"Lead but your eye": Verbal and Visual Components in English Pageantry and Court Masque

Bc. Jana Přidalová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The present thesis called “The Verbal and Visual Components in English Pageantry and Court Masque” analyses the relationship between word and image in allegorical aristocratic performances and triumphal processions. The interconnection of word and image is a characteristic feature of court entertainments. This thesis concentrates on the Stuart period (the reign of James I and Charles I in particular) and it explores the ways in which both indoor and outdoor entertainments incorporated the verbal and the visual component. Moreover, it draws parallels with the Elizabethan era, which preferred outdoor processional entertainments to indoor court masques.

Keywords

court masque, pageantry, triumph, coronation procession, allegorical aristocratic performances, allegorical figure, Ben Jonson, Inigo Jones, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I, Stuart court, Jacobean entertainments, Banqueting House

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 2. 6. 2008

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 11. 6. 2008
• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Philology / English Language and Literature