as become the person when the vizards[1] are off; not after examples of known attires; Turks, soldiers, mariners, and the like. Let anti-masques[2] not be long; they have been commonly of fools, satyrs, baboons, wild-men, antics,[3] beasts, sprites,[4] witches, Ethiops, pigmies, turquets,[5] nymphs, rustics, Cupids, statua's moving, and the like. As for angels, it is not comical enough to put them in anti-masques; and anything that is hideous, as devils, giants, is on the other side as unfit. But chiefly, let the music of them be recreative, and with some strange changes. Some sweet odours suddenly coming forth, without any drops falling, are, in such a company as there is steam and heat, things of great pleasure and refreshment. Double masques, one of men, another of ladies, addeth state and variety. But all is nothing except the room be kept clear and neat.
For justs,[6] and tourneys,[7] and barriers;[8] the
- ↑ Vizard (visor). A mask covering the face.
- ↑ Anti-masque. A grotesque interlude between the acts of a masque, to which it served as a foil, and of which it was at first often a burlesque. Urson and his bears, and Straying and deformed Pilgrims, are two anti-masques of Ben Jonson's Masque of Augurs, acted before the Court, Christmas, 1621.
- ↑ Antic. A clown, a mountebank, a buffoon.
"Thou antic death, which laugh'st us here to scorn."
Shakspere. I. King Henry VI. iv. 7.
- ↑ Sprite (spirit). Elf, fairy, goblin.
"Of these am I, who, thy protection claim,
A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name."
Pope. The Rape of the Lock. I. 108–109.
- ↑ Turquet. A diminutive figure of a Turk or Mohammedan.
- ↑ Just (joust). A mock fight, as at a tournament.
- ↑ Tourney. A tournament; a mock fight or martial sport of the middle ages for exhibiting prowess and skill in arms.
- ↑ Barriers. The palisades enclosing the ground where a tournament, tilting, or other martial contest or exhibition was held; the lists. Hence, a masque or entertainment in the form of a tournament. Ben Jonson wrote an entertainment presented at Court, Jan. 6, 1610, called Prince Henry's Barriers.
