' after a grett maske, for ther was a grett skaffold in the 'hall, with grett tryhumpe as has bene sene, and the morow after the skaffold was taken doune.'

This play was no other than Ferrex and Porrex, written by Sackville and Norton, the title-page of the old printed copies stating, that it was shewed before

the Queenes most excellent Majestie, in her Highnes ' court of Whitehall, the 18th Jany 1561[2], by the 'gentlemen of the Inner Temple.' On the 1st of February following, another historical play was acted at court, called Julius Cæsar, the name of which is furnished by the old Chronicle above quoted, and it affords, I think, the earliest instance of a subject from the Roman history being brought upon the stage. The notice is in the following terms :—

The furst day of Feybruary at nyght, was the goodlyst maske cam owt of London that ever was sene, and a hundred & od gorgyously be sene, & a hundred cheynes of gold; and as for trumpetts &

drumes, & as for torche lyght a hundered, & so to the 'cowrt, & dyvers goodly men of armes in gylt harnes, • & Julyus Sesar played.'

The following particulars are in themselves interesting, and will throw new light upon a rather obscure part of the history of the transactions, at this date, between Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots.

On the 10th May, 1562, a warrant was issued to John Fortescue, esquire, to deliver out of the Great Wardrobe a large quantity of silks, and other articles of the same kind, to Sir Thomas Benger, Master of the

Revels, for the better furnyshinge & settinge forthe ' of suche maskes and revells as shall be shewed by him.' These masks and revels? were not to be held in London, but at Nottingham, as appears by a very curious document in the same volume of MSS., which contains the preceding warrant *: it is entitled De'vices to be shewed before the Queenes Majestie, by waye of maskinge, at Nottingham castell, after the metinge of the Quene of Scotts.' To explain this document it is necessary to mention, that Mary, Queen of Scots, having returned from France in 1561, a project was set on foot in the spring of 1562 to procure an interview between her and Elizabeth. It was intended that this meeting should take place in May; but Mary being very beautiful, and Elizabeth having no pretensions of the kind, the vanity of the latter seems to have prevented the execution of this design altogether, after it had first been postponed to June†, and subsequently to August. Articles' drawn up in June for the interview, are printed by Dr. Samuel Haynes, among the State papers of Elizabeth to the year 1570‡. So certain did Sir W.

* Lansdown MSS., No. 5.

On June 16th, 1562, Elizabeth wrote to the Earl of Huntingdon, ordering him to attend at the projected meeting between her and the Queen of Scots, which was to take place either at our city of York, or at some other convenient place on this side near unto Trent.' This is all that Mr. Nichols inserts regarding the event. Progr. Eliz. i. 142. ‡ Fol. London, 1749. Mr. G. Chalmers thus speaks of the intended interview,

Amidst these disquieting scenes Mary returned [from her progress

Cecill consider the meeting of the two Queens in May, that he employed some poet of the day (it is not stated whom) to draw up a scheme of the entertainments, in the nature of emblematical masks and pageants, to be exhibited before them: this scheme is the Devices' above mentioned, preserved among the papers of Sir W. Cecill,-a curious historical document not mentioned by any who have written upon the incidents of the lives of Elizabeth or Mary. It is as follows:

The

'to the North] to Edinburgh early in May. Owing to some intima'tions of Randolph, before her journey to Fife, she had allowed her 'mind to dwell upon a personal interview with Elizabeth in England. 'Whether Cecil or Maitland suggested this idle purpose cannot now be 'told: Mary certainly laid the matter before her Privy Council on the 19th May, and her counsellors left the decision of the matter to her"self, "if she should think her own person to be in any way in surety upon any promise to be made by the English Queen." Mary was so little " apprehensive of her personal safety, that she sent Secretary Maitland 'to London, to agree upon the detail of such an interview. 'Queen wrote to Leicester upon the subject, and her chief Minister, 'the Earl of Mar, addressed a letter to Cecil upon the same business. For carrying it into effect a provisional treaty was actually agreed upon, so sincere seemed Elizabeth for the moment: but she soon I began to vacillate between the two opinions, whether to meet or not 'to meet the Scottish Queen at Nottingham. At length, in July, she 'sent that truly respectable statesman Sir Henry Sidney to Edinburgh, ❝ in order to explain to the Scottish Queen, how inconvenient it would be to meet her personally while the troubles continued in France. 'Mary seems to have been disappointed; and with her usual amenity ' wrote her good sister, whose ruling passion was dissimulation, her grief in not seeing the person in this world whom she would be 'gladdest to see.'-Life of Mary Queen of Scots, vol. i. p. 62.

6 THE FIRSTE NIGHT.

Firste a pryson to be made in the haule, the ' name whereof is Extreme Oblyvion, and the Kepers 'name thereof, Argus, otherwise called Circumspection: ' then a maske of Ladyes to come in after this sorte. Firste Pallas, rydinge vppon an unycorne, havinge ' in her hande a Standarde, in wch is to be paynted ij 'Ladyes hands, knitt one faste wthin thother, and over th❜ands written in letters of golde, Fides.

Then ij Ladyes rydinge together th'one uppon a 'golden Lyon, wth, a crowne of gold on his heade: 'th'other uppon a redd Lyon, wth, the like crowne of Gold; signifyinge ij Vertues, that is to saye, the 'Lady on the golden Lyon, is to be called Prudentia, ' and the Ladye on the redd Lyon, Temperantia.

After this to followe vj, or viij Ladyes maskers, 'bringinge in captive, Discorde, and False Reporte, with ropes of gold about there necks. When theis have marched about the haule, then Pallas to declare before the Quenes Matie in verse, that the goddes, • understandinge the noble meteinge of those ij quenes, 'hathe willed her to declare unto them, that those ij vertues, Prudentia and Temperantia, have made 'greate and longe sute unto, Jupiter, that it wold please hym to gyve unto them False Reporte and 'Discorde, to be punished as they thinke good; and 'that those Ladyes have nowe in there presence determyned to committ them faste bounde unto th'af'foresayde pryson of Extreme Oblyvion, there to be

kepte by th'afforesayde gaylor Argus, otherwise Cir'cumspection, for ever; unto whome Prudentia shall delyver a locke whereuppon shalbe wrytten In Eter6 пит. Then Temperatia shall likewise delyver vnto 6 Argus a key whose name shalbe Nunquam, signi6 fyinge, that when False Report and Discorde are ' committed to the pryson of Extreme Oblyvion, and 'locked there everlastinglie, he should put in the key to lett them out Nunquam; and when he hathe so 'done, then the trompetts to blowe, and th'inglishe Ladies to take the nobilite of the straungers, and • daunce.

'First a Castell to be made in the haule, called the 'Courte of Plentye; then the maske after this sorte. 'Firste Peace, rydinge uppon a chariott drawen wth an Oliphant, uppon whome shall ryde Fryndeshippe, ' and after them vj or viij Ladyes maskers; and when they have marched rounde aboute the haule Fryndshippe shall declare before the quenes highnes in verse, that the goddes Pallas hath latelie made a ' declaracion before all the godds, howe worthilie the night precedent theis ij vertues, Prudentia and Temperantia, behaved them selves in judginge, and

condempninge, False Reporte, and Discord, to the prison of Extreme Oblyvion: and understandinge 'that those ij vertues do remaine in that Cowrte of Plentye, they have by there mightie power, sent 'this vertu, Peace, there to dwell with those ij Ladyes,