Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean: A Pageant-drama
V^^^J rtF^^ m^^^^SBBS^kryx*'^ nl ^^K~7^Mi^ ^S ^^I^HBL ^f Hi Bw; jpL. JHk^i ni At .J^nL^a\jiV^^8l^^^atiJ r^Bft^. ^^SL^kl fnHH^i 1 ^^HHHL''^^ii^'^^HlCnF i aj^SPBmttvi ' ^^^S^Http'*'»'^^k^F *• ^^^IjPffll''^ h-l ^BHar^^''* ^J^rT ->*' jMfflwIMB 1 1 ^Kj^yi^^^Hdi ■P' jg ^ft ^QSL^ ■SiS^^^t&K^ rl ^ iP^H^^^^Gf^ ^^^K' bais=^ ^^^-^^ pokTS:*it op raleioh in "the history op the world," .\.%aJi.<r-HU i .rHi '^HrsMty-v: 5K." '^W?:' vi ^.V% ,. »•'•■• .X..' '... -/«.'. ; .' . "i .'':«i:;- '■.??y 1^1 >• J ,-. »■.-.,.. ;.: . "J *% ••■ • 1 ft ■/ *•' ^ .' It--? i •••• •' V •5 . ••' » '. \ •« -•* ^f* •.i^\ ; ••-•* • -Vv:^ • : .•> f •V " f >■• •A. ^^Uvsfy THE SHEPHERD OF THE OCEAN A Pageant-Drama : . - • • • EY FREDERICK HENRY KOCH Professor of Dramatic Literature in the University of North Carolina Designed to Commemorate the Tercentenary of THE Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh With a Fore¥rord by Edwin GreeEolaw PRINTED AT 36aiti^f Utott^ Carolina BY EDWARDS ft BROUGHTON PRINTING CO. MCMXX Copyright, 1920, by FREDERICK HENRY KOCH All rights reserved, including acting rights and motion picture rights To THE CITIZENS OF THE "CITIE OF RALEGH* IN North Carouna Inheritors of the Brave Spirit of THE Pioneer Colonizer SIR WALTER RALEIGH WELO WROTE JUST BEFORE HIS FALL **I shail yet live to see U an English nadorC 372993 / Contents; PAGE The Raleigh Tercentenary 9 Foreword 13 Characters Represented 21 The Prologue 25 The First Part 27 Episode I 27 Interlude 42 Episode II 43 The Interlude 57 The Second Part 59 Episode I 61 Interlude 66 Episode II 67 Interlude 75 Episode III 77 The Epilogue 87 The Directors of the Pageant 93 The Committees of the Pageant 94 The Principal Platers of the Pageant 95 lutt of Mvastxatisma Caver Design: The Arms of Sm Walter Raleigh, with Autograph. The arms from the Heralds' College, London. The autograph — ^facsimile in letter to Mr. R. Duke, July 26, 1584. Sir Walter Raleigh Frontispiece Portrait of Raleigh in the Third Edition of The History of the World, 1617. FAONCPACE The Birthplace of Walter Raleigh 23 From a photograph. Queen Elizabeth 29 From painting by Zucchero in the National Portrait Gallery. Indian Chiefs of Roanoke Island 35 From the John White Pictures. The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588 .... 41 From Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords, engraved by J. Pine, 1739. The Arrival of the Engush at Roanoke Island . . 53 From the John White Pictures. Raleigh's Cell in the Bloody Tower ..... 61 From a drawing by J. Wykeham Archer, 1851. The Site of Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island . . 81 From the painting by Jacques Busbee. ^tie IMtvsfy tercentenary I SHALL yet live to see it an English nation!'* So wrote Sir Walter Raleigh, with far-seeing vis- ion, just before his fall, concerning his ^Tost Col- ony" of Roanoke and his Citie of Ralegh in America. Today the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh appears the more imposing in the perspective of the years — ^the complete embodiment of the talents of the versatile age in which he lived. Courtier, soldier, sea-captain, statesman, explorer, scientist, historian, poet — ^he was, perhaps, the most representative man of his time. But chiefly he was the pioneer colonizer of the New World of America. It is especially fitting that Raleigh, The Shepherd of the Ocean, be produced at this particular time, as the contribution of the State of North Carolina to the celebrations being held conjointly both in England and in the United States in 1920-21, to commemorate the correlated occurrences which mark the beginnings and the development of our free English institutions. In this international celebration the landing on Roan- oke Island in July, 1584, of the colonists of Sir Wal- ter Raleigh — ^the first English settlers in America — holds a unique place. It is the pioneer English set- tlement in America, a heritage which may well be cherished along with the better known later settlements at Jamestown  the Ocean Raleigh, The Shepherd of the Ocean, is designed, not merely to present some of the shining incidents in the life of the man, but also to suggest something of the larger significance of his contribution. Sir Walter Raleigh is here conceived as representing the struggle of the English people for freedom from tyrant rule, as blazing the way for those who came after him to inherit the fruition of his vision of a brave New World — ^the proved reality of his dream of a new "EngUsh nation" in America. In writing this play of Raleigh, The Shepherd of the Ocean, I have enriched the text, wherever it was practicable, with the vivid phrases of Raleigh him- seK— adapting various passages from his principal prose-writings, and including in the final scene his beautiful and haunting verses. Even such is time, etc., found in his Bible in the gatehouse at Westminster, and said to have been written by him the night before his execution. This Raleigh pageant-drama was devised and writ- ten originally for the