But the worst of all was, that the King was so wearied and sleepy, with sitting up almost two whole nights before, that he had no edge to it. Whereupon, Sir Francis Bacon adventured to entreat of his majesty that by this difference he would not, as it were, bury them quick; and I hear the King should answer, that then they must bury him quick, for he could last no longer, but withal gave them very good words, and appointed them to come again on Saturday. But the grace of their mask is quite gone, when their apparel hath been already showed, and their devices vented, so that how it will fall out God knows, for they are much discouraged and out of countenance, and the world says it comes to pass after the old proverb, the properer man the worse luck.'
In a later letter (Birch, i. 229) Chamberlain concludes the story:
'And our Gray's Inn men and the Inner Templars were nothing discouraged,
for all the first dodge, but on Saturday last performed their parts exceeding
well and with great applause and approbation, both from the King and all
the company.'
In a third letter, to Winwood (iii, 435), he describes the adventures of
the mask more briefly, and adds the detail that the performance was
'in the new bankquetting house, which for a kind of amends was granted
to them, though with much repining and contradiction of their emulators.'
Chamberlain refers to the 'new' room of 1607, and not to that just
put up for the wedding. This was used for the banquet. Foscarini
reports (V. P. xii. 532) that:
'After the ballet was over their Majesties and their Highnesses passed
into a great Hall especially built for the purpose, where were long tables
laden with comfits and thousands of mottoes. After the King had made the
round of the tables, everything was in a moment rapaciously swept away.'
The records of the Inns throw light on the finance and organization
of the mask. From those of the Inner Temple (Inderwick, ii. 72, 76,
81, 92, 99) we learn that the Inn's share of the cost was 'not so little as
1200^{li}', that there were payments to Lewis Hele, Nicholas Polhill,
and Fenner, and for 'scarlet for the marshal of the mask', that
there was a rehearsal for the benchers at Ely House, and that funds
were raised up to 1616 by assessments of £2 and £1 and by assigning
the revenue derived from admission fees to chambers. Those of
Gray's Inn (Fletcher, 201-8) contain an order for such things to be
bought 'as M^r. Solicitor [Bacon] shall thinke fitt'. One Will Gerrard
was appointed Treasurer, and an assessment of from £1 to £4 according
to status was to be made for a sum equal to that raised by the Inner
Temple. There was evidently some difficulty in liquidating the bills.
In May 1613 an order was made 'that the gent. late actors in the
maske at the court shall bring in all ther masking apparrel w^{ch} they
had of the howse charge . . . or else the value therof'. In June a
further order was drafted and then stayed, calling attention to the
'sad contempts' of those affected by the former, 'albeit none of
them did contribute anything to the charge'. Each suit had cost
100 marks. The offenders were to be discommonsed. In November
and again in the following February it was found necessary to
appropriate admission fees towards the debt.
