This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 68-2997

HAWLEY, James Abgriffith, 1932- INIGO JONES AND THE NEW ENGLISH STAGECRAFT.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1967 Speech-Theater

University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan INIGO JONES AND THE NEW

ENGLISH STAGECRAFT

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio S ta te U n iv ersity

By

James Abgriffith Hawley* B.F.A., M.S.

********

The Ohio State University 1967

Approved by

v /A dviser Department of Speech VITA

October 28, 1932 Born - Davenport, Iowa

1 9 5 ^ ...... B.F.A,, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa

195^ 1956 . . . Teaching Assistant, Department of Speech, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

1956 ...... M.S., Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

1956-1957 . . . Instructor of Speech, Designer/Technical Director of Theatre, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa

1957-1958 . . . U. S, Army 1959-1961 . . . Graduate Assistant in Theatre, Department of Speech, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1961-1963 Instructor of Speech, Designer/Technical Director of Theatre, Washington University, St, Louis, Missouri

1963-1967 . . . Assistant Professor of Speech, Designer/Technical Director of Theatre, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio

PUBLICATIONS

"Touring with Benson," The Ohio State University Theatre Collection B u lle tin , No, 6, Spring 1959*

"Staging at the Opera," The Ohio State University Theatre Collection B u lle tin , No, 8, Spring 1961.

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Design and Technical Theatre

T heatre H isto ry , Dr, John H, McDowell

Production and Direction. Dr, Roy H. Bowen and Dr, Everett Sohreck

Technical Production. Dr. Walter S. Dewey

i i CONTENTS

Page

VITA ...... i i

ILLUSTRATIONS...... v

Chapter

I . INTRODUCTION...... 1

Purpose o«aa.«..o.»..»»a ao..a..a 2 Problem aaaaaaaaeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 3 Sources aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 3 Procedure a«..aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 7 Definitions • 9

I I . BACKGROUNDS . 13

Early Court Masques ..•••••••...... a . 13 Scenery in the Early Masques aaaaa.a.aaaa.a 15 Inigo Jones aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.aaaaa l6

I I I . THE EARLY MASQUES ...... a ...... 23

The Masque o f Blackness o.a.a.aa.aaaaae. 26 Periaktoi and Scene Change ...... 30 Hvmenaei 33 The Scaffold Stage 40 The Haddington Masque 42 A Style of Scenery 46 The Masque o f Queenes 47 Oberon. The Faery Prince . 51 Shutters and the Split Stage ••••.«••••••.. 53

IV. THE LEAN YEARS ...... 0 ...... 58

The Masque o f Aueures ...... 59 Time V indicated •••••••••••••••••••• 62 Two Masques 63 The Caroline Stage • ••••»•••••*.«..*•. 64

V. THE GREAT MASQUES ...... 65

i i i CONTENTS (C ontd.)

Chapter Page

The Triumph of Peace ...... * . • . 74 Coelum Britannicum ...... 77 The Temple o f Love ...... 82 Florimene 84 The Prlnee d1 Amour...... 86 Britannia Triunrohans ...... 87 Luminalia ...... 92 Salmacida Spplia ...... 93 The End of an Era 99

VI. SCENIC DEVELOPMENT...... 101

Scenic Elem ents ...... 103 Machinery ...... 108 S h u tters ...... I l l Wings ...... ••••......

V II. CONCLUSIONS...... 118

Methods of S taging 119 Experimentation ...... 125 Contributions ...... 126

APPENDIX...... 131

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 146

iv ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

1. Periaktoi at Oxford, Ground Plan ...... 132

2 e The Globe of Hvmenaei • • • • • ...... 133

3. A Cloud Machine from the Early Masque...... 134

4. A Circular Wheel of Fire • .••••••••••••••• 135

5. The Scaffold Stage «••••• ...... 136

6. Cliff Shutter, The Haddington Masque ,..•••••••• 137

7. The Masquers Seat, Elevation •••••••••»••••• 138

8. Florimene. Section of Ground Plan ...... »•••••• 139

9. Britannia Triumphans. The Palace of Fame .•••••••• 140

10. Britannia Triumphans. Scenic Arrangement...... 141

11. Salmacida Spolia. Ground Plan 142

12. Salmacida Spolia. Section...... 143

13* A Composite Early Masque, Ground Plan ••••••••.•• 144

14. A Composite E arly Masque, Section 145

v CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Although there has been a great deal of research into the areas of Elizabethan and Shakespearian staging, detailed examination of Court masque productions of the same period has been lim ited. The body of work dealing with the Court masque treats at length its literary importance, its history, and its major contributions to scenic spectacle and later staging practice. However, with some notable exceptions, the majority of studies in the field fail to treat the masque as a unified production, or body of productions; tending to examine in terms of isolated elements, extent of foreign influence, and historical curosia. Most treatments of the masque consider the scenic contributions of the form as the basis of modern staging practices and as an indication of the development of

Continental stagecraft in Jhgland, All of these treatments are, in their way, correct.

No treatment of the period neglects mention of the designer who

contributed so much to masque staging, Inigo Jones, The period of Jones' works, extending from 1604 to the close of the theatres, parallels the period, of public staging activity we now call Shakespearian, It is

generally accepted that the influence of Jones extended from the masque

to the public theatre of the Restoration through the offices of his

apprentice, John Webb, W, Grant Keith, W, J, Lawrence, Richard Southern,

Glynne Wickham, and A llardyce N ic o ll, among o th e rs, d eal w ith th e lin k

1 between the masque and the public stage» They Indicate a direct

connection between the theatre of Jones* and the production of The

Siege of Rhodes, in 1656. The bond is apparent. These treatments are also correct,

Inigo Jones is given credit for the introduction and the use in

England of many scenic devices and design concepts. His artistry is

hailed as a great influence upon succeeding periods of staging. The

glories and wonders of the masque stage* and Jones* designs for scenery

and machinery, have been long, loudly, and thoroughly praised. This is

as it should be.

What is not found in the body of the writing of the period is an

examination of the total staging contributions of the masques reached

through an analysis of Jones* precise methods of staging. Introductory

reading in the area leads to certain questions about the relationship

of Jones to the masque. What were his unique contributions? What

staging experiments did he make? How were Continental forms modified

for the masque stage?

Purpose

It is the purpose of this study to examine the staging of the

Court masque productions in search of answers to three specific

q u e stio n s:

1, What were the methods used by Jones in staging Court masques?

2, Were the staging methods used by Jones developed through

e xpe r iment at ion ? 3* What were the unique contributions of Jones to English staging p ra c tic e ?

Problem

Three major problems face the researcher in any study of masque staging* The first problem is one of isolating the contributions of a single individual* That problem does not apply to this study for Inigo

Jones designed and staged over ninety percent of the Court masques produced between 160*4* and 16*42, and stands above the other masque designers who contributed only incidentally* A second problem is one of relating the work of one individual to the body of staging contribu­ tions* This problem is eased in the case of Jones by the clear contri­ bution of The Siege of Rhodes as a point of direct transfer between the masque theatre and the public stage later in the century. The major problem of this study is one of analysis: fitting together a total picture from the scattered elements of masque staging; finding develop­ mental aspects in a continuing series of masque productions; and relating

those developmental aspects to specific staging practice*

Sources

Of the many references associated with the Court masque stage,

the majority deal with areas of the masque not covered in this study

and w ill serve as background material for the general area* Two of the

major sources for placing the masque into historical perspective are

S ir E* K. Chambers 1 three-volume work, The Elizabethan Stage: and Enid

Welsford*s The Court Masque. Although these two works concentrate

largely on literary aspects of the masque, they do trace development of the form and relate It to other staging of the period* Glynne Wickham, in Early English Stages, attempts to bring Chambers* work into a broad perspective, offering corrections for some slighted material, and a wider painting of background sources*

With some notable exceptions, the body of source material is con­ centrated on background, history, and literary structure of the masque, and only deals with fringes of the areas to be examined here* A gap does exist in the treatment of masque staging, and it is a wide omis­ sion. In the theatrical development of Inigo Jones a style was evolved, and if this development is presented in terms of a broad picture, showing successive repetitive staging methods, a fuller understanding may be realized than if individual devices were to be separately presented* Two authors, Allardyoe Nicoll and Richard Southern, have concerned themselves with different aspects of the Court masque stage*

Nicoll, in Stuart Masques and the Renaissance Stage, attempts a bridge between the Court masque and the staging practices of the Continent*

In the process, he treats the development of the form of masque devices by tracing individual elements from Continental origins* The value of

Nicoll* s work lies in the broad treatment, and in the relationship of single scenic elements to staging practices on the Continent as well as in England. However, Nicoll*s work treats the Italian theatre with more detail than the English, and details individual elements as isolated from the concept of a design or production totality* The

study seems to be a "what" rather than a "howH treatment, and although accomplishing what he has set out to do, Nicoll still gives no clear picture of a single production* He does provide an excellent example of a detailed study of the elements which make up a Court masque* as well as the sources for the mechanical devices that made the masque outstanding*

In Changeable Scenery. Richard Southern is concerned with tracing individual elements of scenery on the English stage to develop the treat­ ment of the moving scene. His thesis implies a large time period and broad area coverage* By working with single elements of scenery, both

Southern and Nicoll are able to paint a broad picture of staging practice as it relates to production* Neither treatment gives a dear picture of a single production or series of productions, nor is it meant to* Treat­ ments of the staging practices of the masque through analysis of single productions and productions in a series as attempted by this study should offer a means of moving from the broad picture of Southern and Nicoll to a more detailed view of production and design techniques of the masque as they evolved*

Enid Welsford had found rich source material in the Italian theatre wherein Jones did much borrowing, but the major concern of that work was literary.^

Two outstanding theses deal with the work of Inigo Jones; George

A* McCalman deals with the Renaissance and Baroque factors in the theatre style of Jones, ^ and Judith W* McDowell treats theatrical perspective in

4 Enid W elsf ord, The Court Masque (New York, 192?) • See a ls o "The Italian Influence on the English Court Masque," Modem Language Review. XVIII (1923). p. 397. 2 George A* McCalman, "A Study o f Some Renaissance and Baroque Factors in the Theatre Style of Inigo Jones" (unpublished Ph.D*, Western Reserve University, 19^6). England, principally in Jones* designs and with his concept of space*^

Neither deals extensively with precise staging technique or with produc­ tions in sequence*

What is missing from the body of work dealing with the Court masque is a study treating the masques in terms of chronological develop­ ment as form evolved through a succession of productions* From such a work, the growth of separate elements could be analyzed and seen as out­ growths of a continuing series of experiments*

Lily Bess Campbell* s Scenes and Machines on the English Stage is valuable for background study of the period preceding Jones* Karl

Mantzius* A History of Theatrical Art in Ancient and Modern Times. Felix

Shellings* Elizabethan Drama, Paul Heyher*s Les Masques anglais, and the several works of Macgowan and Melnitz offer valuable background informa­ tion into the period and type of stage production of the public theatre of the time* The Renaissance Stage, particularly the sections on

Sabbattini by John H* McDowell, offer clear explanations of contemporary

Italian practices that were often borrowed by Jones for use in England*

Because few of the above mentioned works deal directly with the staging techniques of Jones, or indicate a developing theory and practice of masque stagecraft, the body of information presented in those two areas must come from a direct analysis of the designs, libretti, and the soenie descriptions of the masques themselves*

3 Judith W« McDowell, "Theatrical Perspective: History and Appli­ cations in Early Seventeenth Century" (unpublished M*A*, Smith, 1939/* The Court masques -written by Ben Jon con are taken from the Harford and Simpson edition of his works* Other masques are taken from Sir

William D*Avenants* Dramatists of the Restoration. Evans* English Masques. or from the collected works of the several authors*

The extant designs of Jones are taken from Designs by Inigo Jones fpr Masques and Plays at Court, edited by Percy Simp son and C* F, Bell for the Wapole and Malone Societies* In many cases where designs were

not preserved* sketches and reconstructions from the basis of Jones*

published descriptions were made by this author*

Since the body of this work deals with an examination of the

developmental factors of the Court masque* emphasis is placed on the

analysis of the staging* The two major sources for this approach w ill be

the designs and scenic descriptions found in the masque texts*

Procedure

In order to stress developmental aspects of Court masque staging,

the presentation w ill be in chronological sequence* For purposes of

clarity, the masques w ill be presented in groupings suggested by logical

time divisions and radical change in production style* After this

presentation, the individual elements of structure and design w ill be

considered*

Preliminary investigation indicates definite changes in the form

of masque scenery concurring with Jones* travels to Italy, as well as

changes in style of production which coincide with the period of his most

productive work in architecture. Since the total span of Jones* work

with the masque stage rims from 1604- until the close of the theatre, it has been broken here into three major sections: The Early Masques, The

Middle Period, and a later period called The Great Masques*

Since this work deals with staging practices of Jones, little discussion is indicated and none will be attempted respecting hi3 c a re e rs in architecture or in art* No effort w ill be made to deal with the masque form as either a literary or dramatic entity, for these areas have already been amply covered* Nor w ill there be any attempt to add to the wealth of biographical information already available dealing with the life of Jones*

The. body of this dissertation is organized in a manner which treats the scenic elements of the masques and emphasizes the development of a pattern of staging through the detailed study of a series of selected

Court productions* It consists of four sections: The Introduction

(Chapters I and II) which leads into the study, provides background material on both Jones and the early masque, and indicates the status of

the masque stage at the beginning of Jones1 career; The Body (Chapters

III, IV and V) which treat the masques designed by Jones as they fall

Into three major time periods, l605- l 6l 2 , 1612- 1631, and 1631-1640j

Scenic Development (Chapter VI) which deals with Jones* concept of

staging, machines, and scene*changing devices; and The Conclusions (Chap­

te r VIII) which summarize the work and codify the findings*

It would be well at this point to mention two important factors

before considering the works of Jones; (l) Court masque productions were

usually given only one time a year; (2 ) the main vocation of Inigo Jones

was that of architect; only incidentally was he a designer, stager of

masques* Definitions

Besides the definitions appearing in the body of the work, the reader night well be acquainted with the following set of short defini­ tions, dealing both with staging practice and with the Court masque,

Antimascue: A grotesque element, usually a dance by profes­ sional performers, introduced before or during a masque and serving as a foil to it,

2* Backcloth: A plain doth hung at the bade of the stage to represent the sky,

3* Border: A narrow strip of doth, sometimes framed, hung across the stage area to conceal the view above,

k. Chariot: A wheeled vehicle, either two or four wheeled, for use in the masque to carry passengers, usually for pleasure or as a state

carriage. On occasion patterned after some animal, as a swan, or a lion.

5, Curtains A movable barrier or screen of cloth or other m a te ria l, used to conceal a l l o r p a r t of the stag e, and commonly a ls o to provide soenlc effect. At first operated as a falling curtain, later as

a roller curtain, and in rare cases drawn in the manner of a traverse,

6, Dancing place: The place between the stage proper and the

seat of state where the court was seated to view the masque. Usually a

dear flat floor area somewhat lower than the stage level. In the course of the masque# characters often left the stage and moved to the dancing place where formal dances, sometimes involving the spectators, were done,

7, Engine: Any machine by which physical power was applied to

produce a physical effect. In the masque, this often consisted of winches# capstans, and other man-operated devices for turning, raising or 1 0 lowering scenery. Host of such devioes were located below the floor of the raised stage.

8. Entrv: One of a series of acts or dances making up a masque.

9* Machine t A piece of stage equipment, as a crane, a trap door, a moving cloud, or similar effect. Not always associated with the engine which powered it. In the broad sense a machine was any device which moved.

10. Masking: A scenic piece, such as a border, a flat frame, a backcloth, or a side wing, which served to conceal certain of the back­ stage areas from audience view.

11. Masque: An en tertain m en t, commonly p resen te d as p a rt of a special celebration, with poetic dialogue, typically allegorical or mythological, elaborate and spectacular, with pageantry, music, songs, dances, and tampersonations by characters wearing masks. Usually featured members of the court and on most occasions the King and/or Queen.

12. Proscenium: The opening through which the spectator saw the acting area, the arch which framed the opening, and the wall of which the arch was a part. The proscenium of the masque was often designed as a part of the setting and was concealed by the front curtain. In the masques designed by Jones, the arch was highly decorated and served to blend the hall into the setting. Each proscenium was designed as a part of the masque for which it was made.

13. Relieve: A flat cut-out, used to obtain perspective by revealing a shutter or bade cloth behind. A vista, seemingly in relief, composed of a series of such cut-outs seen in perspective against a backcloth. Usually solid and made from divided flat frames. In the 1 1 period of the l&ter masques three sets of relieve frames were in common use*

Shutter: A flat frame* Used In pairs to cover the rear of the stage* Host frequently painted with a flat scene and divided and pulled off to either side revealing a further shutter scene or a back­

cloth* In the masques after 1635 as many as four or five pairs of shutters were used in the upstage position and used to present successive scenes*

15* Turntable: A revolving circular platform, usually part of

a revolving stage, and either forming part of the stage floor, or resting on the stage floor by means of casters or wheels* Sometimes described as

a “turning machine, N “versatile machine, * or as a globe or sea-shell* In

a sense the relationship to a neriaktos is very close although turntables were more often circular than triangular*

16, Waeon: A low platform on wheels, casters, or rollers, used

to support heavy scenery in a setting so that it could be quickly moved*

Occasionally in the form of a ship or "maratlme chariot* *

17* Wing: In the masque, one of two types of soenery piece—

Serlian or angled wings or flat wings* In the early masque, the angled

or Serlian wing was used to represent houses, trees, and other exterior

scenes* The Serlian wing offered two surfaces for painting and allowed

the use of a simple form of perspective painting* In the later masque,

the flat wing, presenting only one flat surface, was developed* With the

angled wing, few changes of scene were attempted at the wings* When the 12 flat wing was introduced* It was used in a wing nest of as many as four wings per nest* The usual nunber of nests was three to four per side of the stage. In operation one set of wings would be drawn off-stage, revealing a second set behind. CHAPTER I I

BACKGROUNDS

lariy. feiffii jfeffasftp The first masques presented at the English Court were associated with the festivals of the new year, and the accompanying twelfth-night revels and dancing. At the court, it was customary to present revels and festivals of various types at different tines of the year, but those p resen ted fo r th e Christmas season involved aranming, d isg u isin g , and dancing. This type of festival had its origin in the ancient Kalned6— the festivals dedicated to the gods of agriculture. Parallel with their developnent cane the elaboration of the royal entry, the pageant, and the tableau vivant; all spectacles presented to honor royalty. Social danoe performances became popular in the sane period, with such intricate dances as the sword danoe and the morris-danee, When a group of professional dancers appeared at the court, it was the custon for the members of the court to take part in the general danoing which followed the performance.

It was not long before the court began to sponsor such activity.

The form of the Court masque as it was at the opening of the seventeenth century was introduced into England at the time of Henry VIII, and was at first more a form of purely social entertainment for the aristocracy than a strictly dramatic genre,* The siaqple pattern which

^Thomas Marc P a rro t, A Short View of the ELisabothan Drama (New fork, 19^2), p, 286, evolved consisted of tiro parts: first, a formal danoe program by accom­ plished performers, second, general dancing by the members of the audience^ The first, formal part of the program was divided into separate entries, or dances, each dance being "brought in" separately by a master of ceremonies or “presenter*N At the conclusion of the dancing, a poetic tribute to the person being honored by the production closed the presenta­ tion, and the rest of the evening was given over to social dancing. The dialogue of the poetic tribute was often based on themes from mythology or classical allegory, and was usually in rhymed verse. The background for the production was db first the end of the banquet hall, where the performance followed a banquet. In the area at one end of the hall was a cleared floor for dancing. In this space was placed a large wheeled pageant wagon, which carried representative scenery. As the masque form grew in popularity, amateurs took over the danoe s, and the royalty of the court often dressed in masks which disguised their faces and took a direct part in the masques. Scenic effects for the masque grew in elaborateness, and the scenic units were gradually moved from the pageant wagons and placed in the corners of the hall. The basic arrangement of masque scenery was that of scattered scenic elements placed around the edges of a cleared dancing-acting place.

As these early masques were often created on very short notioe, had their tributes sections spoken in classical verse by members of the royal court, and were intended for only a single performance, it is not

surprising that they were, as Welsf ord indicates in The Court Masque.

"more primitive in the form than the drama of the playhouses."2

2fiiid W elsf ord, The Court Masque (Cambridge, 1927), p . 2 , 1 5 Scenery in th e .E a rly Masque

Ae the popularity of the Basques blossomed, the scenie require­ ments grew also* and a fixed form and scenic style became established.

