Note 573 — V THE MASK

Boississe, i. 415. He says that some gentlemen masked with the filles, of which there is no trace in the other accounts. Letters from Lady Russell about the wedding are in Cecil Papers, x. 121, 175, and it is also referred to by Chamberlain, 79, 83. 'I doubt not but you have heard of the great mariage at the Lady Russell's ... and of the maske of eight maides of honour and other gentlewomen in name of the muses that came to seeke one of theire fellowes', and by Rowland Whyte (Sydney Papers, ii. 195, 197, 201, 203),'Mʳˢ Fitton led, and after they had done all their own ceremonies, these eight Ladies Maskers chose eight Ladies more to dance the measures. Mʳˢ Fitton went to the Queen, and wooed her to dance; her Majesty asked what she was. "Affection," she said. "Affection!" said the Queen, "Affection is false." Yet her Majesty rose and danced.' A picture of the Marcus Gheeraerts school (cf. L. Cust in Trans. Walpole Soc. iii. 22) probably representing Elizabeth's passage through Blackfriars on this occasion is extant in two versions at Melbury and Sherborne, and has often been reproduced; e. g. in Shakespeare's England, i. f.p.