S. R. 1579, Sept. 22. ‘A paradox provinge by Reason and Example that Baldnes is muche better than bushie heare.’ H. Denham (Arber, ii. 360).
1579. A Paradoxe, Proving by reason and example, that Baldnesse is much better than bushie haire.... Englished by Abraham Fleming. Hereunto is annexed the pleasant tale of Hemetes the Heremite, pronounced before the Queenes Majestie. Newly recognized both in Latine and Englishe, by the said A. F. H. Denham. [Contains the English text of the Tale and Gascoigne’s Latin version.]
1585. Colophon: ‘Imprinted at London for Thomas Cadman, 1585.’ [Originally contained a complete description of an entertainment, of which the tale of Hemetes only formed part; but sig. A, with the title-page, is missing. The unique copy, formerly in the Rowfant library, is now in the B.M. The t.p. is a modern type-facsimile, based on the head-line and colophon (McKerrow, Bibl. Evidence, 306).]
Editions (a) from 1579, by J. Nichols, Eliz. i. 553 (1823), and W. C. Hazlitt, Gascoigne, ii. 135 (1870); (b) from MS. by J. W. Cunliffe, Gascoigne, ii. 473 (1910); (c) from 1585, by A. W. Pollard (1910, partly printed 1903) and J. W. Cunliffe (1911, M. L. A. xxvi. 92).
Gascoigne’s manuscript is chiefly of value as fixing the locality of the entertainment, which is not mentioned in the mutilated print of 1585. The date can hardly be doubtful. Elizabeth spent considerable periods at Woodstock in 1572, 1574, and 1575, but it so happens that only in 1575 was she there on the 20th of a month (vide infra and App. B). Moreover, Laurence Humphrey’s Oratio delivered at Woodstock on 11 Sept. 1575 (Nichols, i. 590) refers to the entertainment in the phrase ‘an ... Gandina spectacula ... dabit’. The description takes the form of a letter from an eyewitness, evidently not the deviser, and professing ignorance of Italian; not, therefore, Gascoigne, as pointed out by Mr. Pollard. At the beginning of sig. B, Hemetes, a hermit, has evidently just interrupted a fight between Loricus and Contarenus. He brings them, with the Lady Caudina, to a bower, where Elizabeth is placed, and tells his Tale, of which the writer says, ‘hee shewed a great proofe of his audacity, in which tale if you marke the woords with this present world, or were acquainted with the state of the deuises, you should finde no lesse hidden then vttered, and no lesse vttered then shoulde deserue a double reading ouer, euen of those (with whom I finde you a companion) that haue disposed their houres to the study of great matters’. The Tale explains how the personages have come together. Contarenus loved Caudina, daughter of Occanon Duke of Cambia. At Occanon’s request, an enchantress bore him away, and put him in charge of the blind hermit, until after seven years he should fight the hardiest knight and see the worthiest lady in the world. Caudina, setting out with two damsels to seek him, met at the grate of Sibilla with Loricus, a knight seeking renown as a means to his mistress’s favour. Sibilla bade them wander, till they found a land in all things best, and with a Princess most worthy. Hemetes himself has been blinded by Venus for loving books as well as a lady, and promised by Apollo the recovery of his sight, where most valiant knights fight, most constant lovers meet, and the worthiest lady looks on. Obviously it is all a compliment to the worthiest lady. Thus the Tale ends. The Queen is now led to the hermit’s abode, an elaborate sylvan banqueting-house, built on a mound forty feet high, roofed by an oak, and hung with pictures and posies of ‘the noble or men of great credite’, some of which the French ambassador made great suit to have. Here Elizabeth was visited by ‘the Queen of the Fayry drawen with 6 children in a waggon of state’, who presented her with an embroidered gown. Couplets or ‘posies’ set in garlands were also given to the Queen, to the Ladies Derby, Warwick, Hunsdon, Howard, Susan and Mary Vere, and to Mistresses Skidmore, Parry, Abbington, Sidney, Hopton, Katherine Howard, Garret, Bridges, Burrough, Knowles, and Frances Howard. After a speech from Caudina, Elizabeth departed, as it was now dark, well pleased with her afternoon, and listening to a song from an oak tree as she went by. A somewhat cryptic passage follows. Elizabeth is said to have left ‘earnest command that the whole in order as it fell, should be brought her in writing, which being done, as I heare, she vsed, besides her owne skill, the helpe of the deuisors, & how thinges were made I know not, but sure I am her Maiesty hath often in speech some part hereof with mirth at the remembrance.’ Then follows a comedy acted on ‘the 20 day of the same moneth’, which ‘was as well thought of, as anye thing ever done before her Maiestie, not onely of her, but of the rest: in such sort that her Graces passions and other the Ladies could not [? but] shew it selfe in open place more than euer hath beene seene’. The comedy, in 991 lines of verse, is in fact a sequel to the Tale. In it Occanon comes to seek Caudina, who is persuaded by his arguments and the mediation of Eambia, the Fairy Queen, to give up her lover for her country’s sake.
Pollard suggests Gascoigne as the author of the comedy, but of this there is no external evidence. He also regards the intention of the whole entertainment as being the advancement of Leicester’s suit. Leicester was no doubt at Woodstock, even before the Queen, for he wrote her a letter from there on 4 Sept. (S. P. D. Eliz. cv. 36); but the undated letter which Pollard cites (cv. 38), and in which Leicester describes himself as ‘in his survey to prepare for her coming’, probably precedes the Kenilworth visit. Pollard dates it 6 Sept., but Elizabeth herself seems to have reached Woodstock by that date. Professor Cunliffe, on the other hand, thinks that the intention was unfavourable to Leicester’s suit, and thus explains the stress laid on Caudina’s renunciation of her lover for political reasons. I doubt if there is any reference to the matter at all; it would have been dangerous matter for a courtly pen. Doubtless the writer of the description talks of ‘audacity’, in the Tale, not the comedy. But has he anything more in mind than Sir Henry Lee, whom we are bound to find, here as elsewhere, in Loricus, and his purely conventional worship of Elizabeth?
The Tilt Yard Entertainment. 17 Nov. 1590
There are two contemporary descriptions, viz.:
1590. Polyhymnia Describing, the Honourable Triumph at Tylt, before her Maiestie, on the 17 of Nouember last past, being the first day of the three and thirtith yeare of her Highnesse raigne. With Sir Henrie Lea, his resignation of honour at Tylt, to her Maiestie, and receiued by the right honorable, the Earle of Cumberland. R. Jones. [Dedication by George Peele to Lord Compton on verso of t.p.]
1602. W. Segar, Honor, Military and Ciuill, Book iii, ch. 54, ‘The Originall occasions of the yeerely Triumphs in England’.