Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria

A 2006 study of Queen Henrietta Maria's patronage of drama in England and her French heritage.

Karen Britland (Author)

9780521847971, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 April 2006

304 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.58 kg

Review of the hardback: '… a welcome addition to the field … it deploys a full scholarly apparatus of notes and bibliography. Ten chapters plus introduction, epilogue and appendix cover the queen's performances in England … Scrupulously researched … A lively combination of information is brought to bear on the costumes for the masques … Dance historians should find much of interest in both books.' Dance Chronicle

Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria, published in 2006, considers Queen Henrietta Maria's patronage of drama in England in the light of her French heritage. Karen Britland challenges a common view of Henrietta Maria as a meddlesome and frivolous woman whose actions contributed to the outbreak of the English civil wars by showing how she was consistent in her allegiances to her family and friends, and how her cultural and political positions were reflected in the plays and court masques she sponsored. Unlike previous studies, this book considers the queen's upbringing at the French court and her later exile in France during the English civil wars, and is therefore able to challenge received notions about her activities in England during the 1630s. Karen Britland employs innovative research by combining discussions of literary texts with historical and archival research and discussions of art, architecture and music.

Introduction
1. Sex and dancing: Henrietta Maria's wedding ballets
2. Artenice: a new French fashion at the English court
3. Foreign bodies: conflict and co-operation in the early masques
4. Family affairs: Henrietta Maria and continental politics in 1631
5. Tempe Restored: exile/dispossession/restitution
6. 'It is my voyce': the fashioning of a self in The Shepherds' Paradise
7. 'Fate hath made thy reign her choice': The Temple of Love (1635)
8. Florimène: the author and the occasion
9. Marie de Médicis and the last masques
10. 'Tyer'd, in her Banish'd dress': Henrietta Maria in exile
Epilogue
Appendix: an early entertainment by Aurelian Townshend.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]