LADY ANNE WINTER,' LADY WINSOR,2 LADY ANNE CLIFFORD,3 LADY MARY NEVILLE,4 1 Lady Anne Winter.] Another daughter of the Earl of Worcester, and wife of Sir Edward Winter, of Lydney, Gloucestershire, Knight. 2 Lady Winsor.] Either the widow of Henry, fifth Lord Winsor, or her daughter Elizabeth, married to her cousin, who bore the family name. Lady Anne Clifford.] The daughter of George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, so remarkable for his naval adventures in the reign of Elizabeth. This lady married some time after her appearance in the present masque, Richard, third Earl of Dorset, and in 1630 Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, whom she outlived many years. The English Court, or, to go further, the English nation, never possessed a nobler character than this celebrated lady. This is no place for her history, of which a spirited sketch is given by Dr. Whitaker: but it is almost impossible to pass her by without noticing her well-known answer to Sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State to Charles II., who had ventured to name a candidate to her for the borough of Appleby :"I have been bullied by an usurper; I have been neglected by a Court; but I will not be dictated to by a subject: your man shan't stand. "ANNE Dorset, Pembroke, & Montgomery. [There is, I believe, some doubt as to the authenticity of this letter.-F. C.] Lady Mary Neville.] Wife of Henry,seventh LADY ELIZ. HATTON," LADY ELIZ. GARRARD, LADY CHICHESTER.7 LADY WALSINGHAM.8 Lord Abergavenny, and daughter of the Lord Treasurer Sackville, Earl of Dorset. 5 Lady Elizabeth Hatton.] Fourth daughter of Thomas Cecil, first Earl of Exeter, and widow of Sir William Hatton. This beautiful creature 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. 6 Lady Elizabeth Garrard.] Wife of Thomas, Lord Gerard, son of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Master of the Rolls, 23 Elizabeth. Thomas was raised to the Peerage on the accession of James I. She died 1613.. Lady Chichester.] Letitia (as I believe), daughter of Sir John Perrot, and wife of Sir Arthur Chichester (Baron Chichester of Belfast), a man eminent for his great services in Ireland, and of distinguished talents and virtue. There was indeed another lady of this name: Frances, second daughter of Lord Harrington, married to Sir Robert Chichester, of Rawleigh, Devon, Knight of the Bath. This lady died in 1615, and was buried, as the record says, with "muche solempnitie, in the parrishe church of Pylton." The reader must decide between the claimants. Lady Walsingham.] Probably Anne, fourth daughter of Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk, and wife of Thomas Walsingham, of Scadbury, in Kent, Hymenæi; or the Solemnities of Masque and Barriers at a Marriage. HYMENÆI; OR THE SOLEMNITIES OF MASQUE AND BARRIERS AT A MARRIAGE.] This is the title in the fol. 1616. Upon which Chetwood remarks:-"What reason our author had for not being more particular in the title of this Masque, neither when nor for whom it was performed, we cannot conceive; but we have, with some little search, found out it was ordered by the Court for the celebration of the nuptials between the Palsgrave and the Princess Elizabeth." "This Masque, by the description, was very magnificent, and the reader may find the expence of the machinery, &c., set down in the cost of that prince's marriage."-Life of Jonson, p. 41. Chetwood's labour was thrown away. Had he fortunately met with the 4to edition of this Masque, he would have found all his doubts removed. There the title-page runs, "Hymena, or the Solemnities of Masques and Barriers, magnificently performed on the eleventh and twelfth nights from Christmas at Court; to the auspicious celebrating of the Marriage-union betweene Robert, Earle of Essex, and the Lady Frances, second daughter of the most noble Earle of Suffolke, 1606. Fam veniet virgo, jam dicetur Hymenæus." The author's reason for "not being more particular" is now sufficiently apparent. The marriage was a most inauspicious one, and terminated in shame and guilt. The Earl of Essex (only son of the unfortunate favourite of Elizabeth and the English nation) was in his fifteenth, and the Lady Frances in her fourteenth year, when the ceremony took place. Not long afterwards the Earl set out on his travels, and was abroad about four years. The Countess, who in the interim had transferred her affections to Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, the well known minion of James, was with difficulty persuaded to cohabit with her husband, whom, after a series of bickering, little to the honour of any of the parties concerned, she finally abandoned in 1613. She then solicited and obtained a divorce, under a pretence of his being incompetent to the duties of matrimony, and on the 5th of December in the same year espoused Carr, who had been created the day before Earl of Somerset. This infamous connexion led to the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, the execution of the minor agents in that diabolical transaction, and the trial and condemnation of the Earl and Countess, whose lives, though spared by the weakness of James, were worn out in mutual disgust. Somerset died neglected and despised, and his wife an object of loathing and horror. Essex (the repudiated husband) lived to be a famous rebel, and to command the Parliamentary army with skill and success till he sunk under the ascendancy of Cromwell. It is to Jonson's praise that he took no part in the celebration of the second marriage, which was solemnized with great pomp, and for which a Masque was