Timeline of Major 17th-Century Historical Events 1603 Elizabeth I dies. James VI of Scotland, now James I of England, accedes. 1620 First emigration of the Pilgrims to the New World 1625 James I dies. His son Charles I accedes1641 The English Revolution and Civil War. Oliver Cromwell - Chief Protector1645 the Royal Society1649 Charles I is executed. The Interregnum 1651 Thomas Hobbes Leviathan 1660 Charles II - the Restoration 16641666 The Great Plague and Fire of London 1685 Charles II dies. James II accedes1687 Newtons Principia, John Lockes An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 16881689 James II abdicates. The Glorious Revolution1690 John Locke Two Treatises of Government

James I of England Anne of Denmark

Anthony van Dyck. Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, King of England with Seignior de St. Antoine. 1633

Charles I

Jacobean & Caroline Drama1601 TO THE CLOSURE OF THE THEATRES, 1642Jacobean: (1603-25) < Latin JacobusCaroline: (1625-1642)

the King James Bible (1611) first FOLIO edition of Shakespeare's plays (1623) MASQUES COMEDIES OF HUMOURS REVENGE TRAGEDIES

Court Masques theatrical form - reigns of the Tudor & Stuart monarchs almost immediately obsolete during the British Civil WarShakespeare - short masque scene in The Tempest (1611) at the courts of James I and Charles I - height of popularity

quarrelsome collaboration - Ben Jonson as writer & Inigo Jones as stage designer (1605 1631) George Chapman, Thomas MiddletonComposers Thomas Campion, Henry Lawes, William Byrd, & Henry Purcell

SELECT CHRONOLOGY OF STUART MASQUES Ben Jonson 1605 The Masque of Blackness 1608 The Masque of Beauty 1609 The Masque of Queens 1610 Prince Henry's Barriers 1611 Oberon, The Fairy Prince 1611 Love Freed from Ignorance & Folly 1612 Love Restored 1615 Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists at Court 1616 The Golden Age Restored 1616 Christmas His Masque 1617 The Vision of Delight 1617 Lovers Made Men 1618 Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue 1620 The News from the New World Discovered in the Moon 1620 Pan's Anniversary 1621 The Gypsies Metamorphosed1622 The Masque of Augurs 1623 Time Vindicated to Himself & to his Honours 1624 Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion 1624 The Masque of Owls 1625 The Fortunate Isles & Their Union 1631 Love's Triumph through Callipolis 1631 Chloridia

Thomas Campion

1607 The Lord Hay's Masque 1613 The Lords' Masque 1613 The Caversham Entertainment 1613 The Somerset Masque

Thomas Middleton1619 The Masque of Heroes John Marston The Entertainment at AshbyGeorge Chapman1613The Memorable Masque Thomas Carew1634 Coelum Britannicum

William Davenant1635 The Temple of Love 1638 Britannia Triumphans 1638 Luminalia 1640 Salmacida Spolia

Aurelian Townshend 1632 Albion's Triumph 1632 Tempe Restored

ORIGINS 1. forms of court entertainment court pageants mimed tournaments allegorical dialogues

2. popular form of entertainment morris dance popular pageantstableaux

Morris dance

OCCASIONAL Court art-form

religious festivals, royal birthdays, inaugurations, weddingse.g. Chapmans Memorable Masque

political purposes, "diplomatic occasions"e.g. Milton's A Maske

PRIVATEaristocratic elite public theatres

held in private royal halls (Banqueting Hall in Whitehall)performed at court / manor of a member of the nobility -- acted indoors PERFORMERS: amateurs aristocratic masquers, elaborately, extravagantly costumed

Baroque illusionism < Portuguese barroco, 'rough or imperfectly shaped pearl' >> art -- extravagant, heavily ornate or bombastic

Counterreformation (age of the Baroque - synonymous with the Catholic abhorrence of Protestantism)17th century - masque, disguise, masquerade, dissimulationLife = dreamappearances = illusion irreconcilable conflictflesh & spiritworldly & celestialtransitory & eternal

time: fleeting, momentary, times swift flight tempus irreparabile fugit, vanitas vanitatum, carpe diem paradox: experience the moment to its fullest, intensely to defeat time

