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123-417: The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and courtly shows of ducal Burgundy in the late Middle Ages . Masques were typically a complimentary offering to the prince among his guests and might combine pastoral settings, mythological fables, and the dramatic elements of ethical debate. There would invariably be some political and social application of the allegory. Such pageants often celebrated

246-506: A birth, marriage, change of ruler or a royal entry and invariably ended with a tableau of bliss and concord. Masque imagery tended to be drawn from Classical rather than Christian sources, and the artifice was part of the Grand dance. Masque thus lent itself to Mannerist treatment in the hands of master designers like Giulio Romano or Inigo Jones . The New Historians , in works like the essays of Bevington and Holbrook's The Politics of

369-481: A comparable ambiguity about other sensitive issues. The disgrace and beheading of Anne Boleyn (here spelled Bullen ) is carefully avoided, and no indication of the succeeding four wives of Henry VIII can be found in the play. Most modern scholars date Henry VIII to 1613, the year in which the Globe Theatre burned down during one of the play's earliest known performances. One contemporary report states that

492-466: A familiar example. Spectators were invited to join in the dancing. At the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities. In England, Tudor court masques developed from earlier guisings , where a masked allegorical figure would appear and address the assembled company—providing a theme for the occasion—with musical accompaniment. Costumes were designed by professionals, including Niccolo da Modena . Hall's Chronicle explained

615-407: A horse in 1346; Countess Joan III followed him to the grave a year later, and the death of Odo IV in 1349 left the survival of the duchy dependent upon the survival of the young duke, a young child of two-and-a-half, and the last of the direct line of descent from Duke Robert I. By inheritance, Philip of Rouvres was Duke of Burgundy from 1349. He had already been Count of Burgundy and Artois since

738-744: A larger territorial complex after 1363, when King John II ceded the duchy to his younger son Philip . With his marriage with Countess Margaret III of Flanders , he laid the foundation for a Burgundian State which expanded further north in the Low Countries collectively known as the Burgundian Netherlands . Upon further acquisitions of the County of Burgundy, Holland , and Luxemburg , the House of Valois-Burgundy came into possession of numerous French and imperial fiefs stretching from

861-629: A legal issue, the King of Navarre would certainly have had as good a chance of inheritance as the King of France, and perhaps better: proximity of blood was beginning to lose force in Europe, and, as events would subsequently prove, Burgundy had no intention of being absorbed into the French royal domain. But there was more in play than a simple legal issue: the Hundred Years' War was in full flow, and

984-507: A masque of Solomon and Sheba at Theobalds . Harington was not so much concerned with the masque itself as with the notoriously heavy drinking at the Court of King James I; "the entertainment went forward, and most of the presenters went backward, or fell down, wine did so occupy their upper chambers". As far as we can ascertain the details of the masque, the Queen of Sheba was to bring gifts to

1107-422: A masque was to indicate that the modern choreography typical when he wrote the piece would not be suitable. Vaughan Williams' protégé Elizabeth Maconchy composed a masque, The Birds (1967–68), an "extravaganza" after Aristophanes . Constant Lambert also wrote a piece he called a masque, Summer's Last Will and Testament , for orchestra, chorus and baritone. His title he took from Thomas Nash , whose masque

1230-491: A pictorial tableau, as one in the Shakespeare collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (III.i)—a tableau that is immediately explicated at some length by the poet-narrator, Gower . Dumbshows were a Medieval element that continued to be popular in early Elizabethan drama , but by the time Pericles (c. 1607–08) or Hamlet (c. 1600–02) were staged, they were perhaps quaintly old-fashioned: "What means this, my lord?"

1353-598: A range of distinctive features in Fletcher's style and language preferences, which they saw in the Shakespearean play. For the next century the question of dual authorship was controversial, with more evidence accumulating in favour of the collaborative hypothesis. In 1966, Erdman and Fogel could write that "today a majority of scholars accept the theory of Fletcher's partial authorship, though a sturdy minority deny it." An influential stylistic or stylometric study

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1476-515: A serious play, and appeals to the audience members: "The first and happiest hearers of the town," to "Be sad, as we would make ye." Act I opens with a conversation between the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham and Lord Abergavenny. Their speeches express their mutual resentment over the ruthless power and overweening pride of Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey passes over the stage with his attendants, and expresses his own hostility toward Buckingham. Later Buckingham

1599-521: A title that few of the Council deserve. The plot has collapsed. Queen Anne Bullen gives birth to a daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth . The King asks Cranmer to baptise and be a godfather to the child, "a suit you must not deny me". The Chamberlain, the Porter and his Man have difficulties controlling the enthusiastic crowds that attend the infant Elizabeth's christening. Cranmer delivers a peroration on

1722-447: Is Ophelia's reaction. In English masques, purely musical interludes might be accompanied by a dumbshow. The masque has its origins in a folk tradition where masked players would unexpectedly call on a nobleman in his hall, dancing and bringing gifts on certain nights of the year, or celebrating dynastic occasions. The rustic presentation of "Pyramus and Thisbe" as a wedding entertainment in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream offers

1845-483: Is arrested on treason charges—Wolsey's doing. The play's second scene introduces King Henry VIII, and shows his reliance on Wolsey as his favourite . Queen Katherine enters to protest about Wolsey's abuse of the tax system for his own purposes; Wolsey defends himself, but when the King revokes the Cardinal's measures, Wolsey spreads a rumour that he himself is responsible for the King's action. Katherine also challenges

1968-425: Is generally accepted, although subsequent studies have questioned some of its details. The most common delineation of the two poets' shares in the play is this: Henry VIII is believed to have been first performed as part of the ceremonies celebrating the marriage of Princess Elizabeth in 1612–1613, although the first recorded performance was on 29 June 1613. The performance is especially noteworthy because of

