Reading Masques

From Court to Playhouse and Back: Middleton's Appropriation of the Masque

“…12 Many elements of masquing feature in the 'unsunned lodge / Wherein 'tis night at noon' (3.5. [18][19], the scene of the old Duke's last 'entertainment'. Whilst not a masque as such, this entertainment is a piece of meta-court drama with vocabulary such as 'tragic business', 'show', 'property', 'part', and 'applaud' (99,100,101,108) -terms that explicitly draw attention to the artifice of acting.…”

“…Contemporary accounts of masquing at Whitehall, such as those of Sir Dudley Carleton and Sir John Harington, 'show that at least some courtly masquing occasions were nothing less than chaotic'; this is how Vindice and Hippolito can pre-empt Ambitioso's quartet. 18 This court is large -Hippolito states 'There are five hundred gentlemen in the action / That will apply themselves and not stand idle' (5.2.28-9) -so it is easy for Vindice's masquers in identical apparel to gain access and, 'observing the true form' (5.2.18), perform their entry dance. They then unsheathe their swords and murder Lussurioso and the three favourites seated next to him and leave.…”

“…A dance follows until finally Frip presents Katherine with a chain of pearl. The ironic truth of the thrice-repeated line of the song, 'Anon you will be found' (18)(19), is soon seen as Katherine immediately recognizes the chain of pearl Fitzgrave gave her. It was stolen by Pursenet's boy and has made its way round the group in a cycle of gifting and filching.…”

“…Court masques, however, even though the masquers are dumb and the text is often minimal, contain many other constituent elements, just as important as the final dancing, which 'speak' and convey meaning. 8 Linking contextual study of masquing conventions to nuanced, reoriented readings of canonical texts, The Revenger's Tragedy, Women Beware Women, and The Changeling, as well as the lesser known Your Five Gallants, I propose to delve deeper into some of these elements to reveal particularly imaginative reworking of the masque as a cultural and literary form. These elements include the convention for masquing suits of the same livery, the role of torch-bearers, the passion for emblems, and the 'transformation' scene.…”

Publishing Misfortunes: Recording Performance at the Inns of Court

“…22 Masques went to press soon after their performance -in some cases the printed text was produced before the performance had taken place -increasing their functionality as reports of politically relevant spectacles. 23 Misfortunes is the only Inns drama that went to press in the weeks immediately following its performance, the date of which appears on the title page. Advertising the temporal proximity of the play's performance to the published text was perhaps an attempt to increase the playbook's appeal for its earliest readers.…”