Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 6.djvu/436

 ] So runs the title of the folio, 1616, that of the 4to. 1604, had this additional matter—"Through the City of London, on Thursday the 15th of March, 1603. So much as was presented in the first and last of their triumphal arches.

James had lingered on his journey, "banqueting and feasting by the way," as Wilson says, but chiefly hunting, in which he took great delight; the plague too intervened, and a journey to the north, which he made to receive his queen and son, so that nearly twelve months elapsed from the period of Elizabeth's death to his public entry from the Tower. Happily James was patient of these pageants, which were somewhat new to him, and had besides sufficient literature in them to interest his scholarship: yet it may be wondered how he held out to Whitehall.

Wilson accounts for it somewhat uncharitably, according to his custom; "The city and suburbs," he says, "were one great pageant; yet the king endured this day's brunt with patience, being assured, he should never have such another." Life of King James, p. 12.