2091-421: Is no contemporary evidence of it for this play; the evidence lies in the style of the verse, which in some scenes appears closer to Fletcher's typical style than Shakespeare's. It is also not known whether Fletcher's involvement can be characterised as collaboration or revision, though the apparent division of scenes between the writers strongly suggests the former. Spedding and other early commentators relied on

2214-412: Is noted for having more stage directions than any of Shakespeare's other plays. During a performance of Henry VIII at the Globe Theatre in 1613, a cannon shot employed for special effects ignited the theatre's thatched roof (and the beams), burning the original Globe building to the ground. The play opens with a Prologue (by a figure otherwise unidentified), who stresses that the audience will see

2337-453: Is rooted in us, thy friend" (Act V Scene 1). The King confirms this friendship with the gift of a ring. Later, as a result of a carefully hatched plot, Cranmer is accused of heresy in the King's Council and told that he is to be taken to the Tower as a prisoner; Cranmer defends himself vigorously and then shows the King's ring (Act V Scene 2). The King enters, declaring Cranmer to be a "good man",

2460-582: Is shown conversing with the Old Lady who is her attendant. Anne expresses her sympathy at the Queen's troubles; but then the Lord Chamberlain enters to inform her that the King has made her Marchioness of Pembroke. Once the Lord Chamberlain leaves, the Old Lady jokes about Anne's sudden advancement in the King's favour. A lavishly-staged trial scene (Act II Scene 4) portrays Katherine's hearing before

2583-447: Is simply untrue; the duchy had been granted to the heirs of Robert I, and were it not for the manner in which the descendants of Duke Robert II married and the circumstances under which Philip of Rouvres died, John II, who made his claim to the duchy as the son of Joan of Burgundy and the grandson of Robert II, rather than as the feudal overlord of all France, would never have inherited it. The claim, however, that upon his inheritance of

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2706-667: The Bourbonnais – had failed; Odo IV's wife Joan , however, was sovereign Countess of Burgundy and Artois , and the marriage reunited the Burgundys again. They were not, however, reunited for long. The marriage of Duke Odo and Countess Joan in 1318 produced only one surviving child, Philip; he married another Joan, the heiress of Auvergne and Boulogne , but they again only produced a single surviving child, Philip I, Duke of Burgundy , also known as Philip of Rouvres. The elder Philip predeceased both of his parents in an accident with

2829-769: The Burgundians , an East Germanic tribe that arrived in Gaul in the 5th century. The Burgundians settled in the area around Dijon , Chalon-sur-Saône , Mâcon , Autun and Châtillon-sur-Seine , and gave the name to the region. The Kingdom of the Burgundians was annexed by the Merovingian King of the Franks , Childebert I , in 534, following their defeat by the Franks. It was recreated, however, on several occasions when Frankish territories were redivided between

2952-601: The Capetians . As time passed, the state was built up and stabilised; a miniature court in imitation of the royal court at Paris grew around the dukes; the Jours Generaux, a replica of the Parlement of Paris sat at Beaune ; bailiffs were imposed over the provosts and lords of the manor responsible for local government, while the duchy was divided into five bailiwicks . The duchy became increasingly involved in

3075-751: The Carolingians , Burgundian separatism lessened and Burgundy became a purely geographical term, referring only to the area of the counties of the former Burgundy. Both the Duchy of Burgundy and the County of Burgundy emerged from these counties, aided by the collapse of Carolingian centralism and the division of the Frankish domains brought about by the Partition of Verdun in 843. In the midst of this confusion, Guerin of Provence attached himself to Charles

3198-535: The Harefield Entertainment . In Scotland, masques were performed at court, particularly at wedding celebrations, and the royal wardrobe provided costumes . Performers at a masque at Castle Campbell dressed as shepherds. Mary, Queen of Scots , Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley , and David Rizzio took part in a masque in February 1566. Mary attended the wedding of her servant Bastian Pagez , and it

3321-577: The Holy Land , and Odo I, Duke of Burgundy died during the Crusade of 1101 . Under the competent leadership of Robert II (r. 1271–1306), one of the more notable dukes of the Capetian period, Burgundy reached new levels of political and economic prominence. Previously, the development of the duchy had been impeded by the bestowal of minor lands and titles on younger sons and daughters, diminishing

3444-650: The Normans , and served as a haven for persecuted monks. Under Rudolph of France (also Raoul or Ralph), the son of Richard, Burgundy was briefly catapulted to a position of prominence in France, since he became King of France in 923 after acceding to the Burgundian territories in 921. It was from his territories in Burgundy that he drew the resources needed to fight those who challenged his right to rule. Under Hugh

3567-641: The Reconquista in Spain at the end of the eleventh century, campaigning against Muslim taifas and forming marriage alliances with the Spanish royalty. Robert's daughter Constance married King Alfonso VI of León and Castile , and his grandson Henry married Theresa of León to found the Portuguese House of Burgundy . With the advent of First Crusade , the attention of Burgundian dukes shifted to

3690-498: The Treaty of Arras (1482) . Maximilian recognised the annexation of the Duchy and County of Burgundy and several other territories. France thus retained most of its Burgundian fiefdoms except for the affluent County of Flanders , which passed to Maximilian and Mary's descendants (but soon rebelled ). With the 1493 Treaty of Senlis , Maximilian regained for his and Mary's descendants the County of Burgundy , Artois and Charolais , but

3813-665: The " intermezzi " of the Medici court in Florence could rival them. In English theatre tradition, a dumbshow is a masque-like interlude of silent mime usually with allegorical content that refers to the occasion of a play or its theme, the most famous being the dumbshow played out in Hamlet (III.ii). Dumbshows might be a moving spectacle, like a procession, as in Thomas Kyd 's The Spanish Tragedy (1580s), or they might form

