Neither the masque nor the ballet-ambulatoire, was yet a theatrical entertainment; but it is curious, is it not, to note that they had a certain kinship with theatrical tradition, for these magnificent peripatetic “ballets” of the ecclesiastics had had a primitive forerunner in the performance of Thespis with his travelling car in Grecian towns and villages some six centuries before the Christian era! Even as, later, we in fourteenth-century England had our Mystery and Miracle plays travelling from “station” to “station” in similar fashion, and our “mummers” or mimers; while, on the other hand, the masque itself, as a private entertainment of the English Court, with its stage, and “machines,” scenery, dancing, music and song, not to mention its Royal and Courtly audience, was forerunner of similar entertainments which a century later were to become the features of the Courts of Louis XIV and XV, and from that to develop under Royal Patronage into the Ballet of the Theatre.
CHAPTER X
COURT BALLETS ABROAD: 1609-1650
While the English Court was enjoying its masques, during the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth and James, and the French were labouring forth their heroic ballets under Henri Quatre—more than eighty having been given from 1589 to 1610, without counting insignificant balls and masquerades—Italy was similarly keeping up in the movement which her example had originally inspired.
It was the custom there to celebrate the birthday of the Princess by an annual public fête. As one old historian records, the more usual spectacles of these celebrations were in the form of “Carrousels, Tournois, des Comedies, des Actions en Musique, des Festins, des Feux d’Artifice, des Mascarades quand ces Fêtes se trouvent au temps du Carnaval, des Presens, des Illuminations, des Chasses, des Courses sur la Neige et sur la Glace suivant la saison, des Promenades et des Jeux sur les Eaux.”
The Court of Savoy was particularly devoted to such entertainments.
In 1609 there was a ballet d’armes, entitled, “Il Sol nascente nell’ oscurità dell Tile,” danced by the “Serene” Princes of Savoy, the occasion being the anniversary of the birth of their Royal father, the Duke Charles Emannuel.
Again, in 1611, the Prince of Piedmont gave a fête in honour to his father’s birthday, representing “The Taking of the Isle of Cyprus.”
