And stradling shews the boys' brown paper fleet Yearly set out there, to sail down the street: Your works thus differing, much less so your style, Content thee to be Pancridge earl the while,' An earl of show; for all thy worth is show: But when thou turn'st a real Inigo, Or canst of truth the least entrenchment pitch, We'll have thee styled the Marquis of Towerditch. * Content thee to be Pancridge earl the while.] i. e. one of the "Worthies" who annually rode to Mile End, or the Artillery Ground, in the ridiculous procession called Arthur's Shew. There can be no doubt, however, that Inigo Jones really aspired to the elevation mentioned in the first couplet. Sir Frances Kin. aston, (the translator of Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, into Latin,) in his Cynthiades, 1642, says "Meantime imagine that Newcastle coles, Which, as sir Inigo saith, have perisht Paules, 'Tis found the smockes salt did corrupt the stones." Other notices of this might be produced :-but enough, and more than enough, has been said of this foolish quarrel, little honourable to either party, and which, now that Jonson appears not to have been the aggressor, not tò have sought "every occasion of injury," not to have lived in "constant hostility," &c. may be dismissed without much regret to the oblivion from which it was dragged by the misdirected industry of my predecessor. LOVE'S WELCOME. THE KING'S ENTERTAINMENT AT WELBECK, IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, A House of the Right Honourable WILLIAM, Earl of Newcastle, Viscount Mansfield, Baron of Botle and Bolsover, &c. At his going into Scotland, 1633. LOVE'S WELCOME (or, as it is called in the folio, The KING'S ENTERTAINMENT, &c.)] In the spring of 1633, Charles, in an interval of tranquillity, resolved to make a progress into the northern part of his kingdom, and to be solemnly crowned in Scotland, which he had not seen since he was two years old. His journey was a perpetual triumph, the great families of the counties through which he passed feasting him on his way. None of the nobility and gentry, however, seem to have equalled the earl of Newcastle in the magnificence of their hospitality. "When he passed (says lord Clarendon) through Nottinghamshire, both the King and Court were received and entertained by the earl of Newcastle, and at his own proper expense, in such a wonderful manner and in such an excess of feasting as had scarce ever before been known in England; and would be still thought very prodigious, if the same noble person had not, within a year or two afterwards, made the King and Queen a more stupendous Entertainment; which, God be thanked, though possibly it might too much whet the appetite of others to excess, no man ever after imitated." Hist. of the Rebellion. The duchess, in the Life of the Duke of Newcastle, speaks of it modestly enough. "When his majesty (her Grace says) was going into Scotland to be crowned, he took his way through Nottinghamshire; and lying at Worksep manor, hardly two miles distant from Welbeck where my lord then was, my lord invited his Majesty thither to dinner, which he was graciously pleased to accept of. This entertainment cost my lord between four and five thousand pounds." p. 183. On this occasion our poet was called on, to prepare one of those little compliments, which, in those days, were supposed to grace, and, as it were, vivify the feast. The object was merely to introduce, in a kind of Antimasque, a course at Quintain, performed by the gentlemen of the county, neighbours to this great earl, in the guise of rustics, in which much awkwardness was affected, and much real dexterity probably shewn. Whatever it was, however, it afforded considerable amusement to the king and his attendants; a fact recorded by the duchess with no little complacency in the memoirs of her family. This Entertainment, with that which immediately follows it, is shuffled in among the translations, towards the close of the folio, 1641. It is evidently given in a very imperfect manner; but there is no other copy. LOVE'S WELCOME, &c. His Majesty being set at Dinner, Music: The Passions, DOUBT and LOVE, enter with the Affections, Joy, DELIGHT, &c. and sing this SONG. Doubt. What softer sounds are these salute the ear, From the large circle of the hemisphere, As if the centre of all sweets met here! Love. It is the breath and soul of every thing, Put forth by earth, by nature, and the spring, To speak the welcome, welcome of the king. Chorus of Affections. The joy of plants, the spirit of flow'rs, The smell and verdure of the bow'rs, Love. When was old Sherwood's head more Or look'd the earth more green upon the world? Doubt. If what they do, be done in their due time. Cho. of Affections. He makes the time for whom 'tis done, From whom the warmth, heat, life begun; And makes the creatures language all one voice, After Dinner. The King and the Lords being come down, and ready to take horse, in the crowd were discovered two notorious persons, whose names were ACCIDENCE and FITZALE, men of business, as by their eminent dressing and habits did soon appear. One in a costly cassock of black buckram girt unto him, whereon was painted party-per pale: |
