A MASKE OF FLOWERS 



IT seems to me that nothing more appropriate 

 could be placed here as an epilogue to this book 

 on the Shakespeare garden than the contempo- 

 rary description of "A Maske of Flowers by the 

 Gentlemen of Gray's Inn at Whitehall on Twelfth 

 Night, 1613, being the last of the solemnities and 

 magnificences which were performed at the marriage 

 of the Earl of Somerset and Lady Frances, daughter 

 of the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain." 



This was printed in 1614; and I have quoted it 

 from the "History of Gardening in England" by 

 the Hon. Alicia Amherst (London, 1895), who 

 copied it from a very rare original. 



This description not only presents a perfect pic- 

 ture of a Shakespearian garden but will be a revela- 

 tion to those persons who think that only crude stage- 

 setting existed in Elizabethan and Jacobean days. 

 Although elaborate stage-setting was restricted to 

 private entertainments, the designers of the period 

 knew how to produce splendid effects. There is 



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