Salmacida Spolia

Salmacida Spolia was the last masque performed at the English Court before the outbreak of the English Civil War. Written by Sir William Davenant, with costumes, sets, and stage effects designed by Inigo Jones and with music by Lewis Richard, it was performed at Whitehall Palace on 21 January 1640.

In English, the title means "Salmacian spoils," and refers to an ancient Greek legend: a band of barbarians pillaging the Greek city of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor are pacified and civilized by drinking from the fountain of Salmacis. The masque was intended to convey a message of yielding and pacification, because Charles I had just ended his eleven-year period of personal rule and called for a new session of Parliament. In an effort to create an amicable atmosphere for the coming Parliamentary session, several leading aristocratic members of the Parliamentary party were cast in the masque, including Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, and Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke. (This effort at political theatre quickly proved useless: the Parliament that followed was the famous Short Parliament.)

The masque was unique in that both Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria, performed in it; the Queen's mother, Marie de' Medici, was in the audience. In the masque, The King "personated" the role of Philogenes ("lover of the people"), a good but misunderstood ruler. Philogenes endures a fierce tempest that features the spirit of Discord, to reach an ensuing prosperous calm. A chariot descends from the cloudy heavens, carrying the personifications Concord and the Good Genius of Great Britain. The Queen, pregnant at the time, also descends from the heavens, "in a transparent brightness of thin exhalations, such as the gods are feigned to descend in."

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