commemoration of the Tercen- tenary of the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh on October 29, 1918, as planned by the State Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina. But the original plan was thwarted by the epidemic of in- fluenza, and now it is our purpose to produce it on the evenings of October 19th, 20th and 21st in a spacious Theatre, of Nature in the suburbs of the City of Rajirf^lbi The Raleigh Tercentenary 11 In the preparation of the text of the play I am deeply indebted to two of my former co-workers in commmiity drama: to Dr. Orin Grant Libby, Profes- sor of History in the University of North Dakota, for necessary historical data and for his inspiration in interpreting them; and to Margaret Plank Ganssle, one of the group of writers of our first Dakota com- munal drama, A Pageant of the North-West, in 1914, for her important collaboration in the lyrics. I beg, also, to acknowledge my indebtedness for the song, God Save Britannia^s Queen, to the Shakespeare Ter- centenary Masque, Shakespeare, The Playmaker, written likewise in collaboration under my direction by a group of twenty members of The Dakota Play- makers in 1916, and published originally in the Quarterly Journal of the University of North Dakota. I desire to express my appreciation of the admira- ble civic spirit of those who have made .possible the present production. Without the whole-hearted co- operation of the various organizations of the city of Raleigh, the original design of Mr. R. D. W. Connor, Secretary of the State Literary and Historical Asso- ciation of North Carolina, and of my esteemed col- league in the University of North Carolina, Dr. Ed- win Greenlaw, could not have become a reality. Frederick H. Koch. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, August 8, 1920. I Jforetuorb To the school-boy, and often to those who think only now and then of the more serious side of their youthful training, the Founders of America seem a sober people who braved the terrors of the sea and of the wilderness in order that they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. If we seek an imaginative background for visualizing these venerable people, we find it in the poem by Mrs. Hemans about the stem and rock-bound coast; in the first Thanksgiving of Puritan men and women, mak- ing their way through the snow to the meeting-house and protected against the Devil by the Holy Book and against the Indians by their muskets. The som- bre tales of Hawthorne deepen the picture — ^'^The Minister's Black Veil," *The Gentle Boy," and "Merrymount." To these we add our sl^ider remem- brances of early history — ^the expulsion of Roger Williams, the witchcraft delusion, Jonathan Edwards preaching his fiery sermon on ''Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," and finish the chapter with the scene of the embattled farmers at Concord at the out- break of the Revolution. It is true that a few stories of colonial New York and Pennsylvania linger in our memories long after school days are over, and that even in middle age we sometimes try to recapture the delicious romantic thrilT once felt in the story of 14 Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. But we are apt to feel that these are excursions into the land of romance and that what Whitman calls the real real is to be found chiefly in the stem New England life with its pioneer hardships, its sermons three hours long, its long prayers, and the New England Primer. Now there is much that is true and conmiendable in this attitude. But it is not the whole truth. The foundations of America are not to be found solely in the England of Cromwell, but also in the England of Elizabeth. So long as the New England tradition dominated American literature, American life, and to a certain extent American theories of government, it was only natural that schoolboys and girls in other parts of the country as well as in the neighborhood of Boston and New York should be brought up with such an imaginative background. The New England idea contributed the town meeting, freedom of thought and discussion, a lofty religious and ethical tradition. But it also contributed, from the nature of the events of our history from the landing of the Mayflower to the Revolution, certain Hebraic conceptions of na- tionality — an abiding consciousness of sin, a con- sciousness also of being a peculiar people, set apart from all others under the special charge of God, while from this apartness and from the necessities of the long struggle there sprang a hatred of England that has lasted for generations. Foreword 15 The New England tradition, fine as it is, and deeply interwoven in the strands of our national life, is after all but one strand. The America of the last half century is far nearer the earlier EngUsh tradition than to the tradition of Cromwell's time. It is in the sense of adventure in modem life, in the romance of the conquest of far-flung prairies and of mountains made to yield their treasure, in the building of giant industries, in the color brought by emigrants from