then 'presented their shields', and took out the ladies for measures, galliards, corantos and lavoltas. 'The night being much spent', came their 'departing measure'.
At departure were an eclogue by a shepherd and a nymph, and a gift of a cabinet by Niobe in the little park.
Mountebank's Mask. 1618 (?) The ascription to Marston of this Gray's Inn mask rests on an unverifiable assertion by Collier (cf. Bullen, Marston, iii. 418; Brotanek, 356), and the known dates of Marston's career render it extremely improbable. JOHN MASON (1581-2-?). The degree boasted on his title-page leads to the identification of Mason as a son of Richard Mason, priest, of Cavendish, Suffolk, and pupil of Bury St. Edmunds school, who matriculated from Caius College, Cambridge, as a sizar at the age of fourteen on 6 July 1596, and took the degree of B.A. in 1601 and M.A. in 1606 from St. Catharine's Hall. He was a member of the King's Revels syndicate in 1608, and nothing further is known of him, since the combination of names is too common to justify his identification with the schoolmaster of Camberwell, Surrey, whose school-play is described in Princeps Rhetoricus (1648; cf. C. S. Northup in E. S. xlv. 154).
The Turk. 1607-8
S. R. 1609, March 10 (Segar). 'A booke called The tragedy of the Turke with the death of Borgias by John Mason gent.' John Busby (Arber, iii. 403). 1610. The Turke. A Worthie Tragedie. As it hath bene diuers times acted by the Children of his Maiesties Reuels. Written by Iohn Mason Maister of Artes. E. A. for John Busbie. [Prologue and Epilogue.] 1632. An excellent Tragedy of Mulleasses the Turke, and Borgias Governour of Florence. Full of Interchangeable variety; beyond expectation. . . . T. P. for Francis Falkner.
Edition by J. Q. Adams (1913, Materialien, xxxvii).—Dissertation: G. C. Moore Smith, John Mason and Edward Sharpham (1913, M. L. R. viii. 371).
As a King's Revels play this may be put in 1607-8. An earlier date has been thought to be indicated by Eastward Ho! (1605), II. ii. 41, 'Via, the curtaine that shaddowed Borgia', but if the reference is to a play, Borgia may well have figured in other plays. A play 'Vom Turcken' was taken by Spencer to Nuremberg in 1613 (Herz, 66).
CHARLES MASSEY.
For his career as an actor, cf. ch. xv.
He apparently wrote Malcolm King of Scots for the Admiral's, to which he belonged, in April 1602, and began The Siege of Dunkirk, with Alleyn the Pirate in March 1603. Neither play survives.
