MASQUE (Fr., mask). or MASK. A species of dramatic entertainment much in vogue in England ill the sixteenth and seventeenth cen turies, so named from the masks (q.v.) which were originally worn in it. It was introduced during the reign of Henry VIII. in imitation of some of the Italian allegorical pageants of the period, and was at the same time a development of the festive processions of the city of London and of the royal progresses. Around the acted pageantry of the mythological and allegorical personages in these there up regular dra matic performances in which music and dancing were prominent and which were comparable to the ballets of the French Court. (See BALLET.) Masques were in their time the favorite form of private theatricals. though the elaborate and expensive style in which they were usually given limited them for the most part to the homes of the nobility and the Court. They were at their best in dames L's day. Ben Jonson, above all, made the masque a thing of literary beauty, in whieh his classic learning and graceful fancy united to furnish royal amusement. As spec
tacles, masques were largely an affair of costume and of scenic design, to which the architect Inigo Jones lent his aid. The taste for this style of entertainment died away under Charles I.; yet to his time belongs Milton's Comes. In this. how ever, though it was made to be acted, the masque has become a literary form practically inde pendent of actual presentation, and as such it has survived to our day. Consult: Evans, Eng lish Masques (London, 1897); Greg, :I List of Masques, Pageants, etc•, supplementary to a list of English, Plays (London, 1902) ; Soergel, Die engllischrn Jiaskrnspirlr (Halle, 1582) ; Brotanek, Die eng/iwheu .IIaskenspir1r (Vienna and Leip zig, 1902) ; Symonds. Nhakspere's Predecessors in the English Drama (London. ISSI) : Ward, Eng lish. Dramatic Literature (London. 1875).