composed by Campion, a writer of some name. It is melancholy to reflect that this adulterous marriage was eagerly promoted by the Lord Chancellor Bacon, to whom Campion inscribed his performance, he being (as the dedication says) the Principall, and in effect the onely person that did both incourage and warrant the gentlemen (of Graies Inn) to shew their good affection towards so noble a Conjunction.' With respect to the Masque of which Chetwood speaks (and which was written six years after the present), he might have learned from the official papers that it was called the Lord's Masque. It was not written by Jonson, but by Campion, and published by him in 4to, 1613. It is of very rare occurrence, but I have been favoured with it from the valuable collection of Mr. Dent. Mr. Chamberlaine, who was present at the representation, tells his correspondent that, "though it was rich and sumptuous, yet it was long and tedious, and with many devices more like a play than a masque."-Winwood's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 435. It cost the Court 400l. The masquers probably paid their own expenses. After all it is but a poor affair, trite though extravagant, and manifesting neither taste nor fancy. [In the Annals of the Stage, i. 365, Mr. Collier prints a very interesting letter from John Pory to Sir Robert Cotton on the subject of this Masque. "I have seen both the Maske on Sunday and the Barriers on Munday night. The Bridegroom carried himself as gravely and gracefully as if he were of his father's age. He had greater guiftes given him then my Lord of Montgomery had, his plate being valued at 3000l and his jewels, mony, and other guifts at roooli more. But to returne to the Maske. Both Inigo, Ben, and the actors, men and weomen, did their partes with great commendation. The conceipt or soule of the Maske was Hymen bringing in a bride, and Juno pronubas priest a bridegroome, proclaiming that those two should be sacrificed to nuptial union : and here the poet made an apostrophe to the union of kingdomes. But before the sacrifice could be performed, Ben Jonson burned the globe of the erth standing behind the altar." Gifford is no doubt right in saying that England has never seen any entertainment of the kind to equal these masquings. With all our infinite advantages in science and machinery, Mr. E. T. Smith and Mr. Harry Boleno differ hardly less from Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones than (Mr. Carlyle's parallels) Sheridan Knowles and Beau Brummell from Shakspeare and Sir Walter Raleigh.-F. C.] HYMENÆI, &c. It is a noble and just advantage that the things subjected to understanding have of those which are objected to sense; that the one sort are but momentary, and merely taking; the other impressing and lasting else the glory of all these solemnies had perished like a blaze, and gone out, in the beholders' eyes. So short lived are the bodies of all things, in comparison of their souls. And though bodies ofttimes have the ill-luck to be sensually preferred, they find afterwards the good fortune (when souls live) to be utterly forgotten. This it is hath made the most royal princes, and greatest persons (who are commonly the personaters of these actions) not only studious of riches, and magnificence in the outward celebration or shew, which rightly becomes them; but curious after the most high and hearty inventions, to furnish the inward parts, and those grounded upon antiquity and solid learnings: which though their voice be taught to sound to present occasions, their sense or doth or should always lay hold on more removed mysteries. And howsoever some may squeamishly cry out, that all endeavour of learning and sharpness in these transitory devices, especially where it steps beyond their little, or (let me not wrong 'em), no brain at all, is superfluous; I am contented these fastidious stomachs should leave my full tables, and enjoy at home their clean empty trenchers, fittest for such airy tastes; where perhaps a few Italian herbs, picked up and made into a sallad, may find sweeter acceptance than all the most nourishing and sound meats of the world. For these men's palates, let not me answer, O Muses. It is not my fault if I fill them out nectar and they run to metheglin. Vaticana bibant, si delectentur. All the courtesy I can do them, is to cry again, Prætereant, si quid non facit ad sto machum. As I will from the thought of them, to my better subject. On the night of the Masques (waden were two, one of men, the other of women) the scene being drawn, there was first discovered an altar; upon which was inscribed, in letters of gold, *Ioni. Oimæ. Mimæ. UNION Ι. To this altar entered five pages, attired in white, bearing five tapers of virgin wax ;+ behind them, one representing a bridegroom his hair short, ‡ and bound with party-coloured ribbons, and gold twist; his garments purple and white. On the other hand, entered HYMEN (the god of marriage) in a saffron-coloured robe,1 his under vestures white, his socks yellow, a yellow veil of silk on his left arm, his head crowned with roses and marjoram, § in his right hand a torch of pine-tree.