Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion
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''Neptune's Triumph for the Return of Albion'' was a Jacobean era
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 ...
, 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 ...
, and 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 ...
. The masque is notable for the contradictory historical evidence connected with it and the confusion it caused among generations of scholars and critics.


Context

The masque was intended as the major entertainment of the 1623–24 Christmas holiday season, and was scheduled to be performed on
Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...
, 6 January 1624. During the Jacobean era, however, attendance at the performances of the Stuart Court masques was coveted and controversial – especially among the foreign diplomats of the Court, who competed fiercely among themselves for admittance to the masques and especially for seating near the King. In the case of ''Neptune's Triumph,'' the dispute between the French and Spanish ambassadors was so intense that
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 ...
cancelled the performance. There was more than ego or vague national pride involved: James's son and heir, the future
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 ...
, had returned from Spain and his fruitless quest for a marriage with the Spanish Infanta, the "Spanish match" that was a point of intense controversy in Britain at the time. His arrival back in England on 5 October 1623 is the "return of Albion" of the title. James himself had censored and approved the text of the masque; but since he had been the prime backer of the Spanish match, a masque that took a benign view of its failure was perhaps easy for the King to cancel.


Contents

The masque opens with a long conversation between a poet and a cook, who represent Jonson and Jones respectively. The cook and his cookery are Jonson's satire on Jones's artistry in masque design. After the anti-masque, Jones's set of the floating island of Delos was meant to be revealed, with
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
and Mercury presenting the serious portion of the work, supported by the minor Greek sea gods
Proteus In Greek mythology, Proteus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, ''Prōteus'') is an early prophetic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" ''(hálios gérôn)''. ...
, Portunus, and Saron. Songs and dances would have ensued, and an anti-masque of sailors. It is possible that Jonson's unperformed masque may have influenced the most famous literary work connected with the Spanish match affair, Middleton's ''
A Game at Chess ''A Game at Chess'' is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. The play is notable for its political content, dramatizing a conflict between Spain and England. The plot ...
.'' When Jonson's text was published, in
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 ...
in 1624 and in the second folio collection of Jonson's works in 1641, the wording of the title pages gave the impression that the masque had in fact been performed. Generations of scholars took these statements at face value, and believed that the masque had been staged. The fact that none of his contemporaries had actually seen the masque allowed Jonson to re-use material from the text in subsequent works. Some "lyrical passages" from ''Neptune's Triumph'' re-appeared in the next year's masque ''
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 ...
,'' while comedy material from the anti-masque that satirizes Inigo Jones is employed in ''
The Staple of News ''The Staple of News'' is an early Caroline era play, a satire by Ben Jonson. The play was first performed in late 1625 by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre, and first published in 1631. Publication ''The Staple of News'' was entere ...
'' (
1626 Events January–March * January 7 – Polish-Swedish War: Battle of Wallhof in Latvia – Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, defeats a Polish army. * January 9 – Peter Minuit sails from Texel Island for America's Ne ...
).Leapman, pp. 216–17.


Notes


References

* Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. * Howard-Hill, T. H. ''Middleton's "Vulgar Pasquin:" Essays on A Game at Chess.'' Newark, DE, University of Delaware Press, 1995. * Leapman, Michael. ''Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance.'' London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003. * Orgel, Stephen. ''Ben Jonson: The Complete Masques.'' New Haven, Yale University Press, 1969. {{Ben Jonson Masques by Ben Jonson English Renaissance plays 1624 plays