Eventually the fixed scene with individual elements of scenery replaced the wheeled pageant w a g o n ,^ Scenic elements placed in the corners of the banquet hall offered a very slight change from the sane scenery displayed on a wagon. By the movement to the floor of the hall* scenic elements became both larger and nore plastic. In their new location they still served the primary function of indication of place* but served it more realistically. Scenery became representational of the exterior- architectural scene; rocks* trees* buildings, arches and oaves being represented. The space between separate scenic elements was neutral, in the maimer of the medieval plate a or Hnewtral-place,H

Some of the diversity of elements of scenery, in the masque, is indicated in the records of court expenditure dating as early as 1552, when John Carowe received payment for the construction of a dragon for a play at court,^ Flat frames of cloth were used to represent buildings, and were painted to reveal texture, as houses of canvas, "f framed, ffashioned & paynted accordingly,

The audience of the Court masques continued the medieval staging tradition in regard to realistic staging treatments. The major tenet of

^Frederick S. Boas, Introduction to Tudor Drama (Oxford, 1933), p . 67,

Albert Feuillerat, Documents Relating to the Revels at Court in the Time of Edward VI and Queen Mary (Louvain. 191fr). a. 167,

^Feuillerat, p. 157, 16 this concept of staging was that the small somewhat stylised unit of scenery represented a larger object* Place locations were established by small painted units and the characters provided place identification through their dialogue* Thus the Cave of Mania, in The Vision of the

Twelve Goddesses, could be represented by a single small painted piece, and the entire playing area would take on that location as the actor indicated through the lines where he was*

Masque production gradually declined toward the close of the reign of Elizabeth, A new queen brought inoreased interest to the pro­ duction of Court masques, and in 1604-1605#^ the staging of the Court productions came into the hands of the Nvivid and widely informed 7 artist, H Inigo Jones*

Inigo Jones was bora in 1573 end was christened on July 19 of Q that year at the church of St* Bartholomew the Less in Smithfield* The doth fair of England was held in that parish, and the elder Inigo was a

Welsh dothworker*^ Little is known of Jones* early life, his education, or the first thirty years of hie existence**® It is known that he went abroad in 1601, touring Europe with Herbert, Earle of Pembroke, who

England did not join the rest of Europe in the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar until 1752*

^Richard Southern, Changeable Scenery (London, 1952), p* 32*

^James Lees-Milne, The Age of Inigo Jones (London, 1953)* P* 19* Q Peter Cunningham, Inigo Jones. A Life of the Architect (London, 1848), p. 1. *°Stanley Churchill Ramsey, Inigo Jones (London, 1924), p* 13. 17 having fathered a child by the Queen* s Maid of Honour [Mary Fltton, who some call the “Dark Lady* of Shakespeare* s sonnets], was in some disgrace at court* The trip was, for Jones, a means of furthering his education in art and architecture, and most of the period, which lasted four years, he spent at Venice* During the later part of Herbert*a exile, he and

Jones went to the Danish court at the invitation of Christian IV to help with the production of a Danish Court masque* The production was not the great suocess Jones was later to find, for a contemporary report indi­

cates some dissatisfaction with his work: "your great arohitect left nothing to my country but the fame of hispresence*In spite of this

somewhat poor im pression, when Anne of Denmark came to th e English throne, she brought Jones as a member of the party from her brother1 s

court to help with the productions of Court masques in England*

An official position was found for Jones as Surveyor to the

Prince, and in this capacity he advised on the purchase of paintings,

built the royal coin collection, and designed the necessary scenery and

costumes for court shows and dances*

One of his early efforts as scene designer in England was for one

of a series of plays for Christ Church Hall at Oxford in 1605*^ A group

from the college presented three plays as the entertainment for a royal

progression, and they hired "one Mr* Jones, a great traveller, who

11 J* A* Got eh, "Inigo Jones: A Modem View, n in Essays by Divers Hands, edited by Margaret Woods (London, 1927), p* 7*t« 12 John Kemble Chapman, A Complete History of Theatrical Enter­ tainments. Dramas. Masoues. and Triumphs, at the English Court, from the Time of King Henry the Eighth to the Present Day (London. I8toj. p. 17. 18 undertook to further them much, and furnish them with rare devices, but 13 performed little to what was expected*“

Jones remained at court and continued to design for the Court masques* but he lost his plaoe as Surveyor to the Prince when Henry died ill of typhoid in 1611* He was then promised the revision of the office of

Surveyor General of the Kings* Works and Buildings* a position then held by Simon Basil* He made a second visit abroad* l6ll-l6l3, with a special side pilgrimage to Vicenza to study firsthand the works of the great architect Palladio* whose book on architecture he carried everywhere with him as an "architectural bible , 11 ^

The dates of Jones* first visits to Italy are open to some ques­ tion* Because the date 1601 is noted in his copy of Palladio* it is assumed he was there at that time* Bating of the second trip to Italy is based on a note written during his 1613 visit that he saw the corona­ tion of Pius V in 1605*^ Indications of a third trip in 1606 are sup­ ported by a book inscription given Jones by Edmund Bolton who was in

Italy at that time* Got oh reports that Jones was not employed for the court production o f th e Lord Hav*s Masque in January o f l607*^7 When

13 J , A* Goteh, Inigo Jones (London* 1928), p* 55. 1^ Goteh* Inigo Jones* p . 55* 15 Ramsey, p . 15* 16 Percy Simpson and C. G* Bell, Designs by Inigo Jones for Masoues and Plays at Court (Oxford* 1924), p* 25*

17Gotch, InjR

Simon Basil died in 1613, Jones returned to London and assumed the office of Surveyor to the King,

He began his architectural duties with vigor, completing works for lord Arundel, Lord Buckingham, and for Queen Anne, In January of

1619, some workmen repairing scenery for one of the masques, allowed it to catch fire and the resulting blase spread, burning the Banqueting

House at Whitehall to the ground,

« • • owing to the carelessness of a joiner who was repairing the scenery of a masque, he left his glue pot heating during a short absence, and on his return he found the soenery, of oil and paper and dry fir, a ll a blase and beyond the possibil­ ity of extinction,!^

The fire proved a blessing for Jones, for it enabled him to design a new

Banqueting House with special arrangements for his stage produet Ions, In

March of that same year, the Queen died, and Jones had to put aside the plans for the new structure to design an elaborate hearse for a royal funeral. Construction of the Banqueting Bouse began in June, and the building was coupleted three years later.

Completed by Inigo Jones in 1622, it had been used for the Court Masques until 1635, when the ceiling paintings by Rubens and Jerdeens were put in place and the King, concerned for their preservation from smoke, transferred .the masques and pastorals first to the Great Hall and then to the new Masking house hastily constructed for the Christmas season of 1637-1638.19

In 1 6 2 1 , immediately prior to the completion of the new hall,

Jones was elected a Member of Parliament to f ill a vacant term in the

Go**. Inigo Jones, p. 10b. 19 Eleanor Boswell, The Restoration Court Stage (Cambridge, 1932), p. 11. 20

Shoreham district* Seven years later be m i made Juatice-of-the-Peace for the area of Westminster*20

In Maroh o f 1 6 2 5 , James I died at Theobalds Palace, and Jones v 21 was called upon to devise a second royal hearse* In recognition of his a b ility , th e new King* Charles I , continued h is appointment as Surveyor to the King*

la February of 1631* after an association encompassing thirteen masques, Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones became involved in a petty quarrel 22 which resulted in Jonson1 s dismissal from court* Jonson had placed his name as author before that of Jones as designer on the title page of a published masque* if ter several sharp exchange s, Jones used his influence with the King to have Jonson removed from court,23 Chapman suggests that

Charles1 education, or lack thereof, influenced his decision; according to his reports, "the splendor of the scenery and machinery, and the dancing and the singing pleased the feeble-minded monarch more than the elegant composition of the poets*" Jonson, never soft-spoken, avenged his dismissal with a series of biting satires concerning the relative merits of poetry and spectacle* To these published literary attacks,

Jones, lacking both the quick wit and the cunning vocabulary of his

20 Iees-M ilne, p* 52, 21 Lees-Milne, p* 83* 22 Allardyce Nieoll, Stuart Masques and the Renaissance Stage (New lo rk , 1938), p . 1 3 1 .

2^Lees-MiIne, p* b6, 2b Chapman, p , 15* one tine friend, retaliated as best be eould:

To his false friend Mr. Sen Jonson • • • Thou has w rit Of good and bad things not with equal wit: The reason is, or nay be quickly shown The good1s translation, but the ill*s thine own. ... From henceforth this repute dwell with thee then . . . The best of poets, but the worst of man.25

With Jonson out of the picture, Jones worked with a series of dramatists who were careful to give him fu ll credit when publishing their masques.

He continued his work as Surveyor General, and continued also to design Court masques until Charles I fell out of favor and Mstepped out of the central window in that building in Whitehall which was the master- piece of his talented servant," and met the headsman. Unfortunately for Jones, he was a vocal critio of the new order, and evoking the hostility of the parliamentarians, was fined 500 pounds as a mark of their displeasure.^? After a short term in prison as a political prisoner, he went into complete retirement. He died, July 21, 1651, and was burled in St. Benet*s Church. St. Benetfs was among the works of

Jones "which by the irony of fate burned down in that great fire which was to give his successor and rival in fame [Wren] his magnificent opportunity."28

Although only a beginning architect and a minor artist when he began working with the Court masques, Jones was the first such to be

25Gotch, "Modem View, " p . 23^.

Ramsey, p . 25*

^? Ramsey, p . 27. 28 Ramsey, p . 27. 22 associated with scenic decoration in England* In the "pre-Jones* era, little thought was given to the areas of unified design or to the appli­ cation of contemporary continental theatrical techniques to the masque form* like many other architects, from other countries, Jones was interested in the theatre, and in scenic spectacle*^ Like other archi­ tects, he spent so much tine and energy on theatrical productions that, as J. A* Got eh commented:

If we were to judge by his drawings alone, those connected directly or indirectly with the masques so far outnumber those connected with architecture that we should be Inclined to call him a Painter or draughtsman who made excursions into architecture,30

Jones is given credit as the first to introduce movable scenery into masque production, and "he designed the machinery and contrivances that produced the remarkable stage effects of which we read—effects which were as novel as they were ingenious

At the time approach of the Civil War put an end to all dramatic productions, Jones had been involved in the staging of Court spectacle for over thirty-five years. During this period he developed a form and style of design for stage settings that, when refined, resulted in the form known as the New English Stagecraft, Due to his developments in the Court masque, "the whole anatomy of the stage was altered,

^Ramsey, p, 25,

^G o tch , "Modern View, * p , 70,

^Gotch, "Modem View," p, 70, 32 ' Ramsey, p . 27. CHAPTER H I

THE EARLX MASQUES

The importance of Jones1 early works can perhaps he better understood in contrast to what had immediately preoeded then* One year before Jones1 first Court production, Samuel Daniel presented to the

Court at Hampton Court a masque called, The Vision of Twelve Goddesses*

In this production, Daniel employed one of the then familiar dispersed settings: a cave and a temple at one end of the hall, and a mountain scene at the other* These were separate, dispersed settings, three complete units* The size of the three units limited the number of spectators who could view the masque, for the floor space "was so mueh lessened by the workes that were in it, so none could be admitted but men of appearance*1'^ Although these three settings were dispersed to the comers of the hall, with no physical connection between them, each scene 2 was visible to the spectators at the same time* There was no curtain, no definition of a stage, no gathering of more than one element of scenery to provide a single place of action* As had been the case in preceding masques, the characters changed the scene by moving from one

*Dudley Carleton, Secretary to Sir Thomas Parry, Ambassador in France to John Chamberlain, 15 January 1603, in State Papers Domestic. James I . vi* 21*

^William A* Armstrong, “Ben Jonson and Jacobean Stagecraft, M in Jacobean Theatre (New Xork, i960), p* ^7o

23 zk unit of scenery to another* The scene was snail* and was representative rather than realistic* The basic place location was still the Banqueting

Hall* with several snail painted pieces of scenery brought in and placed in locations around the edges of the roon to indicate to the spectators where the action was taking place* The major attributes of this dispersed type of setting were six:

1* Widely spread elements of scenery* The setting for Daniels* nasque featured three settings* two were located at one end of the

Banqueting Hall* and one at the other end* We can assume that the tables for the people at the banquet did not obtrude on the playing area*

2 . Several place locations visible at one time. From their seats in the hall* the spectators could see* at the same time* all three

settings* Although a connection can be made between the cave and the temple which were located adjacently* the distance between these and the mountain setting was purely theatrical*

3* Reduced size of scenery* The fact that the scenery was

representative rather than realistic is indicated both by the observation that the cave and the temple appear together in a corner of the room* and that barely forty feet separate them from the soene of the mountain in

the other corner*

^* Changes of scenic location by moving the actors. As the

actors in the masque moved from the cave to the mountain* the attention

of the spectators swung with them* The actor went from place to plaee

physically* and the viewer was supposed to accept this change of location

in a realistic sense* It is rather difficult to picture any great dis­

tance between the cave and the temple, for the characters in the masque 25 lead a prosession from one area to the other* Another convention illus­ trated in this masque was that of characters talking in one location and not being heard in the other*

5* large areas of neutral space between scenic areas* One of the characteristics of the dispersed setting was that the space between scenic elements took on the designation the actor or oharacter wished to give it* The cave could expand as the character referred to the entire area as a cave, even though the actual physical cave was United in size*

This concept of space seems to be a carry over of the medieval idea of the Hplatean or space that expands to fill the stage* With the area between scenic elements neutral, several small pieces of representative scenery could, in fact, fill the stage area*

6, Absence of a single perspective viewing point* Although we oan assume that the production was designed for the Court, with the scenery located in opposite ends of the hall, there was no single central location from which to view the production* People sitting in various locations of the hall got various views of the scenic elements* There was no attempt to supply a perspective view*

With these attributes of the dispersed setting in mind, the con­ trast with the first production of Inigo Jones in the production of his first Court masque one year later comes as a break in the traditional means of masque staging* For his first Court production, Jones was called upon to collaborate with a noted poet, Ben Jonson* Jonson wrote 26 the masque at the suggestion of the Queen, “because it was her Male sties w ill, “3 and it was presented at Court in January of 1605*

The Masque of Blackness

The Masque of KLadkness was presented in the Banqueting Ball at

Court, on a raised stage at the end of the hall.** The area of the stage

set aside for this masque was a wheeled platform, forty feet square, and

four feet high.-* The first thing apparent to the eye of the audience was

a painted curtain which hung from above, covering the entire scene* On

this curtain was “drawne a Lands chap, consisting of small, woods, and here

and there a void place fill*d with huntings* This painted scene had

nothing to do with the masque proper, but served only to conceal the

scenery until the masque was to begin* The representative setting behind

the curtain was revealed when the curtain fell and was carried away by

attendants. The scene revealed by the falling curtain was a represents*

tion of a shore by the sea where

an artificial sea was seen to shoote forth, as if it flowed to the land, raysed with waues, which seemed to moue, and in some places the billow to breaks, as imitating that orderly disorder, which is common in nature .7 The waves of the sea which “seemed to moue, “ and the billow to break, may

have been one of the wave machines mentioned by Sabbattini. In one of

3 Ben Jonson, Works, edited by C. H. Herford, Percy and Evelyn Simpson, Volume VII (Oxford, 19^1), p* 169* k Jonson, pp. 169, 170.

^Allardyce Nleoll, Stuart Masques and the Renaissance Stage (New Terk, 1938), p . 36.

Jonson, p* 69* 7 Jonson, p* 170. his treatments, the turning of long cylinders simulated the rise and fall of the sea.^ Other methods illustrated by Sabbattlni involved painted o canvas strips and an under frame of light boards . 7 The v id th of the stage, given as forty feet, was reduced by a proscenium of clouds, but even with a small reduction in size it contained six tritons, a pair of sea-maids, two sea-horses, Oeeanus, Niger, twelve danoers, six huge sea monsters, and twelve toreh-bearerso The number of costumed participants was forty-two. Even without wave machinery, things must have been very crowded. The twelve main danoers were seated at the opening of the masque in a large deoorated sea shell which rode the sea at oenter stage,

like mother of pearle, curiously made to moue on these waters, and rise with the billow; the top thereof was stuck with a eheu*ron of lights, which Indented to the proportion of the shell, strooke a glorious beame vpon them, as they were seated, one above another, 10

Framing the scene on the sides, and above, In the form of a proscenium arch was Nan obscure and cloudy nightpiece that made the whole set of

During the progress of the masque, several clouds which served as upper borders opened to reveal the figure of the moon seated in a silver throne, surrounded by twinkling stars.

On modern stages the support of such a figure would create problems unless spanned by a scaffold or a bridge framework to carry the

8Nieoll, p. 59. o Bernard Hewitt, editor. The Renaissance Stage (University of Miami, 1958), pp. 132, 133. 10 Jonson, p. 1?1.

^■Jonson, p. 1?1. 28 weight of the character. It is doubtful that the figure of the noon was flown because she remained in plaoe throughout the masque. With the side frones of the proscenium in place, the width of the stage playing area could not have exceeded twenty feet, and was quite probably less, Jonson spoke of the scene as Na vast sea, H but with forty-two participants, machinery for the waves, the large shell, and the workmen necessary to impart motion to the whole, the stage appears to have been orowded to the point where one contemporary made the adverse remark about "all fish and no w ater,

The contributions of Jones through The Masque of Blackness are many. For the first time in masque staging the scenery was concealed by a painted front curtain,^ Gathering together in one area of several diverse scenic elements with the idea of concealing them from view until the time for then to be used marked an important step forward in the development of masque scenery. The treatment of perspective, accomplished by a combination of the unified scene, and the establishment of the state as the looation from which the whole scene was to be viewed served to direct the eye of the spectator to the area occupied by the soenery. The playing area of the maskers was limited by the size of the setting, and they were able to play in front of a full scenic background instead of a

small piece of scenery. On the basis of this first production by Jones

12 Eleanors Boswell, The .Restoration Court Stage (Cambridge, 1932), p. 376, 13 Richard Southern, Changeable Scenery (London, 1952), p« 19, several generalisations nay be made which indicate changes fro* preceding forms of Basque stag in g .

1. The pictured representations of space becane larger. The unit of scenery, the flat-painted "cave" in The Vision of the. Twelve

Goddesses, became a "scene," rather than a piece of scenery, as it expanded to fill an entire stage area. The concept of completely filling the stage with scenery led directly to the second ohange.

2 . Successive scenery. As problems of perspective arose from the adjacent grouping of scenes such as oceans and mountains within the same area, successive scenes evolved which allowed one complete scone to follow another in the same space. If the three scattered scenes from The

Vision of the Twelve Goddesses were to be treated in this style, each unit setting would occupy successively the same stage location, and each unit would be approximately the same sise.

3 . Complete scenery. When i t became necessary to place two or more elements of a scene, or two place locations together on the stage at the same time, it was necessary to complete or tie together the scenic elements with some common connective. Problems encountered in these cases led to the concept of a space that was representative rather than neutral. In the plan of such staging we might encounter both a cave and a mountain in the same scene of a landscape but they would be part of the same vista rather than separate elements. Soenery had become integrated, so that the staging concept was one of a single pictured vista.

Perspective, Although it seems to be a simile addition to the staging of the period, the placement of several scenio elements within a common framework, and the framing of the stage by a proscenium 30 p ic tu re frame m s a new co n trib u tio n in the h isto ry of English masque staging* The impact of perspective, through placement and framing,

coming after a history of diversified settings, caused Goteh to exclaim that ttthere were colour, poetry and movement in the setting of the piece lU1 such as had never been seen before in England*

Periaktoi and Scene Change

In August of l605f Jones devised scenery for at least one of three productions at Oxford University*s reception for the King and Queen*

The th ree plays were given a t C hrist Chur oh B all, a larg e building measuring about one-hundred fifteen feet by forty feet, with a fifty foot high ceiling* The depth allotted to the stage was about forty-five feeto1^ These dimensions indicate a stage area very similar to that devoted to The Masque, of Blackness.

Of the three productions, only the second featured scenery which differed from the traditional dispersed setting* Ajax Flagellifer. was,

aocording to all reports, a very bad play performed in Latin* It featured the result of experimentation by Jones in one method of classical staging*

Jones was, from a ll accounts, familiar with the Renaissance

commentaries on Vitruvius*s De Arohitectura* In Book V of that work,

first published in the first century, Vitruvius describes periaktoi.

prism forms fixed on pivots and set in the facades of early Roman

theatres* Each prism had three painted faces, so that when all prisms

Ilf Gotch, Inigo Jones, p* 30*

^ S o u th ern , p* 39* 31 were rotated* three changes of scene were possible* In terns of opera­ tional use* periaktoi offered a Keans of changing the scene without novlng bulky scenery os or off stage* Sabbattini deals at length with both the construction and movement of such devises*^ The type of scene possible with periaktoi offered one great advantage besides the freedom from moving scenery* that is* it served as a solid background for the action of the scene* In the production of Aiax Flagellifer. Jones used a line of scenery extending across the area devoted to the stage that may have been three-sided periaktoi. From the description of the scene* scenery was set into a wall which masked all the area except for that covered by the face of each unit* The first face of the scenery was painted to resemble pillars which supported an elaborate wall*

The stage was built close to the upper end of the hall* as was seemed at first sight; but indeed it was but a false wall, faire painted* and adorned with stately pillars, which pillars would turn about; by reason whereof, with the help of other painted clothes, the stage did vary three times in the acting of one tragedy*^?

The three settings offered were not dispersed settings, but were contained within the sane stage area, framed by the sides of the hall* The use of periaktoi in Ehgland would seem to be one of the first such uses of this type of turntable device* The ease and speed of scenery change of an entire background by the use of this method would have been quite effec­ tive* In Stuart Masques and the Renaissance Stage. Allardyce Nicoll speculates that the devices used were flat panels, and that coverings

16 The Renaissance Stage* pp* 103-109*

^ J , Nichols, The Progresses of James the First. I (London, 1828), p , 538. were changed on one of the two opposed faces between scenes* This proce­ dure would require only one change of scenery for each panel in the false wall. Sabbattini and Furttenbach indicate the use of periaktoi in various

arrangements* but in most cases indicate that the frames used were tri­

angular. An arrangement of triangular frames similar to that used in

Paris by Dubreuil is here indicated as Figure 1. Nicoll reproduces a

stage plan for Candy Restored, a production of l64l, which indicated the

use of flat revolving frames* and indicates that Jones used a similar

form in 1605.^ 8 The concept of the turning machine is more important

than what type of machine was used. Either arrangement* using the flat

turntable* or the triangular periaktoi. indicates a trend toward moving

scenery and a possible starting place for the turntable stage. This

production of A.1ax Flagellifer served both to continue the idea of the

picture-frame stage and unified stage setting as well as the idea of

moving scenery.

