A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Masque. It is more a Masque than a drama. In it Shakespeare is more...
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Transcript of A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Masque. It is more a Masque than a drama. In it Shakespeare is more...
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Masque
• It is more a Masque than a drama.• In it Shakespeare is more a poet than a
dramatist. • The plot is very simple; there is little or no
development of character; • there is very little portrayal of passion; nor is
there much dramatic movement.
Elizabethan Masques
• A genre of entertainment developed in England during the 16th and 17th centuries.
• It involved poetry, music and elaborate sets, and reached its highest development in the court masques ofc 1600-30 and in the stage masques of the Restoration.
• It had its origins in the English disguising of the 15th century and its Italian counterparts, introduced to the English court by Henry VIII.
• The 16th-century court masque combined speech, songs and formal dances with ‘revels’, during which the masquers engaged in dancing, gallantry and intrigue with members of the audience
• In some ways, masques and plays were very similar.
• Both involved costumes, scenery, and acting. • However, there were some important differences. • Plays were usually performed publicly in theaters
and could be seen by anyone who paid. • Masques were performed at court or in a palace in
front of a smaller, private audience
CharacteristicsI
• A greater emphasis on situations than characters
• A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty, often presented by elders
• Separation and re-unification • Multiple, intertwining plots
II
• Deception among characters (especially mistaken identity)
• A clever servant • Tension between characters, often within a
family
III
• Use of all styles of comedy• Pastoral element • Happy Ending, though this is a given,