W hite, R obert

Abstract

Robert White ( fl . 1617) was the headmaster of a London school for gentlewomen, the Deptford Ladies’ Hall, in the early seventeenth century. We have no certain details about his background or personal life, but we do know that White wrote a masque called Cupids banishment , which was performed before Queen Anna in June 1617. White's text, in turn, is our primary source of information about the school where he was master. The Deptford Ladies’ Hall seems to have been one of the fashionable suburban academies that flourished in the early seventeenth century (Clark 1977); this one may have offered a substantive education as well (McManus 2003). The masque is preserved in a beautiful manuscript now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (MA 1296). Its careful preparation is consistent with manuscripts of other masques that were crafted for patrons or participants, as souvenirs. This manuscript of Cupids banishment belonged to Sir Richard Browne, who as a boy acted the part of Diana in the masque, then bequeathed the text to his daughter (who married the diarist John Evelyn). Like many masques, it was not printed in its own era; it can be read today in the editions of McGee (1988) or Cerasano and Wynne‐Davies (1996).