466 ' M A 
of the mafk, with which the continued to guard her 
complexion from the fun and weather, as being the rnoft 
delicate woman, with regard to her perfon, that has been 
known. Brantome oblerves, that the common ufe of 
modern mafks was not introduced till towards the end 
of the fixteenth century. 
Theatrical malks were in common ufe, both among 
the Greeks and Romans; Suidas and Athenseus afcribe 
the invention of them to the poet Choerilus, a contempo¬ 
rary of Thefpis ; Horace attributes them to .ffifchylus ; 
but Ariftotle informs us, that the real inventor, and, con- 
fequently, the time of their firft introduction and ufe, 
were unknown. 
The want of natural power of voice fufficient to be heard 
in the open air, (for the ancient theatres had no cover,) 
and by a great multitude, firfl fuggefted the idea of dra¬ 
matic malks, which were ufed by the aftors upon the prin¬ 
ciple of fpeaking-trumpets. The malk was called by the 
Latins perfona, from perfonare, “ to found through and 
delineations of fuch malks as were tiled in each piece were 
generally prefixed to it, as appears from the Vatican Te¬ 
rence. Hence dramatisperfova, “majltso'i the drama w hich 
•words, after malks ceafed to be ufed, were underffood to 
mean (C pcrfons of the drama.” Quintilian (lib. ii.) gives 
a lift of invariable mall^s appropriated to different cha¬ 
racters, to which the public had for many ages been ac- 
cuftomed. And Julius Pollux is ftill more ample in his 
account of theatrical malks, ufed in tragedy, fatire, and 
comedy. Niobe, weeping ; Medea, furious ; Ajax, alto- 
niflied ; and Hercules, enraged. In comedy, the Have, 
the parafite, the clown, the captain, the old woman, the 
harlot, the auftere old man, the debauched young man, 
-the prodigal, the prudent young woman, the matron, and 
.the father of a family, were allconftantly charaClerifed by 
particular malks. The cuftom is, in fome meafure, ftill 
preferved in the Italian comedy, and in our pantomime 
entertainments, which originated from it. 
Mask is alfo ufed to fignify any thing ufed to cover the 
face, and prevent a perfon’s being known.—The penitents 
of Lyons and Avignon hide their faces with large white 
veils, which ferve them for majks. Chambers. —In architec¬ 
ture, it is applied to certain pieces of fculpture, reprefent- 
ing fome hideous forms, grotefque or fatyr’s faces, See. 
ufed to fill up and adorn vacant places, as in friezes, the 
pannels of doors, keys of arches, See. but particularly in 
grottoes.—Any pretence or fubterfuge: - 
Too plain thy nakednefsof foul efpy’d, 
Why dolt thou ftrive the confcious lhame to hide, 
By majks of eloquence, and veils of pride ? Prior. 
MASK, more commonly written Masque, f. A feftive 
entertainment, in which the company is malked.—Will 
you preparefor this mafque to-night ? Shahefpeare. —A revel; 
a piece of mummery ; a wild buftle : 
They in the end agree, 
That at a mafque and common revelling, 
Which was ordain’d, they Ihould perform the deed. Daniel. 
This thought might lead me through this world’s vain majk, 
Content, though blind, had I no other guide. Milton. 
A dramatic performance, written in a tragic ftyle w ithout 
attention to rules or probability.—Thus I have broken 
the ice to invention, for the lively reprefentation of floods 
and rivers neceflary for our painters and poets in their 
pictures, poems, comedies, and majlis. Peacham. 
This kind of theatrical drama was much in favour in 
the courts of princes during the fixteenth and feventeenth 
centuries, in the latter particularly in England. Accord¬ 
ing to Hall’s Chronicle, the firft mafque performed in 
England was at Greenwich, 1512, “after the manner of 
Italy and Hollingflied fays, that “ there was not only 
a mafque, but a good comedy of Plautus, performed in 
1520.” In 1530, a mafque was performed at Whitehall, 
“ confifting of mufic, dancing, and a banquet, with a dif- 
play of grotefque perfonages and fantaltic dreffes,” This 
S K. 
piece feems only to have wanted machinery to fulfil the idea 
of a complete mafque, fuch as were afterwards written by 
•Ben Jonfon and others, w hich, with a conftant mufical de¬ 
clamation in recitative mixed with air, would have formed 
an opera exactly fimilarto the mufical drama of Italy, in 
the enfuing century. 
