A Masque for the Queen

Name: A Masque for the Queen
Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)

by Geoffrey Trease

First published 1970

Amazon

2.5(2)

Young performers preparing a court masque discover that entertainment can conceal political manoeuvring. Costumes, rehearsals and access to the royal household place them close to a threat against Elizabeth I.

The story explains how court spectacle served patronage and government as well as amusement. Trease gives craftspeople and performers a view of Elizabethan power from below the level of ministers and nobles.

A court masque depends on controlled access to the monarch, making rehearsals, costumes and backstage movement useful cover for anyone seeking to approach Elizabeth unnoticed. The performers gradually realise that their apparent marginality gives them a view of details nobles may overlook. The mystery turns theatrical labour into a means of understanding how ceremony protects, but can also expose, royal power.