Hvmenaei

In January o f th e fo llo w in g year* 1606* Jones and Ben Jonson, who

had together presented The Masque of Blackness, presented a new masque,

Hvmenaei. T his masque* o fte n c a lle d The Masque o f Hymen, was p resen ted

before the court at the Banqueting Hall* and was followed the next evening

by a two-character dialogue entitled* The Solomnlties of Masque and

Barriers. Hvmenaei featured several scenes, however, rather than being

successive scenes as were those found in the play at Oxford, all of the

18Nicoll, pp. 151- 153. scenes were present on the stage area at the sane tine. In such a situa­ tion we night expect a return to the dispersed settings, hut such was not the ease* By the use of masking pieces, Jones was able to reveal the stage area scene by scene and section by section* According to Jonson, the scenes were stacked one above the other to allow five vertical areas bounded by a proscenium side-frame of statuary* Each area was covered so that several areas could be revealed in order* The covering was used in the manner of a curtain but not the traditional curtain of the times* It is possible that Jones was using for this masque the flat-framed panels later called shutters to open and dose the separate scenes* The sec­ tions of masking were painted to resemble douds, creating the scenic effect of playing areas located in the air. Hvmenaei offers also the first description of a proscenium device which served as a pure picture frame, being decorated of itself rather than being a part of the scene it surrounded*

Before commenting further on the scenery of this masque, it might be well to trace the progression of the scenes to get some idea of the order of the presentation* The first view apparent to audience inspection revealed the decorative proscenium framework, two large statues placed on either side of the hall, extending half-way to the ceiling* Above and between these figures was a network of painted swirling clouds* These

clouds were used both as masking and as scenery to indicate a place location* When the first section of douds were drawn from sections of the scene, three “Regions of AyreM were revealed*^ As the action of the

19 Jonson, p* 231* masque moved from one scenic area to another, clouds opened to reveal further sections of the scene* The action plot of the masque was sequen­ tial, one scene following another in time as well as space*

For the second scene, the clouds between the statues were drawn, and a globe was revealed: Hfill,d with Countreys, and those gilded; 20 where the Sea was exprest, heightned with siluer waues*H This globe was evidently a hollow sphere, with a section cut away* Inside the globe were seated eight male dancers, with a ninth, the character of Reason,

sitting on the uppermost level* There must have been room for some sort of stairway or ladder, because Reason later descended from the top of the globe to the stage level* Before, and slightly lower than the globe, was an altar, situated on the level of the stage platform. Behind thi6 a l t a r ,

Ben Jonson, the author of the masque, turned the crank whioh moved the

globe, causing it to revolve slowly* The first part of the masque was made up of a dance performed by the eight masquers who descended from the

globe*

The next section of the masque started with the clouds above the

statues being removed* There was then revealed the three areas of the

air. In a compartment, immediately next to the roof of the building, was

a whirling ring of fire* Below the fire, in the next compartment, was a

painted statue of the god Jupiter* Below this heroic figure was the

live figure of Juno, seated in a peacock throne. The throne of Juno was

located in a bank of clouds with two levels. The upper level was painted

to resemble two large watery rain clouds, while the lower level was made

20 Jonson, p. 231. 35 to resemble a rainbow, behind which sat brightly garbed musicians representing the beams of the rainbow*

After a short dramatic tribute to the goddess, Juno, the two

sections of rain aloud immediately beneath her throne moved forward and downward, depositing eight concealed masquers on the stage level at the

base of the altar. The clouds then returned to their place In the heavens. The masquers deposited by the cloud machines carried on a brief dialogue, a short dance, and then the first, main, cloud covering was

closed to end the masque.

The Individual elements of scenery which made up the masque were

in themselves remarkable, but in combination they created an impression

of great ingenuity. Jonson commented at length on the beauty of the

spectacle, in particular on the whirling circle of fire. Before consid­

ering the elements of design that further the methods seen in The Masque

of Blackness, a closer look should be taken of the individual elements of

scen ery .

1. The Globe or Microcosme. Although related to both the large

sea-shell of The Masque of Blackness, and to the periaktoi from the play

at Oxford, the globe of Hvmenaei must have been a new type of masque

machine. Periaktoi as turning machines were frequently used on the

Continent as large central devices, so Jones1 use of such a device would

constitute nothing new in scenic treatment. The globe was essentially a

sphere, with one section siloed away to reveal a hollow concave interior.

Ch its rounded side it presented the aspect of countries worked in relief

with gold. The seas and oceans were worked in blue with silver waves.

As the globe revolved, it revealed the hollow section which was painted to resemble a mine or a grotto of gold* The interior mas illuminated by oil lamps or candlelight from within the lipped edge* All light was directed at the interior* Above the eight dancers* seated within the globe* was the figure of Reason* as the apparent focus of the lighting*

With nine adult males seated within the globe* the minimum diameter must have been ten or twelve feet* The probable arrangement of the stage for this masque is shown as Figure 2* A globe or sphere* as described by

Jonson, would have been an adaptation of periaktoi. but an adaptation requiring a central pivot on both the top and bottom to hold it in place*

2* The Cloud Curtains. There were two sets of curtain-like elements of scenery in this production. The first, which covered the entire stage area behind the proscenium, was used to reveal the setting* and to close the masque* The seoond covered the area above the globe and was used to reveal only that section* The text of the masque contains several references to drawing the scene* and to “being draime againe, " indicating that the scenery used for this purpose was moved to reveal and to re-cover scenery behind it* 21 In addition to the two scenic elements painted as clouds, there were sections of painted cloud-work around the three regions of the air* These clouds are described as being worked in relief, embossed and translucent, treatments that seem to indicate a permanent framing nature rather than a cloth curtain*

3* The Cloud Machines- The two cloud machines, situated on a level with the heads of the proscenium side statues* and centered in the stage area above and behind the globe, were of a size to bear four female

2 1 T Jonson, p* 223* 37 masquers* la operation they appeared to function in the manner of a swinging crane, similar to those used to load and unload the cargo of ships*

two conoaue douds, from the rest thrust forth themselues (in nature of those Nimbi, wherein by Homer, Virgil, Ac, the gods are fain*d to desoend) and these carried the eight ladies, oner the heads of the two Termes; who as the engine mou*d seem'd also to bow themselues (by virtue of their shadowes) and dis­ charge their shoulders of their glorious burdens when hauing set them on the earth, both they and the douds gathered themselues vp againe, with some rapture of the beholders.2^

The motion of the arms of the machine was forward through part of an arc, and then down to the stage. That the machine used to manipulate the cloud effect was some sort of lever or arm type devioe is apparent from the statement that the clouds descended in an angular path, “not after the stale downright perpendicular fashion, like a bucket into a well; but came gently sloping down.There were several sources for this type of machine* In loading cargo on ships, a swinging beam was attached to a mast and a simple block and tackle arrangement raised and lowered the beam* Two sets of blocks attached to a cross-post on the mast controlled the side motion* A similar device was used in masonry construction of houses and walls* Sabbattini discusses several types of cloud devices, but does not indicate how lateral motion was to be controlled* An illus­ tration of a machine, similar to those of Sabbattini, but offering greater

control is shown as Figure 3* Control of the horizontal displacement of the arm was by control lines (A) attached to cross-tie (8)* Vertical

22 Jonson, pp* 231, 232* 23 Sir £* K, Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage. Volume IH (Oxford, 1923), p. 379. 38 motion was controlled by lines (C). The end of the swinging beam was fixed with a basket covered with painted clouds* With the width of the

Banqueting Hall given as fifty feet, and after allowing room for the width of the proscenium side statues, the length of each cloud machine

could have been no more than twenty feet*

4* The Whirling Fire* The cirole of fire, situated above the

painted statue of Jupiter in the uppermost part of the scene, was seen to

move continuously throughout th e performance* Jonson was much im pressed with the device, and awarded it first place in his list of the beauties

of the scenic spectacle* His description does not indicate how it was

arranged or constructed*

Bub that, which (as aboue in place, so in the beautie) was most taking in the spectacle, was the sphere of fire, in the top of all, encompassing the ayre, and im ltatied with such art and Industrie, as the spectators might discerne the Motion (all the time the Shewes lasted) without any Moouer; and that so swift, as no eye could distinguish any colour of the light, but might forme to it selfe fiue hundred severall hiewes, out of the tralucent bodie of the ayre, objected betwixt it, and

then^** ^

From this "many-colored" description, Jones may have used an adaptation

of a well-known medieval angel machine. One such adaptation with the

modern addition of lenses is shown as Figure 4* When the heat of the

flame from the candles or lamps causes the blades of the fan to spin, the

shutters interrupt the light rays, and the interrupted beams flash

through the prisms, or lenses, creating the impression of rotating

moving color* Such devices in simple form had been used as Christmas

2if Jonson, p. 232* 39 mantel decorations since well before the time of Jones, but its use here is purely speculative.

The development of the style of scenic design found in Hvmenaei was a direct progression from the methods used for The Masque of Blackness*

The growth is apparent in several areas* The scene represented is a single scene, although there are several playing areas within that scene.

The scenic background was pictorial in nature, representing a particular locale. The treatment of the painting was realistic. The entire setting was framed by proscenium sides. Separate scenic elements of the stage picture were related and tied to a central design idea, that of the regions of the air, Masking was used to conceal the scene before the start of the masque, and again to end the performance. In every area save that of successive scenes, Hvmenaei duplicates the advances made by Jones in The Masque of Blackness.

In mechanical structure, however, Hvmenaei goes beyond The Masque of Blackness. The framework of the large shell may well have been re-worked to serve as the globe in Hvmenaei. but the turning motion, geared to a crank turned by Jonson, ^ would seem to be an improvement over the rocking motion of the shell. The use of the cloud machine, and the total integration of scenery into the three regions of the air to indicate a single scenic unit postulate a concept of unified design superior to that of The Masque of Blackness. Although detailed descrip­ tions are not given, the use of the cloud masking to open and close

scenes in Hvmenaei would seem to be a very early use by Jones of the

25 "Jonson turned the globe of the earth standing behind the altar. ** Chambers, p. 379. *K> shutter scene* Since curtains were not usually drawn, but either fell or were raised, and the later masques indicate scenes with shutters being drawn to dose scenes, it is possible that two sets of shutters were used in Hvmenaei for this purpose.

The Scaffold Stage

The basic structure of the two masques so far examined seems to indicate an arrangement of scaffolding which reached across the stage the width of the hall* In The Masque of Blackness* this scaffolding would have served to support the figure of the moon, while in Hvmenaei a structure of at least two levels supporting the musicians and the figure of Juno above the level of the stage is indicated* It is entirely possible that the moon in The Masque of HLackness was suspended from above, but such a thesis cannot explain the support of both the live figure of Juno, or the body of musicians below her in Hvmenaei. The scenery for Hvmenaei was deared in part of the following day, for the very next evening there was featured a new production.

On the next Night, whose solemnitie was of Barriers (all men­ tion of the former being vtterly remoued and taken away) there appeared at the lower end of the Hall, a Mist made of delicate perfumes; out of which (a battaile being sounded vnder the stage) did seeme to break forth two Ladies, the one represent­ ing Truth, the other O p in i o n .2 6

Any arrangement of scenery supporting the weight of the vertical scenes in

Hymenaei. and capable of being cleared in less than one day must have been of a scaffold nature. Apparently only the framing was removed, because the "battaile" was sounded from under the "stage.H If there was such a

Jonson, pp. 232, 233* 41 s caff old, covered with cloudwork of relieve, and holding a set of upper shutters of clouds, it could readily have served as the basis for this masque* An illustration, indicating a possible method of construction, to the scale of the rest of the scene is found as Figure 5* Only two levels are indicated above the stage floor, a level for the musicians, and a level for the peacock throne of Juno* The three other levels indi­ cated in the text were not weight-bearing, and could easily have been hung or braced into position*

Per BjurstrSm, in his work on Giacomo Torelli, mentions a divided stage at both the Theatre Du Marais and at the Hotel de Bourgogne in and after 1644* He quotes Mme Deierkauf-Holsboer to the effect that this type of scene was used as a double stage by Inigo Jones in The Temple of

Love in 1635*^ This is certainly correct, but further examination of

Jones1 work indicates that he may have used the double-stage for Hvmenaei. in 1606, and there are very strong indications that he used it for The

Haddington Masque in 1608,

The concept of design expressed here by Jones seems to have been one of a centralized place of action* Elements of scenery, rather than enclosing an acting area, were located in the center of framed space*

Within a proscenium arch was a background, out of which, and in front of which, the dances of the masque came*

The general conclusion as to style of design drawn from the two masques thus far examined fall into two general categories} (l) repre­

sentations of place; and (2) individual scenic elements* In his dealings

2? Per Bjurstr&m, Giacomo Torelli and Baroque Stage Design (Stockholm, 1962), p* 119* kZ with the ideas of representation of place, most of Jones1 works deal with exterior scenes of indeterminate origin and location. Such scenes may be described as Na temple, a seashore, a cave, etc," rather than as a specific realistic plaoe location. The plaoes characterized have indica­ tions of realism, but are in character essentially non-realistio. The place of the action was of secondary importance to the dialogue of the masque, and served simply as background and place of entrance. In the development of individual scenic elements, Jones used large scenic pieces and moving scenery. Many of the scenic units were dual-purpose, or dual­ sided, as the globe of Hvmenaei. Several separate elements were grouped together to make one major scene with the intermediate space filled with masking to relate the elements one to another.

The Haddington Masque

On Shrove Tuesday, 1608, Jones and Ben Jonson presented The

H^ri^fogtpn Masque, also titled The Hue and Cry after Cupid, at the

Banqueting House, The masque was to oelebrate the marriage of the lord

Viscount Haddington, and featured the family name of Radcliffe, Jones

incorporated a red cliff as a part of the stage design. The first view of

the stage revealed a high red cliff, framed by a full proscenium arch.

This d iffe was also a note of height, greatnesse, and antiquitie; before which, on the two sides were erected two pilasters, ohardgsd with spoilss and throphees, of loue, and his mother, consecrate to marriage: amongst which were old and yong persons figured, bound with roses, the wedding garments, rooks, and spindles, hearts transfixt with arrowss, other flaming, virgins girdles, gyrlonds, and worlds of such like: all wrought round and bold: and ouer-head two per­ sonages, triumph and vicrtorie, in flying postures, and twise so big as tbs life, in place of the areh, and holding a gyrlond of Myrtle for the key* All which, with the pillars, seew*d to be of burnished gold, and emboss'd oat of the ■ o tta ll'2 8

Previous descriptions of the proscenium frame by Jonson do not indicate the use of a full arch treatnent, so it is possible that the mention here refers to both a construction style as well as the first use of the over­ head frame* Works of Jones1 predecessors lacked even the side framework, and for the last two productions Jones had been content with side frames and a border of clouds.

Allowing for the usual poetic exaggeration, a proscenium width between the side statues of thirty feet seems both to fit the hall and the action of the masque* Jonson*s two figures, twice so large as life, whioh made up the arch would agree with this estimate* The completion of the proscenium framework by the addition of the top section would put the settings of the masque within a frame, a complete border through which the stage picture could be viewed, like an ornate painting* If attention is given Jonson*s description of the globe “eighteene foot in the

Diameter^situated behind the high red cliff, and the proscenium side statues from Hvmenaei are used as a guide; then a height of thirty feet to the center of the arch would allow room for the cliff and for the globe, yet permit ten feet of space above the globe for the chariot of

Venus to appear in the clouds above the scene*

2 8 , Jonson, p* 250* 29 'Jonson, p* 258* In this Basque, as In Rvaenaei. Jones Bade use of elouds as a ask in g f o r th e u p p e r-re g io n s, In The HadfHngtgft Mfftgn?- th e clouds were apparently similar to the "mist of delicate perfumes, N from the Barriers which followed Hvmenaei. or the Hobscure and cloudy nightpieoe,fro*

The Mascue of Blackness. In the opening scene of Tfeg.Hftfljjngtpn .Ma.Sfl.ue, there was discovered above the high cliff a chariot pulled by two doves and two swans with silver harness* The chariot came from behind the clouds and halted at the top of the cliff* Dismounting from the chariot,

Venus and her attendants, the three graces, descended the face of the cliff to the stage* Shortly after their descent, the cliff split in the center and the opening revealed:

an illustrious Concaue, f illld with an ample and glistering light, in which, an artifioiall Sphere was Bade of siluer, eighteen foot in the Disaster, that turned perpetually: the Coluri were heightned with gold; so were the Article and Antarctiek circles, the Tropicks, the AEquinoctial, the Meridian, and Horizon; onely the Zodiake was of pure gold: in which the Masquers, under the Characters of the twelue Signes, were placed, answering then in number; whose offices, with the whole frame, as it turned; Vvlcan went forward, to describe*31

This sphere, like the globe in Hvaenaei. which also turned, was operated from under the stage* If an axel was used which reached through the globe, it nust have been fixed at the upper end in the floor of an over­ head platform of scaffold work* The scaffold could have been framed on the sides by the opened cliff, and above by masking clouds* If this supposition is correct, the globe would have been in a cave-like area

30 Jonson, pp* 171, 233* 31 Jonson, pp* 257* 258* under a scaffold frame, with a clear area overhead for the chariot of

Venus to appear and move to the face of the cliff. Such a scaffold would support the shutters or thin wagons of which the cliff was constructed.

The relationship between Hvmenaei and The Haddington Maaoue is an indi­ cation that Jones may have made a practice of storing and re-using the larger elements of scenery.

A progressive analysis of the scenes of the masque may help to relate the particular devices used to previous masques, and may form the basis for some further generalizations about the general style of masque scenery.

1. The opening scene. The red cliff seen at the opening of the masque was apparently a return to the shutter treatment of Hvmenaei. In the course of the opening action, four masquers climbed from a chariot and descended the face of the cliff, "descending by certayne abrupt and winding passages. If the cliff were a painted curtain, with a ladder or stairway place behind, the scenic requirement of climbing could take place, however, "abrupt and winding passages" could refer to painting, and the opening cliff seems to match more closely with the shutter con­ cept. Shortly after the descent of the masquers, the character Vulcan advanced to the face of the cliff and commandedt "Cleaue, solid Rock, and bring the wonder forth. At this command, the cliff parted in the center and slid to the sides of the stage area, revealing the large globe.

One possible arrangement of the scene is shown as Figure 6. This is an

32 Jonson, p. 250. 33 Jonson, p. 257. 46 overall view based on Jonson1s description, and the cliff is shown as a shutter* Another possibility for the cliff is that of a narrow wagon with a shutter face of doth painted as a cliff* Such a wagon had been used before in masque staging, but not by Jones, and not quite in the same manner,^ Evidence of painted masking applied over a frame is also to be 35 found in earlier entries from the Royal Accounts*

When the d iff parted at Vulcan's command, the globe was dis­ covered softly turning* This was apparently the same sort of machine as the sphere used in Hvmenaei. if not the same device* The twelve dancers came down from the sphere and their dance concluded the masque.

A Style of Scenery

Of special interest in this masque is the continued use of earlier staging techniques which reinforce the use of some sort of scaffolding arrangement* As in Evmenaei. if a scaffold were used it would allow a cave-like opening to contain the sphere with the twelve dancers* If the doud machines from Hymenaei were added to this setting, and the d o ud masking su b stitu ted fo r the d i f f e ith e r masque could be played in either setting* Possible use of the scaffold in two successive masques would be an indication of a standardized procedure in masque construction* If the supposition is correct, and tradition of the

Continent is the major obstacle to acceptance, the scene construction of

34 In 1572, John Rosse constructed a wagon eight feet by fourteen feet, which featured a rock splitting into two sections to reveal a fountain* Feuillerat, p. 157*

■^Feuillerat, pp« 150-165. the masques would have Involved many of the building techniques which

Jones* from his experience in architecture, would know quite well. Such construction works would be capable of being erected in a minimum of time and with little effort by semi-experienced construction labor* The more difficult elements of masque scenery would then be added, and attention of the architect given to the more decorative rather than functional aspects of the design* Given this method of construction, Jones could be concerned with the decoration of the masking pieces and with painting the scenes*

Southern, in Changable Scenery, comments that The Haddington

Masque indicated the way scenes were to change on the English stage "for dose on three hundred years*"^ The basic concept of this type of scene change was the shutter scene, opening one piece of scenery to reveal another behind it* Such a method of change involved the use of the flat framed panels or "fermes," Whether they were called "fermes, frames, flats, or shutters," there is no question but that they were used by

Jones in almost every production*

The Masque of Queenes

In 1609, the Queen requested something different in the manner of an anti-masque, that section of a masque which preceded the main portion of the work and served as a comic foil to it* The anti-masque was often presented by professional dancers who were paid for their performance, and it featured more intricate dancing than the membership of the court

could provide* Jonson obliged the Queen by the inclusion in The Masque

36 Southern, p* 3/+. of Queenes of an anti-masque which featured twelve ugly witches* They appeared in contrast to the ladies of the court and to her Majesty, who appeared as twelve queens from the hall of Fame* At the opening of the masque, the twelve hags appeared in an ugly flaming Hell, and cavorted in antic fashion about the stage, stating in song their purpose of seeking to disrupt the peace of the night and to bring discord throughout the land* In the midst of one of their frantic dances, they were interrupted by a loud blast of music and they and their Hell, "quite vanished; and the whole face of the Scene a lte r e d .I n place of the ugly Hell scene, the audience then saw a magnificent building representing the house of

Fame* In the upper part of this building were the Queen and eleven of her ladies, representing the twelve Queens from the title* The designs by Inigo Jones show a large building with a oentral doorway; above in the second story is a trefoliat arch with the masquers seated in a triangle,

The character Heroic Virtue descended and introduced the Queens* After their introduction, the twelve Queens revolved in place, revealing the seated figure of Fame* The Queens descended the rear of the framework during a musical interval, and entered the stage in three ohariots through the large center, door of the house of Fame* They toured the stage and at the conclusion of their dancing they returned to their chariots and drove into the house of Fame concluding the masque*

37 Jonson, p. 301*

38 S^iEBS» No* pl* iv» There were three major scenes in the masque, the ugly Hell, the house of Fame with the Queens in place, and the house of Fame with the figure of Fame in place of the Queens,

1. The ugly Hell. No description is given of a proscenium framework for this masque, but it is almost certain that at least a partial one was used, perhaps similar to the one in The Haddington Masque. but more likely patterned after the two side frames used for Hvmenaei,

Jonson1s description of the stage at the opening of the piece suggests a

shutter used to represent the Hell scene, one that could be quickly drown

to the sides to reveal the scene behind.

