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ordinated treatment, and has been left outside the scope of the present study. Attention may be called merely to the King's early interest in entertainments of this character, an interest which may explain the pleasure which in later years he is known to have taken in all forms of drama and theatrical spectacle. The evidence on this point is furnished in part by the masque or Epithalamion (IIV) which he himself contrived in 1588 for the marriage of his ward, the daughter of Lennox, and the Earl of Huntly. Save as the sole extant example of its type in Scottish literature, the piece is in no way remarkable, and mingles disguise, dialogue, spectacle, comic byplay (at least suggested by the presence of the zany or clown), and classical mythology after the usual formula of French Hymenée and English maskings at feasts and royal progresses. Though there is no indication of dancing, the component elements are otherwise much the same as those of the more elaborate shows of Jonson and Inigo Jones, at which it is only fair to suppose the King an appreciative spectator, capable of enjoying not merely the fantastic erudition of the pieces, but also their finer artistic and poetic qualities.[1]
James had a hand also, with his friend William Fowler, in the games and shows at the christening of Prince Henry, August 23, 1594. The entertainment at the banquet following the ceremony, according to Fowler,[2] was intended by the King as an allegory representing the favor shown
- ↑ There is thus no reason for accepting Brotanek's suggestion that the popularity of the masque in the English court was due chiefly to the influence of Queen Anne, or that it was unknown in England prior to her arrival. (Die Englische Maskenspiele, Wiener Beiträge, 1902, p. 279.)
- ↑ A True Accompt . . . of the baptism of . . . Prince Henry, Edinburgh, 1594 (?). Printed, from the London edition of 1603, in Nichols, Progresses of Eliz., Vol. Ill, pp. 353-369. At a second banquet a chariot was employed, on which was a table surrounded by six ladies, Ceres, Faith, Fecundity, Concord, Liberty, and Perseverance. It was to have been drawn in by a tame lion (who figures in the treasurer's accounts of the time), but this experiment was abandoned "lest his presence might have brought some fear to the nearest." Malone has connected this with the lion in Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1594), whose roaring "might fright the duchess and the ladies." The existence of a 1594 edition of the Accompt, of which Malone was unaware, makes his suggestion not unlikely.
