London in the Time of the Stuarts

by Walter Besant

The scene at first showed nothing but two pillars with inscriptions; on the one NEP. RED., and on the other SEC. JOV. The masque opens with a long and tedious dialogue between a cook and a poet; in the course of it the latter explains the purpose of the masque, which is to celebrate the safe return of the Prince from Spain:—

“The mighty Neptune, mighty in his styles,

And large command of waters, and of isles;

Not as the ‘lord and sovereign of the seas,’

But ‘chief in the art of riding’ late did please,

To send his Albion forth, the most his own,

Upon discovery, to themselves best known,

Through Celtiberia; and, to assist his course,

Gave him his powerful Manager of Horse,

With divine Proteus, father of disguise,