The diplomatic tendency at this time was to detach France from growing relations from Spain, and it was intended that both the masks of the winter 1610–11 should serve to entertain the Marshal de Laverdin, expected as ambassador extraordinary from Paris for the signature of a treaty. But the Regent Marie de Médicis was not anxious to emphasize the occasion, and the Marshal did not arrive in time for the Prince’s mask, which took place on 1 Jan. ‘It looked’, says Correr, ‘as though he did not understand the honour done him by the King and the Prince.’ The Spanish and Venetian ambassadors were therefore invited, and were present. The Dutch ambassador was invited, but professed illness, to avoid complications with the Spaniard. Correr found the mask ‘very beautiful throughout, very decorative, but most remarkable for the grace of the Prince’s every movement’ (Rutland MSS. i. 426; V. P. xii. 101, 106; cf. Sullivan, 61).
None of the above notices in fact identify Henry’s mask of 1 Jan. 1611 with the undated Oberon, but proof is forthcoming from an Exchequer payment of May 1611 for ‘the late Princes barriers and masks’ (text in Reyher, 511) which specifies ‘the Satires and faeries’. The amount was £247 9s., and the items include payments to composers, musicians, and players. We learn that [Robert] Johnson and [Thomas] Giles provided the dances, and Alphonse [Ferrabosco] singers and lutenists, that the violins were Thomas Lupo the elder, Alexander Chisan, and Rowland Rubidge, and that ‘xiijn Holt boyes’ were employed, presumably as fays. There is a sum of £15 for ‘players imployed in the maske’ and £15 more for ‘players imployed in the barriers’, about which barriers no more is known. This account, subscribed by Sir Thomas Chaloner, by no means exhausts the expense of the mask. Other financial documents (Devon, 131, 134, 136; cf. Reyher, 521) show payments of £40 each to Jonson and Inigo Jones, and £20 each to Ferrabosco, Jerome Herne, and Confess. These were from the Exchequer. An additional £16 to Inigo Jones ‘devyser for the saide maske’ fell upon Henry’s privy purse, together with heavy bills to mercers and other tradesmen, amounting to £1,076 6s. 10d. (Cunningham, viii, from Audit Office Declared Accts.). Correr had reported on 22 Nov. that neither of the masks of this winter was to ‘be so costly as last year’s, which to say sooth was excessively costly’ (V. P. xii. 86). The anticipation can hardly have been fulfilled. I suppose that ‘last year’s’ means the Tethys’ Festival of June 1610, as no mask during the winter of 1609–10 is traceable.
Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly. 3 Feb. 1611
1616. A Masque of her Maiesties. Love freed from Ignorance and Folly. W. Stansby, sold by Richard Meighen. [Part of F1.]
The maskers were eleven Daughters of the Morn, led by the Queen of the Orient; the antimaskers twelve Follies or She-Fools; the presenters Cupid and Ignorance, a Sphinx; the musicians twelve Priests of the Muses, who also danced a measure, and three Graces, with others.
The locality was probably the banqueting-hall. The scene is not described. There were two ‘masque-dances’, with ‘measures and revels’ between them. This was a Queen’s mask, but the names of the maskers are not preserved.
John More wrote on 15 Dec. (Winwood, iii. 239), ‘Yet doth the Prince make but one mask, and the Queen but two, which doth cost her majesty but £600.’ Perhaps the writer was mistaken. Anne had not given more than one mask in any winter, nor is there any trace of a second in that of 1610–11. Correr, on 22 Nov., anticipates one only, not to be so costly as last year’s. It was to precede the Prince’s. It was, however, put off to Twelfth Night, and then again to Candlemas, ‘either because the stage machinery is not in order, or because their Majesties thought it well to let the Marshal depart first’. This was Marshal de Laverdin, whose departure from France as ambassador extraordinary was delayed (cf. Mask of Oberon). He was present at the mask when it actually took place on 3 Feb., the day after Candlemas. Apparently the Venetian ambassador was also invited. (V. P. xii. 86, 101, 106, 110, 115.)
Several financial documents bearing on the mask exist (S. P. D. Jac. I, lvii, Nov.; Devon, 135; Reyher, 509, 521), and show that the contemplated £600 was in fact exceeded. An account signed by the Earls of Suffolk and Worcester, to whom the oversight of the charges was doubtless assigned as Household officers, shows that in addition to £600 14s. 3d. spent in defraying the bills of Inigo Jones and others and in rewards, there was a further expenditure of £118 7s. by the Wardrobe, and even then no items are included for the dresses of the main maskers, which were probably paid for by the wearers. The rewards include £2 each to five boys who played the Graces, Sphinx, and Cupid, and £1 each to the twelve Fools. This enables us to identify Jonson’s undated mask with that of 1611. Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones had £40 each; Alphonso [Ferrabosco] £20 for the songs; [Robert] Johnson and Thomas Lupo £5 each for setting the songs to lutes and setting the dances to violins, and Confess and Bochan £50 and £20 for teaching the dances.
Love Restored. 6 Jan. 1612
1616. Love Restored, In a Masque at Court, by Gentlemen the Kings Seruants. W. Stansby, sold by Richard Meighen. [Part of F1.]