KENILWORTH - Penn State University

Kenilworthwith gold bracelets of uncommon size. Amidst her long, silkyblack hair she wore a crown or chaplet of artificial mistletoe,and bore in her hand a rod of ebony tipped with silver. TwoNymphs attended on her, dressed in the same antique andmystical guise.The pageant was so well managed that this Lady of theFloating Island, having performed her voyage with much picturesqueeffect, landed at Mortimer’s Tower with her twoattendants just as Elizabeth presented herself before that outwork.The stranger then, in a well-penned speech, announcedherself as that famous Lady of the Lake renowned in the storiesof King Arthur, who had nursed the youth of theredoubted Sir Lancelot, and whose beauty ‘had proved toopowerful both for the wisdom and the spells of the mightyMerlin. Since that early period she had remained possessed ofher crystal dominions, she said, despite the various men offame and might by whom Kenilworth had been successivelytenanted. ‘The Saxons, the Danes, the Normans, theSaintlowes, the Clintons, the Montforts, the Mortimers, thePlantagenets, great though they were in arms and magnificence,had never, she said, caused her to raise her head fromthe waters which hid her crystal palace. But a greater than allthese great names had now appeared, and she came in homageand duty to welcome the peerless Elizabeth to all sport whichthe Castle and its environs, which lake or land, could afford.The Queen received this address also with great courtesy, andmade answer in raillery, “We thought this lake had belonged toour own dominions, fair dame; but since so famed a lady claimsit for hers, we will be glad at some other time to have furthercommuning with you touching our joint interests.”With this gracious answer the Lady of the Lake vanished,and Arion, who was amongst the maritime deities, appearedupon his dolphin. But Lambourne, who had taken upon himthe part in the absence of Wayland, being chilled with remainingimmersed in an element to which he was not friendly,having never got his speech by heart, and not having, like theporter, the advantage of a prompter, paid it off with impudence,tearing off his vizard, and swearing, “Cogs bones! hewas none of Arion or Orion either, but honest MikeLambourne, that had been drinking her Majesty’s health frommorning till midnight, and was come to bid her heartily welcometo Kenilworth Castle.”344