Aurelian Townshend is known today for two court masques and a small collection of graceful poems. He led a relatively obscure life, except for a brief period of success in 1631, when the contentious relationship between Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones finally erupted in a quarrel that resulted in Jonson's dismissal, leaving the position of court masque writer vacant. Asked to step in and provide the next season's court entertainment for Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Townshend composed Albions Triumph and Tempe Restord. Apart from the masques, Townshend also wrote about twenty poems for the court audience. He was one of the last of John Donne's followers, at a time when the metaphysical style was beginning to lose its popularity. In contrast to the vigorous wit of Donne's poetry, Townshend's forte is sophisticated gallantry. The wedding of "manly gallantry and wit" central to his works, then, might well derive...