masque

also mask (măsk)

1. A dramatic entertainment, usually performed by masked players representing mythological or allegorical figures, that was popular in England in the 1500s and early 1600s.

2. A dramatic verse composition written for such an entertainment.

3. See masquerade.

[French; see mask.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

masque

(mɑːsk) or

mask

1. (Theatre) a dramatic entertainment of the 16th to 17th centuries in England, consisting of pantomime, dancing, dialogue, and song, often performed at court

2. (Theatre) the words and music written for a masque

3. (Clothing & Fashion) short for masquerade

[C16: variant of mask]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

masque

or mask

(mæsk, mɑsk)

n.

1. an elaborate court entertainment in England in the 16th and 17th centuries combining pantomime, dialogue, music, singing, dancing, and mechanical effects.

2. a dramatic composition for such entertainment.

3. masked ball.

[1505–15; < Middle French]

masque

A typical European Renaissance dramatic form, with actors using masks and costumes.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

masque - a party of guests wearing costumes and masks

masquerade, masquerade party, mask

fancy-dress ball, masked ball, masquerade ball - a ball at which guests wear costumes and masks

party - a group of people gathered together for pleasure; "she joined the party after dinner"

Translations

mascarada

masque

[mɑːsk] N → mascarada f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

masque

n → Maskenspiel nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

As their grisly masque they led, And loud they sang, and long they sang,

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Lermontoff's Bal Masque is based on that idea--a stupid and unnatural one, in my opinion; but he was hardly more than a child when he wrote it."

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She had been led through the best galleries, had been taken to the chief points of view, had been shown the grandest ruins and the most glorious churches, and she had ended by oftenest choosing to drive out to the Campagna where she could feel alone with the earth and sky, away-from the oppressive masquerade of ages, in which her own life too seemed to become a masque with enigmatical costumes.

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I smiled as I unfolded it, and devised how I would tease you about your aristocratic tastes, and your efforts to masque your plebeian bride in the attributes of a peeress.

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This sense that had clung to him all day could not be fully explained by his fancy about "looking-glass land." Somehow he had not seen the real story, but some game or masque. And yet people do not get hanged or run through the body for the sake of a charade.

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Double masques, one of men, another of ladies, addeth state and variety.

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The masques, mummeries, and festive customs, described in the text, are in accordance with the manners of the age.

But a band of Puritans, who watched the scene, invisible themselves, compared the masques to those devils and ruined souls with whom their superstition peopled the black wilderness.

Erring Thought and perverted Wisdom were made to put on masques, and play the fool.

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This gave them the seeming of ghostly masques, undertakers in a spectral world at the funeral of some ghost.

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These shows were called by various names, Pageants, Masques, Interludes, Mummings or Disguisings, and on every great or little occasion there was sure to be something of the sort.

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In Ben Jonson's introduction to the 1609 Masque of Queenes, for example, he explains that it was Anna's suggestion to offer an anti-masque, a contrasting theatrical piece, before the start of the entertainment: "And becauje her Maiftie (best knowing, that a principall part of life, in these Spectacles, lay in their variety) had comanded me to think on some Dance or shew, that might praecede hers, & haue the place of a foile or false masque." (16) While Jonson was already experimenting with the anti-masque before this particular performance, the success of the anti-masque in the The Masque of Queenes would eventually make such counterentertainments a standard element of court drama.

The Queen's Masques: Rethinking Jacobean Masques and an English Feminine Theater