I.

1634.

Hyde and to Whitelocke was allotted the task of CHAP. conferring with the Lord Chamberlain and the Comptroller of the Household, and taking order about the scenery and preparations in the Banqueting House.

The masque is minutely described by Whitelocke, who seems to dwell, with pride and pleasure, on the part he bore in this pageant. It is related by him, how sixteen “ grand masquers were to lead the revels, being "four gentlemen of "each Inn of Court most suitable for their persons, "dancing, and garb for that business;" how each party of four was to be drawn in a chariot with six horses; how difficult it was to settle the precedence of the chariots, which respectively represented the dignity of each Inn of Court, till that thorny point was decided by lot; how impossible to decide where each individual, of the parties of four, was to sit in his chariot, till the committee conceived the happy thought of having them made, like the Roman triumphal chariots, "of an oval form, so that there was "no precedence in them!" Next are celebrated the glories of the procession, which went forth from Ely-house in Holborn, down Chancery Lane, to Whitehall. First was the Marshal and his men; after him one hundred gentlemen of the Inns of Court, mounted on horseback, "in very rich clothes, "scarce anything but gold and silver lace to be seen "of them," with a page and two lacqueys to each.

"the lords to the council, that whilst he was keeper, no man should 'be so saucy as to dispute these orders, but that the wisdom of that "Board should be always ground enough for him to make a decree in Chancery.'" Clar. Hist. Reb. i. 131.

CHAP.
I.

1634.

66

66

Then came the Antimasques; "the first Antimasque being of cripples and beggars on horseback, "mounted on the poorest leanest jades that could "be gotten out the dirt-carts; the habits and pro"perties of these cripples and beggars being most ingeniously fitted by the committee's direction, "wherein Mr. Attorney Noy, Sir John Finch, Sir Ed"ward Herbert, Mr. Selden, those great and eminent persons, took extraordinary care and pains." Next followed other Antimasques; one of which, being designed to ridicule such projectors as sought patents for useless schemes*, is said to have been devised entirely by the inventive brain of Mr. Attorney Noy.

66

To these practical jocularities succeeded, in procession, the musicians, and the "grand masquers" in their oval chariots; "their habits, doublets, trunk

hose, and caps of most rich cloth of tissue, and "wrought as thick with silver spangles as they "could be placed, large white silk stockings up "to their trunkhose, and rich sprigs in their caps; "themselves proper and beautiful young gentle"men." In this melodramatic guise passed the pride, pomp, and circumstance" of law, down

66

66

*The parodies in the Antimasque scarcely equal the ludicrous extravagance of some of the actual patents of that period, which may be found recorded in " Rymer's Fœdera, vol. xix." The following may serve as specimens:-" The fish-call, or a looking glass for fishes in the sea, very useful for fishermen to call all kinds of fish to their nets, seans, or hooks.". "An instrument which may be called the wind"mate, very profitable, when common winds fail, for a more speedy passage of calmed ships and vessels on seas and rivers."—" A move"able hydraulic, or chamber weather-call, like a cabinet, which being placed in a room or by a bedside, causeth sweet sleep to those who, "either by hot fevers or otherwise, cannot take rest and it withal "alters the dry hot hair into a more moistening and cooling temper, "either with musical sounds or without." These patents were for fourteen years, and paid 17. 6s. 8d. yearly to the Exchequer.

66

66

I.

1634.

Chancery Lane, to Whitehall, where they paraded CHAP. round the Tilt-yard, that the King and Queen might have a double view of them." They alighted at Whitehall Gate, where they were graciously received; and then the masque began, "and was incomparably performed*:" then followed a ball, in which the Queen danced with some of the masques, and did "judge them as good dancers "as ever she saw." Then a banquet ensued, after which all departed: "and thus," says Whitelocke, with quaint solemnity t," was this earthly pomp "and glory, if not vanity, soon past and gone, as "if it had never been."‡ Soon afterwards, Hyde and Whitelocke, and two others, were deputed to the office of returning thanks, in the name of the four

The masque was entitled "The Triumph of Peace," and was written by Shirley. The indignation excited by Prynne's proscription of dramatic literature glares out fiercely in Shirley's ungenerous insult couched in the bitterly ironical dedication of his "Bird in a Cage," to Prynne, then in prison. “I had," said he, “an early desire to con"gratulate your happy retirement: but no poem could tempt me with "so fair a circumstance as this in the title." See Shirley's Life and Works, edited by Gifford and Dyce.

+Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 21.

Nothing in connection with this pageant is more remarkable, than the vast expense which the four Inns of Court were willing to incur. "The charge of the whole masque, which was borne by the Societies, "and by the particular members of it, was accounted," says Whitelocke, "to be above one and twenty thousand pounds." It must, however, be remembered, that the members of the Inns of Court were not then, as now, composed almost exclusively of men possessed of incomes too small to enable them to live without a profession. “In "these inns," says Blackstone, "noblemen of the realm did use "to place their children, though they did not desire to have them "thoroughly learned in the law, or to get their living by its practice.” In Fortescue's time (reign of Henry VI.) there were about 2000 students in these Inns, all, as he informs us, "filii nobilium;" and it was then the universal practice for the young nobility to be sent to these places of instruction; and though this practice fell gradually into disuse, so that in the reign of Elizabeth the number of such students did not exceed 1000, yet even in the reign of Charles I. the Inns of Court were frequently the resort of the opulent.

CHAP.

I.

March 14. 1635.

Hyde be

comes known to Laud.

Inns of Court, to the King and Queen,
" for their
"gracious acceptance of the tender of their service
"in the late masque." The selection of Hyde as
one of the four conductors of a pageant so interest-
ing to the pride of the community to which he be-
longed, is some evidence of his popularity. Of his
professional success at this period, there is no dis-
tinct evidence; it may, however, be inferred, from
the circumstance which is recounted as contributing
most materially to his advancement in 1635, that
he was already well known, and of good reputation
for ability and learning.

66

Upon the death of the Earl of Portland, the Lord Treasurer, in 1635, the treasury was put under the management of commissioners, of whom Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, was one.* Laud, who had been at enmity with Portland, diligently inquired into the state of this department, hoping to make "discovery of past actions which might reflect upon the memory of the late trea"surer."+ Among the vexatious acts of the Earl of Portland, was one, by which he had "disobliged "the merchants in a very sensible degree, in re"quiring them to unlade their ships at the Custom"house quay or wharf‡," alleging a former order of the Court of Exchequer that all fine goods should be landed there. The merchants murmured at the restraint; complaining that they were compelled to land not only fine goods, but all their merchandise, at that quay, to the great impediment of trade,

*Rushworth, ii. 246.

Life of Clarendon, i. 25.

+Life of Clarendon, i. 23.

I.

1635.

without advantage to the public service, but merely CHAP. for the benefit of a favourite of the Lord Treasurer, a farmer of the customs, to whom the quay belonged. One of the merchants, named Harvey, reported to Laud this grievance, and added, that a petition on the subject had been signed by the principal merchants in the city, and, through the hands of a Secretary of State, had been presented to the King; that the petition was referred to the Treasurer, and had obtained no redress. Laud desired that the petition might be shown to him. Harvey answered, that he believed it to be "in the hands of Mr. Hyde, who had drawn "it, and was of council with the merchants through" out the whole proceedings; and was so warm in it, "that he had exceedingly provoked the Lord Treasurer, who would have ruined him if he could;" Laud asked who Hyde was, and learned from Harvey that he was a young lawyer of the Middle Temple, who was not afraid of being counsel for the merchants," when all men of name durst not appear "for them;" that he was "generally known," and that he had married a daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury. Furnished with this clue, the Archbishop spoke next to Sir Thomas Aylesbury, and made him the bearer of a request for an interview with his son-in-law. Hyde, consequently, went to the Archbishop, whom he found alone in his garden at Lambeth, and who, he says, received him civilly. Laud made inquiries concerning the merchants' petition, and requested Hyde to bring it to him, together with any other papers he possessed concerning that affair, or the general business of the customs; and Hyde complied with this request,