Published: February 17, 2010


Around the time of the Renaissance, ENGLAND’s elite celebrated the CHRISTMAS SEASON with roving, costumed entertainments known as masques. The English borrowed the French word masque, meaning “mask,” to describe these events because the costumes were often designed around elaborate and sometimes bizarre masks.

Early English masques, sometimes called “disguisings,” probably evolved out of such popular Christmas folk customs as MUMMING and NATIVITY PLAYS. Early masques resembled mumming in that bands of costumed revelers dropped in on friends and family and startled them with their unexpected entrances and entertaining antics. Unlike the mummers, however, masquers wore elaborate costumes, often traveled about with musicians, and amused the assembled company with flowery speeches and courtly dances. For example, in 1347 some of the masquers who appeared at King Edward III’s Christmas celebrations wore masks resembling ANGELS’ faces surrounded with haloes. Other more unusual masks looked like mountaintops or a collection of legs swinging wildly though the air. Yet another group of masquers came dressed as dragons, peacocks, and swans.
Although the noble and well-to-do might enjoy a masque at any season of the year, they were often performed during the Christmas season and were particularly popular on TWELFTH NIGHT. The young King Henry VIII once surprised his wife, Katherine of Aragon, by presenting her with a Twelfth Day masque. He burst unannounced into her apartments dressed as Robin Hood. His companions followed, dressed as Robin’s merry men.
The fact that masked and costumed bands of men were a fairly common sight during the Christmas season eventually gave a few individuals the idea of adopting the mummer’s or masquer’s disguise in order to commit crimes. In the early 1400s London officials passed a law against nighttime plays, mummings, and disguisings, excepting those that took place at private homes. The city of Bristol also adopted ordinances that curbed one’s rights to ride through the street in mask and costume during the Christmas season.

The English masque reached its artistic height in the early seven-teenth century. During this era the famous writer Ben Jonson (1572-1637) wrote several masques. He created one of these specifically as a Christmas entertainment. Titled Christmas His Masque (1616), it featured FATHER CHRISTMAS as a main character. The characters presented in Jonson’s masque embodied popular Christmas foods, symbols, and customs. They included Misrule, Caroll, Minc’d Pie, Gamboll, Post-and-Paire, New-Year’s-Gift, Mumming, Wassal, Offering, and Baby Cake (see also LORD OF MISRULE; MINCEMEAT PIE; WASSAIL). The innovative scenery contributed by designer and architect Inigo Jones (1573-1652) also enriched the masques of this era. Masques began to fall out of favor in the second half of the seventeenth century, eventually disappearing altogether as a Christmas entertainment.
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