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206 found access more readily than the citizens themselves. It is difficult to say how many the room would hold. One of De la Boderie's dispatches speaks of 10,000, which was probably a considerable over-estimate. Many of those who besieged the doors must of course have been disappointed, and perhaps many of those who got in experienced more satisfaction than comfort. In order to save space, it was decreed in 1613 that no ladies should be admitted in farthingales, and the repetition of the Irish Mask of 1613 and the Mercury Vindicated of 1615 may have been due in part to an unsatisfied demand for seats as well as to the intrinsic merit of the performances.

The mask, beginning after supper, was prolonged far into the night. That at Sir Philip Herbert's wedding lasted three hours; Tethys' Festival was not over until hard upon sunrise. The pent-up audience dissolved in some confusion. Apparently the Tudor custom of finishing the proceedings by rifling the pageant and the dresses of their decorations had not been wholly abandoned. A hardly less riotous scene followed. A banquet was spread in another room, the great chamber in 1605, the presence chamber in 1616, the specially