During the early portion of the seventeenth century, England underwent significant changes toward modernization.¹ This process brought forth colonization of many distant places. The political situation in England also underwent an unprecedented change. Scotland and Wales were brought into the realm of England under the title of "Britain" by King James I, and England was reassured by having a strong monarch. Although his popularity later dwindled and evaporated, in turn giving the House of Commons broader and more expansive political power, it was he who must be given credit for starting the idea of a united island kingdom which has lasted to the very present.

There was also a change in forms of cultural expression during this period, especially when considering the theater. Besides Shakespeare, major dramatists were Jonson, Middleton and Chapman. The various masques that were performed during this period were not simply created to entertain the aristocracy (which, of course, they did). Instead, they were produced to make commentaries on the society itself, both political and cultural, helping to define that society and its purposes as against other races and peoples.

To explain this form of production, we will consider three masques produced during the first half of the seventeenth century. These masques are:

• Ben Jonson's The Masque of Blackness
• Thomas Middleton's The Triumphs of Honour and Virtue
• George Chapman's The Memorable Masque.

Ben Jonson wrote the Masque of Blackness in response to Queen Anne’s desire to appear in a public performance as a black woman. The masque was first performed on the "Twelfth Night, 1605." The masque was extremely expensive to produce, and Jonson described the setting of the masque in great detail. The masque focuses on a journey by the people of Niger to find a more suitable "sun."

The attitudes of race and ethnicity are strongest in The Masque of Blackness, although other references can also be found in the other masques as well. In the courtly Masque of Blackness, there are obvious and numerous references to the alien and foreign people of Africa. The fact that this masque was written for Queen Anne, and that she specifically requested that the queen herself be dressed up in black face along with her companions, demonstrated that at least some of the courtiers had a benign curiosity about the dark continent. This perspective was not, as many would think, driven by an overwhelming desire to conquer Africa: "(because it was her Majesty’s will to have them blackamoors at first) the invention was derived by me, and presented thus."²

This justification reflects Jonson’s "powers of invention and close cooperation with the Queen while also defending him(self) against murmuring that such disguises were undignified."³ The defense was necessary owing to the unusual conceit on the Queen's part of blackening the masquers, "leaving traditional pageantry behind": this was criticized at the time as a failure of genre, since the masquers were "hard to be known."⁴

The ensuing confusion thus poses an interpretive problem. Because the masque was performed only once, Jonson felt it was important to include information about the "invention" of racial identity for the sake of future reading reference, to whiten (as it were) his own name. Jonson’s initial descriptions of the characters involved give the reader a favorable impression of these wondrous people. Jonson gives future readers his own view of how he envisioned these people:

Niger, in form and colour of an Ethiop, his hair and rare beard curled, shadowed with a blue and bright mantle; his front, neck, and wrists adorned with pearl; and crowned with an artificial wreath of cane and paper-rush ... The attire of the masquers was alike in all, without difference; the colours azure and silver, their hair thick, and curled upright in tresses, like pyramids, but returned on the top with a scroll and antique dressing of feathers, and jewels interlaced with ropes of pearl. And for the front, ear, neck and wrists, the ornament was of the most choice and orient pearl, best setting off from the black. (Jonson 2)

Deeper into the masque, Jonson again makes references to the idea that black can be attractive. When speaking of the daughters of Niger, he writes:

That in their black the perfect’st beauty grows,
Since the fixed colour of their curlèd hair
Which is the highest grace of dames most fair)
No cares, no age can change, or there display
The fearful tincture of abhorrèd grey,
Since Death herself (herself being pale and blue)
Can never alter their most faithful hue;
All which are arguments to prove how far
Their beauties conquer in great beauty’s war;
And more, how near divinity they be,
That stand from passion or decay so free. (Jonson 4)

The masque begins with a song. This song is important because it includes the first vocal reflection upon the African peoples. The Africans, represented in the term "flood" (Jonson 3) which refers to the movement of peoples, are welcomed into the west:

Fair Niger, son to great Oceanus,
Now honoured thus
With all his beauteous race,
Who though but black in face,
Yet are they bright,
And full of life and light,
To prove that beauty best
Which not the colour, but the feature
Assures unto the creature. (Jonson 3)

After the song, Jonson then refers to the Atlantic Ocean as being a stagnant sea:

My ceaseless current now amazèd stands
To see thy labour through so many lands
Mix thy fresh billow with my brackish stream,
And in thy sweetness, stretch thy diademe
To these far distant and unequalled skies,
This squarèd circle of celestial bodies. (Jonson 3)

Yet in the next paragraph, Jonson implies that the two will always remain disconnected. Niger says that "immortal souls" "yet reserve for ever / A power of separation, I should sever / My fresh streams from thy brackish, like things fixed, / Though with thy powerful saltness thus far mixed" (Jonson 3). Just as the human body and soul are utterly separate, so are the fresh water stream and the salty ocean. Although the fresh stream flows into the giant and overwhelming salty ocean, the two waters remain separate, as the flood of blacks will always remain disconnected from the white world. In the same way that the ocean will allow the fresh stream to mix with it, the whites will also allow the blacks to mix. Just as the ocean will never allow the small stream to be a peer, the whites will never allow the blacks to be their equals.

