Misrule (cf. Mediaeval Stage, i. 417), appointed at Gray's Inn for the Christmas of 1594. The Prince was a Norfolk man, Henry Helmes, and a list of the members of the Inn who held positions at his court is given in the tract. The revels began on St. Thomas's Eve, 20 Dec., continued until Twelfth Night, were resumed at Candlemas, and again at Shrovetide, when the Prince's reign terminated.
On Innocents' Day, 28 Dec., at night, the Inner Temple were entertained, and a stage set up, but the crowd was too great for the 'inventions' contemplated, and 'it was thought good not to offer any thing of account, saving dancing and revelling with gentlewomen; and after such sports, a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the players. So that night was begun, and continued to the end, in nothing but confusion and errors; whereupon, it was ever afterwards called, The Night of Errors'. On 30 Dec. an indictment was preferred against a supposed sorcerer, containing a charge 'that he had foisted a company of base and common fellows, to make up our disorders with a play of errors and confusions; and that that night had gained to us discredit, and itself a nickname of Errors'. Presumably the players of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors were the Chamberlain's men, and the Treasurer of the Chamber's record (App. B) of a play at court by these men, as well as the Admiral's, on 28 Dec. is a slip for 27 Dec. (M. L. R. ii. 10).
On 3 Jan. many nobles were entertained with a show illustrating the amity of Graius and Templarius. It was followed by speeches from six 'Councellors', advising respectively 'the Exercise of War', 'the Study of Philosophy', 'Eternizement and Fame, by Buildings and Foundations', 'Absoluteness of State and Treasure', 'Vertue, and a Gracious Government', and 'Pass-times and Sports'. These are ascribed by Spedding, i. 342, to Francis Bacon (q.v.), a view which finds some confirmation in the fact that the Alnwick MS., many of the contents of which are by Bacon, once contained a copy of some 'Orations at Graies Inne Revells' (Burgoyne, xii). It is amusing to note that on 5 Dec. 1594 Lady Bacon, his mother, wrote to his brother Anthony, 'I trust they will not mum nor mask nor sinfully revel at Gray's Inn' (Spedding, i. 326). The speeches of three of the 'Councellors', with one by the Prince, are also preserved, without ascription, in Inner Temple Petyt MS. 583, 43, f. 294.
On 6 Jan. appeared six Knights of the Helmet 'in a very stately mask, and danced a new devised measure; and after that they took to them ladies and gentlewomen, and danced with them their galliards, and so departed with musick'.
On 1 Feb. the Prince visited Greenwich, and promised to return at Shrovetide. On his way back, he was met with a Latin oration by a boy at St. Paul's School.
At Shrovetide, the Prince took his mask to the court at Whitehall. The maskers were the Prince of Purpoole and his Seven Knights; the torchbearers eight Pigmies; the presenters Proteus, Thamesis, Amphitrite, and one of the Prince's Esquires; the musicians two Tritons, two Nymphs, and a Tartarian Page.
