The Tempest

A masque is a specific theatrical genre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the name was originally a different spelling of “mask” and meant “to conceal from view”. In 1514 it was being used for entertainment in dumb shows of music and dancing in which the participants were disguised. By 1562 songs and dialogue had been added, and by 1605 it also stood for the dramatic text of the masque. In England, the presentation of a masque was usually for a royal occasion, although sometimes put on by a member of the nobility, for celebration of a wedding or something similar, when there was often a royal guest to be entertained.

The Masque in The Tempest has been useful to Shakespeare in many ways. It may have initially been meant only to represent the betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda, but it has ended up adding many different aspects to the play. It is a section of The Tempest which well rounds out the play as a whole.

In Shakespeare’s time masques were written for performance before a king’s or nobles’ 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… (IV, i, 112-13).

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.