every comer of the Old World, in the irrepressible confidence of youth finding it an easy leap to pluck honor from the pale-faced moon, that we find our thought of America today. And the first-beginnings of this multifarious life we find in the adventure, the romance, the daring accomplishment, the color, and the youth of Elizabethan England. Not in Cotton Mather's vast leaming or Jonathan Edwards's sermons or in Endicott's repression of heresy or the evolution of an ideal of religious and civil liberty do we come upon the sources of that which now seems most truly American; but in Shakespeare's England, and in the England of Drake and Gilbert and Walter Raleigh. To re-create in our imagination that England, to see that the Puritan tradition is but a part of a complex and fascinating whole, that it is from this whole that the America of today has sprung — ^this is both sound history and sound patriotism. The Raleigh Tercentenary Masque which Professor \ 16 Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean Koch has written will aid in this imaginative re-crea- tion of our past. It gives little pictures of the back- ground of English life from which sprang the whole impulse to create a new English nation across the seas. As we read, or as we look upon the players who revive this old life for us, the mist of the years is lifted and we are translated to the scenes in which Sidney and Raleigh and Drake played their parts upon the world's great stage, with the crowd of town and country folk eager to show respect to a beloved sovereign and to hear tidings brought from mysteri- ous stretches of ocean; among them, too, the keen observer of all this life who wove so much of its spirit into the great dramas which are our richest heritage. There are some liberties in chronology and fact, yet the picture as a whole has that deeper truth which it is the object of the literature of the imagi- nation to convert into reality. This applies not only to the host of minor characters with which Mr. Koch has peopled his stage, or to the portraits of the great dramatist and his fellows, but in such incidents, for example, as the one in which we see our hero, under the speU of a mighty enchantment, shed his years like a garment and stand forth clad in the beauty and strength of his youth. The symbol is profoundly true in its revelation of Raleigh's character; in its expression of the power of his personality over the imagination of England, to whom he indeed seemed Foreword 17 one whom age could not wither; and in its revelation of the national spirit itself. For a third of a century Walter Raleigh held near- est his heart the idea of an English nation in America. He put his private fortune into attempts to realize this plan. He saw in it the only way to countervail the sinister power of Spain. When he was at liberty he organized colonies or went himself over the trackless wastes of ocean. Like Chaucer's shipman, he had been shaken in many a tempest. When he was in prison, he wrote of the great idea, in essays, state papers, and stories of travel. His language has in it the tang of the salt-water, the vision of vast uncharted seas. He sought not merely by argument but by appeal to the imagination of all the English people to inflame them with enthusiasm for this great new world. His field was as boundless as that of Bacon. The one had taken all knowledge to be his province and sought to inspire men to bring nature under subjection. The other took the new world and all the seas that laved its shores to be his province, and sought to inspire men to carry the high traditions of England to far-off lands. It was for civilization, not for conquest. In the twelve years of his prison life, he helped to convert the jail into England's best university, a university far more nearly related to the destinies of his people than Oxford and Cambridge. Libraries, students and inquirers, high talk of matters 3 18 Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean charged with human destiny, were found in the Tower where prisoners like Raleigh, Northumberland, and others spent year after year. Of kings such as the blinded despot who ruled England Raleigh left a record in his "History of the World," writtai in prison, showing forth a mighty masque of those whom he called "great conquerors, and other troublers of the world," all of them brought in the end to the contempt and failure that they deserved. In his laboratory he conducted experiments for the advancement of sciai- tific knowledge. For twelve years legally dead, his property taken from him, his faithful wife forbidden, after a time, to visit him, this wonderful man never ceased to dream of the Grail which was as much an object of desire to him as to any knight of Arthur's court. All this Professor Koch has finely and truthfully expressed in his Masque. In the symbol of Orinoco we have a conception not only marked by poetic and dramatic imagination, but one true at the same time to the spirit of allegory so constantly met in Eliza- bethan England and to the facts of Raleigh's life. The Masque