The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 1

by E. K. Chambers

La longue Tragedie en Mascarade change.

Il en est l'inuenteur; nous suyuons ses leçons,

Comme ses vestemens, ses mœurs et ses façons,

Tant l'ardeur des François aime la chose estrange.

And in fact it is an Italian festivity of 1492 that furnishes the only clear account of a revel in which disguised persons took the ordinary guests out to dance that I have yet come across between 1377 and 1512.[526]

For some time the mask and the old-fashioned disguising are traceable side by side at the court of Henry VIII. Ultimately they amalgamated. By the end of the reign, 'mask' has become the official name, and 'disguising' is obsolete.[527] The 'commoning' between maskers and guests is firmly established. And the mask has taken to itself the elaborations of the disguisings, the introductory speeches, the pageant, the mimic fight, the double sets of dancers, the close association with the interlude.[528] Or, more strictly speaking, it can be either simple or elaborate, a mere masked dance, or a far-fetched and costly device, as occasion and economy may demand. As far as I can see, the whole evolution of the form, as we find it in the seventeenth century, was already complete under Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn, in 1532, led the first recorded mask in which women took lords out to dance.[529] Even the fixed scene had made its appearance, as an alternative to the movable pageant, before the end of the reign.[530]

The mask retained its vogue under Edward VI and Mary, and Elizabeth, with her special love of dancing, was not likely to neglect it.[531] The annals of her court, indeed, have left us few such detailed descriptions of masks as Halle affords for that of Henry VIII and the mask-writers themselves for that of James I. This may be an accident, or it may be that either economy or taste led Elizabeth to a preference for the mask simple over the mask spectacular, which most invites description. The story of the Elizabethan mask has to be pieced together from the account-books of the Revels Office, or, where these fail, from scattered sources. But though we would gladly have more detail, especially on the literary and dramatic side, the result of such a survey is sufficient to show that this particular type of mimesis contributed at least as much to the Christmas entertainment of Gloriana as to that of either her father or her successor.

The first mask of the reign was on Twelfth Night, 1559. Some of its details recall, across a space of two centuries, those of the Kennington 'mumming' of 1377. In both cases the performers represented ecclesiastical personages, and in both there was the somewhat exceptional feature of a parade in the streets. Naturally the Elizabethan show, with its crows, asses, and wolves dressed as cardinals, bishops, and abbots, made a characteristic sixteenth-century appeal to the sympathies of a reviving Protestantism.[532] But even in 1377 the satirical element had not been lacking, for after emperor and pope came riding at the end of the procession '8 or 10 arayed and with black vizerdes like deuils, nothing amiable, seeming like legates'. The 1559 mask appears to have been on a much larger scale than was customary. There were at least four cardinals and six priests. There were popes, monks, summoners, and vergers. And there were friars, in black, white, yellow, russet, and green, apparently a pair of each colour. The russet friars wore velvet garments, with sleeves of yellow velvet and purple satin 'partie paned'; the popes and cardinals rochets of white sarcenet; the monks kirtles and cowls of black taffeta with sleeves of purple satin. The Revels Office was careful to provide hats for the cardinals and 'croger-staves' for the bishops. Four other masks followed during the same winter. Two formed part of the festivities accompanying the coronation, which took place on 15 January. These were a mask, probably of Conquerors in white cloth of silver, on 16 January, and a mask, probably of six Moors, on 22 January. The Moors had apparel of cloth of gold and blue velvet, with sleeves of silver sarcenet and 'bases' of red satin. On their heads was curled hair made of black lawn and wreathed with red gold sarcenet and silver lawn. Their limbs and faces were of black velvet, and of these it is recorded that 'the lords that masked toke awey parte'. They carried darts of 'tree and paste paper gilded', and as the Revels Office also prepared bells and staves, it is probable that a morris was introduced. The torch-bearers to this mask were eight Moorish friars, with head-pieces of crimson satin. The remaining two masks were at Shrovetide. On the Sunday was a double mask, with an assault in it. The Queen's maids were rifled and rescued again.[533] One party consisted of eight Swart Rutters, in black and white jerkins and long breeches, with laced hats, dags, and silvered and gilded partisans; the other probably of six Hungarians in blue and purple cloth of gold. The torch-bearers were six Almayns, and the music a drum and fife. On the Tuesday was another double mask, but of women, being six Fisher Wives and eight Market Wives, dressed in bodies and kirtles of various cloths of gold and silver, with elaborate trimmings, and wearing wicker head-pieces painted with red and silver, and hats covered with gold lawn. They seem to have had Fishermen for torch-bearers, and six minstrels in yellow damask, as well as a drum and fife.

Four masks were given during the summer of 1559. One was on 24 May in a banqueting house built at Westminster, for the entertainment of the Duke of Montmorency, Constable of France, who came to ratify a treaty. This was of Astronomers, in long robes of Turkey red cloth of gold, with torch-bearers in green damask. The second was in a banqueting house at Greenwich on 11 July, after a tilt by the Queen's pensioners. The other two were in August during the progress. One was given by the Earl of Arundel at Nonsuch on 6 August.[534] The other was in a specially built banqueting house at Lord Admiral Clinton's place of West Horsley. This last was a double mask of Shipmen, appropriate to an Admiral, in blue cloth of gold, and Country Maids. Two 'grasyers or gentillmen of the cuntrye', whose black damask gowns appear in a Revels inventory, may have acted as presenters.

The winter masks of 1559-60 were five in number. On New Year's day was a mask of six Barbarians, in red cloth of gold, with Venetian commoners in white damask for torch-bearers. On Twelfth Night was a double mask, of six Venetian Patriarchs in green, with purple head-pieces, and six Italian Women in white and crimson. They were accompanied by torch-bearers and a drum and fife. On Shrove Tuesday was another double mask, of an elaborate mythological character, for which a device of 'a rocke of founteyne' was employed. The women represented Diana in purple and three pairs of Huntress Nymphs, in carnation, purple, and blue respectively; the men Actaeon and his six fellows, in purple, with orange buskins and gilt boar-spears. They had a drum and fife and, as torch-bearers, eight Maidens in purple with variously coloured kirtles, and eight Hunters in yellow with murrey buskins. And they were accompanied by twelve hounds. It is noted in the Revels inventory that Actaeon's garments were 'all to cutt in small panes and steyned with blood'. There were also a mask on New Year's Eve and a second mask at Shrovetide.[535] One of these was of six Nusquams, allegorical personages in white, crimson, and yellow, having the breasts of their scapulars 'steyned with the posy of poco a poco'. Their torch-bearers were six Turkish commoners in murrey and white. The other was of eight Clowns in red and green, with flails and spades of gilt wood, black high-laced shoes made out of the limbs of the previous year's Moors, hedging mittens, and white gold sarcenet aprons, which were 'gyven awaye by the maskers in the queenes presence'. They had eight Hinds for torch-bearers, and a shepherd for a minstrel.[536]