Maskthin & fragile screen : ignorant illusion & revelation of the truthbaroque mentality - infatuation with concealment & disguise metaphor of the stagelife is precarious - certainty of deathcarefree masquerade of a privileged society

Spatial illusionism(consciousness of infinity) - coextensive space trompe loeil dissolves the barrier between:

real space of the observer perspective space of the painting, sculpture, theatre stage infinite prolongation of space (micro & macrocosmos)illusionistic ceiling paintings psychological effect

integration of real & fictive space transferring the mind of the viewer from material to eternal things

Rubenss ceiling panels to Joness Whitehall Banqueting House

Rubenss ceiling panels to Joness Whitehall Banqueting House

Light complex solar symbolism: glorifies royalty, serves autocratic regimes sun as the source of universal light (the Roi Soleil)doctrine of divine right unlimited magnificence and splendour baroque imagination delighted above all -- creation of an illusory reality -- more opulent & splendid than the ordinary world could offer

Baroque performancesynchretic indoor performance combining

poetic drama, music, dance, song, lavish costumes, spectacular stage effects, elaborate stage designs & machinerytransitory and ephemeral artspectacular & musical elements predominated over plot & character

STRUCTURE poetic induction / prologue antimasque(s) main masque revels - epilogue dance

Revels complex choreographed dances by masqued performers "taking out" audience members form geometrical shapes & intricate patterns [late Tudor & early Stuart period -- root in Italian balletto]

breakdown - barrier - stage & spectatorblurs - line - performance & reality heighten allegory & symbolism removal of masks - end of the dramatic entertainment -- world of the masque - dissolved

Inigo Jones (1573-1652)

Inigo Jonesprincipal British exponent of an essentially baroque phenomenonillusionistic stage settings animated by spectacular machinery stage architectelaborate set designs, scenery & costumes for plays & masquesmachina versatilis or 'turning machine'proscenium arch

introduces perspective, illusionist setting to the English theatre cancel the separation of stage & audience brings them together participate in the glorification of the monarch

Haven with a Citadel

Stage machinery

Proscenium

Courtly dancers

Sketch by Inigo Jones for first scene of Britannia Triumphans

Sketch by Inigo Jones for final scene of Britannia Triumphans

Ben Jonson the masque as a literary formunify the various elements of the masque (literary/dramatic & spectacular/theatrical) into a cohesive whole

17th c critics -- dismissed masques -- ephemeral and expensive entertainments, occasional, extravagant, and wasteful spectacles -- unrealistic and shameful flattery of the monarchJonson considered them important enough to publish his textspoet's vision = soul of the masquesought to counter the ephemerality of performance, to "borrow a life of posteritie" for them

Anti-masque comic or grotesque characters & plot material -- as foils to the main masque

preceded the performance of a MASQUE (antemasque) Jonson -- a "foyle, or false-Masque"antic masquefarcical prelude - - a BURLESQUE of the main action.highlight by contrast - central theme - political & social harmony witches, satyrs, grotesque monsters world of darkness & eviltemporary submergence into chaos - disfigurement of the underlying order of natureprofessional actors & singers - antimasquenoble ladies & gentlemen - masque

A Turkey

Stage fury Giant

Inigo Jones, design for Henrietta Maria as Divine Beauty in Tempe Restored(1632)

Inigo Jones, design for Henrietta Maria, Luminalia 1638

Inigo Jones Lady masquer in Amazonian dress Salmacida Spolia 1640

A Knight of Apollo

Inigo Jones, design for Masque of Blackness 1605

first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, who wished the masquers to be disguised as Africans Anne was one of the performers in the masque along with her court ladies, and appeared in blackface makeup

Inigo Jones, design for Neptunes Triumph for the Return of Albionmasque intended as the major entertainment of the 162324 Christmas holiday season

