377-402 426-427 THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE TWO KINGS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND DENMARK (at Theobalds) AN ENTERTAINment of King JAMES AND QUEEN ANNE THE MASQUE OF BLACKNESS, PERSONATED AT THE COURT AT WHITEHALL, ON THE Salve festa dies, meliorque revertere semper.-OVID. THE honour and splendour of these spectacles was such in the performance, as, could those hours have lasted, this of mine, now, had been a most unprofitable work. But when it is the fate even of the greatest and most absolute births, to need and borrow a life of posterity, little had been done to the study of magnificence in these, if presently with the rage of the people who, as a part of greatness, are privileged by custom to deface their carcasses, the spirits had also perished. In duty therefore to that Majesty, who gave them their authority and grace, and no less than the most royal of piedecessors deserves eminent celebration for these solemnities, I add this later hand to redeem them as well from ignorance as envy, two common evils, the one of censure, the other of oblivion. 2 8 Pliny, Solinus, Ptolemy, and of late Leo1 the African, remember unto us a river in Æthiopia famous by the name of Niger; of which the people were called Nigritæ, now Negroes, and are the blackest nation of the world. This river taketh spring out of a certain lake, eastward; and after a long race, falleth into the western ocean. Hence, because it was Her Majesty's will to have them blackmoors at first, the invention was derived by me, and presented thus: First, for the scene, was drawn a landtschap (landscape) consisting of small woods, and here and there a void place 1 Nat. Hist. 1. 5, c. 8. 8 Lib. 4, C. 5. 2 Poly. Hist. c. 40 and 43. Some take it to be the same with Nilus, which is by Lucan called Melas, signifying Niger. Howsoever Pliny in the place above noted, hath this: Nigri fluvio eadem natura, quæ Nilo, calamum, papyrum, et easdem gignit animantes. See Solinus above-mentioned. filled with huntings; which falling, an artificial sea was seen to shoot forth as if it flowed to the land, raised with waves which seemed to move and in some places the billows to break, as imitating that orderly disorder which is common in nature. In front of this sea were placed six tritons, in moving and sprightly actions, their upper parts human, save that their hairs were blue, as partaking of the sea-colour: their desinent parts fish, mounted above their heads, and all varied in disposition. From their backs were borne out certain light pieces of taffata, as if carried by the wind, and their music made out of wreathed shells. Behind these, a pair of sea-maids, for song, were as conspicuously seated; between which, two great sea-horses, as big as the life, put forth themselves, the one mounting aloft, and writhing his head from the other which seemed to sink forward; so intended for variation, and that the figure behind might come off better: upon their backs, Oceanus and Niger were advanced.2 Oceanus presented in a human form, the colour of his flesh blue, and shadowed with a robe of sea-green; his head grey, and horned, as he is described by the ancients: his beard of the like mixed colour: he was garlanded with alga, or sea-grass; and in his hand a trident. Niger, in form and colour of an Æthiop; his hair and rare beard curled, shadowed with a blue and bright mantle: his front, neck, and wrists adorned with pearl, and crowned with an artificial wreath of cane and paper-rush. These induced the masquers, which were twelve nymphs, negroes, 1 The form of these tritons, with their trumpets, you may read lively described in Ov. Met. lib. 1, Cæruleum Tritona vocat, &c.; and in Virg. Æneid. 1. 10, Hunc vehit immanis triton, et sequent. Lucian in PHTOP. Aidao. presents Nilus so, equo fluviatili insidentem. And Statius Neptune, in Theb. The ancients induced Oceanus always with a bull's head: Propter vim ventorum, à quibus incitatur, et impellitur: vel quia tauris similem fremitum emittat ; vel quia tanquam taurus furibundus, in littora feratur. Euripid. in Orest., 'Oréavos ὁν ταυρόκρανος ἀγκαλαις έλισσων, κυκλεῖ χθονα. And rivers sometimes were so called. Look Virg. de Tiberi et Eridano. Georg. 4, Æneid. 8, Hor. Car. lib. 4. ode 14, and Euripid. in Ione. and the daughters of Niger, attended by so many of the Oceaniæ,1 which were their light-bearers. The masquers were placed in a great concave shell, like mother of pearl, curiously made to move on those waters and rise with the billow; the top thereof was stuck with a cheveron of lights, which, indented to the proportion of the shell, struck a glorious beam upon them, as they were seated one above another: so that they were all seen, but in an extravagant order. On sides of the shell did swim six huge sea-monsters, varied in their shapes and dispositions, bearing on their backs the twelve torch-bearers, who were planted there in several graces; so as the backs of some were seen; some in purfle, or side; others in face; and all having their lights burning out of whelks, or murex-shells. The attire of the masquers was alike in all, without difference: the colours azure and silver; but returned on the top with a scroll and antique dressing of feathers, and jewels interlaced with ropes of pearl. And for the front, ear, neck, and wrists, the ornament was of the most choice and orient pearl: best setting off from the black. For the light-bearers, sea-green, waved about the skirts with gold and silver; their hair loose and flowing, gyrlanded with seagrass, and that stuck with branches of coral. These thus presented, the scene behind seemed a vast sea and united with this that flowed forth; from the termination or horizon of which, being the level of the state which was placed in the upper end of the hall, was drawn by the lines of prospective, the whole work shooting downwards from the eye; which decorum made it more conspicuous, and caught the eye afar off with a wandering beauty: to which was added an obscure and cloudy night-piece, that made the whole set off. So much for the bodily part, which was of Master Inigo Jones's design and act. By this, one of the tritons, with the two sea maids, began to sing to the others' loud music, their voices being a tenor and two trebles. 1 The daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. See Hesiod. in Thegon., Orph. in Hym., and Virgil in Georg. |