. 37, 1. 6. For the warrant, see Halliwell's " Life of Shakespeare," and " Chapter House Privy Seal Papers," No. 71. It is dated the 7 th of May, 1603. P. 37, 1. 17. See "Extracts from Revels Ac- counts," published by the Shakespeare Society. P. 38, 1. 7. See Collier's Introduction to " A Midsummer Night's Dream." P. 39,1. 17. The groining beneath the archway, leading to the stone staircase, is exceedingly beauti- ful ; and the initials and badges of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boley'n are still to be distinctly seen. The staircase is now undergoing repair ; the plaster on the walls, which had got somewhat decayed, never having been renewed since Henry's time, has been stripped off, and replaced by a facing of red brick. This restoration is not archasologically correct, and combined with the putting in of new stone-work for old in some parts, has the effect of somewhat destroying the air of antiquity, formerly characteristic of this part of the Palace. The work is, however, most carefully executed, under the constant supervision of the Clerk of the Works, and Mr. Moorman, and when completed, will be 8o- NOTES. picturesque and not but of character. The Office of Works are also now engaged in restoring the old astronomical clock over this gateway, which for many years had lain neglected in an old work- shop. P. 41 , 1. 26. I am told by a lady that her grand- father, who was born in 1760, remembered the old trap-doors in the Hall, which in his youth was called the play-house. P. 46, 1. 20. " Bare the bell away." Bells, in- stead of cups, used to be given to winners of horse- races ; whence the meaning of this phrase : " to be . the best" P. 48, 1. 8. This letter, with others, is endorsed by Cecil thus : " Letters writen by M r . Phelippes, . and suggested by him to be counterfeited." See State Papers, James First, vol. vi. No. 36. P. 49, 1. 23. "Progs. James First," i. p.317 ; and Lodge, vol. iii. p. 227. P. 51, 1. 16. It would appear from the Cata- logue of the Bodleian Library that another edition of" The Vision" was published in 1610. P. 57, 1. 1. Ben Jonson followed Daniel's ex- ample in prefixing, to all the masques he published, an explanatory Introduction, filled with many learned allusions and subtle remarks. . P. 66, 1. 2. The surreptitious edition has : "comming from belowe." NOTES. 81 P. 70, 1. 18. In his " Sonnets to Delia," No. 50, Daniel used the same metaphor : " Flourish, fair Albion, glory of the North ; Neptune's best darling, held between his arms." %ty (Etrt* »-•'■ CH1SWICK PRESS :— C. WHITTINGHAM, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. feSiS Wife , >»>"'' •VY i