 The masque was lavishly sponsored by the four Inns of Court, through a political and social motive.In 1632 the Puritan controversialist William Prynne (himself an Inns of Court man) had dedicated his anti-theatre diatribe "Histriomastix" to the Inns; since "Histriomastix" was perceived as insulting to Queen Henrietta Maria, the masque was the Inns' signal of their total rejection of any connection with Prynne's book or his views.Shirley was chosen to write the masque because he was a member of Gray's Inn.