The Masque of Augurs
Encyclopedia
The Masque of Augurs was a Jacobean era masque
, written by Ben Jonson
and designed by Inigo Jones
. It was performed, most likely, on Twelfth Night
, January 6, 1622
.
A second performance of the masque, with textual revisions by Jonson, occurred on May 5 or 6, 1622. The music for the masque was composed by Alfonso Ferrabosco
and Nicholas Lanier
; unfortunately only a single song by Lanier has survived.
, the god of prophecy, who introduces the serious portion of the masque. Apollo brings with him a group of other figures from Greek mythology
, including Orpheus
, Linus
, Idmon
, and others; a dance of torchbearers and the main dance precede the concluding appearance of Jove
.
The dance of the principal masquers was led by Prince Charles, later King Charles I
; the masque praised the so-called "Spanish match," the plan of King James I
to negotiate a marriage between his heir the Prince of Wales and the Spanish Infanta. The masque, of course, takes the position that the match will come about and be a great success — a prediction that would, over the next few years, prove totally wrong.
) and extending through his last masque and play, Love's Welcome at Bolsover
and A Tale of a Tub
.
and fortune telling
for his text: "The Masque of Augurs shows that Jonson knew almost everything that could be known about Roman rites of augury." Scholarship has shown that Jonson utilized dictionaries and compilations by Robert and Charles Stephanus, Natalis Comes
, Johannes Rosinus
, and Caspar Peucer
.
in Whitehall Palace, designed and built by Inigo Jones after the previous wooden structure burned down in January 1619. Still standing, the Banqueting House at Whitehall is often considered Jones's architectural masterpiece, and was the scene of many subsequent masques at the Stuart
Court.
in 1622, shortly after its first performance. (The quarto is dated "1621," meaning it was issued prior to March 25, the old New Year's Day in England. See: Old Style and New Style dates
.) The masque was reprinted in the second folio collection of Jonson's works
in 1641
.
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
, written by Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
and designed by Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
. It was performed, most likely, on Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night (holiday)
Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany and concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas.It is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the...
, January 6, 1622
1622 in literature
The year 1622 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 28 - Loiola, a Latin comedy mocking the Jesuits, is acted at Cambridge; the performance is repeated before King James I on March 12.*March 12 - Teresa of Ávila The year 1622 in literature involved some significant...
.
A second performance of the masque, with textual revisions by Jonson, occurred on May 5 or 6, 1622. The music for the masque was composed by Alfonso Ferrabosco
Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger
Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger was an English composer and viol player of Italian descent. He straddles the line between the Renaissance and Baroque eras.-Biography:...
and Nicholas Lanier
Nicholas Lanier
Nicholas Lanier, sometimes Laniere was an English composer, singer, lutenist and painter....
; unfortunately only a single song by Lanier has survived.
The show
The masque opens with an anti-masque, a comic scene involving characters from the "court buttery-hatch," including a Lady Alwife, a brewer's clerk, and a "rare artist" named Vangoose, among others. A bearmaster named Urson introduces two dancing bears; the second anti-masque is "a perplexed dance of straying and deformed pilgrims," which is disrupted by the descent from the clouds of ApolloApollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
, the god of prophecy, who introduces the serious portion of the masque. Apollo brings with him a group of other figures from Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, including Orpheus
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
, Linus
Linus (mythology)
In Greek mythology Linus refers to the musical son of Oeagrus, nominally Apollo, and the Muse Calliope. As the son of Apollo and a Muse, either Calliope or Terpsichore, he is considered the inventor of melody and rhythm. Linus taught music to his brother Orpheus and then to Heracles. Linus went...
, Idmon
Idmon
In Greek mythology, Idmon was an Argonaut seer. His father is said to have been Apollo but his mortal father was Abas . His mother was Asteria, daughter of Coronus, or Cyrene, or else Antianeira, daughter of Pheres. By Laothoe he had a son Thestor...
, and others; a dance of torchbearers and the main dance precede the concluding appearance of Jove
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
.
