[478] Segar (Nichols, ii. 335) describes a tourney, presumably a foot-tourney, at Whitehall by night before the French ambassador, François de Montmorency, in June 1572, with the yeomen of the guard holding 'an infinite number of torches on the terrace and in the preaching place'.
[479] The play of Paris and Vienna on 19 Feb. 1572 included a triumph with hobby-horses 'where Paris wan the christall sheelde for Vienna at the turneye and barryers' (Feuillerat, 141). A barriers was also fought by Amazons and Knights in a mask of 11 Jan. 1579 (Feuillerat, 287).
[480] Cf. App. A.
[481] Cf. ch. xxiv. The date at which the annual tilt began is not clear. It cannot be earlier than the institution of Queen's Day itself (1570? cf. p. 18), but as that is said to have originated at Oxford, hard by Woodstock, the two may have come into existence together. Segar, who compares Lee's enterprise to 'the Knighthood della Banda in Spaine' assigns it to the beginning of the reign. On the other hand, I have not found any actual evidence for a tilt on 17 Nov. before 1581, although there is plenty afterwards. The references to the matter on Lee's tombstone and in the fragments of the Ferrers MS. do not help, unless fragment (iv) belongs to the Woodstock entertainment of 1575, in which case the vow 'not far from hence' must be before that date. Is it possible that the tilting at first took place at Oxford or Woodstock itself and was transferred to Whitehall about 1581? In 1593, perhaps owing to the plague, it was held at Windsor.
[482] Leland, Collectanea, ii. 666.
[483] Thus at a joust of 1494 (Kingsford, Chronicle, 201), 'iiij fayre ladyes ... ladde their Bridellis with iiij silkyn laces of white and blewe'. After a joust in May 1571, ladies led the armed victors to receive their prizes in the presence chamber (Nichols, ii. 334, from Segar).
[484] Cf. p. 52. Hunsdon and Dudley, as challengers, wore black and white in 1559; in 1560 the heralds were in black and white (Machyn, 216, 231).
[485] A galley on the waterside at Whitehall is described as hung with these shields by Von Wedel (2 R. Hist. Soc. Trans. ix. 236) in 1584 and by Hentzner in 1598, 'emblemata varia papyracea, clypei formam habentia, quibus, adiectis symbolis, nobiles in exercitiis equestribus & gladiatoriis uti sunt soliti, hic memoriae caussa suspensa', and Manningham, 3, describes 'certayne devises and empresaes taken by the scucheons in the Gallery at Whitehall' in 1602. The Shield Gallery was still extant in the time of Pepys. Aubrey, Wilts. 88, says that a similar collection of shields at Wilton were 'of pastboard painted with their devices and emblems, which was very pretty and ingenious'. Of course, these were not used in the actual encounter. On imprese, cf. F. Brie, Shakespeare und die Impresa-Kunst seiner Zeit (1914, Sh.-Jahrbuch, l. 9); G. F. Barwick, Impresas (2 Library, vii. 140); Lee, Shakespeare, 455. A contemporary treatise is Paolo Giovio, Dialogo dell' Imprese Militari et Amorose (1555). Good examples are afforded by Pericles, II. ii.
[486] Von Wedel (loc. cit. 258) describes the accession tilt of 1584: 'About twelve o'clock the queen with her ladies placed themselves at the windows in a long room of Whitehall palace, near Westminster, opposite the barrier where the tournament was to be held. From this room a broad staircase led downwards, and round the barrier stands were arranged by boards above the ground, so that everybody by paying 12d. could get a stand and see the play.... During the whole time of the tournament all who wished to fight entered the lists by pairs, the trumpets being blown at the time and other musical instruments. The combatants had their servants clad in different colours; they, however, did not enter the barrier, but arranged themselves on both sides. Some of the servants were disguised like savages, or like Irishmen, with the hair hanging down to the girdle like women, others had horse manes on their heads, some came driving in a carriage, the horses being equipped like elephants, some carriages were drawn by men, others appeared to move by themselves; altogether the carriages were of very odd appearance. Some gentlemen had their horses with them and mounted in full armour directly from the carriage.... When a gentleman with his servant approached the barrier, on horseback or in a carriage, he stopped at the foot of the staircase leading to the queen's room, while one of his servants in pompous attire of a special pattern mounted the steps and addressed the queen in well-composed verses or with a ludicrous speech, making her and her ladies laugh. When the speech was ended he in the name of his lord offered to the queen a costly present, which was accepted and permission given to take part in the tournament.'
[487] Nichols, ii. 335, from Segar.