The Harefield Entertainment included hospitality and performances for Elizabeth I of England on 29 July 1602 and the next four days. Several copies of the performance script survive, probably written by John Davies, along with the original manuscript accounts of the Queen's host which seems to have been manipulated by literary forgery in the 19th-century to enhance their interest.Gabriel Heaton, Writing and Reading Royal Entertainments: From George Gascoigne to Ben Jonson (Oxford, 2010), pp. 102-116.Lost Plays Database: The Harefield Entertainment
Preparations Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper, bought Harefield Place, now in the London Borough of Hillingdon, from Sir Edmund Anderson in 1601. The Queen came to Harefield on 29 July 1602, as part of a short progress lasting two weeks.Gabriel Heaton, Writing and Reading Royal Entertainments: From George Gascoigne to Ben Jonson (Oxford, 2010), p. 103. She stayed until 3 August. Egerton's bills for the entertainment and hospitality survive.John Payne Collier, The Egerton Papers (Camden Society: London, 1840), pp. 340-357: Huntington Library HHL MS EL 122, 124-7. Some speeches and drama were also recorded and printed.Gabriel Heaton, 'Elizabethan Entertainments in Manuscript: The Harefield Festivities and the Dynamics of Exchange', in Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, Sarah Knight, Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, 2007), pp. 227-244. A "lottery" was performed in which gifts were presented to the ladies of the court as humorous rhyming couplets were recited. Modern critics emphasise the likely role of Egerton's wife, Alice, Countess of Derby in planning and devising the events.Vanessa Wilkie, A Woman of Influence: The Spectacular Rise of Alice Spencer in Tudor England (Simon & Schuster, 2023), p. 69: Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1596-1603, vol. 4 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 174-195: Jean Wilson, 'The Harefield Entertainment and the Cult of Elizabeth I', The Antiquaries Journal, 66:2 (September 1986), pp. 315-329: Mary Erler, 'Chaste Sports, Juste Prayses & All Softe Delight: Harefield 1602 and Ashby 1607, Two Female Entertainments', in The Elizabethan Theatre XIV (Toronto, 1996), pp. 1-25: Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich, The Elizabethan Country House: Print, Performance and Gender (Cambridge, 2016), pp. 109-121: Sara Mueller, 'Domestic Work in Progress Entertainments', in Michelle Dowd & Natasha Korda, Working Subjects in Early Modern Drama (Routledge, 2011), pp. 155-9.
The early editor of the records John Payne Collier is thought to have tampered with a page of "Mainwaring's accounts" of expenses to introduce a bogus reference to Richard Burbage and Othello, but the rest of Egerton's expenses are considered authentic.Arthur Freeman & Janet Ing Freeman, John Payne Collier: Scholarship and Forgery in the Nineteenth Century (Yale, 2004), pp. 266-7, 329-330.
To feed the queen and her household Egerton bought wheat for bread and "manchet", butter, eggs, gooseberries, chickens, pigeons, geese, rabbits, ducklings, pigs, partridges, trout, lobster, and crayfish and other foods.John Payne Collier, The Egerton Papers (Camden Society: London, 1840), pp. 341-2: Amanda Herbert, 'Despicable but purposeful: Why Spenser, Jonson and Milton's patron was an unlovely success story', TLS, 28 July 2023 There was Gascon wine and sack, beer and ale, wine vinegar and oil for cooking, green fruits, herbs, and a hired cook Allin Wardis. Mr Walther made sugar confections. A London pewterer provided plates and dishes. Planks for shelves and tables were boated up the Thames to Brentford.John Payne Collier, The Egerton Papers (Camden Society: London, 1840), pp. 345-6. 18,000 bricks were bought to build ovens for the event, and extra lodgings were added to the house. Arras hooks for tapestries were supplied by Page of Uxbridge.John Payne Collier, The Egerton Papers (Camden Society: London, 1840), pp. 347-8. Several guests brought gifts of food, George More from Loseley gave a stag, 24 pigeons, and 4 swans, the Warden of the Fleet Prison gave 4 sugar loaves, and the Lord Mayor of London brought a barrel of sack and 6 herons. John Kederminster brought 18 boxes of sweetmeats and 36 fine cakes.John Payne Collier, The Egerton Papers (Camden Society: London, 1840), pp. 350-7.
Events The Queen arrived at Harefield and near the house, sheltering under a tree from the rain, heard a dialogue between a Bailiff and Dairy Maid. They discuss the arrival of guests and gave them welcome. The Dairy Maid apologises for the unfinished state of the house and does not recognise Elizabeth I.Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich, The Elizabethan Country House Entertainment (Cambridge, 2016), pp. 110–116.
At the entry to the house there was a chair for her, and a dialogue between Place and Time was presented, and the queen was given a diamond heart, said to have cost £300.James Raine, The Correspondence of Matthew Hutton (London: Surtees Society, 1843), p. 278. Place, who wore a robe like the bricks of the house,Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich, The Elizabethan Country House: Print, Performance and Gender (Cambridge, 2016), p. 112. praised the qualities of the diamond which was transparent and flawless. Set without a backing foil, it had "noe undutifull spot in yt".James Raine, The Correspondence of Matthew Hutton (London: Surtees Society, 1843), pp. 278–279.
