{"id":{"repo_id":"baylor","oai_identifier":"oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/14548"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/baylor/oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/14548","repository":{"repo_id":"baylor","name":"Baylor University","base_url":"https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Comus and the seventeenth century masque.","abstract":"About the masque of Comus there has long been controversy of one kind and another. Scholars are apparently unable to make up their minds that it is a masque at all. Soergel, a leading authority on the subject of masques, boldly states that "Comus ist eine Moralitat mit Masquerade, aber keine Masque." Miss Welsford is quite convinced that Comus is a more or less typical production. Masson, like many another critic, praises Comus to the skies while Belloc claims that it is an inferior work. Some critics think that the blank verse of Comus is comparable to that of Paradise Lost; others think that it is some of Milton's worst. This first problem is the one which primarily concerns us here. Is Comus a masque at all? If so, wherein does it resemble its predecessors and wherein does it differ from them? These questions could be answered in either of two ways: by diligent research one could establish the consensus of scholarly opinion, or by a reading of the masques themselves one could arrive at a fairly independent conclusion. This second method, though perhaps the more dangerous, is in the main the one employed here. Quite logically, a brief history of the masque, that appanage of the court and of cultured societies, constitutes Part One of this thesis. In conjunction with this history most of the salient features and characteristics of the typical seventeenth-century masque are brought out. To write this brief history without recourse to the leading authorities on the masque would be not only futile but foolhardy. Soergel, Brotanek, Reyher, Evans, Welsford, and others have been consulted for the introductory pages and for some of the later ones. An attempt has been made to indicate all borrowed material by footnoting--an impossible task, of course--but some footnotes are deliberately omitted because the material is common knowledge. When my conclusions, furthermore, have not coincided with those of the authorities, I have not hesitated to use my own, believing that this method is the only sane one and realizing that otherwise all research would be for nought. It is well to bear in mind that the literary poem was only a fragment of the integrated masque; for the Elizabethan and Stuart masques proper were gorgeous visions of splendor suffused with the light that never was on sea of land, full of costly scenery, sculpture, architecture, painting; comedy, declamation, dialogue; picturesque dance and movement; music in the form of solo melodies, of recitative to which much of the libretto was spoken, and of incidental accompaniment to the action. Nearly all of these ephemeral concomitants of the masque have passed away, learning only the librettos and rendering all the more difficult this task of comparing Comus with other seventeenth-century masques. But enough of introduction, or these few observations, like a prologue by Plautus, will give the story away before the proper time. The lights dim, the curtain rises, and we make way for better players.","abstract_html":"About the masque of Comus there has long been controversy of one kind and another. Scholars are apparently unable to make up their minds that it is a masque at all. Soergel, a leading authority on the subject of masques, boldly states that "Comus ist eine Moralitat mit Masquerade, aber keine Masque." Miss Welsford is quite convinced that Comus is a more or less typical production. Masson, like many another critic, praises Comus to the skies while Belloc claims that it is an inferior work. Some critics think that the blank verse of Comus is comparable to that of Paradise Lost; others think that it is some of Milton's worst. This first problem is the one which primarily concerns us here. Is Comus a masque at all? If so, wherein does it resemble its predecessors and wherein does it differ from them? These questions could be answered in either of two ways: by diligent research one could establish the consensus of scholarly opinion, or by a reading of the masques themselves one could arrive at a fairly independent conclusion. This second method, though perhaps the more dangerous, is in the main the one employed here. Quite logically, a brief history of the masque, that appanage of the court and of cultured societies, constitutes Part One of this thesis. In conjunction with this history most of the salient features and characteristics of the typical seventeenth-century masque are brought out. To write this brief history without recourse to the leading authorities on the masque would be not only futile but foolhardy. Soergel, Brotanek, Reyher, Evans, Welsford, and others have been consulted for the introductory pages and for some of the later ones. An attempt has been made to indicate all borrowed material by footnoting--an impossible task, of course--but some footnotes are deliberately omitted because the material is common knowledge. When my conclusions, furthermore, have not coincided with those of the authorities, I have not hesitated to use my own, believing that this method is the only sane one and realizing that otherwise all research would be for nought. It is well to bear in mind that the literary poem was only a fragment of the integrated masque; for the Elizabethan and Stuart masques proper were gorgeous visions of splendor suffused with the light that never was on sea of land, full of costly scenery, sculpture, architecture, painting; comedy, declamation, dialogue; picturesque dance and movement; music in the form of solo melodies, of recitative to which much of the libretto was spoken, and of incidental accompaniment to the action. Nearly all of these ephemeral concomitants of the masque have passed away, learning only the librettos and rendering all the more difficult this task of comparing Comus with other seventeenth-century masques. But enough of introduction, or these few observations, like a prologue by Plautus, will give the story away before the proper time. The lights dim, the curtain rises, and we make way for better players.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Turner, Loyd L., 1917-"],"institution":"Baylor University.","degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Masters","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Courtney, Luther W. (Luther Weeks)"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1940,"date_issued":"1940-08","date_published":"1940-08","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:07:49Z","subjects":["Milton, John, 1608-1674. Comus.","Masques."],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2104/14548","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Courtney, Luther W. 