d ale, &c. When the banquet is ended, then cometh
into the Hall the Constable-Marshall, fairly mounted on his mule; and
deviseth some sport for passing away the rest of the night.

"_Twelf Day._--At breakfast, brawn, mustard, and malmsey, after
morning prayer ended. And at dinner, the Hall is to be served as upon
St. John's Day."

* * * * *

The performance of "Gorboduc" at the Inner Temple was received with
such great applause, and the services of Lord Robert Dudley, first
favourite of the Queen, so highly appreciated at that particular
"grand Christmasse," that Queen Elizabeth commanded a repetition of
the play about a fortnight later, before herself, at her Court at
Whitehall. A contemporary MS. note (Cotton MSS., Vit. F. v.) says of

THE PERFORMANCE BEFORE THE QUEEN,

that "on the 18th of January, 1562, there was a play in the Queen's
Hall at Westminster by the gentlemen of the Temple after a great mask,
for there was a great scaffold in the hall, with great triumph as has
been seen; and the morrow after, the scaffold was taken down." An
unauthorised edition of the play was first published, in September of
that year, by William Griffith, a bookseller in St. Dunstan's
Churchyard; but nine years afterwards an authorised and "true copy" of
the play was published by John Day, of Aldersgate, the title being
then altered from "Gorboduc" (in which name the spurious edition had
been issued) to "Ferrex and Porrex." The title of this edition set
forth that the play was "without addition or alteration, but
altogether as the same was shewed on stage before the Queen's
Majestie, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple." The argument of the
play was taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of British Kings,"
and was a call to Englishmen to cease from strife among themselves and
become an united people, obedient to one undisputed rule:--

"Within one land one single rule is best:
Divided reigns do make divided hearts;
But peace preserves the country and the prince."

It recalled the horrors of the civil wars, and forbade the like
again:--

"What princes slain before their timely hour!
What waste of towns and people in the land!
What treasons heap'd on murders and on spoils!
Whose just revenge e'en yet is scarcely ceas'd:
Ruthful remembrance is yet raw in mind.
The gods forbid the like to chance again."

A good description of the play, with copious extracts, is published i