Next, Elizabeth was given a gown of cloth of silver embroidered with rainbows by Audrey Walsingham, and a verse recalled the legend of St Swithun.Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1596-1603, vol. 4 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 179-186: Heaton (2007), p. 236. Egerton provided the gown for £340,Felicity Heal, "Giving and Receiving on Royal Progress", Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, Sarah Knight, Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, 2007), p. 59: James Raine, The Correspondence of Matthew Hutton (London: Surtees Society, 1843), p. 280. and the Countess gave the sleeves and cords to attach them with ruby and pearl tags.Gabriel Heaton, Writing and Reading Royal Entertainments: From George Gascoigne to Ben Jonson (Oxford, 2010), pp. 108–109.Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1998), 94.
A payment to an embroiderer, silkman, and the Queen's tailor is one of Payne Collier's forgeries.John Payne Collier, The Egerton Papers (Camden Society: London, 1840), p. 343: Heaton (2007), p. 235 fn. 22: HHL MS EL 123. The rainbow gown has been connected with the costume depicted in Elizabeth's Rainbow Portrait at Hatfield and the Bacton Altar Cloth.Eleri Lynn, "The Bacton Altar Cloth: Elizabeth I's 'long-lost skirt'?", Costume, 52:1 (March 2018), pp. 3-25 at 18-19: Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (London, 1988), pp. 83, 94: Elizabeth Goldring, 'Portraiture, Patronage, and the Progress', in Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, Sarah Knight, Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, 2007), p. 188.
The Harefield Lottery
The concept of the Harefield lottery was the distribution of gifts by a mariner of a rich Carrack, a treasure ship, to the ladies of Cynthia, Queen of the Seas.Elizabeth Kolkovich, 'Performing Patronage, Crafting Alliances: Ladies' lotteries in English pageantry', Christina Luckyj & Niamh J. O'Leary, The politics of female alliance in early modern England (Lincoln, Nebraska, 2017), 113.James Raine, The Correspondence of Matthew Hutton (London: Surtees Society, 1843), p. 281. A carrack from Lisbon had recently been brought to Plymouth. Around thirty women received gifts.Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich, The Elizabethan Country House: Print, Performance and Gender (Cambridge, 2016), p. 111. Participants in the Harefield lottery included; Mary Radcliffe, who was given a pair of bracelets, with this verse, "Lady your hands are fallen in a snare: For Cupid's manacles these bracelets are". Lady Warwick was a given a "snufkin", a kind of muff, with the verses, "Tis sommer, yet a snufkin is your lot; But twilbe winter one day, doubt you not". Frances, Lady Kildare was given a girdle, with the verses, "By fortune's girdle you may happy be: But they that are less happy are more free". Susan Vere drew a blank and was told; "Wit you why fortune gives you no prize: Good faith, she saw you not, she has no eyes".James Raine, The Correspondence of Matthew Hutton (London: Surtees Society, 1843), p. 285. Anne Clifford was given a lace, with verses; "Give her the lace that loves to be straight-laced: So fortune's little gift is aptly placed". Elizabeth Southwell presented with gloves; "Fortune these gloves to you in double challenge sends: For you hate fools and flatterers, her best friends". Philadelphia Carey given a mask or vizard; "Want you a mask! Here fortune give you one: Yet nature gives the rose and lily none". Audrey Walsingham had the prize of a cutwork stomacher with the verses; "This stomacher is full of windows wrought: Yet none through them can look into your thought". The Mother of the Maids, Elizabeth Wingfield,Gabriel Heaton, "The Harefield Entertainment", John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth I, 4, p. 189. received a scarf, with the verses; "Take you this scarfe, binde Cupid hand and foote, So Love shall you leave before he shoote". Elizabeth Brydges,Gabriel Heaton, "The Harefield Entertainment", John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth I, 4, p. 188. received a dozen points (clothing toggles) with these verses; "You are in every point a lover true, And therefore fortune gives the points to you". Dorothy Hastings,Gabriel Heaton, "The Harefield Entertainment", John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth I, 4, p. 191. a bodkin, a jewelled hair-pin; Even with this bodkin, you may live unharmed; Your beauty with your virtues so well armed Cordell Anslowe or Christian Annesley drew a pin cushion, "To her that little cares what lot she wins: Chance gives a cushinet to stick pins".James Halliwell-Phillipps, Poetical Miscellanies from a Manuscript Collection of the Time of James I (London, 1845), pp. 5–10.
At the end of the lottery a feather jewel, worth £600,James Raine, The Correspondence of Matthew Hutton (London: Surtees Society, 1843), p. 286. was found in the box of lottery tickets and was given to Elizabeth, the "lady of the Island".Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1596-1603, vol. 4 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 184–6, 188–193. Verses by William Skipwith survive for another lottery entertainment, connected with the masque at Ashby Castle in 1607.Elizabeth Kolkovich, 'Performing Patronage, Crafting Alliances: Ladies' Lotteries in English Pageantry', Christina Luckyj, Niamh J. O'Leary, The Politics of Female Alliance in Early Modern England (University of Nebraska, 2017), pp. 118–122.
As the Queen left Harefield the final scene was a speech made by the spirit of Place dressed as a widow, who said, "I could wish myself like the enchanted Castle of Love, to hold you here for ever, but your virtues would dissolve my enchantments". The widow gave Elizabeth a jewel in the form of an anchor.Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), pp. 132-3.