Sacra Serenissima Maiesta,
Perché à i giorni passati io haveva promesso à M. Claudio Cavallerizzo, et à M. Alfonso Ferrabosco, d'esser contento di recitare ad una piacevol Comedia Italiana; per compiacere alla Maiesta Vostra; et non si trovando di poi altri, che tre ò quattro, che fusser contenti d'accettar tal carico; ho voluto che l'Altezza Vostra conosca da me stesso il pronto animo, ch' io ho per la mia parté di servirla, et di compiacerla in ogni attioné, che me sia comandata ò da lei, ò in suo nomé, non solamente comé servitore giurato, ch'io gli sono; ma comé desiderosissimo di far conoscere, che la divotioné, ch'io porto allé sue Reali qualità, supera ogn' altro rispetto; desiderandogli io contentezza, et felicità non meno, che qualunqué altro suo servitore gli desideri: la cui bontà Dio ci prosperi.
Di Vostra Sacra Serenissima Maiesta.
Of Claudio Cavallerizzo I regret to say that I know nothing.
A statement that Venetian actors were in England in 1608 rests upon a misreading of a record.[1]
ii. ENGLISH PLAYERS IN SCOTLAND
The interlude players of Henry VII, under John English, accompanied the Princess Margaret to Scotland for her wedding with James IV in 1503, and 'did their devoir' before the Court at Edinburgh.[2] It is the best part of a century before any similar adventure is recorded. In the interval came the Scottish reformation, which was no friend to courtly pageantry. Yet in Scotland, as elsewhere, Kirk discipline had to make some compromise with the drama. In 1574 the General Assembly, while utterly forbidding, not for the first time, 'clerk playes, comedies or tragedies maid of ye cannonicall Scriptures', went on to ordain 'an article to be given in to sick as sitts upon ye policie yat for uther playes comedies tragedies and utheris profaine playes, as are not maid upon authentick pairtes of ye Scriptures, may be considerit before they be exponit publictlie and yat they be not played uppon ye Sabboth dayes'.[3] It was once more a royal wedding that led to a histrionic courtesy between England and Scotland. In the autumn of 1589 James VI was expecting the arrival of his bride Anne of Denmark, a sensuous and spectacle-loving lady, who had already had experience of English actors at her father's Court in 1586.[4] And being then, two years after his mother's execution, actively engaged in promoting friendly relations with
