This lost entertainment, ‘the show in the library’, was staged at Salisbury House in the Strand sometime between 6 and 11 May 1608, and celebrated the appointment of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, as Lord Treasurer. A surviving drawing by Inigo Jones (Illustration 26; Orgel and Strong, 13), which has been linked to this occasion, shows a classical arch, perhaps with ascending stairs behind, and rocks. The arch is supported by two columns with niches and four figures, surmounted by a cartouche, and the upper two figures seem to carry spears or staffs. The two craggy rocks, typical masque scenery, like the arch are sketches with no indication as to how they might have been used either as stand-alone sets or as shutters, and the cryptic inscription across the top, ‘termes heccate Connono Grupo de Serpente supra li spali’ (‘a term of Hecate with a group of serpents above the shoulders’), may or may not be connected with this event. The entertainment involved considerable technology, as the accounts refer to a ‘flying boy’ and make payments for more than thirty pulleys, a curtain, twenty-six wax lights (which may have been used behind coloured glasses ‘for the rock’), and ‘sweet flaming powder’ (Masque Archive, Electronic Edition, Ent. Salis., 9). The classical arch design echoes other Cecil texts in its use of central architectural forms (Knowles, 2002, 189), and, alongside other temporary arch designs that may date from 1608–9, provides evidence of the first use of architecture in masque settings (Harris and Higgott, 1989, fig. 3). A later archway design (Orgel and Strong, 121) may suggest how the final product appeared.

The absence of a text and the fragmentary and often overlapping nature of the accounts for this production make it difficult to ascertain how many roles and actors were involved, and who were actors and who artificers. Identifiable roles include a conjurer, a juggler, a flying boy, and two boy actors who played Fancy and ‘Barahon’. In addition, the accounts refer to ‘Master Allen’ (probably the actor Edward Alleyn), ‘Iobson’, ‘the tall man’, the ‘little fellow’, and ‘the black fellow’, as well as the unidentified figures of ‘Dolphin’ and ‘Daniel’. The costume accounts reveal an extensive use of blue and red China taffeta and ordinary taffeta, a red robe for Master Allen with open sleeves in white sarsnet, two ‘skin’ coats, cloven feet, blue taffeta for the juggler, and scarves for the flying boy. The conjurer, the presence of Fancy (possibly an early version of the figure in The Vision of Delight; cf. News NW, 8n.), and the figure of Barrahon may suggest a magical or exotic theme, perhaps even with satyrs or devils as accompaniments, and maybe some flying deity or figure parallel to Good Event in The Theobalds Entertainment. Barahon, if the word is correctly given, possibly derives from the Spanish or Portuguese term for ‘disorder’ or ‘confusion’. Jonson, Jones, and Alleyn were each paid £20 for their work on the show; £6 was given to John Coprario in payment to the musicians (Masque Archive, Ent Salis., 5.1).

The setting in a library is also significant. Salisbury House was Robert Cecil’s main architectural project between 1599 and 1601. This building replaced Cecil House which, renamed as Exeter House, descended to his brother; Little Cecil House (probably originally intended as his accommodation) on the north side of the Strand; and Theobalds in Hertfordshire, which had been ceded to the King. A compact courtyard house of four storeys on the south side of the Strand, Salisbury House was restructured in 1605, and again 1608–11, when an elaborate loggia with sculpted and painted figures was added to the garden side (Baggs, 1984, 104–110; Lingard, 1981, 22–9; SP14/59/106). As befitted a building that embodied Cecil’s new earldom, Salisbury House was edified with extraordinary opulence, especially the library, which appears to have been central to the house even though it cannot be identified from the surviving plans (Lingard, 1981, 27). It contained several thousand books (listed in an inventory in 1614), and was decorated with a painted and gilded chimney piece, worked stair-posts, gilded ‘tables’ over the arch and door, and shelves decorated with gilded scrolls marked with ‘figures’ (numerals). The painter Roland Buckett was paid over £14 for ‘gilding, paynting and varnishing’ the room with frames which contained ‘tables of arts’, ‘one picture of America’ and ‘twelve tables with the names of countries’ (Hatfield House, Cecil Papers, Bills 28).

Much of the ‘show’ appears to have incorporated the books themselves, for the accounts specify ‘royal paper, pasteboard, and strings for a great book of maps’, ‘a great book of fortification’, ‘new colouring twenty two genealogies of princes’, ‘colouring twenty tables of arts’, ‘six pictures’, ‘and a map of Venice with the pictures of all the Dukes’. These genealogies seem to echo the decor of Theobalds on a smaller scale (Airs, 2002, 10–12), and although we cannot ascertain how the library setting and the books related to the rest of the designed elements of rock and a classical archway, the decorative schema and volumes purchased emphasise the useful learning of geography, history, genealogy, and military architecture. This entertainment seems to have been designed to celebrate Cecil’s intellectual interests, his architectural projects, and his dynastic inheritance, placing the library and its books as central symbols to manifest the foundation of his power in learning, information management, and the technologies of administration and government.

The geographical representations of both Europe and America may suggest that the room was decorated either with pictorial maps or with colonial images like the Peruvian scene after Tempesta painted by Edward Pierce for Wilton House. Combined with the character of Barrahon and the conjurer with his Chinese robes, which may echo the anonymous Masque of Indian and China Knights danced at court in 1604, the setting might indicate that the text also employed some colonial fiction. Given the restricted size of the space and the requirement for lights, it may be that the Entertainment at Salisbury House aimed to produce a shrine-like appearance (Orgel and Strong 14 is a masque design often linked to Cecil’s entertainments that shows just such an effect), or to suggest infinite theatrical riches in a little room, offering a bibliophile parallel to the wunderkammer that clearly influenced the Entertainment at Britain’s Burse. Perhaps the conjuration offered the audience a magical scene of colonial or pastoral nature which could then be contrasted with the true knowledge and hard reality of Cecil’s enterprises and government symbolised by the ‘antiquity and solid learnings’ of his library.

[Illustration 26: Inigo Jones, design for a masquer: a daughter of Niger.

James Knowles