V
THE MASK
[Bibliographical Note. The origins of the mask are treated in my book
on The Mediaeval Stage (1903), ch. xvii, and, with its Tudor and Stuart
developments, in R. Brotanek, Die englischen Maskenspiele (1902), and
P. Reyher, Les Masques anglais (1909). An earlier study of merit is
A. Soergel, Die englischen Maskenspiele (1882). R. Bayne contributes
a chapter on Masque and Pastoral (C. H. vi.), and P. Simpson one on
The Masques (Sh. England, ii. 311). I have not seen W. Scherm, Englische
Hofmaskeraden. Useful material, handled with imperfect scholarship,
is in M. Sullivan, Court Masques of James I (1913), and there are dissertations
by A. H. Thorndike, The Influence of the Court-Masque on the
Drama, 1608-15 (M. L. A. xv. 114), J. W. Cunliffe, Italian Prototypes of
the Masque and Dumb Show (M. L. A. xxii. 140), W. Y. Durand, A Comedy
on Marriage and some Early Anti-masques (J. G. P. vi. 412), and J. A. Lester,
Some Franco-Scottish Influences on the Early English Drama (1909, Haverford
Essays). Most of the scanty Elizabethan material is in A. Feuillerat,
Documents relating to the Office of the Revels in the Time of Queen Elizabeth
(1908, Materialien, xxi, cited as Feuillerat, Eliz.), and the relation of the
Revels Office to masks is studied in his Le Bureau des Menus-Plaisirs et
la Mise en Scène à la Cour d'Elizabeth (1910, cited as Feuillerat, M. P.);
cf. also ch. iii. Many of the contemporary descriptions of masks are
edited amongst the works of the poets, and are also to be found, with the
few that are anonymous, in J. Nichols, Progresses of Elizabeth (1823), and
Progresses of James I (1828); P. Cunningham and J. P. Collier, Inigo
Jones, a Life; and Five Court Masques (Sh. Soc. 1848); and H. A. Evans,
English Masques (1897). A valuable bibliography is W. W. Greg, A List
of Masques, Pageants, &c. (Bibl. Soc. 1902). Analogous French texts
are in P. Lacroix, Ballets et Mascarades de Cour (1868-70), and are studied
in V. Fournel, Les Contemporains de Molière (1863), ii. 173, G. Bapst,
Essai sur l'Histoire du Théâtre (1893), 193, and H. Prunières, Le Ballet de
Cour en France (1914).]
The mask is not primarily a drama; it is an episode in an indoor revel of dancing. Masked and otherwise disguised persons come, by convention unexpectedly, into the hall, as a compliment to the hosts or the principal guests. Often they bring them gifts; always they dance before them, and then invite them to join the dance. They bring torch-bearers and musicians, who light and accompany the choric evolutions. Their intention lends itself to elaboration by spokesmen or presenters, and to such spectacular decoration as a pageant or scene affords; thus it readily assumes a mimetic setting. It is necessary to lay stress on the fact that the guests mingle with the maskers in the dance. This intimacy between performers and spectators differentiates the mask
