The Stuart Court Masque
July 1st, 2010
Martin Spies: The Stuart Court Masque– An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Masque Genre in the 17th Century
The last decade has seen a renewed interest in what was probably the most spectacular and multifaceted of English courtly entertainments: the Stuart Court masque. Involving all manner of artists and craftsmen (e.g. writers, composers, architects, painters and pyrotechnists) as well as professional actors and members of the royal court, the court masques of the first half of the 17th century were allegorical demonstrations of royal power and propaganda staged for an exclusive audience. By focusing on the masques produced for the celebration of the marriage of the king’s daughter to the Elector Palatine in 1613, this lecture will suggest interdisciplinary means of achieving a more complex understanding of the masque genre.
Martin Spies is a research assistant in the English Department at the University of Giessen. He studied English, History and Literature at the Universities of Siegen and Southampton and received his PhD at the University of Ghent with a dissertation on “Lady Jane Grey and the Victorian Imagination” in 2009. His research concentrates on early modern and Victorian literature and culture.