[438] There are four narratives: (a) Anthony Nixon, The Oxford Triumph (1605, S. R. 19 Sept. 1605); (b) Isaac Wake, Rex Platonicus, sive Musae Regnantes (1607); (c) a Cambridge report, probably by Philip Stringer, printed from Harl. MS. 7044, by Leland, Coll. ii. 626, and Nichols, i. 530; (d) a letter from John Chamberlain in Winwood, ii. 140. F. S. Boas and W. W. Greg (M. S. C. i. 247) print schedules of the apparel and necessaries obtained from Kirkham and Kendall of the Queen's Revels, and from one Matthew Fox. They were partly for The Queen's Arcadia, partly, I think, for Ajax Flagellifer, and partly for Alba. Provision was made for a magician, and 'those scenes of the Magus', for which Robert Burton tells his brother (Nichols, iv. 1067) that he was thanked by Dr. King, Dean of Christ Church, were presumably in Alba. This is Stringer's name for the first play. Wake calls it Vertumnus, but it is clear from his analyses that it is distinct from Gwynne's, which he calls Annus Recurrens. Stringer's rather critical narrative contrasts with the self-complacency of the Oxford writers. He tells us how bored the King was and how the Queen and the ladies disliked the almost naked man in Alba.
[439] Goodwin's performance was made an excuse for securing the King's recommendation for his election as a Student of Christ Church (S. P. D. Addl. Jac. I, xxxvii. 66, 67, 70).
[440] Birch, i. 214; Winwood, iii. 441; Nichols, iv. 1087, from Hacket's Life of Williams.
[441] Birch, i. 303; Stowe, Annales (1631), 1023; Hardwicke Papers, i. 394; Truth Brought to Light, 64; Nichols, iii. 43. The names of the plays are given in a MS. penes Sir Edward Dering, printed by S. Pegge in Gent. Mag. (May 1756) and Hawkins, Ignoramus, xxx. I adopt the dates of this MS., which fit better into James's movements than the 12-15 March suggested by Chamberlain's letter in Birch, i. 303. The Vice-Chancellor ordered 'that noe Graduate of the Universitie under the degree of Master of Arts, or fellow-commoner, presume to come into the streets neare Trinity Colledge in the tymes the Comedyes are actinge; or after the Stage-Keepers be come forth; nor that any Schollar or Student, but those onely before excepted, by any meanes presume or attempte to come within the said Colledge or Hall to heare any of the said Comedyes'.
[442] Birch, i. 360, 361; Hawkins, Ignoramus, cxix, from a narrative by James Tabor, Registrary.
[443] Birch, i. 395, 397. Can the play have been Susenbrotus, for which there seems no room in the visit of 1615, although the MS. claims a performance before James and Charles at Trinity in '1615'?
[444] The term recalls the old use of the Camera as a treasury; cf. ch. ii. Similarly Bristol claimed to be the 'chamber' of a queen consort; cf. the patent to the Children of Bristol (ch. xii).
[445] Cf. ch. xxiv.
[446] Cf. Mediaeval Stage, ii. 172.
[447] V. P. x. 64, 67, 74; Birch, i. 8, 9. Chamberlain wrote to Carleton (10 July 1603), 'Our pageants are pretty forward, but most of them are such small timbered gentlemen that they cannot last long, and I doubt, if the plague cease not the sooner, they will rot and sink where they stand.' The double preparation must have cost the City something. There was a levy, amounting to £12 10s. on some of the guilds, in 1603, and in February 1604 another £400 had to be raised 'for the full performance and finishing of the pageants'. Towards this the Carpenters paid £2, but in all they had to pay an additional £8 3s. 4d. in 1604. There must have been protests, for the wardens of the Brewers were imprisoned for refusing to pay a levy of £50 (Jupp, The Carpenters, 68, 294; Young, The Barber-Surgeons, 110; Williams, The Founders, 222).