Christmas, His Masque, also called Christmas His Show, was a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and performed at the English royal court at Christmas of 1616. Jonson's masque displays the traditional folklore and iconography of Christmas at an early-modern and pre-commercial stage of its development. This article is in need of attention. ... Costume for a Knight, by Inigo Jones: the plumed helmet, the heroic torso in armour and other conventions were still employed for opera seria in the 18th century. ... For other persons of the same name, see Ben Johnson (disambiguation). ... Year 1616 (MDCXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Christmas is an annual holiday that marks the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. ...

The masque opens with the entrance of a personified Christmas and his attendants, one of whom leads the way in, beating a drum. Christmas is dressed in a doublet and hose (color unspecified) and a "high-crowned hat;" he has a "long thin beard" and white shoes. Christmas is soon followed by his ten children, who are led in, on a string, by Cupid (who is dressed like a London apprentice, with his wings at his shoulders). The "Sons and Daughters" of Christmas are Carol, Misrule, Gambol, Offering, Wassail, Mumming, New-Year's-Gift, Post and Pair,^[1] and even Minced-Pie and Baby-Cake. Each has his or her own fantastic get-up. Carol, for instance, wears a tawny coat and a red cap, and has a flute in his belt. Mince-Pie is attired "like a fine cook's wife, drest neat," while Gambol is dressed "like a tumbler, with a hoop and bells." Each of the ten is followed by a torchbearer-attendant, carrying marchpanes, cakes, bottles of wine, and other holiday gear. (The specific details of the costumes and furnishings, like "an orange and rosemary, but not a clove to stick in it," participate in a dense web of folklore connections. Baby-Cake comes last in the procession of children, for example, because miniature "twelvetide" cakes were associated with Twelfth Night, the last day of the Christmas holiday season.) The unidentified tailor in Giovanni Battista Moronis famous portrait of ca 1570 is in doublet and lined and stuffed (bombasted) breeches. ... It has been suggested that Cupid (holiday character) be merged into this article or section. ... Twelfth Night is a holiday in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany, or Twelfth Day, and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the evening of the 5 January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany. In some traditions it is taken to mean...

Cupid is soon joined by his mother Venus, who like her son is dressed down in contemporary London garb: the goddess appears as a "deaf tire-woman"^[2] who lives in Pudding Lane. The speeches of Venus and the other characters are rich in contemporary allusions and references; Venus, for example, mentions Richard Burbage and John Heminges, prominent actors with the King's Men. The masque proceeds to singing and dancing, with the stated intent to present "A right Chistmas, as of old it was." Marble Venus of the Capitoline Venus type, Roman (British Museum) Venus was a major Roman goddess principally associated with love and beauty, the rough equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. ... Pudding Lane looking northwards from the junction with Monument Street. ... Categories: Actor stubs | 1567 births | 1619 deaths ... John Heminges was an actor in the Kings Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. ... It has been suggested that Lord Chamberlains Men be merged into this article or section. ...

Early commentators tended to dismiss Jonson's masque as a piece of holiday fluff, often noting that the work is less a true masque and more of a mummers' show. Modern critics have looked beneath its surface to detect serious political, social, and cultural implications. Jonson's text, in promoting a traditional Christmas, was taking a position favored by King James I and opposed to the contemporary culture of the merchants of the City of London and especially that of the Puritans, who were overtly hostile to the traditional holiday. The text of the masque shows an abundant and rather biting satire aimed at the anti-Christmas forces in Jacobean society.^[3] Mummers Plays (also known as mumming) are seasonal folk plays performed by troupes of actors known as mummers or guisers (or by local names such as rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, galoshins and so on), originally in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (see wrenboys), but later in other parts of... James Stuart (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old. ... The City of London is a geographically-small city within Greater London, England. ... For the record label, see Puritan Records. ...

King James had made an important speech before the Star Chamber earlier in 1616, in an attempt to promote traditional country life and pastimes, which were plainly in decline in an era of ever-greater urbanization and economic development.^[4] James would soon issue his proclamation known as the Book of Sports (1618), another attempt to support and re-enforce the traditional country life in the face of rapid social change.^[5] Jonson's masque is one element in this larger cultural debate. The Star Chamber (Latin Camera stellata) was an English court of law at the royal Palace of Westminster that sat between 1487 and 1641, when the court itself was abolished. ... Events March 8 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion (he soon rejects the idea after some initial calculations were made but on May 15 confirms the discovery). ...

Christmas, His Masque was produced too late to be included in the first folio collection of Jonson's works in 1616; it was the first masque in the second folio of 1641. It also exists in manuscripts. The folio collections of Ben Jonsons works published in the seventeenth century were crucial developments in the publication of English literature and English Renaissance drama. ... Events The Long Parliament passes a series of legislation designed to contain Charles Is absolutist tendencies. ...

Notes

1. ^ "Post and pair" was a card game.
2. ^ A "tire-woman" was one who attended gentlewomen's elaborate wig-and-hair arrangements, rather comparable to a modern hairdresser.
3. ^ Marcus, pp. 78-85.
4. ^ Marcus, p. 77.
5. ^ Collins, p. 46.

Sources

• Collins, Tony. Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports. London, Routledge, 2005.
• Evans, Robert C. Jonson and the Contexts of His Time. Lewisburg, PA, Bucknell University Press, 1994.
• Marcus, Leah Sinanoglou. The Politics of Mirth: Jonson, Herrick, Milton, Marvell, and the Defense of Old Holiday Pastimes. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986.