The knights were to fight for the honor of their ladies; the poets
were to sing their songs, and John Heywood to bring out his merry
farces. Ay, even the great scholars were to have a part in this
festival; for the king had specially, for this, summoned to London
from Cambridge, where he was then professor in the university, his
former teacher in the Greek language, the great scholar Croke, to
whom belonged the merit of having first made the learned world of
Germany, as well as of England, again acquainted with the poets of
Greece. [Footnote: Tytler, p. 307.] He wished to recite with Croke
some scenes from Sophocles to his wondering court; and though, to be
sure, there was no one there who understood the Greek tongue, yet
all, without doubt, must be enraptured with the wonderful music of
the Greek and the amazing erudition of the king.
Preparations were going on everywhere; arrangements were being made;
every one was making his toilet, whether it were the toilet of the
mind or of the body.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, made his also; that is to say, he had
retired to his cabinet, and was busy filing away at the sonnets
which he expected to recite to-day, and in which he lauded the
beauty and the grace of the fair Geraldine.
He had the paper in his hand, and was lying on the velvet ottoman
which stood before his writing-table.
Had Lady Jane Douglas seen him now, she would have been filled with
painful rapture to observe how, with head leaned back on the
cushion, his large blue eyes raised dreamily to heaven, he smiled
and whispered gentle words.
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