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Comus.","Masques."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2104/14548"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["About the masque of Comus there has long been controversy of one kind and another. Scholars are apparently unable to make up their minds that it is a masque at all. Soergel, a leading authority on the subject of masques, boldly states that "Comus ist eine Moralitat mit Masquerade, aber keine Masque." Miss Welsford is quite convinced that Comus is a more or less typical production. Masson, like many another critic, praises Comus to the skies while Belloc claims that it is an inferior work. Some critics think that the blank verse of Comus is comparable to that of Paradise Lost; others think that it is some of Milton's worst. This first problem is the one which primarily concerns us here. Is Comus a masque at all? If so, wherein does it resemble its predecessors and wherein does it differ from them? These questions could be answered in either of two ways: by diligent research one could establish the consensus of scholarly opinion, or by a reading of the masques themselves one could arrive at a fairly independent conclusion. This second method, though perhaps the more dangerous, is in the main the one employed here. Quite logically, a brief history of the masque, that appanage of the court and of cultured societies, constitutes Part One of this thesis. In conjunction with this history most of the salient features and characteristics of the typical seventeenth-century masque are brought out. To write this brief history without recourse to the leading authorities on the masque would be not only futile but foolhardy. Soergel, Brotanek, Reyher, Evans, Welsford, and others have been consulted for the introductory pages and for some of the later ones. An attempt has been made to indicate all borrowed material by footnoting--an impossible task, of course--but some footnotes are deliberately omitted because the material is common knowledge. When my conclusions, furthermore, have not coincided with those of the authorities, I have not hesitated to use my own, believing that this method is the only sane one and realizing that otherwise all research would be for nought. It is well to bear in mind that the literary poem was only a fragment of the integrated masque; for the Elizabethan and Stuart masques proper were gorgeous visions of splendor suffused with the light that never was on sea of land, full of costly scenery, sculpture, architecture, painting; comedy, declamation, dialogue; picturesque dance and movement; music in the form of solo melodies, of recitative to which much of the libretto was spoken, and of incidental accompaniment to the action. Nearly all of these ephemeral concomitants of the masque have passed away, learning only the librettos and rendering all the more difficult this task of comparing Comus with other seventeenth-century masques. But enough of introduction, or these few observations, like a prologue by Plautus, will give the story away before the proper time. The lights dim, the curtain rises, and we make way for better players."]},{"key":"dc:format.mimetype","label":"Dc Format Mimetype","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Comus and the seventeenth century masque."]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Courtney, Luther W. (Luther Weeks)"],"dc:creator":["Turner, Loyd L., 1917-"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2026-03-13T13:52:20Z"],"dc:date.issued":["1940-08"],"dc:description.abstract":["About the masque of Comus there has long been controversy of one kind and another. Scholars are apparently unable to make up their minds that it is a masque at all. Soergel, a leading authority on the subject of masques, boldly states that "Comus ist eine Moralitat mit Masquerade, aber keine Masque." Miss Welsford is quite convinced that Comus is a more or less typical production. Masson, like many another critic, praises Comus to the skies while Belloc claims that it is an inferior work. Some critics think that the blank verse of Comus is comparable to that of Paradise Lost; others think that it is some of Milton's worst. This first problem is the one which primarily concerns us here. Is Comus a masque at all? If so, wherein does it resemble its predecessors and wherein does it differ from them? These questions could be answered in either of two ways: by diligent research one could establish the consensus of scholarly opinion, or by a reading of the masques themselves one could arrive at a fairly independent conclusion. This second method, though perhaps the more dangerous, is in the main the one employed here. Quite logically, a brief history of the masque, that appanage of the court and of cultured societies, constitutes Part One of this thesis. In conjunction with this history most of the salient features and characteristics of the typical seventeenth-century masque are brought out. To write this brief history without recourse to the leading authorities on the masque would be not only futile but foolhardy. Soergel, Brotanek, Reyher, Evans, Welsford, and others have been consulted for the introductory pages and for some of the later ones. An attempt has been made to indicate all borrowed material by footnoting--an impossible task, of course--but some footnotes are deliberately omitted because the material is common knowledge. When my conclusions, furthermore, have not coincided with those of the authorities, I have not hesitated to use my own, believing that this method is the only sane one and realizing that otherwise all research would be for nought. It is well to bear in mind that the literary poem was only a fragment of the integrated masque; for the Elizabethan and Stuart masques proper were gorgeous visions of splendor suffused with the light that never was on sea of land, full of costly scenery, sculpture, architecture, painting; comedy, declamation, dialogue; picturesque dance and movement; music in the form of solo melodies, of recitative to which much of the libretto was spoken, and of incidental accompaniment to the action. Nearly all of these ephemeral concomitants of the masque have passed away, learning only the librettos and rendering all the more difficult this task of comparing Comus with other seventeenth-century masques. But enough of introduction, or these few observations, like a prologue by Plautus, will give the story away before the proper time. The lights dim, the curtain rises, and we make way for better players."],"dc:format.mimetype":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/2104/14548"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:rights":["Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission."],"dc:subject":["Milton, John, 1608-1674. Comus.","Masques."],"dc:title":["Comus and the seventeenth century masque."],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."],"thesis:institution_name":["Baylor University."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:07:49Z"}