The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses

The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses was an early Jacobean-era masque, written by Samuel Daniel and performed in the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace on the evening of Sunday, 8 January 1604.

Anne of Denmark's privy purse accounts include payment to Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger, an Italian musician in the service of Prince Henry, for "making the songs".

Among allusions to the recent Union of Crowns of England and Scotland, Venus gave Anne of Denmark an "all combining scarf of Amity".

The Scottish lady in waiting, Margaret Stewart, Countess of Nottingham, played Concordia, dressed in national red and white colours, embroidered with a device of clasped hands, presented part-colours roses at the Temple of Peace.

[17] Accounts for the masque show that Mary Mountjoy (Shakespeare's landlady) provided a helmet for the queen; James Duncan, tailor, made the queen's costume; Mrs Rogers made "tires" or headdresses; Christopher Shawe was the embroiderer; Thomas Kendall provided costumes for the professionals; Richard French, haberdasher, provided cloth for the goddess's mantles; Thomas Wilson made the queen's shoes and buskins; Edward Ferres, draper; George Hearne was the painter; William Portington was carpenter and made the temple and rock; Robert Payne was in charge of some of the professional actors; Audrey Walsingham and Elizabeth Carey signed wardrobe acquisitions; John Kirkton was orderer and director of the works (financial director).

Lady Penelope Rich reportedly wore £20,000 worth of jewels while appearing the masque – though she was outdone by the Queen, who sported fully £100,000 in gems.

(This kind of extreme display became characteristic of the courtly masques during the Stuart era, and was a focus of controversy and deep disapproval by wide segments of the public.)

Anne carried a spear and wore a helmet and a tunic, embroidered with cannon and weapons of war, which ended just below the knee, quite an innovation for the time.

"[20] The courtier Roger Wilbraham wrote a summary of his impressions of the entertainments at court in January 1604 and their costs, "King James was at his court at Hampton, where the French, Spanish, and Polonian ambassadors were severallie solemplie feasted, many plaies & daunces with swordes, one mask by English & Scottish lords, another by the Queen's Maiestie & eleven more ladies of her chamber presenting giftes as goddesses.

This was an unauthorised and defective printing; Daniel countered it with an authorised and accurate octavo edition in the same year, issued by the stationer Simon Waterson.