ties for the exercise of their
lyrical gifts and of their inventive powers. The former could never
become other than an exotic, so long as it retained the artificial
character of its origin. Shakespeare had accordingly only blended
elements derived from it into the action of his romantic comedies. In
more or less isolated works Jonson, Fletcher, Daniel, Randolph, and
others sought to rival Tasso and Guarini--Jonson[189] coming nearest to
nationalizing an essentially foreign growth by the fresh simplicity of
his treatment, Fletcher[190] bearing away the palm for beauty of poetic
execution; Daniel being distinguished by simpler beauties of style in
both verse and prose.[191]

The mask.

The mask (or masque) was a more elastic kind of composition, mixing in
varying proportions its constituent elements of declamation and
dialogue, music and dancing, decoration and scenery. In its least
elaborate literary form--which, of course, externally was the most
elaborate--it closely approached the pageant; in other instances the
distinctness of its characters or the fulness of the action introduced
into its scheme, brought it nearer to the regular drama. A frequent
ornament of Queen Elizabeth's progresses, it was cultivated with
increased assiduity in the reign of James I., and in that of his
successor outshone, by the favour it enjoyed with court and nobility,
the attractions of the regular drama itself. Most of the later
Elizabethan dramatists contributed to this species, upon which
Shakespeare expended the resources of his fancy only incidentally in the
course of his dramas; but by far the most successful writer of masks was
Ben Jonson, of whose numerous compositions of this kind many hold a
permanent place in English poetic literature, and "next" whom, in his
own judgment, "only Fletcher and Chapman could write a mask." From a
poetic point of view, however, they were at least rivalled by Dekker and
Ford; in productivity and favour T. Campion, who was equally eminent as
poet and as musician, seems for a time to have excelled. Inasmuch,
however, as the history of the mask in England is to a great extent that
of "painting and carpentry" and of Inigo Jones, and as, moreover, this
kind of piece, while admitting dramatic elements, is of its nature
occasional, it need not further be pursued here. The _Microcosmus_ of T.
Nabbes (printed 1637), which is very like a morality, seems to have been
the first mask brought upon the public