the Zodiac, to each of whom is assigned some influence upon marriage. They advance and dance their measures, while Vulcan's attendants, the Cyclopes, Brontes and Steropes, beat time with their sledges, and in the pauses of the dancing the musicians, dressed as priests of Hymen, sing the verses of an epithalamion. How neatly it is all done! The maskers, the presenters, the torch-bearers, the musicians, all have their place in the scheme, and contribute towards the complimenting of the bridal pair.
It would perhaps be difficult to say how far the approximation to drama in the Jacobean masks was due to the subconscious mental processes of mask poets who were themselves playwrights, and how far to a deliberate intention to combine two arts.[1] As a rule it is safe to credit Jonson, at least, with fully conscious artistry. And here too the model set by Baldassarino's Balet Comique must not be neglected. The printed description of this contains a preface, in which Baldassarino justifies his use of the term 'comique' on the ground that he has arranged his 'balet' in acts and scenes like a comedy, and claims to be an innovator in this interweaving of poetry with the dance, to which 'le premier tiltre et honneur' are still left. The Jacobean poets did not essay a treatment by acts and scenes, which indeed has no great significance even in the Balet Comique. But Baldas-
- ↑ Generally speaking, the themes of the Jacobean masks are more literary than those of their Elizabethan precursors. The following analysis is based upon the disguises of the maskers, which may be classed under four main heads: National Types—(Elizabethan), Moors, Swart Rutters, Lance-Knights, Hungarians, Barbarians, Venetian Patriarchs, Italian Women, Venetians, Turks; (Jacobean), Indian and Chinese Knights, Virginians, Irishmen. Occupations—(Elizabethan), Ecclesiastics, Fisherwives, Marketwives, Astronomers, Shipmen, Country Maids, Clowns, Hunters, Tilters, Fishermen and Fruitwives, Mariners, Foresters, Warriors, Pedlars, Seamen; (Jacobean), none. Inanimate Objects—(Elizabethan), none; (Jacobean), Signs of Zodiac, Stars and Statues, Flowers. Abstractions—(Elizabethan), Nusquams, Virtues, Passions; (Jacobean), Humours and Affections, Ornaments of Court, Months. Historical and Mythical Personages—(Elizabethan), Conquerors, Huntsmen of Actaeon and Nymphs of Diana, Wise and Foolish Virgins, Satyrs, Greek Goddesses, Janus, Sages, Wild Men, Amazons and Knights, Knights of Purpulia, Muses; (Jacobean), Goddesses, Daughters of Niger (bis), Powers of Juno, Knights of Apollo, Sons of Mercury, Nymphs of English Rivers, Knights of Oberon, Daughters of Morn, Knights of Olympia, Disenchanted Knights, Sons of Nature, Circe's Lovers, Sons of Phoebus. It is possible that the mediaeval barbatoriae (Mediaeval Stage, i. 362) were dances representing national types. Jean d'Auton (Chroniques, ii. 99) describes, amongst other mommeries at the court of Louis XII in 1501, 'une danse en barboire, en laquelle fut dancé à la mode de France, d'Allemaigne, d'Espaigne et Lombardye, et à la fin en la manière de Poictou . . . lesquelz estoyent tous habillez à la sorte du pays dont ils dancerent à la mode'.
