Hymenaei
Hymenaei, or The Masque of Hymen, was a masque written by Ben Jonson for the marriage of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, and performed on their wedding day, 5 January 1606. The costumes, sets, and scenic effects were designed by Inigo Jones, and the music composed by Alfonso Ferrabosco.
One of Jonson's earlier masques, Hymenaei is significant in the evolution of the masque form in the early 17th century; its two sets of contrasting dancers constituted one step in the evolution of the anti-masque that Jonson would realize fully in The Masque of Queens three years later (1609).
Performance
The stage was set as an altar for a Roman wedding; behind the altar, between gold-painted statues of
The male masquers, costumed in "carnation cloth of silver, with variously colored mantles," represented the "
The writer of court news letters John Pory understood that the masque made an allusion to the Union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England.[3] The masque has been described, somewhat romantically, as a work of "fragile, transient loveliness," featuring "noble dancers in their crimson satin and white, with herons' feathers waving and jewels flashing, as they made their graceful movements in the torchlight."[4]
Three surviving portraits of women in masque costume by
The Barriers
The following day saw the performance of the second portion of the entertainment, the Barriers, a stylized ritual combat presented in the Banqueting House at Whitehall. Two women dressed in identical blue and white costumes with palm-leaf crowns purported to be Truth. One spoke in favour of the institution of marriage, and the second that it enslaved women. Next sixteen pairs knights contested with swords and pikes to defend these propositions. Peace and amity were restored by an angel emerging from a blaze of light. The angel brought the true figure of Truth, the advocate of marriage who had spoken first.[7]
The Duke of Lennox was chieftain of the victorious combatants, fighting against Lord Sussex's team.[8]
Publication
The masque was published later in 1606, in an edition printed by Valentine Simmes for the bookseller Thomas Thorpe – the first of Jonson's masques to be issued in print. The volume contains a preface in which Jonson envisions the performance of a masque as its body, but the meaning of the masque (as recorded in its text) as its soul. The work was printed again when included in the first folio collection of Jonson's works in 1616. Its full title in the latter text is Hymenaei, or The Solemnities of Masque and Barriers at a Marriage.
The marriage
The marriage celebrated by the masque had been arranged by King
The groom was fourteen years old, the bride thirteen, and the two were separated for three years immediately after their marriage to allow them time to mature. Unsurprisingly, the marriage was not a success, and was annulled in 1613. Lady Frances went on to marry James's favorite Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, and to play her part in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.
See also
Notes
- ^ Mickel, Lesley. "Glorious Spangs And Rich Embroidery: Costume In "The Masque of Blackness" And "Hymenaei.." Studies in the Literary Imagination 36.2 (2003): 41-59.
- ^ Lesley Mickel, 'Glorious Spangs and Rich Embroidery: Costume in The Masque of Blackness and Hymenaei', Studies in the Literary Imagination, 36:2 (2003): Chambers, vol. 3, pp. 378–9.
- ^ John S. Brewer, The Court of King James the First by Godfrey Goodman, vol. 2 (London, 1839), p. 125.
- ^ White, p. 17.
- ^ Karen Hearn, Dynasties (London, 1995), p. 190.
- ^ Herford & Simpson, Ben Jonson, 10 (Oxford, 1965), p. 467: Martin Wiggins & Catherine Teresa Richardson, British Drama, 1533-1642: 1603-1608, vol. 5 (Oxford, 2015), p. 266.
- ^ Martin Butler, The Stuart Court Masque and Political Culture (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 166–7.
- ^ John S. Brewer, The Court of King James the First by Godfrey Goodman, vol. 2 (London, 1839), p. 127.
- ^ Martin Butler, The Stuart Court Masque and Political Culture (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 167–9.
References
- Chambers, E. K.The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
- Leapman, Michael. Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance. London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003.
- Orgel, Stephen, ed. Ben Jonson: Complete Masques. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1969.
- White, Beatrice. Cast of Ravens: The Strange Case of Sir Thomas Overbury. London, John Murray, 1965.