First then, his Matie being set, and the whole Company in full expectation, that wch presented it selfe was an ougly Hell; wch flam ing beneath, srnoakd vnto th e top o f th e Boofe,39

The proscenium of plain side masking as in Hvmenaei is Indicated by the

soene reaching to the top of the room. No other scenery is indicated for

the first scene, save that the witches carried on and off with them to

aid in their spells,

2, The House of Fame. The house of Fame, the second scene of

the masque, was revealed when the witches and their Bell were caused to

v an ish .

In the heate of theyr Daunoe, on the sodayne, was heard a sound of loud Husique, as if many instruments had giuen one blast, Wth wch, not only the Hagges themselues, but theyr Hell, into wch they ranne, quite vanished; and the whole faoe of the Scene a lt e r d ; scarse s u ffrin g th e memory o f any such th in g : But, in the place of it appear* d a glorious and magnificent Building, figuring the House of Fame, in the vpper part of wch were dis­ coured the twelue Masquers sitting vpon a Throne triunphall,

39 Jonson, p« 282, 50

erected in forme of a pyraide, and circled with all store o f l i g h t***0

The structure of this house of Fame was located behind the scenery figuring Hell, and revealed by opening it* The house of Fame was of scaffold framework, capable of bearing the weight of the masquers and their turntable machine* The front of the palace was of framed panels, with practicable doors below, and a dear space behind the doors for the later entry of the queens on their chariots. A note from the Dedared

Accounts of the Audit Office indicates the use of such a framework*

for fframing and setting up a greate Stage for a maske all the height of the Banquet ting house with a floore in the middle of the same being made with sondry devices with greate gates and turning doores belcwe and a globe and sondry seates above for the Queene and ladies to sitt on and to be turned rounde aboute**&

The facing of the second level of the house of Fane was cut-out in a trefoil-arch, and a turning device related to those used in previous masques placed behind the cut-out section* Jonson speaks of the seating arrangement as ttereoted in forme of a pyramids, and circled wth a ll store of light, from which we may deduce that the small rondels indi­ cated in Jones* sketch axe indications of illuminating devices*

3. The figure of Fame. The twelve Queens were introduced by the character Heroic Virtue, who appeared in the upper level with the Queens and addressed the audience from that position* Virtue later descended to the stage level on a crane-like device* Her descent is described as

lf° Jonson, pp* 301, 302*

^MeCalman, p* 6l .

Jonson, p* 302* 51 being made “in the furniture of Perseus, " a reference to her costume of armor rather than the name of the lowering defies* The machine which revolved to reveal the figure of Fame also turned the Queens out of

sight, allowing them to descend to the stage level and mount their

chariots* The device was referred to by Jonson as a versatile machine,

"the Throne wherein they sate, being Machina versatilis, sodaynely

chang*d; and in the place of it appeared Fama Bonna#"^ The adaptation

of the turntable type device seems to be an outgrowth from the turning

globe or sphere used in earlier masques* Since it revolved in place at a

level above the stage floor, and since the area under it was clear for

the entrance of several chariots, it must have been pinned to an upper

level platform*

The concept of staging of The Masque of Queenes seems to be a

simple one, in keeping with those masques which had gone before it*

Shutter panels opening to reveal a machine or large object as the second

scene*

Oberon. The Faerv Prince

In January of 1610, Jones and Jonson presented a masque for the

young Prince Henry* Chi the thirteenth of the month, Jones was given the

position of Surveyor to the Prince* Prior to this arrangement he had

been paid only for his work on the masques, but with the new position he

was placed on a yearly salary, and had more opportunity to devote his

43 Jonson, p* 302* 44 Jonson, p* 305* 45 lees-Milne, p* 30* considerable interests and talents to architecture as well as scene- making*

In form, Oberon closely resembled previous masques* The first view of the setting showed an obscure scene of dark rocks* similar to the

Hell scene in The Masque of Queenes. As in the opening of The Masque of

the moon appeared in the heavens illuminating the scene* The

scene revealed by the moon was a vista of a rocky wilderness with trees on the horizon, and a cliff, over which was seen the silver disk of the moon* The characters of the masque made their entrances through rooky

fissures in the face of the diff* Although a proscenium is not mentioned

in the text, a model of the setting featured as part of the Duke of Devon-

s h ir e s 1 collection shows not only a proscenium framework but several 46 shutter scenes for the masque*

During the opening scene, one of the characters oommented on the

opening of a rock, and the entire front scene opened to reveal the second

scene, a prospect of Oberon*s Palace* The relationship of this scene and

the scene of the cliff in Tfrq Haddington Masque, the Hell scene of The

Masque of Queenes. or the cloud scene from Hvmenaei. is obvious* In

Oberon. a further shutter scene was used, for the scene of Oberon*s

Palace, revealed by the parting cliff, later split open and a further

perspective scene was revealed as the nation of fairys* Immediately in

front of this prospect, the masquers assembled in their chariots and after

trouping about the stage sang and performed a dance, after which they

danced back into the scene, and Nthe whole machine closed*

46 Time Magazine. Vol. 89, No* 15 (April 14, 196?), p. 82. 47 Jonson, p* 356* 53

Shatters and the Split Stage

Use of the shutter in the masques through Oberon. indicates the use of that device as both scenery and masking* Another usage is that of the function as side ving or side masking* With the shutter open, the scene of the palace of Oberon, for example, would be seen as through a cut-out* This type of scene was called lay Jones a “relieve" scene, A similar pictorial effect is found in The Masque of Queenes. where the seated queens were framed by the cut-out archway of the palace of Fame*

The basic concept was that of framing one scene by the scene immediately in front of it* The use of shutter panels to conceal scenes was developed to the extent that entire scenes were painted on flat frames, and these changed by sliding off-stage to reveal further scenes* Jones had used flat scenery in previous masques but always with a central object or machine as the focus of the second scene* In Oberon. the use of two suoh sets of shutters, with no central object or machine, seems to indi­ cate a trend in masque scenery toward the full flat shutter scene*

In Danielfe Tethvs 1 F e s tiv a l, a summer masque which preceded

Oberon. there is some speculation that Jones used a shutter for the back- scene along with neriaktoi on each side of the stage* The scene was described as “The whole worke came into the form of a halfe round, “ indi- 48 eating some sort of side treatment* At a signal from one of the dancers, the scene of the opening, a sea, was changed to a view of a cavern with niches on the sides* The central shutter was drawn back to

48 Nicoll, pp. 70, 71 54

reveal the throne of Tethys, Nicoll states that the backshutter was made

in four parts with three vertical divisions so that when opened by fold- 49 ing, the next scene would be painted on the backside« Later in the masque, the scene was again changed, to a grove, Sabbattini noted this method of scene change, and indicated that several men, concealed in the

heavens, could open the backshutter by pulling cords attached to the

corners of the flat panels.-’0

With the exception of Tethys* Festival, all of the early masques

fall into a pattern that might be called shutter and machine. The basic

concept of this type of staging was that of a central object, usually a

large machine such as a sea-shell, a sphere, or a globe, placed in the

center of the stage, either on or immediately under some sort of platform.

Above would be located arm-crane type cloud machines which would swing

from the side to lower as many as four masquers at one time. The plat­

form floor would provide an area for the appearance of masquers in

chariots, and a means of securing the top of the large machines. The

effect of this style of production was to provide for multiple settings

in th e same stage a re a . L ittle mention was made of sid e masking f o r

these early masques, because the view of the production was planned to be

seen from the center front. It is possible that Jones used both neriaktoi

and Serlian wings during this period, but little indication of either is

given in the texts of the masques or in the designs. Since Jones had

demonstrated that he was familiar with the works of Sabbattini, there is

^Nicoll, p. 71. 50 The Renaissance Staee. pp, 1 1 5 , U 6« 55 no reason to suppose that he did not know of the use of the wing setting*

but did not at this time need the side masking that such a setting would provide. His attention seems to have been devoted to the development of

the flat painted panel from its use as a masking device to use as a

shutter that could be moved off stage to reveal either a second set of

flat frames or shutters* or a full painted backscene or backdrop.

The Masque of Blackness featured a single scene* a view of the

sea with waves and a large shell machine located center stage. It also

featured the appearance of the goddess of the moon on a level above the

stage. In the next Court masque* Hymenael, Jones used a series of levels

in a vertical plane for separate scenes. In The Haddington Masque, a

scaffold was again used to support a group of masquers in a chariot at a

level above the stage. In The Masque of Queenes. Jones again used a

frame to support a large turntable machine; however, in Queenes. the

masking panels did not run a ll the way across the stage but were formed

in the shape of a palace.

All of the early masques to Oberon used the idea of opening a flat

scene to reveal a central machine. In Oberon. Jones opened a shutter

scene to reveal a second shutter scene, and then opened that scene to

reveal a backscene or backcloth beyond it.

From an analysis of these early masques several hypotheses may be

made generally about masque staging by Jones in this early period.

1* In most of the masques Jones used variations of what might be

called scaffold construction. If the moon from The Masque cf Blackness

were suspended from a hanging device* we would s till have to account for

the securing of the axle in those masques which used the large globe machines, and the use of a body of masquers who not only rode in chariots to the upper edge of scenery, but then a lit and descended to stage level*

The account of the construction of a large platform for The Masque of

Queenes indicates the use of such levels to secure large turning machin­ ery, and in that masque also a large body of masquers moved across a platform and descended to the level of the stage*

2* The focus of the early masque stage was on the center line, making extensive masking unnecessary* Each of the early masques, with the exception of Oberon. featured a central machine located in the center of the stage* From these machines the masquers made their entrances and exits* What masking is indicated would have occurred by the opening of the shutter scenes in front of the large machines*

3* At the beginning of this early period in the Court masque,

Jones staged successive scenes vertically* In The Haddington Masque, the treatment of successive scenes was accomplished by drawing painted clouds from in front of one area to reveal successively other areas above*

4* As the number of scenes in the masques increased, successive

scenes were treated by the use of the shutter and backscene method* In the early masque, Oberon. offers the only example of a production with more than one scene where each scene was revealed by opening the scene in

front of it* The cliff of Oberon parted to reveal a second shutter scene which parted to reveal a backscene of the sky and the nation of the

f a i r y 8*

5* As the number of shutter scenes increased, there was a

decrease in the use of large central machines, and an emphasis on the

full painted scene* By the time of the prodx ion of Oberon. Jones had stopped using the large turning machine represented as a shell, globe,

sphere, or frame, in the center of the stage, and replaced the object

setting with a full scene painted on shutters* Such usage placed Jones

close to the ideal in realization of the perspective stage where flat painting in perspective replaced full round objects* CHAPTER IV

THE LEAN TEARS

Many of the produetions at court which followed Oberon presented nothing new or startling in their usage of scenio elements, and were not recorded in sufficient detail to warrant analysis*

Information regarding Jonson*s Love Freed from Ignorance.^ Love

Restored.^ The Masque of Flowers.^ and Mercury Vindicated.** is meagre, with little to indicate how they were staged.5 The Lord* a Masque offers

some staging clues, but was done at a time when Jones was traveling in

Italy.**

In the notes for the production of Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue.

the twelfth-night masque of 1 6 1 8 , Jonson tells only of a large curtain

with a wide fringe, painted to resemble a gold tent. This masque probably

opened with the curtain in place, and when it was opened it revealed a

scene of the mountain. Atlas, standing in a grove of ivy. Mary Sullivan

reports the comments of Orazio Busino, Chaplain to the Venetian

^February, 1 6 1 1 . 2January 6, l 6l 2 «

^January 6, 1 6 1 4 . ^January 6, 1615.

5Judith W. McDowell, pp. HO, 1 1 1 .

6Gotch, Inigo Jones, p. 44. The,igJC4.tff. Mfeggu& was p resen te d on February 14, 1613, and was probably designed by Constantino de* Servi, who designed Sumer set* s Manque on December 26, 1 6 1 3 .

58 59

Ambassador, who attended the production. He describee the opening of the grove at the foot of the Mountains as being like "two doors which were made to turn, It is difficult to state with complete certainty whether or not these doors were simple hinged panels, or were an adaptation of the two-sided turning machine used in The Masque of Queenes, The rela­ tionship between them and the doors to the Palace of the house of Fame, and to the doors in the Palace of Oberon is a dose one, and they are most probably of that type.

The Mascue of Augureg

The Mascue o f Augures serv es to i l l u s t r a t e th e p a u c ity o f comment on staging found in Masques of the period, but intimates how they may have been produced. For this production in January of 1 6 2 2 , Jones1 design for a scene entitled "The College of Augures," is preserved in Simpson and Bells* Designs. ^ but no indications as to the use of the setting appear in the text of the masque. The design is for a full scene showing a group of Augures arranged in a graduated seating arrangement, as in a oollege lecture room, or in a senate chamber. It is more than likely that the design is a rendering of a full back-scene or back shutter, planned to fill the entire stage.

There are several interesting comments which appear in the antimasque section of the production. Jonson appears to be commenting

7 Mary Sullivan, The Court Masques of James I. pp. 11*1-, 115® 8 The Banqueting House was destroyed by fire in 1619, and n o t until 1622 was the replacement Masking House ready to be used. 9 Designs, No. 63. Reproduced in Stuart Masques. Fig. 36. 60 on the lack of Christmas productions when he has two of the antimasque c h a ra c te rs comment t h a t th e y have come to court to produce a masque* because* “hearing the Christmas invention was drawn dry at court; and that neither the King*s poet nor his architect had verewithal left to entertain so much as a Baboone of quality, " they have come to provide entertainment,^ 0

The entertainment they had come to provide was that of John

Urson and his trained troup of dancing bears, who performed before a scene referred to as "the Court Buttery-hatch,

After the scene of the antimasquers* Apollo was lowered from the f heavens, frightning the antimasquers away before coming forward to intro­ duce the main masque to the King, The scene of the college of Augures must have been used at this point, because the Augurers and their attendant torchbearers were fetched out to sing a tribute to the King,

After their song* and a dance by the torchbearers, the upper heavens opened, and "JOVE* with the Senate of the Gods, were discovered, while

APOLLO returned to his Seat, and ascending sung.Shortly thereafter* the whole scene shut* and the masquers danced their last dance.

It is possible to make several assumptions to explain how this masque was staged* but there are a number of variables that make such an attempt subject to error. If we begin by assuming that the design for

"The College of Augures" was a painted back scene, then it follows that

Jonson* p. 632,

^ J o n s o n , p , 629* 12 Jonson, p. 6^5. the buttery-hatch scene was a shutter scene placed Immediately in front of it* This would allow the whole scene to close at the conclusion of

the masque, and still provide for a fast, simple change of scene* If

this assumption is carried one step further, the scene for the “Senate of

th e Gods. 11 must have been a painted back scene also, but one placed above

the other scenes and revealed by opening the cloud-work of the heavens*

This s die me would provide for one fu ll painted baok scene with two shutter

scenes in front of them divided into two sections by a vertical joint*

These flat framed scenes, or shutters oould be drawn aside to reveal the

back scene behind. The scenes above would have to be supported by a

scaffold arrangement which would provide room to move the heaven shutters

off to the sides* Such a structure could have also served as a guide for

the scenes below, and provided a base for Apollo and his descending cloud

machine*

Although Jones had not at this time labeled a scene a “shutter

scene,M he had used fla t frames for scenery in The Haddington Masaue. and

also in The Masaue of Queenes. It is pure supposition that he did use a

sliding shutter for The Masaue of Augures. bat such a surmise offers the

most workable solution to the staging of that masque* The machine used

to raise and lower Apollo was no doubt a variant of those used in

previous masques, and by this time standardized* The scaffold used

appears also to have been used in previous productions in much the same

manner* Tjme V indicated

Jones used three soenes for the production of Time Vindicated, in

January 19* 1623* Two of these scenes were similar to the scenes of The

Masaue of Augures. They were probably done with one shutter scene opening to reveal a back scene, and an upper shutter of the heavens opening to reveal seated tiers of figures behind. The written description indicates that two of the scenes occurred in the same general stage area, much as the scenes of the buttery-hatch and the college of Augures in The Masque

the scene made by Mr. Inigo Jones, which was three tymes changed during the tyme of the masque: wherein the first that was discovered was a prospective of Whitehall, with the Banqueting House; the second was the Masquers in a cloud; and the third a forest.^3

There is little indication that the scene in the clouds was anything but

a discovery of seated figures made by removing a section of upper-cloud

covering. The masquers later descended into the room for a song and

several dances. If Jones was using shutters here, they could work as they

apparently did in The Masaue of Augures. the "prospective 11 of Whitehall

split vertically and drawn to the sides of the stage to reveal the full

back scene of the forest. It seems certain that a scaffold similar to

the one used in The Mascue of Queenes was used to support the seated

masquers, and that the masking cover in front of them was drawn aside to

discover them. The forest scene which followed could have been on a

lower shutter behind the prospect of Whitehall. This staging would

13 Joseph Quincy Adams, editor, The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert (New Haven, 1917). p. 50. indicate that the shutter scenes could be split both vertically and hori­ z o n ta lly .

Two Masoues

Neptune»s Triumph for the Return of Albion had been planned for

January, l62*h but was cancelled and Jonson wrote another masque, The

Fortunate Isles, and Their Union, for January 9, 1625, to utilize the scenery. With one or two exceptions, the stage directions and scenic descriptions are the same in both texts*

After an extended antimasque, the scene opened on a view of a large sphere representing the island of Delos surrounded by clouds*

Here the Scene opens, and the Masquers are discouer*d sitting in their seuerall seiges* The Aire opens aboue, and APOLLO with Harmony, and the spirits of Musiaue sing, the w hile the 1 1 a n d moues forward, Proteus sitting below and hearkning.^*

During the singing of a song, with one chorus, the island moved forward, and the masquers disembarked* After they sang several songs, the island moved back and the figures above sang while the dancers prepared for their first dance* After that dance, the scene was changed, and clouds drawn over the upper region* The scene changed to a prospective of the house of Ooeanus, a shutter scene that was probably located immediately in front of the cloud scene which masked the upper region* After a very short scene of dialogue, the second perspective scene, a view of the sea was shown* General dancing followed, and a fleet of ships was discovered to a musical interlude and after some brief dialogue the performance ended*

Jonson, p* 723 64 The scenes of this masque were similar to those immediately pre­

ceding it* The island of Delos was a practical, moving machine, probably operated from behind, and could have been simply an enlarged version of one of the masquers chariots. The prospective scenes were shutter scenes, and the shutters were split both horizontally and vertically, with the upper section being of clouds to mask the scaffold which composed the

region of upper air*

James I, died March 27, 1 6 2 5 , and the activities of the masque

stage declined. A French pastoral was done at Somerset house in February

of 1625, and the Court masques were discontinued until 1631* ^

In the rather barren interim between The Masque of Oberon. and

Chloridia. Jones developed his works in architecture. This is not to say

that the masque was neglected by him, it was merely removed to a position

of less prominence. Jones no longer had a pressing need to make an

artistic reputation. He had the appointment as Surveyor to the King, and

was involved with the many duties attendant on that office. He continued

to design masques, but as he had several architectual tasks under way it

is not surprising that the masques did not receive his full attention.

