The Tudor Society

The English Court Masque – Part 1

In today's Claire Chats video I talk about the English court masque and how it developed from a merging of old English traditions and a new Italian fashion.

Here are some YouTube videos of morris dancing:

Links, sources and further reading

  • Disguising at Westminster - An account from Edward Hall's Chronicle of a disguising at Westminster on the first Shrove Sunday of Henry VIII's reign. See p. 513.
  • Epiphany 1512 - Hall's account of "a maske, a thyng not seen afore in England". See p. 526.
  • A Christmas Mumming, 1377.
  • The account of the 1501 celebrations for the marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon can be read in The Masque, a courtly entertainment, pages 17-18, or pages 120-1 of The Court Masque: A Study in the Relationship between Poetry and the Revels by Enid Welsford.

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The English Court Masque – Part 1