l. On the following day the prince, attended by eighty gentlemen of
Gray's Inn and the Temple (each of the eighty wearing a plume on his
head), dined in state with the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city, at
Crosby Place. The frolic continued for many days more; the royal
Purpoole on one occasion visiting Blackwall with a splendid retinue, on
another (Twelfth Night) receiving a gallant assembly of lords, ladies,
and Knights, at his court in Gray's Inn, and on a third (Shrovetide)
visiting the queen herself at Greenwich, when Her Majesty warmly
applauded the masque set before her by the actors who were members of
the Prince's court. So delighted was Elizabeth with the entertainment,
that she graciously allowed the masquers to kiss her right hand, and
loudly extolled Gray's Inn "as an house she was much indebted to, for it
did always study for some sports to present unto her;" whilst to the
mock Prince she showed her favor, by placing in his hand the jewel (set
with seventeen diamonds and fourteen rubies) which he had won by valor
and skill in the tournament which formed part of the Shrovetide sports.

Numerous entries in the records of the inns testify to the importance
assigned by the olden lawyers to their periodic feasts; and though in
the fluctuations of public opinion with regard to the effects of
dramatic amusements, certain benchers, or even all the benchers of a
particular inn, may be found at times discountenancing the custom of
presenting masques, the revels were usually diversified and heightened
by stage plays. Not only were interludes given at the high and grand
holidays styled _Solemn Revels_, but also at the minor festivities
termed Post Revels they were usually had recourse to for amusement.
"Besides those _solemn revels_, or measures aforesaid," says Dugdale,
concerning the old usages of the 'Middle Temple,' "they had wont to be
entertained with Post Revels performed by the better sort of the young
gentlemen of the society, with galliards, corrantoes, and other dances,
or else with stage-plays; the first of these feasts being at the
beginning, and the other at the latter end of Christmas. But of late
years these Post Revels have been disused, both here and in the other
Inns of Court."

Besides producing and acting some of our best Pro-Shakespearian dramas,
the Elizabethan lawyers put upon the stage at least one of William
Shakespeare's plays. From the diary of a barrister (supposed to be John
Manningham