iv. Wimbledon Entertainment of 1599 (Thomas Lord Burghley).
A visit of 27–30 July 1599 is the probable occasion for an address of welcome, not mimetic in character, by a porter, John Joye, preserved in Bodl. Tanner MS. 306, f. 266, and endorsed ‘The queenes entertainment att Wimbledon 99’.
v. Cecil House Entertainment of 1602 (Sir Robert Cecil).
Elizabeth dined with Cecil on 6 Dec. 1602.
(a) Manningham, 99, records, ‘Sundry devises; at hir entraunce, three women, a maid, a widdowe, and a wife, each commending their owne states, but the Virgin preferred; an other, on attired in habit of a Turke desyrous to see hir Majestie, but as a straunger without hope of such grace, in regard of the retired manner of hir Lord, complained; answere made, howe gracious hir Majestie in admitting to presence, and howe able to discourse in anie language; whiche the Turke admired, and, admitted, presents hir with a riche mantle.’ Chamberlain, 169, adds, ‘You like the Lord Kepers devises so ill, that I cared not to get Mr. Secretaries that were not much better, saving a pretty dialogue of John Davies ’twixt a Maide, a widow, and a wife.’ A Contention Betwixt a Wife, a Widdow, and a Maide was registered on 2 Apr. 1604 (Arber iii. 258), appeared with the initials I. D. in Francis Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody (ed. 2, 1608) and is reprinted by Grosart in the Poems of Sir John Davies (q.v.) from the ed. of 1621, where it is ascribed to ‘Sir I. D.’.
(b) Nichols, Eliz. iii. 76, prints from Harl. MS. 286, f. 248, ‘A Conference betweene a Gent. Huisher and a Poet, before the Queene, at Mr. Secretaryes House. By John Davies.’ He assigns it to 1591, but Cecil was not then Secretary, and it probably belongs to 1602.
(c) Hatfield MSS. xii. 568 has verses endorsed ‘1602’ and beginning ‘Now we have present made, To Cynthya, Phebe, Flora’.
vi. Theobalds Entertainment of 1606 (Earl of Salisbury).
See s.v. Jonson; also the mask described by Harington (ch. v).
vii. Theobalds Entertainment of 1607 (Earl of Salisbury).