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BEN JONSON'S MASQUES.
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Analyzes four courtly entertainments of 17th Cent. poet. Pageantry, form, purpose, dance, story line, characters, action, antimasques.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Analyzes four courtly entertainments of 17th Cent. poet. Pageantry, form, purpose, dance, story line, characters, action, antimasques.
Paper Introduction:
Ben Jonson was the leading writer of courtly masques, the hybrid entertainments, part poetry and part spectacle, that flourished at the courts of James I and Charles I. Jonson's principal innovation in the genre was his development of the antimasque. The antimasque was an opening section of the performances featuring slightly relaxed decorum and providing a contrast with the elevated tone of the masque proper. To be acceptable, a formal innovation as important as the antimasque had to meet a great variety of demands that Jonson and his audience placed on this fragile art form. Though they were undeniably meant as entertainment, masques were designed to praise the sovereign, to confirm the legitimacy of the existing social order and to teach aristocratic audiences by entertaining them. It was a highly artificial and almost ephemeral form in
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The Illusion of Power: Political Theater in the EnglishRenaissance. The courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth had been entertained bynumerous masquerades and pageants. Though he was a playwright, Jonson never tried to turn the masqueinto a drama. Jonson doesnot presume to think that he can teach by singing his own praises -- buthis perception of his own role demonstrates his sympathy with the role hehad designed for the king in so many other masques. Beauty was anecessary characteristic of women in the idealized world of the masque, anda major reason for the masques was "the beauty with which they [masques]adorned the lives of king and court" (Dundas 166). The promise that the women will return the followingyear is a weak device, and the masque achieves no sense of closure.Indeed, Jonson decided to forgo the closing dance in which the "coalescenceof masquing princesses and courtly observers" should take place (Aasand281). In this masque, with the absence of royalparaphernalia, the role of the one who shows the masquers the way totransform themselves is more important than in any of the other masques.Jonson allows his role to be at the forefront since there is no "greaterlight" (The Masque of Blackness 169-7 ) to obscure his own. Jonson had written several minor entertainments for James and Anne,and they were favorably received. An example of this expanded scope is the way the antimasque oftenprovided the means to deal with political questions. The masquers were aristocrats who were disguised asclassical gods or allegorical entities. Since non-beauty cannot be ascribed to the masquers,there is little to the masque except the search to find the missingsisters. But Anne's choice of subject had moreserious implications. They havebeen told that in a land whose name ends in "-tania . The comments of Sir Dudley Carleton, a gossiping courtier,have survived and provide a sense of the degree to which many peoplebelieved that Anne had transgressed the boundaries of the masque form.Schwarz quotes Carleton's shocked comments on the masquers' costumes, whichhe considered far too revealing and "Curtizan-like for such great ones"(qtd. But both worlds are controlled by Jonson: Both the energy and the decorum represent aspects of hisown creativity and public character. Jonson, abricklayer's stepson, took the form seriously and found in it a tremendousopportunity to advance his career, to employ his skills for a seriouspurpose and to practice his art by shaping a new medium. Bypainting their faces, the Queen and her friends violated this basic rule ofthe masque. The texts of Jonson's masques are slight -- no longerthan the longest scenes in most Renaissance dramas. Jonson'spoetry surpassed what had been attempted before, and Jones' stage designimmediately set a new fashion. "Court and Country: The Masque as SociopoliticalSubtext." Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 7 (1995): 338-54.Schwarz, Kathryn. The Court Masque. In the masque, Anne is presented "as a marginal figure, an alien princessindelibly stamped with an inferior color and in search of social legitimacyin the Jacobean court" (Aasand 276). / Bidthe world produce his like" (286-87). The Masque of Blackness was a departure for the court. The masque was the result of theJacobean court's combination of these two earlier kinds of entertainment.Masquerades had involved the participation of the monarch and the court.Pageants, however, had been presented to the ruler "by University, city,acting company or grateful courtier" (Lindley 3). In theantimasque, Jonson presents monsters who live on the Moon. Music, dancing andspectacle took up much of the time allotted to the performance, and many inthe audience rated the spectacle much higher in importance than the text.Despite their brevity, the texts frequently carried an enormous weight ofimmediate meanings and current references -- often addressing specificproblems the monarchs were facing at the time. His concern was for hispersonal reputation and for the artistic validity of the masque form. Once the rulers and courtiers beganto commission masques and to appear in them as masquers, the combination"of celebration and offering inevitably increase[d] the risk of the masquebecoming mere self-confirming narcissism" (Lindley 3). The antimasquefeatured "a world of particularity and mutability -- of accidents; themasque world was one of ideal abstractions and eternal verities" (Orgel,Jonsonian Masque 73). "'Ty Good Shubshects': The Jacobean Masque asColonial Discourse." Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 7 (1995):2 6-23.Butler, Martin, and David Lindley. There is noparticular fuss as the revelers are sent out into the audience, and, mostsignificantly, the masquers have achieved their own transformation afterbeing shown the way. The comparison of the forward charge of thesea shell pulled by Oceanus and Niger with the compositionally staticrevolving wedding cake of virtuous women defines the difference between amasque in which conflict can arise and one in which strict decorum is, forthe most part, maintained. London:Bucknell UP-Associated University Presses, 1989.Gossett, Suzanne. The imperfections associated with her blackness in thefirst masque are minor compared with the suggestion that women have nosouls. They served as a foil to the adult speeches but did notintroduce any real discord. In The Irish Masque at Court (1613), the characters in theantimasque are Irish peasants who speak in a rough dialect and repeatedlydeclare themselves "shubshects" of the English King "Yamish" (Bach 2 8).The fact that James had been unable to subdue the Irish, explains why heenjoyed this masque so much that he saw it produced twice in one week.Another antimasque of this type demonstrates how important this segment wasto the success of the masque as a whole. Jonson believed in James's notion that the ruler was always on stage,serving as an example for his people, and "masques were the festalembodiment of this concept of monarchy" (Orgel, Illusion of Power 43).Jonson, in embodying these ideas in the masques, achieved the highestliterary goal he had for the form. Butler and Lindleydemonstrate how closely Jonson's antimasque in The Golden Age Restored(1616) reflected the widely known events surrounding the accusation ofmurder directed toward the king's former favorite Robert Carr, Earl ofSomerset, and his wife, Frances Howard. It achieves a kind of minor perfectionin the identification of the audience and the revelers. The masques, in praising the monarchs,would provide the reader, as they had the spectator, with the opportunityto learn. . In most cases,the antimasque featured professional actors playing members of some realm(wilderness, hell, the moon, Ireland or Wales) in which "disorder and vice"prevailed (Orgel, Illusion of Power 4 ). The masque form was not promising for a writer who aspired toliterary greatness. in Schwarz 3 ). Such a contiguous world appears in the brief masque Lovers Made Men(1617). The blackness scheme thus broke with decorum in three specific ways.First, the apparent scantiness of the women's clothing worked against thedelicate balance of reality and illusion. Carleton drew a direct connection between the women's disguises and thefact that later in the evening one of the masquers was discovered in acompromising position (Schwarz 3 1). The Complete Masques. Those who were presentwere either entranced by the spectacle or despised the whole entertainmentas a vain waste of money. Nor did it provoke the kind of audience reaction the earliermasque caused in Dudley Carleton. But therewas more to it than defiance. The sophistication of the antimasques and their importance in thescheme of the masque had increased enormously by the end of James' reign.Leaving specific content aside, the antimasques also made a greatcontribution to Jonson's project of turning the masque into seriousliterature. Even