As early as 1525 mention is made of a masque that was acted in the Hall here, which was composed by John Roo, Serjeant at the Law, and ‘sore displeased’ Cardinal Wolsey. George Gascoigne, the poet, a Member of the Inn, translated plays from the Greek (Euripides’ ‘Jocasta’—the ‘Phœnissæ’?) and Italian for the students to act. And now, in 1594, there were high festivities at Gray’s Inn, when an extravaganza was produced bearing the significant title: ‘History of the High and Mighty Prince Henry, Prince of Purpoole [Portpool], Archduke of Stapulia [Staple’s Inn] and Bernarda [Barnard’s Inn], Duke of High and Nether Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles and Tottenham, Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington, Kentish Town, Paddington, and Knightsbridge, Knight of the most Heroical Order of the Helmet and Sovereign of the same; who reigned and died A.D. 1594.’ Owing to the Hall being overcrowded on the first night, the students of the Inner and Middle Temples quitted the Hall in dudgeon, and the performance of the main piece had to be adjourned. To make up for the withdrawal of ‘The History of Prince Henry’ from the playbill, it was thought ‘good not to offer anything of account saving Dancing and Revelling with Gentlewomen.... To eke out the programme Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” was then played by the players.’
Thus Gray’s Inn Hall shares with the Hall of the Middle Temple the distinction of being the only buildings now remaining in London in which, so far as we know, any of the plays of Shakespeare were performed in his own time.[66]
At Shrovetide the Prince of Purpoole and his company entertained Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich. After the performance Her Majesty ‘willed the Lord Chamberlain that the gentlemen should be invited on the next day, which was done, and her Majesty gave them her hand to kiss with most gracious words of commendation to them: particularly in respect of Gray’s Inn, as an House that she was much beholden unto for that it did always study for some Sports to present her with.’
The success of this Masque was no doubt largely due to the fact that it was supposed to contain veiled allusions to many living persons of note, and that these allusions, uttered by the mimic Councillors of the Purpoole Court, were known to be written by the greatest of the sons of Gray’s Inn, Bacon himself. ‘The speeches of the six Councillors,’ says James Spedding, ‘carry his signature in every sentence.’[67] That they were written by him, and by him alone, no one who is at all familiar with his style, either of thought or expression, will for a moment doubt.
The Masque prepared by Francis Beaumont, to celebrate the marriage of the Count Palatine with the Princess Elizabeth, was performed before the King and Royal Family in the Banqueting House at Whitehall (February 20, 1613), and Francis Bacon, it is recorded, then Solicitor-General, ‘spared no time in the setting forth, ordering, and furnishing’ of it.
On Twelfth Night, 1614, the ‘Maske of Flowers’ was presented ‘by the Gentlemen of Graies Inn’ in the same Banqueting Hall upon the occasion of the marriage of the Earl of Somerset. This Masque, when published, was dedicated to Sir Francis Bacon, who apparently bore the whole expense of the performance. In 1887 ‘The Masque of Flowers’ was revived, being again performed with great success in Gray’s Inn Hall. Other masques of this and later times are mentioned by Mr. Douthwaite (p. 234 et seq.). Of the Masque performed by the Inns of Court before Charles I., which has been already referred to, ‘The Triumph of Peace,’ James Shirley, the dramatist, was the author. He had chambers in Gray’s Inn.
The form of self-government that obtained at Gray’s Inn was very similar to that which the other Inns enjoyed.
The Officer named Treasurer at other Inns was at Gray’s Inn known as the Pensioner. According to Sir Nicholas Bacon and some other Commissioners who drew up a report upon the Houses of Court for the information of Henry VIII., ‘a Pension, or, as some Houses call it, a Parliament,’ was summoned every quarter, or more if need be, ‘for the good ordering of the House, and the reformation of such things as seem meet to be reformed.’ These Pensions or Parliaments were ‘nothing else but a conference of Benchers and Utter Barristers only, and in some other Houses an Assembly of Benchers and such of the Utter Barristers and other ancient and wise men of the House as the Benchers have elected to them before time, and these together are named the Sage Company.’ This report does not mention the Ancients of Gray’s Inn. ‘The Grand Company of Ancients’ consisted of three classes—Barristers called by seniority to that degree; sons of Judges, who by right of inheritance were admitted Ancients; and persons of distinction who, in the words of Fortescue already quoted, were placed in the Inns of Court, not so much to make the Laws their study as to form their manners and to preserve them from the contagion of vice. The Constitution of the Inns, and the correct relation between the Benchers and Junior Members, were not arrived at without certain crises. The internal politics of the Houses were occasionally lively. Thus at the Middle Temple the right of the Benchers to regulate the affairs of the Inn, without reference to the Parliaments of barristers and students to whom, apparently, the right of self-government within certain limits was, by ancient custom, entrusted in the Vacations, was a ground of hot dispute in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The right to hold a Parliament at any time was demanded. The Benchers replied that the Junior Members were only entitled to deliberate and represent on matters occurring in Vacation.[68]
The Chapel of Gray’s Inn Loftie describes with equal brevity and justice as ‘ancient, but without interest.’