The Masque Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Barbara D. Palmer

Critical Essay by Barbara D. Palmer

SOURCE: “Court and Country: The Masque as Sociopolitical Subtext,” in Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Volume 7, edited by Leeds Barroll, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995, pp. 338-54.

In the essay below, Palmer analyzes Yorkshire historical documents to argue that the link between court and country masque performances were greater than expected, with landed gentry using performances as a means of social advancement.

On 3 January 1588/89 James Ryther of Harewood in the West Riding, Yorkshire, described his northern neighbors' conception of entertainment to Lord Burghley in London: “By affynytie with the Skottes and borderers thes people deliver in a rude & wilde kinde of musick, to which ar sewtable rymes and songes entewnyd and songe eyther of wanton or warlyke actions[;] by our Invention in this easyly is dysernyd our distance from the Soon [Sun/King].”¹

Ryther's account is hardly disinterested—he is quite piqued that he must actually live...
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