Essay on "Masque"

 Unit-II
Drama
"Masque"

The masque (a variant spelling of “mask”) was inaugurated in Renaissance Italy and flourished in England during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I. In its full development, it was an elaborate form of court entertainment that combined poetic drama, music, song, dance, splendid costuming, and stage spectacle. A plot—often slight, and mainly mythological and allegorical—served to hold together these diverse elements. The speaking characters, who wore masks (hence the title), were often played by amateurs who belonged to courtly society. The play concluded with a dance in which the players doffed their masks and were joined by the audience.

In the early seventeenth century in England the masque drew upon the finest artistic talents of the day, including Ben Jonson for the poetic script (for example, The Masque of Blackness and The Masque of Queens) and Inigo Jones, the architect, for the elaborate sets, costumes, and stage machinery.

Introduction

Masque

Masque was a lavish and elaborate form of entertainment, often performed in royal courts, that emphasises song, dance and costume. The Renaissance a form of the masque grew out of the spectacles of masked figures common in medieval England and Europe.

1. Masque- an introduction

During the first half of the seventeenth century in England, it was a courtly form of entertainment characterized by song, dance, lavish costumes, and extraordinary spectacle. Introduced into England from Italy the masque flourished in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, continued at the court of James I, and reached its highest development in the time of Charles I who was its most devoted admirer.

2. The Beginnings

During medieval times in England, as well as other European countries, certain games or spectacles were characterized by a procession of masked figures. In these disguising' or "mumming", a procession of masques would go through the streets, enter each house, silently dance, play dice with the citizens or with each other, and then leave. Adopted by the aristocracy these games developed into elaborate and costly spectacles and, later, into the magnificent entertainments known as masques. The Epiphany spectacle of 1512, given by Henry VIII, is sometimes called the first English masque.

3. Development of Masque

The major development of the masque came, however, in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth and in the reigns of James I and Charles I. In the first third of the seventeenth century, the masque reached its peak of popularity with such poets as Daniel, Beaumont, Middleton and Jonson. The greatest development was due to Jonson, poet laureate, and Inigo Jones, court architect and deviser of stage machinery.

4. Production of Masques

Production of masques became increasingly elaborate. Expensive costumes, scenery and properties were used, and professional musicians, dancers and actors were employed. In the masque proper, which was the arrival and set dancing of masked figures, the actors were amateurs from courtly society princes and princesses, even queens and kings.

5. Best English Masques

Milton's Comus is one of the best known masques, Spenser incorporates masque like episodes in The Faerie Queen, and the influence of the masque is apparent in the betrothal masque in Shakespeare's The Tempest, As you Like lt by Shakespeare is masque like in the lack of action, the prominence of music and the spectacular appearance of Hymen at the end.

6. The end of the performance

With the Civil war and the triumph of the Puritan Revolution and the closing of the theatres in 1642, this form of entertainment ended.