And was entertained in the Hall of Christ Church, "with the Latin
comedy of Vertumnus, written by Dr. Matthew Gwinne, of St. John's
College, Oxford, and performed by the students of that house, without
borrowing a single actor; and it was upon this occasion that the
_humming_ of his Majesty took place, referred to in my Preface. In
1621, when James and his court happened to be at Woodstock, the
scholars of Christ Church enacted Barton Holyday's comedy of
[Greek: Technogamia], or the Marriage of the Arts: but his Majesty
relished it so little, as to offer several times to withdraw, and was
only prevented by some of his courtiers representing that his doing
so would be a cruel disappointment. This incident gave rise to the
well-known epigram--
"At Christ-Church marriage, done before the king,
Lest that those mates should want an offering,
The king himself did offer--what, I pray?
He offered twice or thrice to go away."
* * * * *