The Masque of Blackness

The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1605. The masque was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I, who wished the masquers to be disguised as Africans. Anne was one of the performers in the masque along with her court ladies, and appeared in blackface makeup.

The plot of the masque follows the ladies arriving at the English Court talking amongst themselves of how black complexions used to be beautiful, "that in their black, the perfect'st beauty grows". Reflecting the historical context of the masque, the ladies go on to talk of how black skin is now deemed as least attractive, "now black, with black despair" in favour of skin that has been "blanch" meaning whitened or lightened. As a result of this trend, The Masque of Beauty was also written as a sequel to The Masque of Blackness to show a greater disdain for darker skin tones . (The Masque of Beauty, originally intended for the following holiday season, was displaced by Hymenaei, the masque for the wedding of the Earl of Essex and Frances Howard. Beauty was finally performed in 1608.)

The sets, costumes, and stage effects were designed by Inigo Jones; Blackness was the first of many masques for the Stuart Court on which Jonson and Jones would collaborate. The music for Blackness was composed by Alfonso Ferrabosco.

Jones designed a raised and mobile stage for the masque, forty feet square and four feet off the floor; this was employed for many subsequent masques. The stage contained inner space for the machines that produced stage effects and the technicians who operated them. Blackness introduced effects that Jones would repeat with variation throughout his career as a stage designer: it opened with a tempestuous seascape, simulated by flowing and billowing cloths.

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