PASTORAL MASQUES. Well done, my pretty ones! rain roses still, 351 It may well be wondered, when the poet has sent his Shepherd with this flourish off the stage, whether he could himself have pointed out each herb amid that prodigality of quaint-named blossoms in some actual garden at one same and certain season of the year. The effect, however, is rich; and those who care to reconstruct old English flower-beds in their imagination, may learn from Gerard's Herbal what goldylocks and goulands, sops-in-wine and pagles, ladysmocks and calaminth and purple-ringed daffodillies really were. XII. In the Masque of Beauty, Jonson sounds a higher lyric note than this. To judge by the description he has furnished of the show, the 'bodily presentment must have been magnificent and exquisite. Harmonia was seated on a throne, adorned with painted statues, and approached by six steps, which were 'covered with a multitude of Cupids (chosen out of the best and most ingenious youths of the kingdom, both noble and others) that were the torch-bearers.' Around the throne were curious and elegant arbours appointed.' Behind it spread 'a grove of grown trees laden with golden fruit, which other little Cupids plucked, and threw at each other, whilst on the ground leverets picked up the bruised apples, and left them half eaten.' Into this pleasance, on a floating island, came the Masquers; and when they had danced forth a most curious dance, full of excellent device and change,' they stood in the figure of a diamond, and so, standing still, were by the musicians with a second. song, sung by a loud tenor, celebrated: So Beauty on the waters stood, When Love had severed earth from flood! So when he parted air from fire, He did with concord all inspire! And then a motion he them taught, That elder than himself was thought; Which thought was, yet, the child of earth, In the libretto of 'Prince Henry's Barriers,' Jonson attacks history, and summons Merlin from his grave HISTORICAL MASQUES. 353 within the lake to marshal forth the glories of Plantagenets and Tudors. Henry, on the day preceding this trial of arms, had been created Prince of Wales with extraordinary pomp. He was a youth of singular beauty and athletic grace, an adept in chivalrous sports, and a pursuivant of love, though only in his fifteenth year. To greet him on this great occasion with the muster-roll of England's potent Edwards and heroic Henrys, was a compliment no less instructive than effective. First come the builders-up of English greatness; then the Crusaders; next the Black Prince : That Mars of men, The black prince Edward, 'gainst the French who then After him, the hero of Agincourt: Yet rests the other thunderbolt of war, Lastly, Elizabeth, before whose auspices fled shattered the Invincible Armada : That covered all the main, As if whole islands had broke loose, and swam, To join the continent. The young prince, so lately consecrated heir of England, must have had churl's blood in his veins if he blushed and thrilled not to the martial music of these verses. He could not know to what a timeless death his adolescence was devoted. Nor could any of the Court then present have predicted how the splendours A A of the House of Stuart would be merged in two grim revolutions. Strangely enough, as though the poet were also prophet, Jonson reserves the last lines of his panegyric for a princess of the Stuart line-Elizabeth, the wife of the Elector Palatine, from whom the Empress-Queen of England at our epoch draws her blood. Of her he says: She shall be Mother of nations ! While In this prediction lurks a deep poetic irony intending a compliment, the Laureate wrote a motto for America and Canada, for Australia and New Zealand, for the Colonies of Africa and China, for the South-Sea Islands, and the Empire of the Eastern Indies. Young Henry proved himself not unworthy of these royal honours. Upon the morrow of the Masque, he held the lists together with his chosen champions against their chivalrous assailants. That day, he gave and received thirty-two pushes of pikes, and about three hundred and sixty strokes of swords. Allowing for the fact that this was a toy-tournament, in which a Prince of Wales was no doubt well regarded, we may still repeat Sir George Cornwallis's comment on his prowess with national pride: 'the which is scarce credible in so young years, enough to assure the world that Great Britain's brave Henry aspired to immortality.' On the evening of the day following these Barriers, the Prince appeared as Oberon among his fairies in a new and still more splendid entertainment. They danced until the night was well-nigh spent, when Phosphor, rising, bade them all, like duteous fays, speed home to bed: PRINCE HENRY. To rest, to rest! The herald of the day, Bright Phosphorus, commands you hence! Obey ! But stay to warn you Then do I give way, As Night hath done, and so must you, to Day. 355 This warning from the morning star may well be taken as a warning for the modern scribe, sitting late into the night with Jonson, who feels the exploration of the beauties scattered through those Masques to be an infinite quest. XIII. Thus far, I have confined attention to the scenic splendour of our Masques; to the flowers of lyric poetry adorning them; and to the deep subsoil of learning, from which those radiant blossoms sprang. But there is a dark and ominous shadow cast by history upon their brightness. The last word spoken must concern the actors, must disclose the tragic irony of their appearance on that courtly stage. Let us recall the English beauties who attended Anne of Denmark -Belanna, as her Laureate styled the Queen-in her triumphal progress through the Masque of Beauty. Countesses of Arundel and Derby, of Bedford and Montgomery; Ladies Guilford, Petre, Winsor, Winter, Clifford, Neville, Hatton, Chichester, and Walsingham. Many of these women had sad tales to tell in days of coming troubles. But the saddest tale of all was that of the Lady Arabella Stuart. Heiress of the House |
