Her Majesty Queen Henrietta, also, occasionally condescended to sustain parts in masques. A piece, written by Davenant, called the Temple of Love, was represented at Whitehall Palace; her majesty and her ladies being the performers, and young lords and gentlemen representing certain characters in the

masque.

At Shrovetide, in the year 1635, Davenant's masque Triumphs of the Prince d'Amour' was produced with great splendour in the hall of the Middle Temple, when the queen, the prince elector, and many ladies of the court were present. "On Wednesday, the 23rd February, 1635," Sir H. Herbert writes, who was in the hall, "the Prince d'Amour gave a masque to the prince elector and his brother in the Middle Temple, when the queen was pleased to grace the entertainment by putting off majesty to put on a citizen's habit, and to sit upon a scaffold on the right hand amongst her subjects. The queen was attended in the like habits by the Marquis of Hamilton, the Countess of Denbigh, the Countess of Holland, and the Lady Elizabeth Fielding. Mrs. Basse, the law woman, lead in this royal citizen and her company. The Earl of Holland, the Lord Goring, Mr. Percy, and Mr. Jermyn, were the men that attended. The prince elector sat in the midst, his brother Robert on the right hand of him, and the Prince d'Amour on the left. The masque was very well performed in the dances, scenes, clothing, and music, and the queen was pleased to tell me on her going away, that she liked it very well.

Henry Lawes and William Lawes made the music. Mr. Corseilles made the scenes."

This masque was devised and written by Sir William Davenant, he informs us, in the short space of three days. It is entitled The Triumphs of the Prince d'Amour, a Masque presented by his Highness at his Palace in the Middle Temple.' It contains some spirited songs, one of which, sung by Cupid, will serve as a specimen :

I.

"Whither so gladly and so fast,
As if you knew all danger past
Of combat and of war?

As

you believ'd my arms were bound, Or when I shoot, still ev'ry wound

I make is but a scar.

II.

"Arm now your breasts with shields of steel,
And plates of brass, yet you shall feel

My arrows are so keen,

Like lightning that not hurts the skin,
Yet melts the solid parts within,

They'll wound although unseen.

III.

"My mother taught me long ago

To aim my shafts, and draw my bow,
When Mars she did subdue.

And now you must resign to Love
Your warlike hearts that she may prove

Those antic stories true."

The masquers' names, according as they ranked by their antiquity in the society, were Thos. Mansel,

W. Morgan, W. Wheeler, Mich. Hutchenson, Lawr. Hyde, Thos. Bourke, E. Smythe, E. Turnor, Thos. Way, Thos. Trenchard, G. Probert; those in the first anti-masque-Philip Morgan, John Freeman, John Bramston, E. Smyth, Clement Spellman, John Norden, W. Lysle; those in the second anti-masque-John Stepkin, Charles Adderly, John Ratcliff, Richard May and Giles Hungerford.

Soon after these levities, those unhappy civil commotions began which, originating in the unconstitutional attempts of the king to set his authority above all law, finally ended in the bloody tragedy enacted at Whitehall. A morose fanaticism obtained ascendency, and acts of parliament were passed, suppressing stage plays, which were denounced as "the very Pompes of the Divell."

CHAPTER VI.

REVELS.

THE revels which were observed in ancient times in all the Inns of Court, at Allhallowtide, Christmas, and other joyous seasons, were parts of the national recreations which were universally kept up in olden times, by rich as well as poor, throughout "merrie England." In the houses of the nobility, and in other great houses, an officer called the master of the revels, or the lord of misrule, was every year appointed to manage the Christmas diversions from Allhalloweve to Candlemas-day; and out of doors the populace were amused with mysteries or miracle plays, with various sports, pastimes, and exercises. "That nothing might be wanting for the encouragement of study," dancing and revels for recreation and delight, we are told, were allowed in the halls of the Inns of Court, at certain seasons. These revels were observed from a very early date; in the ninth year of the reign of Henry VI. it was ordered by the bench of Lincoln's Inn, that there should be four revels that year, and no more; one at the feast of Allhallows, another at the feast of St. Erkenwald, the third at the Purification

of our Lady, and the fourth at Midsummer-day. A director of the pastimes, or master of the revels, was annually chosen - - magister jocorum, revellorum, et mascarum. In 9 Hen. VIII., it was ordered in Lincoln's Inn that he who should be chosen King on Christmas-day, ought then to occupy the said room if he were present, and in his absence the marshal for the time being, by the advice of the other barristers present, to name another; also that the King of Cockneys on Childermas-day should sit and have due service; and that he and all his officers "should use honest manner and good order, without any waste or destruction making in wine, brawn, chely, or other victuals," and also that he and his marshal, butler, and constable marshal, should have their lawful and honest commandments by delivery of the officers of Christmas, and "that the said King of Cockneys ne none of his officers medyl neither in the buttery nor in the steward of Christmas his office upon pain of 40s. for such meddling."

Both the Inner and Middle Temples were particularly celebrated for the splendour of these entertainments. In the fourth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Christmas revels of the Inner Temple were kept with great magnificence. Lord Robert Dudley, (afterwards Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth,) a student in that house, was chosen high constable and marshal, with the title of Pallaphilos, Prince of Sophie, high constable marshal of the Knights Templars, and patron of the honourable order of the Pegasus.