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3936-511: The 1613 date is consistent with other such collaborations. The play was published as the work of Shakespeare, and was accepted as such by scholars until 1850, when the possibility of collaboration with John Fletcher was first raised by James Spedding , an expert on Francis Bacon . Fletcher was the writer who replaced Shakespeare as the principal playwright of the King's Men . He is known to have collaborated with Shakespeare on other plays, but there

4059-533: The 1720s. A revival produced by Charles Calvert , who also played Wolsey, at the Theatre Royal in Manchester, opening on 29 August 1877, premiered music for the fifth act composed by Arthur Sullivan . Other Victorian stagings of the play were by David Garrick , Charles Kean , Henry Irving (who chose to play Wolsey, the villain and perhaps the showier role of the play, in 1888, with Ellen Terry as

4182-533: The Accession of the latter of those two Princes to the Crown of England". Rowe was writing before the discovery of the document on the 1613 fire, which was first published by the 18th century scholar Thomas Tyrwhitt and seemed to confirm his view. However, several 18th- and 19th-century scholars, including Samuel Johnson , Lewis Theobald , George Steevens , Edmond Malone , and James Halliwell-Phillipps , dated

4305-477: The Archbishop of Canterbury. (Scene 2) Katherine is shown ill; is told of Wolsey's death; has a vision of dancing spirits. Caputius visits her. Katherine expresses her continuing loyalty to the King, despite the divorce, and wishes the new queen well. Act V is the climax of the play. The King summons a nervous Cranmer to his presence and expresses his friendship, telling Cranmer that "Thy truth and thy integrity

4428-712: The Bald , youngest son of King Louis the Pious of the Franks, and aided him in the Battle of Fontenay against Charles's eldest brother, the Emperor Lothar . When the Frankish kingdom in the west was divided along the boundary of the Saône and Meuse (dividing geographical Burgundy in the process), Guerin was rewarded for his services by the king by being granted the administration of the counties of Chalon and Nevers , in which he

4551-595: The Black (d. 952) came the beginning of what would be a long and troubled saga for Burgundy. His neighbours were the Robertian family, who held the title of Duke of Francia . This family, wanting to improve their standing in France and against the Carolingian kings, attempted to subject the duchy to the suzerainty of their own duchy. They failed; eventually, when they appeared close to success, they were forced to scrap

4674-481: The Bold , was also his favourite most renowned. Philip had distinguished himself in 1356 at the Battle of Poitiers , when at the age of fourteen he bravely fought alongside his father to the bitter end. It occurred to him to both honour his son and soothe the ruffled feelings of the Burgundians by investing him as Duke of Burgundy. Accordingly, the king appointed Philip governor of Burgundy in late June 1363, following which

4797-535: The Burgundian kingdom were reduced to a ducal rank by King Robert II of France in 1004. Robert II's son and heir, King Henry I of France , inherited the duchy but ceded it to his younger brother Robert in 1032. The other portions of the Kingdom of the Burgundians had passed to the Imperial Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles , including the County of Burgundy (Franche-Comté). Robert became the ancestor of

4920-555: The Cardinal sends his follower Cromwell away so that Cromwell will not be brought down in Wolsey's fall from grace. The two Gentlemen return in Act IV to observe and comment upon the lavish procession for Anne Bullen's coronation as Queen, which passes over the stage in their presence. Afterward they are joined by a third Gentleman, who updates them on more court gossip – the rise of Thomas Cromwell in royal favour, and plots against Cranmer,

5043-597: The Duchy of Burgundy and Picardy were lost definitively to France. In 1526, Mary's grandson Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor was restored to the title and territory by the French King Francis I , under duress as part of the Treaty of Madrid . But Francis I repudiated the Treaty as soon as he was able, and Charles V never managed to secure control of the duchy. Further, with the abdication of Charles V as Holy Roman emperor, Henry II of France argued that since

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5166-617: The French crown. The endeavour failed; when Charles the Bold died in battle leaving no sons, Louis XI of France declared the duchy escheated and absorbed the territory into the French crown. Charles's daughter, Mary , inherited the rest of his domain and claimed the Duchy of Burgundy. Her heirs called themselves dukes of Burgundy, refusing to accept the loss of the duchy. The War of the Burgundian Succession took place from 1477 to 1482. Eventually, King Louis XI of France and Archduke Maximilian of Austria , Mary's widower, signed

5289-473: The Good of France. Richer promises were made to the young duke. He could expect to inherit Auvergne and Boulogne on his mother's death, and a marriage was arranged between himself and the young heiress of Flanders , Margaret of Dampierre , who could promise to bring Flanders and Brabant to her husband eventually. By 1361, aged 17, he appeared to be on track to continue the duchy's steady rise to greatness. It

5412-551: The King and his courtiers. Katherine reproaches Wolsey for his machinations against her, and refuses to stay for the proceedings. But the King defends Wolsey, and states that it was his own doubts about the legitimacy of their marriage that led to the trial. Campeius protests that the hearing cannot continue in the Queen's absence, and the King grudgingly adjourns the proceeding. (Act III) Wolsey and Campeius confront Katherine among her ladies-in-waiting; Katherine makes an emotional protest about her treatment. Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, and

5535-530: The King of Navarre, as an ally of England and an enemy of France, was distasteful to the Burgundians, who in meetings of the Estates during John II's English captivity had been consistently loyal to John and his son the Dauphin , and opposed to the King of Navarre. Furthermore, John II had the support of John of Boulogne and Margaret of France. The former was a staunch ally of the king, an alliance strengthened by

5658-421: The King, representing Solomon, and was to be followed by the spirits of Faith, Hope, Charity, Victory and Peace. Unfortunately, as Harington reported, the actress playing the Queen tripped over the steps of the throne, sending her gifts flying; Hope and Faith were too drunk to speak a word, while Peace, annoyed at finding her way to the throne blocked, made good use of her symbolic olive branches to slap anyone who