Judith McDowell states the situation very dearly:

Throughout th is unproductive period from1613 to 1631, Jones was primarily interested in architecture, and his reputation at Court consequently suffered. Jonson, on the other hand openly expressed his dislike for Jones, and reduced his elaborate soenic descriptions to a minimum* The result was a lean eighteen years at Court,*®

15 Crotch, Inieo Jones, p. 1 4 1 . l6Judith McDowell, pp. 1 1 9 , 1 2 0 . CHAPTER V

THE GREAT MASQUES

The barren years of masque production were relieved in 1631* w ith the production of the last two masques of Ben Jonson* After the death of

King James* and the assumption of the Throne by Charles* it became the custom for two masques to be presented each year* The Kingts masque was presented to the Queen on twelfth-night, and she would reciprocate with a masque on Shrove Tuesday* In practice* the interval between the masques was often greater* and in some years only one masque was given*

Soenie descriptions of the last two masques of Jonson are slight* with little mention of the type of scenery used* For the production of

Loves Triumph Through Callinolis. performed at Court on January 9»1631* we can only assume that two perspective shutter scenes were used* At the opening of the production* Nthe prospect of a Sea appears, 11 ^ and later in the piece* Hthe scene changeth to a garden*M It is possible to assemble the scenic happenings in an order that indicates how the production may have been staged but little can be determined with certainty* After the in itial poetic argument of the masque* and the introduction and dances of the anti-masquers, the prospect of a sea appeared and the King, with fourteen male danoars* and attendant torchbearers, performed the first

^Jonson* p« 738 * 2 Jonson* p* 741*

65 66 dance. At the conclusion of the dance, a glory appeared in the upper level, and the smses were discovered in a hollow rock which formed part of the sea scene* The glory was later replaced by four masquers arranged in the form of a constellation, in a soene described as having the heavens open; and Venus was lowered by a cloud machine*

Only two events differed from the style of staging of earlier productions* The oloud machine which lowered Venus vanished when she reached the earth, and the throne whioh replaced it was later vanished as a palm tree shot up from below the stage* In all probability, the doud machine simply returned to the heavens and the throne was replaced from behind* Later usage would indicate that Venus rode a typo of cloud machine called a masquers seat, and it was simply lowered beneath the floor of the stage* For the effect of vanishing the throne and replacing it with a palm tree, Jones may have used the method described by Sabbattini for making a mountain or other object rise from under thestageor th e

system devised by Joseph Furttenback, which involved a trap door in the

stage floor*1*' The scene of the sea, complete with the rock whioh con­

tained the muses, was later replaced with a shutter scene of a garden which apparently slid into place in front of the sea scene*

The next Court masque, Chloridia. Rites to Chlorls and Her Nymphs. was to all intents Jonson* s swan-song in the Court masque area.-* It was

at this time that the importance of the scenic elements of the masque

3 The Renaissance Stage, p. 1 2 8 * if The Renaissance Stage, p. 228*

^Southern, p. 92* 67 began to outweigh the literary qualities, and open hostility between

Jones and Jonson broke out when Jones objected to Jonson* s name appearing first on the printed text of Lovets Triumph. 6 Doe to Jones* Influence with the King. Jonson was ousted from court, and the masque authors that followed were careful to treat Jones with extreme care. Jones worked out several scene changes for Chloridia. and gives Information as to how several of his previous effects were obtained* For the proscenium of this masque, there was an arch of foliage with naked children playing among the branches* The title of the masque appeared in a center com­ partment*? The first scene opened with the drawing up of a curtain to discover a scene of hills, trees, flowers and fountains* In the rear of the stage was a landscape with a river, and the covering of the heavens was in the form of a serene sky,® The action of the masque began with a pair of clouds which broke from the sky and discharged their passengers to the stage level* After several songs, a dance, and a tribute wherein the dancers advanced to the stage, a trap in the stage floor opened:

A part of the vnder-ground opening, out of it enters a Dwarfe- Post from Hell, riding on a Curtail, with douen feet, and two Lacqueys; These dance, & make the first entry of the Antlmasque*°

After a short speech, the dwarf re-entered the trap and it closed* The seoond entry followed; for the third entry, the dwarf appeared from the off stage area and danced again* At the conclusion of his dance, the

Lees-JMilne, p* 7 Jonson, p* 750* 8 Jonson, p* 750. 9 Jonson, p, 753. 68

“Scene Changeth, Into a horrid storme. Four more entries followed before the scene was again changed, this time into the bower of Chloris with a temple and a rainbow in the distance. After several more songs, the scene again changed indicating how the stage for the masque was d iv id ed :

The farther Prospect of the Scene changeth into ayre, with a low Land-shape, in part couered with clouds: And in that instant, the Heauen opening, Iuno, and Iris are seene, and aboue them many aery spirits, sitting in the cloudes,^ The description would seem to indicate a split stage with movable shutters for both an upper and a lower seotion, very similar to the setting for Iov«« Triumpji- Shutter scenes would aooount for the lower scenes of the landscape, the storm, the bower, and a second landscape, while the upper seotion of the stage was used for cloud scenes, and for cloud machines and tiered seating for the goddesses, Jones apparently used an elevator 12 type flying machine similar to the first type described by Sabbattini, and located it immediately in front of the heavens:

Here, out of the Earth, ariseth a Hill, and on the top of it, a globe, on which Fame is seene standing, with her trumpet in her hand; and on the Hill are seated four persons, presenting Poesie, History, Architecture, and Sculpture: who together with the Nymphy, Floode, and Fountaynes make a fu ll Quire; at which, Fame begins to mount, and moouing her wings, flyeth, singing vp to Heauen,3-3

The fu ll soene was probably painted on a flat canvas and attached to the

cross arm of the flying machine with Fame on a single, separate machine.

As soon as Fame was hidden in the upper clouds, the h ill sank beneath the

stage and the Heavens closed,

10Jonson, p , 755, ■^■Jonson, p , 758, •^The Renaissance Stage, p, 1 5 3 . •^Jonson, p, 7 5 8 , Several references to the scene Indicate that Jones employed at least a two-part stage with the upper level painted as a heaven, and the lower part changeable by means of shutters. No indications of wings are given, but since the scene is several times referred to as the back part of the scene their use would have been possible. Masque development to this point seems to argue the flat wing setting as a development from the shutter setting with little attention or use of the Serlian wing,

Chloridia was the last masque to be done with Ben Jonson, and for the two masques of the next year, Jones worked with Aurelian Townsend on the production of Albion*s Triumph, and Temoe Restored. Judith

McDowell indicates that Jones used the "familiar Serlian angled wings" as the method of scene change for Albion*s Triumnh- ^ Nicoll agrees, and the designs themselves seem to bear out this opinion.^ However, there are some arguments for a flat wing setting. The first scene of the masque, as revealed by a flying curtain, was

a Romans Atrium, with high Collombs of white Marble and orna­ ments of Architecture of a composed manner of great proiecture, enricht with carving, and between every retorne of these Collombs stood Statues of gold on round pedestalls, and beyond these were other peeces of Architecture of a Pallace royall.0

After an entrance on a cloud machine which served to introduce both the masque and the characters, the atrium, which was painted on a back

shutter, vanished, and in its place there was seen "the Forum of the City

Ju d ith McDowell, p . 121.

^ N ic o ll, p . 90. Designs. No. 108, No, 1 1 2 . 16 Design?, p. 62. 70 of Albipolis, During this scene, the figure of Albanaetus was seen passing in pomp across the rear of the scene, A scene change to "an amphitheater, with people sitting in it, " followed, and then a change to a grove of trees which "openeth it selfe to discover the aspect of a s ta te ly Temple.The final scene was a landscape of Whitehall and part of the city of London as seen from afar. The five scenes of the masque suggest that either Serlian wings were used in combination with changing shutters, and the wings did not change every time; or that flat shutter wings were used and the side scene changed with the back shutters. The elevation by Jones for the first scene does not show clearly either the

Serlian or the flat wing. The Ampitheatre of the third scene is clearly a back shutter scene, as is the fourth scene of the grove which opens to a temple. My reconstruction of the staging differs from both Nicoll and

McDowell, but seems more in keeping with what Jones had done in previous productions. It is difficult to believe that Jones would use Serlian wings when he had already mastered the art of perspective painting on flat shutters and could use the same techniques for the flat wing setting.

Since Jones had a history of using the divided stage to reveal the upper scene, it would seem most logical that the glory scene at the end of the masque was presented on such a divided stage. The temple from the scene in the grove could also have been placed in the upper area of a divided stage, and revealed by the opening heavens. Behind that area, the masquers would be in place on the elevator type cloud machine, and could

1 7 Designs, p, 62,

^ Designs. p, 62. 71 be lowered straight down and take part in th© last dance, I would suggest that Jones used three sets of wings and three shutters at the lower stage level, with two sets of shutters at the second level above the stagep

The staging of the masque would then be as follows:

1, For the first scene, three sets of wings of the Roman Atrium with a back shutter scene of the royal Palace.

2. For the second scene, a change of three new side wings and a new back shutter of a Forum. The back shutter placed far enough in the up stage position to allow cut-out figures to pass as if in a procession.

3* For the third scene, a change only of the shutter, with a scene of an ampitheatre moving in the position forward of the shutter of the Forum.

h. For the fourth scene, a change of both wings and back shutter to a grove of trees. The cloud shutter above would open to a shutter of a tem ple.

5* For the fifth scene, a change of the back shutter to a view of Whitehall and the city of London. The cloud shutter above closed over the temple,

6. During the progress of the fifth scene, the upper cloud

shutter would re-open on a glory scene, and the scene elevator machine would lower masquers to the stage level.

This scenic progression matches the style of Jones1 previous masques, and agrees with the evidence of the descriptions and the analysis

of existing masque designs. The three changes of wings are more suited

to flat wings than to Serlian wings, and the pictorial evidence which

exists may be interpreted either way. The case for the upper shutter is 72 based on previous masques, and on the description of the stately grove rising by degrees to a high place and opening itself to discover the temple. The whole tone of the masque suggests the flat scene concept with the large shutters painted to suggest the main view of the scene.

It is, of course, possible that Serlian wings were used, although three changes of Serlian wings would be difficult.

In Townsend1s second masque, Tenroe Restored, the opening scene is described in the same terms as the first, with a repetition of the term ureturnesH referring to the space between flats. Niooll compares this scene to that of the Garden of Calypso in II Gludlgio Pi Parlde. and upon observation, the settings seem to be precise duplicates*-^ There is no question from the design but that Serlian wings were used. The shutters only were changed and the wings remained in place for the balance of the masque. Several cloud machines were used, two with glories in the upper stage area. When the heavens were removed a glory with seated masquers was discovered on either side of the upper level. The figure of Cupid was apparently flown from a separate device, for he is described as flying back and forth across the stage.

The order for materials for lighting this masque has been preserved, and indicates that with dozen torches, 16 dozen good wax lig h ts , 3 dozen ordinary torches, 2 hundred sises," there was a great deal of illumination. 20 Much lighting was necessary because of lighting the sky and the upper glories as well as the lower stage areas.

19N ico ll, pp. 92, 93* 20 Gotoh, p . 163. 73

For Walter Montague*s The Shepherd*s Paradise, in I 636, Jones mentions for the first time the word "relieve" in the description of a scene*^1 The design indicates that relieve refers to a cut-out section of a flat shutter which revealed a further shutter scene behind, thus giving the effect of great depth, Jones described the first soene of the play as the "standing scene," so it is probable that the wings did not change with the shutters and that the cut-out flats of the relieve scenes did

The biggest change in the style of masque staging, excluding the use of wings, appears to be in the development of the upper stage area as a heaven area, with the growth of flat frames to mask it. Several times

Jones used the upper area to reveal a scene, as the temple in Tempo

Restored, and to reveal a glory scene with scenery other than the usual clouds. One other major development was the use of the elevator type cloud machine which extended across the stage and could be used also to lower thrones, glories, and posed groups of people. Such a machine, based on information from Sabbattini, is shown here as Figure 7, The structure of masque design seems to show a growing away from the single object, centrally located, to that of the full scene. One might almost say that the picture stage was replacing the machine stage.

21Pesigns. No, 166, No, 167 22 Designs. No. 163* Tfrp Triumph of Peace

In February of 1634, the four Inns of Court presented a masque by

James Shirley and Inigo Jones entitled The Triumph of Peace, The masque was a throwback to much earlier productions in that it featured a proces­ sion from a meeting place to the Court Banqueting House, and was presented by the Inns of Court, an outside agency, to honor both the King and Queen*

Eight days later, the masque was repeated at the Merchant Tailors* Hall, under the sponsorship of the Lord M a y o r ,^ For the initial production, the masquers rode in procession to the Banqueting House, and on their arrival, the masque was presented on a stage erected at one end of the h a ll .

The first scene of the masque was a view of a large street with

Sumptous palaces, lodges, porticos, and other noble pieces of architecture, with pleasant trees and grounds; this going far from the eye, opens itself into a spacious place, adomed with public and private buildings seen afar off, representing the forum or piassa of peace.24

This opening scene, revealed by the sudden drawing up of a curtain, was one which used either the Serlian wing or the flat wing, with two wings on one side of the stage, and one wing on the other* The scene which followed was a scene of a tavern which Nieoll thinks was a front shutter scene similar to the front scene in Albiona1 Triumph*^

2%vans, p. 203. 24 James Shirley, The Best Plays of James Shirley, edited by Edmund Gosse, The Mermaid Series (London, 1928), p, 446,

^ N io o ll, p* 98* scene Is changed into a tavern, with a flaming red lattice, several drinking-rooms, and a back door, but especially, a conceited sign, and an eminent bush,2®

The door of this tavern was practical, for several of the characters made exits through it into the interior of the tavern. In the course of the action, one of the characters made an entrance from behind the eminent bush, so that it also must have been practical. After the tavern scene, the scenery was again changed:

The SCENE becomes a woody landscape, w ith low grounds proper for hunting, the furthest part more desert, with bushes and bye-ways representing a place fit for purse-taking. In the furthest part of the scene is seen an ivy-bush, out of which comes an Owl,2?

This scene, like the opening scene, seems to be a wing and shutter scene, similar to the type of arrangement used for The Masque of Augures. with alternate front and back scenes. After three cloud chariots lowered their passengers to the stage floor level, "The scene is changed, and the masquers appear sitting on the ascent of a hill, cut out like the degrees of a theatre,"2® Here, no doubt, the upper shutter only was changed, again a sim ilarity to The Masque of Augures. and the masquers were discovered sitting in place. After several dances, the scene was changed again, this time into a view of a plain farm landscape. This change was apparently effected by closing a cloud shutter in front of the seated masquers, and opening the shutter below.

Shirley, p, 450, 27 Shirley, p, 454,

2®Shirley, p , 460« The Triumpfr Peaea- with its five scenes, seems to fit into a pattern of change that would allow for only one change of wings, and

several changes of shutter* Two sets of chargeable wings would suffice for the production* One set for the opening scene of the view of the

city, and a second set for the landscape scenes* All other scene changes

could be accomplished by the use of the changing shutters. One fu ll width

set of shutters, with profile edges and a practical door would serve for the tavern scene, and would be split down the center to allow its removal to either side of the stage* The rest of the shutters would be located

below the frame, and would also split vertically to permit changing* For the first scene, one of the shutters from below would be in place, with

the wings for the city scene* To change to the second scene, the two

sections of the tavern would be slid in place well down stage* To change to the landscape scene, the wings and shutter of the city would be changed while the tavern set blocked the view of the audience, and the wings and

shutter of the landscape could be placed* When the shutter of the tavern was drawn, the scene of the landscape would be revealed* The seated

masquers were revealed by drawing the upper shutter of clouds and simply

showing them in place* The final scene, that of a plain farmland was

revealed by opening the shutter of the landscape to reveal the back scene

in place* The alternation of scenes suggested here would allow suffi­

cient time and concealment to make the scene changes practical* Since

Jones was not at this time using nested flat wings, such a method of

alternation of scene offers a practical solution to the problem of

changing the bulky Serlian wing. Coelum Britannieum

Two weeks following the production of The Triumph of Peace, on

February 18, 163^, Jones and Thomas Carew presented th e masque, Coelum

Britannieum. in the Banqueting Bouse* Because of the short time interval between the two masques, we might expect some of the same stage machinery and a similar stage arrangement* This assumption proved to be entirely correct. Jones had painted an elaborate proscenium featuring sculptured relief works, clumps of fruit, and two youths supporting compartments in which were figured tributes to the King and Queen* The curtain for the production was watchet and pale yellow in panels and, as had by this time become traditional, "flew up on the sudden" to discover the first scene.^

This was a variant of the roller curtain, mentioned by Sabbattini as the best method of handling the curtain for a production.^ The scene as revealed by the flying curtain was a prospect of a ruined city with

old arches, old palaces, decayed walls, parts of temples, theatres, basilicas, and thermae, with confused heaps of broken columns, bases, cornices, and statues, lying as under ground; and altogether resembling the ruins of some great city of the ancient Romans or civilized Britons.31

The design for this scene shows clearly four sets of Serlian wings, and

the sketch by Jones indicates their nature so surely that they oannot be

confused with the plain flat wing*^ The use of the Serlian wing in this production would tend to support its use in preceding masques, however,

^Thomas Carew, The Poems of Thomas Carew (London, 1922), p . 192. 30 The Renaissance Stage, p . 91* 31 Carew, p . 192* 32^ Designs. No. 192. 78 it should he noted that where it is used it restricts the frequency of scene change. At the opening of Coelum Britannieum. immediately a f te r the rising curtain, the character of Mercury descended in a chariot from the heavens and began the action. For the first scene change, only the shutter was changed, and the mighty figure of Atlas was discovered on the lower back shutter, bearing up a sphere covered with stars, which was on the upper level, behind cloud masking. The stars were lighted from behind holes cut in the Tapper shutter, for

Before the entry of every Antimasque, the stars in those figures in the sphere which they were to represent, were extinct; so as, by the end of the Antimasque, in the sphere no more stars were seen.33

As there were seven antimasques, there must have been seven lighted seotions showing through holes in the shutter of the sphere. Both the upper and the lower shutters must have been located at the far up stage position, because the area in front of them was later used for the rising of a mountain from under the stage. After the last of the seven anti­ masques had been danced,

there began to arise out of the earth the top of a hill, which, by little and little , grew to be a huge mountain, that covered all the scene; the under-part of this was wild and craggy, and above somewhat more pleasant and flourishing; about the middle part of this mountain were seated the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, all richly attired in regal habits, appropriated to the several nations, with crowns on their heads, and each of them bearing the ancient arms of the kingdome they represented. At a distance above these, sat a young man in a white embroidered robe; upon his fair hair an olive garland, with wings at his shoulders,

33 Carew, p . 206. and holding in his hand a cornucopia filled with corn and fruits, representing the Genius of these kingdoms,3^

This scene, very similar to the effects of the scenes from Loves Triumph. and Chloridia. must have featured the large elevator type machine opera­ ting behind the scaffold* The scene remained in place while the live characters representing the three kingdoms presented further antimasques*

After the last antimasque, one of the masquers called upon the earth to open:

at this, the under-part of the rock opens, and out of a cave are seen to come the masquers, richly attired like ancient heroes*

First these dance with their lights in their hands, after which the masquers descend into the room, and dance their entry*35

After that dance, a cloud machine descended to the level of the Genius of the kingdoms and he was raised to the heavens* At the same time, the mountain began to sink, and as it was lowered it went down beneath the

stage and vanished in the earth* The mountain was referred to as a machine, rather than as a scene, which may help to indicate that it was

associated with the large elevator type device*

This strange spectacle gave great cause of admiration, but especially how so hugh a machine, and of that great height, , could come from under the stage, which was but six foot high*^

This wonderment caused by the mountain seems extreme when we consider

that Jones had done almost the same thing with the palm tree in Loves

■^Carew, p* 223* ’ 35 Carew, p* 226, 36 Carew, p . 227* 80

Triumph, and with the h ill in Chloridia. evoking no great surprise.

Shortly after the mountain had vanished, the scene was again changed, this time into a pleasant garden with fountains and grottos, and the chorus led the company in the concluding dances and revels. After the revels, the masque was concluded by three cloud machines, the first of which covered the entire scene. Two smaller clouds, each bearing three passengers, appeared from either side of the stage. The lower part of the stage, the lower shutter, was changed when the large cloud provided masking into a prospect of Windsor Castle, perhaps the same view that was used as a shutter in Albion^ Trjinwph. with the building changed from

Whitehall to Windsor. During the last song, the shutter of Windsor

Castle was drawn leaving a Nserene sky.

There were five shutter scenes in this masque, a machine effect on a rising mountain, and several cloud machines. The shutter scenes were split, one above and one below for the scene of Atlas holding aloft a sphere. The alternation of the areas of the stage allowed time for

shutters to be changed, and the use of the cloud machines permitted parts

of the stage to be cleared so that other areas could be revealed. The

arrangement and progression of the several scenes must have involved—

1. The first scene of a ruined city with four Serlian wings, a

lower back shutter of broken architecture, and an upper back shutter of

clouds, revealed by the flying curtain.

^Carew, p. 235 81

2. After a series of antimasques, the rear shutters* upper and lower, were changed. The lower level from a panel of architecture to one of Atlas, and the upper level to a shutter of a sphere with stars.

3. For the next scene, the mountain rose from a cut In the stage floor in front of the shutter of Atlas, and the figures representing the three kingdoms were seen through cut-out sections of it.

4. During the following scene, a cave at one corner of the moun­ tain scene opened to admit several torch-bearing masquers.

5* Cloud machines, used later in the masque with passengers, then descended and covered the stage to mask a scene change.

6. While the clouds covered the stage, the mountain disappeared and a garden shutter replaced the figure of Atlas, while clouds covered the upper shutter space.

7. After this garden scene, the lower shutter only was changed to a prospect of Windsor Castle.

8. The shutter of Windsor Castle was drawn to reveal a back shutter with a view of plain sky.

9. The masque concluded with the drawing of the curtain.

There is no reason to suppose that the Serlian wings at the sides of the setting were changed. Since they were of trees and bushes, they would fit in with the style of all the shutter scenes. With the exception of the mountain rising from under the stage, this masque appeared to use the same devices and scenic techniques of those masques which immediately preceded it. The Temple of Love

Sir William D*Avenant began a long association with the Court masque when he and Jones presented at Whitehall on February 10, l635» * masque for Queen Henrietta and her ladies entitled, The Temple of Love. ^

D*Avenant was to be the collaborator with Jones for almost all of the remaining masques done at Court.

