A Short History of English Renaissance Drama by Helen Hackett

Author:Helen Hackett [Hackett, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780857733023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

COURT MASQUES

From the moment of James I’s accession in March 1603 Jonson devoted himself to seeking his favour, busily composing pageants, entertainments, and poems of praise for the new monarch and his queen, Anne of Denmark. A crucial turning point was The Masque of Blackness, devised in collaboration with the architect and designer Inigo Jones for performance by Queen Anne and her ladies at the Banqueting House in Whitehall on 6 January 1605. We explored in chapter 1 the rich tradition of court drama in sixteenth-century England, including civic pageants, progress entertainments, and the plays of Lyly and Peele. We saw how such productions frequently deployed sophisticated allegory, and how the line between performance and audience was often crossed as the royal spectator was invited to respond or intervene. Now Queen Anne decided that she herself wanted to be at the centre of performance. According to Jonson in his published preface to The Masque of Blackness, she also devised its leading concept: the presentation of herself and her ladies as ‘blackamoors’.12

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