5781-489: The Lord Chamberlain are shown (Act III Scene 2) plotting against Wolsey. A packet of Wolsey's letters to the Pope have been re-directed to the King; the letters show that Wolsey is playing a double game, opposing Henry's planned divorce from Katherine to the Pope while supporting it to the King. The King shows Wolsey his displeasure, and Wolsey for the first time realises that he has lost Henry's favour. The noblemen mock Wolsey, and

5904-408: The Pious , King of France, and his stepson, Otto-William , count of Mâcon (kingdom of France) and count of Burgundy (kingdom of Burgundy), whom Henry had adopted. Robert claimed the duchy by his dual rights as feudal overlord and nearest blood-relative of the deceased. Otto-William disputed his claim as a potential heir, starting a war with the help of his son-in-law, Landry count of Nevers . Had

6027-481: The Pious gave the territory to his younger son and namesake, Robert I, Duke of Burgundy . When King Henry I of France , acceding in difficult circumstances (1031), found it necessary to secure the loyalty of Robert, his brother, he further enhanced the rights given to his brother (1032). Robert was to be Duke of Burgundy; as ruler of the duchy, he would "enjoy the freehold thereof", and have the right "to pass it on to his heirs". Future dukes were to owe allegiance only to

6150-575: The Puritans closed the English theatres in 1642, the masque was the highest art form in England. But because of its ephemeral nature, not a lot of documentation related to masques remains, and much of what is said about the production and enjoyment of masques is still part speculation. While the masque was no longer as popular as it was at its height in the 17th century, there are many later examples of

6273-543: The Stuart Court Masque (1998), have pointed out the political subtext of masques. At times, the political subtext was not far to seek: The Triumph of Peace , put on with a large amount of parliament-raised money by Charles I , caused great offence to the Puritans . Catherine de' Medici's court festivals , often even more overtly political, were among the most spectacular entertainments of her day, although

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6396-627: The arrest of Buckingham, but Wolsey defends the arrest by producing the Duke's Surveyor, the primary accuser. After hearing the Surveyor, the King orders Buckingham's trial to occur. At a banquet thrown by Wolsey, the King and his attendants enter in disguise as masquers . The King dances with Anne Bullen. Two anonymous Gentlemen open Act II, one giving the other an account of Buckingham's treason trial. Buckingham himself enters in custody after his conviction, and makes his farewells to his followers and to

6519-590: The concord and unity between Queen and Kingdom. A descriptive narrative of a processional masque is the masque of the Seven Deadly Sins in Edmund Spenser 's The Faerie Queene (Book i, Canto IV). A particularly elaborate masque, performed over the course of two weeks for Queen Elizabeth, is described in the 1821 novel Kenilworth , by Sir Walter Scott . Queen Elizabeth was entertained at country houses during her progresses with performances like

6642-514: The crown of France and be overlords of the duchy, beneath the ultimate authority of the kings of France. Robert gladly agreed to this arrangement, and the era of the Capetian dukes began. Robert found that it was largely a theoretical power that he had been granted. Between the reign of Richard the Justiciar and Henry the Venerable , the duchy had fallen into anarchy, a condition heightened by

6765-450: The customs of the territories, they were required to pass to the next in line to inherit in each respective territory. The counties of Auvergne and Boulogne – inherited by Philip upon his mother's death a year earlier – passed to the next heir, Jean de Boulogne, the brother of Philip's grandfather William XII of Auvergne. The counties of Burgundy and Artois passed to the sister of Philip's grandmother Countess Joan, Margaret of France, herself

6888-456: The death of King John, King Charles V issued a letters patent to publicly establish the fact of Philip's title. Under the Valois dukes of Burgundy, the duchy flourished. A match between Philip the Bold and Margaret of Dampierre – the widow of Philip of Rouvres – not only reunited the duchy with the County of Burgundy once more, as well as with the County of Artois , but also served to bring

7011-513: The death of his grandmother, the Countess Joan of Burgundy and Artois, in 1347. In practice, though, the duke his grandfather had continued to rule over these counties as he had done since his marriage to Countess Joan, Philip of Rouvres being only a baby. With the old duke's death, the duchy and its associated territories were governed by the young duke's mother, Joan I , Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne, and by her second husband, King John

7134-411: The ducal House of Burgundy , a cadet branch of the royal Capet dynasty , ruling over a territory that roughly conformed to the borders and territories of the modern region of Burgundy (Bourgogne). Upon the extinction of the Burgundian male line with the death of Duke Philip I in 1361, the duchy reverted to King John II of France and the royal House of Valois . The Burgundian duchy was absorbed in

7257-485: The ducal fisc . Robert firmly ended this practice, stating in his will that he left to his eldest son and heir, Hugh , and after Hugh to his heir, "all the fiefs, former fiefs, seigneuries and revenue... belonging to the duchy". The younger children of Robert would receive only annuities; since these derived from property held by Hugh, these younger children would need to owe liege homage to ensure their income. Hugh V died in 1315; his brother Odo IV succeeded. Himself

7380-410: The ducal demesne and the number of vassals dependent upon the dukes. They made an income for themselves by demanding cash payments in exchange for recognition of a lord's feudal rights within the duchy, by skillful management of loans from Jewish and Lombard bankers, by the careful administration of feudal dues and by the ready sale of immunities and justice. The duchy itself benefited from the rule of

7503-430: The duchy for the French crown by gaining control of all the Burgundian counties west of the Saône, including Dijon; prospects of a united Burgundy evaporated, and the duchy became irreversibly French in outlook. For a time, the duchy formed part of the royal domain ; but the French crown could not hope at this time to administer such a volatile territory. The realities of power combined with Capetian family feuding: Robert