The stage for the production was located at the lower end of the

Banqueting House, and, like most of the masques which had gone before it, it featured a stage six feet high and a full proscenium aroh. The curtain flew upward to begin the production, and discovered the first scene, a grove of shady trees with a winding pathway running to the top. Divine

Posey was lowered in a great cloud of a rosy color which entirely covered the scene. After she disembarked at stage level, the cloud closed and again rose to the heavens. The first scene change followed, a view of mist and clouds through which a glimpse of the Temple of love was seen.

The scene of mist and of clouds was apparently a relieve setting, and the

ohange was a change only of the shutter, with the side wings remaining in place. Out of traps under the stage came three Magicians who introduced the various antimasques. Following their dancing, the scene was all

changed into a prospect of the sea as viewed from an Indian coast. At the rear of the scene, from a creek on the sea-coast, came a barque bearing the figure of Orpheus. The barque sailed back and forth across the sea and later returned to the creek from which it started. After

38Sir William D*Avenant, The Works of Sr William D»avenant K1 (London, l6?3), p. 283. N.B. D*Avenant indicated in his biography that he preferred the French spelling of his name. that interval, the main masque began with the entrance of the masquers in a "Maritime chariot made of rook, with paddle wheels of gold, drawn by sea-monsters. The back of this chariot was a great scallop shell, a description that brings back the setting for The Masque of Blackness.

When the chariot landed, the scene was changed to dry land, and the Queen and her ladies entered onto the dancing space with a song. The King took the Queen to the state and the scene was again changed, this time to the

Temple of Chaste Love. This temple was three-dimensional, for two of the characters entered it to sing a song. While their song continued, Chaste

Love descended from a cloud and embarking, led a procession to the state.

Following their tribute to the King and Queen, they retired to the stage and the rest of the evening was given over to the revels. "Thus ended this masque, which for the newness of the invention, variety of scenes, apparitions, and richness of habits was generally approved to be one of 40 the most magnificent that hath been done in England."

There were four basic scenes in the masque, with several very special effects to add to the scenic splendor.

1. The first scene, revealed by a rising curtain, was a Serlian wing and shutter back scene setting with a landscape.

2. The scene which followed was a view of the Temple of Love as

seen through a delicate mist. W. J. Lawrence builds a case for the use in the masque theatre of censing equipment which could be "used for

39d» Avenant, p. 300. 40 D> Avenant, p. 305. 84 freshening ill-ventilated rooms and relieving the oppressiveness of the 41 atmosphere in overcrowded assemblies."

3. At the conclusion of that scene, a pair of shutters with a

seascape closed the back stage, and a small boat was maneuvered back and forth across the face of the shuttera The chariot of the large sea shell moved from th e upstage to th e downstage p o s itio n and the masquers a l i t on the dry land*

4* The next scene was of the Temple of Love, and was revealed by opening the shutter of the sea scene*

It would appear that Jones used nothing new or startling in pre­ paring the scenery for this masque, bub instead retained the basic

formula of alternation of scenes by using the backshutters and leaving

the side wings of the stage unchanged* The use of the miniature ship

seems to indicate a continued movement toward the full flat scene, rather

than to the machine type staging of the early masques* The focus of this

masque appears to be toward the flat center of the scene, and the wings

serve mainly as side masking* The face of the scaffold structure,

adapted to hold the sliding shutters would be the center of audience eye

d ire c tio n .

Florimene

Florimene. a French pastoral, was produced at Court in December

of 1635* Several ground plans of the stage for that production have been

preserved. A section of such a plan is shown as Figure 8* The scale of

T*. J. Lawrence, Pre-Restoration Stage Studies (Cambridge: 1927), pp. 226, 227, the plan indicates that the proscenium frame was seven foot one inch from the front of the stage; the faces of the four Serlian wings were two feet four inches; and each wing was set two feet seven inches upstage from the first set. Upstage of the wings were the shutters, three relieve scenes, and the backcloth. The stage was twenty-three feet deep with a clear width of thirteen feet between the upstage set of wings, John Webb,

Jones* assistant, did a second plan inscribed, "that kind of sceane with triangular frames on ye sydes where there is but one standing sceane and ye sceane changes only at the Backshutters," This standing scene was painted on both the shutters and the wings and represented the isle of

Delos, Nearby houses and trees were painted on the wings, while the

shutter showed a prospect of the sea. The wings remained unchanged, while

the shutters underwent several changes. The first major change of

shutter was of a type which indicated the type of change Jones was to

use for most of his succeeding productions. Using the space under the

scaffold platform for nests of shutters had been standard practice for

Jones in several masques, but he began to use this area to alternate with

a shutter in the forward position and a cut-out panel or scene of

"relieve" in the upstage position. Use of this technique created a great

deal of depth on the stage. There were four Serlian wings to the face of

the shutter nest, and seven feet of inner stage behind the shutters to

the backcloth,^

Ilo BgfitaB.fr No. 244,

^Paul Reyher, Les Masques anglais (Paris, 1909), pi* 1* The first of the relieve scenes was a view of the temple of

Diana, revealed by opening the shutter immediately in front of it. There followed interchanges of shutter and relieve scenes to represent the four

seasons, and the last scene of the pastoral was entitled, "6th sceane the hit 2nd Temple of Diana a shutter," Following this scene, the upper heaven was opened and deities were revealed as in the masque, The Triumph of

Peace,

The P rince d 1Amour

This masque, presented in February of I 636, featured five alter­

nations of scene, worked with fixed wings and changing shutters. There

is some question as to Jones1 connection, as Sir Henry Herbert indicates

that the scenes for the Masque were designed by another Court Designer, lie Mr, Corseilles, The editors of Designs hold that if Jones did not

actually design the masque, one of the scenes was designed by him and

used for the piece.^ There was little time to prepare the production as

D*Avenant was allowed only three days to write the masque and then turn 47 it over to the musicians and the scene designer for their work. The

masque was to follow Florimene but the Queen was delivered of princess

Elizabeth at that time, and all entertainments were postponed. The masque

was finally performed on February 24, and was accorded a success,

jijt Designs. No. 251.

^Gotch, p, 184. 46 Designs, pp. 2, 101,

^A rthur H. Nethercot, Sir William D* Avenant (Chicago, 1938), p . 135. Britannia Triunrohans

There was a time interval of three years before the next Court

masque* The King had decorated the ceiling of the Banqueting House with paintings by Rubens and other artists figuring the reign of King James,

and feared the murals would be ruined by the smoke from the candles and 48 torches necessary to light the masques* The new Masking House was

erected in two months and was planned to be tom down immediately after

the last performance of Britannia Trlumphans. The construction of the

new hall was of fir, uninsulated, and the arrangement of the stage

followed that of the stage in the Banqueting House* The staging itself

differed little from that of the previous masques* At one end of the

hall was a stage of six foot high with an oval stair leading dcwn into

the room* The proscenium was of pillars with side compartments, and a

great painted drapery of crimson was tied at the sides and hung down in

folds to drape the pillars*

A curtain flying up discovered the first scene, a view of the

city of London on the shutter, with English houses on the wings. The

characters of the antimasque entered, and after they discussed the purpose

of the masque, Merlin entered and with a wave of his magic wand, changed

th e scene:

the whole Scene was transformed into a horrid hell, the fur­ ther part terminating in a flaming precipice, and the nearer parts expressing the suburbs, from whence enter the several Antim asques.^9

48 Nethercot, p* 159•

^D* Avenant, Dramatic Works, edited by J. Mainment and W. H. Logan (London, 1964-), p , 273* 88

There followed six entries of dancers, and then the character of Bellero- phon entered, riding on Pegasus. No indication is given as to whether or not the Pegasus was a real horse, orsimply & costumed dancer, although

Bellerophon rode him, and he was led by an attendant. Merlin chanted a second charm, and—

At this the hell suddenly vanisheth, and there appears a vast forest, in which stood part of an old castle kept by a giant, proper for the scene of the mock Bonanza which followed.50

Merlin, Bellerophon, and two of the presenters from the first section of the masque watched from the side as a scene was played between a giant, a dwarf, a Knight, squire, and a Lady. Merlin resolved their fight by his magical powers and a ll exited when the music announced Fame.

In the further part of the Scene, the earth opened and there rose up a richly adorn*d palace, seeming a ll of Goldsmiths* work, with porticoes vaulted on pillasters running far in: the pillasters were silver of rustic work, their bases and oapitols of gold. In the midst was the principal entrance, and a gate; the doors* leaves of bass-relief, with jambs and frontispiece all of gold. Above these ran an architrave, freize, and cornice of the same; the freize enricht with jewels; this bore up a ballestrata, in the midst of which, upon a high tower with many windows, stood Fame in a carnation gar­ ment trim*d with gold, with white wings and flazen hair; in one hand a golden trumpet, and in the other an olive garland.

When this palace was arrived to the heights, the whole scene was changed into a Feristillium of two orders, Doric and Ionic, with their several ornaments seeming of white marble, the bases and capitals of gold; this, joining with the former, having so many returns, openings, and windows, might w ell be known fo r the g lo rio u s Palace of Fame«51 On surface examination, this scene might be taken for a simple adaptation of the rising mountain from Coelum Britannieum. but the use of the scenery

50 D*Avenant, Dramatic Works, p. 2?8.

51d * Avenant, Dramatic Works, pp. 283, 28^. leads to a conclusion that a more sophisticated device was used. The gates of the palace were practical, for they opened to reveal Britanocles,

Such usage would seem to indicate that the palace, at least in the lower

section, was framed, and that the top section was flown like a drop from a folded position. Since the stage was six feet deep, and the doors of the palace must have been of a height to admit Britanocles, we can only

suppose that the section of the palace that was framed was either angled or placed flat on the floor under the stage and guided through the cut in the floor by the workmen who operated under the stage, Sabbattini gives

instructions for such a device using a grooved guide board and a wind­ lass,^ One possible arrangement for this palace in operation is shown

as Figure 9* In this re-construction the top of the mountain is formed

of doth and attached to the masquers seat. The lower section, with

practical door, is then guided through the cut for the masquers seat.

Fame, who rose with the palace, later flew on up into the heavens as the

palace sank beneath the stage, so she must have been flown independently.

After the entrance of the masquers, the palace sank, and Fame

remained hovering in the air for a song, and was then raised into the

clouds. The masquers presented a dance and a song before moving forward

and praising the Queen, and then the scene was changed to the prospect of

Britain used for the opening scene. After another short song, the scene

was again changed to a seascape with a citadel on one side and broken

rocky ground on the other, Galatea entered on a dolphin and sang from

the center of the sea area. After her song, several ships were seen

52 The Renaissance Stage, p. 128. 90 sailing across the sea, and at length entering the harbor near the cita­ del. A short song by the chorus concluded the masque. The staging involved four changes of shutter, one drop raised from under the stage, and five changes of the Serlian wings. One possible arrangement of the stage for the masque is shown as Figure 10. The order of the scenes indicates that the changing of the wings did not always occur with the change of th e s h u tte rs . The use o f the r is in g palace o f Fame, fo r exam­ ple, occurs alone and then the wings are changed to a pillar set. The progression of the scene was as follows:

1. The front curtain flew up to open the masque, revealing a scene of England on both the wings and on the first shutter.

2. At a command from Merlin, the entire scene, both wings and shutter were changed to a scene of an ugly hell. The first shutter was drawn, and the second shutter was revealed.

3* Again, at the command of Merlin, the shutter of the hell was drawn, and a shutter of the forest was seen. At the same time, the wings were changed.

km For the change to th e palace of Fame, the s h u tte r of th e -

forest scene was drawn and the palace was raised from an upstage cut in

the stage floor. After it was in position, the wings were changed from forest to pillars.

5. After the entrance of the masquers through the sides, and

Britanocles1 entrance through the practical door in the palace, the palace

sank beneath the stage. 91

6. Following a song by the company, the wings were changed to the opening scene, and the shutter of Britain was re-drawn as at the

opening of the masque,

7. A very short interval passed, and both shutter and wings were

changed to a view of the sea, with a citadel and harbor,

8, Galatea appeared, riding on a dolphin, and sang before passing

o f f ,

9, Following Galatea*s exit, a fleet appeared before the scene

of the sea, sailed about, and entered the harbor,

10, The chorus concluded the masque with three verses of a song,

Britannia Triumohans was the last masque to use the Serlian wing

setting. From almost the start of his career in Court scene design,

Jones had been looking for a simple means of changing the scene, but for

some reason, continued to use the Serlian wing long after he had dis­

covered the ease and simplicity of the flat wing,

A note on the obverse side of one of the designs for Britannia

Triumphans raises some question about the structure of the scenery. In

noting that some ninety-two workmen were necessary for the preparation of

various parts of the hall and scenery, the note indicates that the services

of eight tilers were needed because the scene needed "to be all tiled

ouer, If the reference was to the palace of Fame, it clearly could

not have been constructed of cloth* This line of thought opens the

possibility of a solid palace, hinged in horizontal sections and covered

w ith t i l e .

“^Designs. No, 289, Luminalla

The Serlian angled wings used for Britannia Trjumphans. and at intervals for some of the earlier masques, did not prove to be the most

satisfactory method of quickly changing the scenes. .Although Jones experimented with other methods, he returned to the use of the flat frames he had used for masking early in his design career. These movable flat wings were much more satisfactory for speed and ease of scene change.

The form eventually evolved was a copy of the Italian perspective stage.

This was the final design style which Webb and D*Avenant carried into the public theatres after the innerregnum, and which lasted in variant forms

until early in the twentieth century.

The first of the masques by Jones to be staged using these

devices was Luminalia. The Festivall of Light, produced in the new

Masquing House, February 6, 1638. For this production Jones used four

flat tree wings on either side of the stage, with the major scene changes

occurring as shutter scenes, or as scenes of "releiue11 with cut-away

shutters and a sky back doth. Other features of the masque were a

standard cloud machine, a rising sun, and a glory scene with the masquers

seated in tiers while gods and goddesses floated across the sky. Nicoll

indicates that a painted cloth was lowered from the heavens for this

later effect,^ There are indications that Jones borrowed from the style

of the painter Rubens, who was in England from mid 1629 to early in 1630

to paint the ceiling of the Banqueting Hall.*^ Scene change was by

^Nicoll, p. 117.

“^ Designs. No. 308, and p. 115. 93 opening the shutters to show relieve scenes, and the wings did not change with the rest of the setting. The use of the seated masquers, in a glory effect, was used to conclude the production, while painted gods and goddesses floated from the upper level of the scaffold platform,

Salmacida Spolia

The last, and most elaborate of the Court masques, was a joint production of the King and Queen, done the 21st of January, l6*K), Of all the masques presented at the Court it was the most advanced in scenic effects, Jones had refined the use of the flat wing, and combined it with a change of backscene and overhead border, so that in Salmacida

Spolia there were four complete changes of every piece visible, wings, borders, and backshutters,^? It is difficult to say with any degree of certainty when the flat wing was first used in England, however, indica­ tions are that the concept of the device was known early, Jones had used the flat frame as a shutter type device, and as a painters panel long before he made use of it as a flat wing. We do know that the Serlian angled frame wing was used in Britannia Triumphans. but in Luminatis and in Salmacida Spolia. the switch had been made to the flat wing. It is unfortunate that only in the later masques are ground plans indicating the shape of the wings available. For the earlier masques, we must rely on the elevation drawings of Jones, and it is difficult to ascertain exactly which type of wing is intended. The ground plans available for

*56 Designs. No, Jill Rp, Stuart Masques. Fig, 77,

57Southern, Changeable Scenery, p , *4-7, Salmacida Spolia indicate clearly that the flat wing was used. Preserved are both a section and a ground plan with notes by John Webb. Adaptations of these drawings are shown as Figures 11 and 12. The setting featured four nests of wings on either side of the stage (B), located about three and a half feet apart. Each unit had five divisions, making four grooves in which flats were slid. Behind the second unit on each side, and centered on it. were posts with ropes (C). The ropes were raised and lowered by capstans (W). which were placed under the stage, and served as 58 "Ehgynes by which Deityes ascend and discend." One foot eight inches behind the upstage set of wing nests were the frames for the backshutters

(D), which ran four grooves completely across the stage. Three feet ten inches upstage of the backshutters were the seats for the Masquers (E), attached to (Gr) a cross beam, cambered on the ends to fit into uprights

(F), grooved to receive them. There was a cut in the sta?* floor by- means of which the seating could be lowered, the space gr '^d could be used for scenes on relieve (I). The backcloth (H) was supported by four large timbers (L). Above, and in front of each side wing nest, were borders (R), and clouds (T), which moved in grooves (S) across the heavens. The height of scenery varied from a nest height of twenty-five feet at the first set to fourteen feet six inches for the last set. At a height of sixteen feet, the seat of the masquers would have been out of audience sight. These plans by Webb are valuable, doubly so because they are for a production in the Masking House, and indicate dimensions that must have been adapted from those used for earlier masques. The type of

58 Designs. No. 321, No. 322; Rp, Stuart Masques. Figs, 78, 79. 95 machine used to operate the masquers seat, and the two flying type machines must also have been used in previous masques done in the Masking

House.

As had by this date become traditional in the opening of the masques* the curtain flew up* revealing a scene of storm and tempest.

Evidently* the storm was painted on one of the backshutters* with the side wings painted to resemble trees bent by the wind and rain. In the midst of the storm, the figure of Fury changed from a globe of earth through flames to an ugly hag. She introduced the antimasque, similar to the one of witches in The Masque of Queenes. Following the antimasque, the scene was changed to a pastoral scene.

the scene changed into a calm, the sky serene, afar off Zephyrus appeared breathing a gentle gale; in the landskip were oom fields and pleasant trees, sustaining vines fraught with grapes, and in some of the furthest parts villages* with all such things as might express a country in peace, rich and fruitful.59

Next, a silver chariot was lowered from the heavens with two persons

aboard. They descended and the chariot ascended again into the clouds.

After they had departed to spread harmony throughout Britain, there

followed twenty antimasques in separate entries, each presenting a

different dance. The antimasques being past,

all the Scene was changed into craggy rocks and inaccessible mountains, in the upper parts where any earth could fasten, were some trees, but of strange forms, such as only grow in remote parts of the Alps, and in desolate places; the farthest of these was hollow in the midst, and seemed to be cut through by art, as the Pausilipo near Naples, and so high as the top pierced the clouds, all *hich represented the difficult way , which heroes are to pass ere they come to the throne of Honour.60

^Evans, p. 233. ^°Evans, p. 238. The rear shutter, on -which the woody landscape was painted, did not extend through the upper aloud level, because after a suitable song of introduction, the masquers arranged themselves in an open nV, H and the scene opened to reveal the King with his attendants in the throne of honour* While the chorus sang six stanzas of welcome to his majesty, a cloud machine bearing the Queen and her ladies descended in the same groove, and the King and his men were lowered beneath the stage and replaced by the Queen and her ladies*^ When the Queen reached stage level, the King escorted her from the seat and after a dance seated her in the state as the scene was again changed*

the scene was changed into magnifioent buildings composed of several selected pieces of architecture: in the furthest part was a bridge over a river, where many people, coaches, horses, and such like were seen to pass to and fro: beyond this, on the shore were buildings in prospective, which shooting far from the eye showed the suburbs of a great city * °2

This last scene must have been a scene of relieve, open all the way to the backscene, with the bridge in place immediately behind the masquers seat* The seat itself must have been lowered beneath the stage, because later in the scene a great cloud descended bearing eight masquers attired as spheres. Two other clouds appeared, one on each side of the stage, and the border of clouds above the shutter area opened to reveal a painted

sky full of deities. The chorus sang a last tribute to the King and

Queen, all the clouds vanished, and the deities ascended.

^^HcDowell, p, 139 62 Evans, p. 2^3. 97

Of special note in this masque was the use of the masquers seat, or throne of honour. There may have been three sets of seats operating

In the same set of vertical grooves, with two of the seats, those bearing the King and Queen, operating at the same time. The progression of the scenes was as follows:

1* For the opening scene, discovered by a rising curtain, wings of the storm scene were in place in the upstage grooves of the wing nests.

The downstage shutter was of a storm scene, and the five sets of borders also figured a storm scene.

2. For the first scene change, to a pastoral scene, wings painted for the scene were slid in front of the storm scene, the storm shutter was drawn, and the borders were slid across the stage to be changed. During the scene, one of the downstage cloud machines lowered a chariot with two passengers, discharged them and returned to the heavens.

3, The third change, to a craggy mountain scene, was accomplished in a similar manner. The third set of wings was slid in place, and the scene on the shutter of wild vegetation was revealed by removing the pastoral scene. In spite of Southern* s comment about changing the borders for every scene, I find no indication in the designs that this was done, or was even possible. In the elevation of the scene, Webb notes that "Then Clouds also went in grooues marked S: & changed with ye sceanes below.He also notes on the ground plan: "Ground platt of a sceane where ye side peeces of ye sceane doe altogither change with ye

^ Designs. No. 322} Rp. Stuart Masques. Fig, 78. 98 6u back shutters*11 The elevation of the scene is inscribed} "Profyle of ye sceane when ye sceane doth wholy change as well on ye sydes as at ye back shutters, & when ye syde peeces are made to ohange by running in groues, The drawings indicate four sets of grooves for the side wings, four for the back shutters, but only one for the borders* One surmise made after examination of the scenic description would be that there were only two changes of border, from a stormy sky, to a sky of calm and serene clouds, and only the wings and shutters changed for the other scenes* During the course of this scene, the shutter was ptilled, and the King and his attendants were discovered sitting on a throne* The masquers seat, which held the throne, was in the lowered position, allow­ ing the Queen and her attendants to be lowered from above the scene in the same set of grooved posts* As the Queen descended in her cloud-

covered seat, the seat bearing the King and his attendants sank beneath the level of the stage* After a song, which gave the King time to move to stage level, he took the Queen to the state, and they were seated

there to await the next scene change* Only two seats are shown in Webb* s

elevation for the scene, and since the seat bearing the King sank under

that of the Queen, her seat must either have been re-used, or a third

seat provided*

^■* After the King and Queen had been seated in the state, the

cloud seat was removed, and a relieve bridge was seen in front of the

6k Designs. No* 321; Rp* Stuart Masques. Fig* 77*

^Designs, No* 322; ftp* Stuart Masques. Fig. 78. 99 backcloth. The wings were changed by drawing the ones used for the rooky scene, revealing wings of buildings and other architectural scenes*

Miniature figures of people, coaches, and horses were seen moving across the bridge* Finally, a cloud seat descended bearing eight masquers costumed to represent spheres, the two cloud machines behind the second set of wings were lowered, and the border of clouds above the shutters was opened to reveal a heaven of painted gods and goddesses. For the conclusion of the masque, all the clouds ascended and the upper cloud border was again closed*

With the use of relieve scenes in the shutter grooves there were four alternations of wings and shutters. The backcloth was of sky, and was seen through cut-out relieves for both the scene of a rocky grotto and the last scene of the relieve bridge.

