 A masque is an elaborate, costly, semi dramatic, courtly form of entertainment introduced from Italy to England during first half of the 16 th century. It flourished in the reign of James I, when poets like Jonson, Samuel Daniel and Willian Browne wrote songs and dialogues. In it, plot, character and to a great extent even dialogues are subordinated to the spectacular and the musical elements. The earliest mention of an English masque occurs in Hall’s Chronicle for the year It was a medley of music, elaborate scenic effect, and dancing, elaborate costumes(masks) woven around a Fairy tale, a myth or ellegory.

 The Masque developed into something like a splendid ballet with additional attractions of beautiful speeches and songs. The characters in the highly perfected form of the masque are deities of classical mythology, nymphs and personified abstractions like love, delight, harmony,etc. The number of characters is restricted to six. The setting of the scene is ideal regions such as Olympus, Arcadia, the Fortunate Isles.  Shakespeare has introduced Masque interludes in his plays. For example the marriage of Ferdinand and Mirenda in The Tempest is celebrated with a masque.

 In Shakespeare’s time masques were written for performance before a king’s or nobles’s court; thus, they were given the name Court Masques. They provide an allegorical setting to celebrate feast days, harvests, betrothals and marriages. Although there is no evidence, it is believed that the masque in The Tempest was written especially for a performance of the play at the marriage celebration of King James’ daughter. Within the play itself, the masque is written in celebration of the betrothal and future marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda, and it provides an allegorical setting for the wedding.

 Specifically, the masque in The Tempest occurs in Act IV, scene i. The goddesses and reapers are conjured up by Prospero to shower eternal spring on the engaged couple. In the masque we travel from season to season, with the exception of winter. We hear of “spongy April”, and “lasslorn” spring. Next we hear Ceres sing of summer,   Vines with clustering bunches growing,  Plants with goodly burden bowing…

 Iris then conjures up three “sunburned sickle-men of August weary” (IV, I, 134). The goddesses have carried us through three stages of life: growth, maturation, and harvest. Winter has no role in this merry celebration because it was in winter that Ceres’ daughter was abducted and the rape of Persephone was indeed the cause of winter, according to mythology (specifically Ovid).   For Prospero, however, winter is very real as we see when he breaks in with,   I had forgot that foul conspiracy  Of the beast Caliban and his confederates

 The masque gives a momentary vision of a world without problems, immediacy, and drama. We know, however, that such a state cannot be. Prospero has nearly become entrapped in such a belief. The masque is totally dependent on Prospero; thus, when he begins to lose his awareness, he forgets the immediate action needed to return to the “real” world, Milan. It is because of this slight loss of awareness that Prospero is “touch’d with anger” when he makes the transition from fantasy to reality. The masque provides a bridge for the action of the play to move from the magical island back to the civilized Milan. The poetry of the play also changes with the masque. Both an operatic and a fairytale quality are produced in the masque.

 Finally, Shakespeare has several different uses for the masque in The Tempest. He has made it a bridge from magic to reality; a celebration of Ferdinand’s and Miranda’s engagement, and of King James’ daughter. It has provided an operatic, musical quality to the play, and a fairytale quality as well. The masque produces a necessary section of the play, and although The Tempest has been performed without the masque it is an addition which almost perfectly rounds out Shakespeare’s play.