|| After him a youth attired in white,¶ bearing another light, of white thorn; under his arm, a little wicker flasket shut : behind him two others in white, the one bearing a distaff, the other a spindle. Betwixt these a personated bride, supported, her hair flowing, and loose, sprinkled with gray; on her head a gyrland of roses, like * Mystically implying that both it, the place, and all the succeeding ceremonies, were sacred to marriage, or Union; over which Juno was president to whom there was the like altar erected at Rome, as she was called Juga Juno, in the street, which thence was named Jugarius. See Fest.; and at which altar the rite was to join the married pair with bands of silk, in sign of future concord. Those were the Quinque Cerei, which Plutarch in his Quæst. Román. mentions to be used in nuptials. The dressing of the bridegroom (with the ancients) was chiefly noted in that. Quod tonderetur. Juv. Sat. 6. Famque à tonsore magistro Pecteris. And Lucan, lib. 2, where he makes Cato negligent of the ceremonies in marriage, saith, Ille nec horrificam sancto dimovit ab ore Cæsariem. § See how he is called out by Catullus in Nup. Jul. et Manl. Cinge tempora floribus Suave olentis amaraci, &C. For so I preserve the reading there in Catul. Pineam quate tædam, rather than to change it Spineam; and moved by the authority of Virgil in Ciri. where he says, Pronuba nec castos incendet Pinus amores. And Ovid, Fast. lib. 2. Expectet puros pinea tæda dies. nough I deny not there was also spinea tæda, &c., which Pliny calls Nuptiarum facibus auspicatissimam, Nat. Hist. lib. 16, cap. 18, and whereof Sextus Pompeius Fest. hath left so particular testimony. For which see the following note. a turret; her garments white and on her back, a wether's fleece hanging down: her zone, or girdle about her waist of white wool, fastened with the Herculean knot. In the midst went the Auspices ;** after them, two that sung, in several coloured silks. Of which one bore the water, the other the fire; last of all the musicians,†† diversly attired, all crowned with roses; and with this SONG began: Bid all profane away; But who themselves have been, Fly then all profane away, The song being ended, HYMEN presented himself foremost, and, after some sign of admiration, began to speak. This (by the ancients) was called Camillus, quasi minister (for so that signified in the Hetrurian_tongue), and was one of the three which by Sex. Pompei. were said to be Patrimi et Matrimi, Pueri prætextati tres, qui nubentem deducunt: unus, qui facem præfert ex spina alba. Duo qui tenent nubentem. To which confer that of Varro, lib. 6 de lingua Lat. Dicitur in nuptiis camillus, qui cumerum fert. As also that of Fest. lib. 3. Cumerum vocabant antiqui vas quoddam quod opertum in nuptiis ferebant, in quo erant nubentis utensilia, quod et camillum dicebant: eo quod sacrorum ministrum káμıdλov appellavant. ** Auspices were those that handfasted the married couple; that wished them good luck : that took care for the dowry; and heard them profess that they came together for the cause of children. Juven. Sat. 10, Veniet cum signatoribus auspex. And Lucan, lib. 2, Funguntur taciti, contentique auspice Bruto. They are also styled Pronubi, Proxenetæ, Paranymphi. tt The custom of music at nuptials is clear in all antiquity. Ter. Adel. act. 5. Verum hoc mihi mora est, Tibicina, et Hymenæum qui cantent. And Claud. in epithal. Ducant pervigiles carmina tibiæ, &C. 1 On the other hand, entered Hymen in a saffron-coloured robe, &c.] It is to this that Milton alludes: Then let Hymen oft appear That know how well it binds Wins natures, sexes, minds, And every discord in true music brings: Sit now propitious aids, To rites so duly prized; And view two noble maids, Of different sex, to Union sacrificed. Here out of a microcosm or globe (see p. 30 a) * These represented the four Humourst and * Whose names as they were then marshalled by couples, I have heraldry enough to set down. LORD WILLOUGHBY, 1 LORD WALDEN,2 SIR JAMES HAY,3 EARL OF MONTGOMERY, Lord Willoughby.] William, third Lord Willoughby of Parham; he was a performer in the masque exhibited at Court on the marriage of Sir Philip Herbert, so often mentioned. His lady was Frances, daughter of John, fourth Earl of Rutland.. Lord Walden.] Theophilus, eldest son of the Earl of Suffolk. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Dunbar, and died 1640. This nobleman was called up to the House of Peers in his father's lifetime (1603) by the title of Lord Howard of Walden. 3 Sir James Hay.] Son of Sir James Hay, of Kingask; he came into England in the suite of James, by whom he was greatly esteemed, and successively created Baron Sowlie, Viscount Doncaster, and finally Earl of Carlisle. He continued a favourite under this and the following reign, and died in 1636, having received more grants and spent more money than any man of that age. He married, Lord Clarendon says, a beautiful young lady, daughter to the Earl of Northumberland. Earl of Montgomery.] Philip Herbert, brother to the Earl of Pembroke. 5 Sir Thomas Howard.] Probably a cousin of Lord Arundel. He is mentioned in a letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, as preparing "for journey to France with Lord Cranborn:" but I know nothing more of him. Lodge's Illus. vol. iii. 366. 6 Sir Thomas Somerset.] Third son of Edward, fourth Earl of Worcester. He was sent by the privy council to announce to James the death of Elizabeth, was much and deservedly SIR THOMAS HOWARD," esteemed by the King, and in 1626 created Earl of Arundel.] Thomas Howard, son It is 8 Sir John Ashly.] Unknown to me; but probably Sir John Cooper, who married Anne, daughter and sole heir of Sir Antony Ashley (a famous soldier under Elizabeth), and who, with the immense property, might also enjoy the name of his father-in-law. Sir John was the father of Antony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury. That they were personated in men hath already come under some grammatical exception. But there is more than grammar to release it. For besides that humores and affectus 1 |