'Actors' in 'Barbaresque Mantells'

The Blackness of the Female Performers in Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness

Abstract

Ben Jonson's successive masques The Masque of Blackness and The Masque of Beauty have generally been interpreted in terms of Neo-Platonic symbolism and imagery. However, since these court masques were not only pieces of written poetry, but also well-organised spectacles, it might be of interest to approach them from the perspective of performance and in comparison to popular theatre. The present paper discusses how theatricality, popular entertainment, acting, and professional players are connoted by the "blackness" and the changeable nature of the female masquers in Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness. Considering his ambiguous and vehement relationship to the stage designer Inigo Jones, I am also examining Jonson's antitheatrical attitude and his struggle to keep his poetry "white," "beauteous," at a distance from the mutability of performance.