here presented is not merely an example of antiquarian zeal. It is not merely a series of scenes from the life and time of this great ancestor of ours. It is an interpretation of the vision out of which the English nation in America was to come. It would be pleasant, more satisfactory perhaps to our desire for Foreword 19 concreteness and order, if we could look upon Ra- leigh as the actual founder of the city in the New World that today bears his name, could think of him as an actual pioneer, like Bradford or John Smith. But the empire of the spirit of man tran- scends the physical reahn of fact. The EngUsh na- tion that Raleigh saw in vision in his lonely cell or in the watches of the night when he kept vigil on the little vessel that plowed the vast Atlantic, is greater and far more powerful than it could ever have al- tered his mind to conceive. It is enough for us that he saw the first step that was to be taken in a mighty evolution, saw it when every consideration of worldly prudence bade him deny it, held to it in imprison- ment, in disgrace and poverty, and died for it at last. This fundamental truth is ready for us as we look upon this Masque of the Shepherd of the Ocean. On the one hand the narrow and selfish policy of the king and his ministers; the certainty to all who read the records that no one of his judges and accusers caught the faintest understanding of his vision of England's destiny; the fear of the untried path and the expedi- ency of narrow politicians. On the other the shining vision, the never-failing courage, the sense of a des- tiny against which king and party,, apparently all powerful, yet strive in vain. On earth his reward was prison, poverty, death on the scaffold. Yet that scaffold swayed the future. He was not alone. 20 Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean Others had caught the same vision, and with him fired the imaginations of men. From these beginnings, behold how mighty a nation has sprung! And as we look from our city of Raleigh in North America upon this fragmentary interpreta- tion of the beginnings of one of earth's greatest evo- lutions, we may gain, once more, the truth that out of faithfulness to an ideal against whatever odds, out of willingness to think new thoughts and even to ven- ture, if need be, upon seas yet uncharted, a new victory may be won, provided only that the end of all our strivmg be the glory of God and the reUef of man's estate. Democracy, bom in experiment, is itself a continued experiment. The America of 192Q may have its vision as well as the England of Eliza- beth and James. And we who are the America of today may sit at the feet of the Stuart king or, with Raleigh, press on to new worlds. Edwin Greenlaw. CfiaratterflS 36lepreflSenteb THE PROLOGUE, THE INTERLUDES, AND THE EPILOGUE The Heralds The Spirit of Youth The Chorus of Shepherds THE FIRST PART: RALEIGH, THE SHEPHERD OF THE OCEAN Episode I: The Spamsh Armada^ 1588 Sm Walter Raleigh Queen Elizabeth The Earl of Es^^ Sir Francis Drake Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton William Shakespeare Edmund Spenser John White, Governor of Virginia Manteo and Wanchese, natives from Virginia The Master of Ceremonies Sir Philip Sidney, Lord Burleigh, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Martin Frobisher, TTie Usher of the Black Rod, Gentlemen Pensioners, Elizabeth Throg- morton and other Ladies-in- Waiting, Pages, and a Jester. Merchants and tradesmen of London, their wives and sweet- hearts and children; the Host of 'The Boar's Head"; soldiers and mariners of England. Episode II: Raleigh's Vision of the New Worlds 1596 Sir Walter Raleigh The Earl of Essex William Shakespeare The Lord Mayor of London Sea-captains of the Victory of Cadiz: Sir George Carew, Sir Francis Vere, Sir Edward Wingfield, Captain BagnoU, Captain Medick; soldiers and mariners. 22 Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean Poets and Playmakers: Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon. The Festival Group: Townspeople and country-folk, in- cluding morris dancers, peddlers, pastry-cooks, fruit venders, a Dragon, a Hobbyhorse, a Bedlam beggar, a gypsy dancer, a puppet-master, an alchemist, a tapster, woodsmen, milkmaids, a chimney-sweep, a juggler, a Puritan, a Jack-in-the-Green, Robin Hood, Will Stukely, Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian. THE SECOND PART: THE MARTYRDOM OF RALEIGH Episode I: The Lure of the Orinoco, 1617 Sm Walter Raleigh An Old Servant Venezuela, Queen of the Carribean The Spirit of the Orinoco, a water-sprite Pantomime Figures: Raleigh, the courtier, and Queen Eliza- beth; Elizabeth Throgmorton; Governor White of Vir- ginia; Manteo and Wanchese; Lady Raleigh and her children; a group of sea-captains of Cadiz. Episode II: Raleigh's Last Venture, 1617 Sir Walter Raleigh Walter Raleigh, his oldest son A Herald King James the First George Viluers, Duke of Buckingham The Company of Raleigh, consisting of sixty gentlemen of rank, sea-captains, soldiers, and mariners. A Group of Courtiers, in attendance on the King The Spirit