Cave; and the entertainment included two masks.[1] Similarly, at Shrovetide 1566, she was present at the marriage of Henry Earl of Southampton, to Mary Browne, daughter of Anthony Lord Montague, and on 1 July 1566 at that of Thomas Mildmay to Frances, sister of Thomas Earl of Sussex, and on each occasion there was a mask with an oration 'spoken and pronounced' by Mr. Pound of Lincoln's Inn. The July mask introduced Venus, Diana, Pallas, and Juno.[2] We know that there were four masks during the winter of 1567-8, and that there were masks during those of 1568-9, 1569-70, and 1570-1, but practically we know no more.[3] For 1571-2, however, fuller information is available, since with this winter begins the series of detailed Revels Accounts, which extends, with occasional interruptions, to 1589. There were six masks, on unspecified dates. For two of these the costumes were 'translated' from old sets. Four were new made; one of yellow cloth of gold, with torch-bearers in red and yellow changeable taffeta; one of crimson, purple, and green cloth of gold, with torch-bearers in red damask; one of white and black branched loom-work, with torch-bearers in blue and yellow changeable taffeta; and one in murrey satin, with torch-bearers in changeable taffeta of an unspecified colour. The maskers were six or eight in number in each case, and wore vizards, gloves, at 6d. a pair, and strange heads. Devices of canvas were made for some or all of them. One set carried flowers of silk and gold, and before them went a child dressed as Mercury, with two special torch-bearers, who made a speech, and offered the Queen three similar flowers, signifying victory, peace, and plenty.[4] On 15 June 1572 an elaborate mask was given in honour of another French embassy under the Duc de Montmorency. The theme evidently bore some resemblance to the abandoned devices of 1562.[5] A vizard was made for Argus and a collar and shackles and curls of black silk for Discord. There were two pageants, a castle upon which
- ↑ Hume, Year after Armada, 283; De Silva to Philip (Sp. P. i. 452), 'a ball, a tourney, and two masks'. These were after supper and ended at 1.30 a.m.
- ↑ Pound's speeches are in Rawl. Poet. MS. 108 (Bodl. MS. 14601), f. 24; De Silva to Philip (July 1566, Sp. P. i. 565), 'a masquerade and a long ball, after which they entered in new disguises for a foot tournament'. The chief challenger was Ormond. On Pound's career as a masker and its strange end, cf. ch. xxiii.
- ↑ Feuillerat, Eliz. 119, 'the altering and newe makinge of sixe maskes out of ould stuff with torche bearers thervnto wherof iiij^{or} hathe byne shewene before vs, and two remayne vnshewen', 124, 125, 126.
- ↑ Ibid. 129, 134, 139, 146.
- ↑ Fleay, 19; Brotanek, 25. But the resemblances are only partial, cf. M. S. C. i. 144.
