Editing Masque (section)

==Development==
The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and courtly shows of [[Duchy of Burgundy|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 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 (painter)|Giulio Romano]] or [[Inigo Jones]].

The [[New Criticism|New Historians]], in works like the essays of Bevington and Holbrook's ''The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque'' (1998),<ref>[[David Bevington]] and Peter Holbrook, editors, ''The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque'' 1998 {{ISBN|0-521-59436-7}}).</ref> 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 of England|Charles I]], caused great offence to the [[Puritan]]s. [[Catherine de' Medici's court festivals]], often even more overtly political, were among the most spectacular entertainments of her day, although the "[[intermedio|intermezzi]]" of the [[Medici]] court in [[Florence]] could rival them.

===Dumbshow===
In English theatre tradition, a [[dumbshow]] is a masque-like interlude of silent [[mime artist|mime]] usually with [[allegory|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 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, [[John Gower|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?" is Ophelia's reaction. In English masques, purely musical interludes might be accompanied by a dumbshow.