Inigo Jones, design for Oberon the Fairy King 1608

Torch-bearer: An Indian

Headdress of Queen Saba

masque

gigantic allegory celebrating the triumph of Peace, Virtue, Concord, Wisdom, Eternity (symbolised by the Royal Presence at whose feet the masquers ended their dance & ritual) essentially nondramatic, no room for tension or conflict characters are symbolic rather than realisticantimasque

drama is possible only heregrotesque world of vice or comic disorder which is subdued or displaced by the courtly masque

Political significance vehicle for celebrating the monarch, glorifying the court or a particular aristocrat

exalted conception of the divine right of kings - Stuart monarchs -17th century court hierarchy political overtones - masques were major political events, displays of liberality and magnanimity sycophantic panegyric rules of flattery'--- praise was obligatory Masque: mouthpiece of absolutist ideologytributes to James's pacific wisdom mutual love of Charles & Henrietta MariaAntimasque : covert criticism of royal policydramatize abuses - monarch encouraged to correctcomplex negotiation between court & sovereign /different political factions within the court

Tudor monarchsHenry VIII often took part in the revels, & masque designsElizabeth I - prophetic themes drawn in particular from Golden Age mythology

Elizabeth - cast as AstraeaVirgin Queen - Mary, the queen of heavenalchemical emblematics - gold - symbol

Stuart periodalchemical or Platonic Golden Age was to be realised - through the enactment of masques

e.g. Jonsons The Golden Age Restord (1615) After the succession of James I in 1603, Court artists laboured to legitimate the new ruler & the union of Scotland with England & Wales cultivated - king figure - threefold roles

British SolomonAugustus Constantineimperial archetypes of Jewish king, pagan emperor, & Christian prince

Stuart monarchs - establishment of an empire separate from, but equal to, that of Romeimperial mission served to emphasise their established Protestant role as the Defenders of the Faith

Stuart expectations of a Golden Age claims to Protestant imperial destiny reference to British legend, & to the tale of an Albion of magical virtue which would one day be restored

Stuart aspiration to restore Albion both physically & spirituallyGeoffrey of Monmouth, - Historia Regum Britanniae - 1130

The British - described as the heirs to a lost antiquity comprising the Trojan & later Arthurian land of Albionancient British kings - descended from Brute, the grandson of Aeneas of Troyfulfilling Dianas prophecy, Brute had conquered the island of Albion & founded London as the New Troy articulation of this mythology - masque

Oberon, the Fairy Prince (1611)Neptunes Triumph for the Return of Albion (1624)Albions Triumph (1632)Coelum Britannicum (1634)Britannia Triumphans (1638)

the Stuart masque - animated by Neoplatonic philosophy allegories which harmonised music, dance, emblematic costume, & changeable perspective scenery belief that complex occult correspondences controlled the cosmos

Stuart Court as a model of Platonic harmonyrevelation of the divine Ideas justice, religion, virtue, peace

the Court as a paradigm of order contrasted & emphasised by its opposite, hell as a disharmonious collection of supernatural forces, witches & popular magiciansall ultimately banished by the kingturning winter into spring & drawing down favourable spirits, the masque celebrated the monarchs supposed magical powers over nature herself

Charles I & Henrietta-Maria

Celebrations of royal marriages

Platonic theme of harmonyalchemical pairing of opposites, male & femaleCaroline Court -- a Neoplatonic cult of love centred on the royal pair Carlo-Maria union - HermaphroditeJonsons Loves Welcome at Bolsover (1634) Jonsons Loves Triumph through Callipolis (1631) -- king was cast emblematically as Heroic Love & the queen as Beauty

Bibliographical Sources

Lindley, David (ed) (1995) Court Masques. Jacobean & Caroline Entertainments 1605-1640 Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press Hart, Vaughan (1994) Art & Magic in the Court of the Stuarts London & New York: Routledge Donaldson, Ian Grant (1997) Jonson's Magic Houses: Essays in Interpretation Oxford: Clarendon Press