"
_Henry IV._

The good-natured guests at the Governor's awarded all due, and more than
due merit to the masque which was prepared for their entertainment.
Alfred Bernard became at once the hero of the evening, and many a bright
eye glanced towards him, and envied the fair Virginia the exclusive
attention which he paid to her. Some young cavaliers there were, whose
envy carried them so far, that they sneered at the composition of the
young poet; declared the speeches of Liberty to be prosy and tiresome;
and that the song of Christmas was coarse, rugged, and devoid of wit;
nay, they laughed at the unnatural transformation of the grim-visaged
Puritan into the royal Charles, and referred sarcastically to the
pretentious pedantry of the young author, in introducing the threadbare
story of Ulysses and the Moly into a modern production--and at the
inconsistent jumble of ancient mythology and pure Christianity. Bernard
heard them not, and if he had, he would have scorned their strictures,
instead of resenting them. But he was too much engrossed in conversation
with Virginia to heed either the good-natured applause of his friends,
or the peevish jealousy of his young rivals. Indeed, the loyalty of the
piece amply atoned for all its imperfections, and the old colonists
smiled and nodded their heads, delighted at the wholesome tone of
sentiment which characterized the whole production.

The character of Christmas was well sustained by Richard Presley,[35] a
member of the House of Burgesses, whose jolly good humour, as broad
sometimes as his portly stomach, fitted him in an eminent degree for the
part. He was indeed one of those merry old wags, who, in an illustrated
edition of Milton, might have appeared in L'Allegro, to represent the
idea of "Laughter holding both his sides."

Seeing Sir William Berkeley and Colonel Temple engaged in earnest
conversation, in one corner of the room, the old burgess bustled, or
rather waddled up to them, and remaining quiet just long enough to hear
the nature of their conversation chimed in, with,

"Talking about Bacon, Governor? Why he is only imitating old St. Albans,
and trying to establish a _novum organum_ in Virginia. By God, it seems
to me that Sir Nicholas exhausted the whole of his _mediocria firma_
policy, and left none of it to his kinsmen. Do you not know what he
meant by that motto, Governor?"

"No;" said Sir William, s