The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque involved music, dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Masquers who did not speak or sing were often courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts. In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. 'History of the Masque Genre'
Development The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and courtly shows of ducal Burgundy in the late Middle Ages. Masques were typically a complimentary offering to the prince among his guests and might combine pastoral settings, mythological fables, and the dramatic elements of ethical debate. There would invariably be some political and social application of the allegory. Such pageants often celebrated a birth, marriage, change of ruler or a royal entry and invariably ended with a tableau of bliss and concord.
Masque imagery tended to be drawn from Classical rather than Christian sources, and the artifice was part of the Grand dance. Masque thus lent itself to Mannerist treatment in the hands of master designers like Giulio Romano or Inigo Jones.
The New Historians, in works like the essays of Bevington and Holbrook's The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque (1998),David Bevington and Peter Holbrook, editors, The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque 1998 ). have pointed out the political subtext of masques. At times, the political subtext was not far to seek: The Triumph of Peace, put on with a large amount of parliament-raised money by Charles I, caused great offence to the Puritans. Catherine de' Medici's court festivals, often even more overtly political, were among the most spectacular entertainments of her day, although the "intermezzi" of the Medici court in Florence could rival them.
Dumbshow In English theatre tradition, a dumbshow is a masque-like interlude of silent mime usually with allegorical content that refers to the occasion of a play or its theme, the most famous being the dumbshow played out in Hamlet (III.ii). Dumbshows might be a moving spectacle, like a procession, as in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (1580s), or they might form a pictorial tableau, as one in the Shakespeare collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (III.i)—a tableau that is immediately explicated at some length by the poet-narrator, Gower.
Dumbshows were a medieval element that continued to be popular in early Elizabethan drama, but by the time Pericles (c. 1607–08) or Hamlet (c. 1600–02) were staged, they were perhaps quaintly old-fashioned: "What means this, my lord?" is Ophelia's reaction. In English masques, purely musical interludes might be accompanied by a dumbshow.
Origins The masque has its origins in a folk tradition where masked players would unexpectedly call on a nobleman in his hall, dancing and bringing gifts on certain nights of the year, or celebrating dynastic occasions. The rustic presentation of "Pyramus and Thisbe" as a wedding entertainment in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream offers a familiar example. Spectators were invited to join in the dancing. At the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities. In 1377, 130 men came "disguisedly apparelled", their faces covered with vizards to entertain Richard II of England.Skiles Howard, "Henrician Masque", Peter C. Herman, Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts (University of Illinois, 1994), p. 23.
Court masques in England and Scotland In England, Tudor court masques developed from earlier guisings, where a masked allegorical figure would appear and address the assembled company—providing a theme for the occasion—with musical accompaniment.Barbara J. Harris, "The View from My Lady's Chamber: New Perspectives on the Early Tudor Monarchy", Huntington Library Quarterly, 60:3 (1997), p. 236. Costumes were designed by professionals, including Niccolo da Modena.Ian Smith, 'White Skin, Black Masks', Jeffrey Masten & Wendy Wall, Renaissance Drama 32 (Evanson, 2003), p. 44. Elizabeth of York paid for costumes for "disguysings" in June and December 1502. Minstrels were dressed in white and green Tudor livery.Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe Accounts of Edward the Fourth (London: Pickering, 1830), pp. 21, 78. Henry VIII came to Catherine of Aragon's chamber disguised as Robin Hood in January 1510, perhaps causing initial uneasiness, and there was dancing.Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor (Woodbridge, 2018), p. 81.Peter Happé, "Dramatic Genre and the Court of Henry VIII", Thomas Betteridge & Suzannah Lipscomb, Henry VIII and the Court: Art, Politics and Performance(Ashgate, 2013) p. 274.Meg Twycross and Sarah Carpenter, Masks and Masking in Medieval and Early Tudor England (Ashgate, 2002), p. 164: Rawdon Brown, Four years at the court of Henry VIII, 1 (London, Smith, Elder, & Co, 1854), p. 93.
Hall's Chronicle explained the new fashion of Italian-style masque at the English court in 1512.Skiles Howard, "Henrician Masque", Peter C. Herman, Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts (University of Illinois, 1994), p. 24: Sydney Anglo, Spectacle Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 117. The essential feature was the entry of disguised dancers and musicians to a banquet. They would appear in character and perform, and then dance with the guests, and then leave the venue.Hall's chronicle: containing the history of England (London, 1809), p. 526 At the meeting at Lille in October 1513, when the ladies were dancing after a banquet, Henry VIII and eleven other dancers entered "richely appareled with bonettes of gold". At the conclusion of their performance they gave their masque costumes to the audience.John Gough Nichols, Chronicle of Calais (London: Camden Society, 1846), p. 70.
