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Doubtful Plays
Jonson's hand has been sought in The Captain of the Beaumont (q.v.) and Fletcher series, and the anonymous Puritan (cf. ch. xxiv).
MASKS Mask of Blackness. 6 Jan. 1605
[MS.] Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 17 B. xxxi. ['The Twelvth Nights Reuells.' Not holograph, but signed 'Hos ego versiculos feci. Ben. Jonson.' A shorter text than that of the printed descriptions, in present tense, as for a programme.] S. R. 1608, April 21 (Buck). 'The Characters of Twoo Royall Maskes. Invented by Ben. Johnson.' Thomas Thorpe (Arber, iii. 375). N.D. The Characters of Two royall Masques. The one of Blacknesse, The other of Beautie. personated By the most magnificent of Queenes Anne Queene of Great Britaine, &c. With her honorable Ladyes, 1605. and 1608. at White-hall: and Inuented by Ben: Ionson. For Thomas Thorp.
1616. The Queenes Masques. The first, Of Blacknesse: Personated at the Court, at White-Hall, on the Twelu'th night, 1605. [Part of F_{1}.]
Edition in J. P. Collier, Five Court Masques (1848, Sh. Soc. from MS.).
The maskers, in azure and silver, were twelve nymphs, 'negroes and the daughters of Niger'; the torchbearers, in sea-green, Oceaniae; the presenters Oceanus, Niger, and Aethiopia the Moon; the musicians Tritons, Sea-maids, and Echoes.
The locality was the old Elizabethan banqueting-house at Whitehall (Carleton; Office of Works). The curtain represented a 'landtschap' of woods with hunting scenes, 'which falling', according to the Quarto, 'an artificial sea was seen to shoot forth'. The MS. describes the landscape as 'drawne uppon a downe right cloth, strayned for the scene, . . . which openinge in manner of a curtine', the sea shoots forth. On the sea were the maskers in a concave shell, and the torchbearers borne by sea-monsters.
The maskers, on landing, presented their fans. They gave 'their own single dance', and then made 'choice of their men' for 'several measures and corantoes'. A final dance took them back to their shell.
This was a Queen's mask, danced by the Queen, the Countesses of Bedford, Derby, and Suffolk, the Ladies Rich, Bevill, Howard of Effingham, Wroth, and Walsingham, Lady Elizabeth Howard, Anne Lady Herbert, and Susan Lady Herbert. The 'bodily part' was the 'design and act' of Inigo Jones.
Sir Thomas Edmondes told Lord Shrewsbury on 5 Dec. that the mask was to cost the Exchequer £3,000 (Lodge, iii. 114). The same sum was stated by Chamberlain to Winwood on 18 Dec. to have been 'delivered a month ago' (Winwood, ii. 41). Molin (V. P. x. 201) reported the amount on 19 Dec. as 25,000 crowns. On 12 Dec. John Packer wrote to Winwood of the preparations, and after naming some of the maskers added, 'The Lady of Northumberland is excused by sickness, Lady Hartford by the measles. Lady of Nottingham hath