Although the Britons are intrigued and curious about the Africans, they still feel culturally superior. Here a comparison could also be made to the ideas that Europeans had of the natives of North America, another exotic, distant and romanticized civilization. Although the Europeans considered the blacks and Indians noble, they also considered them savage--thus the commonly understood term "the noble savage" came into existence.

The symbolism of mythology now becomes clear. Jonson attempts to discern exactly why blacks are black. He uses a popular mythological idea to set up the environment in which the blacks lived:

As of one Phaeton, that fired the world,
And that before his heedless flames were hurled
About the globe, the Ethiops were as fair
As other dames, now black with black despair,
And in respect of their complexions changed,
Are eachwhere, since, for luckless creatures ranged. (Jonson 4)

Because these people were scorched and blistered, they were forced to search for a new land, a place with a more moderate climate:

That they a land must forthwith seek,
Whose termination (of the Greek)
Sounds -tania; where bright Sol, that heat
Their bloods, doth never rise or set,
But in his journey passeth by,
And leaves that climate of the sky
To comfort of a greater light,
Who forms all beauty with his sight. (Jonson 5)

In addition, the emotional distress and the intense jealousy caused by the knowledge that they were considered to be luckless, non-beautiful creatures made them want to return to their previous pure state:

Which when my daughters heard (as women are
Most jealous of their beauties) fear and care
Possessed them whole; yea, and believing them,
They wept such ceaseless tears into my stream
That it hath thus far overflowed his shore
To seek them patience... (Jonson 4)

Niger, be glad; resume thy native cheer...
For were the world, with all his wealth, a ring,
Britannia (whose new name makes all tongues sing)
Might be a diamond worthy to enchase it,
Ruled by a sun, that to this height doth grace it.
Whose beams shine day and night, and are of force
To blanch an Ethiop and revive a cor’se.
His light sciental is and (past mere nature)
Can salve the rude defects of every creature. (Jonson 6)

The symbolism used by Jonson to refer to the King and the Royal Family establishes their fertility. In the opening song, Jonson includes a subtle allusion to the future of the throne--"full of life and light" (Jonson 3). This suggests to the reader that there will no longer be the strain of having a weak female monarch as under Elizabeth. There is also no stress on finding an heir to the throne as under Elizabeth, because Queen Anne was six months pregnant at the time of the masque (Lindley ed. 216). In fact, a reference to her pregnancy could be the hieroglyphic symbol of the Queen--"A golden tree, laden with fruit" (Jonson 7).

There is a reference to the King’s central authority owing to the unification of England, Scotland and Wales: in line 212, Jonson writes, "Britannia, which the triple world admires, / This isle hath now recovered for her name" (Jonson 6). By using the name Britannia so often, Jonson tries to convince the people of the need for a united island kingdom, serving the King’s authoritative cause.

James's relation to divinity is alluded to in line 180:"This land, that lifts into the temperate air / His snowy cliff, is Albion the fair, / So called of Neptune’s son, who ruleth here" (Jonson 5). This allusion to the King is repeated at the end of the masque: "Back seas, back nymphs, but with a forward grace / Keep still your reverence to the place, / And shout with joy of favour you have won, / In sight of Albion, Neptune’s son" (Jonson 9). Neptune, of course, is the mythological God of the Sea, and it is easy to understand the comparison with James, the King of this island nation. The use of the word "fair" in connection with a white person obviously refers to a beautiful skin tone, and this may confirm the former suspicion that the use of this adjective for black persons solely alludes to their inner features.