though Niger's daughters had been left in a dramatic limbo atthe end of the earlier masque with their transformation promised but notyet accomplished, the action of the search for Albion and the bleaching sunhad been completed. The entertainments culminated with the masquers and the audiencejoining in a dance. Ed. Certainly life at court consisted of jockeying forposition in pursuit of wealth and pleasure, and certainly the ruler,ideally, provides a counter example to such behavior. Seriousness of subject was one aspect of this task, but theantimasque's role in creating a new dynamic for the masque may have beeneven more important. "Subjecting the King: Ben Jonson's Praise ofJames I." English Studies in Canada 17 (1991): 135-49.Miles, Rosalind. But this would mean, inturn, that they were forgoing their real-life identities and playingdramatic parts -- acting, in other words. Throughout the piece the rebelliousness of the Welsh isignored and their need of James as a leader is stressed. The character of actors was suspect, and the generalopinion of the profession was quite low even in an age when the theater wasgrowing in popularity. . The charge of sycophancy worried Jonson. The haphazard world of the antimasque could notthen, by definition, be a part of the court. Though changes inlighting and personnel take place as the shift to the masque occurs, theprimary change is not the result of confrontation but of "the gradualordering of chaos, a creative act" (Orgel, Jonsonian Masque 84). The daughtershad grown discontented with the color of their skin and are in search ofanother sun that is said to be able "to blanch an Ethiop" (225). Berkeley: U of California P, 1975.---. In keeping with theprinciple of "learning through praise", the court was presented with anidealized image of itself in the hope that, on being moved to a state ofadmiration, they would be inclined to imitate that ideal (Dutton 95). But this was even more serious becausewhen the masquers are actually disguised, like actors, anything can happen. In Oberon, Jonson created asingle world that included the characters of both antimasque and masque,and Silenus is a character who bridges these two worlds. The dismissivestrategies directed at the natives of Ireland and Wales are echoed inJonson's News from the New World Discover'd in the Moone (162 ). He introduced hisfirst antimasquers, 12 boys performing a comic dance, in The HaddingtonMasque (16 8). But in thecourt masques "the tendency toward 'theatre' is kept in check" (Dutton 93). In the masque asJonson found it, masked persons arrived in the king's banqueting hall topresent their compliments on some festive occasion such as Christmas or awedding celebration. The choice of classicalsource material for the masques was based not just on the need for learnedsubjects, but on the fact that gods and goddesses were "the subject matterof beauty" (Dundas 167). This discussion centers on four of the masques Jonson wrote for Jamesand his queen, Anne of Denmark. The one year turned to three and the newly whitened princesses didnot return until 16 8 in The Masque of Beauty. Orgel judged Oberon to be a failure in some respects. Jonson and Jones worked well for many years and established thedefinitive verbal and visual style of Jacobean masques. In The Masque of Queens (16 9), Jonson removedthe antimasque from the masque and made it a separate segment. The fourth selection, Lovers Made Men (1617), has noantimasque. As much as the masque properreassured the court about what it was, the antimasque reassured it aboutwhat it was not. While ostensibly praising James, Jonson denigrates women. It was a highly artificial and almost ephemeral form inwhich courtly decorum was doubly important because the royal family and thecourt were masquers as well as being members of the audience. For the Queen or her ladies to display themselves in a fashion lessmodest than usual implies that they expect this aberration to be acceptablebecause they are taking part in the entertainment. The aristocraticmasquers appeared and posed as various characters, but they never acted apart. But Jonson's approach tothe antimasque ensures greater dramatic tension than is possible in a worksuch as The Masque of Beauty, which has no antimasque. The blending of the court with theentertainment, the object of praise with the vehicle of praise, meant themasques were "an extension of the royal mind" (Orgel, Illusion of Power43). The structures of the masques emphasize the deep disparity betweenthe disorderly realms of the antimasques and the ideal worlds of themasques. Stephen Orgel. Thus, Jonson was left without a satisfying