The Origins and Development of Masques: A Conversation with Kristen McDermott part 1

**Philip Rowe** (0:09)
Welcome to The History Of European Theatre podcast, and thanks for joining me on this journey through millennia of theatrical history. Episode 219 The Origins and Development of Masques A Conversation with Kristen McDermott, Part 1 Last time, and for episodes before that, I've been discussing some of Shakespeare's darker plays and characters. And now for this episode and the next, we have a complete change in tone and style, as I take a look at the court masks of the Jacobean period. To do this, I'm very lucky to have the guidance of Kristen McDermott, who edited and wrote an extensive introduction to a collection of Jonson's Masques called Masques of Difference. It is a volume that has been in print for an impressive 20 years, and one that I found immensely useful in aiding my understanding of the court mask, an art form that can seem very obscure to us now. In the first part of this conversation, Kristen describes the development of the mask from its very early days, through to its flowering in the court of James 1st, largely under the care of Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. Next time, we will continue the conversation and discuss some of the Masques of Difference and the later years of the court mask.
Kristen McDermott is Professor of English at Central Michigan University and co-author with Ari Berk of William Shakespeare His Life and Times, and the collection Masques of Difference, as well as numerous papers on Shakespeare and Renaissance theatre. I have put a link in the show notes to Kristen's website where you can find further details of her work. Kris is also a listener and supporter of the podcast, so I was particularly happy to welcome her as a contributor on the microphone as well. I spoke to Kris over a Zoom call from her home in Michigan.
Although I have fairly briefly mentioned the Masque in my biographical episodes on Ben Jonson, I'm not sure that I really came up with a good description of what the Masque exactly is because it is pretty difficult to pin down, I think. So perhaps I can set you the challenge of giving us a thumbnail sketch of what was a Jacobean Masque and really where it comes from as well.

**Kristen McDermott** (2:23)
Well, the Masque is a form of occasional drama, is the term that literary critics give it. A performance that involved acting, singing, dancing, and processional arts that was usually commissioned or occasioned at the command of somebody in power, usually the royal monarch.
It was mostly performed for one single occasion, although some of them could be repeated.
And it was not really a dramatic performance in the sense of having a plot, but it was a kind of an anthology of songs and spoken poems around a theme that was meant to praise and appeal to the monarch, the person who had commissioned the performance.
It goes all the way back to the earliest stages of theater, to Greek drama, which was performances that were meant to commemorate the religious festivals of the time. And religious drama, Christian religious drama that was very similar. Pageantry, costumes, flowers, scenery, song, incense, spoken and sung poetry, scripture reading, all of those religious festivals became high art throughout the high medieval period in the early Renaissance. And theatre scholars basically trace a line from that kind of pageantry, which is scripted because the scripture is the basis of it, to secular dramatic performances that began to arise all over Europe. And then of course, finally in England. So there's a direct line to that kind of ritual performance, which really was very much musical, but it also involved large numbers of people processing and moving about in symbolic ways. And so that's one source for the court mask. Another source is the art form of the royal progress, or the royal entrance, where a monarch would be coming to visit a city, and all of the people in the city would gather to create, um, constructions, royal arches, or other kinds of symbolic, temporary structures that would have huge symbolism regarding, um, you know, the values of the monarch. Uh, and, and the monarch would progress through the streets of the city and stop at various little places where you had actors and singers and dancers sometimes who would sing a song or recite poetry in praise of the visiting monarch. Um, and then you go from stage to stage to stage, um, and go through the city that way. So the formality of that art form and the symbolism of that art form is part of the masque as well. But then there's another tradition, um, that is often called in England, especially the mumming tradition in which professional or even amateur performers who were local and were commoners, would be invited to enter the houses of wealthy and put on skits very frequently for holidays, like the Christmas season in particular was popular for mumming or harvest festivals or things of that sort. And these local performers would dance and sing. Morris dancers are a well-known version of this. But the mumming plays also frequently were connected with the religious mystery and miracle plays in that they could pick mythological stories like St. George and the Dragon was the most famous of them, or Robin Hood stories.