At this time (1601) Queen Elizabeth was 68 years old. She speaks of
having talked to “old Rabelais” in her youth. This might have been
possible as Rabelais died in 1552, when the Queen was 19 years old.
Among those in the party were Shakespeare, at that time 37 years old;
Ben Jonson, 27; and Sir Walter Raleigh, 49. Beaumont at the time was 17,
not 16. He was admitted as a member of the Inner Temple in 1600, and
his first translations, those from Ovid, were first published in 1602.
Therefore, if one were holding strictly to the year date, neither by age
nor by fame would Beaumont have been eligible to attend such a gathering
of august personages in the year 1601; but the point is unimportant.