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7626-415: The duchy it was merged with the crown is more difficult to refute: for while this in itself certainly was not the case, he immediately attempted to merge the duchy into the crown by means of letters patent . He proclaimed in the relevant document that he was taking possession by virtue of his descent from the dukes and continued that as the duke, he immediately gave the duchy to the French crown, with which it

7749-416: The duke had stated that he directed and appointed as heirs to his "county, and to our possessions whatever they may be, those, male and female, who by law or local custom ought or may inherit". Since his domains all practiced succession by primogeniture, there was no question of his dominions passing en bloc to any one man or woman – they had come to Philip of Rouvres by different paths of inheritance, and so by

7872-408: The elder daughter, and the wife of Louis X of France, had died in 1315, leaving only a daughter, Joan II of Navarre. Joan of Burgundy, the younger daughter, and the wife of Philip VI of France, had died in 1348, leaving two sons, John II of France and Philip of Orléans. Out of these three, Joan of Burgundy's sons were still alive; Joan II, however, had died in 1349, leaving three sons, the eldest of whom

7995-399: The eldest son of his deceased eldest son Edward , rather than by his son John of Gaunt , the eldest of Edward III's sons still living. A case of proximity of blood was that of Artois in 1302, which had on the death of Count Robert II been inherited by Mahaut , his eldest living daughter, rather than by his grandson Robert , the eldest son of the count's already deceased son. In some cases,

8118-427: The estates of Burgundy – who had consistently opposed the previous governor, Tancarville – loyally granted him subsidies. Finally, in the final months of John the Good's reign, Philip the Bold was established as Duke of Burgundy. The king secretly created him duke on 6 September 1363 (in his dual role as duke giving his own title to his child and as king sanctioning this change in leadership) and, on 2 June 1364, following

8241-589: The fire that destroyed the Globe Theatre during the performance, as described in several contemporary documents. These confirm that the fire took place on that date. The King's Men were able to continue performances at the Blackfriars Theatre , their indoor playhouse, a venue having particular significance for contemporary audiences as it was the real location of the powerful trial scene in the play. One often reported tradition associated with

8364-505: The first half of the 19th century. With the renaissance of English musical composition during the late 19th and early 20th century (the so-called English Musical Renaissance ), English composers turned to the masque as a way of connecting to a genuinely English musical-dramatic form in their attempts to build a historically informed national musical style for England. Examples include those by Arthur Sullivan , George Macfarren , and even Edward Elgar , whose imperialistic The Crown of India

8487-526: The glories of the new-born princess's future reign, "Upon this land, a thousand thousand blessings" (Act V Scene 4). The King responds, "O lord Archbishop, thou hast made me now a man," and declares the day to be a holiday. The Epilogue acknowledges that the play is unlikely to please everyone, but asks nonetheless for the audience's approval. As usual in his history plays, Shakespeare relied primarily on Raphael Holinshed 's Chronicles to achieve his dramatic ends and to accommodate official sensitivities over

8610-436: The grandmother of Philip's young bride Margaret of Dampierre. The Duchy of Burgundy, however, proved a greater challenge to jurists. In the duchy, as in much of Europe at this time, two principles of inheritance were held valid: that of primogeniture and that of proximity of blood. A case of primogeniture was the succession of the English crown in 1377, which at the death of Edward III was inherited by his grandson Richard ,

8733-509: The grandson of King Louis IX of France by his mother, Agnes of France , he would also be the brother-in-law of two French kings – Louis X , married to his sister Marguerite, and Philip VI , married to his sister Joan – and the son-in-law of a third, Philip V , whose daughter Joan III, Countess of Burgundy , he married. Previous attempts to gain territory through marriage – Hugh III and the Dauphiné , Odo III and Nivernais , Hugh IV and

8856-495: The homage of the Burgundian nobility before he returned to France, leaving the Count of Tancarville as his deputy, but the Burgundian estates had, in their meeting around the time of the homage-swearing of 28 December, firmly given several pronouncements. They declared that the duchy intended to remain a duchy, that it had no intention of becoming a province of the royal domain, that there would be no administrative changes, and that it

8979-520: The latter part of the 17th century, a form in which John Dryden and Henry Purcell collaborated, borrows some elements from the masque and further elements from the contemporary courtly French opera of Jean-Baptiste Lully . In the 18th century, masques were even less frequently staged. " Rule, Britannia! " started out as part of Alfred , a masque about Alfred the Great co-written by James Thomson and David Mallet with music by Thomas Arne which

9102-484: The life of Henry VIII . An alternative title, All Is True , is recorded in contemporary documents, with the title Henry VIII not appearing until the play's publication in the First Folio of 1623. Stylistic evidence indicates that individual scenes were written by either Shakespeare or his collaborator and successor, John Fletcher. It is also somewhat characteristic of the late romances in its structure. It

9225-612: The main family line of the House of Habsburg had ceased ruling the Holy Roman Empire or Austria , the claim of the title by the Spanish Habsburgs was null and void. The territory of Burgundy remained part of France from then onwards. The title was occasionally resurrected for French princes, for example the grandson of Louis XIV ( Louis, Duke of Burgundy ) and the grandson of Louis XV , the short-lived Louis Joseph . The current king of Spain, Felipe , claims

9348-683: The marriage between the king and Joan of Boulogne, John of Boulogne's niece. As the daughter of a former King of France and one of the last living members of the senior branch of the House of Capet, the latter was staunchly French in her sympathies; besides which, Charles II had offended her by laying claim to lands in Champagne that had formed part of her sister Joan of France's dowry in marrying Odo IV and which were deemed now to pass to Joan's sister. These lands had derived from Joan I of Navarre, Countess of Champagne , grandmother of Margaret and Joan, and as

9471-450: The masque. During the late 17th century, English semi-operas by composers such as Henry Purcell had masque scenes inset between the acts of the play proper. In the 18th century, William Boyce and Thomas Arne , continued to utilize the masque genre mostly as an occasional piece, and the genre became increasingly associated with patriotic topics. Acis and Galatea (Handel) is another successful example. There are isolated examples throughout

