The amorous tradition of the 'commoning' which apparently frightened some of the ladies at Henry's court, survived under Elizabeth. In Lyly's Euphues and his England (Works, ii. 103), Philautus takes Camilla by the hand in a mask and begins 'to boord hir' in this manner, 'It hath ben a custome faire Lady, how commendable I wil not dispute, how common you know, that Masquers do therfore couer their faces that they may open their affections, & vnder yᵉ colour of a dance, discouer their whole desires'; cf. Reyher, 23.
[636] Maid's Tragedy, i. 1. 9, 'They must commend their King, and speak in praise Of the assembly, bless the Bride and Bridegroom, In person of some God; th'are tyed To rules of flattery'.
[637] This old phrase, known to Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, i. 22, is still traditional in folk dances.
[638] On these dances, cf. Reyher, 441.
[639] Lacroix, i. 256, 262.
[640] Goodman, i. 70, 'George Brooks ... brother to Cobham ... was a great reveller at court in the masques where the queen and greatest ladies were'; Carey, 6, 'In all triumphs I was one; either at tilt, tourney, or barriers, in masque or balls'.
[641] Naunton, 44, 'Sir Christopher Hatton came into the court ... as a private gentleman of the inns of court in a mask, and for his activity and person, which was tall and proportionable, taken into favour'.
[642] C. C. Stopes, A Lampoon on the Opponents of Essex, 1601 (Sh.-Jahrbuch, xlvi. 21); Reyher, 98, apparently referring to the full-length portrait by Marc Geeraerts at Woburn Abbey, reproduced in Henderson, James I, 232. It is a fantastic costume, but not obviously that of a mask.
[643] Winwood, ii. 40.
[644] Dekker His Dream (1620, Works, iii. 7), 'I herein imitate the most courtly revellings; for if Lords be in the grand masque, in the antimasque are players'; Jonson, Love Restored (Works, iii. 83). 'The rogue play-boy, that acts Cupid, is got so hoarse, your majesty cannot hear him half the breadth of your chair'. The accounts for Oberon include £10 to 'xiijⁿ Holt boyes' and £15 to 'players imployed in the maske'; those for Love Freed £10 to '5 boyes, that is 3 Graces Sphynx and Cupid', and £12 to 'the 12 fooles that danced', and those for the Lords' Mask £1 each to '12 madfolkes' and '5 speakers' (Reyher, 508).