A N
E N T E R T A I N M E N T
O F
King JAMES, and Queen ANN,
A T
T H E O B A L D S,
W H E N T H E
House was delivered up, with the Possession, to the Queen,
by the Earl of Salisbury, the 22 of May, 1607.
The Prince Janvile, Brother to the Duke of Guise, being then present.
He King, and Queen, with the Princes of Wales, and
Lorrain, and the Nobility, being entred into the Gal-
lery, after Dinner there was seen nothing but a tra-
verse of white across the Room: which suddenly
drawn, was discovered a gloomy obscure Place, hung all with
black Silks, and in it only one Light, which the Genius of the
House held, sadly attir'd; his Cornucopia ready to fall out of
his Hand, his Garland drooping on his Head, his Eyes fixed
on the Ground; when, out of his pensive Posture, after some
little Pause, he brake, and began.
Et not your Glories darken, to behold
The place, and me, her Genius here, so sad;
Who, by bold Rumour, have been lately told,
That I must change the loved Lord, I had.
And he, now, in the twilight of sere Age,
Begin to seek a Habitation new;
And all his Fortunes, and himself engage
Unto a Seat, his Fathers never knew.
And I, uncertain what I must endure,
Since all the ends of Dest'ny are obscure.
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Here a Voice was heard from behind the Darkness, which bad
him,
M E R C U R Y.
Despair not, Genius, thou shalt know thy Fate.
And withall, the black vanishing, was discovered a glorious
Place, figuring the Lararium, or Seat of the Houshold Gods,
where both the Lares and Penates were painted in copper Colour;
[column break]
erected with Columns and Architrabe, Freeze, and Coronice, in
which were placed divers Diaphanal Glasses, fill'd with several
Waters, that shew'd like so many Stones of orient and transparent
Hiews. Within, as farther off, in Landtschap, were seen
Clouds riding, and in one corner, a Boy figuring Good Event,
attired in white, hovering in the Air, with Wings displayed,
having nothing seen to sustain him by, all the time the Shew
lasted. At the other corner, a Mercury descended, in a flying
Posture, with his Caduceus in his Hand, who spake to the
three Parcæ, that sat low in a Grate, with an Iron Roof, the
one holding the Rock, the other the Spindle, and the third the
Sheers, with a Book of Adamant lying open before them. But
first, the Genius surpriz'd by wonder, urg'd this doubt, by
question.
G E N I U S.
Hat sight is this, so strange! and full of state!
The Son of Maia, making his descent
Unto the Fates, and met with good Event.
M E R C U R Y.
Daughters of Night, and Secresy, attend;
You, that draw out the Chain of Destiny,
Upon whose Threads, both Lives and Times depend,
And all the Periods of Mortality.
The will of Jove is, that you straight do look
The Change, and Fate unto this House decreed,
And speaking from your Adamantine Book,
Unto the Genius of the Place it read;
That he may know, and knowing bless, his Lot,
That such a Grace, beyond his Hopes hath got.
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