Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

INTRODUCTION. xlvii
Bulstrode Whitelock,' a bencher of the Middle Temple, who was one
of those mainly concerned in its arrangement. From this it appears
that each inn appointed two members, forming together a committee
of eight, to undertake the business of the masque. The Inner
Temple appointed Sir Edward Herbert and John Selden, who, not
long released from prison, showed a certain amount of magnanimity
in accepting the post. The Middle Temple appointed Bulstrode
Whitelock, afterwards lord keeper and ambassador to Sweden under
the commonwealth, and Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon
and Lord High Chancellor under Charles I I. Lincoln's Inn appointed
Mr. Attorney-General Noy, of ship-money notoriety, and Mr.
Gerling ; and Gray's Inn appointed Sir John Finch, the queen's
attorney-general, and another member whose name is not given.
Each of these gentlemen took some part of the business in hand, the
charge of the music being committed to Whitelock, which, he says,
" was so performed that it exceeded any music that ever before
that time had been heard in England." For this purpose he
engaged the services of Simon Ivy, or lye, a lay vicar of S. Paul's,
and a well known composer,' and of William Lawes, an accomplished
musician and a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. Lawes
was very highly estimated at court and was called by King Charles
" the father of musick."3 Each of these performers received the
substantial fee of oo for his share in the music and in the general
arrangements. Four French gentlemen from the queen's chapel,
and various other professional musicians were also retained, took
part in the concert, and played for the dancers. The title of the
masque was " The Triumph of Peace," and the time fixed for its
representation was Candlemas night (2nd February), 1633-34. At
least i 20 gentlemen of the inns of court, mounted on richly caparisoned
horses, many of them borrowed from the stables of the king and
of the nobility and country gentlemen then in town, took part in the
procession. They were attended by over 300 servants, most of them
also mounted, and by footmen carrying torches. In addition to these
1 " Whitelock's Memorials," Oxford, 1853. Vol i., p. 53-62 ; folio edition, p. 19.
" Dict. Nat. Biog.," vol. xxix., p. 78.
Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 242. He was shot at the siege of Chester, in 1645. His
brother, Henry Lawes, is more generally known ; he wrote the music for Milton's
" Comus," and for Davenant's entertainment at Rutland House in 1656.