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128

THE COURT

Hither she was pursued by some of the scholars with what appears to have been a mask, originally intended to serve as an afterpiece to the Ajax Flagellifer. They were allowed to present it, but it proved to have been conceived in a spirit unsuited to the colour of the Queen's Protestantism, and gave considerable offence. It was, in fact, a burlesque of the Mass.^[1] Two years later, from 31 August to 6 September 1566, it was the turn of Oxford.^[2] The plays were in Christ Church Hall, and in them the University had the assistance of Richard Edwardes, formerly Student of Christ Church, and now Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal. At the first, a Latin prose comedy called Marcus Geminus, on 1 September, the Queen was not present. But she attended Edwardes's Palamon and Arcite, an English play in two parts, given on 2 and 4 September, and expressed high appreciation of the play and the acting. The fact that three persons were killed by the fall of a wall near the entrance door was not allowed to interfere with the representation.^[3] She also attended James Calfhill's

↑ I borrow from Boas, 383, De Silva's description to the Duchess of Parma as given in Froude's transcript (Addl. MS. 26056 A, f. 237) of the original in the Simanças archives. There is a translation in Sp. Papers, i. 375. Froude, vii. 205, paraphrases the story. After premising that during the Queen's visit 'they wished to give her another representation, which she refused in order to be no longer delayed', and that, 'those who were so anxious for her to hear it followed her to her first stopping-place, and so importuned her that at last she consented', De Silva continues, 'Entráron los representantes en habitos de algunos de los Obispos que estan presos; fué el primo el de Londres [Bonner] llevando en las manos un cordero como que le iba comiendo, y otros con otras devisas, y uno en figura de perro con una hostia en la boca. La Reyna se enojó tanto segun escriben que se entró á priesa en su camara diciendo malas palabras, y los que tenian las hachas, que era de noche, los dexáron á escuras, y assí cesó la inconsiderada y desvergonçada representaçion.' Of course, there is nothing about this in the academic narratives. It was an indecent proceeding, but in view of the character of the farsa or mummery which enlivened Elizabeth's first Christmas (cf. ch. v), the misunderstanding of her taste is perhaps explicable.
↑ There are five narratives: (a) Twyne MS. xvii, f. 160, in the University archives, by Thomas Neale, Professor of Hebrew, used by A. Wood, Hist. of Oxford, ii. 154, and Boas, 98; (b) Richard Stephens, A Brief Rehearsall, a summary of (a), printed by Nichols, Eliz.¹ i. 95, and C. Plummer, Elizabethan Oxford, 193; (c) Twyne MS. xxi. 792, by Miles Windsor of Corpus; (d) Nicholas Robinson (of Queens', Cambridge), Of the Actes done at Oxford, printed from Harl. MS. 7033, f. 142, by Nichols, i. 229, and Plummer, 173; (e) John Bereblock (of Exeter), Commentarii de Rebus Gestis Oxoniae, printed by T. Hearne (1729) and Nichols, Eliz.¹ i. 35, and from Bodl. Addl. MS. A. 63, by Plummer, 113, and translated by W. Y. Durand in M. L. A. xx. 502. Bereblock gives full analyses of the plays. Boas, 106, adds extracts from a Christ Church account of the expenditure.
↑ Bereblock (Plummer, 128) says, 'Hoc malum quamvis potuit com-

[1] I borrow from Boas, 383, De Silva's description to the Duchess of Parma as given in Froude's transcript (Addl. MS. 26056 A, f. 237) of the original in the Simanças archives. There is a translation in Sp. Papers, i. 375. Froude, vii. 205, paraphrases the story. After premising that during the Queen's visit 'they wished to give her another representation, which she refused in order to be no longer delayed', and that, 'those who were so anxious for her to hear it followed her to her first stopping-place, and so importuned her that at last she consented', De Silva continues, 'Entráron los representantes en habitos de algunos de los Obispos que estan presos; fué el primo el de Londres [Bonner] llevando en las manos un cordero como que le iba comiendo, y otros con otras devisas, y uno en figura de perro con una hostia en la boca. La Reyna se enojó tanto segun escriben que se entró á priesa en su camara diciendo malas palabras, y los que tenian las hachas, que era de noche, los dexáron á escuras, y assí cesó la inconsiderada y desvergonçada representaçion.' Of course, there is nothing about this in the academic narratives. It was an indecent proceeding, but in view of the character of the farsa or mummery which enlivened Elizabeth's first Christmas (cf. ch. v), the misunderstanding of her taste is perhaps explicable.

[2] There are five narratives: (a) Twyne MS. xvii, f. 160, in the University archives, by Thomas Neale, Professor of Hebrew, used by A. Wood, Hist. of Oxford, ii. 154, and Boas, 98; (b) Richard Stephens, A Brief Rehearsall, a summary of (a), printed by Nichols, Eliz.¹ i. 95, and C. Plummer, Elizabethan Oxford, 193; (c) Twyne MS. xxi. 792, by Miles Windsor of Corpus; (d) Nicholas Robinson (of Queens', Cambridge), Of the Actes done at Oxford, printed from Harl. MS. 7033, f. 142, by Nichols, i. 229, and Plummer, 173; (e) John Bereblock (of Exeter), Commentarii de Rebus Gestis Oxoniae, printed by T. Hearne (1729) and Nichols, Eliz.¹ i. 35, and from Bodl. Addl. MS. A. 63, by Plummer, 113, and translated by W. Y. Durand in M. L. A. xx. 502. Bereblock gives full analyses of the plays. Boas, 106, adds extracts from a Christ Church account of the expenditure.

[page128-3] Bereblock (Plummer, 128) says, 'Hoc malum quamvis potuit com-

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