The Masque of Blackness From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Costume design byInigo JonesforThe Masque of Blackness The Masque of Blacknesswas an early Jacobeanera masque, first performed at the StuartCourt in the Banqueting all ofWhitehall !alaceon "welfth #ight, $ January %$&'( "he masquewas written by Ben Jonsonat the request of)nne of *enmark, the queen consort of +ing James I, who wished the masquers to be disguised as )fricans( )nne was one of the performers in the masque along with her court ladies, and appeared in blackface makeup( "he plot of the masque follows the ladies arriing at the -nglish Court to be .cleansed. of their blackness by +ing James/ a stage direction that was impossible to fulfill on stage( )s a result, The Masque of Beautywas written as a sequel to The Masque of Blackness. 0The Masque of Beauty,originally intended for the following holiday season, was displaced byHymenaei,the masque for the wedding of the -arl of -sse1andFrances oward( Beautywas finally performed in %$&2(3 4%5 Contents 4hide5 • % *esi gn • 6 Cast • 7 8esponse • 9 #otes
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The Masque of BlacknessFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Costume design by Inigo Jones for The Masque of Blackness
The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Courtin the Banqueting all of Whitehall !alace on "welfth #ight, $ January %$&'( "he masque was
written by Ben Jonson at the request of )nne of *enmark, the queen consort of +ing James I, whowished the masquers to be disguised as )fricans( )nne was one of the performers in the masquealong with her court ladies, and appeared in blackface makeup(
"he plot of the masque follows the ladies arriing at the -nglish Court to be .cleansed. of theirblackness by +ing James/ a stage direction that was impossible to fulfill on stage( )s a result, TheMasque of Beauty was written as a sequel to The Masque of Blackness. 0The Masque ofBeauty, originally intended for the following holiday season, was displaced by Hymenaei , themasque for the wedding of the -arl of -sse1and Frances oward( Beauty was finally performed in%$&2(34%5
"he sets, costumes, and stage effects were designed by Inigo Jones/ Blackness was the first ofmany masques for the Stuart Court on which Jonson and Jones would collaborate( "he musicfor Blackness was composed by )lfonso Ferrabosco(
Jones designed a raised and mobile stage for the masque, forty feet square and four feet off thefloor/ this was employed for many subsequent masques( "he stage contained inner space for themachines that produced stage effects and the technicians who operated them( Blackness introducedeffects that Jones would repeat with ariation throughout his career as a stage designer: it openedwith a tempestuous seascape, simulated by flowing and billowing cloths(
"he opening stormy sea was populated with si1 blue;haired merman;like tritons( "hegods <ceanus 0.blue.3 and #iger 0black3 entered, mounted upon giant seahorses( "he tweledaughters of #iger, played by the =ueen and her ladies in waiting, entered in the company of a
do>en nymphs of <ceanus as torchbearers/ the ladies of the Court were dressed in siler and a>ure,with pearls and feathers in their hair, while the torchbearers, in green doublets with gold puffedsleees, had their faces, hands, and hair dyed blue( "he ladies rode in a great hollow seashell,which seemed to float upon and moe with the waes, and was accompanied by si1 large seamonsters carrying more torchbearers( 465 0With Blackness as with many subsequent masquesdesigned by Jones, one of the aspects of the show most commented upon by witnesses was theda>>ling intensity of light inoled(((which ineitably says something about the normal conditions oflife in the Jacobean era(3
Cast4edit5
"he principal cast of the masque:
• Queen Anne................Euphoris
• Countess of Bedford........Aglaia
• Lady Herbert...............Diaphane
• Countess of Derby.....Eucampse
• Lady Rich........................Ocyte
•
Countess of uffol! ......."athare
• Lady Be#i
• Lady Effin
• Lady Eli&a
• Lady usa
• Lady *ary
•
Lady +als
Response4edit5
"he masque was controersial in its day, in part for the production?s use of body paint instead ofmasks to simulate dark skin( <ne obserer, Sir *udley Carleton, e1pressed a iew tinged with thepreailing social biases of the era:
(((instead of @i>>ards, their Faces and )rms up to the -lbows, were painted black, which was a*isguise sufficient, for they were hard to be known(((and you cannot imagine a more ugly sight((((
"he masque was e1pensie, costing A7&&&, and caused consternation amongst some -nglishobserers due to the perceied impropriety of the performance(
"he te1ts of The Masque of Blackness and The Masque of Beauty were published togetherin quarto form in %$&2, by the bookseller "homas "horpe/ they were reprinted in the first foliocollection of Jonson?s works in %$%$(
The Masque of Beauty was a courtly masque composed by Ben Jonson, and performed toinaugurate the refurbished banqueting hall of Whitehall !alace on %& January %$&2( It was a sequelto the preceding Masque of Blackness, which had been performed three years earlier, on $January %$&'( In The Masque of Beauty , the .daughters of #iger. of the earlier piece were showncleansed of the black pigment they had worn on the prior occasion(
Contents
4hide5
• % "he show
• 6 Costs
• 7 !ublication
• 9 #otes
• ' 8eferences
• $ -1ternal links
The show 4edit5
ike its earlier companion piece, The Masque of Beauty was performed by =ueen )nne and ladiesof her court, and witnessed by +ing James( "he number of court ladies included was increased fromthe twele in Blackness to si1teen( In addition to =ueen )nne, the participants were the Countessesof )rundel, Bedford, *erby, and ontgomery, and the adies Chichester, Walsingham,Windsor, )nne Clifford, -li>abeth Eirrard, -li>abeth Euilford, -li>abeth atton, ary #eille,
+atherine !etre, )nne Winter, and )rbella Stuart( Eossip held that the women chosen werelargely 8oman Catholic(
"he masquers wore costumes of orange;tawny and siler or sea;green and siler/ the torchbearerswere dressed as Cupids/ the presenters of the masque were styled as Januarius,Boreas, @ulturnus,and "hamesis, and the musicians as .echoes and shades of old poets(. 4%5 ) black curtainrepresenting #ight was withdrawn to display the masquers, assembled on a ."hrone of Beauty.borne upon a floating island( "he si1teen masquers e1ecuted two dances, which the +ing likedenough to see repeated/ then they danced with male courtiers, in .galliards and corantoes(. "he finaldances returned them to the "hrone of Beauty( "he choreography was by "homas Eiles, who alsoplayed "hamesis(
) diplomatic controersy deeloped around the masque, as to which foreign ambassadors were orwere not inited to attend the performance( "he French )mbassador was notably irate at being
omitted while the Spanish )mbassador was included(465 "he @enetian )mbassador, who was inited,was among the spectators who left descriptions of the .great golden masque. they?d seen, the ewelsthe ladies wore 0estimated in one case at a alue of A%&&,&&& K and that for a single woman3, andthe marels of the stage machinery employed(
"he total cost of producing the masque was A9&&&(475 "he ouse of Stuart was running an annualbudget deficit of A%9&,&&& in this era/495 the cost of the masque represented about 7L of the annualdeficit, an enormous sum to spend on a single eent(
Publication4edit5
The Masque of Beauty was entered into the Stationers? 8egister on 6% )pril %$&2 and published later that year by the bookseller "homas "horpe, in the same olume as The Masque of Blackness( Bothmasques were reprinted in the first folio collection of Jonson?s works in %$%$(