transformation toconclude the masque. "'To blanch an Ethiop, and revive a corse': Queen Anneand The Masque of Blackness." Studies in English Literature 32 (1992):271-85.Bach, Rebecca Ann. Sure they'recaves / Of sleep, these, or else they're graves" (115-16) is exchanged forthe brassy clarity of the Fays' voices, "Seek you majesty, to strike? Jonson's theory of the antimasque was not immediately grasped byother writers, who either misunderstood or rejected Jonson's idea ofallowing the antimasque to be part of the masque. Evans sees this short masque as theembodiment of the harmony it promises to those who can achieve such abalance between love and wit (229). In The Masque of Beauty , the "rotating 'Throne of Beauty'artfully restores Anne and her troupe to a dignified, legitimate positionin the court" (Aasand 283). Anne required that "now thenymphs were to be white, not black, there were to be four more of them, andthe whole thing was to be plausibly revamped and the inconsistenciesexplained away" (Miles 153). Themasque ends with the promise that, on the same night one year later whenthe princesses dry their faces in the light of this sun (James), thetransformation to white skin will be complete. In this piece, which did pleaseJames, the Welsh characters of the antimasque speak both Welsh and a roughdialect. The ideal figures of the gods, like the Queenherself, could not be in need of improvement. Orgel notes that the masque tells a great deal about court's"intense hopes for this young man" (Illusion of Power 7 ). Anne learned fromnegative reactions to the masque that she could not allow her true positionto be even briefly obscured by her masquer's role. The transformation is a clarificationof the antimasque world. All the declaiming,acting, and singing was performed by professionals. The antimasques, which occasionallyfeatured mild satires of the court, proved to be a fourth means of refutingthe charge of flattery. The mingling of masquers andaudience served to acknowledge "their social equality and the essentiallyamateur nature of a 'show'" (Dutton 93). They centered almost invariably on the king'spresence, and the ultimate point of the performance was the merging ofmasquers and court in a final dance. Jonson's satire established his independence andmade him appear to be objective and, therefore, "a more valuable, credible,and attractive spokesman" for the court's ideals (Evans 24 ). Dancing was permitted, however, because dancing was "the perquisiteof every lady and gentleman" (Orgel, Illusion of Power 39). Jonson's masque, PleasureReconciled to Virtue (1618), addressed the question of colonizing strangelands and was originally preceded by an antimasque that featured Africanpygmies. To beacceptable, a formal innovation as important as the antimasque had to meeta great variety of demands that Jonson and his audience placed on thisfragile art form. In the antimasque,Jonson discarded the approach of The Masque of Queens, in which the hell ofthe witches disappeared as the witches were "bound and vanquished" to makeway for the world of the masque (Cunnar 155). Dutton also notes that themasques were never performed except as part of a larger event --a banquetwas obligatory (94). The song denies that this is the case yet, as Gossett points out,the reply "does not assert that women have souls" (1 ). Pageants were offeringsand, as such, could feature praise of the royal recipient while includingcriticisms of their policies as well. Aasand suggests that, without theQueen's input, Jonson returned to orthodox means of presenting women in amasque. . in Schwarz 3 1). Carleton was also shocked by the extent to whichthey were disguised by their black make-up: "they were hard to beknown"(qtd. Yet, as Gossett seesit, once he was safe from any order from the Queen that would force him toportray her in an unflattering light, Jonson's own misogyny comes to thefore. Yet, the entire point of themasque was that the daughters of Niger needed improvement, and the factthat they would receive it from James himself did not improve matters. The antimasque was also used to refer to some very specific real-world realms, as Bach has shown in her analysis of colonial discourse inthe masques. Theinvention was a strange one. "'Man-maid, begone!': Women in Masques." EnglishLiterary Renaissance 18 (1988): 96-113.Jonson, Ben. This first production held other implications for Jonson's masquewriting. But such references would probably not have beenvery clear to others -- not even, perhaps, to Jonson. There was no broader audience for whom themasques could be staged. The antimasque presents a group of unruly, licentious satyrs. Here