Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-03120-2 - The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque
Edited by David Bevington and Peter Holbrook
Excerpt
More information
Introduction 1
chapter 1
Introduction
David Bevington and Peter Holbrook
Masques were often dismissed as mere trifles of entertainment during
the Jacobean years when that genre experienced its most remarkable
development. Francis Bacon declared ‘masques and triumphs’ to be
‘but toys’. For illustration, he need have looked no further than the
featherbrained Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, who ‘delight[s]
in masques and revels sometimes altogether’ (1.3.111–12). Even Prospero
in The Tempest, as deviser of a wedding masque for his daughter, passes
the event off as ‘Some vanity of mine art’ (4.1.41).
Writers of masques were of course sensitive to the charge. Ben Jonson,
in his Neptune’s Triumph (1624), devised to celebrate the return from
Spain of Prince Charles without a Spanish bride (much to the delight
of most English observers), brings forward a Poet with his tale of woe.
Wryly comparing his craft with that of the Cook, with whom he is
conversing, the Poet calls himself ‘The most unprofitable of [the King’s]
servants . . . A kind of Christmas engine, one that is used at least once
a year for a trifling instrument of wit, or so’ (lines 20–2). Jonson was all
too aware of what his critics said of his courtly enterprises. Plutus,
masquerading as Cupid in Jonson’s Love Restored (1612), scornfully char-
acterizes masquing as ‘a false and fleeting delight’, nothing more than
‘The merry madness of one hour’ that is sure to cost its devotees ‘the
repentance of an age’ (lines 31–3).1
Writers of masques and observers of the courtly scene were none the
less at pains to defend masquing. Jonson lauded the masque as ‘lay[ing]
hold on more removed mysteries’.2 In Thomas Campion’s The Lords’
Masque (1613), no less an authority than Orpheus assures Entheus (Poetic
Fury): ‘Nor are these musics, shows, or revels vain / When thou adorn’st
them with thy Phoebean brain’.3 Bacon’s demeaning reference to ‘toys’
occurs in an essay in which he offered shrewd advice to the aspiring mas-
que presenter. The royal and noble sponsors of these shows took them
seriously, to judge by the time, energy and money expended on them.
1
© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org
, Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-03120-2 - The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque
Edited by David Bevington and Peter Holbrook
Excerpt
More information
2 david bevington and peter holbrook
The Poet’s acknowledgement in Neptune’s Triumph of the triflingness
of his masque is, in this context, a complex idea. While he drily acknow-
ledges an outward resemblance between his own vocation and that of
the Cook, both of whom serve up dishes, poetic and otherwise, to the
court’s taste, the Poet also takes a sly dig at the Cook. In that person’s
self-confidence, officious advice-giving and willingness to cater to every
taste, Jonson skewers the presumptuous incomprehension of his art by
a court that is complacently willing to equate his artistic concerns with
those of the appetite and to expect that the court’s tastes are to govern
every aspect of the artist’s production. At the same time, the likening of
a Poet to a Cook has a defensive value for Jonson. Through it he can
disown any riskily large political intention, and take shelter behind the
innocuous role of entertainer from those malicious ‘state-decipherer[s]’
and ‘politic picklock[s]’ who plagued him in the public theatres.4
The contradictory significances of this exchange between Poet
and Cook reflect the difficulties of Jonson’s position. For, as author of
a masque celebrating the return of the brideless prince, he was in a
delicate spot. Was he in effect to celebrate the failure of James’s long-
cherished hopes of a Spanish marriage for his son, as ecstatic London
crowds had done some months earlier?5 Or was he to insinuate regret
at the collapse of the King’s plan for peace with Spain – a plan with
which Jonson may well have sympathized? Together, Cook and Poet
explore the difficult matter of their satisfying, each in his own way, the
diverse tastes of their customers:
cook: Were you ever a cook?
poet: A cook? No, surely.
cook: Then you can be no good poet, for a good poet differs nothing at all
from a master-cook. Either’s art is the wisdom of the mind.
poet: As how, sir?
cook: Expect. I am by my place to know how to please the palates of the
guests; so, you are to know the palate of the times, study the several tastes,
what every nation, the Spaniard, the Dutch, the French, the Walloon,
the Neapolitan, the Briton, the Sicilian, can expect from you.
poet: That were a heavy and hard task, to satisfy Expectation, who is so
severe an exactress of duties; ever a tyrannous mistress, and most times a
pressing enemy.
cook: She is a powerful great lady, sir, at all times, and must be satisfied. So
must her sister, Madam Curiosity, who hath as dainty a palate as she,
and these will expect.
poet: But what if they expect more than they understand?
cook: That’s all one, Master Poet, you are bound to satisfy them.
