Allusions to the freeing of enchanted knights and ladies and to constancy and inconstancy connect it closely with (vi)-(viii).
Obviously most of these documents, and therefore probably all, belong to devices presented by Sir Henry Lee. But they are of different dates, and not demonstrably in chronological order. A single occasion accounts for (vi)-(viii) and (xi), and a single occasion, which the mention of 'the second daie' suggests may have been the same, for (ix) and (x); and probably Mr. Bond is justified in regarding all these as forming part with (vii) of the entertainment at Lee's house in the progress of 1592. But I do not see his justification for attaching (iv) and (v) to them, and I think that these are probably fragments of the Woodstock Entertainment of 1575, or not far removed from that in time. Nor has he any evidence for locating the entertainment of 1592 at Quarrendon, which was only one of several houses belonging to Sir Henry Lee, and could not be meant by the 'coppies' near Woodstock of (ix). It was doubtless, as the Petyt MS. version of (vii) tells us, at Woodstock, either at one of Lee's lodges, or at Ditchley, during the royal visit to Woodstock of 18-23 Sept. 1592. I learn from Viscount Dillon that a MS. of part of this entertainment, dated 20 Sept., is still at Ditchley. Finally, Bond's attribution of all the pieces (i)-(x) to Lyly is merely guess-work. Hamper assigned them to George Ferrers, probably because the owner of his MS. was a Ferrers. George Ferrers did in fact help in the Kenilworth Entertainment of 1575, and might therefore have helped in that at Woodstock; but he died in 1579, too early for (vi)-(xi). No doubt (vii) and (xi) are by Richard Edes (q.v.). He may have written the whole of this Woodstock Entertainment. On the other hand, a phrase in (ix) suggests that Lee may have penned some of his own conceits. Brotanek, 62, suggests that the two ladies of (vi) are Lee's wife and his mistress Anne Vavasour, and that Elizabeth came to Lee's irregular household to set it in order. This hardly needs refuting, but in fact Lee's wife died in 1590 and his connexion with Anne Vavasour was probably of later date.
ROBERT LEE.
For his career as an actor, see ch. xv.
He may have been, but was not necessarily, the author of The Miller which the Admiral's bought from him for £1 on 22 Feb. 1598 (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 191).
THOMAS LEGGE (1535-1607).
Of Norwich origin, Legge entered Corpus Christi, Cambridge, in 1552, and took his B.A. in 1557, his M.A. in 1560, and his LL.D. in 1575. After migration to Trinity and Jesus, he had become Master of Caius in 1573. In 1593 he was Vice-Chancellor, and in that capacity took part in the negotiations of the University with the Privy Council for a restraint of common plays in Cambridge (M. S. C. i. 200). His own reputation as a dramatist is acknowledged by Meres, who in 1598 placed him among 'our best for Tragedie', and added that, 'as M. Anneus Lucanus writ two excellent Tragedies, one called Medea,