9594-400: The masques of Ben Jonson and the stagecraft of Inigo Jones. There is also a masque sequence in his Romeo and Juliet and Henry VIII . John Milton 's Comus (with music by Henry Lawes ) is described as a masque, though it is generally reckoned a pastoral play . There is a detailed, humorous, and malicious (and possibly completely fictitious) account by Sir John Harington in 1606 of

9717-565: The materials involved. Other material was sourced or adapted from the 1570 edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs , for example Catherine of Aragon's plea to Henry before the Legatine Court. Shakespeare not only telescoped events that occurred over a span of two decades, but jumbled their actual order. The play implies, without stating it directly, that the treason charges against the Duke of Buckingham were false and trumped up; and it maintains

9840-500: The new fashion of Italian-style masque at the English court in 1512. The essential feature was the entry of disguised dancers and musicians to a banquet. They would appear in character and perform, and then dance with the guests, and then leave the venue. According to George Cavendish , Henry VIII came to Cardinal Wolsey's Hampton Court , by boat "in a masque with a dozen of other maskers all in garments like shepherds made of fine cloth of gold and fine crimson satin paned, and caps of

9963-416: The nobility willingly swore homage to him as their new duke, and the duchy saw only a few isolated and half-hearted acts of rebellion in favour of Charles II. The legal implications of the accession of John the Good are frequently misunderstood. It is not uncommon to read that, upon the death of Philip of Rouvres, "the Duchy of Burgundy, lying within France, therefore escheated to the French crown." This claim

10086-427: The noble Katherine of Aragon). The longest Broadway run the play has had is Herbert Beerbohm Tree 's 1916 production in which Lyn Harding played Henry and Tree played Wolsey, running 63 performances. Tree's production was notable for its elaborate exploitation of the play's pageantry, typical of the expensive and spectacular staging of the era. The production subsequently toured, with Sydney Greenstreet taking over

10209-464: The play involves John Downes , prompter of the Duke of York's Company from 1662 to 1706. In his Roscius Anglicanus (1708), Downes claims that the role of Henry VIII in this play was originally performed by John Lowin , who "had his instructions from Mr. Shakespeare himself." Fifteen years to the day after the fire, on 29 June 1628, The King's Men performed the play again at the Globe. The performance

10332-423: The play was new at the time of the fire, having "been acted not passing 2 or 3 times before". Despite this evidence, there has been much debate about the date of the work. Nicholas Rowe in 1709 wrote that the play must date from after the death of Elizabeth in 1603 because its "E[u]logy upon Q. Elizabeth, and her Successor K. James, in the latter end of his Henry VIII, is a Proof of that Play's being written after

10455-582: The play's composition to before 1603. Malone suggested that the brief passage in praise of James was probably added for a performance during his reign but that the extended glorification of Elizabeth implies that it was intended for her ears. James "hated her memory", so such praise was not likely to have been written under him. Malone mistook the 12 Feb 1604 Stationer's Register entry of "the Enterlude of K. Henry VIII" ( Samuel Rowley 's When You See Me You Know Me , 1605) as Shakespeare's play, and he argued that

10578-402: The public. After his exit, the two Gentlemen talk about court gossip, especially Wolsey's hostility toward Katherine. The next scene shows Wolsey beginning to move against the Queen, while the nobles Norfolk and Suffolk look on critically. Wolsey introduces Cardinal Campeius and Gardiner to the King; Campeius has come to serve as a judge in the trial Wolsey is arranging for Katherine. Anne Bullen

10701-416: The reference to the newness of the play in 1613 derived from the fact that it had been expanded with a new prologue and epilogue, perhaps written by Ben Jonson . In fact, Shakespeare's play was first registered on 8 November 1623, along with 15 other previously unpublished works, in preparation for the publication of the 1623 First Folio . Halliwell-Phillipps also took the view that the play performed in 1613

10824-504: The royal or noble sponsor. At the end, the audience would join with the actors in a final dance. Ben Jonson wrote a number of masques with stage design by Inigo Jones . Their works are usually thought of as the most significant in the form. Samuel Daniel and Sir Philip Sidney also wrote masques. William Shakespeare included a masque-like interlude in The Tempest , understood by modern scholars to have been heavily influenced by

10947-427: The same with visors", wearing false beards, accompanied with torch bearers and drummers. Their arrival at the palace water gate was announced by cannon fire. Edward Hall described similar masques involving the king's disguised appearance. In the play Henry VIII , by Fletcher and Shakespeare , the masque was recalled when Henry in shepherd's disguise meets Anne Boleyn . Masques at Elizabeth I 's court emphasized

11070-429: The scheme and instead maintain Burgundy as a separate duchy. Two brothers of Hugh Capet , the first Capetian King of France, took up the rule of Burgundy as duke. First Otto and then Henry the Venerable maintained the duchy's independence, but the death of the latter without children proved a defining moment in the history of the duchy. Henry the Venerable died in 1002 leaving two potential heirs: his nephew, Robert

11193-571: The senior heir by primogeniture of Joan I, Charles was now laying claim to them. With this triple compact between the three heirs, Charles II was shut out: the support of a co-heir carried weight in deciding inheritance, and John II had the support of both, while Charles II had the support of neither. The nobility of the duchy, in the face of this, decided in favour of John II, who took immediate possession. He had already mobilised soldiers in Nivernais to do so by force if it proved necessary, but in fact,

11316-697: The sons on the death of a Frankish king. As part of the Kingdom of the Franks , Burgundy maintained a semi-autonomous existence, with the Burgundians maintaining their own law code, the Loi Gombette . However, southern Burgundy was pillaged by the Saracen invasion of the 8th century. When Charles Martel drove the invaders out, he divided Burgundy into four commands: Arles-Burgundy, Vienne-Burgundy, Alamanic Burgundy and Frankish Burgundy. He appointed his brother Childebrand governor of Frankish Burgundy. Under

