The Gypsies Metamorphosed

Last updated

The Gypsies Metamorphosed, alternatively titled The Metamorphosed Gypsies, The Gypsies' Metamorphosis, or The Masque of Gypsies, was a Jacobean era masque written by Ben Jonson, with music composed by Nicholas Lanier. It was first performed on 3 August 1621, and was the biggest popular hit of Jonson's masquing career. [1]

Contents

Buckingham

The masque was sponsored (and paid for) by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham – at that time the Marquis of Buckingham – the court favorite of King James I. Buckingham was celebrating his 6 May marriage to Lady Katherine Manners, the daughter of the Earl of Rutland. The original 3 August performance occurred at Burley (then Burleigh-on-the-Hill), Buckingham's country house; it was repeated two days later, on 5 August, at Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire, the country seat of Buckingham's father-in-law the Earl of Rutland; and it was staged a highly unusual third time at Windsor Castle in September.

The show

The masque was a bold and fresh departure from what was normal for the masque form, in that it featured none of the classical gods and goddesses, the mythological figures, or the personifications of abstract qualities that were standard in masques. Instead, the characters are, as the title indicates, gypsies, who behave for the most part in stereotypical gypsy fashion: they sing and dance frequently, they tell fortunes, and they pick the pockets of the common people who fall in among them. In the masque, the gypsies' "metamorphosis" is that their complexions change from "Ethiop" darkness to English white, under the beneficent royal influence of James. [2] The transformative make-up was provided by the court apothecary John Wolfgang Rumler, "made, and layd on by Master Wolf's appointment". [3] Thereupon the gypsies return all the stolen goods to their proper owners.

One of the masque's unusual features is that aristocrats not only danced in the masque, which was common, but took speaking roles too, which was not. Buckingham himself had a speaking part in which he addressed the King directly; his family and friends were also in the cast. Another unusual feature was the telling of fortunes for the aristocrats of the court. In the first version, fortunes were provided for noblewomen, including Katherine Manners, Lady Elizabeth Hatton, and the Countesses of Rutland, Exeter, and Buckingham (the latter being the favorite's mother); in a later revised version, prominent courtiers like the Earl of Pembroke and Frances, Countess of Exeter received their fortunes (which of course were always positive and complementary/complimentary).

Costs

The free-spending Buckingham paid Jonson the unusual sum of £100 for his work on the masque, double the usual sum of 40-50 pounds; but Lanier was even more generously rewarded for his music, receiving £200. One of the masque's songs, which begins with the line "Cocklorrel would needs have the devil his guest," was a popular hit, both in its own time and well into the Restoration era. (A musical setting for the song survives, though it is anonymous and not certainly Lanier's; other song settings for the masque, by Robert Johnson and Edmund Chilmead, also exist, testifying to the work's popularity.) [4]

Texts

The masque was included in the second folio collection of Jonson's works in 1641; it also received a separate publication in 1640, in a duodecimo volume issued by John Okes. The work also exists in manuscript versions; one is an autograph manuscript, the only surviving MS. in Jonson's hand. The manuscripts have been helpful to scholars in repairing the deficiencies of the printed texts, which jumble together the original and revised versions of the masque.

Critical responses

The Gypsies Metamorphosed was not only popular with its Jacobean audience; modern critics have tended to judge it affirmatively as well. At least one modern scholar has considered it "Jonson's finest achievement as a writer of masques." [5] The masque's multiple levels of meaning have attracted a wide range of critical commentary. [6]

Notes

  1. ↑ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 672-709
  2. ↑ Jonson had earlier experimented with this theme of racial transformation in The Masque of Blackness (1605) and The Masque of Beauty (1608).
  3. ↑ Sujata Iyengar, Shades of Difference: Mythologies of Skin Colour in Early Modern England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), pp. 187–191.
  4. ↑ Walls, pp. 273–4.
  5. ↑ Dale B. J. Randall, quoted in Logan and Smith, p. 80.
  6. ↑ See, for example, Skantze, pp. 51–8; Netzloff, pp. 136–48 and 163-8; and Blank, pp. 61–7; as well as the studies cited in Logan and Smith, p. 80.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Anne Clifford</span> English peeress

Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery, suo jure 14th Baroness de Clifford was an English peeress. In 1605 she inherited her father's ancient barony by writ and became suo jure 14th Baroness de Clifford. She was a patron of literature and as evidenced by her diary and many letters was a literary personage in her own right. She held the hereditary office of High Sheriff of Westmorland which role she exercised from 1653 to 1676.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham</span> British peer noted for her wealth

Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham, Marchioness of Antrim, 18th Baroness de Ros of Helmsley was an English aristocrat. The daughter and heir of Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, she was known as the richest woman in Britain outside of the royal family. She married first George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, the favourite, and possibly lover, of King James I of England; and secondly, she married the Irish peer Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burley, Rutland</span> Village and civil parish in Rutland, England

Burley, or Burley-on-the-Hill, is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is located two miles (3 km) north-east of Oakham. The population of the civil parish was 577 at the 2001 census, including Egleton, but reducing to 325 at the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland</span>

Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland was the eldest surviving son of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland and his wife, Elizabeth nee Charleton. He travelled across Europe, took part in military campaigns led by the Earl of Essex, and was a participant of Essex's rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. He was favoured by James I, and honoured by his contemporaries as a man of great intelligence and talent. He enjoyed the friendship of some of the most prominent writers and artists of the Elizabethan age and Jacobean age. In 1603 he led an Embassy to Denmark, homeland of James' Queen Anne of Denmark.

<i>The Masque of Blackness</i> Masque by Ben Jonson

The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1605. It was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I, who wished the masquers to be disguised as Africans. Anne was one of the performers in the masque along with her court ladies, all of whom appeared in blackface makeup. In a ceremony earlier on the day, Prince Charles, Anne's second son was given the title of Duke of York.

The Masque of Queens, Celebrated From the House of Fame is one of the earlier works in the series of masques that Ben Jonson composed for the House of Stuart in the early 17th century. Performed at Whitehall Palace on 2 February 1609, it marks a notable development in the masque form, in that Jonson defines and elaborates the anti-masque for the first time in its pages.

The Golden Age Restored was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones; it was performed on 1 January and 6 January 1616, almost certainly at Whitehall Palace.

Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists at Court is a Jacobean-era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was performed at Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1615. King James I liked it so much that he ordered a repeat performance the following Sunday, 8 January.

The Masque of Augurs was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was performed, most likely, on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1622.

<i>The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses</i> Play written by Samuel Daniel

The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses was an early Jacobean-era masque, written by Samuel Daniel and performed in the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace on the evening of Sunday, 8 January 1604. One of the earliest of the Stuart Court masques, staged when the new dynasty had been in power less than a year and was closely engaged in peace negotiations with Spain, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses stood as a precedent and a pattern for the many masques that followed during the next four decades.

Luminalia or The Festival of Light was a late Caroline era masque or "operatic show", with an English libretto by Sir William Davenant, designs by Inigo Jones, and music by composer Nicholas Lanier. Performed by Queen Henrietta Maria and her ladies in waiting on Shrove Tuesday, 6 February 1638, it was one of the last and most spectacular of the masques staged at the Stuart Court.

The Vision of Delight was a Jacobean era masque written by Ben Jonson. It was most likely performed on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1617 in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace, and repeated on 19 January that year.

Lovers Made Men, alternatively titled The Masque of Lethe or The Masque at Lord Hay's, was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson, designed by Inigo Jones, and with music composed by Nicholas Lanier. It was performed on Saturday 22 February 1617, and was significant in the development and acceptance of opera in seventeenth-century England.

News from the New World Discovered in the Moon was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson; it was first performed before King James I on 7 January 1620, with a second performance on 29 February the same year. Jonson's text comments on significant recent developments in astronomy and journalism. The text of the masque was first published in the second folio collection of Jonson's works in 1641.

Thomas Walkley was a London publisher and bookseller in the early and middle seventeenth century. He is noted for publishing a range of significant texts in English Renaissance drama, "and much other interesting literature."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitehall Group</span> Circle of art collectors associated with Charles I of England

The Whitehall group is a term applied to a small circle of art connoisseurs, collectors, and patrons, closely associated with King Charles I, who introduced a taste for the Italian old masters to England. The term usually includes the advisors and agents who facilitated the group's acquisition of works of art.

John Wolfgang Rumler was a German physician and apothecary in Augsburg, known for his Observationes medicae, who eventually served the English royal family in the households of Prince of Wales, Queen Anne, King James and Charles I of England. He is also credited with making blackface theatrical grease-paint.

The Entertainment of the Two Kings of Great Britain and Denmark or The Hours was written by Ben Jonson and performed at Theobalds House on 24 July 1606. John Harington of Kelston described another masque of Solomon and Sheba, performed one day at Theobalds after dinner. There is some doubt over Harington's account. In May 1607 another masque An Entertainment of the King James and Queen Anne at Theobalds was performed when the keys of the house were given to Anne of Denmark.

Frances Knyvet or Knyvett (1583–1605) was an English courtier who performed in masques.

Cecily Manners, Countess of Rutland was an English aristocrat.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.