Editing Salmacida Spolia (section)

==Intent==
In English, the title means "Salmacian spoils," and refers to an ancient Greek legend: a band of [[barbarian]]s pillaging the Greek city of [[Halicarnassus]] in [[Asia Minor]] are pacified and civilized by drinking from the fountain of [[Salmacis]].<ref>Leapman, p. 328.</ref> The masque was intended to convey a message of yielding and pacification; [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] had just ended his eleven-year period of personal rule and called for a new session of [[parliament]]. In an effort to create an amicable atmosphere for the coming parliamentary session, several leading aristocratic members of the parliamentary party were cast in the masque, including [[Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford]], and [[Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke]]. (This effort at political theatre quickly proved useless: the parliament that followed was the famous [[Short Parliament]].)