the masquersaccomplish their transformation into men who can "love with wit" (142) bymoving through the forest set in a circle and emerging, after havingvisited the lake, "changed" (68). Clearly, the world of the masque proper is the world of thecourt. Miles notes thatthis type of playlet went over well because James had little use for"formal speeches" and a "fondness for coarse humour" (91). Works CitedAasand, Hardin. He incorporates into themasque the very disorder they attack; they absorb its energy andvitality in ways that prevent them from being static or staid.Jonson as poet implicitly exemplifies the possibility ofdisciplining tremendous energy and channeling it into useful andserviceable directions (Evans 228-29). By 1617, however, some features of the antimasque had becomeso inseparable from Jonson's approach to the masque that he incorporatesthem into the masque proper. The requirements of the masque, in terms of form and decorum, weremore stringent than anything Jonson had done before. The relatively benign crudityof the satyrs is pointed out to them by their teacher Silenus, and thearrival of the Prince, who is an example to them, finally shows them theway to behave. Lindley.Manchester, UK: Manchester UP, 1984. Evans makes the important point that the oppositionof forces is designed by the controlling intelligence of the piece, thepoet. Torch-bearers, singers, musiciansand actors accompanied them, and the masque was staged on sets throughoutthe banqueting hall. The merging ofthe ideal masque-world and the courtly audience served to reconfirm thefact that the masquers had not been acting. Jonson was "ultimately unsuccessful" in convincing his contemporariesof the transcendent value of his poetry (Miles 96). If the gradual change and thecontiguous world of masque and antimasque are truly indicative of Jonson'sintention to gently satirize the court, then such uses of the antimasquemight exist in other cases as well. New Haven: YaleUP, 1969.Lindley, David. Thisidea justified the royal expenditure and supported Jonson's belief in thehigh value he placed on the masque. The Niger is said by Jonson to be located in "Ethiopia", where theinhabitants "are the blackest nation of the world" (15). For those who were not at court, as Palmer'srecent examination of courtiers' correspondence with northern gentry hasshown, none of this mattered. Yet, if he lost the trace of conflict provided by theproblem of the princesses' blackness, he would be deprived of the means togive the masques the forward impetus needed to sustain interest in theaction. But referencesto specific events or government policies are not part of this antimasque.In terms of setting, the antimasque in Oberon blends seamlessly with themasque proper. Instead, the songis a compliment to men and, especially, to the king. Oberon, the Faery Prince (represented by Prince Henry) appears, quells thesatyrs and then pays homage to his father, who is at the center of theaudience. Other than that, the masque is merely a disquisition on the factthat all beauty derives from the king. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1965.Palmer, Barbara D. This disorderly sphere was thenovercome by the idealized world of the masque proper. Ben Jonson was the leading writer of courtly masques, the hybridentertainments, part poetry and part spectacle, that flourished at thecourts of James I and Charles I. The masquers portrayedheroes whose return puts an end to the strife caused by the opencriminality of the antimasquers. Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 1983.Evans, Robert C. Short texts, topicality,and the fact that they were intended for one or, at most, threeperformances by and for a small aristocratic audience meant masques wereregarded as an ephemeral art. In this piece Jonson "reconciles love and wisdom by celebratinglove without condoning its excesses" (Evans 229). The "Volatees",who are covered with feathers, "already a feature of the iconographysignifying the Native American", are presented as perfect candidates forsubjugation by virtue of their extreme difference in appearance and culturefrom anything the English know (Bach 216). The land is England, and James,the sun that rules there, shines with a "light sciental" that "can salvethe rude defects of every creature" (226-7). In Hymenaei, Jonson had incorporated an "element of discord"within the masque, and the success of the piece convinced him of "the valueof an element of contrast" in the masques (Miles 148). Shortly afterthis particular piece, Anne selected Jonson to write the first masque shecommissioned as Queen of England. Once she had laiddown her