Masques & Politics in Stuart England

This is a collection of essays edited by David Bevington and Peter Holbrook. It's exactly what it sounds like - all the important aspects of masques during James' reign, primarily. Some of the essays included are titled "Jacobean masques and the Jacobean peace," "Jonson, the antimasque and the 'rules of flattery'," "The Tempest and the Jacobean court masque," and "The politics of music in the masque," as well as ten others.

Basically, if you want to write about masques at all, or even reference them in regards to your more specific topic, this book has something for you. I've learned some pretty awesome things just from "The politics of music in the masque" essay, including the way in which music was perceived. In some sense, music was seen as something both earthly and divine, somehow inspired by or moving in harmony with the celestial spheres. Harnessing the power of music, then, would be stepping into a divine role and commanding something divine.

So. Cool. The other part I'm having a lot of fun with is Bevington's essay on The Tempest. He discusses the fact that none of Shakespeare's plays were probably written directly for royalty, despite popular belief, but they still engaged heavily with the themes/ideas/current events of the court. Bevington writes that The Tempest may not have been commissioned for the royal wedding, but instead engages with the ceremony by offering a "wedding masque for those many persons who were not invited to the three costly, one-time masques staged at court" (220).

Sometimes Shakespeare is made out to be, like, super involved at court because he was part of the King's Players. But according to Bevington, this was actually less about patronage in a monetary sense and more about publicity and reputation.

If anybody's interested, they can borrow it from me. It's an ILL, but it's something I think we should definitely get for our library.

The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque. Ed. David Bevington and Peter Holbrook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.