CHRISTMAS UNDER CHARLES I. AND THE COMMONWEALTH.
(1625-1660.)
King Charles the First
was the second son of James I. and of Anne, daughter of Frederick III., King of Denmark, and he came to the throne on the death of his father in March 1625. As Prince Charles he had taken part in the Court entertainments of Christmastide, and had particularly distinguished himself in Ben Jonson's masque, "The Vision of Delight." These magnificent Christmas masques were continued after Charles's accession to the throne until the troubles of his reign stopped them. Gifford[69] mentions that Jonson's "Masque of Owls" was presented at Kenilworth Castle, "By the Ghost of Captain Cox mounted on his Hobby-horse, in 1626":—
"Enter Captain Cox, on his Hobby-horse.
Room! room! for my horse will wince, If he come within so many yards of a prince; And though he have not on his wings, He will do strange things, He is the Pegasus that uses To wait on Warwick Muses; And on gaudy-days he paces Before the Coventry Graces; For to tell you true, and in rhyme, He was foal'd in Queen Elizabeth's time, When the great Earl of Lester In this castle did feast her."
the hobby-horse.
Jonson's "The Fortunate Isles, and Their Union," a masque designed for the Court, was presented on Twelfth Night, 1626; and "Love's Triumph through Callipolis" (a masque invented by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones) was presented at Court in 1630.
The Lord of Misrule