Note 222 — THE WORLD TOST AT TENNIS.

royal’st guest] May mean Queen Anne; but more probably, I think, her brother, the king of Denmark, who visited England twice, in 1606 and in 1614. “In the reign of King James I. the house before us [Somerset-house] became, ipso facto, a royal residence on the part of the Queen, and even changed its name; and it appears that her Majesty repaired it, at her own charge, for the reception of her brother Christian IV., king of Denmark, who visited England A.D. 1606, from which time it is said that the Queen affected to call it Denmark-House.” Curialia, P. IV. p. 63, by Pegge; who, after more on this subject, chooses to rely on the statement of the continuators of Stow’s Survey of London—that on Shrove-Tuesday, 1616, Queen Anne having feasted King James at Somerset-House, he then changed its name, and appointed it to be thenceforth called Denmark-House, p. 65: see also Nichols’s Prog. of K. James, vol. iii. p. 253.

When this Masque was originally produced as a royal entertainment, I know not. The noble pair to whom it is dedicated were not married till 1620: see Collins’s Peerage (by Brydges), vol. iv. p. 277. Towards the end of it there is an evident allusion to the wars in the Palatinate.