Love's Triumph Through Callipolis
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''Love's Triumph Through Callipolis'' was the first
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 masque ...
performed at the Stuart Court during the reign of 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 ...
, and the first in which a reigning monarch appeared. The work was written by
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 ...
, with costumes, sets, and stage effects designed by
Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...
, and music by Nicholas Lanier. This play Also played in Greece national theatre in 1979 together with the Johnsons masques Oberon, the faery prince and News from the new world discovered in the moon.


Masquing resumed

At the start of his reign in 1625, Charles discontinued the practice of staging annual masques during the Christmas season, which had prevailed throughout the reign of his father
James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, from ''
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 to ''
The Fortunate Isles and Their Union ''The Fortunate Isles and Their Union'' is a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, and performed on 9 January 1625. It was the last masque acted before King James I of England (who died two months later on 27 ...
'' in
1625 Events January–March * January 17 – Led by the Duke of Soubise, the Huguenots launch a second rebellion against King Louis XIII, with a surprise naval assault on a French fleet being prepared in Blavet. * February 3 – ...
. His new bride,
Henrietta Maria of France Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...
, was too young and inexperienced to take over the role of the previous queen,
Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...
, who had been the prime mover in the production of the masques. The resumption of masquing in 1631 has been seen as a sign of the greater maturity and the growing influence of Charles's then 21-year-old queen.


King and courtiers

''Love's Triumph Through Callipolis,'' performed at
Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Hen ...
on 9 January 1631, was only the first of two masques mounted at Court that winter season; the second was ''
Chloridia ''Chloridia: Rites to Chloris and Her Nymphs'' was the final masque that Ben Jonson wrote for the Stuart Court. It was performed at Shrovetide, 22 February 1631, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones. The masque ''Chlo ...
,'' staged on 22 February. The first masque featured King Charles himself, performing with fourteen lords of his Court; the second featured Henrietta Maria and her ladies in waiting. The former circumstance constituted a major innovation: in the previous reign, Queen Anne had regularly appeared in masques, but the King never did. Charles would perform again in the next year's masque, ''Albion's Triumph'' by
Aurelian Townshend Aurelian Townshend (sometimes Townsend; c. 1583 – c. 1649) was a seventeenth-century English poet and playwright. Family Aurelian Townshend was the son of John Townshend of Dereham Abbey, Norfolk. Both Aurelian and his sister, Frances, were b ...
(designed again by Inigo Jones), and in subsequent masques as well. Both the text of the masque and Charles's personal participation in it supported his traditionalist position of absolute royal authority. Yet three of the noblemen who participated in the masque with Charles, the Earls of Pembroke, Newport, and
Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
, were dissenters from Charles's policy of personal rule; they were part of the Parliamentary party at Court that would assert itself a decade later.


Platonic love

Both of the 1631 masques deal with the theme of
Platonic love Platonic love (often lowercased as platonic love) is a type of love in which sexual desire or romantic features are nonexistent or has been suppressed or sublimated, but it means more than simple friendship. The term is derived from the nam ...
, a concept dear to the heart of Henrietta Maria; she was at the center of a Court circle that favored the concept. Callipolis is an idealized Platonic city, dedicated to virtue and beauty. At the start of the masque, however, the suburbs of Callipolis have been penetrated by twelve depraved and sensuous lovers – "A glorious boasting lover," "A whining ballading lover," etc., down to "A sensual brute lover." These figures, shown in the anti-masque, are not English but from continental European nations. This, however, is not an indictment of the Queen's origin in France; to the contrary, the masque specifies that if the King embodies "heroic love," the Queen, as the loved one or the object of that love, is essential to the affirmative whole that the masque celebrates.Britland, pp. 66–8. The depraved lovers perform a complex dance through circles and mazes; once they are expelled, the place is purified with censors and the proper and ordering love of the King and Queen is celebrated, with the usual mythical figures of the masque form –
Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titan son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods a ...
and
Amphitrite In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (; grc-gre, Ἀμφιτρίτη, Amphitrítē) was the goddess of the sea, the queen of the sea, and the wife of Poseidon. She was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (or Oceanus and Tethys).Roman, L., & Rom ...
, sea gods and
cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...
s,
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
,
Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...
, and others.


Publication

Shortly after their performances, both 1631 masques, ''Callipolis'' and ''Chloridia,'' were published together in a
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 Thomas Walkley ( fl. 1618 – 1658) 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 ...
. (The 1631 quarto was dated "1630," since prior to 1751 England started the New Year on 25 March instead of 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 ...
.) ''Callipolis'' was reprinted in the second folio collection of Jonson's works in 1641.


Notes


References

* Britland, Karen. ''Drama in the Courts of Henrietta Maria.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006. * Leapman, Michael. ''Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance.'' London, Headline Book Publishing, 2002. * Mulryne, James Ronald, and Margaret Shewring, eds. ''Theatre and Government Under the Early Stuarts.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993. * Orgel, Steven, ed. ''Ben Jonson: The Complete Masques.'' New Haven, Yale University Press, 1969. {{Ben Jonson Masques by Ben Jonson English Renaissance plays 1631 plays Charles I of England