basic requirement for Jonson, she had effectively ensured thatboth the black disguise and the ugliness would be operative factors in themasque no matter what scheme or story Jonson devised. The third break with decorum was theugliness of the women. What then takes place when the world of the masque and theantimasque are contiguous as they are in Oberon? It is hardly surprising, then, that Jonsonbecame seriously interested in the idea of an antimasque following thecomposition of the Beauty masque. Instead, the daughters of Niger "returned to the sea, where theytook their shell, and with this full song went out" (326-27). This flaunting of convention has been seen by scholars as the Queen'sdeliberate response to her "domestic estrangement" from James (Aasand 279). Jonson's principal innovation in thegenre was his development of the antimasque. Therethe sun passes and leaves the sky "to comfort of a greater light, / whoforms all beauty with his sight" (168-7 ). Introduction. Ben Jonson and the Poetics of Patronage. Jonson actively defended himself against the chargeon three points: "the veracity of his praise" (it could not be flattery ifit was true); the "sincere motivation" of his praise (he supported themonarchy and felt an affinity for James); and the foundation of his praisein classical learning (especially classical examples of praise as ateaching tool) (Metcalfe 135). bright Sol", whois responsible for their skin color, does not rule the sky (165). The King was bored by the masque, and Jonson provided a newantimasque called For the Honor of Wales. Jones was the designer of increasingly elaboratesets and effects that made the masques truly spectacular -- and trulyexpensive. The urge to teach and the belief that the energy of theantimasque can be channeled "into useful and serviceable directions" seemto be characteristic of masques in which a single world encompasses masqueand antimasque behaviors (Evans 229). Jonsonexplained his ideas about antimasques in the introduction to The Masque ofQueens, diplomatically giving credit for the idea to Anne who, he said,knew that "a principal part of the life in these spectacles lay in theirvariety" (1 -11). As the masquers appeared or changed positions orbegan or finished a dance, speakers would declaim the argument of themasque. The example of the king, from which the people were to learn,could be assisted by the praise of the encomiast. Jonson simplyadded four sisters and used them as an explanation of why the princesseshad not returned in one year as had been promised. 1-15.Metcalfe, Jean Le Drew. . The Welsh are characterized as an apt substitute for the pygmiesbecause they are as much the other as any more distant, culturallydisparate group. It is sometimes assumedthat the antimasque, by making room for less decorous joking and coarsenesswas "simply a sop to the King's low-brow tastes" (Dutton 97). This sequel is a primeexample of the demands his patrons made. The softjumble of sounds pouring out of the satyrs, "Holla, sylvans! As Orgel puts it, "the masquer'sdisguise is a representation of the courtier beneath" (Jonsonian Masque117). But this first masquealso provided an important lesson for Jonson: "If the queen could notappear briefly as a figure requiring improvement or transcendence, thentransformation would have to involve two groups of characters, masquers andantimasquers" (Gossett 99). Duttonpoints out that the masques had practical diplomatic uses as well sinceJames was anxious to present himself to other European rulers as "asufficiently imposing King of a newly reunited Britain" (94). This was confirmed by the presence of thearistocratic masquers and the merging of the ideal world and the real courtat the end of the masques. This kept the masques in the realm of play, free ofthe taint of theatricality. The Masque of Blackness also marked the first collaboration betweenJonson and Inigo Jones. One masque writer,Samuel Daniel, consistently refers to it as the "antemasque" and clearlyregarded it merely as a "preliminary diversion", and others referred to itas an "'antic-' or 'antique-masque'", emphasizing the role of the quaintand the grotesque in the antimasque (Dutton 96). No one mistook the masque's subject, the "myth inwhich iron was supplanted by gold, villains by 'semigods' (128), and evilcriminals by a race of champions eager for justice", as anything but areference to current events (Butler & Lindley 816). The Jonsonian Masque. The attitudes somesee in the masque may have grown out of Anne's feelings about her position,but they could not have been referred to in any public way. Therefore, "a lady or gentleman participating in a