Masques And Entertainments
By Ben Johnson
Edited by Henry Morley
Published by George Routledge & Sons Limited: London 1890 1st Edition
Volume IX Of The Carisbrooke Library
Provenance
: Ex Libris Bookplate Of The Yorick Club
"The Yorick Club was a gentlemen's club in Melbourne, Australia, whose membership consisted originally of men involved in the arts and sciences. It was founded in 1868 and continued in some form into the 1950s and perhaps beyond."
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The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque involved music, dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Masquers who did not speak or sing were often courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts. In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully."
