The early Stuart masque : dance, costume, and music / Barbara Ravelhofer.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Ravelhofer, B. (Barbara)

Contributor:

• Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.
• Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Dance--England--History--17th century.
• Masques with music--17th century--History and criticism.
• Dance costume--England--History--17th century.
• Dance costume.
• History.
• Masques with music.
• Dance.
• England.

Physical Description:

xvi, 317 pages, 2 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Summary:

The Early Stuart Masque: Dance, Costume, and Music studies the complex impact of movements, costumes, words, scenes, music, and special effects in English illusionistic theatre of the Renaissance. Drawing on a massive amount of documentary evidence relating to English productions as well as spectacle in France, Italy, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, the book elucidates professional ballet, theatre management, and dramatic performance at the early Stuart court. Individual studies take a fresh look at works by Ben Jonson, Samuel Daniel, Thomas Carew, John Milton, William Davenant, and others, showing how court poets collaborated with tailors, designers, technicians, choreographers, and aristocratic as well as professional performers to create a dazzling event. Based on extensive archival research on the households of Queen Anne and Queen Henrietta Maria, special chapters highlight the artistic and financial control of Stuart queens over their masques and pastorals. Many plates and figures from German, Austrian, French, and English archives illustrate accessibly-written, introductions to costume conventions, early dance styles, male and female performers, the dramatic symbolism of colours, and stage design in performance. With splendid costumes and choreographies, masques once appealed to the five senses. A tribute to their colourful brilliance, this book seeks to recover a lost dimension of performance culture in early modern England.

Contents:

• Dance
• Methodology
• English and continental sources
• Theatre dances
• Discipline or pleasure?
• Costume
• Masque costumes
• Colours and lights : the costume in motion
• Costume conventions for male and female masquers
• Case studies
• Two Jonsonian court masques
• Historical costume, historical dancing : Coelum Britannicum
• Global spectacle : an English masque at Constantinople.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-307) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0199286590

OCLC:

62738540

Publisher Number:

9780199286591 (alk. paper)

Online:

The Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund Home Page