Villiers now enjoyed the different dignities and offices of Viscount Villiers, Baron of Whaddon, Justice in Oire of all the forests and parks beyond Trent, Master of the Horse, and Knight of the Garter. But these were not sufficient in the sight of James. On the seventh of January, the favourite was created Earl of Buckingham, upon such short notice, that the drums and trumpets which should have been in the Chamber of Presence, at Whitehall (but not have sounded), were not in attendance. Villiers, in his surcote and hood, in an ordinary hat, and with his rapier, passed from the Council Chamber, over the terrace, through the great gateway, into the Chamber of Presence. He was assisted by the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Treasurer, and the Earl of Worcester, afterwards the gallant defender of Raglan Castle, all in robes and coronets. The Lord Chamberlain met them at the door of the Presence Chamber, where Villiers was duly presented to the King and Queen. The ceremonial, at which he figured alone, no other peer being created, was not followed by a supper, and therefore, adds Camden, “no style with largess proclaimed.”[149] Footnote 149: From an autograph MS.—Camden, quoted by Nichols, vol. iii., p. 233. This new honour enabled its object to appear with still greater splendour and importance, at the performance of the new masque of Christmas, by Ben Jonson; it was represented on Twelfth night, and amongst the performers were Richard Barbadge, an original performer in several of Shakespeare’s plays, and John Heminge, who signed the “address to the reader” of Shakespeare’s folio works. In the course of the masque, the Earl of Buckingham danced with the Queen; and soon afterwards the society of the Middle Temple strove to conciliate him by entertaining him with a supper and a masque.[150] At the end of the month Buckingham was made a Privy Councillor, the youngest man that had ever received that honour. He also contrived to get his brother Christopher made either one of the Grooms or one of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, upon which creation the following rhyme was circulated:— “Above the skies shall Gemini rise, And twins the Court shall pester; George shall back his brother Jack, And Jack his brother Kester.”[151] Footnote 150: It was suggested that Villiers might have been entered at the Middle Temple, but of that circumstance there is no evidence. “Not knowing the sacred antiquitie of anie of their houses, the chronicler set downe their names in the same order as that in which they were presented to his Majestie.” See Nichols, iii. 213, from Howe’s Chronicle. It is well known that in former times only men of gentle birth were entitled to be entered as students of law in the Temple—a relic of the statutes maintained in strict force by the Knights’ Templars. Footnote 151: Nichols, 244.