The Hermit's Welcome at Theobalds was an entertainment for Elizabeth I performed on 10 May 1591, based around a hermit.Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1579-1595, vol. 3 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 529–541.
The verses of the Hermit's Welcome were recited at Theobalds, possibly by Sir Robert Cecil, son of the owner of the house.Gabriel Heaton, 'Elizabethan Entertainments in Manuscript: The Harefield Festivities and the Dynamics of Exchange', in Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, Sarah Knight, Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, 2007), p. 229: James Sutton, Materializing Space at an Early Modern Prodigy House: The Cecils at Theobalds (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 95-123. The hermit welcomed the queen in front of the house with the words,Stephen Alford, All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil (Allen Lane, 2024), p. 77. "My sovereign lady and most gracious queen: Be not displeased that one so meanly clad: Presumes to stand thus boldly in the way: That leads into this house accounted yours".Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich, The Elizabethan Country House Entertainment: Print Performance and Gender (Cambridge, 2016), p. 43 (modernised here).Alexander Dyce, The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Robert Greene and George Peele (London, 1861), p. 577.
The speech discusses the possible retirement of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley from public life.Stephen Alford, Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I (Yale, 2011), p. 313: Gabriel Heaton, 'Elizabethan Entertainments in Manuscript: The Harefield Festivities and the Dynamics of Exchange', p. 229. A manuscript of the hermit's verses, once in the possession of the theatre historian John Payne Collier, is held by the British Library. Some revisions to the text may possibly be in Robert Cecil's hand.Gabriel Heaton, 'Elizabethan Entertainments in Manuscript: The Harefield Festivities and the Dynamics of Exchange', p. 229: British Library, Egerton MS 2623.
The entertainment involved a mock charter, dated 10 May 1591 and signed by Christopher Hatton, from the "disconsolate and retired spirit, the Heremite of Tyboll", who was leaving after two years and two months at Theobalds to retire to his old cave.John Strype, Annals of the Reformation, vol. 4 (London, 1731), p. 77-8: (1824), pp. 108-9 The mock charter still exists and is owned by the Elizabethan Club at Yale University.Mock Charter, Elizabethan Club, Yale Orbis The elapse of time may refer to the death of Burghley's wife, Mildred Cooke in 1589.Marion Colthorpe, 'The Theobalds entertainment for Queen Elizabeth I in 1591, with a transcript of the Gardener's Speech', REED Newsletter, 12:1 (1987), p. 2.
Other speeches were made by the gardener and molecatcher at Theobalds, possibly on a subsequent day.Martin Wiggins & Catherine Richardson, British Drama, 1533-1642: 1590-1597, vol. 5 (Oxford, 2013), pp. 74-5: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 14 (London, 1923), p. 321. The gardener describes a plot divided into four quarters, including a maze of flowers representing the virtues.Marion Colthorpe, 'The Theobalds entertainment for Queen Elizabeth I in 1591, with a transcript of the Gardener's Speech', REED Newsletter, 12:1 (1987), pp. 7-8 transcription of Cecil Papers 140/94: See also BL Egerton MS 2623. An arbour constructed of eglantine flowers at "my master's conceit" symbolised the queen's chastity or virgin state.Jane Ashelford, Dress in the Age of Elizabeth (London, 1988), p. 100.
The garden was laid out after the molecatcher had cleared the ground. During the work, a box containing a jewel was found, which was presented to the queen as treasure trove.Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich, The Elizabethan Country House Entertainment: Print, Performance and Gender (Cambridge, 2016), p. 44. The jewel had been buried in ancient times by the daughter of a giant who had been transformed into a mole. It would be found when England had been ruled by a Virgin Queen for 33 years.Martin Wiggins & Catherine Teresa Richardson, British Drama, 1533-1642: 1590-1597, vol. 5 (Oxford, 2013), p. 74.
The prophecy was written on the box:I was a giant's daughter of this isle,Turned to a mole by the Queen of Corn:My jewel I did bury by a wile,Again never from the earth to be torn,Till a virgin had reigned thirty-three years,Which shall be but the fourth part of her years.Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1579-1595, vol. 3 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 536–537: Alexander Dyce, The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Robert Greene and George Peele (London, 1861), p. 579.
Records of the expenses of the royal visit survive in the Cecil papers and the National Archives.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 4 (London, 1892), p. 108: Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1591-1594 (London, 1867), p. 38. It used to be thought that George Peele was the author of the entertainment.
The Hermit's Oration The hermit of Theobalds delivered another oration to Queen Elizabeth in 1594. She visited the house between 13 and 23 June.Marie-Louise Coolahan, "The Hermit's Oration", John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth I, 3 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 734–738.Mary Hill Cole, The Portable Queen: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Ceremony (University of Massachusetts, 1999), p. 79. The prose speech refers again to the great age of William Cecil (1520-1598) and his son Robert Cecil, author of the entertainment, "although his experience and judgement be no way comparable yet, he hath some things in him like the child of such a parent". The hermit offered the Queen a gold bell, a prayer book garnished with gold, and a wax candle of new virgin wax "meet for a Virgin Queen".Annie Cameron, Warrender Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1932), pp. 223-6: John Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 3, p. 241.
In July 1606 James VI and I and his brother-in-law Christian IV of Denmark came to Theobalds and were welcomed with Ben Jonson's The Entertainment of the Kings of Great Britain and Denmark.Martin Butler, The Stuart Court Masque and Political Culture (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 125-7: Clare McManus, 'When is woman not a woman?', Modern Philology, 105 (2008), pp. 437-74.
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