The Stuart Court Masque and Political Culture

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Introduction
1. Spectacles of state
2. Rites of exclusion
3. Rites of incorporation
4. The invention of Britain
5. The consort's body
6. The revival of chivalry
7. The dance of favour
8. The Jacobean crisis
9. The Caroline Reformation
10. The Caroline crisis
Appendix: A calendar of masques and entertainments, 1603- 41.

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Court masques were multi-media entertainments, with song, dance, theatre, and changeable scenery, staged annually at the English court to celebrate the Stuart dynasty. They have typically been regarded as frivolous and expensive entertainments. This book dispels this notion, emphasizing instead that they were embedded in the politics of the moment, and spoke in complex ways to the different audiences who viewed them. Covering the whole period from Queen Anne's first masque at Winchester in 1603 to Salmacida Spolia in 1640, Butler looks in depth at the political functions of state festivity. The book contextualizes masque performances in intricate detail, and analyzes how they shaped, managed, and influenced the public face of the Stuart kingship. Butler presents the masques as a vehicle through which we can read the early Stuart court's political aspirations and the changing functions of royal culture in a period of often radical instability.

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Theatre Research International

This ambitious and comprehensive book takes account of the large corpus of masques written and performed in the reigns of James I and Charles I. Its scope and attention to detail are likely to make it an indispensable resource

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