Excerpt from Kenilworth Festivities: Comprising Laneham's Description of the Pageantry, and Gascoigne's Masques, Represented Before Queen Elizabeth, at Kenilworth Castle, Anno 1575; With Introductory Prefaces, Glossarial and Explanatory Notes

The uncommon interest which has been excited by the admirable historical romance of Kenilworth, has in duced the publisher of the present volume to reprint a contem orary' account of the. Pageants at the Castle of the Earl of 'eicestér, 'with such revisions and improvements as might best qualify it forhgeneral reading. 'english prose, ' in the reign of Queen lizabeth, was either harsh and immusical in its own construction, or was rendered almost unintelligible by fantastical and romantic expres sions, such as were used by Puttenharri Lill Lite, Sir Philip Sidne and others. Robert flaneham, the author of the. Fo lowing descriptive Letter, as an officer of the'court, naturally fell into the style of speak ing'and writing Which was then fashionable; and ac cordingly his sentences are often' so metaphorical, or constructed of such singular expressions, that they would lead the plain and general reader to doubt what was his true meaning, Such, together with the affected and pedantic mode of spelling, were the publisher's motives or, modernising 'this curious document, and for adding, the ekplanatoi'y notes which accompan it. By many his labours will doubtless be received wit pleasure but to those who would tenaciously adhere to the ver rust of antiquity, he dld remark with an eminent iblio graphical writer, that Laneham's language is not changed; but Only f' the dust'is taken from his coat, and the tarnish from his lace. Having thus shewn the reasons which first induced a modern edition of this amusing detail Of the Kenilworth festivities, it remains to give somefac-i count of the author master robert laneham'.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.