Page:Elizabethan People.djvu/322

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256
THE ELIZABETHAN PEOPLE

esty was most graciously pleased, with the consent of the gentlemen-masquers, to put off the night until Saturday following, with the special favour and privilege, that there should be no let as to the outward ceremony of magnificence until that time.

"At the day that it was presented, there was a choice room reserved for the gentlemen of both their houses, who, coming in troup about seven of the clock, received that special honour and noble favour, as to be brought to their places by the Right Honourable the Earl of Northampton, Lord-Privy Seal.

"The Device or Argument of the Masque.

Jupiter and Juno, willing to do honour to the marriage of the two famous rivers Thamesis and Rhine, employ their messengers severally, Mercury and Iris, for that purpose. They meet and contend: then Mercury, for his part, brings forth an anti-masque all of spirits or divine natures; but yet not of one kind or livery (because that had been so much in use heretofore), but, as it were, in consort, like to broken music; and, preserving the propriety of the device,—for that rivers in nature are maintained either by springs from beneath or showers from above,—he raiseth