ABSTRACT
There are differences of scale and focus, France concentrating more on elaborate visual spectacle asserting harmony and magnificence, while the English court tended to host plays of argument and debate. The earliest entertainments of Mary Stewart's own Scottish court show few overtly political dimensions: we hear of dances and masking at court, the nobility playing in tilts and disguised war-games, spectacular celebrations at noble weddings. Evidence presents these occasions as primarily domestic, a means for the court to give itself pleasure by spectacle and performance. Domestic 'amorous' masking was a well-established tradition in France, with its etiquette the subject of a light-hearted section added to Martial d'Auvergne's popular Arrets d'Amour in 1528; such masking was especially associated with messieurs les mignons, the young men of the French court. It seems probable that the 'xxxviij elnis of reid and quhite taffeteis to be maskin claithis of divers prices', provided to the court tailor on 31 January, were intended for these festivities.