The End of an Era

Salmacida Spolia was the last Court masque. With a change in the political situation, all theatre declined in England, and its regenera­ tion did not occur until 1655 when D'Avenant and Webb produced the first

English opera, The Siege of Rhodes.

During this last period of great masques, Jones demonstrated great changes in the form and style of his scenic design. Much of his development was due to a change in place location. The first change, from the old Banqueting House to the new Banqueting Hall, was in 1622, marked by the production of The Masque of Aueures. The second change in location was from the new Banqueting Hall to the Masking House to a specially prepared stage for the production of Britannia Triumphans in 1638 * Jones did only three productions in the new building, following

Britannia Triunrohans with Luminalia, and finally with the last and greatest of the masques, Salmacida Spolia. It seems ironic that the close of theatrical spectacle so closely followed the highest point of

Jones1 career as a scenic designer* It is indeed fortunate that this final form of the Court masque could be carried over, through Webb and

D*Avenant, to the public stage of the Restoration, CHAPTER VI

SCENIC DEVELOPMENT

In examination of the scenery and scenic devices of the Court masque, certain generalizations governing the reasons behind the particu­ lar type of scenery, and the usage of various scenic elements may be made.

If the totality of the productions designed by Inigo Jones are examined, patterns of experimentation may be seen. Before presenting the various elements which make up masque scenery and the resulting concepts of scenic design, I would like to state several very general assumptions which govern any analysis of the scenery for the masque stage,

1, Early Court masques were done in a location not designed for production. The first location for the masques of Jones was the old

Banqueting House, an edifice designed for Royal entertainments rather than dramatic events. The stage in the Banqueting House had to be con­ structed for every production, and the limitations imposed on the designer involved problems associated with the complete design of every show; design of the theatre as well as the particular production. All of the masque productions until 1619 were done in temporary surroundings at the end of a hall designed for banqueting. In 1622, the new Banqueting

House was completed. Although designed by Jones, and specially fitted out for the production of masques, its major function was still that of the state banquet. In 1638 , production was moved to a wooden structure

101 102 specifically designed for masques. However, this building was erected in only two months, compared to four years for the Banqueting House, and was of frame construction, designed only to last for one masque. We wonder what Jones might have done given a chance to design and erect a more permanent structure for the masque.

2. Changes in the form of the masque to some extent dictated the type and style of scenery. Beginning with The Masque of Queenes. the development of the antimasque steadily encroached on the masque form; at the production of Salmacida Spolia. there were twenty "entries" of anti­ masque performers, and the body of the masque was reduced accordingly.

3. The introduction of the picture frame stage, and focus from the viewing location of the “state" strongly influenced the style of scenery in the masque. The first framing of the stage in The Masque of

Blackness indicated that the viewing position was fixed and that the

scenery, to appear correctly, had to be viewed from the perspective eye point designed by the designer. Because size limitations of scenery forced the designer into perspective and foreshortening, the trend in masque design was toward the flat scene where perspective could be con­ trolled by painting. There seems to be an almost steady progression away from three-dimensional settings and scenes requiring plastic objects, toward a completely flat scene. This may be illustrated by the various

spheres in the early masque representing the plastic object, and the almost total absence of such objects in the later masques where the final form consisted of flat wings, and flat shutters, with no round or plastic objects of any kind. 103

With these generalizations in mind, it would be well to look at a few of the elements of masque scenery in the light of their use in a con­ tinuing series of productions*

Scenic Elements

Three elements of scenery of the masque lend themselves to treat­ ment as a group; the curtain, clouds, and backdrops* Other elements of scenery, because of their construction and use w ill be considered separately later*

The curtain is perhaps the first element of masque scenery that should be considered* Jones used two types of curtain for the masque, the final form closely related to the curtains as used in the modern theatre. The early curtain served a dual function, that of masking the scene before production, and that of being a part of the scene by its own surface decoration* In the later use it would be related to the particu­ lar production rather than to the theatre*

For The Masque of Blackness, the c u rta in was a stre tc h ed cloth with a landscape painted on it. The landscape was unrelated to the scene of the masque, and served to mask the stage until the performance was ready to begin* Its appearance would have been as one of the wall hang­

ings* Nicoll reports that the curtain fell to open the production. 1

Jonson described the curtain as a landscape "which falling" revealed the

scene*2 The te x t of th e masque in the Royal m anuscript c o lle c tio n

1Nicoll, p. 58 . 2 Jonson, p, 170, 104 mentions the cloth of the landscape "wch openinge in manner of a

Cur tine, Both the falling curtain, and the traverse curtain were known to Jones, but the use of the curtain as a traverse or draw curtain did not appear in the masque, W, J, Lawrence mentions the use of draw cur­ tains in contemporary Elizabethan usage.

In private life in Elizabethan days it was customary to pro­ vide oil paintings with a ringed curtain running on a rail to protect them from dust, glass being then too expensive to use as a covering.^

No further curtains are mentioned for the masque until the pro­ duction of Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, in 1618. In that masque we are told only of a large curtain with a wide fringe, painted to resemble a gold tent,5

The next curtain mention occurs in The Fortunate Isles, and Their

Onion, a masque of 1625* For the opening scene, several of the charac­ ters of the antimasque appeared in front of what of necessity must have been a curtain and discussed the production. At the conclusion of the antimasque, "the Scene opens, and the Masquers are discouer'd" in chariots about a large island which moved forward to discharge its cargo and later returned to an upstage position,^

There followed the death of King James, and a rather fallow period for masque production. In a production of Chloridia. a Queens1 masque of 1631, we find directions for the opening of a curtain to

3 Royal MS, 17* B* XXXI, Reproduced in Jonson, p, 195* 4 Lawrence, p. 114,

5Nicoll, p. 40. 6 Jonson, p, 723, 105 begin the production; "The Curtaine being drawn® vp, the SCENE is discouer*d,

For every succeeding masque the curtain either ’’flew up on the sudden , 11 or “was suddenly drawn up, " to reveal the first scene of the masque* No indications of either a curtain or a place for its operating machinery is indicated on any surviving plans for the masque stage, a situation that may indicate that its use as a flying curtain was so much a part of the procedure that it was not necessary to note it.

The use of clouds in the masque follows a pattern similar to that of the curtain. In The Masque of Slackness., the clouds over the scene served to provide a setting for the character of the Moon, and although first described as "an obscure and cloudy night-piece, " were in fact quite Q e la b o ra te . 0

At this, the Mbone was discouered in the vpper part of the house, triumphant in a Siluer throne, made in figure of a Pyramis. Her garments White, and Siluer, the dressing of her head antique; & crown*d with a Luminarie, or Sphere of light: which striking on the clouds, and heightned with Siluer, reflected as naturall clouds doe by the splendor of the Moone. The heauen, about her, was vaulted with blue silke, and set with starres of Siluer which had in them their seuerall lights burning.?

Since the Moon “was discouered" in the scene, an argument for a dividing heaven might be made. The clouds of silk were necessary to fill the top part of the scene, and the space over the stage would have provided a platform on which the Moon and her lights oould rest. Some sort of

7 'Jonson, p. 750. g Jonson, pp. 171, 172.

^Jonson, pp. 175, 176. 106 dividing heaven was used in Hvmenaei. where it served as a piece of mask­ ing to conceal sections of the upper scene*

Here, the vpper part of the Scene, which was all of Clouds, and made artificially to swell, and ride like the Racke, began to open; and the ayre clearing, in the top thereof was discouered IVNO, sitting in a Throne.10

The cloud masking of the piece reached to the top of the hall, and was of two types, a relieve cloud section on each side of the stage, which was joined to a "cortine of painted clouds, M which opened*^

The Masque of Queenes contains only a single cloud reference, in which the figure of Fame is mentioned as sitting on a throne with her feet on the ground and her head in the clouds* The nature of the scene, an exterior palace, would Indicate some treatment of the heavens* Oberon

is equally vague, but the scene at the opening of the masque greatly resembles The Haddington Masque. and some overhead masking would have been necessary* In the course of the production, the moon, stars, and

the sun appeared in the heavens, probably surrounded by clouds*

There is a brief reference to clouds in Pleasure Reconciled to

Virtue, where Hercules states:

"But here must be no shelter, nor no shrowd for such: Sinck Groue, or into clowd*"

After this, the whole Groue vanisheth, and the whole Musiq is discouered sitting at ye foote of ye mountains, with P leasure & Vertue seated aboue yem*^

The grove referred to was a grove of ivy at the foot of a moun­

tain scene* When the scene changed, a shutter was drawn on the lower

^Jonson, p* 2 1 6 *

^■Jonson, p , 231* 12 Jonson, p* 107 section of the stage, leaving the mountain and the figure of Atlas above*

Chloridia featured several types of clouds; in the opening scene, they were transparent borders, but later for one of the scene changes "in the skie a-farre of appear1d a Rainebow. The rainbow was later changed "into ayre, with a low Land-shape, in part couered with clouds:

And in that instant, the Heauen opening, Iuno, and Iris are seene, and aboue them many aery spirits, sitting in the cloudes, The heavens referred to are no doubt the divided heavens* In later masques, the borders ran in tracks or grooves, so that they could be changed for the time of day, or for changing weather conditions*

The backcloth, or backdrop* changed very little in the progress of masque scenery development* It was usually a plain sky scene, although occasionally it featured a distant landscape. Unlike the other scenic units, the backcloth was fixed in place and did not change with the other

scenery* Beginning w ith The Masque of Blackness, a backcloth was used for every masque designed by Jones* It was always located at the extreme upstage position on the stage, and extended from stage level to far above the upper cloud area. The height of the backcloth for Salmaoida

Spoljla. for example, was about thirty feet, while the height of the shutter nest was fourteen feet*

13 Jonson, p. 756 . 1^ Jonson, p. 758 . 108

Machinery

Machinery in the masque tends generally to fall into three classes: cloud machines, usually one on each side of the stage, with a large machine center back in the later masques; wagon machines, such as the large shells, islands, spheres, and chariots; and special effects machines, such as the sea in The Masque of Blackness, the whirling circle of fire in Hvmenaei. and the various rising mountains, palm trees, and groves which appeared from below the stage.

The cloud machines, those of the side operating type, seem to have been adapted from either a shipping crane, or a mason's tower. In operation, a vertical beam would be fixed off-stage with a horizontal arm attached to its center with a flexible connection, A common block and tackle affixed to the end of the horizontal, and attached to the top of the vertical member would provide for raising and lowering the horizontal beam through a gentle arc. If, as the plan for Salmacida Spolia indi­

cates, the purchast line is reeved through a pulley and attached to a windlass under the stage, enough mechanical advantage is obtained to easily handle eight people of average weight. Such a machine is illus­ trated as Figure 5 and discussed earlier in this work. Using only a

rope, through a pulley overhead, and down the side of the stage to the windlass, a single masquer could be raised and lowered anywhere on stage, much in the manner of a modern spotline flying system.

The large cloud machine, the "maskers seat," did not make an

appearance until the later masques. The shift in emphasis from a stage

featuring a central machine, such as a sphere or a shell, to a stage with

a back portion essentially flat allowed the introduction of such a device. 109

In operation, such a machine consisted of a horizontal beam riding in grooves between two v e rtica l beams* This machine has been described earlier on page 73 and is indicated in Figure 7* In a raised position the seat was used for glory scenes. By utilizing the floor-cut in which the seat could sink below the stage, Jones was able to raise scenery through the cut by attaching one edge to the beam of the seat. Such an arrangement suggests the mechanics of causing a large mountain to rise from under the stage.

The "machina v ersatillis," or turntable machine, was an adapta­ tion of a wagon machine rigged to carry scenery or seating. The relation­ ship between the various shells, islands, and chariots is quite obvious, but the same type of machinery was used for the turning machines such as the two-faced seating arrangement from The Masque of Queenes. Given a flat wheeled wagon, Jones, by pinning it to the floor, could cause it to rotate in place. Without wheels, and supported by a center axel pin,

such a device could take the form of a globe or a sphere. The basic form of this machine was closely related to periaktol. and although Nicoll builds a case for the adaptation from that device, its relationship to the moving wagon suggests that Jones contributed as well.

Special effects in the Court masque included such diverse elements

as moving seas, spinning wheels of fire, mountains that grew from under

the stage, and cut-out scenery that could function as relieve or profile

scenery. In the later masques, Jones also used miniaturized ships,

carriages, and people.

Jones Used only one moving sea, in The Masque of Blackness:

oceans in the other masques were produced ty providing a cut-out shore 110 line in the foreground, and painting the sea on the backcloth or on the s h u tte r.

Only one use of a circle of revolving fire is recorded, that in

Hvmenaei. Several ocoasions for the use of the rising mountain or related rising effects from under the stage are noted. In Loves 1 Triumph. a large palm tree was raised, and in Chloridia. a hill was raised with a globe on top. None of the rising effects was attempted until the physical facility of the masquers seat was introduced*^

Cut-out scenes of relieve were used to show part of a scene framed by a forward scene. In this sense they adapted their function from the proscenium picture frame. In the early masques, relieve scenes were most often associated with the area under the upper level. A shutter scene was often used with a dividing building, a rock cliff, or a tree screen painted on it so that when open the sides of the shutter would frame the scene. The use of cut-out scenes for scenes other than relieve scenes was confined to the later masques where cut-out elements repre­ sented people, horses, carriages and boats. Operating in the area behind the last shutter, such devices were maneuvered across the stage against the backcloth. The most fully developed example of this usage is found in the last scene from Sal matilda Spolia. where

in the furthest part was a bridge over a river, where many people, coaches, horses and such like were seen to pass to

^The use of the masquers seat is not noted in the masque until sometime after the move into the new Banqueting House in 1622. Extensive use was made o f th e device from about 1630 on, and the installation of the new Masking House in I638 included special provision for a masquers seat with two horizontal beams, independently operated. I l l

and fro: beyond this, on the shore were buildings in prospec­ tive, which shooting far from the eye showed as the suburbs of a great city.l 6

S h u tters

The development of the shutter was an outgrowth of the flat scene.

The basic concept began with the use of the flat landscape painted for

The Masque of Blackness, and in a period of ten to fifteen years led to the replacement of the plastic three-dimensional scene. There is a posi­ tive relationship between the shutter and the curtain. The use of the cliff in The Haddington Masque is an instance of an apparently flat panel, representing a solid object, opening and moving off stage. It is possible that the cloud scenes used to mask the several regions of the air in

Hvmenaei were one of Jones first attempts to use a shutter scene. The entire palace scene from The Masque of Queenes seems to have been a flat panel applied to the face of the structure. From these flat panels it was but a step to the same type of arrangement for the second scene of a masque, as the palace in Oberon. Not only was the scene a flat panel

scene, but it was divided into two separate sections which could divide in the center and be drawn off on either side of the stage. The develop­ ment here would indicate that painting was replacing the plastic object type of setting. The transition was such that by 1618 in The Vision of

Delight, there was more than one use of the shutter to change the scene.

The opening scene of a street in perspective was discovered by a rising

curtain, and later changed to a scene of clouds. From the cloud scene,

Evans, p. 2^3. 112

"the whole Scene changed to th e Bower of Zephyrus, 11 and immediately thereafter, "Here the Bower opens, and the Maskers are discovered.

The cloud scene may have been of curtains, but the change from the scene of architecture to that of the bower was clearly the work of the shutter.

Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, the following year, featured a full shutter of the mountain Atlas, above and below the scaffold. Both sections being shutters, they moved during the masque to reveal dancers seated behind. At the conclusion of the masque: "They daunce yeir last

Daunce, and retume into ye Scene: wch closeth, and is a Mountains againe, as before,The new Banqueting House was equipped with devices similar to that of the old, for the staging of The Masque of Augures was almost identical to that of Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue. At the con­ clusion, "the whole Scaene shut, and the Maskers danced their last

D a n c e . Jorjes returned to the large wheeled wagon for the island in

The Fortunate Isles. Two sets of shutters were used, with a backscene of sea and sky. The first set of shutters was fitted to both the upper and the lower section of scaffold platform, and operated separately. The second set of shutters was located further back under the scaffold in what may well have been the first set of grooves. After the opening scene of the masque,

Here the Scene opens, and the Masquers are discouer’d sitting in their seuerall seiges. The aire opens aboue, and Apollo

17 Jonson, pp. 467 , 469. 18 Jonson, p . 491#

^Jonson, p. 647 113

with Harmony, and the spirits of Musique sing, the while the Hand moues forward, Proteus sitting below, and hearkning .2 0

Two separate openings are indicated, and since the scene changed again after the island returned to place, they also closed separately. The upper shutter was of clouds, while the scene below was not described.

Some sort of grooves must have been used, for when the lower shutter opened to show the island, the view through was to the back scene of the sea. After the island moved back upstage, a shutter of a maritime palace was closed, as were the upper clouds. Four lines of dialogue and one dance later, "the second Prospectiue, a Sea is showne, to the former

Mu si eke. The island was apparently cleared to the side in the inter­ val, for shortly after the change, cut-out boats of the fleet were dis­

covered moving in front of the seascape. Richard Southern spends a goodly portion of Chapter Five of ChanasahLe Scenery developing the thesis that ground-rows and relieve scenes were related, and that Salmacida

Spolia should be noted for having one of the first ground-rows in the

English theatre. An examination of the use of the relieve scene in The

Fortunate Isles seems to indicate a cut-out scene, the second scene of the masque, where the island comes forward and joins itself to the shore,

being used in just such a manner. Loves 1 Triumph, the masque which

followed, duplicated the staging, substituting a hollow rock for the

island, but having the same shutter usage. By the time of the production

o f Loves1 Triumph, the masquers seat had become part of the staging,

20 Jonson, p. 723.

^Jonson, p. 727* 1 1 4 although the scaffold platform remained in place. The end of the masque featured the use of the seat to lower Venus* and in place of her throne, which was lowered beneath the stage, a palm tree rose from the out in the floor. That the device was successful is indicated by the fact that in

Chloridia. the next production, after opening both the upper and lower shutters, a hill was made to rise from the earth, and later sink back into place. By 1634, for the production of Coelum Britannicum. there were five changes of shutter scene, as there were for The Temple of Love in 1635, In Salmacida Spolia. the last masque, there were four changes of the shutter.

The greatest change in the production style of the masque had to do with the change from the scaffold stage. When Jones moved from the

Banqueting House to the new Masking House, the new stage was constructed without a scaffold platform above. In its place was a series of nested grooves for baekshutters, and a change from upper-shutters to upper- borders, Among other attributes, this new structural system indicated that succeeding masques could easily utilize more shutter scenes, and that less focus was to be given to an upper chorus. The eaphasis on shutter scenes* the development of the full flat wing and shutter settings, and the extensive use of relieve settings tend to support the thesis that in the new Masking House Jones had reached a stable point in the physical structure of his masque scenery.

Wings

Wing development on the masque stage followed a definable type of pattern in every aspect except that of accurately dating the points where change occurred. The progression from no wings, to Serli&n wings, to flat wings was both a logical and an historical movement. It would seem strange to a twentieth century observer that Jones would hesitate over the full introduction of the flat wing setting once he had seen its advantages over the Serlian angled wing, but this is exactly what he did, Mention of wings, or even of any side masking devices in the texts of the masques until after 1635 is slight. One reason for this is, of course, the limited view of the masque spectator. Once the proscenium had been intro­ duced, side views of the backstage area would be effectively blocked by that device, and further masking would not be necessary. Both Richard

Southern and ALlardyce Nicoll postulate wing development from the divided shutter, and this is a probability; however, Oberon. if not featuring wings, certainly features one of the first relieve scenes on the English

Stage,22 The design of Oberon1s palace, and the separate design of the rocks surrounding it seem to indicate that the palace was to appear behind the rock cut-out and gain increased depth thereby, Nicoll would have us believe that the setting was made up of several shutters, and that when the ones in front opened they revealed those behind, and not being drawn off-stage, served as rock wings to the succeeding action,23

The designs for the scene indicate that the center of each rock section

is curved to arch over the palace which would tend to indicate an early oil relieve scene rather than a shutter scene. Wings were used for

22 Design p. No, 40, 4-1, 42,

23Nicoll. p, 72. 2/i Designs. No, 40, 41, 42, Daniel*s Tethvs* Festival, a summer masque of 1610, Nicoll avers that

Jones used periaktoi on each side of the stage, and changed the scene by spinning them to reveal a battlement on one side and a cavern on the other,25 The periaktoi-wings would have been two sided, and built with some thickness to provide depth for the cavern, Nicoll would have the change from the cavern scene prepared by "affixing variantly painted

strips of canvas to the up-stage sides of the periaktoi" during the pre­

ceding scene,^ Judith McDowell agrees with Nicoll, both seemingly basinc their thesis on Daniel*s statement that "the whole worke came into the form of a halfe round," ^ 7 Nothing in the background of the

staging of the masque to that time indicates the use of the turning device for anything other than large, single, plastic items, such as

spheres, globes, and tiered seating holding at least eight persons.

