The Triumph of Beauty
The Triumph of Beauty is a
The plot of the masque draws upon one of the most famous tales of
The text of the masque was first published in the octavo volume of Shirley's Poems that was issued in 1646 by the bookseller Humphrey Moseley. The masque was also, apparently, sometimes bound and sold as a separate volume.[2]
After the London theatres closed in 1642 at the start of the English Civil War, Shirley made his living as a schoolteacher, and created his final dramatic works for student performance. His late works Honoria and Mammon, The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, and Cupid and Death fall into this category. The 1646 title page of The Triumph of Beauty states that the masque "was personated by some young Gentlemen, for whom it was intended, at a private Recreation." Judging by its publication date, The Triumph of Beauty may have been the earliest of these pedagogic dramas.[3] The music for the masque was composed by William Lawes, who also composed the music for Shirley's The Triumph of Peace.[4]
Notes
- ^ Both works, Beauty and Peace, refer to the "feather-footed Hours," a phrase that also occurs in the play The Country Captain, which Shirley may have helped the Duke of Newcastle to write. Forsythe, p. 401.
- ^ Greg, p. 23.
- ^ Logan and Smith, p. 166.
- ^ Logan and Smith, p. 161; Walls, pp. 334-5.
Sources
- Forsythe, Robert Stanley. The Relations of Shirley's Plays to the Elizabethan Drama. New York, Columbia University Press, 1914.
- Greg, W. W.A List of Masques, Pageants, &c., Supplementary to A List of English Plays. London, Bibliographical Society/Blades, East and Blades, 1902.
- Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.
- Walls, Peter. Music in the English Court Masque, 1604–1640. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996.