Breaking the Telling Silence Around Shakespeare's The Tempest: a Wedding Masque for Susan de Vere.

When I posted my little satire, “On Catching Philip the Great White... guppy,” some two weeks ago, P----- B----- surprised me by actually offering up evidence that he felt sorted against the thesis of my book, Shakespeare's The Tempest: a Wedding Masque for Susan de Vere. But then we found out why he does not often take such a risk. I offer Mr. B-----'s initial observation, again.

Dudley Carleton. Oddly, you never quote the letters in their entirety. He described the masque in these words: "Theyr conceit was a representation of Junoes temple and at the lower end of the great hall, w:ch was vawted, and within it the maskers seated w:th stores of lights about them, and it was no ill shew. they were brought in by the fower seasons of the yeare, and Hymeneus: w:ch for songs and speaches was as goode as a play."

I quote at some length, once again, from Act IV of Shakespeare's The Tempest — the act long understood to have been a masque — by way of answer and again invite the reader to decide for themself.

Prospero. Therefore take heede,

As Hymens Lamps shall light you.

*

*

*

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous Lady, thy rich Leas

Of Wheate, Rye, Barley, Fetches, Oates and Pease;

Thy Turphie-Mountaines, where live nibling Sheepe,

And flat Medes thetchd with Stover, them to keepe:

Thy bankes with pioned, and twilled brims

Which spungie Aprill, at thy hest betrims;

*

*

*

Ceres. Highest Queene of State,

Great Iuno comes, I know her by her gate.

Juno. How do’s my bounteous sister? goe with me

To blesse this twaine, that they may prosperous be,

And honourd in their Issue.

[They Sing]

Juno. Honor, riches, marriage, blessing,

Long continuance, and encreasing,

Hourely joyes, be still upon you,

Iuno sings her blessings on you.

Earths increase, foyzon plentie,

Barnes, and Garners, never empty.

Vines, with clustring bunches growing,

Plants, wtth goodly burthen bowing:

Spring come to you at the farthest,

In the very end of Harvest.

Scarcity and want shall shun you,

Ceres blessing so is on you.

Ferdinand. This is a most majesticke vision, and

Harmonious charmingly: may I be bold

To thinke these spirits ?

Prospero. Spirits, which by mine

Art I have from their confines call’d to enact

My present fancies.

Fer. Let me live here ever,

So rare a wondred Father, and a wise

Makes this place Paradise.

Pro. Sweet now, silence: Juno and Ceres whisper seriously,

There’s something else to doe: hush, and be mute

Or else our spell is mar’d.

Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on employment.

Iris. You Nimphs Cald Nayades of ye windring brooks

With your sedg’d crownes, and ever-harmelesse lookes,

Leave your crispe channels, and on this greene-Land

Answere your summons, Juno do’s command.

Come temperate Nimphes, and helpe to celebrate

A Contract of true Love: be not too late.

Enter Certaine Nimphes.

You Sun-burn’d Sicklemen of August weary,

Come hether from the furrow, and be merry,

Make holly day: your Rye-straw hats put on,

And these fresh Nimphes encounter every one

In Country footing.

Enter certaine Reapers (properly habited:) they joyne with the Nimphes, in a gracefull dance, towards the end where-of, Prospero starts sodainly and speakes, after which to a strange hollow and confused noyse, they heavily vanish.¹

Mr. B----- went on from the very helpful observation quoted above to his habitual Gish Gallop part of which may nonetheless be serviceable.

If this was a performance of the five acts of The Tempest, it seems strange to me that Carleton devotes his entire description to the short fourth act. He doesn't mention the conceit of being shipwrecked on an island, or that the protagonist is an exiled Duke of Milan, or that he's a sorcerer...

But the fourth act was not at all short in the original masque. Only later after the dance and stage instructions were stripped out to suit publication as a play. In Act IV, Prospero describes a pageant that had passed below the young couple as they magically traversed the sky above the earth in a “racke”. 

                                          These our actors,

 (As I foretold you) were all Spirits, and

 Are melted into Ayre, into thin Ayre,

 And like the baselesse fabricke of this vision

 The Clowd-capt Towres, the gorgeous Pallaces,

The solemne Temples, the great Globe it selfe,...

And like this insubstantiall Pageant faded

             Leave not a racke behinde:...   

But there is no such pageant described in the text of the play as it has come down to us. Nor are there directions for the dances (5 at an absolute minimum in the masques of the Court of James I). All of this would have taken considerable time.

The pieces that survive until today are demonstrably the pieces of a masque, however. With references to the dances of the masquers and the magical trip across the skies removed.

Masques were all the rage in James's court. I have pointed out the strong indications that Acts I-III of the play were performed prior to the wedding feast and the masque after the feast was over. As his other letters “describing” masques indicate, if Carleton was present for both, the atmosphere around the masque and the gossip would have thoroughly dominated his letter. It was what dominated his attention and what his correspondents expected of him.

With this, Mr. B----- returned to his argument's fatal mistake.

Do you mention that the four seasons brought them in?

No. I let Shakespeare do that. Besides we would need something to fill the comment threads that would surely follow the publication of Shakespeare's The Tempest: a Wedding Masque for Susan de Vere. You do love your Gish Gallop, after all.

Does that happen in The Tempest?

Yes, Mr. B-----. It does.

With this Mr. B----- returns to Gish Gallop as if the exchange never happened (all part of that particular dance step). He wishes to discuss Wikipedia pages, instead — to cite a number of books to who knows what end — apparently to assert that a certain Wikipedia page on Shakespeare Authorship qualifies as an authority in the field.

The books may have some degree of reputation in one or another field but merely citing them in footnotes cannot give authority to the Wikipedia page. Oh, and I've had occasion to thoroughly check out the footnotes to the page not long ago. I can only assume that he will favor us with his observations upon them.

1 Furness, Horace Howard. A Variorum Edition... of Shakespeare: The Tempest (1897). 190-1, 194-5, 206-210.

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• Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe. August 12, 2023. “... the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti...”

• On Shakespeare's lameness and historical-fiction biography, etc. August 5, 2023. “Those who support Sogliardo of Stratford and other authorship candidates generally stop by from time to time to remark...”

• Shakespeare CSI: Sir Thomas More, Hand-D. April 22, 2023. “What a glory to have an actual hand-written manuscript from the greatest English writer of all time!”
• A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years.  Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
• Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
• Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.