blackest nation of the world. This river taketh spring out of a certain lake, eastward; and after a long race, falleth into the western ocean.1 Hence (because it was her majesty's will to have them blackmoors at first) the invention was derived by me, and presented thus : First, for the scene, was drawn a landtschap (landscape) consisting of small woods, and here and there a void place filled with huntings; which falling, an artificial sea was seen to shoot forth, as if it flowed to the land, raised with waves which seemed to move, and in some places the billows to break, as imitating that orderly disorder which is common in nature. In front of this sea were placed six tritons,f in moving and sprightly actions, their upper parts human, save that their hairs were blue, as partaking of the sea-colour: their desinent parts fish, mounted above their heads, and all varied in disposition. From their backs were borne out certain light pieces of taffata, as if carried by the wind, and their music made out of wreathed shells. Behind these, a pair of sea-maids, for song, were as conspicuously seated; between which, two great sea-horses, as big as the life, put forth themselves; the one mounting aloft, • Some take it to be the same with Nilus, which is by Lucan called Melas, signifying Niger. Howsoever Plin. in the place above noted, hath this: Nigri fluvio eadem natura, quæ Nilo, calamum, papyrum, et easdem gignit animantes. See Solin. abovementioned. 1 And falleth into the Western Ocean.] We now know that the Niger runs towards the east. Had the adventurous discoverer of this important geographical fact happily lived to return from his second expedition, we should probably have also learned whether the Niger loses itself in the sands, is swallowed up in some vast inland lake, or constitutes, as some think, the chief branch or feeder of the Nile. The form of these tritons, with their trumpets, you may read lively described in Ov. Met. lib. i. Caruleum Tritona vocat, &c. ; and in Virg. Æneid. lib. x. Hunc vehit immanis triton, et sequent. and writhing his head from the other, which seemed to sink forward; so intended for variation, and that the figure behind might come off better: upon their backs, Oceanus and Niger were advanced. Oceanus presented in a human form, the colour of his flesh blue; and shadowed with a robe of seagreen; his head gray, and horned," as he is described by the ancients: his beard of the like mixed colour : he was garlanded with alga, or sea-grass; and in his hand a trident. Niger, in form and colour of an Ethiop; his hair and rare beard curled, shadowed with a blue and bright mantle his front, neck, and wrists adorned with pearl, and crowned with an artificial wreath of cane and paper-rush. These induced the masquers, which were twelve nymphs, negroes, and the daughters of Niger; attended by so many of the Oceaniæ, which were their light-bearers.2 The masquers were placed in a great concave shell, like mother of pearl, curiously made to move on those waters and rise with the billow; the top thereof was stuck with a cheveron of lights, which indented to the proportion of the shell, struck a Lucian in Prop. Aidao. presents Nilus so, Equo fluviatili insidentem. And Statius Neptune, in Theb. The ancients induced Oceanus always with a bull's head: propter vim ventorum, à quibus incitatur, et impellitur: vel quia tauris similem fremitum emittat; vel quia tanquam taurus furibundus, in littora feratur. Euripid. in Orest. Ὠκεανος ἐν ταυροκρανος ἀγκαλαις έλισσων, κυκλει χθονα. And rivers sometimes were so called. Look Virg. de Tiberi et Eridano. Georg. iv. Æneid. viii. Hor. Car. lib. iv. ode 14, and Euripid. in Ione. The daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. See Hesiod. in Theogon. Orph. in Hym. and Virgil in Georg. 2 Which were their light-bearers.] It will not be amiss to observe here once for all, that every masquer was invariably attended by his torch-bearer, who preceded his entrance and exit, and sided him (though at a distance) while in action. glorious beam upon them, as they were seated one above another: so that they were all seen, but in an extravagant order.3 On sides of the shell did swim six huge sea-monsters, varied in their shapes and dispositions, bearing on their backs the twelve torch-bearers, who were planted there in several graces; so as the backs of some were seen; some in purfle, or side; others in face; and all having their lights burning out of whelks, or murex-shells. The attire of the masquers was alike in all, without difference: the colours azure and silver; but returned on the top with a scroll and antique dressing of feathers, and jewels interlaced with ropes of pearl. 3 The prose descriptions of Jonson are singularly bold and beautiful. I do not, however, notice the paragraph on this account, but solely to shew with what facility an ill-natured critic may throw an air of ridicule on things of this nature. In giving an account of this splendid exhibition to Winwood, sir Dudley Carleton says: "At night we had the Queen's Maske in the Banquetting-House: there was a great engine at the lower end of the room, which had motion, and in it were the images of seahorses, with other terrible fishes, which were ridden by Moors: the indecorum was, that there was all fish and no water."-There was assuredly as much of one as the other; but this it is to be witty. Sir Dudley proceeds: "At the further end there was a great shell in form of a skallop, wherein were four seats; on the lowest sat the Queen with my lady Bedford; on the rest were placed the ladies Suffolk, Darby, Rich, Effingham, Ann Herbert, Susan Herbert, Elizabeth Howard, Walsingham and Bevil. Their appearance was rich, but too light and courtezan-like for such great ones. Instead of vizzards, their faces and arms up to the elbows were painted black, but it became them nothing so well as their own red and white, &c." Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 44. Sir Dudley would make no indifferent newspaper critic for the present times. The plot required the actors to appear as Moors, and he finds out that they would look better if they kept their natural colour! It is to be hoped that some handsome Othello will take the hint. "The Spanish and Venetian ambassadors," our letter-writer adds, "were both present, and sate by the king in state," to the great annoyance of the French ambassador, who vowed in a pet, "that the whole court was Spanish." And for the front, ear, neck, and wrists, the ornament was of the most choice and orient pearl; best setting off from the black. For the light-bearers, sea-green, waved about the skirts with gold and silver; their hair loose and flowing, gyrlanded with sea-grass, and that stuck with branches of coral. These thus presented, the scene behind seemed a vast sea, and united with this that flowed forth, from the termination, or horizon of which (being the level of the state, which was placed in the upper end of the hall) was drawn by the lines of prospective, the whole work shooting downwards from the eye; which decorum made it more conspicuous, and caught the eye afar off with a wandering beauty: to which was added an obscure and cloudy night-piece, that made the whole set off. So much for the bodily part, which was of master Inigo Jones's design and act. By this, one of the tritons, with the two sea-maids, began to sing to the others' loud music, their voices being a tenor and two trebles. SONG. Sound, sound aloud The welcome of the orient flood, Into the west; Fair Niger, son to great Oceanus, With all his beauteous race: *All rivers are said to be the sons of the Ocean; for, as the ancients thought, out of the vapours exhaled by the heat of the sun, rivers and fountains were begotten. And both by Orph. in Hym. and Homer, Il. . Oceanus is celebrated tanquam pater, et origo diis, et rebus, quia nihil sine humectatione nascitur, aut putrescit. Yet are they bright, To prove that beauty best, Which, not the colour, but the feature Ocea. Be silent, now the ceremony's done, Niger. Divine Oceanus, 'tis not strange at all, My fresh streams from thy brackish, like things fix'd, Ocea. But what's the end of thy Herculean labours, Extended to these calm and blessed shores? 1 There wants not enough, in nature, to authorize this part of our fiction, in separating Niger from the ocean, (beside the fable of Alpheus, and that, to which Virgil alludes of Arethusa, in his 10. Eclog. Sic tibi, cum fluctus subter labêre Sicanos, Doris amara suam non intermisceat undam.) Examples of Nilus, Jordan, and others, whereof see Nican. lib. i. de flumin. and Plut. in vita Syllæ, even of this our river (as some think) by the name of Melas. |
