''Chloridia: Rites to Chloris and Her Nymphs'' was the final
masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...
that
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
wrote for the
Stuart Court. It was performed at
Shrovetide
Shrovetide, also known as the Pre-Lenten Season or Forelent, is the Christian period of preparation before the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent.
Shrovetide starts on Septuagesima Sunday, includes Sexagesima Sunday, Quinquagesima S ...
, 22 February 1631, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed by
Inigo Jones.
The masque
''Chloridia'' was the second of a duet of 1631 royal masques, the first being ''
Love's Triumph Through Callipolis,'' which had been staged six weeks earlier, on 9 January. In the first work, King
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
danced; in the second,
Queen Henrietta Maria starred with her ladies in waiting. Both masques dealt with the theme of
Platonic love, a concept dear to the Queen's heart. ''Chloridia'' depends on rich imagery of nature, greenery, and the seasons, with figures like
Zephyrus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: , 'Winds') were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons an ...
,
Juno, and
Iris
Iris most often refers to:
*Iris (anatomy), part of the eye
*Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess
* ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
* Iris (color), an ambiguous color term
Iris or IRIS may also refer to:
Arts and media
Fictional ent ...
, along with
naiads and personifications of "Poesy, History, Architecture, and Sculpture." The anti-masque features dwarfs and macabre figures emerged from Hell; one of the dancers was the dwarf
Jeffrey Hudson
Jeffrey Hudson (1619 – ''circa'' 1682) was a court dwarf of the English queen Henrietta Maria of France. He was famous as the "Queen's dwarf" and "Lord Minimus", and was considered one of the "wonders of the age" because of his extreme but ...
, the Queen's page and jester. The masque was as rich in spectacle as Jones's masques normally were: characters appear in clouds (a "bright cloud" and a "purplish cloud") floating in the air.
The rivals
The end of Jonson's career as a masquer for the Court, however, was due not to ill health but to a
clash of personalities A personality clash occurs when two (or more) people find themselves in conflict not over a particular issue or incident, but due to a fundamental incompatibility in their personalities, their approaches to things, or their style of life.
A person ...
. Jonson and Jones had been partners in the creation of masques for the Stuart Court since ''
The Masque of Blackness
''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 ...
'' in
1605
Events
January–June
* January 16 – The first part of Miguel de Cervantes' satire on the theme of chivalry, ''Don Quixote'' (''El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha'', "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"), is publ ...
; but Jonson had long nourished a resentment against Jones, feeling that the architect took and received too much credit for the success of their joint projects. The poet expressed his resentment with thinly veiled ridicule of Jones in his works, starting at least as early as ''
Bartholomew Fair
The Bartholomew Fair was one of London's pre-eminent summer charter fairs. A charter for the fair was granted to Rahere by Henry I to fund the Priory of St Bartholomew; and from 1133 to 1855 it took place each year on 24 August within the preci ...
'' in
1614
Events
January–June
* February – King James I of England condemns duels, in his proclamation ''Against Private Challenges and Combats''.
* April 5 – Pocahontas is forced into child marriage with English colonist John Rolfe in Ja ...
— the character Lanthorn Leatherhead in that play being a mockery of Jones. Since Jonson arranged for the publication of the texts of his masques, his name always preceded Jones's in these volumes; but when ''Choridia'' was published together with ''Callipolis,'' in a 1631
quarto
Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
issued by the bookseller
Thomas Walkley,
[The 1631 quarto was dated "1630," since prior to 1751 the English began the New Year on 25 March, not 1 January. See: ]Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
. Jones's name was omitted entirely.
This was an insult that the very well-connected Jones was not prepared to swallow; he used his powerful Court connections to ensure that Jonson was never invited to write another masque for the Stuart Court. (Jonson's final two masques, ''
The King's Entertainment at Welbeck'' and ''
Love's Welcome at Bolsover'' of
1633
Events
January–March
* January 20 – Galileo Galilei, having been summoned to Rome on orders of Pope Urban VIII, leaves for Florence for his journey. His carriage is halted at Ponte a Centino at the border of Tuscany, w ...
and
1634
Events
January–March
* January 12– After suspecting that he will be dismissed, Albrecht von Wallenstein, supreme commander of the Holy Roman Empire's Army, demands that his colonels sign a declaration of personal loyalty.
...
, were written for
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne, KG, KB, PC (25 December 1676) was an English courtier and supporter of the arts. He was a renowned horse breeder, as well as being patron of the playwright Ben Jonson, and the intellectual gr ...
.) When ''Chloridia'' was reprinted in the
second folio collection of Jonson's works in
1641
Events
January–March
* January 4 – The stratovolcano Mount Parker in the Philippines) has a major eruption.
* January 18 – Pau Claris proclaims the Catalan Republic.
* February 16 – King Charles I of England gi ...
(four years after Jonson's death), Jones was appropriately credited.
Notes
References
* Leapman, Michael. ''Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance.'' London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003.
* Orgel, Stephen, ed. ''Ben Jonson: Complete Masques.'' New Haven, Yale University Press, 1969.
{{Ben Jonson
Masques by Ben Jonson
English Renaissance plays
1631 plays