Volume I Part 41 (1/2)
”Prythee, Sylva.n.u.s, or whatever thou be, bring Sir John hither, that he may dry his web in the hot suns.h.i.+ne of a lady's glance,” said Villiers, with an ill-suppressed sneer.
Again this Proteus was transformed. Doffing his habit, Sir John Finett stood confessed before them. He knelt penitently before the king, humbly a.s.suring his Majesty that he had been preparing this device, and many others, to please and surprise him; but that, through the bungling of some, and the bashfulness of others, he was obliged to enact the parts himself. This excuse the king was graciously pleased to accept, commending him for his great diligence and zeal.
The night now wore on with much outward show of mirth and revelry; but the king went early to rest, purposing to rise betimes.
On the following day he went out again with a great company, and killed a brace of stags, which mighty achievement, by authentic record, we find was accomplished before dinner--the king alone being able to bring down the venison.
We willingly pa.s.s over this day's banquet; nor do we care to chronicle the feats of Morris the head-cook, and his deputies of the ranges and the pastries. The boiling and roasting of poults and pullets, and the construction of comfits and confections, we consign to everlasting oblivion.
When the king rose from table, about four o'clock, as we find it in the private journal of one present, he purposed to view the alum-mines, about two miles distant from the Tower; but, being eager for the sport, he went forth again a-hunting. He shot at a stag and missed. The next bolt broke the thigh-bone, and the dog being long in coming, Lord Compton despatched the poor beast, whereby his capture was effected. We forbear to dwell on this, and much more of the like interest, returning with the king to supper, where the beauteous Grace Gerard was present, and Sir John Finett, her true knight and devoted slave. Dr Morton, then Bishop of Chester, was chaplain, doling out a long Latin grace with great unction.
The music had ceased, the second course being just served, when a signal was given for the king's pledge.
”Let each one pledge the fairest,” cried the royal toast-master, moved to some unwonted gallantry by approximation with the fair and l.u.s.ty dames about his person. For it hath been wittily if not wickedly said by a popular writer in another place that James was in all things like unto Solomon, save in the matter of women.
Now was there a brave stir throughout the a.s.sembly. Such pledging of mistresses and challenging of cups, that nothing could be like unto it.
”To the bright eyes and peerless grace of the lady Grace Gerard,” said Sir John Finett, draining his goblet to the uttermost;--and the maiden's cheek glowed like a furnace.
”Said I not that he could win a lady's grace sooner than a monarch's disfavour? Nay, your Majesty, I but meant that Sir John conveys the fairest eyes and the warmest hearts into his own keeping, like an _Ochus-Bochus_,” said Buckingham, looking envious at the distinction he had gained.
”I see plainly that Truth is hidden in a well,” said Goring, drily.
Sir John Finett, courtier and dissembler as he was, could scarcely hide the truth of this sally. But he quickly recovered his self-possession ere the king's eye could detect a change. Yet did he not escape the vigilance of his two friends, who suspected the real cause of his absence on the preceding night.
”Thou shalt be her true knight to-morrow, and she shall be queen of our sports,” said the king, graciously extending his hand to the blus.h.i.+ng maiden.
But this speech pleased not some of the courtiers, and Buckingham, having his eye on this fair flower, secretly resolved that Sir John should not enjoy its fragrance unmolested.
On the following morning, being Sunday, there came a great company of peasants and handicraftsmen--notorious idlers about the parish--with a pet.i.tion, wherein it was shown that the loyal and peaceable inhabitants of Lancas.h.i.+re had been long hindered of their usual diversions on Sundays and other holidays by the rigour of Puritans, Precisians, and such like folk,[32] who, being enemies to all innocent and lawful mirth, did mightily begrudge and maliciously restrain their use. These pet.i.tioners, therefore, prayed his Majesty, ”that he would not forbid their exercising of all honest and lawful recreation, such as dancing of men and women, archery, running, leaping, and vaulting; nor prohibit the use of May-games, May-poles, morris-dances, and other like lawful sports, so that the same should not impediment or cause neglect of divine service.”
The ground of this complaint was laid in the time of Elizabeth, who, in order to reform the manners of the people, inst.i.tuted a high commission in the year 1579. The commissioners were Henry Earl of Derby, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, William Lord Bishop of Chester, and others. At their sittings, which were held in Manchester, they issued orders throughout the county against ”pipers and minstrels playing, making, and frequenting bear-baiting and bull-baiting on the Sabbath days, or upon any other days in time of divine service, and also against superst.i.tious ringing of bells, wakes, and common feasts; drunkenness, gaming, and other vicious and unprofitable pursuits.” These restrictions the royal pedant thought incompatible with the public weal, and graciously answered the pet.i.tioners in such-wise that he would have these over-righteous zealots rebuked; that it was a misuse of their authority; and that he would not only grant the humble request of his subjects, but, on that very evening he would have a masque and an allegory, with dancing and other like diversions, by the lords and other n.o.bility there present.
Such was the origin of the famous _Book of Sports_. His Majesty, on returning to the capital, issued a proclamation,[33] stating--
”That in his progress through Lancas.h.i.+re he found it necessary to rebuke some Puritans and precise people, and took order that the said unlawful carriage should not be used by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting and unlawfully punis.h.i.+ng his good people, for using their lawful recreations and honest exercises upon Sundays, after divine service.”
”His Majesty further saw that his loyal subjects in all other parts of the kingdom did suffer in the same kind, though not, perhaps, in the same degree as in Lancas.h.i.+re; and he did therefore, in his princely wisdom, publish a declaration to all his loving subjects concerning lawful sports to be used on Sundays and festivals.”--Published by his royal command in the year 1618, under the t.i.tle of the _Book of Sports_.
The royal visit to Lancas.h.i.+re proved ultimately of more importance to the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of the kingdom than could have been antic.i.p.ated either by the king or his subjects. This infamous _Book of Sports_ formed the first link in that mysterious chain of events, ending in the downfall of the Stuarts, and their exile and expulsion from the throne.
The gladsome tidings having been communicated to the pet.i.tioners, with one accord they galloped off, shouting and huzzaing, to the great annoyance of all peaceable and sober-minded persons, and the great dishonour of that holy day.
The king attended divine service at the chapel, where Dr Morton preached, commanding and exhorting to an obedience well pleasing to their Maker; inasmuch as it was rendered to the vicegerent of heaven, the high and mighty and puissant James, defender of the Faith, and so forth. After this comfortable and gracious doctrine, there was a rush-bearing[34] and a piping before the king in the great quadrangle.
Robin Hood and Maid Marian, with the fool and hobby-horse, were, doubtless, enacted to the jingling of morris-dancers and other profanities.
These fooleries put the king into such good humour that he was more witty in his speech than ordinary. Some of these sayings have been recorded, and amongst the rest that well-known quibble which has been the origin of an absurd mistake, still current through the county, respecting the sirloin. It is said to have been knighted there by his Majesty, who found, such were his knight-making propensities, that other subjects were exhausted.
The occasion, as far as we have been able to gather, was thus:--Whilst he sat at meat, casting his eyes upon a n.o.ble _surloin_ at the lower end of the table, he cried out--
”Bring hither that _surloin_, sirrah, for 'tis worthy of a more honourable post, being, as I may say, not _surloin_ but _sirloin_, the n.o.blest joint of all;” which ridiculous and desperate pun raised the wisdom and reputation of England's Solomon to the highest.