east corner of this is shown in Plate XXI.

Laud's building work was done between 1631 and 1635, and in 1636
Charles I and his Queen visited Oxford and were entertained in the
newly-finished college. Much bad verse was written on this event, two
lines of which as a specimen may be quoted from the quaintly-named
poem, "Parnassus Biceps":

"Was I not blessed with Charles and Mary's name,
Names wherein dwells all music? 'Tis the same."

The part of the entertainment to royalty on which the Archbishop
specially prided himself was the play of The Hospital of Lovers,
which was performed entirely by St. John's men, without "borrowing
any one actor." Laud goes on to observe that, when the Queen borrowed
the dresses and the scenery, and had it played over again by her
players at Hampton Court, it was universally acknowledged that the
professionals did not come up to the amateurs--a truly surprising and
somewhat incredible verdict. St. John's, however, was always strong
in dramatic ability; Shirley, the last great representative of the
Elizabethan tradition, was a student there, and the library has the
rare distinction of having possessed longest the same copy of the
works of Shakespeare; it still has the second folio, presented in
1638, by one of the fellows. St. John's connection with the lighter
side of literature has lasted to our own day; the most famous of
Oxford parodies is still the Oxford Spectator, which has not been
surpassed by any of its many imitators in the last half century.

Other colleges, however, might challenge the supremacy of St. John's
in the humours of literature.. In the richness and beauty of its