11439-495: The tailor with all his strength buttoned on my doublet ". Reconstructions of Stuart masques have been few and far between. Part of the problem is that only texts survive complete; there is no complete music, only fragments, so no authoritative performance can be made without interpretive invention. By the time of the English Restoration in 1660, the masque was passé, but the English semi-opera which developed in

11562-616: The task of restoring the ducal demesne and strengthening ducal power. In this, it would be seen, the dukes were well-suited to the task: none were remarkable or outstanding men who swept all opposition away before them; rather, they were persevering, methodical, realistic, able and willing to seize any opportunity presented to them. They used the Law of Escheat to their advantage: Auxois and Duesmois fell into ducal hands through reversion, these feudatories having no heir able to administer them. They purchased both land and vassalage, which built up both

11685-585: The title "Duke of Burgundy", and his predecessor 's coat of arms included the cross of Burgundy as a supporter. The cross of Burgundy was the flag of the Spanish Empire at its height. Henry VIII (play) The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth , often shortened to Henry VIII , is a collaborative history play , written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher , based on

11808-485: The title role. The play's popularity has waned since the mid-twentieth century, although Charles Laughton played Henry at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1933 and Margaret Webster directed it as the inaugural production of her American Repertory Company on Broadway in 1946 with Walter Hampden as Wolsey and Eva Le Gallienne as Katherine. John Gielgud played Wolsey, Harry Andrews the king and Edith Evans Katharine at Stratford in 1959. Another notable production

11931-535: The two Burgundys been united, history would undoubtedly have taken a different course; a Burgundy united under the German Otto-William would have been within the sphere of influence of the Holy Roman Empire and would have affected the balance of power between the French and the Germans. However, it was not to be; although it took him thirteen years of bitter and prolonged battle, Robert eventually secured

12054-430: The two principles were able to mesh together: in the case of Boulogne and Auvergne, for example, John was the second son of Robert of Auvergne, Philip's great-grandfather, and the nearest ancestor to Philip to have surviving lines of descent following Philip's death. John was therefore both the most senior heir to Robert following Philip's death and also the closest to Robert by descent. In the same manner, Margaret of France

12177-538: The war of succession between Robert the Pious and Count Otto-William . The dukes had given away most of their lands to secure the loyalty of their vassals ; consequently, they lacked power in the duchy without the support and obedience of their vassals. In addition, the Abbot of Cluny claimed immunity from secular overlords, while the Bishop of Langres was a duke and peer of France . Robert and his heirs were faced with

12300-515: The wealthy counties of Flanders , Nevers and Rethel under the control of the dukes. By 1405, following the deaths of Philip and Margaret, and the inheritance of the duchy and most of their other possessions by their son John the Fearless , Burgundy stood less as a French fief and more as an independent state. As such, it was a major political player in European politics. The Burgundian State

12423-584: The western Alps to the North Sea, in some ways reminiscent of the Middle Frankish realm of Lotharingia . The Burgundian State, in its own right, was one of the largest ducal territories that existed at the time of the emergence of Early Modern Europe . After just over one hundred years of Valois-Burgundy rule, however, the last duke, Charles the Bold , rushed to the Burgundian Wars and

12546-470: Was Charles II of Navarre . To the jurists of the duchy, these facts presented something of a difficult legal problem, for the two claims stood more or less equally in terms of justification: Charles II, as the great-grandson of Robert II by his elder daughter, had a superior claim to John II in terms of primogeniture; John II, as the grandson of Robert II by his younger daughter, had a superior claim to Charles II in terms of proximity of blood. Were it simply

12669-488: Was absorbed into the French crown. The latter proved to no avail. The Burgundians refused to countenance the terms of the letters patent. The king proved unequal to the task of enforcing his policy, which was far beyond his political capabilities. In the face of a non-violent but firm refusal by the Burgundians to allow the independence of their duchy to be threatened, the king quietly scrapped the letters patent, and instead turned to other means. The king's youngest son, Philip

12792-530: Was an altogether different work. These views are no longer held by most modern scholars. Plays offering positive portrayals of major Tudor figures like Henry VIII ( When You See Me You Know Me ) and Queen Elizabeth ( If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody by Thomas Heywood , 1605) were in fact performed, published, and re-published throughout the Stuart era. Since the play is now generally believed to be one of Shakespeare's collaborations with John Fletcher ,

12915-484: Was an increase of Burgundy's power, but the Burgundian State came to be regarded as an enemy of the French crown. From John's death, the dukes were treated with caution or outright hostility by Charles VII and his successor, Louis XI . The last two dukes to directly rule the duchy, Philip the Good (r. 1419–1467) and Charles the Bold (r. 1467–1477), attempted to secure the independence of their state from

13038-538: Was by custom expected to appoint viscounts to rule as his deputies. As a vital military defender of the West Frankish border, Guerin was sometimes known by the Latin term for "leader" – dux or "duke". By the time of Richard the Justiciar (d. 921), the Duchy of Burgundy was beginning to emerge. Richard was officially recognised by the king as a duke; he also stood as individual count of each county he held (if it

13161-492: Was first performed at Cliveden , country house of Frederick, Prince of Wales . Performed to celebrate the third birthday of Frederick's daughter Augusta , it remains among the best-known British patriotic songs up to the present, while the masque of which it was originally part is remembered by only specialist historians. The most outstanding humanists , poets and artists of the day, in the full intensity of their creative powers, devoted themselves to producing masques; and until