of the Orinoco, a water-sprite Episode III: The Sacrifice, October 29, 1618 Sra Walter Raleigh The Dean of Westminster A Spy of the Government Several Gentlemen, friends of Ralei^ The Bellman THE PROLOGUE i»i The defeat of the Invincible Armada was the opening event in the history of the United States, It was the event that made all the rest possible. Without it the attempts at Jamestown and Plymouth could hardly have had more sue* cess than the attempt at Roanoke Island, An infant colony is like an army at the end of a long line of communication; it perishes if the line is cut. Before England could plani thriving states in America she must control the ocean routes. The far-sighted Raleigh understood the conditions of the problem. When he smote the Spaniards at Cadiz he knew it was a blow struck for America, He felt the full signifi' cance of the defeat of the Armadoy and in spite of all his disappointments in Virginia^ he never lost heart, — [Fiske: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, Vol. I, p. 39.] (24] Wl^t prologue [The Pageant is announced by three trumpet calls front the Heralds.] [Enter The Chorus of Shepherds, representing the chil- dren of Raleigh, Their kirtles are whitCy the white of promise. Over these rude sheep skins are worn,] Youth, Youth, Spirit of Youth, The world yearns for thee As the blind yearn to see; Youth, Youth, speak of the Truth. [The Spirit of Youth enters in response to the chant of the Chorus. In his hand he bears a shepherd's crook. His step is lithe and free. He speaks with radiant tones — the spirit of indomitable life.] The Spirit of Youth Children of Youth, believers in Youth, Lovers of Youth's heart of flame. Behold from out the Gates of Yesterday There comes the gallant figure of a knight. Whose bravery and fame once stirred the world. Sir Walter Raleigh— knight indeed was he— A knight of high adventure, courage sure; A knight, who, to the end of time, shall be A leader in the hazardous advance Of dauntless Youth, forever blazing trails That lead to spacious lands of higher hope. Old England's son was he, and proud to boast That England's air had vivified his dust. He interspersed the sea with channels wide. Through which, as from a mother's teeming breast, 1^1 26 Raleighj the Shepherd of the Ocean We gained our nurture straight from EngHsh source. Our love of justice, democratic rule. And we, the children of Old England, now. Today, commemorate with English kin The execution of our gallant Raleigh, Who, noble-hearted to his tragic ending. Alone on God's highway fared bravely forth. We, conscious of the debt which children owe Unto the parent who has suckled them. Join now our hands today across the sea — With English brothers over all the seas — Making this anniversary to serve A two-fold purpose, — ^praise to Walter Raleigh, And with fair England, — ^union, brotherhood. The Chorus of Shepherds Youth, Youth, Spirit of Youth, The world yearns for thee As the blind yearn to see ; Youth, Youth, speak of the Truth. THE nRST PART Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean 1271 Thus on the sand banks that guard the eastern shores of North Carolina the English race laid its first firm grasp on the North American continent. How unconscious were those obscure English sailors that they were enacting one of the greatest scenes in the world's history! Three hundred years have gone yet even we, after all the tremendous results that have followed in their trcdny cannot yet fully appreciate the vast significance of that simple ceremony. For then and there J on the North Carolina coasts Englishmen first set foot on American soil with a view to permanent possession, and that event, rather than the defeat of the Invincible Armada, **was the opening event in the history of the United States** — Connor: The Beginnings of English America, p. 11. 128] QUEEN ELIZABETH From Ihe palnlina Av ^-ncflitro In the Nalimtal Porlrait nallrr) Zf^t S^pmvfy^vmaha, 1588 Time : The eve of the "Invincible Armada," in the sununer of 1588, Scene : Harrow Field on the Thames River in the suburbs of London. The front of the Boar's Head Inn is visible at the left. Preparations have been made for the review of the troops by Queen Elizabeth as a part of the comprehensive war-plan for the de- fense of the realm, made necessary by the threatened invasion of England by the Spanish Armada of Philip II. At the right on a dais, erected for the occa- sion, is a high gilded throne bearing the arms of England. It is appropriately festooned with many- colored flowers. [The scene opens with a happy concourse of represenUP- tive townsfolk flocking in — merchants and tradesmen of London, with their wives and sweethearts, and a host of trooping children — all in holiday dress. There is also a group of sailor lads, a company of young girls, their arms filled with garlands of field flowers, which they are busily adding to the decorations of the scene, and a ubiquitous Jester with his madcap quirks. All have been rehearsing the songs and dances, prepared in honor of the good Queen Bess for this occasion — the