iii. 294), and the feud was still alive and Anne had added other sins to her score in 1618, when Chamberlain wrote (Birch, ii. 86):
'M^{rs}. Vavasour, old Sir Henry Lee's woman, is like to be called in question
for having two husbands now alive. Young Sir Henry Lee, the wild oats
of Ireland, hath obtained the confiscation of her, if he can prove it without
touching her life.'
Aubrey's story that Lee's nephew was disinherited in favour of 'a
keeper's sonne of Whitchwood-forest of his owne name, a one-eied
young man, no kinne to him', is exaggerated gossip. Lee entailed
his estate on a second cousin.
I have brought together under Lee's name two entertainments and fragments of at least one other, which ought strictly to be classed as anonymous, but with which he was certainly concerned, and to which he may have contributed some of the 'conceiptes, Himmes, Songes & Emblemes', of which one of the fragments speaks.
The Woodstock Entertainment. Sept. 1575
[MS.] Royal MS. 18 A. xlviii (27). 'The Tale of Hemetes the Heremyte.' [The tale is given in four languages, English, Latin, Italian, and French. It is accompanied by pen-and-ink drawings, and preceded by verses and an epistle to Elizabeth. The latter is dated 'first of January, 1576' and signed 'G. Gascoigne'. The English text is, with minor variations, that of the tale as printed in 1585. Its authorship is not claimed by Gascoigne, who says that he has 'turned the eloquent tale of Hemetes the Heremyte (wherw^{th} I saw yo^r lerned judgment greatly pleased at Woodstock) into latyne, Italyan and frenche', and contrasts his own ignorance with 'thaucto^{rs} skyll'.]
S. R. 1579, Sept. 22. 'A paradox provinge by Reason and Example that Baldnes is muche better than bushie heare.' H. Denham (Arber, ii. 360).
1579. A Paradoxe, Proving by reason and example, that Baldnesse is much better than bushie haire. . . . Englished by Abraham Fleming. Hereunto is annexed the pleasant tale of Hemetes the Heremite, pronounced before the Queenes Majestie. Newly recognized both in Latine and Englishe, by the said A. F. H. Denham. [Contains the English text of the Tale and Gascoigne's Latin version.]
1585. Colophon: 'Imprinted at London for Thomas Cadman, 1585.' [Originally contained a complete description of an entertainment, of which the tale of Hemetes only formed part; but sig. A, with the title-*page, is missing. The unique copy, formerly in the Rowfant library, is now in the B.M. The t.p. is a modern type-facsimile, based on the head-line and colophon (McKerrow, Bibl. Evidence, 306).]
Editions (a) from 1579, by J. Nichols, Eliz. i. 553 (1823), and W. C. Hazlitt, Gascoigne, ii. 135 (1870); (b) from MS. by J. W. Cunliffe, Gascoigne, ii. 473 (1910); (c) from 1585, by A. W. Pollard (1910, partly printed 1903) and J. W. Cunliffe (1911, M. L. A. xxvi. 92).
Gascoigne's manuscript is chiefly of value as fixing the locality of the entertainment, which is not mentioned in the mutilated print of 1585. The date can hardly be doubtful. Elizabeth spent considerable periods at Woodstock in 1572, 1574, and 1575, but it so happens that
