Nay,this is matter for the month of March,When hares are maddest.Either speak in reason,Giving cold argument the wall of passion,Or I break up the court.BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
It is by no means our purpose to detail minutely all the princely festivities of Kenilworth,after the fashion of Master Robert Laneham,whom we quoted in the conclusion of the last chapter.
It is sufficient to say that under discharge of the splendid fireworks,which we have borrowed Laneham's eloquence to describe,the Queen entered the base-court of Kenilworth,through Mortimer's Tower,and moving on through pageants of heathen gods and heroes of antiquity,who offered gifts and compliments on the bended knee,at length found her way to the Great Hall of the Castle,gorgeously hung for her reception with the richest silken tapestry,misty with perfumes,and sounding to strains of soft and delicious music.From the highly-carved oaken roof hung a superb chandelier of gilt bronze,formed like a spread eagle,whose outstretched wings supported three male and three female figures,grasping a pair of branches in each hand.The Hall was thus illuminated by twenty-four torches of wax.At the upper end of the splendid apartment was a state canopy,overshadowing a royal throne,and beside it was a door,which opened to a long suite of apartments,decorated with the utmost magnificence for the Queen and her ladies,whenever it should be her pleasure to be private.
The Earl of Leicester having handed the Queen up to her throne,and seated her there,knelt down before her,and kissing the hand which she held out,with an air in which romantic and respectful gallantry was happily mingled with the air of loyal devotion,he thanked her,in terms of the deepest gratitude,for the highest honour which a sovereign could render to a subject.So handsome did he look when kneeling before her,that Elizabeth was tempted to prolong the scene a little longer than there was,strictly speaking,necessity for;and ere she raised him,she passed her hand over his head,so near as almost to touch his long,curled,and perfumed hair,and with a movement of fondness that seemed to intimate she would,if she dared,have made the motion a slight caress.
[To justify what may be considered as a high-coloured picture,the author quotes the original of the courtly and shrewd Sir James Melville,being then Queen Mary's envoy at the court of London.
I was required,says Sir James,to stay till I had seen him made Earle of Leicester,and Baron of Denbigh,with great solemnity;herself (Elizabeth)helping to put on his ceremonial,he sitting on his knees before her,keeping a great gravity and a discreet behaviour;but she could not refrain from putting her hand to his neck to kittle (i.e.,tickle)him,smilingly,the French Ambassador and I standing beside her.--MELVILLE'SMEMOIRS,BANNATYNE EDITION,p.120.]
She at length raised him,and standing beside the throne,he explained to her the various preparations which had been made for her amusement and accommodation,all of which received her prompt and gracious approbation.The Earl then prayed her Majesty for permission that he himself,and the nobles who had been in attendance upon her during the journey,might retire for a few minutes,and put themselves into a guise more fitting for dutiful attendance,during which space those gentlemen of worship (pointing to Varney,Blount,Tressilian,and others),who had already put themselves into fresh attire,would have the honour of keeping her presence-chamber.
Be it so,my lord,answered the Queen;you could manage a theatre well,who can thus command a double set of actors.For ourselves,we will receive your courtesies this evening but clownishly,since it is not our purpose to change our riding attire,being in effect something fatigued with a journey which the concourse of our good people hath rendered slow,though the love they have shown our person hath,at the same time,made it delightful.Leicester,having received this permission,retired accordingly,and was followed by those nobles who had attended the Queen to Kenilworth in person.The gentlemen who had preceded them,and were,of course,dressed for the solemnity,remained in attendance.But being most of them of rather inferior rank,they remained at an awful distance from the throne which Elizabeth occupied.The Queen's sharp eye soon distinguished Raleigh amongst them,with one or two others who were personally known to her,and she instantly made them a sign to approach,and accosted them very graciously.Raleigh,in particular,the adventure of whose cloak,as well as the incident of the verses,remained on her mind,was very graciously received;and to him she most frequently applied for information concerning the names and rank of those who were in presence.These he communicated concisely,and not without some traits of humorous satire,by which Elizabeth seemed much amused.And who is yonder clownish fellow?she said,looking at Tressilian,whose soiled dress on this occasion greatly obscured his good mien.
A poet,if it please your Grace,replied Raleigh.
I might have guessed that from his careless garb,said Elizabeth.I have known some poets so thoughtless as to throw their cloaks into gutters.It must have been when the sun dazzled both their eyes and their judgment,answered Raleigh.
Elizabeth smiled,and proceeded,I asked that slovenly fellow's name,and you only told me his profession.Tressilian is his name,said Raleigh,with internal reluctance,for he foresaw nothing favourable to his friend from the manner in which she took notice of him.
