About the masques before the royal court we must mostly derive our information from miscellaneous records. The “Complaint of Thomas Gylles”1 for example informs us that the costumes for the masque were maintained by “ yeoman of the queen's Majesty's revels” and his crew. Costumes, that is to say, were stored from one occasion to the next. There was a centralized costume department.
In most Humble wise showeth to your honor your daily orator Thomas Gylles whereas the yeoman of the queen's Majesty's revels doth usually let to hire her said highness masks to the great hurt spoil & discredit of the same to all sort of persons that will hire the same by reason of which common usage the gloss & beauty of the same garments is lost & cannot so well serve to be often altered & to be show[n] before her highness as otherwise that might & hath been used for it taketh more harm by once wearing into the city or country where it is often used then by many times wearing in the court by the great press of people: foulness both of the way & weather & soil of the wearers who for the most part be of the meanest sort of men to the great discredit of the same apparel which afterward is to be show[n] before her highness & to be worn by them of great calling & it is also to the double charges of her grace and for truth hereof your said orator hathe a note ready to be show[n] to your Honor for one year last past containing the times & places where the said masks hath been seen & used although not of all besides a great number lent before time In like sort, and your said orator hath often complained hereof to others of the same office yet there hath been no redress of the same by reason that the said yeoman having alone the custody of the garments doth lend the same at his pleasure for remedy hereof if it might please your honor that there might be some better order or reformation had in the said office by survey or other wise In taking the garments asunder [aside] after they have been show[n] before the queen's highness until the next show they be altered again for they never come before her highness twice in one form or some other good order as may best appear to your honor. And your orator shall pray unto almighty god for your honor's long life & prosperity for your orator is greatly hindered of his living hereby who having apparel to let & cannot so cheaply let the same as her highness masks be let as knoweth god who ever preserve you In honor & felicity.
From Mr. Gylles we learn the additional detail that, at least until 1573, the yeomen who ran the department rented out the costumes for a bit of side money between their use in the court masques.
Just what the costume department did for their living we learn from a number of other documents. They more or less uniformly describe the same work items and materials as follows.
Between the xxv° of February 1584. Anno Regni Regine Elizabeth: xxvij° (at which time the works and attendances for the times aforesaid did end) and the last of October 1585 ⸻ Annoque nostre Elizabethe predicte xxvij°. The charges of this office grew at sundry times by means of airing, mending, brushing, rubbing, sponging, sweeping, folding, laying up and safe bestowing of garments both for maskers and players, disguisings, properties and furniture of the same from time to time within the time aforesaid as the necessity thereof at sundry times required to keep the same in readiness for her majesty's service.2
The “ disguisings” probably refer to entertainments separate from masques. They could refer to actual physical masks, but those were used more and more for masquerade balls and less and less for masques.
On the occasion of Elizabeth I sending a masque to Scotland for the marriage celebrations of James VI, to Princess Anne of Denmark, we learn more about costume and a great deal else besides.
Between the of [xx] September 1589 anno xxxj° regni Regine Elizabethe and the [xx] of the same September for new making of divers garments & altering & translating of sundry other garments for the furnishing of a mask for six Maskers & six torchbearers and of such persons as were to utter speechs at the showing of the same mask sent into Scotland to the king of Scot's marriage by her Majesty's commandment signified unto the Master & other officers of this office by the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Chamberlain & Mr vice-chamberlain. The charges as well for workmanship & attendance as for wares delivered & brought into this office for about the same hereafter particularly insueth.
A mask of six coats of purple gold tinsell garded with purple & black clothe of silver striped. Bases of Crimson cloth of gold with pendants of maled[?] purple silver tinsel, two pair of sleeves to the same of red cloth of gold & four pair of sleeves to the same of white cloth of copper siluer, six partlets of purple clothe of silver knotted, six head pieces whereof four of cloth of gold knotted and two of purple cloth of gold branched, six feathers to the same head pieces, six mantles whereof four of orange cloth of gold branched & two of purple & white cloth of silver branched, six vizards & six falchions gilded.
Six Cassocks for torch bearers of damask, three of yellow, and three of red guarded with red & yellow damask counterchanged, six pair of hose of damask, three of yellow and three of red guarded with red & yellow damask Counterchanged, six hats of Crimson clothe of gold & six feathers to the same, six vizardes.3
Here, at last, we see “ vizardes,” masks. There are even enough vizards to supply the masquers. Such vizards, however, when they are mentioned, generally correspond with the costumes of the bit players. The position of “vy[z]ardmaker” is mentioned in some few cases but it is occupied by the haberdasher John Ogle. Most vizards are recorded as the product simply of a haberdasher of the yeoman's office and are made to costume bit parts in order to give the maskless dancers an exotic environment.
The masquers themselves wear gaudy (but lavish) suits. Presumably, no account is made for gowns because ladies of the court would not be hazarded on a journey through treacherous hinterlands to Scotland.
1 “A Complaint of Thomas Gylles against the Yeoman of the Revells” (c. December 1572). British Museum. Feuillerat, Albert. Documents Relating to the Office of the Revels in the Time of Queen Elizabeth (1908) citing Lansdowne MSS. 13. 409.
2 Documents. 372.
3 Ibid. 392.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
The Stanley Family Papers on the Earl of Derby's Mysterious Death. April 8, 2023. “Strange events, of course, occurred at Lathom, according to statements later given under oath.”
Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador. March 21, 2023. "The reason to delay his first audience under this pretext would soon be known."
Young William, Lord Herbert, samples the pleasures. February 24, 2023. “...a bookish, melancholic young man, with an addiction to tobacco, only slightly less to the ladies...”
A Brief Introduction to the Tudor Inn. February 5, 2023. "A London inn was homey enough, it would seem."
Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.
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