Elements of the masque in selected plays by Shakespeare

At the time of Shakespeare's career as an actor and playwright, the Court masque was an opulent and spectacular entertainment. Under six English monarchs during the Renaissance, the masque competed advantageously with the public theater for royal favor and fee. During the reign of the Stuarts, the English Court masque reached its zenith in magnificence in the collaborative efforts of Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. Shakespeare's interest and use of the masque, however, has been generally ignored; yet his alertness to the Court and public response to the dramatic and entertainment values helps explain certain seemingly extraneous details in his plays, particularly in A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest. The masque allowed the playwright the necessary variety for presentation of emblematic, symbolic, mystic, and metaphoric elements which both allegorically and historically had meaning to the contemporary audience. Shakespeare frequently used the masque to further the action in a play or to embellish the play with a set piece which would please his audience. He borrowed from almost every element found in the Court masque throughout his writing career, a fact supported by a (Study of his plays and a knowledge of the English Court masque.English, Department o