While it may be noted that Jones used an adaptation of periaktoi in an

early production at Oxford, and used the concept for the turntable machines in later masques, the staging of Tethvs* Festival presents a

more logical picture for the use of four Serlian wings on each side of

the stage than for the triangular frames. The statement of the whole work seeming half-round could indicate that wings were used before a

backshutter.

Combinations of Serlian wings, shutters, and partial cut-out

scenes of relieve were used in the masques until after the production of

25Nicoll, pp, 71, 72.

26Nicoll, p. 71.

27Judith McDowell, p. 108, 117

Shirley^s The Triunmh of Peace in 163^. The following Court productions featured the flat wing and shutter, and the scenic arrangement of the new

Masking House was planned with the fla t wing and shutter setting in mind. CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSIONS

In the thirty-five years Inigo Jones worked with the Court masque productions* he used a great many Italinate devices to simplify both

scene design and staging practice. Ample treatments of his borrowing

already exist. Jones also developed and refined his own particular method of design and scene handling. To my knowledge this aspect of his work had not until this time been treated. A study of his productions

shows the progressive development and use in England of the flat wing

and shutter scene. Because of the limited perspective problems resulting

from control of audience side-view, the Court theatre showed rapid

development of the facility to handle flat perspective problems on a

single flat surface. Jones developed early in his career the use of the

fu ll painted scene on backshutters and backcloths. With the use of the

flat wing setting, and the flat shutter scene, extensive use of machines

of various types became unnecessary. Because the shutter and wing set­

tings provided for large flat area scenes, the type of scene presented in

the masque gradually changed from views of caverns, caves, grottos,

mines, and other semi-interior scenes to views of broad landscapes, sea-

vistas, works of architecture, city streets, and distant scenes of

prospective. Although the "object" setting was not entirely discarded,

the over-all scene view replaced it, and the majority of the masques

produced after 1615 utilized the fully illusionistic perspective setting. 118 1 1 9

Because most authorities focus on The Siege of Rhodes as the point of transfer of the glories of the masque stage to the public theatre, an abundance of attention is given those masques which directly contributed to the style of its production# Little attention has been directed to the form of staging which preceded the later masque productions and con­ tributed to their form. The purpose of this work has been to examine the works of Inigo Jones in the Court masque to determine the methods of

staging, analyze the periods of experimentation, and to comment on his unique contributions to staging.

Methods of Staging

It is difficult to discuss the methods of staging Jones used without discussing also the variety of devices he employed. The early masques of Jones, those from 1605 to 1610, used what may be termed an

“object" setting* The major element in this type of setting was a large

- ) plastic object usually located stage center. Often this object was a

machine; a wagon, sphere, or building. Thus if we examine the five major

masques of the period we discover that The Masque of Blackness features

a large sea-shell wagon; Evmenaei featured a revolving sphere; The

Haddington Masque. a larg e revolving sphere; The Masque of Queenes. a

palace with a turntable machine in the top; and Oberon. a palace which

divided in the center and was moved o ffsta g e . The method used was the

"object" setting. The scenic features of the designs were a central

object, usually plastic, and self-contained, which occupied the center of

the staging area and served as the focus of attention. The devices which

made this type of scene possible also contributed to the method of staging. 120

For many of the early masques* Jones utilized a structural scaffold platform which extended across the stage area. This scaffold served several purposes. It enabled Jones to use the raised level for scenes of the heavens. It provided a base from which to mount machinery.

It served as a "cave" or grotto type setting when used without machinery, and it provided a background against which fla t scenery could be placed.

Multiple shutter scenes were made possible when the scaffold frame was changed to the overhead section of the shutter nest. The platform of the scaffold was used first for machinery* and later for glory scenes.

Often the upper level was fitted with shutters which opened and closed on an upper scene. In the early masques, machines were used in conjunction with the scaffold* either above or below the second level. In the middle period* shutters were used* and emphasis was directed to the flat scene, the area above the scaffold serving as a scenic location which often continued the space below. For the great masques, the scaffold had been replaced by the shutter nest, and the majority of the scenes presented were landscape scenes which used wing and shutter settings. The use of the masquers seat replaced the area above the scaffold, and borders replaced upper shutters. One of the effects of this improved method of

staging was to increase the depth of the stage. -With the shutter nest, the depth of the area between the last shutter and the backcloth could be used for scenery, and Jones used the space for relieve scenes, and for additional back panels.

The methods of staging used by Jones might be more easily seen if we present a composite masque for each of the three periods of masque production. 121

1, The E arly Masque fe a tu re d a c u rta in stre tc h e d across th e scene. There was no proscenium, but flat panels to represent rocks and cloud borders provided the effect of one. There were two side cloud machines about eight feet upstage of the curtain. About eight feet further upstage was a palace, consisting of flat painted panels placed in front of a scaffold frame that extended across the stage. A cloud curtain hung to the level of the scaffold, and the panels below were painted to show the palace. The panels which made up the palace were divided in the center, and could be drawn off-stage to reveal the space under the scaffold. Upstage of the scaffold was a backcloth reaching from floor to ceiling, and extending to either side of the stage. This backcloth was painted to represent a plain sky. Under the stage were two large cap­ stans, which controlled the two cloud machines. At the rear of the scaffold was a large wagon with a framework of a sphere. A pin to hold it in place extended through the floor of the stage, and was attached to a third capstan under the stage which supplied power to revolve it. This entire scene is shown as Figure 13* In production, the masque would begin with a scene of dancers in a rustic dance in front of the curtain.

To the sound of a loud music, the curtain would open, revealing the palace with rocky hills on either side. Several characters would make entrances by being lowered in two cloud machines, and one of them would call for the palace to open. The flat panels of the palace would separate and be drawn off-stage. In the opening would be seen a large sphere revolving in place. Inside the sphere, in a hollowed section would be eight male dancers. They would come forward and dance. The 122

leader of the group would then call for the goddesses to join them, and the upper level of clouds would be drawn aside, revealing eight female

figures on the top of the scaffold framework, sitting in the clouds*

While the male dancers sang a song of welcome, the lady masquers would

descend by an off-stage stair and join the eight men. The masquers would

dance together, sing a final song, and move upstage toward the sphere.

When the dancers had cleared the face of the scaffold, the palace would

close, ending the production. The major elements of this early masque

were the curtain, the cloud machines, the palace, the scaffold, and the sphere.

What was opened on in the early masques, the large machines, were

the focus of the scenic design. This type of emphasis resulted in these

early settings being known as "object" settings,

2 , Masques of the Middle Period featured a departure from the

"object" setting to one in which the flat shutter scene was introduced.

The change involved not so much a new device or method, but a growing away

from those scenes which featured a central object. In such a masque, the

emphasis would be on the flat painted scene as a background.

The stage arrangement for a masque might include a proscenium

framework, decorated for the particular production. Behind the arch

would be placed a curtain, designed as a curtain rather than as a scene.

Upstage of the curtain would be located two or three sets of Serlian

angled wings, perhaps representing trees, bushes, or houses. The scaffold

framework would be stretched across the stage, and the areas below and

above covered by painted shutters. The two side-mounted cloud machines

would be between the wings on either side of the stage. Behind the 123 shutters might be a relieve scene of trees and underbrusht and beyond that a sky backcloth* The rear of the upper level would contain a flat painted back section representing the top of a mountain* In production, our masque would open with the curtain flying up to discover the first scene, framed by the proscenium* This first scene would be a soene of a forest with a woodcutters cottage on one side wing, and a distant village on the back shutter* Overhead would be clouds* The masquers would play a short scene in this setting. After the descent of the cloud machines, the scene on the shutters would open revealing the relieve scene of a distant landscape* Several entries of dancers would perform, and after the main body of masquers had moved upstage, the shutters would close*

The upper shutters of cloud work would then open, revealing the top of the mountain* Several actors would play a scene there, and then the upper shutters would close* The lower shutters would then open revealing several masquers in a throne of light where the relieve soene had been*

This vista would conclude the masque. The wings for the masque would remain the same throughout the production* Emphasis on the flat scene was a characteristic of the masque in this period, and changes of flat scene were featured rather than emphasis of a single object. The proscenium was developed as a framing device, and the curtain changed to a masking device rather than a part of the scene* The space under the scaffold developed into an area used for scenes of relieve and occasion­ ally a second shutter scene* The space above the scaffold was used more for scenery, and its location often represented space other than that of the heavens* 3* The Great Masques featured the introduction of the masquers seat and the substitution of the shutter nest for the scaffold framework.

Early in the period, the masques were closely related to those immedi­ ately preceding; however, the masquers seat was introduced some time before the scaffold was abandoned. With the move to the new Masking House, the change to the new production methods had ooeurred, A typical masque of this period would involve a curtain and a proscenium, just as in earlier masques. The other scenic elements, however, would show a trend toward the flat scene. The wings, rather than Serlian angles, would be flat. They would be grouped in four nests on each side of the stage. A similar large nest would replace the scaffold platform, and behind it would be located the masquers seat with a floor cut to allow it to be lowered beneath the stage. Upstage of the masquers seat would be side posts to hold relieve scenes, and in the far upstage position would be the backcloth. Overhead would be borders, hanging in grooves so they could move horizontally. Two of the side operating cloud machines com­ pleted the stage arrangements. To open this composite masque, the cur­ tain would fly up and a scene of flat wings and a flat shutter would be seen. After fifteen to twenty antimasques, the entire scene would be changed, wings and shutters. This was done by removing the one in front and revealing those behind. After two or three changes, the clouds above the shutter nest would open revealing the masquers seated in the masquers seat, appearing as if in a glory. The clouds would close, the seat would be lowered, and a general dance would take place. When the last shutter was drawn, the masque would conclude with a vista of a calm and serene sky. Experimentation

Staging experimentation by Jones may be divided into three major areas, opening, moving, and changing scenes* In spite of the broad period of time oovered by his work in the masque, Jones seemed to do less experi­ mentation than modification. Once having introduced a device or a method of staging, Jones was apt to continue using it until another idea came along, or until he received further foreign inspiration.

In opening the scene, Jones first used a curtain painted as an unrelated picture. Later he used a solid curtain made from a shutter panel, and finally did the body of masques with a flying curtain. The body of productions after 1610 featured this type of device0 Experimenta­ tion in opening devices included scenery as well as curtains. In the early masques, the upper level was frequently hidden behind panels painted to resemble clouds. Palaces, painted on shutters, and shutters painted as landscapes were also opened to reveal scenery behind. The most frequent type of movement on the masque stage was that of opening a pair of shutters in a horizontal plane,

Moving scenes on the masque stage would include, besides curtains and shutters, wings, wagons, and special effects. If we can separate moving scenic units, such as shutters, from the mass of other moving devices, we are largely left with wagons, turntables, the various cloud machines and special effects equipment. Wagons were used in the very early masques, and continued to be used in the form of shells, wagons, fish, boats, caves, spheres, and islands, in the later masques. The turntable devices were used in the early masques and then appear to have

been discarded* The side cloud machines were so popular that they were 126 used in almost every masque designed by Jones, In the later masques, a variation on this type of machine allowed a single person to be lowered.

The large cloud machine or masquers seat was a product of the later masque, and was introduced conqplete with a floor cut to allow large scenes to be raised from beneath the stage. In Salmaolda Spolia. two of these machines were used, running in the same grooved posts. Special effects machinery was of various types; whirling circles of fire were used in several early masques, while the later productions used miniature ships, horses, and people. Once the pattern of masque production became established most of these devices saw regular use in a variety of forms,

Jones did much experimentation in the area of changing the scene.

There were three areas of scene change used in the masque; opening the

scene to reveal a machine; opening the back of the scene to reveal a

scene behind; and opening the back of the scene and changing the sides and top of the scene to reveal further scenes. These three areas of change

relate to the three periods of Jones1 work in the masque, and indicate

the development of the flat wing and shutter setting. The development of the masque form in these three areas seems to indicate a body of change

equally indicative of borrowing from foreign sources and development

through experimentation.

Contributions

Whether borrowed from the continent, or developed through his own

genius, Jones made many contributions to masque staging in England, and

through the masque to staging of the Restoration and later periods. Since

the linkage to the public theatre has been established through the Court 12? masque, the line may be said to be one of direct progression. What were the contributions of Jones and of the masque stage? Through analysis of the masques, seven areas of contribution are foundo

1, The Curtain, The curtain developed in the masque was first a part of the scene, and later a part of the total theatre. In its usual form it flew upwards to reveal the scene behind, Jones had developed the

concept of closing a scene, but used shutters rather than a curtain to

accomplish this,

2, The Proscenium, The proscenium was developed in the early masque, and was designed as a part of the scenery for each production,

rather than as part of the hall. One reason suggested for this is that the masque stage was of a temporary nature, and little remained in the

hall after production. From the nature of the later masque stage, in a

special auditorium, it would seem that the proscenium may have been on its way to becoming a part of the theatre structure rather than a device

manufactured for each production,

3, The Flat Scene, The flat scene was used in some of the early

masques, and in all of the later ones. Once the object setting had been

discarded, painting on flat panels replaced three-dimensional scenery.

One oomment about the quality of the painting of the period is from Lee

Mitchell who visited a Court Theatre in Bayreuth,

the painting, over two hundred years old, was such that at a distance of a few feet I actually could not distinguish flat pieces of painted wood from solid marble, A pair of life size statues in niches which formed the wings of one set might as easily have been carved full round as painted; under bright electric light, from ten feet away, it was impossible to tell 128

the difference. Of course, the illusion of the whole set was perfect only when seen from one point in the auditorium, the royal box, in the centre of the parterre, quite far baek.'

What Mitchell found under electric light must have been increased ten-fold

under the candle and torch illumination of the time,

h, The Shutter, The shutter was used in the early masque as a

flat panel, and later as one of a group of panels running in grooves. In

the later masques, the shutters were placed in a nest at the rear of the

stage. When the first flat wings were introduced they were placed in

nests similar to those of the shutter,

5. Relieve Scenes. Relieve scenes developed from the concept of

opening one scene to show another behind it. When this concept was

applied to the shutter scenes, profile edges were placed on the shutters

so that when opened part way the view through the space thus framed was a

relieve scene. In practice this means of framing a scene served to create

the illusion of great depth,

6, Wings, Wings in the masque were of two types, the Serlian

angled wings, and the flat wings, Jones did not invent either type. The

development of the flat wing did follow a definite pattern, and some case

could be made for its evolution from the flat shutter, but its use else­

where in Europe prior to its use by Jones has been well established.

Wings were introduced into the masque at about the time of the proscenium,

and the change from the angled to the flat wing occurred with the develop­

ment of the shutter nest.

^Iee Mitchell, “The Advent of Scenic Design in England," Quarterly Journal of Speech. XXIII, April, 1937, p« 19^, 129

7 , The S hutter N est, The sh u tte r n est was perhaps the g re a te s t introduction of Jones to the masque. With it he eliminated the type of staging we might call machine, and substituted flat landscape scenes, each one succeeding another on the stage. The type of staging which resulted was one of unlimited change possibilities and infinite variety of place.

There was a move away from the idea of playing on or about an object or scene to the idea of playing in front of a setting.

An examination of the totality of the masques designed by Inigo

Jones results in the division into definite periods of design style. The general pattern is one of the introduction of certain scenic elements, followed by use and development until replaced by another new concept, A portion of the scenic changes were, no doubt, caused by -changes in the masque form itself. As the antimasque became a part of the later masques, scenery for widely divergent scenes became necessary and a practical means of multiple scene change had to be developed. The most pronounced change in style occurred with the development of the later masques, where emphasis was changed from a unit structure to a pictured setting. The prospect or vista scene replaced the large structural unit. Where there were many changes of scene location, the tendency of Jones was to paint the settings on flat shutter panels. The basic concept of this production was to reveal a large solid background unit.

If the early and middle masques are examined, we find the use of the scaffold stage. This technique utilized a structural frame in which large units were displayed. Such an arrangement was used to support units above the stage level, and to form an enclosed area below, A scaffold was covered with flat frames and painted with detail to resemble a solid 130 object* The inner space was revealed by drawing a shutter from in front.

The replacement of this scaffold by the shutter nests marked the fully realized projection of the flat scene concept* and was perhaps the high point of Court masque production in England,

What was the importance of the contributions of Jones? John H,

McDowell has s ta te d th a t "Court staging under h is supervision broke from the medieval tradition and established the complete form of the illusion- istic perspective stage, The attributes of this form are those of the proscenium arch, and of the flat scene painted in aerial perspective.

Even greater than the development in England of the illusionistic per­ spective setting was Jones1 contribution to modem scene changing. The change from the static scene and from opening one unit to discover a second revolutionized the then existing procedure in England, Within the framework of the illusionistic perspective stage Jones1 form of scene change, with flat wings and shutters, became the established form of change in the

English theatre for over three hundred years.

John H, McDowell, "Tudor Court Staging: A Study in Perspec- tiv e ," Journal of English and Germanic Philology. XLIV, April, 19^5. p . 198, APPENDIX STATE

Figure 1 Periaktoi at Oxfordf Ground Plan. 133

First Scaffold Level

Globe

altar

L owe r Pin Stage

Floor of Hall

Figure 2 The Globe of Hymenaei. Ropes to Capstan Below Stage

Figure 3 A Cloud Machine fro n th e E arly Masque 135

Vanes

Lenses or Prisms Pivot Point

Base with Candles

Figure 4 A Circular Wheel of Fire 136

Level 2

Leve

Stage Leve

Hall Floor

Figure 5 The S caffold Stage Figure 6 C lif f S h u tte r, The Haddington Masque 138

Roller Pulley'

Grooved Beam

Seat

Stage

Capstan

Figure 7 The Masquers S eat, E levation 139

Backcloth o o o o o r-t- i-fc" r-t" 2-3” ...... FT 1 3 l O" “ in 7-'6“ /f v shutters /f\tA if a'-r A \ a'-5” /U wings \ ______2-7" /* V i'-r \ l’-6* 3'- 5 “ ■30- O' proscenium 7-1"

stage

Figure 8 Florimene, Section of Ground Pain, 140

Unframed T op-N Seat

Wing Nest

Floor Cut Stage Framed — Base Capstan

Figure 9 B rita n n ia Trlumphana. The Palace o f Fame lifl

Backcloth O o Masquer's Seat Floor Cut

Shutter Nest

Wing Nests

Proscenium

Edge of Stage Hall Floor

Figure 10 Britannia Triumnhans. Scenic Arrangment. 36-0- * _ it l c JQ_ jdL _Cl jQ , 3'-“V <& I . ■ J " 3’10" W71L.___ _E2ZL

l'-8 ‘

JLZ'-O1 3-9"

3 - 10' Mc

l l ' - O " 3-8*

i ' - r 3r-s" S'-O'

^ -O '

Figure 11 Salmacida Spolia. Ground Plan 1^3

-T -T

BO

W

Figure 12 Salmacida Spolia» Section Backcloth

Scaffold

Upper and Lower Shutter Tracks’*'

Cloud Machines

Roller Curtain mzzzzzzzzzz \s///////;/;/, Proscenium

Hall Floor

Figure 13 A Composite Early Masque, Ground Plan. •yn. 145

A V

Figure 14 A Composite Early Masque, Section. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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D1 Avenant, William0 The Works of Sr William D1 avenant K^* Londons Printed for Henry Herringman, at the Sign of the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange, l6?3»

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Steele, Mary Susan, Plays and Masques at Court during the Reigns of Elizabeth. James and Charles. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1926. Sullivan, Mary Agnes. Court Masques of James I . New York: G. P. Putnam 's Sons, 1913*

Summers, Montague. The R e sto ratio n T heatre. London: Kegan, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1934.

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A rtic le s

Ahlander, Leslie Judd. "Inigo Jones's Designs," Christian Science Monitor. Friday, March 24*, 1967.

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McDowell, John H, "Tudor Court Staging: A Study in Perspective," Journal of English and Germanic Philology. XLIV, April, 1945.

Mitchell, Lee. "The Advent of Scenic Design in England, " Quarterly Journal of Speech. XXIII, April, 1937,

Welsford, Enid. "The Italian Influence on the English Court Masque," Modem Language Review. XVIII, 1923*

Anon. "Masked and Bared, " Time Magazine. Vol. 89, No, 15, p . 82. 149

Unpublished Material

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Dunshee, Grace. "Inigo Jones." Unpublished Master*s thesis, University of Michigan, 1940.

McCalman, George A. "A Study o f Some Renaissance and Baroque F actors in the Theatre Style of Inigo Jones." Ph.D. dissertation, Western Reserve University, 1946,

McDowell, Judith W. "Theatrical Perspective: History and Applications in Early Seventeenth Century." Unpublished Master*s thesis, Smith College, 1939.

Nancarrow, David Alec. "Selected Sources and a Bibliography for a History of Scenery to l66o.M Unpublished Master*s thesis, Yale U n iv ersity , 1963#

Pickles, Angela. "A Production of The Masque of Queenes." Unpublished Master*s thesis, Smith College, 1963.

Schwarzwalder, John. "The Court Masque in Stuart England." Unpublished Master*s thesis, University of Michigan, 1 9 4 1 .