Newton, Peter, Gentleman Usher

Requesting payment of 35 shillings and 4 pence for daily wages relating to The Masque of Augurs ("...Daily waiter asketh allowance for himself one yeoman usher two yeomen hangers two gromes of the wardrobe and the grome porter for making Redy the Logines at whithall for the prince his Highnes against the maske [for] the space of 2 dayes..."), signed for authorisation ("Cary") by Robert Carey, Baron Carey of Leppington (later Earl of Monmouth), Chamberlain to the Court of the Prince of Wales, one page, folio (310 x 205 mm), docketed, May 1622. Blue cloth folder.

acquisition: Christopher Edwards, 1992

An unrecorded document relating to one of the great jacobean court masques. Ben Jonson's Masque of Augurs, with sets and costumes designed by Inigo Jones, was first performed in the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall on Twelfth Night 1622, and revived on 6 May in honor of the arrival of a new Spanish Ambassador. The masque was in part a celebration of the proposed Spanish match for Prince Charles, who performed as the principal masquer.