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Court Masques When James I acceded to the throne in 1603 he became patron of Shakespeare's company, which was henceforth called The King's Men; but he also had a taste for masques which were performed on special occasions such as weddings, births, visits from foreign dignitaries, etc. Bearing an obvious similarity to the spectacular entertainments that developed in Lorenzo de Medici's Renaissance Italy where stage machinery was added to the song and dance of the banquets and balls, a masque, as Phyllis Hartnoll says, " brought the maskers to play before the king in lovely dresses, with all the appurtenances of scenery, machinery and rich allegorical speech." The stories were usually allegories designed honoring a person or an occasion. The elaborate euphuism of Lyly et al was replaced by elaborate (and more costly) settings and costumes. The speaking and singing roles were taken by professional court musicians; comic roles were played by professional actors. The major emphasis was on 1] courtier-dancers, who went into the auditorium to dance with selected spectators and 2] spectacle and scenic display. (see esp Nagler pp. 148-150 description of Prince Charles' (I) debut as chief masquer). Masques true to their roots utilized Italian staging methods; most were designed by Inigo Jones (1573-1652), the court architect, who had studied in Italy. Most were written by Ben Jonson e.g. The Vision of Delight. The first Jones/Jonson collaboration was The Masque of Blackenss (1605), written for the Queen who wanted to make an appearance with her ladies in the guise of "blackamoors." Jonson decided to invoke the river Niger. He described the look of the festivities:
The last, and most spectacular of all the masques was Salmacida Spolia (1640) by William Davenant, who will turn up after the Restoration as a patent holder, but that's another story. James I averaged one masque a year. Charles I (who himself had appeared
in masques starting with Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1618) when
he was seventeen) averaged two per year. Incredible sums were spent: eg.
In 1618 more was spent on a single masque than on all professional performances
during his reign. This extravagance, of course, did not please the Puritans--especially
Cromwell--which certainly hastened Charles I's trip to the block. |
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