''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 mas ...
that
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...
wrote for the
Stuart
Stuart may refer to:
People
*Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name)
* Clan Stuart of Bute, a Scottish clan
*House of Stuart, a royal house of Scotland and England
Places Australia Generally
*Stuart Highway, ...
Court. It was performed at
Shrovetide
Shrovetide is the Christian liturgical period prior to the start of Lent that begins on Shrove Saturday and ends at the close of Shrove Tuesday. The season focuses on examination of conscience and repentance before the Lenten fast. It includes ...
, 22 February 1631, with costumes, sets and stage effects designed by
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...
.
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
Henrietta Maria of France ( French: ''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 his execution on 30 January 1649. She was ...
starred with her ladies in waiting. Both masques dealt with the theme of
Platonic love
Platonic love is a type of love in which sexual desire or romantic features are nonexistent or have been suppressed or sublimated, but it means more than simple friendship.
The term is derived from the name of Greek philosopher Plato, tho ...
, a concept dear to the Queen's heart. ''Chloridia'' depends on rich imagery of nature, greenery, and the seasons, with figures like
Zephyrus
In Greek mythology and religion, Zephyrus () (), also spelled in English as Zephyr (), is the god and personification of the West wind, one of the several wind gods, the Anemoi. The son of Eos (the goddess of the dawn) and Astraeus, Zephyrus is t ...
,
Juno, and
Iris, along with
naiad
In Greek mythology, the naiads (; ), sometimes also hydriads, are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.
They are distinct from river gods, who embodied ...
s 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, 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. Jonson and Jones had been partners in the creation of masques for the Stuart Court since ''
The Masque of Blackness'' in
1605
Events
January–March
* January 1 – William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', copyrighted 1600, is given its earliest recorded performance, and witnessed by the Viscount Dorchester.
* January 7 – Shakespeare's play ' ...
; 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 by King Henry I to fund the Priory of St Bartholomew in 1133. It took place each year on 24 August (St Bartholomew's Day) within the p ...
'' in
1614
Events
January–March
* January 22 – Led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, Japan's trade expedition to New Spain (now Mexico) arrives on the Mexican coast with 22 samurai, 120 Japanese merchants, sailors and servants, and 40 Spaniards and Port ...
— 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, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various Europe, European countrie ...
. 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, wher ...
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), who after 1665 styled himself as Prince William Cavendish, was an English courtier and supporter of the arts. He was a renowned horse breeder, as well as being ...
.) When ''Chloridia'' was reprinted in the
second folio collection of Jonson's works in
1641
Events
January–March
* January 4 – The stratovolcano Mount Parker (Philippines), Mount Parker in the Philippines has a major eruption.
* January 14 – Battle of Malacca (1641), The Battle of Malacca concludes with the D ...
(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
Henrietta Maria of France