2 But in view of the looseness of the employment of the word as a term in its day, and the intimate relations of the masque in origin and growth with the numerous ludi, disguisings, mummings, and other like entertainments, its predecessors, the subject may be considered here with some latitude, and in no absolute neglect of the various congeners that accompanied it.
Ben jonson the hue and cry after cupid full#
In a full recognition of the precise significance of the term masque, we may deny that title, with Soergel and Brotanek, to Milton's beautiful Comus because the dancers and actors are here probably the same persons and not divers as in the true masque. Indeed, even belated moralities such as the Microcosmus of Nabbes were included among masques.
To most of his predecessors and contemporaries a masque meant any revel, masking, or disguising, from a visit such as that of Henry VIII and his courtiers in mask to the palace of Wolsey, immortalized by Shakespeare, 1 to imaginative, mythological interludes like Heywood's Love's Mistress or Dekker and Ford's Sun's Darling. Or after Jonson's time was the term 'masque' used with precision. See, also, Bacon's accurate use of these terms, Essays, ed. Gifford, Jonson, vi, 469 and vii, 103 and 147. Jonson Masque of Queens, his Entertainment of the Two Kings at Theobalds,Īnd his Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers. Jonson employs these terms with exactitude but it is not to be supposed that either before Its nucleus is always a dance, as the nucleus of the "entertainment" is a speech of welcome, and that of the "barriers" a sham tournament. The masque will thus be seen to be distinguished by very certain limitations. It was in the development of the "entry" and the "main" that the growth of the masque chiefly consisted. Between the "main" and the "going out," two extemporal parts were interpolated, the "dance with the ladies" and the "revels," which last consisted of galliards, corantos, and la voltas. The "main," too, or principal dance, was commonly premeditated, as in Jonson Masque of Queens, where the masquers and their torchbearers formed in their gyrations the letters of the name of Prince Charles. The first appearance of the masquers with their march from their "sieges" or seats of state in the scene, and their first dance - all designated the "entry" - was carefully arranged and rehearsed so also was the return to the "sieges" or "going cut," and this preparation included sometimes the preceding dance. The masque combined premeditated with unpremeditated parts.
Ben jonson the hue and cry after cupid professional#
On the other hand, the speech of the masque, whether of presentation or in dialogue, and the music, both vocal and instrumental, were from the first in the hands of the professional entertainer, and developed as other entertainments at court developed. Scenic contrivance can lend to the united effect. 14: "die Maske war anf¨nglich nichtĮvans, The English Masque, 1897, p. Their function is the creation of "an imposing show" by their gorgeous costumes and fine presence, enhanced by artistic grouping, and by the aids which decoration and They neither speak nor sing, nor is it usual to exact of them any difficult or unusual figures, poses, or dances.
called masquers." 2 These dancers - who range in number from eight to sixteen - are commonly noble and titled people of the court.
1 It is made up of "a combination, in variable proportions, of speech, dance, and song " and its "essential and invariable feature is the presence of a group of dancers. Specifically, a masque is a setting, a lyric, scenic, and dramatic framework, so to speak, for a ball. Generically, the masque is one of a numerous progeny, of more or less certain dramatic affiliation. For despite the fact that mumming, disguising, and dancing in character and costume were pastimes in England quite as old, if not older, than the drama itself, it is to Jonson that we owe the infusion of dramatic spirit into these productions, together with the crystallization of their discordant elements into artistic unity and form. Clicking on that playbook's row in the table will display all associated paratexts.HAD Ben Jonson never lived, the English masque would scarcely need toīe chronicled among dramatic forms. Use the table below to search for a particular playbook. Below are listed all playbooks in the EMDP database.
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