Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque involved music, dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Masquers who did not speak or sing were often courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts.[citation needed] In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.[1]
Development
[edit]The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and courtly shows of ducal Burgundy in the late Middle Ages. Masques were typically a complimentary offering to the prince among his guests and might combine pastoral settings, mythological fables, and the dramatic elements of ethical debate. There would invariably be some political and social application of the allegory. Such pageants often celebrated a birth, marriage, change of ruler or a royal entry and invariably ended with a tableau of bliss and concord.
Masque imagery tended to be drawn from Classical rather than Christian sources, and the artifice was part of the Grand dance. Masque thus lent itself to Mannerist treatment in the hands of master designers like Giulio Romano or Inigo Jones.
The New Historians, in works like the essays of Bevington and Holbrook's The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque (1998),[2] have pointed out the political subtext of masques. At times, the political subtext was not far to seek: The Triumph of Peace, put on with a large amount of parliament-raised money by Charles I, caused great offence to the Puritans. Catherine de' Medici's court festivals, often even more overtly political, were among the most spectacular entertainments of her day, although the "intermezzi" of the Medici court in Florence could rival them.
Dumbshow
[edit]In English theatre tradition, a dumbshow is a masque-like interlude of silent mime usually with allegorical content that refers to the occasion of a play or its theme, the most famous being the dumbshow played out in Hamlet (III.ii). Dumbshows might be a moving spectacle, like a procession, as in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (1580s), or they might form a pictorial tableau, as one in the Shakespeare collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (III.i)—a tableau that is immediately explicated at some length by the poet-narrator, Gower.
Dumbshows were a medieval element that continued to be popular in early Elizabethan drama, but by the time Pericles (c. 1607–08) or Hamlet (c. 1600–02) were staged, they were perhaps quaintly old-fashioned: "What means this, my lord?" is Ophelia's reaction. In English masques, purely musical interludes might be accompanied by a dumbshow.
Origins
[edit]The masque has its origins in a folk tradition where masked players would unexpectedly call on a nobleman in his hall, dancing and bringing gifts on certain nights of the year, or celebrating dynastic occasions. The rustic presentation of "Pyramus and Thisbe" as a wedding entertainment in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream offers a familiar example. Spectators were invited to join in the dancing. At the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities. In 1377, 130 men came "disguisedly apparelled", their faces covered with vizards to entertain Richard II of England.[3]
Court masques in England and Scotland
[edit]In England, Tudor court masques developed from earlier guisings, where a masked allegorical figure would appear and address the assembled company—providing a theme for the occasion—with musical accompaniment.[4] Costumes were designed by professionals, including Niccolo da Modena.[5] Elizabeth of York paid for costumes for "disguysings" in June and December 1502. Minstrels were dressed in white and green Tudor livery.[6] Henry VIII came to Catherine of Aragon's chamber disguised as Robin Hood in January 1510, perhaps causing initial uneasiness, and there was dancing.[7][8][9]
Hall's Chronicle explained the new fashion of Italian-style masque at the English court in 1512.[10] The essential feature was the entry of disguised dancers and musicians to a banquet. They would appear in character and perform, and then dance with the guests, and then leave the venue.[11] At the meeting at Lille in October 1513, when the ladies were dancing after a banquet, Henry VIII and eleven other dancers entered "richely appareled with bonettes of gold". At the conclusion of their performance they gave their masque costumes to the audience.[12]
On 1 May 1515, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon rode from Greenwich Palace to have breakfast in an arbour constructed in a wood at Shooter's Hill. Catherine and her ladies were dressed in Spanish-style riding gear, Henry was in green velvet. The royal guard appeared in disguise as Robin Hood and his men. There was a pageant chariot or car with Lady May and Lady Flora, followed by a masque and dancing.[13]
According to George Cavendish, in January 1527 Henry VIII came to Cardinal Wolsey's Hampton Court or York Place, by boat "in a masque with a dozen of other maskers all in garments like shepherds made of fine cloth of gold and fine crimson satin paned, and caps of the same with visors", wearing false beards, accompanied with torch bearers and drummers. Their arrival at the palace water gate was announced by cannon fire. The King's part of the entertainment was organised by William Sandys and Henry Guildford. The masquers played a dice game called mumchance before dancing.[14][15] Edward Hall described similar masques involving the king's disguised appearance.[16]
In the play Henry VIII, by Fletcher and Shakespeare, Wolsey's masques were recalled when Henry in shepherd's disguise meets Anne Boleyn.[17][18][19] Anne Boleyn and seven ladies in "maskyng apparel of straunge fashion" performed for Henry VIII and Francis I of France at Calais on 27 October 1532.[20] Some of the costume, supplied by the yeoman of the revels Richard Gibson, was described as "masking gere".[21]
Inventories of masque costume at the court of Henry VIII made when Catherine Howard was queen include lists of "maskyng garmentes" for men and for women. The women's costumes included coifs, partlets, upper garments, kirtles, and a set of "high heads after Dutch fashion of striped lawn".[22]
Masques at Elizabeth I's court emphasized the concord and unity between Queen and Kingdom. A descriptive narrative of a processional masque is the masque of the Seven Deadly Sins in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (Book i, Canto IV). A particularly elaborate masque, performed over the course of two weeks for Queen Elizabeth, is described in the 1821 novel Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott. Queen Elizabeth was entertained at country houses during her progresses with performances like the Harefield Entertainment.[23]
In Scotland, masques were performed at court, particularly at wedding celebrations, and the royal wardrobe provided costumes.[24] At a banquet at the tournament of the Wild Knight and the Black Lady in 1507, the Black Lady came into the hall at Holyroodhouse with Martin the Spaniard who was equipped with an archery bow and dressed in yellow.[25] A cloud descended from the roof and swept them both away.[26][27]
Performers at a wedding masque at Castle Campbell in 1562 dressed as shepherds.[28]