was exceeding skilfull." From which it appears that the performance took place in the day-time.
Davenant likewise produced the following masques for the entertainment of the Court:
"The Temple of Love," 1634, "a masque presented by the Queen's Majesty and her ladies at Whitehall."
"The Triumphs of the Prince d'Amours," 1635, represented in the Middle Temple Hall, and written at the request of the Benchers for an entertainment given by the Inn to the Prince Charles Elector Palatine, nephew of King Charles I.
"Britannia Triumphans," 1637.
"Salmacida Spolia," presented to the King and Queen at Whitehall, the 21st of January, 1639; the scenery and ornaments of which were the work of Inigo Jones.
The first nobles of the day took their parts in these pageants; and in "The Temple of Love," the Queen herself, who held Davenant in great favour, condescended to appear—a circumstance which the rising puritanical spirit of the times did not suffer to pass unnoticed. She likewise honoured the entertainment given at the Middle Temple in a marked manner.
Sir William Herbert writes: "On Wensday, the 23 of Febru., 1635, the Prince d'Amours gave a masque to the Prince Elector and his brother in the Middle Temple, when the Queene was pleased to grace the entertaynment by putting off majesty to putt on a citizen's habitt, and to sett upon the scaffold on the right hand amongst her subjects.
"The Queene was attended in the like habitts by the Marques Hamilton, the Countess of Denbighe, the Countess of Holland, and the Lady Elizabeth Feildinge. Mrs. Basse, the law woman (i. e., the woman who had the care of the Hall), leade in this royal citizen and her company.
