This article, which examines Middleton's techniques of tempo, timing, and spacing in light of Renaissance dance, begins with some general observations about dancing in Middleton's time and then moves on to choreographic technique in his work. As Middleton sometimes wrote his plays together with other writers, it will be important to consider dance in drama in light of such collaborations.
In summer 1621, George Villiers, then Marquess of Buckingham, invited the king and an exclusive circle of courtiers to inaugurate his newly restored countryside residence Burley-on-the-Hill in Rutland, Lincolnshire. On this occasion, he commissioned Ben Jonson with a masque, The Gypsies Metamorphos'd, in which he himself and various friends performed as dancing, pick-pocketing and palm-reading gipsies. The Gypsies Metamorphos'd was a risqué piece which experimented with innovative features, some of them outrageous. In particular, Jonson and his collaborators drew upon French-style ballet and banqueting fashions which they combined with traditional English music and song. This essay explains the reason for these artistic choices.
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