(lines 23–40)
© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org
978-0-521-03120-2 - The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque
Edited by David Bevington and Peter Holbrook
Excerpt
More information
Introduction 1
chapter 1
Introduction
David Bevington and Peter Holbrook
Masques were often dismissed as mere trifles of entertainment during
the Jacobean years when that genre experienced its most remarkable
development. Francis Bacon declared ‘masques and triumphs’ to be
‘but toys’. For illustration, he need have looked no further than the
featherbrained Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, who ‘delight[s]
in masques and revels sometimes altogether’ (1.3.111–12). Even Prospero
in The Tempest, as deviser of a wedding masque for his daughter, passes
the event off as ‘Some vanity of mine art’ (4.1.41).
Writers of masques were of course sensitive to the charge. Ben Jonson,
in his Neptune’s Triumph (1624), devised to celebrate the return from
Spain of Prince Charles without a Spanish bride (much to the delight
of most English observers), brings forward a Poet with his tale of woe.
Wryly comparing his craft with that of the Cook, with whom he is
conversing, the Poet calls himself ‘The most unprofitable of [the King’s]
servants . . . A kind of Christmas engine, one that is used at least once
a year for a trifling instrument of wit, or so’ (lines 20–2). Jonson was all
too aware of what his critics said of his courtly enterprises. Plutus,
masquerading as Cupid in Jonson’s Love Restored (1612), scornfully char-
acterizes masquing as ‘a false and fleeting delight’, nothing more than
‘The merry madness of one hour’ that is sure to cost its devotees ‘the
repentance of an age’ (lines 31–3).1
Writers of masques and observers of the courtly scene were none the
less at pains to defend masquing. Jonson lauded the masque as ‘lay[ing]
hold on more removed mysteries’.2 In Thomas Campion’s The Lords’
Masque (1613), no less an authority than Orpheus assures Entheus (Poetic
Fury): ‘Nor are these musics, shows, or revels vain / When thou adorn’st
them with thy Phoebean brain’.3 Bacon’s demeaning reference to ‘toys’
occurs in an essay in which he offered shrewd advice to the aspiring mas-
que presenter. The royal and noble sponsors of these shows took them
seriously, to judge by the time, energy and money expended on them.
1
© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org
, Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-03120-2 - The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque
Edited by David Bevington and Peter Holbrook
Excerpt
More information
2 david bevington and peter holbrook
The Poet’s acknowledgement in Neptune’s Triumph of the triflingness
of his masque is, in this context, a complex idea. While he drily acknow-
ledges an outward resemblance between his own vocation and that of
the Cook, both of whom serve up dishes, poetic and otherwise, to the
court’s taste, the Poet also takes a sly dig at the Cook. In that person’s
self-confidence, officious advice-giving and willingness to cater to every
taste, Jonson skewers the presumptuous incomprehension of his art by
a court that is complacently willing to equate his artistic concerns with
those of the appetite and to expect that the court’s tastes are to govern
every aspect of the artist’s production. At the same time, the likening of
a Poet to a Cook has a defensive value for Jonson. Through it he can
disown any riskily large political intention, and take shelter behind the
innocuous role of entertainer from those malicious ‘state-decipherer[s]’
and ‘politic picklock[s]’ who plagued him in the public theatres.4
The contradictory significances of this exchange between Poet
and Cook reflect the difficulties of Jonson’s position. For, as author of
a masque celebrating the return of the brideless prince, he was in a
delicate spot. Was he in effect to celebrate the failure of James’s long-
cherished hopes of a Spanish marriage for his son, as ecstatic London
crowds had done some months earlier?5 Or was he to insinuate regret
at the collapse of the King’s plan for peace with Spain – a plan with
which Jonson may well have sympathized? Together, Cook and Poet
explore the difficult matter of their satisfying, each in his own way, the
diverse tastes of their customers:
cook: Were you ever a cook?
poet: A cook? No, surely.
cook: Then you can be no good poet, for a good poet differs nothing at all
from a master-cook. Either’s art is the wisdom of the mind.
poet: As how, sir?
cook: Expect. I am by my place to know how to please the palates of the
guests; so, you are to know the palate of the times, study the several tastes,
what every nation, the Spaniard, the Dutch, the French, the Walloon,
the Neapolitan, the Briton, the Sicilian, can expect from you.
poet: That were a heavy and hard task, to satisfy Expectation, who is so
severe an exactress of duties; ever a tyrannous mistress, and most times a
pressing enemy.
cook: She is a powerful great lady, sir, at all times, and must be satisfied. So
must her sister, Madam Curiosity, who hath as dainty a palate as she,
and these will expect.
poet: But what if they expect more than they understand?
cook: That’s all one, Master Poet, you are bound to satisfy them.
(lines 23–40)
© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org