On 1 May 1515, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon rode from Greenwich Palace to have breakfast in an arbour constructed in a wood at Shooter's Hill. Catherine and her ladies were dressed in Spanish-style riding gear, Henry was in green velvet. The royal guard appeared in disguise as Robin Hood and his men. There was a pageant chariot or car with Lady May and Lady Flora, followed by a masque and dancing.Rawdon Brown, Four years at the court of Henry VIII, 1 (London, Smith, Elder, & Co, 1854), p. 90–93.
According to George Cavendish, in January 1527 Henry VIII came to Cardinal Wolsey's Hampton Court or York Place, by boat "in a masque with a dozen of other maskers all in garments like shepherds made of fine cloth of gold and fine crimson satin paned, and caps of the same with visors", wearing false beards, accompanied with torch bearers and drummers. Their arrival at the palace water gate was announced by cannon fire. The King's part of the entertainment was organised by William Sandys and Henry Guildford. The masquers played a dice game called mumchance before dancing.Richard P. Sylvester and Davis P. Harding, Two Earl Tudor Lives: Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey (Yale, 1962), pp. 27–28.Meg Twycross and Sarah Carpenter, Masks and Masking in Medieval and Early Tudor England (Ashgate, 2002), pp. 166–168. Edward Hall described similar masques involving the king's disguised appearance.Janette Dillon, 'Shakespeare and the Masque', Shakespeare Survey, 60: Theatres for Shakespeare (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 68–70.
In the play Henry VIII, by Fletcher and Shakespeare, Wolsey's masques were recalled when Henry in shepherd's disguise meets Anne Boleyn.Kevin A. Quarmby, The Disguised Ruler in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries (Ashgate, 2012), p. 198: Richard S. Sylvester & Davis P. Harding, Two Early Tudor Lives (Yale, 1962), p. 27.Skiles Howard, "Henrician Masque", Peter C. Herman, Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts (University of Illinois, 1994), pp. 30–31.Skiles Howard, The Politics of Courtly Dancing in Early Modern England (Amherst, 1998), p. 41. Anne Boleyn and seven ladies in "maskyng apparel of straunge fashion" performed for Henry VIII and Francis I of France at Calais on 27 October 1532.Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), p. 181. Some of the costume, supplied by the yeoman of the revels Richard Gibson, was described as "masking gere".Sydney Anglo, Spectacle Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 133: John Gough Nichols, Chronicle of Calais (London: Camden Society, 1846), p. 120.
Inventories of masque costume at the court of Henry VIII made when Catherine Howard was queen include lists of "maskyng garmentes" for men and for women. The women's costumes included coifs, partlets, upper garments, kirtles, and a set of "high heads after Dutch fashion of striped lawn".Eleanor Lowe, Martin Wiggins, Janette Dillon, "Accounts and inventories of the Revels Office", Malone Society Collections, XVII (2016), pp. 12–16.
Masques at Elizabeth I's court emphasized the concord and unity between Queen and Kingdom. A descriptive narrative of a processional masque is the masque of the Seven Deadly Sins in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (Book i, Canto IV). A particularly elaborate masque, performed over the course of two weeks for Queen Elizabeth, is described in the 1821 novel Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott. Queen Elizabeth was entertained at country houses during her progresses with performances like the Harefield Entertainment.Gabriel Heaton, 'Elizabethan Entertainments in Manuscript: The Harefield Festivities and the Dynamics of Exchange', in Jayne Elisabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, Sarah Knight, Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, 2007), pp. 227-244.
In Scotland, masques were performed at court, particularly at wedding celebrations, and the royal wardrobe provided costumes.Susan Doran, From Tudor to Stewart: the regime change from Elizabeth I to James I (Oxford, 2024), p. 67. At a banquet at the tournament of the Wild Knight and the Black Lady in 1507, the Black Lady came into the hall at Holyroodhouse with Martin the Spaniard who was equipped with an archery bow and dressed in yellow.Louise Olga Fradenburg, City, Marriage, Tournament: Arts of Rule in Late Medieval Scotland (University of Wisconsin, 1991), p. 255: Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. 64, 121, 129. A cloud descended from the roof and swept them both away.Frank Shuffelton, 'An Imperial Flower: Dunbar's "The Goldyn Targe" and the Court Life of James IV of Scotland', Studies in Philology, 72:2 (April 1975), pp. 193-207, p. 202.Lesley Mickel, 'Our Hielandmen': Scots in Court Entertainments at home and abroad 1507–1616', Renaissance Studies, 33:2 (April, 2019), pp. 185-203 at p. 202: Aeneas Mackay, Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, by Robert Lindesay of Pitscottie, vol. 1 (STS: Edinburgh, 1899), p. 244