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the Vice-Chancellor, with the senior doctor and orator, upon the lowest step. Within the chapel (the inner part whereof was hung with tapestry and arras of the queen's) were the provost with his fellows in their copes, making a lane where she was to pass towards the choir.

"Her majesty entered the town on horseback in a gown of black velvet pinked, a caul upon her head set with pearls and precious stones, with a hat spangled with gold and a bush of feathers, attended by Garter King-at-Arms with the other great officers of the crown, with other lords and ladies very numerous, the Chancellor riding near her, describing the order and degree and quality of the scholars; and as she passed the scholars loudly proclaimed Vivat Regina, to which she often replied Gratias ago.

"As soon as she came to the west end of the chapel, every one alighted from their horses except the queen, and there the Chancellor delivered up the staves, and the public orator, Mr. Master, kneeling down, made an oration, wherein, whilst he enlarged upon her majesty's praises, she often shook her head and bit her lips, and sometimes broke out in these expressions, non est veritas and utinam; but when he praised virginity, she commended the orator and bid him continue there. In conclusion, she gave him a just encomium, particularly admiring his memory, as he well deserved that could go on half an hour without pause or hesitating, whilst the queen's horse was curvetting under her, and she herself making remarks upon the different periods of his speech. Then she alighted and advanced towards the chapel under a rich canopy supported by four of the principal doctors, when, after Te Deum begun by the provost and sung with the organ, and after evening song solemnly had, etc., she departed to her lodging, as she went thanking God that had sent her to this University, where she was so received as she thought she could not be better.

"The next day being Sunday, Dr. Perne in his cope

preached a Latin sermon before her majesty in King's chapel upon this text, Omnis anima subdita sit, etc. About the midst of his sermon she sent the lord Hunsden to will him to put on his cap, which he did unto the end; and after the sermon was over, ere he could get out of the pulpit, she signified to him by the Lord Chamberlain, that it was the first that ever she heard in Latin, and she thought she never should hear a better.

"In the evening she heard prayers again in the chapel; and this day had been well spent, had not the conclusion been very different from the rest of the day. For the same day late and in the same place one of Plautus' comedies (his Aulularia) was acted before her by torches upon a stage erected in the chapel to that purpose, which she stayed out, though it held in acting till twelve o'clock at night.

"It would be very tedious to give a narrative of the proceedings of the following days, and of the several acts and disputations held before her majesty. It was philosophy and divinity that she attended to most, and was best pleased with these performances. Mr. Bing the respondent in philosophy, acquitted himself well; and it was then observed that as Mr. Cartwright, one of his opponents, expressed more heat, so Mr. Preston showed better manners, whom the queen took particular notice of and dubbed him her scholar. But no man acquitted himself so well as Mr. Hutton, the respondent in divinity, to the satisfaction and admiration of all his auditors; and it was to that day that he owed his future preferments. The queen favoured him in her looks, her words, and actions; and though Dr. Perne, one of his opponents, disputed upon him very warmly and very learnedly, yet he, that had given such content whilst he preached upon Omnis anima, etc., lost himself in the opinion of the queen for having touched too freely upon the power of excommunicating princes, though it were only by way of argument so nice a thing it is to approach majesty upon

any pretence or at any distance, especially where majesty is at its full height, as it then was!

"For, however it may have been since, it was then in this manner her majesty was received in our congregations or assemblies. At her entrance all men were upon the knee, nor did any one presume to rise till leave was given; and after they were up, no one presumed to sit till leave was given the second time by an express allowance. The greatest peer, the Duke of Norfolk, and the greatest favourite, Robert Dudley, addressed her majesty upon the knee, as they then did, when they desired her to dismiss the University with an oration."

The accounts printed by Nichols, in his "Progresses of Queen Elizabeth," contain a few details that are worth quoting, in addition to Baker's more succinct version of what took place. When the public orator praised virginity, she, who prided herself on being the Semper Eadem, exclaimed, "God's blessing of thyne heart; there continue." Again, at the conclusion of the disputations in Great Saint Mary's Church, she made a Latin oration, in which she distinctly promised to emulate the example of those princes, her ancestors, the monuments of whose piety she had been beholding:

"My age," she said, "is not yet so far advanced; nor again is it so long since I began to reign, but that before I pay my last debt to nature (if cruel Atropos do not too soon cut the thread of my life), I may erect some passing good work. And from this design, so long as I have any life left,

I shall never depart. And if it should happen that I must die before I can complete this thing; yet will I leave some famous monument behind me, whereby both my memory shall be renowned; and I, by my example, may excite others to the like worthy actions; and also make you all more ready to pursue your studies."

When she spoke, pleased with the reception she had had, which she candidly admitted was "altogether against her expectation," she no doubt sincerely intended to found a new college, or further to endow an existing one. The University, however, heard no more of the royal benefactions.

The stage, for the dramatic entertainment, was built right across the ante-chapel, at the west end, occupying "the breadth of the church from the one side to the other, that the chappels might serve for houses," that is, for dressing-rooms for the performers. In depth it was equal to the breadth of two chapels. The Queen sat on the south side, where "was hanged a cloth of state." The ladies and gentlewomen of the court stood on the rood-loft, or, as we call it, the organ-screen; and the "choyce officers of the Court" on the steps under the same. The guard stood on the ground by the stage side, each man holding "in his hand a torch-staff, for the lights of the play." The performers were "certain selected persons, chosen out of all colleges of the town, at the discretion of Mr. Roger Kelke, D.D.”

THE

VIII.

St. John's College. Christ's College.

HE position of the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist has been already described. Into the history of that foundation it would be beside our present purpose to enter. It will be sufficient to mention here that towards the end of the fifteenth century it began to fall into decay, both moral and material. The accusations that were brought against so many religious houses at that time were preferred against the brethren. Mr. Thomas Baker, the historian of St. John's College, tells us that "they were certainly very dissolute in their lives and prodigal in their expenses, not in charity and hospitality which they were obliged to by their rule and order, but in excess and riot, and in gratifying their own sinful lusts." A disorderly house, such as this, must have been of evil example in the University, and its suppression was only a question of time. About 1502, Dr. John Fisher, Master of Michael House, who, from the proximity of his own college to the hospital, was in a

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