The dance of the principal masquers was led by Prince Charles, later King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
; the masque praised the so-called "Spanish match," the plan of King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
to negotiate a marriage between his heir the Prince of Wales and the Spanish Infanta. The masque, of course, takes the position that the match will come about and be a great success — a prediction that would, over the next few years, prove totally wrong.
Inigo Jones
The character Vangoose has been interpreted as one installment in Jonson's mockery of Jones, his uneasy partner in masque creation. Vangoose has a thick foreign accent that is identified as Dutch but could be perceived as mock-Welsh, a dig at Jones's ethnic background. Jonson created a whole series of such mock-Joneses in his works, starting with Lanthorn Leatherhead in Bartholomew Fair (16141614 in literature
The year 1614 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Sir Francis Bacon's dual role as MP and attorney-general is objected to by Parliament.*Izaak Walton owns an ironmonger's shop in Fleet Street, London.*Lope de Vega becomes a priest....
) and extending through his last masque and play, Love's Welcome at Bolsover
Love's Welcome at Bolsover
Love's Welcome at Bolsover is the final masque composed by Ben Jonson. It was performed on July 30, 1634, three years before the poet's death, and published in 1641....
and A Tale of a Tub
A Tale of a Tub (play)
A Tale of a Tub is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Ben Jonson. The last of his plays to be staged during his lifetime, A Tale of a Tub was performed in 1633 and published in 1640 in the second folio of Jonson's works.-History:...
.
Sources
Jonson employed an extensive body of intellectual and historical research on the subject of ancient Roman auguryAugur
The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of...
and fortune telling
Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
for his text: "The Masque of Augurs shows that Jonson knew almost everything that could be known about Roman rites of augury." Scholarship has shown that Jonson utilized dictionaries and compilations by Robert and Charles Stephanus, Natalis Comes
Natalis Comes
Natale Conti or Latin Natalis Comes, also Natalis de Comitibus and French Noël le Comte was an Italian mythographer, poet, humanist and historian. His major work Mythologiae, ten books written in Latin, was first published in Venice in 1567 and became a standard source for classical mythology in...
, Johannes Rosinus
Johannes Rosinus
Johannes Rosinus was the German author of a work on Roman antiquities called Antiquitatum romanarum corpus absolutissimum, which first appeared at Basel in 1585....
, and Caspar Peucer
Caspar Peucer
Caspar Peucer was a German reformer, physician, and scholar.-Biography:Born in Bautzen, Peucer studied mathematics, astronomy, and medicine at the University of Wittenberg from 1540...
.
The venue
This masque was the first one performed in the new Banqueting HouseBanqueting House, Whitehall
The Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, is the grandest and best known survivor of the architectural genre of banqueting house, and the only remaining component of the Palace of Whitehall...
in Whitehall Palace, designed and built by Inigo Jones after the previous wooden structure burned down in January 1619. Still standing, the Banqueting House at Whitehall is often considered Jones's architectural masterpiece, and was the scene of many subsequent masques at the Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
Court.
Publication
Jonson's text was published in quartoBook size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
in 1622, shortly after its first performance. (The quarto is dated "1621," meaning it was issued prior to March 25, the old New Year's Day in England. See: Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...
.) The masque was reprinted in the second folio collection of Jonson's works
Ben Jonson folios
The folio collections of Ben Jonson's works published in the seventeenth century were crucial developments in the publication of English literature and English Renaissance drama. The first folio collection, issued in 1616, treated stage plays as serious works of literature instead of popular...
in 1641
1641 in literature
The year 1641 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Pierre Corneille marries Marie de Lampérière.*Sir William Davenant is convicted of high treason.*Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon becomes an advisor to King Charles I of England....
.
Sources
- Chan, Mary. Music in the Theatre of Ben Jonson. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1980.
- Leapman, Michael. Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance. London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003.
- Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. The New Intellectuals: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1977.
- Orgel, StephenStephen OrgelStephen Orgel is Professor of English at Stanford University. Best known as a scholar of Shakespeare, Orgel writes primarily about the political and historical context of Renaissance literature....
, ed. Ben Jonson: The Complete Masques. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1969. - Verity, Arthur Wilson, ed. Milton's Arcades and Comus. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1891.