Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/195

 fol. 1616. (Commonly known as ‘The Penates.’) Abounds in graceful lyric writing and in genial personalities. (5) ‘The Entertainment of the two Kings of Great Britaine and Denmarke at Theobalds,’ 24 July 1606; fol. 1616. A single brief speech of welcome in English and Latin. (6) ‘The Entertainment of King James and Queene Anne at Theobalds’ … 22 May 1607; fol. 1616. Performed at the surrender of the house by the Earl of Salisbury to the queen. Like all Jonson's work inspired by or destined for the queen, this is very felicitous of its kind. (7) ‘Love's Welcome. The King's Entertainment at Welbeck,’ 1633; fol. 1640. Nearly the whole series of masques lies between this and (6). The result is apparent in its freedom and realism. It leads up to an impressive address to Charles. (8) ‘Love's Welcome. The King and Queen's Entertainment at Bolsover.’ Performed 30 July 1634; fol. 1641.

2. .—Some of the following, though first printed in the fol. 1616, were contained in ‘Certayne Masques at the Court never yet printed, written by Ben Jonson,’ licensed 20 Jan. 1615. (1) ‘The Queenes Masques. The first, of Blacknesse.’ Performed at Whitehall Twelfth Night, 1605, 4to, with (4), 1609; fol. 1616. A manuscript copy, signed by Jonson, and dedicated to the queen, is in the British Museum. Jonson's first masque, like his first entertainment, was thus destined for the queen. Collier also connects it with the marriage of Sir P. Herbert to Lady Susan Vere. In character it differs little from the entertainments, the element of conflict being yet hardly perceptible. (2) ‘Hymenæi, or the Solemnities of Masque and Barriers at a Marriage.’ Performed Twelfth Night, 1606; 4to, 1606; fol. 1616. The above is the title of the folio. The quarto explicitly states the marriage to have been that of the Earl of Essex. The germ of the antimasque appears, though the term is not used, in the unruly ‘humours’ and ‘affections’ which finally yield to the sway of ‘reason.’ The Barriers is a simple dialogue between Truth and Opinion. (3) ‘The … Masque … at the Lord Viscount Hadington's marriage at Court.’ (Commonly known as ‘The Hue and Cry after Cupid.’) Founded on Moschus Idyll i. Performed Shrove Tuesday, 1608; 4to, 1608; fol. 1616. Cupid and his ‘antics’ form what Jonson later, in the notes to (5), refers to as an antimasque, but the term is not yet used. An attempt in 1774 to revive the masque (‘The Druids’) was mainly derived from this piece. (4) ‘The [Queen's] Second Masque, which was of Beautie.’ Performed on the Sunday after Twelfth Night, 1609; 4to, with (1), 1609. (5) ‘The Masque of Queenes, celebrated from the house of Fame.’ Performed 2 Feb. 1609; 4to, 1609; fol. 1616 is among Jonson's richest inventions. The antimasque of Witches, ‘the opposites to good Fame,’ accords with ‘the current and whole fall of the device,’ and is superbly written. Its exact relation to the witch-scenes of ‘Macbeth’ is obscure, and, as regards Jonson, of little moment. He coincides only in technical details, which he did not need to borrow, and the best things are his own. The elaborateness of the antimasque is due to a special hint of the queen. (6) ‘The Speeches at Prince Henries Barriers.’ Performed 1 Jan. 1611; fol. 1616. The most dramatic of the ‘Barriers.’ This was the first Christmas after Henry's creation as Prince of Wales. (7) ‘Oberon, the Faery Prince,’ 1610–11; fol. 1616. Devoid of dramatic motive, but full of lively action. (8) ‘Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly,’ 1610–11; fol. 1616. The plot is genuinely dramatic, and the execution throughout felicitous. (9) ‘Love Restored,’ 1610–11; fol. 1616. This ‘vindication’ of love from wealth is a defence of the court revels against the strictures of the puritan city. ‘Bartholomew Fair’ followed in the autumn. (10) ‘A Challenge at Tilt, at a Marriage.’ Performed 27 Dec. 1613, and New-year's day, 1614; fol. 1616. The marriage was that of Carr and the divorced Countess of Essex. Hence the inexplicit title, as in (2). The prose has a lyric eloquence rare in Jonson. (11) ‘The Irish Masque at Court,’ 29 Dec. and 10 Jan. 1613–14. The realistic induction, in Irish dialect, anticipates the manner of the later masques. (12) ‘Mercurie Vindicated from the Alchemists at Court,’ 1614; fol. 1616. A playful variation on the theme of the ‘Alchemist,’ under the limitations of a masque. The term antimasque is here first used in the body of the piece. (13) ‘The Golden Age Restor'd,’ 1 and 6 Jan. 1616; fol. 1616. The subject lent itself eminently to masque treatment. Conspicuously well written, though of slight dramatic effect. (14) ‘Christmas his Masque,’ Christmas, 1616; fol. 1631–40. Not a serious work, but a burlesque of city festivities. The key to it lies in the opening speech (Christmas, loq.), ‘I have brought a masque here out o' the city … It was intended, I confess, for Curriers' Hall.’ (15) ‘A Masque Presented in the House of … Lord Haye … for the Entertainment of M. le Baron de Tour,’ … (Called ‘Lovers Made Men’ in the 4to, but commonly known as ‘The Masque of Lethe,’ after Gifford; Mr. Swinburne has revived the older title.) Performed 22 Feb. 1617; 4to, 1617; fol. 1631–