The words of Queen Elizabeth Gloriana as taken down by her faithful scribe Mistress Rose:
It is with a heavy heart we relay the events of this, our final weekend in Port Deptford. We were pleased by the immense amount of revelry and joy we experienced during this year’s Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and are most saddened to see it end.
We started off the first day of this weekend with a visit from our royal cousin King Philip II of Spain, Portugal, and Naples. He presented us with a few wonderful gifts of spices, and black pearls when he graced our court with his presence. It was both a pleasure and an honor to have our royal cousin visit us on this day as we took our entertainment and leisure in the Faire.
We presented two members of Friends of Faire, a Mistress Kim and Master Jeff Smiley, the title of Queen’s Champion as they were unable to join us last weekend for the ceremony in Court Glade. It makes us proud to extend the title to two such loyal and noble subjects.
We ended our day with some very sweet poetry from Sir Walter Raleigh as we relaxed at St. Ives.
On the second day of the weekend, we had a good time dancing with our most beloved court members. We took a great deal of joy presenting favors on this day, starting with the Knights of the Garter. We also gave favors to our court, our Yeomen of the Guard and our household members in recognition of their hard work during the run of this year’s faire. In return our Yeomen presented us with a rather large diamond, we are not quite certain where they found such a beauteous gem, but are grateful for it all the same.
We visited Clan McColin’s Encampment on this day and were delighted to receive a beautiful journal from Chief. We also enjoyed some entertainment while we were there. We saw a burping boy, a bear baiting, and a good highland cow who stole Mistress Fitton. It was a most entertaining event.
At tea today we enjoyed a visit from The Merry Wives of Windsor, as well as Mistress Melissa Peeling. The ladies serenaded us while we took our tea and we were most pleased with the entertainment! It never ceases to amaze us, the wonderful talent that seems to gather in the Faire!
We had to scold our Yeomen of the Guard today; apparently they thought gifting us with a beauteous gem would make us turn a blind eye to their behavior on the last day in Port Deptford. We were on our way to St. Ives to say farewell to our loyal subjects and the visitors to the Faire when we came upon our Yeomen in the Bakery. When alerted of our presence the whole of the guard, those who were not attending us at the moment, as well as the Captain were revealed to be taking their “pleasure” at the Bakery. When they all filed out of the Bakery in various states of undress it became very clear to us that this was not a normal Bakery. Let us just say that the women did not get their white faces from flour! We soundly scolded the lot of them, and bid them get out of our sight. How embarrassing for us to find our own loyal guard so distracted. And on our last day in Port Deptford!
At St. Ives we bid our final farewells to our subjects. We found it appropriate to quote Master Shakespeare’s work on this occasion. We decided to use the speech “Our Revels now have ended” from Master Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It was so gratifying to see everyone take a knee, and so enjoy our rendition.
We had a wonderful, even fantastical time at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire this year, and can hardly contain ourself with exuberance waiting for next year’s Faire. We shall miss all of our loyal subjects and the visitors we met this year, and hope to see them next year.
We would also like to extend our thanks to the wonderful staff, crew, participants, vendors, and volunteers who make this whole event possible each year.
Until we return again next season we leave you with this thought as sung to us by The Poxy Boggards, “let union be in all our hearts, let union join our hearts as one, we’ll end the day as its begun, we’ll end it all in pleasure.” Until next year may the wind forever be in your favor and the sea always fair.