A Masque in the City, the City in a Masque: The Triumph of Peace, 1634

The seasonal masque of 1633/34 was offered to Charles I by all four Inns of Court, written by James Shirley. With numerous antimasques, a team of sixteen Grand Masquers chosen from the most handsome, youthful and graceful members of the Inns, designs and costumes by Inigo Jones, and embellished with music by William Lawes and Simon Ives, this was one of the most sophisticated ballets de cours seen at Whitehall. The king expressed his appreciation of the performance by ordering a repeat performance in the City of London.

With a first performance organised by committees of lawyers, then a second controlled by city authorities, an unusually extensive batch of documents has survived to illuminate the performance beyond the text alone. The overarching theme was the celebration of Peace, Law and Justice under the reign of Charles I (a few years before the dissension that led to the Civil War). Antimasque themes included the control of ale-houses, the problems of financial monopolies and an appearance of London artisans. From the wealth of information available for analysis, this paper will seek to capture the essence of the events and demonstrate how an argument was developed through dance.