Mafques were certainly the precurfors of operas in Eng¬ 
land, and belong to the chain of dramas which completed 
the union of poetry and mufic on our ftage ; and it does 
not appear, on examination, that the Italian mafeheratt, 
publifhed by Lafca, which have been thought their pro¬ 
totypes, were dialogued or performed on any ftage. They 
feem to have been only procefiional fongs, fling through 
the ftreet by the reprefentatives of different profeflions 
and trades, majked, during carnival-time. And the inter¬ 
ludes which de Miffy and Riccoboni, and their tranflators, 
think we had from the Italian intermezzi, feem to want 
analogy : as interlude, with us, was a general name for 
every Ipecies of ftage-reprefentation, out of the church. 
Mafques in England certainly bear fome refemblance to 
operas : as they are in dialogue; performed on a ftage ; 
ornamented with machinery, dances, and decorations ; and 
have always mufic, vocal and inftrumental. But then the 
effential and charadleriftic criterion, recitative, is want¬ 
ing, without which the refemblance is imperfedf. Our 
mufical pieces, which are fornetimes honoured with the 
name of opera, differ in this particular fo much, that they 
more refemble mafques than the dramas which are entitled 
to that appellation; for, in Englifti mufical dramas, the 
dialogue is all declaimed or fpoken in the fame manner as 
in our old mafques; and in Italy, whence we have both 
name and thing, an opera confifts of both recitatives and 
airs, and is fimg from the beginning to the end. 
Riccoboni fays, that James I. on coming to the crown 
in 1603, granted a licenfe to a company of players, in 
which patent interludes are included ; but an interlude 
then was another word for a-play, whether comedy, tra¬ 
gedy, or farce. Mafques are not mentioned in this patent; 
but as mafques, at this time, were court-entertainments, 
or performed in the houfes of the nobility, on particular 
Qccafions of feftivity, the neceflary machinery and decora¬ 
tions rendered fuch exhibitions too expenfive for the or¬ 
dinary public theatres. Indeed, the feveral parts in the 
mafques of the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries were 
ufually reprefented by the firft perfonages in the kingdom ; 
if at court, the king, queen, and princes of the blood, of¬ 
ten performed in them, 
Mafques appear to have been ftill more the favourite 
anuifements of the court during the early and tranquil 
part of Charles I’s reign than in that of James; and the 
queen, who feems to have brought with her from France 
at leaft as great a love for dramatic exhibitions as fhe 
found here, frequently reprefented the principal character 
in the piece herfelf. Moll of the court-mafques were 
written by Ben Jonfon, who, in his ftation of poet-laureat, 
feems to have furnifhed more of thefe dramas than birth¬ 
day or new-.years’ odes. And, though the mafques of 
this reign are frequently faid, in the title-page and dra¬ 
matis ptrjona, to have been performed by the king, queen, 
and nobles of their court, yet it does not appear that thefe 
great perfonages often took part in the dialogue or fongs 
of the piece; but generally appeared on the ftage in the 
fplendid ballets only, as dancers, reprefentiug mythologi¬ 
cal or allegorical characters. Indeed, the queen, at the 
time of the firft mafques of this reign, can hardly be fup- 
pofed fufliciently exercifed in our language to undertake 
a part in which declamation was neceflary. 
In 1633, there were no lels than five mafques performed 
at different places before the king and queen, and per¬ 
fonages of the court. A very circumftantial account of 
one of thefe has been left in a manufeript by lord-com- 
mifiioner Whitelock, written by himfelf. This mafque, 
entitled the Triumphs of Peace, and written by James 
Shirley, a dramatift of the fecond clafs in the reign of 
Charles I. and author of near forty plays, was adted at 
Whitehall, 
