Mini: Court Masques and How They Shaped Shakespeare’s Plays

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In this mini-episode, we explore the world of the Court Masque, a form of entertainment that flourished in the Tudor and Stuart courts. From its roots in medieval pageantry and music to its height as a vehicle for royal celebration and political display of wealth, the masque became a defining cultural event during Shakespeare's time. 

While Shakespeare never wrote a Court Masque, we will explore how Ben Jonson’s Hymenaei may have influenced Shakespeare's choices for the masques that appear in As You Like It and The Tempest. 

For more on some of the topics we've previously covered that also mention the Court Masque, check out:

• Mini: Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's Colleague and Competitor
• Twelfth Night: Plays for the Court
• Stuff You Should Know Part 2: Elizabethan and Jacobean England & Theatre (Revised)
• Mini: Traveling Theatre Companies

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Special thanks to Nat Yonce for editing this episode. 

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Works referenced:

Butler, Martin. “The Court Masque | The Cambridge Works of Ben Jonson.” The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online, 2014, universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/benjonson/k/essays/court_msq_essay/1/. 

“History of the Masque Genre.” Edited by Helen L Hull et al., Reformations of A Mask, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, 2000, archive.mith.umd.edu/comus/cegenre.htm#expand. 

Shapiro, James. The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2016.