review by The Queen, of the seamen and soldiers of the realm, in the final preparations for the impending grapple with the navy of Spain.] [The Master of Ceremonies now marshals the people hurriedly to their appointed places for the rehearsal of the song, God Save Britannia's Queen, which they have prepared especially for this occasion. The Jester darts about interrupting the arrangements with his pranks, leaving confusion in his wake.] [29] 30 Raleighy the Shepherd of the Ocean The Master of Ceremonies [At the conclusion of the 507ig] And now let us try the dances. [In a twinkling a wild country dance is in full swing. It is interrupted almost immediately y however^ by a salvo of trumpets announcing the arrival of The Queen. The dancers cease instantly, transfixed with expectancy. Then, headed by The Master of Ceremonies, they rush off to meet The Queen, and presently return ush- ering her to the great throne, cheering with unrestrained enthusiasm. Two ladies-in-waitingy four pages. The Earl of Essex and Sm Walter Raleigh accompany Queen Elizabeth.] [Queen Elizabeth is in her fifty-fourth year at this time. She is of medium stature, richly dressed, and of conu manding presence. Her face is long, fair in complex- ion, and, although somewhat wrinkled, the ravages of time are hidden as well as paint and pou)der can conceal them. Her small eyes are keen but kindly, her nose slightly hooked, her lips thin. She wears a light auburn wig, dyed to simulate the brilliant color of her own hair in her youth. The Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's favorite, is a remarkably handsome man, tall of stature, and dignified in bearing.] [Sm Walter Raleigh^ is tall and well proportioned, with a high forehead, rich, dark hair and beard, a fine face radiant with life."] [There is also Sm Francis Draxe, Henrt Howard, Earl of Northampton, the noble and chivalrous Sir Phiup Sidney, the sage Lord Burleigh, the gallant Sm Chris- ^ Raleigh's name is spelt in many ways. Stebbing cites seventy- four fonns known to have been current. Raleigh himself, down to 1583, generally wrote Raidey; he also wrote Rowley ghe, Rmdeigh, Raleghe, and Ralegh. **The spelling Raleigh, which posterity has preferred, happens to be one he is not known to have ever employed." —Stebbing: Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 30-31. The Spanish Arnuulay 1S88 31 TOPHER Hatton, accompanied by Sir John Ha¥FKINS, Sir Martin Frobisher, the Usher of the Black Rod, and severed gentlemen pensioners.l {The Earl of Essex and Sm Walter Raleigh very ceremoniously assist The Queen to the throne, the pages carrying a silken canopy over her, and the two ladies-in-waiting lifting her train. The crowd cheers in wild enthusiasm. With no little difficulty The Mas- ter OF Ceremonies succeeds in silencing the uproar.'\ The Master of Ceremonies [Pompously^ To your places, all of you! Make haste! With your Majesty's gracious permission [with a deep bouo] we will sing a song prepared especially for your Highness, and for this momentous time. [Queen Euzabeth, seating herself, smiles a gracious assent, arid the song is sung lustily by all the people,] God save Britannia's Queai! God save her Majesty! Bless e'en the earth beneath her feet; Bless this her isle, her royal seat; Let all who hear her name repeat, God save her Majesty! God save Britannia's Queen! God save her Majesty! This throned isle, this home of kings. This land where laughter ever rings. Where every echo loudly sings, God save her Majesty! 32 Raleigh, the Shepherd of the Ocean God save Britannia's Queen! God save her Majesty! Let every loyal British son, Support the right 'till life is done. "Dieu et mon droit" — ^the victory won; God save her Majesty! [At the conclusion of the song. Queen Elizabeth smiles^ with gracious approval.] Queen Elizabeth I thank you, my good people. [Twenty of the townspeople, with their wives, and several of the sailors, advance and perform a country dance. [The dance is interrupted sudderdy by a trumpet call. A page rushes in and, dropping upon one knee before The Queen, offers her a letter. She reads it in haste, then rises. [While all are intent upon The Queen's actions, Raleigh, forgetting his duty, is paying amorous court to one of The Queen's maids4n-wcdting, the beautiful golden-haired Elizabeth Throgmorton, whom he af- terwards married.^ The Queen, noticing this, rebukes^ Raleigh sharply.] Queen Elizabeth [With evident temper] In this hour of England's peril, mayhap your Queen may claim your service. Master Raleigh. 