masque remains alady or gentleman [with] the obligation of observing all the complex rulesof behavior at court" (Orgel, Illusion of Power 39). To act was considered by many people to be engaging in a deceptiveimpersonation, a lie. He firmly believed the masque"both could and should be a significant form of art" (Dutton 95). In one such piece, the god Pan greetedthe King and Queen after dinner and, being unaware of their identity, jokedwith them in as familiar a fashion as etiquette allowed. Oberon, Jonson's second masque with a full antimasque, illustrateshow the opposing forces are set up and the argument of the piece isconstructed. The blame for the transgressions ofdecorum in the masque can certainly be assigned to Anne. [who wouldengage in] a spectacle of strangeness" that complemented the main masque,in which the masquers represented women with noble qualities (17-2 ). "(En)gendering Architectural Poetics in Jonson'sMasque of Queens." Literature, Interpretation, Theory 4 (1993): 145-59.Dundas, Judith. Her desire to have the women appear with blackenedskin was "an abrupt departure, doing violence to the masque's conventions"(Schwarz 3 ). Women who acted were regarded with special horror.Thus, the appearance of the aristocrats on any kind of stage could becondoned only by keeping the distinction between actors and masquers veryclear. Yet Jonson welcomed the chance tobecome the court's principal masque writer. Themasque could never be seen as great literature if it was only expensivelycommissioned flattery. and what expenses were incurred" (Palmer 348). The third is Oberon, the Fairy Prince (1611), Jonson's second work with acomplete antimasque. Support forsuch an interpretation depends on the degree of the Queen's involvement inthe creation of the masque rather than on a point by point analysis of therelationship between events in the masque and the world. A comparison ofsome of Jonson's masques with and without antimasques demonstrates how theantimasque satisfied both the audiences' and Jonson's requirements. While it is a seriousbreach of decorum to suggest that the court could in any way be reflectedin the behavior of the creatures of the antimasque, there are hints thatthis may have been part of Jonson's intent. Sights and sounds become clearer as the lightincreases and the voices of the Fays replace those of the satyrs. In addition to competing with the spectacle and struggling againstgenerally dismissive attitudes, Jonson often had to fulfill specificdemands from his royal patrons regarding the subjects of the masques. "Amazon Reflections in the Jacobean Queen'sMasque." Studies in English Literature 35 (1995): 293-319. Theimperfections of beauty and color that Jonson may have been forced toimpute to the Queen in the earlier masque are mild compared to the Jonson'ssong in the later masque: Had those that dwelt in error foul, And hold that women had no soul, But seen these move, they would have then Said women were the souls of men (3 7-1 ).To have these lines sung in a masque featuring the Queen was certainly abreach of decorum. His idea was to create a chorus of "hags or witchessustaining the persons of Ignorance, Suspicion, Credulity etc. In order to present the masquers as blackwomen, Jonson developed a simple story line revolving around thepersonification of the river Niger, his daughters, and his father, Oceanus. Theunrest of the satyrs is replaced by the calm that is conferred by thepresence of Oberon. The list of thingsthe satyrs hope to receive from Oberon offers numerous parallels withthings that were in the gift of Henry and his father. .the invention was derived by me, and presented thus" (18-19). "Restoring Astraea: Jonson's Masquefor the Fall of Somerset." ELH 61 (1994): 8 7-27.Cunnar, Eugene R. If the courtiers, the poet and Prince Henry are substitutedin this outline the parallel is not difficult to see. Thismasque was a general model of the antimasques' structure. The lights, rich costumes, music and settings allprepared the way for a very theatrical kind of entertainment. With thedevelopment of the antimasque, it was easier to broaden the scope ofsubjects addressed, but nothing so personal as Anne's concerns appearsagain. This would seem to reduce the possibility of creating muchtension between the two segments of the masque. Ben Jonson: His Craft and Art. Since the action could not stop to let the women remove theirmake-up, the masquers' change from black to white does not actually takeplace. Despite the fact thatsuch a reference is very surprising in a queen's masque, it never providesany sense of discord with which the ideal world of the masque iscontrasted. But