in the reign of James I. The English masque was an
entertainment, dramatic in character, made up of songs, dialogue, and
dances. It originated in masked balls given by the nobility or at
court. To John Lydgate, working about 1430, is probably due the credit
for introducing into such {34} disguisings a literary element, while
the later course of the masque owes much to Italy. In the developed
masque there were two classes of participants: noble amateurs, who wore
elaborate costumes and danced either among themselves or with the
spectators; and professional entertainers, who spoke and sang. The
later masques had elaborate scenery and costumes, with just as much
plot as would serve to string together the lyrics and dances.
Sometimes an anti-masque of grotesque figures was introduced to serve
as contrast to the beautiful figures of the masque. The masques were
produced with the utmost lavishness, the most extravagant one of which
we know costing over L20,000. Some of them, such as those written by
Ben Jonson, contain charming poetry; but their chief interest to the
student of Shakespeare lies in the fact that their great popularity
caused Shakespeare to introduce short masques into some of his plays,
notably _Henry VIII_, _The Winter's Tale_, and _The Tempest_. In
similar allegorical dances often given between the acts of Italian
plays, has been sought the origin of the 'dumb-show,' which was
occasionally introduced into English tragedies, and which appears in
the Mouse-Trap given in _Hamlet_.

The most useful general histories of this period are: F. E. Schelling,
_Elizabethan Drama_ (Houghton Mifflin, 1908); E. K. Chambers, _The
Mediaeval Stage_ (Oxford, 1903); and Creizenach, _Geschichte des
neueren Dramas_ (Halle, 1893-1909, and not yet complete). Some of the
best Miracles, Moralities, and Interludes are easily accessible in
_Everyman with other Interludes_ (Everyman's Library) and J. M. Manly's
_Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama_ (Ginn & Co., 1897).

[1] An extract from the Concordia Regularis, a tenth-century appendix
to the monastic "rule" of St. Benedict, describes this ceremony.
"While the third respond is chanted, let the remaining three follow
[one of the brethren, vested in an alb, had before this quietly taken
his place at the sepulcher], and let them all, vested in copes, and
bearing in their hands thuribles with incense, and stepping delicately,
as those who seek something, approach the