Masques Masques Author Anna Horkoff Supervising Editor Melissa Walter Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Anna Horkoff, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

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In an ornate room, well dressed nobility and some musicians stand in a ring. In the center are a man and a woman. He is dressed in black while she wears a pink gown. Both sport prominent ruffs. They are dancing; the woman is depicted mid-jump with the man supporting her. Queen Elizabeth I dancing with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester by an unknown artist, possibly Marcus Gheeraerts, circa 1580. Courtesy of Penshurst Palace, Kent and Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
The Masque

A masque was a form of aristocratic and court entertainment in the 16th and 17th centuries. It consisted of elaborate productions of song, dance, sets, costumes, and dialogue, Masques were often custom productions written to celebrate either the lord or lady of the house or the main guest in the aristocratic court. Records indicate they frequently accompanied marriage celebrations.

Masques evolved in England from the medieval practice of mumming (masked, silent entertainments) probably tied to religious or community rituals. As early as 1377, records show a group of citizens disguised as members of the court visited the royal court, gambled over jewelry, then ended the night with dance, with the mummers and the aristocrats dancing on opposite sides of the hall.

The masque was also strongly influenced by a theatrical form called intermezzo, which originated in Renaissance Italy. The intermezzo was an entertainment form introduced by Lorenzo de Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence from 1469–1492. In Italy, intermezzi were essentially court plays, with actors on a stage. Intermezzi included song, dance, scenery, and elalaborate stage effects produced by stage machinery.

The Masque in England

During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, masques were used to further her political endeavours. The designation of the dancing couples who were paired, the order in which the attendees danced, and the position of the dancers in relation to each other on the dance floor could all have political meaning and purposes. Queen Elizabeth was also able to influence political objectives with her own performing abilities. She made sure to take control of the court with her polished dance, thereby influencing how she was perceived by the attendees of the masques, many of whom were ruling members of foreign nations.

In the court of King James I, masques became even more prominent. They featured spectacular stage effects and costumes, specific dances, music, and the intermingling of professional entertainers and members of the court. An elaborate series of masques was presented as part of the celebrations surrounding the wedding of James I’s daughter Elizabeth in 1612. The expensive entertainments were performed only once, despite their high cost.

Under King James I, who was a patron of Shakespeare’s theater company, the masque reached its peak under the creative control of scenic designer and architect Inigo Jones and the playwright Ben Jonson. Queen Anna and the ladies of the court performed in elaborate costumes, even though women were prohibited from performing on the public stage.

Shakespeare and the Masque

Shakespeare did not participate directly in the creation of masques at the Stuart Court, although he alludes heavily to the features of the masque in The Tempest, which was presented at court at the same time many masques were performed for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth in 1612. In The Tempest, many special effects appear in the stage directions, including the one that opens the play: of thunder and lightning heard. Many other fantastic scenes occur in the play, such as when the spirit Ariel appears as a harpy to steal away the banquet in Act 3 with a quaint device and is assisted by others shapes who enter and dance, with mocks and mows, and carrying out the table. After the theaters were closed in 1642, the masque never regained popularity as a theatrical art form.

Key Print Sources Barroll, Leeds. Inventing the Stuart Masque. The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque. Eds. David Bevington and Peter Holbrook. Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 121–143. Demaray, John G. Shakespeare and the Spectacles of Strangeness: The Tempest and the Transformation of Renaissance Theatrical Forms. Duquesne University Press, 1998. Egan, Gabriel. Masque. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells. Oxford University Press, 2001.
Key Online Sources History of the Masque Genre. In John Milton’s A Maske or Comus. Ed. Meg F. Pearson, Erin A. Sadler, and Helen L. Hull. University of Maryland. https://archive.mith.umd.edu/comus/final/cegenre.htm. Accessed Oct. 2020. Mirabella, Bella. <quote>In the sight of all</quote>: Queen Elizabeth and the Dance of Diplomacy. Early Theater, 2012, pp. 65-73. https://earlytheatre.org/earlytheatre/article/view/898.
Image Sources Queen Elizabeth I Dancing with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. circa 1580. Penshurst Palace, Kent. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Robert_Dudley_Elizabeth_Dancing.jpg&oldid=323321756.