Epulum a Thoma Wolseio celebratum (1526)
Epulum a Thoma Wolseio celebratum est die 30 Decembris 1526 (quo tempore Wolseius erat archiepiscopus Eboracensis, cardinalis et cancellarius regni Angliae) Londinii in domo suo ad York Place. Ibi rex Henricus VIII et amici, faciebus dissimulatis, in cenam irruperunt et cum mulieribus saltaverunt. Epulum in editione altera operis Raphaelis Holinshed Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, anno 1587 divulgata, ita describitur: That same night, the king and manie yoong gentlemen with him, came to Bridewell, and there put him and fifteene other, all in masking apparell, and then tooke his barge, and rowed to the cardinals place, where were at supper a great companie of lords and ladies, and then the maskers dansed, and made goodlie pastime: and when they had well dansed, the ladies plucked awaie their visors, and so they were all knowen, and to the king was made a great banket ("Eadem nocte rex una cum iuvenibus multis ad Bridewell venit ibique ipse aliique quindecim vestimenta comissationis personatae induerunt; dein scapham suam usque ad domum cardinalis remis egit, ubi coetus magnus dominorum dominarumque noctu cenabant. Comissantes ibi saltitabant seque oblectabant. Saltatione acta, mulieres personas comissantium abruperunt: quo modo omnes recogniti sunt. Ibidem magna collatio regi oblata est"). An sit idem epulum non liquet quo Thomas Wolseius regem ac Annam Bolenam, reginam futuram, convocavit, sicut in vita Wolseii Georgius Cavendish narravit: And yet the cardinal, espying the great zeal that the king had conceived in this gentlewoman, ordered himself to please as well the king as her, dissimuling the matter that lay hid in his breast, and prepared great banquets and solemn feasts to entertain them both at his own house ("Cardinalis nihilominus, magnam appetentiam huius nobilis mulieris a rege conceptam observans, se tam illum quam illam placere statuit, quaestionibus quae sibi in pectus surgebantur dissimulatis. Ita magnas collationes sollemnesque epulas apud se paravit ad ambos invitandos": Georgius Cavendish, The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey p. 57 ed. Morley). Epulum ab Holinshed narratum in fabula historica a Gulielmo Shakesperio scripta, titulo Henry VIII, ostentatur ibique inter mulieres ad cenam praesentes videtur Anna Bolena cum qua rex ipse saltat et cuius nomen mox postulat: Rex: My Lord Chamberlaine, Prethee come hither. What fair ladie's that? Camerarius: An't please your Grace, Sir Thomas Bullens daughter, The Viscount Rochford, one of her Highnesse women. Rex: By Heaven, she is a dainty one. Sweet heart, I were unmannerly to take you out And not to kisse you. A health gentlemen, Let it goe round ("'Domine camerari, mihi veni: venusta illa femina quis est?' 'Equitis Thomae Boleni filia, si tibi placeat, vicecomitis Rochford: una est sectatricum reginae.' 'Mehercle deliciosa. O candida, te salutans inurbanus sum nisi basiam dam. Propinamus, domini! Impertiamus!'") Quo ludo die 29 Iunii 1613 apud theatrum Globum docto, aedificium totum in incendio deletum est ob ictum pyroboli male paratum dum haec scaena agitur (Drum and trumpet; chambers discharged: 1.4.49).