this gradual change raises questions about other aspects of theantimasque. The author of suchentertainments might be regarded as little more than a highly paidsycophant. But these requirements did not seem to havethe inherent problems the blackness scheme had contained. In Oberon, the dynamic of antimasque and masque has become moresubtle, and Jonson, as the controlling intelligence, emerges into view forthe first time. Ed. From the "prettytoys" (62), which may refer to the audiences' customary stripping of themasque sets, to the "hoops" (75) and "bracelets" (78), which might refer todecorations and honors, everything they hope for could stand for the wishesof a greedy courtier. The first two are The Masque of Blackness(16 5), which was Jonson's first, and The Masque of Beauty (16 8), itsthematic sequel. AsJonson writes in the foreword to The Masque of Blackness, "because it washer majesty's will" that she and her ladies appear as "blackamores . . Second, in much the same way,"the physicality of the masquers' blackness displaces metaphor, dislocatingthe royal referent" (Schwarz 3 1). He found thatJonson faced considerable difficulties in making the transition from themasque world to the actual court in which James sat watching his son.While he may not have solved the problem of how "the sovereign [was] to bepraised within the masque", Jonson made great progress in relating theantimasque and the masque (Orgel, Jonsonian Masque 88). The topics of the masques were similar to those of the earlierpieces, but the use of the antimasque allowed greater specificity in themasques' references to real-world problems. Thus, The Masque of Beauty has far less action thanits predecessor. The nymphs are directedtoward James and told to wash themselves in the "soft and gentler foam"(316) of the ocean from which "Venus, beauty's queen" (318) was born. The stable world of the masque was, in literaryterms, the court itself. If the real-world referencesin The Masque of Blackness are, in fact, references to the estrangement ofthe king and queen, they are, necessarily, very oblique references. But, whilethe King's taste did make the antimasque "the part of the masque Jonson wasmost concerned with during the period 1612 -1625", he did not stopdeveloping it and soon went beyond the "grotesquerie and melodrama" of thefirst few attempts (Orgel, Jonsonian Masque 72). Several conspirators had alreadybeen executed, and, at the time of Jonson's masque, the couple was inprison awaiting trial. The antimasque was an openingsection of the performances featuring slightly relaxed decorum andproviding a contrast with the elevated tone of the masque proper. "'Those Beautiful Characters of Sense': Classical Deitiesand the Court Masque." Comparative Drama 16 (1982): 166-79.Dutton, Richard. Though they were undeniably meant as entertainment,masques were designed to praise the sovereign, to confirm the legitimacy ofthe existing social order and to teach aristocratic audiences byentertaining them. Anne'schoice of subject may have signified a desire to represent in the masquethe marginalization she believed she had undergone in the life of herfamily and of the court. London: Routledge,199 .Orgel, Stephen. They viewed the masques, as the courtiersdid, in terms of "political reportage" and were interested in "who had beenselected as masquers, their order in masque processions, who took out whomin the dancing . But Silenus' role as the go-between for the two worlds(a role somewhat analogous to Jonson's role as poet) prepares the way forOberon and facilitates the change. Ben Jonson: To the First Folio. No one cared much about the masque as literature, and Jonson'spublication of the masques could be seen as a "gesture of defiance of thetriviality and ephemerality of masque performance" (Miles 97). But Jonsoneventually began to resent the attention paid to Jones' spectacles andworked hard to impress on the world "the supremacy of 'the poet's'contribution over that of 'the master of shows'" (Miles 96). In the masque,the Queen and her ladies, with blackened faces and arms, appeared as thedaughters in "a great concave shell like mother of pearl" which is drawnacross the water by the figures of Oceanus and Niger (46). Though the text explicitly states that they werebeautiful except for the fact that they were black, the complexions thatwere the source of their true beauty were covered up by a color thatinevitably made them ugly in the view of the audience. Neither of these masques features an antimasque, althoughJonson had first experimented with antimasque elements in Hymenaei in 16 6.
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