2 The courtship of Elizabeth Throgmorton by Walter Raleigh is here antedated by several years, but the incident is thoroughly charac- teristic. The Queen's temper at this time was extremely exacting and uncertain. By this action he brought upon himself the loss o£ royal favor and imprisonment in the Tower. The Spanish Arnuulay 1588 33 [Raleigh starts, hastens to The Queen's side, and kneel- ing awaits her command,'] Your arm, my Lord of Essex, [Raleigh thus rebuked, retires for fear of brining upon himself further royal wrath, and Queen Elizabeth turns to address the people,] Queen Elizabeth My good people all, I am summoned to a comicil of grave import, and must away at once. I regret that I must leave your merry-makings. By your leave, my Lord of Essex. [She hurries out with the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard and her attendants, Raleigh following in the rear. [When the surprise over the sudden summons of The Queen has subsided, the people turn agcdn to their games, and the morris dancers begin their play.] [Sir Francis Drake and the other sea-captains returning, seat themselves at the tables before the Boar's Head tavern and call loudly for ale,] Sir Francis Drake The review of troops is delayed by this sudden sum- mons of the Queen to the council. Gallants, let us drink while we await her here. What ho ! mine host, ale! ale! [Now enters a group of poets and playmakers — ^Ben Jon- son, Edmund Spenser, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, and Will Shakespeare, now twenty-four years of age and but three years resident in London. With them is the brilliant young scholar, Francis Bacon.] 34 Raleighy the Shepherd of the Ocean Sir Francis Drake Well met, my hearties, rare old Ben and Master Spenser, and all of you. And how fares our young player, Shakespeare? I hear you are devising now a comedy, quaint and fanciful. Beaumont, Fletcher, and our youthful philosopher, Francis Bacon — ^you are right welcome here. Sit and drink a round with us. And Master Raleigh has come back to join us, and with him his two rare monsters from Virginia. [Raleigh Aos entered with a group of gaudily decorated Indians, decked with elaborate trappings, and conspicur ous head-dresses, sent him from his colony of Virginia. The red men stand in silent dignity, while the company, especially young Shakespeare, gazes upon them with staring curiosity.'] [Shakespeare curiously observes the red men. He is evidently much interested in them. The Indians seat themselves toward the front of the scene and fill their long pipes with tobacco.^] Sir Walter Raleigh Mine host, a light for their pipes. [The Host goes out and returns with a lighted torch which he holds out awkwardly. The Indians then go through the ceremonial of the pipe, one of them picking up a splinter of wood from the ground with which to light the tobacco. Then rising, both Indians perform the ceremony of turning the lighted pipes to the four quarters of the sky, intently watched by all the com- 3 Raleigh caused tobacco (called by the Indians Yppowoc) to be introduced into England from his American colony, about this time. He had a silver pipe, modelled after the Indian stone pipes, in which he was exceedin^y fond of smoking the Indian Yppowoc. The Spanish Armada^ 1588 35 pony. Then they calmly seat themselves and smoke in silence. The Host becus out the torch on the ground.] Sir Francis Drake [Banteringly'] Sir Walter, will you not smoke with your friends, the aborigines? F faith, FU see to it that your servant does not drench you with ale this time. [All laugh loudly.] Shakespeare Shall posterity credit you with having introduced such monsters and such savage weeds as this tobacco? Sir Walter Raleigh Nay, Master Will, enough now of your chiding. Not monsters these, but "lustie men," as Barlow called them, natives of America and princes of their own people. Wanchese and Manteo ihey are called. Though "savage in their behavior," they are "as man- nerly and civil as any in Europe." Our colonists "were entertained by them with all love and kind- ness and with as much bountie (after their manner) as they could possibly devise." They brought our people for friendly gifts "divers kindes of fruits. Melons, Walnuts, Cucumbers, Gourdes, Pease, and divers rootes, and f ruites very excellent good, and of their Countrey come, which is very white, f aire and well tasted." * ^"We brought home also two of the Savages, being lustle men, whose names were Wanchese and Manteo." — Barlow's report of the first expedition and the discovery of Virginia, 1584, printed in Hack- luyt*8 Voyages. 36 Raleigh^ the Shepherd of the Ocean Shakespeare And will they long remain in England? Sir Walter Raleigh No, Master Will, they will return presently to their own country with our worthy Governor of Virginia. Shakespeare But does John White return so soon to your "Citie of Ralegh in Virginia?"^ Sir Walter Raleigh Aye, that he does; our kinsmen there are now in sore distress. Their stores are gone and winter comes anon. Our brave Governor must hasten back immedi- ately with supplies, lest they perish — in that stark wilderness of Hatteras. Shakespeare And is their "isle of Roanoke" in winter then but vasty wilderness? Sir Walter Raleigh In winter, aye, but in the goodly spring it is re- ported a veritable paradise of Nature, "Soile the most S **ln the yeere of our Lord 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh intending to persevere in planting of his Countrey of Virginia, prepared a new Colonie of one hundred and fifty men to be sent thither, under the charge of John White, whom hee appointed Govemour, and also ap- pointed unto him twelve Assistants, unto whom he gave a Charter, and incorporated them by the name of Govemour and Assistants of the Gtie of Rale^ in Virginia.