13284-497: Was his great-grandfather, Duke Robert II, the father of Odo IV. Unlike Joan of Châlons and Robert of Auvergne, however, both of whom had left only two lines of descent (allowing the cadet line to inherit without controversy following the termination of the main branch with Philip), Robert II had left three lines of descent: the main line, through Odo IV, which had ended with Philip, and two cadet lines through his daughters, Margaret and Joan. Both women were long dead. Margaret of Burgundy,

13407-422: Was in her way. Francis Bacon paid for The Masque of Flowers to celebrate the marriage of Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset and Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset . James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle , was a performer and sponsor of court masques. He wrote about the tight-fitting costumes, that it was the fashion "to appear very small in the waist, I remember was drawn up from the ground by both hands whilst

13530-400: Was joined to France by virtue of one man's rights and would never be absorbed into it. Most importantly, it was firmly stated that there had not been, and never would be, an annexation of Burgundy by France, merely juxtaposition – the king was also the duke, but there would be no deeper link than that. Set against these declarations of Burgundian autonomy was the decree of John II that Burgundy

13653-489: Was killed in the 1477 Battle of Nancy . The extinction of the dynasty led to the absorption of the duchy itself into the French crown lands by King Louis XI , while the bulk of the Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries passed to Charles' daughter, Mary , and her Habsburg descendants. The Duchy of Burgundy was a successor of the earlier Kingdom of the Burgundians , which evolved out of territories ruled by

13776-556: Was not held on his behalf by a viscount). As Duke of Burgundy, he was able to wield an increasing amount of power over his territory. The term that came to be applied to the collective body of a duke's territory was ducatus . Included in the Richard's ducatus were the regions of Autunais, Beaunois, Avalois, Lassois, Dijonais, Memontois, Attuyer, Oscheret , Auxois, Duesmois, Auxerrois , Nivernais , Chaunois and Massois. Under Richard, these territories were given law and order, protected from

13899-417: Was not to be, however. Philip became ill with the plague , a disease that all but inevitably promised a swift and agonising death. Fully expecting to die, the young duke made his last will and testament on 11 November 1361; ten days later, he was dead, and with him, his dynasty. Even before Philip's death, France and Burgundy had begun considering the knotty problem of the succession. By the terms of his will,

14022-594: Was probably first presented before the Archbishop of Canterbury , perhaps at his London seat, Lambeth Palace , in 1592. Duchy of Burgundy The Duchy of Burgundy emerged in the 9th century as one of the successors of the ancient Kingdom of the Burgundians , which after its conquest in 532 had formed a constituent part of the Frankish Empire . Upon the 9th-century partitions, the French remnants of

14145-423: Was reckoned to include not only the original territories of the duchy of Burgundy in what is now eastern France, but also the northern territories that came to the dukes through the marriage of Philip and Margaret. Philip the Bold had been a cautious man in politics. His son, John the Fearless (r. 1404–1419), however, was not, and under him Burgundy and Orléans clashed as the two sides squabbled for power. The result

14268-512: Was said she wore male costume for the masque, "which apparel she loved often times to be in, in dancings secretly with the King her husband, and going in masks by night through the streets". James VI and Anne of Denmark wore masque costumes to dance at weddings at Alloa Tower and Tullibardine Castle . After James and Anne became king and queen of England too, narrative elements of the masque at their court became more significant. Plots were often on classical or allegorical themes, glorifying

14391-489: Was staged at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, D.C.) from 12 October until 28 November 2010; this production added a puppeter-narrator, played by Louis Butelli, named for Henry VIII's jester, Will Sommers , as well as the character of Mary I, played by Megan Steigerwald. A remount of that production also played at Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2012. In 2019 the play was done in repertory at

14514-565: Was the central feature at the London Coliseum in 2005. Masques also became common as scenes in operettas and musical theatre works set during the Elizabethan period. In the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote several masques, including his masterpiece in the genre, Job, a masque for dancing which premiered in 1930, although the work is closer to a ballet than a masque as it was originally understood. His designating it

14637-432: Was the closest heir by both primogeniture and proximity to her mother, Joan of Châlons, Countess of Burgundy and Artois, Philip's great-grandmother and, again, the nearest ancestor of Philip to have lines of descent surviving the Duke's death. The situation for the Duchy of Burgundy, however, was not so simple. In terms of inheritance, the nearest ancestor to Philip of Rouvres to have lines of descent surviving Philip's death

14760-418: Was the first at the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe from 15 May to 21 August 2010, as part of the theatre's first season of Shakespeare's history plays, with cannon fire at the same point as the 1613 production and a cast including Dominic Rowan as Henry, Miranda Raison as Anne, Ian McNeice as Wolsey and Kate Duchêne as Katherine (with Raison also playing Anne in the same season's Anne Boleyn ). It

14883-479: Was to be inseparably united (much the same as would be followed in the case of Brittany in 1532). Had this come into effect, Burgundy as an independent duchy would have ceased to exist, and John would no longer have been the duke. As a result, a definitive break in the duchy's history would have occurred. John, however, failed to grasp the realities of the political situation within the duchy. He had already been smoothly accepted as duke. On 28 December 1361, he received

15006-418: Was undertaken by Cyrus Hoy , who in 1962 divided the play between Shakespeare and Fletcher based on their distinctive word choices, for example Fletcher's uses of ye for you and ' em for them . In the mid-nineteenth century, James Spedding had proposed a similar division based on the use of eleven-syllable lines; he arrived at the same conclusions Hoy would reach a century later. The Spedding-Hoy division

15129-550: Was witnessed by George Villiers, the contemporary Duke of Buckingham (no relation to or descendant of the Duke of Buckingham portrayed in the play), who left half-way through, once the play's Duke of Buckingham was executed. (A month later, Villiers was assassinated.) During the Restoration era, Sir William Davenant staged a production, starring Thomas Betterton , that was seen by Pepys . Thomas Betterton played Henry in 1664, and Colley Cibber revived it frequently in

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