A Private Entertainment of the King and Queen on May-Day, also known as the Penates, was a masque by Ben Jonson performed on 1 May 1604 at the house of Sir William Cornwallis in Highgate. It also called the Highgate Entertainment'.Martin Butler, The Stuart Court Masque and Political Culture (Cambridge, 2008), p. 360.Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stuart: The regime change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford University Press, 2024), p. 247.
Summary James VI and I and Anne of Denmark were met at the gate of Cornwallis's house by the Penates or household gods.James M. Sutton, "Jonson's Genius at Theobalds", Ben Jonson Journal, 7:1 (January 2000), p. 301. The house was blest by their "double majesty". They walked through the house into the garden to meet Mercury, and hear the song of Aurora, Zephyrus, and Flora, See, see, O see who here is come a Maying! May herself was presented in her bower.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, 1 (London, 1828), pp. 431–435.William Gifford, The Works of Ben Jonson, 6 (London, 1816), pp. 485–497, edition of the text
After dinner, there was a dialogue between Mercury and Pan in the garden. Pan handed out drinks from a fountain of wine.Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, British Drama, 1533-1642: 1603-1608 (Oxford, 2012), pp. 97–99.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, 1 (London, 1828), pp. 435–437.
Song The song from the masque, See, see, O see who is here come a-maying!, appears in Martin Peerson's Private Music, or the First Book of Airs and Dialogues (1620):Marchette Chute, Ben Jonson of Westminster (London: Robert Hale, 1954), p. 158.Mark Eccles, "Martin Peerson and the Blackfriars", Shakespeare Survey, 11 (Cambridge, 1958), p. 100.Martin Peerson, Priuate musicke, or the first booke of ayres and dialogues (London, 1620), no. XXIIII
Elizabeth I had been celebrated as "Oriana" and Anne of Denmark was welcomed at Althorp in 1603 as Oriana.Helen Moore, Amadis in English: A Study of the Reading of Romance (Oxford, 2020), pp. 128–129: William Gifford, The Works of Ben Jonson, 6 (London, 1816), p. 474. Peerson was briefly a proprietor and shareholder of a theatre company, the "Children of the Queen's Revels".Lucy Munro, Children of the Queen's Revels: A Jacobean Theatre Repertory (Cambridge, 2005), p. 38. The masque directly alludes to the reputation of Danish people as enthusiastic drinkers and may include references to the custom of "Swearing on the Horns".Matthew Steggle, "Jonson, Marston, Highgate, Horns", Notes and Queries, 67:3 (2020), pp. 354–358. William Cornwallis continued his close connection with the Stuart court by marrying Jane Meautys, a lady in waiting to the queen.Frederick Madden, Issues of the Exchequer: James I (London, 1836), pp. 104–105.
The garden The view of London and the countryside from Cornwallis's house was praised by John Norden."The Earl of Arundel's House in Highgate", The Gentleman's Magazine, XCVIII (1) (1828), p. 588.John Norden, Speculum Britanniae: the First parte An historicall discription of Middlesex (London, 1593), p. 22 In the Entertainment, Mercury describes the view from a mount, an ornamental mound, in the garden:Here, for her month, the yearly delicate May keeps state; and from this mount takes pleasure to display these valleys, yonder lesser hills, those statelier edifices and towers, that seem enamoured so far off, and are reared on end to behold her, as if their utmost object were her beauties. Hither the Dryads of the valley, and nymphs of the great river come every morning to taste of her favours; and depart away with laps filled with her bounties.William Gifford, The Works of Ben Jonson, 6 (London, 1816), p. 489.
Subsequently, the Highgate house was a residence of Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel.Dianne Duggan, "Tart Hall", Malcolm Airs and Geoffrey Tyack, The Renaissance Villa in Britain (Reading: Spire Books, 2007), p. 167.Historic England: Old Hall, Highgate In 1612, the English diplomat in the Netherlands, William Trumbull sent trees for her garden in Highgate, shipped from Vlissingen.A. B. Hinds, HMC Downshire, vol. 3 (London, 1938), p. 394.
References
External links Musicke in the Ayre: See, o see who here comes a-maying, Martin Peerson Jan Waterfield, Martin Elliot: Private Musicke, See, O see, who is heere come a maying