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Prince Henry's Barriers. 6 Jan. 1610
1616. The Speeches at Prince Henries Barriers. [Part of F_{1}.]
Editions in Works and by Nichols, James (1828), ii. 271. The barriers had a spectacular setting. The Lady of the Lake is 'discovered' and points to her lake and Merlin's tomb. Arthur is 'discovered as a star above'. Merlin rises from his tomb. Their speeches lament the decay of chivalry, and foretell its restoration, now that James 'claims Arthur's seat', through a knight, for whom Arthur gives the Lady a shield. The Knight, 'Meliadus, lord of the isles', is then 'discovered' with his six assistants in a place inscribed 'St. George's Portico'. Merlin tells the tale of English history. Chivalry comes forth from a cave, and the barriers take place, after which Merlin pays final compliments to the King and Queen, Henry, Charles, and Elizabeth. Jonson does not date the piece, but it stands in F_{1} between the Masque of Queens (2 Feb. 1609) and Oberon (1 Jan. 1611), and this, with the use of the name Meliadus, enables us to attach it to the barriers of 6 Jan. 1610, of which there is ample record (Stowe, Annales, 574; Cornwallis, Life of Henry, 12; Birch, i. 102; Winwood, iii. 117; V. P. xi. 400, 403, 406, 410, 414). It was Henry's first public appearance in arms, and he had some difficulty in obtaining the King's consent, but His Majesty did not wish to cross him. The challenge, speeches for which are summarized by Cornwallis, was on 31 Dec. in the presence-chamber, and until 6 Jan. Henry kept open table at St. James's at a cost of £100 a day. With him as challengers were the Duke of Lennox, the Earls of Arundel and Southampton, Lord Hay, Sir Thomas Somerset, and Sir Richard Preston. There were fifty-eight defendants, of whom prizes were adjudged to the Earl of Montgomery, Thomas Darcy, and Sir Robert Gordon. Each bout consisted of two pushes with the pike and twelve sword-strokes, and the young prince gave or received that night thirty-two pushes and about 360 strokes. Drummond of Hawthornden, who called his elegy on Henry Tears on the Death of Moeliades, explains the name as an anagram, Miles a Deo.
A Challenge at Tilt. 1 Jan. 1614
1616. A Challenge at Tilt, at a Marriage. [Part of F_{1} where it follows upon the mask Love Restored (q.v.), and the type is perhaps arranged so as to suggest a connexion, which can hardly have existed.]
Editions in Works and by Nichols, James (1828), ii. 716.
On the day after the marriage, two Cupids, as pages of the bride and bridegroom, quarrelled and announced the tilt. On 1 Jan. each came in a chariot, with a company of ten knights, of whom the Bride's were challengers, and introduced and followed the tilting with speeches. Finally, Hymen resolved the dispute.
This tilt was on 1 Jan. 1614, after the wedding of the Earl of Somerset on 26 Dec. 1613, as is clearly shown by a letter of Chamberlain (Birch, i. 287). The bride's colours were murrey and white, the bridegroom's green and yellow. The tilters included the Duke of Lennox, the
