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LOVE'S WELCOME.

THE KING'S ENTERTAINMENT AT WELBECK,

IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE,

A HOUSE OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, EARL OF NEWCASTLE, VISCOUNT MANSFIELD, BARON OF BOTLE AND BOLSOVER, &C.

At his going into Scotland, 1633.

LOVE'S WELCOME (or, as it is called in the folio, the KING'S ENTERTAINMENT, &c.)] In the spring of 1633, Charles, in an interval of tranquillity, resolved to make a progress into the northern part of his kingdom, and to be solemnly crowned in Scotland, which he had not seen since he was two years old. His journey was a perpetual triumph, the great families of the counties through which he passed feasting him on his way. None of the nobility and gentry, however, seem to have equalled the earl of Newcastle in the magnificence of their hospitality. "When he passed (says lord Clarendon) through Nottinghamshire, both the King and Court were received and entertained by the earl of Newcastle, and at his own proper expense, in such a wonderful manner and in such an excess of feasting as had scarce ever before been known in England; and would be still thought very prodigious, if the same noble person had not, within a year or two afterwards, made the King and Queen a more stupendous Entertainment; which, God be thanked, though possibly it might too much whet the appetite of others to excess, no man ever after imitated." Hist. of the Rebellion. The duchess, in the Life of the Duke of Newcastle, speaks of it modestly enough. "When his majesty (her Grace says) was going into Scotland to be crowned, he took his way through Nottinghamshire; and lying at Worksep manor, hardly two miles distant from Welbeck where my lord then was, my lord invited his Majesty thither to dinner, which he was graciously pleased to accept of. This entertainment cost my lord between four and five thousand pounds." p. 183.

On this occasion our poet was called on, to prepare one of those little compliments, which, in those days, were supposed to grace, and, as it were, vivify the feast. The object was merely to introduce, in a kind of Antimasque, a course at Quintain, performed by the gentlemen of the county, neighbours to this great earl, in the guise of rustics, in which much awkwardness was affected, and much real dexterity probably shewn. Whatever it was, however, it afforded considerable amusement to the king and his attendants; a fact recorded by the duchess with no little complacency in the memoirs of her family.

This Entertainment, with that which immediately follows it, is shuffled in among the translations, towards the close of the folio, 1641. It is evidently given in a very imperfect manner; but there is no other copy.

LOVE'S WELCOME, ETC.

His Majesty being set at Dinner,

Music:

The Passions, DOUBT and LOVE, enter with the Affections, Joy, DELIGHT, &c. and sing this

SONG.
Doubt.

[graphic]

HAT softer sounds are these salute the

ear,

From the large circle of the hemisphere,
As if the centre of all sweets met here!
Love. It is the breath and soul of
every thing,

Put forth by earth, by nature, and the spring,
To speak the welcome, welcome of the king.

Chorus of Affections. The joy of plants, the spirit of

flow'rs,

The smell and verdure of the bow'rs,
The waters murmur, with the show'rs,
Distilling on the new fresh hours;
The whistling winds and birds that sing
The welcome of our great, good king:
Welcome, O welcome, is the general voice,
Wherein all creatures practise to rejoice.

[A pause. Music again.

Love. When was old Sherwood's head more

quaintly curl'd?

Or look'd the earth more green upon the world?
Or nature's cradle more enchased and purl'd?
When did the air so smile, the wind so chime,
As quiristers of season, and the prime?

Doubt. If what they do, be done in their due time.

Cho. of Affections. He makes the time for whom 'tis done,

From whom the warmth, heat, life begun;
Into whose fostering arms do run
All that have being from the sun.
Such is the fount of light, the king,
The heart that quickens every thing,

And makes the creatures language all one voice,
In welcome, welcome, welcome to rejoice:
Welcome is all our song, is all our sound,
The treble part, the tenor, and the ground.

After Dinner.

The King and the Lords being come down, and ready to take horse, in the crowd were discovered two notorious persons, whose names were ACCIDENCE and FITZALE, men of business, as by their eminent dressing and habits did soon appear.

One in a costly cassock of black buckram girt unto him, whereon was painted party-per pale :

[blocks in formation]

With his hat, hatband, stocking, and sandals suited,

and marked A, B, C, &c.

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