In the play's third song, there are a number of references to the idea of Britain as a colonizer. Through the male/female symbolism, Jonson surreptitiously encourages the colonization of the "darker" continents:

Daughters of the subtle flood,
Do not let earth longer entertain you...
'Tis to them enough of good
That you give this little hope to gain you...
If they love
You shall quickly see;
For when to flight you move,
They'll follow you, the more you flee...
If not, impute it each to other's matter;
They are but earth--...
And what you vowed was water. (Jonson 8)

Along with the commercial benefits of colonization, there was a religious motivation in moving across the globe. There are several places in the masque where the king is referred to as divine or holy. In fact, there is even a direct likening with Jesus Christ himself:

Britannia ... Ruled by a sun, that to this height doth grace it.
Whose beams shine day and night, and are of force
To blanch an Ethiop and revive a cor'se.
His light sciental is and (past mere nature)
Can salve the rude defects of every creature. (Jonson 6)

The Biblical inferences are also clear. When Jonson speaks of "reviving a cor'se" and of his salvific light being "past mere nature," he is implying that the King is supernatural, that he could (like Jesus Christ) resurrect the dead, and cure all afflictions and natural ailments. Hence the Ethiop females are presented as deficient and almost like a corpse, yet still they are most desirable. Jonson does not solve this contradiction.

The Triumphs of Honour and Virtue were written by Thomas Middleton and were performed in 1622. This pageant was produced for the "Honorable Fraternity of Grocers."

The aspiration for distant and exotic destinations and peoples does not end with the Masque of Blackness. In Thomas Middleton’s Triumphs of Honour and Virtue, this subject is once again presented before an audience, this time a civic and commercial audience in London. In the opening scene, India is presented as a rich and wealthy nation:

bearing the title of the Continent of India, a triumph replenished with all manner of spice-plants and trees bearing odour, attends his Honour’s arrival in Paul’s Churchyard: a black personage representing India, called, for her odours and riches, the Queen of Merchandise, challenging the most eminent seat, advanceth herself upon a bed of spices, attended by Indians in antique habits. ⁶

Once again, and not coincidentally, the subject of race appears. Middleton condemns those who might base a person's individual worth on the color of their skin:

You that have eyes of judgment, and discern
Things that the best of man and life concern,
Draw near: This black is but my native dye,
But view me with an intellectual eye,
As wise men shoot their beams forth, then you’ll find
A change in the complexion of the mind:
I’m beauteous in my blackness. (Middleton 358)

Just as the courtly Masque of Blackness included many innuendoes and hints about colonization, this also is the case with the civic Triumphs of Honour and Virtue. During this period in Britain, the economy underwent subtle changes. No longer were commercial goods produced just on the island, they were being brought in from the first colonies in India and Virginia.⁷ There was a certain amount of national pride involved with this, and this is certainly demonstrated by the pageantry:

by each of them, fixed a little streamer or banner, in which are displayed the arms of this honourable City, the Lord Mayors’, the Grocers’, and the Noble East India Company’s. The outparts of the Globe, showing the world’s type in countries, seas and shipping, whereon is depicted or drawn ships that have been fortunate to this kingdom by their happy and successful voyages; as also that prosperous plantation in the Colony of Virginia and the Bermudas, with all good wishes to the Governors, Traders, and Adventurers unto those Christianly reformed islands. (Middleton 366)

The adjectives "noble" and "prosperous" when used referring to the East India Shipping Company and the plantations in Virginia and Bermuda emphasize the fact that successful capitalist exploits were a source of pride and self-satisfaction for the nation: honor and prosperity became synonyms, in the Puritan manner. Middleton stresses that the success of these businesses abroad is moreover beneficial for the kingdom as a whole.

An important aspect of colonization is the intrinsic need to promote Christianity to distant parts (and ports) of the world. The emphasis put on this by the use of the adverb "Christianly" confirms that, apart from the financial gain for Britannia, the will to spread the faith was hard to distinguish from ideas of fortune and prosperity; it was beneficial to the souls of the prosperous.

The Memorable Masque was written by George Chapman. It was performed on the 15th of February in 1613. This masque was produced for the King’s daughter’s wedding celebration.⁸

As in the Masque of Blackness and the Triumphs of Honor and Virtue, there are distinct remarks pertaining to exotic and foreign peoples in the Memorable Masque. These demonstrate the socially accepted and understood prejudices of the period, but there is a contrast to the masques and pageants discussed so far. In the description of the torch bearers, Chapman makes the foreigners appear foolish and ignorant:

Next (a fit distance observed between them) marched a mock-masque of baboons, attired like fantastical travellers in Neapolitan suits and great ruffs, all horsed with asses and dwarf palfreys, will yellow foot-clothes, and casting cockle-demois about, in courtesy, by way of largesse; torches borne on either hand of them, lighting their state as ridiculously as the rest nobly. (Chapman 75)

In this masque, there are several references to the acquisition of gold in distant lands. This is important because they give a political and economic incentive to set out for these far-off places. These references also play on the myth of the "fountain of youth" and the "cities of gold," as described by other early travelers to the New World: "A poor snatch at some of the golden ore that the feet of Riches have turned up as he trod here my poor hand hath purchased, and hope the remainder of a greater work will be shortly extant" (Chapman 82). This false hope must have been a great motivation for the King, and it becomes understandable just why the New World was such a source of imagination and hope for the Britons:

At the singing of the first song, full, which was sung by the Virginian priests called the Phoebades to six lutes (being used as an Orphean virtue for the state of the mines opening) the upper part of the rock was suddenly turned to a cloud, discovering a rich and refulgent mine of gold, in which the twelve masquers were triumphantly seated, their torch-bearers attending before them; all the lights being so ordered that, though none were seen, yet had their lustre such virtue that by it the least spangle or spark of the masquers’ rich habits might with ease and clearness be discerned as far off as the state. (Chapman 78)

In the Memorable Masque, references to the religious aspect of colonization are very direct. In fact, at the time of this masque the colonization of Virginia "was represented as a missionary activity" (Lindley ed. 241). Indeed, it becomes clear in the masque that Chapman makes a distinct connection between colonization and orthodox religious beliefs. There is an appeal to the people of Virginia to turn away from their dark and pagan ways, and to embrace the holy and pure Christian beliefs of the splendid isle:

Virginian princes, ye must now renounce
Your superstitious worship of these Suns,
Subject to cloudy darkenings and descents,
And of your fit devotions turn the events
To this our Briton Phoebus, whose bright sky,
Enlightened with a Christian piety,
Is never subject to black Error’s night,
And hath already offered heaven’s true light
To your dark region; which acknowledge now.
Descend, and to him all your homage vow. (Chapman 89)

It is clear that the themes expressed in these three masques were topical at the time they were written, because attitudes of race, ideas referring to colonialism, and conventional Christian beliefs can be found connected in all three. The profound economic and social changes that occurred in Britain during the first half of the seventeenth century were a catalyst for the creation of these masques. Because of the rise of the House of Commons and the crises in the power of the monarchy, the political climate was gradually becoming stormy. Masques and pageants, at various social levels, offered a representation of social and racial identity and economic opportunity.
 

Notes

¹See The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, ed. Boris Ford, volume 2 (Harmondsworth, 1982), Part 1; David Farley-Hills, Jacobean Drama (Basingstoke, 1988), Introduction.
²Ben Jonson, The Masque of Blackness, Court Masques: Jacobean and Caroline Entertainments 1605-1640, ed. David Lindley, The World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 1.
³Robert C. Evans, Jonson and the Contexts of His Time (Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1994) 227.
⁴See Kathryn Schwarz, "Amazon Reflections in the Jacobean Queen's Masque," Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 35 (1995): 293-319, here 300-01.
⁵Barbara Kiefer Lewalski in Writing Women in Jacobean England (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1993) 31-33 finds King James's framing power challenged by Aethiopia's own transforming power, which carries associations with Queen Elizabeth as Cynthia.
⁶Thomas Middleton, The Works, ed. A. H. Bullen, vol. 7, rpt. (New York: AMS, 1964) 358.
⁷See also Janine Hartman, "Dangerous American Substances in Jacobean England," Cahiers Elisabéthains 46 (1994): 1-7. Curtis Perry in The Making of Jacobean Culture (Cambridge: CUP, 1997), Chapter 6, analyzes the "civic elite" in relation to courtly pageantry, commenting on another of Middleton's civic pageants.
⁸Reference is to George Chapman, The Memorable Masque, Court Masques: Jacobean and Caroline Entertainments 1605-1640, ed. David Lindley, The World's Classics (Oxford: OUP, 1995), 74.
⁹See also Harry Levin, The Myth of the Golden Age in the Renaissance (New York: OUP, 1969).
 

Works Cited

Primary sources

Court Masques: Jacobean and Caroline Entertainments 1605-1640. Ed. David Lindley. Oxford: OUP, 1995.
Middleton, Thomas. The Works. Ed. A. H. Bullen. Vol. 7. Rpt. New York: AMS, 1964.

Secondary sources

Evans, Robert C. Jonson and the Contexts of His Time. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1994.
Farley-Hills, David. Jacobean Drama. Basingstoke, 1988.
Hartman, Janine. "Dangerous American Substances in Jacobean England." Cahiers Elisabéthains 46 (1994): 1-7.
Levin, Harry. The Myth of the Golden Age in the Renaissance. New York: OUP, 1969.
Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. Writing Women in Jacobean England. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1993.
The New Pelican Guide to English Literature. Ed. Boris Ford. Volume 2. Harmondsworth, 1982.
Perry, Curtis. The Making of Jacobean Culture. Cambridge: CUP, 1997.
Schwarz, Kathryn. "Amazon Reflections in the Jacobean Queen's Masque." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 35 (1995): 293-319.

Authors: Karolien Walravens, Chad Weidner