*'— Hackluyt's Voyages, The Spanish Armada^ 1588 37 plentiful sweet, fruitfull and wholesome of all the world, above f ourteene several sweet smell- ing timber trees, the highest and reddest Cedars of the world." The shores are sandy, "but so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the Sea overflowed them," and "in such plenty both on the sand and on the greene soile on the hills" that "the like abundance" cannot be found "in all the world."^ Here comes our gallant Governor even now, to take his leave. [Governor John WnrrE of Virginia enters in haste,] Governor White Farewell, good Master Walter. My sails are set, and I must hasten forth again to our brave colonists across the seas, to bring them news of home, and goodly stores of food against the lonely winter there. I yearn to touch again the shores of Hatteras, to see again my fair child Eleanor, and clasp her sweet young babe, Virginia Dare! Virginia Dare! well christened so — ^the first-bom of our English pioneers in new America!'' Sir Walter Raleigh God speed thee on thy way, good Governor, and bring thee safely back to Roanoke, to our brave kins- ^ Barlow*8 report in Hackluyt*8 Voyages. 7 Ananias Dare, one of Governor White's assistants, was his son-in- law. On August 18, 1587, Eleanor, wife of Ananias Dare, gave birth to a daughter who was christened on the following Sunday, Virginia, because she was 'Hhe first Christian bom in Virginia.** The State of North Carolina has commemorated the event by naming the county which embraces the birthplace. Dare County. 38 Raleighy the Shepherd of the Ocean men there and to the fair Virginia! Would I could with you to Virginia, but England needs me here at home in her defense. [Governor White takes his leave,"] [A cannonrshot is heard. Raleigh springs to his feet.l Sir Walter Raleigh 'Tis the signal gun! But, gentles all, we will make short work of this "Invincible Armada." We will speedily sweep clean the seas of all these tyrant foes and clear a path to the New World o'er which, years hence, ships shall freely pass bearing their precious freight of EngUsh men and maids and aU their house- hold gear, to rear their homes and build their hearth- fires in that wide land, Virginia. There shall arise in coming years goodly states, fair cities; and a new and gallant folk — our kin and brothers — shall in the years to come clasp hands with us in Britain here, in worthy emprise and in desperate venture 'gainst grim-faced tyranny, Spenser [Leaping up and lifting high his bumper of ale.] Bravo, Master Walter! Here I hail and name thee **The Shepherd of the Ocean."® 8 Whom I asked from what place he came, And how he hight, himself he did ydeepe The Shepherd of the Ocean by name, And said he came far from the main-sea deep. Spenser's The Faerie Queene. The Spanish Armada^ 1588 39 All [Rising, lift their bumpers and, drinking, shout.] The Shepherd of the Ocean! The Shepherd of the Ocean! Sir Walter Raleigh Good comrades all, my friend, Sir Edmmid, has overpraised too much, as is his wont when warmth of comradeship his muse inspires. We are the true knights-errant of the seas, and when we enter the lists with our good ocean steeds, 'gainst Philip's host of ships in wide array, though mountain high, the red- dened waves with wide wreckage strewn, shall leave this brave Annada, but vast and reeking ruin. Lord Howard ^ [Entering in haste.] Captains all, I have just ridden down from the quay where a swift ship has come with tidings that the great Annada has been sighted and is coming up the chan- nel. The Queen will be here anon to attend the last muster of our troops. Let us to our posts to await Tier arrival. [They all go off in haste. In the distance trumpet-calls and alarms are heard, cannon shots and rolling drums.] [The Indians left behind, the innkeeper gestures them to rise. They, however, remain stolid. In despair he calls out, "5i> Walter, Sir Walter^ running off for assistance. The prentices are afraid to move as or- dered. At length at their own will the red men rise slowly and move off with great dignity, the drawers scurrying before them.] 40 Raleighy the Shepherd of the Ocean [Then enter the files of soldiers bearing muskets, and the seamen bearing pikes, their officers preceding. A can-- non is trundled in. All take their stations. The enr trance of a herald and a trumpet-call announce the arrival of Queen Elizabeth, on horseback and clad in armor. She is attended by the sea-captains and other officers on horseback, headed by the two commanders. Lord Howard and Sir Francis Drake; then Sm Wal- ter Raleigh and the rest. All dismount except The. Queen. Lord Howard, giving his horse to an attend- ant, stands at The Queen's bridle. All salute.l Lord Howard Your Majesty, my gracious Queen, you see before you here a small portion of the forces with which by land and sea we do propose to meet the Spanish hosts. Queen Elizabeth Tis a goodly company, my Lord Howard. 